Time to pencil this into your calendars and book a day off work – Shenmue 3 officially has a release date for 2019!
Yep the Sega classic series is set to continue 27th August 2019.
The announcement was made today (21st August 2018) at this year’s Gamescom – on the same date that the remastered versions of Shenmue 1 and Shenmue 2 released for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Shenmue 1 and 2 are much loved games that were release originally all the way back in 1991 and 2002. Fans of the game have been asking for remasters of the old games for years now and considering it has been 18 years since the first game was released in the US we can see why.
Shenmue 3 is close to becoming one of the highest grossing video game Kickstarter campaigns of all time after raising millions (and crashing the website) when it was first announced at E3 all the way back in 2015.
After absolutely smashing its original target in just a few hours of the game’s announcement, the Kickstarter now stands at an incredibly impressive $6,333,295 pledged by nearly 70,000 backers.
Combined with the game’s Slacker Backer, Shenmue 3 has surpassed the $7 million mark, which means there’s a new mode going to be added in!
Assisted combat will now be able to be funded in a mode called ‘Battle System Expanded: AI Battling’ as explained in the campaign’s Stretch Goal.
The developers have explained the added mode in detail, saying: “This control system lets you automatically unleash the perfect technique in response to the opponent’s positioning and distance.
“R&D for this system is based on Yu Suzuki’s concept for players who are not used to fighting games or for those who want a full immersion battle experience. This battle system is highly compatible with, and will be an extension to the current battle system.”
Shenmue 3 might also be about to break records, as it’s just over $1 million away from becoming the highest grossing Kickstarter-funded game ever.
If the campaign continues to get donations from eager Shenmue fans then even more goodies will be added into the game, including mini games, area expansions, game stalls and more.
Are you excited for Shenmue 3?
Check out our reviews of Shenmue 1 and 2 here.