Yu Suzuki: "Shenmue changed Final Fantasy and many other games"

GamerZines writes: "Legendary games designer Yu Suzuki has said the influence of his magnum opus 'Shenmue' has changed many games including the Final Fantasy series."

[Titanz]

The opening scene gets to me every time :(

[Droid Control]

Yu is the best.

Why won't SEGA let him finish his epic shenmue trilogy?

[DontShoot-Me-Bro]

damn, i never got to try this series, i hope Sony make a HD remake or atleast bring out a new 1. looks awesome though, every picture i see of it, it reminds me of Yakuza. and i love Yakuza!!

[yewles1]

I LOVE Yu Suzuki, but... *looks at FFXIII* Nope, Shenmue did nothing for Final Fantasy.

[Godmars290]

Sorry, but when a game maker says that his title is an influence on the industry rather than what titles influenced his game, he's just being full of himself.

[tplarkin7]

He probably has insider knowledge about how it influenced FF.

[lightningsax]

Okay, it's a crazy-arrogant statement, and tplarkin is right, Suzuki probably knows a lot more about its influence than we do, but look at this in context.

Shenmue was released right at the tail-end of 1999 in JP, and 2000 everywhere else. FFX development started in 1999, and it saw the light of day in 2001.

Looking at what Square did with the generational shift between PS1 and PS2, it's very easy to see a Shenmue influence; actual voice acting dominating in-game conversations, fighting being broken up by not-usually-in-gaming side tasks (even more so in FFX-2 with the promotion stuff), and just an overall feeling of getting the player immersed in a culture of some sort instead of just stages.

Also, don't underestimate its long-lasting effects on other Square franchises like Kingdom Hearts. Despite the multi-stage format of those games, you're doing a lot of getting to know each world, including doing what may seem like menial tasks in order to get you more engaged. I mean, you could write a thesis on the similarities between the first Shenmue and the first Hundred Acre Wood alone.

Yeah, that was a bit un-done in FFXIII, wasn't it? Say what you will about Gran Pulse, but even that more open world was strictly there for fights. I was hoping that when I reached the "theme park-" ish area that we'd get a little more diversionary stuff, but no, mostly more fighting. I hope they go back to presenting an entire world with their next games; Versus XIII looks a bit more Shenmue-ish with every bit of info released about it.

Anyway, what are we doing reading this re-hash article? The real stuff is right here: http://www.1up.com/do/featu...

[Lirky]

If it came to psn or xbl , id buy it i hope microsoft and sony shares this game when it comes to downloadable game. Also i hope that it has download content lol but only for free since the game is old-onions.

[Allowen]

I have heard a lot about this game Shenmue but I never had the oportunity to play it.

Hopefully Sega will launch a HD version of it for the PS3 and later on launch a new game of this franchise as well.

[SilverSlug]

GamerZines needs to stop taking interview stuff from other sites and passing it off as original content.

[Optical_Matrix]

Lol wheres Dark Sniper?

[guigsy]

Tell me about it, it set the benchmark for open world games.

Hopefully we will see it on XBL and PSN soon.

[Ronster316]

Move along, nothing to see here.............

Just Sega and Yu Suzuki once again been ROBBED by the gaming mass media.

GTA III gets all the credit for been the "benchmark open world" game that started the new open world revolution.

That sickens me.

Shenmue came out before GTA III did, but GTA III got all the applause.

Same thing with Virtua Fighter, VF revolutionised the 3D beat em up genre (and came out long before Tekken did) but it was always overshadowed by Tekken, and the simple reason for that is because VF was on the Sega Saturn & Tekken was on the more "mainstream" PS1.

Don't worry Yu Suzuki, gaming purists know how much of a true genius you are, and one day the history books will show it too when all is said and done.

[Bass_fisherman]

Dont forget that were already some 3D open world games before Shemue like Urban Chaos (PS1) and G-Police (PS1) for example.

(Urban Chaos) http://www.youtube.com/watc...
(G-Police) http://www.youtube.com/watc...

And the same thing is those 2 IP´s are long forgotten in the industry.

[Bass_fisherman]

FFX and FXII were definitly something around like Shenmue but it doesnt have that same production value.

[Ponurasky]

Suzuki > Miyamoto (and any other videogame creator)