This week’s stopping point is after you’ve seen the next title chapter. To be clear, there’s the end chapter screen with the save point at the end of this chapter, and then a title screen for the title of next chapter. The second one.
Side Quests and Missable Content
No new quests.
If you weren’t previously aware, the battlefield camera should be rotatable.
Vocab Sheet, thank you to everyone who helps with this.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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This is an example of the “Blur Spoiler” option.
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Example
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Discussion Questions
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!
What was your favorite new vocab word from this week’s reading?
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?
Opinions of the dragon conversation?
What did you think of the grave scene?
What are your expectations for this chapter?
Participation
Will you be playing along with us this week?
I’m playing along
I have finished this part
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If you’ve already played this game but are still going to join the discussion, please select “I have finished this part.”
Party Members Poll
アガット
アネラス
エステル
オリビエ
クローゼ
ケビン
シェラザード
ジン
ティータ
ユリア
ヨシュア
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They’re cute, I still like Josette. Shame we see so little of the pirates; I thought we might get more with Joshua joining them.
I find the fog valley a little annoying to go through but once the week got going, the dungeon leading to the dragon wasn’t bad. At least all the popping in and out of the caves gave navigation some flavor. New ones made for this game feel like at least a bit of a step up in design. The dragon itself was quite easy; I was bracing for the fight to be way more mean.
I’m not surprised that the game is showing us Leonhardt isn’t all bad. I guess that makes at least 2 sort of redeemable villains now (the other one I’m counting being the literal child of course), but it might be more or less all of them to some degree considering they’re, like, Schera’s sister and whatnot.
So Joshua is making a more direct attack on the 結社, whatever exactly it is he’s up to. Besides causing problems for women everywhere he goes. He’s like a budding Cassius the way everyone around him is starting to fall in love with him.
Anyway given the chapter title and Joshua splitting off on his own mission I have a feeling maybe it’s time we finally run into him this chapter?
I feel like freeing the mythical dragon destroying entire towns from its mind control when the entire military failed its operation is maybe worth moving up a bracer rank from the bottom, but what do I know.
I’m bringing Kloe and Olivier of course. Realized I don’t know what to do with a free 4th slot finally. Ended up deciding to bring Agate because he’s not very orbment focused, making him not setup heavy and rounding out a few members that are more arts inclined. I guess that would be a reason to bring Jin also but he’s pretty underleveled from zero use and also he’s Jin.
I wrote a page-long essay about how much I hated this chapter but then decided that it was too negative and deleted it. Genuinely the low point of both games so far for me.
I hate to say it but I feel the same way about this chapter, so I’ll be negative for you. It didn’t help that both the dragon and airship scenes were very buggy in my version. I had to fight the dragon twice because the game got stuck in an unprogressable state at the end of the fight
But yeah, this chapter had a lot of big things happen and yet little of it seemed to move the plot forward. The dragon was cool looking but ended up being just another mildly helpful NPC. We got only a little new info about Levie while he played evil therapist. There was a lot of General Morgan who talked a big game but was mostly useless. I didn’t like the graveyard scene. The game’s always been a little bit on the saccharine side, but between the friendly dragon who somehow didn’t kill anybody and how respectful we and Morgan were to Levie, I was really feeling it this week.
At least Agate and Tita got some character development.
On the positive side, the bit with Joshua and the pirates was an interesting sequence to bring us into Chapter 6. It seems like we’re getting the lake equivalent of a beach episode?? Unexpected but I’m here for it.
p.s. thanks for the tip about the rotating battle camera. I needed it
I was probably not AS bothered as you all but I am starting to feel like even when things happen this game feels like eternally running in place. Somehow more is happening than in FC but all the same I didn’t feel like we were totally spinning our wheels there. Just the benefit of everything being newer, maybe? When I saw we’re heading into sidequest week I couldn’t help thinking, yeah, usually is.
Still beats Xenogears for me; I couldn’t do that one anymore
That’s probably part of what’s bothering me about chapter 5. I was hopeful we were finally ready to move on to the meat of the plot but we continue to be introduced to NPCs and gospel functions one at a time.
I absolutely think the newness of everything in FC helped make its similar formula work better. A whole new region to explore and a new character to strategize with every chapter went a long way in keeping each one fresh, even if it didn’t always push the main plot forward much.
Aww too bad, but understandable. There are good reasons why it’s a cult classic and not a regular classic
Yeah you hit on a lot of the same points I had in my unpublished rant. The issue that I have first and foremost is that this game seems allergic to having consequences. Nobody dies, nobody is ever really hurt. It wasn’t bothering me back when we were doing apprentice bracer things in FC, but now if you’re going to involve an ancient dragon attack and full army mobilization, it’s just grotesque.
Having shadow the edgelord just pop up in the village he attacked a week ago to have some edgelord discussion with the protagonists is also something that would seem dumb even in a low-grade combat shonen.
Also the dragon has the answers… but won’t tell us, because apparently we’re not allowed to have any modicum of character motivation for our antagonists almost 2 full games into the series. They’re testing stuff. OK.
The dragon mentioning knowing Cassius (he’s S-rank) was just the cherry on the shitcake. Why. Why do we need this.
Okay. Please share complaints, I have no way of knowing if you don’t! That said these complaints are not something I can fix. So! I am not apologising.
Thank you for sticking around even though this is a low point for you.
I do still think things will get better, so please stick it out until the end of the game? To be honest hearing the specific complaints, (vagueness) I think if you want to drop it then you drop it at the end of this one. There are darker moments to come, but these things aren’t going away. Some of these are complaints I have about later games, but for me it’s at an acceptable level in this one. If it’s already not fun for you, you don’t have to put yourself through more. I think that’s as best as I can explain without getting into specific spoilers.
This chapter was “the gang fines a dragon for property damage”. That’s basically it. Nothing really changes in the status quo, nothing new is learned. Agathe and Tita’s arc is the only interesting development, but it would presumably have happened anyway.
If anything a darker tone seems like it would be an improvement, what I disliked about this chapter is how discombobulated it all felt. First of all the sentient, millennia-old dragon immediately felt out of place for me. The universe of Trails so far didn’t strike me as high fantasy, so it’s a bit as if suddenly we had a civilization of dwarves appeared, it’s a bit jarring. Especially since this game also introduced mechas which already require some suspension of disbelief.
Then, ignoring the overall plot of the games, just focusing on this chapter, it’s just very weirdly written IMO. You have this dragon appear and be shown to be basically impervious to damage (taking artillery fire at point blank range and shrugging it off). It literally takes a large scale military operation involving multiple squads of warship to temporarily neutralize him. As I mentioned then, I never expected that we would face him in normal combat in his full form. And yet, we do. Apparently Croze’s puny sword thrusts hit harder than a military canon.
I think there would have been way better ways to handle that. For instance in Demon’s Souls there’s the Dragon God boss, who is supposed to be an insanely powerful creature. The only time you face him directly, he unavoidably one-hit kills you. The only way to defeat him is indirectly, using environmental hazards and sneaking past him the rest of the time so that he won’t end you on the spot.
Kalameet in Dark Souls is the same: in his full form he’s almost impossible to defeat but you can recruit an NPC to severely damage him and reduce his moveset, making the fight possible (although still arguably the hardest boss in the game).
And then when all is said and done the dragon tells you “yeah I know what’s going on but I can’t tell you, it’s a secret teehee” “oh by the way I know your dad, he’s a badass. Anyway see you in a while where we’ll get some plot, maybe”.
White-haired guy showing up in the cemetery with flowers and having a casual chat with the gang was so ridiculous that I don’t even want to talk about it.
I really hope we’ll get some actual plot now that we seem to be reaching the end of the game and Joshua is getting involved again. Bring on the darkness and messed up stuff, I say.
Oh no, I’m complaining a lot here but I’m not planning to drop the game at all! There are lots of things I am enjoying about SC and I’m invested in seeing the outcome. Like I’ve made fun of Estelle and Joshua a bit but I’m also rooting for them to beat the bad guys and have a happy ending.
There was so much build-up for this confrontation between dragon, bracers, and army but the outcome was so… neutral. I just needed to vent a little. Maybe it would’ve made me less grumpy if it was a smaller scale conflict with someone from Agate’s past, like previous chapters.
For what it’s worth, I’m enjoying the games a lot and enjoy discussing it (both positive and negative aspects) with our little group, and that’s all possible thanks to you!
Similarly, maybe that’s less directed at me but I’m doing fine with playing the game on the whole, don’t think I’m at any risk of needing to stop or anything. I’m thinking I might not continue the series as long as I once thought I would, but that’s always being re-evaluated. Sorry I know it’s kind of a bummer to be hosting a club for a game you like and just get a bunch of complaints; that’s why at a point I was following Xenogears without really commenting on the threads. You’re doing a really great job for us with the club over such a long term, I appreciate it. And I mean there’s a lot I could complain about but I fundamentally like SC more than I dislike it, we’re talking a fall to a 3/5 or something at worst probably depending on how the future goes.
Yeah I just like to complain too, I still intend to finish at least this game and probably the next one. I got used to the very slow boil by now and I made peace with it, this chapter annoyed be because on top of it all it’s quite silly. The previous chapters managed to have an interesting mystery, not just HEY LOOK, A DRAGON!
I’m looking forward to getting some closure with Joshua, although I’m also a bit worried that the game will refuse to give it to me once again, only kicking the ball further down the road.
