Phantom River Stone Blog

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A new blog post has gone up: it's the start of a new series about the research trip Yu Suzuki made to China back in 1993. This is quite a fascinating topic because as we know it formed the basis of the story for his "Virtua Fighter RPG" which then became Shenmue.

While Yu Suzuki himself has shared some pictures of the trip in the past, notably at the GDC 2014 presentation, there is a lack of detailed English information about his trip, which is not surprising given that it was carried out well before the internet came about. However, there is information floating about in Japanese, just waiting to be translated.

In this first part, I have translated some blog posts by the person who accompanied Yu on the trip, a man by the name of Kazunari Uchida. Remarkably, he wrote it just a few years ago in 2015, to commemorate the launch of the Kickstarter for Shenmue III.

Not only that, but as he mentions in his post, back in 1994 Uchida also wrote a series of diary-style articles about the trip which were published across several issues of a Japanese gaming magazine. I was able to track these down, so in future parts we'll be translating these too - hopefully they will contain some new information and photos of a young Yu Suzuki in China that are rarely seen.

Hope you enjoy it!
http://www.phantomriverstone.com/2018/08/new-series-yu-suzukis-1993-research.html
 
With the release of Shenmue I & II, it seems good timing for the start of our new "post playback" series (on FB & Twitter) to highlight some of the early posts from the blog and introduce newcomers to some of the realism and quirky details on the series - especially for Shenmue I.

Here are the ones we have covered in the past few days:
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http://www.phantomriverstone.com/2016/09/shenmue-realism-outdoor-washing-machines.html

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http://www.phantomriverstone.com/2016/09/the-cryptic-notes-in-fukuhara-sans-room.html

title-playback.jpghttp://www.phantomriverstone.com/2016/09/unnatural-utterances-at-tomato.html
 
Yu Suzuki's games have always been more than just technical marvels; they also have strong artistic direction.

These are words shared by Yu yesterday at the CEDEC 2018 presentation ceremony, about his vision for games. He was presented with the Special Award in recognition of his pioneering and revolutionary contributions to the game industry.

Blog post:
https://www.phantomriverstone.com/2018/08/yu-suzuki-accepts-special-award-at.html

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Ryo's line to the punks at the harbor is one of his most memorable, but have you ever been curious about how is sounds in its original Japanese form? Just as cheesy, or not so much? This is the question we set out to answer in our translation analysis.

It turns out to be fairly close (aprt from a slight mistranslation) but it definitely has a different "feel" in Japanese.

https://www.phantomriverstone.com/2018/08/dont-you-know-that-blackmail-is-waaaay.html
 
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The good old line: "Especially since you bought merchandise". I made mention of this article in the opening post to this thread, but thought I'd point it out for any Dojo newcomers.

This post from earlier days was one of my favorites to write, because the words can seem so perplexing unless you are aware of the original Japanese sentence behind them. Then it makes a lot more sense!

http://www.phantomriverstone.com/2016/10/especially-since-you-bought-merchandise.html
 
Here is the first part of our analysis of the latest Shenmue III trailer (the one announcing the 2019 release date). It was a fairly short trailer but with a lot of new content, so this will be split over three parts.

Topics covered in the first part include: the music track, river fishing scene, buildings at the wharf, the bamboo rafts and what looks to be a large set of stairs on the hillside.

Blog post:
https://www.phantomriverstone.com/2018/09/shenmue-iii-trailer-prophecy-dissection.html

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On Saturday, September 22nd, I joined the flood of eager game fans attending the first Public Day of the 2018 Tokyo Game Show. Information about the event in the days leading up to it indicated an exciting amount of Shenmue-related content, including a panel discussion, SEGA merchandise including a new official Shenmue T-shirt, and a hands-on play area at the SEGA booth for Shenmue I & II. Yu Suzuki himself had even made a surprise on-stage appearance during the Business Days.

This is a report on everything Shenmue I encountered on my visit.
https://www.phantomriverstone.com/2018/10/shenmue-at-tgs-2018-event-visit-report.html

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Hi everyone, to promote Phantom River Stone's Patreon, I'm giving away a Shenmue Sacred Spot Guide map to one lucky patron. Plus of course you'll get all the usual Patreon rewards such as weekly Shenmue news summaries, early access and more (depending on the tier you choose)..

Help support the blog (from just $1, cheaper than a can of grape Fruda) and be in with a chance to win the map at some pretty good odds!

To be in the draw, just join as a patron. Entry period closes October 31st.
www.patreon.com/phantomriverstone

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Shenmue I naturally weaves many facets of Japanese culture into the game, such as the way Ryo takes off his shoes indoors, or the different types of period telephones that Ryo can use around the area.

This two-part set of posts looks at another example of Shenmue I's faithful recreation of Japanese culture within the game: the Buddhist altar that can be seen in the Hazuki Residence.

Part One: https://www.phantomriverstone.com/2018/11/the-hazuki-family-altar-part-one.html
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Part Two: https://www.phantomriverstone.com/2018/11/the-hazuki-family-altar-part-two.html
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I'll echo the above. Always great posts Switch. Keep up the amazing work
 
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