#AO NO KISEKI PC CD KEY SERIES#
The first game in the series came to the United States in the form of Ys: The Vanished Omens for the Sega Master System and Ancient Land of Ys for DOS. It's as though they'd rather do things their way than make insane amounts of money. I get the impression they want to avoid having any kind of direct relationship with Nintendo. In the 2010s they shifted their focus to build for the PlayStation 4 and again left Switch ports to 3rd parties. If their Trails in the Sky series was built for the DS I suspect it would have been a massive success.
#AO NO KISEKI PC CD KEY PORTABLE#
The PlayStation Portable is the highest selling portable system not made by Nintendo but by choosing it over the PlayStation 2 and DS they passed on a lot of sales. They developed over a dozen games for the PlayStation Portable. The PlayStation Portable though, now there's a system they got behind. The PlayStation 2 and Nintendo DS are two of the highest selling game consoles ever but they have very few Falcom titles, all of which are ports by 3rd parties. On the PlayStation and Saturn there are collections of Falcom games but no new titles. That may have been a good idea for Japan but left their games obscure in the US. In the 16-bit era this resulted in ports to the TurboGrafx-16 CD being released before the Genesis or Super Nintendo. In the 1980s-1990s they only developed PC games and left console adaptations to 3rd party licensees. They also seem to be completely opposed to conventional wisdom. Regardless of experience level, any gamer can instantly master the controls of a Falcom title and start exploring at their own pace. Considering most of the their games began as a PC title this shows commitment on their part to keeping things simple.
The majority of their games only use 2-4 buttons even on systems with more available. They pair these advanced worlds with minimalist play mechanics. Every location sports a distinct and often lively tune. They layer a rich soundtrack on top of it all. They pay attention to every detail of the landscape making the environment seem alive. They create detailed worlds with well thought out characters and storylines. I won't claim that I'll get everything perfect but I'll do my best.įalcom games are a contrast of complexity and simplicity. OK, I suppose Wikipedia has already accomplished that so I'll take this a different direction and add some brief reviews while attempting to explain how these map to original Japanese releases. This article is an attempt to catalog all the American releases of Falcom games. All we can do is hope they choose a competent one who won't butcher things too badly. Instead they've relied on an array of different publishers to translate and ship their games. They don't have a US division and seem content to live without one. You see new titles launch in Japan and wonder when, or if, you'll ever get to play them in English. It's not like they weren't making new titles, so very few of them were making it across the ocean.īeing an American fan of Falcom games is difficult. Little did I know that I would wait years in between new releases. Again it was a different style of game and again it was outstanding.įrom that point forward I decided to buy every Falcom game I could find. I saw their logo on another game called " Legend of Heroes: Dragon Slayer" and picked it up too. I didn't know much about this Falcom company except that I thoroughly enjoyed the first two games of theirs that I tried. Then I went after the sequel, different play style but a spectacular experience all the same. Ys Book I&II was a pack-in game and I logged many hours on it. I had to get this game for myself.īefore long the Turbo Duo was released and I bought it immediately. In an instant I was drawn in by the soundtrack, storytelling cut-scenes, and simple play control. I went over to his house one evening and tried something called "Ys Book I&II" on it. I was a Sega Genesis fanboy while a good friend translated his summer of mowing lawns into a TurboGrafx-16 CD. It all started in the early 90s for me, it was a golden era filled with baggy florescent clothing and the emergence of 16-bit gaming.