What order do I play The Legend of Heroes (Trails) games?

There is a proper order to play Trails. But for the longest time, the community's biggest issue was the inaccessibility of most of these titles in the West. In fact, Trails from Zero was only localized in 2022, when it contained integral characters to Trails of Cold Steel. If you're getting into Trails just now, you're very lucky. Most games are available on modern consoles or on PC.

The Sky series follows the story of Estelle Bright and her adopted brother Joshua. They're mercenaries (called “bracers”) working hard to keep the country of Liberl’s autonomy from the Erebonian Empire.

• Trails in the Sky
• Trails in the Sky Second Chapter (SC)
• Trails in the Sky the 3rd

Three months after the events of Sky the 3rd, a new character is introduced—a rookie police detective named Lloyd Bannings. He leads the Special Support Section in the city of Crossbell, which is an independent state. Crossbell is located between the infamous Erebonian Empire and the secretive Calvard Republic, so its sovereignty is always under threat.

• Trails from Zero
• Trails to Azure

Also known as the “main” arc of The Legend of Heroes series, the Cold Steel series follows the story of an Erebonian military student named Rean Schwarzer. The first and second game happen simultaneously with the Crossbell ones.

• Trails of Cold Steel
• Trails of Cold Steel II

After Cold Steel II, Rean graduates from school and becomes a Thors instructor. Trails of Cold Steel III is set two years after and introduces the main cast from both Liberl and Crossbell. The Legend of Heroes’ main story ends with Trails of Cold Steel IV, tying most loose ends, lore, and character arcs left behind in all previous games.

• Trails of Cold Steel III
• Trails of Cold Steel IV: End of Saga

All the Calvard games aren't all localized yet; there are two of them currently. The first game, officially titled as Trails through Daybreak, will get a Western release in summer 2024.

There is no information about the second one at the moment, but it is available in Japanese as 黎の軌跡 II or literally "Trails in the Dark II." However, given Falcom's naming sense, this will eventually be localized to Trails through Daybreak II in the West.

Trails through Daybreak is set a year after Trails into Reverie, featuring a new protagonist named Van Arkride, who works for the intelligence sector. It tackles Calvard postwar. The Daybreak seres is said to be a much shorter series compared to Cold Steel, but with all the twists that Reverie brought into play, I'm not so sure anymore.