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The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky Second Chapter (2006)

Duration: 3:44:28

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Originally recorded: August 11, 2022
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Well, if I was worried about wasting time during the last session, then this one definitely made up for it. That's just seems to be far too common when it comes to these BtLO recordings though. Just when I get worried about spinning my wheels for one session, I manage to make up the slack the very next time. I can't tell if this constant stream of "yo-yo progress" is demoralizing or just annoying. But man, the times when I am able to make significant headway in these Trails games sure feels sweet.

This is probably the easiest time I've ever had naming one of these episodes. Honestly, when the phrase "the Crossbell problem" showed up the first time, I just sort of laughed it off. But when it showed up a second time, I absolutely knew it had to be this session's title. I guess the reason I find it so funny is that when it comes to the Trails fandom in the West, there's been a *Crossbell problem* for a very long time. What I find especially hilarious is just how much the nature of said problem has changed in recent years.

The "original" Crossbell problem stemmed from the fact that the game was essentially available on the PlayStation Portable. Well, that's the only system Falcom themselves released it on, anyway. And if you'll recall, even by the time that Trails in the Sky SC came out in the West, a digital-only release of a PSP game was barely financially viable, simply because the Vita hadn't yet entered its perpetual state of living death. Even by the time that XSEED put out the third and final game in the Sky, the only reason we got it at all was because XSEED considered a PC release to be economically feasible. And at that point in time, XSEED wasn't in the business of developing their own PC ports. Frankly, I think that even if they were, the prospect of literally both translating and creating a brand-new port of another company's game would've been far too much risk for minimal reward.

Of course, XSEED didn't make things easier on themselves. Way back when they were still localizing the Trails games for Falcom, they made a blog post explaining why they were just essentially skipping the Crossbell duology. And in that very post, they gave English titles to both releases, names that would continue to pop up. Joyoland used them in their failed bid to bring their PC ports to Steam via Greenlight, fan translation group The Geofront used them for their own translations and even NISA used them, effectively allowing them to slide through two more Trails games without having to devise their own titles.

Flash-forward to 2022 and "Crossbell problem" has a totally different meaning. Trails from Zero is due out next month and Trails to Azure is due out in early 2023. And yet, a vocal faction of the Trails fanbase is angry about that... because they think it's a waste of time, since the fan translations "already took care of that". Instead, the official English releases of Crossbell are just considered a waste of time, a pill made even more bitter due to the fact that some of Falcom's other international partners are much closer to parity with Falcom's own release schedule -- which just makes the English releases look even more far behind. I mean, frankly, I don't agree... but I just find it fascinating that from an outsider's perspective, the Trails fanbase wanted Zero and Azure until they actually managed to get them.

Oh, and I guess Renne turned out to be evil all along. But I actually reacted to that during the recording, so... yeah. On the plus side, since there's not going to be that much of a gap between recordings this time, at least I thought up some topics I'd like to discuss in the next session.

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