Today Shenmue III Director Yu Suzuki was at Reboot Develop 2019 in Dubrovnik, Croatia, and hosted a panel to share more information about his upcoming game.
Necrosoft Games Director Brandon Sheffield was so kind to provide a handy slide-by-slide recap on Twitter.
You can check it out below. Suzuki-san shared information on the world and on creating a feeling of presence, and on the soundtrack. Interesting, we learn how he aimed to achieve a feeling of “similarity” as opposed to realism. While the game’s world isn’t the real China, it still feels like the idea of it.
He also talked more about the economy and how systems are connected to it. We get to see the prize exchange system available in Baidu village: you can spend the tokens earned while gambling and playing minigames here.
You earn tokens, you use them at the prize exchange, and you can sell prizes you don’t want at the pawn shop. You can buy skill books or get them through the exchange.
We also hear about the availability of battle difficulty modes that also influence the complexity of the controls. You can practice in the dojo against a wooden mannequin, spar against human opponents, and compete in matches. As increasing your level in the dojo helps you to clear fights in the story, you can alternate between practice and story. Yet, this isn’t final just yet.
Minigames include gacha, the UFO catcher, and a punching game, with an emphasis on mechanical games. Yey, there still are some electronic games. Those let you win tokens as well.
The recently-revealed forklift is even slower than the original, but it’s better integrated with the game’s storytelling and critical path.
Suzuki-san concluded by mentioning that the gameplay style has changed from the old games, as it did from the first one to its sequel. Yet, he believes that original fans will really like it, and Shenmue III will still feel like Shenmue.
Yu Suzuki is here :3 pic.twitter.com/d9hPyrho4H
— brandon sheffield (@necrosofty) April 12, 2019
He’s talking about how open world has changed from the “FREE” concept he had back then. It was a box in which you had a lot of ways to move the story forward. He feels like modern open world games are still somewhat linear in the way they tell stories or progress.
— brandon sheffield (@necrosofty) April 12, 2019
He believes in diversity of game puzzles – he really wants to present a lot of ways to solve the same problem.
— brandon sheffield (@necrosofty) April 12, 2019
When presenting the idea of reality, rather than something real he wants to present something that gives you the feeling or idea of that place. It’s not “reality,” it’s “similarity.” he doesn’t want to be known as a simulation guy, though people called him that in the 90s.
— brandon sheffield (@necrosofty) April 12, 2019
So the Chinese location here. He put some familiar Japanese food stalls in this Chinese scenes, and added mountains that are from a total different location. But if feels like the idea of “China.” pic.twitter.com/0orBcpUfKz
— brandon sheffield (@necrosofty) April 12, 2019
It’s all about creating that feeling that you’re in a place. In Japanese he calls it “らしさ”
He puts more work into the faces and animations to give the feeling rather than illusion of reality pic.twitter.com/G9Lsvv6XzC— brandon sheffield (@necrosofty) April 12, 2019
He recorded the music with real Chinese instruments to give that feeling. pic.twitter.com/e2zk2z5Bx9
— brandon sheffield (@necrosofty) April 12, 2019
This boat for example is probably not something you’d actually see in China. But you can still give it that flavor.
(also, gatcha machines confirmed in shemue iii!?) pic.twitter.com/HTgLxxLNPh
— brandon sheffield (@necrosofty) April 12, 2019
He shifted the design of the game to meet his team’s strengths (such as his artist who really enjoys making boats). He realized they would need to be really engaged to make it work.
— brandon sheffield (@necrosofty) April 12, 2019
He’s really trying to do things in shemue iii that he wanted to do in 1 and 2 but wasn’t able to. So he wants you to be able to take an item, pawn it, then gamble that money away for example. (like pachinko). Those systems existed before, but weren’t connected.
— brandon sheffield (@necrosofty) April 12, 2019
Now this pachinko style gambling is all connected, but also has the core system of fighting better integrated through a skill book which unlocks skills through collecting more items. pic.twitter.com/L2WrRefmew
— brandon sheffield (@necrosofty) April 12, 2019
Baidu village is one of the two main areas, it’s kind of a countryside area. With the items and prize winning, you can either buy skills with money or exchange for skill book unlocks here. You can’t see but here attack and endurance getting to a certain level levels your kung fu pic.twitter.com/HkeEaPWcJC
— brandon sheffield (@necrosofty) April 12, 2019
You won’t be able to find these items in the world, you have to buy or exchange for them. pic.twitter.com/4AfQoI9n0R
— brandon sheffield (@necrosofty) April 12, 2019
This is the basic economy of the skill system pic.twitter.com/4sLY3GE4cd
— brandon sheffield (@necrosofty) April 12, 2019
All game systems tie into the skill book – there are some other categories that aren’t on this slide too. (capsules fully confirmed) pic.twitter.com/blPQjnZ5yw
— brandon sheffield (@necrosofty) April 12, 2019
With battles he’s working toward more complex accessibility modes. It’s not just difficulty dip switches like in the arcade days, but they let you set just the battle difficulty. It’ll range from easy to “better not play this mode.” pic.twitter.com/efqNrxgp2E
— brandon sheffield (@necrosofty) April 12, 2019
This also simplifies the inputs along with the traditional difficulty. So the complexity of control increases with your chosen difficulty. It’s like a fighting game assist system. It’s not supposed to have the depth of virtua fighter – it’s a fun tool for action and progress.
— brandon sheffield (@necrosofty) April 12, 2019
He pretty much wants younger players, or whomever, to be able to just feel like as long as they hit some buttons they can make something happen.
— brandon sheffield (@necrosofty) April 12, 2019
The battle system expands in the dojo space. You can practice (with a wooden man), spar, compete in matches and increase your skill there. You increase your level/だんin the dojo in order to be able to clear matches that come up in the story. You bounce between story and training pic.twitter.com/vn4FwtV7NM
— brandon sheffield (@necrosofty) April 12, 2019
This is apparently subject to some potential change so keep that in mind!
— brandon sheffield (@necrosofty) April 12, 2019
Suzuki is making sure there’s a good learning curve so that new players can enjoy playing it – but since it’s a continuation of a series, there will be a kind of “catchup” movie to get you to understand it. But he recommends just buying shemue 1 and 2 ha ha
— brandon sheffield (@necrosofty) April 12, 2019
In terms of minigames, here’s a preview. There’s gatcha, crane games, a punching game, (and is that a framed photo of pai in the background?) and overall an emphasis on physical or mechanical games. Though there are some electronic games too. You can win tickets as well pic.twitter.com/jymyXwKNNj
— brandon sheffield (@necrosofty) April 12, 2019
The tickets can be redeemed for prizes and other things, hooked into the main skill tree pic.twitter.com/AUakF1FGnU
— brandon sheffield (@necrosofty) April 12, 2019
Also there’s the dang forklift! Some of the stuff you can do with it are still a secret, but the forklift in this game is even slower than the original! But it’s better integrated into the game, and related to some critical path stuff pic.twitter.com/WT49Iw5rcI
— brandon sheffield (@necrosofty) April 12, 2019
He mentions how the play style of shemue changed from 1 to 2, and it has changed again this time. But he thinks the original fans will really like what the team has done here. It’ll feel like shenmue no matter what. The end! pic.twitter.com/tGenlkfDnR
— brandon sheffield (@necrosofty) April 12, 2019
If you want to see more about the game, you can also enjoy the latest trailer which finally showed a glimpse of combat, a batch of screenshots, even more recent screenshots, additional images from a few days before and a recent video showcasing the making of the English voice acting.
We’re just a few months away from the massively-anticipated release of Shenmue III, which semi-recently closed its crowdfunding campaign at a whopping $7,179,510.
Shenmue III will finally launch for PS4 and PC on Aug. 27, 2019.
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