Nihon Falcom wants to "eventually" re-release Trails in the Sky for modern platforms
While yesterday Nihon Falcom announced the latest The Legend of Heroes title for Japan, during their investor Q&A it was revealed that the company plans to re-release The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky for modern platforms - though they don't quite know what form such a re-release might take.
Thanks to Twitter user @michsuzu, who was present at Falcom's investor meeting and reported the Q&A session, we know that Falcom's President Toshihiro Kondo responded to a question about the lack of availability for The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky on modern console platforms. It's worth noting that every other Trails title is available for PlayStation 4 or 5 in Japan, and with the exception of the most recent arc the same is true for Nintendo Switch.
The question and answer can be translated as follows:
Q. This is an inquiry about some of Falcom's back-catalog - the Trails series' original games, the Trails in the Sky trilogy, are currently unplayable on modern console platforms. While you can play them on a PlayStation 3, or a PlayStation Vita, are there any plans to develop a version of the titles for modern console hardware?
A. We're always thinking about ways to make our earlier titles available to more players. As for "Trails in the Sky", we've noticed strong demand for the title both domestically and abroad; as such, we too want to figure out a way to make it available once again for modern platforms. While the Trails series has grown quite long, we consider "Trails in the Sky" to be our own ideal entry point to the series. We want to re-release the game in some form, so we ask our fans to wait a little while longer while we consider our options.
Last year, we reported that Falcom wanted to release Trails in the Sky and Trails through Daybreak on Switch; and indeed, the company has a Switch version of Trails through Daybreak releasing early next year in Japan. While Falcom has not yet announced how they plan to re-release the Trails in the Sky trilogy, it's clear that the company is serious about getting the game into more players hands sometime in the future. Hopefully any further re-release will be able to find its way to the Western market.