[Ended] Call for Questions: Shenmue 3 Developers Interview

Sorry this is a little off topic. I've been resisting making an account for some time, but I keep seeing your interest in the writers for SIII, @mjqjazzbar, and I can't help but wonder if you've seen this Famitsu interview with Yu Suzuki, that coincided with the release of the game:
www.famitsu.com

『シェンムー3』発売記念インタビュー。鈴木裕が語る『シェンムー』という旅路 | ゲーム・エンタメ最新情報のファミ通.com

2019年11月19日、ついに発売された18年越しの最新作『シェンムーIII』。本作について、監督・総指揮を務める鈴木裕氏にインタビューを行った。氏が語る開発秘話とは？
www.famitsu.com www.famitsu.com
In it, the interviewer asks YS how much of the scenario writing he was involved in (third question in the second section), and his response was that he handled all of the main dialogue, story dialogue and dialogue establishing motivations, as well as what was referred to as 'affinity dialogue' (I assume this refers to the Shenhua conversations). He goes on to say that he delegated the 'town' and 'free' dialogue to others after giving them NPC data like character traits, blood type, and family makeup, but would sometimes chip in with those as well if it seemed like his input was needed.

So if you believe YS, it's no mystery: He wrote the scenario and most of the main character dialogue for SIII himself. I assume that would be an indictment on his ability, for you. I personally didn't think the story in SIII was particularly worse or better than the first game, although I tend to prefer the better moments that Shenmue III has.


Looking forward to seeing the results of this upcoming developer interview.
 
Rydeen said:
Sorry this is a little off topic. I've been resisting making an account for some time, but I keep seeing your interest in the writers for SIII, @mjqjazzbar, and I can't help but wonder if you've seen this Famitsu interview with Yu Suzuki, that coincided with the release of the game:
www.famitsu.com

『シェンムー3』発売記念インタビュー。鈴木裕が語る『シェンムー』という旅路 | ゲーム・エンタメ最新情報のファミ通.com

2019年11月19日、ついに発売された18年越しの最新作『シェンムーIII』。本作について、監督・総指揮を務める鈴木裕氏にインタビューを行った。氏が語る開発秘話とは？
www.famitsu.com www.famitsu.com
In it, the interviewer asks YS how much of the scenario writing he was involved in (third question in the second section), and his response was that he handled all of the main dialogue, story dialogue and dialogue establishing motivations, as well as what was referred to as 'affinity dialogue' (I assume this refers to the Shenhua conversations). He goes on to say that he delegated the 'town' and 'free' dialogue to others after giving them NPC data like character traits, blood type, and family makeup, but would sometimes chip in with those as well if it seemed like his input was needed.

So if you believe YS, it's no mystery: He wrote the scenario and most of the main character dialogue for SIII himself. I assume that would be an indictment on his ability, for you. I personally didn't think the story in SIII was particularly worse or better than the first game, although I tend to prefer the better moments that Shenmue III has.


Looking forward to seeing the results of this upcoming developer interview.
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Thanks. I didn't know that. I wouldn't say it indicts Yu Suzuki's abilities necessarily. He's a genius programmer and game designer, not a world-renowned writer. I do wonder what the 'lead writer' was tasked with doing if Yu Suzuki wrote most of the game?

Looks like Junichi Yoshida was not just the lead writer, but also the VO director.
 
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mjqjazzbar said:
Thanks. I didn't know that. I wouldn't say it indicts Yu Suzuki's abilities necessarily. He's a genius programmer and game designer, not a world-renowned writer. I do wonder what the 'lead writer' was tasked with doing if Yu Suzuki wrote most of the game?

Looks like Junichi Yoshida was not just the lead writer, but also the VO director.
Click to expand...
Agreed. The story of Shenmue even from the beginning was never some complex, super original, genius display of storytelling. More of taking a timeless basic story of revenge, mystery, and adventure and translating it to cutting edge technology at the time. Yu is definitely more of an engineer, programmer, and technologist than some novelist or epic storyteller.
 
Hi, Switch. I know a lot is going on in the world, especially since this idea was conceived, but would you happen to be able to share if questions have been answered yet or if you know when they might be?
 
mjqjazzbar said:
Hi, Switch. I know a lot is going on in the world, especially since this idea was conceived, but would you happen to be able to share if questions have been answered yet or if you know when they might be?
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The current status is that they still are working on their responses. They have been in a particularly busy period for their project work and have got in touch to let me know it will take a bit longer than expected but they will try to finish them up as soon as they can..
 
Switch said:
The current status is that they still are working on their responses. They have been in a particularly busy period for their project work and have got in touch to let me know it will take a bit longer than expected but they will try to finish them up as soon as they can..
Click to expand...
Happy they still have it on the radar. Hopefully by end of the month
 
I've received back the interview responses!

Just to set expectations, it turns out that only a small portion of the question set was able to be answered. So while it's not extensive, getting to actually hear from some of the actual developers in itself is quite an achievement for us fans.

I'll aim to publish it on the blog on the upcoming Shenmue Day on June 4.
 
Looking forward to it. Were they overruled on some questions or just short on time (if you can even disclose)?
 
Switch said:
I've received back the interview responses!

Just to set expectations, it turns out that only a small portion of the question set was able to be answered. So while it's not extensive, getting to actually hear from some of the actual developers in itself is quite an achievement for us fans.

I'll aim to publish it on the blog on the upcoming Shenmue Day on June 4.
Click to expand...
That's exactly what I was expecting. A lot of these questions were related to creative/executive decisions, story/lore/characters, etc. Stuff they couldn't possibly know if they were really just creating level assets and working on shader tech as an outsource dev for Ys Net. Or maybe I'm misunderstanding their roles, I dunno. Either way, it's awesome to learn more about the development of S3.
 
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