Trails franchise (Trails In The Sky, Trails Of Cold Steel etc)

It’s been a while, but he’s primarily a ranged fighter with arts as his best asset so he’s quite useful and pretty fun to use since I love spamming arts.

In a little interface spoiler… half the Bracers in the battle had voices while the other half didn’t… I bet you can guess why.

I'm guessing Kurt will be plot relevant yeah?

I noticed.

New character trailer, this time for Aaron Wei.

Holy crap, I am under levelled.

So Oliver came in with some new tricks, and he's a LOT more satisfying to play. Long range really is quite fun in this game.

....I also have no idea what I'm supposed to do, they talked about getting better gear and quartz, and then stretching their legs for a bit to wait for the next round of the tournament.

But like, I did all those things, and still no plot progression. Ah well.

I keep thinking that the Daybreak characters look like characters from previous arcs.

Oh that Oliver, never change.

GAH! My greatest enemy in an RPG. Exorbitantly high prices. If this keeps up, I'll be in the poor house.

Yeah, I also forgot who these people are.

Oh yeah, these are supposed to be those punks we fought back at Ruan.

So anyway, after a bit of banter, the tournament is going to begin!

Aahhh, Estelle really is a Shonen protagonist, she's even got the inevitable tournament arc. All she's missing is a Stock Shōnen Rival.

Can't be Josette since she's in jail RN. Uhhhhhhh....Renne?

WTF!?

Today on posts that have aged badly before 30 minutes have passed.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Mar 26th 2024 at 9:58:58 PM

wdym?

Damn it, I wanted them to lose, but they are actual distinct characters. Pretty fitting the military men wear red.

HOLY SHIT, did Lawrence take out 3 guys in one turn? That's against the rules isn't it?

What an upset! So this round was all about separating the wheat from the chaff. So now all the characters with unique portraits are left.

I'm half surprised the mayor and Gilbert didn't return. They could throw money at their opponents. If they had any.

Why only 1? You got Olivier the rival in love, Josette the unruly rival and well a friendly rival is the only thing currently missing.

She needs a Frieza now.

Someone to really piss her off and achieve new levels of power.

That Weisemann guy sounds like one coming from her comments in Zero.

While doing the latest sewer training session, a random thought occured to me about Arianrhod's lifespan.

Like, we know there's some form of time manipulation right? Ke A either undid the SSS' deaths at the end of Zero, OR she superimposed a new timeline over the old one so that the SSS live and that means technically the SSS are still dead in some other timeline.

And there's the fact we meet some kind of possibility of Guy at the end of Azure, and I'm confused on what exactly he is, but it's already established that there's ways to bring people back from the dead.

Granted, Guy specifically was in the World of Zero which is where all possibilities exist or something like that, and he warned Lloyd that if his death was undone, then so would everything Lloyd did as a result of his death.

Actually now that I typed this, I guess I can cross out the possibility Ouroboros somehow pulled Arianrhod from the past somehow or that Osborne pulled a similar trick to avoid death.

It was CLEARLY him that got shot, but I'm still thinking on HOW he did it. Gah, I really want to get to Cold Steel 3 already, but I'm still enjoying Sky.

Starting to wonder if this Lawrence fellow is the same silver haired man that I assumed was Weiseman. The guy who looks like Crow, I assumed he was Weisemann but then another troper basically told me I was way off.

So we reunite with Nial, and then drop the mother of all scoops on his lap, and he can't even report it.

I'm sure you would love to publish a story about the on-going coup, but you know, don't want to get disappeared by the secret police of Liberl. They promise to exchange more information, and Nial in particular promises to deliver information about Lawrence. I'm surprised Nial accepted all of this so easily, guy seemed like a fanboy of Colonel Richards, while Estelle and Joshua aren't exactly the nicest to him. Ah well, would suck if he betrays us.

Oh boy, so this is the cover story. So Princess Klaudia is here too eh? Hmmmmm.... it appears the secret is going to come out soon.

After I do the stupid sewer grind.

HA! I enjoy these two talking, gives me life. There was more I missed but eh.

.....SHIT, how old is Oliver again? Damn it, I'm going to get cancelled for joke shipping these two.

Yeah, REALLY suspicious that the duke hired these sky pirates who HIJACKED A CIVILIAN AIRSHIP to perform in the tournament. Though I wonder if royal intelligence put him up to it.

The eldest also reiterates that they were set up by intelligence and he can't remember the past few days. So reminding us that mind control is a plot point.

....Estelle won't be mind controlled will she? Or maybe Joshua. Can't be too careful after Gnosis.

Well okay, that hasn't happened yet, but still.

Alright, time to fight our fellow bracers! How hard can it be?

OH MY GOD, I SPOKE TOO SOON.

Olivier is 25, but the Boke + Tsukkomi chemistry is real. Although I think Schera is a bit more of an appropriate pair, also she is 23.

So after winning the fight by the skin of my teeth, Estelle and friends go back to the waiting room where the Capua family are at.

Estelle and Josette are about to come to blows but Joshua smooths things over, and...

Oh no, oh no. She's got a crush. Is this going to lead to a shitty love triangle where Estelle and Josette fight over Joshua IN ADDITION to their already heated rivalry?

Either way, Josette and her team are going to fight Intelligence spec ops. I'm sure they got this.

They don't got this.

He's twenty five!? Huh, I would have assumed he was younger than that. I thought he was 17, TBH.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Mar 28th 2024 at 5:29:14 PM

And just to fuck with me, turns out the spec ops agents ARE Jaegers. Or at least, Lawrence is.

Oooof, I'm again reminded of my high school days. What a pain.

Nial delivers some exposition on Princess Klaudia and explains she's some kind of recluse who lives all her life in the royal villa and that no one has ever seen her.

Oh my god, is THAT why no one recognizes the princess? They all thought she was in the royal villa but she was actually pretending to be an average school girl. That makes a certain amount of sense. Nial then reveals that Richard is looking to marry off Klaudia for....reasons.

Back at the guild, the receptionist goes on to exposit that A MEMBER OF THE IMPERIAL ROYAL FAMILY is expected to visit in time for the queen's birthday.

SO THAT"S WHY OLIVER IS HERE. HE"S SUPPOSED TO MARRY KLOE! At least officially.

....How on board is he with the plan? It's weird thinking Oliver is going to marry at all. Granted, given that he's still single by Cold Steel, and is on good terms with Kloe in Azure, I don't think he's going to marry her.

Given he is in Liberl under an assumed name and his mom's last name... probably not on board at all.

When you look at his situation in Erobonia... being a child of the Emperor and a commoner. Getting rid of him to a small neighbouring country is a win for both Osborne and the Noble Faction.

Oh so Estelle and Joshua got a mysterious letter from someone who broke into their hotel room.

It's Sieg isn't it? I heard the distinct wing flapping. Anyway, the letter tells them to meet the writer at the cathedral at 10 pm. Sounds legit.

Joshua tries to do the chivalrous thing, and tell Estelle to stay here while he goes by himself. Estelle promptly tells him what a stupid idea that is considering how much Joshua keeps dying in combat.

Oh I'm sorry, I mixed up my notes, Estelle tells him what a stupid idea that is considering that she's as much of a bracer as he is, and that he can trust her despite his growing fears that he's hiding or something to that effect.

A stealth mission in a Trails game? At this time of the game, near the end of the story, LOCALIZED ENTIRELY WITHIN GRANCEL!?

AH HA! SO THE CHURCH IS WORKING FOR OUROBOROS AFTER ALL! THIS NUN IS AN ENFORCER! ARE YOU WEISEMANN!?

Oh, it's just her. Egg on my face. I legit thought she was going to be a villain, gah I've been playing too many RP Gs. Assumed the church lady would be evil.

Hey wait a sec, this is the exact same trick Angelica used. Talk about a call back. On Angelica's end I mean.

Anyway, Julia gives off some exposition, and entrusts a letter to Estelle and Joshua to give the the queen.

And then once again, goes on about how cool Cassius Bright is. Okay, that's it, mini rant, but I am so sick of this game just pausing to tell you how cool and amazing Cassius Bright is. HE HASN"T EVEN BEEN ON CAMERA FOR MORE THAN AN HOUR. And almost every plot relevant NPC, especially those in the military talks about how amazing he was there. It's just getting absurd.

At least ARIOS was on camera and could back up his reputation with feats we could see. We're just constantly told how amazing Cassius Bright is, and it's getting obnoxious. Arios might be a coward, a terrible father, and a glory stealer, but not even he got this shilled.

Considering we just learned that Colonel Richards was a former direct subordinate of Cassius, I TRULY DREAD meeting him in person because he's not going to shut the fuck up about how cool Cassius is.

Right, so after fleeing from some patrol guards checking the church, Estelle and Joshua take a moment for themselves. Joshua decides that now after all this shit is over, he's going to tell everything about his past to Estelle and that things can indeed change.

Estelle being happy about this development, affirms she's going to tell him something, presumably that she loves him, after he tells her his entire past.

Oh boy, considering the track record of Trails, something bad is going to happen at the end of the game isn't it? Why else would there be a second chapter?

I'm dreading it now.

There's a reason characters keep hyping Cassius up as some kind of Chuck Norris-esque living legend who can do anything, and it's not just to make Cassius sound cooler to the audience. The fact that he has this reputation in-universe is actually plot-important.

Everybody else who's allowed to read spoilers, we shall see if Red makes the connection between Cassius suddenly choosing to retire from the military and Col. Richard, his former subordinate, thinking the nation is imperiled enough that he needs to pull a coup to save it. It's been foreshadowed a little by this point, at least.

Incidentally, Estelle has a similarly bemused reaction whenever Cassius shilling comes up; everyone keeps telling her that her bumbling oaf of a dad is some kind of a superman and it never hits right to her.

Why do I feel that spoiler involves Ouroboros?

I'll check it after I finish the game. So far, I haven't seen much of their involvement.

Yeah, but like, Estelle knows who he is in-universe. All I've known about him is his few moments of screen time.

It makes sense for say, Guy to be repeatedly shilled since he's dead and he's supposed to represent the high standards Lloyd sets for himself, but I barely know who Cassius is, and what ingenious plans he did that saved Liberl from the Empire according to almost EVERY military person who keeps shilling him.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Mar 28th 2024 at 11:02:12 PM