Only last year, around the launch of the fantastic Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter, did I say I was drowning in gaming remakes. Now, as Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter releases – also a sublime remake that manages to add extra detail beyond its predecessor – we’re more inundated than ever. Even so, developers and players alike can’t seem to agree on what they most want from remakes: vast reimaginings, or dedicated faithfulness? Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter offers the best approach by balancing both, and other developers – RPG studios especially – should take note. This is how you modernize a classic.

In another year crammed with remakes, Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter sneakily became the highest-scoring new release of 2026 overnight for how it revitalizes The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC. It’s starting to feel like Gungho’s work on modernizing the Nihon Falcom’s PC and PSP chibi-style JRPGs is becoming a barometer for measuring the quality of remakes going forward. The second part of a trilogy (which itself forms the first part of a wider ongoing saga well worth playing), this is a luscious reimagining that feels like I’m being sucked into the more abstracted, top-down world of the original, now with a chance to explore it at a truer scale.

Trail as old as time

While Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter wisely, like the original sequel, sticks closely to the first game, improvements to character animations and a tighter script make this aspect shine all the more. That latter change has also been applied through an update to 1st Chapter, creating goodwill by addressing some weaker moments and ensuring that by the time the whole trilogy is remade, it’ll be an impressive, cohesive work.

Unlike the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy, which splits its pseudo-sequel approach across three entries when the original was just one, Trails in the Sky has always been told across three full-length games that have their own complete story and character arcs. In terms of scope, Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter might add loads more detail by bringing the action closer, but it accurately recreates almost every act and scene from the original (while adding some additional bits as well). I’m reminded of Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined from earlier this year which, though we quite liked it, made the baffling choice to cut out a vast amount of its side-stories, which are some of the strongest parts of the PS1 original.

So far, my favorite moments playing this RPG have been playing scenes side-by-side just to revel in how much more personality has been added in 2nd Chapter’s renditions of iconic moments. While the chibi-graphics are no more, this JRPG isn’t shy about its anime roots, absolutely dripping with vibrant colors and unafraid to still use shorthand anime expressions as characters emote. It gives interactions a lively feeling, even if at times there’s an awful lot of yapping between the action as characters constantly re-state the same things. To be honest, they’re personable enough here that I mind it less when getting to see full scenes unfold before me rather than watching from above.

Ironically, these also make for some of my favorite moments in the likes of Final Fantasy 7 Remake. The whole Wall Market sequence feels unreal in how large it makes the antics of the original, and my deep knowledge of Cloud’s dress-shopping experience made me fist-pump all the harder when it was reimagined in the shape of a musical number.

But, so many other parts of the game diverge so significantly – and feel so split up having been retooled into a trilogy – that while I love Remake as a spiritual sequel, I can still feel disconnected as an original fan. It’s one reason I sweat so much whenever Square Enix hints at giving the likes of Final Fantasy 9 or Final Fantasy 6 the same remake treatment across multiple games. They work well enough as one game as it is! Cease this!

On the other end of the spectrum, something like this year’s Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, despite offering higher-fidelity assets, can feel so close to the original that it’s sometimes uncanny. How you feel about it comes down to whether you like the muckier-looking characters in the original or the 10% more handsomified models. In my Black Flag Resynced review, I called it “far from smooth sailing, even though I love the original” because of how it struggled to find its balance in this regard.

There’s no mistaking Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter is a new, distinct take on what I’m already familiar with, while simultaneously having deep reverence for the classic. One of the benefits of remaking an older RPG that’s heavy on a birds-eye view perspective and transitioning into random battles arenas is how clear that distinction can be by simply making the world more contiguous.

Still, despite being so respectful of its source material, Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter isn’t above making massive changes to how you experience the RPG. To me, that’s the core appeal for why this remake works as well as it does. The more abstracted original still exists with its strictly turn-based combat, while 2nd Chapter provides a new way to experience that journey by dashing about its blue-sky, green-grass, gorgeous world.

The biggest change is, of course, hybrid real-time and turn-based combat that offers some of the best battles this surprisingly tactical RPG series has ever had. The original is completely turn-based. Enemies can be battered to pieces on the field, and stance-broken to give you an advantage when you initiate a turn-based battle. This in turn allows for potential bonus strikes like team-up attacks as your party and enemy monsters scrabble into place.

Plenty of foes can be felled purely by cannily dodging and attacking in real-time, though you’ll be able to more effectively blast apart health bars by using the command abilities and magic spells only usable while in the turn-based mode. It’s a fluid hybrid that feels less delineated than the similar approach in Metaphor ReFantazio (which, for the record, came out after Trails first embraced this system in Trails Through Daybreak).

Several abilities in battle are determined through each character’s orbal device. Akin to materia, these are individual powers that, combined into connecting slots, can boost elemental affinities that cumulatively unlock new spells. Connect a bunch of blue ones together and you’ll get healing spells, for instance, while red ones (believe it or not) unlock fire spells.

But, plenty of orbments have different amounts (or a mix) of affinities, and can be boosted by character-specific slots. It’s easy enough to set and forget tough upgrades, but offers a real chin-stroking layer for those who want to meet Trails’ hardest challenges. In recent entries, I’ve felt this has been flattened down a bit, but Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter manages to embrace the original spirit of this battle system while still remaining friendly to get to grips with.

Despite me constantly saying Final Fantasy 9, with its fairytale art style, doesn’t need a remake, that doesn’t stop multiple leaks, rumors, and Square Enix themselves from teasing that a proper Final Fantasy 9 remake is seriously on the cards. I’m a chipper sort of fellow, but the prospect has been making me on-and-off grumpy for a while. But, being wowed once again by Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter really does go to show that you can get it right. If Final Fantasy 9 Remake can take some pointers from how elegantly 2nd Chapters modernizes a classic through a remake, by matching it in scope, reviving its spirit, and adding plenty of depth, I can see myself getting with the program.

The real genius of Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter is how it avoids the remake pitfall that lies beneath the tightrope between being so faithful you wonder what the point is, and a reimagining so different it feels off. It accomplishes this by removing my worries entirely. I’m simply whisked away to the world of Zemuria, lost in its vibrant world once again – that’s the real magical potential of a remake when done right.

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