This is an excellent game! Trails in the Sky SC is such a massive step up mechanically from the first game, while still largely just being an extension of it. The story is pretty regular anime stuff; honestly a lot of themes and the way Estelle affects the world around her is very Naruto-esque (positive).

The world is full of great npcs and constantly updating bits of dialogue that go such a long way in making me care about each of the towns. Estelle Bright continues to be a delightful main character and the way she interacts with the world and build relationships with people is like the driving reason to play this game I think.

Not really holding this against it but this game is ridiculously long. Tooooo long. Clear data is like 122 hours or something and I was not leaving it on without playing much. I'll admit I don't play games the fastest or anything though. It's also one of the more difficult rpgs I've played, at least in the back like third of it.

I think it's mostly balanced really well, the story's fun anime melodrama you don't need to think too much about. I really like the resource managing in this one a lot more than I did in the first game. I'm very interested to see what they do in Sky 3.

Incredible game. There is a meloncholy to Chrono Cross that is just immaculate. The themes are strong and the game never betrays itself about them. It's such a hard pivot from Chrono Trigger. And yet, this is the most a sequel to that game. I don't think anyone who played it and said it wasn't was being fair or particularly honest. Like genuinely don't understand the conception of this game in its original time. Incredible soundtrack, a colourful cast of characters, interesting systems. Really the culmination of PS1 jrpgs in a lot of ways and still subverting a lot of my expectations in regards to them. Not 5 stars because Radical Dreamers edition is a pretty lazy port. Looks like it was smeared with butter and the models don't match the backgrounds.

One of the best jrpgs ever made in my estimation. Radiata Stories is tri-ace's standalone game that is in conversation with the genre as a whole in 2005. With mechanics inspired by the Tales of Series, Suikoden, and of course Tri-ace's own library, Radiata Stories is a very interesting game.

The story focuses on a young man (Jack Russel lol) whose father was the strongest Knight for the Imperial hegemony and a young woman who is the heir of a highly distinguished noble family. While working in a squad, the woman (Ridley Silverlake) is badly injured and the squad is forcibly disbanded in retaliation by the girls father. The captain (Ganz Rothschild) and Jack are disgraced and forced to leave the knights. This is where the game truly starts.
A core mechanic of Radiata Stories is that the world is persistent and the NPCs have lives. They move around on their own schedule and many of them, I can't remember if all of them, are recruitable!

When forced out of the army, Jack and Ganz attempt to get a job with the local mercenary guild. They take Jack and not Ganz, and the two separate. The rest of the game revolves around recruiting folks to go adventuring with, and the main plot.

The Main plots got multiple paths, and ultimately the story becomes about Imperialism vs indigenous populations. There is more going on with Ridley than at first glance, when she nearly dies earlier in the game the method of saving her changes her nature fundamentally.

Huge spoilers but by the end of the game you're either siding with the humans or the non humans. This game doesn't really pull punches about it either.

Highly recommend this game to anyone looking for a good rpg that's a bit slept on.