Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter |OT| The Journey of 1,000 Hours Begins with a Single Game
GateofD
Member
finished chapter one of chapter one....(kind of confusing when the title is named this way)
wiped two times on hard like instantly where all 3 did their special atks on the group in a row. but my experience in Azure/Zero helped me in positioning.
i use my defense and hp drops, but in serious atk stat drop decision hesitation.
wiped two times on hard like instantly where all 3 did their special atks on the group in a row. but my experience in Azure/Zero helped me in positioning.
i use my defense and hp drops, but in serious atk stat drop decision hesitation.
touchfuzzy
Member
Wrapped Chapter 3 last night and headed to the capital to start the final chapter. Kind of at that point where playing on normal I'm just obliterating everything. But it was like that on Daybreak too before the final boss humbled me, we'll see. Looking forward to seeing how things come together here.
Skifi28
Member
I barely beat it on normal. Chapter 2 was a cake walk in comparison, just the usual Trails random difficulty spikes.
Last edited:
Jinzo Prime
Member
I had a lot of trouble with the start of Chapter 2. The roadblock monster fights and the warehouse boss caused several game overs. Last few bosses where very easy, however. Super uneven.
mayham2199
Member
Yea I didn't think I could do it on nightmare but was able to get it done after getting some tips online. You can use spells and Joshua's ult to cancel their rage mode but overall just focusing on one character at a time and spreading out your party is all you need to do. Chaos Brand will also help because it gives you a high chance of having the characters attack their own team. Once you take one of them out it's much easier from that point on.
I'm on Chapter 3 now. Didn't enjoy Chapter 2 that much but overall game is really good.
Other than Cold Steel I don't feel the rest of the arcs are that bad honestly. The Daybreak arc has been fine and hasn't gotten to crazy. They've done well using characters from past games as well.
Danjin44
The nicest person on this forum
I actually liked chapter 2, especially Scherazard was such a fun character in that chapter with getting all pissed off at Royal guard commander Edit: that was Chapter 1.....I just reached Ch 2
But that boss fight damn brutal, I managed beat it but god damn! With that being said I'm absolutely in love with its combat system and the great S-craft animation during the combat.
Last edited:
mayham2199
Member
Haha yea Chapter 1 is great and I liked it a lot. Chapter 2 is a low point but it ends great and 3 starts off interesting right away.I actually liked chapter 2, especially Scherazard was such a fun character in that chapter with getting all pissed off at Royal guard commander Edit: that was Chapter 1.....I just reached Ch 2
But that boss fight damn brutal, I managed beat it but god damn! With that being said I'm absolutely in love with its combat system and the great S-craft animation during the combat.
The battle system in these games is great. I didn't really learn to appreciate them until I decided to get the plat on at least one of the games because I enjoy the series so much. I didn't realize I would end up finding a whole new dept to the battle system and falling in love with it the way I did. I used to just play these games on normal and if I get stuck on a boss I would do the "make it easier" option it gives you.
mèx
Member
Well, I wrapped it up in 80 hours on Hard.
That ending still hits after all these years. This is one of my favourites in the entire series. If there is one thing Falcom gets right it's the endings, they are all great for different reasons.
A fantastic game overall, I still prefer some parts of the original but this has been great all around. Replaying this has made me appreciate how good the world building is in FC, this is truly a special series.
And now the wait for Trails Beyond the Horizon begins. I wonder if they will release 2nd Chapter next year too, that would be huge.
Out of curiosity I tracked how much time each chapter takes, if you do all side quests and talk to all NPCs at each refresh:
Prologue 13 hours
Chapter 1 14 hours
Chapter 2 15 hours
Chapter 3 15 hours
Final Chapter 23 hours
The Final Chapter is by far the chunkiest. Those dialogue refreshes in Grancel can be brutal, lol.
That ending still hits after all these years. This is one of my favourites in the entire series. If there is one thing Falcom gets right it's the endings, they are all great for different reasons.
A fantastic game overall, I still prefer some parts of the original but this has been great all around. Replaying this has made me appreciate how good the world building is in FC, this is truly a special series.
And now the wait for Trails Beyond the Horizon begins. I wonder if they will release 2nd Chapter next year too, that would be huge.
Out of curiosity I tracked how much time each chapter takes, if you do all side quests and talk to all NPCs at each refresh:
Prologue 13 hours
Chapter 1 14 hours
Chapter 2 15 hours
Chapter 3 15 hours
Final Chapter 23 hours
The Final Chapter is by far the chunkiest. Those dialogue refreshes in Grancel can be brutal, lol.
Last edited:
mayham2199
Member
Skifi28
Member
I'm 30 hours in now and I'm still enjoying every single second. Can't remember the last time I had so much fun with a game in its entirety. This is hands down the best modern Trails game (meaning from Cold Steel onwards) and probably my GOTY. It's so fun and wholesome and mostly low-stakes, almost like an Atelier game in a way. It's also very refreshing not having 30 characters following you everywhere, each having to speak their single line in every cutscene for the sake of being included, constantly being shuffled in and out of your party making it a pain in the ass to build a balanced party and keeping all equipment updated. I'll be so sad when it ends with the only consolation being Daybreak 3's imminent release.
Last edited:
Hector Hall
Member
That's nonsense, the series is pretty much the same in all its entries, not in vain it has been made by the exact same people.
You may prefer one arc to other, or a character set to another one, or the setting, but series is extremely consistent and homogeneous along all its entries.
mayham2199
Member
Agreed. Honestly the only thing I've noticed is there isn't as much dialogue compared to the other games. Sometimes when I'm starting a side quest or main quest I'm kind of shocked at how quickly the conversation ends. I'm usually expecting them to talk a lot more and over explain something that doesn't need so be explained anymore.
RoboFu
One of the green rats
I found the last 2 games to be pretty bland and lacking polish with too many stories running just to get as many characters on screen as they could to sale more creep pillows to lonely guys.
Absolutely love this one though and most of the older games in the series.
Last edited:
MagiusNecros
Gilgamesh Fan Annoyance
Should of played this series a while ago. It's great. To me it has a lot of similarities to Golden Sun. Pretty long Prologue to set up World building is nice too.
Danjin44
The nicest person on this forum
Yeah, this my first Trials game I fucking LOVE this game soooo much from the combat to the story and charming characters and the world feels so alive, I love talking to NPCs in this game.
Last edited:
Hector Hall
Member
I found the last 2 games to be pretty bland and lacking polish with too many stories running just to get as many characters on screen as they could to sale more creep pillows to lonely guys.
Absolutely love this one though and most of the older games in the series.
Well, you can apply your Gif to yourself as soon as you start your sentence with "I...".
Daybreak 1 is considered one of the best of the series,, by most reviews and longtime fans of the series.
Daybreak 2 is a divisive game, considering it's transition /bridge nature, and so it shows in its metacritic score and with most people putting it in the lower end of the series.
And Beyond the Horizon /Kai no Kiseki has been very well received and the sans if the saga I know who already played it (CGInferno, King Recon, Yupz) say it's probably on the Top 3 of the franchise.
Thing with the franchise is that it's very difficult to order the games in order by quality, and mostly is a personal taste issue. And that's why I said it's quality is very consistent throughout.
cireza
Member
So, Trails in the Sky: First Chapter… Is it just me, or this is kinda boring?
Every time I start the game, I find myself wishing I were actually playing Skies of Arcadia. It's been like 15 hours of running around doing lame fetch quests. Where's the magic that fans of the series keep overselling?
I've seen two towns, one or two small villages. Some countryside roads, a totally generic mine, a totally generic tower, and the same tower again but yellow. And through all of that, a ton of boring quests. The only bit of story I've gotten over those 15 hours is that your father disappears along with the airship, and suspicion falls on some air pirates. Which, to be fair, makes sense, it'd be weird if it turned out to be the local baker who hijacked the airship.
Anyway, 15 hours to see some generic regions, three generic dungeons, and a plot you can sum up in two lines, that's not a lot of jam for a slice of bread that big.
I wouldn't even mind that much if the regions and locations weren't the absolute bottom tier of JRPG design. But honestly, it's impossible to make things more bland than this.
The battles aren't unpleasant, but once you've beaten the same enemy ten times, you just want to move on. And given the size of the areas and how they're populated, it's clear the game wants you to fight those battles not ten times, but fifty.
It feels like this should be at least 2 times quicker. The pacing is needlessly slow.
Every time I start the game, I find myself wishing I were actually playing Skies of Arcadia. It's been like 15 hours of running around doing lame fetch quests. Where's the magic that fans of the series keep overselling?
I've seen two towns, one or two small villages. Some countryside roads, a totally generic mine, a totally generic tower, and the same tower again but yellow. And through all of that, a ton of boring quests. The only bit of story I've gotten over those 15 hours is that your father disappears along with the airship, and suspicion falls on some air pirates. Which, to be fair, makes sense, it'd be weird if it turned out to be the local baker who hijacked the airship.
Anyway, 15 hours to see some generic regions, three generic dungeons, and a plot you can sum up in two lines, that's not a lot of jam for a slice of bread that big.
I wouldn't even mind that much if the regions and locations weren't the absolute bottom tier of JRPG design. But honestly, it's impossible to make things more bland than this.
The battles aren't unpleasant, but once you've beaten the same enemy ten times, you just want to move on. And given the size of the areas and how they're populated, it's clear the game wants you to fight those battles not ten times, but fifty.
It feels like this should be at least 2 times quicker. The pacing is needlessly slow.
touchfuzzy
Member
Creeping through the final chapter now, you know there couldn't be a JRPG existing without a "characters find a reason to join the arena tournament that just happens to be going on exactly when they arrive" plotline.
Last edited:
MISTER INVEIGLER
Member
Now I want to start SC. I can be patient and wait or experience the original.
WaterOnix
Member
Not just you. I think the things I like least are the copy-paste towers and the lack of variety in setting. I couldn't tell you the difference between Rolent, Bose, Ruan, and Zeiss. One town has canals. Another has escalators and a factory. Nothing left an impression on me and the areas blur together. I can tolerate the slow story but the lack of variety is a real killer. Some JRPGs can be described as world-trotting adventures. This game is definitely more in the vain of a backyard adventure, at least up through Act 3 where I'm at. I don't mind having given it a shot but it's just not my cup of tea. I do like the combat and characters at the least
Danjin44
The nicest person on this forum
I would say it's you, because I'm personally having so much fun in this game.
Hector Hall
Member
Well, Liberl is a more rural like country compared to other regions of later games.
They could have profit of the remake to make it a bit bigger, but they have respected the maps of the cities of the original, a 21 years old game of PSP.
Zeiss and Ryan are easily recognizable.
The world will be keeping bigger and bigger, Hope you are still around playing to see it.
MagiusNecros
Gilgamesh Fan Annoyance
It's part 1 of 3 of the Liberl Arc. Similar to the Golden Sun Duology(Broken Seal and Lost Age). It's a slow starter. Kind of like how Atelier games are slow starters. It's about the journey and not the destination.
What's great about the game is it's loyalty to being a great remake of the original game.
Gameplay is fun for me especially mixing the real time combat with the turn based combat.
mayham2199
Member
You sound exactly like me when I first played the 2D version on Steam. I didn't understand why people were so obsessed with this series and looking back I'm honestly not sure how I even finished it. I was just rushing through the game trying to find that story\spark that everyone else was seeing and I never really found it.
It wasn't until the end of this game and when I played SC that I understood what this series was doing. The first game in all the arcs in this series is heavily focused on just world building. The later arcs do a better job of throwing in some exciting\interesting stuff sooner but overall it's very similar to this game.
As far as the battles not sure where you got the idea they want you to do fifty battles. Once you reach a certain level the xp drop off is massive and there is no point in fighting anymore. I'm playing on nightmare for my first run and while I did have to grind in chapters 1 and 2, 3 has been very straight forward and right now I'm fighting just to fill the enemy list and that's it.
Here's the only advice I can give you really. Rush through the game on the easiest mode and just run past all the monsters also if you want. Just get the main story stuff done and ignore the rest of the side quest. At the end see if you have any desire to see what happens next and go from there. The second game I can guarantee you is nonstop story that is very good. When I finished this game years ago I had very little desire to play #2 but when I did and I finished it that's when I was like ok I get it now.