100%PC

I LOVED this game. Cannot wait to play SC and TC, along with the rest of the Trails series.

P.S. Olivier best boy

2nd Playthrough:

Still loved this game. JOSHUAAAAA FREE MY BOY ;-;

3rd Playthrough:

Still loved this game. Still JOSHUAAAAA FREE MY BOY ;-; ;-;

70%PlayStation Portable

Trails in the Sky: FC, being the prologue to the infamously slow-burn series, is even more slow-burn itself. It's a slow, cozy journey, that takes its time introducing characters and the world. The story doesn't get too large-scale, and all these sidequests, unlike in many other JRPGs, make perfect sense, being your heroes' actual job. Everything in the game, from music, to dialogue, to even combat, will endear its world and characters to you. Just be patient and get past the parts where nothing of interest seems to happen. 7/10.

100%PC

Exciting adventure full of confusion, sad moments, funny moments, hillarious jokes, unique NPCs that matter! Every NPC has its own personality and such. Meeting NPCs who gave you quest in chapters before, telling u "HEY YOU ARE THE ONE I'VE MET BACK THEN!" and yaddy yaddy yadda. It's just really good!

I had really good time during these 60h of this game. I loved every chapter. There was not a moment where I would be bored. I am glad I have finished this game and I cannot wait to continue Estelle and Joshua's adventure.

11/10 game

85%PC

This was my first Trails. I purchased it about 7 years ago and started it back then. Played about 20 hours of it. I remember liking it, but I put it down for unknown reasons. About 6 years later, with the series getting talked about more and more, I picked it up again and finished it pretty quickly. I also purchased many other titles of the series in advance, just to have them and support this developer.

This game feels comforting to me.
It has a relatively compact world, but every city and region has its own character and is very detailed.
I love most of the characters. You get to know them very well as you have tons of dialogue for each of them. Which can also be a negative to some people. This game requires a lot of reading and is not really getting to the point quickly. The dialogue is very well done from a localization standpoint, but if you want to understand everything, you have to read a lot. I like reading, but I think people should know this beforehand.
This being a setup game for later titles, the story is a slow burner. This is ok, because most of this game is world building, which is important to establish your world in an RPG. And it is expertly done, [I][because/I] they take their time with it

The gameplay is fun, but was complicated for me.
You have lots and lots of options tinkering with the orbments and you also have an integrated guide book for every spell etc. you can get, which is very helpful.
Yet it can be very tedious to grind out these gems and look for the best combinations. I think this game is great for people that like to min-max, because with all the different characters and combinations there is a lot to mess around with.
For me it was a little but too much in terms of building the characters but the combat system itself is very fun to me.
The game can also be very challenging if you don't find weak spots of the enemies. I died a lot, but it's no problem because you can just re-do the fights right away. Since this is a tactical combat system, thinking about every action is key. Changing your strategy (and/or party/orbment-setup) can make impossible fights become a piece of cake.
The side quests are alright, every single one has a little story behind it and by doing enough of them you can rank up in the guild and get stuff for it. I did about 80% of them. There's a lot of backtracking,but that's ok for me.

Graphically, it's very charming. It's almost like HD-2D.
The game feels very quick to play. Not only because of the speed-up (thank god for this feature), but all the menus and button presses feel fast.

Overall, this got me hooked on the series, and while there it is a bit rough around the edges, it was a very enjoyable experience, both gameplay- and story-wise.

90%PC

This game was really good. The fantastic battle system, world, characters, and music all come together here to give an amazing experience that I hope will be indicative of the rest of the series. I've seen a lot of talk about how Trails in the Sky FC is more of a prologue to the rest of the series, and that just makes me even more excited for it considering how good this one was already. My only complaints are that some of the enemies in the final dungeon specifically took way too long to beat and were very frustrating, and that the tutorials were extremely text heavy, though it's understandable due to how much information they needed to convey.

70%PC

Really good writing. It's obvious a lot of time was spent making sure that characters and the world felt real. However, I can tell that this will be difficult for a lot of people to play who have it on a "to do" list, because I wouldn't say it's as engaging as a lot of other mainstream RPGs. This was my first Falcom title, and I think I didn't give as much time as I could to engaging with the system, as I really just kind of wanted "to be through it." That's maybe my fault, but it speaks to the ecosystem that a lot of people are going to be playing it in these days.

70%PC

It had its moments. Being able to speed through combat and around maps mae it more tolerable. Story was ok.

90%PC

Great Game

80%PlayStation Portable

One of the best jrpgs I've played so far

80%PC

First off, the gameplay. The combat is a middle ground between traditional turn-based JRPGs & strategy RPGs like Fire Emblem. Like Fire Emblem, Trails in the Sky uses a grid system which controls where your characters can move. But like a traditional turn-based JRPG, you have an overworld and are teleported to a separate dimension for battles (at least that’s how it feels). I will say that, as someone who hasn’t played many turn-based JRPGs & didn’t enjoy a more traditional one like Dragon Quest XI, I actually did enjoy this battle system at times. I say at times because random encounters with standard monsters got old after a while.

The story on the other hand is pretty good & has plenty of charm. It starts out as a pretty low-stakes affair, with Estelle & Joshua travelling from one city to another, being contracted to deal with whatever local crisis the citizens are dealing with and getting the assistance of a colourful cast of characters along the way. But as they get closer & closer to their goal of becoming senior Bracers, the stakes get higher & higher, building towards a heart-breaking cliffhanger ending that will leave you eager to start Second Chapter (the game’s direct sequel) but nevertheless wraps up most of the game’s overarching plotlines.

The amazing thing is that, even though this game & Second Chapter were supposed to be a single game, but got split into two games to make its targeted release date, it feels like this story was always meant to be a two-parter! Either that’s a testament to how good of an idea the two-parter angle was or Falcom did an excellent job making the split work. Either way, multi-game arcs are seemingly the standard going forward, so it’ll be interesting to see if I feel the same way about the Crossbell & Cold Steel arcs. It’s definitely a very JRPG trope-heavy plot, but that’s not a bad thing so long as the plot itself is engaging, which this one is.

As for the technical aspects, the visuals hold up pretty well for an almost 20-year-old game (perhaps this is due to the 2D sprite art used for the characters just inherently aging better than 3D rendering), although the environments (which do seem to be rendered in 3D) haven’t aged as gracefully, but still fare better than most games from this time period that aimed for a more realistic art-style. And the music! Oh, boy is the music great! Created in-house by Falcom’s Sound Team jdk, the OST of Trails in the Sky is full of bangers & I’ve already added quite a few of them to my liked songs on Spotify!

Conclusion Despite it’s age, Trails in the Sky is a pretty good RPG with a fun & captivating story that balances telling a self-contained story & kicking off the ongoing narrative that defines the Trails series to this day, paired with gameplay that, while far from perfect, estabilshes a decent foundation to build on in future games. I just hope that the rest of the saga can at least live up to the standard this opening chapter has set in my mind…

Ratings

Creative score (story, gameplay, voice acting, art direction): 8/10

Technical score (graphics, audio, performance)): 7.5/10

Business Practices score: 8/10 (Nothing egregiously bad, but Falcom’s hesitation regarding releasing the PC version in the West when it was clear that the PSP’s struggles here were a key contributor to the initial release failing commercially does knock off a few points, but I’ll save the details of that for when I finish & review Second Chapter)

Overall score (my thoughts on a game’s overall quality, does not consider the business practices unless they are detrimental to the experience): 8.5/10

55%PC

When determining the difference between an RPG and a JRPG, many people will tell you that a JRPG—aside from being generally developed in Japan—is usually more character or story focused, as opposed to being more player focused. As you'd expect, these types of games are quite popular in the East, but there are, of course, some series that have made the jump across the Pacific and became popularized in the West as well. Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Persona are all well known by most gaming fans, and everyone who knows what video games are is aware of Pokemon in some capacity. Below this pantheon of mainstream titles, though, are the slightly more niche titles—not obscure by any stretch of the imagination, but games that you'd have to have a stronger interest in RPGs to be aware of. A few potential examples would be the Tales series, the Mana games, and, of course, the Trails games. Beginning life on old school Japanese computers, The Legend of Heroes would see six releases between the late 80s and 90s before it adapted the name it's more commonly known as today. And the game to begin that trend (and, indeed, the game many recommend for players wanting to get into the series) was 2004's Trails in the Sky.

Now, anyone looking to get into the Trails series has likely encountered a word of warning about its rather relaxed pace; these games are characterized as text-heavy adventures with a narrative that prefers to take its time. For Sky, at least, that's a blessing and a curse. Let's start with the positives; this is, by all accounts, a delightfully charming game, especially on first impression. Its mixture of simple, cute graphics and its small town, laid-back beginning are the perfect start for what would seemingly become a cozy adventure. Characters generally are enjoyable, and while you'll have to suffer through some typical mid-2000s anime-esque dialogue every so often, it's generally charming enough, and you easily get a grip on the main characters. The music is good, controls and UI are simple, and it has a nostalgic quality to it that will enthrall even first-time players. Throughout the first chapter or two, Sky is in a perfect position to deliver a great game.

The issue, as you've probably guessed, is that the narrative moves at a snail's pace, dragging on far too long than the game has content to justify. The episodic nature of the game doesn't help in this regard. Each chapter functions more or less as a reset of not just the character roster but the narrative stakes as well. You'll end up gaining new partners each chapter, and while these side characters do add a lot of unique interactions, they hardly have time for development, and those that aren't outright comical end up feeling a bit generic. But the game experiences a far bigger robbery of its agency because of how the story transitions between chapters; generally, the chapter will end with a boss fight, where, after being defeated, your enemies will miraculously escape. When this happens several times in a row, it can feel like you've played hours and hours only to end up back at square one. It's a trope that, when used poorly, only serves to make games feel longer and more drawn out—a task that Sky does not need help achieving.

Normally with an RPG, a comment on the gameplay (which usually means the combat) would have made an appearance sooner, but it's appropriate for this game that it's almost an afterthought. You spend a relatively low amount of time in combat, which makes sense with its rather limited applications. Still, for a somewhat simple system, its implication is quite good. The lack of grinding in this game is appreciated, and the turbo feature (Aidios bless it) makes short work of any standard combat encounter. In fact, the turbo feature can be thanked for keeping this game interesting as it is for so long; the main gameplay of this game is walking around and talking to people, and you'll likely be using it liberally as you galavant across Liberl.

Trials in the Sky is a 3-part story, and many who've played the trilogy describe the first entry as a bit of a prologue—indeed, it and its sequel were originally planned to be one game, but concerns over total length ended up splitting them in half. Most will comment on its increasing agency towards the end and its set-up for its sequels. Trials games in general are also often praised for their sense of worldbuilding and interconnectedness. Sky SC is, in particular, acclaimed by many as one of the best Trails games. Perhaps it is. But its sequel's supposed strengths don't cover for the fact that this game is its own product and should be able to be enjoyed as such. As it is, Trails in the Sky shows you a charming game with a lot to love, which grinds you down with its poor pacing and weak narrative structure, only ever really compelling at the end. Even if its sequel's payoff is exceptional, the Sky saga's first chapter stumbles a bit coming out of the gate.

60%PC

Likeable characters but side characters get very little exposition and your party shifts around annoying frequently. The game has strange difficulty spikes but is never overly terrible. Orbment & gear system prevent much in the way of character customization, especially since each character more or less covers the same tech in their crafts. Story really picks up near the end, but the pace of the story for most of the game is very slow.

85%PC

Cute af, cool as hell, mysterious, slice of life-ish story. Its the main attraction of the game. Goated shit.

Amazing and memorable music.

Fun and interesting, yet simple battle system. In general has a nice mix between story and Gameplay.

Art is actually kinda cute and charming.

The only gripe I have is the Gameplay and Game design at soooome points are very repetitive.

85%PC

After playing Cold Steel 1, I wanted to play from the beginning. Love the story/lore. Start of new chapters can feel a bit slow, the pacing of doing side quests can also feel a bit off, but I think that's a staple of Trails games.

85%PC

Great story, cool combat, pretty well written characters and quests. Only complaint is that there is very little to interact with in the world.

Excellent ending. Get the second chapter ready before you finish the first.

85%PC

Great story, characters and world building!! Unluckily it was a bit slow for me and gameplay is kind of outdated, but I still enjoyed the overall experience, mostly that cliffhanger ending!! Made me really want to continue playing this trilogy.
85%

80%PC

Really good game. Fun turn based action, a lot of interesting characters and a solid story that helped introduce me to the first entry into the expansive world of "The Legend of Heroes" franchise. Now onto "Second Chapter" and to continue my long journey across the continent of Zemuria.

70%PC

Incest

80%PC

I personally started with Cold Steel and played all the way to Cold Steel III and fell in love with this franchose. I realised I needed to go back and now that the Crossbell duology is all available westward I've truly began my journey from the beginning. And after finishing FC, I can definitely see the same hype people had back then: the characters, the worldbuilding and most of all the setup for the overall story arc has been slow but worth the wait now that I've began my journey with SC.

Gameplay-wise and graphics-wise it definitely holds up but those missables are ruthless and I ended up missing out on heaps in the end including side-quests after being trapped into a story segment. Other than that Sky FC is a solid experience that sets up so much and rewards you for your patience with it (something I've learned with CS1 going into CS2), let me tell ya...that cliffhanger is diabolical, if you finished FC then you are not done yet and will need to play SC immediately. That is what I'm currently doing now and I am having as much of a blast!

85%PC

Great game, but super slow until about 30 hours in or something. I quit 3 times, and beat on my fourth attempt by completely immersing myself into the game, talking to everyone and reading everything. Doing so, made the game a littler more interesting. The story really took off around half way through the game. The last 30 minutes of the game really saved it imo, and bunch the score up 10%. Was easily the best part of the game and got me excited for SC.

100%PC

Slow to start, but it's an absolute masterpiece. Looking forward to the dozen other games from the series.

100%PC

Played and completed on Steam Deck OLED

TiTS is the perfect game for the Steam Deck OLED. Runs at a solid 90fps and pulls a mere 6W, giving you roughly 8h of playtime

The game itself was pretty fun. I think the combat was 'mid'. The story was great. The art style and 'gwaphix' were very appealing. It's a shame the later games don't look as good

I no-lifed this game for the past 13 days. Wanted to get it completed by the end of the Steam Summer Sale lol. The game, especially the next 2, are over priced. They should be like $10 base price. $15 at most. It feels like a ripoff. The prices are very steep for PSP games that're nothing more than ports. I hesitate to drop $20 (Sale price, btw) on TiTS 2. It's a LOT for a PSP game.. I should be paying $20 for the trilogy smdh

90%PC

The first game being the first, the story is a bit slow paced at times and the combat system could use some refinement. But overall the story was captivating and the game was overall very enjoyable. Beautiful soundtrack and characters

100%PC

it was a heck of a ride!!

40%PlayStation Portable

I'm sorry, but I just found this game to be too bland and boring to go on. Life's too short to be trying to finish games like this.

It's a shame. Trails in the Sky has elements I like from some of my favourite RPGs like Grandia and Skies of Arcadia, but those games have charm, wit, presentation and adventurous scope that make them stand out really well.

Trails in the Sky... is just a really boring, plain JRPG. Great music, but nonetheless disappointing.

80%PC

I finally took the plunge after much prodding from my friend and even being gifted this game as a gift. And yeah, I enjoyed it. Trails in the Sky has an interesting world, where unlike a lot of JRPGs, tends to stray into the realm of modernization in a sense - most comparable to Final Fantasy VII or VIII. In fact, the game takes a lot of Final Fantasy VII influence even down to the Quartz system, which I found fun to use. While the grid-based combat made me raise an eyebrow at first with skepticism, I still found myself enjoying it in the end. Gameplay-wise, I don't think Trails in the Sky does anything wrong for the most part.

My minor nitpick with the gameplay is that the constant carousel of companions through the game's different chapters derails the pacing a bit, and it makes Estelle's role in the party feel... off. While Joshua is clearly a Fighter or Time Mage in the way Tidus in FFX is, it's not really clear what Estelle is since you kinda need her to do everything. And that's due to the fact that Estelle and Joshua are alone a lot and when you do get a companion, Estelle's role becomes more defined. But when companions come and go so often, it gets tiring to rearrange Estelle's kit and go "okay, now she's a Support" or "okay, now's she a damage dealer", or etc. I'm nitpicking here but I found that to be a flaw in the game design.

The story and dialogue are where Trails lacks a bit. The characters themselves are good. I refrain from saying great, but they are good and I like them. The story is predictable a lot of the time, but that doesn't make it bad. It's just... not anything you haven't seen before.

The dialogue is what derails Trails and stands out as its fatal flaw. There is an entire encyclopedia volume set of dialogue in this game and it turns the pacing of it into a trainwreck. For a game with only 5 chapters, the game feels like it has 10, and the 46 hours I have reflect that. Even with Turbo mode on, the game constantly felt like it was dragging, and my thumb was begging for death by the end of it. A lot of the dialogue isn't even good. It's fine, but some of it feels unnecessary. Some things feel over-explained and the game really could've used a passover to cut all of that down. I think a good few hours could've been reduced from the game's playtime if there wasn't so much of a desire by the developers to pile on lore, characterization, and more.

And I get some of that is needed. This is the first game in a huge universe. It's a foundation game. But it's too much is what I'm trying to say and hurts the game's replyability. A similar comparison would be Pokemon Sun and Moon. Both SM and Trails in the Sky are great JRPGs with what would be a ton of replay value... but do you really wanna sit through all of that dialogue and exposition again?

So that gave me the conundrum where I wasn't sure how to rate Trails. Because I actually really enjoyed playing it, I love its world, I like its characters... but it drags its feet so hard. And I just can't ignore that, and I have to dock points for it. I was hoping the finale would be able to negate those docked points a bit, and it did, but a lackluster final dungeon and boss, plus a really random-feeling lore dump for Joshua right at the end doesn't help. However, I think it still is a great JRPG despite those flaws.

A very flawed JRPG, we'll say, and leave it at that.

Score: 84

80%PlayStation Portable

Very charming. Amazing ending sequence. It introduced me into the world of Trails. A fantastic RPG franchise that has marked its way into my life. Worthwhile adventure.

• Story: 2/3
• Art Direction & World-building: 3/3
• Gameplay: 1/2
• OST: 2/2

Final Score: 8/10

90%PC

Hoooooo boy this game was... amazing. I love Estelle and Joshua. I love Schera and Olivier, Agate and Kloe, Tita and Zin.

Combat was fun and stressful. The final boss was not that difficult, especially with Stone Wall cheese, but nerve-wracking regardless.

Story was... when it's good it's AMAZING. When it's not good, it draaags. I get that it's a prologue to Sky and so it's all about world building, learning about characters and their motivations. But it just felt like villain of the week :(. I understand why, but maaaan it was a slog getting to the end.

But I did enjoy it nonetheless. The ending was brutal and I will cry every time I hear whereabouts of light. God that was so sad.

80%PlayStation Portable

Very nice game, music is a bit tidious after couple of hours.

90%PC

Spent most of the game in menus or dialogue scenes and still loved it. It really comes down to the characters and world building.

60%PlayStation Vita

6 it's already too much for a mere prologue.
The game itself it's soporific with way too long dialogue

80%PC

One way to describe Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky is the "Bethesda Games" equivalent of JRPGs. While it doesn't shine particularly in dialogue or combat, its strength lies in stellar worldbuilding and meticulously crafted quest narratives, which serve as the game's major draw. The deliberate slow pacing aligns with its story-focused and dialogue-heavy nature. Protagonists Estelle and Joshua, especially the latter, are endearing characters. Estelle's initial antics may veer into the typical "Tsundere" trope, but rumors promise character growth in the sequel. Trails in the Sky FC proves to be an enjoyable JRPG, with a surprising double combo cliffhanger twist at the end that genuinely caught me off guard.

90%PC

Updated: Beaten, really enjoyed it. Sticking with my 9 out of 10.

Currently Playing: Excellent so far. Much stronger cast than Cold Steel series so far, fast and solid gameplay while not amazing works well. Little too much backtracking sadly but the dialogue is a lot less exposition and a lot more fun. A very good game, even amazing, that might be one of the best if not the best in the series so far.

80%PC

Not greatly experienced in JRPG's, I have completed ff7 ff9 persona 3,4 and royal, but I can confidently say this is probably the best JRPG series I will ever play.

80%PC

Actual Score: 8.5
What did I think about the ---> Story: Good | Gameplay: Above Average | Graphics: Above Average | Music: Great | Characters: Above Average
Additional thoughts ---> Worldbuilding: Great

95%PlayStation Vita

Pretty great story with a lot of world building. Starts slow though.

100%PC

Man this is one of those games where I rolled credits last night, but I stayed up for over an hour later just gushing about it with my friends.

Trails in the Sky FC for most of it is a very competent game. It’s not a visual powerhouse, but that’s ok and I have a little nostalgia because it kind of reminds me of Harvest Moon for the PS1. The combat isn’t mindblowing, but it works really well and feels good to master.

The main story also really isn’t anything new or original either, but the way the game is structured is so satisfying once I figured it out. Basically having Estelle and Joshua being the main characters traveling city to city, solving problems and collecting recommendation letters makes for a chill adventure with an overarching political mystery in the background before going full blown at the end. It’s basically Ash Ketchum shit, but man it works so well.

I love how temporary party members, who seemingly are unrelated to the main plot, are introduced for each chapter only to have them weaved back into the main story for the final chapter. This seems like an obvious setup that is probably done in many RPGs, but I can’t help but feel it’s really well implemented here. Giving you multiple perspectives on the world of Liberl/Zemuria via diverse party members who are also just likable characters you want to hang out with.

The world building and characters, especially Estelle and Joshua, are what really push this game into A+ territory for me. The pessimistic side of me kinda wrote the leads off as just generic but gender reversed characters. However, even if that's the case or not, Estelle is just a really lovable protagonist. She's just so earnest it's infectious. I was a little cold on Joshua and their "romance" at first but I warmed up to him as the game progressed.

The game ends with a one-two punch of a satisfying conclusion to the main conflict then an emotional reveal/cliffhanger. The feeling of finishing a really good TV season or first book in a trilogy and now you HAVE to start the next one has never been so true for a video game for me before.

Final Grade:

A+ or 10/10
53 Hours
12/6/2023

90%PC

Stars out slow and good at 7/10, suddenly shifts to 8 at the last town, and 9 when the plot twist hits even though it's quite obvious.

60%PC

On the initial playthrough I did not speak to any of the NPCs or do any side content, and as such, I missed out on a lot of lore and general world building and overall didn't really enjoy the game. I also expected an epic journey, but a bulk of the game feels like a slice of life centered around the activities of the bracer guild. This second time however, after having played Cold Steel I &II to completion and enjoying them a lot, I decided to play through Sky properly and went in knowing what to expect and weathered my expectations accordingly.

It was a lot more enjoyable keeping up to date with the NPC dialogue, however, talking to the NPCs felt tedious at times. The payoff was fantastic though and there were many moments where I felt rewarded for doing so.

While I can't recommend people who play it the first time to do the same, I do recommend at least talking to some of the NPCs as they more often than not have something interesting to say and they will change their dialogue along with the story progression.

Gameplay was quite fun, but can be tedious as it is a very slow turn based style game. The turbo mode on PC is a godsend and I highly recommend using it.

Lastly, Estelle and Joshua are such fantastic characters and their journey through this first game was something I liked even the first time I played it. Not having my expectation so high, I was really able to enjoy their growth together and I can't wait to finally see how their story ends in SC.

80%PC

By halfway I thought ultimately I wasn't going to like this game despite generally liking the characters, music and gameplay, story was very slow to get its teeth into anything very interesting and there's a lot of world building that's done to seemingly no end.
I'm happy to say I really enjoyed the game and most of the characters were great and the story ended up being interesting, however the time investment required to get into the important stuff I noticed in the Trails of Cold Steel. For better or worse Falcom seem happy to have a slow burn and I can't say there are many continuous stories that are as long as the Trails series so it's fairly impressive.
I was initially put off by the character designs as they're very basic and 'of the time' of early 00's and I never really came to love them, however I loved the feel of the world of the game despite this and for such an old 3D game it really did a good job of creating the right atmosphere in world.
Music wise there were a few tracks that I wasn't a fan of, including the battle music for the most part however a lot of other songs shone and I hope the sequel continues on this trend. Praying for new battle music,

90%PC

Audio-visual: 8 Gameplay: 8 Story: 8 Enjoyment: 8

95%PC

Absolutely incredible game! The story started a little slow, but it plus the characters were compelling enough to keep me moving forward until I was hooked. Once I got invested, I couldn't stop. The story felt like it was a perfect mix of personal character growth, and a fun, grounded broader story about the nation that it takes place in.

I feel like the only thing actually holding this game back was the combat. Now, the combat itself is fun and is challenging on bosses. But, on regular battles, they are basically all filler. Luckily, there's a fast forward button on the Steam version that pushes you through them faster. So many of the animations are needlessly slow to me.

The music started out a little weird to me, but I really ended up enjoying it. I think it's because it was written in the style of Japanese anime of the late 90s, and it was a little jarring to hear all the for the first time.

I liked the graphics quite a bit too. I felt most of the environments were very cozy and detailed. I think the doll-styled character spites are a little out of place if you're looking at them closely, but during conversations, I was usually fixated on the extremely well-done character portraits. There's so much personality in them!

I've already finished the second game in the series at the time of writing this, loved that one as well. I'm currently playing the third game, with plans to start the fourth too! I'm excited to play more of this series!

70%PlayStation Portable

for a jrpg? Impressed. first one i managed to finish in 3.5 years.

90%PC

Wow. The last chapter of this game, where everything came back together truly got me. I was amazed how much I realized I grew with each character throughout the game without realizing it. The ending has me hooked and ready to go straight into the Second Chapter. Top 5 JRPGs in recent memory I'd like to argue.

90%PlayStation Portable

A nice role-playing game with a great cast that is very likable. The game is definitely worth the time and effort. Can't wait to see where the rest of the series goes!

85%PC

I will admit that this game isn't incredibly good in the gameplay department. It DOES get much better later on, but the world, characters, music, and story are more than enough to carry you through the entire game. Besides, the lack of grinding and turbo mode are absolutely amazing.

Treat it like a visual novel with RPG elements and exploration and you'll love this game.

100%PC

Fantastic game all around

60%PC

Incredibly generic and bland, totally unremarkable rpg

100%PC

When I first began playing the Legend of Heroes series, I started with the Cold Steel games. I only found out later that this is the wrong way to experience this series; you actually have to start from this game. After being thoroughly disappointed with Cold Steel 3, I decided to finally go back and experience all of the earlier games in the Legend of Heroes franchise. I'll say it right now: I enjoyed the Sky series way more than the Cold Steel series. However, for this review, I'll ignore Cold Steel and talk about this game on its own merits, as it wouldn't be fair otherwise given this came out many years before Cold Steel.

I loved the story in this game. It felt like both an adventure and a coming of age story. Each chapter involves the protagonists Estelle and Joshua traveling around the Liberl kingdom to solve problems, learn about the world, and grow as people/characters. Each of the main problems that Estelle and Joshua encounter were interesting to me and I felt compelled to resolve them. The worldbuilding in this game is absolutely fantastic. It's actually amazing how much detail went into the worldbuilding and I really enjoyed talking to everybody in between every story event to experience as much of it as I could. There were also lots of seeds being planted and hints of bigger things going on in the background and it was fun trying to piece everything together. And then the ending happening and holy shit did I feel bad for people that had to wait until SC came out back in the day.

I didn't really like Estelle at first because she seemed stupid and useless. Joshua's "straight man" characterization really helped her out and made her more tolerable, although I really enjoyed the banter between the two of them. However, as I said earlier, one of the goals of this game is to experience how Estelle and Joshua grow due to their experiences. Sure enough, Estelle actually does develop over the course of the game, and I liked her by the end. On the other hand, I liked almost everyone else from their introduction, especially Tita because she's so damn cute and her character's struggles are compelling, and Olivier, because he's hilarious. Even most of the side characters were likeable and interesting, and the villains were handled well too. The only character I didn't care for was Zin because he didn't really show anything interesting about himself.

The gameplay involves standard JRPG turn-based combat and I enjoyed it for the most part. But I feel the game wouldn't be as fun if the PC version didn't come with a turbo mode. Thank you PC porters for including the ability to speed up the game with the press of a button because battles are very slow. If any of you want to play this, I recommend getting the PC version for turbo mode alone. However, one cool thing about the gameplay is that there's no grinding required at all, which is always a plus, and the game actually prevents you from doing so by decreasing the experience points you get from battles in a given area once you level up. The sidequests were also great for the most part, as they usually contributed to the worldbuilding, though a number of them are hidden and you basically have to talk to everyone at any given opportunity to make sure you don't miss anything. I personally didn't mind this design because I end up talking to everybody in JRPGs anyway, but for the gamers that don't, be warned that you will likely miss out on quests unless you use a guide. I also really liked the game's graphics, especially the portraits, and the music is absolutely phenomenal.

Overall, I really enjoyed my time with this game and I highly recommend playing it! I really should have done my research and played through the series in release order, but what's done is done. Oh well, onto the next one :)

75%PC

7.5