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

Nah Remiferia is used in Akatsuki no Kiseki (browser game) but is pretty unimportant compared to the other countries in the main games.

Its leader didn't even get a portrait at the trade conference in Ao.

Oh, that's what the Akatsuki no Kiseki I've heard about is? Is it plot important at all?

Edited by Alfric on Mar 11th 2019 at 6:05:21 AM

It's not made by Falcom so I'm not even sure it's canon.

My main interest in it comes from the seasonal variations. Glorious.

I think it's a gacha game, and it us about to newbie Bracers, world-trekking.

Yeah, you get to go from Liberl to Crossbell. The thing most people know it by is the more detailed world map.

New artwork was shown off for Rixia and (I think) Gaius' brother◊ and Scarlet and what looks like Wald's sillhouette.◊

Edited by LordVatek on Mar 24th 2019 at 12:02:53 PM

I'm currently on chapter 4 of Trails to Zero, and I was wondering how tight the window for Detective Rank 1 DP is in the normal PSP version? I'm currently about 4ish DP down from the top because of something in chapter 1 that I missed I guess, but I'm also unable to max out the cooking side quest due to having missed some dishes earlier in the game. I suppose it's not gonna be that bad since I don't think I can transfer completion data to the version of Azure I have anyway, but I was at least hoping to reach Detective Rank 1 if possible and I wanted to know if I still could or if I should just do the minimum on that cooking sidequest since I hate gathering ingredients anyway.

I'm currently following a guide so that I don't miss any sidequests or DP but I neglected to get some of the recipes thinking it wouldn't matter too much only for this to come up.

You can miss 4 DP normally or 8 DP on NG+.

Its very tight.

Oof, well then detective rank 1 is lost to me. Oh well. Is max rank that tight in other games? I don't remember it being like that in Trails in the Sky, though I also know nothing of Cold Steel.

Max rank is usually that close in the Trails games.

Is it really? Wow, I guess I just never noticed in Sky. I know in FC I missed enough stuff that I kinda didn't care, and in SC I had a really good guide that helped me get everything so I didn't miss any quests.

Max rank is easy in Sky FC, but very tight in SC.

Azure is pretty easy though, which is nice, because Max DP is stupid hard there.

Man, I forgot how impressive the cutscene where the Aureole gets unleashed from its prison dimension is.

...I love the sense of scale these games have compared to other RPG's despite playing with some of the same tropes. The antagonists you'd expect to be the Quirky Miniboss Squad are all fearsome one-man armies you don't even stand a ghost of a chance against until endgame. There's so many living legends like Cassius, Ein Selnate, ect. that the protagonists have yet to truly surpass, instead of dethroning them halfway through a game. Even a single one of the seven MacGuffins is powerful enough to shake the earth with its mere arrival and be the subject of three whole games, instead of just collecting all seven in a single game.

Long-form storytelling is such a cool diversion from all the numerous self-contained RPG's out there.

Edited by Anomalocaris20 on Mar 30th 2019 at 3:22:58 PM

Trails is kind of like one big, very long reconstruction of how a RPG works. It does everything it can to justify in-universe why these mechanics make sense and how you can follow the heroes from first steps to defeating the kind of bosses you expect in games like these. The finale of SC was so satisfying to get to, because the epic chanting and angel motifs felt entirely earned.

It's like, I've been Estelle, the somewhat selfish delivery girl fighting farmland critters to a confident young woman who can deflect grandeos speeches about the failings of humanity with a few words. I've finally made it.

That's one of the key things I think the Trails games do best.

Building the world up so the dramatic moments feel so earned.

I tried out the first game yesterday shortly and I'm hit by huge "geez, haven't played this classic jrpg in a long time" nostalgia and this was before I got any control or chance to save the game ._. Seems promising as hell

I also love how the game's magic system is baked into the setting and given a modern twist, down to an actual science of why people can call down windstorms and searing-hot pillars of fire.

All that stuff about the Orbment Revolution is good backstory, and as annoying as it is from a gameplay perspective, the Aureole's Orbal Shutdown Phenomenon really sells how integrated orbments are in day-to-day life.

Also you very specifically get to keep one Zero Field, so new game plus runs are easier.

I also like that for once, it's not an anti-technology game. Sure the past was great, but modern society is finding new things all the time and it's not treated as inherently bad. Just making life faster and more complex with its own risks. It's a really tired trope that in an RPG, getting rid of magical technology is treated as the best solution.

Ironic considering Japan's status as one of the most technologically developed (and reliant) countries in the world, if not the most.

Adding on to that, I've always liked how the technology gradually gets more and more advanced as the series goes on. The robots in Sky were considered ahead of their time but by the second half of Cold Steel they're mass-produced and given to high school students.

Edited by LordVatek on Mar 30th 2019 at 6:52:58 AM

I don't think the ZFG carries over? I just got to Chapter 8 and I only have four; three for the phones and one to keep after.

Lets watch the spoilers about later Sky and Cold Steel games IE Giant Robots and such, we JUST had someone post that they were in the prologue of Sky FC.

Noted.

So does that mean we can't talk about the fact Michey is actually an old man?