Trails The LongestRunning JRPG Story Is Only Halfway Done

Trails, The Longest-Running JRPG Story, Is Only Halfway Done

Legend of Heroes: Trails is already ten games in, and only halfway done. It has the most ambitious storytelling and world-building of any JRPG series.



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Trails The LongestRunning JRPG Story Is Only Halfway Done

Role-playing games are known for their expansive, epic stories, but the Legend of Heroes: Trails games have distinguished themselves with the longest-running, ongoing story, of any JRPG series. Popular JRPG franchises like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest have numerous mainline entries and spin-off games, but most of these offer self-contained stories in different settings. There are some exceptions, with shared world lore in Dragon Quest’s Zenithia Trilogy, or direct sequels like Final Fantasy 10-2, but the Trails series’ focus on advancing a story in a shared world, with intricate lore, complex politics, and well-developed nations and factions, represents a different approach. Though the many .hack games share the same setting, and the Xenosaga trilogy represents an earlier attempt at a serialized JRPG story, Trails has outdone these series, and others, as it is ten games in, and its story is only about halfway done.

Players who completed Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 2 experienced a section of gameplay where they controlled new characters, Lloyd Bannings and Rixia Mao, in the city-state of Crossbell. This was a departure from the rest of the game, which featured Rean Schwarzer and the rest of Class 7, citizens of the Erebonian Empire. For most U.S. players, Lloyd and Rixia were unknowns, but the Trails series had two prior games focusing on Crossbell that introduced these heroes, both of which are currently being localized. This endgame segment of Trails of Cold Steel 2 served as a glimpse into just how much more Trails has to offer beyond the Cold Steel games. The Crossbell Arc of Trails, consisting of Trails From Zero and Trails To Azure, are among the three Trails games confirmed for a Western release in coming years, along with the newest title, Trails Into Reverie.

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The Trails JRPG games have a complicated origin, as part of the Legend of Heroes franchise, which originally started as an entry in the Dragon Slayer series. Dragon Slayer, along with Ys, were originally the two main flagship series for developer Nihon Falcom, with Ys focused on action-RPG gameplay, and Dragon Slayer experimenting in a variety of RPG styles. With the release of Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, the sixth Legend of Heroes game, the developer began their most ambitious work, and the series received renewed attention in the West.

Thus far, Trails includes the Liberl Arc, consisting of the three Trails in the Sky titles; the two games in the Crossbell Arc, pending U.S. release in 2022; and the four Trails of Cold Steel games, which form the Erebonia Arc. These were followed by Trails Into Reverie, a game that serves as a conclusion to both the Crossbell and Erebonia Arcs, and features characters from both sub-series, which is planned for a U.S. release in 2023. An eleventh Trails game, The Legend of Heroes: Kuro no Kiseki, was released in Japan earlier this year.

The Trails Games Develop Every Faction, Instead Of Relying On Archetypes

Trails The LongestRunning JRPG Story Is Only Halfway Done

Though Trails of Cold Steel 4 provided a satisfying ending to the decade-long sub-series, its follow-up title Trails Into Reverie marks roughly the halfway point for Trails as a whole, according to the developers. By having so many titles in a shared setting, gradually advancing the timeline instead of skipping generations ahead as with games like Dragon Quest’s Erdrick Trilogy, Trails has accomplished a laudable amount of world-building and presented nearly all sides of its conflicts as sympathetic.

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The tetralogy of Trails of Cold Steel games focused on the Erebonian Empire, a faction that could be portrayed as an archetypal “evil empire” in most JRPGs, but which is developed thoroughly in Cold Steel. The city-state of Crossbell, positioned between two military superpowers and struggling to maintain its autonomy, is much more akin to the “plucky go-getter” heroic faction of most JRPGs, but when it declares its independence in the Cold Steel games, this comes as devastating news to the Eberbonian protagonists.



From the first Trails of Cold Steel game, Erebonia is depicted as a complex nation, with internal power struggles between the nobles who wish to maintain the tradition and authority of their households, the imperial government, and progressive non-noble factions. The nation is embroiled in civil war in the second Cold Steel title which offers hints at a darker conspiracy behind it all that unfolds in the following chapters. Erebonia itself is already more richly developed than many other JRPG worlds as a whole and with Trails’ other sub-series offering perspectives from Crossbell, Liberyl, and beyond, this makes the continent of Zemuria an impressively well fleshed-out fictional setting. Nihon Falcom plans for decades more with the Trails series, as it intends to explore the eastern half of Zemuria further. The new Kuro no Kiseki marks the start of the second half of the JRPG series and is set in Calvard.

Typically, a JRPG setting only requires enough development to provide context for the story at hand, which usually consists of a single game. The complexity of Trails’ world and lore is closer to that of tabletop RPG campaign settings like Forgotten Realms, with numerous deities, nations, and factions, allowing for a multitude of story options for Dungeons & Dragons games. The nature of Trails’ storytelling stands apart from other games with a shared world, like Square Enix’s various Ivalice-based games such as Final Fantasy 12, Vagrant Story, and Final Fantasy Tactics, that are separated by decades in-game. Events in the Crossbell Arc take place nearly concurrently with the Erebonian Arc of Trails, and Reverie promises to serve as a direct sequel and epilogue to both sub-series. The events taking place in one part of Zemuria distinctly impact other parts of the continent in later Trails games, and players can witness the characters age, maturing into adulthood and becoming formidable heroes, over the course of the series.

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Three More Trails Games Being Localized Now, And Hopefully More To Come

Nihon Falcom’s Ys series is an underappreciated action-RPG franchise, and similarly, Trails has developed a moderate but loyal fanbase. The games adhere largely to established turn-based JRPG gameplay paradigms, with enough complexities for veteran players, and quality of life features to make the games welcoming for newcomers to the genre. More daunting than the gameplay is the scale of the story, however, and some players might find the notion of committing to ten-plus full-length RPGs more than a little intimidating.

Fortunately, each Trails game still contains a satisfying narrative, and any given sub-series like Trails in the Sky or Trails of Cold Steel can be played independently. Playing all of the arcs of Trails will give a player more insights into the politics and magic of Zemuria, and more preparation for the crossover in Trails Into Reverie, however. The Legend of Heroes: Trails series is already among the most sprawling and intricately plotted JRPG franchises ever, and with more to come, U.S. gamers can look forward to the three newly localized games over the next two years, and hopefully many more in the future.

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