Do you think the majority of the Shenmue III's script will be the same?

Vivi-gamer

Vivi-gamer

Joined
Jul 27, 2018
Hi,

Obviously we've had quite an extensive gap from Shenmue 2 to 3, I'm wondering if the script will be changed much or if they're pushing ahead with the original script intended say if we step into a parallel dimension back in 2001 where the Dreamcast didn't sink and the game was set for the console in 2002. Curious to know if there has been any word on that? They're still footage in Project Berkley video which shows things we haven't seen - not saying it is canon by any means but still reveals a fair bit about certain characters.

On the Memebrs section of the Kickstarter page it has this:
shenscript.JPG
Even with a video dedicated to him:

Which leads me pretty confident the abilities of the writing, but it doesn't state much regarding the new project and how much they're using of their old material - So I am curious to see if anyone has any insight on this :)
 
I know a while back Yu did an interview where he said he had access to the old assets and I presume that would include scripts.

Because they have been essentially written in some form for a long time it wouldn't shock me if the basis of them remained the same but lots of tweaks and updating have been made during the development. Remember the originals would have been written for the DC most likely so there would be room for expansion I'd suggest.
 
Some time ago, long before the post mortem, Suzuki said the concept did exisit. I’m not sure if it will stick to the script but considering the passage of time, it’s only natural that some things would be added or taken out. But I am sure that foundationally, it will still be the same
 
I remember that picture of the old guy Ryo is talking to about a book or something and the subtitles were in Japanese and it was from the unreleased Shenmue 2 village chapter that was meant to come after the cave. I wonder if we will still meet him or if he's change the story flow to the point we won't.
 
I think Yu said in 2015 that he re-wrote the script with Yoshimoto-san, so I think it will be at least a little different from the script Yu had in the early 2000s.

But that's not a bad thing, I think. Same thing happens to novels all the time when authors work on them for many years. You know, there's an initial idea or an initial version of a story and over time it gets changed and reworked and reworked again. it's natural.
 
hyo_razuki said:
I think Yu said in 2015 that he re-wrote the script with Yoshimoto-san, so I think it will be at least a little different from the script Yu had in the early 2000s.

But that's not a bad thing, I think. Same thing happens to novels all the time when authors work on them for many years. You know, there's an initial idea or an initial version of a story and over time it gets changed and reworked and reworked again. it's natural.
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Yeah, its a natural part of writing - I often go back and look at stuff I've written months or sometimes years later, and I end up editing parts or discarding other parts entirely - considering its now 20+ years since the original script was written, I wouldn't be surprised if Yu wanted to change parts here and there - you change a lot as a person during that time!
 
Great point you made there. Yu may have changed as a person quite a bit during the course of the last 17 years, so he probably has a different idea about some parts of the story or about some characters now.
 
RiGoRmOrTiS said:
I remember that picture of the old guy Ryo is talking to about a book or something and the subtitles were in Japanese and it was from the unreleased Shenmue 2 village chapter that was meant to come after the cave. I wonder if we will still meet him or if he's change the story flow to the point we won't.
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That was actually released on Muecas, and it was from a cut portion of the game before Guilin, I think. I can find @Kiyuu's post on the matter again, but it wasn't from Shenmue III.
 
I think most of the primary storyline stuff will follow the original script pretty faithfully, any changes related to additions or removals would probably be sub-plot related by this point, Yu Suzuki has been wanting to continue this story for almost 18 years (17 for U.S. gamers since IIx didn't get released until 2002) so I doubt he would compromise his primary vision very much this late into the project, we'll just have to wait and see.
 
Superrayman3 said:
I think most of the primary storyline stuff will follow the original script pretty faithfully, any changes related to additions or removals would probably be sub-plot related by this point, Yu Suzuki has been wanting to continue this story for almost 18 years (17 for U.S. gamers since IIx didn't get released until 2002) so I doubt he would compromise his primary vision very much this late into the project, we'll just have to wait and see.
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Oh yeah, I don't doubt the bare bones and the key story events will remain the same, but its likely a lot the actual dialogue/ways the story is told may have changed over time.
 
I think the story will just be reworked to fit with the plan going forward, these were originally going to be multiple games, Suzuki and Yoshimoto and any other writers will definitely be making modifications, moving story points out for a potential Shenmue IV (the train scene seen in the Project Berkley trailer, for example?), no doubt and maybe even add more depth and flesh certain characters more. Remember, the writers job isn't just with the main story itself but with the characters too, Suzuki said the scale of III has expanded now with more NPCs, so that will mean substantially more dialogue and story scenes because of that, right? That's more writing duties required, then, with the story shaping itself around that, as well.

Take for example, was
Chai originally going to be in Shenmue III? Ren and Shenhua both playable in the original script? This is something we will never know.
 
This interview says it all:

GC: Can you go into detail about any of these new gameplay concepts? Are any of these ideas you had back in the 2000s that weren’t technologically possible at the time?


YS: It may not answer your question directly but, for example, there were things I could do 20 years ago that I did not think was the best way of solving a problem. But that attitude may have changed over time and now I think that this type of feature would be good for the new game. But it is not just the progress of video games technology that has changed over the years. Over all this time I have been watching many movies as well, like over 800 movies or so in the last 15 years, and they also become an influence on the game and I take elements from them I think could be used to fit Shenmue III. So I have broadened my experience in many areas that will impact the game. But of course we have to deal with different resources with Shenmue III. With the original there was a much bigger team and budget, so I must carefully select what goes into the new game.

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2017/08/28/shen...-whole-game-you-imagined-6885083/?ito=cbshare Twitter: https://twitter.com/MetroUK | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MetroUK/
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800 movies over a 15 year period?. Thats more than one a week. The influences of these films will undoubtedly make their appearances in the game.
 
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With regards to Project Berkley which was basically the CGI cutscenes for the Saturn version of Shenmue. There was more work done on the game past the end we got to see, even the Dreamcast Shenmue II had more work done after it.

Thus I think the next chapter will stay quite close to the original story as it was quite developed - the later game/sequels may deviate from the original early 2000s script.
 
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