Board 8 > TP Link continues to plays Trails: Deus Vult Edition

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'm back, after a break that I intended to take months but only took about 40 days. Because this series is just too good and I can't get rid of the itch to play more. I don't think I'll play this all back to back, but I suspect the breaks after this one won't be very long, either.

TIme to Play Trails in the Sky the 3rd

Will this finally be the game that just opens with the regular windows shortcut and not some fancy steam in-menu thing?

Narrator: "It wasn't"

Cool opening song imo

the airship is called Lusitania. Nice reference. That's the name of the ancient people who formed Portugal. Portugal is known for being the pioneers of ocean navigation in the 1400/1500s.

a fancy party is going on, but someone is undercover

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/2/7/AAO9CbAAEnyH.jpg

truly no one must be wondering why that green haired man is wearing a mask

Woman: "be careful, if you talk too much that guy is gonna send his goons after you.
Kevin: "don't worry, my actual level is like 30 above what shows in the gameplay menus. Just watch the ending of SC if you have forgotten"

is it just me or the dialogue speed up button has been changed from the run button to the cancel button? This is weird.

What looks like an old guy and his son are having a conversation.

Son: "how does that politician dare make laws that are good for poor people?"
Dad: "this is politics son, what matters is how we can get an advantage out of it"

He gets it

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/2/8/AAO9CbAAEnyI.jpg

No you can't lock Kevin in a safe.

this sequence is fun. it's kinda of filler, though I suspect the item I just stole will be relevant later. I mean, the safe password just happened to be the name of Orobouros's final plan

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/2/9/AAO9CbAAEnyJ.jpg

it's the start of the game and your character has 10k HP. That's power creep for ya

I like how this is a freaking priest, yet he is basically 007. Stealing relics from bad guys while making women around him fall in love. I have to wonder if the priests in this game actually have a celibate oath and Kevin enjoys teasing about defying it, or they don't and he just hasn't gotten lucky on-screen yet

Kevin's Mortal Punishment craft is very cool, and it was kind of needed since he is the MC now, so he can't be too specialized on support. His str stat is probably still meh though, so I suspect he will become full support as soon as the likes of Josh or Agate join the party

I love how the bad guy has already heard of the grail knights.

Imagine having a magic locket that helps you raise in the political ladder but sleeping at night knowing that one day, a badass warrior priest will come after you to take it?

and theres the daring holywood escape

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/3/0/AAO9CbAAEnyK.jpg

he is mysterious. He even speaks in red fonts

cool opening. doesn't have the hype of SC's but what can have it after that first game's ending. but still hints at cool stuff

the game is teasing at Carnelia and I should have read it. Some day

Prologue: "Today feels like a great day for some nice DEUS VULTing": begins

ZeldaTPLink posted...

the airship is called Lusitania. Nice reference. That's the name of the ancient people who formed Portugal. Portugal is known for being the pioneers of ocean navigation in the 1400/1500s.

could also be a reference to the RMS Lusitania

meanwhile, we get a good old sequence of Dorothy wasting film

she meets Kevin and tells him some impossible goofy stories about how she went on an assignment in the next town and ended up in the other side of the continent

Kevin to Nial: "nothing of interest is gonna happen". yeah right

oh hey it's Tita's mother! And she seems like an interesting person

oh wow ok she hates Agate. What did he do, despite looking like bad company?

Tita's mom hates ancient artifacts because they work but no one knows how, which bothers her as a scientist. Hmm, I've seen a similar thing in Gunnerkrigg Court. Overly rational people bothered by things that can't be understood

Tita's mom is basically Maes Hughes and I'm all for it

We are introduced to Sister Ries, the game's deuteragonist, apparenly

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/3/1/AAO9CbAAEnyL.jpg

she takes zero bullshit whatsoever. I think I'm going to like this duo's dynamic

we get a whole legal dispute about who owns an artifact, which is rendered moot because the artifact suddenly activates, which makes it the churh's property. I suspect the dispute was written just to estabilish Ries's character to the player

which is that she doens't care about the law says as long as she is working for the Goddess

while Kevin is the one with the super empathy skills so he is trying to balance out everyone's interests and not be a dick

oooooh the two have a past

I just realized Big Eater was an anime archetype this series didn't quite have yet and now Ries is here to fit it like a glove

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/3/2/AAO9CbAAEnyM.jpg

I think I'm going to enjoy this character a lot

it's our friend, the Cuck! Yes Ries, you can do whatever you want with him. Campanella would approve.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/3/3/AAO9CbAAEnyN.jpg

top 10 anime insults

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/3/4/AAO9CbAAEnyO.jpg

do not taunt a nun who fights with a massive medieval sword

we get a gameplay demonstration. Ries is a good melee who lacks a great offensive craft, but has a broken healing one

someone who very much looks like an anime villain shows up. Enforcer, I guess

we are sucked into another dimension, and the game finally lets me save after the longest series of cutscenes ever. Like, the entire Prologue was just one massive scripted sequence with no save points in between. It was fun but I wanted to just be able to take a break in the middle.

Prologue: "I went out to do some DEUS VULT and ended up being Isekai'd": beaten

Tag.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

the game finally lets me save after the longest series of cutscenes ever

I remember this happening more than once with the game

Tbh it wasn't that long, but I had a busy morning so I kept wanting to just quit and couldn't.

pyresword posted...

I remember this happening more than once with the game

it's like all in the first two chapters (counting the prologue) too, lol

Mortal Punishment is so cool. Kevin lowkey coolest crafts.

Yeah there's one or two more 'long sequence with no saving' coming up and then it literally never happens again the rest of the game.

"chapter 1: I went to another dimension but didn't get new superpowers": begins

So the party is Kevin, the womanizing but empathetic, relic hunting, heathen punishing, support craft spamming, crossbow wielding priest. The extra character from SC who is now the main character. He is joined by Ries, the perpetually serious, big eating, childhood friend nun who fights with a massive extendable sword and also has some healing abilities.

In other words, a Cleric and a Paladin.

the mission? figure out where the fuck we are.

the duo's dynamic is that they both care for each other but won't admit it so they keep playing a game of hierarchy, where Kevin is Ries's boss and they both use that to get what they want from each other. So far, Kevin has been winning the arguments.

Not sure if romantic or just friendship, though. I still don't know if the Septian Church promotes cleric celibacy or not

they both have mediocre offensive stats. I need more party members soon

Kevin likes fishing. That's why he is a trails protagonist. Not any other reason.

all of our quartz has been destroyed. Because this is an RPG and the game needs an excuse to make me collect them all again, instead of just increasing their levels

I know we arent bracers anymore but does the game have some replacement for the bracer notebook? cuz I want an in game list of arts

Ries when learning there is a talking tree that sells food:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/3/8/AAO9CbAAEn4i.jpg

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/3/9/AAO9CbAAEn4j.jpg

I want her and Anelace to have a debate on whether the most important value of the world is food or cuteness. I think it would get violent

and a spring that maxes out my cp. Free cp without grinding is the dream MLK spoke of

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/4/0/AAO9CbAAEn4k.jpg

"oh shit I'm in a videogame"

yes Kevin, I paid 10 dollars for this and you are going to go through it, whether you want it or not

Kevin wanting to prevent Ries from being a badass for her safety is kind of yucky

we get the gralsritter notebook, which functions as what I wanted

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/4/1/AAO9CbAAEn4l.jpg

thanks for the lore, chest!

chests now contain money. I repeat. they now contain money. This is not a drill!

We find a magic stone. It summons Tita

The party's AoE capability is now secured

tita has to enter a magic door to face a trial. alone

the trial involves enemies that are vulnerable to blind and whose attacks reduce Tita's movement speed. Ha. hahahahaha.

We get a memory of Tita's parents coming back to Zeiss. It's fun

Russel competing with Tita's mom for who is the best inventor is funny and is much needed characterization for the old man

Tita's mom has good character portraits. I'm really liking the character

her personality is nothing like TIta, though. if anything, she's more like Agate, who she hates

Tita's parents are making a device to compete with Peter Mater. Sweet

But Tita feels conflicted, despite the fact its an invention, because of Renne. More much needed characterization

I don't know if I hate Tita's mom because she is No Fun Allowed or like her because she is the first person in a long time to expose the sheer absurdity that is a little kid fighting mercenaries and evil organizations

leaning on the later. Yeah sure she doesn't respect Tita as much as she should but she is 13. Come on really.

Her wanting to be a hero who changes people like Estelle is cool, though

I thought SC not using Tita much in the Renne plotline was a missed opportunity, but here is 3rd just seizing that. Now I'm hyped to see the two meeting again.

Agate is visiting. RIP Agate, you were so young.

The door mechanic is cool, but the "viewing memories" thing is a weird 4th wall breaking, because the characters already remember those things

Yeah they turned Tita not having anything to say to Renne into a plot point. That is A tier response to realizing a failing of the last game.

Also that is like, the only door aside from one other to have a trial, and most doors dont have a part 2 OR are anywhere near that long.

Which makes its choice as a tutorial weird.

yay tag

we continue our travel, now in an area where the Arseille is mysteriously docked. I suspect the next party member is Kloe or Julia. Imma bet Julia.

we enter the ship. Theres nobody inside. But theres a door that never opened last game that we can enter now

I love how the devs leave doors that don't even open for future games they might not even make

ok Tita enters and we don't see it on-screen, but still neat

apparently theres an entire book scattered inside a bunch of chests. in random order. The devs are getting too creative

yep, Julia. Thought for a moment I thought it was Josette, given we found a Josette door along the way

The M/F ratio of the party is now pretty unbalanced, but I haven't started getting gender restricted gear yet so w/e

Julia got a new skill, Attack order, which boosts the party's attack and speed, and I feel like shes become a lot better than in last game

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/0/0/AAO9CbAAEoJI.jpg

Caaaaaaaapitalist mayoooooor! Your tentacles have reached even this place!

well I found the game's equivallent of a shining pom. Some little pointy thing that hits like a truck but drops sepith like a money truck. Nice

we face a boss battle with a demon, which is quite hard. it has 3 phases, which is rare for a non final boss in this series. And hits like a truck. But takes a long time to attack, so Kevin's and Ries's healing skills really come through

we meet the very villain looking guy who sent us here. He taunt us and introduces himself as Schwarzritter. Yes, an evil sounding German name. Perfect

Chapter 1: "Kevin is surrounded by women, but he wasn't expecting it to be this way": beaten

These chapters are way shorter than they used to be in previous games

trails in the chest hype

We see a flashback of when Kevin first met Ries and her older sister. I thought we were getting drama but turns out Ries's sister is insane.

chapter 2: "I'm running out of chapter titles because this map is kinda bland": begins

The next section of the map is literally Grancel. Except it's not. It's the Otherwordly Capital. Neat.
it took 3 games and a friggin Isekai but I'm finally finding chests inside of houses

Ries's scraft is awesome. She opens a bible and Angemon comes out of it, and kills everything

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/4/6/AAO9CbAAEopG.jpg
Above: Angemon

A large knight boss and about 10 minions stand in front of Grancel Castle

None of them are immune to smoke cannon. Alas.

Ries and Julia using chain crafts is awesome. They just brandish their swords at the same time and skewer the mobs like barbecue

we find another sealed person in Erebonia's embassy. "Olivier? Maybe Josh? They are both from Erebonia"

Nah, it's Mueller. Y'all forgot he existed, but he does

Ries: "It's interesting how everyone here already knows each other"

Yes Ries, it's called a "sequel"

And you are thinking it's weird because you are a Character who is Introduced in the Sequel

I have to ditch someone and it's gonna be Tita, because as a Character who was in the First Game, she has more playtime than everyone here combined. So Kevin, Ries, Mueller and Julia makes for a party of new characters who have had little playtime, which is great for variety

I can now switch orbments of people not in the party. The amount of QoL is staggering

The game added a mechanic where a 5th character can add stats to the party, the remote abilities. Unfortunately, Tita is the worst for that, because her remote ability decreases speed by 5%, which is about the worst thing that can happen to a party. But I want my varied party, danmit. That does mean Tita will never be used again as a remote character as soon as I get a 6th character, though. Fortunately I think this game is easy enough to allow me to be a bit slower for the next bit.

I just realized long barrels are now a Tita exclusive. You cannot use them to boost Kevin's crossbows, for example. Which makes sense, but it's weird that it took a whole game to happen

Olivier should have been allowed to use long barrels too, though. Not that he needs them, tbf, since he relies on magic.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

her remote ability decreases speed by 5%

wow that's so horrible

Remote Abilities are cool but then there's one that is just much better than the others and you'll know it when you see it.

the new party is working pretty well. I do miss a competent spellcaster though (Kevin aint it), but this might be the most competent melee squad I've ever had, so I'm not complaining. Ries, Mueller and Julia are a fearsome trio, and Kevin has a bunch of support options

we are off to find a key to the sky bandits' ship, which I'm guessing will let us recruit Josette, and I'm wondering why bother

the port area is much more fun to explore now that there are actual, yknow, chests

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/6/6/AAO9CbAAEpIq.jpg

worth it

We free Josette

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/6/7/AAO9CbAAEpIr.jpg

Ugh. 3 games in and they are not going to drop this fake love triangle, are they? They have run into the ground so now they'll just dig deeper

At least shes got a cute cap

shes somehow less likable than in the last game. Now shes accusing the rest of the party of lying to her

wow ok Josette's remote ability increases the party's item AND sepith drop rates by like 30% each. I'd heard it was good but it's very good. I'm only not using it if I find another great one or if I'm using Josette in bat- hahahahaha no.

I open a Sun Door and get a flashback of the Capua Siblings, where we see Josette being horrible to her brothers because of a misplaced letter from Josh, the same Josh who is in a stable relationship with someone else now

we also get a little flashback on how Don lost the family's fortune. I feel bad for the guy. Must be hard to be an orphan with a lot of money but no experience on how to manage it

we get to play a fun shooter minigame, made worth it because the Cuck is the boss and he cries like the bitch he is every time you hit his ship

Theres a cute scene where Josette apologizes for being terrible and the cutscene ends. I gain her scraft, whch I think I didnt even use last game, and a quartz that shows chests in the map. Nice

I beat the minigame on easy difficult and now I feel like trying normal but apparently I have to rewatch the whole cutscene for it. pass

its weird how this series has such expert QoL features most of the time but slips on some basic things. Where is the skip cutscene button?

I love how Kevin knows the entire lore of the past 2 games, including parts where he wasn't in. It's the game making references to itself, but also means Estelle probably just spent a lot of time telling Kevin about the cool things she and her friends did. It's nice

I beat the coliseum boss, which is tough but I pull through despite Josette being in the party. Yeah I used her, I like variety. Kevin and Ries once again carry with their support skills. Mueller also hits hard, though his crafts are kind of meh here

well Josette's scraft is great so theres that

I unlock Joshua, which is close to the best reward for beating a boss there can be

With Kevin and Ries being mandatory I think there is only one slot I gotta choose now

Everyone mentioning crossbell, which happens to be where the next 2 games happen

Josh is so awesome he quickly believes everyone, assesses the best course of action and agrees to help with the immediate problems despite being worried about Estelle

Somehow, GIlbert the Cuck is in the castle. and now we have to save him

We save him, and Ries gets right down to business I like how shes the newest party member, and shes already learned one of the party's most important tenets: Fuck Gilbert

we eventually make our way into the first game's final dungeon. Is the game actually going to make me go through it again?

Narrator: "It did not"

The big bad, Mr. Red Letters, appears

Joshua and Kevin figured out whats going on at the same time. Joshua has a competition for smartass protagonist

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/6/8/AAO9CbAAEpIs.jpg

top 10 ways to make a comeback at a villain

beat what seems to be the chapter 2 boss. its much easier than the first one. Yes it hits hard but being 140% weak to time is a problem when the entire party has action quartz. you spam soul blur and the thing folds like wet paper

also i'm loving Ries's revival skill. I no longer have to worry about losing CP because someone dies, she can just Nope them back up with half HP and 50 CP. Sure losing someone with over 100 CP is worse but that is rarer

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/6/9/AAO9CbAAEpIt.jpg

thanks for the sepith Josette, I guess

a villain who watches immobile as we fight the boss and then awards us for it? Why do I feel like that's not the real villain

I mean if this was orobouros they'd have used the window to perform Phase 57 of the plan or whatever

the villain is Ries's sister? That's the hint I got. It would be interesting

We get an HP 3, though. Perfect timing to get Kloe back, too

Chapter 2: "Wrong blue haired girl" - beaten

more flashbacks

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/7/0/AAO9CbAAEpIu.jpg

Ries was already savage as a kid

chapter 3: "time to open some memory door cuz I'm like 3 doors behind" begins

We get Kloe, and Not a Falcon is with her too! Plot convenient omniscience has been restored

Kevin was definitely my favorite party member in the Sky series gameplay-wise. Used him every chance I got in SC and loved having him in 3rd. I really like support characters that don't feel like they're just spamming magic over and over, and he really doesn't lag behind in damage either.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

its weird how this series has such expert QoL features most of the time but slips on some basic things. Where is the skip cutscene button?

This might or might not be related, but most of the QoL features that exist in the Steam releases today were basically modded in after-the-fact by XSEED in their releases of the game. It might be that in this case the original programming just doesn't make a skip button easy to implement.

Kevin's magic isn't terrible if you are abusing elemental weaknesses so he's kind of like Estelle in that regard. He is just not an easy nuke button like Kloe or Olivier.

He's fine, because his support options are great, but I don't think he's really OP either.

Kevin is the strongest character in the trilogy. Grail Sphere is essential

The reason people call Kevin strong is that Grail Sphere is the most useful s-craft in most games its in.

I go to a star door that requires Julia and Mueller. It's giving Julia some characterization. She's basically extremely lawful, to the point she doesn't even think she deserves a promotion

we get a funny montage where she has to run from her fanclub

Mueller also gets some characterization. I like how he's also very perceptive, joining the ranks of Josh and Kevin and Schera and Olivier.

Julia wishes she could be by Kloe's side more. Mueller is envious because he was raised to be Olvier's aide from birth, whether he liked it or not. It's an interesting contradiction

Mueller says he is about to show a secret way to cool Julia's head off and the screen goes black, and I'm here thinking they are going to do adult things

nvm they are just gonna fight. Ok

I control Julia. Mueller kills me and I'm not sure if this winnable. I got close, but there is just a lack of options once you run out of items/EP

I mean I did use dark matter once and shouldn't have had, I suppose

the rest of the sequence is just cuteness. Nuff said.

oh hey septium vein! nice

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/3/3/AAO9CbAAEpOZ.jpg

the witch is back. Run while you can

Josette means business

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/3/4/AAO9CbAAEpOa.jpg

Next flashback is named the Salt Pale. It's a fun little story about how a giant stack made of salt killed thousands of people and turned half a country into salt

It's also backstory on how Weissman's parents were killed by it, and eventually it got turned into a weapon Kevin used to execute Weissman himself. Tragic

And backstory on the jaggers

that's some... unexpected lore

I gain some more earth sepiths and give them to Kevin. Earth Wall is online once again. Sweet

The last door is literally Liberl News. It's not just that though, but I wouldn't have minded if it was. Liberl News rocks

like, I enjoy how it reveals another viewpoint of the game's events, while also dropping some extra info and showing a bit of Nial's character too

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/3/5/AAO9CbAAEpOb.jpg

I missed this

Josh talks to a load of people, but a highlight is learning Dunan is a Estelle/Josh shipper

I really like how Don is the most empathetic and people person of the Capuas, but hes completely book dumb. Kyle, and to a lesser extent, Josette, are the brainy ones. But Don is the leader, for better and for worse. He can't really manage things but hes great at keeping people together. The capuas are a pretty cool group, especially as a team.

Kanone still being a complete bitch is a treasure

Anelace on Josette, while talking about Erebonian nobles:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/3/6/AAO9CbAAEpOc.jpg

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Kloe confessed to Joshua. I DID NOT expect this to happen, after all this time

Estelle celebrating taking Josette's goggles after winning an eating contest against her is epic win

And we connect to the scene where Josh tells Estelle he wants to go on journey, to which she will inevitably reply she's going too

With this, we finish the 3 doors. Friendship, love and genocide, the classic Trails experience

time for plane 3

we are treated with a scene of the party speculating on what haappened to Weissmann, Ries almost saying, and Kevin interrupting her because he reveals he executed the good professor in cold blood.

Nice exchange

We reach two corridors, and we are told we have to go through both at the same time

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/6/7/AAO9CbAAEp0b.jpg

No, there are 8. we are only walking as 4 because of unexplained JRPG restrictions.

We could easily do two parties of 4, have you guys never played FF6?

Heck, Trails 1 already did it

Kloe is not an idiot though. She suggests the obvious

So two parties of 4. That's fun. The bad news is now I need equipment and quartz for everyone, which I probably cant afford lol

I just finished choosing 56 quartz and I need a blanket and a hot chocolate

it's 10 PM and I haven't killed a single thing yet, just read dialogue and used menus

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/6/8/AAO9CbAAEp0c.jpg

teams are ready, though

each teams has two melees, one wizard/support and a child with questionable utility

sorry I'm being mean to Tita, she's useful most of the time, I just liked the pattern

the other one... um..... I gave her Earth Wall

I'm realizing Mueller is pretty ridiculous. His attack, man. He hits hard as hell, even if his crafts are whatever. Just spam. Also he seems to get stronger weapons ahead of the rest of the party.

Kevin finds a bow in a chest thats apparently connected to his past. He wont tell the other members about it. Kevin and his secrets

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/6/9/AAO9CbAAEp0d.jpg

when chests get cruel

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/7/0/AAO9CbAAEp0e.jpg

the boss is an evil ries who summons demons. fun

demons all have 6666 hp. Nice touch

mirror demons are annoying because half are immune to arts and the other half to physical, but the half thats immune to arts just folds when I spam my scrafts. Grail locket carries here too, since this is a long-ish fight

meanwhile, Team Ries is at the silver path

Kloe: "deals 6k damage in a hit the enemy is not even weak to"

I missed this

Josette: "deals 500 dmg on her normal attack which is the only one cuz her crafts are uselsss"

I did not miss this

I made the dumb decision to give scent to one party and haze to the other so now I have to unequip scent

Ries has learned a move where her sword breaks down into a swarm of flying drones and they dive bomb all enemies around her. this is an actual sentence

this section is harder because I dont have haze so I dont get free turns against everything, I do have Kloe but miss Mueller, and theres no equivallent in the other team for Josette. Also theres an enemy that deals a gazillion damage whenever it dies

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/7/3/AAO9CbAAEp0h.jpg

the weirdest thing about this joke is Kevin is guaranteed not to be in the party when you first read it

found a weapon for josette thats actually great. Now she deals above average single target damage.

Like 2 other characters, who have better crafts themselves

we meet phantom kevin and another group of demons

oh shit he has grail sphere

I love how evil Kevin doesn't attack, just supports, and that makes this boss fight tricky as hell

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/7/4/AAO9CbAAEp0i.jpg

wow ok

chapter 3: "wow did this chapter have like 6 screens" - beaten

more Kevin backstory. We see him graduating as a church squire, and get info on Rufina too. Nothing huge yet except a hint that Kevin is too kind for this job

Chapter 4

the two crystals we've just gotten give us Olivier and Zin. That's a great deal tbh

Olivier is even more fabulous in this game

He also has priorities

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/7/5/AAO9CbAAEp0j.jpg

Olivier figures everything out and also instantly realizes Kevin is hiding stuff. Heh.

Kevin hides stuff too hard so Ries decides shes feeling bad and leaves the party. bad Kevin! Bad!

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/7/6/AAO9CbAAEp0k.jpg

who needs therapy when you have party members

is it just me or Kevin is one of the most mentally broken characters in Trails yet. He's seriously competing with Josh from the last game

I knew she would slap him into the face and was just waiting to see when. The trails face slap never fails

Josh just goes and reveals he has files on Kevin. This party is one big cross investigation

Amazing. With Ries, he pretends to be a perfect cheerful guy. With Josh, he pretends to be a monster. He plays whatever character people want him to play so he just doesn't show what he feels. What a piece of work

Kevin and Josh are mandatory and Olivier and Zin are new to the game so theres literally just one party I'd pick

the totally random join order in this game is so fun

Haven't played much this week but let's make a bump.

ok so this setup is not that good. It includes 3 people I like to give earth quartz to (Olivier, Kevin and Zin), so theres some competition for it. Kevin and Olivier overlap a bit in utility and Zin just hogs the earth quartz they want

I'm benching Zin for now. Update: I ended up benching Olivier instead since there were Zin doors to go to.

Kevin is the new Estelle. Apparently his stats have been buffed since last game, so he's less of a support bot, and more of an all purpose fighter who is ALSO the best support in the game
so better than Estelle, in fact

I can just give him both attack and mind and roll with it

We see Zin about to return to Calvard after his time in Liberl

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/0/7/AAO9CbAAEqnD.jpg

Kilika, always the practical

the Calvard ambassador invites them both to the hot springs. I smell an in-story shipper

Kilika: "It never takes much to put on on the defensive, does it?"

Yes Kilika, that's what being a tank means

rare moment of showing emotion from her, though

Calvard is creating a new intelligence agency and they want Kilika to join

Liberl and Erebonia are about to seriously need to step up their spying game. The woman is 007

then we have an exchange between Zin and Kilika and it's unbelievably heartwarming

ok it's official I ship those two now

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/0/8/AAO9CbAAEqnE.png

Is "gentlefriend" a word?

the other zin door is a fighting minigame and huh...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/0/9/AAO9CbAAEqnF.jpg

I love this title screen

Kevin is so RIPPED omg

I beat the fighting tournament, which is one random collection of enemies including our friend the Cuck

Olivier is feeling sad that he has to pretend to be a proper princr instead of... "Olivier, the Gospeler of Love". Ok.

Plane 4 is Le Locle. Which means Anelace. Awesome.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/1/0/AAO9CbAAEqnG.jpg

Over time, chests have progressed from making fun of the player for trying to find more items, to making fun of themselves

oh cool its a lava dungeon

lava dungeons don't make sense in a semi realistic setting like trails, but this a magical dimension, so who cares

this dungeon has an interesting mechanic. last time I was here, I had to lower the water level to walk on it. But this time, theres lava instead of water. So there's an additional quest to find lava resistant boots so I can take less damage while I walk on it

the next evil clone we have to fight is Anelace. I hope this one is not invincible

We release the best girl. Ok, second best girl. Estelle exists

shes asleep. why not

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/9/4/AAO9CbAAEquq.jpg

thats a quote

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/9/5/AAO9CbAAEqur.jpg

See, Josette? That's how you become a top tier character. By believing your friends and having good quotes

Olivier and Anelace are the party now, and comedy is secured

we go explore an Anelace door

we learn Anelace recently got sick from too much ice cream, so now she only has one scoop each morning

atta girl

we learn her grandfather is a legendary swordsman who trained Cassius fucking Bright

I love how those doors tend to have surprises on who they are about. Sure, this one is about Anelace, but it's also about Cassius. The previous one was about Zin, but was really more about Kilika. Always a pleasant surprise to see those NPCs being developed

And it's also about Richard! This door keeps delivering

Well, Anelace. You wanted to be a protagonist? Here's the final boss of the first game. Enjoy fighting him.

oh yes, the Trails theme song

I win. Richard is fearsome but this is easier than the Julia vs Mueller fight from early on because Anelace is much more versatile than Julia

Anelace inherits Cassius's sword, which is pretty cool

So Cassius passed the way of the staff to Estelle, and helped pass the way of the katana to Anelace

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/9/6/AAO9CbAAEqus.jpg

Ok this is OP

Anelace has 2k strenght omg

shes gonna hit like a flaming truck with rocket boosters

her basic attack is dealing 4k damage omg

I meet a shining pom. But um... are those guys just immune to s-crafts now? If so, how do I kill them

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/9/7/AAO9CbAAEqut.jpg

aaaand we have to save Gilbert again

I do a fun combo where anelace uses a technique to pull all enemies to a single point then Olivier mows them down with his machine gun s-craft

the other cool combo is to give anelace that acessory that prevents stat reduction and spam the move that raises attack and reduces defense, so it doesn't reduce defense

ok shining pom arent immune to scrafts their defense is just ridiculous now

However...

Defense, Meet Anelace.

Josh obtains a new weapon, the Kidney Daggers. Uhhhhhh thats a name alright

We defeat Schera clone, who goes down rather easily because my party is full of hard hitters
Schera joins the party. She has a new, sexier look now

I go down to the library and meet a scene of Ries slandering Kevin's character to a crowd of Tita and Josette. Ouch

the next door is an old memory of when Kloe first joined the academy

we get a little sidequest while Kloe battles social awkwardness

it would take months before she could graduate into a full blown waifu, it seems

we meet the student council president, who apparently has already graduated in the present. He's a clown alright

the student council has a super hard time finding him because he keeps running away from paperwork and hiding on rooftops. But that is no more. Because Not a Falcon is now available to locate him.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/0/0/AAO9CbAAEquw.jpg

I feel ya

damn moon doors are long

the president is that classic character who is an useless idiot 99% of the time but secretely has a max wisdom score and only uses it when it's the most needed

like Olivier, now that I think about it

I had a hunch and decided to google the guy, and apparently he appears in like 5 games after this one. heh.

Actually seems like all those new school characters do. This game is just one big set up to the rest of the series sometimes.

this section is apparently an entire backstory on Kloe's school life because theres even a section dedicated to the orpahage kids.

wow ok it got dramatic really fast

Jill teases Kloe too hard, and Kloe gets mad. We then see a rare moment of introspection from Jill. I had come to the conclusion she was a sociopath at this point

man, Kloe had A LOT of chatracter development before the first game even started, huh

and Hans continues to show why he is a stealth GOAT character, by helping Jill get it together.

ok Jill is actually a pretty decent person. A reranking might be in order

ok I know searching for Lechster around campus is funny as a concept but I'm not having fun doing it over and over as the player. This moon door is just so many fetch quests.

we find lechster, he has a cute scene with Kloe and this endless section ends. Theres a tease to him showing up again another game. Phew

And this is it for teenage drama for today. Tune up next week for more teenagers being insecure about pointless stuff!

omg I forgot about Anelace's incredibly OP sword that makes her a must-include for a ridiculous portion of the game

I love Anelace

Yeah I remember the gameplay for that Kloe door being obnoxious, but I liked the story content at least. Kloe is great and Lechter is also really cool here.

Kilika is one of the most underutilized characters for the series in general tbh. I really like her. I supect they're probably saving some stuff with her for the Calvard arc, but yeah.

ah yes, anelace getting that OP Sword that is like significantly better than anything else for quite a while

best character gets best equips

I feel like Frog with the Masamune.

Oh the kloe school arc was one of the main highlights of this game. Trails 3 is just one giant excuse to provide backstory but it's done well

Eh not sure if I vibe with Kloe's story that much. It feels like forced angst.

time for a schera door. its another moon door so I'll be back in 2 hours!

we start with another "fun" scene where Schera and Aina try to make Olivier, who just woke up after passing away from too much drinking, drink more. Everyone laughs. Hahaha.

the scene is an excuse for an even older flashback, though

wow did they make 3 separate sets of sprites for Schera (one for FC/SC, one for 3rd and one for flashback)? I'm impressed

this is also the Aina flashback

Schera was kind of a jerk 5 years ago, huh

Aina asks her to be a city guide and Schera is like "wtf we are bracers we don't do menial stuff"

FC/SC's sidequest system hard disagrees

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/1/4/AAO9CbAAErLG.jpg

Kurt arrives and tells her to do her fucking job

I love how he doesn't even know what the job is. Hes just making her do it because bracers don't refuse jobs, period

lol Schera is lv 10. so cute

We talk to Kurt a bit more and learn some Kurt Facts. Apparently he once bumped into a wanted monster while being late for another appointment so he just killed it in one hit and kept going without even slowing down.

I wish Kurt was playable in this game, he's alright

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/1/5/AAO9CbAAErLH.jpg

Is this young Dorothy?

Aina is being hunted by some MIBs and we have to protect her

for some ungodly reason, Schera has no arts

Aina almost does my job for me by attacking the enemy with her briefcase. Who needs arts amiright

oh ok Aina is a heiress and bad people are trying to grab her fortune. Basic

We escape into the sewers.

...

Freaking Grancel sewers. Will the torment never end?

Aina is a badass though. She designs smoke bombs

the place is even more dangerous than usual because we only have 2 characters and one is an npc with poor stats and a "game over is knocked out" condition

and no orbments

though enemies have been properly nerfed in return

and now we get a flashback within the flashback within the flashback

the flashback is pretty dark

Schera is a great character when shes not trying to be funny. This was some good introspection. Better than the Kloe stuff

lmao at Schera deciding to take another route because Nial looks like a criminal

I go to the church and theres a woman going on about how she thinks nuns are awesome. I look online and apparently shes a nun in the present. Nice continuity

theres a scene hyping up some blind guy, Nielsen. Let me guess. Major character next arc.

A moving box? Whats this, Tom and Jerry?

oh sure its a cat. So just Tom

We get surrounded by MIBs, but Kurt shows up and destroys them all with an s-craft

As well as someone named Gundolf

the boss battle against the goons is kind of tricky. The key is to use the zeram powder you get from the sewer to kill two enemies with scrafts immediately and reduce their numbers since they can just deal more damage than you. But took me a few defeats to figure that out

Aina inherits billions, then donates it all to charity and goes live life as a guild cleric and torturer of poor bards

back to the normal game, with the final area of plane 4

theres a bat enemy here that drops 50 time sepith every time you kill it. I'm so going to farm it

an scraft crit from Anelace just dealt 10k damage on an enemy. I think that's a new benchmark

this dungeon has an interesting mechanic with switches that make colored bridges appear/disappear but I dont feel like it really uses the mechanic to make good puzzles. So far the solution has always been "take the long way around"

people don't think about it much since nobody plays rpgs for puzzles, but I guess it does take some craftiness to make good ones. Alas, many games don't even bother. Trails is one of the later.

Dungeon crawled, Agate clone defeated and real Agate rescued

ok the Agate x Tita thing was fine when it was not in the game and was some dumb fandom thing but now the game's dialogue is actively stating it and WHAT THE FUCK?

He is 25, and she is 13.

The age gap does not "make it more endearing", or whatever crap the characters are saying.

Seriously, burn Japan down.

we go to the chapter boss, who uses cutscene hax to trap us. Just so Ries can show up and save the day

I'm here thinking she is going to take some support role while we fight the boss, but she goes "don't worry I'll solo the boss"

and for a while she does, but the boss teleport behinds her and sucker punches her.

Meh. I was totally ok with having an npc solo the boss, it was looking cool. Now let's get to work

Kevin activates another subeset of his power he was hiding from everyone and gains a new scraft

Kevin's original s-craft: "may the holy chalice protect my buddies etc"
Kevin's new s-craft which he unlocked when someone hurt his girl: "MAY THE HOLY DEUS VULT TURN YOU INTO SWISS CHEESE, MOTHERF-!"

Big Bad shows up and says Big Bad stuff. Kevin asks him to show his real face. Big Bad: "lol are you sure? seeing my face will force you to do character development"

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/1/6/AAO9CbAAErLI.jpg

The best girl has returned

Kevin faints and apparently Ries is now the MC

I'm not necessarily complaining. Ries is great.

Chapter 4: beaten

Flashback time

Sad Kevin: kill me
Kevin's master: lol you belong to the church now, you only die when we want you to

This is some dark shit

possibly the darkest game so far, if not in terms of actual events, but in terms of tone

Joshua was broken, alright. But most of it was hypnosis. By the time we got to work on him, he had years of Estelle/Cassius love piled up on him so he was mostly ready to recover.

Renne was creepy as hell, but she was more of an issue of lacking a good direction to go on. When it got shown to her, she started questioning herself rather quickly.

Now Kevin? THAT is a complete mess. He is depressed. Hates himself. Can't connect to anyone. Is content with being a murder knight

I wanna see how they fix him cuz it's gonna be tricky as heck

we get exposition on Kevin being one of the 12 digidestined

Last chapter it was Kevin and Joshua as the mandatory party. Now it's Ries and Estelle

3rd is the darkest game in the series so far, though the newest arc (Japan-only) I'm at least led to believe is darker than the previous couple of games. (The title also translates to like "trails of darkness" or something like that so we'll see I guess)

I honestly love Kevin's new S-Craft from a story standpoint even though in gameplay Grail Sphere is just much more useful.

If you're curious about the blind guy/Nielsen, (light spoilers for Crossbell arc) he does show up in the Crossbell arc but is more of a lore figure than an actual main character

Kevin's S-Craft there is my favorite in the series, both visually and the incantation. so good.

3 more doors unlocked. I'm tired of those doors tbh. if it wasn't for the fact they are setting up VERY IMPORTANT lore for the future of the series I might be skipping them by now

next is the 2nd half of the Tita door

Agate is visiting Tita's family and he we are about to see Tita's mom make his life hell. After the... scene... I had to watch at the end of the last chapter, I'm now finding myself siding with her

Not that Agate himself did anything to deserve it, though

Tita's mom going to the guild to ambush Agate is amazing

She made a guild request for him to help. Clever.

I love Kilika just not reacting while crazy stuff happens in her guild

Agate getting mad with Tita's dad for letting her work on a new weapon is clever writing since in the last flashback we saw Tita fight tooth and nail to let her do it

more with the romance implications. Uuuuuuuugh

Agate, watching 4 mad scientists look at him and say "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA"
Run, Agate. Run.

I play as Agate against Tita in the Orbal Gear. I win (Tita just isnt good for 1v1). The blinding gets in the way, but Scrafts have 100% accuracy

We learn Tita's dad was Cassius's staff master. Now that's some info

The game tells you Agate is now going to duel the father, but instead, Tita's robot goes berserk and now I gotta stop it

Agate stops it, not before almost dying in good Agate fashion, and providing us with another Tita crying scene

and now it's time for Tita's parents to try to kill him with food, since the gundam failed

You know if Tita wasn't like... thirteen, I'd be thinking this entire scenario was quite funny. Because it is well designed comedy. But she is like... thirteen, and I can't separate the humor from the NONONONONONONONO going on

Godanmit Japan

The scenario ends and TIta can now use her gundam in normal battles and I'm looking forward to never replay this again

next door

We get an epic sounding narration involving fishing. Hype.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/0/8/AAO9CbAAErao.jpg

the epicness is about to unfold

I win the minigame, and Estelle gets a new lure, but there is a Chapter 2 coming. Estelle has walked into something she cannot possibly understand

and it turns out the woman wanted me to escort her to the middle of Grancel freaking Sewers cuz she wanna fish. Ok

this is like that arc in Kaguya-sama where Fujiwara challenges and defeats the 4 Ramen Eating Masters without noticing

But this time it's Estelle defeating the 3 Fishing Masters or something

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/0/9/AAO9CbAAErap.jpg

Yes, we definitely need a separate title screen for each duel

I destroy her, and receive a golden rod

now only left is to defeat the guild leader, Mr. Fisher

with a name like that hes gotta be the real deal

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/1/0/AAO9CbAAEraq.jpg

hes coming for you, Estelle

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/1/1/AAO9CbAAErar.jpg

This is it

I'm pretty sure irl most fishing competitions care about weight. But this one scores based on length

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/1/2/AAO9CbAAEras.jpg

So the trick to win? Catch swordfish

I lose the first try, but in the second one I just kick his ass, by catching 3 swordfish

And Estelle is now the very best, like no one's ever was

She also almost becomes the leader of the fisherman guild. But manages to escape from it

as a prize for this door I receive the fisherman's emblem, an acessory that gives moderate increases to Estelle's strength and attack range but destroy her movement speed. Ofc

back to the normal game. Ries and Estelle are mandatory. I pick Tita, cuz I want to play with her new toy, and Schera, cuz I havent used her yet and I need a second magic user. Schera is on dedicated magic attacking/eearth wall duty, while Estelle gets to do everything, Ries is the tank/healer and Tita kills things from afar

Estelle has her first cutscene chitchat and she is already being amazing. She folds Ries's attempt to pretend she doesn't care about Kevin

plane 5 is another series of monohcrome platforms. cuz apparently thats the pattern. odd number, boring platforms. even number, revisit old area

this one is a tad prettier than the previous ones, though. with similarly pretty music

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/1/3/AAO9CbAAErat.jpg

Tita has a gundam now. Your shit is wrecked.

I find another star door and its a weird boss battle against a bunch iof little things that spamn petrify. I beat them by making schera's s-craft confuse them and have them petrify each other, while Tita finishes them off

the reward for the battle is some lore on the Epstein Foundation, a group which does research on orbment. And speculation on whether inventing orbment-based internet will make the world more peaceful and stable (hahahahahaha no)

mecha tita's charge attack is really op. Because it pushes an enemy to the other side of the map while keeping Tita where she is and its cheap so its spammable. Use on an enemy with low movement and it will basically never attack you

We recover another crystal and... it's Richard! Now that's gonna be fun

RIchard starts a speech on how he doesn't think he is deserving of being a party member. Then Josette drops this random stab at Estelle

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/1/4/AAO9CbAAErau.jpg

Thanks, Josette! We all need a periodic reminder that you exist and are terrible!

ZeldaTPLink posted...

3 more doors unlocked. I'm tired of those doors tbh.

I know 3rd is beloved for the doors but I do identify with this sentiment

fortunately I think youre done with the boringest ones (Kloe@school and Tita+Agate crap)

Too soon to tell, but my feeling so far is that 3rd is less than the sum of its parts.

Pretty much every door has been entertaining. And the main plot seems great. But everything is so disconnected and so optional that I'm having somewhat of a hard time to care.

I mean the other two games were also full of detours and optional content but here it feels just heavy handed.

There are all those story events in the doors, but since they are not linked to the main one, there are no stakes. A lot of the time it's two characters just sitting down so one of them can reveal their doubts about life and the other can reassure them. While if this was happening in the present, we'd see those doubts have real consequences, such as the stuff with Agate in the dragon arc.

The Kevin/Ries stuff is the game's high, because it's having real consequences, so I can care about it. But you have to go through a mountain of door filler (as well as monotone dungeon crawling) to get to the next Kevin crumb.

This game should have been an anime. With most of the doors being released as comics or some other medium that's good for side stuff like this.

I like 3rd because I think the content of the doors is often very good (there are a few stinkers), but I don't think I'd say that the mechanic itself has much inherent strength.

That said I still think the Kevin/Ries plotline is the highlight.

My perspective on 3rd changed a lot when I started viewing it as the equivalent of a short story collection rather than a novel. Obviously that's still not going to be for everyone either way, but yeah. 3rd is surely the most divisive game in the series and that's definitely not without reason.

3rd is trash and I love it

3rd is GOATed.

But yes, this is where the seed of Agate/Tita begins to take root and dammit falcom. To Agate's credit it's everyone else doing it and not him. But ugh.

yeah everybody pushing it to Gate's objections is by far the worst part of the game. Otherwise 3rd is the best

I ship them too

back to Plane 5

you can introduce all the super flash s-crafts you want. Estelle's Wheel of Time is still the coolest

I just obtained the kitty suit, which may or may not be the best piece of armor I've ever gotten in this series

it raises all stats, but most important, it gives +30 speed

We find what's obviously a Renne stone, and my body is ready for the incoming drama

I commend the party for the perfect triangle formation. I dont know whats useful for but it has to be
well almost perfect. Where are you when we need you, Kevin?

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/1/5/AAO9CbAAEr-r.jpg

this child menace stuff always gets me. Renne is creepy as much as she is pitiful

Ries used Roasting. It's super-effective!

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/1/6/AAO9CbAAEr-s.jpg

Tita ftw

Tita used crying. Critical hit! It's super-effective! Opponent Renne has fainted

Renne doesn't even know Richard and she is reading him like a book.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/1/7/AAO9CbAAEr-t.jpg

ouch

Renne has the mathematically perfect orbment. 1 line, no elemental restrictions. She also comes with all her slots at max level, giving her a whopping 800 EP, and her ATS is huge. Downside is she is even more frail than Tita, and with no gundam to boost her bulk.

Put her in the back row forever and spam magic. That's the play

Anelace learning that the world we are in react to people's wishes:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/1/8/AAO9CbAAEr-u.jpg

I open a door that requires knowing 20 recipes. Apparently it's centered on the Ruan bandits. That's a combination.

the bandits have decided to become bracers

they think they are gonna be trained by Carna, who is hot
but they are gonna be trained by Agate
RIP

To become bracers, they have to go through the dragon's cave. without knowing a dragon lives there. That's evil, Agate

I get to control the (former) bandits in battle. they kind of suck, but have funny s-crafts

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/2/4/AAO9CbAAEr-0.jpg

sounds like a legendary individual

blue haired guy is obssessed with surpassing Agate and he breaks up with the others because he thinks they are dragging him down. The other two decide to quit the quest. I have to control the ones who are leaving instead of the guy who is rushing into the dragon's lair alone. Boring

they learn the power of friendship, team up again, and we beat a boss

then we have to beat the 2nd boss, Agate himself. We narrowly win, despite his insane stats and the fact he has s-crafts and we don't

he gives so much xp everyone gains 10 lvs each

Agate: "I hereby declare you bracers, but not protagonists. So you have to walk around as a group"

The next door is a minigame one, apparently related to gambler's jack. You know, one of those in-game books I've never read

the minigame is blackjack. Well, if this is the same cpu who played blackback in SC, this will be a piece of cake

this is actually less fun than the SC version because theres no betting, or doubling, just hit or stand, win more rounds than the cpu. Boring.

now it's poker, and again, no betting. Just "win more rounds than the opponent". Who the hell plays poker like that?

oh you can choose to bet 1 or 2 stars, that's decent

I win. This was weird

next is a memory from when Estelle and Josh first met as kids. Meh, I wanted to see what they were up to after SC. But I guess this can also be interesting

Josh tries his best to be an edgelord but discovers Estelle is immune to edgelordness

Kid Estelle thinks Josh's problem is that the bugs she is showing him aren't awesome enough. Lmao

bringing bugs fails, so Estelle decides violence is the only answer. She literally beats him up while her friends watch

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/2/5/AAO9CbAAEr-1.jpg

Estelle was already a menace at such a young age

Estelle: "you are going to help at the farm. That's part of your rear-hillbilly process!"
Josh: "You mean rehabilitation"

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/2/6/AAO9CbAAEr-2.jpg

Took a while, but eventually Estelle got through

It's interesting to know this isn't the first time Josh does the edgelord leave routine

You know, watching all those characters try to get Estelle to grow up and become more of a teen while she insists on being a kid resonates with me. I was also quite a late bloomer in that regard. It's not fun to watch everyone around you suddenly start trying to be an adult while you still feel like a kid.

You go, girl. Catch bugs for as long as you want to.

Estelle gets in trouble with monsters and Josh goes save her. I'm weirded out at how badass he is at this age but I guess Weissmann only partially nerfed his assassin strength

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/2/7/AAO9CbAAEr-3.jpg

What edgelord can even resist this

Josh declaring he wants to keep the Bright surname is really cool. I thought it was just a menu thing, but is actually an in-story plot point

It also reveals Cassius is already aware him and Estelle are dating. I was wondering if he knew or not

There it is! The Bug of Legends!

15/25 doors now

well the fighting door has 3 difficulties and I've only beaten 1 apparently. But I'm still counting it
Time to finish Plane 5. The team is Ries, Estelle, Renne and Richard

standard dungeon crawling, then boss. 3 giant spiders. classic.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/1/8/AAO9CbAAEsTC.jpg

They fail to see they aren't the biggest predator in the room, though

After an entire in-depth flashback of Estelle catching bugs, you think some spiders will scare her? think again

You have no idea how happy I am to use Richard and Renne's s-crafts against the enemy, for a change

spiders killed. Just put the 3 tanks ahead and give Renne a clock up ex, then watch the fireworks

Estelle learned True Wheel of Time

True Wheel of Time

True

Wheel of Time.

Awesome.

Not the Main Villain shows up and drops a nothingburger speech. Meh

Mid game plot padding in a nutshell.

The crystal releases the ghost of Celeste, the hero who sealed the McGuffin ages ago.

Chapter 5: "Too many freaking party members": beaten

The chapter ending right as she says her name is a nice dramatic touch.

another Kevin flashback, which seems to be preparation for a new action sequence. Likely the one where Rufina dies, I'm guessing. But not much interesting yet

Celeste reveals what the Phantasma is supposed to be. Though she has no idea what it is now. Useful.

Kevin reveals he knows what is going on but he wont tell anyone because we are not there in the plot yet

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/1/9/AAO9CbAAEsTD.jpg

lots of options

Kevin is mandatory, but Ries is not for some reason. I get to choose 3 whole characters? Incredible.

Going with Agate, Renne and Anelace this time. Agate is the only unused character so far and the other two are great

Plane 6 is multiple areas, each one requiring different characters. Which means a whole lot of time fiddling with orbments at the base, ofc

I swap out Renne for Kloe first, since the later is required

it's that damn school again

a door wants me to pay 50k mira to enter it. Capitalism has breached even the Phantasma

people's weapons have caught up and Anelace's sword is now average. The glory didnt last long

it could have lasted longer but the game dumped a gazillion new characters on me at the time so I wanted to test them

I get tired of not knowing how to progress in this area and decide to pay the stupid door

of course it's Maybelle. I should have smelled the scent of the capitalist pig from the other side

even in Phantasma, she's finding a way to make a profit

Maybelle finds out Lila is dating some dude, so she hires Anelace to spy on the dude. That's certainly a plot.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/2/0/AAO9CbAAEsTE.jpg

yay for individual interpretation (aka do whatever the hell I want)!

Aaaand we have a classic comedic misunderstanding

and now for some good old LGBT coding

Anelace does make the coding a bit more explicit than I was expecting this game to do, tbh

And I make double the money I paid the door. Nice doing business with you, Maybelle

after an incredibly long time, and needing to check online, I learn that I'm supposed to kill just the black knights and leave the red ones alone. I was starting to spam Death Scream just to make battles end faster

We run into the Raven gang, who is like "uh I don't think i'm real and apparently they summoned me for fighting so imma fight you ok"

this game and the 4th wall just hate each other, don't they

when the butler has one of the coolest (and strongest) s-crafts in the game

The first area was opened with a water altar and we had to bring Kloe. The next one is an earth altar, and I fear for the worst

It's Anelace. Ok, not related to the character's element. Phew.

Olivier door now

Prince Oliviert and Mueller are at the embassy, where Mr. Generic Nobleman aka the ambassador apologizes for not recognizing him sooner. I mean, Olivier was counting on that

Ambassador guy is playing political checkers, and Olivier is playing 4D chess

The ambassador is a cool guy. He is not super enlightened due to being a generic nobleman, but he is a good guy at heart, and being surrounded by LIberians has made him take a liking to them

Olivier and Mueller make plans for future games

And theres the guy from Kloe's door again. Letcher

He's popping up everywhere isn't he

Of course he's also involved in Olivier's plans. It's like a secret society of manipulative clowns

Oh ok he's an enemy. Interesting.

We move to a scene where Olivier meets the Liberl royals and Cassius, and they discuss more realpolitik. I love seeing all those pieces moving, myself.

They are all discussing how the Chancellor of the Empire is an intelligent man who is hard to predict, and then suddenly he shows up out of nowhere. Checkmate.

And here it is, the apparent Big Bad of a bunch of future games. Or one of the Big Bads. Unclear now

He looks properly evil though

The best thing about this scene isn't what the chatacters are saying, it's what they are not

Cassius: "Sup guy who tried to annex my country for no reason other than you are a dick"
Osborne: "Oh hey you are that guy who single handedly prevented me from conquering your country a while ago"

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/2/1/AAO9CbAAEsTF.jpg

We get a rare sight, Olivier being the no-nonsense guy

Everything will collide at Crossbell

And now for Kloe meeting Lechter

She confronts him over the fact he is now working for Evil. He dodges a bit, but Kloe is a straightforward person. But the scene cuts back to Olivier before he can reply

Osborne: "Join me, and together, we will rule the galaxy!"
Olivier: "I agree the nobles suck, but you are a literal fascist so fuck you"

Olivier implies his actions will lead to world war and he's like "well, duh, that's like phase 1 of my plan"

Back to Kloe and Lechter.

Yeah I don't dig Lechter at all. His entire attitude is that he doesn't care about anything as long as he is having fun. Meanwhile, he's also part of this universe's equivallent of the SS. Guys like this can commit all sorts of atrocities and shrug them off with a "why so serious?". I prefer people who are grounded by something.

Now there are a bunch of ways he could be going. One possibility is that the series may eventually reveal He Cared All Along, and make him turn sides. Or he may suffer a massive epiphany after doing something evil himself. Or he may just evolve into an actual psycho. We'll see.

Apparently he has been watching over everything that happened in the series' so far, though.

Olivier makes the World's Greatest Taunt

Wow ok I loved this door

literally nothing happened but it was just non stop hyping of future game plots and made me enjoy all the characters more.