Shenmue Chapter Concept Art Released in High Resolution! (Tiles 1-7)
At the 2014 Game Developers Conference (GDC 2014), Yu Suzuki gave a special talk of approximately an hour in which he talked about the development of Shenmue. It covered the early days from its conception as Virtua Fighter RPG, when the protagonist was to have been Akira Yuki.
During the talk, Suzuki revealed a slide entitled "Chapter Concept Art" which showed 11 full-color illustrations that represented the plans for each chapter of Virtua Fighter RPG. These were drawn following Suzuki's trip to China in 1994.
Although various changes and rearrangements are known to have taken place since then, many of the elements observed in these chapter tiles are instantly recognizable including several of the characters appearing in the Shenmue games released to date, and for this reason obtaining high-resolution images of these tiles to study further has been something Shenmue fans have been desiring ever since they were revealed.
The 11 tiles of the Chapter Concept Art revealed at the GDC 2014 conference
The chapter tile illustrations were glimpsed again in footage for Adam Sipione's Shenmue Documentary ("A Gamer's Journey: The Definitive History of Shenmue") - which, incidentally is shipping imminently on BluRay - as the filming crew had privileged access to concept art shared by Suzuki during their time with him.
And now, thanks to Adam, the first seven of the tiles are available in high resolution for all fans to enjoy! There were released recently on a Shenmue Dojo forum post containing updates about the Shenmue Documentary.
Each tile is packed with details, and release of these high-resolution versions has already sparked renewed discussion and exchange of theories among fans on the forums and elsewhere.
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