Yu Suzuki Talks Characters, Romance, and Engines for Shenmue III

[Lizzy Finnegan]

Yu Suzuki Talks Characters, Romance, and Engines for Shenmue III

Shenmue creator Yu Suzuki has revealed new information about Shenmue 3 in an interview with DualShockers, including characters, romance, and Unreal Engine 4.

In a recent interview with DualShockers, Shenmue creator Yu Suzuki stated [http://www.dualshockers.com/2015/10/20/shenmue-iii-interview-yu-suzuki-talks-gameplay-tech-romance-ps4-pc-frame-rate-and-much-more/] that there will be "many new characters," although not much was revealed about them. The four main bosses include Lan Di, a returning character, along with two fighters. The fourth is described as a strategist. Suzuki says she is "an extremely beautiful and sexy, but cruel woman" whose image was introduced in Shenmue II, but will now have a "proper and extensive role," focused more on "cunning than head-on fighting."

Suzuki also stated that romance "will be an important topic in Shenmue III," with a focus on "the differences in how men and women think."

Other information includes a goal of 30 FPS, as 60 FPS "might be too difficult." Suzuki also stated that he is "currently testing the Unreal Engine 4," which was chosen for its "portrayal of colors, the shaders, and the rendering engine."

"They're close to the image I have for the world of Shenmue III. Unreal Engine 4 allows me to portray what I think the humidity and the smell of the world should be. If you see a scene in the desert, you will feel the dry air of the desert. I feel that I can bring those abstract qualities of climate and atmosphere to life using Unreal Engine 4."

Shenmue 3 later saying [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/conferences/e3-2015/14121-shenmue-3-kickstarter-announced-at-playstation-e3] "We're still trying to gather funds. Obviously, the more money we have the more we can do. Even if we don't get as much budget as the previous games, we'll still make this game."

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[hentropy]

Suzuki also stated that romance "will be an important topic in Shenmue III," with a focus on "the differences in how men and women think."

Careful, Suzuki... sure, Xiuying was a great character but your record on this isn't super-duper if you're asking me.

 

[EndlessSporadic]

Suzuki also stated that he is "currently testing the Unreal Engine 4," which was chosen for its "portrayal of colors, the shaders, and the rendering engine."

This all comes down to the lighting model. Colors don't change and the rendering engine is, well, what is expected from most game engines nowadays. The stuff that makes a rendering engine display pretty stuff is how good its lighting model is. Unity's 3.x and 4.x lighting models were notoriously horrendous which is why everything looked like garbage. Unreal 4's lighting model is built off of years of development from Unreal Engine 3 and uses deferred lighting. Unreal even gives you the option to create your own lighting model (this type of model and the traditional lighting model are not the same thing).

Ultimately Unreal Engine 4 provides what is expected of game engines nowadays, so there is nothing all that special about it. Still, my mind will always be blown away at what these game engines can do. God bless technology.

 

[Blazing Hero]

Suzuki also stated that romance "will be an important topic in Shenmue III," with a focus on "the differences in how men and women think."

Careful, Suzuki... sure, Xiuying was a great character but your record on this isn't super-duper if you're asking me.

How so and in what way?

 

[hentropy]

Suzuki also stated that romance "will be an important topic in Shenmue III," with a focus on "the differences in how men and women think."

Careful, Suzuki... sure, Xiuying was a great character but your record on this isn't super-duper if you're asking me.

How so and in what way?

I'm not sure if you played the game and even if it is 15 years old now I don't want to spoil too much, so I'll just put it in spoilers. I still won't go into too much intricate plot details.

Spoiler

Basically, a good amount of damseling. As a big fan of series I can defend some of it at least, because the story does have you intentionally antagonizing organized crime in both games, and it's not unbelievable that they might try to kidnap your friends. In the first game there was really only one major female character (though there are a slew of non-major ones), a hyper-demure waifu who obviously pines after the main character only to get no reciprocation. She gets damseled as part of the game's epic climax, although I suppose to be fair one of your badass male kung-fu friends also kinda gets in the same boat. The second game had many more female characters, including at least two good ones as far as them being strong and not really love interests, but they still manage to damsel one of them along with your spunky kid friend during the climax. But to also be fair, there is one badass kung fu lady who actually saves YOU more than once after getting yourself into potentially fatal situations. Still, if these games had been made now it would have probably earned the chagrin of certain... social critics. That's not even getting into the rather interesting/complicated but not issue-free matters of two other characters, Fangmei and Yuan.

Generally I kind of wince whenever I hear a middle-aged male of any kind talk about things like "the differences in the way men and women think", not necessarily because there are no differences, I'm just not sure if he's the best guy to tackle them, and at worst it could wade into territory that is rather... you know... that s-word...