Some sad news for Trails (Kiseki) fans. NIS America has told The Zero Field, a fan translation team dedicated to the Trails series, that they must take down all of the translation spreadsheets they have made for the series. This includes their spreadsheets for Zero no Kiseki, Ao no Kiseki, Sen no Kiseki III, Sen no Kiseki IV, Hajimari no Kiseki, and Kuro no Kiseki. Before official localizations were available for some of those titles, fans could purchase a legal copy of the game and use the game’s respective spreadsheet to follow along with the story and understand what was happening. According to Kitsune, one of the Zero Field’s lead translators, NISA contacted the team due to “perceived copyright infringements” and asked them to stop the work. In a follow-up update by Corey “Millium Man”, the team attempted to talk things over with NISA, but NISA refused to negotiate and said Zero Field must take down all of their translation sheets, from Zero to Kuro.
With the release of Trails from Zero fast approaching, this was not the type of message NISA needed to send to the Trails community. They have no problem working with the Geofront to help officially release Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure to western fans. But for some reason, they have a problem with Zero Field making translation spreadsheets? Now, from Zero to Hajimari, I understand a bit, considering they have the localization rights to those titles. But, they have not confirmed or announced that they are releasing Kuro no Kiseki in the west, at all. Can they actually claim a copyright infringement for a title they haven’t announced yet? This is a disappointing situation overall, and I’m sad things had to come to this, so close to a day that should be a joyous moment for fans of the series.
My heart goes out to Kitsune, Corey “Millium Man”, and the rest of the Zero Field team. They provided these fan translations because they love the Trails (Kiseki) series and wanted overseas fans the chance to be able to play, and understand, the games.
SOURCES: Kitsune, Corey “Millium Man”
