Random Virtua Fighter RPG thoughts

This is one of the most interesting mysteries of Shenmue in my mind. How one of the most ambitious games in history, and possibly the first to have anything resembling a cinematic story at all, was originally a spin-off to a series that's entire story was just fluff in the manual. Not to mention the footage having that GODLY music. Amazing we didn't hear the full version of that for around 2 decades.

I hope we get to see more of the prototype someday, that thing is gaming history.

Until then, some related stuff I find interesting...

An article about the entire things history, including what it could've run on, and a call for someone to come out with it: https://www.segasaturnshiro.com/2021/03/25/saturn-shenmue-the-search-continues/

Some development documents, clearly from the Legend Of Akira phase:

A short but sweet edit of the prototype footage to make it seem as if someone's really playing the thing:

Old Dojo Thread speculating on a batch of Saturn era Renders, that were found on a Dev Kit, which also featured the "Tower Of Babal" demo! Quite impressive...: https://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=46957

And of course, two of the only pages of the Akira script to be actually published to the public, featuring some VERY cheesy lines from a dying Iwao: https://www.phantomriverstone.com/2020/10/the-legend-of-akira-scripts-two-pages.html

May more be found someday.
 
I remember reading about the VF RPG in an issue of Game Fan magazine, deep in the rumors section. Must've been 1996/1997. Man, the way they talked about it, it sounded like the world would never be the same. Seems like they were right. They'd always tease things like that alongside rumors of Saturn expansion cards or the next Sega console, so it added to the excitement.
 
This is my first time seeing the renders from VFRPG, this is beautiful and i really want to comment about this.


Looks like this place is Bailu Village
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I really don't know where is this place. Hong Kong/Kowloon?

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Early Shenhua? Early Xiuying? a new character that will appear in a future game?
who is this character? :unsure: i really want to know who is this character, really interesting

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Man Mo Temple
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Ren Wuying
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Lan Di
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I really enjoy seeing things from the VFRPG days, really nice.
 
Cross-posting from The Shenmue 4 Thoughts Thread. In an old interview, pre-S3 Kickstarter, Tak Hirari and Suzuki briefly mention some stuff about the Saturn build.

The parts, in particular, I find most interesting is that the programming part of VFRPG took 6 months before switching to Dreamcast and that they wanted to include a SWORD BATTLE at one point, which they heard was only possible on the 'Cast.

IMHO, it feels to me that VFRPG probably wasn't able to be finished from front to back, if there were only 6 months of programming on it. If a Saturn prototype ever gets released, it'd probably require a lot of debug menus just to get through the thing. In other words, playing it probably feels just as much as gaming archaeology as reading about it!
 
Supports my theory the Saturn Guilin and Kowloon sections aren't fully realized and only slices for demo/prototyping purposes.
 
Supports my theory the Saturn Guilin and Kowloon sections aren't fully realized and only slices for demo/prototyping purposes.
You could very well be right, altho it makes me curious about a statement by Yuzuki in a "recent" (2019) interview.

"For a Saturn, the quality was impressive. Although in terms of content, it was really just the first part," Okayasu adds, indicating with his hands.

Yu thinks otherwise with respect to this last statement: "Well, not just the first part. I had a look the other day, and it went a pretty long way. It went as far as Guilin, after all".

Maybe Yu was judging the prototype by "areas we started development on" rather than "areas you could play from start to finish"? Of course, it's only programming that took six months, for all we know modeling/texturing/voice acting had more time dedicated to them, but that's unlikely.

If it were ever leaked, there is a good chance data-mined models/sound clips would reveal more than the actual gameplay! Hell, might even spoil us on S4/5! Maybe it's a good thing it hasn't been leaked yet, at least right now anyway. Better to wait till after the series is over.

(Can you imagine, tho, if it was leaked, and the data miners go through the model files and find that the largest one is called something unclear like "chiyouboss"? And the first thing they see when they load it up is a rotting, mutilated, yet seemingly still living corpse, without any context whatsoever. That would be an amusing, and terrifying, way to spoil the entire Chi You mystery.)

Oh, another thing, according to an old interview around the release of Shenmue 2, there was some voice acting done on the Saturn:
Q: It really has been a long project, hasn’t it. The voice actors have also been involved for ages; how long has it been?

Matsukaze: I’ve been playing the role of Ryo since the days of the Saturn. All up, I’ve been acting the part for just over 5 years.
 
Excellent topic to disconnect from the hot topic right now, too much up and down...
I've always been way more intrigued by The Oldman... demo than VFRPG because not having surviving realtime footage, barely some devs memories here and there, concept art... but unlike Saturn Shenmue/VFRPG, there's nothing about the real thing.
Concerning Virtua lore, I've always wondered if that supposed young Shun-Di tech-demo (saturn/model3/naomi/dreamcast? can't remember) was related to the whole project.
And talking about early Shenmue I remembered and rewatched recently "Project Berkley" video for the nostalgy and recalled those scenes with Iwao, Lan Di and Shen Hua. Supposedly in the 80s because Lan Di is a grown man and Shen Hua exist..
I couldn't imagine the impact not just of having some kind of playable leak, let's say worst case a single playable zone with dummy tposed npcs... people still would go nuts. And if that leak involves a first segment starring by Iwao, to have him dying and then assuming his son control (ala psx Dragon Valor) brrrrr
I always felt at heart that being Old Man... set in the '50s and Shenmue early days happening in that same decade, with the final product still conserving the time-arch in flashback form... like it being Shenmue Zero and the player character model being an unseen beta Iwao. And maybe the master he's seeking is Shun Di/Yuanda. Yes this is the holy grail, followed from far by psx ICO
 
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