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And yep, idle conversation, that's a better way to say what I'm getting at. And yes, it's all world-building regardless. Anyway, as I said it's not a game-breaker. I'm about to start a session now. Had a nice fight with the Pine Plant monster on Milch Road in my last session.
It doesn't matter much I suppose but I'm just honestly asking so i can better understand people like you. As I said, lots of people say it, so you're clearly onto something, but I honestly don't see/understand it well enough for my own satisfaction yet. I'm not trying to prove you wrong or anything at th is point, I'm just genuinely baffled. Like if I was to suggest this game to someone else, who I know dislikes the wordiness in tolkein, can I assume they are like me and think it'll be ok in this case? or like you? I just want to get a good grasp on who it offends and why exactly.
That said I honestly don't really remember this game repeating itself too much except MAYBE during the sewar tutorial thing, and that's pretty much it. Do you have any examples in mind?
Yeah I know, I actually used to like that too, but now when I re-play those old games I find myself lamenting at how I have to mindlessly walk into every pot, shelf, table, clock, etc for treasure when honestly the process itself isn't nearly as fun as just looking at the room as a whole and trying to picture the setting/mood of it IMO. Maybe the room doesn't have a reason in terms of gameplay mechanics, maybe it's just there so you can get the idea that 'whoah, this guy's house is twice as big, he must be rich!'... As well as the fact that the walls in said house have more decorations. The game DOES kinda go into that level of detail. If you like getting items from objects instead of just looking at a room and enjoying the view, that's your taste I guess. But I don't think it's a bad (or a good) thing, just a thing.
I love trails in the sky, Sc, and cold steel (in case you don't know Trails in the sky, sc, are the first and second game in the 'kiseki' series, cold steel is 6 and 7. trails in the sky 3rd is well. 3rd but it's not a direct continuation like 2 is to 1, but it's still a continuation, 4 and 5 are still Japanese only, 8 is part of cold steel, but that's Japan only still too. everyone wants and is expecting Localization (though 4 and 5 look like it may be fan translation only, albeit dedicated and capable fans).
That said I'm a bit weird where I find that cold steel exploration and 'meeting' thing is better than sky. I'm not one of those people who dismiss 2d games over 3d games, but I think the 3d adds a lot to this series. Not because this game needs graphics or anything like t hat. But by making every named npc a 3d model, you recognize them just by looking at them, and then when they say something built on something else 2 chapters ago, you can connect with it and recognize it easier. Honestly in sky, I have a hard time enjoying the random npc chatter even though its deep and complicated just because most look like generic npcs to me. But in CS I could see an npc from a distance, and kn ow exactly who it was before even talking to them. Not just super important npcs or quest givers either. But random schoolkids in other classes that never join your party or give you a quest or anything. That prissy looking blonde boy with sycophants hovering over him? That's patrick, that creepy girl with weird ass looking eyes? Beryl (she's weird ass in general too btw)... Err actually beryl gives you a quest or two AND becomes something of a shop keeper, but she doesn't look any more special than other people who do not (cept those eyes).
What may seem like fluff in the environment and conversations really becomes important later in the game and sequels. Unfortunately, the pace of the first game is pretty laid back and slow for a good chunk of the beginning... but I and many others promise you, it picks up and gets epic!
While trying not to be too spoiler-ey, if you recall that ancient ruined tower outside the starting town where you save the kid then get saved by your dad...there's more of that ancient magical goodness later... you will also be stuck on monorails for the first game, it mainly serves to familiarize you with towns, people, etc.. SC will let you explore the country more freely though!
Also the treasure chests... are you looting them twice? Part of the fun of playing this trilogy is reading all the messages the english publisher stuck in there since, "The chest is empty." is a boring message. xD
Trails is the type of game that is hard to get into because it frontloads a lot of things, especially in the first game. Again we are talking about a series that is 8 games long by now
That means you just have to accept that the first 30-40 hours of your Trails experience is not particularly griping(altough it certainly is, when looking back at it or doing a second playtrough, trying to unearth all the little bits and pieces hiding in the seemingly mundane dialog)
That is a huge undertaking, and as you already mentioned maybe the game isn't for you, that is fine as well.
There is however cetainly a reason this series is held in such regard, as far as complexity and Worldbuilding goes this series doesn't rival other games, it rivals Books. Since you mentioned Suikoden, Trails is pretty much what Suikoden could have been if it was actually given full creative Freedom and not beeing owned by the worst company in Videogame history
To give a small example what i mean by complexity.
There is a an airship called Cecilia in the game(its actually the sister ship of the one Cassius left one)
This ship is named after an Liberlian princess from around a 100 Years ago.
Now, here is where things get fun, neither the Airship nor the Princess are of big relevance for the story. Both get merely mention in passing and that connection is never outright stated. The player has to draw that conclusion on his own and naturally that is something that will fly over at least 90% of the playerbase heads
But the connection is still there to provide the remaining 10% with that "Aha!" moment.
And thats why i love Trails.
I'm chomping at the bit. :D It's deadly already! But I am learning it a lot more now, too. Can't wait to play more but I have to get some sleep soon.
Use chaos brand, you are gonna love it (especially on harder difficulties) trust me.
This is less a problem with the buff/debuff systems and more due to the core game design in RPGs where level = power. SMT and Trails attempts to address this by makes it something you can't fully neglect the further in the game you get, due to in part how the games are designed to compensate for this.
In Trails (specific to Sky): exp scaling and controlled monster/boss design along with fixed healing amounts. In SMT: focus on tough boss design with foreknowledge of mechanics likely to be exploited by players.
Of course, this trend is slowly changing with the more modern games, like Xenoblade, but this still varies depending on the game. Then of course, this also ignores the MMO genre where such mechanics have always found a place. This also ignores cRPGs, or D&D, or Pokemon, etc.
One game that I LOVE due to its unique approach to both buffs and healing is Labyrinth of Touhou. In that game, healing is rare, and you're not really meant to keep pace with enemy dps using heals. Instead you have a party of 12 (with 4 in the 'front' taking/dealing damage), and a switch command to let you switch one of your front 4 with the 8 in the reaer. This takes half a turn (actually 1/4 of a turn but most general attacks take half a turn), but prevents that front 4 character from taking further damage (until placed in the front again). Meanwhile slowly regenerating hp (and mp) while in the back 8. Speaking of mp, you also have less of it than normal in the sense that you can cast only a few spells before going oom most of the time.
As for buffs, they provide a set amount of a particular stat (like a 40% increase to attack), and each time you get a turn on that character in the front, it drops by 33% of itself. so 40% becomes 26%, not 7%. If you buff that person again with the same spell, instead of going to 40%, it'll go 26%+40%. Furthermore, when you're in the back, buffs do not fall off.
This allows the whole strategy of combat to go beyond simply healing when required and having enough hp to survive at least a hit between each heal, to efficiently rotating your characters in the danger zone to dps and such. Note that the tankiness of each character varies greatly, so you have to be careful wth some of them even if they are at full health.
What's even cooler is that there is a cast of 60ish characters to play with in your party of 12. Making lots of high replay value.
Unfortunately the game doesn't really have a story to take seriously, so lots of rpg fans have no interest there.
The thing with any form of augment system in gameplay is how much they change a game. Most games will always have these system be beneficial, but whether the scale of the benefit is great or small varies in relation to design and is something which is often very difficult to balance.
One example I can think of, though not a good one due to how the game was designed, is Lunar:Dragon Song. That game had a simple card system which acted as item drops with spell charges. The effects range from healing HP/MP to the more useful effects of party wide buffs (damage/stat modifiers) and enemy wide debuffs (stats, status).
Why was this important? Because enemies in the game scaled to your level, and thus pure levels meant harder enemies overall. You had to keep on top of gear and use cards strategically. However you couldn't neglect levels completely, so you had to balance the need for levels for strength, HP, etc but were not too high that enemies outpaced your current gear.
Problem though was that cards only dropped under one of two combat modes, were rare, and you could only have one of each card at any one time. Compounded by other bad mechanics and progress could stall hard.
But the idea was sound, implementing a limiting factor to the traditional Dragon Quest leveling system that shifted focus to other factors/mechanics which provided the difficulty aspect of the game.