History Creator / Falcom

Nihon Falcom Corporation 『日本ファルコム株式会社』 is one of Japan's oldest and most venerable video game development and publication houses, having begun business in 1981 selling UsefulNotes/AppleII hardware and software, and released their first game, ''Galactic Wars'', in 1982 on the {{PC88}}, with their first truly significant release being ''VideoGame/DragonSlayer'' two years later, that being perhaps the very first ActionRPG... [[BadExportForYou and you've probably only recently heard of them]] [[BadExportForYou if you ever did at all]]. They are probably best known outside of Japan for creating the ''Franchise/{{Ys}}'' ActionRPG series and giving its games [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic catchy soundtracks]] courtesy of the company's internal sound production staff: the "Falcom Sound Team jdk"(not to be confused with jdk Band - a band made of freelance musicians who provides arrangements and performances of Sound Team jdk's music for both arranged albums/soundtracks and live on stage during concerts). In Japan they have a number of other famous franchises, most notably ''The Legend of Heroes'' franchise, and '''especially''' the ''[[VideoGame/KisekiSeries Trails/Kiseki]]'' series.

** ''Zwei 2 (Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection'' internationally)

*** ''VideoGame/TheLegendofHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel'' (''The Legend of Heroes: Sen no Kiseki'' in Japan)

*** ''The Legend of Heroes: [[VideoGame/SenNoKiseki Sen no Kiseki]]'' (''Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel'' internationally)

* ''Zwei!!''
** ''Zwei 2''

[[index]]

** ''Ys VI: The Ark of Naphistim''

*** Remade as ''Ys: The Oath in Felghana''

These days, Falcom's greatest focus is on their "Kiseki" or "Trails" franchise, the first game of which finally came to North America in March of 2011. To date, seven ''Trails'' games have been released in Japan. The company remains well-respected for generally solid gameplay, great writing in its ''Trails'' games, and incredible music in basically every game it releases; both original soundtracks and arranged music albums. While still not extremely well-known in the West, recent releases like ''Ys: The Oath in Felghana'' have raised the company's profile significantly due to warm reception and ''Trails'' could cement their place in the relative mainstream.

** ''Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana''

Unlike other developer-publishers of its pedigree and generation (particularly Square and Enix), Falcom never established an overseas subsidiary... and as a result, their overseas releases have been ''extremely'' scattershot and spread among a legion of publishers, from Creator/{{Nintendo}} to {{Broderbund}} to Creator/{{Sega}} to NEC to WorkingDesigns to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sammy American Sammy]] to HudsonSoft to Creator/BandaiNamcoEntertainment to [[{{Creator/Sierra}} Sierra Entertainment]] to Creator/{{Infocom}} to Creator/{{Atlus}}. (Falcom even helped found "Kyodai Software Marketing" in 1988 in an attempt to self-publish on American [=PCs=], but that operation folded after just releasing ''Ys 1''.) The end result was very little consistency in release schedule or quality and style of translation, the Falcom name often not appearing on their own products (or at best tangentially appearing) leading to no brand recognition, general neglect of Falcom's strongest platform (the PC), and some of Falcom's best games taking ''years'' to cross the Pacific, especially in the latter part of TheNineties and into TheNoughties (with some ''still'' in NoExportForYou limbo as of this writing) and with some games getting [[BadExportForYou absolutely shameful treatments]] (the "Gagharv trilogy", ''The Legend of Heroes'' III-V, being the most infamous disaster and one which nearly killed the chance for ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky'' to cross the Pacific). Falcom formed a partnership with Creator/XSEEDGames to bring a number of games to North America, ensuring that a more regular release pipeline for their games is maintained.

Unlike other developer-publishers of its pedigree and generation (particularly Square and Enix), Falcom never established an overseas subsidiary... and as a result, their overseas releases have been ''extremely'' scattershot and spread among a legion of publishers, from Creator/{{Nintendo}} to {{Broderbund}} to Creator/{{Sega}} to NEC to WorkingDesigns to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sammy American Sammy]] to HudsonSoft to Creator/BandaiNamcoEntertainment to [[{{Creator/Sierra}} Sierra Entertainment]] to Creator/{{Infocom}} to {{Atlus}}. (Falcom even helped found "Kyodai Software Marketing" in 1988 in an attempt to self-publish on American [=PCs=], but that operation folded after just releasing ''Ys 1''.) The end result was very little consistency in release schedule or quality and style of translation, the Falcom name often not appearing on their own products (or at best tangentially appearing) leading to no brand recognition, general neglect of Falcom's strongest platform (the PC), and some of Falcom's best games taking ''years'' to cross the Pacific, especially in the latter part of TheNineties and into TheNoughties (with some ''still'' in NoExportForYou limbo as of this writing) and with some games getting [[BadExportForYou absolutely shameful treatments]] (the "Gagharv trilogy", ''The Legend of Heroes'' III-V, being the most infamous disaster and one which nearly killed the chance for ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky'' to cross the Pacific). Falcom formed a partnership with Creator/XSEEDGames to bring a number of games to North America, ensuring that a more regular release pipeline for their games is maintained.

Nihon Falcom Corporation 『日本ファルコム株式会社』 is one of Japan's oldest and most venerable video game development and publication houses, having begun business in 1981 selling UsefulNotes/AppleII hardware and software, and released their first game, ''Galactic Wars'', in 1982 on the {{PC88}}, with their first truly significant release being ''VideoGame/DragonSlayer'' two years later, that being perhaps the very first ActionRPG... [[NoExportForYou and you've probably]] [[BadExportForYou never heard of them]]. They are probably best known outside of Japan for creating the ''Franchise/{{Ys}}'' ActionRPG series and giving its games [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic catchy soundtracks]] courtesy of the company's internal sound production staff: the "Falcom Sound Team jdk"(not to be confused with jdk Band - a band made of freelance musicians who provides arrangements and performances of Sound Team jdk's music for both arranged albums/soundtracks and live on stage during concerts). In Japan they have a number of other famous franchises, most notably ''The Legend of Heroes'' franchise, and '''especially''' the ''[[VideoGame/KisekiSeries Trails/Kiseki]]'' series.

CantDropTheHero: Most games with optional party members with fixed main characters can't be permanently swapped out. Averted in the ''Cold Steel'' series if there's more than three party members to choose from, there's nothing stopping you from putting the main protagonists in a back row slot.

AerithAndBob: Most characters seem to favor fairly plausible European names (usually German-inspired) with a mix of fantasy-esque names for foreign characters.

* DenialOfDiagonalAttack: Games on the PC-98 suffered from this problem withe limited tile-based movement.
{{Fanservice}}: Rarely present. Most content that could be considered suggestive is limited to euphamistic dialogue. Dela and Maile play it straighter with semi-revealing outfits.

Nihon Falcom Corporation 『日本ファルコム株式会社』 is one of Japan's oldest and most venerable video game development and publication houses, having begun business in 1981 selling UsefulNotes/AppleII hardware and software, and released their first game, ''Galactic Wars'', in 1982 on the {{PC88}}, with their first truly significant release being ''VideoGame/DragonSlayer'' two years later, that being perhaps the very first ActionRPG... [[NoExportForYou and you've probably]] [[BadExportForYou never heard of them]]. They are probably best known outside of Japan for creating the ''Franchise/{{Ys}}'' ActionRPG series and giving its games [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic catchy soundtracks]] courtesy of the company's internal sound production staff: the "Falcom Sound Team jdk"(not to be confused with jdk Band - a band made of freelance musicians who provides arrangements and performances of Sound Team jdk's music for both arranged albums/soundtracks and live on stage during concerts). In Japan they have a number of other famous franchises, most notably the ''The Legend of Heroes'' franchise, and '''especially''' the ''[[VideoGame/KisekiSeries Trails/Kiseki]]'' series.

Unlike other developer-publishers of its pedigree and generation (particularly Square and Enix), Falcom never established an overseas subsidiary... and as a result, their overseas releases have been ''extremely'' scattershot and spread among a legion of publishers, from Creator/{{Nintendo}} to {{Broderbund}} to Creator/{{Sega}} to NEC to WorkingDesigns to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sammy American Sammy]] to HudsonSoft to Creator/BandaiNamcoEntertainment to [[{{Creator/Sierra}} Sierra Entertainment]] to Creator/{{Infocom}} to {{Atlus}}. (Falcom even helped found "Kyodai Software Marketing" in 1988 in an attempt to self-publish on American [=PCs=], but that operation folded after just releasing ''Ys 1''.) The end result was very little consistency in release schedule or quality and style of translation, the Falcom name often not appearing on their own products (or at best tangentially appearing) leading to no brand recognition, general neglect of Falcom's strongest platform (the PC), and some of Falcom's best games taking ''years'' to cross the Pacific, especially in the latter part of TheNineties and into TheNoughties (with some ''still'' in NoExportForYou limbo as of this writing) and with some games getting [[BadExportForYou absolutely shameful treatments]] (the "Gagharv trilogy", ''The Legend of Heroes'' III-V, being the most infamous disaster and one which nearly killed the chance for ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky'' to cross the Pacific). Falcom formed a partnership with XSEEDGames to bring a number of games to North America, ensuring that a more regular release pipeline for their games is maintained.

Unlike other developer-publishers of its pedigree and generation (particularly Square and Enix), Falcom never established an overseas subsidiary... and as a result, their overseas releases have been ''extremely'' scattershot and spread among a legion of publishers, from Creator/{{Nintendo}} to {{Broderbund}} to Creator/{{Sega}} to NEC to WorkingDesigns to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sammy American Sammy]] to HudsonSoft to BandaiNamcoEntertainment to [[{{Creator/Sierra}} Sierra Entertainment]] to Creator/{{Infocom}} to {{Atlus}}. (Falcom even helped found "Kyodai Software Marketing" in 1988 in an attempt to self-publish on American [=PCs=], but that operation folded after just releasing ''Ys 1''.) The end result was very little consistency in release schedule or quality and style of translation, the Falcom name often not appearing on their own products (or at best tangentially appearing) leading to no brand recognition, general neglect of Falcom's strongest platform (the PC), and some of Falcom's best games taking ''years'' to cross the Pacific, especially in the latter part of TheNineties and into TheNoughties (with some ''still'' in NoExportForYou limbo as of this writing) and with some games getting [[BadExportForYou absolutely shameful treatments]] (the "Gagharv trilogy", ''The Legend of Heroes'' III-V, being the most infamous disaster and one which nearly killed the chance for ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky'' to cross the Pacific). Falcom formed a partnership with XSEEDGames to bring a number of games to North America, ensuring that a more regular release pipeline for their games is maintained.

Unlike other developer-publishers of its pedigree and generation (particularly Square and Enix), Falcom never established an overseas subsidiary... and as a result, their overseas releases have been ''extremely'' scattershot and spread among a legion of publishers, from Creator/{{Nintendo}} to {{Broderbund}} to Creator/{{Sega}} to NEC to WorkingDesigns to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sammy American Sammy]] to HudsonSoft to NamcoBandai to [[{{Creator/Sierra}} Sierra Entertainment]] to Creator/{{Infocom}} to {{Atlus}}. (Falcom even helped found "Kyodai Software Marketing" in 1988 in an attempt to self-publish on American [=PCs=], but that operation folded after just releasing ''Ys 1''.) The end result was very little consistency in release schedule or quality and style of translation, the Falcom name often not appearing on their own products (or at best tangentially appearing) leading to no brand recognition, general neglect of Falcom's strongest platform (the PC), and some of Falcom's best games taking ''years'' to cross the Pacific, especially in the latter part of TheNineties and into TheNoughties (with some ''still'' in NoExportForYou limbo as of this writing) and with some games getting [[BadExportForYou absolutely shameful treatments]] (the "Gagharv trilogy", ''The Legend of Heroes'' III-V, being the most infamous disaster and one which nearly killed the chance for ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky'' to cross the Pacific). Falcom formed a partnership with XSEEDGames to bring a number of games to North America, ensuring that a more regular release pipeline for their games is maintained.

Unlike other developer-publishers of its pedigree and generation (particularly Square and Enix), Falcom never established an overseas subsidiary... and as a result, their overseas releases have been ''extremely'' scattershot and spread among a legion of publishers, from Creator/{{Nintendo}} to {{Broderbund}} to Creator/{{Sega}} to NEC to WorkingDesigns to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sammy American Sammy]] to HudsonSoft to NamcoBandai to [[{{Sierra}} Sierra Entertainment]] to Creator/{{Infocom}} to {{Atlus}}. (Falcom even helped found "Kyodai Software Marketing" in 1988 in an attempt to self-publish on American [=PCs=], but that operation folded after just releasing ''Ys 1''.) The end result was very little consistency in release schedule or quality and style of translation, the Falcom name often not appearing on their own products (or at best tangentially appearing) leading to no brand recognition, general neglect of Falcom's strongest platform (the PC), and some of Falcom's best games taking ''years'' to cross the Pacific, especially in the latter part of TheNineties and into TheNoughties (with some ''still'' in NoExportForYou limbo as of this writing) and with some games getting [[BadExportForYou absolutely shameful treatments]] (the "Gagharv trilogy", ''The Legend of Heroes'' III-V, being the most infamous disaster and one which nearly killed the chance for ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky'' to cross the Pacific). Falcom formed a partnership with XSEEDGames to bring a number of games to North America, ensuring that a more regular release pipeline for their games is maintained.

** ''VideoGame/TaiyouNoShindenAstekaII'' (''Tombs & Treasure'' in North America)

Unlike other developer-publishers of its pedigree and generation (particularly Square and Enix), Falcom never established an overseas subsidiary... and as a result, their overseas releases have been ''extremely'' scattershot and spread among a legion of publishers, from Creator/{{Nintendo}} to {{Broderbund}} to {{Sega}} to NEC to WorkingDesigns to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sammy American Sammy]] to HudsonSoft to NamcoBandai to [[{{Sierra}} Sierra Entertainment]] to Creator/{{Infocom}} to {{Atlus}}. (Falcom even helped found "Kyodai Software Marketing" in 1988 in an attempt to self-publish on American [=PCs=], but that operation folded after just releasing ''Ys 1''.) The end result was very little consistency in release schedule or quality and style of translation, the Falcom name often not appearing on their own products (or at best tangentially appearing) leading to no brand recognition, general neglect of Falcom's strongest platform (the PC), and some of Falcom's best games taking ''years'' to cross the Pacific, especially in the latter part of TheNineties and into TheNoughties (with some ''still'' in NoExportForYou limbo as of this writing) and with some games getting [[BadExportForYou absolutely shameful treatments]] (the "Gagharv trilogy", ''The Legend of Heroes'' III-V, being the most infamous disaster and one which nearly killed the chance for ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky'' to cross the Pacific). Falcom formed a partnership with XSEEDGames to bring a number of games to North America, ensuring that a more regular release pipeline for their games is maintained.

'''Nihon Falcom Corporation''' 『日本ファルコム株式会社』 is one of Japan's oldest and most venerable video game development and publication houses, having begun business in 1981 selling UsefulNotes/AppleII hardware and software, and released their first game, ''Galactic Wars'', in 1982 on the {{PC88}}, with their first truly significant release being ''VideoGame/DragonSlayer'' two years later, that being perhaps the very first ActionRPG... [[NoExportForYou and you've probably]] [[BadExportForYou never heard of them]]. They are probably best known outside of Japan for creating the ''Franchise/{{Ys}}'' ActionRPG series and giving its games [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic catchy soundtracks]] courtesy of the company's internal sound production staff: the "Falcom Sound Team jdk"(not to be confused with jdk Band - a band made of freelance musicians who provides arrangements and performances of Sound Team jdk's music for both arranged albums/soundtracks and live on stage during concerts). In Japan they have a number of other famous franchises, most notably the ''The Legend of Heroes'' franchise, and '''especially''' the ''[[VideoGame/KisekiSeries Trails/Kiseki]]'' series.

** ''Dragon Slayer IV: [[http://hardcoregaming101.net/draslefamily/draslefamily.htm Drasle Family]]'' (''LegacyOfTheWizard'' internationally)

** ''[[DragonSlayerIIXanadu Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu]]''

**** ''The Legend of Heroes: [[VideoGame/SenNoKiseki Sen no Kiseki]]''

Unlike other developer-publishers of its pedigree and generation (particularly Square and Enix), Falcom never established an overseas subsidiary... and as a result, their overseas releases have been ''extremely'' scattershot and spread among a legion of publishers, from Creator/{{Nintendo}} to {{Broderbund}} to {{Sega}} to NEC to WorkingDesigns to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sammy American Sammy]] to HudsonSoft to NamcoBandai to [[{{Sierra}} Sierra Entertainment]] to Creator/{{Infocom}} to {{Atlus}}. (Falcom even helped found "Kyodai Software Marketing" in 1988 in an attempt to self-publish on American [=PCs=], but that operation folded after just releasing ''Ys 1''.) The end result was very little consistency in release schedule or quality and style of translation, the Falcom name often not appearing on their own products (or at best tangentially appearing) leading to no brand recognition, general neglect of Falcom's strongest platform (the PC), and some of Falcom's best games taking ''years'' to cross the Pacific, especially in the latter part of TheNineties and into TheNoughties (with some ''still'' in NoExportForYou limbo as of this writing) and with some games getting [[BadExportForYou absolutely shameful treatments]] (the "Gagharv trilogy", ''The Legend of Heroes'' III-V, being the most infamous disaster and one which nearly killed the chance for ''TrailsInTheSky'' to cross the Pacific). Recently, Falcom formed a partnership with XSEEDGames to bring a number of games to North America, ensuring that a more regular release pipeline for their games is maintained.

These days, Falcom's greatest focus is on their "Kiseki" or "Trails" franchise, the [[TrailsInTheSky first game of which]] finally came to North America in March of 2011. To date, seven ''Trails'' games have been released in Japan. The company remains well-respected for generally solid gameplay, great writing in its ''Trails'' games, and incredible music in basically every game it releases; both original soundtracks and arranged music albums. While still not extremely well-known in the West, recent releases like ''Ys: The Oath in Felghana'' have raised the company's profile significantly due to warm reception and ''Trails'' could cement their place in the relative mainstream.

**** ''VideoGame/LegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky'' (''The Legend of Heroes VI: Sora no Kiseki FC'' in Japan)

*** Remade as ''Videogame/YsMemoriesOfCelceta'' - Technically Falcom's own version of Ys IV, but it's so completely unlike any other version that it's worth playing at least The Dawn of Ys as well and possibly Mask of the Sun.

*** Remade as ''Videogame/YsMemoriesOfCelceta'' - technically Falcom's own version of Ys IV, but it's so completely unlike any other version that it's worth playing at least The Dawn of Ys as well and possibly Mask of the Sun.