The Start of an Obsession
Before I start the review in earnest, a few disclaimers.
If you have not played Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter, do not read this review as it will contain spoilers for that game. If you are at all interested in the series, I highly recommend playing the demo for the 1st chapter to see if you like the vibes/mechanics of the game.
You have been warned.
Picking off right off the events at the end of the 1st chapter, Estelle wakes in the castle having discovered that Joshua has disappeared. Distraught and in denial, Estelle struggles to come to terms with reality, when she runs into a traveling priest named, “Kevin”. With the support of this new ally and her friends, Estelle pulls herself together with the goal of finding Joshua and bringing him back home. However, the task proves to be perilous as it leads to the investigation of the shadowy organization known as “Ouroborus”, as their “Gospel Plan” swings into motion, throwing all of Liberl into chaos.
Yes, I missed you too, you goober.
As the 1st chapter was more or less all about world building and setting up plot threads, it’s here in the 2nd chapter that the storytelling of Trails really shines. Estelle’s growth from being naive and over-dependent on Joshua to becoming wiser, more independent and self-assured made for a compelling journey. It made it very easy for me to want to root for her as she stumbled along the way but always got back up, never losing that core of optimism and kindness that draws people to her.
Many of the party members like Agate, Zin and Scherazard had their moments to shine as the story delved into their pasts in detail, casting light to the darkness in their hearts. The resolution of them facing their past and finding a new determination for the future made me love them even more, especially with the excellent voice overwork all around, really selling the emotions in the moment.
The flashback scenes were enhanced greatly thanks to the use of gorgeous illustrations and emotional voice work.
The other party members not mentioned above had some great moments as well even though there weren’t as big of a focus on them. Other minor, but fan favorite characters like Muller, Julia and Anelace also became fully playable characters for a time which was a welcome addition as it added a healthy playable party variety that wasn’t available in the original.
As for the combat, it remains mostly the same as it was in the 1st chapter with some minor adjustments like being able to burst on the field to deal out significant damage + stun on enemies before starting the command battle. Despite having been used in many Trails games at this point, I find the hybrid combat to be quite fun and fast paced, allowing me to choose the way I want to engage the enemy or to avoid them entirely if I so desire. I also played the game on “Advanced” difficulty this time around and found it to be a nice middle ground between overly inflated enemy health/damage and challenging encounters.
This was taken seconds before a complete party wipe. The fact that many strong enemies have last stands and can initiate powerful turns skipping S-Breaks of their own kept me on my toes and made the combat even more enjoyable.
The animation work on the various crafts/arts have seen yet another improvement as the visual fidelity is the best I’ve seen from Falcom yet. The fluid animation, dynamic camera angles and the satisfying pop of critical hits leading into follow ups never got old despite hundreds of encounters and when I did want to speed things along, I could do so instantly using the skip function.
It’s a testament to the gorgeous combat visuals that I wasn’t skipping craft/arts animation most of the time.
In terms of other new mechanics, fishing makes a welcome return and makes for a nice way to farm up some sepith and items. In terms of content, I would say the biggest addition is how much straighter up content there is in the game. While the 1st chapter took about 45~ hours to finish completing all quests, the 2nd chapter took me nearly 70 hours, more than 50% of the time to do the same. This wasn’t due to some unnecessary padding or poor pacing, it just had more things to do in the world, and I enjoyed every minute of it.
Having said that, despite finishing all quests, I missed the max rank by a single point. My disappointment was immeasurable and my day was ruined.
In terms of the PC port, I can summarize it in one single word.
Immaculate.
During my playtime of around 70 hours, I did not run into a single crash, freeze or bugs of any sort. Hell, I don’t think I even saw a single framerate drop the entire time. It’s insane to think that a game that just works flawlessly on launch isn’t the standard but rather, the exception but I’m very happy to report my experience here was exactly that.
The port also had all the bells and whistles like native UW Support, Upscaling, HDR, FOV and the option to switch between Japanese and English voice as well as Standard/Original/Arranged OST on the fly without even having to go back to the title screen. It could just be that my relatively high-end PC had the right configurations to make everything click and others might have issues, but I can only speak for myself, and I can’t recommend the PC version of 2nd chapter enough.
As for the negatives, or rather the singular negative thing I have to say about this game is the issue with the uneven use of voice acting. As I am so very tired of bringing this up, I won’t go into much detail but it remains the singular blemish in the overall presentation of the game and I hope they will consider adding enough budget to fully voice the events or take a more conservative approach and not randomly add voice for some characters and not to others.
Please Falcom, pleaseeeeeeeee stop doing this.
While my love for the Trails series is well documented at this point, it was back when I completed the original Trails in the Sky SC that it became a full-on obsession. To see such an important game to me, remade with such love and care warms my heart. Whether you are a veteran of the series like myself or a new fan discovering the series with these remakes, you are in for a treat- or perhaps, a new obsession.
Fun Tidbit: There is also a demo of Trails 2nd Chapter I highly recommend trying out if you are on the fence after completing 1st chapter (why though?) It includes both the prologue and the first chapter, clocking in at around 12~ hours and is fully carried into the full game. Also, I can’t end a trails review without sharing a track from the great OST, can I?
Review copy of game provided by publisher.