Over ten years ago, when I was just getting started in this business, I played a game called *The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky*. It was a rickety-feeling RPG on the PSP—a port of an already low-budget PC game from several years earlier, developed by Falcom, a little-known studio at the time. I’d later learn it was part of a series dating back to the TurboGrafx, with a localization history, but without much notoriety here in North America.
At first, it felt kind of slow-moving and dull-looking, but before long I realized I hadn’t played anything quite like it. Estelle, the protagonist, is a goofball who’d be right at home in a shonen manga, while Joshua is a brooder with a mysterious past. Together, they form a perfect dynamic duo for interpersonal drama.
The pair travel across their home continent, working their way up the ranks and getting involved in some wild events that sow seeds for conflict and changes on the world stage for years to come. And sequels. So many sequels.
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### A Massive, Well-Written Epic
*Trails in the Sky* is an example of tremendous writing. Not only is it well-crafted, but it’s also massive in scope. The story runs for dozens of hours, featuring several fleshed-out and important characters living in a world undergoing a complicated geopolitical shift.
Every effort is made to create a coherent whole—from character interactions and relationships, to how the world evolves whenever the story develops. For example, as events progress, NPCs throughout the world update with new, relevant dialogue. That’s pretty rare and impressive in RPGs.
These games are notoriously long and detailed. The entire trilogy contains enough text to rival a stack of classic sci-fi novels. And *Trails* has expanded far beyond those three games, growing into a sprawling series that has elevated Falcom’s reputation and boosted their other franchises like *Ys* and *Xanadu*.
The original *Legend of Heroes* brand has been mostly left behind, as this subseries has taken on a life of its own. The story has expanded across continents and character groups, eventually bringing them all back together in various configurations as the narrative develops. This kind of long-term storytelling feels nearly impossible in video games—yet here it is.
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### Barriers for Newcomers
However, as the series has grown, it’s also become intimidating. The story continues across multiple platforms and subseries in a mostly linear fashion. Unless you’re willing to start at the very beginning—which many aren’t due to FOMO and other factors—there isn’t a good jumping-on or even jumping-back-in point.
I fell off myself, unable to keep up with the release schedule, and haven’t yet found a good moment to dive back in. Despite the growing hype and dedicated fans constantly evangelizing the series, *Trails* can feel like walking into a comic book store for the first time and trying to figure out where to start with Spider-Man.
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### Enter *Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter*
With the series arguably peaking again with new storylines like *Trails of Daybreak*, there was a loud, justified demand for an accessible entry point—something that isn’t an ancient, niche PC game.
That’s where *Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter* comes in: a total remake of the first entry in the *Trails in the Sky* trilogy, a complete overhaul of that PSP game I first played over a decade ago. Now, curious newcomers have no excuse not to try it.
For someone like me, who originally encountered the series from the start, it’s a fantastic way to re-experience the story. While I still see value in playing the original, if a remake is the optimal path, *1st Chapter* goes above and beyond to make that path as welcoming and rewarding as possible.
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### A Stunning Visual Upgrade
*1st Chapter* is gorgeous—in a way that initially felt jarring. When I previously stepped away from the series, *Trails of Cold Steel* was the current run, and those games still carried some of Falcom’s PSP-era aesthetics. I hadn’t yet seen *Daybreak* in action, which represents another big leap forward.
Whether you’re new or returning, you get a taste of the original *Trails in the Sky* look through loading screens featuring the classic character sprites. The visual leap is massive.
This game looks like a low-budget RPG with a big-budget polish. That sounds silly, but it occupies a unique space—not quite the AAA blockbuster realm, but alive, bold, colorful, and expressive in its own distinct way.
Some aspects still reveal *Sky’s* vintage roots—for example, the maps—but everything moves and looks unlike anything Falcom has done before. Characters wear their facial expressions on their bodies rather than in separate portraits, their hair sways as they walk or run, and combat animations are aggressive, employing camera angles and lighting effects that push the limits.
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### Playing on the Nintendo Switch 2
This review is a bit later than others because I played on the Nintendo Switch 2. The port was announced close to release and seemed a bit rushed, with patches incoming to add a performance mode.
It’s an interesting showcase of what the Switch 2 can handle—and its challenges. The original Switch demo I played ran well in TV mode but struggled in handheld mode, whereas *1st Chapter* performs excellently in handheld mode but has issues in TV mode.
It appears developers need to prioritize carefully for this system, especially given its capacity for high resolution and frame rates. Trying to deliver both smoothly without compromises remains a challenge.
Still, it’s fantastic to play a new *Trails* game on a portable that isn’t a bulky, warm PC crammed into a handheld shell, with performance that’s comparably smooth.
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### Voice Acting That Adds Depth
*1st Chapter* is almost fully voiced, and each character feels more emotive and personable than ever. I used to be ambivalent about voice acting in games (I love reading, and still think you should too—it’s great for your brain!), but this has shifted my perspective.
Between *Trail’s* voice talent and my experience with *Final Fantasy Tactics*, I appreciate well-delivered voice performances more now.
Characters like Estelle, with her antics and wholesome energy, come alive thanks to an off-kilter but believable and earnest voice performance. It’s infectious. A win for RPG voice acting—from a former skeptic, no less.
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### Combat: The Weak Link
When it comes to combat, *1st Chapter* starts dropping the ball, mainly because it tries to juggle too much.
The original game was strictly turn-based, featuring a kind of grid system—not quite tactical, but encouraging attention to positioning and reach. This remake introduces a hybrid system between real-time and turn-based combat, where you can roll around and hit enemies in the field for extra damage before switching to turn-based mode on command.
It’s meant to add speed and shake things up, but it feels half-hearted. Major battles force turn-based combat immediately anyway, and the real-time attack options are simple and repetitive.
Additionally, the game still suffers from unbalanced enemy HP and damage values, even on lower difficulties. Weak enemies take too long to defeat, and experience points scale down aggressively, making grinding tedious and leading me to run away from battles frequently.
Adding the real-time mechanic only compounds the frustration, turning attempts to stun enemies before turn-based combat into awkward, button-mashing nuisances I’d rather avoid.
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### A Missed Opportunity in Combat Balance
It’s a shame, because the combat animations are excellent, and the overall pace is faster than the original. Many tweaks were made to adapt the game’s ideas into 3D space, and there’s a lot of potential.
But there’s so much weird padding and questionable balancing that the game’s flow suffers. Preparing for boss fights and side challenges feels unpredictably frustrating rather than engaging.
It boils down to situations like: “My EXP gains have dried up, so I’ll stop grinding. Oh no, the boss has fifty thousand HP, and my strongest attacks feel like needle pokes!”
Despite all the upgrading, this still seems to be Falcom’s approach to challenge, which feels odd in a remake of this scale.
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### Final Thoughts
*Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter* is an ambitious and transformative revisit to a modern classic RPG—a formative experience for a small but passionate audience that sparked one of the most epic storytelling experiments in video games today.
In an era full of remakes that often feel like expensive wastes of time, *1st Chapter* meets the moment in a genuinely impressive and helpful way. It’s largely a massive presentational overhaul, but it breathes new life into the original in a meaningful way.
The combat balance remains annoying, and the real-time/turn-based hybrid gimmick feels confused and unnecessary. Still, I found myself lost once again in *Trails’* absurdly well-executed storytelling ambitions.
If you’ve been hearing about *Trails* for years from the dedicated fans and want a cleaner, more accessible way to experience it, this is the moment you’ve been waiting for. If you’re already a longtime *Trails* fan, this is an obvious must-play and a great excuse to revisit the beginning.
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### Availability
*Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter* is now available on PC, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and PlayStation 5.
*Note: A Nintendo Switch 2 code was provided by the publisher for this review.*
https://www.shacknews.com/article/146342/trails-in-the-sky-1st-chapter-review-score