110 Industries & Yu Suzuki

[ShenSam]

Spud so true, i think the main thing that makes Shenmue licence still alive is the community activity

How could we do more ? let's pay marketing companies to promote shenmue or let's buy tons of false twitter profiles !

How could we convince companies to invest on the end of shenmue ? Could we help ysnet in an other way than buying their two games ?

 

[spud1897]

Spud so true, i think the main thing that makes Shenmue licence still alive is the community activity

How could we do more ? let's pay marketing companies to promote shenmue or let's buy tons of false twitter profiles !

How could we convince companies to invest on the end of shenmue ? Could we help ysnet in an other way than buying their two games ?

Show your support. That's the biggest thing. Twitter, videos etc. Be active. Tag YSNET showing your support.

 

[Seaman]

Shenmue 4 gets announced before this year's end.

 

[Dietsoap]

I don't even think Yu Suzuki has any desire to make the game. It's been nearly 3 and a half years since Shenmue 3 was released without so much as a word on the series' future.

I don't doubt Yu has been telling the truth when he tells interviewers "I'd like to make it if I get the chance", I just think they haven't been offered funding from anyone. I know some would prefer he come out and say "yeah no one has offered us shit, the game is not being made atm", but personally that's just what I've already been assuming and will continue to assume until I hear evidence to the contrary. To come out and say that might also hurt their negotiations if they are still attempting any.

 

[ShenSam]

Show your support. That's the biggest thing. Twitter, videos etc. Be active. Tag YSNET showing your support.

Yes I personnally try to be active by posting shenmue stuff on yt + tweets, retweets etc,I would like to do more on the collective side, i ask me if an "out of frame" approach couldn't be made,

for example we open a page to do donations without any obligation, just for people who want to donate, and when the pot is important like we show it by announcing it anf giving it to ysnet, of course it wouldn't change anything compared to the budget needed for S4 but it could be a good little communication booster

 

[Reprise]

I don't doubt Yu has been telling the truth when he tells interviewers "I'd like to make it if I get the chance", I just think they haven't been offered funding from anyone. I know some would prefer he come out and say "yeah no one has offered us shit, the game is not being made atm", but personally that's just what I've already been assuming and will continue to assume until I hear evidence to the contrary. To come out and say that might also hurt their negotiations if they are still attempting any.

I completely understand that there unfortunately is an incredibly high chance that simply no publisher is interested, but I would still love to hear from Yu Suzuki and WHY he would like to continue the series. Like, come on, throw us a bone or two? Even during that period where it felt like all hope had been lost (pre-Shenmue 3 announcement), there was a glimmer of hope from the fact Yu Suzuki would talk about the series (and yes, Shenmue 3) with such great passion. I remember reading that interview where he talked about how Shenmue 3 would be more inward facing, with more reflection etc and just not giving up hope. Things feel different now...

Haven't you ever followed something you enjoy and seen the creator continue to talk passionately about it and its future, regardless of the fact that their are no deals in place and nothing is confirmed? That's what people who are passionate about their creations do. I've seen massive bands dropped from their labels and go on unsigned without a single label involved, continue to talk passionately about their next album, what direction they plan to take and so on. I have seen authors with no deals talk at lengths about their enthusiasm for their next books. And how many TV show creators talk passionately about their plans for the next series when nothing has been commissioned?

Yu Suzuki could say a hell of a lot more than "I'd like to make it if I get the chance" if he really cared at this stage. He did initially and then he started just giving disinterested politicians' answers to anything Shenmue related.

I don't blame him though. I can imagine the development of Shenmue 3, not to mention the whole headache surrounding the Kickstarter side of the things, was exhausting and draining.

 

[Seaman]

for example we open a page to do donations without any obligation, just for people who want to donate, and when the pot is important like we show it by announcing it anf giving it to ysnet, of course it wouldn't change anything compared to the budget needed for S4 but it could be a good little communication booster

We can instead fill a pot of credit, respect (stop pointing his "advanced" age every month almost in tantrum, is nasty), faith (at least spanish arcades were long time designed in layout leading to his cabinets) meaning showing love. The resultant sum will do better than any pennies from our side.
Another creative endured similar unfair rumors about health, age, sanity... As result he developed a belief/superstition that if he finished the movie, he will die.
So he did not finished and delayed it on purpose. Many fans were to blame and media specially. Today is being reconstructed.
We can't do the same thing with Yu Suzuki, draining him and getting a whole legacy lost and maybe reconstructed in a future by guess who or ChatGPT.
I hope if that interview comes, everyone reacts in a mature way to whatever comments YS do.

Next cyclical stage: the manga/novel

 

[ShenSam]

Just sent a message to ysnet via their website contact page,


Did someone already write to them ? Do Ysnet usually answer ?

Lol I will tell them my life every 2 days like in japanese animes until they answer ^^

 

[bcdcdude]

I think the thing about Suzuki-san is that I don't get the vibe he's fully into the modern way of social media and how promotion is done that way. On the one hand, it's deeply frustrating but on the other, maybe he genuinely is busy with S4 or whatever. I wouldn't be surprised if the way a small group of people have been acting on Kickstarter not to mention the general shit show of social media has made him a bit more wary of providing something until he's confident enough to do it.

Lest we forget, there was a massive demand for S3 footage and when the Alpha footage came, people shat on it because they don't understand how game development works.

I'm sure he knows that there's a desperate need for news and I want it too, but I have to keep the faith. As i've said before, the hard work of bringing Shenmue back from the brink has been done; all that is needed is to keep the momentum.

If SIV is announced with a release date within months of that announcement, no doubt we'll all forgive him.

 

[Sailor-San]

Not only will we forgive him... we will all smother him with kisses...

 

[Seaman]

I wouldn't be surprised if the way a small group of people have been acting on Kickstarter not to mention the general shit show of social media has made him a bit more wary of providing something until he's confident enough to do it.

Exactly. From a reliable source it had an effect on him, which reflects in his no online activity. If you knew some pressumed YS reflections about S3 ordeal, many will (idk?) go more empathy with him.
Not surprising getting overpassed, i must say, imagine for a moment dealing with all that storm. There was a will somewhere, to see him fall. Then was a point that Shenmue 3 was already fallen tree like we say here and boy did they still hacking on it.
I'm 100% sure, some of the back then knife throwers are now playing the fan and demanding. Those cannot and they don't want to be pleased. They just change the hand for knife throwing. And if YS relents against them, those same people are gonna say "oh, so unpolished. It looks like a PS2 game, the GUI, the ragdoll,"
its too predictable and exhausting.

 

[Reprise]

I think we're going off track. I don't even think the game has been greenlit, let alone that it is in development. I am not rushing or pushing Yu Suzuki for footage or development updates. I would just love to hear more from the man about Shenmue and what he would love to achieve and experiment with in Shenmue 4. I would love to hear more about the development of Shenmue 3 too. I want to see some passion.

 

[Seaman]

I think we're going off track. I don't even think the game has been greenlit, let alone that it is in development. I am not rushing or pushing Yu Suzuki for footage or development updates. I would just love to hear more from the man about Shenmue and what he would love to achieve and experiment with in Shenmue 4. I would love to hear more about the development of Shenmue 3 too. I want to see some passion.

I not meant that about you, Reprise.
Its the echo what I mean.
But honestly I don't consider offtrack what I wrote. At the end its credit to Shenmue's maker.
I'm not offtrack!!!
I'm Outrun..

Wait for Yu Suzuki high level AI research advances and then shiver.
"Uh... Ah... What?!" Everyone will remember who's this guy. Keyword for Shenmue 4, for poor lost souls losing wude: Artificial + Intelligence & not + a + game + feature.

 

[murdiaries]

I think we're going off track. I don't even think the game has been greenlit, let alone that it is in development. I am not rushing or pushing Yu Suzuki for footage or development updates. I would just love to hear more from the man about Shenmue and what he would love to achieve and experiment with in Shenmue 4. I would love to hear more about the development of Shenmue 3 too. I want to see some passion.

I think we all agree on that point

 

[Sput Vas Normandy]

You know, I wrote a long reply. But I can make it shorter.

The game apparently didnt sell as expected, BECAUSE of:
1) it was a niche game and the "cult game status" didnt turn into sells when we got the port of Steam. On this point, nothing we can do about. We cant put a gun into people's head and tell them to play a 20 year old game.
2) the hate train of internet made a lot of people to not try S3. And on this point there were stuff to do.

One thing we should do in the past was to stay united and make a fucking wall defending the game and series. And I know a lot of us did it, but some didnt. Some people decided in S3 release, critical moment that decides the sells, the future of the franchise, THAT MOMENT its the moment to throw stones into the train and to discuss creative decisions. And Seaman, you werent talking about Reprise in that aspect, but I do, because he was one of those criticizing the game. You can do that? Of course. But if you want to KEEP FUCKING ALIVE THE SERIES TILL ITS DONE, you have to admit thats not the smartest move to do, specialy if you want to keep the series going.

I hope the people who "were honest" and throw stones to their own fucking train are happy now with this situation. You guys couldnt keep your mouth shut, you fucking pieces of shit. You gotta give arguments against the series to haters.
We needed to secure the series, then you can discuss if S3 was that great or not. But nope. Some people decided to help youtube videos, resetera and so on, and now this is the situation.

That's the situation. No news. No nothing. Only some clowns teasing us, playing us like a damn fiddle. Hope you guys are proud.

 

[red]

You know, I wrote a long reply. But I can make it shorter.

i understand what your saying but i don't 100% agree.

other than the existence of the shenmuedojo forums which helps to highlight that the fan base still exists, i very much doubt any comment by shenmue fans have that much impact on creation of future games in the series, good or bad. the only 2 things which were important were the reviews for S3 and the amount of money it made.

regarding the silence.. the more i think about it, the more i believe yu sazuki is working behind the scenes to get shenmue 4 made. he's a game director but he's also a businessman and there is no way he would risk any potential deal by telling anyone online, even his loyal fans until the deal was set in stone.

 

[Reprise]

You know, I wrote a long reply. But I can make it shorter.

The game apparently didnt sell as expected, BECAUSE of:
1) it was a niche game and the "cult game status" didnt turn into sells when we got the port of Steam. On this point, nothing we can do about. We cant put a gun into people's head and tell them to play a 20 year old game.
2) the hate train of internet made a lot of people to not try S3. And on this point there were stuff to do.

One thing we should do in the past was to stay united and make a fucking wall defending the game and series. And I know a lot of us did it, but some didnt. Some people decided in S3 release, critical moment that decides the sells, the future of the franchise, THAT MOMENT its the moment to throw stones into the train and to discuss creative decisions. And Seaman, you werent talking about Reprise in that aspect, but I do, because he was one of those criticizing the game. You can do that? Of course. But if you want to KEEP FUCKING ALIVE THE SERIES TILL ITS DONE, you have to admit thats not the smartest move to do, specialy if you want to keep the series going.

I hope the people who "were honest" and throw stones to their own fucking train are happy now with this situation. You guys couldnt keep your mouth shut, you fucking pieces of shit. You gotta give arguments against the series to haters.
We needed to secure the series, then you can discuss if S3 was that great or not. But nope. Some people decided to help youtube videos, resetera and so on, and now this is the situation.

That's the situation. No news. No nothing. Only some clowns teasing us, playing us like a damn fiddle. Hope you guys are proud.

Don't be dumb. As @red mentioned, fans criticising aspects of the game have little to do with the current situation. The only place I ever criticised Shenmue 3 was on this forum. I very much doubt that the hords of potential buyers came over to the Shenmue Dojo and said to themselves "fuck me, that Reprise guy isn't a fan of the second half of the game and finds the story weak, nobody should buy this game" Anyways I did that after I had played sufficiently through the game, possibly even after I had beaten it. Besides, I also wacked a bunch of 9 and 10/10 scores on metacritic and other websites where I could review the game and accentuated the game's positives whilst diminishing its flaws to paint the game in as a positive light as possible.

I criticised the game as a fan who was generally reasonably underwhelmed with what we got and questioned some of the creative decisions that were made. I think as individuals we are perfectly within our right to critique the game. If you want to blame anyone, blame the individuals who kicked up a massive fuss about having to click a different launcher to play the game on PC. That was the final nail in the coffin in my opinion.

Hell, if you really want to blame the correct person, blame Yu Suzuki and his team. They're the ones who ultimately made the game what it is, with its warts and all, they're the ones who failed to ensure the franchise's future was guaranteed, and they're the ones who failed to ensure that the game was marketed correctly.

 

[spud1897]

Don't be dumb. As @red mentioned, fans criticising aspects of the game have little to do with the current situation. The only place I ever criticised Shenmue 3 was on this forum. I very much doubt that the hords of potential buyers came over to the Shenmue Dojo and said to themselves "fuck me, that Reprise guy isn't a fan of the second half of the game and finds the story weak, nobody should buy this game" Anyways I did that after I had played sufficiently through the game, possibly even after I had beaten it. Besides, I also wacked a bunch of 9 and 10/10 scores on metacritic and other websites where I could review the game and accentuated the game's positives whilst diminishing its flaws to paint the game in as a positive light as possible.

I criticised the game as a fan who was generally reasonably underwhelmed with what we got and questioned some of the creative decisions that were made. I think as individuals we are perfectly within our right to critique the game. If you want to blame anyone, blame the individuals who kicked up a massive fuss about having to click a different launcher to play the game on PC. That was the final nail in the coffin in my opinion.

Hell, if you really want to blame the correct person, blame Yu Suzuki and his team. They're the ones who ultimately made the game what it is, with its warts and all, they're the ones who failed to ensure the franchise's future was guaranteed, and they're the ones who failed to ensure that the game was marketed correctly.

There's a collective responsibility with this IMO. Shenmue 3 (and the other games) should be able to be constructively criticised.

My issue is these so called 'fans' coming up at every turn trying to put people off playing it or youtubers embellishing the truth or outright lying to make their point.

Likewise, as we've covered in our podcast, the people who made the game have to take their share of the bargain when it comes to the issues with the Kickstarter communication and other issues.

Marketing I place firmly at the door of Deep Silver. From the 2017 trailer to the use of old assets in every magazine going. That's on their doorstep not YSNET.

The design decisions I can get the school of thought and I've said this countless times.... the scope was too ambitious for the budget for a start, it was never static and they had to force it out the door. Yes that doesn't excuse something like the stamina system but the rushed story telling etc (70% dev time spent getting the game running) could be attributed to that.

That said they didn't deliberately 'fail' anyone. They'd have made what they felt were the best decisions at the time. Right or wrong.

I keep going back to it and I'm getting a little pissed off at repeating myself. If people want a 4th game, move on from Shenmue 3, it's in the books and support us on social media etc to get the 4th game. At this point the issues with 3 have been done to death.

 

[Seaman]

Reprise, I'll be short and almost lazy in my response because I'm tired of my own online activity.
Basically I believe, first of all

"fuck me, that Reprise guy isn't a fan of the second half of the game and finds the story weak, nobody should buy this game"

This was fun, made me laugh. I cannot unhear Robbie Williams voice on it, don't know why.

fans criticising aspects of the game have little to do with the current situation.

True, has little to do compared to other factors. But it has an effect. Absolutely every buzz in every aspect of life has consequences and at times those are fatal.

blame Yu Suzuki and his team.

With respect and my sympathies to your usually kind commenting: That's not fair, doesn't add to the get S4 equation and repeated by many more, like I said before could even make YS send the series to the shit. Me being YS already throwed the towel on it, but luckily I'm not YS. He stills fighting.

We are more united, more wall than in 2019. Lets not waste that union.
Im gonna take a rest from posting for a while.
Stay well everyone.

Oh thank you very much @spud1897
I get the feeling of being in the minority here in some thoughts and one of them its in your second paragraph. The knife throwers. What you said, including the constructive criticism. And yes I also feel repetitive.

It will be do a lot of good if we move on what we did/said in 2019, pre Covid world, and focus our energies in today.
I also made many mistakes in the past.

 

[You Arcade]

People here turning on each other and fighting over a 4 year old game while Yu Suzuki is probably in bed binge watching The Blacklist.