Yu Suzuki said:

"Shenmue will be a project that I feel very close to. It's not just a memory; it exists as a part of me."

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Shenmue is undeniably a landmark in videogames, love it or hate it, it's the 1st time a game attempted to do anything such as ambitious as Shenmue attempts, probably the most epic project this industry has ever seen from a development standpoint, a controversial project from the very beginning, Shenmue is the work that brought gamers into the mind of Yu suzuki.

It all started during the Sega Saturn's time. It's late 96', Final Fantasy VII has yet to be released, the Saturn is still selling reasonably well in Japan, and Sega has just announced that AM2 is working on a couple of games exclusively for the home market. One of the games is eventually revealed to be Fighters Megamix, a massive 3D fighter that promises to bring together characters from Virtua Fighter, Fighters Megamix, and other Sega games. The other game is left purposely in the dark, but the internet community manages to collectively narrow its speculation down to a couple of possibilities: Drivers Megamix, the driving-game equivalent of Fighters Megamix, or Virtua Fighter RPG, an RPG game that would feature characters from the Virtua Fighter series. It is eventually revealed the second surprise Saturn game from Suzuki and crew is none other than Digital Dance Mix Starring Namie Amuro, a Namie Amuro fan disk featuring full motion video and a real-time version of a dancing Namie Amuro. While there's much disappointment in the internet community over this turn of events, most actually find themselves somewhat frightened that Suzuki seems to be such a big fan of the young Japanese pop star. Despite this disappointing announcement, rumours of a Virtua Fighter RPG have just seen their birth, and will continue for some time.

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Rumours that were not totally unfounded, as later we've became to know. Shenmue started as a Saturn project, in fact, 2 years were spent on its development, and its main character was none other than Akira from Virtua Fighter. The player would play as a young Akira, following the events of his past. We can see the progression from the character, as it went from Akira to Ryo in shenmue. The first pic is Akira from Virtua fighter 2 with a bag similar what Ryo carries, second one shows him on a boat like Ryo at the end of the first game, the third is from Project Berkley or what it was called then "Akira's Quest" and the fourth is now Akira from Saturn where he retains only one wristband. The fifth image is of the same model from the Saturn but updated with Dreamcast graphics. Lastly the sixth pic is the final version renamed to Ryo.

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Footage of the saturn version of shenmue was later released in shenmue 2, and it's hard to not be impressed at what the team at AM2 was getting out of the console, showing how ambitious the project was from the very beggining and even validating the much debated technicall poweress of the Saturn.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=jh2WtGUCQbI (Shenmue Saturn Video)

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It's middle of 1998 and people are well aware at this point that Suzuki is working on a game for Sega's Dreamcast system (the name of the system was revealed earlier in the year). No specific details are known, but that doesn't stop SEGA COO Bernie Stolar from introducing the game's hype-machine to the American market. In an interview with Next Generation, Stolar is quoted as saying "I can't tell you what Suzuki-san is working on. Let's just say that I've seen the project and it's going to rock the gaming world." The game referred to by Stolar is still being called Virtua Fighter RPG by netizens.

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Later that year (October 6), in New Challenge Conference in Japan, amid such Earth-shattering announcements as the Biohazard Code Veronica DC exclusive, and Namco's Dreamcast support, Yu Suzuki announces to the world that he and AM2 are developing a game that currently goes by the name Project Berkeley. The game will feature more than 500 unique characters, and Suzuki is reluctant to call it an RPG, despite the fact that it will have RPG elements. There's talk of a demo being included with the release of Virtua Fighter 3tb. Some initial comments indicate that the game will have far more scope than the likes of Final Fantasy VII. Despite the odd code name, many are still under the assumption that Suzuki's game will feature characters from the Virtua Fighter world; this assumption is further fueled by rumours that behind-the-scenes footage of the game in motion have shown a drunken old man, not unlike Shun Di, straddling through the streets of a city.

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In October 19 (1998), it is confirmed that a demo of the game will be included with Virtua Fighter 3tb when the game ships on November 20. It is also mentioned that the game will be officially revealed at a conference to be held on December 20th at the Yokohama International Assembly Hall.

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In early november Sega reveals that Project Berkeley is so unique a gaming experience that they've coined a new game genre in order to describe it. F.R.E.E. stands for Full Reactive Eyes Entertainment. Sega gives no explanation as to the meaning of the phrase.

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November 27, the Dreamcast is released, along with Virtua Fighter 3tb. Included with the classic AM2 fighter is the promised preview disk of Project Berkeley, now going by its official name of Shenmue.

Panicked Sega fans flood message boards, trying to find out what in the world Shenmue actually means; alas, no body can figure it out. The disk consisted of a cg intro, a look back into Yu Suzuki's past games and his views about his upcoming title Shenmue which he defines as "FREE". A new genre of gaming that stands for "Full Reactive Eyes Entertainment. It included sculptures of the main characters and preproduction art of Shenhua and various other characters in the world of Shenmue.

Project Berkley Part 1 - http://youtube.com/watch?v=0tFLQuZ-8mA (Includes CG intro)
Project Berkley Part 2 - http://youtube.com/watch?v=VR2OIf7ffvY&feature=related (Yu Suzuki talking, transcript below)
Project Berkley Part 3 - http://youtube.com/watch?v=ot__4mLLHGQ&feature=related (Includes sketches of Shenhua in the end, images below)

Project Berkley Part 4 - http://youtube.com/watch?v=IP_kfehkmQw (Shows many preproduction character sketches, images below)

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Video Transcript said:

Yu Suzuki on F.R.E.E (Full Reactive Eyes Entertainment)

"The latest technology and a sense of game balancing well... that's what
I want to make. That's my style. I want to give the children, the game players,
the space as free as possible.

RPG
People started calling "Wizardry" and "Ultima" RPG. But, they're too maniac
to be accepted in Japan. Being evolved to fit Japanese market, "Dragon Quest"
emerged and "Final Fantasy" followed. That's the flow of RPG, I think.

But, as a student, I had good chemistry with the adventures and RPGs of Macintosh
or Apple computer. I've been interested in evolving that kind of games.
And here comes the chance. I might be able to call it "my kind of RPG, but
I might as well not calling it RPG, as other people have different recognition.

FREE
I thought up a new genre name, instead of RPG: FREE. It should be much
freer, less restrictive. FREE stands for Full Reactive Eyes Entertainment.
I'd like to make it an entertainment fully reactive. A pair of eyes represent
two opposite things; reality vs. surreality or virtual reality; past vs. future.
You shouln't talk about things in just one aspect. Opposite things should be
well-balanced as a pair like the face and the back. Also, the eyes have the most
sensitive, delicate function of human body. Overall, it's a full reactive game
with the very sensitive eyes.

The general users tend to be impressed by the most recent game I made. I'm
Yu Suzuki of Virtua Fighter now. Though I've made the driving games and others,
people have the strong impression of the fighting games about me. But, Virtua
Fighter is a kind of hard game to play that requires strict or delicate timing.
If I make it that kind of game, not every child in the world would be able to play
equally. The most important thing is to convey the story line or concept, to
give our messages some how. So, I fear the difficulty in operation should make the
users give up playing it and our messages never reach the people.

As I wanted lots of people to play it, I chose some universal themes; love, courage,
pride, etc. Family is important for anybody in the world. And so are friendship and
falling in love. Those could be universal themes. There's one particular message;
"keep friends those you love close to you." I want to create a story that would tell
people how important the real friendship is, or how respectful love is, now in
this world. We're trying very hard to put my thought and other staff members' thought
into the game. We would be happy if our messages reach the children all over the world
beyond the barrier of language and nationality.

I'd like to include some relaxing part in any game. I came up with this witty slogan;
"slowly, amply, gently." I want to express ampleness and abundance in the next game.
The world there shouldn't be rigid and should be provided with bigger components than
it needs.... in every aspect. That's our concept. We want to create as many characters
as possible. Some of them would affect the story but we also need some characters
who don't have any influence. Now, we're aiming to complete 3D modeling of about
500 people before releasing the game.

The slogan; "slowly, amply, gently" gives me another thought; vastness and profundity.
For its vast property as well as profound history, I thought China would make a
great subject. It may sound strange but it might be my romanticism toward the
Chinese continent.

Here's my approach. Compose some music first. Put all my thoughts into a tune without
telling anything. Then let the staff, planners and scenario writers, listen to it.
And when each of them get some inspiration, I collect them and start shaping them into
a form. Getting ideas from various people including my thought is a good way to create
things with no particular color. Without writing sentences, without drawing pictures,
just music stimulates the imagination to create a new universe. So I made the music first.

The most important thing in the story-telling game is the sympathy with the main character.
As the appearance tells the character in the first place, we had to make the features as
close as to our image of the character. First, we drew rough sketchs; front view and
side view. Even both views looked great in the drawings, the 3D designers couldn't make
them up into a solid. No matter how hard they tried, it wouldn't make our image. So, we
made a clay model to life and eventually got a plaster cast. "

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In December 20, at Yokohama International Assembly Hall, Suzuki's game is revealed in live conference. Gamers who can't get to Yokohama can see the proceedings by connecting their Real Video players to Sega's Shenmue website. The conference begins with Suzuki speaking to a pair of MCs about the game; some topics of conversation include the FREE system and the making of the game. Then, the world is given a glimpse of Shenmue in action. The game's third-person exploration mode is shown off, in which the game's hero walks around the game world, speaking to people and picking up objects.The conference begins with Suzuki speaking to a pair of MCs about the game; some topics of conversation include the FREE system and the making of the game. Then, the world is given a glimpse of Shenmue in action. The game's third-person exploration mode is shown off, in which the game's hero walks around the game world, speaking to people and picking up objects. Also shown is the game's real-time weather and time system; the game can apparently change from day to night, fall to spring with notable effects on the environment. Finally, Sega shows off the game's Quick Timer Event (QTE) mode. QTEs are pre-programmed action sequences that require occasional timed responses - similar to the between-level cut-scenes in Die Hard Arcade (Dynamite Dekka). Screens of the game reveal a beautiful graphical display as characters run about through the game's environment. Occasionally, the image of a button will appear on screen, and the player has to press the corresponding button within a few moments in order to successfully complete an action.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=5JvYY8RyAtQ (QTE Sequence from Shenmue 1)

Gamers on the 'net are in utter shock at this style of gameplay. It had been assumed previously that the game would feature a full VFIII-style battle system. To see what would eventually be described as Dragon Slayer-style gameplay in this apparent masterpiece - it's just too shocking for most. Hardcore Sega fans swoon, spammers post countless messages to Sega-message-boards dooming Sega to a fiery grave dug by Suzuki himself. It seems that in the assuming eyes of the gaming internet community, the QTE mode is a dagger that will destroy the game. Rather ironic that QTE would be the most influential gameplay mechanic to ever come out of Shenmue, as even games today use it.

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March 03, 1999. The "split". In an unexpected move, Sega announces that the game will be split into two chapters, released sequentially. The first chapter, entitled Shenmue Chapter 1: Yokosuka, will be released on August 5th, as previously reported. Near the end of the year, it will be followed by Chapter 2: Mainland China. Creator Yu Suzuki actually envisions a total of 16 chapters, though not all of them may be produced.

To compensate for the move to two releases, the prices of each chapter will be lower than that of other Dreamcast games. Suzuki estimates each chapter will take about 12 hours to complete.

Shenmue is still scheduled to be released in North America by the end of the year, but the move to two separate chapters may mean only the first chapter appears in English before the year's end.

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"What's Shenmue?"

The next preview of Shenmue was the "What's Shenmue?" demo released in June 1999. he disc includes a mini-game in which Ryo is searching for SEGA executive Yukawa-san. There is a QTE demo in the game as well, involving two thugs who run into Ryo. You can only play in Dobuita, as various people stand blocking your way (there is a picture of one below) to other areas. The demo also features high-quality renders of characters explaining various points of the game, which can also be found in the Shenmue Passport.

What's Shenmue Demo Video - http://youtube.com/watch?v=NSmQRpyEGcU

This demo, What's Shenmue?, was hard to obtain even in Japan and because of this it was up to $100 in importers and even then you'd be very lucky to get one.

A promotional vhs tape was also released, also called "What's Shenmue". It contains almost 30 minutes of footage of Shenmue 1 and 2 or what we call beta-footage. For example we see some characters that are out of place and Ryo riding a bike through Dobuita. Our site was able to get this media with the help of Ryohazukigirl, we got a complementary copy thanks to her.

What's Shenmue Video Part 1 - http://youtube.com/watch?v=Afh_fiMVUNY
What's Shenmue Video Part 2 - http://youtube.com/watch?v=gloxLN8G0Pg
What's Shenmue Video Part 3 - http://youtube.com/watch?v=yVxgopH1cuU

Ryo Riding a bike was one of more gameplay features that ended up not seeing the light of day in the final release of Shenmue.
Gameplay features cut from final game - http://youtube.com/watch?v=40tAOdfSsPg

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With tons of hype behind it, years of development time, tagged "the most expensive game ever developed", considered a technical showcase for the Dreamcast, anticipation was bursting, until the game finally was released in japan, in December 29, 1999. It ended up being released in North America in November 6, 2000 and December 1st, 2000 in Europe.

The game follows the events of young Ryo searching for the murderer of his father(left), Lan Di(right), and in his path to revenge the player will learn the mistery behind the Dragon Mirror, the item that Lan Di killed Ryo's father for.

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Shenmue was one of the first video games to incorporate development techniques that had previously been primarily used for film. The voice acting in Shenmue was especially ground-breaking because it was the one of the first large scale games to include real voices for every single NPC in the game world, not just resorting to text transcriptions (e.g. The Legend of Zelda). Furthermore, this extensive audio script was recorded in both Japanese and English. Clay models of every character - regardless of how minor their role in the game - were built as reference material for animators creating the final in-game versions of the character models. The game also includes a highly cinematic musical score, which required a full size Orchestra. Composed by Takenobu Mitsuyoshi and a host of other talents, the soundtrack has been critically acclaimed and is regarded by many as one of the finest soundtracks ever created for a video game.

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Impressive as Shenmue may be, it’s release was met with mixed reactions, many hailed it to be a masterpiece, while others found it self-indulgent and uninspiring. A universally praised aspect of the game, however, was its graphics. Gaming Target, who gave the game a perfect 10/10 score, described Shenmue's visuals as "The greatest in-game graphics that have ever been seen for a console."[ Even less favorable reviewers included strong praise for the game's visuals. RPG Fan, while only giving the game a score of 68%, wrote "Shenmue is truly a benchmark game. The world and its complexity is flawless, easily the most impressive, real, and interactive world I've ever seen.”
However, many reviews cited the game's pace as a major flaw, complaining that the whole experience offered by Shenmue was far too slow. GameSpot highlighted this problem in their review: "By the time you're driving forklifts and participating in the game's QTE-filled conclusion, hours upon hours of boredom will have taken their toll." Several other critics gave the gameplay of Shenmue high praise. Both US and UK editions of the Official Dreamcast Magazine awarded the game the highest possible 10/10 score, as did the popular publication DC:UK. Gamepower said the game's Free Fight system was "just as entertaining as almost any fighting game on the market." The publication concluded their review with "[Shenmue] is a landmark in gaming as we know it, a revolution in every sense of the word. The future is here, and we are staring it in the face. Shenmue is a masterpiece, I was honored to play.
Before the game was released in North America, Shenmue’s creator Yu Suzuki gave an interview where he was able to shed some light on the development of this epic game. Over 350 people from Sega were involved in the production of shenmue that last over 3.5 years, with a budget of 70 Million dollars. Nothing short of amazing, but something that would unfortunately weight in negatively in the game’s level of success.

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Considering the high production costs and high critical praise, Shenmue experienced underwhelming sales. Upon its Japanese release in late 1999, it was projected that two million units of the game would need to be shipped in order for the project to break even. The ambitious sales target was almost double that of the number of Dreamcast owners at the time. The game sold 1.2 million copies worldwide, making it one of the few Dreamcast games to top one million sales. Still, given the game's vast budget, it did not even come close to breaking even. Shenmue is consistently listed as one of several key Dreamcast titles (most of them Sega productions) that ensured the console enjoyed solid sales during the Christmas and Thanksgiving seasons of 2000.

If we ever wonder why Publishers have a hard time in betting their bank on new ideas, and why the Shenmue’s and Assassins Creed of our world are extremely rare, wonder no more. Shenmue is the kind of scenario that publishers want to avoid

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The sequel, shenmue 2, released September 6, 2001 in japan and November 23, 2001 in europe, went on to receive similar levels of success, however it never saw release in North America as a Dreamcast title, as Microsoft went on to make a deal with Sega to publish Shenmue 2 for the Xbox exclusively in North America. That didn’t stop North American owners of a Dreamcast, as Shenmue 2 became at the time the most imported game in history which probably had an influence in the lacklustre sales of Shenmue 2 on the Xbox when it released in October 28, 2002.

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Shenmue thus became a memorable project in the history of videogames, it was able to grow a large base of very hardcore followers that even to this day ask for a continuation of the series, but have instead been left hanging on to nothing but their imagination as they themselves picture where the series would have gone after being left in a cliff hanger at the end of Shenmue 2. Sega however has yet to announce such desired project, budget issues being the main reason.

It’s sad that such an epic and wonderful adventure had to come to such an abrupt end, in the middle of so many forgettable games that this industry throws at us, this was one that deserved to live till the end. Shenmue is a true love creation, a dream project of a gaming Legend, an homage to games as an art form, it dared to go where other games hadn’t, and we can only hope that more developers try to win gamers imagination going into the future, like Yu Suzuki and his masterpiece did in the past.

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All Credit goes to Shenmue Dojo, Youtube, Ign, Wikipedia, and others. Basically the internet.

Stay cool

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ksamedi said:

That is a long post you made there.

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arne said:

Another Shenmue thread? groan.
Interesting reading, but still.

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Timedog said:

I remember reading in Next Gen that it had a budget of either 20 or 30 million. I KNOW for a fact that it wasn't 70, unless you're talking about the 2nd game, or both games combined.

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MiamiWesker said:

Awesome read but now I am sad again cause I am reminded that I will never see it end. What an excellent game.

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AlteredBeast said:

Shenmue II is the best game that I have ever played. Even if I fully divest myself from videogames and sell everything I have, I will ALWAYS keep my copies of Shenmue II. I would gladly pay $200 for Shenmue III if I knew it would be as good as the second and could finish the series' story.

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Anerythristic said:

Really excellent post. Shenmue 3 for Wii...believe.

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Davidion said:

"standing on top of a cliff, hair and clothes blowing in the wind, gritting their teeth, shaking their fists and shedding a single tear for their lost series while staring off into the sunset" sort of way. I don't get it but props for the love.

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Iam Canadian said:

They rival us Mother fans.

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radjago said:

This speaks volumes. :lol

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Odrion said:

Fuck everyone who never bought this game.

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oo Kosma oo said:

Well the game just wasn't very good imho.

The actual game that is.

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KTallguy said:

I loved Shenmue 1 and 2. The world just felt more alive than anything else I've ever played. It's so difficult to design everything by hand, too bad there's no real way to do is procedurally.

The fighting system was awesome, although it was like a simplified VF3 system

I'd love to see a 3rd one.

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Iam Canadian said:

I don't know anything about Shenmue, I've never played a Shenmue game, and I've never been particularly interested in Shenmue...but this is one of the most incredible posts I've seen on NeoGAF, bar none. You clearly have love for the franchise and I definitely respect that.



They rival us Mother fans.

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WrikaWrek said:

And just the premise, you can't find it anywhere else. It's too bad it didn't achieve the success it deserved, imo, otherwise we would be seeing quite a bit of martial arts games.

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Man God said:

Not even close, you guys got your third game. Mother III was always in development, Shenmue III is completely dead, unless you count RE4's cutscenes as Shenmue III.

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AniHawk said:

Shenmue was such an overhyped letdown.

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master15 said:

I always find that kind of odd, people who loved the sequel but weren't fans of the original game. I mean, I remember the first time I played Shenmue 1 & 2, actually the Dreamcast was already on its last legs (If I'm being honest it was pretty much DOA in New Zealand) and upon completing Shenmue 2 I was adamant it was the better game of the two. I mean it was hard not to get into the whole final section on top of the Yellowhead building and the final showdown, along with the beautiful Guilin section.

Yet like many Shenmue fans we’ve had plenty of time for reflection on both games and there’s certainly elements done much better than in the sequel. I missed the ability of training and working on my moves, I missed the feeling of the tight-nit and individual characters in the community and I felt Shenmue was a much more cohesive experience despite its lopsided pacing.

I really disliked how Shenmue 2’s first person fighting sections in the Wharf, the screen fading to black in pivotal fight scenes were also a pretty ugly technique in pushing the story forward. Yet we began to see the story really move forward and progress from largely filler material seen in Chapter 1, but I guess those events really put Ryo’s journey in perspective.

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AniHawk said:

I think knowing what Shenmue was about, instead of expecting this huge, incredible epic game, would have lessened the pain considerably. It's essentially the first part of an RPG where you go into the cave, kill the baddie, and then find out you must leave your town for a greater quest. I don't think a whole lot of people expected that.

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