New Falcom President Interview Discusses Ys X & 35th Anniversary

October 18, 2022October 18, 2022 Orpheus Joshua

Spanish publication RPG Spain recently interviewed the president of Nihon Falcom, Toshihiro Kondo, about the Ys series during its 35-year anniversary. There were a ton of great questions and responses here, which we have summarized.

Despite series protagonist Adol Christin being more expressive in Ys IX: Monstrum Nox due to story reasons, there are no plans to make him more talkative in future installments. He will largely remain mute as usual going forward.
Musical composition for Ys X is still to come.
Adol will not be wearing his iconic silver armor from his younger years in Ys X due to that general design not being particularly common or popular nowadays.
There are no plans to make the games more text-heavy, as the team desires for the series to remain at a “nice quick tempo.”
Kondo would have liked to make Aprillis playable in a potential new PlayStation 5 version of Ys IX: Monstrum Nox, akin to how Dana received her own standalone segments in the PlayStation 4 version of Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana.
There are no plans for the kingdom of Ys to be explored in the near future.
Kondo would love to remake Ys V, but he laments the lack of feasible time.
Kondo finds Spain motifs readily appealing, hence their repeated references and usages throughout the series.
Like how Falcom game launch gaps have narrowed between Japan and Asia, Falcom has plans for those release gaps to lessen in North America and Europe too.
Kondo wants to make an Ys artbook for the franchise’s 40-year anniversary.
Kondo is “pretty sure” that all Eldeens who have befriended humans have already appeared. Those operating on their own could potentially appear, but there are no current plans for that.
Kondo would like to take on the task of completing the Romun Empire conflict at some point.
Kondo states that there are no current plans for PS5/Switch/Xbox One ports due to the focus on newer titles.
No plans to make a game for Adol’s adventure to the North Pole, which is how he canonically dies.
There’s a possibility of exploring the land of Ys again in the future, but Kondo doesn’t want to dwell on the past as there are many newer Ys fans.
No plans for prequels like Ys Origin

The following exchange is interesting as well:

YSpain_Legend: Does the ancient city of Kishgal from YS VI have any relation to the YS Origin character who has the same name?

Toshihiro Kondo: Hmm. I wonder. Kishgal from Ys Origin is a Darkling, so he might have received their name from hearing about that city.

Kondo also acknowledged Ys Strategy…

A week of Falcom news from publisher NIS America is currently ongoing.

Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana is launching natively for PlayStation 5 on November 15, 2022, in North America, and on November 18, 2022, for Europe. The title is currently available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

Ys IX: Monstrum Nox is launching natively for PlayStation 5 in Spring 2023.