New Yu Suzuki interviews from G-Fusion Tour in China

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Spaghetti

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Sep 21, 2018

A batch of Chinese interviews with Yu and Hiroaki Takeuchi have appeared. Going through them now with machine translation, but of course, it's liable to be inaccurate.

One interview in particular gives the most info about Shenmue III, but I've added details omitted from that interview that I found in the other articles. Here's what I've gleaned from the machine translated versions:


Chinese martial art Xing Yi Quan will be in the game, but not in Ryo's skill set.
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Yu describes the new combat as "very varied, richer, and more playable". Takeuchi-san elaborates that the goal is to create a combat system that welcomes players of different skill levels, and that a lot of consideration of design and balance went into making combat feel fun for all players. He finishes saying a lot of effort went into the combat. Yu's ambitions are to show a lifelike representation of Chinese martial arts.

Some mini-games from the original won't return, but there are new ones included that they feel are more interesting. Old mini-games confirmed to return are Lucky Hit, Excite QTE, capsule toys, and yes, forklifts.

Mini-games will hold greater impact and influence over the wider game because of better integration, and there will be surprises after playing for a while. Takeuchi-san is looking forward to player reactions on this aspect.

Yu's comments in 2017 about Shenmue III being a 70/30 split between old and new ideas has changed thanks to development advancing, and now stands at 50/50.

Side quests and the main story will have better integration, and form a better closed loop. A better translation might be able to elaborate on this, as machine translation threw up the word "branch" and might be related to Yu talking about quests that could have branching outcomes. Side quests will no longer be isolated from the main plot. This was apparently considered for the originals, but couldn't be achieved at the time.

Yu says Shenmue III is more of a hardcore game than the originals because of elements of playability and increased degree of freedom, it seems to be implied Shenmue III may take longer to complete than the originals (Yu says I & II are single week games, III is a multi-week game). Also seems to infer players can interact, or not interact, with content how they choose. Not completely clear on what this means.

Yu implies once the main story has wrapped up, there are other storylines to explore and systems to play. Sounds to go beyond just the mini-game and combat collection Shenmue II had once you cleared the game, and implies possibly being able to mop that extra content up without having to start a new save.
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Great find Spaghetti! Hopefully Switch can give a more accurate translation and the Shenmue 3 facts page can be updated with these new tidbits of information. Man everytime I hear new info I just get more and more excited for 3!
 
It would be amazing if it's longer than the first two games. Although I have always appreciated that the Shenmue games had a decent length and never outstayed their welcome, I wouldn't say no to a 'meatier' experience. Of course, either way, I will ensure my first playthrough is a leisurely one and I soak in the wonderful world I know Suzuki will have crafted.
 
Well, you just got me all kinds of excited. It certainly sounds like our fears about a pared down experience were not merited if any of this is accurate.
 
mjqjazzbar said:
Well, you just got me all kinds of excited. It certainly sounds like our fears about a pared down experience were not merited if any of this is accurate.
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Yep. I hope the machine translation pulled through and was at least accurate on the broader notes of what Yu had to say, but if it was... holy shit. I think they may have made something very special.
 
Tsukuyomimagi99 said:
Great find Spaghetti! Hopefully Switch can give a more accurate translation and the Shenmue 3 facts page can be updated with these new tidbits of information. Man everytime I hear new info I just get more and more excited for 3!
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Don't you worry, man - I'm on that shit like a hawk whenever new information surfaces :D
 
There was a Chinese fan on here a few weeks ago who did some translations if I'm not mistaken. Hopefully he's still kicking about and willing to provide a more in-depth translation.

If the machine translation is anything to go by though, this is all very exciting!
 
Certainly sounds very exciting & the game will be a natural progression in terms of how it plays from the originals.

August can't come quickly enough.
 
Post-game content? Oh hell yes! That's awesome!
Sounds like this game is going to consume me and my life. Cannot wait to see some gameplay.
 
Very exciting and thanks so much for posting this Spaghetti.

I guess this is what happens when Yu Suzuki is in charge of a long awaited third instalment of a game he knows so many people want and is given 4 years of development time and is not restricted by budget thanks to his funding sources and Deep Silver i.e. he could have created a masterpiece. I mean, longer and more in-depth than Shenmue 2? Holy shit.
 
This gives a very good insight into why the combat system hasn't been shown yet...it looks to be radically more immersive.

It also speaks volumes as to how much the scale of the game increased once Deep Silver invested. It really seems a lot more advanced. We will see for ourselves in two months or so.

I think the game will have come considerably farther along than when we last saw it.
 
Henry Spencer said:
Post-game content? Oh hell yes! That's awesome!
Sounds like this game is going to consume me and my life. Cannot wait to see some gameplay.
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Post-game content is my take on it, and maybe not the right phrasing on my part.

Here's the machine translated quote:

Suzuki Yu: [...] after the main line is cleared, other systems can still play. The main storyline in the open world is not the only one, there are many places to explore.
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It may just be mopping up the content players didn't see on their first run through the story, but it does seem to imply that you won't have to start a new game just to experience it once the main game is cleared.

Ghost_Messiah said:
Very exciting and thanks so much for posting this Spaghetti.

I guess this is what happens when Yu Suzuki is in charge of a long awaited third instalment of a game he knows so many people want and is given 4 years of development time and is not restricted by budget thanks to his funding sources and Deep Silver i.e. he could have created a masterpiece. I mean, longer and more in-depth than Shenmue 2? Holy shit.
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I don't want to get overly excited about this information, and especially without better translation, but when Yu talks about how they've improved the game design to intertwine the moving parts of the main story, side quests, mini-games, and the economic systems of the game world... I can't help but feel the hype.

Yu is a pretty modest man, but he sounds genuinely very proud of the work they've done.

"Shenmue" is an adventure game with a main story. In the adventure, different chapters will be interspersed. Different battles will be the same for this trunk game. However, the relationship between the first two games, the branch story and the main line of the game is not great. Although I wanted to strengthen the linkage between the branch line and the main line, it was not realized. Therefore, in "Shenmue 3", we hope to achieve stronger association.

For example, the martial arts cheats in the game, the small games like the gashapon and the entire economic system in the game are more closely linked and more integrated. In this respect, we have carried out a lot of design, which is much better than the previous two. Great progress.
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I really admire Yu Suzuki for his immense bravery. His decision to create a new combat system for Shenmue III didn’t go down too well with some fans but Yu Suzuki said something like if risks are not taken then progress is not made and the gaming industry becomes stagnant.

Despite there being pressure on him to deliver a great game, he is still prepared to effectively gamble with innovative ideas.

He’s not certain they will pay off, and he said as much, however, despite not having produced a major game in well over a decade he refuses to toe the line and reign in his innovative, trend-setting, trail-blazing side and is determined to break new ground with Shenmue III.

The hallmarks of the genius and bravery of Yu Suzuki are clearly evident in Shenmue I and Shenmue II; games which were truly ahead of their time. To know that Yu Suzuki is as bold as ever is incredibly inspiring and has certainly emboldened me to anticipate a game which I believe will once again capture the imagination of Shenmue fans and hopefully the wider gaming community.
 
Really hyped now. Glad to hear more and more new gameplay systems are being introduced, keen to see what Suzuki and co. have come up with for gamers in 2019. The Baisha "war games" segment mentioned way back during the Kickstarter campaign is what I'm most intrigued to finally get my hands on (apart from main combat, obviously :P ).
 
Peter said:
From what i know, combat was in testing and development this time last year, so that is a hell of a long time.
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"Some games take longer than others and some wines need to mature. I would say you need to give that game the care, attention and time to really come to its full potential." ~ Dr Klemens Kundratitz, CEO of Deep Silver, on Shenmue III.

2019 will be a delicious vintage indeed...
 
Even reading all of this, it still feels unreal. Shenmue 3 people, Shen freaking mue 3. I still can't believe it's real. We all did good. Thanks to Yu for pursuing the project, Sega for giving out the license to him, Sony for annoucing the game at e3 and giving the game exposure and of course, the fans for never giving up on this fight.
 
Trying not to get too excited before a better translation, but my faith in Yu for not using the VF engine I'm so fond of--yet making sure it was a proper evolution of simulation fighting--sounds like my trust is being rewarded...!
 
Suzuki Yu: [...] after the main line is cleared, other systems can still play. The main storyline in the open world is not the only one, there are many places to explore.

It seems that he's talking about sidequests and not postgame content. But who knows.
 
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