Shenmue Receives Never-Before-Seen Concept Art Dating Back To Its Days As Virtua Fighter RPG

Never-before-seen concept art for Yu Suzuki’s Shenmue has appeared online that dates back to the game’s original incarnation as a Virtua Fighter RPG.

The images come from Shenmue Dojo, a long-running website dedicated to the cult classic Dreamcast franchise, and offer a tantalising glimpse at some of the key characters that would appear in the original Shenmue and its sequel, including some that were cut from the final releases. For those who didn’t know, Shenmue was originally known as Project Berkeley and was suppose to be based in the Virtua Fighter universe, before becoming its own separate IP and started development on the Sega Saturn.

You can check out an image below but be sure to head over to Shenmue Dojo to view the full collection.

Shenmue was originally released for the Dreamcast in Japan in 1999, and arrived in the US and Europe the following year. The game follows Ryo Hazuki, a teenager who embarks on a quest for revenge in 1980s Japan after his father is murdered by a mysterious man wielding a deadly martial art. The sequel arrived in 2001 and saw Ryo venturing to China, bringing him into contact with a host of new characters as he continues to track down his father’s killer.

A third game was finally released after nearly two decades back in 2019 for the PS4 and PC, and will be remastered as Shenmue III Enhanced this year for modern platforms.

[Source – Shenmue Dojo]