Yu Suzuki's Shenmue 3 Talk Highlights | Magic Monaco 2019

Image credit: Koch Media UK via Twitter

Yu Suzuki held an on-stage talk on Shenmue 3 at today's MAGIC Monaco event, and revealed some new details about the game. Long-time blog contributor yuc02 was at the event, tweeting live updates and images from the talk for Phantom River Stone.

Here is a collection of the tweets, summarizing highlights from the talk.

The start of the talk was slightly delayed due to the previous session running on, but it was then time for Yu and team to get set up!

Preparing...#Shenmue3 #Magic2019 pic.twitter.com/1TJjaqsTfn

— Phantom River Stone (@phantom_river) March 9, 2019

Yu spoke about how some of the background of Shenmue 3, starting with its launch as Kickstarter project and thanking fans for their support.

It's started! #Shenmue3 conference at #MAGIC2019
talking about the Kickstarter campaign and Magic Monaco events pic.twitter.com/5DzlBqAgcj

— Phantom River Stone (@phantom_river) March 9, 2019

"We couldn't have achieved #Shenmue3 without the fans" pic.twitter.com/7QcJ6jRmHN

— Phantom River Stone (@phantom_river) March 9, 2019

The talk then turned to details on Shenmue 3, where it was confirmed that the number of NPCs in the game will be in the hundreds (around 400-500 total combined for Bailu village and Choubu), well above the number originally planned.

#Shenmue3 will have npc in the hundreds rather than the original target of 50

— Phantom River Stone (@phantom_river) March 9, 2019

On the topic of ways to earn money, Yu spoke about wood-cutting and fishing.

Cutting wood and fishing will be tasks for Ryo in #Shenmue3, and you can sell the fish for money. There will also be fishing competitions pic.twitter.com/zL6DLp8zwM

— Phantom River Stone (@phantom_river) March 9, 2019

The topic then moved on to battles, with Yu displaying a new image of Ryo in a one-on-one fight. In the image the name of a move ("Tornado Kick") is shown, with Yu confirming that moves from Shenmue 1 and 2 will carry over. There will be two modes, an automatic mode indicated amusingly by the letters AT (as with a vehicle: "automatic transmission") for less-experienced players, where moves can be mapped to buttons for single-click execution. The second mode is a manual mode, indicated by MT.

Regarding the music in Shenmue 3, it was exciting to hear that we can expect to hear the moving sounds of Chinese instruments such as the erhu (Chinese violin) again.

A lot of the music in #Shenmue3 will be played with traditional Chinese instruments

— Phantom River Stone (@phantom_river) March 9, 2019

The in-game economy has also been extended compared to the earlier games, with differing prices between shops. And, yes, Ryo will also be able to eat at last!

There will be more goods to be purchased in #Shenmue3 compared to 1 and 2, and different shops may not sell things at the same price. Food items will be useful for Ryo to replenish energy

— Phantom River Stone (@phantom_river) March 9, 2019

Regarding the much-awaited new Shenmue 3 trailer, Yu finished off by announcing that it will be shown at the Crazy Time session later in the day, which is scheduled at 5:35 pm CET!

#Shenmue3 trailer to be shown at crazy time in #Magic2019

— Phantom River Stone (@phantom_river) March 9, 2019

Many thanks to yuc02 for the on-the-ground updates! Follow us on Twitter for on-going updates from the event.

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