Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter

Whether you’re a long-time fan of the franchise or a complete newcomer, Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is a must-play for fans of RPGs.

I’m still impressed by how at home Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter feels in its new form two decades down the line. It’s the opening act of an epic, long-running narrative and yet manages to feel down-to-earth and personal. It maintains its tone while updating it to a modern standard of presentation, and despite the stumbles in its dialogue, its characters are relentlessly charming. It’s more than just a great game—it’s a great starting point for a celebrated series, and that’s an utterly invaluable quality for one as daunting as this.

Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is the gold standard for a remake of a good game. It expands and improves upon the original without losing any of the charm that made the original game shine. Its flaws are more with the original work than anything the remake did incorrectly. In terms of basic gameplay, it's probably the most enjoyable and well-designed Trails game to date. It also marks the perfect entry point to the Trails franchise, and there's no better way to figure out if this series is for you.

(Re)discovering a production as massive as Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter with a remake of this quality? Bingo!

This 2025 remake of Trails in the Sky serves as a strong introduction to the Trails series. It has a more focused story and a cast you’ll quickly grow to love, and that smaller scale makes Liberl feel incredibly cozy and vibrant. This results, though, to a much slower narrative, and many side quests can feel trivial in the grand scheme of things. Regardless, as a starting point for Zemuria’s larger story, it succeeds at pulling you in and making you want to see what comes next.

Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is an excellent remake, offering voice-acted cutscenes, an overhauled battle system, and a newly rendered world that helps build a sense of place in a larger universe. So much of the Trails series revolves around the interconnected politics of the world, highlighting how each region contributes to the larger picture. This remake reinforces this notion and provides players with a clearer visual identity for Liberl and its towns.

Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter might well prove to be the start of something great, but it's a pretty slow start. If you do have the patience to sit through the game's endless exposition, there's a colorful and charming world to explore and plenty of entertaining battles to be fought.

Trails in the Sky 1st is absolutely an amazing game where the journey is much more appealing than the destination

I try so hard to like these games. Love the combat system. But I just can't get past how boring the story is played out. The characters don't move around and act, not dynamic movement other than the intro animation scene, maybe an end game scene? After 12 hours I didn't see another, it's the characters standing and talking with word balloons sometimes voiced sometimes not. If the story wasn't a major part to these games I might feel differently about them.

The game starts off great, but the fun is beaten down by little to no new abilities and strategies as the game progresses with very repetitive battles and slow pacing. If you do play, make a ton of saves because you get locked into certain areas and bosses constantly and if you’re not prepared, you’ll need an earlier save

The original Sky trilogy is great but this remake is not. Confirmed censored dialogue and models even in JP version, bugs, awkward low-effort animations, full of grammar mistakes and typos which means it was clearly localized by someone who is not good with English. Falcom has lost their touch.

I mean….. come on. This game looks and plays like it’s 10-15 years old. The story is just fairy land nothing. The combat is exactly the same as it is in every other trails game. Which is to say, not impactful and just pretending to be deep without really achieving it. You just run from place to place and then watch a 5 minute cut scene about nothing. I thought at some point these games would start to feel like a modern jrpg. They need to take cues from final fantasy which feels meaty and well established. This is just silly. They are banking on nostalgia and based on other reviews it has worked. But there is just no way this is a good game. It’s just nonsense. Sorry. It’s a ps3 game that’s really long.