Sega had plans to make a HD Remaster of Shenmue I and II, with better graphics than the remasters released in August. This is evident from images that Digital Foundry has put online.

The technical department of Eurogamer shows the images in an extensive video and compares them with images of the remasters of Shenmue I and II released last August for the PlayStation 4 and the PC. Those remasters show the games in a higher resolution than the original titles that came out on the Dreamcast around the turn of the century, but have no graphical improvements.

Sega says in a statement against Eurogamer that it indeed had plans for a full-HD remaster of Shenmue I and II, but that project would have brought many challenges. The original animations and characters were used and, according to Sega, improving the graphics did not produce a result that ‘expect and deserve’ Shenmue fans. Because Sega was not satisfied with the development, the publisher chose to release a remaster that does not adjust much to the graphics.