Shenmue online...More Than Just a Trademark????

I' m not holding my breath - SEGA gamers are long used to not getting hopes up especially with SEGA's shaky future and the buyout, but well, here's an article :

http://appsrv-2.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3133807

Although an MMORPG is nto the direction I would liek to see the series go in...I would nvertheless be thankful for any form of continuance of Ryo's saga.

With a massive reported budget of approx. $26 million US... oh man....

Here's hoping...

 

Well it's definitely real.

www.shenmue-online.com

What I'm having trouble grasping is :

1. It's being developed for PC. Which means that it will be tailored to attract traditional online MMORPG fanatics. Which means traditional RPG elements. Which is precisely what Shenmue was heralded as the antithesis of. Stats, wepaon upgrades, HP and Shenmue do NOT mix.

2. Who in the PC gaming world has any appreciation for the Shenhmue series? This franchise is NOT your typical PC gamer's cup of tea.

3. Story is EVERYTHING in Shenmue and its epic saga.
Storyline is ALWAYS weak in online RPGs because of the fundamental flaw of the dynamic nature of online games.
:smt017
Now how the hell are they going to make this work?

Quote from the press release:

Eh? As desperately as I've been wanting any sort of continuation to Shenmue...an MMORPG is just all wrong....it kills the whole point, the whole experience of Shenmue as an epic saga.

Shenmue MULTIPLAYER? How on earth does that work??




I have no idea what Suzuki-san is trying to do here...I'm not holding my breath either. Rack up yet another disappointment for Shenmue and SEGA fans everywhere.

 

My babies! You're killing my babies! :smt022

 

I think this is only a parallel "experiment" based on the "Shenmue" World. Iit doesn't mean you can control Ryo or other famous characters. I doub it. I'm sure it won't have much related to the history, excepting the localizations...

 

I'll bet this will also be an xenon live launch title.

)

 

This just reeks of something fishy. Shenmue.com nor sega.jp list anything on their site. It wouldn't be the first time for them to not post major news on their site, but seems like it'd be plastered on the front page.

 

You have really been smoking something..

Shenmue.com on the news section on the right says... Shenmue-online.com open!

 

How silly of me to click the news button, only to find jack shit. :Hangman:

I see it now. Thanks.

So why nothing on Sega's main site? Are they embarrased? I will say -- this must be the most bizarre news I've heard out of Sega. I'm wondering if I should categorize this in my brain.

Is this "the big announcement" at E3 that they couldn't announce? If it was... well... good thing they kept their mouths shut.

EDIT: Tonight was the first of many piss-fests celebrating my companies Exodus. As such, I've been drinking.

 

:smt043

Ok,

Well the korean website has lots of stuf writen about it just that i cant read it!!!

http://shenmue.joycity.com/online_2.asp

Also has tiny screenshots.

 

I think there is nothing on the official Shenmue website because the game is probably just being released in the Chinese and Korean market.

 

They say that it will be internationally released.

 

http://shenmue.joycity.com/joy_3.asp

http://premium.uploadit.org/dsn2000/sen2.JPG

http://www.ystart.net/upload/20040803/1091587071.jpg

http://www.ystart.net/upload/20040803/1091587163.jpg

http://www.ystart.net/upload/20040803/1091587211.jpg

http://www.ystart.net/upload/20040803/1091587251.jpg

http://www.ystart.net/upload/20040803/1091587325.jpg

http://www.ystart.net/upload/20040803/1091587358.jpg

http://www.ystart.net/upload/20040803/1091587395.jpg


er... RENDERS, actually



A shameless steal from another forum!

 

Nowhere has SEGA stated it will reach int'l release. Only spong has mentioned this of their own opinion, but nowhere has SEGA said itself that Shenmue Online will go beyond Korea and China.

 

I'm actually kinda glad to hear this. Not that I'm all for a Shenmue Online.....but it is at least better than Shenmue disapearing completly. If there is enough interest in this then I am sure SEGA will consider doing a Shenmue 3 even more......so j00 all better start pre-ordering the Online game :smt040

 

This is awesome. I will definitely get. Woo hoo!

 

Yeah, but they gave press releases in Japanese and English, which is a good sign.... good if you want to see it released in those languages.
Doesn't make sense to have an English/JPN press release just to say, "you won't get it."

 

Only way it will work is if they release it on the consoles as well. I seriously doubt many PC MMORPG players know too much about Shenmue.

 

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! :smt040 :smt043 :smt033

I just punched a few walss and woke up the neighbours,I also nearly pissed myself with excitement,finally we see some more action of the world's greatest game franchise ever.I love and I mean love Shenmue and the Ryo Hazuki saga and I could not care less how the series continues or where it continues.I just want more Shenmue action.God bless Yu Suzuki and long live Ryo the fuckin man Hazuki.

Bet your over the moon too Yakumo,I know you are as big a fan of the series as I am.WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOO!

All this after Greg Rusedski beating Enqvuist last night in the Cincinnati masters.Oh Tim Henman won 6-1,6-0 today as well.What a great two days.

 

Right now I have calmed down a little and had a couple of whisky's to make me more sensible(hehe), I have just read an old interview from last year that was in Edge with Hisao Oguchi.He stated then that one of Sega's top priorities was to break into the Asian PC market so this must have been sealed a long long time ago and this is their first massive entry into that market with online gaming.

The asian PC market is absolutely huge and I can see this game being a big success and a way of reintroducing Shenmue and hopefully a way of building up hype for the real sequel.Let's all buy this game and convince Suzuki san to finish off number three,unless he already is....that is a real possibility now.

Oh and for the person who said that Sega will not release this internationally...Do you really think Sega will spen thirty million on a game and not allow it to make some money in international markets???I think you are being a little bit crazy.

EDIT....

Instead of posting again,I'll tell you what I have heard in this post.
Unofficial rumours are stating that this is Shenmue 3 and the sequel to shenmue 2,whether it is the last game in the series is undecided but this will continue on from Shenmue 2.This is unnofficial,but the game will feature the whole crew of Lishao tao,Joy,Ryo,Lan di,etcc....so it does sound logical.

 

I'm a bit sceptical about this whole thing to tell the truth. There is no way in hell this can be classed as part of the "real" Shenmue story. Shenmue is about story driven plot NOT power ups, teams, learning millions of points and so on. The game as we know it just won't work on line. Until more is made clear on this title I'm keeping quite.

Yakumo