Shenmue 3 Reward Dinner in San Francisco with Yu Suzuki

Last month in December, the U.S. Kickstarter reward dinner quietly took place in San Francisco, with an exclusive group of super-backers and their selected guests getting to spend the day with Yu Suzuki. The date had originally been tentatively scheduled for June 2016, but was later rescheduled to December.

This was the third and final reward dinner, following on from the previous reward dinners held earlier in the year in the village of Eze near Monaco in February, and Japan in September.

Here is a selection of photos taken at the event. The majority of images are courtesy of attendee Chris Van Graas (thank you Chris!), except where specified.

Visit to Musée Mécanique

Prior to the dinner, Yu took the group along for a visit to the Musée Mécanique located at Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco.

Entrance to the Musée Mécanique

The Musée Mécanique describes itself as "one of the world's largest privately owned collection of coin-operated mechanical musical instruments and antique arcade machines in their original working condition." It has more than 200 machines on display, including a games room dedicated to classic electronic arcade games and pinball machines. Unlike conventional museums, in this one all machines and devices can be played.

Yu can be seen here engaged in a game of Sprint 2, an old Atari racing game from 1976 in which two players participate, with a top-down view of a circuit displayed on a black-and-white monitor. (I wonder if Yu was the one who suggested this one to play?) The machine provides each player with their own physical steering wheel and gear-stick.

Yu takes someone on at the two-player racing game Sprint 2 (1976)

In the next shot, Yu pauses near a mechanical arm-wrestling game. From the smile on his face, he really seems to be enjoying himself!

Arm-wrestling machine: shades of Shenmue II..?

Crab Dinner

For the main dinner event, the venue was the nearby Franciscan Crab Restaurant, which overlooks the bay.

The dinner venue at Fisherman's Wharf
(Image credit: Franciscan Crab Restaurant)

After signing a Dreamcast, Yu moves on to an Out Run marquee

Image detail: Out Run marquee signed by Yu Suzuki

These next photos contain some of the best views of illustrated Shenmue III artwork that I've seen to date.

Illustration of Ryo and a swing bridge, signed by Yu Suzuki & Kenji Miyawaki

Illustration of Shenhua, signed by Yu Suzuki & Kenji Miyawaki

Yu signs a poster for George Melita, the owner of the Shenmue Dojo
Image credit: George Melita / Shenmue Dojo

The boxed set of replica Phoenix & Dragon mirrors in the next photo were presented to Yu Suzuki as a gift by one of the attendees. (The set was originally purchased from 3D artist Jo Torres, who created the mirrors with the precise in-game proportions, and encased in a hand-crafted wooden box).

Yu receives a gift of replica Phoenix & Dragon mirrors
Image credit: Jo Torres

Dinner Party Reward Contents

The backers of this Dinner Party reward level also qualify for a number of reward items in addition to the dinner (some of which could be seen in the photos above, namely the signed artwork).

Refer to the Japan Dinner reward post for a detailed list of the reward content.

However there is one difference of particular note, which is that the "special item" in this case is the "Ryo's Jacket" reward. The jacket reward is described on the Kickstarter site as "a Yu Suzuki approved replica of Ryo's trademark leather jacket". (The reward will be created by videogame merchandise specialists Fangamer).

Replica jacket reward

Event Anecdotes?

If any of the attendees should be reading or stumble upon this post and would like to contribute, it would be amazing to hear in the comments any small anecdote or story about how you found the day -- only non-confidential stuff, of course!

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