XSeed, Nihon Falcom Partner To Bring Ys, Legend Of Heroes To North America

U.S. publisher XSeed Games has partnered with Japanese developer and publisher Nihon Falcom to exclusively publish and distribute six PSP titles from the studio's Ys and The Legend of Heroes series to North America. The deal includes the three latest entries from Nihon Falcom's long-running Ys RPG franchise: Ys Seven, Ys: The Oath in Felghana, and Ys I & II Chronicles. Of all the titles it intends to publish from the Japanese developer, XSeed plans to release Ys Seven first in late summer. Ys I & II Chronicles is a compilation of remakes for the series' first two games, most notably released as a TurboGrafx CD compilation in North America in 1990. Ys: The Oath in Felghana, which shipped in Japan just last month, is a remake of the franchise's third game, Ys III: Wanderers from Ys. Ys Seven is, naturally, the seventh and latest game from the series, designed specifically for the PSP and taking advantage of the hardware's widescreen format. The game promises some 30 hours of gameplay and a battle system in which players control a three-member party in real-time combat. XSeed's agreement with Nihon Falcom also includes the latest three chapters from The Legend of Heroes, a series that made its debut in the U.S. as Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes for TurboGrafx 16 in 1989. The three PSP titles make up a trilogy called The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, or Sora no Kiseki, in Japan. "I couldn’t be more pleased to announce a partnership with a development studio as renown by gamers for consistently putting out quality titles as Falcom," says XSeed Games president and founder Jun Iwasaki. He continues, "Their titles have always been some of the most requested titles so it is going to be our pleasure to oblige the North American fans by delivering an amazing line up of in-depth and gripping RPGs."