The Legend Of Heroes: Trails Into Reverie Confirmed For Next Summer, Limited Edition Revealed

Dangit. I prefer physical soundtracks so I will have to get the LE. Hyped for the game though!!

I have a niche itch for a epic length, long-running video game story; what would I have to play to get into this one?

Put me down for one order of the LE.

is the deluxe edition going to be available for preorder in stores or online only cause we all know limited editions are going to be expensive as hell.

@Sam_Loser2 For the full story, you'd want to start with the Trails in the Sky games:
Trails in the Sky
Trails in the Sky SC
Trails in the Sky 3rd
For those, you'd either need to dig out a PSP or play the WIndows version (which is probably preferable due to quality of life improvements). They're available on Steam and Good Old Games and go on sale semi-frequently.
The Sky games provide good background and have a lot of connections to later games, but if you're not a completionist they aren't STRICTLY necessary. After Sky come the Crossbell games:
Trails from Zero
Trails to Azure
These are a good place to start, though Azure isn't out in English yet (unless you get the no-longer-officially-available fan patch for the Chinese PC version). So you could also start with Cold Steel:
Trails of Cold Steel
Trails of Cold Steel II
but definitely don't play Trails of Cold Steel III until you've played the two Crossbell games.
Trails of Cold Steel III
Trails of Cold Steel IV
Once you've finished Trails from Zero, Trails to Azure, Trails of Cold Steel I-IV, and optionally the three Trails in the Sky games, you're ready for Trails into Reverie.
(Also note: Trails from Zero, Trails to Azure, Trails of Cold Steel III and IV, and Trails into Reverie are/will be available on Switch. Right now, Trails of Cold Steel I and II are on PC, PS 3/4, and Vita, but not (yet) on Switch. CS I and II may someday get a Switch release, but nothing has been announced and there are some esoteric rights issues that may be holding it up)

@AmyZiegfeld Wow, thanks for quite the detailed guide! It'd be nice if they could all come to Switch; I'd love to play such a sprawling multi-threaded epic but it will kind of challenging to play those first three Sky games.

The cover piqued my interest but the trailer is much too animoo for my taste. Personally, I don't quite get how people still dig this kind of in-game artstyle, it seems bland, generic, and overused to me.

I'm so glad that I'm into trails of franchise. It's the best world building I ever seen!

@AmyZiegfeld Thanks for breaking the whole chronology down. I'm loosely eyeing this series from a far, and the sample I've played of CS III has just enough to draw me. I almost get a Tales series vibe, which is a beloved series by me.

@Sam_Loser2 So, in terms of the Sky games on Switch:
The president of Falcom, the developer of all these games, has been making some general, vague comments about wanting to put out more games on Switch, and has, separately, been making some general, vague comments about wanting to do more with the Sky games, since those have been relatively neglected in terms of remasters/remakes. That might add up to an announcement of remade Sky trilogy on Switch.
BUT.
First, there hasn't been an announcement yet, and once there's an announcement it'll probably be a year or two before we see a release in English.
And Second, even if there is a new Sky trilogy for Switch, there's no guarantee it'll even come out in English. I mentioned above some weird rights issues with respect to Cold Steel I & II. That also applies to the three Sky games.
Basically, XSeed translated and released the Sky games and CS I & II in English, and it nearly broke them because these games have REALLY large scripts. Falcom rewarded them by yanking their license and handing it to NIS for CS III and IV and future releases.
The problem, then, is that XSeed owns the translation work they did, and it's a LOT so NIS probably doesn't want to reinvent the wheel and retranslate these games, but NIS holds the license and they're the ones that would have to release the Sky games and CS I & II.
This is pure speculation now, but I would bet there's a better chance of the (hypothetical!) re-made Sky games getting English Switch releases than CS I&II. That's just based on the fact that Sky has not gotten basically any English home console releases and there's probably more money to be had by NIS releasing them here, so they may be willing to pay XSeed to license their translation. CS I&II, on the other hand, have been out on a variety of platforms for years in English, so they may not see much value in paying extra to license the translation for a Switch release.
That said: I have no insider knowledge of any of the contracts involved, so who knows what's going on behind the scenes?
TL;DR: The Sky games are pretty easy to play on even an old PC, and you can connect your Switch Pro controller to a PC and play the games that way. That MAY be preferable to waiting for Switch releases that might never come?

Trails in the sky trilogy please….. please!

@AmyZiegfeld - Dude! Thanks for that quick synopsis of the story goes. I always did a quick google and end up with too much information that I was under the impression there was WAY more installments.

Sounds like my halting of CS3 was a good decision. I appreciate this.

@AmyZiegfeld Unfortunately I only have a Mac for work. I have a PS5 to play Cold Steel 1 & 2, but I may be stuck waiting for something to port the Sky trilogy to something more modern instead of buying a new machine for them. While they aren't necessary, I feel like I'd appreciate the world they are building more having played them.

Definitely curious to see how the switch version plays since the switch versions of quite a few other falcom games have had their issues regarding performance.

the outlier for this is Zero however which had an amazing switch port courtesy of Ph3 though i dont think they are handling this one (they are handling Azure from what i hear)

@Sam_Loser2 Depending on how old your Mac is, you could look into Porting kit as a solution to play the Trails in the Sky games. The Porting kits basically let you install Windows games on Macs, and from what I have seen the Trails in the Sky games do run well.

@Mgalens cold steel 3 was terrible, 4 was acceptable and YS IX ran poorly overall during the raids or in the town, so basically 50% of YS IX ran bad on switch. The company behind the ports is engine software BV. they have also done ni no kuni 2 and that game too, was awful on switch. So given that reverie revisits crossbell, and that it ran awful on switch in cold steel 3 and 4, i wouldnt hold my breath for reverie.

pass. cold steel 3 and 4 were awful ports on switch, i cannot trust them. i had a ton of crashes and freezes/lags with cold steel 3 on switch, so i really cant trust engine software at all when it comes to switch ports.

I'll be getting Reverie on PS5 after playing Zero and Azure on Switch. I really hope we get a Switch Pro before the 11th Trails game, Kuro no Kiseki, gets an English release hopefully some time in 2024. The series just feels more at home on a handheld.

@Casual_Gamer95
I am happy at least that Azure should be getting a good port since its ph3 iirc.

Im hoping that if the switch gets a follow up keeping the same format then it should help at least narrow the power gap somewhat at least until ps6 etc come out.

Not a fan of Trails. I am a fan of Ys, though, Falcom. Classic Ys, that is. Can I have some, please?

@Vil i have the official YS anime somewhere in my pc, even has the rare english dub. Older YS games were really difficult, i had trouble completing YS 3 on sega genesis

Why is NIS America directing everyone to go to the UK store? Will they not sell it out of the US store? Kinda weird

@Casual_Gamer95 no they were not they ran fine on the switch.

@RiasGremory go take a look on falcom dedicaced forums, you will see a lot of people complain about random crashes and poor performance. it literally happened when i tried them on my switch, are you implying i am making stuff up?

@Sam_Loser2 three sky games two crossbell games and 4 cold steel games. You need a PC for sky and most of cold steel and the second part of crossbell is coming a couple months before this.

Sky mostly sets up the setting broadly and you can kinda get away without it, but since it introduces concepts that the other games just assume you know it's better to have played them. Characters from all three series crossover and are referenced as well.

Reverie is an epilogue to the crossbell and cold steel games. It basically just wraps up the lingering plot threads before going into the next arc, which is already two games in and will be translated eventually. Don't play reverie without playing the crossbell and cold steel games. It assumes you've played all six and literally will make zero sense out of context. At least play cold steel. A third of the game still won't make sense, but at least you could piece it together