The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky Review—An Underappreciated JRPG Classic

    Back in 2004, an obscure Japanese video game developer named Nihon Falcom released a game entitled Eiyū Densetsu Sora no Kiseki (英雄伝説 空の軌跡) for the PC. This game was not localized outside of Japan until 2011, when its port for the PSP was released in North America and Europe. Its English title is, of course, The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky. It was the sixth entry in the long-running Legend of Heroes series, and the first in the now-long-running Trails series, which has continued ever since 2004. Trails in the Sky itself is also only the first game in the Trails in the Sky sub-series of Trails, which is why it is often referred to as Trails in the Sky FC, short for First Chapter. Trails remains an obscure series in the West, but it has gained much greater recognition here in the world of Latin characters through the relative popularity of the Trails of Cold Steel series, the third part of the Trails series, which itself is a part of the Legend of Heroes series. What a dizzying number of games, series, and sub-series to keep track of! But one need not understand all of this series' nuances for the purposes of this review. Suffice it to say that Trails in the Sky is not a groundbreaking game, nor is it entirely unique, and I would not call it a great game. But I believe it is a good one, a game worth the time I put into it. 

    Where to begin? Well, let me start with the negatives of the game. First of all, the game has poor combat. The battles are typical boring turn-based JRPG fare, complete with extended animations, monotonous average encounters, and generally dull, uninteresting fights. However, the game does have a turbo mode (whose key binding is accessible from the game launch configuration tool) that apparently greatly speeds up gameplay, making it much less tedious (according to my friend who also played this game). Unfortunately, when I played through Trails in the Sky, I had no idea such a feature existed, and so I was stuck with much slower, more irritating gameplay! Although I do believe the combat is poor, I also think it is passable, and it generally wasn’t too much of a bother. If you have played other turn-based JRPGs before and found yourself able to deal with the tedium of their combat, then you should be well-equipped to handle Trails in the Sky. 

    Second, the side quests of the game are quite boring and annoying to do, so I skipped most of them. They usually involve finding items for people or searching around rather large sections of map to fight optional bosses, and since the combat of the game wasn’t fun, and I didn’t really care about average NPCs’ plights, I only found them tedious to do. The problem with my strategy is that completing the side quests does increase an in-world ranking of the main characters, and so if you want your characters ranked highly in this regard, you will need to do lots of these side quests. 

    The third major problem with the game is that it is extremely dialogue and cutscene-heavy. This game has a very high cutscene-to-gameplay ratio (and unfortunately its cutscenes are not skippable), even for a JRPG, and so if that bothers you, you likely will not enjoy this game. I have to wonder whether or not this game would have been better served being a visual novel, anime, or book, because of how much of the game is spent simply reading through dialogue between the characters, and because of the lackluster gameplay.

Estelle Bright, one of the game's main characters. Image credit goes to Nihon Falcom.

    Fourth, the game takes a long time to develop the plot. I would argue that for the most part, the story is quite slow until the second half of the third chapter. For a significant part of the game I felt as though I were running around involved in rather tiresome, generic trivialities, and there was even one point in the first chapter at which I nearly quit. Thankfully, immediately thereafter the story picked up and I was engaged once again. There is an advantage to the lethargic build of the game, however, which I will discuss later. 

    Finally, this game’s story and characters are formulaic in some regards. The villain is rather predictable and underwhelming, there are multiple deus ex machinas, and the main character’s dramatic espousal of the overwhelming power of friendship as though it were some kind of legitimate plan for the future was irksome and absurdly cliched. 

    So just why is this game any good? Why have I given it a positive review? Below I will list the reasons why I believe Trails in the Sky to be worthwhile and a good game. Though it is significantly flawed, I believe that its flaws listed above are outweighed by the game’s merits, of which there are many. 

    First, as mentioned above, there is an advantage to the game’s leisurely pacing. I’ve played a lot of JRPGs, and I’ve never seen one which builds the dread and mystery of its world and story as well as Trails in the Sky does. Unlike games like Final Fantasy, which usually wow the player with the novelty and intrigue of their worlds and stories only early on in the game, so that by the end of the game the player can anticipate exactly what is going to happen next, Trails in the Sky gradually increases the tension of the game’s world little by little over the course of the story, and leaves the door wide open as to what will occur by the game’s end. (Incidentally, I did not predict the game’s ending, nor do I think the average player will.) Early on in the game, little bits and pieces of mysteries are established, and cracks in the game’s world are revealed, but the focus is not placed on these unresolved tidbits. But as the game progresses, all of the different fragments of information come together to reveal the truth behind the game’s events, and they all lead up to an exciting conclusion. This restrained exposition of the game’s story left me intrigued and interested in what would happen next throughout most of the story, and this feeling assuredly remained through the game’s ending. Note that my friend, who has played all three Trails in the Sky games, and at whose behest I purchased this game, mentioned to me before I played it that the purpose of Trails in the Sky is really just to set up the sequel, which is called Trails in the Sky SC. And I must say that I think it sets SC up very well. 

    Second, Trails in the Sky has what I would consider to be a good story. It’s nothing exceptional, but as mentioned above, it’s told well, and it has many things going for it. It has heartfelt and truly touching moments which will tug at your heartstrings, as well as exciting and dramatic events that will keep you on the edge of your seat. It also has an excellent plot twist at the end of the game, and a great ending as a whole, which if you see it through, will certainly make you want to play the next game in the series.

    Third, Trails in the Sky has characters which are explored deeply over the course of the game. Because it has such an emphasis on dialogue and cutscenes, Trails in the Sky affords itself the opportunity to explore its characters deeply, beyond what I’ve seen other JRPGs offer. The characters themselves are also generally good and likeable, but it's their deep level of characterization that really sets Trails in the Sky apart, in my opinion.

Joshua Bright, one of the game's main characters. Image credit goes to Nihon Falcom.

    Fourth, Trails in the Sky has an interesting and detailed world. The story of Trails in the Sky sees the main characters venture around their country, and along the way the world is explored quite in-depth. Several NPCs even journey around the world with the main characters, and all have unique dialogues for their different locations at a given point in time. All of the different Trails games share a common continent, which allows it to be explored very deeply over the course of the many games in the series. There is also a fascinating lore behind the world of Trails in the Sky, much of which is not revealed in the game itself but rather hinted at and likely expounded upon in the game’s two sequels (I can’t say for sure whether or not this is true, since I have not played them yet). 

    Fifth, Trails in the Sky has a good soundtrack. I’m someone who greatly appreciates having good soundtracks in video games, and Trails in the Sky really struck me with just how good its soundtrack was. It’s not quite as good as Final Fantasy, but it’s better than most JRPGs I’ve played. The game also has the best final dungeon music that I’ve ever heard in a video game. 

    Sixth, Trails in the Sky’s combat is greatly benefited by the fact that it has no random encounters. If this game had random encounters like many JRPGs, it would likely be so frustrating that it wouldn’t be worth playing. But as it doesn’t, the combat is elevated to the position of being tolerable (at least in my eyes). 

    Seventh, Trails in the Sky has unique writing, at least for a JRPG, which makes it refreshing as an entry in the genre. There’s something about the game’s translation that struck me as particularly Western-feeling, a quality which I have not seen other JRPGs’ translations possess. This occasionally works against the game, but I think that most of the time it is a benefit to the experience. The game’s translation gives the characters some extra spice and helps cement their interesting personalities, and it livens up the dialogue. It’s not as if this game has the writing quality of a good novel, but I think it’s pretty darn good for a JRPG. 

    Eighth, Trails in the Sky has a nice equipment customization system. I didn’t experiment too much with the orbment system, since the combat of the game held little appeal to me, but it is an interesting system nonetheless, one which allows for flexibility and lots of variety. 

    And finally, Trails in the Sky just has a certain charm to it. I concede that this aspect is unfairly ambiguous, but I feel I would be remiss not to mention it, since it was an integral part of why I enjoyed the game. I mentioned before that I’ve played a lot of JRPGs, but not many can come close to the charm that this game has. The characters, story, music, and even the graphics form a coherent whole that is like a bundle of love sent from Nihon Falcom to the player. From the very first scene of the game I knew that Trails in the Sky was a passion project, or at least something like it. It has the hallmarks of a game that was really worked on with care by its developers. If you play this game and do not immediately see what I’m talking about on this point, you may want to consider refunding it, because you might not experience what for me was such an important part of this game’s appeal. 

    In conclusion, Trails in the Sky is a fun JRPG with a lot of heart, an intriguing story with a slow buildup, a deep level of characterization, a truly great ending and setup for the sequel, an interesting world, and good music. If you can overlook its flawed gameplay and its heavy reliance on dialogue and cutscenes, I think that you’ll have an enjoyable experience playing through the game (though I doubt I would ever enjoy replaying the game, considering its insipid gameplay). I give Trails in the Sky a 7/10.