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Shenmue III

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Shenmue III
Developer(s)
  • Neilo
  • Ys Net
Publisher(s)Deep Silver
Director(s)
Producer(s)
  • Yu Suzuki
  • Cedric Biscay
Artist(s)
  • Kenji Miyawaki
  • Manabu Takimoto
Writer(s)
  • Yu Suzuki
  • Masahiro Yoshimoto
Composer(s)Ryuji Iuchi
SeriesShenmue
EngineUnreal Engine 4
Platform(s)Windows, PlayStation 4
ReleaseNovember 19, 2019
Genre(s)Action-adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

Shenmue III[a] is an action-adventure game developed by Neilo and Ys Net, published by Deep Silver on November 19, 2019 for Windows and PlayStation 4. The story continues teenage martial artist Ryo Hazuki's quest to find his father's killer in 1980s China.

Director Yu Suzuki conceived Shenmue as a saga spanning multiple games. The first two games were developed by Sega AM2 and published by Sega for the Dreamcast in 1999 and 2001 respectively. The original Shenmue was the most expensive video game ever developed at the time, with an estimated production and marketing cost of over US$47 million, though this also covered some of Shenmue II and groundwork for future Shenmue games. Despite attracting a cult following, the games were commercial failures and Shenmue III spent over a decade in development hell.

At the 2015 E3 conference, following years of speculation, Suzuki launched a Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund Shenmue III, with Sega having licensed Shenmue to Suzuki's company Ys Net. It became the fastest campaign to raise $2 million, in under seven hours, and ended the following month having raised over $6 million, making it the highest-funded video game and the sixth-highest-funded campaign in Kickstarter history. Further funding came from Sony and Deep Silver and crowdfunding on other platforms.

Premise

In 1987, following the events of Shenmue II, teenage martial artist Ryo Hazuki has journeyed from Yokosuka, Japan, to the mountains of Guilin, China, in search of his father's killer, Lan Di. There he met Ling Shenhua, a mysterious girl who previously appeared in his dreams. After learning the legend of her village, which foretells a united path between them, Ryo and Shenhua embark on a new journey which reveals their shared destiny. Lan Di returns, with a new antagonist, Niao Sun.[1]

Shenmue III begins in Bailu Village in Guilin. According to the game's Kickstarter page, the second area, Choubu, is "a riverside village with lots of shops, souvenir stores, hotels and temples", and the third area, Baisha, features a "siege game reminiscent of the Warring Kingdoms".[2] Ryo can make phone calls to Japan to catch up with characters from previous installments.[3] Shenmue III does not conclude the story, as Suzuki hopes to create more sequels in the series.[4]

Background

Shenmue creator Yu Suzuki speaking at the 2011 Game Developers Conference
See also: Shenmue III § Development

The first two Shenmue games were directed, written and produced by Yu Suzuki, developed by Sega AM2, and published by Sega for the Dreamcast in 1999 and 2001 respectively. Described by IGN as a "revenge epic in the tradition of Chinese cinema",[5] Suzuki plans the series to cover at least four games.[6] With a level of detail considered unprecedented,[7] the original Shenmue was the most expensive video game ever developed at the time, reported to have cost between US$47 and 70 million, including marketing. The development also covered some of Shenmue II, which was completed for a smaller figure,[8] and groundwork for future Shenmue games.[9]

Despite attracting a cult following and appearances in several "greatest video games of all time" lists,[10][11][12][13] the Shenmue games were commercial failures and Shenmue III entered a period of development hell lasting over a decade.[14] Suzuki worked on various projects which failed to see release,[15] including Shenmue Online, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game for the Chinese and Korean PC markets.[16] Suzuki said in 2010 that Shenmue III would expand "not outward, but inward", focusing on the relationship between Ryo and Shenhua.[17]

Fans petitioned for Shenmue III,[18] and in 2005 the BBC series VideoGaiden ran a campaign for its release.[19] On several occasions, Sega officials said they recognized the interest in Shenmue and did not rule out another game,[20][21][20] and Suzuki said that Sega would be open to the project with the right budget.[22] In 2008, Suzuki established his own development company, Ys Net, while remaining at Sega.[15] That year, Sega announced Shenmue City, a social game for the Japanese Mobagetown (for cell phones) and Mobage (PC) services. Suzuki hoped that if Shenmue City were a success it would allow him to make Shenmue III;[23] however, it was shut down in December 2011.[24]

In September 2011, Suzuki he left Sega to focus on Ys Net.[15] In 2012 he suggested that Sega could license Shenmue to Ys Net to develop Shenmue III independently.[25] News arose in March 2013 that Suzuki was considering crowdfunding or console exclusivity to fund Shenmue III.[26] During the 2014 Game Developers Conference, Sony Computer Entertainment approached him about Shenmue III as it was one of the most requested games.[27][28][29] In March 2014, Xbox head Phil Spencer said Shenmue III was the most requested sequel from Xbox owners.[30] Sega renewed the Shenmue trademark that May.[31]

Announcement

Shenmue III was announced at E3 in June 2015

On June 14, 2015, the day before the Los Angeles Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Suzuki tweeted "E3" with a photo of a forklift, a reference to a minigame in the original Shenmue.[32] During Sony's E3 press conference the next day, Suzuki announced a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to develop Shenmue III for Windows and PlayStation 4 with a tentative release date of December 2017.[33] The surprise announcement drew publicity,[18] winning the "Best Debut" award from GameTrailers[34] and generating a surge in sales of pre-owned Dreamcast consoles.[35] In January 2017, Time,[36] The Guardian[37] and Den of Geek[38] included Shenmue III in their lists of anticipated games.

Crowdfunding

The initial Kickstarter funding goal, the amount necessary for the campaign to succeed and development to begin, was $2 million. Additional goals to encourage further donations included a "rapport system" that changes interactions with characters depending on player choices, and a "skill tree system" allowing for greater customizing of Ryo's fighting abilities.[39] Suzuki said that for Shenmue III to be a "true" open-world game, the campaign would need to raise at least $10 million; nonetheless, he said he would not be disappointed by a smaller figure and would work within the budget.[40]

Shenmue III became the fastest game to raise $1 million in crowdfunding, in an hour and 44 minutes, and the fastest to raise $2 million, in eight hours and 43 minutes.[41] It ended on July 17 having raised $6.3 million from over 69,000 backers, becoming the most funded Kickstarter video game campaign and the sixth-most funded Kickstarter campaign of all time.[40] On September 17, 2015, crowdfunding resumed using the online payment system PayPal, and on March 15 the project began accepting pledges through the Chinese crowdfunding platform Alipay.[42]

Crowdfunding ended in September 2018, having raised $7,179,510 from 81,087 backers across multiple platforms.[43] Though this is a large amount for a crowdfunded project, it is relatively small for a high-profile video game; however, Sony and Deep Silver provided further funding.[43]

Development

Shenmue III was developed by Ys Net and Neilo.[18] Sony and Shibuya Productions provided production, marketing, and publishing support.[44][45]

Whereas Shenmue I and II were developed by between 250 and 300 people, Shenmue III had a core team of about 75, with a further 100 outsourced 100 roles, excluding voice actors.[46] 10 key staff had worked on the previous Shenmue games,[46] including director Yu Suzuki, second director Keiji Okayasu, scenario director Takao Yotsuji, writers Junichi Yoshida and Masahiro Yoshimoto, character designers Kenji Miyawaki and Hideki Kawabata, and composer Ryuji Iuchi.[47][48] Neilo chief executive Takeshi Hirai was a lead programmer on the first Shenmue.[18] Other staff had credits for games such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and series such as Streets of Rage and Virtua Fighter.[46] Masaya Matsukaze and Corey Marshall reprised their roles as the Japanese and English voices of Ryo respectively.[1][49]

In November 2015, Suzuki visited China to promote the project and research the locations, traditional clothes and martial arts of Guilin. In a presentation at China's Chuapp conference that month, he said that Shenmue III's story and "composition" were complete and that "baseline research" with Unreal Engine 4 had begun.[50] Suzuki chose the engine as it allowed the team to build prototypes quickly.[51] In late 2015, the team began using Shenmue II characters to run simple battle and conversation tests.[52] In February 2016, Suzuki demonstrated the weather effects, lighting, and music at the Monaco Anime Game International Conference.[53] By December, the game had left preproduction and motion capture and voice tests were under way.[54]

In June 2017, Shenmue III was delayed to the second half of 2018; according to Suzuki, "By utilizing new technologies, we have been able to discover new possibilities and expressions. In many ways, the game has become bigger and more beautiful than I initially expected."[55] That August, Suzuki announced that Ys Net had partnered with the German publisher Deep Silver to publish Shenmue III globally. He told Eurogamer the partnership allowed the team to "make the game with a larger scale featuring open-world elements", and that Sony and Sega were still supporting development.[51]

Ys Net released a Shenmue III teaser trailer on August 22, 2017, featuring Ryo and Shenhua in open vistas, martial arts action, an orchestral soundtrack, and the dragon and phoenix mirrors, plot elements from the previous games.[56] Some fans and journalists criticized the trailer's "stiff" character models and animation.[57] In December 2017, Ys Net announced that the Indian studio Lakshya Digital would provide additional character models.[58]

In May 2018, Ys Net and Deep Silver announced that Shenmue III would be delayed until 2019.[59] At the Gamescom trade fair in August, Deep Silver displayed a new trailer and announced a release date of August 27, 2019.[60] In December 2018, it was announced that Shenmue III will be published in China by Oasis Games on PlayStation 4 and the WeGame platform on PC.[61] A new trailer was shown in March 2019 at the Monaco Magic festival, showcasing the Guilin setting, fighting system, and several new characters.[62] The fighting system was redesigned to make it accessible to less experienced players.[63]

In June, Suzuki announced that the release date had been postponed to November 19, 2019,[64] and that the Windows version would be exclusive to the Epic Games Store for the first year; earlier updates had stated that it would require Steam for activation.[65] The exclusivity announcement drew criticism from some fans.[66] Kickstarter backers who had requested the Steam version were given the option to accept the Epic or physical PC version, the PS4 version, or receive a refund (paid for by Epic Games).[66] A new trailer, showcasing arcades and fighting gameplay, debuted at the Gamescom trade fair in August 2019.[67] The following month, a demo was released for Windows.[68]

Reception

On the review aggregator site Metacritic, Shenmue III has a score of 70, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[69] Kirk McKeand of VG247 rated it three out of five, writing that "despite the fact that it's a game designed with decades-old sensibilities, I enjoyed my time with it".[70] In a positive review, Martin Robinson of Eurogamer wrote: "It looks and plays like a Dreamcast game that's as off-kilter, maddening, magical and majestic as the original Shenmue games, both all-time classics. I think there's good reason to rejoice in that.[71]

Notes

  1. ^ Japanese: シェンムー3, Hepburn: Shenmū 3

References

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