Few games establish their world and flesh out their characters
as effectively as The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky.
It's incredibly easy to invest
in the fantastical yet relatable settings of Trails
because of how much care is evident in its construction.
Combined with a thoughtful yet flexible battle system,
fantastic soundtrack, and several smart accessibility tweaks,
Trails in the Sky absolutely deserves to be recognized in the same way
as other, more well known role-playing games.
Trails in the Sky is mostly viewed from the eyes Estelle Bright
and her adopted stepbrother Joshua.
Their father, Cassius Bright, is one of the Bracers,
a guild dedicated to protecting peace and prosperity.
Through his own merits, Cassius is quite the legend,
prompting Estelle and Joshua to become Bracers themselves.
The young duo travels from city to city,
solving problems and earning recommendations
with the hope of attaining the rank of full-fledged Bracers.
There's a lot to absorb while playing Trails in the Sky,
and the siblings’ perspective offers the perfect framing device
to introduce information.
Since Estelle and Joshua are just coming of age
and don't know a tremendous amount about the outside world,
the game cleverly reveals itself in a natural way
thanks to the often unknowing nature of its two charming leads.
And what leads they are.
Joshua and Estelle serve as perfect counterbalances to one another.
Estelle is passionate and energetic, but has a quick temper and acts impulsively.
Joshua, on the other hand, is calm and meticulous,
always one step ahead of everyone, making him far more reserved.
Although the two start out with a simple, childish relationship,
often pressing each other's buttons and getting into petty arguments,
their feelings slowly start to develop into something more.
What helps make the relationship so convincing
is how much room it’s given to develop.
For all the exciting things that happen within the four chapters,
each with a central conflict to be resolved,
the game never forgets to offer plenty of space
to show that its characters aren't just heroes but also ordinary people.
Whether it's visiting an orphanage,
putting up decorations for a school festival,
or merely enjoying the sights around town,
there's a lot of quiet time between the moments of drama.
Rather than these sections being a drag however,
many are crammed with meaningful information.
You may learn what makes a certain character tick,
discover the history of a small village,
or unearth more about the mysterious orbal energy
that powers so much of the world's tech.
The various characters also do an excellent job of selling the world.
Many of them, even seemingly incidental ones such as shopkeepers,
have their own identities and stories
that you can check up on throughout the game.
Although it has a lot going on,
combat is presented in such a way that it's easy to understand.
Characters have access to standard physical strikes,
arts which are essentially magic, and crafts,
special skills that use points gained while attacking or being attacked.
The grid-based nature of fights ensures that positioning is extremely important.
Many enemies, for instance, use sweeping attacks,
punishing players who keep their characters bunched together.
In turn, you can use the system
to set up extremely advantageous situations.
By pushing people around to specific spots,
you can maximize area-of-effect spells to hit every enemy on the field.
Certain abilities can delay an enemy's turn,
a crucial tactic against especially quick or devastating foes.
Delaying an enemy's turn might also push their random bonus
onto one of your characters.
These bonuses, such as a of bit of healing or a critical strike,
appear sporadically throughout battle,
sometimes on enemy turns and sometimes on yours.
By cleverly delaying a turn, you can nab these bonuses for yourself,
potentially providing a small but noticeable edge.
All of these options provide a lot of room for strategy and careful planning,
but the game is smart enough not to overdo it.
A lot of regular conflicts are easy enough to get through
without requiring too much thought.
It's really during the boss fights
when Trails in the Sky requires a more methodical approach,
and these challenging encounters are spaced far enough apart
as to not get tedious.
Plus, upon losing a battle, you simply start it again
with the fight tuned to be a little easier.
Those that don't want the game to scale things down
can turn off the option in the menu.
Another convenient feature is the option to run from every non-boss battle
with a 100 percent success rating,
so you only have to duke it out when you want to.
Trails in the Sky has a lot of the challenge and depth of a classic JRPG
without a lot of the baggage.
Things have only gotten better with a recent patch for the PC version
that offers a turbo mode as well as a DirectX 9 version that's in beta.
By holding down a button or key,
you can increase the game speed by up to six times its normal rate.
Turbo mode fixes what was easily one of the game's biggest problems:
combat and exploration sometimes moved too slowly.
Some of the combat animations can be quite lengthy
and there's no fast travel to speak of in Trails,
so being able to zip things along
improves the quality of the game tremendously.
It's commendable that a relatively niche JRPG
that came out more than three years ago on PC
is still receiving such dramatic updates.
Considering the quality of Trails in the Sky,
it's hard not to imagine more people enjoying it
if only they gave it a chance.
So many parts of it are exceptionally well crafted.
Although it clearly doesn't have the budget of its contemporaries,
it beats them in the areas that matter most.
Trails in the Sky is an intelligent game with a world full of detail and charm.
Although it's only the first part of a trilogy,
it's still excellent in its own right
right and a perfect place to get started with The Legend of Heroes.