It WoUlD bE mY pLeAsUrE. Sorry, had to leave a little PTSD for y’all lol. Hope you enjoyed the video. Really surprised at how quickly I managed to get this up considering I only started working on it a few days ago. I probably won’t be able to make anything new until the semester ends, but I did work on and schedule four videos to go up at the end of each month (including this one). Three out of the four are Trails-related, so don’t worry, I’ll make sure you guys are eating good while I’m gone.
The first time through I convinced myself that there actually was more than one kid there, which... I have no idea how I thought that was better? I just blocked out the line that refuted that I guess.
how do you feel about the notion that star door 15 was them setting up a guardrail for how dark and/or explicated they would want the series to get with certain topics? (like what we see in it for example)
One thing that broke me in the end along with the goodbyes were the little chest messages in the final dungeon, encouraging us, and talking about the end of the liberl arc.
25:54 "This is a wholesome trilogy about a twin tailed tomboy and her stepbro with benefits" I see there was quite the bright side to getting a new sibling for Estelle.
Star Door 15 was something else. Shit finally hit me in the scene when Renne was repeating what all the kids were saying. Like, I imagined it would be child trafficing but this was somehow worse than that.
I figured they'd try and keep it PG-13, so I thought it was just some weird science experiments or something. (I'm still convinced Ouroborus members go though some type of enhancement after they're recruited. Can't think of any other explanation for how eleven-year-olds can mow down entire groups of well-trained adults.) I figured at the absolute worst there'd be one guy sexually harassing her. Spoiler alert: It was a whole bunch. MFs had a whole damn business going.
@@weaponsci when it was hinted in SC I was driving myself up the wall thinking about what it could actually mean. Then I looked it up on UA-cam and it was what I expected if a little worse.
@@weaponsci It been state, don't remember if it was this arc or a later one, that the Grandmaster does something to make them stronger, that all I'll say about that.
@@weaponsci If you haven't played Trails from Zero, the first game in the Crossbell arc, then you should. It helps flesh out the details and fill in the blanks that Star Door 15 doesn't go into. The Geofront translation mod is also superb and every bit the level of quality you'd expect from an official localization.
I knew going in that Star Door 15 had a reputation as the darkest moment in the franchise, and I was like "What could be worse than all the shit Joshua went through?" That. That is worse. You know shit's fucked when getting taken in by the Legion of Doom to get raised as a child soldier is the high point of your life.
My crackpot theory: someday, before the end of the trails series, we'll get a game that re-visits the nations we've been to before. I don't believe this game was our last visit to Liberl.
@@SuperSupersoda Considering the most recent arc, Dark, is considered the "halfway point" of the overall plot, I think it's safe to say we'll see Liberl again at some point in the next 20 years of Trails games yet to be made. lol
It's not only an epilogue for Trails but also kind of a transition to the other games. A lot of the doors might not seem important in the context of the Sky games but they introduce characters or story lines for the future games and give backstory there. Cloe's doors, Zin/Kilika, Olivier/Mueller, Renne all come in play in some form later on just from the top of my head.
Also, Operation: Cuddle With Renne, should be the primary mission to all Bracers, even the S ranks, and Gralsritters. ALL OF THEM. THIS IS OF UTMOST IMPORTANCE.
@@invaaalid5190 that door fked me up. I was like oh nothing actually happened to her she just was in a terrible environment. Then that twist hits at the end of the door and I was like…bruh
I absolutely adore Sky the 3rd, it's my favorite Trails game. It cuts out all the fluff and just makes the plot a character arc, which every plot should be. Kevin's arc, even moreso than Joshua or Renne's, expresses the main theme of forgiveness in a mature, interesting manner without any nonsense. No harems, no shonen speeches, just Kevin forgiving himself with the help of those close to him. I love the structure of side stories instead of sidequests and how all of this makes Sky the 3rd about half the length of a normal Trails game.
Agreed. It annoys me how some JRPGs try and be long just for the sake of it. You could have the greatest game in the world, but if it's 120 hours long I'm gonna be a little reluctant to play it again, even if I liked it. If it's 120 of engaging story/gameplay, that's different. I probably won't even notice the time fly. But for many games it's like 60 hours of actual story and 60 more for grinding and fetch quests. Just a pet peeve of mine.
@@weaponsci It actually took me a few hours more to finish the 3rd than FC. Or not. I'm not sure. I finished both games just shy under 50 hours, while spending just under 80 hours on SC. I love all three of these games and i really want to play them again sometime. But I'm putting that off for when I finshed the entire series at least once.
I strongly agree with you. But on the other side I think it needed all of those sidequests to understand a bracers life. That's on of the most interesting points on all of the trails games. They are so similar and so different at the same time. But when somethings different it perfectly fits to the new story it tells.
Great video, one thing I’d like to say is that I think the side quests were well done in FC and SC (bar the ones that were only available after the end of a chapter) in terms of time and that it makes perfect sense that you wouldn’t be able to just come back to them later bc Joshua and Estelle aren’t just gonna be able to leave the city they’re in just to wrap up loose ends. they have a mission they’re working on all throughout the games and backtracking would be too time consuming in the world they live in, it’s not like they’re just gonna leave Zeiss in the middle of the earthquake situation for a missing persons request in Bose or smth. And that’s also why it’s different in TC, since the games main content takes place in a world where you are expressly given permission to peruse the planes as you see fit and prepare for the final encounter (ie. doing doors) and have the method of doing so quickly (teleporting).
18:25 Oof! I feel called out here, to make Josette playable I was forced to slap two Tiger Hearts on her which skyrocketed her STR to around 2500 and actually made her crafts/basic attacks great. That's all though, her orbment was still garbage.
And that's why you open all the doors, Killika is pretty badass and she will be in the later games continuing the badassery:) Oh and it's funny how commented on Osborne:)) Hope to hear more from you on Zero and Ao.
@@weaponsci you can play Zero right now though. the Geofront has don a really good job with it. But yeah... Ao is going to be a long way away... (insert sad panda here)
I knew of Star Door 15 beforehand but I didn't know it get's this horrible. Next up are the Crossbell Games that continue the trend of dipping their toe into very dark material, which is pretty rad. The Crossbell duology are my favorite entries in the Trails series and the 2nd of them "Ao no kiseki" is one of the best RPG's ever for me at least. I'm glad you enjoyed Trails The Third aswell, alot of the fans rank it as one of their least favorite trails games, but I think it tells a really good story and sets up the next story arcs very well Edit: The Battle Tournament Mini Game Art had me laughing for minutes with all the main chars looking like JoJo characters
3rd's ending absolutely destroyed me, not with only sadness but happiness. And then the vocal version of one of my favorite songs from SC annihilated me.
18:26 funny thing is, as soon as the training plane opened I immediatelly decided to do a Josette Redemption arc and i took out the final boss with her on the party (Richard still did 60% of the work in the party thought.)
As for the doors, the Sun Doors aren't that important, but absolutely do all of the Moon and Star Doors. They're not side quests, they're vital information.
hell yeah, awesome video!!! i myself just finished the 3rd a week ago, it definitely left the hollow feeling you were talking about... i had a blast with every monster encounter, great music, next door, and getting to know everyone in the main cast a lot better T__T they're all absolutely wonderful it was nice to listen to you talk about the story and the stuff you had problems with :D if i didnt look to steam forum i wouldn't've known how important grail sphere is for the last boss *shudders* p.s. i love your jokes thanks for the laughs i really needed it today
I loved 3rd, I love talking to NPCs don’t get me wrong but after Cold Steel 1+2 and then Sky FC and SC I didn’t mind a dungeon crawl with just the main cast to talk to. It made the game a lot shorter then the others for me playtime wise but definitely still just as sweet. The doors really gave beautiful send offs to a lot of people, while also building things up and providing better context to what I saw in Cold Steel, and prepping for Crossbell. Kevin and Ries were adorable and I hope they show up in Kuro 2
I finished (re- for the first 2) playing the trilogy for my first time a few weeks ago and yeah, this is truly a massive underdog JRPG series. Also yeah a lot of the 3rd had me emotional and also hyped because of it constantly going 0-100-0-100 lol. Thank you for these reviews, they were very nice to watch!!! I'm playing Trails from Zero now myself with the voice mod. It's pretty nice, I do miss the old versions of the Sky voice mod where even the non voiced lines auto advanced and did so with really comfy timing. Also yes, that was my exact experience with star door 15.
@@ThanhTriet600 I took Joshua and Renne, cause kloe needs to heal another party. I even had to turn one more character into a healer besides Kloe, Kevin and Estelle. I rearranged Julias Quartz and made her a healer. Josette was put on Earth wall duty, cause that's all she's good for. Kevin is a really good support character and should be played as such. Ries can be the one doing damage. She has a really big sword after all.
I don't smoke, but I felt like I needed a cigarette after beating this game. lol It's amazing to me that all of the Doors can be skipped (I think the Tita and Agate one from the beginning is the only mandatory one). I mean, I guess if you want to speed run it, but I loved seeing what all of the characters were up to after SC and I really liked the one with Estelle and Joshua. In particular, I feel like the one with Campanella is the most important one in terms of the overall story. Ries best girl, that's for sure! Aster House theme hits me in ways that not many songs have ever done. You know, I told myself I was going to take a break after finishing the Sky trilogy before starting Zero (I was going to play Yakuza: Like A Dragon), but I don't know anymore. lol I need more Trails! Great review man! You did a great job expressing your thoughts with this video.
Thx. And don't be fooled by Zero and Azure being only two games. They're definitely very content heavy. Source: also felt worn out after finishing Crossbell lmao
I played Trails of cold Steel before i finshed 3rd in the sky. And i thought : "Hey a story about Renne, it can't be worse than Kevin's story was right ?" Oh what a ignorant summer child i was. But still, i think how it was pictured its excellent, could have maybe done without the last picture, but still how its shown, how its phrased and most importantly that it does not say it out right, till the end. I think that if they would have sinply stated what was happening, it would have maybe the same effect, because you keep guessing till the end if what youre thinking is true. I have also to admit, when i read it, i had to stop for at least a few minutes to be away from it.
Just one little tid-bit: The people killed by Kevin that you fought in Gehenna are actually mentioned in the next arc (it's not a major plot point but they both have connections to one of the larger "happenings" in the Crossbell-Arc).
How in the world could you not know that Killika is a great fighter? Wasn't that made abundantly clear in SC? She trained under, and was the daughter of, the same master who trained Zin and Walter.
Damn, I just discovered your channel randomly today and I binge watched your Trails reviews videos. I myself discovered the games back in 2015 when SC got released, I bought FC on Steam sales, feeling like "meh idk if it's any good, but I like old school turn based JRPGs so why not ?". I didn't know for what kind of adventure I was signing. Anyway, as it's for now my favorite video games saga ever, I really loved hearing you enthusiastically reviewing it and I'm looking forward to hear more from you especially about the Crossbell arc. Speaking about Sky the 3rd more specifically, I'm among the ones who loved it, can't say if I like it more or less than previous ones, as it's too different, but it was exactly what the content starving fanboy I was after finishing SC needed. And as much as battle system can be boring and tedious in FC (even though I still like it) I feel like it got awesome upgrades throughout the trilogy and I didn't feel bored at all having to fight too many things there. I must say watching your videos gave me a big nostalgia hit, I'll probably have to replay the trilogy now, but I'm waiting for PC release of Cold Steel 4, so I probably won't have time to do it for now, but maybe I should plan a 9-game marathon after CSIV got finally released. We'll see.
It depends on what square the character is standing on... The boss destroys part of the platform and it's a one shot if a character is not in the middle. Anyone can survive it by moving once it starts the cast.
Watching this again, because I felt like it. I am once again so proud that I managed to teach you how to correctly pronounce the name Dieter. Although Muelle and Loewe are still a bit tricky, but I get those ones, because most people who play these games don't speak German. But I feel the being broke bit. I am currently experiencing this in Cold Steel 2. Maybe I should farm some Shining Poms for Sepith. I have all this shining pom bait from the DLC. And I am not made of Mira. Money is so tight and I need to equip like 10 characters for some big fights. But yeah, star door 15 was awful. But I am excited to see how Renne changes when you see her again in later games. Why can't I play all of Cold Steel at once. But I am also scared of reaching the phase where I get Trails withdrawals. I did preorder Reverie though. Falcom is making me poor.
Falcom is lowkey getting rich off of all of us lol. I pre-ordered Reverie for the extra stuff but I'll be double dipping the PC version when it comes out.
9:40 I think I've ended the 3rd with like 140.000 mira left over, the game does a decent job at handing you new weapons before you get to the boss of each chapter and when it comes to armor I've only bought new gear for the front line fighters not the arts users (e.g. Agate, Estelle, Tita...etc). Zin's defense is absolutely busted, the man can be a whole 10-15 levels behind everyone (with early game equipment) and still pull his own weight.
Imagine being in my situation: I completed the 3rd around the end of February. Finished zero right before that although I committed a cardinal sin by playing out order. And now I wait. And wait.... for the Geofront patch of Azure. I got friggin Trails withdrawal bad af, and the Ys games help alot, but damnit I need Azure. I cannot in good faith move forward through the rest of the series without Azure, it's pretty much required.
@@weaponsci whaaa? So... should we be expecting a delay from our good friends from the 'front? Not that I'm upset about any delays, as I understand, they have a certain degree of quality they want reach. I'm confident a delay will only add a few extra weeks of waiting and not months and months. Btw I wonder what happened with Trails vs Ys alternative? The last I heard it was through a 2nd editing pass and online functionality was implemented. It's like it fell in a black hole, or they're going to get Azure first and then release T vs Ys shortly after.
@@ihavenoshameandmustscream421 it was some time ago, so for all I know they could be well on their way. Can't really complain though. This is a passion project that they're taking their own time to do free of charge. I'm sure they'll happily release it when they feel it's ready.
@@weaponsci no doubt about that on my end. I can wait, I'm still overjoyed that we will have a top quality Crossbell duologly in the West. That is quite the feat for a small group of fans to achieve, and it's why I'll always give praise to The Geofront. I'm not sure how many people out there understand the shear amount of work that goes into just localizing a Trails game, not to mention all the other QOL and graphical improvements that have been put in. For each member of the SSS and ALL other NPCs to have their very own personality in a game that has zero lines of English dialogue is something special, or I think it is. Not many people out here can pull something like that off.
sorry but playing either game, sky, crossbell or CS 1-2 first is absolutely fine. You just shouldnt start with cs3 and definitely dont play 4 before you finished the other arcs....
This video convinced me to play this game: despite handling PC controls for the first time I'm actually enjoying it. Still having issues ambushing enemies due to controls, but it's still enjoyable. I'm at the part where you're playing as the side characters from SC, and I love seeing them as vessels for expanding the world building. I got to about chapter 4 of Trails from zero and then started Trails the 3rd, and I can see the connecting tissue, and it's so satisfying so far.
I know this video is fairly old and you may have heard this before but fun fact about Kilika! It’s kinda hinted at how strong of a fighter she is in the second game through what may have been seen as a plothole on first glance. Her confrontation with Walter and Zin at the top of the tower (I forget which one) during that part of the game has an implication attached: she had to have gone through the entire extradimensional tower alone to have made it happen, which is a pretty amazing feat considering that four of the protagonists generally have to team up to do that safely.
I did not need any grinding before the last dungeon. I USED the last dungeon as farming zone. Beating every enemy in the way one time was more than enought experience to level up all of the characters to around level 145 and they give more than enought sepith to unlock all the slots and give everyone level 4 orbments at the leasts. The excess of accesories with high stat boosters also helped
I'm on the side that loves this game, personally because it does not do one specific thing that I personally not a fan about Trails in general : hiding sidequests or items by talking to random NPCs plus the whole timed sidequest you mentioned in the review. It has a thing or two hidden but then every other stuff you can pretty much tackle them any time you want, the only requirement is specific party members. I also loved the focus on combat since I'm more of "less talking, more bonking" when it comes to games (with exceptions of course) and having a big group of characters available it's a joy, I can experiment stuff with almost no repercussions. Anelace was my personal secret weapon of destruction, same with Richiard (he was also quite the phys tank with my builds). Story I guess it's there but if I have fun while playing I can ignore it personally.
Joshua and Kloe make that fight a lot easier. Give both Joshua and Kevin two Gladiator's items to increase CP gain. Buff up Joshua and Richard with Forte and have them stand in front of the healers so the boss doesn't hit everyone with Armor Rend at once. Spam Dual Strike with Joshua and Grail Sphere with Kevin. Heal with Kloe and use her S-break for emergency heals.
excellent work with these reviews man...I finished these games for the first time last year and it was good to get a recap; super excited to the play the new crossbell english patches for the first time! third is definitely my fav so far...so damn good. I think it gets overshadowed by FC/SC a bit since those games gets praised to high heaven (for good reason, but I feel third deserves more love)
I had an issue with the voice mod initially but refused to start until I finally fixed it. Made the game so much better. Great review, just finished the trilogy few days ago and miss it a lot.
Haven't watched this yet, as I wanted to finish the game first and the title caught my eye. I just finished it (literally 5 minutes ago) and I can't agree more. This one kinda broke me. Man, I love Trails in the Sky. I'm excited to play the rest of the series, but I'm gonna miss this cast of characters.
Sky the 3rd is still my favorite in the entire series after playing everything up to Reverie. The game has aged so well, and seeing all the little details come together in future games has been an amazing experience. And the music is incredible like you said. You can thank Ryo Takeshita for that. Too bad he left Falcom after this game. As for the voice acting, I prefer to play without them. The music carries every cutscene to the point voice acting is entirely unnecessary.
Just finished the 2rd today and man star door 15 and moon door 2 were tough to go through. I really enjoy the game for the characters and looking forward to the crossbell games for more and Trails into Reverie and of course Kuro
I just binge watched all 3 of your trails reviews, subbed cuz I wanna see what you say about Crossbell/cold steel when you have the time. I suggest quitting school and playing those instead =P. Don't forget not to skip side-quests or else you will be murdered in cold blood by justice. I personally think the enforcer BGM is better than silver will but most people love silver will. I think you mentioned the random town npcs having interesting dialogue for FC, but it was kinda quick and you didn't really go over that again. I found it kinda tedious talking to all the NPCS in the crossbell games, mostly because the city is big, and going all over it after every event takes hours. But I did find a few favorite npcs and just kinda did them. Those being Sunita's family, the Haysworth family (cuz DUH), etc. Cold steel on the other hand, I find to be the best in the series at random npc dialogue because while I don't prefer 3d or 2d games in general, it does lend itself to you being able to recognize unimportant npcs at a glance easier, which helped me remember all their prior dialogue, and made me more invested in them overall. Especially given the school setting for parts of the game, so they were familiar npcs throughout the whole game. You mentioned re-playing the games, did you not get some wow/aha! moments where you overlooked some dialogue that had a deeper meaning when you had more understanding of everything? It was a treat for me replaying them.
Off the top of my head Joshua's demeanor at the beginning of FC is definitely more noticeable on the second playthrough. I was also dumbfounded when I read about Olivier's wine incident in the newspaper before he actually told the party about it.
@@weaponsci Just wrote like 5x more than before, and accidentally tapped my mouse side-button and lost it all...kill me. In any case, lots of fans like crossbell more than sky or cold steel, but I kinda think it's some kind of exclusivity bias. It's pretty equal IMO, plus the best moments of Crossbell are directly related to what came from sky IMO (especially regarding a certain enforcer introduced in sc, holy dung. I don't think I'll ever care for a fictional character ever again in my entire life 1/4 as much). cold steel kinda builds on itself more than relying on sky or crossbell IMO. Though Cold Steel 4 really goes out of its way to reward you for past experience in a way I want to praise more than call cheap. Would say more but don't want to lose it all again. Not that this was like 1/10th of my last post lol. This series defines 'epic' imo. look up the definition. All the rpgs that people call epic, you just can't say they compare to this one in that way, and you have only touched the first arc, and you know there are more. Just saying. I mean you've already done more than me. I INTEND to make a game youtube channel, but my pc still uses DDR2 ffs. need a more relevant pc and try to take a stab at making a channel before I can try and make a dent imo.
Didn’t Olivier mention that Osborne is potentially intertwined with ouraboros back in SC? I just beat it like a week ago and that is fresh in my mind I swear.
Finished 3rd a few weeks ago. Gotta say, the way you talk about the last boss makes it sound like such a pain in the ass, but it was so piss easy with the strategy i came up with. Here, let me explain it for anyone planning to play 3rd chapter yet. Step 1: Put Richard in your Ries/Kevin party Step 2: Kill the boss
OK but you can level whomever you avoided in the final chapter in the bonus dungeon at 9999 EXP each character, so it's insanely easy to level them lmao
Oh dear god... I totally feel the issue with the final boss. It managed to KO me in the first phase at one point due to sheer RNG... Not to mention the freeze skill. Also, when I went back to prevent the freeze, it weakened joshua, so his SCraft had to be used on a crit turn to KO the pillars. Ugh... That fight took a good hour and the subsequent cutscene did the same...
Yaaaas, I was waiting in anticipation for this video, since I had recently came across your channel and watched your video reviews of FC and SC. Mainly because I'm currently playing through Trails of Cold Steel 1 rn, and I was far too lazy/have too many games to add the sky trilogy to said backlog. So thank you so much for summarizing and talking about the games so well, and in such a humorous and engaging way. I look forward to your future legend of heroes videos. 😌 Good luck with school, btw! God knows college is no joke lmao.
I feel like this game could not have existed but I'm glad it does and I played it even though I came close to just watching every cutscene on youtube. It gives of a fan game vibe since eVeRy BoDy is here and how gives closure for some characters almost as love letter from fan/s. I don't think other than expanding the lore and setting up the scene for future games. You will definitely get more out of this game if you liked the combat. I was suprised how this game makes you use entire roster which is uncommon especially in older RPGs. Imo it's worth playing for trails lore contained in doors. Some expand the world like Salt pile, some setup events for future games like introducing chancellor (keep in mind at least 4 games take place in Erebonia - mainly Coldsteel games). I found intresting how this game shows ruthless of The Church when it comes to sinners and heretics despite portrays in ealier entries. My only gripe is some of the requirements like winning 100 battles for getting access for Salt pile. Low point was defenitly chapter 6 which felt like padding. For those unware it requires you to bring specific party member for dedicated dungeon. There's 4 of them and each one is lengthy (some of them could have entire chapters from ealier entries). At least every one has unique boss. Ircc this chapter has over 10 teleport points while other had max 4. Side note: I just started playing Zero so no spoilers plz
I know this is going to sound weird but after I finished door 15 I had diarrhea... c: Not sure if it was because I felt so bad for Renne or what I ate earlier or both LOL! I did that door today and finished it on midnight. Can't wait to start the the next one. I think it's Zero.
The Renne,s epsode is restrected since PSPver original is package soft of PC (you can,t get that now...) original ver is more hurtful so It had became problem in japan
I found the gameplay and story really boring until the end of Chapter 4. That's about when you start getting developments with Kevin's story, a fuller party roster, and interesting Doors. Chapter 6 got a little ridiculous with needing to have a boss fight with every single minor character, but I am glad they made fights for Cassius, the Enforcers, and Loewe. This game is so back loaded in terms of quality that it's no wonder why so many people start it and never finish it.
Hello, I saw your videos just recently (3rd in a nutshell to be exact) and wanted to see your more detailed opinion about the game and.... Yeah, I'm pretty with you on it : Ries is awesome, Kevin goes from "okay" to "great MC", and I liked the more straightforward story. Well, maybe less straightforward than you since I actually did all doors as soon as possible but heh, and the three doors mentionned in the video.... *shivers for THAT door, we all know the one* Btw, I'm not completely agree with you about the final boss but I probably just cheesed the shit out of him to be fair, none of the phases Kevin Fought anyone took any damage. I don't know if you know (Possibly yes since you said he was overpowered but again, you didn"t showed any sign of knowing in your gameplay style, my appologies if you did know) but Richard is just the most absurdly overpowered character in the game. For one reason alone : Crafts. This guy is a stupid Craft Spammer like no one before him. Really, he could shoot 4-5 Crafts between two other characters. Really, one time, I was under a surprise attack but Richard was too fast and gave the first hit nonetheless. Well, he was the only one to act of the whole fight, Neither the ennemies nor his allies used a single turn. And Craft spam of that level let Kevin with super Gladiator Belt (normal one for Ries) charging safely his S-Break (That it, if you thought about changing back his S-break for Grail sphere, I did a mistake like this on Ao no Kiseki X) ) And Ries refilling ocasionnaly either Kevin or Richard. But great video, and don't forger.... It WoUlD bE mY pLeAsUrE. (Sorry I had to X) )
Yeah I spread everyone out because I wasn't too sure how tough the other bosses were going to be. I really regretted not bringing Richard or at least someone like him because while I had a solid defense (Kevin and Kloe healing, Renne using earth wall, the occasional Grail Sphere) I was really lacking someone who could just hit the bastard really damn hard. Ries had to fill that spot, but looking back Richard definitely would've done it better.
Yeah Sky 3rd is a bit different, but it sounds like you enjoyed it all the same! It’s actually my favorite of the trilogy, because I like the combat a lot. I actually barely ever skip/avoid random encounters in Trails like I do in other games. Yeah it’s definitely pretty janky especially some later fights this game, and as you say Speed is king here. I mean it was already busted before, but here you need it to keep up. I actually like both systems for sidequests. I certainly won’t get after anyone for not doing them all, I’m just a completionist myself and I don’t expect that of anyone else, lol. But I’m glad you got to see that they can be a lot more than busywork, and that’s why I cared enough about them to not get tired of them. And for me, they were a nice palate cleanser between plot segments; a break from the urgency of said plot to spend more time in the world and help out the little people. I happen to like the idea behind a bracer’s job, so that was neat to me that they actually have you do it sometimes if you want to. HA! I’m glad you recognized that the Arena looks more like Fist of the North Star than Jojo. I’M THE JUGGERNAUT, BITCH! Yeah that guy in Star Door 8 is pretty important, just a bit. Yeah Star Door 15 drags but holy shit will it pay out in Zero. Yeah decking out every character as you go along is not required or even advised. I’ll also mention here, I did the Arena on Nightmare Difficulty. And the final fight there, holy shit. It was... something, though by comparison overcoming it made the final boss not so bad. I had to attempt it many, many times. Though, it also felt nice that for bringing Anelace on the team, who somehow ended up being my favorite character in this little trilogy (is this how waifuism works?) I was rewarded by her personal weapon, Jinu, being upgraded to the best in the game, better than even the obligatory Zemurian Ore weapons at the end. I love how Kevin is handled in this game. Up until Chapter 4 they keep giving you little hints and teases that something is up with him. Then when they basically hit you in the face with a brick at the end of Chapter 4, it hits hard. I got chills at that the first time. This is helped even more by the song that plays in that scene, which I noticed you used here: The Crimson Stigma. Honestly, 3rd has my favorite OST in the Sky trilogy overall, and perhaps the series, though Zero gives it a stiff challenge. I liked Chapter 6 somewhat. I agree it drags on way too long, but man some of the fights were cool. Especially... Holy shit Cassius Bright. This was the one time I wish I didn’t have to bring Kevin; while Alan is required, Estelle, Joshua, and Anelace all have unique dialogue for engaging him as well, and it feels really cool. Actually, just about any boss in the games let’s you turn it to Easy temporarily if you lose enough times. Cassius, Leonhardt, and the final boss here are probably just the only places most will have enough trouble on Normal to be prompted. It is nice that after Gehenna, you get a really good new place to grind so it doesn’t take long to catch everyone up. I also like how while most other chests in the games have witty messages if you check them again after opening them, the chests in Gehenna offer no such levity. You’re in the rice fields and there are no breaks. My final groups for the last dungeon were a little skewed and I based them more on characters pairing well together than sensible team comp. Still, I was able to do it. Even if taking Alan on the main team instead of Kloe meant he was on healing duty, hahaha. Hahaha feel my pain of not knowing the spider boss can get 4 turns in a row and TPK with no chance to recover. Cry for Your Eternity is a great way to make the final boss not suck as much. I was actually broken by the empty treasure chest messages in the final dungeon. And yeah, everyone saying goodbye was a big cry. I fucking love this cast. Even Renne. I actually hated how they handled Renne in SC because it felt so overblown, cliche, and pretentious, but after this game I liked her. And oh man did Star Door 15 contribute. We’re going to have a whole section on it? Oh boy. Yeah, it’s... bad. As an aside to already mentioning The Crimson Stigma and Cry for Your Eternity, my favorite songs in Sky 3rd also include Illusionary Blue Flowers and Beard the Lion in His Den. Both amazing and I listen to them on the regular while doing personal projects. Looking forward to you doing the rest of the series!
@@weaponsci Haha, I do tend to get quite wordy with long videos like these. I have a habit of writing the comment as I go through the vid and giving input anytime I have it XD Thanks for reading through that!
Just finished up The Third today. Now, I just need to wait a few months for Trails from Zero to be released in English. know I could just go get a fan translation of the Zero Arc, but since it's happening so soon, I don't mind waiting. I've got the entire Y's series to keep me occupied, as well as Xenoblade Chronicles 3 this summer. Also, can we talk about the very end of door 14 where Campanella blatantly breaks the fourth wall? Like, he just stops for a minute and speaks directly to the player. Seriously, what is up with that guy? (Don't actually tell me what's up with him, I want to learn for myself).
I finally got this game and am doing a nightmare run and boy the first two chapters are hectic especially with how many times I had to retry. It's not impossible or anything just difficult with some enemies and trying to figure out how to beat them lol.
Skipping content and finding the gameplay difficult. Absolute Sinner. joke, playing the game for what you find fun its the right way, doesnt mind i can relate tho :D
For the final dungeon, I split my main team up into 4 groups so that each team would have a nuke.........then the final boss came and I've only made 1 save file.
haha i feel you. Im glad I knew that the final boss would be the strongest and took my main party for it (Kloe, Joshua, Kevin and Ries) The only bad thing is, that I gave a lot of resistence items to other members to max out the stats of my main group. This was a critical mistake since the boss had lots of status effects which would never dissappear by time, just by curing them.... Im happy I had two members with earth wall + kevin in my main group so I was able to manage the fight after one replay.
Party before Orbal Gear when Tita's attacked: "Get away from her, you bitch!" Tita after Orbal Gear when the party's attacked: "Get away from them, you bitch!"
BIG mistake not bringing Richard to the final boss fight. Just keep feeding Richard all the CP-raising items you have and have him go Sakura Morning Moon on the boss over and over outside of that one phase.
There's so much I wanna say in response to this, but it's all spoiler-locked behind playing Zero, so I'll just say that I'm looking forward to a review of Zero if you are ever so inclined.
played through the 1 chapter (after prologue) and was surprised with the complete change in direction from the other two games. Hated it actually. Will be skipping it
Honestly, SC was harder than 3rd. The only difficult fight was Cassius. Everything else is a cinch except for the nightmare arena. Loewe was heavily nerfed compared to FC and SC. Even the last dungeon was easy enough if you had at least one healer and one zemurian Ore weapon holder that’s a physical attacker(Agate, zin, Mueller, Estelle) per team.
"Trails music in general is pretty damn good" is pretty much an understatement. Falcom's games in general have amazing music; the Ys soundtracks are arguably even better than Trails.
Unfortunately this standard we hold them to may change. A while ago I read about a certain incident with Mr Kato and a partnership (I... Don't really remember properly) but basically they have to rely on a cheap subcontractor (I won't state his name, but if you really wanna know, go into any Sky Evo OST comment section) a lot nowadays.
@@weaponsci if you think that shreds just wait. Falcom team was like “should we put some cliche fantasy music here? Naw, let’s shred baby” lol Check out “formidable enemy”
when you said that speed is the most important stat in the game your remote ability had dexterity and agility up and speed down. just saying you contradicted yourself (I will let you know the most important stat is speed and after that it is agility)
gladly I was somehow fine with hard difficulty. The only real pain in the ass was the Beginning of SC when you had to fight the bracer teacher (i really don't get the name) with no good quarts. It was absolutely undoable for me even after 1 or 2 replays.... And damn this Lowe fight could make me cry.... Strongest enemy ever. You just need some strong arts in 3rd and mix your team well. I had the highest chances with kevin, ries, kloe and joshua or shera instead of ries.
Storywise, the 3rd hit the spot. Also, I didn't mind at all about its dungeon-crawler structure. However I think this game's biggest flaw is pacing. It's downright terrible towards the end. Chapter 6 was too slog that it almost made me abandon the game and I whole-heartedly disagree with the idea to force you to use all 16 party members to beat the final chapter. The ending was all the worth but man.. I was burnt out.
I always thought it was up for interpretation. Like she got herself off a table or something or falling over when he ran out, or she just stabbed herself intentionally
It WoUlD bE mY pLeAsUrE.
Sorry, had to leave a little PTSD for y’all lol. Hope you enjoyed the video. Really surprised at how quickly I managed to get this up considering I only started working on it a few days ago. I probably won’t be able to make anything new until the semester ends, but I did work on and schedule four videos to go up at the end of each month (including this one). Three out of the four are Trails-related, so don’t worry, I’ll make sure you guys are eating good while I’m gone.
The first time through I convinced myself that there actually was more than one kid there, which... I have no idea how I thought that was better? I just blocked out the line that refuted that I guess.
Cursed first line
how do you feel about the notion that star door 15 was them setting up a guardrail for how dark and/or explicated they would want the series to get with certain topics? (like what we see in it for example)
One thing that broke me in the end along with the goodbyes were the little chest messages in the final dungeon, encouraging us, and talking about the end of the liberl arc.
damn I didnt read any of them. Absolutely did forget that they had the same textboxes like FC and SC
25:54 "This is a wholesome trilogy about a twin tailed tomboy and her stepbro with benefits" I see there was quite the bright side to getting a new sibling for Estelle.
Star Door 15 was something else. Shit finally hit me in the scene when Renne was repeating what all the kids were saying. Like, I imagined it would be child trafficing but this was somehow worse than that.
I figured they'd try and keep it PG-13, so I thought it was just some weird science experiments or something. (I'm still convinced Ouroborus members go though some type of enhancement after they're recruited. Can't think of any other explanation for how eleven-year-olds can mow down entire groups of well-trained adults.) I figured at the absolute worst there'd be one guy sexually harassing her. Spoiler alert:
It was a whole bunch. MFs had a whole damn business going.
@@weaponsci when it was hinted in SC I was driving myself up the wall thinking about what it could actually mean.
Then I looked it up on UA-cam and it was what I expected if a little worse.
@@weaponsci It been state, don't remember if it was this arc or a later one, that the Grandmaster does something to make them stronger, that all I'll say about that.
@@weaponsci If you haven't played Trails from Zero, the first game in the Crossbell arc, then you should. It helps flesh out the details and fill in the blanks that Star Door 15 doesn't go into. The Geofront translation mod is also superb and every bit the level of quality you'd expect from an official localization.
I knew going in that Star Door 15 had a reputation as the darkest moment in the franchise, and I was like "What could be worse than all the shit Joshua went through?"
That. That is worse. You know shit's fucked when getting taken in by the Legion of Doom to get raised as a child soldier is the high point of your life.
Everyone saying their goodbye hurt me so much. I really didn't want to leave Liberl :/
it was so sad because even tho theres more games, we wont get to see the characters like that again. and the whole game was so dreamy and beautiful.
My crackpot theory: someday, before the end of the trails series, we'll get a game that re-visits the nations we've been to before. I don't believe this game was our last visit to Liberl.
@@SuperSupersoda Considering the most recent arc, Dark, is considered the "halfway point" of the overall plot, I think it's safe to say we'll see Liberl again at some point in the next 20 years of Trails games yet to be made. lol
@Pompadourius I hope in 20 years from now we can explore the whole continent in a single game.
It's not only an epilogue for Trails but also kind of a transition to the other games. A lot of the doors might not seem important in the context of the Sky games but they introduce characters or story lines for the future games and give backstory there.
Cloe's doors, Zin/Kilika, Olivier/Mueller, Renne all come in play in some form later on just from the top of my head.
Ahh yes, Trails of PTSD III
Also, Operation: Cuddle With Renne, should be the primary mission to all Bracers, even the S ranks, and Gralsritters. ALL OF THEM. THIS IS OF UTMOST IMPORTANCE.
@@invaaalid5190 fr. She really deserves a happy ending.
@@invaaalid5190 that door fked me up. I was like oh nothing actually happened to her she just was in a terrible environment. Then that twist hits at the end of the door and I was like…bruh
I absolutely adore Sky the 3rd, it's my favorite Trails game. It cuts out all the fluff and just makes the plot a character arc, which every plot should be. Kevin's arc, even moreso than Joshua or Renne's, expresses the main theme of forgiveness in a mature, interesting manner without any nonsense. No harems, no shonen speeches, just Kevin forgiving himself with the help of those close to him. I love the structure of side stories instead of sidequests and how all of this makes Sky the 3rd about half the length of a normal Trails game.
Agreed. It annoys me how some JRPGs try and be long just for the sake of it. You could have the greatest game in the world, but if it's 120 hours long I'm gonna be a little reluctant to play it again, even if I liked it.
If it's 120 of engaging story/gameplay, that's different. I probably won't even notice the time fly. But for many games it's like 60 hours of actual story and 60 more for grinding and fetch quests. Just a pet peeve of mine.
That plus it being the peak of Sky era gameplay made it an amazing package. It's probably the one I'm most likely to revisit
@@weaponsci It actually took me a few hours more to finish the 3rd than FC. Or not. I'm not sure. I finished both games just shy under 50 hours, while spending just under 80 hours on SC. I love all three of these games and i really want to play them again sometime. But I'm putting that off for when I finshed the entire series at least once.
I disagree about there not being "fluff", I like sky 3rd as much as the next guy but chapter 6 really drags it down.
I strongly agree with you. But on the other side I think it needed all of those sidequests to understand a bracers life.
That's on of the most interesting points on all of the trails games. They are so similar and so different at the same time. But when somethings different it perfectly fits to the new story it tells.
Yeah the dude in door number 8 might be important. Who knows?
I just finished the 3rd and the simplest way to describe it was it is the P3FES the answer of the trails series.
Yup. P3FES but better.
Great video, one thing I’d like to say is that I think the side quests were well done in FC and SC (bar the ones that were only available after the end of a chapter) in terms of time and that it makes perfect sense that you wouldn’t be able to just come back to them later bc Joshua and Estelle aren’t just gonna be able to leave the city they’re in just to wrap up loose ends. they have a mission they’re working on all throughout the games and backtracking would be too time consuming in the world they live in, it’s not like they’re just gonna leave Zeiss in the middle of the earthquake situation for a missing persons request in Bose or smth. And that’s also why it’s different in TC, since the games main content takes place in a world where you are expressly given permission to peruse the planes as you see fit and prepare for the final encounter (ie. doing doors) and have the method of doing so quickly (teleporting).
18:25 Oof! I feel called out here, to make Josette playable I was forced to slap two Tiger Hearts on her which skyrocketed her STR to around 2500 and actually made her crafts/basic attacks great. That's all though, her orbment was still garbage.
Ok cool, I was wondering if I was the only one who thought Josette was the weakest character.
And that's why you open all the doors, Killika is pretty badass and she will be in the later games continuing the badassery:) Oh and it's funny how commented on Osborne:)) Hope to hear more from you on Zero and Ao.
Thanks. Having to wait a bit to play Crossbell is gonna be hard, lol.
@@weaponsci you can play Zero right now though. the Geofront has don a really good job with it. But yeah... Ao is going to be a long way away... (insert sad panda here)
I knew of Star Door 15 beforehand but I didn't know it get's this horrible.
Next up are the Crossbell Games that continue the trend of dipping their toe into very dark material, which is pretty rad. The Crossbell duology are my favorite entries in the Trails series and the 2nd of them "Ao no kiseki" is one of the best RPG's ever for me at least.
I'm glad you enjoyed Trails The Third aswell, alot of the fans rank it as one of their least favorite trails games, but I think it tells a really good story and sets up the next story arcs very well
Edit: The Battle Tournament Mini Game Art had me laughing for minutes with all the main chars looking like JoJo characters
3rd's ending absolutely destroyed me, not with only sadness but happiness.
And then the vocal version of one of my favorite songs from SC annihilated me.
18:26 funny thing is, as soon as the training plane opened I immediatelly decided to do a Josette Redemption arc and i took out the final boss with her on the party (Richard still did 60% of the work in the party thought.)
As for the doors, the Sun Doors aren't that important, but absolutely do all of the Moon and Star Doors. They're not side quests, they're vital information.
hell yeah, awesome video!!! i myself just finished the 3rd a week ago, it definitely left the hollow feeling you were talking about... i had a blast with every monster encounter, great music, next door, and getting to know everyone in the main cast a lot better T__T they're all absolutely wonderful
it was nice to listen to you talk about the story and the stuff you had problems with :D if i didnt look to steam forum i wouldn't've known how important grail sphere is for the last boss *shudders*
p.s. i love your jokes thanks for the laughs i really needed it today
Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it!
I loved 3rd, I love talking to NPCs don’t get me wrong but after Cold Steel 1+2 and then Sky FC and SC I didn’t mind a dungeon crawl with just the main cast to talk to. It made the game a lot shorter then the others for me playtime wise but definitely still just as sweet. The doors really gave beautiful send offs to a lot of people, while also building things up and providing better context to what I saw in Cold Steel, and prepping for Crossbell. Kevin and Ries were adorable and I hope they show up in Kuro 2
I finished (re- for the first 2) playing the trilogy for my first time a few weeks ago and yeah, this is truly a massive underdog JRPG series.
Also yeah a lot of the 3rd had me emotional and also hyped because of it constantly going 0-100-0-100 lol.
Thank you for these reviews, they were very nice to watch!!!
I'm playing Trails from Zero now myself with the voice mod. It's pretty nice, I do miss the old versions of the Sky voice mod where even the non voiced lines auto advanced and did so with really comfy timing.
Also yes, that was my exact experience with star door 15.
protip for anyone going into the final boss, put joshua in kevin's party, his s-craft will take out all of the adds.
Taking Joshua and Kloe makes Anima Mundi a breeze.
@@ThanhTriet600 I took Joshua and Renne, cause kloe needs to heal another party. I even had to turn one more character into a healer besides Kloe, Kevin and Estelle. I rearranged Julias Quartz and made her a healer. Josette was put on Earth wall duty, cause that's all she's good for. Kevin is a really good support character and should be played as such. Ries can be the one doing damage. She has a really big sword after all.
I don't smoke, but I felt like I needed a cigarette after beating this game. lol
It's amazing to me that all of the Doors can be skipped (I think the Tita and Agate one from the beginning is the only mandatory one). I mean, I guess if you want to speed run it, but I loved seeing what all of the characters were up to after SC and I really liked the one with Estelle and Joshua. In particular, I feel like the one with Campanella is the most important one in terms of the overall story.
Ries best girl, that's for sure!
Aster House theme hits me in ways that not many songs have ever done.
You know, I told myself I was going to take a break after finishing the Sky trilogy before starting Zero (I was going to play Yakuza: Like A Dragon), but I don't know anymore. lol I need more Trails!
Great review man! You did a great job expressing your thoughts with this video.
Thx. And don't be fooled by Zero and Azure being only two games. They're definitely very content heavy.
Source: also felt worn out after finishing Crossbell lmao
@@weaponsci You're not going to finish the Cold Steel games before Reverie comes out? lol
@@kevinstreetgaming Not possible. Reverie comes out in a couple weeks and I haven't even started CS1 yet lmao
@@weaponsci Haha, I know. I was just joking.
I played Trails of cold Steel before i finshed 3rd in the sky. And i thought : "Hey a story about Renne, it can't be worse than Kevin's story was right ?" Oh what a ignorant summer child i was. But still, i think how it was pictured its excellent, could have maybe done without the last picture, but still how its shown, how its phrased and most importantly that it does not say it out right, till the end. I think that if they would have sinply stated what was happening, it would have maybe the same effect, because you keep guessing till the end if what youre thinking is true. I have also to admit, when i read it, i had to stop for at least a few minutes to be away from it.
Just one little tid-bit: The people killed by Kevin that you fought in Gehenna are actually mentioned in the next arc (it's not a major plot point but they both have connections to one of the larger "happenings" in the Crossbell-Arc).
How in the world could you not know that Killika is a great fighter? Wasn't that made abundantly clear in SC? She trained under, and was the daughter of, the same master who trained Zin and Walter.
I mean I knew and all, but that S Craft was a reminder.
Damn, I just discovered your channel randomly today and I binge watched your Trails reviews videos. I myself discovered the games back in 2015 when SC got released, I bought FC on Steam sales, feeling like "meh idk if it's any good, but I like old school turn based JRPGs so why not ?". I didn't know for what kind of adventure I was signing.
Anyway, as it's for now my favorite video games saga ever, I really loved hearing you enthusiastically reviewing it and I'm looking forward to hear more from you especially about the Crossbell arc.
Speaking about Sky the 3rd more specifically, I'm among the ones who loved it, can't say if I like it more or less than previous ones, as it's too different, but it was exactly what the content starving fanboy I was after finishing SC needed. And as much as battle system can be boring and tedious in FC (even though I still like it) I feel like it got awesome upgrades throughout the trilogy and I didn't feel bored at all having to fight too many things there.
I must say watching your videos gave me a big nostalgia hit, I'll probably have to replay the trilogy now, but I'm waiting for PC release of Cold Steel 4, so I probably won't have time to do it for now, but maybe I should plan a 9-game marathon after CSIV got finally released. We'll see.
Fun fact - the only character who can survive last boss' blast is...... Tita
Ironic...
It depends on what square the character is standing on... The boss destroys part of the platform and it's a one shot if a character is not in the middle. Anyone can survive it by moving once it starts the cast.
Watching this again, because I felt like it. I am once again so proud that I managed to teach you how to correctly pronounce the name Dieter. Although Muelle and Loewe are still a bit tricky, but I get those ones, because most people who play these games don't speak German. But I feel the being broke bit. I am currently experiencing this in Cold Steel 2. Maybe I should farm some Shining Poms for Sepith. I have all this shining pom bait from the DLC. And I am not made of Mira. Money is so tight and I need to equip like 10 characters for some big fights. But yeah, star door 15 was awful. But I am excited to see how Renne changes when you see her again in later games. Why can't I play all of Cold Steel at once. But I am also scared of reaching the phase where I get Trails withdrawals. I did preorder Reverie though. Falcom is making me poor.
Falcom is lowkey getting rich off of all of us lol. I pre-ordered Reverie for the extra stuff but I'll be double dipping the PC version when it comes out.
9:40 I think I've ended the 3rd with like 140.000 mira left over, the game does a decent job at handing you new weapons before you get to the boss of each chapter and when it comes to armor I've only bought new gear for the front line fighters not the arts users (e.g. Agate, Estelle, Tita...etc). Zin's defense is absolutely busted, the man can be a whole 10-15 levels behind everyone (with early game equipment) and still pull his own weight.
Imagine being in my situation:
I completed the 3rd around the end of February.
Finished zero right before that although I committed a cardinal sin by playing out order.
And now I wait.
And wait.... for the Geofront patch of Azure.
I got friggin Trails withdrawal bad af, and the Ys games help alot, but damnit I need Azure. I cannot in good faith move forward through the rest of the series without Azure, it's pretty much required.
I remember Geofront saying they found new bugs awhile back and my heart just sank.
@@weaponsci whaaa?
So... should we be expecting a delay from our good friends from the 'front?
Not that I'm upset about any delays, as I understand, they have a certain degree of quality they want reach. I'm confident a delay will only add a few extra weeks of waiting and not months and months.
Btw I wonder what happened with Trails vs Ys alternative? The last I heard it was through a 2nd editing pass and online functionality was implemented.
It's like it fell in a black hole, or they're going to get Azure first and then release T vs Ys shortly after.
@@ihavenoshameandmustscream421 it was some time ago, so for all I know they could be well on their way. Can't really complain though. This is a passion project that they're taking their own time to do free of charge. I'm sure they'll happily release it when they feel it's ready.
@@weaponsci no doubt about that on my end.
I can wait, I'm still overjoyed that we will have a top quality Crossbell duologly in the West.
That is quite the feat for a small group of fans to achieve, and it's why I'll always give praise to The Geofront.
I'm not sure how many people out there understand the shear amount of work that goes into just localizing a Trails game, not to mention all the other QOL and graphical improvements that have been put in.
For each member of the SSS and ALL other NPCs to have their very own personality in a game that has zero lines of English dialogue is something special, or I think it is. Not many people out here can pull something like that off.
sorry but playing either game, sky, crossbell or CS 1-2 first is absolutely fine.
You just shouldnt start with cs3 and definitely dont play 4 before you finished the other arcs....
WAKE UP BABE
NEW WEAPONSCI TRAILS VIDEO DROPPED
ONWARDS TO MY FAVORITE ARC WOOOOOOO
This video convinced me to play this game: despite handling PC controls for the first time I'm actually enjoying it. Still having issues ambushing enemies due to controls, but it's still enjoyable.
I'm at the part where you're playing as the side characters from SC, and I love seeing them as vessels for expanding the world building.
I got to about chapter 4 of Trails from zero and then started Trails the 3rd, and I can see the connecting tissue, and it's so satisfying so far.
Stairway to Gehenna is one heck of a ride to listen
The reward for Door 15 was trauma......
I know this video is fairly old and you may have heard this before but fun fact about Kilika! It’s kinda hinted at how strong of a fighter she is in the second game through what may have been seen as a plothole on first glance. Her confrontation with Walter and Zin at the top of the tower (I forget which one) during that part of the game has an implication attached: she had to have gone through the entire extradimensional tower alone to have made it happen, which is a pretty amazing feat considering that four of the protagonists generally have to team up to do that safely.
I did not need any grinding before the last dungeon. I USED the last dungeon as farming zone. Beating every enemy in the way one time was more than enought experience to level up all of the characters to around level 145 and they give more than enought sepith to unlock all the slots and give everyone level 4 orbments at the leasts. The excess of accesories with high stat boosters also helped
I'm on the side that loves this game, personally because it does not do one specific thing that I personally not a fan about Trails in general : hiding sidequests or items by talking to random NPCs plus the whole timed sidequest you mentioned in the review.
It has a thing or two hidden but then every other stuff you can pretty much tackle them any time you want, the only requirement is specific party members.
I also loved the focus on combat since I'm more of "less talking, more bonking" when it comes to games (with exceptions of course) and having a big group of characters available it's a joy, I can experiment stuff with almost no repercussions.
Anelace was my personal secret weapon of destruction, same with Richiard (he was also quite the phys tank with my builds).
Story I guess it's there but if I have fun while playing I can ignore it personally.
16:02 That damn fuc of a legend gave me more trouble than the final boss NOT EVEN JOKING, had to use Schera and Julia on my party to "speed up" things
Joshua and Kloe make that fight a lot easier. Give both Joshua and Kevin two Gladiator's items to increase CP gain. Buff up Joshua and Richard with Forte and have them stand in front of the healers so the boss doesn't hit everyone with Armor Rend at once. Spam Dual Strike with Joshua and Grail Sphere with Kevin. Heal with Kloe and use her S-break for emergency heals.
excellent work with these reviews man...I finished these games for the first time last year and it was good to get a recap; super excited to the play the new crossbell english patches for the first time!
third is definitely my fav so far...so damn good. I think it gets overshadowed by FC/SC a bit since those games gets praised to high heaven (for good reason, but I feel third deserves more love)
Yeah, I can definitely see why people would prefer the other two since this one is a lot darker, but for what it is, it's still really good.
I had an issue with the voice mod initially but refused to start until I finally fixed it. Made the game so much better. Great review, just finished the trilogy few days ago and miss it a lot.
the dude in door 8 is just a 2 bit ozzy osbourne impersonator
The Prince of Foreshadowing
@@weaponsci it a good thing you didn't look him up.
The fact you can play as Renne makes up for everything that I disliked compared to SC and FC
Yeah I wasn't expecting that tbh and I was so happy when it happened. She almost never left my party.
Renne is so awesome if you set her as a attack mage
Haven't watched this yet, as I wanted to finish the game first and the title caught my eye. I just finished it (literally 5 minutes ago) and I can't agree more. This one kinda broke me. Man, I love Trails in the Sky. I'm excited to play the rest of the series, but I'm gonna miss this cast of characters.
Sky the 3rd is still my favorite in the entire series after playing everything up to Reverie. The game has aged so well, and seeing all the little details come together in future games has been an amazing experience. And the music is incredible like you said. You can thank Ryo Takeshita for that. Too bad he left Falcom after this game.
As for the voice acting, I prefer to play without them. The music carries every cutscene to the point voice acting is entirely unnecessary.
Just finished the 2rd today and man star door 15 and moon door 2 were tough to go through. I really enjoy the game for the characters and looking forward to the crossbell games for more and Trails into Reverie and of course Kuro
I loved third, it really feels like a homage to the other games, kinda like an optional dungeon with awesome side stories and a lot of fanservice.
I just binge watched all 3 of your trails reviews, subbed cuz I wanna see what you say about Crossbell/cold steel when you have the time. I suggest quitting school and playing those instead =P. Don't forget not to skip side-quests or else you will be murdered in cold blood by justice. I personally think the enforcer BGM is better than silver will but most people love silver will. I think you mentioned the random town npcs having interesting dialogue for FC, but it was kinda quick and you didn't really go over that again. I found it kinda tedious talking to all the NPCS in the crossbell games, mostly because the city is big, and going all over it after every event takes hours. But I did find a few favorite npcs and just kinda did them. Those being Sunita's family, the Haysworth family (cuz DUH), etc.
Cold steel on the other hand, I find to be the best in the series at random npc dialogue because while I don't prefer 3d or 2d games in general, it does lend itself to you being able to recognize unimportant npcs at a glance easier, which helped me remember all their prior dialogue, and made me more invested in them overall. Especially given the school setting for parts of the game, so they were familiar npcs throughout the whole game.
You mentioned re-playing the games, did you not get some wow/aha! moments where you overlooked some dialogue that had a deeper meaning when you had more understanding of everything? It was a treat for me replaying them.
Off the top of my head Joshua's demeanor at the beginning of FC is definitely more noticeable on the second playthrough. I was also dumbfounded when I read about Olivier's wine incident in the newspaper before he actually told the party about it.
@@weaponsci Just wrote like 5x more than before, and accidentally tapped my mouse side-button and lost it all...kill me.
In any case, lots of fans like crossbell more than sky or cold steel, but I kinda think it's some kind of exclusivity bias. It's pretty equal IMO, plus the best moments of Crossbell are directly related to what came from sky IMO (especially regarding a certain enforcer introduced in sc, holy dung. I don't think I'll ever care for a fictional character ever again in my entire life 1/4 as much). cold steel kinda builds on itself more than relying on sky or crossbell IMO. Though Cold Steel 4 really goes out of its way to reward you for past experience in a way I want to praise more than call cheap.
Would say more but don't want to lose it all again. Not that this was like 1/10th of my last post lol.
This series defines 'epic' imo. look up the definition. All the rpgs that people call epic, you just can't say they compare to this one in that way, and you have only touched the first arc, and you know there are more. Just saying. I mean you've already done more than me. I INTEND to make a game youtube channel, but my pc still uses DDR2 ffs. need a more relevant pc and try to take a stab at making a channel before I can try and make a dent imo.
Didn’t Olivier mention that Osborne is potentially intertwined with ouraboros back in SC? I just beat it like a week ago and that is fresh in my mind I swear.
That's pretty big. I guess I missed that when I played it.
So yeah Im subscribing just to see your vids about the other trails games. You are doing great work
Finished 3rd a few weeks ago. Gotta say, the way you talk about the last boss makes it sound like such a pain in the ass, but it was so piss easy with the strategy i came up with.
Here, let me explain it for anyone planning to play 3rd chapter yet.
Step 1: Put Richard in your Ries/Kevin party
Step 2: Kill the boss
OK but you can level whomever you avoided in the final chapter in the bonus dungeon at 9999 EXP each character, so it's insanely easy to level them lmao
For me, the hard part was having to mentally keep track of 12 more characters i had to build quarts decks for
Brain too smooth
Oh dear god... I totally feel the issue with the final boss. It managed to KO me in the first phase at one point due to sheer RNG... Not to mention the freeze skill. Also, when I went back to prevent the freeze, it weakened joshua, so his SCraft had to be used on a crit turn to KO the pillars. Ugh... That fight took a good hour and the subsequent cutscene did the same...
Tita and Richard hard carried me through the second half of Sky 3.
Yaaaas, I was waiting in anticipation for this video, since I had recently came across your channel and watched your video reviews of FC and SC. Mainly because I'm currently playing through Trails of Cold Steel 1 rn, and I was far too lazy/have too many games to add the sky trilogy to said backlog. So thank you so much for summarizing and talking about the games so well, and in such a humorous and engaging way.
I look forward to your future legend of heroes videos. 😌 Good luck with school, btw! God knows college is no joke lmao.
Lol thanks. I'll do my best!
This game way beautiful. A perfect setup to branch out to a grand series.
Thanks for the great run through the Trails in the Sky trilogy.
I feel like this game could not have existed but I'm glad it does and I played it even though I came close to just watching every cutscene on youtube. It gives of a fan game vibe since eVeRy BoDy is here and how gives closure for some characters almost as love letter from fan/s. I don't think other than expanding the lore and setting up the scene for future games.
You will definitely get more out of this game if you liked the combat. I was suprised how this game makes you use entire roster which is uncommon especially in older RPGs.
Imo it's worth playing for trails lore contained in doors. Some expand the world like Salt pile, some setup events for future games like introducing chancellor (keep in mind at least 4 games take place in Erebonia - mainly Coldsteel games). I found intresting how this game shows ruthless of The Church when it comes to sinners and heretics despite portrays in ealier entries. My only gripe is some of the requirements like winning 100 battles for getting access for Salt pile.
Low point was defenitly chapter 6 which felt like padding. For those unware it requires you to bring specific party member for dedicated dungeon. There's 4 of them and each one is lengthy (some of them could have entire chapters from ealier entries). At least every one has unique boss. Ircc this chapter has over 10 teleport points while other had max 4.
Side note: I just started playing Zero so no spoilers plz
The way Estelle tugged my heart during her heart to heart with Renne still gets me to this day. Couldn't stop trearing up everytime
BESTELLE MENTIONED RAAAHHHHHHHH
I know this is going to sound weird but after I finished door 15 I had diarrhea... c:
Not sure if it was because I felt so bad for Renne or what I ate earlier or both LOL!
I did that door today and finished it on midnight. Can't wait to start the the next one. I think it's Zero.
Ok tbh that's kinda funny. And yes, Zero's the next one.
The Renne,s epsode is restrected since PSPver
original is package soft of PC (you can,t get that now...)
original ver is more hurtful so It had became problem in japan
Skipping side quests is indeed a cardinal sin, but this video is a blessing so it balances out. Thank you Estelle with a mustache.
I found the gameplay and story really boring until the end of Chapter 4. That's about when you start getting developments with Kevin's story, a fuller party roster, and interesting Doors. Chapter 6 got a little ridiculous with needing to have a boss fight with every single minor character, but I am glad they made fights for Cassius, the Enforcers, and Loewe.
This game is so back loaded in terms of quality that it's no wonder why so many people start it and never finish it.
On the plus side, it is short. Even if you do most of the side content you'll be done in like 40-something hours.
Hello, I saw your videos just recently (3rd in a nutshell to be exact) and wanted to see your more detailed opinion about the game and.... Yeah, I'm pretty with you on it : Ries is awesome, Kevin goes from "okay" to "great MC", and I liked the more straightforward story. Well, maybe less straightforward than you since I actually did all doors as soon as possible but heh, and the three doors mentionned in the video.... *shivers for THAT door, we all know the one*
Btw, I'm not completely agree with you about the final boss but I probably just cheesed the shit out of him to be fair, none of the phases Kevin Fought anyone took any damage. I don't know if you know (Possibly yes since you said he was overpowered but again, you didn"t showed any sign of knowing in your gameplay style, my appologies if you did know) but Richard is just the most absurdly overpowered character in the game. For one reason alone : Crafts. This guy is a stupid Craft Spammer like no one before him. Really, he could shoot 4-5 Crafts between two other characters. Really, one time, I was under a surprise attack but Richard was too fast and gave the first hit nonetheless. Well, he was the only one to act of the whole fight, Neither the ennemies nor his allies used a single turn. And Craft spam of that level let Kevin with super Gladiator Belt (normal one for Ries) charging safely his S-Break (That it, if you thought about changing back his S-break for Grail sphere, I did a mistake like this on Ao no Kiseki X) ) And Ries refilling ocasionnaly either Kevin or Richard.
But great video, and don't forger....
It WoUlD bE mY pLeAsUrE.
(Sorry I had to X) )
Yeah I spread everyone out because I wasn't too sure how tough the other bosses were going to be. I really regretted not bringing Richard or at least someone like him because while I had a solid defense (Kevin and Kloe healing, Renne using earth wall, the occasional Grail Sphere) I was really lacking someone who could just hit the bastard really damn hard. Ries had to fill that spot, but looking back Richard definitely would've done it better.
Yeah Sky 3rd is a bit different, but it sounds like you enjoyed it all the same! It’s actually my favorite of the trilogy, because I like the combat a lot. I actually barely ever skip/avoid random encounters in Trails like I do in other games. Yeah it’s definitely pretty janky especially some later fights this game, and as you say Speed is king here. I mean it was already busted before, but here you need it to keep up.
I actually like both systems for sidequests. I certainly won’t get after anyone for not doing them all, I’m just a completionist myself and I don’t expect that of anyone else, lol. But I’m glad you got to see that they can be a lot more than busywork, and that’s why I cared enough about them to not get tired of them. And for me, they were a nice palate cleanser between plot segments; a break from the urgency of said plot to spend more time in the world and help out the little people. I happen to like the idea behind a bracer’s job, so that was neat to me that they actually have you do it sometimes if you want to.
HA! I’m glad you recognized that the Arena looks more like Fist of the North Star than Jojo.
I’M THE JUGGERNAUT, BITCH!
Yeah that guy in Star Door 8 is pretty important, just a bit.
Yeah Star Door 15 drags but holy shit will it pay out in Zero.
Yeah decking out every character as you go along is not required or even advised.
I’ll also mention here, I did the Arena on Nightmare Difficulty. And the final fight there, holy shit. It was... something, though by comparison overcoming it made the final boss not so bad. I had to attempt it many, many times. Though, it also felt nice that for bringing Anelace on the team, who somehow ended up being my favorite character in this little trilogy (is this how waifuism works?) I was rewarded by her personal weapon, Jinu, being upgraded to the best in the game, better than even the obligatory Zemurian Ore weapons at the end.
I love how Kevin is handled in this game. Up until Chapter 4 they keep giving you little hints and teases that something is up with him. Then when they basically hit you in the face with a brick at the end of Chapter 4, it hits hard. I got chills at that the first time. This is helped even more by the song that plays in that scene, which I noticed you used here: The Crimson Stigma. Honestly, 3rd has my favorite OST in the Sky trilogy overall, and perhaps the series, though Zero gives it a stiff challenge.
I liked Chapter 6 somewhat. I agree it drags on way too long, but man some of the fights were cool. Especially...
Holy shit Cassius Bright. This was the one time I wish I didn’t have to bring Kevin; while Alan is required, Estelle, Joshua, and Anelace all have unique dialogue for engaging him as well, and it feels really cool.
Actually, just about any boss in the games let’s you turn it to Easy temporarily if you lose enough times. Cassius, Leonhardt, and the final boss here are probably just the only places most will have enough trouble on Normal to be prompted.
It is nice that after Gehenna, you get a really good new place to grind so it doesn’t take long to catch everyone up. I also like how while most other chests in the games have witty messages if you check them again after opening them, the chests in Gehenna offer no such levity. You’re in the rice fields and there are no breaks.
My final groups for the last dungeon were a little skewed and I based them more on characters pairing well together than sensible team comp. Still, I was able to do it. Even if taking Alan on the main team instead of Kloe meant he was on healing duty, hahaha.
Hahaha feel my pain of not knowing the spider boss can get 4 turns in a row and TPK with no chance to recover.
Cry for Your Eternity is a great way to make the final boss not suck as much.
I was actually broken by the empty treasure chest messages in the final dungeon. And yeah, everyone saying goodbye was a big cry. I fucking love this cast. Even Renne. I actually hated how they handled Renne in SC because it felt so overblown, cliche, and pretentious, but after this game I liked her.
And oh man did Star Door 15 contribute. We’re going to have a whole section on it? Oh boy. Yeah, it’s... bad.
As an aside to already mentioning The Crimson Stigma and Cry for Your Eternity, my favorite songs in Sky 3rd also include Illusionary Blue Flowers and Beard the Lion in His Den. Both amazing and I listen to them on the regular while doing personal projects.
Looking forward to you doing the rest of the series!
Glad you enjoyed it! Looks like you had a lot to say. Crimson Stigma is definitely the "Kevin's pissed" theme.
@@weaponsci Haha, I do tend to get quite wordy with long videos like these. I have a habit of writing the comment as I go through the vid and giving input anytime I have it XD Thanks for reading through that!
Guess I'mma have to wait for the massive drops you get in Zero and Ao then... I'm watching you... Just like Campy is. :'D
This game has one of my favorite battle systems of all time and I found it the easiest thanks to Grail Sphere and Agate being OP
Man was I lucky to have Joshua in the final party. His S craft makes short work of the pillars.
"It's like this guy bringing a sign that says look at me, i'm bad."
😢😢 yes. Yes you are 😢😢😢
Just finished up The Third today. Now, I just need to wait a few months for Trails from Zero to be released in English. know I could just go get a fan translation of the Zero Arc, but since it's happening so soon, I don't mind waiting. I've got the entire Y's series to keep me occupied, as well as Xenoblade Chronicles 3 this summer.
Also, can we talk about the very end of door 14 where Campanella blatantly breaks the fourth wall? Like, he just stops for a minute and speaks directly to the player. Seriously, what is up with that guy? (Don't actually tell me what's up with him, I want to learn for myself).
I finally got this game and am doing a nightmare run and boy the first two chapters are hectic especially with how many times I had to retry. It's not impossible or anything just difficult with some enemies and trying to figure out how to beat them lol.
Playing this game, then finding out kevin is barely used past this game was soul crushing
Another one in the bag! Onward!
Skipping content and finding the gameplay difficult. Absolute Sinner.
joke, playing the game for what you find fun its the right way, doesnt mind i can relate tho :D
Out here making Weissman look like a saint.
For the final dungeon, I split my main team up into 4 groups so that each team would have a nuke.........then the final boss came and I've only made 1 save file.
F
haha i feel you. Im glad I knew that the final boss would be the strongest and took my main party for it (Kloe, Joshua, Kevin and Ries)
The only bad thing is, that I gave a lot of resistence items to other members to max out the stats of my main group.
This was a critical mistake since the boss had lots of status effects which would never dissappear by time, just by curing them.... Im happy I had two members with earth wall + kevin in my main group so I was able to manage the fight after one replay.
Sky the 3rd’s story is basically one long therapy session for a priest.
While also making the therapist need one after watching star door 15
This game is when the developers thought “maybe we should name the next games differenly from now on”
Party before Orbal Gear when Tita's attacked: "Get away from her, you bitch!"
Tita after Orbal Gear when the party's attacked: "Get away from them, you bitch!"
BIG mistake not bringing Richard to the final boss fight.
Just keep feeding Richard all the CP-raising items you have and have him go Sakura Morning Moon on the boss over and over outside of that one phase.
There's so much I wanna say in response to this, but it's all spoiler-locked behind playing Zero, so I'll just say that I'm looking forward to a review of Zero if you are ever so inclined.
Major Vander looks like Brock! From pokemon. His art style is better on the vita remaster though
He kinda does lol
played through the 1 chapter (after prologue) and was surprised with the complete change in direction from the other two games. Hated it actually. Will be skipping it
Using Renne as an Earth Shield Spammer O_O. This hurt me more than star door 15.
problem is in the later fights rennes great deathblows become useless.... :/ And cloe definitely is the better mage.
Honestly, SC was harder than 3rd. The only difficult fight was Cassius. Everything else is a cinch except for the nightmare arena. Loewe was heavily nerfed compared to FC and SC. Even the last dungeon was easy enough if you had at least one healer and one zemurian Ore weapon holder that’s a physical attacker(Agate, zin, Mueller, Estelle) per team.
Game: *Gives players like a dozen resist all ailment accessories in the end game*
Final boss: *Uses ailment*
WeaponsCI: :O
"Trails music in general is pretty damn good" is pretty much an understatement. Falcom's games in general have amazing music; the Ys soundtracks are arguably even better than Trails.
Unfortunately this standard we hold them to may change. A while ago I read about a certain incident with Mr Kato and a partnership (I... Don't really remember properly) but basically they have to rely on a cheap subcontractor (I won't state his name, but if you really wanna know, go into any Sky Evo OST comment section) a lot nowadays.
SkyFC 70hours SkySC 157hours Sky3rd 84 hours that's the amount of time I needed for the whole Sky Arc. (all on hard)
tha Las part seems real intimidating. I'm about to play SC and this is giving me anxiety
i would never pronounce mueller as Mjuler even if the voice lines say it that way. Call it Müller because that's what it actually is.
I like your jokes man keep it up
I hope you enjoy the Crossbell arc. It's probably my favorite set of games out of the series so far.
*Spoiler Alert*: Tio is best girl
Yeah Crossbell seems to be the fan-favorite arc. I've got high hopes.
@@weaponsci Music in it is best in the series too
Whaaat? A song better than the legendary Silver Will? Tell me it ain't so!
@@weaponsci if you think that shreds just wait. Falcom team was like “should we put some cliche fantasy music here? Naw, let’s shred baby” lol
Check out “formidable enemy”
It was obvi no where near as good as SC, but goddamn it was still pretty good.
You do know, that the final dungeon allows you to get all the levels and even weapons you need, right?
when you said that speed is the most important stat in the game your remote ability had dexterity and agility up and speed down.
just saying you contradicted yourself (I will let you know the most important stat is speed and after that it is agility)
agility wasnt that important in 3rd if you ask me.
I could barely dodge any attacks even with agility of 200....
I started this game in hard. I'm in chapter 3 and I'm already regreting it.
gladly I was somehow fine with hard difficulty.
The only real pain in the ass was the Beginning of SC when you had to fight the bracer teacher (i really don't get the name) with no good quarts.
It was absolutely undoable for me even after 1 or 2 replays....
And damn this Lowe fight could make me cry.... Strongest enemy ever.
You just need some strong arts in 3rd and mix your team well. I had the highest chances with kevin, ries, kloe and joshua or shera instead of ries.
Storywise, the 3rd hit the spot. Also, I didn't mind at all about its dungeon-crawler structure. However I think this game's biggest flaw is pacing. It's downright terrible towards the end. Chapter 6 was too slog that it almost made me abandon the game and I whole-heartedly disagree with the idea to force you to use all 16 party members to beat the final chapter. The ending was all the worth but man.. I was burnt out.
Felt empty too, then zero/ao happened and damn the writing just surpassed and went beyond the sky.
Btw this version of the game cut out most of Door 15.
You mean there's more?! 🥴
@@weaponsci look up the original with voice acting
I play nightmare,spam the ART
voice mods dont work on the steam version. they only work on the good old games(GOG) version.
They work for me fine
Goshdamn, (spoilers) I thought Kevin stabbed his mom but yeah, it makes more sense that she stabbed herself lol
I always thought it was up for interpretation. Like she got herself off a table or something or falling over when he ran out, or she just stabbed herself intentionally
Kevin is best boy.