Friday, September 12, 2025

Poll Result: Patrons' Choice Topic for September 2025

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 any accumulated from previous months), the winning topic this time is:

World Guidance Guidebook - Shenmue Staff Developer Survey

Shenmue Chapter One Yokosuka: World Guidance

The World Guidance guidebook was published shortly after Shenmue I's original release in Japan and contains some of the most detailed and complete information about the first game of all the guidebooks published at the time.

As a special feature, at the end it includes an exclusive survey held with Shenmue developers themselves, and while the length of the survey is brief (in the form of a short six-question list), it is sure to give some fascinating insights from those who worked on the project.

The survey is introduced in the guidebook as follows:

Shenmue Staff Survey - 57 People!

The massive development team poured their collective effort into creating Shenmue: Chapter One ~ Yokosuka. To close out this book, we present the real, unfiltered comments from the staff themselves. Of course, this is only a portion of their voices, but it gives you a glimpse into both the hardships and joys of game development. Please read through with anticipation for what’s to come in the next installment. 
 
Note: Except for team leaders, all names are shown as initials, and honorific titles have been omitted.

Survey Questions

1. What do you like about Shenmue?
2. Who is your favorite character, and why?
3. What scene left the deepest impression on you during the game?
4. Are there any hidden “tricks” you secretly included in the game?
5. Do you have any interesting episodes you can share from development?
6. Shout out one thing you'd like to say!
7. Please give a short message for the players.

Coming soon to the blog!


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Scenes from Kyoto: Temple Garden Features & Pink Telephone

A few pictures from a recent visit to the scenic city of Kyoto which had strong vibes of Ryo's hometown.


Temple Garden

Koi fish swim lazily in a temple pond, approaching hopefully if you happen to be standing near their usual feeding spot.


The tranquil sounds of a summer day... insects chirping and the sound of cool running water. Every few minutes, the shishi-odoshi bamboo fountain tips over and back with a distinctive sound as it strikes the rock.


Pink Telephone

Public phones are becoming harder to find around cities now, but here's one that hasn't changed for years, waiting for a 10-yen coin to be dropped in the slot.



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Thursday, September 4, 2025

Kawabata's Renders, Final Part: Locations and Promo Renders

Welcome to the fourth and final part of our review of the art renders shared by AM2 developer Hideki Kawabata (previous parts: Part One, Part Two, Part Three). This final post in the series will touch on some of the location renders and promotional CG art that was included in the collection.


The Original Karate Tournament Location: Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan


The first location we'll look at is one that once lived only in the imagination of fans: the stadium in which Ryo's high school karate tournament took place prior to the start of the first game, as revealed by Yu Suzuki in 2015:

Q: Where did Ryo get his band-aid?

Yu Suzuki: It didn't appear in Chapter 1, but there was a martial arts event. The scar is from the final match.

This response is from a Twitter event called "#YouAskYu" in 2015 - a transcript is archived on the old Shenmue Dojo forums.

This took on a concrete form in recent years, when a scene from this tournament was included in the first episode of Shenmue The Animation in 2022. For the anime, the tournament location was directly based on the real-life sporting venue, the Yokosuka Arena:

The location of the karate tournament in Shenmue The Animation: Yokosuka Arena

However, with Kawabata's collection of renders, another piece can now be added to the puzzle: a fully-rendered model of a stadium had been prepared back in the early days of the project, in April of 1996. 

Furthermore, it even shows two tatami platforms for the matches, set up inside the hall:

Yokohama Cultural Gymnasium: 30 April 1996

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