The history of the Trails series
Trails, Kiseki in Japanese, is Nihon Falcom's science-fantasy RPG series set on the continent of Zemuria. It began on June 24, 2004 as The Legend of Heroes VI: Trails in the Sky, the sixth game in a franchise that itself began in 1989 as part of Falcom's Dragon Slayer family. Despite the numbering, the 2004 game started a brand-new world with no narrative connection to its predecessors, and then never stopped. Thirteen main entries and two full remakes later, every game still advances the same continuous story, with producer Toshihiro Kondo calling the series his life's work.
The shape of it: four regional arcs, Liberl (Trails in the Sky), Crossbell (Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure), Erebonia (Trails of Cold Steel and Trails into Reverie) and Calvard (Trails Through Daybreak and Trails Beyond the Horizon), each with its own cast, all sharing one timeline, one technology (the orbal revolution, fifty years old when the story opens) and one shadow: the secret society Ouroboros. Falcom has said the ending was decided around the time the first game shipped, that the story passed 60% complete at Cold Steel IV (2018) and roughly 90% by 2024, and that the final game is planned to be announced in 2031, Falcom's fiftieth anniversary year, for release in 2032. The series passed nine million copies sold in 2025 and ten million in October 2026.
