Izumi Takano Was Once Considered for Ryo's Love Interest

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Shenmue analysis at www.phantomriverstone.com
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Really interesting that she had a Passport profile headshot! I wonder how late into development the decision was made to change it...come to think of it, we don’t see Nozomi at all in that Shenmue Saturn footage, do we? I only just realised that
 
Really interesting that she had a Passport profile headshot! I wonder how late into development the decision was made to change it...come to think of it, we don’t see Nozomi at all in that Shenmue Saturn footage, do we? I only just realised that
That's true. Actually it's hard to find any footage of Nozomi even leading up to the DC release, for example I didn't see her in the digest video of the Shenmue Premiere event (end of 1998) or the NHK documentary that aired in mid-1999.
 
The same with Joy and Fangmei. They didn't appear in any Saturn or Dreamcast beta footage, even when they showed the scenes where they ended up being (like the Yellowhead building rooftop one, with Dou Niu holding Wong but no Joy in sight).

They were, probably, afterthoughts to the main story, added to fulfill some roles.
 
That was an interesting read. Thanks a lot for sharing it.:)

It makes sense though, as stated above already the final version o Nozomi seems to be rather new charakter. I have never seen her in older footage of the game.

The only female characters I can recall that where there from the beginning were Xiuying and Shenhua. They were featured in the first Project Berkely Trailer already.
 
That was an interesting read. Thanks a lot for sharing it.:)

It makes sense though, as stated above already the final version o Nozomi seems to be rather new charakter. I have never seen her in older footage of the game.

The only female characters I can recall that where there from the beginning were Xiuying and Shenhua. They were featured in the first Project Berkely Trailer already.
I'd add Niao Sun, which was in the postmortem illustrations, and while was not on Project Berkeley videos, she did in early Dreamcast betas.
 
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I wonder if she was always going to be a secretly amazing fighter or if that was made up for 2. I get a feeling it's "no", but I think the idea of Ryo's girlfriend being secretly able to beat his ass any day at any time is a fun one.

...and looking at the article it seems it was for the design and not her actual character. Welp. I'm just going to pretend there's a fanfic AU where that is the case. If Ryo had brought her along the Ryo gang probably would've had a far easier time at Kowloon.
 
Stuff like this is so amazing, I hope there are further little discoveries like this that come up again!
 
Great update and interesting insight into development of Shenmue. Wondering what other changes were a foot during development.
 
I love these behind the scene kind of details. Adds new perspective to the characters when meeting them again in a new replay.

Me too. It is really fascinating to follow the development of Shenmue step by step. There are so many nice things to discover.
 
Wow, amazing research Switch! To think that, had things gone differently, Nozomi either wouldn’t have been a thing or would have been reduced to a minor character. I wonder just how many things are yet to be discovered, Shenmue really is the gift that keeps on giving.
 
So if you want to play the authentic version of Shenmue 1&2, the solution is whispered by the OP itself: Switch the models with a mod.
 
Knew she was, in another thread I said she would be such a match for Ryo.

It's a shame she went to Hong Kong after What's Shenmue, she might have helped Ryo after his dad's death
 
Knew she was, in another thread I said she would be such a match for Ryo.

It's a shame she went to Hong Kong after What's Shenmue, she might have helped Ryo after his dad's death
But it was better she did as we got duck races and all.
 
Notice her Jacket mostly makes her a Female version of Ryo.
While Ryo wears normal jeans and shoes she wears a normal skirt and shoes.
 
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