Trails / Kiseki (series)

The Trails series (known as the Kiseki [軌跡] series in Japan) is a long-running JRPG series known for its strong world-building and continuous, overarching main story that spans 10 full games currently. This is in contrast to the Tales series and Final Fantasy, whose respective games aren't connected and tell different stories (for the most part).

Trails games are text-heavy story RPGs with a strong focus on characters, writing, dialogue, and world-building. Hailed as one of the largest, longest and most meticulously detailed turn-based party JRPG series of all time, the ongoing Trails saga has quickly become Ys developer Nihon Falcom's most popular and best-selling franchise in their entire 35+ year history. Introducing people, places, ideas, events and lore that rival in complexity those of even the most highly-regarded fantasy epics in literature, the care and attention given to each and every NPC, location and historical in-game event is what sets The Legend of Heroes: Trails Series apart from its contemporaries.

Mainline Series

It is highly recommended that the Trails games be played in release order without skipping a single game. While the series started on PSP/Vita, there are now PC releases for most of the games (and PS4/Switch releases for the most modern games).

Liberl Arc:
Trails in the Sky FC (First Chapter)
Trails in the Sky SC (Second Chapter)
Trails in the Sky the 3rd (aka TC)

Crossbell Arc:
Trails from Zero (Zero no Kiseki)
Trails to Azure (Ao no Kiseki)

Erebonia Arc:
Trails of Cold Steel (Sen no Kiseki)
Trails of Cold Steel II
Trails of Cold Steel III
Trails of Cold Steel IV
Trails into Reverie (Hajimari no Kiseki)

Calvard Arc (ongoing):
Trails through Daybreak (Kuro no Kiseki)
Kuro no Kiseki 2
Kuro no Kiseki 3 (yet-to-be released)

Note that, for quite a while, the Crossbell Arc hadn't been officially released in the west, but there was a strong fan translation that'd been done for the games. On June 25th 2021, NISA announced that they'd be officially releasing the Crossbell games to the West (with the Geofront fan translation as the basis ).

Characters

The main protagonist for each of the games are particularly well liked in the series. Namely Estelle Bright for the Liberl Arc (Sky games), Lloyd Bannings for the Crossbell Arc, and Rean Schwarzer for the Erebonia Arc (Cold Steel games).

Reception / Fanbase

While not as prolific or well-known in the West as Final Fantasy or Tales, the Trails series has a passionate fanbase. In the r/JRPG subreddit, the Trails series is constantly being recommended. Furthermore, 4chan's recently created /vrpg/ (video game RPGs) board is constantly flooded with multiple Trails series threads.

There are several notable points of contention in the fandom, leading to what can be perceived as gatekeeping and elitism. Many want to start with the Cold Steel games (6th in the series), because they're the first with "modern" 3D graphics. Many skip the Crossbell games because they hadn't been officially released in English for quite a while. Trails in the Sky the 3rd is a particularly touchy subject because it is the sole black sheep of the series with gameplay in a completely different style (emphasis on dungeon crawling and side stories, with very little NPCs/towns).

Haha…

"Haha…" is how Rean Schwarzer commonly starts many of his lines interacting with other characters. It's excessively used to the point that it's become a meme and common reaction in the community, as well as a hallmark of so-called "Reanposting".