What if Shenmue was released on the Saturn?

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RyoHazuki84

俺が益荒男
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Since we all know that Shenmue was conceived for the Saturn, let’s discuss what if it was released? Would it have been a Japanese only release? Would it have gotten an international release? If so, would it be the same status to what Panzer Dragoon RPG is now? Or worst case scenario, considering Saturn’s failure outside of Japan, would the franchise just die? Or just be a hit in Japan?
 
RyoHazuki84 said:
Since we all know that Shenmue was conceived for the Saturn
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Wasn't Shenmue Saturn only a mega prototype awaiting the Dreamcast specs? Its original fate has always remained unclear.
 
Technically it running was a hell of an achievement but it ran at 20fps and likely would have needed a ridiculous amount of discs to get it to the consumer

Hi realised the Saturn couldn't bring his vision to life the way he wanted so moved it to the Dreamcast.

That said the footage we have from the Saturn is epic and showed what could be done with the console in the right hands .
 
As I was never a Saturn person as I jumped from Genesis and Game Gear over to the first Playstation, I'm personally glad that the game was moved over to the Dreamcast. That said, I did a little bit of work in creating a box art for what it would look like had Shenmue gone portable back in the day on the Sega Game Gear. As a disclaimer, I did not do the pixel art but merely put everything together into a cohesive image.

ShenmueGGBoxArt.jpg
 
A Saturn release would have helped the Saturn a lot. Maybe even saving the console. But only in case the final product could maintain the Quality of the Tech Demo. The tech demo was amazing, superior to anything the first Playstation could do.

But I somehow doubt that the Tech Demo could be made into a final game....
 
Not even VF3 Saturn could have save the system overseas. If the game was released on Saturn it would have remain as some of this curiosities like "look how far this game that was released only in Japan pushed Saturn limits back in the day". I think that one of the main reasons of Shenmue appeals was being a groundbreaking game in a new generation of consoles.
 
We would've been petitioning for Shenmue II instead, which would've been Shenmue I Disc 2. The majority of us wouldn't be here and the game would cost about five grand on eBay. Also most of the Shenmue "collectors" crowd would probably be living in golden houses sitting on diamond furniture and have the numbest arse cheeks in history.
 
It would have been a game marvelled for its technical achievement of running on Saturn hardware but also a game that no one bought. The right decision was made to port to the Dreamcast where Suzuki and his team took it to the next level.
 
It would've been a gigantic flop and killed the series dead in its tracks. Be thankful it didn't happen. The Saturn just didn't have the audience for a game like Shenmue (neither did the Dreamcast, apparently).
 
Even in Japan the Saturn was on its way out by 1998, it wouldn't have found much of an audience there.
 
It would've been a technical marvel and the pinnacle of the 32-bit games for sure but that would also put it in a state of very quickly being overshadowed by even simple projects on the Dreamcast, as it was way to close to release at the releveant Saturn time.

It could've been even more of a cult phenomenon as a result of this position but overall the series would've struggled even more to go on and it would be more in line with Panzer Dragoon Saga.
 
Thank god it was tranfered to Dreamcast, otherwise most of us wouldn´t even know about its existence.
 
we can all agree it wouldn’t have been as big as a hit, but I am guessing the fighting engine would have been more like Virtua Fighter 1 as opposed to 2 with elements of 3 like in the final product.

I got into Saturn thanks to a local import store a mile away from my house at the time in Arizona. When I saw how awesome the Saturn was, my brother and I got one to play the awesome imports.

However, I still believe Shenmue probably would’ve stayed Japanese exclusive
 
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