Game Development Giant

In Shenmue.

Everyone has a background story, their own life, and sometimes it is related to the side plot. However, here comes the problem. However, you cannot interact with the people and objects in this world at all. All you can do is say hello, and the rest is The content is just shopping and watching the scenery, which makes people crazy. There are many mini-games in Shenmue, similar to GTA5 Triathlon, but they are much less rich than GTA.

Shenmue cannot drive, cannot climb over walls, and can only walk in an East Asian city in the 1980s. Another example is Old Man Scroll Bar. If this game did not allow you to fight at all except for the main mission, and you could only travel to scenic spots and say hello to animals/humans, that would be very depressing, although it is already very depressing. If the core of GTA is to experience the garbage life of American bad guys and villains, then Shenmue is to experience the retirement life of Japanese office workers.

In other words, 90% of the content in Shenmue is just to create a real atmosphere and does not interact with the players at all. This kind of extravagant approach is something that other game companies simply cannot imagine. Only Suzuki Yu's status and reputation can make this project happen.

The level of Shenmue, in terms of graphics, concept, and scale, far exceeded other games at the time.

At that time, people didn't think it was a 3A game. That was not enough. For Shenmue at that time, 3a was not a compliment but an insult. It was completely ahead of the game industry at that time by more than one era.

At that time, everyone thought it would be like Super Mario or ff7. One created modern video games, and the other made the world's video game industry aware of the importance of CG, directly allowing the game industry to evolve to the next stage. If you have to find some examples that are easier for modern people to understand, it's a bit similar to wow's status in mmorpg.

Of course, the consequences of the failure of this game will be disastrous, directly leading to the bankruptcy of Sega, one of the top three in the industry. You can think about the scale of the game if it directly bankrupts EA or Activision Blizzard. If Isao Okawa had not donated all his property to save it, there would be no Sega company now.

Jester is carefully analyzing the success and failure of Shenmue.

He wrote seriously on a piece of paper, but it was very sloppy. He had already written more than a dozen pieces of paper. Soon, this one was filled by himself, and he took out a new piece of white paper.

Shenmue has so many shortcomings, so the reason why it has such a high status in game history is that it naturally has many advantages and is groundbreaking in many ways. All sorts of inspirations, otherwise, it would not have been possible after fifteen years, when the crowdfunding project for the sequel came out, the set crowdfunding goal was completed in just nine hours.

And what is the biggest inspiration that Shenmue has for the gaming industry?

Jester frowned. In fact, because of the important position of Shenmue in the history of games, and the profound impact its failure had on the entire game industry, many people in later generations analyzed this game, regardless of amateur enthusiasm. player. He is also a professional in the gaming industry.

It can be said that there are countless analytical articles of this type.

Jester himself is a fan of Shenmue. Not only has he analyzed it himself, but he has also read many such analysis articles. It can be said that I know these very well.

In general.

Shenmue inspired future games mainly in two aspects.

First. It proves that a full 3D sandbox game that imitates reality is feasible. In other words, the full-reaction visual entertainment envisioned by Suzuki Yu is a feasible game method. The second point is that sandbox games must find the core gameplay that fully utilizes the game content, and it must not only have the main line.

The biggest beneficiary is GTA. In the era of Shenmue, GTA, although it was still 2D, was a very shocking anti-social game. Of course, it was still very anti-social even more than ten years later, and other manufacturers were afraid to avoid it. Many people have also discussed removing the illegal elements and changing it into a clean game. Fortunately, they have not done so.

No matter how anti-social and vulgar GTA is, at least it gives players something to do, What's the show tonight?, I'm sorry I can't reveal this, but I can tell you that some of the programs are very vulgar, Guys like vulgar things. !.

Jester can learn a lot from these beneficiaries.

Because they all use Shenmue as a mirror to avoid their own flaws.

Another beneficiary may be the Yakuza series that later inherited the will of Shenmue.

Yakuza is significantly smaller than Shenmue, but it does an excellent job in correcting the two mistakes of Shenmue. First, there are various battles outside the main line, which will make you want to vomit, but will never make you bored. Why do I say this? For example, can you imagine that after learning the sharp Bajiquan, you can't find some gangsters to show off your skills, but can only go to the arcade to play Sega arcade games?

Shenmue is like that.

Secondly, the scale of the world has been greatly reduced. The entire world has been condensed into a few streets related to tasks and mini-games, and other parts are not done at all. It is actually an arpg. In addition, the combat system has also been modified, from the VR Warrior system of Shenmue to the spike-out act system, which is easy to understand and very lively. Therefore, Yakuza is more fun than Shenmue many.

Thinking of this, Jester stopped writing and suddenly had a very strong idea in his heart.

That is, can you try to find Yu Suzuki when developing this game? After all, Yu Suzuki was the first to come up with the idea of ​​this kind of game. It is inevitable that no one in this world, except himself, would understand what kind of game he wants to make better than Yu Suzuki.

In fact, Shenmue is perfect in building a world view. The only thing missing is playability. In this era, when no one knows how to make a sandbox game, I have played countless sandboxes. Game experience is crucial.

However, it is not easy to impress Yu Suzuki, and it is much more difficult than Shigeru Miyamoto.

When he thought of this, Jester shook his head. He really wanted to get Yu Suzuki's help on this game.

While thinking about it, Jester wrote the words Suzuki Yu on the white paper.

To be honest, after the crowdfunding announcement of Shenmue 3, many new players were wondering why this game could raise so much money so quickly, and even make countless old players unable to control their emotions at the same time. And burst into tears.

In fact, these doubtful people have no idea at all.

Just the name Yu Suzuki doesn't require any business plan. From any game-related investor, you can easily get five million US dollars. If there is a plan, you will get far more than this number. Why? ?

You only need to think about what kind of person Mr. Suzuki Yu is.

Just open his resume, even if you have never played a Sega console, you must know VR Warrior, VR Racing, and VR Men.

These games are now available on Sega.

Jester also had a headache from this.

Especially VR Warrior, its ability to attract money is simply terrible, and it has almost become Sega's signature now.

Jester also wants his people to find ways to develop similar games for sniping, but unfortunately, VR Warrior is the pinnacle of fighting games now. No other similar games can surpass it, and there is no way. .

After all, in the original history, VR Warrior just passed by.

Yu Suzuki is not only a producer of fun games, but also a prophet who leads the direction of the industry - in a sense, he taught the Japanese how to make 3D games. The three major categories of VR are fighting, racing and shooting. At least throughout the 1990s, almost no one in these three categories of games could break out of the model he created.

Speaking more broadly, without Suzuki Yu, there would be no Iron Fist, no Sleepwalking in America, and no crisis resolution.

In Jester's memory, Suzuki Yu is still the ninth among the one hundred greatest game producers selected by IGN, and the tenth is the father of FPS and the father of 3D engines, known as the world's number one The god of programmers, Carmack, is the producer who is now independently responsible for the Quake project at Mars Entertainment.

This was chosen by the Americans themselves.

From this, we can know how high Suzuki Yutaka's status is and how advanced his level is.

The Shenmue series, like the three major VR products, is another prediction made by Yu Suzuki, but this prediction took too big a step, and it took several years for the industry and players to react, so the egg was lost.

The construction of the sandbox, from real-time weather to the dubbing of each passerby, non-linear tasks, if you want, you can hang around until the system forces the game to end, qte, yes this is the system created by Suzuki Yu, the little in the game Games, from Yu Suzuki's arcade works in the 2D era to various driving experiences...

This is what Yu Suzuki told the designers after him about how future 3A games should be made.

Does it look familiar? It looks familiar. If it weren't for Yu Suzuki, I can't say whether the current 3A masterpieces would be as fun as they are now, but they certainly wouldn't be what they are now. For such a great and outstanding producer, it is impossible for Jester not to be moved. As ambitious as he is for Shigeru Miyamoto, he has high expectations for Yu Suzuki.

But Yu Suzuki is not Shigeru Miyamoto. The reason why Jester was able to explain Shigeru Miyamoto before was because Nintendo itself was forced to a dead end by teaming up with Sega and Sony, and at this time, Hiroshi Yamauchi chose to go all-out into the palm of his hand. machine market. (To be continued...)