Two brand new HG101 books are out now!
Front Cover
We love Falcom here at HG101, especially classic Falcom, with all of its Yuzo Koshiro FM synth and high powered PC Engine redbook tunes. The Guide to Japanese Role-Playing Games introduces the company, while this book explores them in even greater detail. The Ys article series was one of the first on the site, along with Compile Shooters, Wonder Boy, Alex Kidd, and a handful of others. We’ve kept it updated over the past two decades and compiled it here, which also includes examining the many, many ports of the original games. Also featured are several Falcom action-RPGs, including most of the Dragon Slayer games (Xanadu, Legacy of the Wizard, Romancia, Sorcerian), Brandish, Zwei, Popful Mail, Faxanadu, and a few others. Included as a bonus are reviews of Quintet’s SNES/SFC output, including ActRaiser, Soul Blazer, Terranigma, and Illusion of Gaia. Plus there’s an extensive catalog of Falcom’s many soundtrack albums. It’s all wrapped in a gorgeous cover by Stephanie “DiceSMS” Sybydlo showing some amazing sketches of some of the games covered. You can grab paperback copies on Amazon plus digital copies are also available at Itch.io.
What isn’t covered are the Trails games, or its predecessor Legend of Heroes series. This is because these topics are so enormous that they would need a whole other book. Which means you can probably count on a second volume of Falcom Classics some day!
HG101 Presents: Metal Gear, Silent Hill, and Other Konami Classics
Front Cover
This is our fourth Konami volume here at HG101, following up on Castlevania, Konami Shooters, and Contra and Other Konami Classics. The focus here are on two of Konami’s series influenced by American action and horror movies, whose cinematic grandeur helped define the PlayStation in the 2000s. Of course, the Metal Gear series didn’t start on the PlayStation, so we’ve covered the earlier computer and NES games too. We also turned this partially into a “Kojima” volume with reviews of Snatcher, Policenauts, and Zone of the Enders (which he didn’t direct but whose influence is keenly felt). Plus there’s a look at some of Konami’s 2D fighters and a few other games I wanted to fit into the last Konami volume but had to cut for space. This has another brilliant cover by Rusty Shackles, in the style of retro VHS artwork. You can grab paperback copies on Amazon plus digital copies are also available at Itch.io.
Plus! If you pledge $5 or more at our Patreon, you’ll get PDF/MOBI files of both books included! If you donate more, you’ll also get even more of our books (we’ve put out more than twenty at this point). It’s an incredibly good deal. Plus, any donation at $3 or more also gets full access to the Top 47,858 Games of All Time podcast, ad free and with higher quality audio, plus over 400 bonus episodes. You’ll also get assorted bonus goodies throughout the year, including previews of upcoming books.
Also! If you like our books, please consider leaving them a five star review on Amazon, it really helps us break through the algorithm and gets us recommended to other readers, which increases our visibility, which increases our sales, which increases our budget, so we fund more retro video game books!
It probably shouldn’t need to be said, but HG101 and all of its books are 100% gen AI free. Beyond all of the ethical implications, it’s also a crap technology that turns out absolute garbage.
We have a lot more planned for the year, but also, after launching two books at the same time, I need a little bit of rest. But please look forward to what we have in store!