Watching a trailer for Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter, you may be inclined to view it as a generic, anime styled, trope filled JRPG, but I can promise you, that is not the case. It is the start of a remarkable piece of world building and narrative about a fictional continent spread over 13 games so far, and will be coming to an end in the next few years. I think that this game will fly under the radar of a lot of people who would enjoy it, myself included, if I had not stumbled upon the series.
About 5 years ago, I was casting around for a new JRPG to get stuck into, and someone recommended I try Tokyo Xanadu Ex+ from Falcom. I gave it a whirl, and nothing else got a look in on my PS4 until it was done. Brilliant character work, unique combat mechanics and a great story got me hooked, and I looked at what else Falcom had produced that I could jump into next. I bought Legend of Heroes Trails of Cold Steel I, seeing that there were 3 sequels, and thought I would be set. I loved the game, but as I was playing I thought I was missing something. When I checked, it seemed Cold Steel was not the first game in the series. It was the sixth. It formed part of the Legend of Heroes series, games all set in the same world, full of political intrigue and a grand overall story, split into arcs based around a different region. The sad thing for me was that there was no way to play the first 3 games, the Trails in the Sky series, on modern consoles or a Mac. They are available as ports on Steam, but they are basic ports of the original PSP, Vita and PS3 releases.
Now Falcom is rectifying that with a full remake of the first game, with the promise of the second game coming too, and it is absolutely glorious. For the sake of clarity, I haven’t finished the game yet, because I don’t want to, I’m about halfway through, but taking my time now to get as much enjoyment as I can from the experience. I’ll come back to talking about this game in a Final Verdict when I am finished with it, but I have so much I want to say about it now,
Story & Setting
The game is set in the kingdom of Liberl, on a continent that is 50 years on from a technological revolution that moved it from a medieval setting to one with airships, cars, trains and inevitably weapons. It starts small, with a young girl called Estelle Bright, whose father returns from fighting a war with neighbouring Erebonia with a boy about her age, Joshua, who he adopts. We then jump forward ten years to where Estelle and Joshua are now 16 and set to become bracers, mercenaries that a part of a country wide guild that help solve peoples problems, large or small. We are introduced to their home in the village of Rolent, and follow Estelle and Joshua as they complete various tasks for townsfolk from clearing out troublesome monsters to finding lost property.
What quickly sets Trails apart from other RPGs at this point is the level of detail that goes into the characters, not just the main protagonists, but all of the NPCs around them. Everyone has dialogue that changes over time, and it is obvious that all of these people have their own lives that they are living in this world. Even in the prologue, you can chart the relationship with a young couple as their romance blossoms as the story moves on. It has no impact on the main narrative, but gives you a sense that this is a real world, with living, breathing people in it. Estelle and Joshua themselves are an absolute joy. Estelle is full of life, impetuous and fun, while Joshua is more reserved, measured and cautious. There is an obvious affection between the two, and they make a great pairing for your journey. Neither is favoured in taking on tasks, they play to their strengths and support each other brilliantly. A lot of the jobs they take on involves travelling to different areas, fighting monsters along the way, and this brings us nicely to the combat mechanics.
Combat Mechanics
Combat is a mixture of light action and in-depth turn based mechanics. You start a fight by attacking a monster and engage in a quick action sequence where you can gain, or lose, battle advantage. Once you switch into turn based mode, then the battle becomes much more tactical. Each character has a set of physical skills, call Crafts that they can call upon. They all have different power and effects and cost CP to use, which is resource that recharges over time. Physical attacks take effect as soon as you select them. You also have a set of Arts moves, which are basically magic attacks. Each character has an Orbment, a device like a pocket watch, into which they can slot a number of Quartz, crystals that then bestow the ability to use elemental powers. Which quartz are used, and how they are lined up determines what skills a character can use, and this makes for an incredibly flexible system for setting up your party. At the moment, I have Estelle set up as an Air and Water attack character, with healing and debuffs as well. Joshua is more Physical and Earth style skills. Arts take time to prepare, and you can see on the timeline when each character will attack, so planning is key, as is position on the battlefield. Land a critical hit, and this will trigger a follow on attack from another party member, while all fighters have passive skills that can activate to support other characters through the fights. It all sounds incredibly complex, but the game feeds you the mechanics slowly and it all becomes second nature very quickly. Other characters join and leave you r party, and they can also be fully customised, so battles are always different and never get stale.
Gameplay, Visuals & Soundtrack
The early story moves at a nice pace to get you fully acquainted with the way this world works, then takes a more serious turn as the world opens up to you. The story is pretty linear, you move from one large area to another, discover all the nearby locations, complete the tasks and hot the main narrative points, then move on to the next area. Estelle and Joshua’s world feels quite small and compact, but you become more aware all the time that there’re are wider concerns and political plays at work here. You are also very aware that these people lead a fairly difficult life, but meet the challenges head on, you are constantly reminded of the events of the war 10 years previously, and there are a lot of tensions at the edges. The other characters that join your party eventually move on, they have their own lives and tasks to see too, they return in time but they all have their own agendas to take care of. Its another example of how this feels like a living place, you are not the chosen one, everyone does not flock to follow you, it’s a brother and sister making their way in the world and trying to make sense of it.
The visuals are stunning. I am a sucker for clean, bright anime style graphics and the game world is beautiful. Monsters are varied and imaginative, battle effects look suitably impressive, and on the PS5 it runs at a solid 60fps. The music is great and fits the setting, the battle music has not started grating on me, which is always a good sign. Others have praised the voice acting, and while it is a huge leap from the original game, I found the English dub not fitting the characters, but really like the Japanese voices. The game includes all the usual JRPG staples, upgrading equipment, fishing and cooking, and has taken an older game and given it some real quality of life improvements. Fast travel is enabled once you discover a location which is crucial as you revisit a lot of areas. There are no random encounters, you can always see enemies and choose to engage or not, and the menus are clear and well laid out, all the information on buffs/debuffs/status effects is available easily for reference, and you can save at any time. There is a ton of DLC available, but it is mostly cosmetic, with some item packs that you really do not need, so none of it is necessary.
Conclusion
So why have I not crashed on and just played this game to the end? As I said earlier, I don’t want it to finish. This is a special game that makes me feel a certain way whenever I boot it up. I know I can spend time in this world with these engaging characters and ignore the things going on around me. It makes me feel comfortable and happy, and has become a place I can relax into when the real world is getting a bit too much. The more linear nature of the game lends itself to taking your time with it too, you are not going to forget where you are up to. The story is a slow burner too, becoming more complex as time goes on, but it lets you settle into the world and get to grips with the mechanics before it becomes too in depth.
I can’t recommend this highly enough, and would urge people to try it. There is a very generous demo available, which takes you through the whole of the prologue of the game. It lasts 5 or 6 hours, introduces you to everything you need to know, and gets the real story rolling at the end. Progress carries over to the full game, it’s a completely risk free proposition, unless you count the cost it will incur on your available gaming hours.
Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is available on PS5, Switch, Switch 2 and PC.
