Shenmue 3: News and notes a week on

Just a short post more to force myself to keep abreast of Shenmue-verse news than anything else. First to note something a few people mentioned to me about how the exclusive original watch and jacket offered as rewards on the Kickstarter had actually been reserved but the buyer backed out at the last minute most probably because he had no intention of buying it in the first place. I just assume it was a guy, sorry for being sexist. Anyway I'm not too bothered by it because now if they so need, the team can auction them off and likely get more than what they were being offered for since it seems like there are a lot of wealthy lunatics hardcore, loyal fans.

The Kickstarter ended with a statement from Yu Suzuki thanking the fans for their support. According to him he "will listen to all of you to make Shenmue III even better" which I hope to God is false because 95% of the time fan ideas invariably makes everything worse because fans glorify stuff that doesn't have any place forming a core basis of a consumer product. How I Met Your Mother became an abysmal show when Barney became the focus of every episode. I like Mayumi but I bet following her around as she studies languages probably wouldn't make a great game. Ok, actually, I bet it would.

More notes after the jump.

A fan group is making a non-canon visual novel following Ryo's exploits in China which sounds like fun. I have no idea how good it will be but it's awesome that they are making that kind of effort. However I then looked further down this thing and noted that "the plan is to have full voice acting" and upon further investigation my fear that it would be done by amateur English speakers including axm. Excuse me while I run outside and projectile vomit everywhere. Other than that, good luck.

Another fan group has allegedly been working on an HD remake of the original game. Looks pretty cool although I doubt they will ever finish the project and of course, it would be far better if remakes were produced on an official basis.

Some douchenozzle did a video review on Gamespot of Shenmue sixteen years after the fact. Way to get with the times fella. I'm starting to think white people should not be allowed to talk about this series on camera ever again.

Another reviewer has been playing the game properly and you can watch the first four hours here. I'm not usually into Let's Play type stuff where people talk all over the game but it's nice when real fans can get together and enjoy the experience.

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