The last two years have been a turbulent time for Shenmue fans. Which is saying something, when youve been waiting over a decade for a sequel to the most notorious cliffhanger in gaming history. When Segas loyal customers last saw Japanese teenager Ryo Hazuki on his quest to avenge his fathers death, he had travelled to a mysterious Chinese cave with an equally mysterious Chinese girl, and discovered the secrets behind the ancient artefact hed brought with him on his pursuit across land and sea for the murderous Lan Di. As the games epic soundtrack reached a crescendo, the climactic final scene was replaced by the words The story goes on... And we believed them. But while Shenmue was one of the highest selling titles on the Dreamcast, the failure of Segas 128-bit console prevented the game from recouping the unprecedented investment ploughed into its development. Shenmue II was released in most countries in the consoles dying days, when many gamers had moved on to new hardware, and in North America the game was dubiously reserved by ship-jumping executive Peter Moore for the original Xbox, whose userbase had not played the original and were not, broadly speaking, the most obvious demographic for an RPG that involved almost as much kitten feeding as face kicking. So with Shenmue IIs sales proving disappointing, Sega more or less abandoned the idea of resolving its cliffhanger with a third game. That mythical sequel has haunted them across Internet forums, social media, snail mail and press gatherings ever since. tinyurl/AngelaTaylor youtu.be/1Zv-rbo2CTI This unwavering demand appeared to pay off in March 2012, when excitement was stirred by a Sega brand manager named Ben Harborne. At the end of an interview by Gamereactor about the newly high-definitioned Jet Set Radio, Ben was asked whether fans should keep requesting their favorite Dreamcast games to be remastered in HD. Harbornes choice of words misled many into believing Shenmue HD was in the pipeline, but as time went on and every Sega game from that era EXCEPT Shenmue was re-released with a shiny new lick of paint, it became increasingly obvious that Ben was only predicting what the most requested games would be, and not referring to those in production. youtu.be/Y3y2ZsY_8V8?t=7m14s Further rumors of questionable origin would piggy-back on this spark of hope, keeping thoughts of HD remakes alive into 2013 when Yu Suzuki would be quizzed on the topic at the Monaco Anime Game Show. The license of Shenmue I & II belongs to Sega, the series designer replied, Now that Ive left Sega its not my decision, but Segas, to remake and sell them like that. Itd be possible for Sega, I guess. While Suzuki had left his full time position at Sega in 2011 to form his own studio YS Net, he maintains an advisory role at the company with whom he built his career with classic arcade games like Hang On, Out Run and Space Harrier - all of which are playable within Shenmues virtual arcades. So if a project was underway to port his most celebrated games onto modern consoles with even better visuals than they had at their time of release, its extremely unlikely that Yu would be out of the loop. That he didnt know of any such plans spoke volumes. However, such is the rollercoaster of Shenmue fandom, it wouldnt be long before another source of optimism appeared online. Within weeks of his appearance in Monaco, Suzuki was photographed at the Game Developers Conference in San Franciso alongside Mark Cerny, lead architect of the Playstation 4. According to GDC general manager Meggan Scavio who tweeted the picture, the pair were talking strategy for Shenmue III. For reals you guys. tinyurl/gdctweet That Mark and Yu were longtime friends from their days at Sega, and that the conference was designed to create casual encounters between colleages past and future, didnt seem important against the prospect of Ryos adventure finally resuming on the PS4. To this day, organizers of the convention in Monaco accuse GDC management of manipulating an innocent picture to generate attention for their event. Sour grapes or personal insight? Perhaps neither. Perhaps it just takes a promoter to know a promoter. Sony would remain a hot topic for Shenmue fans later in the year however, when Gio Corsi - head of the companys new Third Party Productions team - invited gamers to let him know whichever third party titles they wanted to see on Playstation platforms. He didnt need to ask Shenmue fans twice. When the smoke had cleared, Gios colleague Adam Boyes was citing this abandoned franchise as one of the most requested games amongst the ten thousand tweets and forum posts theyd received. And as the most requested games would be first on their list to pursue, fans of Yu Suzukis magnum opus now had legitimate reason to be hopeful, knowing that Sega was on record in a 2010 edition of Famitsu as saying they would trade exclusivity for Shenmue funding. tinyurl/AdamBoyes Suzuki himself has spoken many times in public, and been quoted in private conversation, about his enduring desire to make Shenmue III. Its simply a matter of finding the right partner, with license holders Sega unwilling to foot the bill for what they acknowledge to be their most frequently demanded game. In 2010, when asked by 1UP if he would consider working with a Western publisher if they funded Shenmue III, Yu replied, If were given the freedom to make what we want, it doesnt matter where the company is from. I would take my family and move to the States. So when a man who is willing to move his family to the other side of the world for the chance to make Shenmue III is given a platform to talk about the original game at GDC 2014, with Mark Cerny translating, heads turn. The presentation will be a postmortem of Ryos debut on the Dreamcast, advising todays developers on the methods used and the lessons learned during the games creation, and will be streamed live on GameSpot. Such an occasion is intriguing enough for any Shenmue fan, as almost every time Suzuki opens his mouth a previously unknown fact about this 14-year-old game tumbles out. But despite their longstanding friendship, and despite the fact that Cerny already hosted and partly translated a career retrospective with Yu at GDC 2011 (and was asked by Meggan Scavio to fill the role this time), fans cant help but be excited by this suspiciously perfect opportunity for a Shenmue-related announcement to be made, whether a deal has been agreed yet or not. tinyurl/GDC2014 As we prepare to close the door on 2013, these turbulent two years may soon be a distant memory for Shenmue fans, or another addition to a decade of disappointments may be just waiting to strike. But through it all, boosting the highs and cushioning the lows, has been the Shenmue Tweetathon. Initiated shortly before Ben Harbornes ambiguous comments in March 2012, this social media campaign has motivated and galvanized the fanbase from lone soldiers spread far and wide into a cohesive army of gamers who present a united front every month on the 3rd, taking to the public platform of Twitter to voice their dissatisfaction with Segas burial of the Shenmue franchise. This Tuesday, December 3rd, may be the most important Tweetathon yet. In Kotakus interview about pursuing the most requested games for Sony platforms, Adam Boyes stated, I think the challenge is always that theres so many different intricacies, going into is the creator there, whats the current status, does the publisher have other things going... This may be cause for concern. Shenmue fans know that Yu Suzuki would move fathers heaven and mothers earth to bring much-needed closure to his most ambitious games. Mark Cerny may know this too. But do Adam Boyes and Gio Corsi know it? Or is there a chance, a horrible, gut wrenching chance, that resurrecting Shenmue will be dismissed as too complicated a task due to the departure of its creator from Sega? It absolutely shouldnt be... but if we dont use the Shenmue Tweetathon to make it crystal clear to those in the most relevant positions at Sony that Suzuki is ready, willing and able to get on board for Shenmue III, then we run the risk of a terrible misunderstanding derailing what could be Ryo Hazukis last train out of Guilin. This will be the final Tweetathon to use the established hashtag #GiveYuTheShenmueLicense, before long-promised changes to the campaign take effect in time for January. Lets use this opportunity to ensure Sony understands Yus relevance to Shenmue, and that our hunger to conclude this majestic saga is matched only by his. Over a hundred thousand newsfeeds on Twitter are already guaranteed to receive a message from Shenmue supporters this Tuesday, before retweeting even begins. To add your voice to the chorus, either tweet on the day or spare your memory the burden and pre-load your statement for timed automatic release via Thunderclap: TeamYu.net/Dec3rd The time has come for Shenmue fans to stand and be counted more than ever before, so spread the word and be heard on the 3rd - Team Yu needs YOU for Shenmue!
Posted on: Mon, 02 Dec 2013 00:30:12 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015