News: Falcom's newsletter #95

March 11, 2006, 01:25 AM

by chazumaru, via Falcom -
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This screen is taken from the PC version. Falcom's news has been rather uninspiring for the last few weeks, but Sora no Kiseki SC was released last thursday and the publisher is finally moving on to other projects. Japanese message boards are responding much more positively to their latest RPG than to last autumn's Xanadu Next, but their next title will not be for Windows, as they usually do. As some of you might have learned via Dengeki Online a few days ago, Falcom will instead port (and publish themselves) their action-adventure game Gurumin on PSP.

This is the first time in years that Falcom has ported one of their games on a console - they usually rely on deals with other publishers (such as Hudson, Taito, Epoch, Koei, Tonkin House, Sega or Konami depending on the years and systems). As we mentioned a few times in these columns, Bandai was taking care of porting Falcom's Eiyuu Densetsu Gagharv Trilogy on PSP. Falcom must have been allured by Bandai's success with Gagharv Trilogy - Shiroki Majou, which sold more than a 100,000 copies (the two following ports did not repeat such figures). And they must have picked Gurumin because it was done in a 3D style which is close to PSP standards, and also one of the few games they were sure no other publisher would request the rights. Using one of their more popular brands (such as Ys or Eiyuu Densetsu) might have compromised future deals with other companies. Or at least that is the best explanation I can give for Falcom reviving one of its weakest efforts in recent years. Gurumin's PSP release is scheduled for next summer.

In other news, Falcom soundtracks are now available for download on iTunes Music Store, obviously in the soundtrack section, and there are a bunch of seasonal wallpapers to download as always. On the other hand, Falcom remains worryingly silent about MMV's Ys Strategy on DS, to be released on March 23rd. Considering how their newsletter never forgot to mention Bandai's progress with the Gagharv Trilogy, it doesn't bode well for this one...