Nihon Falcom reveals The Legend of Heroes: Kuro no Kiseki, set for release in 2021
Nihon Falcom revealed The Legend of Heroes: Kuro no Kiseki, a brand-new RPG in the Trails series that will be released in 2021 in Japan. This game is developed using a new engine which was also teased at certain cutscenes in the previous game, Hajimari no Kiseki. Kuro will feature a mostly new cast of characters in a new location.
Kuro no Kiseki will take place in the year S.1208 at the Republic of Calvard, a multiethnic country located to the east of Erebonia, Crossbell, and Liberl in the Zemuria continent. It will focus on Spriggan, a backdoor business solution agency that can handle any job from detective, negotiator, to bounty hunter, and receive requests from anyone that range from subcontracting police cases, requests from citizens for consultations that can't go public, to even direct ones from criminals and underground groups as well.
The new RPG will have a new battle system that seamlessly moves from action-based field battle to command-based turn battle. Characters will also use the 6th-Generation Orbment Xipha that has totally different features from the Arcus orbment used in the western Zemurian countries.
Kuro no Kiseki will also add a Topic System where the main characters can obtain specific information by talking with ordinary citizens. For example, the player can register a hint from a citizen that "A certain shop will hold a sale next week." When the player visits that particular shop, a dialogue choice based on this topic will appear, and depending on further dialogue choices, the shop may even decide to give the discount to you ahead of the time.
Characters in the game will also have a unique Alignment Frame that changes based on the player's playstyle. It will consist of 3 parameters: Law, Gray, and Order. The actions taken by the character on events will alter this frame; for example, by deciding whether to send a caught criminal to the Bracer Guild or not. This frame will affect not only friendly and hostile relations with others but even the story progression itself as well. But instead of fluctuating, these parameters simply go up and can also be brought over to a new playthrough.
In an interview with the Weekly Famitsu magazine, Falcom's president Toshihiro Kondo promised that Kuro no Kiseki won't have a bloated playable character roster like Hajimari no Kiseki having around 50 characters, as this is the first title in the Republic of Calvard saga. Approximately 90 percent of the characters that appear in this title will be new; the rest are characters that existed in prior series titles from the first Trails of the Sky and are also related to the Republic. The content volume of Kuro is said to be "not inferior" to a single Trails of Cold Steel title. However, the story of Kuro will be concluded in this single game.
The Legend of Heroes: Kuro no Kiseki is currently slated for release in 2021. The platforms for the new RPG have still yet to be announced.