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.

[Mock up of what a print packaged can look like.]

Story/Plot

Shenmue Gaiden will be a spin off story and take place just before Ryo reaches Shen Hua’s house in Guilin. A second plot based in Hong Kong will also be included.

PLOT 1
After walking through the beautiful forest of Guilin for hours, Ryo and Shenhua finally reach their destination. This brief moment of peace is quickly interrupted as the pair are approached by a young girl begging for help. The Xiangjin village has been attacked by a woman dressed in red and group of men wearing black suits. Ryo and Shenhua make their way to the village to investigate. What sort of danger awaits them?

PLOT 2
After being defeated by Ryo and his friends, Dou Niu and Yuan are determined to get revenge. They team up with an old foe and seek out the Heavens and Xiuying within Hong Kong.

Characters

Ryo: Hero of the series. He promises Lui Hui that he’ll find the people responsible for the attack on Xiangjin village.

Shenhua: Heroine of the series. She is good friends with the children of Xiangjing village and accompanies Ryo throughout his travels in Guilin.

Lan Di: The main villain of Shenmue. His reasons for being in Guilin continue to be a mystery.

?????: Mysterious woman dressed in red.

 

Xiuying: One of the masters of Hong Kong. A very strong and independent woman. She is determined to stop Dou Niu and Yuan once and for all.

Ren: Leader of the Heavens. Nemesis to Dou Niu

Lui Hui: An orphan child from Xiangjin village. She looks up to and respects Shenhua.

Shui: Another child from Xiangjin village. He is good friends with Lui Hiu

Maggie: A fearsome and mysterious woman

Chi You Men: The Henchmen of a mysterious organisation.

More to be added…….

Character Model Improvements

Character Model improvements
All characters sprites will be in full HD and receive noticeable upgrades to their models. Different expressions will also be added to their faces depending on the situation. This will allow us to deliver an extra layer of realism.

Lighting
Sprites will also receive various lighting effects depending on the background and time of day.

Animation
Finally, each sprite will have their eyes and mouths move when speaking or on screen. Hopefully, all of these improvements will add an extra layer of realism and provide a better overall experience.

Character Model Improvements list

•  HD Models
• Dynamic lighting
• Animated faces

Backgrounds

All backgrounds in Shenmue Gaiden will be in FULL HD and optimized to support widescreen. Those who played the previous visual novel may have noticed the game running at a 800×600 resolution. This new entry will run at a minimum 1080×720 and support other resolutions.

The backgrounds will also received noticeable upgrades such as lighting and special effects.

Guilin Langhuishan Area

Text

Textboxes has been customized to reflect the feel of Shenmue. The text itself is a work in progress. Here are some sample images from the game.

Joy and Ren

Yuan and ???

Village Boy and Chi You

M and Ryo 

Cutscene Images

Cutscene images will also make a return. However, this time they will be custom made and not directly ripped from Shenmue 1 or 2.

Ryo Training

Ryo and Shenhua by a campfire

Shenhua

Ryo and Shenhua walking through a forest

 

Mechanics/ Other

Shenhua’s House

Each night, you’ll return to Shenhua’s house. Before you go to sleep, you’ll be able to discuss the current events of the story, along with having a general discussion about every day life.

Shenhua will also teach you the game’s system mechanics and give you advice about future events.

Choices, Choices, Choices

Image maps
Certain sections of the game will give you options to explore various areas at your leisure. Each path leading to a different area of the game.

Conversation choices
Those who played the first game knows that it was full of conversation choices which led to different responses. This game will have the same features but expand on them further.

Voiced characters
One feature we would really love to include is voiced characters. We would love the community to contribute to this. Adam Koralik, his girlfriend and others have already expressed their interest in doing voice over work.

Jobs
More unique jobs than the first visual novel.

More to announced…

Music

Music will consist of tracks from Shenmue online, Shenmue Orchestra, Fan made music and Shenmue 2 Guilin music.

More info to be revealed soon!!!

How you can help!

If you would like to help on the project, let us know. This is a community project, so all help is welcome.

Current positions: 

• Voice overs
• Editor (Read the script for spelling and grammar mistakes)
• Any other unique skill that you may have, let us know.

 

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