UDON Entertainment Releasing the Legend of Heroes Character and Illustration Books This November

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UDONEntertainment has announced today that they will be releasing the two book set for the Kiseki sub-series of the Legend of Heroes series in November. These books are The Legend of Heroes: The Illustrations and The Legend of Heroes: The Characters. They were originally released 4/13/2012 by Softbank Creative.

The press release from UDON reads as such:

JUNE 24TH— UDON Entertainment is proud to announce that it will release two new art books this fall based on the venerable The Legend of Heroes franchise! With a dozen games released over the past 20 years, The Legend of Heroes is a mainstay of Japanese RPGs from pioneering game developer Nihon Falcom. The latest games in this series including Trails of Blue, Trails of Zero, and the Trails in the Sky trilogy, have inspired amazing love and dedication from fans around the world! This fall, UDON will bring the art books collecting materials from these fantastic games to the North American public with The Legend of Heroes: The Illustrations and The Legend of Heroes: The Characters.

The Legend of Heroes: The Illustrations weighs in at more than 272 pages, and is comprised entirely of gorgeous, fully-rendered artwork created for the games, including pin-ups, story artwork, advertising art, and much more. The Legend of Heroes: The Characters is also 272 pages, and is a character-designers dream come true! It’s full to the brim with character designs, costumes, facial expressions, rough concepts, and tons more! Both books have been completely translated into English, and the artwork contained within covers the games Trails of Blue, Trails of Zero, and the Trails in the Sky trilogy, as well as the “Trails” artworks from the spin-off game “Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga.”

“This isn’t the first time we’ve released an English-language edition of an art book based on a game that isn’t available in North America,” said UDON Marketing Director Christopher Butcher. “It won’t be the last, either. While traveling in Japan, UDON Chief Erik Ko and I came across these books and just loved them, even in the Japanese. Whether fans are only familiar with the Trails in the Sky anime that was recently released in North America, or are coming to this series for the first time, we feel that they will appreciate the strong character designs, beautifully rendered artwork, and the hints of the epic adventures contained in these books… even without the games in hand!”

The Legend of Heroes: The Characters and The Legend of Heroes: The Illustrations will be simultaneously released this November by UDON Entertainment. Look for these books in comic book stores, book stores, online, or wherever beautiful books are sold!

They have made note that the titles are subject to licensor approval as well- so covers and artwork may change in the future.

One thing to make note of with these books, however, is that they will be heavy with spoilers for the future games of the series. They reveal secrets of some party members and even reveal the secretive nature of the main villains of two of the Kiseki titles.

[ UDON Entertainment Website ]

3 Replies to “UDON Entertainment Releasing the Legend of Heroes Character and Illustration Books This November”

  1. In fact, some of the sample images contain spoilers though you have to know certain things about the games to begin with to realize that. I suppose as long as people know going in to expect such things (Udon telling everyone that the books cover five games does that) it’s okay. Unlike a certain other product I could name, it’s not being marketed as something it isn’t so nobody is likely to spoil themselves by pure accident.

    Anyhow, it’s great to see the series getting more attention and I’ll be happy to pick up the books a second time.

  2. I do find it a bit weird that UDON Press are releasing game artbooks that covers mostly games that have not been released in the US, since only FC has been released. Even their Atelier Chronicle artbook covered more games released in the US.

    Good news, all in all. I definitely will be double dipping for the US releases, both to show support and to also be able to read any of the text.

    C.T.

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