The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky is a PC RPG from 2004 made by Nihon Falcom. it is the first game in the Trails series, which is part of the Legend of Heroes series, which is itself part of the Dragon Slayer series. Trails starts with Eiyuden 6, and Eiyuden starts with the fifth Dragon Slayer game. don't worry about that part right now. start with Trails. start with The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky FC. I guess I'd waffle on whether I think FC (first chapter) or SC (second chapter) is my favorite turn-based RPG, SC really hits a beautiful stride with the character writing but its final dungeon is a bit of slog whereas FC is paced absolutely perfectly imo. breezy 30~40 hours with nothing wasted
Estelle Bright is the main protagonist of the Sky trilogy of games and you should respect her because she's helpful and kind and a warm brilliant light in the life of everyone around her and most importantly she has a big heavy stick and will beat the shit out of you
the combat of the Trails in the Sky trilogy starts with fairly simple turn-based RPG system where you move on a grid and decide whether to hit things with your weapon or cast your preferred elemental equivalent of fireball. from there it starts folding in ideas like special combat techniques that you build meter for from hitting and getting hit, special upcoming slots in the turn order that give bonuses to whoever acts during them, ways to speed up or delay your own turn or an enemy's, and big cinematic limit breaks that incidentally steal the enemy's turn.
there's a delightful ensemble cast, some ancient magic technology and political intrigue, a semi-linear main story that moves you around every major city in the country of Liberl with exactly enough sidequests to give you a real sense of what this country is like and who lives there. which is a great sense to have because you'll do it a couple more times in SC. there are nameless generic-model NPCs who are nonetheless identifiable characters whose individual lives change over the course of the trilogy. I went to a wedding between two of them and got emotional
ultimately there's probably no one particular thing in Trails in the Sky which you've never seen done before in another RPG, Falcom's trick is all in the execution. confident, competent, charming almost the whole way through except SC's final dungeon is way too long. this shit simply hits different
no one particular thing except maybe Estelle herself. it's cheesy to say, I can't think of any way to write it out that will make you believe me. but deep into the trilogy, when party members start saying things like "Estelle, you shine like the sun"? nothing in the world feels so earned. she really does, dude
