Board 8 > Trails in the Sky Playthrough Topic

(+) Yeah! (+)

yeah julia and mueller are people who get better in 3rd by virtue of having more screentime lol

Hbthebattle posted...

yeah julia and mueller are people who get better in 3rd by virtue of having more screentime lol

This, but that being said I don't know if I'd have them that much further up on my own ranking as far as playable characters go either.

> But he is still just a bird, and I can't keep from ranking him for too long before it gets ridiculous.

I don't know, I'd probably put Sieg in the top 10.

#26 Walter

Before Renne sworn to butcher them all, Walter did the same, but we forgot because it's more schocking when it's said by the 12 year old. The Direwolf spares no one, they said. Weirdly, that aspect of his character went into the background, probably to keep the game PG. What we focused on instead was a very cliche kung fu movie story. Was it good? I think so.

Walter's motivation is clearer than Luciola, and so he is easier to empathize with. He is a tragic man, driven by jealously and love. It's highlighted that he was already on the path of evil for a while before his master rejected him, so he is not entirely without fault. But you can feel bad for him nonetheless.

Walter is also pretty damn cool. Orobouros is all great designs, and his s-craft is flashy like him. And whenever he is on, we get some sprite action, which I love. Walter is good times.

And I love how in the end, his downfall was that he mixed other styles instead of training his master's style like Zin did. It's a classic tradition vs modern, but it works well.

But don't emphatize with him that much. He is a jerkass who is probably not joking when he says he kills children.

#25 Bleublanc

Damn, this quest AGAIN?

Bleublanc is that sidequest, which you do 6 times total during two games. Which is pretty fun most of the time, but also aggravating. He's also the weirdest enforcer (except maybe Campanella but that doesn't count). His motivation that he reveals in Sky Pillar is bonkers. He's just goofing around hiding mundane objects most of the time instead of burning orphanages like the villains in this game do. He is a rival to friggin Olivier, though he doesn't quite mangage to out-clown Olivier (nobody can). Bleublanc is guaranteed fun times, if not because the game overdoes his presence a little.

He's also a weird little sex predator, though. I considered ranking him below Walter just for that, but then I remembered Walter kills people, and murder is worse than sexual abuse I suppose. So Blew gets to be 25.

#24 Maybelle

Capitalism, ho! Maybelle deserves to at least be in this list because of the sheer amount of memes she allowed me to write. She owns everything! She can buy anything, and anyone! But really, jokes aside, she is very much a decent person. Her sidequest involving Lila's past proves it, as it's one of the best sidequests in this duology. She is a hard worker, busting her ass to make her city a better place. She also seems to want a regime change in Liberl! If she ran for president, I might vote for her.

How weird is it that this game makes me like all sorts of institutions I usually hate, from capitalism, to military, to religion, and make it feel natural? And the next arc is about cops! That's one of the amazing things about Trails.

#23 Amalthea

Before Gilbert, there was someone who could be called the biggest tryhard in the cast: that was Amalthea, the most loyal member of the intelligence division, to the point they had to bring her former boss out of prison just to convince her to stop being dumb. You fight Amalthea three times in the series, because she just. Doesn't. Give up. And she is pathetic every single time, but she doesn't care. She steals a tank and decides she is going to conquer the kingdom with it, as if blasting walls and killing a few castle staff is going to bring a regime change. It's clear Richard was the brain of the opeartion here.

Amalthea is also fun because of how mean she looks in her portraits. As soon as the story is allowed to show the Intel Div as the villains they are, she is just smirking evily all the time. That's another contrast to Richard, who looks like a saint even as he plots a coup.

We are at that point of the list where most characters are swallow but are just plain likable or fun, and that's the case with Amalthea.

Amalthea > Maybelle is spicy imo

i can still hear Richard's Japanese VA constantly calling her Kanone, as if the Amalthea part does not exist

#22 Loewe

This is one that could end up being controversial, because depending on what community you go to, Loewe is Top 3 material. He is the quintessential edgy anime badass. He has a sword, is called Bladelord, has white spiky hair, is strong as shit, has a badass coat, a tragic backstory that will have teenagers clamoring about how deep he is, etc. Look no further than Itachi from Naruto if you need a comparison, he's that guy.

I like the guy. I don't love the guy though, because I stopped caring about Naruto over a decade ago. Loewe is not that deep. His story boys down to "they killed my girlfriend, yo". Something similar happened to Agate, but his character went places. Josh lost the same person, and his character went even more places. Loewe decided to go full Edgelord, adopted a "peace turns humans into hypocrites" philosophy and joined the nearest maniac he could find, and even stuck with him after finding out he was responsible for Loewe's own tragedy. He then spends the actual game being by the most decent enforcer, occasionally trying to kill Agate (I mean, everyone has that urge from time to time), but otherwise praising Estelle and generally rooting for the good guys. Loewe seems like he is already done with Orobouros when the story starts and is just looking for an excuse to bail, honestly.

I enjoyed having Loewe around, and surely I enjoyed the two insanely difficult fights he gave, one per game. But I was unimpressed, honestly. Fortunately, Orobouros had a way better anti-villain story to give me. More on that later.

#21 Kilika

I'm going to copypaste the write-up because Kilika already wrote it for me 2 days ago, when she correctly predicted I would rank her # 21. Thanks, Kilika. She said she's just doing her job.

Kilika's efficiency is an in-universe meme, and it's a great one. All those clerks are doing a good job, but she's killing it. She is clearly overqualified for this position, perhaps because she was trained to be the wife of the Taito Dojo Master.

Kilika doesn't give a damn, though. It's hard to know if she is actually annoyed at people praising her, or if she is just so efficient she wants to get to business. And she has the cool sequence where she climbs a high level dungeon alone just to tell two boys that they need to grow the fuck up.

Her position in the boys' backtory is kind of weird though, because she feels like a side character in it. She never really becomes close to Zin and neither she and Walter get together again. She just quits and goes be a clerk in a guild. So she feels rather disconnected to the whole thing, despite being the primary reason for Walter's defection. I guess not everyone wants to, or needs, to be in the spotlight, and Kilika very much knows that.

21- Kilika
22- Loewe
23- Amalthea
24- Maybelle
25- Bleublanc
26- Walter
27- Don
28- Luciola
29- Hans
30- Julia
31- Sieg
32- Cid
33- Mueller
34- Kurt
35- Kyle
36- Josette
37- Aina
38- Queen Alicia
39- Russel
40- Jill
41- Anton
42- Clem
43- Ricky

Unranked:

Agate
Anelace
Campanella
Cassius
Dorothy
Dunan
Estelle
Gilbert
Joshua
Kevin
Kloe
Mogran
Nial
Olivier
Renne
Richard
Scherazard
Tita
Weissmann
Zin

catesdb posted...

Amalthea > Maybelle is spicy imo

The problem with Maybelle is most of what makes her great was in my playthrough topic, not in the game itself. At the end of the day she is just another decent mayor, and the capitalism thing is just a meme.

Amalthea > any character with a portrait is spicy imo.

...is what I would have said but then I remembered Gilbert, who I see is also yet to appear on the list >.>

pyresword posted...

Amalthea > any character with a portrait is spicy imo.

...is what I would have said but then I remembered Gilbert, who I see is also yet to appear on the list >.>

Do you people even know comedy.

Characters like that exist because they are funny as hell.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

How weird is it that this game makes me like all sorts of institutions I usually hate, from capitalism, to military, to religion, and make it feel natural? And the next arc is about cops! That's one of the amazing things about Trails.

That's the best thing about trails, instead of being preachy over the downfall in the trust in modern day institutions, they just let us revisit a magic place where you can feel secure in it again. Some good wholesomeness is what this world needs more of

Wait did someone just dump on Gilbert?
What the hell is wrong with you?

ZeldaTPLink posted...

has a badass coat

and the best sprite in the game imhotbqh

To defend Loewe a bit (I am among that "holds him in the Top 3" group you reference) part of the reason he joined up with "the nearest maniac" is because Joshua went catatonic after Karin's death and said maniac (Weissmann) said he could get him out of it... and technically he did! But probably not how Loewe intended. At which point bailing on Ouroboros would mean bailing on Joshua (and later Renne.)

Plus Loewe's whole thing is ultimately that his past broke him just like it did Joshua, he just handled it differently. He joined Ouroboros as essentially a coping mechanism and adopted the whole "test for humanity" nonsense to try to tell himself that at least the tragedy ultimately could have some sort of meaning even though his new worldview was never coherent and if he truly believed it he wouldn't even be there. Hence in the end Joshua gets through to him by making him realize he's ultimately just deluding himself to avoid having to fully confront and accept his past.

#20 Campanella

This guy was originally going to be ranked much higher, but I had time to think about the names in the rest of this post and realize they all have reasons to be ranked higher. The Fool is awesome. He is one reason I want to play the rest of the series, because he is such a cool presence when he is around. He is also the most mysterious character in the series, so far. Why does he never grow? WHAT is he? What can he do, besides teleporting? Campanella is such a great set up I can't wait to see the pay off of.

But I need more content to rank him higher. Because right now, he's just that, a set up. A puzzle. Let me know when the puzzle is solved.

#19 Cassius Bright

One of the 4 top swordsmen of the world. One of the 4 top bracers of the world. The greatest military general. The crappiest father (jk).

Cassius is that guy. The character so amazing he becomes a hindrance to storytelling. 9 ouf of 10 times, this guy gets killed to hype the villain up, or just to give the hero a motivation to grow. Instead of that the writers went and did something genius: they deconstructed the concept, by having Cassius's perfection be the primary cause of conflict. Because once the genius retires, he creates a void, and that motivates Richard to make a coup. And at the same time, Cassius's continued presence in Liberl means Orobouros must have a contingency plan against him, and so Joshua's entire character comes into existance as part of a long term plan to bait Cassius out of Liberl when the time comes for Phase 1.of the Gospel Plan.

But Orobouros doesn't make the same effort again in SC, and that gives him some room, just a little, to strike back. Ironically, through Joshua, by having him manipulate Weissman into doing more evil, just like Weissman once had Joshua manipulate Cassius into doing good. I love how the start and end of the duology show opposite plots.

Now whole I'm amazed with the way the story uses Cassius, that makes Cassius himself less interesting, by design. He doesn't really do things. It's Estelle, Josh, Kloe, Olivier who do, he just nudges them in the right direction. He forces himself to be a background character, so the plot doesn't suffer, and because he has to let Liberl, the Bracer Guild, and his children walk with their own legs, or the world is doomed. But that means there just isn't much material to make Cassius more of a mid tier character in my book. Someone had to take the fall for the good of everyone, and Cassius surely did.

#18 Mogran

The drill sergeant. The guy who doesn't have time for this supernatural stuff. The competent but unimaginative general.

Mogran serves an important role in FC, which is a red herring to Richard. Unfortunately his portrayal was so negative compared to Richard's it ended up giving it away! But he is a good guy at heart, once he learns bracers are not some stupid thing kids these days invented. Then he becomes a support in the story, albeit minor because Cassius, Julia, and arguably even Cid get to do more.

In SC, he also gets the sequence with Agate, which really endeared him in my book. He is consumed by the grief of not being able to prevent the unpreventable. That is something Agate shares, and which consumes him even more. Mogran is just a solid character, really. We are entering the point where everyone else is just more solid.

#17 Richard

The main villain of FC tends to be forgotten once you enter SC and its flashy sociopath enforcers. But Richard was a big threat, even if Orobouros was helping. He got really close to taking down a country with pretty much just his brains, and a few loyal guys. He's also got that "affable villain" aura. Where he's never really mad, or gloating. He knows he is a demon, he is doing it for his cause, not for pleasure. It reminds me of a sentence of a webcomic I read (Unsounded), "Only a cause makes a good man do evil". Villains of that type can feel inconsistent, but when they are written well, they are amazing. Richard is great.

His cause is also rather original, as I have explained in the Cassius post. What do you do when a man like Cassius retires, and an empire like Erebonia is still bordering you? The existential threat must have driven him crazy. So Liberl has to prove they can do the impossible without the help of an impossible man, and Richard doesn't think he up for the challenge.

I'm hyped to see more of him in 3rd, now that we know he regrets everything.

#16 Gilbert

He sucks! Gilbert was just a mid villain in SC. He was pathetic but he served to show how cool the real villains were. Well, the writers decided to bring him back, and run the point to the ground. There is nothing to salvage here, he is a sociopath and idiot. Gilbert absolutelym sucks! His quotes, his moves, it all suck! And it's HILARIOUS! This guy is great comedy whenever he is around. The entire cast will line up to dunk on him because he can't even be a threat. His allies will dunk on him. Campanella will. He is so shit he forces Campanella to have a bit of a character just to torture him. That's how you solve the Campanella mystery, keep Gilbert around so the former shows more character.

Gilbert is excused from not having much character, because he is funny. That's all I have to say.

16- Gilbert
17- Richard
18 - Mogran
19 - Cassius
20 - Campanella
21- Kilika
22- Loewe
23- Amalthea
24- Maybelle
25- Bleublanc
26- Walter
27- Don
28- Luciola
29- Hans
30- Julia
31- Sieg
32- Cid
33- Mueller
34- Kurt
35- Kyle
36- Josette
37- Aina
38- Queen Alicia
39- Russel
40- Jill
41- Anton
42- Clem
43- Ricky

Unranked:

Agate
Anelace
Dorothy
Dunan
Estelle
Joshua
Kevin
Kloe
Nial
Olivier
Renne
Scherazard
Tita
Weissmann
Zin

I totally expected them to kill off Cassius at some point, for the reasons you mentioned. I guess this could be another way the writers were fighting against a common trope.

Cassius annoyed me while I was playing through Trails initially. I still don't really like him, but I appreciate what they did with his story.

Solid top 15. These games are so great.

catesdb posted...

Solid top 15. These games are so great.

real

I haven't been showing it, but so far I have been using tiers to make it easier to rank the characters.

The bottom tier is probably Kyle and everything below him. From Kurt to Bleublanc is the low tier. Mid tier is up to the 14th place. So we have 2 characters left to rank from it.

Then there is the high tier, which is 13th to 7th. The very high tier is 6th to 3rd. Finally, the top two characters are my god tier.

Good luck guessing.

Cassius is the kind of character that I usually don't like at all. It's a testament to the Trails series writing that I actually love him.

Is he actually Mogran? I thought ot was Morgan this whole time and this just a continuing bit, but now I'm second-guessing myself

No it is definitely Morgan lol

#15 Dunan

For the Duke, the same can be said as it was said for the previous guy: HE SUCKS! But there is some extra care given to Dunan's shittiness. Gilbert is used for the plot twist, and then later his terribleness is just driven to the extreme, with no middle ground. Dunan starts terrible, but his terribless is built, fostered, kindled, to obtain the maximum hate from the player, as well as maxmum humor.

His first act in the game is to deprive Estelle and Josh of their big hotel room. It gets personal right away. He then has that sidequest where Estelle is recruited to her... methods... to prevent him from making the guests at Air Letten uncomfortable. It's a a great scene. He then gets sucked into the madness that is the final chapter of FC, as a politcal pawn meant to be used by Richard to rule the country. It's genius. Meanwhile, Dunan gets worse and worse, as sexism gets added to his elitism.

But somewhere along the line, you get used to him, and the monster becomes a clown, particularly after he is deprived of his power in SC and placed on house arrest. He is now making his butler get cookies and comics for him. The demon! And then, finally, he gets some offsceen character development, and becomes a honorable man. I don't know how that happened and I wish I had seen it, but after two games with this idiot, it feels well earned.

Dunan is such a great part of the lore. He is a love to hate character and I loved to hate having him around. So the position in the top 15 is well earned.

#14 Dorothy

One of the two members of the news duo, her job is similar to Lotta Hart in the PW series: produce those magical photos that gets things moving. Dorothy is a genius photographer, and fact balanced by how she is a massive klutz at everything else. It's always a delight seeing how much fun she is having photographing things, and it's always a good time to have to bail her from things she obviously shouldn't be getting near.

Dorothy is not the most three-dimensional character, but honestly, can you not like her? I surely can't.

#13 Scherazard

It's time to rank the 9 protagonists of the duology, as well as the 4 people who are so great they get to hang out with the protagonists.

Schera is the first to fall. My view of her is complicated. I've gone on a rant before about how I think the alcoholism jokes are just toxic. And the other aspect of Schera is her sadism gags, which aren't my cup of tea either. So in terms of humor, Schera just fails, which is a problem since almost every character in a game like this is trying to hit a comedy point, Schera included.

Next is the character development, which is more complicated. Schera's role is to be a big sister, the mature one. At the same time, when she meets Luciola, she descends into a child, who feels weak and emotionally dependent. It's an interesting inversion, but I feel like we could have developed that relationship a bit harder, maybe with some flashbacks. It doesn't help that Luciola herself is inescrutable as she is.

Now, the good sister role? There's where Schera really shines. I was particularly endeared at her chapter 4 scenes with Estelle. Schera is perfectly comfortable being the emotional support to Estelle. And really, Schera is the unspoken hero behind Joshua's redemption. Because while Estelle did the work with Josh, Schera was the one who prep'd Estelle for it, keeping her together as she was faced doubts and traumas.

Schera is also pretty good in FC. She is the balanced mentor. Unlike Agate who just cockblocks the kids over and over, Schera gives them agency, letting them figure out what it means to be a bracer by themselves, but constantly giving advice and helping conduct the investigation to find the missing airship. Schera is the perfect supporting character, she just isn't that good when she has to take the lead, or provide comedy.

Schera is weird in that when she's being a serious character she's actually pretty good, but any and all 'comedy' attempts they try with her are awful.

#12 Anelace

"I AM INVINCIBLE! ... Or am I?"

I don't know why that quote is so awesome but it just is. I think it's because while all the other characters are being at least a little serious in their victory poses, Anelace just doesn't care. She is pretty much a joke character, someone who got added to the playable roster because the players liked her in FC and wanted more of her.

But something about her just works. I feel like she is Estelle without the baggage. She is a bit more sassy, a bit more mature, but also a bit sillier. And because she doesn't have the Josh drama, she can be silly all the time, and that helps Estelle be less gloomy in what was going to be a very gloomy prologue. Anelace was the right party member at the right time.

She is also great in the school sidequest. I mean, the whole thing is pretty much Estelle and Anelace taking turns to taunt all the mooks you face at the start of each battle, but I'm so in for that. Honestly if they made a full game with just the two girls as protagonists, I'd pay full AAA price for it. Make it a buddy cop story or something.

Anelace isn't higher because I thought it felt unfair to rank all the 3-dimensional characters in this list lower than what is well, a gag character. But if 3rd gives her more development, the sky is the limit for Anelace. She is invincible, after all. Or is she?

#11 Zin

Zin is hard to rank because often he feels like the most side-character-y member of main playable roster. He is an outsider, who pretty much came to Liberl on Cassius's request (and before, was apparently around because of the tournament), so he is a helper by definition (the same could be said about Olivier, but that one forces himself into the spotlight). His personality fits with that, he is the very chill guy who lets the other characters do as they please, often being even more passive than Schera in his mentoring style. But that kind of behavior paid off, because when we learn Zin has been doing it on purpose all around, secretely supporting the kids, it makes him feel pretty cool.

Zin gets more of a character in SC, with his rivarly with Walter. That one was better written than the Schera/Luciola one, imo, and also much more fun to watch, because it was an actual fighting rivarly! I mean, it's an incredibly cliche kung fu story, but cliches are fine if they are executed well. Zin's role here is the devoted disciple, the one who never stopped believing in his master's teachings even after seeing the master himself killed by the disciple who abandoned them. He kept training, and training, every day, to the point he managed to get stronger than Walter, even though, by his own words, he was less talented. Zin's extreme dillegence also made him an A-rank bracer, and the only of that rank in the story so far, other than Cassius who is S-rank. Zin is canonically the strongest guy around, even if gameplay wise, he has to be nerfed so he can be similar to the others. That was a fun aspect of him.

Overall, Zin is not a guy you remember much, but he is just nice to have around, when he is giving Estelle words of wisdom or when he is just training his stances in some room in the Arseille, because he believes you should never stop practicing the basics. Zin is the kind of guy anyone who wants to become a master at a craft should mirror themselves after, honestly.

#10 Tita

At some point before I started writing this list, it was going to only have the 14 playable characters, so I was going to have a disclaimer making it clear that gameplay did not count in this list's criteria. Because if it did, Tita would be fighting for #1. She is really that fun to play with, seriously. The fact they made a character in an RPG whose basic attack is AoE is nothing short of awesome.

But I'm judging the character, not her combat skills (though I include in the criteria whether their attacks and battle quotes look cool, and Tita also aces that). Tita's issue is that she is exactly what she is advertized as: a 12 year old girl. It's temping for stories to write little kids that behave as anything but, and then explain that away as them being geniuses and stuff. Not Tita. While she is a genius at her craft (and the story is not shy of using that as a plot device over and over), personality wise, she is really just a kid. She is naive, she doesn't have any huge psychological issues (I mean, she is just now hitting puberty), she doesn't really participate in the other characters' sarcastic banter. She is most of the time just smiling and being cute. Now I'm not saying that is bad writing, as it makes sense. And it provides great contrast with Renne, who goes into the opposite direction. But that makes Tita kind of boring, most of the time.

She was going to be much lower for a while. But there was a saving grace, the chapter with the dragon. While that didn't develop Tita's character, it gave her a role in developing Agate's, which she executed perfectly. Chapter 5 is one of the best in the game, and Tita does a lot of the work in that. She is absolutely great at supporting Agate, helping him understand that he is not alone anymore, and being his little sister. And the scene where she tries to block a sword blow from fucking Loewe to protect Agate is nothing short of amazing.

Tita's strangth in supporting other arcs also extends to Estelle, particularly FC. She is a key piece of the building blocks of Estelle and Josh's characters that happen in that game, by giving Estelle a little sister she must feel responsible for. Now that I think about it, on big theme of this game is family. Estelle, Josh, Tita, Agate and Schera are all family to each other, even if none of them are related by blood. And all of that just helps make Trails the good story it is, because it does the hard work to make characters feel like people, and to make the world feel like a world. Tita was not the complex character that really make the meat of a story, but she is the little kid that makes the world feel worth protecting.

#9 Nial

Nial is the least important character in this part of the rankings. That's just a testament to how good he is.

In the middle of FCs massive political conspiracy, the protagonists, finding themselves unsupported by the kingdom and the military, who are under attack by the Intel Division, manage to find help among the press. The dynamic between Estelle/Josh and Nial is just really good. They tell him about their adventures each chapter, so he can write the next Liberl News, and in turns, he reveals the plot hooks they need to slowly crack the bad guys' plans. it works all the way from chapter 1 to the coup at the end of the game. The point is that, whenever Nial is around, you can expect interesting reveals, and good plot developments. The press is another institution that the writers of this game wanted to show in a good light, and he and Dorothy represent that.

Nial himself is also a pretty likable dude. He is snarky, but not too much that he is hard to deal with. Estelle and Josh earn his repsect in the prologue, and from then on, he always has time to sit with them at a bar and trade info, often negotiating for it.

He does take a hit in SC though, because the conflict changes from a political conspiracy to a mkre JRPG-like one, with an evil organization bound to dig some mcguffins. So Nial is now less of a partner in crime, and more of a guest in the Arseille so he can help make the crown look good.

Honestly, Nial is here much more for his role than for his person, but he is an integral part of the tightly written plot that is Trails.

#8 Kevin

I was originally going to say Kevin would be the most unfairly ranked character in this list due to me not having played the game he is the protagonist of. But he got to #8! Man, Kevin is just great! Like, Anelace, this is another character who could be hanging out with the big guys by the time I finish the trilogy.

Kevin is a very supporting character, by nature. You could say he is the quintessential RPG cleric. Even in battle, he is the least offensive character in the group, while having the best support s-craft and a few other strong support crafts. Because he wasn't in FC, Kevin feels like a guest for most of SC, popping in and out fo help move things around. And at the end of SC, he takes the spotlight, helping Josh achieve his great victory over Weissmann, and ultimately killing Weissmann himself. That scene shot Kevin up a few positions, because he is just so badass in it. He has been hiding what he can really do all game, and suddenly, he is some ruthless inquisitor. At the same time, there are hints of him hating himself for being like that, which I'm hyped to see the developmnent of next game.

Kevin also strikes a good balance between a clown and a mature guy. While he tries to be a mild Olivier, his wisdom score is just through the roof (again, cleric). He has a very strong introduction at the start of the game, where he accompanies Estelle as she is having a mental breakdown. And then, for the rest of the game, he is that dependable guy who shows up whenever things are going to shit, being particularly pivotal in chapter 3. And he always seems to have access to artifacts and knowledge necessary to counter Orobouros tools. Otherwise, he can be found in the infirmary, keeping things ready in case someone gets hurt. Kevin doesn't want to be a protagonist, in fact, it's possible he hates it, but he is so great he ends up bing the ace in the hole the good guys need to defeat Weissmann.

#7 Kloe

I think FC may be my favorite of the two games. While SC is a masterpiece, I'm very awed at the insanely subsersive thing the first game set out to do, and how well it executed it. What I mean is how it does not really try to have a big, epic, JRPG story about saving the world, instead being just a story of two kids who travel around the world learning what it means to be a bracer. But because we are not looking at the plot yet, we get to build the world, and the characters. And make the foundations that will make the pay offs worth it.

Kloe plays an integral role in that. Her main chapter in FC is sandwiched between the sky bandit red herring, and the real plot with the Intel Div that starts in Zeiss. She is the girl who shows you around the city, and hangs out with the main characters because she just likes them. She helps them get acquainted with the orphanage kids, and eventually takes them to the school where they can make a play. I am particularly awed at how much I enjoyed that sequence involving the play, considering how much it is absolute filler to the main story. It's just... fun to watch. Kloe herself is not revealed to be a princess yet, which can be a metaphor to how, at this point of the story, we just need good friends, not princesses. Her friendship with Estelle and Josh is one of the most real things in this series. So when it's time to save Kloe and her kingdom, it feels personal. It feels like it matters. Like they say, it's "our Kloe" that we are saving.

And it all works because Kloe herself is just so likable. Kloe is just a good person, someone who is easy to like. That's all there is to it.

She is another character who takes a big hit in SC, though, probably why she is not in the tier above. When it's time to focus on main plots, Kloe is given a personal sidequest that, while good on paper, is solved completely offscreen. She vanishes for one chapter, then returns and announces she is now heir to the queen. And the payoff to that, the negotiation scene, isn't as good for her as it could have been, because it's Olivier who is the MVP of the whole thing. Kloe really needed to have her big moment of decision shown, just like Dunan needed to have his character development, which happened at the same time and was also cut. I wonder if those scenes were originally going to be in the game, and they didn't make to the final product.

God Tier

1-
2-

Very High Tier

3-
4-
5-
6-

High Tier

7- Kloe
8- kevin
9- Nial
10- Tita
11- Zin
12- Anelace
13- Scherazard

Mid Tier

14- Dorothy
15- Dunan
16- Gilbert
17- Richard
18- Mogran
19- Cassius
20- Campanella
21- Kilika
22- Loewe
23- Amalthea
24- Maybelle

Low Tier

25- Bleublanc
26- Walter
27- Don
28- Luciola
29- Hans
30- Julia
31- Sieg
32- Cid
33- Mueller
34- Kurt

Bottom Tier

35- Kyle
36- Josette
37- Aina
38- Queen Alicia
39- Russel
40- Jill
41- Anton
42- Clem
43- Ricky

Unranked:

Agate
Estelle
Joshua
Olivier
Renne
Weissmann

I loved your writeup on Kloe...yeah FC really nails the small stakes to big stakes journey like no other RPG. I still enjoyed SC more but I agree that that aspect of it really didn't exist as much in SC and it does make FC stand out

Niall is my personal favourite character in the two games

Kevin is one of my favorite video game characters. His story across SC and the 3rd had such a profound impact on me that I'm planning to get a tattoo inspired by him, and I've never even been a tattoo guy.

Really looking forward to seeing what you think of it in the next game.

Yeah Kevin is cool too bad he doesn't have a game of his own where he is the protagonist huh

(this is a joke about how Falcom keeps forgetting he's a series protagonist in all the promotional stuff)

3rd def the black sheep fr