David Cage was working on his game Indigo Prophecy around the same time Shenmue was releasing. If you played Indigo Prophecy or any of Quantum Dreams games, you will notice they used Quick Time Events (QTE) quite a lot. This technic in video games was popularized by SEGA’s Shenmue.
In this interview with both David Cage (Heavy Rain director) and Yu Suzuki talk to Game Informer about storytelling. Its awesome watching Yu Suzuki explain what he tried to capture with Shenmue and what David Cage tries to capture with his games.
Also really like the part where Yu Suzuki took pictures of David Cage’s new game Beyond: Two Souls, because he found it interesting and wanted to look up more information on the game when he got home.
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Already deleted, wonderful…
Updated it. I guess the interview is 40 mins long, first 20 don’t have Yu Suzuki. The video I had was someone that cut out the first part and Game Informer reported it.
I edited it, should autoplay when Yu starts.
here is the full link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8gxwGIDPFs
OMG! They actually benched Yu Suzuki for 20 mins. They made him sit in a corner and wait… Damn.
Suzuki should seriously let go off Shenmue and start making games again.
lol, looks like Suzuki was quite hungry. All he wanted to do was have lunch, instead he got stuck in an interview that he wasn’t even a part off.
I don’t agree that Shenmue is like Heavy Rain or Quantic Dreams games.
Shenmue is mainly about exploration, finding your way. In Shenmue II the player acted as a tourist with Ryo, asking for directions, learning about a different culture. It was very unique in its approach and was inspired by everyday life, not film. And to top it all off, it had a soundtrack that perfectly captured the 80s and the locations of the game.
QTEs (which are just another term for “Simon Says”, which existed in video games long before Shenmue) were used sparingly. They were there to compliment the game, not build it, not to give it an excuse of being a game in the first place. Unlike:
Heavy Rain is an interactive film where exploration is mostly limited and meaningless. The plot had more cliches than I care to count (good cop bad cop, perfect family ruined after tragedy, reporter that has to get the scoop, drunk abusive dad, racial stereotypes [Paco, we love you Paco!] etc. etc. etc.), and presented the player with many choices that made no sense whatsoever. It was lousy. It’s as if Cage says what people want to hear, so they excuse the many faults of his games.
A narrative like Heavy Rain’s is a dime a dozen in any other medium. Semi-unique for a video game should not be enough. QTEs were the least of its problems.
It saddens me that David Cage is a success while Yu Suzuki has been inactive for nearly a decade.