What would have Shenmue III on Dreamcast have been like?

So what about the English pronunciation of Shenhua's father?
The Japanese Kanji 袁 is usually pronounced Yuan as far as I’m aware. A quick google suggests that the same is true in mandarin, but I’ll check with my wife later.

Edit: according to my wife the pronunciation is actually ‘yu-en’ in mandarin - and she’s under the impression that the same is true in Japanese.
 
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I don’t pretend to understand katakana but is there any actual proof of this? @Switch ?
Iirc, a couple of the guide books refer to her/him as Ewan and one only needs to look at the way the series handles its other characters to see the reasoning. All of the Chinese and Japanese characters’ names are written in Kanji with only westerners’ names using Katakana. This would also explain why Yuan has a male voice in the Japanese dub and her/his name is pronounced ‘yu-wan’ rather than ‘y-wen’. All the evidence points to her/him being a gaijin named Ewan.

Edit: as per the Shenmue 3 webpage, the character is definitely male although interestingly they refer to him as Yuan. Whether or not this was done to match up with the spelling used in the western release of the game is unclear, but my money’s on this being the case considering the above.
 
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I've found some further evidence that corroborates @tomboz's hypothesis about the S2 character Yuan being a foreigner named Ewan.

On the Shenmue.com in April 1999, a greeting card style illustration for the character was published, and a contact email address provided showing the spelling of "Ewan". His surname is also given in katakana as オニール which could be written as "O'Neil".

https://web.archive.org/web/19990508102500/http://www.shenmue.com/0404/index.html
Unfortunately the graphic isn't available.
 
I've found some further evidence that corroborates @tomboz's hypothesis about the S2 character Yuan being a foreigner named Ewan.

On the Shenmue.com in April 1999, a greeting card style illustration for the character was published, and a contact email address provided showing the spelling of "Ewan". His surname is also given in katakana as オニール which could be written as "O'Neil".

https://web.archive.org/web/19990508102500/http://www.shenmue.com/0404/index.html
Unfortunately the graphic isn't available.
Oh wow, I had no idea! Crazy they were showcasing who ultimately became an S2 character all the way back in ‘99
Actually this raises a question- does the character speak in ‘broken’ Japanese in the original voice track, like the sailors in S1? I never thought it sounded like a foreigner trying to speak Japanese, but then again hard to tell when it isn’t your language...and come to think of it, characters like Jimenez Garcia, Matthew Hopkins etc seem to speak largely fluent Japanese...
 
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I've found some further evidence that corroborates @tomboz's hypothesis about the S2 character Yuan being a foreigner named Ewan.

On the Shenmue.com in April 1999, a greeting card style illustration for the character was published, and a contact email address provided showing the spelling of "Ewan". His surname is also given in katakana as オニール which could be written as "O'Neil".

https://web.archive.org/web/19990508102500/http://www.shenmue.com/0404/index.html
Unfortunately the graphic isn't available.
This community never fails to amaze!
 
Oh wow, I had no idea! Crazy they were showcasing who ultimately became an S2 character all the way back in ‘99
Actually this raises a question- does the character speak in ‘broken’ Japanese in the original voice track, like the sailors in S1? I never thought it sounded like a foreigner trying to speak Japanese, but then again hard to tell when it isn’t your language...and come to think of it, characters like Jimenez Garcia, Matthew Hopkins etc seem to speak largely fluent Japanese...
Sorta jives though with the knowledge of Ch1 breaking off around 1998. Until then, Yuan was a Shenmue "1" character.
 
Oh wow, I had no idea! Crazy they were showcasing who ultimately became an S2 character all the way back in ‘99
Actually this raises a question- does the character speak in ‘broken’ Japanese in the original voice track, like the sailors in S1? I never thought it sounded like a foreigner trying to speak Japanese, but then again hard to tell when it isn’t your language...and come to think of it, characters like Jimenez Garcia, Matthew Hopkins etc seem to speak largely fluent Japanese...
I’d always assumed that it was common knowledge and it really doesn’t surprise me that the team had already planned ahead a few years given how meticulous Yu is with his characters.

What I always wondered was how an Irish transvestite ended up being the right hand man to one of the most dangerous men in Hong Kong, but that’s something I don’t expect we’ll ever find out.
 
I’d always assumed that it was common knowledge and it really doesn’t surprise me that the team had already planned ahead a few years given how meticulous Yu is with his characters.

What I always wondered was how an Irish transvestite ended up being the right hand man to one of the most dangerous men in Hong Kong, but that’s something I don’t expect we’ll ever find out.
The luck of the Irish? 😛
 
Very interesting, and makes a lot of sense!

Shenmue loves leaning on the "foreigners as criminal scum" trope that was very popular in the time period in which the games are set. Kinda unfortunate, but there you have it.

Notable exceptions being Tom and Mark, characters that have been brought up in the past as slightly questionable representations. Definitely not one of the series' strong suits.
 
If I had to guess, I would say Shenmue III would have been similar to the first two games in the series in terms of budget and structure. Some still might have had an issue with the overall story, but nobody would be complaining about the game's production values. However, if there is one thing that I appreciate about the remasters, it's realizing that Shenmue was simply too powerful for the Dreamcast to handle.

While the performance on the Dreamcast was sufficient, it didn't change the fact that it suffers from some frame rate drops now and then. Just play Shenmue II on the Dreamcast versus the Shenmue II remaster and you will see what I mean.

In the end, I think Shenmue II was immediately followed up by Shenmue III all the extras from Shenmue I & II would have been carried over to III. The game would have the same budget and structure as the first two games and perhaps some of its technical issues as well.
 
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There would have been a lot less fan service, that's for sure. Yu has admitted that he pandered to the wishes of fans because they are the ones who made the third installment possible.This was detrimental to the overall vibe of the game, particularly in Bailu village, where villagers were supposed to live more primitively. I think the original intention for Bailu was to thrust Ryo into a world that was far different from his city-slicking life. But instead, because of fan demand, we got arcade and capsule toy machines plonked in the village.

The supernatural elements would have been more overt in a dreamcast version of the game, too. I think the retcon of the floating sword and Lan Di no longer having an interest in Shenhua's 'powers' in the new bad ending, highlight that the mystical elements in the game have been toned down. Shenhua really lacks that extra dimension to her character in Shenmue 3, particularly in Niawou where she becomes a statue for the remainder of the game. Sadly, I think Yu was well aware of the Shenmue online criticism, in addition to fan fears of the game taking a 'magical' route.

It would have just been nice for Yu to make a game where he doesn't feel obliged to think of all our wishes because we funded the game. I just wanted his original vision for the game, a vision that was clearly compromised by his need to appease us.
 
SII with Japanese voices only again.

Honestly this would have been the best outcome for the series and would have been very different to what we got
 
I wonder if the Bailu Villiage theme would've been the same music on the DC as it is on the current version. When I played Shenmue III for the first time, the first time I heard that music I got the sense that this was always intended to be the theme of the third game.
 
Very interesting, and makes a lot of sense!

Shenmue loves leaning on the "foreigners as criminal scum" trope that was very popular in the time period in which the games are set. Kinda unfortunate, but there you have it.

Notable exceptions being Tom and Mark, characters that have been brought up in the past as slightly questionable representations. Definitely not one of the series' strong suits.
Ah yes, the classic foreign devil stereotype.

If I had to guess, I would say Shenmue III would have been similar to the first two games in the series in terms of budget and structure. Some still might have had an issue with the overall story, but nobody would be complaining about the game's production values. However, if there is one thing that I appreciate about the remasters, it's realizing that Shenmue was simply too powerful for the Dreamcast to handle.

While the performance on the Dreamcast was sufficient, it didn't change the fact that it suffers from some frame rate drops now and then. Just play Shenmue II on the Dreamcast versus the Shenmue II remaster and you will see what I mean.

In the end, I think Shenmue II was immediately followed up by Shenmue III all the extras from Shenmue I & II would have been carried over to III. The game would have the same budget and structure as the first two games and perhaps some of its technical issues as well.

No doubt. I think the story's payoff happens in later games of course. But considering there are fewer people in Bailu, I don't think the framerate would be an issue until Niaowu.

SII with Japanese voices only again.

Honestly this would have been the best outcome for the series and would have been very different to what we got

Considering that was the case with the PAL release (as it was also intended with the canceled North American version), we can't discount that.

A more impressive product

It would've been more aligned with what we wanted. We would've gotten actual Sega arcade games again.
 
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