Top 10 Shenmue Story Revelations | Shenmue Dojo & Phantom River Stone Interview with Yu Suzuki

Earlier this month saw the release of a brand-new, extensive interview with Yu Suzuki that was held in person by James Brown of the Shenmue Dojo and myself (Switch) for Phantom River Stone at the YS NET office in Japan. 

The full interview can be found at the Shenmue Dojo's website, who have also recorded an in-depth discussion stream but in this post we will focus in on summarizing some of the most surprising story details revealed during the interview, ending with new information regarding the leaders of the Chi You Men!

The Day of the Interview

On the fine Spring morning of the interview, we gathered at a local coffee shop in the vicinity of the YS Net office for a quick run-through of the topics we would be covering, and making sure reference images were at hand and ready. Having been granted such a precious opportunity to spend time with the legendary game creator, we wanted to be sure not a single minute in his company would go to waste due to lack of preparation.

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Poll Result: Patrons' Choice Topic for May 2024

Every month, Phantom River Stone holds a poll among our patrons to choose a topic for the blog in the coming month. After tallying the votes (including accumulated votes from previous months), the winning topic that has been voted for this time is:

"Examining Shenmue Storyboards from the Shenmue The Animation Event in Yokosuka"

In the Spring of 2022, a promotional event was held on location in Yokosuka in celebration of the anime adaption of Shenmue, Shenmue The Animation, which was organized by Yokosuka City in collaboration with SEGA and IGN Japan. Various pieces of concept artwork were exhibited at a number of shops in the area, some being from the anime while others were sketches and illustrations from the time of development of the first two games.

Among the artwork were reproductions of certain storyboards from the game, detailing the camera shots and spoken lines to guide creation of cut scenes in the game. 

The three storyboards exhibited at the event which will be covered are:

• "Encounter with Joy"
• "Xiuying's Tears"
• "Encounter with Shenhua"

In this upcoming post, we will be looking at these in more detail and translating any written notes and characters' lines, noting differences of interest between the storyboards and the final implementation of the cut scenes in the game.

Coming soon!

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