Why does everyone parrot this series for having one of the "best ever written in a JRPG" and to "play it for the story?"
Yes, Trails definitely has its strong points. But those points are in the world-building, lore, attention to detail, characterization and the way the dialogue is WRITTEN but the actual story itself I feel is pretty weak and actually on the low-end of the spectrum when it comes to "good JRPG stories"
I mean after what FC was building up to SC just ended up being your typical JRPG story trope-fest of "discovering ancient civilization more technologically advanced and villain wants to revive this civilization just for the power, oh yeah and somehow the church and the elements of life are involved too"
Dare I say even some Tales games like Symphonia and Abyss have objectively better and more original stories than the overarching plot of Trails! Yes, you heard me right: Objectively speaking both Symphonia and Abyss have better overarching narratives than Trails does.
So please, Trails fans: I love the series just as much as you do but please don't parrot the lie that its because this series's story is somehow "above" any other JRPG's Its horrendously cliche and even somehow worse because this is a story that's being dragged out across 10 or so games when this type of story was easily done in 1 game during the 90's and you hardly would've missed anything!
>Trails
>Good
You fell for the meme.
>>340047767
>Trails
>Bad
YOU fell for the meme
>>340047767
>>340047968
>JRPGs
>Good
You both fell for it.
I LOVE ESTELLE
>>340048202
Bumping for best girl in all of vidya!
>>340048202
>>340048307
Repeat after me: Estelle is for ________
>>340047395
>Tales
>Ever having a good story
I want to gently hold Alisa's hand.
>>340049083
Ew.
>>340049083
>Worst girl
For what reason?
>Still no news about sen 3
Nips are getting restless.
>>340048406
cutting the edge of certain murderers.
>>340049914
Good. The longer it takes to make the more of a chance us EOPs have of getting Crossbell localized.
>>340051730
Estelle's still better.
>>340051730
Hope we get to play her game.
>>340047395
You don't rate a game's story by oversimplifying it into a bunch of cliches
That said I think "story" is a very hazy term. Its basically just "what happens in the game", but is often used to describe the writing, the dialogue, the world-building, the events that happen in the game etc. The games do score pretty well in that regard, even if the story is not 100% original, its the way it is told that counts, and a lot of people who have the free time to invest into the games seem to enjoy it a lot.
>>340047395
You basically explained it yourself. It's a mediocre story that is well written. And many other JRPGs have better stories, but are poorly written. When people praise Trails they are usually praising the writing not the plot.
>>340052236
Eh? I always described "story' as just basically being the overarching plot of the game, nothing more nothing less. When I want to go into actual details of the way a story is WRITTEN then I'll talk about the "writing" which I already praised for being quite good, but as for the "story" itself? I've seen much better in JRPGs.
>>340052327
I don't even think it was that well-written where it really matters. The whole trope of "a villain being a counterpart to a party-member" was done pretty poorly and was incredibly formulaic compared to how some games like Lunar 2 and Tales of the Abyss handled it. None of the party-members outside of Estelle and Joshua, save for Agate and maybe Kloe, really grew and developed over the course of both games. Their arcs were poorly resolved and nothing really came out of them. Was each character's CHARACTERIZATION and personality strong? Yes, but actually character DEVELOPMENT for the party members was pretty scarce.
>>340052430
I guess
I just don't know how to objectively rate a plot. Should the synopsis sound cool? I mean you can say "this game's plot sounds more interesting than this game's plot", doesn't mean that the story is better though.
>"A nameless hero risen from his grave has to collect the souls of powerful demigods to fuel the great fire that creates the life this dying world has been missing for centuries"
sounds cooler than, or at least on par with
>"2 siblings set out to become Bracers, though slowly but surely they become entangled in political intrigue and unearth their kingdoms most well hidden secrets"
but I wouldn't exactly say Dark Souls 3 had a good story, while I'd say Trails did have a good story.
What makes a story/plot "good" is its excecution, and as we both agree thats mostly well done if you have the patience for it.
![latest[1].png](https://i.imgur.com/mUbijJ1.png "latest[1].png")
I'm still holding off on beating SC until 3rd's release is a few days away.I do NOT look forward to having to beat this fucker.
Yeah the overall plot is not really anything special besides for how damn slowly it proceeds.
Zero was the best one because it was the comfiest
>>340053795
3rd is a seperate story from FC an SC anon you should finish SC
>>340051552
Hopefully. But seeing as how the PC games aren't the main focus, if cs3 ends up being SC length or longer, might take years before we get it.
>>340052776
Olivier also grew.
You just won't really see it until Sen.
>>340053964Its more about how I can't handle beating games I've grown attached to
3rd's release is just too far away for now, and who knows what shenanigans the development will go through this time.
>>340052070
>Being an EOP
>>340054023
That's pretty unlikely, since CS2s script is smaller than 1. I think 3D graphics and voice are taking their toll on Falcom and the size of their scripts, which is actually good for us EOPs
>>340053089
Its not necessarily what plot sounds "cooler" more so, which concept sounds more original and thought provoking. Using my two examples lets compare and contrast them to Trails:
>Symphonia: A world divided and a false religion being created in order to continue the cycle of oppression that a certain race faced that they now want to to do it back at the other race as revenge. Also deconstructing the concept of "Angels" into meaning "soulless vessels" but this is the villain's goal to make everyone "Angels" in order to end racism since everyone would finally be the same. Looks at the societal and long-term effects of racism and discrimination in general.
Abyss: Whole story based on the ethics of cloning and "the meaning of one's birth" poses existential questions about the value of life itself and what it means to be alive. Also deconstructs the whole JRPG "chosen one with amnesia/destiny" trope as the main villain in this game resorts to cloning in order to break said prophecy.
Compare these two plots to Trails
Trails: An "evil" (?) organization is trying to harness the power of an ancient civilization that got sealed off cause the Goddess thought humans couldn't handle "such advanced technology", wants to take the technology for themselves, the church is involved as well as the mana "elements" fire, wind, water, earth, etc. Intersperses the main narrative with politics to make it somewhat interesting.
You can't honestly tell me with a straight face that the CONCEPT for Trails is better than the above two.
>>340054602
The plot of the crossbell arc being police beating up gangsters and demon cults is a lot more interesting than tales desu
>>340054779
Well I wouldn't know that seeing as how I'm an EOP and so far we've only gotten Sky and Sen. I'm hoping Crossbell could prove me wrong but just based on what I've seen from Sky and Sen, the overarching plot is played incredibly straight and is "by the numbers"
>>340054960
If overarching plot is played so incredibly straight you should be able to tell who the grandmaster is and why.>Implying it's not pic related
>>340054602
>You can't honestly tell me with a straight face that the CONCEPT for Trails is better than the above two.
You aren't exactly being generous in the synopsis of Trails. I had to avoid this too in my comparison to DaSIII's plot even if its tempting. Its always easy to dumb down a game's synopsis to make a point. "Dudes set out to save the world n stuff" etc
I still wouldn't say the concept being more original makes a game's plot automatically better. I can't seperate the plot from its excecution when rating it, otherwise it just comes down to preference. Xillia 2 also had a fascinating, original premise (one of the few Tales games I've played) but the excecution was just lacklustre.
So I'd still say the Trails games have a better plot with all its simplicity, unoriginality and predicatability than a game where you play a time cop who destroys alternate universes in order to lengthen out the universes expiration date.
>>340055278
Xillia 2 is one of the bad Tales games though mate, sorry you got suckered into it. There are very few genuinely "good" Tales games, and most of the ones that ARE good are made by the now defunct Team Symphonia.
Symphonia and Abyss are the gold standard when it comes to Tales stories.
>>340054779
>>340054203
Looking forward for the English release.
>People praise Trails for the realism in characters and story
>Girl that talks with a fucking bird
>Everyone talks in hyperbole like in most jrpgs (wow such good writing!)
>Gameplay is same fight over and over you get white gehenna
>The NPCs are all the fucking same (wow evolving world!)
>>340055271
Its the glasses.
>>340054602
I tried to play Symphonia but the characters annoyed me so fucking much I couldn't keep going.
>>340057963
Most of the characters aren't that great, but the actual story itself is phenomenal.
>>340047395
I so agree that it's overly praised more than it should be.
But despite the faults its still a game worth trying.
>>340056464
>>340056464
I honestly doubt it at this point
>>340059405
>Nipfags still going at the "NEVER EVER" meme.
>>340059405
>>340059649
There's still fan translation coming this year.
>>340056034
I've only played Xillia 1+2, and Hearts R a littlePlaying Arc Rise Fantasia right now though, if that counts
I'd love to play Abyss, but I want to play it undub AND have a working widescreen hack, otherwise I'll wait until I'll get it working one day
Its irrelevant if Xillia 2 was bad or not (despite some flaws I really enjoyed both), point still stands
>>340060463
>Being this much of a weeb
C'mon mate, you're missing out on of the best JRPGS of the PS2 era just for being petty over some voice-acting that doesn't even show up that much. (skits aren't voiced like in the Xillias)
>>340060929
Funny you call me a weeb because I'm always one of the first to defend english dubs when they're genuinely good.
Its the unvoiced skits that kill it for me. It wouldn't even be that bad if I could just read them at my own pace, but you can't skip through the dialogue either and have to wait for the mouthflaps to end before reading the next line. Its awful, I could read through them at half the time it wants me to.
Its not like the game is going to disappear, I've just lost motivation to get it to work for now and try again some other day
>>340061262
Ah okay, that's understandable then. You never know with this board though when anon claims to only want to play a game undubbed.
>>340059405
Believe in Xseed
>>340061647
thats why I try to avoid jumping to conclusions when I actually want to discuss something
>>340048307
ESTELLE A CUTE, A CUTE!!!!
