I finally took the plunge after much prodding from my friend and even being gifted this game as a gift. And yeah, I enjoyed it. Trails in the Sky has an interesting world, where unlike a lot of JRPGs, tends to stray into the realm of modernization in a sense - most comparable to Final Fantasy VII or VIII. In fact, the game takes a lot of Final Fantasy VII influence even down to the Quartz system, which I found fun to use. While the grid-based combat made me raise an eyebrow at first with skepticism, I still found myself enjoying it in the end. Gameplay-wise, I don't think Trails in the Sky does anything wrong for the most part.
My minor nitpick with the gameplay is that the constant carousel of companions through the game's different chapters derails the pacing a bit, and it makes Estelle's role in the party feel... off. While Joshua is clearly a Fighter or Time Mage in the way Tidus in FFX is, it's not really clear what Estelle is since you kinda need her to do everything. And that's due to the fact that Estelle and Joshua are alone a lot and when you do get a companion, Estelle's role becomes more defined. But when companions come and go so often, it gets tiring to rearrange Estelle's kit and go "okay, now she's a Support" or "okay, now's she a damage dealer", or etc. I'm nitpicking here but I found that to be a flaw in the game design.
The story and dialogue are where Trails lacks a bit. The characters themselves are good. I refrain from saying great, but they are good and I like them. The story is predictable a lot of the time, but that doesn't make it bad. It's just... not anything you haven't seen before.
The dialogue is what derails Trails and stands out as its fatal flaw. There is an entire encyclopedia volume set of dialogue in this game and it turns the pacing of it into a trainwreck. For a game with only 5 chapters, the game feels like it has 10, and the 46 hours I have reflect that. Even with Turbo mode on, the game constantly felt like it was dragging, and my thumb was begging for death by the end of it. A lot of the dialogue isn't even good. It's fine, but some of it feels unnecessary. Some things feel over-explained and the game really could've used a passover to cut all of that down. I think a good few hours could've been reduced from the game's playtime if there wasn't so much of a desire by the developers to pile on lore, characterization, and more.
And I get some of that is needed. This is the first game in a huge universe. It's a foundation game. But it's too much is what I'm trying to say and hurts the game's replyability. A similar comparison would be Pokemon Sun and Moon. Both SM and Trails in the Sky are great JRPGs with what would be a ton of replay value... but do you really wanna sit through all of that dialogue and exposition again?
So that gave me the conundrum where I wasn't sure how to rate Trails. Because I actually really enjoyed playing it, I love its world, I like its characters... but it drags its feet so hard. And I just can't ignore that, and I have to dock points for it. I was hoping the finale would be able to negate those docked points a bit, and it did, but a lackluster final dungeon and boss, plus a really random-feeling lore dump for Joshua right at the end doesn't help. However, I think it still is a great JRPG despite those flaws.
A very flawed JRPG, we'll say, and leave it at that.
Score: 84
My minor nitpick with the gameplay is that the constant carousel of companions through the game's different chapters derails the pacing a bit, and it makes Estelle's role in the party feel... off. While Joshua is clearly a Fighter or Time Mage in the way Tidus in FFX is, it's not really clear what Estelle is since you kinda need her to do everything. And that's due to the fact that Estelle and Joshua are alone a lot and when you do get a companion, Estelle's role becomes more defined. But when companions come and go so often, it gets tiring to rearrange Estelle's kit and go "okay, now she's a Support" or "okay, now's she a damage dealer", or etc. I'm nitpicking here but I found that to be a flaw in the game design.
The story and dialogue are where Trails lacks a bit. The characters themselves are good. I refrain from saying great, but they are good and I like them. The story is predictable a lot of the time, but that doesn't make it bad. It's just... not anything you haven't seen before.
The dialogue is what derails Trails and stands out as its fatal flaw. There is an entire encyclopedia volume set of dialogue in this game and it turns the pacing of it into a trainwreck. For a game with only 5 chapters, the game feels like it has 10, and the 46 hours I have reflect that. Even with Turbo mode on, the game constantly felt like it was dragging, and my thumb was begging for death by the end of it. A lot of the dialogue isn't even good. It's fine, but some of it feels unnecessary. Some things feel over-explained and the game really could've used a passover to cut all of that down. I think a good few hours could've been reduced from the game's playtime if there wasn't so much of a desire by the developers to pile on lore, characterization, and more.
And I get some of that is needed. This is the first game in a huge universe. It's a foundation game. But it's too much is what I'm trying to say and hurts the game's replyability. A similar comparison would be Pokemon Sun and Moon. Both SM and Trails in the Sky are great JRPGs with what would be a ton of replay value... but do you really wanna sit through all of that dialogue and exposition again?
So that gave me the conundrum where I wasn't sure how to rate Trails. Because I actually really enjoyed playing it, I love its world, I like its characters... but it drags its feet so hard. And I just can't ignore that, and I have to dock points for it. I was hoping the finale would be able to negate those docked points a bit, and it did, but a lackluster final dungeon and boss, plus a really random-feeling lore dump for Joshua right at the end doesn't help. However, I think it still is a great JRPG despite those flaws.
A very flawed JRPG, we'll say, and leave it at that.
Score: 84