Jun 252021
The Falcom 40th Anniversary live stream news turned out to be huge… although it was leaked ahead of time when the Epic Games Store decided to put all of the games’ store pages live in the morning.
Anyway, I decided to check it out after all.
The live stream was primarily a concert, and I avoided actually watching the concert parts after seeing warnings that spoilers were being shown on the screen behind the band. The music was great, though, with some excellent songs from both Trails and Ys.
But let’s get straight to the announcements.
Yes, the Crossbell games are being localized! Yes, Hajimari is being localized, too! And yes, even Nayuta is being localized!
(It would have been even more exciting if it wasn’t leaked ahead of time, since they casually followed up their performance of a Trails from Zero song with the English logo appearing on the screen before leading into the announcements.)
NIS America revealed the following release schedule: Trails from Zero will be released in Fall 2022, Trails to Azure will follow in 2023, The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails will also be released in 2023, and Trails into Reverie (the localized name for Hajimari) is coming out in 2023 as well.
That’s right, we got four localization announcements, and 2023 is going to be packed with three of them coming in the same year.
All four games will be available for PC (Steam/Epic/GOG all confirmed; they’re not EGS exclusive), PS4, and Nintendo Switch.
What makes this news even more incredible is that NIS America officially partnered with Geofront, the team behind the Crossbell fan translations, to make this possible.
For someone getting into the Trails series like me, this is fantastic news. If you’re a bit confused by all the games, Zero and Azure are the Crossbell arc and come in between the Trails in the Sky and Trails of Cold Steel arcs. Trails into Reverie is the most recent game, set after the Cold Steel arc.
So what about The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails? You’ll notice that the title is structured differently and I didn’t list it above. Well, Nayuta is an action RPG spin-off that is not canon to the Trails series.
…Probably. Apparently it’s officially non-canon, but some fans feel there might be connections that could lead to it being retconned into the Trails series. We’ll see.
I’m thrilled by the recent Trails news (and looking forward to catching up ahead of Zero’s release), although a lot of fans are upset that Reverie won’t be out until 2023. Personally, I think it’s worth it to have official releases of the Crossbell games – and how can you argue when you get four localization announcements all at once?
(And since three of them only got a year, I’d say it’s not certain that Reverie will be late in the year and/or after Nayuta like most people assume.)
In news completely unrelated to Falcom, Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse localization was announced last night, too. All of my video game hopes seem to be coming true! What’s next, Yakuza Ishin?
Are you excited for the Trails announcements?
All these Trails games look interesting, though I have never played any of the series. But I am inspired by the passion people are showing for the games. If I were to start the series, where and how would I start…?
You would want to start with Trails in the Sky. Unfortunately, the Steam version looks like it’s Windows-only.
…You wouldn’t happen to have a PSP or Vita, would you?
Anyway, the game order is:
Trails in the Sky
Trails in the Sky SC
Trails in the Sky the 3rd
Trails from Zero
Trails to Azure
Trails of Cold Steel
Trails of Cold Steel II
Trails of Cold Steel III
Trails of Cold Steel IV
Trails into Reverie
My understanding is that Cold Steel I and II stand on their own well enough to be a good introduction to the series and a place where many people start, but starting with Cold Steel III is when it really expects you to have knowledge of the Sky and Crossbell (Zero and Azure) arcs. You can see why it’s a big deal that there hasn’t been an official translation of Zero and Azure until now.
So if there’s no way for you to start with Trails in the Sky, starting with Trails of Cold Steel I & II is probably the next best option.
[…] was announced for an English release earlier this year, although we were somewhat distracted by other localization news at the time, and it sounds like it’s on […]