BODY: A slice of Japan's overlooked retro-gaming history is coming back to modern hardware. Ediya has announced SUPER Yanoman COLLECTION ("Sūpā Yanoman Korekushon"), a compilation of three vintage games from publisher Yanoman, launching December 10 on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
The collection anchors on Song Master ("Songu Masutā") and Trinea ("Torinea"), alongside a third bundled title. Pricing sits at ¥8,580 for the standard edition and ¥16,280 for a deluxe "special" edition. First-print copies also include a download code for Pentadragon ("Pentadoragon"), sweetening the deal for early buyers and collectors.
Yanoman is a name most Western players won't recognize — the company is far better known in Japan for jigsaw puzzles than software. But during the late 1980s and early 1990s it dabbled in game publishing, producing a small, eclectic catalog that has since become obscure even to domestic retro enthusiasts. That obscurity is exactly what makes this collection notable: these are titles that have effectively been unavailable for decades.
Ediya, the publisher behind the compilation, has increasingly positioned itself as a curator of forgotten Japanese software, licensing and re-releasing games that larger companies have left to rot. The deluxe edition's premium ¥16,280 price point suggests physical goodies aimed squarely at the collector market.
The insider take
From Tokyo, this is a classic play to the fukkoku (reissue) boom that has quietly become a reliable niche in Japan's game market. As nostalgia-driven buyers age into disposable income, publishers like Ediya are mining catalogs that never had international releases, betting that scarcity and completionist instinct will justify premium pricing. Bundling a Pentadragon download code with first-run copies is a shrewd, distinctly Japanese retail tactic — it pressures fans to buy day-one rather than wait, protecting launch numbers for a title with an inherently limited audience.
Originally reported by GAME Watch (Japanese).