The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

this is easily, EASILY one of the greatest games i've ever played. easiest recommend of my life, but if you finished FC then you were already dead set on playing this anyway. rest assured knowing this one is just as good if not BETTER than FC! what an incredible duology. (also, i found myself saying the words "my goat" every 2 seconds in this game. everyone is so unfathomably goated, even my goat Zin who in the previous game was just Zin. The dialogue is even more charming than the last game's, shoutout XSEED for giving this game such an amazing localization. Incredible stuff all around.)

Trails in the Sky Second Chapter is one of those rare JRPGs that earns your emotional investment instead of demanding it. The story is patient, character driven, and deeply sincere. It builds toward its major moments with confidence and restraint, trusting the player to sit with emotions rather than rushing to spectacle. The payoff is immense, and you are rewarded with finishing one of the best games in its genre. Estelle is an exceptional protagonist. Her growth never comes at the cost of her warmth, humor, or openness. She proves that strength does not require emotional numbness, and that optimism can be a conscious, hard won choice. The central relationship is handled with maturity and care, offering hope without pretending the world is simple or healed. The writing shines in quiet conversations as much as big moments. Themes of bonds, choice, and personal freedom are explored with surprising depth for the genre. By the end, the game feels hopeful without being naive, and emotional without being manipulative. It left a lasting impression on me. Technically, the PC port is dated but functional. Performance is solid with no frame issues. Mouse and keyboard controls feel best, though controller support works fine. The sprites are blurry on modern displays and show their age, but the art direction still carries a lot of charm. Audio quality is excellent, and adding a voice over mod greatly enhances the experience. A remake is out or on the way, but this version still has real soul. If you value character writing, emotional honesty, and slow burn storytelling, this is something special.

its peak built on the foundations of the first game but with a lot more to play around with changes to the orbment system lets you try out a lot of setups from the beginning + having one more not mandatory party slot for most of the game made it feel even better to kick it with the party

Almost a perfect sequel. Most every system that worked in the first game is expanded upon and refined, what didn't work is (mostly) polished, has some of the most fun boss fights I've played in a JRPG. Only real complaint and perhaps step backwards from FC is the balancing of arts, higher level arts generally being incredibly weak considering their costs in both EP and turn delay as well as most enemies in the game having resistances that make status inducing arts and crafts significantly worse than they were in the first game. Physical damage is MUCH stronger in this game which makes characters like Zin and Agate considerably more useful, maybe a bit too useful in some situations. The gimmicks in certain late game chapters which I would not want to spoil allow for some highly creative gameplay and encourage frequently altering your build in significant ways. The lack of variety that still exists for certain types of quartz remains a problem however. This is certainly improved from the first game but it still needs more, especially with earth type quartz in which case you have access pretty much to just 1-5 defense quartz and various attack modifiers that cannot be used together, so for a character relying on earth quartz in their orbment like Zin you are pretty much forced to use septium vein in one of their slots if you don't want the strength debuff from a def quartz. But that's a relatively minor problem all things considered. Fantastic game in it's own right and near flawless in terms of being a sequel.

YES this game is peaker than peak

等不及重制版了！