If you haven't read 1UP's interview with Yu Suzuki, DO SO NOW! It's an excellent read and reveals many things that were unknown of Suzuki's past work, as well as hints towards what we could expect from a Shenmue 3 (he seems to favor the 360 and would work with just about anybody to get it made). But this is a Saturn blog, so let's stick to Saturn information. Part two of the interview touches on the short lived Saturn version of the game. Check out these cool factoids:
Note: JM is the interviewer, YS is Yu Suzuki and TH is Tak Hirai, Lead Programmer of Shenmue
JM: Shenmue began development on the Sega Saturn. Besides the visual elements, how much of it had changed by the time you began development for the Dreamcast? How long were you working on the Saturn version?
TH: Six months, just on programming.
YS: It's amazing how much we accomplished on the Saturn. It's unthinkable now.
TH: Yeah, it was something. I never want to do that again.
JM: What made you move it from the Saturn to Dreamcast? Was it because the Saturn was dying in terms of sales? Or was it that you realized you needed more powerful hardware to realize the game?
TH: The timing. The Saturn was coming to an end.
YS: Yeah, it was coming to a point where didn't make sense to release a game on the Saturn.
TH: There was also talk that the Dreamcast could handle the sword fight that we wanted to include in the game so we decided to reprogram the game for Dreamcast. We were also able to give input on the development of the hardware to match the game.
They end the interview with a mention of Fighters Megamix:
JM: Final question. Many years ago there was a newspaper advertisement promoting a "Virtua Fighter vs. Tekken." Was that concept ever supposed to become a game? Do you think a Virtua Fighter vs. Tekken game would work and if not, what franchises would you pair up?
YS: A long time ago we did a promotion with Virtua Fighter and Tekken characters. As a promotion and advertisement to get people's attention, I think it was a success and was good. But, it's not really my style and I don't like to mix games. I'm a purist. In my opinion, the only time you mix and match is when there are no new ideas and mixing is the last resort. So, it's not a very good thing. As long as there are new ideas, I'd rather prioritize working on new ideas.
JM: Then how do you rationalize Fighter's Megamix?
YS: [Fighter's Megamix director, Hiroshi] Kataoka likes that stuff.
2 comments:
They should have released it for the Saturn. :_( From a fanboy's point of view of course. :p 6 Months into development, incredible. They accomplished quite much in that time, judging from the video.
Yeah... it was quite amazing what they actually accomplished on that hardware, although it does make sense as to why they moved the development of Shenmue to Dreamcast. Still... if Saturn had been able to live a while longer, just imagine the magic that AM2 could have squeezed out of the machine.
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