Concept for Shenmue III “already exists”, says Suzuki
Now if only Sega would get on with making it.
Yu Suzuki, director behind the much loved Dreamcast titles Shenmue and Shenmue II, has said that the concept for a possible third game has already been laid out.
“The concept for Shenmue 3 already exists,” he said to 1UP, laughing.
“The world of Shenmue 1 and 2 expanded outward. So, for example, in the original games, of all the data used for dialogue in the game, the main characters’ dialogue was about 20%. The remaining 80% was dialogue by characters other than the two main characters. But Shenmue 3 doesn’t expand outward, but inward.
“A lot of the dialogue is used for the main character and especially dialogue with Shenhua. They talk about a lot of different, deeper things. For example, and I can’t say too much, but here’s an example.
“This is not actually in the game, but as an example to give you an idea of what I mean by deeper dialogue, when Shenhua and Ryo are at home, Shenhua will ask Ryo if he would like to drink tea or coffee and the player will select one or the other. Or, Shenhua will ask Ryo a hypothetical question like: ‘There are four animals; a monkey, cat, dog and bird. You are crossing the river but you need to leave one behind. Which one will you leave behind?’
“And the player has to choose one. Shenhua will ask lots and lots of questions like these and the answers will get stored in the game and affect the outcome of the player’s relationship with other characters. It’s like a personality test. For example, the person who leaves behind the monkey is the type of person who leaves their wife.”
Shenmue II was released in 2001 and ever since, fans of the series have been clamouring for a third title. Unfortunately, due to unconfirmed reasons, including budget issues and poor sales of Shenmue II, it seems like the game will never see the light of day.
“It’s very deep. I think it will be very interesting if it happens,” said Suzuki.
