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When dreams becomes real against all odds

You know what they say about never giving up on your dreams right? Well, mainly thanks to Sony´s press conference Yu Suzuki´s Shenmue 3 couldn´t have gotten a much better start than it did on Kickstarter. As Shenmue 3 went from $250,000 to $500,000 on Kickstarter in less than an hour, after that it became publicly known that the game was live on Kickstarter (largely due to the Sony Press Conference). Now, a couple of hours later. The Shenmue 3 Kickstarter campaign has been 100% funded with over 2,6 million dollars collected in total (the original goal was to raise 2 million dollars), and still there´s 30 days left on the campaign!

Even Kickstarter´s team was surprised over how fast the Shenmue 3 campaign was going.

What can I say? It feels very unreal. Especially for me, since I´ve been following the #SaveShenmue hashtag (and the teamyu homepage) for a long time now. I have also written quite a few articles about Shenmue 3 over the years. So I can hardly believe that this Is actually happening for real. I “almost” shed a manly tear when I found out about this. I mean, It´s been over 14 years since Shenmue 2 got released to the Dreamcast (2001 In November).

Can you believe that? 14 years! So when you go from no hope to dream come true in just a few hours. I really felt like a millionaire to be honest, and from what I can tell from the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter campaign, pretty much all talent from the previous Shenmue games Is working on Shenmue 3.

Ryo and Shenhua Is of course a part of Shenmue 3.

The A-Team that will give Shenmue 3 wings

People such as:
Yu Suzuki (the father of Shenmue)
Takeshi Hirai (the lead programmer for the Shenmue series)
Masahiro Yoshimoto (the mind behind the game script and screenplay for Shenmue)
Kenji Miyawaki (Shenmue’s main character design artist)
Ryuji Iuchi (the composer for Shenmue 1 & 2)
Masaya Matsukaze (the voice of Ryo)

In other words, Shenmue 3 has everything It needs to become the game that we all have been waiting for all these years. Still, I´m somewhat worried. As there´s no guaranties (whatsoever) that Shenmue 3 will become anything close to a masterpiece. Or more so, that Shenmue 3 will live up to any of It´s Kickstarter promises.

“Shenmue 3” Is able to draw beautiful worlds thanks to Unreal Engine 4.

The calm before the storm. Money today, gone tomorrow

With no disrespect for mr Yu Suzuki (whatsoever), I still have to point out the following things:
1. The nr 1 reason why Shenmue 3 hasn’t been made before Is simply because Yu Suzuki has no clue about budgeting.
2. Yu Suzuki had a hard time to stay within the budget with Shenmue 1 and 2.
3. There “might” be a risk of a “Duke Nukem Forever” or “Broken Age” scenario (either It takes forever to finish the game, or the developers will simply continue to ask for more money even though they got fully funded on Kickstarter).

So before you start to hate me (and write really foul comments and threats), please understand that I love the Shenmue series just as much as you do. I simply wanted to point out the risks and the challenges that lay ahead of mr Yu Suzuki and his team. With that said, let´s take a closer look at the actual game behind Shenmue 3.

Shenhua Is just one of many familiar faces that will make It´s return In “Shenmue 3”.

The possibilities and potentials of Shenmue 3

Shenmue 3 is a true and direct sequel to Shenmue 2 (the story takes off where Shenmue 2 left us), and It offers the same kind of open world action/RPG elements that we all felt In love with In the previous titles In the series. So Shenmue 3 is said to continue the legacy of Shenmue by bring the series into the next generation of Gaming. Yes, I´m talking about Unreal Engine 4 graphics, enchanting music, the return of old (and new) Shenmue characters, a deep storyline and a beautiful world that just wait for you to explore it.

That sounds pretty good huh? Well, It gets better. As Shenmue 3 will be released to both PS4 and PC! (sorry, no Xbox One for now). So if you like the sound of that, then I would recommend you to visit the games Kickstarter page for more information about the games’ story, development plans and stretched goals

Robin “V-Act” Ek
The Gaming Ground
Twitter: @TheGamingGround