Recommending: Trails - A Love Letter to the most ambitious story in gaming
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ส.ค. 2024
- A spoiler-free overlook of the Trails Series up to Cold Steel IV.
I will however go into the structure of the stories a bit without being specific.
Because of quantity, gameplay footage by:
GameZard / gamezard (up to CSII)
davidvinc / davidvinc (CSIII)
Check out their channels!
The Geofront Localization Hub: geofront.ester...
Some articles I used:
www.inputmag.c...
kotaku.com/the...
nichegamer.com...
24framesps.wor...
00:00:00 Overview
00:12:32 Liberl arc
00:26:02 Crossbell arc
00:40:00 Erebonia arc
00:54:50 Where to start & Outlook
Thank you very much for watching!
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If you are the type to be obsessed with lore, learning as much about the world and characters, searching for supplemental materials and all that, then this series will be your heaven.
One thing I absolutely love about this series is how even though in game each arc jumps ahead maybe 2 years, the point of progress in this world shares sensibilities with our world.
As a result, it gives off the energy of progress moving super quickly and the characters not knowing what to do about that. This creates widely different values between people who are only 3 or so years apart in age. Estelle barely understands how her combat orbment works, but Juna is shredding on an orbal bike and rocking tonfas that shoot bullets. Tita excelling at orbal engineering evolved to Tio excelling at the internet. Even the fashion and the weapons used by casts down the line is fascinating. Even the concept of movie stars evolved from stage productions in the span of seven or so in game years. There should be an entire video about the topic of how society evolves in this series
Bro really made a banger and left, may Aidios guide you brother...
It really is cool how even the NPC seemingly throw away characters have stories. There is a young girl named Noa in the witch village and her new familiar is Loki. Going through each mission only to come back and see what was going on with those two was fun for me.
I've played every single game in the series with the exception of Kuro and sunk well over 1k hours in to the series, it is without question my favorite series and one that simply cannot recommend enough. Marvelous video, you just earned yourself a subscriber.
I got into this series thanks to cold steel. Going through it in chronological order
It is truly an amazing series. I never even played JRPGs in my life before yet I still fell in love with it.
I appreciate your video, this game series is truly one of a kind!
Hi fellow trails lover!
Trails is the hidden gem of gaming,a delicate and manually crafted work of art in a world of pay to wins, free to play, microtransactions and skins ...
Trails is the bes RPG franchise on the market. I also discovered it 1 year ago, after feeling let down by Square and its FFVII Remake, etc.... I had to search for a new RPG franchise, and then I met the Trails games. I love them! The stories, the character development, the world building, the battle system, etc... it's amazing. I started with the Trails of Cold Steel series, got to TOC2 and decided to play the previous sagas because of how greate everything is in these games; at the moment I'm playing Trails in The Sky FC... and it's a wonderful game. Highly recommended to anyone that loves RPGs.
PS: Given the excelent work that FALCOM did with the Trails games, I also tried 2 games from their other game franchise, the YS games. I played YS8 - Lacrimosa of Dana (which became my third favorite game of all time, thanks to Dana, the best character ever) and YS Origins, and I must say that they're phenomenal games too. FALCOM deserves our respect and support for the great work they do.
The trail series has the most epic story telling.
I agree. For me only FFXIV was almost as good.
Great start to your channel. It's pretty nice to have an introduction video like this for the trails series, since it can be a bit overwhelming for newcomers. I hope to see more from you on this channel soon.
I'm a super fan of the Trails series and I wholeheartedly agree with this video. Despite the fact that playing the entire Trails game is a massive investment in time and effort, the emotional payoffs for doing so is none other I have seen. No other JRPG have come close to the emotional rewards of seeing old characters return, or to revisit sites and events where you have fought and lived in. Fair warning, I will be dropping major names and events for those who haven't completed Cold Steel 2.
To start with, no other world has felt as alive as the Trails games. Before picking Sky up, I was told that the NPCs had a lot of dialogue. Understatement of the decade. Throughout Sky, Zero, Azure, Cold Steel, as our player characters go through the story and plot, so does the NPCs. I know it because I talked to Every. Single. NPC. In. The. Game. No matter how out of the way or how insignificant they were, I talked to everyone. Why? Because I love stories, and every NPC in the Trails games have their own. How else would I have seen the mother of Estelle's hometown's General Store owner travel the country looking for a bride for her son? Or that eventually, she would bring back the hardworking sister of the pair who worked in a Department Store back to Rolent? How else would I have seen the shy daughter of the Grocery Shop Tally join up with the two kids Ryu and Anri, who Lloyd and the SSS rescued in their first mission and eventually founded the JSSS? The Trails games is full of little stories like this and I love every bit of it.
So what does this have to do with emotional payoff? The examples I provided above is not quite like seeing Olivier greeting Class VII, or seeing Estelle and Joshua moving into Acacia Apartments in Crossbell. Well, to explain, I had a notable experience when I skipped the Crossbell Arc at first. After playing the legendary Trails in the Sky games, I immediately set to getting a PS Vita for the Cold Steel games. There was no official translation, for Zero or Azure, so I didn't play them... yet.
For those who played Cold Steel 2, you should know about the Divertissement section. At first, I was mildly interested in the fact I was playing as the main character of the Crossbell arc, although I did not know the intricacies of his story. All I knew was that he arrested the President of Crossbell, got jerked around by Campanella, went into the Azure Tree and destroyed it, and most importantly, faced the legendary Arianrhod and survived. I avoided all spoiler talk beyond that. That's all I knew of him. Aside from that, I went through the section, (I rocked out to the Geofront theme btw, that track is so dope) and went face to face with Rean himself. Boom. In one swift turn, all the power I had enjoyed as Rean, the Delay AT Crafts, his powerful DPS, Valimar, they were all turned on me in an instant. I loved it. It was a showdown unlike any other. After that, you get that infamous scene where Lloyd namedrops every major ally the Crossbell cast ever had. It meant nothing to me. It was just a distraction before we return to playing Rean.
Once the Geofront translation patch released, I immediately played the excellent translation of Trails from Zero and a not-so excellent translation of Trails to Azure. I experienced the hell out of the Crossbell arc. As Lloyd and the SSS, I lived in Crossbell, I fought for Crossbell, and I saved Crossbell. Through the span of two games, I got to know the entire city, and especially the people living in it.
Some time after that, I replayed the Divertissement chapter. As usual, it went through the opening cutscenes. Rean trashing the Calvardian airships, giving his warnings, and then, the game panned over the entirety of Crossbell in 3D. I was floored. Throughout that innocuous scene I barely glanced at the first time, I was gaping in enlightened horror. I recognized every single NPC in Crossbell's Central Square. The two girls gossiping in front of the Department store, Mimi and her father who always sat by the bench in front of the Central Bell. Mimi had a cute running gag where she would mispronounce the SSS name before they got famous. (My favorite is Special Support Suction) I recognized Ryu and Anri in their 3D versions who often hung outside Gironde's Armory looking at the now occupied SSS Annex. It was an unique moment unlike any other. The first time I played the Divertissement, I was inadvertently playing as an Erebonian. All the locations and people meant nothing to me. The second time however, I was viewing that same scene as a native of Crossbell who knew every street and every local in the city, now under Erebonia rule. I helped it happen. There is no way any other JRPG could have given me a moment such as this. Not Final Fantasy, not Persona, not even Suikoden. This is the power of a long-running series like the Trails series.
Incredible series of games. My all time favorite.
I cleared FC and half way thru SC. I enjoyed listening to your video and now Im really looking forward to the Crossbell Arc.
I have just bought the Sky games on steam. Looking forward to it! (After finishing Octopath Traveler 2)
Subscribed. Looking forward to your future content.
I’m so sorry
So nice you were very careful not to spoil anything. 10/10 vid.
This is a great video. Well done. Too bad you have a terrible opinion regarding Sky 3rd. Joking. I understand a lot of people don't like it as much as the others but it's not only my favorite in the series but perhaps my favorite game of all-time.
Trails is bar none the best JRPG series ever. FF6, ChronoTrigger and XenoSaga are all classics but nothing will ever make me bawl my eyes out like Lloyd talking to Guy in Ao or Estelle having a Flashback to her Childhood in Sky SC.
That scene in SC with Estelle and her mother. That shit hit home
What's this? I don’t remember their portraits looking like that.
Those are EVO portraits, you can get it by modding PC version or by playing on PSVita iirc
The world building and storry arks are the best of any medium; including games, movies, books. The turn based battle system is among the best but... it's still a bit repetitive and borring to me. That is the reason why I started all 3 storry arks but never finished a game. I probably never will buy I think they are all masterpieces.