Do I have to play as Rean?

[Soul]

Do I have to play as Rean or can I go through the entire game just playing the other two? Rean is probably one of the worst protagonists in any AA and AAA game I've played.

[Zekkn]

Originally posted by jclosed:

Well - That's the nice thing about games. Everyone can have his/hers/its favorite character. For me the characters I like most are Lloyd, Juna and Estelle. But for other people it could be completely different characters. That's the fun about games - You can decide for yourself who get's the most attachment.

Personally I have no problem with playing as any of the characters, including Rean. Personally I do not dislike Rean, but I am also not a big fan of him. I rather have a character like Kou (from Tokyo Xanadu eX+, another Falcom game) than Rean it they where interchangeable. But as said - I don't dislike him at all...

oh i have no issue with people having there favourites... im like you but i think Estelle falls flat and doesn't really go anywhere ( Honestly joshua has always felt like the protag of sky 1-2 ) i more take issue with people either misremembering what the character has actually done/said and then judging them based on that misunderstanding.

[jclosed]

Originally posted by Zekkn:

Originally posted by jclosed:

Well - That's the nice thing about games. Everyone can have his/hers/its favorite character. For me the characters I like most are Lloyd, Juna and Estelle. But for other people it could be completely different characters. That's the fun about games - You can decide for yourself who get's the most attachment.

Personally I have no problem with playing as any of the characters, including Rean. Personally I do not dislike Rean, but I am also not a big fan of him. I rather have a character like Kou (from Tokyo Xanadu eX+, another Falcom game) than Rean it they where interchangeable. But as said - I don't dislike him at all...

oh i have no issue with people having there favourites... im like you but i think Estelle falls flat and doesn't really go anywhere ( Honestly joshua has always felt like the protag of sky 1-2 ) i more take issue with people either misremembering what the character has actually done/said and then judging them based on that misunderstanding.

Aww - Poor Estelle...

But I completely agree with you. Not about Estelle of course (sorry - I could not resist), but all other things you said. At the end it's all about enjoying your game...

[Haze]

Yes, unfortunately you do

[Boneduster]

I'm in the opposite boat, I only played the cold steel games so I would prefer if I could just play as Rean. Lloyd seems so bland in comparison

[Ogami]

Originally posted by Boneduster:

I'm in the opposite boat, I only played the cold steel games so I would prefer if I could just play as Rean. Lloyd seems so bland in comparison

He really is. He has ZERO personality apart from " I am a good Cop!".
His entire party is more interesting then him.

[Zekkn]

Originally posted by Boneduster:

I'm in the opposite boat, I only played the cold steel games so I would prefer if I could just play as Rean. Lloyd seems so bland in comparison

for me the reason rean is a great character is cause his problems dont just go away and disappear because his friends told him... he has to slowly work at liking himself and is honestly a pretty realistic portrayal of someone with his self worth problems. people just look at him and go i dont understand how a super capable, good looking, kind and country wide hero for both the empire and crossbell has alot of women like him..... like do you not understand that there a numerous people like that in the real world. and then they say that his powers which were honestly more a curse both figuratively and literally make him the chosen one for no reason even though he has to work at it for years to turn that said curse into something he can be proud of.

rean is by no means generic but you would have to pay attention and understand how humans work to really appreciate that

[RTSsence]

Kevin's arc arguably handled psychological issues better because it didn't try to waste 4 games worth of length in a back-and-forth that was going nowhere. Then, again, CS was not really an easy undertaking for Falcom to develop because of how much of a pain the engine was to work on.

[Zekkn]

Originally posted by Ogami:

Originally posted by Boneduster:

I'm in the opposite boat, I only played the cold steel games so I would prefer if I could just play as Rean. Lloyd seems so bland in comparison

He really is. He has ZERO personality apart from " I am a good Cop!".
His entire party is more interesting then him.

honestly for me its the fact that he solves a very obvious problem and then everyone around him goes... GREAT DETECTIVE WORK I SEE YOUR TRAINING WAS WORTH IT. dont get me wrong, i like lloyds character but it does feel like they didnt know where to take him.


it doesnt help that the irony of crossbell fighting for independence was only really won in the end thanks to the efforts of the empire Mainly being REAN and most of Class 7

[Zekkn]

Originally posted by RTSsence:

Kevin's arc arguably handled psychological issues better because it didn't try to waste 4 games worth of length in a back-and-forth that was going nowhere.

how was it wasted... if anything the fact that kevins lifelong trauma was solved in 1 afternoon is kinda too quick.. dont get me wrong i like kevin but it most definitely was not handled better than rean.

that kinda trauma takes years to work on, and there will be moments when you lose a bit of progress as we see happen to rean, thats just how working on yourself is... if written well that is

[RTSsence]

Originally posted by Zekkn:

Originally posted by RTSsence:

Kevin's arc arguably handled psychological issues better because it didn't try to waste 4 games worth of length in a back-and-forth that was going nowhere.

how was it wasted... if anything the fact that kevins lifelong trauma was solved in 1 afternoon is kinda too quick.. dont get me wrong i like kevin but it most definitely was not handled better than rean.

I did edit my post mentioning the troublesome development that led to 4 games because of how they were trying to gain a foot when switching to full 3D.

[Zekkn]

Originally posted by RTSsence:

Originally posted by Zekkn:

how was it wasted... if anything the fact that kevins lifelong trauma was solved in 1 afternoon is kinda too quick.. dont get me wrong i like kevin but it most definitely was not handled better than rean.

I did edit my post mentioning the troublesome development that led to 4 games.

i mean i will be the first to agree that the trails series has serious pacing issues even in sky 1 and sky SC was a very prime example of that... but in saying that reans character wasnt ever really apart of those issues to the extent that most will claim. people seem to forget the time line that the games take place over. just because a game was long in play time doesnt mean that the story events will match that

[YUBI YUBI tax collector]

Originally posted by Zekkn:

oh i have no issue with people having there favourites... im like you but i think Estelle falls flat and doesn't really go anywhere ( Honestly joshua has always felt like the protag of sky 1-2 ) i more take issue with people either misremembering what the character has actually done/said and then judging them based on that misunderstanding.

Well, in a chest in sky 3rd, it said Joshua have to be the mc but falcom switch with Estelle, thinking that was better for the story. (I always asked me why Falcom never choose to make an another female mc, because i really like Estelle but i understand Falcom will always use male protag after i read this chest message. Estelle is just an exception).

[Zekkn]

Originally posted by YUBI YUBI tax collector:

Originally posted by Zekkn:

oh i have no issue with people having there favourites... im like you but i think Estelle falls flat and doesn't really go anywhere ( Honestly joshua has always felt like the protag of sky 1-2 ) i more take issue with people either misremembering what the character has actually done/said and then judging them based on that misunderstanding.

Well, in a chest in sky 3rd, it said Joshua have to be the mc but falcom switch with Estelle, thinking that was better for the story. (I always asked me why Falcom never choose to make an another female mc, because i really like Estelle but i understand Falcom will always use male protag after i read this chest message. Estelle is just an exception).

oh thats right they did put that in a chest didnt they... for me i more meant that the connections in the wolrd that mattered seemed to revolve around joshua ( ourobouros, hammel etc. ) even SC seemed more like it was supposed to be more joshua centric but then they changed that too, joshua is also a big force for why the plot keeps moving. Im sure Estelle could have been a better protag if they involved her into the plot a bit more organically but in the end she is still a solid protag and she has her moments here and there

[Soul]

Thanks for the responses. I've only played the 4 Cold Steel games in this series. I loved the first 3 even though I never liked Rean. 4th was major disappointment because of the whole evil curse plot and harem bs. And by the sound of it, if the other protags are no different, I'm just going to pass on this game.

[Velorien]

Originally posted by YUBI YUBI tax collector:

Originally posted by Zekkn:

oh i have no issue with people having there favourites... im like you but i think Estelle falls flat and doesn't really go anywhere ( Honestly joshua has always felt like the protag of sky 1-2 ) i more take issue with people either misremembering what the character has actually done/said and then judging them based on that misunderstanding.

Well, in a chest in sky 3rd, it said Joshua have to be the mc but falcom switch with Estelle, thinking that was better for the story. (I always asked me why Falcom never choose to make an another female mc, because i really like Estelle but i understand Falcom will always use male protag after i read this chest message. Estelle is just an exception).

Note that while this may well be true, chest messages aren't canon. They were added by XSEED (and, later, the Geofront) for fun.