Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga

Ys vs. Trails in the Sky is basically the Super Smash Bros. of Falcom. It’s a multiplayer fighting game bringing in main characters from its two most popular series, along with cameos from numerous others.

The fighting utilizes the Ys Seven engine, and is very similar to the action in that game. Even the special attack system is basically identical. It now adds a jump button, plus a stamina gauge to prevent players from dodging constantly. Each stage takes place in a large arena, with treasure chests providing bonus items like curatives. You can also charge up and execute support moves, which feature even more Falcom characters. Many battles are one-on-one, but the game supports up to four players for large scale brawls. Most of the stages are based on Ys Seven, Trails in the Sky, and Xanadu Next. And while there’s plenty of original music, much of it is taken from a wide assortment of Falcom albums, both original and arranged tracks.

As far as the character roster, practically everyone from the Ys side is from Ys Seven – Adol, Dogi, Aisha, Geis, Elk, Mishera, and Cruxie. The only one from an earlier game is Chester, the villain from Ys III / The Oath in Felghana. The selection here is a little disappointing considering the large number of characters Falcom could’ve chosen from, and it seems more based on them already having character models and movesets easily imported from Ys Seven. On the Trails in the Sky side, there’s Joshua, Estelle, Tita, Kloe, Agate, Olivier, Lowe, and Renne. Lloyd from Trails from Zero also makes his first appearance, predating the release of his actual game.

Most of the other characters are relegated to support moves. From Ys the game includes Jue, Sera and Xisa (the three fairies from Ys VI and Seven), Feena and Reah, Sigaroon, Mustafa, Ernst, Elena, Lilia, Olha, Tia and Maya, Yunica and Hugo, and Dark Fact. On the Trails side, there’s Scherazard, Josette, Anelace, Kevin, Ries, Zin, Cassius, Gilbert, and Elie. Characters from other franchises include Chris and Jurio from Legend of Heroes: Prophecy of the Moonlight Witch, Pipiro and Pokkle from Zwei!, Dela from Brandish, and Parin (and friends) from Gurumin.

The Story mode lets you pick from five of the main characters: Adol, Estelle, Geis, Kloe, and Tita. All of them revolve around the characters being summoned to the world of Xanadu Next, where they proceed from battle to battle on a map screen. As with most fighting games, the story is incredibly contrived, usually just manufacturing reasons for why these characters would fight one of another (brainwashing or memory loss are big culprits). Much of the exposition is delivered by Lappy, a furry creature that looks like a pikkard if you’re playing as an Ys character or a sheep-like pom if you’re a Trails character. While you can speed up the story scenes, there’s no way to skip them totally. One key feature is full voice acting – Ys Seven and the original releases of Trails in the Sky only had brief voice clips, but here all of the dialogue is spoken aloud. This even includes plenty of dialogue for Adol, who otherwise spends his games largely silent.

Sometimes you’ll have allied CPU characters fighting alongside you or your opponents will have monster companions. At the end, there’s a boss fight against the big baddie, the dragon Galsis. There’s no real exploration, as you just pick locations on a map, but you’ll gain experience points and Mona Points after winning fights, the latter of which can be used to upgrade your weapons or purchase new rings. (The shop is run by the rabbit from Monarch Monarch.) There’s also a whole ton of supplementary material to unlock, including movies, soundtracks, and wallpaper images from assorted Falcom games. It’s also a tremendous grind to unlock all of it, with sparse points granted after battle and high costs in the shop. You also need to beat the standard Arcade mode with every character to unlock all of the supports.

The game seems to have embraced the grind because the core action otherwise just doesn’t have long term appeal. It’s interesting to see how they adapted the Ys Seven fighting mechanics to a competitive fighting game, but there’s just not a lot of depth here. Even the fan service element is a little underwhelming thanks to the dull story and lack of proper Ys series representation. It’s an interesting experiment, but there’s a reason why Falcom never made a follow-up.

Ys vs. Trails in the Sky was first released as a Japanese exclusive PSP game in 2010. This was likely not localized since the Trails series was not particularly well known among the English speaking audience at the time. However, in 2025, publisher Refint/games ported the game to Windows, as well as the PlayStation 4/5 and Switch, along with an English translation and full English voice acting. While still a PSP game at heart, it has high resolution graphics, upscaled textures, and runs at a smooth 60 FPS compared to the original game’s 30. It even includes local and online multiplayer, which makes fighting against other players far easier than trying to jam together four people with PSPs.

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Gurumin Ys Book I & II Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim Ys: The Oath in Felghana Ys Seven Zwei: The Arges Adventure Vantage Master Portable Shadow of Memories Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection Rogue Flight