- The Shenmue anime gets its first trailer - 8 October 2021
We've known for a while that One Punch Man director Chikara Sakurai and producer Yu Suzuki were working together to bring us a Shenmue anime, and now we've got our first look at the Cruncyroll/Adult Swim production in action - and it looks pretty decent! With an understandable focus on the action of the series rather than its more ponderous moments where star Ryo Hazuki feeds a kitten or goes for a long walk at night across town so he can play Hang-On, it's a high energy look at the world of Shenmue as established in the first three games. Indeed, there are several memorable moments such as Ryo's encounter with Lan Di as well as his arrival in Hong Kong, as seen at the start of Shenmue 2. Will this anime give fans the closure they've been waiting so long for? After the much-anticipated Shenmue 3 also ended on a cliffhanger, there's been murmurings the story might wrap in a medium outsid…
- Shenmue 3 Patch Notes - 12 January 2021
Dear Shenmue family, we've collected your feedback on various issues that were occurring in the Steam version of Shenmue III. Please see below the fixes that have been implemented. An issue with achievements not unlocking in the following three DLCs has been fixed. "Battle Rally" "Story Quest Pack" "Big Merry Cruise" The achievements will now unlock by restarting with a saved game. Due to game save specifications, some achievements cannot be determined by the saved game data even if the achievement conditions have been met. In these cases, it will be necessary to replay the relevant DLC again with a main game cleared save to unlock the achievements. Issues with the UI not displaying correctly while playing using a keyboard have been fixed. The game will now function as follows: Starting the game by using keyboard inputs from the main menu will now display the keyboard UI during play. St…
- Hotfix Coming Soon - 22 December 2020
We are working on the following two changes for Shenmue III on Steam: 1) Achievements not unlocking for the "Battle Rally", "Story Quest Pack" & "Big Merry Cruise" DLCs. 2) Keyboard UI display: Keyboard UI will properly display when playing using a keyboard. The update is planned for January 2021. We ask for your patience until we can get these issues resolved.
- Shenmue 3 hits Steam today - 19 November 2020
Today, I invite you to go back in time and visit China to search for a little bit of vengeance. Specifically, back to spring 1987, to help a young Ryu Hazuki hunt for his father’s killer. Of course, you could partake in a spot of tortoise-racing or chicken-chasing while you’re it. That’s right, I’m talking about the weird and wonderful world of Shenmue 3 , which sheds its Epic exclusivity and arrives on Steam today. (more…)
- Shenmue 3 is finally heading to Steam later this month - 9 November 2020
Following a year of Epic Games Store exclusivity on PC, Shenmue 3 will be making its way to Steam on 19th November. Shenmue 3 initially launched at the tail-end of 2019 - a mere 19 years after the previous instalment in Yu Suzuki's legendary series - finally giving extremely patient fans the very long-awaited next chapter in the ongoing saga of Ryo Hazuki and his quest to avenge the murder of his father, one that began on Sega's Dreamcast all the way back in 1999. Epic's move to snaffle up Shenmue 3 as an exclusive for its PC store, with a bit of help from publisher Deep Silver, proved even more controversial than usual, given the project had been crowdfunded to the record-breaking tune of $7,179,510 from 81,087 backers, many of who were promised and expecting to receive a Steam key on release day. Read more
- Shenmue 3 finally hits Steam later this month - 6 November 2020
The road to Shenmue 3's PC release was, if we're being honest, a little unusual. Fans were ecstatic when the game was first unveiled and its Kickstarter went live, pledging over $6 million to bring the long-awaited sequel to life. Then came news that it would be a timed Epic Games Store exclusive, which naturally upset some of those who'd shelled out for a Steam key at launch. Epic later confirmed that it would refund anyone who backed Shenmue 3 and either didn't want an EGS key or couldn't grin and bear the 12-month wait for the Steam version. Almost a year after its grand debut on PC, Shenmue 3 finally has a confirmed release date on Steam: November 19 - precisely one year after its original launch. The game and any rewards codes will be available to those who manually requested a Steam key in the survey that ran from September to October of last year. If you're eligible, you can clai…
- Five of the Best: E3 conferences - 12 June 2020
Five of the Best is a weekly series about the small details we rush past when we're playing but which shape a game in our memory for years to come. Details like the way a character jumps or the title screen you load into, or the potions you use and maps you refer back to. We've talked about so many in our Five of the Best series so far . But there are always more. Five of the Best works like this. Various Eurogamer writers will share their memories in the article and then you - probably outraged we didn't include the thing you're thinking of - can share the thing you're thinking of in the comments below. Your collective memory has never failed to amaze us - don't let that stop now! This week we'd usually have been arguing about - I'm sorry I mean debating - all the big announcements from E3. True, we had Sony's PlayStation 5 reveal yesterday and it was very exciting, and true, we have a…
- Clash of Fans: Old School RuneScape and Shenmue - 19 May 2020
Hello and welcome to the second of our Clash of Fans write-ups . This week we'll be getting together in pairs (virtually) and forcing each other to play a beloved game. Then we'll chat about what we made of it all. Next up is Old School RuneScape and Shenmue! Matt: I have to admit, a good portion of my time allocated to this feature was spent signing up to RuneScape. It was frequently baffling - I somehow had an account already associated with Jagex which needed resetting several times, my usual handle (and my back up, and the back up to that) were already taken, and upon trying to buy membership, it wouldn't let me type in any credit card details. It was similar to the only other time I tried to play an MMO - an evening wasted trying to get my head around Square Enix's account system to play Final Fantasy 14 in its infancy, forcing me to give up on what I hear is one of the best games…
- Shenmue 3 will let you play as two new characters in its first DLC next week - 17 January 2020
Koch Media have announced the very first DLC for Shenmue 3 , Battle Rally, will be released on Tuesday 21st January. By the looks of things it’s inviting players to take part in a race (on foot I think?), and you’ll even be able to play as different characters for the first time. Sorry Ryo. “Battle Rally offers fresh gaming activities in a race unlike any other, as contestants engage in head-to-head battles whilst racing their way through the course,” they tweeted . (more…)
- Shenmue 3's first DLC releases later this month - 15 January 2020
Shenmue 3's first DLC has just been announced - and it's called Battle Rally. Releasing 21st January, the DLC will offer "fresh gaming activities in a race unlike any other, as contestants engage in head to head battles whilst racing their way through the course." For the first time in the series, players will be able to take on the role of a different protagonist - including Wuying Ren, and Ryo's sparring partner Wei Zhen. And Ryo himself, of course. Should this tickle your fancy, you'll be able to pick it up for 6.49 through the Sony Store or Epic Game Store - unless you bought the Complete DLC Collection, in which case the DLC will become available automatically. Read more
- Shenmue 3: the view from Guilin - 12 December 2019
Editor's note: Shenmue's a game that can do funny things to people. First time round I was obsessed with AM2's detail-rich world, and its take on a place that seemed oh-so-real - Japan in the mid-80s, specifically life in the unremarkable town of Yokosuka. So obsessed was I that when I first made it over to Japan some years later, the first thing I did was drag my partner to the location that inspired it all - a short hour's ride from Tokyo itself - and was impressed how Shenmue had captured the place. The sequel went to Hong Kong, while the third game finds itself in rural China, out in Guilin. How faithful exactly is Shenmue 3's take on that world? British-Chinese journalist Lu-Hai Liang was born there at the very time the game takes place, so I was fascinated to get his take on how well Shenmue had captured his birthplace. I didn't expect to like Shenmue 3. I'd been warned that the g…
- Wot I Think: Shenmue 3 - 26 November 2019
Developer: Ys Studio Publisher: Deep Silver Release: Out now On: Windows From: Epic Game Store Price: 45/ 50/$50 Nothing better captures the magic of Shenmue III than its save files. On one line, the current date and time; above it, the date and time this particular save will whisk you back to. Because that s what Shenmue is: time travel. The opportunity to visit a very specific moment in history. In the case of Shenmue III, China in the spring of 1987. Of course, it s time travel that doesn t fret about the butterfly effect – you spend most of your trip kicking in groins in a way that will surely curtail a few family lineages. But this sequel is time travel of a second kind, too: a design throwback to 1999, when Shenmue was the cutting edge of blockbuster game development; then the most expensive game of all time, and one that remained so cherished that it raised 6.3 million doll…
- Shenmue 3: a classic gaming experience re-interpreted by today's tech - 24 November 2019
At Digital Foundry we've talked about 'impossible ports' before - games like Doom 2016 and The Witcher 3 on Switch that seem to deny technological limitations and still bring the essence of the original experiences to a new audience. Shenmue 3 is something very different, but equally as unlikely. It's an impossible sequel , a game that shouldn't really exist owing to a whole host of reasons, but somehow here it is. It's a miracle that I'm now playing a modern sequel to a game that came out 18 years ago, a game that was - by all financial criteria - a major flop. Its sheer being is something to be treasured, but fundamentally, is it actually a good game and a worthy sequel? I'd say that the results are mixed. This is Shenmue viewed through a modern lens, which is absolutely fine. However, it's also a sequel produced very much as an indie production with limitations that impact the scope…
- Shenmue 3 review - a faithful follow-up to an all-time classic - 20 November 2019
Against all odds, here it is. 18 years on from the last episode, and well after most had given up hope that Ryo Hazuki would ever find his way out of the Guilin cave where Shenmue 2 so abruptly ended, perhaps the most remarkable thing about Shenmue 3 is that it exists at all. Even more remarkable, then, that director Yu Suzuki - himself an absentee from the frontlines of games development for almost two decades - has delivered a worthy successor to what many consider an all-time great. Shenmue 3 takes the template of those age-old Dreamcast games and refines it in small, numerous ways - delivering a game that's both faithful and finessed. What this is not, though, is a reimagining. This isn't the game to make a Shenmue devotee of the doubtful, and the curious circumstances behind Shenmue 3's development have made for a curious game; completely ignorant of modern trends in open world gam…
- After 18 years, Shenmue 3 is finally a game you can play right now - 19 November 2019
It’s only gone and come out, hasn’t it? Four years after its controversial, record-breaking $6 million Kickstarter campaign, Shenmue 3 is finally a game you can pick up and play. Blimey, it’s only been 18 years since the last one. Shenmue’s had a rough road to release, full of publisher scandals and delay after delay after delay . But it’s finally time to pick up where Shenmue 2 left off in 2001, with teen martial artist Ryo Hazuki traipsing around rural China looking for the folks who killed his dear old dad. (more…)
- Shenmue 3: an Unreal take on a classic Dreamcast experience - 3 October 2019
The announcement of Shenmue 3 several years ago is one of those moments I never expected - something which seemed like an impossibility became reality. Over 18 years after the release of Shenmue 2, the story of Ryo Huzuki would continue on modern day hardware with PlayStation 4 and PC versions confirmed. The game is set for release on November 19th but a select tier of original Kickstarter backers received access to a playable demo earlier in the week. It's our first proper taste of the game - and I'm excited by what I've played. Going into this one, there were bound to be concerns. The original Shenmue was one of the most expensive games ever made at the time of its release, developed by an industry-leading studio at the top of its game. By contrast, Shenmue 3 is crowd-funded, lower budget project put together by a much smaller team. How could it ever hope to compare? For starters, I f…
- Shenmue 3 does not disappoint - 30 September 2019
Playing Shenmue 3's recently released demo is like coming across some strange relic, unearthed and polished off by curious digital archaeologists looking to understand turn of the century video games. The pace is stately to the point of being somnambulistic, its voice acting feels like it's been phoned in from half a planet and a couple of decades away, and the scope is limited in the extreme. I could not be any happier with it all. I'm getting ahead of myself a little. The first thing that takes a while to comprehend is that Shenmue 3 exists, is playable, and is something I spent several happy hours playing over the weekend. The second thing that takes a short time to process is that, after all its various trials, Shenmue 3 actually might be good . As a fan who's been waiting eagerly, at times impatiently, for nearly 20 years, I am not disappointed in the slightest. It's probably worth…
- Shenmue 3 footage takes us on a tour of its world - 12 September 2019
Shenmue 3 is now less than two months from release - and if that makes you very excited, then you'll probably want to indulge in its new Tokyo Games Show trailer below. Rather than focusing on plot or action, this video takes us on a quiet, three-minute tour of some locations. The official Shenmue 3 YouTube channel describes it as a mood video and, from fan reactions, it is certainly doing the job. "Shenmue is about a sense of place and this captures that wonderfully," our Matt Reynolds told me, wistfully staring at the trailer's pumpkins and sunflowers. "It's got a lovely countryside vibe which evokes Shenmue more than previous trailers." Read more
- Developers and industry legends on the games that defined the last 20 years - 5 September 2019
As Eurogamer turns 20, we thought, you know what? It's not all about us. It's also about the developers, the people behind the virtual magic that inspired the creation of Eurogamer two decades ago. Without the developers, we wouldn't be here. And so, we thought we'd ask a few of them (20, in fact!) to pick the games that defined the last 20 years, and see what would come of it. We approached a broad range of people, from top executives and legendary talent to tiny indies. We asked them to pick a game that defined the last 20 years, but left it up to them to interpret the question. It could be a game that defined the industry, that meant a lot to them professionally or personally, or is just a favourite. We're delighted with the responses (thank you to everyone who contributed!). There's some fantastic insight here, super cool anecdotes and the odd surprising choice. We hope you enjoy it…
- What you do when you re not chasing your destiny in Shenmue 3 - 21 August 2019
A lot of Shenmue happens in the spaces between the game. I remember my time in Yu Suziki’s sprawling RPGs not as some grand unveiling of my destiny, but as a dude collecting capsule toys, getting a job as a forklift driver, and hanging out at the arcade. I lived a rich little life playing it, though because of it I horribly failed my forklift driver exams in the real-world. Shenmue 3 has time to fill as well, and here s how you ll do it. (more…)
