Yu Suzuki to Speak About Shenmue III on 16th December | Video [ENG Subs]

Yu Suzuki has announced that he will be in China on 16th December to give a presentation about Shenmue III, at the invitation of WeGame, China's biggest PC games distribution platform. The event's name is G-Fusion Tour and the venue is in Xiamen, a sub-provincial city in south-eastern Fujian province.

Yu Suzuki recorded a video greeting to the fans in China, extracted below, to which we have added English subtitles:


Fujian province, in which the venue city is located, has a special meaning to Shenmue fans as it is home to the Fujian Tulou, multi-level rounded buildings that feature in the concept art for the city of Baisha in Shenmue III.

Concept sketch of Baisha in Shenmue III, showing Tulou

Tulou in Fujian province.

The event's website promises that there will be interesting stories and that "good news" will be announced. We look forward to what Yu Suzuki may reveal in his presentation on the 16th.

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Fan Photos of Shenmue at Network Jungle II Event in 1999

Shenmue was featured at "Network Jungle II: Digitaliland," an expo for games making use of networking and digital communications held in Tokyo in 1999, to promote the game in Japan ahead of its release.

One of the stage events had members of the public competing to "dub over" lines from Shenmue. One participant spoke as Ren using a regional Kansai dialect, which must have caused some hilarity among the audience.

The voice/mo-cap actors for Ren (Takumi Hagiwara), Shenhua (Hazuki Ishigaki) and Ryo (Masaya Matsukaze) in the Japanese versions introducing the dubbing competition

Later Yu Suzuki also took the stage together with Hiroaki Takeuchi, and Sega Managing Director Hidekazu Yukawa (of "What's Shenmue" demo fame).

From left: Hiroaki Takeuchi, Sega Managing Director Hidekazu Yukawa and Yu Suzuki.

Most images that can be found online of this event are rather low-resolution (understandably, due to bandwidth considerations at the time), so it's fascinating to get another glimpse from someone who was actually there.

Photo credit: @kohji_nakazawa via Twitter

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The Hazuki Family Altar - Part Two | The Realism of Shenmue

Today's topic was selected as the Patrons' Choice topic for November by the Phantom River Stone blog patrons via our monthly poll. If you'd like to have a say in what subjects we cover next, check out our Patreon page here!

In this second part we wrap up our examination of the Hazuki Family Altar, this time investigating each of the individual items that decorate the altar and lie in the drawers. To start from Part One, click here.

The Family Altar in Shenmue

The Hazuki altar in Shenmue has been created with amazing detail, accurately reflecting many of the typical religious items to be found. Here are some brief notes on a few of these.

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A Message from Nozomi (Megumi Yasu)

This week's Famitsu magazine contains a message from the voice actress of Nozomi, Megumi Yasu, in the Japanese version of the first two Shenmue games:

"I should be able to do it a little better now..! I look forward to it, if I have the chance (haha)."

The ability for Ryo to call Nozomi by phone is planned for Shenmue 3 as part of the "S3 World Telecom" reward tier, so there's a chance that she may be asked to reprise her role.

Thank you to @shenmueguide for this news (via Twitter).

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Comments on Kickstarter Update #93: Final Campaign Tallies

Comments on Kickstarter Update #93: Final Campaign Tallies

With less than 10 months to go until the Shenmue III release on 27th August 2019, a new Kickstarter update for Shenmue III was released today. It has been a while since the last one - around two months - which is not surprising as the development team is hard at work, with Yu Suzuki even sleeping over at the office, as he revealed during September's Tokyo Game Show.

The final totals for backer funding across the Kickstarter and Slacker Backer campaigns has now been confirmed:

Backers: 81,087
Funding Total: $7,179,510

The team expresses their thanks to all backers, saying: "Seeing the final numbers, all of us here can't help but feel all over again the immensity of the support everyone has given to make this project come true! Thank you!"

Also shared were photographs of some of the rewards being prepared. Here is our quick breakdown of the images presented.

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Shenmue I & II Releases in Japan Today

Today (November 22nd) is the release of Shenmue I & II in Japan, exclusively for PS4, three months after its international release.

This fantastic image was drawn by @r_wuying (link to tweet).

Twitter is buzzing with tweets of anticipation and excitement, both from former players of the games and those who are excited to try it. Not being available on Steam in Japan, this will be the first time for most there to experience the new version.

The beautifully-packaged Limited Edition comes with a double-CD "Sound Collection" soundtrack (Japan only).
Photo credit: Nin-Nin Game

Gaming magazines and sites have also published articles such as this one from Famitsu [Japanese] introducing the game to newcomers and highlighting improvements made over the originals.

Shenmue-related events are also helping to stoke the Shenmue excitement, with collectible coasters being given away at selected shops in Dobuita, and a Shenmue fan meeting arranged in December.

• Related post: Shenmue Coaster Collectibles in Yokosuka | Shenmue Sacred Spot Campaign

A positive reception in Japan will hopefully translate to robust sales, and stir anticipation for Shenmue III which will release on 27th August of next year.

Link to the official Shenmue I & II site for Japan

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The Hazuki Family Altar - Part One | The Realism of Shenmue

Today's topic was selected as the Patrons' Choice topic for November by the Phantom River Stone blog patrons via our monthly poll. If you'd like to have a say in what subjects we cover next, check out our Patreon page here!

Shenmue I naturally weaves many facets of Japanese culture into the game, such as the way Ryo takes off his shoes indoors, or the different types of period telephones that Ryo can use around the area.

Today we'll look at another example of Shenmue I's faithful recreation of Japanese culture within the game: the Buddhist altar that can be seen in the Hazuki Residence.

The importance of the altar to the Hazukis can be appreciated by the fact that there is a whole room dedicated to it. And during the game it is not just there for show; as Ryo we able to interact with it ourselves, and furthermore other characters in the story also interact with it as we will cover later in this post.

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Shenmue I & II Two-Hour Talk Panel with Masaya Matsukaze

The two hours of SEGA Japan's talk panel live stream discussing Shenmue I & II passed by in a flash, and did a great job of promoting its Japan release exclusively for PS4 on November 22nd. The stream included memories and comments from the guests, a quiz, and anecdotes from those who developed the original games.

Masaya Matsukaze, Ryo's voice/motion-capture actor for the Japanese version, was MC for the session and was accompanied by two of the original developers of the games: Eigo Kasahara and Hiroshi Noguchi (original roles: Planning Director and Real Time Movie Designer); they two have also been handling the localization of Shenmue I & II for the domestic market in Japan.

The guest panel consisted of members of the Japanese media, with editors/journalists from Weekly Famitsu, Dengeki Game Media, 4Gamer and IGN Japan.

A shorter stage discussion was held on the SEGA stage at the Tokyo Game Show in September with the same participants, but this time much more time was allotted.

Here is a selection of video grabs to give the flavor of the session.

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