Stop looking for a publisher for Shenmue IV! Just have the fans transfer $200 directly!
The Blueprint for Completing the Saga: A Strategic Shift to the "Falcom Model"
If YSNET truly wants to bring the Shenmue saga to its rightful conclusion, they need to abandon the traditional publishing mindset and speak directly to the core 70,000 fans who have stayed loyal through the decades. The statement should be simple and blunt: "We will not repeat the mistakes of Shenmue III, where we overestimated the budget by trying to chase quality that the market outside our backers didn't care about. This time, we will produce Shenmue IV strictly within the budget provided by the fans, ensuring we never fall into the red. We don't want investors; we want a 'made-to-order' project. Please transfer $200 directly to us." This is no longer a Kickstarter or a gamble; it is a direct contract for production.
"Continuity is power." Shenmue III should have adopted the "Falcom Business Model" from day one. Look at series like Ys, Trails (Kiseki), or Gust’s Atelier series. These games aren't necessarily global blockbusters that appeal to the masses, yet they are produced consistently and successfully because they are "unapologetically for the fans." No matter how much critics bash the content, these companies keep iterating. Shenmue could have survived and thrived under this same design philosophy.
The biggest problem with Shenmue III was the "lack of accumulated development." Like Formula 1, if you stop competing even for a short time, it takes ten years to catch up. Titles like Yakuza (Ryū ga Gotoku) can achieve what they do because they release a game almost every year, refining their tools and assets in a continuous loop. If you look at the evolution from Ys VII to Ys X, the quality improved significantly because they never stopped moving. You don't need to make the "perfect masterpiece" from the start. You build Shenmue IV, then V, then VI. As the team gets used to the engine and the assets, you can eventually go back and remake III with the improved tech. Falcom’s philosophy of "doing only what is within our reach" is correct. In this current climate, there is no need to chase after non-fans; they aren't going to buy in anyway.
For a backer-funded project, "increasing the quality" does not "increase the number of sales." Instead of spending time and money rebuilding character models to satisfy critics, that energy should be spent on pushing the story forward. During the original development of Shenmue I, Yu Suzuki famously rebuilt character models and motions over and over again—from the Saturn version to the final Dreamcast version—to achieve a quality that, in the end, only people like me truly appreciated.
The same thing happened with Shenmue III. Early development footage showed characters without facial expressions, but by the final release, they had completely redone the models and motions. Honestly? The expressionless versions were good enough. Every hour spent "polishing" was an hour stolen from the next chapter of the story. We are not in a position to be picky about NPC models. Developers like Compile Heart, Marvelous, and Gust understand how to compromise on visuals to ensure the fans get a finished product.
The reason people complained that "the motions are stiff" in Shenmue III is ironically because the graphics were "halfway decent." When you try to make a high-fidelity character model on a budget, the discrepancy between the look and the movement creates an uncanny valley. If they had just stuck to "cheap" or stylized graphics, those stiff motions wouldn't feel out of place. More importantly, lower fidelity would allow for "dynamic events." In the early Project Berkeley days, we saw Ryo hanging off a train or escaping from falling boulders—scenes that were cut from the final games. In old concept art, Shenhua is shown riding a horse through the vast Chinese wilderness. In the current "semi-realistic" style of Shenmue III, doing that would cost a fortune.
If they had scaled the visuals back to a Sega Saturn level of fidelity, they could have done anything! Dynamic, large-scale events would be easy to animate and implement. That would result in a far superior "gameplay" experience. The most common criticism of Shenmue has always been that it is "all surface, no substance." If that is the case, then YSNET should throw away the surface entirely and put 100% of their effort into the substance—the world, the story, and the systems we have been waiting for.
The "1999 Vision" Strategy: A Radical Proposal for Shenmue IV
If critics insist on calling Shenmue "outdated," then let us lean into that. Instead of struggling to meet modern standards, why not develop Shenmue IV under the strict assumption that it is a "lost masterpiece from the 90s"?
The blueprint is simple:
Resolution: Develop at 640×480.
Visuals: Use character models and motions equivalent to Skies of Arcadia (Eternal Arcadia).
Modern Display: Upscale for current monitors.
Aesthetics: Apply post-processing to mimic a 31kHz CRT monitor.
Budget: Scale the project to a size sustainable by 70,000 fans. Each fan contributes $200. (A total of $600 to finish through Shenmue VI).
Authenticity: Hire Chinese creators to build a truly authentic China.
Simplification: No need for every door to be openable.
Voice Over: Abolish full voicing. Use speech bubbles for NPCs.
Weather: Use fixed weather for specific scenes.
Time System: Abolish the strict real-time clock. No mandatory "go home and sleep" cycle, similar to Yakuza.
Survival: Abolish the food/hunger system.
Content: Cut all subquests.
Economy: Abandon the complex in-game economy. No more shopping for useless items like vases.
Pawn Shops: Abolish them.
Minigames: Focus only on story-essential tasks (Forklifts, airing out books, catching chickens, or Ma-bo are fine, as they are part of the journey).
Combat: Let SEGA handle the combat to ensure it is actually fun.
Structure: Move away from pure "open world" toward a mix of linear and area-based locations.
Uniqueness: Prioritize "Shenmue-esque" events and creative planning over generic RPG tropes like leveling or herb alchemy.
Tone: Move beyond the "Yokosuka style" and transform the game into a vibrant adventure-action saga.
Constraints: Stick to the paths. Players don't need to walk through every bush.
Difficulty: Abolish difficulty selection.
Trimmings: Remove Gacha machines and forklift jobs.
NPC Interaction: Stop allowing players to talk to every irrelevant NPC. Use speech bubbles for passersby.
Publishing: SEGA returns as the publisher.
Management: Separate the Producer and Director roles. Let Keiji Okayasu hold the reins for Yu Suzuki.
By doing this, we can ensure that the core gameplay remains "undeniably Shenmue." When I asked an AI, I received a "100% possible" seal of approval for this approach.
The fun of a video game is often determined by its sound effects. If the audio is top-tier, the game remains engaging even with low resolution and low-poly models. Shenmue is currently in a situation where it must compromise. Crude textures, hand-keyed motions, text-based dialogue, and fixed weather are small sacrifices. While the ground-hugging walk of Shenmue II was brilliant, for the sake of completion, Saturn-level motions are perfectly acceptable.
Low-poly visuals prevent players from falling into the "uncanny valley." It doesn't matter if you see the same face twice; it’s more important to see a crowded, living city.
Shenmue IV doesn't even need to be 16:9. I want to see it made as a "new release for 1999." We should aggressively use AI for NPCs, flashback scenes, and music. We are running out of time. The story won't end with Shenmue IV. A decision must be made now.
Let’s galvanize the "$200 per fan" project.
I also have an article on Shenmue III, so please check that out as well!
