From players, to developers, to game studios and E3 is the annual epic showcase of the gaming entertainment industry, showing off what titles are to come, new worlds to explore and environments to visit. Key look at Examining trends and future technology developments for the major platforms.
Yu Suzuki, one of the true grandmaster of the gaming industry, setting the benchmarkers with titles such as Hang On, Afterburner, Outrun, Virtua Fighter series and a touch on many more.
In 1998, the year of the dreamcast release. An ambitious title like none other was unveiled Shenmue. Creating a new genre F.R.E.E. A free roaming action RPG of sorts with incredible interaction and attention to details. Namely being set in a fictional take of the real world. Which also brought us the function of the QTE. All these standard across so many titles.
Shenmue was unveiled to be chapter 1 of an epic sweeping saga, Shenmue 2 was a much more refined title and released in the twilight of the dreamcast era in 2001 was chapters 2-5. It was mentioned in interviews Shenmue was to be a 16 chapter adventure. Low and behold… ending on a cliffhanger with new adventures and mysteries teased… soon after dreamcast production ended, sega become software only developer. Many hopes dashed of seeing the unfolding saga continue.
Long considered to be in the pool of titles such as Duke Nukem Forever and Prey. Left in gaming purgatory. ()which did eventually see releases… so fingers crossed) there Shenmue Online for PC aimed at the Chinese and Korean markets, which also was cancelled. Set to be free roam MMO. and Shenmue 2 was released on the original xbox, with English dub and extra functionality from the second analogue for and the ability to take photos with a camera feature. And also came packaged with Shenmue the movie.
Pretty much, year on year, for 14 years. every sega comments section there’s always questions of when is Shenmue 3 coming out? Shenmue 3 has been one of the most asked questions.
Ryo the games main character 18 was the same age, both with a love of martial arts and the traditions behind. Playing shenmue for me, was also about understanding myself. Exploring the 4 wude. Gon, dan jie, yi – to act with hesitiation, to do what is right.
I loved the world, going to exploring Yamanose and Yokosuka playing of course at the arcades. Collecting figure sets, Hong Kong, Aberdeen, Kowloon and beyond. Shenmue is one of those once in a platform generation epic titles, that forever stands out. Another example would be Panzer Dragoon saga on segas earlier platform the sega saturn. Of the last generation the comparable title would be Mass Effect. Shenmues legacy in some ways has continued in other ways, its dna threaded through the likes of sega Yakuza series and quantic dreams titles Farhenheit/Heavy Rain.
At e3, 2015 Yu Suzuki posed a tweet of the infamous forklift. Which found itself going viral. Many thought it just a tease of something not to happen.
As I sat today ready to catch up on the activities and conferences of e3, the Sony conference specifically – I saw on Gamespot a headline in the highlights.
Shenmue III. Fuck, my heart skipped a beat. I didn’t want to see anymore, concerned I may be disappointed. I didn’t jump on it, instead watched the exhilarating Sony conference through, hearing the memorable melody and montage of Shenmue was an incredible sight to behold.
Calling out for support of a Kick starter project. Asking us the fans to support shenmue 3 development.
Within 24hours had smashed the development target at time of writing is 120% with donations pouring in, with stretch goals already ticking off. Making it the fastest kickstarter project completed. so far It is incredible to know, there was thousands who over the course of 14 years have been drawn into Yu Suzuki universe of Shenmue, which he began writing at college many decades ago.
