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[perorist]

Not to be that guy, but does it kind of depress anyone else how the art style for each successive Legend of Heroes game gets even more anime and less distinct?

At least the Sora no Kiseki saga kept some level of style, but the most recent are borderline generic.



Er, and the above discussion reminds me... where is Brandish, Tom?

Incidentally Falcom's profits have shot through the roof after Zero and Ao. Their stock priced septupled last year and is going strong.

http://stocks.finance.yahoo.co.jp/stocks/chart/?code=3723.T&ct=z&t=5y&q=c&l=off&z=m&p=m65,m130,s&a=v

Adapting to the current Japanese market I suppose

 

[cj_iwakura]

Incidentally Falcom's profits have shot through the roof after Zero and Ao. Their stock priced septupled last year and is going strong.

http://stocks.finance.yahoo.co.jp/stocks/chart/?code=3723.T&ct=z&t=5y&q=c&l=off&z=m&p=m65,m130,s&a=v

Adapting to the current Japanese market I suppose

Yeah, I wouldn't deny its success for a moment. But it's sad they had to cave in. Even Ys is going that route.

 

[Eusis]

Yeah, I wouldn't deny its success for a moment. But it's sad they had to cave in. Even Ys is going that route.

The bigger problem there is that it's even compromising some of the long term stylistic calls, such as Adol's armor in favor of something more modern. That goes into what I said about "generic for the time", just look at how Ys IV had giant shoulders on armor all over the place.

 

[Dragoon En Regalia]

There's one problem with EGG: games are tied to the PC you've installed them. If you buy a new PC, you have to be a paying member to transfer your game keys. That's not really expensive but it's a hassle and it raises the question of what will happen once the service closes. (That's one of the reasons I've been favoring GOG over Steam in recent years).

Compared to GOG. EGG's unattractive for Western gamers who desire full ownership of their library. I share the sentiment! Their anti-piracy measures are outdated and cater to a stagnant audience that puts up with them. I see on two sides people who won't so much as try the games with restrictions and people who lived through the reality of that market when it was vibrant, and there's little communication about this due to the language barrier. Degica's EULA for buying A-Train games on Steam (not their own, methinks) says you can't install game copies on multiple PCs. Said document is now vestigial, but even Artdink, one of the most successful Japanese PC developers and publishers after the bubble burst, can't let go.

On the other hand, D4's managed to get so many of these games out of legal hell through this service. Imagine setting up shop in Japan to make distribution agreements with the aging rights-holders of Art Theatre Guild movies from the student activist era. That's difficult! Criterion only has access to many important works because Nagisa Oshima directed them and maintained his estate. Accessing the people and legal entities keeping games in limbo is possible for D4, and I'm grateful for that. I hope EGG can improve its English-language services and, if not draft new agreements lacking subscription fees and anti-piracy solutions, offer something as compensation (like translated magazine articles and interviews for an English newsletter, or complimentary EGG Music digital albums every time you pay for a month).

 

[RoryDropkick]

I saw this game at Digital Press this past Saturday but wasn't sure what it was... just saw the name "Legend of Heroes" and got excited. It was the JP version though, had no idea there was an English version... interesting!

How funny, I almost had my friend pick that copy up from the show..

 

[crinale]

http://www.falcom.co.jp/kaisya/ir/pdf/140916_01.pdf

It looks like Falcom is enjoying highest operation income and profit ever. Thanks to Sen no Kiseki series and Ys Celceta.

 

[Sinatar]

Sorcerian was a particularly special game for me. I spent one summer in the late 80s trying to get through the original scenario set. It's such a beefy game, not even counting the additional add-on sets.

Opening is such a beautiful piece of music.

Some of the other pieces that are firmly ingrained into my memory:

Traveler's Inn
Depths of the Earth
Bloody River (Lucifer's Floodgates)
Cave 1 (Ice Cavern)
Town (Medusa's Head)

And a couple of my favorite arrangements:
Sorcerian Perfect Collection - Sand Castle
Sorcerian Perfect Collection - Depths of the Earth

There's lots of others, but those are the ones I always think of.

I love this mix of Major Demon

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

All I'll say about Trails' art is that the number of times the "twinges" that set off a frown with me has increased. Sen II had a particular had one character that (visually at least) was beyond a doubt a very specific "bait", if you catch my drift.

I definitely get this feeling by looking at the artwork for the Sen no Kiseki games. Interestingly enough, people who aren't really into the series besides Siliconera and Gematsu articles have a tendency to go "Sen no Kiseki in West when?!" even going as far as to say that Zero and so on should be skipped. I can't help but think that the artstyle and Schooltime style is part of why that is (along with it just being the latest stuff in the series). Of course, I've never played Sen myself so I can't speak to it's actual quality.

On the subject of Brandish, I've been listening to this Brandish 2 (SNES) tune a lot today. It's got a great amount of moodiness to it, I feel like it would somehow be a nice song to fall asleep to if I heard it on repeat.

Oh some of the Brandish line's sooooooooooooo good. This one is especially catchy from IV.

Compared to GOG. EGG's unattractive for Western gamers who desire full ownership of their library. I share the sentiment! Their anti-piracy measures are outdated and cater to a stagnant audience that puts up with them. I see on two sides people who won't so much as try the games with restrictions and people who lived through the reality of that market when it was vibrant, and there's little communication about this due to the language barrier. Degica's EULA for buying A-Train games on Steam (not their own, methinks) says you can't install game copies on multiple PCs. Said document is now vestigial, but even Artdink, one of the most successful Japanese PC developers and publishers after the bubble burst, can't let go.

On the other hand, D4's managed to get so many of these games out of legal hell through this service. Imagine setting up shop in Japan to make distribution agreements with the aging rights-holders of Art Theatre Guild movies from the student activist era. That's difficult! Criterion only has access to many important works because Nagisa Oshima directed them and maintained his estate. Accessing the people and legal entities keeping games in limbo is possible for D4, and I'm grateful for that. I hope EGG can improve its English-language services and, if not draft new agreements lacking subscription fees and anti-piracy solutions, offer something as compensation (like translated magazine articles and interviews for an English newsletter, or complimentary EGG Music digital albums every time you pay for a month).

Yeah, the rights thing over there is even more insanely tangled and mired than here it's sad.

 

[Ailike]

Dumb fact about me - when I was a kid I wrote Nintendo Power asking about some ridiculous Legacy of the Wizard thing. Not only did I get back a ridiculously detailed letter explaining what I had to do and where I had to go, the issue was published in Counselor's Corner the next month. Yep. I helped waste a half page of Nintendo Power on Legacy of the Wizard.

 

[Sinople]

Compared to GOG. EGG's unattractive for Western gamers who desire full ownership of their library. I share the sentiment! Their anti-piracy measures are outdated and cater to a stagnant audience that puts up with them. I see on two sides people who won't so much as try the games with restrictions and people who lived through the reality of that market when it was vibrant, and there's little communication about this due to the language barrier. Degica's EULA for buying A-Train games on Steam (not their own, methinks) says you can't install game copies on multiple PCs. Said document is now vestigial, but even Artdink, one of the most successful Japanese PC developers and publishers after the bubble burst, can't let go.

Sure. I really appreciate that such a service exists in the first place and am glad to have access to games that would otherwise be lost, or almost. But I can't help but be a little disappointed at their restrictive policies.
Though I give them credit for trying to align with other services with their 500 yen campaign. Hopefully it's here to stay.

 

[Nightengale]

Not to be that guy, but does it kind of depress anyone else how the art style for each successive Legend of Heroes game gets even more anime and less distinct?

At least the Sora no Kiseki saga kept some level of style, but the most recent are borderline generic.

Not for me. Artstyle is just an artstyle. I can understand a desire to have kept a consistency across the series, but I'm also appreciative of an occasional change in design and style every now and then, as it broadens the franchise aesthetics through the lenses of different designers.

I don't know the name of the in-house artist that handled the standard design for the Sora trilogy, but I do not consider that artstyle any less 'animu' than the excellent work by Enami Katsumi in Zero/SEVEN and the in-house artist for Sen. (Nakae?) I have preferences, as I think Enami's work has a better visual strength, design weight and character portrayal than how it was for Sora/Sen, but they're all 'animu' from the most terrible sense of the word.

 

[Nightengale]

Yeah, I wouldn't deny its success for a moment. But it's sad they had to cave in. Even Ys is going that route.

I don't get this, to be frankly honest. In the first place, we don't even know if the original designer for the Sora trilogy is still employed at Falcom. If they were 'caving in', they would've kept Enami Katsumi on the payroll, a far more prolific and well-known character designer than whoever they're using for Sen.

For Kiseki/Ys, they've went from having the designs of their characters under one of the more well-known designers in the industry that not only has a wide-stroke of design appeal, but also a very distinctive touch to his design to being designed by one of their in-house designers, and as you put it, "more generic".

Being "more generic" in Japan is not somehow a better thing, mind you.

 

[wyrdwad]

Not to be that guy, but does it kind of depress anyone else how the art style for each successive Legend of Heroes game gets even more anime and less distinct?

I'm not sure I agree with that, if only because of Zero no Kiseki. Look at the main character of Zero no Kiseki, Lloyd Bannings -- he's pretty damned distinct, IMHO, and far less "anime" than the characters in either the Sora trilogy or the Sen duology:

If anything, he looks kind of... outdated. Like a relic from an older '90s anime or something. And I mean that in the best possible way!

His original design, too, looked like something out of a '70s sentai show. I can't tell you how much I wish they'd kept that design in the final game, because that would've been AWESOME:

But even the design they went with is one that I think looks distinct and interesting compared to most other gaming protagonists out there.

Er, and the above discussion reminds me... where is Brandish, Tom?

You'd have to ask Falcom! It's entirely in their hands at the moment. They've been so busy with their own projects, they haven't had much opportunity to give us localization support for Brandish just yet -- but when they get a spare moment, I anticipate things going very quickly.

-Tom

 

[Barrylocke]

I'm not sure I agree with that, if only because of Zero no Kiseki. Look at the main character of Zero no Kiseki, Lloyd Bannings -- he's pretty damned distinct, IMHO, and far less "anime" than the characters in either the Sora trilogy or the Sen duology:

If anything, he looks kind of... outdated. Like a relic from an older '90s anime or something. And I mean that in the best possible way!

His original design, too, looked like something out of a '70s sentai show. I can't tell you how much I wish they'd kept that design in the final game, because that would've been AWESOME:

But even the design they went with is one that I think looks distinct and interesting compared to most other gaming protagonists out there.

-Tom

Am I having deja-vu, or did you post something similar to this about Lloyd from Zero recently? I feel like I saw this same statement before today. As for the looks in the game, my feelings are a little more against the Sen games aesthetic, and I'll admit that much of it is because of the school-daze implications of the characters. From a certain point of view, the disappeared dad and boy with mysterious past that we have with TitS so far in Chapter 1 is equally generic.

 

[wyrdwad]

Am I having deja-vu, or did you post something similar to this about Lloyd from Zero recently? I feel like I saw this same statement before today. As for the looks in the game, my feelings are a little more against the Sen games aesthetic, and I'll admit that much of it is because of the school-daze implications of the characters. From a certain point of view, the disappeared dad and boy with mysterious past that we have with TitS so far in Chapter 1 is equally generic.

I haven't posted anything about Lloyd recently, but I've definitely mentioned my thoughts on him before -- I've always quite liked the general look of Zero, and appreciate that the main character is an honest-to-goodness beat cop as opposed to a member of what's essentially an adventurer's guild, or a school student.

I don't mind the cliched professions and backgrounds of the characters in Sora or Sen, since I know there's more to them than meets the eye (and I'll take a cliche done well over an original idea done poorly any day), but I do agree that as far as first impressions go, the Legend of Heroes games don't tend to do themselves many favors. It's only after you've accepted the look and feel of the Kiseki games and allowed yourself to get sucked in that you realize how well they're able to distinguish themselves from the other similar-looking titles on the market.

-Tom

 

[Dragoon En Regalia]

Hey, since you're here Tom, I did some digging on D4 Enterprises, EGG and Rinne.

Project EGG started as a collaboration between Soft-City.com and Bothtec, starting around 2001. Members of Bothtec got the rights to Bothtec's back-catalog (sans the Eiyuu Densetsu Saga games) and EGG, then breaking off to form D4. Around that same time, though, Bothtec's mobile games deal with Falcom kept the company from developing a sequel to the second Relics game for Windows (preceded by Recur of ORIGIN, a remake of the original). Falcom developed Rinne, the third game in the series chronology, as a favor for the company, which is why Falcom doesn't recognize the game's existence on their own site.

I bet you could translate and publish the Windows Relics games on Steam once your fine efforts with Falcom have paid off.

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

I'm not sure I agree with that, if only because of Zero no Kiseki. Look at the main character of Zero no Kiseki, Lloyd Bannings -- he's pretty damned distinct, IMHO, and far less "anime" than the characters in either the Sora trilogy or the Sen duology:

If anything, he looks kind of... outdated. Like a relic from an older '90s anime or something. And I mean that in the best possible way!

His original design, too, looked like something out of a '70s sentai show. I can't tell you how much I wish they'd kept that design in the final game, because that would've been AWESOME:

But even the design they went with is one that I think looks distinct and interesting compared to most other gaming protagonists out there.



You'd have to ask Falcom! It's entirely in their hands at the moment. They've been so busy with their own projects, they haven't had much opportunity to give us localization support for Brandish just yet -- but when they get a spare moment, I anticipate things going very quickly.

-Tom

Interesting, he looks noticably younger(?) in that art, too. Or at least youthful.

 

[Dragoon En Regalia]

Face it, his eyes in the concept art are so moe~

Was Lord Monarch Original ever translated? Vantage Master got something, judging from image search, but I'd rather like to play a Falcom RTS.

 

[Samurai_Heart]

Amiami did a Nihon Falcom retrospective, that people in this thread should be interested in, much more images in the link:
Action and Adventure at the Nihon Falcom Retrospective

When Japanese game designers were pumping out clones of Ultima and Wizardry in the early 80s one company broke out of the first-person dungeon trap to boost the RPG with arcade action. This innovative band of rouges was Nihon Falcom; their game was Dragon Slayer. In the 30 years since they pioneered the action RPG genre, Falcom has avoided turn-based battles with a catalog of under appreciated classics including the Ys series, Brandish, Popful Mail and more.

Though traditionally a PC publisher, Falcom earned mainstream attention and a new generation of young fans in 2004 with their PSP port of The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky trilogy. And now the Marui City department store in Shibuya is holding a retrospective gallery to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Trails series. Take a walk through the history of gaming with prints by Naoyuki Onda, Hiroyuki Nishimura, Minako Iwasaki and others. Or if you prefer a more modern moe-style you'll love Hacchan's work on Trails.

Faxanadu, the Famicom port of the PC hit Xanadu (get it?), was technically developed by Hudson and not Nihon Falcom but it still deserves its place with the other museum pieces. Pencil cases were a big deal back in the day and if you know where to look you can find ones from your favorite retro games and 80s anime.

Fan art isn't the only impressive bit of user-generated content on display. The speakers are blasting blistering guitar licks by J.D.K. Band, a cover act who specializes in Falcom remixes. Get on the work of Yuzo Koshiro, one of their original composers, if you haven't already. His driving beats have as much action as the games they define.

Marui City Shibuya
Event dates: September 12th-September 28th
Address: 1-21-3 Jinnan, Shibuya-ku Tokyo
Hours: 11:00-21:00
Official homepage: http://www.0101.co.jp/stores/guide/store140.html

 

[Dragoon En Regalia]

What was it with Kiya and ringing some of the Dragon Slayer games' coats of arms with English copywriting? Sorcerian and Legend of Heroes both have descriptions on their shields, it's unique amongst games of the period.

Here's some footage of Sorcerian Forever, the first of Falcom's PC remakes.

 

[wyrdwad]

What was it with Kiya and ringing some of the Dragon Slayer games' coats of arms with English copywriting? Sorcerian and Legend of Heroes both have descriptions on their shields, it's unique amongst games of the period.

Here's some footage of Sorcerian Forever, the first of Falcom's PC remakes.

Sorcerian Forever isn't actually a remake -- it's more like the last expansion ever released for Sorcerian. As far as I'm aware, it contains five all-new missions never before seen in any previous Sorcerian title.

-Tom

 

[Devilgunman]

Sorcerian for Dreamcast is fun as heck. Probably a hidden gem for many people.

 

[jdkluv]

Oh wow, I had a long reply typed out, but changed tab, went to change back and accidentally lost it all. ()):

(Also I never noticed this thread turned into a BRANDISH thread (i.e. my kind of thread!) at some point, lol.)

By the way, I'll put an updated version of the chart as soon as I get chance - looking at it now, I'm not exactly satisfied with some parts of it. :-/

Best Sorcerian vocal? This one of course! (lyrics + translated version here.)

Here's some footage of Sorcerian Forever, the first of Falcom's PC remakes.

Apart from the correction Wyrdwad already made, it was also the last game Mieko Ishikawa worked on as part of the Falcom Sound Team jdk.

Here's some better gameplay footage of Sorcerian Forever.

Oh some of the Brandish line's sooooooooooooo good. This one is especially catchy from IV.

This is the superior ending credits song.

 

[foobarry81]

My little Dragon Slayer collection.

Thank you, Falcom!

 

[Tizoc]

There is!
https://www.amusement-center.com/project/egg/special/package_dragonslayerchronicle/

How difficult would it be to get this running on non Japanese PCs/laptop?

 

[jdkluv]

How difficult would it be to get this running on non Japanese PCs/laptop?

Never tried this by myself before - in fact, I'm STILL awaiting for my copy ;_; - but as far as I can tell, there's no reason why it shouldn't work. I know a couple of people who has imported it (such as Wyrdwad), and I don't recall them having any problem in order to run the games.

My little Dragon Slayer collection.

Thank you, Falcom!

Those are some seriously awesome pickups! Well done!

How are the MSX versions of these games, BTW? I ask this since I'm not familiar with them. :Q

Man, I absofuckinglutely love the map that comes with the very first The Legend of Heroes.

Why is Falcom so great?

 

[SporeCrawler]

Legend of Heroes 3 was such a great game for that time. Kinda glad that the series survived

Not to be that guy, but does it kind of depress anyone else how the art style for each successive Legend of Heroes game gets even more anime and less distinct?

At least the Sora no Kiseki saga kept some level of style, but the most recent are borderline generic.



Er, and the above discussion reminds me... where is Brandish, Tom?

I agree. but its good that the series at least exists.

 

[Bassmastergeneral]

How difficult would it be to get this running on non Japanese PCs/laptop?

No problem at all running any of the project egg disc releases that I have. I use applocade (I think that's the name of the program?) to run as administrator in Japanese language and they work great. I have dragon slayer chronicle, sorcerian complete, the ys 1-5 collection, and the legend of Xanadu 1&2 special disc.

 

[foobarry81]

How are the MSX versions of these games, BTW? I ask this since I'm not familiar with them. :Q

Man, I absofuckinglutely love the map that comes with the very first The Legend of Heroes.

Afaik the MSX version doesn't come with a map. Or else my copy is missing it. :-( It does have a monster manual though.

I only own the MSX versions, and never played any other versions, so can't really compare either.

First of all the first 4 games are on cartridge, so no loading times at all, which is great. The last two are on micro floppy disks.

Also the MSX2 had a rather rich colour palette for an 8-bit machine, so I think the colours of most of the games on it usually look really vibrant compared to other systems, and the Dragon Slayer games (apart maybe from the first) are no exception.

- Dragon Slayer 1 looks very rudimentary graphically (your char is a stick man basically) and sounds very basic too; looks like an early MSX1 game (which it basically was).

- Xanadu looks A LOT better. Makes good use of the aforementioned much richer colour palette of the MSX2. Scrolling is choppy, which was a typical MSX problem that only got solved with the MSX2+. As said, I can't compare with other versions, but the MSX version of Xanadu has only a small window where the action takes place. Most of the screen is filled with the HUD.

- Romancia looks a bit worse than Xanadu imo, but the image is not scrolling. You move from screen to screen, so it's a smoother experience in that department.

- Drasle Family looks and sounds great. Not the prettiest MSX game out there, but nevertheless very nice. You also move from screen to screen.

- Sorcerian I have yet to play.

- Legend of Heroes is on 5 micro floppies (a Program disk, a User disk and 3 Scenario disks). You have to switch between them, which is kind of annoying. Also every battle has to be loaded first, fortunately the loading time is a matter of a few seconds. The game looks very good though. One of the prettier games on MSX I've played. Also the sound is very good. I own an MSX2+, so I'm assuming it uses the built-in MSX Music chip. I could test it on an MSX2 as well to see the difference, but haven't bothered doing that yet.

Edit: seems like my copy is missing the map. Bummer. This eBay copy has one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dragon-Slay...2?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_146&hash=item43d03971f2 Well, I got mine for really cheap, so I guess that's why.

 

[pixlexic]

If you guys think dark souls is you should try legacy of the wizard with no guide.

 

[wyrdwad]

How difficult would it be to get this running on non Japanese PCs/laptop?

As others have noted, I have this release, and it runs perfectly on my computer -- no problem at all. Not even sure you need Applocale, though without it all the menus for loading roms and loading/saving states (because remember, these are just roms in a wrapper!) will be garbled.

It's a great purchase, though, since the majority of games in it are in English or have no text anyway (Xanadu, for example, plays 100% in English).

-Tom

 

[AmyS]

Wow, the Mega Drive version of Sorcerian has some neat boxart

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

Wow, the Mega Drive version of Sorcerian has some neat boxart

I always liked that art; it was like the wonderful love child of Amano and Dean.

 

[wyrdwad]

I always liked that art; it was like the wonderful love child of Amano and Dean.

Sorcerian in general has some of Falcom's best art, period. The only other series that comes close to it is Brandish, but Brandish didn't have nearly as MUCH art made for it as Sorcerian did.

-Tom

 

[Bassmastergeneral]

Sorcerian in general has some of Falcom's best art, period. The only other series that comes close to it is Brandish, but Brandish didn't have nearly as MUCH art made for it as Sorcerian did.

-Tom

Agreed! And the art cards that come with the amusement center package releases are amazing. I posted some awhile ago on my tumblr

http://doublemintgumblr.tumblr.com/post/90360012877/an-awesome-new-addition-to-my-sorcerian

Edit: I post other Falcom stuff there if anyone is interested.

 

[Tizoc]

As others have noted, I have this release, and it runs perfectly on my computer -- no problem at all. Not even sure you need Applocale, though without it all the menus for loading roms and loading/saving states (because remember, these are just roms in a wrapper!) will be garbled.

It's a great purchase, though, since the majority of games in it are in English or have no text anyway (Xanadu, for example, plays 100% in English).

-Tom

Good to hear, thanks

Spoiler

I would gladly pay $40 for this collection if it made it on Steam =X

 

[MikeDip]

Faxanadu is incredible, really wanna be able to play some of the other xanadu games one day

 

[wyrdwad]

Agreed! And the art cards that come with the amusement center package releases are amazing. I posted some awhile ago on my tumblr

That Dragon Slayer Chronicles box comes with some outstanding art prints as well -- they're about the size of CD liner notes, and there's a bunch of them (reprints of the original box art, front and back, for every game in the set, as well as some additional art for good measure).

Faxanadu is incredible, really wanna be able to play some of the other xanadu games one day

Hopefully I'll win my campaign to score us Xanadu Next for western release. Xanadu Next is amazing. It actually feels more like a proper 3D sequel to Faxanadu than to regular Xanadu, and is exactly as good as you're imagining it COULD be given that description.

-Tom

 

[Tizoc]

I searched oth amazon and play asia and can't seem to find this compilation for sale. Where could one acquire it?

 

[wyrdwad]

I searched oth amazon and play asia and can't seem to find this compilation for sale. Where could one acquire it?

I had to actually buy it through a proxy service (I use noppin.com) from the original Japanese website.

-Tom

 

[Dragoon En Regalia]

I must have been thinking of Sorcerian Original, which does have the original scenarios.

I always liked that art; it was like the wonderful love child of Amano and Dean.

Hitoshi Yoneda's really good at that, able to do sci-fi and fantasy art that stands out.

Tom, I have no doubts that Dragon Slayer games on Steam (GOG plz) will come about. Xanadu Next and Dinosaur Resurrection should have the least technical hassles; the newer Sorcerian titles, Brandish 4, and Lord Monarch Original/Online (plus its variants) could be a mess for Sara, assuming Windows 95-built games are even possible.

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

I must have been thinking of Sorcerian Original, which does have the original scenarios.

Hitoshi Yoneda's really good at that, able to do sci-fi and fantasy art that stands out.

Tom, I have no doubts that Dragon Slayer games on Steam (GOG plz) will come about. Xanadu Next and Dinosaur Resurrection should have the least technical hassles; the newer Sorcerian titles, Brandish 4, and Lord Monarch Original/Online (plus its variants) could be a mess for Sara, assuming Windows 95-built games are even possible.

Ah, he did some of the Phantasy Stars; this explains much.

 

[wyrdwad]

Tom, I have no doubts that Dragon Slayer games on Steam (GOG plz) will come about. Xanadu Next and Dinosaur Resurrection should have the least technical hassles; the newer Sorcerian titles, Brandish 4, and Lord Monarch Original/Online (plus its variants) could be a mess for Sara, assuming Windows 95-built games are even possible.

Dinosaur might be a bit of a mess too, as that's an older title -- but I think you're right that Xanadu Next would be an easy one. That game seems to be pretty highly polished, and is from the same basic era as other modern Falcom titles like Felghana and Trails.

-Tom

 

[MikeDip]

That Dragon Slayer Chronicles box comes with some outstanding art prints as well -- they're about the size of CD liner notes, and there's a bunch of them (reprints of the original box art, front and back, for every game in the set, as well as some additional art for good measure).



Hopefully I'll win my campaign to score us Xanadu Next for western release. Xanadu Next is amazing. It actually feels more like a proper 3D sequel to Faxanadu than to regular Xanadu, and is exactly as good as you're imagining it COULD be given that description.

-Tom

Tom please win. Please

 

[Augemitbutter]

Xanadu Next has to happen. god tier game that deserves some acclaim.

 

[qualitydisc]

. I *have* tried out Legacy of the Wizard long long ago, but did not care for it. Game seemed to lack direction, making it difficult to wrap my 8 year-old mind around what I needed to do.

Frustrated THE HELL out of me as a kid. No real indication in the game of the intricate steps you have to do to finish. I have no clue how anyone finished it in the 80s without a strategy guide.

Having said that, it has the most nostalgic music in an NES game for me. I tried hunting down the soundtrack while I was living in Japan but it looks like it was only released on cassette and quite hard to find.

 

[thetrin]

Xanadu Next has to happen. god tier game that deserves some acclaim.

Agreed. I love Xanadu Next. I bought it from Falcom's mail order service blind, and have not regretted it. Absolutely fantastic action RPG.

 

[wyrdwad]

Frustrated THE HELL out of me as a kid. No real indication in the game of the intricate steps you have to do to finish. I have no clue how anyone finished it in the 80s without a strategy guide.

Having said that, it has the most nostalgic music in an NES game for me. I tried hunting down the soundtrack while I was living in Japan but it looks like it was only released on cassette and quite hard to find.

All the more reason to track down the Dragon Slayer Chronicles box set mentioned in this topic -- it comes with that very soundtrack, offered on CD for what I believe is the very first time.

It's the original PC synth version, not the NES version -- which also means the NES-exclusive tracks are missing -- but honestly, the original synth is just as good if not better, and the PC version has an exclusive track of its own that totally kicks ass.

-Tom

 

[jdkluv]

I only own the MSX versions, and never played any other versions, so can't really compare either.

First of all the first 4 games are on cartridge, so no loading times at all, which is great. The last two are on micro floppy disks.

Also the MSX2 had a rather rich colour palette for an 8-bit machine, so I think the colours of most of the games on it usually look really vibrant compared to other systems, and the Dragon Slayer games (apart maybe from the first) are no exception.

- Dragon Slayer 1 looks very rudimentary graphically (your char is a stick man basically) and sounds very basic too; looks like an early MSX1 game (which it basically was).

- Xanadu looks A LOT better. Makes good use of the aforementioned much richer colour palette of the MSX2. Scrolling is choppy, which was a typical MSX problem that only got solved with the MSX2+. As said, I can't compare with other versions, but the MSX version of Xanadu has only a small window where the action takes place. Most of the screen is filled with the HUD.

- Romancia looks a bit worse than Xanadu imo, but the image is not scrolling. You move from screen to screen, so it's a smoother experience in that department.

- Drasle Family looks and sounds great. Not the prettiest MSX game out there, but nevertheless very nice. You also move from screen to screen.

- Sorcerian I have yet to play.

- Legend of Heroes is on 5 micro floppies (a Program disk, a User disk and 3 Scenario disks). You have to switch between them, which is kind of annoying. Also every battle has to be loaded first, fortunately the loading time is a matter of a few seconds. The game looks very good though. One of the prettier games on MSX I've played. Also the sound is very good. I own an MSX2+, so I'm assuming it uses the built-in MSX Music chip. I could test it on an MSX2 as well to see the difference, but haven't bothered doing that yet.

Thanks a lot for the detailed answer! I'm mostly curious about the ones Falcom ported by themselves (i.e. Xanadu, Romancia, Sorcerian and LoH I), to know if they fare well on there. Of course Drasle Family runs and sounds great, as Falcom themselves originally developed it for the MSX platform.

Edit: seems like my copy is missing the map. Bummer. This eBay copy has one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dragon-Slay...2?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_146&hash=item43d03971f2 Well, I got mine for really cheap, so I guess that's why.

Sorry to hear that . My FM-Towns copy includes every single item you can see at the eBay page. Hmm.. what about doing an "upgrade", purchase that one and sell the other copy? :$

Love the drawings they did for the manual.

If you guys think dark souls is you should try legacy of the wizard with no guide.

No kidding. God, I still remember the Game Center CX episode.

Arino you fucking legend.

Agreed! And the art cards that come with the amusement center package releases are amazing. I posted some awhile ago on my tumblr

http://doublemintgumblr.tumblr.com/post/90360012877/an-awesome-new-addition-to-my-sorcerian

Edit: I post other Falcom stuff there if anyone is interested.

Just a little correction: even though both Sorcerian Complete and the Dragon Slayer Chronicle include the PC-98 version of Sorcerian, the original debuted on the PC-88 first. Not sure if there's any difference between both, though - I think the PC-98 one has a better scrolling?

Loving the pictures on your Tumblr, BTW.

Spoiler

I would gladly pay $40 for this collection if it made it on Steam =X

Most of the games are all in Japanese, and I believe anything past Drasle Family/Legacy of the Wizard (i.e. from Sorcerian to LoX2) would be text-heavy (not Trails/Kiseki levels of text, but still plenty of text). What's more, I really doubt Falcom still has the source code for *any* of these games, and it'd involve actually hacking the original games for translation since it's all emulated.

All the more reason to track down the Dragon Slayer Chronicles box set mentioned in this topic -- it comes with that very soundtrack, offered on CD for what I believe is the very first time.

It's the original PC synth version, not the NES version -- which also means the NES-exclusive tracks are missing -- but honestly, the original synth is just as good if not better, and the PC version has an exclusive track of its own that totally kicks ass.

-Tom

MSX, Tom. It is called MSX. ;p

(IIRC, the Falcom Special Box '91 includes the MSX soundtrack, along with another couple of cool stuff. Not sure how difficult it would be to track down though.)

 

[foobarry81]

Thanks a lot for the detailed answer! I'm mostly curious about the ones Falcom ported by themselves (i.e. Xanadu, Romancia, Sorcerian and LoH I), to know if they fare well on there. Of course Drasle Family runs and sounds great, as Falcom themselves originally developed it for the MSX platform.

Got you some pictures. They're off screen photos since I don't have any capturing device or anything. Some of the rich colours definitely got lost in the process sadly.

Sorry to hear that . My FM-Towns copy includes every single item you can see at the eBay page. Hmm.. what about doing an "upgrade", purchase that one and sell the other copy? :$

The thought crossed my mind. But then I'd have to get rid of that mapless copy afterwards. I've never sold any of my games before.

Xanadu: (the words Dragon Slayer are actually in bright green, unlike what the pic shows)

Romancia:

DraSle Family: (again, the brown in the opening screen is a lot less pale than the pic shows)

Sorcerian: (as said, haven't played it yet, so no party yet)

Legend of Heroes: