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?

Ever since Falcom said the next Trails game would feature a new combat system that includes action and real-time elements, fans had been arguing over what this meant for the series.

The few details revealed after that only increased the confusion about whether or not the next game, Kuro no Kiseki, would feature an action combat system or not.

Now at last, we have our answer! During Falcom’s 40th Anniversary live stream, they shared new details about Kuro no Kiseki’s characters and battles, including footage of the new combat system.

(I’ve avoided reading about the characters and setting since I’m so far behind in the overall series, but you can get the full details from Gematsu.)

Yes, Kuro no Kiseki features an action-based combat system… but once you start a battle, you can seamlessly switch to command-based combat to choose attacks, Crafts, Arts, etc.

It really does feature both, and it hasn’t abandoned turn-based combat.

I had concerns when they first announced the real-time elements, but this actually looks pretty great!

The action combat seems basic right now, but I like the way you can switch straight into the command-based mode (with what appears to be free positioning ahead of your action) and how that appears to be a significant portion of the combat, not an afterthought or compromise.

Meanwhile, they also announced a Trails of Cold Steel anime that will tell an original story (and apparently is getting its own tie-in game, although fans expect that to be a mobile gacha game).

I’m way far behind in my Trails playthroughs and still hoping to hear news of official Crossbell localizations when I get that far, but maybe by the time Kuro no Kiseki is coming out in English, I’ll be all caught up and ready to go!

What do you think of the Kuro no Kiseki combat system? Do you think this method of blending action and turn-based combat is a good idea?