Fans will finally get to continue Ryu Hazuki’s story when Shenmue 3 releases later this fall. However, it seems his story won’t end with this game. Yu Suzuki has confirmed that Shenmue 3 tells 40 percent of Ryo’s story.
Talking to Suzuki, USGamer recently asked if Shenmue 3 would conclude the series’ story. In response to this, the famed creator pointed to the halfway point of a nearby bottle. When asked if he meant that the game would be the halfway point of Ryo Hazuki’s story, Suzuki replied (via translator) that it would only reach “40 percent.”
Now, die-hard Shenmue fans already know that the series isn’t supposed to end on its third outing. In an AMA on Reddit last year, Suzuki confirmed that Shenmue’s story spans a planned total of 11 chapters. His original plan involved dividing these chapters in to four or five games. With Shenmue 3 covering up to 40 percent of Ryo’s story then, it seems likely we’ll see more games in the series in the future.
Of course, Suzuki and his team at Ys Net need to get the game out first. As part of the interview, Suzuki admitted that, at first, he didn’t think that the developers would even be able to do a full game at first. “We thought that we may not be able to do a full Shenmue,” he states. “But now I can say I’m confident it’s a full Shenmue. This is Shenmue.”
Suzuki first announced Shenmue 3‘s Kickstarter campaign at Sony’s E3 press conference back in 2015. It then went on to become the most-funded video game campaign on Kickstarter when it ended. The tremendous support from the fans helped Suzuki and Ys Net add in all the features that would help make it a “full Shenmue” experience. Now, the team just needs to make sure that the game makes its November 19 release date on PlayStation 4 and PC.
