At this week's E3, Gamespot carried out a short interview with Yu Suzuki before an audience, with the topic of course being Shenmue 3. To help capture Yu's words more accurately, I've translated his responses and added them as captions to the video in place of the live interpretation.
A written transcript of the interview follows the video.
Interview Transcripion
YS = Yu Suzuki
Q: What is your current vision for Shenmue III?
YS: My vision for Shenmue has not changed at all from what it was 20 years ago. I have an ideal in mind, and aim towards that by considering what is feasible with the technologies of the time.
Q: How do you balance your vision with fan opinions?
YS: To me, Shenmue fans are really great. The feedback I hear from most of the fans is, "We want you to make it the way you want it to be. We want a game that you're happy with". For a creator, that gives a really nice degree of freedom.
Q: What differences are there with developing a game through Kickstarter?
YS: When I was at Sega and made Shenmue 1 and 2, I was able to make it with the members of my team. But with Shenmue 3, I had to start with the people, and by creating the project. That part was quite tough.
Q: What is your ideal Shenmue 3?
YS: Ah, my ideal one? Hmm. My ideal game is one that you can play at a slow pace. One where you don't hurry, and you have a lot of freedom. If you want to take your time in a town, you can. Or if you want to move the story on, you can. I think being a game that allows a lot of freedom is the best part about Shenmue.
Also what's important in Shenmue is everyday life. Portraying people's daily life and ordinary activities in great detail leads to a sense of reality and I think that's what Shenmue does well.
Q: If you can say, is there anything you'd like to work on before the release?
YS: I'd like to polish up the game as much as possible.
Q: How modern have you made Shenmue 3, compared to the second game?
YS: Well, the Shenmue series is set in 1987. If the characters spoke like people did in 1987 it would sound a bit old-fashioned to people playing today. So for the voice recording this time, I have incorporated a few adjustments like slightly modernizing the way the characters talk. In English there's also full voiceover and I've done the same there.
I also made some adjustments around the battles. These days there are a growing number of very simple games on smartphones. So to make Shenmue a game that befits the PC or console, battles have been adjusted to be somewhat challenging.
Q: Could you describe your feelings towards the fans?
YS: Thanks to the support of the fans for 20 years, at last I've been able to make a Shenmue announcement like this. I am full of gratitude to the fans.
End of interview. Become a Patron!
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