Which do I value more, Shenmue or Shenmue II?

Spoiler: I value Shenmue more than Shenmue II and will follow with a brief explanation as to why, but I am also interested in what y'all have to say about, especially if you dissent.WHen I've gone and looked about in discussion threads on Shenmue 500k and so on, nearly all of the talk regarding past games tend to center around Shenmue II and I wonder if that is recency bias (so to speak) or if there is something else at play.

Also, thanks to Alimn who for some unknown reason mentioned the Hazuki Dojo when he was receiving some award for Shenmue excellence or something like that and thus got me thinking I had better work on some actual Shenmue content here despite all of the other nonsense going on.

With the aid of some uh, interesting to say the least rewards being added, the Kickstarter has sputtered back to life with almost $1m being tacked on to total collected in the last week. With just over a week left to run, $5m looks like it should now be achievable. Over the life of the project, $10m is a realistic target with subscriptions and other forms of donations though considering the nature of some of those rewards I can't help but feel he may as well as just gone and got the money from a private developer. I think I will hold off to see if there are any more developments before diving in on the rewards, so look for that in a couple of weeks.

Shenmue 3: Some quick thoughts on the updated stretch goals

I think it's obvious at this point that the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter campaign will struggle to reach $5m let alone $10m, so it's baffling to me that the stretch goals have been updated again with a new $11m target and a mysterious $???m goal with a perplexing ??? reward that is sure to have the lunatics frothing at the mouth.

Shenmue 3: It's not unreasonable to have questions

The disclaimer before I get started here is that I really am looking forward to this game being released. I always try to find the proper perspective. I am prone to thin slicing and throwing out hot takes from time to time. I know what I am doing and I pick my targets carefully. Yesterday, I had a piece all typed up and ready to go regarding David Thier's Forbes.com article about the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter and the unhinged 'fan' reaction to it. However, I am always more interested in getting it right than being right. In the past week since the announcement I had been very busy and hadn't had time to sift through all things Shenmue so I owed it to myself and any passers-by to do my due diligence.

After reading and watching everything of note and double checking to ensure I had not missed any relevant quotes, I came to essentially the same conclusion I had already formed; there are far more questions than answers when it comes to Shenmue 3, particularly in regard to how the project is being funded.

Shenmue 3: Why being stuck in a cave is a lot like being shivved by ten of your so-called brothers

After Shenmue 3 was officially announced on Monday night, I wanted to take a little while to compose my thoughts regarding the subject I haven't really had time for that however so what the hell, I'm just going to dive right in and ramble on as I was formerly accustomed.

I was told a few weeks back to expect something at E3, but brushed it off with my tried and tested line, "I'll believe it when I see it" as I had the previous ten plus years. That possibly contributed to me not utterly losing my shit the way everyone else has seemed to over the past few days but I appreciate their enthusiasm, it is not misplaced. My reaction was far more simple. It was I thought, to quote Colin Cowherd's handy new catchphrase, 'BOUT TIME! #BoutTime
 

Shenmue III *Not* announced at GDC

Well, when I first noticed the quote on Kotaku, I got all excited but then I actually though about it. Said Yu Suzuki of Shenmue III, "Probably Sega will let me make it. I think. It's simply a problem of budget." That's the thing. It's always a problem of budget. I'm not sure how well Sega is doing financially these days but the economy is tough and it will have to be proven to be a viable proposition first. It starts with the forthcoming Smartphone game and I would expect that the original two games would have to be released over either PSN or XBOX Live to gauge interest and well, remind people that it exists, it has been eight years since Shenmue II's release for XBOX. It would likely only be single platform because it won't be profitable enough for both the PS3 and 360.

In conclusion, I'm downplaying this because I think he was just trying to throw a bone for all us loyal fans. Of course he wants to make it - it's his dream, his grand vision. Market realities tell a different story. Also, I don't want to get my hopes up, especially after the failure of Shenmue Online. Let's see if the Gaiden game even makes it to the west first. I think we who have been riding this horse all along are jaded enough by now to view this for what it probably is; a mirage.

Gamasutra article on Yu Suzuki's comments at GDC 2011.