Nihon Falcom

Nihon Falcom
Type Public kabushiki kaisha
Traded as TYO: 3723
Industry Video games
Founded March 1981
Headquarters Japan
Key people Masayuki Kato, Founder
Toshihiro Kondo, President
Products Dragon Slayer
Xanadu
The Legend of Heroes
Ys
Brandish
Vantage Master
Zwei
Website www.falcom.com

Nihon Falcom Corporation (日本ファルコム株式会社 Nihon Farukomu Kabushiki-kaisha?) is a Japanese video game company. The company was founded in March 1981 by Masayuki Kato. Falcom has played a definite role in the growth and development of the Japanese personal computer software industry. The company released the first Japanese role-playing video game in 1983 and followed with real-time action and adventure games as well as games with fully developed soundtracks. They were pioneers of the action role-playing game genre[1] and Japanese role-playing game industry,[2][3] and remain one of the oldest role-playing game developers still in existence today.[3]

Contents

Overview

Falcom were one of the three most important Japanese role-playing video game developers in the 1980s, alongside Enix and Square,[2] both of which were influenced by Falcom.[2][4] Falcom's flagship titles include the Dragon Slayer, The Legend of Heroes and Ys series. In the 1980s, these franchises, particularly Dragon Slayer, were responsible for setting the template for the action role-playing game genre,[1] and laying the foundations for the Japanese role-playing game industry.[2] With more than 400,000 copies sold, Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu (1985) was the best-selling personal computer game in Japan.[5]

While most of Falcom's games have been ported to various video game consoles of all generations, they have only developed a few non-PC video games themselves. The company's decision to develop mainly for PCs rather than consoles set them apart from their main rivals, Enix and Square, but limited the company's popularity in the Western world.[2][3] Nevertheless, in terms of the number of game releases, Falcom's flagship Ys series is second only to Final Fantasy as the largest Eastern role-playing game franchise.[6]

Falcom was also a pioneer in video game music, with their early soundtracks mostly composed by chiptune musicians Yuzo Koshiro and Mieko Ishikawa,[6][7] and some arranged by Ryo Yonemitsu.[7][8] They were the first company to produce game music CDs, the first to apply vocals to game music, and the first to have a band composed of professional musicians dedicated to games, the Falcom Sound Team JDK.[6] Falcom's Ys soundtracks in particular are considered some of the finest and most influential role-playing game scores of all time.[9]

Published works

System indicated reflects the first release (or concurrent releases) of the game.

English-localized products

Many of these titles were not developed by Falcom, and in some cases bear little resemblance to the original game.

Many Falcom games have been licensed and developed by other companies such as NEC, Hudson Soft, Epoch, Tokyo Shoseki (aka Tonkin House), Sega, RIOT, Victor, Koei and Konami, for various PC and video game systems.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Bailey, Kat (May 18, 2010). "Hack and Slash: What Makes a Good Action RPG?". 1UP.com. http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=9030743. Retrieved 2011-07-11. 
  2. ^ a b c d e Szczepaniak, John (7 July 2011). "Falcom: Legacy of Ys". GamesTM (111): 152–159 [153]. http://imageshack.us/f/32/yshistory02.jpg/. Retrieved 2011-09-07.  (cf. Szczepaniak, John (July 8, 2011). "History of Ys interviews". Hardcore Gaming 101. http://blog.hardcoregaming101.net/2011/07/history-of-ys-interviews-by-john.html. Retrieved 6 September 2011. )
  3. ^ a b c Gifford, Kevin (09/07/2011). "The Trail of Nihon Falcom: The president of Japan's oldest existing RPG maker speaks". 1UP.com. http://www.1up.com/news/trail-nihon-falcom. Retrieved 13 September 2011. 
  4. ^ John Harris (July 2, 2009). "Game Design Essentials: 20 RPGs - Dragon Slayer". Gamasutra. p. 13. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4066/game_design_essentials_20_rpgs.php?page=13. Retrieved 2011-03-02. 
  5. ^ "Xanadu Next home page". http://www.falcom.co.jp/xanadu_next/xanadu/xanadu.html. Retrieved 2008-09-08.  (Translation)
  6. ^ a b c Szczepaniak, John (7 July 2011). "Falcom: Legacy of Ys". GamesTM (111): 152–159 [154]. http://imageshack.us/f/844/yshistory03.jpg/. Retrieved 2011-09-08.  (cf. Szczepaniak, John (July 8, 2011). "History of Ys interviews". Hardcore Gaming 101. http://blog.hardcoregaming101.net/2011/07/history-of-ys-interviews-by-john.html. Retrieved 8 September 2011. )
  7. ^ a b Kalata, Kurt (11/27/10). "Ys". Hardcore Gaming 101. http://hardcoregaming101.net/ys/ys.htm. Retrieved 3 September 2011. 
  8. ^ Ryan Mattich. "Falcom Classics II". RPGFan. http://www.rpgfan.com/reviews/falcomclassics2/Falcom_Classics_2-2.html. Retrieved 3 September 2011. 
  9. ^ Chris Greening & Don Kotowski (February 2011). "Interview with Yuzo Koshiro". Square Enix Music Online. http://www.squareenixmusic.com/features/interviews/yuzokoshiro.shtml. Retrieved 2011-06-20. 

External links