Shenmue I/II Beta development timeline (with never seen before footage)

D

derplayer

Joined
Aug 20, 2018
Hi all,

for the 22nd anniversary of Shenmue I release in Japan, I have prepared something special!
An over one-hour development timeline video compilation containing all ever released pre-release footage from the first steps up until the release in Japan 22 years ago.
The compilation is categorized by months of footage release and contains also never before seen footage from various sources.
"What's Shenmue" and "Shenmue Premiere" footage were skipped due to a too big length. Other videos with repeating content were also skipped.

Also, when you have new/additional footage that is not included, post it in this thread. (For example: I am missing "トゥナイト2" TV show episodes, and worked only with low quality snippets that were uploaded here and there.)


Enjoy it and have fun! Let's see how many differences can you spot. ;)
 
Very cool :love:, thanks!
The day Shenmue was released in december 1999 in Japan there was an event at a store at Akihabara (I think) with Masaya Matsukaze handing the game to buyers, there are some pictures on the Media section of the web. I'm sure there must have been some TV news report about that but I've never been able to find any.

6_2.jpg
 
It's seeing Masaya Matsukaze doing the motion capture. Prior to being cast as Ryo, he was Mega Blue in Megaranger, which would later be adapted as Power Rangers In Space, so he could action.
 
Wow, this is such a greatly crafted video! I really enjoyed it, and I wonder where did you get that previously unseen footage, too. I don't remember having seen the scene of Wong tricking Ryo to steal his bag in the beta Hong Kong pier, for example.

Spaghetti said:
The Alpha/Beta Dreamcast builds are as much of an undiscovered treasure to me as the Saturn one, tbh. Would love for these things to become available someday, but it's probably all locked up in a vault.
Click to expand...
Me too. I have always been specially intrigued by the alpha/beta version of Hong Kong, particularly. They seemed to have most zones quite prepared, in a more gritty/realistic style more akin to Yokosuka in Shenmue 1, and with different layouts. The Aberdeen area didn't have anything remotely close to the brownish look of the final game, for example. I wonder why they decided to redo that much.
 
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