110 Industries & Yu Suzuki

You know what we need? We need to find some sailors and see if they'll fund shenmue 4 for us. πŸ˜‚
 
Let's say Shenmue IV reuses the exact same engine, assets and all kind of stuff to cut both time and costs to create Shenmue IV, what can YS and/or 110 Industries (or whoever) do to ensure that the game does better than Shenmue III?

Without meaning to start any kind of debate or argument, I can only imagine that if Shenmue IV is revealed and it looks a lot like Shenmue III, then a lot of the responses will be a mixture of either apathy or downright derision, because "lol it just looks like the last failure of a game"

Personally, I hope that the team can work on the cinematography and produce something that is closer to the quality of the first two games. A lot of that "cinematic" feel was lost in the third game, as the scene direction and camera angles felt very amateur and weak. I think they have a compelling "reveal" trailer that feels more cinematic and also actually sells the story to players, then it will go down well.

I would like to see them recreate scenes from the first two games as a short recap and really sell that story of revenge. Sink the emotional hook in that Ryo watched his father being murdered in front of his own eyes, show the journey has been on and then show what kind of dangers lie ahead in the new game.

The team need to look at what happened to the Syberia series perhaps. That's got to be one of the best comebacks in recent years. The first two games were cult classics, they launched a kickstarter for a third game and it absolutely BOMBED. Most people, including the fans, thought it sucked. Yet they still managed to not only go on to make a fourth game, but it was one of the biggest turn arounds I have ever seen. Both critics and fans love it. How did they do it? What did they do different? I haven't played either the third or fourth game yet (I really want to get the new one some time), so I don't know. But it's got to be a case study worth looking at.
 
Reprise said:
Let's say Shenmue IV reuses the exact same engine, assets and all kind of stuff to cut both time and costs to create Shenmue IV, what can YS and/or 110 Industries (or whoever) do to ensure that the game does better than Shenmue III?

Without meaning to start any kind of debate or argument, I can only imagine that if Shenmue IV is revealed and it looks a lot like Shenmue III, then a lot of the responses will be a mixture of either apathy or downright derision, because "lol it just looks like the last failure of a game"

Personally, I hope that the team can work on the cinematography and produce something that is closer to the quality of the first two games. A lot of that "cinematic" feel was lost in the third game, as the scene direction and camera angles felt very amateur and weak. I think they have a compelling "reveal" trailer that feels more cinematic and also actually sells the story to players, then it will go down well.

I would like to see them recreate scenes from the first two games as a short recap and really sell that story of revenge. Sink the emotional hook in that Ryo watched his father being murdered in front of his own eyes, show the journey has been on and then show what kind of dangers lie ahead in the new game.

The team need to look at what happened to the Syberia series perhaps. That's got to be one of the best comebacks in recent years. The first two games were cult classics, they launched a kickstarter for a third game and it absolutely BOMBED. Most people, including the fans, thought it sucked. Yet they still managed to not only go on to make a fourth game, but it was one of the biggest turn arounds I have ever seen. Both critics and fans love it. How did they do it? What did they do different? I haven't played either the third or fourth game yet (I really want to get the new one some time), so I don't know. But it's got to be a case study worth looking at.
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Using the Shenmue 3 engine should allow for more of that as they will have the time to spend on these things. All they need to do is polish the engine, enhance the combat and improve some of the models.

That said the story is 100% critical here. They must get people on board who can write a good, cohesive story or we're in trouble.
 
spud1897 said:
Using the Shenmue 3 engine should allow for more of that as they will have the time to spend on these things. All they need to do is polish the engine, enhance the combat and improve some of the models.

That said the story is 100% critical here. They must get people on board who can write a good, cohesive story or we're in trouble.
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I've never understood why plot people don't just write the story themselves: I get it, they aren't writers, but people like Suzuki and Nagosh (for RGG) crafted these worlds from the ground up and they are the ones who have created the characters, settings, etc: why don't they write the plots? (and I get it too: they are busy with other stuff)

Never understood that.
 
Truck_1_0_1_ said:
I've never understood why plot people don't just write the story themselves: I get it, they aren't writers, but people like Suzuki and Nagosh (for RGG) crafted these worlds from the ground up and they are the ones who have created the characters, settings, etc: why don't they write the plots? (and I get it too: they are busy with other stuff)

Never understood that.
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Could it be sindical laws? In Holywood there's the filmwriters sindicate and its not allowed certain things. That's why we got news like "Tarantino shoots one scene for Robert RodrΓ­guez's Sin City just for $5." from time to time.
I would like to know the official reasons too.
 
Truck_1_0_1_ said:
I've never understood why plot people don't just write the story themselves: I get it, they aren't writers, but people like Suzuki and Nagosh (for RGG) crafted these worlds from the ground up and they are the ones who have created the characters, settings, etc: why don't they write the plots? (and I get it too: they are busy with other stuff)

Never understood that.
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I know for Shenmue the original plot for Ryo is mapped out already. Ryan Payton confirmed that when I interviewed him in 2020. They have the scripts from the Legend of Akira days which YS would have written likely with a couple of other staff members.

The writing/scenario team would then join things up and flesh things out to make sure things make sense, characters develop and tie things together. Shenmue 3 I'm pretty certain is essentially the barebones script from Legend of Akira with some changes here or there. For whatever reason they didn't fill out the story elements like Shenmue 2 (and in some respects Shenmue1) but they cannot afford that to happen again.

If Shenmue 4 doesn't move the story on in a satisfactory way + get some sort of decent reviews then I think we'd be in trouble. Unless Shenmue 4 ends it all.
 
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I think if you take your time with Shenmue 3 there's quite a lot of detail to be found. For instance, reading all the prayer/wishes (sorry, I forget the proper name of them) gives you insight into the people of Bailu Village and their relationships. Also, to me the game seems to be intentionally designed to play one in-game day per real day. I mean maybe that's just the dad in me talking but it pretty much fits with the lifestyle of someone who doesn't have 6-8 hours of free time every night to blast through games as fast as possible. I just didn't get the impression that Shenmue 3 was light on story or plot advancement like a lot of others seem to think.

As for Shenmue 4, I think building on the existing engine and assets, plus using recent advancements in AI, will make it possible and affordable to add even more detail to the world.
 
I recall it was cleverly speculated here time ago that Shenmue 4 could had switched engine. From Unreal to Dragon/RGG engine. And that could be one of the main reasons for its delay, almost a redo.
How was that discussion set? Iirc we didn't had Sega and YS.net toe to toe again, nor Dragon Engine becoming Virtua Fighter engine itself (first containing VF2 and then being used by last Showdown reedition).
It seemed not plausible by then but with late events idk anymore. Just rumors that had to be handled with a 50/50 or less of credibility πŸ˜•
 
Seaman said:
I recall it was cleverly speculated here time ago that Shenmue 4 could had switched engine. From Unreal to Dragon/RGG engine. And that could be one of the main reasons for its delay, almost a redo.
How was that discussion set? Iirc we didn't had Sega and YS.net toe to toe again, nor Dragon Engine becoming Virtua Fighter engine itself (first containing VF2 and then being used by last Showdown reedition).
It seemed not plausible by then but with late events idk anymore. Just rumors that had to be handled with a 50/50 or less of credibility πŸ˜•
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I don't remember that rumour.

Given that SEGA are moving away from the Dragon Engine now I expect it would make little sense to be using Dragon for Shenmue 4 unless it's almost done.

At this point using the Shenmue 3 engine feels the best bet from a cost perspective even if SEGA were involved.
 
spud1897 said:
I don't remember that rumour.

Given that SEGA are moving away from the Dragon Engine now I expect it would make little sense to be using Dragon for Shenmue 4 unless it's almost done.

At this point using the Shenmue 3 engine feels the best bet from a cost perspective even if SEGA were involved.
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Maybe it was at segasaturno when the first time 110 Industries emerged into our "lore". Idk, what matters its that I wanted to know so thank you very much for the quick clarifying.

I also believe that the Unreal version in which S3 ran did what it had to do very well. A different visually styled model set would look as a totally new and different thing.
YS.net didn't had metahuman at their dispose, for example, at time of development. That kind of tools, AI and random seed based also reduces costs.
Sometimes I cannot stop shaking at thinking about the barbarities that Yu Suzuki and company could be achieving using these AI tools like their playthings and that applied to the final result of Shenmue 4.
 
Jesse said:
Just to push this thread past the 110th page lol does anyone think IV gets announced this year?
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I’m counting on it. If we don’t get a crumb of development news from now till November (4 years since the release of Shenmue 3) I’ll start to become concerned.
 
Guys let s keep the fight, we ll have it if we keep pushing and making noise
We will have it, it s sure but we have to fight until the end
We are experiencing Shenmue in real life : Be patient, whatever happens
Keep hope bras "we won't.. let this go.. !"
 
I've always said after 2023 is when it'll become worrying. Shenmue 4 is do or die because of 3's reception so we need to hear about it asap
 
WuyingRen said:
I read somewhere recently that Human: Fall Flat had sold over 40 million copies and am pretty certain that that game had a marketing budget of next to nothing.
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Human Fall Flat had the benefit of hitting it big in China and then with streamers which helped it massively. Streamers are huge for game sales and Shenmue doesn't really appeal to them (not for the right reasons anyway). If anything, S3 got a ton of attention from very high profile streamers (Jim Sterling, Yahtzee, Dunkey etc.) despite a seemingly small marketing budget, but who knows if that would have been the case if it were a better game.

WuyingRen said:
if a game is good enough, positive word of mouth is infinitely more effective.
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This really depends on the game. Generally speaking single player story based games suffer the biggest hit to sales but being very good at one thing tends to be the difference maker. Whether that's having amazing graphics (Plague Tale), or a really great fighting system (Sifu), or a really stiff challenge (Soulslikes), or even just really good writing (Disco Elysium) or aesthetics (Hades), there are countless single player indie/AA games that have become pretty big hits by focusing on a key area. IMO Shenmue 3, despite being a relatively polished game, lacked a strong focus and so, even if it was broadly considered a "good" game, that's no guarantee that it would be a hit.

In order for Shenmue 4 to be a hit there would have to either be a massive overhaul to at least one of its major pillars (which would require more money) or they could embrace its "niche" status and scale things back (which, depending on the sales numbers, might necessitate fairly massive changes anyway).
 
Yu Suzuki at wednesday Sony Event audiences:
"Here it is... Finally. Now let me show you the magic of Shenmue 4... (makes a quick hand move) ta-da! It just vanished! Mamamagic of Wude!"
 
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