Random Shenmue IV Thoughts.

It's a tough one. I feel selfish for wanting Yu-san to make Shenmue IV if he has all these other ideas he wants to do. If Shenmue III was set up to be the final game in the series, I would be more supportive. Am I selfish for thinking that?

That said, in his AM#2 days, he was working on multiple projects at diffferent capacities, so perhaps this is similar?
 
Yu Suzuki don't have the obligation to continue Shenmue but it is not wrong us Shenmue fans wishing for Shenmue IV.

In the Shenmue III credits he said...

"For as long as there are those who wish to see Shenmue live on, I will never give up on my own personal journey to complete its story. As with Shenmue 3, the Shenmue story is with you."

"I sincerely hope that, together, we can continue to spin the tale of Ryo and his adventures in Shenmue 4."

So for him trying to complete Shenmue is a own personal journey for him, he really wants to continue Shenmue and complete the saga, this is how i feel about this.
 
In a few months it'll be two years since the release of Shenmue 3 and there's little hope of Shenmue 4 on the horizon. I hope we get something a bit more concrete soon.
 
How I understand it is sequels usually take between 2-3 years to happen, with an announcement occurring roughly 6 months before release. For example, that's been the case with Judgement (Dec 2018) and Lost Judgement (Sept 2021) which is a similar style game to Shenmue with the sequel taking roughly three years to make (also during Covid-19).

The massive, blockbuster titles (Breath of the Wild 2, The Elder Scrolls 6) are the exception to this general rule (5+ years), but Shenmue 4 most definitely will not be on that AAA open-world scale.

Right now, Shenmue 3 has been out for 1 year 9 months. Covid-19 has delayed many projects, but I like to think that despite this Shenmue 4 already had a bit of a headstart (unused Baisha build and NPC designs, pre-written story, pre-recorded music etc).

If by the three-year mark (Nov 2022) we have not heard a peep about Shenmue 4 (other than "Keep the faith!") then I will start to get concerned. However, with the Shenmue anime presumably releasing next year, it's entirely possible they will release both projects close together for maximum series exposure.
 
I generally agree, but IMO Judgment to Lost Judgment is not the greatest comparison; as RGG are absolutely prolific when it comes to reuse of assets to enable relatively short development periods, and their games tend to take place in the same major environments from instalment to instalment.
 
Thought I'd put this here as felt it didn't really warrant a thread, but Tekken's Harada has a YouTube channel where he's been interviewing various figures from the Japanese game industry, and recently they put out a video deliberating who their next guest should be.

There are a few mentions of Yu Suzuki down in the comments but it'd be nice to see a bit of a community push to get him on at some point.

 
Spaghetti said:
Thought I'd put this here as felt it didn't really warrant a thread, but Tekken's Harada has a YouTube channel where he's been interviewing various figures from the Japanese game industry, and recently they put out a video deliberating who their next guest should be.

There are a few mentions of Yu Suzuki down in the comments but it'd be nice to see a bit of a community push to get him on at some point.

Click to expand...
Just did a Ctrl-F "yu" and thumbed up every Yu Suzuki match in the comments.

call the cops i don't give a fuck.jpg
 
Just FYI, a giant GeForce Now (Nvidia’s cloud streaming service) had a huge database leak and presumably leaked a ton of upcoming titles and ports (coming to PC of course). Everything from Kingdom Hearts IV, God of War PC port, Chrono Cross remaster, etc.

Sadly, Shenmue IV is nowhere on the list. This could mean nothing, or it could mean that it is not being actively worked on, since games that are definitely years out are already in this database (similar to Steam). It is supposed to be encrypted and internal but someone found a way to access it.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/wccfte...-life-2-remastered-mgs2-hd-and-lots-more/amp/
 
Shadow2222 said:
Just FYI, a giant GeForce Now (Nvidia’s cloud streaming service) had a huge database leak and presumably leaked a ton of upcoming titles and ports (coming to PC of course). Everything from Kingdom Hearts IV, God of War PC port, Chrono Cross remaster, etc.

Sadly, Shenmue IV is nowhere on the list. This could mean nothing, or it could mean that it is not being actively worked on, since games that are definitely years out are already in this database (similar to Steam). It is supposed to be encrypted and internal but someone found a way to access it.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/wccfte...-life-2-remastered-mgs2-hd-and-lots-more/amp/
Click to expand...
Going to lean on this being inconclusive. There are a number of reasons why games wouldn't appear on this database at certain stages of their development lifecycle, but the biggest of which I'd say is probably that external testing isn't happening yet (which it seems the primary way GeForce Now is being used by devs pre-release?)

Going from SteamDB, Shenmue III didn't implement any kind of external testing branch until the middle of 2018.

Would also go a way to explaining why GTA 6 wasn't featured in this leak - which is known to exist in some form - because you know Rockstar has that shit locked down tight.
 
Judgment and Bayonetta 3 under Sega make me think this is a load of baloney. Isn't the whole reason Lost Judgment is the last one is because the guy who plays Yagami's talent agency won't allow a PC version of the original ?
 
Still searching fairly regularly (maybe once a month) for a few things related to Ys Net and Shenmue and coming up with nothing. They're absolutely not hiring, at least not publicly or on the internet. Maybe one of their many affiliates who worked on Shenmue IV is? The mystery continues.
 
Spaghetti said:
Thought I'd put this here as felt it didn't really warrant a thread, but Tekken's Harada has a YouTube channel where he's been interviewing various figures from the Japanese game industry, and recently they put out a video deliberating who their next guest should be.

There are a few mentions of Yu Suzuki down in the comments but it'd be nice to see a bit of a community push to get him on at some point.

Click to expand...
I loved his talk with Masahiro Sakurai! Would be awesome to see him talk to Yu Suzuki.
 
Shadow2222 said:
Just FYI, a giant GeForce Now (Nvidia’s cloud streaming service) had a huge database leak and presumably leaked a ton of upcoming titles and ports (coming to PC of course). Everything from Kingdom Hearts IV, God of War PC port, Chrono Cross remaster, etc.

Sadly, Shenmue IV is nowhere on the list. This could mean nothing, or it could mean that it is not being actively worked on, since games that are definitely years out are already in this database (similar to Steam). It is supposed to be encrypted and internal but someone found a way to access it.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/wccfte...-life-2-remastered-mgs2-hd-and-lots-more/amp/
Click to expand...
Well THAT is a nice little leak. 👀 As far as its bearing on S4, though, I think there's simply too many unknowns to draw any conclusions. First, we don't know all of the criteria needed to be put on that list to begin with. I assume the primary criteria is simply to be planned for streaming on GeForce Now. Obviously there's going to be a lot of titles that won't be coming to Nvidia's streaming platform, and beyond that, there's a ton of titles that we either know are coming or can realistically assume are coming that aren't on that list.

Down by Law said:
Judgment and Bayonetta 3 under Sega make me think this is a load of baloney. Isn't the whole reason Lost Judgment is the last one is because the guy who plays Yagami's talent agency won't allow a PC version of the original ?
Click to expand...
Regarding Judgment, similar to the above, there are simply way too many things we don't know regarding that report. Nothing has been officially confirmed, so there's a whole slew of possibilities:
  • The report could be entirely accurate
  • The report could be a half-truth
  • The report could be an honest but complete misunderstanding
  • The report could be an outright fabrication
There's just too much we don't know atm. It's even possible the report was accurate, but the situation was so fluid that they're back to negotiating or have already struck a deal. Or maybe the listing is outdated and from a time before the agency got involved (again, assuming the report is correct).

As far as Bayo 3... Maybe it was always planned as only a timed exclusive from the get-go? Or maybe it was initially planned as a true exclusive, but Sega renegotiated the deal between the initial announcement and now. Personally, I've had fantasies for quite a while of Sega offering up a Persona 6 port to [whatever Nintendo's current platform may be] in exchange for the complete rights to Bayo 2. :geek:
 
Lately i'm thinking a lot about if Shenmue IV happen the Shenmue experience will change a little? just some some things or it will change a lot of things?

I love the Shenmue experience, i don't have problems with the voice acting with NPCs (I play more in japanese) i don't have problems with the scenes where we can see Ryo taking off his shoes and putting his shoes, i don't have problems when he always do the bow before entering in the dojo, i don't have problems with the parts in Niaowu where Ryo have to walk instead of running and much more.

I love that the Shenmue series is like a detective series that to learn more about everything and what to do next we need to ask the NPCs, then Ryo writes the things and sometimes even his feelings in his notebook, i love that the characters have different routines and personalities and much more, am i the only Shenmue fan that enjoy 100% of the Shenmue experience in the recent days? a good game will always be a good game in my opinion.

For example... let's imagine that i bought RPG maker to make an RPG in a old style like the old Final Fantasy games or the old Phantasy Star games, i'm doing something wrong because i'm doing in a old style? of course not is just a different style of gameplay

Another example, Visual Novels have a different style of gameplay, i love Visual Novels style, i think a lot of people here in the west are not interested with this type of story telling but in Japan is super popular, it is wrong to do it like this? of course not, is just a different style, games today have to be all in the same style? i don't agree with this things, diversity and different styles are good for the game industry in my opinion.

When Shenmue III was released many critics said "Shenmue III ignores 20 years of evolution" they talked as if the fact that Shenmue III have the same style of gameplay of Shenmue I and II is a bad thing to do today and i really don't agree with this, i really don't agree because it is just a different style of gameplay.

Let's imagine that the gameplay style of Shenmue IV will have the same style the gameplay like the other games in the series, i will not have a problem with this, if Yu Suzuki change and add just some things it will be okay to me, but if everything about the Shenmue experience change then i know i will not like it, maybe i will even say that is a good game because of the story and other things, but the feeling of playing Shenmue would not be same if everything changes.

I feel that Yu Suzuki will change some things but other things about the Shenmue experience will be the same.

Depending on the change i will embrace it, i have an open mind to accept changes like this but other things is part of the essence of Shenmue in my opinion, Ryo having to talk with NPCs like a detective and writing on his notebook is one of this things.

Only time will tell what will happen, all i know is that... LetsGetShenmueIV. 😊

1631802820849.png
 
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Sorry for the double post but i really need to share my thoughts about something that maybe will be the future of the Shenmue story, something that i reflected yesterday.

This is the plot of Akira's Story, if we make the relation with Shenmue it will stay like this in my opinion.

Shenmue Chapter 1: Yokosuka >> Introduction (Sadness) Loss of father, setbacks.

Shenmue II and Shenmue III >>> Development (Departure) Overcome Grief, Travel to China (In my opinion this part originally would have been with more content because of the boat chapter, train chapter and other things)

Shenmue IV and Shenmue V >>> Denouement (Fight) Heroic battle with RanDi, Victory. Conclusion (Starting Afresh) Akira Loses purpose, Begins New Journey.

1631976354411.png

This part got my attention, this means that Ryo will fight against Longsun Zhao and will win? or they will destroy together the Chi You Men? if Ryo fights Longsun Zhao he will probably not kill him, he will lose purpose, in other words he will forget about revenge and will begin a new journey.

Maybe this journey will be that Ryo will come back to Japan and take care of the Dojo, there he will be a Kung Fu teacher, he will pass his knowledge to the younger generation, Fuku-san can help him with this, it will be like a journey to him, or maybe this new journey will be other thing.

Maybe the story will end in a different place but i will really enjoy if Ryo come back to Japan to take care of the Dojo, it will be a sweet ending, but if the ending happens in another place it will be interesting as well.

Maybe he will win a fight against Longsun Zhao, i think if this happen will be wonderful to see, but there is a possibility that Ryo and Longsun Zhao can join forces to destroy The Chi You Men.

Like i said before, when Ryo and Longsun Zhao finds out the truth about what happened in Meng Cun between Iwao Hazuki and Sunming Zhao it is possible that Longsun Zhao will want revenge against The Chi You Men.

Maybe for twisting his mind since he was a kid, probably The Chi You Men was responsible for Sunming Zhao's death, so if this revelations happen Ryo and Longsun Zhao will join forces to destroy The Chi You Men in my opinion.

If this happen it will be really good but i really want to see Ryo win a fight against Longsun Zhao, not kill him, just win a fight against Longsun Zhao, this way will show even more Ryo's progress as a martial artist and how he surpassed Longsun Zhao, i will really love to see this.

A lot of things changed since the VF RPG days but i think that Yu Suzuki will continue with this main plot that we can see in this image, only time will tell what will happen but i will really enjoy if the story continue this way.
 
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Hiki said:
Sorry for the double post but i really need to share my thoughts about something that maybe will be the future of the Shenmue story, something that i reflected yesterday.

This is the plot of Akira's Story, if we make the relation with Shenmue it will stay like this in my opinion.

Shenmue Chapter 1: Yokosuka >> Introduction (Sadness) Loss of father, setbacks.

Shenmue II and Shenmue III >>> Development (Departure) Overcome Grief, Travel to China (In my opinion this part originally would have been with more content because of the boat chapter, train chapter and other things)

Shenmue IV and Shenmue V >>> Denouement (Fight) Heroic battle with RanDi, Victory. Conclusion (Starting Afresh) Akira Loses purpose, Begins New Journey.

View attachment 12822

This part got my attention, this means that Ryo will fight against Longsun Zhao and will win? or they will destroy together the Chi You Men? if Ryo fights Longsun Zhao he will probably not kill him, he will lose purpose, in other words he will forget about revenge and will begin a new journey.

Maybe this journey will be that Ryo will come back to Japan and take care of the Dojo, there he will be a Kung Fu teacher, he will pass his knowledge to the younger generation, Fuku-san can help him with this, it will be like a journey to him, or maybe this new journey will be other thing.

Maybe the story will end in a different place but i will really enjoy if Ryo come back to Japan to take care of the Dojo, it will be a sweet ending, but if the ending happens in another place it will be interesting as well.

Maybe he will win a fight against Longsun Zhao, i think if this happen will be wonderful to see, but there is a possibility that Ryo and Longsun Zhao can join forces to destroy The Chi You Men.

Like i said before, when Ryo and Longsun Zhao finds out the truth about what happened in Meng Cun between Iwao Hazuki and Sunming Zhao it is possible that Longsun Zhao will want revenge against The Chi You Men.

Maybe for twisting his mind since he was a kid, probably The Chi You Men was responsible for Sunming Zhao's death, so if this revelations happen Ryo and Longsun Zhao will join forces to destroy The Chi You Men in my opinion.

If this happen it will be really good but i really want to see Ryo win a fight against Longsun Zhao, not kill him, just win a fight against Longsun Zhao, this way will show even more Ryo's progress as a martial artist and how he surpassed Longsun Zhao, i will really love to see this.

A lot of things changed since the VF RPG days but i think that Yu Suzuki will continue with this main plot that we can see in this image, only time will tell what will happen but i will really enjoy if the story continue this way.
Click to expand...
Yuanda Zhu called himself Zhao's best friend. It makes sense to me, dramactically speaking, Zhu is the twist villian and who inducted Lan Di into the orginisation in the first place, offering to take care of Lan Di at a low point after he found his father dead.

Perhaps a bit similiar to Ducard in Batman begins, who was secretely Ras' Al Ghul and introduced himself to Bruce with another persona, unaware he was the true leader. Another man who called himself Tentei was a decoy. Zhu/Tentei had a relationship to both Zhao and Iwao, he could have manipulated them against each other, using smoke and mirrors tactics, and is now trying the same games with their sons.
 
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