Trails to Azure is Why I Love JRPGs

[@garrettsweet9826]

Under appreciated 'feature' - showing the name of the current OST track in the top left. Would love to see that come back

[@Ianbits]

Especially helpful because the soundtrack is so damn good

[@garrettsweet9826]

@Ianbits I needed it bad in Reverie. The track for the [redacted] bosses at the end of each [redacted] that has the middle eastern strings instrumentation makes recurding appearances at my dnd table. The trouble I had finding that fucking thing.

[@IC-23]

-TESL rolls around in it's grave...- Something I'd like to mention is when you mentioned about the game having a slow start, it feels a lot of modern games forget a slow start to get you invested in the well being of a region, sure they can make your character care but often they rush through actually getting to know a place so fast we as the player don't really have a real reason to care about a region outside of main cast calling it home rather than us ourselves being invested in said place. I'll just list HSR as one offender, obviously your video had a few spoilers but never having heard of trails it sounds really interesting and I'll definitely make a point to play it.

[@Ianbits]

RIP TESL :(

[@shiina4826]

running through the trails series now from fc all the way through daybreak (just started CS2) and i'm still thinking about azure the most out of all of them, its just something incredibly special and the payoff in these games in general is awesome

[@Brassrain0su]

i think enough time has passed to where i forgot about most of the first trails' three chapters story and i can replay it anew and do all the quests that are chapter locked this time can you help me figure out how to beat procrastination and start conquering backlog so that i can realize that plan

[@spencerbowler7287]

I’m still here from when you played TESL; you can cover whatever games you want, I just like listening to you talk lmao

[@mikeroe7943]

Do you have an opinion on the recent Trails of Cold Steel - Northern War anime? I sat myself through two episodes before giving up, just because I remembered you talked this world up a lot so I thought I'd give it a shot. It really didn't feel like they put their best foot forward, but maybe it was amazing for someone who played all the games? Personally I think it would have repelled me from ever looking at the games.

[@Ianbits]

Weirdly considering my game choices I don't really watch anime

[@mikeroe7943]

I'd say you spared yourself this time, so no real worry. I think I'd just be concerned I missed any big lore reveal, if this world has such an interconnected plot.

[@sjstronghold9238]

Sky the 3rd is still my favourite game in it but I adore this series in generale (including the weaker CS games) and consider the Crossbelle duology to be the strongest arc.

[@Ianbits]

Same. I didn't expect to like Sky the 3rd but that shit really got to me, it's when the series really started coming into its own imo.

[@zenithdragon]

"i promise im not a weeb" I don't believe you. I played through maybe half of Trails in the Sky Part 1 and I keep meaning to go back and finish it but just haven't. I really enjoyed what I played though. Here is a jrpg series I recommend. Dragon Quest Monsters. Great spinoff series. DQM1 and 2 are monster taming rpg games from the GBC era and they are pretty easily emulated if you can't play it any other way. There is also DQM Joker 1 and 2 on the DS. I liked Joker 1 a lot but didn't care much for 2. Also they are finally releasing another entry into the series on the Switch, Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince (DQM3 in Japan). I am still salty that Square Enix hates their fans outside of Japan and that they had released 3 other monsters games (DQM Joker 3 and remakes of the first two games) that never got localized since the last game we got stateside (DQM Joker 2 in 2011). Being a fan of Dragon Quest outside of Japan sucks. Also, make a 2 hour "History of TESL" video you coward.

[@Ianbits]

I thought about it since I saw the dark prince announcement, might give it a go. I've never really gotten into Dragon Quest in the past, I've tried DQ11 like 3 times but couldn't do it And dawg I can barely get the motivation to edit 10 minute videos I'd fuckin die

[@zenithdragon]

The Dark Prince also has a demo on switch so you can try it out ahead of time. Pretty substantial for a demo. Only downside is that it isn't optimized great so I noticed stutters and dropped frames sometimes. Not as bad as Pokemon Scarlet and Violet though. I have also seen complaints about the graphics but I'm not really a stickler for graphics so I didn't mind. The Dark Prince also ties in with DQ4 since it is based on an antagonist from that game which is pretty cool as someone who played that one. DQ11 is pretty good but probably not one of the best to get into with the series since it has some more complexity with crafting and the early game isn't that fun imo. 8 is probably the most friendly to people not used to the series and 5 is probably tied with 8 as my favorite. @@Ianbits

[@Ianbits]

Weirdly I felt DQ11 didn't have ENOUGH complexity, battles felt pretty auto win. I remember playing DQ8 on PS2 and didn't get into it but I don't remember why, I had to share my PS2 with my sister so it was tough to get into long RPGs then. Giving Dark Prince a DL now!

[@Ianbits]

​@@zenithdragonoh and also sky fc is probably the worst game in the series but it only gets better from there. SC, Sky 3rd, Zero and Azure are just banger after banger

[@zenithdragon]

I think with turn based rpgs in the style that dragon quest goes for, the gameplay itself is fairly simple and you can't do much about it. You could try some of the draconian quest modifiers in DQ11 since those can be pretty challenging when combined with eachother like no buying from shops, stronger enemies, no xp from easy fights, no armor, etc. They can kinda force you to adapt your strategy based on the fight a bit more. I think the bosses in particular get more interesting when you have to go in underleveled or undergeared. @@Ianbits

[@Schwidds]

Is this Ianbits the JRPG guy?

[@Ianbits]

i swear i play other games