How much is too much when remaking a video game? And on the flipside, when does a remake end up not doing enough? For a lot of contemporary gamers, the right balance results in a legacy gaming experience that has all the bells, whistles, and graphics of a modern game. The modern remakes of Final Fantasy VII and Persona 3 got so many people excited, even if die-hards might feel like they’re an unnecessary facelift. For something like The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, a game with a near 20-year old legacy of its own, it feels insurmountable to strike the right balance between faithfully remastering yet meaningfully expanding that experience. Shockingly and excitingly, Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is a breath-taking remake that hits that balance perfectly.
There’s always layers of baggage going into any Trails in the Sky game, because it’s a long-running, deeply connected franchise of 100-hour JRPGs. The enduring legacy that makes Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter so compelling to dive into, though, is that it’s the very first game in that saga. The story of budding adventurers Estelle and Joshua is immediately accessible and endearing, and following them on their journey to become fully-fledged Bracers (essentially an independently-run group of peacekeepers) has all the nostalgic high-fantasy JRPG vibes I could ask for. Much like Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age, it’s so exciting to see such a vibrant, traditional, tech-fantasy world on display in a breathtakingly beautiful 3D adventure like this.
There’s still an undeniable charm to the chibi sprites and hand-drawn static environments of the original game, but the full-3D treatment that Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter provides really lets you live inside the world in a way you never could with that original release. Even compared to the last mainline entry in this series, the quality of character models, animations, and even environments has shot up considerably. One of the things that Trails in the Sky is most known for is being a game where all the dozens of minor NPCs actually have unique names, and constantly-changing dialogue, and are weaved into the entire experience. With Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter, it makes them feel that much more realised and, well, real. The main and supporting cast are full of more life than ever, thanks to this remake introducing full voice acting for the first time.
Rather than sticking to it’s original turn-based combat mechanics, Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter incorporates and updates the hybrid combat-gameplay introduced in the more recent The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak titles. As you explore the field, monsters will be roaming around, and you can either attack them in real-time with action-focused attacks or engage them in turn-based battles that let you bust out your full suite of abilities. Often times, you’ll be doing a mix of both – the action combat is fun and flashy, but your attack options are a bit limited and you’ll often end up staggering enemies in this state, which gives you the perfect chance to transition into a turn-based battle to finish them off. I can often get bored of turn-based combat in RPGs, and I’ve got a major soft-spot for real-time action, so the combo of the two here kept me engaged for my entire playthrough. That said, there were a few mandatory turn-based battles that did have me wishing there were some equally high-stakes mandatory action encounters to pair with them.
Turn-based battles in Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter work how you’d expect, with a character action timeline and status effect manipulations and so-on. One element of the progression system that made these battles really rewarding, though, was collecting and optimising my Orbments. Like Materia from Final Fantasy, each character can equip up to six different Quarts orbs in their Orbment setup, which each one providing a stat boost or ability modifier or entirely new spells. It’s a really fun way to fine-tune a character build and specialise each member of your party in unique ways, and whenever I hit a wall in certain dungeons or boss battles it was nice to be able to take a step back, look at my Orbment setup, and change things up to dive back in with a new approach.
Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is also just full of so much stuff to do besides dive into dungeons and gawk at gorgeous cutscenes – it’s a game that is easily twice the length of the original version, but the sheer variety of activities and environments made all that time just breeze by so effortlessly. Side quests are a fun mix of simple fetch quests and unique, character-driven mini adventures that flesh out the supporting cast. Plus, nearly every NPC in the game gets new dialogue after a major story beat, making interactions with them as you walk through town feel so much more rewarding to repeatedly seek out throughout a playthrough.
Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is a massive transformation of the original experience, and yet those transformations never feel like they come at the cost of any of the original game’s charm or appeal. The vibrancy of the world and the living, breathing nature of the hundreds of characters who inhabit it feels so rewarding to explore in this remake – and it captures that magic while still retaining so much of the visual style and flair of the original. The result is a captivating JRPG that manages to blend a nostalgic, old-school vibe with a polished, rewarding, and fluid gameplay experience I never wanted to put down.
