Wow, I’ve actually got a reason to write one of these in Fall. And yes, it’s still technically Fall — after all, Winter doesn’t officially start until the 21st.
The rest of the year tends to have enough Falcom-related news to speculate on the developer’s next moves, but Autumn is generally an exception. After all, Falcom regularly holds its yearly shareholders meeting in late December, while NIS America has a tendency to make announcements during the first quarter of each year. Spring and Summer, on the other hand, have a variety of video game-themed conventions providing a steady flow of news. But while the Tokyo Game Show generally takes place near the start of Fall, it also takes place around the time Falcom’s major yearly release is set to hit store shelves — so they’re far more focused on advertising their latest work as opposed to teasing what could be coming afterward.
That isn’t to say that we haven’t gotten any news since my last post. On October 15th, NIS America announced the Western release date for Trails through Daybreak II: February 14th, 2025. While I can’t help but feel a little slighted by that particular choice, that’s still significantly earlier than I was expecting as a best case scenario. I was expecting it to match Azure’s mid-March launch at best. That’s led to speculation that NISA might be trying to release Kai no Kiseki in the West before the end of 2025 — which may very well finally get us caught up with the series. And recent interviews from both Kondo and NIS America have only served to fan the flames of fan desire.
Later that month, XSEED Games finally revealed the Western release date for Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana. While January 7th, 2025 doesn’t sound too bad on the surface, you have to take into account that they’re essentially recycling the English script and dub from the PSP release for this one… so I’ve got no idea what’s taking them so long.
Normally, small tidbits like these wouldn’t be worth a proper update from yours truly. However, this year has been a little different when it comes to Falcom. They’ve already hinted at two upcoming releases: “Tokyo Xanadu New Project” was teased all the way back in March and the Trails in the Sky remake that got a brief showcase in this August’s Nintendo Direct, showing up in the Western broadcast’s sizzle reel for upcoming games, while the trailer received a proper spotlight in the Japanese version. Meanwhile, Kai no Kiseki’s recent release back in late September seemed to imply that the game wasn’t quite the conclusion to the series’ current arc that it was advertised as. This has led to rampant speculation that a “Kai no Kiseki 2” is already in the works, though Falcom hasn’t issued any official statement one way or the other.
In previous years, we’d still be basking in the afterglow of Falcom’s solitary new release for the year, with little in the way of concrete evidence indicating what their next project will be. Sure, “another Kiseki game” is usually the safest guess of the bunch, but with the chance of a new Ys game every three or four years, it’s not exactly a sure thing every single year. This year, however, we seem to be going into the shareholders’ meeting with a lot more information than usual. We have an English translation of Falcom’s most recent financial report courtesy of Hansuke21 on Twitter with some downright bold information.
We will release the next installment in the Trails series, The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 1st. In addition to titles self-published for Nintendo Switch in Japan, we plan to release several ported titles. With an expanding lineup of releases and the creation of new IPs and games, we anticipate development costs to increase ahead of schedule. Our goal is to release multiple new titles by the fiscal year ending September 2026.
My original plan for this blogpost was to speculate on which game (or games) would headline Falcom’s release schedule for next year. Now, you might think that a bold declaration like “Trails in the Sky the 1st is our major release for fiscal year 2025″ would kill that idea dead in its tracks. But if anything, it really just halved my workload, inadvertently killing off some of the less interesting predictions in the process. For you see, I’m trying to predict Falcom’s release schedule for the following calendar year, not the fiscal year. After all, as far as Falcom’s concerned, we’re already two months into FY 2025. While many Japanese developers seem to operate on an April-March fiscal calendar, Falcom goes in the opposite direction, opting instead for an October-September schedule. Considering how Falcom regularly schedules their major releases for the year for the final week of September, it honestly feels somewhat fitting.
But before delving into my theories regarding Falcom’s output for next year, I’d like to give another update on my ongoing journey through their back catalog. I’ve beaten two more games since my last Falcom speculation post and I’m feeling kind of proud about that. First, I managed to beat Trails of Cold Steel III back in October. Right now, I’d say it’s my favorite game in the Erebonia Arc — to the point where it managed to even knock Zero out of its stable fourth-place spot. Unfortunately, I’ve been dragging my feet on completing the associated journal for that game… so it looks like my original plan to start CS4 before the end of the year might fall by the wayside. I’m hoping to finish the CS3 journal by Christmastime, so I can start up the fourth and final Cold Steel before New Year’s. But it just doesn’t seem all that likely. Hopefully, I can still compensate and get all the way through Daybreak by the end of 2025.
I also finally managed to beat Tokyo Xanadu eX+ on my Steam Deck last month. Despite all of the contradictory things I heard about the game, I think I can kind of understand everything I heard about it beforehand. As a matter of fact, I even ended up writing a post reflecting on it. That being said, I almost feel like playing the Zwei games, Gurumin and The Legend of Nayuta might’ve hurt TX in my eyes. After all, I could so much connective tissue from those lesser-known Falcom action RPGs and how they were stitched together. I have to wonder if I would’ve had more fun in blissful ignorance.
One point I couldn’t find room for within that staggeringly large retrospective revolves around the game’s English script. Based on what I’ve heard online, Tokyo Xanadu has had three separate localizations: the one from the original Vita release, the one from the PS4 and PC versions and a newly-commissioned retranslation for the recent Switch release that’s supposed to be leaps and bounds beyond the previous two. Furthermore, the PS4/PC localization is said to be an edited version of the Vita original, which apparently had a lot more in the way of typos and text that was just outright left untranslated. All that being said, Aksys Games should be eternally grateful for just how infamous NIS America’s original English script for Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana was. Because sadly, as the story gets more interesting, the translation in the version I played gets progressively lazier.
Honestly, what’s weird about this second localization is that it feels like everything that most people will often criticize about lackluster translations is here, even things that contradict other pet peeves. Sure, you’ve got missing words and blatant typos. But the weirdest thing is that there’s dialogue that’s translated too literally… as well as things that clearly stem from the script writer having a little too much fun. For example, at one point near the start of the game, Towa embarrasses her student/younger cousin Kou by referring to him by his first name. This makes sense given the original Japanese cultural context, but seems like more of a non sequitur in the West, where it’s not unusual for people to refer to one another by their given name. The Switch translation, on the other hand, replaces it with a cutesy nickname –Kou-Kou-bear, if I recall correctly — which feels like a much more suitable analogue for the English-speaking audience. Meanwhile, you’ll see characters referring to themselves as “sad pandas” or Kou blurting out “fukkleducks” whenever things don’t go his way.
But despite all of my complaints, I did have fun with the game — especially when the story started to kick into high gear. All in all, it probably would’ve been more fitting for Tokyo Xanadu to have a title that tied it to the Trails series as opposed to The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails. It also makes me wonder how a legitimate Cold Steel action RPG would’ve turned out. Most of all, I’m definitely more excited than before for the upcoming sequel. Still holding out hope that they use “Kyoto Xanadu” as the final title though.
It seems like that’s as good as a segue as I’m going to get back to my main topic: predicting Falcom’s slate of releases for 2025. Let’s start with something a bit more low stakes. Hansuke21’s translation mentions that Falcom plans on releasing “several ported titles” alongside the impending release of Trails in the Sky the 1st. Let’s look back to the schedule Falcom posted along with last year’s investor meeting:
In addition to Kai no Kiseki and three more then-unrevealed games — I feel like Sky the 1st and “Project TXK” were titles B and C, respectively — Falcom also had three “ported titles” on their schedule. The Switch port of Trails through Daybreak had already been announced, but the other two titles ended up being a Switch port for Daybreak II and Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana for both the PlayStation 4 & 5. With that in mind, let’s assume that Falcom’s slate of ports for next year will also consist of three titles. An obvious pick would be a Switch port for the recently released Kai no Kiseki, so let’s assume that. Likewise, I wouldn’t be shocked if the recent Switch port of Tokyo Xanadu eX+ was brought to the PlayStation 5, to help maintain brand awareness of the aforementioned “Tokyo Xanadu Kyoto”.
That leaves one more port in question, which will likely for the Nintendo Switch. After all, pretty much all of Falcom’s games are available on the PlayStation 4. And thanks to backwards compatibility, the same could be said for the PS5. Memories of Celceta feels like the safest bet once again, considering how it was recently remastered on the PS4 and because it’s technically the direct follow-up to Ys X: Nordics… at least as far as the current canon is concerned. Failing that, I could see Ys SEVEN coming back, given its general popularity among the Japanese fanbase and its general inaccessibility to modern players. Sure, there’s still the PC version. But let’s face it: if that’s not good enough for the Trails in the Sky trilogy, it sure as Hell ain’t good enough for SEVEN. Of course, given the references to the first two Ys games in Nordics, I guess you can’t really discount the possibility of Ys I & II Chronicles getting the Memoire treatment… but considering the fact that the original PC-88 versions of both games are currently available via the EGGCONSOLE service — as well as the MSX2 version of the first game — it doesn’t seem like much of a priority.
So, to summarize, I think that Switch ports of Kai no Kiseki and Ys: Memories of Celceta KAI and a PS5 version of “Tokyo Xanadu eX+ for Nintendo Switch” are all in the cards for 2025. Let’s face it: shooting for the stars with these port requests haven’t really gone all that well for me. Keeping things conservative might yield more accurate predictions.
That just leaves the year’s major release(s). As I mentioned earlier, Trails in the Sky the 1st has pretty much been positioned as Falcom’s major release for the current fiscal year. But while that would imply a late September 2025 release, I actually believe that it may launch significantly earlier… and it all boils down to just how much we already know about the game. Normally, Falcom will typically only announce their next game at the shareholders’ meeting in December. From there, Falcom typically doesn’t start revealing details about the game until a few months later, while promotion will slowly ramp up from there. But with Sky the 1st, we’re significantly ahead of schedule — to the point where Dengeki Online started streaming a playthrough of the PS3 version of the original game to advertise the game. Kondo himself even appeared as a guest on their first session to answer questions about the remake and the then-upcoming Kai no Kiseki.
With all that in mind, I’m under the impression that Trails in the Sky the 1st will launch well in advance of Falcom’s usual September release window — my gut tells me June for some reason — which should free up enough time for a second major original title by the very start of FY2026… or the tail end of 2025. After all, Falcom themselves said that they’re currently planning on releasing multiple original games in the following fiscal year. As such, if Sky the 1st earlier than the usual end of September release window, that would free up the space to release something else in the final quarter of 2025.
So, let’s explore the three possible outcomes, along with their pros and cons:
Trails in the Sky the 1st/”Kyoto Xanadu”
Yep, starting things off with my personal favorite of the three. Right now, Falcom generally only produces two types of games: entries in the Trails series and action RPGs. If they manage to put out one of each within the span of a single year, it would imply that they might have the capacity to experiment with new genres or series — something that Kondo has implied that he’d want to do before retiring as company president. More importantly, it would allow Falcom to continue their trend of releasing Xanadu games on the fifth year of each decade, not to mention properly celebrate Tokyo Xanadu’s 10th anniversary properly.
However, I think it’s safe to say that this might be the most difficult scenario to undertake. It’s clear that Sky the 1st is already quite far in development, considering the footage we’ve seen of it. Meanwhile, a direct sequel to Kai no Kiseki would likely recycle many of the art assets from the previous game. But Project TXK? Considering the fact that the predecessor utilized the engine from the first two Cold Steel games, that would likely mean rebuilding everything from scratch to match Falcom’s current aesthetic. To make matters worse, it seems like the game takes place in a brand-new setting — likely somewhere within Kyoto Prefecture, as opposed to the fictional Morimiya City just outside of Tokyo — and the promotional website seems to imply that we’ll be following a completely different cast, it seems likely that “Tokyo Xanadu Kyoto” will effectively be built from scratch whenever it finally releases.
Trails in the Sky the 1st/”Kai no Kiseki II”
Of course, that isn’t to say that there wouldn’t be advantages to a Kiseki double-header for 2025. It is, far and away, Falcom’s most profitable franchise at the moment. And as I mentioned earlier, since a second Trails game would effectively be recycling a lot of assets from the previous one, Falcom would likely have an easier time splitting its small development staff across two projects if one of them has a head start like that.
Unfortunately, those are probably the only upsides to this scenario — and even then, one of them is really a double-edged sword. While Kiseki is definitely Falcom’s most popular franchise right now, the returns have been diminishing significantly ever since Cold Steel II… at least in Japan. As such, doubling up in the span of a year probably wouldn’t do Kai II any favors, especially if it’s paired up with a literal perfect starting point for the series. And while the West seems to be compensating for flagging sales in Japan and the rest of Asia, once again preventing us from catching up completely with the other regions feels incredibly counterproductive to me. Especially considering how both Falcom’s president and their current Western partner were just bragging about how close they are to being caught up and how they’re speeding up localizations. It’s just not the best look.
Trails in the Sky the 1st only
Obviously, the likeliest option. Basically, the way I view this one playing out would be: Sky the 1st in the expected September 2025 slot, with “Tokyo Xanadu New Project” coming out in March 2026 and Kai II rounding things out in September 2026. You know, essentially a 6-month gap between each release. It’s also the most literal reading of that translated blurb from that blurb.
Unfortunately, it’s also the most boring outcome of the bunch. Let’s face it: getting two games in 2025 would be way more interesting than waiting for the following year… especially because that could mean that a game associated with FY2027 could end up launching in 2026. So long as Falcom gets enough time and resources to develop everything to their usual standard (or better), I don’t really see a downside to getting more games in less time.
Of course, it doesn’t seem likely that Falcom will reveal their full plans for 2025 until well after this month’s investor meeting. I do hope that they’ll provide another one of those updated schedules like in the previous two years — if only to see how its continued to evolve since 2023. If anything, I’m probably the most interested in seeing just how many ports Falcom currently has in development and what system each of them is being planned for. It’s pretty safe to say that a second pass at those particular predictions will likely end up being a major section in the next speculation post. But we’ll just have to wait and see what Falcom is willing to share with the public.
