I remember playing this game back in December 2015 when I lived with my brother and his girlfriend. Man, what the hell happened to those days? I liked this game too.

Would be amazing if all The Legend of Heroes games came to the PS4.. such an underrated series!

Trying to make a few changes in my recording and editing process, so if you notice anything strange or inconsistent in this video I apologize, it's a work in progress!

Great job! Your review is the best I found about Trails in the Sky. I'm not a native English speaker and I was really comfortable with your English pronouncing, saying each word without eating parts of them. Your review helped me to understand more the game after reading the manual in PDF provided by the ghostlight site. Thanks.

TITS is a GREAT acronym!

This is an excellent review. Very well put together, thank you. I am enjoying this saga a lot so far.

One other thing that for obvious reasons you could not mention yet, is that all the Trials games form one cohesive narrative. Not directly but in an overarching sense. Things that happen in TitS FC affect things that happen in Cold Steel and such. The fact that embarking in this series gives you 9+ long ass games all connected in the same continent and without timeskips, makes it potentially the greatest RPG series in my opinion. Also, makes me a little sad that you played Cold Steel before Sky. Olivier is my favorite character in gaming. Period. And I think watching his character chronologically makes it better. In Cold steel I giggled like an idiot every time he showed up.

Good and balanced review. Pretty nice. Some stuff to add. Estelle is widely considered to be (one of) the greatest protagonist of all times. You should play SC, Estelle grows as a character tremendously. About the combat system. Every move has its "time cost". In FC they all are similar, Move / item cost, let's say, 1 action time. Attack and crafts cost 1.5. Arts vary. So to get more turns, aside from using Action quartz, you need to use lower delay attacks. In SC there will be a lot of equipment and new arts for you to play with, you can buff and debuff SPD, and crafts have different time costs, which opens a lot of new possibilities. SC is difficult, yet if you know what you're doing (not an exploit, but a proper strategy) you can solo it (easiest with Estelle, cuz she has lowest delays on her crafts + can go physical, magic and full support all at once) and even on Hard difficulty and some boss fights are possible to solo on Nightmare. I have a vid of Estelle breaking the hardest boss in SC without using items (warning, a small spoiler) and beating him on harder difs with luck. The combat system in SC and above is great. Rather than a trilogy, I'd say its duology + extra. "The 3rd" is different. That's personal opinion. The biggest perk of the series for me are NPCs and their dialogues. They all have their stories, the stories are connected and keep unfolding during the game and even in the next games. To illustrate the point, if someone has an arrow in the knee (just for lulz :) ), you'll likely find someone who shot that arrow.

Haha, these games do take their time setting up everything but well worth it.

I just finished this game yesterday. THAT ENDING. those sly bastards. the lore building is so mind-boggling that after 9-10 games you can see the through-line among all the games. that level of dedication is something other companies only dream of.

You can play the whole game on PC with just the mouse and without ever touching the keyboard. I remember some time ago, one cozy winter day when I was lying in bed, mouse by my side, and played Trails in the Sky. It was quite like playing on Switch in handheld mode, but using only one hand as input.

You have a perfect voice for these review videos. It's smooth like a good cognac. This game looks fun, but my backlog is already so deep. = /

Thank you for sharing this video. It helped in my decision to buy the game.

I loved the Cold Steel games. Hopefully we will not only get CS3 but also CS1 & 2 (PS4) soon. Haven't played Trails in the Sky yet but soon it shale be done lol. I just have to find the time to finally commit to it considering the time investment involved and apparently SC is even longer. Rest assured, I will get to the Sky games eventually haha. Between Ys and the Trails games, Falcom has quickly become one of my favorite JRPG devs.

I have the psp version on my ps vita along with SC for when I finish the FC I'll continue with the series.

I went through all the Trails in the Sky EVO games since I can understand Japanese. I will say, I don't think there is a JRPG series out their with quite as detailed of a world as this one. Not only are there a shit ton of characters (I think 16 playable over the entire 3 games, but vastly more non-playable), but they all get so much development and backstory. Like the story telling in this game is on par with Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood. It's not as flashy or bizarre as Final Fantasy or the Tales of series, but it's waaay more detailed. I told my friend that playing through these games is like watching a puppet show act out an entire novel word for word. Unfortunately though, since there is so much to these games, and since the EVO versions are almost fully voiced (everything outside of random NPC banter), it would probably be way too much of an investment for any company to even want to try tackling a localization.

I've played Trails of Cold Steel 1 to 3 already and I'm currently playing Trails in the sky FC. I'm having fun with it. Especially seeing characters from liberl going to erebonia. Actually, what spurned me to play the Sky trilogy is because Estelle and Joshua are gonna show up in Trails of Cold Steel 4. So I gotta know them and love them before playing CS4. I also want to play the Crossbell arc with Lloyd and the rest of SSS.

Turbo for battle is a must but for walking around maybe not right?

I just played through all 3 games and I was blown away. They blow the first 2 cold steel games out of water. And they are difficult! SC and PS3 version of 3rd on Nightmare Mode is easily the hardest JRPG games I have ever played. Battling in any of the Cold Steel games was so incredibly boring because even when I handicapped myself on Nightmare Mode it was still pathetically easy. Also great review, can't wait for you to play SC.

I have a Sega Saturn USB Adapter I bought to play Freedom Planet on. Do you think it will work with this game trilogy on the GOG or Steam versions? I love the controller, & I would like to play the game in an old fashioned way.

If they grab you wait for a sale, and grab a bunch of them at once. I got Sky 3rd & CS1-4 for $70. Most of the series for the price of a new game. I originally got Sky1&2 on sale a few years ago but it took me forever to get to them.

This is the best game series😍

I had the pleasure to have played all the Trails in the Sky games BEFORE getting into Cold Steel and even then I wished I was able to play the Crossbell story arc because there were so many references by the time you get to CS3, the references and returning characters is Marvel Cinematic Universe level

"To avoid getting overwhelmed I'm gonna take a break after the end of FC before playing SC" You have no idea how much I hated you there, I played FC two years before SC's translation ever came out so I was left waiting for two years :D

Seems like an awesome game

Excellent Review Tark! I played the first The Legend of Heroes Cold Steel and fell in love with the franchise. I then immediately went out and played the second The Legend of Heroes Cold Steel 2. I am patiently waiting for Cold Steel 3 to come over to the U.S....I want a happy ending with Rean and Laura (my love interest) XD - Brandon Knight

I just started Cold Steel II, but maybe after I might have to consider playing one of the older ones.

ty

I just beta Trails of Cold Steel 1 this week. I prefer the action combat games like Lacrimosa of Dana. However, I loved the game. Interesting to see that the combat system originated in this series. Not sure I can grind out this many hours though. Putting this one on the back burner for awhile.

Can you give me configuration tools settings

Trails In The Sky SC still my favourite game of them all. I love the Erebonia arc a lot too, don't get me wrong, but the Liberl and Crossbell arcs have a unique feeling to them. Maybe it's because of the more goofy graphics that have a more chill side compared to the full 3D ones.

I'm gonna see if I can get this on my vita!

i always preferred this engine of falcoms games to the recent ones. i dunno something felt lost when it became full 3d and the ys 6 engine was more charming.

I really love this Game, it’s my first Trails series that I played, gotta love those stories, un expected twist from some characters and cliff hanger endings 😅

Very late to this video but I don't mind not being able to move then attack. It would have significantly made the game easier. I have to chose whether to move to line up a Penetrate move. Additionally moving gives you the shortest delay between your next turn so if your on a high speed character you can move and still attack before the enemys turn comes

Played on Vita, I am taking a some time off before continuing the story (need to catch up on my backlog like Breath of the wild and I still haven't played FF9)

Not really a spoilers, but you will be livid at the ending and can't wait to play the next episode.

Great review!

That reminds me I can't wait to get the collectors edition of bullet girl phantasia English sub of playasia, have u seen the interrogation mode in these games they are amazing, wish the vita version of trails in the sky were localized

My only issue with this game is that I'm having some trouble to be in it. I don't know if it's the way they do the world building, I don't know if it's the fact that Every, single, world, region has the same music beside the cities, I don't know if it's the way Leveling up in this game takes way too long. I played Cold Steel first and that game story telling and mood just makes me keep playing it even if it has a repetitive formula. But here, the only thing holding me is Estelle's sense of humor and some of the cast so far, Olivert is a gem, Professor Russel is just amazing to watch sometimes, but then some of the sidequests, the way you need to farm an enemy that won't die no matter what unless you abuse a specific art who can kill it because nothing can kill it, instead of just fighting the normal enemies because they take too long to kill and give way too little XP after some time. I think all of those problems are adressed on Cold Steel, hell as far as I could tell even on Crossbell arc these problems are fixed. I just hope the Second Chapter to be a better experience with the menus and mechanics, but I'm almost just doing the main story. Evne the missions on the Bracer Guild are not giving me some rewards besides money and after you learn how to farm a certai enemy, well... Money is not an issue. That being said, The story and world building is insane and I do think it's important for me to play it even with the flaws on the mechanics tho. I can see why people can love this game, but for today's standards, I really think it aged poorly.

Estelle: *sigh*... You're way too good at your job, you know that?

Lol love the plastic bag drop. American Beauty ?

Arts and crafts....lol I've never noticed them like that

Great review man i enjoy the game but like you said don't believe it's an absolute masterpiece Cold Steel is much, much better. That Tharja Figurine though .... nice.

I started it on my PSP, but then I stopped playing. Not because the game isn't fun. I just put my PSP down and haven't really picked it up since. I really was enjoying Trails. Since I'm not playing on my PSP anymore (for now), I figured I'd check the prices for each game in the trilogy for the PC. Wound up scoring the whole trilogy for just under $60. I was going to buy DOOM Eternal, but I think this was a much better deal, providing me with far more content for my money. That and the slow pace nature of it allows me to play without taking too much attention off my kids.

This should come to switch

Trails in the Sky trilogy NEEDS to come out on SWITCH!!

Should've played with the voice patch

is this switch?

I've tried to get into this series of games, first with "Song of the Ocean" on PSP and then "Trails in the Sky" on PC but just couldn't enjoy them. I like that they have a different battle system, but I just didn't enjoy it and don't know exactly why. Characters aren't bad but I wasn't interested in seeing what is going to happen next. Is Cold Steel pretty similar? the fact that there are like 3 or 4 games for story worriers me as I don't have that much time, on the other hand I really want to enjoy this franchise.

the music is FF7 all over

What chapter does it get good at? I'm on chapter 1.(tiny towns also break suspension of disbelief).

like for floating bag

Not sure if it's just me but that script size is way too small. Anyone know if there's an option to change it?

so Crossbell when? xD

I really hope tits comes for PS4 HD in physical media!

LMAO "TITS that's a bad acronym" I have this on my wishlist 19.99 on PSN for Vita no trophies which kinda sucks. But with how long it takes to play maybe that's not such a bad thing. Great review! Finally subbed

i like the first game, the second game just dragged on and on and just mentally drained me, haven't touched 3rd game

I'm a huge fan of this series and even I have to admit that Sky FC's pacing is pretty bad, even by Trails standards. Especially if you want to do all of the side quests. Chapter 2 is the worst, imo. The play and spending a week at the school feels like a genre shift to a slice-of-life anime. Plus, the pacing of the chapter handles the many issues in a linear manner, instead of the parallel progression seen in the Cold Steel games. As for the side quests breaking the pace, Chapter 3 is the worst offender. You basically have to do all of the side quests immediately, instead of progressing the plot. And these quests are obnoxious too. The shoes side quest. You have to walk all four different routes in the chapter. They don't interconnect. Without turbo mode, this could take up to half an hour, depending on how many random encounters you run into. Cold Steel's shoes quest is virtually the same but not nearly as uninteresting--you can complete that side quest as you advance the plot. Speaking of encounters, man FC is really easy. Even on Nightmare, which the game was not balanced for, random battles and a lot of bosses are pretty easy. Even on Nightmare, there is no reason to bother with random battles while you're doing sidequests. Which is weird because sidequests in RPGs usually give the player more time for battles so they stay on the level curve.

The Vita version is best version.

For all intents and purposes, this series should be up my alley, but it just kind of isn't for whatever reason. I've played one of the PSP "Legend of Heroes" games, "Prophecy of the Moonlight Witch", and thought it was just mediocre. I've watched LPs of some of the other entries and they just come off as being similarly disinteresting. Even with the new entries coming out, I just have no interest in them whatsoever. Heck, Falcom as a whole is kind of like this for me despite how much praise they get. The most out of them I've enjoyed was their "Ys" series, played "Ark of Napishtim" and "Memories of Celceta", and while I did enjoy what I played, it didn't really leave much of an impression to urge me to continue with it. Probably doesn't help that I've now developed a pretty hefty disdain for the community surrounding the series which just slaps negative connotations onto it and causes me to be even more dismissive.

I liked the first 2 CS's a lot but after playing the sky trilogy I realized just how poorly done CS was compared to the masterpiece that is Sky. Oddly enough CS was the game where I couldn't put the controller down, the story kept me interested despite the lack of good character development... Sky was the opposite, good character development but the story didn't really interest me much so I had a lot of long breaks in between. In the end Sky paid off but CS3 got better and I have high hopes that CS4 will make playing the stale characters with all the fillers worthwhile. On the topic of not everyones cup of tea tho, theres just some bits people can like in an arc than the other, Sky had its sorta incest????? while CS had its totally not xenogears phase. If you don't like the idea of non blood related brother and sister relationship than maybe sky will be a bit suffering but likewise for CS if you don't like mechs or a typical shounen protag. If you hate dialogue heavy story then you ganna have a bad time. #Crossbellexists

summarizing the story is not what you call a "review".. you need to talk about the battle mechanics and the gameplay.. not the story..

This game looks really boring to me.

My only criticism of this game is it's demographic is 6-14 year olds; the dialogue is very childish. It would have helped First Chapter so much if it had more than 1 event with dialogue choices.