At what point was Miao Village in Shenmue II? Is it Bailu Village?

Switch said:
I hadn't connected that area to the village before either - had just thought of it as a gloomy, creepy place really. The models look a lot different out in the sunlight where you can see them properly.
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I always thought Shenmue’s development was less than optimal creating so many versions of assets many of which was never used in the final game. It seems in this case they actually reused assets and in an intelligent way.
 
Great article Switch, I never imagined there was this much left to discover. Almost feel like it deserves its own thread rather than my dinky one!

Can't wait for the next part.
 
Shenhua_Vanilla said:
Great article Switch, I never imagined there was this much left to discover. Almost feel like it deserves its own thread rather than my dinky one!
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Thank you for starting the thread! Not at all, it's the perfect place.

I've updated the post to note some occurrences elsewhere of the "talisman" tags that are displayed at the entrance on the house model:
dragon-street.jpg
 
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Ziming is totally The Dark Crystal main character (icrc his name) in that posted picture. he was a pixie
 
Fantastic update as usual @Switch!

Wonderful detective work finding beta version of Wulinshu and matching those screenshots. I have two questions/thoughts-

1.) With AI upscaling, do you think this would work on the pages of Wulinshu and we could translate further information from those pages?

2.) When I read @Peter post I was really surprised as I had never about Miao Village in the context of being an area in Hong Kong and an early quest. I am curious where this information came from?
 
code l name said:
Fantastic update as usual @Switch!

Wonderful detective work finding beta version of Wulinshu and matching those screenshots. I have two questions/thoughts-

1.) With AI upscaling, do you think this would work on the pages of Wulinshu and we could translate further information from those pages?

2.) When I read @Peter post I was really surprised as I had never about Miao Village in the context of being an area in Hong Kong and an early quest. I am curious where this information came from?
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Agreed, wasn't there some video, maybe BlueMue, that theorized the dead end could have originally led to Man Mo Park as well?
 
code l name said:
1.) With AI upscaling, do you think this would work on the pages of Wulinshu and we could translate further information from those pages?
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The writing is extremely blurry, but you never know! Here are the page texture files from the disc if anyone would like to give it a try.

tex_1.png

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Happily we do have the names on the lineage chart translated already by Soule back in 2004. The chart heading reads "Tiger Swallow Style Lineage":

wulinshu-translation.jpg

24Nathan said:
Agreed, wasn't there some video, maybe BlueMue, that theorized the dead end could have originally led to Man Mo Park as well?
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I'll be revisiting the dead-end as part of this series too, in particular pulling together clues that have been dropped by Shenmue developers.
 
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Switch said:
Part Five of our 7-part deep-dive analysis of the "Miao Village" screenshots cut from Shenmue 2. The temple area was also cut before the game was released, but a sprinkling of assets remain!

The Secret of Miao Village: Temple Content Left Behind
https://www.phantomriverstone.com/2022/05/part-five-secret-of-miao-village-temple.html

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It is so beautiful that the Shenmue fans are still finding more details in the games after so many years, amazing, really interesting.

Miao Village was cut out but it is really nice to see that some objects are in the game, and it is nice that now we have more context given to the village, it really looks like the house in Xiuying and Ziming's flashback is in Miao Village, maybe the original plan was to have more story for Xiuying and Ziming there as well, i even imagine Ryo going to this house in this part of the story.

Now i imagine if SEGA or seomeone have an early version of Shenmue II where Miao Village is playable, you think someone have an early version like this? would be really nice to see a version with Miao Village.

Maybe this place in the manga Side Story is Miao Village...

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I hope we can have access someday to Miao Village. I will put Miao Village in my Shenmue Book Series project. ❤️

Beautiful analysis, thanks Switch.
 
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Thanks Hiki!
Hiki said:
Now i imagine if SEGA or seomeone have an early version of Shenmue II where Miao Village is playable, you think someone have an early version like this? would be really nice to see a version with Miao Village.
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I'd join you in that wish for a version with a playable Miao Village to become available to us one day! Certainly some of the early versions would have had it.

Hiki said:
Maybe this place in the manga Side Story is Miao Village...

1651922573350.png


I hope we can have access someday to Miao Village. I will put Miao Village in my Shenmue Book Series project. ❤️
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That is an interesting thought, as the location in the side story manga does look like a village location. (I wonder when Xiuying and Ziming went to live in the Kowloon orphanage). I look forward to seeing Miao village appear in your book project!
 
Part Six of our deep-dive analysis of the "Miao Village" screenshots cut from Shenmue 2.

Whereabouts was Miao Village to have been located?

The Secret of Miao Village: Original Plan for Miao Village in Shenmue II
https://www.phantomriverstone.com/2022/05/part-six-secret-of-miao-village.html

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Note: this article was written before the Shenmue II prototype was released. Will definitely be looking to extend the series to incorporate any exciting new findings!
 
I've been wondering for years what was the deal with the dead end in South Carmain Qr, I would've never thought it was likely to be connected to Miao Village.

I hope the newly released prototype contains other hints about that village.
 
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