SPOILER WARNING! I do talk about some spoilers for Cold Steel 3 and 4 so read at your own discretion.

I had burned out kind of hard on the Trails series back in 2020-2021. I had started Cold Steel 4 but just couldn’t find the motivation to finish it after playing so many entries in a row and wasn’t really feeling the game back then. Plus I hadn’t yet finished Trails to Azure at the time and the reception to CS4 within the Falcom fandom was so divisive that I eventually decided to step away for a while. So when I finally decided to try and finish CS4 this year, it felt like I was doing the franchise equivalent of eating my vegetables. Getting this entry out of the way so I could finally move on to other installments that are more universally praised. In some ways it did feel like that, but I ended up having a much better time with CS4 than I was initially expecting. While the macro story of 4 has some annoying retcons and contrived conflicts, the micro stories are still just as strong as they’ve ever been. The individual moments between Rean and his friends, the narratives of the NPCs, they all got me invested in the game even if the overall story was sometimes taking some awkward turns.

The core of CS4’s story is strong, and has a lot of room for good conflict and drama. However, it feels like at every turn the game places a safety net for itself, like it's trying to avoid facing the consequences these situations set up. Characters that were formerly your allies will turn against you, but don’t worry it's just the Curse controlling them. A character will die dramatically in the previous game but don’t worry, he’s okay now and has a cool eyepatch. While these moments would sometimes have me rolling my eyes, the emotions the characters themselves were feeling during these plot points still felt genuine. I knew Olivert was going to make a return at some point but seeing his sister visit what was essentially his grave still made me a little teary eyed. And I’ll admit that it was still pretty exciting to see Olivert make his big return in the Courageous II. Many former allies became villains due to the Curse, but there were also characters like Claire and Cedric who went through engaging arcs where they felt conflicted about their decisions. And then there were people like Rufus that knew exactly what they were doing and got a punch in the face for it. Plus, I think even Falcom realized they went a little too far with the Curse and had a few scenes in CS4 where it was explained that people are still responsible for their actions even under the Curse’s influence (although it was still a bit sloppy in execution).

My whole experience playing through CS4’s story was an odd one. I cared about what was happening, even if it was poorly executed on paper, because I cared about the characters. Like their experiences were “real” even if I was detached from the situation. I especially felt this with the NPCs. Seeing families be torn apart because of the military draft was really sad to see because I had grown to know all these people across multiple games. Even seeing people get sucked in by the government’s war propaganda was heart breaking in a different way (even if the game said it was simply the work of the Curse). On top of that, while the system is controversial with some fans, I felt like the bonding events in CS4 were particularly good in this entry. In fact, a lot of my favorite moments happen in these little vignettes. They weren’t all winners but a lot of the heartfelt moments shared between the cast really got me. So while the game held back sometimes with the consequences of its narrative, it felt like it did not hold back in terms of emotional consequences (if that makes sense).

However, even despite CS4’s positives, both Cold Steel 3 and 4 are still dragged down by excessive bloat and the simple fact that both games often feel like less exciting retreads of the previous two Cold Steel titles. Both duologies go over similar plot points but the events in 3 and 4 often feel far less impactful compared to their equivalent set pieces in 1 and 2. In CS4 you locate all your old friends and reclaim your school just like in Cold Steel 2 but it feels far less triumphant. And, similar to 3, the padding in CS4 gets to be quite egregious at times. There are many scenes that are just copied and pasted throughout the story to fill space, with only the characters and locations changing. Going through a labyrinth where one of the cast members faces an important person from their past is cool the first time, but it starts to get a little old when the same thing happens two or three times right after that. And I audibly groaned when the game made me play through the salt pale dungeon six times in a row near the end of the game (even if they were short). So while there are some great moments in CS4, they are often surrounded by content that feels like it was created just to extend the length of the game.

Also, as a side tangent, Cold Steel IV is billed by fans as the “Avengers: End Game” of the franchise and yet it didn’t really feel like the accumulation of the series thus far to me. Estelle and Lloyd show up (along with a lot of their friends), but they kind of feel like cameos in a story that is very much about Rean and the new/old Class VII. And sure, you get to face the longtime villain of the series, Osborne, but in the end, CS4 feels more like the “Ready Player One” of the series rather than a big conclusion. A story about someone else’s adventure full of references to things fans will enjoy from the past. I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that everything is filtered through the perspective of Rean and Class VII. There are so many individual characters and unrelated groups of people in the narrative that it might have been better if the story contained multiple protagonists so the cast was able to break off into groups and have more room to breathe and develop their own resolutions. Falcom must have thought the same thing because the next game in the series does in fact structure the story in this way.

It often feels like CS4 is trying to juggle too much at once, so it shouldn’t be surprising that the game’s quality is uneven. Both Cold Steel 3 and 4 were also the very first games Falcom had developed from the ground up exclusively for an HD console which I’m sure made development even more difficult on top of trying to be a huge concluding entry in the franchise. So while I’m disappointed in some aspects of the game, I can also empathize with why the game turned out the way it did. But, while a lot of things around the edges are under cooked, the core elements that make a good Trails title are still present in CS4 and I had a real moment with the game this year despite my complaints.

When I started Cold Steel IV way back in 2020, I was knee deep in the online fandom (well, more like I was lurking around it) and had just played several titles back to back. So when I started CS4, I was just burnt out on the series and, honestly, the discourse surrounding it. While there is plenty to criticize about Cold Steel IV, when I returned to playing the title this year I realized that even a middling Trails game is still a rock solid RPG in the end. Heck, I didn’t even talk about the gameplay which is still just as polished as it was in 3. But to get dramatic for a minute, playing Cold Steel 4 surprisingly felt like a layer of cynicism was being peeled off my jaded husk. It was a purifying experience in some weird way, like I was relearning that I still loved something just as much as I did in the past. There were several times where I basically said, “Oh yeah, I love Falcom games” while reacquainting myself with CS4. It made me reflect again on how it's okay to enjoy things even if you recognize they have flaws and the value of sometimes distancing yourself from the online fandom so you can get out of the echo chamber and just have your own thoughts about a title. Watching the game’s ending really just made me feel happy and I’m not sure if anyone who played all of the previous titles before CS4 couldn’t at least come away with a smile on their face during the conclusion. The game might have been 20-30 hours too long (at least to someone like me that did every little thing), but I still had a fun time with Cold Steel IV and it has sort of revitalized my love for this series in a way I wasn’t expecting.

SPOILER WARNING! I Don't get into too many specifics but I do spoil some things about both games.

I’ve been a longtime fan of the adventure games developed by Cing, specifically the titles created by Rika Suzuki and Taisuke Kanasaki (even more specifically Hotel Dusk and Another Code R). So it was pretty heartbreaking when the studio closed in 2010 and the developers were scattered to the wind. Sure, titles like CHASE have been released in the time since then, which Taisuke Kanasaki worked on along with a few other CING alumni, but it seemed like the entire band would never truly get back together for a new song. So when Another Code Recollection was announced back in September 2023, I couldn’t have been more excited. Not only was a Cing franchise being resurrected but, as I would later find out, basically all of the key developers from the original games were returning to contribute to the title. Taisuke Kanasaki as art director, Rika Suzuki writing the story, Satoshi Okubo contributing to the soundtrack, and former Cing producer Takuya Miyagawa supervising the title. It really felt like the old band was coming back for another tour.

Now that I’ve finished both remakes in the collection, I’ve come away from the experience both happy and a little mixed on certain elements.

First off, I think the remakes make a lot of small story changes that feel smart. An example of this is how Ashley’s bag was stolen by Matthew in the remake instead of a shadowy figure leaving the bus. This little change helped Ashley have a more tangible thief to pursue while also allowing Matthew to be introduced into the story far sooner. Both games are full of rewrites like this and the narrative in general just feels like it was given a fresh editing pass by the developers. I also particularly liked the addition of the origami notes that you can find in both games. They helped give Ashely’s father more of a presence in the story while also offering some fun information about his character.

However, out of both games, Another Code R saw the most changes to its story, with some of the characters being completely rewritten and redesigned into basically new people. R’s ending in particular sees some extensive changes. In fact, it was so wildly different from the original game that it kind of threw me for a loop at first but I think I ended up enjoying it overall. One change that didn’t really land with me, however, was how Matthew’s story arc was concluded. Another Code R on the Wii did not resolve the plot thread about the whereabouts of Matthew’s father. In interviews, Rika Suzuki stated that this was a mystery that would have been explored in a third game that was unfortunately never made due to the studio’s closure. However, the remake does its best to resolve this mystery within R itself, but I found it to be very unsatisfying.

Ashley and Matthew slowly develop a friendship over the course of the game, with Matthew’s role in the story mirroring D from the first game. However, during the remake’s final hours, every lingering mystery and plot thread surrounding Matthew is suddenly resolved so quickly it made my head spin. He confronts the trauma of his past, resolves all of his issues, finds out what happened to his dad, discovers he’s in a coma, and then finds out his dad has made a miraculous recovery in the span of what felt like 10 minutes. And then, before I could even digest what had just happened, Matthew walks off into the sunset and is never spoken to again. Even during the game’s epilogue, where Ashley says goodbye to everyone, you don’t get to say any final goodbyes to Matthew (unlike the original). It just felt weird to have the character brushed aside like that after he had played such an important role in the game up to that point. It would be like if D just disappeared from the story completely right before Ashley confronts Bill. Matthew’s story clearly needed more time to conclude cleanly but there just wasn’t enough room for it to breathe within the narrative space of Another Code R. I suppose the dev team didn't want to risk having his storyline remain unresolved for a future game that might not happen, which is understandable, but it was still pretty disappointing regardless.

Back to something more positive, I thought the visuals in Recollection were really well done. The remakes clearly didn’t have a huge budget behind them, and you definitely see that in the low resolution textures and simple geometry of the backgrounds, but the character models are an obvious standout in the presentation. While I do miss the original’s 2000s-as-heck character designs (thinking of Tommy) and the slightly more realistic art-style, I think Taisuke Kanasaki and the team at Arc System Works did a good job reimagining the cast of the Another Code series. However, one aspect of the presentation that took a little bit of getting used to was the voice acting. After spending so many years imagining how each of these characters sounded, it was a bit jarring to actually hear them speak. Plus, there were some odd line deliveries here and there, like the performers didn’t really know what was happening in the game when they spoke their dialogue. One instance of this that stood out to me is an emotional scene where Ashley says D’s name in a deadpan tone of voice when she is supposed to be in tears offscreen. Also, whenever characters made random gasps or mouth sounds, the actors sounded like they were standing way too close to their mics, making the audio way too loud (which wasn’t a problem in the JP dub). However, over time I did grow to like the English dub and thought that Ashley’s actress (Kaitlyn Yott) actually did a fine job with the character, especially in how she slightly changed her performance between Ashley as a 13 year old and Ashley as a 16 year old. Cameron Macleod’s performance as the Captain and Bob was also a standout for me, who portrayed each character very well.

Gameplay was another element of Recollection that I felt a little mixed on. Besides some slightly stiff feeling movement and an incredibly slow camera (which you can thankfully adjust in the settings) I thought the gameplay was overall well done. Puzzles were often just complicated enough that I was able to chew on them for a bit but they were never overly complicated or cumbersome (although sometimes it felt like there were far fewer puzzles than there were in the originals). But I’m still not sure how I feel about how both games have been unified in terms of design. Part of the fun of Another Code as a series, even if it was only two games, was how each title was very specifically designed around its hardware. This is visualized in-game with the DAS and RAS originally designed to look like the DS and Wiimote respectively. The first game could be controlled completely with the DS’s touch screen and there were many puzzles that took advantage of the portable’s unique features, with one of the most memorable requiring the player to close their DS in order to solve it. This bled into the storytelling as well with these features being used to immerse the player into certain scenes, such as the ending of the first game where the player has to actually touch D’s hand with the touch screen instead of just watching it happen in a cutscene. Another Code R carried on this tradition with every aspect of the game being designed around the player using the Wiimote, from navigation to puzzle solving. Obviously some changes had to be made for the remakes since they are made for very different hardware but I was a bit disappointed that the developers didn’t try to take more advantage of the Switch’s unique features, instead opting to use the standard control scheme and puzzle design you often see in most modern 3D adventure games. And since both remakes are included in one package, it means that they both play and look pretty much the same. This is nice in some ways, the first game in particular received a nice glow-up in terms of presentation and both games are now more directly connected in terms of story. But it also means that both titles have become a lot more homogenized and many of the elements that made each of the originals so unique have kind of been lost.

Despite the gripes I’ve shared about the remake, the collection overall was really fun to experience. Besides my issues with how Matthew’s ending was handled, I don’t think you could have realistically asked for better reimaginings of these games. As I played Recollection, I kept thinking about how surreal it was that I was even playing a new Another Code game. I was just amazed the game even existed at all, and that it was so polished in most regards. It seriously felt like someone made a game specifically aimed at me and I couldn’t have been happier. However, I feel like this remake should stand alongside the originals, rather than replace them, because there is still so much that made those original games special that isn’t represented in Recollection.

When Recollection was first announced, it made me think, “Nice! The franchise is back! Maybe now we’ll get a third game if this is successful.” That may still happen but, as I thought about it, I realized that these remakes felt less like the band coming back and more like the ghost of an old friend had paid me a visit to remind me of all the good memories we had together and to resolve any lingering regrets. The whole experience of playing Recollection gave me a surprising feeling of closure, like I was able to finally give Another Code a proper goodbye after it had died so suddenly with the closing of Cing. I don’t know if the Cing band is back to stay but I really appreciate them giving me the chance to revisit this song at least one more time in a new way.

This video spotlights the self-proclaimed largest adventure game on the Game Boy Advance, Zero One by Fuuki. Learn about this ambitious handheld adventure along with Zero One SP, a remake that features character designs by the creator of Outlaw Star, Takehiko Ito.

Sources

1. 1997 Print Ad for Fuuki’s Arcade Business
2. 2003 Fan Review for Zero One
3. 2004 Fan Review for Zero One SP
4. ADV Fan Site that Contains Reviews for Both Zero One Games
5. Article that Talks About Mile To Heaven (Amusement Journal)
6. Blog Post about Hako Tsumi Max
7. Blurb Talking About Zero One’s Fan Service (NSFW) (Perfect Guide of Nostalgic Gameboy)
8. Character Popularity Poll for Zero One SP
9. Chart Explaining How the Story Branches in Zero One SP
10. Comments on NicoNico Pedia Page (Comment 22 mentions that Zero One SP might be the reason they are a fan of novel games and sci-fi stories today)
11. Fan Art for Both Zero One Games
12. Fan Talking About Zero One SP on Fuuki’s BBS
13. Fan Site that Contains a Lot of Material about Zero One
14. Fuuki BBS Forum (More Readable Version)
15. Fuuki’s International Sales Department Page
16. Fuuki Mobygames Page
17. Fuuki’s Website (1997, 2001, 2003, 2012)
18. Fuuki Staff Mentioning that Zero One SP Didn’t Sell Well Enough for there to be a Sequel
19. Game Watch Article that Talks About Mile To Heaven and Hako Tsumi Max
20. IGN Summary of Zero One SP
21. Information on Metro Corporation (Game Developer Research Institute)
22. Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo: Hoshimitou Kanashimi no Fukushuuki Credits
23. Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo: Hoshimitou Kanashimi no Fukushuuki Game Catalog Wiki Page
24. Magazine Advertisement for Zero One SP (Arcadia March 2004)
25. Magazine Reviews for Zero One
26. Magazine that Lists Hako Tsumi Max and Mile To Heaven Not Having Release Dates (Monthly Arcadia January 2010)
27. Nagoma and His Sister Discussing the Different Features in Zero One
28. NicoNico Pedia Entry for Zero One SP
29. Photos of Fuuki’s Arcades and Amusements Centers (One, Two, Three, Four)
30. Twitter Thread Talking about Tsumi Max and Mile To Heaven (RatttzMessd, 2022)
31. Youkaidou Credits
32. Zero One SP Credits
33. Zero One SP Game Catalog Wiki Page
34. Zero One Official Website (Alternate Site URL)
35. Zero One SP Official Website (Alternate Site URL)
36. Zero One SP Wikipedia Page

Other Information

• Detailed Walkthrough for Zero One SP
• How to Get Each Ending in Zero One
• List of Magazine Issues that Zero One Appeared In
• List of Magazine Issues that Zero One SP Appeared In
• Official Nintendo Product Page for Zero One
• Official Nintendo Product Page for Zero One SP
• Official Website for Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo: Hoshimitou Kanashimi no Hukushuuki
• Photographs of Zero One SP Poster (yuichi4039a, 2016)
• Press Release for Zero One SP (Inside Games, 2004)
• Video that Compares the Character Designs in Zero One and SP
• Youkaidou Official Website (Alternate Site URL)
• Zero One Youtube Playthrough
• Zero One SP YouTube Playthrough

3rd-Party Footage

• Ace Attorney Japanese Commercial
• Ace Attorney Japanese Promotional Video
• Hamtaro: Ham-Ham Heartbreak Japanese Commercial
• Hotel Dusk Japanese Commercial
• Japanese GBA Commercials
• Mikopara Game Sample - GBA/Doujin (Vysethedetermined2, 2022)
• Time Travelers LEVEL5 VISION 2010 Trailer

This is my new video where I talk about the history of Leaf, an adult PC developer that not only created many popular franchises (To Heart, White Album, Utawarerumono, Tears to Tiara, etc) but who also pioneered the visual novel genre as we know it today and inspired a generation of creators in the late 90s/early 2000s.

Sources

1. 20 Years of Aquaplus and Future Prospects: Interview with President Naoya Shimokawa (Famitsu, 2016)
2. 2001 Fan Review of Tasogare (Mentions Akihide Takebayashi and the 552 document.)
3. 2003 Fan Review of Utawarerumono (Mentions the state of the company at the time.)
4. 2006 Fan Review of Tasogare
5. 4Gamer Interview with Maruto Fumiaki and Nakamura Takeshi (WA2 Analysis)
6. Abyss Boat by buisochan (Retro PC Games Reviews and Related Topics, 2006)
7. Akihide Takebayashi Wikipedia Page
8. Announcement of Utawarerumono (Leaf, 2001)
9. Announcement of Utawarerumono 2, Tears to Tiara II, and Jasmine (4Gamer, 2011)
10. Aqauplus English Wikipedia Page
11. Aquaplus Wikipedia Page
12. Archive of Debates about Kizuato Plagiarism on 2channel (Only 01kizuat.zip still works.)
13. Archive of Ryukishi07’s Old Blog (Talks about the beta soundtrack for Higurashi. Learned about this from a YouTube video by BaseSk8er.)
14. Article that Mentions that the Utawarerumono Series has Sold 1 Million Copies (Dengeki Online, 2022)
15. Auaplus Announcing that they are being Acquired by Yume no Sora Holdings (Aquaplus Blog, 2013)
16. Aquaplus P/ECE (vs Panic Playdate) by Matt Sephton
17. Aquaplus Appoints New CEO Minoru Noda (Gematsu, 2022)
18. Chronological Table of Leaf Key Boards
19. Bungle Bungle (The official website of Tatsuya Takahashi and Tooru Minazuki, creators of the Leaf Visual Novel Series. Contains write ups about the development of each game they worked on.)
20. Delivering the Complete Interview of 6 New Aquaplus Titles (Famistu, 2011)
21. Discussion about the original To Heart (Sisilala TV)
22. Eroge Rankings 2001-2007 (PCNews)
23. Eroge Sales Rankings 1997-2012 (Not sure how accurate the numbers are.)
24. Eroge Sales Ranking 2011 (Also not sure how accurate these numbers are.)
25. Eroge Wikipedia Page
26. Fan Site Detailing Kizuato’s Plagiarism Allegations (Has a side by side comparison with the Kizuato bonus scenario and Deki-Sugi. Also includes write-up by Tatsuya Takahashi that was included with the CD version of Kizuato where he mentions the bonus scenario.)
27. FIX Records Old Website
28. Images of Ryukishi07’s Doujinshi (FloPerfecto, Twitter)
29. Independent Production Culture as a Key to the Growth of the Game Industry by Nobushige Hichibe (2013) (Mentions Queen of Hearts sales numbers.)
30. Interview Between Naoya Shimokawa and Rensuke Oshikiri
31. Interview Between Naoya Shimokawa and Toshihiro Kondo
32. Interview with French Bread (4Gamer, 2012)
33. Interview with Hirotaka Yoshida (Yume no Sora) and Naoya Shimokawa (4Gamer, 2013)
34. Interview with Ryukishi07 (Dengeki Online, 2017) (Mentions that Leaf’s games helped him become a fan of the genre along with other titles.)
35. Interview with Tatsuya Takahashi, Tooru Minazuki, and Naoya Shimokawa (Dengeki G's Magazine, January 1999)
36. Interview with the Modern Day Owner of the AQUA Car Tuning Shop (Minkara Carview, 2012)
37. Interview with Shinji Orito (Gigazine, 2011)
38. Special Interview Playback 1995-2006 (Tech Gian, June 2006) (Interview with Naoya Shimokawa about the history of Leaf up to 2006.)
39. Key English Wikipedia Page
40. Leaf/Aquaplus Works Pages on Game Catalog Wiki
41. Leaf Fight TCG Wikipedia Page
42. Leafff Production Committee/Scenario Bureau (Leaf Key Board thread where the 552 document was leaked.)
43. Leaf Key Board Nico Nico Pedia Page
44. Leaf Key Members Discussing how Abyss Boat Arrived in the Mail from the Leaf Fan Club
45. Leaf Key Thread Talking about Abyss Boat’s Announcement
46. Leaf Key Talking about Akihide’s Passing
47. Leaf Key Board Wikipedia Page
48. Leaf Wikipedia Page
49. Leaf’s Apology Letter for Kizuato’s Bonus Scenario (News Page, Letter Itself)
50. Leaf’s Old Employee Blog (Contains posts by Tatsuya Takahashi, Akihide Takebayashi, Hisashi Kawata, Shinya Ishikawa/DOZA, and Kazuhide Nakagami.)
51. Leaf’s Old Product Page (Contains small write-ups about each game.)
52. Leaf’s Rules on Creating Doujin Works (Created in September 2000)
53. LEGAM Impressions (Mentions that U-Office did music for the company GREAT and the PC-98 game “Mission.” Also that Shimokawa worked on the music for Doki Doki Pretty League.)
54. List of Categories for Comiket 60 (“Leaf Key” is listed as 207.)
55. A Look Back at the "Sound Novel" Genre that Caused a Stir in the Industry (ITmedia, 2006)
56. Masakage Hagiya Wikipedia Page (Character designer for Magical Antique.)
57. Naoki Takahashi’s Old Website (Creator of Nscripter.)
58. Naoki Takahashi Talking about ToHeart’s Impact in October 1999
59. Naoya Shimokawa Wikipedia Page
60. Naoya Shimokawa's Early Music Credits
61. News Post about Leaf Moving to Osaka
62. P/ECE Preview (Game Watch, 2001)
63. P/ECE Website (Old Website)
64. P/ECE Wikipedia Page
65. Photo of an Article from MegaStore Gimix Magazine Talking about To Heart’s Launch (nyalra, Twitter)
66. Poll that Asked Readers which Bishoujo Game got them into the Genre (NSFW) (BugBug, 2022)
67. Ryukishi07’s Old Blog: 2004/08/12 (Mentions that his first doujin work was Magical Antique cards for Leaf Fight TCG in 2001.)
68. Shinji Orito's Early Music Credits
69. Studio Aqua Website
70. Takahashi and Minazuki ‘s Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Group
71. Tatsuya Takahashi Tweeting about how ToHeart got Approved by Sony for the PS1
72. Tatsuya Takahashi Tweeting about Making a Doujin Managa with Minazuki
73. Tatsuya Takahashi Tweeting about When he Joined Leaf
74. Tatsuya Takahashi’s Blog Post about Akihide Takebayashi’s Passing
75. Tenerezza Preview and Interview with Naoya Shimokawa and Kaname Kosuga (Famitsu Xbox, November 2002)
76. The Essence of ToHeart2: ToHeart2 Official Guidebook
77. Tech Gian September 1997 Sales Ranking (NSFW)
78. Tech Gian November 1998 Character Popularity Poll (NSFW)
79. TINAMIX INTERVIEW SPECIAL: Leaf's Tatsuya Takahashi & Woodal Harada (TinaMix, 2000)
80. To Heart Visual Fun Book
81. To Heart Wikipedia Page
82. ToHeart2 Website (Mentions that the PS2 game sold 100,000 copies.)
83. Toranoana Interview with Ryukishi07 from 2004 (Talks about making cards for Leaf Fight TCG.)
84. Type-Moon Interview Conducted by Mandarake (Translated by Tsuki-kan) (Nasu mentions that ToHeart on the PS1, along with One and Kanon, introduced him to “love games”.)
85. Utawarerumono: Chiriyuku Mono e no Komoriuta Video Interview (Original source)
86. Utawarerumono: Interview with the Creators (7 Nights Translations)
87. Video that Dramatically Retells the Drama Surrounding the Leaf Key Baord
88. Watanabe Seisakusho’s Website
89. Website for “Leafff” (The fan game that lead to the 552 leak.)
90. WHITE ALBUM Official Art Book (1999)
91. Wine FIX Website

Helpful Resources

• Doujinshi Dot Org (I used this site to research Ryukishi07’s early work but it longer seems to be online.)
• Game Catalog: From Masterpieces to Kusoge Wiki
• Scans of Japanese Game Magazines on the Internet Archive (BugBug, Comptiq, Dengeki G’s, Dengeki PlayStation, Famitsu Xbox, and Tech Gian).
• Visual Novel Database (Especially all the credit information on each of Leaf’s games.)

Other Information

• Article about the Production of Mask of Deception’s Music (Part 1, Part 2)
• AQUAPAZZA Interview (4Gamer, 2011)
• Aquaplus Festa 2007
• Aquaplus Festa / Live 2008
• Aquaplus managed a few “Toriaezu Gohei” and “Gyu-Kaku” restaurant franchises in the Hyogo and Osaka prefectures. However, they no longer seem to operate these restaurants.
• I didn’t mention this in the video but Naoya Shimokawa’s father, Ryuji Shimokawa, served as Aqauplus’s CEO for several years before Naoya became the president (not sure on the dates). Also, in 2022, Minoru Noda became the company’s CEO and now Naoya Shimokawa is the COO.
• The two manga pages at the 31 minute mark are from “DcompleX” by Raita Honjou and “Pico-Pico Boy” by Rensuke Oshikiri.

3rd-Party Footage

• 2004 Japanese Commercials
• Akihabara Geeks Documentary (2005)
• Aquaplus Piece (HarukuriaPaluku, Youtube)
• Collection of TV commercials for PS1 and PS2
• Comiket 56 Footage
• Comiket December 1998 Footage (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)
• Densha Otoko 2005 TV Show
• Footage of Akihide Takebayashi’s Bonus Story from Kizuato (14:00-16:54)
• Multi’s Going Out Opening
• PS3 Baby Commercial
• Tears to Tiara Aquaplus Interview with President Shimokawa
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III Gameplay (Ryoko_UK, YouTube)
• Toranoana Animated Commercial
• Windows 95 CM
• Xbox JP CM

Plus official trailers created by Leaf/Aqauplus and Atlus USA.

This is my new video about Japan's first graphical adventure game, the company that made it, and how the title caused an "adventure game boom" in Japan's PC market during the early 80s. That game being Mystery House created by Micro Cabin in 1982. Not to be confused with Mystery House created by On-Line Systems in 1980.

This is a video I made about the history of Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright and how its development affected the future of the Ace Attorney franchise (directly leading the creation of the Great Ace Attorney sub-series). Hope people enjoy it.

This is a video I made about the Korean RPG Arcturus: The Curse and Loss of Divinity and how it influenced Falcom’s Trails franchise.

I had known about this game for a while but started thinking about it again after making my Falcom history video last year. I decided to play through Arcturus myself and make a short video about it back in November but it ended up taking a long time to get through the game due to various technical problems among other issues. Hope you enjoy it!

This is a video I made about the early history of Nihon Falcom. I started out researching the company since I'm a fan of the Trails series, adding information to the wiki here and there, and eventually ended up creating this huge thing. I spent about 4-5 months making this video, by far the largest project I've ever undertaken, and I hope it is a fun watch. I realize the video is pretty long but I did my best to be as concise as possible and I split the video into chapters that are about 10 minutes long each.

Also, while researching the company, I collected a bunch of old Falcom advertisements by digging through old Japanese magazines on Archive Dot Org. You can see everything I found here on Giantbomb.

Video Sources

1. A 30 Year Fantasy: The Story of Falcom's Resurgence by Christian Nutt (Gamasutra, 2011)
2. AX2019 - Toshihiro Kondo, From Fan to President (NIS America, 2019)
3. Can "Game Music" be Enjoyed even if you are not Playing the Game? I asked Nihon Falcom (Phile Web, 2015)
4. Chinese Blog Post about Tadashi Hayakawa and the Brandish Novel (Mizudiwood, 2016)
5. Comptiq's SOFT Grand Prize Award for Legend of Heroes III (Comptiq June 1995)
6. Comptiq Sales Chart from December 1989 (Different picture of the same chart)
7. Dengeki Online’s Nihon Falcom 30th Anniversary Project (2011)
8. Entertainment Station Three Part Interview with Masayuki Kato Conducted by Fumio Kurokawa (2017).
9. Falcom Bible: Making Of Sorcerian (1988)
10. Falcom Catalogue July 1992
11. Falcom had Three Development Teams in the 80s (Kiya and Tomoo 2017 Talk)
12. Falcom Package Exhibition by the Game Preservation Society (@tk_nz, 2017)
13. Falcom Shop Retrospective (Psyzans)
14. Falcom Sound Team jdk (VGMdb)
15. Game Business Interview with Toshihiro Kondo (GameBusiness, 2015)
16. Gruppo One Credits
17. Gurumin Online (Game Watch) and (4Gamer)
18. The History of Ys (Retro Gamer Magazine, November 2017)
19. Holistic Profile on Nihon Falcom
20. ICON 2007: Interview with Toshihiro Kondo, CEO of Nihon Falcom Corporation (Game Watch, 2007)
21. Information from 2017's "Listen to the Legendary Game Creators" Panel with Yoshio Kiya and Tomoo Yamane (VGDensetsu).
22. Inside Lens - Game Preservation, the Quest (Game Preservation Society, 2017)
23. Interview between Masayuki Kato and Toshihiro Kondo (Denfaminicogamer, 2018)
24. Interview: Shinji Yamazaki (President of Nihon Falcom) (Diehard Game Fan, 2006)
25. Interview with Yoshio Kiya (4Gamer, 2006)
26. Is Falcom Restricting Employees’ Fame to Prevent Turnover? Not that Simple (Yin Laoji, 2019)
27. Keeping the Classic Sound Alive: An Interview with Yuzo Koshiro by Jeremy Parish (1up, 2012)
28. Kiya and Tomoo 2017 Talk (Togetter Twitter Archive)
29. Login Magazine August 1986 Xanadu Advertisements
30. Login Magazine Sales Chart May 1986
31. Micom BASIC Magazine July 1994 Sales Chart
32. Pasokon Sunday Ys Feature
33. Pasokon Sunday Xanadu Special Feature
34. PC Engine Fan June 6, 1993
35. PC Game 80 Chronicles (1990)
36. Preserving Nihon Falcom’s First Game by Takeshi Kanazawa (Game Preservation Society, 2017)
37. Press Release of Nihon Falcom Entering the Stock Market
38. Profile on Yoshio Kiya (Game Preservation Society)
39. Q&A With Nihon Falcom’s Toshihiro Kondo by Robert Allen(Tech-Gaming, 2017)
40. RPGamer Feature - XSEED/Falcom Interview (2010)
41. Shinji Yamazaki Bloomberg Profile
42. The Official Book Of Ultima by Shay Addams (1990)
43. Tomoyoshi Miyazaki‘s afterword from MSX-FAN (May 1988) (Arc Hound)
44. The Gray Area of ​​the August 18 Falcom Game Production Staff List (Yin Laoji, 2018)
45. The Legend of Heroes: Trails Series Sales Top Five Million (Gematsu, 2020)
46. The Prehistory of Nihon Falcom by Kevin Gifford (1up, 2011)
47. The Trail of Nihon Falcom by Kevin Gifford (1up, 2011)
48. The Untold History Of Japanese Game Developers Vol. 1: Interview with Kouji Yokota and Jun Nagashima (2014)
49. Translated Bahamut Interview with Toshihiro Kondo about Sen no Kiseki II and the Future of Falcom by Kirsten Miller (Endless History, 2014)
50. TSE approves listing of Nihon Falcom on TSE Mothers (Game Watch, 2003)
51. Ys IV: Development Interview Collection (Shumplations)
52. Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana sales top 500,000; ‘Christmas Gift Package’ edition announced for PS4 in Japan (Gematsu, 2018)
53. Ys Interview Collection (Shumplations)
54. Ys Online Article (Game Watch, 2009)
55. Xanadu Scenario II by Kevin Gifford (Magweasel, 2010)
56. Yuzo Koshiro Interview: Innovator in Game Music and Sound Design (VGMO, 2011)
57. XSeed Games Announces Wide-Ranging Partnership with Nihon Falcom (IGN, 2010)

Other Helpful Resources

• Amusement Center’s Falcom Museum
• h-eba Gagharv Trilogy Japanese Fan Site
• Falcom Chronicle (2011)
• Falcom Music Channel
• Falcom Official Corporate Timeline
• Falcom Sub-Reddit
• Falcom Staff Roll Wiki
• Game Catalog: From Masterpieces to Kusoge Wiki
• I Love Falcom Chinese Fan Site
• Neo Kobe PC88 and PC98 Archives
• Nihon Falcom Japanese Wikipedia Page
• Psyzans’ Archive of Ys and Falcom Information
• The Falcom Museum
• Scans of Japanese Game Magazines on Archive Dot Org (Micom BASIC, I/O Magazine, Technopolis, NG Namco Community, Famimaga, PC Engine FAN, Comptiq, MSX Fan, MSX Magazine, Login Magazine, etc)
• Sega Retro
• VGDensetsu
• Ys Music Files

Third Party Video Sources

• 1980 Hino Motors CM
• 4 Hours of Pasokon Sunday Footage
• A Cage Song of the Ocean Footage
• Apple Invader
• Anthem Live Performance
• Asteka Footage
• Chupa Chups Windball - Hello Kitty
• Dawn of Ys CM
• Demon Rings Footage
• Dezeni Land PC88 Footage
• Diggin’ in the Carts
• Evangelion TV CM
• Falcom Classics CM
• FFXI Playstation Magazine PV
• Hino Trucks History Video
• Horror House Footage
• imagine-nation NHK WORLD-JAPAN, The Legend of Heroes
• Legend of Heroes III Win95 Development Room
• Legend of Heroes III Win95 Footage
• Longplay Archive
• Making of Trails of Cold Steel Footage
• Mask of the Sun CM
• Mystery House MX-2000 Footage
• NEC CMs
• Panorama Toh
• PC-6001mkⅡ CM
• PC98 CM
• PlayStation Korea Overview of Trails Series
• Popful Mail NO NO PESSIMIST Music Video
• PSP CMs (Yotube, nitwni1)
• Rhapsody of Zephyr PC Footage
• Sorcerian Online PV
• Sega CM Collection
• SIEMENS T1000 Fernschreiber
• The Apple IIe: The Most Personal Computer
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel - XSEED Games Fall Preview Event Gameplay
• The Legend of Xanadu CM
• Trails in the Sky Footage
• Yuzo Koshiro Interview
• Vantage Master Footage
• Video Professor: Learning Windows 3.1
• World of Longplays
• Ys PCE CMs
• Ys Online Interview
• Ys Online Trailer
• Ys VIII Ending Credit
• Zwei Online Trailer

And other official trailers and gameplay.

After playing the game for 130 hours over the course of 8 months, I finally managed to finish Cold Steel III. I was very excited to play this game not only because I love Cold Steel I & II but also because there was so much anticipation for this title. I finished Cold Steel II when III was getting ready to be released in Japan but it would take two years for the game to finally reach western shores. Two years of listening to fans that played the Japanese version proclaiming that the game was the best entry in the Cold Steel story arc if not the best Trails title in general. No game can stand up to that kind of hype so it might not be that surprising that my feelings on Cold Steel III are a bit mixed.

First off there is a lot I like about Cold Steel III. The story has some great moments and I really enjoyed how certain returning characters got more development such as Altina. There were even a few times where I got surprisingly emotional during small character moments like when you meet Towa’s family and share a meal with her and your students. On a technical level Cold Steel III is also a huge improvement over my experience playing the first two Cold Steel games on the Vita. Battles load up instantly and the graphics are far more detailed, being more in line with modern Falcom titles like Ys VIII. The part where the game starts to come apart a bit for me is how momentous and repetitive the story often feels.

The past games in the Cold Steel series are certainly very structured, often having chapters start at school followed by the students going on a trip, discovering a conflict and solving that conflict. When I played through the first chapter or so of Cold Steel III this structure felt comforting, like slipping back into an old routine. However after those initial hours the preceding chapters followed the same story beats almost exactly. I’m not trying to say that there isn’t any variety in the events that happen in each chapter. However there are definitely moments where it feels like Falcom copied and pasted certain scenes into each chapter and just filled in the blanks with different locations and characters. For example the middle of almost every chapter has you reunite with an old member of Class VII after fighting a boss with the scene playing out the same way almost every time. Monster materializes out of nowhere. The team fights it. They think they’ve won the battle but, “oh no,” the monster is still alive. Then, off screen, one of the members of Class VII says something along the lines of: “Not on my watch!” And they jump down from a high place to save the group. It gets to the point that you can literally time your watch to when certain story beats are going to happen.

Another disappointing aspect of the story is the old members of Class VII themselves. I love the new VII members, they are all pretty fun in their own way, but when I first started the game I was the most excited to see what my old classmates had been up to since Cold Steel II. The game even does a great job of hyping up the arrival of an old character, teasing who you are about to meet while you visit certain towns. The thing is that once they appear they don’t really have much to do. Sure they have a role to play in the story but they don’t have a lot going on in terms of anything else. All the old Class VII members feel like they had all their development in the first two games and now they are well established which honestly makes them less interesting to have around. Sure they have new jobs and such but their personalities feel a bit dull since most of them don’t have any more room for growth. It also doesn’t help that you pretty much never have a moment where you can just hang out with the old Class VII. You are almost always talking business whenever they are around. Even during the part of the game where all the old Class VII members meet up for a big party they just end up spending the whole scene talking about how they are going to fight the bad guys. Characters like Millium and Sara are some of the few exceptions since you learn more about their pasts and you get to hang out with them more compared to the other OG classmates (or at least it felt that way to me).

There are also a lot of story moments that feel like retreads of scenes from past games but they don’t work as well as they did in the previous titles. The prime example of this is the Summer Festival near the end of the game which plays out similarly to the School Festival at the end of Cold Steel I (or even the part where you visit Mishelam Wonderland in Ao no Kiseki) . However, the School Festival saw the characters preparing for the festival over a long period of time before the event happens and the school totally transforms when it does, creating a great feeling of setup and payoff. When you go on dates with people during the festival, the whole school is updated and every NPC is now doing something different and has something new to say, making the festival feel alive. The Summer Festival near the end of Cold Steel III works the same way but takes place in a city you haven’t spent that much time in so the characters don’t feel as involved in the event. The location itself doesn’t change that much once the festival starts either nor do the NPCs change after dates, making the event feel far less exciting.

The overall story was also a bit weak in my eyes. While I loved a lot of the story’s smaller moments, especially when they focused on Rean and his new class, the larger story about all the different villains and secret organizations was a bit underwhelming. This isn’t because there aren’t some cool twists and big moments but because a lot of that story is delivered by characters standing around and dumping a bunch of exposition on the player. The game is the longest entry in the entire Trails franchise, with one of the longest scripts as well, yet it feels like most of that is padding and the overall plot doesn’t really start to have any momentum until the very end where it just sits the player down for long storytimes. The story is front and back loaded with almost nothing happening in the middle of the game. I’ve heard that Cold Steel III and IV were originally going to be a single game but got split into two titles during development and I can really feel that in the pacing. It’s like the middle of the game is stalling for time and feeding you a bunch of filler to replace all the story that would have happened there previously. Cold Steel I and II are certainly guilty of the same crime (and even the Trails in the Sky duology) but it feels far more egregious in Cold Steel III. Also the reveal at the very end of the game retcons a bunch of events from past games in a way that takes responsibility away from the villains and makes the whole conflict feel far less interesting.

All that being said, I’m still gonna play Cold Steel IV.

After all those complaints about the game as a whole, I still really enjoyed my time with Cold Steel III on a moment to moment level. I liked how the Branch Campus in Cold Steel III is smaller compared to the school from Cold Steel I/II because it makes the group feel more like an underdog and allows you to get more connected to each student. I liked watching the new Class VII grow and how they also helped Rean grow as a character. I found Rean to be more interesting in this game in general because watching him try to adjust to his new job as an unsure 20-something was far more relatable to me personally.

The battle system is so much snapper compared to the old games and it was really cool to explore parts of Erobonia that were mentioned in past entries but you never saw in person. There was even a weirdly melancholy moment I had while going on a date with Laura where I realized that I didn’t think Rean and her should be in a relationship anymore. So I purposely didn’t have him pursue a romantic event with Laura during their final date even though I had them date each other in previous two games. It was weirdly emotional to basically watch my characters “break up” after spending so much time with them throughout the series. That is a very personal moment that doesn't really apply to anyone else but it speaks to the larger strength of the Trails series. The games do a great job of building their world and relationships throughout multiple titles both in the canonical text and in the headcanon of the players. And that brings me to my final point, I just really like this world and the people who inhabit it. Even if the larger story isn’t going in a direction I’m super happy with, I am so invested in the people involved with this story that I want to see how these events will affect them. This series is so big that the overall plot and conflict is just one of many stories going on in its huge world.

So in the end I still enjoyed this game and I still love the Trails series but I certainly think Cold Steel III falls short in a lot of ways compared to the previous two games. Depending on what you want out of a sequel you might feel the same or you might think it’s the best thing ever. However, if you are playing this game at all, which requires playing almost 7 other super long RPGs, then you are a passenger aboard the crazy train and are most likely never getting off.

Here is a video I made talking about the history of an often forgotten company called Hirameki International Group Inc. They were one of the very first publishers to release visual novels to a mainstream audience in America and the first English company to actually call their products VNs, basically defining how the word is used in the West.

I had been updating the Giantbomb page for this company for a while and, after gathering a bunch of information on them, I decided to make this video as a follow up of sorts to my “Origins of Visual Novels” video from last year. I hope people enjoy it!