Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter Is Perfect For The Steam Deck - Full Game Preview

If you haven't yet, follow us on X (Twitter), Mastodon, or Bluesky to know when we post new articles, and join our Reddit or Subscribe to us on YouTube to check out our content and interact with our awesome community. Thank you for supporting us!

Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter was provided by GungHo Online Entertainment for review. Thank you!

The Legend of Heroes (Trails) series is one of my favorite JRPGs of all time, so when I heard they were remaking the first game out of the 13 released so far, I was overjoyed. Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter brings us back to the beginning with gorgeous new visual updates and enhancements that have found their way into the newest entries of the series, like the real-time combat from Trails Through Daybreak.

Ahead of its release, publisher GungHo Online Entertainment sent over a copy of the game for us to review, and while I have just started playing for my review, I wanted to take a moment to check out the full game and give a preview of what we can expect when trying to play this on the go.

Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter's Steam Deck Performance So Far

While there was a demo released, this is going to be looking at the full game in the early 1-2 hours. I always prefer playing the full release over the demo for testing, as it's more accurate as to what we can expect with performance when it goes live for everyone. With this being the early parts of the game, consider this a preview. The game may get better or worse as we get further in and explore new areas.

When I went around the first area and started testing the settings, I found that the only two presets that could be considered playable on the Steam Deck are Low and Medium. Low is able to stick to 60 FPS most of the time, while Medium can stay above 35 FPS. However, with a mix of settings, we can find a nice balance, and that's how I am playing the game so far.

I started off finding the hardest-hitting spot in the opening areas, which was this section in the opening fields right after leaving the Bright household. From there, I started on the low settings and worked my way up. Ultimately, I found myself with a rounded mix of high, medium, and low settings with anti-aliasing cranked all the way up. This gave me a gorgeous mix of visuals with decent draw distance, and it truly looks beautiful on the OLED screen.

I did notice some pop-in from objects far away and some shadows that creep out, but they were far enough away that I didn't notice them too much. It's small in the grand scheme and worth it to have the sharper quality from anti-aliasing and 100% resolution scale with Ambient Occlusion and Screen Space Reflections.

Performance-wise, the game mostly keeps to 60 FPS, though there are still moments of dropping when lots of enemies are around and in combat. Crafts and S-Crafts tend to make it drop more, but ultimately, regular attacks can do it as well. Even still, none of the drops went below 45 FPS, making me feel like this could be the perfect combination of settings for 45 FPS.

It's very possible that this could all change later on in the game as we go to new locations and fight different enemies, but I can't see it getting to any unplayable state. I am pretty confident that these settings will keep at 45 FPS and above, but time will tell as I continue to play. However, the truth remains that Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is amazing on the Steam Deck, and that's awesome.

Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter can be wishlisted ahead of its September 19th release date. And while it doesn't have a rating yet, this should be Steam Deck Verified.

If you enjoyed this article, check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that will help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news, tips and tutorials, game settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got you covered!