I always thought I'd be displeased with XSEED moving on to Sen and potentially ignoring Zero and Ao, but now that it seems like it might actually happen and I had to give it some real thought, maybe it won't be so bad.
With SC possibly being released this year and assuming they're seriously aiming to have Kiseki/Trails become a 'popular' series for JRPGs in the west, jumping to Sen right now seems like their 'best' choice.
If Sen is successful and they can get Sen 2 out not too long after, that'd probably mean that any games released in the future could come our way, as well. Of course, that's not going to 'solve the issue' of not having Zero and Ao, but there are other ways to at least explain major plot points out to players, if they so wish, even if it's some sort of video or whatever -- think Xenosaga.
Surely, some people might not be ok with that, but since I don't see Falcom wrapping up Kiseki any time soon, chances are there'll be a lot of future releases in the series still to come, and as time passes and more of these end up being potentially localized, missing out on 2 over a huge number of titles doesn't seem like too bad a trade off. At least personally speaking, of course, I'd take that over not getting anything.
Plus, we all know the issue with Zero and especially with Ao is that currently XSEED just doesn't have a viable platform to release those on. Evolution versions are owned by Chara-Ani, and there's the issue with the voice acting, whereas a PC version from Falcom for Ao doesn't exist, and who knows what steps would need to be taken in order to port the game and/or strike a deal with the chinese company behind the existing Ao PC port. HOWEVER, should the series establish itself around here, there's no saying that, sometime in the future, a version of Crossbell Arc won't be avaible on a platform where XSEED actually has a shot at getting the games out, so it's not like one should just abandon all hope forever, I guess?
Anyway, it sucks that we might not get Zero and Ao for now (or ever, who knows), especially since a lot of people claim Ao's the best in the series so far, but if that's what must be done for the series to have a future around here, so be it. I'll most likely buy it and play it.
