The final game in the 22-year-old JRPG series Trails will be announced in 2031 and released the following year, Falcom president Toshihiro Kondo has announced.
For the latest print issue of Weekly Famitsu (via Gematsu), Kondo reveals some key details about the future of the Trails series, including the fact that its narrative conclusion has already been decided. He also says the theme song for Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter, the remake of the second game in the series, is already finished just months after Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter's launch, and the plot for The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon 2 is already written just weeks after Horizon 1 released.
As for the final game in the series, there isn't a whole lot that's publicly known about it right now, but Kondo hopes to have an announcement ready for Nihon Falcom's 45th anniversary in 2031. Kondo has previously said the end is near for the Trails series, but now we have a little more specificity with regards to release timing.
In case it wasn't already clear, there are a ton of Trails games including 13 mainline entries since the original game launched in 2004, not to mention several spinoffs. All in all, GR's Dustin Bailey calculates that it'll take you about 984 hours to beat every game in the series, likely pushing past 1000 hours if you're playing the expanded remakes. Luckily, you have a good six years to go (at least, if we're being honest with ourselves) to prepare for the finale.
Related: Trails boss tells players intimidated by nearly 1,000 hours of JRPG catch-up to "just start with whichever title catches your interest," which is true if you're also willing to start One Piece at episode 1,155
