Shenmue II Preview

At its Executive Gamer's Summit held last November in San Francisco, Sega held a special closed-doors presentation of Shenmue II hosted by Yu Suzuki himself. Suzuki revealed the trailer to the sequel to his acclaimed Dreamcast adventure to audiences for the first time, and spoke briefly about the game. Under strict orders from Sega, we were unable to talk about this presentation - until now.

Suzuki showed a slightly longer version of the trailer that was shown in Japan at the Shenmue: The Movie premiere. The trailer starts by briefly recapping the important events of Shenmue, then focuses on Ryo as he travels to Hong Kong aboard a huge tanker ship. Suzuki commented that Ryo's adventures on his way to Hong Kong, which were originally planned to appear in chapter 2, have been cut from the game, and that the important events will be briefly told through cutscenes at the beginning of Shenmue II. Suzuki maintained that Shenmue II will take place exclusively in China, and will feature several real-life locations to enhance the realism of the game. The trailer then shows the ship coming to port, and Ryo stepping off the tanker and looking around the sea market of Hong Kong.

Another sequence shown was the introduction of a large tower. Suzuki referred to the large building as the Kowloon Tower, but it was apparent that the tower wasn't modeled after the famous Kowloon MTR Tower. Suzuki stated that the tower was zoned as a residential and office building, and that Ryo would spend his time finding people to speak with in this large environment. Suzuki went on to say that the team spent plenty of the time studying photographs and blueprints to ensure that the game would model the environments exactly as they existed in real life. However, he did admit that some liberties had to be taken for the sake of gameplay. For example, several elevators were added to the tower in the game, so that players wouldn't have to spend hours climbing stairs.

Suzuki then discussed the female characters in Shenmue II. The trailer showed a fairly lengthy scene of Ryo chasing Shenhua through a forest. He explained that you'll actually have to chase her through the forest in real-time, and the story will change depending on your actions. Shenhua will definitely play a larger role in Shenmue II, although it wasn't clear exactly what this role will be. An additional character is a buxom, blonde, and tough girl named Joy, who is featured only briefly straddling a motorcycle in the trailer.

One of the most obvious improvements to Shenmue II is the further enhanced graphics. The environments and characters are looking much better in the sequel than they did in the original game. Suzuki commented that the development team created a real-time dome over the game's environments to create real-time clouds and weather effects. The team is also working on improving the character's faces and expressions to further enhance the realism of the game. Additionally, the environments will feature even more individually rendered objects. Also, the game will be able to take better advantage of the Dreamcast, and will be able to feature up to 50 characters on-screen at once. In one of the more impressive scenes, Ryo is shown in the yard of a Shaolin temple, with countless monks performing Tai Chi behind him. Unfortunately, characters featured in the first game look as they've remained static - Ryo himself still sports the same brown leather jacket and the same general look from the first game. The trailer featured a very cinematic soundtrack to accompany the images, but didn't feature any voice work or sound effects from the actual game.

But the biggest change in Shenmue II is more action. According to Suzuki, Shenmue II will be shorter than the original game, and will feature more adventure elements. There will be many more quick-timer events in the sequel, and players will spend most of their time fighting and exploring. Additionally, Suzuki explained that Ryo will eventually be short on cash, and will have to result to gambling to earn money. The game will feature a fairly involving set of gambling games, and according to Suzuki, playing the odds will definitely be a large part of Shenmue II. Though Shenmue II will further explain the mystery of Suzuki's involving story, the plot won't end with this game. The game will cover chapters 2-6 of the 16-chapter story, and will span four GD-ROMs. Neither Suzuki nor Sega would commit to any release date for the game.