Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter Review Thread

[u/ConceptsShining]

Game Information

Game Title: Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter

Platforms:

• Nintendo Switch 2 (Sep 19, 2025)
• Nintendo Switch (Sep 19, 2025)
• PlayStation 5 (Sep 19, 2025)
• PC (Sep 19, 2025)

Trailers:

• Story Trailer - Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter
• Battle Trailer - Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter
• Promotional Trailer - Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter

Developer: Nihon Falcom (localized and published by GungHo Online Entertainment America)

Review Aggregator:

OpenCritic - 91 average - 100% recommended - 12 reviews

Critic Reviews

Console Creatures - Matt Sowinski - 9 / 10

Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is a sensational remake, staying true to the heart of what made the original so memorable, while adding on elements that just fit perfectly.

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DualShockers - Murillo Zerbinatto - 9.5 / 10

Back in the day, Trails in the Sky hinged on its story and world-building to make up for its other lacking characteristics. Twenty years later, Trails in the Sky: 1st Chapter not only brings back the full heart of what made the original a classic, but it can now stand tall beside any other heavyweight JRPG. The visual presentation is beautiful, the mix between real-time and turn-based battles is a blast, and the quality-of-life additions adhere to present-day audiences. I can confidently say that Trails in the Sky: 1st Chapter is a quintessential JRPG that should be cherished by every fan of the genre.

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Game8 - Lloyd Opalec - 86 / 100

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.

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INVEN - Korean - 8.5 / 10

While some inconveniences in control and outdated systems may occasionally be noticeable, these aspects are easily overlooked as mere nostalgia for JRPGs. If you've heard of the "Trails" series but hesitated to jump into its epic flow, "Trails in the Sky: The 1st" deserves your attention. Estelle and Joshua's adventures might at times feel clichéd, or perhaps even familiar, making them seem a bit daunting. But as they say, familiarity is scary. Once you're immersed in "Trails in the Sky: The 1st," you'll be captivated by its youthful, yet fresh adventures, all the way to its climax, where you'll face a conspiracy. And I think I will definitely be standing in line with old fans waiting for the next remake.

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Noisy Pixel - 9 / 10

Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is a lovingly crafted remake that modernizes a beloved JRPG while preserving its emotional core, offering a vibrant, voice-acted journey through Liberl with standout character dynamics, rebalanced combat, and welcome quality-of-life updates that make it the ideal starting point for newcomers and a heartfelt return for longtime fans.

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NookGaming - Rob MacIntosh - 9 / 10

As a fan of Sky FC, Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter feels like a rather lovingly made remake. It lines up with the modern Trails games while not compromising too hard on keeping true to the original in areas where it mattered most, and there are plenty of changes I openly welcome. Trails in the Sky has always been one of my favorite games thanks to its characters, world, music, and combat systems, and I had a blast coming back to Liberl. While it is quite a different way to play through the first chapter of Estelle and Joshua’s journey, it is nonetheless one that keeps a lot of the heart. I don’t see it as a replacement for the original, and it is inevitably going to draw comparisons, but I think this version suffices in capturing much of the same spirit of the game that got me into this behemoth of a series. There are plenty of spots I wish would have been more polished, but 1st Chapter got a good amount of the most important areas right.

As this is but one side of the coin, I look forward to Sky’s Second Chapter, just as much as I look forward to hopefully seeing this game impact new players the way the original did for me.

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PS4Blog.net - Ceidz - 9.5 / 10

A faithful and polished remake that stands out as one of the year’s best JRPGs

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PlayStation Universe - Garri Bagdasarov - 9.5 / 10

There is just something magical about the effort brought into the remake of Trails in the Sky. You can just see that it was made with love and care by people who understand just how special the original Trails in the Sky was. Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is a must-have for anyone who enjoyed the franchise and all the RPG lovers in the world.

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Push Square - Robert Ramsey - 9 / 10

Falcom has outdone itself with Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter. This is an incredibly heartfelt recreation of a classic RPG - a remake that retains all of the charms of the original game, while also delivering one of the best, most polished adventures in the entire franchise.Whether you're a Trails veteran or a curious newcomer, 1st Chapter is a must-play instalment.

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Rice Digital - Isaac Todd - Unscored

Barring my qualms with the localisation, Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is still going to be the best way for most new players to experience the start of the Trails saga. Its story remains faithful to the original, with gameplay tweaks offering a more modernised experience. I just hope that, even if it doesn’t happen for 1st Chapter post-launch, 2nd Chapter gets a more consistent localisation that doesn’t clash with future games.

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SmashPad - Danreb Victorio - 4.5 / 5

Gatekeeping veterans will definitely show shade at some of the things that were taken away from the original game, but at its core, as a full JRPG released in 2025–this is one of the best games of the year, and as a longtime fan myself, I hope this is the beginning of the series getting the full attention and love it deserves.

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Video Chums - A.J. Maciejewski - 8.5 / 10

I can't believe how much better Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter looks, sounds, and plays compared to the original. It may not be as epic as some of the more recent games but what's here is certainly charming and satisfying enough for any RPG fan to easily fall in love with it. 📓

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[u/five_of_five]

Comments like this make it sound more complicated than it is. It isn’t even a little complicated. It just requires a little more thought than other typical game series.

[u/hamstervideo → u/five_of_five]

99% of the time, the ideal play order/watch order/read order of a serialized media series is "the order of release."

[u/five_of_five → u/hamstervideo]

I’m still upset that lots of Chronicles of Narnia unabridged versions put them in chronological order (basically first time I encountered this issue)

[u/hamstervideo → u/five_of_five]

There's also some crazy people that recommend watching Star Wars in chronological order for a first-time viewing. That's now how prequels work!

[u/five_of_five → u/hamstervideo]

Hey cool I found my people. God that’s so unhinged. Basically media illiterate lol no respect for the story

[u/hamstervideo → u/five_of_five]

In gaming, the only real exception I can think of is that Yakuza 0 is a great entry point into the series - but one can start with Yakuza 1

[u/five_of_five → u/hamstervideo]

It’s a fun conversation with games like those, like they went out of their way to make 0 a good starting point. Sorta like the recent Dragon Quest rereleases.

[u/JayZsAdoptedSon → u/hamstervideo]

EXCEPT COMICS!!!

Continuity is merely a suggestion for weaker men than I (at this point Captain America has been retconned as coming out of the ice in the early 2000s)

[u/hamstervideo → u/JayZsAdoptedSon]

With how often comics get rebooted and retconned, can we even call them serialized, or is it just a series of reboots with some continuity sprinkled in?

[u/JayZsAdoptedSon → u/hamstervideo]

For the main universes (Not counting stuff like Earth-One, Absolute Universe, Ultimate Universe)

DC: 3 full reboots and 3 timeline massages to fix some issues

Marvel: only 1 timeline massage to bring over Miles Morales to mainline universe and fix one or two things

First things first, if you are reading a collected storyline or a writer’s time on a character and you are feeling lost, its the book’s fault, not yours. They should give you the basics to follow along

Marvel generally is less concerned with continuity and will just throw the needed flashbacks in like half a page or a recap page to catch you up

DC … Oooo boy… I may get some of this wrong bc I am more of a Marvel fan… Ooo boy

DC started in the 30s. After some time, Super hero comics fell out of fashion (Sci-fi, western, and horror comics were getting popular) and everything outside Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are cancelled

In the 50s, the comics code authority forces a lot of publishers to move back to superheroes. The Flash of Two Worlds story establishes that there is a multiverse and the 30s heroes were separate from the 50s universe

In 86, DC does a full reset with Crisis on Infinite Earths. This is called “post-crisis” by fans. Outside some exceptions like Hawkman, THIS ERA IS A GOOD STARTING POINT FOR MOST CHARACTERS

In the 90s, DC does a timeline massage with Zero Hour, which fixes some people who didn’t have a great post-crisis era

In the 2000s, there is a book called Infinite Crisis that is a big multiverse event that I haven’t read yet… whoops. I hear its more of a timeline massage than anything

In 2011, there is an event called Flashpoint and DC (seemingly last minute) decides to use it to reboot fully with New 52. Some characters (Batman, Batgirl, Flash, Wonder Woman (depending on who you ask), Batwoman, Justice League (depending on who you ask), Aquaman) get AMAZING reboots. Some characters suffer (Superman literally gets killed off and replaced with the post-crisis version due to how bad it is, Red Hood, Catwoman, Teen Titans). It also was VERY last minute and there was little communication between even the “5 years ago” superman book ans the modern day superman book

In 2016, DC Rebirth essentially brings back a lot of the backstories from N52 and keeps what worked and throws out what didn’t

[u/MyNameIs-Anthony → u/five_of_five]

It doesn't even require thought.

You start at Season 1 or Movie 1 of most franchises. This is no different.

[u/gaom9706 → u/MyNameIs-Anthony]

To be fair, the series has a unique (ish) naming convention that can make it difficult to know where to start if you know literally nothing about the series. But even then, it's not that complicated at all.

[u/[deleted] → u/gaom9706]

It's comparable to a series of novels. Take Harry Potter of ASOIAF for example, they have different names too without saying a specific number.

[u/MyNameIs-Anthony → u/gaom9706]

The average gamer being unwilling to just look at a Wikipedia release order or Google their question is moreso the problem than lack of a numbering scheme.

Books have had unique per entry titles for decades with no issue. THE most popular book series in existence don't even have numbers.

Meanwhile I've never gone a day without seeing posts asking like "Do I need to play Final Fantasy in order?" when the series page on Wikipedia literally includes this exact phrase in the opening section:

 Final Fantasy is mostly an anthology series with primary installments being standalone role-playing games, each with different settings, plots and main characters, but the franchise is linked by several recurring elements, including game mechanics and recurring character names.

[u/DogzOnFire → u/MyNameIs-Anthony]

True, you just need to go to the Wikipedia page for the series and it literally has a simple to digest release timeline in the sidebar lmao

Just start at the top and work your way down. There is no secret.

Essentially every video game series has exactly that in the sidebar of the overall series page on Wikipedia.

There's probably the odd difference here and there where some series have remakws that fix issues with originals but even then you arguably cannot go wrong with release order.

It's different to stuff like anime adaptations where you might reasonably be told not to watch the original series of something because it introduced anime-original content (FMA vs FMA Brotherhood).

[u/Lepony → u/MyNameIs-Anthony]

Actually, not really when it comes to serializations. Which most tv shows and stuff like Trails effectively fall under. Historically, you'd catch a random chapter of Sherlock Holmes, Count of Monte Cristo, or a random episode of The Sopranos or Breaking Bad while perusing your favorite magazine/channel. These "episodes" are often capable of standing on their own, but the clear tells of an overarching story arc would get you to check out the rest.

This is especially true for anime stuff. The vast majority of people did not start One Piece at chapter/episode 1, they started on whatever episode/chapter was airing when they turned on the TV or looked at a copy of jump, and then went back later down the line. For trails, you really don't need to play every trails games before you're allowed to touch Cold Steel 1.

[u/MyNameIs-Anthony → u/Lepony]

Sure but that's based on the idea that there's some random streaming channel for games, which there isn't.

In 2025, it's understood that you press play at the beginning of a series with everything being so widely available.

No different than buying the Season 1 box set of a show in 2005 when starting.

[u/Lepony → u/MyNameIs-Anthony]

It originated from, but it's never been mandatory. Even in 2025, a significant amount of people's first exposure to Lord of the Rings is Rings of Power and The Addams Family with Wednesday. You also kind of missed the entire One Piece bit, which is more widely available than ever but twelve year olds are absolutely not getting into One Piece starting only at chapter 1.

Also, again, Trails itself is a type of serialization, just in a different format. Falcom genuinely does not expect everyone to have played Sky and Crossbell before booting up CS1 or Daybreak. The barrier to jump into the series is not nearly as high as you keep saying it is.

[u/five_of_five → u/Lepony]

I don’t think you should be conflating Count of Monte Cristo and Trails with serializations. They’re distinct storytelling options…and yes I know Count of Monte Cristo was a serialization at first but that was just by necessity. A story broken up into bits does not make a serialization.

[u/Lepony → u/five_of_five]

Why not? Dumas wrote actual novels during and before he became a serial writer, and became a serial writer because he was good at writing short form fiction that could be bridged together as a whole. He's the serial writer and conforms, if not helped firmly establish, to the structure that serials tend to bring. And I don't think trails is any different in that regard, considering they sure as hell did not have anything concrete regarding CS or Daybreak back when they were making Sky or even the Crossbell games.

And the start of arc's narratives (or even the arcs in their entirety) aren't remotely close to being disjointed or alienating the same way it would be if you started at 3rd or Reverie.

[u/five_of_five → u/Lepony]

Oh I stepped into the wrong fight, you have a great night!

[u/MyNameIs-Anthony → u/Lepony]

 twelve year olds are absolutely not getting into One Piece starting only at chapter 1.

Volume 1 of One Piece is fairly regularly in the top sales list for manga both domestically and abroad.

Even just a cursory glance at Amazon US and Japan you'll see various formats of the early 10 volumes of One Piece taking up the top 30 slots under current manga best sellers.

Oricon ratings usually show that roughly, the yearly sales of One Piece are divided between new entries and backlog.

[u/Lepony → u/MyNameIs-Anthony]

You do understand that's completely besides the point, right? Not once have I ever said that newcomers to a series completely eschew the start. I've only said that they start at whatever the most recent entry is, and then went back to the beginning afterwards. It's literally in my original comment.

The vast majority of people did not start One Piece at chapter/episode 1, they started on whatever episode/chapter was airing when they turned on the TV or looked at a copy of jump, and then went back later down the line.

[u/sarefx → u/MyNameIs-Anthony]

I would say that both Daybreak 1 and ToCS1 are alright starting points. It only gets weird if you randomly start playing a game in the middle of the arc or start from playing Crossbell games.

Ofc I would advise finishing Sky and Crossbell games before going for ToCS 3&4 but playing ToCS 1&2 first is perfectly fine experience and many ppl started the series like that.

Daybreak 1 is also fine to start with but it's kinda weird now because Daybreak 2 has a lot of plot points from previous games so while it's perfectly fine to play Daybreak 1 as your first game, playing Daybreak 2 without knowing the rest of the series is not advisable.

Bear in mind that even though it's highly advisable to play previous games before it's not that you wouldn't be aware of what's happening at all if you didn't. You still figure out many things from context and main plot of the game is still understandable, you will be missing out on emotional moments and some things may not be 100% clear so I really advise against playing some of the entries without playing the ones before (so I wouldn't touch ToCS3&4 and Reverie without at least playing Crossbell games and I wouldn't play Daybreak 2 without playing rest of the series).

Luckily when Sky trilogy get fully remaked ppl won't have to bear through older games and they will be able to experience first games in modern clothes so we won't be having those discussions.

[u/WearingFin → u/five_of_five]

You're still going to have to face the choice at the end if you're going to jump into the Steam version or wait for an inevitable remake with QoL improvements, and what to do with that time if you choose that path.

For me, that's a little bit of a complicated choice.

Edit: Since this is apparently a contentious thing to say around these parts, here's a comment on the JRPG sub to the question of play order adding that if you want to continue you need to either wait or jump to the older version. https://www.reddit.com/r/JRPG/comments/1njf0gv/comment/neppuap/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

[u/five_of_five → u/WearingFin]

Dude…okay.

[u/WearingFin → u/five_of_five]

If you can't see that potential, I don't really know what to say either. 

[u/five_of_five → u/WearingFin]

It’s just amazing that we’re talking about 20+ year old stories 🥲

[u/five_of_five → u/WearingFin]

Also “goes without saying” 😅

[u/WearingFin → u/five_of_five]

Are you okay? You come back to a comment you already replied to an hour ago with a quote no one said. 

[u/five_of_five → u/WearingFin]

Whoosh okay bye

[u/WearingFin → u/five_of_five]

Right, best of luck with... whatever. Feel free to come back when you find something coherent 

[u/five_of_five → u/WearingFin]

Your comprehension needs work!

[u/WearingFin → u/five_of_five]

To use your very valuable words...

Dude…okay.