Although Shenmue III is the most-funded Kickstarter game of all time, details about its development are scarce. Of course, that development didn't really begin until last summer, but it's nice when new information or details emerge about such highly anticipated titles.
Now, some new screenshots from the game are available, thanks to their unveiling at the Monaco Anime Game International Conference. Those screenshots eventually made their way online.
These images show a colorful and vibrant title and feature some of the characters and environments that players can expect once the game is ready.
After Shenmue II's release in 2001, most fans had given up on a third game ever getting made. However, fans went nuts after the announcement of Shenmue III at this year's past E3 and once the Kickstarter campaign to fund the title went up, those fans responded by throwing lots of dollars at the project: Shenmue III raised a record-breaking $6.3 million in pledges on the site.
Since then, the game's developers have been hard at work to bring the title to life, with the most recent Kickstarter update given this month.
"Thanks to Shenmue fans everywhere, 2015 saw the start of Shenmue III," wrote the developers on Kickstarter. "2016 will be a year with noses to the grindstone to make the next installment of Shenmue worthy of the expectations you have entrusted with us. We would like to again ask you for your support and cooperation for all that lay ahead this year."
The Kickstarter campaign, however, did come under fire after Sony admitted to also committing finances to the development of Shenmue III. Sony explained that the Kickstarter campaign was a test for the game, to see how committed fans were to getting the title actually made.
"We said 'the only way this is gonna happen is if the fans speak up,' " said Sony's director of third-party relations Gio Corsi to GamesRadar. "We thought Kickstarter was the perfect place to do this. We set a goal of $2 million dollars, and if the fans come in and back it, then absolutely we're going to make this a reality."
There's still a long road ahead, though, for the game, which doesn't see a release until December 2017 for the PC and PlayStation 4.
