Similar to Xenogears era of turn-based JRPG?

[Jeffro]

That's my favorite JRPG era, and I was planning on getting these games at some point so the sale is nice.

I already own all of the Ys titles and love them all , just wondering what this series is most similar to I guess.

[Letari]

It's definitely worth getting if you enjoyed the Ys games and Xenogears. While not the most original story, it tells it very well. The combat is the same as its prequel with some improvements.

[HunterRassius]

Considering it's rather difficult to discern the *real* motives of The Grandmaster i'd say it's a bit of a stretch to call this particular story 'unoriginal'. Legend of Heroes is rife with stuff that looks mundane and boring on the surface but there's far more to it when one goes back to take a second look...

[LrdDimwit]

No, the story is definitely not very original at all. Just from what we found out in SC, the series as a whole falls into one of the very common fantasy-with-a-sci-fi-basis storylines. (I'm not going to say what exactly, since the TC is a complete newbie.) The overall plot is a hunt for a series of MacGuffins.

Look, I love this series, I really do. But its strengths do not lie in originality.

I would rate this series better than Xenogears. Xenogears has serious pacing and uneven writing issues. The writing in these games is consistently some of the best I've ever seen in any RPG.

If I had to pick one, I'd say it's most like Lunar or Koudelka. It's heavily character driven.

Also, the scope of the series is truly epic. There are so far seven games in this series, split into 3 arcs: Trails in the Sky 1-3, Crossbell Arc 1-2 (Zero and Ao), and Trails of Cold Steel 1-2. And ToCS 3 is on the way. The games in each arc are all direct sequels. Trails of Cold Steel takes place ... isn't it 2 years after the end of Trails in the Sky SC?

[Jeffro]

Wow, haven't heard anyone mention Koudelka in a decade. I'll probably just get the first one for now and see if I like the gameplay.

Thanks for the info everyone.

[myhr2]

Gameplay is fine, but if you have to play those games, it's for the writing and the characters. The start is quite slow, though, every Trails game I played so far (Trails in the Sky FC and SC and Trails of Cold Steel 1) are structured like this : first half of the game focused on world-building and character developpment, then the story start to rise and never stops until the end.

[HunterRassius]

Originally posted by LrdDimwit:

No, the story is definitely not very original at all.

I must have a completely different definition of unoriginal than everyone else. If you want to get down to brass tacks than The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky First + Second Chapter is essentially a coming of age story. That's literally what you set out to do in the first game. But coming of age stories vary by their degrees. Naruto, Kingdom and Pandora Hearts are all coming of age stories but if you're going to tell me that Pandora Hearts is unoriginal than we definitely need to get some reasonable definition for said word. At the very least you have to give the game points for being self aware that the story is almost entirely told through one perspective (Estelle's). Thing is the parts you don't see are still equally as important (or sometimes even moreso). Which is different from a lot of other games.

I'd say the part that really threw me off was when I realized Cold Steel's prologue chapter is almost 100% likely to be a Higurashi question arc...

[pibedetorres]

It all really comes to what we are looking at when seeking originality in a game.

While the story is apparently something already seen in many stories of fiction, most JRPGs tend to develop them using different ways from Trails. You usually have hardcore action right off the bat and superstrong protagonists or "chosen ones", and even when you start with characters who appear to be weak newbies they end up becoming heroes without apparent reason.

Trails in the Sky, on the other hand, gives you a message throughout most of the game: your characters haven't been gifted with unprecedented talents and none of them can solve everything just because they scream loud enough "I am going to become hokage" or stuff like that. They have to face reality, and only experience (actual life experience during their journey, not EXP from killing mobs) and bonds can give them a chance to improve themselves. And especially in FC you see that kids here are just kids (I'm looking at you Tita), with believable personalities and weaknesses, not chibi versions of any adult character (like all children that join your parties in Final Fantasy games for example).

These and other reasons are Trails' blessing and curse, because those who are used to JRPGs with lots of action and cool, badass characters like a Cloud Strife will often grow bored quickly of Trails in the Sky after they find out that your protagonists are acting like normal teenagers and going through much less spectacular missions due to their nature of apprentice Bracers (a group that works like a neutral police/military force whose primary purpose is to protect and aid citizens, a role not limited to great scale missions but including even trivial matters like having to rescue cats from trees or carrying heavy shopping bags for old people).

What apparently looks like a poor choice in terms of story makes instead sense as you proceed through it (to quote many of those who finished the first game: "Play until the play!" - you will understand this once you get there with the plot). Because you will retroactively see how much character development was being realistically given, to a point that each character you've met has a soul. And even any first impression some (if not all) of them may have given you as unoriginal examples of people with heavy one-sided personalities (the dumb one, the mature/reflexive one, the pervy one, the jerk one etc) will soon leave its place to a different consideration of each of them, because each of them will show deeper, believable and less "flat" personalities.

Then of course there are the NPCs. While in so many games they seem to limitate themselves to very few, uninteresting subjects like weather or everyone is just focused on talking about you or your quest, here they all act independently and as you happen to talk to them again over time you will even notice each family or couple or group of friends are having various things going on and situations that evolve in many ways. Basically a living little world where NPCs love, hate, make new acquaintances, take important decisions in their lives and so on.

And my goodness, the references you will not get until after completing the game, or after completing the sequel (Trails in the Sky SC). They are so subtle and apparently of no importance at all, because most times it will be just part of a completely normal dialogue from a NPC or someone in your party. But if you get to play the games again with the new perspective of already knowing what happens next these references will suddenly become clear, and they will blow your mind. Then you will slowly clap and say "Well played Falcom, well played." (By the way, to make them even more effective I suggest to play the game without trying to predict too much, or at least that's what I did and enjoyed it even more. Though even if you will try to predict everything there will still be plot twist you cannot guess beforehand by yourself, trust me)

So in the end, give it a try (I'm referring to Trails in the Sky of course, not its sequel SC! Don't even dare start from here if you don't want to ruin your experience, it would be like reading a story from the middle) and see where it takes you. More importantly, play at your own pace and don't feel compelled to rush it. It's not a matter of speeding through the parts you find boring in the hope of suddenly finding explosions and meteors fall, it will only make it worse if you skim through the first chapters with a feeling of "being forced to stand all this". Instead, try to immerse yourself into the world building and see how Estelle and Joshua interact with the people they meet in their journey.

Again, it's one of those "either you'll love it or hate it" situation. But if you played and liked games like Suikoden or the ones mentioned by others in this thread I'm confident Trails will not disappoint you.

[Walke_893]

You know I was going to make a comment but considering the OP has made a decision I'll refrain. All I'll ask is that you take the time to enjoy the game and let us know what you think or if you need help with anything.

On a side note, Xenogears and Trails. How apt.

[Letari]

I certainly didn't mean to start an original or not debate. :o I mainly meant that if you've played a ton of JRPGs and seen enough anime, you start to get an idea of where the story is heading. Especially if you've played the Ys games, they have similarities, only Trails is far larger...

Even so, Trails managed to surprise me several times and replaying the games yields more foreshadowing that won't make sense until the related events actually come along. The first Trails game is pretty easy no matter what difficulty you play on and the combat system has fewer options compared to its sequel. Patience is a must for these games.

[Jeffro]

How long is the first one? I like to do extra stuff if it's rewarding, but I usually ditch absurdly long extra quests/dungeons/etc. in RPGs nowadays.

[myhr2]

FC can range from 25 to 75 hours, depending on what you do. That being said, I higly recommand that you take your time and talk to every (every!) NPC available after each story event. Why? Because it's kinda the core of the writing in the Legend of Heroes games. You play as heroes that do care for the "usually nameless" NPCs, that take time to go out of their way to help everyone and their mother, and it's actually awesome and rewarding to get to know them, what their personnality is, and it really ties with what the story is about, and what a Bracer, or a Hero, is. Also, there are a lot of foreshadowing going on., but most of it only make sense on a second playthrough.

Or you can just follow the main plot, and it'll still hold. Just be prepared to read a lot anyway.

[Furry Wrecking Crew]

"I would rate this series better than Xenogears. Xenogears has serious pacing and uneven writing issues."

LIES!
Xenogears is awesome!
Relax folks, I'm sure he meant Xenosaga, we all make that mistake from time to time (nervous chuckle.)

[Pnume]

Originally posted by Vigi React:

"I would rate this series better than Xenogears. Xenogears has serious pacing and uneven writing issues."

LIES!
Xenogears is awesome!
Relax folks, I'm sure he meant Xenosaga, we all make that mistake from time to time (nervous chuckle.)

I love Xenogears' story but the combat were pretty boring especially with the mechas.
Legend of heroes trail in the sky is lightyear away better in this area.

[LrdDimwit]

Xenogears runs out of time to put all the really cool plot into the game proper, so instead they just have characters sit in a rocking chair and tell you about most of it in the 2nd disc. Occasionally they cut you into a dungeon.

And yet, there are a lot of threads in the beginning parts of the game that basically go nowhere. The whole prison section, for instance. It implies some interesting things about Fei, but spends way too long doing it. It introduces Rico, which would be fine except he literally never does anything important after that.

To add insult to injury, Xenogears has one of the worst battle systems I have ever seen, bar none. Levelling up is almost pointless, and special attacks that cost resources (fuel or MP) are basically always worse than just using a standard attack. It's ridiculous.

The creator certainly had some really interesting and original ideas for a story, but when it came to actually building the game, (s)he clearly had no clue how to do it.

[Jeffro]

I assume you just ran through it as fast as possible. Xenogears is by far the best of the PSX generation of JRPGs. It probably should have been 2 games, but Square cut off funding midway through the games development, hence the briliant "rocking chair" bits. The devs did the most they could with what they had and it was brilliant.