The Early History of Falcom

[@bowloflentils]

Corrections (Last edited in 2024): 1.) In this video I speculated that the Ys development team perhaps left Falcom because the company changed Ys III into a number installment when it was only meant to be a spin-off. However, I later found a blog by Hiromasa Iwasaki (Ys I&II's PCE-CD director) that went into the history behind Ys III. According to the blog, the staff initially wanted to make an original title and used Adol as a placeholder graphic for the player character. This led to the game becoming a spin-off called Adol's Great Adventure which was later renamed to Wanderers from Ys. Before development had even begun, Masaya Hashimoto/Tomoyoshi Miyazaki were planning to leave Falcom and Wanderers was going to be their last game at the company. However, tension built between Hashimoto and Falcom's president and eventually almost the whole team left at the beginning of 1989 once development of the core game was finished. Falcom's remaining staff then put the final touches on the game and changed the title to "Ys III" at the last minute (only after the original development team had left). You can read more about Ys III's development on Iwasaki's blog here: tinyurl.com/mr2a5yfy 2.) Masayuki Kato did not make Toshihiro Kondo the third president of the company like I stated in my video. Apparently, according to a recent interview with Kondo, it was actually one of Falcom's board of directors that offered the position to him after Shinji Yamazaki stepped down due to illness. Here is the source: news.denfaminicogamer.jp/interview/231106c 3.) The magazine ad shown at 28:41 is not announcing that Falcom is making Xanadu 3 and Ys IV. The ad is actually saying that Falcom's next game is NOT going to be one of those sequels and will instead be a new franchise, Brandish. 4.) This magazine chart at 19:45 is not ranking PC titles in terms of sales data. These are actually results of a popularity poll based on reader submitted surveys.

[@EekChocolate]

Interesting interview. It looks like Hashimoto was directly inspired by Castlevania and Link's Adventure.

[@spacebeaglewithcheese]

Thank you for the updates and corrections!

[@ultimate_batdave7425]

On 53:16, you say that Trails in the Sky FC has sold over 100.000 copies, though if it is in relation to the image, it's 100万, so over 1 million, and seemingly combined with Trails from Zero. Really like your videos!

[@bowloflentils]

@@ultimate_batdave7425 Thank you! And yeah, I didn't get that number from the advertisement but from one of the interviews in my list of sources. I believe I was referencing this interview between Masayuki Kato and Toshihiro Kondo where they stated that Sky FC sold around 400,000 copies on the PSP. Although, I could have sworn there was another source that specifically said "over 100,000”. It's been a few years so I’m not sure. news.denfaminicogamer.jp/projectbook/180724/3

[@stupendously_silly]

Fun Fact : Shinji, the protagonist of Evangelion had a walkman where he rewind the same cassette over and over again. The cassette is the soundtrack of Ys titled Lilia ~from Ys~. What made it even more interesting is the vocal for one of the song is done by the VA for Misato.

[@zzasdfwas]

When all the staff left, the fans got hired and became the company. Who else could have the passion and knowledge to continue such a legacy?

[@demilembias2527]

thats so fascinating that it changed from a training ground for creatives who then graduated to other companies to a place rebuilt by fans of those creatives' work in the first place.

[@smttms8946]

If it werent for xseed, we wouldn't have trails series outside Japan. At that time nobody wanted to work on that game because of the large script. Xseed was the only one who had the balls to take on that project without knowing if it was going to sell outside Japan.

[@BlueGrovyle]

Well, we wouldn't have gotten it _when_ we got it, but almost certainly still eventually. And considering the miserable experience that some of the people went through to get Sky to us, I'd happily wait as long as necessary for these games.

[@Indigo_Gaming]

Excellent piece of history here with the origins of Falcom. Great presentation and very clean and understandable audio.

[@Rawhaki]

Indigo Gaming!

[@casekocsk]

Wow... All those people who left Falcom, ALL OF THEM turned out to be GREAT names in video game industry... So that means at one time, Falcom is full choke of talents...

[@A-Spoto]

One of the greatest fumbles in the Japanese video game industry. Treat your employees right people!

[@EricVanWilderman]

Incredibly informative video. I clicked thinking I'd watch only a few minutes, but stayed the whole time! I'm a huge fan of Ys and Trails, but I didn't realize how many other franchises they made. And here I was thinking Tokyo Xanadu was just a one-off game lol. I didn't realize it was part of a series.

[@tchitchouan]

i do believe xanadu next was the peak of the series

[@quentiny5372]

Ys' fan here as well. Love it so much!

[@hiro6164]

Holy shit i had no idea you liked falcom games i started following you because horror games XD

[@zenoslime]

i wish more people would play xanadu next. think of it as a game with the feel of something akin to ys with isometric graphics and mouse + keyboard controls not too unlike diablo, with narrative and leveling system elements that could be seen as a precursor to demon's souls...!

[@yum2735]

@@tchitchouan I picked that one up in a sale not thinking that I would enjoy it all that much with its apparent WRPG elements, but I ended up loving it. It was very true to Falcom's roots with the Xanadu series when WRPGs and JRPGs still had a lot of common ground. I can't believe that a game like that was still released in the 2000s, but I wish there were more.

[@panagiotisgoulas8539]

Moral of the story:Treat your employees properly... Man why did you make this video so good and I had to watch until the end..

[@akiradkcn]

Yeah, he almost killled his own company with that attitude

[@tats_sacs]

I’m Japanese. I love falcom music. But how they treated their composers mainly Yuzo koshiro was appalling. Imagine creating the music for Ys and they release all these CDs with multiple arrange versions and they would put the name of the arranger but not ONE mention of the name of the composer. They sold a lot of these CDs and the composers never got any royalties.

[@DSan-kl2yc]

I agree. And then they seemingly punished their new developers because they don't treat staff well enough to stay

[@KAZ64OST]

What☹️

[@joesterling4299]

@@starless267 Thing is, if a composer works for a company, and gets paid to create music for that company, then he isn't entitled to royalties. That music belongs to the company. He should still have been credited as the composer on the CDs, though.

[@ericazahn9689]

Do you know why they us the german word "zwei" for the english Port? Like the german named games that are for the english market, zweihänder and geist, and they mix schwarz (german for black) and world in shin megami tensai journey into the aweful schwarzworld. Why is this a thing, i do not get it.

[@harrylane4]

Damn who knew game devs treated their workers like shit. Glad that’s not the case anymore! We never have worker abuse in this industry anymore 🙃

[@IsaacG8]

This was an excellent video. I had no idea that some of my favorite JRPGs from the 90's like the Lunar series and Xenogears were created by former Falcom employees. It kind of feels like Falcom is the grandparent of these games now.

[@NotaPizzaGRL]

It's like finding out that some of the employees from Irem (a.k.a company who did the R-Type games and kung fu) later went on to found Capcom and SNK. You don't see the influence at first but once you hear about it it becomes appearent.

[@justicegaming1412]

Agreed, I had no idea about that!

[@realnlyp]

Makoto Shinkai being a former employee for Falcom was a fact that surprised me!

[@joesterling4299]

@@realnlyp Yuzo Koshiro blew my mind. Had no idea he started out as a teenager with Falcom.

[@FloPe97]

@@realnlyp it gets really mindblowing when you realize that shinkai and kondo knew each other from shinkais falcom days - considering the occasionally eerily similar storydevices AND releasetimes between your name and ys 8... almost feels like they stayed in contact after shinkai left and talked to each other about these concepts and developed their own seperate stories around the same skeleton in a way... (who knows if thats in anyway true or if they just had similar ideas during the same time but its still fun to think about)

[@MinkDaddy]

See this is why I believe Adol would be great pick for Super Smash Bros. I am aware that many people might be confused about his inclusion, but it makes so much sense as he and Falcom are some of the grandaddies of the action RPG genre. And, as you mention in the video, so many developers and creators started in Falcom. It's not a question of if Adol deserves to be in Smash as it is a question of how could they make him unique, which I think is very possible.

[@demilembias2527]

I'd prefer Estelle because I'm not sure how you'd make Adol unique from Link or the DQ Heroes. Any Falcom rep would be greatly appreciated though lol.

[@error4159]

Hardcore gamers wouldn't be confused by Adol's inclusions

[@flamelmao69420]

Tbh I feel like an assist trophy would work a bit better since you all know how the smash community is about swordfighters

[@ltb1345]

I'm surprised that they never did even a Mii Swordfighter outfit based on Adol.

[@TheKisekiNut]

Wow, this is outstanding work bud! Very well researched, and an extremely comprehensive round up of one of the all time great JRPG developers.

[@bowloflentils]

Thank you very much! I've enjoyed a few of your videos in the past so I'm happy to hear you enjoyed mine.

[@TheAufziehvogel]

Very few are covering Falcom, also enjoying this (will watch the rest of the video later). It all begun with Falcom when it comes to japanese RPG's. Nowaydays, Falcom is stagnating due to questionable management of president Kondo. Milking the Legend of Heroes franchise dry, making Ys more like Legend of Heroes and refusing to hop on the Switch train. It's not Falcom who are ordering Switch-Ports of their games, it's NISA asking Falcom that it may be a wise decision to focus more on Nintendos console. Yeah, can't say I'm happy with the current Falcom but at least there are the classics from them and their rich history. Yet I hope Kondo is not the future for Falcom.

[@ltb1345]

@@TheAufziehvogel This comment didn't age well, lol. Now there are a ton of Falcom Switch ports, and Ys seems like it's going in a somewhat new direction for Ys X.

[@Pan_Z]

These creators that condense a month of research into an hour long concise, edited video are some of the biggest unsung heroes of KZbin.

[@Zazzaro703]

Falcom Sound Team is easily one of the best in the industry. The music in the Trails series rivals music from any other game/series. And wow great video I had no idea Falcom had that much talent at one point.

[@HProtagVtuber]

Dude I hope you get chance to play ys9 holy shit the music in that is amazing.

[@Walamonga1313]

@@HProtagVtuber Really? I thought the OST in 9 was good but 8's was perfect. I also really love Ys 1 and Origin's ost

[@えすい-v4q]

あえて日本語で ここまで日本ファルコムについて海外から調べることは容易なことではないと思いますし、尊敬します。 自分も好きなメーカーではあるのですが軌跡シリーズに代表されるように 良くも悪くもJRPGの固定観念から抜け出せずにいる伝統芸能のようなゲーム会社です。 歴史を振り返って、あえて変わらないでほしいと願ってやみません。

[@JoshyGoodtime1]

This is possibly one of the best video game documentaries on KZbin. I learned a lot, and it was interesting to know that the developers who were in Falcom branched out to create companies and to make games like the Xeno series, and Lunar. Very well done, great job Mr. Lentils.

[@Richardlikespies]

I really liked this video. It's really cool to see where Falcom was like in their golden age and what lead to now

[@OriginalReVozero]

I very rarely comment on KZbin videos but I just had to drop in to say that this is criminally underwatched. What a fantastic dive in Falcom's history, thoroughly enjoyed that, thanks 🤙

[@cartoongamermatt9077]

God damn the talent that came from Falcom is insane! All these great developers with games that I love like Lunar, Illusion of Gaia, Beyond Oasis, and fucking XENOGEARS ended up with origins in Falcom. Absolutely insane. Even Yuzo Koshiro started with Falcom. This company literally created its own intense competition from losing key members and we ended up with some of the greatest JRPGs of all time from all of these companies.

[@deadyrockspin]

I really appreciate your dedicated research on topics that are very niche in the west. EDIT: I see this video is blowing up! you deserve it for all the effort!

[@bowloflentils]

Thank you :)

[@ignaziomignogna]

I second this. And the videos are very enjoyable to watch too

[@skins4thewin]

Can I give this comment 10 thumbs down? This stuff is VERY much beloved in the west!!!

[@blumiu2426]

@@skins4thewin I wouldn't go that far. It's growing in popularity, but they are still niche by sales standards, despite the fame of the long-running series. Trails of is a good entry JRPG, but can't contend with many out there, while Ys gets wiggle room, but not much. I think that's fine, though. I don't want them to get too big and then start thinking they need to change things or compete in graphics, borrow elements from other games. Many mess up that way and Trails has already taken a Persona/girlfriend hunter (I refuse to use waifu) approach, which is more trend than value.

[@skins4thewin]

@@blumiu2426 Personally, I gotta say I disagree, as the first two Trials games are as good as it gets imo. And Falcom is already pretty huge, they are a pretty big deal in Japan no doubt.

[@CloudStrifeXBL]

Just finished Ys VIII the other day, what a master piece of a game. It's baffling to me how this company was out of my sight for nearly 30 years, I missed so many godly games.

[@Burning_Orpheus]

I already know about Makoto Shinkai working at Falcom, but Tetsuya Takahashi ? That blew me away

[@TainoMoya]

Ikr, two of my all time favorite rpg series. Tetsuya behind both. Im impressed

[@aichistarburst3333]

That pleasantly surprised me too

[@HProtagVtuber]

Bro nice profile pic and banner

[@grayson8633]

As someone whose lifelong aim is to work in the Japanese gaming industry, thank you for this video! Nihon Falcom is one of the three companies ( others being Square Enix and Atlus) that I am going to work for as an artist/writer. I have been researching Falcom more recently when I came across this, and a lot of questions I had were answered, along with being informed of things I was not aware of. My love of these games has only grown from my start at the Erebonia saga at 15 , and as Ive been nearing its end at 21,expanding to its other titles has been thrilling so far. So once again, thank you!

[@Megaman12Protoman14]

Falcolm is my favorite RPG developer next to Atlus and just one of my favorite devs period. Was really interesting to learn about their early years and just how monumental of an impact they made in Japan.

[@bowloflentils]

I know I mispronounced "Ys," and a few other names, in the video. I'll try to double check my pronunciation in the future. Also, thank you for all the positive comments! I was never expecting this video to get this many views and I'm happy to see that people are enjoying it :)

[@brux357]

Dude who cares you could call it “Yeet” and this video would still be amazing. I learned so much from this. Great job, man

[@BryanRollinsTV]

The thumbnail got me and i was not disappointed. Great work.

[@davidk.8686]

Yeah, who cares ... whatever fanboy complaints would never put as much effort to pay actual respect to and educate about this company and their games. Also, occasionally finding content like this makes spending so much time on youtube not feel like a complete waste of timee for me. :D

[@brux357]

@@davidk.8686 Lol agreed

[@bowloflentils]

Thank you but it was a genuine mistake and most of the people that pointed it out were not jerks about it.

[@Cneqq]

As someone who's beaten every YS game [besides YS 9] and is yet again completely caught up with the trails series this will be a perfect watch to fill the void after finishing hajimari and once again being on the wait for calvard lol thanks for the effort of putting a video like this together

[@ringtail99]

so hajimari does not take place in calavard? really but this c person must be related to calavard

[@buttertoast1146]

@@ringtail99 hajimari is basically the grand finale of Lloyd and reans journey. C is actually gonna surprise you

[@ringtail99]

@@buttertoast1146 oh shit so they will never be making any more aprences in the series but I think that they might have camious

[@buttertoast1146]

@@ringtail99 well rean will idk about lloyd

[@SharkLordProductions]

As a newcomer to Ys and Falcom, I must say... I did _not_ expect Hello Kitty to pop up while rock music plays in the background. That one came straight out of left field.

[@FelipeWalker2]

THE WORLD NEEDED THIS. So well done man, congrats on this, I hope you make more from Falcom.

[@mottower]

Wow. Didn't know Yuzo Koshiro had his beginnings here! I love his music, especially the one from Etrian Odyssey. Also didn't know that Minako Iwasaki came from Falcom too! The most surprising was Makoto Shinkai. I don't really like his movies, but damn didn't know he also started here. What an amazing company history. Props to you for making such a great video!

[@thetrin]

Wonderful historical retrospective on a company that I've loved for a long time. Kondo himself is a really interesting figure. Would love to meet him one day.

[@121597Luke]

Falcom is my favorite developer so seeing a highly researched and detailed video about their beginnings is an amazing gift. Thank you so much for all of the hard work you put into this. Thank you.

[@user-gz4ve8mw9l]

My favorite as well. In fact 97% of games I play anymore are purely Falcom games.

[@PikachuEXE1]

This level of details... I thought I was watching videos about gaming on Netflix Thank you for your effort!

[@squidjar7494]

this is straight up the most interesting video i've ever watched about game devs. nihon falcom's beginnings were super humble

[@sirdurpsalot4593]

Thank you for making this video! I already loved the falcom company, but this history made me love it even more! I hope their games will continue to grow in popularity in the west!

[@Haganeren]

I took so much time making my own (french) review of the Ys series, searching into interviews, image, japanese site and such, rewriting everything as i found more information... And i'm astonished by your video. Yeah, i detailled some stuff a bit more like the novels which actually have summary on the Internet or an actual prototype of Ys 1 where you could trade animal skin for money but in a whole, you said everything i ever said with ever greater detail... And i only made the Ys one ! You even documented the birth of Legend of HEroes and even Dragon Slayer which was like a little project of mine ! You even have video of the staff working on what i supposed being Ys 2 ! There is something weirdly emotional to see everything i understood by myself being told just here on this video in such an easy way... I'm incredibly impressed by this work, a tiny bit jealous i won't lie but I know how time consuming this works is and i can only say you have made an incredible job. Also, you have no idea how cool it is for me to have access to your source. I can believe you found so many cool artworks and video i didn't knew existed too ! Yes, maybe i will make another comment later, when i see the video a second time where i can pinpoint some stuff but really, that's just a fantastic documentary Edit : Oh yeah, since i didn't finished everything for my rewriting (i'm at the part of the rebirth of Falcom), i KNOW for sure that i found the director of Ys I & II Eternal pushing in order to make Ys VI happens instead of a remake of Ys III. He had a cool phrase, like "if we don't do anything Falcom will always be something from the past" but i can't for the life of me, find this source again. If you happens to know from where it is from.. Well... Don't hesitate.

[@jonahscott3196]

While falcom is my favourite company, they definitely have a lot of flaw when it come to management and their crediting. This hold true for many staff and their composers. Its sad that even now they are still this way and I hope they will change their way.

[@bowloflentils]

Yeah, making this video really made me realize that issue even more. Hopefully that is something that changes in the future.

[@McCaroni_Sup]

@@bowloflentils This is why Falcom has to cut corners sometimes. Just look at what happened with Singa and Falcom JDK. I love Falcom but they really need to be less stiff about stuff like this and be more adaptive. They also need to up their marketing game, just like they did back in the day.

[@blumiu2426]

@@McCaroni_Sup You have to remember the bubble back in the 80s that made that possible. Japan in not in the same state as it was, so they likely can't go that big, but are starting to build toward that again now with popularity in the West edging up. The music, if anything, will leave the biggest mark. With Cold Steel finished, they might be looking what more they can do with the Legend of Heroes franchise, and I hope something departed from what 4 games did already before stagnating. Ys is playing around with elements in the new game, though not sure how much more they plan to push the 3D world mechanics and combat. The last Xanadu was pretty mediocre, maybe because I didn't realize it was THAT Xanadu because modern day and felt like a lesser Cold Steel.

[@HarpoTheVillain]

Absolutely agreed. I love Falcom and they are a true artifact of a game developer, but in many ways, they deserved their misfortune.

[@TainoMoya]

I hope they improve these flaws.

[@MikrosChannel]

One of the best videos I've seen in a long a while. It's really incredible how much talent went away, but maybe it had to be this way, otherwise the Trails series might never have been a thing.

[@McCaroni_Sup]

I think it was worth it since Falcom is learning their lesson.

[@TainoMoya]

@@McCaroni_Sup i hope so

[@everyanybody]

I just want to watch this video over and over again, it's been executed so well!

[@mobiushills]

Watching this another time. One of my favorites, i just like listening to it. Excellent video.

[@Metoollhead]

What a detailed video! I had no idea Falcom went through so many bumps across their lifespan. But I suppose it's natural when you've been around for so many years. Thanks for making this!

[@TainoMoya]

Heh, bumps!

[@TejanoPendragon]

As someone who uses old Ys games as reference for the fact that Modern games (Dark Souls Included) are easy by comparison, it's weird to hear it referred to as the beginning of the Age of Kindness

[@TonyTonyRedgrave]

I feel the same way but I realized the windows era is where Ys got really hard with the higher difficulty options. That's where I started so I always think of Ys as being pretty hardcore, VI-Oath-Origin on the highest difficulties are crazy and Chronicles is pretty tough on nightmare as well. At the same time it remained very accessible/easy to understand as opposed to the often very obtuse games that the original Ys was comparing itself to.

[@windblade7082]

This was an incredibly well done video. I’ve been following Falcom since I first saw it for the TG-16 back in the day. When I lived in Japan I tried to go to the Falcom store but sadly it was already closed. Really great history of the Company and great storytelling.

[@raphaelcarbinatto]

What a great video. I was already quite knowledgeable about Falcom's history, but having this much interesting info presented in such a cozy way was a treat. My singular nitpick would be the pronunciation of some of the Japanese names but, as said: a nitpick. Absolutely fantastic work, man. If you are at all interested in the topic and eventually have the drive for another extensive endeavor, please consider making a similar video for Akitoshi Kawazu and the SaGa series!

[@zenoslime]

i was going to make the same nitpick about names (e.g. kato, said here like 'keito'), though it really only stands out because everything else is so good. so yeah, i'll just agree.

[@Andrew-Gomez904]

Amazing video man, this is what helped me start getting into the trails series. I've been putting it off because hearing that all 9 games are connected was a bit intimidating. But I started 2 days ago with Trails in the Sky and I'm really enjoying the slow burn and slow build up. Thank you again man

[@RoninXDarknight]

The Trails series is one of my favorite ever. Just got my copy of Cold Steel IV and can't wait to have time to start it!

[@andrewkos5560]

I've had this in my recommendations for about a month and I'm genuinely bummed I only clicked on it just now. Fantastic work.

[@Nashman2k24]

The very first falcom game I ever played was Y's book 1 & 2 on the turbo cd, And just to add this, 2020 has been a rough year for people, but this video brightened up my day and so far in 2020 I haven't had many of those, So sir to you, Thank you for the hard work you've put into this and thank you for making my day better with this interesting video Please keep up the good work

[@tchitchouan]

AMAZING DOCUMENTARY Been a fan of falcom for the longest time XANADU NEXT FTW

[@TheRyoshiin]

Absolutely one of the best gaming related video I've ever had the pleasure of watching.

[@Mal_Ah_Key]

Ridiculously comprehensive, well done on creating such a mammoth video.

[@guruthosamarthruin4459]

I'm a little shocked to see a video like this on such a small channel. I love stuff like this, and I'd love to see you continue to make these sorts of videos.

[@lune__]

Wow this was really good. Hope you continue to make more documentaries like this!

[@zzasdfwas]

Growing up in America, my only contact with Falcom was very limited: playing a rented Legacy of the Wizard, or briefly watching someone play a pirated Ys game on computer, which I couldn't understand the text of. But I do remember them saying that it was a very good game and a very special game for those in the know, as it wasn't something you could buy here. Somehow that name stuck with me, and I finally picked up Ys Oath of Felghana multiple decades later on steam. Way before, I got my hands on a pirated Vantage Master V2, which is such a great game that I don't know how it didn't catch on more. The visual style really fit the limited capabilities of windows at the time, which was totally unsuitable for action rpgs which would better run on DOS. I think the limitation probably caused them to branch into the more strategic realm including Lord Monarch. It totally needs a sequel for mobile.

[@Choops6969]

Absolutely excellent. Thank you so much for this.

[@solareflare47]

Dam Chaz are you a Falcom fan too? Would love to see some Falcom content from you honestly

[@firasin1891]

This is such an amazing video, giving a detailed and comprehensive look at such an understated behemoth that is nihon falcom when it comes to their contribution to videogames, of the past and present! Highly thankful for your work and research, but also the great presentation(script, visuals & music) making this so engaging. I'd love to see more of that from you!

[@nickwz]

the level of detail of this documentary especially in the early days is amazing, well done!

[@MaemiIshimura]

I am pretty much a You Tube lurker normally but I felt I needed to comment to tell you how much I appreciated this video! Amazing job!

[@MiBrCo4177]

I knew of Ys from TurboGrafX-16 and never got around to playing it growing up. (Played to much Blazing Lazers). But played Ys 1/2 on PSP and absolutely loved it! Been at it ever since!

[@Zero_Tester]

Had to comment again here because my old comment from old profile is gone due to "KZbin reason" Excellent video,the presentation is good and information is easy to digest,as longtime Famicom fan,i wholeheartly recommend this video to any new gen or younger Famicom fan👍

[@MajorPhilGraves]

I have to admit I was completely oblivious to Falcom's rich history. What an informative, wonderfully executed video. Your presentation and editing skills are seriously impressive. Would love to see more if time allows. :)

[@crystraiders356]

I'm watching this because Hazel gave it a shout out in her newest video and I'm so glad I did. This was a lovely watch

[@Victormunro]

Very nice! I'm really glad that Falcom never gave up during those hard times. Especially after losing their old employees. I know I would have. I would have never played the YS series if they gave up, and I really love the Ys series it's a blessing honestly!

[@ebbhead]

This is quite the comprehensive video, thanks so much for putting this all together! I owned both Legacy of the Wizard and Faxanadu in the late 80's/early 90's and remember enjoying both immensely as a kid. Surprisingly, I have little experience with any of the other Falcom series, and I love jRPGs/action RPGs. Even with Ys, I have only played the games for an hour or two at the most. I have a lot to look forward to!

[@mission-toast]

Couldn't stop watching. Amazing!

[@saltyoak8533]

Dispite the bumpy road for Falcom, it was very cozy and enlightening video. Thank you for your work!

[@sacta]

It's weird, the feeling of nostalgia this video gave me despite not having played a single game by this developer! Still, it was very interesting, and it made me weirdly happy to see Falcom pull through to this day

[@slamgolden3594]

Fantastic video. Rare to see an in-depth history like this, especially with japanese developers.

[@glowingmemories]

I adored this video. As a kid in the 80s loving so many games either influenced by Falcom or being developing by its former employees, it's so cool to see the whole world they'd built. Unfortunately, I never played any of the Ys games due to lack of accessibility. I was going to say I played Faxanadu on the NES but technically they shopped that one out. Still, it's all tremendously interesting and this was a joy to watch.

[@PrettyGuardian]

This was an amazing and thoughtful documentary level film. Thank you for teaching us so much about this beloved game developer!

[@sorcerian_bootleg7112]

Amazing video. I used to be a hardcore Falcom fan not so long ago, but their change of direction cranking up the horny dial, school life and harem turned me down. It's also a shame that nowadays they only make Ys and Kiseki titles, but i see it's not the first time. Before Ys IX was announced i hoped that "Project Nox" would be something different. I really would've liked so. But still, i'm looking forward for YS IX. BTW, Brandish the Dark Revenant was my first tile-based Dungeon Crawler ever and i loved it. :D Thanks for your effort!

[@gt6plus]

I like how a one time fan is now running the company.

[@enchiladaforfireemblemhero9302]

Great video! I love falcom games. I can't believe this was an hour because I was engaged the whole time

[@Douglas12ds54]

What a wonderful work. Please continue working on original documentary videos like those which you produces. I love them. Cheers from Brazil!

[@exalted2004]

I love these documentaries you make, they’re very informative and very interesting to watch. I enjoyed this one and watch it all even though it was long. Thanks for the information and entertainment!

[@skins4thewin]

Freaking fantastic video man! One of the best and most detailed I've ever seen about a company I know little about, but was always very curious about due to all of the fantastic tracks I've head of theirs over the years. It's just a shame that most of their titles lay behind a language barrier that I will never be able to traverse.... We NEED more fan translations of their earlier works!

[@anthracite9253]

"a language barrier that I will never be able to traverse" : you should never say "never". ;-) I am myself learning Japanese for two years, especially in order to play Japanese games that may never be translated, all on my own without any teacher nor language school, and that is not that hard, with a good method, daily learning/practice and good ressources (and a solid and sincere motivation of course). This language seems difficult because it is so different of Western languages like French, German or English, but actually this is just a matter of different language logic. To give you an idea of my progress, I started to play in Japanese about 18 months ago : at first, I only played video games that I knew very well, only in order to train myself on reading the kana instead of trying to understand texts. Then, month after month, I slowly increased my comprehension's ambition by playing videogames in Japanese. I started to learn Japanese when I played Tengai Makyou The 4th Apocalypse on Saturn, sick and tired of waiting for an English translation that would never happen, as many, many, many other obscure Japanese video games on Saturn, PC Engine, PC88, PC98, and so. I applied the following "proverb" : when we meet a poor man, we can give him a fish which would feed him just one day, but if we teach him about to catch fishes, he would be feeded for his entire life. Same for me : waiting for an unofficial translation would satisfy me for just one game (if this translation is even released), but if I learn Japanese, I would be satisfied for EVERY Japanese game : that is a real "freedom" ! :-)

[@Chronokatan]

Watching this video I realized that I own and played several of their games without being aware of their history or who is behind them. Currently player through the complete Legend of Heroes series (just started Cold Steel I). There had been points in the past I thought I am over and tired of JRPGs, but this series is so much fun, I am enjoying it way more than many other recent games, like Persona 5 for example.

[@maziio646]

"the perfect youtube video does not exi........" then i saw this one......DAMN

[@SoShiBias]

This is both beautiful and sad at the same time. Appreciate the video for kind of painting a picture that the staffs are actually the pillars of a company. Really a company with titles that have very distinct, classic Japan flavor. I've came across Ark of Napishtim on the PS2 back in the days and only played Ys I & II Chronicle+ on the PC in the year 2020. They've effectively put my eyes on the company now and I'm glad they are still kicking their own way. Now I understand that the question of "What is the play order of the Ys series?" is never that straightforward of a question lol.

[@krizthulhu]

What a fun and educational watch! Thanks for this. :D My first exposure to a Nihon Falcom game was in the 80's with Legacy of the Wizard for NES (Dragon Slayer IV: Drasle Family). I loved that damn game. Today I am a huge Kiseki fan.

[@silly5905]

Great video! I didn't know so many of the current RPG masterminds used to be a part of Falcom. Also, seeing all those old animated shorts and artworks in that signature 80s and 90s artstyle is really making me long for the old days...

[@MaidenHell1977]

Hey dude, this was absolutely incredible. I've been a fan of Nihon Falcom since the early 90s when I was introduced to the Ys and Dragon Slayer games on the TurboGrafx and of course Faxandu on the NES. But this was fantastic, really had no idea so many great programmers and composers and artists worked for this company over the last 4 decades. Extremely informative, beautiful presentation and a joy to watch. Cheers dude!

[@pedrozanon7245]

Amazing vidro, probably the best English video about Falcom on KZbin!

[@ACE0fFAITH437]

This was a fantastic video! I have a long history with Falcom games. You taught me things I didn’t even know about a company I love. Subbed!

[@kylegilland3673]

Thanks so much for this. I recently became incredibly interested in the Trails and Ys series, and learned a little about Falcon through my research, but it was after I just finished Tokyo Xanadu eX+ and realized it was a Falcom game, that I needed to know more. Your video was the perfect scratch for that itch, and I even learned some cool things about other developers and composers along the way, very cool stuff.

[@JerryFlowersIII]

I just finished Cold Steel II tonight. It is only the 4th game that made me cry. I have a fair amount of things I'd change about it but as a whole Cold Steel and Legend of Heroes are amazing games that have something very special about them. That something special, I would say, is the persistence of world events, growing up with the cast, and tiny bits of dialog here and there that touch your heart.

[@Cneq]

make sure to go back and play the sky and crossbell games before starting CS3 and beyond, both sky and crossbell are extremely vital going forward.

[@RewindArcade]

Excellent work, really enjoyed this! Definitely a company that gets forgotten way too often.

[@zeroXshinobi]

I grew up to dragon slayer on pc engine I didn’t know it was the first legend of heroes game Btw this is probably the best video game retrospective I’ve seen this year on KZbin keep it up!

[@007MrYang]

I don't know why I put off watching your videos when they popped up in my recommended. I guess I was afraid I would be spoiled on Sen no Kiseki or Tokyo Xanadu lol. This is easily one of my favorite channels on youtube now. Keep up the good work!

[@NothingHereForYou]

Started playing Tokyo Xanadu, and have been interested in Ys. Great video

[@RodrigoGarciaCarmona]

This is a truly outstanding video. Well researched and informative. Falcom is going through a resurgence right now, but you managed to point out both its historied past and its game design philosophy, and put everything in perspective. I've studied Falcom's history extensively but even I found things I didn't know in this video. Again, a great work.

[@Bole_ZG]

Excellent video. Watched whole video in one sitting is rare for me, but this is really informative video. Hope you will keep doing this!

[@Grayheart]

Thanks for this fantastic and informative video. I played some of the Cold Steel games without knowing the history of the company and after watching this video it makes me appreciate their games even more.

[@KlausRealta]

Nice work on the video! It was pretty interesting learning about how Falcom grew early on, especially in their pre-Dragon Slayer days.

[@merdochsaint2409]

love you happy to see more content coming out

[@Diorphe]

Also your channel is great, happy to see someone making archives of such niche things, you have a subscriber for life.

[@ranzorr]

Great research and edition. As a longtime Falcom fan, I found this impressively thorough and informative.

[@stephanemarsot2947]

I'm french and i was waiting for a so interesning and complete video with Nihon Falcom for subject. Thanks a lot this video was for me a wonderful moment i learned a lot of things on my favorite rpg franchise SO COOL!!!!

[@Skims19]

I just have to say this is an amazing documentary definitely a lot of love and time put in from this and I’d love to see more content from you. Ever since the wii virtual console release of Ys Book 1 and 2 I have been a big fan of Falcom. It was really insane just how much bigger Falcom is though, the Xeno series is one of my favorite game series of all time and Your Name is one of my top 5 favorite movies of all time and they were both due to the creators’ success at Falcom

[@MaxOVADrive]

Impressive amount of research went into this. Great mini-documentary!

[@TripMX]

This is an excellent and beautiful historical and informative documentary about Falcom! Bowl of Lentils, you have done an awesome job, thank you very much! Also, I had absolute NO IDEA that Vantage Masters (card game in The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III) was originally its own game! That was mind-blowing for me! :o