I've become quite a huge Falcom fan over the past few months thanks to Trails in the Sky FC (The original.) it lead to one of the most entertaining gaming journey's I've experienced/been on in recent time, I usually find myself burnt out on JRPGs or RPGs in general after beating one but... man, Trails in the Sky/Trails as a whole kept me coming back for more. I played through every single game (Up until Daybreak 1) in sequence and it was absolutely worth every moment and it's all thanks to the original Sky game.


This is how remakes should be, nothing like FF7R which is a psuedo-sequel/prequel/remake hybrid, or Ratchet and Clank's weird Reboot/Remake hybrid OR Resident Evil 2/3's re-imaginings. I want more games like this, the team that handled Sky FC perfectly displayed their love for the original, its a love letter in all but name, the updated visuals are fantastic, there's no cut corners or content, everything from the original is here but refined alongside new content sprinkled throughout. You can switch between 3 OST styles, the original, remastered and a new remix. Personally I went for the remake soundtrack to get the true *new* experience and I'd have a hard time picking a favourite between these two. The new real time/turn-based combat hybrid is *super* fun, it strikes a nice balance and each form flows perfectly into one another.

The only gripe I have with the game, and this is a fairly big nitpick and that's down to two side quests ruining their big gimmick thanks to the new QOL of highlighting every single interactable/quest objective, I'm fine with it in other quests but I think the two quests related to finding hidden spots/solving riddles should've been excluded from the QOL (whether an opt in thing or just flat out not have any guidance past the initial riddle clues is fine.)

Outside of that, highly recommend the remake. I can't say its a replacement for the original as both play and look differently whilst keeping the core content and story telling intact. What I will say is that I can vouch it's beginner friendly and I believe someone could easily jump into the original 2D experience without any concerns outside of maybe not vibing with the visuals (which are gorgeous imo.) or voice acting (afaik this can be modded in but I played the Sky trilogy just fine without voice acting.)

Guess I gotta play the other 14 games now...

Really good JRPG, a good entrypoint with so much soul.