Trails in the Sky: Second Chapter Review (PC)
[Contains FC spoilers]
“Takes its’ sweet time.” That statement would describe the Trails in the Sky games perfectly; from the conversations that run on for several dozen minutes to the incredible localisation effort that must have consumed years of the lives of those committed to it. Everything about this series demands a slow, deliberate crawl over the dozens of intersecting character ties and attention paid to the various interests at play. At its best this series captivates the player with the promise of capitalising on these details and at its worst it frustrates the player by flashing the promise of something more but not delivering (at least not……………………yet). Second Chapter at its best and worst is both of these; the slow pacing of the narrative of the first game was not that important then because the game was constantly showing you new characters, new locations, illuminating chains of command and fealties; introducing you to an attractive stage laid in preparation for the main event. Now that main event is here in the form of Second Chapter but those who were expecting the game to hit the ground running after the dramatic conclusion of First Chapter are going to be hearing the narrative equivalent of ‘breaks being slammed’ when they realise that once again the game wants to take a leisurely stroll through its world all without the common decency to introduce us to much in the way of anything new. It is no exaggeration to say that the game takes almost 25 hours to get going, but whereas before the game was building intrigue and anticipation in the player, here the emotions the game places on the player, that is to say Estelle’s burning determination to find Joshua, stands at odds with the pacing during the first third of the game which is seemingly indifferent to her cause; and not in a way that depicts a fascinating conflict of interest for the protagonist (at least not for long). That is probably the biggest count against Second Chapter.
The trawl through the beginning of the game will seem very familiar.
There is however some very interesting characterisation during the first third of the game, that although doesn’t quite make up for the slow pacing, certainly helps alleviate it. Estelle, distraught without the dependable Joshua (the steady rock of their duo) is left having to continue her duties as a Bracer. Forcing Estelle to focus on the needs of others more in immediate need of help than her could have worked against her development as a character by effectively distancing the focal point of the narrative away from her. This has been masterfully avoided. Through her various quests Estelle, having to examine herself now that Joshua is no longer there to pick up the slack, is able to truly understand her abilities and her limits, and the player gets valuable insight into how Estelle thinks when she isn’t just being bright and spunky. During the formative hours of the game Estelle meets up with a variety of characters from the first game, most of which help her (and us) reaffirm her character in light of the changes to her circumstances. The most impressive bit is that there is no one clear point during which Estelle matures. There is no hokey revelatory moment or alignment of fate, and yet the progression of her maturity doesn’t sneak up on you from nowhere either. It is handled at once subtly and believably. It also helps a bit that the game takes this time to introduce the antagonists of the game and their ties to each of the supporting party members; this time around your companions have their own vested interests outside of professional obligation and the game later uses this to create some interesting character drama between them.
I mentioned above that SC takes its time. The game clocks in around 80 hours (if you stop for most of the side-quests) and can be broken down into 3 major parts:
The first of those parts is the formative beginning hours mentioned above (0-25hrs). During this section you are introduced to the new Orbment system which allows you to level up Orbment slots to equip higher calibre Quartz and gain access to more powerful Orbal Arts. In addition there is a co-op attack where you can chain together attacks from each of the party members and unleash them in a single turn; the later in a chain the party member is the larger their bonus to attack, and the harsher the CP requirements to participate. Neither of these are game changers; this is very much an accent on the FCs battle system rather than an outright evolution.
The new co-op attack mechanic in action.
Just as with FC this game is tough. Well, the first half is. This is especially true of the boss fights for the first 4 chapters of the game which play out like puzzles; a battle against a boss that will viciously attack you if you get to close but conversely reflexively deal massive damage if you get to far becomes a tense battle wherein you jostle to maintain the optimal position to stay out of the dreaded ‘death-zones’.
As in FC, SC also employs an EXP scaling system which applies an EXP multiplier to lower level characters to allow them to catch up quickly. This is very useful because it eliminates the need to dedicate time to grinding but also avoids the pitfall of automated levelling of non-active party members, where the cathartic experience of seeing your characters get stronger is stripped away. And you will probably see characters level up a lot as unlike FC which lent you out a new character per chapter, here you have access to a large party almost at all times; someone has to stay on the bench. You can fight every enemy you see and keep your characters levels topped-up, or do as I did and run past 70% of the enemies, picking select (but difficult) fights with relatively high pay-offs of exp to compensate for having fallen behind in levelling up. To its credit the game doesn’t force you to play it either way. This isn’t a game where seeing enemies on the field is entirely for decoration and you have to grind your way through them anyway.
During the second part of the game (25-55hrs) the plot thickens, character backstories come thick and fast and generally a lot just happens. It is during this part of the game that the difficulty starts to dampen. The build-up to the 5th chapter boss is let down by a boss fight that allows you to be surprisingly sloppy and get away with being ill-prepared (for reference, the PC version only has one difficulty setting: normal). What’s more is this is the start of a trend for many sub-bosses, chest monster mobs and full bosses from that point onwards in the game. With a few exceptions after that point a majority of the boss fights start to feel like routine encounters with damage sponges.
Finally there is the closing section of the game which is spread over multiple chapters. Clocking in at 20+ hours (55-80hrs) the ‘end-game’ here is deceptively long and by the end begins to wear-out some of the goodwill engendered by the epic plot twists that suggest the ending is just around the corner. These chapters offer an interesting insight into what Liberl is like, and how its people deal with extreme conditions. In addition the politics of the world that were hinted at start coming into play. This section of the game is perhaps the weakest in terms of design; each time you think you are near the end you will have another dungeon (and another boss fight) put between you and your destination. In the end you even end up fighting most of the major antagonists twice. There are some late game character and mechanics inclusions (as well as a torrent of increasingly powerful equipment) that help keep things interesting but you can’t help get the feeling that the game should have ended sooner than it did.
The presentation of the game uses the same conservative look as the original game but as before it compensates with almost non-existent loads times and a sharp, distinct, colourful look. There are also a few more anime type sequences in the game that are used to depict some of the more epic segments that couldn’t have been done in-engine. You will mostly be walking around familiar locales from FC and hearing the same music you’ve heard before. It’s as pretty looking and sounding as it has ever been. The one exception to this is the new battle music which simply isn’t very good. It takes the smooth, chilled aspects of FC’s music and strips out the building sense of pace that made it feel like battle music (albeit really smooth battle music). Have a listen for yourself:
You are going to here this music a lot so it is a shame it is such a mood killer.
All in all Second Chapter takes its sweet time to get going and it takes it sweet time to conclusively come any kind of end. It does so to its’ detriment but it does at least offer some interesting game mechanics and characterisation to prove to us that it wasn’t just wasting time all the while. It does however come up a little short trying to explain what it was doing with some of the time that wasn’t filled with much of anything. The difficulty is generally on the sweet side of hard but later gives way to routine humdrum that is counter-balanced somewhat (though not entirely) through the introduction of new skills, abilities and equipment. But the important thing is that, even though some of its’ plot threads are left “for next time” this particular chapter feels resolute; a new beginning that the characters can set off on with renewed vigor rather than a steep fall down a sheer cliff in the middle of the road.
Score: 8/10
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