Nihon Falcom, one of gaming's oldest RPG developers, started out in 1981 programming software for the PC-88, a Japan-only home computer. 35 years on and its steadfast allegiance to the spirit of old-school software development, of which it pioneered so much in its infancy, remains strong. Its uncomplicated and inimitable design ethos makes the Falcom catalogue more easily accessible than the oft-convoluted output of their competitors, and the bubblegum anime aesthetic it's used since the 80s remains equally resolute. But while its games may be fairly easy to get to grips with, its index of titles, conversely, has more than its fair share of bewildering pathways. Originally a dedicated PC developer, the official canon of its more successful series - the likes of Ys, Dragon Slayer and Brandish - is often a byzantine treasury of prequels, metaseries, remakes and spin-offs. With the Trails series now Falcom's flagship IP, and chronologically one of the most confusing RPG sagas ever, the western fanbase - which has grown considerably since Falcom's move to handheld Sony consoles - are chomping at the bit to find out when the as-yet untranslated entries will get their dues. With that in mind there was no better way to take on an interview with Falcom's president, Toshihiro Kondo - a man ever-dedicated to his company's fanbase - than by bolstering my reserved line of questioning with a no-holds-barred interrogation from the fans themselves. For those of you less ingratiated with Falcom's various series, each section of the interview is preceded by a few notes to help fill in the gaps.

Tales of Trails Brave adventurer, prepare to enter a world where a title prefix - in this case 'The Legend of Heroes' - becomes an umbrella for a host of trilogies, duologies and sagas, collectively referred to as metaseries. You may need your wizard's cap on for this one. Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes was the sixth Dragon Slayer title, released in 1989 for the PC-88. It marked the advent of the Legend of Heroes banner, which later became an umbrella for various miniseries and metaseries taking place in different lands. The Gagharv Trilogy was the first to use the Legend of Heroes banner outside of Dragon Slayer lore, before relinquishing it to the 'Trails' brand of metaseries (known as the 'Kiseki' games in Japan). The first in this metaseries was Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, released in 2004 for Windows and then later followed by two sequels to form a trilogy. Publisher XSEED bought the rights to localise the trilogy in the west, but only released the first two entries owing to a mammoth translation task versus poorer than anticipated sales figures. As a result the localisation fate of the final chapter, Trails in the Sky: The 3rd, currently hangs in limbo. In a bid to expand its audience, much of the Trails series has been remade for newer hardware, appearing on the PSP, Vita and PS3. The most recent western localisation is The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel - the first of another Trails meta-trilogy - just released in the EU on PS Vita and PS3 through NIS America. XSEED has recently announced that the translation for Trails of Cold Steel II is 95 per cent complete, and it's preparing to record 11,000 lines of dialogue for it, although no release date has yet been announced. For more information about the Trails series and its still unlocalised entries, we turned the spotlight on Mr. Kondo.

Toshihiro Kondo Is there a possibility of seeing Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel I & II appear on PC eventually, perhaps on Steam? TK: I would like as many people as possible to play these games, so the possibility is definitely there. One of the biggest complaints about Trails of Cold Steel is the English dub replacing the Japanese original, which featured famous anime voice actors. Is there a possibility of seeing the original dub released as DLC, similar to what Square Enix did with Drakengard 3? TK: Recently, we have seen many requests for the Japanese voice track to be included. There are many issues to consider in order to make this a reality, but if the demand is really that strong, it is definitely something that we want to consider. You used a third party to release Zero no Kiseki and Ao no Kiseki (a duology collectively known as The Legend of Heroes 7) for Windows in China, DRM free. What kind of results did you have from sales in China, do you consider it an opportune market, and do you plan to release anything else in the region? TK: We've released titles in China regularly up till now, however it seems like the brand recognition over there is becoming greater than we had expected. There are many hurdles, but we now understand that our content matches up very well with what Chinese players want. Going forward, most of our releases will be on PlayStation platforms, however we do plan to continue to release the "Trails" and "Ys" series there. The second chapter of Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky took nine years to be localised. Will Trails in the Sky: The 3rd and the aforementioned Zero no Kiseki and Ao no Kiseki (The Legend of Heroes VII) receive the same treatment, and if so do you think we can look forward to a faster localisation time? TK: Each title in the Trails series contains a very large volume of text, so it's very common that the release takes time to localise. Every time we tell our partners how much text is in the game, they are surprised. I'm sorry to have to keep you all waiting due to these reasons. We'll do our best to make sure the titles get to you in a timely manner. Nayuta no Kiseki (Trails of Nayuta) was only released in Japan and only on the PlayStation Portable. Is there any consideration for an enhanced port to current platforms, PC, PS4 and/or PS Vita? TK: Falcom is a company with few people and our hands are full with new titles at the moment, but if there were a company willing to help out with the porting, it would be something I would like to make a reality. For "Nayuta" specifically, every chance we get, we reach out to those in the industry who could become potential partners.

Past Masayuki Kato founded Falcom in 1981, later handing the reigns to current president and interviewee Toshihiro Kondo. Prior to his appointment Kondo used to be a Falcom fan who had created a website in tribute to Legend of Heroes 3: The White Witch. Before the Legend of Heroes brand transpired, Ys once reigned as Falcom's flagship series, and was a big hit in the late 80s. Ys 1 & 2 were originally released separately but later combined, while various third-party companies (including an obscure Korean developer) obtained the rights to remake selected entries in new guises. There's also a lingering question among the fanbase about Ys protagonist Adol Christin's bromantic relationship with Dogi, his musclebound buddy, and his shunning of female attention. For everything about Falcom and Ys in an easily digestible format, check out Eurogamer's 2013 article, Chronicles of Ys. How exactly did the development of Ys and Ys 2 play out? Were they developed at the same time, one after the other, or was II developed in response to feedback? Ys' US cover. TK: At the time I was not employed here, but what I heard is, originally, they were conceived as one game, but when they actually started development the volume was so great they had to split it into two. Later on, we encountered the same situation when working on "Trails in the Sky" and thus it was split into FC and SC (First Chapter and Second Chapter - EG). I guess you could say that such events occur because we take pride and don't compromise in our development work at Falcom. Who exactly worked on Taito's PS2 remake trilogy of Ys 3, 4 and 5, were any Falcom staff involved, and how did Taito get the licenses? TK: Basically, all the work was done by Taito. I do remember that they consulted with us for a little help on the heroine, setting and story for 5. At the time I was working in development rather than administration, so I'm not sure of the finer details of the licensing; but I do remember that, at the time, Taito was not just interested in Ys, but also very engaged in creating content for mobile phones as well, and we received some pitches from them regarding that arena. Because Adol has a habit of ignoring almost every female advance during the entirety of Ys - and that's a lot of advances - you must be aware of the enduring fanbase rumour that he is either asexual or homosexual. Would you be so kind as to finally set the record straight on his orientation? TK: This is actually a topic that comes up often among the staff. One point that always gets raised is that Feena, the heroine of Ys 1, is most likely very important to Adol. It's not known whether or not Adol will have a chance to meet her again, but Adol definitely still cherishes her memory, and thus he doesn't really go for other girls' advances - is the general understanding. Adol's story is that of a wanderer and it's a given that he will have to part with the heroine at the end of the tale, so perhaps he feels it would be irresponsible to start anything with any of the girls. Furthermore, Adol is also an avatar of the player and each player holds different feelings towards the various heroines. Rather than make explicit what Adol is feeling, we would rather leave that to the player and let them enjoy their own interpretations. You might be the only hardcore gamer who started with a fan website and then became president of the company you were championing! Can you tell us how that came to be, how you met Falcom founder Masayuki Kato, and how you managed to take over his position? TK: I had a school assignment to create an introductory website for something, which became the fansite for "Prophecy of the Moonlight Witch" (Known as "White Witch" in Japan - EG). There was an offline gathering and I was able to meet many passionate Falcom fans. Within the group, there were some people who worked in the game industry and by talking to them, after graduation, I thought about applying at Falcom. However, I was an economics student, so I applied for a position in the finance department. Once I entered the company, because I had some experience with the internet, I was placed in a position that dealt with the web. In order to create things like game introductions and manuals, I started test playing the games. This lead me to be closer to the development team and I was able to offer my input. Afterwards, I actually was able to take a position within the development team and after some time doing project and product management I found myself as the president - the position I occupy today. Apparently, the founder of Falcom, Mr. Kato, took a look at my fansite after I joined the company and wanted to teach me many things about the company philosophy and game development.

Present Despite fierce competition amongst several big players in the RPG market, Falcoms keep its head above water by staying sensibly small and focussing on what they know best. With old-school sentiment at its core alongside pragmatic budgeting, it's become something of a boutique RPG developer. We asked a little about what defines Falcom in Mr. Kondo's eyes. Falcom has a very distinct brand. The aesthetic and feel of your games has managed to remain very significant throughout your history. How have you managed to retain this signature over the years? Brandish began in 1991, and the original has since been remade. TK: Having respect for each title we release, by wanting to surpass what we have done before, by not allowing compromise, and by sharing a general desire to create something that we can be proud of. That said, we have no definite rules in regards to development. You were once a fan, now you're the president. Would you still call yourself a gamer today? Do you still play RPGs, and are there any other games or genres you have been dabbling with recently? TK: Recently, I generally find it hard to reach the end of RPGs, but naturally, my favourite genre is still RPGs. Also, it's not really in the same vein as what Falcom does, but I really like Uncharted. A lot of care and thought went into its creation and I think that it's a series that is easy for Japanese fans to get into. Are you still in-touch with Falcom's founder Masayuki Kato, and what is he doing these days? Is he still into video games? I hope to hear the two of you still meet for a beer sometimes. TK: Mr. Kato is a man with great experience and I still go to him for advice in regards to development. He's always been a person who has loved new things and still checks out new games and various new gadgets. In any business profit is paramount, but with Falcom there's always a sense you're serving your fanbase first. Perhaps it would be fair to say you don't seem to want to be another Square-Enix, and are happy to do what you do best. Can you shed a little light on your business strategy in this regard, and tell us your personal feelings about what you want for Falcom's future? TK: In order to continue making games, revenue and profit are very important. However, if we feel that there is no value in creating something to us personally, we will not be able to continue. Something that will delight fans. Something that we can devote ourselves to that has value. What kind of game is that? These are questions we will continue to think carefully about with each title we create.