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 the main cast 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.

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"

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.

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.

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.