This game hurt me.
Writing is top notch. Music is top notch. Combat is fun to play around with. Characters are memorable and unique.
Only real issue is that getting all of this game's content done in one run with no guide is a herculean task.
As for the story itself?
This game hurt me.

I finally rolled credits on The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky. "Wow" is all I can say. I have been playing this game almost daily for the past few months and really enjoyed my time with it, but I wasn't ready for the final chapter.

Note: I played on the Steam Deck, where it’s “unsupported,” but runs flawlessly.
----

The story begins in media res with our protagonists Estelle and Joshua training to become bracers, a type of pan-national adventurer-detective. The game’s tutorial, which introduces its various mechanics, serves as their final test at which point they graduate to become junior bracers. This framing is really fun and provides background on our characters—they’re adopted siblings, both students; Joshua is moody with a mysterious past, Estelle is hotheaded and naive, but she’s a veritable prodigy with the staff. It also clears the slate for the story to come.

That story is a great change of pace from traditional JRPGs; these are young kids who set out to become full-fledged bracers—not to save the world. Even as the story progresses and they are organically drawn into larger conflicts (by virtue of their role as bracers), it remains grounded in the experience of these two individuals and our knowledge is almost always limited to what Estelle knows.

The dialogue is also phenomenal. Apparently the series is well known for it's sheer volume of text and that's definitely true. Every NPC has something to say and they constantly react to the plot as it progresses, often moving locations as you do. For example, a woman that you rescue from a bandit hideout will appear in another town talking about how grateful she is. They gossip about events taking place, speak about their hopes and dreams for the future, complain about their spouses, and discuss the latest story in the Liberl News (an in-game newspaper written by the chain-smoking reporter Nial Burns, who is constantly chasing the latest scoop). I’ve never played an RPG where the world feels so alive - it’s really special! The English translation is top notch as well and always feels natural. Estelle's script has some very funny moments too.

Visually, I love the detailed PSP-era sprites, which were given an high definition facelift and new lighting/ shadows with the PC release. It's a timeless style and I actually prefer sprite-based visuals and the limited isometric view compared to full 3D graphics from this time period. The sprites are surprisingly expressive too. A particular scene sticks in my mind of Tita, who views Estelle as an older sister, rushing across the screen to hug here - one sprite dashing to and wrapping it’s small arms around the other, the two almost melding together. It was an astonishing level of detail that really helped build out the personalities of these characters.

I really enjoyed the combat too. This is my first experience with the Trails gameplay and the combination of arts (spells) and crafts (abilities) really clicked with me. It's a relatively easy game on Normal difficulty, but I found myself mixing and matching arts and crafts (no pun intended) depending on enemy weaknesses and positioning. Turn order becomes especially important on some of the harder boss fights, especially the Lorence fight, which I had to attempt several times for the achievement.

Speaking of achievements, I followed several guides to 100% the game during my first play-through. This was the first time I've done this and it honestly felt great, like I truly mastered the game (minus the fact that I played on Normal difficult) and saw everything there was to see. I don't think using a guide diminished my experience at all, in fact, I was less frustrated because I didn't have to backtrack as much.

Overall, I loved my first foray into the Kiseki series and will definitely return for The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC!

The Legend Of Heroes: Trails in the Sky FC Review
Depth, Detail, and a sense that the world you're exploring is lived in.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in The Sky First Chapter had a reputation that intrigued me. I've heard that it's an incredibly slow game that's packed with text. That the purpose of this game was to serve as a 50 hour prologue to it's sequel, Second Chapter. And that it apparently has a brutal cliffhanger that justifies all of that. It does. I'm literally only writing this review in an attempt to stop myself from burning through the next game too fast. The reputation it has for being slow is very earned but being in the mood for a slow burn experience made that a lot less jarring. I can't recommend this game to people who don't want to read a lot though. It will kill the game for you.

In First Chapter you play as Joshua and Estelle Bright. Two 16 year old kids being raised by a legendary bracer named Cassius Bright. Bracers are a guild of freelance mercenaries with a very specific moral compass. Namely to help people. They'll get rid of monsters, save a cat from a tree, escort people from town to town, etc. They just can't intervene with the military or politics of any nation. Joshua and Estelle want to become full fledged Bracers just like their father but in order to do that they need recommendations from guild branches all over their kingdom.

You'll go from town to town picking up odd jobs from the local guild branch in order to complete enough work to earn that branches recommendation. All the while getting a familiarity with each town you go to and the people who live in it. A Bracer has a duty to the people after all. It may sound like pretty standard JRPG fair but this game does something incredible when it comes to talking to the townsfolk.

Minor advancements in the story will give EVERY person in a town something new to say, and this happens several times per town. A lot of these people have little storylines during your stay and may even pop up in future towns. Some will talk about what's going on in the story but others are absorbed in their own dramas. You don't have to go out of your way to talk to everyone but you will miss out on lore and flavor if you don't. There's a lot of fun stories and characters to discover. I've had entire play sessions just being talking to townsfolk because the story advanced a little. I really hope the sequel remembers these background characters.

The towns are gorgeous and they know it too. Every time you get to a new one you'll get this nice sweeping shot of the streets and points of interest. Each town has their own personality to them that keeps the game fresh but it goes beyond the aesthetic of the town itself. Each building feels intricately designed in a way that actually baffles me. Someone put thought into these buildings making sense in a way they genuinely didn't have to for a jrpg. There'll be rooms that you'll never have to enter for any reason but they'll be filled with props and purpose because THAT BUILDING would need that room. I remember being blown away that a weapons shop had an out of the way stock room that I never had to go into but was still decorated top to bottom. It makes the world feel so much more lived in. This game revels in detail on every level and it's easy to see the love that went into this world feeling like a real place with real people.
My biggest fear for future entries is that they stop this level of detail with the townspeople and their surroundings. I can understand them not doing some of this when we switch to a more traditional 3D view without the set camera angles but it would still be disappointing. Only time will tell if they can keep that up!

That said the main cast are so charming as well. Joshua and Estelle's bickering is hilarious and got several laughs out of me. Joshua being this calm and subdued rogue countered by Estelle being a rage tornado is so funny. There's a solid party to build in this one and they all bounce off of eachother in fun ways. They'll be swapped in and out as the story progresses and I liked that compared to just collecting them all. It makes it feel like they have things to do aside from hanging out with you. My favorite party member is easily Zin. He's this massive bear of a man who is also a monk. My favorite character is Nial though. He's basically just Spike Spiegel as a reporter and I adore him.

Despite this game having magic and ridiculous airships it all manages to feel VERY grounded because they explain the hell out of it. Orbments are the way you access magic and skills and you get a literal manual explaining how it all works. Depending on the combination of quartz you install you'll get certain abilities or stat increases. Every characters abilities can be customized to your liking but some have certain elemental preferences. I really like how customizable this system is.

The airships are these hulking technical marvels with all these cool moving parts and when you actually get inside and explore them you can see how thought out the vehicle is. There's so much technology world building like this in the game that kind of teeters on steampunk or something similar. They have these cute chunky designs that I like staring at.

I should probably mention the combat at some point! It's turn based with moves that can change the turn order of everyone taking part in the combat. Random effects like critical hits appear on the turn counter and if you delay someones attack someone else might get that random effect. It's pretty engaging because if you don't pay attention you could give that critical hit to an enemy. It's a solid system all around and I never got bored of it. There's some awesome special attacks too!

I loved this game and can't wait to play it's sequel. The world building is fantastic. The environments feel lived in and atmospheric. I love the people that inhabit them and all their quirks. The writing is genuinely funny and heartwarming at times. The politics and subterfuge were engaging. I love the party we've assembled so far and can't wait to see more of what they get up to. First Chapter felt like reading a REALLY good book or watching one of those anime that just suck you into their world. It's a fantastic experience that I recommend heartily to anyone that can stand a bit of reading and a slow start because this meticulous set up is clearly going somewhere incredible.

Review in English and German. First English, then German.

----
English
---

Table of Contents

1. Review
2. The Legend of Heroes
3. The First Encounter
4. A Fresh Start
5. Review
- 1. Battles
- 2. Story
- 3. Details and Worldbuilding
- 4. Reading
- 5. The Beginning of Something Great
6. Review Part 2 - Japanese
- 1. The Tools
- 2. Difficulty

Review

It's done. After more than 82 hours, I've finally completed Trails in the Sky. To provide a better overview, this review is divided into separate sections that can be read individually.

The Legend of Heroes

The Legend of Heroes, known as 英雄伝説 (Eiyū Densetsu) in Japan, is a series of role-playing video games developed by Nihon Falcom. The series, which began in the late 1980s as part of the Dragon Slayer series, has evolved into its own cohesive series spanning almost 20 years, with thirteen titles, including several subseries. All the games in the series released since 2004 belong to the Trails subseries, known as 軌跡 in Japan. The latest installment, The Legend of Heroes: Kuro no Kiseki II - Crimson Sin, was released in 2022. According to Wikipedia, with The Legend of Heroes: Kuro no Kiseki I, half of the planned Trails series has now been released.

This is undoubtedly an immensely vast, traditional, and extensive series of video games. Setting a goal to play through all Trails games would be quite ambitious for anyone who hasn't been replaying them since their release.

That's precisely what I set out to do. I've always been a fan of expansive worlds, captivating stories, and deep lore that I can immerse myself in. Over the course of my life, I've played hundreds of games, and aside from my teenage escapades with Call of Duty, I also spent over 10 years playing World of Warcraft with the goal of understanding its story as thoroughly as possible. So, when I first heard about 英雄伝説 in 2022, my fascination was practically predestined.

The First Encounter

I learned about the Trails games shortly before or on April 7, 2022. I did some research and quickly realized that finding the games in Japanese wouldn't be easy. Oh, I haven't mentioned it yet, but since October 1, 2021, I've been learning Japanese, and my goal isn't just to complete all the games; it's to complete them all in Japanese. Now, let's get back to the main topic before we discuss Japanese.

The issue was that while the games were sold on Steam, the Japanese localization wasn't included. So, I asked Google for help and stumbled upon the official online shop. My goodness, navigating a Japanese website back then and buying the game was a nightmare, albeit a nostalgic one.

A short while later, I managed to purchase and start the game. The only problem was that I understood next to nothing, which was frustrating. Stubborn, perhaps too stubborn, I persisted and put in 30 hours into the game, reaching the end of the prologue.

Then, like something out of a bad movie, something really dumb happened. My PC gave out, I encountered CPU issues, and my hard drive - where the game was installed - essentially threw in the towel. So, I lost all my progress. Demotivated by the loss and as mentioned earlier, not really understanding much, I took a break. The Trails games always lingered in the back of my mind, but whether and when I should restart this grand endeavor was unclear.

A Fresh Start

No surprises here, but as you can see, I started again. In the meantime, I had read over 10 books in Japanese and watched a dozen anime, but at the beginning, I was still unsure whether I was ready for the game. About 10 months ago, I purchased the game on Steam because I found a Reddit post that showed how to mod not only Japanese text but also the voice files from the PSP version. Additionally, it had some pleasant quality-of-life improvements.

So, after everything was set up, the mods were working, and I was ready, I started the game anew. At that time, I had no idea what kind of journey I was embarking on and what a milestone this would be for me.

Phew, that was quite a prologue before getting into the actual review. I might have gone a bit Trails on you there. But jokes aside, let's now dive into the game review and what it's all about.

Review

At first glance, and to be honest, even on the second look, Trails in the Sky appears to be an extremely classic JRPG. Turn-based battles, characters that can be theoretically categorized into professions, and a story centered around coming of age. But is everything as it seems?

To be honest, for the most part, yes. However, this is not a criticism, let me explain.

The story begins with the protagonist, Estelle Bright, awaiting the return of her father, Cassius. Upon his return, he brings with him a boy named Joshua. Cassius adopts Joshua, and now both children are raised by him. Years later, when Estelle and Joshua have turned 16, they decide to follow in their father's footsteps and become Bracers. Bracers are a group specializing in combat and investigations, using these skills to perform odd jobs and maintain peace. To complete their Bracer training, the apprentices must travel to the five main Bracer guild branches in Liberl, located in Rolent, Bose, Ruan, Zeiss, and Grancel, and prove themselves. Shortly after, Cassius receives a letter and leaves his hometown of Rolent for a business trip.

This is where our actual journey and the prologue begin. We are tasked with handling individual assignments that were originally intended for our father. In doing so, we learn the basics, meet important characters, and become familiar with the game's world and history. As I mentioned earlier, it's a classic start to a grand adventure. Despite its classic nature, the story's structure and characters provide a realistic beginning. We are fresh 16-year-olds who have been at home, cooking, and training. Neither of us, especially Estelle, has held a regular job or read the newspaper in the morning. So, in many aspects, Joshua knows more than the player does. When it comes to life as a Bracer, work, or political developments, the two of them learn at the same pace as the player.

So, we begin by completing simple quests and taking a final test that officially makes us Junior Bracers. The game itself is a classic, turn-based JRPG in the truest sense of the word. Battles are turn-based and take place on a grid, with a "magic" system that the game has its own lore for. There are the usual healing, elemental, and area-of-effect "spells" against a variety of enemy types. There are no random battles, although monsters appear on the world map, giving you the choice of whether to engage them, though their placement may sometimes make it necessary. During the prologue, the interesting dynamic between our two protagonists is already well established. The two of them have very different personalities for most of the game, providing the player with a broader perspective on various events.

Estelle is the hot-headed, action-first, think-later type who isn't particularly diligent or... well... "bright," while Joshua is the reserved, silent, and thoughtful type. Confrontations based on dialogues are mostly led by Estelle, while investigative work and other research-based conversations are Joshua's domain.

Despite their obvious differences, the two main characters are well-developed, and a strong bond is portrayed between them. The narrative definitely plays with sibling rivalry, sometimes with comedic effect and perhaps even exaggerated, but you feel that they are on the same side when it comes to survival instincts and work ethic.

However, it doesn't take long before we are not just a duo in the group. And "Oh Boy, let me tell you.” The characters couldn't be more different. Furthermore, we don't get stuck with one member or combination; no, we switch from chapter to chapter, introducing new characters to our party.

This is a great method to keep things fresh, and I find it pays off very well. While many role-playing games, including JRPGs, start with a single protagonist or a small group and expand the group as the game progresses, it's not common to find a game where other characters leave the group, supposedly forever, at the end of a chapter, making it a refreshing change from games where the group fills and stays that way. The group consists of a maximum of four characters, but in Trails, you don't choose from a list where some members get left behind. It's not always four either. Sometimes it's just Estelle and Joshua.

Although it may sound like you'd feel restricted or not warm up to some characters as a result, I never had that feeling. You have enough time to get to know them all, assess them, and grow fond of them.

Battles

Now, let's circle back to the battles, which I briefly mentioned earlier.

Trails in the Sky FC features an intriguing tactical dynamic in its combat system. Battles take place on a grid, where each character has the option to move toward an enemy when attacking or strategically position themselves for a move. This greatly enhances the game's strategic depth, as both allies and enemies have certain areas of effect for their abilities. It's also possible to use attacks with knockback to carefully group enemies closer together and then unleash an area-of-effect attack.

Furthermore, there are abilities that can influence the turn order, meaning enemies may have to wait longer before their turn, or your own characters can act more quickly.

The magic system is elemental, including fire, water, wind, and earth spells, as well as other categories like time and Mirage spells. There are also enhancement spells and items that provide protection against specific types of attacks or can even deflect them entirely.

The challenge in the game lies in defeating the main enemies on the map, which typically isn't too difficult. However, the real challenge is defeating enough of them in succession to reach the next town without risking defeat in the first encounter.

In contrast, boss battles and other "scripted" combat events are much more demanding. Sometimes you have information about the weaknesses of the enemies, such as in a "tower" where most enemies are vulnerable to water attacks. However, in other cases, this knowledge is lacking, and you must develop a strategy on the spot.

Although I tried to avoid as many unnecessary battles as possible just to save time, I overall had a lot of fun with the combat system and am genuinely looking forward to the sequels, as this system has the potential to become truly fantastic with the necessary refinement.

Story

The game's story is divided into several standalone chapters, and it's up to Estelle and Joshua to complete various assignments for the Bracer Guild in the larger cities on the world map, earning recommendations. Each chapter revolves around obtaining a recommendation before continuing the journey to the next town to advance the plot.

At first glance, this may seem straightforward. However, it's the way the story unfolds that makes the game so captivating. Each time you reach a new location, something new happens. However, this doesn't happen in the way it does in games like Bethesda's Skyrim, where you simply go to the Mage's Guild, cast a spell, and suddenly become the leader after completing a few tasks.

Instead, Trails is characterized by continuous puzzles. For example, Estelle and Joshua receive a package addressed to their father, who is currently on a business trip. They contemplate whether to open it but aren't quite sure what's inside.

The individual developments don't take center stage in the storyline, but rather, you continue your journey, only to be reminded of previous developments at various points. This style of storytelling is much more natural and piques curiosity about how the story will unfold. With a multitude of intertwined storylines like this, the gameplay becomes increasingly engaging.

Details and Worldbuilding

You might be familiar with this when playing certain games: You stand in front of a door, there's no clear prompt, and you can't go through it. This repeats until you finally find the right door and think, "A-HA! There must be something significant related to the story here, or else the developers wouldn't have crafted this area so meticulously!"

In Trails in the Sky, every interior of a building and every room is accessible and meticulously detailed, whether there's a specific reason to enter. Alarmingly but not uncommon in the JRPG genre, you can simply intrude into random people's houses, and when you speak with them, they'll share what they did yesterday or make jokes about their spouse, rather than immediately calling the police. Well, in a way, you might be some kind of law enforcement.

I've rarely experienced such attention to detail in video games that I was consistently satisfied every time I explored a new area. Sure, every "town" in the game is a condensed collection of buildings to save time and resources, and it doesn't reach the size of a real city. However, once you arrive, you know you can freely move about and talk to everyone without encountering pointless locked doors leading to nowhere.

Every town and village has its own unique atmosphere, whether it's the coastal town with its stunning (for the PS2 era) vistas or the industrial vibe of Zeiss. The world has been created with exceptional attention to detail. If you look closely and count the beds, you can even figure out how many people live in a particular place. There are always some kind of equipment or details that bring the world to life.

However, it's not just the backgrounds and design that are full of love for detail; even the NPCs are surprisingly not just "NPCs." By that, I mean the NPCs feel like actual individuals living in the areas and towns. If you're new, they won't overwhelm you with personal matters. If you listen in discreetly, you'll get insights into their lives. What's remarkable, though, is that the NPCs have been integrated into the worldbuilding. By that, I mean that the dialogues among and with the NPCs change as you progress in the story. It's also logical that when something significant happens in a place, everyone has something to say about it. You don't see this very often. This made me enjoy occasionally chatting with an NPC and returning to pester them again after a story beat.

Reading

While modern games these days are almost always fully voiced, that wasn't the norm in 2004. This game is text-based and (initially) lacks voice acting, aside from a few sound effects during battles. Fortunately, the text in this game is top-notch.

More than half of my playtime likely consisted of reading dialogues. There's plenty of them, and very little is interactive. While there are a few decisions to make, it's not a game where you make crucial choices that impact the course of the story. I found it extremely satisfying to sit back and play/read the game, sometimes for over an hour, during which all I did was press a button to read the text. The dialogues are authentic, convey the personalities of the characters, and are genuinely heartwarming at times.

The Beginning of Something Great

The average playtime for this game is about 40 hours. If you play the game in Japanese like I did and look up words along the way, it can easily double that playtime. That's a significant time investment, to be sure.

If you're new to the Trails series with its nine main games and more, you might feel overwhelmed. Unlike the Final Fantasy franchise, which mostly consists of standalone games with a few common elements, Trails is a complete series from start to finish. What I can say is that starting Trails in the Sky in 2023 works seamlessly. It holds up remarkably well, even though its writing and art style are almost two decades old.

The only important thing, in my opinion, and based on research, is where you start with Trails in the Sky. So, if you begin here and don't mind reading a lot, playing a game where player input isn't substantial, or one that doesn't rely on fast-paced gameplay but offers a rich, detailed world to immerse yourself in, with deep characters and a genuinely engaging story, then spending 50-100 hours with this game could hardly be a better choice.

That concludes the first part of my review of the game. The following part will focus more specifically on my experiences with the game in Japanese: how I played it, what I have to say about it, and much more.

Review Part 2 – Japanese

The Tools

As mentioned in Part 1, I completed Trails in the Sky in Japanese. Therefore, for anyone learning Japanese, let's start with the most important information. Trails is perfect for immersion. In Trails in the Sky FC and SC, and I'm not sure about 3rd, you can relatively easily mod the Japanese text and voice acting into the game. The majority of the complete dialogues are voiced, so you can practice both reading and listening.

To look up words in the game, there are two different methods you can use. The first option is to use a text extractor to find a suitable hook and filter out unnecessary text entries using regex. This way, every text is automatically hooked and transferred to Yomichan or a text hooker UI where you can look up words using Yomichan.

The second method is the one I used because, honestly, I couldn't figure out how to filter out unnecessary text entries using regex. On my second monitor, I had the website "https://trailsinthedatabase.com/" open.

On the website, you need to select the right game under "Browse Script Files by Game." Then, whenever I didn't understand something in the game, I would scan the text bubble using ShareX and paste it into the search bar on the website. Since I only copied individual, specific sentences, in 99% of cases, the search result was the current ongoing conversation. With the database, you have two additional advantages, as you can see in the photo. If you ever don't understand something, the official English localization is always right next to the Japanese sentences. Moreover, if you click on the English text, the original Japanese voice line is played. This allows you not only to listen to the dialogue again if you wish but also to record it using ShareX and add it to an Anki card.

Because the database exists, I can highly recommend Trails in general for people learning Japanese. When all the tools are ready, there's really only one question left: how difficult is Trails in Japanese?

Difficulty

Yes, how difficult is Trails, indeed? I can't provide a 100% universally applicable answer to this, so I need to explain again. However, the shortest answer will probably be "varied." The difficulty not only varies greatly from chapter to chapter but also from character to character.

Characters like Estelle or Joshua are relatively straightforward in most cases, with relatively few quirks that change the language. However, the other companions in the game are different and often more challenging to understand. For me personally, although he's one of my favorite characters, Olivier often gave me the most trouble.

As a self-proclaimed wandering bard and a gifted musician, the man often uses archaic expressions and sentence structures from time to time. But here again, with the help of the database, you can understand even the strangest sentences and still have a good laugh. Nevertheless, there are one or two things you should be aware of:

Falcom uses Kanji wherever possible, even in contexts where other authors would use Kana (where you see "Orbal" in English, it's 道力 in Japanese), and Falcom also loves expressions like 切磋琢磨, ご無沙汰しております, etc. Furthermore, the language is naturally influenced by the setting and the story. This means that formal expressions, scientific and military as well as political terminology are often used.

Therefore, even with the database, I recommend the game in principle, but a certain foundation should be in place. I personally started Trails for the first time after about 6 months of learning Japanese and understood far too little. Now, when I started it the second time and finished it, I had read about 15 books, watched over 1000 episodes of anime, and watched 56 movies. If you're persistent, you can start earlier, but I think you'll also have to accept that you'll refer to the English localization more often.

----
German
---

Review

Es ist vollbracht. Ich habe Trails in the Sky endlich, nach mehr als 82 Stunden, beendet.

Um einen besseren Überblick aber zu garantieren, ist diese Review in einzelne Abschnitte unterteilt, welche separat gelesen werden können.

The Legend of Heroes

The Legend of Heroes, in Japan als 英雄伝説 (Eiyū Densetsu) bekannt, ist eine von Nihon Falcom entwickelte Serie von Rollenspiel-Videospielen. Die Serie, die in den späten 1980er Jahren als Teil der Dragon Slayer-Serie begann, entwickelte sich zu einer eigenen, nun fast 20 Jahre umspannenden, zusammenhängenden Serie mit dreizehn Titeln, einschließlich mehrerer Unterserien. Alle Spiele der Reihe, die seit 2004 veröffentlicht wurden, gehören zur Trails-Subserie, die in Japan als 軌跡 bekannt ist. Der jüngste Teil, The Legend of Heroes: Kuro no Kiseki II - Crimson Sin, wurde im Jahr 2022 veröffentlicht. Laut Wikipedia ist mit The Legend of Heroes: Kuro no Kiseki I nun die Hälfte der geplanten Trails Reihe veröffentlicht wurden.

Dies ist, keine Frage, eine extreme Große, traditionelle und umfangreiche Reihe von Videospielen. Wenn man die Spiele nicht seit Release schon immer wieder gespielt hat, wäre es doch vollkommen bekloppt, wenn man sich als Ziel setzt alle Trails Spiele durchzuspielen.

Genau das habe ich mir vorgenommen.

Ich war schon immer ein Fan von großen Welten, von spannenden Geschichten und tiefer Lore, in die ich mich einlesen kann. Während meines Lebens habe ich hunderte Spiele gespielt, und neben Eskapaden mit Call of Duty während meiner Teenager Zeit, habe ich z.B. selbst für über 10 Jahre World of Warcraft gespielt - immer mit dem Ziel die Story so gut es geht zu verstehen. Als ich dann also 2022 zum ersten Mal von der 英雄伝説 gehört hatte, war meine Faszination vorprogrammiert.

Der erste Kontakt

Kurz vor dem, oder am 07.04.2022, habe ich von den Trails - Spielen erfahren. Informierte mich ein wenig darüber und fand sehr schnell raus, dass es nicht einfach sein würde, die Spiele auf Japanisch zu finden. Achja, das habe ich hier bisher noch gar nicht erwähnt. Ich lerne seit dem 01.10.2021 Japanisch und mein Ziel ist es nicht nur die Spiele alle durchzuspielen. Mein Ziel ist es, alle Spiele auf Japanisch durchzuspielen. Nun, jetzt aber zurück zum eigentlichen Thema, bevor wir über das Japanische sprechen.

Das Problem ist nämlich, dass die Spiele zwar auf Steam verkauft werden aber die japanische Lokalisierung hier nicht dabei ist. Ich habe dann damals Google gefragt und bin auf den offiziellen Onlineshop gestoßen. Gott, war das damals schwer auf einer japanischen Seite zu navigieren und dieses Spiel dann zu kaufen. Schrecklich und nostalgisch zugleich.

Kurze Zeit später hatte ich es dann also geschafft und startete das Spiel. Das Problem war nur, dass ich so gut wie nichts verstand, blöd ne. Hartnäckig, wahrscheinlich zu Hartnäckig, steckte ich trotzdem 30 Stunden in das Spiel, bis zum Ende des Prologs.

Wie in einem schlechten Film passierte dann allerdings was richtig Dummes. Mein PC gab den Geist auf, CPU-Probleme traten auf und meine Festplatte - wo das Spiel drauf war - reichte die Kündigung ein. Ich verlor also den kompletten Fortschritt. Demotiviert durch den Verlust und dadurch das ich, wie bereits erwähnt, ehrlich gesagt nicht viel Verstand, legte ich eine Pause ein. Die Trails Spiele waren immer in meinem Hinterkopf, doch ob und wann ich das große Unterfangen erneut starten sollte, das war unklar.

Ein neuer Start

Das ist jetzt keine Überraschung aber wie man sieht habe ich nochmal erneut angefangen. In der Zwischenzeit habe ich zwar über 10 Bücher auf Japanisch gelesen und ein Dutzend Anime geschaut, doch ich war mir zu Beginn trotzdem unsicher, ob ich bereit für das Spiel war. Vor nun guten 10 Monaten kaufte ich mir das Spiel auf Steam, da ich einerseits einen Reddit Post fand, welcher einem zeigte wie man nicht nur japanischen Text, sondern auch die Voice Files der PSP-Version hinzumodden konnte, anderseits da es angenehme QoL-Improvements besaß.

Nachdem also alles eingerichtet war, die Mods funktionierten und Ich bereit war, startete ich das Spiel erneut von neu. Zu dem Zeitpunkt wusste ich noch nicht, auf was für eine Reise ich mich einlasse was für ein Meilenstein das eigentlich für mich darstellen wird.

Phu, das war jetzt aber mal ein Prolog, bevor die eigentliche Review losgeht. Habe ich wohl von Trails. Ok Spaß beiseite, nun aber zur Review des Spiels und worum es eigentlich geht.

Review

Auf den ersten Blick, ok um ehrlich zu sein auch den zweiten Blick, erscheint Trails in the Sky wie ein extrem klassisches JRPG. Rundenbasierte Kämpfe, Charaktere, welche man theoretisch in Berufe segmentieren kann und eine Story, die sich um das Erwachsen werden dreht. Doch ist das alles so, wie es scheint?

Um ehrlich zu sein, zum Großteil ja. Doch ist dies keine Kritik, lasst es mich erklären.

Die Geschichte beginnt damit, dass die Protagonistin Estelle Bright auf die Rückkehr ihres Vaters Cassius wartet. Bei seiner Heimkehr war er nicht allein, denn er hat einen Jungen namens Joshua mitgebracht. Cassius adoptiert Joshua und zieht nun beide Kinder auf. Jahre später entschließen sich Estelle und Joshua, die mittlerweile 16 Jahre alt geworden sind, in die Fußstapfen ihres Vaters zu treten und Bracer zu werden. Die Bracer sind eine Gruppe, die sich auf den Kampf und auf Ermittlungen spezialisiert haben und diese Fertigkeiten nutzen, um Gelegenheitsarbeiten zu erledigen und den Frieden zu bewahren. Um die Ausbildung zum Bracer abzuschließen, müssen die Auszubildenden zu den fünf Hauptzweigstellen der Bracergilden in Liberl, welche sich in Rolent, Bose, Ruan, Zeiss und Grancel befinden, reisen und sich dort beweisen. Kurz danach erhält Cassius einen Brief und verlässt daraufhin seine Heimatstadt Rolent für eine Geschäftsreise.

Hier beginnt unsere eigentliche Reise und der Prolog. Wir werden damit beauftragt einzelne Aufgaben, welche eigentlich unser Vater übernehmen sollte, zu übernehmen. So lernen wir die Basics, lernen wichtige Charaktere kennen und machen uns mit der Spielwelt wie auch Geschichte vertraut. Es ist, wie ich bereits erwähnte, ein klassischer Start in ein großes Abenteuer. Trotz der klassischen Natur ist es vom Story Aufbau und den Charakteren aber ein Beginn, welcher realistisch ist. Wir sind frische 16 Jahre alt, waren bisher daheim, kochten und trainierten. Groß gearbeitet und morgens die Zeitung gelesen haben die zwei, besonders Estelle, nicht. So wissen die zwei, besonders Joshua, mehr als der Spieler. Wenn es aber um das Leben als Bracer, das Arbeiten oder politischen Entwicklungen geht, erfahren die zwei alles zeitgleich zum Spieler.

Wir beginnen also damit leichte Quests zu absolvieren und einen finalen Test abzuschließen, der uns offiziell zu einem Junior Bracer macht. Das Spiel selbst ist ein klassisches, rundenbasiertes JRPG im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes. Die Kämpfe werden rundenbasiert auf einem Raster ausgetragen, mit einem "Magie"-System, zu dem das Spiel allerdings seine eigenen Überlieferungen hat, und es gibt die üblichen Heil-, Elementar- und Wirkungsbereich-"Zauber" gegen eine Vielzahl von Gegnertypen. Es gibt keine zufälligen Kämpfe, obwohl Monster auf der Weltkarte auftauchen, so dass man die meiste Zeit die Wahl hat, ob er sie angreift, obwohl ihre Platzierung es zu anderen Zeiten notwendig macht. Während dem Prolog wird die interessante Dynamik unserer beiden Protagonisten schon sehr gut gezeigt. Die beiden haben über weite Strecken des Spiels zwei sehr unterschiedliche Persönlichkeiten, die dem Spieler eine breitere Perspektive auf verschiedene Ereignisse bieten.

Estelle ist der hitzköpfige, zuerst handelnde und später denkende Typ, der nicht besonders fleißig oder... äh... "bright" ist, während Joshua der einsame, stille und nachdenkliche Typ ist. Konfrontationen, die auf Dialogen basieren, werden meist von Estelle geführt, während Detektivarbeit und andere Gespräche, die auf Nachforschungen basieren, Joshuas Domäne sind.

Trotz ihrer offensichtlichen Unterschiede sind die beiden Hauptfiguren gut ausgearbeitet und es wird eine starke Bindung zwischen ihnen dargestellt. Die Erzählung spielt definitiv mit der Rivalität der Geschwister, manchmal mit komödiantischem Effekt und manchmal vielleicht sogar übertrieben, aber man hat das Gefühl, dass sie auf der gleichen Seite stehen, wenn es um Überlebensinstinkte und Arbeitsmoral geht.

Es ist allerdings nicht lange, bis wir nicht nur zu zweit in der Gruppe sind. Und "Oh Boy, let me tell you", die Charaktere könnten nicht unterschiedlicher sein. Darüber hinaus sehen wir uns auch nicht an einem Mitglied satt oder fahren uns mit einer Kombination fest, nein, wir wechseln von Kapitel zu Kapitel immer wieder, wer eigentlich gerade bei uns mit dabei ist.

Das ist eine großartige Methode, um die Dinge frisch zu halten, und ich finde, dass sie sich sehr auszahlt. Während viele Rollenspiele, auch JRPGs, mit einem einzigen Protagonisten oder einer kleinen Gruppe beginnen und die Gruppe im Laufe des Spiels wächst, ist es nicht üblich, ein Spiel zu finden, in dem andere Charaktere die Gruppe verlassen, angeblich für immer, wenn ein Kapitel endet, so dass es eine erfrischende Abwechslung zu Spielen ist, in denen sich die Gruppe füllt und so bleibt. Die Gruppe besteht aus höchstens vier Charakteren, aber in Trails wählt man nicht aus einer Liste aus, bei der einige Gruppenmitglieder zurückbleiben müssen. Es sind auch nicht immer vier. Manchmal sind es nur Estelle und Joshua.

Obwohl es sich dadurch so anhört, als würde man irgendwelche Restriktionen spüren oder mit manchen Charakteren nicht warm werden, so hatte ich nie dieses Gefühl. Man hat genug Zeit alle kennen zu lernen, sie einzuschätzen und ins Herz zu schließen.

Kämpfe

Nun aber noch einmal zurück zu den Kämpfen, die ich eben schonmal kurz erwähnt habe.

Das Kampfsystem von Trails in the Sky FC bietet eine interessante taktische Dynamik. Die Kämpfe werden auf einem Raster ausgetragen, auf dem jede Spielfigur die Möglichkeit hat, sich auf einen Gegner zuzubewegen, wenn sie angreift oder ihren Zug gezielt für eine Bewegung einsetzt. Dies erweitert die strategische Tiefe des Spiels erheblich, da einige Fähigkeiten von sowohl Verbündeten als auch Feinden einen bestimmten Wirkungsbereich haben. Es ist auch möglich, Feinde durch Angriffe mit Rückstoß vorsichtig näher zusammenzubringen, um dann einen Angriff mit Wirkungsbereich zu entfesseln.

Zusätzlich gibt es Fähigkeiten, die die Reihenfolge der Züge beeinflussen können. Dies bedeutet, dass Feinde länger warten müssen, bevor sie an der Reihe sind, oder deine eigenen Charaktere schneller handeln können.

Das Magiesystem ist elementar und umfasst Feuer-, Wasser-, Luft- und Erdzauber sowie andere Kategorien wie Zeit- und Fata Morgana-Zauber. Es gibt auch Stärkungszauber und Gegenstände, die Schutz vor bestimmten Arten von Angriffen bieten oder diese sogar komplett abwehren können.

Die Herausforderung im Spiel besteht darin, die Hauptgegner auf der Karte zu besiegen, was in der Regel keine allzu große Schwierigkeit darstellt. Die wahre Herausforderung besteht jedoch darin, genug von ihnen hintereinander zu besiegen, um die nächste Stadt zu erreichen, ohne zu riskieren, bei der ersten Begegnung zu sterben.

Die Bosskämpfe und andere "geskriptete" Kampfereignisse sind im Gegensatz dazu viel anspruchsvoller. Manchmal hat man Informationen über die Schwächen der Gegner, wie zum Beispiel in einem "Turm", in dem die meisten Feinde anfällig für Wasserangriffe sind. Doch in anderen Fällen fehlt einem dieses Wissen, und man muss vor Ort eine Strategie entwickeln.

Obwohl ich versucht habe, so gut wie jeden nicht notwendigen Kampf zu umgehen, einfach um Zeit zu sparen, hatte ich Overall viel Spaß mit dem Kampfsystem und freue mich tatsächlich auf die Nachfolger, da dieses System mit der notwendigen Arbeit wirklich großartig werden kann.

Story

Die Handlung des Spiels ist in mehrere eigenständigen Kapitel unterteilt, und es liegt an Estelle und Joshua, in den größeren Städten auf der Weltkarte der Bracer-Gilde verschiedene Aufträge zu erledigen und Empfehlungen zu verdienen. Jedes Kapitel dreht sich darum, eine Empfehlung zu erhalten, bevor die Reise zur nächsten Stadt fortgesetzt wird, um die Handlung voranzutreiben.

Auf den ersten Blick erscheint dies recht unkompliziert. Doch es ist die Art und Weise, wie die Geschichte sich entfaltet, die das Spiel so fesselnd macht. Jedes Mal, wenn du einen neuen Ort erreichst, geschieht etwas Neues. Dies geschieht jedoch nicht auf die Art und Weise, wie es in Spielen wie Bethesda's Skyrim der Fall ist, wo man einfach zur Magier Gilde geht, einen Zauber wirkt und plötzlich zum Anführer wird, nachdem man ein paar Aufgaben erledigt hat.

Stattdessen zeichnet sich Trails durch kontinuierliche Rätsel aus. Zum Beispiel erhalten Estelle und Joshua ein Paket, das an ihren Vater adressiert ist, der gerade auf Geschäftsreise ist. Sie überlegen, ob sie es öffnen sollen, wissen aber nicht genau, was sich darin befindet.

Die einzelnen Entwicklungen rücken nicht in den Fokus des Handlungsstrangs, sondern man setzt seine Reise fort, nur um später an verschiedenen Stellen auf vorherige Entwicklungen erneut aufmerksam gemacht zu werden. Diese Art der Erzählung ist wesentlich natürlicher und weckt die Neugier darauf, wie die Geschichte sich entwickeln wird. Angesichts der Vielzahl von ineinander verwobenen Handlungssträngen wie diesem wird das Gameplay zunehmend fesselnder.

Details und Worldbuilding

Du kennst das vielleicht, wenn du bestimmte Spiele spielst: Du stehst vor einer Tür, es gibt keine klare Aufforderung, und du kannst nicht hindurchgehen. Das wiederholt sich, bis du schließlich die richtige Tür findest und denkst: "A-HA! Hier muss es etwas Bedeutendes im Zusammenhang mit der Handlung geben, sonst hätten die Entwickler diesen Bereich nicht so sorgfältig ausgestaltet!"

In Trails in the Sky ist jeder Innenraum eines Gebäudes und jeder Raum betretbar und detailliert ausgearbeitet, unabhängig davon, ob es einen konkreten Grund gibt, hineinzugehen oder nicht. Erschreckenderweise, aber im JRPG-Genre nicht ungewöhnlich, kannst du einfach in die Häuser zufälliger Leute eindringen, und wenn du mit ihnen sprichst, teilen sie dir mit, was sie gestern gemacht haben oder machen Witze über ihren Ehepartner, anstatt sofort die Polizei zu rufen. Nun ja, in gewisser Weise bist du vielleicht so etwas wie die Polizei.

Ich habe selten so viele Details in Videospielen erlebt, dass ich jedes Mal, wenn ich ein neues Gebiet erkundet habe, außerordentlich zufrieden war. Sicher, jede "Stadt" im Spiel ist eine komprimierte Ansammlung von Gebäuden, um Zeit und Ressourcen zu sparen, und sie erreicht nicht die Größe einer realen Stadt. Doch sobald du dort ankommst, weißt du, dass du dich überall frei bewegen und mit jedem sprechen kannst, ohne auf sinnlose, verschlossene Türen zu stoßen, die ins Leere führen.

Jede Stadt und jedes Dorf hat ihr eigenes einzigartiges Flair, sei es die Küstenstadt mit ihren atemberaubenden (für die PS2-Ära) Ausblicken oder die industrielle Atmosphäre von Zeiss. Die Welt wurde mit außergewöhnlicher Hingabe an die Feinheiten geschaffen. Wenn du genau hinschaust und die Betten zählst, kannst du sogar herausfinden, wie viele Menschen in einem bestimmten Ort leben. Es gibt immer irgendeine Art von Ausrüstung oder Details, die die Welt zum Leben erwecken.

Darüber hinaus sind allerdings nicht nur die Hintergründe und das Design voller Liebe zu Detail, sondern selbst die NPCs sind erstaunlicherweise nicht nur “NPCs. Damit meine ich, dass die NPCs sich anfühlen, wie tatsächliche Personen, die in den Gegenden und Städten leben. Wenn du neu bist, labern Sie dich nicht mit privaten Angelegenheiten voll. Wenn man einfach heimlich zuhört, bekommt man Informationen über Ihr Leben. Das grandiose ist allerdings, dass die NPCs in das Worldbuilding integriert wurden. Damit meine ich, dass sich die Dialoge mit den und unter den NPCs ändern, wenn man weiter in der Story ist. Es ist auch rein logisch, dass wenn irgendwas Besonderes in einem Ort passiert, dass alle Ihren Senf dazu geben. Das sieht man aber wirklich nicht häufig. Dadurch hatte ich sogar Spaß hier und da mal einen NPC anzuquatschen und nach einem Story Beat zurückzugehen und Ihn erneut zu nerven.

LESEN

Während moderne Spiele heutzutage fast immer vollständig vertont sind, war das im Jahr 2004 noch nicht die Norm. Dieses Spiel ist textbasiert und hat (erstmal) keine Sprachausgabe, abgesehen von ein paar Soundeffekten während der Kämpfe. Zum Glück sind die Texte in diesem Spiel erstklassig.

Mehr als die Hälfte meiner Spielzeit wird am Ende wahrscheinlich in den Dialogen stattgefunden haben. Es gibt jede Menge davon, und nur sehr wenig ist interaktiv. Es gibt zwar einige wenige Entscheidungen zu treffen, aber es handelt sich nicht um ein Spiel, in dem man wichtige Entscheidungen trifft, die den Verlauf der Handlung beeinflussen. Ich fand es äußerst befriedigend, mich zurückzulehnen und das Spiel zu spielen / zu lesen, manchmal über eine Stunde lang, in der der ich nichts weiter tat, als eine Taste zu drücken, um die Texte weiterzulesen. Die Dialoge sind authentisch, vermitteln die Persönlichkeit der Charaktere und sind an manchen Stellen wirklich herzerwärmend.

Der Anfang von etwas Großem

Die durchschnittliche Spielzeit dieses Spiels beträgt etwa 40 Stunden. Wenn man nun das Spiel wie ich auf Japanisch spielt und währenddessen dann noch Wörter nachschlägt, kann die Spielzeit sich gut und gerne verdoppeln. Das ist eindeutig ein beachtliches Zeitinvestment.


Wenn man zum ersten Mal mit der Trails-Reihe und ihren neun Hauptspielen und mehr in Kontakt kommt, könnte man sich überwältigt fühlen. Im Gegensatz zur Final Fantasy-Franchise, bei der es sich größtenteils um eigenständige Spiele handelt, die nur einige gemeinsame Elemente aufweisen, ist Trails eine vollständige Serie von Anfang bis Ende. Was ich sagen kann, ist, dass es definitiv keine Probleme bereitet, Trails in the Sky im Jahr 2023 anzufangen. Es funktioniert einwandfrei, und die Schreibweise und der Kunststil haben erstaunlich gut Bestand, obwohl sie fast zwei Jahrzehnte alt sind.

Das Einzige, was meiner Meinung, bisher und laut Recherche wichtig ist, ist das du mit Trails in the Sky auch anfängst. Wenn du also hier mit Trails in the Sky beginnst, und es dir nichts ausmacht, viel zu lesen, bei einem Spiel, bei dem die Spielerbeteiligung nicht allzu groß ist oder das nicht von schnellem Gameplay lebt, sondern nach einer reichen, detaillierten Welt suchst, in der du eintauchen kannst, mit tiefgründigen Charakteren und einer wirklich fesselnden Handlung, dann könntest du kaum etwas Besseres tun, als 50-100 Stunden mit diesem Spiel zu verbringen.

Das war nun der erste Part meiner Review zum Spiel. Der folgende Part bezieht sich spezifischer auf meine Erfahrungen mit dem Spiel auf Japanisch. Wie ich es gespielt habe, was ich dazu sage und vieles mehr.

Review Part 2 - Japanisch

Die Tools

Wie schon in Part 1 erwähnt, habe ich Trails in the Sky auf Japanisch durchgespielt. Deshalb für alle das Japanisch lernen zuerst die wichtigsten Informationen. Trails ist perfekt für Immersion geeignet. Es lassen sich in Trails in the Sky FC und auch SC - in 3rd weiß ich selbst noch nicht genau - relativ einfach der japanische Text und auch VA hinzumodden. Die Mehrheit der kompletten Dialoge sind inklusive Vertonung, sodass man nicht nur Lesen üben kann, sondern auch Listening.

Um in dem Spiel nachzuschlagen, gibt es zwei verschiedene Wege, die man gehen kann. Die erste Variante ist es, per Texttractor sich eine passende Hook zu suchen und unnötige Texteinträge per Regex herauszufiltern. So kann wird jeder Text automatisch gehooked und in Yomichan bzw. eine Texthooker UI übertragen, in der man dann per Yomichan nachschlagen kann.

Die zweite Methode ist die Methode, welche ich genutzt habe, da ich ehrlicherweise es nicht geschafft habe die unnötige Texteinträge per Regex herauszufiltern. Ich hatte auf meinem zweiten Bildschirm die Website "https://trailsinthedatabase.com/" offen.

Auf der Website muss man dann einmal unter "Browse Script Files by Game" das richtige Game auswählen. Anschließend habe ich, wenn ich im Game etwas nicht verstanden habe, die Textbubble per ShareX gescannt und oben in die Suchleiste reinkopiert. Dadurch, dass ich nur einzelne spezielle Sätze kopierte, war das Suchergebnis in 99% der Fälle auch immer die passende aktuell stattfindende Unterhaltung. Mit der Database hat man dann, und einen sieht man auf dem Foto bereits, zwei weitere Vorteile. Falls es passieren sollte, dass man mal etwas nicht versteht, steht immer die offizielle englische Lokalisierung direkt neben den japanischen Sätzen. Wenn man jetzt auch noch auf den englischen Text draufklickt, wird die originale Japanische Voiceline abgespielt. So kann man sich, wenn man möchte, nicht nur den Dialog erneut anhören, sondern diesen ebenfalls per ShareX aufnehmen und auf eine Anki-Karte packen.

Genau aus dem Grund, dass die Database existiert, kann ich Trails im Allgemeinen für Japanisch lernende Personen nur wärmstens empfehlen. Dann, wenn all die Tools Ready sind, steht eigentlich nur noch eine Frage im Raum. Wie schwer ist Trails denn auf Japanisch?

Difficulty

Ja, wie schwer ist Trails eigentlich. Dazu kann ich keine zu 100% allgemein gültige Antwort geben, deshalb muss ich hier erneut erklären. Die kürzeste Antwort wird aber wahrscheinlich "schwankend" sein. Denn, die Schwierigkeit variiert nicht nur von Kapitel zu Kapitel stark, sondern auch von Charakter zu Charakter.

Charaktere wie Estelle oder Joshua sind in den meisten Fällen relativ straightforward, haben relativ wenige Quirks, welche die Sprache ändern. Die anderen Kumpanen im Spiel sind da aber schon anders und oft schwieriger zu verstehen. Für mich persönlich zwar einer meiner Lieblingscharaktere, jedoch oft auch die Person, bei der ich am meisten Probleme hatte, war Olivier.

Als selbstbetitelter wandernde Barde und begnadeter Musiker nutzt der gute Mann doch schon mal des Öfteren die ein oder andere archaische Ausdrucksweiße und Satzkonstellation. Hier aber erneut, durch die Hilfe von der Database versteht man selbst die seltsamsten Sätze und kann trotzdem drüber lachen. Trotzdem gibt es dann noch ein, zwei Sachen, welche man sich bewusst sein sollte:

Falcom verwendet Kanji, wo immer es möglich ist, auch in Kontexten, in denen andere Autoren Kana verwenden würden (wo immer man im Englischen Orbal sieht, heißt das 道力 im Japanischen), und Falcom liebt auch Expressions wie 切磋琢磨、ご無沙汰しております、etc. Darüber hinaus ist die Sprache durch das Setting und die Story natürlich beeinflusst. Dies bedeutet, dass oft formelle Ausdrücke, wissenschaftliche und militärische wie auch politische Wörter verwendet werden.

Deshalb ist es trotz der Database schon so, dass ich das Spiel zwar grundsätzlich empfehle, aber trotzdem ein gewisses Grundgerüst vorhanden sein sollte. Ich persönlich habe nach ungefähr 6 Monaten Japanisch lernen das erste Mal mit Trails angefangen und, wie auch bereits erwähnt, viel zu wenig verstanden. Nun als ich es das zweite Mal startete und jetzt beendet habe, hatte ich ca. 15 Bücher gelesen, über 1000 Episoden Anime geschaut und 56 Filme geschaut. Man kann, wenn man hartnäckig ist, noch früher damit anfangen, dann muss man aber denke ich auch damit klarkommen, dass man öfters auf die englische Lokalisierung zurückgreift.

It's rare for me to get into a series or a specific subset of a series and play through the games in order from the beginning. My only knowledge of the Trails/Kiseki series before picking up Trails in the Sky was of the character Nadia who had intrigued me towards the series and the novel 3 & 9 which a friend recommended to me and it sold me on getting into the series properly. So without any real knowledge of the series played like and without modern expectations from recent titles colouring my viewpoint, I began my journey into the Trails/Kiseki series with The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky.

Trails in the Sky begins by introducing us to its charming protagonist Estelle Bright as her father brings home an mysterious injured young boy called Joshua who has little recollection of what happened to him at this point. There's no time wasted in presenting what a fun character Estelle is as she quickly demonstrates how rash and excitable she is by making sure Joshua gets rest, and throwing in witty remarks. The game uses wonderfully cute chibi models similar in style to the Golden Sun series which I adore so much. Dialogue boxes have well drawn 2D character portraits that have an excellent range of emotions shown off to further emphasise how a character is feeling in that moment. The game is adorable and it uses the combination of character models and portraits to detail its scenes very well.
After a timeskip of a few years we're reacquainted with the Bright family, seeing how well Joshua has fitted in and how close the family are. From here the real story loop begins as Estelle and Joshua decide to follow in their father's, Cassius Bright, footsteps and become Bracers, people who take on requests to help those in need and help maintain peace in the nation of Liberl with help of the army when needed. The story is very much focused on Estelle and Joshua and their quest to become full fledged Bracers and a good chunk of it is very cosy and heartwarming as they overcome the hardships they face along the way. It's what many would consider a slow burn, it does take a while to start getting into the big plot points and revelations but I think it's all the better for that. The game takes its time, making sure you get to know Estelle and Joshua, the world they live in and giving you the time to get attached to them so that the stuff that happens by the end truly impacts you. You go around visiting every city in Liberl, taking on missions from each guild, getting to know the citizens with the additional party members being rotated out from place to place. It's great because it gives you so much time to fall in love with its cast while keeping focus on Estelle and Joshua. Party members like Olivier and Tita get to shine in the chapters they're used in and because you have to use every character, you grow attached to their fighting styles and their personalities instead of benching newcomers because you're already taken with your current setup. Your travels see you meeting many people who Cassius has had an impact on and it gives a real sense of just how powerful this man is and how much he has done despite Estelle being unaware and seeing him as just her goofy dad. The fact that for the main story beats Estelle and Joshua often require help from more senior people really helps sell that they're junior bracers in training and as powerful as they are, they still have a long way to go to start solving missions on their own like Agate or Cassius. And I love that side quests are tied to the guilds! Doing sidequests gives you Bracer points which increase your rank so while you do a few simple ones like defeating certain monsters, you want to do them because you want to see Estelle and Joshua climb up the Bracer ranking, it's really neat. Unfortunately sidequests are time limited due to the structure of the game and it can be easy to miss some which is a shame. Everything is very well set up though story wise and they do an excellent job pulling you in.

While on the surface the story takes its time to get going, the game does a good job at adding intrigue to the seemingly simple scenarios that play out. Yeah you're stopping petty bandits but there's many signs of bigger things at play to keep you intrigued. By the time you get to the end a lot of things are tied together but then there's so many revelations that leave you excited for the next instalment.
As mentioned throughout so far, Estelle and Joshua are the stars of the show. The two perfectly compliment each other, she's the sun to his moon, a true yin and yang pair. Estelle is this bright cheerful character, bringing light to everyone she meets but often acts before she thinks and is usually very open with her feelings. Joshua is a lot more reserved, holds a lot about himself back and is great a devising plans on the spot, knowing how to use his words to prevent escalation of situations. He often has to remind Estelle to hold back while Estelle knows she has to be patient with him and his innermost feelings. They compliment each other so well and know each other on a level that they are pretty quick to pick up on something when it feels off. There's so many lovely moments between the two of them that help build up affection towards the two as a pair and it makes it easy to relate to both of them and the things they go through. So yeah, on the story and characters front this game left a huge impression on me.

Gameplay wise this is mostly your typical RPG affair. Visiting towns, going through dungeons, and defeating monsters to level up your party is the bulk of the game. NPCs are all given names and their dialogue is constantly being updated to reflect ongoing story or quest events which is such a neat touch. Most areas have a full 360° rotating camera and maps are well detailed for navigation, with towns having colour coded buildings for stuff like shops and the guilds. For some reason there are no maps for the dungeons. It's not a big deal as they tend to be small enough to commit to memory through exploration but it can be easy to lose your way if you mess with the camera too much.
Battles are a pretty unique affair, blending traditional turn based RPG mechanics with strategy RPG mechanics. These take place in their own battle arenas and you have your characters laid out in a starting position with enemies usually on the opposing side of the map. You can move your characters in a grid like fashion and they all have their own ranges with physical weapons. Estelle uses a staff and has to be pretty close to an enemy to hit it while Tita uses a gun so she can attack from any range while also having an area of effect that damages nearby enemies. EP is used to cast spells from orbments that can hit from any range as well as better spells being able to hit an area of enemies instead of just one. These take time to pull off though with a turn to cast and a turn to fire and can be interrupted by certain attacks. Each character has a number of orbment slots that can be increased and by mixing and matching orbments of various elements you can gain access to more powerful spells. For example I had a mixture of water and wind orbments on Estelle giving her access to both powerful healing spells and heavy damaging wind spells. It's a cool system and one I enjoyed experimenting with once I got a better understanding of it.
Finally there's CP which is built up through attacking and being damaged by enemies. At 100 CP you can unleash a characters unique special move to do heavy damage and at 200 CP you can maximise that damage. Specials can be activated at any time, allowing you to fully strategise heavy damage outputs by jumping in just before an enemy gets its turn. CP is also used for craft attacks, special physical attacks that can interrupt an enemy casting or inflict various status elements. These usually use around 10~30CP and are great in a pinch. Overall it's a pretty fun and unique battle system that I really enjoyed. The game also features overworld encounters rather than random ones, allowing you to have a degree of control of whether you ambush enemies or they ambush you and enemies can be easily avoided if you don't want to fight. It's a very nice design choice that I wasn't expecting going in.
The Steam version of the game also includes a speedup option which is nice to have when there's no fast travelling and want to speed through easier encounters. Exp is also handled really well with dwindling results as you get closer to the recommended level for the area. Once you start getting 1 or 2 exp you know it's time to start avoiding enemies more which is really nice and stops you feeling like you have to grind while also maintaining a difficulty that isn't easy to breeze past

The soundtrack is a joy, featuring many catchy tunes from the standard battle music to my personal favourite for the city of Ziess that perfectly embodies PS1 era RPG music. Each town gets its own unique theme while there's little variance for overworld routes and such. The main theme, Hoshi no Arika (The Whereabouts of Light) is a beautiful theme that perfectly embodies the melancholy adventure this game is. It's a wonderful soundtrack to a wonderful game that gave me so many warm and cosy feelings throughout.

As my first experience of the Trails/Kiseki series, Trails in the Sky provided a wonderful and cosy experience with memorable characters that I've fallen in love with and can't wait to see how their story continues. Aside from a few minor issues, this game provides an excellent foundation both narrative and gameplay wise to build from and I'm excited to see where they take the series from this point as I continue playing the titles. Estelle and Joshua have left such a strong impression on me and I'm so happy that I've finally dipped my toes into the series after seeing so many people talk about it.

I LOVE THIS GAME SO MUCH. It has a very beautiful and touching story, totally an example of a good story writing! Even though this is an ancient game, but the gameplay is still good and enjoyable for me. Oh, I also really enjoyed every moment whenever I explored and wandered all the places.

If you want to jump into Trails series, you must start from Trails in the Sky first! So you will understand the plot when playing the other arcs later. Because all Trails series are connected to each other, unlike Persona series.

Also I love the soundtracks!

The Characters are so engaging, the worldbuilding is in depth the combat system is fun, the side quests have depth to them and a in universe reason to be there, everything is top notch but there is one complaint I have.

"Is it the step sibling incest"

"Its the step sibling incest"