I don't know how to start this. But I will say this took WAY longer than I expected it would take me.
After finishing FC I pretty much just kept on going at the pace I was at since I got to chapter 3 or so. SC prologue really tugs the heartstrings after the ending of FC and you just NEED answers man. Then after that the game really gets... repetitive.
The time period from when I completed the first half versus literally the rest of the game is INSANE. Took me about 2 months for the first half and the second half took me a business week. I don't mind the first half as I do think there were great moments interspersed. But god that was mind-numbing. Repeating the same sequences for a good portion of the game was a turn off. But don't let this fool you. The moment you get on The Glorious EVERYTHING changes.
The story picks up tremendously and it just builds and builds until the finale.
This is when I started to realize "yea this may be one of the greatest video games ever made."
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC is the definition of a sequel in every sense of the word. Every facet gets improved. And the stakes are higher than the last. This was essentially a 70 hour long JRPG finale. And I love it for everything it stands for.
This may sound conflicting as you have two opposing opinions for each half but let me assure you that the highest of highs overshadows the lowest of lows.
Trails in the Sky SC is truly one of the best JRPG games there is and even with its flawed and monotonous first half, on the other hand you have one of the most legendary second halves to a video game. In the end I will cherish it all the same.
Oh and this soundtrack is cool.
After finishing FC I pretty much just kept on going at the pace I was at since I got to chapter 3 or so. SC prologue really tugs the heartstrings after the ending of FC and you just NEED answers man. Then after that the game really gets... repetitive.
The time period from when I completed the first half versus literally the rest of the game is INSANE. Took me about 2 months for the first half and the second half took me a business week. I don't mind the first half as I do think there were great moments interspersed. But god that was mind-numbing. Repeating the same sequences for a good portion of the game was a turn off. But don't let this fool you. The moment you get on The Glorious EVERYTHING changes.
The story picks up tremendously and it just builds and builds until the finale.
This is when I started to realize "yea this may be one of the greatest video games ever made."
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC is the definition of a sequel in every sense of the word. Every facet gets improved. And the stakes are higher than the last. This was essentially a 70 hour long JRPG finale. And I love it for everything it stands for.
This may sound conflicting as you have two opposing opinions for each half but let me assure you that the highest of highs overshadows the lowest of lows.
Trails in the Sky SC is truly one of the best JRPG games there is and even with its flawed and monotonous first half, on the other hand you have one of the most legendary second halves to a video game. In the end I will cherish it all the same.
Oh and this soundtrack is cool.
This review contains spoilers
While FC had a smaller scope and executed that very competently as setup for this game, SC aims for a greater scope and ambition, with what I think is more flawed execution. It turns into Trails in the Backtracking: Padding Chapter at times, though it generally didn't bother me (yes, even in chapter 8, turn on turbo), other than the final dungeon which was backtracking incarnate in identically looking hallways across multiple floors.
When in FC the game's main villain was most present right at the end and didn't have a very strong dynamic with the cast, though it was serviceable, the FC antagonist group, Ourorobos, are present throughout all of the game. Each member of that group serves as a foil to most people in the main cast, such as Renne for Estelle, Leowe for Joshua, etc. When in FC you had initially episodic stories that didn't connect until the end, you have a central plot from the get-go here. When in FC Joshua's backstory wasn't revealed until the end, it is front and center here. And when in FC the moral/themes of the story don't really come into play until the very end, they are pretty clear here from early on.
So what's the issue? Well, I think it spread itself thin despite having plenty of time to deeply develop all of these things.
I felt like Joshua's exile arc had too little screen time to hit hard before his return. And while Estelle is insanely charismatic and likable, more than my favourite protagonists across fiction, and I like her, I would resonate with other types of protagonists more than pretty much an all-good person. Well-adjusted, hopeful, "bright" protagonists have their place, and I generally like them, but they don't leave a long-lasting impression beyond their personality being charismatic for me. I get that there's a cool dynamic between Estelle and Joshua in the way that she brings him back into the light in a sense, and their romance is fine for me, but I dunno, I just don't care for it that much. Her connection with Joshua and Renne of trying to bring them back to the human side and tell them how to join in on the warmth of human connection is neat, but it doesn't really wow me. The ending was cool, but yeah. Joshua himself seemed to have more potential when he was in his edgelord arc, and his dynamics with Leowe and Weissmann are cool, but again, not enough screen time for them to truly resonate with me.
The supporting cast is much better in this. They all get deeper dynamics, and most of them have their backstories explored more, such as Agate, Schera, and Joshua, of course.
The theme that Weissmann discusses is very interesting, but unfortunately I feel like it was not featured enough to truly resonate with me. The game definitely did have the runtime for it, so I don't know what happened.
Also, what's up with the OST in this game? While some songs, like the opening, are great, I overall felt that the first game's soundtrack had both better and more atmospheric tracks on average, as well as higher highs. The final boss themes in SC feel a little more lowkey and for the worse, in my opinion. Still cool, though.
Overall though, just like FC, definitely a good game, but it didn't blow my mind. I am however excited for 3rd, as Kevin was really cool in what little screen time he had in this game, and Azure, which everyone is excited for at the point in my journey anyway. I think I prefer SC to FC for sure.
When in FC the game's main villain was most present right at the end and didn't have a very strong dynamic with the cast, though it was serviceable, the FC antagonist group, Ourorobos, are present throughout all of the game. Each member of that group serves as a foil to most people in the main cast, such as Renne for Estelle, Leowe for Joshua, etc. When in FC you had initially episodic stories that didn't connect until the end, you have a central plot from the get-go here. When in FC Joshua's backstory wasn't revealed until the end, it is front and center here. And when in FC the moral/themes of the story don't really come into play until the very end, they are pretty clear here from early on.
So what's the issue? Well, I think it spread itself thin despite having plenty of time to deeply develop all of these things.
I felt like Joshua's exile arc had too little screen time to hit hard before his return. And while Estelle is insanely charismatic and likable, more than my favourite protagonists across fiction, and I like her, I would resonate with other types of protagonists more than pretty much an all-good person. Well-adjusted, hopeful, "bright" protagonists have their place, and I generally like them, but they don't leave a long-lasting impression beyond their personality being charismatic for me. I get that there's a cool dynamic between Estelle and Joshua in the way that she brings him back into the light in a sense, and their romance is fine for me, but I dunno, I just don't care for it that much. Her connection with Joshua and Renne of trying to bring them back to the human side and tell them how to join in on the warmth of human connection is neat, but it doesn't really wow me. The ending was cool, but yeah. Joshua himself seemed to have more potential when he was in his edgelord arc, and his dynamics with Leowe and Weissmann are cool, but again, not enough screen time for them to truly resonate with me.
The supporting cast is much better in this. They all get deeper dynamics, and most of them have their backstories explored more, such as Agate, Schera, and Joshua, of course.
The theme that Weissmann discusses is very interesting, but unfortunately I feel like it was not featured enough to truly resonate with me. The game definitely did have the runtime for it, so I don't know what happened.
Also, what's up with the OST in this game? While some songs, like the opening, are great, I overall felt that the first game's soundtrack had both better and more atmospheric tracks on average, as well as higher highs. The final boss themes in SC feel a little more lowkey and for the worse, in my opinion. Still cool, though.
Overall though, just like FC, definitely a good game, but it didn't blow my mind. I am however excited for 3rd, as Kevin was really cool in what little screen time he had in this game, and Azure, which everyone is excited for at the point in my journey anyway. I think I prefer SC to FC for sure.
Not as good as the first one in my opinion thanks to weird pacing but it's still absolutely right next to it. I have an embarrassing review of the first one i cba to do this one in detail. Check out my list for more in detail thoughts.
I wasn’t really planning on writing any long form pieces of writing about Trails where I’d go in-depth in relentlessly praising it and talking about how much of a destressing, genuine experience it’s been until I was done with Sky the third because acting like a huge fan of an 11 game long series when I’ve only played 2 games seemed weird, but between the engaging political conflict that’s incredibly ambitious because of the increasing amount of parties with different motivations involved with each conflict, the twists surrounding each conflict, how these political conflicts impact the characters in realistic ways that enforce challenges upon the leading main characters to overcome both on an ideological level and a physical level, the heartwarming large cast full of good for nothing goofy ahh misfits with earnesty and charm filling their banter as much as it fills their genuine moments of emotional vulnerability, the ridiculously large scale amount of global level conflicts being set up for events far into the future with lots of twists and turns and conspiracies that kept me at the edge of my seat at times, the deep lore that’s not too convoluted and is moreso used as a backdrop for kiseki’s characters’ struggles, and most importantly, the human and grounded struggles that characters like Joshua, Estelle, Loewe, and Agate go through that brings this insanely ambitious narrative that covers several continents to a grounded level, it was hard not to scream at the top of my lunges “AHHHHHHHH I LOOOVVVEE TRAIILLSSS I LOOVVEE BRAZIL KONDO MADE A SERIESS THAT’S FOR ME BRUH”
Ok but frfr it’s virtually impossible to write down every single thing I loved about Sky FC/SC, but the best starting point I can think of is the central driving force, that being Joshua and Estelle’s dynamic and how it plays out during the story. There’s a line Joshua says in FC where he tells Estelle to go about expressing her unbridled trust towards her surroundings, her innocence, and to not so much as doubt what’s infront of her and see the darkness within it, practically telling her to avoid seeing the unpleasant side of things and questioning them and to leave the anxiety driven suspicions and doubts to joshua instead because that’s his speciality as an assassin. In a way, Joshua was keeping her vision unclouded, and telling her what he doubts and sees as dangerous to help her avoid making the wrong choice as much as he can. Similarly, at the end of SC, due to Joshua’s self isolationist, self hating tendencies that always look to make him run away from what’s right before him and wallow in his misery because that is more convenient to him than thinking he’s worth other people’s company and troubling them with his presence, Estelle told Joshua that she'll be the one to keep him in check and walk alongside him because Joshua always fails to see the obvious things like people’s love for him, how much they want to be there for him, and how important he is to them, which Estelle regulates by pointing to him these obvious cues and keeping him on the right track. In their own ways, at different points, they covered for each others’ weaknesses, and seeing their method of helping each other out transition from an unhealthy one to a much more empowering one was super poetic. That beautiful, organic transition where Estelle goes from being a naive, innocent dork to an emotionally mature, determined lady with unwavering, grounded optimism and Joshua goes from being a tryhard tough act who pretends to be emotionally mature and determined to a vulnerable, scarred soul trying to walk the right path with the bad bitch he bagged by trauma dumping and correct all the sins he’s made with his previous antics, perfectly sums up why I love their relationship so much. It’s so full of parallels like the one I mentioned yet so opposing, and in their opposition to each other in terms of background, they manage to connect to a spiritual level and works so well as the main force that pushes Sky’s themes about facing your fears and embracing the truth as the guiding light that’ll help you carve your path with others instead of losing it no matter how different you all seem.
All of what I mentioned are things I like to see in media being on full display in Trails, but…what really struck me wasn’t any of the larger than life aspects I mentioned as much as Joshua’s personal struggles did. Drowning in self denial for solace, shifting the responsibilities you’re supposed to uphold by running away from them and attaching them to external sources, hurting others in the process of putting your guilt elsewhere, and self isolating to avoid hurting others as much as possible while maintaining the distance you’ve built between you and the guilt you shifted elsewhere to balance things out, all being a byproduct of abandonment issues and the fear of losing others dear to you, are all things that terribly resonate with me and since I’m in the middle of trying to uncover the root cause for them and get rid of these toxic habits once and for all, going through Sky fc/sc was like going through my own small journey of revisiting myself and re-evaluating it from a different perspective that rung true to me. Relatibitly aside, while I do relate to Joshua in some aspects, I don’t wholeheartedly relate to him, and most of my appreciation for his character comes down to how much of a unique spin it is on the ideas and struggles I mentioned above. While most characters who fall under that trope direct that guilt towards a different person, Joshua directs it at a different version of himself, the puppet like person inside him that was born after Weissman experimented with his heart and the source of his inner turmoil, which is a very interesting touch Kondo made with his character because while it’s a less common coping mechanism than laying the blame on another different person, it’s just as realistic and potent because of how it fits his background with being a test subject who had his sense of self played with in the past.
Ok but frfr it’s virtually impossible to write down every single thing I loved about Sky FC/SC, but the best starting point I can think of is the central driving force, that being Joshua and Estelle’s dynamic and how it plays out during the story. There’s a line Joshua says in FC where he tells Estelle to go about expressing her unbridled trust towards her surroundings, her innocence, and to not so much as doubt what’s infront of her and see the darkness within it, practically telling her to avoid seeing the unpleasant side of things and questioning them and to leave the anxiety driven suspicions and doubts to joshua instead because that’s his speciality as an assassin. In a way, Joshua was keeping her vision unclouded, and telling her what he doubts and sees as dangerous to help her avoid making the wrong choice as much as he can. Similarly, at the end of SC, due to Joshua’s self isolationist, self hating tendencies that always look to make him run away from what’s right before him and wallow in his misery because that is more convenient to him than thinking he’s worth other people’s company and troubling them with his presence, Estelle told Joshua that she'll be the one to keep him in check and walk alongside him because Joshua always fails to see the obvious things like people’s love for him, how much they want to be there for him, and how important he is to them, which Estelle regulates by pointing to him these obvious cues and keeping him on the right track. In their own ways, at different points, they covered for each others’ weaknesses, and seeing their method of helping each other out transition from an unhealthy one to a much more empowering one was super poetic. That beautiful, organic transition where Estelle goes from being a naive, innocent dork to an emotionally mature, determined lady with unwavering, grounded optimism and Joshua goes from being a tryhard tough act who pretends to be emotionally mature and determined to a vulnerable, scarred soul trying to walk the right path with the bad bitch he bagged by trauma dumping and correct all the sins he’s made with his previous antics, perfectly sums up why I love their relationship so much. It’s so full of parallels like the one I mentioned yet so opposing, and in their opposition to each other in terms of background, they manage to connect to a spiritual level and works so well as the main force that pushes Sky’s themes about facing your fears and embracing the truth as the guiding light that’ll help you carve your path with others instead of losing it no matter how different you all seem.
All of what I mentioned are things I like to see in media being on full display in Trails, but…what really struck me wasn’t any of the larger than life aspects I mentioned as much as Joshua’s personal struggles did. Drowning in self denial for solace, shifting the responsibilities you’re supposed to uphold by running away from them and attaching them to external sources, hurting others in the process of putting your guilt elsewhere, and self isolating to avoid hurting others as much as possible while maintaining the distance you’ve built between you and the guilt you shifted elsewhere to balance things out, all being a byproduct of abandonment issues and the fear of losing others dear to you, are all things that terribly resonate with me and since I’m in the middle of trying to uncover the root cause for them and get rid of these toxic habits once and for all, going through Sky fc/sc was like going through my own small journey of revisiting myself and re-evaluating it from a different perspective that rung true to me. Relatibitly aside, while I do relate to Joshua in some aspects, I don’t wholeheartedly relate to him, and most of my appreciation for his character comes down to how much of a unique spin it is on the ideas and struggles I mentioned above. While most characters who fall under that trope direct that guilt towards a different person, Joshua directs it at a different version of himself, the puppet like person inside him that was born after Weissman experimented with his heart and the source of his inner turmoil, which is a very interesting touch Kondo made with his character because while it’s a less common coping mechanism than laying the blame on another different person, it’s just as realistic and potent because of how it fits his background with being a test subject who had his sense of self played with in the past.
This review contains spoilers
This game is an improvement from FC for sure but it's still very flawed for me.
For one thing, the pacing in the game is very bad. Every chapter until chapter 6 has the same repetitive structure of going to a country, an ouroboros member is causing problems, beat them, rinse and repeat. It's tedious. The game often doesn't even try to make these chapters feel distinct apart from chapters 3 and 5. The game is also filled with a ridiculous amount of backtracking which makes the tedium even worse.
Another thing is I did not personally vibe with Estelle and Joshua's dynamic very much. It had potential, but I didn't enjoy their personalities too much.
Estelle is a decent protagonist who's main characteristic is that she's optimistic no matter the situation she's placed in, and will also be a beacon of hope to everyone around her. That's a trope I'm typically fine with but Estelle doesn't do it in an interesting way imo. She lacks any flaws that would make her feel more grounded for me. By the end she didn't impress me much. Her dynamic with Renne was pretty good though and has a lot of potential moving forward in the series.
Joshua is a different beast entirely. He was incredibly disappointing especially with the amount of potential he had. He barely accomplished anything when he was separated from Estelle, and spends most of the entire game sitting on his airship instead. The game decided not to give more introspection for his character during his time alone which is a puzzling decision. Instead he either does very inconsequential things or just sits on his ass. Estelle reunites with Joshua again in chapter 6, and in that same chapter she convinces him to join her again, which I felt is very rushed as she essentially just talk no jutsus his lifelong trauma away. It overly simplifies what could have been an interesting exploration on his lack of self worth, and martyr complex. Joshua's dynamic with Loewe I liked quite a bit though.
Speaking of Loewe, he's by and large the best character of the game for me. Very enigmatic with a lot of presence, a cool design, and just being plain badass. His role in the story was very strong too as it greatly emphasizes the game's core message of forming connections with others and how doing that can enable people to walk towards a brighter future, free from tragedy. Loewe is the antithesis of that merely believing in "testing humanity's worth" by a trial with fire through conflict essentially. His clash of ideals with Joshua is one of the main highlights of the game despite it's very short runtime. Loewe's conclusion while rushed, is one of the few payoffs that worked for me. All in all a very good character.
This segues into another problem I have with this game where it spreads itself too thin by spending time on things that don't matter much while integral elements such as Joshua/Loewe dynamic and Weissman's motivations get barely any screentime to make them more impactful. Though for the former it still worked for the most part.
The other characters are somewhat improved in SC partly due to how some of the antagonists serve as foils to them which helps their characters get explored more. Though the execution of this I'm very iffy on. Scherazard and Zin's struggles are not handled well for me as it directly ties into their foils' storylines, which are barely present in the game to begin with. So it's hard for me to care about them. Agate gets a cool arc in chapter 5 and is an example of a well handled arc in this game. Olivier is fairly interesting though his story was backloaded at the very end, and didn't even show up for very much. Kloe didn't do anything particularly standout in this game which is disappointing as I decently enjoyed her character in FC and believed she had potential. Tita isn't all that great but she did her job servicing Agate's arc. Kevin is a standout character who is not only incredibly entertaining, but interesting as well. His scene where he kills Weissman really makes me excited for his character in 3rd.
The antagonists themselves were okay with the highlights being Loewe and Renne. Weissman was an underwhelming main villain for me. He barely had any screentime, and didn't do much with the screentime that he has. His motivations of basically wanting humanity to become ubermensches to stop all conflict was fascinating but it literally comes in the last hour of the game, and it more so feels like an excuse he's using to cause more suffering to people as he enjoys it.
All in all the story was fairly disappointing for me despite the huge potential it had.
The ost was fairly decent throughout with a few notable standouts like Silver Will which is often noted as being Loewe's theme.
As for the gameplay, it's very good. It is basically a mix of tactical RPG combat and traditional turned based JRPG combat, and it's great. You have to react to enemy arts as you can cancel them out which is cool. The gameplay is made easier with arts such as earth wall, which is borderline necessary for some fights. The enemies though are incredibly annoying with how they consistently spam status effects, and almost always operate as a group which makes it difficult sometimes to react to them. They also often pullout very cheap moves that can just one shot you without warning (looking at you Weissman). Hopefully the later games make the enemies less annoying. Really interested to see how the gameplay evolves from here.
Overall, I really wanted to like this game more especially given its near universal praise, but sadly it just has too many glaring issues for me to ignore. I am still very excited to experience 3rd and the later games as they looked very appealing to me.
For one thing, the pacing in the game is very bad. Every chapter until chapter 6 has the same repetitive structure of going to a country, an ouroboros member is causing problems, beat them, rinse and repeat. It's tedious. The game often doesn't even try to make these chapters feel distinct apart from chapters 3 and 5. The game is also filled with a ridiculous amount of backtracking which makes the tedium even worse.
Another thing is I did not personally vibe with Estelle and Joshua's dynamic very much. It had potential, but I didn't enjoy their personalities too much.
Estelle is a decent protagonist who's main characteristic is that she's optimistic no matter the situation she's placed in, and will also be a beacon of hope to everyone around her. That's a trope I'm typically fine with but Estelle doesn't do it in an interesting way imo. She lacks any flaws that would make her feel more grounded for me. By the end she didn't impress me much. Her dynamic with Renne was pretty good though and has a lot of potential moving forward in the series.
Joshua is a different beast entirely. He was incredibly disappointing especially with the amount of potential he had. He barely accomplished anything when he was separated from Estelle, and spends most of the entire game sitting on his airship instead. The game decided not to give more introspection for his character during his time alone which is a puzzling decision. Instead he either does very inconsequential things or just sits on his ass. Estelle reunites with Joshua again in chapter 6, and in that same chapter she convinces him to join her again, which I felt is very rushed as she essentially just talk no jutsus his lifelong trauma away. It overly simplifies what could have been an interesting exploration on his lack of self worth, and martyr complex. Joshua's dynamic with Loewe I liked quite a bit though.
Speaking of Loewe, he's by and large the best character of the game for me. Very enigmatic with a lot of presence, a cool design, and just being plain badass. His role in the story was very strong too as it greatly emphasizes the game's core message of forming connections with others and how doing that can enable people to walk towards a brighter future, free from tragedy. Loewe is the antithesis of that merely believing in "testing humanity's worth" by a trial with fire through conflict essentially. His clash of ideals with Joshua is one of the main highlights of the game despite it's very short runtime. Loewe's conclusion while rushed, is one of the few payoffs that worked for me. All in all a very good character.
This segues into another problem I have with this game where it spreads itself too thin by spending time on things that don't matter much while integral elements such as Joshua/Loewe dynamic and Weissman's motivations get barely any screentime to make them more impactful. Though for the former it still worked for the most part.
The other characters are somewhat improved in SC partly due to how some of the antagonists serve as foils to them which helps their characters get explored more. Though the execution of this I'm very iffy on. Scherazard and Zin's struggles are not handled well for me as it directly ties into their foils' storylines, which are barely present in the game to begin with. So it's hard for me to care about them. Agate gets a cool arc in chapter 5 and is an example of a well handled arc in this game. Olivier is fairly interesting though his story was backloaded at the very end, and didn't even show up for very much. Kloe didn't do anything particularly standout in this game which is disappointing as I decently enjoyed her character in FC and believed she had potential. Tita isn't all that great but she did her job servicing Agate's arc. Kevin is a standout character who is not only incredibly entertaining, but interesting as well. His scene where he kills Weissman really makes me excited for his character in 3rd.
The antagonists themselves were okay with the highlights being Loewe and Renne. Weissman was an underwhelming main villain for me. He barely had any screentime, and didn't do much with the screentime that he has. His motivations of basically wanting humanity to become ubermensches to stop all conflict was fascinating but it literally comes in the last hour of the game, and it more so feels like an excuse he's using to cause more suffering to people as he enjoys it.
All in all the story was fairly disappointing for me despite the huge potential it had.
The ost was fairly decent throughout with a few notable standouts like Silver Will which is often noted as being Loewe's theme.
As for the gameplay, it's very good. It is basically a mix of tactical RPG combat and traditional turned based JRPG combat, and it's great. You have to react to enemy arts as you can cancel them out which is cool. The gameplay is made easier with arts such as earth wall, which is borderline necessary for some fights. The enemies though are incredibly annoying with how they consistently spam status effects, and almost always operate as a group which makes it difficult sometimes to react to them. They also often pullout very cheap moves that can just one shot you without warning (looking at you Weissman). Hopefully the later games make the enemies less annoying. Really interested to see how the gameplay evolves from here.
Overall, I really wanted to like this game more especially given its near universal praise, but sadly it just has too many glaring issues for me to ignore. I am still very excited to experience 3rd and the later games as they looked very appealing to me.
This is essentially a 70 hour long JRPG finale and its absolutely awesome.
Trails in the Sky SC (second chapter) picks up immediately after the events of the first game so unfortunately it is hard to keep this completely free of spoilers for the first game, so if you want to avoid spoilers then advise to stop reading this after this paragraph. I’ll try and keep spoilers for SC out of it as much as possible. With that out the way, let’s dive into the journey that is Trails in the Sky SC.
Being a direct sequel and continuation of Trails in the Sky, SC carries over the majority of the first game’s gameplay, mechanics and areas. You’ve still got that rpg battle system with light strategy elements, side quests are still tied to the guild, and we’re still travelling around Liberl. A few new elements have been added, such as Chain Crafts that allow multiple characters to use CP to attack an enemy at once and Orbments have been upgraded to allow for more powerful spells to be learned.
While mechanically little has changed from the first game, it’s ultimately been used as the perfect foundation to craft a thrilling and engaging tale which would have been extremely difficult to do without that experience the first game leaves on you. The story picks up directly from where the first game left off. Estelle and her crew managed to prevent a coup, saving Liberl but the mysterious Weissman had revealed himself as the person behind people’s memories being messed up, unlocking Joshua’s memories of his horrific past causing Joshua to abandon Estelle to protect her as he finds a way to try and bring down the mysterious Society of Ouroboros. It leaves Estelle distraught and heartbroken having just realised her true feelings for Joshua and as such she sets out on a new journey to find Joshua as well as fight back against the Society who have done so much damage to the people she cares about. With Joshua leaving her life, it causes Estelle to realise just how much she has relied on him and she sets out on a special senior bracer training course before she sets out on her journey proper. There’s a strength to her character as she grows into the person who she wants to be, learning how to overcome her weaknesses as well as using her strengths better.
Once again the game takes its time to really get going. The bulk of the first half sees you visiting all the towns of Liberl again as you help them deal with mysterious phenomena that have been brought about by the Enforcers, high ranking powerful officers, of the Society. Having been to all these places before in the first game, there’s an attachment you have to their people that spurs you on through these revisits to help each town and take on the sidequests. It’s something strongly helped by the strength of writing that has gone into the worldbuilding and NPCs of this series and you get a lot of heartwarming moments because of it. Like one side quest saw me having to find a lost ring for a young engaged couple and there’s a moment later in the game where you can stumble into the chapel as they’re getting married and it’s beautiful. There’s an attention to detail here with its minor characters that is hard to think of another game that goes to these lengths.
Another strength of SC is how it takes the party members you have grown to love from the first game and adds so much more to them here as they peel back layers you never see coming. There’s heartwarming moments between Agate and Tita, shocking revelations surrounding the lovable Olivier, the difficult past of Schera, and Kloe finding her resolve to take her path forward. Plenty of the characters also have an Enforcer that they have a history with that brings so much more personal gravitas to the conflicts that are fought throughout the game. We also get a few new party members to use like the mysterious travelling priest Kevin as well as a few other surprise people that I won’t spoil here.
SC allows you to choose your party much more often than the first game did but also ends up taking one or two slots for mandatory characters during important story events so you end up with a nice middle ground that allows you to get use out of almost every character while letting you bring along your favourites more often.
With the stakes being much higher this time round, the game does offer a lot of scintillating moments with high action battles and brilliant use of the music to sell these moments as best they can with the little character models. There’s definitely a few moments where I was wishing for cutscenes to be used to further sell the intensity of these battles, but what they did with a limited budget was still incredible.
Let’s get onto my favourite part about the story this game tells: Estelle Bright. There is one surefire way to get me to love a character and that is by making them suffer through losing someone they love and the majority of this game is Estelle dealing with Joshua abandoning her. There’s moments where she visits an area where the two of them had a special moment and the game flashbacks to a scene from the first game and my gosh it brings the tears so easily. Estelle’s journey is full of moments I could relate to on a personal level. The way she keeps so much of her struggles to herself as her friends try to support her, the moments of self doubt and questioning if she’s on the right path, and ultimately the resolve to keep pushing forward despite how much she’s hurting, it’s all wonderful character moments. Her greatest strength is being able to use even the most hurtful and darkest moments to give herself motivation and strength to push forward in her goals instead of giving in to despair like many of the characters who oppose her. Like her mother dying is what inspired her to be a bracer and help others, Joshua leaving her inspired her to find the strength to not only bring him back but also take down the organisation that made him like this. Estelle is just this wonderful ball of optimism and positivity that is so infectious. Her ability to speak from her heart and reach others, no matter how far into despair they’ve fallen, and pull them out of that darkness is nothing short of incredible. At the end of the first game, Joshua described her as the sun, the person who brings warmth to others and he hit the nail on the head, Estelle is on another level with her kind heart. She still has moments of hotheadedness and will act rashly at times, but she’s come a long way from how she was in the first game, gaining much more confidence in her abilities as well as realising her strength in getting through to others. And of course, she still has her plethora of witty remarks and one liners that allows her to steal almost any scene she’s in. The tender moments she has warms my heart every time while her silly moments never fail to make me laugh. All this to say, I think Estelle is one of my favourite characters of all time, if not my new favourite (I need to give it time for my feelings to settle)
The story doesn’t quite wrap everything up. While it does give Estelle a fitting send off, it does leave the trails of plotlines to pick up in future titles, which could be disappointing for some but exciting for others. I wasn’t left feeling unsatisfied from what they left for future games to cover, instead I was enthralled by the journey, given incredible character development for everyone I could ask for and enough tidbits to make me excited for the potential future of other characters.
While there are few new areas to explore, the new areas that are included are genuinely amazing areas, particularly where the finale takes place, bringing in a particular trope I love. Dungeon designs are also a step up, with more interesting layouts to explore and some with traps to avoid. Music wise there are plenty of new songs that live up to the standard of the first game while all the old locations have their original catchy music.
Trails in the Sky SC builds upon the strong foundations of the first game to deliver a truly special and incredible experience that will live long in the memory. Fantastic character driven moments with plenty of surprises and heartwarming moments take this game on a level few can match as it carefully crafts a tale that will see you shed tears throughout its wonderful journey. SC not only left me with another game to add to my all time favourites list but also a character in Estelle Bright that I have grown to love on so many levels. What an experience and one I am so glad to have had.
Being a direct sequel and continuation of Trails in the Sky, SC carries over the majority of the first game’s gameplay, mechanics and areas. You’ve still got that rpg battle system with light strategy elements, side quests are still tied to the guild, and we’re still travelling around Liberl. A few new elements have been added, such as Chain Crafts that allow multiple characters to use CP to attack an enemy at once and Orbments have been upgraded to allow for more powerful spells to be learned.
While mechanically little has changed from the first game, it’s ultimately been used as the perfect foundation to craft a thrilling and engaging tale which would have been extremely difficult to do without that experience the first game leaves on you. The story picks up directly from where the first game left off. Estelle and her crew managed to prevent a coup, saving Liberl but the mysterious Weissman had revealed himself as the person behind people’s memories being messed up, unlocking Joshua’s memories of his horrific past causing Joshua to abandon Estelle to protect her as he finds a way to try and bring down the mysterious Society of Ouroboros. It leaves Estelle distraught and heartbroken having just realised her true feelings for Joshua and as such she sets out on a new journey to find Joshua as well as fight back against the Society who have done so much damage to the people she cares about. With Joshua leaving her life, it causes Estelle to realise just how much she has relied on him and she sets out on a special senior bracer training course before she sets out on her journey proper. There’s a strength to her character as she grows into the person who she wants to be, learning how to overcome her weaknesses as well as using her strengths better.
Once again the game takes its time to really get going. The bulk of the first half sees you visiting all the towns of Liberl again as you help them deal with mysterious phenomena that have been brought about by the Enforcers, high ranking powerful officers, of the Society. Having been to all these places before in the first game, there’s an attachment you have to their people that spurs you on through these revisits to help each town and take on the sidequests. It’s something strongly helped by the strength of writing that has gone into the worldbuilding and NPCs of this series and you get a lot of heartwarming moments because of it. Like one side quest saw me having to find a lost ring for a young engaged couple and there’s a moment later in the game where you can stumble into the chapel as they’re getting married and it’s beautiful. There’s an attention to detail here with its minor characters that is hard to think of another game that goes to these lengths.
Another strength of SC is how it takes the party members you have grown to love from the first game and adds so much more to them here as they peel back layers you never see coming. There’s heartwarming moments between Agate and Tita, shocking revelations surrounding the lovable Olivier, the difficult past of Schera, and Kloe finding her resolve to take her path forward. Plenty of the characters also have an Enforcer that they have a history with that brings so much more personal gravitas to the conflicts that are fought throughout the game. We also get a few new party members to use like the mysterious travelling priest Kevin as well as a few other surprise people that I won’t spoil here.
SC allows you to choose your party much more often than the first game did but also ends up taking one or two slots for mandatory characters during important story events so you end up with a nice middle ground that allows you to get use out of almost every character while letting you bring along your favourites more often.
With the stakes being much higher this time round, the game does offer a lot of scintillating moments with high action battles and brilliant use of the music to sell these moments as best they can with the little character models. There’s definitely a few moments where I was wishing for cutscenes to be used to further sell the intensity of these battles, but what they did with a limited budget was still incredible.
Let’s get onto my favourite part about the story this game tells: Estelle Bright. There is one surefire way to get me to love a character and that is by making them suffer through losing someone they love and the majority of this game is Estelle dealing with Joshua abandoning her. There’s moments where she visits an area where the two of them had a special moment and the game flashbacks to a scene from the first game and my gosh it brings the tears so easily. Estelle’s journey is full of moments I could relate to on a personal level. The way she keeps so much of her struggles to herself as her friends try to support her, the moments of self doubt and questioning if she’s on the right path, and ultimately the resolve to keep pushing forward despite how much she’s hurting, it’s all wonderful character moments. Her greatest strength is being able to use even the most hurtful and darkest moments to give herself motivation and strength to push forward in her goals instead of giving in to despair like many of the characters who oppose her. Like her mother dying is what inspired her to be a bracer and help others, Joshua leaving her inspired her to find the strength to not only bring him back but also take down the organisation that made him like this. Estelle is just this wonderful ball of optimism and positivity that is so infectious. Her ability to speak from her heart and reach others, no matter how far into despair they’ve fallen, and pull them out of that darkness is nothing short of incredible. At the end of the first game, Joshua described her as the sun, the person who brings warmth to others and he hit the nail on the head, Estelle is on another level with her kind heart. She still has moments of hotheadedness and will act rashly at times, but she’s come a long way from how she was in the first game, gaining much more confidence in her abilities as well as realising her strength in getting through to others. And of course, she still has her plethora of witty remarks and one liners that allows her to steal almost any scene she’s in. The tender moments she has warms my heart every time while her silly moments never fail to make me laugh. All this to say, I think Estelle is one of my favourite characters of all time, if not my new favourite (I need to give it time for my feelings to settle)
The story doesn’t quite wrap everything up. While it does give Estelle a fitting send off, it does leave the trails of plotlines to pick up in future titles, which could be disappointing for some but exciting for others. I wasn’t left feeling unsatisfied from what they left for future games to cover, instead I was enthralled by the journey, given incredible character development for everyone I could ask for and enough tidbits to make me excited for the potential future of other characters.
While there are few new areas to explore, the new areas that are included are genuinely amazing areas, particularly where the finale takes place, bringing in a particular trope I love. Dungeon designs are also a step up, with more interesting layouts to explore and some with traps to avoid. Music wise there are plenty of new songs that live up to the standard of the first game while all the old locations have their original catchy music.
Trails in the Sky SC builds upon the strong foundations of the first game to deliver a truly special and incredible experience that will live long in the memory. Fantastic character driven moments with plenty of surprises and heartwarming moments take this game on a level few can match as it carefully crafts a tale that will see you shed tears throughout its wonderful journey. SC not only left me with another game to add to my all time favourites list but also a character in Estelle Bright that I have grown to love on so many levels. What an experience and one I am so glad to have had.
This review contains spoilers
Trails in the Sky SC is another one of those games that from an objective standpoint is probably a better game than its predecessor, but is missing some of the quirks from the original that I liked. Right off the bat, the pacing is way improved from the first game. For one, it doesn’t take 12 hours for the plot to kick off, and on top of that, the chapters are actually divided up in a way that makes sense. Second Chapter having ten chapters that last 3-5 hours as opposed to First Chapter’s five chapters that last 5-10 hours feels way better to play through in terms of pacing out one’s play sessions. Second Chapter also goes out of its way to give backstories to the majority of the main cast, in some cases drastically increasing my appreciation of the attached characters. I actually like Agate now, and Schera and Joshua… well, I still don’t love them, but I don’t hate them anymore, which is an impressive feat in and of itself, so props to the writers for pulling those ones off.
Where some of my gripes start to come in is with the plot itself. For Second Chapter they pivot away from First Chapter’s political drama and choose instead to focus on the secret society of Ouroboros. I found this sort of disappointing because even though most JRPGs have fantasy politics lingering somewhere in the background, rarely are they put right at the forefront of the conflict like they are in First Chapter, so it felt like something of a breath of fresh air for the genre. To choose to then pivot from there to the most generic sort of antagonist you can have, an undercover organization bent on world domination, seems a bit like wasted potential to me.
Additionally, while all of the protagonists are great, some of the supporting cast left something to be desired. Cassius is still astonishingly poorly written. This time around, not only does he know every important person in Liberl, but he’s also well-connected to politicians from other countries and is apparently on good enough terms with a LITERAL DRAGON DEITY to call in a favor right at the end of the game for one final Cassius ex machina. Dude is straight-up impervious to conflict. I feel like I’m going crazy because he is the most aggressively “Gary Stu” character I’ve ever seen and I haven’t seen anyone else online acknowledge it.
My burning hatred for Cassius Bright aside, I was also kind of disappointed with the Enforcers. Most of the game they were being set up as individual foils for members of the party, and I thought that was pretty cool, but come the end of the game when it’s time for them to explain their motives and they give some of the dumbest reasons I have ever heard. Even the game’s main antagonist, Weissman, has pretty shaky logic if you think about it for more than like, one second. It’s not a huge deal because none of this comes up until the final few hours, so you don’t get to linger on it for very long, but I thought I’d mention it anyway because it felt surprisingly stupid compared to the rest of the game’s writing.
Now two games in, the Trails series has been a solid time for someone like me who likes fantasy epic JRPGs, but I can’t help but feel it’s missing a little something to push it over the edge. As previously stated, I enjoy the main cast and their dynamic quite a bit, so I can only conclude that it’s the overarching narrative that feels a bit lacking. I wish it would push for some slightly more daring concepts or jarring plot twists. First Chapter’s ending and the stuff with Hamel come kind of close, but those feel more like exceptions to the rule than anything else. Knowing that Ouroboros remain the antagonists for the rest of the series, I’m not super hopeful this will happen, but hey, I hear Zero and Azure are really good, so maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Where some of my gripes start to come in is with the plot itself. For Second Chapter they pivot away from First Chapter’s political drama and choose instead to focus on the secret society of Ouroboros. I found this sort of disappointing because even though most JRPGs have fantasy politics lingering somewhere in the background, rarely are they put right at the forefront of the conflict like they are in First Chapter, so it felt like something of a breath of fresh air for the genre. To choose to then pivot from there to the most generic sort of antagonist you can have, an undercover organization bent on world domination, seems a bit like wasted potential to me.
Additionally, while all of the protagonists are great, some of the supporting cast left something to be desired. Cassius is still astonishingly poorly written. This time around, not only does he know every important person in Liberl, but he’s also well-connected to politicians from other countries and is apparently on good enough terms with a LITERAL DRAGON DEITY to call in a favor right at the end of the game for one final Cassius ex machina. Dude is straight-up impervious to conflict. I feel like I’m going crazy because he is the most aggressively “Gary Stu” character I’ve ever seen and I haven’t seen anyone else online acknowledge it.
My burning hatred for Cassius Bright aside, I was also kind of disappointed with the Enforcers. Most of the game they were being set up as individual foils for members of the party, and I thought that was pretty cool, but come the end of the game when it’s time for them to explain their motives and they give some of the dumbest reasons I have ever heard. Even the game’s main antagonist, Weissman, has pretty shaky logic if you think about it for more than like, one second. It’s not a huge deal because none of this comes up until the final few hours, so you don’t get to linger on it for very long, but I thought I’d mention it anyway because it felt surprisingly stupid compared to the rest of the game’s writing.
Now two games in, the Trails series has been a solid time for someone like me who likes fantasy epic JRPGs, but I can’t help but feel it’s missing a little something to push it over the edge. As previously stated, I enjoy the main cast and their dynamic quite a bit, so I can only conclude that it’s the overarching narrative that feels a bit lacking. I wish it would push for some slightly more daring concepts or jarring plot twists. First Chapter’s ending and the stuff with Hamel come kind of close, but those feel more like exceptions to the rule than anything else. Knowing that Ouroboros remain the antagonists for the rest of the series, I’m not super hopeful this will happen, but hey, I hear Zero and Azure are really good, so maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Sky SC has to be one of the few games I cried as the ending credits rolled not because the ending was sad but because I couldn't believe it was over.
There's a lot of flaws to Sky SC. Namely how formulaic the story was, the amount of backtracking near the end, and how stereotypically anime the Ouroboros Enforcers were.
However the storytelling and characters more than carried the entire game on its back. FC was essentially a 60 hour introduction to the Liberl arc and SC is where everything pays off. And the payoff is so, so worth it.
Estelle Bright is one of my favourite protagonists. She's incredibly well-written and her character development across both games, from a type naive airhead to a maturing young woman, sure of her path and the people she wants to walk beside, is incredible and completely believable.
All the characters in the game are so well written. It was never a drag to read through all the dialogue in the game because I love all these characters so much. Do yourself a favor and install the EVO voice mods. I can't imagine playing the game unvoiced. From Agate to Oliver to Kloe and Loewe, watching their struggles to find their own path was no less a delight than watching the magnetic relationship between Estelle and Joshua. And Estelle and Joshua's relationship is peak.
FC was a good JRPG. SC is something else entirely. I'm struggling to put it in words but something about how comfy the game was despite the raised stakes, the well written characters and their relationships with each other, the incredible writing, story and world building makes this something really special.
Congrats Falcom. I'm hooked. I'm playing the next 11(?) games in the series.
There's a lot of flaws to Sky SC. Namely how formulaic the story was, the amount of backtracking near the end, and how stereotypically anime the Ouroboros Enforcers were.
However the storytelling and characters more than carried the entire game on its back. FC was essentially a 60 hour introduction to the Liberl arc and SC is where everything pays off. And the payoff is so, so worth it.
Estelle Bright is one of my favourite protagonists. She's incredibly well-written and her character development across both games, from a type naive airhead to a maturing young woman, sure of her path and the people she wants to walk beside, is incredible and completely believable.
All the characters in the game are so well written. It was never a drag to read through all the dialogue in the game because I love all these characters so much. Do yourself a favor and install the EVO voice mods. I can't imagine playing the game unvoiced. From Agate to Oliver to Kloe and Loewe, watching their struggles to find their own path was no less a delight than watching the magnetic relationship between Estelle and Joshua. And Estelle and Joshua's relationship is peak.
FC was a good JRPG. SC is something else entirely. I'm struggling to put it in words but something about how comfy the game was despite the raised stakes, the well written characters and their relationships with each other, the incredible writing, story and world building makes this something really special.
Congrats Falcom. I'm hooked. I'm playing the next 11(?) games in the series.
im at a loss for words ngl this game is so peak i wouldve given this 6 star if i could
A amazing conclusion to the character arcs of FC and an amazing improvement gameplay wise this game is only brought down for some frustrating design decisions like the first disc feeling a little bit like filler due to not much happening and some very frustrating segments (chapter 8 being one of the worst sections of any jrpg ever as well as some annoying boss fights) but when this game shines it really does as well as setting more plot lines for the future of the series
The Trails in the Sky games occupy a similar spot in my mind with the Persona 2 games. They're very dated and lower budget RPGs with some good stories and characters, but gameplay that is far from being great. However, while I have played other Persona games before playing Persona 2, I have no prior attachment to Trails so I'm less enthusiastic about putting up with the archaic mechanics here. If Trails in the Sky is really supposed to be the best starting point for the franchise... it needs to get a better one.
But let's focus in on this particular entry: Trails in the Sky SC.
I was excited upon starting Trails in the Sky SC because it seemed as though it was going to be very different from the previous game, but it ended up repeating a ton of content. The locations, music, battle system, party members... But not only that, Trails in the Sky SC also repeats a lot of content even within the scope of this singular game. There is a team of villains in this game who you have to battle three times per member of the group. This just added to the feeling of the game being formulaic. Trails in the Sky first chapter is definitely not a perfect game, but what I can say is that it felt fresh throughout. Trails in the Sky SC might be a better game but I definitely can't say that it felt fresh.
The battle system definitely has a unique hook, but by the end of Trails in the Sky SC it had started to wear out its welcome. By that point I had the thought that I'd be having more fun just playing a different game that didn't repeat so much content from the previous game. And I still have to play the third game in its entirety, so this is not a great sign. I am really hoping that the combat gets better in future Trails games because otherwise it's going to be rough.
I quite enjoyed the story and characters in Trails of the Sky SC. It's a continuation of the first game's story but now contains the high stakes that the first game was sorely missing. Party members are now permanent, which is great because their individual stories are allowed to get fleshed out. They contrast with the villains quite well and it allows for the sort of character drama that this franchise seems to do well with. All things considered, it is a pretty standard type of plot to defeat the team of villains, but I appreciated the higher stakes and character development.
By now I understand at least somewhat why people like this series, but I don't agree with this particular entry being as highly rated as it is on this website. It was an improvement from the first game, but a downgrade in originality. The combat system has overstayed its welcome and doesn't really differentiate itself from the system in the first game. And while I enjoyed the story, it's a little more standard than the high praise would make it out to be.
A fine game, for sure, I'm just hoping for my own sake that this isn't the peak of the series. I'm putting a lot of investment into this franchise because people say it's good, but if the fans are exaggerating the quality of the rest of the series like they are with the quality of this game then it's going to be a big letdown.
But let's focus in on this particular entry: Trails in the Sky SC.
I was excited upon starting Trails in the Sky SC because it seemed as though it was going to be very different from the previous game, but it ended up repeating a ton of content. The locations, music, battle system, party members... But not only that, Trails in the Sky SC also repeats a lot of content even within the scope of this singular game. There is a team of villains in this game who you have to battle three times per member of the group. This just added to the feeling of the game being formulaic. Trails in the Sky first chapter is definitely not a perfect game, but what I can say is that it felt fresh throughout. Trails in the Sky SC might be a better game but I definitely can't say that it felt fresh.
The battle system definitely has a unique hook, but by the end of Trails in the Sky SC it had started to wear out its welcome. By that point I had the thought that I'd be having more fun just playing a different game that didn't repeat so much content from the previous game. And I still have to play the third game in its entirety, so this is not a great sign. I am really hoping that the combat gets better in future Trails games because otherwise it's going to be rough.
I quite enjoyed the story and characters in Trails of the Sky SC. It's a continuation of the first game's story but now contains the high stakes that the first game was sorely missing. Party members are now permanent, which is great because their individual stories are allowed to get fleshed out. They contrast with the villains quite well and it allows for the sort of character drama that this franchise seems to do well with. All things considered, it is a pretty standard type of plot to defeat the team of villains, but I appreciated the higher stakes and character development.
By now I understand at least somewhat why people like this series, but I don't agree with this particular entry being as highly rated as it is on this website. It was an improvement from the first game, but a downgrade in originality. The combat system has overstayed its welcome and doesn't really differentiate itself from the system in the first game. And while I enjoyed the story, it's a little more standard than the high praise would make it out to be.
A fine game, for sure, I'm just hoping for my own sake that this isn't the peak of the series. I'm putting a lot of investment into this franchise because people say it's good, but if the fans are exaggerating the quality of the rest of the series like they are with the quality of this game then it's going to be a big letdown.
Peak fiction. This where alot of the slower character introduction and world building from the first game pays. Has one of the most emotional moments in media history and amazing ost and fun gameplay. Best story and characters.
Perfect sequel to game 1.
Perfect sequel to game 1.
Masterpiece, peak fiction, ruinner of RPGs.
I don't think i'll be able to appreciate many more mediocre JRPGs as i did before after experiencing this incredible game
I don't think i'll be able to appreciate many more mediocre JRPGs as i did before after experiencing this incredible game
zenith fiction
This review contains spoilers
All I have to say is that this game is PEAK PEAK PEAK.
Anyways second Trails game review. I didn't know what I was getting myself into after the cliffhanger of the first game but I definitely needed to play this game for some closure.
I'll actually talk about the gameplay first. Maybe I'm just an idiot but I actually decided to use the food we cook in recipes for this game! Especially the food where you can use it to damage enemies in battle. Also, I'm glad that they finally incorporated actual attack arts for space, I was really annoyed that the first game didn't have any. Most of the gameplay remains the same, but they incorporated Chain Crafts (I think that's what they were called, it's been a while since I played this game). Now coming from someone who completed this game on Nightmare, I didn't really use them (maybe I should've, might've made this game way more forgiving on the hardest difficulty), just never really saw the need to when most of my characters had no CP to use anyways. But EP will always be king in these games.
Like I said in my last review, the worldbuilding is phenomenal, and only continues to get better in this game. The grave importance of the Non-Aggression Pact between Liberl, Erebonia and Calvard made the situation all the more tense. On top of all of that, you had Ouroboros being snakes around the entirety of Liberl and trying to cause chaos, and they're just really weird. And Hamel, that stuff got my blood boiling when I found out about it. I think if a game is truly able to get my blood boiling for fictional content, I may as well just resign myself to the entire series, it's seriously that great.
I love love love the story in this game. Estelle goes on a double mission, to gather intel on Ouroboros, and to find Joshua. Dammit Joshua, why'd you have to leave, you carried me in the previous game. Anyways, I enjoyed going back to each city in different order, as well as being able to use the old squad, but also new characters like Anelace and Kevin. I enjoyed getting to discover the different Enforcers of Ouroboros, with many having relationships with other party members. Ouroboros in a whole is just mysterious, but I think it's better that way, as we aren't really meant to know how they operate. Oh yeah, did I ever mention how much I hate Weissman? Well, I hate him, he sucks. The one part of the game that I disliked was where you had to climb the four Tetracyclic Towers, it felt so repetitive, but I enjoyed each of the boss fights (even if I had to restart on each of them a bunch of times until I figured out a strategy). Now, the endgame was truly when this game became peak. Olivier being royalty, yeah sort of saw that coming, but the Liber Ark and how they essentially just eliminated our orbments for part of the final chapter. Brilliant incorporation of the story into the gameplay, even if it was annoying to deal with. The Liber Ark felt like a true boss rush, fighting some of the strongest members of Ouroboros to stop their Gospel plan. The Joshua and Loewe scene kind of got me near the end there. The final boss, honestly not that memorable, all I remember is Weissman summoning a bunch of ads that just kept deleting my Earth Wall.
Kevin killing Weissman was the cherry on top, and really got me interested in Kevin's character and backstory. I felt that Estelle and Joshua's arc was handled great, and I just love a lot of things about this game. That last part of the game where Joshua and Estelle are about to 'die' didn't have as much of an emotional impact on me, as I knew they would survive due to there being another game after this one, but nonetheless, it still did hit me. And of course, Cassius had to ride in on his dragon and rescue us.
A great game, and a great game to end Estelle and Joshua's story, but only beginning their adventures as senior bracers.
BLORF.
Anyways second Trails game review. I didn't know what I was getting myself into after the cliffhanger of the first game but I definitely needed to play this game for some closure.
I'll actually talk about the gameplay first. Maybe I'm just an idiot but I actually decided to use the food we cook in recipes for this game! Especially the food where you can use it to damage enemies in battle. Also, I'm glad that they finally incorporated actual attack arts for space, I was really annoyed that the first game didn't have any. Most of the gameplay remains the same, but they incorporated Chain Crafts (I think that's what they were called, it's been a while since I played this game). Now coming from someone who completed this game on Nightmare, I didn't really use them (maybe I should've, might've made this game way more forgiving on the hardest difficulty), just never really saw the need to when most of my characters had no CP to use anyways. But EP will always be king in these games.
Like I said in my last review, the worldbuilding is phenomenal, and only continues to get better in this game. The grave importance of the Non-Aggression Pact between Liberl, Erebonia and Calvard made the situation all the more tense. On top of all of that, you had Ouroboros being snakes around the entirety of Liberl and trying to cause chaos, and they're just really weird. And Hamel, that stuff got my blood boiling when I found out about it. I think if a game is truly able to get my blood boiling for fictional content, I may as well just resign myself to the entire series, it's seriously that great.
I love love love the story in this game. Estelle goes on a double mission, to gather intel on Ouroboros, and to find Joshua. Dammit Joshua, why'd you have to leave, you carried me in the previous game. Anyways, I enjoyed going back to each city in different order, as well as being able to use the old squad, but also new characters like Anelace and Kevin. I enjoyed getting to discover the different Enforcers of Ouroboros, with many having relationships with other party members. Ouroboros in a whole is just mysterious, but I think it's better that way, as we aren't really meant to know how they operate. Oh yeah, did I ever mention how much I hate Weissman? Well, I hate him, he sucks. The one part of the game that I disliked was where you had to climb the four Tetracyclic Towers, it felt so repetitive, but I enjoyed each of the boss fights (even if I had to restart on each of them a bunch of times until I figured out a strategy). Now, the endgame was truly when this game became peak. Olivier being royalty, yeah sort of saw that coming, but the Liber Ark and how they essentially just eliminated our orbments for part of the final chapter. Brilliant incorporation of the story into the gameplay, even if it was annoying to deal with. The Liber Ark felt like a true boss rush, fighting some of the strongest members of Ouroboros to stop their Gospel plan. The Joshua and Loewe scene kind of got me near the end there. The final boss, honestly not that memorable, all I remember is Weissman summoning a bunch of ads that just kept deleting my Earth Wall.
Kevin killing Weissman was the cherry on top, and really got me interested in Kevin's character and backstory. I felt that Estelle and Joshua's arc was handled great, and I just love a lot of things about this game. That last part of the game where Joshua and Estelle are about to 'die' didn't have as much of an emotional impact on me, as I knew they would survive due to there being another game after this one, but nonetheless, it still did hit me. And of course, Cassius had to ride in on his dragon and rescue us.
A great game, and a great game to end Estelle and Joshua's story, but only beginning their adventures as senior bracers.
BLORF.
games lucky i don't give it a half star for having the abbreviation SC and not having it stand for SoulCalibur
IF YOU'RE NOT A FAN OF THE WORDS
PEAK FICTION
GOAT
RAW
FIRE
Click off the review rn!
PEAK FICTION
GOAT
RAW
FIRE
Click off the review rn!
Falcom was able to build peak in cave! With a box of scraps!
After the first game I was impressed, but now I am hooked and I am eating. It's incredible how thought-out and thorough the work that's gone into this is. I tried at several points to trick the game into giving me a single line of generic dialogue from ANY town NPC and they just kept beating my ass with more world-building. They would not let me stop reading. There's no wonder this took longer to translate than the dead sea scrolls
The combat is better but it's still the weakest part. There's a lot more to building a party than the previous entry but it still feels like it needs a bit of tightening.
Anyway, looking forward to spending another 500 hours catching up to this until the games suddenly get bad or whatever
After the first game I was impressed, but now I am hooked and I am eating. It's incredible how thought-out and thorough the work that's gone into this is. I tried at several points to trick the game into giving me a single line of generic dialogue from ANY town NPC and they just kept beating my ass with more world-building. They would not let me stop reading. There's no wonder this took longer to translate than the dead sea scrolls
The combat is better but it's still the weakest part. There's a lot more to building a party than the previous entry but it still feels like it needs a bit of tightening.
Anyway, looking forward to spending another 500 hours catching up to this until the games suddenly get bad or whatever
trails is my favorite series of all time and I do tierlists of like what my favorite game in the series is and why and shit, and I always put 3rd and azure in the highest one and then sit there going where do I put SC. Ive seen so many opinions and takes on this game and its writing and gameplay and pacing and characters and yada yada and thought about this game so much man. I just want to say yes of course certain character and there backstories weve seen before, joshua bright isnt the first to have this character arc, estelle bright isnt the first to have a stubborn happy go lucky character have to mature and grow up to the task at hand type character arc, but god damn man does this game do it so fucking well. its soundtrack its art its world its characters and just how fucking falcom does not care that this is an rpg they do not care they are going to make you run around the entire country again in chapter 8, because thats what they want estelle and them to do it just has so much fucking guts and confidence and its doing a story we more or less have seen aspects of somewhere or another but I will prolly never play anything ever again that made me feel like this. When I am making my little trails/falcom game tierlist SC always makes me stop and go I cant rank this I cant compare this. Im not saying others cant but god what cast what a soundtrack what a fucking game dude. I wont give it 5 stars idk why maybe cause i dont wanna fill up my 5 star ratings or whatever but this shit MEANS sumn to me man. Cold steel 4 killed all my goodwill the series had built up in me and it destroyed in future interest in the series, but thinking about SC again makes me wanna give reverie and kuro a shot. I love this game so much I could also write about how its orbment system feels really good and how its just another thing that helps immerse you into liberl and zemuria and shit but you know different people play things for different things.
This review contains spoilers
A substantial improvement over FC but still can't help over how disappointing it was in so many areas.
The Plot is not very well-paced. The first half of the game is filled with repetition and backtracking and is often predictable just like the first game. Even when it does pick up it's not all that impressive, as most of the moments don't leave a huge impact on me. But there are some big highlights, Leowe attacking Weissman and breaking that barrier, and Kevin killing Weissman in cold blood were some of them.
Most of the Characters this time have their full-fledged arcs, while most of them stood between either meh or okay.
Agate's arc was very well done and gives justice to his character, and Leowe playing an important role in it makes it even more interesting. But I think it'd been better without Tita being in it.
Zin and Scherazard's arcs were fine. It's how most JRPG arcs go. Kloe and Olivier's arcs were more like shoehorned in the plot and didn't really matter honestly as the whole political tension. Tita is just there and no one cares about her and they did not even bother to give her her own arc.
Leowe was by far the most interesting character and I was hooked to the screen whenever he made his appearance, he was well-written and executed really well as an antagonist compared to Weissman who was one of the most JRPG of all-time final bosses. Leowe's dynamic with each character was very interesting to see as well, especially with Estelle, Joshua, Renne, and Agate.
Speaking of Joshua, he is the most disappointing character in the whole game, while having a rich backstory and strong impressions by the end of FC, his role was little to none in the first half, and by the time he comes back into the party, he's back to being how he was before leaving. Even his return feels rushed and more to the point where writers just talk no jutsud him back in the party. His struggles were very little addressed in the beach scene and Estelle just tells him and he agrees.
All there's left is Estelle, well she was the main character so she must be the most well-written one right? WRONG. While I do not have a problem with Positive characters, they lose their charm real quick if there's nothing interesting about them. Estelle falls into that category, there were moments where it showed a potential development for her, but they all went to shambles by the end as all she ended up being was the "sun that guides everyone". receiving no development, and her motivations hardly getting questioned.
Also, I hate whenever a character starts talking about Cassius, he's the Ultimate Plot Convenience this game pulls, and has all the godly feats possible that even the legendary Dragon knows him. He is only available when the plot demands it, the rest of the time he is unavailable. Honestly, it would have been better to have killed him in the plot if they weren't going to properly utilize the trope.
Other than this I am also not a fan of how this game handles romance, or more like relationships in general. Estelle and Joshua started out as siblings but throughout the FC everyone around them shipped them and Estelle developed feelings for Joshua over that. This feels so wrong because their relationship actually felt sibling-like and they just changed it halfway through the game. I find it hard to understand how people call their romance well-written after this.
Agate and Tita have a similar case, Tita was supposed to be a Mischa-like presence in his life, and the way other party members ship them in Chapter 6 felt really uncomfortable considering Tita is a Minor and Agate is 24 years old.
I am not going to talk about the gameplay, the music, or the worldbuilding as they are just better than what was already good in the first game (And I am not in much of a mood to praise this game).
Trails in the Sky SC turned out to be a really disappointing experience as the prologue was very promising. Hopefully the last game in the Liberl Arc will redeem itself.
The Plot is not very well-paced. The first half of the game is filled with repetition and backtracking and is often predictable just like the first game. Even when it does pick up it's not all that impressive, as most of the moments don't leave a huge impact on me. But there are some big highlights, Leowe attacking Weissman and breaking that barrier, and Kevin killing Weissman in cold blood were some of them.
Most of the Characters this time have their full-fledged arcs, while most of them stood between either meh or okay.
Agate's arc was very well done and gives justice to his character, and Leowe playing an important role in it makes it even more interesting. But I think it'd been better without Tita being in it.
Zin and Scherazard's arcs were fine. It's how most JRPG arcs go. Kloe and Olivier's arcs were more like shoehorned in the plot and didn't really matter honestly as the whole political tension. Tita is just there and no one cares about her and they did not even bother to give her her own arc.
Leowe was by far the most interesting character and I was hooked to the screen whenever he made his appearance, he was well-written and executed really well as an antagonist compared to Weissman who was one of the most JRPG of all-time final bosses. Leowe's dynamic with each character was very interesting to see as well, especially with Estelle, Joshua, Renne, and Agate.
Speaking of Joshua, he is the most disappointing character in the whole game, while having a rich backstory and strong impressions by the end of FC, his role was little to none in the first half, and by the time he comes back into the party, he's back to being how he was before leaving. Even his return feels rushed and more to the point where writers just talk no jutsud him back in the party. His struggles were very little addressed in the beach scene and Estelle just tells him and he agrees.
All there's left is Estelle, well she was the main character so she must be the most well-written one right? WRONG. While I do not have a problem with Positive characters, they lose their charm real quick if there's nothing interesting about them. Estelle falls into that category, there were moments where it showed a potential development for her, but they all went to shambles by the end as all she ended up being was the "sun that guides everyone". receiving no development, and her motivations hardly getting questioned.
Also, I hate whenever a character starts talking about Cassius, he's the Ultimate Plot Convenience this game pulls, and has all the godly feats possible that even the legendary Dragon knows him. He is only available when the plot demands it, the rest of the time he is unavailable. Honestly, it would have been better to have killed him in the plot if they weren't going to properly utilize the trope.
Other than this I am also not a fan of how this game handles romance, or more like relationships in general. Estelle and Joshua started out as siblings but throughout the FC everyone around them shipped them and Estelle developed feelings for Joshua over that. This feels so wrong because their relationship actually felt sibling-like and they just changed it halfway through the game. I find it hard to understand how people call their romance well-written after this.
Agate and Tita have a similar case, Tita was supposed to be a Mischa-like presence in his life, and the way other party members ship them in Chapter 6 felt really uncomfortable considering Tita is a Minor and Agate is 24 years old.
I am not going to talk about the gameplay, the music, or the worldbuilding as they are just better than what was already good in the first game (And I am not in much of a mood to praise this game).
Trails in the Sky SC turned out to be a really disappointing experience as the prologue was very promising. Hopefully the last game in the Liberl Arc will redeem itself.
This review contains spoilers
after playing fc, which I enjoyed a lot, I had high hopes for sc and this game really met these expectations
the start of this game was pretty slow tbh and things were gettin repetitive for the first 3 chaps, icl it wasn't a big problem for me and it shows by how long it took me to finish this game, I was locked in throughout the whole game, the party selection, combat, side quests and the main parts are all super fun in sc as well as fc, there's not much to complain about but a few pacing issues which I didn't really mind, for the trails games that i've played (only two lmao) you can tell things aren't meant to get good straight away and its more of a slow burn typa game
however, after chapter 5, things started to change and improve in quality drastically, things got really serious and i could not get off the game, literally this game got me sleeping for 3 hours max for the past week because so much stuff was happening and I was just locked in, there's so many moments in this game that you can choose from and are actually great, the end of chapter 6 and the final were def my fav parts in the game.
one of my favourite parts of the game is how each character gets their individual moments and amazing dynamics, trails is pretty cast heavy so there's a lot of characters to go over. Agate and Tita were probably my fav dynamic out of the side characters, they were so good in chapter 5. I don't think I really dislike anyone in the main cast they're all great and this is one of my favourite parts of the game.
a character that blew my mind apart from Estelle and Joshua is def Leowe, I could've spoken about many other characters like Schera or Oliver but Leowe is def a personal favourite, learning about his past and his own morals and ideologies really made me intrigued about his character and his conclusion was great, my goat fs. Also the main antagonist group, Ouroboros having direct and individual dynamics to the main cast was really cool, we see this especially in the axel tower where we have to defeat each of the members as a player, seeing how certain characters react/sympathise as well as understanding one and other was coolio. overall this game was amazing and I cant wait for the future trails installements, it would be hard to top this, can't wait for the 3rd, will start soon, very soon
also why are the monsters in this game so ugly bruh, I was looking up close to some of them and they're so ugly man
"I have no idea where this path will lead us... but I'm sure something awaits us at the end"
the start of this game was pretty slow tbh and things were gettin repetitive for the first 3 chaps, icl it wasn't a big problem for me and it shows by how long it took me to finish this game, I was locked in throughout the whole game, the party selection, combat, side quests and the main parts are all super fun in sc as well as fc, there's not much to complain about but a few pacing issues which I didn't really mind, for the trails games that i've played (only two lmao) you can tell things aren't meant to get good straight away and its more of a slow burn typa game
however, after chapter 5, things started to change and improve in quality drastically, things got really serious and i could not get off the game, literally this game got me sleeping for 3 hours max for the past week because so much stuff was happening and I was just locked in, there's so many moments in this game that you can choose from and are actually great, the end of chapter 6 and the final were def my fav parts in the game.
one of my favourite parts of the game is how each character gets their individual moments and amazing dynamics, trails is pretty cast heavy so there's a lot of characters to go over. Agate and Tita were probably my fav dynamic out of the side characters, they were so good in chapter 5. I don't think I really dislike anyone in the main cast they're all great and this is one of my favourite parts of the game.
a character that blew my mind apart from Estelle and Joshua is def Leowe, I could've spoken about many other characters like Schera or Oliver but Leowe is def a personal favourite, learning about his past and his own morals and ideologies really made me intrigued about his character and his conclusion was great, my goat fs. Also the main antagonist group, Ouroboros having direct and individual dynamics to the main cast was really cool, we see this especially in the axel tower where we have to defeat each of the members as a player, seeing how certain characters react/sympathise as well as understanding one and other was coolio. overall this game was amazing and I cant wait for the future trails installements, it would be hard to top this, can't wait for the 3rd, will start soon, very soon
also why are the monsters in this game so ugly bruh, I was looking up close to some of them and they're so ugly man
"I have no idea where this path will lead us... but I'm sure something awaits us at the end"
Trails in the Sky SC is a great sequel to FC, and I really enjoyed my time with it. I especially like the characters and the fantastic worldbuilding. I honestly don't have much more to say, despite the fact that I can totally recommend Trails in the Sky FC and SC and that this game definitely exceeds Trails in the Sky. It'd also be nice if we could have the Trails in the Sky games on modern consoles.
I think for most people this second entry is considered a vast improvement over the first game and for the most part I would agree. The basic gameplay has been improved allowing for more customization and strategies and the story does a wonderful job of paying off every major story beat set up in the first game. In all regards it is a superior game but I still think I find myself enjoying the first entry a tad bit more.
The major reason for this is the retreading of all the same locations in the first game. One of my favorite parts of an RPG is exploring new locations and making my way to new towns. The retreading of this familiar locations, while it makes complete sense in the story, lessened my enjoyment of spending time in these locations and interacting with one of the games strongest quirks that being the unique dialogue for every single NPC in the game. I praised the first game for how interconnected the whole world felt in it and this game improves that writing even more I just did not engage with this aspect nearly as much. The sheer length of the game and the retreading of familiar ground eventually lead to me burnt out more than once.
Despite my complaints the story is still great and has more cemented the fact that I am a fan of this series.
The major reason for this is the retreading of all the same locations in the first game. One of my favorite parts of an RPG is exploring new locations and making my way to new towns. The retreading of this familiar locations, while it makes complete sense in the story, lessened my enjoyment of spending time in these locations and interacting with one of the games strongest quirks that being the unique dialogue for every single NPC in the game. I praised the first game for how interconnected the whole world felt in it and this game improves that writing even more I just did not engage with this aspect nearly as much. The sheer length of the game and the retreading of familiar ground eventually lead to me burnt out more than once.
Despite my complaints the story is still great and has more cemented the fact that I am a fan of this series.
A Truly Amazing Game!
The game's prologue was a great immediate continuation of the finale of fc and served as a nice break from everything we saw from trails thus far in terms of the mountain area and it's structure.
The first half is admittedly pretty slow but it has enough switch-ups in it's episodic returns and investigations of each region (especially 3 & 5), for me to keep interested. A latter chapter also has some element of repetitiveness and it's something that I do wish could have been injected with more variety but the boss fights are fun and it serves it's purpose.
The character work is still incredible and potentially even much better, FC's planted seeds begin sprouting and some characters growth or just in general presence is great.
The story was irresistible especially near the end and the way it tugs on your heartstrings was special.
Multi-tiered orbal slots are cool and so are multi-party member s crafts.
Excited for the rest of this series.
The game's prologue was a great immediate continuation of the finale of fc and served as a nice break from everything we saw from trails thus far in terms of the mountain area and it's structure.
The first half is admittedly pretty slow but it has enough switch-ups in it's episodic returns and investigations of each region (especially 3 & 5), for me to keep interested. A latter chapter also has some element of repetitiveness and it's something that I do wish could have been injected with more variety but the boss fights are fun and it serves it's purpose.
The character work is still incredible and potentially even much better, FC's planted seeds begin sprouting and some characters growth or just in general presence is great.
The story was irresistible especially near the end and the way it tugs on your heartstrings was special.
Multi-tiered orbal slots are cool and so are multi-party member s crafts.
Excited for the rest of this series.
Took what we already saw in FC and cranked it up to eleven. Yes it does have a repetitive formula but I did not care at all. Each chapter was packed full of so many good character moments and set ups for one of the greatest finale's I've ever played.
The finale had me crying in so many different ways and just made it clear that this would be my favorite series ever.
The finale had me crying in so many different ways and just made it clear that this would be my favorite series ever.
Trails in the Sky SC is an improvement from FC. Gameplay was much less restrictive and you had a full party of interchangeable characters that can help play and fulfill roles with the right quartz setups. Liberl was still fun to explore the second time and doing the sidequest were still mostly fun as ever. The game has excellent character moments in all the chapters and all the main party members all get their moments to shine. For the story, it was still mostly well - done though the great character moments, though I felt the stakes were barely higher than FC and it only got really interesting until the second half. Pacing was also weird as while I felt it was fine in revisiting all the cities, it felt disjointed once you begin Chapter 6. It begins fine enough through Ch. 6 and 7, though slowdowns unnecessarily in Ch. 8. The momentum that was set up messed the momentum for the final chapter in which I personally wanted the journey to end. Another thing to note, even though I still enjoyed doing the sidequests, I felt they were the weakest in the series (no thanks to the unneeded amount of Blueblanc quests). Despite my problems with the pacing in the second half and the sidequests, Sky SC is still a solid game that succeeded all of FC's setups and ran a good marathon full of great character - moments. 4/5.
This review contains spoilers
They are lying to you, this game is not peak, but it is good. I do admire how ambitious this, and FC are, you can tell they tried to make a great game here with a minuscule budget. How they tried to stretch this budget out though made it worse. Trails SC suffers from some of the worst pacing I may have ever seen in a video game story. Chapter 8 has all this crazy shit happen and then they make you do a round trip around the city's you've been too. It's some of the most boring nothing content. In this game there's about 30-35% of a great game, and the rest of it is horrible. So much could've been cut out. I also dislike the character arcs for Agate and the rest of the side characters. The whole point of the first game was to make us invested in these characters, it should've been done in the first, not here. It really sucks too, because the first game was relatively down to earth, the stakes weren't too high, and a lot of it was spent establishing the world. SC devolves into THE most predictable and awful anime drivel, but it does retain its strong character writing. The villains suck ass and do the Vegeta thing that happens all the time in anime where they end up being good at the end. The first time Estelle meets Weissman on the ship, he is quite literally playing a giant organ. Like, it is straight up comical at times. The game also does not handle heavy topics well. The explanation of what happened to Joshua as a kid is not adequate enough to make me feel anything or really understand the repercussions this had. I think Estelles development to being more mature is cool, but when the game starts saying she's like the sun and she bring everyone together, it feels like it minimalizes her development. The start of SC is spent with Estelle learning to be strong on her own, and then the game just forgets that part and just says she is bright like the sun. It also infuriates me how formulaic the game is. Like 5 of the chapters is doing boring shit to meet an ouroboros member, who then kicks your ass then leaves. It never occurs to the main party that they need to get stronger to beat them and then they somehow do at the end??? It's more of an issue too, because the game has this thing where how strong you are in game is roughly how strong that character is in the story. For example, when Zane joins the party. he is obviously higher level than everyone else, because Zane would beat the dogshit out of Estelle or Schera. But Schera is also higher level than Estelle but not more than Zane. When Joshua joins, he is the highest level so far because he used to be part of ouroboros. When the bandit girl joins your party, she is lower level and doesn't even have a s-craft. I could keep going on to prove this point. There's no in-story explanation of how they got stronger, it's through gameplay, but it's confusing story wise because a lot of players won't even notice this fact.
Gameplay wise, it is identical EXCEPT for the new addition of chains. Chains are fucking terrible, and I have no clue why you would ever use these dog shit moves. It ruins your turn order, barely does more damage than if everyone involved just attacked normally, and costs craft points from everyone. They are awful and the only new addition sucks ass. Combat is mostly fine though. The boss fights are fun with a few exceptions, and the random encounters are ass. It takes too long for fights to finish for it to be structured like a SRPG. Luckily, you don't really need to grind. I do wish it did the FF13 and made every party members level the same. The late game boss fights are fucking awful though. The 2nd Renne fight, she hit her super immediately and crit and insta killed my whole party before I could even realize what happened. Loewe's fight is ass, and luckily you can just skip it for some reason??? A lot of the late game fights just have you spamming earth wall and aoe magic attacks. Also, Estelle is like the shittiest character. Her stats are fucking awful, and I could never make here as good as any other party member.
Overall, though, it is just the first game, but the story is worst. The game could not meet up to expectations and its writing is better when it isn't trying to make some secret organization kingdom hearts storyline. Its wasted so much of its time on backtracking and character arcs that should've happened in the first. The payoff is not worth 100 hours of gameplay. To put it in perspective, I have almost the same time in these two games as Persona 5. I am going to play the future entries though and I hope they improve on the formula established here.
Gameplay wise, it is identical EXCEPT for the new addition of chains. Chains are fucking terrible, and I have no clue why you would ever use these dog shit moves. It ruins your turn order, barely does more damage than if everyone involved just attacked normally, and costs craft points from everyone. They are awful and the only new addition sucks ass. Combat is mostly fine though. The boss fights are fun with a few exceptions, and the random encounters are ass. It takes too long for fights to finish for it to be structured like a SRPG. Luckily, you don't really need to grind. I do wish it did the FF13 and made every party members level the same. The late game boss fights are fucking awful though. The 2nd Renne fight, she hit her super immediately and crit and insta killed my whole party before I could even realize what happened. Loewe's fight is ass, and luckily you can just skip it for some reason??? A lot of the late game fights just have you spamming earth wall and aoe magic attacks. Also, Estelle is like the shittiest character. Her stats are fucking awful, and I could never make here as good as any other party member.
Overall, though, it is just the first game, but the story is worst. The game could not meet up to expectations and its writing is better when it isn't trying to make some secret organization kingdom hearts storyline. Its wasted so much of its time on backtracking and character arcs that should've happened in the first. The payoff is not worth 100 hours of gameplay. To put it in perspective, I have almost the same time in these two games as Persona 5. I am going to play the future entries though and I hope they improve on the formula established here.
this game is great. reminds me a lot of my friend's twitter poll https://twitter.com/TheDivineVessel/status/1786537711618162734
Completion Criteria: Max Bracer Rank
I immediately became a fan of the original with its plodding pace and intimate world so it stands to say I feel the same here. I personally prefer the story of the original bus I can understand why people may like this better. Personally the scope was maybe a bit big here for my taste when compared to the original. I will continue to plod along through the games in the he future.
I immediately became a fan of the original with its plodding pace and intimate world so it stands to say I feel the same here. I personally prefer the story of the original bus I can understand why people may like this better. Personally the scope was maybe a bit big here for my taste when compared to the original. I will continue to plod along through the games in the he future.