It was a bummer for those of us eagerly awaiting the 3rd and final installment of Yu Suzuki’s epic martial arts adventure, Shenmue III (funded entirely by a world-record setting KickStarter campaign) to get word that there has been a delay in production, but hey, sometimes you just have to take those QTE lumps.

It was reported just a few days ago in a video message by Suzuki, himself, that production of Shenmue III has been slowed due to attempts to improve the final product by implementing newly discovered technology.

Looks pretty sweet so far!

The updated production timeline means an updated release window – sometime in mid-2018. Definitely not great news for impatient ones among us, but I look at it like this; we’ve already waited 10+ years, so what’s another few months? If the project delivers on the promise of being superior to the previous two and the dev team needs more time to polish it up, I’m all for it. It’s even more exciting now that I own a PS4 so I can finally help Ryo Hazuki avenge his father’s murder in all its console glory immediately upon release.

What are your thoughts on the delay and what excites you most about Shenmue III? The visuals, the music, the combat, the open world, the capsule toys? Let us know!

Be sure to check out the rest of NerdBacon’s E3 2017 coverage right here!