Revealed: Sega's cancelled Shenmue HD remake - with fully updated graphics (EuroGamer) Update 16/10 - Sega respond

MarvelousUnlawfulAegeancat-small.gif
 
Would it be reasonable to suggest that the leaked footage came from one of those laid off employees?

I doubt he would be willing to answer any questions such as this. It would expose his source.
 
I can't say anything about where this came from, obviously.
Totally understood.

Many thanks for sticking around and answering questions. It's very much appreciated.
 
Holy crap Sega !! what have you done :O just when things were finally simmering down after 17 years. This news should never have released. Sega should stuck it a crate and hidden it in Area 51 next to the Ark of the Covenant.

I dont believe in curses & all that stuff but this game is cursed. FACT!!!
I think it was likely leaked tbh but I'm guessing.

Anyway let's not beat around the bush it looked great but never got past concept. Why we will likely never know. I'm for one grateful we have Shenmue on modern formats but tinged with what could have been.

This footage is important and a key point in the history of this game but I'll always remember where we came from having zero Shenmue coming at all.
 
Yes, it's definitely bittersweet.

I'm so happy that we got a re-release of Shenmue at all, but looking at that footage and seeing what we could have had does sting a little bit.

I suppose in some ways that we're lucky they didn't just outright cancel a Shenmue revival after pulling the plug on this.
 
Now I really hope this re-release makes some decent money for SEGA so they don't forever see the franchise as a money pit. Honestly, the fact SEGA UK collapsed a few months after the launch does not feel good. Maybe they were on the chopping block for a while, who knows, but the timing stings nonetheless.

*Funny thing is, I bet if we did get this remake, loads of fans would've complained about it looking cheap, or not being faithful to the original. I'm a fan of preserving the original work.
 
Last edited:
Wan Chai looks amazing! Man Mo Temple in particluar. Holy crap this is so awesome!
 
if you look at the footage, all the NPCs are behaving as they do in the original game, they are not standing there in T-poses or walking around in random circles. I bet bottom dollar all the base code, functionality and game play for both games was done and then they started replacing all the assets. Perhaps at this point they realized what a mammoth task it was going to be to remodel and texture 100's of NPC's, locations etc and requested additional time and money that SEGA UK were unable to provide. You can tell the bulk of time was spent on game code; not assets. since most of them are placeholder clones taking the place of the original NPCs

...since all the base functionality was done they could quickly fall back on the original assets when it turned out they wouldn't be given the time and money required. that makes sense as its not like they could have started over from scratch and get the port out in less than a year.

*Funny thing is, I bet if we did get this remake, loads of fans would've complained about it looking cheap, or not being faithful to the original. I'm a fan of preserving the original work.

Bang on, That is exactly what would have happened. They would have said the new higher details models "look like a 2012 game" or some other similar bollocks and the game would have come off worse in people's eyes than the faithful port we actually got. It would literally take a Resident Evil 2 style level of remake to stop internet hyperbole blasting into orbit and that level of budget is simply unreasonable.
 
Last edited:
Now I really hope this re-release makes some decent money for SEGA so they don't forever see the franchise as a money pit. Honestly, the fact SEGA UK collapsed a few months after the launch does not feel good. Maybe they were on the chopping block for a while, who knows, but the timing stings nonetheless.

*Funny thing is, I bet if we did get this remake, loads of fans would've complained about it looking cheap, or not being faithful to the original. I'm a fan of preserving the original work.
Well, I've learned that they were indeed implementing a toggle button to allow you to switch between new and old graphics in real-time. Which would have been perfect.
 
Glad to see they considered doing this, but obviously very disappointing given the state of the port we got.
 
The poor performance has me thinking this is an upgraded version of the OG engines, i.e. it was not optimised at that point in development to properly take advantage of the newer graphical features on modern hardware.

From interviews with d3t they talked about the challenge of working on the Dreamcast code, which also lends credence to the theory that this is was built on top of the Dreamcast engine, as well as the animations being the same as @RiGoRmOrTiS also pointed out.

Well, I've learned that they were indeed implementing a toggle button to allow you to switch between new and old graphics in real-time. Which would have been perfect.

FAAAAAAK that would have been perfect indeed :'(

Well, at least we have the dedicated Shenmue mod community who have already done an impressive amount of work in the short time since the game's release. Just funny that between this and Kid Nocon's UE3/UE4 work, there's been two abortive attempts at remaking Shenmue, at least graphically.
 
Well, I've learned that they were indeed implementing a toggle button to allow you to switch between new and old graphics in real-time. Which would have been perfect.
It could have been the prefect remake. It really does say to me (personal opinion) that it came down to cost and style. Sega didn't go for it and D3T had to react to hit a release date. I feel for them. They got so much shit for all of this where actually they were trying to make something that would have blown our minds.

I don't think the Shenmue project would have made a difference to the Sega UK office going.
 
From interviews with d3t they talked about the challenge of working on the Dreamcast code, which also lends credence to the theory that this is was built on top of the Dreamcast engine, as well as the animations being the same as @RiGoRmOrTiS also pointed out.
Also worth noting - they were working on a new animation system that would have replaced all original in-game animations with a more advanced alternative. That wasn't yet finished when this video was made, unfortunately.
 
Also worth noting - they were working on a new animation system that would have replaced all original in-game animations with a more advanced alternative. That wasn't yet finished when this video was made, unfortunately.

.................

:'(

Is the code now the property of Sega Europe? I wonder if Shenmue III sells well enough that they may take another stab at a Shenmue I & II "Kiwami"?

Do you know if any audio upgrades were planned?
 
It hurts.........

Sega can you not mess up a Shenmue release for once??

you say that, but think about what gamers are like these days. They would just rail on the new models and environments and say they look like a game from 2012... It would literally take a massive Resident Evil 2 style remake to stop internet hyperbole grinding the game's release to dust. at least this way most people feel the game is a good "port" of the original game and are coming out with statements such as "I can't believe this game came out in 1999!"
 
Back
Top