Shenmue II (US) V0.991 (Sep 14, 2001 prototype): from its cancellation to its discovery
Contrary to popular belief, Shenmue 2 has not been canceled in the United States because of the Xbox version, Microsoft did not "buy" its exclusivity on American soil. Sega of America had simply felt that it was too late to take him out on this territory.
Lucky for us, Sega Europe took the risk of releasing it. We were on the verge of suffering the same fate as the Americans. Without this SOE decision, Shenmue 2 would have remained confined to Japan and would never have been able to have a variation on Classic Xbox.
Microsoft was actually interested in the game because the localization work was already done and therefore there was only one port of the canceled US DC version to do!
Be careful, the sources differ on the subject.
My tribute to Shenmue on video (trailer)
The license, a question of revenge
Born from the prolific imagination of the very eminent Yu Suzuki , Shenmue has marked the spirits by its incredible beauty, its realism and its bewitching atmosphere. Shenmue is not an ordinary game but a real life experience in its own right. One can only applaud such a technical and artistic achievement, a monument of the Dreamcast, a major title in the history of video games.
It was in 1994 that Yu Suzuki and his team decided to design an RPG in the world of Virtua Fighter , Sega's flagship fighting game. The hero was to be called Akira , and the game, then baptized Virtua Fighter RPG , was planned on Saturn .
In 1998, the project finally got the word out again. We learn that it is no longer an RPG Virtua Fighter and that it took the name of " Project Berkley ". A few months after this meager information, Sega announces that it was only a code name and that the project is large. Baptized Shenmue , it is now scheduled for the Dreamcast .
The game is based on the FREE system for Full Reactive Eyes Entertainment, "hobby for fully reactive eyes". The player will be able to watch everything, see everything and practically do everything. It incorporated a QTE system, the Quick Time Event, of manipulations which are displayed on the screen and which must be carried out as quickly as possible. Mini-games will be present such as Space Harrier or Hang On , which will be possible to test in an arcade for a handful of yen. The Magic Weather (management by algorithms of the flow of time, weather and seasons) will generate the weather forecast at random. The development team relied on real weather data to simulate it. the climate of Yokusaka , where the adventure began in 1986.
In the early 2000s, the Shenmue franchise was the most expensive in the gaming industry. Astronomical figures then reported a budget of $ 50 million. Unheard of for the time. As Frédérick Raynal ( Agartha's dad) told me, they nicknamed it " Shame Mue " internally, because of its indecent development cost. He will be dethroned 10 years later by a certain ... Grand Theft Auto 4 .
Asset Shenmue 2 early alpha
Asset Shenmue 2 early alpha