How much faith do you have in Ys Net and Yu Suzuki for Shenmue 3? In a new interview, Yu says Ys could still use more money, that Shenmue 3 still won’t finish Ryo’s story, and that it will still be the same type of open world.
Yu saying Shenmue 3 could still use more money really should not be a surprise, of course. Ys Net capped stretch goals for the Kickstarter at $ 10 million, and as successful as the campaign has been, and the support of additional partners, they haven’t gotten there.
These are Yu’s exact words regarding funding:
Kickstarter's not the only source of money. There's also funding from Sony and Shibuya Productions. Before we started Kickstarter, we had goals set around the budget – so if we only got $6 million, we'd create Shenmue 3 based upon what we could do with that $6 million.
We're still trying to gather funds. Obviously, the more money we have the more we can do. Even if we don't get as much budget as the previous games, we'll still make this game.
I could do with a bit more money! The game itself doesn't have to be gorgeous visually – a lot of the money these days goes into the graphics. If we perhaps compromise on the graphics and put more into the story, we can make a good game. The most important thing, to me, is that the game's interesting, and that it's something people want to play.
Yu also stated that goalposts have moved since the original plans for Shenmue 3 years ago. If Ys Net tried to squeeze in the ending and resolution to Ryo’s story, they would have to remove all the gameplay.
It is too early to talk about Shenmue 4, but Yu at least made one heartening promise. Shenmue 3 won’t join the trend of modern open world games, filled with markers and objectives.Shenmue will stay Shenmue, with an internal logic incomprehensible to anyone except fervent players.
Here’s how Yu puts it:
We had a clear format through to Shenmue 3. This time, we readjusted the structure, and made a new story for Shenmue 3. It's not exactly the same as the one we initially planned, though it has some overlap. The concept's the same. The essential idea and concept has never changed. What's changed is what's possible with the technology available. The idea, and the concept, hasn't changed. The tool – Unreal Engine 4 [the engine being used for Shenmue 3] – that's changed.
