空の軌跡 // Trails in the Sky ⚔ Story Club・Week 47

Week 47 26th May 2025
Last Week Week 46
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Home Thread 空の軌跡

Finish the game.

Side Quests

There is a hidden quest (same as last week) First, find and talk to Olivier in the castle. Then, go to the guild and a quest will be on the board.

Screenshot

Vocabulary

Vocab Sheet , thank you to everyone who has been helping with this.

We also have an arts sheet if you’re struggling with the in-game version.

Please read the guidelines on the first page before adding any words.

Discussion Guidelines

Everybody should feel free to post and ask questions–it’s what makes book clubs fun! But please do not post until you are familiar with Spoiler Courtesy!

Spoiler Courtesy

Please follow these rules to avoid inadvertent ネタバレ. If you’re unsure whether something should have a spoiler tag, err on the side of using one.

  1. Any potential spoiler for the current week’s reading need only be covered by a spoiler tag. Predictions and conjecture made by somebody who has not read ahead still falls into this category.
  2. Any potential spoilers for external sources need to be covered by a spoiler tag and include a label (outside of the spoiler tag) of what might be spoiled. These include but are not limited to: other book club picks, other books, games, movies, anime, etc. I recommend also tagging the severity of the spoiler (for example, I may still look at minor spoilers for something that I don’t intend to read soon).
  3. Any information from later in the book than the current week’s reading (including trigger warnings that haven’t yet manifested) needs to be hidden by spoiler tags and labeled as coming from later sections.
Instructions for Spoiler Tags

Click the cog above the text box and use either the “Hide Details” or “Blur Spoiler” options. The text which says “This text will be hidden” should be replaced with what you are wishing to write. In the case of “Hide Details”, the section in the brackets that is labelled “Summary” can be replaced with whatever you like also (i.e, [details=”Chapter 1, Pg. 1”]).

Hide Details results in the dropdown box like below:

Example

This is an example of the “Hide Details” option.

The “Blur Spoiler” option will simply blur the text it surrounds.

This is an example of the “Blur Spoiler” option.

Posting Advice
  • When asking for help, please mention the page number, and check before posting that your question hasn’t already been asked. As the threads get longer, it becomes more convenient to use the Search function, which is located in the upper right corner of the forum. It is the magnifying glass which is near your profile picture! The best way to search is usually to type part of the sentence you are confused about, and select “in this topic”. This will show you all posts within the current thread which has that string of text.

  • Be sure to join the conversation! It’s fun, and it’s what keeps these book clubs lively! There’s no such thing as a stupid question! We are all learning here, and if the question has crossed your mind, there’s a very good chance it has crossed somebody else’s also! Asking and answering questions is a great learning opportunity for everyone involved, so never hesitate to do so!

If necessary, include an explanation of any discrepancies in the Ebook page numbers from physical page numbers. If there is an easy shortcut for some ebook versions to relate back to physical page numbers, it would be worth it to include it as a third bullet here, or if you want to use chapter page numbers instead of volume page numbers, as is the case with some manga. For example:
Example

For the Kindle version of this manga, the page numbers and the location number are always 3 apart. If you subtract 3 from the location, this will give you the accurate page number!

OR

Please use the chapter page numbers, instead of the volume page numbers. These are located in between the panels!

Discussion Questions

  1. What sentence/passage gave you the most difficulty? Feel free to request some help, or if you figured it out on your own break it down for the rest of us!

  2. What was your favorite new vocab word from this week’s reading?

  3. Was there any passage that you found particularly intriguing? Did it resonate with you (either positively or negatively)? Was it surprising? Offer any insight or new perspective? Was it just beautifully written?

  4. Were you expecting the reveal with the professor?

  5. Opinions on the closing scenes?

  6. What are your expectations for SC?

Participation

Will you be playing along with us this week?

  • I’m playing along
  • I have finished this part
  • I’m still playing the game but I haven’t reached this part yet
  • I’m playing this game after the club has finished
  • I’m no longer playing the game
0 voters

If you’ve already played this game but are still going to join the discussion, please select “I have finished this part.”

Don’t forget to set this thread to Watching in order to stay abreast of discussion!

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:scream: :scream: :scream:

Oh if we’re talking about the nice guy exploring the towers, I remember thinking it strange that I couldn’t find it last week when I toured Grancel but didn’t think it was a big deal.

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Burn

I’ll try to get to it tomorrow or something, excited to be reaching the end finally!

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4.

Now that I think about the hair.

giphy

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Finished in 97 hours. Steam says 50+ hours, though.

Looks like I’ll have to pay again for SC (though I am interested). This one is on Steam too, but without Japanese, and I don’t see remake upcoming to include this. found mod anyway, asking AI.

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Steam versions need the mod for FC, SC, and the 3rd. All others have the option to change text to Japanese built in.

DLsite has low res originals, physical copies can be found secondhand, Evo too.

The First remake is just FC, seems whether or not the others get remade will depend on sales. Though with how unbalanced Evo is in comparison to the original with the burn stuff, there’s no telling how the combat will be affected with this remake.

But yeah they were sold as separate games so you will need to pay to get the next one, sorry if I hadn’t made that clear.

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I took Steam version with mod, finally made audio available for SC, probably no 3rd. It is slightly cheaper than DLsite too (maybe just exchange rate).

SC from Steam detects FC from DLsite as well, so some data from the “first chapter” was taken across.

A slightly annoying thing is controller buttons are set differently from SC. I edit SC with Config to match FC. (Steam seems more sensible.)

Another odd thing is that, the desktop shortcut generated with Steam doesn’t open the game, only installed VC. So I make a shortcut myself, renaming it to be similar to FC (i.e. not an English title).

High res too, but selecting outside 4:3 resolution makes screen tearing. Ended up with 1920x1440.

Another odd thing with the mod, is that everyone except エステル got an English name. Not sure what I did wrong, but DLsite can’t have this bug.

The icon from DLsite has ED6.

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Technically, within the Falcon continuity, Trails in the Sky is 英雄伝説6 (Eiyuu Densetsu 6).

As far as I can tell there’s no real continuity with the other titles in the Legend of Heroes series however, so it’s its own thing.

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They’ve continuity among themselves though, the first two are a pair and III-V are a trilogy.

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Right, frankly it’s pretty confusing. That’s also why a while ago I asked if the various arcs in the Trails series could be played out of order because I thought they may also be independent.

So basically you have:

  • The Dragon Slayer series which contains a whole bunch of games published between 1984 and 1995

  • Within this series, Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes is published in 1989 and Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes II is published in 1992

  • Then Legend of Heroes becomes its own thing (and drops Dragon Slayer from the title) and you have The Legend of Heroes III in 1994 which, in English, is called The Legend of Heroes II: Prophecy of the Moonlight Witch (which is therefore a different game from Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes II)

  • This game is the first entry in a new “Gagharv” sub-serie, which contains Legend of Heroes III, IV and V using the Japanese numbering. In English the title of those 3 games are respectively “The Legend of Heroes II: Prophecy of the Moonlight Witch”, “The Legend of Heroes: A Tear of Vermillion” and “The Legend of Heroes III: Song of the Ocean”.

  • Then finally in 2004 we have The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky which is the sixth Legend of Heroes game (according to Japanese numbering) and the first entry of the Trails sub-series of The Legend of Heroes, itself a spin-off of the now-defunct Dragon Slayer franchise.

Also I really like the look of of these PC-98 games:

The dithering and spritework are delightful. I mean look at this:

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Got audio mod working for SC (another reddit thread, I shouldn’t link), but I disabled it. Too buggy.

Names for everyone not in the party are in English, and also labels on the mini-map are in English for some reasons. For the mini-map particularly, it’s not very readable.

The said mini-map

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I’m done!

A couple CGs you all might not get

Quite an ending

What a cliffhanger, huh? I figured the professor’s tower machines he went around to would become relevant at some point in the series (and I still think that) but never suspected him. His whole thing is controlling people, huh? I mean I’ve seen sillier in these kinds of games so I don’t really mind. Joshua’s backstory is very shonen or something, but the characters sell this stuff well – voice acting in the final scene with him and Estelle is incredible so I don’t mind at all. I want to go chase him! I was fine to wait a few months but after seeing the ending it’s harder :sweat_smile: (that said don’t take this too seriously, get the break you need heh).

Thanks for the club for this game, and thanks everyone who joined and talked about it! I came around to really liking this game a lot. I honestly don’t enjoy the combat all that much – not sure how much my version is impacting things, but it’s like a fun skeleton of combat but on top of that it’s kinda regularly causing me issues. Really random SUPER impactful status effects (things are just too lethal for them to last 3-5 turns like they do), fights where only arts and S-crafts really do anything, times where as a consequence of that you walk in and blow stuff up before it can move or are in for a slog, on and on. I don’t HATE it outside a couple fights but I think the details are not tuned to make it a part of the game I look forward to, and dungeon design is meh too.

But on backloggd I ended up landing on 4.5/5 anyway cause I’m not thinking about games as a little formula or what’s good and bad. What I really need is some area to be excellent and work for me, and the rest of the game provided enough to keep me going and loving it when I wasn’t on fire. It’s got that big traveling adventure feeling down perfectly, cross the world, take in the sights, meet interesting people and solve regional problems along the way. Done well, it’s so chill and pleasant to me, and this game absolutely nails it imo. Granted, I had my expectations calibrated well by hearing how much people say this is kind of an intro setting up the larger plot, but I liked the small scale stuff. Great music, great characters, always something new coming up.

In the future games I really hope to see the combat grow to be more interesting (probably not going to see big changes til after this initial trilogy I assume?), and for them to work on dungeon and encounter designs. But really just let me hang out with Olivier again and it doesn’t matter if they don’t bother.

On a personal note, this is the 37th game/VN I’ve completed in Japanese! It’s kinda awkward combining them, but they’re both on backloggd so I made a list to track: 'Games I Played in Japanese' a list of games by Daisoujou | Backloggd

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Even in its original version I share your opinion. The combat system reminded me of the materia system from FFVII, the sphere grid and turn system of X and the “garment grid” from X-2 but less interesting and fun than any of them despite being developed later.

There’s a general lack of depth and only the illusion of choice because some skills and spells are just blatantly OP compared to the rest.

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Agreed, I think it’s clever how much they baked into one system with the orbments, but they didn’t quite get to shine. It’s also a system that is, to me, kind of a significant amount of management for a game where the party members are giving me constant separation anxiety. Unlock someone’s spaces, then place according to their unique layout considering both the individual effects and the formulas you need to consult for the arts you’re going to unlock… then that person vanishes and someone new needs you to go through that again.

I was engaging actively with it early on but after a point I admittedly started moving closer to just looking for big numbers in a couple colors and seeing if that appeared to work well enough. Joshua and Estelle ended up getting big priority for me since I knew they’d be around, but when you have whoever in your team the devs clearly intend for them to be an equivalent part of the group, for however long you see them. I will readily admit that this sort of eventual laziness could be part of why I had issues with fights, too :sweat_smile:

But anyway my main point is, if it was up to me, there’s nothing wrong with a game where people cycle in and out so semi-permanently, but I’d prefer growth systems and resources that are more just individual to that character so that the player feels more at ease devoting what they have into that person. I didn’t want to work out cool combos of orbments on someone the minute before they left when I could put it on Estelle instead.

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the ending

Joshua promised he will reveal what happened before he met dad. And that was before prof snapped his finger, right? So, doesn’t it mean he could always remember?

Anyway,



I only noticed well yesterday that the face can rotate. (Similarly, prof, and it’s look cooler, eventually villianish.)

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I just finished, too. 47 weeks!! Congrats to everybody for sticking it through to the end. It really feels like we went on a long trip around a fictional world. That cliffhanger makes me want to push onto the next chapter already, but I can be patient :slight_smile:

Finale

The professor was a surprise. I’d thought before that red eyes were usually a villain trait and there was a vague creepy feeling from Alba’s occasional open side eye portrait, but didn’t attribute much to it since he’s so friendly and bumbling otherwise. I remember we were joking ages ago that he must be a secret badass to climb those monster filled towers by himself, turns out he really is.

And so the writers had one more big brainwashing twist to lay on us. I enjoyed Joshua’s confession (in a sad way!) and learning part of where he came from finally. There are definitely some holes in the story, so I guess we’ll be exploring more of that next game. I was thinking though, uh, so he just had that sleep stuff ready to go in his mouth the whole time?

My expectations for SC: seems like we’re going to be chasing Joshua around and finding out more of this shadowy ウロボロス organization. If I read correctly there are 7 major members, their respective groups, and 1 overall leader, but we couldn’t be meeting and fighting all eight of those surely? Knowing that the series is as long as it is and that FC took its sweet time building up to the reveal for this one guy, I expect the lot of them are major antagonists for several games rather than just the next two. Maybe the narrative will speed up and surprise me, though.

Mechanically I’m not expecting a whole lot of changes. Except for fishing. Gotta catch ‘em all :fishing_pole:

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Joshua's speech

My impression was that Joshua knew most of his past already, but the professor erased specific memories like 1) the prof’s identity, 2) his special powers, and 3) the secret messages. Possibly other things, but we don’t know exactly what yet.

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Thank you all for reading with me! I don’t think I’d’ve been able to keep at it on my own. I’ve enjoyed reading what you all think about the game.

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Joshua's speech

As he continued to learn skills and S-crafts, he probably recalled most of that :thinking:

Actually I restarted a little. Joshua remembered what he was trying to do when he was brought to Bright’s house (as a present). But Estelle didn’t listen and started jumping on him. As long as he didn’t forget more during the 5 years.

(But prof could have been sneaking around the house to make him forget. Who knows. Risky though, considering Cassius.)

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130h completion time. I noticed that I can reload the save I made at the end of the game and start a New Game + with all my stats and gear intact. Those sewer monsters were not ready for White Gehena.

空の軌跡FC

I knew that Joshua was an assassin because of a careless spoiler in the home thread before we even started, so that wasn’t much of a twist. Him deciding to leave Estelle at the end I did not expect though, I was bracing for a romantic finale… which it kind of was but it’s more interesting this way.

I didn’t really get how Joshua figured out that the scientist was involved in the plot besides “you were always around when stuff was happening”. Basically 20 other characters fit that description, including Croze, Agathe, Olivier(!), kitsune少佐, Nial and more? Did I miss something? That seems to come completely out of left field. Didn’t we randomly save him once by bumping into him in one of these towers? I suppose he faked his weakness but what was the point of that? It is a big twist but overall also a bit of a dumb one.

Overall the game was very enjoyable but I always feel like I’m being a downer when it comes to plot discussion. The story was fine but in a fairly generic way? I still find this whole “mysterious figure doing mysterious thing for mysterious purposes” thing a bit tiring and not super engaging. Wow so the scientist was the baddie all along? And he ties into Joshua too for some reason? And what does he want? Play two or three more games and you should maybe figure it out.

When I think about it, the JRPGs I like the most are those that involve a lot of travel, the feeling of adventure… This game effectively does that with the bracer tour thing, but it didn’t completely satisfy me because the various locations were too similar overall. Rolent, Ruan, Bose and Grancel are not that different in terms of general feel. Zeiss was a bit more unique with the industrial theme.

I think my favourite part of the game (onsen notwithstanding) was the Ruan chapter. The orphanage fire, the dock hoodlums, the suspiciously nice mayor, the queen’s nephew causing trouble, the school shenanigans, the mystery surounding Croze… I liked that there were some comprehensible, short-term stakes and a fulfilling arc that didn’t just end up with “oooh, mysterious things mysteriously happening oooooh” (well, except for the brain washing stuff which I still find to be a very lazy plot device).

All criticisms aside I’m looking forward to playing the 2nd game, I’m really curious to see how the story will pick up from here and also how they’re going to (hopefully) improve the combat system or at the very least balance it a bit better.

I also hope we’ll get a really satisfying conclusion at the end of the trilogy and not just more threads that tie into the overall franchise.

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