Board 8 > I rank the Trails series characters (from Sky until Reverie) (spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Yeah, I'd give him credit for being one of the few semi-important characters to die and stay dead

205. Kairi
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/c/ce801f20.jpg
No Kairi, that is not true.

His whole gimmick is looking feminine and wanting to prove how manly he is. In this endeavor he fails spectacularly. The last thing I remember from him in Reverie was being the mascot of the tea ceremony club because of how cute he looked to onlookers. Normally even the random NPCs in Trails get some kind of development throughout their arcs. I mean, the reoccurring NPCs at least, not like, random townspeople. For Kairi however, I guess they thought it'd be funny if he just never changed in any capacity? His gimmick annoys me every time I see it. Like, just accept who you are dude. Lean into your strengths. They could've used this as an opportunity to have a character rebel against gender norms or what have you and find self acceptance, but instead they just kind of leave him as a joke the entire series. And it's not a very funny one. I just feel bad for the kid and would have enjoyed the series more if I never realized he existed at all.

Yeah the entirety of the ILF sans C is pretty bad and I'd agree that Vulcan is the worst.

_stingers_ posted...

205. Kairi
They could've used this as an opportunity to have a character rebel against gender norms or what have you and find self acceptance,

not the series's strength until possibly daybreak, but I won't say anymore since I'm still working through it myself

204. Irina Reinford
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/9/95afe38b.jpg
How would you know?!

And the world's worst mother award goes to -

I respect her more than Harold, honestly. She's not exactly a great mother, but at least she knows that. I don't know if Zemuria really needed a budget Lockheed Martin to tell their story, what with all of the other labs and other technological enterprises that pepper their landscape. But sure, we've got one. Irina, as the CEO of said corporation, has no time for her daughter and doesn't shy away from that fact, but she does at least care about her daughter enough to keep tabs on her from afar with Sharon and Thors leadership. I'll give her a 1/10 for making that minimal effort, but from what we were shown I think Alisa turning out as well adjusted as she did is in spite of Irina rather than because of her.

Not much else to say about her besides that. CEO workaholic and absent mother. Chooses profits over people and isn't ashamed of that. She's also got a bad haircut which doesn't do her any favors. You'd think one of the richest people in Erebonia could afford a stylist or something. I suppose she may be choosing the haircut to look more masculine/intimidating on purpose. That would be in character for her. But it doesn't make me like her any more, so down the rankings you go.

Also, her constant face-turn heel-turn moments where she's randomly breaking her daughter's heart but was really just being super analytical about the bad guys the whole time and chooses to betray them without the slightest change of expression or courtesy. At least her partner in dismissive super-science (Schmidt, not Franz) has no familial attachments to completely neglect. Hell, Schmidt has even better social moments with all his pupils than Irina has with her daughter ever, except George because George sucks.

203. Hibelle
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/0db4aefc.jpg
I have nothing funny to say, but this was the only image I could find on google of Hibelle saying anything at all.

This is the first character on the list that got placed here for being completely and utterly without value. Boring isn't even the right word, it's justwhy? Why do you exist, Hibelle? He likes music apparently. That's about all we know about him. Maybe if you had replaced Elliot on the character select screen the game would have been better because you are less of an eyesore, but that's only by virtue of how generic and inoffensive your design is. I have to imagine he was designed by a hungover developer the day before the game was supposed to go Gold. If he came out in a game today I'd call him AI designed. At least the developers had the sense to completely forget his existence after CS2 so we never had to think about him again.

Mega_Mana posted...

Also, her constant face-turn heel-turn moments where she's randomly breaking her daughter's heart but was really just being super analytical about the bad guys the whole time and chooses to betray them without the slightest change of expression or courtesy. At least her partner in dismissive super-science (Schmidt, not Franz) has no familial attachments to completely neglect. Hell, Schmidt has even better social moments with all his pupils than Irina has with her daughter ever, except George because George sucks.

Yeah basically any time she showed up in the story it felt like they had no idea where they were supposed to go with her. They didn't want Alisa's mother to be completely evil so she would just have a change of heart on a whim every other scene. It was sloppy writing and didn't do the character any favors.

Schmidt on the other hand at least has comedic value. That earns him quite a bit of points

Irina makes no sense. They just wanted Alisa to have a hot corporate mom so Alisa could have issues, but as is the series's wont, they kept on including her in the story for some reason. Trash.

_stingers_ posted...

203. Hibelle

Who?

*opens image*

...who? Don't remember this guy at all.

Honestly I think I've blocked my memory most of Irina's plot relevant moments but I remember not liking most of them. Alisa gets some decent moments because of her at least.

Hibelle was the head of the Wind Orchestra. That's... pretty much all. I've checked my notes and that is pretty much all. He heads the Wind Orchestra and joins a military band.

If I could remember someone I tried to put them on the list. Which is why there's a lot more random cold steel NPCs than sky. My memory is pretty bad too. I frequently forget whether I've put shampoo on or not in the shower...for some reason though I remembered Hibelle.

202. Celine
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/3/3ef92774.jpg
Yet you do...over and over again.

Tsundere cat character sounds...decent on paper I suppose, but in practice all I really felt with Celine was annoyance. It felt like to me that the writers didn't really know what they wanted to do with Celine either. In half of her scenes, she is the wise familiar that can resolve issues with space and time themselves. In the other half, she's a silly cat-girl thing that can't do basic math. I never felt like those latter scenes were entertaining, or the former scenes were earned. She's more competent than Emma when the writers want her to be, but why would the Familiar surpass the Master? I don't see Grianos performing feats above Vita's pedigree at any point in the series. It just seems odd to me.

They also decided to give her a human form later in the franchise, I suppose to try and reach their fetish quota. Her human design is kind of off putting though, to me at least. It's at least unique, I'll give them some credit for that, but I don't know if we needed another 10 year old girl character this late into the series. She definitely doesn't act like a 10 year old girl, so why does she look like one? I know Japan can just be like that but I'm not a fan.

She's also playable later in the series but the game never gives you any reason to use her. As far as I'm aware she's the only character without an S Craft? At least that is in your end party, maybe not counting some of the temporary characters you may get in any given story beat. Her auto attacks were pretty good for a mage, but I don't remember what her brave order was so it couldn't have been very good. She was quickly forgotten after I used her once just to see what she was like. Just very few redeeming traits overall.

Celine should've just stayed a cat. Her human form scenes aren't good.

I didn't really have any problems with Celine, other than the fact that she's terrible in battle. Definitely higher on my list but C-tier for sure

IIRC Celine actually has some niche uses in battle if built correctly but I forget the use case. Might be how her normal attack scales? I forget.

Probably. Her autos were good. I don't know if that's a real niche though, because you can get way better damage casting spells

Celine was fine until they gave her a human form

201. Alan (Cold Steel)
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/1/14c922bb.jpg
You'll make the box art next game for sure, buddy.

Alan in the first two games, while largely unmemorable, was a fine character. He existed to be in a relationship with Bridget and be insecure that the nobles were better than him, and that was about it. Young high school romance is endearing, so no problems from me there. Self confidence issues, all high schoolers go through that, so sure. Well written! I rather liked seeing his relationship with Bridget evolve.

Unfortunately, his plotline dives off a cliff and never recovers. They decided in CS3 that he would join the military. Shocking, to see a member of a military academy actually join the military after graduation, isn't it? He doesn't get much screen time there, so still nothing really out of the ordinary. What really does him in is CS4 - where he becomes afflicted by the 'Erebonian Curse' and becomes the most insufferable, overly patriotic, bloodthirsty mess of a character that ruins every scene he shows up in. I feel terrible for Bridget when you speak with her in Mishelam and she is so confused and distraught over Alan's behavior.

"But stingers - " you begin to say, "that wasn't really Alan, that was the curse influencing his behavior. He wasn't like that before, after all." To which I say, I don't care. The list is subjective and any rationalizations, true or not, don't make me actually like the character more. When he was on screen in CS4, I would get pissed off. If they actually gave him a scene where he apologized to Bridget for his behavior and they made up, then I would probably move him a good bit up the list. But (as far as I remember) they didn't, and I hate him for it.

Seeing people get brainwashed into supporting a bloodthirsty regime is unfortunately relevant to modern times, so getting relevant political commentary in my escapist media isn't doing poor Alan any favors. I wish they treated you better Alan, I really do. But this is what we've got, so this is where he gets ranked.

It's wild to me that for all the hype about the big spooky curse (and all the times that they tell you it's not mind control only to have a scene that establishes it blatantly is by having someone say "You know, I'm not a fan of war" and then SPOOKY BLACK WIND EFFECT and then they say "Then again going to Calvard and eating all their babies sounds fun yay murder murder killing wheeee!"), ultimately the only time you have to contend with a former friend actually opposing you because of it is fucking Alan. Dude's not even top five most memorable Thors NPCs. He probably isn't even top ten.

I only remember Alan because of Bridget

Also the curse feels a lot like the thrill from Stormlight Archive, where it's not exactly mind control, but it inflames and heightens certain emotions.

Given that I know tons of toxic military bros in real life who also justify their unhinged controlling behavior toward their wives under the guise of strength... I'd say Alan gets points for accuracy.

Insufferable yes, but I think they're achieving what they're going for.

I don't remember Alan being controlling towards Bridget. He was more of a simp for her than anything. Until cs4, obviously

And even then I don't think he was controlling. He was just like, "Why don't you understand that we need to murder every Calvardian citizen?" And then left to do his own thing. He pretty much ignored her

Controlling is maybe the wrong word. Obsessing is probably better

200. Machias Regnitz
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/c/ceac1cb5.jpg
Hedonist Machias sounds like a great improvement. Let's get him, Schera and Sara in a room together and see what happens.

Oh Machias. If I made this list after CS1 he might have been last place. I'd say it's pretty likely. He grew on me a small amount throughout the series. His nerdiness subsided slightly as the series went on, and he got over his classism that annoyed me so much in the first entries. He does have a confidence about him, stemming from an honest belief in himself, that I can respect. The issue is still that he lacks any kind of personality that would make me want to be around him. That seemingly hasn't changed since the moment we were introduced to him, I'm afraid.

Seeing his daydream in Reverie where he befriended Dudley and they bonded over being workaholics and liking coffee pretty much sums up why I would absolutely hate being around this person in real life. He's just insufferable. I can't imagine a personality more suited to being a bureaucrat. So again, I'll give props to the writers for good writing as far as that goes, but...did we need a bureaucrat to be a teammate? Couldn't he have just been a reoccuring side character we see every now and again, like his sidekick that I can't remember the name of from the Inspectorate's office? That would've been a great change.

I guess they really wanted to have someone who uses a shotgun, and I guess it's a fitting weapon for him, so...whatever. I still wish he had any kind of sense of humor, it would've made him more enjoyable. On the bright side, he is actually pretty useful in battle. I still almost never used him when I had any choice in the matter, but I could easily see a world where he was a mainstay in my party if I were so inclined. Petrification Shot is really good against mobs, especially once you start adding additional status ailment orbments to his loadout. He also had an accelerate ability on a normal skill, which I think he may be the only character that can do that? I do have the feeling I'm forgetting someone, but Machias is the standout choice for such an ability. I was never really upset when he showed up in my party, so he does get a few pity points for that.

I'll close out by saying I also think his visual design is atrocious. Maybe that's too harsh, but...he's just not pleasant to look at. I did enjoy when we got the contacts in later games and could remove glasses from characters. Glasses have never done it for me, so those got thrown on Emma and Machias ASAP. Still, he just looks dorkish. Falcom can have good designs when they want to, so I would imagine this was an intentional choice on their part. I wonder how many fans Machias really has? I can't imagine it's very many.

machias deserves to be higher solely for "YOU'VE FAILED YOUR INSPECTION!"

i would spam his s-craft just to hear it lol

But without Machias having a stuffy bureaucrat personality, we don't get the best S-Craft quote of all time

YOU FAILED YOUR INSPECTION

Is that some meme in the community or something? You guys both said the same thing really quickly lol I don't know if I've ever thought of that but sure I guess it's kinda funny

I am not part of any community other than this one

It's just hilarious that this qualifies as smack talk for Machias

_stingers_ posted...

which I think he may be the only character that can do that?

Schera, Elie, Juna, Claire. Machias isn't the only person but he's certainly the most consistent user of it in CS1/2.

Juna does yeah..I think she unlocks it pretty late though right? In reverie at least. I forgot Elie did she was always just using spells every turn for me

Thorn posted...

machias deserves to be higher solely for "YOU'VE FAILED YOUR INSPECTION!"

i would spam his s-craft just to hear it lol

Best sepith farming method involves a lot of random monsters failing their inspections

I played Crossbell after Cold Steel, and that helped me understand Machias's existence a bit more. "Oh, Trails just likes to have the same character over and over again." They even have a bespectacled government employee in Daybreak too. But yeah, Machias is a huge nerd and they gave up trying to make him interesting once he and Jusis became friends. Remember his friend who died? Neither does he.

The best part of Machias is Patiry being amazing

wait wtf why is Hibelle on here but not Patiry???

colliding posted...

Remember his friend who died? Neither does he.

You mean his cousin? Because that's literally what his last bonding event in CS4 is about.

MacArrowny posted...

wait wtf why is Hibelle on here but not Patiry???

Since you're the second person to mention her I'll slot her in

Patiry might be the best non-Thors Erebonia minor NPC. I think.

but this does not look good for her upcoming placement

I put her above who's been ranked so far if it makes you feel any better

Patiry is definitely one of the more interesting Erebonia NPCs.

CSIII/IV Spoilers

I think Alan would rank better if the curse was more widespread among known characters. I think only roughly fifty named NPCs were noticeably affected. Part of that is how quickly towns emptied from volunteers and draftees so that many of the people that remained to talk to still had their senses, and that the heaviest concentration of black winds would be on the eastern side of the continent by Calvard where we weren't. Crossbell was a pretty good example of the curse affecting decision-making and memories, but... that's nothing new for Crossbell with the Cult's doings in Zero/Azure and what I've seen in Reverie thus far. And the only main characters affected besides Alan were either "All a part of the plan" like Rean, Crow, Cedric, and Ash fulfilling Black Records prophecies; or dumb Gnomish bullshit with Crow, Angelica, and Victor. Like, there were so many characters from Thors that could also have been affected, but everyone except Alan are totally fine including those like Hibelle or Loggins or Stefan or Klein or Friedel who never showed back up.

I think I'm just thinking too hard about how pathetic the curse was compared to other fictions of evil miasma. Danganronpan despair, Stephen King's small towns like Derry or Castle Rock or Haven, the Cult of Nyx in Persona 3 (or really any Shin Megami Tensei lategame), Doctor Who's "Midnight," Giygas' influence on Earthbound, Happy Boxes and capitalism in Mother 3, Hinamizawa Sundrome, even Team Starkid's Black Friday and an episode of the Powerpuff Girls. For as crazy as CSIII ends, CSIV was almost tame.

Actually, Alan does suck.

200. Margarita
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/6aef8d5a.jpg
*Kill Bill alarm sirens*

Margarita, while having the best name in the franchise does not have much virtue beyond that. Her gimmick is that she's fat and ugly. Not a great place to start! She's obsessed with Vincent and spends much of the franchise trying (and eventually succeeding) in trying to get together with him. I feel for Vincent, but he seems...oddly content with the whole situation. I think he might just be a chubby chaser in disguise and downplays it publicly for the crowds.

Her gimmick got old fast though, at least for me. I did find it mildly amusing when she got skinny in one of the games (CS4?) but then when that turned into her switching between fat/skinny on a dime I just lost all interest again. My suspension of disbelief has limits and +/- 100 lbs randomly just didn't sit right. She was also the person you gave your peculiar dishes to? Sure. That's all I've got. I wish all the best to her and the 17 kids she'll have with Vincent.

Oh and everyone before her went down 1 spot since I added in Paitry

199. Gideon
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/aa185cf2.jpg
With how much he talks about this flute, him and Elliot should really get along.

The second member of the ILF has fallen. Gideon was the first member of the group we were introduced to, and his main gimmick was having a magic flute that summoned monsters. Was that ever explained? I don't think anything like that reoccurs in the series. Is it a pleroma flute or something? I don't know. He was slightly more interesting than Vulcan was, with a snide looking visual design that makes you want to punch him in the nose. He also had the flute. I mean, the flute's kind of cool, I guess. I wish they made it acquireable, so we could summon monsters to our side to fight with us during a battle or something. Wouldn't that be cool? Probably too much work for a small indie studio like Falcom to implement.

Ultimately, he falls victim to being part of the ILF plotline and not reappearing past CS1. He is another one of the rare characters that dies and stays dead in the franchise. Two of them being in the ILF is likely symbolic of how Falcom felt about their plotline while they were making it. They can't all be winners, I suppose. At least they had the decency to end it off as soon as they were able.

No mention of Orchis Tower?

I forgot he was there. It's always nice to see the cross-arc representation

198. Clara
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/8/86f16ff0.jpg
...Seriously? I need to speak to your parents. Who raised you?

Clara has probably the worst visual design in the entire franchise. At least, of the characters I've seen so far. Margarita is ugly sure but I mean, she has to be. What unholy reason did they have to come up with this design for Clara? She definitely does not have to look like that. Her haircut is like...I don't know. Some weird pigtail / manbun amalgamation? It just looks so strange. The picture I chose doesn't show it all the way so here:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/a5f20a9f.png

Yeah. Anyway, the rest of her characterization isn't that bad, I thought it was kind of funny. Kind of. It got old but she is kind of insane with how little attention she pays to the world around her so she can focus on her art. How the fuck did she get accepted to a military academy? Does she even have a weapon? I don't remember if they ever showed Clara fighting but I find it hard to believe she would ever be able to. I suppose that's why she never shows up again after CS2, she gets expelled for failing half of her classes and then becomes a starving artist in Ordis or something. We're going with that. Honestly she just ranks this low because of how repulsive she is, if she looked normal she'd be at least a tier up.

I mean, wasn't she the one making the upgrade orbs for Valimar in CS2? In theory that might make her more important than the average soldier in a war!

Aw, that's kind of mean to Clara. I'll take her over the cookie-cutter long-hairs the Trails series loves.

I'm so sick of the Trails shorthand of giving a character long hair to show they got older and more attractive.

_stingers_ posted...

I wish they made it acquireable, so we could summon monsters to our side to fight with us during a battle or something.

This would suck and make the game worse

_stingers_ posted...

Ultimately, he falls victim to being part of the ILF plotline and not reappearing past CS1. He is another one of the rare characters that dies and stays dead in the franchise.

This is good and should happen more