Trails in the Sky #4 - Talking Like A Crazy Person

RECAP: Estelle Was All Out of Bubblegum

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Estelle, Joshua, and Scherezard sprint straight to Mistwald. After navigating the complex forest maze they manage to locate and sneak up on the assailants. The group hides in a nearby bush and overhears the thieves’ conversation. Upon doing so, they learn that Josette did in fact steal the septium and one of her counterparts sabotaged the Malga Mine. Unable to keep her cool, Estelle leaps into the fray and beats the Capua Family (Josette’s team) to a pulp (with Joshua and Schera’s help of course). With the group defeated, Estelle and co. recover the septium, but just as Schera begins interrogating Josette, an airship piloted by Josette’s brother Kyle, swoops in and escapes with Josette’s team. The Capua Family are thus assumed to be sky pirates. Mission accomplished: the group returns to town.

As the group reports to Aina, she receives a dire phone call (yes, there are wired phones in this world) that Cassius’ entire ship disappeared and hasn’t been spotted since.

[Prologue END]

Chapter 1: Disappearance of the Linde

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Cut to the Bright residence. Estelle appears to be shaken. Joshua and Schera start preparing for a hard future. In actuality, Estelle packed and prepared for a journey to find Cassius. Scherezard and Joshua are both amazed by her fortitude, but agree to help. In the morning, Estelle and Joshua take a visit to Rolent’s Clock Tower before setting out. On top of the Clock Tower, Estelle tells Joshua that the Clock Tower is where her mother was killed during the Hundred Days War when Rolent was bombarded by the Erebonian Empire. She died defending Estelle from the falling debris, and Estelle now associates the rebuilt tower with her mother’s strength. Joshua tries to comfort Estelle, but she rejects and heckles him, viewing his compassion as a ploy to woo her.

The two descend the tower, rendezvous with Schera, then determine that their first course of action is to travel the route Cassius’ flight took on foot, as all flights to and from Rolent are closed. The group take a moment to say their goodbyes to the people of Rolent (picking up a minor errand from Father Divine in the process), then set out for Bose. As the group enters the Verte checkpoint between Rolent and Bose, they are warned by the guards to exercise discretion when investigating Bose, but are not told why. They decide to table the issue and continue their lengthy journey across the roadside. Along the way, they run into Grant, a fellow Bracer from the Bose branch who advises the group to visit Lugran and also warns against investigating too conspicuously.

Joshua Bright: circumventing exposition limitations since 2002

Eventually, after fighting numerous monsters, the group arrives in the bustling trade city of Bose. They explore the shops and find Dorothy though she is too enrapt with the merchandise to notice, then complete Father Divine’s errand, simultaneously learning that the priest is also a famous medicine man. And with their Rolent duties officially complete, the group heads over to the Bose Guild Branch.

There they meet Lugran, overseer of the branch, who finally sheds some light on all of the secrecy by telling Estelle and co. that the Bose army has set restrictions on public information, and that their leader, General Morgan, hates bracers for jurisdictional reasons. This loathing has also led the army to restrict Bracer movement preventing them from completing many of the local work. Estelle does not like General Morgan. Lugran, also informs the team that the mayor is still interested in offering missions to the Bracers and wants them to conduct an investigation of the missing airship separate from the army. Estelle and Joshua thus transfer their guild status and begin their investigation by collecting more information from the mayor.

Curious Cases

Prologue evaluation time! I can finally understand why people claimed that the prologue was a bit slow. Not much relevant to the main plot actually happened. Or rather, the prologue both set up and resolved a number of plot threads (Estelle and Joshua’s bracer test, mine cave in, septium ore theft) making them appear inconsequential in the grander scheme of the those that remained (for now). However, it also left a fair few open for the rest of the game to unravel: The Capua family, The Linde’s disappearance, The device on Esmeldas Tower, Joshua, The News Press – actually, scratch that last one. I’ll bet that the “scoop of the century” is the Linde’s disappearance.

Hooray! Exploration  explicitly built into the story!

With that said, there was an illusion of non-linearity throughout the prologue conferred by the numerous sidequests with character relevance, freedom to wander about your immediate surroundings, and nature of the main quest chain (complete three specific quests, the order doesn’t matter, but is chosen by the characters), that coupled with the extremely responsive nature of NPC dialogue created the appearance of an organic world, especially by classic RPG standards. The lack of plot urgency also conferred the freedom to explore one’s surroundings and dialogue, while the constrained availability of locations ensure that the player never loses sight of the plot itself.

Now, you might have noticed that the above description sounds awfully similar to The Legend of Zelda games. However, in no way is this an endorsement of that god-awful franchise. Unlike in Zelda progress in the game isn’t a hurdle in and of itself; one is told exactly how to move the plot forward, and are instead given reasons in the form of sidequests and quartz NOT to progress as quickly as possible. This dynamic thus incurs the feeling that all time spent is valuable (as something is always gained) as opposed to in Zelda where all time not spent advancing the plot or acquiring collectibles is wasted. In short, the gameplay structure was absolutely brilliant.

In terms of gameplay, I finished the prologue slightly overpowered with Joshua and Estelle both unlocking their third slot (which I’ll explain more in-depth when I have more quartz to fool around with) putting them in the same tier as Schera. It’s also worth noting that while I completed all of the side quests in the prologue, I was still only one level higher than the average level I gleaned from a Gamefaqs guide. So, the game’s leveling system seems to have a means of self-balancing, perhaps to circumvent the need to implement difficulty options; diminishing returns and what-not.

I guess she's still working on her evil laugh

Anyway, I guess I should talk about the reveals and climaxes, or something. While the chapter-ending reveal that Cassius would disappear in some way was pretty clear to me at the start of the prologue, I was genuinely surprised that the entire ship would vanish Bermuda Triangle style. At the very least, it creates a mystery larger than the protagonist, which is a pleasant change of pace from the typical RPG calls to action (dead family member(s)/friend(s)/village, chosen one, etc.). In contrast, Josette’s reveal wasn’t nearly as surprising and was actually a bit cheesy, like it came out of Radiata Stories. I enjoyed it, regardless, as it reminded me of the delightful bluntness exhibited by Falcom’s Ys games, but it has somewhat lowered my expectations of how dark the plot might become in the future. I’m guessing that this is also going to tie into the title somehow, what with the Capua family also taking to the skies and leaving a plot thread hanging.

I must admit, it’s a bit odd to talk about a game that is still in progress, without knowing how all of the pieces fit together. Although, it is telling that I am actually somewhat reluctant to continue the game because of how spectacular the Prologue was. However, the game must go on, and my curiosity has been piqued in more ways than one. I didn’t open any treasure chests during this session, so here’s one of the runner-ups from the last time.

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