Trails in the Sky
Jan. 14th, 2017 11:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marchionessofmustacheSo, I started playing Trails last night. I was going to play some USg or SGSG but ended up feeling unwell and went to sleep really early lol. But um TRAILLSSSSS
I am really enjoying this game a lotttt so far, though I'm only in the very beginning. I don't think I'm going to do a full-blown play diary for it because there's just... so much dialogue and I'd feel like I'd want to cover it all, but I'll continue to update on my opinions and progress. So it'll be like an almost play diary XD
So, the game has difficulty options, and since this is by Falcom, I figured the 'Nightmare' will be about equivalent to 'Nightmare' on Ys, which essentially means you have to play PERFECTLY to progress, and well, that seems about right from my first little adventures in the game lol.
I love how it says "It's your funeral," because when UNLIMITED:Saga was marketed in the USA, they were worried that the game would be too hard for western audiences, so they decided to market it as a very difficult RPG, and there were these promotional posters that were horribly embarrassing, and I can't find the "it's ur funeral" one now, but here's another one:
And they were all pretty much like this, just a picture of the game's box and some obnoxious phrase with that obnoxious typeface XD
But anyway, trails XD
Right off the bat, there were two things that made me instantly fall in love with this game:
The first, of course, is mustache dad. He looks like that... thing where animu artists have no idea how to draw older people so they draw a teenager and slap some facial hair on them. Which is sadly like 90% of animu.
But I'm not complaining; it's a mustache. Take it away and he'd look 14. But he's mustache dad and I love him. He also seems to have some kind of ~mystery~ about him, like he's more famous than his daughter realizes, so obviously we're going to learn more about him as the game goes on, and he's not just a throwaway intro character there simply to send the protag off on her journey.
And the other instant love in this game is the protagonist herself -- very quickly I got attached to her (mustache dad is not particularly interesting at this point, but he's still a mustache dad) and she's absolutely hilarious. It's a little annoying that there are so many comments about her needing to conform to gender roles, but I'm glad she simply shrugs them off or defies them easily at least.
Anyway, this little scene where her dad brought her a "present" and it was like... A KID, and she got mad, and said "Looks kinda dead to me" or whatever, I was instantly hooked. Estelle is a great character, and really enjoyable to have as the lead character. And very refreshing that she's not a generic teen dude that's either a goody-goody or complete dumbass or both.
And even Joshua, the boy she grows up with, defied my expectations, because instead of being that, and instead of being her 'rival' like I thought he was going to be, he ended up being a foil in the sense that he was a more disciplined and tactical type, where she's a whimsical and headstrong type. And instead of a bickering rivalry, Estelle and Joshua seem to have a friendly brother-sister relationship, like siblings who, you know, actually like each other.
So that was really awesome, and I already really like the relationship between the two of them and the personalities of both of them. So that's a great way to start the game.
Here's mustache dad in the intro. He looks even younger here lol. Maybe in this world, people have children at age 7 and can grow facial hair by age 10. So he's really just like 15.
Also, here's some other characters I saw in the intro that looked cool XD Actually, several characters looked neat, so that's good. The opening animation thing was SO LONG though. Some Ys games are like that, too, lol. Like they'll be like... 2-3 minutes long but it's just essentially a barely-animated slideshow lol.
Also mustache dad literally doesn't age... like after the little intro, Estelle and Joshua are like... 7-10 years older it seems, but mustache dad looks identical to how he looked before.
Another cutie XD At the beginning of the game, there's a lot of running around and talking. You don't have to do it, but if it's anything like Ys, I want to talk to everyone again and again after every little thing happens, because there will be lots of little fun side stories and tons of flavor dialogue. Which was one of my favorite things about those games.
A weird thing happened when I wanted to go up the watchtower -- Estelle like got nervous about it, and Joshua commented on it, but then nothing really came of that in the end? It was strange.
Also, I don't really like how the camera angle changes position to show your character when you leave a building. I mean, I understand why it happens, but it's very disorienting when the camera is in a different position than when I entered the building. It takes me a second of sitting and flipping the camera around, trying to figure out how it was aligned before, so I can remember where I was and where I was going. Only a minor annoyance, though.
I died on the very first battle. Which made me happy. You really have to think about what you're doing and manage your HP, EP, and ... SP? CP? I forget, there's lots of Ps, and you have to manage them. And it's really fun. Manipulating turn order and utilizing buffs and stuff is also very important. So on Nightmare, it seems like you'll really have to work out the tactics for every battle.
There are also CHARTS which I love charts.
The battle system seems to have a lot of variables, which is nice. It's ... very hard on Nightmare, though. Like even some of the random enemies can defeat you in one hit, so getting a preemptive strike on them is required.
Basically, I just did the intro stuff -- the little mission to become Jr Bracers or whatever, and then went and saved the lil kiddos from the tower. I died almost every battle at least once hahaha.
I bought a kunai for Joshua since he's much better at damage, and it helped a bit -- with his 2-hit thingy, he can take out some enemies faster than before (using less turns, I mean), and that's vital to survival. It seems the only way to get money will be from selling things, including the ... sep...tium... or whatever it's called, so I think I'll have to sell a little to get new armors before moving on. Cooking seems vital, too, so I need to buy the food that's available. With my short adventure, I was able to survive on the few little items you're given to start (though I used all of them) but from here on out, that's not going to be an option.
Overall I've really enjoyed the game so far and looking forward to trying more. I hope it doesn't get too frustrating with the difficulty -- Ys never bothered me, but it's an action game and you can get better through practice and learning patterns. With games like this, I feel like you can get yourself into unwinnable situations.
I am really enjoying this game a lotttt so far, though I'm only in the very beginning. I don't think I'm going to do a full-blown play diary for it because there's just... so much dialogue and I'd feel like I'd want to cover it all, but I'll continue to update on my opinions and progress. So it'll be like an almost play diary XD
So, the game has difficulty options, and since this is by Falcom, I figured the 'Nightmare' will be about equivalent to 'Nightmare' on Ys, which essentially means you have to play PERFECTLY to progress, and well, that seems about right from my first little adventures in the game lol.
I love how it says "It's your funeral," because when UNLIMITED:Saga was marketed in the USA, they were worried that the game would be too hard for western audiences, so they decided to market it as a very difficult RPG, and there were these promotional posters that were horribly embarrassing, and I can't find the "it's ur funeral" one now, but here's another one:
And they were all pretty much like this, just a picture of the game's box and some obnoxious phrase with that obnoxious typeface XD
But anyway, trails XD
Right off the bat, there were two things that made me instantly fall in love with this game:
The first, of course, is mustache dad. He looks like that... thing where animu artists have no idea how to draw older people so they draw a teenager and slap some facial hair on them. Which is sadly like 90% of animu.
But I'm not complaining; it's a mustache. Take it away and he'd look 14. But he's mustache dad and I love him. He also seems to have some kind of ~mystery~ about him, like he's more famous than his daughter realizes, so obviously we're going to learn more about him as the game goes on, and he's not just a throwaway intro character there simply to send the protag off on her journey.
And the other instant love in this game is the protagonist herself -- very quickly I got attached to her (mustache dad is not particularly interesting at this point, but he's still a mustache dad) and she's absolutely hilarious. It's a little annoying that there are so many comments about her needing to conform to gender roles, but I'm glad she simply shrugs them off or defies them easily at least.
Anyway, this little scene where her dad brought her a "present" and it was like... A KID, and she got mad, and said "Looks kinda dead to me" or whatever, I was instantly hooked. Estelle is a great character, and really enjoyable to have as the lead character. And very refreshing that she's not a generic teen dude that's either a goody-goody or complete dumbass or both.
And even Joshua, the boy she grows up with, defied my expectations, because instead of being that, and instead of being her 'rival' like I thought he was going to be, he ended up being a foil in the sense that he was a more disciplined and tactical type, where she's a whimsical and headstrong type. And instead of a bickering rivalry, Estelle and Joshua seem to have a friendly brother-sister relationship, like siblings who, you know, actually like each other.
So that was really awesome, and I already really like the relationship between the two of them and the personalities of both of them. So that's a great way to start the game.
Here's mustache dad in the intro. He looks even younger here lol. Maybe in this world, people have children at age 7 and can grow facial hair by age 10. So he's really just like 15.
Also, here's some other characters I saw in the intro that looked cool XD Actually, several characters looked neat, so that's good. The opening animation thing was SO LONG though. Some Ys games are like that, too, lol. Like they'll be like... 2-3 minutes long but it's just essentially a barely-animated slideshow lol.
Also mustache dad literally doesn't age... like after the little intro, Estelle and Joshua are like... 7-10 years older it seems, but mustache dad looks identical to how he looked before.
Another cutie XD At the beginning of the game, there's a lot of running around and talking. You don't have to do it, but if it's anything like Ys, I want to talk to everyone again and again after every little thing happens, because there will be lots of little fun side stories and tons of flavor dialogue. Which was one of my favorite things about those games.
A weird thing happened when I wanted to go up the watchtower -- Estelle like got nervous about it, and Joshua commented on it, but then nothing really came of that in the end? It was strange.
Also, I don't really like how the camera angle changes position to show your character when you leave a building. I mean, I understand why it happens, but it's very disorienting when the camera is in a different position than when I entered the building. It takes me a second of sitting and flipping the camera around, trying to figure out how it was aligned before, so I can remember where I was and where I was going. Only a minor annoyance, though.
I died on the very first battle. Which made me happy. You really have to think about what you're doing and manage your HP, EP, and ... SP? CP? I forget, there's lots of Ps, and you have to manage them. And it's really fun. Manipulating turn order and utilizing buffs and stuff is also very important. So on Nightmare, it seems like you'll really have to work out the tactics for every battle.
There are also CHARTS which I love charts.
The battle system seems to have a lot of variables, which is nice. It's ... very hard on Nightmare, though. Like even some of the random enemies can defeat you in one hit, so getting a preemptive strike on them is required.
Basically, I just did the intro stuff -- the little mission to become Jr Bracers or whatever, and then went and saved the lil kiddos from the tower. I died almost every battle at least once hahaha.
I bought a kunai for Joshua since he's much better at damage, and it helped a bit -- with his 2-hit thingy, he can take out some enemies faster than before (using less turns, I mean), and that's vital to survival. It seems the only way to get money will be from selling things, including the ... sep...tium... or whatever it's called, so I think I'll have to sell a little to get new armors before moving on. Cooking seems vital, too, so I need to buy the food that's available. With my short adventure, I was able to survive on the few little items you're given to start (though I used all of them) but from here on out, that's not going to be an option.
Overall I've really enjoyed the game so far and looking forward to trying more. I hope it doesn't get too frustrating with the difficulty -- Ys never bothered me, but it's an action game and you can get better through practice and learning patterns. With games like this, I feel like you can get yourself into unwinnable situations.
