Shenmue III developer Ys Net has released a batch of new screenshots for the game, and they tell a considerably different story to the original images shown shortly after its announcement back at E3.
Many fans of the Kickstarter-funded project voiced their concerns at the apparent low quality of the original concept images for Shenmue III, but these new ones should quickly dispel your worries almost immediately. They look great – despite many of the assets still being placeholders.
The update on the game’s official Kickstarter page reads as follows:
Greetings Everyone!
Yes, we are in the third month of development of Shenmue 3. The story and scenarios are now out of the planning stage and it is time to get the people, places and things to start fitting together into a world with proper dimension, adequate space, and appropriate scale to keep the feel and essence of all that is a Shenmue game.
All elements in the following screen shots are still in testing. Objects are being used as place holders, like the men in black suits, and Ryo is also an older model. Backgrounds and buildings are also still in the development stage and will see reworking. Shots for the two battle scenes were taken at angle to avoid spoilers as much as possible.
The development team is in high spirits now that we have reached this stage where we are finally able to start testing. The studio has become quite the lively place as of late, even on Saturdays for some of us! We look forward to your continued support!
Shenmue III is scheduled to release in 2017 for PlayStation 4 and PC. There’s currently no announcement of an Xbox One verion, but Ys Net boss Yu Suzuki hasn’t ruled one out just yet, so stay tuned.