Phantom River Stone Blog

[Switch]

A recap of the Shenmue 3 news out of the MAGIC Monaco press conference, and of course mention of the two fantastic new images that were released at the same time.

https://www.phantomriverstone.com/2019/02/yu-suzuki-confirmed-for-magic-2019-two.html

 

[Switch]

Earlier in the year, I took the train down to Yokosuka and while I was there, stopped in at the Mikasa Cafe, which sits on the Yokosuka Highway, just around the corner from Dobuita Street.

https://www.phantomriverstone.com/2019/02/tornado-dog-at-mikasa-cafe-in-dobuita.html

 

[James Brown]

That hot dog photo has made me hungry about 5 times now after seeing it as many times across different platforms

 

[Switch]

That hot dog photo has made me hungry about 5 times now after seeing it as many times across different platforms

You mean this one?

 

[James Brown]

You mean this one?
View attachment 2002

Hey, where's the dislike button on these forums!

 

[Switch]

Three amazing new images from yesterday's MAGIC Monaco local press conference, and some interesting details within them.

https://www.phantomriverstone.com/2019/02/shenmue-iii-new-images-lan-di-ren-and.html

 

[Switch]

A previously-not-seen pic of Choubu shopping street was recently posted up on the Amazon Shenmue III page. We take a few moments to admire some if the details.
http://www.phantomriverstone.com/2019/02/shenmue-3-box-art-choubu-shopping.html

 

[Switch]

A Shenmue III T-shirt will be exclusively available at MAGIC 2019 on March 9th.
https://www.phantomriverstone.com/2019/03/exclusive-shenmue-iii-t-shirt-for-magic.html

 

[Switch]

A new illustration tweeted out by Yu Suzuki. This post explains more about the Doll Festival and the decorations shown.

http://www.phantomriverstone.com/2019/03/japans-doll-festival-with-shenmue-touch.html

 

[Switch]

A recap of the highlights from Yu Suzuki's talk on Shenmue 3 at MAGIC Monaco today, from live-tweet updates by @yuc02.

http://www.phantomriverstone.com/2019/03/yu-suzukis-shenmue-3-talk-highlights.html

 

[Switch]

Observations on the new "Ryo & Master" trailer for Shenmue 3, Part One: we hold our magnifying glass up to the first scene, where a bruised Ryo is taunted by a man with studded wristbands and gumboots.

http://www.phantomriverstone.com/2019/03/observations-on-ryo-master-shenmue-3.html

 

[Switch]

A mid-1990s photo of Yu Suzuki at the AM2 studio, with Steve Spielberg was Mark Cerny, who was not working at SEGA at the time but was accompanying Spielberg for another project.


Due to Spielberg's enthusiastic comments ("wonderful!") on being shown Virtua Fighter RPG, Shenmue's early form, apparently SEGA's CEO was put in such a good mood that he greenlit the start of full-on development.

https://www.phantomriverstone.com/2019/03/steven-spielbergs-reaction-to-virtua.html

 

[Let's Get Sweaty]

Since the game hadn't been fully greenlit yet, is there a chance that what they're all looking at in this photo is The Old Man & The Peach Tree?

 

[Switch]

Since the game hadn't been fully greenlit yet, is there a chance that what they're all looking at in this photo is The Old Man & The Peach Tree?

The article doesn't give details on exactly what they were shown, but timing-wise it would definitely be around that time period (from Yu's 2014 GDC talk, The Old Man & The Peach Tree was created in 1995, with work on VFRPG building off it from the following year).

I suspect the specific photo above shows a game not created by Yu Suzuki however, as one of the AM3 developers is playing it with the head of AM3 development standing behind.

 

[Switch]

The Virtua Fighter CG Portrait Series discs released for the Sega Saturn in 1995 contained amazing (especially for the time) high-res images of the characters. @James Brown has written this great post which highlights some interesting details in the images and potential links to the later Shenmue series of games.

https://www.phantomriverstone.com/2019/03/virtua-fighter-cg-portrait-series-guest.html

 

[Vivi-gamer]

Not being the biggest VF fan (Sorry!) this was very insightful! I haven't seen some of this content before and enjoyed the read thanks @James Brown for putting the time into it :)

 

[Switch]

Yu Suzuki's Shenmue III presentation at MAGIC 2019 with English captions.

Thank you to @Yokosuka for the question translations, Shenmue Master for the video footage and @David De ville for moderating at the event!


Written transcript:
http://www.phantomriverstone.com/2019/03/video-english-captions-yu-suzukis.html

 

[James Brown]

Not being the biggest VF fan (Sorry!) this was very insightful! I haven't seen some of this content before and enjoyed the read thanks @James Brown for putting the time into it :)

Thanks so much dude, glad you enjoyed it :)

 

[Switch]

Did you know...? Each week we publish "Shenmue Shorts", a brief weekly round-up of Shenmue-related news, including community highlights on our Patreon page.

Check out Shenmue Shorts for the week ending March 17th (public post):
https://www.patreon.com/posts/25468162

 

[Switch]

From playing Shenmue II, one might gain the impression that Joy is related to Master Chen, from certain conversations in which she refers to him as "Uncle Chen". But does she mean this literally?
http://www.phantomriverstone.com/2019/03/is-joy-related-to-master-chen.html