OH GEEZ.. PLEASE TELL ME THAT I'M FUCKING DREAMING!!! SHENMUE III NEWS... very bad...

[OB1]

From Shenmudojo:

GMR Yu Suzuki Interview January 6

The premiere issue of GMR (the new game mag co-published by Electronics Boutique and Ziff Davis Media) has done a short interview with Yu Suzuki. This is what was asked about Shenmue:

GMR: With Shenmue II completed, can you tell us about Shenmue III? We know you had to compress multiple chapters into Shenmue II because of cost constraints. Will you have to further condense the series?

Suzuki: The series will continue, but I think we will go with a different approach for Shenmue III. I'd like to make the next chapter into a movie.

GMR: A CG movie, kind of like the one on the free DVD that comes with Shenmue II?

Suzuki: Yes.

GMR: Is it true that Shenmue originally began life as a Virtua Fighter RPG?

Suzuki: That's something of an urban myth. When we were first planning the game, Akira (from Virtua Figher) was scheduled to be the main character, and the working title was Akira's Quest. As development progressed, we felt it would be better to start with a brand-new character.

This interview was sent in by Protomic in which he also scanned the "magazine cover" and "interview". ~HellRaiser~

Oh fucking fuck shit mother fucker fuck shit fuck fuck fuck!!!!!! By "chapter" I certainly hope he doesn't mean the entire rest of the series... there were three chapters in Shenmue II, so maybe he meant that only the first chapter will be a CG movie and that the rest of Shenmue III will be fully playable... PLEASE OH GOD TELL ME THAT I'M RIGHT!!!!!!!

[Dark Jaguar]

To be honest, the last chapter of Shenmue 2 felt like a frickin' movie anyway. None of the full freedom of interactivity was to be found, I just wandered through one frickin' endless forest and solved an embarresingly easy puzzle (heck, the game's light show solved it for me).

In any case, if they did that, you could at least be satysfied that the story wouldn't just die on you. It's also nice of them to kill an urban legend for us. I would have preferred them to actually make a new game with even more interactivity, and more importantly, HARDER puzzles that don't solve themselves (with the way there are a million objects to target, they could give you lots of items and very little clues at all as to what to do with them, so you would have to experiment all over the place, ie the fun of PC style adventure games, remade in Shenmue's image).

[OB1]

That would suck. I'd hate to see Shenmue turn into Myst. Yech.

Yeah the last part of the game was mostly cinematics, but I thought it was quite relaxing. If they turned the rest of the series into cinematics-only, Sega would be losing a lot of die-hard fans.

[Private Hudson]

Hahaha.. fuck you OB1.

[OB1]

!!! STFU!!!

[Dark Jaguar]

Turned into Myst? Hardly. Is Myst the only PC adventure game you ever played or something? Myst didn't even have any items aside from those pages. The puzzles in Myst were also very much "puzzlish", as in "hop these beads without leaving a single bead" or whatever that game was in Windows 3.11. Play a Monkey Island or King's Quest game to get the idea of the puzzles I'm talking about. I suspect they could be very well integrated into a game like Shenmue. Making very hard puzzles would be the best improovement they could do to the game.

[OB1]

So you'd want to take away the big interactive environments and martial arts fighting of Shenmue in favor of some point-and-click adventure game? No thanks!

[Dark Jaguar]

I never said that. Remember the Shenmue puzzles, for instance in Shenmue 1 when you had to uncover a slot and slide a sword into it? I'm saying make those HARDER. First off, don't automatically use the right item all the time! I HATE it when puzzles solve themselves like that. Force us to guess what item we need to use at LEAST. Second off, give us lots of other ruby fish as distractions (go ahead, guess what a ruby fish is, waste as much time as possible solving that) so we have to find out what to do by experimentation. Third, stop making the solutions so frickin' obvious! At least in a game like King's Quest, it's not immediatly obvious that I need to put the skull key into the skull lock.

Did I say change the entire interface to fit the exact style of a PC adventure game? Heck no! I'm saying put those kinds of puzzles and force them to fit into the Shenmue mold. Give us some difficulty, that's what I'm saying. The Shenmue game really allows for that opportunity. If you can't see what I'm seeing, use some more imagination. Just remember that I'm NOT saying they need to change the gameplay of Shenmue, just add to it, a lot.

[OB1]

Ok, I suppose that would be fine.

[A Black Falcon]

http://www.the-magicbox.com/gaming.htm
- Sega AM2 announced that they have no plans to develop a Shenmue III CG Movie, contradicted the rumors from last week about Shenmue III to be released in movie only form.

That better, OB1?

[OB1]

I don't know what to believe. Here's what shenmuedojo.com reported:

Shenmue.com talks about Shenmue III
January 10
The Official Shenmue website has made a comment about the recent interview with Yu Suzuki in GMR magazine. As you may know, Suzuki said that he would like to develop Shenmue III as a CG movie instead of a playable game.
Mr. Zero writes:

"based on the stream of gossip regarding Shenmue III, a comment was made stating that it probably will be a movie, entitled Shenmue the Movie II, at present, the talk seems to point towards no plans for a game version."

Looks like Shenmue III will be a movie, and not a game. Thanks to kwame for the translation.

And then this:

No Shenmue 3 film
January 13
Our site host Planetxbox has updated news denying Shenmue III as a film. ~Hellraiser~
"Sega's development studio AM2 stated that no Shenmue III film is currently scheduled. The company explained in a message on its Website that it is rather useless to make to make a film while there is no game (yet). The latest title in the series,Shenmue II, is available on the Xbox."


Shenmue 3 info from The Belgian Game Network
January 12
The (Begn) Belgian games network has information regarding Shenmue 3 and here is the translation:
"Shenmue 3 and 4 to be released how? - Our reporters in Japan had an interview with AM2 and it appears the WILL be Shenmue III and it's looking likely to be on X-Box."

"No release dates could be confirmed for Shenmue III and IV but we're happy to hear that Shenmue III has been confirmed. Look out for the interview for more details!"

~Begn 11/1/2003~

Begn also had received an email from a Sega rep the day before:

Thanks for your email.

While we are well aware of this rumor, no definite decision has been
reached in this regard. I am sure that AM2 will release the news as soon as
they have decided what the future holds for Shenmue.

Regards

Kate O'Neill
Sega Customer Services
~Begn 10/1/2003~

iThe news regarding Shenmue 3 recently has been a mess, first GMR then Shenmue.com and now Begn, who do we believe and what is concrete fact? ~HellRaiser~