Inspecting Unused Map #2: Island Town
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Page detail: island town map |
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Page detail: island town map |
Every month Phantom River Stone holds a poll among our patrons to choose a topic for the blog in the coming month. After tallying the votes (including accumulated votes from previous months), the winning topic that has been voted this time is:
"Interview with Shenhua actress Hazuki Ishigaki in Dobuita"
In this post, we will be translating a feature about Hazuki Ishigaki, the voice actress for Shenhua in the Japanese version of the first two Shenmue games, from a magazine at the time.
Ishigaki was 21 years old at the time, and whose acting and voicing career started a couple of years earlier, with appearances on Japanese TV and radio prior to her work for the Shenmue games. Online information suggests that she retired from acting around March 2004.
The magazine feature was published in the Japanese Dreamcast Magazine of October 1999, and contains a series of Q&A as well as Shenhua cosplay photos taken on location around Dobuita St, Yokosuka.
Although this was still a few months before the release of the first Shenmue game at the end of that year - and well before Shenhua would be properly seen in-game in the second game - the character of Shenhua would already have been a familiar sight to gaming enthusiasts from promotional material and magazine articles.
The introduction states:
"Thank you for waiting, Hazuki-chan fans. Shenhua couldn't wait any longer for her turn to come, so she has come to the streets of Yokosuka! What discoveries await her in this foreign land?"
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The page containing the mysterious maps |
This time the episode featured Yu Suzuki, joined by three others from the game industry at the time, with the MC being Kazlaser, a Japanese comedian who is known for his love of Sega, who participated through a video link. Suzuki talks about the development of some of his hit arcade games at Sega in the 1980s through to the 1990s. (Shenmue also gets a mention!)
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Yu Suzuki with the episode's participants |
Every month Phantom River Stone holds a poll among our patrons to choose a topic for the blog in the coming month. After tallying the votes (including accumulated votes from previous months), the winning topic that has been voted this time is:
"Weekly AM2: Translation of Next Issue (Vol. 12)"
Earlier this month saw the release of a brand-new, extensive interview with Yu Suzuki that was held in person by James Brown of the Shenmue Dojo and myself (Switch) for Phantom River Stone at the YS NET office in Japan.
The full interview can be found at the Shenmue Dojo's website, who have also recorded an in-depth discussion stream but in this post we will focus in on summarizing some of the most surprising story details revealed during the interview, ending with new information regarding the leaders of the Chi You Men!
Every month, Phantom River Stone holds a poll among our patrons to choose a topic for the blog in the coming month. After tallying the votes (including accumulated votes from previous months), the winning topic that has been voted for this time is:
"Examining Shenmue Storyboards from the Shenmue The Animation Event in Yokosuka"
In the Spring of 2022, a promotional event was held on location in Yokosuka in celebration of the anime adaption of Shenmue, Shenmue The Animation, which was organized by Yokosuka City in collaboration with SEGA and IGN Japan. Various pieces of concept artwork were exhibited at a number of shops in the area, some being from the anime while others were sketches and illustrations from the time of development of the first two games.
Among the artwork were reproductions of certain storyboards from the game, detailing the camera shots and spoken lines to guide creation of cut scenes in the game.
The three storyboards exhibited at the event which will be covered are:
In this upcoming post, we will be looking at these in more detail and translating any written notes and characters' lines, noting differences of interest between the storyboards and the final implementation of the cut scenes in the game.
In this series we translate Shenmue content from Weekly AM2, the official online magazine published by Sega's AM2 development team back in the day. These pages regularly featured news and information about the Shenmue series from the end of 1999 through to 2001 with the release of Shenmue II.
Vol. 11 celebrates various awards won by Shenmue in Dreamcast Magazine, including Best Game and Best Scenario. The Shenmue Original Sound Track double CD goes on sale, and a third "wallpaper" image is made available for download.
Every month, Phantom River Stone holds a poll among our patrons to choose a topic for the blog in the coming month. After tallying the votes (including accumulated votes from previous months), the winning topic that has been voted for this time is:
"Shenmue Anecdotes from Shenmue Music Composer Osamu Murata"
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Osamu Murata (profile photo from Twitter / X) |
The musical talents of Osamu Murata left an indelible mark on the Shenmue series, captivating players around the world with his unforgettable compositions.
Fresh out of university, Murata joined AM2 Sound Section at SEGA and quickly immersed himself in a number of arcade projects, over 10 titles during his time there, including classics like F355 Challenge and Virtua Cop 3.
Murata's exceptional talent as a composer saw him produce a staggering estimated 800-1000 songs during the project, pouring his heart and soul into crafting the atmospheric pieces that enrich the Shenmue experience. Murata's dedication to his craft was such that he pushed himself to the brink, even blacking out at the piano during an arduous composing session (as related in his interview with Shenmue World magazine, Issue 2).
When Murata first joined the Shenmue project, he was also responsible for recording the spoken lines of a great number of voice actors, and is officially credited as Voice Recording Chief for US Shenmue.
Among his many compositions are such standouts as Nozomi's Theme, Xiuying's Theme, and Yokosuka Blues (Goro's Theme) which became instant classics, each adding depth and emotion to the Shenmue universe. Also, a number of his compositions from among the vast pool of music that ended up unused during the original project were selected for inclusion in the latest chapter, Shenmue 3.
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Xiuying's Theme, composed by Osamu Murata, which accompanies her instruction on the Swallow Flip move |
In our upcoming post, we'll share a selection of Murata's tweets from recent years, where he recounts anecdotes and memories from his time working on the Shenmue project as one of the music composers. These tweets offer an insightful look into the creative process behind one of gaming's most beloved series, directly from the perspective of one of the individuals who contributed to its music. Get ready to dive into Murata's firsthand experiences and reflections!
Become a Patron!On its initial release in Japan in December 1999, Shenmue impressed players with its realistic settings and attention to detail.
One such detail was the accuracy with which phone calls were reproduced in order to check the weather forecast, speak with Nozomi or gain access to Warehouse No. 8. Local phone numbers even had the correct area code for Yokosuka city (0468).
This proved to be a slight headache for Sega, as some of the eager players tried actually calling the numbers. While the numbers used in the game were said to have been reserved beforehand by Sega to prevent nuisance calls, nonetheless a warning was issued in the February 2000 edition of the Weekly AM2 online magazine (which we recently translated) asking players to refrain from trying to call the numbers.
"Attention: Regarding the phone numbers used in Shenmue
The phone numbers used in the game Shenmue Chapter 1: Yokosuka are intentionally designed not to allow actual calls. Recently, there has been an increase in attempted calls, leading to nuisances such as wrong numbers.
We kindly request your cooperation to refrain from making actual calls. Thank you for your understanding".
More on this topic was revealed in an interview with Shenmue game director Eigo Kasahara in Adam Sipione's Shenmue Documentary, "A Gamers Journey: The Definitive History of Shenmue"
Eigo Kasahara: Yu-san wanted to display the proper area codes in the game. The problem we raised was that players would try to call them. And we couldn't just make something up. In which case, Yu-san proposed we get hold of those phone numbers. We wondered how many we should get. We ended up getting about five.
When he gave us that instruction, the first thing we did was to check whether there was anyone at Sega who lived in Yokosuka and in fact there was one person who did. So we approached that person and explained that we wanted to obtain five phone lines, with any costs of course being covered by Sega. His house already had a telephone connection, although it didn't have an actual telephone. So we were able to obtain four, I think it was, real phone numbers.
At that time, there was someone who actually tried calling the number for Master Chen. Apparently, when he heard a proper ringing tone, he got spooked and hung up! However, the phone numbers were all ones where definitely nobody would answer.
In truth, I had been thinking of having them connect in the future to something like "Shenmue Fun Facts", although that part didn't get implemented.
Those numbers were actually held for several years afterwards. Then the Sega employee who had let us obtain the numbers informed us that he would be retiring, and asked us to do something about those phone lines. So we actually went along and arranged the infrastructure work needed to deregister the phone numbers.
Eigo Kasahara was also in charge of the Shenmue I & II re-releases, and he explained that he took the opportunity to avoid potential problems by shortening the phone numbers used in the game by omitting the last digit:
Eigo Kasahara: These days, we don't know where they connect to, and registering phone numbers was out of the question at this late stage, so for the remake we abandoned that idea and dropped a digit instead.
In this series we translate Shenmue content from Weekly AM2, the official online magazine published by Sega's AM2 development team back in the day. These pages regularly featured news and information about the Shenmue series from the end of 1999 through to 2001 with the release of Shenmue II.
Vol. 10 gives the winners of the Third Network Rankings Tournament, which was for Forklift Racing. The next competition is announced, which will be for Space Harrier.
Today, we will do a deep dive into an iconic communication method seen in Shenmue: the Chawan Sign, which Ryo first learns about in Shenmue II (and is reintroduced later in one of the Shenmue III DLC stories). He makes use of the Chawan Sign to discreetly communicate with allies, by arranging teacups in a certain pattern in a public place,
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Arranging four teacups |
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Trying at the wrong location may attract trouble |
Every month, Phantom River Stone holds a poll among our patrons to choose a topic for the blog in the coming month. After tallying the votes (including accumulated votes from previous months), the winning topic that has been voted for this time is:
"Shenmue II Special: a Message from Yu Suzuki - DoriMaga Interview May 2001"
This interview with Yu Suzuki about the upcoming release of Shenmue II for Dreamcast was published in the May 2001 edition of Japan's DoriMaga magazine. As noted in the introduction to the interview, it fell in the period shortly after Sega's decision to cease production of the Dreamcast a couple of months earlier, in March.
DoriMaga: There was a huge turnout at SEGA's recent event, Game Jam, reaffirming the great anticipation for Shenmue II. What plans are there for the Dreamcast in future, and what is the significance of Shenmue II? Let's hear a message from Yu Suzuki to the readers of the new-look DoriMaga magazine and users of the Dreamcast.
Suzuki: Game Jam was fantastic. While we apologize for any inconvenience caused due to the crowded space, we are delighted that so many people attended. Seeing such a large number of attendees makes us very happy. Seeing so many attendees on that day made me think, "It's a shame we're giving up on the Dreamcast..."
DoriMaga: The event featured the first-ever demonstration using actual hardware, but how far along is the development of Shenmue II at this point?
Suzuki: Well, as of the end of March, it's mostly been bug fixes. That means we've essentially locked in the program code, and from there, it's mostly about replacing data and focusing on debugging. Since April, we've been diving into that work, and at the moment, we're at a stage where it's nearing the finalization process. At this stage, if we are able to iron out any critical bugs, we'll be looking at finalization in just a few weeks.
Today is Part Three, the final part, of our exploration of the art from Yokosuka City's Shenmue anime celebration!
Links to the previous parts:
Special thanks: thanks again to も_なお Mo_Nao for kindly providing the source photos from the event, to which cropping & straightening has been applied. Be sure to follow her on X (Twitter) at @greed_air for a heap of original Shenmue content!
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"Come Over Guest House, Wan Chai (night)" |
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"Wan Chai (morning)" |
Every month, Phantom River Stone holds a poll among our patrons to choose a topic for the blog in the coming month. After tallying the votes (including accumulated votes from previous months), the winning topic that has been voted for this time is:
"Influences & parallels of the 1980s manga Kenji on Shenmue"
Kenji is a popular martial-arts based manga series in which several similar elements to those in Shenmue can be recognized.
Published in the years prior to the development of Shenmue, from 1988 to 1992, it follows the journey of a boy named Kenji, a teenager passionate about the Chinese martial art Bajiquan. The series encompasses a wide array of martial arts styles, drawing inspiration from the author's own expertise.
Kenji explores other martial arts to enhance his skills, and his journey takes him to Hong Kong and China, where he encounters various martial arts masters, forms friendships, and faces challenges.
Coming in a future post on the blog.
Welcome back to our exploration of Yokosuka City's Shenmue anime celebration! In Part One, we delved into some intriguing concept art and sketches from the game's early days and the anime's creation.
Now, in Part Two of this mini-series, we'll uncover more captivating art from the streets of Dobuita that were on display during the event.
Let's continue our visual journey through Shenmue's world.
Special thanks to も_なお Mo_Nao for kindly providing her photos taken at the event, to which cropping & straightening has been applied. Be sure to follow her on X (Twitter) at @greed_air for a heap of original Shenmue content!
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"At the Hazuki Residence gate" |
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"Yes! We are Shenmue's Cast Fans!" - the logo for the Shenmue Cast FAN page |
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Verny Park, Yokosuka (image credit: 怪猫) |
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Two special guests (image credit: 怪猫) |
A wonderful memento from EREN(echo) Small treats and gifts were shared out, and one of the group had kindly visited the tourist office beforehand to gather Shenmue guide maps. The generosity of Shenmue fans knows no bounds! |
Every month Phantom River Stone holds a poll among our patrons to choose a topic for the blog in the coming month. After tallying the votes (including accumulated votes from previous months), the winning topic that has been voted this time is:
"Yu Suzuki on Arcade Game Development at SEGA + Keiji Okayasu on the Virtua Fighter Port to the Saturn"
A TV interview with Yu Suzuki on the Japanese TBS channel in February 2022 will form the basis of this upcoming post, in which he discusses several of the arcade games he developed while at Sega in the 1980's through to the 1990's, such as Hang On, R-360 and Virtua Fighter.