I finally finished the interview (yeah, I'm really late... The end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021 was pretty wild and intense for me)
This interview is really good! Thanks
@spud1897 for doing this!
The fact that they are pitching Shenmue IV with the will to secure a higher budget is pretty reassuring, for me.
Yes, he kinda does tell us that Shenmue 3 wasn't a huge success, but he also doesn't say it was a failure. He said that Shibuya invested heavily on Shenmue 3, and the fact that he is down and ready to go for Shenmue 4 proves that he still believes in Shenmue, which tells me that, even though Shenmue 3 wasn't as successful as he wished, he is sure that they can deliver something great and successful and that's good.
The fact that he acknowledges also the communication problems from the Kickstarter and from Deep Silver he's also good.
The only points that "frighten" me, is that for him, he wants to make Shenmue 4 bigger and with better graphics. And it seems weird to me that he didn't say anything about the story/narration/staging which is the point that disappointed the most and that needs a better work on it.
I don't think Shenmue needs to be bigger nor more beautiful.
But that's my opinion. I'm happy that Cédric is truly a fan of Shenmue and is working really hard on trying to make Shenmue 4.