cross-posted from: https://atomicpoet.org/objects/3d9c9c3e-14e9-446f-9d5c-83af4227bbfc
Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter, a JRPG, just got released on Steam—and this is a big deal because this game is to PC what Final Fantasy VII was to PlayStation.
You play as Estelle Bright, a stubborn but big-hearted teen, and her adopted brother Joshua, calm and secretive, as they work as junior agents of the Bracer Guild—mercenaries who handle everything from lost pets to bandit raids.
What begins as simple small-town jobs in the idyllic kingdom of Liberl slowly peels back into a slow-burn political thriller about coups, ancient technology, and rival nations circling like sharks. The genius of Trails in the Sky is how it ties everyday people and personal stories into that larger web of conspiracies, making the upheaval feel like it’s your neighbours and your home on the line.
Some history is in order. The two most influential JRPG developers are Square Enix and Nihon Falcom. Square Enix gave us Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. Nihon Falcom gave us Dragon Slayer and Ys. Square pushed the turn-based JRPG. Falcom’s big innovation was the action JRPG.
Dragon Slayer in particular was groundbreaking—without it, there’s no Zelda, no Hydlide, no Neutopia. It was the template for action RPGs to follow, and it was so successful it spawned spin-offs. One of them was The Legend of Heroes. That series was so successful it spun off again into Trails in the Sky. And yes—Trails itself kept spinning into more games, until it became a saga of its own.
So why haven’t you heard of it? Because Falcom wasn’t console-first like Square. Their heyday was the PC-88 and PC-98—computers that never came west. When Japan switched to Windows, so did Falcom. Trails in the Sky first arrived on Windows in 2004—but only in Japan. A PSP port followed in 2006. Still Japan only. North America finally got it in 2011… on PSP. By then, nobody here was playing PSP anymore.
It wasn’t until 2014 that the Windows version—better than the PSP one—was localized and released on Steam and GOG. It took more than a decade for Westerners to notice. But once they did, they realised this wasn’t just another RPG—this was a landmark.
The comparison to Final Fantasy VII is apt. Trails in the Sky is Falcom’s premiere JRPG. It cemented their reputation for long-form storytelling and kicked off a serialized epic that continues today. And if you think there are a lot of Final Fantasy games, Trails makes it look modest.
The difference is in the type impact each had. Final Fantasy VII was an atomic bomb. Trails in the Sky was a hurricane—starting as a whisper, then building into a storm. Westerners know the sequels like Trails of Cold Steel and Trails from Zero, but how many ever went back to the original?
Now they can. Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is a re-imagining of that first game. And “re-imagining” is exactly the right word. Same story, not a simple remake.
What’s new? A lot. The original was purely turn-based. This version lets you switch on the fly between the classic grid system and a new real-time action mode. Combat feels fluid and layered, and Falcom themselves estimate about 80 hours to clear—double the original’s runtime—thanks to extra quests and expanded exploration.
The graphics are completely redone. The old game was 2.5D isometric sprites—think Diablo with anime characters. The new one is full 3D, third-person, HDR-enabled, yet still faithful. Rolent, the first town, looks like you remember, just rebuilt in polygons.
Sound has levelled up. Fully animated cutscenes. Professional actors in both Japanese and English. Steam even lists French, German, and Spanish text, though only English and Japanese get full voice tracks. Most importantly, Falcom’s iconic music is intact—because unlike too many remakes, they didn’t dare mess with perfection.
Controls are flexible. The devs push gamepads, but keyboard and mouse works beautifully. Xbox and PlayStation controllers are supported natively, and thanks to Steam Input, just about anything—Logitech, 8BitDo, you name it—will work.
Steam officially says Windows-only and lists Deck support as “unknown.” But previews already note it runs smooth on Deck, looks gorgeous on OLED screens, and will almost certainly get the “Verified” badge. I tested it myself on Linux—it’s flawless.
Specs are reasonable: Ryzen 5 1600, 8GB RAM, GTX 1050, and 33GB storage will net you 60fps at 1080p.
The price is steep—C$77.99. Steam also launched it with a pile of optional DLC: costumes, boosters, items. Normally I’d balk at paying that much. But this is Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter—rebuilt so a new generation can see why it’s legendary. And if that’s still too much, the 2014 version is cheap: C$21.99 on Steam, or just C$11.00 on GOG.
Reception so far is glowing. Steam already shows a 96% positive rating across 233 reviews. Players love the balance of modern upgrades with old-school heart.
Either way—whether you buy today’s re-imagining or grab the older version—you owe it to yourself to play Trails in the Sky. Because if you care about JRPGs, even a little, this is the one you don’t skip.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3375780/Trails_in_the_Sky_1st_Chapter/
… No it’s not
Totally is. FFVII was a watershed moment for JRPGs on PSX. Same is true for Trails on PC.
It’s just that recognition in the West for FFVII was instant. Meanwhile, due to localization, it took more than a decade for Trails to get recognition.
Maybe this is a better comparison: if FFVII is The Beatles, then Trails is the Velvet Underground. Beatles sold massive copies immediately. VU took awhile, but now everyone knows they’re just as impactful as the Beatles.
This comparison really feels strained. FF7 was the PS1’s biggest game, and by far. It was a revolution that shook the entire industry.
Trails is a cult classic that’s beloved by a niche fanbase, and I’m happy to see this kind of game get a shot at wider recognition here, but its impact was in no way even remotely comparable to FF7.
Okay, but I’m not talking about commercial appeal. I’m talking about artistic achievement.
What Nihon Falcom accomplished with this game is unmatched. Trails in the Sky is, without question, the most expansive and intricate saga in JRPG history.
Because unlike other series that reset with each new title, Falcom committed to one continuous world. Every town, every political faction, every character connects across dozens of games.
And this game was the beginning of it all.
What part of this is comparable to FF7?
The big thing about FFVII when it came out was the huge—for the time—fully realized world.
It felt like stepping into a movie. There was nuance. And there were story curveballs.
Same deal with Trails in the Sky. Fully realized world—immense. And the narrative ambition is not just huge, Nihon Falcom actually pulled it off.
The big thing about FF7 was that it came out during a critical transition period for the industry, and Squaresoft put the highest budget of any video game to date into making sure FF’s jump to 3D graphics was as explosive as possible. The game was heavily marketed on its technical merits, boasting about how everything this game does could only be possible on PS1. It’s full of setpiece moments that are literally just Squaresoft trying to show off their VFX budget (this is why summon cutscenes are so absurdly long). And it blew audiences away because no one had never seen anything like it before. FF7 was a revolution.
Trails certainly has good reason to be beloved by its niche fanbase, but by 2004, it really wasn’t doing anything super unique compared to its contemporaries from the same time period. It’s a polished game, but I can’t describe it as anything more than an evolution.
Not to mention it was amid a crashout with Nintendo where Square struck a deal with Sony making the Playstation a sudden major contender.
But we’re not talking about technical merits but artistic.
There is no RPG series as big and immense as Trails.
This is Nihon Falcon’s crowning achievement. In terms of sheer craftsmanship, only one other JRPG compares.
The technical merits were why FF7 was so impactful as a cultural landmark of video game history.
Is Trails a good game? Sure.
Is FF7 the right comparison to invoke? Not even close.
The technical merits mattered when it launched. Do they matter now? Not at all. Otherwise FFVII would’ve gone the way of Battle Arena Toshinden—big splash at the time, forgotten in the long run.
What gives FFVII its staying power is the art. That’s why we play games. Not for specs. For creativity.
And this is where FFVII and Trails meet: at the rarefied height of JRPG artistry. The pinnacle. God-tier.
Just because something is big and difficult, doesn’t mean it’s good or fun. I still need to play it to see if I like it, but the reasoning used here is flawed.
What Nihon Falcom accomplished with this game is unmatched. Trails in the Sky is, without question, the most expansive and intricate saga in JRPG history.
Alright, I don’t think this is true lol… Just an FYI, I’m generally defending you against the person here who apparantly really likes FF7 and really hates Trails games, but… Yeah I don’t think that’s “without question” at all. In fact, I myself am questioning it right now.
Again, what other series is comparable? 12 games, multiple but interlocking arcs, developed over decades.
If there’s one that I don’t know about, tell me.
For all the good things about Trails there’s a lot of flaws as well. There’s a lot of weak plot lines, reused assets (lack of npc variety being one) and there’s quite a few logical leaps happening as the series has progressed. The games are ambitious for sure, but let’s not pretend that hasn’t had its own shortcomings.
For me Trails as a series is very much a case of being better than the sum of its individual parts, and that’s great, but you’re vastly overselling the importance of this series. I enjoy both Trails and Final Fantasy, but it’s wild to put them on the same field like this. Square Enix has more than 4000 employees. Falcom has about 80, I think. The scale is so wastly different.
Hyperbole, much? What a bananas way to say you like a fun remake of a relatively solid JRPG.
deleted by creator
I’ve been on the Fediverse for a very long time. If you Google my username, you’ll find a trail of posts going back years—thousands of them. My style has always been consistent, and I’ve stayed true to it.
I also happen to be autistic, and I often use ChatGPT for tone checks—it’s a tool that helps me communicate more clearly.
This isn’t an ad. I’m just someone who genuinely loves this game. And if enthusiasm makes me look like a shill, then so be it.
That said, your comment is a good reminder of why I recently added two new rules to !videogames@piefed.social, the community I moderate.
If it’s bananas, tell me why.
This shit is bananas. “Change my mind”
I’m still confused on the sentence “re-imagining is exactly the right term”, because to me imagination is fluid and ever changing, but they said this term means the story has not changed.
I would expect remaster to be the proper term here, but I’ve not played the original or seen this iteration so I’m not sure what to think.
The price is insane. No way I’m touching it until it’s about $50 cheaper. It doesn’t even have regional pricing for my country which makes it extra expensive by comparison.
The dlc listed has a higher combined cost than the game even as well lol. All this seems particularly egregious for a remake of a 20 year old game.
I don’t know why they thought they could get away with these prices. I’ve never even heard of this game before.
If the total cost was $20 and the dlc was included, I’d consider it…maybe
A lot of it reads as lazy DLC meant to satisfy investors that want “value-adds” without taking a lot of development time. I’d imagine only obsessive fans (admittedly, there are many) would be considering them.
But the fact that it’s a remake of a 20 year old game doesn’t seem like it would affect the value. For reference, the old one was top down with prerendered chibi sprites. The new one is fully 3D with voice acting. It’s a pretty sizable change in appearance, even how the combat functions. $60 is probably normal, though it makes sense that for anyone unsure about it, either play the demo or just wait for it to go on sale.
Some history is in order. The two most influential JRPG developers are Square Enix and Nihon Falcom. Square Enix gave us Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy.
Uhh… credibility lost. They’re saying history is in order and they immediately begin by rewriting history.
Squaresoft and Enix were two different companies for decades, particularly when they were giving us Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest.
Notice I wrote in present tense, not past tense. Square Enix are one company now.
Notice I wrote in present tense
Immediately after saying “some history is in order”.
Square Enix didn’t give us the original Final Fantasy nor the original Dragon Quest. They give us those games now. But writing as if they were always one company feels like rewriting history.
I think there might be a small misunderstanding. I wasn’t saying they’re one company—just noting the influence they both still carry today. However you look at it, Square Enix are the caretakers of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, much like how Bandai Namco continue to carry Pac-Man forward.
Instead of focusing on the negatives, why not celebrate what these games have meant to so many of us? Their impact is still worth appreciating.
A liar still lies
I want turn based. Also FF7 had a PC port.
Play the original. Right now, It’s C$11.00 on GOG.
And while FFVII was ported to PC—I own that port—FFVII was more impactful as a PSX game and was a major factor in Sony winning the Gen 5 console war.
On the other hand Trails in the Sky started off as a PC game, and never really got a mainstream console release—but this was the genesis of the Trails series.
It’s 98% turn based. 100% if you don’t want to spend a few seconds building stagger.
If it’s like the last few trails game, it’s not really “you choose whether to play action or turn based” but “play action mode to build up a meter to get an advantage in turn based node when you switch” and you only spend 10 seconds or so in action mode, and also bosses don’t even have an action phase.
Also, I got the Trails remake on my PS5. So I dunno why even mention the platform in the headline
Even though the gushing about Trails in the Sky may be seen as overblown, it’s interesting to read about the console history of these games and what they influenced. I remember when I played a Neptunia game and they stated “You know how every RPG has you fighting slimes first?” I thought “What…? No. I literally can’t think of any.” I realized those creators had very much grown up off of the “Dragon Quest” side of the RPG world. It seems to make sense to say Legend of Zelda in some ways followed some cues from the Ys games.
I played the original FC in 2019. I think while it makes sense to be called a slow burn, there were also elements of the writing that kept me playing even early on; unlike a lot of game worlds it actually feels like a livable place where people trade, travel, have social lives, beyond just “The Soulstealer you’re going to fight has done wonders for our town! The sacrifices are necessary!” And, having the world and characters built up, even if it’s a bit slow, does lead to some excellent moments of payoff. I’m glad FF7 was mentioned, because I remembered that same anticipation for the FMV-style sequences of some epic cutscene battle or chase after a long sequence of investigating. Admittedly, part of what kept me going was the creative localization work. Little things like the “empty chest messages” felt like a very fun developer touch showing how much they enjoy the game.
I think that there’s definitely a “Devoted Falcom crowd” much like many other fanbases now, and I’d expect their opinions to be a bit skewed. When I was looking for opinions on this game, most of them seemed to come from people that had played most of their series. I’m a bit of an outlier - After Sky 1+2, I attempted to play the next three games in the series, through to Trails from Azure, at which point I decided “Eh…I’m done. The magic is lost.” But there’s a good reason that crowd exists, and I think I get how they can really absorb you in for the long haul. I just happened to differently enjoy a single pair of their games. At the very least, I wouldn’t consider the current 96% rating on Steam to be wholly objective; the game hasn’t been out long, so most reviewers will be people who played the game already and have a strong stake.
I played the demo for this one, and was surprised to find myself challenged by the JRPG combat even on normal. It’s possible to solve that issue with grinding, but it also got me to appreciate all the systems they have for outfitting yourself well, and reacting to particular circumstances in combat (I’m thinking of making a guide on Steam to showcase some of these). While I think of these games for their story (and of course their music) it’s interesting to see they have a large following for max difficulty playthroughs.
I saw this on Steam but the “1st Chapter” subtitle is a red flag. Is this a remake of a complete game or a partial release like the FFVII remakes?
Edit: Although the above concern has been addressed, this $60 game now has $75 worth of DLC just a day after release. I think this may be a patient gamer situation.
The original was part of a trilogy, this is a remake of that same first game in the trilogy.
Thank you, that’s what I was trying to figure out. I’m guessing that the worst case scenario is that I can play the originals if they don’t remake the sequels. I think I’ll pick this up. I could use a good story-based single player game.
Yeah the reason for the naming is that the original games were Trails in the Sky FC (First Chapter) and SC (Second Chapter) because it was supposed to be one game. And the scope of the story got so huge that it would never have been reasonable to release it as just a single game. FC was a 40-60 hour game while SC was 60-80 hours.
The 20 hour gap on each is really how much a player dug in because nearly every single NPC has their own story going on in the sidelines and some people (myself included) actually end up following them all at every story transition. They reoccur throughout this game and later games too, so the attention to detail to keep an these things happening is fairly incredible.
To further answer your original question though, FC really does need SC to get a satisfying end, but FC is a beloved entry anyhow from all the world building it provides.
The series is currently 12 games and will be 13 soon. That’s 4 major story arcs that all connect, get referenced, have some reappearing characters and talk of those past events, etc. In comparison to more well known JRPG series, it’s not like Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest because this is not an anthology series.
Thank you for succinctly explaining why Trails in the Sky is such an artistic achievement.
I think they’ve already announced that they’re remaking SC (Second Chapter). As the other commenter said, it’s more of a duology so I dunno if they’ll remake the third.
I’d say it’s more accurate that it’s part of a “duology”. Die-hard fans insist on playing the 3rd game to absorb Deep Lore, but it’s not a part of the satisfying bookended arc starting from the first game. You don’t even play as the same main character. Frankly, I’m not sure if they’re going to remaster it.
Theories say the second game will release in a year, but game dev schedules tend to go wild. I wouldn’t blame anyone for waiting until then, since it is a big cliffhanger. It’s well written, doesn’t feel cheesy, and feels like an “ending”, but sucks to be left there wondering.
Remake. But also, more like a reimagining because it plays differently.
I explain all this in my review.
I was trying to figure out whether it was a complete experience on its own. @missingno@fedia.io clarified that it’s a remake of the first game in a trilogy. I was concerned it was being released episodically and I’ve been burned on incomplete episodic releases too many times.
Not sure if my review comes off too text-heavy, but I aim to cover this game in detail.
I dig into its history—because this isn’t just any JRPG. Its pedigree stretches back to 1984 on the PC-88.
Sorta. It’s so loosely connected to the Dragon Slayer and contains almost no reference back to anyone before Trails actually started in 2004. Yes, I know, these are the origins, but saying “it’s not just any JRPG” makes it sound like the preceding series would be relevant to Trails too. I would say that the only games that you’ll ever see meaningful references to would be the Gagharv trilogy, but even then, not canon to Trails.
I think the more impressive thing is that Falcom has been making RPGs since before “JRPG” was a used term. Before Dragon Warrior/Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy ever took the stage.
Either way, loving the remake, it’s truly one of the most faithful remakes of any games I’ve ever seen, regardless of genre. It’s insane that at a glance I recognize literally every area compared to the original.
No, Trails is not canon with Dragon Slayer. More like that’s its lineage. Which is pretty damn cool.
Falcom seems to be doing okay, but if they suddenly go bankrupt, you could just play the original SC on Steam to finish the story.
The game it’s a remake of was a very full experience. The original and its sequel were know as FC (first chapter) and SC, I think mostly in retrospect.
Vague spoilers for the story arc
While the original Trails in the Sky was very complete experience, it does end on a cliffhanger that sets up directly for the sequel. I have no idea if the remake is the same, but I’d expect so.
Oh, I remember this game. Played through almost the whole original (watched the last dungeon on YT) pretty much without grinding. Didn’t like it.
My opinion on the story: nothing happened for 50 hours, and something big finally did, I was already way past the point of disinterest. I’ve seen someone else write that it’s basically setting up the world for what happens later, and the third part almost makes you forgive the creators, but there’s no way I’m playing through another one.
I don’t think I can agree that it is equivalent to final fantasy 7. But it still sounds worthwhile.
Too bad they botched the deluxe edition / season pass release.
Never bought the deluxe edition—so I don’t know.
What’s the whole purpose of them other than just giving devs more money?
The dlc is important to some, to each their own.
It is pretty shitty to fail to release something and then go radio silence about it with no real explanation, though. On top of the regional pricing issue too.
Question wasn’t rhetorical. I really don’t understand the purpose of deluxe editions nor their importance.
I always just assumed people spend the money because they like spending it.
I’ve been looking for a turn based RPG to play so I’ll bite. Purchased and downloading it now.
Tried the first hour and it’s pretty nice. I did skip all the way to trails of cold steel the first go at the series and so far I like the gameplay differences. With this now I can just play the series in order as they already said they’re working on the second game
Ya’ll think it’s worth it? I’m currently on chapter 2 of the original game and I thought the remake didn’t re-do all the chapters
I’ve played Trails of Cold Steel I, II and part of III. I also tried starting the original Trails in the Sky two or three times, but it never stuck.
I picked up the remake yesterday, and only played for an hour or so, but it is gorgeous. There is a demo, I think. Might be worth trying out.
