The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky

[Mickeymac92]

http://gematsu.com/2015/11/legend-heroes-trails-sky-sc-psp-launches-november-10-europe

Either way, our PAL pals will be able to determine for themselves as to how well this game holds up for them in 5 days. Get your Steam Wallets ready!

PC release was worldwide, according to that article you linked. It's the PSP version they had to wait for.

Also, November 10th is in 5 days?! Crap, that means Fallout 4 is coming out soon...Trails might have to wait...

[Aeolus]

http://gematsu.com/2015/11/legend-heroes-trails-sky-sc-psp-launches-november-10-europe

Either way, our PAL pals will be able to determine for themselves as to how well this game holds up for them in 5 days. Get your Steam Wallets ready!

PC release was worldwide, according to that article you linked. It's the PSP version they had to wait for.

Also, November 10th is in 5 days?! Crap, that means Fallout 4 is coming out soon...Trails might have to wait...

Whoops. You're right. I'm so used to PAL-land getting bullshitted that I figured that this was yet another instance of that.

[Dice]

Congrats EU for getting the game so soon!

I'm playing on...

= The first few chapters are a real drag.  Re-treading old ground is kinda crappy, but the predictable plots are probably even worse --- FC managed some element of surprise with each new area, but so far (Ch 3) it's kind of predictable that the 'bad guys' are behind the "bad things" going on... Bah.

= Really sad there's a lot less variety in Empty Treasure dialogue.   But, alas, I'm not too surprised, I'm sure they ran through a lot of the good ones on the first games, and I appreciate the new ones when I see 'em.

= I still love Zane as a tank and I love his sprite is 'extra tall'.

= I pity the peeps who went with Schera and left Agate behind.  Agate is a crazy killer and Schera is good, but the game throws a ton of mages your way early on.

= Those offence foods are good... too good, they're not even hard to cook.

= Games way too often do the red/blue route for main heroes.  Indeed, Estelle and Joshua doing just that for FC.  But it's gotta be said, Estelle orange outfit for SC is absolutely gorgeous.  The colouring on it is seriously perfect and adds a lot of new life compared to her old basic red duds.  I also love how bright and vivid her teal shoulder armour stands out too.

= Meanwhile Joshua's 180 is annoying.  I get it, troubled childhood.... but stop pretending ya don't care, bru.

= Olivier's secret identity makes Ch 3 dialogue a bit more interesting, specifically when interacting with the embassy.

= Speaking of, Mueller has a running animation despite being an NPC...??  HMMMMmmmm.

[kkhohoho]

= Speaking of, Mueller has a running animation despite being an NPC...??  HMMMMmmmm.

Spoilers, but...

Code: [Select]

Mueller, Julia, and Jossette all become playable for the endgame. Which would explain why he has a running animation.

[kkhohoho]

So I'm 40 hours in and it's sinking in more than ever that, while Trails is good, it's still got problems. I talked about the pacing before, but it wasn't until last night and tonight that it really sunk in just how bloated and unbalanced it was. Last night, it took me 40-50 minutes to fight a mini boss-rush at the end of the Chapter 3 as well as sit through all the associated cut-scenes, whereas in most anything else, that could all be accomplished in at least half the time. And tonight, I played through an interlude between Chapters 3 and 4 that could easily have taken just 20 minutes if they cut out the fat and sped things up a bit, but it instead took me another 40-50 minutes to get through.

Trails might be too detailed and verbose for it's own good. For every wonderful little scene and iota of character development, it decides to show us three side characters talking about how crappy the meals are in Ebronia, (a scene that takes three-four minutes by the way,) and to have its' boss fights take much more time to beat than they should by giving them ridiculous HP counts. There is so much here that, if left on the cutting room floor, could have made for a sleeker and even more enjoyable game than what we got. As is, it's like an overfed turkey; there's still a lot of meat to it, but the sheer amount of fat can make your experience larger and more sluggish than it needs to be.

[Dice]

(I forgot to say thanks for the little spoiler bit!  I figured as much, but I was actually kinda happy to 'deduce correctly'. xD)

Yeah.  I think the worst part about the first FOUR (!!) chapters (+ Prologue!) is it's WAAAAAYY too episode-of-the-week.  The "whodunit" is ALWAYS "The Society" and each "mystery" being Scooby Doo levels of predictable (making Renne's appearance a running counter for 'odd behaviour' till she finally fesses up that she's working for Ouroboros).   FC at least took you to new locations and had new issues each time, SC so far is going to familiar places, meeting familiar people, and performing chump tasks till the villain decides to show up at the end.

I *finally* hit Bose (I'm taking my sweet time at about 40-50 hours now) and things are *finally* starting to get heat up.  Reactions on GAF seem to indicate that it's only better from here on out at least.  I sorely miss Estelle and Joshua's interactions, I guess that's what really makes "the journey" so worth it in some ways.   And it's not that I'm not enjoying myself, but I've definitely been skipping a bit of dialogue when it starts running on (and on, and on). 

If things get dry, usually bringing Olivier helps.

[kkhohoho]

If things get dry, usually bringing Olivier helps.

Indeed. It helps that he's one of the best characters in the party gameplay-wise as well. One seven-orbal row for the win.

Although, the biggest problem with the game is that it thinks it's a book. In a book, the structure the game uses would work better because you could just close the book at any time and open it back up again later at your choosing, and you can even skip a page or two if you're so inclined. You can take it at your own pace. Not so much with Trails. Sure, you can save anywhere, but you can't just close the game during a cutscene and pick up exactly where you left off. The game doesn't know that it is a game, which is rather surprising considering that this was made by the same people who make the Ys Series which, even though they're starting to a have a bit of influence from Trails, still know what they are and are a blast to play as a result. I'm not saying Trails should be the Ys series, but am I saying that you'd think that a game made from the people who gave us Ys would know how make Trails better fit its' medium.

[Arklight]

= Really sad there's a lot less variety in Empty Treasure dialogue.   But, alas, I'm not too surprised, I'm sure they ran through a lot of the good ones on the first games, and I appreciate the new ones when I see 'em.

Apparently the way chests are programmed is different in SC. In FC, each chest was its own event with its own editable text box. Meanwhile, for SC, falcom figured out how do do chests more "universally." That's why only some of the chests were customizable. Regular chests shared the same event text, trap chests shared the same event text, and all sepith chests were customizable. 

Anywho, I just finished this game yesterday. WOWZERS, what a strong endgame. Honestly, I was really fond of the game the whole time though. Something about the slow burn of plots is just super appealing to me. Gameplay-wise, I am particularly happy that physical attacks seemingly got buffed. In FC, it just felt like orbal arts were the most viable strategy the whole way through. I don't know what falcom changed or if they even changed anything in the first place, but kudos to them for making physical fighters just feel significantly more viable.

[Towns Car Marty]

Just started SC. I think it's hilarious that FC began with fighting slugs in a sewer before trekking across the country to stop a coup d'etat, and now SC starts with training to tackle a bigger foe by...fighting slugs in a sewer.

Also, this is *stupidly* hard to find on EU PSN. It's not on the Vita store in any shape or form, not even via searching. I had to log into the PS3 store and purchase it that way, and even then it has a disclaimer that says "PSP only". However, once I purchased it I was able to download it from Vita. And they named both files identically and gave them the same icon.

Sometimes I get the impression that Sony EU just don't give a crap. You similarly have to search like crazy to get Suikoden 2 or Brandish. I can't imagine how many sales this is costing niche publishers.

[Der Jermeister]

I'm at the beginning of Chapter 8, and was ready to say the game jumped the shark with a boss fight occurring at the end of the last tower's altered space in Chapter 7, but equipping all my fighters with deathblow/petrification-prevention items really helped. Didn't like having to find my way out of the dungeon to shop for said items, though.

[Marshmallow]

I bought SC last week, am on chapter 2 or 3 or something but I am loving it as much if not more than I did the first game.  I do miss FC's regular battle theme though, but I've been enjoying actually getting to choose members of my party. I used Agate as much as possible in FC so I was glad he's recruitable so early in this.

[Tooker]

FYI, Derek's review of the second chapter is up:

http://www.rpgfan.com/reviews/The_Legend_of_Heroes_Trails_in_the_Sky_Second_Chapter/index.html

[Der Jermeister]

Review doesn't wholly reflect my personal opinion on the game, and right now I'm in the final chapter, two hours short of the thirty-hour mark, and having made some progress in the last dungeon. Guess I'm just too good at RPGs :/

[Raze]

I can't believe you monsters would ditch big sister Schera just for unlimited limit breaks.

And how's that narrative even work?

'Ok, let's rush 'em!'
'Alright!'
'...alright? You're not going to lecture me about charging in headfirst without any kind of plan?'
'Ugh, FINE...'

[Der Jermeister]

Encountered a boss in the final chapter that raped me with status ailments, so I went back to buy protection for my party, so I'll be better prepared. Tried to grind for Craft Points only to figure out the coin enemies could drain CP :/