Tails by the Foxfire

Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter Foxfire Review Score: 4.0

• Price Point: 5/5
• Fun Factor: 4/5
• Gameplay: 5/5
• Story, Characters & Worldbuilding: 4/5
• Maps & Environment: 3.5/5
• Music: 3/5
• Recommended: Yes!

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How Many Hours is Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter?

I finished Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter in around 80 hours, putting it in the ballpark of $1 per hour invested. In terms of days, I managed it in about two months accounting for the holidays and fitting in gaming time around my full-time job. This was with all but one or two sidequests completed, so your mileage may vary depending on how completionist your gaming habits trend. Setting aside my feelings about the new normal re: standard full game prices, I can confidently say I never once thought or regretted paying full price for Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter. It delivered exactly what it promised: a fun JRPG adventure I’d be happy to revisit on a New Game + file.

Is Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter a Good Remake?

I can’t speak to how loyal Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is to its source material, but I can say it’s a fun experience with an engaging story and tight gameplay. The subtitle ‘1st Chapter’ might have you wondering: ‘is Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter the full game?’ or ‘Can I start with Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter?’ and the answer is ‘Yes’ and ‘Yes’; I can confirm it’s a self-contained narrative with new hooks laid for sequels without leaving you feeling deprived of story or resolution by the time you reach the end.

Is Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter Fun?

Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter’s fun factor is on point. The game is mostly easy with noticeable difficulty curves depending on your party build. Party customization is unfortunately non-existent until the final dungeon, but you get to fight with varied party loadouts throughout the game as you meet new characters, helping you equally sample their fighting styles before you choose your party for the final showdown. Orbment customization feels satisfying with mixing and matching determining which skills, stats, and advantages you have in combat. Maps feel big but not overwhelming, with a good amount of ground to explore and generous loot.

Though tutorials are front-loaded and might feel like a bit much at first, but combat feels fresh, fast, and relatively intuitive once you spend some time with the dynamic battle system. Aside from boss fights (which are locked to turn-based format), players can choose between real-time action and turn-based combat on the overworld. As you earn orbments (items housing bonus stats and skills), level up, and meet new friends, you’ll feel Estelle and Joshua gain combat experience in a way that feels realistic but also just feels good, rewarding players with fixed overall skills like new special abilities and prompts like Chain and Burst, and a seemingly endless supply of potential builds as you earn and combine orbments in different ways.

Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is a Comforting Addition to Every New & Die-Hard JRPG Fan’s Collection

Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is a classic RPG story with lovable, well-designed characters that I really enjoyed getting to know, and it didn’t leave me feeling alienated or out-of-the-loop with in-jokes or obscure references like some intimidatingly long-running IPs and remakes. As the story goes on, you know Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is probably going to hurt your heart due its feel-good colour palette and peppy, hopeful characters, but it’s a really fun ride with all the ingredients of a good comfort game. You’ll cry smiling. You’ll also probably predict a few of the twists if you’re familiar with stories like this, so it’s kind of like your favourite sweater in video game form: it’s not doing anything revolutionary, but it doesn’t need to. Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is the perfect choice for newcomers to the genre or seasoned RPG enthusiasts, albeit one that could have benefitted from some more variation across environments and musical scores.

Is Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter a Good Entry Point?

As well as being a natural entry-point for the long-running Legend of Heroes series, Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is a great place to start with JRPGs as a whole. Once you get the hang of combat, it feels intuitive and customizable with enough challenges thrown in to keep things interesting. Towns feels distinctive and you get attached to each location throughout the main story and sidequests in each area. Character interactions are fun as well, though Estelle can be frustratingly stupid at times. It’s established as her character that she’s more of a doer than a thinker, but it can also feel a bit like the game dims her shine to glaze Joshua at times. Don’t get me wrong, Joshua’s cool (though Zin and Scherazard are probably my runaway favourites overall), but Estelle deserves her flowers and I hope she gets more opportunity to shine in Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter.

Speaking of which, we’ve officially had an announcement from GungHo: Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter drops September 2026 and I couldn’t be more excited; 2026 is an absolutely stacked year for gaming, and Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter is a standout alongside other highly-anticipated titles like Wolverine in the tail end of the year.