The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky - Sony PSP

I'm a half picky/open person when it comes to certain genres. RPGs are no exception. I mostly look for something that is equal in gameplay, story and fun. I wasn't familiar with the Legend of Heroes series until Andriasang started reporting on the current games in this series. One of those games had a plotline that perked my interest, but it would be a looong time before we see any of it in the West if it was possible. I ended up researching what other Legend of Heroes games are available in the West. Trails in the Sky was the game that caught my interest the most. It had a fairly good reputation and the characters/plot had the kind of mystery I was looking for. After some months of debating, ordered it off of Amazon. The price was reasonable so why not? (Although, fans would recommend people to order off of Xseed's site to drum up support. --- The series really needs support.) When the game came, a rush of excitement overwhelmed me, which I haven't felt in a long time for a game. Popped it in my PSP and couldn't put it down. STORY --- The story opens up in a small mysterious way, which I won't say here. Five years later, from the prologue, Estelle and Joshua Bright start their training to become Bracers, a guild that helps people out without interfering with politics, or so everyone thinks. However, things start to get a bit hairy when Estelle and Joshua's father disappears with an air ship he was riding on. The Bright siblings go on a semi-long journey to find out the truth behind this, which ultimately sets towards a bigger unexpected conspiracy that involves the royal family. Throughout the adventure, Estelle and Joshua will meet old and new friends, gain party members, and confront new enemies. By the time you, the player, reaches the "end" of the game, you'll start to crave more for the game, because........this is only the first part of the story! Even if there was closure within the game, the main gut of the story isn't done yet. We, in the West, is still waiting patiently for the second game to be localized. The story's pace went by smoothly without much filler in-between. The J-cliches (i.e. what you see in Japan real life/games/anime/manga) aren't so obnoxious or over-the-top, even though they're there. Even Estelle's constant yelling or eccentric "gentleman" Olivier's behavior aren't that annoying compared to Luke's beginning behavior in "Tales of Abyss" or Neku Sakuraba's personality in the beginning 1st week of "The World Ends With You". Text-wise, this game has a lot of text. Considering this is an RPG, this should be a no-brainer. There's a lot of character interaction between the playable characters and NPCs. It's not like Tales' skits, thankfully. I understand that there seems to be some people, who do not like a game with a lot of text. However, if you enjoy reading as much as I do, this shouldn't be a problem. :D GAMEPLAY --- What complements the amount of text and characters in this game is the gameplay. It's like a mix between strategy and turn base. Coming off of the Fire Emblem Awakening demo, the Trails gameplay was very refreshing. I like that I can move around without having to go one-by-one, do pre-emptive strikes on enemies, and still do the chess-like strategy when in battle with the enemy. Furthermore, you can expand your target from one enemy to a whole area of them depending on who's in your field of battle. Magic? Check. In the form of orbment arts that you can upgrade for stronger power. Normal attacks? Check. Upgradable armor? Check. Upgradable weaponry? Check. Recipe book to make a lot of different medicinal/healing stuff? Check x 100!! Like every RPG, there are quests in this game. Some of them are story-based so they're required, but others are optionable. If you're a completionist, definitely try to put off doing all of the required quests, because you can only do them while you're within a specific town/area. If you progress past that town/area, you cannot go back to that town/area. Upon beating the game, you'll get an NG+ so if you like second play-throughs, you'll have that chance to do whatever quests you miss. Furthermore, the air ships will be open to you in NG+. In terms of backtracking to do certain quests, it's not so bad. Well, compared to Tales of Abyss, it's DEFINITELY not so bad. You won't be going across the ocean to find something. That's for sure. Tired of seeing the word "Empty" every time you go back to a treasure chest you opened before? Well, this game changes that concept a little, although, not sure if this is Falcon's or XSeed's idea. Well, you'll see what I mean. MUSIC --- In my opinion, the music is good -> decent/okay to me, except for the OP and ED vocal songs. The OP and ED songs are awesome. They truly captured the feel of the game. OVERALL --- If I had to give a rating to my enjoyment level, it would be this many stars: ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ Trails in the Sky is pretty underrated (although, that may be an understatement online?--), which saddens me a little. If this was available on something like the 3DS and the PC, I think it would help boost its awareness in the West. Otherwise, it'll remain to be pretty well known in Asia, and just Asia. :0 So, to any of you guys reading this, and have played Trails, please spread word of this fascinating trilogy. Would you prefer to watch the other two games in Japanese online or play it in your hands/TV/computer? (Xseed isn't putting Trails on their priority list at the moment.) I wish Xseed good luck on tackling the localization and marketing for Trails in the Sky Second Chapter~!!

Think Grandia. That's all I could imagine when I played it. The stories are nothing alike, just the character's innocence and excitement for their journey. For those who haven't been graced by Grandia, this a typical coming of age/adventure story that isn't directly involved in an ongoing war. There are wars going on in these games but your characters aren't fighting for any side. The exciting part is watching your characters grow as people and all the interaction with their excitement of seeing the world. On a separate note, try Grandia if end up loving this. I will warn everyone that this is a dialogue adventure, so if you don't like story or enjoying your character's development you will be bored through 50% of the game. I must mention the dialogue is excellent written, not entirely intelligent banter but gets its point across perfectly. I'm not one for stupid Japanese humor (bitchy girls, emasculated boys, furry sidekicks), and this is very light on stupid jokes, taking a rather serious tone at times. As for game play, you walk, talk, and fight. Luckily there are fun places to walk through to enjoy detail. Then talking, there's a lot. A nice feature is the NPC dialogue changes a lot so I actually talked to them repeatedly, which I never do. Then comes fighting. Sneak up behind your enemy for a preemptive strike to secure victory. Attack them directly or with spells/skills from your equipped materia... I mean quartz. Lots of combos and goodies to play with. Also, if you're beat up or attack enough, you build up your limit break... I mean special attack bar to release some cool attacks. Im sure you get the picture. It is fun, that's not sarcasm up there. I definitely suggest it! And I'm not going to say I have any more experience than you by saying "I've played most and am an expert". Sure both may be true... But it shouldn't affect your judgment. Let's just say after so many boring, tired, pointless, plotless, lifeless videogames this one surely will breathe life back into your love for RPGs. Because let's face it, sometimes its easy to forget why we loved them in the first place with all the trash we've played. Try it, you won't be disappointed. Thanks for reading.

Legend of Heroes Trails in the Sky sold little upon its release in the west. Which is a shame, because there is so much this game does well. The story of this game does a great job mixing and balancing funny, more lighthearted moments with a more serious plot. It also has its fair share of twists, and will keep you interested until the end. Most importantly, though, its filled with likable charecters that you grow to care about, none more so than the two main characters, Estelle and Joshua. Gameplay wise, this game is solid, employing a turn based battle system on a movement grid for its enemy engagements. It's not the most innovative battle system, but it keeps you busy and is satisfying enough, and only gets more fun and engaging as the game progresses. When you're not in battle, you are free to explore towns, paths, talk to NPCs, do side quests, or do the main quest, all as you desire. Among other things LOH:TitS does right, it has a catchy, beautiful soundtrack, an interesting Magic upgradeable system, and solid art design. The main story should take you around 40 hours. Really, there's not much I could say about the game's faults, because it has so few. If anything, the main plot takes a little too long to start developing, perhaps, about 5 hours or so. And that's all I can think of. Definitely a must have for JRPG fans, or for any of those looking for a fun, immersive, engaging story.

I really enjoy RPGs but I hadn't really loved a JRPG since the SNES days so I decided to just rent this game from Gamefly. Three hours in I returned the game and immediately bought it here on Amazon to support both this game and Xseed. Later I realized that you can actually buy this game directly from Xseed for the same price if you want to support them. The story and characters in this game are are just so good. There are no annoying characters to be found. This is definitely the perfect RPG for those of you who play games for good stories. It is heavy on the text/reading to move the story along. The story moves along at a nice pace and the side quests are not excessive and rarely tedious. The ending was a cliffhanger and now I'm dying for more which is part of why I'm writing a review. The next two games in this trilogy will not be localized without good sales. I'm assuming that if you are looking at this game you must be a PSP owner who is at least interested in JRPGs. Buy this game! You will not be disappointed! This game is so much better than most JRPGs that are on the PSP. Trust me I've played a ton of them!

This game starts out promising. The story begins with an interesting mystery, which the main characters go about trying to solve like a pair of detectives. The orb system, which is used to customize magic abilities, looks like it is going to let you make interesting choices as you build your characters. During combat you have your weapon attack, your magic attacks, and your charge attacks (which you can use as your charge meter builds up during combat). In other words, the story and combat felt fresh. Also, the game looks great, there's an amazing amount of detail, both visually and in NPC dialog. It's also a neat steam-punk world. However, after 40 hours (yes, 40 hours) and near the end of Chapter 3 (out of 4), I walked away from the game. I had survived a boss fight (the 3 soldiers dressed in black) but something happened that had already happened several times in the game: the boss-level enemies I had just defeated, got up and continued the scene--as if I hadn't just kicked their butts. In other words, they taunted me some more and then escaped. It was kind of insulting to me, the player. I think this was the third time that it had happened too. The result is that the main story felt like it was being drawn out, like the devs had run out of plot twists. Also, by this point, I had lost interest in the combat. First of all, I couldn't get used to the magic abilities, which you cast in one turn and carry out on your next turn, but by your next turn the situation might have changed to where you want to do something else. Also, it presents itself as a tactical turn-based combat, because there's a grid of squares you move on, but you can't move and attack in the same turn, nor even determine which angle to attack an enemy from. Positioning doesn't matter, so why have the grid? Also, the orb system wasn't so great after all. The interface makes it a chore to know what new abilities slotting a gem gives you; it's also a chore to try to get a particular ability, because you have to note the requirements for that ability from a different screen, then open up the orb screen and see if you can meet the requirements with the gems you have for a particular character. (But, the system does feel like it's one or two design steps away from being awesome.) Anyways, I'm now going to watch a walkthrough on YouTube to see the rest of the story. I guess I got my money's worth, but I'm left with a feeling of disappointment.

WARNING: This game has a lot of text! If you do not like to read text and prefer CG graphics, FMV cutscenes or no storyline at all, this game is not for you.But if you DO enjoy a deep story and are fine with reading text, get ready for an RPG like none other. It's a very special game. :) STORY: I have never seen an RPG where the characterizations were GENUINELY deep. People talk about characters that they like in other games but there is no comparison to this. With this much text and not a bunch of characters...you start to get a real family, rather than stock characters. It's like, you know Estelle and Joshua and you look forward to Olivier's "progressive" flirtations. The lack of arch and formal conversations between the characters is really refreshing and you actually look forward to reading more text. Now that quite an achievement! GRAPHICS: This is the first time that I have seen sprites so nicely animated on an old-school JRPG. The special attacks have personality and your little characters run around and fluidly pound on enemies during combat. The towns and wilderness are nothing special, though. Overall, the graphics are passable. I would have preferred graphics that were less busy and more unique, outside of combat. SOUND: Passable. They are tinny when you hear them raw, so I suggest you use headphones to get the full orchestral effect. In a similar fashion, the sound for FFTA 1 for the GBA was crappy until you used headphones and heard all of the instruments that are otherwise much more difficult to pick out. Falcom is famous for its rocking music but this music is average. Meh. CONTROLS/GAMEPLAY: Oh yeah! Here we go! Battles are so much fun that you will WANT to grind :) This game expertly avoids the trap that most RPGs fall into in regard to battle pacing. In your average RPG, the battles fly by just fine at the start when you are alone but once you have 4 characters in your party...it becomes tedious. Fast. Well, Trails of the Sky avoids that. You have fun whether you have 2 people in your party or all 4. I have never experienced a game before that actually stays fun after the party composition alters. There is a real strategy element because you are on a grid with distance between you and your enemy. The more stuff you do, the later your next turn is. Not only do you manage turn order but also, there is enough room for you to send a squishy character fleeing to a safe corner (though he/she won't be safe from long-range magic attacks!) But if you use movement this turn, you will not be able to attack this turn as well. Also, you are shown an attack range every time that you use a melee attack but this range is not set in stone. If you want to be risky, you can target enemies outside of the blue squares for your attack range and you will still be able to hit them if you are using a melee weapon with a long range like a whip or bo staff. But if the trick fails, you are now standing a few inches from an enemy and just waiting to be knocked silly. And they WILL knock you silly :) The enemies can often outnumber your party and they are not shy about using confuse or poison. And this is Disgaea-style poison in that it actually does real damage! You can also use long-range magic to keep knocking enemies out of melee range so that when their turn comes and they try to retaliate, they use the out-of-range melee trick and fail ;) There is also the orbment system which is like the Materia power-up system for Final Fantasy 7 except that orbments are harder to fill up than Materia slots but are more powerful and allow your characters to have multiple REAL abilities, rather than just Fire/Ice/Lightning/Blah. Between engaging battles and lots of time lovingly tinkering with sticking different combos of gems into your limited orbment slots, you just have a lot of fun. BALANCE: Just right. There are no random battles, so you are never forced to fight. You can see all the enemies beforehand and run away from them. But if you do no random battles, the game can get quite hard and require some serious strategy! If you are master strategist, go for it. But if you don't want to do a bunch of strategy, just kill every creature you see along the way. You still won't be super-powerful but you will be strong enough to get away with making mistakes during combat and still be victorious. Ultimately, this game is harder than average and will require some thinking, but not impossible. I give this game 4 stars out of 5. It's only the so-so graphics and music that stopped me from giving it 5 stars. But the best part of this game is that I have already gotten my money's worth and I still have much more to go! Thank you, XSeed and Falcom.

This game is increadibe. I can't be sure exactly what I was expecting when I ordered it but once I started it I didnt want to just play any other game until I played this one through. Yes the graphics arent the best you'll find on the psp but even though alittle goofy they quickly grow on you and the best thing here is the story. If you love a good extensive story you will not be disapointed except for the fact this is only the first game of three that will hopefully make it to english versions of some form eventually. It does end on a ciffhanger but a very interesting one that makes you really want to play the last two. Unfortunatly the only way that the rest of the games will get to translated versions is if people actually take a chance and get this game. The intial sales have been reported by Xseed to be lower than they would have liked and or expected hopefully if enough people vote with thier pocket books at thier website $20 no shipping cost or here then maybe they will push the rest of these games to the forefront of their work and not cancel them. Great story that I really hope will not end till the last game! Heres hopeing we will see further parts of this story!

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