As fans count down the months, days, hours and minutes till the release of Shenmue 3, Yu Suzuki is normally found in his Tokyo development studio at Ys Net, where his “impossible sequel” is being polished and prepped for launch on August 27th.
But earlier this month he was almost a world away, surrounded by sports cars and casinos on the French Riviera. While the sun beat down on the winding, sloping streets of Monaco however, Suzuki would be on stage in a conference hall, discussing the game before rows of nostalgic fans, and revealing a new trailer so reassuring that it drew tears in the tiers.
In between these keynote appearances, Suzuki’s schedule at MAGIC 2019 would be packed with two hour-long autograph sessions and a number of behind-closed-doors previews with members of the press. Squeezing in a bunch of interviews with the online fan community would have to wait for the next event on the marketing calendar.
If this were any star guest but Yu Suzuki.
Instead, our representatives were invited to his hotel the previous day, and the legendary game designer gave up his afternoon to talk shop, through an interpreter, with people who’d grown up playing Out Run, Space Harrier, Virtua Fighter, and the series that brought them all together.
Firat of Shenmue 500K and Cosman of Shenmue Forever chatted with Yu-san about a range of topics, and as always when 500K’s involved, some of these came from members of Facebook’s largest Shenmue group.
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