Trails Series

[Jedi]

4 hours ago, TheEnd said:

No, you can't just say that
It also has great continuity/worldbuilding, and its combat system is pretty nice

You forgot the great characters . Even Rean who a number of people find boring is well written for the most part.

[TheEnd]

4 hours ago, Jedi said:

You forgot the great characters . Even Rean who a number of people find boring is well written for the most part.

The characters vary quite a lot though, especially after the Sky trilogy
Also, my main issue about Rean is relative to his power level and special snowflakeness
 

[Corrobin]

1 minute ago, TheEnd said:

The characters vary quite a lot though, especially after the Sky trilogy
Also, my main issue about Rean is relative to his power level and special snowflakeness
 

Okay, I'm going to give my opinion on that problem:

Estelle and Lloyd will forever have places in my heart for managing to do all that they do without special plot powers. But it's been 5 games (not counting CS), and I'm tired of Ouroboros getting all the OP shit. And Ouroboros will always be my favorite semi-evil mysterious organization, but I'm just teensy, itsy-bitsy bit annoyed at their track record. I mean, yeah, when you're a teenage Bracer/police detective/military academy student going up against a ancient conspiracy, the odds are a bit stacked, but I'm a bit sick at how often Ouroboros gets exactly what they want despite the heroes "winning".

[TheEnd]

You mean you haven't finished CS2 yet?

[Corrobin]

I know about...

Spoiler

Spirit Unification and Valimar, if that's what you're talking about. Spirit Unification is incorporated nicely into his backstory, with the time he killed a bear to protect Elise making sure it doesn't come out of nowhere, and he doesn't come to fully control it until A. McBurn explains it to him and B. He trusts himself to use it without going off the rails. Valimar is more focusing on world-building, and serves to heighten the rival and dark reflection status of Crow. Plus, he's voiced by DC Douglas. Your argument is invalid.

What I said may have come out wrong. I'm perfectly fine with Rean's "Special snowflake" attributes because they're added onto a solid character who I like. He's snarky, funny, and great in battle, but he has flaws and a bit of an arc going on.

[Jedi]

5 hours ago, TheEnd said:

The characters vary quite a lot though, especially after the Sky trilogy
Also, my main issue about Rean is relative to his power level and special snowflakeness

I don't mind that so much because Estelle still accomplishes more with less.

Edited April 11, 2017 by Jedi

[Iridium]

On 4/7/2017 at 11:06 PM, eclipse said:

I saw the thread when Trails in the Sky first made it to America, so I grabbed the Garghev trilogy.  Song of the Ocean was the WRONG game to start on, because it's smack in the middle of the series.  However, I liked the story well enough, and damn if some of the guys weren't cute. Then I played A Tear of Vermillion, and that got me hooked for good.  Despite the pretty bad translation, the story was quite engaging!

I'd describe Song of the Ocean as less "smack in the middle of the series" and more as "the end of a different but possibly related series". I'd agree it's not exactly a good game to start on, and not just because it's my least favorite Gagharv game, though. Tear of Vermilion was cash-money though, I went into that expecting nothing and I honestly liked it more than several actual Trails games. With the bad translation handicapping it!

My boyfriend makes fun of me and says I only like it because of Avin x Mile though. He doesn't know the Mile x Shannon struggle.

-

Funnily enough, I started playing Trails in the Sky due to Fire Emblem and Professor Layton. Which I understand is an extremely weird combination. I started playing Fire Emblem with Shadow Dragon, but I didn't really like it very much, and fell into Professor Layton soon afterward. As I was following Level-5, I found out that they'd made a game called Jeanne d'Arc, which was a much easier strategy game that I ended up using to ease myself into the Fire Emblem series. After I finished and enjoyed Jeanne d'Arc, I decided to go out and look for more PSP games to play since I'd never really paid the system much mind before (I basically stole it from my younger brother since he only ever used it for licensed games and had stopped playing with it several years prior.) I came across Trails in the Sky in the bargain bin, and I thought that it had a really interesting name and cover, so I bought it.

I ended up really liking it and then dedicated my life for the next few years toward the possibility of SC being localized. During this period of time I developed a saintly level of patience that no MMO grinding could ever have readied me for. Once FC released on Steam, I did everything I could to get the word out, and eventually we got a bunch of other games too. I baited the bae into playing it with Tales of Zestiria as a gift late last year and now he's as addicted as I am (and he never finished Zestiria lmao). I'm now sitting here gushing about the series at two in the morning, immediately after getting off a phone call where I spent over half an hour discussing the potential ramifications of Vampires within the Trails canon. Truly I am living the dream.

[TheEnd]

5 hours ago, Jedi said:

I don't mind that so much because Estelle still accomplishes more with less.

Don't mind me, I'm mostly just hating on the intermission
 

[Jedi]

39 minutes ago, TheEnd said:

Don't mind me, I'm mostly just hating on the intermission

Heeeey I gotta stop you there, it was pretty awesome, but then again maybe I'm just a sucker for 

SUPER COOL POWER UP SEQUENCES, I blame Dragon Ball

[TheEnd]

25 minutes ago, Jedi said:

Heeeey I gotta stop you there, it was pretty awesome, but then again maybe I'm just a sucker for 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

SUPER COOL POWER UP SEQUENCES, I blame Dragon Ball

 

Yes, I figured you'd enjoy Rean going super saiyan
Most people seem to have enjoyed that sequence, but it simply broke immersion for me
It was BS, fight me

[Jedi]

1 hour ago, TheEnd said:

Yes, I figured you'd enjoy Rean going super saiyan
Most people seem to have enjoyed that sequence, but it simply broke immersion for me
It was BS, fight me

Honestly it reminds me more of Devil Trigger or like Victorization from Buso Renkin than Super Saiyan but yeah

And I get that, its a tad of an over the top sequence.

[Corrobin]

2 hours ago, TheEnd said:

Yes, I figured you'd enjoy Rean going super saiyan
Most people seem to have enjoyed that sequence, but it simply broke immersion for me
It was BS, fight me

What? It was awesome!

[Jedi]

Its usually a divide on if you liked that part or not haha, I see the arguments on both sides and they make sense too.

[Corrobin]

Just out of curiosity, what's your opinion on Bleublanc?

For me? I find him hilarious and am always ready for a scavenger hunt from him.

[Jedi]

Bleublanc is pretty great in all of his appearances although I do remember being annoyed at some of his quests in the Sky games at first.

[eclipse]

17 hours ago, Iridium said:

I'd describe Song of the Ocean as less "smack in the middle of the series" and more as "the end of a different but possibly related series". I'd agree it's not exactly a good game to start on, and not just because it's my least favorite Gagharv game, though. Tear of Vermilion was cash-money though, I went into that expecting nothing and I honestly liked it more than several actual Trails games. With the bad translation handicapping it!

My boyfriend makes fun of me and says I only like it because of Avin x Mile though. He doesn't know the Mile x Shannon struggle.

Song of the Ocean occurs after A Tear of Vermillion, and before The Midnight Witch (or whatever it's called).  That's why it confused me.  Once I played A Tear of Vermillion, things made more sense.

9 minutes ago, Corrobin said:

Just out of curiosity, what's your opinion on Bleublanc?

For me? I find him hilarious and am always ready for a scavenger hunt from him.

Good-looking?  Yes.  Insufferable?  Totally.

[Refa]

48 minutes ago, Corrobin said:

Just out of curiosity, what's your opinion on Bleublanc?

For me? I find him hilarious and am always ready for a scavenger hunt from him.

I thought it was great how this faceless side character grew to become one of the most important characters in the series.

His scavenger hunts made me salty, though.  Even worse was when the Zeiss librarians began imitating him!

[Jedi]

48 minutes ago, Refa said:

I thought it was great how this faceless side character grew to become one of the most important characters in the series.

His scavenger hunts made me salty, though.  Even worse was when the Zeiss librarians began imitating him!

Don't even remind me of those Zeiss quests... Ugh hahaha.

[TheEnd]

That silly Bleublanc is pretty much a series tradition at this point, even more than Spot the Dominion and the like

Fun fact: in the Japanese version of ToCS, his scavenger hunt had full quest markers...
 

[Jedi]

Less than a month till we all get 3rd, its hard to believe.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Have played ToCS 2 for 4h yet... and so far it couldn't meet my expectations yet.
You get thrown literally icecold in this game. There's not much introduction except for the short explanation of the controls and gameplay. There's absolute no reason to start to 2 if you haven't played 1 yet because 2's story directly continues where 1 ended. Some flashbacks of 1 are shown.
Anyways the main issue I have with this game is that it gives you more freedom. Field studies aren't a thing anymore. The day organisation thingy like in the Persona games was one of the main reasons why I loved 1. But I've heared this mechanic was rather an exception in Falcom games. So I had a wrong imagination of the gameplay in 2.
Another issue for me was the you have to come along with a very small party in early game, and the enemies are quite tough.

I hope the game will become better now...

[eclipse]

56 minutes ago, Magillanica Lou Mayvin said:

Have played ToCS 2 for 4h yet... and so far it couldn't meet my expectations yet.
You get thrown literally icecold in this game. There's not much introduction except for the short explanation of the controls and gameplay. There's absolute no reason to start to 2 if you haven't played 1 yet because 2's story directly continues where 1 ended. Some flashbacks of 1 are shown.
Anyways the main issue I have with this game is that it gives you more freedom. Field studies aren't a thing anymore. The day organisation thingy like in the Persona games was one of the main reasons why I loved 1. But I've heared this mechanic was rather an exception in Falcom games. So I had a wrong imagination of the gameplay in 2.
Another issue for me was the you have to come along with a very small party in early game, and the enemies are quite tough.

I hope the game will become better now...

It will.  The game is technically three and a half parts, and it sounds like you're in the first part.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Yeah, doing chapter 1 currently.

Spoiler

Getting the students one by another.

 

[eclipse]

19 minutes ago, Magillanica Lou Mayvin said:

Yeah, doing chapter 1 currently.

  Reveal hidden contents

Getting the students one by another.

 

Keep playing.  Since you played the first game, you should have an idea of when things will change.  Like all Trails games, this one takes some time to ramp up.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Sure, it'll keep playing!
I didn't waste a half of my day just to grab this game and then to quit after like 10%.

However I'm heavily struggling right now.

Spoiler

I have no clue how to beat the two Jaeger guys in Garrelia Fortress. They have about 160000 HP in total togther and they hurt like trucks. Anyone an idea what to do exactly? (orbs, strategy...)

Beating it in my like 20th attempt.
Just didn't know it was an unwinnable battle.
Instead of focussing on survival I tried to take them out... and had to pay for that by letting them use their special crafts.

Edited April 14, 2017 by Magillanica Lou Mayvin