If you're debating playing this game or not the short answer is, "OH MY F*CKING GOD YES!"

The long answer is written below. :P

As someone who started the "Trails" series with cold steel 1 and 2 coming back to try this game definitely was an adjustment from the combat and quartz systems in those games but if you can stand to learn a slightly different system there is an incredible amount to love here, I played the game on hard my first play through finishing in 46 hours with the max amount of bracer points.

The game definitely does not pull punches with difficulty but it does hold your hand in the first few hours and I kept referencing the bracer notebook like it was a bible.

However be advised that the game does have a lot of missable content which resulted in a lot of frustrating resetting to prior save points as well as a bug with one of the later quests in the game that results in a softlock if the events are not executed correctly. If you want to see every ounce of this games content on a first run I heavily recommend using a guide to save yourself from the many frustrations i experienced.

All in all trails in the sky is an amazing JRPG with an enthralling story that i'd definitely recommend if you want to get into the series or are a JRPG fan in general.