I can’t believe its over... I’ve finally finished the trails in the sky trilogy. I wish I haven’t actually finished it because now it hits me that the adventures with all of them are actually over. I know that some of them will be returning like Tita and Agate in Cold Steel but... its just not the same. The graphics, even though inferior to modern games, is one of the reason its not going to be the same anymore... to me it is charming and I will sorely miss it.

The god-like soundtrack resonates with me and fortunately I don’t need to say my farewells to it as it is available to listen to outside the game and believe me I’ll be listening to it for a good while after this. One of the osts that stuck with me recently was the final dungeon ost. It fits the final dungeon feel, it feels invigorating and made me hum along with the rhythm involuntarily.

The characters Falcom has established and their personalities they have painstakingly built have shined especially Bright-ly (heh heh) here. This is because they took the already well defined characters from before and now delved into their backstories even further using the door system. While its a bit off-putting at first because its optional and feels disconnected to the main story, its worth the time investment to these optional lore and backstory. And yes this is one of the weakness of this game, if it has any in the first place, that is players usually skipping these doors and rushing the main story which leads them to miss tons of character development and not to mention some new characters as well.

About that last dungeon, I like how they forced the player to use all 16 available characters to finish the final dungeon leading to the players leveling up all the characters even the ones they rarely used. So by the end of the dungeon all the characters have almost the same level (Lvl. 140, +-1 level) and this ties in to past dialogues rather nicely. Past dialogues implied that everyone was helping each other and previously that wasn't apparent in terms of helping in battles but now they’re actually contributing.

And yes I know, I know what you're saying, its a hassle to level up everyone right? Yeah that's what I thought in the beginning as well. However, even though its a tad annoying to level up all of them, thanks to the 9999 exp for really under-leveled characters, it didn’t take that long to grind them all up and that was actually enjoyable mostly because I get to listen to the ost for hours on end lol. So yeah, the grinding didn’t overstay its welcome.

Localization is superb, it feels as though this game was made in English first and Japanese second. Well there are some typos like typing “if” instead of “or” but its not often, its easily missed by, and doesn’t really affect my immersion that much.

Kinda unrelated to the game itself but after hearing that Brittany’s name, the localization producer for this game, was removed from Cold Steel 1 earlier this month I’m relieved to see her name and the other localization team members still in the credits. Honestly, it was a ♥♥♥♥ move by xseed removing her name in cold steel just because she’s no longer with the company. The localization was done before she left the company ffs.

All in all, a masterpiece of a series with a slow start in the beginning of FC, tension and resolution in SC, and polishes to the story with the 3rd.

To all involved in making this thank you from the bottom of my heart for this amazing experience, I will remember the Whereabouts of Light even after a sarcastic talking treasure chest challenges me to a Sophisticated Fight and Gehenna inevitably consumes me. May Aidios bless you.