Shenmue III Will Pick Up Directly After Shenmue II

Cast your mind back 14 years and you're standing in a cave with mirrors bouncing light around it. The conclusion to Shenmue II, never properly explained, is where Shenmue III will pick up, as veteran director Yu Suzuki prepares to continue the plot of his legendary adventure game. According to a new Kickstarter update, the sequel will depict Chapter 5 through just beyond Chapter 6 in the series' sweeping 11 chapter story arc.

For those not up to date with their Shenmue history, the first game contained the first chapter of the story, while two included a mix of Chapter 2 through Chapter 4 – though a boat ride was infamously removed from the overarching plot. This means that the new game will pick up directly after the events of its predecessor, with protagonist Ryo Hazuki living with mysterious character Shenhua Ling in Guilin. It's here that the story will continue.

We already know that the hero will fight the four leaders of the Chi You Men during the course of the game, with antagonist Lan Di one of them. However, we'll probably need to wait until the title's out to see if Hazuki finally issues his revenge. With several chapters left in the story beyond Shenmue III, we suspect that this rivalry still has some mileage yet. As a complete aside, one interesting tidbit in the Kickstarter update suggests that housekeeper Ine-san may return in the new release.

Of course if all of this sounds like gobbledygook to you, then we're holding out hope for a Shenmue HD announcement at PlayStation Experience. With SEGA eager to win back fans and Sony now having a vested interest in the success of the series, we're secretly hoping that the two companies have come to an agreement and managed to find a way to make this happen on the PlayStation 4. It'd certainly tide us over until the new title comes out in 2017.