So far, 2023 is shaping up to be a great year for Falcom fans, both western-based and otherwise. Trails to Azure finally saw a western release after more than a decade, and both Trails to Reverie and Nayuta will soon be released on the western front. Meanwhile, Ys X is scheduled to drop in Japan this year. There has never been a better time to be a Falcom fan.
While the west is playing catch up, Falcom is keeping the momentum rolling with some brand new titles. One of those is the focus of today’s review. While it hasn’t been released outside of Asia yet, the title resonated with me so much that I had to cover it.… This is The Legend of Heroes: Kuro No Kiseki!
Overview & Synopsis
Kuro was initially released for the PlayStation 4 (PS4) in September 2021. It was later released for PS5 and Windows PC. The game was developed by Nihon Falcom and written by Hisayoshi Takeiri, Yuuta Miyazaki, and Syunsei Shikata. The score was produced by Hayato Sonoda, Shuntaro Koguchi, Yukihiro Jindo and Mitsuo Singa. Toshihiro Kondo served as the producer for the game. Initial translations of the title give us the literal name of Trails in the Dark, while current fan translations have designated the game as Trails Before Dawn. I’m curious to see what official title will be during localization.
The premise of the game is as follows: Two years have passed since the events of Trails to Reverie and the accompanying Crossbell Independence. The Democratic Republic of Calvard is experiencing an unprecedented period of economic and technological growth brought on by the imperial reparations in the aftermath of the Great War. However, anti-immigration sentiment and movements are beginning to gain momentum as the reparations come to an end. It is in this environment that the young Agnes Claudel seeks out a Spriggan, an underworld fixer who operates on the backside of society. She turns to this man in order to recover a family artifact from the Mafia. Little do the pair know that this partnership will set in motion the events that will change the Republic forever.
In terms of writing, Kuro very much feels like it has learned the lesson from previous titles, which struggled to maintain a consistent tone and tangible stakes. Kuro excels in this regard. The game features a main cast of eight characters, and unlike in the two arcs preceding this game, every one of these characters gets a chapter dedicated to them, giving them significant depth. In contrast, the Crossbell duology and the Cold Steel quadrilogy opted to introduce all the major players at once and develop them over the runtime. Both methods have their positives and negatives. Overall, however, dedicating an entire chapter to a character positively emphasizes their backstory and character traits.
Gameplay
As the Trails series has progressed, the side quests and activities have largely remained the same from game to game. The series has opted to change the context of the story, rather than the actual tasks you are performing. What sets this game apart, however, is the morality system. Previous protagonists fell on the straight and narrow side of the world, but our protagonist, Van Arkride, lives in the gray. You aren’t a bracer, a police officer, or a high school student posing as a bracer.; You are a Spriggan, operating at the intersection of lawful and chaotic. You are the only person whom people can rely on when they can’t turn to either side of the black-and-white morality scale. Morality is a major theme in the story, and it plays a large part in quest designs. The quests feel connected to each other and to the main story, and most quests involve multiple outcomes., As you build your morality throughout the game, you may even discover alternate story paths becoming available to you.
The series has largely remained the same in terms of gameplay over the years, but Kuro does a few things differently. It does utilize the core turn– based battle system, but it also adds a new action-based battle system. If you’re expecting as complex of a battle system as what is presented in the Ys series, then you might be disappointed. The active battle system features a standard three-hit combo, a heavy strike, and a dodge roll. Your move set in this mode is rather limiting, and the mode largely exists to supplement the turn-based battle mode, not replace it. Speaking of the turn– based mode, it might be familiar to long-time fans, but there are some noteworthy additions. Players can now move and attack at the same time (hard to believe it only took 17 years to implement such a seemingly obvious feature). Another addition is S boost mode, which is intended to make the use of S-crafts more tactical. It also removes the player’s ability to spam them, and it even encourages S-craft usage in some aspects, as S-crafts now only cost 100 CP.
Presentation & Score
Kuro marks the first game developed by Falcom in their new proprietary development engine that is yet to be named. Falcom is abandoning the Phyre Engine they used throughout the development of the Cold Steel games and Ys VIII. As a result, Kuro looks and sounds great in comparison to past games. This is easily the highest graphical fidelity we have seen in a Falcom game to date. The new engine has even affected the design of the game, as entering buildings no longer triggers a loading zone but rather acts as an extension of the area. This allows for more dynamic level design.
I have similar compliments for the soundtrack. Jindo and Sonoda are longtime mainstays on the Falcom team, and they give us spectacular tracks as always. Singa and Koguchi are comparatively recent additions to the sound team, but they improve with every game. Koguchi gave us some standouts such as Wind up Yesterday in Reverie,and he continues to do so with tracks such as Open the Shard. Singa’s musical contributions have produced significant discussion within the community to say the least, but I feel that he continues to provide enjoyable tracks such as Diabolic Howl.
Conclusion
It can be challenging to innovate and develop new ideas in a long-running series. Kuro is the 11th game in the Trails sub series, and it manages to not only improve upon previous games, but also introduce new ideas, bringing ambition and passion to the series. Kuro is not only a good Legend of Heroes game, but a good game period. It holds my highest recommendation, and news of its international release can’t come soon enough.
