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,...
