The Legend of Akira Scripts: Two Pages Translated

Switch

Shenmue analysis at www.phantomriverstone.com
Joined
Jul 28, 2018
Location
Japan
Last year, Game Informer went over to Japan and visited Yu Suzuki at YS Net. During the visit, Yu allowed them to browse his original script books for Virtua Fighter RPG, the blue ones with the name "The Legend of Akira" on the front. They were even allowed to film a couple of pages of the script, but up until now these have never been translated into English as far I know.

So here are the 2 script pages, translated into English! As you might expect, they are from the very start of the story and many common elements can be seen with the start of Shenmue as well as the Sega Saturn footage - as well as some interesting differences.

https://www.phantomriverstone.com/2020/10/the-legend-of-akira-scripts-two-pages.html

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This was so nice to read, interesting to see the differences with the final version of the game, in the script the dojo was burning, the early name for Lan Di was Cang Long, the underground room was outside the Dojo, Iwao said about this, the conversation with Iwao was really nice.

I hope one day we can see all the The Legend of Akira Scripts, and all chapter concept arts in good quality, this is one of my Shenmue dreams, the other is to visit Yokosuka, Hong Kong and Guilin, and meet Yu Suzuki. 😊

Maybe when Yu Suzuki finish Shenmue he will release the scripts for the fans, do you think this can happen? i hope so.

Switch, thanks for everything you do for the Shenmue Community.
 
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It's intriguing to see all the differences between this and the final product. No prologue (though it was likely repurposed as the Dojo flashback) and no destroyed Dojo. Also, in the final product Ryo learns about the second mirror much later on in his quest from the Chens instead of what was originally intended with Iwao pleading him to find the Phoenix Mirror in the first scene. Does that mean that Ryo searching for the Phoenix Mirror was originally a much earlier part of the game?

Its interesting to see that Shenmue has not been strictly abiding to the VFRPG original vision since the first game.
 
It's intriguing to see all the differences between this and the final product. No prologue (though it was likely repurposed as the Dojo flashback) and no destroyed Dojo. Also, in the final product Ryo learns about the second mirror much later on in his quest from the Chens instead of what was originally intended with Iwao pleading him to find the Phoenix Mirror in the first scene. Does that mean that Ryo searching for the Phoenix Mirror was originally a much earlier part of the game?

Its interesting to see that Shenmue has not been strictly abiding to the VFRPG original vision since the first game.
It wouldn’t surprise me if the Phoenix mirror was found much earlier originally- as we know that the Yokosuka chapter was meant to be shorter at first and not be a whole game...
 
This is amazing, I love how detailed the writing is, I was expecting it to be almost point form.

I'd love to see the rest of the booklets translated some day.
 
I'm glad Iwao's "Another... mirror... underground... urgh..." line was scrapped. It sounds cheesy as fuck on paper; I dread to think what it would have sounded like out loud. Reminds me of Iwao's death as portrayed in Shenmue: The Gang Edition.
 
I'm glad Iwao's "Another... mirror... underground... urgh..." line was scrapped. It sounds cheesy as fuck on paper; I dread to think what it would have sounded like out loud. Reminds me of Iwao's death as portrayed in Shenmue: The Gang Edition.
Also, keep in mind that this is a father's dying words to his son, so it should carry some weight. "Keep friends, those you love, close to you" is a life lesson that echoes the flashback where Iwao tells young Ryo to cherish friendships, and it ties nicely into Shenmue's story which is about Ryo's personal growth and relationships on his travels.

"Another...mirror...underground...ugh..." is pretty wank in comparison.
 
It really does put the Saturn video into context. The mirror underground and what not.

Awesome stuff, Switch. I really wish we could get more of those books. I'd love to see what else was different.

I wonder if the burning dojo will make it into the anime? That'd be kind of interesting.

For some reason, I always imagined that dojo would end up on fire at some point. My thought was, if we ever get to the final chapter, we would return home to Yokosuka to find Lan Di waiting in the Dojo. And that's where the final battle would happen as all is engulfed in flames around us. That was always my thought for how the series would end.

But would be curious to see if they brought back the dojo on fire for the opening of the anime.
 
The man's breathing, as if expelling in an instant the ki stored in his belly, combines with the sounds of his punches and kicks that tear through the air.
I feel this is indirectly confirming that the original version of Shenmue was far more mystical.
 
It really does put the Saturn video into context. The mirror underground and what not.

Awesome stuff, Switch. I really wish we could get more of those books. I'd love to see what else was different.

I wonder if the burning dojo will make it into the anime? That'd be kind of interesting.

For some reason, I always imagined that dojo would end up on fire at some point. My thought was, if we ever get to the final chapter, we would return home to Yokosuka to find Lan Di waiting in the Dojo. And that's where the final battle would happen as all is engulfed in flames around us. That was always my thought for how the series would end.

But would be curious to see if they brought back the dojo on fire for the opening of the anime.

The dojo would be on fire because Fuku San had enough and said that he quit.
 
It wouldn’t surprise me if the Phoenix mirror was found much earlier originally- as we know that the Yokosuka chapter was meant to be shorter at first and not be a whole game...
Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I think it's safe to say the Saturn version would've been more streamlined -- moving through the story at a quicker pace -- almost by necessity. The focus on realism and detail probably started in earnest on the Dreamcast hardware when it was actually possible.

...that single line of dialogue tells us a lot. If there was "investigation" aspects to the Saturn version, it would've been with more static NPCs, dialogue boxes, more typical inventory management...it probably would've felt much more like a JRPG from the time, but with brawler combat.
 
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Sorry to bump for such a long shot, with a great chance of not leading into anything, but in an article Game Informer did on the Shenmue 3 production (most probably the same visit as the video's), there are a few images of Suzuki at his desk, with the Akira script books on the table, and in 2 you can sliiiiiiiightly see some words from the scripts under the books.

This is the closest one that's visible.

Any chance someone could read and translate what little there is that's understandable?
 
Sorry to bump for such a long shot, with a great chance of not leading into anything, but in an article Game Informer did on the Shenmue 3 production (most probably the same visit as the video's), there are a few images of Suzuki at his desk, with the Akira script books on the table, and in 2 you can sliiiiiiiightly see some words from the scripts under the books.

This is the closest one that's visible.

Any chance someone could read and translate what little there is that's understandable?
2. Hong Kong
3. Su Zhou
4. Guilin
5. Baisha

Edit. Nm. I realize now you meant the faint kanji on the white paper. Not sure there’s anyone alive with eyes keen enough to to pick that out.
 
Sorry to bump for such a long shot, with a great chance of not leading into anything, but in an article Game Informer did on the Shenmue 3 production (most probably the same visit as the video's), there are a few images of Suzuki at his desk, with the Akira script books on the table, and in 2 you can sliiiiiiiightly see some words from the scripts under the books.

This is the closest one that's visible.

Any chance someone could read and translate what little there is that's understandable?
Although it's not clearly readable, based on a few of the characters and the general shape of the text it's the front page of the script which was able to be translated from a clearer shot in the video. It was worth checking just in case though!
 
I know I’ve mentioned this before, and I wish I could actually find it again, but there were some pages in other volumes shown during some Shenmue video. I thought it was the NHK documentary, but I wasn’t able to find it there when I looked again. Didn’t find it in the Project Berkeley video either, but it was something like that. The video quality when I originally saw it was horrible, so I could only make out a small section of one of the pages, where Ewan (let’s make it canon) was talking with Dou Niu about not being able to apprehend Yuanda Zhu.
 
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