Famitsu article on 2021 Japanese game developer aspirations, featuring Yu Suzuki

Shenmue III was, by and large, a success in the eyes of most fans. It generated over $7,000,000 on Kickstarter.

Through the efforts of it's loyal fanbase, it attracted the interest of a major publisher(though whether they did enough marketing is truly debatable) which enhanced the final product. We also know they were "happy" with its performance, which was in no small part helped by one of the most loyal fanbases in gaming.

In addition, we now have an anime series forthcoming, as well as an exclusive magazine compilation. In addition, SEGA was taken aback by how well received Shenmue I and II were in terms of sales and probably by how often it shows in the tops of their polls, plus merchandise selling out regularly.


An anime series would *never* have been commissioned lest there was continued, *viable* interest in seeing the series persevere.

I've long maintained that Yu Suzuki will do whatever he must, now knowing there is a market and interest, to see his passion project through to the finish line before he announces retirement. I would include Virtua Fighter in this equation as well, because the fighting game scene has seen a big resurgence in the last few years. It is time it returned as well.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Shenmue IV unveiled next year, probably with Sega having a more direct involvement in it.
 
I think the Key words are about projects he is deeply involved with at the moment.
for the shooter it might be that arcade competitive VR Project "VRSUS" the prototype he showed in 2018.
for the RPG I hope it's that fantasy settings based game we've heard about before.

Regarding his aspiration of 2021 I think it's the things he wanted to do if possible
going back to competitive fighting games again & the announcement of a sequel he teased which is most likely would be Shenmue 4.

I am fairly excited about what to come.
and I think it's necessary that the team works on different games & ideas for their own good.
 
Ah, the good old "Reo Hazuky's gun" cheat code in action! 🙃

Seriously though, this sounds great. I know it's just Google Translate but if he really did say something to the effect of "the sequel," what else could he realistically be talking about other than Shenmue IV?

It's also great that Shenmue's resurgence seems to have brought him out of retirement and back into game development where he belongs.

"The sequel..."

It's happening! That or a new Space Harrier
If i had to guess, id say Suzuki has 3 projects lined up

Virtua fighter with Sega
Space Harrier with Sega
Shenmue 4
Did I miss an announcement about a new Space Harrier game or is this just a wild guess by you guys?

I swear no one speaks more cryptic than suzuki. I dont think ive ever heard him give a straight answer.

Me "suzuki, what time is it?"

Suzuki "yes"
True, but I think that's because he's never completely sure what things he'll be able to do so he never really fully commits to anything and just gives vague hints. I don't think he was this cryptic when he still worked for Sega and never had to worry about where the funds and resources for his upcoming projects would come from. It's honestly a little mindblowing that someone with his legendary pedigree, history of innovation, and influence on the industry was seemingly blackballed for so many years. It's like Sega put him out to pasture just because Shenmue was a commercial failure and they wanted to sweep it under the rug.
 
Pretty sure the VRSUS prototype was cancelled/never got past early design and planning.
I swear no one speaks more cryptic than yu suzuki. I dont think ive ever heard him give a straight answer.

Me "suzuki, what time is it?"

Suzuki "yes"
My inner dialogue instinct was reading Yu's voice and Itoi's from Mary Patches.
 
Yeah, I can't find anything recent on VRSUS. It seemed pretty sketchy when I started digging into it:

This is what I found a while back:

Anything ever come of this? It's been nearly 2 years since it was announced. Checked out the one developer's page and I see they have released a couple things since:

JPPVR株式会社
Hard for me to make much sense of any of it, though. Wouldn't be surprised if it was quietly killed, but I am trying to find out what Yu Suzuki is up to right now so it was on my list of things to check out...

[Edit]

Unfortunately, I think it's probably dead. The actual 'developer' hasn't updated their page in a year:

https://vres.io/#VReS-PV
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPsoKBQ9VFyd7dM_NMkqxvQ
Honestly, looking through this stuff the developer looks kind of shady.
Note that it was to to do with E-sports across arcades, however...

VReS is the world’s first decentralized game platform for VR eSports. We issue our own VReS cryptocurrency based on the Ethereum network. Using VReS tokens, players will be able to participate in eSports competitions, receive remuneration, and receive tips. Furthermore, viewers will be able to not only watch matches but also place bets on certain matches, and this will create economic incentives for players.

A glimpse into what's planned for VF X or a coincidence? We shall see... Recall all we know is it's an E-sports-based Virtua Fighter. The crypto angle is where I think the thing falls apart; sounds like they were just trying to capture the zeitgeist--the cryptocurrency craze--a couple years back and didn't have much to back it up.
 
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I'd like to add more thoughts:

Another game of this generation that was a(decidedly) niche title and ended up doing well was Kingdom Come: Deliverance. It also has a sequel that has been greenlit, despite it not setting the world on fire.

Nostalgia is at an all-time high. One might argue that Shenmue is still an appeal to the way games used to be. When done correctly, it has massive reverberations with everyone who holds something dear. Some examples of this are Cobra Kai and Ghostbusters: Afterlife in the movie world. In the gaming world, Eiyuden Chronicle and Bloodstained.


One game that was subsequently trashed years ago was Duke Nukem Forever. It was lambasted because it "played like a 20 year old basic shooter". Technical issues aside, that was the whole point of it.

It's a way for folks to see just how many things, such as QTEs, day and night cycles, NPCs with routines, became mainstream from one series and are taken for granted as commonplace now.


YsNet now has experience under their belt from making Shenmue III. They aren't under a constant deluge of pressure to "show something" or "get it out" and have a lot more knowledge of the engine being used. So I expect Shenmue IV to have a lot more going for it when it comes to detail when it is shown.

In addition, they know what fans liked, what they didn't like. I would expect IV to address things like the battle system, the Stamina system, etc.
 

Looks like Yu Suzuki's game of the year is Ghost of Tsushima.
As it should be. I did not agree with TLoU2 sweeping the Game Awards. I didn't agree much with many awards in general. For example, best ongoing game should've been Final Fantasy XIV, which continues to impress narratively and in design.

TLoU2 felt heavy handed and smelled of favoritism because it pushed "social issues", which is fine and great, but doesn't make it GoTY, imo, since the gameplay wasn't much different than the original, so how it won Best Action/Adventure over Ghost doesn't make any sense.
 
I feel like 10/20 years ago a Western-developed game set in Japan would've gone down like a lead balloon over there. Based on that list, it's the most popular game with Japanese game devs. It's funny how much things have changed.
 
10 or 20 years ago we might not have had a properly cared and researched game by western developer to satisfy real Japan/Japanese natives.

Not off top of my head anyway
 
10 or 20 years ago we might not have had a properly cared and researched game by western developer to satisfy real Japan/Japanese natives.

Not off top of my head anyway
Funny you say that since GoT is choke full of historical inaccuracies...

Though I guess the average gamer doesn't mind if he is wearing armor 600 years from the future
 
No the average gamer is not a history buff, neither in Japan nor in the west. I also noticed the historical inaccuracies in the game as a big fan of Japanese History. Ghost of Tsushima is fun game but it do not deserve the label well researched. And it also do not deserve the tag game of the year. It is not bad but it does nothing different than any other open world game. It has the classic tropes of a 8th gen open world game. the only unique selling point the game has is the Japan setting. Gameplay wise it not different from Red Dead Redemption 2, Horizon Zero Dawn and so forth.
 
Yeah, research was wrong word. Being a "realistic" fictional story though there will be definite inaccuracies due to creative license. Some sort of care and effort must've went into project if Nagoshi and Suzuki have shown admiration for the game.

Still cannot think of another western developed example. There's gotta be... yeah?
 
There is nothing wrong with the open world of the game. It seems to look old Japan like enough to impress people. And when even native Japanese people think that way then the Devs did a good job. Wrong armor and weapons is only a small drawback that most gamers would notice.

And although is historically wrong I am glad they did not use original armor. The original Kamakura area armors look quite lame. The later Sengoku Peroid stuff looks much more cooler.

And there is nothing wrong to look cool in the game. :cool:
 
It’s possible he thought the game design was interesting and he didn’t dwell so much on the game’s historical accuracy. It’s not like Shenmue is true to history either...
 
I haven't played GoT, though it looks like something I would eventually like to enjoy. But from what I've seen and read, it relies a bit more on Japanese history than Shenmue does on Japanese or Chinese history. I mean, you could take Shenmue and its characters and main story and drop it into the year 2000 or 2020 or 1965 and not much would change...Ghost Of Tsushima, however, seems to be based more on the real Mongol invasions of Japan, which locks a few more things in place with regards to weapons, armor, setting, etc.

I'm all for creative freedom, and I don't think a change of armor or something similar would destroy my potential enjoyment. But comparing GoT's and Shenmue's reliance on historical facts is like comparing Age Of Empires and Yakuza's reliance on historical facts.
 
As it should be. I did not agree with TLoU2 sweeping the Game Awards. I didn't agree much with many awards in general. For example, best ongoing game should've been Final Fantasy XIV, which continues to impress narratively and in design.

TLoU2 felt heavy handed and smelled of favoritism because it pushed "social issues", which is fine and great, but doesn't make it GoTY, imo, since the gameplay wasn't much different than the original, so how it won Best Action/Adventure over Ghost doesn't make any sense.

I thought TLOU2 was well designed(Graphics, sounds, enemy AI wasn't bad), but the story was no good for me. It's definitely the perfect game journalist kind of game. Linear, simple themes to digest. Pick it up 1 time, beat it in 20 or so ours, write a review, and then they can fuck off and do whatever they want with the rest of their week.
 

Looks like Yu Suzuki's game of the year is Ghost of Tsushima. It has one of the best overworlds/least intrusive way finding systems I've experienced in an open world game. I;m glad he's taken notice.
I liked the design of GoT too. They made open world treasure hunting actually fun for a change, and the combat progression system is easy to get into. It didn't feel like I had to wait too long to get into the good stuff. It didn't do anything really new(It has to be really hard for devs to innovate at this point, unless you have $ignificant backing), but it does a lot of things well. My only complaint was they could've cut some of the side missions. I'd rather less side missions, but they be more involved stories such as the missions with the Clan Sakai loyalists, rather than an overload of helping nameless peasants.
 
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