In an interview published on Official PlayStation Magazine UK (issue #141, November 2017), Yu Suzuki revealed that there's still a chance to see Shenmue I and II packaged with Shenmue III so that gamers might play the whole story.
We considered offering the first two games along with Shenmue III, and it still may happen. But we thought it would be more fun to include that content as memories, so when you play the new game you get memories of old stories or some other content from Shenmue I and II. For example, if you're walking in the village there's an older guy telling you what happened in the previous games, so it's totally incorporated into the game.
While Suzuki-san hasn't decided yet if these memories will be playable, he did add:
There is a feature where you can make a phone call to characters who appeared in Shenmue I and II.
The creator of Shenmue also pointed out that Shenmue III will be easier to play than its predecessors, particularly when it comes to the combat system.
Shenmue I and II used the same engine from Virtua Fighter, but now we have a new engine for the fighting, so it's different. I wanted to make Shenmue III simpler to play than the original games, because basing combat on Virtua Fighter wasn't simple. So we have incorporated what we call 'variable speed' into the fighting, so that the look of the fight will be different from before - new and fun.
Still, Yu Suzuki believes that a game's setting is ultimately more important than the single gameplay elements.
I believe the world and setting of the game is crucial to making a 'great game'. Let's say there can be an approach to making many elements - Shenmue has minigames and fighting - and it can be possible to enhance and improve some or each element of the game, but it's more important to consider the entire setting of the game world. That to me is the thing that's important.
Shenmue III, which will be published globally by Deep Silver, is now scheduled to launch for PlayStation 4 and PC in 2018.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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