If you were like me and thought Final Fantasy 7 Remake felt like the most glacial slow burn of an introduction then Trails in the Sky is here to laugh at your face with a simple yet cozy 40++ hour long prologue that crescendos into something interesting at the end.
Despite not much happening to really ramp up narrative stakes this is still a very dense game loaded with detail to establish the world of Liberl and all it’s comfy yet surprisingly deep glory. This is a game that’s never afraid of taking its own time in trying to immerse you into the lives of these endearing characters through the low stakes vibes that Estelle and Joshua carry with them throughout their adventure filled with fun idiosyncratic detours. It never feels too padded out, at least, not in the way that feels very narratively contrived and leaves you unsatisfied. But as expected, Trails in the Sky is the type of game that asks for your willingness and patience to engage with these characters in a slow moving plot that almost takes a backseat, most of the time. Estelle and Joshua are especially the heart of this journey. You really get invested in their earnest friendship, their growth to adulthood as Bracers, and how far they’re willing to go to look out for each other. I would’ve preferred if their relationship was kept as basically adopted siblings because anytime the game addresses this while further pushing their romance it just becomes really weird. I’m going to guess (and hope) this fact gets downplayed in later entries.
Besides that it might have (potentially, at least) my favorite turn-based combat for JRPGs. The grid-based layout for battles adds a neat layer for casual strategy when it comes to fighting enemies spatially. It makes learning and keeping track of turn order during battle, the positions of certain party members on screen, and which Crafts or Arts can be the most effective very advantageous. Orbments also feel like an interesting evolution of the Materia system from FF7, even keeping how severely broken some of the Arts (Magic) can be for like 70% of enemies throughout the game if you’re clever enough. Although if there’s a problem I have with Trails’ combat is probably due to how easy it can feel. Since I never really encountered too much trouble with enemies that really pushed me to think ahead with my party until the last stretch of the game, and even then, it was easy to overcome with just one or two retries. I think this was an accidental part of the process Trails did with trying to stay authentic to the classic JRPG experience while also making sure to streamline most of the gameplay baggage with the additional help of modern QoL features.
There’s also this little girl you can recruit into your party whose special move is just pulling out a huge galling gun out of nowhere to mow down on enemies which is pretty raw. It sucks that she’s probably the worst party member in terms of holding out on her own and offering support though.
While I’d still say Trails in the Sky is definitely enjoyable enough to be worth playing, if you’re willing to be just the right amount of patient with it that is, it’s difficult for me to really give it too much props, much less judge it, as it’s own game because of how clearly it’s designed to be the first act of a sprawling trilogy. Including all the potential downsides involved when trying to play it as just a standalone experience, like how the story is paced in general, the still unresolved loose ends, some of the characters feeling lacking in proper development (Agate is close tho), etc. But personally, I’m willing to overlook these fair issues because of how well the game still works as an introduction to the Legend of Heroes franchise for myself. I’m way too burned out from this to start jumping onto SC any time soon but it’s undoubtedly something I’ll get around to in the future.
Despite not much happening to really ramp up narrative stakes this is still a very dense game loaded with detail to establish the world of Liberl and all it’s comfy yet surprisingly deep glory. This is a game that’s never afraid of taking its own time in trying to immerse you into the lives of these endearing characters through the low stakes vibes that Estelle and Joshua carry with them throughout their adventure filled with fun idiosyncratic detours. It never feels too padded out, at least, not in the way that feels very narratively contrived and leaves you unsatisfied. But as expected, Trails in the Sky is the type of game that asks for your willingness and patience to engage with these characters in a slow moving plot that almost takes a backseat, most of the time. Estelle and Joshua are especially the heart of this journey. You really get invested in their earnest friendship, their growth to adulthood as Bracers, and how far they’re willing to go to look out for each other. I would’ve preferred if their relationship was kept as basically adopted siblings because anytime the game addresses this while further pushing their romance it just becomes really weird. I’m going to guess (and hope) this fact gets downplayed in later entries.
Besides that it might have (potentially, at least) my favorite turn-based combat for JRPGs. The grid-based layout for battles adds a neat layer for casual strategy when it comes to fighting enemies spatially. It makes learning and keeping track of turn order during battle, the positions of certain party members on screen, and which Crafts or Arts can be the most effective very advantageous. Orbments also feel like an interesting evolution of the Materia system from FF7, even keeping how severely broken some of the Arts (Magic) can be for like 70% of enemies throughout the game if you’re clever enough. Although if there’s a problem I have with Trails’ combat is probably due to how easy it can feel. Since I never really encountered too much trouble with enemies that really pushed me to think ahead with my party until the last stretch of the game, and even then, it was easy to overcome with just one or two retries. I think this was an accidental part of the process Trails did with trying to stay authentic to the classic JRPG experience while also making sure to streamline most of the gameplay baggage with the additional help of modern QoL features.
There’s also this little girl you can recruit into your party whose special move is just pulling out a huge galling gun out of nowhere to mow down on enemies which is pretty raw. It sucks that she’s probably the worst party member in terms of holding out on her own and offering support though.
While I’d still say Trails in the Sky is definitely enjoyable enough to be worth playing, if you’re willing to be just the right amount of patient with it that is, it’s difficult for me to really give it too much props, much less judge it, as it’s own game because of how clearly it’s designed to be the first act of a sprawling trilogy. Including all the potential downsides involved when trying to play it as just a standalone experience, like how the story is paced in general, the still unresolved loose ends, some of the characters feeling lacking in proper development (Agate is close tho), etc. But personally, I’m willing to overlook these fair issues because of how well the game still works as an introduction to the Legend of Heroes franchise for myself. I’m way too burned out from this to start jumping onto SC any time soon but it’s undoubtedly something I’ll get around to in the future.