Lurker > ZeldaTPLink

I don't know Thailand enough to understand why it's similar.

Chrono Trigger is a perfect videogame.

It's not the best at anything it does, or superior to modern games, but it is absolutely flawless at what it tries to do, like no other game is.

FF6, on the other hand, has some noticeable flaws, but it's still very fun and engaging most of the time, sometimes even more than CT.

I wouldn't call it a standard for anything, but it's a solid and fun game overall.

Damn NFUN don't interrupt my triple post

(good meme tho)

this is better drama than your favorite Netflix show

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/9/8/AAO9CbAAEyfm.jpg

YEEEEEEAH down with cops!

Lloyd goes and tells her why she is necessary and not a failure. Kiss alreaaaaaady

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/9/9/AAO9CbAAEyfn.jpg

LMAO

Elie then relentlessly teases him. She has more self-awareness with this than Estelle and Josh combined

yep, shes hooked

all that shipping gives Lloyd and Elie a new team craft. Worth it.

Meanwhile... bad guys talk

next, we get Lloyd and Elie making plans while Tio and Randy look at them suspiciously and smell the shipping that just happened

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/0/0/AAO9CbAAEyfo.jpg

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/0/1/AAO9CbAAEyfp.jpg

lol
this has escalated quickly

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/0/2/AAO9CbAAEyfq.jpg

You heard the lady. Balloons like this can lead to Ultraviolence if ignored

Lloyd then makes the classic "there is no way I would ever date her" blunder

this scene. It is pure gold.

Yin himself is hiring us. Told you so. The plot always finds a way to return to the heroes

I'm guessing it's the hacker kid from the intermission who helped send this message

Elie: "My friend's dad works at the bank, we could ask for his help"
Party: "what does he do?"
Elie: "He's the CEO"
Party: [suprised Pikachu face]

yeah ok this is it. This game is quality. Trails has done it again.

We go to the theater, where a sprite is practicing olympic jumping

Because I'm pretty sure thats not human dancing

Lloyd gets hugged by Ilya for being Cecile's little brother. To the horror of Randy

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/9/0/AAO9CbAAEyfe.jpg

The case barely started and we already arrived at Revache

However we know from the between chapter scene Yin is not from Revache. Hes from Heiyue

So I guess Revache is the red herring this time. At least for the characters, since the player is more informed.

Ilya slapped Marconi in the face because he touched her

Only Ilya has the right to touch people. Anytime. Whether they want to be touched or not.

The fact the narration kind of acknowledges Lloyd's arbitrary chivarly is toxic and the characters are actively policing it is a nice touch

Like, he starts talking about leaving the girls behind again and Tio stops him mid sentence.

Lloyd himself seems to be starting to get aware it's a bad thing

Elie's interest in the mafia is... interesting. I smell some backstory.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/9/1/AAO9CbAAEyff.jpg

mean

we visit Bellguard gate, where we get some interesting lore about Crossbell military

the lore being that Crossbell Military doesn't actually exist. Because of law, likely related to the country's independence accords with its two giant neighbors

what exists is the CGF. Which is not military. On paper. But in practice, they are heavily trained and have tanks and stuff. But the country avoids being too on the face about it, to not make its foreign neighbors worried

which is pretty unfair, because there is no way a little country like Crossbell is going to try to annex land from Erebonia or Calvard. But the later would always use that as an excuse to invade Crossbell themselves, so they have to pretend

we go interrogate the mafia. The idea of interrogating the mafia seems suicidal, but the mafia sub-boss actually wants to talk. Hmmm

the talk doesn't progress much of anything, but Lloyd gains a few points in my book for being the calm and pragmatic dude.

The cast realizes Yin is not with the mafia, but is related to them. I love intelligent party members, makes the plot flow so smoothly

We go visit Mr. Lawyer for information on the mafia. Always helpful, this lawyer

Too helpful. I don't feel like he is the evil type, though. So calling it now: he's gonna die.

next, we go interrogate the Chinese mafia. These kids are bold

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/9/2/AAO9CbAAEyfg.jpg

yeah this is the kind of guy who is usually 5 steps ahead of you

he casually reveals he already knows who we are

yeah Lloyd has gone a long way from "we don't talk to civilians, we are cops!" to "we both know you are the culprit but let's pretend we dont so we can talk". I don't recall there being much character development to arrive here, but his current characterization is better than what we got in the prologue

Cao Lee all but reveals he is the one who hired Yin, except he doesn't. This is some 5D chess match those characters are playing rn

ok so which organization is being controlled by Orobouros? Revache, Heilyn, or both? Find out... some chapter

Elie suggests we call HQ since Yin is OP. The thing we should have done last chapter but did not

Oh hey it's Massive Asshole with the Glasses! (aka Dudley)

Dudley is right that this setting's politics is much more complex than the PCs are aware of. However he is still a massive jackass. He demeans their skills then casually snatches the case from them

If this was real life, this would be it, but it isn't. Dudley is making a massive mistake, one Agate made many times back in FC. Believing he can make the plot advance away from the main characters. It won't. The plot will find Lloyd and co., whether side characters like Dudley want it or not

Elie gets emotional for a moment and I just want to know whats the story here

Come on, SSS, start showing your skeletons in the closet already so I can get all those sweet character bonding scenes

We run into Elie's grandfather out of nowhere, who seems to be a nice guy

lol at Lloyd realizing he is the friggin mayor while Randy and Tio are clueless, and the former just having a permanent (...) balloon over his head

cat is out of the bag. this is a funny scene

sprite coreograph looks pretty good

we lose the case but we gain free tickets! Honestly guys, as members of the proletariat, you should just call this a win and walk out

This secretary Ernest is bad news

this seems to be the Elie Chapter, tbh

I love chef Sergei

"Well you guys got the case taken away from you? Just work incognito then"

No "your badge and your gun plz" bullshit. He's all in with letting the protagonists work behind the law

Lloyd resolves to go to some classic shonen protagonist pep talk with Elie

I swear this roof was designed just for emotional character scenes

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/9/3/AAO9CbAAEyfh.jpg

Just kiss already

I finally unlock all the slots, and now I can upgrade slots. So let's go for another 28 orbment-related costs to pay! Woohoo!

I spend some time upgrading quartz, and my spell list is starting to look good. I was complaining about quartz scarcity earlier but this is starting to come along now

I talk to Arios at the guild. I really like the guy. Lloyd is feeling bad about his skills and he's like "don't compare yourself to me, just keep working hard and you'll get there eventually". He doesn't see the SSS as incompetent. Just novices.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/8/3/AAO9CbAAEyfX.jpg

The duo that keeps arguing about business at the restaurant is funny, but this exchange is really something

I read the paper and it says Estelle and Josh have already solved fifty cases

I'm not sure if Trails 1 had fifty sidequests, and the two did that offscreen between chapter 1 and 2 of this game. This is OP.

The paper also mentions us saving the city from the mafia once again, but names us "a division of the police"

Honestly, fuck Grace. This is just mean for no reason. If there was a character ranking of Zero rn she would be competing for last place.

She didnt even appear last chapter, which is different from what Nial would usually do too. This game is making no attempt to have the protagonists be in good terms with the reporters.

The paper does mention Zeit though, which makes sense. Everyone loves Zeit

oh ok apparently the one who wrote about us wasn't even Grace, it was some rando. Grace was in some other country at the time. Ok, I forgive her for now.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/8/4/AAO9CbAAEyfY.jpg

I'm tasked with hunting some monsters and uh... what is this? aardvarks that walk on the front legs?

Honestly the best strat rn is to give everyone Evade 2, use Randy's smoke bomb in the first turn and then just watch as the party counter attacks everything. Apply Aerial and aoe crafts to end it faster.

this quest did not need to have 40 of these things to fight. just saying.

Zeit is OP. He either howls and reduces the defense and delays the turns of every enemy, or he just goes and murders everything himself

ah, the classic trails quest where we have to beat up some soldiers to teach them to fight. never gets old

apparently Randy is a fighting master. Dude is probably doing a Kevin and hiding his true strength

We beat them up, but now we gotta fight Noel. Oh this is fun

not too hard, tbh

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/8/5/AAO9CbAAEyfZ.jpg
...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/8/6/AAO9CbAAEyfa.jpg

We realized things had gone too far when the chests started to argue with each other

We go back to the guild, where Purple Hair wants to see us

Rixia's voice is too low imo. Not sure if that was done on purpose or if its bad dub

Next quest is to find out whos sending threat letters to hot dancers

I just realized the name of this chapter (Golden Sun Silver Moon) is the name of the play that happens in chapter 2. Just like in FC (Madrigal of the White Magnolia)

_stingers_ posted...

He's not a cop he's a bracer by a different name

I mean personality-wise

He gives me the same vibe of the detective characters from Danganronpa. Which were pretty good.

Now all that he needs to do is to stop being such a cop.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/9/3/AAO9CbAAEyUl.jpg

We move to the mafia HQ, where Giant Chin in a Suit is giving the mafia goons a hard time

"we would have gotten away if it weren't for those kids and their wolf!"

Omg the SSS is Mystery Inc!

I'm guessing Lloyd is Velma since he is the one who does the thinking. Tio is Shaggy since she's friends with the dog. Elie is Daphne and Randy is Fred. It checks out.

Don Marconi, the mafia boss, also has a funny voice

next plot is about an auction

Meanwhile, Purple Hair is practicing her dancing

Rixia is such a jrpg name. I think thats a character in some final fantasy?

We get a not very heterosexual scene between the two dancers, where Ilya teases Rixia about her two Trails In The Sky

Ilya and Cecile are besties. Aaaaand we are gonna have to rescue Cecile next chapter, i'm guessing

next is some cocky hacker kid, who is collecting info about random things

We are totally gonna make this hacker boy work for us later, aren't we? It's a classic plot

Chapter 2: "Will Ultros Attack the Show?": begins

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/9/4/AAO9CbAAEyUm.jpg

Randy has figured out how Estelle and Joshua work

We get a flashback of Zeit being a good boy

We have a cool mascot that is loved by the people now. Your move, Estelle and Joshua

So he is a character we can summon in battle. Alright.

We ignore the monster who kicked our ass and proceed, to face a quest boss, who does not, in fact, kick our ass

Lloyd lacks a really hard hitting move but his 100% seal scfraft is really useful if the enemy is not immune to it

and although having to use scopes/scrafts to learn enemy elemental resistances sucks, it also gives me their status immunities, which in previous games I'd have to look online (which I neved did). And that means I know who will be weak to Lloyd's seal and decide accordingly

we arrive at a mansion inhabited by an elusive doll maker

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/8/7/AAO9CbAAEyUf.jpg

A wild Renne appears!

and for a group of characters who don't know her. Oh, this will be fun.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/8/8/AAO9CbAAEyUg.jpg

it begins

I love her dub. It's dripping with malice

They haven't noticed it, but they didn't tell her they are named SSS, but she knows anyway

Lloyd noticed

That makes him smarter than the entire SC cast, give or take

kind of weird for them to be commenting on how much of a kid Renne is when Tio is like 1 year older

She does look much more childish than Tio, though

the waterfall behind the bridge is pretty beautiful, ngl

Randy has unlocked this game's equivallent of Tita's smoke bomb.

In other words, we have tear gas now. So now all we need are rubber bullets to complete the Protester Supression Kit

And now for another insanely hard chest. this time it's a crew of spiders who spam deathblow. This one at least seems beatable, but I don't have any deathblow immunity items. I suppose I have to come back with full CP to cheese this

we finally meet Wolf-kun

Tio can also talk to wolves

Even the wolf thinks these SSS kids are losers

I just backtracked all the way to Crossbell to deliver the last fish fillet to complete a side quest before it expires, because the only way to obtain that is from a rare fish enemy near the hospital (which is now a blocked area for arbitrary story reasons) and another rare fish enemy in the LAST screen of the current area. Fml

At least I beat the chest with the deathblow spiders on the way back. While farming for fish fillets, I also let my CP bars grow. So the spiders could not resist the wave of Seal/Blind and general AoE cruelty coming at them.

We arrive at the mining town. Music is pretty relaxing

We come to help the citizens investigate, but the mafia arrived first. Those fucking guys again

Criminals. Just in time to test the efficacy of our new tear gas on humans.

Monsters are attacking every town and the mafia shows up to offer protection. Classic.

Lloyd makes a bold promise to solve everything. The guy is confident, I give him that

The cast meets in a room at the inn, to review the case. [Danganronpa song plays]

I demand an Ace Attorney/Trails crossover

I mean it would be the Law and Order of games

I love how each chapter is one long investigation that always arrives at "the big crime syndicate in the city dunnit"

Just start from the mafia next time

The mafia managed to prevent the CGF from acting since they own the CGF's commander, but they don't own the SSS.

Yet.

I predict sooner or later someone is going to start cracking down on the main characters, if they continue to fight mafia activity in Crossbell

We have to fight the wolves next, but theres an optional mine dungeon we can grind in first

Time for the battle. It starts with our new friend, Tear Gas-kun, being used against the wolves
(it's actually a flashbang, but let's pretend)

These wolves have the fakest bark ever

Doggos defeated, now to deal with the mafias

doggos actually healed. We gotta beat them again, plus the maf

The bad guys release 10 more doggos. Randy is worried that he might have to bust "it" out

I love secret weapons that only get revealed way later in the story

So who is gonna save us now? Estelle and Josh? Renne? The CGF? Arios?

Wolf-kun!

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/8/9/AAO9CbAAEyUh.jpg

never change Renne

Well, I guess I was right about both Arios and Renne, sort of

Arios: "If only there was a third party to create an opportunity for them"

You mean the PCs, yes?

We hand the bad guys over to the authorities and learn they'll probably get released because of corruption. Nice

Wolf-kun is named Zeit, and he's out pet now. I think.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/9/1/AAO9CbAAEyUj.jpg

Tio is all in. Anelace would understand.

Chapter 1: "We are cops, danmit. We want to eat donuts, not to hike!" beaten

Time to do a quest about killing monsters in a house

"Evict-scerate" is my new favorite pun

cleaning the mansion is fairly straightfoward. I just spent some time in the quartz shop and my party is rather op now. I have Aerial, finally

Wald shows up and now the party has to split in two to rescue his ass. The girls stays behind. This game is showing that weird sexism FC had too sometimes

We fight a boss thats rather tricky but beatable. The problem is keeping Wald alive, though at least the idiot adds a lot of damage to the party. I would have preferred to have the girls, though

Apparently the reason the house was empty was the owner waiting for property value to rise. The real villain was gentrification, after all

Filling empty houses with monsters might be a good way to punish NIMBYs, I guess

I go to the fisherman guild and they are celebrating they recruited Estelle.

Foolish children, they have no idea of the forces they have just set in motion.

next is a quest to inspect a train, and Lloyd is with the gender blocking again

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/7/0/AAO9CbAAEyMa.jpg

you tell him, Elie

is it just me or casino games keep getting worse every installment of this franchise? Dealer dialogue also gets dumber each time

like, why did they remove the Double option from blackjack? Also why can't I choose how much I want to bet? Are they afraid players will not understand those games or something?

Blackjack is basically roulette now. Poker is still playable because at least I can choose which cards to trade, but it's unfun because they thought it was a good idea to force the player to manually choose the 5 cards to play every round, something that was automatic in SC.

We go to the next objective, and this time the excuse not to take a bus isn't bracer rivarly like I had predicted, but rather, Tio hears a howl

I visit the cathedral, which has almost nothing interesting, except for a nun that was Lloyd and Elie's teacher at scool, and teases them with some random embarassing facts

this church needs more Kevin

so I open a chest with monsters inside and uh...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/7/1/AAO9CbAAEyMb.jpg

Are these even beatable?

Like one of them has enough defense to take 1 hp from all my attacks, they have 14k hp all their attacks knock my PCs in one hit, when they dont knock multiple of

I look online and its lv 36. I dont think Ive ever faced anything 20 levels higher than me in this series

Elie is fine. If she keeps going like this she could become a Kloe, or better.

Not that sold on Tio yet. She is likable but she is not particulary funny or cool.

Right now it's Randy >>>>>> Tio = Elie > Lloyd

This party is definitely more than the sum of the individuals though.

I do a little quest about finding the home for a lost cat. The highlight is that during the search, we have to go to Elie's house, and she manages to hide inside a fence so the party doesn't learn she's like a billionaire

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/5/5/AAO9CbAAExrX.jpg

In case you haven't noticed, Randy is my favorite member of this cast

will he be able to surpass Olivier as the resident pervert clown? We'll see
...
Ok Cecile is awesome

in less than 1 minute, she already shipped Lloyd with Elie, Tio AND Randy

one of the doctors in the hospital is implied to enjoy sneaking out to go fishing. Seems like the Fishing Guild owns the hospital too

we get a funny scene where Randy almost succesfully gets some nurses to go to a party with him but gets cockblocked by their boss

Cecile is taking care of a mysterious little girl who is hospitalized
...
It's Renne isn't it

we also get some hints at Tio's past

this entire game is people taking turns at being nice to Tio

Not Renne. It would be a weird elaborate disguise, I guess

Arios's daughter. Interesting. I didn't take Arios to be the kind of guy who has a child, he just gives so many Loewe vibes. But I guess some guys just stay edgy looking forever

in just one gameplay sit, I watched Lloyd, Elie and Tio avoiding to reveal personal info to each other. You're not helping, guys

We move to the next day, where we learn the CGF is no longer patrolling the area that was attacked by wolves, so the PCs are on their own

coincidently, the guy who ordered the patrols to stuff is friends with a pro-Erebonia politician, and the region no longer being patrolled is close to the Erebonian borders. Not sure if this will come up.

Called it, Noel and Fran are sisters

I was wondering what the game's excuse to make us walk would be the third time around, and is the chief suggesting the reason bracers are so much more skilled than cops is that they like to walk instead of taking busses. Cue Lloyd and co deciding to walk too, I'm betting.

I do miss characters joining and rejoining multiple times per chapter and dropping 5 pieces of quartz every time they do. But maybe we'll have that later.

One thing I did notice is that buying 3 attacks and trading for a seal is cheaper than buying 1 seal, so I guess I'll abuse that.

I actually think Jingo's shop is a great idea if it wasn't for quartz being so weirdly scarce in this game, at least so far. So I don't have a million lv 1 quartz hanging in my inventory.

apparently, Tio can understand cat language

it was already estabilished in FC that cats have a language. theres an in game book that translates it. But Tio is fluent in it

I just learned it because theres a cat who lives in the police building and Tio understands it. It also gives you quartz if you give him fish. But apparently only once per chapter, according to the internet

I of course look online to learn what species of fish makes the cat give me Action quartz

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/3/1/AAO9CbAAExbX.jpg

Uh this is not a conversation you wanna have in front of cops

We learn Randy has a nurse fetish. Too much information.

the bus to the next area is also late. Forget it kids, you are not taking busses in a jrpg. Period

this time we didn't just lose the bus though, sounds like this one is being attacked by monsters

I like how chest jokes in this game are related to the items or the locations of the chests. they put extra care in here

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/3/2/AAO9CbAAExbY.jpg

imagine being in a bus and having these attack you

I use chrono down and spam Randy's at delay and they basically never attack again while I get infinite turns

if Randy's CP runs out, Elie has a skill that gives him more CP

Then we are attacked by 3 more. the characters think we can't handle them, even though I've just demonstrated the power of infinite turns

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/3/3/AAO9CbAAExbZ.jpg

But then... Estelle/Josh to the rescue!

I'm here thinking the two are going to join our party temporarily, but nope, they simply melt the bosses with a single combo-scraft

yes, they have combo s-crafts now. That's a mechanic that doesn't even exist in Trails afaik, but Estelle/Josh can use it

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/3/4/AAO9CbAAExba.jpg

In a sea of arrogant jerk supporting characters, a Bestelle is here to balance things out. Please never leave

Talking to them, we learn this game is 3 months after Trails 3rd

After a while, we make it to the hospital

its weird that hospitals always have sad music in videogames

Ok I'll take it. It just bugs me when things aren't explicit, but this is just prologue stuff so I'll wait for the actual plot to happen.

Ok something is bothering me now.

There was this whole sequence in the prologue where Lloyd didn't want to be in the SSS, cuz he wanted to be a detective like his brother. He spends the night thinking about it. Then next day, he is asked about it and he is just 100% sure about joining the SSS. And the plot moves forward.

My problem is that I'm feeling like Lloyd's character is about wanting to be like his bro (and possibly learning that he has to be someone else in the end, or learning that this path also lets him be like his bro. We'll see). But the game may have botched it, because it gave him a chance to get what he wanted (leave the SSS and become a detective), and he said no. And I don't know why he said no, and I feel like this was an important moment in Lloyd's story that got skipped.

Does the game eventually explain what happened in that night that made Lloyd change his mind? Or is this just it and I'm supposed to accept the game just solved his main character conflict off-screen?

tcaz2 posted...

So, the reason for this btw, is that the original PC versions of Sky only one one difficulty, normal. When they got ported to PSP, they added hard and nightmare difficulty modes. The games weren't balanced around the higher difficulties. 3rd was the first one in the series that was designed with hard and nightmare in mind.

As such, FC and SC (especially SC) are ludicrously hard on non-normal difficulties, while every other game in the series feels much better. If anything, I'd recommend at least hard if not nightmare for every game past Sky as the normal modes tend to be too easy.

I played 3rd on normal and I did think it was a little too easy (although the Leiston Fortress bosses made me sweat quite a bit). Probably should have played on Hard. Meanwhile, SC on Hard was so unfun I had to download a program to hack the file and edit it back to normal. And I did manage to get out of the prologue beforehand. But it was so grindy I just wasn't enjoying it.

Now Zero on hard has been pretty nice. Yes some bosses take multiple tries, and the recent hike to Armorica was tricky since it's hard to revive characters at this point. But I prefer to have a little frustration than none at all.

Intermission. The bracer guild receptionist is talking to Arios. He says the HQ wants him to promote to S-rank (I think), but he refuses cuz he doesn't think he's as good as Cassius. Huh.

Arios is a perfectionist. If he doesn't do a perfect job, he is not satisfied

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/5/9/AAO9CbAAExML.jpg

Hellllllllllll yeah! The cast of this game just got twice better

Imo scrap Lloyd and let me play with those two again, maybe with Elie/Tio/Randy taking turns as the rest of the party

Hearing they talk in Japanese is kind of weird. Although the voices aren't super different

Chapter 1: "Just step aside and let Bestelle do the work": begins

Randy meets his former boss and freaks out. It's a woman. Considering why he was fired in the first place (sexual harassment), I can imagine why
.
She needs detectives to investigate some monster attacks. But since all detectives are busy, the only one left is Lloyd, so he'll have to do. Ouch

Reading the Crossbell Times: "The SSS solved the case, but evidence suggests they were more lucky than skilled".

Wow Grace, that's mean!

Randy: "THE REAL CULPRIT IS YOU!"
Party: "uh what"
Randy: "Come on guys, I'm a cop, I wanted to say that at least once in my life!"
I understand

We go to the bank for a quest, and meet Roberts, aka the jackass who has been dropping Tio's weapons in the item shop instead of giving them directly to her

he doesn't explain why he is doing it. Of course, he's doing it because this is a JRPG so weapons have to be sold in shops even if that doesn't make sense. But it's funny the game is lampshading it

Funny npc plotlines: the father who buys his daughters books about tech to manipulate them into becoming engineers

I just realized the pink haired solider we met at the start of the chapter is sisters with the CPD receptionist. Because theres this npc who says she is a mother of two girls who work in each place. Wonder if this will come up in the main story

we try to take the bus to the next city, buit we miss it. Of course. When has a JRPG character ever been allowed to take a bus to an area they are visiting for the first time?

unless it's Earthbound I guess, but that one is just weird

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/6/0/AAO9CbAAExMM.jpg

the hacker girl is proposing we walk. You should all feel ashamed of yourselves

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/6/1/AAO9CbAAExMN.jpg

If Estelle was here and she heard this she would hit this guy in the head with her staff. And it would be earned

Team rushes are absolutely broken to the point I'm questioning what the devs were thinking here

I'm getting a lot of them since I'm using Elie to trick advantage battles from a distance

the scenery in this road is rather pretty, ngl. I mean the graphics aren't anything to write home about, but the game makes it work by moving the camera so it focuses on the horizon

and it turns out both girls are actually tired. which I guess makes sense since both Lloyd and Randy have military training, while the girls don't

also this is one long overworld area, tbh

Randy is an outdoors guy, but hes alone. Those kids should try to be bracers some time. Actually, that's kind of what they are doing.

when the characters said it would take an hour and a half to get to the other town I didn't think they meant "in real life"

after what... 8 screens? we finally get to armorica village. The first out of 3 destinations we have to investigate

the party went from lv 5 to lv 11 just in this trip

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/6/2/AAO9CbAAExMO.jpg

We go visit the village chef and he's talking to one "kind looking man".

yeah ok this is the villain calling it now

we learn some lore about ancient divine wolves, and I think there was a wolf in the game's opening too? anyway, wolves = important

I have been recruited into fishing. Another trails protagonist has fallen

We get a rather cute scene where Tio hears some howling with her sensors and shes just happy that the other party members don't think shes lying

Mr. "Totally The Bad Guy" gives us a car ride back to Crossbell

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/6/3/AAO9CbAAExMP.jpg

is it just me or this car is huge?

A wolf is following us, but we still have to investigate two places before we get to unlock the main plot thread

Well the guy does give us a town map, which unlocks fast travel, so his evils are excused. for now.

Bank guard: "our security is impenetrable"

And that's how you know there will be a bank robbery at some point of this arc

Weird, it felt to me like the prologue was just as long but I was the one who spent the entire saturday doing nothing but play it.

I suppose it makes sense since it had way less dungeon crawling, compared to FC/SC though. And fewer quests than FC too.

Edit: hmm, so it was 7:40. I beat FC with 57 h, so I guess it wasn't much if you do the math.

I just looked online and apparently this game only has 6 chapters including the prologue, which is a strong suggestion that I need to slow down. This was really addicting though, especially since the game threw an entire city out of content right out of the bat.

time to meet Grace, the reporter. And obtain the sweet plot hooks.

Lloyd declines dinner. Stop being a cop, Lloyd

Like dude, if you can't do something as basic as share food and drinks with people, forget about being a detective. Because you will never get good at collecting info if you can't socialize. Not everyone will just bend to shonen hero speeches and challenges to 1v1s

his teammates get it, though

honestly, this is too early to say, but Lloyd is easily the worst of the 4 playable characters. But I'm interested to see his growth

I do agree that drinking alcohol on the job is bad, though. I wish Schera would hear that.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/6/7/AAO9CbAAExEf.jpg

yep. this is how you make a good cast. though this is game telling not showing. the showing part is still on its early stages

so the real villains are the mafia. except this is Trails, so of course that won't be the case forever. We are going to peel villain factions, one by one, until we get to the inevitable Orobouros at the center of it all. There is a Phantasmal Blaze Plan to be executed, after all.

Grace just gives info and leaves without asking for anything, at least atm. I'm sure she will appear later to get her share. She is slick, maybe even more than Nial, who often had to beg for info. Which I guess is important when you are dealing with a massive stick in the mud like Lloyd

I do a little quiz at the bracer guild, a hidden quest that I only manage not to miss because I went online to look for help with beating Wald

The chief is a master at making things happen without actually doing anything. I love those kinds of characters

on our way to the lawyer's office, we run into some guy with glasses who is also a massive jerk. these aren't lacking in this game, huh

Lawyer-kun is alright, though

so the mafia is being threatened by another evil organization. conspiracies. conspiracies everywhere
I love how we know it will eventually lead to orobouros, but the path is so complicated it's impossible to know how

The cast goes back to the base and starts a meeting. This is pretty fun. Feels like Phoenix Wright/Danganronpa.

Lloyd just said it's all about the new eastern mafia and oh boy, I think I've figured it out. There are no gang wars. The two gangs and Ravache are teaming up! They need the eastern mafia to think they are fighting, but it's a ploy! Calling it now.

ok close. The mafia wants them to fight, so they get weaker and the remaining ones join it.

The protags stage a classic Case Explanation Scene, where they use the power of Logic to get the two gang leaders to realize they have been played. It works. Crisis averted. They all lived happily after
It's weird for a Trails prologue to be won with the power of rethoric instead of violence, but hey, I'll take it

Wazy quickly takes full control of the situation though, and now we are part of a Gang vs Mafia plot
and theres still one more act. damn, this prologue never ends. But I suppose it will end with violence, after all

The party has to split to chase some mafiosos after we catch them in their own trap. Lloyd must pick someone. I pick Tio.

Prologue boss. Two mafiosos. Wazy joins as a player character, too. Interesting.

Aaaaaaand there it is. Grace shows up to profit from it all.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/6/8/AAO9CbAAExEg.jpg

Never mind the mafia. This is the biggest threat anyone could ever make

We return to the base, report to the boss, make more ceesy speeches and some copaganda, and end the day

Prologue: "Surprise Ace Attorney": beaten

I don't have much money in this early game but I'm making sure to buy the Crossbell Times. I love how the paper always integrates with the plot.

ok I look online and they say this is winnable, but takes a bit more work than I expected. Then again, I guess it lines up with the tradition of hard prologue bosses. Though the prologue continues, so I'm not sure if this is really the boss.

I buy the best equipment I can, an item that increases my stats (though it only works for 3 turns so it doesn't help much), some orbments so I can self heal and take more hits, and then grind for 200 CP so I can get some starting damage.

and the rest is just turtling and healing and slowly chipping away at Wald's hp

so both gangs were assaulted from behind by someone who used a weapon from the other gang. This is an obvious setup lol

Jerk reporter shows up again. She is a jerk, but offers to pay us a meal so we can share info. I'd take it if I were you guys, playing FC has taught me this is a really solid way to advance the plot.

Tio uses an experimental weapon no one else has. So it won't sell in shops, right? Wrong, the guy who invented it will regularly drop new versions of it at local weapon shops so we can buy them.
Amazing.

being able to equip new items automatically from the shop menu? what is this technology?

we got to the bracer guild, whose receptionist is kind of a troll

the perfect receptionist for a game whose protagonists are trying to compete with bracers but arent really bracers

Bracers' opinion on us range from "hey, if police wants to do our work for us, we will take it!" to "we don't trust those kids, they will break things and then we'll have to fix it"

we then visit the most powerful international organization of Zemuria

I mean the fishing guild

we learn the old man who Lloyd befriend in the train is this city's Maybelle. I think this will come up later

Crossbell is a financul hub. How do you know that? The bank is an entire district of its own

what do you mean, I can't just explore the news building? I could in Liberl!

the problem is having a game where literally half the map is the capital city is that it has to come up with excuses to keep some buildings closed from the start

Lloyd didn't want to be in this division. But now that he is, he's gonna take every job, even the ones that scream "bracer only". which includes exterminating monsters

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/9/8/AAO9CbAAExB2.jpg

this is my new favorite character dynamic

Keep going Elie, and we'll make and Estelle out of you

I remember praising Tita in my character rankings for being just a kid, with no weird "she is mature because she is a genius" theme. And then there's Renne, who also does the kid thing with some... twists.

And then there is Tio, who does a complete 180 from what Tita did by being mature because she is a genius

I'm not complaining, I like that this series wants to explore all kinds of different characters

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/9/9/AAO9CbAAExB3.jpg

I'm guessing this is where the local mob is

We go to the theater, where we meet Purple Haired Girl

Why am I bothering to mention her? Well, she has not only a character portrait, but a big one. Shes important

we complete our first sidequest (finding some missing items) and the guy is like "thanks. I only called the police because I was desperate, but I was surprised you guys even show up".

This police is just extremely incompetent, isn't it. And now they only made a department to actually help people because the fact an NGO is more useful than them is risking making the mayor lose the next election

I've finished checking every building and character available in this city. It took about forever

I finish the extermination request. Two tries. this game's hard mode is no walk in the park, but its considerably easier than that insanity that was SC's hard mode.

boss calls us and says two gangs are about to start fighting in the poor neighborhood, so we gotta stop them. Finally. Real police work.

Did you all grab the tear gas cannisters? The rubber bullets (and the real bullets too?). Then let's go. There are civilians to suppress.

civilians supressed. well, half of them. Then their leaders (Wald and Wazy) show up and make them stop. they both have character portraits, so this is probably not the last of them

I know CPD is pathetic but outright telling cops you intend to engage in a massive gang war in the future is not very smart. if this was real life police those guys would have bullets in their heads by this point

we go talk to Wazy to see if he can tell why the hell the two gangs are fighting. Lloyd gives an absolutely cheesy shonen hero speech.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/0/0/AAO9CbAAExB4.jpg

Wazy is so impressed he decides to cooperate

And now to the red vipers. We have a hard time getting in, but Elie is really good at sweet talking

We go in, and Lloyd ends up having to fight Wald in a 1v1. He wipes the floor with me harder than Loewe in FC did. And I get a game over because apparently I have to win. Uh... what?

tcaz2 posted...

Guess who voices them both in Japanese :p

lmao. There's a reason I got this feeling, then.

Chief Sergei confirms my theory. We are bracers with badges.

We get to decide if we accept or not. They will obviously all accept, but it's an interesting question. Creating a new department from scracth can be great for one's career, if that's successful. But it's always a risk, and you could be being set up for failure.

Lloyd is mad that he wanted to be a cop like his bro and now he's being told he will have to help civilians instead

Randy is already in. Little desk work, no commute since they are going to live in the office building, and maybe it just works out. The man has simple needs.

We learn Randy was a soldier, but almost got fired for excessive womanizing. Only Olivier can get away with that, I suppose. But he's fine because he now works closer to where the night clubs are. Simple needs.

The building has its own cat. I dunno Lloyd, I'd take the job for that.

Elie doesn't reveal as much, but I'm guessing shes the mayor's daughter or whatever and decided she wants some real life experience so she joined the police. Since this whole thing is more of an adventure for her than anything, she is fine with joining Bracers with Badges too.

Elie says she hopes Lloyd stays. Because of his leadership. Yeaaaaah I'm gonna pretend it's just that.

Tio is not revealing much either, but the implication is that she was sent by the Epstein Foundation to test the internet. Now why do they think the police is the best place to test internet is anyone's guess.

Interesting. I wasn't expecting Lloyd to be the only reluctant hero, since he is obviously a boy scout. But the catch is that he is a boy scout who trained to be a cop, and he's being told he will have to do non cop job instead. The other 3 are more anti-heroic, but they were never cops to begin with so they are fine with this. But Lloyd is not.

I feel like Lloyd could have turned into an asshole if he took a normal cop's career, or at least someone very frustrated because he wanted to imitate his brother and didn't know why. But staying here may actually be what his character arc needs.

Lloyd gets a flashback of his bro's voice and I'm feeling a Simon/Kamina dynamic here

Lloyd of course accepts the job. Otherwise the game would just end.

We learn Lloyd's bro is dead. Typical.

We get a tutorial to using the interwebs. Apparently bracers are starting to use it to. I'd love to see Estelle getting puzzled about that.

Boss: "I will be in my room reading magazines or napping. If you run into problems, don't bother me. Bye"

The game gives me 4 quartz and asks me to match them with the characters. Each character has an empty slot, with restricted elements corresponding to the ones I got. Ah, the illusion of choice!
I mean, Estelle and Josh got more choice in their tutorial.

Lloyd's orbment is identical to Estelle's. Which is the jack of all trades, master of none orbment. I suspect he will be a lot more melee oriented than Estelle was, though, since there are only 4 characters atm and 2 are mages.

Ellie's orbment is identical to Schera's. So mage, with maybe a little melee/support on the side. Will depend on the crafts

Tio gets the same single line orbment as Kloe's, but with 2 blue slots instead of 3. That sounds incredibly OP. But there is a catch. Always a catch with those blue haired girls. They replaced Mind, in the blue list, for Shield. The former being great for mages, and the later being definitely not great
So while Tio will be happy getting an HP quartz, the second blue quartz will be way trickier. None of the options are really satisfying, or they look like they will be available very late. I'm guessing she's still better than Kloe since she can actually have a more varied arts list, even if one of the quartz she's carrying is useless otherwise. So similar to Schera, who had to use stuff like Impede.

Also healing spells seem to have been split between water and wind this time, so it sounds like the two girls will share that job

Finally, Randy is the one with the melee orbment. His is similar to Tita's but with 1 restricted slot instead of 2, so a little better. Probably doesn't matter much, because when someone gets a melee orbment, I just ignore the lines and stick whatever bonuses go well with melee.

They made Mind mirage type now, and they nerfed EP Cut and buffed EP, so it'd really looking like our mages will be carrying silver quartz this time. Overall, the quartz system looks more balanced, but we'll see. Let's go kill some monsters

you can actually read your characters' crafts in the menu now. What is this modernity I can't even
Ellie inherited Kloe's healing scraft. Hmm

We still can't move and attack in the same turn (unless its in a straight line towards the enemy). Im wondering if that will ever change. It's such a dumb mechanic.

Tio has an aoe basic attack, like Tita's. But she is clearly not melee oriented. Thats a bit of a waste. But hey, her weapon is cool

Tio: "I can tank"
Uh not really, your defensive stats are pretty bad

No chest jokes anymore
[uninstalls game]

I'm trying to play on Hard again. This is relevant because I almost just got a game over in a tutorial fight. Everybody died, except Tio. Yeah ok sorry Tio, you can tank.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/7/0/AAO9CbAAEw-S.jpg

Yes. Yes. YEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!

And now its a mission to rescue some kids. Ofc

Having to use Tio's craft just to learn enemy weaknesses instead of getting them for free sucks

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/7/1/AAO9CbAAEw-T.jpg

I'm sorry, chest-kun.

We rescue the kids. They are stunned that we aren't bracers. Yes kid, so am I

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/7/2/AAO9CbAAEw-U.jpg

Run, kid. Run.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/7/3/AAO9CbAAEw-V.jpg

Dad gets it

We are attacked by a boss monster we can't beat. Lloyd immediately does the shonen thing and announces he will sacrifice himself so the others can escape

But we are then rescued by this guy

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/7/4/AAO9CbAAEw-W.jpg

Long hair. Scar on face. Cool attitude. Katana. And a soft but epic tune playing when he shows up. It's THAT kind of character

(basically Loewe from the last arc)

His name is Arios (because characters like this are not named something normal like Bob). The kids love him. I'm guessing he is a bracer

Yep. A-rank bracer. And divine blade. It's that guy. Probably doesn't hold a candle to Cassius (who is a God), but is somewhere close.

We meet the press. The press is kind of a jerk in this place. Well, not everyone can be a Nial

Arios is an alright guy though. He doesn't try to claim he did it all alone.

My guess is that the police, tired of being unfavorably compared to bracers, decided to create a department to do the bracers work. Which is actually helping people. Not the stuff cops are known for. We are that department. That's one convoluted excuse not to just play as bracers, tbh. But hey I suppose it will come with a quests board so I'm not complaining

Why do you need cops to do bracer work anyway? Why, inserting themselves into situations that clearly don't need police and then immediately making them worse is the police's speciality!

We are scolded by the vice comissioner because we stopped to save civilians instead of leaving them to die and focusing on killing things like proper cops

But this vice comissioner lacks a character portrait so I suppose he doesn't have much power here

The guy hates this whole civilian saving division thing. He tries to bribe us with better jobs if we quit. I'm enjoying the fact this game is not even try to show the police as a good institution. Except for the protagonists. So it's B99 all over again. Not 100% copaganda, but not exactly avoiding it either.

We meet two detectives, who are kind of nice but also kinda suck

One of them notices something and I think it is the fact Elie has the same surname as the mayor. Yes I have too. I had read the cast's names before and I noticed it when the old couple in the train mentioned it.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/80540838

back to the start, Lloyd wakes up in a train

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/1/1/AAO9CbAAEw9X.jpg

yeah thats what capitalism does, old lady. Sorry

Its not a real steampunk setting without a train, tbh

We watch the standard trails opening. Its cute

I keep trying to catch references to previous games but there are none

Prologue: "He was a good kid until he decided to become a cop": begins

There are also cars. They look like the ones from 100 years ago. It's like I'm watching Avatar Korra which all the early 20th century tech but also elemental powers

I arrive at the CPD Station, where I'll start my first day at the force. There is a pink haired girl at the reception, in good anime fashion

Either this receptionist is really incompetent or Lloyd was recruited for CIA because she knows nothing about him or his division

Ok shes just uninformed but its on purpose

We meet the chief, who looks like hes already done with this shit before it even started
time for introductions

Lloyd: [normal Japanese introduction]
Randy: "Hello my name is Randy and I like porn"

we have cell phones now

I was wondering how could there be monsters in a game thats apparently one big city, but apparently there are tunnels infested with them under it

so we gotta go there and kill them, because the combat needs a tutorial

Tio is 14. Because why not

I mean we let Tita fight terrorist organizations when she was 12 so whatever

Tio takes no bullshit. "Yes you idiot I am going to fight with a staff. It shoots electric balls. Now shut up and watch."

Randy is really chill. I was expecting more of a loony given the profile.

we see the other weapons. Lloyd uses tonfas, like a stereotypical cop

Ellie uses these:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/1/2/AAO9CbAAEw9Y.jpg

I love how it looks like some western gun instead of a regular one

and its pink because whatever

And Randy has a halberd that shoots shockwaves. Cool.

the two guys use melee weapons and the girls use distance weapons. The guys have short orbment lines and the girls have long ones. The guys have high attack and the girls, high ATS. and the team formation starts like this by default:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/1/3/AAO9CbAAEw9Z.jpg

the game is not even trying to hide who are the tanks and who are the mages

But first, let's find out if this is finally the game that opens with the main shortcut in the first try
(well 3rd eventually did, but the first try still required some fancy steam menu stuff)

It is! OMG! It opened in the first try and I didn't have to remember what my version of DirectX is!

Encounter Trigger: Leader Only
I love this game already

But apparently I have to choose between either the mouse or Enter for the confirm button, and the game doesn't allow remapping of that. I hate this game already.

Mouse is out of question unless I want to screw my arm up again, so I'll have to make the whole input work around Enter

Apparently, we start in medias res, which is a new for this series. Our 4 cop protagonists are already in the middle of something serious

There is full voice acting now!
But only in Japanese.

As an anime fan, I don't mind it. But it's weird to change the language characters speak after 3 games

ew, it forces me to use the mouse in the field. Who the hell designed this?

Welp, to get my controller. I was used to the "keyboard on my lap setup" for this series, but this works too. Still better than mouse in a game that's gonna make me click 10 thousand times to read dialogue.

Blue haired girl with cat ears, aka Tio, can detect elements. Dunno how that works

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/0/8/AAO9CbAAEw9U.jpg

fucking cops

I like the mechanic of using attacks in the overworld. I guess that can be used to start battles

Which means I'll always use one of the girls. Gray haired girl (Ellie) has a gun, while blue haired girl (Tio) has a magic wand that shoots electric balls. Yeah.

The two guys (Lloyd and Randy) use melee weapons, which I imagine are inherently inferior in initiating battles with advantage

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/0/9/AAO9CbAAEw9V.jpg

The main cop is this guy. Even if I didn't know he was the MC before playing, the fact he is the one making shounen motivating speeches would give it away

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/1/0/AAO9CbAAEw9W.jpg

I think I'm gonna like this guy

apparently the "in medias res" parts end, which make sense cuz the cast was lv 40 in it and thats about what the cast of FC was when it ended. its just a taste of the final dungeon I suppose

Previous threads are being archived here (Sky 3rd to be added soon):

http://zyxyzarchive.42web.io/index_zeldatrails.html

The State of Crossbell

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/0/5/AAO9CbAAEw9R.jpg

An independent (I guess?) country located between the massive Erebonian Empire, and the huge Calvard Republic. Disputed by both.

Such a situation means massive political instability, which likely brings a lot of other problems: organized crime, drug trafficking, human trafficking, corruption, gang wars, ancient shady organizations with their Phantasmal Plans and their Blazy Plots... you name it.

So how do we deal with all that depravity? How do we make our beloved Crossbell a safe place, a place children can grow up in?

With government programs to increase employment and proper social welfare policies that allow people to stay afloat and not fall into a life of crime even in times of economic downturn, as well as quality public education so that the youth can have something to look forward to, and a fair and balanced justice system that focuses on reforming criminals and turning them into productive members of society?

Hahaha. Of course not. Did you actually believe all that liberal crap? No, my friend.

We are going to use Cops.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/0/6/AAO9CbAAEw9S.jpg

Yeeeeeeeeeah. Those guys.

I'm sorry.

Ok so, I was originally going to call this playthrough thread Trails: ACAB Edition.

But then I realized since the cops are the main characters, this game probably wants to make me like them.

Heck, if anyone can make me enjoy a piece of copaganda and not feel like it's insulting my intelligence (other than Brooklyn 99, I suppose), it's this series.

Why, it has already made me have good feelings about military, the monarcy, capitalism, mainstream press and organized religion. It can probably do the same with cops.

So let's embark on a 2 game journey to answer the age old question: Are All Cops Bastards? Where we will explore the characters, the humor, the overly complicated customization systems, and where I'll hopefully make every anti-cop joke I can think of.

Now, without further ado, let's play...

Trails from Zero

aka Crossbell Arc: Part 1

aka Trails: Copaganda Edition

Feels bad switching threads in page 3, but I have the perfect name for the next one. Meh.

Question, how can I change the name of a topic?

Just bought Zero

This series owns me now. I cannot escape.

God Tier

1- Bestelle
2- Olivier
3- Renne

Very High Tier

4- Joshua
5- Kevin
6- Agate
7- Weissmann

High Tier

8- Ries
9- Richard
10- Kloe
11- Nial
12- Anelace
13- Tita
14- Zin

Mid Tier

15- Scherazard
16- Dorothy
17- Campanella
18- Gilbert
19- Cassius
20- Dunan
21- Mogran
22- Aina
23- Kilika
24- Amalthea
25- Loewe
26- Julia
27- Maybelle
28- The Ravens
29- Osborne

Low Tier

30- Beaublanc
31- Walter
32- Mueller
33- Don
34- Luciola
35- Kurt
36- Hans
37- Sieg
38- Erika
39- Rufina
40- Cid
41- Mary
42- Ein Selnate

Boring Tier

43- Kyle
44- Jill
45- Albert Russel
46- Queen Alicia
47- Dan Russel
48- Clem

Actually a Bad Character Tier

49- Lechter
50- Josette

2- Olivier

Is clearly another character who didn't need to be in this game. I mean, I'd keep (almost) all the doors, but did we really need all those 16 people in Phantasma other than for pure fanservice? No, we needed Kevin, Ries, Estelle, Joshua and Renne. I'd add Tita and Richard for the gameplay novelty, and I guess Anelace to make it 8 (since she was barely playable before). Scrap the rest and keep them door-only characters.

But I digress. My point is that I really have nothing to say about Olivier in the main game, since he does nothing in it. But you don't make it to God Tier by being someone who needs to scrap for more character scenes in the epilogue game. No, Olivier has over 100 hours of amazing bardic comedy backing him up. He gets to keep the 2nd place just for that.

This game is not useless for him, though. There is the Osborne door. Where tbh I think Osborne won the encounter, but Olivier did perform really well. He showed more of his realpolitik skills we have recently learned of, and more important, some actual motivations, something he was really in need of. We now know he really has a bone to pick with the nobles, and maybe that was his original source of suffering, not necessarily Osborne. But the later came and Olivier was wise enough to recognize him for what he really is: a fascist. And our bard turned out to be anti-fascist to the bone, so he realized there are evils we cannot justify falling to, no matter how bad the current situation is. And Olivier decides to take the hard path, rejecting both factions currently fighting for power and become the third one.

Please Falcom, I want to know Olivier's actual backstory. Why does he feel this invested in the politics of Erebonia?

1- Estelle

Was there any doubt this would be the final name in this list? Estelle is just another standard of protagonist, someone who single-handedly makes the first 2 games of this series legendary. And while she doesn't do much here, damn if what she does isn't great too! There is the entire sequence with Renne at the end, where Estelle just goes and shows her big heart. For a while I her saying she loves Renne over and over was a little off-putting to me, since they barely know each other. But later, it dawned on me that Estelle just wants to help Renne because she feels bad for her and her past, and she wants Renne to be a normal girl. So she will do everything in her power to make Renne feel loved, even if originally she has no reason to care about Renne. She will love Renne because she knows Renne needs her love. Because that's just who Estelle is, someone who has a lot of love to give. How do I not love that character myself?

And that shows in the Kid Estelle door, where we see how she naturally slipped into wanting to befriend Josh. It seems Estelle is just oblivious about Joshua's suffering, but I think in a way, Estelle knew something was wrong with him, and decided to do everything she could to help him. And the entire door is just Estelle never, ever, giving up on trying to reach out to him, even at the cost of risking her life. But she didn't know much about people, so she just decided to bring bigger and bigger bugs, which ties with my previous write-up saying Estelle was always a shining sun, but lacked the wisdom to know how to channel that light into concrete results.

And that turns out to be the story of how Josh originally fell in love with her.

Is there a fictional couple better than those two? I don't remember.

4- Joshua

He did not get that many scenes in this game. But it just happens I liked everything I saw. This is post-SC Josh, who now has his personal issues mostly solved and a stable relationship with Estelle. How happy is he? A lot.

The SC afterparty scene is great and I wish it was in SC proper. There, Josh is just relieved he gets to hang out casually with all those people, something he thought he would never be able to do. It's starting to dawn on him that he really has nothing to do with Orobouros anymore. He's a free man.

He doesn't get many scenes in Phantasma, but he still carries with what he gets. His exchanges with Kevin are solid, where he's showing both sincere gratitude and his ability to stay on the top of things, at the same time. We learn he always knew about Kevin, but decided to let Kevin hang out with Estelle because he thought she would benefit from it. He sees Kevin being broken but also sees his good side. So much of Estelle has dripped on Josh at this point it's delightful.

There is also the Loewe scene, where he gets to show he's moved on. The Renne scene at the end, where I feel he was just as great as Estelle. And there is the flashback where they are kids, which really gives more points to Estelle than to him, but is nice characterization for him anyway.

Josh is also the one who benefits the most from time passing after I played SC, along with Estelle and Weissmann. Because the memory of having played that perfect dramatic love story stays, and my appreciation for the main characters involved just grows over time. It was really a one of a kind thing.

3- Renne

Star Door Fifteen.

The thing that is interesting about that door is how it recontextualizes the entire character of Renne. Ok, I know, she had already said she used to be a child prostitute, in SC. But I feel like I hadn't really processed the concept myself. It was treated as an argument for why Estelle couldn't easily redeem Renne. She went through worse shit, therefore she's more broken and will take more work to fill up her alignment meter with goodness.

But now? Screw all of that. Fuck redemption. Go burn the world down, Renne, you deserve it. What you went through in that place dwarfs everything else, it makes it all meaningless. Parents, childhood, friends, morals, what even matters when... THAT happened?

I checked the timeline in a forum and apparently she was 6 when she was found by Josh and Loewe. Six. Let that sink in.

And Orobouros? Any bad feelings I may have had for them for turning Renne into a child soldier are gone (though what they did to people other than Renne is a different story). They saved her. Heck, Josh gained a few points in his own ranking just for being the one who asked Loewe to take her with them (and it's also fascinating to learn a brainwashed Josh was able to do that).

It's no wonder why she is so mad. Why she refuses to open herself up. It may be because she thinks if she just allowed herself to be normal again, it would cheapen all the horror that happened to her. There has to be a meaning to it, I guess. Something to destroy. Some closure to achieve. I don't know. Crossbell will tell. I feel like she won't find it, because the story wants Estelle to bring her to the light, but damn if Estelle/Josh pulling that off won't be an incredible feat.

Well, I've said my piece about that... door. So what's left? Well Renne is pretty fun in Phantasma. When she is not too busy trying to keep people away, she gets to be snarky. Which works because she is very intelligent on top of having been forced adulthood into her too early (in hindsight, I feel so bad for enjoying that now). Renne is just fun to have around, and I like how her VA and animations make her so childish, so she retains the sense of horror and wrongness that made me rank her high the first time around. Renne is funny and likable, but also absolutely dreadful and off-putting. I'm not changing her position because I really do love the other two, but you know what? God Tier.

God Tier

3- Renne

Very High Tier

4- Joshua
5- Kevin
6- Agate
7- Weissmann

High Tier

8- Ries
9- Richard
10- Kloe
11- Nial
12- Anelace
13- Tita
14- Zin

Mid Tier

15- Scherazard
16- Dorothy
17- Campanella
18- Gilbert
19- Cassius
20- Dunan
21- Mogran
22- Aina
23- Kilika
24- Amalthea
25- Loewe
26- Julia
27- Maybelle
28- The Ravens
29- Osborne

Low Tier

30- Beaublanc
31- Walter
32- Mueller
33- Don
34- Luciola
35- Kurt
36- Hans
37- Sieg
38- Erika
39- Rufina
40- Cid
41- Mary
42- Ein Selnate

Boring Tier

43- Kyle
44- Jill
45- Albert Russel
46- Queen Alicia
47- Dan Russel
48- Clem

Actually a Bad Character Tier

49- Lechter
50- Josette

7- Weissmann

He barely appears. But he's still great here, even if it's not really him. He knows Kevin killed him, and he's still more interesting in making an evil disciple out of him. The guy is just so nasty! This is one of my favorite villains ever.

We also learn the weapon that killed him came from a mysterious thing that killed his parents, but Weissmann himself doesn't seem to care about that. There is evil to be done.

Weissmann will always have a place in my memory as the monster who made one of my favorite love stories ever possible, because he provided the massive barrier that only Estelle could overcome.

He loses his place to Kevin because well, Kevin's game.

6- Agate

Did he just fall 2 positions? Is it the Agategate? Well, it's nicknamed Agategate, right?

Well, no. I thought a lot about this, but it's not Agate's fault, at all. Or Tita's, for that matter (it's pretty normal for a teenage girl to have a crush on an old guy). It's the fault of the other Russels (fuck them). It's the fault of the mysterious poltergeist who possessed the entire playable cast during that one scene and made them think this is ok (because if there is no poltergeist I'll have to knock the entire player cast down a tier). It's the fault of Falcom. It's the fault of the sizable portion of the playerbase who likes this crap. It's also the fault of capitalism, who incentivizes, when it doesn't outright force, companies like Falcom to cater to those degenerates, in order to stay financially healthy.

But I digress. Well, if it's not Agate's fault, then what? It's because the other characters just had reasons to climb, that's what.

So let's assume Moon Door 1 Part 2 never happened, which is something Agate himself would agree with. What else does he get?

He does get a door, the one with the Ravens. Where he is a side character. I enjoyed his role there very much, though. Because it doesn't make sense. Estelle and Joshua only had to enter some sewers and recover a treasure chest to become junior bracers. The Ravens had to enter the dome of the freaking dragon, which some very strong monsters and multiple floors, get to the top, and then fight Agate himself. And after they won, Agate says they are barred from doing missions as bracers whenever they are together.

It's not a plot hole though, it's because Agate is just that strict. And it plays perfectly with what we know of his character from FC. He reminds me of some teachers I had in college, usually one per semester, who were ridiculously strict compared to the rest, for no reason whatsoever. If you ever go to college, try to avoid classes with Agate if you are making your semester schedule!

It's not much. But I was considering letting Weissmann pass him for the reasons mentioned in his write-up, and just for this bit, I'm letting Agate keep the 6th place. The guy is just great. Long live Agate, and may Japan's perversion never corrupt his badass soul.

5- Kevin

And this is it. Let's crack open the beautiful mess that is our favorite instant Earth Wall provider.

The first thing that I noticed about Kevin is that his trauma over killing his mother makes no sense. He went out and when he returned, she was dying on the floor. He killed nobody. It took me a while, but then I realized he just wanted to blame himself, because that's how human minds work sometimes.The hint here is that everything is in Kevin's head.

He did kill Rufina, though. But that was completely not his fault. He was possessed by a magical thingy given by a goddess, with no warning, which he had no training or means to control. But something in Kevin just broke that day. He decides he was a monster beyond redemption, and willingly walked into a downward spiral of self loathing. Along the way, he probably killed a lot of people, which probably made he hate himself more, and isolate himself from Ries and anyone else who would have cared about him, which probably didn't do good for his mind. So when we meet Kevin in the game's, he is deeply depressed. His head is broken, more broken than anyone's except maybe Renne.

But Kevin is a good actor, which makes sense since he's a good spy. He's also god tier at reading people, so he can say what they want to hear, and he's very skilled, so he can bail them out whenever necessary, and earn their trust. Kevin one of the most dangerous people in Zemuria, easily, for those things, and for all the weapons and resources he has access to. It makes me understand why Orobouros has to operate in the shadows, if this is the faction that opposes them. Kevin is a duality, because he also knows how to look like a monster when he wants to keep people away (something that, fortunately, doesn't seem to work with Josh). He is just a master with people. I also love how Kevin's status as a dominion was kept as a complete secret from the public just so he could get a chance to put that salt pale into Weissmann, because the later is too smart to let anyone from the Gralsritter get close to him.

So the spiral descends, and Kevin unconsciously creates an entire hell just to punish him, and willingly walks into it. It may or may not be a metaphor for suicide. I love the set up, the way the game immediately lets on Phantasma is directly related to Kevin, how it slowly shows he's broken as he interacts with Ries, and how it builds the tension to the big reveal. And then Ries shows what she is awesome and brings him back the light.

I have a problem with all of this, though. The resolution. Once he and Ries jump into Gehenna, I felt like Kevin recovered too easily. He decides he doesn't want her to die with him, but for the rest of the game, he just makes speeches about how he's a changed man and how he's thankful to everyone. It's weird and I'm not sure if it's realistic, because with how broken he was, he should take a lot longer to heal. My headcanon is that after the end of 3rd, Kevin will still spend a lot of time suffering and hating himself, albeit maybe now with Ries by his side, he can slowly recover. But in-game, it feels a little too easy, especially compared to the huge effort that took to recover Joshua. I guess since Joshua had a Bestelle while Kevin only had a Ries, they had to bridge the gap somehow.

I think I'm nitpicking, but I have to explain why he's only 5th place in my list since he's amazing. But the people above him are the gold standard for character writing (and the gold standard for bards). If Kevin's is not perfect, he can't hang out with those guys. But he gets close enough.

5- Kevin
6- Agate
7- Weissmann

High Tier

8- Ries
9- Richard
10- Kloe
11- Nial
12- Anelace
13- Tita
14- Zin

Mid Tier

15- Scherazard
16- Dorothy
17- Campanella
18- Gilbert
19- Cassius
20- Dunan
21- Mogran
22- Aina
23- Kilika
24- Amalthea
25- Loewe
26- Julia
27- Maybelle
28- The Ravens
29- Osborne

Low Tier

30- Beaublanc
31- Walter
32- Mueller
33- Don
34- Luciola
35- Kurt
36- Hans
37- Sieg
38- Erika
39- Rufina
40- Cid
41- Mary
42- Ein Selnate

Boring Tier

43- Kyle
44- Jill
45- Albert Russel
46- Queen Alicia
47- Dan Russel
48- Clem

Actually a Bad Character Tier

49- Lechter
50- Josette

Unranked
(previous rankings)

(God Tier)

(1) Estelle
(2) Olivier

(Very High Tier)

(3) Renne
(5) Joshua

I mean 8th place in this cast is ridiculously good.

10- Kloe

Klaudia is also someone that could be described as a One Game Wonder at this point, too. Because as I have already explained, she already wasn't amazing in SC. How about 3rd? Well, she just sucks here.

The school door is probably the worst one in the game. Though it's not just her fault (also of a certain red-haired troll). But Kloe herself doesn't help it. The point here is that Kloe is feeling guilty about missing the orphanage because, she was a coward at that point? Or I think she hates herself for being an introvert? Honestly I'm still confused, and it felt to me like cheap teenage angst, the kind you desperately want to bury and forget about when you grow up.

I guess a price of showing flashbacks way after you develop characters is the risk of showing worse versions than the audience is used to, but there are good ways to pull that off (just look at the Estelle/Josh door for it).

Ok, what else? She gets nothing in Phantasma. There is also the door with Joshua at the party, which I actually love, though it's more focused on Josh. But Kloe has a great scene in it, where she confesses her love to Josh and catches him completely unprepared. It's amazing how such a great person Kloe has become, compared to how bad she was before.

You know, I'm not gonna knock her for the school door that much. So while she is losing 3 positions, it's to Kevin, Ries and Richard, who all have very good reasons to climb. Kloe is still a sweetheart and one of the reasons FC is great and I love her. Unfortunately I don't see her being very prominent in the series from now on, since she is practically a chief of state now, and the series will now focus on other states.

9- Richard

Alan's story is a tale of two halves. The first is The Tragedy of Richard, which happens in FC, and I've gone over in his last write up. It's a tale of how a decent man, blinded by a cause, and by his low self-esteem, turns into a tyrant. That half alone already makes him a great character. The second half is The Redemption of Richard, and it happens off-screen during SC. We only get to see Richard after he returns, having been given a second chance by the queen, and ready to make the world a better place. There is not much instrospection on that, just Richard saying over and over that he doesn't deserve forgiveness. This continues into Phantasma, where, although I enjoyed playing as Richard, his presence wasn't really necessary. Because again, the redemption already happened, and we just see him being thankful at people for trusting him.

But there is his star door. Where he is allowed to make a speech where he finally reveals how The Redemption of Richard played out. And I love it.

I've gone over how military, at least in my country, tends to be self-centered and believe the world can only function with military logic. Richard's tragedy involved that, thinking that he had to militarize his country and sacrifice its wealth to prepare for war. So his redemption is about contemplating ways the world, and himself, can function otherwise. He then realizes there are so many ways to view things, so many angles, that his worldview was small and puny. In a way, Richard was born again.

So he starts over, and creates the country's first civilian intelligence company, which is useful not just for Liberl's geopolitical position, but is also for its citizens, in ways that look trivial, but matter. This is the series reminding us that not everything is the large scale plot to save the world, there is also the micro worldbuilding, the side quests, the common people's lives. There are the big political questions, but there is also the individual lives, the local matters to solve. Richard grew as a person by finding something that was present in the trilogy's roots. Which is the value of just being a good neighbor, someone who helps their friends and family. It's like the series has gone full circle, starting with Estelle and Josh doing small sidequests for the community, and ending 3 games later with the villain of the first game learning the value in that.

And to top it all, he is still not sure if he made the best call. Which is very realistic, because we never are in real life.

I'm just amazed at how good of a character writing this guy has, and he's just not higher because it's sadly confined to a single door.

8- Ries

This was the pleasant surprise of the game.

Ries is first introduced as the stoic counterpart to Kevin's jokester self. He's laidback, but she takes no bullshit. Unless there is food involved, where she almost becomes as silly as Estelle. I liked the characterization already. Plus she is a nun who fights with a steampunk drone greatsword, really, how cool is that?

Where she really shines is when Kevin falls, though. Because at the other side of the stoicness, the game reveals very emotional, and raw, person. Someone who cries, who says what she means, who loves and suffers for other people. She is honest in her stoicness, but also in her emotion. She is also almost as good at reading people as Kevin is, but she usually defeats Kevin in their interactions because she is also at peace with herself, something Kevin absolutely is not.

While Kevin buried all his feelings inside and suffered in silence, Ries likely cried when Rufina died. And grieved. And eventually moved on, and went to become a better version of herself. So when she meets Kevin again, she is in a good position to help him, having already helped herself. I absolutely love the scene where Kevin finally reveals he killed her sister, and she never, not even once, blames him for it, instead being angry at him for suffering alone. It's so easy for stories like this to add an entire arc where Ries would be mad, but this game doesn't fall to that trap.

And then she just supports him, over and over, until the end. She jumps into hell so he doesn't have to go there. She asks to help him shoot her sister the second time, so he doesn't have to do it alone again. Ries is what every person in the Earth should have. A support net, someone who helps you just because they love you, whether it's romantic or not. A family.

Ries has one minor issue, in that she doesn't really get any character development. She exists to be part of Kevin's arc. Which personally I don't mind, since I don't believe every character necessarily needs to change in a story, but some people got that and they are even better for it. Ries, like I said before, is someone who is just at peace with herself, and she works better because of that.

High Tier

8- Ries
9- Richard
10- Kloe
11- Nial
12- Anelace
13- Tita
14- Zin

Mid Tier

15- Scherazard
16- Dorothy
17- Campanella
18- Gilbert
19- Cassius
20- Dunan
21- Mogran
22- Aina
23- Kilika
24- Amalthea
25- Loewe
26- Julia
27- Maybelle
28- The Ravens
29- Osborne

Low Tier

30- Beaublanc
31- Walter
32- Mueller
33- Don
34- Luciola
35- Kurt
36- Hans
37- Sieg
38- Erika
39- Rufina
40- Cid
41- Mary
42- Ein Selnate

Boring Tier

43- Kyle
44- Jill
45- Albert Russel
46- Queen Alicia
47- Dan Russel
48- Clem

Actually a Bad Character Tier

49- Lechter
50- Josette

Unranked
(previous rankings)

(God Tier)

(1) Estelle
(2) Olivier

(Very High Tier)

(3) Renne
(4) Agate
(5) Joshua
(6) Weissmann
(8) Kevin

14- Zin

The least important of the original 8 ontinues to be, well, exactly that. Zin is a secondary character but it's ok. He does get a door in this game, but it's actually about Kilika. Because while she is hiding some weaknesses and douts, Zin is actually quite at peace with his life atm, even if not everything is perfect.

It's interesting how everyone in the Zin/Walter/Kilika trio have doubts and pains but all of the 3 have accepted the traumatic events in their shared past and moved on. This is not how anime characters should behave! But it's how real life works. Walter goes on to continue to be a bad guy, Kilika changes jobs becomes a spymaster, and Zin goes back to his country to live his life as a bracer, exactly where he was before Sky started.

Zin is at the bottom of this tier but he doesn't mind. The man is too chill to get worked up over that. He lets Richard and the ladies pass him like a gentleman.

13- Tita

Tita, on the other hand, actually gets something in this game. But I'm not impressed.

There is the entire stuff with Agate which honestly I'd rather forget about. There is the stuff with Renne, though, which is a mixed bag. The first half of the door, with Tita desperately wanting to join the orbal gear project because she wants to reach Renne, is honestly great. So what is the problem there?

It never pays off.

She never, even once, uses the actual thing to confront Renne. I'm guessing it's because the second half of the door is optional so she is not guaranteed to have the orbal gear in the Phantasma when Renne shows up? But that's a weird design choice, just make it not optional in this case! And I'm looking online and I see Tita doesn't appear in the Crossbell arc, which is apparently when the Renne plotline is solved, so the entire set up was for nothing.

It's not without a silver lining though, because although she doesn't use the robot, she is the one responsible for preventing Renne from going on a rampage when the later comes out of the stone. Because, like I mentioned in the other write-up, Tita is the kid that makes the battle worth fighting, so not even Renne can bring herself to hurt Tita. It's a bummer that she accomplishes this by crying instead of, you know, kicking Renne's ass with a mecha.

This is still pretty minor and doesn't really knock Tita down, but it prevents her from passing anyone, or from resisting the Richard/Ries/Anelace attack from behind.

12- Anelace

I said last time Anelace's had no ceiling once she finally got a character arc. Well, the arc is here, and it's... not impressive. It's standard shonen stuff. She has doubts over what to use her sword for. She fights a strong guy, hears some words of wisdom from Richard, and finds a new path for the blade. It never ties with anything though, because Anelace, at the end of the day, is still a minor character with no big goals or traumas to speak of. She is mandatory in the lab section, where she has to fight her teammates, but nothing really comes from that.

But I'm letting her pass both Zin and Tita. Because Anelace is just fucking great. Her jokes always land. Any scene with her is more fun. Her victory speech continues to be flawless. I can't explain. Anelace just is. There is a reason I brought her to the final battle, and it wasn't just because she had the strongest weapon in the game.

This is about as high as an obvious side character can get, honestly.

11- Nial

He is barely around. Nial was really a one game wonder, huh. Well, the impact was huge and I love political stories so I'm letting him beat Anelace in the minor character league.

High Tier

11- Nial
12- Anelace
13- Tita
14- Zin

Mid Tier

15- Scherazard
16- Dorothy
17- Campanella
18- Gilbert
19- Cassius
20- Dunan
21- Mogran
22- Aina
23- Kilika
24- Amalthea
25- Loewe
26- Julia
27- Maybelle
28- The Ravens
29- Osborne

Low Tier

30- Beaublanc
31- Walter
32- Mueller
33- Don
34- Luciola
35- Kurt
36- Hans
37- Sieg
38- Erika
39- Rufina
40- Cid
41- Mary
42- Ein Selnate

Boring Tier

43- Kyle
44- Jill
45- Albert Russel
46- Queen Alicia
47- Dan Russel
48- Clem

Actually a Bad Character Tier

49- Lechter
50- Josette

Unranked
(previous rankings)

(God Tier)

(1) Estelle
(2) Olivier

(Very High Tier)

(3) Renne
(4) Agate
(5) Joshua
(6) Weissmann

(High Tier)

(7) Kloe
(8) Kevin

(17) Richard
(???) Ries

I've noticed I've been making a lot of typos and I apologize for that, because the task of reranking the entire cast is daunting, so I'm kind of rushing through the write-ups.

22- Aina

This might be the biggest climb in the list. Aina was a character who almost didn't deserve to be in the last list. Now here?

She's a BADASS. No, seriously. She is the most lit escort character ever, hitting enemies and pushing them to the other side of the battlefield with her bag. She knows how to craft smoke bombs at home. The game was already hinting at how hardcore Aina was for her infinite drinking ability, but here they just went to town with her.

She inherited a ton of money, then her evil uncle decided to take it from her, so she decided to fight for him, not because she wanted the money, but out of principle. Then she got the money, donated it all to charity. And then, she testified for him because turns out she doesn't really want her uncle to be in prison, just not to have her money. Few people have as much class as Aina does.

She doesn't really have an arc per se, though, just a goal, and once she fulfills it, she's happy to be a guild clerk or whatever. And it's fine. Not everyone needs to be a protagonist, sometimes we just need peace of mind.

21- Mogran

Cool axe.

20- Dunan

Loses a couple positions though not by his fault, other people just had actual screentime.

19- Cassius

Here's here and I love the way they made him incredibly strong gameplay-wise too. Though the fact he's actually easier in the arena fight cheapens him a bit.

There is also the Jagger door, where we get a serial reporting on Cassius making Erebonia freak out about how much of a God he is.

Maybe it's recency bias, but I enjoy Cassius a bit more now. I guess it's probably getting more demonstrations of him being amazing instead of just hearing about it.

18- Gilbert

Climbs a bit, because this game actually gave him a redemption arc. Except not really, it's the Team Rocket redemption arc. Works with the good guys, admits he likes them, but is back at trying to steal Pikachu tomorrow.

The humor was hit or miss, since the jokes about him being saved were a bit repetitive, but he was pretty awesome in the final chapter, tbh.

17- Campanella

Climbs a whole bunch, because he's very fun in this game. The door with the Anguis is pretty cool, particularly him drooling about how he will get to manipulate Kevin later on. Except he won't, because Kevin just got character development. But knowing Campanella, he probably won't mind the setback and will latch onto someone else. Crossbell is about to start and I'm pretty sure there will be no shortage of anti-heroes/villains to manipulate there.

I love him in the Q&A minigame too. Well not the minigame itself. But Campanella wearing ridiculous clothes and making snarky commentary on series lore is awesome.

I still know jack shit about the character, but I hope he stays around.

16- Dorothy

Barely appears, but the sequence with her desperately trying to get food is very funny (Ries would empathize). So she keeps the position, minus being passed by Richard/Ries, I suppose.

15- Sherazard

She's only really losing positions to Richard and Ries, so it's not a huge deal. But Schera is just not great this game and she wasn't fantastic to begin with, so I feel like a tier knockdown is warranted here.

Her door is mostly her being a jerk to Aina (and the later being classy about it). We do get some monologue about how terrible her life was before joining the circus, but I guess it just didn't hit me that hard compared to... a certain star door. Because all that stuff, her stealing and getting stolen from, I had already pictured (though her getting beaten up does hit me a bit).

My problem is that I didn't feel the connection between that and her attitude during the door's main plott, because there is her entire story with the circus and her friendship with the Brights in the middle, so Schera suddenly turning into a massive ass feels that it comes out of nowhere. They do explain that she is afraid of returning to her life in poverty... but really, she is an adult now, perfectly able to get a job in some shop or whatever, and it's not like the Brights will ever let her be homeless. Cassius will just adopt every troubled character he finds at this point.

And in present day, she gets nothing besides some very light ship tease with Olivier, being one of those characters who didn't really have to be in this game. Now, that doesn't erase the stuff I actually liked from Schera, so she doesn't drop considerably, but I'm tired of trying to find reasons to keep her in the same tier as people who don't annoy me as much as she does.

Mid Tier

15- Scherazard
16- Dorothy
17- Campanella
18- Gilbert
19- Cassius
20- Dunan
21- Mogran
22- Aina
23- Kilika
24- Amalthea
25- Loewe
26- Julia
27- Maybelle
28- The Ravens
29- Osborne

Low Tier

30- Beaublanc
31- Walter
32- Mueller
33- Don
34- Luciola
35- Kurt
36- Hans
37- Sieg
38- Erika
39- Rufina
40- Cid
41- Mary
42- Ein Selnate

Boring Tier

43- Kyle
44- Jill
45- Albert Russel
46- Queen Alicia
47- Dan Russel
48- Clem

Actually a Bad Character Tier

49- Lechter
50- Josette

Unranked
(previous rankings)

(God Tier)

(1) Estelle
(2) Olivier

(Very High Tier)

(3) Renne
(4) Agate
(5) Joshua
(6) Weissmann

(High Tier)

(7) Kloe
(8) Kevin
(9) Nial
(10) Tita
(11) Zin
(12) Anelace

(17) Richard
(???) Ries

29- Giliath Orborne

This one seems unfair because I'm looking at this character and I see Top Tier material. He could end up being as good as Weissmann. That's how much his encounter with Olivier hyped him. He just outplayed the bard, over and over, first by revealing Olivier's great moment of glory in SC was His Plan All Along, then pulling a Join Me, We Will Rule and Galaxy speech, and then making it clear to Olivier how worse the later's hand is. Sure, Olivier got the last laugh in the door by throwing some roses or whatever, but at the end of the day, Osborne is the one with an empire.

If you are gonna be evil, don't half-ass is like Lechter. Commit.

Trails is playing the long game, huh. They are hyping the antagonist of games 6-9 in game 3. What the hell is this scam, my wallet is defenseless.

But yeah he's minor and one dimensional and needs more screentime, etc etc.

28- The Ravens

I considered ranking these guys last time, but truth be told, they are kind of gag characters, and the gag wasn't really pushed to the limit like they did with Gilbert and Dunan. So 3rd went and decided to make them good guys. It's fun how in FC, they are kind of clones of each other, then in SC, you get a suggestion they have different personalities, and now they are entire different people with individual motivations who can clash! And it's good storytelling! It feels unfair that the game isn't just promoting them to major characters and exploring what they can do, tbh.

Now they only need separate sets of crafts, and actual arts, I suppose.

27- Maybelle

She doesn't actually climb here, despite showing up. She gets a door yeah, but it gives more screentime to Anelace, and it's mostly ship tease between Maybelle and Lila. The issue is that her sidequest in SC already did all the development in that front, so this door is just a nice little filler using that same concept.

26- Julia

She's got actual character now, so she moves a tier. The character seems simple but is rather interesting: she is utter and completely devoted to Kloe. In fact, she's basically Kloe's mom, since her biological one is dead.

That does bring conflict though, and if you think about it, it's the classic career vs family one. Julia just wishes she could be with her daughter. But she has way too many talents and Kloe needs her to use them. So from Mueller, she learns to suck it up and do what she is best at.

Julia's problem is that, on a regular basis, she is still rather boring. I don't know how to explain. She has zero comedic value, is cool but not in a very exciting way, etc. She's a secondary character, through and through, and I appreciate the game showing what makes her tick, but that's as high as she goes, I suppose.

25- Loewe

I continue not to care much about him and his appearance in the game was almost a non event. Since it's not really him (and if you want to insist, it's mostly him acting as a generic villain). He's here so Josh can add another page to his vast tome of character development.

24- Amalthea

Kanone passes Loewe because she is pretty sweet in the Richard door. The game wants to draw a comparison between the devoted soldier who hates Richard because he dropped the cause, and the the woman whose cause is Richard himself. That's the gist of it: she loves Richard, will kill for him, die for him, change her career and goals for him, and I'm a sucker for love stories like that (though they can be unhealthy, but here it's the opposite). It's almost off-putting to see her in office clothes receiving clients and talking about finance, and it looks like she's just fine with it. I saw someone online say they wish she was in the playable roster instead of Josette and I agree so much with that.

23- Kilika

I felt like she was going to climb here, but she basically ended in the same place. I suppose she passes Amalthea but that's it. Her character development helped her hold off the challengers coming from below, if anything. Kilika is nothing but consistent!

The fact the game actually decided to develop her, and in a door that seemed like it would be about her, is the big surprise. The scene is pretty sweet, though its contents aren't super special: she wanted to find a way to make Taito useful other than killing, and while she did find it, she is unsure if she picked the right path or not. But that's a paradox of life, you will never know for sure if you picked the right path, even after you get to the end. But I like how for once, she is showing weakness. Kilika's perfection worked against her a bit, tbh.

And now she's a spymaster. I feel bad for whoever crosses her path in the future, tbh.

23- Kilika
24- Amalthea
25- Loewe
26- Julia
27- Maybelle
28- The Ravens
29- Osborne

Low Tier

30- Beaublanc
31- Walter
32- Mueller
33- Don
34- Luciola
35- Kurt
36- Hans
37- Sieg
38- Erika
39- Rufina
40- Cid
41- Mary
42- Ein Selnate

Boring Tier

43- Kyle
44- Jill
45- Albert Russel
46- Queen Alicia
47- Dan Russel
48- Clem

Actually a Bad Character Tier

49- Lechter
50- Josette

I skipped Mueller and the forum doesn't let me edit the post anymore.

32- Mueller

He's got more screen time now which means enough time to think he's cool and enjoy playing with him, and therefore like him more as a character.

He's still the most BORING of the non-Josette player characters, though. He does appear in two doors, one where he stays in the hall while Olivier does everything that matters, and one where he gives good advice to Julia. And we learn he does resent a bit having been chosen from birth to be Olivier's aide, but eventually he got used to it. Thsi makes him a little more human. But eh, it's not particularly compelling since there's not much of a conflict.

Low Tier

30- Beaublanc
31- Walter
32- Mueller
33- Don
34- Luciola
35- Kurt
36- Hans
37- Sieg
38- Erika
39- Rufina
40- Cid
41- Mary
42- Ein Selnate

Boring Tier

43- Kyle
44- Jill
45- Albert Russel
46- Queen Alicia
47- Dan Russel
48- Clem

Actually a Bad Character Tier

49- Lechter
50- Josette

42- Ein Selnate

Yeah ok she has survived long enough in this list. She's barely a character, despite her massive importance. Sort of like Alicia.

She is quite interesting in the few times she appears in, though. She has this maniac demeanor, a good person who has seen shit and doesn't want to show her goodness easily. She is not exactly nice to Kevin when giving him the Dominion rank, and she laughs when she wants to change his title. Still, she somehow makes it seems like she cares (unlike say, Lechter).

There is also the carnelia book, which I'm not sure if I'm supposed to count since it's like in-universe fanfiction. She's pretty badass in it, though.

41- Mary

They gave another orphanage kid a character arc! And it's more interesting than Clem's!. That says more about Clem, though.

Mary is the responsible one, the one who follows rules and keeps the other kids behaving. But because she is also a kid, she lacks self-awareness to realize when she's being a hypocrite about it. So she judges others whiole still dreaming of the happiness stone and ends up straying from the group because of it. It's a nice twist that is done well.

She is still not particularly likable, though.

40- Cid

He appears Leiston and a door or two but for my life I can't remember anything he says.

Apparently he's got promoted again, though? Cid has the fastest career in Zemuria.

39 - Rufina

What? The main villain of an entire game so low?

Yeah but like, Rufina is not the villain. The villain is Anima Mundi, who is... a thing... not a character. Rufina is someone who died a long time ago, appears in like 3 flashbacks, and also has a sweet sequence at the end of the game that leaves it unclear whether it's really her or not. And she basically informs Kevin he has to kill her, tells him he has to do it alone (why, exactly?) and doesn't react when Ries decides to join.

The chocolate scene was pretty cool, though.

38- Erika

I wish I could say I like Erika because she was opposing the Agategate. But that's a trap. She is not opposing it, she is helping support it because she is only opposing it as a slapstick comic relief character. She is the foil to make the viewer think "oh look at Erika trying to stop Agate from dating her little daughter again. That's so funny!" Instead of maybe having a heartfelt conversation with Tita, or her father, or her husband, or Agate himself to explain why the later shouldn't be spending so much time alone with Tita. So the joke falls flat to me. It does work a little in the first half of the door, because we haven't seen the implications fully yet, but in the second I just want it to end.

Erika does add other things to the table, though. Because her personality extends to anyone sheinteracts with. Her rivarly with her dad is legit funny. And her interaction with Kevin is great. How many people in the series have told Prof. Russel he was not smart and actually had their own accomplishments to back it up? Only Erika can do that.

37- Sieg

Look at all those losers who lost to the bird. Bask at their mediocrity.

36- Hans

He is not particularly good at catching Lechter.

35 - Kurt

"By my arts, I will be the only Sky character to lose playable status between a game and the next in the same arc!"

Which was the only thing I was going to say, but then I remembered he's pretty cool in the Schera door. Not just by beating up bad guys, but also she he nonchalantly tells her to do her fucking job. That's not much, but from a character I already enjoyed before and wanted to see more of, and who was so far down in the list, it's something.

Also, Not Kurt decided to meditate to check whether he had a sense of self or not. Then realized he didn't! That's hilarious.

34- Luciola

33- Don

He is bad at finance! That's a random fact you didn't need to know about Don. And now you do. It adds to the nice dynamic of how the Capua trio have qualities that make up for each other's weaknesses. He should have left the finance to Josettem, because apparently she is good at it too!

I don't know how to use this information in this list, though, so I'm leaving Don where he is.

32- Walter

31- Beaublanc

He gets an entire door. But the way is done is so cryptic is leaves more questions than answers. Also is it just me or they picked the most boring option of the 3 to be Beaublanc's real past? I liked the misunderstood artist more. Yeah sorry that isn't enough to jump tiers.

Low Tier

31- Beaublanc
32- Walter
33- Don
34- Luciola
35- Kurt
36- Hans
37- Sieg
38- Erika
39- Rufina
40- Cid
41- Mary
42- Ein Selnate

Boring Tier

43- Kyle
44- Jill
45- Albert Russel
46- Queen Alicia
47- Dan Russel
48- Clem

Actually a Bad Character Tier

49- Lechter
50- Josette

Hmm Low Tier ended up being big, but I guess it's just that what I call Low Tier are some pretty well done characters oversall, who just couldn't get more screentime because not everyone can, and the bigger a series gets the more of those characters you have.