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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| A mysterious scene from the CG movie on the Project Berkley bonus disc |
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| Magazine page images kindly provided by SkillJim. |
In the late 1990s, SEGA's AM2 division, led by Yu Suzuki, embarked on an ambitious venture known internally as Project Guppy. Initially conceived with the title of Virtua Fighter RPG for the SEGA Saturn, the project subsequently transitioned to the SEGA Dreamcast and was renamed Shenmue and the associated code name changed to Project Berkley. Code names were used to maintain confidentiality during development, adding an aura of mystery to the undertaking.
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| At his GDC 2014 post-mortem talk, Yu Suzuki reveals how the code name changed during development together with the game's title. |
In recent years, Yu Suzuki has revealed the inspiration for the name "Project Berkley":
Q: At the beginning the game was given the codename “Project Berkley”, is there any special meaning behind this name?
YS: It’s actually like this [laughs]: because we realized at the start that this would be a completely different game to anything else on the market at the time, and its scale was unprecedented, we wanted to keep the project very confidential. Because of this we wanted to give it a very cool sounding name, like something from a spy movie. In Japan there’s this phrase bakkureru (ばっくれる) meaning to “pretend not to know” or “feign ignorance”, and by coincidence that there is a place in America with a similar sounding name, so we chose this “Project Berkley” codename.
A special feature of approximately 30 minutes, with the same name of Project Berkley, was included with the Japanese version of Virtua Fighter 3tb, released on Dreamcast in November 1998. Containing a CGI trailer, an extended interview with Yu Suzuki and various concept art, it provided gamers with an early glimpse into the project's innovative vision, highlighting its potential to revolutionize gaming.
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| The Virtua Fighter 3tb release included a bonus disc |
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:
"Photo shoot: Megumi Yasu as Nozomi Harasaki + Mini Interview [Dreamcast Magazine March 2000]"
The March 2000 editions of Japan's Dreamcast magazine featured cosplay by Megumi Yasu, the voice actress who performed the voice of Nozomi Harasaki in the Japanese version of Shenmue.
Accompanying the Nozomi Harasaki cosplay photos was a brief interview with the actress, which we will also be translating.
Coming soon to the blog!
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. News and information about the Shenmue series could be found regularly within these pages from the end of 1999 through to 2001 with the release of Shenmue II.
Vol. 4 was a fairly brief update posted at the start of the new millennium, shortly after the official release of Shenmue in Japan on December 28th. While not much news is contained, we do learn the nickname of Megumi Yasu, the actress playing Nozomi (read on to find out!). A lucky draw is announced for Shenmue-themed New Year Cards - of which only two were available. Let's hope they were kept and treasured by the winners.
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. News and information about the Shenmue series could be found regularly within these pages from the end of 1999 through to 2001 with the release of Shenmue II.
Vol. 2 was released on 21st December 1999, a few days before the official release of Shenmue in Japan on the 29th, and includes a mini-interview with the game's director Keiji Okayasu. Okayasu also directed Shenmue II and returned to Shenmue once again many years later to work with Yu Suzuki on Shenmue III.
This is a translation of another interview part from a series published by Japanese website Anime Hack in 2019, in which sound director Susumu Aketagawa talks about his time spent at SEGA during the creation of the original Shenmue games.
The reason I was able to continue working on Shenmue over three years was largely thanks to meeting and working with Masaya Matsukaze, who played the main role.
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| At the time of recording Shenmue, Masaya Matsukaze was also a motion actor for Mega Blue in Denji Sentai Megaranger |
"Ryo Hazuki is my other self"Back when amusement arcades were booming, arcade game hit-maker Yu Suzuki turned his talent to creating a home console game. There was a large-scale audition that attracted actors in the motion picture industry, and as I was a Mega Ranger at the time that is when I first met Yu-san.
"I should be able to do it a little better now..! I look forward to it, if I have the chance (haha)."
