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The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky Second Chapter (2006)

Duration: 3:48:03

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Originally recorded: September 2, 2022
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You know, I actually looked it up today after this recording: turns out "Aureole" is pronounced similarly to "oriole", like the bird. Oh well, too late now. And it's not like I haven't been mispronouncing a whole bunch of other stuff in these playthroughs, I'm sure. I'll just try to correct myself if it comes up again later on. Just figured I'd get out in front of it, if I manage to remember that for the rest of SC.

I think I got as far as I wanted to this time -- at least as far as I can tell. I'd already assumed that I'd gotten through the vast majority of Chapter 7 last time. On that front, I was definitely right on the money. I wasn't, however, expecting Renne to have such a... bleak backstory. Hoo boy. If she also ends up being an Erebonian native like Joshua and Loewe, that will single-handedly double the amount of work Falcom and XSEED would have to do to make the country likeable 3 games from now. I'm just saying. And while the two-phase boss fight did end on a slight bummer with the typical "you win but not in story" finish, what I know of the series' future all but confirms that this isn't the last I've seen of any of the Enforcers. And that's definitely got me excited.

Chapter 8, on the other hand, seems to be shaping up to be one last grand tour of Liberl. And in that sense, I'm almost hesitant to continue. As much as I've been told that the various other nations on the Zemurian continent are superior settings in every conceivable way, I've grown attached to each of the five provinces of Liberl. Saying goodbye to all of them from the perspective of Estelle and Joshua is almost bittersweet in that sense. And having to travel throughout the entire country on foot again feels weirdly nostalgic -- considering I only played FC a few months ago. I ended up getting through Bose and think I've gotten through the bulk of Ruan this time around.

So I'm liking my odds of finishing up Chapter 8 in the next recording. Then it's just the finale left. Fortunately, I've got Monday (Labor Day) off, so I intend on pulling the same trick I did with AAI2 and am aiming to wrap up the game in two sessions recorded at different times on the same day. Hopefully, that will end up being enough. Because if I manage that, even with my hiatus, that means I could end up *starting* The 3rd before Trails From Zero's [official] Western release. An absolute morale booster, as far as I'm concerned... especially since October's going to be pretty sparse in terms of extra BtLO recording opportunities.

Having said that, I was definitely caught off-guard by the Zero Field mention in-game. There's a reason for that, and I'd rather not get into it. I don't really like discussing current events in these recordings, because it immediately dates them. I did consider discussing the matter briefly during the record, because I've been looking for Trails-related topics to use as a template for more banter... but I decided it just felt inappropriate. Needless to say, I felt like I got sucker-punched when I finally understood that reference! All I'll say on the subject here is that I'm clearly only on the second game in the Trails series and the implications for games that are WAAAAAAAAAY down the line aren't really something I have any standing to comment on. Having said that, I intend to opine on the whole matter in a much more suitable avenue in the near future. But not here and not now.

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