The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky stood as a 40+ hour tour de force that remains one of the genre's most ambitious attempts at world-building. A work that's densely packed with narrative details, side-stories, and entertaining dialogue. No character felt wasted, in fact - most were given far more personality and detail than your typical JRPG. Trails' 'reactive' towns (reminiscent of both Suikoden and Grandia) alter the mood and dialogue of their denizens as the game progresses, no matter how significant the story moment. Each NPC - major or minor, carry their own response to the changing world around them, with some even boasting miniature-stories with their own structure and progression, all to craft villages that were more alive than the usual pit stops and quest-givers other JRPG towns tend to be. However, gameplay was a little stale. Combat felt pointless in several ways, a surprise given how mechanically overcrowded it is. Despite the sheer amount of systems and details, battler customization was fairly limited, and skillsets were especially samey. Story-wise, the journey of one of the best written duos in recent memory was a well-balanced collection of enjoyable character interactions and humor with intense and poignant scenes, building up to powerful, emotional moments. Altogether, Trails set new story crafting standards in its genre - rarely has a JRPG ever felt so narratively complete.