Trails Games Publisher NIS America to Collaborate With Fans for Localization
NIS America working with fans for Trails series localizations is something that more publishers should do.
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| Trails Games Publisher NIS America to Collaborate With Fans for Localization |
In an early leak at Epic Games Store, upcoming release of The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero, Trails to Azure, Trails into Reverie and The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails has been revealed with a set launch window for 2023.
During a livestream concert video to celebrate Nihon Falcom 40th Anniversary, it was officially confirmed to be true. Also, publisher NIS America will be localizing these four games in Legend of Heroes series by working with a fans group.
Up until now, franchise fans in Western region had to largely rely on fan-translations but after NIS America has taken a great initiative now, they will no longer need to rely on unofficial subs to experience Trails lore and its world building.
Those who are familiar with The Legend of Heroes, particularly Trails series, may have heard of Geofront, a group of fans who translated Crossbell arc duology; The Legend of Heroes: Zero no Kiseki and Ao no Kiseki, launched only in Japan.
In 2020, Zero no Kiseki and Ao no Kiseki were re-released for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch as Zero no Kiseki and Ao no Kiseki KAI, exclusively in Japan and it led many to guess that these versions may receive official localizations soon.
Meanwhile, Geofront were busy working on their own versions of English fan-patches and has successfully released fully translated patches for PC version of these titles that were previously released only within certain territories in Asia.
However, now that Geofront is officially partnered with NIS America, they had to remove their fan-project from their website and so they did that already while encouraging fans to support its upcoming official Western release instead.
There is no doubt that Geofront fan-group is beyond excited to work on their favorite franchise officially. As it was noted earlier, Trails from Zero and Trails into Azure aren't the only games in known series that are confirmed for localization.
Geofront team has expressed excitement at working on Trails series localization in association with NIS America.
Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure are being officially localized, and the Geofront has partnered with NIS America to make it happen. We reached an agreement with NIS America and, now, our text—the text you have seen in our localization patches—will serve as the basis for the official releases of the Crossbell duology.
Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure were originally released in 2010 and 2011 respectively for PSP. They are the missing links that bridges the gap between Trails in the Sky and Trails of Cold Steel series, which are already out worldwide.
The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails is a spin-off game taking place in a completely different world from regular Trails series. Boundless Trails moves away from turn-based combat in favor of action RPG and was released in 2012 for PSP.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie is most recently released original entry, also known as Hajimari no Kiseki in Japan. Only other Trails series game that has not been confirmed till now is Kuro no Kiseki, which is yet to arrive in Japan.
It is reasonable to anticipate these titles to be localized sometime after all of these games are being released globally. Geofront and NIS America team has worked independently to localize games in past before their recent partnership.
Geofront's work will be used as basis for official translation and it is not likely to be 1:1 true to their original fan project. You can surely expect to get localizations of future Trails series games coming to Western market faster than before.
All four titles are releasing on Nintendo Switch, Windows PC via Epic Games Store and Steam as well as PlayStation 4 console. Unlike what PC players were speculating earlier, there is no timed exclusivity deal or whatsoever involved at all.
Fans may even get brand-new English dubs for these games and could also be a reason why it's taking so long for them to come out. In the meantime, you can catch up to Trails series as they are available now on Steam Summer Sale 2021.
These games are still a long way off as the first game out of these four, The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero won't be out till 2022. Rest of these games will be releasing n 2023 eventually as it was revealed in previous leak at Epic Store.
