Sony absolutely shocked the world last month when they revealed a Kickstarter to finally make Shenmue 3, the follow-up to the cult classic series. With it being so long since the original and them being somewhat hard to come by, one key person is really hoping to see a Shenmue 1 and 2 HD collection in the near future.
The original Shenmue released back in 1999 in Japan and 2000 in the US, with the sequel coming in 2001 and 2002 respectively. The first was exclusive to Dreamcast, while the sequel came out on Dreamcast in Japan, but instead released on Xbox in the US.
The game is definitely not easy to find and play, with players needing both a Dreamcast for the first and either a Xbox or Xbox 360 for the sequel. This is why many fans have been begging for a HD remaster of the two for modern consoles, which makes even more sense now.
According to Shenmue Dojo, this very topic also came up during a Q&A through Twitch with series producer and director Yu Suzuki, where he agreed with this sentiment, but explained it isn’t up to him.
“I think that if Shenmue I and II could be released before Shenmue III, people would be able to understand the backstory and enjoy Shenmue III even more. And so I also personally strongly want this to happen, but as the rights are held by SEGA I’m not really in a position to be able to comment. However I will also express to SEGA that I really would like for them to be produced.”
With SEGA holding the rights to the two games, the ball is really in their court. While previously the series may not have seen worth the investment to bring back in HD form, the insanely successful Kickstarter has to have somebody over at SEGA thinking how good of an idea this really would be. if there was ever a time to do it, this certainly would be it.
