The Hotdog Laserhouse

Re: Shenmue on Xbox Live Arcade

An interview with European website GameReactor was intended to center on the coming re-release of Jet Set Radio.  But at the very end of the interview, Sega Europe associate brand manager Ben Harbone heavily implies two other celebrated Dreamcast titles may soon be on their way to the digital download arena–including perhaps the system’s most celebrated series.

At the end of the interview, when prompted whether fans should voice what DC classics should be re-released next, Harborne appears to predict what those voices will say: Shenmue and Skies of Arcadia.  He adds:

“Those are a couple of our most requested games. [….] I can’t say yes or no, but…we may be working on them.”

While it appears to be more of a tease to fans than anything else, these are the types of things that usually lead to proper announcements down the road.  We should note that our independent source correctly told us last year about Jet Set Radio’s pending re-release, and also specifically mentioned Sonic Adventure 2 in the works, but made no indication on whether Shenmue or Skies of Arcadia would be coming.

Guys c’mon, nobody wants Shenmue. I love Shenmue to death, I really do, but you don’t want them to publish two games in a story that will never be finished. Shenmue 1’s ending may try and muster up a sense of closure, but however low key it might be, it’s still ending on a “To be continued…” note.

And Shenmue 2’s ending… imagine something like LOST’s season finales, where it feels like you’re getting so close to the mystery’s most important answers, and instead you’re thrown the world’s biggest curveball. As you’re sitting there, going “WAIT WHAT JUST HAPPENED? WAS THAT MAGIC?! IS THERE STRAIGHT-UP MAGIC IN THIS NOW?” it immediately cuts to black and so begins the long, agonizing wait until the next season.

Except Shenmue never got another season. And never will get another season. The big bad never gets caught. We never figure out why he’s doing the thing. As somebody who has already been through this and is still bitter about it almost ten years later, let me warn you..

You don’t want this. Trust me.

Shenmue had its chance and nobody with access to Sega’s credit line is going to bankroll a third entry. At best, Yu Suzuki will strike out on his own and do it, but where’s he going to get the tens (if not hundreds) of millions of dollars to do it up the right way? And the fact that he’s still interested in finishing it reeks of the same kind of obsessive tendencies that lead to Too Human. “Pet projects” like that never work out.

Leave the corpse of Shenmue where it belongs: six feet under.

Now, Skies of Arcadia and Sonic Adventure 2? Absolutely. Sign me up.