I’ve been on the Fediverse for a very long time. If you Google my username, you’ll find a trail of posts going back years—thousands of them. My style has always been consistent, and I’ve stayed true to it.

I also happen to be autistic, and I often use ChatGPT for tone checks—it’s a tool that helps me communicate more clearly.

This isn’t an ad. I’m just someone who genuinely loves this game. And if enthusiasm makes me look like a shill, then so be it.

That said, your comment is a good reminder of why I recently added two new rules to !videogames@piefed.social, the community I moderate.

I think there might be a small misunderstanding. I wasn’t saying they’re one company—just noting the influence they both still carry today. However you look at it, Square Enix are the caretakers of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, much like how Bandai Namco continue to carry Pac-Man forward.

Instead of focusing on the negatives, why not celebrate what these games have meant to so many of us? Their impact is still worth appreciating.

Again, what other series is comparable? 12 games, multiple but interlocking arcs, developed over decades.

If there’s one that I don’t know about, tell me.

Notice I wrote in present tense, not past tense. Square Enix are one company now.

You’re missing why Trails matters.

This isn’t about “a lot of games.” It’s about building something no other JRPG studio has ever pulled off—a single, continuous saga that’s been unfolding since Trails in the Sky in 2004.

No resets, no reboots, no discarded lore. Every event, faction, and character connects across a dozen titles. That kind of long-form narrative discipline doesn’t exist anywhere else in the genre.

And don’t minimize how hard that is. Most JRPG studios can barely keep one trilogy coherent. Falcom has been weaving one uninterrupted storyline for over twenty years—through console generations and shifting hardware.

Holding a narrative together across decades isn’t just impressive, it’s almost impossible. Doing this wasn’t just because of luck. It’s taken discipline, patience, and vision on a scale no other studio has matched.

Influence is easy to trace. XSEED’s Trails in the Sky localization raised the bar for how seriously Western publishers approach text-heavy JRPGs. At the time, bringing over a game with hundreds of thousands of lines of dialogue was considered unworkable. They did it, and it set a precedent for the kind of effort fans now expect from localizations.

Falcom also helped legitimize PC as a JRPG platform in the West—back when most people dismissed the genre as “console only.”

And if you look at modern RPGs built around serialized storytelling and grounded politics—Disco Elysium, Baldur’s Gate 3, even the way Persona 5 structures its arcs—you can see Falcom’s fingerprints everywhere.

Critics agree. RPG Site flat out said this about the remake of Trails in the Sky FC:

If you’re here strictly for the magical number, here it is: Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter remake is a 10/10. What’s more, it’s the easiest 10/10 I’ve ever given.”

https://rpgsite.net/review/18452-trails-in-the-sky-1st-chapter-review

And the numbers back it up. Trails in the Sky sits at Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam with a 93% approval rating from thousands of reviews. Recent reviews are even better—96% positive.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/251150/The/_Legend/_of/_Heroes/_Trails/_in/_the/_Sky/

Rather than burning energy on outrage, put that time into actually playing more games. You’ll get more out of them—and you’re better than just dismissing something this significant.

When I try to edit, there’s an error message that says “Network Error”. That error is preventing me from making an edit.

The technical merits mattered when it launched. Do they matter now? Not at all. Otherwise FFVII would’ve gone the way of Battle Arena Toshinden—big splash at the time, forgotten in the long run.

What gives FFVII its staying power is the art. That’s why we play games. Not for specs. For creativity.

And this is where FFVII and Trails meet: at the rarefied height of JRPG artistry. The pinnacle. God-tier.

Auto-correct changed “glam” to “glamour”, and now lemmy.world won’t let me make the edit.

Anyway, here’s my further opportunity to say that The Beatles changed the world by being everywhere. The Velvet Underground changed the world by changing the people who mattered next.

And if this motivates you to go listen to the Velvet Underground, then I’m jealous—because I wish I could hear the VU for the first time all over again.

If it’s bananas, tell me why.

Thank you for succinctly explaining why Trails in the Sky is such an artistic achievement.

But we’re not talking about technical merits but artistic.

There is no RPG series as big and immense as Trails.

This is Nihon Falcon’s crowning achievement. In terms of sheer craftsmanship, only one other JRPG compares.

And you just made my point for me. 🙂

The Velvet Underground are the most important band you’ve never heard about. In many ways, bigger than the Beatles.

Because the Velvet Underground were the precursors to glamour, prog, punk, new wave, noise, alternative, and grunge.

Without the VU, there’d be no David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Ramones, Sex Pistols, or Nirvana.

And the VU were making that kind of music in the ‘60s. Commercial flop, but almost everyone who heard of them started a band.

If you haven’t heard of the VU, you should watch that Apple Music documentary about them. Of course, after you play Trails in the Sky.

No, Trails is not canon with Dragon Slayer. More like that’s its lineage. Which is pretty damn cool.

The big thing about FFVII when it came out was the huge—for the time—fully realized world.

It felt like stepping into a movie. There was nuance. And there were story curveballs.

Same deal with Trails in the Sky. Fully realized world—immense. And the narrative ambition is not just huge, Nihon Falcom actually pulled it off.

Follow-up question: how much does DLC actually tend to change the core game?

Are these just aesthetics or does it change things hugely?

Not sure if my review comes off too text-heavy, but I aim to cover this game in detail.

I dig into its history—because this isn’t just any JRPG. Its pedigree stretches back to 1984 on the PC-88.

Okay, but I’m not talking about commercial appeal. I’m talking about artistic achievement.

What Nihon Falcom accomplished with this game is unmatched. Trails in the Sky is, without question, the most expansive and intricate saga in JRPG history.

Because unlike other series that reset with each new title, Falcom committed to one continuous world. Every town, every political faction, every character connects across dozens of games.

And this game was the beginning of it all.

Question wasn’t rhetorical. I really don’t understand the purpose of deluxe editions nor their importance.

I always just assumed people spend the money because they like spending it.

Remake. But also, more like a reimagining because it plays differently.

I explain all this in my review.

As I said in my review: this is a re-imagining of the first Trails game. It’s part of a much, much larger saga that continues to this day—but this is a self-contained game.

You don’t have to wait for the rest of the games. The sequels have already been released.

Think of this like Final Fantasy VII Remake. Final Fantasy VII already exists, and you can buy it for cheaper. And, well, same deal with Trails in the Sky.