Yu Suzuki Interview (IGN Japan): Reflections on S3, Plans for S4

First of all, thank you so much @Switch

I haven't read this whole thread, but it really seems that SIV has been given a lot of thought and personally speaking, it reinforces my belief that work has begun on making the game. Yu seems pretty confident that he can bring these ideas to fruition.

I especially like when he says that III was essentially a new start and is the jumping off point for bigger and better things to come with regards to Shenmue.
 
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It kinda sounds like he wants to make S4 for what he thinks other people want now.

Well, not entirely. He makes it clear that IV has to appeal to a wider, newer audience yes, but his car analogy is very telling;

Yu: "Someone who has conquered the gears and clutch of a racing car would probably resist driving a car that’s fully-automatic with no need for gear-changing techniques, but if it was something more like a semi-automatic, it would suit both types of person, right?"

He also says quite clearly that while III was made with the explicit goal of pleasing long time fans, IV will allow him to experiment and try new things. He clearly has ideas that he himself wants to implement and perhaps considers unique, not because of what he thinks others may want.

So while he is taking wider audiences into account, that's by no means his sole focus.

When I first saw the markers chat my heart kind of sank a bit, I won't lie, but the further I read, the more I realised the markers are not meant to be the main system for reaching your destination.

Another part that stood out was that he wants relationships with side characters to be more meaningful and have more depth. This is something many of us feel was somewhat lacking in III, making it harder to develop attachments to new characters. I found it strange that earlier you said you don't give a shit about this, but how can that be when it's such a crucial part of Shenmue 1 & 2? It's not padding in those games, so why would it be anything like FF7? Obviously I completely disagree with your take on this.

To be honest this whole interview is very encouraging and gives me a LOT of confidence in that not only will we see IV, but that it will be a big improvement over III. And I really, really liked/loved III.
 
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He’s in business and not a bankrolled or independently wealthy artist. Making a game that’s commercially accessible or at least able to recoup a budget and make a profit is a perfectly fine ambition. I see nothing wrong with him assessing the things in Shenmue 3 critics and gamers liked and didn’t like. Seems like a great thing. I’m glad he isn’t so stubborn that he’d ignore it all.
 
He’s in business and not a bankrolled or independently wealthy artist. Making a game that’s commercially accessible or at least able to recoup a budget and make a profit is a perfectly fine ambition. I see nothing wrong with him assessing the things in Shenmue 3 critics and gamers liked and didn’t like. Seems like a great thing. I’m glad he isn’t so stubborn that he’d ignore it all.

Indeed. Can’t disagree with any of that.
 
I found it strange that earlier you said you don't give a shit about this, but how can that be when it's such a crucial part of Shenmue 1 & 2? It's not padding in those games, so why would it be anything like FF7? Obviously I completely disagree with your take on this.
That was before the full translation when the only line was about focusing on side stuff instead of main story stuff. Upon reading it in context I said:

Yes and no. Shenmue is all about learning from unexpected sources, so that bum on the street? He's actually a marital arts master. That guy with the sweet abs who tried to stab you and stole $500? He's your best friend. It's never been about the relationships between townsfolk, Ryo doesn't even care about the bevy of beautiful women who want to bang him because he's so single-minded.

To be honest this whole interview is very encouraging and gives me a LOT of confidence in that not only will we see IV, but that it will be a big improvement over III. And I really, really liked/loved III.
I agree and I really disliked III.
 
Yes and no. Shenmue is all about learning from unexpected sources, so that bum on the street? He's actually a marital arts master. That guy with the sweet abs who tried to stab you and stole $500? He's your best friend.
Focussing on the "townsfolk" and the people who live in this world would facilitate that type of thing, not preclude it. Also, if you think Ren is Ryo's best friend I'm not sure what to tell ya o_O

It's never been about the relationships between townsfolk, Ryo doesn't even care about the bevy of beautiful women who want to bang him because he's so single-minded.
Feels like you're drawing very arbitrary lines here about what Shenmue has "never been about". Ryo's naive and is oblivious to the advances of women, sure, that is a character trait of his. What about all the other characters that aren't trying to hit on Ryo, that Ryo spends time with, or gets to know over time, helps out etc.? I'd argue that getting to know the characters -- the townsfolk who live in these areas you're exploring -- is one of the main pillars (and main appeals) of the games. You can't "learn from unexpected sources" unless you've encountered them first, interacted with them, established who they are in your mind. It's paradoxical.
 
Focussing on the "townsfolk" and the people who live in this world would facilitate that type of thing, not preclude it. Also, if you think Ren is Ryo's best friend I'm not sure what to tell ya o_O
That would be the "yes" part of the "yes and no".

Feels like you're drawing very arbitrary lines here about what Shenmue has "never been about". Ryo's naive and is oblivious to the advances of women, sure, that is a character trait of his. What about all the other characters that aren't trying to hit on Ryo, that Ryo spends time with, or gets to know over time, helps out etc.? I'd argue that getting to know the characters -- the townsfolk who live in these areas you're exploring -- is one of the main pillars (and main appeals) of the games. You can't "learn from unexpected sources" unless you've encountered them first, interacted with them, established who they are in your mind. It's paradoxical.
Again, I said yes and no. Obviously Ryo helps people sometimes out of the goodness of his heart, sometimes to learn a new move, sometimes because it's been a while since he gave someone a concussion; if it's done well (as I have no reason to assume it won't be) and helping people factors into the main story/martial arts training, then great! If it's padding bullshit like FF7R, then bad. But Shenmue is famously bereft of side quests (except S3) which is why I say it's never really been about it in that sense.

(EDIT) Of course Ren is Ryo's best friend (for the purposes of the story), he's the Han Solo to Ryo's Luke Skywalker.
 
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This part I don't get

Making those is a lot of work! [laughs] Even for Shenmue III, I feel that we did more than what we had planned. Originally, there was no move lesson from Master Sun at all, so we pulled out all the stops to add one, and really pushed beyond our limits to get it done [laughs].

As far as I can tell it's just a cutscene with a QTE it's not the level of depth of the first 2 games in terms of learning new moves. Wouldn't be any different to implement than any other QTE right? Unless he means creating the cutscene/animations etc. were the challenging parts.
 
Of course Ren is Ryo's best friend (for the purposes of the story), he's the Han Solo to Ryo's Luke Skywalker.
He's a sidekick, that's for sure...but I'm not sure we've reached the "oh, these characters actually care about each other and not just their own selfish goals" point yet. Ryo definitely doesn't trust or even like Ren all that much.

As far as I can tell it's just a cutscene with a QTE it's not the level of depth of the first 2 games in terms of learning new moves. Wouldn't be any different to implement than any other QTE right? Unless he means creating the cutscene/animations etc. were the challenging parts.
That's exactly what he's saying. Creating scenes where a character teaches Ryo a move is a lot of work -- expensive and time-consuming -- like all "real" cutscenes that involve unique animation, lighting, VO, direction etc. Yu's pointing this out because it'd be impractical to make that the primary way to learn new moves.
 
Suzuki did the same thing with Shenmue 1. It led to the masterpiece that is Shenmue 2

That's the thing though... Yu Suzuki junked all his guilty pleasures from S1 when he did S2. No more walkman, no more phone calls, no more shadow training, no more NPC schedules, no more realistic waiting, no more picking things up, no more forklifts, and even less Lan Di to boot!

Maybe Yu will now give the fans what they want with 4, and junk all the avant garde stuff he put into 3.
 
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I think you have this backwards. Daily activities like wood chopping and forklift driving exist so that Ryo can buy food to maintain his stamina. This is what people mean when they say that S3 focuses on minigames and padding at the expense of story. Also, stamina should not be tied to health; it virtually guarantees that you'll lose fights when they pop up unannounced and it actively discourages exploration. There's a reason basically no other game has ever done this.


Suzuki mentions fixing the facial animations (something I think is way outside the scope of a project this size) which means re-rigging the existing characters at the very least and may require remodeling the faces entirely in some instances, to say nothing of the additional animation workload. It's a ton of work depending on the quality level he wants to achieve. The other issue with facial animation is that, barring like 2 scenes, Ryo and Shenhua rarely vary their emotional state; they're always just kind of calm--so what's the point of focusing on facial animation? Is Ryo really going to start smiling, laughing, being coy, yelling etc. to take advantage of that? Seems like a lot of work for not a lot of payoff and there's no way it's going to look as good as digitized performance capture facial animation anyway (which is even more expensive!).

I think Yu meant reducing the gap between Ryo/Shenhua and the rest of the cast which have been mostly basic if not weird, or non-existent regarding the case of cartoonesque-sized characters.

Not sure if it will cost that much. The problem in SIII was not the skill, but that the Indian skill came very late in the production - supposing the exponential progress we witnessed in the last months of S3 development was influenced by their expertise. Now he can proceed his partnership from the very beginning.

Ryo & Shenhua have been really fine to me btw. You may also add Niao Sun's theatrical laugh at the end to theorize what Suzuki meant by improving facial.
 
This part I don't get



As far as I can tell it's just a cutscene with a QTE it's not the level of depth of the first 2 games in terms of learning new moves. Wouldn't be any different to implement than any other QTE right? Unless he means creating the cutscene/animations etc. were the challenging parts.
I think that's exactly what he's saying doing the animations etc. That's quite time consuming.
 
Yes thanks for the translation from me as well. It is a nice read for sure. I just hope if Shenmue 4 is happening that it is not made to casual. I have no problem with a casual mode for he casuals but there also need to be a classic mode as well. I do not wmant some blinking icons in Shenmue . The world of Shenmue must remain pure and it must be rewarding to explore the word. Following blinking icons spoils this exploring experience.

But it is nice to see that Yu-San is still thinking about S4 and considering at least.

That said, SIII already paved the way for quest markers with the (very annoying and unnecessary) signal for side quests.

The tabs in the Ryo's notebook was another false-good idea that strengthens the separation between main quests and side quests whereas S1 & S2 side quests were way more organic and fascinating to trigger.

After reading the interview, he doesn't seem to be much aware of his own work - it would not be the first time though. Sometimes, Yu really gives the impression he forgets what he's precisely done in the past but maybe it's only an impression.

Overall, I'm not comfortable with the Yu's current approach leading him to add casual-friendly features in the game. I would have preferred him finding a way to help casual gamers to enter the Shenmue's mood and way of thinking rather than offer them shortcuts denying general Shenmue's spirit.
 
Maybe Yu will now give the fans what they want with 4, and junk all the avant garde stuff he put into 3.

Shenmue 3 is like 95% fan service, he ended up ditching nearly all the innovative stuff he wanted to add (siege game in Baisha, character perspective system, infiltration mission).
 
As far as I can tell it's just a cutscene with a QTE it's not the level of depth of the first 2 games in terms of learning new moves. Wouldn't be any different to implement than any other QTE right? Unless he means creating the cutscene/animations etc. were the challenging parts.
I think that's exactly what he's saying doing the animations etc. That's quite time consuming.
Cutscenes and story sequences are the most expensive parts of making games and the higher the quality bar, the more expensive it gets. It's hard to imagine something like this happening late in development as it requires additional writing, voice acting, animation, and affects a boss battle; but who knows how much was in place already? Maybe he just meant taking the scroll to the fisherman? Either way I really think Suzuki should prioritize finding a way to make the cutscenes/dialogue sequences cheaper. Either invest in the tools that help automate a lot of the process (Witcher 3 does this) or scale back the quality of the camerawork and animation (like BotW for instance). Not everything needs to be a cutscene.

I think Yu meant reducing the gap between Ryo/Shenhua and the rest of the cast which have been mostly basic if not weird, or non-existent regarding the case of cartoonesque-sized characters.

Not sure if it will cost that much. The problem in SIII was not the skill, but that the Indian skill came very late in the production - supposing the exponential progress we witnessed in the last months of S3 development was influenced by their expertise. Now he can proceed his partnership from the very beginning.

Ryo & Shenhua have been really fine to me btw. You may also add Niao Sun's theatrical laugh at the end to theorize what Suzuki meant by improving facial.
Regarding the models/rigs, I think he should keep the S3 models; they look fine and unless there's a huge jump in quality, like digitzed faces, I don't think anyone is going to notice the difference from a remodel (maybe just get rid of the more cartoony looking models). Lighting affects how good everything looks way more than the actual geometry anyway, so it would be wise to focus on improving that. Look how much better things look in the bad ending just because of some dramatic, colorful lighting:
 
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