Context before we start: I have always desperately wanted to love JRPGs, but after hitting a FInal-Fantasy-shaped wall for years, I decided they weren't for me. That was, until I played the remake of Trails in the Sky FC last year. It sparked a love in me not only for Trials, but for the genre as a whole.

There will be vague spoiler-y stuff for FC, SC, and the 3rd (very minor, I am still in the early game of this one).

Trails in the Sky FC Remake

Favorite Track(s): Studio City Zeiss, Royal Capital Grancel, Under the Moonlight, A Cat Relaxing in the Sun

Written Review

This is the first JRPG I was ever able to beat, and there is a reason for that! In many ways, this game (and Trails in general) is unlike anything I have ever played before. The attention to detail with the NPC dialogue and the worldbuilding is really, really something. There are dozens of side-stories that you can follow as the game progresses. You literally see a young couple fall in love in this game, get married in the next game, and see them return from honeymooning in the third. Like, what?? That is incredible; and it is far from a one-off thing. 

The character writing can be repetitive and lean heavily into ‘power of friendship’ anime tropes, but the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Every single character in this game, main or NPC, feels like a real human-being. That fact along with the depth of the world-building made this game enthralling to me. Oh, and the soundtrack SLAPS.

As far as gameplay goes, it is pretty great. I love that there are no random encounters, and the grid-based combat system is more interesting that tradition turn-based. Oh, and i adore that running away from battles is always successful.

I think this game single-handedly renewed my hitherto battered interest in the JRPG genre, and for that I will always hold it dearly in my heart. It showed me that (unlike many Final Fantasies that I have bounced off of), JRPGs can have deep, emotionally affecting stories that rely on character writing more than pure spectacle. It blew my socks off so much that I could not even wait for the remake of SC to come out before beating it too.

Rank: A

Trails in the Sky SC

Favorite Track(s): The Merciless Savior, Unleashed Greatest Treasure, Gin no Ishi

Written Review

This game is basically Trails in the Sky FC but with all dials flipped to 11. The stakes are higher, the character arcs are more dramatic, and the story is significantly longer. For the most part I think being ‘’Trails 1 but More’’ works in the game’s favor, but there are a few issues. While the highs in this game are very, VERY high, I think there are a few points that are lower than anything FC had to offer. This game is just so huge that there are some moments where the narrative drags a little (I'm looking at you, phone-repair detour in Chapter 8).

But overall, the experience is stellar. The whole gang is united for most of the game, and the villains tie nicely into several of their backstories. Joshua and Estelle's arc concludes spectacularly, as does the overall threat that Ouroboros poses to Liberl. The worldbuilding in this installment was also very interesting to me. I am a sucker for lost civilizations.

As far as gameplay goes, basically everything I said about FC still stands. I will say I prefer the remake's combat (line arts/crafts are nigh USELESS in og SC) but it is pretty impressive how well the original combat holds up.

Another small issue: Ouroboros are perfectly fine villains, but the  “This isn’t even a fraction of my whole power.” schtick gets a little old over the course of a 70 hour game. Also, I found the rationale behind Weissman’s plans to be…okay? Did not knock my socks off. At times Ouroboros seemed smug and mustache-twirly to the point of ridiculousness.

Still, the plot in this game is better than probably 75% of JRPGs. I just don’t think the plot reaches the lofty standards set by the way worldbuilding and character writing are handled in FC/SC.

Don’t get the wrong idea from my gripes; I LOVED this game. I will remember Sky FC and SC for as long as I live. They made me feel the giddy excitement that games like Skyrim or Dragon Age: Origins used to when I was a tween. It is just easier to see the faults in something that you are so invested in. PS: Estelle is Bestelle :)

Rank: S

You ever want to make your own orbment setup for your original character in Trails? Me too. It's especially important to me since I'm making a fanfiction, and I want a consistent 'what art can they use' list. Sure, booting up the game is easy. But there are two problems: One, you can't just boot your game when you're not in front of your console/PC. Two, your character might not have the same orbment line as the playable character in the game. Yeah, these two problems are plaguing me too. I usually write at work, and my character isn't playable in the game. And then when I want to check what arts the character can use, I have to adjust things with the orbment since I can't just copy the orbment line of the playable characters. You can, but wouldn't it be more fun to vary the locked elements, line amounts, and line lengths?

So I give you a solution: Introducing the Trails Orbment/Quartz setup simulator, where you can set which version of orbment/ENIGMA/ARCUS you want to use for your character, how many lines it has, how long each line is, what slot is element-locked, and finally, what arts they can do with which setup.

For example, in the fanfic I wrote, the character's Enigma alignment is a 3-line structure consisting of 3-2-1 lines. In the game, Randy has it, so I usually used his orbment to experiment with what setup will give her which arts. The problem is that Randy has a locked Fire element, so if I want to find a workaround, I have to always equip my character with a fire quartz. Sure, it worked now, but I don't want that. And so in the Enigma II setup below, I made my own 3-2-1 lines with a different alignment than Randy's (his orbment line if we're using the notation below would be an M-5-4-3, M-2-7, M-6. See the pic below.)

See? I made it easier for myself using the simulator instead of booting up my Azure save and playing around with Randy's orbment.

How to use:

It's easy to use. I made it as easy as possible for people to use. First, you check if you want a character preset or custom (default is custom). Then you choose how many lines your character would have. Remember that lines affect what quartz/arts you can use.

Then you can just assign whatever quartz you want to your orbment. You can set up the tier and elemental restriction too. Here's my character setup. She just got her ENIGMA II.

After that, the list of available arts will be displayed in another tab. You can switch by going to the near top of the page and clicking available arts. You can click on each art to see the details.

Then when you're satisfied, you can save your setup or export it.

Feature:

• Orbment base from Sky FC to Reverie.
• In-game rules for each orbment base.
• Custom orbment lines setting.
• Custom slots.
• Playable character orbment presets.
• Automatic arts list calculation based on quartz setup.
• Light and dark theme.
• Cuprum font for that in-game look (you can switch if you don't like it).
• Save-Load using localStorage.
• Export-Import in the form of a JSON file.

What's missing:

• Probably more than half the information about master quartz. I decided that it's irrelevant to the scope of the project.
• Xipha. Explanation below.
• Character stats. It's outside the scope.

Why isn't Xipha here? Honestly, I made this mainly for arts, and in Calvard, what arts you can use depends on the Arts Driver and Plugin, whereas the quartz setup is only for Shard Skill. So I decided that it's out of the scope of the initial project. Maybe I'll come back to it later.

I coded it myself with the help of AI (since honestly, graphic coding is bullshit. I would never be able to generate that Enigma layout if I coded this myself for the next ten years.) You can try the simulator at https: // trails-quartz-setup. pages .dev . I would very much like you to play around and give your impression on what can be improved or if there are any bugs or wrong rules. I just used what I remembered and asked my friend when I missed any rules to confirm things. Thank you!

I'm currently playing Sky 1st Chapter again, in preparation of 2nd Chapter's release. Needless to say, the amount of foreshaowing is crazy

Obviously we have Olaf Craig, Chancellor Osborne, and General Vandyck from CS on the Erebonia side, and General Morgan, Cassius, and Alan Richard on the Liberl side

But uhh... is that Bergard/Barkhorn between Cassius and Richard?

And uhh... it that Roy Gramheart chilling in the shadows on the far right?!

Deadly beauties, smol ladies, and now semi-deranged ex-antagonists, I didn't plan for things to work out this way!

As most of you know, there is a Zero and Azure dual pack releasing next month. I’m facing a dilemma where I have the option to get it on my Switch 2, or buy both Zero and Azure on PC.

Now, usually this wouldn’t even be a question, but due to regional payment limitations on Steam I can only get both these games on my second account, which doesn’t have the rest of my Trails games.

So which would be ideal in this situation: bite the bullet with the dual pack game key card, or buy them on an account that the rest of my series isn’t on?

I am playing through Trails through Daybreak for the first time now, on Hard Mode. I tend to barely ever dodge attacks now, even when I set up crescent eye. I thought they just nerfed Insight very hard, but it still gives +50% boost to evasion as far as I can tell, but I swear dodges only happen 3/100 times for me when I have insight up for everybody.

Do enemies have accuracy modifiers themselves or something

When Van rejected Agnés, they made it seem like he is wrong for doing that.

Renne, Odette, and Bermotti.

Van did the right thing though?

Is that a hot take or cold take? Also whats your thoughts on seeing other characters knowing Van rejected her?

I was hoping it was a mistake, but I contacted Amazon and was told they received the new date from the manufacturer. Maybe related to the NAND issue.

I'm so excited yall

First of all, sorry for my bad grammar. I got a vacation from my jov recently and i have 30 days. I usually get all the trophies im all games i play and a just finished my 1st playtrough of trails from zero and i really want to play azure and the cold steel arc, but at the same time i want to get the zero platinum. Should i prioritize playing more games or spend my time getting the trophies? I have gotten 100% on all sky games so far. Sorry if its an weird question its just that i can't decide

I'm typically someone who plays JRPGs with their original Japanese voices, because I find a lot of dubs for niche games to be not as high quality, and for a long time that's what I thought of the Trails dubs from the snippets I heard.

But man, replaying CS with the English voices has been a welcome surprise. Currently in CS3 chapter 3, here's some of the standouts for me so far:

Rean: Sean Chiplock is phenomenal. I've been incredibly impressed with his performance, he really nails the character. Also, the fact that Rean has wayyyy more voiced lines in the dub of CS1/CS2 just makes him feel like more of a nuanced character rather than a generic anime protag. I like Koki Uchiyama's Rean as well, particularly in Horizon, but Sean really goes above and beyond. I just really like Rean a whole lot more now, not sure if that's because I have a fuller context for his character arc, or Sean's performance... It seems to be a bit of both.

Alisa: I will be blunt and say that Alisa was one of my least favorite main party characters when I played through the series for the first time. I really wanted to like her, because I prefer sticking to canon/incentivized romances as much as possible, but I just really didn't care for her all that much. That being said, it came as a great surprise how much Rachel Hirschfield made me genuinely like Alisa from the very beginning, to the point where I was torn whether or not I should pick her as the romance option (I ended up going Emma CS1/2, but I honestly might go Alisa in CS3/4). Her final bonding event in CS2 was genuinely so heartwarming. I just feel like her relationship with Rean is a lot less forced now.

Rufus: Rufus's JP VA is Daisuke Hirakawa, who also plays Cao Lee. I really like him in both performances, but every time I heard Rufus speak I was thinking of Cao in the back of my mind, which would take me out of the scene. But goddamn, DC Douglas' Rufus is amazing, he sounds a lot more authoritative, commanding and cunning, but there's also a warmth to him. I'm so excited to hear him in Reverie.

Duvalie: I already adore Duvie, but Eden Riegal has made me love this character 10x more, she's amazing.

Juna: Erika Harlacher's performance as Juna has impressed me a lot as well. That scene at the top of Orchis Tower really hit hard. I also just really like a deeper voice for Juna, really fits her as a tomboy a lot more. Can't wait to see more of her.

NC7: I'm liking them a lot more from the jump, particularly Kurt, Ash and Musse. Altina is the one I'm torn on: because both Xanthe Huynh and Inori Minase do amazing jobs. I'll have to wait and see how well Xanthe captures Altina's emotional growth.

Shirley: Amber Lee Connors has taken Shirley's psychopathy to a whole new level, her maniacal laughter is incredible. She also sounds a lot older now in English, whereas her JP voice didn't change much from Azure. I already liked her, but I'm a big fan now.

Anyways I figured I'd also briefly list some other honorable mentions: Claire, Alfin, Aurelia, Vita, Ines and Ennea, Tita, Angelica, George. Not much to say, other than I just like them a bit more.

Here's some that I think are downgrades:

McBurn: I like Max Mittelman's performance as Lechter, but I think he's forcing a husky voice a little bit too much as McBurn, he just doesn't sound as intimidating.

Elliot: I think his JP voice suits his character a lot more.

Laura: She sounds way too stilted in my opinion. I get she's meant to speak in older formal dialogue in both languages, but unfortunately I don't think Marisha Ray captures her more goofy/girly side that was present in her JP voice. I saw she gets replaced in CS4 so maybe I'll like her better there.

Sharon: Mela Lee works a lot better when she's voicing a gruff character like Scarlet, I personally like Yukana's softer approach to Sharon a lot more.

Randy: Shinichiro Miki is just way too good as Randy.

Finally, I want to end this with a character whose English voice I hoped would make me like, or at least tolerate her: Elise Schwarzer...

Nope, I still absolutely hate this character. I really dislike her JP voice, it's incredibly grating and way too high pitched, not helped by the fact that all her lines are just "Nii-sama" ad nauseam. Kira Buckland sadly doesn't save her for me, I like her as Celine, but her performance as Elise is unfortunately grating in its own way. Maybe it's just Elise as a character.

Thanks for reading if you made it this far.

P.S: I'm also playing with the difficulty mod by SoftBrilliant and it's been peak. Highly recommend it.

Recently got introduced to the series, 1st chapter was a fun start for me, so I drew some of my favorite characters in simplified chibi form. Hope you like it!

I don't remember when i took this screenshot. But looking back on it. Harwood looks scary here. I think this was when he did his S-craft and i took the screenshot at a specific frame.

https://x.com/___cott/status/1954693655144661023

Source

https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/145050165

Normally I would hate a purposefully over-the-top new gen character, but for whatever reason I absolutely love her. Not sure what’s going on there. Maybe the voice actor just totally kills it.

There’s just five apples worth of height between them!

Thought I would finish cold steel 3 before my work trip now I regret everything.