Revealed: Sega's cancelled Shenmue HD remake - with fully updated graphics (EuroGamer) Update 16/10 - Sega respond

Sh3ppy said:
Nice. That can only be good news for any potential future Sega involvement in Shenmue.
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Toshihiro Nagoshi (Director of Yakuza) is now the Chief Creative Officer at Sega. Who also worked on Shenmue back in the day. I imagine when or if talks for Shenmue IV begin with Sega, he will have some sort of corporate influence on whether the game gets made at all.

http://www.phantomriverstone.com/2018/04/toshihiro-nagoshi-on-yu-suzuki-sega-fes.html

As a whole though, it's mindblowing that it's taken up to 2018 for Sega to finally realize how important Shenmue is to the history of their company. But that's Sega for ya.
 
darksniper said:
Toshihiro Nagoshi (Director of Yakuza) is now the Chief Creative Officer at Sega. Who also worked on Shenmue back in the day. I imagine when or if talks for Shenmue IV begin with Sega, he will have some sort of corporate influence on whether the game gets made at all.

http://www.phantomriverstone.com/2018/04/toshihiro-nagoshi-on-yu-suzuki-sega-fes.html

As a whole though, it's mindblowing that it's taken up to 2018 for Sega to finally realize how important Shenmue is to the history of their company. But that's Sega for ya.
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That's really good to know. It certainly does seem like Sega are finally realising how valuable of an IP Shenmue really is, especially as they do seem to have been surprised by just how well the re-releases sold. Although the whole remaster attempt with new assets really took me by surprise. Hopefully III does as well as we would like and Sega and Yu bring us IV with proper backing. At this point, I'd be massively surprised if III didn't do well. This series deserves to be completed (not to come across too entitled!).
 
Not only Nagoshi, but President Hatomi seems to be of the same generation and realizes the classics are worthwhile to reinvest. Pretty sure he spearheaded the mini Mega Drive, which they've now delayed to make sure it is proper quality, as well as Sonic Mania. He's even teased possible other Dreamcast revivals, if i'm not mistaken, perhaps Saturn, too.
 
It is positive that some original Shenmue staff are still around. A lot of the more senior staff at the time have also left and have ended up helping on Shenmue III.
 
Whoa, that graphical upgrade goes beyond a lot of Remasters I can think of. Maybe they were worried they wouldn't finish before Shenmue 3's proposed 2017 release? Or the proposed 2018 release? The straight re-release of the game was also probably an easy prospect if they had been planning to have the game playable in the new and old graphics. Seeing how many adjustable options the re-release has, as well as the smooth combination of the Dreamcast and Xbox versions of 2, leads me to believe they really cared about having many ways the player could customize the game's look.

It would be a shame if the remaster was scrapped due to then-perceived time constraints, but it could have simply been a matter of them realizing the amount of resources it'd take to finish the project can't be justified in a 30 dollar release. Nor could they justify selling Shenmue 1 and 2 at a higher price point to the average consumer. It sucks thinking about what could have been with that remaster. Or thinking about how much less anguish we would have experienced if they went for the re-release from the beginning rather than the excruciating years of silence. But I'm still happy to be playing the games at all.
 
Zapp Branniglenn said:
Seeing how many adjustable options the re-release has, as well as the smooth combination of the Dreamcast and Xbox versions of 2, leads me to believe they really cared about having many ways the player could customize the game's look.
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Wasn't aware any of the Dreamcast Shenmue II was involved with the port. Didn't they only say XBOX version? To me it'd make sense if the opposite; Dreamcast version ported or at least partially used, considering they already translated SH4 code of Yokosuka. Although, perhaps 2x already running on western Intel chipset--regardless how obsolete--ultimately was easier and better expedited for today's PC architecture of PS4/XB...
 
BalHan said:
I remember seeing beta footage of the unreleased Shenmue for the Sega Saturn and all I could think was thank eff I got to play the Dreamcast releases and not this. However, it can be assumed that had Shenmue been released on the Saturn and then remade for the Dreamcast, there would have been criticism from Shenmue fans saying the game has ‘lost its original charm’ or something to that effect. This is often the case with games that are remastered or remade.

We can therefore extrapolate that should Shenmue 1 and 2 be remade with a big budget, then those gamers who experience Shenmue for the first time playing the remakes would feel the remakes are superior to previous ‘inferior’ releases of Shenmue as the old releases’ graphics are not as good and the geometry is blocky etc.

Hindsight is 20/20.
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But how could they claim it as superior if it was the only version they played. What i'm saying, emotionally, the experience would have been the same, regardless of photo realism.
 
I'm torn on this.
On the one hand, the "toggle" feature is a brilliant idea that would've preserved the original games whilst allowing us to switch back and forth between new graphics....on the other, a complete Shenmue remake without Yu Suzuki just sounds plain wrong.
 
It'd be neat if an alpha of this leaked someday... just sayin!
 
xatruio said:
Wasn't aware any of the Dreamcast Shenmue II was involved with the port. Didn't they only say XBOX version? To me it'd make sense if the opposite; Dreamcast version ported or at least partially used, considering they already translated SH4 code of Yokosuka. Although, perhaps 2x already running on western Intel chipset--regardless how obsolete--ultimately was easier and better expedited for today's PC architecture of PS4/XB...
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I'm not sure what @Zapp Branniglenn means either, but the re release, both games run on a port of the og xbox Shenmue 2 port/engine.

I think he may be talking about them removing the motion blur, and implementing the japanese voiceover.
 
xatruio said:
Not only Nagoshi, but President Hatomi seems to be of the same generation and realizes the classics are worthwhile to reinvest. Pretty sure he spearheaded the mini Mega Drive, which they've now delayed to make sure it is proper quality, as well as Sonic Mania. He's even teased possible other Dreamcast revivals, if i'm not mistaken, perhaps Saturn, too.
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https://segaretro.org/Eigo_Kasahara Is still there too, but more development , as in director/prducer/planning support roles these days. He is in charge of the Japanese release of the re release.
 
You guys can call me crazy if you want, but I am not impressed with the footage at all. It looks better yes, but also so wrong. Besides the bugs I am happy with the Shenmue Remasters we get. HD just looks wrong with the Artdesign 20 years ago. I also prefer the original Re 1 Remake on the Gamecube over the HD Ports.

The Character Models look too clean in HD. I do not like that at all.
 
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dark1x said:
Unlikely. Sega UK basically closed up shop last week and lots of people were let go. QA was moved to Bulgaria. This whole project was started in the UK hence d3t working with them. No chance this is revived. :(
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Bulgaria?! That's a terrible decision! There's no economic stability -- I would know: My Dad's Country). That's almost as bad as moving it to here (Portugal).
I know there's been a Ubisoft subsidiary in its capital for the last 12 years, but almost all of us know about Assassin's Creed Q.A standards...
 
Jibby said:
Would it be reasonable to suggest that the leaked footage came from one of those laid off employees?
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What i find weird is that no one's talking about some of the screen-shots of that Remake, posted on Twitter, well before the Digital Foundry video...
At the time i thought it was just a fan exporting the assets to Unity, but it clearly showed the Yamanose Shrine being rendered in the cancelled version...
 
Social Enigma said:
What i find weird is that no one's talking about some of the screen-shots of that Remake, posted on Twitter, well before the Digital Foundry video...
At the time i thought it was just a fan exporting the assets to Unity, but it clearly showed the Yamanose Shrine being rendered in the cancelled version...
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Really? Can you post a link?
 
It does look similar, I could see how you could confuse the two.
 
I don't know if I'm allowed to post them here or if they have been before, but there are definitely remnants of this remake effort both in data and code form, in the re-releases like leftover UI images and placeholder material. A lot of it hints at an engine overhaul rather than a remake, the executable shows support for many new features, some of which can be seen in the video.
 
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