NIS America aims to bring Falcom’s acclaimed Trails and Ys series to Western audiences more quickly. Read on to learn more about the publisher's efforts to accelerate the localization of both series.
NIS America Steps Up Localization Efforts for Trails and Ys GamesFaster Falcom Games Coming to the West
Great news for fans of Japanese RPGs! During last week’s digital showcase for Ys X: Nordics, NIS America’s Senior Associate Producer, Alan Costa, announced the publisher’s commitment to accelerating the release of Falcom’s beloved Trails and Ys franchises in the West.
"I can’t really talk specifically to what we’ve done internally to do so," Costa said in an interview with PCGamer. "But I can say that we’ve been working hard to make sure that we do localize [Falcom games] more quickly," citing Ys X: Nordics and Trails Through Daybreak II, which will be released this October and early next year respectively.
Despite Trails Through Daybreak II releasing in Japan in September 2022, its Western release slated for early 2025 is already "a substantial cutdown in terms of… the timeline that we used to have for Trails games."
Historically, the series has suffered from notoriously long waits for Western fans. For instance, Trails in the Sky, released in Japan on PC in 2004, didn’t reach a global audience until the PSP version in 2011 when it was published by XSEED Games. Even more recent titles like Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure took twelve years to make their way West.
The lengthy localization process for these games was explained by former XSEED Games Localization Manager, Jessica Chavez, in 2011. She revealed in a blog post, talking about Trails in the Sky II, that the colossal task of translating millions of characters with a team of only a few translators was the primary bottleneck. Given the sheer volume of text in Trails games, it’s no wonder localization has historically taken years.
While the localization for these games remains a two to three-year endeavor, NIS America prioritizes quality over speed. As Costa explained, "we want to bring [games] out as quickly as possible, but not at the expense of the localization quality… Finding that balancing act is something that we’ve been working on for years at this point, and we’re getting better."
It’s understandable that localization takes time, especially when dealing with games with massive amounts of texts. The infamous one-year delay of Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana due to mistranslation issues serves as a stark reminder to NIS America of the potential pitfalls that come with localization. However, with Costa’s statements, it seems as though NIS America is striking a balance between speed and accuracy.
The recent release of Trails Through Daybreak signals a positive shift for NIS America’s ability to deliver high-quality localizations of the series in a shorter time frame. And with the game’s warm reception from both fans and newcomers, perhaps this is a good sign of more good things to come from NIS America in the future.
For more on our thoughts on The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak, you can read our review below!
