The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky

i love this series and starting from here is a great choice. The game is dope if you into the genre.

I've played this game before on my PSP and aside of Chrono Trigger, this is the 2nd game that makes me re-played it. The story is marvellous written, the protagonist are lovable and all the stuff happens are vivid and kinda realistic. The battle system is one of the most fun I've experience among a quite long list of rpgs. Probably game pace is slow, but if you like JRPs you already are used to. Do you a favor, buy it and play it!

Hinestly i really dont like JRPG's, it was pure luck that i stumble upon this game before i tried most of other games in that genre, inspired by this game i was really dissapointed. This game is quite unique. First of all it is incredibly good designed as for JRPG in terms of character development and grind, unlike 99% of asian games there is almost no point in grind, simply following the story ( and the story is kinda LONG, but there will be almost no idle action beetwen which is great ) you will level appropriatly and have decent gear. That is a huge + in my book of asian games, it has more to that system but you will see for yourself, the game is really focusing on plot and not on clown side quests like in FF series which are boring and extra grindy and you still have plenty to fight, discover and enjoy the game. Second is: the plot/story in this game actually one of the best i've ever seen, on the first glance it might look "childish" but after 1-2 hours you will get the whole picture. The leads on story, the flashback when you play second chapter and the joy when you start to get whole picture, unbeilivebly good writting, very deep developed characters even secondary, you might find yourself simply talking to every NPC you meet just because they always react to current events, give you hints or simply extending plot events. Every main character is enjoyable, i always found it hard to put together party because i liked most of them, they all have personal stories that develops during both games. If you want to expirience interactive and really good written story based JRPG dont hesitate and try it out. Full exploration and not hasty reading and watching cutscenes will provide you hundreds hours of pure enjoyment.

This game is very reminiscent of the JRPGs of the 16-bit era. This means the story is completely linear, character customization is non-existent and the tactical combat is rather shallow. Concerning the gameplay Trails in the Sky hasn't much to offer. On top of that, the visual presentation is dated: the low resolution textures didn't age too well, only the 2D artwork holds up to today's standards. Why play it then? Well, just like those games of the old, it tells a genuinely charming story. This isn't your modern dark, gritty and RPG full of ambivalent and cynical characters. In this fairy tale the world is a nice place to live and if some bad guy shows up, the good guys are there to kick his butt. This story is mainly told in lots and lots of dialogue. And while not all of those lines are good or even necessary they do pull you in deeper and deeper into the fictional world which, by the end, you'll probably know better than your own neighborhood. All in all it took me a little above 50 hours to complete the game but it didn't really feel that long. It doesn't contain any grind to speak of and apart from the prologue which isn't really that engaging, I never felt bored and honestly didn't mind if it took a few hours more.

I can see how hardcore jrpg fans would score this higher, but for me the very slow, linear story that doesn't really pick up until the last chapter held it back. Thankfully the combat, while not amazing, is pretty good and never really gets too repetitive. Probably due to the fact you can see enemies on the screen and avoid them if you want and grinding levels isn't practical due to how experience works. The MC duo is very stereotypical, with Estelle being the vastly more annoying one of the two. Their character tropes are so overdone in games and anime that their interactions with each other and other npc's just seem cringey. If i had to score this out of ten, I'd give it a 6.5. Its a decent entry into the series and worth a SINGLE playthrough. I sometimes can't help but wonder if I would've enjoyed older games like this more had I played them the same year they came out. But as it stands, in 2020, this much lauded game that many people recommend and give such high reviews just seems average to me. I hope the rest of the series has more to offer.