Yu Suzuki discusses concept for Shenmue 3

James Mielke, formerly of 1UP, tracked down Sega legend Yu Suzuki for an interview, during which Suzuki revealed one of his ideas for the design of Shenmue 3 — which, just to keep you from getting your hopes up, is still totally not happening. But it sounds interesting! But it's not happening.

"Shenmue 3 doesn't expand outward, but inward," Suzuki said, contrasting the expansive worlds of the original games with an emphasis on deeper interaction with the main characters, Ryo Hazuki and Shenhua. In the examples he gave, which were "not actually in the game," your choice of tea or coffee, or answers to hypothetical questions, would affect your relationship with in-game characters.

The rest of the two-part interview discusses Suzuki's past creating novel arcade games like Hang-On, the acquisition of 3D technology from Lockheed to develop Virtua Fighter and Virtua Racing, and the long-lost touchscreen arcade game Psy-Phi. "I think it would be good to make it for Kinect," Suzuki mused. "Yeah, maybe I'll make that my next project, although, I should probably make the game a little simpler for the Kinect audience."