Yesterday, developer Ys Net posted its newest monthly report, and in the process confirmed that its highly-anticipated game, Shenmue III, will not be at industry's biggest annual trade show: E3.

In the report, the studio explained that while its schedule has yet to be finalized, it will be devoting the month of June to game development, and consequently just can't attend any shows.

However, it's not all bad news: alongside announcing its E3 2017 absence, the developer did reveal a new character for the action-adventure game.

The character reveal comes via the accompanying new dev progress video. A name for the character isn't revealed, but we do at least get to see what he looks like: a buff-looking guy with long hair and suspenders. Below, you can check out the some new -- personally screenshotted -- screens of the mystery character:

For those that don't know: Shenmue is a Sega franchise (the first two games were developed by Sega AM2) for the Dreamcast in 1999 and 2001 respectively. Notably, the first game in the series was the most expensive video game ever developed at the time, costing an estimated $47 million USD. Despite garnering strong cult followings the series was largely considered a commercial failure and so the third game in the series, Shenmue III, fell into what we call in the industry as development hell.

Then at June 2015 -- at E3 -- the game was re-revealed and a Kickstarter (where over $6.3 million USD was raised, making it the highest-funded video game in Kickstarter history) was launched.

Notably, the game is being written, directed, and produced by series creator Yu Suzki. In development for the PS4 and PC, the game is poised to apparently release sometime this December.

Below, you can check out the new dev update video, which as mentioned above, provides a look at a new character: