finished ToCSIII last night!
thoughts:
- this was a pretty good entry point into the quadrilogy. the comprehensive plot/character/setting info available did a great job of giving me all the context I needed, and the intro of New Class VII helped too. I've only played about half of the first Trails in the Sky game years and years ago.
- I appreciate that Ouroboros is the most ambiguous collection of villains I've encountered in media in a while.
- my complaint about the battle system stands: it's v easy to break the game, but the game punishes you in boss battles if you don't break the game. You can either ensure that bosses take almost no actions or you can die horribly when the bosses whip out S-crafts that result in near complete party wipes. Pick one.
- also, I feel like Arts-focused characters get a raw deal in the game. Arts can do some substantial damage and inflict status effects BUT a) boss characters can easily cancel Arts because of the casting delay and b) Arts damage cannot Unbalance enemies, even when they're broken, and the game really trains you to Unbalance At All Times because of the need for Battle Points for Brave Points and Rush/All Party attacks. I was a little salty in the last dungeon when I realized that Musse was going to be a required character for the final battle because the Old Class VII characters kept on peeling off after boss battles.
- this series' ginormous trove of lore is catnip to me. Looking forward to the Switch release of ToCSIV in March, though since I'll be in the middle of my coding boot camp, I likely won't be able to start playing until late April.
- speaking of romances, I definitely made sure that Rean smooched Alisa in this one, who did y'all pick?
- also, I LOVE that they switched up the battle theme for the Dark Dragon's Castle, it's just exactly what I needed from Falcom
thoughts:
- this was a pretty good entry point into the quadrilogy. the comprehensive plot/character/setting info available did a great job of giving me all the context I needed, and the intro of New Class VII helped too. I've only played about half of the first Trails in the Sky game years and years ago.
- I appreciate that Ouroboros is the most ambiguous collection of villains I've encountered in media in a while.
- my complaint about the battle system stands: it's v easy to break the game, but the game punishes you in boss battles if you don't break the game. You can either ensure that bosses take almost no actions or you can die horribly when the bosses whip out S-crafts that result in near complete party wipes. Pick one.
- also, I feel like Arts-focused characters get a raw deal in the game. Arts can do some substantial damage and inflict status effects BUT a) boss characters can easily cancel Arts because of the casting delay and b) Arts damage cannot Unbalance enemies, even when they're broken, and the game really trains you to Unbalance At All Times because of the need for Battle Points for Brave Points and Rush/All Party attacks. I was a little salty in the last dungeon when I realized that Musse was going to be a required character for the final battle because the Old Class VII characters kept on peeling off after boss battles.
- this series' ginormous trove of lore is catnip to me. Looking forward to the Switch release of ToCSIV in March, though since I'll be in the middle of my coding boot camp, I likely won't be able to start playing until late April.
- speaking of romances, I definitely made sure that Rean smooched Alisa in this one, who did y'all pick?
- also, I LOVE that they switched up the battle theme for the Dark Dragon's Castle, it's just exactly what I needed from Falcom