Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is the type of remake I'd never dared to hope for

Over a decade ago, I played Trails in the Sky. I didn't know then it would be a lifechanging moment - getting into Trails in the Before Times, when it wasn't clear if we would ever see the rest of the series in English is what got me to start learning Japanese - but I don't need to be a genius to realize just how much playing it has molded my life into what it is now. I wouldn't be here writing about how important the game was and is to me otherwise.

Earlier this week, GungHo Online Entertainment America reached out to offer us early access to the Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter demo, which is now available. The demo consists of the game's entire prologue, over 6 hours of gameplay with save data transfer for the full release when it drops next month. I played the demo on PC, and I have quite a few thoughts about the port - which I've opted to share separately. There's far too much to go over with this demo, this remake, to fit in the specifics of Nihon Falcom's first internal PC release in over a decade in with all my other thoughts.

Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is a full, ground-up remake of the original Trails in the Sky on Falcom's internal engine. Liberl is fully realized in 3D, and the transitions between towns and the various roads that connect them seamless; absent any cutscenes, you can step out of the Bright Family House, walk down the Elize Highway and arrive in Rolent all without any loading zones or transitions. Climb up the clocktower and interact with the railing, the camera cuts to a birds eye view, letting you survey the surroundings - down to Estelle and Joshua's house, the Tetracyclic Tower, and even the far-off spires of Grancel Castle in the distance. From both a technical level, as well as an artistic one, Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is the most visually impressive game Falcom has developed. It's not even close.

When I wrote up my impressions for last year's Kai no Kiseki - the Japanese release of Trails beyond the Horizon - I remarked about how impressive Falcom's animations and cutscenes have become. Frankly, from even the opening hours of 1st Chapter has made that game's presentation look like a joke. From the regular attack animations while out in the field, to Crafts, to S-Crafts, and even the many bespokely animated cutscenes - Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter looks incredible in motion, to the point where if Trails beyond the Horizon's follow-up doesn't match this game's presentation, I would be very sorely dissapointed.

To a similar vein, the remake's soundtrack feels incredible, sounding as you'd remembered them back on the original, though with more modern samples for the synths. Even if the remake's music doesn't suit your fancy, there's an option to set the soundtrack to either the original compositions or the Evolution arrangements in the settings. On that note, however, this is where discussing the remake gets a bit tricky.

For whatever reason, the option to set the soundtrack to the Evolution tracks is labeled "Customized". Thanks to the PC version allowing us to see the orignal Japanese, it's clear that the intended meaning was "Arranged" - which makes much more sense. While we mentioned the "Tetracyclic Tower" earlier, in truth the exact names that the remake use for these towers doesn't match up with the ones XSEED chose a decade prior. Indeed, the game's translation is markedly different from what has come before.

Outside of those quirks, it seems fine so far. It's undoubtedly less punched-up than the previous translation, but I wouldn't call it stilted. Similarly, the new dub sounds markedly better in context than how the same lines said in isolation did in the various character introduction trailers; I was fully prepared to use the Japanese audio track, but thankfully that wasn't necessary. It's a good dub, and as far as I can tell, a mostly good translation. Besides the inconsistency with the Towers - which is minor in the grand scheme of things - terminology did match up with previously established English terms. The translation isn't noticeably dry, and I doubt I would have paid any mind at all if I had no experience with the original's translation. Estelle is still Estelle, Joshua is still Joshua, and so on.

Combat is a bit of an odd duck, and it's hard to get too good of a read on it from the prologue. The best way to describe it is that it feels like a mix between Trails through Daybreak's systems, and Trails of Cold Steel. Much like with Daybreak, if you transition to Command Battle after stunning an enemy, you gain advantage and deal pre-emptive damage to an enemy; however, the way that assists work is almost identical to Cold Steel, even down to the Bravery Gauge. When you strike an enemy off balance or deal critical damage, another party member can hop in for an assist. Each successful assist grants a charge to the Bravery Gauge, and when an enemy is thrown off balance when you have 3 or more charges you can expend them to have both characters in the assist deal extra damage to every enemy within the vicinity. With a full party of 4, you can expend 5 charges to have everyone chime in to damage the enemies on the field.

As we previously understood, the Orbment system is back to the Trails in the Sky and Crossbell style, where the element of Quartz inserted into an orbment and on which line determines the Arts available at a player's disposal. It's always been the most complicated system for players, but it remains my favorite even now. There's also a new battle system called Overdrive, which allows you to cleanse your character of debuffs and guarantee criical hits for the next 2 turns among other things, but the specifics of how its activated and how it might evolve over the course of the game isn't yet clear.

Despite some lingering concerns over the localization, I can't deny that playing a remake for Trails in the Sky at this level of care and fidelity has been an emotional experience. Thinking about how many players will get started with Trails, with Falcom, by playing this remake almost makes me jealous; I didn't think Falcom had a game like this in them, and if this is a sign for things to come along with Ys X: Proud Nordics, we might just be on the verge of a golden age. I can't wait to return to Liberl when the full game releases next month.

Early Access to the Demo build was provided to RPG Site by the Publisher