Yu Suzuki on Shenmue III: “The most important thing, to me, is that the game’s interesting”

In a recent interview with Eurogamer, Yu Suzuki sat down with Martin Robinson to discuss life after Shenmue III‘s announcement. According to Eurogamer,

Suzuki’s life has changed. Now he gets into his office for 6.30am, leaving at 10pm for the hour and a half journey back home. And now he’s working through weekends, too. He doesn’t have time to indulge in his hobbies, like billiards, but he seems happier, more animated than when I last met him.  …Now he’s back in his prime, working the long hours he once revelled in – AM2, his old department at Sega, earned its name as they’d always be working at two in the morning – and enjoying getting stuck into development on this scale again. —Martin Robinson 

Robinson went on to ask Suzuki if he could create the game he wanted with the funds that were collected and the technology at his disposal. Suzuki says that when it comes to Shenmue III, an interesting story is his priority.

“I could do with a bit more money! The game itself doesn’t have to be gorgeous visually – a lot of the money these days goes into the graphics. If we perhaps compromise on the graphics and put more into the story, we can make a good game. The most important thing, to me, is that the game’s interesting, and that it’s something people want to play.” — Yu Suzuki

While it is too early to talk about Shenmue IV, it seems to be inevitable. According to Suzuki, if you fit the rest of the chapters into Shenmue III, it loses its playability.

“Originally, as you know, there was going to be 11 chapters. It was only ever going to be two games. When we began development, the volume of the story was too big for one game. When we decided it was going to be two games, most of the story was already complete. To fit all of the rest of the 11 chapters into Shenmue 3, it could help the story progress, but it’d lose it’s playability. Shenmue’s a game, not a novel – if it loses its playability, it loses its purpose, so it’s not the final part.” — Yu Suzuki 

I’m all for more Shenmue, and the fact that Suzuki is dedicated to focus on the story with the budget that was given is great news. With that said, I hope that the Slacker Backer campaign reaches the rest of its stretch goals and Suzuki finds additional sources of funding. It never hurts to add more money to the budget!

You can read the entire interview by clicking here. What do you think of Suzuki’s comments? Sound off below!

via Eurogamer