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The origin point of the Trails series is finally moving again. On September 16, 2026, Nihon Falcom announced that it has signed a commercialization license agreement with South Korea’s NEOWIZ covering The Legend of Heroes III: Song of the Ocean—known in Japan as Shiroki Majo, the 1994 PC-9801 RPG—for development on PC and consoles and a release in the global market. In other words, the thing fans have waited 30 years for, a modern-platform version of White Witch, has officially started moving.
The partner is a sharp pick, too. NEOWIZ is the company behind Lies of P, DJMAX RESPECT V and SANABI—a publisher that wins on storytelling. Handing them the entry point of the Gagharv Trilogy is about as legible a pairing as you could ask for.
That said, all we know right now is that a contract exists. No release window, no platform breakdown, no word on whether this is a full remake or a port. Getting those mixed up is how hype turns into disappointment later, so let’s separate the confirmed facts from the blanks.
- Nihon Falcom has signed a commercialization license deal with NEOWIZ for The Legend of Heroes III: White Witch
- The partner is NEOWIZ of Lies of P fame, a studio strong on story-driven titles
- White Witch is the first entry in the Gagharv Trilogy, and topped Falcom’s revival poll
- Want to play it today? The Switch EGG Console version is out now for $6
- Release window, platforms and the scale of the remake are all still unannounced
If the words “White Witch” still give you a twinge, here’s everything that was announced and everything that wasn’t. The unknowns stay marked as unknowns.
*Prices in this article are converted from Japanese yen at ¥153 = US$1 (September 2026 rate).
The Legend of Heroes III: White Witch is coming back—what’s actually confirmed?
One thing is confirmed: Nihon Falcom and NEOWIZ have signed a commercialization license agreement covering The Legend of Heroes III: White Witch. The purpose is development for PC and consoles, plus a release in the global market. Falcom published the news as investor relations information dated September 16, 2026.
Commercialization license agreement signed with NEOWIZ for the development of The Legend of Heroes III: White Witch for PC and consoles and its worldwide release
Source:Nihon Falcom
The phrase worth circling is “release in the global market.” This isn’t a domestic retro reissue—it’s built from the start to sell worldwide. With the Trails series still gaining ground overseas, bringing its headwaters to English-speaking players head-on carries real weight.
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Announcement date | September 16, 2026 |
| Title | The Legend of Heroes III: White Witch (1994, PC-9801) |
| Agreement | Commercialization license (Nihon Falcom to NEOWIZ) |
| Platforms | PC and consoles (specific systems unannounced) |
| Territory | Global market |
| Release date and price | Unannounced (as of September 16, 2026) |
Who is NEOWIZ? The Lies of P track record matters here
NEOWIZ was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. It operates under co-CEOs Park Sung-jun and Bae Tae-geun, and Falcom’s announcement describes it as a company skilled at developing games that fuse outstanding storytelling with excellent gameplay experiences.
Its recent catalog includes Lies of P, DJMAX RESPECT V, SANABI, Shape of Dreams and Cat & Soup. That’s a wide range—soulslike, rhythm, pixel-art action, casual—but the common thread is winning on presentation and narrative craft. A studio that turned Pinocchio into a global soulslike hit is now tasked with translating Falcom’s 1990s storytelling voice into a modern one. That’s the most interesting part of this whole thing to me.
There’s also a quieter precedent. FOW GAMES, a NEOWIZ subsidiary, announced a smartphone RPG based on the Gagharv Trilogy back in 2024 and ran pre-registration for it in South Korea. NEOWIZ has already handled this setting, in other words. This deal didn’t come out of nowhere.
What kind of game is White Witch? The first chapter of the Gagharv Trilogy
The Legend of Heroes III: White Witch is an RPG released for the PC-9801 in 1994, the third entry in the Legend of Heroes series. It’s set in Tirasweel, and the story opens as a boy named Julio and a girl named Chris set out on a pilgrimage as their village’s coming-of-age rite.
That game is the first of three: White Witch, The Legend of Heroes IV: A Tear of Vermillion and The Legend of Heroes V: A Cagesong of the Ocean together form the Gagharv Trilogy. The Falcom storytelling template we know from Trails in the Sky onward is essentially fully formed here already: listen to townspeople as you travel, watch the viewpoint shift chapter by chapter, then see every thread converge in the final act. That structure was already baked into a 1994 PC-9801 release.
The demand for a revival shows up in the numbers, too. According to Denfaminicogamer, the Gagharv Trilogy took first place in the “titles we want released on modern platforms” category of Falcom’s 40th anniversary survey. Falcom went into this deal knowing exactly how much appetite was out there.
For the record, I’m the kind of player who got so invested in Julio on the PlayStation version that I had to put the controller down once the truth about Chris started coming into focus. …Replaying that at modern resolution is going to take some nerve.
How can you play White Witch right now? The $6 EGG Console version is on Switch
If you want to touch the original while waiting for the next update on the revival project, the easiest route is Nintendo Switch. On August 20, 2026, D4 Enterprise released EGG Console The Legend of Heroes III: White Witch Renewal PC-9801 on the Japanese Nintendo eShop for $6 (tax included).
| Title | Platform | Price and notes |
|---|---|---|
| EGG Console The Legend of Heroes III: White Witch Renewal PC-9801 | Nintendo Switch | $6 (tax included) / released August 20, 2026 |
| NEOWIZ’s The Legend of Heroes III: White Witch | PC and consoles (systems unannounced) | Price and release window both unannounced |
The EGG Console release is based on the “Renewal” edition, which tuned the original systems and game balance. You get the 1994 game as it was, and on Switch you can push through it in handheld mode. As prep work before the new project takes shape, an option that costs less than $10 is hard to argue with.
Remake or port? What we still don’t know
This is where a cool head helps. What was announced is a license agreement, not a game. Treat everything below as unannounced.
✅ Still unannounced as of September 16, 2026
Release window / the platform breakdown (Switch 2, PS5, Xbox, Steam and so on) / price / whether there’s Japanese voice acting / whether this is a full remake or a port and remaster / the development setup. All Falcom has laid out is the direction: develop it for PC and consoles, and release it globally.
The encouraging part is that the rights holder itself is the subject of the sentence. This isn’t an outside party running off with an old catalog title—Falcom announced the agreement and filed it as IR information. The global-first structure makes sense, and so does choosing White Witch as the series’ entry point.
The part that gives me pause is scale. You’re free to picture a full 3D remake on the level of Lies of P, but nothing currently backs that up. There’s no statement on whether this covers all three Gagharv games or just White Witch. Until there’s more news, keeping expectations in check is the happier path.
…Says the person who spent all day imagining Julio and Chris running on a modern console. My type is 2D, and I’m fine with that.
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White Witch revival project: everything we know so far
On September 16, 2026, Nihon Falcom signed a commercialization license agreement with South Korea’s NEOWIZ to develop The Legend of Heroes III: White Witch for PC and consoles and release it globally. The subject is the series’ third entry, released on PC-9801 in 1994, and the first chapter of the Gagharv Trilogy.
NEOWIZ, founded in 1997 in South Korea, has delivered Lies of P, DJMAX RESPECT V and SANABI. Its subsidiary FOW GAMES announced a Gagharv Trilogy smartphone RPG back in 2024, so there’s little reason to worry about its grasp of the setting.
On the other hand, the release window, platforms, price and the scale of the remake are all unannounced. If you want to play the original right now, the EGG Console version on Switch ($6 including tax, released August 20, 2026) is the practical choice.
Giving the generation that entered through Trails a path back to the source on modern hardware matters more than it might sound. The Gagharv Trilogy topped a revival poll and still spent years far away from current platforms. Now its first chapter has NEOWIZ—a studio that delivers on storytelling—attached. As pairings go, there’s nothing to complain about.
Just remember this is still only a contract announcement. Until more news lands, the smartest way to wait is to do your homework with the $6 Switch version.
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