Tomboz's Shenmue Fan Marketing Video Ideas and Coordination
- Thread starter spud1897
- Start date
Kyo_JP
Today is a Diamond
- Joined
- Jul 28, 2018
- Location
- Madrid, Spain
- Favourite title
- Shenmue
- Currently playing
- Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown
- PSN
- ElBidimensional
When do we need the transalation stuff? I am back to work so I have all august to do that
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2018
Right now I’m still waiting on recordings from people. I’ve received some nice ones, but am still some way off the 20 I was hoping to receive. A few people have let me know that they’ll be doing them over the next week or so, but until we have all of the recordings it is difficult to progress much further.
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2018
Yes. The more the merrier. Still a lot fewer than I had been hoping for.
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2018
Project Update: 2
I’m excited to announce that Corey Martial will hopefully be providing narration for the videos and has asked me to email over scripts for the project.
I’ve told him that they should be with him by the weekend and so if anybody has any constructive criticism of the scripts that I have posted, now is the time to share it.
The script for the third video can be found in a previous post and I will be posting a script for the second video as well as intros and outros for the remaining two videos tomorrow if I have time.
With any luck, Corey’s involvement will increase the chances of Yu Suzuki agreeing to be interviewed to discuss the future of the series for the fourth video (the future of Shenmue) when I eventually get around to contacting him (I’ve been delaying doing so until I heard back from CM).
To those who have already sent over their recordings, a big thank you and to those of you who are yet to do so, please get them over ASAP. We’re still well short of what I think we need to make an effective video.
Apologies for the delay in updates on this project. I’ve been busy lately and in truth have had very little to update you with. Hopefully this update will give the project some momentum and push us into the production stage.
I’m excited to announce that Corey Martial will hopefully be providing narration for the videos and has asked me to email over scripts for the project.
I’ve told him that they should be with him by the weekend and so if anybody has any constructive criticism of the scripts that I have posted, now is the time to share it.
The script for the third video can be found in a previous post and I will be posting a script for the second video as well as intros and outros for the remaining two videos tomorrow if I have time.
With any luck, Corey’s involvement will increase the chances of Yu Suzuki agreeing to be interviewed to discuss the future of the series for the fourth video (the future of Shenmue) when I eventually get around to contacting him (I’ve been delaying doing so until I heard back from CM).
To those who have already sent over their recordings, a big thank you and to those of you who are yet to do so, please get them over ASAP. We’re still well short of what I think we need to make an effective video.
Apologies for the delay in updates on this project. I’ve been busy lately and in truth have had very little to update you with. Hopefully this update will give the project some momentum and push us into the production stage.
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2018
Project Update 3:
I'm really swamped at the moment and so haven't had as much time to work on these scripts as I would have liked. I'd be grateful if people could have a read through and offer suggestions on how to shorten and improve them. The Story of Shenmue in particular is pretty poorly written and probably includes a lot of detail that isn't needed. It's also missing character profiles, so if anybody is able to write a quick (around 60 words) profile for each of the six main characters, it would be really useful.
I'm really swamped at the moment and so haven't had as much time to work on these scripts as I would have liked. I'd be grateful if people could have a read through and offer suggestions on how to shorten and improve them. The Story of Shenmue in particular is pretty poorly written and probably includes a lot of detail that isn't needed. It's also missing character profiles, so if anybody is able to write a quick (around 60 words) profile for each of the six main characters, it would be really useful.
Hi. I'm Corey Marshall, the English voice actor for Ryo Hazuki, the main character in Yu Suzuki's Shenmue series. In this video, we're going to be learning about the History of Shenmue.
Anybody who has played Shenmue knows that it tells the story of a young martial artist named Ryo Hazuki as he embarks upon a quest for revenge following the murder of his father, but there is much more to the Shenmue story than just vengeance. In order to fully understand the story of Shenmue, we need to understand the story of its development - and to do that - we have to go back to the mid-nineties.
After a number of poorly received hardware releases and huge financial losses, managers at Sega were desperate to create a new IP that would help to improve sales of the struggling Sega Saturn and claw back some of the money spent on hardware development throughout the early nineties.
The man who they chose to spearhead this project was a games designer named Yu Suzuki. Suzuki had been responsible for a number of highly successful games for the company, including arcade classics like ‘Hang On’, ‘Out Run’ and ‘Space Harrier’, although perhaps his greatest achievement at that time was the critically acclaimed ‘Virtua Fighter’, which many industry professionals cite as the first fighting game to truly utilize 3D graphics. With a proven track record of delivering groundbreaking games, Suzuki was the obvious choice for the role.
Development began for the Sega Saturn in 1996 under the codename ‘Project Berkley’. Suzuki had originally planned to create a Virtua Fighter RPG, combining the fighting mechanics of Virtua Fighter with elements of 1980’s RPG games and an expansive open world. As more features and ideas were implemented however, the game broke free of the Virtua Fighter branding and became what would eventually be known as Shenmue.
As work on the game continued, so did the poor sales of the Saturn, prompting Sega to begin development on a new piece of hardware in one final attempt to maintain their place as one of the leading console manufacturers in an increasingly crowded marketplace.
The Sega Dreamcast was the most powerful console on the market at the time of its release, with nearly ten times the processing power of the Sega Saturn. When Suzuki heard about the capabilities of the new machine, he made the decision to switch the development of Shenmue from the Saturn to the Dreamcast, allowing him and his team to further push the boundaries of console gaming.
The game incorporated many new features and concepts that would go on to help shape the open-world genre and change the way that many people thought about games design. It featured realistic open environments, a fully voiced cast of NPCs, each with their own unique personalities and daily routines, and a wide array of mini games and activities, even including in-game ports of some of Suzuki's previous projects.
It was perhaps Suzuki’s meticulous attention to detail that stood out most though, with the player able to interact with almost every item in the game and historic weather records from the Yokosuka area being used to deliver a true to life experience for players. These things combined to create a living, breathing world unlike any game that had come before it.
After three years of development, Shenmue released for the Dreamcast in December of 1999 and went on to sell more than 1.2 million copies worldwide. The game's depth and realism were widely praised by both critics and players, with IGN calling the game an unmissable experience for both casual and hardcore gamers alike.
This praise came at a great cost though. At the time of its release, Shenmue was the most expensive video game ever created, with Suzukui later telling journalists that the team had spent around $47m producing and marketing the game.
Some of that budget went towards developing assets for the game's sequel, which was released for the Dreamcast in Japan and Europe in 2001. The game boasted a larger cast of NPCs and improved graphics while also addressing many of the criticisms of the original game, with players now able to save anywhere and skip time to progress the main story. Unfortunately, a Dreamcast release of Shenmue 2 would never reach shelves in North America.
With the release of Sony’s PlayStation 2 and the impending arrival of Microsoft's Xbox, Sega decided that it was time to throw in the towel and the decision was made to halt production of the Sega Dreamcast in order to focus on Software development.
A deal was later made with Microsoft to bring Shenmue 2 to the Xbox, and the game released in Europe and North America at the end of 2002 to moderate success.
A third Shenmue game was rumoured to be in development for the Xbox in 2003, but these rumors turned out to be false. Shenmue fans eagerly awaited news on the future of the franchise, but as the years passed, news about the game went very quiet.
Shenmue 3 became one of Sega’s most requested games, and although they acknowledged the popularity of the series on several occasions, there was no word on if or when a new Shenmue game would be released.
Fans of the series began to launch campaigns in the hope of bringing about a sequel, including a campaign by the BBC series VideoGaiden and a monthly tweetathon organized by a group of fans which ran for more than three years and saw thousands of people taking part.
More than a decade after the release of Shenmue 2, Yu Suzuki gave a talk about the series at GDC 2014, going into great detail about the development of the series and his outline for how the series would have progressed. While informative and interesting to fans of the series, it was not the news that they had been hoping for.
After that, things went silent.
Then, in June 2015, just as it was starting to look as though all hope for the future of the series was lost, this happened...
[E3 footage]
Suzuki took to the stage at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in L.A. to announce that he would be crowd-funding Shenmue 3 through Kickstarter. The project became the fastest Kickstarter project to raise one million dollars, doing so in less than 2 hours, and had met its funding goal of two million dollars after just eight hours and 44 minutes. By the time the campaign had finished, Shenmue 3 had raised more than $6.3m making it the sixth most funded project and the most funded video game in Kickstarter's history. The game would go on to raise a further $800,000 in donations through Paypal and Alipay, leading to a final figure of $7.1m.
Development of Shenmue 3 began in July of 2015 with many of the original team reprising their roles, including writer Masahiro Yoshimoto, character designer Kenji Miyawaki, composer Ryuji Iuchi and me, the English voice actor for the game's protagonist Ryo.
Over the next four years, the scope and scale of the project continued to grow, thanks in part to deals with Shibuya Productions, Epic Games and publisher Deep Silver, allowing Suzuki to create something far greater than his original expectations for the game.
After years of uncertainty, anticipation and hope, the wait is almost over.
So, 'what's Shenmue?' On the one hand, it tells the story of a young man who travels across Asia to avenge the murder of his father, but it's also the story of passion and perseverance. It's the story of a man who will stop at nothing to realise his vision and a fan base willing to go to extreme lengths to help him to achieve this. It's a story that now, almost two decades after the release of the original game, is ready to continue.
If you enjoyed this video, be sure to check out the other videos in the series and of course, pick up your copy of Shenmue 3 when it releases later this year.
Anybody who has played Shenmue knows that it tells the story of a young martial artist named Ryo Hazuki as he embarks upon a quest for revenge following the murder of his father, but there is much more to the Shenmue story than just vengeance. In order to fully understand the story of Shenmue, we need to understand the story of its development - and to do that - we have to go back to the mid-nineties.
After a number of poorly received hardware releases and huge financial losses, managers at Sega were desperate to create a new IP that would help to improve sales of the struggling Sega Saturn and claw back some of the money spent on hardware development throughout the early nineties.
The man who they chose to spearhead this project was a games designer named Yu Suzuki. Suzuki had been responsible for a number of highly successful games for the company, including arcade classics like ‘Hang On’, ‘Out Run’ and ‘Space Harrier’, although perhaps his greatest achievement at that time was the critically acclaimed ‘Virtua Fighter’, which many industry professionals cite as the first fighting game to truly utilize 3D graphics. With a proven track record of delivering groundbreaking games, Suzuki was the obvious choice for the role.
Development began for the Sega Saturn in 1996 under the codename ‘Project Berkley’. Suzuki had originally planned to create a Virtua Fighter RPG, combining the fighting mechanics of Virtua Fighter with elements of 1980’s RPG games and an expansive open world. As more features and ideas were implemented however, the game broke free of the Virtua Fighter branding and became what would eventually be known as Shenmue.
As work on the game continued, so did the poor sales of the Saturn, prompting Sega to begin development on a new piece of hardware in one final attempt to maintain their place as one of the leading console manufacturers in an increasingly crowded marketplace.
The Sega Dreamcast was the most powerful console on the market at the time of its release, with nearly ten times the processing power of the Sega Saturn. When Suzuki heard about the capabilities of the new machine, he made the decision to switch the development of Shenmue from the Saturn to the Dreamcast, allowing him and his team to further push the boundaries of console gaming.
The game incorporated many new features and concepts that would go on to help shape the open-world genre and change the way that many people thought about games design. It featured realistic open environments, a fully voiced cast of NPCs, each with their own unique personalities and daily routines, and a wide array of mini games and activities, even including in-game ports of some of Suzuki's previous projects.
It was perhaps Suzuki’s meticulous attention to detail that stood out most though, with the player able to interact with almost every item in the game and historic weather records from the Yokosuka area being used to deliver a true to life experience for players. These things combined to create a living, breathing world unlike any game that had come before it.
After three years of development, Shenmue released for the Dreamcast in December of 1999 and went on to sell more than 1.2 million copies worldwide. The game's depth and realism were widely praised by both critics and players, with IGN calling the game an unmissable experience for both casual and hardcore gamers alike.
This praise came at a great cost though. At the time of its release, Shenmue was the most expensive video game ever created, with Suzukui later telling journalists that the team had spent around $47m producing and marketing the game.
Some of that budget went towards developing assets for the game's sequel, which was released for the Dreamcast in Japan and Europe in 2001. The game boasted a larger cast of NPCs and improved graphics while also addressing many of the criticisms of the original game, with players now able to save anywhere and skip time to progress the main story. Unfortunately, a Dreamcast release of Shenmue 2 would never reach shelves in North America.
With the release of Sony’s PlayStation 2 and the impending arrival of Microsoft's Xbox, Sega decided that it was time to throw in the towel and the decision was made to halt production of the Sega Dreamcast in order to focus on Software development.
A deal was later made with Microsoft to bring Shenmue 2 to the Xbox, and the game released in Europe and North America at the end of 2002 to moderate success.
A third Shenmue game was rumoured to be in development for the Xbox in 2003, but these rumors turned out to be false. Shenmue fans eagerly awaited news on the future of the franchise, but as the years passed, news about the game went very quiet.
Shenmue 3 became one of Sega’s most requested games, and although they acknowledged the popularity of the series on several occasions, there was no word on if or when a new Shenmue game would be released.
Fans of the series began to launch campaigns in the hope of bringing about a sequel, including a campaign by the BBC series VideoGaiden and a monthly tweetathon organized by a group of fans which ran for more than three years and saw thousands of people taking part.
More than a decade after the release of Shenmue 2, Yu Suzuki gave a talk about the series at GDC 2014, going into great detail about the development of the series and his outline for how the series would have progressed. While informative and interesting to fans of the series, it was not the news that they had been hoping for.
After that, things went silent.
Then, in June 2015, just as it was starting to look as though all hope for the future of the series was lost, this happened...
[E3 footage]
Suzuki took to the stage at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in L.A. to announce that he would be crowd-funding Shenmue 3 through Kickstarter. The project became the fastest Kickstarter project to raise one million dollars, doing so in less than 2 hours, and had met its funding goal of two million dollars after just eight hours and 44 minutes. By the time the campaign had finished, Shenmue 3 had raised more than $6.3m making it the sixth most funded project and the most funded video game in Kickstarter's history. The game would go on to raise a further $800,000 in donations through Paypal and Alipay, leading to a final figure of $7.1m.
Development of Shenmue 3 began in July of 2015 with many of the original team reprising their roles, including writer Masahiro Yoshimoto, character designer Kenji Miyawaki, composer Ryuji Iuchi and me, the English voice actor for the game's protagonist Ryo.
Over the next four years, the scope and scale of the project continued to grow, thanks in part to deals with Shibuya Productions, Epic Games and publisher Deep Silver, allowing Suzuki to create something far greater than his original expectations for the game.
After years of uncertainty, anticipation and hope, the wait is almost over.
So, 'what's Shenmue?' On the one hand, it tells the story of a young man who travels across Asia to avenge the murder of his father, but it's also the story of passion and perseverance. It's the story of a man who will stop at nothing to realise his vision and a fan base willing to go to extreme lengths to help him to achieve this. It's a story that now, almost two decades after the release of the original game, is ready to continue.
If you enjoyed this video, be sure to check out the other videos in the series and of course, pick up your copy of Shenmue 3 when it releases later this year.
Hi. I'm Corey Marshall, the English voice actor for Ryo Hazuki, the main character in Yu Suzuki's Shenmue series. In this video, we're going to be learning about the plot of Shenmue.
The first game takes place in 1986 in Yokusuka, Japan and begins with Ryo Hazuki returning home to discover a black car parked outside the family residence. Upon entering the grounds, he finds the family housekeeper Ine-san lying on the ground injured. With barely enough energy to speak, she directs him to the family Dojo.
As Ryo approaches the Dojo's large wooden doors, they fly open, and the student of the Hazuki family, Fuku-san is sent crashing to the ground. Ryo cautiously enters and is met with a confrontation between his Father Iwao, and a man adorned in green silk robes that Ryo has never seen before.
The two men engage in combat, with the strange man effortlessly evading Iwao's every move before delivering a devastating roundhouse kick that sends Iwao spinning through the air. After seeing his father's body crash to the Dojo floor, Ryo rushes towards the strange man, but like his father, he's clearly no match for the mysterious martial artist.
With both members of the Hazuki family injured, the man demands to be given the location of a mirror, which Iwao seemingly possesses. Determined not to hand it over, Iwao watches helplessly, as the man threatens to end his son's life unless he reveals the mirror’s location.
Iwao reluctantly tells him that the mirror is buried outside and as his men leave to find it, the stranger reveals that he is the son of Sunming Zhao, a man supposedly killed by Iwao in Mengcun, China. Unable to move, Ryo watches as his father forces his body to stand and the stranger delivers one final blow before leaving with the mirror.
With thunder and rain crashing outside, Ryo crawls slowly over to his father's broken body, and taking him in his arms, can only watch as he draws his last breath.
Ryo Hazuki - Ryo is an eighteen year old martial artist and the main protagonist of our story. After witnessing the murder of his father Iwao, he embarks upon a quest to hunt down the killer and avenge his father's death. He's trained in the art of Jujitsu, but as his quest for vengeance takes him across Asia, Ryo learns many new skills from the people that he meets along the way.
A few days later, Ryo receives a mysterious letter from a man named Yuanda Zu telling him to seek the aid of 'Master Chen'. He calls the phone number contained in the letter and discovers that it belongs to a warehouse in the harbor district of the City. Ryo makes his way there and meets with Master Chen and his son Guizhang, who tell him that the man who murdered his father is a Chinese mafia member called Lan Di.
Lan Di - Lan Di is the main antagonist of our story and a fierce and deadly martial artist. He is one of the four generals of a hidden Chinese mafia group known as the “Chi You Men” and utilizes a legendary martial art which was thought to have been long forgotten. He murders Ryo’s father for revenge and takes possession of the mysterious Dragon mirror for unknown reasons.
Ryo also learns that the Dragon mirror that was taken by Lan Di was one of a pair and that his father had been in possession of both. He heads home to look for the other mirror and after following a series of clues, finds a secret basement hidden underneath the family dojo. From a hidden compartment in the wall of the basement, Ryo retrieves the phoenix mirror.
When he returns to Master Chen's warehouse with the mirror, a mysterious figure appears and tries to steal it from him. Thanks to some quick thinking however, Ryo is able to recover the mirror before the stranger escapes.
Chai - Chai is a low ranking member of the Chi You Men and believes that obtaining the phoenix mirror from Ryo will help him to achieve a higher rank in the organization. His strange physique enables him to utilize a seemingly superhuman fighting technique, making him a fierce opponent for Ryo and his friends.
Ryo is told that Lan Di was guided to Yokusuka by a local gang named the Mad Angels that hangs out around the warehouse district of the harbor. In order to find out more about the gang, Ryo finds a job as a forklift driver.
During his time at the harbor, Ryo is confronted by members of the gang on several occasions, eventually learning that their leader is a man named Terry.
Friction between Ryo and the gang increases and eventually comes to a boil when the Mad Angels kidnap one of Ryo's childhood friends in an attempt to get him to back off. After a massive brawl that sees Ryo defeat seventy gang members, Ryo is able to rescue his friend and learns that Lan Di has already left Japan for Hong Kong.
Master Chen agrees to buy Ryo a ticket to Hong Kong and gives him a letter of introduction to meet with Master Lishao Tao. He also announces that Guizhang will accompany Ryo on his journey. As the two prepare to leave Japan however, Chai appears and attempts to drop a metal beam on them. Although Ryo is able to defeat him, Guizhang is injured and unable to travel to Hong Kong, leaving Ryo to board the ship alone.
The sprawling streets of Hong Kong are a very different setting to the intimacy and familiarity of Yokusuka that Ryo is accustomed to. After taking some time to adjust, he tracks down Master Tao and is surprised to learn that she is a woman named Xiuying Hong.
Xiuying Hong - Xiuying, or “Lishao Tao” as she is also known, is one of Hong Kong’s most skilful martial artists. A woman of few words, she tries to discourage Ryo from seeking revenge for his father. However, beneath her powerful exterior is a woman still grieving the loss of her brother Ziming, who disappeared when they were children after embarking upon a similar path to Ryo.
Xiuying offers to help train Ryo and gives him a place to stay, in return for Ryo's service to the Man Mo temple. A few days into his service, Ryo finds a book written by Yuanda Zu in the temple's library. The book helps Ryo to make contact with an associate of Zu's, who tells Ryo that Ren, the leader of a local gang called the heavens, may be able to help find Zu.
Ren Wuying - Ren is purely motivated by greed and only agrees to help Ryo for profit. He's charismatic, tough and the resourceful leader of a local Aberdeen gang known as "The Heavens". Although he likes to appear tough on the outside, as he spends more time with Ryo, his noble qualities begin to surface.
Ryo heads back to the Aberdeen area and gains access to the gang's hideout. He's told that he must pay five hundred dollars if he wants to meet with Ren, but after paying the money, Ren flees forcing Ryo to give chase. As Ryo finally catches up to Ren, the phoenix mirror falls from his pocket and intrigued by the possibility of making some money, Ren agrees to help.
Ren informs Ryo that Zu was last seen in Kowloon, so after saying goodbye to his new friends, Ryo sets off on the next step of his journey.
The walled city of Kowloon is full of danger and Ryo soon finds himself the prisoner of a man named Dou Niu, the leader of a gang called the Yellow Heads. After escaping, Ryo learns that Zu's office is on the tenth floor of a nearby abandoned building and makes his way through the derelict building to find him.
It turns out that Ryo is not the only person looking for Zu however and their meeting is cut short when Dou Niu and his thugs appear and take Zu prisoner.
Ryo learns that Zu is being held in the Yellow Head headquarters and will soon be handed over to Lan Di and the Chi You men. Ryo makes his way to the roof of the building just in time to see Lan Di arriving by helicopter and must defeat Dou Niu in order to rescue Zu and the rest of his friends.
Following a tough battle, Zu announces that the Phoenix and Dragon mirrors hold the secret to the Qing dynasty and were made in a remote mountainous area of China called Guilin - and that is where the next leg of Ryo's journey takes him.
Upon arriving in Guilin, Ryo sets out to find Bailu village but soon encounters a young woman named Shenhua.
Shenhua Ling - Shenhua is full of mystery. She was born and raised in the Guilin mountains and has a strong connection with nature, including the spiritual “Shenmue” tree from which the series takes its name. She appears in several of Ryo's dreams in the aftermath of his father's death and joins him on his journey after their meeting in Guilin.
Ryo and Shenhua head to the phantom river stone mines with the intention of asking Shenhua's adoptive father about the mirrors, but arrive to find the cavern empty. As they venture further into the cave, they find huge carvings of the mirrors on the walls and a cryptic note hinting at a connection between the two characters.
Ryo and Shenhua have been waiting deep in that cave ever since, but later this year, after a long wait, they will finally emerge and Ryo's story will continue.
If you enjoyed this video, be sure to check out the other videos in the series and of course, pick up your copy of Shenmue 3 when it releases later this year.
The first game takes place in 1986 in Yokusuka, Japan and begins with Ryo Hazuki returning home to discover a black car parked outside the family residence. Upon entering the grounds, he finds the family housekeeper Ine-san lying on the ground injured. With barely enough energy to speak, she directs him to the family Dojo.
As Ryo approaches the Dojo's large wooden doors, they fly open, and the student of the Hazuki family, Fuku-san is sent crashing to the ground. Ryo cautiously enters and is met with a confrontation between his Father Iwao, and a man adorned in green silk robes that Ryo has never seen before.
The two men engage in combat, with the strange man effortlessly evading Iwao's every move before delivering a devastating roundhouse kick that sends Iwao spinning through the air. After seeing his father's body crash to the Dojo floor, Ryo rushes towards the strange man, but like his father, he's clearly no match for the mysterious martial artist.
With both members of the Hazuki family injured, the man demands to be given the location of a mirror, which Iwao seemingly possesses. Determined not to hand it over, Iwao watches helplessly, as the man threatens to end his son's life unless he reveals the mirror’s location.
Iwao reluctantly tells him that the mirror is buried outside and as his men leave to find it, the stranger reveals that he is the son of Sunming Zhao, a man supposedly killed by Iwao in Mengcun, China. Unable to move, Ryo watches as his father forces his body to stand and the stranger delivers one final blow before leaving with the mirror.
With thunder and rain crashing outside, Ryo crawls slowly over to his father's broken body, and taking him in his arms, can only watch as he draws his last breath.
Ryo Hazuki - Ryo is an eighteen year old martial artist and the main protagonist of our story. After witnessing the murder of his father Iwao, he embarks upon a quest to hunt down the killer and avenge his father's death. He's trained in the art of Jujitsu, but as his quest for vengeance takes him across Asia, Ryo learns many new skills from the people that he meets along the way.
A few days later, Ryo receives a mysterious letter from a man named Yuanda Zu telling him to seek the aid of 'Master Chen'. He calls the phone number contained in the letter and discovers that it belongs to a warehouse in the harbor district of the City. Ryo makes his way there and meets with Master Chen and his son Guizhang, who tell him that the man who murdered his father is a Chinese mafia member called Lan Di.
Lan Di - Lan Di is the main antagonist of our story and a fierce and deadly martial artist. He is one of the four generals of a hidden Chinese mafia group known as the “Chi You Men” and utilizes a legendary martial art which was thought to have been long forgotten. He murders Ryo’s father for revenge and takes possession of the mysterious Dragon mirror for unknown reasons.
Ryo also learns that the Dragon mirror that was taken by Lan Di was one of a pair and that his father had been in possession of both. He heads home to look for the other mirror and after following a series of clues, finds a secret basement hidden underneath the family dojo. From a hidden compartment in the wall of the basement, Ryo retrieves the phoenix mirror.
When he returns to Master Chen's warehouse with the mirror, a mysterious figure appears and tries to steal it from him. Thanks to some quick thinking however, Ryo is able to recover the mirror before the stranger escapes.
Chai - Chai is a low ranking member of the Chi You Men and believes that obtaining the phoenix mirror from Ryo will help him to achieve a higher rank in the organization. His strange physique enables him to utilize a seemingly superhuman fighting technique, making him a fierce opponent for Ryo and his friends.
Ryo is told that Lan Di was guided to Yokusuka by a local gang named the Mad Angels that hangs out around the warehouse district of the harbor. In order to find out more about the gang, Ryo finds a job as a forklift driver.
During his time at the harbor, Ryo is confronted by members of the gang on several occasions, eventually learning that their leader is a man named Terry.
Friction between Ryo and the gang increases and eventually comes to a boil when the Mad Angels kidnap one of Ryo's childhood friends in an attempt to get him to back off. After a massive brawl that sees Ryo defeat seventy gang members, Ryo is able to rescue his friend and learns that Lan Di has already left Japan for Hong Kong.
Master Chen agrees to buy Ryo a ticket to Hong Kong and gives him a letter of introduction to meet with Master Lishao Tao. He also announces that Guizhang will accompany Ryo on his journey. As the two prepare to leave Japan however, Chai appears and attempts to drop a metal beam on them. Although Ryo is able to defeat him, Guizhang is injured and unable to travel to Hong Kong, leaving Ryo to board the ship alone.
The sprawling streets of Hong Kong are a very different setting to the intimacy and familiarity of Yokusuka that Ryo is accustomed to. After taking some time to adjust, he tracks down Master Tao and is surprised to learn that she is a woman named Xiuying Hong.
Xiuying Hong - Xiuying, or “Lishao Tao” as she is also known, is one of Hong Kong’s most skilful martial artists. A woman of few words, she tries to discourage Ryo from seeking revenge for his father. However, beneath her powerful exterior is a woman still grieving the loss of her brother Ziming, who disappeared when they were children after embarking upon a similar path to Ryo.
Xiuying offers to help train Ryo and gives him a place to stay, in return for Ryo's service to the Man Mo temple. A few days into his service, Ryo finds a book written by Yuanda Zu in the temple's library. The book helps Ryo to make contact with an associate of Zu's, who tells Ryo that Ren, the leader of a local gang called the heavens, may be able to help find Zu.
Ren Wuying - Ren is purely motivated by greed and only agrees to help Ryo for profit. He's charismatic, tough and the resourceful leader of a local Aberdeen gang known as "The Heavens". Although he likes to appear tough on the outside, as he spends more time with Ryo, his noble qualities begin to surface.
Ryo heads back to the Aberdeen area and gains access to the gang's hideout. He's told that he must pay five hundred dollars if he wants to meet with Ren, but after paying the money, Ren flees forcing Ryo to give chase. As Ryo finally catches up to Ren, the phoenix mirror falls from his pocket and intrigued by the possibility of making some money, Ren agrees to help.
Ren informs Ryo that Zu was last seen in Kowloon, so after saying goodbye to his new friends, Ryo sets off on the next step of his journey.
The walled city of Kowloon is full of danger and Ryo soon finds himself the prisoner of a man named Dou Niu, the leader of a gang called the Yellow Heads. After escaping, Ryo learns that Zu's office is on the tenth floor of a nearby abandoned building and makes his way through the derelict building to find him.
It turns out that Ryo is not the only person looking for Zu however and their meeting is cut short when Dou Niu and his thugs appear and take Zu prisoner.
Ryo learns that Zu is being held in the Yellow Head headquarters and will soon be handed over to Lan Di and the Chi You men. Ryo makes his way to the roof of the building just in time to see Lan Di arriving by helicopter and must defeat Dou Niu in order to rescue Zu and the rest of his friends.
Following a tough battle, Zu announces that the Phoenix and Dragon mirrors hold the secret to the Qing dynasty and were made in a remote mountainous area of China called Guilin - and that is where the next leg of Ryo's journey takes him.
Upon arriving in Guilin, Ryo sets out to find Bailu village but soon encounters a young woman named Shenhua.
Shenhua Ling - Shenhua is full of mystery. She was born and raised in the Guilin mountains and has a strong connection with nature, including the spiritual “Shenmue” tree from which the series takes its name. She appears in several of Ryo's dreams in the aftermath of his father's death and joins him on his journey after their meeting in Guilin.
Ryo and Shenhua head to the phantom river stone mines with the intention of asking Shenhua's adoptive father about the mirrors, but arrive to find the cavern empty. As they venture further into the cave, they find huge carvings of the mirrors on the walls and a cryptic note hinting at a connection between the two characters.
Ryo and Shenhua have been waiting deep in that cave ever since, but later this year, after a long wait, they will finally emerge and Ryo's story will continue.
If you enjoyed this video, be sure to check out the other videos in the series and of course, pick up your copy of Shenmue 3 when it releases later this year.
Hi. I'm Corey Marshall, the English voice actor for Ryo Hazuki, the main character in Yu Suzuki's Shenmue series. In this video, we're going to be learning about the impact of Shenmue.
Shenmue was one of the most groundbreaking games ever made at the time of it's release and had a massive impact on the gaming industry in terms of how open world games were designed and created.
Perhaps the biggest impact that the series had though was on its fanbase, who, even after waiting nearly twenty years for the third game in the series, are still as excited about the franchise as they were when they first played the games in the late nineties and early two-thousands. But why exactly do fans love the series so much?
(Fan recordings here)
If you enjoyed this video, be sure to check out the other videos in the series and of course, pick up your copy of Shenmue 3 when it releases later this year.
Shenmue was one of the most groundbreaking games ever made at the time of it's release and had a massive impact on the gaming industry in terms of how open world games were designed and created.
Perhaps the biggest impact that the series had though was on its fanbase, who, even after waiting nearly twenty years for the third game in the series, are still as excited about the franchise as they were when they first played the games in the late nineties and early two-thousands. But why exactly do fans love the series so much?
(Fan recordings here)
If you enjoyed this video, be sure to check out the other videos in the series and of course, pick up your copy of Shenmue 3 when it releases later this year.
Hi. I'm Corey Marshall, the English voice actor for Ryo Hazuki, the main character in Yu Suzuki's Shenmue series. In this video, we're going to be learning about the future of Shenmue.
After a hiatus lasting nearly twenty years, the Shenmue saga is set to continue later this year. The third entry in the series is set to be the largest Shenmue game to date, but what exactly can players expect?
Who better to answer that question than series creator Yu Suzuki.
(Yu Suzuki interview)
If you enjoyed this video, be sure to check out the other videos in the series and of course, pick up your copy of Shenmue 3 when it releases later this year.
After a hiatus lasting nearly twenty years, the Shenmue saga is set to continue later this year. The third entry in the series is set to be the largest Shenmue game to date, but what exactly can players expect?
Who better to answer that question than series creator Yu Suzuki.
(Yu Suzuki interview)
If you enjoyed this video, be sure to check out the other videos in the series and of course, pick up your copy of Shenmue 3 when it releases later this year.
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Peter
Administrator
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2018
I will have a look, and see what I can do. I will edit the story of Shenmue in your post above. Can I ask though, are character profiles really needed? In terms of telling the story of Shenmue to a viewer, a full bio of each main character might be overkill.
OP
OP
spud1897
Administrator
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- Shenmue II
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- Destiny 2, Shenmue HD ;)
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@tomboz
I've emailed some bits to you but these links from the old dojo might be good for profiles
Shenmue 1: http://shenmuedojo.net/new/games/s1characters.html
Shenmue 2: http://shenmuedojo.net/new/games/s2characters.html
I've emailed some bits to you but these links from the old dojo might be good for profiles
Shenmue 1: http://shenmuedojo.net/new/games/s1characters.html
Shenmue 2: http://shenmuedojo.net/new/games/s2characters.html
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2018
Thanks, Peter.
The way I see it, this is the video that is most important when it comes to attracting new players.
Most people wouldn’t be interested in going to see the third movie in a trilogy if they hadn’t seen the first two (or at the very least had an understanding of what had happened in them). I think that the same is true here.
Giving people who are unfamiliar with the series an overview of the story so far that is both concise and comprehensive enough to leave them with as few questions about the games as possible is one of my primary aims with these videos and I think that extends to the characters they are going to be meeting in the third game.
I’m not suggesting we delve too deeply into the characters, but understanding who these people are and their motivations would be important to me when it comes to deciding whether or not to invest time and money into a new series and so I think that it’s important to include something, even if it’s short.
Peter
Administrator
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- Jul 14, 2018
Right but wouldn't it be more beneficial to encourage newcomers to pick up the original games to play them? I mean that was the whole purpose of the #saveshenmuehd campaign, to have the originals easily playable on modern consoles. Shouldn't that be the overall goal? If so, then it goes the opposite way, and you don't want to spoil it all for them.
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- Aug 22, 2018
The rereleases have been out for pretty much a year now and I’d wager that 95% of the people that are going to buy them have already done so.
The last time I played them, they were still incredibly buggy too (pretty sure there haven’t been any updates since) and while I enjoyed my play throughs, there are certain elements of the original games that haven’t aged well (the controls and the game wait times in particular).
Perhaps some people will see the videos and decide to pick up the rereleases, but at this point I’m not convinced that they are the best tool when it comes to selling Shenmue three. I’d also suggest that to casual gamers, watching a sub ten minute video will be a lot more appealing than playing through 50+hours of old games.
Looking at the achievement stats, the vast majority of the people that played the rereleases didn’t complete them. When you take into account that a lot of the people who bought the rereleases were older fans (who we can assume played through to the end), it suggests that a significant proportion of new players gave up before completing the story (For example, only 30% of players got the trophy for completing Shenmue 2 on PS4 and that includes older fans that played through to the end).
I’m not too worried about ‘spoiling’ a story that is nearly twenty years old and would expect anybody that was worried about the story being spoiled for them not to watch a video titled ‘The story of Shenmue’.
I do get where you’re coming from and would be really happy if the videos encouraged some people to play through the first few games, but ultimately I’d be much happier if they bought Shenmue 3 (especially if playing through the originals actually convinced them not to buy the new game).
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After reading through all four scripts here’s my assessment.
History of Shenmue - The script is fine it goes into enough detail to explain how we got to this point. If you include various clips from Shenmue’s early days this could be a very good documentary type of video. The type of footage I am referring to is stuff like “The Man and the Peach Tree” concept art and prototype clips from the original Sega Saturn. The Sega Saturn clips can easily be found on Ziming’s “Shenmue Fans” YouTube channel.
Story of Shenmue: Any part of a great story is show don’t tell. Corey’s introduction could stay, but the entire opening summary could easily be explained by Shenmue 1’s opening. Corey could introduce this as this being the genesis of Ryo’s journey. When it comes to character introductions, a concise explanation would be sufficient.
For example:
Ryo Hazuki - The main protagonist of our story, an eighteen-year-old martial artist and heir to the Hazuki dojo. After the death of his father, he’s become determined to avenge his murder. This determination has lead him to rural China where he will encounter a larger than life destiny.
Lan Di - The main antagonist of our story, a fierce and deadly martial artist. He is one of the four generals of a hidden Chinese mafia known as the “Chi You Men.” He murders Ryo’s father for revenge and to take possession of the mysterious Dragon mirror for an unknown purpose.
Xiuying Hong - Also known as “Lishao Tao” is one of Hong Kong’s most powerful martial artists whom Ryo first meets in China. A woman of few words, she tries to discourage Ryo from seeking revenge for his father. However, beneath her powerful exterior is a woman grieving over the loss of her brother Ziming who disappeared when they were children in the name of revenge.
Ren Wuying - The charismatic, tough, and resourceful leader of the local Aberdeen gang known as “The Heavens.” Purely motivated by greed, he only helps Ryo for profit. However, as he spends more time with Ryo his more noble qualities start to surface.
Shenhua Ling - The deuteragonist of our story a mysterious girl who was born and raised in the Guilin mountains. She has a strong connection to the spiritual tree “Shenmue” and nature in general. Possessing mysterious powers that Lan-Di has an interest in, she joins Ryo in his journey after their meeting in Guilin.
The other two videos pretty much explain themselves so there isn’t really any need to go into any explanation for any of them.
History of Shenmue - The script is fine it goes into enough detail to explain how we got to this point. If you include various clips from Shenmue’s early days this could be a very good documentary type of video. The type of footage I am referring to is stuff like “The Man and the Peach Tree” concept art and prototype clips from the original Sega Saturn. The Sega Saturn clips can easily be found on Ziming’s “Shenmue Fans” YouTube channel.
Story of Shenmue: Any part of a great story is show don’t tell. Corey’s introduction could stay, but the entire opening summary could easily be explained by Shenmue 1’s opening. Corey could introduce this as this being the genesis of Ryo’s journey. When it comes to character introductions, a concise explanation would be sufficient.
For example:
Ryo Hazuki - The main protagonist of our story, an eighteen-year-old martial artist and heir to the Hazuki dojo. After the death of his father, he’s become determined to avenge his murder. This determination has lead him to rural China where he will encounter a larger than life destiny.
Lan Di - The main antagonist of our story, a fierce and deadly martial artist. He is one of the four generals of a hidden Chinese mafia known as the “Chi You Men.” He murders Ryo’s father for revenge and to take possession of the mysterious Dragon mirror for an unknown purpose.
Xiuying Hong - Also known as “Lishao Tao” is one of Hong Kong’s most powerful martial artists whom Ryo first meets in China. A woman of few words, she tries to discourage Ryo from seeking revenge for his father. However, beneath her powerful exterior is a woman grieving over the loss of her brother Ziming who disappeared when they were children in the name of revenge.
Ren Wuying - The charismatic, tough, and resourceful leader of the local Aberdeen gang known as “The Heavens.” Purely motivated by greed, he only helps Ryo for profit. However, as he spends more time with Ryo his more noble qualities start to surface.
Shenhua Ling - The deuteragonist of our story a mysterious girl who was born and raised in the Guilin mountains. She has a strong connection to the spiritual tree “Shenmue” and nature in general. Possessing mysterious powers that Lan-Di has an interest in, she joins Ryo in his journey after their meeting in Guilin.
The other two videos pretty much explain themselves so there isn’t really any need to go into any explanation for any of them.
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Just a quick suggestion: Rather than "The Story of Shenmue", how about "The Plot of Shenmue"? It would avoid any ambiguity over whether the video is a catch-up on Ryo's fictional journey or a retrospective on the trials the series has faced in the real world.
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2018
Thanks so much for writing these. This is pretty much exactly what I had in mind. I hope you don't mind that I tweaked them a little just to give the writing a uniform style (and also to remove the word 'deuteragonist', as I had to look it up).
I always found that a mixture of writing to pictures and sdt works nicely myself, but agree that it's perhaps a little overwritten towards the beginning considering the viewer will be seeing these events unfold with their own eyes. In truth, I think that my first draft was a little underwritten (I'd been trying to cut out as much as possible to keep the run time down) and so Peter's additions are certainly an improvement on what I had originally written. We perhaps need to try and find a balance between the two approaches which conveys all of the pertinent information while allowing the on screen footage to speak for itself in key places. I'm also a little reluctant to rely too much on the footage to tell the story as the opening scenes of the first game take up eight minutes, which is longer than I'd like the full video to be. Hopefully we can get it finalized in the next 24 hours.
Yes! I'd toyed around with renaming the first video 'The Journey of Shenmue' but opted against it after realizing that 'journey' and 'story' could both refer to either of the first two videos. While 'plot' and 'history' perhaps don't sound as nice, they are certainly a lot more indicative of what's contained in the videos.
Thanks. I'll be heading to Hokkaido for a week on Saturday and so am hoping that we'll have all of the audio captured upon my arrival and can start working on gathering footage. Anybody else that hasn't already sent over recordings, please do try and get them over to me over the next week. The more voices the video contains, the more effective it will be in illustrating how big an impact the Shenmue games have had on us fans.
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Jigen
Man Mo Journeyman
I think you should keep them long as YouTube's algorithm favors those types of long documentary style videos. The more the algorithm favors it the higher a chance to reach a large audience.
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2018
A good point, although I think we need to strike a balance. Longer videos may provide better exposure, but if they’re too long it may scare off casual viewers. I recall reading that ten minutes was the magic number when it comes to manipulating the Youtube algorithm, so perhaps that should be our target?
I guess I’m more interested in getting the pacing right to keep viewers engaged though. If it’s too drawn out, viewers may become disinterested and if we cut out too much it may not do the story justice. It’s a tough one, although I must say that it’s something of a breeze compared to writing for news. If anything, the lack of a hard deadline and max length is quite refreshing!
- Joined
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- Shenmue
- Currently playing
- Rise of the Ronin
Don't worry about it, I am just glad that my suggestions were helpful to you. If Shenmue 1's intro is too long then you could condense it down to only the relevant bits. Show a quick clip of Ryo coming to Ine-san's and Fuku-san's aid and the meat of the video could be the fight in the dojo and Iwao's death. With everything else trimmed out, it would trim the video run time by half.