Summary
- Nihon Falcom founder Masayuki Kato passed away on December 15 at age 78.
- He founded the company in 1981 as an Apple retailer, later publishing games developed by regular customers such as Dragon Slayer creator Yoshio Kiya.
- While Kato stepped down as CEO in 2001, he remained as chairman until his passing over the weekend.
Masayuki Kato, founder of Nihon Falcom, has passed away at age 78.
As reported by Time Extension, Kato started the Tokyo-based company in 1981 as an Apple retailer. It would take on the name Nihon Falcom, after the Millenium Falcon from Star Wars, just one year later when the company released its first video game, Galactic Wars. But it was 1984’s Dragon Slayer and 1987’s Ys: The Vanished Omens that put it on the map.
Originally founded as “Computer Land Tachikawa”, many of its early games were developed by regular customers such as Yoshio Kiya, who later created Dragon Slayer.
Kato served as the company’s president for 20 years until Shinji Yamazaki took over in 2001. However, Kato remained with Nihon Falcom as chairman until he passed away on December 15, even serving as general producer on the recently released Ys 10: Nordics.
Falcom’s early games were developed exclusively for PC in Japan, and it wouldn’t be until 1987 when it released its first English localised game for the Master System — Ys: The Vanished Omens (otherwise known as Ancient Ys Vanished). Published by Sega, the story of Adol Christin was an immediate hit, spawning an iconic, action JRPG series that persists to this day.
Your Name director worked at Nihon Falcom in the ’90s.
However, despite this rousing success, very few games were translated to English initially: Legacy of the Wizard, Sorcerian, and Gurumin being rarities among Falcom’s library. But in the 2010s, it partnered with XSEED Games to bring several releases to the West, including Ys: Oath in Felghana, Ys 1 & 2 Chronicles, and Ys 7, further cementing the series as a JRPG favourite.
Ys 8 would later be translated by NIS America, a partnership that continues today with Ys 9: Monstrum Nox and Ys 10: Nordics.
Following the news of Kato’s passing, Nihon Falcom stated that there will be a wake and a funeral held for next of kin only, and that the company is not accepting flowers, offerings, or telegrams of condolence.
