I am glad so many people was waiting several years for a English release. I hope GoG is feeling this love in the pockets too. not just "by words".

Besides prices: Those simply are the "usual" "rich country prices" with a lot of... lets be honest... overpriced DLCs added.
The DLCs are simply some "support thing" i do believe... but it does not make to much sense if someone is ONLY loving the game. I am still not sure if i should get a "better" version or simply stay with the standard. However, even the standard version is not a game "for free", so... this is a game for "true fans" without any "easy access".

I still think they should add the full soundtrack for the price, but traditionally japanese games always just had an "small sampler"... still calling it "soundtrack".

There are many games with a full soundtrack sure... not a impossible thing.

Sure, XSeed was way more gentle on pricing, but they are done... and maybe even gone, sad to say.

Ah... XSeed Games is actually still somewhat barely alive but they got almost no "real stuff" anymore... some of their saddest stuff is for example "Loop8: Summer of Gods", less than 100 reviews "on that other platform" and mostly negative... just a bad game, no tech issues.

The best they was actually recently releasing is "Granblue Fantasy Relink", although it is US market only, no other place i know of. On other places it has been released too, not from XSeed though.

NIS on the other hand got many good franchises.

Good stuff. Preordered.

If these games were boxed versions I would gladly pay the price for some goodies.
But digital versions have 0 (ZERO) collectible value for me.
And publisher like NIS that swamp the market with their overpriced games......

I seem to have only "Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky" in my library. I presume that is the first game in the series, or does it go even further to the NES times and such?

I've lost hope to try to decipher this series. I wish they kept things simple, like naming them by numbers, like Final Fantasy did for the most part (apart from some spinoff games I guess).

Or doesn't it matter at all in which order you play this series, so the numbers would be irrelevant?

I guess I should first play the first game to see whether I even enjoy this series, and only then try to figure out the rest of the series, what different games there are with all their DLCs etc.

Actually pretty simple really... the YS series is way more of a "nuisance" if it comes to chronology and story-order.

First comes the The Legend of Heroes Trails in the Sky-series 1, 2 + 3, additionally Trails from Zero and the last one is Trails to Azure. 5 games in total.

Second is The Legend of Heroes Trails of Cold Steel-series, 1, 2, 3 + 4, additionally Trails into Reverie... another 5 games in total.

The 11. title on this list (chronological + story order) is Kuro no Kiseki = Trails through Daybreak (english title)

The 12. title is not released yet... outside Japan.

Any further titles: No clue yet.

The Legend of Nayuta is a spinoff... so it does stand for itself. GoG got all of them.

Good luck with that because...

If you buy Switch cartridges, the dark truth is... almost any cartridge are ONLY storing the initial-setup on their cartridge and like 50 to 90% of your game will have to be downloaded and becoming stored on some local memory after, which is way slower than PS5 or PC stuff (even slower than internal smartphone stuff). Many Switch games are not even using a cartridge anymore because digital only was becoming very accepted for a big mass. A cartridge itself may not even work offline, it is totally broken without a online download.

On PS5 it actually comes closest to "still having most or all of the content stored on a physical medium, a disc in this case". A few games even are using 2 BDXL for over 100 GB in capacity. Some games are growing in size like crazy, but 2 BDXL are still a high truck of storage, yet not to pricey to produce.

And of course the very best option for long term archiving and actually "getting the entire game" is GoG... so in my mind it got the highest "collection value". If you want cool merchandise... lets be honest... you would better be served by buying those things separately... there is specialized merchandise shops for collectors... so your PS5 BDs or GoG backups may actually feel like "real stuff" and not just data.

Besides: Regarding the life expectancy of a old SNES cartridge. they may be able to out live any human of the same age (no wonder it can get very expensive for collectors). The new cartridges in comparison... i would already be satisfied if they can last more than 5 years without "powering them up". New technology is fast but NOT made to last... not at all. The currently most endurable and realistically useful medium is either a good HDD or a BD disc.

Same for many other stuff... a old fridge from 1980 or so, they was made to last and they are able to work 50 or even more years. A new fridge... they are made to be cheap and in order to throw it away, after about 5 to 10 years, including "green label". And a new car... 200k km or 10 years by planned obsolescence... which is on purpose and labeled green as well.

Besides, yes a Panasonic Plasma may leech your nuclear power base dry or at last every single solar cell, so, most people can not afford it. However... some of those TV may probably last longer than the "rated hours" of 100 000h, probably up to 20 years 24/7... reason why i still did not get me a new TV because the Panasonic Plasma was just to good... so they had to be gone... kinda like a black sheep unfitting for the "new economy" and their rules.

snip snip snip

Who ever talked about buying cartridges (hell I still remember my first Titel....and my reaction to the note in the box....Not suitable for young people under at last 50 years.

No, I just boycott everything they put out. With so many games on the market, it's hardly a loss if I don't play some of them. Looking at my backlog I would need several years to reduce it to zero...assuming I play through 1 game every day.

Of course, this also applies to some other publishers.

Without getting into pedantic details, yes most people would consider Trails in the Sky to be the first game in the series as it is known today. It's an ideal place to start IF you don't mind an older JRPG and lots of world building. The start of each arc is on the slow side to set the stage for the excitement t hat comes later. It starts slow, but by the end it's a roller coaster ride.

Unlike Final Fantasy the order you play Trails games does matter. To SquareEnix, Final Fantasy is simply the name given to whatever their Flagship RPG is that year. Each one is generally a new world, new characters, new lore, new game play even.

Trails however is unique. It's a continuous story. Some games take place literally hours after the previous game ended. Some a few years. But not much time elapses so the same characters and locations you knew from old games are still relevant in the newer ones and the characters of old continue their story even though there may be a new "main cast".

Eventually you get these Avenger like moments when the heroes from the different games join forces, and it's pretty cool if you have been along from the beginning and are reunited with past favorites.

This giant tale is broken up into story arcs that focus on a specific nation in the world and group of characters:

Arc 1 (Liberl)
-- Trails in the Sky
-- Trails in the Sky Second Chapter
- -Trails in the Sky the 3rd

Arc 2 (Crossbell)
-- Trails from Zero
-- Trails to Azure

Arc 3 (The Erebonian Empire)
-- Cold Steel 1
-- Cold Steel 2
-- Cold Steel 3
-- Cold Steel 4
...etc

Technically you could start the 1st game of any arc. For example I could not get into Trails in the Sky initially. (Though it's now maybe my favorite). So I then tried Cold Steel I. And that was fine because it introduces you to a new cast of characters and a new land. Once I realized I liked CS1 though I went back and played Sky because even though the focus of the arc is on different characters, main characters from the Sky arc make appearances and make an impact that you can't fully appreciate if you don't know who these people are and their history.

What you can't do is start in the middle of an arc. For example starting with Cold Steel 2 or Trails to Azure would be a very bad idea.

One thing I would suggest you look into if/when you play Sky is the mod that adds the Japanese voice acting in. Even if you don't understand Japanese having the emotions from the voice helps a lot.

The Legend of Heroes-series is not "some of them", it is one of the few actually worth it... unless your taste is that subjective... it can not smell quality at the closest range possible.

I still do not get the issue regarding "collection/collectible" or "bad digital"... and the link with this game. Actually, it got a higher collectors-value than most other games because it can be gotten from GoG and even on the NIS website as a PS5 CE... which is almost the "best collectors shape" actually possible in the current environment. I was telling you pretty accurate "why"... no more to tell i guess.

Pedantic details if you are interested are that Sky is the sixth in the Legend of Heroes series which goes back to 1989 and is a spin off of the Dragon Slayer series which goes back to 1984. I don't think those are in the same world as the Trails games, though. I've only played Sorcerian of the pre-trails games and hopefully we will get that one and more of the older games at some point.

I agree with Xeshra's ordering, Zero and Azure can be considered Sky 4 and 5 (different main characters but several characters from the Sky games have major parts that relate to what happened in the Sky games), although note that they happen at the same time as Cold Steel I and II and so either of these pairs you play will have massive spoilers for the other pair (and at least the ending of Azure tells you the general outline of what I assume the next few games after that cover). I've only played through Cold Steel I so far (that game is almost exactly Tokyo Xanadu but turn based; Falcom is currently working on a sequel to Tokyo Xanadu) but the three Sky games are my favorites so far. I've heard others argue that playing Zero and Azure first are worse spoilers and I can definitely see that perspective (and might agree after finishing more games) so that is another part of the confusion.

There is a scene plus later references in Azure that almost tured me off the series, I can see why Xseed decided to skip those two. I'm going to wait to see how the other ones I already have go before getting Daybreak. KeA is super cute and the fan added extras help make it worth playing for anyone who has played the Sky games but it is disappointing. Beyond that one aspect of Azure Falcom's games have certain lazy aspects of story telling that I don't like. The best part of the Trails games in my opinion is that they cover so many different topics and people that it sparks creativity and thinking about things in different ways even if you don't like how they present particular topics.

Zero is almost trivial even on hard, anyone who has played the Sky games even on normal might want to try nightmare difficulty (however, you can't change during the game and Zero and Azure lack the "retry battle at lower difficulty" option that other Trails games have so possibly the final battle would take a bit of time; also, if you aren't a completionist that will make it harder). Azure though is a bit of a nightmare on nightmare (but is the best difficulty balance of the Trails games I've played so far and is completely worth it if you want a challenge even though the very final boss has a "will kill the whole party unavoidably if you don't get through the last hit points quickly enough" thing that feels somewhat unfair). The Sky games and at least the first Cold Steel get quite difficult at the very beginning on higher difficulties (to the point of needing RNG hacking on occasion) and Cold Steel I mentions that nightmare is for New Game + so I'm not sure if it would even be possible on nightmare the first time through without difficulty lowering (which they ask you if you want each battle you repeat a couple of times in that one). The Sky games default to lowering difficulty when repeating battles so if you want more of a challenge make sure to turn that off in the settings (hard is quite difficult in certain boss battles).

I grew up with all the FF's including the original and FF6 is my favorite. Cold Steel blew me away and I think it is BETTER than FF6 so if you are truly a JRPG fan these games will be down your alley.

On a side note I am SO happy Japanese text is included so I am not FORCED to play the console version to get a decent version in Japanese vs. PC. Long story short most of the Japanese PC ports are trash because CLE did a poor job on them. When they were good apparently they just used Xseed's port. They should take the same path with NIS.

Xesha a few of my Switch carts that I have I think I am safe with where the game is entirely on the cart but point taken. It is still a better choice than the digital versions on Switch which periodically have to check in. -_-
Now I have to worry about pricks with the MiG so I generally buy my copies new now. -_-
There are a number of notable digital exclusives like the GMode Mobile ports I want to buy all of. If they had a cart instead I would jump at it.

Jpn text is good stuff indeed. Played Tokyo Xanadu here in japanese and it was good for my learning. Will do the same with this one

Putting it all together, would that make the best order of play be
Sky 1-3
Zero
Cold Steel 1
Azure
Cold Steel 2-4
Reverie
Daybreak
?

Or hey, maybe actually playing Zero and Cold Steel 1, and then Azure and Cold Steel 2, side by side. I mean, sounds like it'd make sense story-wise, as long as the gameplay differences won't get confusing.

Maybe, although it also depends in part on what is important to you. Spoilers aren't the only consideration as one of the characters in CSI has a background that is connected to one of the characters in Zero/Azure whose background is explored in depth in Azure. I would expect many people to have a more visceral reaction to that character's background having played Azure first. I don't think it is necessarily best to second guess the release order but I could see some people prefering that (and for someone who doesn't want to play the Sky games I suspect it would make the most sense to skip Zero and Azure too).

I would say, hopefully without giving anything away, that the main issue is that one important event in CSI is described in Azure and is much more likely to be surprising if you haven't played Azure. But of course it was written expecting many players to have played Azure so they try to have a "how does it happen" mystery if you know it will happen vs potentially a surprise if you don't know it will happen.

I think the systems are close enough not to cause too much confusion but both stories are fairly complex with a bunch of different characters so some of us would find it too difficult to keep track of everyone if alternating or playing both at the same time. Hopefully others with better memories will give their opinion too but it could be a nice option for some. Zero is just at the very beginning of CSI (possibly starting a bit before) and I think it would be completely fine to play all of that first and mostly alternate CSI and Azure. I'm not sure if or how much CSII extends beyond the end of Azure or if it is just a particularly active short period of time. Also, to avoid spoilers it would likely make sense to skip the very end part of Azure (text on slowly changing still images), although it isn't that hard to guess that most of what it describes will happen (there is what might be a significant CSII spoiler, although since I haven't played CSII I'm not sure when or how it is revealed there). I think trying to find a chapter by chapter interleave order (or even more fine grained) would likely be better than alternating full games.

Is that also the order they were released, or are you putting them in an order where the story timelines fit or something? One of the questions I had in mind earlier when learning there are different story arcs, were those arcs developed and released in parallel, or did the developer first finish the first story arc, then proceeded with the next etc.?

If you take an example from movies, I guess e.g. Star Wars movies should be watched in a release year order, even if Episodes 1-3 are set earlier in the timeline than Episodes 4-6. Watching the early episodes first would ruin many of the big surprises in the later movies anyway, like who is whose father or sister, and who screwed what and what is this Jedi power anyway and who is this mysterious Darth Vader behind the black mask etc.

Even in Final Fantasy where the characters, story etc. completely change from game to game, I'd probably still suggest playing them in a release year order as then you see how the gameplay system etc. has evolved and changed over time.

I have no idea if these are "my kind of games" as I am historically more of a PC gaming person, but I am not a total stranger to JRPGs, I did have a Playstation and PS2, and having played Final Fantasy 1-8 so far (including the ones which were not originally released outside Japan) and considering finally proceeding to FF9 and to the PS2 FF games, having played (but not finished) Xenogears, etc. At least this series seems to have a serious fan base, which I guess is a good sign.

Maybe I just play the first game that I already have, and if it seems something I enjoy, proceed buying the later games. They sure are quite highly priced and I didn't even check the DLCs, but at least they get semi-deep discounts e.g. right now. Still so expensive that better first check these are something I'd enjoy.