The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky

Right off the bat, I enjoyed Trails FC a lot. It does have a lot more storytelling than it does actual gameplay. Tactical RPG is the name of the game, but in this first game, the systems are fairly plain if you're playing on Normal and that's honestly fine. The story isn't straigthforward, but has tons of world-building and the characters are likable and memorable. What I'm here to tell everyone is to not play this, without installing the Evolution mod. The mod makes a few changes to gameplay and visuals you might want to skip, but it also installs (seperately, should you choose to) the Japanese audio track. A lot of people classify this as a form of "VN", only it's not a VN; the original release was *fully voiced*; they just never localized the audio and therefor they didn't ship the international versions with the Japanese audio track either. I've played (some) of this game without the audio and all of it with it; it's a game-changer. The Japanese cast inject so much personality to the dialogue, they manage to bring those chibi sprites to life. There are LONG dialogue sequences in Trails FC and I can't imagine going back to a version that's all reading. Google the mod, then play this, it's a great start to a great franchise.

Liked how the game felt like a love letter to jrpgs of my youth. I liked the combat. "Light strategy" with isometric squares and doing special attacks along with magic helped it be more dynamic. The problem are the lame quests. You're either doing a fetch quests or guiding someone from point "a" to point "b." and when you're done with these quests you get to do the same kind of quests all over again in the next town. Once you do those...yup you guessed it... the very same kind of quests yet again in the town after that and so on until you're at the last town in the game. Equipment is character-specific so very little customization besides assigning orbs (magic and some abilities). I didn't think the characters were all that endearing. There were certainly some cheesy moments that I enjoyed but the game has way too much text... and so very little of it has to do with moving the main story forward or developing the characters in any meaningful way. There are some okay subplots and some interesting characters to meet along the way...but overall it just felt unsatisfying and I love jrpgs. Even at 40 hours you still won't know who the end boss is. The excuse is this is part 1. So i guess it's not as self contained as i was hoping it would be. Maybe my own fault for not knowing what I was getting into. This game did NOT feel generic or lazily made or anything like that. Some people like the tales series and I could never get into them. If you're really into jrpgs you might like this. I could see a game like this having a small but dedicated following. This game is solid in many ways so I give it 7.5. Thus the three star rating. 4 stars would mean an 8 from me and I feel that is too generous for this title. I wanted to like it but it's not a good game to me. These are opinion pieces. To me, it's a solid entry in a genre with plenty of better options out there. Definitely for some fans of the genre but not every fan.

All of the reviews talking about how this has so much of the typical JRPG lines and sometimes very cringy dialogue are absolutely correct. If you are put off by that then this game is not for you. It is also fairly standard fare for JRPG gameplay. So it is kind of more of the same. So if you like those things you will like this game. If that is not your thing, then make no mistake, that is what you will be getting here. For me, it was nice because I had finished my previous JRPG series and wanted another fix. This was exactly the kind of game I was looking for. Sometimes the dialogue is a bit over the top, but that is what I have come to expect. For me the quests are typical and fun. I like the story of how you come to pick up quests. It is also a healthy length game so you are getting your moneys worth. It appears to be about a 40 hour game if you take your time on all of the quests. Overall a good JRPG.

With so many glowing reviews, I decided to give it a go, craving a good jRPG. The game's most important aspects were disappointing. WRITING: Oh Falcom. If you like stereotypical, "pleasant" anime writing, you will probably enjoy the story. Others will cringe at the amount of cutesy anime cliches. Typical interaction involving the two leads, Estelle (a stereotypical teenage clumsy, hyper tomboy) and Joshua (a stereotypical teenage responsible, spiky-haired protagonist with a troubled past): E: Says something endearingly OCD in a cocky way. J: Scolds her for it while smiling, because he knows that she's a good and noble person with a ton of potential. E: Gets mad in a quirky way, because she's apparently 10 years old, not 16. J: Says something positive about Estelle, because the game really wants to know that they care about each other. And it's not only during the prologue. They keep going with this format throughout the whole game. WE GET IT, GAME. WE ALREADY HAVE A GRASP ON THESE CHARACTERS' PERSONALITIES! And whoo boy, there's a lot of text, much of it filler. There's some decent worldbuilding at times, but sometimes a simple "Welcome to our village" would've sufficed instead of a tirade from each and every npc in town. COMBAT: It tries to emulate tactical jRPGs, but there's not much tactics to it, really. Normal enemies? Attack or use area craft skills (no magic, since it takes too long). Enemies with physical resistances? Use the appropriate magic element. Bosses? Save up for S-Breaks and unload. Heal, rinse, repeat. The game uses a magic system that's kind of reminiscent of materia from FFVII, but much less satisfying. Having to look in the manual to see what spells you unlock with which orbs is clunky. EXPLORATION: The biggest offender. Dull, mostly empty corridors with avoidable enemy encounters. So very boring. The game's sidequest system forces you to backtrack multiple times, and most of them expire after a while, so you have to do them right away.

While trying to get into the Legend of Heroes series, I decided to start with Trails in The Sky. Both first chapter and second chapter are great. This game, the first one has a slower start but the second one is much faster paced - I'd definitely recommend getting them together and playing them one after the other. The first has fewer 'sub' chapters and you should be ready for the slower initial pace. This initial bit is the world building, character introduction and story setting. The game picks up towards the end and proceeds full speed into second chapter. Don't let the graphics put you off as it did me initially, the real strength is in the charming world, its characters and the relationships formed. You'll need to devote a decent amount of time to the game as it has an easy to understand combat system with some slightly more complex parts which can be overcome. The music is catchy and sometimes can be real earworms! I also wanted to point out that the controls are simple and well optimized for a mouse OR keyboard - in fact you can pretty much do everything - interaction, combat, movement - just with the mouse. Or if you prefer just use the keyboard. The turn based combat is fun and there is a lot of flexibility with the 'sepith' system. It allows the main characters to be magic based or melee or a healthy mix of the two. For anyone looking to get into JRPGs in general or just craving another JRPG to get into this is a great start.