Yu Suzuki Part 2

The second part of the interview is now up and we managed to get a partial translation from our Japanese member Kiyuu.

" GNN, the Taiwanese game site who interviewed Yu Suzuki on Sept. 30, is updated!

Here' s the link: http://gnn.gamer.com.tw/7/21707.aspx

Machine translation (WorldLingo) for the " Shenmue" part:

" ' Quickly Hits besides VR' , in the Suzuki abundant near future game
work, the manufacture scale will be biggest, most receives plays, not
too " Sha Wood" which the family will focus attention on this section
Italian China martial arts for main axle huge risk story. Original
manufactures 16 chapters " Sha Wood" , after promotes two section works,
then main engine production suspension stagnates along with SEGA the
DC until now, the story only carries on the 6th chapter, not yet
terminates. Although following has published on-line the version " Sha
Wooden Online" manufacture plan, but plays the family regarding the
story intense single plane version " Sha Wood" whether also has the
plan to promote continues does, presents the lead Pakistan month cool
risk course integrity this spot, embraces the high hope and the
curiosity.

About this spot, the Suzuki abundant expression, he is very wants to
complete " Sha Wood" entire the story, formerly had in US reaches 2 ten
thousand to play the family joint signature to hope " Sha Wood"
continued newly to do promotes, he also knew this was many plays
family' s hope, but present certainly not concrete plan. But if decided
must manufacture promotes, then surely is personally fences by him,
cannot use somebody as a cat' s-paw, likes " Sha Wood" plays the family
to be allowed to feel relieved."

I have translated it into Japanese too, and here' s what I' ve learned roughly from it.

" Yu-san wants to complete the story of Shenmue. He knows how the fans want it, including the petition held in the US that gathered 20,000 signatures. Unfortunately, there' s no concrete plans for the development of the sequel yet, but if it' d be decided Yu-san himself would like to direct it, noone else. So, the fans shouldn' t worry!"

Also, he reveals detailes on Shenmue Online. It seems there will be lots of changes about the game. We definitely need a decent translation of the whole article. Whoever can get it done, please help us!!

so it seems like we are back to endlessly waiting in that cave

I have translated it into Japanese too, and here' s what I' ve learned roughly from it.

" Yu-san wants to complete the story of Shenmue. He knows how the fans want it, including the petition held in the US that gathered 20,000 signatures. Unfortunately, there' s no concrete plans for the development of the sequel yet, but if it' d be decided Yu-san himself would like to direct it, noone else. So, the fans shouldn' t worry!"

Also, he reveals detailes on Shenmue Online. It seems there will be lots of changes about the game.

Translated it into Japanese? Don' t you mean guessed at a solid meaning from the machine translation? :S

As suspected, there is nothing worthwhile from Suzuki regarding Shenmue 3. The " AM Plus" news is interesting but as I keep saying, Shenmue 3 will not need Suzuki or his interviews to see release.

Here is a more accurate translation:


So, as many of you don' t know. Taiwan has a gaming journalist site called GNN, and they invited Yu Suzuki for an interview about a variety of things recently. Here are some of the things he said. The inview actually has 2 parts.

Part 1 Lindberg, Arcade, next gen

Yu says that he believes Lindberg is the most powerful arcade board in existence. Even though developing new games on a new hardware can be difficult, but it' s something he has a very good handle of, so he believes he can do a good job.

Concerning Lindberg' s PC design, Yu says that the development of hardware is the responsibility of the R&D team, and not his, so he can not says for sure the reasons for the decision. He adds that what he thinks are the reason, is that technically, PC from before weren' t good enough to use in an arcade system. But now, since modern PC' s have added processing capabilities in sound and gfx, it is becoming a suitable hardware for arcade use.

Yu says that he' s not sure about the capabilities of PS3 and Xbox360, so he can' t really compare Lindberg to those systems. On top of that, he hasn' t had hand' s on testing of either systems, so he can' t say for sure how they compares. He adds that every game needs different kinds of processing and effects. There are hardwares that can evenly provide stable processing in every areas, but some hardwares when doing certain kinds of processing, the other areas decline in processing abilities. The Lindberg was designed to handle heavy demands in all areas while providing a stable perfomance overall.

He adds that the tools that the Sega Sammy team provided for Lindberg heavily affected the way they develops for Lindberg. He gave the example of how the PS2 graphics have advanced since it' s debut, and attributes it to the more mature toolset that the developers now have to work with.

Part 2, Shenmue and Shenmue Online

*Shenmue*

About the home version of Shenmue, the whole story Yu planned is 16 chapters, but Shenmue only progressed through 6 chapters. Yu says that he personally really wants to finish the whole Shenmue saga. He further adds that a sequel is highly desired by many players around the world, and that he is aware of the 20,000 US players that expressed their demand for a sequel. Currently, however, there are no concrete plans for a sequel, but when the opportunity comes, he promises that he will head the project himself, so all the Shenmue fans can rest well.
*Shenmue Online*

Shenmue online will take place where Shenmue 2 took place, specifically, Hong Kong and China. Yu says that without the characters of Shenmue, then it won' t be Shenmue, so he promises all the main characters will appear in Shenmue Online as NPC' s. They will take part in the story and act as central figures of the game to progress the players of the game.

Players will join 1 of 3 clans lead by Sha Hua, XiuYing, and WuYing, and go through the story by completing tasks given by the leaders. Or course, during the course of the story, each clan will interact with one another in both friendly and hostile situations. LanDi and Ryo will definitely make appearances in those situations as well.

Yu states that even though the Korean company JCE had annouced their withdrawl from development, since Shenmue Online is a Sega venture, they will fulfill their duty of completing it. Yu says despite the internet rumors, development is well on its way and following their original goals and target. He adds that Sega Sammy will make an official announcement about it' s progress in the future.

When asked about the various activities possible in Shenmue2 and whether they will make it into Shenmue Online, Yu says that the arcade games will definitely make it in, and 2/3rds of the things like working, collecting capsule toys, etc, from Shenmue2 will make it into Shenmue Online, along with much more contents exclusive to Shenmue Online. Yu adds that the game will take place not only in Hong Kong and China, but Macao as well, Yu smiled when he was asked what will the players be able to do in Macao. (Macao is Hong Kong' s gambling and red light district.)

Yu says that QTE' s will make it into Shenmue Online; but conceptually, it is impossible to implement the exact same kind of QTE into an online game. So in Shenmue Online, QTE' s will be something geared towards an online MMO game, but since the implementation haven' t been finalized yet, he can' t go into specifics.

Yu states that Shenmue' s world is very suitable for online play. Shenmue Online' s world will be much bigger than the home versions thus far, including over 1200 buildings/locations, and it will be possible for each player to have his or her own house. Yu adds that he has always been very fond of Chinese culture, so he is very happy that Shenmue is liked by the Chinese gamers. This is why he is making this game for the Chinese market. But from a game perspective, Shenmue Online will include many things that all gamers will be able to enjoy.

The interview then talks about Yu' s desire to bring Psy Phi to the Taiwan Sega locations. How he was injured by a drunken Bajichuan martial artist in China when he was doing research for VF4, and that he spent 6,000,000 yen to rent out Fuji Speedway for making Ferrari 355, etc.

Lastly the pictures provided by Sega Sammy are in real time, so the final game will be up to the quality of those pictures. Yu adds that he will try make an official announcement about the game' s details as quickly as he can, to the Taiwanese gamers, and that Sega Sammy also have plans to make some announcements regarding Shenmue Online. So gamers interested in Shenmue should be on the lookout for more info soon.

Here is my full response:

Quite why everyone is in such a state over this new interview
(http://gnn.gamer.com.tw/7/21707.aspx) " versus" Kikizo is beyond me.

Firstly Yu Suzuki did not say anything like " no Shenmue 3" . In fact,
according to the translation, he said he " really wants to finish Shenmue" ,
but that there are no concrete plans.

If anything, this is in agreement with the Kikizo article from August
(http://games.kikizo.com/news/200508/141_p1.asp), which provided great
detail about the status of the project but stressed that the title could not
be assured of release.

Furthermore the Kikizo article also explained how Yu Suzuki has not been
involved in the development of the Shenmue franchise since his involvement
on the first two games, because the franchise remains at AM2 while Yu Suzuki
farts about setting up a new studio every month or two while maybe putting
out one new arcade game every couple of years. This week it' s " AM Plus" ,
right?

The truth is that Yu Suzuki is not in a position he once was at Sega, not
really even to comment on the likelihood of Shenmue progressing. Fair or
not, the comedy losses of the Shenmue project to date needed to be blamed on
someone. Guess who that was? Suzuki' s answer to this website regarding S3 is
the same he gave to Edge Magazine two years ago. He doesn' t know what' s
going to happen. But you can bet he knows about the things that were
reported on in our August report. Hmmm, on second thoughts...

And quite frankly, even IF Suzuki was saying something that outright
disagreed with our article, and even IF he still had actual authority to do
so in the eyes of his bosses, (and I' ll hold back on names there as well
just like I did in the article) then I would say, " meh, whatever" . You know
why? Because like many game companies, sometimes what Sega does and what it
says are two radically different things. And poor old Yu Suzuki is no
exception. I trust I don' t need to cite examples.

The one interesting thing I got from this article was that Suzuki supposedly
says that, if/when the project proceeds, he' ll be at the helm. That' s not
what his bosses and former co-workers are saying. But hey, who knows.

I do not feel the slightest need to defend the Kikizo article, or the site.
Kikizo' s reputation - and access to all levels of the industry - speaks for
itself. To claim that any part of the article was exaggerated, let alone
falsified, beggars belief. Especially when you consider how particular the
article was in stressing to the, shall we say, more excitable Shenmue fans,
things that should ultimately be taken from it . If someone wants to read
our article again and honestly conclude that it' s all lies, then frankly,
that' s up to them, but please remember to give them their anti-!!1! pills
before they' re let loose on all the forums.

Every detail in Kikizo' s article was factual. And while I cannot honestly
provide a reliable status update on what we know at this time, and how/if
anything has changed since what we published in August, I can remind that
the article, and its source, were absolutely valid and genuine. Furthermore,
in my personal opinion and as far as I can make out, much of what we
reported in terms of " current status" remains unchanged - and Yu Suzuki' s
most recent comments do not prove or suggest otherwise.

With all the damn hassle resulting from the article and follow-up stuff like
this recent interview, it almost seems like a waste of time bothering to
discover and report on actual news/updates in the first place - especially
when so many forum monkeys can' t seem to grasp basic facts about who is
saying what. Having said that, we might have an update on things soon.
Maybe.

Anyone who is still confused, may I suggest re-reading a (reliable)
translation of his latest interview, then re-reading Kikizo' s article, and
then maybe re-reading this rant.

Adam

I trust kikizo,Sega is acting very strange these late days though,so many things in movement it feels weird look at all games,feel like a sega comeback why not even add shenmue3?,so anything can happend,but i do think sega had sehnmue 3 in their plans when kikizo wrote about it,hopefully the still do.And will.
Like reset their source was apperently an employed at square-enix who told all secrets,now i dont know if square-enix have those with purpace to make up hype for certain games and see what the community think of the ideas,or if they just talk when they shouldn' t.and i think kikizo meet one of those at sega working at many big project at sega,mayby even worked at shenmue1-2.

So people give them a break.
They was also first with promise a sonic realse statement+ video,atleast on all europe/usa sites,i dont know if some japanese was faster and so,or magazine,but not in europe+usa.
I like kikizo


" EDIT" forget to add that sega has been a publisher too nowdays,like publishing condemend that coming to 360 by fear creators,and publisher for rome total war:barbarian invasion,and they gonna co-work with bizzare(pgr3 makers) and publish/work with them on new titles.

Even if you break 2 legs from a crab it still runs!
What you gotta do is find its weak spot and do massive damage at it.

I expect Suzuki-san to start up an AM NEO someday soon!! He will be the father of all these abandoned studios, hehe.. He should just sit still at AM2 and keep kicking ass like he was before! I don' t doubt that he could probably still head AM2 and have the other studios as side projects. Digital Rex focussing on CG stuff, ' AM Plus' and AM Neo (ha!) focussing on new properties.

Terry Bogard - currently the most Unhelpful member of the Kikizo forums.

If this is all true than that' s a shitty way to treat someone whose games has been the building blocks of what Sega is basically known for. All it took was one game to fail and he' s being ostricised? That' s not cool man especially since sega owes the guy a lot.

And sakaguchi? FF creator?
Who made FF movie which failed big time,and then got moved out from producer spot.
He just made square into billionaries,sadly big companies only care for money,no friendship,why did you think he left?
He had no big part in the company left,in japan tbey dont like say they got fired or was gonna,they rather quit and say they feel like they need to move on.
But we all know what happend to FF creator sakaguchi after he failed big time with his bad movie,he lost all part in his own FF serie from ffx+

Even if you break 2 legs from a crab it still runs!
What you gotta do is find its weak spot and do massive damage at it.

It' s a strange thing about a relatively minor game that debuted on an obsolete console and then had a sequel that hardly sold at all, that a story about its potential appearence which then doesn' t tally exactly with things said by its creator some months later should arouse such strong passions that the original story should be denounced as lies rather than simply considered a possible mistake or misinterpretation (of either story).


But that' s Shenmue. For those who are fans (of whom, Mr Doree is a fervently declared member) Shenmue does arouse the most enormous passions. I think one major problem is that many of the audience for such revelations are fairly young and haven' t developed the maturity or experience not to jump to conclusions or to run away with a misapprehension of what is said. In addition, of course, a great deal of what has happened with Shenmue is to do with company politics, both internal to Sega and in Sega' s relationship to the business community as a whole, and with Sammy. There is also a lack of understanding about how businesses run. On the dojo I' ve read posts from people who think that because OutRun 2 is or might be successful, or other Yu project, he' ll personally " make enough money to make Shenmue III with" .

It seems very clear that whatever credibility Yu Suzuki has derives almost exclusively from his long and continuing success story vis-a-vis arcade games. This is where his strengths are, and this is where Sega wish to exploit those strengths. If there is a Shenmue project which has been simmering away, there' s every reason to suggest that Yu-san is unaware of it, which I think is what Adam believes.

Japanese videogame politics is no different from the Hollywood studio movie system. No matter what humungous success you have and how much money your film makes, if the next one sucks then nobody wants to take your call. Given the cutthroat Japanese business culture, it' s rather surprising that they' ve retained Yu-san at all, let alone maintained his position and continued to give him responsibility.

I think I would like to state here my position, given the amount of hope I got from Adam' s inside story. Adam' s story implied a current ongoing project, and no involvement from Yu Suzuki. Given all the reorganisations that have occurred, Yu' s going to a new Arcade division, the obvious upshot of Yu' s retaining control of Shenmue is that we certainly won' t be seeing it for a long time, probably the 2010s at the earliest. Though his vision of Shenmue is peerless, I don' t want to have to wait, so I prefer to believe that he is simply not included in the process, however much that is disrespectful to him as the game' s creator.

I no longer expect great things from Shenmue III, but I would like Ryo and Shenhua to get out of that cave, and I would really like to see Shenmue I appearing on a new console, so that I can finally retire my Dreamcast.

Adam, I do thank you for looking into Shenmue and writing that article, but I' m sure you do understand than any news ends up as sad news for us every day the game isn' t announced. Every article about possibilities end up as another dagger as we remember 1/2 and get hyped about it.

It' s so sad really.