The Legend of Heroes Sen no Kiseki III Exclusively for PlayStation 4 in Fall 2017

At the 2016 annual shareholder meeting, Falcom has revealed that Sen no Kiseki III will be released in the fall of 2017 exclusively for the PlayStation 4.

This title will, unsurprisingly, continue the story of not only the long-running ‘Kiseki’ series, but will also continue through the story taking place in Erebonia, though this time, it will be set in the year 1206. This game will feature a new story involving Rean, who is now being celebrated as the Ashen Chevalier, a national hero to the Erebonia Empire.

The game will feature staples of the series, from its rich story and its strategic combat system, but it will also see a major evolution for the series. Few details are known about this game, but they will come to light in the future.

Additionally, during the question and answer session of the shareholder meeting, Kondo was asked about the console exclusivity for Sen no Kiseki III. The primary issue for the PlayStation 4 exclusivity is to ensure that the game will sell internationally, rather than just domestically.

He was also asked about the data link between Sen no Kiseki II to Sen no Kiseki III, and Kondo said that while the data link would be difficult to accomplish, they are looking into a way to do it.

The game’s key visual is below:

The first screenshots for the game:

[ Famitsu Article
[ 4gamer.net Article
[ Sen no Kiseki III Official Website ]
[ Falcom IR Report (PDF) ]

6 Replies to “The Legend of Heroes Sen no Kiseki III Exclusively for PlayStation 4 in Fall 2017”

  1. This is a little upsetting to me, for a couple of petty reasons.

    1. They literally stated themselves that data linking from CS1 > CS2 > CS3 will be hard to implement. It was a nice little feature that I appreciated and would actually miss if it didn’t make it in. I personally think they’ll just scrap the idea, but whatever.

    2. It started on the Vita and I liked it. I was hoping to finish the series on it especially since I’ll be even busier by the time it comes out state-side.

    3. Their reason for PS4 exclusivity. It’s rather suspicious and I don’t buy it.

    Falcom is still pretty niche and I think there would be literally no real difference in sales compared to if it was developed for the Vita/PS3. The only people who would buy it would be those who played CS1 and CS2. Mostly, the same people people who were fans of Falcom for years now.

    If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say it was actually because the PS3’s time in both international and domestic waters are over. While the Vita never really had a strong presence in the US, it did have a much stronger presence in Nipland, but even that could be ending soon.

    1. Falcom was probably getting tired of the vita and decided not to gimp the game. You can immediately see this with Ys VIII, the ps4 version is gonna have some more stuff that had to be cut most likely due to vita capabilities. They might think of something for Sen 1 and 2 on ps4, maybe like a quick double pack port. Could also possibly just point people to psnow, the games are on there in NA so I assume they’re there in Japan too.

    2. > 1. They literally stated themselves that data linking from CS1 > CS2 > CS3 will be hard to implement. It was a nice little feature that I appreciated and would actually miss if it didn’t make it in. I personally think they’ll just scrap the idea, but whatever.

      Mind you, the data link between SC -> 3rd in the Sora trilogy was only just to give you items at the start. That’s it. It never has any use again later. So I wouldn’t be surprised if something like that happens with Sen 2 -> Sen 3 in the first place.

      > 2. It started on the Vita and I liked it. I was hoping to finish the series on it especially since I’ll be even busier by the time it comes out state-side.

      Falcom liked the Vita, too. They developed a few games for it, but we know that they had issues with it, since they had confirmed that the Vita was the cause of pulling content from both Sen II and from Ys VIII, as Cata said. As much as I’m dismayed that it won’t be on the Vita, I’m eager with the PS4 release simply because it feels like we can get the game they intended from the start in this situation, instead of a game they had to pare down due to hardware limitations.

      > 3. Their reason for PS4 exclusivity. It’s rather suspicious and I don’t buy it.

      How is it suspicious? Let’s look at it this way. We know for a fact that Falcom won’t let anyone touch their scripts until a game is released in Japan. I’ve even heard rumors that licensing negotiation can’t even start until that point. As a result, if XSEED were to go for Sen III and release it as Cold Steel III, they can’t even start negotiations on it until it’s released at the end of 2017. (I’m going to guess September.)

      When we finally got Trails of Cold Steel- it had been two years since the first game was released in Japan. If we take this timeline as an example, an English release of Sen III will not likely happen until sometime in 2019. What kind of position do you think the Vita will be in here in the west? If it’s dying now, it’s definitely not going to be running in 2019, and the PS4 will likely be Sony’s primary focus at that point.

      As a result, if a game is to be localized, it needs to be future-proofed for the time period that will go between the Japanese release and the English localization of the game.

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