The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 
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The fan who took the reins at a JRPG powerhouseJun 24, 2021 - EurogamerThere are beloved boutique Japanese studios, and then there's Falcom; a true grandee about to celebrate its 40th anniversary, the company traces its beginnings back to a hobbyist shop selling PCs and Apple IIIs as well as the curious games people were coding for them, before turning to making those games themselves. The studio has stayed purposefully modest ever since, still employing just over 60 people as it continues doing what it does best: making RPGs rich in character and story, with vast arcs that can span multiple games. Fans of Falcom are a dedicated bunch, then - like Toshihiro Kondo, for example, who took over the reins from founder Masayuki Kato in 2007. Since then, there's been a gentle push towards the west that's led to new audiences discovering the likes of Ys, the brilliantly breezy action RPG, and the ongoing Legend of Heroes series and its offshoots - a series that rivals the likes of Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy in longevity. As Falcom's 40th anniversary beckons, we sat down with Mr. Kondo to discover how he went from being a superfan to heading up the company - and how Falcom are endeavouring to find new fans along the way. Read more Hot on the Trails of Falcom, Japan's longest-running RPG developerOct 6, 2019 - EurogamerFounded in 1981, Falcom is the longest-running RPG developer in Japan, even though it's dwarfed by its closest rivals in terms of size, production values, and international recognition. Today, the company remains a modest size of 62 employees, perhaps attributed to its founder Masayuki Kato, who often joked that he didn't want to make it any bigger because he didn't really like people. But when you've been through nearly four decades facing as much turbulence as the Japanese games industry has, there must be a secret to Falcom's longevity. For its president Toshihiro Kondo, it's definitely the company's dedication to story, especially for the Trails series (or Kiseki as it's known in Japan), with Trails of Cold Steel 3 arriving on PS4 this October 22nd. "When we started out, we had the advantage in terms of pixel art," he tells me through his interpreter. "But as time progressed, other companies began putting a lot more manpower into graphics. We realised we'd need well over 100 people solely focused on that. But our founder realised if we can get a writer who knows how to write good stories, and is able to build up their knowledge as a writer, that's something we can make a sales point going forward." This began with 1994 title The Legend of Heroes 2: Prophecy of the Moonlight Witch, which Kondo refers to as the roots of the Trails series. From thereon, it's evident just how much emphasis is placed on story in Falcom's games based on the text. The script size for Trails of Cold Steel 3 is over 1.6 million Japanese characters, the largest of any Trails game released so far - for comparison, The Witcher 3's script contains over 450,000 words, while the entirety of the The Lord of the Rings books (including The Hobbit) add up to over 570,000 words). Read more Trails of Cold Steel Version 1.6 Patch NotesNov 5, 2018 - Community AnnouncementsHi everyone! We have released an update for Trails of Cold Steel 1, bringing it to version 1.6. This version adds a highly requested new feature, some smaller bug fixes and improvements, and surprise leaderboards. New features: - Added an option for Japanese voice language. - Added 4 Steam leaderboards. Compare your scores against your Steam friends -- and everyone else -- in Total Battle Victories, Triple Advantage Battles, Angler Points and Academic Points. Note: if you already completed the game, you need to start it and load a save for your scores to be uploaded. (This is a Steam-only feature) Graphics Improvements: - Added a high resolution UI font option. - Added the ability to natively load modded textures. (Check out BigHead's fantastic high-res UI texture mod) - Made soft shadows stable under camera rotation. Voice & text improvements: - Added 148 additional English voice lines. - Implemented some minor dialogue text fixes. We hope you'll enjoy these improvements. パッチVer. 1.6リリースのお知らせ このパッチで要望の高かった要素、バグの修正、そしてサプライズとしてオンラインランキングボードが追加されます。 新要素 ランチャーから日本語音声が選択できるようになりました。 4種類ののSteamオンラインスコアランキングボードを追加しました。競えるランキングは総戦闘勝利数、奇襲攻撃発生回数、釣りポイント、アカデミックポイントの4つです。 ※既にゲームを一度クリアしている場合は、スコアのアップロードのため、セーブデータを一度読み込む必要があります。また、本機能はSteam版限定です。 グラフィックアップデート 高解像度UIフォントの実装。 Modのテクスチャーを読み込む機能の実装（BigHead氏の高解像度UIテクスチャーModをチェックしてみて下さい） カメラを回した場合でもソフトシャドウの効果が安定するように調整。 英語音声&テキストのアップデート 148個の新録された英語音声を追加。 いくつかの英語テキストを修正。JRPG The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 2 has arrived on PCFeb 17, 2018 - PC GamerLocalisation studio Xseed Games is doing a stellar job bringing Nihon Falcom's JRPGs to PC, and the latest has just arrived. 2014's The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 2 is now out on Steam, GOG and the Humble Store. It's in no small part thanks to Peter 'Durante' Thoman—the modder that fixed Dark Souls on PC—who has worked with Xseed on numerous ports, including the first Trails of Cold Steel, which came to PC last year (and has overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam). Alongside the release, Durante has written a blog detailing all the extra features that the PC version of Trails of Cold Steel 2 boasts. It's got everything that the port of the first game had—including lots of graphics options, key rebinding, 60fps and a configurable 'turbo' mode to speed the game up—but it also has extra goodies. The tastiest is an 'instant resume' feature that lets you boot up your most recent save direct from the Steam client, and sounds like something that should be in every game. It also features improved shading and shadows, better 21:9 support and built-in gamepad button rebinding, as well as 50% more lines of English voice acting than the original game. Everything you'd want in a PC port, basically. Here's the full blog post, if you're interested. As for the game itself, it's a mixture of turn-based combat, exploration and dialogue. The story picks up a month after Trails of Cold Steel and revolves around hero Rean's quest to save his friends and end a civil war. It's £26.99/$35.99 on Steam, GOG and the Humble Store. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 2 will be out on February 14Jan 27, 2018 - PC GamerThe PC port of JRPG The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 2 will release on February 14, localisation studio Xseed games announced in a livestream of the game yesterday. It was the first time we've seen a good portion of it running on PC, and it went smoothly—if you were a fan of the previous game, it might be worth a watch, and for anyone not familiar with the series it's a chance to see its blend of exploration, dialogue, fishing and turn-based combat. It's the sequel to Trails of Cold Steel, which was ported to PC last year. The story picks up a month after the first game, and revolves around hero Rean's quest to save his friends and end a civil war. The PC version contains 50% more lines of English voice acting than the original, as well as ultrawide aspect ratio support and a turbo mode to help you zip through the game faster. Best of all is its 'instant resume' feature, which lets you launch your latest save file direct from the Steam client. That's all thanks to Durante, the modder that fixed Dark Souls on PC, who has been helping Xseed with the port. And speaking of save games, the game will recognise any save files you have from the first Trails of Cold Steel and build that into the story, so any characters you met in the previous game will remember you this time around. It's a nice touch. No word on the price yet, but here's the Steam page. Durante shows off an 'instant resume' feature we want in every gameDec 19, 2017 - PC GamerDurante keeps making PC gaming better. The modder who fixed Dark Souls, has analyzed PC ports here at PC Gamer and written about the features all PC games should have , has more recently been working with localization studio XSeed to improve their PC games like Little King's Story and The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel. He's also working on the PC port for Trails of Cold Steel 2, coming in 2018, and posted a short Youtube clip of an in-progress feature that I instantly want in, oh, practically every PC game. Durante added a second launcher option for Cold Steel 2, available as a right-click option in Steam, that automatically loads your latest save. Instantly. As you can see in the video above, it takes about a second to go from desktop to in-game, loaded up exactly where he left off his last save file. It's like the handy resume feature of a console like the PS4 or Switch, but better—instead of simply resuming the last game you were playing when you put the console down, with this feature, you could resume exactly where you left off in any game in your library that supported it. The caveat, of course, is that implementing an instant resume like this takes work, will require different work from game to game, and probably wouldn't work at all in many games based on how their save systems are structured. It's also far more effective in a game like Cold Steel with very modest system requirements (Durante did lots of work to optimize the first game in the series ) than it would be in, say GTA 5, which takes a good minute or two to load up. But there are still loads of games on Steam that a "Continue from Latest Save" option would work brilliantly in. Hopefully it's such a hit in Trails of Cold Steel 2 that other developers take notice. In the meantime, we'll just keep modding out those 30 seconds of logo videos in front of every big game. Version 1.5 (Build 2337650) patch notesDec 4, 2017 - Community AnnouncementsPatch notes courtesy of Durante Hi everyone! I just released a new patch which makes a number of improvements. Bug fixes Fix rendering bug affecting "stealth" effects (i.e. Airgetlam fading in/out) Fix Z ordering error with some transparent effects when HBAO is active (this error was introduced in 1.4) Fix camera positioning issue at 60 FPS in a Chapter 5 cutscene (Eisengraf) Graphics improvements Make fog-dependent AO fade-out work as intended on all maps Change the sprint blur effect to more closely resemble the console version Assets Fix shadow casting issue on some NPCs using the maid-uniform mesh (See https://abload.de/img/15_maidfuzqj.png ) Fix Z-fighting issue on distant geometry at Dreichels Plaza Fix Z-fighting and shadow issues at Sachsen Iron Mine General Add version number display to title screen Enjoy! Unless a new issue shows up based on this patch, the next patch will likely happen after ToCS2 releases.Version 1.5 (Build 2337650) patch notesDec 4, 2017 - Community AnnouncementsPatch notes courtesy of Durante Hi everyone! I just released a new patch which makes a number of improvements. Bug fixes Fix rendering bug affecting "stealth" effects (i.e. Airgetlam fading in/out) Fix Z ordering error with some transparent effects when HBAO is active (this error was introduced in 1.4) Fix camera positioning issue at 60 FPS in a Chapter 5 cutscene (Eisengraf) Graphics improvements Make fog-dependent AO fade-out work as intended on all maps Change the sprint blur effect to more closely resemble the console version Assets Fix shadow casting issue on some NPCs using the maid-uniform mesh (See https://abload.de/img/15_maidfuzqj.png ) Fix Z-fighting issue on distant geometry at Dreichels Plaza Fix Z-fighting and shadow issues at Sachsen Iron Mine General Add version number display to title screen Enjoy! Unless a new issue shows up based on this patch, the next patch will likely happen after ToCS2 releases.Version 1.2.1 (Build 2034757) patch notesAug 14, 2017 - Community AnnouncementsPatch notes courtesy of Durante. Hello again everyone! Version 1.2.1 contains several bug fixes, some optimizations, and a few new features, including the highly requested autosaves! The full changelog from version 1.1 follows: Bug fixes Fix unlocking of "Cold Steel Conqueror" achievement. (Note: should retroactively unlock as soon as you start the game if you fulfill the prerequisites) Fix potential crash in specific combination of circumstances (when offline). Fix MSAA depth sampling API compliance. Fix repeated keypresses at high (unlocked) framerates. Input should now behave as expected up to at least 250 FPS. Fix some minor text/linebreak issues (more to come!). Fix one potential cause for sporadic crashes on some systems. Fix button prompt setting not applying to Japanese version (all prompts should now be correct, but the explanatory notes are not yet handled) Optimization Improved the performance of the Depth of Field implementation, especially with MSAA. (basic DoF should be improved by around 10% with 4xMSAA, high quality DoF should be improved by up to a factor of 3) New Features: Added Autosaves. The autosave interval can be configured in the launcher. Added "Ultra" shadow resolution option between "High" and "Absurd". Added a "Quit Game" option to the main menu (though why would you want to quit? ;) Note: If you encounter any new issues with this version, you can revert to the previous version (1.1) by right-clicking the game in your Steam library, selecting "Properties", then selecting the "BETAS" tab, and chosing "version_1.1" in the drop-down menu. Enjoy! We will continue to do our best to resolve any issues and improve the game further.Version 1.2.1 (Build 2034757) patch notesAug 14, 2017 - Community AnnouncementsPatch notes courtesy of Durante. Hello again everyone! Version 1.2.1 contains several bug fixes, some optimizations, and a few new features, including the highly requested autosaves! The full changelog from version 1.1 follows: Bug fixes Fix unlocking of "Cold Steel Conqueror" achievement. (Note: should retroactively unlock as soon as you start the game if you fulfill the prerequisites) Fix potential crash in specific combination of circumstances (when offline). Fix MSAA depth sampling API compliance. Fix repeated keypresses at high (unlocked) framerates. Input should now behave as expected up to at least 250 FPS. Fix some minor text/linebreak issues (more to come!). Fix one potential cause for sporadic crashes on some systems. Fix button prompt setting not applying to Japanese version (all prompts should now be correct, but the explanatory notes are not yet handled) Optimization Improved the performance of the Depth of Field implementation, especially with MSAA. (basic DoF should be improved by around 10% with 4xMSAA, high quality DoF should be improved by up to a factor of 3) New Features: Added Autosaves. The autosave interval can be configured in the launcher. Added "Ultra" shadow resolution option between "High" and "Absurd". Added a "Quit Game" option to the main menu (though why would you want to quit? ;) Note: If you encounter any new issues with this version, you can revert to the previous version (1.1) by right-clicking the game in your Steam library, selecting "Properties", then selecting the "BETAS" tab, and chosing "version_1.1" in the drop-down menu. Enjoy! We will continue to do our best to resolve any issues and improve the game further.JRPG The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel out nowAug 5, 2017 - Rock, Paper, ShotgunThe Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel has arrived on PC. It’s an updated version of the PS3/PS Vita JRPG from 2013, improving the visuals and adding 5,000 new lines of voiced dialogue. A trio of Nihon Falcom’s Legend of Heroes games are already out on PC (the Trails in the Sky trilogy), and this one takes place in the same universe. But if you haven’t heard of the Erebonian Empire, don’t worry, because it’s the start of a new story. (more…) Version 1.1 (Build 2011989) patch notesAug 4, 2017 - Community AnnouncementsPatch notes courtesy of Durante Hello everyone! I hope you are enjoying the game. If you are affected by some issue, I'm happy to announce that version 1.1 of the game just went online, which includes fixes to many of the more common problems encountered, as well as some new features based on feedback from the community. It includes the following changes. Bug fixes Fix text rendering corruption issue when button prompts are displayed on some systems Fix Depth of Field issue in cutscenes on Intel GPUs with MSAA enabled Do not close the game when Alt+F4 is pressed and another program has the focus Fixed some minor text issues New Features: Added an option to skip all movies Added configurable speedup factors for Turbo mode (separate factors for battle and field exploration are possible) Added a "Mouse Sensitivity" option to the mouse / keyboard configuration menu (also reworked mouse camera controls to eliminate acceleration) Note: If you encounter any new issues with this version, you can revert to the previous version (1.0) by right-clicking the game in your Steam library, selecting "Properties", then selecting the "BETAS" tab, and chosing "version_1.0" in the drop-down menu. Enjoy! We will continue to do our best to resolve any issues and improve the game further.Version 1.1 (Build 2011989) patch notesAug 4, 2017 - Community AnnouncementsPatch notes courtesy of Durante Hello everyone! I hope you are enjoying the game. If you are affected by some issue, I'm happy to announce that version 1.1 of the game just went online, which includes fixes to many of the more common problems encountered, as well as some new features based on feedback from the community. It includes the following changes. Bug fixes Fix text rendering corruption issue when button prompts are displayed on some systems Fix Depth of Field issue in cutscenes on Intel GPUs with MSAA enabled Do not close the game when Alt+F4 is pressed and another program has the focus Fixed some minor text issues New Features: Added an option to skip all movies Added configurable speedup factors for Turbo mode (separate factors for battle and field exploration are possible) Added a "Mouse Sensitivity" option to the mouse / keyboard configuration menu (also reworked mouse camera controls to eliminate acceleration) Note: If you encounter any new issues with this version, you can revert to the previous version (1.0) by right-clicking the game in your Steam library, selecting "Properties", then selecting the "BETAS" tab, and chosing "version_1.0" in the drop-down menu. Enjoy! We will continue to do our best to resolve any issues and improve the game further.The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel goes live with PC port work from DuranteAug 2, 2017 - PC GamerThis is August 2, and that means that as promised, The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel is now available on Steam, GOG, and the Humble Store. The 2013 PS3/Vita RPG is part of the Legends of Heroes series and shares a universe with the Trails in the Sky games, but it tells an entirely standalone story so you can safely dive into it even if you haven't played any of the previous releases. "Trails of Cold Steel (Sen no Kiseki in Japanese) is the first in the series to tread Erebonian soil and explore the inner political conflicts of this oft-mentioned powerhouse nation in detail," the game description explains. "Delve into the expansive lore that has become synonymous with the series, enjoy school life and bond with fellow students to earn new abilities in battle, take advantage of speedy, tactical turn-based combat with the newly-developed 'ARCUS' system, and uncover dramatic events that stand to change everything these two opposing social classes stand for." One of the things that makes the PC release of Trails of Cold Steel noteworthy is that it was worked on by Peter "Durante" Thoman, who's well-known for his analysis (and, occasionally, repair) of PC game ports. He posted three separate articles detailing his work on the Xseed blog, covering performance, graphical enhancements and options, and PC-specific special features including an overhauled turbo mode and support for ultrawide aspect ratios. "A long road is about to come to its end, and I fervently hope that the game will work as well for you as it does on our testing machines. It’s the first time a game is released where I have been largely responsible for most of its PC-specific code, so I’m a bit nervous, but I do believe that it’s in a much better state than many of the releases I had a look at over the past few years," he wrote at the end of the final post. "And what I know is that if something major does go wrong, I won’t wait months, weeks, or even days to communicate with whoever is affected and try to get it resolved." Some online stores give us a small cut if you buy something through one of our links. Read our affiliate policy for more info. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel coming to PC next weekJul 25, 2017 - PC GamerXseed Games first announced it was bringing JRPG The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel to PC in April, and now they've revealed a concrete release date: August 2. It first came out on Playstation 3 and the Vita back in 2013 to decent reviews, so if you're a JRPG fan this might be worth checking out. It's part of the branching Legend of Heroes series and set in the same universe as the Trails in the Sky trilogy, which you can play on PC. It kicks off a standalone story, so don't worry if you haven't dipped into those games before. The sequel, Trails of Cold Steel 2, is also coming to PC, but hasn't yet got a release date. The PC version will have 5,000 new lines of voiced dialogue, and the developers have enlisted mod god Peter "Durante" Thoman—the man who fixed the Dark Souls PC port—for the finishing touches. Both of those factors could make the PC port the definitive version of the game. Durante's written a blog about working on the project, which you can read here. It will be available on Steam, GOG, and the Humble Store, although currently only the Steam page is live, with no price.
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