Trails in the Sky (series)

The Trails in the Sky series is a metaseries within the The Legend of Heroes series of Japanese role-playing video games. Collectively the sixth entry in the Legend of Heroes series, the series consists of three games, the First Chapter, Second Chapter, and Third Chapter. The three titles were released between 2004 and 2007 in Japan, while the game's massive scope and quantity of text to translate has caused a considerable delay in their English releases. First Chapter was released in 2011, Second Chapter is due in 2015, and Third Chapter is yet to be localized at all.

Titles

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky

The first entry of the game was first released in Japan in 2004 for the PC by Falcom.^[1] It was shortly afterwards ported over to the PlayStation Portable in 2006.^[1] Due to its massive size of text, the game was not localized into English until 2011, when translated by Xseed Games.^[2] Aeria Games, in late 2011, announced they had the rights from Falcom to release the game on mobile phones in English regions, but as of 2015, no further information on this has arisen.^[2] The game was also given an high definition port as part of Sony's PSP Remaster line of ports to the PlayStation 3 platform in late 2012,^[3] and a scheduled high-definition port to the PlayStation Vita in 2015, both releases being Japan-only.^[4]

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky Second Chapter

The second entry in the series, Second Chapter, was initially released in 2006 for the PC and 2007 for the PlayStation Portable in Japan.^[1] In 2013, Xseed Games announced that they would be working together with Carpe Fulgur in localizing the Second Chapter, due to all the fan requests after the release of First Chapter.^[5] Initially announced for a mid-2014 release, it was later pushed back to late 2014.^[6] In December 2014, Carpe Fulgur head Andrew Dice announced that progress in translating the game was slowed by his struggle with depression and suicide.^[7] Dice handed over his work for Xseed employees to finish up, resulting in delaying the game's release into 2015.^[8] Like First Chapter, Second Chapter was also announced for a mobile phone port by Aeria Games that was apparently abandoned,^[2] and had 2013 PlayStation 3 HD port.^[9]

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky Third Chapter

Third Chapter was first released in 2007 on the PC and 2008 on the PlayStation Portable in Japan.^[1] XSeed Games technically has the rights from Falcom to release Third Chapter in English, but due to the massive undertakings of the first two chapters, have not actually began work on translating it, nor have they committed to doing so.^[10] Like the prior two titles, Third Chapter also had an aborted mobile phone port by Aeria Games,^[2] and an HD PlayStation 3 port in 2013.^[11]

Reception and sales

First Chapter has sold over 500,000 copies as of the end of 2013.^[12] XSeed has stated that the North American release of First Chapter did not initially meet their internal sales goals with its 2011 PlayStation Portable release.^[13] Despite this, strong enough fan feedback inspired the company to continue working on the series, committing to releasing Second Chapter in English.^[14] Contrary to the modest sales of the PSP release, Xseed would later state that its 2014 PC release was the company's "most successful PC launch ever".^[15]

References

External links