Random Shenmue Anime Thoughts

ShenSun said:
Always worth remembering that suzuki made them a fortune and then some with virtua fighter 4.
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Exactly, plus everything else prior to Shenmue also made them zillions... always loved an answer he once gave an interview but his overall career never losing money and long after leaving they still used his assets (probably animation and 3D modeling assets since he basically invented everything)
 
Yeah, a single game can't sink a company. IF it can, that company was doomed before the game came into the picture. Many folks say the Dreamcast, even if it'd miraculously sold 5 times as much, couldn't have saved Sega.
 
I also wonder if it wasn’t so much Shenmue’s failure to sell the number of units anticipated but everything that came afterwards. I know it’s typical in Japanese hierarchy to give senior members honorary positions but for a period with Digitalrex and Shenmue Online it sounds like he was given certain latitude to create at one point.

I actually think the whole chapter with Shenmue Online is what really soured Sega on the franchise. I remember reading a report not to long ago that it cost almost 30 million dollars, and involved a lawsuit and I really think after that project failed Sega had no intentions on ever revisiting or talking about franchise again until success of KS. I do find it curious even until this day Suzuki seems unwilling or it’s a touchy subject to discuss Shenmue Online.
 
code l name said:
I also wonder if it wasn’t so much Shenmue’s failure to sell the number of units anticipated but everything that came afterwards. I know it’s typical in Japanese hierarchy to give senior members honorary positions but for a period with Digitalrex and Shenmue Online it sounds like he was given certain latitude to create at one point.

I actually think the whole chapter with Shenmue Online is what really soured Sega on the franchise. I remember reading a report not to long ago that it cost almost 30 million dollars, and involved a lawsuit and I really think after that project failed Sega had no intentions on ever revisiting or talking about franchise again until success of KS. I do find it curious even until this day Suzuki seems unwilling or it’s a touchy subject to discuss Shenmue Online.
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I've always wondered who, fatefully, had the idea for Shenmue Online. I get the thought behind it but literally no one in the key fanbase wanted it.

So that went down the drain, whereas at least Shenmue 3, back then, could have recouped some costs.
 
spud1897 said:
I've always wondered who, fatefully, had the idea for Shenmue Online. I get the thought behind it but literally no one in the key fanbase wanted it.

So that went down the drain, whereas at least Shenmue 3, back then, could have recouped some costs.
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I am doubtful you could get an answer, but perhaps a question you can slip in if you ever get a chance to interview Suzuki ;)

We know Suzuki is always interested in technology and new ways players can interface with one another (touch screen, VR ect.) I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if he noticed the swelling popularity of MMORPG at the time and thought this could be one way to revive Shenmue series. Or someone came to him with idea and they thought Shenmue property could be a potential fit given all the research, assets and music was created. I would love to know the full story one day...
 
Think part of the mess with Shenmue Online is that a development partner dropped out/went bust, and there was a management change at SEGA that went quite like most other major management changes at companies where they sweep away projects started by predecessors.

For what it's worth? Shenmue Online looked interesting and sophisticated considering at the time vanilla World of Warcraft was a contemporary. At the time it was clearly not what fans wanted, but now I can't help but be intrigued by such a weird project.
 
Spaghetti said:
Think part of the mess with Shenmue Online is that a development partner dropped out/went bust, and there was a management change at SEGA that went quite like most other major management changes at companies where they sweep away projects started by predecessors.

For what it's worth? Shenmue Online looked interesting and sophisticated considering at the time vanilla World of Warcraft was a contemporary. At the time it was clearly not what fans wanted, but now I can't help but be intrigued by such a weird project.
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You are referring to JC Entertainment? From the Wiki entry it just says they pulled out and because they owned 50% of the rights to the game Sega had to wade into the legal battle before they brought on new Taiwanese party before game was canceled.

I never got into the genre but from what I read I also wonder what kind of community the game could have conjured. Maybe similar to Matrix Online where lore from the creators and major events were peppered through the experience? For a game that’s really been a struggle since it’s initial conception, whether it be Shenmue online, the canceled remake, there’s a lot of alternative/hypothetical situations the series could have found itself in.
 
There was a beta, but only in South Korea and maybe China. There are screenshots and even old message board posts about it on the official site from way back when.

Also, JCE came to SEGA. and pitched Shenmue Online...said they wanted Shenmue and nothing else.
 
I really liked the look of the JCE build during early days when they were showing off running around Aberdeen and Guilin.

I didnt mind Shenmue Online--was disappointed not being Shenmue 3, but i'd take anything back then and now. My ideal Shenmue Online wasn't a WoW clone, but simply the same mundane gameplay except the NPCs are actually MMO humans you can ask for clues or chat, play Darts versus or spar, etc. Be quite the find if one of the Betas was archived and leaked.
 
RetroLord120 said:
Maybe I should post about the beta test for shenmue online on the lost media wiki forums lol, those guys have been able to dig up so many things on lost stuff
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Well worth a go. That thing is amongst the holy grail of lost Shenmue history along with the Saturn version
 
24Nathan said:
There was a beta, but only in South Korea and maybe China. There are screenshots and even old message board posts about it on the official site from way back when.

Also, JCE came to SEGA. and pitched Shenmue Online...said they wanted Shenmue and nothing else.
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Interesting! Can you cite where you got that last piece of information from? Just curious.
 
code l name said:
Interesting! Can you cite where you got that last piece of information from? Just curious.
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Just moved so I don't have access to my laptop at the moment, or else I could find it easily. But the old Dojo preview had it, and I think it came from a translation of the news breaking in August 2004 in Japanese media.
 
Yeah, if you do a bit of digging there's a whole bunch of interesting Shenmue Online stuff you can find. I've always thought the launcher screenshot was pretty cool:

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Unlike Shenmue Saturn, I don't think that it's outside the realm of possibility that a build of Shenmue Online's client eventually surfaces - there just hasn't really been that much of a co-ordinated search effort as far as I'm aware.
 
xatruio said:
....

Should we start a #SaveShenmueOnline campaign!?
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Genuinely, I think a dedicated search effort could have the potential to yield some actual results.But I feel it would have to be more co-ordinated and focussed rather than widespread. The client is out there somewhere, that much is fact. It's just a case of tracking down the few people who got the chance to try it and asking them if they still have the files.

It reminds me of a story that broke recently about how a lost build of Minecraft that was only available to download for 3 hours in 2010 was rediscovered on somebody's old hard-drive. The team looking for it found an old tweet of his about 'playing the new Minecraft update' which was posted within that 3 hour window. They contacted him and it turns out that it was indeed the lost version he was talking about, and he still had a copy of it: https://www.pcgamesn.com/minecraft/lost-alpha-1-1-1

Obviously in this instance there are other things to consider like language barriers (given the location of the beta test was China and/or Korea if I recall) and the fact that a greater amount of time has passed. But if the right people were dedicated enough, I feel like something could be found eventually.
 
ShenmueTree said:
I'm just wondering where they're gonna shove the unnecessary bikini/hotspring scene that's infested its way into almost all modern Anime.
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Tom: I hear Nozomi had a run in with the guys in black suits.
Ryo: Black suits?
Tom: Yeah. Maybe you should ask her?
Ryo: Alright, I will.

EXT - Flower shop

Ryo: Excuse Me
Nozomi's Grandmother: Yes?
Ryo: I'm looking for Nozomi.
Nozomi's GM: Yes, yes, Nozomi is always talking about you.
Ryo: I see. -pregnant pause-
Ryo: Do you know where she is?
Nozomi's GM: Why yes. Didn't you know that just yesterday a brand new hot spring was installed and that Nozomi happens to be there right now and desperately needs to talk to you and it simply cannot wait?
Ryo: I see.
 
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