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One of the biggest hurdles of the Trails series was how to introduce its world to new players when almost every game is interconnected through multiple follow-up entries. After all, the original The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky subseries was only on PC and older handhelds like the PSP. Fortunately, developer Falcom remedied that with the excellent Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter remake last year – finally, an approachable way to start where the trail began with a slick 3D makeover and updated gameplay. Swiftly following up with a remake of Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter, this RPG retains all of the best qualities of the original version, such as its story, side quests, and characters, while simultaneously giving it that visual and gameplay overhaul to fit modern standards.
Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter picks up right where its predecessor ends with our bubbly and confident heroine, Estelle Bright. Now that her adoptive brother and best friend Joshua Bright suddenly recalled his true origins and has disappeared, Estelle is dead set on finding him and bringing him home. It also digs deeper and fleshes out the cultish revelations that were unearthed towards the end of 1st Chapter. As a result, it gives 2nd Chapter heavier stakes from onset, but also with the emotionally resonant edge that keeps you invested.
The characters are equally zany too, and they’re brimming with personality. Estelle’s, ahem, bright, demeanor contrasts nicely with Joshua’s now brooding mood. The two theater nerds in Olivier and the villainous Blueblanc face off in a duel of overindulgent poetry to see who can out-cringe each other. It’s all entertaining to watch and the experience is bolstered thanks to the addition of full voice acting (whereas the original Trails in the Sky games only had voice acting for the combat). In these Sky remakes, the script and story are brought to life even more so with those original voice actors of Estelle and Joshua reprising their roles. It feels like a full-circle moment, especially for fans who’ve stuck with Trails since the beginning.
2nd Chapter is virtually a faithful 1:1 recreation of the original in terms of story structure and side quests, so you’ll be running around Liberl Kingdom going through the same cities and locations as you did in 1st Chapter. While that might seem like a rehash, the order in which you visit them in this sequel is rearranged. Along with a completely different slate of side quests to tackle from the previous adventure, it makes this journey feel much less like a retread and more like revisiting an old home.
There aren’t any multiple divergent storylines that cross together with later entries like Trails Beyond the Horizon and Trails Into Reverie, which also came with a roguelite dungeon where all the characters could interact outside of the story. It works in 2nd Chapter’s favor as it isn’t unnecessarily bogged down with extra story content simply for the sake of having something new. It’s a streamlined adventure that’s easy to follow without superfluous bloat that some later Trails entries would suffer from.
It isn’t bogged down with superfluous bloat simply to have something new.
That being said, the pacing in the last chapter before heading into the finale is a bit stunted since you're required to backtrack through previous locations one final time due to story reasons. The issue is that almost all of your fast travel points that you unlocked before disappear, and you’ll have to activate them again, which makes this particular bump in the road a slog.
Leaning into a stylized anime-inspired art direction with these remakes brings bolder colors and a new vision for familiar worlds, however. The transition between combat phases are smoother, and the use of more camera angles and sharp cuts give attacks and crafts more cinematic flair. You can see close ups of every character’s fierce facial expressions as they shout out and execute their attacks in ways that you never could with the top-down sprites of the original. The new character models and animations give the story some extra life, whether it’s the party enjoying themselves while exploring the world or fighting for their lives against an all-powerful foe.
The character animations look a lot less awkward in both gameplay and cutscenes, and in critical junctures, they do a lot to add weight for its more serious, pivotal moments. Along with that, the political machinations and turmoil that dictate its world, and the origins of what you see further in the series, feel more fully realized. And the story here in Sky 2nd Chapter strikes a wonderful momentum for concluding Estelle's and Joshua’s character arcs cleanly and concisely without prolonging them – it’s something that other protagonists suffered a bit from in later Trails sagas.
Adjusting the Framework
This remake benefits from 13 games and over 20 years of iterations, taking the framework of existing gameplay systems from Trails games that came before. While the original version was purely turn-based, 2nd Chapter quite heavily borrows the real-time and turn-based hybrid system that the Trails into Daybreak entries started. You can attack enemies in-real time in the field (Quick Battles) to whittle them down and stun them to gain an advantage, then immediately transition to the main turn-based combat (Command Battles). Some Trails purists may not like the change to hybrid combat, but it’s the biggest change that makes it stand out from the original.
A significant difference in the Sky remakes is the addition of Brave Points (BP), which were introduced in the Cold Steel saga – you accumulate them by landing critical hits, stunning enemies, or hitting stunned enemies. Depending on how many BP you spend, you can initiate Brave Attacks which include follow-up hits from an ally, coordinated chain strikes, or an all-out group burst like that in Persona for additional damage. It makes 2nd Chapter’s combat much more engaging and explosive than the original’s.
2nd Chapter also cleverly merges and evolves the hybrid and BP mechanics together. In the Daybreak games, Van and his crew would just throw shards to deal extra damage if a Command battle started with an advantage. However, when you enter them with an advantage in Sky 2nd Chapter, you can launch a preemptive Brave Attack, letting you start off the fight with a powerful Brave Chain or Burst move. It’s impressive that 2nd Chapter doesn’t merely just copy and paste combat mechanics from previous Trails entries, but further refines them into something more satisfying.
BP can also be consumed during Quick battles in the form of a Brave Rush, which are powerful hits that deal exceedingly more stun damage, allowing you to enter into an advantage state faster. It’s helpful on larger enemies who are more resilient to stun, but there’s a strategic trade off. Since Brave Rush uses BP, you’ll enter the Command phase with fewer BP, meaning you might not have enough to initiate a preemptive Brave Attack. Give-and-take compromises like these ensure that the battle system remains relatively balanced and challenging.
Brave Rushes weren’t in Daybreak’s hybrid battles, and so the Sky remakes have a dedicated button for it. While it’s a welcome addition to the combat, it’s actually also the tipping point that makes the control scheme for Quick battles a bit unwieldy. In particular, all modern Trails games have a high-speed mode, which as its name suggests, accelerates overall game speed at any time. In previous games, this was a simple one-button toggle on the controller, but in these remakes, you have to press the left and right bumpers at the same time to toggle it. As a longtime Trails player, I’ve been conditioned to the one-button toggle for high-speed mode so it's a bit of an annoying change, but it’s a very miniscule problem in the grand scheme of things.
Sky 2nd Chapter further refines combat mechanics into something more satisfying.
The Sacred Timeline
As with all other Trails games, the timeline mechanic makes its welcome return once again, clearly showing the turn order of allies and enemies. Randomized turn bonuses continue to add variability, augmenting the abilities of whomever’s turn icon is lined up with it, whether friend or foe. These can range from automatic HP recovery, guaranteed critical hits, to eliminating both casting time and cost (called Zero Arts). Sure, beating enemies is gratifying, but much of that feeling comes from manipulating the timeline order through different spells and special attacks (called Crafts) while making the most of their innate effects.
Is there a critical hit icon next to a monster casting a spell? Agate’s Draguna Blast can inflict Impede to interrupt spellcasting. The enemy will still be able to land a critical hit with whatever their next non-casting attack will be, but at least they won’t be able to fire off that devastating spell. You’ve postponed the inevitable, giving you a moment of reprieve in this volatile yet orderly battle system. But what if you don’t want to leave it to chance, you can use Zin’s True Heralding Fist to inflict Delay, which pushes down bonuses farther down the timeline so that it’ll land on someone else, preferably one of your allies. It’s instances like these where you have to balance dishing out as much damage as possible with managing the combat timeline for bonuses that could change the tide of battle.
Despite Daybreak 2 making it easier to steal bonuses compared to its predecessor, the Sky remakes simplify it further. For example, certain offensive Crafts like Estelle’s Comet have a “Steal Bonus” effect, which lets her do just that. While not every character has a regular Craft with that effect, all offensive S-Crafts (ultimate attacks) do, giving every character the ability to steal bonuses in some capacity. It’s a really useful change because it synergizes well with the fact that you can now stack multiple bonuses onto one character. You can have HP recovery, critical hit, and Zero Arts icons activate all in one turn if you play your cards right. Playing around with delay and stealing effects adds a fun twist, with trade-off being your house of cards potentially collapsing because enemies can also steal bonuses and undo all your hard work. Don’t get too greedy!
2nd Chapter uses Daybreak’s free roam during Command battles, so your team is able to move as much as they want around the battlefield without using up a turn. It’s crucial to position your characters properly because now everyone’s Crafts have been updated with new effects, including the aforementioned Steal Bonus effect. For example, Kloe’s Kämpfer in the original game only lowered enemies’ strength and defense stats, but in this remake, it now also does extra damage when striking an enemy from the side as opposed to the front or back. It’s small changes like these that help 2nd Chapter feel modern and up to date with recent Trails entries.
The Orbment system continues to be a great way to customize magic spells and perks for each character. These remakes surprisingly mirror the original’s system as it doesn’t have Cold Steel's broken buildcrafting or Daybreak’s multitude of passive Shard abilities. Here, where you place your elemental gems (called Quartz) determines which spells a certain character can use. Whereas in Daybreak everyone had the same four different lines in their Orbments to slot Quartz in, 2nd Chapter’s set up is more rigid
Magically-oriented characters can have their Quartz setup to unlock higher tier spells, as opposed to those who are physical-focused. This stricter system reflects a much more old-school RPG approach as if to have specialized character classes. It’s more straightforward to understand, and initially feels a little underdeveloped coming from the openness and flexibility of Orbment systems in other Trails entries. But in a field of revisions, it’s admirable to at least see one aspect of gameplay in these Sky remakes that staunchly sticks to its roots.
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