Game Notes [The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure Kai]

I've been plugging away at Trails to Azure, and I've cleared it!
As my first Trails series experience, overall it wasfun!

I want to talk about it in detail, so let's get right into my thoughts.

Hooked from the very beginning

Since I played this right after Zero, I started with a familiar cast.
Isn't it just the best that I can form a party with Noel, Arios, and Dudley?
And it goes without saying that Arios is strong...! He truly lives up to the title of Divine Blade of Wind.

I liked Dudley and Noel too, so starting off with such a treat had my excitement at max.
Falcom, you really know how to tickle an otaku's heart.

Plus, this time, not only did Noel join as a new member, but Wazy joined the Special Support Section too!
Last time, I just thought of Wazy as a handsome character, but when I made him a battle member and fought with him, I saw his cut-in art and thought, 'Wait, he's cool.' I was caught off guard...!!
To think I'd have my heart swayed by such a classic handsome character...

While using the newly joined characters, the members from Zero slowly return one by one.
This kind of progression is also irresistible.

A story I never imagined

After Zero ended, I thought Crossbell was going to get better, but then the Empire and the Republic locked onto it—that kind of development.

While both sides were working in the shadows, groups with that classic 'chuunibyou' vibe like the Red Constellation and Ouroboros appeared, and I was thinking,What's going to happen to Crossbell?!

While doing various support activities, I realized I had come to love Crossbell myself.
It doesn't feel good to have such a Crossbell be toyed with by other powers.

As I played feeling the same way as Lloyd and the others, I was surprised by how much the scope expanded in the final stages. The story became grand all at once!!

Since it was clear they would be targeted by the Empire and the Republic, they used that to their advantage and declared independence. Then Dieter's idea was,Now we can carry out purges openly!The establishment of a dictatorship that never makes mistakes—there was a similar sentiment in Hathaway's Flash.
In Hathaway, it was said, 'If there is someone who can do that, they are a god.'
In Trails to Azure, KeA, who is not a god but the Zero Child, fits that description, and Dieter tried to use KeA to reform the world.

Dictatorship is scary. In this case, there's the issue of whether Dieter can keep making the 'right' choices forever.
Righteousness is subjective, and it can become evil depending on one's position, so dictatorship is not good.

Lloyd provided one answer. I see.

A scene where two forms of righteousness clashed.
What's troubling is that both sides were proposing better methods to each other.
This really made me think.


Anyway, just when I thought it was a story involving politics, the Aions and the Society started showing up, and I was in aWhere is this game heading?!state of mind.

The political stuff was just a small framework, and it seems the Sept-Terrion created by the Goddess are involved in the larger framework outside of that.
I judged that the stories surrounding those are the main focus of the Trails series.

Starting with Dieter, the mastermind kind Ian-sensei, Elie's best friend Mariabell, and the reliable Arios—Trails to Azure was full of good people betraying everyone.
Should I suspect every good person?!
If I had played this during my adolescence, my heart might have become twisted.
Ilya was the only one who remained a genuinely good person the whole time.

However, everyone's principles of action were convincing, so I didn't feel likeThat's a stretchand was able to accept them easily.
The only time I thoughtHey, that's too convenientwas when Zeit came to save Lloyd, but Lloyd himself made a comment likeThat timing is too perfect!so I felt relieved that he spoke for me.


And the thing that surprised me most in the story was theLloyd and the others had already died onceproblem.

Wait, was that the beginning of Zero... No way, it connects here?!

It was a shock. I had completely forgotten, and now that I think about it, what was the meaning of that being at the beginning?
Because it was presented as a dream sequence for Lloyd, I just assumed it was a common introductory trope in games, like in Chrono Cross.

Wow, I got played!!!

It's been a while since a game shocked me like that. Man, this is interesting.

It seems KeA recreated the world. The Zero Child is amazing.
So, why not recreate the world to save Lloyd's brother Guy too? But Lloyd and the others refuse that. That's amazing.

They decided that while it would be happy to have a loved one come back to life, the version of themselves that grew by feeding on the sadness of loss would cease to exist. That's not right, they decided. They're so admirable.
And they can even tell KeA, who recreated the world to save them after they died once, that she cheated.
Let's stop cheating, they say, acting like guardians as always.

KeA confesses that she 'made them have those feelings' because of their guardian-like nature, but they deny it outright.
Even if they were made to have them, they aren't being brainwashed, and the feelings that well up from Lloyd and the others themselves are real. It's about how you perceive it, I guess.

The ending was interesting.
I have various thoughts about it as a game, but in the end, everything was sublimated into something good.
All's well that ends well?

Well, I might as well write down the points that bothered me along the way.

The difficulty in immersing myself in the gameplay

Overall, it was a fun game, but there's a reason why I wasn't completely obsessed with it.

[Not enough battle parts]

I believe that RPGs are all about the battles, so it was tough that there were so few battles in both Zero and Azure.
Dungeon crawling and battling. There was very little of that flow.
There were only requests for exterminating monsters, and as someone who wanted to battle more intensely, I felt sluggish even holding the controller.

[Patrolling the city is monotonous]

And the hidden requests that occur outside of the support requests that arrive on the terminal.
With the desire to collect them, I had to diligently patrol Crossbell city every time the date changed.
I was surprised by the citizen dialogue text that changed every time, but I got tired after running around over and over again...
Towards the end, I was like,I don't care if I miss them anymoreI didn't have the enthusiasm to say, 'I'll collect everything no matter what!' It's a shame.

[It feels like a character-driven game]

Does the Trails series count as a character-driven game?
There were so many events that were just character conversations, and it was tough that the time spent watching was longer than the time spent playing.
It would have been different if it felt more like I was playing a game. It all comes back to the fact that there are few battles.

[Battle]

Although the Burst system has been added since Zero, and the battles have expanded a bit, it still hasn't reached the point of being fun.
Since the Arts you can use change depending on the Quartz you set, thinking about the arrangement is somewhat fun. Also, thanks to the Master Quartz this time, it was easier to arrange, which I was grateful for, but... hmm. Hmm.

Maybe because I was playing on Normal, the small fry enemies were just button mashing. The bosses were also beaten up with Combo Crafts. It was very monotonous.
The ones I struggled with were Arianrhod and the final boss.
However, these were just attacks that would wipe you out if you got hit, so you just had to deal with that, which wasn't very interesting...
I really didn't use Arts attacks at all.
I like the Support Craft system, but you can't read the timing for that either. I can't really say much about it.

Well, I've made my complaints, but despite everything

I love all the characters

As it is a character-driven game, the characters are very well-defined and wonderful.
Lloyd is too much of a natural-born lady-killer, but being loved is a good thing.

To be confessed to by such a beautiful person, it's enough to warp your preferences.
I think Lloyd should just accept everyone regardless of gender.

I've loved Dudley since Zero. Isn't he cute?

The representative cool middle-aged man of Zero and Azure. He's such a reliable superior that I can't stop liking him.

Also, you can't forget this person when talking about cool middle-aged men.

I had my eye on him since Zero, but he's still cool.
I salute Falcom for giving him a highlight scene.

This scene was too cool, so I took a screenshot.
When will the Guy and Arios spin-off be released?

I'm glad that even injured Ilia seems to be able to return to the stage.
I'm also relieved that Rixia seems to be at Arc en Ciel.
Shuri, I'm sorry for being so bad at playing the flute during stage practice.

I like Abbas. He's cool. I want him to support me by my side.
I also like Wazy, who is straightforward toward Wald. I'm also very curious about Wazy's past. It felt like he had a very heavy past...

Summary

I liked the music so much that I find myself humming it at random times.
The music for the final dungeon boss battle intro also made me feel very excited, combined with the presentation.
It was the same with Octopath, but that thing before the boss battle is important.
"Let's do this!"
It makes me feel like that, so it's my favorite.

The music for the daily life parts is also all good. I love Falcom.

Looking at the still images shown during the staff roll, it seems Crossbell is still far from settling down.
This just means I have no choice but to play the next game.

While playing Zero and Azure, my desire to play Trails in the Sky grew stronger, but after much deliberation, I decided to play Trails of Cold Steel instead.
This is because I want to breeze through it before I get tired of the battle system.
(I feel like it would be tough if I got too used to the fun of Sky 1st...)

Once I finish playing all of them, I'm going to play Ys V.