There are few games that have inspired such loyal fanbases as Shenmue. But let’s face it, the likelihood that we’ll get Shenmue 3 fades with each passing year, even if our dear Yu Suzuki wants to do it, so it might be up to the fans to do what SEGA won’t.
It certainly wouldn’t be cost effective to build an entirely new engine for a fan-made game, so YouTuber Shenmue Scrolls has created this video to show it could be feasible using the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim game engine.
“This video is really just to point out the similarities between Shenmue & Skyrim showing that the Elderscrolls Engine is a good place to recreate the landscape of Shenmue in,” he wrote in the description.
He acknowledged that implementing QTEs and the classic Shenmue combat would probably require “a huge overhaul,” he’s more interested in recreating areas to explore, like the interior of the Hazuki house, Yamanose, Dobuita and the harbor, to name a few. The combat certainly has gotten a bit more interesting, though, as I never thought I’d witness Ryo battling a fire-breathing dragon with an iron sword.
It’s a fairly interesting project, and we’d love to see a team come together to build a more cohesive game that could finally put some closure to the series, even if it wasn’t canon.
