PLEASE NOTE:
THE FOLLOWING CONTENT MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THE FUTURE OF THE SERIES, VIEWER DISRECTION IS ADVISED.
Background
Back in 1996, SEGA’s AM2 team, led by Yu Suzuki and renowned for their groundbreaking arcade releases, most notably the Virtua Fighter series, began working on a title that would go on to revolutionise gaming. Originally intended to be known as Virtua Fighter RPG, the game first entered development on SEGA Saturn hardware.
As the years passed and SEGA began phasing out the Saturn in favor of its next-generation powerhouse, the Dreamcast, development on the title had progressed significantly. This was later evidenced by early SEGA Saturn footage, which was unlockable in Shenmue II on both the Dreamcast and Microsoft’s original Xbox. The footage offered fans a fascinating glimpse into the Saturn version’s development, showcasing not only early Shenmue I content but even scenes extending to the end of Shenmue II. At this stage, both games were initially envisioned as a single title before being split and further expanded for the Dreamcast.
WHere did these files come from?
Back in January 2025, three auctions appeared on a popular Japanese auction website. Determined to win all three in order to preserve their contents, Shenmue Dojo embarked on a mission, forming a team of five trusted community members. Dojo’s own James and Matt, along with Chao (Shenmue Photos), David Deville (Shenmue Master), and Nathan (24Nathan), joined forces to finance the purchase. With the assistance of Switch (PhantomRiverStone.com), a Japanese resident who helped to facilitate the transaction, the team successfully secured these invaluable pieces of Shenmue history. A huge thank you to everyone involved in this acquisition!
It soon became clear that these documents had once belonged to one or both of Hideki Kawabata and Takashi Itoh, both credited for 3D character design on the original Shenmue titles. This discovery also led us to recently uncover additional incredible character and environment renders, hiding in plain sight, on Hideki Kawabata’s own portfolio website.
ACCESS THE ARTWORK
This is a release of around 400+ original artworks that the Shenmue development team created whilst working on Virtua Fighter RPG, and ultimately Shenmue for both the SEGA Saturn / Dreamcast.
We really hope you enjoy looking through the mountains of hand drawn character art, illustrations, 3D renders, and design documents!
To access the artwork, head over to the
ARTWORK SECTION at the following link:
