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Message: [QUOTE="Haganeren, post: 192486, member: 29640"] If you want to FEEL Ys Origins it's way better to began with Ys I & II on Steam. The mystery will be even better. Going Ys Origins => Ys I & II is weird, you feel like the characters are written differently. Ys I especially is a 1987 game, it's like playing the first Zelda game but still very enjoyable because it was remade from the ground. [automerge]1746351949[/automerge] ... Well except you don't have the whole "harem" thing since the MC is a girl and it's very much appreciated as far as i'm concerned. It makes the team interact more with each other and not just with the MC. Also, you don't have "optional event you have to chose so you know they won't have any importance because maybe a player wouldn't see them" which, same, is way more logical in a series where the main feature is to have a very cohesive world that you see from game to game. [automerge]1746357232[/automerge] Falcom is really a fascinating company, i made a LOT of big article in French back in the day that i try to complete from time to time... There is really six big era of Falcom. [B]The "Kato" era [/B] "Kato" was their star developer back in the day, a programmer that never wanted to make the same game twice, he is an interesting fellow that escaped the game industry when it become too boring for him. The main series of Falcom at the time was "Dragon Slayer" which is really "all the game Kato made", they don't share much in common... Dragon Slayer 2 : "Xanadu" was their big success at the time is basically unplayable by today standard ( you have finite ressource and monster so you can't just train into oblivion which is the BIG difficulty of the game ) ; But give a try to the first "Dragon Slayer", a 1984 Action RPG ( ? ) game and PC-88 which is more like a Boulder Dash really. You get treasure and put them back to your house, you can even push your house around and try to destroy monster by XP a bit. It feels old but it's surprisingly addictive. Also, the Metroidvania Dragon Slayer IV is surprisingly easy to play. During that era they made Ys I & II on PC 88 which are legendary, i especially LOVE the feel and the investigation in the first Ys. I think it's too bad modern version don't come with the very cool backstory of Ys at the time ( you can search "Ys I Ancient Ys Vanished (Manual)(JP)(PC 88) + Translated Backstory" on google to have it ) it really gives a "feel" of what Ys was at the time. It's very funny to know that Falcom still followed this book until recently by going into Altago, Celceta.. Just like this backstory told us about ! [CENTER] [ATTACH type="full" size="640x400"]65620[/ATTACH] [I]"Kato" made a lot of strange experimentation in a time where RPGs wasn't as well defined. Dragon Slayer is a surprisingly still fun boulder dash like game.[/I][/CENTER] [B]The Desert PC era. [/B] Most of the people making Ys I & II ( and III but the credits won't tell you ) escaped from the company probably because they weren't paid enough but also because they were fed up doing PC-88 games where they wanted to make cool console game. Those guys like Tomoyashi Miyazaki and Masaya Hashimoto made Quintet with legendary games on SNES ( ActRaiser Illusion of Time, Terranigma... ) but that's another story. Falcom tried to keep Kato ( even lying about its involment in Legend of Heroes II a not too bad Dragon Quest-like game that they made at a time ) It's a messy time, full of remake because Falcom just didn't had the ressource to make a game. Still, somehow, they were able to contact the right person Hudson which made the legendary remake of Ys I & II on PC Engine CD. This is why Hudson made Ys IV : Dawn of Ys on PC Engine CD ( and another one did the SNES version ) : because they couldn't do it themselves. Still, they managed to get a team to make games on PC Engine CD like Legend of Xanadu or stay on PC and make a game that would change everything for them : Legend of Heroes III : Prophecy of the Moonlight Witch on PC-98. It wasn't a Dragon Quest clone like the two before but more like a RPG which is actually like a Visual Novel thing with TONS of text. Even the battle are automated ! ( And badly automated at that... ) It was a big success because of its poetic writing. [CENTER] [ATTACH type="full" size="643x400"]65621[/ATTACH] [I]To be honest, it could be called the "Hudson era" but this little game changed everything. Legend of Heroes III : Prophecy of the Moonlight Witch was transalted on PSP years after but i'm really waiting for the fan translation of the PC version.[/I][/CENTER] [B]The Remake and Publishing era.[/B] Somehow, Falcom lost the scenarists and employees that made Legend of Heroes III IV and V... Yes again and this time i don't really know why. And again, they were becoming an empty company only publishing korean RPG in order to survive. Fortunately, it worked and they were able to hire an internal team to adapt basically old their old games on PC. It includes the Legend of Heroes games, hidden stuff like Dinosaur, and of course Ys I & II Eternal that is the first game i really played from them just as we got a fan translation. [CENTER] [ATTACH type="full" size="1024x768"]65622[/ATTACH] [I]It was a time for remakes... But also publishing strange korean RPG i should go around and play some of them.[/I][/CENTER] It lasted something like 4-5 years, and they found again very talented persons to bring them to : [B]The late 2000 renaissance era[/B] In the team that made all those remakes they were Toshihiro Kondo, a big fan of Legend of Heroes III that wanted to be in his dream company at all cost... And succeeded. Instead of doing an Ys 3 Eternal like the direction wanted, him and the team was able to convince them that they couldn't just make remake again and again to be relevant. So Kondo made the scenario for Ys VI : The Ark of Nephitism and of course Legend of Heroes : Trails in the Sky. ( with suspeciously common stuff to Acturus a korean RPG they published ) It was the revival for the company both very good game with very good success on PC. Most of the Falcom title you will be recommended today will come from this silver ( or golden ? ) age that actually only lasted 5 years ! Ys The Oath in Felghana, Ys Origins, Trails in the Sky Second Chapter, Gurumin, Xanadu Next and more ! All comes from that era which is the most beloved for a lot of people thanks to XSEED that went back to their catalog and started to translate everything 10 years later. [CENTER] [ATTACH type="full" size="800x600"]65623[/ATTACH] [I]So much good game from that era...[/I][/CENTER] At the time XSEED explored that era however, Falcom was already on something else [B]The PSP console era[/B] So, basically, they found that the console portage of Trails in the Sky were doing VERY well on PSP, way more than on PC so they started making game specifically for it.... A bit like when they started making game for the PC Engine CD after its remake was so well received. At first, they were testing the ground, like Zweii II and Ys Seven was two Ys games at the start one on PC the other on PSP. In the end though they decided to only keep the PSP games on the Ys franchise. Then they decided to make the follow up of Legend of Heroes as a PSP game, again, with a lot of cautions. It would take place in a little country Crossbell instead of taking place in the big Empire like they wanted to at the start so if the game didn't go well they could go back to their original plan. But it worked ! So yeah, they made unique games like Gurumin or Nayuta no Kiseki. A Cross over game game Legend of Heroes vs Ys and of course follow up like Ao no Kiseki or Ys Memories of Celceta on PS Vita. At that moment, they stopped making PC games which is kinda huge for them as they lost their first team because they didn't wanted to go on console like they wanted. So if you see a PC port on steam of those game it's usually a korean version that was modified for us. [CENTER] [ATTACH type="full" size="480x272"]65625[/ATTACH] [I]The PSP unique title feels like a continuation of the previous era. Lot of cool little games all around but harder to get since it's on PSP...[/I][/CENTER] [B]The Moderne Console Era[/B] Trails of Cold Steel on 2013 was the game that put Falcom on the big console market ( even if it started as a PSP game funnily enough). At the time, XSEED wasn't the one that published them like before but NISA instead which is kinda sad because they were very passionate about them. It wasn't easy at first, we all remember the HORRIBLE first translation of Ys VIII which was patched ever since. Falcom doesn't have any more hiccups ever since. They still makes great games even if they are very similar to each other. Now Ys feels like a Legend of Heroes game with action, the newest Legend Through Daybreak ( that i really liked after the lackuster Cold Steel IV ) incorporate action fight so it feels more like a Ys and the only game they made that weren't those two series is Tokyo Xanadu feel like a fusion between Ys and Legend of Heroes with a current day setting. [CENTER] [ATTACH type="full" size="1920x1080"]65627[/ATTACH] Modern day Falcom is good, i loved Trails Through Daybreak ! But still... we don't have the abundance of unique title that other era had...[/CENTER] Still, from Falcom perceptive it's an era of prosperity and their current team didn't quit them yet so maybe it's good ? So yeah, i don't know what took me to basically made a summary of my articles in english on the second page of a thread but hope people will enjoy it ! Hope there is no mistake, i took all that from my memory... [automerge]1746359413[/automerge] ( I would have loved to separate the answer and the historic into two messages... ) [/QUOTE]

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