Falcom has developed some of the most beloved JRPG series to date, with a history spanning over 30 years, the studio has been making a dent in the western gaming market over the past couple of years.
One of Falcom’s biggest series, The Legend of Heroes, began in the late 90’s as the Dragon Slayer series and is still seeing entries to this day with The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III announced for PlayStation 4. The series has seen success in the west, for example: even though the final entry, Trails in the Sky the 3rd, was originally released in 2007 in Japan. It held a top spot on the Steam charts upon its western release in May 2017.
So from this it’s to be expected that fans in the west want to complete the story. More specifically, they want to see a western release of The Legend of Heroes VII: Zero no Kiseki and The Legend of Heroes VII: Ao no Kiseki.
DualShockers had the chance to sit down with Falcom president Toshihiro Kondo and ask about the two titles and others that fans have been vocal about.
When speaking about plans to localize Zero no Kiseki and Ao no Kiseki, Kondo-san said:
That’s something that I really really want to do, and it’s something that I’ll have to work with our partners or find a partner to make it happen.
We also followed up with asking about the “Evolution” series of the Trails in the Sky series, a port of the PSP titles on PlayStation Vita which adds graphical improvements and story content.
As you mentioned, those titles are only on the Vita and we kind of know what’s going on with the Vita right now. So now it turns into who can get those done and ported in time. That said, obviously my dream and my desire is for everyone to play these games, so I’m constantly thinking of a way to make that a possibility. As you know some of our older titles have been coming to Steam, so perhaps in the future that might be one option for us to pursue.
When discussing upcoming titles that Falcom is currently developing, Trails of Cold Steel III was brought up and Kondo-san commented on the state of the game’s development:
One big change for Falcom is that up until now, when it comes to graphics, movies, sound, and the packaging, we’ve been able to do that all in-house with a team of 50 people. However, now that we’ve switched to PS4, we have found that we have to leave some of the tasks to outside companies to take care of.
Additionally he commented on if he’d like to see the game come west:
Absolutely, even compared to a few years ago, in terms of revenue, the foreign market has become incredibly large, way more than I’d ever expect. So it only stems from reason that going forward I believe our titles will release in the west.
Our conversation with Kondo-san lasted almost an hour, where we discussed the Ys series and Falcom’s approach to game development, so please look forward to the full interview.
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