Welcome to Part Six of our analysis of cut-content screenshots of the mysterious "Miao Village" and temple that were revealed in 2002 on the Shenmue.com website by AM2, Yu Suzuki's development team at Sega.
Parts in the series:
- Village Screenshots Analysis
- Village Content Left Behind
- The House in Xiuying and Ziming's Flashback
- Temple Screenshots Analysis
- Temple Content Left Behind
- The Original Plan for Miao Village in Shenmue II [this post]
- Content Reborn
- Dialogue Revelations & Sequence of Events
- Dialogue Revelations & Sequence of Events (Cont.)
- Extra Dialogue & Facts Collected
Theories Over the Years
- Based on the village's link with the Miao people, who mainly inhabit the mountains of southern China: located somewhere in Guilin, for example on the way to Bailu Village.
- More specifically, one area that raised eyebrows as a possible location is the transition to the Green Field area just after Langhuishan, as there is a distinct disconnect in scenery (e.g. the path's appearance and mountain shapes):
- Located near Luoyang.
- It might have been intended to be Bailu Village itself.
- One location that was not given a great deal of attention is Hong Kong itself, presumably due to the rural setting of the screenshots.
A Martial Arts Village
"As many fans may already know from the internet, there was a village that was deleted from the final version of Shenmue. The villagers all wore traditional Chinese folk clothing. The setting was like in a Shaolin monastery. Not really all masters, but everyone still learning martial arts. So they would all be on chin-up bars and doing other training exercises, as part of their daily life".
- Kenji Miyawaki (Shenmue III promotional video interview)
Watch the video clip here, from time stamp 2:17:
With his mention of the martial arts training and exercise equipment, there seems little doubt that Miyawaki was referring to the cut Miao Village.
From Miyawaki's short description, we learned that this village was a place where the pursuit of martial arts was part of the villagers' daily life.
The Bicycle Event Connection
The Muecas page revealed the bicycle event screenshots together with those of the village. |
まぢん: "It didn't extend towards Wise Men's Quarter, but rather it went straight down. You would borrow the bicycle to travel along a road through a grassy plain."
Tak Hirai: "We originally intended to begin the game in China, so I made [the bike-riding feature] as a showcase to see how it looked when you rode the bike in a meadow."
While the precise destination of Ryo's bicycle trip seen above has not been publicly stated, thanks to another former Shenmue developer, Morio Ashizuka, we know that this was to have been a quest that Ryo carries out with Xiaoqin:
Morio Ashizuka: "There was going to be an event where you put the girl at the pharmacy on your bike and run an errand. [...] It was along the lines of the pharmacy owner having a bad leg, so Ryo goes for him by bicycle with the girl guiding the way. Ryo wasn't able to ride around freely though - it was a movie scene of him riding"With the owner's store being a pharmacy, it seems likely that the quest would have involved fetching medicinal herbs of some kind.
Miao Village's Intended Location
- The bicycle quest and Miao village screenshots were presented together on the Muecas webpage.
- Both sets of screenshots heavily feature Xiaoqin.
- The bicycle event departs from South Carmain Qr in Hong Kong.
- Developers have stated that the bicycle event destination was to have been a rural area.
Ryo's Bicycle Errand: Potential Sequence
- Ryo speaks to Xiaoqin, who standing outside Sunny Capital Pharmacy in South Carmain Quarter, and learns that her grandfather, the store's owner, has a bad leg and is unable to fetch an order of medicinal herbs from a village outside the city.
- The owner asks Ryo if he would be willing to obtain them instead, and an on-screen prompt appears for accepting the quest.
- If accepted, a cut scene is played: Ryo lifts Xiaoqin onto the back of the bicycle, and Ryo gets on. He rides out of the city, with Xiaoqin directing the way. The road leads to a grassy plain, and eventually they arrive at Miao Village, where Ryo dismounts and lifts Xiaoqin down.
- Ryo explores the village on foot. Xiaoqin also walks around the village, never straying far from Ryo.
- Once Ryo locates the store (possibly the building shown in the screenshots with banners outside), he picks up the necessary supplies.
- Ryo returns to the pharmacy with Xiaoqin by bicycle and delivers the herbs to the owner.
Miao Guang Temple
A Second Access Road?
Clip: Sega Dreamcast Preview VHS |
Clip: What's Shenmue VHS |
Why the Village Was Cut
"The village didn't really fit with the flow of the story, so the village got cut. Everyone was really surprised about it. But Shenmue was created as a result of just such drastic revisions"
Miyawaki's interview: the reason for the removal of the village |
Removal of content is nothing new for Shenmue, as fans are well aware, and during development it underwent numerous changes. This comment from Peter summarizes up various factors that may have had a hand in making the decision to cut the village and its associated quest:
"It was cut in the end, I assume since it was a bit of a stretch that such a quiet, rural area being a stone's throw from the major city, and was a little implausible. Plus, it's a good bit of scenery to just have tagged onto the side of Hong Kong, when it could be repackaged to purpose as a standalone area. [...] That's what Yu Suzuki means by the cool thing about the Shenmue saga being split into chapters, and that things can be moved about and repackaged to suit the story".
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