Trails In The Sky 2nd Chapter Is Now The Highest-Rated Game Of 2026

Trails In The Sky 2nd Chapter Comfortably Becomes This Year's Highest-Rated Game Nihon Falcom Published Sep 16, 2026, 6:14 AM EDT Josh Coulson is an editor at TheGamer covering breaking news on everything from colorful platformers to the latest Lego sets. Primarily a news writer since 2018, Josh has covered just about every major game from the past decade. Now an editor, their focus has shifted to being the leading affiliate expert at the site, building relationships between TheGamer and global brands including Mattel, Funko, and The Pokemon Company. With so many big games launching between September and November, a few will challenge the titles currently leading the race to become 2026’s highest-rated game. We now have our first of those games, as the Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter reviews are in, and they are, perhaps unsurprisingly, incredibly positive. Trails In The Sky 2nd Chapter Dethrones Mina And Forza 2nd Chapter is a second remake following in the footsteps of last year’s Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter, and those who know how well received that game was will have been expecting its sequel to score highly. Maybe not quite as high, though. 2nd Chapter currently has a 93 on OpenCritic. Not only is that three points higher than its predecessor, but it's comfortably the highest-rated game of 2026 as it stands. After the lead to be 2026’s best-reviewed game changed hands a few times throughout the first few months of the year, as it often does, it’s been a two-way tie between Mina the Hollower and Forza Horizon 6 since May, both of which scored a 91. Trails has put a two-point gap between itself and those heavyweight contenders, and even though that score might drop as more reviews come in, it’s unlikely to drop by much. There are 16 reviews on OpenCritic giving Trails' 2nd Chapter its aggregate score of 93 right now, and only four of those reviews have awarded the sequel less than a 9 out of 10. Even more impressive, the lowest score it has received so far is an 8.5. Unless a lot of people really dislike this game, which seems unlikely, it’s going to hold onto that top spot. The Final Few Months Of 2026 Are Filled With Heavyweights There are a lot of big games still to come this year, though, of course. Not only games like Control Resonant, Silent Hill: Townfall, and Phantom Blade Zero before we even get into November, all of which are likely to score pretty well, but then two games that might end up being the highest-scoring games of the decade, let alone the year, after that. I am, of course, referring to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time’s remake, and GTA 6. The original Ocarina of Time is the highest-rated game ever with an almost-perfect score of 99 on Metacritic. Meanwhile, every single GTA game since GTA 3 has scored 95 or higher, which almost certainly makes it the most successful series of all time. Whether Trails can hold onto the top spot with such fierce competition still to come remains to be seen. What we won’t see is those review scores translate into a Game of the Year nomination at The Game Awards. Games like Trails don’t tend to be considered for that sort of thing. This year’s top contenders in that regard include some of the titles mentioned above that are still to come, along with the likes of 007 First Light and Resident Evil Requiem. Released September 17, 2026 ESRB Teen Developer(s) Nihon Falcom Publisher(s) Nihon Falcom, GungHo Online Entertainment, Clouded Leopard Entertainment Prequel(s) Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter Triple-A Games Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter