Rated as 4.5/5 stars, would put this at about 8.5 out of 10 though. This review will contain mild - moderate spoilers about the mid-game.

Trails in the Sky SC is a beautiful game and near-perfect sequel to FC. Picking up immediately where FC leaves off, Estelle gets all of her emotions jumbled up and then throws herself into combat training for fun times. The pacing of the beginning of the game feels quite nice, with each chapter having its main focus well written. Chapter 3 in particular was a great introduction to Renne and can catch any unsuspecting player completely off-guard if they aren't reading between the lines hard enough.

However, I have quite an issue with Chapter 4. The entire purpose of this chapter is just to be used as a plot device to showcase Estelle's depression and anxiety about Joshua which then gets neatly wrapped up with a bow after a dream sequence. Schera on the other hand who was heavily tied into Chapter 4 was mostly given a "we'll bring this up later, don't forget it!" and then it trailed off quite hard (you're given an explanation near the end of the game, but it's so quick and short that what little build-up you had from Chapter 4, if it already hadn't left you by the time you reach Finale, is gone). Also, Chapter 8 sucks and was NOT fun in the slightest (but has good plot reasons for why it sucks and was not fun).

Speaking of Joshua, Mr. Dark and Brooding himself, had quite a story arc to build up, but ultimately ended up with him running around with sky bandits for a bit, trying to solo the big bad organization, and then having a very "dramatic" scene with Estelle.

Now, don't get me wrong, that scene is important for the character growth of both Estelle and Joshua. However, the scene is just so directly written that it lacks any real consequence or shows any major growth that could've happened in the time they were apart. Joshua says leave me alone, you're better off without me, I'm a terrible person, blah blah blah, and Estelle goes on her happiness rant, they get back together, yay, good for them. That's it. This is a recurring issue not only within this game, but with a lot of Japanese media, whether it be in games, manga, anime, etc. The tendency to try and use so many colorful adjective to describe how great (or bad) a person is which ultimately gets flipped by "shut up, no you're not a bad person" happens far too often, and unfortunately it hits in one of the most important scenes of SC.

Now, despite the number of characters whose whole internal conflict or major wall-to-overcome are skimmed over (Schera, Kloe, Kevin/Tita to a certain extent), I will give credit where it's due for these two characters: Agate and Zin.

Agate and Zin's respective arcs within the game are some of the better character developments I've seen within a JRPG (if not any game with direct character development). They both get a lot of screen-time and time to healthily develop past their issues (unlike Kloe who spends 85% of the game constantly bringing it up that she doesn't know what she wants to do), which honestly was a treat to play through.

All-in-all, Trails in the Sky SC is a direct sequel and direct improvement to FC in many ways. Beyond the continuation of the plot with the cliffhanger/introduction to the Society of Ouroboros, you have the serene music, the return of beautiful models/renders, a great camera, and the slight gameplay tweaks that FC sincerely could've used (a semi-free party system). SC does require you to play FC to understand the characters, world, and little intricacies, but it is very much worth it.

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!