Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Story
3. Gameplay
   1. The quartz system and Orbments
   2. The battle system
4. Graphics
5. Cast of Characters
   1. Estelle Bright
   2. Joshua Bright
   3. Scherazard Harvey
   4. Cassius Bright
   5. Kloe Rinz
   6. Olivier Lenheim
   7. Tita Russell
   8. The Capua Family
   9. Alan Richard
6. Difficulty
7. Music
   1. Disclaimer
8. Replayability
9. Final Thoughts

Introduction

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky is one of those jrpgs you simply cannot pass on. Developed by Nihon FALCOM and released in 2004, the company has now become, a wholesome brand, not that it hasn’t for the last few decades; but once we experienced it, we instantly fell for the game, its characters, music, game mechanics and story.

Important to Point out that this is the Sixth installment in the series, but a completely fresh and new story line from the ground up. FALCOM restarted the legend of Heroes with Trails in the Sky. Let´s dive in and see what awaits us in this fascinating world…

Story

The game follows the story of Young Estelle Bright, the daughter to Cassius Bright, an S Rank Bracer of the Bracer Guild. One Night, Cassius Brings home a stray young boy named Joshua to a rather young Estelle. Here is where everything begins…

 Years later, Estelle and Joshua now in their teens, decide to follow in on Cassius´ Steps in becoming bracers, so they visit the nearing town of Rolent to enlist in its Bracer Guild branch. Everything is downhill from here on, as Estelle and Joshua visit every town in Liberl (Country) going through every bracer guild accepting missions, helping people out as they go and meeting wonderful friends along the way. Their objective is to become Full-fledged bracers.

As you progress through the game you learn of an internal conspiracy happening inside the country of Liberl known as the Coup. We won´t spoil anything, so the first games´ story revolves around internal conflicts of the country of Liberl. Estelle and Joshua, our main protagonists, put an end to this conspiracy and thus ends the first Chapter of the game… or is it now? there is one final scene between Estelle and Joshua leaving us with SUCH A CLIFFHANGER that WE IMMEDIATELY started the second Chapter, or the second Game in this trilogy. Because, each game continues off where the last one ended. Yes friends, for those of you who know, then you know, let us know if it was THAT intense that you didn´t mind starting another 80 plus hour adventure right after, and for those of you who have not played the game, well, we assure you, it´ll very well be worth your time. Most definitely. And that´s it for the story!

Gameplay

The quartz system and Orbments

The learning curve for this game is rather simple, compared to modern MMORGS; we´ll admit though, that understanding the Quartz System and the Quartz Lines in order to use magic took us a while to understand! reckon almost at the end of the game! yup! Final Fantasy VII has the Materia System, Final Fantasy X has the Sphere Grid System, Legend of Heroes Trails in The Sky has the Quartz System. Same Concept, totally different approach. This one here will have you scratching your head a good hot minute, but once you have that AHA! moment, everything falls into place, don´t worry.

Our heroes use these sorts of portable watches called Orbments that amplify their magical affinity with elements and lets them cast magic spells, into these Orbments they put on the quartz shards to make up the lines to use magic. Sepith is dropped by enemies as spoils so there’s never any shortage on it. Then you can Synthetize Sepith into Quartz shards at any town, the more you advance in the story the more valuable shards you get to create, of course from stronger enemies.

See the slots? that’s where the Quartz shard go in. do you also see the Lines connecting the slots? yep, that’s what will allow us to access better and stronger spells. This is called a Line.

Now let’s look at quartz, Quartz are defined by their element, you know the typical Fire (Red quartz) water (Blue Quartz) Earth (Yellow Quartz), Wind (Green Quartz), Time (Black Quartz) Mirage (Silver Quartz) and Space (Gold Quartz).

each family of elemental quartz has their top-level spells. and how to unlock them is what well consider next.

 There is a Guide of the game in PSP version, where you get a table of all spells available and the combination of quartz and their levels needed to unlock. Some sophisticated spells require many quartz and even that of different elements combined.

Lets unlock the Best Fire spell called Volcanic Rave, it requires 8 Levels of Fire, 4 Earth and 2 Space in a single line for it to unlock, according to the table in the guide. Let us explain what the numbers are.

so look at this Earth quartz for example, Notice the number right next to Elemental Value? that’s how potent this particular shard is. the higher the number the better, since a lower numbered one will still take up one of your Orbment slots.

the KEY thing here is, you want to create a single uninterrupted line of quartz shards being placed in your orbment slots so that the value of shards used (numbers) Add up to the desired value required to unlock the spell. What we mean is, the red shard Spell Volcanic Rage, if the line ends, you cannot continue to STACK any more shard to keep increasing the count. it’s all about math.

Some Quartz have multiple elemental values within, thus allowing you to create multiple spells in a single thread or line, this is most helpful.

The battle system

 Quartz system outta the way, the battle system is your tipical turn based on a Isometric angle from above. You can have up to 4 characters at once in battle but of course you have backups, eventually. You have your healing items like potions, Ethers and revival items, the typical as usual, each game harboring unique names for their respective healing items. This jrpg stuff is tough XD. Not to mention the spells, hard to keep track on all te different kinds and their effects, I mean what the hell is a PULINPA anyways? Hey, I’m looking at you Shin Megami Tensei.

It is Turn based, and as always once the battle is over, if victorious, you will get your spoils of experience and money. Characters level up in the old fashion way and have each their stats you can check out in the character status screen.

You can equip and unequip weapons, armor, accessories that will help you along your journey and getting stronger. Usually you can pick these up from your local towns and as you advance more in the story, naturally you’ll be getting access to more and better equipment.

One thing we’d like to mention about weapons that we did not do is the fact that there are ultimate weapons for every single character or at least every single commendable party member / character that you can use, however it comes at a high price. You have to start a brand new playthrough simply because you get only two unique items in a single playthrough (we don’t remember the name of the items) towards the end of the game and are needed to be able to craft your ultimate weapons.

In our first and only playthrough, but of course we decided to give Estelle her unique Ultimate Weapon. We don’t know if there are people out there that will unlock every single Ultimate Weapon there is to unlock, but it’s definitely not, and I mean not necessary to be able to complete or see the ending of the game.

Graphics

The graphics for legend of Heroes trails in the sky first chapter is everything you’ve ever wanted from a classic old school jrpg. the game was released in 2004  and thus I can say that it borrows from older games like Chrono Trigger.

It’s not flat out cartoony looking Graphics but it’s not realistic either, it falls somewhere in the middle.

When it comes to graphics itself, seems to be running on an engine created solely by its developer Nihon falcom, same engine that ran most Y’s games  such as Ark of Napisthim,  the oath in Felgana  and origin.

They look very similar but according to Nihon Falcom it’s a completely different engine.

Guess an image speaks louder than a thousand words, here goes!:

Cast of Characters

As we always like to mention, we have a dedicated category on characters so here is a superficial review on some of them.

Estelle Bright

The Main protagonist of the game. is very energetic and tends to spring right into action without giving things some thought. Uses a Bo staff as a weapon. She has ranged and all attack abilities in battle, super useful. She’s a Junior Bracer alongside Joshua Bright.

Joshua Bright

Joshua is a young man that is taken in by the bright family. He is an adopted child and is Not Estelle’s Brother. Unlike Estelle, he is very calm and collected, and is usually preventing Estelle in getting into trouble. uses a pair of Thief knives. Has a lot quick act abilities, super useful in battle. He’s a Junior Bracer.

Scherazard Harvey

Schera for short, she, uh, likes to drink… a lot. likes to read cards and her attire is that of indian culture if not mistaken. has beautiful long silver hair and light brown skin. She Uses a Whip as a means to attack. Is the mentor to Estelle and Joshua as she is an A rank Bracer when you meet her. She also joins your party.

Cassius Bright

The legendary Divine Blade. The S Rank bracer, the man with the moustache. the Unbeatable, the man who, single handedly resolved a nationwide conflict in a neighboring country. He is not just stupidly strong, he’s an expert military strategist second to none. This is why he serves in the armed forces of the military of the kingdom of Liberl. He is Estelle’s dad. He switched from a sword to a Bo Staff.

Kloe Rinz

Kloe has short purple hair, and purple eyes. is very collected and well mannered. befriends Estelle and Joshua along the way in their quest to become Mature Bracers. Wears a very elegant dress. She focuses on Healing and revival Magic, and prefers a Rapier as a means to do battle… Put her in the back row so she won’t sustain much damage. She’s pretty much the white mage of the group, Although, remember that anyone can learn any ability as long as they have the enough quartz slots and quartz levels. Still, she’s very good to have around in your party. She also wishes to become an independent young lady, to help her country of Liberl.

Olivier Lenheim

Olivier is an extremely chill dude, Always smiling and a certified clown hahahaha that most of the time ends up making bad jokes in the presence of Estelle and company, resulting in his face meeting the deadlier end of Estelle’s Bo Staff. He’s a real lady’s man, as soon as he lays eyes on Estelle; tries to hit on her, and any other female after that for that matter. Charming nonetheless, Olivier’s character plays a key role in this revamped series of the Legend of Heroes in a much grander scale. He uses a Gun as a Main Weapon of attack, and has many area attacks, which is super helpful. He likes to play the Ukelele? and the piano from what we can remember when reaching the last town in this game. He’s handsome with Violet eyes, blonde long hair to the shoulders, and uses a very elegant Coat. Oh and don’t forget the red rose. Befriends Estelle and Joshua in the town of Bose.

Tita Russell

The adorably cute mechanic from Zeiss. has blonde hair blue eyes and is extremely smart for her age, still a child, she’s about 12. Does battle with a Cannon, yes a cannon, but it’s not that powerful. She grows fond of Estelle and is like a little sister to her. Tita also meets a scary young man named Agate Crosner; Another Bracer. Both will have an interesting approach later on.

The Capua Family

This trio of clowns will have you laughing all through the entire series, known as the sky bandits, and are, well, pirates pretty much. Josette especially has a bone to pick with Estelle, they simply cannot be in the same room when they start to fight over a certain someone that we won’t tell Bahahaha… you can put 2 and 2 together we imagine. But yeah, they’re a lot of fun but also they’re charming and well though out characters. From the three Josette stands out the most followed by a quiet Kyle and then the mature Don Capua.

Alan Richard

Alan Richard is of the Intelligence Division of the military of the kingdom of liberl. It was this man’s greed for power that led him and his subordinates in establishing the coup d’etat, creating turmoil inside the country of liberl.  Alan is a tall man with blonde hair combed backwards and blue eyes, always has a smirk in his face and uses a sword as a means of attack.

At one point of the game is mentioned that being of the Intelligence Division they are blessed in collecting information that no other faction can readily have at their disposal. Hence why is explained why this group wanted power more than what they already commanded, they started tapping into the folklore of the region and it’s mystical Magics and beings. 

Difficulty

As always, we like to play our games on the normal difficulty setting. This ensures that we will be playing the game just how developers envisioned the players to play their game. Some games have an easy mode, some others from the get-go have a hard mode, but we believe that if you start a brand-new game, you never played before on hard, you are already hindering your experience in possibly liking the game because you had a miserable early on death. 

This is why as a tradition, we like to start our games, especially our jrpg games, in normal difficulty setting, here’s why. As you all may know by now, jrpgs are popular for having bosses, boss battles. If you are unprepared for battle, you will bite the dust. If you are well prepared, then you will have a fair shot at that boss at that particular moment in the story. We aren’t saying anything new at all, this is simply how the jrpg formula works.

So a word of advice, fellow readers, if you are thinking of venturing in to the wonderful world of role-playing games, we just want to say, don’t run from your battles, keep your party, your characters well equipped at all times, their weapons, their armor, their accessories, so that they can be top-notch and ready for battle. Don’t neglect your random battles, earn experience points, earn currency, to purchase better and more gear as you go along your journey. Reason we say this is, because if you don’t, you’ll end up disliking the genre, and are prone to say: this game sucks. Which isn’t true, you may not understand the whole mechanics of the battle system and all, especially the orbment system in particular, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to take away at its story, it’s plot.

So remember, we recommend, you start your new game, in the normal difficulty setting. This way, enemies, bosses, will have the right balanced difficulty for veterans and newcomers alike to the genre.

That being said, Legend of Heroes trails in the sky FC, is not a difficult game at all. We had our instances where, we did game over, we are not going to hide the fact that, even though we consider ourselves veteran jrpg players; that some bosses out there, are simply Built like a tank. It’ll require all your wisdom, knowledge and sheer determination to push through these trying battles. Once you are victorious, however, the satisfaction that Victory brings is unparalleled. This Is Why We Love jrpg’s so much, because it challenges you at intervals if you are really catching on with the game. If you complete the game, then congratulations, you understand jrpgs, and their intricate mechanics and systems.

One more thing, there are jrpgs out there that are Relentless towards its players; we don’t know if this is a Japanese role-playing game but one game and one game alone comes to mind of recent memory; Elden Ring.  This game alone deserves its own review apart, but we’ll say this, don’t start  your jrpg journey with Elden Ring nor any other game that is of the same caliber in difficulty, please we beg you.

Games like the disgaea Series, The Final Fantasy series, the tales of series, these are friendly Japanese role-playing games that you can approach with trust that it won’t kick you in the face 20 minutes into the game. All right enough, we made our point, let’s move on.

Music

This part of the review is what we enjoy the most, in all our reviews we have said and will continue to say that the music score plays a key role in the overall experience when you play a video game not just a jrpg but any video game out there. If a game lacks in the music department, no matter how good the gameplay is or its story, it’s going to feel stale. 

That said, the legend of Heroes trails in the sky FC, delivers one of the best soundtracks we have ever had the pleasure of hearing in a jrpg. And now a selection of the best pieces of music this game has to offer, we hope you enjoy them as much as we did.

Disclaimer

(We Upload Falcom music under their “free music use” policy: https://www.falcom.co.jp/music-use), as well as the friend of the youtube channel below, we just want to share the joy of Falcom Music to the world, which is the companies goal to get this music to be world wide.

Replayability

If you’re like us, that likes to see everything the game has to offer, then you’re in for a good 120 hours of enjoyment. keep in mind, we tend to be slow readers and like to take our time when playing, so if your style of play is slightly different, or, are a much faster reader, then you can pretty much do everything in say… 100 hours.

Now does it have new Game Plus content? from what we could tell, No. A very strong reason is the events that unfold at the very end of the game…

This is the perfect moment to remind everyone that the only replayable Factor this game has is, as we mentioned earlier, it’s ultimate weapons for every character, your gameplay data transfers over to a New Game Plus.  But you have to be insane to want to play a 60-hour game multiple times, and we mean multiple, because there are at least eight characters and up in this game alone, so you have to start the game eight different times in order for you to obtain everybody’s Ultimate Weapon. We decided to continue on after such a cliffhanger of a finale…

Final Thoughts

So you made it this far, so you’re probably wondering if you should play this game if you should give it a try if you should try something fresh and something new. Whatever your answer is, we want to encourage you to explore the unexplored. There was a time when we were much younger, we thought  that there were no other good jrpgs out there aside from the Final Fantasy series. As we got older and more experienced, and by recommendation of very close friend, we decided; or rather convinced, to try another jrpg outside of a Final Fantasy. Isn’t that crazy! We had an open-minded approach to a game that wasn’t going to be a Final Fantasy. And we went in there thinking: this should be a good experience. Some hours later, we were praising and thanking our close friend for having recommended such a wonderful idea, the game we played, was Persona 4 Golden.

It was then, at that moment, that we came to realize, that there was a much wider broader world in jrpgs then simply Final Fantasy. From that moment onwards, we made a vow, that we shall not let jrpg gems that are underrated and overlooked to die in obscurity. We simply love and adore the genre like you have no idea. The discovery of the legend of Heroes trails in the sky FC was a result of that mindset, and we were so glad we decided to start this series, because now we are absolute fans and love this series to no end. 

The legend of Heroes trails in the sky FC it’s a game that deserves your time, your dedication, Your Love. Everything about this game, the story, the characters, the dialogues, the music oh boy the music! Makes it a must play and a must-have in any jrpg collection Shelf. 

If you want to check out the game we are going to be leaving a link to the Falcom official JP site so you can learn more about the game and possibly picking it up and trying it out. Of course, you will be welcomed by a slew of much newer games, but don’t let that distract you! Link Here. And if you are a Falcom/Legend of Heroes fan and simply made it through to the end of this review, then we thank you for reading through our review,  it means a lot to us.