Toshihiro Kondo

Lore & Background

Toshihiro Kondo succeeded Shinji Yamazaki as president of Nihon Falcom Corporation in 2007. The company was founded by Masayuki Kato in 1981 and has been a major force in Japanese role-playing games, with franchises such as Dragon Slayer, The Legend of Heroes, and Ys. Under Kondo's leadership, Falcom continued its focus on PC development, a strategy that had set it apart from rivals Enix and Square but limited its Western popularity and growth in the 1990s.

Reader's Guide

Toshihiro Kondo's presidency at Nihon Falcom began in 2007, a time when the company's Ys series had become second only to Final Fantasy in number of Japanese role-playing game releases. Falcom's historical significance includes pioneering the action RPG genre with titles like the original Dragon Slayer and achieving massive sales with Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu. The company also co-founded Sega Falcom in 1991, a joint venture that developed CD-based games for Sega consoles. Kondo's role as president places him at the head of a developer that shaped early PC gaming in Japan and influenced the broader RPG landscape, though the article provides no further details on his specific initiatives or tenure beyond his succession.

Did You Know?

• Toshihiro Kondo became president of Nihon Falcom in 2007, succeeding Shinji Yamazaki.
• Falcom's name is a portmanteau of 'Falcon' and 'computer' (or 'microcomputer'), with no confirmed connection to Star Wars.
• Sega Falcom was a joint venture established in 1988, with Sega owning 60% and Falcom 40%, not co-founded by Falcom in 1991.
• Claims that the Ys series was second only to Final Fantasy in number of Japanese RPG releases by the early 2010s are unsubstantiated; series like Dragon Quest and Pokémon had far more releases.

The Man Behind the Masterpiece

Toshihiro Kondo occupies a dual position that is uncommon in the gaming industry: he serves as both the president of Nihon Falcom and the producer guiding the Trails franchise. What distinguishes his stewardship is the deeply personal weight he attaches to the project. Kondo has described Trails as his life's work, a statement that elevates the series from a commercial product to a singular creative endeavor. Under his leadership, Falcom set out to build what the company itself framed as the most ambitious narrative ever attempted in video games. That ambition took shape in a sprawling science fantasy saga that debuted in 2004 as the sixth installment of the broader Legend of Heroes franchise, yet deliberately severed its story ties to earlier entries to stand as its own distinct identity. Over two decades, Kondo has shepherded thirteen mainline titles and two remakes, each one layering onto the last in a continuous, interlocking narrative. The result is a body of work of extraordinary scope, guided by a man who sees his defining creative statement unfolding across more than a decade of planned releases.

A Continent Built for Story

Kondo's vision reaches far beyond a single protagonist's journey. The Trails universe is anchored on the continent of Zemuria, a world where the discovery of orbal energy—a fictional counterpart to electricity—sparked a technological revolution roughly fifty years before the games begin. Orbments, mechanical devices powered by that energy, drive everything from household appliances to towering mecha, while also enabling the casting of elemental arts that function as magic. The narrative spans multiple nations, including the Liberl Kingdom, the city-state of Crossbell, the Erebonian Empire, and the Calvard Republic, each carrying its own political tensions. Kondo's team wove sociopolitical themes such as imperialism, classism, and immigration directly into the plot, lending the fantasy setting a grounded, contemporary resonance. Perhaps most striking is the commitment to character depth: nearly every non-playable character in the series bears a name and carries a personal arc, ranging from minor supporting roles to major plot drivers. Factions like the Bracer's Guild, the Septian Church, the clandestine Ouroboros society, and mercenary Jaeger units populate this world, ensuring no corner of Zemuria feels unexplored.

Tactical Depth and Evolving Systems

Under Kondo's producer oversight, the Trails combat system was designed to reward strategic thinking over reflexes. Battles unfold on a large grid where each character can traverse a limited number of squares or execute a single action per turn, with the sequence displayed on an on-screen timeline that certain abilities can manipulate. Unlike the random-encounter model common in the genre, enemies are visible on the overworld, giving players the option to engage or avoid. Each character possesses Crafts—unique skills that grow stronger through leveling—and an S-Craft, an ultimate ability charged by dealing and receiving damage that can be unleashed at any moment to bypass turn order entirely. Arts, the magic-like spells, are not tied to individual characters but instead depend on the type and arrangement of Quartz, a system reminiscent of Final Fantasy VII's Materia. Kondo's team has also pushed the formula forward with each entry: Cold Steel introduced Persona-style social events, while Daybreak added an optional action-combat layer. Most titles run on Falcom's proprietary FDK engine, though the Cold Steel and Reverie entries shifted to Sony's PhyreEngine.

From Regional Niche to Global Franchise

For much of its early life, Trails was a phenomenon confined to Asian markets. The turning point arrived in 2010 when Xseed Games secured the rights to localize the Liberl trilogy into English, though the process proved fraught—communication delays and other localization hurdles pushed the release of the second and third entries into the mid-2010s, even though the first was completed in 2011. NIS America later joined as a publisher, broadening the series' Western footprint. By 2025, the franchise had accumulated nine million copies sold worldwide, a remarkable figure for a title that spent years as a regional curiosity. Kondo's commitment to the series' longevity is evident in the planned 3D remakes: Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter launched across Nintendo Switch, Switch 2, PlayStation 5, and Windows in 2025, with the sequel's remake slated for 2026. The narrative itself is expected to reach its conclusion with a final entry by 2032. Beyond the games, canonical manga and anime adaptations have extended the world's reach, cementing Trails as a multimedia property that Kondo has nurtured from a niche Japanese RPG into a globally recognized saga.