TITLE
The Making of Sorcerian, The Most Groundbreaking JRPG You’ve Never Played
AUTHOR
John Szczepaniak
PUBLICATION
Time Extension
YEAR
2023
ARTICLE TYPE
Article
FROM THE ARTICLE
Do you remember 1997? The 64DD was announced and the hype / speculation train was in overdrive, on how its cheaper magnetic disks might integrate with compatible cartridges. Magazines of the period indulged in speculation on how it would provide additional quests, new items and equipment, characters, and so on, for any RPGs that came out. The as yet unreleased Zelda 64 was a central part of this fantasy. It was even joked about that annual 64DD add-on disks could exist for Link as he grows into adulthood.The excitement around this new technology is unsurprising. This was an era where computer games were enjoying the benefits of expansion packs. You bought and played a game and then, should you want more, you would go out and physically buy an expansion pack, install it alongside the base game, thus receiving more content. They were cheaper than a full retail game, and weren’t quite sequels, but they offered another slice of the cake if you owned the original. As digital distribution became the norm, these expansion packs evolved into DLC. Today the ability to buy extra story quests, characters, items, maps – you name it – is not just common place; it is expected.
But what if we told you that the dreams of N64 and PC gamers in 1997 had actually been achieved a decade earlier in 1987, and maybe even before that? Welcome to Sorcerian – one of the most remarkable JRPG series you’ve probably never played.
COMPANIES MENTIONED
Nihon Falcom
GAMES MENTIONED
Sorcerian
Xanadu
PEOPLE MENTIONED
Yoshio Kiya
Takayuki Komabayashi
Yuzo Koshiro
Joseph Redon
ALTERNATE LINK
Archived Copy @ Internet Archive