Falcom’s Trails JRPG series is one that I’ve always wanted to love, but could never quite get into. The moment I got my hands on 2025’s remake of Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter, however, I knew this was my moment.
When I previewed the game a couple weeks back, I praised it for its polish and fast-paced, dynamic battle system. All those praises still hold true, now that I’ve seen the game through to its end. What I wasn’t prepared for, however, was just how hard it would hit once things got going, especially for a story that starts off so leisurely.
Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter puts you in control of two protagonists: Estelle and Joshua. The latter was adopted into the Bright family at a young age, when Estelle’s father Cassius saved him from an unknown threat. They went on to spend their childhoods together as adoptive siblings, and the game begins when Estelle and Joshua finally come of age to join the Bracer Guild. Think of it as like the small town police force, where bracers take on all sorts of quests in their respective towns, big or small, from killing monsters on the highway to helping a lady find her missing cat.
Indeed, you can expect to spend your first five hours just hanging out in the small town of Rolent, performing all sorts of mundane tasks for its residents. These run the gamut of accompanying a journalist and a photographer to a nearby tower to help them write a story for the town paper, and visiting a nearby farm to help a family catch the cat monsters that have been stealing their crops at night. While I’ll always be a sucker for RPGs about heroes and chosen ones and saving the world from god and other world-ending threats, I found Trails‘ unabashedly slow start to be immensely refreshing.
The game actively encourages you to slow down, too, as even the starter town of Rolent is absolutely packed with NPCs who all have a ridiculous amount of dialogue to dispense at you. I was thoroughly impressed with just how much these people had to say, as their dialogue changes every time there’s some sort of plot development. Most NPCs will have something new to say about what’s going in the world, but every now and then, you’ll find someone completely uninterested in world affairs and is more preoccupied with their own personal lives. Nothing gave me greater pleasure than checking in with that nonplussed man in Rolent and finding out how his relationship with his father-in-law was coming along.
It’s hard to describe the lackadaisical nature of Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter‘s first act without making it sound boring. The best I can do is liken it to something like Dragon Quest XI, where every play session felt like I was jumping back into my favorite storybook, looking to see what Estelle and Joshua were getting up to this time. I absolutely loved the slice-of-life nature of the story and was almost sorry to see it come to an end when things started getting serious.
It helps that Estelle and Joshua are just brilliant as dual protagonists. Trails doesn’t break any new ground here with characterization; Estelle is your bright-eyed, bushy-tailed tomboy who cares about helping people and often rushes headfirst into things, while Joshua is much more level-headed and mild-mannered. It’s the perfect setup for a couple of JRPG protagonists, even if you already know all the beats. Estelle’s the one who gets mad and literally goes “Grr” when someone provokes her, while Joshua has to be the one to calm her down and implore her to think things through before jumping into danger.
While Estelle’s impulsive nature occasionally runs the risk of veering into annoying territory, she never quite makes it there. This is thanks in no small part to the excellent voice acting, which really helps Estelle remain grounded and relatable even when she makes all sorts of silly decisions. Estelle comes off as genuine and earnest, and I’m particularly fond of the fact that Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter does its best to steer away from the Chosen One formula. Estelle’s just your regular hard-headed girl, and I loved the messaging that anyone could be a hero if their heart’s in the right place. I found myself gravitating more towards the Japanese voice track, but you can’t really go wrong with the English option either.
Over time, your party of playable characters expands, bringing in even more colorful personalities for Estelle and Joshua to play off of, including the more matura Scherazard, who admittedly gets a little inappropriate once she’s had a few drinks in her. All of the characters breathe life into the vibrant world of Trails in the Sky, and I found myself hard-pressed to think of another JRPG party that’s captivated me as thoroughly as this one. It certainly gave the likes of FFX and Personas 3 and 4 a run for their money, and that’s saying something, as those are some of my favorite games of all time.
The combat systems is also wonderfully involved, while giving you options when it comes to real-time action and turn-based. While running around the open-world, you can press the face buttons to attack foes in real time, then enter turn-based combat when you’ve weakened them enough. This method’s usually only effective for enemies of a lower level than you, as high-level enemies could potentially smack you around a little and force you into turn-based combat at a disadvantage.
You’ll make use of EP and CP (confusing at first, but you get used to it, trust me) to perform Crafts and Orbal Arts. Crafts are unique to each character and you learn more as your party develops. Orbal Arts, on the other hand, are where things start get more granular and way more interesting.
Every character has a piece of equipment called an Orbment. By gathering Sepith (which are categorized into different elements), you can unlock new slots on your Orbment, where you’ll then be able to fit in items called Quartz. Different types of Quartz will enhance different stats, and also give you access to Orbal Arts. For instance, Fire Quartz are focused on your Attack stat, though equipping one may also lower your Defense, and will give you access to Fire-based Orbal Arts. This is how you equip and use your magic spells in Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter, and matching the different Quartz types to your party members and creating a synergistic setup is the key to success.
The more slots you have, the more Quartz you get to equip. By equipping multiple of the same types of Quartz, you can enhance your abilities even further, which makes combat an absolute blast. It’s worth noting that this remake allows you to increase the battle speed too, which makes grinding a lot more bearable, and the combat never wears out its welcome.
That’s saying a lot, especially for a beefy, 80-hour JRPG like this one. Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is one of those rare games where everything just comes together perfectly, though, and the more you play, the more you begin to see how the pieces fit together. The leisurely pace, for instance, is certainly deliberate as the game wants you to be invested in its world and characters so that by the time things finally take a turn, you’re hooked.
Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter ends, somewhat infamously, on a notorious cliffhanger to end all cliffhangers. In any other game, I would’ve called this a cheap tactic to get me to buy the second installment. But with how masterfully Trails has managed to weave its characters and plot points together, that ending feels earned, and I’m more than ready to experience its second chapter.
A review code for the game was provided by the publisher. You can check out our review policy here. Reviewed on Switch 2.
