Yu Suzuki talks Shenmue, Shenmue III

[Talon87]

In this interview with a young man affiliated with the French Shenmue fansite Shenmue Master, Yu Suzuki answers various sorts of Shenmue questions while dodging others. Some of the ones he dodges include "Who is the man in the photograph with Ryo's dad?" but some of the ones he provides answers to include "Is Shenhua a reincarnation? a time traveler? something else?", "What is your favorite scene in Shenmue?" (his answer might surprise you! ), and "Who owns the license to Shenmue?"

Some of his answers indicate that he still hopes to produce Shenmue III. He also seems to indicate that he has not completed the story yet -- though he does suggest that he has more than enough material for a third game. (Shenmue II covered Chapters 2 thru 6 but Chapter 2 ended up getting cut for time as it's basically the boat ride over to Hong Kong, so really the game only had four chapters -- 3, 4, 5, and 6. Suzuki claims to have written up through Chapter 11, indicating he has five additional chapters for us -- more than enough to make a third game.)

His answer to the licensing question confirms what fans have long believed: SEGA is single-handedly responsible for holding up production of any future Shenmue games. I don't know what they're hanging over his head for the license, but I imagine it's probably something along the lines of "every single yen you cost us, old man. " An exorbitant price Suzuki could never hope to match in his own lifetime. But you can tell that he's hopeful that they'll take pity on an old man and let him have the license. That certainly would be nice, but ....

[Lindz]

Shenmue talks always sooo depressing for me. I just wanna let it go & forget about the games but then every couple of months some mention or "news" related to it pops up an I just can't not read or watch!! This interview seemed sorta hopeful which makes it worse! Ol' mister Suzuki is gonna take his story to the grave ;.;

[tau]

See, the prospect of a Shenmue III has been dredged up and then buried again multiple times in the past. I think it'd be great to see the series return, but... in all honesty, I just don't see it happening. Even if there was a third game that carried us up to Chapter 11, we'd be five chapters shy of the end- the original narrative of the game is supposed to be a total of 16 chapters, as I recall.

And then you get into the issue of whether or not Shenmue fans would even want a third installment. I mean, yes, of course, the story was great and I'd love to know how it ends, but... we live in an era of very, very questionable design choices by game devs. Is it worth reviving a franchise, if they're gonna 'modernize' it and take out the play style and charm that was the original game?

I mean, maybe I'm just too paranoid, but... I dunno, I don't think a revival is really gonna happen. I'd love to be proven wrong, I've just grown somewhat jaded with the gaming industry lately.

[Talon87]

Well, your last point is something I don't think you'll find any Shenmue fan disagreeing with. What we want: Yu Suzuki spearheading the Shenmue III project with full control over it. What we don't want: Sega making a Shenmue III where Yu Suzuki is only nominally involved or perhaps even not involved period in the project.

But even if we establish that we're strictly talking a Suzuki-produced sequel and not a Suzuki-less Sega-produced one, there's still the argument about whether our expectations for Shenmue III are built up so much at this point that there's simply no way he could deliver. While that's certainly possible, I don't think it's likely. Suzuki has demonstrated that he has a gift both for storytelling and for using video games as a means by which to tell a story. It's something I wasn't fortunate enough to rediscover in video games until I played Team Ico's Shadow of the Colossus seven or eight years after first playing Shenmue II. The current environment hasn't exactly been kind to Team Ico either (though there's some truth to the argument that you can't expect a company to keep paying you on what could ultimately be nothing more than hollow promises to deliver the next great game) so I agree that it's not a good time for Suzuki to try and make Shenmue III. In fact, he may never find that "great time." But I do believe that if he were to try, the game wouldn't fail because of the fans' high expectations. It might disappoint somewhat, but I don't think it would ever be anything as bad as Duke Nukem Forever.

[tau]

I agree, certainly. I don't think Shenmue could fall to Duke Nukem levels of disappointing, regardless of Suzuki's level of involvement. If they were to release Shenmue III, would I go buy it, regardless of hype and fear of shattered expectations? Yes. Yes I would. I'd buy it and play it and most likely enjoy it for what it is, even if it doesn't live up to what I hoped it would be.

I'll buy Team Ico's next release, too, for that matter. It's just... well. There are any number of ways things can go, and clearly I'm running entirely on speculation and mild fear. Long story short- I'll openly admit that I'm of the belief new Shenmue shouldn't be released without full control in the hands of mister Suzuki, but in the interest of being honest, I'd pay for it regardless of who got their hands on it- see Team Ninja and Other M.

Whether I would regret that decision (see Team Ninja and Other M) or not in this purely hypothetical situation would remain to be seen. Basically, I'm going in circles and don't have much of a point.