Interview with Toshihiro Kondo regarding “Sora no Kiseki the 2nd”: In-depth interview covering the reception to “the 1st” and development of “the 2nd”

President Kondo

We utilized all the skills and talents we’ve cultivated over the years to craft the finished piece known as Trails in the Sky the 1st. We wanted this work to be a natural evolution from the systems developed in Trails Beyond the Horizon but one that is much more accessible to newcomers. While we didn’t anticipate a negative reception per se, the actual response we received was much more positive than expected. At the time of its release we had felt we did a good enough job but the game has since attracted an unprecedented number of new players thanks to its strong reputation and word-of-mouth. Compared to our other works, this title has experienced a remarkably longer period of sales. In that regard, it’s quite similar to that of its original Trails in the Sky FC.

President Kondo

Based on everyone’s feedback it seems players most appreciate that while this was a remake, it was crafted from the ground-up as an entirely new experience without compromising what made the original so special. It might not matter so much to newcomers but we created the 1st with the same amount of effort we would put into a new work so that everyone may be able to enjoy it. Many prospective players may have heard about this series due to its long-running nature and were curious but hesitant to start partway through. They may have asked themselves, “Just how many more titles are there to go through?” Now, even these players can participate. Through targeting this audience, we’re seeing even more players join us on this journey.

President Kondo

JRPG’s have been somewhat losing their momentum in recent times so our goal was to make this game immediately compatible with the Nintendo Switch. We paid careful attention to making this game accessible for players who’re picking up an RPG for the first time. And so I was insistent that we pay careful attention to the difficulty level and initial tutorial that players experience. I was responsible for writing the tutorial in the original but looking back, it ended up having way too much text. I told the team to keep it far more simple and easier to understand this time around. It might sound strange coming from someone involved with the original work but that version of the tutorial felt somewhat hard to follow (laughs).

President Kondo

At the time of releasing the 1st, we hadn’t decided on releasing the 2nd the following year. Falcom isn’t the type of company that has a schedule firmly laid out a year in advance, we’re a company that gauges our momentum and makes decisions based on what feels right. To be frank, we’ve been developing the sequel to Trails Beyond the Horizon in parallel so deciding which one to release this year was a difficult call. We’ve already kept players waiting a long time for the sequel to Trails Beyond the Horizon but at the same time the 1st had generated such great momentum that we didn’t want to lose that opportunity. The staff also began to free up a few months before the release of the 1st and took initiative to start work on the 2nd because they were motivated to do so.

President Kondo

Well, our mindset was, “We’re going to do it anyway, right?” We had already begun modeling characters that would appear in the 2nd and implemented features intended for the 2nd into patch releases for the 1st. It really was a difficult decision to make but since we had that much drive it was easy to follow-up with the 2nd. After all, when the original had released we had kept fans waiting for far too long between FC and SC… And karmically, I felt incredible guilt knowing that we would be doing the same thing with fans waiting for Trails Beyond the Horizon’s sequel. Ultimately, we had to choose one to prioritize and we decided to prioritize the 2nd while simultaneously working behind the scenes to ensure we could subsequently release the sequel to Trails Beyond the Horizon.

President Kondo

Our guiding principle was to leave the highly acclaimed elements of the original, such as the scenario, untouched while thoroughly adjusting elements of the gameplay that were regarded as clumsy or exceedingly frustrating. As a result, we’ve overhauled the combat and movement systems, so much so that they’re different from the original. Conversely, we’ve barely adjusted the story. Rather, we’ve reinforced areas that felt lacking. When it comes to presentation, the younger staff members on the team have been doing such an excellent job that I haven’t felt the need to step in at all. We’ve given free-reign over elements such as cutscene direction, combat cut-ins and craft animations to the staff members in-charge. They’ve exceedingly demonstrated the skills they’ve mastered up through Trails Beyond the Horizon.

President Kondo

I had made it clear that the staff could pursue the 1st however they felt best, and I had also told our older staff members involved with the original to not interfere as much as possible. I had no idea if this would turn out well but my only desire was to see what they would come up with by following their creative intuition. Walking around the office, I’d catch glimpses of this project in development and could feel the level of passion and effort going into it. I knew this endeavor would be something special when Estelle’s character model was finished, and Rolent was created as a sample for her to walk around in. My first thought was, “This was something nostalgic yet new.” and that initial feeling became the fundamental precept for the 1st as a whole. The designers had put in nothing short of their best work.

President Kondo

That’s right. The younger staff members on our team were enthusiastic about working on Trails in the Sky and their drive surprised me. I had found myself thinking, “They really are going all out..” Because the original Trails in the Sky featured characters drawn in pixel-art, the younger staff members naturally came up with ideas for how these characters would look animated. Compared to previous Trails titles, the direction we took was a much more whimsical and slapstick approach. They had even asked me how far they could go with this direction right at the beginning and I had simply told them, “To go all out.” What we ended up with was an Estelle possessing a very expressive range which elegantly incorporated manga-esque visual cues. This ended up creating a nice contrast to the comparatively mature Trails Beyond the Horizon.

President Kondo

Final Fantasy used to have this comedic element to it as well back in the day, right? Our thinking was to take it upon ourselves to see what it would look like if we did it our way. Square Enix pursued a visual style with significant weight and realism but we felt it just wasn’t right for us. Pursuing photorealistic visuals is incredibly expensive so it’s just not a field in which we could compete. However, when reflecting on what we could compete in, the things at the root of our foundation were manga and anime, elements that are easier for us to conceptualize and execute on. For instance, take Estelle’s design. If we were to do Estelle’s design now we’d likely come up with a more stylized look right from the get go. Rendering a design that originated in a “classic fantasy JRPG” from 20 years ago into a full-scale 3D model was something we hadn’t done before but we ended up creating something with that feeling of “nostalgic but new”. We somewhat expected it to feel that way but were still blown away by how well it turned out– it was better than we could have ever imagined. But there was still a lingering anxiety in the back of our minds until we had seen the player reception to it. After its announcement in the Nintendo Direct and players had actually seen the footage, there were a ton of comments remarking that our technological prowess had evolved. However, the technology was virtually unchanged from what we had used up through Trails Beyond the Horizon. Actually, we even reduced the polygon count of the characters to accommodate the Nintendo Switch. Despite the technical specs being lower, it was perceived as a significant improvement. Reflecting on it, I wouldn’t say we presented it incorrectly but it gave us the feeling there may have been other ways to approach our initial reveal. Players speculated that we even changed game engines but the game itself was built by using the technology we iterated on through Trails Beyond the Horizon. That was a moment of discovery for us and one of the key reasons why making the 1st was a worthwhile endeavor.

President Kondo

The principle behind the 1st was to translate Estelle and Joshua’s synergy into actionable commands. Characters like Scherazard and Olivier might join in depending on the scenario but as the story progresses others will fill-in for them so you really only have two consistent main characters. Conversely, the 2nd starts with a full party and becomes a game where you fight as a group. To complement this shift, the team came up with the idea to implement an AoE attack like Brave Rush that would allow players to effectively use their entire party. When it came to the enemies, the team wanted to do more with them than was present in the 1st. Looking back at Trails Beyond the Horizon, we had incorporated a number of on-field actions that gave players an increased volume of expression. Having released the 1st, we felt that it was appropriate to build on that foundation and make the 2nd more complex. We had kept the elements in the 1st simple for newcomers but now felt it was appropriate to introduce some more complexity. the 2nd marks the full-fledged introduction of the seminal organization, Ouroboros. Back in the original version, we had struggled with conveying their full strength. At that time, a lot of players remarked Loewe was weaker than they had expected given how the scenario portrays him. To rectify that we had released a patch to buff Loewe which was dubbed by fans as the “Sword Emperor Patch”. Given that history, we went in with the intent to properly convey the Enforcers power which resulted in Legion Boost.

President Kondo

On the topic of difficulty, the game was originally much much more difficult than it is now and I’ve had constant arguments with the team over it (laughs). Normal mode was originally balanced such that having a certain combination of Arts created a massive disparity in performance which, for some players, can feel unfair. The team wanted to counter those players who wouldn’t ever touch Hard mode but would subsequently complain that Normal is too easy. Myself and the team were going back-and-forth over this issue right up until the last minute. Our compromise was to create Advanced mode, which sits between Normal and Hard. It is the difficulty the team originally proposed for Normal. For beginners who started with the 1st and are new to the Trails series, Normal mode is the setting which ensures the smoothest, most enjoyable experience. We were arguing about this right up until the deadline for creating the demo but the discussions were meaningful and led to some positive changes such as Loewe getting more crafts.

President Kondo

I’d suggest Advanced for experienced Trails players who found Normal in the 1st lacking but aren’t quite ready to take the dive into Hard. Arts play a decisive role in battles from Advanced onwards and I’d like to preemptively emphasize the importance of setting your Orbments properly to make the most of them.

President Kondo

I believe we managed to reach a satisfactory battle tempo in the 1st which is a consistent challenge we face for the Trails series. But as the staff tested the game over and over, the field battles started to feel way too simplistic. We felt that players who spent a lot of time with this game would likely feel the same way so our natural conclusion was to allow enemies to execute more complex attacks on the field. As a result, we expanded how the enemy behaves as well. They can now use craft-like attacks or dash across the screen at incredible speeds.

President Kondo

You can use Arts on the field in Trails Beyond the Horizon but that wasn’t the case for the 1st. We had made this decision keeping newcomers in mind. The combat system in the 2nd is somewhere between the 1st and Trails Beyond the Horizon.

President Kondo

Battles in the 2nd are designed with the expectation that players will make use of both cooking and Arts. If you’re playing on Normal, and are accustomed to RPG’s, then you can definitely make good progress without actively using them but incorporating these two features makes battles much more enjoyable. Previously, we structured the game to allow players to breeze through without engaging with those mechanics but this time we emphasized putting more effort into fine-tuning this aspect.

President Kondo

One element that plays a role in that feeling might be the different visuals prepared for each dish. While our team was debugging the game, they made a comment along the lines of, “Even though you can skip the animations, you kind of end up watching them anyway..” Seeing the elaborate animations play out when characters use attack dishes will motivate players to cook that much more.

President Kondo

This was mostly left up to the team but since we’re spending so much time in Liberl, fishing is a natural fit. Players are traveling to the same locations repeatedly throughout this journey so the intent is to provide extra motivation for collecting items and exploring the world. We didn’t want the fishing mechanics themselves to be overly complex, a detail the entire team unilaterally agreed on, so we kept it relatively simple. Trails Beyond the Horizon has a game-like, arcade-ish fishing system while within this work we wanted it to be more casual. As the player travels around Liberl they might think, “I might as well do a little fishing while I’m here”. So there wasn’t much to discuss, it was more so, “This works.”

President Kondo

You won’t find any bait if you experience just the main scenario. You’d ask yourself, “Where can I get this bait?” and it might turn out to be a different location within the same region or a different region outright. In the original Trails in the Sky SC you had to walk a lot, which may have been really tough then but at least now you can fast travel (laughs).

President Kondo

We originally had a debug mode where we could place characters in various locations to check their animations and the idea evolved naturally from there. We thought it would be fun to let players enjoy that for themselves. When we developed the 1st we were doing everything we could to get the game out, so it wasn’t a consideration at that time. However, when we were brainstorming additional features for the 2nd, the idea sort of came up within the team. Once you give it a try, you’ll find yourself playing around with it for a few hours. First, it’s an hour, then two go by. As you make progress through the game, the number of available characters and maps proportionally increases. You can place not only the main party members but also NPCs and enemies. This isn’t something Falcom has really done with our games previously.

President Kondo

It certainly has that potential for community engagement. It would be great to have the opportunity to let users showcase their creations on social media but since we don’t really make online games, our works are single-player experiences, it’s difficult to facilitate sharing content in that capacity.

President Kondo

I’m confident players will come up with things we’ve never thought of and create some impressive or even entertaining scenes. Admittedly, we had considered a photo mode in the past but due to being an extension of a debug tool, it was prone to bugs. Making it stable would have been a significant undertaking.

President Kondo

We’ve had to make some adjustments to address elements that would be problematic by today’s regulatory standards. And since the original’s visual style was pixel art, a large portion of that portrayal was left to the player’s imagination. For example, in the 1st, there’s a scene where Estelle dropkicks Joshua when they first meet. However, in the original Trails in the Sky FC, the animation was a loop where Estelle jumps up and down, stomping on Joshua and then returning to where she was originally standing. Both the players and creatives know that the scene in question wasn’t actually that extreme but depicting it in 3D would have been incredibly violent. Our animation team had to find a solution that would translate that animation into a 3D visual without losing both the comedic charm of the original and what the player might have originally envisioned. Another example would be Hamel, which appears in the 2nd demo. Within the original work, it was only depicted by its graveyard while the area that led up to it was entirely absent.

President Kondo

Yes, that applies to the script just as much as it does to our visual approach. The dialogue the Enforcers speak in the second half of the game changes depending upon your party composition. This time, however, there are details here that weren’t present in the original version. If you’ve kept up with the series some of the additional dialogue might make you think, “Oh, that’s how that connects.”

President Kondo

Back in the original, the Enforcers you had seen were the entire roster at that time. A number of characters have made their debut since then and these relationships have become increasingly complex over time so the conversations now reflect those changes.

President Kondo

At first, I thought it would be outright omitted but the team wanted to implement it as an attachment. They even put in the care to make the character lift the goggles up when moving into a well-lit area, it’s a beautifully-crafted detail.

President Kondo

Just like how we handled the 1st, if you’re wondering “Oh yeah, in the original there was that… I wonder what they’ll do with it…” you can be certain it’ll remain pretty much the same.

President Kondo

True. Older RPG’s used to feature all sorts of field gimmicks. Things such as barriers or damage-inflicting floors. Those elements have become less common in recent times but we’ve kept those elements found in Trails in the Sky SC and adapted them to a more modern setting. We even found ourselves saying, “Oh, that’s right.. We really used to do things like that but we’ve completely forgotten about it..”

President Kondo

Honestly, the question of what to name the remake of Trails in the Sky the 3rd has been constantly asked since the remake series began. GungHo even took it into consideration and aptly named the remake Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter right from the start (laughs). I’m incredibly happy that players are looking forward to the 3rd and since there are many new players who started with the 1st, I do want to meet their expectations with a new release. If left to their own devices, the staff would have already started work on the 3rd but I have to keep reminding them to “Hold on a moment.” As I mentioned before, we were doing work on Trails Beyond the Horizon’s sequel in parallel and prioritized the 2nd so now, we have to handle sequels for both. One of the reasons we pursued the remake project was because Trails Beyond the Horizon represents part of the series’ climax. It’s a given that from here, the series will move towards its final conclusion. We wanted to give players interested in the series or those who have moved on a chance to rejoin us, which is why we focused on remaking Trails in the Sky. Consequently, Trails Beyond the Horizon has an ending not unlike Trails in the Sky FC so we also feel strongly that we need to wrap things up sooner rather than later.

President Kondo

The scenario is complete and we've already mapped out the entire story to its conclusion. Internally, we had been discussing whether to prioritize the 3rd or Beyond the Horizon's sequel but a decision has already been made in that regard so you can expect an announcement soon. Ultimately, in consideration of those players who witnessed the end, I strongly feel we should conclude Trails Beyond the Horizon before moving on with what we want to do next- especially considering the gap in time has become larger than it was between Trails in the Sky FC and Trails in the Sky SC's release.

President Kondo

After the 1st, we received plenty of feedback from players which only motivated our team allowing us to bring you the 2nd. It’s dense in content and it’ll take much longer to complete than the original if you play it normally. However, there are a lot of exciting events and battles especially in the second half of the scenario so I hope you’ll play it and complete it to the end. I believe you’ll be satisfied. For those who’ve picked up the 1st, I sincerely hope you’ll play all the way through to the end. And for those who are interested but haven’t yet played the 1st, I highly recommend picking it up. If you start playing now, you can easily catch up. And, honestly, playing these two works back to back should prevent any lingering questions unlike when the original had first launched. For those interested in the Trails series, and for all of you who’ve been following the Trails series all this time, I hope you’ll play the 2nd and watch over Estelle and the others until the end.