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The Trails (Kiseki) series

Well, I don't see a thread for this yet, certainly not a recent one, and it's even more relevant now in light of the recent announcement about the English releases of Trails from Zero, Trails to Azure, Trails into Reverie, and The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails (or in Japanese, Zero no Kiseki, Ao no Kiseki, Hajimari no Kiseki, and Nayuta no Kiseki). I've been playing this series since the beginning of 2015 (literally; I got the first Trails in the Sky on December 30, 2014 and started playing it on January 1, 2015) and have finished all three Sky games, the Geofront translation of Zero, and the first three Cold Steel games. I'm currently on Cold Steel 4, early in act 2, though I haven't been playing it much because of other games (including RollerCoaster Tycoon). I've also almost finished a Let's Play of Trails in the Sky. Overall, it's been a lengthy ride, but a pretty enjoyable one. I'd definitely recommend them to any JRPG fans (at least, if you have the time, because this is a long story we're talking about here). I look forward to playing Azure, Reverie, and the future games (we'll see what they translate Kuro as). 2023 should be a good year.

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I first played Sky FC in 2014ish on my iPod touch via a PSP emulator. It didn't work well. Around a year later I got the PC version on Steam and started playing the game for real. I didn't get very far. I never finished the prologue. Fast forward to Summer 2016. I got my PS3 and Trails of Cold Steel. I totally forgot that I didn't really enjoy the Trails combat that much. Turns out Cold Steel just really clicked with me and I sped through the game. I finished CS1, got CS2 when that released, won Sky SC at some point from a Twitter giveaway, tried playing Sky FC, then fast forward to Summer 2019. I finally played and finished Sky FC. Then I started Sky SC. And didn't finish it until the very start of 2021. Then I blitzed through the 3rd, and Zero. And now I'm very very slowly getting through Azure. Since the NISA releases of Crossbell and Reverie are so far out, I'm glad I don't have to rush to purchase Cold Steel 3 and 4. Besides, not being up to date with these far, far, too long games has its perks. Like not having to wait for the newest entry to be translated :)
My favorite is Sky the 3rd and my least favorite is Sky SC. I still liked it but I felt so bored like 80% of the time. Now I haven't played Cold Steel 1 and 2 in roughly 5 years so maybe if I replayed them my least favorite would change but we'll see.

I hope Falcom does something with the Iselhasa duology (LoH 1-2) and the Gagharv trilogy (LoH 3-5) since other than LoH 1, their existing English versions are less than ideal or nonexistent. I know this is a Trails thread specifically, but still.
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Incidentally, the only other related thread I can think of is one that you made.

I've had my eye on this franchise for a while now. I know virtually nothing about it, and haven't played any of the games, but some of the things that I've heard (that all of the Legend of Heroes/Trails games are connected together in a grand MCU-esque sense, that it's heavy on character development and has very plausible/realistic writing, I think someone told me that there's a government conspiracy mystery plot somewhere) make me very interested in learning more about it and possibly giving it a try myself one day.

I know that the games' stories are very dependent on one another starting with Trails in the Sky at least, but what about the ones before it? Is it necessary to be familiar with the first few "Legend of Heroes" games as well? If not, does it add even a small amount of additional development/lore, or are they completely irrelevant?
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Originally posted by KTB
that it's heavy on character development and has very plausible/realistic writing

Heh, in some ways for sure, but there are some very annoying tropes that keep cropping up...

Originally posted by K.T.B.

I know that the games' stories are very dependent on one another
starting with Trails in the Sky at least, but what about the ones before it? Is it necessary to be familiar with the first few "Legend of Heroes" games as well? If not, does it add even a small amount of additional development/lore, or are they completely irrelevant?


Not really. The first two Legend of Heroes games are in their own continuity. LoH2 isn't even translated anyway. The next three, the Gagharv trilogy, are in their own continuity as well, but there are theories that they are connected/a part of the same world as Zemuria, the continent where Trails takes place. Despite that, I wouldn't say they're totally irrelevant. By playing the previous Legend of Heroes games you can see how ideas and gameplay developed, culminating in what you see starting with Trails in the Sky. There's a few problems with that for the English only though. While Legend of Heroes 1 is translated (on PC-Engine,) 2 is not. And the Gagharv trilogy is only translated in the PSP ports, which were already not the greatest to begin with, but Bandai during localization stripped down the real time combat to a incredibly boring turn-based system and gave them a horrible to meh at best translation. Because of that they don't have a very good reputation; it's largely undeserved.
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I've recently started playing Trails in the Sky FC. So far, I am on Chapter 1. From what I have played so far, I find the battle system to be interesting what with there being strategy and what not. I do also like the moments between Estelle and Joshua. Oh, and the music is great as well.