Here we are again folks, SC means second chapter so if you haven’t checked out my ramblings about the first you should read that first. Much like the game this is gonna be a part two so I’m not gonna bother with any lengthy preambles. I guess I can at least give you the game details and such. SC came out on PC in March 2006 and I’m once again playing on the steam version which was released in 2015 (1 year after the FC steam version). Oh, also, this might be one of my favorite JRPGs I’ve ever played.
I mentioned in my FC review I’d cover story here so let’s just get it out of the way. The short of it is that the story is really good and I love it, but I suppose you’re here for the long version. I’m gonna try to keep it spoiler free though since my goal is for you to play these games not feel like you played them with how vividly I describe everything in them. The story is centered on Estelle and Joshua bright as the start on their journey as Bracers, solving problems for the people and tackling crisis throughout the country of Liberl. The Bracers are a non-government citizen assistance organization so just think of them as if your typical neighborhood watch was actually useful, cared about people, and counted some of the strongest people on the planet as their members. It all starts out pretty small with them working to become full Bracers but, as per usual, they end up uncovering all sorts of conspiracies and mysteries and facing off against some evil organizations. It’s a story about a lot of growth and the writers do a great job of bring you from starting out as a weak rookie to fighting some crazy battles in the end. I touched on this a bit when I was talking about difficulty in the FC review, but it really feels like you grow with the characters in these games and that’s owed almost entirely to the story. Overcoming a tough foe feels earned, both in the story and in the gameplay and it leads to some great moments. It’s admittedly kinda hard to write much without spoiling anything but, considering how big a deal the marriage of story and gameplay is to the video game medium, I’m hoping you can be happy with my high praise of that aspect and just play the damn games.
I guess I can take some time to talk about the characters a bit. Still somewhat story related but much less difficult to avoid spoilers with. It absolutely needs to be said first that Estelle is the best and might honestly be one of the biggest selling points to the story. She’s just soooo perfect as a main character. In a “is really well written and has all the things that make following her story fun” kinda way. I’m gonna avoid going into detail on what exactly makes up the ideal main character to save me and my editor (who does not exist) some time but you get the idea. She has that upbeat and rambunctious attitude that I love to see and is just the best. Oh yeah, Joshua is really good too. He’s the more levelheaded type with a dark past and actually comes across as cool as he is meant to be. He is a bit in and out of the story in SC but still core to the plot and a great foil to Estelle. I may have spent most of this section glazing Estelle but there are tons of other characters too and they’re all great. All of the playable characters and supporting cast have strong identities and help to create a really lively world. I legitimately could go on and on about each character. The party members that you get to play with get swapped out a bunch as part of the story and it really allows you to spend some time with each character and see as their stories get developed. Naturally all of this good character stuff extends to the villains too. There’s a wide range of villain types from true megalomaniacs to the more sympathetic type and a lot of them have history with our heroes making the boss fights feel like truly epic showdowns. Hard to get more spoilery than talking about the villains though so I’ll zip my lips once again.
I’m looking back up realizing I may have outwritten the FC review with half as many sections, but I still want to talk a bit about the music of the games so just hang in there a bit more (I know you love my writing to much to stop reading anyways). FC has more of a retro feel to its tracks than SC but the soundtracks of both games are amazing. The overworld songs of the towns and different areas are all really great and never get old as you explore but damn did they nail it with the battle music. I actually stopped playing a few times just to listen to FC’s main battle theme (Sophisticated Fight) and what I call the treasure chest monster theme (To be Suggestive). SC takes things to a whole other level with its boss fight themes. Theres a good number of them and some are so good that and fit so well with the fight that I thought the music was intentionally synced up with my big crazy S-Craft animations a few times. By far my favorite is Gin No Ishi Super Arrange Ver. (I’m a sucker for any song that backs up those big emotional duel type fights) but there’s a lot to like.
That brings us to the end of this very non-traditionally split review of Trails in the Sky FC and SC I guess. There’s actually a third game but the main story of the Liberl arc ends here so I’ll get to that one later (don’t worry it’s still an amazing game). I really hope this gets at least a few more people to try the games as they’ve become quite special to me over my time with them. To end things off allow me to quell you’re worries about how long it too me to write this. I fortunately crossed the finish line in about 2 hours, much shorter than the 140 hours I spent playing SC, all of which I enjoyed.
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