Falcom — or Nihon Falcom, to give the studio its full name — is officially 45 years old. Forty-five!
Not many developers get to reach such an impressive milestone, but Falcom's managed to hold steady for decades off the back of (mostly) annual releases, and the establishment of key franchises like Trails and Ys.
Some would argue that Falcom's never been a very... ambitious company, but that's partly why it's lasted so long. It's always kept its spending fairly modest, and it's always retained a relatively small number of employees, rarely expanding beyond the scope of what's necessary.
And of course, in recent years, it's become much more of a global entity. This is thanks to the increased popularity of the aforementioned Trails series here in the West — which has allowed the studio to branch out and announce new titles, like action RPG Kyoto Xanadu.
And speaking of new titles, Falcom's got another one in the oven. Just revealed as part of the 45th anniversary celebrations, a new Dragon Slayer project is now in development.
Dragon Slayer was one of the originators of the Japanese RPG genre all the way back in the 1980s, and is, essentially, the foundational property of Falcom's entire library.
Dragon Slayer's many spin-offs would go on to become the franchises that we know today. Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes, for example, eventually evolved into The Legend of Heroes: Trails games, which are now commonly known as just 'Trails'.
We can't help but wonder what this new Dragon Slayer project is, then, since Falcom's pretty much reaching as far back into its past as it possibly can.
This thing's coming to "consoles" — but that's all we know for now.
Are you a Falcom fan? What do you make of this Dragon Slayer news? Wish the developer a happy anniversary in the comments section below.