Topic: Nihon Falcom games on NS2

I tried Trails from Zero on NS2 and it looks and runs excellent, however the game crashes when viewing movies in the home menu: the only movie that works, is the intro but all others make the game freeze; I reported the issue to Nintendo, hopefully the entire game will work and especially when these movies appear in the main story.

What other Falcom games has everyone else tried and do they have issues similar to Zero?

im curious to see if the same thing happens with azure or if anyone has tried playing through those parts where the FMV stuff shows up on either game since that sounds like it would literally make the games unable to be finished.

From the subreddit i did hear that some of the other games run into the blurry screen issues some switch 1 games run into due to the general low resolution which a lot of the falcom games had in handheld mode.

@Mgalens, Daybreak 1 looks good on NS2 but Daybreak 2 visual quality is worse in every aspect.

I'm concerned for Trails through the Horizon & Trails in sky 1st, on NS2 unless they make a NS2 versions it would be better to play these on NS1.

It's a shame because long JRPGS are best on a portable console and before the switch 2 came out I was really looking forward to playing these on the new hardware.

looking at this article
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2025/06/limited-run-games-s...

the mention about a "line of code" related to "video playback" does make me wonder if its also what could be behind this considering the quote "I believe this line of code is also causing compatibility issues with games from other publishers." considering the issues in zero seem to be related to the FMVs i wonder if the way zero handles FMVs is also affected.

@Mgalens, I agree, however it is strange that Xenoblade 1,2&3 all have no issues but it must be smaller third party games that have these issues, problem is, Nis America use PH3 (Peter Durante), I'm unsure whether he has a Dev kit.

heads up, the article for the latest update did make mention of potential improvements to switch1 games so curious to see if anything is improved regarding the Zero FMV issue.

@Mgalens hopefully, that would be really cool, in addition the latest game in the trails series just got announced for NS2, I really don't mind it being key card.

I am not sure if you have noticed but I have been working on a sort of Mega List of how Switch 1 things work on the Switch 2, and in relation to this I have been talking to lots of people across different forums and discord groups etc... The Switch 2 has only been out like 2 weeks and already some games that wouldn't even load on launch are playing much better due to both changes by the developers and Nintendo... So when it comes to these games I wouldn't lose heart its early days.

@kerr9000, cool that is really good news, unfortunately the issues i discovered in Trails from Zero is still there, I checked earlier this afternoon.

In my experience the only Nis America games that have switch 2 issues are Trails from Zero and Trails into Azure, hopefully the developer is aware of these minor issues and fixes them.

@xenobladexfan It's good that you contacted Nintendo, but since they're such a large company, there's a decent chance that your report won't actually make it from the customer service representative to the team that would actually be responsible for investigating these sorts of issues. Especially since Nintendo (bizarrely) doesn't actually have an official process for users to report issues with backwards compatibility.

Because of this, I would also recommend reporting the issue to the game's publisher, in this case, NISA. According to their contact page , you can email them at [email protected] for game-related issues.

Compatibility is the first priority, for sure. But I’m also waiting anxiously for Switch 2 patches, either free or paid, that let me play my Trails game with higher resolutions and frame rates.

@topsekret, thanks for the suggestion I will try contacting the publisher too.

@Doctor-Moo, the trails games on switch 2 that need performance boosts are trails daybreak ii and the cold steel games as these, struggled on the original switch.

@xenobladexfan Nintendo just released system update 20.2.0. This update fixed some backwards compatibility bugs in a couple other games, so might be worth testing Trails from Zero again. (I'm curious to know if it's fixed cause I do plan to play this game eventually.)

@topsekret, unfortunately the error still occurs when viewing movies on the menu screen, i just checked about 1 minute ago, however it is still a great game and will be worth picking up atleast for the original switch.

does feel like the publisher contact method is our best bet, hoping someone ends up with a reply.

also curious to see if Durante or PH3 as a whole has switch 2 dev-kits

@Mgalens nis america have dev kits because they are porting the latest game in the series to switch 2, however i'm unsure how much of a issue the movie viewing error is for the game: I only got to first chapter and everything was okay but if it makes the game unplayable later on, that would be a issue worth reporting.

Does make me wonder if theres been anyone reporting finishing the crossbell duology on switch 2 for clarification if the FMV crashing is only in the gallery (though it does seem odd if its happening on both games) though i do know that the games both real load a lot of their FMVs, like it feels like Zero most of the FMV sequences seem to play during the scenes prior to the final dungeon (was one of my fave moments in the duology)

either way do hope that various people involved are aware in case of potential fixes such as either falcom, NISA or even PH3/durante/etc themselves (iirc durante did show some interest in the system in an interview but unsure if he and his team have dev-kits)

@Mgalens, pretty sure durante has a dev kit because of Trails Horizon on switch 2, I presume he worked on that port, however I finished these games last year on switch 1 and they are very long games 80 hours for Trails from Zero and 110 hours for Azure due to the games being difficult.
I did play the first chapter of zero on switch 2 and it ran okay, also these games are niche too which makes it hard looking for information online.

@xenobladexfan
In terms of horizon on switch 2 im curious if the developer is known since from what i gather Cold steel III and IV were Engine software, Trails to Zero/from azure were PH3 (durantes company) Reverie i think was engine software again and i think the daybreak games were falcom themselves on switch.

i am curious to see if durante is aware of the issues with the games, from what i hear while they are beatable on switch 1/2 the FMVs are outright skipped automatically which is unfortunate as they are generally played at very important moments (such as those ones during the leadup to the final dungeon in zero) and it is unfortunate that some players may end up missing out on those scenes with some maybe not even being aware.

unsure about the switch but from what i gather durante was quite hands on with discussion on the steam forums for those versions of the games though sadly the switch versions had no dedicated forums sadly.
(i do also hear that some of the issues with cold steel 3 still remain on switch 2 such as the random crashing in certain areas)

Trails of the Sky 1st runs amazing on Switch 2, even being the NSW1 version. Its surprisingly sharp and crisp for being a NSW1 release. And with a NSW2 version being offered at launch for $1 upgrade I can only imagine how much better itll look and run.

Ys X Proud Nordics is also a NSW2 game (exclusive, even) so Im glad to see Falcom treating us so well now. A far cry from early NSW1 days where we were begging them to bring Trails to Switch. It was Ys VIII that outsold other versions in the west that got them on board. Though it took a while before they decided to handle Switch in house, Im glad they finally got there.