Trails in the Sky or FFIX?

[Pikoki]

Can someone help me make a decision between 'Final Fantasy IX' and 'The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky'?

I've always loved RPG systems, classes and progression, but I've slowly come off them because of the grind. I know that FFIX on Steam alleviates a lot of this with boosters to remove random encounters and speed up battles, but I also have heard really great things about Trails' writing and character interactions and I only want to commit to one of them at the moment.

Any thoughts guys? Other game suggestions with great progression (I've already been enthralled by the non-really-RPG Stardew Valley...) would be appreciated too. Thanks!

[Gabby]

Both.

[Evintia]

I would say both too. Esp during the sale, I own both and man both are awesome. I am currently working through trials and its making me want to get back up and continue playing it. Its hard to choose just one!
However with trials, there is a second game so if you just want one whole game go with FFIX.

[Rendan]

Both.

[Stabbey]

There's no real grinding In TitS. All enemies are on the world map, so you can choose to fight them or not, and it's not really necessary to do more than killing some or most of the enemies along the way.

On the other hand TitS doesn't really have a traditional class system. Each of the characters generally has their stat progression pigeonhole them into a role, but you can equip them with various quartz to tweak their roles somewhat.

[Nico]

FF9. Both games are great ones but you will want to go immedietly to the second Trails game after the first whilst FFIX ties up it's story nicely. I originally played 30 minutes of trails and then a few months later started playing again. It takes a few hours to actually get things moving and start getting into the game (atleast in my case) but after that I played it every single day. FF9 hooks you from the first FMV

[myhr2]

Both are great J-RPGs.

I'd recommand Trails over FF9, though, I prefer the characters and the story. FF9 world is more intriguing, though. As far as mechanics, Trails is more classic, but FF9 has more depth. Also, imo, FF9 has the best sidequest with the Chocobo treasure hunt.

But in the end, writing is more important for me, so Trails wins hands down.

[jewel567]

FF9 is way better that this game. I'm 30 hrs into Trails and it hasn't gotten that good yet, ff9 is fantastic, imo.

[ositodefelpa]

For those that have played FFIX what is the keyboard/mouse control like? In Trails I think they really worked hard to provide good keyboard/mouse control, whereas I've seen some reports that you really need to play FFIX with a controller (which I will not do). Is there any truth in these reports?

[Gabby]

Publicado originalmente por jewel567:

FF9 is way better that this game. I'm 30 hrs into Trails and it hasn't gotten that good yet, ff9 is fantastic, imo.

You're only like a quarter into Trails. At 30 hours you'd have beaten FF9. Food for thought.

[WeisserDrache]

Ideally, get both.

FF IX is rich in FMV sequences, some minigames, decent tunes here and there and of course - frustration aplenty!* (what's a good RPG without some, eh?)

Also, Active Time Events - allowing you to see what other characters are up to currently, when prompted. Also, you can Synthesize (transmute?) certain items into something better, so it might be good to keep the stuff you have and perhaps even invest into what you don't.

Trails in the Sky is a fun, story rich game with a decent battle system, equipment that in a certain order/slot will add and augment new magic, use skill buildup** (as you fight) which ignores whose turn it is and all sortsa fun stuff - you'll lose yourself in it, assuming you can get it to run crash-free. Which, depending on system and/or patience, shouldn't be much of a problem.

*neither games are frustration-free
**I forgot the right term(s) for it

Edit: I don't really crash, apart from using special moves in a battle; I simply close message and carry on, in spite of some persisting stutter.

[Gambio]

Publicado originalmente por Seraphna:

Publicado originalmente por jewel567:

FF9 is way better that this game. I'm 30 hrs into Trails and it hasn't gotten that good yet, ff9 is fantastic, imo.

You're only like a quarter into Trails. At 30 hours you'd have beaten FF9. Food for thought.

Come now, IX is a pretty lenghty RPG all things considered. Unless you play it with a walktrough 30 hours are hardly cutting it.

and 120 hours for Trails FC? If you talk to everyone twice after every cutscene i may give you 80

But yeah TC get both

[Gabby]

Publicado originalmente por Gambio:

Publicado originalmente por Seraphna:

You're only like a quarter into Trails. At 30 hours you'd have beaten FF9. Food for thought.

Come now, IX is a pretty lenghty RPG all things considered. Unless you play it with a walktrough 30 hours are hardly cutting it.

and 120 hours for Trails FC? If you talk to everyone twice after every cutscene i may give you 80

But yeah TC get both

Nope, I know you're trying hard to underestimate but 80 hours is what you get by skipping dialogue and speed running through the game as fast as you can while skipping sidequests. Please also keep this in context, the person I was responding to literally hasn't cleared Chapter 2 in FC yet. At 30 hours.

FF9 can be beaten in less than 9 hours. There's no chance in heck of beating FC in 9 hours. I would give you an optimal run time for FC only NO ONE'S EVER ACTUALLY ATTEMPTED AND RECORDED THAT.

It really is THAT long. And you have 286 hours between both games. You may wanna rethink how long your first playthrough took between both games.

Also note I didn't say Trails FC. I said Trails.

Considering FC and SC is a single game broken up into two parts because the creators went overboard, you can't really fairly consider one without the other in terms of comparing a full game.

I'm being especially fair by ignoring The Third entirely in my comparison.

[Gambio]

Publicado originalmente por Seraphna:

Publicado originalmente por Gambio:

Come now, IX is a pretty lenghty RPG all things considered. Unless you play it with a walktrough 30 hours are hardly cutting it.

and 120 hours for Trails FC? If you talk to everyone twice after every cutscene i may give you 80

But yeah TC get both

Nope, I know you're trying hard to underestimate but 80 hours is what you get by skipping dialogue and speed running through the game as fast as you can while skipping sidequests.

It really is THAT long.

I'm sure Vgesther has something to say about that ;)

No, im serious here i just checked, my "do everything(except achievements) playtrough" of FC clocked in on 67 hours

[Gabby]

So if you spend the same amount of time in SC you're looking at how many hours? I mean even being fair and assuming double, that's an average playtime of 130+ hours for a single story.

Again, FF9 can be beaten in 8 hours and 49 minutes. The game is literally built to be speed run, having a special weapon that appears if you make it to near the end of the game in a few hours.

[Gambio]

If we are talking FC and SC then sure i give you your 120 hours, its probably even more then that considering SC is quite a chunk larger