They may not have the mainstream notoriety of a Square Enix, nor the contemporary affinity for style like an Atlus, but it’s hard to deny that for Nihon Falcom and their RPG catalog, their presence as one of the genre’s most consistent and respected studios still going, is equaled only by their longevity as a team whose own personal history is a little more novel than most. Having started development on PC, to then transition towards developing for console, only to find those same trends somewhat revert to a mixture of console and PC alike – a result of preferences both at home in the studio’s native Japan and around the World constantly changing. If any team can talk experience on navigating the ever-changing, ever-turbulent tides of game development, Falcom are your team.
For Toshihiro Kondo, its current President, the journey can be described perhaps in one way as a fan’s hopes realized. Having grown up on a diet of RPGs classic and beloved alike, a fateful introduction to Falcom’s own releases during middle school would inevitably lead to finding employment at the studio itself, and eventually, the lead Producer/Writer to some of not just the team’s most acclaimed releases but overall, some of the highest-rated RPGs of the last ten years. Both the studio’s renowned Ys and Trails series of RPGs – one proficient in real-time action, the other continuing the fly the flag of traditional turn-based affairs – continuing on even after all these years.
During a recent press event, in which bothYs XandTrails Through Daybreak IIwere shown – the latter the upcoming follow-up to the start of the Calvard Arc in Falcom’s long-running, turn-based series of entries – we got a chance to sit down with Mr. Kondo. Talking not just about the studio’s upcoming releases, but so too his feelings on the worldwide response to Trails, as well as the changing dynamics of Falcom as a developer.
[Hardcore Gamer] At the risk of getting a little philosophical to kick things off, what do you personally feel is most fascinating about turn-based gameplay? Why do you think it remains such a compelling gameplay style, not just for developers of RPGs, but for fans in general?
[Kondo] Our player-base, generally speaking, are the type who like to deliberately enjoy the story at a slower, deliberate pace. They also want to kind of have that experience with the gameplay and go slowly. From a design perspective, when it comes to designing a turn-based game, in contrast to an action game, you can create the characters very distinctly with their parameters and what they can do. As developers, that’s rewarding to create for this player-base that very much enjoys methodical, slower gameplay. Even as a fan myself, I like turn-based games too.
Where did your love of turn-based combat originally stem from? What were the kind of games you liked when you were younger? Even now, what sort of games inspires you?
As a child I was the original Nintendo generation, so your Dragon Quests, your Final Fantasys. When I got into [middle] school, I had friends and they were also gamers themselves – they were the ones who introduced me to Falcom. So it was around that time that I really started to get into Falcom.
One of the things that personally surprises me is the extent to which Falcom’s games – not just with Trails, but overall – have been so warmly received in the West. I’d gauge that maybe over the past few years, the more vocal/outspoken branch of support has steadily increased. I see more people online saying “I’m a huge fan of the Trails games!” or “I’ve played all the Trails games!”. Could you pinpoint the first or earliest instance where you realized the Trails series was so popular in the West?
Honestly speaking, the fan reaction was not something I paid much attention to in the beginning. When the Trails series first started, obviously it was brand new; we didn’t really have a fanbase so even in the Japanese market, let alone the foreign market, having any kind of recognition wasn’t something we were expecting. My main concern (as a new developer at the time), wasn’t to please fans, but to make the kind of game I wanted to create.
Honestly speaking, the fan reaction was not something I paid much attention to in the beginning.
From there, things got bigger and bigger and when I really began to feel and understand how deeply loved and well-received by the Western fanbase the series was, was after I became President of the company. From that period of time, as I became more responsible for having to look over the financial aspects of running a video game company, comes the fact that you also need to pay attention to the fan and player reaction. And so, when I was able to start traveling abroad, meeting fans, talking to them and just seeing their reaction to the games, that’s when you get a real understanding for just how well received they are.
And with the critical reception these games seem to receive on a regular basis – not just from press, but from people in general – is the pressure any different when developing a new entry? What sort of interesting challenges does that create?
Making games in itself is pressure [laughs]. But the thing is, now that we’re releasing games in the West and as a team looking at user feedback, what we’re beginning to see is that particularly on social media – more quickly than say, the Japanese fans – you’ll get Western fans’ reactions and comments. Things they find interesting. For me and the team, because of how quickly information moves, we now talk among ourselves. For example: “I wonder how this character or this situation will be received in the West.” That’s something that’s become a topic in the team.
In terms of pressure, there is pressure, but more than that, there’s this sense of excitement. How are our fans going to take what we’ve done? How are they going to feed back to us what they think? It’s more a feeling of excitement, than pressure at this point.
Review: The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak
A reworked, rejuvenated approach to combat provides Trails Through Daybreak the bold next chapter this acclaimed series, fittingly deserves.
I wanted to touch on something you mentioned there. Is it your experience that fans in the West are more vocal or more expressive with opinions on the series? Is it literally a 50:50 split between opinions in Japan compared to the West, or is it more uneven in that regard?
In terms of sales (taking into account these are separate titles we’re talking about), if you add Asia to the West, but separate that from the Japanese market, [the split is] getting larger and larger. One thing I have noticed in terms of user feedback is that yes, Western users are much more likely to offer their opinions. But often times, it’s positive that they really like the game.
Which is kind of unfortunate because, as Japanese people, there might be this tendency that even if they like the game, they just keep it to themselves. And they don’t actually comment on that. But yes, there is definitely more positive commentary coming from the West. It’s a little bit sad we don’t get as much Japanese people offering their thoughts and opinions as well, but that’s likely the reality of different, foreign fanbases.
I’m curious. Why is it that people in Japan seem to be conservative with their views? Even if they are positive?
It’s definitely a national characteristic if you will. I feel that in certain situations, even if a person has a strong opinion, if they were to put that opinion out there, they wouldn’t have the experience of other people coming in and knocking that opinion down. Beyond that, I feel that as a general rule, Japanese people have a tendency to wait, see what the overarching opinion is on anything and kind of align yourself, or at the very least, put yourself on the same level as the others. Just as a way to not rock the boat.
I want to move ontoDaybreak IIspecifically. How would you describe the nature of developing a sequel, specifically one set in the same arc? For lack of a better term,Daybreakfelt in many ways like a fresh start for the Trails series. Does it feel more that the foundation is already there. That it’s a case of just adding to it or is it more complex than that?
Generally speaking, when we create the first game in an arc, after some time has passed and it’s released, the team usually say: “oh, we should’ve done this” or “we could’ve done this”. Thus, that creates a new idea to put into the next game. Or there might be things, for whatever reason, we weren’t able to put into the first game – things that we wanted to put in. There’s often that kind of feedback loop. That’s something that we challenge ourselves to. To put them into the next entry in the series.
So does that apply toDaybreak IIthen? Is there anything in the sequel you would’ve wanted to include in the original?
Yeah there’s a ton [laughs]. To give some examples, what you’ll see with the battle system in Daybreak II are a couple of new systems like the Cross Charge and EX Chains. Which essentially further improves upon that feeling of speed and the increase in tempo that we weren’t able to realize before. But the one thing I want to bring up are the times where, as Van, you’re able to trail somebody. Because there is this detective element to Van’s occupation, that’s an atmospheric thing we wanted to include in the original that we’re finally able to do in Daybreak II.
Could you elaborate more on the time mechanics that are present inDaybreak II? The idea that you can revert to a previous/past state in the story – to what extent has this been implemented? Could I, for example, revert all the way back to the start of a chapter?
You can potentially go back to the start of a chapter, depending on the circumstances. But I want to clarify that it’s not necessarily that free; it’s more of a story-based mechanic and it comes at specific points in the story. So the player will have certain options as to where to return to.
But how much of an investigative element is there? Where you can perhaps find alternate ways to engage in dialogue and thus affect the events. Or is it all set in stone?
It’s more that, when something happens and the player is able to revert to an earlier state, it’s clear what the next decision should be, to make. Less of a situation of the player having an active role and suddenly it’s on a completely new route, more a matter of the ending and the routes have already been set out, so it’s a case of going back and getting onto that right route to reach the end of the chapter.
I recall hearing during an earlier Q&A, you touched upon recruiting new/younger members into the team at Falcom. Is there anything you yourself have learned from this section of the team that you might not have considered or thought about in the past? What’s the dynamic like between the younger developers and the more veteran faces at Falcom?
I think a great example of the new things that the new members have contributed would be forYs X. Up until now, Ys was generally the series in the company that was created by the veteran staff, but I wanted to try something new for the development ofYs X. I wanted to leave as much up to them as we could.
As for the dynamic, it really depends on the project. For the Trails team, the Director is very much in charge of things – “you do this, you do this, this is how we’re going to proceed” – whereas on my team, the Ys team, I give much more latitude to the younger people. And because the setting ofYs X, is in this place called the Obelia Gulf that’s dotted with all these islands, I’ll say to the staff: “OK, I’m going to give you an island. You can do whatever you want; I want you to come up with the quests for them, where the enemies are, you can come up with the boss. You can do whatever you want, providing it doesn’t break the rules of this setting.”
And is this something unique to the development ofYs Xor had a similar kind of relationship been applied for prior Ys titles?
To this extent of giving the team the ability to do these things,Ys Xwas the first. In contrast toYs IX, it was more a situation where I still kind of controlled things. But because this was a situation where I’d give each of them their own island to themselves, it created this interesting feeling where they no longer had a safety net. There maybe was a sense of nervousness, but at the same time there was a sense of responsibility. Responsibility that these islands were interesting to them, but more importantly, were interesting for the players.
I want to wrap up by just quickly talking about the Trails series in terms of how far it’s come and the legacy it’s created. For you personally, does it feel like any goals have been reached? Or does this still feel like an ongoing quest – are there still things you’d like to achieve with what will be the remainder of the Trails series?
The thing about game development is if you’re satisfied with what you’ve made and where you are, it’s over. Whether it comes to either Ys or Trails, there’s always this feeling of “ah, maybe we could’ve done something differently.” There’s always going to be that process, regardless of what we make. There’s still issues to address, there’s still things we can do to make these games better. That’s the feeling I have at this moment, even for a series that’s been going on a long time.
Specifically, when it comes to Trails, because it’s a series that’s been going on for twenty years, there’s this understanding that we have been able to make something that resonates with fans. But the thing I’m now looking forward to is that now we’ve been able to create something that’s lasted so long, the topic now is how do we end this? I can’t say how I’ll feel when it’s all over, but the important thing for me is to ensure that we do finish it.
Review: Ys X: Nordics
Ys X: Nordics chronicles Adol’s latest adventure as he embarks across the sea.
So I guess I can’t ask you how the whole saga will end, because you yourself don’t quite know that as well?
You’re right, even as the President I don’t necessarily know. However, my specific words to the staff at Falcom were “let’s finally think about how we’re going to end this.” And my directive to them was: let’s get down what we want to do, to finally bring this series to a close.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak II releases across PS5, PS4, Switch & PC on February 22. Ys X: Nordics will be released later this month via the same platforms, on October 25.
