I was expecting to like developer Nihon Falcom and publisher GungHo Online Entertainment America’s ‘Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter’ quite a lot from the first trailer and my expectations only grew when I got to play the demo. But I wasn’t expecting this fully realised 3D remake of the original ‘The Legend of Heroes: Sora no Kiseki’ to completely blow me away this past week—just about every aspect of the original game is uplifted, features of the old game are respected while modern enhancements have been applied, and a huge kingdom is brought from the pre-rendered Stone Age to the HD generation with lovely visuals and fantastic choreography.
And this is coming from the sort of person who tends to be a snob about remakes. I’m not tossing praise for no reason—that goes against my somewhat opaque contrarian nature.
But anyhoo, 1st Chapter has players take on the role of two main protagonists Estelle and Joshua Bright, the former a genki young lady with a lot of spunk and the latter whose beauty is shrouded in mystery. On the day they join the Bracers Guild, a sort of mercenary group of sorts filled with adventurers who take on work for the communities they serve. They do this, following in the footsteps of their father Cassius Bright (who they know is very good at his job), but that very day begins a set of events that will have them leave their little town of Rolent and explore the entirety of the Libert Kingdom—where they embrace the unknown, build character, meet new friends, and really finding themselves entangled with far more than they’ve ever bargained for.
(Nihon Falcom/GungHo Online Entertainment America)
The Adventure Begins
To briefly recap, Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is a remake of a well-received PC Japanese role-playing game from many, many yonks ago. And for the most part, it is a near 1:1 recreation of the original game albeit with many additions that come in the form of dialogue and how the game presents itself due to the major shift in perspective and progression that comes with the remake territory. This means that actions you take in the original game can be recreated in 1st Chapter nearly the same way and quest script triggers behave similarly i.e. having to take to the same person twice despite holding the “same” conversation.
It’s quite nice because muscle memory will be present here for players of the original game all the while new players get to experience the same structure of the original game with the added quality-of-life features and, not to mention, being able to walk around a very beautiful rendition of Libert. Falcom has done a fantastic job recreating not only the behaviour of the original game but also scaling it as part of a 3D world. Distant towns and cities can be seen from towers above, sunsets and bright blue skies are gorgeous, flying airships create a sense of grandness that help players ground themselves to Estelle’s homeland, etcetera etcetera.
That all of course wouldn’t be possible without a great lighting system that does a fantastic job of highlighting 1st Chapter’s lovely character models and scenery. I’d argue this game does a far better job of portraying Libert in a new light than even some expensive AAA remakes out there. A little touch I also liked seeing was the wind in scenes impacting the actors’ hair and clothing. I think the only complaint I hold is that some cubemaps1 don’t accurately represent the areas the cast will be in at times. You notice these things when cutscenes last for minutes at a time, but I’ll touch on that in a bit.
(Nihon Falcom/GungHo Online Entertainment America)
Of course, features that were in the original game are also present here, such as the high-speed mode which will come in handy as Estelle insists to Joshua that the best way to become a full-fledged Bracer is to know the world by foot. You’ll be doing lots of running around and running into plenty of cutscenes, which this time around, feature full voice action for story-critical scenes so this feature comes in handy. Though oddly enough, some scenes occasionally omit voiceovers for most cast members except for anyone newly introduced to the scene. Though that doesn’t take away from great Japanese dubbing (do note an English dub is also available!), with solid performances across the board: For example, I didn’t expect Estelle to be a shockingly good singer, nor did I think Joshua would sound so… Lovely in his most vulnerable positions. And notably, the game now has an auto-read feature! No more mashing the A/Cross/B button to get past the game’s boatloads of dialogue!
Now exploration is highly encouraged as monster roam about for experience slash sepith farming, and secrets await thanks to benefactors that have left treasure chests behind with some quality loot. Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is largely a linear experience, with roads that connect to medium-sized zones consisting of villages/towns and roads most travelled. This also means that the overworld is largely connected with no loading in-between besides buildings and region checkpoints, which ultimately helps with creating that sense of scale that I so love to experience in games.
Oh, and levels are important as you’ll soon realise once bosses’ dish out serious damage and begin having trillions of turns (I’ll touch on that in a moment). Do take on quests that the Bracer Guild offices across Libert offer to save up on Mira—you’ll need it for when the going gets tough. And thankfully, 1st Chapter’s quest and objective variety is good enough that you won’t feel like you’re just slogging through content.
(Nihon Falcom/GungHo Online Entertainment America)
Sophisticated Fights
Combat has received a major overhaul while retaining the spirit of the original game. Just as I explained in my demo preview of 1st Chapter, Estelle and Joshua along with their unexpected allies will almost always duke it out with foes in the game’s overworld with no loading transitions to get in the way. This means that even battle clear screens are a thing of the past as the cast will stow away their weapons once monsters have been clobbered. The battle screen has instead been reserved for major story fight clears, so you’ll also get to hear that rearranged as well.
But I’m getting ahead of myself here. This is a turn-based game but with a twist borrowed from ‘Metaphor: ReFantazio’ (and one I liked very much, mind!). Before any traditional combat occurs, Estelle and company can soften up enemies by first fighting them out in the open. Hit foes with your B attack, follow up with a powerful Y once the green bar fills, dodge enemy attacks, and either finish off baddies or stagger them and press X to enter into the game’s turn-based combat mode. I love this mechanic because it’s engaging plus it’s a way for players to quickly get an idea if what they’re fighting is worth their time. That adrenaline follows into the game’s core combat which in itself is a lot of fun.
Speaking of which, that core combat system has players take fights turn-by-turn in circular zones that are created once a fight begins. All turns are represented by the turn order chart on the left and how fast a character’s speed is impact how soon and how quickly they’ll be able to act. Once a turn is presented to the player, they can move their character around the field up to a certain extent and either attack, use items, or defend. Attacking comes in many forms: you have your basic wallop, Craft Skills, and Orbment Arts.
Craft Points are skills that can be used immediately if players have enough Craft points, which builds over time in battle and typically consist of skills the playable character specialises in such as Estelle’s ability to rally and land debuffs with her battle stick while the more refined Chloe can apply protections to allies, so on and so forth. Craft Points also dictate when the players can fire off Ultimate attacks that are significant damage dealers or serious life savers (in the literal sense). These can be launched once a unit reaches 100 Craft Points, but the effect of the attack is amplified upwards of 1.5X if you decide to dish ’em out later on in a fight. This can be very useful to clear hordes of mobs and, even better, you can force an enemy out of their turn anytime if a character finds themselves in a bad spot which can be life saving. The downside is that blowing all your points on your Ultimate at the wrong time can leave you in a precarious position, so watch out.
Now, those Orbment Arts I mentioned are based on the Quartz you place into a character’s Orbment slot (which is a tool used to do magic stuff, basically). Crafted and found Quartz can not only raise a unit’s stats immensely but also serves as a way to gain Arts. Arts consume EP upon use and unlike Craft Skills, these Arts require a charge which sends the attack or spell down the turn order. You’ll need to be careful when and how to use these, but a successful fight relies on exploiting elemental weaknesses and buffs which Arts are solely responsible for. EP is also something you really don’t have to worry about until later in the game thanks to character passives and turn order bonuses.
(Nihon Falcom/GungHo Online Entertainment America)
Passives boost stats during battle while turn order bonuses dictate criticals, Craft/HP/EP, and sepith boosts. These can be incredibly useful in the most difficult of battles and they can also be your worst nightmare as enemies, too, can take advantage of these boosts. On the flip side, by staggering a baddy with a bonus hooked to their names, it will instead fall to the bottom of the turn order screen and by doing so, you can build yourself an incredibly powerful attack or buff stack that can turn tides of war. And I’ve not even brought up the Brave Attacks, which are triggered by filling your Chain Gauge just by attacking foes. Once it’s partly full and you’ve either staggered an enemy or hit them with a critical, you can unleash either a duo or quadro-packed all-out-attack that is both insanely damage inducing and very flashy to boot.
All these little bits and pieces build up a combat system that feels incredibly rewarding thanks to the myriad of intricacies players can adjust on the fly to keep up. And I’m not just stringing words here—how the player chooses to place characters, what skills are used when and where, passives and overarching bonuses that engage means that many critical fights will never be the same. And you do need to engage with the Orbments, keeping you gear in check, and levels because even on the “Normal” difficulty, Trails 1st will be more than happy to toss foes at you with bloated health pools and in great numbers. Bosses will be more than happy to spam their most damaging attacks willy nilly and many are area of effects, so you can’t just group up multiple characters willy nilly. But a support character may not be effective if they can’t reach all the party members. Either way, all of the above creates situations that might seem impossible at first but can be won and vice versa!
But what’s most important here is that I never got bored of the combat in Trails 1st. That’s a rare occurrence for me when it comes to RPGs as usually that’s one of the things I start to despise when a game gets too long and thankfully, Trails 1st is paced quite well. No story critical beat ever overstays its welcome and that includes major fights. And I felt that the game was quite balanced on the Normal difficulty and the only reason I bumped it down to Very Easy was so I could progress the story much quicker in time for the review. Speaking of which, story fans will find themselves at home with said difficulty—so long as you give the crew of Bracers weapons and slot any Quartz into your Orbment-thingy, you’ll reach the endgame in no time.
Really, the only complaint I have with the combat system is the camera itself. It’s not very friendly in tight spaces and depending on how many mobs are in a battle, it can become difficult to decipher what attack or which buffs will apply to whomever at a glance. The overworld action combat also suffers as the lock-on camera will only focus on what’s in front of the camera rather than targeting nearby foes which makes for a clumsy dash to reposition Estelle and whoever else you’re controlling.
(Nihon Falcom/GungHo Online Entertainment America)
Silver Winds
Trails 1st is the start of a long-running series of RPGs. And I’m not joking; there are so many titles and they’re all so intricately connected that these games were once described to me in a way that implies that you can know the fates of certain characters just by looking at a game cover of an entry farther along in the series. But this game takes it slow: As a quick reminder, Estelle and Joshua have just become Junior Bracers and after the disappearance of their father, they take it upon themselves to journey Libert in search of him and all the while using this time wisely to rank up amongst the Bracers. The journey is long, but it unfolds incredibly well thanks to a colourful cast of characters, good pacing thanks to smaller rising actions and climaxes that complete on their own terms while the overarching world slowly descends unto chaos as larger forces begin to clash for power.
Estelle is the script’s punching bag, but even it knows when to lay off to let her cheerful personality breathe for the rest of the cast. Joshua has his baggage, but it doesn’t stop him from expressing his desire to protect Estelle and find the man who took him in. As players join Estelle and Joshua in their journey, they’ll meet more characters, friend/foe/dunce, who express their ambitions in their own unique ways—sometimes bluntly, sometimes unexpectedly. One scene actually made me tear up a bit, which was also elevated thanks to that aforementioned stellar voice cast.
The story does take a few detours here and there, but they help build character amongst the cast—particularly Estelle and Joshua, and it is so nice to see them grow across a variety of skits they’d not get the chance to experience sitting back at home. Such scenes have been extended compared to the original: and as a matter of fact, make sure to bring popcorn when the second chapter’s side story begins as that one features a cutscene that runs a little over twenty-five minutes. And you shouldn’t skip it, either, because it’s a damn good scene. And many other story beats, including those within combat, have been refreshed similarly in such a way that they’re always a treat to watch and hear. Though I will admit that there were times my eyes would wander away from the screen—thankfully, every cutscene is skippable and I won’t lie to you, I took advantage of that quite a few times.
Do keep in mind though that skipped cutscenes do not leave a log behind, so save frequently if something happens. Never know when you’ll want to go back!
(Nihon Falcom/GungHo Online Entertainment America)
Lastly, I want to point out that this game’s PC port is phenomenal. Not only does it run well across a variety of specs such as the ROG Ally’s Extreme unit and my various desktops and gaming laptops, but the Steam integration is phenomenal. There’s native support for Steam Input, players can immediately skip all logos and menus and boot right into their last save by just hitting the play button and, and, and most importantly: graphics settings do not synchronise between devices! Only your game saves move over, so if you hop over from your uber desktop to your tiny little handheld, the game respects each device’s graphical settings so you’re not forced to adjust settings every time you make the jump.
Honestly, I was not expecting this from Nihon Falcom of all developers as even PC-centric creators often fail at this. This was such a refreshing port to take on.
(Nihon Falcom/GungHo Online Entertainment America)
Ultimately, I walked away from Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter, 50 hours in tow, not regretting a single bit of it. It’s an amazing RPG til the end and the remake only enhances the original experience. Not many games can keep my interest this long, especially when it comes to combat and elongated story scenes—and the lore behind it all is both well-thought out and incredibly imaginative. Don’t miss this one for the “skies”. ∎
Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is available on PC via Steam, Nintendo Switch (a Switch 2 upgrade is available for a fee), and PlayStation 5 consoles. A demo is also available across all aforementioned platforms, which not only features the game’s first prologue chapter (its runtime last quite a few hours!) but saves made in the demo will be available for use in the full game. This review was conducted via the PC version of the game with a code provided by the publisher.
- Cubemaps are multiple textures that represent a 3D world, typically used in place of real-time reflections for cheap rendering. ↩︎
Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter
Played on
Windows 11 PC
PROS
- Gorgeous graphics, choreography, and great music.
- Super fun combat system that rewards and punishes.
- Enjoyable story with a great cast of characters.
- This is a remake that truly brings a classic RPG to the HD era, taking advantage of it to demonstrate scale while also implementing modern QoL features.
- Great PC port.
CONS
- The camera can be your enemy.
- If an enemy rage boosts one more time...
