Least favorite characters

[Viper]

I am still early in the game but Machias is my least favorite and Jusis my second least favorite. Machias is a guy who typecasts people and believes everybody of noble birth is the same. He definetelly has issues. Jusis I am not sure about yet. But he is definetelly an instigator and eggs Machias on. I think so far Elliot and Emma are my favorites. Gauis is pretty cool to. He always seems ready to lend a helping hand. And my favorite character outside of your class is Towa. She is so so nice.

[LowSkillPlays]

i love Sharon.

[The Hermit Gardener]

Didnt care about the characters nearly as much as I did in Trails in the Sky, but eh, still a great game, just finished it

Liked these the least, just... Didnt care about them or find them interesting at all. Rean (yeah, just couldnt get into the main character at all), Alisa & Machias

Liked Crow, Gaius, Fie, Emma and instructor Sara

Others are neutral to me

[Herald]

Originally posted by ☯ Hessu ☯:

Liked these the least, just... Didnt care about them or find them interesting at all. Rean (yeah, just couldnt get into the main character at all)

Rean is hardly a character. More like Master rank of "Shonen MC" school. Apologize to tsundere, be gentle with femine guy, laugh at no-good adults, become besties with all your allies, save innocent, forgive enemies, scream dramatically at traitors. You name it.
I hope he'll get at least some nuances in next games, but I've already accepted his role.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Originally posted by Herald:

Originally posted by ☯ Hessu ☯:

Liked these the least, just... Didnt care about them or find them interesting at all. Rean (yeah, just couldnt get into the main character at all)

Rean is hardly a character. More like Master rank of "Shonen MC" school. Apologize to tsundere, be gentle with femine guy, laugh at no-good adults, become besties with all your allies, save innocent, forgive enemies, scream dramatically at traitors. You name it.
I hope he'll get at least some nuances in next games, but I've already accepted his role.

No nuances? What?

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.

Rean Schwarzer is THE MAN!

I'm glad to hear that I'm not alone on this one. Rean is a lowkey kind of awesome; he doesn't strike cool poses or shill action one-liners. He's the straight man in a world on the brink of madness.

Rean feels like he was a burden to his family - his parents were derided for adopting him, to the point that they withdrew from public life - so the moment is able to leave the nest (attend Thor's Academy) he wastes no time doing so. He has basically run away, and finds a new family in Thor's. With no regrets here, he easily fits right in his new family. All is well and good... until Elise comes knocking.

He is aware of Elise's feelings, but feels she should be with "a better man". He always downplays his own efforts, like saying he was only a beginner who dropped out of Eight Leaves training and is therefore nothing special (though if you've ever played a 'Trails game before, you know that even beginner level users are worthy of serious respect).

For Rean, there is no shame in sentimental monologues and uplifting speeches. To him, it doesn't matter if they are "corny" if they are true.

Perhaps he feels like he must earn his place in the world with hard work, by pushing himself into situations well above his paygrade (read: trying to solve a terrorist plot with hardly any info to go off and a prayer that everything will turn out alright, or fighting highly coordinated terrorists with incredible power at their disposal). Or maybe he feels like he must be "punished". When praised for his efforts, he always says it was only because of the team (which is true, but ignores the real issue at hand). He also believes that he is a danger to those he loves, so he keeps them at arms length from himself.

Worst, he causes all of his loved ones grief by doing so:

- Walks out of his parent's life after they gave him unconditional love. Imagine if your child suddenly moved away and refused to talk to you after everything you did for him.
- Ignores his sister's feeling when he could at least give her a yes/no confirmation so she can move on with her life rather than scratching her head in confusion and anguish.
- Constantly worries his friends by pushing himself into dangerous situations, thereby dragging them into his plight because they feel like they have to help him out.


Rean Schwarzer lives in an uncertain world (more uncertain than ours perhaps, considering that the very foundations of the world order is being called into question) and has alot to think about. He wants to be the embodiment on the white knight - the quintessential hero - and knows very well that it isn't realistic. He strives for it anyways, because he believes in that ideal, no matter what happens. Despite his own uncertainty, he presents himself as a foundation for his friends to latch onto and confide in him. If his friends can be confident in him, than maybe he can be confident in himself, and overcome his insecurity. If he can be catalyst for a happy ending in another person's life, then maybe he can have one in his own. The audio drama (give it a read on the official website) about the off-screen trip to Ymir in between chapter 6 and the finale cemented it for me.[www.trailsofcoldsteel.com]

Originally posted by Rean Schwarzer:

[iThe reason I want to know is so that I can truly be myself. There's a Rean Schwarzer that I should have been all this time—the one that's your brother, the one that's Mom and Dad's son, and the one that's a member of Class VII—and I intend to find him. [/i]

Wow

Saying that you want to change is easy. Actually doing it... but darn, Rean has the commitment to pull it off.

Cassius, Alan Richard, Olivier, Bleublanc, Crow, Jusis... they might be the "coolest" characters in the series, but when it comes to the most compelling? Estelle and Rean hands down. I'm absolutely HYPED to see where he goes in CS2!

THAT SAID: I created this thread to talk about characters we didn't like, and I can see how Rean can be perceived as a flat character if your not really looking into subtext of what's going on. TBH I prefer this kind of story telling, where you have to put the pieces together to get a better understanding of a character.

[LowSkillPlays]

I like Rean a lot as well and think he gets a lot of undue crap.

[LayHon]

I'm not really fond of Millium (way too annoying) nor Elliot (even if i do use this guy quite a lot, his crafts are really useful even at the end of the game).

I didn't like Alisa at all during the first few chapters. I don't like tsunderes in general. But she eventually grew on me.

Emma and Gaius are rather ... "m'alright". I don't hate them, but i don't like them either. Like someone else said in the first few comments, Gaius is just there to tell you how good the wind or the weather is. Little development outside of that. Same case for Emma ... Done on purpose for the sake of CSII i suppose, but still, she's way too "invisible" to be remarkable in any way.

Pretty much like all of the other characters

[myhr2]

I have to say Millium because I've never been fond of the child-in-the-party trope. Tita was super cute, but Millium is just over-the-top...well, she's kinda ok because she can actually contribute to the party and formulate intelligent thoughts (very intelligent even).

[Tero]

There wasn't anyone i particularly hated but i didn't really like millium that much
she felt kinda unnececary at the least and obnoxious at worst

[Bravozuluf]

I must say, thanks to his betrayal at the very end , Crow is definitely my least favorite character. This is still a tough call. To me, this question is not so much about who I dislike, but who my least favorite character is. Falcom writers strike again by making me fall in love with all the NPCs and characters. It's like one reviewer mentioned, "how can a game have so many best girls?"; I'd expand that to all the characters. Rean, like Estelle before him, embodies a genuinely charismatic leader who shuts up and lets others talk before giving his own opinion. Hell, not enough people do that in real life, nevermind a videogame. Jusis and Machias were weak links (no pun intended) at first, but even their antics grew on me. It was just too funny to hold their contempt for each other against each other. Same thing with the antics of various other characters. Sara's beer antics, Crow's gambling, Jusis's and Machias's contempt for each other, Millium's hyperactivitiy, and Angie's perviness was kinda distasteful at first. But after playing this game for 95 hours, I kinda force myself to laugh and chuckle and enjoy their behavior. If any of those characters stopped behaving like the above, I would definitely have spotted that and that would have been weird. The Falcom writers strike again by writing each character to be so thoroughly themselves that you have to love every single one. At least, most of them.

Emma and Elliot were kind of adorkable. Plus, I myself am a musician. Alisa's tsundere act was kind of annoying at time, but she does still wear her heart on her sleeve for Rean and I suppose she's just overcoming some internal struggle in regards to Rean (should I? should he? will he? will he ever? I hope he never! When WILL he??). That despite how much she picks on Rean is quite endearing. Plus, she's a doll. Laura, now there's a dame! The second closest character to Rean for also portraying true leadership qualities. She's quite sheltered and assumes everyone else to be as noble as her. That's because her father is so righteous and everyone else in Class VII is quite noble also in spirit ( except, "the betrayer". What a real son-of-a-gun he turned out to be! ). My version of Rean and Laura were quite equals, and I dig that. Gaius especially by the end turned out to be a bro fighter! Holy s***! They just couldn't touch him! I looked at his stats; nothing out of the ordinary, but he would dodge every other swing from enemies, including enemy crafts and s-breaks. Wow. Stay on his good side; "just can't touch this!".

Fie had one of the sweetest character arcs in all of the Trails games! She started out as a loner, somewhat down, and unconfident in herself to the point where she struck me as depressed. But slowly, she joined that garden club and was so happy to see a little effort literally blossom. It was so sweet to see that CG sprite happy, I had to spend time with her. Soon, the other classmates included her: Emma tutored Fie, Laura took her under her wing etc. She was the most fun towards the end. Almost every girl in this series flirts incorrigbly with Rean, and several times Fie was perceptive enough to excuse herself from being the third wheel when another was flirting with Rean. I thought that was so chill of Fie to catch those drifts. Despite how chronically lethargic she still strikes me, ain't nothing getting past her.

Oh, I'm not mentioning much about Rean because to me he is almost as compelling, endearing, and charismatic as Estelle and this forum is supposed to be about who our least favorite character is. Another time, I will write about why I liked Rean so much. Just to put it out there, I'd put Rean at the rightful top of the hiearchy as the most likable characters from this game series.

But back to my least favorite, Crow's decision at the very end simply undid literally everything that he portrayed himself to be. Because he said to Rean that all those events, activies, and months of friendship was just a facade, that meant that well, all those bonding moments, effort, and time you as a player took get to know Crow was all for naught. What the hell?? No longer is he that too-cool-for-school, too-lazy-to-be-ambitious, incorrigible flirt and gambler that we'd come to love. No longer was he that guy who when he put his mind to it, would do his part to make a killer smashing rock concert happen. Apparently, he helping Rean save his sister was also just an act. That's just an ass thing to do! That stupid plot twist just undid all that hard work that the writers did for us! Damn! The plot twist took away from his character instead of adding to it! He's no longer mulitidimensional or multi-faceted. He's just a survivor with a hella grudge against the Chancellor. When I replay this game, I simply won't give Crow the time of day since I know that whatever effort I put into him will be undone by the end. That's kinda a lame thought.

[Tero]

Fie's development made me really love her
she started out as kinda meh but around half way through the game i started to warm up to her and by the final chapter she had completely suppassed every other girl in my book

[Redsoul]

My most favorite character is Emma and I'm looking forward to knowing more of her in the next game. I think Class VII trusts Rean's judgment on not forcing Emma about her background instantly considering Rean always finds a way to fix these kinds of issues. The game also continues to keep Emma a mystery all throughout the game and after noticing that, I started to appreciate her bonding events even more especially the scene when you take her on the bike event as it made me even more curious about her background. I also like Fie (she's cool and cute) and Towa (You just want to protect her smile). I'm okay with the other Class VII members even though I hated Machias and Jusis at first, knowing more about their background really helped though. If I had to choose my least favorite character it would be Patrick. He's annoying especially when he tries to get Elise's attention.