Legend of Heroes: Kiseki or Trails Franchise

AdmiralMuffin

Well-Known Member
Think it's about time I make a thread for my favorite JRPG series of all time.

I'd love to gush over and make a novella-length wall of text on how massive and epic this awesome series is but I think I'll just post this video.

Not a fan of Mother's Basement but this is still a decent video on what Trails is all about and why it's so well-received in Japan.


Feel free to post and discuss anything related to the franchise. I would love to see more fans and if you wanna get into the series I'd definitely be willing to help.
 
I started Trails in the Sky SC semi-recently. I played through the first game mostly last year.

I guess I'll get to Cold Steel in a decade or so.
 
I started Trails in the Sky SC semi-recently. I played through the first game mostly last year.

I guess I'll get to Cold Steel in a decade or so.

Don't forget the Crossbell games if you don't have any qualms with fan translation. They're very essential to the overarching story.
 
Trailer for Trails of Cold Steel 4 is finally here.


This is just pure HYPE. It's safe to say Nihon Falcom is done fucking around and it's gonna be story pay-offs all around.

Man, XSEED should start-Oh...right. They're focusing more on boob massaging games. Orz.
 
Been playing the original Trails game on and off. Only played about an hour or so cause I've been playing several other games at the same time (my focus is kinda screwed and I can't seem to just focus on one game at a time right now). It's... not bad so far but my initial impression is mixed. The music and atmosphere are really well done. Combat isn't terrible but it feels kind of, loose or unrefined. Not surprising since this is the first game in the series and technically it's really old now but it feels weird to control with a mouse and keyboard.

The rest of the controls are meh. I end up having to move around with the mouse which is okay I guess, but the camera is usually zoomed in too far making it kinda hard to see what's around me when navigating. I don't have anything to say about the story because there's been very little actual story so far, but I'm not saying that as a bad thing cause I was warned that the story doesn't develop until much, much later. As for the characters I don't have much to say other than I don't really have an impression on that front either. Again this is probably because I'm only an hour in (specifically I'm still in the prologue) so I'm hoping that things will get better once I get into it a bit more.

Not a bad game by any means, just been a bit of a struggle for me to get into it and I'm hoping to put some more time into it soon.
 
I don't have anything to say about the story because there's been very little actual story so far, but I'm not saying that as a bad thing cause I was warned that the story doesn't develop until much, much later.

It's not an exaggeration to say that the tutorial is finally over when you finally finish the first game : D

I'm sorry. Please don't let that scare you and continue playing the game.
 
Been playing the original Trails game on and off. Only played about an hour or so cause I've been playing several other games at the same time (my focus is kinda screwed and I can't seem to just focus on one game at a time right now).
Oh gosh I know this feel far too well.

I currently have Trails in the Sky SC (the second game) tabled because i started playing Terraria which i stopped a few days ago wanting to play Operation Abyss except I put that down for now since I'm watching Lord Marksman and Vanadis. One thing at a time, basically. Main issue with the Trails games is that they're just...quite long. Even more so with my habit of exploring everything.

Combat isn't terrible but it feels kind of, loose or unrefined. Not surprising since this is the first game in the series and technically it's really old now but it feels weird to control with a mouse and keyboard.
The only thing it's really missing is a way to move your character to a specific spot and attack in the same turn. Not sure why it isn't there, but I didn't think it really hampered the game much, though it was noticeable at first since I've played stuff like FFTA.

Anyhow, you can control this game using mouse only, keyboard only, mouse + keyboard, gamepad, any combination of them. I usually opt for a "gamepad mockup" style where I use arrow keys + ZXCVASDF (and 1234 for S-Crafts); I've used this setup for a huge variety of games in the past and it's worked well for me. You can remap them to pretty much anything you want, honestly. And at the same time I get to use the mouse whenever I'm feeling lazy. (The mouse cursor just disappears if you use keyboard, whereas it jumps around to default selections if you use it.)

Here's the controls I'm using:
* arrow keys = movement directions
* OK/talk: Z (think the outer button on a gamepad)
* Cancel/Camp: X (lower button)
* Rotate Left/Right: A and D (they're like shoulder buttons on a gamepad, and I can hold them while moving if I want)
* Walk/Run: Shift (my left pinkie rests here basically)
* Show Location: F (not a very important function. i just picked F for Find)
* Notebook: S (the upper button. Normally this is the menu button in a JRPG, but here that's taken over by the Cancel button already, so I put the Bracer Notebook here.)
* Recipes: R (not a commonly-used button but still nearby on the left hand and R stands for Recipes)
* World Map: V (basically an alt version of Zoom Minimap, so it's just next to it)
* Zoom Minimap: C (this is the local map. i basically stuck it on the "inner" button.)
* Monster Guide: G (not used much but G is for Guide and is a left-hand key)
* Turbo Mode: Alt (I tried tab for this but there were key conflicts, so instead I hold this key down with my left thumb if I need it.

the camera is usually zoomed in too far making it kinda hard to see what's around me when navigating.
I think the camera could benefit from being a little less birds-eye and more level with the characters, but unfortunately it's kinda stuck like that. However, I find it quite easy to rotate the camera around.

I have these settings below:

Camera Rotation: Free - this is so that camera rotation -- where it's allowed -- is actually meaningful. The character sprites do twitch a bit when you change perspectives, but it's worth it for the ability to see all sorts of graphical details at will.

Transparency: On - so I know where I am when there are objects in the way.
 
TIL The Legend of Heroes' games I got in my PSX games collection is related to the Trails game. I guess I gotta look for a translated version of the games or see if they got licensed overseas on PSP like half of the PSX catalogue and give it a go
 
TIL The Legend of Heroes' games I got in my PSX games collection is related to the Trails game. I guess I gotta look for a translated version of the games or see if they got licensed overseas on PSP like half of the PSX catalogue and give it a go
Which ones?

Zero/Ao no Kiseki, or the Gagharv trilogy that predates the Trails series?
 

Am I worried? Definitely.

But a certain someone who worked on the previous games will be helming the localization so that's a glimmer of hope there. Either way, I'm still hyped.
 
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The Legend of Heroes series has been mentioned several times within the Ys thread, so I thought it was a good idea make a dedicated thread instead for this awesome series. Feel free to discuss anything related of the series here.

The franchise by Nihon Falcom started in 1989 and can be divided into three independent sub-series. The Trails series however can be divided again into (currently) three heavily connected arcs:
  • Dragon Slayer (2 games)
  • Gagharv thrilogy (3 games)
  • Trails
    • Trials in the Sky (3 games)
    • Crossbell Arc (2 games)
    • Trails of Cold Steel (4 games)

The series also includes some non-canon games like for instance Nayuta no Kiseki (which is actually more related to the Zwei series).

Although Dragon Slayer is quite unknown in the west, the Gagharv and Trails series are best known for their immense world-building and interesting lore and characters. Did you play any of these titles yet? I've played all Trails games up to Cold Steel II (including the fan-translated Crossbell games) and the whole Gagharv thrilogy. Currently I'm also playing Nayuta no Kiseki.
 
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And there you have it, we've got our announcement of Cold Steel III two days ago. It was quite a shocker though that it was NISA who made the announcement rather than XSEED!

However, it seems they got Brittany (aka Hatsuu or "Mama Trails") and some other people on board who left XSEED recently. This gives me so much more confidence in a decent localization if she's given all the freedom she needs. All in all, the past two days have been quite a rollercoaster for the fans of the series.

Just a reminder before you plan to play Cold Steel III, do yourself a favor and play Zero no Kiseki and Ao no Kiseki fan translations beforehand. Cold Steel III and IV act as a closure for both the Erebonian and Crossbell arcs.
 
However, it seems they got Brittany (aka Hatsuu or "Mama Trails") and some other people on board who left XSEED recently. This gives me so much more confidence in a decent localization if she's given all the freedom she needs. All in all, the past two days have been quite a rollercoaster for the fans of the series.

Just a reminder before you plan to play Cold Steel III, do yourself a favor and play Zero no Kiseki and Ao no Kiseki fan translations beforehand. Cold Steel III and IV act as a closure for both the Erebonian and Crossbell arcs.

Yeah things have been crazy this past few days. I'm glad they got the previous team but I'm still nervous. Still this is great news. Hatsuu's passion for the franchise alone is enough to alleviate some fears.

As for the Crossbell games, I hear NISA is interested in bringing them over. Maybe they should make a deal with the fan translators who translated the games and spiff up the localization a bit. I think XSEED did something similar with Ys before.
 
Yeah things have been crazy this past few days. I'm glad they got the previous team but I'm still nervous. Still this is great news. Hatsuu's passion for the franchise alone is enough to alleviate some fears.

As for the Crossbell games, I hear NISA is interested in bringing them over. Maybe they should make a deal with the fan translators who translated the games and spiff up the localization a bit. I think XSEED did something similar with Ys before.
Either way, I'm still glad we finally received some confirmation that Cold Steel III comes over (although it was pretty much certain). Unfortunately, it seems like some select people are taking their disappointment that NISA is localizing this game to the next level. Sean Chiplock, the English VA of Rean, just sent a tweet that some people are apparently threatening NISA and it's employees. I can understand people are disappointed or frustrated, but this is just plain wrong.

About the Crossbell arcs, I doubt NISA or any other company will actually be able to bring them over unfortunately. The risks seem way to high from a business perspective. The real problem isn't actually Zero, but Ao which needs to be ported from the PSP to the PC and has some license issues too. I'm also not expecting any deal with the fan translators. One of the prominent figures behind it was against selling their work out to XSEED (or in this case now NISA).
 
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Unfortunately, it seems like some select people are taking their disappointment that NISA is localizing this game to the next level. Sean Chiplock, the English VA of Rean, just sent a tweet that some people are apparently threatening NISA and it's employees. I can understand people are disappointed or frustrated, but this is just plain wrong.

Yeah. That's pretty messed-up but expected. I guess bringing over the original localization team isn't enough to placate everyone.
 
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