This review contains spoilers
Rating this as a 3.5 / 5 stars, but on a scale of 10, I'd give this about a 7, maybe a 7.5. Marked as having spoilers in this review, but will keep is as major spoiler free as possible.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky is quite honestly a very nice game, especially the Steam version. The game looks absolutely beautiful, the soundtrack still holds up quite well (albeit with not too many memorable tracks), and the gameplay is quite fun. One of the biggest pluses to this game is that I never felt like I needed to grind or fight every single enemy I came across, outside of a few exceptions (which ultimately boiled down to building up 200 CP and using the S-Crafts). Grinding in JRPGs is almost always an unwritten, unavoidable part of life so it feels quite nice to play a game where I don't feel overwhelmed by constantly raising my levels/equipment (though getting some certain Sepith for certain orbments was a pain).
Another interesting aspect is that your party constantly changes throughout the game, usually giving you on average an entire chapter with a set of characters. While this can be annoying for some that like to make the perfect builds with each character they receive in a game, it does add a little bit of a twist for first-time players.
Now, there are two major issues I have with this game. The first one being: side-quests and 100% completion. This game most definitely comes from an era of "have the most vague instructions, and pray you figure it out" kind of style of side-questing. Some are incredibly straight-forward, to finding and beating a tough monster, to the most obnoxious running between cities and solving cryptic-puzzles like we were Professor Layton had that series came out in 2004. Do not expect to be able to 100% the game without a walkthrough or a guide, unless you are an absolutely, incredibly patient individual who likes figuring things out. Between picking up one of every weapon, to doing side-quests perfectly for maximum BP, to making sure you talk to every single chest in the game a 2nd time, it is quite frustrating at times even with a guide.
Secondly, and most important, is the plot and some of the writing of the characters. Now, don't get me wrong, I quite enjoyed most of the game's plot and character writing, but there are some very hard cliches and generalizations that will not be avoidable. Without spoiling anything major, some misgivings I have include (but are not limited to): the main characters interaction between each other after the first 10 minutes of the game all the way to the finish, the entirety of Cassius Bright, and most if not all of the antagonists within the game. They are, personally, quite boring and underwhelming. Which leads me to the plot: this game would like you to believe it is story-driven first, gameplay second, which is fine at the end of the day but be prepared for lots of dialogue. There are multiple 10-20 minute sessions of just reading through sections of plot (which really don't mean much by the end of the game, more on this later). There is so little sense of urgency within the game's plot that you'll actually tend to forget something major is happening within the game, nor are there really ever any consequences. The game for the first three chapters is built upon "we need to find the bad guys - we found the bad guys - we beat the bad guys - oops we let them get away, guess we'll try again later" so much that it just feels so underwhelming for Joshua and Estelle's character growth. Frankly, outside of the prologue and last ~30 minutes of the game, you can ignore 90% of what the game is trying to tell you about the world and characters because it ultimately doesn't matter for this game.
All-in-all, The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky was an enjoyable experience that was hampered a small amount by the tendency of the plot to ramble on and by the game's design of setting up for the rest of the series. I look forward to Trails in the Sky SC!
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky is quite honestly a very nice game, especially the Steam version. The game looks absolutely beautiful, the soundtrack still holds up quite well (albeit with not too many memorable tracks), and the gameplay is quite fun. One of the biggest pluses to this game is that I never felt like I needed to grind or fight every single enemy I came across, outside of a few exceptions (which ultimately boiled down to building up 200 CP and using the S-Crafts). Grinding in JRPGs is almost always an unwritten, unavoidable part of life so it feels quite nice to play a game where I don't feel overwhelmed by constantly raising my levels/equipment (though getting some certain Sepith for certain orbments was a pain).
Another interesting aspect is that your party constantly changes throughout the game, usually giving you on average an entire chapter with a set of characters. While this can be annoying for some that like to make the perfect builds with each character they receive in a game, it does add a little bit of a twist for first-time players.
Now, there are two major issues I have with this game. The first one being: side-quests and 100% completion. This game most definitely comes from an era of "have the most vague instructions, and pray you figure it out" kind of style of side-questing. Some are incredibly straight-forward, to finding and beating a tough monster, to the most obnoxious running between cities and solving cryptic-puzzles like we were Professor Layton had that series came out in 2004. Do not expect to be able to 100% the game without a walkthrough or a guide, unless you are an absolutely, incredibly patient individual who likes figuring things out. Between picking up one of every weapon, to doing side-quests perfectly for maximum BP, to making sure you talk to every single chest in the game a 2nd time, it is quite frustrating at times even with a guide.
Secondly, and most important, is the plot and some of the writing of the characters. Now, don't get me wrong, I quite enjoyed most of the game's plot and character writing, but there are some very hard cliches and generalizations that will not be avoidable. Without spoiling anything major, some misgivings I have include (but are not limited to): the main characters interaction between each other after the first 10 minutes of the game all the way to the finish, the entirety of Cassius Bright, and most if not all of the antagonists within the game. They are, personally, quite boring and underwhelming. Which leads me to the plot: this game would like you to believe it is story-driven first, gameplay second, which is fine at the end of the day but be prepared for lots of dialogue. There are multiple 10-20 minute sessions of just reading through sections of plot (which really don't mean much by the end of the game, more on this later). There is so little sense of urgency within the game's plot that you'll actually tend to forget something major is happening within the game, nor are there really ever any consequences. The game for the first three chapters is built upon "we need to find the bad guys - we found the bad guys - we beat the bad guys - oops we let them get away, guess we'll try again later" so much that it just feels so underwhelming for Joshua and Estelle's character growth. Frankly, outside of the prologue and last ~30 minutes of the game, you can ignore 90% of what the game is trying to tell you about the world and characters because it ultimately doesn't matter for this game.
All-in-all, The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky was an enjoyable experience that was hampered a small amount by the tendency of the plot to ramble on and by the game's design of setting up for the rest of the series. I look forward to Trails in the Sky SC!