Shenmue III developer Ys Net posted a new video on their Kickstarter page where director Yu Suzuki talked about the game’s development. He reflected on the past two years of development, gave updates on characters and voice acting, and talked about his plans to overhaul the combat. It seems development is coming to a head, which is good considering the game is supposed to release later this year.
“I want to do something a little different with the battles,” revealed Suzuki. “When it comes to fighting, there are things that I want to make my own, so I was thinking of doing things a bit different from last time. We have been running some tests, and well, it’s not a game like Virtua Fighter that is about timing. So, I hope it will take the form of a puzzle game that anyone can play with a strong emphasis on choreography.”
He then went on to clarify what type of puzzles players may see. “[Battles] may be influenced by whether you pick up some item, and so on, incorporating more puzzle-type elements. That’s what I would like to do. And [quick time events], alongside some other things.”
Suzuki also talked about a ton of other subjects in the full discussion, including the development surprises of using Unreal Engine 4:
“Using Unreal Engine 4 has been a first for me, but it allowed for more conventional techniques than I expected which in turn also brought with it completely new efficiencies. Along with those two points, it has allowed us [to] bring the graphics quality past what I had first envisioned.”
“The thing that has been harder than expected for me has been using the engine as is. Because as someone who used to write everything from code, I want to see and t ouch what’s inside, but can’t.”
Shenmue III is set to release in 2018 for PlayStation 4 and PC.
