Trivia / The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky

• Acclaimed Flop: Internationally, FC and SC sold poorly on the PlayStation Portable but received high praise from critics and fans alike, at least among the modest following that played it. The most agreed upon reasons for this are usually A) the already flagging sales of the PSP, and B) the painfully generic English title. The games were much more receptive on PC, though the numbers are still in the lower medium to small range.
• Acting for Two:
  • In Japanese:
    • Hiroaki Miura voices both Richard and Bleublanc.
    • Tomohisa Asou voices Phillip, as well as Collins in the Evolution games.
    • Keiji Hirai voices Gustav and Ragnard in the Evolution games.
  • In English:
    • Bryce Papenbrook voices Agate and Gilbert.
    • Michelle Ruff voices Scherazard and Ries.
    • Patrick Seitz voices Zin, Loewe, Mueller, and Cassius.
    • Keith Silverstein voices Kevin, Walter, Weissman, and Philip.
• Development Gag: As revealed in a pre-release development blog, the localisation team ran into a large number of bizarre glitches, one of which was randomly re-sized text. The example given was Estelle accepting a sidequest in Zeiss with the statement (regarding Olivier): "He may be a total weirdo, but his gun skills are legit" (with the word "legit" blown up to roughly twice its normal size). The blogger commented that, given that this is Olivier, in a just world it would be the word "weirdo" that got blown up instead. Lo and behold, in that very text box in the final version of the game, the phrase "total weirdo" appears roughly three times its normal size (a fact which is immediately lampshaded by Olivier).
• Dummied Out: A significant portion of Star Door 15 in Sky the 3rd was censored in console ports, including Sora no Kiseki the 3rd Evolution, due to extreme, potentially triggering Backstory Horror that would have caused a massive CERO rating spike had it been accessible during normal gameplay. However, the SoraVoice mod can still fully voice this scene because the files, including voice acting, still exist in Evolution; they're just inaccessible without hacking.
• Executive Meddling: Sky FC and SC were conceived as a single title before it became apparent that the game as originally envisioned could not be completed in time. Executives ordered the team to release what they'd already finished, which lead to the story being split across two titles, giving rise to numerous tropes the Trails series would become infamous for (such as multi-game long arcs often punctuated by cliffhangers).
• Feelies: The Limited Edition comes with a reversible poster/map, a bracer emblem pin, and the game's soundtrack.
• Late Export for You: The first game of the trilogy was released for PC in 2004. It didn't come stateside until 2011.
• Multi-Disc Work: Second Chapter has two discs on PSP. Due to the large scope of the game, after much time on the second disc, a temporary swap occurs back to the Disc 1, then back again to Disc 2 near the end.
• No Port For You: The English version of Sky - The 3rd only got released on PC, unlike FC and SC which got a PC and PSP release stateside.
• The Other Darrin: The anime adaptation, which was licensed by Sentai Filmworks, was dubbed in Houston as opposed to being outsourced to the Los Angeles-based cast, which is odd considering that they have a good track record for reprising existing casts of future installments of their respective series such as K-On!, Persona 4, Rozen Maiden, Mahoromatic, Queen's Blade and Fate/stay night.
• The Other Marty: Bleublanc was originally voiced by Troy Baker (who also voices Olivier), but his battle voice clips were later re-dubbed by Kirk Thornton, due to XSEED liking his performance in Trails of Cold Steel. Here is a comparison.
• Promoted Fanboy: XSEED Games once proclaimed that the game translators are fans of the trilogy, which is very apparent given the sheer scope of the task. Head editor/localization producer Brittany, in particular, will happily go into gushing mode if given the opportunity.
• Role Reprise: As the Evolution games marked the first time many NPCs received voice-acting, some actors who played the characters in later arcs returned:
  • Kanae Itō returns as Campanella in the ports of SC and The 3rd after previously voicing him in Azure.
  • Bin Shimada, who first voiced Zechs Vander in Cold Steel II, returns to play the character in SC Evolution.
  • Mitsuaki Madono and Aya Hisakawa also return as the Sixth and Seventh Anguis of Ouroboros respectively in The 3rd Evolution.
• Schedule Slip:
  • The PC version of First Chapter was supposed to come out in Winter 2013. Actual release date? July 29, 2014.
  • The PC version of the Second Chapter was supposed to come out in Winter 2014. Actual release date? October 29, 2015.
  • The PC version of the 3rd had a milder case, with the US release date of Q1 2017 being pushed back to May.
• Troubled Production: The localization definitely was. In addition to suffering from Schedule Slip, XSEED had underestimated exactly what it had signed on for (FC and SC together contain nearly 5 million lines of text, all of which had to be translated, edited, and re-programmed back in the game). Falcom themselves were reticent about committing to a written contract for the localization until XSEED, with assistance from another indie localization team, Carpe Fulgur, showed them their progress. Falcom then committed to a contract and annonced the localization officially. However, this was also around the time the locazliation team realized all of their text was submitted in the wrong file format, setting them back another several months. When the head of the translation company very nearly kills himself over the process of translating the game, and the OTHER head of the production company nearly works herself to death trying to make sure everything is okay, you know you have a troubled production. Wha Happun? summarizes the whole multi-year ordeal here.
• What Could Have Been: In The 3rd, there are 5 unused doors in the code for the game with portraits that were found through hacking and show scenarios that weren't in the game. Among them are:
  • "Kloe's Graduation" which would have shown Kloe graduating from Jenis.
  • "Alcohol Allure" which would have shown Scherazard and Aina in their early days bonding over alcohol and would have presumably ended with Aina deciding to join the Bracer Guild.
  • "The Rising Star of the Hundred Day War" which would have portrayed Alan Richard and Cassius Bright fend off the Erebonian Army led by Zechs Vander during the Hundred Day War.
  • "Betrayal of the Stigma" which showed when George Weissman left the Septian Church to join Ouroboros with Rufina Argent confronting him.
  • "The Real Legion" which unlike the other four didn't have any portraits, implying that it was cut early on before the others were scrapped.
• You Sound Familiar: The Evolution games reuse some actors who previously played characters in later arcs:
  • Yasunori Masutani, who played Henry MacDowell in Zero and Azure, plays Klaus.
  • Takahiro Fujimoto, who voiced Ian Grimwood in the Evolution ports of Zero/Azure and Vulcan in Cold Steel, voices Kyle Capua.

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