Shenmue III PS4 PlayStation 4 1

This is it: the final push. Shenmue III is a week away from being funded, and while the past seven days have been kind to the project, it's going to need a massive boost in order to hit some of its latter stretch goals. Fortunately, series creator Yu Suzuki sounds like a man with a plan, and he's hinted as part of a Twitter Q&A that a new trailer could be on the way.

"Yes, we are planning to publish [a new trailer]," he told one fan. "Please check our Kickstarter page frequently." We suspect that this will come with around 24 hours to go – and will hopefully get published on the PlayStation Blog if Sony has any sense. Elsewhere, Suzuki-san said that we'll see footage of the final game sometime in 2017, which is a way away.

Responding to another request, the legendary developer explained that he'd like to build some kind of dating minigame involving Nozomi Harasaki – though we're not sure how that would work, as she's currently in Canada – but it would require a separate budget, so is unlikely to happen this time. Similarly, he showed interest in an online darts minigame, but stressed that the team "can't do it all".

Fans will remember that the second game ended with Ryo Hazuki and Shenhua in a cave – but it sounds like the sequel will pick up just after the twosome have exited the area. "[The game will open] either from Shenhua's house or the road leading up to Bailu Village," Suzuki revealed. Part-time jobs will be included – even if the game only achieves $5 million in funding.

Lastly, the luminary touched upon QTEs, which were innovative in the original Shenmue – but are not so popular now. "I want [these] to be cooler than previous Shenmue games," he explained. "I want to make a streamlined, Shenmue-unique QTE." A vague answer, but we'd argue that this series has some of the best QTEs ever – the barber shop sequence being a good example.

Are there any remaining questions that you would like answering? Where do you think that this Kickstarter will finish up? Find the Phoenix Mirror in the comments section below.

[source twitter.com]