List of script sizes

This is a list of script sizes for the Kiseki/Trails series.

Background
It is hardly surprising that a series renowned for its lengthy tales and expansive world-building becomes the target of discussions regarding the size of its script. Original estimates without exact calculations to support the estimates with put the script sizes in a range between 1 to 5 million Japanese characters. The development of reverse-engineering compression methods used by Falcom for their games allows fans to examine the scripts in greater detail.

Method
The calculations below result from a regular expression (regex) that encompasses all characters associated with the Japanese script (hiragana, full-width katakana, kanji, kanji radicals, half-width katakana, punctuation and symbols, miscellaneous symbols and characters, and full-width alphanumeric punctuation). The calculation includes both furigana (reading aid) and the characters they represent the reading of. The calculation excludes ellipses.

The regular expression used for the calculation is as follows: [\x{3041}-\x{3096}\x{30A0}-\x{30FF}\x{3400}-\x{4DB5}\x{4E00}-\x{9FCB}\x{F900}-\x{FA6A}\x{2E80}-\x{2FD5}\x{FF5F}-\x{FF9F}\x{3000}-\x{303F}\x{31F0}-\x{31FF}\x{3220}-\x{3243}\x{3280}-\x{337F}\x{FF01}-\x{FF5E}]

Scope
The target files of the calculation are exclusively the scenario files. These include all dialogues that happen in-game, including dialogues with NPCs. That means that text that appears in the notebook, such as collectable books, recipes and the monster guide, are excluded from the calculation. Weapons, items, Crafts and Arts descriptions are also excluded from the scenario calculation. The scenario files may also contain lines unused in the final version of the game and debug menus not accessible to players. In the case of The 3rd, the calculation also includes the majority of the Moon, Star and Sun Doors found throughout the world.

Note that these calculations are indicative and by no means definitive or absolute.