80%PC

Good game, good sequel, lot of good character development. Gameplay loop the same as the first game but felt a bit more challenging(in a good way). Good story as well but it dragged a bit and felt like it could've been a bit shorter. Overall, really liked it and gets me one step further into The Legends of Heroes franchise.

75%PC

Great environmental storytelling and lovable cast of characters. Estelle and Joshua are amongst the best couples in video games.
Good upgrade in orbments and arts available to play with compared to FC, but the game is still clearly early-days in the Trails series and sometimes it really shows in the gameplay. Does a great job of wrapping up the Sky storyline, even though apparently there's a third chapter.

90%PC

I think it's the best jrpg and the game in my life. I've never had such a lot of emotions from a story

85%PC

Starts a bit slow, and hard. Stays like it for at least half the game but when it picks up... Damn!

100%PC

It was so peak, oh my gosh-

90%PC

Incredible way to conclude the second part of Estelle and Joshua's story. So much to love with this cozy little series! The first half of the game took time to built up momentum in the story (and retreading the same maps would've been grueling if it weren't for the NPCs and dialogue to discover). But after Chapter 4 was when the story truly picked up for me. Plenty of improvements over FC, primarily with a higher emphasis on synergy between your team composition. Especially once you're given some more variety to swap out more than one character on the team.

Some characters motivations felt contrived, stale, and a complete waste of good storytelling.. Small rant:

Loewe and Weissmann were some of the worst aspects of the game, completely underselling the momentum this game built up. Cassius having some god-like foresight at every step of this game (in addition to playing a key role in during the Hundred Days War) is obnoxious. My overall thoughts of Ouroboros are to be seen as I continue these games. But damn. Way to build up the reveal of an interesting villain at the end of FC with Weissman only to have him become generic villain #2. Loewe's death was a bit frustrating as it never felt earned. Could've been fleshed out more.

Certainly some aspects of the story came across pretty uninspired. But personally it's less so individual pieces of this game that are worth gushing over but instead how its all packaged and presented to the player. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts or something like that. Looking past the many dated and tired tropes, I can't help but love these characters and their journey.

Incredible music and cutscenes just add the cherry on top and help cover for the dislikes I've had with these games so far.

90%PlayStation Portable

Trails in the Sky: SC is the point where Trails franchise really kicks into high gear. Following FC's slow-paced beginning, Second Chapter introduces you to the series' overarching plot and presents a pile of plot twists, that all come down to a satisfying ending. And it still retains a cozy atmosphere and intricate worldbuilding! Gameplay has been touched up since the first game, and some bosses really require a good strategy. The music is heavenly, and while graphics may not look like much, it does have a good style to it. 9/10.

95%PC

While the first game was a good game in its own way, its purpose was to serve as the opening act. The second game takes everything from the first and expands on the story and characters. Gameplay is mostly the same, but everything else is polished up to a great degree. Must play for JRPG fans.

50%PC

Generic rpg, nothing stand out

90%PC

This game was really good; just as good as the first. Despite using the same map as the first game, it still felt fresh and new as you were in the same places for different reasons. It builds off of the first game with a more user-friendly UI, better side quests, and a more expansive skill and battle system. The side quests in particular were great for me. When I play games, I don't often find myself doing side quests, however that was not the case with this game. It goes beyond just being kill or fetch quests, and ties characters from the last game and character moments within the party to them; it makes you feel as if you're actually making a difference, and that the world would not be the same had you ignored it. This feeling made me travel around Liberl extensively for side quests; something I would absolutely not be doing in other games. My only real annoyance with this game was that the final boss was pretty awful. The boss before it was much more difficult and fun, so the actual final boss being a brick wall that will pretty much not put you in any significant danger really hurts. I would have preferred if the second last boss remained the final boss, and the actual final boss was just a cutscene instead. It was just dragged out for way too long, and really hurt the quality of the ending for me.

90%PC

Great Game

90%PC

Amazing game

90%PC

Hands down one of the best Trails games I've ever played, considering I've started with Cold Steel and played the franchise up to CS3. This game is definitely up there for me. The gameplay additions and new mechanics, the increased pacing from FC and the higher stakes on the story really came into this neatly made package.

Here I come The 3rd, you will be played very very soon!

100%PC

Stupendo, continuerò con la saga.

95%PC

Amazing, charming cast, great story, beautiful music, fun sidequests, incredibly immersive world with lots of dialogues. This is very close to an ideal JRPG for me.

85%PC

Audio-visual: 7 Gameplay: 8 Story: 8 Enjoyment: 7

80%PC

This is another game where I'll review it with respect. I didn't actually enjoy this game much but I think it's good.

I know, surprising. People say this is an upgrade over FC by far. I agree! I didn't personally enjoy it though.

The dialogue just... is not good. The writing is awful. And it's not awful by standard definitions. When people hear that writing is awful, they think it's juvenile or corny, or etc. No, that's not the case. There's an over-abundance of writing to an unnecessary amount. Just like its predecessor, Trails in the Sky SC needed a pass-over of its script to cut down the dialogue to a point where its more digestible. So yes, an over-abundance of writing is bad writing.

Sky SC just drags and drags through its initial chapters, which all follow the same structure, story-wise and gameplay-wise. Weird events happen, the party investigates, then you fight a villain. By the way, that's after going through an extremely dialogue heavy Prologue as well, which took me 4 hours alone to get through. 4 hours before you get to the actual game. So once you get through the Prologue and the initial chapters, the game starts to pick up a bit. I'd say around when all of the Enforcers were introduced finally is when I began feeling like the game was picking up more.

Okay, we're cooking now. We're steadily building into something great. Chapters 1-4 were a drag with some minor good moments, but now with what goes on in Chapter 5-7 I found the game to be getting much better and more enjoyable. Interesting things were beginning to happen.

Chapter 8 just derails that good will and momentum the game was building, unfortunately. For some reason they thought it was a good idea to make the player run around the entirety of the map fixing phones in each Bracer Guild - while also sacrificing a party member's ability to cast Arts (Magic in Trails) whenever one of those said phones are fixed. By the end of Chapter 8, only 1 of your party members will be able to cast Arts. This gets annoying extremely quickly, since the game dumps a bunch of side quests on you that involve combat, as well as throwing you into some encounters near the Chapter 8 that you have to power through in order to progress. I was already ticked off that they took away the party members I liked using most in this chapter - Kloe and Olivier, but the design of Chapter 8 left me completely frustrated and nosedived any of the momentum the game felt like it had story-wise. Imo, Chapter 8 should've been cut down to just a few cutscenes - and instead after Chapter 7's climax, we should transition to the final area of the game, which is actually pretty solid.

The final area is awesome, and I love its aesthetics and look. The tunnels were a little annoying and present a common problem with Trails, which is dungeon design. If I need a map to navigate your dungeon properly, your dungeon design needs work. What also sucks about this final area is some backtracking you're forced to do if you didn't have certain party members in your party for specific sections. One of those requires to briefly use the worst party member in the game, by the way. I'm nitpicking maybe here, but I think this final area could've been better with some minor tweaks to how it works mechanically, because I do quite love the atmosphere it has.

That said, the core gameplay of Trails is still great! It's still plenty of fun to play. The orbal system is awesome, and I like the little changes they've made via Chain Crafts and Level 3 Quartz slots. Although in SC, the amount of enemies that throw status conditions on you gets tiring. As the game progresses you'll encounter your fair show of spongier enemies as well. Both of these things makes combat so taxing to plod through.

I do like the world of Trails so far. Along with the characters. But I don't love it. Not yet at the least. Especially with how this game felt so draining to play for me. By the time I got to the end, I just wanted it to be over. None of the story beats were bad per say, they're good, actually - they just didn't really resonate for me.

That said, I do think Trails SC is a good game and is quite obviously better than Trails FC, but I personally found it exhausting and frustrating to play despite liking it in many ways. So to be respectful, I'm still gonna rate it wel, but not much higher than Trails FC.

Score: 85

90%PC

Finally after 7 months I finished the sequel of Trails in the Sky FC after leaving on that crazy cliffhanger. It felt really good to be back in Liberl and with these characters. I'm glad I waited a few months to jump into SC after FC because instead of feeling like going through the same reused game assets and mostly similar combat, it felt like I was back to a world I missed.

Much like Dragon Quest, the citizens of Trails in the Sky are so endearing I can't help but want to save them.

It kind of drags once you reach the halfway point, the familiar world feeling smaller and the plot moving just as slow 40+ hours in. Thankfully the story starts to move forward rapidly by chapter 6 onward.

While the combat in FC was kind of a breeze, there were actually a few boss battles in Ch8 as well as Loewe in the final chapter that gave me some trouble. The few additions from the first game made the combat a little better, but again I do think the game goes on a little too long for it to not feel a little repetitive.

The graphics look just as retro and charming and I may be imagining it, and I feel like some of the battle animations in the cutscenes look even better.

In the end, I can’t help but gush about the story and characters. SC feels simultaneously like a second season of a tv show, building off what was introduced earlier while bringing in new plotlines and characters, as well the second half of one story. It fleshes out and completes most of the main character’s plotlines and is a satisfying end to Estelle and Joshua’s story.

Also for just the second game of the Trails series, it’s amazing how well it teases and got me excited to see what happens in the Crossbell, Erebonia, and Calvard arcs. I can’t wait to see the other countries after learning so much about them second hand.

Final Grade:

A or 9.5/10
96.75 Hours
7/6/2024

70%PC

It took me 9 years after playing TitS FC to finally get around to SC. The length of the game being a big deterrent, as I don't have time for 100h+ (to 100%) games much these days. Unfortunately that meant I'd forgotten most of what happened in FC aside from a couple bits like the ending and Estelle + Joshua's relationship. I watched a summary video and went from there.

I wanted to love this game more than I did. However at the end of the day I found myself not enjoying the mechanics and much of the story. The battles system is easy enough to dive into, however I feel like I never really wanted to use my crafts/artes aside from healing, and just blow everything away with area S-crafts. I also found the orbment system both very easy to understand, but very difficult to figure out how to enable specific artes. There were several battles that, even on normal, I found stupid hard to the point where I wanted to walk from the game.

The story itself was largely a big whiff for me. The first half of the game was largely a chore, but I will admit that the later story gave the first half a lot more substance and reason. They just really drag out. The second half of the story is actually really good (one of those "just wait, it gets better!" situations). But if I'm honest, I really, really dislike the way the Estelle + Joshua story plays out, and had I written it, would have made Joshua make the opposite decisions for the entire 2nd half of the game. Otherwise I enjoyed most of the rest of the characters and their development. Olivier in particular I liked in this game at the end, where my FC review noted I didn't like him much at all.

At the end of the day, despite my complaints, this game would have been a great 20-30 hour game. The achievements are obnoxious and really drag it out, along with a bloated first half. I do look forward to the rest of the Legend of Heroes VI series, especially as many of them I have on a system without achievements (Switch), and I hope to see many of these characters again in the future.

80%PC

7.7/10

90%PC

9.5/10
GOD I love these characters. The chapters draaaag, but when it's good, it's so good.

Final boss was interesting... though a bit mean if I'm being honest. Game kinda teaches you that physical hits are shit, then the boss NEEDS you to use physical.

But other than that, I LOVED THIS GAME! (Unfortunately not a 10, more a 9.5)

95%PC

A fantastic continuation of the first game. Made me fall in love with the series all over again! ♥

Pros:
+ When starting with a FC clear file, quest and town NPCs acknowledge the progress you've made and the quests you pursued in the first game
+ Characters and character development: some returning characters played a surprisingly bigger role as the story progressed
+ Story: ROMANCE, overcoming obstacles and fears, overall positive vibes despite the intense plot with a pile of salt >:3
+ New soundtrack
+ Fast-forward button without increasing the speed of the BG music :D

Cons:
- Wasn't a big fan of the introduced chain system. Ate too much CP and there was a higher dmg output when the team members just attacked on their own
- It's highly impossible to get all achievements (100%) without a guide as there are many missable quest objectives and hidden quests
- Loewe :(((((((( The fact he was left behind kind of ruined the ending for me lol

There's an amazing OVA worth watching, btw. :)

100%PlayStation Portable

Absolutely fantastic entry in the Trails franchise. There are significant improvements in every department within this sequel. The stakes, character development, boss fights, soundtrack, storytelling etc. One of the absolute best entries in the entire franchise. Absolutely excels.

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

Final Score: 10/10 (Masterpiece!)

80%PlayStation Portable

Sometimes to much running, and music... after 80h I started to put volue down to live. Besides of that great GAME.

70%PC

0 prologue - 3h (total 3h)
1 chapter - 10h (total 13h)
2 chapter - 7h (total 20h)
3 chapter - 6h (total 26h)
4 chapter - 5h (total 31h)
5 chapter - 7h (total 38h)
6 chapter - 6h (total 44h)
7 chapter - 5h (total 49h)
8 chapter - 4h (total 53h)
9 chapter - 13h (total 66h)

90%PC

Beautiful. Simply Beautiful. I completed it in just under two weeks, I cannot get enough of this series I have already bought Trails the 3rd and Zero. Please play this series.

90%PC

Truly beautiful ending. Too many side quests though.

100%PC

One of the best rpgs ever made. Estelle and Joshua forever!

90%PlayStation Portable

Gets a bit grindy towards the later part but overall great game!

90%PC

The first 3 chapters are very slow but when shit hits the fan, it really doesn't stop until the end of the game. Also new orbments are amazing, and almost everything feels finished so I'm not sure what to expect for the last chapter of the series besides tying up loose ends.

70%PC

Third JRPG I ever beat, so that in itself is something to say about this game. A good babby’s first JRPG difficulty wise (taken together with FC).

95%PC

Great game! I'm not sure which of the first and second chapter I liked more. By the time I was playing through the second chapter, the regular battle get pretty boring. If it weren't for the fast forward, I think this game would've been almost unplayable. I really liked the soundtrack to this game more. That track between chapters when you're on the airships is sooooo good. I really liked the overall story, but some of the delivery was lacking to me. I didn't like how "anime" it was getting. I didn't really like monologs from the baddies while they tell you their rank in the bad guy group. How about you just first me instead? It's also silly when there needs to be 1v1 duels, but a character "has to do it". I think if a group was trying to topple your country and take over the world, you'd probably not give them any chance to beat you. The first game did a great job of telling a grounded and realistic story, and this game kinda breaks that for me with anime-styled nonsense. I still really loved the characters, story, music, art. I'm excited to see how the next game turns out!

100%PC

Before I begin my review, I want to say that I made the mistake of starting with the Cold Steel games when I began the Legend of Heroes series, which was the wrong move. You really have to play the series in release order (starting with Trails in the Sky). However, for this review, I'll try to ignore Cold Steel and talk about this game on its own merits, as it wouldn't be fair otherwise given how this came out many years before Cold Steel.

This game is phenomenal! It continues right where the previous game left off and I loved every minute that I played it. Lots of stuff happens and the stakes are much higher. I was thoroughly invested and engrossed the whole time. Plus, this game is when Estelle becomes Bestelle. I absolutely loved her character development and growth in this game and she's now one of my favorite protagonists of all time. She doesn't take any shit and always speaks her mind, which is quite refreshing in a JRPG. And I loved how she yells at people that deserve it, another thing that doesn't really happen in JRPGs. Get that Japanese politeness outta here. All of the other characters have unique struggles and seeing them develop and improve felt very satisfying. The new characters were also interesting too. I found myself struggling to choose my party because I wanted to use everyone, which is one of the signs of great character writing. Well, except for Zin, because he's still lame, although having a villain that is related to his past helped him out immensely.

Speaking of villains, I absolutely hate Ouroboros. It's not the "they're great villains and I want to take them down" kind of hate but the "they're stupid and I don't care about them" kind instead. I think having played Cold Steel first ruined them for me, (and you can read my Cold Steel reviews to see why I think they're stupid) but I'm trying to ignore Cold Steel for this review, so let's forget about that for now. This game handles Ouroboros much better. For me, this is due to the pacing of the game, which, as a whole, is very well done. When you're introduced to an Ouroboros villain, you initially don't actually fight them, which makes sense too, because you suck, so why should they waste their time? But by the end of the game, you have grown and improved, and now you're a threat, so the villains have to fight you. And the best part is that you actually get to beat the shit out of them (which never happens in Cold Steel, fuck that series). Also, Weissman is a fantastic villain. He's so detestable, but also has a lot of depth, which makes him the most interesting Ouroboros member to me.

Overall, this game was a complete blast and I absolutely loved playing it. The graphics and gameplay are largely the same, but I think the music is better overall, especially because that theme when you fight Jaegers is so damn good. If you enjoyed the last game, or even if you didn't, I highly recommend playing this as I believe it's one of the best JRPGs of all time.

85%PC

8.0-8.5

80%PC

The continuation of the story was generally great, really it felt more like a second half of the same game.
The only downside is that since there isn't any real gameplay improvements or QOL stuff added from the already long first game it felt a little bloated.

80%PlayStation Portable

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC is a direct sequel to the first Trails game, picking up exactly where the first one finished. It continues to follow the main character Estelle as she seeks to end a sinister, mysterious plot against Liberl.

The Good:
- The main story is great, with a large band of interesting, if somewhat tropey characters
- the battle mechanics are enjoyable and different foes will require different tactics to overcome
- if you can't overcome those foes, there's a neat mechanic after a loss where you can lower the difficulty of that battle and try again.
- the musical score is a delight
- the world feels lived in, and each NPC has something to say.
- for the most part, there's no need to grind because levelling automatically seeks to catch up to where you should be.

The not so good:
- While overall the writing is good and you can't help but fall in love with most of the characters, it can also be a bit naff at times. It's like the writers couldn't decide if these young adults are kids or if they are adults and the result is a little jarring at times. They also overplay the caricatures a bit too much.
- the ending was a little bit of a let down for me.
- the graphics are fine for the PSP and do the job.
- the sidequests are fun for a while, but given there's no need to grind in this game (which is a good thing), there's very little reward for completing them. All you get is a a bit of BP, which leads to some rewards in the form of weapons, armour, quartz and the like, and cash for buying weapons, armour, and food.

Overall, it is a worthy sequel and a really good game and I recommend it to fans of turn-based RPGs with the caveat that you really need to play the first game before this one.

90%PC

Uma continuação do nível do primeiro jogo, sensacional, o começo é meio devagar, mesmo eu gostando de uma história mais desenvolvida, ela dessa vez demora muito para chegar no ápice que foi o final do primeiro jogo. Mas quando chega nesse momento, o jogo se torna incrível até o fim.

90%PC

My beloved Joshua...

85%PC

Продолжение очень милой и интересной серии игр. Из-за нашего Саске-куна который пошел по своему пути Эстель придется прерваться и уйти на тренировку в горы чтобы стать сильнее. По сути я бы не сказал что это вторая часть, а как бы прямое продолжение после небольшого перерыва. Нововведений в геймплее тут минимум. Все та же карта с теми же городами королевства, добавили новых персонажей и расширили некоторые локации. А вот сюжет тут прогрессирует намного быстрее. Загадочная организация покажет своих новых энфорсеров с которыми придеться столкнуться главным героям и не все они так однозначны.

90%PC

DECENT 9

60%PC

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC continues the operation with a few minor tweaks to combat and systems, as the plot veers towards more and more derivative territory. Certain heartfelt character moments (Agate and Tita in particular) stand out, but there's not a whole lot else to engage the player if they aren't already invested in the story. The few improvements over its predecessor (actual difficulty and dungeons this time) were marred by yet another weak final chapter.

90%PC

Great follow-up game, furthers Estelle and Joshua's story.

80%PC

In some ways, I think it was better than its predecessor. In others, less so. In general, it's a stunning conclusion to the story that was started in Sky First Chapter.

What I liked:
- The combat system manages to get deeper in minor ways. Between the introduction of multi-level quartz, chain crafts, and expanded spell lists, SC's combat feels like a natural step forward from FC.
- The music remains unbelievable. Great soundtrack all the way through in nearly every moment.
- The introduction of CG cutscenes! They look great for their age too, really enjoyed the addition of these.
- The expanded roster of characters with which to play, especially into the final chapter.
- Getting to revisit places from FC with not just knowledge but clout as a bracer and with the freedom to move to and from is great.
- Feels like a very fitting continuation of FC's story.

What I'm mixed on:
- The story doesn't always feel like it lands as well as it did in FC. While it answers a variety of questions and fleshes out certain villains and anti-heroes from the first game, it does occasionally feel somewhat lacking. For example--Bleublanc feels *really* well developed where Walter simply doesn't. Cassius' extended role in the story feels realistic but also a bit contrived at times.
- The strictness of the 100%. This game is even more strict than FC in regards to completion percentage--that's simultaneously a fun thing as it means you've got to really scour everything to get everything, but on the other, your margin for error on Bracer Points to reach the max rank is only *two points.*

What I didn't like:
- Not much. For the most part, my qualms are less things I didn't like and more things that I just don't think were specifically to my taste.

In all, a very fitting conclusion to the end of the Sky duology--the only question left at this point: What the hell is Sky the 3rd about?

100%PC

One of the best JRPGS of all time, I absolutely cannot recommend this game enough.

100%PC

Fantastic story, wonderful characters, incredible exploration.

90%PC

93

90%PC

What a mind-blowing game! So many revelations and thoroughly enjoyed it.

90%PC

Trails never disappoint in the stories that they tell. This game compared to FC was so much better because this was the execution of everything that FC set up, and it was beautifully done. The only thing that falls off with the story is some chapters felt like they were in there to help I guess pad out the game a bit. The characters were all fantastic (Kevin is now of my favorite Trails characters ever). The combat is about the same as it was in the first game, but this game introduced the chain attacks (which are like the link attacks that later games established). The music was fantastic all the way through, and that is always good for a JRPG. In the end, I came in expecting grander, and I came out with the fulfillment of the joy that this series brings me so much.

100%PC

It took me a long time to finish this game, I can't say I loved every second of it but overall storewise it's about as excellent as its predecessor. My rating for SC would be 9.5 whereas FC would be a clear 10/10.

What I liked:
* The characters. I've never played a game where I fell so head over heels in love with so many characters.
* The story. From beginning to end. Loved it! Can't wait for more in this universe.
* Combat feels nice. The S-Craft requires active participation which I like in turn-based.
* The boss fights and enemy fights are really clever. You can beat everything, but you need to figure out how which requires trial-and-error
* Levelling up is so easy. If one character is under levelled just kill one random encounter and they will be levelling up like crazy. You can't overlevel, but that's not something I'm looking for.
* Did I mention the story and the characters? I don't want to put anything here that could spoil anyone's first playthrough. It's just all so fantastic.
* The music. Forever stuck in my brain (Joshua's song from FC is also my alarm clock in the morning).
* I really have the feeling I got to know some of the NPC's living in the towns through my conversations with them.

What I didn't like:
* The side quests get repetitive. The contracts I mean. Killing a random monster here and there whenever you visit a new region. This is what actually caused me to slow down, because I was dreading going to a new town to once again pick up all the contracts on monsters. This is all optional of course, but I'm a sucker for side quests.
* That's all nothing more.

Loved loved loved this game and I can't wait what else is to come. I didn't check details on Trails in the Sky 3rd, but I heard it was a bit different from the first two. I'll take a bit of a break and then I'll dive into it as I want to be ready for when Trails from Zero comes out in EU.

70%PC

Gameplay - Basically the same as the first game. I don't really know if there's any major difference from the top of my head. It's still pretty solid and enjoyable to play through. The enemies were enjoyable to fight, the Bracer board bosses were fun. The story bosses were good but it really shines with the Enforcers. It would be better if they each had their own individual song but the fights were well done. It really does feel like I'm fighting hyper-specialised elite cultists.

Music - Pretty solid. Nothing too groundbreaking but it was quite good.

Story - The story was excellent. It went even further than the first game which was impressive. The Enforcers were a shining point. They're similar to Organization XIII from Kingdom Hearts and the Wise Men from Star Ocean 2 but they're a lot better developed and importantly, each have a rivalry with a party member. Furthermore, by having each chapter dedicated to a Enforcer, you understand more about their character than just a throw-away villain. Out of all the Enforcers you fight, only Loewe dies but that's only because he sacrificed himself, everyone else just ran away. The whole Gralsritter thing is super interesting and I wonder how that will play out. Joshua's disappearance was sad and his return was all so much better, man I really missed playing with Joshua in this game. Weissmann was a great villain and he was definitely a force to be reckoned with. It was made all that much better because we already knew him from the previous game as Alba. I can't wait to see what the third game has in store because this game definitely hyped me up!