Louis_Cypher
Arcane
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2016
- Messages
- 1,519
I am not very experienced with their games beyond Ys and Trails of Cold Steel, but I like Falcom's work as a company. They seem to have an aesthetic and gameplay sensibility that is closer to Western RPGs, probably due to their PC developer heritage. They were one of the very first JRPG companies, and are important to the history of the genre in Japan. Dragon Slayer was a cultural phenomenon there.
Question: How does the Dragon Slayer / Xanadu / The Legend of Heroes series fit together?
This is something I could research myself but there is probably an expert here on the Codex. Do the various Dragon Slayer derived series actually take place in the same world? Like say is Dragon Slayer / Xanadu set in the distant past of the Trails in the Sky / Trails of Cold Steel world? Did they instead become separate things of their own after a certain release, like Megami Tensei / Persona? Is Xanadu now it's own universe too?
- Dragon Slayer (1984)
- Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu (1985)
- - The Xanadu Series?
- Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes (1989)
- Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes II (1992)
- - The Legend of Heroes Series?
Recommendations: Similar games, with more grounded fantasy aesthetics?
I came across Record of Lodoss War: Advent of Cardice for the Dreamcast:
This isn't a Falcom game, but looks very unique for a JRPG. I don't always like the anime aesthetic, if it is too immature especially. I like the anime art of the 1980s as it was more naturalistic (think Ninja Scroll, Ghost in the Shell). So if anyone has recommendations for RPGs that look more naturalistic, or play differently to the norm (no long drawn out turn based exchanges), perhaps being high lethality, or having no battle transitions, or playing like a Western console ARPG, please add or recommend them.
If these games exist, there must be a bigger pool of them in Japan. I don't mean just any ARPG, but those sharing traits with Ys or Xanadu Next or Record of Lodoss War. High lethality, so one enemy isn't hit for minutes on end, but dies fast. Something where there are blobs on an overworld, screen change and a battle transition like Tails of Vesperia would not count.