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o you believe in miracles? The people behind the Twitter accounts Team Yu, Shenmue 500k, and Shenmue UK apparently do, as they've recently made it their goal to return control of Dreamcast classic Shenmue to its rightful owner -- creator Yu Suzuki. Today, they're encouraging fans of the series to tweet out with the hash tag #GiveYuTheShenmueLicense in an attempt to let Sega know that Suzuki's epic tale deserves a finale more fitting than wallowing in social game limbo. Regardless of the movement's success, TeamYu has made us all start thinking about Shenmue again, which should be counted as some kind of progress. With the slim possibility of Shenmue 3 in the future, we decided to ask friends of 1UP and staffers alike where they'd like to see the series go next -- if it goes anywhere, that is.
If Shenmue 3 were to become a real thing, as trailblazing as the original game was, I would hope that [assuming it's] Suzuki-san would put the script in the hands of 1) a genuine script-writer or author, in the way that Sega's Yakuza series (which owes SO much to Shenmue) did with their franchise, and 2) puts the localization in equally capable hands. Awkward translation and tepid pacing may have worked when we were still amazed by open worlds and cutting edge graphics, but those days are long gone. Games have now reached Hollywood-level cinematic quality and anything less for a game like Shenmue 3 simply won't cut it. Shenmue 3 would also need to focus on the storyline and the pacing, big time. It was barely interesting to perform menial tasks like forklift driving and dusting off books back in the day, but we play games to escape the doldrums of real life.