I never lost hope, but after all these years, Sony, along with the amazing backers on Kickstarter, are finally making this dream become a reality. It's such a wonderful thing. Seeing the Shenmue 3 video appear live at the Sony conference on Monday was just... magical. I still can't quite believe it's happening, methinks it will probably take a while to sink in. (FFVII remake too).
I don't remember anyone else ever saying so but I think I'm the only person here who actually played Shenmue 1 & 2 back then, or at all even? (my brother aside). That is not surprising though and part of the reason why we've been waiting so long in the first place hehe. Anyway, to the point.. I just came across this great article on reddit which covers the significance of Shenmue and just why this is such a big deal. I've shared it elsewhere as well (my tweet) but wanted to share it here too as I think some of you will find it quite insightful - https://noobdigest.squarespace.com/. Tis a great read.
I'm now hoping that Sega jump on this (cash in) and release some HD remasters of the first 2 games on digital platforms, or at the very least a straight up port of them. They'd have to be absolutely mad not to though given the records the Shenmue 3 kickstarter has already broken.
Playing them now won't be the same as playing them back when I did of course, but maybe some of you will be interested in doing so now that Shenmue 3 is happening. You definitely should!
We're already $1M over the Kickstarter goal and I won't beg you to support it but please consider it