When Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter was first shown as part of a Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase (and never again) last summer, Trails fans lost their minds. The fandom has good reason to be obsessive. We’re a part of it, and while we’ve enjoyed every entry in the game since its real start in the west as a PSP port in 2004, it’s easy to acknowledge that the issue with this series is its barrier to entry. Until now, the PSP and the PC have been the only ways to play the series from the very beginning. With the highly anticipated remake finally here, both fans and newcomers of the series can relish in a fresh, yet familiar start to what’s now the definitive edition of one of the best games in the entire JRPG genre.
Trails Goes Back To Move Forward
Much like how Persona shed the Shin Megami Tensei name despite originally being a spinoff, the Trails series has done the same thing with Trails in the Sky after a couple decades of making a name for itself, despite being a spinoff to The Legend of Heroes. That aside, this remake of the original game marks the first time a Trails game has enjoyed a simultaneous worldwide launch, displaying a valiant attempt from developer Falcom to finally take the series “mainstream.” It’s too early to tell whether or not the attempt was successful, but when Trails Beyond the Horizon comes out this January from NIS America, the series will officially be caught up worldwide, and from here on out, everything becomes a possibility.
If you’re new, all you see is Estelle’s dad. If you’ve been here, you know who all these legends are.
Bringing it back to Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter though, the other reason why this release is such a big deal is because it’s a game that finally looks “current.” The first five entries in the series were games that might as well have been on the Super Nintendo, while entries like Trails of Cold Steel (which debuted on PlayStation 3), Trails of Cold Steel III (PlayStation 4), and Trails through Daybreak (PlayStation 5) all looked more than a generation behind when it came to visual prowess. Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter features an art style that’s easily the most vibrant and modern 3D cel-shaded look we’ve ever seen out of the series. It’s definitely a far cry from the isometric but still charming look of the original. I usually never talk graphics first, but that definitely was worth pointing out because the difference is plain as day.
Trails With World Class Worldbuilding
Let’s take some time to talk about the plot and what really makes the Trails series special.
The game stars Estelle Bright and her adopted brother Joshua as they become junior members of Liberl’s Bracer Guild, a non-governmental organization sworn to keep the peace and protect civilians wherever they have a presence. When their world famous Bracer father, Cassius, disappears from a flight on his way to the capital, Estelle and Joshua set off on an adventure spanning the five major regions that comprise the Liberl Kingdom, both to find their dad and earn the credentials to become Senior Bracers. During their journey, they’ll come across a colorful cast of memorable characters whose stories go beyond this game to become stuff of legend as we move further down the timeline.
Anton isn’t pathetic. He’s inevitable.
In addition to Cassius, you’ll come across party members like Scherazard (their Bracer mentor), Kloe (a student at the royal academy), and Olivier (a traveling musical genius). Each of these characters have intense lore that spans the entire Trails series, which will encompass 12 games once Trails Beyond the Horizon is released. Of course, to do that, the characters have to actually be interesting. Scherazard was a former dancer who’s a heck of a drinker. Kloe volunteers a lot at an orphanage near her school, and Olivier is simply nuts in the best way possible. As mentioned before, Joshua is adopted, and he has quite a past too. Uncovering all of this (on top of the characters we haven’t mentioned) while making your way through the Liberl Kingdom’s main regions of Rolent, Bose, Ruan, Zeiss, and Grancel while experiencing how life in each region differs make both the Bracer life and game flow intriguing.
Trails in the Sky, along with every other game in the series, follows a structure that’ll reward you for as much time as you put in it. Every time the crew enters a new region, they enroll in their Bracer Guild and are given various tasks and sub-tasks. Tasks are the golden thread; when those are finished, the story progresses and you move closer to the end. Sub-tasks are essentially sidequests and while not all of them are required, not only will you have a greater appreciation and understanding for everything happening in the plot, you’ll also get rewarded with loot and currency. Not to mention every task and sub-task you done improves your bracer rank, which is why this journey is even happening in the first place.
Trails In Combat
Of course, being a Bracer isn’t all about doing favors for the townsfolk. You’ll have to fight, a lot, and this is where you’ll see one of the most meaningful changes and improvements to the original.
Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter adopts the hybrid battle system from Trails through Daybreak that features both action and turn-based combat (yes, Trails did this before Metaphor ReFantazio). Early on, it’ll seem like you can fight however way you want, but the combat’s DNA is still very much engrained in that turn-based system. Still, most of the time when you come across monsters in the wild, you can hack away at them. When they’re stunned, you can press a button to convert the action to turn-based combat, where you can do your real damage. For smaller and weaker enemies, you’ll be fine simply relying on the action-based combat.
What’s up to all the Expedition 33 fans being like “turn-based is so back!” It never left.
For those who’ve never played a game in the series before, Trails operates from a CTB-based system, meaning turns are calculated and listed in order on-screen based on every character’s stats, happening one after another without delay. Arts (Trails‘ version of magic) have a startup delay, but in most situations, there’s no way to really stop a character from using a spell outside of killing them or using a move that specifically impedes their Arts usage. In addition to Arts, characters also have Crafts which are abilities exclusive to each character. Crafts are reliant on Craft Points (CP), a gauge from to 0-200 that increases every time your character takes or gives damage. When a character has 100 CP, they can use their ultimate move, their S-Break, at anytime–including during an enemy’s move.
One thing min-max players might enjoy is the series’ signature Orbment system, where all the Arts come from. Each character has an Orbment that they can load different Quartz to, which gives them access to a bunch of different kinds of Arts and effects both inside and outside of battle. It’s pretty much Falcom’s take on Final Fantasy VII’s Materia system, complete with ways to break the system to allow for devastating combos.
Trails Through Changes
Given that this is a remake, there were undoubtedly some changes that’ll definitely make longtime fans of the series take note of for better or for worse. Obviously there’s the visuals and the modern hybrid battle system, but here are a few things that were definitely noticeable as somebody that’s played every game in the series.
When Trails all of a sudden becomes a Final Fantasy game, complete with its own Cid.
You can’t steal turn effects in battles anymore. In every Trails game prior to this one, when you used an S-Craft to interrupt someone’s turn, you’d also take over the turn’s effect. Players did this all the time for turns that had a (!) next to it, meaning that the next move would be a critical hit. I don’t know if it was a balance decision, but this is one of the first changes I saw that I wasn’t thrilled about.
Fishing is gone too. Well it’s not really gone gone, but the game has no formal fishing system.
The Ruan chapter is absolutely amazing. Everything from the orphanage to the play (which is almost a 30-minute long cutscene)? It was all better than the original. Simply phenomenal. Here’s a screenshot of how good those costumes look!
The voice acting is good… I probably should’ve talked about it earlier because this is an obvious thing, but the game is exquisitely voiced. While I definitely got annoyed with her at times, probably purposefully, Stephanie Sheh does an excellent job as Estelle, while Johnny Yong Bosch also is awesome as Joshua. They weren’t able to get Troy Baker to be Olivier like he was in the original, but Matthew Mercer (who took over as Olivier in the 3D games) does a wonderful job as well.
Despite their pronunciation of Liberl… There is one thing about the voice acting performances that bothered me though–they aren’t pronouncing Liberl and Calvard correctly. I’ll go ahead and state when I’m wrong–there’s a character in the game named Agate (pronounced Aa-GIT, like the rock) who I’ve pronounced “Ah-Gah-Tay” all this time. But everybody in the game calling the Kingdom of Liberl “liberal” doesn’t sit right with me. It was “lib-earl” in the NIS America Trails games, and to make matters worse, the characters are calling the republic of Calvard “Cal-Vard” when I was used to characters in the Calvard games calling it “call-verd.”
…Still, there isn’t enough voice acting. Anyway, to continue with the annoyances, unfortunately the game still isn’t fully voiced. This was one of the main things that disappointed me about the demo. While it’s nice that the majority of the game is voiced, all of a sudden not hearing any dialog in the middle of a well-acted conversation takes away from the immersion. XSEED and NIS America’s reasoning for this in prior games was the fact that the voice actors were only required to record what was actually recorded in Japanese, but now that GungHo is involved and the game is a worldwide release, I’ll say it again — I don’t understand why even NPCs in Fire Emblem: Three Houses can be fully voiced, but Trails can’t come close to that. Don’t say budget.
This is not the XSEED localization One of the reasons why the series took as long as it did to “take off” was because the localization and translation process was an overwhelming undertaking. The localization teams employed by both Falcom and XSEED (at the time) really went above and beyond, giving each NPC their own name and back story, along with at least three separate lines of dialog when spoken to. There’s gonna be people to talk to, and this game is no different, but the differences are quite clear. Some NPCs have different names (the good news is none of them are major to any point of the plot), nobody you talk to has more than one thing to say at any time, and there are no hidden chest messages. Again, none of these are essential, but they really added to the charm, and now they’re gone.
The new UI and fast travel really modernize in the game Along with the high-speed mode that no longer affects attack bonuses (another win), the game’s UI is definitely something that deserves its flowers. Modifying your orbment feels fancy, and fast travel really cuts off a lot of the fat. I took 55 hours in my first playthrough of the original PSP title. In the remake, I only took 45 hours to roll credits.
Hidden sidequests are gone This one is probably going to be divisive, and I actually like this change. Prior to the Calvard games, every Trails game had hidden sidequests. In the remake, it’s really easy to look at the map and see where you have to go for a quest. In the original, those green exclamation points didn’t exist, and you actually had to talk to everybody (sometimes more than once) to get a hidden quest started. If you’re someone that liked doing that, then you had a lot of time on your hands. I don’t, so I’m good with this.
Trails To A Verdict
Looking at the sum of its parts, Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is a faithful remake of a classic that is now the definitive way to play the game. If you’ve been waiting for the right time to get into the Trails series, the time is now.
Enough waiting. Get this game, play it, and enjoy an excruciating wait for the next game.
Never change, Olivier.
Gatekeeping veterans will definitely show shade at some of the things that were taken away from the original game, but at its core, as a full JRPG released in 2025–this is one of the best games of the year, and as a longtime fan myself, I hope this is the beginning of the series getting the full attention and love it deserves.
When Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter was first shown as part of a Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase (and never again) last summer, Trails fans lost their minds. The fandom has good reason to be obsessive. We’re a part of…
When Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter was first shown as part of a Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase (and never again) last summer, Trails fans lost their minds. The fandom has good reason to be obsessive. We’re a part of it, and while we’ve enjoyed every entry in the game since its real start in the west as a PSP port in 2004, it’s easy to acknowledge that the issue with this series is its barrier to entry. Until now, the PSP and the PC have been the only ways to play the series from the very beginning. With the highly anticipated remake finally here, both fans and newcomers of the series can relish in a fresh, yet familiar start to what’s now the definitive edition of one of the best games in the entire JRPG genre.
Trails Goes Back To Move Forward
Much like how Persona shed the Shin Megami Tensei name despite originally being a spinoff, the Trails series has done the same thing with Trails in the Sky after a couple decades of making a name for itself, despite being a spinoff to The Legend of Heroes. That aside, this remake of the original game marks the first time a Trails game has enjoyed a simultaneous worldwide launch, displaying a valiant attempt from developer Falcom to finally take the series “mainstream.” It’s too early to tell whether or not the attempt was successful, but when Trails Beyond the Horizon comes out this January from NIS America, the series will officially be caught up worldwide, and from here on out, everything becomes a possibility.
If you’re new, all you see is Estelle’s dad. If you’ve been here, you know who all these legends are.
Bringing it back to Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter though, the other reason why this release is such a big deal is because it’s a game that finally looks “current.” The first five entries in the series were games that might as well have been on the Super Nintendo, while entries like Trails of Cold Steel (which debuted on PlayStation 3), Trails of Cold Steel III (PlayStation 4), and Trails through Daybreak (PlayStation 5) all looked more than a generation behind when it came to visual prowess. Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter features an art style that’s easily the most vibrant and modern 3D cel-shaded look we’ve ever seen out of the series. It’s definitely a far cry from the isometric but still charming look of the original. I usually never talk graphics first, but that definitely was worth pointing out because the difference is plain as day.
Trails With World Class Worldbuilding
Let’s take some time to talk about the plot and what really makes the Trails series special.
The game stars Estelle Bright and her adopted brother Joshua as they become junior members of Liberl’s Bracer Guild, a non-governmental organization sworn to keep the peace and protect civilians wherever they have a presence. When their world famous Bracer father, Cassius, disappears from a flight on his way to the capital, Estelle and Joshua set off on an adventure spanning the five major regions that comprise the Liberl Kingdom, both to find their dad and earn the credentials to become Senior Bracers. During their journey, they’ll come across a colorful cast of memorable characters whose stories go beyond this game to become stuff of legend as we move further down the timeline.
Anton isn’t pathetic. He’s inevitable.
In addition to Cassius, you’ll come across party members like Scherazard (their Bracer mentor), Kloe (a student at the royal academy), and Olivier (a traveling musical genius). Each of these characters have intense lore that spans the entire Trails series, which will encompass 12 games once Trails Beyond the Horizon is released. Of course, to do that, the characters have to actually be interesting. Scherazard was a former dancer who’s a heck of a drinker. Kloe volunteers a lot at an orphanage near her school, and Olivier is simply nuts in the best way possible. As mentioned before, Joshua is adopted, and he has quite a past too. Uncovering all of this (on top of the characters we haven’t mentioned) while making your way through the Liberl Kingdom’s main regions of Rolent, Bose, Ruan, Zeiss, and Grancel while experiencing how life in each region differs make both the Bracer life and game flow intriguing.
Trails in the Sky, along with every other game in the series, follows a structure that’ll reward you for as much time as you put in it. Every time the crew enters a new region, they enroll in their Bracer Guild and are given various tasks and sub-tasks. Tasks are the golden thread; when those are finished, the story progresses and you move closer to the end. Sub-tasks are essentially sidequests and while not all of them are required, not only will you have a greater appreciation and understanding for everything happening in the plot, you’ll also get rewarded with loot and currency. Not to mention every task and sub-task you done improves your bracer rank, which is why this journey is even happening in the first place.
Trails In Combat
Of course, being a Bracer isn’t all about doing favors for the townsfolk. You’ll have to fight, a lot, and this is where you’ll see one of the most meaningful changes and improvements to the original.
Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter adopts the hybrid battle system from Trails through Daybreak that features both action and turn-based combat (yes, Trails did this before Metaphor ReFantazio). Early on, it’ll seem like you can fight however way you want, but the combat’s DNA is still very much engrained in that turn-based system. Still, most of the time when you come across monsters in the wild, you can hack away at them. When they’re stunned, you can press a button to convert the action to turn-based combat, where you can do your real damage. For smaller and weaker enemies, you’ll be fine simply relying on the action-based combat.
What’s up to all the Expedition 33 fans being like “turn-based is so back!” It never left.
For those who’ve never played a game in the series before, Trails operates from a CTB-based system, meaning turns are calculated and listed in order on-screen based on every character’s stats, happening one after another without delay. Arts (Trails‘ version of magic) have a startup delay, but in most situations, there’s no way to really stop a character from using a spell outside of killing them or using a move that specifically impedes their Arts usage. In addition to Arts, characters also have Crafts which are abilities exclusive to each character. Crafts are reliant on Craft Points (CP), a gauge from to 0-200 that increases every time your character takes or gives damage. When a character has 100 CP, they can use their ultimate move, their S-Break, at anytime–including during an enemy’s move.
One thing min-max players might enjoy is the series’ signature Orbment system, where all the Arts come from. Each character has an Orbment that they can load different Quartz to, which gives them access to a bunch of different kinds of Arts and effects both inside and outside of battle. It’s pretty much Falcom’s take on Final Fantasy VII’s Materia system, complete with ways to break the system to allow for devastating combos.
Trails Through Changes
Given that this is a remake, there were undoubtedly some changes that’ll definitely make longtime fans of the series take note of for better or for worse. Obviously there’s the visuals and the modern hybrid battle system, but here are a few things that were definitely noticeable as somebody that’s played every game in the series.
When Trails all of a sudden becomes a Final Fantasy game, complete with its own Cid.
You can’t steal turn effects in battles anymore. In every Trails game prior to this one, when you used an S-Craft to interrupt someone’s turn, you’d also take over the turn’s effect. Players did this all the time for turns that had a (!) next to it, meaning that the next move would be a critical hit. I don’t know if it was a balance decision, but this is one of the first changes I saw that I wasn’t thrilled about.
Fishing is gone too. Well it’s not really gone gone, but the game has no formal fishing system.
The Ruan chapter is absolutely amazing. Everything from the orphanage to the play (which is almost a 30-minute long cutscene)? It was all better than the original. Simply phenomenal. Here’s a screenshot of how good those costumes look!
The voice acting is good… I probably should’ve talked about it earlier because this is an obvious thing, but the game is exquisitely voiced. While I definitely got annoyed with her at times, probably purposefully, Stephanie Sheh does an excellent job as Estelle, while Johnny Yong Bosch also is awesome as Joshua. They weren’t able to get Troy Baker to be Olivier like he was in the original, but Matthew Mercer (who took over as Olivier in the 3D games) does a wonderful job as well.
Despite their pronunciation of Liberl… There is one thing about the voice acting performances that bothered me though–they aren’t pronouncing Liberl and Calvard correctly. I’ll go ahead and state when I’m wrong–there’s a character in the game named Agate (pronounced Aa-GIT, like the rock) who I’ve pronounced “Ah-Gah-Tay” all this time. But everybody in the game calling the Kingdom of Liberl “liberal” doesn’t sit right with me. It was “lib-earl” in the NIS America Trails games, and to make matters worse, the characters are calling the republic of Calvard “Cal-Vard” when I was used to characters in the Calvard games calling it “call-verd.”
…Still, there isn’t enough voice acting. Anyway, to continue with the annoyances, unfortunately the game still isn’t fully voiced. This was one of the main things that disappointed me about the demo. While it’s nice that the majority of the game is voiced, all of a sudden not hearing any dialog in the middle of a well-acted conversation takes away from the immersion. XSEED and NIS America’s reasoning for this in prior games was the fact that the voice actors were only required to record what was actually recorded in Japanese, but now that GungHo is involved and the game is a worldwide release, I’ll say it again — I don’t understand why even NPCs in Fire Emblem: Three Houses can be fully voiced, but Trails can’t come close to that. Don’t say budget.
This is not the XSEED localization One of the reasons why the series took as long as it did to “take off” was because the localization and translation process was an overwhelming undertaking. The localization teams employed by both Falcom and XSEED (at the time) really went above and beyond, giving each NPC their own name and back story, along with at least three separate lines of dialog when spoken to. There’s gonna be people to talk to, and this game is no different, but the differences are quite clear. Some NPCs have different names (the good news is none of them are major to any point of the plot), nobody you talk to has more than one thing to say at any time, and there are no hidden chest messages. Again, none of these are essential, but they really added to the charm, and now they’re gone.
The new UI and fast travel really modernize in the game Along with the high-speed mode that no longer affects attack bonuses (another win), the game’s UI is definitely something that deserves its flowers. Modifying your orbment feels fancy, and fast travel really cuts off a lot of the fat. I took 55 hours in my first playthrough of the original PSP title. In the remake, I only took 45 hours to roll credits.
Hidden sidequests are gone This one is probably going to be divisive, and I actually like this change. Prior to the Calvard games, every Trails game had hidden sidequests. In the remake, it’s really easy to look at the map and see where you have to go for a quest. In the original, those green exclamation points didn’t exist, and you actually had to talk to everybody (sometimes more than once) to get a hidden quest started. If you’re someone that liked doing that, then you had a lot of time on your hands. I don’t, so I’m good with this.
Trails To A Verdict
Looking at the sum of its parts, Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is a faithful remake of a classic that is now the definitive way to play the game. If you’ve been waiting for the right time to get into the Trails series, the time is now.
Enough waiting. Get this game, play it, and enjoy an excruciating wait for the next game.
Never change, Olivier.
Gatekeeping veterans will definitely show shade at some of the things that were taken away from the original game, but at its core, as a full JRPG released in 2025–this is one of the best games of the year, and as a longtime fan myself, I hope this is the beginning of the series getting the full attention and love it deserves.
by Danreb Victorio
