Discover Top Posts Tagged with #not smash

I learned two things last night

1. How to fix a jammed house water filter

2. How to get fucking soaked by a jammed house water filter

Back with my Zelda shit but man I've been having so much fun with sequence breaking Majora's Mask--I've managed to get all three transformation masks, four bottles, and nine heart containers without beating any dungeons.

But anyways I'm about to start my fully armed assault on the dungeons live at twitch.tv/mathphuzz! Come see whether the early dungeons are super trivial with the hookshot!

#not smash #again #i'll post more smash content soon i promise #zelda #legend of zelda #majora's mask #loz #the legend of zelda #streaming #gaming #twitch

2018 Game of the Year Countdown!

#1- The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC (& FC) Sony PSP, Steam Created by: Falcom (2007, 2004) Localized by: XSeed (2015, 2011)

The top spot goes to technically a pair of games (FC and SC stand for first and second chapter) because they’re really a single story arc. And what a story it was. I first discovered Trails in the Sky when I went looking for good RPGs for the PSP, and every single list I found had FC on it. I figured it had to be good, even when I hadn’t ever heard of it before. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into, but I’m so glad I did.

Trails in the Sky is the beginning of Falcom’s Kiseki series, which is a series of games extremely heavy on extensive world building, deep plots, and lots of characters that come alive through the storytelling. It’s also huge. As of right now, nine games exist, of which only five have official English releases. But these games have plots that are so completely interwoven that it’s hard to fully enjoy without beginning with Trails in the Sky and going through in order. That might sound like a daunting task, but I’ve found myself wishing there were even more games in the series. The world is just so deep and interesting, with so many great characters and locations that I want to learn about. Even NPC allies that only show up a couple of times are so compelling and fun that I found myself trying to find out everything about them.

A YouTuber recently created a fantastic summary video of the world of Kiseki, which you can check out here. It’s long, but so is the Kiseki series.

Trails in the Sky stars the best-written protagonist in video games. Estelle Bright shows so much growth that she is not even close to the same character by the time the three Trails in the Sky games are over. But the best part: it’s all natural. It’s never forced, and there are never any out-of-character events that push the growth in an irregular way. She is genuine, stands up for what is right, is fiercely loyal to her friends, and, having experienced loss multiple times, she fights to show others that they’re not alone and that people care for them. And, she does all of this in the face of her own shortcomings and flaws, many of which are laid bare in front of everyone.

I can’t say it better than this person did, so here are some Tweets on the matter:

The other characters are also all great. They each have their turn in the spotlight, although some try to steal it at every opportunity (looking at YOU, Olivier). And they all feel human. Their motivations are things we can relate to and their problems are things that grab hold of our hearts. From not fitting in, to running away from problems instead of facing them, and being afraid to accept love after a lifetime of pain; the game addresses all of these. If you made me pick my favorites, Estelle is definitely #1, but I’d fill out my party of four with Kloe, Joshua, and Father Kevin.

Gameplay is fairly simple and straightforward as far as RPGs go. Battles have a turn order, HP, their version of mana and magic, etc. Nothing surprising there. I do like how they each have their own unique special moves that can interrupt the enemy’s turn, but Trails in the Sky was originally published in 2004, so there isn’t anything too earth-shattering. It does offer a challenge in most boss battles, and there is a difficulty called “Nightmare” if you’re sadistic. The orbment (magic) system, however, is very customizable. So while certain characters definitely lean toward certain roles, you can basically make anyone do anything, especially Estelle. My favorite gameplay aspect from most RPGs comes down to what I can do with the magic casters, so the fact I had so much customization at my fingertips was thrilling and I loved the battles almost as much as Estelle does:

As I said earlier, the world building is immense and the storytelling is exquisite. I can’t even do it justice to summarize how the writers created a vast, profound history for this game. All I can say is that it’s immersive and addicting. Even seemingly unimportant NPCs will have full histories all their own that play out when you talk to them multiple times after different events.

Now, without giving too much away, FC ends on a massive cliff-hanger; which is where I want to talk about the music. I’ve said it before: music is one of the most important things to me when it comes to games. And Trails in the Sky nails it. As the final scene of FC plays out and the ending credits begin, when you realize what just happened and you see the images that hint at what’s to come in SC, the music perfectly plays to your emotions. I watched it all with my jaw hanging and tears welling up in my eyes (I’m not kidding!). Even when I listen to the song right now, it makes me feel all those emotions again. And that’s on top of solid overworld and city music, and wonderful battle tunes. Every track is really good. My favorites are The Whereabouts of Light from the end credits, Infiltration, Fight with the Assailant, and a neat remix of one of the battle tunes that sounds like it’s straight out of Mario Kart 8.

All I can say is play these games. They’re wonderful classic-style JRPGs and they’re constantly on sale on Steam or PSN if you’ve got a PSP or Vita. FC is a great game in its own right, but SC builds on it so much and there is truly no gap between them so it’s seamless and they feel like just one game. The small, growing community of fans of this series sings its praises loudly, and people are continually discovering it. I’m currently on my second playthrough of SC, and I’ve played FC three times just this year. One of those was the (unlocalized) remastered version for Vita…which I only have in Chinese. And I don’t know any Chinese, despite rooming with four Chinese girls when I studied abroad. I’m just a huge Kiseki weeb now, I guess, and I felt like I needed to play it.

I never played a Kiseki game before 2018, and now it’s my favorite game series of all time. I’ll quote the YouTuber I mentioned earlier, who says, “In the first nine entries in this series, Falcom has created the deepest and most fleshed-out universe I have ever experienced in fiction...Truly, no one in video games anywhere is attempting what Falcom is with this series.” And that pretty much sums up why I love it so much. Trails is an RPG game for RPG fans and if that sounds like you...you really need to pick it up.

I could talk about any of the games in the Kiseki series for hours, so don’t hesitate to drop something into my inbox!! If you’d like to read another long description of why the Trails series is phenomenal, you can find that here.