Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is a remake of the foundational 2004 Japanese RPG, The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky. Since its release, the Trails series has 13 mainline games (with even more coming), spanning across all different platforms, with stories all interconnected with each other.
That made it a daunting ask for newcomers to enjoy the series, as many of the games rely on players to know which events took place in others. Given that the original Trails in the Sky is the very first game in the series and the Sky trilogy is the only that hasn’t left PC and PSP, that really limited its appeal to those who’ve played later games on modern platforms, primarily console players.
However, this remake aims to rectify that and more.
Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter has brand new graphics, an overhauled battle system, and updated quality-of-life mechanics. Along with an engrossing story that starts small but eventually becomes entangled in a vast conspiracy, this RPG is one of the best games of 2025.
‘Trails In The Sky 1st Chapter’ Story, Characters, And More To Know
Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter follows Estelle and Joshua Bright as they start off in their hometown, the Liberl Kingdom, and become Bracers, mercenaries who take on requests to help citizens. After their father, Cassius Bright, goes missing, they venture out of Liberl to find him, while along the way uncovering the land’s deepest and darkest secrets.
Estelle is the more energetic and impatient of the two, as she often charges into situations without thinking. Joshua keeps Estelle grounded while providing guidance to her. Their relationship is one of heartfelt growth as eventually Joshua has to battle his own inner demons and Estelle starts to rely on herself more.
The full voice acting really helps bring the characters to life too, as opposed to the original where they only had voices when shouting battle lines. Other members of Estelle and Joshua’s circle include the naive bard Olivier Lenheim yet surprisingly adept magical firearm expert, whose comic relief makes even the most dire situations humorous, and Tita Russell, a cheerful engineer who fights with cannons. These two are especially notable, as they have major roles in future entries.
The game uses full 3D anime-style models instead of the original’s sprite-based art direction, giving characters a lot more room to show emotion through their animations and gestures. The movements are much more fluid and the battle animations are much more cinematic, giving them a sense of wonder and excitement every time I activate them.
The environments, while much better than the original, can look a bit plain compared to the character models. Some fields stretch for far too long, which can make them a chore to sift through. Thankfully, though, there’s a mini-map that helps you navigate through them, as well as a high-speed mode, which literally puts your game into turbo mode, making running around much more efficient.
The game is also filled with memorable side quests. While some of them are simple fetch quests, others are much more extensive and add a lot of worldbuilding to flesh out lore or character personalities. One in particular early on in the game really showcased the differences between Estelle and Joshua’s personalities. In one side quest, they’re tasked with replacing a street lamp, and you can choose which one of them to do it while the other defends the post against monsters.
Josh has no issue remembering the code to unlock the post while Estelle has to create her own mnemonic to do so. If you choose Estelle to open the post, you have to actually input it in manually while picking Josh ends up with him automatically plugging it away in the next cutscene. Sure, replacing a lamp post is a mundane task, but it was presented in a way with so much charm I couldn’t help but smile.
You’re encouraged to tackle side quests too, as they reward you with money to buy more equipment and items, thus helping you along your journey. Additionally, completing them earns you Bracer Points, or BP, which increases your Bracer Rank. Every time you reach a higher rank, the guild gives you a rare piece of equipment with a powerful effect that can make a huge impact during battle.
‘Trails In The Sky 1st Chapter’ Is The Best Of Both Worlds
Speaking of the battle system, it has seen some major revisions. The original Sky games were strictly turn-based. But in Trails in the Sky, it’s now a hybrid combat system between turn-based and real-time action, called Tactical and Quick, respectively. In Quick mode, you can strike enemies with basic moves, like a light attack and heavy attack, as well as dodge theirs.
It’s an improvement on the hybrid combat system introduced in 2024’s Trails through Daybreak. If players successfully stun an enemy on the field and then switch over to Tactical mode, it initiates an advantage state where the party can deal a follow-up or team attack before the battle starts. It’s such a smooth transition that combines the best of both worlds in real-time and turn-based combat.
In Tactical mode, each character would take turns according to a timeline, and characters could manipulate the turn order by using special attacks, called Crafts, that have certain properties and inflict status effects. There are various bonuses that can appear on the timeline, including critical hit guarantees or HP healing. Whichever character’s icon, albeit ally or foe, is next to that bonus icon when it activates gets the effect. It’s an extra layer of strategy to the turn-based combat so that you can utilize these bonuses.
In future Trails games after the original Sky, new timeline bonuses would eventually be introduced, such as Zero-Arts in 2015’s Trails of Cold Steel, which lets the corresponding character on the timeline completely forgo a spell’s associated cost and skip its casting period to fire it off right away. Trails in the Sky First Chapter incorporates these new bonuses, making its gameplay systems much more aligned to recent entries and feeling up-to-date.
Positioning characters in battle has always been important, as attacks have different limited ranges in where they can strike on the battlefield. Daybreak, however, added a new element that made positioning even more crucial—some attacking Crafts would become more powerful depending on which side it was coming from.
In the original game, for example, Estelle’s Hurricane Craft simply just had her spin and attack enemies in a set area around her. However, in 1st Chapter, Hurricane also deals more damage if it’s used on the enemies’ side rather than back or front. It’s another way that compared to the original, it has more depth to its combat than ever before.
The Trails customization system, the Orbment system, has gotten the least overhauls, but only because it didn’t really need any. Characters can insert Quartz into their Orbments, which grants them a variety of abilities, such as stat increases, passive abilities like a higher chance to inflict certain status effects, or active moves like spells to cast during battle.
There’s a lot of room to play around and tailor your characters to a specific playstyle that suits their strengths best or by your own habits. You can really lose quite a lot of time experimenting in the Orbment system, and that’s a great thing.
The Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is a tremendous rebirth of one of the best RPG universes ever crafted. With the incredible lore the series is known for, as well as having an engaging battle system and deeply compelling characters, it’s one of the best games of 2025.
Score: 9/10
Disclosure: GungHo Entertainment sent me a copy of Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter for the purposes of this review.