Why can't we join clubs?

[Marcus Skerratt]

I think it's a bit sad that they have, all these awsome cloubs we can't join? Why Deves why won't let us have the fun part of school?

[Cold_Reverie]

Because it's not a part of the story, and how else would you get to do the side quests? Helping out Towa and the Student Council (Which is kinda like its own club) while interacting with the other party members in their own clubs is the best way to go about introducing the Academy and Trista and their NPCs.

The game is also very long even without forcing you to participate in club activities. You probably wouldn't get to run all over campus and Trista or (Chapter 1 Spoilers)get to explore the Old Schoolhouse if Rean had to attend some club anyway.

Honestly, though, I really don't think that Rean's personality would let him decide to just join a club. It is entriely in his character to just offer to help someone with their work and just spend all the time, that he should be spending in a club or with his friends, doing work. Remember he had to have the work practically pushed off onto him because he was indicisive about which club he was gonna join in the first place.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Canonically, Rean is (CS1 chapter 4 spoilers) struggling to find his place in the world. He also doesn't want to get too too close to people, which is a plot point. He gets close enough to become friends, but pushes them away before they become family. Joining Thor's wasn't so much out of devotion to the Empire or any interest in becoming a military man, but as a means of running away from his family. He also doesn't quite have an idea of what he wants to do.

[明星ヒマリ]

Rean's part of the student council and maybe the fisherman club. Both are un-official though.

[Marcus Skerratt]

I get it and thanks guys. Still feel like I'm missing out though

[pibedetorres]

Most clubs' activities are stuff you are already doing or can do anyway:

- Cooking club: *looks at your recipe book*
- Fishing club: as Supreme Officer hinted, you are already fishing and regularly reporting to the club's president;
- Photography club: does taking screenshots count?
- Art club: I'd point to the Images section of this board, but apparently it's mostly filled with meme edits of screenshots or official art (not that I can say anything against it since I've posted my fair share of bad memes)
- Literature club: If posting fanfiction isn't immersive enough for you, I suggest a cute little free game on Steam that will let you be part of an actual school literature club. It's called Doki Doki Literature Club and you will find its characters adorable!
- Swimming and Riding clubs: let's just say your itch might get scratched sooner or later.
- Lacrosse club: how can Alisa&co even play games with only four players? I bet all they do is take turns with penalty shootouts against the goalkeeper or something. Trust me, you wouldn't have fun unless you could gather 15 or 20 more members.
- Fencing club: my only regret. I'm sure beating up Patrick on a regular basis would have been lots of fun.
- Paranormal club: anyone sane enough would turn down Beryl's offer and run away. Had she got at least one fellow club member I'm sure Thors would have turned into Heavenly Host Elementary School...
- Gardening club: eh, I guess growing herb can be interesting at times.
- Chess club: eh, I guess growing fungus while waiting for your opponent's move can be interesting at times.

Am I missing anything? Apart from the shooting grounds we never even get access to in the gym for some reason.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Originally posted by pibedetorres:

- Fencing club: my only regret. I'm sure beating up Patrick on a regular basis would have been lots of fun.

Speaking of which, I believe that if Rean was to join a club (besides formalizing his status as a member of the fishing club), I'd say he'd join the fencing club to hone his swordmanship. Even if he's decided to drop Master Ka-Fai's training, it'd still be in his best interest to improve his skill with his weapon of choice, especially since he's going to be relying on that weapon for self defense and such.

[pibedetorres]

Originally posted by Valyrian:

Originally posted by pibedetorres:

- Fencing club: my only regret. I'm sure beating up Patrick on a regular basis would have been lots of fun.

Speaking of which, I believe that if Rean was to join a club (besides formalizing his status as a member of the fishing club), I'd say he'd join the fencing club to hone his swordmanship. Even if he's decided to drop Master Ka-Fai's training, it'd still be in his best interest to improve his skill with his weapon of choice, especially since he's going to be relying on that weapon for self defense and such.

I don't know, Laura loves her sword even more and yet she picked a different club. I think it would have been kind of a letdown had Rean gone for that particular one.

[Ellipsis]

Originally posted by pibedetorres:

- Lacrosse club: how canAlisa&co even play games with only four players? I bet all they do is take turns with penalty shootouts against the goalkeeper or something. Trust me, you wouldn't have fun unless you could gather 15 or 20 more members.

That's a pretty entertaining mental image. I can just imagine Ferris and Alisa angrily trying to one-up each other while the other two look on in discomfort.

Originally posted by pibedetorres:

- Literature club: If posting fanfiction isn't immersive enough for you, I suggest a cute little free game on Steam that will let you be part of an actual school literature club. It's called Doki Doki Literature Club and you will find its characters adorable!

delete this

[Erpy]

Rean not joining any clubs (unlike each of his classmates) and not even becoming an official member of the student council is kind of the point. Sara tells him early on to root himself in place as it were. The fact that he doesn't is meant to showcase his "social loner" character.

[darkrajin]

While I understand why you can't join any clubs... I would have liked to possibly join the cooking club.

[Monterossa]

Me only want to join the S.O.S. dan.

[butterbattle22]

The Legend of Haruhi: Trails in the Club

- Literature club: If posting fanfiction isn't immersive enough for you, I suggest a cute little free game on Steam that will let you be part of an actual school literature club. It's called Doki Doki Literature Club and you will find its characters adorable!

I second this recommendation. Monika, in particular, is just amazing. Really, I prefer just Monika.

[Marcus Skerratt]

Originally posted by pibedetorres:

Most clubs' activities are stuff you are already doing or can do anyway:

- Cooking club: *looks at your recipe book*
- Fishing club: as Supreme Officer hinted, you are already fishing and regularly reporting to the club's president;
- Photography club: does taking screenshots count?
- Art club: I'd point to the Images section of this board, but apparently it's mostly filled with meme edits of screenshots or official art (not that I can say anything against it since I've posted my fair share of bad memes)
- Literature club: If posting fanfiction isn't immersive enough for you, I suggest a cute little free game on Steam that will let you be part of an actual school literature club. It's called Doki Doki Literature Club and you will find its characters adorable!
- Swimming and Riding clubs: let's just say your itch might get scratched sooner or later.
- Lacrosse club: how can Alisa&co even play games with only four players? I bet all they do is take turns with penalty shootouts against the goalkeeper or something. Trust me, you wouldn't have fun unless you could gather 15 or 20 more members.
- Fencing club: my only regret. I'm sure beating up Patrick on a regular basis would have been lots of fun.
- Paranormal club: anyone sane enough would turn down Beryl's offer and run away. Had she got at least one fellow club member I'm sure Thors would have turned into Heavenly Host Elementary School...
- Gardening club: eh, I guess growing herb can be interesting at times.
- Chess club: eh, I guess growing fungus while waiting for your opponent's move can be interesting at times.

Am I missing anything? Apart from the shooting grounds we never even get access to in the gym for some reason.

I just feel that there is alot to be said for choice Look at persona 3 so much awsome and it feels real and alive. Each relasionship maks you stronger. Thay had cool things that could have added a lot. Insted thay go, Oh look all cool ♥♥♥♥ you'll can't do Ha ha ha! Hay! here is a cool thought why don't you be the school go for instede, AKA Every outher RPG in exsistence. This is my one beef with this great game and it anoyse me. I want ride, swimm and kick Patricks ass cause these are awsome things to do. Also thank you all for your interest I love chatting with felow gamers

[明星ヒマリ]

L O L.
In persona 3 joining a club doesn't make you do anything except seeing an animated teenage kid doing their club stuff while you feel your relationship will grow stronger soon. Not even a minigame.
Don't get me wrong though. I love persona especially persona 3 but you're comparing cold steel, that offers club activities but with slightly different pov, to a game that offers club activities as a disguise to introduce and advance a social link character.

[LrdDimwit]

Originally posted by pibedetorres:

- Lacrosse club: how can Alisa&co even play games with only four players? I bet all they do is take turns with penalty shootouts against the goalkeeper or something. Trust me, you wouldn't have fun unless you could gather 15 or 20 more members.

I don't know anything about Lacrosse, but this is one of those hand-wave type things, where you aren't really supposed to pay too close attention to the details. You'll notice, for example, you can carry around "fresh milk" canonically for months of game time, and nothing bad happens.

Games have always hand waved that stuff, and Trails is no different. There's only one newspaper in all of Liberl, and it employs maybe half a dozen people. Class 7 has a mixed-gender dormitory with no bathroom or shower room. When you go to a store, there's always the same person behind the counter.

Scale in particular is just horribly off. If Thors were as prestigious as it's supposed to be, it would need to be ten times as large. Just the class buildings at my alma mater take up more space than all of Trista, never mind administration offices or dorms or the like.

The worldbuilding for Thors isn't as good as I would have liked. There aren't any military oriented clubs, and there should have been. But a realistically-sized Lacrosse team would mean all the rest of the clubs needed to be realistically sized also. And they just didn't have enough NPCs for that.

As for the OP, I do think Falcom screwed up a bit. A lot of the character growth and development happens off-screen. You barely spend any time at all at school. The game tells you, not shows you, most of what happens there. And this is also the game where they could have explained how Erebonian politics and society actually works; they explained the noble / commoner conflict well enough, but not much else. Basically, Cold Steel 1 is the game where they explain everything and build up on stuff that becomes important later. And I think they kind of blew it.