(Those links, and any other translation ones, are just to the patch for the ROM, not the ROM files themselves.) This one is Japan-exclusive, for the X1, PC-88, PC-98, MSX, and MSX2 platforms, though, there are fan translations for the MSX and MSX2 versions of the game. Xanadu Scenario II: An expansion pack for Dragon Slayer II, released on the PC-88, PC-98, and FM-7, and yes, it has its own available ROM, too.ĭragon Slayer Jr./Romancia: Considered to be Dragon Slayer III because two names wasn’t enough, it’s a simpler version of an action RPG, Romancia gives you 30 minutes to complete the entire time, and if you fail to complete it in that time, it restarts. The most important thing to read, though, is the manual or a guide, as Dragon Slayer isn’t exactly full of intuitive gameplay, given it’s the first game of its kind and older than I am. Oddly enough, the game only released for the Japanese Saturn despite the English setting, but if you have a modded Saturn or a working Saturn emulator, you can still find and play the English version of the Falcom classic within. It released on most of the systems Falcom typically developed for at the time - PC-88, FM-7, X1, and also the MSX - but it would take until the Falcom Classics compilation released for the Sega Saturn in 1997 for an English-translated version to exist. Dragon Slayer used the bump combat that would eventually be used in Ys, so even though Ys isn’t part of the franchise, it was still heavily influenced by it.Īnd yet… Dragon Slayer has never received a North American release. Dragon Slayer, a top-down role-playing game, was the start, then Xanadu and The Legend of Heroes were both Dragon Slayer titles before launching their own franchises, and the Trails subseries eventually spun out of Legend of Heroes, too. Dragon Slayer is massively influential, as it’s the series that spawned an entire genre - the action role-playing game - and also the start of what would end up becoming multiple other spinoff series. 1984ĭragon Slayer: And here is where the Falcom you know arose from - i.e., there are actually Wikipedia pages for most of their games from here on out, a huge step up from “even Giant Bomb hasn’t filled out a description page yet” - even if you aren’t familiar with this series. This is the only game Falcom released on the former. SSGN Covert Cruise Special Attack Strategy: Fun note, the FM-8 actually predated the FM-7. Between Mahjong, a space shooter, and “erotic puzzler,” the bingo card for small early 80s Japanese video game developers is already nearly full. Private Stripper, an erotic puzzler, also released on the FM-7 and PC-9801. This also released on the Sharp X1.īird Land, Computer the Golf, Horror House, Super Horoscope Kanji Version, Private Stripper, Panorama Island, Horror House Part II: Every one of these released for the PC-88, and like with Galactic Wars, you can find the ROMs, which again, are in Japanese. Sharp X1 emulators exist, however, so if you dig deep enough, you can surely find a nearly 40-year-old Mahjong video game, too.Ĭosmo Fighter II: A first-person space shooter, which does not sound much like the Falcom we know today. Super Mahjong: This game released for the Sharp X1, and even Giant Bomb’s extensive database doesn’t have a filled out entry for it. Consider this something of a road map to Nihon Falcom’s 40 years of history, the point of which is to tell you what’s available and where. Given how much effort I have put toward getting as many of Falcom’s games as is possible so I could play them, I figured that, to celebrate their 40th, I’d share my notes with y’all. I was a little late to the Falcom game, myself, in large part due to the lack of availability of these games on platforms I had when I was younger, so I’ve spent quite a bit of time in my 30s digging through Ebay, digital storefronts, mini consoles, and the emulation space in order to make up for that - Trails in the Sky was my first Falcom game, and that was enough to sell me on looking for more from them. Sadly, nowhere near the full library of Falcom titles is available on modern platforms, or even in English - huge chunks of Falcom’s history, even the parts that made it from PC to consoles, are either somewhat lost to history or are only available in Japanese, as neither the publishers of Falcom’s games nor fan translators have gotten around to changing that. Nihon Falcom, one of the most influential and vital developers of Japanese role-playing games, turned 40 years old back in March, and they’ve been celebrating for most of the year by having a whole bunch of their games on sale throughout most of it.
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