Shenmue III Will Have an Open Ending, Possibly Tying In To a Fourth Game

We're patiently awaiting the arrival of Yu Suzuki's third chapter in the Shenmue series, but it doesn't appear that it will mark the end of the saga.

In a recent interview with Gamersflag, producer Yu Suzuki admitted that the game will not have a big, conclusive endgame, as he hopes to leave the story open for another chapter down the road.

When the interviewer asked, "Now that Shenmue III is well advanced, can you tell us, without much detail, of course, if the end of the game is likely to be open and suggest a Shenmue IV? Is it a possibility that you left yourself?"

To which Suzuki replied, "Yes, the end will be open for a sequel. It will not be possible to finish with this third episode."

Apparently, he had more than three episodes in mind initially for the series, noting "it would not be possible to finish here without ripping off."

This is a rather interesting answer, as it means that Suzuki could be returning to the Kickstarter front to fund Shenmue IV down the road. We'll still get plenty of story out of this third chapter, though, as he noted that fans won't be ripped off.

In another interview with Gameblog, Suzuki also addressed a couple of different subjects. He talked about how Shenmue is compared with Sega's popular Yakuza series, noting, "Yakuza and Shenmue have a lot of similarities but ... I should not have said that. Yes the games are similar. But Shenmue was the first truly open world game of this type and SEGA appreciated and supported it. Subsequently, Yakuza continued this momentum and allowed SEGA to be the precursor of the Open World at the time with (Toshihiro) Nagoshi-kun (the suffix 'kun' is used as a mark of affection and of proximity, editor's note) as the director of the Yakuza project. And I think it's good that SEGA has continued in that direction. I am very happy that this happened because major titles such as Grand Theft Auto could see the day thanks to all this."

He was also asked if Shenmue III would be released in 2018, to which he noted, "I'll try my best to make that happen."

Shenmue III is set to release on PlayStation 4 and PC, though a final release date hasn't been given yet.