Board 8 > Ranking 100 Trails - Kiseki Characters Before Daybreak

(+) Yeah! (+)

I had no idea Carnelia was about Tovel so i was only talking about the manga.

th3l3fty posted...

Carnelia is literally in five games - all of Sky and both CS1/2

The only books i read were Red Moon Rose and 3 & 9 both via Youtube. Although the former ended up being a bit of a waste of time given it wasn't important to the story at all even though a lot of people were predicting it would be.

Yes the main characters in Carnelia are supposed to be Toval and Ein Selnate under different names. It's also a totally different story from Ring of Judgment.

WE'RE SO BACK! Let's see who we're talking abou... oh no
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48 . Agate Crosner

What a generic "cool big sword guy." Even his name screams big sword energy. As this list will show, I tend to prefer women with BSE over guys. Still Agate deserves some credit for having depth and development, which is more than can be said for most characters who fall into this category. Sure, his depth pretty much extends to "anger issues" and "little sister issues," but we take what we can get. He totally sucks in Cold Steel.

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47 . Tita Russell

I know, I know. I leave for a few days and when I come back I unceremoniously dump two main Sky party members. I like Tita and Agate. Tita especially is one of the better "little kid characters" (admittedly, this coming from someone with a high tolerance for kid characters). She's not annoying or totally useless, which is common. Unlike Agate, they end up doing interesting stuff with her in later games. Which should not be taken to mean that I like her piloting a suit of magitek armor, because both she and Alisa look totally dumb.

But man, they need to stop with the weird romantic stuff. It's amazing I still like this series in spite of all the questionable shipping going on.

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46 . Chancellor Osborne

I'm just going to casually throw Osborne into the list here at the tail end of the Titagate writeup. As the series's "big bad" (pretty much so far) he has some good moments. They usually come at the last ten seconds or so of Cold Steel games, where he'll drop a really nice stinger. "Well played Armbrust." "Rean, I am your father." "Rean, I'm an immortal demon destined to pilot a Gundam." I've played through CS3 and 4 twice and I still only understand 65% or so of the Phantasmal Blaze Plan and the History of Erebonia and the Curse and whatnot. I kind of liked it better when he was just a really terrible colonizer. It's kind of like how I would have liked LOST more if it didn't have any supernatural stuff at all.

Up next: She's best girl, I fear

vivi can't possibly be dropping next

Osborne is by far the best villain in the series, IMO (not counting Renne, who I didn't particularly like as a villain). No one else even comes close. He feels way more proactive and serious than most of them. Like he actively engages with everything, rather than treating the world as a joke.

I was pretty satisfied with Osborne in the end. It's hard to have a villain for such a long span of time and conclude their story gracefully but the final battle did pay off I think.

EDIT: However this is assuming that we're totally discounting the reincarnation twist because it is pointless and awful.

There's a lot about how Osborne's story played out in the end I didn't care for, but I agree overall he's one of the more effective villains.

A little bit of lace and a little bit of grace
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45 . Anelace

A scene-stealer for sure, we still know very little about Anelace the bracer. After guesting in FC she is a temporary party member during the hardest section of any Trails game (beginning of SC). Then she shows up in 3rd but we need more! All we really know is that she's a student of the Eight Leaves, she's into cute things, and she really really wants to be Estelle's best friend.

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44 . Grace

I'm a sucker for energetic Lois Lane reporter types. Not much else to say beyond that I guess. She sends us on some truly annoying side quests but I'll forgive her since she's cute.

Up next: Do you have a few minutes to talk about the wind?

No Gaius, I don't.

Gaius's entire family is made up of better characters than him.

Gaius and Elliot not being bottom 10 def the worst part of this list

Anelace was one of the best characters in Sky.

Gauis and Elliot have no reason to be part of the story. Elliot only cared about music and they randomly gave Gauis a bigger role just to keep him relevent.

Gaius's family is pretty boring and also I agree with Mac.

No one suspects the Spanish inquisition
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43 . Gaius Worzel

Oh you don't like Gaius? You think he's a boring stereotype? Well, what if he had a bird attack like Kloe? Still no? What if he became a secret church guy like Wazy and Kevin, you like them right? Still no? I agree that the constant references to the wind are bad, but I dunno. He seems like a cool guy to me. Maybe I just like his design more than most. I like that they made Rean's two best friends be really into art (music and painting) to make them less threatening.

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42 . Thomas Lysander

Speaking of secret church guys, this weird teacher from CS 1 and 2 ended up being a Superpriest called The Partitioner. It's a wild plot twist to be sure. Trails rule #1: You can never trust a smart guy. They're either going to be evil or secretly one of the strongest people on the continent (or both!)

Up next: Let's do some Jaeger bombs

wait did shirley not get eliminated yet?

they also made rean's two best friends non-characters to make them nonthreatening (to the rean-show that is cold steel)

his initial best friends but i will die on the hill that by the time of cs3 jusis has surpassed them. and lets not even start with crow

Laura is clearly his best friend.

screw agate, I was neutral on him before he slapped a kid and nothing I've heard about where he's going has endeared me to him either

I would've liked to have seen Tita and Anelace higher I think

Frank Jaegers
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41 . Rutger

The reasons why I like this guy are spoiler-tastic, so maybe skip this if you haven't played CS3 or 4 yet. Part of me wants to say there's no reason for this guy (and Zephyr itself really) to exist, and that same part wants to say that jaegers themselves just make CS3 super complicated for no reason (who cares about warring factions of stupidly named mercs?). But then again, Fie rules, and it was kind of cool how he impaled that Aion that one time. Good VA too.

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40 . Sigmund Orlando

What a ridiculous name. It makes me think the localizers listened to a lot of Mars Volta or Coheed and Cambria at the time. Sigmund gets points for actually being kind of scary sometimes, like when he blew up the IBC cola building and had all those dudes killed in the geofront. I also like the genuinely tough extra ATB challenge battles. And that time he had us count all the people in the train? Pretty good introduction.

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39 . Shirley Orlando

Fine, fine. Let's talk about this crazy. She's the Blood-Red Groper for sure, and we know how I feel about that. The thing about Shirley is that I think we're supposed to hate her. In Azure, they tease the idea that she could be sympathetic, just a poor girl made into a monster by her family, but then they undercut this immediately by having her drop a chandelier on Ilya and shoot a bunch of people. And then in CS they just make her super annoying and not really deep at all. So don't get me wrong, Shirley absolutely sucks as a person, but in a pretty effective way I think. I also weirdly like the Cedric/Shirley Ouroborous dynamic so long as they don't try to completely redeem / Face turn either of them.

Up next: Hocus Pocus

Anelace at least 40 spots too low

Azure!Shirley is fine (Elie incident aside) but CS3 is like a targeted character assassination for her.

Rankings thru Cold Steel IV End of Chapter 1

Kloe Rinz
Alan Richard
Giliath Osborne
Sara Valestein
Dr. Renne Hayworth

Gaius Worzel
Thomas Lysander
Tita Russell
Chief Sergei
Mueller Vander
(Sigmund Orlando)

Elie MacDowell
Kurt Vander
Arios MacLaine
Machias Regnitz
Agate Crosner

Rutger
(Shirley Orlando)
Kenneth Lakelord
Annabelle
Grace Lynn
Anelace Elfead

Cassius Bright
Zin
Xeno & Leonidas
Detective Dudley
Wazy Hemisphere

Angelica Rogner
Sully Sullenberger
Aurelia K. Le Guin
Scherazard
Bleublanc

Elliot Craig
Kilika
Alisa Reinford
McBurn
Beryl

Garcia Rossi
Dieter Crois
Ian Grimwood
Victor S. Arseid
Princess Alfin

Jona Sacred
Campanella
Cecile Neues
Elise Schwarzer
Ilya Platiere

Carl Regnitz
Michael Gideon
Major Michael Irving
Scarlet
Vulcan

Albert Russell
Crown Prince Cedric Reise Arnor
Neithardt
Walter
Luciola

Musse Egret
Toval Randonneur
Wald Wales
Irina Reinford
Mariabell Crois

I have to make it clear that Sully's last name isn't Sullenberger. I had her mistaken for the pilot responsible for the Miracle on the Hudson. It's "Atraid" which could be a good Phoenix Wright pun if she was bad at her job (because then she would "sully her trade") but eh.

Oh, right, it's Sully Atreid =P

The Weird Sisters (plus their cat)

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38 . Vita Clotilde

You know, it's actually impressive how literally ANYTHING goes in the world of Trails. Political intrigue? Check. Giant Robots? Check. Slice of life? Check. Cop Procedurals? Check. Magic? Check. For the most part it doesn't feel bad or out of place either. Vita doesn't feel strong enough to be "second Anguis" of Ouroborous to me. She's not really a good villain or a good ally. She's just kind of there. She's definitely too high on this list but I am contractually obligated to rank the magical girls together.

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37 . Celine

It's a talking cat! How cliche can we get? Well, what if she was a bit snarky? Even better! Even though she's a bit of cliche she's still more interesting than Vita by a country mile. Plus you can feed her saucers of milk. We're not going to discuss her human form, which is a crime.

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36 . Crimson Roselia

When I was making this list, I forgot that she is also a groper. My bad. She's also got a bit of that problematic Fire Emblem "I'm 800 but I look 13" energy going. But for some reason the devs made her boss fight music go hard for absolutely no reason whatsoever, and she's way more expressive than 75% of the cast despite being not all that important to the overall story.

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35 . Emma Millstein

Dayum, what a ridiculous cut-in illustration. That can't be good for your back. Unlike most of Class VII, I think Emma benefits from getting more interesting as the series goes on. Still, I don't think she really reaches any of the heights that the currently unranked class 7'ers achieve. I usually like the smart class pres characters, but she's a bit boring. If Vita is a 6 on the personality scale she's more like an 7.5.

Up next: Protect them at all costs

I like vita cuz her English voice actress sounds so soothing lol. I wonder if she's as good in Japanese

She's Yukari Tamura who's an amazing VA so probably.

I rather like Vita. Her dynamic with Emma, with Crow, with Bleublanc, and even with Musse and Aurelia later are all pretty good.

Emma definitely gets better with time, in CS1 she's basically endless build up to a payoff that never really happens because even when it starts to, Rean just decides he doesn't care. And in CS2 Celine basically takes up her role. Her timeline is basically "obviously a witch but not sharing, wonder why?" -> "CS2 Celine and Rean start off together" -> "Now we meet Emma already knowing everything of note so there's nothing left for her to do". CS3 and especially 4 started actually doing something with her beyond having her be an accessory to her cat.

Smol Girls Pt 2

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34 . Millium Orion

Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a pre-teen girl riding on a weird smooth sex toy looking thing? Millium's full of optimism throughout most of CS1 and 2, though she comes to understand complex emotions like sadness by the end of those two games. She's kind of dull in CS3, but at the end of the game she gets a lot sharper.

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33 . Towa Herschel

Everyone's favorite diminutive senpai. She's sweet! She's cute! She's definitely too small and her voice is too high pitched for me to take her seriously. I know she's popular and I can see why. It's fun to catch her when she falls off high things.

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32 . KeA Bannings

The only Trails character named after a mid-class automobile. Do I truly care about KeA or is she using her Sept-Terrion powers on me to make me? Who cares? I will say I played CS3 and 4 before the Crossbell games and I thought she was super annoying. Her arc was pretty predictable but the reveal in Azure of how she rewound time to save everybody in Zero was cool.

Up next: A tale of two joke villains

I love my Kia :( and KeA

I didn't like KeA much. Do like Millium quite a bit, good character development.

who needs character development when you are already Towa

Towa out before Crow? That's a paddlin'.

Millium was okay for a while, but CS4 made her one of my most hated Trails characters. Bringing her back sucked. I also think it was a mistake to make her playable at all; CS's cast was already a good size before adding Crow and her.

KeA's pretty great in general.

colliding posted...

She's kind of dull in CS3, but at the end of the game she gets a lot sharper.

bruh

Janus5k posted...

bruh

i missed this lmao

MacArrowny posted...

but CS4 made her one of my most hated Trails characters. Bringing her back sucked. I also think it was a mistake to make her playable at all; CS's cast was already a good size before adding Crow and her.

This. I can't stand Millium at all. Also manages to bring Jusis down because for some reason they have to be best friends or whatever the hell they have going on there.

Millium and KeA suck Towa deserves better company (also I had the opposite reaction to the end of Azure)

Is there an English word for "endearingly arrogant?"

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31 . Patrick Hyarms

Character Development! Patrick goes from being a rich and racist rival to being Rean's wealthy BFF, who is sometimes able to solo magic knights when the plot calls for it. Sure, that's fine. But come on Rean just let him ask Elise out on a date already! You know she'll turn him down anyway. In all seriousness, it's kind of a miracle how they made someone I hated so much in CS1 relatively likeable by the end of the whole thing.

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30 . Gilbert

I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for Gilbert, despite that he's super duper annoying. Both he and Patrick are super arrogant, but their character arcs diverge wildly. Gilbert fully transforms into the series' "recurring joke villain." JRPG fans love their joke villains. I appreciated his appearances in SC and 3rd and didn't really mind him in CS4 either, but I think I'm very close to being Gilberted out.

Up next: Surprise twists!

Patrick ended up being pretty cool. DIdn't like how they just make you imagine what happened to make him and Rean mates though.

Patrick rocks and they should cement his romance with Elise.

Gilbert's gotten real tiresome.

Unfortunately Falcom will never cement the romance of [girl introduced in Cold Steel] with [character that isn't Rean].

Edit: Ok I guess in fairness it's not like they'll do any romance with [character that is Rean] either.

Also what the heck is Gilbert doing here yeah. Worst character in the series and it's not close.

If anyone ever tops Angelica for worst character i'll be impressed

colliding posted...

But come on Rean just let him ask Elise out on a date already!

Doesn't he actually let him at the end of CS4 (unless you picked Elise for the final bond event in which case loooool)? Maybe not in those exact words but I remember the game finally throwing him a bone in that regard.

I agree with the appreciation of Patrick's arc. During CS1, I was expecting him to follow the trope of being so consumed with jealousy of the main hero that he'd do whatever it took to beat him, becoming a main villain of that game. And then he...didn't do that at all. Glad to be wrong on that one. I also wouldn't mind him paired with Elise.

Are we the baddies?

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29 . Sharon

Sharon could very easily just be weeb-trash, and maybe she is, but I like her. I generally don't go for maid / butler characters, since they're either played as flagrantly s/m fetish stuff OR they're actual Victorian era prim and boring. But then I saw Sharon's CS4 outfit and I was sold. Feel free to look it up on your own time. She's got cool attacks and the funniest run animation in CS. Bonus points for being a "string" character, which really speaks to my inner weeb.

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28 . George Nome

Yeah, it's the fat guy! If you haven't played CS3 you're probably wondering how in the world he's this high on the list. Play the game, because I don't want to spoil the legitimately most surprising twist the series has had to this point. If you have played CS3 and CS4, you probably wish the latter game hadn't undone nearly all of what the prior game set up. Also, I think it's funny how stupid his name is in hindsight of said twist.

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27 . Weissman

Speaking of twists, it's the twist that started it all! Actually, I think it was Suikoden that taught me to never trust an NPC with a character portrait who shows up more than once. So while the end of FC might not be totally surprising, it certainly felt earned and well-done. I still think he's probably the best main villain in the series. I certainly felt more hatred toward him than I ever felt towards the Crossbell people or Osborne (mostly because I was just confused by Osborne the whole time).

Up next: Bad Boys Ride or Die

oh god, I was hoping George wouldn't be in the top 100. He's a good contender for worst Trails character. Everything about him after the twist is awful, and he wasn't anything special before the twist, either.

Sharon is a lot of fun, at least.

FRICKIN WEISSMAN
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