Yu Suzuki’s Keyword for 2026: “Maru” — Reflections on 2025 (Famitsu.com)

 

"171 Game Creators' New Year's Resolutions" from Famitsu (the Chinese Zodiac animal sign for 2026 is the Horse)

Famitsu.com has released its annual developer survey, offering insights from 171 creators across the Japanese game industry. Yu Suzuki is among those featured once again. As in previous years, participants were asked to select a “keyword” or phrase representing their outlook for the year ahead, reflect on the past year, and share brief updates on their current activities.

Yu Suzuki’s responses reflecting on 2025 and looking ahead to 2026 are below, translated from the original Japanese. This year’s comments are brief and upbeat, reaffirming his commitment to game development while touching on recent Shenmue-related news. His chosen keyword is simple but open to interpretation:

Q: Your Keyword for 2026?

YS: Maru (まる = “circle” / “wholeness”)

Q: Your Aspirations for the Year Ahead?

YS: Next year also, I hope to continue taking on the challenge of game development and delivering fresh experiences to everyone!

Q: Recent News

YS: In 2025, we announced release information for Shenmue III Enhanced. Please wait a little longer for this easier-to-play, higher-quality version of Shenmue III.

Q: What Are You Keeping an Eye On?

YS: The 2026 World Baseball Classic, and the film adaptation of OutRun.

Yu Suzuki: CEO of YS Net. Best known for creating genre-defining works such as Virtua Fighter and Shenmue during his time at Sega. In 2025, his company released Steel Paws.

Notes on the Keyword “Maru”

Yu Suzuki’s chosen keyword, maru, is a simple word that can carry a lot of meaning in Japanese. Literally, it means “circle,” but it’s often used to suggest ideas like wholeness, completeness, or rounding things out. In everyday contexts, maru can also be used to mark something as correct or satisfactory (like an exam answer), while more broadly it can hint at cycles or things coming back around, rather than reaching a definite end.

Seen in the context of Yu Suzuki’s career as a game developer, maru feels deliberately open-ended. For Shenmue fans, it’s hard not to briefly wonder whether a word associated with “wholeness” or “completion” might hint at the long-running and unfinished nature of the series, and the hope of one day bringing that story to a proper conclusion. Any such reading, however, remains purely speculative.

More broadly, and perhaps more practically, maru can be read as expressing a general sense of balance or continuity, which fits neatly with Suzuki’s comments about continuing with game development and delivering fresh experiences. In light of Shenmue III Enhanced, it may also reflect the idea of refining or rounding out an existing work through further polish and improvements. Whether it’s meant as “closing a circle,” keeping things moving, or simply aiming for things to feel right, maru works here as a loose, reflective keyword rather than a fixed statement.

Shenmue III Enhanced

Release information for Shenmue III was shared in August 2025, around the time of Gamescom. Published by ININ Games, the Enhanced version introduces visual, performance, and quality-of-life improvements, while allowing players to retain the original experience through optional settings.

2026 World Baseball Classic

He also highlights the World Baseball Classic as an event of interest. The tournament is set to return in 2026 and will once again bring together national teams from around the world, with games scheduled to be held in several locations, including Tokyo.

OutRun Film Adaptation

Suzuki also notes his interest in the upcoming film adaptation of OutRun - inspired by the arcade game of the same name he created at Sega in 1986 which remains one of the company’s most iconic arcade titles. In April 2025, Sega announced that a live-action feature film adaptation is in development at Universal Pictures, with acclaimed director Michael Bay attached to direct and produce. A release date has not yet been announced.

Related Links

Previous end-of-year responses from Yu Suzuki:

• Yu Suzuki's Keyword for 2025: "Getting Active"
• Yu Suzuki's Keyword for 2024: "Creating Games I'd Want to Play Myself"
• Yu Suzuki's Keyword for 2023: "Light AI"
• Yu Suzuki's Keyword for 2022: "Mix"
• Yu Suzuki's Keyword for 2021: "Shooting / RPG"
• Yu Suzuki's Keyword for 2020: "A New Project Start"
• Yu Suzuki's Keyword for 2019: "Balance"
• Yu Suzuki's Keyword for 2018: "Immersion"
• Yu Suzuki's Keyword for 2017: "Shortcuts"

Source (Japanese): Famitsu.com

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What's on the Menu in Dobuita: Yamaji Soba Noodles Restaurant

In Shenmue, Dobuita's many restaurants have been crafted in realistic detail, offering a variety of different cuisine and dishes, even if they are not critical to the game's story. We have previously examined the many dishes available at Manpukuken Ramen, and this time will be visiting Yamaji Soba Noodles.

Yamaji Soba Noodles exterior

With its calm, traditional interior, Yamaji Soba Noodles provides the perfect place for workers in the district to stop in for a quick lunch or a meal before heading home.

Restaurant interior

What particular dishes do they serve here? Let's check out what's on offer.

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Shenmue Development Timeline (May 1998 - Dec 1999)

Most Shenmue fans already know the broad story of the game’s development: the early demos, the ever-extending release date, and the rumors in games magazines suggesting that SEGA was aiming for something far bigger than anything it had attempted before.

Below is a timeline translated from the Shenmue Complete Guide book, which was published in Japan not long after the first game’s release. It reflects how Shenmue’s development was being presented and discussed at the time, before years of retrospectives and post-mortems filled in the gaps. Much of this information will be familiar to longtime fans, but it still serves as a handy snapshot of those busy Dreamcast years and how key milestones slotted into place.

I’ve also inserted relevant videos at a few points along the way where they help capture what players were seeing at the time as Shenmue gradually took shape.

21 May '98

DC Demo: "Tower of Babel"

At SEGA’s Dreamcast unveiling event, one of the demo videos shown was Tower of Babel, created by Yu Suzuki in just 10 days. In retrospect, this can be seen as a precursor to Shenmue.

• Tower of Babel Demo Video:

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Poll Result: Patrons' Choice Topic for December 2025

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: Toei Director Kazuya Murata's Experience Working on Shenmue II"

In interviews, Yu Suzuki has mentioned that, in order to realize his vision for Shenmue, he needed help from people who didn’t even exist in the game industry yet:

“We didn’t have directors, or anyone used to motion capture… so I gathered people from all kinds of fields: movie staff, scriptwriters, even a novelist.”

One of those outside voices was anime director Kazuya Murata, who joined the Shenmue II team around 1999 and found himself navigating a development floor unlike anything in traditional animation.

Best known for his work on major anime titles like the world-wide hit Fullmetal Alchemist and the internationally popular Code Geass, Murata stepped far outside the usual animation pipeline when he joined Yu Suzuki’s team midway through Shenmue II’s development. The shift from anime studios to a bustling game production environment brought a whole new set of challenges, from motion-capture sessions to experimental 3D cinematics.

In a 2019 interview, Murata shares what that transition was like and how he adapted to a creative process very different from the one he was used to. His recollections about working with Yu Suzuki and team shed light on a moment when anime and game production intersected, bringing both new opportunities and practical hurdles.

Coming soon to the blog!

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Shenmue’s Road to Release (Shenmue "Complete Guide" Feature, March 2000)

Not long after the release of Shenmue ~Chapter One: Yokosuka~, the Shenmue Complete Guide, with its distinctive black cover, was published in Japan by SoftBank under the Dreamcast Magazine brand. Included in this guide was a special in-depth feature that looked back on the game’s ambitious development.

In this post, we will be translating the full piece into English. It's a fascinating glimpse into how Yu Suzuki and his AM2 team transformed an experimental RPG prototype into what would become one of the most groundbreaking titles in gaming history.

The translation begins below.

A Year and a Half Following Shenmue

AM2, Sega’s most powerful development team, has produced countless hit games. But around the end of 1996, its head, Yu Suzuki, began to go quiet. Spurred by a shift in direction within Sega, Suzuki took on the RPG genre for the first time. As he became more and more immersed in his new project, before anyone realized it, it had grown into a massive undertaking involving an extraordinary number of staff members.

What would become Shenmue ultimately took over four years to complete. But the Shenmue you hold in your hands is still just the beginning.

What exactly is Shenmue? We take a closer look to find out.

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Poll Result: Patrons' Choice Topic for November 2025

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 Issues (Vols. 15 & 16)"

The topic selected this time is a continuation of our translations of the official online magazine published by Sega's AM2 team back in the day, the Weekly AM2. This magazine published content about the Shenmue series from December 1999 through to around the release of Shenmue II in 2001, and a link to issues of the Weekly AM2 thereafter became a regular feature of the Shenmue.com website.

This time we will be translating further editions of the Weekly AM2: Volumes 15 & 16, published online on 21st March and 28th March 2000.

Vol. 15 Preview of Shenmue-related content:

• Shenmue Passport Feature Commences: Total Net Ranking
• GDC Report from the U.S.A.

Vol. 16 Preview of Shenmue-related content:

• Takuan's Dobuita Visit Report (First Part)
• Wallpaper Download
• Japan Game Awards Announcement
• Masaya Matsukaze's Consultation Column
• Shenmue Chapter 1 Yokosuka Original Sound Track

These editions will be translated in a future post on the blog.

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Megumi Yasu Photoshoot - Nozomi Harasaki Cosplay | Dreamcast Magazine, March 2000

The March 2000 edition of Japan's Dreamcast Magazine featured cosplay by Megumi Yasu, the voice actress who portrayed Nozomi Harasaki in the Japanese version of Shenmue. Along with the photos, the feature included a brief Q&A section.

Megumi Yasu recreates one of the CG renders of Nozomi at her shop.

AI animation based on the magazine still.

Note: the photos in this post have been extracted from a pdf scan of the magazine, so quality is limited. Some of the photos have also been processed to remove overlaid text.

 -- The article translation begins below --

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Poll Result: Patrons' Choice Topic for October 2025

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 any carried over from previous months), the winning topic this time is:

NHK documentary "Making Of Shenmue" Recap

In July 1999, Japanese broadcaster NHK BS2 aired the first episode of its new Network Jungle III documentary series. Each installment explored how digital technology was reshaping Japan’s creative industries at the turn of the millennium. Episode One was called A Vision of the Future - A New Digital Era and focused on Sega’s legendary producer Yu Suzuki and his most ambitious project to date.

The NHK production crew followed Suzuki and the AM2 team inside Sega’s development studios over a period of six months, giving an unprecedented look at game creation on a cinematic scale. Viewers saw programmers tweaking lighting and weather systems, motion-capture artists digitizing martial-arts movements, and an orchestra recording the game’s sweeping score. NHK framed it as a glimpse into a new kind of entertainment: part film, part interactive world. The episode’s closing subtitle put it plainly: “A game that plunges you into a world of another dimension.”

Later that year, and still before Shenmue's eventual end-of-year release, the Japanese gaming magazine Dreamcast Magazine published a special feature about the game's development that was closely based on this broadcast. It reused stills and quotations to turn NHK’s televised documentary into a richly illustrated print feature. While the show itself aired only once, the magazine preserved its tone and stirred further anticipation for a title that promised to redefine realism in games.

In the upcoming post, I’ll be sharing a full English translation of that magazine article, together with stills recaptured from the NHK documentary. Together, this will reveal how Shenmue was presented to Japan, as a milestone in digital culture in 1999.

Coming soon to the blog!

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Anecdotes & Insights - The Spirit of Shenmue Lives On | Famitsu Dec 2024 [Part 6]

In this post, we present the final part of our English translation of Famitsu’s 25th anniversary roundtable with the original Shenmue developers. In Part 5, the team recounted the challenges of building Shenmue II, reflected on the long road until Shenmue III, and shared their hopes for seeing the series reach its conclusion one day.

In this final part, the discussion closes with a message from actor Masaya Matsukaze, the voice of Ryo Hazuki in the Japanese version, who shares his memories of the series’ early days and what Shenmue has meant to him. The developers then reflect on their own experiences and the lasting impact Shenmue has had on their lives, careers, and friendships.

What Does Shenmue Mean to Each of You?

—As we begin to wrap things up, we’ve received a comment from Masaya Matsukaze, who plays Ryo Hazuki. Let us share it with you now.

Masaya Matsukaze – 25th Anniversary Comment

"I have so many memories tied to Shenmue that I don’t even know where to start...

First off, let me talk about the audition. It was all extremely top-secret, and a ton of people participated. One thing that really stuck with me was being told, “Bring a personal seal (inkan) to stamp the confidentiality agreement - if you don’t have it, you’ll be sent home.” I remember thinking that was pretty strange, and also telling myself, “If I forget it, I won’t just fail the audition, I won’t even be allowed to apply, which would be ridiculous,” so I made extra sure not to forget it.

By some miracle, I passed the audition. I later heard the reason I got the role was, “We knew the production would be tough, so we chose someone who looked sturdy and had a good personality.”

A few years later, the game was finally announced with a press event at Pacifico Yokohama! After years of keeping everything confidential and working in a secret facility, without even telling my own parents, Shenmue was finally going public. But during preparations for my own appearance on stage, we ran into a problem during the costume check. Apparently, it was felt that “Matsukaze’s outfit is lame.” So at the last minute, on the night before the event, I had to run to a department store in Tokyo and buy a whole new outfit! There wasn’t time for tailoring, so the fit was a little off - that’s another memory that sticks with me.

Once, in the dressing room for the motion capture, the actor Yukijiro Hotaru said to me, “You’re still young, right Matsukaze? While you’re young, you should try everything. Later on, you’ll naturally start to weed out the things you don’t want to do, and that’s how you’ll find the path you should take.” I’ve lived by those words ever since. The advice I've received from Yu Suzuki and Hiroshi Fujioka is also something I treasure. The people I met through Shenmue have had a profound impact on who I am today.

Cancellation, then revival - when I was told “The series will be put on hold after II,” I was so shocked it felt like my heart stopped. We had already recorded so much motion capture for what came next... Then, years later, when I heard the words, “We’re making a sequel!” I was absolutely speechless. And then came the anime... Shenmue is full of surprises. You truly never know what’ll happen next. I could go on and on forever.

Oh, and speaking of which - I recently made Ryo’s leather jacket as a hobby project!"

See the full video on Matsukaze's YouTube channel

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Anecdotes & Insights - From Shenmue II to Shenmue IV | Famitsu Dec 2024 [Part 5]

In this post, we continue our English translation of Famitsu’s 25th anniversary roundtable with the original Shenmue developers. In Part 4, the team reflected on Shenmue’s enduring legacy and casually revealed that a fully playable PlayStation 2 version of Chapter One once existed but was never released.

Part 5 turns to the creation of Shenmue II, an ambitious sequel built on a rewritten engine and systems to support its larger scale. The developers also share stories from the Shenmue III era and reflect on the possibility of Shenmue IV, discussing their hopes for seeing the story completed one day.

Development of the Even More Expansive Shenmue II

—So far we've mostly been talking about Shenmue I, but were there any specific hardships during the development of Shenmue II?

Hirai: I was responsible for all the system programming in Shenmue II, but as for the other parts of the game, that was almost entirely handled by Mr. Wada.

Wada: The first game was set in a small Japanese town. You didn’t need too many people on screen, the streets were narrow and had lots of corners, so you didn’t have to draw things too far into the distance. But Shenmue II was set in a massive city, Hong Kong, so we had to show more people on-screen, and draw much further into the distance to make the city feel alive and expansive.

When we looked at that, it became obvious: there was absolutely no way to achieve that using the system from Shenmue I. I talked with Hirai and the tech team, and we ultimately decided we had to rebuild everything from scratch.

Hirai: The scripting system, the engine, even the C-language parser - we basically changed all of it. At the time, I was also involved with Space Channel 5 Part 2, so if issues cropped up, I would temporarily shift my focus back to Shenmue II to help out.

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Anecdotes & Insights - Shenmue’s Legacy and the Unreleased PS2 Port | Famitsu Dec 2024 [Part 4]

In this post, we continue our English translation of Famitsu’s 25th anniversary roundtable with the original Shenmue developers. In Part 3, the group discussed Hirai’s “Shenmue Maker” system, the unique team culture under Yu Suzuki, and the creative energy that fueled the project’s breakthroughs.

Part 4 explores Shenmue’s lasting impact on the developers’ lives and the wider industry - and, casually dropped into the conversation, comes the revelation that a fully functional PlayStation 2 port was developed but never released!

Shenmue's Pivotal Role in the Developers' Lives

Okayasu: I think Shenmue really changed the lives of a lot of the people who worked on it.

—A lot of staff came and went during its development. How did all of you feel about that constant turnover?

Okayasu: It was honestly just a "throw more people at it" kind of strategy - pure manpower tactics. And that meant some of the new staff were competent, but others were completely useless.

Kasahara: We had people coming in as "programmers" who had never even written a line of code. It was total chaos. There were even people whose only job was to go out and recruit others. Their performance was judged by how many people they brought in - once they delivered someone, their job was done.

—Ahhh... so the whole staffing and operational system was unstructured, and individual tasks didn’t necessarily add up to meaningful progress overall.

Matsuda: Which made things a nightmare for those of us actually on the ground.

Okayasu: Matsuda, what did you think when you got caught up in what we called the "Shenmue Hunt" and you were told to join the Shenmue team?

Matsuda: Oh, I didn’t even get a say in whether I joined the team or not. It wasn’t optional. I still clearly remember that it was right before my very first summer vacation as a new graduate.

Before joining the Shenmue team, I was thinking, “Wow, AM2 really works hard. Pretty intense,” but I figured I’d take a nice break over summer and refresh myself. Then, right before the break, my manager called me in and said (doing an impression), “Matsuda… there’s this game called Shenmue. We’re short on people. The time has come for your talents to be of use. You want to grow as a designer, don’t you?”

And the moment I said, “Yes!” my summer vacation disappeared.

Everyone: (laughs)

Kasahara: That voice impression was actually kind of close. (laughs)

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Anecdotes & Insights - "Shenmue Maker" & Yokosuka's One-Year Build | Famitsu Dec 2024 [Part 3]

In this post, we continue our English translation of Famitsu’s 25th anniversary roundtable with the original Shenmue developers. In Part 2, the team shared tales of late nights and endless debugging, reflecting the uncompromising standards that defined the project.

Part 3 highlights Takeshi Hirai’s ingenious “Shenmue Maker” system that kept all 88 programmers in sync, and dives into anecdotes about working under Yu Suzuki, including the Zushi Marina retreats where late-night debates (and drinks) helped shape Shenmue’s vision. We also hear a special anniversary message from Yu Suzuki himself.

Hirai's "Shenmue Maker" Programming Concept

— Were there any other parts of the programming that were especially difficult?

Hirai: The "games within a game" at the You Arcade were pretty tough. You can play Space Harrier, Hang-On, and so on inside the game. But to do that, we had to temporarily set aside the data from the main game, load and run the arcade game, and then after playing, return to the main game - and deal with the fact that various internal data would come back completely scrambled. Getting everything to cleanly return to the way it was, as if nothing had happened, and seamlessly resume the main story... that was actually a pretty complex process.

— I see.

Kurooka: Here’s a funny one - you know the capsule toy machines, right? Well, one of the items you can get is Sonic. But Sonic was the only one modeled with an unusually high polygon count, and during development, there was this bug where the game would crash whenever you got Sonic.

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Anecdotes & Insights - Shenmue Devs on Crunch & Debugging | Famitsu Dec 2024 [Part 2]

In this post, we continue our English translation of Famitsu’s 25th anniversary roundtable with the original Shenmue developers. In Part 1, the team recalled the brutal work culture, the “general election” that decided the lead programmer, and how some staff turned themselves into NPCs.

Part 2 turns to the harsh realities of debugging, with stories of cardboard naps, 24-hour shifts, bizarre bugs, and the obsessive attention to detail that made Shenmue both a nightmare to create and a one-of-a-kind masterpiece.

The Harshness of the Development Environment

Hirai: You really shouldn’t be starting meetings at 10 p.m., right? We did have a nap room, though. That said, my previous company wasn’t very different, so I thought, “Ah, it’s the same here too.” That was just the era we were in. Still, during Shenmue’s development, I felt way more pressure. I remember seeing my timecard showing "XX" hours for a single month.

Note from Switch: The original article did not provide the exact figures; “XX”/“YY” are placeholders for the actual numbers.

Kasahara: If we’re talking about work hours, then it has to be Wada. Like we mentioned earlier, when you looked at his timecard, he’d barely gone home all month. And he wasn’t the kind of guy to fudge the numbers or cheat the system either. His recorded hours for one month were something like "YY" hours.

— (We could only laugh.) I mean, there are only about 720 hours in a month, assuming 24 hours times 30 days.

Hirai: Wada was known as the ‘mainstay’ of the team. He was always present in the office - that’s how dedicated he was. And he wasn’t even a full-time employee! (laughs)

Kasahara: No matter when you showed up, he was always there.

— Mr. Wada, why were you working that much...?

Wada: I was a contract employee, and I originally worked at another company doing various types of development, but I was brought onto Shenmue under contract. And the content of that contract was to “see Shenmue through to release.” So I felt that unless the game shipped, I hadn’t fulfilled my responsibility. I was just doing what I believed was required of me.

To put it simply, I just didn’t go home for two months. (laughs)

Especially toward the end of development, we had about two solid months of debugging, and the team had to operate 24 hours a day. There were times during debugging when the game would crash, and the testers would be stuck, unable to do anything, until morning. That happened several times, but with no programmers around at those hours, the bugs couldn’t be fixed.

Once someone said, “We can’t do any debugging because there’s no programmer here,” I realized I had to be available around the clock. After that, I basically worked 24 hours a day.

Ryo catches some sleep... unlike some of the developers [Image added by Switch]

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Anecdotes & Insights - Shenmue Devs Celebrate 25 Years | Famitsu Dec 2024 [Part 1]

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Shenmue's release on the Dreamcast in Japan, Famitsu.com invited several former project members to reminisce over dinner about their experience working to create the masterpiece that is Shenmue and reflect on the game's legacy.

Left to right: Takeshi Hirai, Eigo Kasahara, Makoto Wada, Keiji Okayasu, Kenji Miyawaki, Takashi Matsuda, Toshiyuki Kurooka

The participants were key members from the original Shenmue development team:

• Eigo Kasahara, who served as Planning Director for Shenmue I and II, and also worked on the Shenmue Passport and the PS4 remaster.
• Makoto Wada, a programmer on Shenmue I and lead programmer on II.
• Takeshi Hirai, the main system programmer on Shenmue I.
• Keiji Okayasu, the Assistant Director on Shenmue I, II, and III.
• Toshiyuki Kurooka, a programmer on Shenmue I, who focused on events around the Hazuki residence and the basement. 
• Takashi Matsuda, a CG designer on Shenmue I and II who created many of the game's NPCs. 
• Kenji Miyawaki, a graphic designer responsible for character designs and UI across the series.

The discussion is full of fun stories and inside jokes, while at the same time revealing just how intense the work environment was at the time, and the immense dedication shown by the development team to bringing the games to life. Not to mention the startling revelation that a PS2 port of Shenmue I was developed internally but never released...

"I didn't go home for two months." - One of the dinner participants.

"This isn't that kind of game!" - Yu Suzuki, upon discovering that the developers had implemented boob jiggle physics.

"We created Yokosuka from scratch in just one year - after the game's announcement (at the Shenmue Premiere)" - Takeshi Hirai.

The article translation starts below.

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Poll Result: Patrons' Choice Topic for September 2025

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 any accumulated from previous months), the winning topic this time is:

World Guidance Guidebook - Shenmue Staff Developer Survey

Shenmue Chapter One Yokosuka: World Guidance

The World Guidance guidebook was published shortly after Shenmue I's original release in Japan and contains some of the most detailed and complete information about the first game of all the guidebooks published at the time.

As a special feature, at the end it includes an exclusive survey held with Shenmue developers themselves, and while the length of the survey is brief (in the form of a short six-question list), it is sure to give some fascinating insights from those who worked on the project.

The survey is introduced in the guidebook as follows:

Shenmue Staff Survey - 57 People!

The massive development team poured their collective effort into creating Shenmue: Chapter One ~ Yokosuka. To close out this book, we present the real, unfiltered comments from the staff themselves. Of course, this is only a portion of their voices, but it gives you a glimpse into both the hardships and joys of game development. Please read through with anticipation for what’s to come in the next installment. 

 

Note: Except for team leaders, all names are shown as initials, and honorific titles have been omitted.

Survey Questions

1. What do you like about Shenmue?

2. Who is your favorite character, and why?

3. What scene left the deepest impression on you during the game?

4. Are there any hidden “tricks” you secretly included in the game?

5. Do you have any interesting episodes you can share from development?

6. Shout out one thing you'd like to say!

7. Please give a short message for the players.

Coming soon to the blog!

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Scenes from Kyoto: Temple Garden Features & Pink Telephone

A few pictures from a recent visit to the scenic city of Kyoto which had strong vibes of Ryo's hometown.

Temple Garden

Koi fish swim lazily in a temple pond, approaching hopefully if you happen to be standing near their usual feeding spot.

The tranquil sounds of a summer day... insects chirping and the sound of cool running water. Every few minutes, the shishi-odoshi bamboo fountain tips over and back with a distinctive sound as it strikes the rock.

Pink Telephone

Public phones are becoming harder to find around cities now, but here's one that hasn't changed for years, waiting for a 10-yen coin to be dropped in the slot.

Related Posts

• The Bamboo Fountain in the Hazuki's Garden | Shenmue Realism
• Rotary Phones & Milk Delivery | Shenmue Realism

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Kawabata's Renders, Final Part: Locations and Promo Renders

Welcome to the fourth and final part of our review of the art renders shared by AM2 developer Hideki Kawabata (previous parts: Part One, Part Two, Part Three). This final post in the series will touch on some of the location renders and promotional CG art that was included in the collection.

The Original Karate Tournament Location: Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan

The first location we'll look at is one that once lived only in the imagination of fans: the stadium in which Ryo's high school karate tournament took place prior to the start of the first game, as revealed by Yu Suzuki in 2015:

Q: Where did Ryo get his band-aid?

Yu Suzuki: It didn't appear in Chapter 1, but there was a martial arts event. The scar is from the final match.

This response is from a Twitter event called "#YouAskYu" in 2015 - a transcript is archived on the old Shenmue Dojo forums.

This took on a concrete form in recent years, when a scene from this tournament was included in the first episode of Shenmue The Animation in 2022. For the anime, the tournament location was directly based on the real-life sporting venue, the Yokosuka Arena:

The location of the karate tournament in Shenmue The Animation: Yokosuka Arena

However, with Kawabata's collection of renders, another piece can now be added to the puzzle: a fully-rendered model of a stadium had been prepared back in the early days of the project, in April of 1996. 

Furthermore, it even shows two tatami platforms for the matches, set up inside the hall:

Yokohama Cultural Gymnasium: 30 April 1996

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Hideki Kawabata's Renders, Part 3 - Unused and Future Characters

Welcome to Part Three of our review of the art renders shared by AM2 developer Hideki Kawabata (previous parts can be found here: Part One and Part Two).

In today's post, we will finish our coverage of character renders with a selection of some particularly interesting ones, including some who may even be potentially included in upcoming chapters of the story.

Unused Opponent for the S2 Duck Racing Event?

This character render is simply named "Female Martial Artist". She is dressed in a sleeveless red tunic-style dress that features a high collar with decorative fastenings down the chest. A gold hairclip or comb holds back her hair on one side, and she has a green sash around her waist.

"Female Martial Artist" (29 March 2000)

This character was unused in the games, but the text does hold a clue about her development background: part of the description reads "Okabayashi Special-Order Hidden Character".

It is probable that "Okabayashi" refers to Yoshihiro Okabayashi, who managed the Event Planning team responsible for creating in-game events - in fact, he was responsible for secretly creating and including duck racing in Shenmue II if the player follows an intricate set of steps to unlock it.

Okabayashi's name has cropped up elsewhere in past posts too, when it was hinted (many years later) by a fellow project member that he was fond of ponytails on female characters:

"The reason the rejected Izumi Takano appeared in Shenmue II was due to strong campaigning by Mr. O from the Planning team. He is a big fan of ponytails!"

The description indicates that Okabayashi may have made a special request to Kawabata to create a 3D model of a martial artist, with the words "hidden character" suggesting that she was planned as an unlockable character rather than featuring as a main storyline character.

It would seem likely that this female martial artist model was created as a candidate for one of the opponents Ryo needs to fight to access the duck racing in Shenmue II (in the released game, Ryo fights the characters of Izumi Takano and Eileen Edelweiss instead).

Shenmue II: Ryo needs to defeat Eileen in order to access the secret duck racing event

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Hideki Kawabata's Renders, Part 2 - Shenmue I Characters Deep Dive

In this continuation of our review of the renders by AM2 developer Hideki Kawabata (if you haven't yet read the introductory post, go here for the overview), we will look at several Shenmue I characters that are of particular interest - as well as some early unused characters.

Former Student of the Yūki Dojo: Masayuki Fukuhara

Fuku-san's character render sheet contains a table of information relating to the model which is similar to the one found on the other characters in the collection. This includes key information such as:

• Character Name:  Fuku-san / Masayuki Fukuhara
• Filename: FUK_M
• Skeleton type for the model: OHS
• Polygon count: 1200
• Fingers sway: Completed - this may refer to a checklist task to ensure finger movement animations are provided for the character
• Swaying objects: Belt - items that require special information, in this case the belt on his gi
• Submission date: 27th October 1998 - approximately one year before the Japan release

Render dated 27th October 1998

Interestingly, we can see written on Fuku-san's gi in the above image the dojo name of "Yūki" (結城), suggesting that even at this somewhat late point in the development process, the renaming of the protagonist from Akira Yūki to Ryo Hazuki had not yet occurred.

Also included in the set of renders is one showing Fuku-san in casual clothes - complete with "Fuk-san" embroidered on the breast of his jacket! The model information specifies that the "skirt" (hem) of his jacket is something that should sway as he moves.

Render dated 20th May 1999

The above image of Fuku-san is the one that was revealed at a live-stream event promoting the release of Shenmue I & II at the Tokyo Game Show in September 2018. The news that Fuku-san had originally been planned as the Mad Angels kidnapping victim came as quite a surprise at the time, followed by an amusing comment from a member of the development team: "When Yu-san saw it, he said, 'No one would want to save this guy!'"

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Poll Result: Patrons' Choice Topic for August 2025

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 any accumulated from previous months), the winning topic this time is:

Sacred Spot Guide Map - Shenmue The Animation (English Version)

The superb Shenmue Sacred Spot Guide Map is a multi-page tourist pamphlet highlighting locations of interest to Shenmue fans around Yokosuka, created through a collaborative effort between Yokosuka City and SEGA.

The guide map was first released at the end of 2017, impressing fans with its high quality and thoughtful detail.

Original version (Japanese)

An updated version of the map followed in 2018 at the Tokyo Game Show, featuring a new cover and other small changes to commemorate the release of Shenmue I & II.

Shenmue I & II version (Japanese)

The updates didn't stop there - another revision was released in June 2022, themed around the new anime that had premiered earlier that year: Shenmue The Animation.

Shenmue The Animation version (Japanese)

Not only that, but versions were produced in both Japanese and English, catering to a wide range of tourists and fans visiting the area.

The most recent version is the Shenmue The Animation English version, printed some time after the Japanese edition and its existence is perhaps not as widely known.

In this post, we'll summarize the differences between the three versions - along with download links - so you can find them all in one handy place.

Coming soon to the blog!

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An Archive Unearthed: Hideki Kawabata's 3D Renders, Part 1

Earlier in the year, a discovery was made of a stash of online Shenmue content: an archive containing over 120 3D rendered images from the development of the first two Shenmue games. These images were posted on a personal webpage belonging to one of the 3D Character Main Designers for the original titles.

Some of the many newly-found renders

The webpage was first archived by the Wayback Machine in February 2022, which suggests that access may have changed - perhaps unintentionally - from private to public around that time.

How the Website Was Discovered

This year, a large collection of original Shenmue development artworks and design documents was acquired at auction by a small group of dedicated fans. These materials were generously made available to the wider community. While reviewing the contents, one name appeared repeatedly: Hideki Kawabata. Further investigation into his background led to the discovery of a historical page on his personal website - and it is here that an entirely separate treasure trove of 3D character and promotional renders from the Shenmue development era was found.

This series of posts will focus specifically on these images, as posted on Kawabata’s website, rather than the extensive auction-sourced materials housed on the Shenmue Dojo which will be a separate future topic.

The collection on Kawabata's page includes a wide range of 3D renders featuring main characters, NPCs, and a small number of locations. While many of these designs appear in the first two released games, others do not. This hints that some may have been cut during development, or potentially, they may even provide glimpses of content planned for Shenmue IV and beyond.

In this blog post, we will give an overview of what the collection contains, and subsequent posts will take a closer look at some of its most interesting and surprising items.

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Weekly AM2 Volume 14 - Shenmue Theme Ringtone #3 | 14th March 2000

Vol. 14: 14th March 2000

Hello, Takuan here!

Last week, the main image on the Shenmue.com homepage was changed to one featuring Ryo and Guizhang.

When I checked the BBS, I was surprised at the response we had!

Please keep sending in your thoughts and feedback via email or on the BBS.

I’ll keep doing my best, so thank you for your continued support!

This week's contents:

• New Content Coming to Shenmue Passport
• Daytona USA 2 featured on B'z's new album! [not translated]
• White Day Special: Wallpaper Download
• Just Two Days Until Hazuki Ishigaki's Internet Show Appearance!
• Last Chance to Enter! Win Tickets to See Hazuki Ishigaki on Anime Donburi
• Call for Shenmue Illustrations and 4-Panel Comics!
• Ringtone #3: Continent and Sea

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Poll Result: Patrons' Choice Topic for July 2025

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:

Famitsu.com article: 25th Anniversary Shenmue Reunion with Key Former Developers

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Shenmue's release on the Dreamcast in Japan, Famitsu.com invited several former project members to reminisce over dinner about their experience of working to create the masterpiece that is Shenmue and reflect on the game's legacy.

Left to right: Takeshi Hirai, Eigo Kasahara, Makoto Wada, Keiji Okayasu, Kenji Miyawaki, Takashi Matsuda, Toshiyuki Kurooka

The participants consisted of key members from the original Shenmue development team:

• Eigo Kasahara, who served as Planning Director for Shenmue I and II, and also worked on the Shenmue Passport and the PS4 remaster.
• Makoto Wada, a programmer on Shenmue I and lead programmer on II.
• Takeshi Hirai, the main system programmer on Shenmue I.
• Keiji Okayasu, the Assistant Director on Shenmue I, II, and III.
• Toshiyuki Kurooka, a programmer on Shenmue I, who focused on events around the Hazuki residence & the basement. 
• Takashi Matsuda, a CG designer on Shenmue I and II who created many of the game's NPCs. 
• Kenji Miyawaki, a graphic designer responsible for character designs and UI across the series.

The discussion is full of fun stories and inside jokes, while at the same time revealing just how intense the work environment was at the time, and the immense dedication shown by the development team to bringing the games to life. Not to mention the startling revelation that a PS2 port of Shenmue I was developed internally but never released...

"I didn't go home for two months." - one of the dinner participants.

"This isn't that kind of game!" - Yu Suzuki, upon discovering that the developers had implemented boob jiggle physics.

"We created Yokosuka from scratch in just one year - after the game's announcement (at the Shenmue Premiere)" - Takeshi Hirai.

Coming soon to the blog!

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