Yu Suzuki recently did a Reddit AMA and was fairly busy answering a variety of questions. Most curious, the game will need $10 million to be a true “open world” game. Beyond that, a lot of questions now have answers.
To wit:
- The game is keeping the day and night cycle and weather system.
- Suzuki notes he’s reusing elements from the first two games, which explains a bit about the budget.
- We’ll only see a Shenmue IV if fans “aren’t happy” with Shenmue III.
- The art style we’ve seen will have a few tweaks, especially due to fan feedback.
- The forklift is a stretch goal.
- He’s autographing every single one of the signed games sold on Kickstarter.
- He’s considering adding some form of multiplayer.
The funding question is the most interesting, as the game apparently needs quite a bit of cash from Kickstarter to be the true “open-world” experience fans are more or less expecting. The number bandied around is $10 million. That’s possible, one supposes, but rather lofty for a Kickstarter; it would have to be one of the most successful in the site’s history, period. Suzuki is also looking into accepting Paypal donations after the initial Kickstarter closes, something that certainly helped the ever-growing Star Citizen. We’ll find out as we head to 2017.