I rank the Trails series characters (from Sky until Reverie) (spoilers)

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

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

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

If Estelle and Renne aren't at least top 5 I riot.

Tag.

Rooting for George in last, though regrettably a (major...) character from Daybreak has unseated him in my current ranking.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Gnomes are just awful all around, yeah.

I liked Angelica in Cold Steel 1 and 2. There was a decent plotline with her and her dad. She's pretty bad outside of that though. Still probably enough to put her partway up my rankings at least.

fair bottom two

but the George Nome = G. Nome = Gnome twist is genuinely kinda funny/great?

"mister policemen i gave you all the clues you could have saved her"

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

Hes gnot a gnoblin
Hes gnot a gnelf
Hes a gnome, and Reans been gnomed!!

Yeah, Angelica when she's not in sexual harassment mode (CS1 Ymir which is confined to the Drama CD lol or CS2 vs her dad) is fine, even good. But then Falcom reduces her character to just sexual harassment mode and she becomes the worst.

kinda feel like it's a semi-recurring problem for falcom where they will give a character a "quirk" and then later on they decide that that "quirk" is the entire character and anything else about them just disappears. agate gets sorta hit by this too in cs3+ in the worst way

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

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

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

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

Panthera posted...

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

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

I remember doing this topic a year ago. Fun stuff! I might compare my rankings.

Perfect last choice character. A lot of people say that CSIV sucks because of it turns all of the CSIII deaths into fake outs. I typically disagree, but I would not have complained at all if Angelica had died and George had stayed evil.

Harold sucks, but I'd hardly say he's the worst father in this series. He's more just like an idiot than a nefarious force. I'm fine with ranking him at the bottom due to him being boring though.

Also obligatory Renne sucks

For some reason I thought Harold had reason to believe Renne was dead but I don't know if I made that up in my head to explain his actions. While I don't think the full truth about the DG Cult ever went public I think enough of it did that if Harold knew Renne got taken by them (and I'm pretty sure he did) and wasn't returned by the guild/government after the suppression operation that was a pretty grim sign.

I want to say he thought she died in a fire?

Oh! I think you're right, I vaguely remember something like that when the SSS hear the story.

Yeah the Hayworths thought Renne died because the person they left her with's house burned down and they found multiple severely burned bodies in it. There was no possible reason they should have "tried looking for her" or anything like that.

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

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

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

Yes after almost 10 years assuming your daughter is dead you should absolutely assume someone that has the same hair color as her might actually secretly be her and she just isn't telling you for some reason

That is completely and totally logical and not insane at all yep

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

The impression I got was that by CS4 the Hayworths (minus Colin, of course) had figured out that Renne was their daughter but didn't want to voice it because Renne had very obviously moved on to her new life/family with the Brights and didn't want to put everyone in an extremely awkward position because Renne seemed fine with the current distance she had with them where she was basically Colin's cool older friend/hero who did the "i was just passing through" anime shtick. But also because they didn't want to voice the idea and have Renne reject it and kind of slam the door shut on any kind of reconciliation.

but that very much is probably some headcanon on my part

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

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

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

Was that from near the beginning or the end of CS4? I meant by the endgame of CS4 but if that was from near the end then yeah i guess i just made it up lol

I think by Reverie they know

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

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

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

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

Angelica has always sucked. They just leaned into it more as Cold Steel went along.

I don't dislike George and Elliot, but I get ranking them low.

Not below BLACK ALBERICH the actual worst Gnome but still

Renne has one of the most successful glow ups in video game history. Don't really get hating her dad. That sidequest in Zero (or was it in Azure? Sometimes those games blend together for me) is probably the closest the series has gotten me to actual tears.

Elliot really didn't need to be a party member at all. He's pretty much only there so you can alternate between him and Emma as the main healer during field studies in the first game. They could've probably turned someone like Jusis into another healer instead as he's kinda just another sword user like Rean.

Leonhart4 posted...

Renne has one of the most successful glow ups in video game history. Don't really get hating her dad. That sidequest in Zero (or was it in Azure? Sometimes those games blend together for me) is probably the closest the series has gotten me to actual tears.

The scene hiding in the wardrobe was so hard hitting; it was such a good sidequest.

I'm interested in these rankings and look forward to more! Not sure how I would rank those that have already fallen, but I think that'd I want them higher is both a credit to how much their characters resonate and how... much I'd need to dial back and focus on who's in the list, because it's 212 out of 212 and not, like, 212 out of 3000.

I should also start a list of characters I want to ask about for late in the list or after (like where Ragnard, Patiry, Ryu, or even Bloom would be around).

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

Poor Elliot. Such a nice boy. Such a boring character.

....Real talk, if you asked me to list the Cold Steel party members before coming into the topic I think I would have forgotten Elliot.

_stingers_ posted...

Surprisingly the first non-main character to fall is four slots in.

Poor Harold

Man looking at the Cold Steel 1 graphics is always such a trip. Especially since harem king Rean from CS3 and 4 is supposed to be basically just two years older or something

Leonhart4 posted...

Poor Harold

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

_stingers_ posted...

I assume this is a bigger subculture of women in Japan, I don't think I've met any women like this in real life. Regardless, it gets old, quick.

I have a co-worker or two kind of like this, though less mxm and more fxf. RWBY, She-Ra, Hazbin Hotel, others. It's been less prominent since they become a supervisor and their work bestie got a new job two years ago, but it's an undercurrent of some conversations. Strictly fiction and fanfiction like Dorothee and not in the realm of Angelica/Ilya/Shirley.

Honestly, Dorothee grew on me with CS3 and after. She's a successful genre author, the museum job is nice place for her that feels like a normal unrelated job many of these characters don't have, and honestly her brand of perversion is kind of a nostalgic relief with how forced and constant Musse is, especially in CS3. I get her presence down this low, but she's not physical which is a step above a lot of other people's problematic character 'traits'.

Yeah I definitely 100% wouldn't know what the shipping culture for those specific shows are like so I don't get it. Totally.

......*cough*.

There's a lot of random Thors NPC's I'm putting in the very bad category I feel like. Lots of them are good, but the ones that aren't are noticeably so.

Elliot isn't great but he's just kind of there and inoffensive imo. Feels like there has to be at least like 20-30 actively bad characters that I'd put below him.

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

_stingers_ posted...

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

this is how I feel about Gaius

MacArrowny posted...

this is how I feel about Gaius

If gameplay is factored in, Gaius gets a big bump for doing something no one else can.

I'm going to follow this list somewhat lightly as I've only made it up to CS2. Some spoilers I definitely know about, but I'd probably better tread carefully anyhow.

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

NBIceman posted...

I'm going to follow this list somewhat lightly as I've only made it up to CS2. Some spoilers I definitely know about, but I'd probably better tread carefully anyhow.

also, I'm saying this for your own good, you probably shouldn't follow this topic, for real

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

colliding posted...

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

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

Yeah, I'll take the "who" character over someone who actively annoys me.

Okay, so given what was just said this is bad timing so I will, in this instance, use spoiler tags but yeah I'd probably bail on the topic too.

Late, but wrt Elliot (who is definitely worst/most irrelevant Class VII)

CS4: No mention about how out of fucking nowhere he somehow purifies the curse on that friend of his with the power of music? That was just so ridiculous and absurd I almost had to laugh. Forget all the Rivalries and death and shit, Class VII just should have livestreamed another concert to save Erebonia.

By "follow lightly," I mostly meant that I'd limit myself to looking at the number ranks without reading hardly any of the writeups, but fair enough - I will bow out given all those recommendations. Don't want people to feel the need to tiptoe around anyone.

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

I appreciate him as an expositing example and foil for the independence of the Bracers and what they do versus the military early in the game, as well as opening up layers to Cassius' character that Estelle didn't really understand beforehand (since all the praise her dad got wasn't from total strangers), but yeah, there's nothing about his character that warrants high praise. He's got a wife and granddaughter in Grancel, but rarely (if ever?) visits.

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