21 years later, remake of beloved JRPG classic Trails in the Sky gets first playable demo – it's 5-7 hours long, and fans say it's a certified banger: "Oh my god it's phenomenal"

Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter, the remake of the genre-defining 2004 classic that kickstarted the Trails series, has a playable demo out letting you fully explore the prologue of the game.

Developer Nihon Falcom and publisher GungHo surprise-dropped the Trails in the Sky remake demo this week on PC via Steam and PS5, with a Switch version due to release "at a later date."

Now, you might be wondering, how is the prologue to any game a 5-7 hour affair? And I'll say to that: this is a remake of a JRPG in 2025, of course it's meaty as hell.

Any progress you make in the demo will transfer over to the full version of the game, provided you buy it on the same platform you played the demo on, meaning you won't have to replay the prologue unless you just want to.

Opening Movie - Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter - YouTube

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I've had high hopes for the remake since it was announced in December, and even equipped with the knowledge that the remake is 80 flippin' hours long, I couldn't be more excited to re-experience one of the best JRPG series ever made from a fresh perspective. And folks, early impressions are highly encouraging.

"Falcom have DELIVERED," reads the title of a video breakdown of the demo from The Kiseki Nut, who praised the remake's updated visuals, localization, animations, and turn-based/real-time hybrid combat system.

Meanwhile, long-form writeups from places like Xbox Era and RPG Site are largely very positive as well.

For a breezier snapshot of the overall reaction, pretty much everyone on Reddit is uniformly impressed by the demo.

"ITS SOOOOO GOOOOOOD!!!!!!" reads one enthusiastic comment.

"Oh my god it's phenomenal," reads another.

"My eyes are sweating. It's so peak so far. What an incredible remake, we are so blessed," gushes another Redditor.

I haven't played nearly enough of the demo to give any sort of comprehensive overview, but from the hour-and-change I played last night, Trails in the Sky remake seems like JRPG bliss. It looks stunning and runs smooth as butter on my base PS5 with the 120 FPS mode switched on, and I'm intrigued, if not slightly overwhelmed, by its myriad of systems. But that's with any JRPG these days.

By all accounts, JRPG sickos have been blessed with several hours of a modernized chunk of genre royalty this week, and as a proud JRPG sicko myself, I'm officially canceling all my plans this weekend.

Follow it up with a pick from our guide to the best JRPGs ever made.