Shenmue III is the eagerly anticipated sequel to Dreamcast classics Shenmue (1999) and Shenmue II (2001). The brainchild of award-winning game director, Yu Suzuki, Shenmue set out to combine action gameplay from his arcade classic Virtua Fighter with RPG mechanics to weave a long-form epic for home consoles. Commonly known as one of the most ambitious game projects in history, Shenmue captured the imagination of players from around the world with its unique setting, intimate and cinematic character-focused story, realistic battles, and fun mini-games. Many of the features pioneered in Shenmue is now commonplace in modern games, including open world and Quick Time Event gameplay. Shenmue III was officially announced on stage at Sony’s E3 2015 press conference and simultaneously launched on crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, breaking two Guinness World Records upon raising over $6 million dollars. The game is currently in development at Yu Suzuki’s independent company, Ys Net, located in Tokyo along with many original Shenmue team members.
