Tai Chi in Shenmue II

Today we present a guest post written by Shenmue Dojo member and Kickstarter super-backer yuc02, with an analysis of Tai Chi moves encountered by Ryo in Shenmue II.

About the Author

"Hello, I'm yuc02! You may know me from the Shenmue Dojo forums, or from the Monaco dinner event as one of the $10k donors. Shenmue really changed my life, so I felt I had to do something in return for what Suzuki-san gave to me.

Since playing Shenmue I've started to learn Tai Chi and have also visited the famous Yokosuka with a guided tour given by Switch. My favourite game of the series is Shenmue 2 (of course), favourite characters are Ren and Xiuying. Also useless but cool trivia: I share the 'Yu' part of my name with Suzuki-san (though it's my surname)!"

One of the main themes in Shenmue is martial arts, and while Yu Suzuki re-used various styles found in the Virtua Fighter series, he also decided to add several others into the mix.

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Shenmue III at Gamescom 2017: What We Know So Far

At the end of last month, we received the happy news through a Kickstarter Update that Shenmue III would be making a presence at the Gamescom 2017 games event in Cologne, Germany.

Since then, there have been two further short updates related to Gamescom (in the form of Kickstarter Updates #70 and #71, the latter being issued yesterday) about what to expect.

Let's consolidate the information we have received so far.

Gamescom 2017 Venue & Dates

Gamescom 2017 will be held at the Koelnmesse convention center in Cologne.

There are two designated areas for the event: the business area (Halls 2-4), to which access is restricted to trade visitors & the media, and the entertainment area (Halls 5-10), for the general public.

The dates of the event are as follows:

• Tuesday August 22nd: this day is reserved for trade visitors & the media.
• Wednesday August 23rd - Saturday 26th: on these days the entertainment area will be open to general-admittance visitors from the early morning (8:00 am on Wed/Thu, and 9:00 am on Fri/Sat) until 8:00 pm. The restricted-access business area will remain in use on Wednesday and Thursday. 

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Shenmue Telephone Cards | Shenmue Merchandise

To coincide with the release of Shenmue in Japan, and during the following few years, a number of Shenmue-themed telephone cards were produced. While the cards can be used as normal phone cards for making calls, for the Shenmue fan they make a great collectible item.

About Telephone Cards in Japan

Japanese telephone cards / calling cards are thin plastic cards that come pre-loaded with a certain value (the most commonly-seen value being 50 units, representing a credit of 500 yen) and were created as a convenient way for making calls on a public pay phone in place of cash.

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Vote Shenmue as Best All-Time Game! | Famitsu 1500th Edition Poll Closing 18th July 2017

Shenmue fans, it is time for another poll, and another chance to boost the first two Shenmue games up the ranks!

The poll link is at the end of this post.

Poll for Best All-Time Game

It was not so long ago (May, in fact) that Famitsu held their poll for best Action-Adventure game and Shenmue came through with flying colors, with Shenmue II scooping 6th place and the first Shenmue game claiming 2nd place just below Yakuza 0.

And now a new poll is open to celebrate the upcoming 1500th edition of the Weekly Famitsu magazine (dated September 15th, on sale from August 31st).

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How to Get to Dobuita Street | Dobuita Guide Series Part 1

Today's post is the first of a series of mini-guides to visiting the real Dobuita Street area in Yokosuka. The intention is for these to serve as a reference for anyone who is planning a trip over to Japan visit the area for themselves.

Tip: Google Maps is extremely useful for checking train fares, times and routes, and is integrated with the timetables of all the main transportation companies in Japan.

General Location

Yokosuka is located to the south of Tokyo on the Miura Peninsula in Kanagawa prefecture. Although there are excellent train services, allow 60-80 minutes one-way by train from Tokyo. We'll take one of the main stations, Shinagawa station, as our example starting station for comparing fares. (If you are already in nearby Kamakura, it is only a 20 minute train ride).

A map of Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo. Yokosuka is situated on the Miura Peninsula.

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Comments on Kickstarter Update #69: August Event, Revised Logo & New Characters

Yu Suzuki left us all in anticipation when he mentioned earlier in the month (after his message about the rescheduling of the Shenmue III release date to the second half of 2018) that there was more news to be shared in this month's update. Now Kickstarter Update #69 is in, and it's a juicy one!

Response to Feedback

The update starts by expressing gratitude for the various comments they received after last time's announcement of the new release date. One small sentence from the Japanese version of the update that was left out of the English text was that "We have read them all". It is nice to know that they are actively checking everyone's feedback.

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