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| It shouldn't be any surprise that the Liberl police department is more progressive than that of contemporary America |
By now it’s clear that Trails in the Sky was a bit ahead of
its time in terms of world design - NPCs casually move towns of their own free
will, the world has a past that characters constantly reference, the political
structure of each town and overarching kingdom are on display, etc. So, I wasn’t
too surprised to see that there were various forms of literature littered
throughout the game that contribute to creating Trails’ organic world. For the
most part the reading within Trails falls under three catagories: There’s The
Liberl News, which is the weekly newspaper that Nial writes for. Carnelia a novel broken up into ten
parts (if my gamer senses are to be trusted), and lastly other books which characters
will specifically refer to during the main story.
At the moment, I have the first six chapters of Carnelia, six editions of the Liberl News, and a book about the “truth” of the Hundred Days
War. Since I’m guessing this is about half of the in-game literature (based on
my being a little over half-way through the game) I figured that now would be a
good time to examine how the literature of Liberl is shaping up thus far. I won’t
be talking about the book however, since the theory it proposes isn’t relevant
to anything yet.
The Liberl News
Each entry in the Liberl News is around eight in-game pages
(two-and a-half real world novel pages) long and – much like a real newspaper –
goes over local and nation spanning events. Since the news is written from the
perspective of the reporters who carry their own political opinions, main
articles typically end up slanted in favor of the governments various law
enforcement agencies. This, of course, lines up with the in-game
characterization of Nial who is a huge fan of Colonel Richard and
his
department. |
| I'm 73% certain that Dorothy is actually a lich as only black magic could've gotten these impossible camera angles. |
Main articles aside, the news also mentions smaller local
events that coincidentally seem to always be relevant to wherever the bracers
are at that point in time. Since the bracers always enter a new area just as a
news-worthy event is breaking, this doesn’t necessarily cheapen the “authenticity”
of the paper itself. But, seeing all of the smaller in-game touchstones back to
back emphasized how most of the action in the world seems to follow the
bracers. It’s all a little too coincidental
for my tastes, but perhaps the newspapers’ local news is only written for each
location where it’s sold. Possibly. Either way, I appreciate that I can view an
alternative perspective of the story’s events within the game itself, instead
of having to scour online forums.
Carnelia
In this novel, a young man works as a courier for an
unsavory older man in Grancel. Because of the young man’s less than legal line
of work he supposedly goes by many names, but for the sake of the narrative we
refer to him as Toby. While riding a train during a seemingly standard delivery
job, Toby meets a young sister named Carnelia whom he gains a bit of an
affinity for. However, before the novel can adopt any romantic undertones, just
as Toby is leaving the train, Carnelia restrains him and flings him into a band
of thugs who were waiting in ambush. She then drags him to his feet, and runs
with him to the nearest lodge. There she explains that Toby is being pursued by
a ruthless mercenary company named the Jaeger Corps because of the package he’s
carrying. That same day, bracers enter the lodge and interrogate Toby. During
the interrogation, they explain that they are looking for Carnelia who is an
ex-Jaeger Corps member and wanted fugitive. They also take a look at what he’s
carrying, but can’t quite figure out what the strange object is. The next
morning, Carnelia is nowhere to be found, but Toby and the bracers are ambushed
by another trio of Jaeger corps members, one of which Toby flings out the lodge’s
second floor window with an air based orbal art.
Annnnnnnnd that’s as far as I’ve gotten thus far. I’m
finding the story surprisingly enjoyable, at least as a side-venture from the
main game. It too remains consistent with the game’s attitude towards female
characters – that significant actors should be wholly competent – without
weakening anyone else to compensate. It also provides some insight into how the
technology of Trails in the Sky affects
the everyday lives of NPCs and even emphasizes that the people of both Liberl
and Erebonia bear no personal ill-will towards each other – further deepening
the mystery of the Hundred Days War’s origins. However, the novel has some
issues with exposition.
Due to the spatial limitations of each chapter, the writers
have a very small amount of word real estate that they can allot for
exposition. Unfortunately, while they do occasionally paint very concise word
pictures of the environments, more often than not they don’t quite seem to know
what to include. For instance, while on the train ride, the authors describe the
mechanical process of the train stopping for about two sentences. While this was
a good way to say “the train stopped” while simultaneously explaining how one bit
of orbal technology works, the exposition is far too lengthy relative to the
story’s content and could have achieved a similar result in far fewer words.
What’s worse is that this description is offered almost verbatim twice, cheapening its value and further
eating into the word budget.
That niggle aside, the story is engaging enough to hold my
interest, at least and absolutely is absolutely worth collecting as the game
goes on for its sake alone (though there is some physical compensation for
doing so, if you have a grudge against books).
Now, I sort of guessed that the in-game writing would at
least help flesh out the world in little ways, like explaining how some of the
in-game technology works or filling players in on the goings on of other towns
outside of the bracers’ reach. But, what I did not expect was for the in-game writing to actually heighten the drama
of the plot by introducing actors and items before
they appear within the narrative.
Prior to the giant airship ending the daring boat chase in
chapter 2, the Liberl news actually introduced the ship – called the Arseille
BTW – all the way back in chapter 1, and explained its capabilities. If I had
actually been reading the newspaper all this time instead of assuming Nial
was terrible at his job, I would have been even more impressed by its
arrival, and definitely would not
have referred to it as a potential deus ex machina in the previous post.
 |
| Boy, Nial even interviewed the dragon guy? That's some damn fine reporting, good sir. |
Additionally, the Jaeger Corps was also mentioned in the
newspaper just prior to meeting the black-clad men in chapter 1, and was
brought up again in Carnelia just prior to interacting with them in chapter 2. I’m (naturally) assuming that the mysterious
assailants are actually Jaeger Corps members, but that’s what’s fascinating:
had I not read the in-game literature, I wouldn’t have even heard of Jaeger or been capable of
drawing connections between them and the black-clad men. So, the moral of the
story is crack open a book and read!
And to foreshadow the beginning of Act 3, here's a brief introduction to our next party member's family.
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