Looking back at the history of the game industry, names of major manufacturers known to everyone stand out, but behind the scenes, numerous excellent development companies supported the works. Among them, when hearing the name Pandora Box, the phrase “talented group known to those in the know” suits it well. Born in 1989, this company was not the type to attract attention with flashy advertising, but a creator group that kept pursuing the fun of games themselves. Demonstrating talent in a wide range of fields—in addition to planning, development, and sales, being involved in scenario production and publishing—it blew original individuality into many works.

Indispensable when talking about the history of Pandora Box is the presence of Mr. Iijima, who was deeply involved in its establishment. Holding experience involved in the production of historical simulation games, his track record of handling numerous talked-about works thereafter exerted a major influence on the company's direction itself. Starting as a personal office after independence, welcoming staff as requested work increased, and growing as an organization, the momentum of the game industry at the time and the passion of creators can be felt in that flow. The posture centered around commitment to making works seems to symbolize the company's history itself.

In an era when home video game consoles spread rapidly and development costs and entry costs swelled greatly, it was by no means easy for a small-scale company to handle even sales independently. Even so, without forcibly stretching itself, Pandora Box kept polishing its company's strengths in planning power and development power, engaging in numerous game productions while receiving requests from major manufacturers. Precisely because there were such flexible decisions, it gained opportunities to get involved in works of a variety of genres, leading as a result to accumulating high technical capabilities and abundant experience.

If talking about the name of this company, one would certainly want to touch upon numerous impressive works. “Kinin Koumaroku ONI”, whose Japanese-style fantasy worldview gathered popularity, developed into a series, and that worldview further expanded to arcade games. On the other hand, “Gakkou de atta Kowai Hanashi” was highly evaluated as one of the works representing the genre of sound novels, and its particularly elaborately crafted scenario still remains in the memories of many fans today. Rather than relying only on flashy visuals, making works that draw in players with the fun of the story itself can be called a flavor unique to Pandora Box.

The charm of Pandora Box also lies in the fact that it did not remain in a single genre. It handled a variety of works, not only horror works, but role-playing games, action games, and even titles based on anime as original works. Therefore, rather than the impression that “this company specializes in this genre”, a flexibility drawing out different charms for each project can be felt. Because the worldview and gameplay are firmly crafted in each work, the earnest posture of the development team is conveyed to every title.

Games cannot be talked about by operability and visuals alone. Precisely because there is a story that moves the player's heart, it becomes a work loved for a long time. Pandora Box was a company particularly excellent in that respect. Detailed ingenuity was applied to interactions between characters and story developments, and a structural power that makes one curious about what comes next and engrossed can be felt everywhere. That there are many works where scenes and lines remain in memory even after finishing playing the game can be called proof of having cherished story making.

At present, the company itself has become a page of history, but the works left by Pandora Box are still passed down among many game fans today. Continuing to challenge flexibly in line with the flow of the times, the posture of having created attractive games even in limited environments influenced many creators. Rewarding gameplay, memorable scenarios, and development power creating different individualities for each work do not fade even looking back now. Both in knowing the history of games and as an opportunity to take interest in development companies behind masterpieces, Pandora Box is an existence one would definitely want to remember.