[Thunder Monkey]

Dear god don't remind me of that! Seriously wouldn't Sega making Shenmue undermine the whole Yakuza they're trying to sell us right now?

Nope because they might have ties but they are more different then similar.

edit: OMG!

I love it when I get the first post on a new page! It's like getting a virgin every night!

[Earl Cazone]

Dear god don't remind me of that! Seriously wouldn't Sega making Shenmue undermine the whole Yakuza they're trying to sell us right now?

I dont get the whole comparison. OMG games with asian settings and fighting.
sure there are similarities, but not to the extend that the games could not coexist

[TommyTomsten]

:lol :lol :lol

It is, my little friend

[Himuro]

ITT: People who don't like Shenmue discussing what Sega should do with Shenmue.

[TommyTomsten]

ITT: People who don't like Shenmue discussing what Sega should do with Shenmue.

So true :/ I love it. Come one Sega, do it!!

[SecretBonusPoint]

Honestly I'd like to see Shenmue return with the next-gen portables. That to me is the best chance of seeing it return than hoping for some insane HD title that wouldn't make any financial sense. Graphics close if not mildly improved past Dreamcast assets means use of all old assets that are probably plentiful for "Shenmue 3". Plop in a Save Anywhere mechanism just like Shenmue 2 (but enforce a save when you place a gambling bet :P) and you have an incredibly immersive portable title. Imagine doing your Shenmue 3 job on the commute to your real one :lol

[Mael]

I dont get the whole comparison. OMG games with asian settings and fighting. sure there are similarities, but not to the extend that the games could not coexist

It seemed so, I mean I'm looing forward to Yak3 coming soon and despite offering the 1rst one on ps2 I didn't play it.
On the other hand I played extensively Shenmue, so seeing 1 getting sequels and the other not getting 1, I assumed that they were phasing 1 for the other.
Not totally unreasonable if you ask me.

And seriously Shenmue is NOT that popular, I mean if Sega Kart stuff do a fourth of Mario Kart Wii number AND you only see Ryo online then you'll have a point.

An without Suzuki, Shenmue is as dead as Seiken Densetsu is dead to Square-Enix

[Vgamer]

Sega should relaease both games on Xbox Live Arcade & PlayStation Network... then release Shenmue 3 on both consoles

That sounds like a better idea then going through all the work of re-making the games.

[TommyTomsten]

That sounds like a better idea then going through all the work of re-making the games.

Maybe a small HD update but yeah, leave it as it is :)
And then a bombastic part III :D

[Scribble]

I think they could continue with Shenmue 3 without rebooting the series, because Guilin is like a new beginning anyway, and Shenhua was supposed to be the series heroine (Which makes it hit home how premature Shenmue's death is).

So, maybe Shenmue 3 would kick off with Ryo arriving at Guilin (As they originally planned) and meeting Shenhua, and he reminisces about his past adventures. The peaceful Guilin portion could serve as a kind of 'frame story' for recapping the past in the form of playable, remade flashbacks of Shenmue 1 & 2's key portions. And because this is Ryo recalling his memory, they needn't be identical to the old games (And maybe the items in Ryo's backpack could act as triggers for the flashbacks or something)

Also, I imagine the opening scene starting from Shenhua's perspective, with her narrating or something, then Ryo arrives and we're like OH SHIT RYO IS BACK then the dramatic music Shenmue 3 Logo appears.

Even if the above idea wouldn't work, there's so many ways you could get away with it (And Guilin makes it easier). Shenmue 1 was more or less a prologue and you only really need to cover the bits with Guizhang and Chai and the mirrors (Heck, not even Guizhang and Chai)

Nozomi ain't coming back from Canada.

[jay]

I can see it now, HD remakes of the first two games come out and bomb and permanently seal the series coffin.

The idea of combining 1 and 2 and condensing them as the first half of a new game is decent. It may really screw up the pacing, though, when it takes 7 minutes to go from Dobuita to Hong Kong and then you spend five hours in Guilin.

Shenmue is only popular with an extremely small majority of gamers and that small majority doesn't make the project possible so Sega and everyone else should leave it alone and never touch it again.. What the fuck are you talking about?

Aggression comes off a little cooler when you don't misuse the word "majority" twice in the same sentence.

[Vgamer]

I can see it now, HD remakes of the first two games come out and bomb and permanently seal the series coffin.

Ya thats what I would be afraid of happening. Even if the remade games did not totally bomb and had decent but not amazing sales would decent sales be enough to move forward with Shenmue 3? To me it seems even riskier to re-make the first two games then it would be to release Shenmue 3 because you are investing even more money into the series so need even bigger sales to make a profit.

[gamergirly]

I find this weird. They are spending loots of money on other games that are not even half the quality of Shenmue 1/2 and yet they talk about not having enough money to fund Shenmue 3

[MightyHedgehog]

Nice, loading-free ports as a single lower-price release leading up to a real sequel...one that is free to break quite free of a lot of the first two titles' mechanics and classic features. It was a shame that II ended just when things were getting truly interesting. Will it ever happen? Probably not. I really liked the world, even if the games were quite flawed. Even episodic pieces of five or more hours of straight main gameplay progression offered through DD channels at would be so great.

[°°ToMmY°°]

I find this weird. They are spending loots of money on other games that are not even half the quality of Shenmue 1/2 and yet they talk about not having enough money to fund Shenmue 3

those other games have a possibility at selling.

[Mael]

I find this weird. They are spending loots of money on other games that are not even half the quality of Shenmue 1/2 and yet they talk about not having enough money to fund Shenmue 3

Well as sad as that may be, they probably didn't lose nearly half as much money on theses duds than on Shenmue.
Also add to that that Shenmue was a pet project from one of the most senior staff they had at the time and that it bombed harder than the Virtual Boy (relatively).
I mean at this point I wouldn't doubt that anyone at Sega thought that Shenmue was a cursed project more than anything

[Haunted]

I find this weird. They are spending loots of money on other games that are not even half the quality of Shenmue 1/2 and yet they talk about not having enough money to fund Shenmue 3

Suzuki being persona non grata (and apparently retired since last year according to the company's mascot) and Shenmue 1/2 losing Sega a shitload of money (like, upwards of 50 million) would be an explanation, no? :p

Then again, Sega's business sense has been pretty shitty since Sammy took over so... fuck, they should greenlight Shenmue III any minute now!

[Mael]

Suzuki being persona non grata (and apparently retired since last year according to the company's mascot) and Shenmue 1/2 losing Sega a shitload of money (like, upwards of 50 million) would be an explanation, no? :p Then again, Sega's business sense has been pretty shitty since Sammy took over so... fuck, they should greenlight Shenmue III any minute now!

Well I don't know about that I mean, would you want the company responsible for Sonic, Golden Axe and Nights to handle Shenmue?
I mean what are the odds of it not sucking balls?

[Himuro]

I can see it now, HD remakes of the first two games come out and bomb and permanently seal the series coffin. The idea of combining 1 and 2 and condensing them as the first half of a new game is decent. It may really screw up the pacing, though, when it takes 7 minutes to go from Dobuita to Hong Kong and then you spend five hours in Guilin. Aggression comes off a little cooler when you don't misuse the word "majority" twice in the same sentence.

Yeah but wouldn't it be great to have a re-release with no load times? English/Japanese/Chinese voice acting? That'd be so boss.

[Dead Man Typing]

This isn't meant to be a troll on the Wii, but it probably will be taken as one...

Shenmue as it appeared on the Dreamcast looks better than a lot of Wii games. You could do a direct port of Shenmue 1 and 2 and they wouldn't look out of place. If they improved the framerate and added motion controlled QTE's like RE4 did, then I don't see why they wouldn't port Shenmue 1 and 2 to the Wii. As I said this isn't really a troll on the Wii, it's just that Shenmue looked so good on the Dreamcast, especially in 480p.

They would of course have to put a disclaimer on the box saying:

"Warning, Shenmue II's story ends with a huge cliffhanger, and Sega re-releasing this game on Wii is not a promise to finish the story, or release Shenmue III. If this sells well, then maybe ."

Maybe some sort of standard "Wii Test Game" sticker could be issued to developers from Nintendo, so audiences know not to get their hopes up for a sequel to other games too.

Sega porting more Dreamcast games to Xbox Live Arcade and PSN seems to be a good place for a Shenmue testing ground on those consoles. If re-releases of Shenmue I and II sell well enough, they could green light Shenmue III, even if it is much smaller in scope than most modern adventure games.

Games like Oblivion, Heavy Rain and Mass Effect have raised the bar for what kind of scale we should expect from an adventure game. Maybe Sega feels that to do Shenmue's legend justice, they would have to build something on a similar scale. I say no, no Sega, you don't have to build something that costs millions and millions of dollars. Just release the game anyway you can, on any system.

I still think Shenmue ported to DS would be cool.

[rvy]

Well I don't know about that I mean, would you want the company responsible for Sonic, Golden Axe and Nights to handle Shenmue? I mean what are the odds of it not sucking balls?

1000000000000000000000000000000000000 to 1.

[Dark FaZe]

I just refuse to believe they could make 4 copies of fucking Yakuza and not find some way to make another Shenmue. I just cant.

Fuck Sega.

[Mael]

1000000000000000000000000000000000000 to 1.

we're talking about either Sega outsourcing it or some Sega team that is NOT making Yakuza or whatever that is skilled at making a console game too.
Also no SUZUKI.
I mean just look at how fucking pathetic Sonic has become, you want that for Shenmue?

[NeoGIF]

This opportunity screams Microsoft all over it. Don't be surprised if we hear something at TGS this year. Believe! :D

[jay]

Yeah but wouldn't it be great to have a re-release with no load times? English/Japanese/Chinese voice acting? That'd be so boss.

I'm working under the assumption anything Shenmue will not sell and so while it would be great to have remastered old games I'd rather the next and last Shenmue project be something new that continues the story.

Well I don't know about that I mean, would you want the company responsible for Sonic, Golden Axe and Nights to handle Shenmue? I mean what are the odds of it not sucking balls?

This is unfortunately a big problem. Old Sega and New Sega are very different companies and I wouldn't trust New Sega with the Imagine license.

[shuri]

Does anyone even knows what happened to Yu Suzuki? Will someone find him? I totally expect him to have his office in the basement of Sega like in Office Space by now. Someone at SEGA should do a search on the active directory to see if Yu still has at least a working account? Maybe it has expired and he has since been since hanging out in the bathroom or at the cafeteria to pass time

[Vgamer]

Does anyone even knows what happened to Yu Suzuki? Will someone find him? I totally expect him to have his office in the basement of Sega like in Office Space by now.

I have been wondering about this too. Surely even if he has retired he would be willing to come back in a consultant role to help with a Shenmue 3 since the Shenmue series meant so much to him.

[Scribble]

I'd love a Shenmue 1 + 2 Wii port with Japanese voices for the original game as well as the second. I can imagine integration with the Weather channel, an Mii capsule toys

omg with the wiimote, you could rotate the capsule toys with your hand! They could add Virtua Cop to the arcade! In Shenmue 1 you can stroke the cat!

[Himuro]

I'm working under the assumption anything Shenmue will not sell and so while it would be great to have remastered old games I'd rather the next and last Shenmue project be something new that continues the story.

Sure. But there's no way they're release Shenmue 3 without re-release Shenmue 1+2. It's been almost ten years. To release Shenue 3 they'd at least be hoping for a marginal success. There'd be no way a forgotten series like Shenmue would do well at all if they just released 3, making it an impossibility of release.

However, if they re-release 1+2, update them with a few modern features, for example, if Shenmue 1 had time skip like in 2, that'd single-handedly rid the game of many people's problems with it, or an arrow that points you in the direction of the next clue for people who need modern game hand holding. Bundle them together and sell at a cheap price, there may be a chance.

There's more risk involved just releasing 3, after almost ten years, instead of enticing your fanbase and possibly gaining new ones.

[Scribble]

They could also throw in the boat chapter to compensate for the lack of Shenmue 3. =P

[Mael]

Sure. But there's no way they're release Shenmue 3 without re-release Shenmue 1+2. It's been almost ten years. To release Shenue 3 they'd at least be hoping for a marginal success. There'd be no way a forgotten series like Shenmue would do well at all if they just released 3, making it an impossibility of release. However, if they re-release 1+2, bundle them together and sell at a cheap price, there may be a chance.

Actually since Shenmue is such a story heavy game they can't take the cop out and just release a sequel like that.
And since they lost the source codes, they can't make a quick & dirty port....
So they can emulate it, that would be the less costly way...
Or they could just make a BIG movie with all the sequences from the games and bundle it with the game and be done with it Xenosaga PALland style.

[Himuro]

Actually since Shenmue is such a story heavy game they can't take the cop out and just release a sequel like that. And since they lost the source codes, they can't make a quick & dirty port.... So they can emulate it, that would be the less costly way... Or they could just make a BIG movie with all the sequences from the games and bundle it with the game and be done with it Xenosaga PALland style.

The story in Shenmue is not why I like the games so much, though. Shenmue the movie sucked for that reason.

They lost the source code to the games? To the most expensive games they ever made? I refuse to believe that. Especially since Shenmue 2 went on to being ported to the xbox.

[Mael]

The story in Shenmue is not why I like the games so much, though. Shenmue the movie sucked for that reason. They lost the source code to the games? To the most expensive games they ever made? I refuse to believe that. Especially since Shenmue 2 went on to being ported to the xbox.

Or is that Azel Panzer Dragoon?
Still they don't need to remake the first 2 to prepare for a sequel (there was a movie for Shenmue?). I mean they sure as hell don't remake everything every time a sequel is released (Or i could have found bloody Halo CE already)

[Himuro]

They lost the source code to Panzer Dragoon Saga. I have heard nothing about Shenmue.

Shenmue 2x (which is to say, the xbuck version) came with Shenmue The Movie, which was released theatrically in Japan. It was a movie that contains the majority of cutscenes from the original Shenmue.

It's terrible.

[Mael]

They lost the source code to Panzer Dragoon Saga. I have heard nothing about Shenmue.

my bad then (still losing the source code of such an expensive game? WTF is responsible for this need to be fired)

Shenmue 2x (which is to say, the xbuck version) came with Shenmue The Movie, which was released theatrically in Japan. It was a movie that contains the majority of cutscenes from the original Shenmue. It's terrible.

maybe it was that, that DID kill the sales of Shenmue 2 in the end ...

[riskVSreward]

They lost the source code to Panzer Dragoon Saga. I have heard nothing about Shenmue. Shenmue 2x (which is to say, the xbuck version) came with Shenmue The Movie, which was released theatrically in Japan. It was a movie that contains the majority of cutscenes from the original Shenmue. It's terrible.

I remember getting hype about that DVD. "OMG A SHENMUE MOVIE!!"

I was totally disappoint.

[androvsky]

They used the "We lost the source code" excuse for Panzer Dragoon Saga, but it reminds me of the old "they lost the masters" excuse for old anime series that never got licensed for the U.S. Turns out "they lost the masters" was the polite way of saying that some anime companies just didn't like licensing their stuff for release outside of Japan.

On the other hand, this is the same company that recently discovered a stockpile of their own games in their own basement, and proceeded to turn it into a major story. Never mind, Kotaku fail. As usual.

[Haunted]

Does anyone even knows what happened to Yu Suzuki? Will someone find him? I totally expect him to have his office in the basement of Sega like in Office Space by now. Someone at SEGA should do a search on the active directory to see if Yu still has at least a working account? Maybe it has expired and he has since been since hanging out in the bathroom or at the cafeteria to pass time

I personally thought he still had a token advisory position over at AM Plus, but Segata claims he retired quietly last year.

[Himuro]

maybe it was that, that DID kill the sales of Shenmue 2 in the end ...

They should have ported Shenmue 1 to the xbox as well.

Or is that Azel Panzer Dragoon? Still they don't need to remake the first 2 to prepare for a sequel (there was a movie for Shenmue?). I mean they sure as hell don't remake everything every time a sequel is released (Or i could have found bloody Halo CE already)

Every game series doesn't need a re-release or remake.

I'm not asking for a remake. People misunderstand the word remake. Remake means from the ground up. A port is not a remake. Remaking 1+2 would be more financially wasteful than anything else.

However, for a game series that has lucked out in the past, and the story being an important aspect for (some) fans, it would be stupid to make a Shenmue 3, in an attempt to sell to the (extremely small, especially after 10 years) Shenmue fanbase without some form of attempt to gain new fans or get back old ones.

That's suicide.

It'd be nice to play Mue without hooking up my fucking dreamcast.

[Mael]

Every game series doesn't need a re-release or remake. I'm not asking for a remake. People misunderstand the word remake. Remake means from the ground up. A port is not a remake. Remaking 1+2 would be more financially wasteful than anything else. However, for a game series that has lucked out in the past, and the story being an important aspect for (some) fans, it would be stupid to make a Shenmue 3, in an attempt to sell to the (extremely small, especially after 10 years) Shenmue fanbase without some form of attempt to gain new fans or get back old ones. That's suicide. It'd be nice to play Mue without hooking up my fucking dreamcast.

Then we pretty much agree on everything but the bolded part.

I mean, why make Shemnue 3 if not for everyone else that didn't play the first 2!
I remember an old Miyamoto interview and he said something that I feel was pretty much true back then and still is :
You shouldn't need to play previous games to play the sequel of a game, like in Dragon Quest (at the time I thought he talking about Dragon Ball :lol ) you don't need to have played DQ1 to begin a game of DQ4 or 5.
In that sense, Shemnue 3 shouldn't be an appeal to the fans but a great on its own.

[Segata Sanshiro]

my bad then (still losing the source code of such an expensive game? WTF is responsible for this need to be fired)

It's not just PDS's source code that wasn't kept, and SEGA is far from the only company that did that sort of thing back then. Kind of a lack of foresight by many Japanese developers. They didn't envision a future where they could release the exact same game again and make cash off it. Nintendo are one of the few companies that hung onto the source code for most of their games.

[Mael]

It's not just PDS's source code that wasn't kept, and SEGA is far from the only company that did that sort of thing back then. Kind of a lack of foresight by many Japanese developers. They didn't envision a future where they could release the exact same game again and make cash off it. Nintendo are one of the few companies that hung onto the source code for most of their games.

Working in software, I can understand their oversight but still it shows how little they thought of what they did...
Maybe I say that because I never want to throw anything :lol

[Segata Sanshiro]

Then we pretty much agree on everything but the bolded part. I mean, why make Shemnue 3 if not for everyone else that didn't play the first 2! I remember an old Miyamoto interview and he said something that I feel was pretty much true back then and still is : You shouldn't need to play previous games to play the sequel of a game, like in Dragon Quest (at the time I thought he talking about Dragon Ball :lol ) you don't need to have played DQ1 to begin a game of DQ4 or 5. In that sense, Shemnue 3 shouldn't be an appeal to the fans but a great on its own.

This is a really silly comparison, and I think you know why. The stories in the DQ games are almost entirely independent of each other, except for some ties between the first three games. The Shenmue games are just chapters of one larger story.

[riskVSreward]

Shenmue 3 would need to be accompanied by ports of the first two, it's the only way.

[Himuro]

Then we pretty much agree on everything but the bolded part. I mean, why make Shemnue 3 if not for everyone else that didn't play the first 2! I remember an old Miyamoto interview and he said something that I feel was pretty much true back then and still is : You shouldn't need to play previous games to play the sequel of a game, like in Dragon Quest (at the time I thought he talking about Dragon Ball :lol ) you don't need to have played DQ1 to begin a game of DQ4 or 5. In that sense, Shemnue 3 shouldn't be an appeal to the fans but a great on its own.

But...that would be dumb.

Shenmue 2 ends on a total cliff hanger: a sword, a giant mirror, a city boy stuck in bum fuck land. Shenmue 3 should entirely cater itself to the fanbase, especially since it has taken so long.

That's like watching Return of the Jedi without watching A New Hope or Empire Strikes Back which is to say, baysuckly, real dumb.

Anyways, I worry what would happen if they even made a Shenmue 3 after the travesty that was Shenmue Online. I'm sure some people remember this, but in many of the fmv's presented, characters have magic powers and can summon giant Phoenixes and Dragons. That's stupid.

Shenmue had fantasy and magic, but it was all so subdued that it didn't ruin anything. I know the story is about the Phoenix fighting the Dragon, but I always felt it was like a metaphor: Ryo is the Phoenix, Lan Di is the Dragon. Not Ryo actually shooting out hadouken's and Lan Di summoning a giant dragon.

The more I think of it, the more I'm fine with just 1+2. But fuck, sometimes I just really want a new Shenmue game, you know? And I'd also like to play Shenmue without having to hook up my dreamcast. How's DC emulation these days?

[Segata Sanshiro]

The story was about to take a turn into bugfuck crazy mysticism and magic, you know that, right Himu?

[Suzuki Yu]

Does anyone even knows what happened to Yu Suzuki? Will someone find him? I totally expect him to have his office in the basement of Sega like in Office Space by now. Someone at SEGA should do a search on the active directory to see if Yu still has at least a working account? Maybe it has expired and he has since been since hanging out in the bathroom or at the cafeteria to pass time

as far as i know Suzuki is still with SEGA , he was removed from his old position as R&D Creative Officer but he is still a member within the AM Division . but i am not sure if he is still heading his former team AM+

[Thunder Monkey]

Nintendo are one of the few companies that hung onto the source code for most of their games.

And that's just because of extreme paranoia.

[Himuro]

The story was about to take a turn into bugfuck crazy mysticism and magic, you know that, right Himu?

Yes and it drives me insane.

[Mael]

This is a really silly comparison, and I think you know why. The stories in the DQ games are almost entirely independent of each other, except for some ties between the first three games. The Shenmue games are just chapters of one larger story.

Oh I know about that, but I just mean in the general sense, the game should try to not be so obscure that people that never played the first 2 should feel overwhelmed when trying it.
I mean if you need to have finished the first 2 games :-/
I really feel the sequel should have a recap at the beginning and go from there.
I just want it to have a broader appeal than Shenmue 2 that was not exactly seen as the best thing ever (and we did get the DC release here)