The Legend of Heroes series continues to chug away with its sixth entry in the series, Trails in the Sky. This game brings a classic RPG feeling with turn-based combat, great music, and a strong narrative. While this isn’t the most visually stunning game you’ll ever see, it has a certain charm that just works. As the PSP sings its swan song, RPG fans will be hard-pressed to find a better game to say goodbye with.

While most of the modern-day RPGs have a heavier emphasis on combat and customization, Trails in the Sky‘s main focus is its story and characters. It makes no bones about it, and your enjoyment of this game will ultimately hinge on this fact. The story focuses on Estelle Bright and her adopted brother Joshua’s journey to become Senior Bracers, essentially mercenaries for justice. The witty banter between the sibling duo is well written and enjoyable. Their personalities really come to life as you play through the various quests and experience certain cutscenes.

is there any reason it can’t be both?

The narrative itself takes awhile to really get rolling, but the interaction between the two characters and people they meet is what really drives the game. You often go on side-quests to earn more money and increase your guild rank. There is some wonderful dialogue through these seemingly menial tasks. I would often do extra side-quests simply for the amusement of seeing how Estelle and Joshua would react. Joshua is more of the quiet, analytical type, while Estelle is loud, quick-to-act, but also sweet. Their journey together was quite enjoyable.

As previously mentioned, there is one main over-arching story, but the game also has a hefty emphasis on side quests. As you report to various Bracer branches in the game, there are job boards where residents from the town can post jobs for tasks they need help with. These can range from defeating a pesky monster, to finding a stolen jewel, to retrieving overdue library books. I found the longer “treasure hunt” type of quests to be the most enjoyable. They’re more involved and leave you more satisfied upon completion.

What’s really nice about the game is you always know where to go and what to do. You have a book that you takes notes in pertaining to quests. After you go through certain story events, your notebook will always tell you where to go next. I find nothing more frustrating than getting lost or not knowing where to go in an RPG, so this is a fantastic little feature. However, there are certain events that are finicky. Sometimes you have to talk to person X to find out where to find item X. When I arrived at the designated spots sometimes the events didn’t trigger. You have to go about them in a very specific way that was frustrating at times.

Oh gawd, it’s the eye of sauron! anyone have that ‘one ring’?

When you’re not reading dialogue or looking for lost kitties, there are battles to be fought. Trails in the Sky implements a classic battle system with a few tweaks. Think Lunar meets Rhapsody and that’s about what you’re getting yourself into. The battles are turn-based, but you also have to be within range to do certain attacks. A great feature is the turn order chart on the left side of the screen. It’s a lot of Final Fantasy X in that it tells you who’s going to attack next and when a spell you’re charging is going to cast.

There’s also a magic system similar to Materia from Final Fantasy VII. Each character is given a number of orbal slots that that they can equip magical orbaments to. Each orbament holds an elemental power to it that also boosts a certain stat. For example, HP 1 is a blue orbament that gives you a healing spell, but also increases your total HP. You can either find these magic stones in chests or create them in orbal factories. Enemies will continuously drop materials needed to craft different orbaments, so doing side quests yields multiple benefits.