A trailer appearing to show an unannounced Shenmue sequel has sent fans into a frenzy, ahead of this year’s The Game Awards.
The name may not be familiar to younger gamers but for a long time Shenmue held the record for the biggest video game budget ever, while pioneering a whole new world of cinematic, open world adventure – including the invention of the QTE sequence.
The first two instalments came out on the Sega Dreamcast in 1999 and 2001, respectively, and over 15 years later, after the largest crowdfunded game project in Kickstarter history, Shenmue 3 was willed into existence.
Unfortunately, Shenmue 3 was a disaster that completely bungled the series’ second chance at life, by barely moving the overarching story forward an inch. Director Yu Suzuki has expressed interest in making a fourth game but that has always seemed unlikely… unless this new leak is actually real.
On the Shenmue Dojo fan forum, a user named Nomura_79 posted an alleged trailer for Shenmue 4, which was apparently originally taken from the Japanese forum 5ch.
While fans want to believe the trailer is real, like anything on the internet these days, there’s suspicion that it has been created using AI. It all looks impressively convincing, but also a little too good to be true.
‘Please don’t be AI,’ the top comment reads on the original Reddit thread. Another added: ‘If this isn’t real, it’s the most impressive fully fleshed out AI generated trailer I have ever seen.’
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What’s most convincing is the fact it shows cinematics and gameplay sequences, with protagonist Ryo Hazuki seen cycling around some vast open environments.
The trailer is suspiciously long, at over four minutes, which apart from anything would cost a fortune to show at The Game Awards – if that’s what it’s intended for – where everyone must pay to showcase their games.
Oddly enough, Shenmue 3 Enhanced was announced earlier this year at Gamescom for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. It could be possible that was a test to see what the level of interest is in the franchise at the moment but the safest guess is that this is probably a fake.
In an interview last year, director Yu Suzuki said Shenmue 4 would need a ‘partner’ to become a reality. ‘We’re not working on it right now,’ he told Shenmue Dojo. ‘It is still in the planning stage.’
Sega published the first two Shenmue games, and with the company bringing back a ton of its classic franchises, there’s a chance it could invest in a fourth entry.
Either way, it’s likely many Shenmue fans will be forming a prayer circle around The Game Awards this year, which takes place in the small hours of Friday, December 12 in the UK.
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