軌跡シリーズ 10周年記念本 セプト=アーカイブ

President Kondo

The main catalyst for this series was a proposal submitted by my senior for a sequel to The Legend of Heroes. I was asked to be in charge of the scenario for this project, but since it carried the Legend of Heroes name, the proposal placed a particularly heavy emphasis on the story. After much internal deliberation, we decided to rework the project, which is where the Trails series began. The Legend of Heroes series had a second phase known as the Gagharv Trilogy, beginning with Prophecy of the Moonlight Witch and reaching its conclusion with the fifth entry, Cagesong of the Ocean. With that in mind, at the time we were deciding between launching an entirely new series or creating something that would continue along the same path as the Gagharv Trilogy. Some members thought it might be better to create a new setting now that the Gagharv Trilogy had concluded and many of the mysteries surrounding its world had been revealed, while others felt it would be a waste to let go of what they had built up until then and wanted to carry something forward. Senior staff members who had worked on The Legend of Heroes also expressed a desire to do things they had never been able to do before. Ultimately, we reached a consensus: we wanted to carry forward the kind of feeling that would make people look back on the Gagharv Trilogy fondly, while using the new series to portray a kind of world Falcom had never presented before. The Legend of Heroes up until that point had been a classic, Japanese-style fantasy: the pattern of young boys and girls from the idyllic countryside setting out on a journey was very common in our works. As such, the idea came up to try something with a different feel—a world where mechanical elements were an everyday part of life. That was where we began developing the setting. From there, we brainstormed ideas like orbments and airships, gradually fleshing the world out more and more.

President Kondo

I believe it was around 4 or 5 people. At the time, the scenarios for The Legend of Heroes series were growing steadily in size. Up until that point, the scenario for each Nihon Falcom title was generally handled by a single scenario writer. Starting with The Legend of Heroes V, it became difficult for one writer to write the entire scenario alone. From around that time, scenarios began to be produced by teams. I was also working on titles such as Ys at the same time, so I was unsure how much I would be able to contribute. Because of that, I worked things out together with colleagues who had joined Falcom at the same time as me.

President Kondo

When it comes to character names, we first establish what kind of person the character is before thinking about their name. For Trails in the Sky, we decided on the core concept for the characters at a very early stage. The protagonists would be a boy and a girl: one possessing a cheerful and carefree nature while the other was burdened with a dark side, and the story would be woven around the central theme of light and shadow. Keeping that premise in mind, the staff would each suggest names that seemed to fit the concept, and we would decide from there. While the names Estelle and Joshua can be traced back to the Old Testament, the characters themselves weren’t meant to inherit the backgrounds or traits of the biblical figures behind those names. We simply compared things like the sound of each name with the character we had created, and if it seemed to fit the image we had in mind, we would settle on it.

President Kondo

It’s a little different now—how should I put it? It might be closer to the feeling of naming your own child. Back when we were working on Trails from Zero, we thought Lloyd was the perfect name for the protagonist, only to realize it had already been used in an earlier title. (laughs) Naturally, we started discussing what to do, but the protagonist had been conceived as a hot-blooded investigator who was still somewhat inexperienced, yet earnest and dedicated, and we had already built the character’s image around the name Lloyd. We ended up saying, this guy just had to be Lloyd. (laughs) Still, I had the feeling that I’d heard the name somewhere before. (laughs)

President Kondo

That’s true. (laughs) Up until around Trails in the Sky, we made an effort to avoid overlapping character names with series like Ys. We also checked over 300 NPCs who appear in Trails in the Sky, trying as much as possible to avoid duplicate names. By Trails from Zero, it had become impossible to keep it under control. (laughs) So we decided to accept it with the mindset that people in the real world share the same names too. (laughs) We also moved forward with Trails from Zero with the thought that hardcore fans might get a smirk out of it, while still wanting to give the protagonist a name that felt right, even if some names overlapped. Speaking of Trails from Zero, there’s actually another character with the same name as Tio.

President Kondo

That’s correct. We noticed the overlap with Lloyd fairly early on, but in Tio’s case even the staff hadn’t noticed it for quite some time. One time, while we were debugging an event, we noticed that Tio introduced herself, but the story simply continued with Estelle showing no reaction to the name. That made us think, isn’t this a little strange? (laughs)

President Kondo

I’ve talked about this plenty of times before, but the big thing with FC is that we couldn’t wrap it up in a single game. (laughs) At the time, it was our first time building an RPG of that scale from the ground up and bringing the whole scenario together. I had worked on Cagesong of the Ocean with a senior staff member, but by the time we started FC, we were working as a team made up mostly of staff who were still essentially newcomers. Falcom was also the kind of place where you were expected to figure things out for yourself. If you went to a senior staff member with a question, all you’d get was, “You’ll be fine!” before being sent right back. (laughs)

President Kondo

So, while I was still trying to find my footing, I hit a wall working on the setting and scenario for the Trails series and realized just how difficult it was to build an RPG world. That led us to say, “Repeating this whole process for every single game is going to be a lot of work.” Much like with the Gagharv Trilogy, we felt the most rewarding approach for a series was to tell ensemble stories focused on specific regions and eras within a much larger world. We also thought this approach would make development more efficient and help us release games more consistently. From there, we started building out the continent of Zemuria as the setting for the Trails series as a whole. In fact, we had already established the Erebonia arc around that time, and we had also begun planning out the Calvard around then as well. At the time we were thinking of an almost Romance of the Three Kingdoms-style geographical orientation. For FC, we decided to limit the setting to just the smallest country, Liberl. Up to that point, The Legend of Heroes games, especially the Gagharv Trilogy, had really been about traveling across the world. With FC, we narrowed the scope such that we could enrich the story even more and portray each town and character in much greater detail.

President Kondo

We were trying to make things more detailed than ever before, and at the time, we would regularly give presentations to our company president at the time, Kato. About a year and a half into development he had asked, “How much is exactly finished?” and when I answered, “Just a bit over half, I think…” Everyone in the room practically fell over. (laughs) So we quickly decided to cut the original scenario in half and release the first half as, what is now, the first Trails in the Sky– it’s an unforgettable memory from the FC days. Looking back, I think we may have gotten a little ahead of ourselves and taken things a bit too far. (laughs)

President Kondo

No, actually, we thought we had divided the story at roughly a 70/30 point. This is more of an SC story, but we had thought of the point where Joshua leaves as being around 60-70% of the way through. That naturally had us thinking, “If we turned only the remaining 30–40% into a sequel, wouldn’t it feel a bit lacking in content compared to FC?” Development on SC began with the idea of fleshing things out a bit more and bringing it up to roughly the same amount of content as FC. As development went on, all kinds of new ideas emerged, such as creating Anelace as a character and letting players choose either Agate or Scherazard to accompany them on their journey. Before we knew it, it had ended up becoming not just as big as FC, but even bigger. (laughs) When we later ported it to the PSP, it even ended up needing two discs.

President Kondo

In terms of playtime, it was nearly twice as long as FC. Even then, it felt like we had gone a little overboard. It ended up that way because we really felt like we had to do it right. (laughs)

President Kondo

That’s correct. While developing Trails in the Sky we aimed to create pairings where character personalities complement one another, especially when deciding on party composition. This, alongside coordinating when they would appear in the story, resulted in the pairings of Scherazard/Olivier and Agate/Tita. The narrative then naturally evolved into an ensemble drama as we worked to showcase a diverse range of backgrounds, social circumstances and even races all tied to varying circumstances in the Liberl Kingdom. This approach became even more pronounced with Trails of Cold Steel

President Kondo

When first drawing the map, we established a set of basic guidelines: “It should be a scenic land where lakes and mountains can be seen from almost anywhere,” “It should feature four major regional cities, each divided into distinct areas,” and “It should serve as a buffer state between major powers.” From there, we worked together as a team, figuring things out as we went and gradually fleshing out the details.

President Kondo

That is completely out of my hands now and managed entirely by our planning staff. The staff shares a general consensus of locations like Remiferia or Leman and their relative locations. However, we haven’t worked out the finer details yet, like exactly where the national borders are drawn or what the coastal terrain looks like. Our approach is to refine and realize those details gradually over time as we define more of the world-building and reach those stages in development. For example, even if we decided right now that “Remiferia has this kind of terrain.” it would only just be a temporary decision. We can only create a more grounded setting once we reach the stage where those details need to be properly worked out, so we gradually fill in the missing pieces of the continent with each new title. That said, we still go over the general layout whenever we have planning meetings for a new title, things like, “This area is a salt flat right now.” (laughs)

President Kondo

About 3rd– well back when we first announced FC I was warned by senior staff, “If this doesn’t sell well then we won’t be able to release a sequel.” (laughs) Some time later, when FC had taken on its current form and we’d managed to release SC, there was a pervading sense of relief and satisfaction interrupted by the question, “Well, now that the story has concluded and we’ve wrapped everything up, what’s next?”The first few major ideas proposed at the time were the Erebonia arc and Crossbell arc but there was another suggestion to expand on certain scenes that we hadn’t fully explained within SC before moving on to those.

President Kondo

The core narrative of Trails in the Sky FC/SC revolved around Estelle and Joshua’s adventures. But we weren’t able to incorporate a lot of worldbuilding and foreshadowing that would connect to later works set in Zemuria and we couldn’t work those into the Liberl arc without weighing it down. That led to the idea of making a title that could serve as a kind of prologue while also planting the seeds for what was to come in the Erebonia arc. Our realization was that we would not only enrich the Erebonia arc but also tell a story that acted as an epilogue for Liberl. I think back on that period of time fondly. Up until then, we’d had our hands full completing a single title at a time, but this project marked a shift where we became strongly conscious of the fact we wanted to carry the series forward.

President Kondo

Yes. Up until then, we hadn’t really expanded on things like Osborne. His name kept coming up and he felt like this ominous figure, but we still didn’t really know who he was. The same went for questions like, “Who exactly is Father Kevin, the guy who fired the Salt Pale and finished off Weissmann?” We felt that if players understood these details first, the Erebonia arc would be that much more exciting for them. That was also why we had the omnibus-style structure of 3rd in mind from the start, linking together a number of shorter episodes. The Septian Church always had a presence in the story as well, but its true nature still remained something of a mystery. As we continued the series, we felt it was important to properly establish what the Septian Church was. Even though 3rd served as the epilogue to Trails in the Sky, we decided to change the protagonist to Kevin Graham. Though Estelle did end up stealing the spotlight from him in the end. (laughs)

President Kondo

That’s right. One reason was that Enforcers are given a great deal of freedom, which makes them easier to move around when portraying the world in greater detail. But then we started wondering, “Can someone with such a bizarre appearance really walk openly through town?” After giving it a lot of thought, we ended up taking the idea off the table.

President Kondo

While Trails in the Sky was a title where we focused on properly executing what we believed we were capable of doing, Trails from Zero was a title we approached with a more challenging mindset. For starters, the character designs and backgrounds for Zero were a departure from the style we had established up to that point in The Legend of Heroes series. We were conscious of players on the PSP at the time and so we wanted to take a step beyond the series roots as a classic PC franchise. We shifted our direction towards incorporating near-futuristic elements and blending them with an urban feel, with the intent of making something that would resonate closer with our user base. However, there was quite an internal stir during this time as people had expected some continuation of the Liberl arc, and the atmosphere was so different that some wondered what this was (laughs). The first thing that was asked was, "This is completely different from Trails in the Sky, will it actually sell?" (laughs)

President Kondo

Zero was a title that caused quite a bit of concern within the company. From our perspective, simply following the same approach as before wouldn’t have given Crossbell the sense of freshness we wanted. And unlike Liberl, which was home to many good-hearted people, Crossbell is a city where its status as a special economic zone had made it a hotbed of all kinds of conspiracies. We felt it was important for the future of the series to make sure that side of Crossbell came through in the story, while also aiming to create something even more compelling than Trails in the Sky. We felt that if we were going to make this kind of change, Trails from Zero was the right time to do it. There were plenty of different opinions within the company, but what I remember most is that we chose to take that gamble and shift the series in a new direction.

President Kondo

The best reaction we could hope for is people saying, “Falcom feels different now, doesn’t it?! But in a good way.” (laughs) I understood the opinions within the company that we should continue with the same atmosphere as Trails in the Sky, but we also had a strong desire to see the story of the Zemurian continent through to its conclusion. We felt that if we didn’t try something new here, simply repeating the same things over and over wouldn’t be enough. I believe the biggest symbol of this change was the Special Support Section’s outfits. We’ve grown so used to them that they seem perfectly normal now, but when those character designs were first revealed internally, there was actually quite a bit of negative feedback.

President Kondo

Right. If they were dressed like Estelle despite the setting being a city, people would probably wonder, “Is this really supposed to be a city?” (laughs) At the same time, I remember putting a lot of thought into the shape and design of their weapons as well. Lloyd’s tonfas, Tio’s orbal staff, Elie’s gun, Randy’s stun halberd—we focused on making sure each weapon matched their outfits, felt natural, and still came across as appealing in its own right.

President Kondo

Tio’s design was a major departure from Falcom’s style up to that point. I clearly remember the mood within the company at the time being, “Are we really sure about this design?” But by boldly embracing that design in Trails from Zero, it ended up shaking things up within the company as well. That’s something that really sticks with me. People would even say things like, “President, are you sure this is okay?” (laughs)

President Kondo

Yes, we were very conscious of that. We wanted to present the protagonists in a fresh way rather than simply repeating what we had done before. After finishing production on the 3rd, we went back through player feedback and found a lot of comments saying how much they loved Estelle and Joshua. During the early planning stages of Trails from Zero, we felt that Estelle and Joshua strongly reflected the “boy-and-girl protagonist” image that had long been associated with The Legend of Heroes series. To contrast that, we decided to step away from the idyllic countryside atmosphere and give the game a more urban feel, making it something PSP players could connect with more easily. As I mentioned earlier, Trails from Zero was Falcom’s first original PSP title, so we were especially mindful of that.

President Kondo

At first, we planned to set the story primarily in the city of Crossbell itself, but as we developed the story, we eventually decided to depict the surrounding areas as well, such as Mainz Mining Town and Armorica Village. As we thought about what kind of protagonists would fit a Crossbell that included all of those surrounding areas, we knew the story would be dealing with the darker side of humanity—greed, power, and the like. That led to the idea: “What about a group of young people who stand up against that?” So we brought together a group within a newly established police unit—spirited, but each with their own quirks. Rather than having individuals charge ahead based on their own sense of justice, we built the setup around people from different backgrounds coming together, sharing the same goal, and taking action as a team. From there, the story became about following the exploits of that group as a whole.

President Kondo

Yes. Given that approach, while Lloyd is essentially the main protagonist of Trails from Zero, we structured the four characters as a single, cohesive unit from the very start. Thankfully, we received a lot of feedback from players of Zero and Azure saying how much they liked the dynamic between the four of them and the Special Support Section as a whole, which made us feel that this setup had worked well. In our stories, we often portray the protagonists through the relationships with those around them rather than in isolation. That’s why we focused on creating a story where, rather than just following Lloyd’s individual exploits, players would come to appreciate the relationships and interactions between him and the people around him.

President Kondo

For the most part, Trails to Azure developed just as we had envisioned while working on Trails from Zero, but coming up with the title was a real struggle. (laughs) We had considered calling it Trails from Zero 2, but since Trails to Azure is a story centered around KeA, that title didn’t quite fit. Players who finished Trails from Zero generally responded positively, but compared to earlier entries, its ending didn’t have as strong of a “to be continued” feeling.

President Kondo

However, a lot of players told us, “If there’s a sequel, we’d definitely like to play it.” With Trails of Cold Steel, though, it was the exact opposite—more like, “Hurry up and give us the sequel already.” Taking that feedback into account, we felt it might be a good place to draw a line and bring that part of the story to a close. When we started thinking about the title, we looked at how Trails to Azure begins: Lloyd and the others have finally earned a certain level of recognition within the police force, they’ve been given a car with Dieter’s backing, and they’re essentially starting fresh. With all of that in mind, we wanted the title to feel fresh as well, rather than simply sticking a “2” on the end.

President Kondo

Actually, we had a different character in mind at first—蒼 (ao), for example. But some felt that 蒼 didn’t have enough depth. At the same time, since the story unfolds with KeA at the core of it, there was also the suggestion that we could use 緑 (midori) to match the color of her hair. Taking all of that into account, we started looking for a color-related kanji that could evoke more than one color, and that’s when 碧 (ao) came up as a candidate, since it can be read as both “blue” and “green.” Back then, we had a vague sense that the Special Support Section had a kind of “blue” image, and when we combined that with the green of KeA’s hair, 碧 felt like a pretty good fit. It also felt like the kind of character that should have been used in a title before, but apparently hadn’t, so in the end we settled on 碧.

President Kondo

I remember it as the title that we struggled with the most. (laughs) Incidentally, we had released a teaser trailer back then. It was designed to evoke the scene where KeA is defeated by Joachim before creating the Special Support Section’s world. At the time, the logo still wasn’t finished, so we temporarily used a placeholder made with an existing font. I remember someone next to me at the product announcement event asking, “Are you really going to release it with this logo?” (laughs)

President Kondo

We had a broad outline in mind as early as Trails in the Sky. However, I think we started becoming more conscious of the mechanical elements around the time of SC—that was when more mecha-like enemies began appearing in earnest. If we go back even further, the final boss of FC, Reverie, also fits this description. We had already established that if beings like that existed, then naturally they must have had some origin in an ancient civilization. We also had the vague idea that a protagonist who would pilot these kinds of machines in battle would eventually appear.

President Kondo

FC really is where it all began. Of course, we hadn’t worked out every detail of the setting as it exists today, but looking back, I think we were already sowing the seeds even then.

President Kondo

The system that governs the Divine Knights is exclusive to the Empire. It follows a recurring cycle: the Divine Knights clash with one another, for one reason or another the world settles down again, and eventually people forget what happened. However, this cycle is limited to the Empire. This is probably connected to the Sept-Terrions, and I think the system differs depending on the region where each Sept-Terrion exists. Liberl has its own system, and the Empire has its own. So while Storm Bringer certainly resembles the guardians because of its centaur-like design, it comes from a different region, so the Erebonian system shouldn’t have any influence on it. The Old Schoolhouse at Jenis Royal Academy likely dates back to the medieval period after the start of the Septian Calendar, and the Divine Knights seem to have originated around the same time. However, I cannot reveal any details about the system concerning the Divine Knights at this moment.

President Kondo

Starting with Trails of Cold Steel, development shifted to PS3 and PS Vita. Naturally, we started wondering, what worked on the PSP was fine, but could we really keep doing things the same way going forward? The first suggestion that came up was to shift the presentation to 3D. But players often raised the concern that moving to 3D might end up changing some things, and that was something we were worried about at first. Admittedly, depicting the towns and terrain entirely in 3D would naturally improve the sense of immersion and give us a wider range of ways to express things. But our biggest concern was whether we’d still be able to maintain the same amount of content as before.

President Kondo

Something of a tradition for the Trails series has always been giving each town its own character and depicting everything in detail, from the houses people lived in to the residents themselves. I was worried about whether we could preserve that in 3D, and at times I even wondered if choosing 3D meant having to sacrifice those elements entirely. After quite a bit of trial and error, we felt strongly that simply sticking with the same 2D approach might not be the right choice. The way events were presented would also change significantly, and there was no doubt the workload would be much heavier than it had been for Zero and Azure. Even so, more than anything, I remember how strongly we wanted to take on the challenge of 3D.

President Kondo

Some felt that continuing with 2D would be fine, but we also wanted to reach a wider range of players, much like we had when starting Trails from Zero, where that same way of thinking led us to settle on its particular design and setting. We put a lot of thought into how we could get RPG fans who had never played the Trails series before to pick it up and give it a try. With Trails of Cold Steel, the story had reached a fresh starting point after the Crossbell arc, so we wanted to take that opportunity to make it something even more new players could enjoy.

President Kondo

Yes. A turning point in the series made it easier to explain the change in direction to the staff. If we kept going with 2D, we already had a feeling that, five or ten years down the line, we’d eventually have to make the switch. And once we started thinking about how to improve things like the presentation of events, taking on 3D began to feel like the natural next step. We also wanted to build excitement within the company around creating a new title with a new style of presentation and a new game engine. That sort of change gives everyone a real boost in motivation, right?

President Kondo

Naturally, we were hesitant to have the entire studio take it on right from the start, so we began with a small team. We started by asking ourselves, “Can we really do 3D modeling?” At some point, we showcased some of our early modeling work in Dengeki PlayStation, those were actually the first models we had made. After that, back when the names Rean and Alisa hadn’t even been decided yet, we prepared models for two characters and had them walk around a hastily put-together section of the Imperial Capital. From there, we continued working out the design while getting a sense of the production costs and other factors involved. Ultimately, I think we were able to achieve our goal of portraying the kind of warm, finely detailed setting we had cultivated since the Gagharv Trilogy. For example, you could still enter most of the buildings in town, find named residents living their everyday lives inside, and see their individual stories unfold. I think we managed to carry all of that through without losing what made the series feel like itself. We received numerous comments from players who were worried that moving to 3D would make the series lose its identity, but were relieved to find that it still unmistakably felt like Trails. That was something we had put a great deal of care into, so hearing that from players meant a lot to us.

President Kondo

Yes. We also heard from fans that, rather than the events feeling less substantial, they actually felt even denser than before, and we were very happy to hear that.

President Kondo

We ultimately ended up with ten, but even then, we had actually narrowed the cast down quite a bit. The Empire is a very vast setting, with each region having its own state of affairs. We wanted the group to sort of reflect the Empire as a whole, with each member’s background representing the different problems faced across the country. In the end, ten was about the minimum number we needed.

President Kondo

Yes. But I think Class VII had an aura all its own, unlike anything we’d seen in the series before. For example, the Special Support Section was certainly a team in its own right, but compared to them, Class VII comes across as a lot more young and naïve. There are even parts that are a little embarrassing to watch. (laughs) Despite the academy being a military institution, they’re still just boys and girls living through their youth. We wanted to show that side of them as well, and that’s how they ended up being the way they are.

President Kondo

No. Originally, we wanted him to be a member of the Imperial Army. But once we really started development on Trails of Cold Steel, we realized that life in the Imperial Army was so regimented that it would’ve restricted his freedom too much. (laughs) We started thinking, “What kind of person can have ties to the military while still having enough freedom to act?” and landed on a student at a military academy.

President Kondo

Right, Cold Steel II... Trails of Cold Steel definitely had the kind of ending that made players want to know what was going to happen next even more than FC did. We on the staff don’t choose endings like that for no reason. We did feel for the fans who were upset about Crow’s outcome, but at the same time, we felt it was necessary. In some ways, Trails of Cold Steel II was about facing the aftermath of Cold Steel.

President Kondo

We also struggled with this one. We had tons of ideas that didn’t use a number, essentially just following the usual "Trails of" title format. But after discussing it for a while, we asked ourselves, “What title is going to get the point across to players most directly?” Since Trails of Cold Steel ended without actually concluding the story, all we could think about was how many players were saying, “I want to play the sequel already!” So it clicked that, if that’s what players wanted, then Cold Steel II was the most direct title for making it clear that this was a continuation. That’s how we settled on it. It had been a while since Falcom put a “2” in a title. I think the last time we did that was Zwei II, wasn’t it?

President Kondo

Absolutely. One title down, straight into the next. We already have an overall direction for where we want to take it, but we’re still figuring out how we’ll bring everything together.

President Kondo

I believe so. I think the meaning of “hero” in The Legend of Heroes can vary from one title to another. For example, The Legend of Heroes I & II are pretty much textbook stories about a typical hero. They’re the kind of classic heroic stories where a prince or member of the royal family rises up for their country, confronts the regent who killed their father, and ultimately reclaims their homeland. But when you get to The White Witch, that idea starts to change a little. The “hero” is no longer just one specific person. The story shows you that the people you meet along the way, and even those simply living their lives in all the places you visit, can also be called heroes.

President Kondo

With Trails of Cold Steel II, Rean’s image of a hero is someone who keeps facing things head-on while carrying his own conflicts within him. I think Olivier reflects that same idea a bit too. They’re all heroes in their own right, but when it comes to The Legend of Heroes, wouldn’t Jurio and Chris be the heroes? It’s surprising to see a game called The Legend of Heroes seemingly deny the very concept of a hero, but the way you look at that idea really does change from one title to another. With Trails of Cold Steel, Rean’s image of a hero is someone who keeps facing things head-on while carrying his own doubts and conflicts. I think Olivier reflects that same idea a bit too. On a smaller scale, Rean can make a difference, but he doesn’t have the power to end a larger-scale war, let alone stand against Osborne politically. All things considered, Rean’s best move is to follow Osborne’s orders. And yet, even with the path laid out before him, he still has to find a way to move forward by his own will. I think Olivier’s words are his way of encouraging Rean toward that. Olivier isn’t trying to deny the very idea of a hero, but rather to say that even someone called a hero is still only human.

President Kondo

I think you can interpret it as, ‘There’s no such thing as the perfect person.’ Rean is still just a student, and at his age, he’s bound to have his low moments where he loses heart. Olivier’s words are meant for those moments, to encourage him and help him keep moving forward.

President Kondo

As the Trails series continued and its world became more and more thoroughly defined, we started to see certain limitations emerge. We couldn’t really do something like wiping the entire continent of Zemuria off the map, could we? There was this unspoken rule between us and the players, something we felt we simply couldn’t break. At the same time, as we kept working on the series, we were gradually building up all this experience in creating stories and worlds, and before long, we started wanting to see how we could put that experience to use in a different way. The problem was that, when it came time to turn those ideas into something real, we couldn’t do it within Zemuria because of the limitations already in place. So we came up with the idea of making a game that brought together everything we’d learned over the years, from crafting stories for the Trails series to the action gameplay Falcom had become known for. We wanted to take everything Falcom does best and bring it all together in a completely new world. And that was what led us to create The Legend of Nayuta. We went with a completely different setting and protagonist from what we’d usually done with Trails, and making it an action RPG was quite different from our usual approach as well. Overall, it was a pretty ambitious project for us.

President Kondo

That was something the staff added for fun, as a little personal touch of their own. Towa really is beloved by the staff, so there's always a chance she might show up in another game down the line. (laughs) In fact, we'd never really had many opportunities to change her outfits before. Some of the staff wanted somewhere you could do that, so the option to change Towa's outfits through the Courageous's terminal was actually added at the last minute. (laughs)

President Kondo

She's meant to be the senior and the older sister, yet she has this younger-sister vibe to her. At the same time, she has moments where she really does act like a big sister. She's pretty much the mascot of Trails of Cold Steel II, in a way. At this point, she might just be the character our staff loves the most. (laughs)

President Kondo

Yeah, with everything we’ve built up through the Trails series, I think there’s a good chance we’ll try doing something different with it. Maybe the Herschel family will show up again too. (laughs)

President Kondo

At the moment, we're still connecting the dots and mapping out the story all the way to its conclusion, but we've already realized there are parts of Zemuria we simply won't have the chance to cover. That's why we've been thinking about bringing some of those regions and characters into Trails at Sunrise. For players who enjoy digging into the lore, I think it'll be something they won't want to miss.

President Kondo

We've released quite a few spin-offs and drama CDs for the Trails series over the years, but this one's going to be on a much larger scale. It's set in Remiferia, a country that's been mentioned quite a few times throughout the main series. So far, players mostly know it for its advanced medical technology and its relatively stable political climate under Grand Prince Albert. The game will build on that picture, showing more of what's happening in the country while introducing new characters and stories involving Crossbell and Liberl. Given Remiferia's reputation as a centre of medical innovation, I think it'll bring something fresh to the series, with a feel that's quite different from the Trails games we've made so far.

President Kondo

That's right, though we never actually gave Grand Prince Albert a portrait. (laughs) We didn't have any plans to go too deeply into Remiferia in Trails to Azure, even though we'd already worked out its background. We did talk about where we could fit his portrait in, but ended up scrapping the idea.

President Kondo

For now, we've only announced it as an online game for PC, but we're looking into bringing it to other platforms in the future as well. Nothing's been decided just yet, though we expect to share more details later on, so we'd appreciate it if you could wait a little longer.

President Kondo

My first thought is just, “Has it really been ten years already?” Part of me feels like it hasn’t been that long, while another part of me feels like it was ages ago. After finishing production on Trails of Cold Steel II, it suddenly struck me that, even just counting the Trails series, we had put out eight titles over those ten years, starting with FC and including Nayuta. When I think about both the quality and the sheer number of games, I don’t think there are many RPG series quite like it. And yet, even while we were giving each project everything we had, I kept finding myself wondering, “How long are we going to keep doing this?”

President Kondo

Yes. Recently, the question “When are we going to bring the series to a conclusion?” has started coming up in our meetings. The staff had already been thinking about it individually, and I think that stems from the fact that the conclusion of the Erebonia arc marks a major turning point for the Trails series. There are still a number of major mysteries left unresolved in Trails of Cold Steel II, and by the time the Erebonia arc comes to an end, some pretty shocking things will have happened in other regions as well. With that in mind, we started thinking more seriously about what it would take to bring the series to a close—how many more games we would need, and how many more years it might take. We’ve also started mapping out what still needs to be covered before we can reach that point, including the scenarios and storylines that have to be told along the way.

President Kondo

I think future entries in the series will begin to make that shift something players can really feel. We’ve spent the last ten years charging ahead, but I think the Trails series is finally entering a phase where we can start answering the mysteries and questions fans have been waiting so long to see resolved. At events, we often hear things like, “How long is this going to keep going?” or “I’m dying to know what happens next, so just tell us already.” But it’s not like we’ve been expanding the story and piling on mysteries just to keep everyone on edge. (laughs) We’ve now started planning out how to bring everything together within the overall story, from the mysteries we’ve introduced and their resolutions to all the foreshadowing we’ve laid along the way. As for exactly how long it will take, I can’t give you an answer here. That direction has become much clearer within the company as well, so I sincerely hope everyone will stay with us until the very end of the series.

President Kondo

At this point, we’re already discussing which parts of the Zemurian continent we’ll use as settings before the series reaches its conclusion, and even how many titles we might make in each region. Taking all of that into account, the series will still be continuing for a while yet. But finishing the Erebonia arc made our determination to bring the series to a proper conclusion much clearer. I think that will become clear as you continue playing the series going forward.

President Kondo

First of all, we could never have reached our 10th anniversary without the support of all of you. To everyone who has played the series, thank you so very much. As I mentioned earlier, from here on the story will begin moving rapidly with Trails of Cold Steel at its center, and for those who have followed the Trails series all this way, I think it’s going to be one surprise after another. Since you’ve stayed with us this far, I really think you’d be missing out if you didn’t see what comes next. (laughs) Of course, for players who are discovering the Trails series for the first time through Trails of Cold Steel and other recent entries, we want to do everything we can to make sure the series is something they can fully enjoy as well. I believe that with Trails of Cold Steel II, we’ve now told more than half of the overall Trails story. From here on, we want to keep creating games that you’ll find even more compelling than those that came before, so I sincerely hope you’ll continue to stay with us. I’m truly looking forward to what lies ahead for the series. Thank you very much for your time today.