Unused Shenmue Map #2: Island Town

In this second part of our maps feature, we will be looking at another map from the 36-page art book that was available at the Shenmue Premiere events around Japan in late 1998 / early 1999. 

Cover of the Shenmue Premiere Art Booklet

In Part One, we looked at a map that could be identified as Suzhou.

This time, we turn our attention to a second unknown map that appears further down on the same page of the Shenmue art booklet. This one is displayed in black ink and depicts a town situated on - or, more accurately, around - an island.

Inspecting Unused Map #2: Island Town

This map is distinctive and appears to show an island location surrounded by a tightly-packed city of buildings built out upon water. Tall mountain peaks rise up from the island:

Page detail: island town map

As with the first map, certain buildings and features have been labelled with Japanese text and there are small black star indicators dotted around the water's edge.

Below is an extraction of the map which adds English translations for the labels. The star indicators have also been highlighted with red circles, for clarity.

 

Map of the island city with translated labels added.

Observations

• The contour lines indicate that the island has three tall mountain peaks.
• A wide pathway runs through the island that connects two separate areas of the city, with narrower pathways looping around the edge of the island. 
• From the sharp and angular outlines on the map, the buildings are most likely sitting on man-made piers or wharves over the water, connected to the island by bridges.
• As seen in the first map, each rectangular building contains tiny identification labels such as "N-32", "N-40", "R-24", "I 5" and "I 8". There are several different ones across the map, but the same code often appears for buildings with similar shapes. These may represent developer information to indicate the style or type of each building.
• Other text labels describe stores and shops, including a pharmacy, a general store, a pawn shop, a bicycle shop, a florist, a liquor store, a shoe shop and restaurants. Presumably many of the other unnamed buildings would be residential houses.
• One label, "Bamboo Craft Shop" (on the bottom-left side of the island) appears to have been added later by hand. Perhaps this shop may be significant in Ryo's investigations?
• The label for the Butcher (at the bottom right) has the number "1" after it. There does not appear to be a "Butcher 2" on the map.
• On this map, there are a total of 7 star indicators. As before, they are all positioned on the edge of a wharf or the land, supporting the likelihood of these being fishing spots.
• A label that reads "Garden Hotel" points to a couple of large buildings sitting side by side in the center of the island, nestled between two of the tall peaks. Judging by the large text size and the underlining on this label, it is a location of significance. Perhaps this was to have been Ryo's accommodation during his visit to the city, or the focus of his investigations.
• Intriguingly, two dashed parallel lines on the map run between one of the narrow outer island paths and the water, and they are prominently labelled "Water Channel Exit" (or "Water Channel Escape"). It is not clear exactly what this represents, but the nuance of the wording hints at this being some kind of evacuation or escape path to reach the water. Perhaps this were to have featured in some kind of story event, giving Ryo a way to throw off his pursuers by exiting the island through an underground tunnel to reach the water.

Central map detail. Tiny identification numbers can be seen on each building.

Video Appearance

This map also can be seen briefly in SEGA's promotional video covering the Shenmue Premiere (in the full-length version). This video was unfortunately made available only in very compressed form.

However, a few extra details can be gained from this: it reveals the outline of the few buildings that were obscured in the booklet's image, as well as a compass marker at the bottom right indicating the direction of North:

Screen capture from the Shenmue Premiere video

Final Comment

It is astonishing to see that so much detailed groundwork had already been laid for potential future locations for Shenmue's story, remaining unused for 25 years, and that such maps were hidden in plain sight inside an art booklet produced back in 1998.

Although the maps exist almost as decorative after-thoughts on a single page in the art booklet, they clearly reflect the great attention to detail and realism that is the hallmark of Shenmue's development.

Whether they will ever be used or not in this form in the remaining chapters remains to be seen. They may have been among the materials Yu Suzuki reviewed during the creation of Shenmue III, with certain ideas such as the fishing mini-game potentially having being worked into the location of Niaowu.

However, now that we have heard recently from Yu Suzuki that the location of Suzhou in particular is planned to feature as a destination in Shenmue IV, it will be very intriguing to see how much of the original design can be discerned when released - and whether the location represented by the second map will also be somewhere we will witness Ryo visit in future.

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