[Request] Yu Suzuki Interview about Shenmue not possible on Playstation 2.

NeoSnk

NeoSnk

Joined
Nov 19, 2019
Favourite title
Shenmue III
Steam
CharlespledeOB
Hi guys, I remember back in the day I read an interview where Yu Suzuki stated that Shenmue wasn't possible on the Playstation 2.

Do you guys remember about this interview? I'm trying to find it but I don't remember where I read that.
 
I think I found it:

My Yu Suzuki Interview Part 3

Here is the conclusion of my 2000 Game Developers Conference interview with Yu Suzuki... PART 3 THE FUTURE GameWEEK: Are you trying to fo...
fasinfun.blogspot.com fasinfun.blogspot.com

GW: What do you think of PlayStation 2? X-Box?
YS: (pauses) PlayStation 2 is good at games like Ridge Racer V and Kessen. Lots of motion capability. A game like Shenmue however, would be almost impossible to do on it since it needs to rely heavily on texture memory. X-Box? It sounds very impressive.
 
The interview was quite interesting. It also makes sense that Shenmue was not a ps2 title. I am not sure if is true but I believe I have read once that Shenmue was designed to use the hardware of the DC to the fulliest while the P2 hardware is really different from the ps2.

If you look at Yakuza 1 and 2 this makes senses. Compared to Yakuza 1 and 2 Shenmue 1 and especially 2 where the bette games from a technical point of view.
 
9dragons said:
The interview was quite interesting. It also makes sense that Shenmue was not a ps2 title. I am not sure if is true but I believe I have read once that Shenmue was designed to use the hardware of the DC to the fulliest while the P2 hardware is really different from the ps2.

If you look at Yakuza 1 and 2 this makes senses. Compared to Yakuza 1 and 2 Shenmue 1 and especially 2 where the bette games from a technical point of view.
Click to expand...
His words are part corporate speech at a very delicate moment at Sega but true also. There was no way he answered "its possible and while PS2 Shenmue will look different, it looks awesome." He was more open with Xbox because: probably the port was already on the works, Microsoft were partners with DC, and indeed Xbox1 was a great console hardware.

Dreamcast had 16MB RAM to pool and 8MB Video-RAM with lots of features. After the disasterous relationship with devs and Saturn, Sega went for the ps1-type of straightforward architecture. So basically a so-so CPU (SH4) with an easier instruction set (ARM) feeded a beast of a GPU (Holly) and done.
You can say that DC strenght was video chip and weakness/bottleneck the main processor.
Check past magazines if you like, DC marketing wasn't based on Holly at all but in the console as a whole and specially the launch game line and online feature.

In other hand, Sony won the previous console war and was winning the next before even starting. They were like running with their pants down, merry times. They really wanted to give the most powerful thing to developers. So they made a supercomputer with a parallel architecture, like Saturn.
The CPU numbers double those of DC and adding paralellism computation power and DRAM (Direct access). That was Sony bet. Confidents enough of that calculation monster, the VRAM was half the DC. It was possible to add much more from the main but, not easily and at the price of losing CPU power.
But above all, it couldn't manage compressed textures (key in Shenmue). In a custom format, swizzled and contained in bigfile, yes; but uncompressed.
Those who remember PS2 launch, it revolved around the Emotion Engine practically in exclusive. That was, even the name, marketing stunt for "tremendous computation power".
Because saying to the press "it calculates so fast" is lame, so "emotion".

To cut it already, ironically Sony and Sega inverted roles at hardware design but with different results.
And Shenmue on PS2 would've looked somehow bland textured but really well shaded (similar to MGS2) or keeping the texture amount but with less resolution.
 
Yeah, I love speculating about how a PS2 Shenmue would have been from a technical point of view (since it would have been the best platform to host the series, market wise).

I've always thought the downgrade would have been similar to what happened with Resident Evil 4. A game originally designed for another platform, that also made heavy use of high resolution textures (the Gamecube had native texture compression just like the Dreamcast). Yokosuka or the Guilin segment of Shenmue II would have suffered the least, because they have kind of a more monotonous tone overall. But Hong Kong specially, with its high contrast colors and lots of street signs with complex Chinese characters, would have stood out in a bad way.

To compensate, maybe they could have added more people density on the streets, or there would have been less slowdowns, though.
 
JCJ said:
To compensate, maybe they could have added more people density on the streets, or there would have been less slowdowns, though.
Click to expand...
You reminded me when I first played Hitman Blood Money, it was on PS2 and the Mardi-Gras stage was jawdropping. Not much variety on models and textures though, but awesome and with just ocassional small slowdown. And disc-reading like hell XD.
JCJ said:
I've always thought the downgrade would have been similar to what happened with Resident Evil 4. A game originally designed for another platform, that also made heavy use of high resolution textures (the Gamecube had native texture compression just like the Dreamcast). Yokosuka or the Guilin segment of Shenmue II would have suffered the least, because they have kind of a more monotonous tone overall. But Hong Kong specially, with its high contrast colors and lots of street signs with complex Chinese characters, would have stood out in a bad way.
Click to expand...
Exactly, or Killer7. Pre-recorded cutscenes (PS2) vs. in game engine (NGC) less resolution and smooth gameplay and some minor feature cut (i.e. models for inventory items replaced by static images) but the core of the game was intact. And while radicals deny it, Killer7 was enjoyable on PS2. With Shenmue would've been same scenario.

JCJ said:
(since it would have been the best platform to host the series, market wise).
Click to expand...
Unargably right. But Im sure the pride factor counted at least a little. Sony defeated them twice, while Microsoft was a partner making the entrance. It's relatable they went for them.
And indeed the first Xbox was an awesome console platform with easier work pipeline than PS2 and a powerhouse.
To clarify, I would ve loved a PS2 port and specially with differences between a-la previous generation (Dead or Alive PSX vs. Saturn port)
 
@Seaman Yes of course things were not that simple and a different version of Shenmue might have been possible like other ports that were originally not planned for that platform. But it would have been ridiculous if Sega gave Sony the treats after been treated quite bad by them.


It might be a matter of taste but I like the dreamcast graphics more than the ps2 graphics. All ps2 games looked so washed out and blurry color wise. Dreamcast games looked way better in that regard.
 
9dragons said:
@Seaman Yes of course things were not that simple and a different version of Shenmue might have been possible like other ports that were originally not planned for that platform. But it would have been ridiculous if Sega gave Sony the treats after been treated quite bad by them.
Click to expand...
Totally agree. It really wasnt simple at all, I was younger and while desired PS2 Shenmue for the sake of the series continuity, I also hurted (really) when I first saw Sonic running on PS2 and the N. Not to mention when they gave him a gun or turned him into a werehog? Wolfhog? Sonic Unleashed (meaning he was handtied before?).
But personally I wont say Sony treated Sega bad, at least in declarations the thing was reciprocal ("Sony doesnt know to make hardware" Sega directive who I cant recall his name) but I agree on a dishonest launch marketing compared to the DC one.
This issue really shouldn't be taken with too much passions because at the same time DC couldn't had a Shadow of Colossus which relies heavily in PS2 CPU. It would've been more arcadey, divided in stages or with cutscenes for transition between chunks of map.

9dragons said:
All ps2 games looked so washed out and blurry color wise. Dreamcast games looked way better in that regard.
Click to expand...
Its a matter of taste but respectable. PS2 had to deal with things different than DC,GC and Xbox and there is were the artist skill counts in.
Take FFXII ingame (non-cutscenes) characters models for example: the polycount is lower on heads compared with Shenmue but with a great design, that lower head detail allowed higher polycount for the rest of the body model with accesories hanging and animating while running. While Shenmue body meshes are rather cleverly lowpoly.
The textures per character in FF12 are much smaller in size, also on sets of parts/pages but again the handpainted style saves the day and the result is one that equally amaze me.
 
Some rather obscure Sony executives were admitting that they threw out Sega of the Hardware race and were proud of it. it was a french dude named Georges Forney. That's something I would not call fair play. Using Sega's weakness in the production sector against it was also not very fair. They drew Sega into a price war with Saturn that Sega could not win. The console business is a merciless place.

The overhype of the ps2 and Sega's inability to fight that type of hyperbole was not Sony's fault though. The split Sega Empire with their different regional overlords that were incapable of thinking globally were the main culprits to blame for Sega's downfall.

And concerning the ps2 graphics, it is a matter of taste and as I have to admit a matter of perspective as well. Although I have always liked the Dreamcast and the Gamecube way more than the ps2 I never had issues with the ps2 graphics per se as long as it was relevant. My dislike for the ps2 graphics just started recently in the 2010s years . When I started to learn about upscaling retro games with my framemeister I came to the conclusion that upscaled ps2 games just look ugly. These games aged much worse than anything else in that generation. As long as I was using crt hardware I found ps2 games good enough.
 
Last edited:
The quote is not available anymore. But here is another shot at Sega from him

The Dreamcast was only a minor improvement on what was already available and even then , it all comes to games because, after what we have seen so far on the playstation and what's still to come, I am not convinced the Dreamcast will have more to offer.
This qute is in the book the playstation Antholgy.

So I do not doubt that the other quote might be true as well. His statement about the dreamcast sounds weird though. The DC did wipe the floor with the ps1. But never mind as a Sony CEO he as to say things like this.
 
We will never know, but I don't feel there was any pride factor in the decision of not porting Shenmue to the PS2, since the same AM2 team didn't hesitate on bringing their flagship Virtua Fighter 4 game exclusively to the console soon after.

I tend to think that the simplest answer is usually the right one, and the workforce needed for porting such a big and complex game as Shenmue to the PS2 was much higher. And even with that ease, they spent almost a full year making the Xbox port, and the resulting game barely had any technical improvements (and surely wasn't cutting edge on the new hardware at all).

It's true that, market-wise, the PS2 and its enormous install base would have been a better choice, but it's also probably true that waiting 2 or more years to re-release a game that was a direct sequels was also a bad idea from a marketing standpoint.

In addition, at that time Sega and everyone still had the idea that Shenmue could be a big mainstream game, so they possibly thought they could fill the void for JRPGs on a system that had none. In hindsight, knowing that the Shenmue appeal was more of a niche thing, we know it would have been better to restart and re-release the first two games on the biggest userbase (the PS2).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top