Shuanshuan Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter Review

This remake is a tremendous success. More importantly, I think this is a game that truly deserves a remake because the original simply came out at the wrong place and wrong time, causing it to fade into obscurity instead of achieving legendary status like FF6, 7, Chrono Trigger, etc. Trails has an emphasis on worldbuilding that is more like western RPGs than JRPGs, but with good anime tropes, aesthetics and gameplay. As the scope expands, the series get longer and becomes more intimidating to get into, like the One Piece series. Especially when you tell people the true starting point is a retro, isometric game made in 2004. That's why Falcom's choice to remake the first 5 games is brilliant. These 5 are also absolute peak in terms of writing and I don't think they were ever topped in any of the future, more modern entries, partly because the scale and casts got too big and unwieldy. But I digress, 1st Chapter as an individual game is an amazing, slowburn adventure that follows a truly likeable cast of characters. As you play, note that even the town NPCs have their own story arcs and new dialogue as times pass, and I think this feature is iconic and truly unique to the series, and fully immerses players in its world. The series have a great track record of phenomenal soundtracks, and the arrangements here are no exception. As for combat, the series has a different take than FF7R series in terms of mixing Acting and Turnbased. Whereas FF7R is 90% action, Trails is 90% Turnbased. Field combat is fun and breezy while turn combat is strategic. 95/100.