The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC

supported on steamdeck

If I played this game when I was younger it would have fundamentally changed me for the better

A Masterpiece. A natural evolution of FC in terms of system, more balanced elements, expanded skills, more playable characters, ease to have standby characters catch up in levels. The straightforward system makes it a blast to explore the small region again, beating everything that moves with the big stick. Cute chibi sprites, memorable soundtrack, easy to follow story....SC did many things right. So....why is there a third one? On to the next one!

The second installment takes everything the first game setup and improves upon it. I really enjoyed the plot and characters. They’ve done a great job creating a large cast of characters while keeping them all interesting and fun. I can see why this game is regarded as among one of the best JRPG’s stories around.

TLDR: If you love the first chapter for its story and worldbuilding, get this game. If you love it for its combat, you might want to look for another series. [h2]Pros:[/h2] - Fantastic story - Dynamic dialogue - Generally positive balance changes [h2]Cons:[/h2] - Terrible new features - Significantly longer game than first chapter - Poor dungeon navigation [h1]Summary[/h1] The story picks up immediately after the first game, where [spoiler]Estelle starts searching for Joshua while investigating this brand new evil organisation called the 'Ouroboros'.[/spoiler] Story wise I think it is slightly weaker than the first chapter because [spoiler]politics now take the backseat while we are back to the generic 'destroy an evil organisation' storyline we see in every JRPG.[/spoiler] However, in place on that, you get wonderful character developments from most characters as you learn about their backstory and watch them grow as a person as the game progresses. Many of them are really touching and really gives off a warm feeling as they conclude. Overall they retain their strong point in storytelling and continues to capitalize on that. Because you have been introduced to an entire network of bracers in the first chapter, everyone is readily available to team up right from the start. What's most impressive about this is that the game is dynamic enough to hold unique dialogue for every combination of characters, although for maximum enjoyment I would recommend reading into the context and bring the most important characters along because you will be rewarded with huge lore drops if you do so. This is a very impressive design that I'm fairly certain you won't see it in modern games today and even in a SC remake if they were to ever announce it. The second chapter also brought about major balance changes to many existing skills. I generally agree with most of the balance changes for example [spoiler]nerfing Kloe's craft skill and giving more craft options for Agate so he doesn't just become a tomatrio sandwich cheese character.[/spoiler] In my opinion, I think they forgot to nerf [spoiler]earth guard because it made early game bosses too easy[/spoiler]. The only one that I disagree on is [spoiler]overnerfing confusion debuff to work as a 'fear' on enemies but still works as per normal if your own characters get hit by this. In addition to this unfair nerf, they also made 50% of monsters immune to status effects, rendering debuffs like chaos brand effectively useless.[/spoiler] In addition to balance changes, they also brought in new mechanics into the game. However, those mechanics are absolutely terrible and I never touched it again after using it once. They added [spoiler]fishing into the game, but the instructions were so badly explained that I was forced to google how to fish properly in order to finish a request in chapter 4.[/spoiler] They also added a [spoiler]chain attack which costs 30/40CP just for two characters to normal attack together? That is so expensive that I'd rather just save up for an S-craft skill.[/spoiler] I really hope future games will improve on those two mechanics. The first chapter took me about 70+ hours to finish (might be lower for you since I'm a slow reader) and ends after all 5 regions have been explored, so I went into this game with the same expectations and... I was proven wrong. [spoiler]Running through all 5 regions again was just the first half of the game, there is another half worth of painful exploration to do.[/spoiler] By the time I was done with this game at 120+ hours, I was tired and tilted from having to run all over the place. The first game sets the expectation of game length and you should not change it that much in subsequent games. I don't even mind splitting the game into two and buy them twice if it shortens the game length. What doesn't help in the exceedingly long game is that dungeon navigation is still as bad as before because they still don't have minimaps. I nearly rage quit in the tutorial section because I was constantly running around in circles getting lost. If there is no minimap, at least make the dungeon linear and easy to navigate, just like [spoiler] the outerworld dimensional tower climb in chapter 7.[/spoiler] In conclusion, the second chapter is a very ambitious project. Those who like the first game for its story will have a great time here, however if you only like it for their combat, the downgraded length and gameplay experience makes it difficult to recommend continuing. Even as a person who loved the story so far, the travelling and combat just made this game such a chore to play. If there is ever a light novel of the Trails series, I would just recommend buying the book and skip the game altogether.

what is there to say that hasnt already been said, this is truly one of if not the best JRPGS ive ever played.

Masterpiece

Phenomonal game. It is fun and the story is such an emotional rollercoster. You will love Estelle and although a slow burn it will be worth it.