I’m a longtime fan of the Trails games. Many years ago, I championed this franchise on this subreddit. I still love the early games, but I don’t recommend the series anymore. To anybody not in the know, I want to explain some things because you REALLY need to know what you’re getting into.
The Trails games are this massive, interconnected tapestry of games which tell a continuous story using different characters. Estelle is only the main character for the first two games. The next three games are also really good, but even by the fifth game, Azure, you saw shitty harem writing starting to creep in.
In Cold Steel, the series goes extremely hard on a self-insert harem protagonist with unimaginable amounts of Main Character Energy, and even worse, it has Very Anime harem writing for female characters. It’s somewhat tolerable early in Cold Steel, but by CS3, it reaches an extreme level. The game has some truly horrid moments.
Playing just the Sky and Crossbell games (the first five games) will mostly spare you. Those are not without their Issues, but overall, they’re really great. But getting really into the franchise is setting yourself up for disappointment. There are a lot of people who super enjoy the Sky trilogy, also super enjoy the Crossbell arc (the next major arc) but start to feel worried during the end of it, and then eventually just can’t take it anymore during Cold Steel. This is big problem because you essentially get bait-and-switched over a franchise which requires a massive time investment.
You should probably also know that, as a result of these changes, the fanbase has also become extremely toxic and divided. The point of the Cold Steel games was to bring in a new audience, and it worked. Now you’ve got the fanbase divided down the middle between people who love the above stuff, and people who either only tolerate it or can’t stand it. Any discussion of these elements turns rancid.
I’m not too keen on the rest of the series but I’d buy Trails in the sky FC and SC at the very least since I did like Estelle. The story is self contained enough to not absolutely have to play all of them.
Super excited for this! I’ve been collecting a list of every game I can get my greedy little hands on that has a canon romance story with a female MC. The OG was one of like… three that I could find.
I’m seeing that there’s three games in the trilogy and it’s looking like the third one is where it switches to the male character POV, can anyone tell me if the third game is where the romance takes place?
Oh cool! I’m always on the lookout for good story driven games with specifically female protagonists. And it’s always nice to be able to legally buy games. With old games that’s not always an option y’know? So a remake coming out works out great for me.
This franchise is so insanely massive, with each game being like 50 hours long, that idk if a remake for just the first game would get me in.
It’s just such a massive time investment. From what I understand, there are 2 more games after this that continue her story, and then there are about 15 more games after that, and the franchise is still ongoing
I believe this and their 2 sequels are the only games that even have a woman as a protagonist.
Idk. I think I’d of been more interested if they had remade her sequel games with her in them, so that I could just drop the franchise after that.
I have been waiting for this for ages. Hopefully when they have a Western publisher they bring along a PC port (and that CLE won’t handle a PC port instead).
Well if having your adopted brother who you treat as your brother and suddenly as your boyfriend without much effort is the best love story in gaming then I’m out of here xD
I’m so happy about this. One of my most favorite JRPG series. 1000+ hours, 11 games, and hasn’t even touched Daybreak yet. Hope the remake will be good.
What game is this?
I’m a longtime fan of the Trails games. Many years ago, I championed this franchise on this subreddit. I still love the early games, but I don’t recommend the series anymore. To anybody not in the know, I want to explain some things because you REALLY need to know what you’re getting into.
The Trails games are this massive, interconnected tapestry of games which tell a continuous story using different characters. Estelle is only the main character for the first two games. The next three games are also really good, but even by the fifth game, Azure, you saw shitty harem writing starting to creep in.
In Cold Steel, the series goes extremely hard on a self-insert harem protagonist with unimaginable amounts of Main Character Energy, and even worse, it has Very Anime harem writing for female characters. It’s somewhat tolerable early in Cold Steel, but by CS3, it reaches an extreme level. The game has some truly horrid moments.
Playing just the Sky and Crossbell games (the first five games) will mostly spare you. Those are not without their Issues, but overall, they’re really great. But getting really into the franchise is setting yourself up for disappointment. There are a lot of people who super enjoy the Sky trilogy, also super enjoy the Crossbell arc (the next major arc) but start to feel worried during the end of it, and then eventually just can’t take it anymore during Cold Steel. This is big problem because you essentially get bait-and-switched over a franchise which requires a massive time investment.
You should probably also know that, as a result of these changes, the fanbase has also become extremely toxic and divided. The point of the Cold Steel games was to bring in a new audience, and it worked. Now you’ve got the fanbase divided down the middle between people who love the above stuff, and people who either only tolerate it or can’t stand it. Any discussion of these elements turns rancid.
I was always curious to play this! So glad it’s coming on the switch, is she the only protagonist or does the POV of the story shifts to another Mc?
I know it says 1st but I really hope they combine Sky 1 and 2 into one game like they always intended it to be.
What game is this?
I’m not too keen on the rest of the series but I’d buy Trails in the sky FC and SC at the very least since I did like Estelle. The story is self contained enough to not absolutely have to play all of them.
Super excited for this! I’ve been collecting a list of every game I can get my greedy little hands on that has a canon romance story with a female MC. The OG was one of like… three that I could find.
I’m seeing that there’s three games in the trilogy and it’s looking like the third one is where it switches to the male character POV, can anyone tell me if the third game is where the romance takes place?
Oh cool! I’m always on the lookout for good story driven games with specifically female protagonists. And it’s always nice to be able to legally buy games. With old games that’s not always an option y’know? So a remake coming out works out great for me.
This franchise is so insanely massive, with each game being like 50 hours long, that idk if a remake for just the first game would get me in.
It’s just such a massive time investment. From what I understand, there are 2 more games after this that continue her story, and then there are about 15 more games after that, and the franchise is still ongoing
I believe this and their 2 sequels are the only games that even have a woman as a protagonist.
Idk. I think I’d of been more interested if they had remade her sequel games with her in them, so that I could just drop the franchise after that.
So does this mean I’ll finally get to play chapters 2 and 3?
I’m way to gay for this world. Took me way longer than I care to admit to stop looking for “the other girl for the love story.”
Heck yeah. So excited for this
Omg for real?? I played this game on my brother’s PSP back then. Definitely will buy if it comes out on PC as well🙏
This looks so good, thanks for the heads up!
I’ve been meaning to jump into Trails! I’m glad I didn’t buy Daybreak yet.
The glazing is insane.
I have been waiting for this for ages. Hopefully when they have a Western publisher they bring along a PC port (and that CLE won’t handle a PC port instead).
That’s a very bold claim, especially about an anime game where the protagonists are underage teenagers. 😅
Well if having your adopted brother who you treat as your brother and suddenly as your boyfriend without much effort is the best love story in gaming then I’m out of here xD
I’m so happy about this. One of my most favorite JRPG series. 1000+ hours, 11 games, and hasn’t even touched Daybreak yet. Hope the remake will be good.
Best female protagonist?? 😭 girl please