The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky is an incredibly weird adaptation. This OVA is an adaptation of the first 6 chapters of Trails in the Sky SC, which makes it an extremely weird entrypoint for anyone but existing fans of the series. The brief recap in the beginning does not do the first half of this story justice, and the incredibly rushed pacing will feel almost completely nonsensical to all but the most dedicated fans. But for those fans, I think there's enjoyment that can be found. If you have not played Trails in the Sky, do not watch this, play the game instead. But if you do enjoy the games, there is definitely a lot of enjoyment you can get here.

The story begins with a brief recap, informing the viewer about Joshua's departure from the end of Trails in the Sky FC. Immediately after this, we jump straight to the end of the first chapter, with the battle against Bleublanc, which now takes place outside. After this, the story mostly progresses as normal, although Renne is first met in Bose, rather than Air-Letten, and both Scherazard and Agate join Estelle instead of the player picking between the two. The party fights Walter, although Joshua jumps into the fight to save Estelle, something that never happened in the original. Renne reveals her true colors in Grancel, and the second episode picks up in Chapter 4, fast forwarding to the party's confrontation with Luciola in Mistwald. Scherazard fights Luciola while Estelle is unconscious, and goes through a fairly faithful recreation of her dream sequence in Trails in the Sky SC. Afterwards, Estelle is kidnapped, at Esmelas Tower instead of the Laboratory, which is taken care of by Joshua and the Capuas instead of Estelle's party, and events play out fairly similarly to the game.

If you couldn't tell, this plot is all over the place. Almost none of this will make sense to someone who hasn't played the game, but there really aren't a lot of details that I can mention without pulling from the source material. The story jumps from each major moment in the first 6 chapters, while cutting out the prologue and Chapter 5 in their entirety, and missing most of the other chapters. This does allow the OVA to squeeze in every important moment in 90 minutes.

The highlights of this OVA are definitely Estelle's dream sequence and the fight scenes. Estelle's dream sequence is paced relatively well, and is the only time that the OVA ever really slows down. The animation style is kept relatively simple, but this allows the fight scenes to feel really fluid under the budget that was given. There were definitely changes made to how fights feel from the game, but these changes generally work well for the anime. These scenes are legitimately entertaining to watch, and feel very engaging.

The soundtrack is also extremely well done, consisting of rearrangements of tracks from the game. Some of these arrangements are extremely good, and my only complaint with them is that some feel too short. Getting only 22 seconds of Sophisticated Fight, for example, is just disappointing. Thankfully, the music really enhances the scenes, and some arrangements are among my favorite interpretations of these tracks.

If you aren't a fan of Trails in the Sky, this OVA isn't going to do much to change that. If you've never played the games, you're going to be lost, confused, and annoyed. The pacing is all over the place, and there really isn't much connection between scenes. But for fans of the series, there's definitely plenty to enjoy, from the great soundtrack to the fluid and entertaining fight scenes. I wouldn't recommend this OVA to anyone but the most diehard fans, so this is really more of a recommendation for Trails in the Sky the game, rather than it is for Trails in the Sky the Animation.