Board 8 > Trails in the Sky Playthrough Topic

(+) Yeah! (+)

Thorn posted...

yes this is accurate

action quartz best quartz

Yeah I gave it to all characters.

Current setup is something like this (not necessarily in this order):

Estelle: action 1, hp 2, defense 1, the one that lets you see distant enemies

Joshua: Action 1, Blind, Attack 1, EP Cut

Schera: action 1, Impede 2, Evade, Hit 1

th3l3fty posted...

Falcom's system of scaling EXP based on your levels and the enemy's levels is great and should be used in more games

strongly disagree

you can start building to arts combos now so check the bracer notebook for what you can unlock

I used a combo to get Lightning but I could never get a battle with enemies lined up for me to hit more than one.

Are line hitting arts just bad or am I missing something?

They're not that great IMO. Aerial, on the other hand...

Thorn posted...

Aerial, on the other hand...

I have noticed.

run into some small bird enemies. very weak

then I run into a big bird with 2 small birds. lots of hp but seems doable. then I attack it and the small ones reflect all the dmg I gave to myself. wtf

then it creates a copy of itself. wtf. I run away

I look online. the small ones always reflect arts but not physical attacks. the big one doesn't reflect but has huge physical defense. that's a cruel setup

round 2. I take a more precise approach. first skewer the small ones with my weapons, then burn the big one to a crisp with fire magic

I... just dealt 1710 dmg to a bird. stacked clock up and morale on Joshua, got a crit turn and used 5x elemental advantage. And this is chapter 1. I think this is one of those games with the crazy numbers.

we arrive at the military base. general dick is not there

a very gay dude is in the bar, though. I also know he's the next party member due to my uncontrollable self spoiling tendencies. I didn't know he was that gay, though

or a pansexual, I guess

general dick arrives, we go meet him, and pan dude starts following us. I'm just wondering why, but estelle asks it 2 seconds later. he says he just thinks they are interesting. Estelle activates the High Font of Doom and kicks him out with a "shoo shoo". Lame.

soldier: "plz dont go wandering in other places" me: "why, I'm insulted you even think I would CONSIDER that".

there is a jail on the floor below. I give it 90% chance we will be imprisoned there. and 89% pan dude will be the one to break us out.

We meet General Dick. he can't know we are bracers no matter what

Estelle rolling deception checks but getting a -10 modifier every time she does is a marvel to see. It's like watching a horror movie.

she eventually rolls a nat 1 and we are kicked out. then just as I think estelle is about to make things worse, Schera is the one who explains in precise detail to General Dick why he is well, a dick.

but before he sends us to jail, pan dude shows up with a lute and starts playing a song to soothe their hearts.
...

I love bards.

Well, I guess that counts as breaking us out.

pan dude introduces himself as Olivier, and promply starts hitting on Schera. He more or less invites himself into the party. I'm not complaining.

he does not think Estelle is fucking material, though. She is VERY not happy about that

our dude sports a gun, better armor than mine, a nice spiral orbment set with 5 open slots, a high ats stat and 2 characters worth of EP. this is gonna be fun.

don't you have an information quartz by now that gives you enemy descriptions?

and olivier is the best

NFUN posted...

don't you have an information quartz by now that gives you enemy descriptions?

Haven't been using it though. Maybe I should try now that Olivier is stuck with a silver slot.

It should basically be on at all times honestly.

so I'm guessing Cassius Bright is world famous and everyone and their dog knows except Estelle

so people go "no way, you are the daughter of THAT Cassius?" and she's like "uh yeah, but hes just a goofball, dunno what the deal is"

I want to see her face when we learn the stuff he actually did

I'm at a point where the game thinks my lv isnt too high so its giving me a decent amount of xp, but I have the best equipment available so battle sare still very easy. Love it

so I'm supposed to find two reporters for info but I cant find them anywhere. I decide to leave the city and explore the region to do some quests

while checking the trail behind a small town to the west, I find a Deathblow orbment. "100% kills the enemy, but orb breaks when you use". Nice

the beast I'm supposed to hunt isnt too strong but is fast and keeps spamming impede. it gets the old fashioned melee beatdown approach

found a thing called shining pom. its immune to magic, almost immune to physical damage and flees in the first turn. but seems to give a lot of sepith. I fail to kill it

the next target is a monster with very good stats. But its not immune to Joshua's blind. Alas.

I finally find the reporter at the bar, after looking online. The problem is I was looking for pink haired photographer, who is not with him this time

I find a red haired dude who is a also a jerk

btw I love how the dialogue accounts for possible sidequest paths. The guy asks us if we took care of the monster in the mine. Which we did, by going to a place we weren't supposed to since I got bored of trying to find the reporter and decided to explore around. I think the normal path would be to find the reporter in the bar, learn about the lead in the mine town then go there.

npcs in the city also take into account the fact I already killed a monster for them. Nice

ZeldaTPLink posted...

found a thing called shining pom. its immune to magic, almost immune to physical damage and flees in the first turn. but seems to give a lot of sepith. I fail to kill it

The only ways to really kill shining poms are S-crafts and instant-kill spells/abilities.
They're the games equivalent of Metal Slimes.

Well that's where my instakill orbment is going to.

just grind cp for s-crafts

I really love this game's cave song

I find Team Rocket again. James is nearly not as hard to take down as Jessie. he has something about bombs but a good dose of AT delays and Binds keeps him from using them, and he doesn't self heal like his sister.

the battle gives me a metric load of fire quartz, which is important because his region has been having a drought of it.

We explore the ship. It's empty. Then General Dick remembers he has a prison under his base and that he could use it to lock some bracers up, so he comes to where we are to arrest us. Called it.

Presumption is innocence doesn't exist here. But hey, that's a realistic portrayal of militaries

I'm mad because I took the right path to the ship instead of the detour that probably had chests and now I have to go back to that maze if I wanna check it out

internet says there are no chests there and I'm going to believe it for my own sanity

now I guess it's time for Bard-kun to save us

and there is bard-kun. All the plot belongs to me to predict. It is all mine. Behold

He is also in prison, though. I should have guessed, since there are two cells. And he was arrested for stealing expensive wine. Typical

The bard doesn't release us. The mayor does. All hail the mayor.

General Dick hates bracers because his best soldier (Cassius) left the army to join them. Yeah I totally believe it's just that. (hes gay isn't he)

The mayor has Bard-kun released, because she also owns the restaurante whose wine was stolen. Holy shit, is there anything she doesn't own? if this keeps going I'm calling Final Villain

Bard-kun offers to join our party to repay the mayor for the wine. She takes it. Since she basically owns eveything and everyone, we have to accept it. Welcome to late stage capitalism, Bard-kun

Olivier dropped all his equipment in our inventory when he left the party, and know he joins with new copies all all of it. I refuse to question it.

even the orbments. holy crap

quest board says I failed an escort quest. I didnt even see there was such a quest. lame

Being the Mayor of Everything is a pretty sweet gig

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-Z65J6Se-8

photographer girl is a fan of olivier for nabbing expensive wine. goofballs unite, I guess

we meet Colonel Richard, who seems to be much for reasonable than General Dick

(final villain material? yes plz)

we luck out into some information suggesting the bandit's hideout is at the lake. That army needs to hire protagonists some time, they are great at finding plot threads!

exploring nebel valley, I find a small house with a guy who shares bed and food with us. Except the food almost kills Olivier. I guess free things aren't free

alright, Olivier wins the prize for coolest s-craft. I just like big explosions, I guess. Also an AoE s-craft is sweet. Was facing a big thing with 4 magic eggs and it turned the later into omelette.

nebel valley is huge. and the game seems to think I'm underleved for this place, since I'm getting lots of xp. But the two quests about to expire suggest otherwise. Weird. Is this place optional?

I come back from the city, report quests, unlock Estelle's 5th slot and get the Petrify orbment. Nice.

current orbment set:

Estelle: Ep Cut 1 - Cast/Action 1 - Information/HP 2
Joshua: Blind - Attack 1 - Eagle Eye/Action 1
Schera: Impede 2 - HP 2 - Evade 1/Action 1
Olivier: Ep 1/Cast/Action 1/Petrify/Defense 1

Olivier can use stronger earth magic and cast it fast, he also has some time magic at its disposal. Joshua is mainly built for damage, and blinding things while he damages, but also has some time and fire attacks. Schera doesn't have a lot of variety but who needs variety when you have broken wind AoE. she can be the back up healer in a pinch, too. Estelle is the main healer, and also has some time magic and cast cast both fast

I figure it's redundant to say people can cast time magic so I'm only mentioning the ones with more than one time orbment. Which is... almost everyone

I have enough quartz to buy a house, but no fire quartz. This is annoying. Yes, I've noticed the pink snakes give 4 fire quartz each, but that's not enough to make grinding worthwhile unless I'm just about to open a slot before entering a dungeon. I do kill those snakes whenever they are on my path, though. The problem is that all the other enemies drop different types, so you end up imbalanced in the long run.

those bandits are slippery but they are also rather careless. which means they are good at escaping but they should work on being harder to find in the first place

like, everywhere they go, someone sees them. this time its a random fisherman

which means I may or may not be close to their hideout

josh: "wait a minute estelle, take care of anything left before you reserve a room". wow, thats a way to spoil HEAVY PLOT THREADS are about to be unvelied

or maybe its just a fishming minigame. ok

I use google to know what combination of spot, lure and strategy I need to use to get the best fish. then I do it with different combinations to see all pieces of diologue. I get a steam achievement for it

Josh has disappeared. I go to check if the other party members have too, but Schera is in the inn, making Olivier drink with her until he faints. Sorry for your fate, soldier.

Estelle and Josh deliver some FEELS over the pier

you know, Schera's drinking scenes are funny and all, but you stop thinking about it and it's a pretty serious case of alcoholism. I don't expect the game to touch on that, though.

and it turns out she got him drunk so he doesn't join the party for the big confrontation, since he's a civilian. in-story it makes sense, out of story I'm very disappointed

it does mean Schera managed to dodge the mayor's will like a champ, and I respect her more for that

Team Rocket arrives.

they discuss plot with some shady guys who probably work for the main faction. meanwhile, we are going to destroy their ship, so they don't use the same escaping tactic for the 3rd consecutive time

Olivier follows us. The man is a cockroach. A fabulous cockroach. It also means the mayor continues to win.

and he's got an idea I was thinking about myself. Instead of destroying the ship, sneak into it, and have it take us to the hideout

Olivier has the highest intelligence stat in the party and nobody notices it because he's the bard

time to follow their... Trails in the Sky :D

and their hideout is in that place I thought was optional. no optional places in this game I suppose. time to do some good old Team Rocket Hideout crackdown

ZeldaTPLink posted...

Olivier has the highest intelligence stat in the party and nobody notices it because he's the bard

in fairness, he's also an idiot

bandits hideout is rather empty, no random guards patrolling corridors. instead they are all eating together in a room. this game has some interesting ways to be realistic. I beat those up, and Schera tortures them with her whip to make them say where the hostages are. but they refuse to rat our their bosses. Very loyal

they drop a shitton of fire quartz and at this point I'll open at least 2 slots when I return. Sweet

we beat more bandits and find the hostages. Unfortunately, your dad is in another castle

we arrive at the boss room, where Giovanni awaits, along with Jesse and James (yes, i'm taking that joke to the limit)

they are arguing because Giovanni wants to slaughter the hostages instead of just getting away with the money

he thinks he's smart but that's very stupid. yes, the hostages can identify him, but how much manpower do you think the governments will employ to catch you after you kill a dozen children in cold blood? Literally all of it.

giovanni has a small cannon. what is this, Donkey Kong Country?

he thinks he's the shit because his name is Don Capua. Unfortunately, that's a name for a midboss, no a final villain

Jesse and James are tough, but 4 s-crafts are just too much for them to handle, and earth wall keeps me safe until they are down. I also use anti-sept on jesse to remove her healing just in case. once they are down, Giovanni is still a tough cookie, but this is 4v1 and he can't self heal or use status, just tank and deal damage. he eventually falls.

this game has gotten much easier now that I have lots of tactical options. wonder if it gets harder later.
so Giovanni has been brainwahed, and now that we hit him hard enough, he's back to normal, but doesn't remember a thing. That's sad

Team Rocket attempts to blast off again, but now we get to chase them. My guess we we will pull this off, but with some plot twist

we arrive at the exit, and the military is arresting the bandits. Colonel Richard, with his amazing military expertise, found their hideout, arrested them and is even giving credit to the protagonists for doing the heavy part! What an amazing man!

(yeah he is bad. Now I'm sure of it. Only question is whether he's the final boss or a henchman)

time for rewards. we get a ton of money, another gym badge, and a letter from dad

the letter from dad reveals nothing, but at least gives a time frame of months before he returns. It seems the queen's birthday is the big event the game is aiming for

there is also a parcel with a mysterious relic

And Estelle is having none of it. she just wants her father back

Then Joshua suggests they keep tackling the Pokemon League to collect all the badges, so maybe they'll figure out the Plot in the meantime. Sounds like a plan

Schera and Olivier are not following, though. Apparently we get new party members every region we go (yes I've read about this). Another game that had a similar system was Skies of Arcadia

I guess it can have upsides and downsides. Upside is that it's good for the story, since you can have dialogue and character quests customized for every character, as the devs always know who will be in the party. Downside is the gameplay, as the player doesn't get to mix and match team setups

Olivier realizes Schera is going to feed him unholy amounts of liquor in Rolent and tries to give up, but she drags him to the airship. I feel bad for him

chapter 1 beaten

meanwhile, Schera catchs Olivier talking in a cell phone, which is a big deal, because cell phones are technology only the empire has. It's revealed he is an empire operative, and for some reason, he wants to meet Cassius. The scene ends before more is revealed.

Also Cassius is one of the 4 DIvine Blades. So anime.

We now return to our regular schedule. In the last arc of HunterxHunter, two teenage kids who just passed a test to join a powerful organization that does random quests went on a journey to find one of the kids' father. Said kid is extroverted and stupid, while the other is calm and intelligent and with a mysterious past. They are joined by a number of allies who come and go, the more recent ones being a woman who is a veteran at their organization and who teaches them useful skills, and a blonde guy who is usually nice but also hides his feelings. They join forces to hunt a band of thieves. The arc ends with them failing to find the hero's dad, who is very slippery, so the duo parts ways with their allies and goes to the next location.

Oh you mean Trails in the Sky? Well, see above.

Back to Bose. I stop by the orbment shop and get Josh's 5th slot and Estelle's 6th and final slot. Which makes up a little for the loss of two characters, I guess

Next is Amberl Tower, where apparently I missed a big quest beceuase I should have gone there early. Thanks for warning me, game (not)! I go there anyway so I can at least loot the chests

chests looted. there was one I couldnt get, because the enemies guarded it are clearly designed to be faced by 4 characters, but wiki says its just armor, so it eventually becomes obsolete. The chest I could get gave me an amulet that makes my attack and armor wind elemental. Interesting.

we travel west to the next region, Ruan. We stop at the border to rest at a military checkpoint

things are going well until an old acquaintance appears to share the bedroom with us. Red haired jerk!

he immediately starts insulting our skill and telling us we are only winning battles because Schera is helping. Which is one of those times where you are technically right but socially wrong. because at the end of the day, nobody has to like you for it. some people consistently fail to understand that and then they think it's everyone else's fault they are alone. Red Haired Jerk seems to be such a case

I mean, how newbies are going to stop being newbiews unless they do non-newbie stuff?

he should be careful of making estelle mad, though

suddenly the base is attacked by a wolf pack, and Jerk joins the party to help beat them

... wow, hes 6 levels higher than us

Jerk enters tsundere mode and starts praising us but not really

it's interesting how the fact people have aircrafts basically killed this road, everyone looks at us like we are weird for walking

we arrive at a small seaside town, after almost getting rekt by some flaming things that spam confusion

we meet another future playable character, blue haired girl, and Josh seems to know her

estelle and josh have a scene that will pleaser shippers. and then we get mugged by a little kid. Don't let Jerk see that

ZeldaTPLink posted...

cell phones are technology only the empire has

i do love this

ZeldaTPLink posted...

estelle and josh have a scene that will pleaser shippers

can confirm. I was pleased.

we recover the stolen emblem from the little kid thief. this is going to turn into one of those stories where the main character has to help some little kid have hope, right?

the kid lives in an orphanage owned by Matron Teresa. Hmm

we meet blue haired girl again, who likes to hang out at the orphanage because shes so kind and all that. and she has a pet falcon, or whatever falcons are called in game, cuz why not

blue haired girl, aka Kloe, starts following us but doesn't really join the party. basically an escort. she casts healing spells in battle, though, even if I cant control her

chests regularly make fun of the player when they interact with one thats already open. some of them are meaner than the others.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/4/7/AAO9CbAAER7_.jpg

we save some generic looking npc from being eaten by floating sharks. that was random.

we arrive at Ruan, the port city. I like how each region has dintinct roles in the kingdom. Rolent is agriculture, Bose is commerce, Ruan is port, Zeiss is industry, Grancel is where the nobility who benefits from the labor of the other 4 lives.

I open Josh's final slot, and also buy an orb of Action 2 for him, which I suspect is going to be a massive sink of time based sepith for a while.

some guys at the port decide to pick on us. The mayor and his secretary show up to rescue us. Mayors in this game are op.

Mayor threatens to call the bracer's guild and the bullies say they don't care cuz the bracers will take long to arrive anyway. That's the cue Estelle was waiting for:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/4/8/AAO9CbAAER8A.jpg

Bose's mayor was all about "capitalism, ho. I own you, and you, and also you"

Ruan's mayor is more like "you can be dickheads all you want, but if you do anything to damage the city's tourism, I'll fucking destroy you"

we get a nice room in a hotel, and then a duke arrives and kicks us out on the ground of "I'm literally nobility so everything belongs to me". wow.

but reporter guy is here and lets us sleep in his room. you know, the news duo is turning into some of the best chars in this game over time.

Noooooo you ditched plucky photographer girl? She was great!

meanwhile, there's a fire at the orphanage. that's uh... stereotypically evil

ZeldaTPLink posted...

but reporter guy is here and lets us sleep in his room. you know, the news duo is turning into some of the best chars in this game over time.

Truer words have never been spoken

we investigate the oprhanage fire. evidence points for it to be an arson. Of course it's arson, we need a plot hook.

mayor seems like a nice dude. my plot twists senses are tingling, and with so many mayors I expect one to be evil, but I don't feel it for this one.

culprit (or savior) is a mysterious silver haired dude who Josh seems to know

the dumb kid who mugged me the other day decides to get revenge for the orphanage with his own hands, by challenging a local gang to a fight, we go bail him out

Kloe doesn't like fighting but nobody is hurting the kiddies. she pulls a rapier and finally joins the party
Kloe has every water spell in the list. No, seriously.

her s-craft is a german word that revives and healls the entire party. welp, thats our cleric

after we beat them u, red haired Jerk, aka Agate, shows up and beats them even HARDER. no seriously, I could feel that punch in the 2D sprite that took it. apparently he used to be part of the group.

Josh displays a massive feat of emotional intelligence and gets the kid on his side

oh ok Kloe comes with all her slots unlocked. that's awfully convenient

Agate comes with more hard truths. He says he's taking the case because Estelle and Josh are compromised. he's right. However he misses something. Nobody engages the main plot without being a playable character. That will just make the playable characters steal it from you

and now we got to help with a play. classic jrpg moment

Kloe has all slots open but 3 of them are water elemental. that makes her the default healer, no ifs or buts

I'm getting analysis paralysis because now that I have 3 chars with 6 slots each and starting to see mid level quartz, I can use almost every spell in the game. But that doesn't mean I can use them all at the same time

Also I found out quartz that add status to basic attacks all belong to the same "category" which means I'm not allowed to give one character Seal, Blind and Petrify at the same time. Curse devs for designing against the exploit I was intending to do.

I have figured out the quartz puzzle. at least until I find another shiny bauble and the whole thing needs to be overhauled again

Kloe: HP 2/Heal/Evade 2/Mind 2/Shield 1/Eagle Eye

The 3 water quartz are locked in, and give Kloe the entire water spell list. Well, not all of it, I need a wind quartz to unlock diamond dust, a nice freeze AoE. Since I have a wind quartz I may as well equip another to get Aerial, which is OP. Eagly Eye gives me the elements I need to unlock group healing spells. I could use Action, but the spell list practically writes itself.

Estelle: Ep Cut 2 - Seal/Evade 1/Impede 2 - HP 2/Action 1

This gives fire and wind AoE, as well single target options on 4 elements. If magic fails, Estelle can just spam her spear hurricanes and deal seal status. Action is mandatory. HP helps with survival and makes Estelle a backup healer, the two wind quartz make her even tankier, and Ep Cut rounds the set to make up for Estelle's low EP

Josh: Action 2 - Haze/Defense 2/Blind/Information - EP Cut 1

two party-wide effects, but they are great. Between haze and eagle eye, I get a free turn against everything. His job is to start with an earth wall buff then grab his swords and go hit things. there are also time and earth AoE/single target if necessary. There is also Chaos Brand, which confuses an enemy. That sounds OP.

now time to use this clearly overthought build to trivialize the game's Normal difficulty

Kloe's german craft that reduces enemy status is calling her Not a Hawk to strike them. Not complaining

we get a very funny sequence at the Zeiss border, where Estelle persuades the jerkass duke from before to not rent the entire military HQ for himself, by pointing her spear to his neck and yelling. When diplomacy fails, bring the Estelle.

I explore the regional elemental tower, which gives me exp, lots of treasure, and such an insane amount of sepith I don't know what to do with it.

I turn in 3 quests at the guild and it gives me another 4. all short term. main plot? what main plot?

one problem I have is kloe has no user for her CP outside bosses. bird-kun is good but single target. why not use aerial instead. and the s-craft is good if I'm dying. so far that hasn't been a scenario for me to worry about

btw just gave her range+1 in place of Eagle Eye, which makes her lose anti-sept (who cares) but makes aerial kill even more things

ZeldaTPLink posted...

I'm getting analysis paralysis because now that I have 3 chars with 6 slots each and starting to see mid level quartz, I can use almost every spell in the game. But that doesn't mean I can use them all at the same time

Ultimately, the spell you want to work towards is White Gehenna. That's pretty much the best attack spell in the game.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

Also I found out quartz that add status to basic attacks all belong to the same "category" which means I'm not allowed to give one character Seal, Blind and Petrify at the same time. Curse devs for designing against the exploit I was intending to do.

You actually can do this in later games if they're placed on different lines (giving an advantage to a character having multiple lines instead of just one) but I forget when the series makes that change.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

Kloe's german craft that reduces enemy status is calling her Not a Hawk to strike them. Not complaining

this is a busted craft.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

There is also Chaos Brand, which confuses an enemy. That sounds OP.

In FC I think it's a guaranteed hit too unless the enemy is immune. And a perhaps surprising amount of enemies are not.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

I'm getting analysis paralysis because now that I have 3 chars with 6 slots each and starting to see mid level quartz, I can use almost every spell in the game. But that doesn't mean I can use them all at the same time

welcome to why i love quartz so much. i think the decision trees are really interesting and it's cool how you decide upon roles and balance the builds. for some information, white gehenna is really good but the other high-level attacks aren't really worth it in FC, and late-game weaker spells scale better with casters


ZeldaTPLink posted...

Also I found out quartz that add status to basic attacks all belong to the same "category" which means I'm not allowed to give one character Seal, Blind and Petrify at the same time. Curse devs for designing against the exploit I was intending to do.

don't worry, in cold steel all of the exploits they left in aren't enough so they also let you do this too if they're on different lines

gotta get up earlier than that to beat me to trails info nfun

i would've gotten there first but I rewrote the spoiler to be more appropriate and considerate!

so I went shopping for quartz, and switch things a little. I give josh a massive combination of time quartz that unlocks every time spell in the game. That's not hyperbole. he gets white gehenna, anti-sept all and clock up ex, on top of already having chaos brand. also give him attack 2 for good measure. estelle, on the other hand, loses evade but gets defense so she can do the earth wall.

Is Josh squishy? Yes. But Kloe is sitting on 200 CP. Let the enemy find out I can heal myself as they devoured by a time singularity

I start a side quest involving recovering an item from a thief who leaves riddles. This game does love using every cliche in the book, doesn't it

white gehenna is good

though now I'm looking at estelle and she doesn't actually get earth wall. turns out making one character amazing at something loses you flexibility overall. I find a compromise where Josh drops anti-sept all but keeps the rest, while Estelle still has Aerial and Earth Wall

doing the phantom thief quest

me: "needs to check a barrel in a warehouse"

worker: "sorry the rule says I can't let unauthorized people inside the warehouse since it's supposed to be secure. Then again, it doesn't say I can't go there and bring the object you want to check as long as you check it outside. Yay for loopholes!"

yeah ok the mayor is the phantom thief. Calling it.

I level up my bracer rank and get the Strike quartz, which boosts crits. Josh is getting that instead of Attack 2. I don't get why the attack quartz are the only ones that lower stat, would they be OP otherwise?

the school's song is pretty solid

We meet the dean, Dumbledore

estelle and hjosh join the cast for the play and they are the protagonists, along with kloe. Ofc.

And the play has gender reversed roles, becasue Japanese game designers can't help themselves.

Though the characters themselves say it's to fight gender roles, which is surprisingly progressive for a JRPG

Josh is not happy. Where is Olivier when you need him. he would look fabulous in any role. And also think everyone is fabulous in every role.

Jill is a great character. estelle is sad she doesn't have any female friends and Jill is like "girl, you spend 24/7 with a boy. let me play the tiniest violin for you"

Josh and Estelle now have to go to school. Estelle isn't happy. now I'm wondering, why were they not going to school before? arent they 16? DId they drop out or something?

festival starts. there are things like food booths, and also students showing off some of their school projects. One of them is a computer than "analyses the orbal compatibility of characters", but it just spouts generic astrology-like stuff

I get it that Kloe is close to her Not a Falcon, but it understanding English fluently is insane. Like, even with a dog ou have to show them an object with thge smell of the person they are tracking. Kloe just says "where is Joshua?" to the bird and it gets it

this is a better play than the one from FF6. Though it could use some Ultros.

Silver Haired Dude, bearer of Plot, appears. However, it's too soon for Plot, so he leaves.

Dumbledore appears and announces the people in the festival donated enough money to rebuild the orphanage. Mostly the duke and Bose's mayor. I assume the mayor donated 99% of it, which also sneaking in a contract to own the orphanage herself.

and the oprhanage crew is attacked again. damn.

We arrive at the hotel where the kids are, and learned they got mugged by two guys in masks, strong enough to beat the bracer who was guarding them. They had their one million stolen.

Agate shows up and recruits us to help. I guess he the danger is big enough he doesn't want to do it alone. Or he realized the plot only happens wherever Estelle is so he won't find anything unless he stays with her

Kloe: "the bird told us the way!"
Agate: "What the hell, you believe this bullshit?"
Estelle and Josh: "Let's go!" - marches out
Agate: "This can't be serious... ahhhhh godamn protagonists!" - runs after them

Agate only starts with 3 unlocked slots. that's the least slots from any character since Estelle/Josh, and those were there at the start. And the game doesn't let me to go to Ruan to open more. Meh.

we break into the lighthouse, where the local gang from Ruan has been brainwashed (I guess it's the same as Don) to fight us

the mayor wasn't the bad guy. his secretary was. Close

actually no, the mayor is bad too. And his motive is that he is the orphanage was lowering the region's property value and he wants to make money selling luxury houses. the villain of the arc is a freaking NIMBY

told you at least one mayor was gonna be bad, it's a statistical inevitability. I mean, jrpg villain bad, not capitalist pig bad like Bose's mayor

(yes I'm aware she is mostly a good person but I'm dying with this meme)

boss fight. they are fast, have high attack and spam AT down but I still wipe the floor with them. clock up ex, s-craft spam, morale, la teara, and they fold like wet paper. the difficulty curve of this game is a downward spiral. The enemies just can't keep up. Though I suspect this won't last forever since I'm already touching the game's strongest spells at this point.

bad guys escape by threatening to kill a hostage. The leave by using one of the most 2D ropes I've ever seen in a 3D videogame. What is this, Paper Mario?

we do recover the money, though. seems like the trend of this game is that villains' damage always gets undone but bad guys always escape

citizens are all like "stone the bad guys! release them in the mountain so they'll get eaten!". harsh, but they burned a fucking orphanage, what can I say?

I love how cartoony Estelle's anger against the mayor is

Josh once again reminds us he is the most intelligent cast member by a mile by deducing the Duke is also involved

The protagonists lack proof. However, our friend the reporter arrives with the most effective way humanity has invented to catch criminals and the crooked alike: the financial accounting.

Duke: [Michael Jackson Popcorn Gif]

another boss is revealed and my hope for the game's difficulty is renewed. Two giant monster doge

Nope, still easy. The doge are just more defensive instead of offensive, but then I use earth wall and turn it into an attrition war. Now to be fair, although I'm winning everything, the game is making me think of tactics a lot, so the difficulty isn't completely trivial

I rreach lv 20 and Kloe learns a skill named Sturm, which I'm afraid I wont be able to test for a while because the chapter is probably about to end. Meh.

Cool scene. the mayor pulls out a mcguffin to paralyse the good guys. Then as he's about to kill estelle, Joshua threatens bloody murder on him. He decides to kill Joshua instead, but then Estelle's own mcguffin she got from Dad activates and stops the mayor's mcguffin

that's one COOL chase scene

the bad guy almost makes it, but the queen's royal army arrives with an airship and arrests him

this is Kloe's letter's doing, isn't it? Btw, I have been spoiled on the fact both Kloe and Olivier are princes of their respective countries. Before you throw rocks on me, the problem is that you can't google the character for info on crafts without that spoiler appearing at the top of the wiki page. Like: "List of crafts of Kloe, princess of Liberl". I wish I could use GameFAQs guides instead but this is a 21th century game so the FAQ selection is barren.

And... the mayor has also been brainwashed. Feel kinda lame this time. it was a fun antagonist to hate.

Richard arrives late, annoyed that the royal guard came first. Sorry for the loss bro, but to be fair, the group had a fucking princess, armed with a messenger Not a Falcon that connected her to the royal guard. That's too much even for Richard the Spotlight Stealer

We obtain the third gym badge. Chapter 2: The Attack of the NIMBYs beaten.

We move to a scene where Agate chases the bad guys, and they wonder how he can run so fast with such a huge sword.
Agate: "Fools! I have trained in the Cloud Strife School of Giant Sword Handling! I can use it like it's a butter knife!"

this scene has everything. Agate kicking ass, the bad guy's boss showing up, a really cool fight (this game does WONDERS with sprite fight animations. Seriously), an hologram reveal, a mysterious voice giving swordsmanship advice to Agate. Wtf is going with this game. It's deliciously cliche. I love it.

Chapter 3: The McGuffin begins

ZeldaTPLink posted...

Josh and Estelle now have to go to school. Estelle isn't happy. now I'm wondering, why were they not going to school before? arent they 16? DId they drop out or something?

In the Trails world, school is run by the church (so you'll see it called Sunday School) and it's a bit tough to nail down the age range I think but it seems to run something like 6-16 or so. I don't think Estelle and Joshua are dropouts at least so I assume you can graduate at 16.

Well, I guess I should say universal schooling is run by the church - obviously you have thinks like the Jenis Royal Academy but I think that's more "secondary education is run by other people and treated similarly to universities/colleges here"

I've spoiled myself on seemingly a million things in the Trails series so you are not alone.

I liked the ending to the Ruan chapter. Really just a great section in general. Ruan probably my favorite town and also Kloe is one of my favorite characters in a game that's filled with great characters.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

I wish I could use GameFAQs guides instead but this is a 21th century game so the FAQ selection is barren.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/0/2/AAcM16AAES1G.png
???

There are definitely a lot of spoiler free guides out there for every game in the Trails series, not sure why this is an issue for you!

NFUN posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/0/2/AAcM16AAES1G.png
???

I know you are like 10 year old so you don't remember but check the in depth section for every old game and it has like 10+ entries. A JRPG usually has over 20.

Like, wtf do I do with a Translation Guide.

The only useful one there is the quartz guide, but I really miss more detailed commentary on the crafts and the individual characters' stats. So you have to use the wikis. And they spoil you mercilessly.

And I don't need a walkthrough. The game is very good at telling me where to go. I just want to read about strategy and mechanics.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

I know you are like 10 year old so you don't remember but check the in depth section for every old game and it has like 10+ entries. A JRPG usually has over 20.

Like, wtf do I do with a Translation Guide.

The only useful one there is the quartz guide, but I really miss more detailed commentary on the crafts and the individual characters' stats. So you have to use the wikis. And they spoil you mercilessly.

And I don't need a walkthrough. The game is very good at telling me where to go. I just want to read about strategy and mechanics.

OK so these guides tell you about strategy and mechanics and having used the first guide I can specifically tell you it had answers to the exact questions you were looking for

NFUN you are right and I'm wrong. I hope that satisfies you, because I'm definitely not interested in turning this thread into yet another argument against you over something trivial.

you're the one who was insulting first? what's your fucking problem dude

NFUN posted...

you're the one who was insulting first? what's your fucking problem dude

I was under the impression you being super young was some running gag on B8, so it wasn't meant as an insult. But if you were offended, I apologize.

we get a heartfelt goodbye from Kloe, and a scene that hints at who she really is. Off to the tunnel that takes us to Zeiss. Once again, the party splits and we are down to just Gon and Killua

I made a point to but a second Action 2 before leaving though. If i'll only have two characters, they better have the best quartz money can buy

and more shipping. Estelle tries to play cool about Josh liking Kloe, then she finds out he doesn't actually like Kloe and it's the best day in her life

Orbmentz:

Estelle: Evade 2 - HP 2/Mind 2/EP Cut 1 - Action 2/Impede 2
Joshua: Action 2 - EP 2/Eagle Eye/Cast 2/Defense 2 - Strike

Estelle's set is arguably a better version of what I was using with Kloe. With Action instead of a 3rd blue quartz. She doesn't get the high end healing spells, but the party doesn't even have enough HP to need that. Attacking more is more useful and she has the same spells as Kloe.

Josh is White Gehenna and Chaos Brand. I chose to sacrifice AoE elemental variety so the party can have at least one attack of every element. But Defense 2 and Strike are both still very useful, and honestly, if you have White Gehenna, you don't need a lot more AoE. And if a good single target spell is needed, I still get Flare Arrow.

I cross Rock Tunnel. After two dozen or so battles, I arrive at the end, and meet another future party member, Little Girl, going to the opposite direction. Estelle and Josh decide to follow her all the way back instead of going out to the comfort of Zeiss. Danmit it.

fortunately theres an infinite rest thingy in the middle of the dungeon so this already has better QoL than the original Rock Tunnel from Pokemon

we meet the girl, who is trying to protect a lamp from a horde of monsters. She fires a cannon at her but misses, and the monsters all turn at her. What happens to all those helpless NPCs when we are not around, they die? Because I'm pretty sure this is at least the third time we have to bail some suicidal NPC from a monster horde

I want to just white gehenna those dorks but decide to take it slow, which pays off, because I find out Little Girl's basic attack is AoE

I repeat.

Her basic attack is AoE.

This is not a drill.

and it deals about the same damage as like, Estelle's basic attack. Granted, its area of effect is pitiful but an AoE basic attack is just incredible for any RPG's standards

Josh then explains for the 11th time the reason the monsters attacked the lamp was because of the sepith in it. Surely Estelle will learn that concept before the trilogy ends. I hope.

Tita, the girl, is the resident tech whiz. She knows the lamp was broken because her computer told her to. Estelle, who still lives in pre-information age, has no idea what shes talking about. To be fair this is a world where cell phones are considered miliary grade technology, so it's hard to know what the exact tech standards here are. It's close to the real world but not quite.

she starts with 4 slots, which is still more than Agate. LOL Agate

her orbment shape is a little worse than Estelle's but not much, and again, better than Agate's. Though those 2 space slots will be tricky to get around. Space doesn't have any dedicated spells and is only used to support other elements, which means I'll have to be creative.

ngl having a party member who is a little girl running with a massive gun is kinda of funny. I'm a fan of little characters who are more badass than they should reasonably be

She yells "Prepare to meet your doom!" when she uses her craft. Awesome.

we arrive at Zeiss. The entrance to the city is inside the factory. That sounds inconvenient for the factory itself

Wow, I love the factory song. Normally, factory music in games is some kind of quick techno. Here it's just a very laid back jazz

the song is for all of Zeiss, actually

the game lags a lot in the landing port, which kinda makes sense since they made a large 3d background for it

the protagonists are bewildered by the magic of the escalator

weapons shop: "we cater to the violently inclined!" hell yeah

Zeiss doesn't have a mayor, it has a factory chief instead. That already makes it a better place to raise your children than the other mayor infested regions

The bracer guild officer, Kilika, has deduction skills that might match Josh's. Might.

the factory's archives has a dumb, but fun story about some guys fighting a genie. It's not completel. I wanna see the end, lol.

one of the books I'm supposed to recover for the library as part of a sidequest is "kitty talk for dummies". Hmm.

"contains candid kitty conversations. Meow"

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/7/6/AAO9CbAAES68.jpg

So Tita's grandpa is the guy who led the Orbal Revolution, who in turn is the disciple to the guy who invented orbments. ofc

Tita's slots have been maxed out. I finally open slots for someone besides Estelle/Josh

ok Tita's orbment sucks. In theory, the shape is fine, but try to find an use for 2 space slots that isn't some mega AoE spell Tita probably can't get anyway (and doesn't need since she's the AoE queen). I think she can get white gehenna? But then she's only doing that, and overlapping with Josh at that. This will take work to figure out.