Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter

I've been playing JRPGs and CRPGs since the original NES releases of "Dragon Warrior", "Final Fantasy", and "Ultima: Exodus", and the original IBM PC release of "Wizardry". 

"Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter" is perhaps the finest video game RPG I've ever played. 

The above is not to imply I've comprehensively played every major RPG release -- far from it. Indeed, "Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter" is the first game I've played in the Trails series, even though that series has been around since 2004 (albeit with no Western releases until the 2010s). 

I went into the game completely cold, knowing only that this was a remake of an older game in the Trails series, and based only on a hankering to play a longer-form JPG, combined with the highly positive Steam reviews. 

I downloaded the Steam demo, and was quickly hooked by the top-tier worldbuilding, the enjoyable battle system, and the likeable characters. I bought the game (at full price! For me, a very rare US $60 PC game purchase!) -- and ended up loving the game.

(I did almost bail at the game's very first fight, which is an entirely real-time combat battle, with the turn-based combat system not being introduced quite yet -- as what I had been wanting to play was a turn-based RPG. If this is you, too, then stick with the game for 5 more minutes: The bulk of the game's combat is indeed turn-based. I actually ended up really liking how the real-time battle system acts as a brief setup for the beginning of the ensuing turn-based battle -- or against trivially easy enemies, they can be finished off in real time without having to go into turn-based combat at all.) 

They say that good storytelling in video games is rare -- and that's because it is -- but "Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter" is an exception. Like a good novel, it features foreshadowing and mysteries: Some that I was pretty readily able to figure out in advance; others... not so much! 

The gameplay is really nicely balanced, too. As a pretty experienced RPG gamer, I was just barely able to "sight read" (win on the first attempt, going in cold) a late-game battle against a certain silver-haired adversary; and the same, just last night, for the final boss. 

"Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter" ran great on both my fairly low-end desktop PC, and on my OG Steam Deck (with no tweaks needed). 

For turn-based RPG fans, I highly recommend at least trying out the free demo, to see if "Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter" is a game that you'll really like, too.

I'm now very much looking forward to the next entry, coming later in 2026.