Lurker > ZeldaTPLink

The last 3 characters are close to interchangeable. This was the permutation that felt the most right now, but I could change. Truly great characters.

But there is only one queen.

1- Estelle

Man, I have so little to say. Estelle isn't even huge here. She just gets to spend another game being herself, and making the player read those boards at the guild just to get some more sweet Estelle dialogue. I don't think it's likely anyone in Trails can ever surpass her, because this is one of those characters for a lifetime. Estelle is not ony one of the funniest characters, but she also has a great arc, is super likable, and is a miracle worker of character development for other people.

Of course, we have to mention her doing it again, this time with Renne. Not alone, because the SSS plays an instrumental part. But it's so nice to see her hugging Renne at the end of Zero and being happy to add her to the Bright family.

On another note, I like that the Sky party is now united permanently, with characters like Kloe and Kevin and Olivier having Estelle as a point of contact so they can work together against the evils of Zemuria. And the SSS is now part of that network too.

And with this, the list and this playthrough topic have come to an end.

Bestelle Tier

1- Bestelle

God Tier

2- Renne
3- Randy
4- Olivier

10/10 Character Tier

5- Lloyd
6- Joshua
7- Tio
8- Kevin
9- Elie
10- KeA
11- Agate
12- Weissmann

Very High Tier

13- Arios
14- Ries
15- Richard
16- Kloe
17- Rixia
18- Nial
19- Anelace
20- Tita
21- Ilya
22- Zin

High Tier

23- Wazy
24- Cao Lee
25- Scherazard
26- Dudley
27- Jona
28- Dorothy
29- Campanella
30- Lechter

Mid-High Tier

31- Grace
32- Dieter
33- Gilbert
34- Cassius
35- Garcia
36- Kilika
37- Sergei
38- Dunan
39- Mogran
40- Shirley
41- Aina
42- Wald
43- Mariabell
44- Arianhod
45- Grimwood
46- Amalthea
47- Loewe
48- The Hayworths

Mid Tier

49- Joerg
50- Julia
51- Maybelle
52- Fran
53- Cecile
54- The Ravens
55- Noel
56- Osborne
57- Sigmund
58- Novartis
59- Bleublanc
60- Walter
61- Abbas
62- Zeit

Mid-Low Tier

63- Mueller
64- Guenter
65- Don
66- Luciola
67- Shizuku
68- Kurt
69- Sieg
70- Mierelle
71- Ernest
72- Sully

Low Tier

73- Hans
74- Erika
75- Rufina
76- Henry
77- Cid
78- Michel
79- Mary
80- Ein
81- Sonya
82- Guy
83- Kyle

Unlikable Tier

84- Jill
85- Albert Russel
86- Queen Alicia
87- Don Marconi
88- Dan Russel
89- Clem
90- Josette

Thanks for reading.

3- Randy

Let's talk a bit about other characters first. First, we have Joshua Bright. This is a guy who was brainwashed into joining Ouroboros, and then spent years of his life as an assassin, taking out targets to further his organization's goals. Another character worth mentioning is Renne. After an unthinkable series of bad events, she was recruited by the same organization. We don't know exactly how many people she killed, or whether she killed at all (the games are weirdly silent about that), but I assume you don't get named "Angel of Slaughter" for being a pacifist. Though maybe she killed less than Joshua, since she wasn't a dedicated assassin, and Ouroboros being the patient entity they are, enforcers probably spend more time waiting and minding their own businesses than carrying out missions. Finally, it is also worth it to mention Kevin Graham. A man who suffered another impossible series of tragedies, where he caused the death of two people he loved, and then volunteered to hunt heretics for his own organization. He spent years doing some very soul crushing work, including executing a child.

At the end of their respective bloody sprees, all three of them were left broken, traumatized. Kevin was looking for suicide, Joshua to go down in flames, and Renne just wanted to make the world burn. They needed the help of one Estelle (and one Ries) to find reasons to live again.

And I bet the combined kill counts of the three don't even come close to Randy's.

Put away for a bit the chill womanizer and imagine that, for 18 years, this guy was probably much closer in behavior and character to Sigmund and Shirley, the other Orlandos we know. He killed A LOT of people. He was born in war, grew in it. He killed people and probably enjoyed it. Laughed. Felt like it gave his life meaning. He killed rival jaggers. He killed civilians, even if as collateral damage. He killed children. Heck, maybe he tortured people too. He is was a commander of a jagger platoon, and chosen to one day lead the entire RC, you don't get there by having principles.

But that guy, that monster, one day, accidentally killed his own friend. And the whole thing is very hypocrite if you think about it. Why should one person matter more than everyone else Randy killed? But that's how people work. Randy felt the pain of loss, and the guilt of his own acts. And I imagine he started thinking about all the pain and all the loss that his hands caused, all at once. And that perspective broke him.

Randy is a broken man, and that's the beauty of it. Because he is the funniest guy in the party, the most chill, the friendly one, the guy you always want around. I could make a write up about how nice Randy is. But inside, he's suffering, all the time. He wakes up and goes to bed thinking of the families he destroyed.

So he runs away, tries to start anew. The CGF seems fine, he has the skills. But it's still too close to what he did before, he still has to use weapons and risk killing people. So he runs further, and joins the SSS, the furthest thing from an actual military while still being one he can find. And he declares he's here just for the pay, to blow it in casinos and women. For a while, it works, even if the pain won't go away. But he can focus on other things, ignore it day by day.

But then his past catches up. The RC arrives and tries to recruit him back. He refuses. But his past continues to chase him, as the RC is used to kill people in the Crossbell he loves, people from the CGF he cares about. So, like Joshua in SC, he decides to go down in flames too, redeem himself by destroying his horrible family.

Fortunately for him, his party includes a shonen protagonist, who works his magic and just makes him understand no matter how bad he is, how much he hates himself, they won't let him go. The SSS has a bond that is bigger than anyone's guilt. They don't "fix" him, they just create something so solid, he has a thing to live for. And Randy can stand again, beat his uncle and turn a page on his life. Become the person he could have been from the beginning had he not been raised to be a demon.

This is a character arc of pure beauty. And coming from the most likable character in the duology, too. He isn't as funny as Olivier, maybe. He is more down to Earth. But the SSS is, again, more than the sum of its parts, and Randy is the best part.

2- Renne

I've made two write-ups about this girl already. Why am I doing this again? Well, Trails somehow found a way to make Renne even more interesting.

She really needed that sequence with Lloyd, fooling around the city, because Renne is so fun. She is snarky and hyper aware of things, and she is trying really hard to be mean, but the little girl in her just can't help herself. And Lloyd is the right guy to mellow Renne out, being smart enough to realize something is off, but friendly enough to play along. I need more Renne in non-story heaven sequences. Let me do sidequests with her or something. I bet it will deliver.

We also get to break Renne's feelings open this time, show what was only implied before. And she is hit with another tragedy, of realizing her parents are completely blameless for what happened to her. But she still wants to hate them. So she can't bring herself to meet them. The sequence in Lloyd's bedroom where she is hidden in a closet then leaves to talk to the SSS, and THEN Estelle/Joshua arrive to explain her story, is truly magnificent.

And of course, we have the ending sequence, where Renne gets to make the most unexpected save. Rescue all those people she would never admit to caring about, but now does. Get a final revenge against the cult. And complete her journey, as pater Mater exposes what is inside her and takes her to Estelle, her new sister.

She has been in #3 long enough. Time to give her #2. There are great character arcs, and there is this. The Trails series holds you hostage between FC and SC with Joshua, but Renne is used to do this two more times. And they manage to stick the pay off, with room to spare.

4- Olivier

Well, this was really hard. I love Olivier. The 2nd place feels right for him. Heck, he could be 1st place if a certain character didn't exist and it would feel right. He is the funniest character in the Trails series so far, no one can compete. And comedy is a huge reason for me to enjoy a character. And he's just a guy I can vibe with. He knows who is is, a spoony bard. But something happened to him, he saw something so disgusting he just felt the duty to do something about it. And now he is staging a rebellion against the continent's most evil empire. But at the same time, he's just counting the days until he can pick up his lute again and go play songs and get wasted with Schera and Aina in Rolent. I appreciate a character who knows who he is.

But I still need to see the missing piece, why Olivier is on this path. I just can't empathize with him so hard, especially after seeing the other monumental tragedies this series can tell.

Let's see if Cold Steel can do that. It might be the biggest reason I want to play that arc.

Oh, we are talking about Crossbell? It has Olivier too. Just a little. But it's that little piece of awesomeness, of him being himself in a pretty fun sidequest. That scene of Olivier showing up in Reinvalli to play a song felt so right it made my wish I was playing Sky again.

I actually spent at least half an hour awake in bed last night agonizing over who I should put in the 2-4 spots. I like them equally.

5- Lloyd

So when I started Zero, the protagonist was definitely my least favorite of the main four. Not only he was mostly a generic shonen hero, he was also the most cop-like cop in this setting of cops. The SSS is a group with varied backgrounds who are recruited to a group that is mostly bracers with a cop flavor. But Lloyd was already a cop before then. He is very by-the-book with the way he approaches things, and he didn't mesh well with the party at first. I think the worst scene was when they met Grace at the bar and he didn't even want to give her the time of the day, because cops aren't supposed to share info with journalists. I hated Lloyd for sinking my hopes of seeing a repeat of the classic Estelle-Nial relationship.

But the guy grows on you. Because like a good hero, he is more good than lawful, and though he doesn't quite break the law, he doesn't mind operating on the edge of it to get things done. This is what the SSS is good for, after all. And the shonen hero stuff never stops being forced, but the reality is that it just works. Characters are suffering and Lloyd just says what they need to hear. And the team spirit building speeches work because the party does feel like a team. It's a different experience from Estelle, who was so naturally likable and magnetic she just had to be herself and people would follow her. Llloyd has to force it a bit and make an insanly cheesy speech first, which will make the listeners roll their eyes... but in the end, they will follow him too.

He doesn't quite get an obvious character arc like Randy and Tio do, falling closer to Elie in that regard. His arc is more likel stepping out of Guy's shadow, becoming the person he was always meant to be. Which, besides a detective and a Bracer with a Badge, also includes being a really good dad. But he didn't have to grow that much to reach that level. Lloyd, like Elie, was a more complete individual from the start.

With all that stuff out of the way, there is one main reason he is so high in this list.

A few years ago, I made a playthrough of the Danganronpa series, where I also this this routine of ranking characters after each game. For the first game, my favorite character was Kyoko, the Ultimate Detective. She wasn't that deep of a character, but her role in the game was just so entertaining.

The Crossbell arc is a detective story. It's a mystery game, not that far from the likes of Ace Attorney and Danranronpa, just without trial sections. In that setting, Lloyd is our detective, the one who lays down the answers to each mystery puts together the puzzle. The one the player keeps competiing with to figure things out. Just as I made those write-ups trying to crack the case, so did Lloyd, and sometimes I would beat him, while other times he would completely surprise me. This is one of the most fun aspects of the game, and Lloyd is the guy working that.

Now you could say that doesn't mean anything about Lloyd's character, you could have a generic guy who knew the puzzle answers, and that the setting helps Lloyd more than the other way around. Maybe, but it just works. I love being Lloyd. I love taking Lloyd to places like Revache and Heiyue and Rosemberg Studio just to see what kind of dirt he will uncover. And there some aspects of him that work in his favor. His super innocent and cheesy demeanor constrasts with the scenes when he is alone with SSS and he just starts breaking down people's motivations and allegiance. This kind of character normally isn't a political schemer, but Lloyd has that side of him too. And his relationship with Guy makes it compelling too. It gives him a chance to overcome the temptation of revenge and focus on bringing out the truth. So many characters would have lost it in this place, but by the time Lloyd finally learns who dunnit, he is just mature enough to do his job, save the kid and bring the culprits to trial.

Back in the Sky topic, I said in Estelle's write up that a good writer should nail the protagonist, because they create the tone of the series. Lloyd doesn't quite dominate the Crossbell games the way Estelle did with Sky, it's more of a group effort with the SSS. But he is the one responsible for the mystery aspect, which is one of the best parts of the exeprience. So yeah, protagonist nailed again.

Case closed.

This closes one tier. The next 4 are really my favorite characters in the series so far.

Current rankings:

10/10 Character Tier

5- Lloyd
6- Joshua
7- Tio
8- Kevin
9- Elie
10- KeA
11- Agate
12- Weissmann

Very High Tier

13- Arios
14- Ries
15- Richard
16- Kloe
17- Rixia
18- Nial
19- Anelace
20- Tita
21- Ilya
22- Zin

High Tier

23- Wazy
24- Cao Lee
25- Scherazard
26- Dudley
27- Jona
28- Dorothy
29- Campanella
30- Lechter

Mid-High Tier

31- Grace
32- Dieter
33- Gilbert
34- Cassius
35- Garcia
36- Kilika
37- Sergei
38- Dunan
39- Mogran
40- Shirley
41- Aina
42- Wald
43- Mariabell
44- Arianhod
45- Grimwood
46- Amalthea
47- Loewe
48- The Hayworths

Mid Tier

49- Joerg
50- Julia
51- Maybelle
52- Fran
53- Cecile
54- The Ravens
55- Noel
56- Osborne
57- Sigmund
58- Novartis
59- Bleublanc
60- Walter
61- Abbas
62- Zeit

Mid-Low Tier

63- Mueller
64- Guenter
65- Don
66- Luciola
67- Shizuku
68- Kurt
69- Sieg
70- Mierelle
71- Ernest
72- Sully

Low Tier

73- Hans
74- Erika
75- Rufina
76- Henry
77- Cid
78- Michel
79- Mary
80- Ein
81- Sonya
82- Guy
83- Kyle

Unlikable Tier

84- Jill
85- Albert Russel
86- Queen Alicia
87- Don Marconi
88- Dan Russel
89- Clem
90- Josette

Unranked:

Estelle
Olivier
Renne
Randy

7- Tio

The next SSS main to drop is the obligatory nerd of the party. In a setting where the internet is now a thing, Tio is the "person who gets computers". That makes her a lot more plot device-y than most of the cast, especially since she has a magical staff that hacks things. Not that I mind, those hacking battles with the colorful avatars are lit.

How about the rest? Well, Tio is also the party's resident snarker. The SSS has some edge, and she is clearly the edgiest of the four, making snarky remarks about Lloyd and Elie getting embarassing about each other, or Randy being a doofus. That said, I feel like they ended up undershooting her snark a bit, because she doesn't quite have a lot of super funny quotes. It's always someone else getting embarassed and Tio saying what the audience is probably thinking. Then again, that's a good role, which she performs incredibly well. The SSS's whole thing is that they are very likable, and Tio is a well oiled cog in that machine of RPG party perfection. None of the four have extremely funny quirks, but they are all really likable people.

Tio does have her moments of pure comedy though, mainly with the Mishy stuff. I wasn't sure exactly what to feel about her constant fangirling of the dumb cat, but when we get to Misheland and she doubles down on it, I'm all in. My favorte sequence is the sidequest where she first learns Mishy is not real, then coaches Lloyd into being the perfect Mishy, then finally meets the man who dons the legendary mascot's suit, to everyone's trauma.

And her arc? Well it's probably the best of them, after Randy's that is. She was traumatized by what the cult did to her, and for a long time, she couldn't feel emotions. So she has to learn, bit by bit, to feel and to express what she feels. It's very heartwarming to see each time she progresses, and great to see how frequently she starts crying near the end of Azure. In most stories it would be annoying, but here it's a way for the game to show how TIo has overcome her inability to emote. Leave it to Elie to keep herself together, Tio needs to cry, danmit.

6- Joshua

He gets knocked out of the top 5 by the introduction of our two SSS boys. And also because Joshua is kind of whatever in this arc. He has to be here because Estelle has to be her and he's glued to her forever, but both of their arcs are done, and what's left to solve, the Renne stuff, is mostly performed by Estelle.

Joshua isn't someone who with other people's emotional issues, he is someone who is helped instead, and he doesn't need help at this point of time. Maybe in a future arc, if the writers can come up with a new conflict for the couple. Then again, their ending in Sky SC was so perfect I'm ok if they never evolve from that, and just show up to greet us.

Only 5 left now. Estelle, Lloyd, Randy, Renne and Olivier.

zinformant posted...

The argument against her is less that she is undeveloped and more that she had so much promise in the context of this specific story, and, yet, as a set piece, they mostly leave her on the table to look pretty and that's the extent of it. No, she contributes little to the Azure Wish because that's mainly between KeA, Lloyd, and the antagonists, but she could have been, if theoretically or philosophically, more deeply involved in the political aspect of the conflict. She was poised for it. That's all, really. She's fine, but hers is a tale of lost potential when the story writes itself. She is the worst example of this to date and for a little while, arguably.

Hmm makes sense. Maybe it was hard to add some big political win in the structure that the writers are used to, which is to have the PCs lose 30 consecutive times only to get a single, definitive win at the end of the second game. SC did the same. So she really can't untangle the political mess until the last chapter, when it's less politics and more stopping the doomsday device.

Also there's the fact the arc is structured like a detective book, where you go solving mystery after mystery until the truth reveals itself and the story ends. That requires the good guys to be clueless most of the time, which maybe gets in the way of politics and negotiation. Normally she would be negotiating with Dieter or Grimwood, but we have to hide the fact those guys are even bad.

But I'm mostly speculating, I guess a good writer could work a big Elie moment into that stuff if they wanted to.

Me: "these write-ups will be hard to make"
Also me: [drops a TL;DR]

10- KeA

In Tita's write-up, I mentioned how she was the kid who made the struggle worth fighting for. Well, KeA is that tenfold.

KeA is just adorable. There is all there is to it. Everything, from her portraits, to her voice, to her innocence, is just extremely likable. I thought it was funny that she was worried she was using her powers to make people like her, because since I'm not a character in the story and therefore immune to her fictional power, I can attest she is really that easy to like. So we will never know whether the cast of Crossbell loved her for that or because of her powers, but considering that power is based on controlling timelines, and that I don't think there a timeline where people don't think KeA is cute is possible, she shouldn't be worried imo.

I suspect the reason Anelace doesn't appear in this arc is that if she met KeA, she would die. Her heart would literally stop. And we can't have that. Also if she saw Penguin KeA, Zemuria would collapse in a singularity of cuteness.

And then there is the Demiourgos stuff. KeA ends up being the thing the villains want, because of course she is, you can't have a mysterious green haired girl with powers who was asleep in a tube if she is not critical to everything. And the bad guys make it work through sheer manipulation, by making her believe she is the only one who can stop her family from dying. And the cruel twist is that she already did that once, so the bad guys have a point. It's clear for anyone who is savvy about this stuff that this plan would never work in the long run, because bad things will always happen sooner or later, but it works because KeA is a child, so a simple explanation convinces her.

That is, until Lloyd breaks into her dimension and brings her back to the light. And then, it turns out one of the things that made the plot of Crossbell work was something similar to Sky: Love. Except then it was a couple's love, and now it's the love of parents towards their child. The SSS ended up not only being the best RPG party, but KeA's parents, and they formed a bond that made the entire story worthwhile. It's okay if this game doesn't have canon romances, because it's already getting a perfect love story with KeA and her family.

9- Elie

I suspect the SSS write-ups will be difficult because they mostly boil down to the same thing: these are very likable people. Even when individual members are not special, the fact is that I'm so comfortable watching those four talk to each other, so confident that they are all people I could easily make friends with IRL, so awed at their impossible chemistry, that I just want them all in the top 10. If the SSS Four could be ranked together, they would be #1 in this list, no contest.

But how about Elie herself? She is fated to be the least exciting of the four, but I've seen people dunk on her online and I don't get it. She runs laps around most of Sky's cast in terms of sheer likability.

Elie's role as "the boring one" is deceptive. A character like that exists to provide emotional grounding to the group. She is the most mature. The most emotionally stable. The one who can keep her cool when other characters are having breakdowns, and be the supporting friend they need. Elie's presence in the party automatically makes them more friendly, more coherent. She is the one with the wisdom score. Her role is similar to Joshua and Kevin's, but those two were so full of issues they demanded help as much as they provided, Elie doesn't.

Elie's immediate equivallent that comes to mind is Kloe, but Elie is better because she is more flawed. Kloe was so pure, she was untouchable. Nobody messed with her, and she didn't mess with anyone. Elie snarks, she joins the party banter and cracks jokes, and she finds herself in embarassing situations. Even if Elie is not the most fun of the four, she manages to be a counterbalance to the silliness of others while still adding to the fun herself.

Elie is also a great partner to Lloyd in their work because she gets politics and negotiations, way better than the others (Wazy probably does too, but he doesn't care enough to chime in). So she can contribute to the deductions while adding the very important component of politics to the solving of the mystery.

She suffers a bit because she is the first main character to get her development, early in Zero chapter 2, and she doesn't progress much from that. But I tend to think people overrate the importance of constant character development. Elie gets a pretty good arc, becomes a better person and then spends a game and a half just being great. I don't need much else.

Another thing that may take some points from her is the way they handled her romance, though that's more on Falcom than on Elie. Looking back after the game is over, her bonding scene in Azure feels VERY forced. It escalates very quickly, and then because the scene is optional, the dialogue after feels like it has way less chemistry between her and Lloyd than it should be, so the whole thing feels like a weird dream. The bonding scene in Zero is better because it escalates less, I can buy that those two are into each other, not that they are about to be married. Anyway, I wanted to post this and this felt like a good place.

8- Kevin

He shows up, but it really has cameo written all over. He's here to be badass and provide some wolrdbuilding Wazy can relate with. It's nice to learn his new dominion name though, and that he took it from Rufina! Kevin has recovered a lot since 3rd, or at least it looks like he did, you never know since he is a master at concealing his feelings. But we see Ries is now keeping a close eye on him, so that he doesn't lose it without her noticing again. This is one of the best duos in the series honestly, even if it's not clear whether they are romantic or not.

With Arios I feel like it's not how much I like him as an individual, but how good the writing of him was.

Rixia is in a similar boat, too.

12- Weissmann

He is gone, but he is now the measuring stick for every villain to compare themselves to. And so far, he remains unchallenged.

11- Agate

/////////////////////////

Current rankings:

11- Agate
12- Weissmann

Very High Tier

13- Arios
14- Ries
15- Richard
16- Kloe
17- Rixia
18- Nial
19- Anelace
20- Tita
21- Ilya
22- Zin

High Tier

23- Wazy
24- Cao Lee
25- Scherazard
26- Dudley
27- Jona
28- Dorothy
29- Campanella
30- Lechter

Mid-High Tier

31- Grace
32- Dieter
33- Gilbert
34- Cassius
35- Garcia
36- Kilika
37- Sergei
38- Dunan
39- Mogran
40- Shirley
41- Aina
42- Wald
43- Mariabell
44- Arianhod
45- Grimwood
46- Amalthea
47- Loewe
48- The Hayworths

Mid Tier

49- Joerg
50- Julia
51- Maybelle
52- Fran
53- Cecile
54- The Ravens
55- Noel
56- Osborne
57- Sigmund
58- Novartis
59- Bleublanc
60- Walter
61- Abbas
62- Zeit

Mid-Low Tier

63- Mueller
64- Guenter
65- Don
66- Luciola
67- Shizuku
68- Kurt
69- Sieg
70- Mierelle
71- Ernest
72- Sully

Low Tier

73- Hans
74- Erika
75- Rufina
76- Henry
77- Cid
78- Michel
79- Mary
80- Ein
81- Sonya
82- Guy
83- Kyle

Unlikable Tier

84- Jill
85- Albert Russel
86- Queen Alicia
87- Don Marconi
88- Dan Russel
89- Clem
90- Josette

Unranked:

Estelle
Olivier
Renne
Joshua
Kevin
Lloyd
Elie
Randy
Tio
KeA

And now we only have 10 characters left. And we get to the point of this ranking, which was to gush about how perfect the main cast of Crossbell is. Later this week.

18- Nial

Also won a Fulitzer! Though I think it was more for the stuff in SC than from FC, but the later is where he really shined as a reporter imo.

17- Rixia

So Rixia's ranking floor was always one of the highest. Even if she got nothing story-wise, she would still do well, because let's get the main fact out: she is cool as hell.

Yin is one of the harder bosses in Zero, and just steals the show in the Arc en Ciel chapter

And the assassin continues to be a major presence in the arc, and to be Heiyue's main muscle, sharing Cao Lee's position as a bad guy who never directly confronts the heroes. Even after the mask is out, Rixia still looks and acts really cool as a ninja girl.

But she also got to have a character arc, and it was a REALLY good one. Rixia feels obligated to be an assassin to honor her father's wishes, but it turns out she really likes dancing. It's not a cover or anything, it's who she is (This is a mirror to Wazy's on arc, too). But Shirley finds out who she is, and attacks her friends just to get her to react. And so Rixia gets sent in a rampage of revenge.

But Ilya, being the monster she is, recovers on his own and makes Rixia realizes what she really cares about, so the later decides to prove a point about herself, and to defeat Shirley without actually killing her.

And there is also the bonding scene, which is my favorite in the batch. The twist that Rixia's father just wanted her to be herself is pretty cool. It turns out she was never chained to anything. And now she gets to figure out what Yin is supposed to be (another variation of bracer, I guess).

Rixia's main issue is that the game takes it very sweet time to let her join the party. Heck, it takes a long time to even let the party know who she is. That means 90% of the time, we are stuck with either Civilian Rixia, who is true to herself but not particularly fun, or Yin Trying to Act Evil, who is cool but also fake.

Just imagine if instead of Noel and Wazy, Azure's party had Dudley and Rixia as permanent members. I think we are not worthy of the perfect videogame it would have been.

16- Kloe

She is also here, but as a cameo. And that's okay. I don't mind more Sky Cast cameos, give me them all.

15- Richard

He is not here, but he gets mentioned in a blink-it-and-you'll-miss-it scene. Which is a nice piece of worldbuilding where the series is letting us know exactly how well Liberl is doing in the spy game. Which is worse than Erebonia/Calvard given the fact they don't have an actual intelligence agency, but way better than that status would normally allow. Because Richard is just really good at his job. I feel like the revelation would have landed harder if the game had actually bothered to make Grace's photographer an important character, though. I already forgot his name.

14- Ries

Another Sky cameo I really appreciate, and this one is a bigger role than most of the others, which makes sense since she's only had a single game before. Ries gets to be cute more often, now that she is not busy dealing with Kevin's massive issues all the time. And she is still a badass nun. Also, I loved the twist where Ries was shown as this incredibly obvious mole, only for the game to drop that she was a decoy, because the real mole was Wazy.

Unfortunately, she is more of a sidequest wonder, and when things get serious, she is off to fight offsceen battles against an Aeon.

By the way, I also really like how Azure had the 3 Trails protagonists the series has had so far each fight against a different Aeon.

13- Arios

Back when I made my first write-up on Cassius, I highlighted about how his type of character is meant to get killed, so as a twist, the game used his status as a paragon to make him the source of FC's two main conflicts (the coup, and Joshua). It was a clever plot.

Then we move to Zero, and there is another Cassius in town. He is not an S-rank bracer, but that doesn't matter, because it's really the same type of character. The badass who will make every conflict pointless. Because how can there ever be an existential threat to the heroes if someone like Arios is around to bail them?

By making him secretely the villain, ofc. And so, the Trails series finds another clever way to solve the Cassius paradox. And that's great, because before then, Arios is a pretty mid character. He is cool, he is a great father, he has that kind of design (the Loewe design), but he is really just roadblock for villains to deal with.

When he is revealed to be bad, though, not only he becomes a threatening antagonist, we also learn he is a very tormented character. Arios is not sold on what he is doing. He was convinced to quit by Guy, years ago. But Guy died, and so, Arios was sent into a spiral of sunk cost fallacy. He can't stop now, or Guy would have died for nothing. At the same time, he absolutely blames himself for Guy's death, to the point where he refuses to admit otherwise until Lloyd and Dudley just crack his lie open. It doesn't matter that Grimwood did it, it were Arios's actions that caused it.

In the end, I think he just really wanted Lloyd to beat him and pull the truth from him, because that's what Shizuku wanted, and because Arios is now free. The plan failed, so and he gets to accept that his wife is dead and use his remaining days for something that is actually good.

Also back at the start, I said Arios was this game's Loewe, and someone corrected me and said he was the Cassius. Well, turns out he was the Loewe too! He is the game's penultimate boss and he fulfills a similar role as a villain who doubts his own role.

25- Scherazard

24- Cao Lee

Cao Lee is a strong contender for the smartest player in this mess of factions that is Crossbell. The thing with him is that he just knows how to always position himself in a way he always wins. The SSS enters his building, and he already knows they are coming, what they want, and how to give it to them while still benefitting from it himself. It's amazing, because in both games, he is Calvard's equivallent to whatever the game's evil Erebonian-sponsored faction is, from Revache to Red Constellation. At least until Revache is taken over by the cult and RC is hired by the Crois, that is. So the SSS should be antagonizing him. And they do try, by Cao is just 10 steps ahead, every time.

I like him for similar reason that I like Lechter, being this super skilled schemer. But unlike Lechter, who is a comedian, Cao's bigger strength is how fun his interactions with the SSS are, particularly Lloyd. Because you know Lloyd is using every single one of those detective brain cells of his to try to crack Cao, only to fall short. It's just delicious to watch those scenes.

But neither of them imagined what would really defeat Cao wouldn't be Lloyd's detective skills, but his shonen hero pep talk skills. It's incredibly satisfying to finally get a victory over Cao, near the end of Azure when you snatch Rixia from him.

I also can't bring myself to hate Cao, even though he is a dirty criminal, and I think it's just by how good he is a presenting himself. He is a good host and he is polite, he doesn't hide that he is doing shady shit but doesn't let it appear in public. And he just know how to always be the SSS's secondary priority. He is the model of what a mobster should be. I wonder if the series will try to take him down, but I feel like he will manage to worm himself all the way to the end of the series, helping the player characters from the shadows while ruling the underworld.

23- Wazy

Now this one is a mess to untangle. I said before I disliked Noel because she doesn't fit with the SSS. Well this is also so true with Wazy.

Wazy's problem is that he is just mean. He isn't here to make friends, with the player characters, or with the NPCs. In fact, he seems to go out of his way to say things that might ruin otherwise happy situations. You complete a quest, the NPC learns his lesson, and Wazy just decides to say something horrible that may undermine it. This sucks because Trails's strength is the world/character building through small interactions and sidequests, and Wazy seems anthitetical to that. You are trying to build a connection to the world by helping people, and green hair is trying to spoil it.

I said Noel doesn't have enough spice. Wazy's issue is that he has too much of it. So while the SSS snarks, they also have a very strong bond, a real love for each other that makes you know they always be there for each other. Wazy feels like an outsider in it, since the bonding moments just aren't there. And he does fail the one test of character he is given for that, when Randy is leaving and Wazy just goes "I won't interfere as long as you don't mess with my past either". Understandable, but the others would all interfere. Back at the start of the game, I though Wazy would add comedy to the party and be their Olivier, and while it's true he does to an extent, a lot of the time he is more awkward than funny. I think it's interesting to have a foil that is so non-cop in a party of cops, but he does it too hard.

One tricky thing about Wazy is that while he is horrible on the surface, it's pretty clear he is a good guy inside. One thing that's pretty admirable is his decision to build the Testaments and help all those delinquents become adults, as I explained in the Abbas write-up. You know when things get serious, Wazy will come through. It's just that in Trails, the time when things aren't serious yet is just as important.

That said, while I was going to rank him much lower initially, the final chapter made him grow on me a little. His bonding scene with Lloyd is nice, his past is interesting, and everything involving him stopping Wald is great. It'd nice that Wazy feels like a member of the Downtown District, and that he has a personal connection to Wald. It's also interesting how the Downtown District and the Testaments were probably the only big thing Wazy did in his life because he wanted to, and are who he really is. So he vows to keep coming back to it and stay connected to it. And that is great character growth. Too bad there had to be those awkward 5 chapters of Wazy being a terrible cop in the middle.

22- Zin

21- Ilya

Ilya was one of the game's pleasant surprises. When you have a character like this, a superstar, it's just easy to make her a pure, kind fairy, or to make her just arrogant. What we got instead is someone who is nice without being childish, and who has some pretty interesting depths.

Ilya seems like a statement on tenacity. Not just hard work and training, but on wanting something so hard you give your entire life to it. Not everyone should do that, but the truth is, most of humanity's greatest genius do exactly that. It's impressive to watch Ilya talk, when Rixia or Sully are bringing their doubts and she is like "So what? You want to dance, right? Then dance". And it works. I kept waiting for an emotional talk between her and Rixia and what I got instead was much cooler, because Ilya still made it all about dancing. And it worked, because the dancing is at the core of Rixia's personality. I was also awed by her speech when she said the reason she joined Arc and Ciel is that she thought she could do better than them. And to this day, she is not satisfied. She will never be. She will live her life striving for the absolute perfection, and because of that, she will raise the bar of what can be done with her art.

Ilya is also pretty nice to intereact with. I like how she greets Lloyd with "Hey, if it's not my favorite little guy". I feel like that could sound patronizing, but she really does respect Lloyd and his friends.

... I have to mention that boob grabbing thing, right?

Yeah ok that sucks a lot, but I just don't find myself hating Ilya for it. I think I hate the game more than I hate the characters. It helps that she tones down on that a lot by Azure, so it feels like old memory. Though if she had kept groping Rixia all the way into Azure, I think her position would be a a tier or two lower.

20- Tita

19- Anelace

Eh WRPGs had a pretty good showing last contest, so I'd wager BG3 is somewhere along the likes of Witcher and Skyrim and Dark Souls in terms of strength.

We are almost ten years without a normal games contest so it's almost impossible to make a real comparison to past games in strength, though.

31- Grace

Ok so the entire deal with Grace is that she exists to be compared to Nial (and Dorothy). That's a tough ordeal, because those two are amazing.

Grace doesn't quite do the dynamic as well as those. I think she is somewhat meaner, which makes it harder for get to form a strong friendship with the SSS, the way Nial forms with Estelle and Joshua (then again, it's also Estelle, so that's an advantage Nial got). The alliance with the SSS doesn't function as often and as effectively as the one in FC did. She also competes with a lot of characters to be the one who shows up to advance our investigation, which makes her role less memorable too (and there is also the issue she is dealing with Lloyd, who is such a good detective he often already has all the info she came to offer).

She is a very fun character, though. She is snarky and knows everything of Crossbell, so she has a knack to make entertaining lines while revealing stuff.

She does have a rough start, though. In the first few chapters where she just roasts the party for no reason. But then she notices the SSS are effective, and she starts helping them more than she hinders. It's clear for a while there is a lot of self interest going on, but by the time we get to the end of Zero and Grace is rooting for us from the roof, we know she's just a fan now.

Grace couldn't really be Nial, tbh. But she's pretty cool.

30- Lechter

The biggest winner of this list. He went from 49 to 30, and I added another 40 characters, 29 of which he ended up ahead of, so that's a lot of people he beat.

I used to hate Lechter. What changed?

Two things. First, and most important, he is actually funny now. Comedy is a big thing I value in characters, look at my current top 2 if have forgotten. Lechter has gained a better repertory than hiding from a student council. Playing around with cats, helping the SSS escape while pretending he's not doing it, trolling the miner guy in the casino game (that scene was INCREDIBLE), going around Crossbell with vacation clothes while doing spy work, etc. Lechter also benefits a lot from his new voice acting, because his voice is hilarious. He really sounds like a smartass now.

Another thing is that Sky 3rd told us Lechter was a hidden genius, but didn't do much work to show it. This arc does. It is clear Lechter is playing everyone, all the time, and that he always has every card in hand (including the joker). If he shows up, you just know he will make a big advance to the plot while also somehow winning from it, even though his party is one of the arc's major antagonists. That's Lechter: he is one of the main bad guys, but he always find himself in a position of alliance, and ready to leave just as his army is about to occupy Crossbell.

Lechter is still somewhat hard to like, because he is the freaking head of Gestapo, and the game is still hiding its hand about Lechter's true motivations. So he could be a good guy with a plan, or just an asshole. I'm betting on the former, but I need to see it, and it's hard to swallow him openly supporting Osborne, who we know is a bastard.

29- Campanella

This guy appears a lot and does a lot, but I'm not sure if he gained much. He continues to be an incredibly fun antagonist, and they paradoxically made it work here by giving him the most annoying fight in history. He is also a complete mystery, but at this point I'm just okay with having more Campanella every game for the lulz alone.

28- Dorothy

Won a Fulitzer. I'm happy for her!

27- Jona

Ok tell me if when you started playing FC, you imagined one of the major characters in a game would be a dumb, trash talking, hacker teenage troll who lives in a computer room living from pizza and tetris.

Jona sticks out like a sore thumb in this steampunk universe, which is getting less steam and more punk as each game passes. But the kid works, for the same reason as Lechter does. He is HILARIOUS. Both when he is getting the better of other characters, or when he's getting trolled. He has the best lines, bragging about his 1137 skillz like the dumb kid he is, or whining about lack of a good PC.

It also works because I'm sure a lot of us has friends like this, or were like this every once in a while. Both are true for me. He is the stereotypical nerd, for better and for worse, and definitely for funny.

26- Dudley

IIIIIIIDARO!

Ok we had a lot of fun characters in this batch, but fun time is over. It's Dudley time.

Dudley's role starts similar to Agate's. He is the mentor who doesn't believe in the main characters, so he cockblocks them. But the plot disagrees, and he eventually has to catch up to them. Dudley sells the role a lot better than Agate though, because he is an experienced detective instead of an anime dude with a giant RPG sword.

Dudley is also the biggest tsundere in this arc, because as soon as the SSS proves their value near the end of Zero, Dudley admits it, but he will make sure he is protesting every second of it. He gets mad if you leave the Revache building to do quests (fittingly enough, that's the only time you get to do random quests with Dudley, other than monster exterminations, in the arc). You find him buying shoes and he wants to make it PERFECTLY CLEAR that he is doing it for professional reasons, not because he is a suit geek, because serious people like him don't geek.

Dudley's issue is that he gets the least play of the main 8 characters, and also the least development. The game is just happy to have him as a mentor figure, a role he performs superbly, but we don't get anything from his part, his fears, his wishes, even his family. I like Dudley, and I think these games desperately needed more Dudley, and to show other sides of him. He mostly functions as "another person who knew Guy", a role this arc has a little too many of.

We are down to 25! I have tried to draft some tiers, now that I have an idea of what the list looks like (yes the "mid" point of the list is way below 45. That's on purpose, it's a great cast).

26- Dudley
27- Jona
28- Dorothy
29- Campanella
30- Lechter

Mid-High Tier

31- Grace
32- Dieter
33- Gilbert
34- Cassius
35- Garcia
36- Kilika
37- Sergei
38- Dunan
39- Mogran
40- Shirley
41- Aina
42- Wald
43- Mariabell
44- Arianhod
45- Grimwood
46- Amalthea
47- Loewe
48- The Hayworths

Mid Tier

49- Joerg
50- Julia
51- Maybelle
52- Fran
53- Cecile
54- The Ravens
55- Noel
56- Osborne
57- Sigmund
58- Novartis
59- Bleublanc
60- Walter
61- Abbas
62- Zeit

Mid-Low Tier

63- Mueller
64- Guenter
65- Don
66- Luciola
67- Shizuku
68- Kurt
69- Sieg
70- Mierelle
71- Ernest
72- Sully

Low Tier

73- Hans
74- Erika
75- Rufina
76- Henry
77- Cid
78- Michel
79- Mary
80- Ein
81- Sonya
82- Guy
83- Kyle

Unlikable Tier

84- Jill
85- Albert Russel
86- Queen Alicia
87- Don Marconi
88- Dan Russel
89- Clem
90- Josette

Unranked:

1- Bestelle
2- Olivier
3- Renne
4- Joshua
5- Kevin
6- Agate
7- Weissmann
8- Ries
9- Richard
10- Kloe
11- Nial
12- Anelace
13- Tita
14- Zin
15- Scherazard

Arios
Cao Lee
Elie
Ilya
KeA
Lloyd
Randy
Rixia
Tio
Wazy

40- Shirley

Continuing with the list of villains, we have our former jagger and newest enforcer, Bloody Shirley.

It's hard to decide what to think of her because she is a monster. I said Novartis is the worst one, but Shirley has a counter-argument. She really just enjoys killing people. With childish glee.

There is a parallel to be done with Renne in Sky SC, who was also a depiction of a very young person who was a bloodthirsty killer. Renne was more offputting because she was a little girl, while Shirley is a teen. But with Renne, there was this feeling that something was off, that she was hiding behind a persona and suffering inside, something that was brilliantly exposed by Estelle. This isn't the case with Shirley. She is one of the most real characters in the cast of Crossbell. While everyone is suffering with doubts, Shirley is just having a good time. She is the only boss in the Azure Tree whose dungeon is a happy place. That makes her both endearing, and even more off-putting.

But while she enjoys her "craft", she is not chained to it, like Sigmund. She wants to have fun, wherever that fun can be found. Eventually, it takes her to Ouroboros.

I'm not sure if such a character can have more depth. She is a psychopath, after all. But I'm intrigued, because maybe she can. Either way, Shirley is one of the most fun villains in this arc.

39- Mogran

38- Dunan

37- Sergei

The boss of SSS is interesting. He is the epitome to "hands-off approach". Which makes sense because it fits with the concept of the SSS itself. They are a group that has autonomy to pick requests, a broad definition of what those requests may include, and a broad goal to "operate out of the system while also having access to it". When you have a job description like that, it doesn't make sense to have a micromanaging boss. Sergei knows it, and micromanage he does not, only when necessary. Usually in phone calls just after you finish the last Urgent Quest, to ask the group to check some key place or avoid somewhere dangerous.

The hands-off approach means it's a little hard to think of times Sergei really got to be awesome, though. It's always Lloyd who figures everything out, while the boss gives some bits of info to help him complete the picture. And he shows up to save everyone when things really get bad, usually with his trusty shotgun, but since he is not a playable character, the game always finds a way to leave him at the door so the kids can go inside and beat the main villain.

That said, Sergei is likable, and his interactions with the SSS are always fun. He trusts them, having handpicked them, and he usually knows how to say something that satisfies both them and the player, while also keeping them from digging too deep into somewhere they could explode on their face. Sergei is the boss everyone wishes they could have, tbh.

36- Kilika

Gained a few positions this time, because the series can't stop finding ways to make me like Kilika more. We knew Kilika was going to be a spymaster from 3rd, now we get to see how it works.

I think the keyword here is "Cognitive Dissonance". Because the Calvard government is clearly an antagonist for at least a game and a half. They intefere with Crossbell politics, they use Heiyue to arrest political dissidents, etc. Does Kilika take place in all of that? Maybe. The story doesn't show. Which makes sense, she is a spy, not an assassin or a policymaker. But it makes hard to decide how to feel about Kilika, especially when she used to be the trusty guild clerk, and good old friend of party member Zin.

But Kilika manages to stay out of anything incriminating, and she gets to be really cool whenever she shows up. The quest where she arrest the old counterfeiter is awesome. She has a knack for showing up whenever it's useful for the party but always putting herself in a position that benefits her more than the SSS. She and Lechter spot each other before the party does (though the player already knows who they are) and immediately make an alliance, even though their countries hate each other.

I feel like Kilika will stay in a pretty comfortable position in the alignment chart, at least until Daybreak. Because as much as the game wants to convince us Calvard is as bad as Erebonia, it just isn't, and Calvard always manages to look a little better. Now what to think of the other spymaster, that's an entire new can of worms. But I'm getting to that soon.

35- Garcia

The most unexpected playable character. Garcia is the classic "honorable villain". You prolong the story long enough, and this kind of guy eventually becomes a hero.

It wasn't always like this, though. When Revache was still relevant, Garcia was a force to be reckoned. He was smart enough to negotiate with the SSS, but mean enough to tell them to GTFO when they got annoying. His meeting with them in the Revache building is fire. Him chasing the party in Mishelam is also really cool, with Garcia getting to be the guy who exposes Randy's secret.

But the cult got in and Garcia watched his men turn into zombies. And we learned he had a code. So he tried to rebel against that, but it was too late, and he was forced to become a demon.

Fast forward to Azure, and Garcia forms the most unlikely friendship with Lloyd. The talk is basically them bonding over what Guy would do over and over, which is a bit repetitive. But Garcia "pretending" to beat Lloyd them getting out with him is cool, and him vowing to comeback for his scumbag of a boss who barely beat Dan Russel in this list is mesmerizing, and makes me appreciate the guy more.

Well, there will be more games, so Garcia is inevitably getting more of a redemption. He is basically a good guy now. I'm not complaining.

34- Cassius

33- Gilbert

32- Dieter

Ok, whose idea was it to name this guy "Dieter", when that word also means "member of the diet"? You have no idea how confusing this made the dialogue! As least until the diet stopped being relevant, around Azure.

Dieter is higher than his daughter because his motivations are more clear. He is not doing this just for selfishness, after all. This is the richest man in Zemuria, someone who has everything, so he wants to also make a difference. Armed with a millenium old plan from his family, he seizes power and forces his country to be independent.

The tragedy of Dieter was highlighted by Grimwood: he is too much of an idealist. In seizing power, he turnes Crossbell into a fascist state, drowns the two countries he is trying to defeat in civil wars, and tanks the economies of both his country and the rest of the continent's. So he gets backstabbed by other villains. That said, I have a feeling Dieter might have agreed with the reality writing plan, so I'm not sure if that was the ideal point for backstabbing. Just more of Mariabell being whimsical, I guess.

Dieter is also very fun. As a huge idealist who also gets to do what he wants, Dieter is out to make epic speeches and daring political plays, and he has some superb voice acting. It's always awesome to see him speak, even if you know he's full of shit.

And I see a parallel between him and Richard, another patriot who went too hard to protect his country. Dieter is what happens if Richard actually won. The militarized state, and the economic woes. And like Richard, he is another character who is likely on fast track to redemption land. I won't lie, I felt bad at the scene where he is being taken to prison at the credits of Azure. He deserved it, but I wish it could have been different.

I'm fine with Mariabell if they just make her a bad guy. She works as it, because she is fun.

If they try to make me sympathize with her, then it feels flat, because she is an ass. The story seems like it wants both things, though.

It's the same problem with Luciola. The plot isn't sure if it wants her to have depth or just be a monster.

45- Ian Grimwood

I spent the entire game with the name "Grossberg" in my head, who is another fat lawyer character from a videogame seires I like.

And for a while this was going to be the real comparison to make, because man, was Grimwood just as underwhelming as the other guy. The game hyped him as some big partner in crime for the good guys, but we ended up only going there every other chapter, to get a small nudge in the right direction and that's about it. I think there's a chapter in Zero I even forgot to go to his office at all.

But then, there was a reason for that! Grimwood was underwhelming because he was the mastermind behind the entire duology's plot! That's a cool twist, and while it follows similar plots (he lost his family, etc), they really sold Grimwood as this cold, calculating guy who is manipulating everyone.

His redemption at the end of the game is a little clunky, though. Lloyd convinces him with a similar argument he uses on Noel ("you don't actually want to do this"), and it just works. The Trails series is optimistic, but sometimes they overdo it.

44- Arianhod

Well this is a test for how high a character can reach with badassery alone, because that's the main reason Arianhod hasn't been ranked yet.

But man. Is she absolutely BADASS.

The teenage nerd in me is just fanboying over this beautiful blonde with a medieval armor and a huge lance that can canonically defeat anyone in the verse. The designers went to town here, both conceptually and in terms of actual drawing. This is like Erza from Fairy Tail except without the baggage of hundreds of bad chapters to weigh her down.

And her personality is nothing but intriguing. She is basically a hero, who is aligned with Ouroboros for ~reasons~. She is honorable and keeps promises, she steps in to protect the innocent, she tested the party just to see if we had what it takes to save KeA and not die, because she cares.

What is her deal, I can't wait to actually know. Apparently shes hundreds of years old too.

43- Mariabell

Before the reveal, I was prepared to dump Mariabell at the bottom of the list, along with Josette. That's how bad she was. Her voice was annoying, she wasn't particularly important, and she kept antagonizing Lloyd for the most unfair, arbitrary reason. Lloyd wasn't making moves on Elie at that point, and Mariabell didn't have the right to demand anything from them either. Much less to grope her.

I think I found a pattern here, because I dislike Josette for a similar reason, which is antagonizing the MC over some one-sided possession of another character.

But then Mariabell is the main villain of the entire freaking arc. And well, that changes how you are supposed to perceive someone.

Because Villain Mariabell is a riot. Suddenly her annoying voice is actually hammy. She is wearing this suit that looks like it came out of Power Rangers, complete with a magical staff, making villanious speeches and attacking teammates for having outlived their usefulness. Her s-craft is amazing. She is manipulative. She is behind everyone, even the guy who is stated to be "the puppetmaster". This Mariabell hails from the Weissmann School of Vilanny, and while she hasn't quite reached the level of her predecessor yet, she works hard to get close.

I guess the lingering issue with her is her alignment is still a bit unclear. She attacked Grimwood, but let him live. She failed to rewrite reality, but seems fine with it. You are never sure if she is actually doing this for some goodness or for pure self-interest. Even Elie lapmshades it a bit, Mariabell is just whimsical and does what she wants. I guess a character like this is fine, but makes me hard to empathize, either positively or negatively, so she loses some points for it.

On a tangent, this kind of reflects how I feel about Ouroboros at this point. They started as this perfect evil manipulator group, but over time evolved to a detatched anti-villain group who doesn't particularly care about the outcomes of their plans, and now I'm having trouble judging their individual members for it. Do the Anguis even know what the Orpheus Final Plan entails? And what about the Enforcers? Because logic says that at least Josh and Renne don't. And if they don't know, then what is the point of joining this group, anyway? Who knows.

42- Wald

Another pleasant surprise, because early on, Wald was really just a generic delinquent. Wazy was the suave one, Wald was the brute one, and that had dumb delinquent fights the SSS had to stop. It was a nice dynamic, but one meant for the Prologue of a first game. Though it does make that the best prologue in the series so far.

But then he had to get a twist, which is a apparently a statement against the dangers of sexual repression.

Man, he just likes Wazy. He can say whatever he wants about how he just wanted strenght, that's just the toxic masculinity ahnd the sexual repression speaking. Wald wanted friends, he wanted a family, and above all, he wanted the green haired pretty boy. And the boy dumped him, destroyed the status quo he was used to, so he lost it. And so he gave in to gnosis and joined an alliance that was clearly way out of his depth. It's hilarious how much Wald doesn't fit with the Red Constellation and the likes of Arios and Grimwood.

That's one weird as hell arc, but it was fun. Wald is fun times.

On another side note, I've noticed this series is chock full of implied homosexual relationships, with Maybelle/Lila and Ilya/Rixia being the other big ones. But it never actually commits. I guess it's the damn Japanese conservatism inteferring. Also, 2011 was still a bit ahead of the time where they started actually showing this stuff in mainstream media. I wonder if the series gets more explicit about it down the line, though, because they already showed they can make some pretty likable couples already.

41- Aina

51- Maybelle

It feels weird that in the most capitalist setting of all, there was no mention of her. But maybe this was necessary. She might have been too OP in Crossbell.

50- Julia

She is here, but also doesn't have much to do. The highlight is the running gag about how every woman in Crossbell is fangirling about her, and mostly ignoring Kloe. You go, Julia!

49- Joerg

The classic jerk with a heart of gold. Joerg likes dolls and robots way more than he likes people (I can vibe, people suck). But he likes Renne and will protect her. And he hates people who disrespect his creations, and will get back at them.

Joerg seems like he will be really hard to get anything from, but when we get to the end of the game, he's all in with the SSS's cause, taking down the enemy barrier and repairing the damage at Arc en Ciel for free. Because as much as he is connected to Ouroboros, Novartis and those other guys are asses, and Joerg is not.

This only makes Ouroboros's motivation harder to understand, but I like Joerg. You can't always have his support, but if you respect him, he'll respect you back.

48- The Hayworths

I chose to rank Harold and Sophia together because they are basically the same character, at least for the reasons that make them worth talking about. Colin is not included here because he's barely a character.

Although I didn't notice it for most of Zero because I hadn't memorized the character appearances, the Hayworths are meant to be the ultimate red herring. The stuff Renne went through is the most horrible ever written in a videogame, and those two are at the source of it. They are the worst, right?

But they aren't. Not only they are devoid of malice, you can't even spot what they did wrong. They made what seemed like the best decision at the time, and were victims of an absolute stroke of bad luck. No one could have predicted the cult would decide to raid that one place they left Renne at.

But they feel horrible for it, and that's without even knowing the actual hell that happened to their daughter afterwards. I'm kind of relieved they don't know, because I think it would break them. So they dediced to dedicate the rest of their lives to redemption, to make themselves model citizens and parents. And do they accomplish it. Harold is a paragon of decency and leadership in Crossbell, I kept saying he should be mayor and I gotta say, it wasn't a joke. And Sophia is also shown to be a great neighbor too.

So when the Renne plot happens, the player just feels bad for everyone involved. The Hayworths story is a true kind of tragedy, about bad things happening to someone who did not deserve them at all. There is no karma here, it's just reality being stone cold.

They become pretty minor after that Chapter 3 ends, though. I don't know if it would be a good idea to do more with them, but since they are around, I kind of wish the game tried something. I also wonder if they will ever learn Renne is alive. Probably for the best that they don't, but the fan in me wants it to happen.

47- Loewe

46- Amalthea

And that's it for the lower half!

46- Amalthea
47- Loewe
48- The Hayworths
49- Joerg
50- Julia
51- Maybelle
52- Fran
53- Cecile
54- The Ravens
55- Noel
56- Osborne
57- Sigmund
58- Novartis
59- Bleublanc
60- Walter
61- Abbas
62- Zeit
63- Mueller
64- Guenter
65- Don
66- Luciola
67- Shizuku
68- Kurt
69- Sieg
70- Mierelle
71- Ernest
72- Sully
73- Hans
74- Erika
75- Rufina
76- Henry
77- Cid
78- Michel
79- Mary
80- Ein
81- Sonya
82- Guy
83- Kyle
84- Jill
85- Albert Russel
86- Queen Alicia
87- Don Marconi
88- Dan Russel
89- Clem
90- Josette

Unranked:

1- Bestelle
2- Olivier
3- Renne
4- Joshua
5- Kevin
6- Agate
7- Weissmann
8- Ries
9- Richard
10- Kloe
11- Nial
12- Anelace
13- Tita
14- Zin
15- Scherazard
16- Dorothy
17- Campanella
18- Gilbert
19- Cassius
20- Dunan
21- Mogran
22- Aina
23- Kilika
49- Lechter

Arianhod
Arios
Cao Lee
Dieter
Dudley
Elie
Garcia
Grace
Grimwood
Ilya
Jona
KeA
Lloyd
Mariabell
Randy
Rixia
Sergei
Shirley
Tio
Wald
Wazy

@Zeit

Sure but that's pretty plot device-y. Zeit is cool but I can't vibe with the actual character that much, you know.

Not to put him in the upper half of this list that is filled with amazing characters, at least.

@Noel

Yeah ok I can buy those. A lot of it is implication, though. I prefer when the story actually shows/explains stuff. It doesn't really spend a lot of time showing what is going on in Noel's head, she just changes her mind pretty quickly and it feels like the game is rushing it to make the party complete again.

Also I have a counterpoint: Mierelle. She knew even less than Noel and as soon as she saw what was happening, she NOPE'd out of it. Her existance makes Noel look so bad.

56- Giliath Osborne

He shows up again, but it's just another tease, really. Though a really cool one. I think this guy is going to be fire when we get to Cold Steel.

55- Noel

Alright, how do I unpack this.

Noel is ok. She is likable, she is friendly. She is SO boring, though.

The thing with the SSS is that, likable people as they may be, they all have some level of malice. Tio is snarky. Elie is kind of snarky too, and gets scheming and politics, even if she isn't a schemer herself. Randy is pretty honest but he makes adult jokes and makes fun of other characters for sexual/dating situations. Lloyd is the most innocent of the four when it comes to casual banter, but is amazing at figuring out other people's intentions, and his understanding of politics is only behind Elie's. And don't even get me started on Wazy.

And then we have Noel, who doesn't get romance/sex, doesn't get politics, doesn't get schemes, is incapable of snark and spends the entire game just being clueless and reacting as the other members figure the story out.

Like, she feels so useless in this party of detectives (because while Lloyd is the only detective, it's really a group of investigators). Lloyd leads the investigation, Elie and Wazy help with it, and Randy and Tio aren't that big on deduction, but they at least add some edge to the casual banter and contribute with their background experience/skills. Noel contributes in fights, and is their driver. And she is barely quotable at all.

But she has a character arc, right? Eh, not really. The traitor story was an attempt at one, but the way it's solved is so hasty and confusing. I'm still not sure if she betrayed the party because of patriotism, because she is afraid of questioning orders or because of sadness towards losing her father, and the implication is that she got over it because she is in love with Lloyd. I would have preferred if they had pushed with it, took Noel all the way to the Azure Tree, maybe have her be the first boss and only then join the party. Would have made her more of a villain, but also more interesting. Or instead, spent more time in her arc early in the game, instead of just some hints of it when you talk to her mother, so that her treason would feel like a foregone conclusion. I don't know, I don't write videogames, but they didn't write this character well.

Noel is a sweetheart, she is someone I'd love to be friends with, but she is not interesting enough to rank high. And so, she is the first (non wolf) party member that falls here.

54- The Ravens

Yes, I ranked those 3 losers above Noel. You know what they got? A satisfying character arc.

53- Cecile

In an arc full of sweethearts, Cecile reigns as the queen of sweetness (except for maybe KeA). She is the stereotypical kind nurse. It's hard not to like Cecile, she is just too nice of a person. She is also a strong candidate for damsel in distress too, since her hospital is an easy target for any resident bad guys, but hey, the trope is famous because it works.

I'm a little underwhelmed by what they did with her, because early on it seems like she is going to be this super major character, being related to Lloyd and all. But really, she is just a major civilian character who exists to give Lloyd some grounding, some personal connection to Crossbell, and doesn't have any big plot going on. But hey, those characters are really important and are the backbone of Trails, and Cecile does that job well.

I also like her quirk of being a crazy shipper. She ships Lloyd with literally everyone! Even the dudes! Good stuff.

52- Fran

I looked at the two Seeker sisters and it was clear which one I liked the most. It's not Crossbell without Fran to greet you with MINA-SAAAN every time you open the terminal, then make anime girl noises as she dumps the quest rewards on you. That's another anime stereotype, but it's done well here.

Fran is a little flat of a character, though. She is a really nice person, and that's about it. And I would have liked if they had used all that teasing of "you will have to face Noel, are you sure you can take it?" they kept making which led to absolutely nowhere, and might have improved both her and Noel's characters.

Also, I absolutely love her in the Anton quest (no, I'm not going to rank Anton). She is way better at noticing romance than Noel is, except when it comes to herself, in which case she is completely clueless!

61- Abbas

This guy is funny because he sticks out like a sore thumb among the Testaments. It's obvious there is SOMETHING going on here. Why is this big, scary but also educated dude doing in a teenage street gang? Also him not having a character portrait in Zero is a crime, really. He is not that minor of a character. Cheap devs.

Abbas is stoic and rarely talks more than necessary. He is here to be undercover and that's it. But there are some bits here and there that show he is a nice guy. The big one is the sequence where he gives the Testaments and the Vipers some martial arts lessons.

The Testaments were an undercover operation, but they ended up also being a successful social project. They picked up some poor teens with no life pespective and taught them how to run a business! I love details like that. This makes both Wazy and Abbas look better tbh.

60- Walter

59- Bleublanc

It seems Falcom is dedicated to have this guy appear in every game. If not as an Ouroboros boss, as the eternal quest giver. I, for one, approve of this decision. His quests can be annoying, but they are always very funny.

This doesn't really count as a new thing that lets me shoot the character upwards, though.

58- F. Novartis

Who the hell introduces themselves using an abbreviation? What is your real name, Novartis? WHAT ARE YOU HIDING?

Ok so maybe you didn't notice, but this is probably the most evil character in Trails to Azure.

The reasoning is not in Azure though, but in 3rd. The Gordias Project star door, which goes into detail the string of people this man killed, put in comas or made insane, in order to find out a way to pilot a giant robot. Until he finally tested it on a 6 yo girl traumatized by prostitution and previous human experimentation, and it worked.

But it's hard to feel like Novartis is evil during Azure, because of his nature. He is low key. Novartis is kind of the opposite of Weissmann, someone who is not here to make a grandious villain performance. He is just a scientist, who wants to collect some data and develop new tech. So he says the necessary, doesn't antagonize the good guys for no reason, doesn't stay longer than needed and doesn't take dumb, unecessary risks. Novartis is a pragmatist, and a survivor. Will he betray the Grandmaster at some point? Maybe, because the man is a sociopath, and Ouroboros is an anti-villain organization, apparently. But there is a time and place for that, and (mad) science to be done first.

On a side note, I'm intrigued by his existance in Zemuria's scientific community. In Sky, everyone was bewildered at the things the 13 factories were able to create, including the resident genius Russel. Then we learn of the lore of the Epstein Foundation, with all those famous guys, a master and his disciples, but there is no mention of Novartis. No "evil disciple" plot, which is common in those setups. He may be one of the greatest geniuses in the continent, and no one has heard of him. At least Joerg makes some famous dolls. This suggests there is an overworld and an underworld of science in Zemuria, with the later being incredibly good at hiding itself from the former. Interesting setup.

Ok I talked a lot about a relatively lesser character. Novartis is cool but he needs to do a lot more before he can reach a higher tier.

57- Sigmund

We cap this first round of villains with our favorite ogre. Sigmund is horrible, man. He is what Walter claims to be, except the game is not trying to be PG about it this time. He's probably killed thousands of people and he just gloats it. Yet, he is a rather flat character.

But his flatness is the plot point here. Sigmund is the most pure jagger of the bunch, someone who has lived for war his entire life, to the point he can't imagine anything else. It's interesting because I got the impression he really cares about Randy and wants him to be happy. But happiness, for him, is splattering blood everywhere. It takes Randy actually kicking his ass for him to understand his nephew found happiness elsewhere, because in the end, violence is the only language this man understands.

Cool villain, and really effective foil for Randy. I don't need much more.

Current rankings:

57- Sigmund
58- Novartis
59- Bleublanc
60- Walter
61- Abbas
62- Zeit
63- Mueller
64- Guenter
65- Don
66- Luciola
67- Shizuku
68- Kurt
69- Sieg
70- Mierelle
71- Ernest
72- Sully
73- Hans
74- Erika
75- Rufina
76- Henry
77- Cid
78- Michel
79- Mary
80- Ein
81- Sonya
82- Guy
83- Kyle
84- Jill
85- Albert Russel
86- Queen Alicia
87- Don Marconi
88- Dan Russel
89- Clem
90- Josette

Hey, this thread is about Crossbell isn't it (jk feel free to debate CS as long as it's spoiler-free)

68- Kurt

67- Shizuku

Oh yeah, the blind, innocent little girl who lives in a hospital. Another staple of anime/gaming. This character is meant for the player to feel empathy for, so that people who threaten her and the hospital look worse. She is also an alternative to KeA, who isn't always available since she is the mcguffin. She is the innocent civilian that makes the adventure worth fighting for. Just like Tita before her, but without the badass gun.

Shizuku is also important for Arios, obviously. Her introduction as Arios's daughter inform us that he isn't just a badass bracer guy, but a loving father too. And when Arios turns to the dark side, we learn that she is part of the reason for it. But ironically, Shizuku herself hates what Arios has turned into, and her resistance helps give him second thoughts, which allows him to get some kind of redemption in the end. It's also implied that the reason Arios didn't turn into a complete jerk like Ian was that while Ian lost everyone, Arios still had Shizuku, so she is the one who keeps his humanity afloat.

I'm talking a lot about Shizuku relating to other characters, becuause truth is, Shizuku herself is pretty one dimensional. She is adorable and she is easy to like, but not very special tbh.

66- Luciola

She is in this arc, but might as well not be, since she doesn't reveal her identity and only talks about other characters' fates. The most intriguing thing about her is the fact she didn't come back to Ouroboros, though. Luciola continues to be very hard to crack, and I'm intrigued of what they will do with her going forward.

65- Don

Gets some indirect mentioning in the Minnith sidequest, which is nice. But the Capuas themselves don't show up so I can't really raise them.

64- Joachim Guenter

Ok I don't dislike this guy. He isn't half bad. Actually at this point of the list, in a series with so many great characters, I don't dislike anyone anymore. But man, other than whatever the villain of Sky 3rd was, this is the most underwhelming villain in the series so far. I'll say again, he's a bargain bin Weissmann.

Before the reveal, he's Lechter-lite. A guy who doesn't want to work and who pulls the player into wacky sidequests to find him and make him go back to work. He likes to fish, haha. Definitely doesn't warrant a face portrait.

Then there's the reveal, and I'll admit, Guenter is effective enough to carry a story climax. But not more than that. He is a monster, but he is not sadistic in a devious, charismatic way like others. He is smart, but he also got manipulated by the Crois. He is somehow unrelated to all the bad things that happened to the protagonists in the past, from Tio to Renne to Guy's death, so you can't even hate him that much. I feel like the cult might have worked better if we had seen it as its full glory, and actually got to take down the monsters who hurt Tio/Renne. And he is somewhat shocking because of the plot twist, but a plot twist alone doesn't have much substance.

Guenter is fine. He's mean and threatening enough. But he's pretty forgettable.

63- Mueller

He shows up, doing exactly what he did before (unwilling straight man to Olivier). MIB Mueller is pretty funny, tbh. I love how the SSS can see he is hiding something right away.

62- Zeit

Ok this is the first entry that makes me fear for my physical integrity, because Zeit seems like he might be pretty popular. It's a badass mystic wolf! It's cute! It turns into a giant wolf! It's the one behind the biggest exposition dump in the entire arc!

Yeah... that's the thing. Zeit is cool, but what does Zeit really do? For most of the series, he is a police dog who can talk to Tio. He is a snarky police dog though, with a personality that resembles a cat. It's funny! He only helps when he feels like, which is whenever we need it.

Then there is the big reveal, and Zeit becomes an exposition machine. I think all of his dialogue in the Finale is exposition. Then he leaves the party, for "reasons", maybe because there's nothing more to expose.

Ngl I think I liked Zeit more when he didn't talk and was just a snarky wolf. Even then, he was cool, but was really just a mascot. The distance between Zeit and Sieg can't be too huge.

62- Zeit
63- Mueller
64- Guenter
65- Don
66- Luciola
67- Shizuku
68- Kurt
69- Sieg
70- Mierelle
71- Ernest
72- Sully
73- Hans
74- Erika
75- Rufina
76- Henry
77- Cid
78- Michel
79- Mary
80- Ein
81- Sonya
82- Guy
83- Kyle
84- Jill
85- Albert Russel
86- Queen Alicia
87- Don Marconi
88- Dan Russel
89- Clem
90- Josette

Cold Steel 1 bought. The rest can wait since Valve doesn't own me (completely). But this time I really need a long break. Azure was the first game I just couldn't binge every day and finish in less than a month like I used to, because at this point I'm just tired of the series. Also CS is 5 friggin games so I need to prepare myself for binging that.

Plus I just bought Mario Wonder and it's sitting in my living room for weeks, untouched. We gotta fix that.

The entire trails of cold steel series is 50% off on Brazilian steam rn

except tocs 3 which is 67% off

what is this attack on my wallet

I NEED a trails break. But I can't ignore a discount on a game I know I'll play at some point. I suppose I'll buy just the first one since there a risk I'll not like it, and leave it on my library until I feel like playing.

80- Ein Selnate

79- Mary

78- Michel

This guys seemed like it would be more interesting than he actually ended up becoming. At start, his role was to underestimate the SSS, like the other 50 or so NPCs who also did that. But we were offering help, and the bracers needed help, so he took it. Over time, he was forced to accept the SSS was competent. And he is intelligent, so it didn't take too long for that. Arios's influence probably helped, too. Then for the rest of the game he is just that, some guy who trusts us and trades information and help.

It's an useful role, since the bracers are one of the main ally factions in Crossbell. It's also rather boring, though. Michel beats some of the lesser guild clerks from Liberl because he has an actual personality, but he doesn't compare to Kilika, or even to Aina. Heck, Lyn and Aeolia might have a case to be ranked over him. Also he exists to make some "gay people are funny" jokes, which are VERY hit and miss.

77- Cid

76- Henry McDougall

In the darkness that is Crossbell politics, it's interesting to see the guy in charge of it all is one of the most decent members of the cast. But he is utterly and completely powerless. Everyone is playing 4D chess and Henry is not even playing games at all, just being honest and trying to get people to work for the good of the country;

Decent people are likable. So Henry is quite likable. His ineffectiveness makes him a bit difficult to love, though. I'm not sure if I'd vote for him, myself. That said, his Declaration of Invalidity plan does push him a bit up, because it was nice to see the man finally getting to be effective at something.

75- Rufina

74- Erika

73- Hans

72- Sully

Arc an Ciel's third protagonist, and I'm not sure if she was really necessary, tbh. I guess they needed Ilya to have a sidekick that wasn't busy being a legendary assassin.

Sully starts as a sidequest character, with some dumb jokes about her looking like a boy, and a tragic backstory. She hates society and the elites. I can vibe. But Ilya, being awesome like she is, manages to save her, and offers her a better life as a dancer. How Sully managed to become the 3rd main dancer in their play, not having years of training (or assassin training, in Rixia's case), is a mystery. I'd be pissed if I were one of the other members of the crew! That's the power of portraits, I guess. But in Sully's merit, she trains really hard. She takes Ilya's advice to hard and decides to become like her.

And there's her sidequest in Azure, where she has to figure out why to dance, when her audience are capitalist pigs. Ilya gives her a lesson on what being a celebrity means, and she completes her arc.

Sully's problem is that she is kind of a jerk. She never quite breaks character, not even in her optional bonding scene. So she is an interesting character, but she is just hard to vibe with.

71- Ernest

Gilbert 2.0. No, seriously. He is the mayor secretary who is revealed to be evil at the end of the first game's chapter 2 and then keeps appearing again, being connected to the greater villains of the setting.

Somewhere along the way though, Ernest refused to become the joke villain GIlbert would, and took the path to being a monster. The guy is just mean, which is made more interesting from the fact he has such a generic face, something even other characters lampshade. It's offputting to see such kind and normal looking face talk like a super-villain.

But there is only so much a villain who wants to be serious but doesn't have the power or the influence to back it up can do, before they have to be removed from the story. And it happens at the start of Azure, where he is treated like a bargain bin Guenter (and Guenter was already a bargain bin Weissmann so you get the idea of how much the other one sucks now).

But lucky for him, Kevin is around, and instead of dying, he goes to prison. And then at the end of Azure, there is a blink-it-and-you-miss-it scene, where you learn Ernest regrets everything he has done and wants redemption. Pretty cool.

I want to see more of Ernest, tbh.

70- Mierelle

One of the people who got promoted to having portraits in Azure, I'm still not sure if she needed it. Yes she has a major role leading a rebellion in the Finale, but that's secondary as hell. Otherwise, she mostly exists as someone related to Randy, both as an unconfirmed love interest/tsundere (I ship it very much) and as someone from his past who helps reveal some of his traits.

But she has a saving grace. For the entire two games, she is portrayed as this super disciplined soldier who takes no bullshit, but when fascism arrives, she immediately deserts and start fighting against it. That alone pushes her a few positions upwards. Antifascist characters ftw.

69- Sieg

Bask at the mediocrity of those 21 losers who couldn't even beat a friggin bird.

Well, Sig is in Azure and he does more of the same, so he doesn't really get to be reranked. Though I suppose I'll use the opportunity to rank him above Hans, who I'm not sure I should have placed that high.

Current rankings:

69- Sieg
70- Mierelle
71- Ernest
72- Sully
73- Hans
74- Erika
75- Rufina
76- Henry
77- Cid
78- Michel
79- Mary
80- Ein
81- Sonya
82- Guy
83- Kyle
84- Jill
85- Albert Russel
86- Queen Alicia
87- Don Marconi
88- Dan Russel
89- Clem
90- Josette

90- Josette

Doesn't appear in Crossbell so she stays at the bottom since nobody in this game is worse than her. Also Lechter was shot upwards so she stays alone in the bottom tier. What can I say, she sucks.

Maybe I'll restructure the tiers later once I see what they are looking like. Maybe not.

She does have a scene where the Capua guys mention she will give them a hard time if they fail. Which is funny and suggests she is really the one managing the whole company. But eh, it's too minor.

89- Clem

88- Dan Russel

87- Don Marconi

For one of the main antagonists of Zero, this guy kind of just really sucks. Garcia, Cao Lee, the Cult, everyone is just running laps around him. Maybe he was this huge mastermind in the past, but all the wealth got him complacent.

He exists to make Garcia look better, by being the more honorable of the two. Also he has some kick-ass voice acting, because voicing someone this disgusting is a difficult job. I don't hate him, it's a character who had to exist and fulfills a role. But the bar for characters here is high, so he ends up quite low.

86- Queen Alicia

85- Albert Russel

84- Jill

83- Kyle

82- Guy Bannings

Not gonna lie, he is only in this list so it doesn't end up with 89 people. He died before the story begun! But he has the Kamina VA. And his scene with Lloyd at the end of Azure is pretty sweet. Guy is a character who exists more by what other inform of him, which is of a rpetty awesome dude. Someone who has good instincts, who doesn't let rules get in his way and who has some unbreakable morals. Sometimes, people this cool have to die so other characters can midd them, I suppose.

I also added him because Rufina is also in the list. But the scene where Kevin has to kill Rufina again is more impactful, so she's higher.

81- Sonya Baelz

She is ok. Her role is to be one of the trustworthy authority figures, which matters in a series where half of them are revealed to be villains. She is smart and a real political player. She treats the main cast well. But ultimately, she is VERY minor. Maybe she could gain more if the game developed her relatonship with Sergei a bit more, but it doesn't. And that's ok, she doesn't have to have a relationship with him anymore, that's the point of divorce, right? But I just don't have more to say about her.

Time for character rankings!

Ok so I made a list of characters which includes almost everyone that has a portrait. I'm keeping the portrait rule, because it's both a good way to filter the list, and also let me quickly write it by looking at portrait gallery. Also I once again managed to hit a round number.

I considered what to do with characters from previous games who show up. I briefly thought of only adding to the list people who show up in Crossbell, but then I don't know how I'd judge characters such as Estelle, who are clearly not important enough here to be above certain major characters, but at the same time, I don't want to knock the Queen down.

So I ended up just updating the old list with the new people. It's now a Master List for Trails 1 to 5. I hope this decision doesn't come back to bite me when I add the Cold Steel cast (who am I trying to fool, ofc it will).

Also if a character doesn't appear in Crossbell, they aren't getting a reranking, and most likely not a write-up, unless I have a reason to. This is to keep my sanity.

Old List:

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

Newcomers:

Abbas
Arianhod
Arios
Cao Lee
Cecile
Dieter
Dudley
Elie
Ernest
Fran
Garcia
Grace
Grimwood
Guenter
Guy
The Hayworths
Henry
Ilya
Joerg
Jona
KeA
Lloyd
Marconi
Mariabell
Michel
Mierelle
Noel
Novartis
Randy
Rixia
Sergei
Shirley
Shizuku
Sigmund
Sonya
Sully
Tio
Wald
Wazy
Zeit

It's dawning on me that the entire plot of Zero exists to justify the villains' goal in Azure.

Like, in Zero everything is bad because of the Republic and the Empire. There's Elie's backstory. Everything sucks. The quests show people being sad about their country's status. Ravache and Harttmann and the others are powerful because of the Empire. The SSS exists to try and find some gap in that lockdown, to make a difference.

And then Azure comes and goes "you know, what if we fought back? What if we gained independence? That Osborne fella is such a jerk, and that Rocksmith guy sucks too, screw those losers, let's make a referendum. Like, Kloe and Olivier support us, right?"

But then it flips the whole thing on its head.

And the bad guys are the ones who want independence, and the goal of the game is to stop them.

And it's not like Osborne and the rest are suddenly good, they still suck. The game is just telling you that freedom has a cost, and that cost is KeA. And fuck if we are going to pay that. So figure out another way. In a different game. Sometimes you just don't take down the evil empire, you gotta wait and prepare.

Zero is such a perfect set up and I'm realizing this is the second time the series does it, cuz FC was a perfect setup too. But that game was more about building the Estelle/Joshua ship so it could break it and start the chase in SC. Zero is about showing a problem so that Azure can give the solution, then pull the rug from the player and create so much conflict in the story that way.

Who writes this stuff what did I do to deserve storytelling this good I can't even

tcaz2 posted...

Oh don't worry the games go back to being horrifically unbalanced again in Cold Steel :p

Sometimes I just want to go "Smoke Cannon go brrrrr"

Ok time to write some thoughts, and then move on to character ranks.

I dunno if I can really compare this game to the previous ones and say if it's better or worse. We are at a point where every game is great, but for different reasons. I'll talk about what I liked and didn't like.

Story

This is the best plot in the series so far and it's not even close. SC hit some highs, but it spent a lot of time going through filler-y plots in the first half. 3rd also has weird pacing. Zero was really tight, but the end, although very fun, had this weird cult showing up out of nowhere and some not so great villains, so it didn't feel like a strong conclusion. And FC is the one game I'd say has a plot as flawless as Azure's, but FC is also shooting lower, being a shorter, simpler, prequel game.

Azure is the epic sequel, the one with all the stakes, a freaking 100 hour game (although on my end, that's probably because this is the first time I actually bothered to talk to every npc every day), and it doesn't feel like it ever stalls, or misses a beat, or wastes time. It's twist after twist, climax after climax, and it goes, topping itself again and again.

It's got incredibly smart political writing, by dealing with an important question a lot of stories are afraid to: what is the cost of freedom? And it doesn't look for the easy answers, it's a story about a freedom whose cost was just too high, and whose heroes had to deal with that and fight for what is right, not just for what they really want. And it could have taken the easy way and just had Erebonia not invade in the end for some made up reason, but nope, it still happens. Lechter warned us that by doing that, we would be forfeiting the war. The characters understood it, accepted his help, prevented their own country from becoming some kind of fascist monster, and saved their daughter. During some parts of the game, such as the referendum, I got some echoes from real life by talking to random NPCs. This series, and this game especially, get how people think and how the world works. Even if it's way more optimistic than real life, it's not too optimistic to be stupid.

I still hold Sky a special place in my heart as the best character arc, or the best individual plotline (Estelle retrieving Joshua). It's satisfying in a different way. But as a whole product, Azure is the perfect videogame story. It doesn't lose anything to those films and TV shows who are out where winning emmies and oscars.

Characters

This is where Zero has Azure beaten, though. Not individual characters, because Azure has such an amazing menagerie of factions and political actors and gray anti-villains playing each other it's beautiful. But remember when I said the SSS was more than the sun of their parts? Well, they added two more parts, and that's no longer true. I like Wazy and Noel, but they just don't have the same chemistry with the party as the main four. I'll go into details later.

The SSS Four are as great as ever, though. Perhaps even better. I love what they did with Randy in this game. KeA also plays a great role towards the end, being the princess worth saving. And the villains, well no one is cool like Weissmann, but it's a very fun cast.

Gameplay

I have mixed feelings here too. I think this is the game where Trails got too balanced. Zero was full of broken crafts, but Azure nerfed them all to the ground, and a lot of other stuff I used to rely on in Zero or previous games are also less powerful. Arts seem harder to get, high level quarts are rarer, buffs last less, enemies who are immune to every status are more common, even recipes seem less easy to abuse. I'm not saying the game is hard, though. Even on hard difficulty, I rarely died more than once in the same battle. But it felt like I was having less room to fool around with broken abilities and often just painfully digging through piles of enemy HP, and reviving party members who kept getting slaughtered by opposing crafts. Even the things that worked feel more "minmax" or "hardcore" then previous games' ones. Such as the evasion tank abuse, which is the kind of stuff I tend to avoid in RPGs because it feels too cheap. But here it felt mandatory.

Well I suppose if you are looking for a high level tactical RPG experience, Azure is the best game so far, but I prefer something more casual-like for a 100 hour story-based game. Still, it's not like I did not have fun. Especially the Azure Tree, where I think the game loosened it a bit more and let me use my stuff.

This review feels more negative than positive, but I guess it's because of comparison. Zero continues to be the most fun videogame in the series. But Azure has the best plot, and some really great characters and dialogue. Also a lot of the stuff Azure does well doesn't have to be stated, because it's the stuff the series already does well consistently. The elaborate sidequests, the music, the attention to detail and the development of individual NPCs. And it continues to do well things Zero introduced, too. Crossbell may be the best setting I've ever seen in an RPG.

Amazing game. Has some nitpicks, but they are minor.

Well, character rankings next, and I can't wait to start writing piles of text.

FC: 57h
SC: 91h
3rd: 58h
Zero: 77h
Azure: 101 h

Total so far: 384 h

Round 1 against Bell is the definition of "Not hard just annoying". It's also borderline unplayable without turbo

Her scraft is pretty fun tho. It also almost wipes out my party. But my party is also very hard to keep down, thanks to Tio's combo of Cannon+Mercury Bell+Onyx Gem+Time Gem. She gets 3-4 turns to heal for each turn the boss gets to attack

The party gets 4 full level ups just for this round, which is nice

Now time for Bell to follow tradition and turn into something big and ugly

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/e/e537dcc0.jpg

Yeah you should get your power scaling straight, girl. We beat Arios so you clearly aren't soloing us without turning into something big and ugly like other final bosses

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/030cfa71.jpg

Top 10 Anime Taunts

Oh so turns out the reason everyone loves KeA isn't just that she's freaking adorable, it's because her magic makes people love her. The love potion paradox. Wonder if the good guys can overcome this.

Ngl tho, she is really lovable.

oh ok keA is the one who turned into the big and ugly thing. The twist

So the point of Bell's speech was to break KeA not the good guys. Good, cuz the good guys don't seem fazed at all by it

Organ and choir start playing, signaling the true final boss. Round 2

Round 2 beaten. Wasn't too hard, the boss can regenerate by absorbing some minions but the minions can be killed with some patience. Now Round 3

Wow 237k HP. Ok

Wait what do you mean it can attack while I'm on burst? That should be illegal;. Or the burst ended too fast, I'm not sure

it also has the power to undo Zero Field

This boss basically has the power to ignore previous estabilished game mechanics

I gain a steam achievement for playing over 100 hours, mid battle. Cool.

The battle is going in my favor, until the boss uses a craft that automatically disables my Zero Field and instakills the whole party. Uhhhhhhhhhh WHAT

I guess I should have used Impede on that?

FAQ says I have to be on burst to avoid this. So I'll just hold the burst gauge full until the battle is nearly over, I guess

Second try. The plan works. I time my autowin skill when the boss is about to use its autowin skill, then unleash hell on Earth on it

The last move of the Crossbell is just a regular tonfa attack from Lloyd, to take out the last 1500 hp

Trails 5: beaten

KeA vanishes into a black hole and Lloyd follows her in, to a place called World of Zero

I guess the reason the previous Demiourgos died was because they didn't have an entire squad of doting parents

tfw Kamina and Simon's VA get to repeat the exact same scene of one meeting the spirit of the other, for the second time in their career

So this is a copy of Guy that KeA created in order to bring him back to life. Well I guess that's more real than the stuff in Sky 3rd, if not completely real

Guy puts the harsh facts on Lloyd's face. He could come back to life, but that would undo Lloyd's entire life since then, including every good thing that happened. That's a hard trade to make

I don't know what to do with this new info that Guy likes to mess with Lloyd all the time, to the later's protest. It's funny ngl

Lloyd and KeA's talk is great

KeA is worried that her powers are making the SSS love her

But... so what? She is lovable. They would probably love her anyway. People do that, especially to their children.

Ok this is a 10/10 emotional scene. The kind of stuff that deserves awards

it's cheesy as hell but theres so much emotion in the writing and the voice acting

Then theres another emotional scene with the full party while the game's main villain watches like a creep

Aaaand time for the dungeon collapse. You guys better rush out, I'm pretty sure there isn't a dragon in Crossbell

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/8/88b65302.jpg

The plot twists. They never stop

Well I suppose complete world domination has failed, but here's always an Orpheus Final Plan or two

She leaves. Not sure how I feel about the main villain leaving scot free, and with new employment

Ok now the case is closed.

The credits roll

theres some info in them, too. Dieter went to prison. Shirley also joined Ouroboros. Wald got lucky, being sent to Arteria for treatment. He's probably gonna be babysit by Wazy for a while, but beats going to prison

You can say a lot of things about Ouroboros, but they are not cheap with HR costs. When they need to hire, they hire.

The empire invades Crossbell, and the narration spoils that they will be there for 2 years

And next we have some unarrated panels that imply more things. Lloyd seems to be smuggling KeA away, along with Arios (another one who got lucky, I guess). The rest of the party is plotting rebellion, or just helping civilians. And the Arc and Ciel trio is back together, dancing, which is just great

Well I guess it's time to answer the initial question: are all cops bastards?

Yes, but Bracers with Badgers are fine in my book

Back to the Merkabah, Abbas lets me know the jaggers's ship passed by, likely to take Sigmund and Shirley away

I use a trick of going back to Crossbell and selling all the sepith I go to get 1 million mira for an achievement, then use some of that money to buy u-materials from the casino, trade for divine clothes at Neinvalli and finally, use those to get the ultimate armors. I feel dirty, but these bosses have been hard so I don't care

my team is armed to the teeth. let's do this

The final party is the OG 4. I wouldn't have it any other way. I pick Wazy and Noel too, less because of tradition and more because of their support crafts. Though all 4 options seem to have decent crafts. I also disable their attacking support crafts. They have been useless against bosses lately

While the elevator goes up, we see a flashback of the ending of Zero, except this time everyone dies. Also Estelle and Joshua aren't with the party

I'm guessing that's a different reality? And KeA can see it somehow? Or switch between timelines?

I like how in the one timeline where Bestelle didn't join the final party, everyone died, Guenter won, the Earth was overrun by demons and humanity went extinct

The lesson is: always have Bestelle in the party

Also this is likely because of Renne showing up to bail us, which maybe she wouldn't have done if Estelle wasn't in the party. But Renne showing up is also a consequence of Estelle's actions. History is a long chain of Bestelle doing awesome things and setting up happy endings

The fact we don't have Estelle in the party now scares me, in this case

We arrive at the end of the dungeon, where the two final villains await us: Rich Woman Cosplaying as Evil Alchemist Overlord and Literally a Lawyer

Also KeA in a tree

I love how the game's party, in the end, is just a group of very doting parents. And the bad guys hurt their kid, so they are going down.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/d/d127546f.jpg

Wazy saying what every RPG villain needs to hear. Just get to the point

The villains confirm the above, and explain reality has been altered once. To make the SSS befriend Renne and help her complete her arc, which in turn made them befriend the Brights.

and unlikely coincidence, having the SSS get involved with that sideplot, was actually engineered by KeA. Interesting

Also I guess this bad timeline is what we saw in the in medias res scene at the start of Zero. So this switch both served a meta purpose, to keep the player from getting spoiled of the Estelle/Joshua plot, while also being connected to the main plot with KeA

Trails is now a series that does time shenanigans. I dunno what to think
And we haven't even gotten to the time sept-terrion yet.

Ngl Grimwood is making a very solid point

Lloyd does make a solid point of loss being good to help people grow. But I dunno I still think Grimwood has a point. If someone told me they could magically erase all the pain from the world, I'd take it

though I guess one issue is that pain will always be replaced by new pain down the line. For example, I don't think KeA can make people immortal. And the Aureole plot already showed what happens when people have infinite of everything

This could lead to KeA helplessly replacing one reality for another, never finding the perfect one, until she gives up and kills herself like the Demiourgos

Also I don't trust Grimwood and Mariabell to rule the world, sorry

The good guys' point is not as solid, though. Whatever.

But their point convinces Grimwood

Unfortunately, it doesn't convince Mariabell. Also, this isn't Ace Attorney. So Grimwood gets some magical blades on his chest for the trouble

Mariabell has dropped all pretense of following KeA's wishes and raises the staff to control her
Manipulation 101: make the target think they want to do what you want them to do. Manipulation 102: if that fails, use alchemy to control their mind

It took a while, but the pool of 15 or so villains has finally been reduced to one. Time to take her down.

Sorry there were nearly 200 gameplay hours between that scene and this one so I had forgotten.

I clear another dungeon stretch and liquefy the third and last chimera

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/d/d98d12ca.jpg

Yep. This is certainly one moment. Arios has been the Cassius of this arc, the invincible dude who always shows up to bail us and the bracer guild looked up to. Now he is a bad guy, and we gotta take him down.

Arios's domain is a pretty dark place. For a troubled character

Really it was only Shirley who had a green, happy place. Cuz all the death and pain doesn't really trouble her

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/0aba8722.jpg

You... you have a point

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/2/215d1382.jpg

And that, my friends, is the biggest tragedy of all
(nice pun tho)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/8/83f25033.jpg

Arios has become one with his edginess. The darkness of his soul has engulfed it, and all that is left is a cool dude with a longcoat, a cool sword and a sad backstory. A true edgelord. Somewhere, Loewe is seeing this and nodding with edgy approval.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/5/5073ab75.jpg

When the writers forget to predict for party combinations

So turns out bringing KeA to the auction was a 4D plot to manipulate multiple factions. But I guess they didn't expect the SSS's sudden infiltration. I mean, that was one crazy gambit from our protagonists, if I've ever seen it. And thus, they escaped and formed a bond with their sept-terrion, something nobody saw coming

Though Mariabell reacted to the development and addapted accordingly

We learn Guy basically solved the entire duology's plot on his own. But because he didn't have nakama, Arios was able to silence him

Or at least that's what Arios claims, but the world's greatest detective, Lloyd, has a different theory

Dudley justifies my bringing of him here by going into detail on why Arios couldn't have killed him too

Arios refuses to admit he didn't kill Guy. I'm getting flashbacks from Redcloak from Order of the Stick. Basically, the character is afflicted with the biggest case of sunk cost fallacy in existance, so they have to cling to their past sins in order to justify the self-destructive path they are on. Arios has to do it because he sacrificed so much to get here, and the implication that he maybe didn't actually sacrifice that much would drive him crazy.

The battle is epic, but considerably easier than Sigmund's thanks to Arios's more manageable defense

It ends with a combo craft between Lloyd and Dudley, where the later removes his coat and the two smack Arios's face in good cop fashion

We get to see the scene where Guy dies. Turns out Guy was pulling a very successful redemption talk on Arios, until Grimwood went and stopped the fun

Grimwood coming down as one of the smartest villains in Trailsverse. Imagine if someone had put a bullet on Estelle's head before she got to the 20th heroic speech. Zemuria would be worshipping Weissmann at his throne by this point, with Zombie Joshua serving him drinks.

Arios is KO'd, and the big double red door opens

Case closed.

Though we still have to arrest the culprits

I go back to the Merkabah and pick Noel and Dudley this time. The later will certainly want a piece of Arios. And the former, well I don't want to leave her out of the final dungeon either

Rift Gem is my new favorite quartz. it brings me back to the glorious times of FC when Impede was actually good. I never understood why they nerfed it, it's not like enemy arts were such a staple of gameplay that being able to stop them was broken, especially when every other character can do that with crafts anyway
So I was having it on Rixia, now I passed it to Noel

Justice Magnum is incredible and I'm convinced the reason Dudley is rarely playable is because no one is worthy of having access to those s-crafts for an entire game

The reason Arios recently started regretting his actions is not because of Shizuku suffering. That's secondary. It's because he learned Dudley had joined the SSS and he realized he's about to take a Justice Magnum to the face

We reach the next domain, and it's time for Randy to face his destiny

I knew it was going to be lava. It fits so much with the character

Randy keeps saying this is familiar. Why, you guys used to live in volcanos or something?

So none of the chests in this area have messages. I wonder if the translators just ran out of things to say, or something

We meet Sigmund, who still thinks he can convince Randy to be a jagger

This man has a lot of skills, but people is clearly not one of them

He is right that Randy is a warrior. But you know who else are warriors? Cassius Bright. Agate. Zin. People who are clearly made to fight, but decided to use that skill for something other than gunning down political dissidents in front of walls

Sigmund is just so trapped in his own little world he can't see anything else. Weird that Shirley is the one with the more open mind of the two.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/c/cc0e1c42.jpg

Randy tells him to shove it

wow ok this is an insane boss. his defenses are just off the charts. I was managing to chip down his hp but after a while I just got bored of the incredible slow damage I was dealing and decided to restart, this time with a more magic focused strategy (I was using Noel and boy is she useless here)

Elie can at least use Crimsom Ray and take less than a few forevers to reduce his hp, letting Tio properly focus on healing and guarding, and Lloyd and Randy on tanking

It also helps that he telegraphs his otherwise unblockable s-craft. Whenever Sigmund uses a guard on himself, get down to using Zero Field

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/b/b82e23f9.jpg

No, he brought up that 8 times before, but you weren't listening

Though I suppose he did say nothing when he first deserted

I'm here thinking theres going to be another 1v1 after this, but there just isn't. We actually defeated Sigmund in a normal battle, without cutscene superpower. Wow.

I guess it makes sense though. I never got the feeling that Randy could match to him individually, and the whole point of this plotline is that Randy's strength is his new friends

Actually it was the same with Shirley, but I didn't notice because she was on the floor when the battle ended. Sigmund had to make a dramatic speech before falling to leave the player on the edge.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/d/d2c08cbc.jpg

Girl you didn't do jack shit. I had to reset the game because I was having to fight with 3 people

All this talk about hauling those unconcious bosses to the Merkabah "later" and I'm here thinking which bosses will actually be available for the hauling when the time comes

ok minmaxing is done and stats are through the roof. Mostly for the main 4, so I don't have to change orbment setups that often

I'm taking Wazy and Rixia to the first part, due to the order of the incoming bosses. Then I'll figure out

We are immediately met by a jagger assault ship. And I thought the villains would just happily stand there and wait for the boss fights, but they want to test our piloting skills too

I mean the previous cast had to get past The Glorious, so you guys absolutely don't have an excuse

We meet a floating mine field and Wazy just commands the crew to ram it. Badass.

Grace screams in terror, and I'm having none of it because she made a bunch of speeches on how she's willing to risk her life for a Fulitzer

This time we are not met with an enforcer riding a flying giant robot who cuts our ship in two. So far, easy enough.

Grace is taking her pictures while the party marvels at the final dungeon architecture. Then KeA starts her "FIND ME" routine again. I don't know what she wants anymore.

I suddenly get Dudley's bonding scene, which I thought I had missed but I guess I just had the wrong timing

Ok my least favorite new enemy is the shadow thing that just touches a party member and makes them "disappear"

We get to the end of the first area, where a bunch of barriers wait us, as well as a hologram of Mariabell who appears to explain the dungeon layout. Uh... thanks?

Apparently the dungeon is navigable because it was createa by KeA, but its full of enemies because... it was also created by KeA. Who both wants and doesn't want us to stop the bad guys

there are also areas shaped after the minds of Wald and Shirley, whose asses we gotta kick, with presence of Wald and Rixia, respectively

Wald's domain is ugly as hell

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/7/7fcf5bca.jpg

We get to the end of the area, and watch as two idiot teenagers trash talk each other

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/5/51e38d1d.jpg

Rixia gets it

We beat Wald's sorry demon ass. Other than the one turn where I accidentally give him a crit s-craft and he kills half my party, the fight goes pretty well

Then it's time for sprite animations. Wazy does something with his stigma and his underwhelming crafts are suddenly awesome. He finishes Wald off.

Shirley's domain is actually pretty cute. Which suggests she is at peace with her life as a bloody monster, unlike Wald

Rixia finds a sword that has + 666 STR. Prepare yourself, Shirley.

Rixia owns Shirley by refusing a fight to the death. Nice.

But Shirley thinks a fight to non death sounds fun too. Always up to anything, this gal

This boss fight is somewhat easier than Wald. Probably because her minions are less annoying than his

Then after she goes down, Shirley laughs and remarks how she could feel someone else fighting alongside Rixia. Didn't know she has the cheese on her, too.

In the end, she really just had the mind of a child, huh

Then theres a little scene again where she mentions the "job offer"

I suppose such a fun character can't leave the series, she has to keep relevant for arcs to come.

Question, does the final dungeon have any sort of shortcut/mechanic that makes switching party members mid-dungeon easy? If so, how often?

For example, FC had a forward base that let you switch party members in the halfway point. And SC, iirc, had some lift that was unlocked as you advanced and made it easy to leave and go back to the last floor you reached. 3rd/Zero did not need that kind of thing.

I'm asking cuz I wanna plan who I am taking and whether I will keep switching them or not.

Thorn posted...

There should be one more though I don't know if you earned the points for it: KeA's - go check out her room at the SSS Building if you haven't.

Oh yeah there's that too. I did not have points for it either, but the video list I found didn't have it so I forgot.

Well I just found a reddit thread that links to a point in someone's playthrough that has it, so I watched it now.

Nice scene, with her using her yet-to-be-explained-telepathy to leave a message to the good guys.

I finally manage to go and finish the lv100 monster chests. Which is considerably less challenging now that my party is lv 96, but what can I do when the game gated one of the chests behind 80% of the final chapter

The game lets me visit Garcia in prison, which is a weird but nice touch. THe scene is nothing special, though. Just an indication that the man is likely on a redemption path

An NPC named Prada announces she's going to try to launch her own fashion branch. Hmm sounds like it might just work!

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/3/33f25e02.jpg

We go to the bracer guild and witness Zin's good name getting dragged into the mud. That's what you get for not appearing in the story

We meet Cao, who brags about being the new King of Crossbell Underworld, while also taunting about the fact we still won't focus on him because there are bigger fish to fry

There will always be bigger fish to fry, and in the meanwhile, Cao's business goes well

We learn generic Bracer is going to marry Generic Shop Girl. Hmm that makes him a bit more interesting of a character. Your move, Grant.

We run into Kevin and Ries at Armorica's inn. I love how all those major characters are hanging out in random places during the ending. First Kilika, then Cao, and now those two. I wonder if Bestelle can be found somewhere too.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/2/22290c0c.jpg

It gives quotes like this, too. lol

My new favorite interaction is Chihuru, the girl who likes to travel, hiring the 3 playboys from Calvard to be their bodyguards, only to find out they are useless, so the 4 run into some interesting off-screen adventures

Watching the massive role the Aions opened in Erebonia's fortress is certainly a sight. Even more learning that KeA somehow managed to teleport every soldier in it to safety before blasting it

Oh hey there's Bestelle and Joshua at Mainz inn. And Renne, sleeping

As well as Joerg. Weird to see him out of his studio.

Nobody dies in Trails. Except giant robots.

The SSS say no to an offer by Estelle to join the party and I couldn't be more disappointed

I talk to the Testaments with Wazy in the party and he comments on how the real Wazy was always the one who was with the testaments. It's Olivier all over again

We meet Lechter in the casino, where he manages to be both likable and a complete piece of shit, in good Lechter fashion

We run into Harold in his house, who is planning to travel to Mainz soon

...

The same Mainz Renne is at now

The game is nearly over and I think this is the last round of NPC talk, but it's a coincidence that may actually lead to something... in an epilogue sequence maybe?

We watch the scene where Rixia does not meet Ilya. It's great.

I'm shipping those two so hard rn

We go to orchis Tower, where we are allowed to talk to Dieter. Now dealing with the fact he was not the main villain and thus got defeated ahead of others. And also regretting his own actions. That's important too.

With that, I've talked to everyone, so time to scrap whatever money and quartz I have left and minmax the final builds for the final dungeon.

also there are some remaining bonding events, which I only have points to see two of: Ilya and Cecile. The others, Dudley, Sully and Fran I have to watch on youtube. Not much big stuff from any of them, though. The highlight is Dudley being a massive tsundere, but I wish he had become a party member sooner so he could get a deeper character development scene like the other 6 PCs did

Just as I predicted, those empty middle floors housed something. In this case, a magic dungeon

"Thaumaturgical Sector". Wow, they built an actual Evil Lair of Doom inside this unsuspecting financial building. My compliments to Mariabell

We learn the bad guys stole Tita's mecha, and now it's Tio's mecha. Fair.

It gives Tio the scraft with one of the longest animations since Sky 3rd

We get to the top of this weird as hell dungeon, where Tio and Roberts hack the doors and we now have access to the boss room

We run into Vice Comissioner Pierre, who apparently also got a character arc while we weren't looking.
Him being worried for the SSS is nice

We meet Shizuku, who is getting her lifetime share of childhood trauma as we speak. She gives us Guy's tonfas. Spoils of war Arios got from killing them. Such a great thing to give to your child daughter

Apparently this comes with the reveal that Arios didn't dunnit, though

And the revelation that Arios is already having second thoughts about this whole thing. That's one tragic character right there

The GOAT trio eliminated one of the EVAs. Kevin destroyed another one. And now it's left for the PCs to kill the third one, albeit weakened for the lack of magic.

there is some nice moment with Kevin and Ries, fool of Sky 3rd references

and Renne mourning her giant robot

and Estelle fills her "being awesome" quota for this game

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/f/f83a72cf.jpg

Dieter-kun, you are making a grave mistake

fighting PCs in a boss battle when a bunch of other villains haven't gone down yet means you are relinquishing your position of main villain

Main villains don't hang out in penultimate dungeons while everyone else goes to the final dungeon.
That's a mistake Osborne wouldn't make, imo

Dieter explains that ultimately, he had good intentions. I was wondering what side of the anti-villain scale he would fall on, but it's the good side, at least.

After an internet debate on justice, Dieter fuses with his EVA, and we have a boss fight. Ngl, with all the setup, this could be the game's final boss and I'd be satisfied. This game is really going above and beyond to make a satisfying conclusion.

He has an attack called Political Grenade. This isn't a joke.

he also has a move that deals 20k damage to the whole party without even being an scraft and my first attempt at this boss ends rather quickly

second attemot goes rather easy now that I know all the boss's attacks hit in a line, though. By "easy" I mean "comparable to Sky's final bosses".

Crossbell: liberated

not really though, because we have to go thorugh our usual "the boss is still up, someone shows up to bail us"

That one is a completely unexpected help: Prof. Novartis, wielding the power of the Fine Print

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/8/81c0c922.jpg

Dieter: "nobody told me clicking "I Agree" over and over would screw up my world domination plan!"

Oooooooh ok. It's not that Dieter didn't read the fine print, it's that his daughter made a corporate takeover while he was punching tables. Probably in the actual final dungeon, which you didn't get to go to because you aren't the villain, Dieter.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/c/cb28a93a.jpg

TFW you are a less important villain than Wald

Grimwood reveals himself as the villain, with some "eye hiding glasses" to indicate true evilness

Mariabell and Grimwood reveal a true megalomaniac plan. One to proper justify the ending of a JRPG:
Summon a Giant Fucking Tree. Probably with a Final Dungeon inside it

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/2/2d7106b0.jpg

I gotta give respect to Novartis. Renne left the society and the other Anguis told him to stop chasing after her and Pater-Mater. Jeorg said he wouldn't let him have this way, since those mechas didn't belong to him

Now who is the one riding the remaining operational giant robot in the Trails world, while all the others have turned to dust? F. Novartis. He can now go straight to the Grandmaster, say "told ya", and there's nothing they or the anguis can do anything about

We are now given more free time before the final dungeon, and the entire map is open now, which is something I'm not used to in my Trails

Time to explore the city now. Highlight is the arc en ciel being nice to Rixia when they meet her after so long

The other highlight is the massive price gouging for endgame armor this game is doing. There are individual equipment for everyone, but it either costs a ton of u-material, or divine cloth which costs even more u-material, or a ton of quartz

I also learn, too late, that I failed to pick the one recipe that can be traded with Jingo for an Evergreen, so I'll have to pay retail price to Imelda to get a full evasion set for Lloyd.

We also learn Grimwood lost his whole family to an accident a few years ago. Hmm

And he just asked his assistant to clean his desk of sensitive information. Hmm

I swear this party should just arrest anyone who "lost families to the republic/empire years ago" by default

I love how one of the guys in West Street is like "I hope those Doomsday Golems of Hell who are patrolling my street don't damage my car!"

We discover the Reinz guy who was helping Grace actually works for Richard

I feel safer now, we have an actual specialist in shady military coups working on our side here

I'm not sure what the point of introducing Richard's agency into the story this late was, other than making a nod to previous games, but hey I'll take it

We go into the car, and suddenly received a call from Kilika. She already knew we were going to enter our car and prepare comms in advance. Classic.

Time to meet our favorite spymaster duo

And of course they are cooperating with Richard too

In the end, Liberl's intelligence agency just changed name and turned into a private company, but they are still Liberl's intelligence agency. To the horror of some military idiots like the guy from Richard door who think civilians can't do anything. But Cassius is making a good use of them, nonetheless.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/a1ba55df.jpg

Yeeeeeeeeeep

dude is always 2 games ahead of everyone, give or take

He literally planned for Crossbell to get a sept-terrion so they form a natural barrier against Calvard invasion when he intentionally gets shot in the face and has his own territory engulfed in civil war as part of the bigger plan

Kilika points out how Dieter is a shit statesman. I mean, he basically destroyed his own country to get this "independence". Even if the SSS don't take him down, this is only going to end in bloody civil war once people run out of food and stuff

So there is one True Mastermind Behind Everything, and it's not any of the villains from that list I posted above. Why, we always need more villains

It's Grimwood, which marks the 5th benevolent character from Zero to be revealed as Evil All Along, or Turned into Evil. I suspect they will have to design new characters to fill up the cast of Reverie when we get there. Or promote minor characters to the role of major ones.

That said, it does make sense. I was going to make a rant in my character rankings about how Grimwood was kind of a waste of a character slot.

Lechter makes a pom pom party analogy and it's beginning to dawn on me the real intelligence network of Zemuria is the pom pom party friend system

Lechter and Kilika join the alliance

I love how it's all but a given Osborne is the final villain of this saga or whatever, but because there is a metric shitload of factions, we are letting Lechter join us anyway, to deal with the current batch of enemy factions.

Victory or defeat don't exist in this setting, just plays in an endless chess match.

The raid begins

It's always cool to watch Sergei mowing enemy armies with his trusty shotgun

Hmm Lechter can fight alright

Lynn being Kilika's fangirl is cute

The SSS car bursts into the building's door. Dieter probably punhes his table again

Meanwhile, Kevin is getting rekt

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/9/9d244ba3.jpg

he's gonna have to show his real strength. You know how hard it is to make him do that? And usually involves an insane amount of character trauma

His stigma makes the ship fire laser cannon and I'm facepalming over why they just didn't start with that

meanwhile, Pater-Mater is also getting rekt

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/5/533bba11.jpg

thermodynamicists: [roll in their graves]

Renne gets some dialogue that highlights she is now a team player

Renne gets in danger so Pater Mater decides to grab the EVA and fly upwards, just as it's above to fire a blast on both of them

Top 10 Anime Sacrifices

Pater Mater is gone, but the SSS car has survived. That's all that matters

Though I'm gonna miss "Come forth, Pater Mater!" before an s-craft. Not that it was the strongest or flashiest s-craft, but it was a cool quote

Tbh it's not even the fact the player needs to save scum to see them all, it's that the majority of those scenes are not canon. Heck, if there's no carry over, then none are canon and the story loses from not having them.

Rixia kind of needed that moment with Lloyd to understand her father's wish.

Tio announcing she can feel now thanks to Lloyd is huge for her.

Etc.

I love character development, and this is a waste of it.

Does this choice carry over to future games, btw?

Next day, the revolution begins.

Rebel soldiers and wolves vs mercenaries

Asian mobsters vs mercenaries

Kevin vs Purple EVA

And finally...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/0133ae07.jpg

The greatest little demon of Trails has returned. Save yourselves, if you can.

Renne: "bitch plz how dare you compare those fakes who need chat GPT to run to my OG Mecha who runs on human emotions?"

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/e/e97e0483.jpg

Actually, the GOAT trio has returned, and the cast of Azure instantly doubled in quality

Estelle, Joshua and Renne vs Blue EVA

The sprite + robot combat animation here is simply fantastic

We break in. The game doesn't even give me time to save, there's combat already

Dudley and Sergei appear to bail us, and we retreat to Geofront D, where La Resistance operates

The SSS is going to spearhead the raid on Orchis Tower, and Dudley is going to join too

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/2/21823603.jpg

Priorities

I save the game and go watch the remaining bonding scenes on youtube

Tio's scene is also rather romantic, albeit more subjectively. Wasn't expecting Tio to have a moment with Lloyd more romantic than Rixia's, but in retrospect, it makes sense. Rixia didn't really have much bonding with him before, Tio did. And though shes a teen, Lloyd is like 18 so I don't find this particularly bad. Still, it isn't the same as the declaration of eternal love that is Elie's scene. But the implication is that those two may become a pair eventually if this keeps going.

It's also a very good cap to Tio's character arc, with her realizing shes finally feeling emotions normally again

Noel's scene starts with Fran playing wingwoman. Love it.

Scene is cute, but theres definitely way less chemistry here. Not from Noel, who obviously has a huge crush on Lloyd, but from the later, who basically makes a big romantic gesture and says he'll wait to answer it later. If he has to think about it then he's not into her. That, and the 9 minutes of Noel trying and failing to make him get the clue. With Elie she gave one cue and he immediately started confessing. Yeah that's the canon ship, not this one.

Also, I don't get Noel's arc. Did she betray the SSS because of her father's death? Or because she's just a coward who is afraid to confront the government? Sounds like the later, but it's kind of lame tbh

Randy's scene begins with him lampshading that Lloyd could be having a romantic scene with someone right now instead of talking to a dude (and not a dude of ambiguous sexuality like Wazy). Love it.

Solid scene, this one basically reveals the remaining part of Randy's backstory and implies Randy values Lloyd as a friend now as much as he valued the guy he accidentally killed and made him change his outlook in life

Overall, Rixia got the best scene, the one that definitely should be canon. But Elie got the unskippable one, since it shows her relationship with Lloyd is miles ahead of everyone else's, and I don't want to deny either of the two that happiness. The other scenes are all pretty solid tbh. Even Noel's, which I didn't feel much chemistry at, is some good sitcom fun.

Romance wise, Noel, Tio and Wazy all have a chance, presumed they manage to break Lloyd's existing love for Elie. And Rixia is firmly just a friend.

time to prepare for tomorrow's invasion

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/8/8488129e.jpg

#LloydBestDad

Apparently this is where we get the One Bonding Scene of Choice, which means it's time to reset the game over and over until I see all 6 of them

Henry is a cool guy, apologizing for having allowed to let this situation happen. It's not even his fault! But he feels responsible since he is one of the leaders of Crossbell

Hmm apparently I have enough friendship points to see the events for Elie, Wazy or Rixia, but not for Randy, Tio or Noel

Well Wazy is a character I don't care much about and I dont want Lloyd to stay single so this is really a final ship choice between the two girls. I think I'll watch the two scenes and see which one has more chemistry so I leave that as the canon one.

Ok, watching Wazy's scene first. The big point is that since KeA was technically not made by Aidios, the church doesn't give a damn about her. Wazy is here just to beat some Ouroboros guys

Wait, he's 17? Wow
This has some insanely bad implications since he was a freaking host

I learn Wazy's backstory. And the irony of someone who became a dominion by becoming a heretic in another religion

Ok this sequence is very gay

And with the way it cuts away while the two are still on the deck, I can imagine all the LGBT shippers had a field day with this

Rixia's scene now

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/a58ca536.jpg

Lloyd straight with the pickup lines

Ok Rixia's father is a cool guy

I predicted his request for Rixia to kill him a mile away, but him telling she has the right to chose what kind of Yin she wants to become is a cool twist

and opens a window for her to stay a dancer and not dishonor his legacy

And I was thinking she joined Arc and Ciel as a cover, but she really just went and became a dancer cuz she wanted to
Or because Ilya wanted to
And the cover excuse came afterwards

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/3/3df769f6.jpg

Yeah how dare you bore me with this tale about how you became the world's greatest assassin. Stuff happens every day

Lloyd says what I was thinking, but in a much Lloyd-like cornier way

Ok this scene SHOULDN'T be gated behind an optional event. Are you telling me Rixia never gets this development otherwise?

Maybe she realizes it by herself, I guess?

The scene ends with a hug, and it's not really a romantic scene. Tbh this is much more proper given the context. I thought Rixia was one of the available ships, but I guess she stays a friend. Beautiful scene, nonetheless

Elie's scene starts as usual, with Lloyd unleashing the corniness

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/1/1f9282ae.jpg

When the boy is a doofus and the girl has to do all the work

...

Yeah ok

Sorry Rixia, but there's no way I'm ruining this perfect romance scene. I think you can figure out what your father meant next time you meditate, or something

We are canon now. Assuming the next 8234924 trails games actually keep this ship up.

Interesting. I kind of feel like this kind of lore shouldn't be gated behind an optional victory. But thanks!

Thorn posted...

While it's no surprise to me that Arianrhod is more congratulatory to the party if you "win" the fight outright by reducing her to 0 HP I don't recall that Randy comment in the post-fight so I guess there's more to the changes in the post-battle depending on the outcome of the fight (only broke the mask but lost vs a win.)

I'm guessing from that then that Elie doesn't share her theory on Arianrhod?

Nope. What's the theory?

Update: apparently I didn't have to beat her, just take half her HP so that her mask breaks, and I'm too incompetent to even do that. The humilliation drives me to turn the game on again on and try a few more times, this time with a strategy centered on spamming arts, and desperately using celestial balms ex to bring my party back whenever she uses her scraft and I dont have zero field up. It works, the mask is broken

Then she powers up and apparently has scraft deals 40k damage now. She uses it once and kills 3 members. Now time to have Lloyd keep attacking until she counters him to death too, and this torture ends

I have earned my right to continue the story by taking half the HP of this monster of a boss. Celebrate!

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/8/8ed7b6c5.jpg

And the right to see the front of Arianhod's face

She decides the fact I don't suck THAT much means I have some hope to actually beat Arios on a 6 vs 1, so she leaves

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/9/9b119005.jpg

Randy just had the most difficult fight of his life but he's focusing on the things that matters

We stop the bell and deactivate the barrier, which prompts me to learn the devs added a table punching animation for Dieter's sprite

Arios asks Shizuku a mysterious favor after she tells him is wife would be ashamed of him. Hmm

KeA realizes the battle is inevitable

Apparently stopping those bells nerfed KeA to just a regular sept-terrion, instead of the monstrosity she had become

KeA: "I'll make everyone's dreams a reality". This is Aureole talk. That's not gonna go well.

Kevin and Ries are back... to play decoy again

Operation: Liberate Crossbell starts tomorrow

Happy holidays! [2]

tcaz2 posted...

Yeah you have to pass a damage threshold to clear the fight, but not win.
You CAN win, though, like with the Loewe fight in Sky SC.

In FC.

NFUN posted...

I think it's a "deal like 20% and that's good enough even if you lose" mandatory win but I don't remember for sure. Invest fully in 100% evade Lloyd imo

I don't even have enough gear for 100%, but I was using about 80% already. But the problem is not avoiding hits, it's hitting her in the first place. The only thing I had that was dealing any decent damage was Elie's Crimson Ray. This time I added that with Rixia/Tio using weaker spells and barely scraped by.

We destroy some robots at the entrance, and Arianhod announces we will have to fight the Stalhritter in the tower. Well if I fight only them and not the Strongest Woman Alive, I accept the compromise

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/7/791afb61.jpg

The chest knows

The first stalhritter is very difficult and I'm worried

Stalhritter 2 is not a piece of cake either, though she has lower defense so I dont have to keep La Forte up all the time just to hit her

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/1/12671e36.jpg

I can't deny this logic

Calling it now, we are not fighting Arianhod. At least not in a fight we can win. Because it would break the setting's estabilished power rankings, and because the game is clearly treating those stalhritter as the dungeon's main bosses

(Edit: Narrator: he was wrong)

The first of them was serious business. The seond one was a laidback one. And the third stalritter is an arrogant girl who is pissed at the others for losing to weaklings like us

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/7/74a50a29.jpg

Ok now I'm scared

Canon power levels aside, this one ends up being the easiest. She hits the hardest, but I think I'm just used to the stalhritter's shenanigans at this point (though the first stalhritter was clearly the hardest with her earth wall and regeneration)

Elie has a theory on who Arianhod is, but it's "too implausible to be true". Girl, have you learned nothing with this series yet?

The heroes try to convince Arianhod to just leave, but she says she won't because KeA asked her to stop us. And the Grandmaster just happened to give a "do what KeA says" order to Arianhod

Godanmit KeA. Just because of this we are gonna ground you for half a year after this is over!

The SSS vs Strongest Fighter in the Trails Verse: begins

Her scraft deals 20k damage. What the hell.

The other dude could summon a fucking salt pale, and it had half the offensive power as this gal's lance. I can't even

Like Lloyd has to boost his attack twice just to be able to deal 150 dmg to her. And if he misses the hit, her counter deals 6k to him

I'm pushing through because I have items and stuff, but holy hell this is a tough boss

She finishes the party off, the game lets me know this was a mandatory win, and I close the game, demoralized. I'm gonna have to rework the party's build. But I'm travelling to relatives' house soon for chirstmas, so see you guys after the holiday.

Happy holidays!