[UPDATE] Trails of Cold Steel Anime Details Provided; Early 2023 Delay, New Protagonist, Occurs Between Cold Steel II & III

Nihon Falcom and Tatsunoko Production have shared new details regarding the upcoming Trails of Cold Steel anime announced last year with scant information. The anime’s official title will be The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel – Northern War, and it will have a new female protagonist, Lavie. The project has been delayed to early 2023. Further, given this anime’s title, it’s safe to assume it takes place between Trails of Cold Steel II and Trails of Cold Steel III during the North Ambrian occupation discussed in the latter title.

Hidekazu Sato is directing the project with UserJoy, SYOU, NADA, and Funimation managing production. Lastly of note is that studio Tatsunoko Production is animating it.

Despite overall Trails of Cold Steel protagonist Rean Schwarzer not taking the helm as the protagonist for this anime adaptation, he will likely still appear in varying capacities. The North Ambrian war is a grave subject matter in Trails of Cold Steel III, affecting Rean quite heavily. Those who played the title will know what toll this conflict took on him and other characters.

The following synopsis has been provided via Funimation’s latest blog post:

“The anime adaptation of the acclaimed game series will follow a young girl named Lavie as its new protagonist, as she adventures about in North Ambria, a location in the northwestern part of the Zemuria continent.”

Personally, as a series fan, this is probably the best possible outcome for an anime as it will cover events only talked about in-game and were never shown. Therefore, I am eagerly awaiting this project and hope it is qualitative.

More information on this upcoming 2023 anime can be viewed via Tatsunoko Pro’s official website. The following image is provided, though it’s just a mash-up of previous official artwork from Cold Steel II and Cold Steel III.

UPDATE: New key art for the anime was revealed, highlighting the new protagonist, Lavie, viewable below:

UPDATE 7/27/2022: Falcom has launched the official website for the upcoming anime, stating that more information will arise soon ahead of its scheduled 2023 broadcast.

The next localized entry for the franchise will be Trails from Zero.

Trails from Zero has players take control of protagonist Lloyd Bannings and the rest of the Special Support Section as they aid the citizens of Crossbell City with various tasks and gradually uncover a deep-seated corruption at the heart of the city with criminality at its core.

Alongside the strategical turn-based combat fans have expected from the series, the addition of cooperative attacks with party members makes the bonds between the Special Support Section an active ingredient in combat potential. This release boasts a High-Speed mode, which prior localized Trails entries contain. This functionality allows players to speed past cutscenes and exploration for whatever reasons they deem fit.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero is releasing for Switch, PlayStation 4, and PC via the Epic Games Store and Steam in Fall 2022.

The Limited Edition of Trails from Zero’s localized release is currently available to pre-order for U.S. and European customers.

Merchandise retailer Pin Box is selling various official Crossbell-related goodies.