Random Shenmue IV Thoughts.

Reprise said:
We did do it once, but the number of voices that lent themselves to that campaign were much larger then. I just don't think there is that same lust or fire that there was. A lot of casual voices lent themselves to the number requesting Shenmue 3. It had become almost symbolic or something, it was like Half Life 3 and other unreleased sequels, with there being a mystique to it. There was a snowball effect, where a bunch of casuals (or even just people who played one or both games back in the day but weren't necessarily huge fans) jumped on board. I remember on forums back in the day "we want Shenmue 3", "Sega, release Shenmue 3" was practically a meme. All sorts of casual gamers would namedrop it as a game they wanted.

If I sound negative, it's because I am. To me, the path to securing the franchises future was laid upon us when the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter was announced. That was Yu Suzuki's moment and our moment. That was the time to save Shenmue. They and we needed to prove the demand and then prove that a Shenmue game can be a success, so that a publisher then comes on board to ensure the franchise continues. So yes, the fact that they/we failed on that does depress me. The fact that we have to fight for a Shenmue 4 depresses me. Even more so now that "we" basically amounts to a meagre number of fans left on a few social media groups and forums like this. It's not like there's an army of fans clamouring for the 4th game. If no publisher cared in 2020, or 2021, or 2022, or 2023, then realistically I don't really know what people expect to change in 2024 or beyond that will make one suddenly jump on board.
Click to expand...
I've been saying for months now that these yards are arguably harder than for Shenmue 3 for some of the reasons stated above but also because we now know Shenmue is a niche market game and I'd argue expectations for its performance were way too high. We also did secure a re-release that performed well and an Anime that only got cancelled because of a money grabbing merger after performing well. The series was and can still be set-up to be finished.

That said we lose nothing by continuing to fight - we have (in theory) nothing at the moment anyway and by going silent I can promise you that will be it. If Yu Suzuki comes out and says it's game over then I'm all for pitching and campaigning to get the story wrapped up by a manga or released as it is.

Yes it is draining - I get it and empathise as someone on the sharp end of things - but we cannot give up now.
 
spud1897 said:
I've been saying for months now that these yards are arguably harder than for Shenmue 3 for some of the reasons stated above but also because we now know Shenmue is a niche market game and I'd argue expectations for its performance were way too high. We also did secure a re-release that performed well and an Anime that only got cancelled because of a money grabbing merger after performing well. The series was and can still be set-up to be finished.

That said we lose nothing by continuing to fight - we have (in theory) nothing at the moment anyway and by going silent I can promise you that will be it. If Yu Suzuki comes out and says it's game over then I'm all for pitching and campaigning to get the story wrapped up by a manga or released as it is.

Yes it is draining - I get it and empathise as someone on the sharp end of things - but we cannot give up now.
Click to expand...
I would not recommend anyone dedicate the rest of their life to fighting and waiting for S4.

Can you imagine being 80 years old and finally getting Shenmue 4 after lifelong daily struggle and then 20 hours and a few thug fights later getting another ‘the story goes on”?

Imagine how depressed you’d be realizing all the time lost and also knowing you would likely not live long enough to even see S5?

You would have to leave this letter to your grandson on your deathbed:

“Those who follow the path of waiting for Shenmue must be willing to die. In order to stand for their convictions live for their convictions die for ones convictions. That is how I lived my life. Grandson, it is up to you to fight for Shenmue 5 and continue to wait.”
 
Last edited:
SMDzero said:
I would not recommend anyone dedicate the rest of their life to fighting and waiting for S4.

Can you imagine being 80 years old and finally getting Shenmue 4 after lifelong daily struggle and then 20 hours and a few thug fights later getting another ‘the story goes on”?

Imagine how depressed you’d be realizing all the time lost and also knowing you would likely not live long enough to even see S5?

You would have to leave this letter to your grandson on your deathbed:

“Those who follow the path of waiting for Shenmue must be willing to die. In order to stand for their convictions live for their convictions die for ones convictions. That is how I lived my life. Grandson, it is up to you to fight for Shenmue 5 and continue to wait.”
Click to expand...
I'd rather fight and fail than not fight at all
 
So there's no point in hoping we'll see something at the Game Awards?

Pretty interesting what is yu suzuki working on if it's not Shenmue 4? :)

SMDzero, you forget again that there is no other game like Shenmue. It's not like there's anything else to play like it. Waiting and hoping is the only choice here. The only thing left is to hope that the new year will bring good news.
 
Last edited:
It is a real shame to hear from Cedric himself that nearly four years later, zero progress has been made on Shenmue 4. In fact, all they have to show for it are the pitch materials from 2020. That really stings.

The problem is that YS Net want Shenmue to be this behemoth of a mainstream franchise with 2-3 more sequels + prequel spin-offs. But with the way things are going with them struggling to make Shenmue 4, I just cannot see any of that other stuff happening at this point. In an ideal world, Shenmue 3 would have been successful to persuade a publisher to come along and help make all those other games and spin-offs. That never happened.

Naturally, we can only continue hoping that one day we'll get it. Who knows? Perhaps with all these arcade projects that are now being released by YS Net, they'll eventually be able to fund it. I’d also back another crowdfunding in a heartbeat (I’m still bitter I couldn’t be an NPC in Shenmue 3).
 
If Yu Suzuki is still intent on only telling this story through video games, then he needs to be flexible about how that might happen and not be seemingly so stuck on only getting a bigger budget. It seems clear now that this won’t happen barring another miracle.

We’ve said it before but something like episodic content could work if he can work within smaller budgets.

I am happy that Cedric finally confirmed what we basically knew - that it is not in development. This should put to bed those “maybe they are working on it already” thoughts. The fans have done everything we can do and will likely continue to do so.

We just would appreciate a way forward on finishing this story. I don’t think that is too much to ask. This should be the main goal now. Not many current fans will continue to wait indefinitely. As a creator, wouldn’t he want to share the whole story? That is all I want at this point. Of course I would prefer great big games but it doesn’t appear there are enough fans to keep hoping for that.
 
Cedric post was a little confusing. I thought Deep Silver was already out of the picture. Cedric also said in a interview that Shenmue 4 had to start development asap while the resources and team were in place. It's been 4 years so Deep Silver plan wasn't going to be a viable option. IMO Kickstrater was always a good decision to finish the series. Let's face it we are going to have to participate in Shenmue completion. I'm sure the funds needed for Shenmue 4 will be less since we have Deep Silver, YSNet, Sega, 110 industries to chip in. We may be able to get a little boost from Sony and Epic Games if we make it exclusive again. It was finally nice to get a update.
 
japalp said:
As a creator, wouldn’t he want to share the whole story?
Click to expand...

As a creatrix myself i feel this is not simple, and i saw many cases where other creators feel this way too.

51vyll0yhmL.jpg​

Hunter x Hunter is a manga by Yoshihiro Togashi, The manga began to be published in 1998, the manga has frequently gone on extended hiatuses since 2006 and we still don't have a conclusion to the story. Yoshihiro Togashi has health problems, people say he could hire other artists so he can make the chapters faster, but Togashi-san has his reasons on why he prefer to make it in his own terms.

Kentaro Miura was the creator of the manga Berserk, the manga began to be published in 1989, as far as i know Berserk has gone on extended hiatuses similar to Hunter x Hunter. Miura-san has passed away in 2021.

Berserk.jpg​


A close friend of Miura-san know how the story continue and how the story ends, he decided to continue the manga for Miura-san.

Another example is George R.R. Martin the author of the novels A Song of Ice and Fire, he is struggling to write the new book "The Winds of Winter" he even said... "I'm 12 years late on this damn novel, and I'm struggling with it."

I'm sharing all of this because for the creators is not that simple, in my opinion creators have their reasons for the choices they make and i respect that, i'm not saying i agree with everything, i'm just saying i respect the creators/artists.

Now back to Shenmue... i feel that Yu-san want to share the whole story but in his way, and what is his way? i think his way is to try to make the games Shenmue IV and Shenmue V on his own terms.

Probably right now he doesn't want to share the whole story in manga form, book form or other medium, Yu-san probably want to make the games Shenmue IV and Shenmue V, to realize his vision.

I really understand that people don't want to wait another 18 years for Shenmue IV, i understand that people are worried about the future of the Shenmue series, i understand the feelings of sadness, tiredness and hopelessness.

Can you all imagine how Yu-san must feel about this situation? i imagine that it is really hard for him, but it looks like Yu-san want to continue trying and i really admire him, his power to never give up is really amazing, and this was one of the reasons why we got Shenmue III.

In the Shenmue III credits Yu-san said that he will never give up about completing Shenmue.

The fact that Yu Suzuki has his own studio YS NET, and that he still making games is something really positive, that gives me hope.

If we don't receive any news about the future of Shenmue next year, i will be worried.. I don't know why exactly but right now i remain positive even after Cedric's update, if the Shenmue community give up now then the situation will be
worse.

I will not give up now, i will continue to fight for my favorite game series to be completed. I think i will only give up if Yu-san say that the game is over, that he will not try to continue Shenmue anymore in game form, if this happen i just hope he share the story with us in another form.
 
No one will give up yet. I think deep down we already knew there was no publisher. It's a little sad that Cedric repeats something from 2 years ago... that means they can't find a publisher for two years.

But on the bright side, Yu suzuki is making a new game. As long as the company is in business, we must not give up. I even think that even when Yu Suzuki retires, we still shouldn't give up.

I still think they can try Steam early access instead of Kickstarter. This was successful for Baldur's Gate 3. If 50-60 thousand buy the game for 50 euros, that's 2 million. They just need to release some gameplay out of the beginning of the shenmue 4, even if it's 2-3 hours. With this model they will be in constant contact with the fans and many things will be fixed in time.
 
Don't underestimate all the young guys who worked at YSnet on Shenmue 3, Shenmue 4 early builds, Air Twister, etc.

They have been absorbing knowledge from the old master all along. :LOL:
 
I can't see another decade passing as game development isn't precisely a halted unevolving industry. There's the huge advances with every Unreal Engine new iteration, the scary AI progresses even putting Hollywood in strike for months, and the next generation of CPUs which btw the cheaper one of that batch its currently THREE generations ahead of the actual ones.
We can only have a glimpse of what's coming in the next years when all this emergent technologies converge.
 
I actually had a bit of a “Shenmue 4” experience yesterday. I was playing 3 and had just fought Mr Muscles with Ren at the Red Snakes hideout. After Muscles beat us the game froze instead of going to the cinematic with Ren and Shenhua at the Hotel.

I restarted the PS4 Pro and continued the game and the game started me in the hotel with Ren and Shenhua in the lobby but without the cinematic. I could talk to Ren (kept telling me to go get him treasure) but not Shenhua and oddly it was about 8PM but the desk lady collected the rate from me when I approached her.

So basically I had Ren and Shenhua right there not doing anything and I could “pretend” the 3 heroes were just chilling during Shenmue 4. Then 9PM hit and I couldn’t talk to Ren or Shenhua but they were still just hanging out in the lobby.

Well at least I got a “taste” of what S4 would have been like.
 
Naturally, I'll continue to hope that one day we'll get a Shenmue 4. But damn, has that tweet really knocked my optimism.

I can accept Shenmue 3 getting a mediocre reception. It happened to 1 and 2, so it was fully expected.

I can just about accept season 2 of the anime getting canned, because in the end we still got a stellar adaptation of 1 & 2.

But to learn that 3 years later, absolutely zero progress has been made on Shenmue 4? Only the early stage pitch material? Here's hoping that this endless cycle of bad luck will turn around for this series, and we will begin to hear more positive news soon.
 
Last edited:
Revan said:
Naturally, I'll continue to hope that one day we'll get a Shenmue 4. But damn, has that tweet really knocked my optimism.

I can accept Shenmue 3 getting a mediocre reception. It happened to 1 and 2, so it was fully expected.

I can just about accept season 2 of the anime getting canned, because in the end we still got a stellar adaptation of 1 & 2.

But to learn that 3 years later, absolutely zero progress has been made on Shenmue 4? Only the early stage pitch material? Here's hoping that this endless cycle of bad luck will turn around for this series, and we will begin to hear more positive news soon.
Click to expand...
It's been over 4 years since S3 released. :/
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top