Yu Suzuki continues to pull at the heartstrings of Shenmue loyalists today as he verifies that the concept for Shenmue 3 isn’t something the team is currently thinking about, but something that the team has already laid the groundwork for. This constant reminder to fans that Shenmue 3 is always a possibility is starting to kill us all a little inside and we’d prefer for SEGA to just get on with it and develop it.

“The concept for Shenmue 3 already exists, so…” laughed Suzuki, talking to 1UP.

“Shenmue 3 doesn’t expand outward, but inward. A lot of the dialogue is used for the main character and especially dialogue with Shenhua [the girl]. They [Shenhua and Ryo] talk about a lot of different, deeper things.

“This is not actually in the game, but an example to give you an idea of what I mean by deeper dialogue: when Shenhua and Ryo are at home, Shenhua will ask Ryo if he would like to drink tea or coffee and the player will select one or the other. Or, Shenhua will ask Ryo a hypothetical question like: ‘There are four animals; a monkey, cat, dog and bird. You are crossing the river but you need to leave one behind. Which one will you leave behind?”‘ And the player has to choose one.

“Shenhua will ask lots and lots of questions like these and the answers will get stored in the game and affect the outcome of the player’s relationship with other characters. It’s like a personality test. For example, the person who leaves behind the monkey is the type of person who leaves their wife.”

Judging by this information, it almost feels as though the game is already in development, when it isn’t. It’s this type of thing that gets the hopes of millions up only to be let down with a thud. Hopefully, once the mobile version of Shenmue is finished, things will get serious and SEGA will contemplate Shenmue 3 a bit harder.