Game:

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd (2007)

Category:

Vlog

Duration: 3:33:15

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Originally recorded: October 28, 2022
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Well, suffice it to say, this was the best filler stream I could've hoped for. I did everything I wanted to before setting off to start the game's -- and by extension, the trilogy's -- finale. I completed all of the side content I wanted to do in this playthrough and I even managed to bring all of the party members I'd neglected up to the standard I'll need if I have to end up using everybody in the endgame. Truth be told, I've got a gut feeling that just may end up happening.

Honestly, I think the hardest part of the final Sun Door was making sure I had all of the Quartzes necessary to unlock the door itself. Honestly, everything about the trivia game was great: the title screen, the still-mysterious Campanella serving as the host, even the questions themselves. I'm proud of myself for not having to resort to that cheat sheet I found... though admittedly, I did have to try multiple times on the two hardest difficulties. At the very least, I'd say that it was worth it for another achievement in the books. Even if I'm not going for all of them, it's one less thing to worry about if I ever decide to go back to the Sky games for completion's sake.

Honestly, there were times during this recording where I wasn't sure that I'd actually be able to get through all of the remaining side content I planned on doing this time around. I think most of that stemmed from the fact that I figured most of the remaining Door events were going to be relatively the same length as one another. The fact that the first Star Door I did was the longest one of this batch by a wide margin is probably what worried me.

Having said that, the supplementary material hidden behind each of the doors was interesting... if not a bit eclectic. Olivier's sidestory in Star Door #8 may have been longer than I expected, but it was never boring. Admittedly, seeing Chancellor Osborne for the first time did get me a little more interested in getting through the entire Cold Steel tetralogy -- a task that was already daunted which admittedly looks less and less appealing the more I hear about those games. Getting to see ex-Colonel Richard and Kanone in their civvies was a pretty nice bonus as well. Not sure how I feel about actually getting to see Renne's tragic backstory play out to a greater extent than SC implied. I think what shocks me about that one is that... well, it almost feels like they went a bit harder than Ultra Despair Girls did when referencing the same kind of abuse.Granted, Sky the 3rd wasn't rated by the ESRB... but UDG was an M-rated game, so that was kind of shocking. The background information on things like Pater-Mater, Bleublanc's true identity and Cassius's top secret mission that took him out of Liberl at the start of FC were all pretty interesting too. But I think the part that got me the most excited was Star Door #14... and the implications it had for the greater Trails series. Seeing a secret meeting between the Anguis and the Grandmaster of Ouroboros definitely gave me a boost of motivation to catch up with the games as quickly as possible.

I think my favorite part of the Abyss is just how easy it made power-levelling all of my underutilized party members. Seriously, I ended up finishing this session a half-hour earlier than I expected. Of course, I'm sure some people would be disappointed that I didn't end up fighting all four of the Abyss fiends, but honestly, the criteria for getting the fourth and final one just seems like too much of a hassle. Trivia questions are one thing, but having to traverse the entire length of the Abyss while beating the first three fiends in one go just feels like a boring concept. Maybe I should've tried doing that when I was trying to find the final Star Door in the first place, but it's too late for that now. It'll just have to wait for a future completionist run, I'm afraid.

I'm sure it'll be decided by the time my intended audience actually watches these videos, but I am seriously considering just writing journals throughout the remainder of my journey through the Trails series. As much work as recording my playthroughs for all three games was, I do enjoy documenting my progress in some form. And while I'm sure reading about my reflections on my progress throughout each game probably won't be as fun as actually watching me play through the games themselves -- and listening to me shoddily voice enough characters to staff an small battalion -- keeping track of my progress through the rest of the series sounds like it could be fun. I'll just need to nail down the format: right now I'm debating on just doing a separate journal for each game... but would grouping them together by arc be better? Well, I've got until next year to figure it out.

Fun fact: I actually came up with the episode title for all the "filler" episodes before recording them. Creepy how well this one fits, right?

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