It has been a weird ride for fans of Yu Suzuki’s RPG-slash-life-simulator Shenmue. The original game, released in 2000 for the Dreamcast, was one of the most innovative of its time, one of the first to attempt an authentic, living, breathing world where people went about their activities as they do in reality. Suzuki managed to get a sequel out before the Dreamcast prematurely bit it, but only Europe would see the original release — Americans got an XBox port.
Then, for over fifteen years, fans demanded another Shenmue. It wasn’t until the invention of crowdfunding that it became possible for Suzuki to sidestep executives with closed pocketbooks and appeal directly to the fans. The Shenmue 3 Kickstarter shattered records and the finished product was released in 2019, to…mixed reactions. It was the expectation that Suzuki would choose to close out the story and make this a “trilogy.” He chose not to, and it’s unlikely there will ever be a Shenmue 4.
But the series will live on in...
