Trails From Zero, Trails from Zero News

The Release Date of Trails from Zero

Posted on Author supremezerker

You heard us right. Very soon, you’ll finally be able to put on your police badges and experience the world of Crossbell. It’s been a long time coming, but we’re satisfied with the current state of the localization and ready for a public release!

Prepare to Get Over the Barrier!

The patch will be available to download on March 14th, so it’s time to prepare! Make sure to purchase a Japanese PC copy of Zero no Kiseki from dlsite.com, falcom.shop, or amazon.co.jp. Then, you will be able to use the installer found on the Geofront. We will provide step-by-step details on obtaining, patching, and configuring the patch.

This patch is for the existing PC version of the game, improving performance, fixing numerous bugs, and adding new features such as turbo mode, a message log, and autosaving. That being said, we have no plans to release a PSP patch at this time. If it does happen, it would be Ribose working a miracle with the less-than-ideal tools that we have to work with. Instead, we strongly encourage you to purchase a Japanese PC version of Zero no Kiseki to support Falcom, and to get the best experience possible.

Trails from Zero: Trailer Time!

To tide you over, KillScottKill took it unto himself to prepare something very special. We present: a trailer for the upcoming launch of our translation! Give it a watch or ten, eh?

Keen eyes among you may recognize that as a recreation of Falcom’s trailer for this game, nine years ago. Credit to it, of course. Please look forward to the patch on March 14th. We hope it will be worth it.

EDIT – 7:03pm CDT:
If you are interested in seeing the press release PDF that was made graciously by Scott, please check it out here.

153 Replies to “The Release Date of Trails from Zero”

  5. I’m so glad that you posted this, I can’t wait!

    I’m ALSO glad that you suggest to everyone to buy a copy of the Japanese game to support Falcom. We should 100% do this. Well, they should. I bought my Japanese copy around a year ago, it’s been staring at me on my desk, just waiting…

    So hyped. Thank you all so much for everything you’ve done, and continue to do, for this incredible series.

  7. For those in the know; What’s the best method of purchasing the game from these sites? Do I need a Japanese credit card or gift card? Will it bind to an account for digital downloading? Never done this before and want to make sure I get it right. Not sure how much the game costs converted into USD.

    1. I bought it from Dlsite using an ordinary Visa. Once you buy it, the game is bound to your account and you can download it freely. It’s about 25 USD.

    2. I would recommend dlsite unless you absolutely want a physical copy (dlsite is digital if you can’t guess from the name).

      I have purchased quite a bit from dlsite in a different…category without issue. I used a standard US Visa card, though I have heard some people complain about their cards being rejected. If that happens make sure to check with your bank because sometimes they will flag foreign transactions as suspicious and reject on their end.

      But it should work and it’s both the fastest and cheapest way to get it.

      1. You probably just need a card that’s able to make international purchases which would be most credit cards. They may also be trying to use a US Visa debit card which won’t work unless it’s an international card

        My US mastercard worked fine

        1. I have a fairly standard UK Visa debit card and it works perfectly fine. Your bank may fee you a few percent for the currency conversion, or at least mine did. Making a new account on dlsite will net you a 300 Yen coupon too!

  8. Thank you so much for posting this I was able to successfully purchase the game from dlsite. I am extremely excited thank you all for the hard work!!!

  9. OMG I am beyond excited! I want to be sure I don’t miss a single beat here: Anyone else notice that all online stores are completely in Japanese? I feel less-than-comfortable making a purchase when I can’t read literally anything I’m doing. Can anyone help idiot-proof this for me? Are these hard copies or digital or both?

      1. Thank you! Actually after probing around safely on Dlsite for a while, my browser (Chrome) offered to translate for me, so I accepted, and now I’m very happy! The hype is very real!

      2. Buying it from dlsite was the easy part plus you get 300 yen off I was able to use my chase credit card to make the purchase. But i downloaded it and i have no idea how to actually open it to play the japanese game can anyone help me with a guide to how to play it?

        1. Similar boat. I downloaded the split files (the batch link confused the hell out of me, lol), but I have these two split files sitting in the same folder and I’m pretty lost at this point…

          1. Ok, so I (think) I successfully extracted the files. I now seem to have an issue where I open the application that (I think) accesses the game, but it immediately closes! I’m the sure the Geofront team will have more info to help, but here’s to hoping the troubleshooting isn’t too nightmarish. 🙂

          2. I *think* it’s trying to use a Japanese character set for the installer, which western systems usually don’t have enabled by default. Enabling it should let you install the game. Or you could simply wait for this patch, which supposedly helps with that.

  11. DLsite gives 300 Yen off coupon on registration, so end price is 2450(~23.90 USD). Also it have pretty much most uncomplicated registraton, so the whole operation with little help of google translate took less than 10 minutes.

    Btw. will the whole “patch” work with SoraVoice?

    1. Thanks for pointing this out because it was the first mention of this I could find as an unregistered user. Anyone with a basic knowledge of Japanese should be able to manage without a translator. 300 Yen off is a good deal. Came to a little over 18 GBP plus 2.99% conversion fee from the bank. I was surprised a non-Japanese debit card worked (probably any Visa card will work?)

  12. Oh man, that trailer…oh man. That version of Get Over the Barrier is what I was listening to on repeat and I forced myself to stop to not burn it out like three weeks ago. Hearing it again in the trailer teared me up a little, not gonna lie.

    2. It doesn’t have the Vita Evolution voice acting, no. If you want that, you’ll have to check out the patch on Nyaa that contains the voices. It’ll work with the Geofront patch.

  14. You guys are like the Class VII of fan translation groups, incredible work! I’m almost considering not buying the remastered PS4 version of Trails from Zero considering we’ll be getting a near perfect translation in a few days

    1. snokko, will the remastered PS4 version even be as good? Have they said anything about FPS? Because I think the PSP game ran at 30, and based on that original PC port, I can’t see them upping it to 60. Or adding a chat log, or rebindable keys, or any of the other frankly amazing work that Geofront has done to turn this project from a fan translation to a full on localized port to be proud of.

      2. I would recommend buying the ps4 version when it releases just to show support though I’ll buy the us version if it releases this game incredible. Thank you guys!!!! Cant wait until Saturday

      3. Regardless of features I would buy it mainly to show support and interest for more Trails games on America, like ericwolf said. It WOULD be pretty nice if they were as high quality as this project though lol

  15. OK, dumb question. Do any of these sites offer the option to pay with PayPal or something? Because I don’t have a credit card. Otherwise I’d have to pirate a copy and I would prefer to support the official release, especially with you guys asking us to after all the hard work you did on a fantranslation.

      1. Yeah, I noticed. And this laptop I bought last year doesn’t have a disc-tray so digital is the only option for me…

        Which might mean I have to go a less legal route, which sucks. But if the rereleases of Zero and Ao for the PS4 appear in the West anytime soon I’ll definitely purchase them to support Falcom that way.

  16. Been following this translation effort for more than 2 years now, and it’s been amazing to see how fast this has been moving, compared with other translation efforts I have been following before, and in light of the huge script size of Trails from Zero.
    And than there’s the dozens of improvements this is promising on top of what looks like a high-quality translation. You guys and gals should really be proud of what you accomplished here. Also thanks to all the people who are helping with Q&A !
    Looking forward to finally getting my hands on this.

  17. Well I just died a bit on the inside knowing that I wouldn’t be able to play it on my PSP.. I was rooting you guys since day 1 in hopes that you’d release a patch for the PSP and alas the day has come when all of your hard work and everyone’s patience has come to fruition.. and while I am happy that finally everyone can play the game in XSeed quality translation I can’t help but feel left out since I don’t have a PC.. nor do I have plans on playing it on there hence why I haven’t touched Trails in the Sky: The 3rd.

    But sh*t, don’t mind me being a Debbie Downer, Congratulations Team Geofront!
    I’m still holding unto hope that this would get ported over to the PSP..

    1. Unfortunately, the PSP tools we have make it super difficult to do the port to the system. We did hold onto the hope that we could do it until the very last minute, though. It would have held back the process quite a bit, unfortunately.

      Don’t lose hope. Just because we said “no plans” about it, it doesn’t mean we’re *not* doing it. We’re just pushing to get the PC version out now since it’s near completion. We’d rather not sit on a finished PC release for the PSP version due to subpar tools.

      1. First of all thanks for replying and for all the hard work that you and everyone put in this 4 years long journey, also thanks for giving me and the rest of us hope that there’s still a small chance we’d be able to play it on a portable system may it be on an actual hardware (PSP/Vita) or Emulation (PC/Android).
        since it’s a top quality RPG I truly want to take my sweet time playing it on the go since let’s face it most of us have day jobs and at times we can’t afford to squeeze in any time for gaming at home since we’d probably be too tired or lack the energy and effort to focus much less if it’s an RPG.

        Here’s for that glimmer of hope called the “PSP port” to become a reality one day.

  18. For anyone who need to purchase the game, I used these instructions:

    https://www.reddit.com/r/Falcom/comments/7jee3m/how_to_legally_buy_zero_no_kiseki_trails_to_zero/

    The guide is a bit old so DLSite has changed slightly but I was able to figure it out.

    Also when extracting the download, it’s in Japaneese which my computer can’t display in applications, so it was just weird symbols and “???” everywhere but it was easy enough to figure out. Same goes for the installer.

    Running the game worked fine though and again since my computer cant display Japaneese, the game just had weird symbols in all the dialogues. Hopefully it gets slightly more readable after this patch 😉

    2. I don’t know what OS you’re on, but Windows allows you to set a language for non-Unicode programs (Region -> Additional Settings -> Administrative tab in Windows 10), and if you set that to Japanese, your computer will display Japanese characters properly.

  19. Not sure if this will be required with the patch but for me to install the game on my PC I had to either install (JP + Keyboard Default) or use Locale Emulator. If I didn’t do one of those two the game would crash on boot

  24. I was wondering are we going to need locale emulator or directX9.0c, installed to play this? am I just trying to have everything installed so when the patch comes out ill be ready

    1. It’s stuff like adding a shortcut to the desktop and stuff. I wondered about that too; it’s irrelevant stuff. Uncheck them all if you want to copy what I did.

  26. Been checking for a while on this, thank you all so much for the translation! Purchased a copy off dlsite the moment I saw this post — this is like a second Christmas.

  27. Got the game off dlsite and extracted the files, but I can’t run the game. It has simply “stopped working” after either opening the game, or trying to run from config. I’d imagine the patch itself isn’t required to run the game itself. Anyone have tips?

  28. I’d love to buy the game, but unfortunately, DLSite only seems to accept creditcards and more local payment methods. And while it’s normal to have a creditcard in the US, in (western) Europe, we don’t really use them.

    Here’s to hoping it’ll work with the less legitimate version, but I won’t hold it against them otherwise.

        1. When I was young and creditcardless I would use my bank account to fill my paypal account and then transfer money from my paypal account to a *Paypass*(Can’t remember the name) credit card to make online purchases.

    2. Just to follow up on my own comment with a solution – yes, the original Japanese installation, without any pre-applied English patching or modified executables, is available at the usual place.

  30. For those who are having trouble installing the ame you need Japanese locale for Japanese games. You can use locale emulator to make it eaiser to install it is how I install and run all my games that require jap locale. https://pooi.moe/Locale-Emulator/ You will also need to use use it run the game just follow the instructions. Shown on the page.

  33. So can I install the patch on my old installation with the old, trash translation on it, or do I need to do a fresh installation for whatever reason because patches are sometimes weird?

    1. Zero and Azure was released long before Cold Steel so they are obviously meant to be played first. You can still play Cold Steel 1 and 2 first as those events occur in parallel with Zero and Azure without spoling much but definitely dont play Cold Steel 3 and 4 before Zero and Azure.

      1. Interesting fact: The Crossbell arc exists because Falcom decided they wanted more buildup before Cold Steel to show how huge and intimidating Erebonia is.

    2. I would say definitely Zero and Azure first. Both spoil each other significantly, but Cold Steel spoils Azure worse. There’s one important exception, though. The epilogue of Azure tells you *exactly* what happens at the end of CS2. So consider playing Zero/Azure first, but skipping the Azure epilogue (which is made up completely of spoilers for future events).

    3. as others have said, don’t do that for your first playthrough. that sliced up timeline version is probably best for veteran fans looking to appreciate the games in a slightly different way.

      Just play zero then ao first. The existing fan translation for ao is much better than the one we previously had to use for zero.

      1. I don’t know, but it would be a shame if they don’t. I don’t have a credit card and I always though both were more or less the same (as in if you can use one, you can use the other).

      3. My Chase debit worked just fine. Although some banks may flag international purchases like this, so you may have to check your online banking site/app or give them a call to have them let the purchase go through. I had that issue with Green Man Gaming several years ago.

    1. Actually, are any of the electronic currency payment methods on dlsite reliable for this? Its a shame paypal isn’t supported on the Japanese site…

          1. From what i understand, DLsite is the only site that sells a digital copy of the game.
            Both Amazon and falcom have physical copies only,
            Shame that DLsite is blocked in my region -_-

        1. Well, according to Zerker release will *likely* be 5PM EST. Which will be 10 PM for me in Yurop.

          But who knows! Maybe we’ll get lucky and it’ll be earlier…or unfortunate and get it later, but we won’t talk about that.

          In any case, I’ll probably keep F5ing

          1. It’s probably for the best. I should spend the earlier part of this day on my studies so I can rest at ease while I play tonight. Or maybe I’ll just go and play Cold Steel III.

          2. Specifically before. We have a team member that wants to be around during the release and he usually goes to bed around 5pm EST.

  45. Not sure what the patch size will be or how powerful your servers are / demand. I could host the patch on my webhost as an alternative if required. It’s nothing fancy but I barely use it anyway.

    1. Thanks for the offer, but I think we’ll have like four mirrors for it. The big thing I’m worried about is the Geofront’s server itself more than anything. I’ve had dummy files available with the intention of getting them cached by both WP Super Cache and CloudFlare. I’ve since taken the download page down so we can make the updates privately, and am hoping that the caches hold out now.

      1. The problem is shitload calls to mysql for comments and every single refresh is call to youtube api, which increases site load. WPSC/CF won’t help with all the problems.

        You should use lazy load for both if you are expecting seasonal traffic, like today 🙂 Just note for the future.

  47. Listening to songs that begin with the lyrics, “Waitin’, watchin’ the clock, it’s four o’clock…” is not helping. 😀

    Super excited now. The hour draws near…

      1. Here in Europe western Europe, there’s less than 2 hours left of the 14:th, I guess they ran into delays. Oh well, I hope it will be relase on the 15:th at least! 🙂

        1. European as well, if we are still going to make it today it’ll likely be a looong night for me. (If I can get everything to work, anyway. Still haven’t installed the JP version because I’m not sure about how to do things with the patch. But I think they mentioned setting up instructions or a FAQ?)

  54. Is there anywhere else that I could buy Zero no Kiseki digitally? I can’t use my CC in DLsite, I’ve called my CC company and they said everything was ok on their end so I’m thinking the disclaimer underneath the CC number field about them not accepting some foreign cards is not just for shows (for reference, I’m in Argentina) and buying it physically is so not my idea. Any pointers would be appreciated~.

      1. That’d be useful if I were in Belgium except I clarified I’m in Argentina. So, again, can’t use my credit card there and there are no issues with the company not allowing my CC to be used there; anyone knows of any other site that sells the game digitally~?

  55. Ah, RIP. It’s the 15th now in the UK. It’s not a problem though- you guys have worked so hard, and the least we can do is wait just a little longer! I’m so grateful for the effort you have put into this- you probably don’t need to be told, but you should be incredibly proud of yourselves. Thanks to you, thousands more people will get to experience this part of one of the greatest JRPG stories ever told.

  56. Well, it’s 2 AM over here so I’m going to crash. I hope you guys are still manage to bring it out on the 14th in your timezone, but if you don’t it’s not the end of the world. Thanks for all the work you’ve done over the years making this patch, and for keeping the site up when we were getting a bit excited today.

    Hope to wake up to the patch being uploaded. But if not, it’s not the end of the world. Keep up the good work!

  58. Well, there’s only about another hour left on the 14th on EST, so hopefully you guys pull it off by the end of the 14th CDT.

    Regardless, thank you for all of your hard work. This kind of thing is NOT easy and you guys do it for the fans. If anything, I’m just being lazy because I REALLY don’t want to read Kanji. Going to play some CSIII.

    Night, everyone.

  60. Just tried and failed to purchase on DLsite with my Paypal card. Have a 1 cent authorization from them, but the payment did not go through. I live in the U.S. Debating whether or not to try my other card…

  62. Hi. I’m from Mexico and my CC was declined when trying to purchase from DLsite. I have made purchases from the site before and my brother, who has an account and has bought things from the site before, also can’t purchase the game. This leads me to believe it’s not our CCs. Does anyone know what might be happening and how to fix it?

    1. I couldn’t buy it either so what I did is buy points. I bought 1000 and 1500 points respectively (1 point = 1 ¥). The payment gateway used for points is different than the one for games so no matter where in the World are you, your CC will be accepted. You then use the points at checkout instead of choosing a CC~.

          1. Thanks! For those reading this, buying points did indeed work! I now have the digital version of the game.

  63. I have to admit, this patch is incredible. It works better than the official Trails in the Sky SC did for me. I’m not sure where to report bugs and I assume most players have already.

    There was one line of text that was repeated near the beggining in Geofront (Which I’ve lost the screenshot to =\)

    In-game combat sometimes does not allow you to change targets unless you move the screen. (2560×1440)

    I’m not sure if this is a bug but the accessory to prevent confuse does not work against the monsters at the abandoned field on the old east road.

    I’d like to give the team a huge thank you for the immense effort to release this quasi-flawless work. You guys are the absolute best !

    1. “In-game combat sometimes does not allow you to change targets unless you move the screen.” I get this issue in 1080p too. It seemed like a horrible bug that caused me to restart until I figured out you could rotate the screen in battle, as said above. I assume this is just how the original game is.

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