| Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Release Date | Gameplay & Story | Pre-Order & DLC | Review |
Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter continues the journey of Estelle across the kingdom of Liberl. Read on to learn everything we know, our first impressions of the game, and more.
Everything We Know About Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter
Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter Plot
After Joshua’s disappearance, Estelle sets out on a journey to find him in the hopes of bringing him home. While the teaser remained vague on the events of the sequel, the appearance of characters from the original 2006 game, like Renne, Luciola, and Georg Weissman, confirms that Estelle and her party will be facing the agents called Enforcers.
Estelle Bright, Joshua Astray, Scherazard Harvey, Kloe Rinz, Agate Crosner, Olivier Lenheim, Tita Russell, and Zin Vathek are set to be the main cast in Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter. The game's first teaser also previously confirmed the inclusion of Klaudia and Zane, who could be seen along with the rest of the cast.
Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter Gameplay
Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter maintains a turn-based tactical combat system typical of the modern Trails subseries, where encounters transition from an overworld or field map into a grid-oriented battle screen. In battle, players issue commands to a party of up to four characters per encounter, selecting from physical attacks, Crafts (unique character abilities that cost Craft Points), and Arts (magic drawn from the customizable orbment system).
Character progression is tied to experience gained from battles and quests, which unlocks new abilities and quartz slots. Quality-of-life improvements seen in the remake of the first chapter are anticipated to extend into the second
Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter Release Date
Trails in the Sky the 2nd Chapter was released on September 17, 2026 for Steam, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and the Nintendo Switch 2, following an official announcement in December 2025.
Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter Review [First Impressions]
This Is What a Good Remake Looks Like
JRPG fans are eating good this year. Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave just released, Final Fantasy Resonance is just around the corner, and there is enough coming our way to keep the backlog alive and well into next year. Somewhere in that pile is a remake of a 20-year-old game that I somehow never got around to playing despite my affinity for JRPGs in general. Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter is my first proper trip through this particular, well, chapter of the series; I went in with very little idea of what awaited me, and so far, I am having a pretty damn good time with it.
That probably sounds like a simple thing to say, but despite being only a couple of hours in, I feel as though I have spent enough time with 2nd Chapter to get a feel for what this remake is going for. There is a lot here that feels immediately familiar to those who have played the previous game, and there are some parts that could do with a little polish.
I am still far from the end, so consider this a taste of where I stand with the game so far. There is much more to unpack once I have seen the whole journey through.
It is, however, important to state that since Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter is a direct sequel to last year’s Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter, it stands to reason that there are going to be spoilers for the first game here. Do be warned.
Estelle’s Search for Her Boyfriend Begins
1st Chapter ended with Estelle finally learning the truth about Joshua. He had been trained as an assassin and had worked with Ouroboros before Cassius took him in, and he believed that his past would eventually put Estelle in danger. So, Joshua put her to sleep, left her behind, and disappeared. After spending the entire game watching the two of them grow closer, that ending was pretty damn cruel. Estelle wakes up with Joshua gone and no real idea where he went, which is exactly where 2nd Chapter starts.
Estelle is immediately right at it. She talks to Cassius, returns to the Bracer Guild, and starts looking for a way to track Joshua down. The answer involves getting stronger and picking up bracer work again, so off she goes. That would be enough to carry the story for a while, though Ouroboros is already making its move in Liberl. Joshua’s connection to the organization means Estelle’s search is tied to whatever they have planned, and the first few hours start putting those two threads together.
There is a pretty funny simplicity to Estelle’s goal at this point. Ouroboros might have a massive scheme going on across Liberl, but Estelle mostly wants her boyfriend back.
What’s great here is that Estelle is still very much Estelle. She is older and a little more experienced after everything that happened in the first game, though she has not suddenly become some perfectly composed hero. She still very much talks before thinking. The only difference now is that she also has a much more personal reason to throw herself into trouble this time. Joshua leaving her has clearly hurt, and the game lets that sit underneath her usual energy.
The returning cast helps with that too. There is no need to spend another hour or so explaining who Schera is or why Agate keeps yelling at Estelle. These characters already have history with her, and the game can get straight back into their usual dynamic. Oliver is still Oliver, which means there is only so much personal growth anyone can reasonably expect from him. After spending the previous game with this group, getting to see them fall back into their old conversations feels natural.
The Old Gang Is Back
Kevin Graham is one of the first major new faces, and he slides into the group pretty easily. He is a priest with an unusually relaxed attitude, especially for someone who seems to know more than he lets on. There are little things about him that make it hard to believe he is just some random guy who happened to cross paths with Estelle. Well, I already know much of who he is because I somehow stumbled into this series through Cold Steel and Daybreak, but it’s nice to see his origin. The game does not dump his entire backstory on you right away, which leaves enough room to wonder what he is actually doing here.
Ouroboros is much easier to take seriously now that Estelle has a personal connection to it. The first game spent a long time keeping the organization at arm’s length before finally revealing how much was going on behind the scenes. 2nd Chapter gets to skip that introduction. Estelle already knows Joshua was involved with them, and she already knows that they are dangerous. Every time the organization comes up, there is also the question of what they know about Joshua that she does not.
That question keeps the Joshua plot moving even when the game takes its time with everything else. Estelle can go off and deal with a completely ordinary bracer request, and Joshua is still the reason she is there in the first place. The result, then, is a story that can jump between small-town problems and a much bigger conspiracy without completely losing the personal reason Estelle started travelling again.
That said, the pacing can still be a little jarring. Joshua just left. Estelle is devastated. Ouroboros is evidently up to something nasty. However, the game still asks you to go help people with their everyday problems as though the main quest doesn’t involve any urgency. That is very much the Trails formula, and there is nothing wrong with that when you are in the mood for it.
It does, though, mean the immediate urgency of the ending gets stretched out. You know exactly who Estelle wants to find, and sometimes the game has other errands in mind first.
Liberal Still Feels Like Home
Thankfully, those errands are easier to settle into because Liberl is a place we’re already accustomed to. We’ve seen these towns before and the people who live here. Even the smaller jobs have a little more context when you already know what the country looks like and how its people tend to operate.
This is what makes the Trails series so compelling as a whole. The interconnectedness of each region and each game is astounding to witness. 2nd Chapter is merely building on everything 1st Chapter established. Everyone else is still carrying the relationships and problems from the previous game with them.
More than this, the part I keep coming back to is Estelle herself. She spent the first game trying to understand what it meant to be a bracer and trying to keep up with Joshua. Now she has to do all of that without him. She has plenty of people around her, yet the person she actually wants beside her is the one person who left. The main point this time is that Estelle wants to find Joshua. The bigger question is what happens when she finally does.
It’s a Trails Game Through and Through
If you played 1st Chapter last year, odds are 2nd Chapter will feel pretty familiar. You can run around the field, smack weaker enemies with your weapons, and jump straight into a Quick Battle once a fight starts. Stronger enemies can still be stunned before you jump into Command Battle, which is where things slow down, and the more tactical side of the combat takes over. The switch between the two happens so naturally that I rarely have to think about which system I am using. Most of the smaller enemies are getting smacked around in the field before they even have a chance to start a fight.
That means, then, that running through Liberl is a lot less tedious with Quick Battle around. It’s essentially the action RPG portion of the game. 1st Chapter already had this system, so 2nd Chapter does not need to teach me how to use it again. I can run through an area, take out whatever and whoever gets in the way, and keep moving without stopping for a full battle every few seconds. There is a little more to pay attention to now, too. Attacks have different ranges, dodging matters a lot, and Crafts (which are essentially your Skills) can be worked into the action.
It still does not feel like a replacement for the turn-based combat, though. After a few fights, I am usually happy to let Quick Battle deal with the small fry and save Command Battle for anything that looks like it might actually cause trouble.
Once a fight moves into Command Battle, you are back to worrying about positioning, turn order, Arts, Crafts, CP (Craft Points), and all the other things that make a Trails fight a small puzzle to solve. The remake gives characters more freedom to move around the battlefield during their turns, which makes positioning much easier to manage than it was in the original system.
I have already had a few moments where moving someone a little closer or farther away makes the difference between hitting the enemy I want and wasting an attack on the wrong target.
A lot of that tactical flexibility still comes down to the Orbment system. You slot Quartz into each character’s orbment, and those choices determine the Arts they can use along with their stats. 2nd Chapter expands each Orbment to seven slots and gives you more Arts to work toward, so there is more room to mess around with your setups. It is also the kind of menu that I can spend way, way, way too long staring at because there is almost always another Quartz that could probably make somebody a little stronger. Min-maxing is my weakness in JRPGs, I’m afraid.
The system itself, however, is still fairly restrictive compared with some of the later Trails games. Characters have their own Orbment layouts, and the Quartz you put in them can push them toward certain Arts. That makes party building feel more deliberate. You cannot just throw whatever looks strongest onto everyone and expect the same result. Some characters clearly want to lean into Arts, some are better suited to physical attacks, and figuring out which is which is part of the fun. It also means the game gives me a reason to care about Quartz beyond watching numbers go up.
The biggest new toy so far is Brave Rush. The Brave Gauge builds during combat, and spending two points lets two characters team up for a big attack during Quick Battle. It is the sort of move that makes me want to save the gauge for a good opportunity instead of immediately pressing the shiny button because I can. Watching two characters jump in together and wipe out a group of enemies also makes the regular Quick Battles feel a little less disposable.
This doesn’t completely change how the game is played, though. The basic rhythm is still the same one from 1st Chapter, and I can already see myself treating the new attack as another tool inside that system. That is probably for the best, really. 2nd Chapter has enough going on in combat already.
The cast gets some new tricks through their character-specific Crafts, too. Everyone has their own set of attacks, and the remake has added or adjusted abilities across the cast. Some of them are much more satisfying to use in the new combat system, because they can be thrown into the middle of a fight without stopping everything to navigate a menu. Estelle especially feels good to control once you start mixing her regular attacks with her Crafts, and the difference between characters is easy enough to notice after only a few battles.
S-Crafts are still those big flashy buttons you’d want to press if you really want something dead to stay dead. They’re like Limit Breaks from Final Fantasy, and watching one go off never gets old.
Regular enemies are still pretty manageable, though the game has systems that can make tougher fights much nastier. Enemies can enter Rage Boost states that improve their stats and give them access to stronger attacks. Ouroboros members get their own Enforcer Boost mechanics. I have not gotten deep enough to see how far the game takes these systems, though even this early, they give me a reason to not laze around and actually pay attention
JRPG Fans, Rejoice!
JRPG fans really are eating good this year. With so many big JRPGs coming out one after another, Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter has already made a pretty strong case for itself as one of the best JRPGs I have played this year. That is no small feat when it has to contend with so many other titans of the genre, yet a couple of hours with 2nd Chapter has been enough for me to see why this remake has been getting so much attention.
I am only a couple of hours into the game, so there is still a lot of Liberl left for me to see. I enjoyed my time in the region in Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter, and if that playthrough is anything to go by, I expect to have just as much fun, if not more, in 2nd Chapter. Estelle has a new journey ahead of her, and I am already curious to see where all this goes. For now, getting back into Liberl has been a pretty easy decision.
Game8 Reviews
You may also like...
Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter Product Information
 |
|
| Title | TRAILS IN THE SKY 2ND CHAPTER |
|---|---|
| Release Date | September 17, 2026 |
| Developer | Nihon Falcom |
| Publisher | Nihon Falcom Corporation GungHo Online Entertainment America, Inc. Clouded Leopard Entertainment Inc. |
| Supported Platforms | PC PlayStation 5 Nintendo Switch 2 Xbox Series X|S |
| Genre | RPG, Action, Adventure/td> |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | ESRB T |
| Official Website | Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter Official Website |
