!

[Esrever]

Well, telling Ryo's story was really only one-half of the goal of Shenmue. The other was attempting to create a world -- even its most mundane and insignificant aspects -- with an incredible amount of detail. The Shemue games were populated by hundreds of NPCs with actual lives. I imagine this game will attempt to do just the same, only with real people, and on a much larger scale.

Think of how much time you "wasted" in the first two games just wandering around, exploring, gambling, fighting and doing other things that had nothing to do with the plot. How sweet would it be to be able to expand that element so that it can sustain an entire game? Where you can rent out an apartment in Kowloon or wherever and then just go out there and live... in a world where there are tons of other players doing exactly the same! I think it has potential, at least.

I don't imagine it's going to connect too directly to the plot started by Shenmue I and II. More likely, the title is only connected to Shenmue to a) cash in on an existing liscence and b) reuse a lot of already meticulously constructed environments. I'm disappointed that this is not the Shenmue III we were once promised, but as long as it doesn't try to take it's place in the Shenmue storyline, I think it could work OK as a stand-alone project.

COULD work. But it will probably suck anyway, of course.

[Crazy Penguin]

MAN WITH SPIDER LEGS! AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGHH!!!!

[Light Speed]

Why would a game where you get to live out a normal life be cool? That is what we are doing right now.

[Esrever]

Do YOU live in China? Do YOU know Kung Fu? Have YOU seen any sailors?

Obviously, it's not about replicating your own life, it's about creating an interesting fake one that you can occupy for awhile. In other words, it's exactly like what you did when you played Shenmue I and II, only you'll get to create your own character and possibly have a little more freedom to choose what you'd like to do. (I bet it will probably come down to choosing one of several character paths... you know, by joining a particular street gang or organization or something like that.)

If it keeps the original's focus on exploration and mundanity, then yeah, many people will find it boring. Many people found Shenmue I and II boring, as well.

[Crazy Penguin]

SPIDER LEGS!!!

[Locit]

Perhaps each player is one of the many supporting characters in the sereis. They could wait around all day asking themselves and each other, "Where's Ryo? When will he get here?". During the time between his daily/weekly/single visit(s) people could improve their little stores or living quarters. You know, rearrange stuff. Sweep the floors. But then, perhaps not.

[Green Gibbon!]

I don't know. Part of me is thrilled to see the Shenmue series being continued in any form, but... personally, I think the "online" thing is entirely overdone. Not every fucking game series ever made needs to have its MMO incarnation. It's not like 3D where all the big names have to do it to stay in the spotlight.

And man, JCE? Who are these guys? I don't care what anybody says, Korea is the ghetto of the technological world. I'm opposed to anybody but Suzuki handling my beloved Shenmue, let alone some fourth-rate Korean company.

Plus, I sincerely doubt Sega would even consider releasing this outside of the Asian market. That sort of game won't appeal to the MMO audience in the English-speaking world, and the Shenmue license holds absolutely zero clout in the US.

The only good I can see coming of this is that, if by some warp in reality it becomes popular, Sega will finally concede to letting Suzuki make Shenmue 3.

And then another part of me still believes this is an elaborate hoax.

[Light Speed]

Yeah, I still feel like it is a hoax too, and yeah Esrever I found Shenmue 1 and 2 boring during the detective crap parts. Walking around trying to find your way around this huge as world so you can as some random person about a symbol, or if they could speak Chinese wasn't that fun. It was all the storyline stuff that I loved, like disc 3 of Shenmue 2. Mmm...

[Green Gibbon!]

Walking around trying to find your way around this huge as world so you can as some random person about a symbol, or if they could speak Chinese wasn't that fun.

YES IT IS, JACKASS. Fuck you and your lack of Zen understanding.


They have some pictures of Shenmue Online at the Korean website, and it looks great, but it's all cutscene or promo art or something. It's all nighttime Hong Kong. It's got Xiuying and there's a picture of Lan Di and his goons have Joy hostage. There's this picture of a whole bunch of people, including Ryo and some other fag who I guess is a new character in this big empty lot and they're all doing some Dragon Ball hadoken shit or something.

It looks like Ryo finally ditched the bandage on his face.

[Locit]

It looks like Ryo finally ditched the bandage on his face.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
It hadn't healed in two games, who knows what might happen if it doesn't close up right, whatever it was.

[Segaholic2]

Maybe it'll get infected and his face will fall off.

[Zeta]

Shenmue Online will problably mutate into River City Ransom online - with hoards of gangs and posses and street brawls.

Not that it sounds bad, just a little strange, make that very strange - to see a series focused on single-character, story-driven play branch out into online play.

It's kind of the same weird feeling I'd get if they made Zelda online.

[Light Speed]

Why did he have that bandage on his face anyway? I always called my buddy a douche bag for liking a rapper that copied something from a video game because Nelly wore a bandage on his face also. Now I just call him a douche for liking rap.

[Popcorn]

It's from where Lan Di smacked him hard.

[Double-S-]

No, he had it before Lan Di slapped him.

Meanwhile, a translation of Yu Suzuki's PR on Shenmue Online.

We released Shenmue 1 in 1999, and Shenmue 2 in 2001. I’d been interested in MMO very much, but I had no chance to materialize it as there’s not much know-how on MMO in Japan. But finally, I made this project come true with the help of JCE in Korea. As Shenmue involves vast fields and plenty of characters, as many as 1300 people, I believe it’s the best suited game for MMO.

We’ll import about 150 events from the original games to cover the whole story and we’ll add 100 - 150 new events. We’re also planning to include our “mini-gamesâ€￾ as we did in the past. People tend to think Hong Kong is the main stage of Shenmue, but originally, the story should be unfolded mostly in the main land China. It begins in Hong Kong and expands into the other areas, such as Guilin, Suzhou, Xian and so on, both in the minor version-ups, or the major version-ups.

This game will contain all the general MMO components, such as communities, level-ups, items, etc, but the most distinctive feature would be “the battles.â€￾ It’s the battle-centered game featuring the Chinese martial arts, for I’ve been craving to introduce the martial arts into MMO properly. But, we won’t make it as maniac as Virtua Fighter, but would like it more suitable for MMO that can be played by anyone.

The characters that were already employed in the original games would appear as “the Game Masters,â€￾ and we’ll make new playable characters as “the player characters.â€￾ Players will pick out one character from the three groups of militants and customize it. The first group includes fighters that use traditional martial arts. Some of them use weapons that we’ve never allowed in the past. The second group includes people who use mysterious powers, such as qigong, magic, etc. The third group includes strange characters for Shenmue, kind of ghostly “enemiesâ€￾ as variations.

[Zeta]

So it sounds like the character classes are Blackbelt, Black Mage, and . . . "Heartless" from Kingdom Hearts. :p

[Esrever]

I'm admitedly less excited about this now than I was earlier.

[Double-S-]

You were excited about this at some point?

[Green Gibbon!]

Stupid fucking 4-year graduates are excited about everything at some point or another.

[Esrever]

I'm certainly excited about you, Gibbon.

[Green Gibbon!]

And you freaking LIKE IT.

[Esrever]

Who wouldn't?

[Zeta]

Love is in the air.

[Delphine]

Doo-doo doo-doo-doo.