Random Shenmue III Thoughts

The big marketing push should definitely begin in May. Three months away from release seems like a good time to properly ramp things up. That said, I do expect a drip feed release of small amounts of info over the next couple of months. They need to show off gameplay really and frame something (doesn't have to be a trailer, maybe just a teaser) in a way that will help alleviate some people's fears. I'm talking about the people who saw that bizarre trailer at Magic and thought 'wtf?' (and I loved the trailer, for the record). Not everyone concerned with how Shenmue 3 looks is a troll or a hater. Some people have genuine concerns and I'm sure seeing the game in motion, even if it's just Ryo walking down a bustling street or a bit more of the combat should ease some of those concerns I believe.

I suggest a teaser or two in April and some more media exclusives with IGN or Eurogamer or whoever and then kick off an aggressive marketing campaign in May. Something like that.
 
Nigel said:
I've had a couple of random thoughts about III regarding that old chapter concept art image:
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  1. Though YS has vacillated on chapters and content included/cut, how many of these do you think we'll see in III? Given the hints at a somewhat condensed plot, I could see chs 3-6 if not 7 (given the characters shown), with IV covering the rest.
  2. Maybe I'm reading into it too much, but I'm wondering if something happens to Ren in this game (self-sacrifice, etc.) He's clearly in ch 3, but the last potential sighting is in the orange sphere in 6 (if that). Moreover, ch 11 only Shenhua and Xiuying with Ryo. It's not like I expected them to draw Ine-San and Wong in there, but it's curious that he drops off...
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if i remember correctly, Yu Suzuki said that chapter cards 1 and 2 are Shenmue 1 and 2
and then they attached the content of chapter card 5 into Shenmue 2.

we never saw chapter card 3 in any game because it started on a train.
so i guess Shenmue 3 will be chapter card 4 and 6 ... maybe 7 too?

theres no chance that Shenmue 3 will be the final game. i doubt that even Shenmue 4 will contain all the other cards.
 
As someone who does a bit of advertising on the side, you can literally target all gamers who have similar tastes in games like Shenmue and have it promoted to them all day long on facebook or other social media platforms, with a direct button to buy it there and then. All of it is super cheap aswell.

Its quite fascinating when you think about it. Highly targeted customers who are much more likely to buy your game rather than throwing a random ad on TV and hoping for the best.

The world has changed and i think taking advantage of these new systems in a smart and calculated way would do wonders for developers who are on a tight budget.
 
i think that Deep Silver will send a Shenmue 3 preview copy to IGN about 1-3 months before the release date.

Deep Silver is funding and publishing the RPG game "Outward" (made by only 10 people and a failed kickstarter project)
which comes out at the end of March this year
and IGN wrote a preview article and made a preview video about it 1,5 months ago.

Deep Silver also send a preview copy to a Youtuber called ESO
and that preview video has 500.000 clicks.

E3 2019 is in June right? so i wouldnt be surprised if it starts there.
new trailer, previews for IGN/Gamespot whatever, then preview codes for some Youtubers or Twitch people.

thats my bet right now.
 
Review copies/code don't go out 3 months early, and sometimes it's pretty exceptional that reviewers even have a whole month with a game either.
 
ShenSun said:
As someone who does a bit of advertising on the side, you can literally target all gamers who have similar tastes in games like Shenmue and have it promoted to them all day long on facebook or other social media platforms, with a direct button to buy it there and then. All of it is super cheap aswell.

Its quite fascinating when you think about it. Highly targeted customers who are much more likely to buy your game rather than throwing a random ad on TV and hoping for the best.

The world has changed and i think taking advantage of these new systems in a smart and calculated way would do wonders for developers who are on a tight budget.
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Agreed.

So then I suppose if you're pushing stuff on social media and YouTube do you need games conventions? They certainly don't carry the impact that they used to.

It's an interesting scenario but if they did both that would surely have the biggest impact. Obviously within a budget of course.
 
Reprise said:
I think he means preview copies, rather than a full version of the game for review.
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That doesn't really happen either. Maybe for smaller games only published digitally, games with a multiplayer focus, etc.

Previews are usually done at events/meetings organised by the publisher. Sometimes the developers will visit outlets instead, but generally it's about controlling the playing environment and controlling access to the code, lest you need a developer on-hand to activate debug features if the game locks up, or because of the threat of code leaking or being lost if not strictly kept under watch.
 
Tosh said:
if i remember correctly, Yu Suzuki said that chapter cards 1 and 2 are Shenmue 1 and 2
and then they attached the content of chapter card 5 into Shenmue 2.

we never saw chapter card 3 in any game because it started on a train.
so i guess Shenmue 3 will be chapter card 4 and 6 ... maybe 7 too?

theres no chance that Shenmue 3 will be the final game. i doubt that even Shenmue 4 will contain all the other cards.
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That makes a lot of sense, good call; I'd never have noticed those train wheels in the 3rd. I agree that IV will likely include and end (let's be realistic) with the remaining cards in a condensed format. In an odd sense, they seem more drawn out.
 
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Shenmue IV could plausibly have the remaining cards--if Shen3 is 4/6/7. In the case of Shenmue III being 4/6, then it either will only end with Shen4 with a gigantic budget and/or cutting down other cards like Suzuki did with #3. But, all other cards seem so much more epic. The third concept art might've not had too much to do gameplay-wise or plotline content. Before seeing the post mortem, the ending at Kowloon felt 100% natural.

Then again, perhaps Yu simply will be changing order, rathern than truncating to eliminating entire chapters? Already skipped over to #5 for Shenhua and Guilin's introduction... didn't he mention something about lost chapters in his China tour? Did he limit his answers to only specify the boatride from Japan or did we collectively presume as such?
 
These cards are interesting stuff. They are completely new to me. How old are these cards? Are they still from the Project Berkley days there are a subject to change for sure. Mabye Yu-San had some new ideas in the meantime. But they are still very nice to show in which direction the story could evolve.
 
i think Suzuki said in old interviews that the chapter concepts are not exactly the chapters we will play in the games.
they were only made to get a better overall feeling and a better overview for the developer.
its how everything looked at the start when Shenmue was created.
but they can and will change or re arrange chapters to get the best combination for the best experience.
Suzuki took some parts of card 5 and 6 and placed them in Shenmue 2. (meeting Shenhua)

so maybe Shenmue 3 has the content of three of those cards, maybe just one.
in a lot of the interviews with Suzuki from 2015, 016, 017,
he said that he cant let it end with Shenmue 3 because with Shenmue 2 we only saw the beginning of the adventure
and it wouldnt feel right to enforce the story just to get to the ending as quick as possible.

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Storywise...not exactly.

Shenmue 1 = Chapter 1 Yokosuka
Shenmue 2 = 80% of chapter 2 Hong Kong, parts of Chapter 4 Shanghai (might be the tournaments) and parts (20% ?) of Chapter 5 Guilin.
Shenmue 3 = chapter 5 & 6 Guilin.

So Shenmue 4 & 5 will have 5 chapters to cover.
 
Tosh said:
i think Suzuki said in old interviews that the chapter concepts are not exactly the chapters we will play in the games.
they were only made to get a better overall feeling and a better overview for the developer.
its how everything looked at the start when Shenmue was created.
but they can and will change or re arrange chapters to get the best combination for the best experience.
Suzuki took some parts of card 5 and 6 and placed them in Shenmue 2. (meeting Shenhua)

so maybe Shenmue 3 has the content of three of those cards, maybe just one.
in a lot of the interviews with Suzuki from 2015, 016, 017,
he said that he cant let it end with Shenmue 3 because with Shenmue 2 we only saw the beginning of the adventure
and it wouldnt feel right to enforce the story just to get to the ending as quick as possible.

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But I was looking forward to waiting on a platform for a forty-minute-late Guilin Rail™ train :(
 
Daidj said:
Shenmue 1 = Chapter 1 Yokosuka
Shenmue 2 = 80% of chapter 2 Hong Kong, parts of Chapter 4 Shanghai (might be the tournaments) and parts (20% ?) of Chapter 5 Guilin.
Shenmue 3 = chapter 5 & 6 Guilin.

So Shenmue 4 & 5 will have 5 chapters to cover.
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That is just your interpretation of it though. Technically Shenmue 2 ended partway into the Guilin chapter so it's also considered part of Shenmue 3. Doesn't the 7th card resemble Baisha whereas the 6th resemble Niaowu?

Also remember that the chapters have changed multiple times and have had different numberings. (E.g. Ryo's notebook in Shenmue 2 explicitly numbers Hong Kong as 2, Kowloon as 3, and Guilin as 4) These cards also give no representation to the "boat chapter" which may have been thought of after 1996. It's also plausible that content planned for the "boat chapter" may have been adapted from the cut train chapter, thus we could potentially be getting the 3rd card as well.

My only point here is that the story has been shuffled multiple times and so has the numbering, so use caution when trying to specify chapter numbers. It was even shown in 2017 that the numbering from Ryo's journal in 2 might have been forgotten or ignored, since the Japanese title screen for Shenmue 3 says "Chapter 3" on it.
 
I've heard it mentioned that Shenmue 3 will only cover material from Chapters 5 and 6. But consider this quote from the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter page:

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Source: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ysnet/shenmue-3/posts/1433395

So since the story will progress "past Chapter 6", the game will also be adapting material from later chapters as well. As has been mentioned, the 7th card resembles Baisha quite a bit considering what we know.

So Shenmue 3 could look like:

Chapter 5 (2nd half): Bailu Village
Chapter 6: Choubu/Niaowu
Chapter 7: Baisha

Leaving only Chapters 8, 9, 10 & 11 to then be covered by Shenmue 4.
 
Yeha, to calrify, I understand the cards are very early concept and both those and the later numberings have eben revised and seem to be internal useage with AM2/YSnet. My point still stands though, how I think it could concievably end with 4th game, but would prefer Shenmue 5.

Also, never caught the title screen post on Phantom River Stone. Quite like the decision to harken back to "Chapter 1" subtitle of Shenmue for Shenmue 3, at least for public.
 
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