Within the JRPG realm, Falcom’s Trails series has earned a devoted following thanks to the intensely interconnected storytelling and a level of care in its worldbuilding that puts AAA games to shame. But at 13 games and 4 story arcs, it’s also one of the genre’s most daunting franchises to get into.
Thankfully, Falcom has finally given us a new definitive starting point with Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter, a full remake of the very first Trails game. Though the Trails in the Sky trilogy still holds up as charming classic JRPGs to this day, their absence on most modern platforms, slow pacing, and somewhat antiquated game design have stopped them from being more accessible to newcomers.
As a remake of the series’s origin, 1st Chapter is still that same slow-paced JRPG with lower stakes than later entries. But Falcom has gone to great lengths to make this game more appealing to newcomers, with a bevy of overhauls and tweaks that all but eliminate the friction and obtuse elements of the original.
Set in the Liberl Kingdom, Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter follows the journey of Estelle and Joshua, two siblings who join the Bracer Guild to hunt monsters, protect citizens, and uphold justice, all while searching for clues regarding their missing father. Much of the story remains grounded, with antagonists ranging from thieves to corrupt politicians.
In the absence of world-shaking events, 1st Chapter spends its time establishing its setting and characters, using its runtime to gradually immerse you into its world. These are, of course, incredibly charming and well-written characters, even if they at first come off as tropey. Falcom’s slow burn approach to developing the cast and world may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but they’ve done a lot to make everything else around it a lot more exciting.
For starters, Liberl and its people have been fully remade with an absolutely stunning art style. It’s easily Falcom’s prettiest game to date, and a massive glow-up for a studio whose graphical prowess always lagged behind its competitors. The overhauled presentation, addition of full voice acting, and fantastic cutscene animation work also go a long way in making what was a slow-but-charming story far more engaging and emotional.
Each of the game’s major regions have also been made significantly more seamless; gone are the loading screens between highways and cities, making for a cohesive world. Unfortunately, going in and out of individual buildings (like shops) still does require loading screens. They’re mercifully brief on PS5, but still a step back from Trails through Daybreak.
Speaking of Daybreak, it’s the primary source of inspiration for 1st Chapter’s shiny new combat system. All Trails games feature turn-based combat with a visible turn order, and characters can move around the field to attack. Daybreak’s key innovations included the ability to freely move your characters around without dedicating a turn to it, as well as a simple action combat system on the field where you could smack around enemies to stun them before transitioning into turn-based mode, or outright eliminate weaker foes. 1st Chapter adopts this system while adding in follow-up attacks similar to those seen in Trails of Cold Steel.
It’s a flexible battle system that makes the proceedings much more exciting, especially when paired with the massive improvements to the playable cast. What were simple combat animations in the original are now among the most energetic and stylish of the entire series, and these attacks have also seen a variety of buffs and overhauls to make them much more useful.
Character customization, meanwhile, takes after the original Trails in the Sky. In addition to your typical weapons, armor, and accessories, characters carry around tactical orbments, devices that use quartz crystals to boost their stats and add passive effects. What Arts — or magic — a character has at their disposal depends on their quartz loadout and arrangement. Do you forgo some extra stats to get access to more powerful Arts? Or do you ignore Arts entirely in favor of raw strength and passive abilities? It’s a system that demands care and consideration in order to draw out your party’s latent potential.
In between your battles and main story missions, you’ll be taking on jobs for the Bracer Guild. Though these run the gamut from monster hunts to escort missions and fetch quests, they’re also generally well-written and compelling enough to make them worthwhile, because on top of the monetary and item rewards, you’ll also learn more about Liberl and the people who live in it. 1st Chapter also adds a few extra quests, all of which are organically woven into the existing framework.
This is also an area where 1st Chapter makes major quality-of-life improvements. In the original Trails in the Sky, the onus was always on the player to frequently check the guild’s bulletin board for new quests. Fail to do so, and you’d kiss those precious rewards goodbye, because all quests were (and still are in the remake) permanently missable. Not helping matters is the fact that every chapter had hidden quests that weren’t found on the bulletin board, and required you to simply stumble on the right person at the right time.
1st Chapter, mercifully, now always shows you on the map when new quests become available, regardless if they’re from the bulletin board or “hidden” around town. This also extends to hidden in-game collectibles and optional cutscenes, all of which make it much easier to reach the max Bracer rank and see everything the game has to offer.
There are a few issues, though. The localization, though solid, features some minor naming inconsistencies with other Trails games that will annoy hardcore fans. There were also occasional moments, especially in the final chapter, where the voiced dialogue and subtitles were slightly mismatched. And finally, the series’ long-standing issue of semi-voiced cutscenes — wherein one character has voice acting while everyone else is silent — is still present.
PS5 key provided by PR for this review
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