Nihon Falcom's The Legend of Heroes franchise first began as a series of two spinoffs from their larger Dragon Slayer series, before eventually becoming its own thing with a trio of titles termed the Gagharv trilogy, although they received different numbering in North America when translated by Bandai. Localization duties would eventually fall to XSEED Games, which took a while in their translation process before releasing the first installment of the following trilogy, unrelated to its predecessors, entitled The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, released on PC through Steam and the PlayStation Portable, the former version this review covers.
The first Trails game focuses on Estelle Bright and her adopted brother Joshua, who travel the Liberl Kingdom whilst performing jobs to become full-fledged "bracers", occasionally finding new companions and finding themselves involved in political upheaval. The worldbuilding is easily one of the game's strongest suits, with a well-developed and likable cast, as well as the aforementioned political overtones, although the protagonists' search for their vanished father rarely seems urgent, and there is occasional deus ex machina. The translation is well above average, though there are minor issues regarding things such as rare punctuation errors and the use of the term "Scrooge" in a universe devoid of Charles Dickens and his iconic Christmas novella.
The first Trails game focuses on Estelle Bright and her adopted brother Joshua, who travel the Liberl Kingdom whilst performing jobs to become full-fledged "bracers", occasionally finding new companions and finding themselves involved in political upheaval. The worldbuilding is easily one of the game's strongest suits, with a well-developed and likable cast, as well as the aforementioned political overtones, although the protagonists' search for their vanished father rarely seems urgent, and there is occasional deus ex machina. The translation is well above average, though there are minor issues regarding things such as rare punctuation errors and the use of the term "Scrooge" in a universe devoid of Charles Dickens and his iconic Christmas novella.
Trails sports a turn-based tactical battle system, with the player's party of up to four characters, their formation adjustable in the game menus, squaring off against a number of enemies, which are visible in dungeons and transport the player to separate grid-based battlefields once contacted on fields in between towns or dungeons. A step down from the Gagharv trilogy is that no matter how high the player's characters' levels are, enemies, upon noticing their visible party, will still charge them, although fortunately, contacting them from behind to get a surprise attack against them isn't terribly difficult, and there are some quartzes that affect their behavior.
In combat, characters and the enemy take their turns depending upon agility, with a turn order meter luckily showing who goes when. Upon reaching their turns, the player's characters can move and execute a physical attack, simply move to another square, use a consumable item, use EP-consuming Arts, execute CP-consuming Crafts, or attempt to escape. Craft Points gradually accumulate up to a maximum of two hundred, with special limit breaks executable at a hundred, although using them at two hundred will maximize effectiveness and even grant bonuses depending on the skill, such as one character's special Craft increasing defense in addition to reviving characters and recovering health.
EP basically dictates magical abilities in battle, with each character having an orbment grid into whose slots, unlockable by crystals obtained from winning a battle, the player can place shards of differing elements (although for some characters, a few slots the game reserves only for specific types), with the strength of the shards allowing characters use of certain spells, an in-game guide fortunately cluing players in as to how they can access certain Arts. If the player plays their cards right, they can access some powerful abilities early on in the game that can make standard battles go by quicker in addition to a "turbo mode" I discovered while playing the game on my Steam Deck.
One issue players may have with Arts, however, is that they may take a few turns to execute (with this period oftentimes varying), with some enemies, particularly some bosses, able to cancel their execution, and thus, foresight is sometimes necessary, although luckily, the player can conveniently view which elements foes are strong or weak against without the need for scan magic, and getting the initiative in battle typically allows spells to execute sooner. Higher-level Arts may affect a certain area of the battlefield, although sometimes the player needs to center spells on specific foes to execute them, with other magic allowing free-range area selection. A few defensive spells can actually be handy, such as one allowing nullification of damage from one enemy attack.
Winning battles nets all characters who are still alive experience proportional to their level for occasional level-ups (which fully restores HP and EP), although these tend to rise fairly slowly, except towards the end of the game. The player also acquires crystals of different elements they can exchange at shops for money, in addition to the occasional item. Another feature is the food system, with the player able to cook meals for the entire party to restore HP and maybe grant supplemental effects such as additional Craft Points, new recipes acquired from consuming food items acquired from treasure chests or paid for at bars and restaurants, raw materials necessary to concoct them.
All in all, if not for the turbo mode, combat would definitely be a soporific chore, although said speed definitely makes even the most daunting fights, especially those towards the end of the game, go by quicker, and grinding, given the mentioned proportional experience system, isn't a terrible burden either. Moreover, if all the player's characters die, they can restart the fight with all adversaries supposedly weaker, giving a fairer chance in the fight. Aside from the issue with wildly-varying spellcasting time and the lack of an option for characters to defend and reduce damage until their next turn, the game mechanics work surprisingly well.
Control has plenty of bright spots such as the ability to record progress anywhere and anytime outside battles and cutscenes, and the general game interface is easy to handle and navigate, with players further able to see how equipment increases or decreases stats before purchase, general direction on how to advance the central storyline and bracer missions being largely clear as well. However, there are some issues such as many dungeons except the late-game sewers lacking maps (although fields between towns and said dungeons do have them), and many of the guild quests are missable. Ultimately, Trails interfaces well with players in spite of the aforementioned hiccups.
Falcom's sound department did a nice job with the soundtrack, with some standout tracks such as the central theme, "The Whereabouts of Light", which has a harmonica version Joshua plays at points throughout the game. All the town themes are nice as well, as is the music played in dungeons and the main battle themes. One twist is that if the player's party is close to death, the battle music changes, and while one can find annoying characters whining and crying when dying (with voices only present in battles), the players can mercifully mute voicework in combat. Overall, the game's aural presentation is another high point.
Trails' visuals feature three-dimensional scenery and character sprites, with nice art direction in the form of the character portraits that accompany cutscenes, show myriads of emotions, and reflect their respective anime designs, the environments, and occasional vehicles at times seeming to "pop out" of the Steam Deck on which I played the game, and the battles contain nice animation and ability effects. There are occasional jaggies and pixilated environmental texturing, and the character sprites have chibi proportions, but otherwise, the graphics generally look nice.
Finally, the game length is modest, somewhere from twenty-four to seventy-two hours' worth of playtime, the sidequests in the form of additional guild missions and a replay mode to start from the beginning with some things carried over, and Steam achievements provide motivation to go through at least one more time or two, although most players will likely want to move on to the second game.
In the end, The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky is a more-than-competent RPG, with just about all its aspects having more positives and negatives such as the battle system one can really speed up, tight control, excellent worldbuilding, solid audiovisual presentation, and plenty lasting appeal. I very much appreciated the first Trails game more than in prior playthroughs, especially due to said turbo mode for combat and even cutscene action, and while it does have some minor issues, the good in the game very much outweighs the bad. Regardless, I look forward to replaying the second game in the Trails in the Sky trilogy and intend eventually to experience the concluding chapter.
This review is based on a playthrough of a copy digitally purchased and downloaded to the reviewer's Steam Deck. Despite the official "Incompatible" status when played on the system, the reviewer had no problems with the game from start to finish.
The Good:
The Bad:
The Bottom Line:
A great beginning for the Trails series.
Score Breakdown:
Platform: Steam
Game Mechanics: 9.0/10
Controls: 8.5/10
Story: 8.0/10
Localization: 9.0/10
Music/Sound: 9.0/10
Graphics: 8.0/10
Lasting Appeal: 8.0/10
Difficulty: Adjustable
Playing Time: 24-72 Hours