I played Trails in the Sky FC game on and off for several months, but decided to get serious about it and to burn through to the end. I finished it in 65 hours, but that may not be too entirely accurate because with a newborn (who is 4 months old today) you have to start and stop a lot, but I tried to keep this time accurate. This is now one of my all time favorite JRPGs. Being made in 2004, this near 20 year old game is a throwback to that era of gaming, and it's an era I’m very nostalgic for.
The environments are simple yet detailed - they reminded me of Xenogears in your ability to swing the camera around the 3D environment. However, they were also detailed - inside a house or laboratory you could see little details of how people lived. The character models are chibi and pre-rendered and reminded me of Super Mario RPG. They got the job done, but the character portraits that accompanied dialogue really sold the characters and were much more emotionally expressive.
Where this game shines is the dialogue and story. The story is low stakes (mostly), and dialogue is simply charming. By the end. I fell in love with the characters, and finishing the game felt like finishing a great book. Rarely do games make me laugh out loud but this Trails in the Sky did. Unexpected jokes or strong character moments are sprinkled throughout this game. Even the villain isn’t a 2 dimensional “simply evil” antagonist - his motivations are rational and I felt sympathy for him.
The story's culmination is top tier. Warning: Late game spoilers are in the rest of this paragraph - the revelations in the final chapter feel well-earned and make complete sense. You’ll want to bonk yourself on the head for not discovering them yourself earlier. The first three chapters feel like stand-alone, slice of life stories but the way the various threads come to a head in the final chapter are exquisite. Very rarely does a game have well earned twists as found in Trails of the Sky FC. Also, the cliffhanger had me wanting to jump into the next game instantly. Simply Superb.
As for difficulty, I played on normal difficulty and it was perfect. It was never too hard, but there were boss battles where I had to strategize, and I was defeated a few times. All too often, the final boss in JRPGs are too difficult (looking at you, Octopath 2), and the game leaves a sour taste in my mouth from an otherwise fantastic game. That is not the case here. The final boss is the right amount of difficulty. I beat it on my first try, but there were moments where I felt surely I would lose. The combat is more tactical than traditional JRPGs, and there is an Orb system for spells that I would compare to Final Fantasy 7’s Materia system. If I could change one thing, it would be to have the ability to speed up combat, but it’s a minor gripe that more modern games have spoiled me with.
I've been trying to decide what to rate this game, but after this write up I think it’s only fair to rate it a 10/10. There’s nothing it could do better, and it excels in many areas. There are many areas of this game that I didn’t touch on such as the music, which I can only describe as classic after classic. The only downside is that it isn’t available on any current console, and is only on Steam, however, if you have a potato laptop you should be able to play this. If you’re a fan of JRPGs and you haven’t played this game, you simply must.
Score - 10/10
The environments are simple yet detailed - they reminded me of Xenogears in your ability to swing the camera around the 3D environment. However, they were also detailed - inside a house or laboratory you could see little details of how people lived. The character models are chibi and pre-rendered and reminded me of Super Mario RPG. They got the job done, but the character portraits that accompanied dialogue really sold the characters and were much more emotionally expressive.
Where this game shines is the dialogue and story. The story is low stakes (mostly), and dialogue is simply charming. By the end. I fell in love with the characters, and finishing the game felt like finishing a great book. Rarely do games make me laugh out loud but this Trails in the Sky did. Unexpected jokes or strong character moments are sprinkled throughout this game. Even the villain isn’t a 2 dimensional “simply evil” antagonist - his motivations are rational and I felt sympathy for him.
The story's culmination is top tier. Warning: Late game spoilers are in the rest of this paragraph - the revelations in the final chapter feel well-earned and make complete sense. You’ll want to bonk yourself on the head for not discovering them yourself earlier. The first three chapters feel like stand-alone, slice of life stories but the way the various threads come to a head in the final chapter are exquisite. Very rarely does a game have well earned twists as found in Trails of the Sky FC. Also, the cliffhanger had me wanting to jump into the next game instantly. Simply Superb.
As for difficulty, I played on normal difficulty and it was perfect. It was never too hard, but there were boss battles where I had to strategize, and I was defeated a few times. All too often, the final boss in JRPGs are too difficult (looking at you, Octopath 2), and the game leaves a sour taste in my mouth from an otherwise fantastic game. That is not the case here. The final boss is the right amount of difficulty. I beat it on my first try, but there were moments where I felt surely I would lose. The combat is more tactical than traditional JRPGs, and there is an Orb system for spells that I would compare to Final Fantasy 7’s Materia system. If I could change one thing, it would be to have the ability to speed up combat, but it’s a minor gripe that more modern games have spoiled me with.
I've been trying to decide what to rate this game, but after this write up I think it’s only fair to rate it a 10/10. There’s nothing it could do better, and it excels in many areas. There are many areas of this game that I didn’t touch on such as the music, which I can only describe as classic after classic. The only downside is that it isn’t available on any current console, and is only on Steam, however, if you have a potato laptop you should be able to play this. If you’re a fan of JRPGs and you haven’t played this game, you simply must.
Score - 10/10