Lurker > _stingers_

Dzibilchaltunchunchucmil

I don't know who that is but their name upsets me

Iron Infant

195. Sidney
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/0298e088.jpg
If he's been playing for the other team this whole time, that may explain a few things...

Sidney is another student NPC who has a one-note personality. His is that he's obsessed with women. There are stranger things to obsess over, but I don't think I've ever met someone like this in real life. I mean, it's really all he talks about. Everyone wants to get laid, but he is a bit too overt about it. Maybe that's your problem, buddy? Just like...chill. I think everyone will appreciate it. He seems to strike up some sort of almost-relationship possibility with Ada at some point. I think she agrees to go on a date with him? I really hope it works out, but I can't imagine what they could talk about. Will he just tell stories about all of his failed attempts to get with every other woman on campus? I don't know if that's a great strategy, but he's not got a lot of material to work with. Neither do I, for that matter. That's really all I have to say about him. He's another character with a gimmick that got old, fast. He ranks higher for being mildly entertaining sometimes. I mean he used 'Chad' as an adjective, that's worth a few points.

196. Valimar
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/a45fba57.jpg
IT'S-NOT-WHAT-IT-LOOKS-LIKE-REAN

Okay, look. Normally I fucking love giant robots. I can't get enough of them. Xenogears and Saga are two of my favorite video games period. Neon Genesis Evangelion? Top tier art! I never really watched Gundam seriously but from the bits I've seen, I'm a fan. But when it comes to this game, the mechs just do not do it for me. In battle, they are just not fun. If a turn based RPG can generally be called a puzzle to solve, then the mech combat in Trails is this:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/8/8f7f1f7f.png
I just can't get into it. The lack of any real customization means that they have to be trivial to beat, since you are just stuck with what the game gives you. This doesn't feel good. It feels like a complete waste of time. Valimar, as the main mech in the franchise, embodies this failure of game design to me. It doesn't help that as a "character" (in quotes) he has less personality than Elliot. I'm not sure what Hibelle's personality was, but it was probably more than Valimar. He doesn't have any. They act like he becomes 'more human' over the course of the franchise, but he doesn't. He just talks with less of a "robotic accent", but behaves the same. You can give a robot personality! Basically every other game does it. To bring up Xenosaga again, KOS-MOS at her core was one of the most tried and true, by the books robots they've got, but she kept things interesting. They would use her for humor from time to time, just because of how blunt and straightforward her responses to things would be. And of course, there was mystery in her backstory.

Valimar doesn't get any of that that! For the most part, since there's definitely some layer of mystery behind him at first, but...not really? They don't go anywhere with it that isn't immediately obvious, no twists to speak of. He was made by the only two ancient groups that we know about, I think that's the most reasonable thing you could ever expect. They ultimately combine to summon some ancient power, wow, I've never heard a plotline quite like that before, have you? Nothing interesting was done with how they were given their own wills (of course Valimar's will is entirely nonexistent, he is subservient and obedient and his only action he takes independently is to lore dump), nothing was done with them having any kind of culture or structure (they say that there is some sort of tier system to how powerful they all are but of course whichever one Rean gets just beats everyone anyway even though he was like middle of the tier list I believe?), they're just an excuse to have robots (literally anything could have been the 'vessel for the great one' or what have you) but then they half-assed their execution and completely butchered the gameplay elements. Ultimately, he ranks low for the wasted potential.

Acro

Chinese

Who knew there were so many maids

She was in all 3 sky games apparently. She must be important

Oscar and bennet are pretty cool. Maybe I should rank them too

197. Helmut Albarea
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/3/39ec7d35.jpg
It hurts to watch when a midboss doesn't know their place

Did anyone know his name is Helmut? I just saw it on the wiki, don't think it came up during the game. Anyway, Jusis and Rufus's dad. As you can imagine, not a very good person! Rufus wasn't actually his son, but he raised him as his own because he was a full blooded noble. Sounds good on paper, but it was solely to protect his family's reputation. Jusis was his son, but was born by a commoner woman, so Jusis was the red-headed stepchild and shunned by his father, in favor of Rufus. The point being, he cares less for his own son than his nephew, because of the amount of noble blood that each son has. Kind of fucked up, right?

He served as a midboss to the Noble faction behind Cayenne for the first two games, ultimately losing favor due to his actions in Celdic and being arrested and replaced as the head of house Albarea by Jusis himself. A fitting ending! The storyline is a pretty good one as far as the first two CS games goes, but daddy Albarea is shown to be a self serving ass who doesn't care about his family members, just their social standing. Not a very likeable character, and forgettable as soon as his arc ends. It gave Jusis the chance to grow and start accepting Machias though, so it was a necessary plotline. It would've been nice to have seen him again later in the series, experience some redemption or something. Would've raised him a bit on the list probably, really he just falls low due to being completely discarded after his arc ends.

198. Clara
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/8/86f16ff0.jpg
...Seriously? I need to speak to your parents. Who raised you?

Clara has probably the worst visual design in the entire franchise. At least, of the characters I've seen so far. Margarita is ugly sure but I mean, she has to be. What unholy reason did they have to come up with this design for Clara? She definitely does not have to look like that. Her haircut is like...I don't know. Some weird pigtail / manbun amalgamation? It just looks so strange. The picture I chose doesn't show it all the way so here:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/a5f20a9f.png

Yeah. Anyway, the rest of her characterization isn't that bad, I thought it was kind of funny. Kind of. It got old but she is kind of insane with how little attention she pays to the world around her so she can focus on her art. How the fuck did she get accepted to a military academy? Does she even have a weapon? I don't remember if they ever showed Clara fighting but I find it hard to believe she would ever be able to. I suppose that's why she never shows up again after CS2, she gets expelled for failing half of her classes and then becomes a starving artist in Ordis or something. We're going with that. Honestly she just ranks this low because of how repulsive she is, if she looked normal she'd be at least a tier up.

I forgot he was there. It's always nice to see the cross-arc representation

199. Gideon
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/aa185cf2.jpg
With how much he talks about this flute, him and Elliot should really get along.

The second member of the ILF has fallen. Gideon was the first member of the group we were introduced to, and his main gimmick was having a magic flute that summoned monsters. Was that ever explained? I don't think anything like that reoccurs in the series. Is it a pleroma flute or something? I don't know. He was slightly more interesting than Vulcan was, with a snide looking visual design that makes you want to punch him in the nose. He also had the flute. I mean, the flute's kind of cool, I guess. I wish they made it acquireable, so we could summon monsters to our side to fight with us during a battle or something. Wouldn't that be cool? Probably too much work for a small indie studio like Falcom to implement.

Ultimately, he falls victim to being part of the ILF plotline and not reappearing past CS1. He is another one of the rare characters that dies and stays dead in the franchise. Two of them being in the ILF is likely symbolic of how Falcom felt about their plotline while they were making it. They can't all be winners, I suppose. At least they had the decency to end it off as soon as they were able.

shane15 posted...

Dunno about a full block but i have a filter on ublock that makes the stream 480p during ad breaks. Not the best in the world but it's the only thing i've got to work.

yeah thats the one that stopped working for me. no idea why

My last method stopped working

Oh and everyone before her went down 1 spot since I added in Paitry

200. Margarita
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/6aef8d5a.jpg
*Kill Bill alarm sirens*

Margarita, while having the best name in the franchise does not have much virtue beyond that. Her gimmick is that she's fat and ugly. Not a great place to start! She's obsessed with Vincent and spends much of the franchise trying (and eventually succeeding) in trying to get together with him. I feel for Vincent, but he seems...oddly content with the whole situation. I think he might just be a chubby chaser in disguise and downplays it publicly for the crowds.

Her gimmick got old fast though, at least for me. I did find it mildly amusing when she got skinny in one of the games (CS4?) but then when that turned into her switching between fat/skinny on a dime I just lost all interest again. My suspension of disbelief has limits and +/- 100 lbs randomly just didn't sit right. She was also the person you gave your peculiar dishes to? Sure. That's all I've got. I wish all the best to her and the 17 kids she'll have with Vincent.

I put her above who's been ranked so far if it makes you feel any better

MacArrowny posted...

wait wtf why is Hibelle on here but not Patiry???

Since you're the second person to mention her I'll slot her in

Juna does yeah..I think she unlocks it pretty late though right? In reverie at least. I forgot Elie did she was always just using spells every turn for me

Is that some meme in the community or something? You guys both said the same thing really quickly lol I don't know if I've ever thought of that but sure I guess it's kinda funny

200. Machias Regnitz
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/c/ceac1cb5.jpg
Hedonist Machias sounds like a great improvement. Let's get him, Schera and Sara in a room together and see what happens.

Oh Machias. If I made this list after CS1 he might have been last place. I'd say it's pretty likely. He grew on me a small amount throughout the series. His nerdiness subsided slightly as the series went on, and he got over his classism that annoyed me so much in the first entries. He does have a confidence about him, stemming from an honest belief in himself, that I can respect. The issue is still that he lacks any kind of personality that would make me want to be around him. That seemingly hasn't changed since the moment we were introduced to him, I'm afraid.

Seeing his daydream in Reverie where he befriended Dudley and they bonded over being workaholics and liking coffee pretty much sums up why I would absolutely hate being around this person in real life. He's just insufferable. I can't imagine a personality more suited to being a bureaucrat. So again, I'll give props to the writers for good writing as far as that goes, but...did we need a bureaucrat to be a teammate? Couldn't he have just been a reoccuring side character we see every now and again, like his sidekick that I can't remember the name of from the Inspectorate's office? That would've been a great change.

I guess they really wanted to have someone who uses a shotgun, and I guess it's a fitting weapon for him, so...whatever. I still wish he had any kind of sense of humor, it would've made him more enjoyable. On the bright side, he is actually pretty useful in battle. I still almost never used him when I had any choice in the matter, but I could easily see a world where he was a mainstay in my party if I were so inclined. Petrification Shot is really good against mobs, especially once you start adding additional status ailment orbments to his loadout. He also had an accelerate ability on a normal skill, which I think he may be the only character that can do that? I do have the feeling I'm forgetting someone, but Machias is the standout choice for such an ability. I was never really upset when he showed up in my party, so he does get a few pity points for that.

I'll close out by saying I also think his visual design is atrocious. Maybe that's too harsh, but...he's just not pleasant to look at. I did enjoy when we got the contacts in later games and could remove glasses from characters. Glasses have never done it for me, so those got thrown on Emma and Machias ASAP. Still, he just looks dorkish. Falcom can have good designs when they want to, so I would imagine this was an intentional choice on their part. I wonder how many fans Machias really has? I can't imagine it's very many.

And even then I don't think he was controlling. He was just like, "Why don't you understand that we need to murder every Calvardian citizen?" And then left to do his own thing. He pretty much ignored her

I don't remember Alan being controlling towards Bridget. He was more of a simp for her than anything. Until cs4, obviously

201. Alan (Cold Steel)
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/1/14c922bb.jpg
You'll make the box art next game for sure, buddy.

Alan in the first two games, while largely unmemorable, was a fine character. He existed to be in a relationship with Bridget and be insecure that the nobles were better than him, and that was about it. Young high school romance is endearing, so no problems from me there. Self confidence issues, all high schoolers go through that, so sure. Well written! I rather liked seeing his relationship with Bridget evolve.

Unfortunately, his plotline dives off a cliff and never recovers. They decided in CS3 that he would join the military. Shocking, to see a member of a military academy actually join the military after graduation, isn't it? He doesn't get much screen time there, so still nothing really out of the ordinary. What really does him in is CS4 - where he becomes afflicted by the 'Erebonian Curse' and becomes the most insufferable, overly patriotic, bloodthirsty mess of a character that ruins every scene he shows up in. I feel terrible for Bridget when you speak with her in Mishelam and she is so confused and distraught over Alan's behavior.

"But stingers - " you begin to say, "that wasn't really Alan, that was the curse influencing his behavior. He wasn't like that before, after all." To which I say, I don't care. The list is subjective and any rationalizations, true or not, don't make me actually like the character more. When he was on screen in CS4, I would get pissed off. If they actually gave him a scene where he apologized to Bridget for his behavior and they made up, then I would probably move him a good bit up the list. But (as far as I remember) they didn't, and I hate him for it.

Seeing people get brainwashed into supporting a bloodthirsty regime is unfortunately relevant to modern times, so getting relevant political commentary in my escapist media isn't doing poor Alan any favors. I wish they treated you better Alan, I really do. But this is what we've got, so this is where he gets ranked.

Probably. Her autos were good. I don't know if that's a real niche though, because you can get way better damage casting spells

202. Celine
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/3/3ef92774.jpg
Yet you do...over and over again.

Tsundere cat character sounds...decent on paper I suppose, but in practice all I really felt with Celine was annoyance. It felt like to me that the writers didn't really know what they wanted to do with Celine either. In half of her scenes, she is the wise familiar that can resolve issues with space and time themselves. In the other half, she's a silly cat-girl thing that can't do basic math. I never felt like those latter scenes were entertaining, or the former scenes were earned. She's more competent than Emma when the writers want her to be, but why would the Familiar surpass the Master? I don't see Grianos performing feats above Vita's pedigree at any point in the series. It just seems odd to me.

They also decided to give her a human form later in the franchise, I suppose to try and reach their fetish quota. Her human design is kind of off putting though, to me at least. It's at least unique, I'll give them some credit for that, but I don't know if we needed another 10 year old girl character this late into the series. She definitely doesn't act like a 10 year old girl, so why does she look like one? I know Japan can just be like that but I'm not a fan.

She's also playable later in the series but the game never gives you any reason to use her. As far as I'm aware she's the only character without an S Craft? At least that is in your end party, maybe not counting some of the temporary characters you may get in any given story beat. Her auto attacks were pretty good for a mage, but I don't remember what her brave order was so it couldn't have been very good. She was quickly forgotten after I used her once just to see what she was like. Just very few redeeming traits overall.

If I could remember someone I tried to put them on the list. Which is why there's a lot more random cold steel NPCs than sky. My memory is pretty bad too. I frequently forget whether I've put shampoo on or not in the shower...for some reason though I remembered Hibelle.

Mega_Mana posted...

Also, her constant face-turn heel-turn moments where she's randomly breaking her daughter's heart but was really just being super analytical about the bad guys the whole time and chooses to betray them without the slightest change of expression or courtesy. At least her partner in dismissive super-science (Schmidt, not Franz) has no familial attachments to completely neglect. Hell, Schmidt has even better social moments with all his pupils than Irina has with her daughter ever, except George because George sucks.

Yeah basically any time she showed up in the story it felt like they had no idea where they were supposed to go with her. They didn't want Alisa's mother to be completely evil so she would just have a change of heart on a whim every other scene. It was sloppy writing and didn't do the character any favors.

Schmidt on the other hand at least has comedic value. That earns him quite a bit of points

203. Hibelle
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/0db4aefc.jpg
I have nothing funny to say, but this was the only image I could find on google of Hibelle saying anything at all.

This is the first character on the list that got placed here for being completely and utterly without value. Boring isn't even the right word, it's justwhy? Why do you exist, Hibelle? He likes music apparently. That's about all we know about him. Maybe if you had replaced Elliot on the character select screen the game would have been better because you are less of an eyesore, but that's only by virtue of how generic and inoffensive your design is. I have to imagine he was designed by a hungover developer the day before the game was supposed to go Gold. If he came out in a game today I'd call him AI designed. At least the developers had the sense to completely forget his existence after CS2 so we never had to think about him again.

204. Irina Reinford
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/9/95afe38b.jpg
How would you know?!

And the world's worst mother award goes to -

I respect her more than Harold, honestly. She's not exactly a great mother, but at least she knows that. I don't know if Zemuria really needed a budget Lockheed Martin to tell their story, what with all of the other labs and other technological enterprises that pepper their landscape. But sure, we've got one. Irina, as the CEO of said corporation, has no time for her daughter and doesn't shy away from that fact, but she does at least care about her daughter enough to keep tabs on her from afar with Sharon and Thors leadership. I'll give her a 1/10 for making that minimal effort, but from what we were shown I think Alisa turning out as well adjusted as she did is in spite of Irina rather than because of her.

Not much else to say about her besides that. CEO workaholic and absent mother. Chooses profits over people and isn't ashamed of that. She's also got a bad haircut which doesn't do her any favors. You'd think one of the richest people in Erebonia could afford a stylist or something. I suppose she may be choosing the haircut to look more masculine/intimidating on purpose. That would be in character for her. But it doesn't make me like her any more, so down the rankings you go.

205. Kairi
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/c/ce801f20.jpg
No Kairi, that is not true.

His whole gimmick is looking feminine and wanting to prove how manly he is. In this endeavor he fails spectacularly. The last thing I remember from him in Reverie was being the mascot of the tea ceremony club because of how cute he looked to onlookers. Normally even the random NPCs in Trails get some kind of development throughout their arcs. I mean, the reoccurring NPCs at least, not like, random townspeople. For Kairi however, I guess they thought it'd be funny if he just never changed in any capacity? His gimmick annoys me every time I see it. Like, just accept who you are dude. Lean into your strengths. They could've used this as an opportunity to have a character rebel against gender norms or what have you and find self acceptance, but instead they just kind of leave him as a joke the entire series. And it's not a very funny one. I just feel bad for the kid and would have enjoyed the series more if I never realized he existed at all.

206. Vulcan
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/3/38c3607f.jpg
The whole Imperial Liberation Front plotline was a miss for me. It felt like a midboss type of situation even while it was happening and after the events clear out with Crow shooting Osborne they are basically never mentioned again. They end up bringing Scarlet back to act as a Squire, but the rest of the goons are completely abandoned. Vulcan at least has an excuse for not showing up again, given that he dies and all. One of the very few instances in Trails where a character actually dies, so props to the writers for that. It doesn't make me like Vulcan himself any more, however. He was definitely the least important member of the group who already struggle to find reasons for existing in the larger plotline. I don't like his design - "generic big mercenary dude" doesn't do much for me. He wasn't an interesting opponent in any boss fights. His whole role was to be a warm body to fill space and then eventually die. I'm pretty sure he wanted to die after Osborne got shot anyway. Like really? The writers didn't care enough about you to even give you a survival instinct? He ranks above some others for at least having the decency to die, I suppose.

207. General Morgan
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/6f9415e6.jpg
This character just annoys me because I feel like his motivations make no sense. He resents the bracers because Cassius left the army to work with them instead. Why is that the fault of the organization? As far as I'm aware they gave no indication that they poached him or did anything illegal or unscrupulous. Cassius just decided he could do more good there and left. I don't think that merits the villainization of the entire organization and the derogatory treatment we receive because of it. Sure he ends up apologizing later, once he sees how competent we are, but the first impression just didn't sit well. And it's not like he took any lasting lessons from it, because the only other thing I remember was him participating in the dragon operation in SC and repeating the same song and dance, where he tries to do everything himself / ignores the bracers at first, sees us solve the situation in spite of him, acknowledges we did a good job and then acts normal. Didn't you learn the first time? Why do we have to repeat your storyline? I just get annoyed when I see him. I'm probably forgetting something or another since it's been so long since I played the original trilogy, but we'll see if whenever I get around to playing the remakes if I change my mind on him or not. For now, he's a bottom feeder.

colliding posted...

In terms of random Thors NPC's I'd probably still rank Dorothee higher than a bunch of literal who's like Lambert and Alisa's friends. At least being weird is memorable. She'd still be middle of the road compared to weirdos like Hugo, Munk, Becky, Rex and Queen Beryl (who's probably the best one).

I have some nobodies coming up soon, but if I'm being actively annoyed by their presence they rank below the nobody

Yeah I'm going to go wild with spoilers depending on the character. I would be very careful

Elliot being a main character pushes him into offensive character tier for me basically. If he were a side character he would have been 20 spots higher

Leonhart4 posted...

Poor Harold

Okay I don't know what kind of brain fart I had when writing that LOL

208. Dorothee
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/1/176922f5.jpg
Surprisingly the first non-main character to fall is four slots in. I suppose additional exposure also provides additional opportunities to dislike something, so it makes sense, but there are a lot of characters on this list that I won't have that much to say about. Dorothee is a student at Thors who leans into one gimmick the entire franchise, namely that she likes reading and writing fiction about boys that fall in love. I'd assume this is a bigger subculture of women in Japan, I don't think I've met any women like this in real life. Regardless, it gets old, quick. She's unabashedly horny and doesn't do much else other than make innuendo's or talk about romance. She's basically the gay version of Angelica. Well, Angelica's gay too, so...boy gay vs girl gay. You get the picture. Imagine if she was a main character instead of Angelica. At least Angelica ostensibly has other things going on in her life that could contribute to her characterization if the writers were so inclined. With Dorothee it's this and being a museum curator, but the entire time you're ever at her museum she just talks about romance novels. That's enough thinking about Dorothee for today.

209. Elliot Craig
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/3/37f6ca48.jpg
Ever since the first moment I saw his face I knew I would not like him. His design just screams 'pathetic'. In practice, he is slightly less pathetic than he appears at a glance, but not by much. He does show backbone on occasion, normally when someone dares to insult music or otherwise use it for ill means. Outside of that, he mostly just provides an optimistic viewpoint for whoever happens to be going through a crisis of faith at any given moment, which is something that virtually every other character does as well, so it doesn't make him stand out very much.

From what I remember of his plotline, he resents his father for sending him to military school, then gets over it, then goes back to resenting it and joins a music academy, then becomes a music teacher. Music music music - the extent of his characterization. You would imagine that his father being a leading general in the Imperial army would pay dividends for the group at some point, but the group has so many other connections to the military through other means that it ends up feeling largely unimportant. I don't recall off the top of my head any large payoffs with Olaf Craig because of something Elliot did, but I'm sure it had to have happened at some point.

Outside of that he has a bad haircut and never really changes his appearance as much as some other main characters in the series. I do think his casual outfit in Reverie is funny looking, and oddly in-character for him. He can occasionally be useful in battle even without any investment, I never used him in any game but at times when he would appear in my party anyway I recall his skills and ultimate being useful. Without any evidence I'm going to say he still pales in comparison to other mages in the series in terms of overall potential anyway, so I don't think there's any love lost there.

I want to imagine a world where a more interesting character was in Class VII in place of Elliot. He could be a mage that has connections to the military through his family and likes music, that's not a bad base. Just have him use those connections and give him a personality. And ideally a new haircut.

I don't think so, unless something happens later I don't remember.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/2/2f847b7c.jpg

She's internally thinking to herself there's no way it's her daughter, so...

1) Bright pink hair is uncommon even in-universe
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/7/75800370.png
2) Correct age
3) Definitely should've known there was no conclusive proof his daughter was dead
4) Why would he think that she would know that Harold is her father? Why would he have reason to believe she knows about her past and is choosing not to mention it? From his perspective she's a random, average girl that he's run into in town a handful of times.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/c/c06ba986.png

I see. I will give the benefit of the doubt and assume they found children's bodies. And assume that Crossbellian medical science cannot yet determine whos bodies were actually found.

I can give him some leeway but he should have known that evidence was not conclusive, so everything after he meets Renne again is still on him

Panthera posted...

CS1/2 Angelica was okay because she was only in sex offender mode around half the time, and non-sex offender Angelica is likable enough. Then from CS3 on the grave scene is essentially the only time she is ever not in sex offender mode.

I don't remember ever actually liking Angelica, but I do remember her being somewhat more normal. I do imagine it's somewhat difficult to not flanderize with such a large cast, but they could have flanderized in a more tasteful way.

210. Harold Hayworth
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/1/1b62f073.jpg
And the world's worst father award goes to -

Seriously, in a series that runs the gambit in terms of parental involvement, I think nobody else struck out quite like Harold. I do think some people might be endeared to his backstory - an aspiring merchant who fears retribution from the mafia so he hides his daughter away. When he clears up his financial issues, he returns to get his daughter - but she has mysteriously vanished!

I can sympathize with that a bit, sure. I think there were probably some other options available to him, but fearing for your daughters life and making a drastic choice, sure, okay. Apparently they wanted to commit suicide after finding out their daughter was missing, which shows that he cares on some level. Here's an idea for you though Harold - instead of killing yourself, why not, I don't know...try looking for her? You have bright pink fucking hair man. You know your daughter did too. How hard do you really think you'll have to look to find her? Though I suppose it's not hard to imagine that such a capable merchant (who went bankrupt selling honey) probably didn't think of looking, or putting out missing posters or asking the bracers or anything like that.

Where it truly becomes unforgivable is in his complete lack of intellgence or culpability once Renne re-enters his life. Sure man, she obviously wants nothing to do with you (abandoned teenager raised by assassins might have good reason to be distant) emotionally, so she's not going to outright say "Hey, I'm your long lost daughter." But whatever few brain cells this guy has isn't able to put together that the pink haired girl at the appropriate age to be your daughter with a name that is almost exactly the same as the name you gave your daughter - surely, it couldn't be?! The most frustrating thing is the game shows him like, basically realizing it's possible (though outright likelihood escapes his grasp) on multiple occasions, and then takes no initiative to investigate this life changing possibility. Just keeps on trading honey and showing off his fancy car to the rest of the city. Fuck Harold.

211. George
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/b/b8275616.jpg
We're two characters down, and two out of four of the upperclassmen friend group have already fallen. They really didn't do a great job with that subplot, huh?

I don't like George. To start with, he's kind of ugly. I dont think they spent much time in the artist room at Falcom when they had to design the upperclassmen. I think they must have been shoehorned in last minute, so they took some generic NPC designs they had and threw them in as students. Do George and Towa look like they're the same age? No. Anyway, George exists basically only to have someone close to your group betray you, and to introduce the player to the Gnome faction. Actually, sidenote. His name is Georg Nome, and he's a member of the Gnomes. Seriously? Like I am really curious how his name works in Japanese, because I assume this is some attempt to translate something meaningful from it that fell completely flat in English. If anyone here knows Japanese and has played trails (Mzero, where you at), please elucidate us if there's anything there.

Back on topic, the entire Gnome sideplot is basically garbage. For something so important to the overall plot of the franchise (or at least the Erebonia arc), they did a very poor job of instilling any sense of reverence around the gnomes as a faction. I don't feel like I was ever given any reason to care about them compared to the witches, who are shown to influence the plot and have characters that are actualized and relevant, that you care about. The gnomes have George and who? Black Alberich? I have to assume I've forgotten someone else because surely such a storied group would contribute to the plot of the franchise more. Let's check the wiki!

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/4/45ebc4ea.png

Guess not. Yeah. The whole thing just sucks, and George embodies that. Outside of the gnomes he doesn't do much. He has a classic Trails change of heart where he comes back to your group and everyone forgives him - personally I wish that didn't happen. Actually, I guess that's not true because he does have one of the best brave orders in the game, where it gives your entire party one stack of complete immunity and then absorbs all magic damage for 10 turns. It saved my ass multiple times in Reverie. I played on Abyss mode, which was actually pretty challenging (in a series that has gone far downhill in terms of challenge since the originals) so George, you get some points for that. It gives you something over Angelica at least. He doesn't outwardly offend as much as Angelica does as well which is important...he's just so, so so boring. And as I said, kind of ugly. But the brave order is enough to give him a 0.5/10 instead of a 0.

212. Angelica
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/0ad067f5.jpg
I generally have stayed away from engaging with the larger Trails fandom due to wanting to avoid spoilers as I played through the series. Once I catch up I'll check out what I've been missing I suppose. That said, I'm not sure how controversial this one will be, but the bottom character in the franchise for me is Angelica. To be blunt, nothing about this character appeals to me. I'm not personally sure who she was supposed to appeal to. Her entire personality is 'tomboy', but she dials it up to 11. The frequent sexual harrassment and assault she commits on virtually every female in the cast (even children!) is not exactly an endearing character trait. You'd think they'd use her schtick to segue into fanservice or something that does actually appeal to people, but no, she will just annoy everyone around her and then almost immediately stop being relevant. Even outside of that gimmick she still has an almost complete lack of plot relevance. She finds out that Crow's grave was a fake, and that's about it. Good on you I guess, but any number of characters could have done that as well, so if that's your raison d'tre then I think you've fallen short. She's not even good in battle either, which isn't doing her any favors. Her brave order gives insight I guess, but there's other characters that can do that and more. Her visual design is uninteresting - she's an angry looking girl with purple hair. Maybe if it's your first time interacting with an anime styled media that would do it for you, but no. There's really never any reason to have her around, and her existence is a stain on the franchise as a whole.

I wanted to do this a few months ago, but I hadn't played Reverie yet. I decided to just get through Reverie first, since doing a ranking topic in the middle of an arc didn't sit right with me. I'm glad I did, because I enjoyed Reverie quite a bit. That may be more for the gameplay elements than anything, but the fanservice storyline was fine too and I enjoyed a lot of the plot points and side stories. I haven't started Daybreak yet, still debating on whether I'll jump in on that right away or play some other games first (and I'm also deep into grinding 2XKO right now) but before starting another arc, I thought doing a ranking topic where I go over what I've spent the better part of my single player gaming time on over the last 5 or so years would be fun.

There may be some recency bias on the list, given that I haven't played the original Sky trilogy since 2020/2021, but I've done some refreshing and research to remind myself of the events of that game to try and round out the list as best as I can. The list is entirely subjective, and I suspect that some of my opinions won't align with the Trails fanbase at large, but I'll do my best to express why I feel the way I do as I go through.

Here is the full list of characters I decided to rank. If you notice any glaring omissions, feel free to mention them and I may slot them in if I agree:
Abbas
Ada
Aeolia
Agate
Aina Holden
Alan (Cold Steel)
Alan Richard
Albert Russell
Albert von Bartholomeus
Alfin
Alicia von Auslse
Alisa
Altina
Anelace
Angelica
Annabelle
Anton
Arianrhod
Arios
Ash
Ashleigh
Aurelia le Guin
Aurier Vander
Beatrix
Becky
Beryl
Black Alberich
Bleublanc
Bridget
Campanella
Cao Lee
Carl Regnitz
Cassius
Cecile
Cedric Arnor
Celestin
Celine
Claire
Clara
Crimson Roselia
Crow
Dieter Crois
Don Capua
Dorothee
Dorothy
Douglas
Dreichels
Dudley
Duke Cayenne
Dunan von Auslese
Duvalie
Edel
Ein Selnate
Elie
Elise
Elliot
Emily
Emma
Ennea
Erika Russell
Ernest
Estelle
Eugent Reise Arnor
Ferris
Fie
Fiona
Fran Seeker
Franz
Freddy
Friedel
Fritz
Gaius
Garcia
General Morgan
Georg Nome
Georg Weissmann
Gerhart Rogner
Gideon
Gilaith Osborne
Gilbert
Grace
Grimwood
Gustaf
Guy
Gwyn
Harold Hayworth
Helmut Albarea
Henry MacDowell
Hibelle
Hugo
Ilya
Imelda
Ines
Irina
Jessica
Jill Ridonor
Jingo
Joachim Guenter
Joerg Rosenberg
Jonah
Josette
Joshua
Julia
Juna
Jusis
Kaela
Kairi
Kanone
KeA
Kenneth Lakelord
Kevin
Kilika
Kloe
Kurt (Cold Steel)
Kurt (Sky)
Lapis
Laura
Lechter
Leonidas
Leonora
Linde
Lloyd
Loewe
Louise
Luciola
Lucy
Lynn
Machias
Makarov
Marconi
Margarita
Mariabell
Mary
Maya
McBurn
Michael Irving
Michel
Millium
Minnith
Mint
Mirielle
Mishy
Mueller
Munk
Murdock
Musse
Nadia
Neithardt
Nial
Nielsen
Noel
Novartis
Olaf Craig
Olivier
Pablo
Patrick
Priscilla
Professor Schmidt
Randy
Rean
Renne
Rex
Ricky
Ries
Rixia
Rocksmith
Rosine
Rufina
Rufus
Rutger
Sandy
Sara
Scarlet
Scherazard
Sergei
Sharon
Shirley
Shizuku
Sidney
Sieg
Sigmund
Sonya Baelz
Stark
Sully
Swin
Tatiana
Teo Schwarzer
Theresia
Thomas
Tio
Tita
Toval
Towa
Valerie
Valimar
Vandyck
Victor Arseid
Vincent
Vita
Vivi
Vulcan
Wald
Wallace
Walter
Wayne
Wazy
Xeno
Xin
Yun Ka-Fai
Zechs
Zeit
Zin

I don't think I've seen very many people put graces or xillia above berseria. Most people say graces battle system is great but story and characters are boring. Xillia has the better characters and then worse battle system and still a boring story. 1/3 good points isn't enough

Abyss, Symphonia, and Vesperia are the holy trilogy. Berseria is next and after that there's a decent fall off in quality