Nintendo Switch Users Are Finally Getting This JRPG After Years of Waiting

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It used to take a very long time – months or even years – for Japanese video games to be translated and released in other countries. Fans either had to be patient or learn Japanese to play them. Thankfully, localization has gotten much faster in recent years, and many games from Japanese developers are now available worldwide on the same day. However, some publishers are still slower than fans would like. NIS America, the publisher of the popular Trails series, is one of them. Games in the Trails series, like The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon (released in Japan in 2024), often come out much later in the West. Fortunately, this is starting to change.

The game Trails Beyond the Horizon first became available in Japan on PlayStation in 2024, followed by a PC release there earlier this year. However, its release in the rest of the world was delayed by over a year. This kind of delay isn’t unusual for the Trails series—the previous game, The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak II, released in Japan in 2022 but didn’t come to other regions until 2025. Luckily, the wait for Trails Beyond the Horizon is a bit shorter this time! NIS America has announced it will be available worldwide on January 15th, 2026, and will launch on both Nintendo Switch and the new Switch 2, making it accessible to many players.

What Is The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon?

So, I’m really excited about Trails Beyond the Horizon – it’s the thirteenth game in the Trails series! It all started way back in 2004 with The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, but honestly, Trails is actually a part of a much bigger story called The Legend of Heroes. If you go all the way back, the first game in that series, Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes, came out in 1989! It’s a long-running franchise, and I’m hyped to jump into this latest installment.

The series boasts a rich and extensive backstory for players to explore. With seventeen installments, many linked together, there’s a lot of history to uncover. Plus, there are also numerous manga and anime adaptations that add even more depth to the overall story.

However, Trails Beyond the Horizon clearly continues the established Trails storyline. It’s the third game in the Calvard arc, following Trails Through Daybreak and its direct sequel. This isn’t the end of the arc, though; a sequel to Trails Beyond is already planned, confirmed in 2024. While a release date isn’t available yet, players outside of Japan will likely have to wait, though there’s a possibility that could change.

The Future of Trails

Okay, so on September 19th, 2025, Nihon Falcom dropped the remake of Trails in the Sky, which they’re calling Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter. It’s built on the same engine as Trails Through Daybreak, which looks fantastic. What’s really cool is this was one of the first times a Trails game got released worldwide at the same time – usually we have to wait forever!

It’s probably not accurate to expect future Trails games to be exactly like 1st Chapter. That game was a remake of a title originally released in 2004, and remakes require a lot of effort. Building a game from scratch and translating it into other languages is significantly harder than developing a completely new game.

Considering the game is launching globally at the same time as in Japan, and that the wait between this game and the previous one (Trails Through Daybreak 2) is shorter, it looks like releases are becoming more timely.

Nihon Falcom may not be able to release games worldwide on the same day everywhere just yet, but they’re making progress. The success of the Like a Dragon series shows it’s possible. Like a Dragon games used to be delayed for Western audiences, but as the series became more popular, those delays got shorter and shorter, culminating in a worldwide release for Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth in 2024. Hopefully, the Trails series will eventually achieve the same thing.

Okay, so the new game is delayed, which stinks, but honestly? I’m not totally upset. There’s a huge JRPG dropping early next year called Trails Beyond the Horizon, and it’s supposed to be a massive game – like, 50+ hours long! That’ll definitely keep me busy until 2026 when things really start getting crazy with all the game releases planned for spring.

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2025-12-04 01:12