Round Table: Can Shenmue 3 live up to the hype?

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Its literally been 14 years since Shenmue 2 made its debut and left many unanswered questions. Over the years the Shenmue fanbase has grown since more and more people have gotten a chance to try the franchise, it has reached some level of mysticism. Having this rabid fanbase, all with individual reasons as to why they like the Shenmue franchise waiting for the next evolutionary step can be daunting to a development team.

Can Ys NET and Yu Suzuki make a game that will live up to the hype? That’s this topic on this week’s Round Table.

Round Table: How much did you pledge to Shenmue 3?

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It is hard to grasp that it has been over 14 years since Shenmue 2 came out and left us all with that cliffhanger in the end of the game. There has been a strong fan reaction for a third installment and Yu Suzuki stood at Playstation’s E3 stage to finally give fans what they have been asking for. Ys NET launched their Kickstarter campaign which broke funding records, cementing that fans are willing to give their hard earn cash in order to see a third installment of their favorite franchise. In this week’s Round Table we talk about how much we funded and why. You can let us know how much you funded in the comments below.

Shenmue Gaiden: A fan made visual novel gets announced

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Two Shenmue fanatics (Shensun and Esppiral from Shenmue Dojo) have been working together for a greater part of a year on the fan creation of Shenmue Gaiden, a non-canon Shenmue visual novel. This is the sequel to a fan project that was released a year ago called ‘Shenmue X chapter 1, but the creator suggest this project will be better and by the looks of the promotional artwork he might be on to something.

It is expected for the visual novel to have a demo this year with a release sometime in 2016, the game will have two plot stories that deal with Ryo and Shenhua reaching their destination after their long walk in the forest and a young girl who asks them for help. To read more about the plot and see other in-game screenshots, hit the jump or click here.

Swingin’ Report Show #81: Shenmue 3 Kickstarter Countdown

Join George and Barry as they count down the final hour of the record breaking Shenmue 3 Kickstarter campaign! It has been as wild month, from the game’s E3 Sony stage announcement, to the ups and downs of Awesome Japan’s handling of the campaign. Hear our thoughts on how the Kickstarter was managed, the new tiers, and the recently revealed details of what we can expect in the finished game. Also in this episode, the recent comments from SEGA Games president on the company regaining the trust of gamers.

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Shenmue 3 Kickstarter Ends At $6,333,295, 69,320 Backers

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The Shenmue 3 Kickstarter campaign has officially ended, earning a total amount of $6,333,295 with 69,320 backers.

Fourteen years after Shenmue II was released, and following two failed attempts at reviving the franchise (Shenmue Online and Shenmue Gai), Yu Suzuki was welcomed to Sony’s E3 2015 stage to officially announce the beginning of the Kickstarter campaign for Shenmue 3. Breaking the Guinness World Record for the fastest video game to reach $1 million through crowdfunding in one hour and 42 minutes (as well as initially crashing Kickstarter’s site), Shenmue 3 continued to break records by being the second fastest Kickstarter campaign in all categories to raise over $1 million. Less than nine hours later, Shenmue 3 continued to drop jaws around the world when it reached $2 million, its 100% funding goal. Since the announcement, the money has continued to flow in, raising almost $1 million more on its last campaign day.

The game has also become the most funded video game in Kickstarter History, a record previously held by Bloodstained, the third most funded Kickstarter campaign in the “Games” category, and, most impressively, the sixth most funded Kickstarter project of all time.

The Kickstarter campaign should be considered a massive success, and now we can all rest (if only for a little bit), and await a steady flow of Shenmue 3 news until December of 2017!

Shenmue 3 is the most funded video game in Kickstarter history with over $5.5 million pledged

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Despite many people considering the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter as being mishandled, it didn’t stop the game from reaching another legendary status milestone. It is now the most funded Kickstarter game of all time (at least until Hideo Kojima’s obvious turn to Kickstarter happens). The game has gathered over $5.5 million dollars in funding. At the moment of writing it has $5,733,751 pledged and over 63,477 backers.

That means that Shenmue 3 has beat the previous record held by Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night which got $5,545,991 in funding. As of this moment it is the third most-funded game on Kickstarter, being beaten by the top cat, Exploding Kittens card game that got $8,782,571 in funding. Sadly it doesn’t seem like Shenmue 3 will be getting anywhere near close to 8 million dollars since (as of writing) its still over 2 million shy of beating it with only 9 hours left.

So now the question is, do you thinking that whatever gets funded by the Kickstarter will be enough? While it gathered a bit more funding than Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, that game is a 2D Metroidvania style game, do you think that Shenmue 3 needed way more to complete its true vision? Let us know in the comment section.

Shenmue 3 retail release not guaranteed, only backers guaranteed physical copy

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While we are approaching the final day of the Kickstarter for Shenmue 3, fans are asking if the game will have retail copies after its release and it seems that it might not be the case. According to a e-mail sent to Eurogamer from YS.NET:

“Whether Shenmue 3 will be available for retail or not is currently unconfirmed,”

The only way to secure a hard copy of Shenmue 3 when it comes out is backing the project on Kickstarter. If you don’t care about physical releases, you will always be able to purchase the game digitally.

New Shenmue III trailer, less than 72 hours left in the campaign!

Last night, presumably to feed off of the hype surrounding the end of Shenmue III‘s Kickstarter campaign, YS Net released a short clip of very early footage of a Shenmue III cutscene running on Unreal Engine 4.

Rather than new content, it seems Yu Suzuki was content with recreating another Shenmue II scene. The game does look quite brilliant in Unreal Engine 4, and can only get better as development continues! Check out the original Shenmue II scene here.

What do you think of the new clip, and how much will it push the Kickstarter in these final hours? Sound off in the comments below.

This is how Shenmue would play if it was a 8-bit Mega Man game

Youtuber and animator Peter Sjöstrand put together the above video combining his love for Mega Man and Shenmue into one ultimate fanboy video. The video features iconic moments and locations like the Rush turning into a forklift, QTEs and even a capsule toy machine boss fight.

As a big Mega Man fan growing up, if Ys NET ever made a retro style Shenmue game, I’d buy the crap out of it.

If you want the best possible version of Shenmue 3, don’t forget to contribute via their Kickstarter. Only 4 days left and its nearing 5 million, half the total it needs to become a ‘truly open world’.

Yu Suzuki’s Twitter Q&A Part 2: Shenmue 3 in-game footage won’t be shown until 2017

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Last time Yu Suzuki was answering fan questions on twitter, I searched his twitter to find all the questions and answers to give them to you. This time, someone on Shenmue Dojo beat me to it. So you can check out the answers questions here or hit the jump for the complete transcript.

Some of the interesting bits includes a sketch of Akira in  High School from the cancelled Virtua Fighter RPG, Saying that we won’t see in-game footage of Shenmue 3 until 2017, and even confirmed that the game will be based on reality, unlike what that Shenmue Online trailer lead us to believe.

Shenmue 3 updates: Interview with new project member Kenji Itoso and new reward tiers

Shenmue 3 has added a new interview, this time with a new member on the project. Meet Kenji Itoso who used to apprentice under Hayao Miyazaki over at Studio Ghibli and has directed on many different multipmedia projects. He even worked on the popular hit anime Attack on Titan. Showing that YS Net is using the funded cash from the Kickstarter to pick up fresh talent like this is good and I think will further encourage more donations from those people questioning the Kickstarter. Check out the video and hear about his history with the Shenmue series.

The Kickstarter has also added 4 new reward tiers for users looking to upgrade their pledge. One has a guest book allowing you to share a 140 character message that will be displayed forever in-game, a capsule block toy with your beatiful mug and if that isn’t enough a higher award will make you into a chibi capsule toy version of yourself drawn by Kenji Miyawaki! Check it out and #SaveShenmue.

 

Check out the Cook & Becker limited edition Shenmue art print

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We posted a few months ago that Cook & Becker had the first collection of its limited edition SEGA prints up on their shop, consisting of games like Jet Set Radio, Phantasy Star and more. Now they have posted up a limited edition art print of the famous Shenmue.

“I’m so excited that Shenmue 3 is finally happening! I wanted to capture the moment just after Ryo’s father Iwao is killed by Lan Di. In the game the scene stops with Ryo cradling Iwao and screaming “No!”. I wanted to imagine a shot where Ryo is standing just outside the dojo where is father was just killed. It is cold and very early in the morning. Snow is falling. The morning light is still weak and only some of the wood interior is catching light from the outside. Ryo’s pose already hints at him seeking revenge.” – Tom Sweeney, Artist behind the piece

The art piece is available in 24×47 inches and in a smaller 16×31 inches. Each art print is hand numbered and the user has the option of picking the number of their print from 1 to 100. Not only that, the artist, John Sweeney has stated that he would donate his proceeds of the piece to the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter for those of you who purchase a copy before July 17th, so picking up an extra art piece will in fact support the creation of Shenmue 3. Win, win?

Yu Suzuki’s Twitter Q&A: Check out our complete transcript

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One of the issues with the Shenmue 3 KickStarter is that many people felt like there wasn’t enough details on the project. Unsurprisingly fans had a million questions for legendary game developer Yu Suzuki, thankfully Yu has tried to answer fan questions. First was in a form of a live Twitch chat, that didn’t go so smoothly (which he has apologized for).

Now he has taken to Twitter and allowed users to ask him any question, all you have to do is use the tag: #YouAskYu and the response was outstanding. But what did we learn from this? We gathered some of the best answers and posted them after the break!

Shenmue 3 kickstarter adds physical PS4 copy

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Did you demand that Shenmue III get a Playstation 4 physical version? Guess what? Yu Suzuki has heard your cries and it was added earlier today. Pay $60 dollars and get yourself a physical copy of Shenmue 3 on Playstation 4 (or PC, since its the same price).

It doesn’t seem that they have added a tier to allow users to buy both physical copies of PC and PS4, so I don’t know which one I would want right now. I’m leaning towards PC for the modification aspect. What version are you guys picking up?

Corey Marshall the English voice for Ryo Hazuki reprises role for Shenmue 3

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It has now been confirmed that the voice actor for the English version of Ryo Hazuki, Corey Marshall, will reprise his role in Shenmue III. Corey Marshall has been a huge Shenmue supporter, especially when when it came to advocating for a new entry into the franchise. Many people had a love and hate relationship with the delivery and how he played Ryo’s character, but for those that have nostalgic memories playing the Western releases of Shenmue 1 & 2x will be thrilled to know the old Ryo has returned.

Corey Marshall has decided to help the cause of funding Shenmue III by adding a a new reward tier, as a $1,000 reward where you get a personalized Ryo voice message. If you pick up this tier, you will also get everything included in the $500 dollar package.

What do you guys think of Corey Marshall reprising his role of Ryo Hazuki? Did you guys want to see someone new? Do you think they even needed English voices? Let us know in the comments.