Kure Software Koubou (呉ソフトウェア工房), orKSK, is a Japanese game development company founded in 1985 that creates games for many platforms, but focusing mostly on home computers. KSK's games are well known for the "Gochyakyara" (ゴチャキャラ "Multiple Character") system which KSK invented, which was a unique hybrid between thereal-time strategy,action role-playing game andtactical role-playing game genres.^[1] Some of their games also used a European art style in addition to a Japaneseanime style. KSK is also famous for having most of the cover art for their games created by renowned artistYoshitaka Amano.

One year after being founded, KSK released their first gameArgo for theNEC PC-88. It was afirst-person viewrole-playing video game. Two years later in 1988, KSK released two games,Silver Ghost andFirst Queen, for the PC-88. These games established the new style of RPG that KSK would then use as the basis of most of their further productions, this was the concept of the 'Gochyakyara' system (Multiple Character System). This was basically anaction role-playing game system, but it let the player have a huge amount of party members and allowed for enormous battles as well asstrategy video game elements, such as army formations andreal-time tactics. This system was very simple yet highly dynamic, and gained such popularity that by 1995, KSK released a further seven titles using this system (Duel98,First Queen 2,Kawanakajima Izuroku,Early Kingdom,First Queen 3,First Queen 4 andDark Seraphim).

In 1996 KSK then released a game calledDuel Succession. This incorporated many elements from the 'Gochyakyara' system, but removed the RPG and action elements making it strictly awar strategy game. In the same year, a PlayStation version ofFirst Queen 4 was released featuring enhanced graphics and sound.

After this KSK then released a newFirst Queen game in 1999 calledFirst Queen: The New World. This brought the 'Gochyakyara' system into3D but was not very popular and fans preferred the old style. This resulted in KSK's next game being a remake ofFirst Queen, which was released in 2001. This featured the original game completely redone with new2D graphics and sound. A year after this in 2002, KSK released a Windows version ofFirst Queen 2, but was just the originalFirst Queen 2 updated to work in Windows, and did not feature remade graphics and sound. Two years later in 2004, a compilation pack ofFirst Queen 3 and4 was released. This pack includedFirst Queen 3 updated to work in Windows, as well asFirst Queen 4 updated to work in Windows and featuring the updated graphics from thePlayStation version ofFirst Queen 4 released in 1996.

Also released in 2004 was a game very different from anything KSK had done before. It was a game calledTennis, which was just a tennis game. However, it was not released as a boxed game available in stores, instead it was only available to buy over the internet as a download for a small price. KSK followed this up with aGolf game released in 2005, which is also only available over the internet.

The president of Kure has noted recently^[when?] in a diary on the KSK website that they were working on a new RPG using the "Gochyakyara" system. This would mean it would be KSK's first proper original game sinceFirst Queen: The New World in 1999 (considering everything since then has just been theremakes/updates of the fourFirst Queen games and theTennis andGolf games were not properly boxed full priced games, just small internet downloads at a cheap price).

First Queen IV (ファーストクイーンIV) was released on thePlayStation Network in Japan on February 9, 2011^[2] and in North America on March 12, 2013.^[3]

Silver Ghost was an early example of thetactical role-playing game genre, released in 1988 for theNEC PC-8801 computer.^[4] Unlike later tactical RPGs,Silver Ghost was notturn-based, but instead usedreal-time strategy andaction role-playing game elements. It also featured apoint-and-click interface, to control the characters using a cursor.^[5]

The game was later cited byCamelot Software Planning'sHiroyuki Takahashi as inspiration for hisShining Force series of tactical RPGs. According to Takahashi,Silver Ghost was "a simulation action type of game where you had to direct, oversee and command multiple characters".^[6]

First Queen (ファーストクイーン,Fāsuto Kuīn)^[7] is a real-time strategy role-playing game first released on theSharp X68000 andNEC PC-9801 inJapan in1988, and then subsequently released on theSuper Famicom asFirst Queen: Ornic Senki in1994 andMicrosoft Windows asFirst Queen 1 in2001. The game had three sequels. It was also notable for featuring art work byYoshitaka Amano.^[8] The game was also cited byShouzou Kaga as an influence for hisFire Emblem series.^[9]

PC-88

• Argo (1986)
• Silver Ghost (1988)
• Duel (1989)

X68000

• First Queen (1988)
• First Queen II (1990)

X1

• Silver Ghost (1988)

PC-98

• Argo (1986)
• First Queen (1988)
• Duel98 (1989)
• First Queen II (1990)
• Kawanakajima Ibunroku (1992, 川中島異聞録)
• Early Kingdom (1992) (with help from C's World)
• First Queen III (1993)
• First Queen IV (1994)
• Dark Seraphim (1995)
• Duel Succession (1996)

Super Famicom

• First Queen: Ornic Senki (1993) (developed byCulture Brain under license from KSK)

IBM AT

• First Queen IV (1994)

PlayStation

• First Queen IV (1996)

Windows

• First Queen: The New World (1999)
• First Queen I (2001)
• First Queen II (2002)
• First Queen III・IV (2004)
• Tennis (2004)
• Golf (2005)

• "Official site". Kure Software Koubou. Retrieved2011-05-19. (Translation)