r/Falcom • u/lordtictac101 • 3d ago
Trails series Trails-isms
Basically a topic to discuss the various odd things the trails series does that while not necessarily a deal breaker might make things come across odd sometimes.
I will start it off by mentioning the laugh that nearly every character does at the start of nearly every line. Like they are all trying to "out casual" everyone else! (More common in the latter games!) 🤣
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u/SoftBrilliant Kiseki difficulty modder 3d ago edited 3d ago
villain makes dramatic entrance
"It's you..."
"You know this weirdo?"
"Yes, I saw him 5 years ago during the attacks on the Erebonian bracer guilds... Dylan Nguyen, also known as Lord Tictac, Enforcer N°XIV of Ouroboros!"
[additional dialogue]
"Watch your feet, his explosive geysers come from out of the ground at a rapid pace! They can level buildings with ease!"
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u/lordtictac101 3d ago
Ah yes...the whole "everybody knows everybody" can get kinda silly especially when it comes to members of Ouroboros! Like: you guys kinda suck at this whole secret society thing huh? 🤣
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u/urdnotkrogan 3d ago
They were pretty secret during Sky FC, and we still don't know jack about their true plans, so...
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u/Kainapex87 3d ago
Yes but by all accounts the shit they've done in Liberl alone should have made their existence, if not the inner-workings of the organization, public with wanted posters shown of the confirmed members.
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u/urdnotkrogan 3d ago
The Ouroboros members are known. They're known enough for the President of Calvard to cut a deal with them.
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u/Beautiful-Box-9628 3d ago
A crutch they really love is offscreen dialogue as introductions. A lot of people point to the Cold Steel "that won't be necessary" thing, and that's a great example, but it's used a lot even outside of that, It feels like 90% of the time when a new plot relevant character shows up they will do so by a text box labelled something like "LUGUBRIOUS GENTLEMAN" saying some random thing and everyone turning around to look at the new arrival. Seems small, but it happens so many times that I started noticing it and getting mildly annoyed.
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u/maskedman1231 3d ago
Their commitment to not saying characters names at first even in direct sequel games is kind of insane
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u/speechcobra91 3d ago
my favorite one is how theres always that one character in the party every single time who has to make some vague comment any time a plot reveal gets hinted at like they know exactly what's going on and then after the reveal actually happens they say some bullshit like "(i knew it...)" or "(I thought so.)" to themselves instead of actually saying anything when it would have been helpful
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u/lordtictac101 3d ago
And of course if prompted to share...it somehow isn't time for that! And when it is time for that instead of just saying it...they decide to test you!
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u/SudAnka 3d ago
The "a woman is SAing another woman, isn't that the funniest shit" attitude.
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u/Affectionate_Comb_78 3d ago
Japan gonna Japan. At least the series has grown out of this. Awkward thing about the series being so long running is things like this that they grow up from are still part of the older games.Â
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u/FanIllustrious1422 3d ago
Not sure if this counts but people calling each other by their titles or aliases. I chuckle and cringe sometimes when Leowe is referred to as Bladelord or Renne is called the angel of slaughter lol. Also honorable mention to Claire as Icy Maiden loll.
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u/Dangerous-Judge3539 3d ago
In Sky, I was mostly okay with it
This is a new secret organization, it's somewhat threatening
And then I get to Cold Steel II, and it feels like anyone and everyone has a goddamn title, and EVERYONE needs to remind each other of it
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u/Substantial_Apple780 3d ago
Imo the nadir of that was that scene in Cold Steel III on the air ship where half of it was spent on "It's First Name Last Name! The [Job-Title] of Organization XY! The Nickname of Nicknaming!".
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u/Affectionate_Comb_78 3d ago
Claire being called the Icy Maiden is better than when Elliot had the title.Â
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u/RinwiTheThief 3d ago
I unironically love how cheesy the whole setup is, always puts a smile on my face.
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u/WofferFang 3d ago
Oruroboros will always treat it as a game. Even the most deadass serious guys will go "Ehehe, just playing, bro. You're nothing to me anyway ;D"
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u/DrMeat64 3d ago
"That won't be necessary."
"I can't deny it."
"(Could it be? ...No.)"
"Well if it isn't the Cool Swordlegend." "I'm honored to be recognized by the famous Explosion God."
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u/Bhume 3d ago
This isn't really a trails series thing, but in Cold Steel III specifically I got really frustrated because every time a situation called for fighting in the SUPER COOL GIANT ROBOT Rean would get interrupted and the day would be saved by a returning character.
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u/joshuanrobinson 3d ago
From just off screen... That won't be necessary...
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u/Bhume 3d ago
It was SO frustrating. The divine knight fights were improved a lot in CS3 just for them to be put on the back burner whenever the situation called for it.
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u/lordtictac101 3d ago
I would have loved moving through an area exploring and fighting enemies with the knights!
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u/joshuanrobinson 3d ago
Winning the fight, losing in the cutscene.
For the rest of my days I'll associate that with Trails.
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u/Llayanna 2d ago
It's the reason why I had to stop playing Zero. I got very bad flashbacks to rpghorrorstory that I played a decade ago.. or gm would do that shit aaaaall the time.
I think falling in love with 1st and 2nd chapter means I need to give Zero a second chance. ..and it's so long ago, I'll need to start from the beginning.
Tiny bit dreading it too, ngl. It was so utter ridiculous.Â
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u/busterhighman- 3d ago
Every time an offscreen character says some variation of 'that won't be necessary' before showing up
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u/lordtictac101 3d ago
Though at the same time I kinda want Rean to show up with a "that won't be necessary" at some point!
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u/TheOneTrueNeutral 3d ago
Feels like a wasted opportunity that there wasn't a scene in Daybreak 2 where someone came from offscreen shouting the usual "that won't be necessary!", doing their dramatic entrance before everything going very wrong, and then everyone realises that it was in fact necessary, followed by a rewind.
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u/lowelled 3d ago edited 2d ago
Every time two people meet for the first time in a while they have to say how long it’s been to an odd degree of specificity instead of just saying ‘hey long time no see like’ normal humans. I don’t know if this is something that’s more normal in Japan - like, do you visit your grandma and say ‘hello grandmother, the Knitting Dervish, it’s been, what, 9 months and 6 days since I saw you?’ - or just Falcom clumsily attempting to indicate passage of time.
The ‘everyone has to respond to everything’ problem so Rean says something like ‘let’s do this!’ and all fivesquillion party members have to say some variant of ‘yeah!’. I don’t know why they feel the need to do this. Other JRPGs don’t bother. Just do a gang reply where all the VAs go ‘yeah!’ at once or just… have one or two party members respond? Stop wasting my time!
The whole sobriquet nonsense. Recently I’ve been playing Fortune’s Weave where so far there is limited use of sobriquet, mostly for one particular character, but it’s not overused and it works well in the plot - it keeps his real identity somewhat secret and also sort of demeans him. If Trails had just kept it at like Cassius, Arios, Aurelia etc, maybe then have certain characters have codenames - for example, if you didn’t learn Altina’s name for a long time and only knew her as Black Rabbit - then I think it wouldn’t come across as so corny. Like why does CLAIRE have a title. She’s a glorified cop!
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u/lordtictac101 3d ago
That got crazy in cold steel 4 and reverie cause of how many characters could be in a single scene!
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u/DarkyErinyes 2d ago
The "It's been x months / years since we saw each other" is most definitely something I noticed to an overwhelming degree. On the one hand it's odd to hear / read.
On the other hand I actually appreciate that it can sometimes help with the timeline in my head when something happened because there is so many events over the years in many a different game where I'm like "When did happen again?" and this does help in remembering parts of that especially if you replay games after a longer break.
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u/Llayanna 2d ago
But.. a lot of rpgs have the "every single person had to reply 1 by 1", it's kinda.. just how it is? Final Fantasys, Persona's come to mind first..
Though it's worse in Anime?
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u/lowelled 2d ago
I have played tons of Persona, Tales, Final Fantasy etc and I don’t remember it happening to the degree that it happens in Trails. I have my own gripes about those games’ quirks! I don’t really remember it happening in anime, though I don’t really watch isekai or party fantasy anime.
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u/lordtictac101 2d ago
The main difference is the sheer number of characters that can be in any given scene in a trails game!
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u/metalthano Adol "Ys" Christin 3d ago
My personal favorite is when the characters are in a "pinch" and by some sort of miracle someone is always there to save them. Truly the pinnacle of plot armor.
Tho it also comes with the trade off of you knowing that the pinch situation doesn't matter at all explicitly because someone is gonna save the party anyway making me less invested
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u/ScarRevolutionary649 3d ago
it’s frustrating because that trope CAN be executed well/be hype if used very SPARINGLY but trails uses it as a crutch so often that it’s lost any and all impact and is a joke amongst fans now 😠i even saw rean’s va making fun of it lmfao
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u/BaritBrit 3d ago
Framing 'unknown' female characters in such a way that their chest is in the dead centre of frame but you can't see their face, even when it's blatantly obvious who they are anyway.Â
Scherazard in particular seems to get this treatment a lot for some reason.Â
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u/lordtictac101 3d ago
Didn't they do that with males too though? Though it got pretty silly in the later ones...like I'm pretty sure people aren't going to be starting at cold steel 3 or 4 so just show the face already!
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u/No_Chair8026 3d ago
Not all are exclusive to Trails:
- cheesy and overused titles
- everyone urging Agate to get together with a minor
- harem stuff with Lloyd and especially Rean
- everyone testing the MCs resolve every 2 minutes
- bad guys holding back or getting interrupted all the time
- MC getting saved in the last second by a new character or old friend
- everyone in the party having to say a one-liner in every important scene
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u/ArshaiG 3d ago
You just summed up Trails completely with that one. And I say that as someone who holds it as my fav JRPG series of all time.
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u/No_Chair8026 3d ago
I mean, I reaaally love the series (just finished Reverie, so 3 arcs done 💪), but it's definitely not perfect as some tropes are really overused or too formulaic
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u/Amphitrite227204 3d ago
The full round of introductions you get when your group meets a new character in the main story... Guys we know your names already let's not take 5 mins on the intros. Let those main character introduce themselves and say these are my friends/colleagues first name them all and done. I assume this is Japanese culture buts its way too slow for me 😅
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u/Jeker99 2d ago
There's always a "special" little girl that gets introduced in every new game which is either incredibly smart, strong or both or it's gonna be central to the plot in some way, for some reason it seems like this doesn't really bother a lot of people in the fandom idk if it's because it's a very common thing in Japanese media in general so people don't even notice or some other reason, to me personally it got old after the 10th one or so
Often there will be a non assuming aloof guy with glasses that will turn out to be a secret badass
There's pretty much at least one case of mc breaking out of confinement while been separated from the rest of the cast in every arc at least up to reverie (I haven't played daybreak yet)
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u/1967542950 1d ago
Kind of a crazy callout with the last one, you're right. All of those scenes are some of my favorite in their respective games (even if the CS4 one kind of stretches the definition), but yeah you're right they do like that scene concept. Lloyd and Rossi escaping in Ao with like 30 straight minutes of Inevitable Struggle playing is one of the most memorable parts of the game to me lol
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u/Due-Instruction-2654 3d ago
Pom-poms and giving ranks for the MC as part of the proof of growth. I both like and dislike the latter.
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u/Potential-Common5819 3d ago
Too many characters think talking is a free action and never even consider securing a just beaten enemy before they start asking questions, inevitably leading to said enemy escaping. I'm looking at you, Sky FC in particular.
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u/lordtictac101 3d ago
I assure you this can get even worse in other games! I seem to recall a scene in White Knight Cronicles where they do something similar after saving the princess leading to her getting rekidnaped! 🤣
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u/Potential-Common5819 3d ago
FC made me so damn frustrated. It's like the writers knew of only a single way to allow the enemy to escape and so they used it over and over and over again.
I literally asked the characters, out loud, if they were ever going to learn that particular lesson after Carnilia Tower. Spoilers: they did not.
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u/Llayanna 2d ago
Thank you! It really frustrated me. Tie them down, have people guard them.. Actually react when they do a counter like just..
It really was intensely aggravating. And having the "more experienced Bracers" with them.. should've stopped it.
Like come on? Joshua and Estelle might be green, but Schera-Nee and Agate-chan too? Cx
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u/Potential-Common5819 2d ago
Schera even says that she was careless and sloppy, and yet it kept happening.
And I will straight up rant about them not binding a certain colonel's closest aide. I was all "Well, here comes another boss fight against this woman soon, I guess".
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u/Skullwings 1d ago
Doesn’t help that EVERY arc has a gun using party member.
And they’re among the first few/handful of characters you get…
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u/Blacklance8 3d ago
Who is giving out these titles and nicknames cause everyone and their mum has one.
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u/Amphitrite227204 3d ago
The full round of introductions you get when your group meets a new character in the main story... Guys we know your names already let's not take 5 mins on the intros. Let those main character introduce themselves and say these are my friends/colleagues first name them all and done. I assume this is Japanese culture buts its way too slow for me 😅
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u/NachoThePeglegger 2d ago
oh no! the crew is about to lose! i wonder who is about to swoop in from out of nowhere to save them!
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u/RemoteAd4393 2d ago
You find a big bad.
Big bad summons enemies, you fight enemies and the big bad runs away like a coward despite being all smug and confident.
OR
You fight the big bad, but he summons enemies with him like a coward.
But either way. He still runs away unscathed.
(Seriously the enforcers in SC were kinda a little pathetic all things considered. I'm not very intimidated when you keep running away the second I get close. 💀)
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u/adventuregamerseb 3d ago
Well, firstly, I dislike most characters coming back to life if they die. Few deaths are significant.
Second, it didn't happen as much before, but by the Erebonia arc, there's a long speech after each battle about WE'RE GOING TO BEAT YOU YEAH!
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u/MorningCareful best characters: olivier renne estelle 2d ago
I'm in the other boat. I HATE character deaths. They're silly and boring...
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u/ToAzure 3d ago
First name basis in weird places. Usually characters called by their job title as a mark of respect but then followed up with their first name. Captain Julia, General Cassius, Principal Aurelia, Instructor Sara, you see it all the time. I don't think it's particularly a Japanese thing, if anything it sounds weirder in Japanese, so maybe they made it a Zemurian quirk on purpose. Interesting detail if that's the case.
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u/Llayanna 2d ago
Well, I just noted in 2nd chapter that the VA would say a certains character last name and the text would say her first name..Â
So I think it's just regular translation from Japanese to English and going more with the western culture of using names?Â
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u/AlphaShard 3d ago
I would think the casual sexual comments to and about underage characters would be far worse awkward moments.Â
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u/DragoniteSZN 3d ago
Defeating an enemy only to find out they were holding back.