Prerelease:Shenmue

This page details prerelease information and/or media for Shenmue.

This page is rather stubbly and could use some expansion.
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Oh boy, Shenmue. There's a lot to unfold here.

Originally planned for the Sega Saturn, before arriving on the Sega Dreamcast, Shenmue always had a long, unconventional, fluid production style that brought about massive changes, revisions, expansions, downsizing, up-sizing, you name it. Even today, there are very few games that have even come close to the level of ambition that madman Sega developer veteran Yu Suzuki had for his Dreamcast magnum-opus, spending far too much money trying to realize his dream of a open-world game that would grant players access to virtual mundanity in the form of opening personal dressers, taking casual strides in treacherous Chinese forests, OSHA rule-violating forklift driving, sailor searching, Hong Kong-style ass-whooping, and playing After Burner II on virtual, full-scale cabinets at one's own leisure, to name a few. Ryo can avenge his father's death... right after he pets the local orphaned kitten.

Suzuki and his team at Sega AM2 were originally developing Shenmue I & II (not to be confused with the 2018 HD port releases) simultaneously as one massive game. The nature of the game's ballooned development and story-line meant that Sega would unveil significant waves of pre-release content that chronologically reached as far into the story as Shenmue III -- starting in 1998. This meant that screenshots and trailers would show plenty from Shenmue II predominantly before even Shenmue I was released in 1999. The sheer volume planned would result in Shenmue being split into later installments (chapters) based on their locales, namely the first chapter being called Shemmue Chapter 1: Yokosuka.

Said size also meant that Shenmue would go through several different release dates all throughout this year, from Spring of 1999 (when it was one whole game) before it got delayed to August 5th, then to October 28th. Before its final December 29th date, Sega announced the next delay date to be Spring 2000, with some sites reporting a release as late as April, until probably some executive presumably told Suzuki to step up his development resources into overdrive and release before the end of the millennium OR ELSE, so that it could have a chance against the juggernaut PlayStation 2's mammoth launch in Japan in March 2000. Good call.

For now, this page will cover all pre-release info up until the retail release of Shenmue I in Japan (December 29, 1999). Various pre-release video footage is also available as a bundled development timeline video.

Project Guppy (1993-1997)

Research for Virtua Fighter 2 (1993)

Yu Suzuki traveled to mainland China in 1993, in order to do research for the creation of Virtua Fighter 2. On this trip, he got an idea for a Virtua Fighter RPG.

[Beginning Video from GDC 2001] [Video from GDC 2014, fighting style)

Sega Saturn Prototype (1995)

To do:
Insert GDC 2014 screenshots.

After Virtua Fighter 2 was finished, work began to intensify on Project Guppy. A prototype was done for the new Sega Saturn with the name "The old man and the peach tree". The main purpose of the prototype was to find out what was needed for a full 3D RPG engine.

The game is set in the old capital city of Luoyang in 1950s China. It featured a protagonist named Taro, that was in pursuit of a Kung Fu grand master called "Ryu", and would play like a more traditional RPG.

Project Guppy - Virtua Fighter RPG: Akira's Story (1996-1997)

During Shenmue's development, it was originally going to be a Virtua Fighter RPG on the Sega Saturn. You would play as Akira Yuki, the main character of the Virtua Fighter series, where he would avenge his father's death.

Key art for each of the planned 11 chapters.
Some of the key art in more detail.

Some of the key art was allowed to be scanned in high quality (for the Shenmue documentary).

Chapter 1 key art.
Chapter 2 key art.
Chapter 3 key art.
Chapter 4 key art.
Chapter 5 key art.
Chapter 6 key art.

The game started to slowly shift for the "next gen" in 1997.

Project Berkley (1998)

In 1998 the game's name was changed, to reflect the reboot for Dreamcast. The Virtua Fighter tie-in would start being removed and Akira would become Ryo Hazuki.

March 1998

Early CGI renders were included on various internal discs, used to verify the functionality of GD-ROMs. They seem to have been rendered on March 12, 1998.

Mid 1998(?)

Various CGI and concept art were created over the span of the year 1998.

Shenhua's Costumes

It was planned that Shenhua would wear a different costume for each in-game month.

Since she's a key character, I wanted to give an idea of the kind of life she lives.
After all, unlike some old movies, people don't wear the same clothes all the time. So as an example, I thought I would try designing the kinds of costumes she wears from January through to December.
They help to give a deeper understanding of Shenhua. - Yu Suzuki

This feature was scrapped, but some designs were repurposed as promotional material and as an "Shenmue calendar".

January skin
February skin
March skin
April skin
April skin (concept art)
May skin
June skin
July skin
August skin
September skin
October skin
November skin
December skin

November 1998

A bonus GD-ROM disc with the name "Project Berkley" was included in the Virtua Fighter 3tb game for the Sega Dreamcast. It was released on November 27, 1998 only in Japan.

The video has Yu Suzuki talking about his older arcade games and the concept behind "Project Berkley". It reveals early pre-rendered footage and character artwork.

December 1998 (Shenmue Premiere event)

At the end of the year 1998 (20th December 1998), a series of premiere event/s were held. It would be the first time, that the general public would get a look at Yu Suzuki's new game. Project Berkley also got its final name: Shenmue. The premiere event was broadcasted over the internet as a world-wide livestream (probably one of the first games in the world that would do such a thing). A recording of this livestream was later uploaded by SEGA on their homepage. Due to technical limitations at that time, it is of very poor quality and resolution. Nonetheless, this is still a very interesting video, because it contains many cut features and never-before-seen prototype footage.

Various press outlets made screenshots of the stream, and those have been preserved in slightly higher quality.

The first press kit was also released to the public.

Shenmue (1999)

January 1999

New press kits were released to the press. Many CGI renders and Concept Art were released, to extend the "Shenmue Premiere" in-game footage for printing on magazines.

Illustrations

CGI/Render

To do:
Cover the folder named "character".

Folder "in the room".

Maria statue
Hazuki budo room
Jewelry shop
Sushi restaurant
Travel agency
Herb Medicine Shop
Dining room

Folder "field".

Misc. render

Game Screenshots

February 1999

Nothing new was released this month. It was probably at this moment where it became clear to the team that the game is too big, and it was decided to split the game into two parts.

March 1999

"In preparation for next month's Tokyo Game Show, Sega has begun distributing new images from the game to the Japanese press. Today, we present six of these screenshots from the most recent issue of Dreamcast Magazine." - IGN