Greetings, fellow detectives! This is Zerker from the Geofront’s C Sector, and today has been a long time coming. While it has only been three months since we released Trails from Zero to the world, that short span of time has felt like an eternity to those of us on the team. As you can tell by this post, there is a clear reason for that. With great excitement, the Geofront is formally announcing its upcoming localization of Nihon Falcom’s The Legend of Heroes: Ao no Kiseki. Or, as we like to call it, The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure!
Yes, that’s correct—editing has reached 75%. Trails to Azure was always something that the team wanted to do, and we felt that the community deserves this entire, wonderful duology in all the glory it deserves. We intend on giving you an Azure that meets the quality that you saw in Trails from Zero; one that surpasses it would be even better, though. I, for one, have no doubt that this team is capable of doing just that.
I know that, for the most part, I was considered the Trails from Zero guy. That project brought so much happiness and so many opportunities to me, and I wouldn’t change that for the world. Without the Geofront, I probably wouldn’t have switched majors in college to English or ended up going to law school this Fall. I can’t thank Gu4n enough for taking a chance on me and allowing me to join the project. Because of all these new opportunities in my life—graduating college, getting married, going to law school—I decided that it would be best for me to take a more minor role in Trails to Azure. Instead of Lead Editor, I handed that role to Scott and took it upon myself to focus on Azure’s main scenario as a humble editor. I have the utmost faith that Scott, Arvin, and everyone on the team will surpass your expectations. To elaborate, Scott wants to lay out our plan for you all. Take it away!
Commencing Phase 2 of the Azure-Zero Project
There is so much to address—more than we can today. However, I think first and foremost we need to outline what this project’s base is and what exactly we are doing with it.
Just as with Zero, the Geofront’s localization of Azure is based on the tireless work of an original team that spawned from heroesoflegend.org. The game’s translation comes from the same lead translator as Zero’s, Guren no Heya Kara, with some additional translation work being done by an individual known as KOL, Flamethrower—the original project’s lead programmer—and the Trails community’s premier Tio Plato connoisseur, Kitsune.
To the original translators: Thank you. The Geofront’s hard work on Azure would never have been possible without you, and we will preserve your credit and legacy in every step of the project, just like we did with Trails from Zero.
As you may know, over the last two years, the fan translation of Ao no Kiseki has gone through many revisions. In 2018, Flamethrower released what is commonly referred to by fans as the ‘Flame edit’, which is the script that is currently on trailsinthedatabase.com. There has also been work done by other parties to alter the game’s scenario and provide further modifications to Azure.
Before saying anything else, we want to make it clear that the Geofront’s release of Trails to Azure is based solely on the original team’s unedited translation. In no way does it borrow from any third party community projects, nor is it a further revision of the Flame edit.
For the sake of accuracy and consistency, we chose to work with the least-altered version of the translation that Guren led, just as we did with Zero. After months of working with the game, we feel very confident in our decision. Additionally, the Geofront is taking steps to assure the highest possible translation accuracy—which includes retranslating entire sections when necessary.
Also, I think it’s necessary to address the elephant in the room and speak briefly about how to purchase the base game. All I can say right now is that we have found methods of purchasing the game, but we are still exploring our options to find the easiest method for the average consumer. As such, this is a topic that will be covered in more depth and clarity as we get closer to the release of the patch.
The C Sector (which you have likely deduced stands for ‘Crossbell Sector’) is made up of several talented and dedicated individuals. If I may say so, you would be hard-pressed to assemble a more qualified team to undertake a project of this scale. The team consists of the following:
- Lead Programmer: JoseJL
- Programmer: Ribose
- Lead Translator: Catasplurge
- Translator: Gu4n
- Translator: Shawn Cox
- Translator: Ravan
- Lead Editor: KillScottKill
- Editor: Arvin
- Editor: Zerker
- Editor: Addaberry
- Graphics: Sorcerian
- Video: Choojermelon
So, with that in mind, I want to conclude by saying I first met Zerker and Ribose two long years ago with the express intent of what we are announcing today. It is, quite literally, a dream come true to be bringing all of you not just my favorite Trails game, but my favorite game period. Please look forward to the Geofront’s release of Trails to Azure.
You sonsabitches. You’re really doing it! And this soon after! You sonsabitches! You’ve made me a happy man.
Ehh, it’ll be a while – remember, Zero was stuk at 99.9% complete for 9 months or something.
yeah but there wasn’t a pandemic going on at that time keeping most of the country on lockdown I’m sure they have much more time now even if working from home
This is so awesome! I’ve waited this long to play anything more than FC because I didn’t wanna skip games and “knew” it would be a long wait, but now I can finally play through the series! Thanks so much for doing this!
Any idea if it should work like Zero does where you can drop voice files in from evo and they’ll play?
Evo Voices for Ao should work fine. just ofc you need to get it through your own means
I guess this translation effort was all but “azured”, eh?
Really thought this wasn’t coming, and was never more glad to be wrong. You guys and gals rock!
YES! The gaps in the saga can finally be filled! Thank you so much for doing this! I don’t have the words to express how much I appreciate what you do! THANK YOU!
Wow, this is far sooner than I was expecting. Good work.
Yes! Thank you so much!
So how long have you been working on it? Given the upcoming remaster and Zerker’s responses to the daily “Will you be doing Azure?” questions, I’d all but given up hope.
Gottem
thank you for doing this
can’t wait to play Azure in the best way possible.
You guys are simply amazing. I can’t even begin to express my appreciation for all the work you have done. Replaying Zero with your translations has made the game ten-folds more enjoyable. I can’t wait to finish Zero and start into Ao!
Amazing news!
Wasn’t expecting it at all this soon.
And of course, thank you for evrything you’ve done for all of us!
This is great news indeed. Thank you so much. You are awesome.
I clapped! I clapped when they announced their working on Ao!
This is INCREDIBLE, thank you so much for doing it, you guys are awesome.
You magnificent bastards, you had to do this TODAY, of all days.
I JUST finished replaying a VERY large portion of Zero to grab a thing I’d missed my first time through (over 24 hours of playtime. Got it done in just 12 this time, then turned on Turbo Mode and held “L” for over two hours to bring my playtime back up to the 67:10:50 I was at when I realized how I’d beans’d it all up.) I was feeling “Whew, okay, now I can finish this up, do the current Azure translation, and then CS 3 and by then probably CS4 on PC too! No more waiting for Trails for me!”
Well, regardless of how upset I am to be waiting for another Trails after this, I am ALSO ECSTATIC about how I get to wait for a fully polished and localized premium-quality Trails after this. Good work, everyone. And good job trolling us all while you got so far in the process. No four-year waits for me this time! (please)
Wonderful news. I’m excited. Thank you to everyone involved in the Zero & Azure projects!
Man, I just happened to visit this page to see if there was anything new. Not a conspiracy theory, but I think reality shifted for a second there.
Man, I still haven’t had the time to finish Trails from Zero with everything going on in the world and working strange hours because of it.
BUT MY BODY IS READY
just finished Trails from zero, and seeing this is like the best present I could have. you guys are the best!!!
And just when I thought all hope is lost, you awesome guys are at it again. I am glad you guys are exploring ways to buy the game legally and hope there will be an easy way just like there was for Zero because I am really looking forward to Azure which will finally fill in the last remaining missing link. You guys did an awesome job with Zero, and will do it again with Azure.
The only downsides of PSP translation were font (imo) and catastrophically small amount of chest messages throughout the whole game. Eagerly waiting!!
LET’S FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
The Flame edit is good enough to understand the story, but you can’t beat the sheer quality the C-Sector brings! I really missed the chest messages too, gotta have that color commentary
Nice news to hear (even after finishing Ao during my forced covid lockdown, but I will surely replay it with your translation considering I still have some things to unlock in the extra section and a new playthrough is needed for that).
Just a quick question for the team: will your translation include some hackfixes (like turbo mode, HD combat GUI, translated signs and so on) included in other mini patches that are floating around for Ao?
All fixes to the game will come entirely from us! We don’t plan on using anything that is already out in the wild.
Not asking if you plan to include other patches, only if you plan to fix the same things that those patches did (considering that the game needs some little graphic and technical overhaul to be appreciated on modern hardwares).
Oh, sorry! Then yes, we plan on including everything that Zero did (and maybe more, who knows?).
I wanna cry, from sadness, unfortunately.
Firstly I would love to thank the Geofront for their passion and hard work. I have been a Trials fan for half a year now and I love this community the story telling surpasses Metal Gear Solid in my opinion. And that statement isn’t isn’t to say, my original favorite game was Sky second chapter but after experiencing it’s GREATNESS So no Kiseki is way better. Because Crossbell is so small I felt truly attached to the lives of its people so I felt the emotions of every character and 90% of the NPC’S. Once again to the Geofront you are the unspoken MVPS .
That is the best news I have ever heard. I just finished Trails from Zero and it was beyond awesome. And with this superb Fan sub. it made it way too smooth and way too great. I am so happy to hear this news. I really can’t wait for this to be out! I hope we hear release date super soon! Again, thank you very much! You guys are the best!
does zeit is still goodest boy of them all? i hope we got chest message again so my friend will keep asking what game i am playing because they thought the chest message is pretty funny, this is the best way to lure someone to into trails series imho.
Is there a way for us to donate to this project? If so, where?
There isn’t a way from what I know. They stated that they do not accept any type of donation “at this time”….(maybe we’ll have a chance in the future?)
Just out of curiosity,will that translation also work for ps vita?
This is aweaome and idk hiw to thank you. I don’t want to sound pushy or ungr8ful but do you have any brief ETA of completion? Like is it a matter of months or rather years?
Would you please add a save state ability. Reason being the dance minigame and near impossible fights.
I’d like to know how does the progress on the translation works. How many phases do you guys have before you put it for download?
I really liked the translation you did on the first one. Great job, guys. Thank you so much =D
If this has been answered before (or this is the wrong place), I apologize in advance.
Will it be possible to transfer a saved game from Zero to Azure (by which, I mean like in Trails of Cold Steel II, where you can transfer your post game cleared save file to Cold Steel II to get some extra stuff).
Thanks in advance.