If you had asked me if I ever thought Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter would be a thing in 2012, when I first finished The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, not a chance! I had finished the game, learned there were no plans to release the second chapter in the U.S., and was distraught. But here we are now, and the age feels golden.
Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter
Developer: Nihon Falcom
Price: $60
Platform: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Nintendo Switch 1 & 2, and PC
MonsterVine was supplied with a PS5 code for review
I would only need to wait a few years before the Trails series started making it way more visibly westward and subsequently blowing up. The Falcom developed series takes place in a world with orbal technology that acts as a medium for both electricity and magic. Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter takes place in the country of Liberl on the continent of Zemuria.
Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter focuses on a family. A father, Cassius Bright, is a leading bracer for Liberl and a former veteran. The Bracer Guild is a de facto mercenary guild that operates with some authority and regulation. Cassius has a daughter, Estelle, who is our protagonist. She’s a strong-willed teenage girl who knows her way around a staff, is very headstrong, and prefers to rush in guns blazing over forming a plan.
And then there’s Cassius’ adopted son, Joshua. Joshua may not be the main protagonist of Trails in the Sky, but he operates as Estelle’s smart and handsome sidekick. Joshua is the level-headed brother Estelle needs in her life. Between the two of them, Estelle and Joshua make a powerful duo that will see this story through.
Estelle and Joshua are pursuing careers as bracers. After some rigorous studying and training, they’re finally ready to begin the first steps of the long task of becoming senior bracers. Along the way, they run afoul of a gang of ne’er-do-wells who set them on an adventure across the country together.
Trails in the Sky effectively combines action-RPG and turn-based RPG elements. On the field, nothing is stopping you from attacking and killing a baddie without entering a turn-based battle. However, with enough damage on the field, the enemy can enter a dazed state, allowing the player to trigger a player-advantage battle.
When an enemy is dazed in battle, they forfeit their next turn. So, entering a player-advantage battle allows the player to join the battle with an already-battered and dazed enemy. It’s quite an advantage. However, if the enemy prepares a dark-red attack on the field, they can put the player at a disadvantage in an enemy-advantage battle. Joshua and Estelle must survive a round of attacks before they can act in an enemy-advantage battle.
Falcom is also known for its action-RPG series, Ys, so the action-RPG parts feel good. However, it’s important to note that the game is still primarily a turn-based JRPG. Many enemies will simply have too much health to deal with on the field and should be fought in turn-based battles. All story encounters take place in turn-based battles.
I really enjoyed that change, though, being able to execute enemies on the field or build up some power, entering a player-advantaged battle to make the smaller fights just that much easier. It’s a good and positive change.
As Estelle and Joshua make their way across Liberl, they’ll enter various townships and have to sign on with their bracer guilds to perform work in their various branches. In doing so, Joshua and Estelle earn BP (Bracer Points).
While the majority of BP is earned by completing tasks for the bracer guild, there’s a small amount that can be earned by answering questions correctly, not being spotted during stealth segments, etc, and that has not changed in this version of the game.
Along with earning BP, a big ‘feature’ of the Trails series is missable items. Books, orbal pieces, secret conversations, the Trails series expects you to be diligent in exploring their world. 1st Chapter offers blue exclamation point waypoints to assist in that area.
Before, to complete everything, you’d need to be extremely thorough with your gameplay or follow a guide. I still recommend this! However, there are points in the game where missables come up, and waypoints make it easier.
Along with some quality-of-life improvements, the game feels a little more balanced in combat. This may be the first time I attempted to do everything in the game, but it truly felt like the battles were easier to complete. This isn’t to say the game is easy, but it did feel easier on the normal difficulty.
The biggest change overall is the perspective. Whereas The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky was played in an isometric top-down perspective, 1st Chapter is played with a third-person camera.
Imagine a once-flat world now looming over you as you explore it. Faithfully recreated, as a long-time fan of the game, it truly felt like a new experience to explore Liberl in this way. Experiencing so many iconic locations from this completely new perspective is truly astounding.
Unfortunately, it’s not all good. There are some peculiarities to Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter that are downright confusing. One example is the voice-over work. Not the voices themselves, but how they chose to voice these characters.
First and foremost, MOST of the main story is voiced. The vocal work is fairly excellent, and many of the roles are voiced well or exactly how I read them in my head. It’s very cool that a game this dense has some voice work done for it. That said…
Throughout the game, there are numerous minor story scenes and scenes introducing new characters that have a peculiar quality about them. When a new character is introduced, often they’re the only person voiced in the cut scene.
Let me illustrate this in another way. A cutscene begins, featuring four people. The first three people are established characters, but the fourth is a new character who has just been introduced. Only that new character is voiced.
It’s truly bizarre to watch a cutscene where only one person is voiced and the rest are not. I know why they did this, budgetary constraints, no doubt. But it’s so unbelievably jarring to have only a single character voiced in an extended scene that I cannot abide it.
It’s a bad decision that marred what is otherwise a flawless recreation of a classic. Strangely enough, I bring it up because it happens so often. This isn’t a one-off thing; it happens repeatedly throughout the game.
At this point in the series, Trails in the Sky won’t come across as particularly novel or unique to fans of the series, given Cold Steel or newer entries. The use of technology mixed with a fantasy setting isn’t new or even uncommon.
JRPGs have been meshing technology and fantasy for decades. It might be what Final Fantasy is best known for. Whereas games like Final Fantasy use shock and awe to show the destruction and inhumanity of technology, Trails in the Sky revels in the banality of being comfortable with tech.
Early on in the game, Estelle and Joshua are tasked with doing things like repairing orbal street lamps. As you meander around the open field, you can find orbment pieces simply lying on the ground. Every town you visit has an orbal store that you can use to unlock slots in your orbment or acquire new quartz.
Despite the issues I had with the voicing of cutscenes, Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is an incredible remake. Experiencing Liberl from this perspective is something I simply never considered as a possibility. 1st Chapter is a genuinely unique and interesting way to experience this game.
The Final Word
Some issues with cutscenes being voiced, but otherwise, Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is the ultimate way to experience The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky. With an entirely new perspective on the world of liberal, balanced, and expanded story bits, the modern quality of life makes it a must-play for fans of Trails or JRPGs alike.
MonsterVine Rating: 4.5 out of 5 – Great
