I own every "The Legend of Heroes"" titel for PC on gog.com.

Currently my only gaming PC is running with windows 8.1. There are several TB of games installed. Some of them with Mods. Everything is working f ine.

I don't think the hassle I would get with installing a newer windows version is worth it. I will keep this PC as is. It is a preservation project. Mods installed from sites that don't exist any more, or were taken down for various reasons, old drm disc games not available online any more, everything running perfect.

Will "The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie" from gog run on this old windows 8.1 machine? I would like to buy the game in the first launch week.

have fun,
Frank

Hmmm....

I think no one can really help you because there is simply as good as nobody using 8.1...
A minority is still using Win 7, the biggest customer base is using Win 10 and a bit lesser than that is using Win 11, Any other Windows is almost never used anymore, so you are kinda lost on this delicate matter.

Although your idea of a "working PC" with lot of installs i do consider a great idea, but under optimal circumstances... Win 10 is nowadays the way to go for even bigger preservation.

Officially it is not considered to be "supported" but that does not mean there is not maybe a workaround. We simply can not test it for you. You will have to get a copy in order to test for yourself. I dunno if you are eligible for reimbursement in term it is not working, but in general, reimbursement because of technical issues is sometimes valid.

For short term, you simply may have to test it out somehow and for long term i would try to move it over to a Win 10 system, which is indeed a huge work. Because as further as we go in age, the new games will start to moan... unavoidable. Of course you can not simply "update" your PC, this is only the stuff MS keeps telling us and at the end many stuff will be broken. At this point, someday, you may setup a new system with a new OS and try to move over every single game one by one... as hard as it sounds.

I use Windows 8,1 (no, I will not use bloaty, forced reboot OSes) so I'm kind of curious about this myself. But I'm flat broke right now.

Failing that, I hope it works under WINE on Linux at the very least.

Most likely your PC, in term older than 5 years... up to 10 years, is barely able to handle this game regarding performance. I was testing it and on a 3+ year old Notebook with integrated GPU, even on lowest settings... the game is not playable at all.

In comparison, the old "Legend of Heroes Trails in the Sky" Games are perfectly playable on the same system. The demand on the newest Legend of Heroes games was increasing a lot. So, sorry to say but most likely your PCs might not even be able to handle it in any satisfying condition...

You really need a capable gamer PC not much older than 5 years, but surely never older than 10 years.

The recommended specs in my mind is more realistic than the minimum spec, but it has always been like this.

A Iris G4 is around 10-15 FPS, a 650 TI is around twice that fast... this is still not any satisfying performance at around 20-30 FPS (720 P resolution). Any GPU truly capable of a rather smooth performance is more likely at least a GTX 950 or better than this (5+ years of age, with a max of around 8 years).

Hm,

i think it could work because it runs fine on my WIN7 X64 (X1230 - 24G - R6800) and not on my WIN10 X64 (WTF)

I dont know the reason, but the OS is surely not the culprit. Maybe you have some weird hardware-configuration on your Win 10 system. At least... some older OS may work.

Sometimes a system is lacking the required Redistributable; many games need it, yet it is not always provided by the game. You will need the version the game has been attached to it, there is no "upgraded version".

Would you mind giving the hardware specs on your Windows 10 system? E.g.

System Information
Operating System (32bit or 64bit):
CPU:
Graphics Card:
RAM:
Audio:
Game Controller (Yes/No):
Game Controller Model (If applicable):

Game resolution:
Monitor's maximum resolution:
Using multiple monitors?:
Graphics driver:

And also more details on what doesn't work (e.g. doesn't launch at all, crashes mid-game, displays an error message, ...).

Actually i got me the game "playable" now on my Office-Notebook with integrated GPU. I had to remove every single GPU effect possible and only 720 P (below this resolution it looks so ugly and washed out, it is beyond playable).

The install time was maybe more than half a hour, because the game got close to 70 000 files and the IOPS from the attached Samsung T5 SSD is not supreme, still way better than from any HDD. I think, You will really feel the speed of a SSD, but the game loading time is not much affected by it, at least.

Game looks terrible using this settings, but playable somehow.

It works on Windows 7?

That's good to know at least. Thanks!

Well it is basically the PhyreEngine; this one was made by Sony in order to support their PS3 console and it got Windows capabilities too. Basically, this engine, developed between 2003 and 2009 is made for pretty old OS including Windows. So, naturally, it would be odd if this Engine is not supporting some older OS.

And actually... the engine scales pretty good on "lower end systems" if you take away all the "graphic enhancers".
However, at the "usual condition" with standard settings added by "Durantes Studio" it seems, it can be pretty demanding. Those effects can be disabled and yeah... it may be possible to run it on almost any hardware and even OS this way.

So, i would test it out. If there is really no possibilities to get it to run properly, i think you may get a reimbursement.

Although, i have to say... the "Trails in the Sky-Series" i was able to run it on almost full settings on my Office-Notebook, this is not working at all for "Reverie"; still... it is doable somehow. Of course, in the end... on weaker systems, "Trails in the Sky" got a way nicer look... Who cares, what really is critical is simply to become a playable condition.

Hm,

System Information
Operating System (32bit or 64bit): 64bit
CPU: Ryzen 7 5800X3D
Graphics Card: Radeon 6900XT
RAM: 32GB
Audio: Soundblaster Z
Game Controller (Yes/No): No
Game Controller Model (If applicable):

Game resolution: 4K
Monitor's maximum resolution: 4K
Using multiple monitors?: No
Graphics driver: AMD xxxx

Game is not starting with 0xc00007b error, which means an 32/64Bit confilct,
and brought me in the direction to test it with my WIN7, also in mind the
PhyreEngine which is little bit older.

I really don't mind because it runs well on my WIN7 system which is
my prefered system. (No internet, no need for updates, no phonig home!!!) And also
no need to digging the old saves from the WIN7 system.

The latest patch 1.03 worked well on my WIN7, so i will continue playing with WIN7!

Sounds more like generally corrupt files to me, most likely one of the DLLs. You should consider checking your RAM/HDD/SSD for errors, also try to verify and/or re-download the game files. The game 64 bit, so if you're running a 64 bit Windows, there shouldn't be any 0xc00007b issues.

But if you're happy with running it in Windows 7, enjoy!

Nah!

I don't think so!

There ARE some 32Bit fragments swirrling around in the game!
Have a look on the orgins of the engine.

My W10 system is very young, when there are errors, the complete
system is crap and i should dispose it, because this is the first time such
errors are occuring, and my PC time starts at the intel 286, and i never had
such an error!!!

We are obviously not shipping any 32 bit binary code. The game executable and all DLLs are 64 bit.

There is either a hardware or software issue, not a problem with the OS or game in general.

You should update your OS (22H2 is current version) and scan your OS for file corruption (sfc/scannow). As well: Verify the integrity of your game.

Indeed.... you should just hand it over to me... i mean this system. It will do nothing good for you...