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.
—So you’d go out to Mr. [Tetsuya] Mizuguchi*'s office in Shibuya, but when Shenmue II development hit a snag…
*Tetsuya Mizuguchi: in addition to Space Channel 5, other games he produced while at Sega include Sega Rally Championship and Rez.
Hirai was working on both Shenmue II and Space Channel 5 Part 2, in parallel
Hirai: I'd get called back to the [Sega offices at] Haneda. It was a very old-school way of working.
You know, when Mr. Kasahara and I first joined AM2, our salaries were really low!
Kasahara: Huh!?
Hirai: We were probably the two lowest-paid guys in the division. But after development progressed a bit, we went to Mr. Okayasu and negotiated a raise.
Kasahara: I do remember going along with you to discuss that! (laughs)
Hirai: So my salary ended up being tripled during Shenmue’s development.
Everyone: Oooh!
Kasahara: Mine didn’t triple! No way! (laughs) Mr. Okayasu!!
Okayasu: Well, what can I say… back then, you were kind of flashy. Your hair was purple and all.
Kasahara: I was not flashy! (laughs)
Miyawaki: You were part of some team or something… In Okayama, they said there wasn’t a person who didn’t know Kasahara.
—So Kasahara was a legend in Okayama! (laughs)
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| Kasahara's "flashy" look, back in the day [Image added by Switch] |
Involvement with Shenmue III
Mr. Okayasu and Mr. Miyawaki, you both worked on Shenmue III as well. What led you to rejoin Mr. Suzuki?
Okayasu: In my case, I was the one who reached out. From the outside, it looked like things were pretty tough, so I gave him a call and said, “If you need help, I can lend a hand.” And he immediately said, “Come in starting tomorrow!” (laughs)
Of course, I couldn’t jump in that fast, so we talked things over properly and signed a contract before I officially joined.
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| Shenmue III, released in 2019 |
Miyawaki: In my case, Yu-san reached out directly. At the time I was working at a different game company, so I told him I can’t get too deeply involved, but I ended up checking in about once a week and helping out where I could.
Okayasu: Back then it was rough, but in a way, I was curious what it would be like to work with Yu-san again from my current position. Before, we were in a boss-subordinate relationship, but now it was more like company-to-company, on equal footing, so I could be more direct with him than in the old days. That said, Yu-san himself is still the same approachable guy. (laughs)
Hirai: I think Yu-san just naturally wants to consult with Mr. Okayasu about things.
Okayasu: Yu-san has a lot of confidence in the things he believes in. But for things he's less certain about, he's surprisingly open to other people’s input.
That said, there were times when he seemed like he was asking for advice, but you could tell he was really just looking for agreement. Like he'd often say to me, “Okayasu, this is right, yeah?” - clearly fishing for confirmation. (laughs)
Kurooka: I feel like I’ve heard that line a lot! (laughs)
If Shenmue IV Were to be Made...
—Hypothetically, if Shenmue IV were to be made, would any of you want to be involved?
Everyone: ...
—Don’t go silent all of a sudden! (laughs)
Matsuda: I do want to see the story completed and shared with the world.
Back then, there was a kind of “secret room” Yu-san had in the office, and new staff would be taken there for an initiation of sorts. Inside, the entire story of Shenmue - all chapters - was laid out in art and text. You could read the whole story. That was the ritual for newcomers. So I think many of us from that time know how it was supposed to end.
Miyawaki: The script has gone through many versions, and things may have changed since then. But if there is going to be another installment, I really hope there's a clear plan to finish the story all the way to the end.
Kasahara: I probably shouldn’t say this as someone who's still with Sega, but… if Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio were to take it on, I think they’d make one hell of a Shenmue! (laughs)
—Now that’s interesting!
Okayasu: During the development of the first Shenmue, I played the game so much while working on it that, honestly, after it released, I never touched it again. But when I joined the development of Shenmue III, I was surprised at how many staff members - both Japanese and international - were genuine fans of the series.
That’s when I finally realized how highly regarded Shenmue actually is.
From a developer’s perspective, what I remember mostly is just how exhausting it all was. (laughs)
And by the way, even during Shenmue III, Yu-san’s style didn’t change one bit. He was still trying to improve things even after development had technically ended... just like always.
Hirai: He’s just the kind of person who wants to polish the work until the very, very end.
Okayasu: In the later stages of Shenmue III development, Yu-san would sometimes say, “If only Kasahara were here…”
Kasahara: No way, he didn’t say that! (laughs)
Okayasu: Not in the first half of the project, but in the second half, yeah, he said it. (laughs) It’s always the second half of development when things get really tough.
Matsuda: With Yu-san, you would make something exactly the way he asked, show it to him, and once he saw it completed, he’d say, “Oh, if we can do this, that means we can take it even further, right?”
So every time you completed a task, it somehow resulted in more work being added. (laughs)
Hirai: Week after week, we were optimizing it all...
Okayasu: Looking back now, I really think Sega was an incredible company for letting us develop a game that way.
Hirai: I honestly had a great time.
Okayasu: Why are you trying to act like such a good guy, Hirai?
Hirai: I'm not, I'm not! (laughs)
But seriously, being able to stay creative right up until the very end, constantly tackling new challenges and refining things - that’s the fun part of being a programmer. No one ever told us, "We're in debug now, stop writing new code," you know?
Next time: the final part, Part Six!
Source: Famitsu.com – Shenmue 25th Anniversary Roundtable (Japanese) (December 2024)
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