Falcom is bringing back Dragon Slayer for its 45th anniversary

Nihon Falcom has announced the Dragon Slayer Project to coincide with the studio's 45th anniversary. The Japanese developer posted the initial teaser to its investor relations page today. The document is currently a placeholder for a larger upcoming reveal.

I know I say this in almost every article, but Falcom is my favorite developer. At the very least, it has the best music in the industry. The studio's internal music group, Falcom Sound Team jdk, has been producing high-energy rock and orchestral soundtracks for decades. Seeing the studio dig all the way back to its 1984 roots instead of just announcing another Trails game is a welcome surprise.

I am no Dragon Slayer expert. Internet, do what you do best, correct me if any of my history is wrong.

The 1984 origins of the action RPG

Modern Falcom fans know the studio for Ys X: Nordics or the sprawling Legend of Heroes series. Dragon Slayer is the foundation those games were built on. Released in 1984, the original game helped define the template for the action role-playing genre. It introduced real-time combat elements and dungeon crawling mechanics that influenced an entire generation of Japanese developers.

The series rarely stayed in one lane. The 1985 sequel, Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu, sold over 400,000 copies and became the best-selling PC game in Japan at the time. Later entries spun off into entirely different franchises. The Legend of Heroes actually began in 1989 as Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes, the sixth game in the franchise. That spin-off eventually birthed the Trails sub-series in 2004. As of September 2025, the Trails games have sold over 9 million units worldwide across multiple interconnected story arcs set in the continent of Zemuria.

45 years of continuous development

Masayuki Kato founded Nihon Falcom in March 1981. The company originally sold Apple II hardware and software before pivoting to game development. Kato passed away in December 2024 at the age of 78. He steered the studio through the turbulent early days of Japanese PC gaming. Falcom is widely credited with popularizing personal computers in Japan during the 1980s.

The late 1980s were rough for the studio. A massive staff exodus occurred around 1989 due to internal management disputes, low pay, and Kato's initial resistance to developing for new hardware platforms. The developer survived the talent drain and eventually went public on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2003. Current president Toshihiro Kondo took over in 2007 and shifted the company's focus from PC to console development. He partnered with publishers like NIS America to bring their massive RPGs to Western audiences.

Trapped on old hardware

The current announcement lacks specific platforms, release dates, or even a genre confirmation. We do not know if the Dragon Slayer Project is a ground-up remake of the 1984 original, a brand new entry in the long-dormant franchise, or a compilation of the classic titles.

A modern port of the original games would be a massive win for game preservation. Most of the early Dragon Slayer catalog remains locked to vintage Japanese computer hardware like the NEC PC-8801 and console ports from the 16-bit era. I will keep an eye on Falcom's investor portal for the full technical breakdown when the placeholder page updates.