Shenmue Dojo Interviews: Esra Krabbe

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Next in our series of Shenmue Dojo Interviews we sit down with IGN Japan journalist and Shenmue fanatic Esra Krabbe! We go through Esra's early days in gaming, discuss how Shenmue LITERALLY inspired his entire life and career path & hopes for Shenmue 4 and the series going forward.



Follow Esra here:
 
Managed to listen to this earlier today. Fantastic interview as usual, loved the enthusiasm and clearly love of the franchise Esra has. A couple of stray observations-

- He seems to reiterate that budget from his original interview was 20 million dollars. Development these days isn’t cheap!

- His story of his real life experience visiting Guilin and the magnet was heart warming. It mirrors a lot of my experience living in China in the 90’s and how inquisitive folks were of foreigners especially in the more rural parts of the country

- He references Life is Strange and David Cage titles as possible blueprints of how Suzuki could build a potential Shenmue 4. A much more self contained experience going from various story beats as he thinks open world with level of production required isn’t sustainable

On that note and again it should be stressed I’m paraphrasing and it’s speculation on Esra’s part but since he seems to have developed a relationship with Suzuki I think his opinion is pretty qualified.

He mentioned given Suzuki’s arcade roots his interest is on game systems and creating technically interesting products. He said based on his discussions there may be a disconnect between what fans want, i.e. conclusion to the story, satisfying answers and resolutions to the games various story threads and he feels Suzuki may not necessarily place same level of importance. Rather he is interested in building revolutionary game and game systems. Thinks based on Shenmue 3’s sales and critical reception it will be difficult to get budget and team to satisfy modern players along with core fans.

I know Suzuki’s impulse is to build and create but I hope Shenmue 4 is a iteration of the systems of 3 because I think a lot of resources and time can be saved rather than starting from scratch. Lots to speculate and discuss in the coming months...
 
Managed to listen to this earlier today. Fantastic interview as usual, loved the enthusiasm and clearly love of the franchise Esra has. A couple of stray observations-

- He seems to reiterate that budget from his original interview was 20 million dollars. Development these days isn’t cheap!

- His story of his real life experience visiting Guilin and the magnet was heart warming. It mirrors a lot of my experience living in China in the 90’s and how inquisitive folks were of foreigners especially in the more rural parts of the country

- He references Life is Strange and David Cage titles as possible blueprints of how Suzuki could build a potential Shenmue 4. A much more self contained experience going from various story beats as he thinks open world with level of production required isn’t sustainable

On that note and again it should be stressed I’m paraphrasing and it’s speculation on Esra’s part but since he seems to have developed a relationship with Suzuki I think his opinion is pretty qualified.

He mentioned given Suzuki’s arcade roots his interest is on game systems and creating technically interesting products. He said based on his discussions there may be a disconnect between what fans want, i.e. conclusion to the story, satisfying answers and resolutions to the games various story threads and he feels Suzuki may not necessarily place same level of importance. Rather he is interested in building revolutionary game and game systems. Thinks based on Shenmue 3’s sales and critical reception it will be difficult to get budget and team to satisfy modern players along with core fans.

I know Suzuki’s impulse is to build and create but I hope Shenmue 4 is a iteration of the systems of 3 because I think a lot of resources and time can be saved rather than starting from scratch. Lots to speculate and discuss in the coming months...
Hello, thanks for listening as always.

You've summed things up perfectly in terms of the content and it does raise some difficult points.

My concern on a personal level is that YS wants to start again and make a revolutionary game with Shenmue 4 but we all know the budget is likely to be prohibitive in doing so. YS played a huge role in shaping the industry today but now, IMO, isn't the time to start again and trailblaze.

Shenmue 3 has a perfectly decent core and I suspect this has been lost amid some fierce criticism from some parts. All they need to do, for me anyway, is the following:
  • Remove or make the stamina system less invasive.
  • Add throws to the fighting engine and tighten it up.
  • Add some modern quality of life improvements.
  • Remove the double paywalls.
  • Focus in on the story (Critical for me).
I'd be more than happy for there to be one supremely detailed play area for Shenmue 4 and a boss area (Yellowhead style) in order to give that densely detailed feel while giving the story the air to breathe. I think that could work while maximising their budgets.

My next point is one I've shared with staff but not here but one I think we'd all agree on. If they don't really give a good story for Shenmue 4 then we're in trouble for the story continuing in game format. Shenmue 3 divided the fanbase, though i do think there's more out there that liked it than didn't but there's one thing we all agree on and that's the story in 3 was weak. I'm not sure that the series would survive that again.

This is why I'm really really keen that they use what they have and refine it. Focus in on that story and polish the systems and you'd be onto a winner. If Shenmue 4 becomes what Shenmue 2 did in terms of refinement and story telling, or as close to, then we'd catch the wind in our sails and move onto a 5th game.

The community is rock solid as the moment. Tweetathons moving well and we've the Anime to come. I'm fully behind YSNET and the vision because it is their creation but I'd be lying if I said there weren't concerns about how we move forward. Hopefully we can look at this when Shenmue 4 is released and wonder what I was worried about haha.

#LetsGetShenmue4
 
I'm a little confused. In Esra's previous interview, Yu says this about Shenmue 4:

1620546492239.png

I took that to mean that Shenmue 4 would go all-out with the main story and solve all the mysteries, but Esra is here saying that he felt from that same interview that the story might not be as important to Yu as it is to us. Of course, Esra knows Yu on a more personal level so I wonder if he means that Yu feels he must now resolve the story reluctantly, but in a perfect world would prefer to continue with a dozen more technically impressive Shenmue games with the same kind of story progression as Shenmue 3.

I would like to see Yu make more industry-changing, technically impressive games that are designed from the start as being more appealing to larger audiences (perhaps that's the fantasy/pirate game concept he has). I don't think that game is Shenmue 4 though. Ever since Shenmue 1 captured lightning in a bottle by changing the industry (i.e. open-world, QTEs, cinematic presentation, NPC routines) I feel that the series has now achieved everything it realistically can. All that can be done with it now is to close its story for the fans. Then you could launch a new trailblazer that tries some radically inventive ideas which just aren't possible to communicate right now given the type of game that Shenmue is.
I'd be more than happy for there to be one supremely detailed play area for Shenmue 4 and a boss area (Yellowhead style) in order to give that densely detailed feel while giving the story the air to breathe. I think that could work while maximising their budgets.
Baisha village + the Warring Kingdoms final boss area would be perfect for this. They could grab the early Shenmue 3 build which is already partially designed. It's also convenient that Baisha was going to be both a mountain village and a Chi You Men domain - so it perfectly meets the description for the next area we're heading to in the story.
 
I'm a little confused. In Esra's previous interview, Yu says this about Shenmue 4:

View attachment 11313

I took that to mean that Shenmue 4 would go all-out with the main story and solve all the mysteries, but Esra is here saying that he felt from that same interview that the story might not be as important to Yu as it is to us. Of course, Esra knows Yu on a more personal level so I wonder if he means that Yu feels he must now resolve the story reluctantly, but in a perfect world would prefer to continue with a dozen more technically impressive Shenmue games with the same kind of story progression as Shenmue 3.

I would like to see Yu make more industry-changing, technically impressive games that are designed from the start as being more appealing to larger audiences (perhaps that's the fantasy/pirate game concept he has). I don't think that game is Shenmue 4 though. Ever since Shenmue 1 captured lightning in a bottle by changing the industry (i.e. open-world, QTEs, cinematic presentation, NPC routines) I feel that the series has now achieved everything it realistically can. All that can be done with it now is to close its story for the fans. Then you could launch a new trailblazer that tries some radically inventive ideas which just aren't possible to communicate right now given the type of game that Shenmue is.

Baisha village + the Warring Kingdoms final boss area would be perfect for this. They could grab the early Shenmue 3 build which is already partially designed. It's also convenient that Baisha was going to be both a mountain village and a Chi You Men domain - so it perfectly meets the description for the next area we're heading to in the story.
I'm hoping that's what the take-away from this is. That YS knows he can't push the boundaries like they did with Shenmue 1 and 2 & that it is better to take advantage of what they have. Improved, of course, so that they can really hone in on the story aspects.

We shall see.
 
I'm a little confused. In Esra's previous interview, Yu says this about Shenmue 4:

View attachment 11313

I took that to mean that Shenmue 4 would go all-out with the main story and solve all the mysteries, but Esra is here saying that he felt from that same interview that the story might not be as important to Yu as it is to us. Of course, Esra knows Yu on a more personal level so I wonder if he means that Yu feels he must now resolve the story reluctantly, but in a perfect world would prefer to continue with a dozen more technically impressive Shenmue games with the same kind of story progression as Shenmue 3.
I could be wrong but I interpreted Esra’s answer not to necessarily come from his interview but from his personal discussion prior and subsequent to the launch of Shenmue 3. I think he mentioned they would get diner once or twice a year and I think from those discussions it appeared to him Suzuki was more interested in game systems and innovating in that space than purely finish Shenmue’s narrative.

That’s just my take.
 
I could be wrong but I interpreted Esra’s answer not to necessarily come from his interview but from his personal discussion prior and subsequent to the launch of Shenmue 3. I think he mentioned they would get diner once or twice a year and I think from those discussions it appeared to him Suzuki was more interested in game systems and innovating in that space than purely finish Shenmue’s narrative.

That’s just my take.
Which, to me, is not surprising at all. All of the pre-release coverage -- even the Kickstarter stuff -- was focused around gameplay systems. Move scrolls, manual/auto fighting, warring factions, character perspective, the economy, open world, etc. You can tell interesting systems is what Yu cares about most. However, I think post-S3, now he truly understands the importance of providing more story, and will look to create a better balance, even if it isn't his personal focus.
 
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