SEGA Talk #89: Shenmue II (2001)

SEGA Talk returns to the world of Shenmue, this time talking about the legendary SEGA-AM2 title, Shenmue II! We cover the development, talk about cut content, original ideas behind the game and even discuss a PS2 rumored port?

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Adult Swim releases Shenmue the Animation First Look Trailer

Shenmue the Animation has finally gotten a first look trailer by Adult Swim, the anime is set to adapt the events of the first game and most of the second. The First Look Trailer posted above starts off with the iconic Shenmue game opening speech by Shenhua but has some different scenes within like Ryo fighting in a Karate tournament which fans are speculating is where Ryo received his iconic bandaged cut on his face.

According to some interviews, Shenmue the Animation will also use unused script ideas Yu Suzuki had that never made it into the Dreamcast originals. This will give older fans a reason to tune into the show when it finally airs sometime in 2022. Stay tune for more info.

Yu Suzuki and Namco’s Katsuhiro Harada talk Virtua Fighter 6, cancelled Tekken Dreamcast title and Tekken x Virtua Fighter

Yesterday the Japanese video game news site Denfaminico Gamer held an interview with SEGA-AM2 legendary arcade designer Yu Suzuki (Virtua Fighter), Tekken’s Katsuhiro Harada and Arc System Works’ Toshimichi Mori where they talked about the histories of their franchises that included Virtua Fighter, Tekken, Guilty Gear and Blazblue. There was also some talk about the possibility of creating Virtua Fighter 6!

The important bits of the interview were taken from @gosokkyu twitter account, who translates Japanese gaming news. If you like Japanese games, I suggest you give the account a follow.

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Shenmue III will not have a Steam key option on launch for backers


Poor YS Net has upset some PC fans when they announced a few months ago at E3 2019 that Shenmue III would be Epic Store Exclusive. This lead to people getting upset that after the Kickstarter was done, the studio asked fans what PC service they would want keys on and most people said Steam; it seemed that the studio got a better deal from Epic Games Store.

YS Net has confirmed that there will be four versions of Shenmue III which includes the PlayStation 4 physical, digital and of course the same for PC. But for PC both physical and digital will come with Epic Game Store. But if you want the game on Steam, there will be an option for it if you select ‘delayed steam key’, which means you will have to wait about a year from launch to be able to play it. Yeah, this will obviously piss off backers, especially those that paid extra (100+) for a beta they never got! You can also change the platform to PlayStation 4 if you don’t want to deal with all this nonsense.

But don’t worry, if you are angry YS Net is allowing users to get refunds for Shenmue III backers that expected a Steam Key day one. They still don’t have a way of doing it and will update us on how to request a refund soon. Here is the statement after the jump:

Shenmue III will only complete 40% of Ryo’s story


If you funded Shenmue III assuming that we would be getting a closure to a story that we (at least most of us older fans) have been following since early 2000s, but that doesn’t seem the case. We all know that Shenmue was always mean’t to be 11 chapters, but considering budgets and restrains, a lot of us assumed that Yu Suzuki had planned a more condense version of his story. I guess not:

During a interview with USgamer, Yu Suzuki revealed that Shenmue III will be about 40% of Ryo’s story:

“Whole story of this bottle, about here [sic],” Suzuki said via translator. I asked if he meant halfway. “40 percent,”

About the game’s length, Yu Suzuki had this to say in a Reddit AMA:

Shenmue 3 pre-order page up on Amazon


Its crazy that Shenmue II released on September 6, 2001 for the SEGA Dreamcast. Ever since then, fans have been begging SEGA for a 3rd entry and now, almost 20 years later we have an Amazon pre-order page. I used to tell people Shenmue III would never happen and now I get to eat crow.

The only thing I would complain about is that Deep Silver and YSNet are going to charge full price for a game that was basically kickstarted by fans? I’m OK with them charging what they want, but personally think it should have launched at a reasonable price of $39.99.

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Shenmue III latest trailer finally shows off some gameplay and fully voiced cutscenes

Shenmue III released the latest trailer that debuted at MAGIC 2019 event. The trailer finally shows off fully voice acted cutscenes, mocapped faces and a tiny bit of the combat gameplay. I have to say, the way this trailer was directed was very close to the originals but I’m still not sold on the face models they are using for this game. The trailer also gives us a very small glimpse at the new fighting mechanics, they look pretty engaging in the trailer and just hope its as engaging when your actually playing.

Outside of that its a lot of mystery still on how Shenmue III‘s open world will work, how the mini-games will play like and a lot more. I guess it should be a interesting few months considering that Shenmue III launches on August 27, 2019. Whats your thoughts on the new Shenmue III trailer?

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Shenmue III shows off new Lan Di model


YS Net has updated us on Twitter, revealing the brand new model for Lan Di. We got just the screenshot above. It was also revealed that we will be getting a brand new trailer at MAGIC 2019 in Moncao on March 9th.

If you guys didn’t know, Shenmue III is due to release on PlayStation 4 and PC on August 27th. Yeah, not that long away and we still haven’t seen the game running at close to retail level. I guess we shall see what the new Shenmue III trailer brings…

Yu Suzuki to Produce VR Battle Game “VRSUS” for Japanese Arcades

It looks like the Tokyo Game Show 2018 news keep on coming out, this time its our boy Yu Suzuki who has announced to be producing a upcoming virtual reality arcade game called VRSUS. Yu Suzuki joins JPPVR Corporation that makes VR rigs for arcades as part of the software development subsidiary company VRes. He joined the live stream to talk about his history with VR including talking about the 1991 failed SEGA VR headset that never made it to market.

Unsurprisingly Yu Suzuki said the reason he really wanted to work on VR is because he thinks it will “liven up” arcades, which have been in a decline for awhile.

Yu Suzuki pledges support for the International Linear Collider, a next generation particle accelerator

It seems that Yu Suzuki has been stepping more and more out of the shadows, even if he is busy working on Shenmue III for his kickstarter project doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have enough time to pledge his support for other project. This time the ILC (International Linear Collider) is gonna be the name for the next generation particle collider that is planned to be built in the mountains of Japan. The idea is to smash particles in the speed of light in order to study what happen at during the Big Bang.

So what is Yu Suzuki doing to support the upcoming collider? It seems the ILC Support group, which Yu Suzuki joined, is a group of famous figures in Japanese entertainment gathering to raise awareness among the general public (this is needed considering how much misinformation I’ve heard from people in my real life). According to Yu, he joined because the Ghost of the Shell director Mamoru Oshii was looking for famous people, in his own words:

Shenmue III delayed to 2019

What should come as a surprise to nobody, publisher Deep Silver has announced that Shenmue III will be releasing in 2019, moving the release date from an unspecified 2018 date to next year. Deep Silver said in their statement, “The extra time will be used to polish the quality of the game even further, to the high standards it deserves and release the product in the best possible timeframe”. Yu Suzuki added “To all of our backers, we are very sorry for the delay. After much discussion with our partners, Deep Silver, we have concluded that extending the release will allow us to deliver Shenmue III at its best. We promise to use this time to improve the quality of Shenmue III. We cannot thank you enough for your enduring support.”

The extra time, in my opinion, is good news. From what little we saw of the game thus far it is clear that they do not have a game ready for a release in the next 7 months. To be honest, I was surprised the Kickstarter gave a December 2017 release date given the Kickstarter campaign was only announced in the summer of 2015. With development truly underway in 2016, a three year timeframe makes much more sense.

It also helps that SEGA is rereleasing Shenmue I and Shenmue II later this year, giving gamers a year to purchase and play both titles before the release of the third game.

Shenmue III’s ending will set up a sequel, confirms Yu Suzuki

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SEGA and Shenmue fans have been fighting to get a third installment and closure to the series since back in the early 2000s. Lots of fans where delighted when it was announced that Yu Suzuki, the original creator for the Shenmue series would be asking fans to kickstart Shenmue III. The internet was on fire, with lots of people assuming this would be the last chance to ‘finish the fight’ against famed villain Lan Di.

In a interview with GamersFlag, Yu Suzuki was asked if the ending for Shenmue III would be open (much like the last two games) and suggest there would be a Shenmue IV. This is what Yu Suzuki had to say:

Shenmue III Magic Monaco 2018 Trailer leaks online

The new trailer for Shenmue III that was shown behind close doors at the Magic Monaco 2018 event yesterday has leaked online. The trailer is using a lot of the same footage found from last year’s trailer but now shows off what QTEs will look like in this brand new title.

Not only that but this new Shenmue III trailer also shows the return of the Boxing arcade game from Shenmue 1. Regardless of all the new stuff shown the footage looks far from final and a ton of animation, mainly facial, is still missing. Considering its been 3 years, who knows how long this game is ‘still in the works’ for.

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SEGA Talk Podcast #13: Virtua Fighter (1993)

Welcome to another episode of our SEGA Talk podcast, where we pick a SEGA game  and have a talk on various subjects regarding said game. On this episode we discuss  SEGA-AM2’s iconic 3D fighter Virtua Fighter! George and Barry talk about the games’ development,  success, and our personal thoughts on how the game has stood the test of time. If you are a big SEGA or Virtua Fighter fan, give the podcast a listen. You might learn a few new thinks regarding Virtua Fighter’s history and even if you don’t, its nice to support us… Right? Let us know what you love about Space Harrier in the comments below!

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If you want to give us feedback, suggest a topic for the next podcast or want to ask a question for us to answer on the next episode you can add them as a comment below or send theme directly to our email. Make sure you use subject line ‘SEGA Talk’ and as always, thanks for listening!

Shenmue 3 gets new screenshots, teases facial expressions

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Shenmue 3 has revealed 3 new screenshots via the MAGIC Monanco conference. One of the screenshots, above, shows off Ryo and Shenhua. If you didn’t notice this is an updated model that includes facial expressions. Personally still think these models are a ways off, the body shape of Ryo particularly is rather strange.

The other two Shenmue 3 screenshots feature two areas that you will be able to explore whenever the full game releases. One is a port with boats and the other looks like a Chinese temple Shopping center*. I might be wrong on that last one, but regardless these environments look impressive. So far Shenmue 3‘s real strength have been its environments. I personally only have issues with the models that are being used thus far. But seeing that every time they show the models, they are changed, maybe they will eventually be fixed. What do you think? Am I nitpicking?