shenmue 3 (omfg im so happy)

awhir

finally shemue 3 has got some light shun on it.omg i cant wait will defo buy what console it comes out in.when this game came out for the dreamcast it was way ahead of its time and was the best game out back then so omg im so excited.

Kikizo games confirms Shenmue 3 Ready for Next-Gen!

Adam Doree from Kikizo games revealed in a recent article that the Shenmue series will be making its debut on one of the Next Gen consoles. You can read the entire 3 page report at Kikizo Games , but here are the main details we know so far:

It has essentially been close to finished and 'ready' for some time - but in hibernation, pending a deal for the entire series on at least one next-gen console.

The new plan for Shenmue has been to include the whole series - chapters 1-16 - on at least one next-generation console.

It won't be titled "Shenmue 3" The game, or games, are theoretically complete and ready to be ported to Xbox 360, PS3 or Revolution, depending on a deal with one of the hardware manufacturers.

Yu Suzuki has very little involvement in the Shenmue 3 project, and that's something that may come as a surprise to many Sega followers.

Our source clarified, "the series is under the AM2 portfolio. Shenmue remains at AM2 while [Suzuki] pursues other things."

There are some key, familiar AM2 faces looking after Shenmue 3, including some relatively new talent from within the studio.

First our source confirms what most fans already knew, "the story is entirely done", (we're pretty sure the story had been finished since before the release of Shenmue 2) before elaborating, "the texture and modelling work is ready, they know what their characters look like and there's hundreds of gigabytes of [uncompressed] textures. Game designs are done. There is no more research to be done. It's a matter of 'porting' to whatever [console]."

"Extremely unlikely", according to the source, is that the project could surface on current-gen consoles: "it would be too much work", cites the source. Interestingly, the source explained that it is cheaper to finalise production for next-gen machines than for current-gen, because of the nature of development work that is already complete. "It would be a struggle to get everything in [on current-gen]." It seems to make sense. Our source offered, "360 looks most likely, but we shall see what the future brings."

Yu Suzuki responds about Shenmue III at E3 2004

A Swedish gaming site http://www.gon.nu/ managed to as Yu Suzuki about Shenmue III, here is the news story:

We briefly met Yu Suzuki before the Microsoft conference. When asked about if he could tell anything about Shenmue 3 Suzuki and the VP of Sega of America laughed. The game was not shown at the conference or at E3, but Suzuki said: "You'll see"

Digitalrex and Shenmue.com

The clues we found earlier about the Shenmue trademark and Digitalrex were on the mark. Shenmue.com which was recently redesigned is now directly linked from the main page of Digitalrex. Digitalrex is also linked from the SOJ site which clearly shows a screenshot of Shenmue II under it. Unlike yesterday's news from Edge magazine, this is probably the most promising signs that the Shenmue series is still in high regard with Sega. We also found this clue regarding Digitalrex and it's domain: http://www.digitalrex.jp/shenmue/


Shenmue.com redesigned and Sega restructuring

Shenmue.com has been redesigned, only a positive note can be taken from this and that is the series will continue at some point. What would be the point of redesigning a site if the game is discontinued? At the same time Sega has gone through some restructuring with it's devolopment teams. This includes Yu Suzuki leaving Am2 to head a new subsidiary called "Digital Rex ", the goal for Sega is to bring out big names titles faster to gain on market share. With the Shenmue trademark being filed under this new DigitalRex studio, we can assume Shenmue is under its care. One thing is for sure is that Yu Suzuki won't be satified with only 2 games, when ask in a interview from Shenmue.com.

"I wouldn't feel complete if Shenmue ended with the second game. The voices of our fans are constantly being sent to us, as well. I'm currently scheming to start up some kind of action with the series." ~Yu Suzuki~

Shenmue 3 story completed and 3 installments.

According to the recent quote from EGM Yu Suzuki stated the following concerning Shenmue 3.

"The story is completed. The problem is we have not decided whether or not to move foreward with designing the game yet. If there's a demand for it, we'd love to make it, but it is undecided." ~Yu Suzuki~

Seeing how the story is completed, this backs up his previous statements about finishing the series with a third game. In a Techtv interview he said the series would span with "3 installments" and in the Japanese magazine Dorimaga he said once Shenmue 3 was given the go ahead the rest of the 16 chapters would be included. All this hints at one thing and that is Shenmue 3 could very well conclude the saga of Shenmue.

Shenmue 3 on Xbox?


This is the most recent and most reliable info we know about Shenmue 3 from Shin Ishikawa of Am2. In an interview held by gaming sites Begn/Next Level Mr. Ishikawa stated the following:

"The series continues because of very strong fan requests. The fans want them, so we make them. We can't say yet when the sequels will be released, but we will do our best to not let the fans down. So, I would like to say to the fans: please look forward to more Shen Mue games on Xbox." ~Shin Ishikawa~

Along with that statement he also drew out a timeline which suggests the series will surpass 3 games. This is unlike previous interviews with Yu Suzuki that Shenmue 3 will be the last game or made into a movie.

New Characters?




First, we will take a look at the image from Shenmue.com on the far left, the image shows Lan Di with three other mystery characters. What is behind the four characters looks to be the Chiyoumen symbol, you see this clearly as a tattoo on Lan Di in the first game. We can assume these three other characters are leaders in the organization much like Lan Di, each leader representing one of the four heavenly beasts.They could have roles in Shenmue 3 or possibly later in the series .It should also be made known that their is head leader of the Chiyoumen called "ten tei" that translates to "Heavenly Emperor". The second image is the Shenmue story designer Kasahara with what is blurred out images of six Shenmue 3 characters, it was this same image that shown during the Nov, 2001 announcement. On the far right is a photo from the Shenmue: The Movie exhibition in Japan, it shows character designs we might see down the line. Here is a character tree translated by Kiyuu asking further questions on new characters.

Niao Sun/TyoJun/Chong Hua


This female character who is called by several names was seen in alot of promotional material even before the first game came out, like in Whats Shenmue you can find a partial skin of her model (through modification). There are many clues that point her presence in Shenmue 3, first is the teaser pic in the end of Shenmue 2 in both the DC and Xbox versions. Second, we see her figure only halfway shadowed out of the four Chiyoumen leaders, this is some sort of hint to who we will see next. Third factor is when they offered a mobile phone icon at the official site, it said she was a character in the series from the third game onwards. Some in-game screens can be found of her in the history section as well as the comic image with Ziming below. You can also see her in motion right at the 40 minute mark in this video and thefollowing decription was made of her:


"One of "the Four Leaders" of Chiyou Men, in charge of the south. She wears voluptuous red dress, and her manner seduces people. Her fearful eyes that pierce everything are always seekingchases.She takes pleasure in cruel actions and eliminates people just like bugs"

Ziming Hong


Ziming Hong is the brother to Xuiying Hong who left her at an early age to seek the Chiyoumen. He left with intentions much like Lan Di had with Iwao, to avenge the death of his parents. Before Ziming had departed to the Chiyoumen, he left Xuiying the white (yin) portion of a pendant while Ziming kept the black (yang) half. Xuiying later gave Ryo her white portion of the pendant before he went to Guilin. Add this fact to the side story comic of Xuiying and Ziming then you have a possibility of Ziming in Shenmue 3. Niao-Shun also makes an appearance in this comic, this further solidifies her presence. Remember the Chiyoumen pic from earlier? Take a look at this and see if you can notice a resemblance.

New Locations?


We pretty much know for fact Ryo will end up going to Bailu village in Shenmue 3, but is there other locations? Our staff member LanDC did some research with his modified Xbox and found loading screens hidden away in Shenmue 2x. The loading screens were of two, Miao village and Miao Guang Temple. The Miao are a people near Guilin China with a long history, it's this history that ties in with Shenmue.

Shenhua's Mysterious Stepfather

After we decided to take a look at the texture of the letter from Shenhua's stepfather in Shenmue 2, it was realized that a signature could be found at the closing of the letter, though the player can never get a good look at it in-game. Translation by Kiyuu shows that the letter's creator, Shenhua's stepfather's name is Zhongshou Yuan. Although we cannot be 100% certain that this'll turn out to be the final name, it comes from a reliable source.

If you have theories about this topic, and would like to discuss it, please visit it's dedicated forum topic.

zAbbo

fanboy

Zapp Brannigan

I liked Shenmue, at first.

Then I played Shenmue 2 on the Xbox...
I completed it but I did not enjoy it, having to work to get money was infuriating. Still I'll prolly check out the next one, specially after the lame ending.

Kiith

its taken...what, 10 years to get news that the third one may actually see the light of day, and they plan on making 16 of them :rolleyes:

i did enjoy the first two though (first one is one of my favourite games), but i had heard that there was plans for a shenmue mmo.

Lex_Diamonds

Wasn't this all BS and it's not actually coming out at all?

(Doree=****)

Tyrant^

loved the first one
second not so good

JC 2K3

That news is REALLY old....

monkeyfudge

Kiith wrote:

its taken...what, 10 years to get news that the third one may actually see the light of day, and they plan on making 16 of them :rolleyes:

Actually Shenmue 2 covered chapters 2, 3 and 4 if I remember correctly.

BlitzKrieg

corect shenmue 2 was originally planned only to take place on the ship travelling to hong kong and 3 was to do the hong kong chapter, and so and so on. And every game was meant to get the same attention to detail the first one had.

But they cut chapter 2 and crammed chapters 3 and 4 together and shoved on a really cut down version of chapter 5 (

hence the really annoying cliffhanger ending of 2, there were meant to be other events in that rainforest bit of the game

)


The Shenmue MMO was an offense to the series and was cancelled in the beta stages, it had probably the worse trailer ever which tried to combine the matrix and street fighter together, but had the gameplay mechanics of everquest. The game was set to take place in a number of cities (including hong kong from the game) and you choose to be a fighter, *insert offensive magic user* and *insert healer*. With no real backing from the actual games.

What was the most offensive thing about the game was that shenmue has amazing potential for MMO success if they took the system the game already had implemented, learning specific fight moves and techniques and then creating your own moves list for your fighting character with your own strengths and weaknesses, learning specific styles by doing quests for different masters and create your own style by combining the stances of one style with the moves of another, earning money in street fighting tournaments to buy scrolls with hidden moves, creating the perfect character to match your fighting style, having mutlple player brawls in parks, or going to select tournaments.


But no, ignore the potential for the first MMO fighting rpg which could work on both PC and consoles (how much would this be a killer app for the 360?).


But i loved the shenmue series, and the news that 1 and 2 will be redone and packaged with the rest of the series is welcomed news, now all i need to convince me to buy a next gen console is the remaking of shining force 3 and panzer dragoon saga. But of course Sega have become morans and probably wont do either....sigh.




EDIT: I apoligise Shenmue online is still in development http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenmue_Online

and it still looks and sounds crap.

JC 2K3

BlitzKrieg wrote:

corect shenmue 2 was originally planned only to take place on the ship travelling to hong kong and 3 was to do the hong kong chapter, and so and so on. And every game was meant to get the same attention to detail the first one had.

I'm pretty sure they never really intended to include events on the boat in the actual game. Sure there wouldn't be enough going on in the boat chapter to make a full game....

I'm also pretty sure that they never really intended to make a full 16 games with 1 chapter per game. They only did one chapter in S1 because it was the introduction.

Yu Suzuki came up with his 16 chapters and possibly thought they would make 16 seperate games, but I really doubt SEGA would ever have allowed this.

I don't think Shenmue 2 was rushed to the extent that it was disappointing. I mean there's a lack of interactable objects(although a loot of this was very pointless and only had novelty value in S1 - but then again, the novelty was one of the great things about S1) and obviously stuff has been left out(and compensated by comic books in the Xbox version - such as the boat chapter), but it is a great game and the story never moves on leaving much gaping holes in the plot.

BlitzKrieg

I'm pretty sure they never really intended to include events on the boat in the actual game. Sure there wouldn't be enough going on in the boat chapter to make a full game....

Gotta look up where i read it...


found it:

Shenmue II was originally going to start with scenes or even gameplay elements showing Ryo's journey on Hong Kong on the boat. This didn't make it into the final game as it would take a huge amount of time designing all new environments for bits which doesn't progress the story. However, the it's influence can be seen at the start of Shenmue II, where a woman and her child thank Ryo for helping out the young child on the boat. What Ryo did we do not know. Update: The Official Manga shows what happened on the ship with the girl.

http://www.hostultra.com/~shenmuelegend/trivia.html

it was a small chapter that was cut out between the 1st and hong kong. One of my dreamcast magazines has alot more on it. but i'm abroad at the moment so this is the best i can do.


But in the opening of Shenmue 2, when Ryo is coming out of the ship there are two characters (a mother and daughter) the opening cutscenes has a number of exchanges between that hints to events that occured on the ship.

Yu Suzuki came up with his 16 chapters and possibly thought they would make 16 seperate games, but I really doubt SEGA would ever have allowed this.

Originally the game didnt have 16 chapters, it grew though in production, resulting in it becoming one of the most expensive games ever made. I think Sega wanted 16 games at one point, but Shenmue wasnt the runaway success it was expected to be, hence the changes to Shenmue 2.

I don't think Shenmue 2 was rushed to the extent that it was disappointing. I mean there's a lack of interactable objects(although a loot of this was very pointless and only had novelty value in S1 - but then again, the novelty was one of the great things about S1) and obviously stuff has been left out(and compensated by comic books in the Xbox version - such as the boat chapter), but it is a great game and the story never moves on leaving much gaping holes in the plot.

I never said Shenmue 2 was disapointing, i think it is brilliant game, and that the cut down made a nice change from the slow pace of shenmue 1. but the last part of the game has clearly had game elements cut out to develop important plot points.

CiDeRmAn

Wonderful, I can fall asleep all over again, and you lot can hunt down sailors at the docks, pervs

super_furry

"I see.............."

Never really got into Shenmue, despite having both on the Dreamcast. It felt too much like hard work to actually get any enjoyment out of the game.

awhir

my fav part of s1 was on the docks working with the fork lifts

monkeyfudge

I really hated the Jamacian hot dog vendor... he was a right twat.

awhir

com to think about it wasent the dc such a good console for its time like for ffs it had internet play and you could also surf the internt on it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

monkeyfudge

Yep... even Shenmue itself had online features.

super_furry

The Dreamcast was way, way ahead of it's time. I mean it had the world's first major console MMORG running over dial-up!

JC 2K3

Regarding the booat chapter, in case any of you haven't seen the comics from the Xbox version...

http://shenmue.planets.gamespy.com/images/story/comics/RyoVSChai00.jpg
http://shenmue.planets.gamespy.com/images/story/comics/RyoVSChai01.jpg
http://shenmue.planets.gamespy.com/images/story/comics/RyoVSChai02.jpg
http://shenmue.planets.gamespy.com/images/story/comics/RyoVSChai03.jpg

In fact, all the side story comice are here: http://shenmue.planets.gamespy.com/sidestory_comics.shtml