One of the early attractions at Sega and Sammy's joint Tokyo Game Show booth was the presentation of its MMORPG Shenmue Online. The main feature of the third installment in Yuu Suzuki's ambitious saga, which unlike its two prequels is exclusively developed for the PC platform, will be its real-time battle system. While details are still sparse, the trailer shown today featured battles between opponents armed with swords, spears, clubs and other weapons. Characters will include Chinese material arts specialists, street fighters and kids possessing special powers. Furthermore, a large number of items and a lot of character costumization options will find their way into the finished product. The South Korean closed-beta test of the game is set to commence sometime in November.

Shenmue Online will be released in Japan, South Korea and China sometime next year.

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