Tag Archives: Shenmue

Shenmue’s Ryo Hazuki and Sakura Wars’ Ranmaru Join Project X Zone 2

Famitsu shared the latest information about Project X Zone 2’s roster. Ryo Hazuki’s inclusion was no longer a secret when the Korean preview of the game leaked his appearance. Still, we are now able to take a look at artwork and screenshots of the Shenmue hero in action as a Solo Unit. Another Sega character reveal is Ranmaru from Sakura Wars V: So Long, My Love. The loyal attendant of Nobunaga Oda will be an enemy unit to fight. Finally, Garigliano from Resonance of Fate will be a NPC in the story. As you can see in the screenshot gallery at the bottom of the article, he will have an amusing conversation with Segata Sanshiro.
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Sega Plans to Release More PC Ports of Past Sega Games

It’s no secret that SEGA is doing rather well on PC. Other than the RTS games from Creative Assembly and Relic Entertainment and their Football Manager games, the port of Valkyria Chronicles also proved to be a big success, proving that there’s plenty of potential for ports of their older console games as well. Today SEGA announced that they will be porting Sonic: Lost World to PC, which was previously a Wii U exclusive. At the same time, they also mentioned this in their official press release:

“We’re delighted to be able to bring Sonic Lost World to PC.” Said John Clark, VP of Commercial Publishing for SEGA Europe; “This is the latest in a string of high quality PC ports of past SEGA titles that we will be building on in the coming months and years.”

Which sounds like good news! SEGA has plenty of games in their catalog that fans would like to see ported to PC, so it’ll remain to be seen which ones they’re planning on releasing. While fan favorites likes Skies of Arcadia and Shenmue are likely to be in high demand, I’d personally like to see SEGA port the Sakura Taisen series. In fact, Sakura Taisen 1 & 2 already have an existing PC port, so the only real challenge would be localizing them. Which past games would you like to see SEGA port to PC? Feel free to let us know in the comments!

Creator of Shenmue HD Fan Project Joins Shenmue 3 Development Team

The man behind the Shenmue HD fan project, known as Noconkid (or Kid Nocon), has now joined the Shenmue 3 development team. Noconkid is a 3D graphics designer from South Korea, and had been working on a Shenmue HD fan project for several years now. Running on the Unreal Engine 3 and later 4, the quality of his work and attention to detail had impressed many, including Yu Suzuki himself. Interestingly, this is the second time Yu Suzuki has hired a fan to work on Shenmue 3.

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PXZ2 Ryo

Project X Zone 2 Preview Leaks Shenmue’s Ryo Hazuki

Japanese media outlet Gamestalk recently reported on the leak of a handful of Project X Zone 2 characters found in screenshots of a Korean preview of the game. While small in number (only three characters,) the reveals themselves were pretty major – especially the reveal of Shenmue‘s Ryo Hazuki, found in the image above. The other characters that were leaked were immediately confirmed as Solo Units, but Ryo’s status is still up in the air – no sprite of him was shown anywhere in the screenshots.

It’s pretty difficult to predict whether or not Ryo will be part of a pair or a Solo Unit. In my opinion it wasn’t all that radical of an idea to see Ryo included in the game (even if Shenmue III were never announced,) considering many of the classic characters that have been featured in Project X Zone and Project X Zone 2 as it is. But while Project X Zone has used Pair Units to represent relatively inactive franchises (a category to which Shenmue no longer belongs, thankfully!) the questions are: who would Ryo be paired with, and which other Pair Units are still likely to arrive? There is no Valkyria Chronicles team that is publicly known, for one.

In any case, hopefully we will know everything about the roster over the course of October, since Project X Zone 2 releases in Japan on November 11.

Shenmue III Paypal Option Available – Another Chance to Assist With Development

While the Kickstarter for Shenmue III is concluded and development is underway, YsNet is still accepting additional financial contributions to assist with the development of Shenmue III. Titled the Slacker Backer Campaign, contributions here will be added to the Kickstarter total accumulated this past summer and will be collected via PayPal.

A nice feature of this campaign is that there are preorder bonuses attached to this campaign (albeit not exactly all of the same ones as before.) If for example you missed out on preordering a physical copy at $60, that’s an option here. There are English and Japanese campaign links for those who are interested. As of this article’s writing, there are exactly 100 days left to contribute. The backer count (from the time of the Kickstarter to now) is inches away from 70,000. Many Stretch Goals from before still exist, but it’s most likely that YsNet will only develop features as they track with expected donation levels, so if you’re looking for more interesting features from Shenmue III you know what to do.

There is also a new FAQ section at the bottom of the Slacker Backer pages that may offer some notes for your interest.

Additionally, I’d like to take a moment to ask our readers to consider supporting the remastering of previous Shenmue titles on avenues such as gaming forums and social media. While Shenmue III will feature some materials that can help newcomers more readily immerse themselves into the franchise, playing the first two games directly is an incomparable experience. And isn’t it desirable to spread the chance to play the games in the Shenmue franchise, at least to try them out, with as many people as possible? Shenmue is a property that Yu Suzuki, the parties involved in development (for all games,) the fans, and Sega can be proud of.

SEGAbits’ Sonic and SEGA Fan Jam Update: Panelists, Date, Featured Games & More

More news on the 2015’s Sonic and SEGA Fan Jam have just come out! The event will take place on November 14 at The Guild Hall Arena in Savannah, Georgia. Tickets are $15 for adults 21 years and older, $10 for those 13-20 years of age, and $5 for the yung Sega fans.

A tentative list of featured games and events have been put up. Shenmue I and Shenmue II will be available to play, fitting with the big news of Shenmue III‘s announcement. Setups for casual play of Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax will also be available. By the time Fan Jam is held, the game will have already come out in North America, so perhaps the competition will be fierce. There will be tournaments at the Fan Jam too, including such titles as Fighting Climax, Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F 2nd, and Sonic Heroes. Other activities including the screening of fan films, a cosplay contest, and karaoke featuring Sega music.

There are also quite a few panelists who have their own forums scheduled already – be sure to check this link out to read the descriptions and profiles of the persons involved!

The GoGetFunding page is still up, so if you’d like to donate go ahead and stop by to show your support. The team has come a long way and they’re still not done. There are still two and a half months until the Fan Jam is held!

More announcements are planned for the Fan Jam, so stay tuned for additional news in the future.

BlitWorks (Spanish porting house) Suggests Fans Keep Asking for Ports of Sega Games

Recently, Spanish website Gamespek conducted an interview with the Spanish porting company BlitWorks. Selected translated comments posted to this NeoGAF thread suggest that the company’s boss, Tony Cabello, encourages fans to continue to ask Sega for ports of games, and welcome the opportunity to handle ports themselves.

A page detailing their portfolio can be seen on their official website, alongside the platforms they work on. Among their works, the Sega standouts are Jet Set Radio (Vita, PS3, Android, iOS, 360, PC) and Sonic CD (PC, 360, PS3.) A few years ago, BlitWorks approached Sega with working demos of Jet Set Radio, Sonic CD, and Shenmue, but apparently Sega had expressed interest in the first two.

They also mention that they used a certain “emulation trick” to make Jet Set Radio operable on the firmware versions that were the newest at the time, but the game ceased to be functional with later updates, such as on iOS8. The terms of BlitWorks’ contract apparently didn’t enable them to revisit the mobile ports to retool them and render them functional. Jet Set Radio is one of many games culled from Sega’s current mobile offerings in a sort of “quality assurance” initiative.

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Shenmue 3 Lake of the Latnern Bugs

Shenmue III: Lake of the Lantern Bugs Trailer, KS Ending in Less than Three Days

YsNet uploaded a short, new trailer to promote Shenmue III to the official Shenmue III YouTube account ahead of the Kickstarter‘s impending closure. We’re now at just three days left (read: <3….or </3) to donate – if you haven’t already done so and want to contribute, be sure to stop by the Kickstarter page! The physical PS4 copy is now an option at the $60 tier, an update that was made quite a while ago. Be assured that the Kickstarter will certainly hit $5 million, in my opinion. At this point, it’s about if you want to contribute or not, and how much you want to contribute! Do note that electing to contribute will allow backers to offer opinions when Ys Net solicits them during the development process.

The trailer itself shows Ryo and Shenhua at a night scene. Ryo, while catching up to Shenhua, notices a firefly, and as he approaches the lake he witnesses a mass gathering of light around Shenhua. It’s the presence of a mass gathering fireflies, and it also serves to highlight the lighting work in-game and offers another work-in-progress look at the character models, to which Yu Suzuki is paying particular attention. Continue reading to check out the trailer!

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Shenmue 3 Physical PS4 Copy Confirmed, Awesome Japan Issues Apology

The Shenmue 3 Kickstarter page received a new update today, announcing a new PS4 physical copy reward. Those who pledge $60 or more will have the option to choose between a digital or physical copy of the game for either the PC or PS4. Before, only the PC version had an option for a physical copy. This has been one of the top requests from fans, so it’s good to see the option is finally there. Other new rewards have been added as well, though the high cost will probably put them out of reach for the majority of people.

In the same update Awesome Japan, the company managing the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter, has also posted an apology for the recent Twitch stream with Yu Suzuki. The Twitch stream in question suffered from bad audio and video quality, and the presentation itself left a lot to be desired. The company had this to say:

We offer our sincerest apologies for last week’s Twitch broadcast and any trouble it may have caused. This apology comes late, and we accept full responsibility. We promise we will do everything we can to help bring Shenmue back. We ask for your forgiveness and the opportunity to make amends. – from all of us at Awesome Japan

Pledges for the Shenmue Kickstarter had been going relatively slow over the past week, but the new rewards have given it a considerable boost, pushing the total pledge amount over $4,000,000. It’s also probably not a coincidence that this update went live just when the Shenmue fans had organized their recent Tweetathon on the 3rd of the month. In fact, Awesome Japan had called on its backers to join the Tweetathon. Additionally, the fans had also launched a new initiative to boost pledges by asking people to add $30 more to their initial pledge today.

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Shenmue 3 Kickstarter Reaches Goal, but How Much Does It Really Need?

Less than 9 hours after the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter was launched, it already reached its $2 million goal. It’s an amazing and record breaking performance, as Shenmue 3 is now the fastest game to reach both the $1 million and later the $2 million mark. At the moment, the game has already reached the $2.5 million stretch goal as well. With this, it seems the dream of Shenmue fans around the world will finally become a reality.

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