Video Trails in the Sky Playthrough!

[ruadath]

I'm a couple of weeks late on this... but in commemoration of the release of the Second Chapter, I'll be doing a playthrough of Trails in the Sky! Not just a regular old playthrough, of course; that would be far too simple! Instead, I'm going to attempt a Nightmare difficulty, no carry-overs (NG+ bonuses), low level perfect game! Sounds like a lot of fun, right? Anyway, let me define my goals more clearly:

1) Nightmare difficulty, no carry-over (duh)
2) Maximum BP
3) Open all treasure chests
4) Complete all sidequests, recruit all characters, get all recipes, etc.

5) Maybe fill out the monster book. I'm not sure if I'll do this at all, or leave it until late game, or how it will fit in the context of LLG, etc.

Unlike my Persona 3 playthrough, I won't be posting videos of the entire run, as that would be far too tedious in a game with this kind of length. Instead, I'll just be providing videos of the battles. And here is the first one!

In case you are worried about me abandoning my other playthrough(s), don't worry; equal time will be spent on both this and the Persona project for now

[Naughx]

Hmm the font is weird... and the xp gain interface is too... is this the psp version or?

[ruadath]

Yeah, PSP version.

[Pull My Devil Trigger]

2) Maximum BP

5) Maybe fill out the monster book. I'm not sure if I'll do this at all, or leave it until late game, or how it will fit in the context of LLG, etc.

afaik it's not possible to do both of those in a single run of the game

if you want to get max bp you need to go unoticed during the stealth section of leiston fortress which will have you miss one or two entries in the monster book

not 100% sure on that though

[ruadath]

Right, I know that. By fill out monster book I mean do as much as possible without compromising other goals.

For example, you also can't complete the entries of the tutorial enemies on a first playthrough, since you don't yet have the information quartz.

[ruadath]

Pine Plant defeated!

I actually failed once again at capturing the screen resolution perfectly on my first attempt which went very well, so you are again unfortunately stuck with a slightly lower quality playthrough of the boss battle. I suppose I should therefore mention that the critical at the beginning of the fight is not necessary to win, and that with the increased distance I gave Estelle, she can (just barely) survive getting attacked by the boss even though he does not do so.

[ruadath]

Crop Munchers are defeated!

Things get a little bit tricky from here on out. Now that I've hit Bracer Rank 8, I HAVE to equip the Information Quartz for boss fights in order to record their data for the Monster Book. Combining this with the fact that I'm not fighting random battles, and thus don't have enough Sepith to unlock a new slot, this means that Joshua is limited to his Time skills, so no more fire attacks from him.

As for the actual battle strategy, I charge up Joshua's CP to 200 ASAP and have him kill the boss with an S-break, since it''s fast enough to attack twice (killing Estelle) before she can get a heal in. After that I took my time taking care of the other enemies so that I could charge up Joshua's CP again.

[ruadath]

A couple more sidequests completed, including Medical Necessities and Orbment Replacement; the latter is posted below.

This is another tricky fight, because we have Joshua going solo against 4 enemies, and even though they are all individually weak, we've seen what kind of damage they can push out in Nightmare mode.

Thankfully there are a couple of things in our favor for this battle. First of all, while completing the Medical Necessities quest, I looted Mistwald for its Hide Jumpsuit, which greatly increases Joshua's defense and allows him to take an extra hit or two before dying. In addition, the fact that the enemies are Flying Felines, who we will face once again in another quest battle, means that it is not necessary to have the Information Quartz equipped; this is great news, because it means I can give him Estelle's HP 1 Quartz in his second slot so he has access to healing magic.

Unfortunately, there is a small audio glitch that occurred during the recording, but I didn't feel like restarting because of all of the ridiculous drops, so I used a combination of a save state + YouTube Editor to get rid of it at the cost of the frame getting cropped a little bit.

[ruadath]

Soldier Traning completed!

This was a tough battle that required me to use both Joshua and Estelle's S breaks for the first time!

[ruadath]

First of the Malga Mine fights:

This battle ended up being a lot tougher than I expected since everyone besides Gaton dies in 2 hits, so I redid the previous battle to charge Joshua's CP up to 200. Even with that, however, this battle requires a good deal of luck (though not quite as much as depicted in the video) to get through if you want to conserve Estelle's CP, which is important, since I have to fight this battle 3 times after this! Really, though, its not particularly difficult to get lucky enough to have either Soul Blur connect once, dodge an attack, land a critical or do something of the sort to make this battle easier.

Thankfully, at the end of the fight, Joshua hits level 5, with Estelle following soon. This means that he no longer gets two-shotted by the enemy crabs, so the playing field is a bit more even. In addition, since I've scanned the enemies, I no longer need to keep the Information Quartz on Joshua, though there isn't anything terribly better to give him, only Attack 1 and Impede 2, neither of which have skills that are really more effective than Soul Blur.

Speaking of Quartz, the good thing about fighting all of these battles is that I will get a sizeable amount of Water Sepith, the type that I am most lacking. This should mean that after completing this dungeon, I will be able to unlock Estelle's second slot.

[ruadath]

And here is the 4th battle of the same kind:

I didn't bother showing the next two battles, since they are basically the same as the first, except that Joshua now can survive an extra hit so things are easier. Estelle leveled up too, but that doesn't really change anything because she's not wearing high Def armor so she still gets two-shotted. This final battle, however, is a little bit different since neither of my characters start off with a maxed CP gauge. This changes the strategy a little bit, so I thought I'd get this video up.

Also, notice how at the end of the battle we've got enough EXP that our characters are getting close to level 6! And even better, we have enough Sepith to unlock Estelle's second slot!

[ruadath]

I'm not capable of taking on Rhinocider at the moment (one-shots any party member even if I upgrade my equipment and stuff them with Defense Quartz), and I can't trigger the trapped chest with the Topaz Bracelet since 8 enemies are too much and I don't have access to Aerial (even if I open Estelle's second slot, I don't have enough wind Sepith to make and Evade 1).

That means I'm probably just going to continue with the storyline for now.

[ruadath]

Rhinocider defeated! IIRC, this take my Bracer rank up to 7.

I proceeded with the story by visiting Esmelas Tower, looting all of the chests except for the trapped one (the enemies were too strong). I also unlocked Estelle's second slot, since I figured the extra EP would be useful at some point.

Then Scherazard joins the party! She is really quite a godsend, considering that she is at level 12 while the Bright siblings are still at level 5. Anyway, thanks to her joining, not only do we have a stronger character who makes boss fights much easier via tanking, but we also have access to Aerial! I removed her Shield 1 and gave her Impede 2 so that I could use it to pummel enemies. If we do this on the Sepith up phases, this allows for quite a sizeable profit.

EDIT: something weird seems to have occurred with video quality... I'm going to try to fix it. For once, I got a better clear! New video uploaded in place!

Edited November 12, 2015 by ruadath

[ruadath]

I'm facing a minor dilemma here regarding whether my challenge should involve going for minimal EXP, or just fighting no optional battles.

There is usually no difference between the two in most games; however, in this one there is due to the nature of the EXP curve. If I were going for min EXP, for example, this means I should leave the trapped Topaz Bracelet for the very end of the Prologue (maybe even the beginning of Chapter 1) in order to ensure I am overleveled for the fight and gain minimal EXP.

I'm leaning against doing this minimal EXP for a couple reasons: one being that the difference is negligible, but also because it's too much planning beforehand, especially if one allows for the killing of monsters for the sake of filling in the Monster Book to occur at any time.

Do you guys have some thoughts on this? Also in general, do you think I should make filling out the Monster Book a goal that I am pursuing? This will raise my levels quite a bit, since I have to kill quite a few additional enemies including a Shining Pom each chapter, for example.

[ruadath]

Robber Trappers defeated!

Again, now that we have Scherazard in our party, several previously impossible battles become quite easy. For that reason, we make our way back to Esmelas Tower to grab the last chest which is guarded by a powerful group of monsters.

Thankfully, Schera tears them to shreds with Aerial, and nails a ton of extra Sepith in the process! I think I have enough to unlock a 3rd slot on one of the main characters' now! Even more importantly, I hit an astounding 50 Time Sepith, which means I can afford Blind for Hell's Gate!

Anyway, really good battle, with a lot of CP charging getting done in addition, and the Bright siblings reaching level 6.

[ruadath]

Alright, I haven't been at this for a while so let me give you a quick update:

Restarted playthrough, finished first two storyline quests and defeated Pine Plant for Information Quartz Bracer reward. Before doing the latter, I went ahead and looted Esmelas Tower (save for the trapped chest), and the Hide Jumpsuit from Mistwald so that Estelle could take a hit without getting one-shotted (without any luck).

The main reason for restarting was the realization that I could optimize Sepith gains from early battles using Estelle's S-break. This has given me a pretty good surplus of Sepith early on, and in particular, I launched two combos on Pine Plant, which gave me enough to unlock Estelle's second slot already! So both characters have 2 slots open, and my remaining Sepith count looks like this:

[spoiler=Sepith]Earth: 52
Water: 4
Fire: 10
Wind: 51
Time: 32
Space: 44
Mirage: 84

Pretty good, no? At this rate, I should be able to afford Hell's Gate (i.e Blind + EP Cut) when it becomes available, which could prove useful for the Josette fight. Anyway, off to fight Crop Munchers now! I probably won't be recording videos until Josette because it is too tedious due to the number of times I reset to obtain high Sepith counts. Oh, by the way

[spoiler=Playthrough Status]Estelle: Level 3 (113/160 EXP)
Joshua: Level 3 (113/160 EXP)

Jobs Completed: 4
BP: 10
Battles: 7
Victories: 7
Losses: 0
Fled: 0

Edited November 22, 2015 by ruadath

[ruadath]

Alright, after like a half-hour long battle, I fully farmed the Crop Munchers for everything I could get.

[spoiler=Battle Strategy]I came in with Joshua having 200 CP, so after initial casts of Fire and Aqua Breath, I proceeded to activate his break and finish off the giant one. Estelle and Joshua then ganged up on one of the minions (they conveniently moved to opposite ends of the map), and after that I turned my attention to the remaining minion.

Thanks to the fact that they use their Crop Munch ability, I was able to farm this guy by using attacks to charge up Joshua/Estelle's CP, waiting for his HP to get high + and Sepith bonus to show up, and then activate Pummel to reap in the rewards. I went through several iterations of this until he stopped dropping Sepith, then proceeded to max out Estelle's CP (Josh's was already full for a long time), and finished him off with a torrent of Aqua Breath spells + Josh attacks

My Sepith totals are looking pretty awesome now:

[spoiler=Sepith]

Oh, and we hit level 4:

[spoiler=Playthrough Status]Estelle: Level 4 (183/250 EXP)
Joshua: Level 4 (183/250 EXP)

Jobs Completed: 5
BP: 13
Battles: 8
Victories: 8
Losses: 0
Fled: 0

Edited November 22, 2015 by ruadath

[ruadath]

With Crop Munchers defeated, it's now time to take of Robber Trappers at the earliest possible point of the playthrough, defeating them at an astounding level 4, without the help of Schera!

If you're wondering why I took them on so early, it's because of the nature of the EXP curve in Trails; you don't get extra EXP for defeating high level opponents, but you do get reduced EXP for defeating low level opponents. Therefore it is advantageous to level up here, and get less EXP from the numerous Flying Felines that I have to fight in the upcoming sidequests.

Unfortunately, this means I am not able to spam these guys with Aerial for massive Sepith gain (no Impede 2 quartz yet), but that can probably be offset later on.

Edited November 22, 2015 by ruadath

[ruadath]

Just completed the Orb Replacement quest. Joshua fought a group of 4x Flying Felines by himself, and thanks to the previous level, only gained 8 EXP instead of 16. I managed to get a couple of Sepith bonuses, but Joshua can't really take advantage of them very well, so it didn't matter too much.

While there are 3 more quests available at the moment, I will be heading the Malga Mines first, since none of them expire after I do so (Orb Replacement did). Since I got Impede 2 from the last quest, I'm planning to buy Evade 1 before I go there, and stick them both on Estelle to have her Aerial spam to farm collect massive SP bonuses from the 4 sets of crabs on them. Joshua can keep HP 1 equipped for 3 of the fights to give me access to healing, but for at least one of them, I will need Information equipped, to if I want to farm SP (and I do), I'll probably need to use some S-breaks if I don't want to dip into my item stock.

[ruadath]

Cleared out Malga Mines. 4 Killer Crab 3x battles gave me a good chunk of EXP (got to level 6) as well as allowed for a lot of farming with Aerial. So anyway here is the relevant breakdown:

[spoiler=Playthrough Status]Estelle: Level 6 (369/490 EXP)
Joshua: Level 6 (370/490 EXP)

Jobs Completed: 7
BP: 21
Battles: 14
Victories: 14
Losses: 0
Fled: 0

Earth: 305
Water: 174
Fire: 27
Wind: 43
Time: 45
Space: 33
Mirage: 252

Quite a lot of Earth Sepith, though I'm not sure it's particularly useful. Once I get a little bit more Fire Sepith (and maybe some Wind Sepith as well), I can unlock another slot (or two!). Anyway, for now it's time to complete as many quests as possible without Schera.

Edited December 1, 2015 by ruadath

[ruadath]

After a long period of no updates, finally some progress! I actually ended up redoing the playthrough from Robber Trappers, since I realized that Sepith gain could be optimized in that battle by giving Hell's Gate to Joshua and allowing Estelle to heal. This allowed me to unlock Joshua's third slot before Malga Mines, which made things easier there and allowed me to rake in ~60 Water, Earth, and Mirage Sepith on each of the 4 battles there.

Anyway, after doing that it's now time to complete as many of the quests as we can before picking up Schera (probably all of them). And first off is the Soldier Training! Now that we are level 6, these guys don't really pose too much of a threat, which allows me to use them as another opportunity for Sepith farming.