Tag Archives: Shenmue

Sega Appears to Have Quietly Removed Denuvo Anti-Tamper from the PC Version of Shenmue I & II

Draikin August 19, 2018 1 Reply

In the latest updates made to the PC version of Shenmue I & II, some Steam forum users have found that one of the entries on August 14 notes the removal of the controversial DRM Denuvo (for what it’s worth, the company itself claims it’s not actually DRM, but that’s a different debate altogether). The game’s Steam page also no longer lists the Denuvo implementation. It’s not clear if this is a permanent change, and so far it only seems to apply to Shenmue I & II specifically, as other upcoming SEGA PC games such as Valkyria Chronicles 4 and Yakuza Kiwami continue to use the DRM.

Shenmue 3: Message from Yu Suzuki, More Screenshots and Reactions from Kickstarter Backers

Draikin August 22, 2017 1 Reply

Yu Suzuki has provided a few comments regarding the latest Shenmue 3 trailer and the game’s new logo, on both the official PlayStation Blog and the Kickstarter page. You can read the comments below, as well as find a batch of old and new screenshots of the game. I also looked into the comments from Kickstarter backers on the latest update.
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Shenmue 3 Receives Its First Teaser Trailer

Draikin August 21, 2017 Leave a reply

Shenmue 3 has received its first teaser trailer, finally giving us a bit of a closer look at the state of development of the game. According to the official description, the first teaser of Shenmue III is built from a small slice of an in-development build of the game, and it delivers small peeks in new look of main characters, new characters, and feels of Shenmue world. You can view the video below!

What stands out is that a lot of the scenes in the video look far too dark to discern any detail, which is likely something done in post-processing of the video itself. Otherwise, it’s clear that the animations and faces still need some work. The environments on the other hand do look good, even if the video doesn’t always give us a good look at them. All things considered this first teaser seems to be in line of what we can expect from the game, given its low budget, and I’m looking forward to see more of the game as it progresses.

Shenmue 3 Will Be Published by Deep Silver, and a First Look at the Updated Character Models

Draikin August 17, 2017 1 Reply

Ys Net posted a new update on their Shenmue 3 Kickstarter page, announcing that they have signed a global publishing contract with Deep Silver for their game. This means that Deep Silver will apparently be in charge of publishing Shenmue 3 worldwide. SEGA and Atlus fans in Europe already know Deep Silver, given that they’ve been handling publishing of their titles there for a while now.

At the same time, the new title screen that comes with the press release finally reveals what appear to be the updated character models of Ryo and Shenhua, Previously, Ys Net had in fact resorted to changing Ryo’s face through Photoshop, replacing it with the one from Shenmue 2. So far, it seems the new models are receiving a mixed response from fans. What’s curious is that the Shenmue 3 logo on the new title image is also different from the new logo that was revealed in their June update.

Shenmue 3 Delayed Until Second Half of 2018

Draikin June 8, 2017 Leave a reply

After the recent Shenmue 3 update, where it was confirmed the game would not be shown at this year’s E3, many doubted that the game would still be able to meet its targeted release date of end 2017. In a new update on Kickstarter, Yu Suzuki has now confirmed that the game is indeed being delayed to the second half of 2018. Yu explains that “the game has become bigger and more beautiful” than he initially expected, but that they need more time to develop it. Gematsu uploaded the video with Yu Suzuki’s message to YouTube, you can view it below.

Shenmue 3 Dev Room Progress Report Shows Brief Glimpses of Gameplay

Draikin March 16, 2017 Leave a reply

After a long silence, the Shenmue 3 team has posted a new update on their Kickstarter page, titled “Dev Room Progress Report Vol. 2”. It shows us a few brief glimpses of the game, although it’s stated that all characters shown are used from older resources. Which is likely also the reason why the developers are still avoiding showing Ryo’s face. Other than showing us the development team at work, the video features Ryo performing some basic animations, and also reveals an in-game arcade cabinet. You can view the video below!

Shenmue 3 is still scheduled for a release in December 2017 on PlayStation 4 and PC.

Shenmue Remasters Planned? New Domain Name Registrations Raise Questions

InTheSky January 6, 2017 1 Reply

When Shenmue III was initially announced during E3 2015’s Sony Conference, fans immediately began to hope for remastered re-releases of the first two Shenmue games. Considering the difficulty of acquiring the two games at the current time, and as a means to boost the profile of the Shenmue franchise ahead of the long-awaited third title’s release, it was an oft-made suggestion.

Recent news of certain website domains being registered offers some hope in this direction. Initially, TSSZNews.com broke news of the registering of shenmuehd.com. Additionally, Shenmue Dojo noticed the registering of shenmueremastered.com. These two URLs, alongside a shenmuegame.com (which redirects you to YSNet’s Kickstarter page), were referenced in SEGABits‘ article on the domain name registrations; their article also includes a reference to a reversewhois page from sega.co.uk – which was used to register these URLs. But if you try to visit the URLs now, you’ll be taken to blank webpages.

As Gematsu notes in response to a SEGA Central community issues discussion video made during May of last year, SEGA has previously mentioned interest in exploring options to bring Shenmue to current gaming consoles.

The news of these two domain names being registered offers hope to the prospects of the Shenmue and Shenmue II re-releases! Let us hope that the games do come to fruition.

Shenmue III: Preorders Open Today, New Screenshots, Plus New Videos Set for Next Year

InTheSky December 15, 2016 1 Reply

In the newest blog update to Ys.Net, Yu Suzuki disclosed that development for Shenmue III has entered its final stages, and that new videos will be published for public viewing early next year. Work on Shenmue III is gradually shifting from development to the production, though the development team is also still working hard on motion capture and voice acting tests.

Shenmue III Developer Diary – The Music of Shenmue

InTheSky November 30, 2016 Leave a reply

A new developer diary for Shenmue III has been published by Ys.net, focusing on the music of the Shenmue series. The interview clips with Yu Suzuki were recorded in August, but provide insight into Suzuki’s mind with regards to music philosophy in games and in Shenmue III in particular.

The topics covered include: the types of music that Suzuki likes, the variety of roles he has taken on in video game music composition in the past, and his current focus in music composition. Suzuki says that his primary role is establishing a concept or thematic direction for music, and notes that since Shenmue III takes place in China, he is aiming to capture the atmosphere of China in 1987. Suzuki also expresses fondness for the erhu.

Digital Foundry Retro Revisits Shenmue 2

Draikin November 27, 2016 Leave a reply

From time to time Digital Foundry revisits classic games in their Digital Foundry Retro articles, and the latest one features Shenmue 2. Around a half our long it’s the longest Digital Foundry Retro video yet, and explores not only the original Dreamcast version, but also the Xbox version, its emulation on Xbox 360, and emulation on PC via DEMUL. They also compare the Japanese and English voice acting and the work of the modding community on the Shenmue Dojo forums. It’s definitely worth watching for anyone interested in Shenmue, Dreamcast or just video games in general. You can find the DF Retro video of Shenmue 2 below, as well as their video for the original Shenmue. It’s worth noting that DF Retro also took a look at Daytona USA some time ago.