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During the Dengeki Online livestream celebrating the Trails series’ 15th anniversary, Falcom company president Toshihiro Kondo was present to talk about the series and reveal the first screenshots of the latest game in development.
He first began by showing off the characters already revealed for the game, including Rixia Mao, Scarlet, and the young man from the Nord Highlands. These designs were previously revealed in March.
Next, the entire continent of Zemuria was shown off, with half of the continent still yet to be revealed or explored in games. This was shown off for the first time on the livestream. The islands to the south are also “not entirely unrelated”, according to Kondo.
Next, the latest issue of Dengeki PlayStation was shown off, with two new characters facing away that will be important to the new game and the future of the series. According to Kondo, he didn’t ask for them to be drawn on, and was surprised when the artist did so without saying so.
Kondo then took out two screenshots taken from an in-development build, showing off the back of a familiar looking character, as well as a familiar location, although it seems that it’s a different season from before. These screenshots are taken from the new game engine which they started from scratch with, and according to Kondo, the graphics have considerably improved from Trails of Cold Steel IV, particularly in the character and background elements.
The latest game is meant to be something of a epilogue and side story type game, while introducing characters that will be important to the future of the series. There are some unanswered questions and characters who didn’t appear in the Cold Steel saga, such as this person from Crossbell, and he hopes to answer those questions. Kondo hopes to reveal more info on the latest game while it’s still the 15th anniversary.
Some other details mentioned by Kondo during the livestream:
- Speaking on how Trails of Cold Steel IV has two endings, Kondo says that this will be related to future games.
- With the end of the Trails of Cold Steel saga, the story will shift focus from the mystery of the Empire to the mystery of the world, meaning that this is an entirely new plotline that wasn’t in Kondo’s mind from the Trails in the Sky days.
- When asked about whether the past Trails series titles will be made available on PlayStation 4, or made into ‘Evolution’ remasters, Kondo mentioned that there are plans in the background in motion to make sure that there are more ways to play, especially as the series is still ongoing, and as the game console generations march onwards. He hopes to promise that the games will be available on some form on the latest hardware.
The next title in the Trails series is in development.
