Released by Falcom in the year 2004 on the PC and later ported to the Playstation Portable,
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky would be the first chapter of a story so large it
had to be split into 3 games during development.
Directed by Toshihiro Kondo, who would eventually become the President of Falcom, the game is
the first part of a trilogy of games, that altogether form the 6th installment in the
Legend of Heroes series, which was formed from the spinoff 6th game, Dragon Slayer:
Legend of Heroes, of the Dragon Slayer series, of which, Dragon Slayer is credited as the
game that created the action RPG genre in 1984.
For combat, the game utilizes standard turn based mechanics on an isometric grid, where
characters can move, attack, use special attacks called Crafts, or cast spells called Arts
on their turn alongside random bonuses that can trigger on turns.
The Arts system is a deep fusion system of combining elements for each character in order
to unlock access to and synthesize a wider pool of elemental spells and effects.
Each character has their own set of special attacks and ultimate attacks, though turn
initiative is impacted based on turn cooldowns and status effects.
The game features a large world to-scale with the characters at all times, with an isometric
perspective of the 3d models, and monsters are encountered on the field instead of being
random.
Additionally, there is also a cooking system to add more depth to the setup heavy and text
heavy nature of the game.
For story, the game features the dual protagonists Estelle and Joshua at all times, and are joined
by 6 other party members over the course of the story, though only 4 are ever fielded
in combat at a time.
The story only gets larger from here, so let's cut it down to size with a RECAPitation.
Writers: Hisayoshi Takeiri, Toshihiro Kondo, Hirotaka Sato
Composers: Hayato Sonoda, Yukihiro Jindo
The game begins in the kingdom of Liberl, on the continent of Zemuria, where we meet
a young girl named Estelle, as her father Cassius brings home a wounded boy one night.
The boy is defiantly angry at Cassisus but Estelle's imposing nature manages to quell
him.
Calming down, the boy introduces himself as Joshua, and as time passes, Cassius has adopted
Joshua into the family, as both kids grow under the tutelage of Cassius.
As Estelle and Johsua are now 16 yrs of age, the day has also come when they finish up
their training at the local guild and take the test into becoming Bracers like Cassius.
Their trainer is a woman named Scherazard, who briefly recaps the history of Liberl,
in so much that 10 years ago the kingdom was invaded by the Erebonian Empire, but Liberl's
advanced and prolific orbment technology allow them to sucessfully defend and maintain their
independance.
Bracers themselves are recognized investigative and combat specialists who help their local
regions maintain peace and stability through services from simple odd jobs to monster extermination.
Their practical exam involves a simulated job posting and completion, and sucessfully
completed, they earn their appointment as Junior Bracers.
Schera congratulates them, mentioning how she remembers when Estelle's father Cassisus
trained her as a junior bracer years ago, though Estelle seems aloof to why her father
has earned such esteem from renowned bracers like Schera.
At dinner that night, Cassisus receives a letter that demands he leave for business
immediately, and they see him off.
He leaves them a few unfinished jobs initially assigned to him, and so Estelle and Joshua
launch their formal careers as junior bracers.
In one task of monster extermination, Estelle learns Joshua is quite popular with the ladies
but never dates any of them, while Joshua notices his instincts leave him more cutthroat
than he likes to admit.
The next job involves delivering a rare specimen of septium for the town mayor, and upon completion,
they meet a transfer student of a nearby boarding school named Josette.
The package is actually a present for the Queen on her upcoming 60th birthday, as appreciation
for her post-war leadership.
The last task involves escorting a couple of reporters doing a story on one of the strange
towers nearby.
As it turns out, nearby regions have their own similar towers, all built long ago when
Liberl was founded, yet all strangely abandoned.
On the roof, they find a strange ancient device, as well as an archaeologist named Professor
Alba who is studying these ruins, though they find it awfully suspicious that such an academic
made it up this monster-infested tower unscathed.
He mentions the Sept-Terrions, a powerful ancient race lost 1200 years ago, and the
legend that a Sept-Terrion named Aureole actually lays dormant somewhere within Liberl.
Upon completion of all three tasks, they barely have time to celebrate when the mayor comes
in, exclaiming he's been robbed of the septium he was preparing as the Queen's gift.
Investigating the crime scene, they're able to identify Josette as a likely suspect, so
Schera joins them for this mission.
Finding her hideout in the woods, it turns out Josette is actually a bandit from the
Capua family.
Estelle and team fight and supress Josette's group, succeed in recovering the Septium,
and are about to arrest the group, when the bandit's ariship opens covering fire, allowing
the rogues to escape capture for now.
Dismayed at the setback, Scherazard personally commends them on a job well done with the
investigation and recovery despite being Bracers-in-training, and formerly imparts a recommendation from
their Rolent Banch as formal junior bracers.
It's explained to them that in order to be promoted to senior bracers, they must travel
to every regional office in the kingdom and earn a recommendation, which is usually in
recognition to a noteworthy acheivement.
There are four more regions to visit, so the road will be long.
Their excitement for the future is interrupted as the phone rings, and the group learns the
airliner their father was on disappeared midflight over the Bose region.
Estelle has already made up her mind to go search for her father, so naturally Joshua
follows, though with the army investigating the disappearance, all air traffic is cancelled
so they'll have to travel by foot.
Schera intends to go as well, so the three head west to Bose.
As they travel they hear repeat warning not to get too close to the army investigation
site, but still make it to the commercial city safely.
They learn more details that General Morgan, an old war hero that with no love for the
bracer guild, is heading the investigation and is complicating things for bracer operations
in the area.
As it so happens, the mayor of Bose has requested the Bracer guild to conduct their own independant
investigation, so after registering themselves to this branch, Estelle, Joshua, and Schera
eagerly accept the task.
Going to meet General Morgan first, they travel to the Erebonian/Liberl border fort hiding
their identity as bracers, but find they just missed him.
Waiting for his return, they encounter a peculiar, well-dressed man from Erebonia that somehow
instantly knows they're bracers and seems to be more than a mere traveler.
Later, when meeting the General, he explains the investigation so far leads to the likelihood
the missing airliner was hijacked, and in fact, a group called the Capua Family sent
out a letter claiming ownership of the incident and demanding ransom.
The Capua Family are sky bandits mainly operating in the Bose Region, headed by 3 siblings,
one of whom the party already tangled with.
Unfortunately, Estelle lets slip that they're bracers, and an enraged General Morgan runs
them out, harshly criticisizing their deceptive tactics to get information out of him.
Schera shoots back, pointing out the uncooperative nature of the army has led to no results or
capture of the sky pirates either.
Their fight is broken up by the carefree man from the bar, who sings them both a song that
actually ends up calming down everyone.
He introduces himself as Olivier, and follows the group to Bose, where they report their
findings and resume their search for the missing airliner.
Following a lead, they pass by a gruff bracer named Agate, discover an abandoned mine, and
find their missing airliner hidden away in a quarry.
Confronting Kyle of the Capua family, he drops that he was expecting the army at a later
time, and after getting beaten in a fight, he drops a smokescreen and gets away yet again.
Investigating the airliner left behind, they find the entire thing was cleaned out of cargo
and passengers, likely already taken to the bandit's headquarters.
Given that they're sky bandits, it seems strange they didn't just take the entire ship with
them, though they figure it likely means their true hideout is somewhere unique that can
only accomodate their smaller aircraft.
At this time, an army patrol team with General Morgan in tow conveniently comes in right
after them, and accuses them of conspiring with the Sky Bandits, taking them under arrest.
In jail, Joshua remembers what Kyle said and how that likely means there is a mole in the
army, and strangely enough, Olivier is also in jail with them in the adjacent cell.
The Mayor of Bose helps them out after informing the General they are the children of Cassisus
bright, for as it turns out, Cassius long served with the General before he became a
bracer and the two were good colleague, though he still doesn't approve of the bracer guild.
The Mayor arranges for Olivier to be released as well, and in return render aide to the
group in the investigation of what is now a string of robberies in town.
They encounter a courteous officer in black named Colonel Richard, who wishes for the
Army and Bracers to work together, and is currently leading the Royal Intelligence division
also conducting their own investigations.
Estelle and group follow clues and sightings until they find themselves tailing both Josette
and Kyle into a meeting with a masked soldier who informs them about the army and queen's
movements and actions.
Schera gets the idea to sabotage the airship the bandits came in on though Olivier has
an even better plan to stow away and let the bandits take them to their hideout.
Within, the group causes havoc, knocking out grunts and securing the lost passengers, only
to be shocked to see their father isn't among them.
Rather, they learn Cassius disembarked the ship right before they lifted off so he was
never kidnapped to begin with, but it raises a new question of what is he doing now and
where.
Meanwhile, the leader of the Capua family, Don, seems unusually ruthless to the other
2 siblings, insisting they kill the hostages once they get the ransom money.
Estelle and group rush in, and both groups clash, with the Bracers easily winning.
Don shakes his head, and somehow has no knowledge of his actions since Josette left for Rolent,
and his personality change seems genuine.
Taking this opportunity, Kyle once again drops a smoke bomb to escape, but its for naught
as Colonel Richard with General Morgan in tow are ready and waiting to capture them.
Despite the glory of arrest stolen from them, their hard work of finding the base, subduing
the gang, and rescuing the hostages is still recognized as the mayor of Bose is overjoyed
at the turn of events and Estelle and Joshua have earned they newest recommendation.
Thier celebration is again cut short as a letter from Cassius comes in for them, written
right before he got off the airliner, explaining his current mission will take some time, so
don't expect him back home until after the Queen's Birthday.
There's also a package addressed to Cassisus from an unknown sender that they open up hoping
for clues, but instead find a strange black orbment, from someone called 'K' for the purpose
of being delivered to Professor 'R'.
Olivier notes the Black Orbment may in fact be an artifact from ancient times, given its
unique build, but this one seems made recently.
Joshua takes this time to recommend continuing traveling and earn senior bracership.
After all, it beats sitting around waiting for their father, and travelling may uncover
more clues of this Professor R. The next day, the group splits up, as Joshua and Estelle
continue their journey, Schera returns to Rolent, and Olivier continues his travels
to Rolent as well.
On the airship back though, Schera overhears Olivier on a portable phone, and learns he's
actually a special operative of the Erebonian empire, here to actually meet with Cassisus
himself.
Back with Estelle and Joshua, their next goal is the Ruan region, and as they hike the seaside
route over there, they stop in a small village and run into a girl from the Royal Academy
named Kloe, who's searching for a troublemaking orphan.
Finding him and returning to the orphanage, it turns out Kloe is also a falconeer and
fencer, and after they all enjoy a meal together, she helps guide them to the port town of Ruan.
The next day they register with the local Bracer branch, and when requesting their first
job, there's an alarming call to the branch requesting an investigation into a fire that
burned down the local orphanage they were just at.
Arriving on scene, the Matron and kids are ok, so they begin their investigation, learning
that this was no accident.
Agate arrives, doing his own jobs in town, and decides to take over the case, pulling
rank and taking Estelle and Joshua off for the reason of their personal involvement with
the orphanage as well as dragging a civilian into things.
Feeling bad for them, Kloe offers to enlist them instead for the job at her academy, helping
out with the premier play in their school festival.
In preparation, Estelle and Joshua live among the students in the dorms and even attend
classes as guests for a few days.
As the starring roles, the trio put on a smash hit show, though there is a mysterious silver-haired
man who stands in attendance.
The play also garners a massive donation towards the rebuilding of the orphanage, but later
that evening, someone steals the money so Estelle and Joshua are on the case to find
the culprit.
Agate now comes in, sensing something in common with the arson case, and takes Estelle and
Joshua with him as they hunt their shared culprit together.
They follow clues until it leads them to the seaside lighthouse, taken over by a local
gang, but the members all seem hypnotized and unusually stronger than normal.
Climbing up, they learn that the orphanage was set fire maliciously and funds were stolen
for the purpose of forcing the matron and kids to relocate while the mayor himself repurposes
the land for high-value real estate.
Strange men in black also reappear as hired help for the job by the mayor's aide, but
Kloe and the party of bracers are able to best them, though they are forced back when
the masked men turn on their employer and begin taking hostages.
Agate gives chase, though the mayor's aide and the local gang are successfully arrested
and the money recovered.
The problem now is properly incriminating the mayor, and at this point, Kloe writes
a quick letter to be delivered by her falcon.
The bracer branch thinks to involve the Royal army for this task, but they'll need Estelle
and Joshua to buy time with the mayor by pressing him with questions and exposing dirt on him.
They visit the mayor's estate and walk in on him chatting with Duke Dunan about the
plans for renovating the area, as Duke Dunan has his sights on being the next crown King.
They directly out the mayor being the mastermind of the arson and theft, with the motive of
amassing money to pay off a huge debt he already acumulated with speculative land deals and
embezzlements.
He lets loose some monsters to silence them and when that fails, pulls out an powerful
artifact to try and freeze them in place.
He's about to shoot them himself when the artifact Estelle was carrying on her for Cassius
suddenly lights up and cancels the other artifact's effects.
The mayor flees and the group gives chase, dodging and deflecting the bullets he sends
their way.
As his yacht picks up speed, all hope of catching him seems lost when suddenly a Royal Guard
cruiser soard overheads and completely cuts off all escape.
Upon capture, the mayor suddenly blanks out and cannot remember his crimes, just like
with the leader of the sky bandits, though soon even Colonel Richard of the Royal Army
arrives to congratulate them on their efforts, though he finds its so strange the Royal Guard
arrived before they did so quickly.
Wrapping up, they return to the guild where they learn Agate wasn't able to capture the
men in black, but is still in pursuit.
On the subject of the black orbment in their possession, the guild suggests going to Zeiss,
a city famous for the manufacture of orbments for a clue, but before they leave, they award
Estelle and Joshua their own recommendation for a high-stakes mission well done.
With that, the junior bracers set their sights on Zeiss next, and bid farewell to their friend
Kloe, though she says she'll be in Grancel for the Queen's Birthday in a month, and hopes
to meet up with them there.
On the road again, Estelle and Joshua pass through a limestone cave en route to Zeiss,
but pause to save a little girl in trouble in the caves.
She actually holds her own in a fight with her own orbal guns, and introduces herself
as Tita, a young engineer.
They escort her back to the industrialized city and register themselves with the local
guild, and are soon handed a referral to see the factory chief in regards to their strange
black orbment.
He can't make heads or tails of it, but suggests the Professor R it was intended for is likely
the famous Professor Russell, a legendary man who greatly advanced orbment technology
over the last few decades and basically headed the Orbal Revolution in Liberl.
While he has a workshop in town, the professor's granddaughter works for this very factory,
and it turns out to be Tita herself.
Taking them to Professor Russel, he's immediately intrigued by the item since it lacks any markings
or opening, and even its casing is an unidentifiable metal.
During testing, it activates and somehow shuts down all orbments downtown, adding even more
intrigue to its true nature.
As he works on it, the group takes Tita for some down time at a hot springs resort nearby
while working a small job, and it comes to light again for Estelle how much people perceive
her and Joshua as a romantic item.
On the way back, they hear of a gas leak accident in the factory, with Professor Russell still
inside, so they hurry in, running into Agate also looking into the matter.
It turns out masked men in black are behind the incident again, this time caught in the
middle of kidnapping the Professor and the Black orbment.
They get away in plain sight, disguised as Royal Guardsmen, and the group loses the trail
as well as the professor.
Soon after, the Royal Intelligence division comes in, filing the entire ordeal as terrorism,
and starting their own internal investigation.
They run into Prefessor Alba again, who reports he saw some suspicious people dressed as guardsmen
in the local ruins he was researching himself, so the party now has a firm lead.
As they climb yet another ancient tower, Agate also notes these guys are somehow able to
train and command monsters in a way he's never seen before.
Confronting the men in black again, they don't spot the red masked leader among them so they
clean up the rest.
The tide turns against them, when the assailants pull out their own airship, and Agate saves
Tita who blew their window to get the professor, and results in the kidnappers getting away
again and Agate being poisoned.
They run into a large traveler from the east named Zane, who offers to help move Agate,
as it turns out he too is a bracer from the neighboring republic of Calvard.
He's on his way to Grancel but chooses to accompany them retrieving an antidote herb
from within a dangerous monster den.
With Agate out of danger, Zane continues on his trip, and the rest of the group learns
the airship the men in black got away in was caught on film right above a Royal Army installation.
Though the matter should be handled delicatly, they provoke a response by going to the fortress
in the picture and asking some questions, only to find the soldiers in the base acting
very shifty.
To clinch things, they see the same orbal shutdown phenomenon affect the base like they
saw before, meaning for some reason, the professor is being held captive here in this royal army
fort.
When they return to the guild, Agate is back on his feet and raring to go sneak into the
fort and break out the professor, but there's a major problem.
There is an explicit non-intervention clause between the bracer guild and royal army, in
which bracers have no sovereignty in regards to national figures or military.
So, they couldn't arrest a politician or anyone in the army even if they witness a crime.
However, there is one loophole, as the bracers are an organization of the people for the
people, so they may intervene to protect civilians, and since the professor is a civilian, they
may accept a request to rescue just him.
The factory chief is more than willing to support, so Estelle, Joshua, and Agate are
deployed on this rescue mission.
Thanks to Tita's tech support, they're able to infiltrate at night, and confirm the men
in black are likely special covert ops units in the military.
Sneaking around, they are surprised to find Colonel Richard is actually the one behind
everything, including holding the professor and stealing the black orbment, which he calls
the Gospel.
After he leaves the base, the group is quick to knock out some guards and rescue the professor,
but the alarm rings out so escape is now more of a challange.
Major Cid of the base sneaks them away, exposing that Colonel Richard has the Royal Armed forces
under his thumb with the Intelligence Division, and has even imprisoned the imposing General
Morgan.
Richard is currently taking advantage of the weakness in infrastructure of the military
as well as common corruption, and now moves to frame the Imperial Guardsman for treason
on false charges.
Cid can't do much to help that, but will help them escape for now, leading them out with
a secret passageway.
Agate nows moves to hide the professor and Tita somewhere else safely, as the army knows
his face very well, but notsomuch Estelle and Joshua's.
The Professor now reveals the Gospel originally came from the Intelligence Division, was stolen
from them, and they found it again when the Professor caused the blackout with it earlier,
hence the kidnapping.
He wants them now to take the Gospel, go the queen in Grancel, and warn her personally
of Colonel Richard's plot.
Parting ways, the two groups now head off on their own, while at the same time, we see
a Royal Guardsman escaping with Kloe, and holding off some men in black while Kloe hurries
to Grancel, but, even her escape is cut off by Colonel Richard himself.
Back in town, Estelle and Joshua are preparing to embark for Grancel, but before that, for
the exceptional feat of breaking the Professor out of a secure military compound, they are
awarded their own Recommendation from this branch.
On the road again, they hear about a fighting tournament, but are about to be detained by
the army as all bracers are currently under suspicion.
Fortunately, Professor Alba happens to be here and covers for them, in return for helping
him out earlier.
Making it to the capital city of Grancel, they register with the branch and get right
into business, as the branch itself still has no news on Cassisus's whereabouts, and
pressure from Colonel Richard means getting to the Queen won't be straightforward.
Pretending to be tourists, they approach the castle, and learn that the queen is purportedly
ill and the Royal guardsmen have been removed, and while Duke Dunan is next in line to be
king, he's so unreliable that all administration has been performed by Colonel Richard instead.
With no way to get inside for now, they decide to sit in on fighting tournament, observing
that their friend Zane is participating as well.
Duke Dunan announces among the prizes for the winner will be a invitation to a royal
banquet in 3 days in grancel castle, so suddenly Joshua and Estelle see a way to get the professor's
message through.
As events play along, the other bracers suggest Estelle and Joshua join Zane in the team competition
for the grand prize, and they agree.
Zane allows them along, but when wondering who can be their 4th slot member, Olivier
happens to enter the scene, eager to oblige, and conveniently wishing to enter the castle
as well.
That night, Estelle finds herself once more self-aware of herself and her growing feelings
towards Joshua, though she still needs time to sort her thoughts out.
They also investigate a little on their targets, learning that Colonel Richard used to serve
under Cassisus when Cassius used to be a Colonel in the Army, and the masked man in red is
Lorence, a part of the Hunting Corps, or Jaegers, an elite mercenary group.
To himself, Joshua seems familiar with the Jester divison of the Jaegers that Lawerence
is from.
That night, they receive a strange letter to meet at night in the cathedral, and cautiously
following it, they find it belongs to Lt. Julia, the Royal Guardsman who helped stop
the corrupt mayor and also has been helping Kloe.
She hands them a letter to also give to the queen, as herself and the other Royal guards
are hiding in the church as the Intelligence Division hunts them down.
As they return back to their room, Joshua makes a serious promise to Estelle that when
this ordeal is over, he'll tell her about his past before they met, something he has
never done all these years.
As they make it to the finals, their opponent is none other than Lorence with his special
ops team, though Joshua suspects he's seen Lorence's swordplay before, and the Bracers
are able to edge out a tough victory.
Colonel Richard notes the turn of events, and how Lorence was holding back, but doesn't
believe the bracers are capable of impacting their plan that is already nearing completion.
With the invitation in hand, Estelle, Joshua, and Zane enter the castle and are impressed
by the scale of it all.
They note the tight security prevalent in the castle, but seek out the head maid as
Julia had advised, who reads Julia's letter and thinks of a way to have them meet the
queen.
That night, Colonel Richard makes the announcement that the queen intends to abdicate the throne
to Duke Dunan in a few days, and will make the formal announcement herself during her
birthday celebration, much to the disbelief of everyone there.
The Dean of the Royal Academy points out that Princess Klaudia also has equal standing to
claim the throne, but Colonel Richard claims the queen deemed her too young to accept the
crown.
After dinner, the head maid has Estelle and Joshua dress up as maids in order to sneak
them next to the queen, and the two get to finally meet Queen Alicia face to face.
She listens to their message from Professor Russell, and shares that some time ago there
was a strange orbal reaction from deep underground Grancel that the professor privately investigated,
yet Colonel Richard should never have learned of.
She knows their father Cassius personally, as he was a friend to her late son, and played
a pivotal role in the war as well as helping her with missions from time to time even today.
Evidently, he was the officer who planned the successful counteroffensive against the
Erebonians when they were completely surrounded and outnumbered.
Unfortunately, Estelle's mother was a casualty of the war when she sacrificed herself to
save Estelle from a destroyed clock tower in Rolent during the fighting, which shook
Cassius so hard he retired from the military and instead became a bracer to be closer to
home.
Bringing things to the present, she asks them to rescue those who were captured by the Intelligence
division, especially Princess Klaudia, whom she originally backed as the successor to
the throne, which is really what started the coup d'etat plot by Colonel Richard to begin
with.
Viewing the current and potential leadership as weak, Colonel Richard would use Duke Dunan
as a puppet and instead steer Liberl into strong militarization and become more of an
international presence.
Returning to their room, Zane is interested in helping out, as it turns out he was sent
here originally by Cassius and was even asked to help Estelle and Joshua out should they
need it.
In fact, Zane is an A-ranked bracer, one of 20 in the world, though Cassius is one of
the 4 informal S-Ranks, dubbed the Divine Blade.
Given the escalation of this mission, backup would be preferred, but with martial law set
in blocking almost all travel, they can't get help from the other branches in time.
So, they must instead gather the talents they have here.
Assembling the other bracers from the tournament, as well as Julia and the hiding guardsmen,
they plan a rescue with two teams, a decoy team and a rescue team, and plan to take the
villa with the hostages in it by force.
Estelle, Joshua, and Zane are to play the critical role as the core rescue team and
united, the queen's liberation front storm the castle at night.
Cutting past dozens of special ops soldiers, Estelle and team locate the room where the
vip hostages are being held, and are shocked to find that Princess Klaudia is in fact their
friend Kloe.
When the guards get desperate and start threatening hostages, backup comes just in time as Scherazard
and Olivier dash in to save them.
Hostages rescued, and most of the special ops on the grounds defeated, and Colonel Richard
elsewhere, the window to escape is open, but Kloe points out the window to save the Queen
is open too.
She formally requests the bracers there to help her in this, and produces a old map of
the castle with some forgotten routes they can use to infiltrate.
For rescuing the Queen, the plan is for Joshua, Olivier and Zane to infiltrate the sewers
and open the castle gates for the ground forces, who will lead the standing guard away for
Estelle, Schera, and Kloe to fly in on an airship and break into the queen's room directly.
Succeeding on his end, team Joshua get the gates open, and Lt. Julia wastes no time rushing
the breach alongside the local bracers and royal guards.
Dropping in, team Estelle confronts Colonel Richard's second in command, blow past her,
and next confront the would-be cowardly king Duke Dunan.
Once his guards are defeated, he is quick to give up, but beyond him, Lt Lorence stands
between them and the queen.
He unveils his face to be the same silver-haired man who observed their school play in Ruan,
and even outnumbered 3 to 1 he is hardly outmatched as he easily defeats the 3 girls.
However, he strangely chooses to not only surrender the queen back to them, but advises
they hurry below if they are to stop Colonel Richard, as he makes a complete escape.
Confused at Richard's intentions, the Queen focuses all of them when team Joshua now runs
in, and that is that Colonel Richard is after Aureole, the Shining Ring, and one of the
powerful Sept-Terrions.
At this time, Agate, Tita and Professor Russel now come in, and together, everyone descends
to the forbidden depths below the castle.
Given the span of the Zemurian ruins, the group has a forward team and a standby base
team ready, with Estelle and Joshua leading the advance.
Delving in, they fight past ancient machines and the remnants of Colonel Richard's rebellion
until they encounter the Colonel himself.
He calmly explains his plan was to wield the ancient almighty power of the Sept-Terrions,
and use it to give Liberl the power it needs to stand above its neighboring countries.
Liberl succeeded in independance so far because Cassius won the war 10 years ago, and their
technological advantage gave them an edge.
However, since then, other countries have advanced their science, and Cassius left the
military so Liberl is vulnerable again.
He does this for love of the country, but Estelle challenges that relying on some alien
weapon and ruling by fear isn't the way, and instead the best asset Liberl has is its people
willing to band together and protect the country.
After all, Cassius was just one man and didnt win the war by himself.
Joshua notes its awfully suspicious that Colonel Richard conveniently learned of this forbidden
tech, the means to reach it, and how to control the Black orbment, even though no one, even
the queen, knew for decades.
If anything, this sounds just like the mind controlling phenomnenon they saw with the
Capua Family and the corrupt Mayor, but Colonel Richard denies any hypnotic brainwashing and
attacks them personally.
Clashing with the former subordinate of their war hero father, they succeed in taking him
down, but after doing so, the black orbment activates, and soon the facility around them
begins activating a new protocol to unseal Aureole.
A giant security robot comes out to deal with them, and while they beat its first form,
the bracers are beaten down by its upgraded mode.
Colonel Richard realizes his plan is a farce and now aides the group, trying to buy them
time to escape, and is willing to sacrifice himself to atone for his mistake.
However, out of the blue, Cassius himself dashes in to strike down the robot, giving
the group the second wind to destroy it once and for all.
With the dust settled, Colonel Richard explains his motivations to Cassius, asking why he
left the country with no hope, and Cassius punches some sense into him, explaining he
left Because the country had such great unity and leaders with it, like Richard and General
Morgan.
He never wanted people to have this delusional hero worship of him, and instead advises him
to not run away like he did, from protecting the most important things in life.
With that, the Intelligence Division's staged coup d'etat was defeated.
After guilty parties are found and arrested, the army comes in to keep the peace, though
in the meanwhile, Estelle and Joshua earn their final recommendation needed to become
promoted to full-fledged Bracers.
Awarded their new badges of office by their own father, the news now comes out that Cassius
is also stepping down as a bracer, and resuming active duty in the army.
Due to the internal damage caused by the Intelligence division, he felt it necessary to come in
and quell the chaos and rebuild structure.
After all, there are loyal special ops still on the run, Richard's second in command hasn't
been caught, and the real issue is what the effect of breaking the seal on Aureole will
bring in the future.
Not to mention, there is still the mystery of the brainwashings, and the black orbment,
which was apparantly delivered to Richard by Lorence.
Estelle describes Lorence's true face to them, and Joshua seems stricken by surprise.
Taking time now to enjoy the festival, Estelle seems eager to confess her newfound feelings
to Joshua, but is terribly clumsy at it.
During a break, Professor Alba greets Joshua, and Joshua directly confronts Alba on the
fact that he's always been nearby or investigating every strange incident of brainwashing or
hypnotism since they first met him in the ruins, and always had the strangest timing
with the most dangerous locations to boot.
Joshua directly asks if he's really the mastermind behind this, and suddenly Alba's demeanor
changes.
He openly admits it and with a snap of his fingers gives back all of Joshua's memories.
In shock at the sudden rush, Joshua is stunned that Alba has the power to twist minds so
easily, and with his restored mind, recognizes Alba to be one of the seven Snake Apostles,
Weismann the Faceless.
Weissmann smirks, acknowleding Joshua by his true name and title of the Black Fang, an
Enforcer part of Legion 13.
Weismann now explains he took this time to simply say hello since the first part of his
plan, opening the gate and undoing the seal, went off perfectly.
In fact, he informs Joshua he's releasing him from the spy work he's unknowingly been
doing for them for the past 5 years; reporting Bracer business and movement, and especially
the intel on Cassius.
Weismann molded Joshua into a human weapon, and wonders how he'll live his decent live
going forward, knowing he's really a monster inside, and says he's free to rejoin his organization
Ouroboros again.
As the game ends, night arrives and Estelle admits to Schera she's fallen for Joshua,
which is to the surprise of nobody.
She ventures out and spots Joshua thinking to himself, and as she approaches, he confesses
he's ready to tell her what he's been doing before they met.
He reveals he lived a normal life until tragedy struck that broke his heart and he languished,
until one day a man came by who offered to heal his heart, and instead transformed Joshua's
empty heart into that of a murderer.
For years he killed every day, becoming more and more ruthless and skilled, until he was
assigned to target Cassius.
However, Cassius was too good and easily beat Joshua, and when other assassin's moved to
kill Joshua as a loose end, Cassius rescued Joshua and decided to show mercy and take
him into his home.
He admits the rest of the 5 years have been like a dream to him, and grimly admits all
dreams must come to an end.
Estelle bursts out that his past might be hard for her to believe, but their time spent
together was real.
She loudly confesses her love for him, looks past his bloody history, and urges him to
stay with her.
In response, Joshua steps in and kisses Estelle, slips a sleeping pill into her mouth, and
as she gently falls, he claims he can'tt have her see the truly ugly side of him and what
he must now do.
Before she falls asleep under the starry sky, Joshua confesses his love for her since the
day they met, and tells her goodbye.
The next day, Joshua is already gone, but Estelle hasn't given up, packing her bags
and optimistically moving forward on her new journey of bringing Joshua home, as this first
chapter comes to a close.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky First Chapter has enjoyed the success of selling
over 500 thousand copies worldwide.
This RECAPitation was chosen by Bryan.
Thanks a lot for supporting the show as a patron, I really appreciate it.
If you would like to support the show yourself, please follow the patreon link in the description
below.
Thanks for Watching and I'll see you on the next battlefield.
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