Oh I didn't know you were actually interested, OK so right now I'm in Chapter 2 and going through sapphire tower, and thought I'd do the sidequests on the bracer guild board before I investigate the orphanage which just burned down. The helmet crab in that tower is kinda annoying though, it kills me with counterattacks if I try to attack it physically however I can't keep wasting spells on it, and it's annoying that Joshua's Aerial and Haken Gate can't one-hit kill it and the poms it summons. Wonder if there's a more efficient method to dispatching enemies like that.
It's funny, I'm only on Chapter 2 but have been playing for nearly 40 hours, and yet it feels like I haven't done much at all, so it makes me wonder how could that much time have possibly elapsed. I realized that all the walking back and forth from one town to the next just to read a tiny snippet of dialogue from NPCs caused all this time to rack up. Now that almost every little event causes NPCs to have new dialogue, I simply can't help but want to read every bit of it even if I just forget about it right after. I just want to read every little thing, and if I get a hidden quest out of it, all the better.
Glad you're liking it so far, especially with your enjoyment of talking to everyone. They're interesting, and some also drop tidbits about other events and countries. The missable books that get you ultimate weapons also feature characters/events that show up later in the franchise. Example, Carnelia is based around a character you'll meet in 3rd while its protagonist you meet in Cold Steel. Red Moon Rose are books in Cold Steel that will likely be very relevant in CSIII. Sky SC has Gambler Jack who's mentioned briefly in 3rd, but it takes place in Calvard so will probably be more relevant later.
This reminds me, now that I'm finally playing Trails in the Sky, I want to make a topic asking about the Legend of Heroes franchise in its entirety, since I'm kinda confused over the shared connection and universe of the games, and how the psp games that released way back 12 years relate to Sky, Cold Steel, etc. ---