Last month, the release of Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter launched Falcom's Kiseki remake era, bringing the beginning of beloved heroine Estelle Bright's Liberl trotting quest to modern platforms with a sleek presentation and revamped combat system. The game that started an intensely connected series of 13 mainline games and counting was undoubtedly overdue for an update, and what a wonderful update it is.
We know full well that 1st Chapter's direct sequel is deep in development. Falcom gave fans a teaser video at the end of the first game. Trails in the Sky the 3rd, despite bearing the specific subseries designation, is something of a spinoff; instead of playing Estelle like the first two games, it follows Kevin Graham. It's more focused, even more character driven and a bit of a black sheep. The 3 has its fans, make no mistake; it's a good game. It's just different.
As it happens, Kevin's big adventure may be skipped, at least for now, in favor of Lloyd Banning's Crossbell duology: Trails from Zero and presumably Trails to Azure. Perhaps. We'll see. It's not just my line – it's the official line from Nihon Falcom's own CEO.
Even Sega admits that all these full-price Persona re-releases have become a problem
Or, “Some people seem to be waiting for Metaphor: Utopia Edition.”
3rd to nil
Speaking to Dengeki Online (and noticed by Automaton), the always reliably chatty Koji Kondo readily acknowledges the narrative importance of Trails in the Sky the 3rd, giving us no direct evidence that it habit be remade, while also revealing that the staff is currently split on whether to remake Trails from Zero ahead of time.
“We're not sure whether to do The 3rd or From Zero next – opinions are divided among us. Some of the members say it would be better to do a remake of From Zero before The 3rd.” -Koji Kondo
In a way I get it? Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter's sales have been praised by Kondo himself, so there's no immediate danger here that the remakes won't bring in the necessary profits and be cut from however many installments Falcom's developers envision. But it's never good to just assume nothing will change, so if there's a specific need to focus on certain remakes over others, it could be argued that the Crossbell duology is “more important”.
But still – as I said, Kondo intensely cites how Trails in the Sky the 3rd has its own impact on the ongoing plots:
“Renne's story is really important. So is Kevin, and the name Crossbell first appears in The 3rd. It's also where Erebonia's Blood and Iron Chancellor Osborne makes his first appearance.”
Kondo says that he “[thinks] we have to do a remake of The 3rd at some point.” Exciting, though, he adds that “there are a lot of possible ideas for what form it could take.” Could Falcom be toying with the idea of a less straightforward remake? Something with extra features, or massive changes to existing content?
One thing is for sure: we shouldn't expect Trails of Cold Steel I and II remakes anytime soon. (III and IV are in full 3D, so it's highly doubtful that Falcom will really look at remaking them for a long time, if ever.) “”When we were developing Cold Steel, we were told to just do what we wanted, so we packed the game with so many different elements. I think that would be a pretty difficult feat to redo.” So there you have it – Rean's first outings are way too big for his own graphical good.
