The Early History of Falcom

Рет қаралды 181,394

Күн бұрын

This is a video where I talk about the early history of Nihon Falcom, covering about the first 30 years of their output.
I've been a fan of Falcom's Trails series for a while and always found the company's history to be very interesting since they have been around for so long, releasing their first games during the genesis of the industry in Japan. I started researching their history just to learn more about the company and, over time, it eventually turned into this hour long video. This ended up being a huge project that I spent about 4-5 months working on and is by far the longest video I've ever made. Hopefully it is informative and enjoyable. If I goofed up any of my facts, please let me know. Also, in order to keep things concise, I did not overview the stories or dive deep into the gameplay mechanics of Falcom's titles and instead focused on their development and the impact they had on the industry.
----Chapters----
00:00 - Introduction
01:40 - Falcom's Prehistory (1981-1985)
12:19 - The Rise of Falcom (1985-1988)
22:19 - Falcom's Great Exodus (1988-1990)
27:41 - New Legends and the End of an Era (1991-1995)
38:35 - DEATH & REBIRTH (1996-2005)
49:41 - The End of the PC (2006-2010)
56:19 - Conclusion
----Sources----
The list was too long to fit in the description so you can read the full list in my blog post here: www.giantbomb.com/profile/bow...
I do not know Japanese so, if I got any of these facts wrong, let me know.
----Helpful Resources----
Amusement Center’s Falcom Museum
h-eba Gagharv Trilogy Japanese Fan Site
Falcom Music Channel
Falcom Official Corporate Timeline
Falcom Sub-Reddit
Falcom Staff Roll Wiki
Game Catalog: From Masterpieces to Kusoge Wiki
Longplay Archive
I Love Falcom Chinese Fan Site
Neo Kobe PC88 and PC98 Archives
Nihon Falcom Japanese Wikipedia Page
The Falcom Chronicle (2011)
Psyzans’ Archive of Ys and Falcom Information
The Falcom Museum Japanese Fan Site
Scans of Japanese Game Magazines on Archive Dot Org
Sega Retro
Shumplations
VGDensetsu
World of Longplays
Ys Music Files Japanese Fan Site
----Music----
Falcom Special Box '89 - Fly With Me (Ys I PSG Version)
The Legend of Xanadu - Church (Super Arrange Version)
The Legend of Xanadu OST - Shop
The Legend of Xanadu OST - New Companions
Falcom Classics - Dragon Slayer Field
Xanadu - La Valse Pour Xanadu Ending
Anthem - Xanadu
Xanadu Scenario II - Mapleford
Romancia - Opening
Ys - Feena (PC-88)
Legacy of the Wizard - Overworld Theme
Sorcerian - Castle Let's Meet Here (PC-88)
Star Trader - The Logic of Shooters (X68000)
Ys II - Smile Again (Vocal Version)
Ys III - A Premonition Styx (PC-88)
Dinosaur - Spirit Hymm
Legend of Heroes - Game Over (PC-88)
Popful Mail - Jungle (Super Arrange Version)
Popful Mail - Cave (Super Arrange Version)
YS IV: Mask of the Sun - Pass Ruins (Mega CD)
The Legend of Xanadu - Legend of the Wind (Super Arrange Version)
The Legend of Xanadu - The Silent Shore
The Legend of Heroes III - The White Witch Gueld (PC-88)
The Legend of Heroes III - Little Heroes Julio and Chris' Great Adventure (PC-88)
Ys V - Sinister Shadow
Vantage Master - A Quiet Purity
Kaze no Tansakusha: Grand Slam - Title Theme
The Legend of Heroes V - Town of the Eternal People
Zwei!! - Mythical Land Serpentina
Ys VI - Release of the Far West Ocean
Trails in the Sky - Sophisticated Fight
VM Japan - Opening Theme
Ys V - Field of Gale
Trails in the Sky the 3rd - Aster House
Zero no Kiseki - Title Theme
Trails of Cold Steel II - To A Glimmering Tomorrow
----3rd Party Videos----
Again the list was too long so you can see the full list here: www.giantbomb.com/profile/bow...
If anyone is unhappy about me using their footage let me know.
----Extras----
While researching for this video I dug through a bunch of old Japanese magazines on Archive Dot Org and collected an assortment of Falcom advertisements. You can see all the ads I found here: www.giantbomb.com/profile/bow...
I also collected Falcom's news letters from Micom Basic Magazine which you can view here: www.giantbomb.com/profile/bow...

Пікірлер: 740

@bowloflentils Жыл бұрын

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 Жыл бұрын

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

@spacebeaglewithcheese 22 күн бұрын

Thank you for the updates and corrections!

@ultimate_batdave7425 10 күн бұрын

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 9 күн бұрын

@@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 Жыл бұрын

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.

@casekocsk 3 жыл бұрын

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 2 ай бұрын

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

@tats_sacs 3 жыл бұрын

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 3 жыл бұрын

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

@KAZ64OST 3 жыл бұрын

What☹️

@joesterling4299 2 жыл бұрын

@@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 2 жыл бұрын

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 2 жыл бұрын

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 🙃

@zzasdfwas 3 жыл бұрын

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 2 ай бұрын

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 3 жыл бұрын

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 9 ай бұрын

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.

@panagiotisgoulas8539 3 жыл бұрын

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 Жыл бұрын

Yeah, he almost killled his own company with that attitude

@Indigo_Gaming 2 жыл бұрын

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

@Rawhaki 2 жыл бұрын

Indigo Gaming!

@MinkDaddy 3 жыл бұрын

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 Жыл бұрын

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 Жыл бұрын

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

@flameocto42069 Жыл бұрын

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

@ltb1345 7 ай бұрын

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

@IsaacG8 3 жыл бұрын

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 3 жыл бұрын

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 3 жыл бұрын

Agreed, I had no idea about that!

@realnlyp 2 жыл бұрын

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

@joesterling4299 2 жыл бұрын

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

@FloPe97 2 жыл бұрын

@@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)

@EricVanWilderman 3 жыл бұрын

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 3 жыл бұрын

i do believe xanadu next was the peak of the series

@quentiny5372 3 жыл бұрын

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

@hiro6164 3 жыл бұрын

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

@zenoslime 3 жыл бұрын

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 3 жыл бұрын

@@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.

@user-ls9ux7yd3w 3 жыл бұрын

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。

@Pan_Z 3 жыл бұрын

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

@TheKisekiNut 3 жыл бұрын

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 3 жыл бұрын

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 3 жыл бұрын

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 7 ай бұрын

@@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.

@Randhrick 3 жыл бұрын

I'm a huge Falcom fan but never knew all this, not a lot of information is known about them for us English speaking fans. You did a stellar job on the video.

@Randhrick 2 жыл бұрын

@Keith Courage RX-78-2 Not really, I never could get into that series, I played Trails of Cold Steel 1 and 2 and that was enough, too bad Falcom applied the LoH formula to the newer Ys games I wish they would make another old school Ys game

@Zazzaro703 3 жыл бұрын

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 3 жыл бұрын

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

@Walamonga1313 2 жыл бұрын

@@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

@Richardlikespies 3 жыл бұрын

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

@cartoongamermatt9077 3 жыл бұрын

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.

@OriginalReVozero 3 жыл бұрын

I very rarely comment on KZfaq 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 🤙

@JoshyGoodtime1 3 жыл бұрын

This is possibly one of the best video game documentaries on KZfaq. 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.

@jonahscott3196 3 жыл бұрын

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 3 жыл бұрын

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

@McCaroni_Sup 3 жыл бұрын

@@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 3 жыл бұрын

@@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 3 жыл бұрын

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

@TainoMoya 3 жыл бұрын

I hope they improve these flaws.

@Burning_Orpheus 3 жыл бұрын

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

@TainoMoya 3 жыл бұрын

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

@aichistarburst3333 3 жыл бұрын

That pleasantly surprised me too

@HProtagVtuber 3 жыл бұрын

Bro nice profile pic and banner

@CloudStrifeXBL 10 ай бұрын

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.

@Megaman12Protoman14 3 жыл бұрын

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.

@SharkLordProductions 3 жыл бұрын

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.

@grayson8633 3 жыл бұрын

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!

@TejanoPendragon 3 жыл бұрын

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 Жыл бұрын

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.

@deadyrockspin 3 жыл бұрын

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 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you :)

@ignaziomignogna 3 жыл бұрын

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

@skins4thewin 3 жыл бұрын

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

@blumiu2426 3 жыл бұрын

@@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 3 жыл бұрын

@@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.

@bowloflentils 3 жыл бұрын

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 3 жыл бұрын

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 3 жыл бұрын

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

@davidk.8686 3 жыл бұрын

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 3 жыл бұрын

@@davidk.8686 Lol agreed

@bowloflentils 3 жыл бұрын

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

@glowingmemories Ай бұрын

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.

@Cneqq 3 жыл бұрын

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 3 жыл бұрын

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

@buttertoast1146 3 жыл бұрын

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

@ringtail99 3 жыл бұрын

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

@buttertoast1146 3 жыл бұрын

@@ringtail99 well rean will idk about lloyd

@FelipeWalker2 3 жыл бұрын

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

@121597Luke 3 жыл бұрын

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 5 ай бұрын

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

@sirdurpsalot4593 3 жыл бұрын

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!

@merdochsaint2409 3 жыл бұрын

love you happy to see more content coming out

@tchitchouan 3 жыл бұрын

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

@zzasdfwas 3 жыл бұрын

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.

@kyleminton9065 3 жыл бұрын

This is really good. Looking forward to more mini-documentaries!

@retroremy 3 жыл бұрын

The best video I have seen this year, excellent job on the presentation and very informative 👍

@everyanybody 3 жыл бұрын

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

@Diorphe 3 жыл бұрын

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

@LightFykki 3 жыл бұрын

This is such an informative and a great put video. You did an amazing job, I can only imagine how much time it took to get all that information, footage and to put it together.

@firasin1891 3 жыл бұрын

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!

@TheCodingGamer 3 жыл бұрын

This was really well done, and super informative! Subbed and keep it up

@theflyingninja1 3 жыл бұрын

Amazing work and great research! Thank you for taking the time and trouble to make this video.

@RememberTheAGES 3 жыл бұрын

What a fantastic video! I learned so much about a company that I have enjoyed mostly through the Ys series. Even though the video was nearly an hour long, I was fixated to watch more! Excellent work with everything, I loved this!

@SRUFUS3D 3 жыл бұрын

Fantastic video, man. I learned much from it and it was very well researched and enjoyable to watch.

@Murasame 3 жыл бұрын

So good, you deserve tons more subscribers! Look forward to the next!

@lune__ 3 жыл бұрын

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

@exalted4697 3 жыл бұрын

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!

@DalamSCO 3 жыл бұрын

Very nice video. Sat down to watch the entire thing, and enjoyed it. Thanks for it!

@GamingWithSpoons 3 жыл бұрын

This was an incrediblely well done video. I hope to see Falcom continue to succeed and continue to be humble towards there fans.

@marcobrunato2523 3 жыл бұрын

Just chiming in to thank you for this awesome effort. Great work!

@Douglas12ds54 3 жыл бұрын

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

@HKDon 3 жыл бұрын

This was amazing watch, I've always been curious with Falcom, and it was very informative watching the history of this company, great job!

@Midboss87 3 жыл бұрын

This video is insanely informative. Great work!

@Aethral 3 жыл бұрын

Great documentary man. Super well researched and presented

@Mal_Ah_Key 3 жыл бұрын

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

@ranzorr 3 жыл бұрын

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

@adrianotrancoso1303 3 жыл бұрын

Simply fantastic! Waiting for more like that!

@ghost_dog97 3 жыл бұрын

This was an hour well spent. Thank you

@RewindArcade 3 жыл бұрын

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

@kylegilland3673 3 жыл бұрын

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.

@nickwz 3 жыл бұрын

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

@dannylachman1 3 жыл бұрын

Very well-researched video. The attention to detail is impeccable, keep up the great work!!! I'm subscribing!

@PrettyGuardian 2 жыл бұрын

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

@PikachuEXE1 3 жыл бұрын

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

@chibiarchervr 3 жыл бұрын

thanks for this awesome video. It was very informative. You must have worked hard to gather all this information. This video feels so professional. Love it

@Lifeless14 3 жыл бұрын

i am at a loss for words to describe how much i liked this

@MaxOVADrive 3 жыл бұрын

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

@windblade7082 3 жыл бұрын

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.

@inphamoustv3809 3 жыл бұрын

Outstanding video. Very well researched, structured and also very well narrated. The 5 months of work that you put in really shows, something that you can be very proud of. I'm looking forward to more videos like this. Keep up the good work :)

@misterkefir 2 жыл бұрын

S-tier video my dude. Super interesting history and well delivered. Cheers!

@RoninXDarknight 3 жыл бұрын

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!

@HellFireRPGs 3 жыл бұрын

Great video. Well researched and very informative. Keep it up!

@Venoix 3 жыл бұрын

It's obvious that you put a lot of time and thought into this video as it's very well researched and put together. Thank you for your efforts. I think this is a great video that any fan of The Legend of Heroes or Ys series should watch, to gain a better understanding of the history of Falcom. Great work!

@JakeBorchenko Жыл бұрын

What a documentary! Thanks for putting this together.

@Bole_ZG 3 жыл бұрын

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

@brunoserra1531 3 жыл бұрын

Great documentary, well made, informative and entertaining. Thank you.

@Rod_Silva 3 жыл бұрын

Congratulations on this video! That's a great job right here. First video I've watched from the channel, keep up this amazing work! You deserve more views and subscribers.

@TheXDanielify 3 жыл бұрын

What a great video! As a new Trails Fan this was very interesting, thanks for your efforts! :)

@yousefalabed3846 2 жыл бұрын

Man i have enjoyed your video more than some actual movies i have seen, absolutely great work !

@RodrigoGarciaCarmona 3 жыл бұрын

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.

@FLIK510 2 жыл бұрын

Amazing vid, one of the best fan docs i've seen

@sinigangs6999 Жыл бұрын

this was such a fantastic and in-depth video. i really enjoyed your voice and the way you were able to tell Nihon Falcom's history :)

@boldknock7436 3 жыл бұрын

Ive been listening to a lot of falcom music from the 80s-90s for about a year now, so this video is nice for understanding the history of the company is really nice. Thanks for this docummentary dude, this was really good.

@alderic 3 жыл бұрын

Great video and amazing work!

@Arthur-mz9kb 3 жыл бұрын

Man i am just continuously shareing this video; its without a doubt a must watch for any jrpg fan. Thank you truely, we could see your dedication and hardwork on this video. Hopefully it will reach 1 mil+

@kaiserrino8774 3 жыл бұрын

A magnificent video. This is the stuff, what keeps me watching videos on KZfaq.

@Skims19 3 жыл бұрын

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

@KlausRealta 3 жыл бұрын

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

@rodneylives 3 жыл бұрын

I'm only four minutes into this so far but it's terrific! Great job!

@statesminds 2 жыл бұрын

Wow this was amazing. Falcom is legendary and one of my favorites. Was interesting learning even more than I already knew!

@bakem0n0 3 жыл бұрын

Superb work. Thanks for making this.

@mottower 3 жыл бұрын

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!

@cristobalp.8758 11 ай бұрын

this was truly an outstanding video, I love it!

@MiBrCo4177 2 ай бұрын

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!

@seemangalbj 3 жыл бұрын

Very informative video, great work.

@alvarocn7996 3 жыл бұрын

Great video, enjoyed every moment! Nihon Falcom is my favorite developer because of Ys, Trails and Tokyo Xanadu, but I didn't knew about their early history and there's not a lot of videos/articles about them in the west. Thanks for it! 😁

@stzsch 3 жыл бұрын

I don't usually comment on videos but oh my. I've been really disillusioned with youtube lately, but then I'm greeted with this gem of a channel in my recommendations. I've been looking at your past videos and it's surprise after surprise. They're insanely well made, and you're just my kind of nerd in so many ways.