【FamilySoft】Releasing quite sharp software mainly focused on PC games! Handling a wide range of manga magazine editing as well, what kind of company was game maker FamilySoft?

If asked “What kind of game company is FamilySoft?”, it is actually a company that is difficult to explain in one word. FamilySoft Co., Ltd. is a game software development company headquartered in Nerima Ward, Tokyo, founded in 1987. It has sent works out into the world mainly centered on PC games. However, looking at its history, it does not fit into a simple introduction like “This company is good at XX games”. Just when you think it made unconventional adventure games, it also challenged war simulation games based on robot anime, and even handled fighting games and bishojo games. That very breadth of range is the first point you want to pay attention to in getting to know FamilySoft. In its work rollouts, which seem to say “If it looks interesting, we don't care about genre boundaries”, there is a freedom typical of the era when PC games possessed a unique enthusiasm. From the player's side, what it would bring out next could not easily be predicted. It was a manufacturer possessing such unexpectedness.

Digging deeper into FamilySoft's charm, the words “unconventional” suit it well. The width of development genres such as adventures, simulations, fighting, and works incorporating romance elements is broad anyway, letting you feel a personality different from manufacturers that keep pursuing only specific directions. Especially in war simulations themed on robot anime, it became an existence drawing interest not only for game lovers but for original fans as well. On the other hand, because it advanced into completely different play like fighting games, it is enough to make you spontaneously want to ask “You go there too?”. However, this boldness that looks like lack of principle is interesting. The stance of flexibly taking in new play and subjects born in each era and crafting them into respective different fun probably created FamilySoft's unique color. Rather than an orderly body of work, expressing it as a manufacturer like opening a toy box packed with ideas might suit better.

And when talking about FamilySoft, after all the “Asuka 120%” series cannot be left out. Combining the interest of fighting games and unique female characters, it became one of the series representing FamilySoft. In the very idea of characters themed on school club activities fighting, playfulness typical of the company is felt. Without being bound by the fixed idea that “if it's a fighting game, robust warriors fight”, bringing a bright and gorgeous worldview into fighting games was also original. In later years, receiving that this series was rolled out as Game Archives for PS3 and PSP, the process where FamilySoft's official site, which had suspended activities, was updated is also impressive. Works released in the past gaining attention again across time, and with that as a trigger movement being born on the manufacturer side as well -- isn't it an episode making you feel that the culture named games is not “finish upon release”?

What is further interesting is that FamilySoft's range of activity was not game development alone. It was also involved in editing the manga magazine “Comic Master” published by Hobby Japan. Some people might be surprised thinking “Even editing manga magazines despite being a game company?”. However, games and manga are also very close cultures in parts like characters, stories, and visual expressions. Thinking that way, it comes into view that FamilySoft was not simply a company writing programs to sell games, but an existence trying to create entertainment in various forms. Not shutting itself in a single medium, stepping into places where interest can be delivered. That flexible stance also leads to the diverse games the company has developed.

Looking back at FamilySoft's history, the interest of a game company different from giant manufacturers comes into view. While walking centered on PC games since its foundation in 1987, from adventures to robot works, war simulations, fighting, bishojo games, and furthermore editing manga magazines, its activities were truly diverse. Precisely because of that, this company's charm cannot be measured by simple numbers of works or genres alone. The freedom of shaping the idea “Isn't it okay to have a game like this?” was probably the major feature. When researching old game companies, you sometimes encounter manufacturers hard to categorize by current common sense. FamilySoft is truly such a company as well. And the more you know its slightly strange and unpredictable path, the more curious you become, thinking “What other games were they making?”. That very thing is FamilySoft's charm that makes you want to chase its name even after long years pass.