90%PC

I LOVE TRAILS

90%PC

One of the best RPG sequels of its generation, SC takes the foundation of FC and raises the stakes in every way. Estelle’s journey to rescue Joshua is packed with emotional beats, memorable character arcs, and a grand escalation of the series’ worldbuilding. The pacing is long-winded at times, but the payoff is immense, with political intrigue, touching character moments, and some of the best written side quests in the genre. Gameplay is polished, with smoother combat, better customization, and tougher battles that reward smart orbment builds.
Verdict: A masterclass in RPG storytelling — heartfelt, sprawling, and deeply rewarding for those invested in the series.

90%PC

+ All the things from my FC review, plus wrapping up big plot points in a satisfying way.

- Pacing slows to a crawl during the last 2 chapters (backtracking, repeating the same boss rush twice, grinding, no magic, etc..)

Overall a great game, but it didn't need to be that long. 8.5

90%PC

This game was really good; just as good as the first. Despite using the same map as the first game, it still felt fresh and new as you were in the same places for different reasons. It builds off of the first game with a more user-friendly UI, better side quests, and a more expansive skill and battle system. The side quests in particular were great for me. When I play games, I don't often find myself doing side quests, however that was not the case with this game. It goes beyond just being kill or fetch quests, and ties characters from the last game and character moments within the party to them; it makes you feel as if you're actually making a difference, and that the world would not be the same had you ignored it. This feeling made me travel around Liberl extensively for side quests; something I would absolutely not be doing in other games. My only real annoyance with this game was that the final boss was pretty awful. The boss before it was much more difficult and fun, so the actual final boss being a brick wall that will pretty much not put you in any significant danger really hurts. I would have preferred if the second last boss remained the final boss, and the actual final boss was just a cutscene instead. It was just dragged out for way too long, and really hurt the quality of the ending for me.

90%PC

6/5/2025 update

just finished Reverie. WHERE THE FUCK ARE THE NOTES? stupid mf didn't wanna write his thoughts omg bruh

anyway, this is easily the best game in the trilogy. Knowing what I know now, easy 9 minimum, but I gave it an 8 after playing it. I want to honor that but I can't. SC really sold me on the series. I remember thinking how I was at the end, then it just kept going, getting bigger and bigger, conflict and world growing larger and larger. It's wild looking back at how much of the world was revealed, and how relevant it all is to the Cold Steel & Reverie era games. (This fact isn't the reason for updating my score btw, just something cool to call out).

Wish I left notes gg. I got the "Complete the Prologue" achievement like a week after beating Trails FC in 2020, then Chapter 1 a month later, then Chapter 2 in achievement in 2022. I'm assuming I started the whole playthrough over again? Or maybe not.

95%PC

An absolute masterpiece of a jrpg, with outstanding music, story, characters and fun gameplay even if a little bit unfair at times. Chapter 7 drags a bit.

90%PC

Used the speed-up function inbuilt with the game. Keep in mind for times.

A great continuation from FC with a really well written story and characters that interact with the general world amazingly. Fun main character, fun side characters. Liked the power system as well cause building similar but very different characters was possible through the stacking of quartz. Battle animations are very slow without speed up, characters opening doors and airships flying off are slow. But otherwise a really good continuation of the trails story.

100%PC

This game was amazing and might be in my top 10 games list now. The story was interesting and full of twists. The combat was great and fights are always interesting. I would highly recommend the first two Trails in the Sky games to anyone who likes RPGs.

80%PlayStation Vita

08/10 Story
07/10 Level Design
09/10 Characters
09/10 Gameplay
09/10 Graphics
08/10 Music/Sound

Battle System 09/10

Difficulty MEDIUM

Overall 85%

90%PC

IGT : 65:21:21

80%PC

Good game, good sequel, lot of good character development. Gameplay loop the same as the first game but felt a bit more challenging(in a good way). Good story as well but it dragged a bit and felt like it could've been a bit shorter. Overall, really liked it and gets me one step further into The Legends of Heroes franchise.

75%PC

Great environmental storytelling and lovable cast of characters. Estelle and Joshua are amongst the best couples in video games.
Good upgrade in orbments and arts available to play with compared to FC, but the game is still clearly early-days in the Trails series and sometimes it really shows in the gameplay. Does a great job of wrapping up the Sky storyline, even though apparently there's a third chapter.

90%PC

I think it's the best jrpg and the game in my life. I've never had such a lot of emotions from a story

85%PC

Starts a bit slow, and hard. Stays like it for at least half the game but when it picks up... Damn!

90%PC

Incredible way to conclude the second part of Estelle and Joshua's story. So much to love with this cozy little series! The first half of the game took time to built up momentum in the story (and retreading the same maps would've been grueling if it weren't for the NPCs and dialogue to discover). But after Chapter 4 was when the story truly picked up for me. Plenty of improvements over FC, primarily with a higher emphasis on synergy between your team composition. Especially once you're given some more variety to swap out more than one character on the team.

Some characters motivations felt contrived, stale, and a complete waste of good storytelling.. Small rant:

Loewe and Weissmann were some of the worst aspects of the game, completely underselling the momentum this game built up. Cassius having some god-like foresight at every step of this game (in addition to playing a key role in during the Hundred Days War) is obnoxious. My overall thoughts of Ouroboros are to be seen as I continue these games. But damn. Way to build up the reveal of an interesting villain at the end of FC with Weissman only to have him become generic villain #2. Loewe's death was a bit frustrating as it never felt earned. Could've been fleshed out more.

Certainly some aspects of the story came across pretty uninspired. But personally it's less so individual pieces of this game that are worth gushing over but instead how its all packaged and presented to the player. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts or something like that. Looking past the many dated and tired tropes, I can't help but love these characters and their journey.

Incredible music and cutscenes just add the cherry on top and help cover for the dislikes I've had with these games so far.

90%PlayStation Portable

Trails in the Sky: SC is the point where Trails franchise really kicks into high gear. Following FC's slow-paced beginning, Second Chapter introduces you to the series' overarching plot and presents a pile of plot twists, that all come down to a satisfying ending. And it still retains a cozy atmosphere and intricate worldbuilding! Gameplay has been touched up since the first game, and some bosses really require a good strategy. The music is heavenly, and while graphics may not look like much, it does have a good style to it. 9/10.

95%PC

While the first game was a good game in its own way, its purpose was to serve as the opening act. The second game takes everything from the first and expands on the story and characters. Gameplay is mostly the same, but everything else is polished up to a great degree. Must play for JRPG fans.

50%PC

Generic rpg, nothing stand out

90%PC

Great Game

85%PlayStation Vita

Quelle plaisir de revenir avec Joshua et Estelle spécialement après la fin du 1er épisode.

L'histoire et les personnages sont toujours aussi bien écrit.
Mais j'ai tout de même apprécié cet opus un peu moins que le dernier, peut-être le manque de nouveauté ? Le fait de retraverser exactement les mêmes environnements que le premier juste avec un donjon en plus dans chaque région enlève un peu d'intérêt à l'histoire même si c'est un plaisir de revoir les personnages.
Le jeu est beaucoup plus long que le précédent environ le double de temps et c'est malheureusement ici que ça pêche un peu de mon côté le premier était un jeu qui allait directement au but et était très intéressant grâce à ça. Ici malheureusement un peu tout prend beaucoup plus de temps.

80%PlayStation Vita

My favorite game of the sky trilogy and one of the best in the kiseki franchise

90%PC

Amazing game

90%PC

Hands down one of the best Trails games I've ever played, considering I've started with Cold Steel and played the franchise up to CS3. This game is definitely up there for me. The gameplay additions and new mechanics, the increased pacing from FC and the higher stakes on the story really came into this neatly made package.

Here I come The 3rd, you will be played very very soon!

100%PC

Stupendo, continuerò con la saga.

95%PC

Amazing, charming cast, great story, beautiful music, fun sidequests, incredibly immersive world with lots of dialogues. This is very close to an ideal JRPG for me.

85%PC

Audio-visual: 7 Gameplay: 8 Story: 8 Enjoyment: 7

80%PC

This is another game where I'll review it with respect. I didn't actually enjoy this game much but I think it's good.

I know, surprising. People say this is an upgrade over FC by far. I agree! I didn't personally enjoy it though.

The dialogue just... is not good. The writing is awful. And it's not awful by standard definitions. When people hear that writing is awful, they think it's juvenile or corny, or etc. No, that's not the case. There's an over-abundance of writing to an unnecessary amount. Just like its predecessor, Trails in the Sky SC needed a pass-over of its script to cut down the dialogue to a point where its more digestible. So yes, an over-abundance of writing is bad writing.

Sky SC just drags and drags through its initial chapters, which all follow the same structure, story-wise and gameplay-wise. Weird events happen, the party investigates, then you fight a villain. By the way, that's after going through an extremely dialogue heavy Prologue as well, which took me 4 hours alone to get through. 4 hours before you get to the actual game. So once you get through the Prologue and the initial chapters, the game starts to pick up a bit. I'd say around when all of the Enforcers were introduced finally is when I began feeling like the game was picking up more.

Okay, we're cooking now. We're steadily building into something great. Chapters 1-4 were a drag with some minor good moments, but now with what goes on in Chapter 5-7 I found the game to be getting much better and more enjoyable. Interesting things were beginning to happen.

Chapter 8 just derails that good will and momentum the game was building, unfortunately. For some reason they thought it was a good idea to make the player run around the entirety of the map fixing phones in each Bracer Guild - while also sacrificing a party member's ability to cast Arts (Magic in Trails) whenever one of those said phones are fixed. By the end of Chapter 8, only 1 of your party members will be able to cast Arts. This gets annoying extremely quickly, since the game dumps a bunch of side quests on you that involve combat, as well as throwing you into some encounters near the Chapter 8 that you have to power through in order to progress. I was already ticked off that they took away the party members I liked using most in this chapter - Kloe and Olivier, but the design of Chapter 8 left me completely frustrated and nosedived any of the momentum the game felt like it had story-wise. Imo, Chapter 8 should've been cut down to just a few cutscenes - and instead after Chapter 7's climax, we should transition to the final area of the game, which is actually pretty solid.

The final area is awesome, and I love its aesthetics and look. The tunnels were a little annoying and present a common problem with Trails, which is dungeon design. If I need a map to navigate your dungeon properly, your dungeon design needs work. What also sucks about this final area is some backtracking you're forced to do if you didn't have certain party members in your party for specific sections. One of those requires to briefly use the worst party member in the game, by the way. I'm nitpicking maybe here, but I think this final area could've been better with some minor tweaks to how it works mechanically, because I do quite love the atmosphere it has.

That said, the core gameplay of Trails is still great! It's still plenty of fun to play. The orbal system is awesome, and I like the little changes they've made via Chain Crafts and Level 3 Quartz slots. Although in SC, the amount of enemies that throw status conditions on you gets tiring. As the game progresses you'll encounter your fair show of spongier enemies as well. Both of these things makes combat so taxing to plod through.

I do like the world of Trails so far. Along with the characters. But I don't love it. Not yet at the least. Especially with how this game felt so draining to play for me. By the time I got to the end, I just wanted it to be over. None of the story beats were bad per say, they're good, actually - they just didn't really resonate for me.

That said, I do think Trails SC is a good game and is quite obviously better than Trails FC, but I personally found it exhausting and frustrating to play despite liking it in many ways. So to be respectful, I'm still gonna rate it wel, but not much higher than Trails FC.

Score: 85

90%PC

Finally after 7 months I finished the sequel of Trails in the Sky FC after leaving on that crazy cliffhanger. It felt really good to be back in Liberl and with these characters. I'm glad I waited a few months to jump into SC after FC because instead of feeling like going through the same reused game assets and mostly similar combat, it felt like I was back to a world I missed.

Much like Dragon Quest, the citizens of Trails in the Sky are so endearing I can't help but want to save them.

It kind of drags once you reach the halfway point, the familiar world feeling smaller and the plot moving just as slow 40+ hours in. Thankfully the story starts to move forward rapidly by chapter 6 onward.

While the combat in FC was kind of a breeze, there were actually a few boss battles in Ch8 as well as Loewe in the final chapter that gave me some trouble. The few additions from the first game made the combat a little better, but again I do think the game goes on a little too long for it to not feel a little repetitive.

The graphics look just as retro and charming and I may be imagining it, and I feel like some of the battle animations in the cutscenes look even better.

In the end, I can’t help but gush about the story and characters. SC feels simultaneously like a second season of a tv show, building off what was introduced earlier while bringing in new plotlines and characters, as well the second half of one story. It fleshes out and completes most of the main character’s plotlines and is a satisfying end to Estelle and Joshua’s story.

Also for just the second game of the Trails series, it’s amazing how well it teases and got me excited to see what happens in the Crossbell, Erebonia, and Calvard arcs. I can’t wait to see the other countries after learning so much about them second hand.

Final Grade:

A or 9.5/10
96.75 Hours
7/6/2024

70%PC

It took me 9 years after playing TitS FC to finally get around to SC. The length of the game being a big deterrent, as I don't have time for 100h+ (to 100%) games much these days. Unfortunately that meant I'd forgotten most of what happened in FC aside from a couple bits like the ending and Estelle + Joshua's relationship. I watched a summary video and went from there.

I wanted to love this game more than I did. However at the end of the day I found myself not enjoying the mechanics and much of the story. The battles system is easy enough to dive into, however I feel like I never really wanted to use my crafts/artes aside from healing, and just blow everything away with area S-crafts. I also found the orbment system both very easy to understand, but very difficult to figure out how to enable specific artes. There were several battles that, even on normal, I found stupid hard to the point where I wanted to walk from the game.

The story itself was largely a big whiff for me. The first half of the game was largely a chore, but I will admit that the later story gave the first half a lot more substance and reason. They just really drag out. The second half of the story is actually really good (one of those "just wait, it gets better!" situations). But if I'm honest, I really, really dislike the way the Estelle + Joshua story plays out, and had I written it, would have made Joshua make the opposite decisions for the entire 2nd half of the game. Otherwise I enjoyed most of the rest of the characters and their development. Olivier in particular I liked in this game at the end, where my FC review noted I didn't like him much at all.

At the end of the day, despite my complaints, this game would have been a great 20-30 hour game. The achievements are obnoxious and really drag it out, along with a bloated first half. I do look forward to the rest of the Legend of Heroes VI series, especially as many of them I have on a system without achievements (Switch), and I hope to see many of these characters again in the future.

80%PC

7.7/10

90%PC

9.5/10
GOD I love these characters. The chapters draaaag, but when it's good, it's so good.

Final boss was interesting... though a bit mean if I'm being honest. Game kinda teaches you that physical hits are shit, then the boss NEEDS you to use physical.

But other than that, I LOVED THIS GAME! (Unfortunately not a 10, more a 9.5)

95%PC

A fantastic continuation of the first game. Made me fall in love with the series all over again! ♥

Pros:
+ When starting with a FC clear file, quest and town NPCs acknowledge the progress you've made and the quests you pursued in the first game
+ Characters and character development: some returning characters played a surprisingly bigger role as the story progressed
+ Story: ROMANCE, overcoming obstacles and fears, overall positive vibes despite the intense plot with a pile of salt >:3
+ New soundtrack
+ Fast-forward button without increasing the speed of the BG music :D

Cons:
- Wasn't a big fan of the introduced chain system. Ate too much CP and there was a higher dmg output when the team members just attacked on their own
- It's highly impossible to get all achievements (100%) without a guide as there are many missable quest objectives and hidden quests
- Loewe :(((((((( The fact he was left behind kind of ruined the ending for me lol

There's an amazing OVA worth watching, btw. :)

100%PlayStation Portable

Absolutely fantastic entry in the Trails franchise. There are significant improvements in every department within this sequel. The stakes, character development, boss fights, soundtrack, storytelling etc. One of the absolute best entries in the entire franchise. Absolutely excels.

• Story: 3/3
• Art Direction & World-building: 3/3
• Gameplay: 2/2
• OST: 2/2

Final Score: 10/10 (Masterpiece!)

80%PlayStation Portable

Sometimes to much running, and music... after 80h I started to put volue down to live. Besides of that great GAME.

70%PC

0 prologue - 3h (total 3h)
1 chapter - 10h (total 13h)
2 chapter - 7h (total 20h)
3 chapter - 6h (total 26h)
4 chapter - 5h (total 31h)
5 chapter - 7h (total 38h)
6 chapter - 6h (total 44h)
7 chapter - 5h (total 49h)
8 chapter - 4h (total 53h)
9 chapter - 13h (total 66h)

90%PC

Beautiful. Simply Beautiful. I completed it in just under two weeks, I cannot get enough of this series I have already bought Trails the 3rd and Zero. Please play this series.

90%PC

Truly beautiful ending. Too many side quests though.

100%PlayStation Vita

peak TLOH game

100%PC

One of the best rpgs ever made. Estelle and Joshua forever!

90%PlayStation Portable

Gets a bit grindy towards the later part but overall great game!

90%PlayStation Vita

Amazing game until the last boss.

90%PC

The first 3 chapters are very slow but when shit hits the fan, it really doesn't stop until the end of the game. Also new orbments are amazing, and almost everything feels finished so I'm not sure what to expect for the last chapter of the series besides tying up loose ends.

50%PlayStation Vita

Awful Illuminati story with basically all assets reused, I can't take it anymore. Worst of all, the bad story also brings down the first game since the first one ends on a cliffhanger.

100%PlayStation Vita

This is a game I'll never forget for the rest of my life. Absolutely phenomenal.

70%PC

Third JRPG I ever beat, so that in itself is something to say about this game. A good babby’s first JRPG difficulty wise (taken together with FC).

95%PC

Great game! I'm not sure which of the first and second chapter I liked more. By the time I was playing through the second chapter, the regular battle get pretty boring. If it weren't for the fast forward, I think this game would've been almost unplayable. I really liked the soundtrack to this game more. That track between chapters when you're on the airships is sooooo good. I really liked the overall story, but some of the delivery was lacking to me. I didn't like how "anime" it was getting. I didn't really like monologs from the baddies while they tell you their rank in the bad guy group. How about you just first me instead? It's also silly when there needs to be 1v1 duels, but a character "has to do it". I think if a group was trying to topple your country and take over the world, you'd probably not give them any chance to beat you. The first game did a great job of telling a grounded and realistic story, and this game kinda breaks that for me with anime-styled nonsense. I still really loved the characters, story, music, art. I'm excited to see how the next game turns out!

100%PC

Before I begin my review, I want to say that I made the mistake of starting with the Cold Steel games when I began the Legend of Heroes series, which was the wrong move. You really have to play the series in release order (starting with Trails in the Sky). However, for this review, I'll try to ignore Cold Steel and talk about this game on its own merits, as it wouldn't be fair otherwise given how this came out many years before Cold Steel.

This game is phenomenal! It continues right where the previous game left off and I loved every minute that I played it. Lots of stuff happens and the stakes are much higher. I was thoroughly invested and engrossed the whole time. Plus, this game is when Estelle becomes Bestelle. I absolutely loved her character development and growth in this game and she's now one of my favorite protagonists of all time. She doesn't take any shit and always speaks her mind, which is quite refreshing in a JRPG. And I loved how she yells at people that deserve it, another thing that doesn't really happen in JRPGs. Get that Japanese politeness outta here. All of the other characters have unique struggles and seeing them develop and improve felt very satisfying. The new characters were also interesting too. I found myself struggling to choose my party because I wanted to use everyone, which is one of the signs of great character writing. Well, except for Zin, because he's still lame, although having a villain that is related to his past helped him out immensely.

Speaking of villains, I absolutely hate Ouroboros. It's not the "they're great villains and I want to take them down" kind of hate but the "they're stupid and I don't care about them" kind instead. I think having played Cold Steel first ruined them for me, (and you can read my Cold Steel reviews to see why I think they're stupid) but I'm trying to ignore Cold Steel for this review, so let's forget about that for now. This game handles Ouroboros much better. For me, this is due to the pacing of the game, which, as a whole, is very well done. When you're introduced to an Ouroboros villain, you initially don't actually fight them, which makes sense too, because you suck, so why should they waste their time? But by the end of the game, you have grown and improved, and now you're a threat, so the villains have to fight you. And the best part is that you actually get to beat the shit out of them (which never happens in Cold Steel, fuck that series). Also, Weissman is a fantastic villain. He's so detestable, but also has a lot of depth, which makes him the most interesting Ouroboros member to me.

Overall, this game was a complete blast and I absolutely loved playing it. The graphics and gameplay are largely the same, but I think the music is better overall, especially because that theme when you fight Jaegers is so damn good. If you enjoyed the last game, or even if you didn't, I highly recommend playing this as I believe it's one of the best JRPGs of all time.

85%PC

8.0-8.5

80%PC

The continuation of the story was generally great, really it felt more like a second half of the same game.
The only downside is that since there isn't any real gameplay improvements or QOL stuff added from the already long first game it felt a little bloated.