Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter, a full 3D remake of 2004’s The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, is set to launch on September 19 for PC (Steam), PS5 and Nintendo Switch. Developed 100% in-house by Nihon Falcom, the remake expands on the original JRPG not only with overhauled graphics, but through the addition of (optional) real-time action combat, new voiceovers, extra quests and map exploration.
These additions seem to have extended the game’s average playtime significantly, as suggested by Nihon Falcom CEO Toshihiro Kondo in a recent interview with The Gamer. Kondo comments that while the original Trails in the Sky took just under 40 hours to play through, the remake’s main programmer reported that it took him 80 hours to finish Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter. As the main causes behind the increased volume, Kondo cites the game’s sizable maps, as well as new exploration elements incorporated into the remake.
“There’s more map exploration compared to previous games, and we found that if you explore those areas, listen to the voiced lines, and complete all the quests, it takes twice as long as the original. Maybe it’s also because you spend more time watching the events. Back in the day, we really did tend to scroll through text at the speed it appeared, and that gave the original a kind of snappy feel in its own way.” By comparison, Kondo mentions that he spent about a week chipping away at the new remake.
That said, Trails in the Sky the 1st Chapter covers basically everything the original game did story-wise, with only small additions. Another detail Kondo mentions is a significant number of voiced lines. Although the first entry in the Trails series has a much smaller cast of characters than successors, its remake ended up with a higher number of voiced lines than any title in the series. Kondo attributes this to the long periods of time when Estelle and Joshua are alone together. While these moments were often silent in the original, the remake adds new dialogue between them to make their journey feel more natural. “For example, in scenes where the two travel together and cross checkpoints, we’ve added quite a lot of detailed dialogue, increasing the total number of lines. There’s also some casual dialogue during battle, which is more detailed than in previous games.”
On the topic of travel, you won’t have to worry that traversing the remake’s large, semi-open world map will make the game drag on, as the developers have introduced instant fast travel as well as high-speed movement.
Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter launches on September 19 for PC (Steam), PS5 and Nintendo Switch.
