After months of teasing, Falcom, at its shareholders’ meeting on December 18, has finally officially announced Zero no Kiseki: Kai and Ao no Kiseki: Kai on PS4, along with Hajimari no Kiseki on PS4. The Legend of Heroes: Hajimari no Kiseki is the “Gaiden” game that Falcom’s President Toshihiro Kondo previously teased. As such, note that this article might contain spoilers for the Kiseki/Trails series and Trails of Cold Steel 4.
The Legend of Heroes: Hajimari no Kiseki is a brand new game in the Kiseki/Trails series and will be launching on PlayStation 4 in Japan in Summer 2020. While it wasn’t officially confirmed, Hajimari no Kiseki will probably launch at the end of September 2020 seeing that’s when Falcom always launches their games for over a decade now.
Hajimari no Kiseki‘s story is set on the Zemuria continent, after the “Great Twilight”, meaning it’s set after the events of Trails of Cold Steel 4. Hajimari no Kiseki will feature three different protagonists. These three protagonists are purposefully unnamed for now, and Falcom only referred to them as “The Hero”, “The Liberator”, and “The Hermit”. This is the typical Falcom Kiseki writing style of using nicknames even though we know full well who these characters are. At least the first two.
In fact, the screenshots on the official site for Hajimari no Kiseki confirms who the three protagonists are. “The Hero” refers to Rean Schwarzer, “The Liberator” refers to Lloyds Bannings, and “The Hermit” refers to a masked character.
Each of these three protagonists will have their own story route taking place at different locations in the Zemuria continent. Players will be able to switch between the three routes at any time thanks to the game’s “Cross Story” system. These three stories will happen simultaneously, giving players three different viewpoints of the same time frame.
Moreover, Hajimari no Kiseki will feature over 50 playable characters, some of which will be brand new characters. To crown it all, each one of these characters will have their own playable “Episode” story, delving inside their backgrounds and personal history.
Falcom also mentioned Hajimari no Kiseki is a new beginning which will (slowly) lead to the conclusion of the whole Trails series. The game’s stories will show us how the citizens of Crossbell are faring now that they attained independence again, how the Erebonian empire is dealing with the loss of its biggest pillar, and what is the “next stage” of the Orpheus Final Plan that the Grandmaster of Ouroboros spoke of.
An artwork, more screenshots, and a logo for The Legend of Heroes: Hajimari no Kiseki were shared by Falcom and can be found below. The portal site of the Kiseki/Trails series was also renewed.
This all sounds incredibly awesome and ambitious, even considering Falcom’s huge, detailed storytelling in the Kiseki/Trails story so far.
The Legend of Heroes: Hajimari no Kiseki was first teased by Falcom’s President Toshihiro Kondo in March 2019 with artworks. He explained back then that Falcom is currently working on two new Kiseki/Trails games. The first game to launch would be a “Gaiden” game, which turned out to be Hajimari no Kiseki. Meanwhile, the other game will be the beginning of a Calvard arc/set in the east of the Zemuria continent, with a new protagonist.
Hajimari no Kiseki was furthermore teased with screenshots and story hints from Kondo in June 2019, at the Kiseki Series 15th Anniversary Event. Lastly, Falcom mentioned in November that a new Kiseki game would be announced before the end of 2019 and launch by September 2020.
The Legend of Heroes: Hajimari no Kiseki wasn’t announced in the west yet. We might get announcements from NIS America at PAX South on January 17-19. The latest game released in the west is The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 3, which is available on PS4 and is coming to Switch in early 2020. Toshihiro Kondo also previously told DualShockers we might get Zero no Kiseki: Kai and Ao no Kiseki: Kai in the west. You can read the full interview here. Falcom also wishes to make a new Ys Vs Kiseki game.
The post The Legend of Heroes: Hajimari no Kiseki Officially Announced For PS4, Will Feature 3 Protagonists, Over 50 Playable Characters by Iyane Agossah appeared first on DualShockers.