It has been a long and sometimes challenging road for Shenmue 3, a project that was originally revealed through a Kickstarter campaign during Sony's 2015 E3 press conference. As a fan favorite franchise from the Sega Dreamcast days, support for the game helped crush its $2 million Kickstarter campaign in less than eight hours, eventually going on to raise over $6 million. Three years later, fans finally have confirmation as to when they'll finally be able to get their hands on the game.

After announcing a 2019 delay earlier this year, an August 21 post on the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter page reveals a brand new trailer in advance of the annual Gamescom event in Germany. The biggest news for the game, however, is that after three years of development, Shenmue 3 has locked in its release date on August 27, 2019 for the PC and PlayStation 4.

The trailer itself gives fans another look at the game featuring a voice-over by the mysterious Ling Shenhua, who appears to have some sort of shared destiny with series protagonist Ryo Hazuki. New footage shows Ryo leaving a boat as Shenmue 3 takes him out of his familiar settings of Japan and drops him in Guilin, China to hunt down a lead on his father's killers. The two explore the ancient fishing village, explore caves, and fans even get a look at returning villain Longsun Zhao aka Lan Di.

With another year of waiting before the third chapter finally launches, fans will have an opportunity to catch up on the series. Originally launching in 2000 and 2001, both games are finally arriving on modern consoles for the first time as remastered versions of Shenmue 1 & 2 are now available for purchase at a reduced price. Each game now features an updated UI, scalable screen resolutions, and options to toggle between modern or classic controls and Japanese voice dialogue.

Shenmue 3 launches on August 27, 2019 for PC and PlayStation 4.

Source: Shenmue 3 Kickstarter