Comment on Recommendation engine: Downvote any game you've heard of before
shrodes@lemmy.world 2 months agoAh, a fellow Into the Aether listener perhaps? Or maybe just a big JRPG fan 😁
I gotta check out Trails at some point. The whole tetralogy thing kinda puts me off in the same way Yakuza does but you gotta start somewhere I guess!
Gestrid@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
Yeah, I’m just a big JRPG fan.
As for the Trails series, I’ve been told that the best place to start is (understandably) the beginning. Play in release order. The first three games are in 2.5D (as opposed to 3D), but they actually hold up really well.
Most people (myself included) will recommend that you use a spoiler-free guide to avoid missing hidden quests and collectibles (such as a book series you’ll collect in its entirety over the course of the first game). I’m using this spoiler-free guide for my playthrough of the first game.
It’s also recommended that you go around talking to every NPC in the town you’re in every now and then. Dialogue updates as the main quest advances and, at times, if you’ve had an interaction with an NPC in (for example) a side quest and that NPC later pops up in the main quest, the NPC will remember that interaction from the side quest. Some NPCs also pop up in later games with their stories continuing (or so I’ve been told).
Almost every single Trails game is also available DRM-free with achievements on GOG. The only missing is the latest game (which has a “coming soon” page). The series goes on sale on GOG pretty frequently, too.
Also, examine every chest twice: once to open it and once to see the “empty chest” dialogue. The English localizers noticed that, in the Japanese version of the game, instead of having the empty chests call a single line of dialogue multiple times, each chest had its own line to call. (It was the same thing copied and pasted every single time.) So they had some fun with it and made nearly every empty chest have unique dialogue.
Also, just today, during the Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase, The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 1st, a remake of the first game in full 3D with the modern Trails as aesthetic, was announced for a 2025 release worldwide. Though I don’t know how faithful it’ll be to the original game or to its localization. So you could wait for that if you want or just play the original trilogy immediately. But, again, the originals still hold up really well.