The Legend of Heroes is the parent series, known in Japanese as Eiyū Densetsu Kiseki is the subseries (localised to Trails) The Trails series (currently) comprises the 6th to 9th sagas in The Legend of Heroes series, they aren't connected to the games before them that didn't have the title of Kiseki. The 6th series is Sora no Kiseki FC, SC and 3rd (Trails in the Sky) The 7th series is Zero/Ao no Kiseki (Trails from Zero/to Azure) The 8th series is Sen no Kiseki I-IV + Hajimari no Kiseki (Cold Steel I-IV, Reverie) The 9th series is Kuro no Kiseki I & II (Daybreak) The next game is Kai no Kiseki, it remains to be seen if this will be the 10th or part of the 9th. I hope that explained the confusing chronology and naming of this oddball franchise.
They are still being made, the latest in the series is Kuro no Kiseki or Trails through Daybreak. They take a couple years to come to the West officially and Daybreak is actually coming out in NA in July. Its been out in Japan for like 3 years now. There is a pretty crazy cult following that actually has been translating the games years ahead of their official release which is pretty crazy. The Legend of Heroes series has been going on since I think the early 90s or even late 80s but the Trails/Kiseki sub series is it's own thing that's been going on since the early 00s. They are broken up into arcs, there is Trails in the Sky or Sora no Kiseki, Trails from Zero/Azure, Trails of Cold Steel and Trails through Daybreak. They take place in various regions in the same world and each have their own stories that also connect to and overarching plot. The Kiseki name is just how we refer to the Japanese names. They are called the "Trails" series in the West. I'm typing as I'm watching haha it's a series of like 11 RPGs now but they break it up into arcs where people can jump in. They tend to introduce a new cast of characters with each arc and then sprinkle in some of the older characters and references to the old games as you go on.
Also, Step Ahead is indeed a battle theme. It's used for certain bosses in the game. Solid as the Rock of Juno (long name) is a big set piece / dungeon theme that doubles as a battle theme.
The art for Cold Steel 3 really does go pretty hard. Falcom really nails their artwork most of the time. Speaking of Kiseki/Trails, the new entry just got a showcase and daaaamn, the ost shown there was amazing. Can't wait for the inevitable torrent of ost from that when it comes out Also as per your mention of how they mixed classical sound with rock, I think that might be intentional. Trails' setting is a continent that has been experiencing massive leap in technological advancement, so throughout the series, it's a mix of classical settings like castles and villages, noble classes, etc, but you have cars and tanks and other things within it, and the forts and stuffs looks like if a medieval fort have modern technologies. It's neat how the music also reflects that sometimes. On another note, Falcom Music Channel isn't the actual Falcom channel. He's just so goated and been archiving all the tracks that he could. Falcom themselves are also cool with it, so it's a pretty nice mutually beneficial relationship
Funnily enough out of the two tracks Step Ahead is actually the boss theme (although since it was mostly used for battles against the antagonist group Ouroboros, it’s arguably a character theme too). It might sound out of place, but the Trails series is no stranger to having more upbeat sounding tracks for boss fights. The Juno track serves as a dungeon/set piece theme that continues playing whilst in battles. It’s used to great effect ingame, as it really helps drive you forward whilst assaulting a massive naval fortress of the same name.
@@Zephhi I think it fits Campanella at least. You could argue it does somewhat fit Shirley too, since the upbeat nature of it matches how much she enjoys violence.
Hey, some quick info about Step Ahead: It is a boss theme which plays as you fight the members of "Ourobouros" (evil organisation) but at the same it is a theme that resembles growth. You stood NO chance against these members in the second game where you had to get carried while here, in the 3rd game, you can actually compete with them. That's also why this isn't as "tragic" or "heavy" as other Trails boss themes. You actually can stand your ground in these fights.
"The Legend of Heroes" is the name of the series, though in the last two decades it has been focused on the Trails/Kiseki subseries. "Sen no Kiseki" more literally translates into something like "Trails of Flash", where "Flash" refers to the glint of sword being unsheathed. I've always thought of "Trails of Cold Steel" as a very clever translation that brings roughly the same idea.
Ok so Sen in Japanese is hard to describe. It's the flash of the light reflecting on metal. They chose Cold Steel for the localization because of one of the music named "Glint of Cold Steel" (Cold Steel 1 battle theme). Here it has a triple meaning : The steel which the light reflects on, the trails of cold steel could also reference rails, as trains are important in this game, and also "Steel" is kinda important in this game's lore, but i won't go into too much detail. Great reaction !
Been a while since I played Trails of Cold Steel III (Sen No Kiseki III) but, iirc the first one is used for a specific boss battle, the second plays during a dungeon where there is a lot at stake.
Jindo does do music for other games from time to time but from what I've seen at least he pretty much sticks close to falcom even though he isn't part of the actual falcom sound team
"Kiseki" is a pretty complicated word in japanese, it's one of those words where it can be written in several ways and so it carries several meanings. It can mean "Miracle" "Path/Trail" or "Fate/Destiny" and probably more There's a song by a band called "Greeeen" called Kiseki that uses it in all of its forms and its a pretty fun song (The band is made up entirely of Dentists(yes the scary teeth doctors) which makes it more fun) "Sen" is less complicated, but more heavily romanticized. Its usually usage translates to "Flash" literally, but its specifically meaning the reflection of light off the blade sword as its being drawn from its sheathe The main battle theme in the first "Sen" game is called "The Glint of Cold Steel" so when translating the game title, the translators saw that, and decided on "Trails of Cold Steel", and asked Falcom for approval on it. Falcom went "Yes that's perfect that's exactly the intent we had" And yes the games are still being made, all of the Trails games are part of the same massive overarching story thats been in the works for two decades now, starting with Trails in the Sky in 2004 and is still ongoing. Each series (Sky, Crossbell, Cold Steel) has its own stories, but they all fit in to the enormous world and story of "Trails"
@@ony806 oh i just mean the term in general. when its written its easy to know which one is being used but the actual verbal word is what i was talking about
The 2nd song is a stage theme, since Trails is a turn based RPG like Final Fantasy series, you have stage themes as you progress through a level and reach the boss fight. These 'stages' only happens in that section of the story and thus play those exclusive songs, and when battles trigger, the song doesn't change, because you are 'forward relentlessly' against the waves against you.
The titles for each of the trails series is actually kind of a double meaning. The word "kiseki" in japanese from my understanding can both mean trail and miracle and both of these words are very relevant to the stories of the games. As an example, "sen no kiseki" can translate to both "trails of cold steel" and "miracle of cold steel" I find the naming convention of this series very clever personally.
So, I just want to touch on the issue of translation a bit, since you brought it up. There are some people who seem to believe that translating material is as simple as just literally translating the words and letting them speak for themselves. In reality, however, there's an art to accurately conveying not just meaning, but intent, across languages. Consider, for example, Sen no Kiseki. Translated literally, it essentially means "the trail of a flash," which is meant to evoke the appearance of a blade being unsheathed, or the glint of sunlight off the surface of a railway engine. Using the translation "Trails of Cold Steel" is not in any way literal, but it conveys that same essential intent. It tells you this is a game about cold, unrelenting progress, for all the good and ill that entails, and that makes it a good translation.
they are still being made and currently on a whole dif name/protagonist, and yes they still have different names in NA and JP, the current is Kuro no Kiseki, or Trails through daybreak in english.
Ah, Step Ahead. I really like this track (both in battle and as a track on its own) so I was really looking forward to your reaction to it. It's polarizing as heck in the falcom community though. Jazz is just like that sometimes. As for the volumes question, the soundtracks are just huge so it requires several discs per game.
One of my favorite parts about Falcom is the fact that their two most popular RPGs represent two distinct genres of music. The Ys series is my personal choice. It borrows elements of thrash metal, traditional heavy metal, progressive metal and an orchestral score into a soundtrack that rocks harder than the buck of a raging bull. The Trails series, on the other hand, sits on the electronic side of progressive metal, borrowing elements from trance and house music. Both are simply phenomenal.
Someone has probably already noted, but "Kiseki" can translate to Miracle or Trail, with the difference in meaning coming from the kanji used, which is probably where the confusion from Google occurred!
Yeah so, simplest way to put it: This is a sub-series of The Legend of Heroes. It's mostly just known as Trails in the west, and Kiseki in Japan. Trails in the Sky 1-3 (Sora no Kiseki) were the first 3 games. Zero and Azure (Zero and Ao no Kiseki) were the 4th and 5th. And Cold Steel (Sen no Kiseki) 1-4 are the 6th-9th games. Also if Reverie (Hajimari) ever shows up that's game number 10. The localizations like to take liberties so some names are different, but they didn't want to market them with their Japanese titles. (Hajimari means "Beginning" but it's not a prequel or anything and Reverie is more directly relevant to gameplay stuff so it works.) Hope that makes sense lol. I know you react to like 20 songs a week, and there's a billion other commenters so tried to keep this concise. I see how you could be confused haha.
So kiseki can be written as miracle or trails, but seems in japanese it's written as trails. For sen: it is a word with no English translation that refers to the moment when you unsheath a sword. It's meant to represent the militarization of the erebonian Empire and foreshadow the looming civil war.
Falcom pretty much makes solid games in general. Ys is more of a action rpg with a simple but compelling story that can be enjoyed while having no prior knowledge. Meanwhile, trails is a turn based rpg with an interconnected story and pretty text heavy. Prefferably, you want to play the past games to enjoy it to it's fullest because the first games in each arc is a slow burn that slowly develops the characters and worldbuilding. The moment I finished trails in the sky FC I immediately got the sequels and bought all the games in the series lol.
I literally just finished Ys 8 with the true ending, right before watching this. I'm definitely a fan of Ys and Falcom. I'd like to try the Legend of Heroes games, but I'm not so big on turn-based. Ys on the other hand is an action RPG with real-time inputs and timed dodges and guards (pretty satisfying stuff😁).
Trails got me back into turn based, to be fair I used to really like turn based and I got burnt out on it for a few years, but trails made me fall in love with the genre again. If you think there's a chance you can get into turn based I highly recommend.
I assume you entered the romanized writing of Sen no Kiseki instead of Kanji into google translate, and that's basically why you got such a strange translation. Japanese language is overburdened with homonyms. There's like dozens of words that are pronounced "Sen" and a couple that are pronounced "Kiseki" in japanese. So when you enter any japanese word written with english letters into a machine transaltor, it just assumes you entered the most common one. In this case, it assumed you entered 奇跡 (kiseki) while the word used in the name is actually 軌跡 (kiseki). Not sure how the translator interpreted "Sen", there, but the correct one is 閃 and it is not really a word, but a single kanji with a particualr meaning which is excluseviely used in conjugation, normally. And that's why Japanese needs kanji in the first place. Without them, it's much harder to tell which word exactly among hundreds with the same pronounciation is being used. This is also the reason why spoken Japanese is nuts and puns are in every dialogue in Japanese games. Just decided to share a little bit of language trivia for those interested.
It's weird that you get so few requests for 3, since I think it has the best OST in the series. Of course, I think these 2 songs are only okay. You already did "Spiral of Erebos" which is one of my favorite songs, ever. Another one is "Einhel Keep" (might be referred to as "Einhel Small Fortress"). I keep waiting for you to do that one.
tbh, I think it's mostly people thinking I'm familiar with the soundtrack as I've said I've "grown up with the first 3 Sonics." When looking back, it was mostly just the first one lol.
@@guruthosamarthruin4459 lol! Sorry, just woke up. I figured since I uploaded a sonic 3 vid today, the 3 was for that. Let me now properly respond to your message.
Yea idk, maybe the TOCS / SNK crowd haven't really found me yet, just a few requests here and there. I searched for Einhel and nothing came up unfortunately. Hopefully someday it gets requested.
Oh snap I’m in this game
Yo?? What the heck, I didn't know you watched my channel. Loved you in FF7R, haha nice seeing you man!
@@JessesAuditorium been watching for a while actually! I’m a lifelong musician and I love seeing others’ reactions to music.
You play the goat Ash Carbide. Also I love your performance as Roche you're awesome lol
Eyyyy you voiced Ash? You did amazing with the role, I loved it!
@@Zephhi Thanks yo
The Legend of Heroes is the parent series, known in Japanese as Eiyū Densetsu
Kiseki is the subseries (localised to Trails)
The Trails series (currently) comprises the 6th to 9th sagas in The Legend of Heroes series, they aren't connected to the games before them that didn't have the title of Kiseki.
The 6th series is Sora no Kiseki FC, SC and 3rd (Trails in the Sky)
The 7th series is Zero/Ao no Kiseki (Trails from Zero/to Azure)
The 8th series is Sen no Kiseki I-IV + Hajimari no Kiseki (Cold Steel I-IV, Reverie)
The 9th series is Kuro no Kiseki I & II (Daybreak)
The next game is Kai no Kiseki, it remains to be seen if this will be the 10th or part of the 9th.
I hope that explained the confusing chronology and naming of this oddball franchise.
They are still being made, the latest in the series is Kuro no Kiseki or Trails through Daybreak. They take a couple years to come to the West officially and Daybreak is actually coming out in NA in July. Its been out in Japan for like 3 years now. There is a pretty crazy cult following that actually has been translating the games years ahead of their official release which is pretty crazy.
The Legend of Heroes series has been going on since I think the early 90s or even late 80s but the Trails/Kiseki sub series is it's own thing that's been going on since the early 00s. They are broken up into arcs, there is Trails in the Sky or Sora no Kiseki, Trails from Zero/Azure, Trails of Cold Steel and Trails through Daybreak. They take place in various regions in the same world and each have their own stories that also connect to and overarching plot. The Kiseki name is just how we refer to the Japanese names. They are called the "Trails" series in the West.
I'm typing as I'm watching haha it's a series of like 11 RPGs now but they break it up into arcs where people can jump in. They tend to introduce a new cast of characters with each arc and then sprinkle in some of the older characters and references to the old games as you go on.
Also, Step Ahead is indeed a battle theme. It's used for certain bosses in the game. Solid as the Rock of Juno (long name) is a big set piece / dungeon theme that doubles as a battle theme.
quick addendum actually kuro no kiseki Kai is the latest in the series
Step Ahead is for a specific theme of boss fight, basically against a trickster.
@raginggodmandalorian4493 it's called Kai no Kiseki
The art for Cold Steel 3 really does go pretty hard. Falcom really nails their artwork most of the time.
Speaking of Kiseki/Trails, the new entry just got a showcase and daaaamn, the ost shown there was amazing. Can't wait for the inevitable torrent of ost from that when it comes out
Also as per your mention of how they mixed classical sound with rock, I think that might be intentional. Trails' setting is a continent that has been experiencing massive leap in technological advancement, so throughout the series, it's a mix of classical settings like castles and villages, noble classes, etc, but you have cars and tanks and other things within it, and the forts and stuffs looks like if a medieval fort have modern technologies. It's neat how the music also reflects that sometimes.
On another note, Falcom Music Channel isn't the actual Falcom channel. He's just so goated and been archiving all the tracks that he could. Falcom themselves are also cool with it, so it's a pretty nice mutually beneficial relationship
Funnily enough out of the two tracks Step Ahead is actually the boss theme (although since it was mostly used for battles against the antagonist group Ouroboros, it’s arguably a character theme too). It might sound out of place, but the Trails series is no stranger to having more upbeat sounding tracks for boss fights. The Juno track serves as a dungeon/set piece theme that continues playing whilst in battles. It’s used to great effect ingame, as it really helps drive you forward whilst assaulting a massive naval fortress of the same name.
It's really out of place. A great track but holy shit it doesn't fit for those fights at all lmao
@@Zephhi I think it fits Campanella at least. You could argue it does somewhat fit Shirley too, since the upbeat nature of it matches how much she enjoys violence.
Hey, some quick info about Step Ahead: It is a boss theme which plays as you fight the members of "Ourobouros" (evil organisation) but at the same it is a theme that resembles growth. You stood NO chance against these members in the second game where you had to get carried while here, in the 3rd game, you can actually compete with them. That's also why this isn't as "tragic" or "heavy" as other Trails boss themes. You actually can stand your ground in these fights.
"The Legend of Heroes" is the name of the series, though in the last two decades it has been focused on the Trails/Kiseki subseries.
"Sen no Kiseki" more literally translates into something like "Trails of Flash", where "Flash" refers to the glint of sword being unsheathed. I've always thought of "Trails of Cold Steel" as a very clever translation that brings roughly the same idea.
Ok so Sen in Japanese is hard to describe. It's the flash of the light reflecting on metal. They chose Cold Steel for the localization because of one of the music named "Glint of Cold Steel" (Cold Steel 1 battle theme). Here it has a triple meaning : The steel which the light reflects on, the trails of cold steel could also reference rails, as trains are important in this game, and also "Steel" is kinda important in this game's lore, but i won't go into too much detail. Great reaction !
Step Ahead plays during certain boss battles.
Solid as the Rock of Juno plays when you're storming a naval fort (Juno Naval Fortress).
That second piece of music seems like one that one probably enjoys a lot more with the context.
Storming a naval fortress
Been a while since I played Trails of Cold Steel III (Sen No Kiseki III) but, iirc the first one is used for a specific boss battle, the second plays during a dungeon where there is a lot at stake.
Jindo does do music for other games from time to time but from what I've seen at least he pretty much sticks close to falcom even though he isn't part of the actual falcom sound team
Falcom is basically a company full of fans, for fans.
"Kiseki" is a pretty complicated word in japanese, it's one of those words where it can be written in several ways and so it carries several meanings. It can mean "Miracle" "Path/Trail" or "Fate/Destiny" and probably more
There's a song by a band called "Greeeen" called Kiseki that uses it in all of its forms and its a pretty fun song (The band is made up entirely of Dentists(yes the scary teeth doctors) which makes it more fun)
"Sen" is less complicated, but more heavily romanticized. Its usually usage translates to "Flash" literally, but its specifically meaning the reflection of light off the blade sword as its being drawn from its sheathe
The main battle theme in the first "Sen" game is called "The Glint of Cold Steel" so when translating the game title, the translators saw that, and decided on "Trails of Cold Steel", and asked Falcom for approval on it. Falcom went "Yes that's perfect that's exactly the intent we had"
And yes the games are still being made, all of the Trails games are part of the same massive overarching story thats been in the works for two decades now, starting with Trails in the Sky in 2004 and is still ongoing. Each series (Sky, Crossbell, Cold Steel) has its own stories, but they all fit in to the enormous world and story of "Trails"
It's not that complicated, Falcom's kiseki games use the kanji for "trails" so that part is a pretty literal translation.
@@ony806 oh i just mean the term in general. when its written its easy to know which one is being used but the actual verbal word is what i was talking about
The 2nd song is a stage theme, since Trails is a turn based RPG like Final Fantasy series, you have stage themes as you progress through a level and reach the boss fight. These 'stages' only happens in that section of the story and thus play those exclusive songs, and when battles trigger, the song doesn't change, because you are 'forward relentlessly' against the waves against you.
Always a treat to see you upload a new video
The titles for each of the trails series is actually kind of a double meaning. The word "kiseki" in japanese from my understanding can both mean trail and miracle and both of these words are very relevant to the stories of the games. As an example, "sen no kiseki" can translate to both "trails of cold steel" and "miracle of cold steel" I find the naming convention of this series very clever personally.
Step ahead probably one of my favorite boss theme in cold steel
So, I just want to touch on the issue of translation a bit, since you brought it up.
There are some people who seem to believe that translating material is as simple as just literally translating the words and letting them speak for themselves. In reality, however, there's an art to accurately conveying not just meaning, but intent, across languages.
Consider, for example, Sen no Kiseki. Translated literally, it essentially means "the trail of a flash," which is meant to evoke the appearance of a blade being unsheathed, or the glint of sunlight off the surface of a railway engine. Using the translation "Trails of Cold Steel" is not in any way literal, but it conveys that same essential intent. It tells you this is a game about cold, unrelenting progress, for all the good and ill that entails, and that makes it a good translation.
they are still being made and currently on a whole dif name/protagonist, and yes they still have different names in NA and JP, the current is Kuro no Kiseki, or Trails through daybreak in english.
Ah, Step Ahead. I really like this track (both in battle and as a track on its own) so I was really looking forward to your reaction to it. It's polarizing as heck in the falcom community though. Jazz is just like that sometimes.
As for the volumes question, the soundtracks are just huge so it requires several discs per game.
I could never imagine that track being polarizing. I popped off EVERY time it played, jazz battle music is severely underrated.
One of my favorite parts about Falcom is the fact that their two most popular RPGs represent two distinct genres of music.
The Ys series is my personal choice. It borrows elements of thrash metal, traditional heavy metal, progressive metal and an orchestral score into a soundtrack that rocks harder than the buck of a raging bull.
The Trails series, on the other hand, sits on the electronic side of progressive metal, borrowing elements from trance and house music.
Both are simply phenomenal.
Someone has probably already noted, but "Kiseki" can translate to Miracle or Trail, with the difference in meaning coming from the kanji used, which is probably where the confusion from Google occurred!
Yeah so, simplest way to put it:
This is a sub-series of The Legend of Heroes. It's mostly just known as Trails in the west, and Kiseki in Japan. Trails in the Sky 1-3 (Sora no Kiseki) were the first 3 games. Zero and Azure (Zero and Ao no Kiseki) were the 4th and 5th. And Cold Steel (Sen no Kiseki) 1-4 are the 6th-9th games. Also if Reverie (Hajimari) ever shows up that's game number 10.
The localizations like to take liberties so some names are different, but they didn't want to market them with their Japanese titles. (Hajimari means "Beginning" but it's not a prequel or anything and Reverie is more directly relevant to gameplay stuff so it works.)
Hope that makes sense lol.
I know you react to like 20 songs a week, and there's a billion other commenters so tried to keep this concise. I see how you could be confused haha.
Yes Cold Steel III music
I'm glad you found Legend of Heroes music!
Guess it's time for you to play it and find out :D
So kiseki can be written as miracle or trails, but seems in japanese it's written as trails. For sen: it is a word with no English translation that refers to the moment when you unsheath a sword. It's meant to represent the militarization of the erebonian Empire and foreshadow the looming civil war.
YAY finally some CSIII!
Falcom pretty much makes solid games in general. Ys is more of a action rpg with a simple but compelling story that can be enjoyed while having no prior knowledge. Meanwhile, trails is a turn based rpg with an interconnected story and pretty text heavy. Prefferably, you want to play the past games to enjoy it to it's fullest because the first games in each arc is a slow burn that slowly develops the characters and worldbuilding. The moment I finished trails in the sky FC I immediately got the sequels and bought all the games in the series lol.
I literally just finished Ys 8 with the true ending, right before watching this. I'm definitely a fan of Ys and Falcom. I'd like to try the Legend of Heroes games, but I'm not so big on turn-based. Ys on the other hand is an action RPG with real-time inputs and timed dodges and guards (pretty satisfying stuff😁).
Trails got me back into turn based, to be fair I used to really like turn based and I got burnt out on it for a few years, but trails made me fall in love with the genre again. If you think there's a chance you can get into turn based I highly recommend.
I assume you entered the romanized writing of Sen no Kiseki instead of Kanji into google translate, and that's basically why you got such a strange translation. Japanese language is overburdened with homonyms. There's like dozens of words that are pronounced "Sen" and a couple that are pronounced "Kiseki" in japanese. So when you enter any japanese word written with english letters into a machine transaltor, it just assumes you entered the most common one.
In this case, it assumed you entered 奇跡 (kiseki) while the word used in the name is actually 軌跡 (kiseki). Not sure how the translator interpreted "Sen", there, but the correct one is 閃 and it is not really a word, but a single kanji with a particualr meaning which is excluseviely used in conjugation, normally.
And that's why Japanese needs kanji in the first place. Without them, it's much harder to tell which word exactly among hundreds with the same pronounciation is being used. This is also the reason why spoken Japanese is nuts and puns are in every dialogue in Japanese games.
Just decided to share a little bit of language trivia for those interested.
It's weird that you get so few requests for 3, since I think it has the best OST in the series. Of course, I think these 2 songs are only okay.
You already did "Spiral of Erebos" which is one of my favorite songs, ever. Another one is "Einhel Keep" (might be referred to as "Einhel Small Fortress"). I keep waiting for you to do that one.
tbh, I think it's mostly people thinking I'm familiar with the soundtrack as I've said I've "grown up with the first 3 Sonics." When looking back, it was mostly just the first one lol.
@@JessesAuditorium Was this the comment you meant to repond to? Lol. It doesn't sound like it...
@@guruthosamarthruin4459 lol! Sorry, just woke up. I figured since I uploaded a sonic 3 vid today, the 3 was for that. Let me now properly respond to your message.
Yea idk, maybe the TOCS / SNK crowd haven't really found me yet, just a few requests here and there. I searched for Einhel and nothing came up unfortunately. Hopefully someday it gets requested.