UPDATE: NIS America Publishes The Legend of Heroes: Kuro no Kiseki on PC via Steam; English Release Confirmed
Publisher NIS America has announced that they have published The Legend of Heroes: Kuro no Kiseki on PC via Steam, except the language support is only Japanese. This release features improvements made by PH3 GmbH.
We’ll be sure to update you all on any other announcements regarding this surprise launch. This appears to be similar to The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails, which NISA also published in Japanese with support from PH3 GmbH.
While this should be expected, both Durante and Falcom have confirmed that an update will eventually arrive, adding English language support. NIS America has not yet commented.
UPDATE 3/2/2023: Following the game’s launch, fans dug into the game’s file and found the title Trails in the Dark, but in a subreddit thread, Durante has confirmed that this is merely a placeholder.
Durante’s Steam Blog post on the port emphasizes that the game does not have a memory leak and boasts the following features:
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Arbitrary resolution and aspect ratio support. That means that 21:9 ultrawide is supported just as well as the Steam Deck’s 16:10 aspect ratio. Of course, as always, some specific UI screens will have black bars.
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High frame rate support. We officially support up to 360 FPS, which is particularly valuable given the somewhat more dynamic combat system in Kuro compared to previous games in the franchise.
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A field-of-view setting – in addition to the field-of-view scaling automatically with the aspect ratio.
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A broad range of graphics options:
- Shadow resolution, filtering, and local shadowing quality
- Sub- and supersampling of the game’s main rendering without affecting UI
- Draw distance adjustment for NPCs, enemies, map level-of-detail, and dynamic lights
- Quality settings for screen-space reflections and volumetric lighting
- Minimap multisampling (this is one of those personal favorites)
Moreover, there is full mouse and keyboard support and a preview option for graphical adjustments.
Lastly, the game runs on Steam Deck, with effort taken to mitigate low performance in some areas running via DXVK:
The Legend of Heroes: Kuro no Kiseki is the beginning of latest arc of the ongoing Trails series, taking place after the recently concluded Cold Steel Erebonia arc, and after The Legend of Heroes: Hajimari no Kiseki, releasing in the west in 2023 as The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie.
This new title takes place in Calvard, one of the central regions of the series’ setting, the continent of Zemuria. While there are several returning characters from the Liberl, Crossbell, and Erebonia arcs, there is also a slew of new characters, each with their own struggles, relationships, and goals that enhance the liveliness of the in-game world.
Additionally, combat has undergone a significant shake-up, with action now freely swappable with turn-based in several circumstances, granting an impressive degree of player choice.
The Legend of Heroes: Kuro no Kiseki is available on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 in Japan and in Traditional Chinese and Korean via Steam from publisher Clouded Leopard Entertainment.
The Legend of Heroes: Kuro no Kiseki II Crimson Sin is available for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 in Japan and in traditional Chinese and Korean on Steam.
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