Poll Result: Patrons' Choice Topic for August 2024

Every month Phantom River Stone holds a poll among our patrons to choose a topic for the blog in the coming month. After tallying the votes (including accumulated votes from previous months), the winning topic that has been voted this time is:

"Yu Suzuki Interview Excerpts from the Japanese Air Twister Booklet"

Following on from its original worldwide release via Apple Arcade for Apple devices in June 2022, Air Twister was subsequently released for consoles & PC in November of 2023.

Air Twister Special Edition (Japan)

One of the physical editions made available in Japan was a Special Edition that included a number of extras, including the soundtrack on double CD, a square card with Yu Suzuki's signature and a "Special Interview" booklet.

This 50+ page booklet (which can be seen near the bottom right in the image below) contains an extensive interview with Yu Suzuki, in which he talks about not just Air Twister but also his own background in the games industry - one of the games discussed being Shenmue, of course!

Contents of the Air Twister Special Edition set (Japan)

With the set being for the Japan market, the Special Interview booklet was only in the Japanese language.

Air Twister Collector's Edition (Strictly Limited Games)

For the overseas market, the Air Twister Collector's Edition has been announced by Strictly Limited Games, and is to feature a Yu Suzuki Biography booklet with its own unique cover design.

Yu Suzuki Biography booklet cover (Air Twister Collector's Edition from Strictly Limited Games)

While its exact content is not yet known, it is reasonable to assume that it contains the same material as Japan's Special Interview booklet.

 

However, this Collector's Edition has not yet been released. Originally slated to be released in "Early 2024", at the time of this post in August 2024 it is yet to be seen, with the expected release date given on the official website now reading "2024 (exact date TBC)". A brief product status is provided on the website, although this has remained unchanged since February:

"Production files have been approved by licensor and are now with Platform Owners. Once completed, files will be handed to production."

Interview Excerpt Translations

To ease the pain of the wait for the Collector's Edition to appear and discover Yu Suzuki's thoughts and anecdotes revealed in the interview, in an upcoming post we will be translating his comments about Shenmue and other selected excerpts from the Japanese interview booklet into English. (Scans of the interview pages have been kindly provided by SkillJim).

Watch for the post to come soon to the blog!

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