Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga is an entry I am super excited to play. I actually didn’t play the original back in 2010. This will be my first time playing the game when it gets released. Many who have played the original game, though, are asking, What is different? refint/games has posted an update on Steam that helps dive deep into some of the changes.
Textures
There are a lot of textures that got reworked so they could look good on bigger screens. The PSP had a very small screen, especially when you compare it to handhelds of today. The first thing shown on the post is one of the menus displayed. It does look really good.
You can see the new resolution for the text and the in-game images. It looks pretty crisp. refint/games clarified that the targeted resolution for this release is 4K, so all the menus and text will be catered towards that resolution when they can. The next section of textures that the news post talks about is the in-game textures. They actually posted a slider in the next section to show the differences between the old PSP game and this upcoming version. (I am not posting it as a slider)
The easy way to see the differences is to look at the backgrounds. The old one, you can barely make out individual details, as opposed to the new version that shows off every element of the background. Note that the old image is only using the older textures since it was a developmental build of the game at an older time.
The Modern Era
One important thing that this release of the game will focus on is 60 FPS. The original game was 30 FPS, but this one will be doubling that base performance for the new generation. refint/games states “As part of this process, some balancing to the parameters had to be done so that the game plays as close to the original as possible.”
The thing I was most impressed with in this Steam post was the aspect ratio discussion. A lot of games nowadays focus on the 1080p 16 x 9 baseline resolution. Trying to get any other aspect ratio turns into looking into mods or hoping the game will support it out of the box. Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga will support a good chunk of different aspect ratios. Yes, it will support the 16 x 9 baseline, but it will also support the Steam Deck custom 16 x 10 aspect ratio. It will even support ultrawide monitor support that can vary from up to 21 x 9. Cutscenes and UI will still be using the 16 x 9 baseline though.
Obviously, aspect ratio will only be important to PC users, but as a PC user myself, I love it when video games can support the weirder aspect ratios.
Alongside all of these, we’re providing other usual graphic enhancements and options:
Unlimited Draw Distance – Some breakable objects in the distance faded out to decrease the load on PSP, but this load is trivial on today’s platforms, so this is no longer needed.
Anti-aliasing options – MSAA (x2, x4 and x8) is available as well as FXAA for lower-end systems.
Anisotropic filtering – ideal for some of the angles the camera uses, practically essential for any modern release.
Arbitrary resolution support – This comes hand in hand with the already mentioned arbitrary aspect ratio support – you’ll be able to choose any resolution supported by your monitor.
I am stoked to see more about this game come out!
Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga will release on October 10th, 2025, for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
Source: Steam Community Post
