Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is a full remake of 2004’s The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, with revamped 3D graphics, new voiceovers and QOL changes. While the scenario of the game will remain pretty much the same as its predecessor, the playtime seems to have gotten drastically longer. Nihon Falcom president Toshihiro Kondo told AUTOMATON that the game can indeed take more than 70 hours to complete depending on how you play, but that the dev team prepared enough content so that the players’ journey through Liberl feels dense and engaging from start and finish.
Playing Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter for the first time, Kondo admits that it took him more than 70 hours to complete the game and all its quests without dragging it out for too long. “It still took me and other staff that much to play through it, even though we knew the contents of the game (laughs).” He gave us two reasons as to why the gameplay has turned out to be double the time of the original: “The first reason for it is that we added more voiced lines to the story and events, so if you play without skipping them, you’ll get to enjoy the game for at least 10 more hours. The second reason is that the environment physically expanded with the switch to 3D graphics, thus making exploration take much longer than it used to.” While there still is a fast travel option for people who aren’t that into walking all the way back to check up on what their favorite NPCs are doing, Kondo notes that this change to a more expansive 3D environment makes Estelle’s journey through Liberl feel much more realistic.
However, Kondo stresses that, despite having such a long playtime, Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is packed with content, leaving no room for players to be bored. With the intention to stay true to the 2004 original, Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter will, in the spirit of classic JRPGs, have you navigate various locations packed with gimmicks, as opposed to RPGs that are more linear, with exploration simplified in favor of sticking to the main story. In that sense, you’ll have a lot of things to do while on the road, from different kinds of puzzles to unique exploration methods like riding in a minecart – which all appear in the original game. “I think playing the remake will remind fans of that nostalgic feeling, but on the other hand, the younger generation of players [who haven’t experienced many classic RPGs] will probably view it as refreshing,” Kondo remarked.
With only around 2 weeks left until the remake’s official release, we’ll soon be able to see for ourselves how all 80 hours of the game come together with the new visuals, voiceovers and extra content – and if they are truly as dense and engaging as Nihon Falcom promises.
Trails in the Sky the 1st launches September 19, 2025 for PC (Steam), Nintendo Switch and PS5. The game will also receive a Nintendo Switch 2 edition, which can be purchased as an Upgrade Pack for $1.00.
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