Plot summaries for Trails of the Sky.

[Ka-mai19]

Long story short: I want to learn the stories of the trails of the sky series as I've heard that they affect the CS series but don't have the time play through all 3 games.

This being the case, are there any good youtube videos that summarize the plots of the games well enough to provide a decent picture? I'll start my own digging soon, but I just wanted to check with this community first in case anyone had good options to recommend.

[Citronvand]

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzHQumZEWB1fOj4nkDd3hQodTb-OQ8K3m

Maybe this playlist. It is hard to summarize because it is not just the plot but also character interactions, development and relationships.

[Ka-mai19]

Originally posted by Citronvand:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzHQumZEWB1fOj4nkDd3hQodTb-OQ8K3m

Maybe this playlist. It is hard to summarize because it is not just the plot but also character interactions, development and relationships.

This is legit. Thanks so much!

[Citronvand]

Originally posted by caev37:

This is legit. Thanks so much!

You're welcome. Do note that you should watch the recap of Zero no Kiseki and Ao no Kiseki as well which is part of the playlist. So it is actually 5 games and not 3. The reason you might not have heard about them is because they were never officially translated to English but they did receive fantranslations.

It might be hard to know where the games happen since you are never shown a world map. But here's one you can reference: https://i.imgur.com/99bvuee.png
And here's a timeline: https://i.imgur.com/1kA5kMz.jpg

Trails in the Sky takes place in Liberl Kingdom while Zero/Ao no Kiseki takes place in Crossbell.

[Ka-mai19]

Originally posted by Citronvand:

Originally posted by caev37:

This is legit. Thanks so much!

You're welcome. Do note that you should watch the recap of Zero no Kiseki and Ao no Kiseki as well which is part of the playlist. So it is actually 5 games and not 3. The reason you might not have heard about them is because they were never officially translated to English but they did receive fantranslations.

It might be hard to know where the games happen since you are never shown a world map. But here's one you can reference: https://i.imgur.com/99bvuee.png
And here's a timeline: https://i.imgur.com/1kA5kMz.jpg

Trails in the Sky takes place in Liberl Kingdom while Zero/Ao no Kiseki takes place in Crossbell.

Awesome, good to know. Thanks again for the great recommendation!

[Kyle G]

My Trails in the Sky summary:
Estelle likes hitting things with her stick. Joshua hayte himself. Kevin also hayte himself. Everyone thinks Agate is a pedophile. Tita gets to do anything she wants despite being a minor. Olivier is aroused by anything that moves. Schera is dark skinned Sara. Zin gets ignored by the plot alot. Josette is annoying. Cassius is the original deus ex machina. Richard is OP. Renne hates Jeff Epstein.

[Mistfox]

Plot summaries for Trails of Cold Steel

https://i.imgur.com/0t79SQ7.png

[Dragon]

There isn't really such any such thing as a 'good option' for plot summaries of the Sky games, because there is literally no such thing as a 'plot summary' that can adequately substitute for the experience of playing the games yourself and living out the lives of the characters and becoming emotionally attached to them as a result of going through that experience.

I can understand not having time to play all the games.

But in that case my question would be: so then, why not play Trails in the Sky 1 as the game that you spend your time on, instead of Cold Steel?

And then you could play the subsequent games if & when you happen to gain more free time in the future.

That makes way more IMO than does skipping Sky.

[Yürei]

Originally posted by Dragon:

There isn't really such any such thing as a 'good option' for plot summaries of the Sky games, because there is literally no such thing as a 'plot summary' that can adequately substitute for the experience of playing the games yourself and living out the lives of the characters and becoming emotionally attached to them as a result of going through that experience.

I can understand not having time to play all the games.

But in that case my question would be: so then, why not play Trails in the Sky 1 as the game that you spend your time on, instead of Cold Steel?

And then you could play the subsequent games if & when you happen to gain more free time in the future.

That makes way more IMO than does skipping Sky.

You are really hellbent on this when you haven't even caught up yet after all these years. I don't even think you will be close to cold steel 4 by the time it launches.

[Mistfox]

Originally posted by Dragon:

There isn't really such any such thing as a 'good option' for plot summaries of the Sky games, because there is literally no such thing as a 'plot summary' that can adequately substitute for the experience of playing the games yourself and living out the lives of the characters and becoming emotionally attached to them as a result of going through that experience.

I can understand not having time to play all the games.

But in that case my question would be: so then, why not play Trails in the Sky 1 as the game that you spend your time on, instead of Cold Steel?

And then you could play the subsequent games if & when you happen to gain more free time in the future.

That makes way more IMO than does skipping Sky.

Hey Dragon, you played/watched the Cold Steel 1 Drama CD yet? If you don't, you're not allowed to play Cold Steel 2 and 3! You won't know what's going on!

[Ka-mai19]

Originally posted by Dragon:

There isn't really such any such thing as a 'good option' for plot summaries of the Sky games, because there is literally no such thing as a 'plot summary' that can adequately substitute for the experience of playing the games yourself and living out the lives of the characters and becoming emotionally attached to them as a result of going through that experience.

I can understand not having time to play all the games.

But in that case my question would be: so then, why not play Trails in the Sky 1 as the game that you spend your time on, instead of Cold Steel?

And then you could play the subsequent games if & when you happen to gain more free time in the future.

That makes way more IMO than does skipping Sky.

Citronvand posted a good youtube playlist that I plan to go through.

My issue is that I'm usually not very good at enjoying older games after having played so many newer games with better graphics, sounds, gameplay, etc.

Videogames as a medium do not age as well as movies, for example, so I was worried that I'm gonna buy a $23 game and not enjoy it because it lacks all quality of life elements that we get from more modern JRPGS.

Funnily enough, however, after having watched the plot summary video for the first trails of the sky I decided to buy it and try it out before I go on to Cold Steel 2 (I have all 3 CS games, but I just finished the 1st one for now).

I'm now gonna try to do the Trails games first before moving on to CS 2 and 3. Or I might mix it up and try to do Trails 1, CS 2, then Trails 2 & 3 before CS 3.

[Mistfox]

Originally posted by caev37:

I'm now gonna try to do the Trails games first before moving on to CS 2 and 3. Or I might mix it up and try to do Trails 1, CS 2, then Trails 2 & 3 before CS 3.

I recommend CS2 before going back to Trails 1 and 2 because of the connectedness of the 1st and 2nd game of every series, keeps the info fresh. Or at least Trails 1 and 2 together.

Just remember though, CS3 is a very different game from all the rest in a way, the enemy has a lot more HP so spamming S-Crafts no longer work and leave you weakened for a period of time so once you hit CS3, use S-Craft sparingly or not at all.

[Ka-mai19]

Originally posted by Mistfox:

Originally posted by caev37:

I'm now gonna try to do the Trails games first before moving on to CS 2 and 3. Or I might mix it up and try to do Trails 1, CS 2, then Trails 2 & 3 before CS 3.

I recommend CS2 before going back to Trails 1 and 2 because of the connectedness of the 1st and 2nd game of every series, keeps the info fresh. Or at least Trails 1 and 2 together.

Just remember though, CS3 is a very different game from all the rest in a way, the enemy has a lot more HP so spamming S-Crafts no longer work and leave you weakened for a period of time so once you hit CS3, use S-Craft sparingly or not at all.

Thanks for the recommendation. I think I'll still do the sky series first since I technically should have started with them before the cold steel series. I doubt I'll forget relevant details for CS2 when I do eventually go back to it.

Gotcha on the S-craft stuff. I'll keep that in mind whenever I do start CS3, which will probably be in a good while. Thanks again for the tips!