Official Shenmue Thread

Part One:

Thanks so much for sharing. Really interesting, and I keep praying for Shenmue III to come. I know it will. I felt the emotion just watching that. Shenmue has such a strong essence.

In the video someone said they should organize donations to finish Shenmue III. I would totally donate.

That could be an interesting business model. Suzuki/Sega/whoever could basically take pre-orders before development really begins. They would have some money upfront and they could get a feel about how much interest there is. I'd be down.

Part Two:

Not Shenmue itself, but has anyone played the Yakuza games? Playing through Yakuza 3 right now, and will likely buy Y4 afterwards. Really enjoying it! Closest I think we've ever come to another Shenmue game. So much fun. If you've got a PS3 and like Shenmue, definitely get the Yakuza games. Only around a tenner or so each.

Social Shenmue is Dead.

Remember the social Shenmue game Shenmue World? If so, hold on to those memories, as they're all you'll have of the game!

On December 26, the official site of developer Ysnet, was updated with notice that service for the game had come to an end. The announcement came with a short message thanking players.

Shenmue World, or Shenmue Gai in Japanese, was released by Sunsoft for the mobile social gaming platform Mobage in Decemeber 2010. The game was also announced for the Yahoo Mobage service, which would have allowed it to be played on your PC browser, but this version never surfaced.

I just read that, too, Azuardo. This is depressing.

What was the game even like? I've never seen video of it or anything. All I know is that is a mobile game and it was somehow social.

From what I have gathered, it told the first chapter of the story - Yokosuka - through a social-like game. I know Suzuki played Mafia Wars and came to enjoy it, wanting to do something like it himself. I don't know how much Shenmue City was actually like it though.

I was initially worried about it all, because he said if it becomes successful, he'd like to tell the rest of the Shenmue story through the game. This really got to me, because I want to experience the rest of the game through Shenmue 3, not some crappy mobile game only in Japan. He did however, state that Shenmue City was not Shenmue 3 when he announced it and reiterated his desire to do Shenmue 3.

So I barely know much about how it played myself, but just that it involved the story from the first Shenmue and was probably similar to Mafia Wars. Thankfully, we haven't missed out on much. Now please do something the fans actually want, Suzuki!

Meh, it pains me to say it, but Shenmue Gai was never a real Shenmue game. It simply joins the lengthening list of Shenmue spin-offs that got canned (the other notable one being the atrocious Shenmue Online).

In my opinion, tyhese spin-offs do not help the main, real series. Some say that they bring attention to and advertise Shenmue, thereby increasing it's popularity, and increasing the chances of Shenmue III.

I see it differently. I think these spin-offs are A] shit, and B] dilute the series. They should just get around to re-releasing the Dreamcast originals on PSN and so forth. That way, quality shouldn't be a concern, and the games could speak for themselves. They'd have to market them intelligently, but it'd be the right way to go.

I completely agree. I hate seeing the series get abused like this, with shit games that have nothing to do with the originals. I'm with you all the way on the PSN ports. I'm guessing there might be a little work involved to get the games running smoothly on the PlayStation etc, but people will buy it. If they want to go one step further and add in an HD paint job and widescreen, even better.

But I can't think of any fans that want to see crap spin-offs of this series. All we want is Shenmue 3. And Suzuki knows that. Surely there's a publisher out there willing to provide the financial resources he needs.

( Edited 04.01.2012 19:33 by Azuardo )

Key notes from Yu Suzuki's interview:

Thanks.

( Edited 04.01.2012 21:23 by Squidboy )

Great interview, which although understandably-vague on Suzuki's part, did debunk a whole load of theories. Also Squidboy, your image is broken.

It's showing for me.

What Shenmue HD might look like.

Widescreen and a decent control stick to move with would be more than enough for me tbh. It can retain its DC graphics for all I care.

I used to spend a shitload of time in the Arcade and Ryo's games room. Used to love the music of both Space Harrier and Super Hang-On, and wasted so much time on them. Remember how you could buy/win cassette tapes as well? This was proper '80s. So many memories coming back now :[ Please happen!

Control-wise, they can just implement the Xbox control scheme from that version of Shenmue II, wherein the right stick moves Ryo's head around. I think that'd be fine. I still want it to move Ryo's head, and not for them to turn it into a standard "move the camera around the character". The slow-paced nature of the game means it doesn't need more immediate control of the camera.

Graphics-wise, I too would be fine with Dreamcast-level visuals. That's all I expect as well, since that's all the other ports have been - DC graphics in HD. I remember reading (among many other interesting tidbits) on Shenmue Dojo that all the textures for both games are retained in SEGA's archives uncompressed. They might do well to use those rather than the heavily-compressed ones found in the actual games. We'll see.

Other things I'd like to see are the filter feature from the Xbox version of Shenmue II instated into both games, and possibly a toggle feature for the blur that was in Xbox SII (some in the Shenmue community liked it, others didn't). I'd like uncompressed/re-encoded speech, and also an option for Japanese or English dialogue. As much as I love the "so bad it's good" English voice track, the Dreamcast version of Shenmue II really opened my eyes (or ears).

It'd be nice if they tried their best to keep the file size down. Specifically, it would be disappointing to see a size anything near 3-4GB per game, as that would just mean that they have not consolidated the assets from the discs. There's no need for four identical models of Ryo, three identical instances of South Carmain Qr, with all the textures etc.

The technical wizards at Shenmue Dojo showed that this was the case with the Xbox version of Shenmue II, with the data on the disc actually being a straight port of the contents of the four GD-ROMs of the Dreamcast version. This didn't really matter as far as a game on the Xbox was concerned. It was still just on one DVD, and the lazy programming was essentially invisible and inconsequential to the player.

This time around, I don't want thousands of megabytes of my HDD needlessly being eaten up. I understand this means reprogramming a lot of calls to various areas of code, but it'd so be worth it. I don't think it's unreasonable to think they could get the size down to under 2GB for each game.

There's no FMV. Everything's in-engine. It was just the sheer amount of speech that pushed the size up back in the day. By consolidating assets and using the far superior audio codecs available today, I'm sure they could do it. Even with both English and Japanese speech tracks included, at higher quality than the original.

What I'm pretty sure we'll get is a fairly lazy port, being little more than HD menu screen and HUD, with everything else Dreamcast-native (besides screen-resolution). I doubt they will include both English and Japanese speech. They probably won't even give us the filter and snapshot feature from Xbox Shenmue II in SII, let alone both. It's be awesome to take HD screen caps! It'd be even more awesome to be able to put sepia filters etc on. That was great on Xbox.

Ultimately, I'm just stoked at the possibility of not needing a Dreamcast to play the greatest games ever committed to the video gaming entertainment format. Way ahead of it's time. Truly revolutionary.

One last thing - there must be a Trophy/Achievement to do with sailors. A huge missed opportunity if there isn't!

It's one of those where there is so much you would like to see done to an HD version/port, but at the same time you couldn't give two shits if it was kept exactly as it was, either. There's plenty they could do. JP & EN voice tracks would be a huge bonus. Coming off the EN vers of Shenmue I to JP in SII was always odd. But quite honestly, I couldn't give a toss.

It would be nice to offer at least some added incentives to make people (re)buy the HD versions instead of just a new lick of paint, though. Even though every single person that already owns Shenmue I&II should/will buy the ports anyway, just to show their support for the series, SEGA should give something back to the fans that have supported this franchise for so damn long and go all out on it.

One last thing - there must be a Trophy/Achievement to do with sailors. A huge missed opportunity if there isn't!

Talk to all the sailors in the game, perhaps?

I'm getting overwhelming mixed emotions just thinking about playing through them again. I don't think I'd want them to change too much really, I love Shenmue for what it is (both). A few clean-ups here and there and some widescreen support would be perfectly fine. I also agree on the Japanese and English voice acting options, as well. I would definitely love it if they included both though, since they're both good in there own ways. The optional filters from Shenmue II on Xbox would be a nice inclusion too.

I'll never forget the first time I ever played Shenmue, back in late 2000. I bought it out my Christmas money I received, after seeing it in an issue of Gamesmaster and being totally blown away. This opening scene, coupled with this music - simply mesmerising.

( Edited 19.03.2012 22:42 by Marzy )

I just want an excuse to play this beautiful series again.

Yeah, absolutely bum the Shenmue music. Apparently, much of the game's enormous budget went into the music. It shows.

Wait for the drop at 1:07. Oh so sweet. Easily film-worthy.

The Credits for both games make me weep like a baby. More so at the end of SII, leaving us on that cliffhanger, knowing that all those years on the story still never saw its conclusion. Enough to put a lump in the hardest of men.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp3mO9rvab0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NErSbNlqZa0

Yeah, the Shenmue Orchestra album is fantastic. I was tempted to buy it off Ebay a few years back and I wish I did now. It was a brand new sealed copy going for pretty cheap. Either way, I had it downloaded so it kind of felt a bit pointless. It'd only be for collectors purpose really.

I did see some amazing Shenmue t-shirts though on zergtees.com. I'm going to buy three of them soon (Tomato Convenience Store, Jet Cola and Sapporo Soft Drinks). I absolutely love the Tomato Convenience Store one!

I really hope this comes out on PSN and XBLA, I would die.

If they put Shenmue I and II on Xbox Live for a fair price, it'll be really tempting. I'd do my best to budget for it.

I remember reading (among many other interesting tidbits) on Shenmue Dojo that all the textures for both games are retained in SEGA's archives uncompressed. They might do well to use those rather than the heavily-compressed ones found in the actual games. We'll see.

Other things I'd like to see are the filter feature from the Xbox version of Shenmue II instated into both games, and possibly a toggle feature for the blur that was in Xbox SII (some in the Shenmue community liked it, others didn't). I'd like uncompressed/re-encoded speech, and also an option for Japanese or English dialogue. As much as I love the "so bad it's good" English voice track, the Dreamcast version of Shenmue II really opened my eyes (or ears).

If they do all of that, screw my budget. Food is a luxury.

*edit*
Thanks for posting the Shenmue music, guys. I'm trying to do homework to it, but I keep getting distracted by the beautiful music.

Quick story about the music: I love the way erhus sound. Whenever I hear one in a piece of music, I always start blathering to people about how beautiful it is. Playing Shenmue II on the Xbox was the first time I ever heard an erhu and I fell in love with it. It was that musician on the dock playing when you first get off of the ship at the start of the game. At first I thought it was some voice singing, but as I focused on it and I realized there were no words or even "ooh, aah" kinds of sounds. I was mesmerized. I still am, actually. I get chills when I hear a melodic erhu, and hearing it in the Shenmue music again almost brought me to tears a few minutes ago. The orchestra version is just so great.

( Edited 20.03.2012 05:34 by TAG )