A Shenmue Hypothetical~

高野和泉

"SAKURA FESTIVAL!"
Joined
Jul 27, 2018
Location
Tomato Convenience Store, Golden Qr.
Let's imagined if Shenmue was not attached to Sega and/or Yu Suzuki among a few other scenarios...

1.) What other visionary(or visionaries) dev could had hold all the cards that could possibly give birth to this legendary series?

2.) Which game company(or companies) would you think mostly likely to brainstorm & approved a game like this apart from Sega?

3.) What mini games do U think the arcades would feature depending on "X" company that had made it?

4.) Under normal non-blank cheque circumstance would 47m had still been its full budget to developed for?

5.) What year would the series finish on U think? Or if it flopped...think the revival would be possible under anyone else's jurisdiction?

6.) Lastly, if Ur hypothetical played out...Do you see yourself still filling the same shoes as the fan you are today?

-------------------------------------------------
my answers:

1.) I don't think I know one personally that could fit the bill. I never heard or seen a Dev obsess with MA culture/traditions to the same pedigree as Yu.

2.) I think of 3 big companies(Apart from sega) that made fighting games scene popular. (Namco,Capcom,Snk)

3.) Astroids, Pong, and maybe Tron. Pac-man too.(All via licensing deals)

4.) I'd say a more modest budget of 10-12m at most and 5-6m at minimum. Prolly won't be state of the art graphically or soundtrack wise but gameplay tho still being revolutionary to groundbreaking.

5.) Turn of the next decade. 2009. If flop? Nope. I don't think we'll ever see it ever again. I've never seen a dev burden by the fact his fans are left hanging on a cliff-hanger over profit margins viability like Suzuki.

6.) Mostly likely not.
 
Rockstar, Nintendo and SE are the only three developers I could really see conceptualizing and creating a series this ambitious. It’s a little too off brand for Nintendo though so realistically, it would be down to Squeenix and Rockstar.

I think Rockstar’s version would have probably not been too far off from what we ended up with although I expect there would have been more violence and some side quests added. I think that SE would probably have given us a more linear narrative with less exploration and more of an emphasis placed on stat building.

As it happens, I wouldn’t have minded a better system for training and leveling moves and I wouldn’t have been against the game being a little more violent with some actual side quests included. Whilst exploring is fun, giving it some purpose may have made it more rewarding than the ‘wow. It’s cool that they put that in there.’ moments that the original had to offer.
 
I don't think any of the places that had the money to make Shenmue could have necessarily made a good game. My hypothetical version of Shenmue would have a significantly scaled back budget and play as a DS point and click adventure. It would be developed by Cing, Level 5, or whoever makes Jinguuji Saburou.
 
Back
Top