Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter

Genre: Action-RPG / Turn-Based JRPG

Players: 1

The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

.

Review:

Just over 20 years ago in 2004, the long-running Legend of Heroes series, which began back in 1989, released The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky on PC in Japan, kicking off the Trails sub-series that has continued on to this day. The game would eventually see Western release in 2011 on PlayStation Portable, with the PC game finally coming to the West in 2014, but for the most part, this game’s many releases were Japan-only.

Now in 2025, developer Nihon Falcom has decided to brush off this pivotal entry in the series with a fully-fledged remake, releasing on PC, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2. And far from a mere resolution boost, this is a massive project that completely reimagines the game, while still remaining faithful to the original release.

Perhaps due to the game’s age, the story at least starts out as pretty typical fantasy fare, following adoptive siblings Estelle and Joseph as they come of age and join the Bracers organization, who take on odd jobs to help folks throughout their kingdom. However, as we’ve seen in the years since, this humble beginning is actually setting up a massive saga focusing on internal and external conflicts, with later entries focusing on various countries within the game’s continent of Zemuria. So if you’re looking for an easy entry into this massive series, you’ve come to the right place here.

While the original game’s isometric perspective did use some 3D visuals in with its 2D pixel art characters and anime-style cutscene art, there’s really no comparison when looking at the presentation here. This 2025 remake now uses full 3D visuals both in-game and in cutscenes, with a freely-movable camera and some gorgeous 3D character designs that are nicely-animated.

That said, the game’s 3D environments are a bit sparse and sometimes plain-looking, there’s plenty of pop-in, shadows often look jagged and ugly, distant enemies animate at a much-lower framerate, and on Nintendo Switch the overall framerate is a bit rough, fluctuating wildly between 60FPS and 30FPS, and rarely hitting that high end. It’s still perfectly playable, and overall it still looks fine, but there’s no question this is the worst version of this remake.

This release of the game also adds voice acting for the characters (not full voice acting, but important cutscenes are at least voiced), and I do think they’re mostly good, though the English voice actress for Estelle is pretty grating. Thankfully, the Japanese voices are available and far more tolerable. This game also gives players the option to use the music from the original game, or one of two arranged soundtracks, which is surprisingly generous.

However, this remake doesn’t just give the game a new presentation. The gameplay has also been updated, and is shockingly ambitious for a remake. Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter lets players choose whether to take on battles in either an Action-RPG style system or in a more traditional Turn-Based JRPG system, and you can swap from the former to the latter as it suits you mid-battle (though apparently not the reverse). This gives players the freedom to not only play how they want, but to take on more difficult battles in turn-based mode to think through actions tactically. The exception here are specific battles that force players into turn-based mode.

What’s more, both of these battle systems have some clever mechanics going on. In Action-RPG mode, players can dodge, and much like Spectacle Fighter games there’s a bit of a bonus if you time your dodges perfectly. Meanwhile, in turn-based mode, players have multiple types of attacks that they can use in conjunction with other members of their party.

For either combat mode, this game’s progression system is vaguely similar to Final Fantasy VII’s “materia” system, where players slot in elemental magic orbs (“quartz”) into their character’s specific grid (“orbments”) to change their stats and imbue them with orb-specific magic attacks, with each character’s grid more conducive to certain types of orbs.

When it comes to complaints, I already mentioned the game’s graphical issues and how the story is a bit slow to start, I do wish there were more ways to upgrade your characters, as the number of slots each one has available are highly limited, and these slots are slow to become available as you gradually earn the currency needed to unlock them.

However, make no mistake, Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is an outstanding remake of an RPG classic, one that not only improves the way the game looks but the way it plays. I do have a few complaints, but overall this is a wonderful entry in the genre, and the perfect entry point for players who are new to the Trails series and curious to see what the franchise has to offer.

tl;dr – Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is a full remake of a 21 year-old classic that reworks the game from the ground up with massive improvements to gameplay and presentation. Some elements of the story and character customization still feel a tad dated, but overall this is a superb blend of Turn-Based JRPG and Action-RPG, and a great entry point for anyone curious about the Trails franchise.

Grade: B+

.

The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition

Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter offers an upgrade from the Nintendo Switch version of the game to the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition for a mere $1. That’s a pretty good deal, so of course the next question is what that one dollar gets you.

Well, as the Upgrade Pack states, you’ll be looking at improved resolution, framerates, and loading times, as well as a few other improvements that aren’t stated, like more environmental detail, improved shadows, and better animation at a distance.

However, the most noticeable of these improvements are the framerates, which look much smoother on Nintendo Switch 2, hovering far more consistently near the 60FPS cap that the game could only just barely reach every once in a while. I should note that this is in the performance mode, which was the only mode available at launch, but a post-release patch has added an Image Quality mode that trades this for improved graphics settings. Honestly I think the higher framerates are preferable here, but it’s nice that players now have the option.

The load times do also shave off a few seconds in this release, though the original game’s loading screens weren’t so bad, and the improvement is minimal.

Overall, this is a noticeable improvement over the Nintendo Switch release, and it brings the game up to something closer to modern standards. Having said that, it’s still not super-impressive by modern standards – the environments still often look simple and bare, and nothing here is truly pushing the Nintendo Switch 2 hardware. But for just $1? Yeah, still absolutely worth it.

tl;dr – Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is a full remake of a 21 year-old classic that reworks the game from the ground up with massive improvements to gameplay and presentation. Some elements of the story and character customization still feel a tad dated, but overall this is a superb blend of Turn-Based JRPG and Action-RPG, and a great entry point for anyone curious about the Trails franchise.

Grade: B+

.

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}

^{This month’s sponsors are Jamie and His Cats, Ben, Ilya Zverev, Andy Miller, Johannes, Jaka, Jared Wark, Gabriel Coronad-Medina, Francis Obst, Kristoffer Wulff, and Seth Christenfeld. Thank you for helping to keep the reviews coming!}