Nihon Falcom - Overview

Overview

Falcom were one of the three most important Japanese role-playing video game developers in the 1980s, alongside Enix and Square, both of which were influenced by Falcom. Falcom's flagship titles include the Dragon Slayer, The Legend of Heroes and Ys series. In the 1980s, these franchises, particularly Dragon Slayer, were responsible for setting the template for the action role-playing game genre, and laying the foundations for the Japanese role-playing game industry. Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu (1985) had more than 400,000 copies sold, making it the best-selling PC game up until that time.

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

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