Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky First Chapter

With a title as generic as The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, it's no wonder this game was completely off my radar back when it came out in 2011 (if you're counting the PSP version). I'd only heard about it reading an article from Kotaku.com discussing how the translation for the sequel (which recently came out) was so much of a burden on the team trying to localize it, they contemplated suicide.

Naturally, this meant that I had to try this game. Nothing like a story of suicidal depression to get a gamer revving to play a game, a JRPG no less. To be fair, before going in to this review, you guys will need to understand that traditional JRPGs are my bread and butter. Ain't nothing like a good old fashioned turn based system with a ridiculously convoluted story and Japanese awkward KAWA-I-I humour that revs my engines as much as JRPGs do. So bear in mind, the very things that people might find completely dated and horrible about the genre, are things that I love. That is to say, this review is going to biased, oh so very biased. Anyways let's get started then, shall we?

Developed by an innately Japanese company called Falcom (whose only other relevant games included the Ys series), the Legend of Heroes franchise has been something of a triumphant underdog in the Japanese world since 1989. Known for detailed environments and multiple games that occur in the same universe, their games were very much love it or hate it experiences, and this continues with Trails in the Sky. The game takes place in Liberl Kingdom, a country still recovering from a war with their neighbors, Erebonia. You play as the hot-headed stubborn Estelle Bright, a 16 year old girl (because of course she has to be a teenager) trying to follow in her mysterious but cheerful father's footsteps in becoming a bracer. Bracers are the equivalent of 'good guy mercenaries' in the world of Liberl. They take odd jobs and missions that are submitted to each bracer company in each of the cities and are tasked with completing their mission and getting paid. Estelle and her adopted brother Joshua go on a quest as junior bracers, trying to locate their father, Cassius, who has taken on a mission of utmost and secret importance and has disappeared ever since.

The story progresses from there, and you meet fun and interesting characters as you're moving from city to city, meeting the requests of locals and furthering the bigger plot forwards. Though there aren't many plot turns (that are at least unexpected), the story is good enough to keep you playing. The relationships between the characters are more of the pull here. Props to the translators here, as they've effectively captured the Japan-isms without making it too strange an experience for western players. Bear in mind, there is a lot of text here. A LOT. So if you're an RPG lover post Final Fantasy X and dig awkward voice acting, you're not going to find it here, minus a few exclamatory quotes during battle. One of the more especially cool elements in this game is that it gives you the impression of a living and breathing world, as every character has unique dialogue that changes after even small events happen that affect the landscape. The shopkeepers even, have stories to tell, and if you keep coming back to them, it only enriches your immersion and understanding that the game truly takes place in a dynamic world that changes with the actions your characters make.

The gameplay here is traditional to a fucking tee. Battles take place on a board, giving you the false impression that it may be a strategy RPG  (newsflash, it's not). The battle system is turn based and there's a bar on the left that indicates the turn order of the characters and enemies. On your turn you have the choices of either moving around the board (to get closer to enemies that are too far away to hit), cast some magic using Orbments (the magic, mana, materia, MP of the world) or use some specific character Crafts (specific character abilities). It's nothing revolutionary by any means, though it's detailed enough for the hardcore RPG fan to try and 'break' the game with crazy setups. The Orbments here are akin to the Materia system in Final Fantasy VII (where you equip a bunch of orbs and they in turn increase specific stats or give you access to newer spells). Enemies will drop quartz in the color of the different elements of the game, and you can trade these in to the local Orbment store to get new Orbs or just sell them for cash.  The character specific Craft system has its own bar independent of your MP, and you gain CP (Craft points) by getting hit or attacking your enemy. When the CP gauge reaches 100, you can unleash a special heavy hitting attack (trying really hard not say Limit Break here) that does great damage and automatically prioritizes your character regardless of where they are turnwise.  Like I said, the game does nothing groundbreaking when it comes to gameplay. It's a bit on the easier side too. I never found myself requiring to grind heavily before a boss battle. The final boss battle is a piece of shit though, and the difficulty level does spike up during that battle, which is annoying but understandable.

The graphics are umm, dated, like really, really dated. So if you're a graphics whore, you're not going to enjoy the 3D sprites here. True, they may grant you some nostalgic whimsy but that's not going to stop me from saying they could've done better. You have free control of the camera, a la Xenogears, and the environments are okay enough. Not too bland, but nothing awe inspiring. The game has one opening cut scene (2D anime style) and I'm assuming an ending cut scene (I wouldn't know, the game's last boss is still kicking my ass). The game ends on a giant cliffhanger though, I'm told, which shouldn't be a problem if you play it now, because the sequel's finally come out.

Now you might be wondering, what is it about this game that makes it worthy of the 30-40 hours you're going to sink in trying to finish it? I've reiterated in the course of this review, over and over again, that it does everything averagely, from the gameplay to the graphics.

I don't actually quite know. It's the spirit of this game I think. The characters are truly written well and watching them grow throughout their trials and tribulations is fun to witness. It might not be doing anything that's groundbreaking, but it is definitely a solid entry into the classical JRPG franchise, and to all JRPG fans, I can't help but recommend it. You'll definitely get a kick out of it, and after you do, you can immediately play the sequel. And after that, you can play the next game in the series, that takes place in Erebonia (the neighboring warring country) which should prove to be interesting.  So that'll tide you over until Final Fantasy XV comes out and we all eventually hate on it because of the massive amount of hype that will prove impossible to deliver on not to mention the shitty active combat system it seems to have, but I digress.