The Legend of Heroes, known in Japan asEiyū Densetsu,^[a] is a series ofrole-playing video games developed byNihon Falcom. First starting as a part of theDragon Slayer series in the late 1980s, the series evolved into its own decade-spanning, interconnected series with seventeen entries, including several subseries. All games in the franchise released since 2004 are part of theTrails subseries, known asKiseki^[1] in Japan. The most recent entry,Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter, was released in 2025.

The series was created byNihon Falcom. It began with the release ofDragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes in 1989 as a part ofDragon Slayer franchise. It was released for various computer platforms, as well as consoles such as theSega Genesis,Super NES, and theTurboGrafx-16. The latter would be the first and last game in the series released in English until 2005. In Japan however, the series continued withDragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes II, released in 1992 for a similar selection of platforms.

The third game in the series,The Legend of Heroes III (1994), later released in English asThe Legend of Heroes II: Prophecy of the Moonlight Witch, dropped "Dragon Slayer" from the title. It would be followed up byThe Legend of Heroes IV (1996) andThe Legend of Heroes V (1999), later known outside of Japan as respectivelyThe Legend of Heroes: A Tear of Vermillion andThe Legend of Heroes III: Song of the Ocean. The three games form the "Gagharv trilogy", a subseries following a shared narrative within the same world.

After the conclusion of the Gagharv trilogy, Falcom introduced a completely new world and story with their next game:The Legend of Heroes VI: Trails in the Sky (2004). The game, later dropping the VI from the title, received two sequels:Trails in the Sky SC (2006) andTrails in the Sky the 3rd (2007). The three games made up the first ("Liberl") arc of a new subseries, known asKiseki (軌跡) in Japanese andTrails in English.Trails would end up becoming a major success for Falcom, with everyLegend of Heroes game released since being a part of it.

The next two games in the series,The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero (2010) andTrails to Azure (2011), form the "Crossbell" arc of theTrails narrative. TheTrails of Cold Steel arc would follow, starting withThe Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel in 2013 and ending withTrails of Cold Steel IV in 2018.^[2]The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie is the epilogue to the Crossbell andCold Steel/"Erebonia" arcs. The ongoing "Calvard" arc has seen three releases and began withThe Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak (2021).

ADragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroesoriginal video animation was released in 1992, loosely based on the story of the first game.^[3] In 1997, it was dubbed into English byUrban Vision and was released onto VHS in North America. In 2009, three volumes of aTrails in the Sky manga were published in Japan byKadokawa Shoten, which was followed next year by a sequel,Trails from Zero: Pre-Story, published byASCII Media Works. Two original video animation anime episodes ofTrails in the Sky were respectively released in October 2011 and January 2012.^[4] A 12-episodeanime series set in theTrails universe and produced byTatsunoko Production,The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel – Northern War, aired in early 2023.^[5]

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