Not every anniversary is always a reason to celebrate at companies. Nintendo was noticeably quiet throughout Legend of Zelda’s 35th recently, but Nihon Falcom does things differently. A special broadcast for the 40th anniversary is scheduled for 11am GMT, and will be hosted by President Toshihiro Kondo, who looks back on the company’s long history in RPGs. And what a history that is.
Nihon Falcom opened on March 9, 1982 and was an early pioneer of RPGs, mainly focused on Japanese personal computers. Nihon Falcom doesn’t usually get the same love as other major publishers – Square Enix and Atlus, for example, are more famous in the West – but throughout history it has successfully developed devoted cult status.
After early efforts like Panorama island, Nihon Falcom’s first big hit came in 1984 with dragon slayer, a franchise that would eventually culminate in The Legend of Heroes and Tokyo XanaduThe latter has not been seen since 2015, but Legend of Heroes has gained wide acclaim for its impressive world build. It eventually led to the “Trails” sub-series, best known on Nintendo platforms Trails of Cold Steel
We cannot ignore Nihon Falcom’s efforts in defining the action RPG genre, which is often attributed to YsThis series started in 1987 with the adventures of the red-haired adventurer Adol Christin Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished, arriving at Famicom a year later. Today, Ys has appeared on Switch with Ys origin Lacrimosa from DANA, and the next Monstrum Nox
These releases highlight a recent shift with Nihon Falcom. After only sporadically appearing on Nintendo consoles, the last decade has seen a much more active push, even if release dates aren’t particularly stable compared to the PlayStation and PC versions.
So, what can we expect from this broadcast? Well, we wouldn’t count on Western news as NIS America generally handles the publishing duties here. It appears to be a fan-driven affair for the most part, although new information will be shown on it as well Kuro no Kiseki, the latest entry from Legend of Heroes.
We’re hoping for news on a Switch edition, but while we wait for further details, we’d like to wish Nihon Falcom a happy 40th anniversary. With Monstrum Nox only later this year, we can at least look forward to it Trails of Cold Steel IV arrives on Switch next month.