Trails games are just from the alternate dimension in which everyone still made the exact kinds of game they made in the mid-90s, but with bigger budgets
Trails games are just from the alternate dimension in which everyone still made the exact kinds of game they made in the mid-90s, but with bigger budgets
Hey I didn't say that was bad, I am a Video Game Boomer so I love mid-90s games
That's so bizarre, because I did not get that impression from them. The high school rom-com anime tropey archetype shenanigans ruined it for me, and I never felt like anyone was very well fleshed out beyond a stereotype. And I have enough trouble tolerating games littered with stereotypes, it's a whole other bag of problems with teenage high school stuff. I tire of both, and when put together it is almost impossible for me to enjoy. Persona games are one of the only exceptions and I still won't hesitate to rag on them for that. I didn't really get any 90s, Xenogears, or Suikoden vibes from Cold Steel. Though Sky was definitely a 90s throwback with more writing. I can't honestly say it's better writing, but certainly more of it. I wish the combat and pacing were better so it wasn't such a slog. I put about 20 hours into both series and couldn't get over the hang-ups
I would not say Xenogears, really. That is kind of a different animal. But it is sure a lot like Breath of Fire games, or Lufia games, or Final Fantasy games of that era, or Suikoden games.
And yeah a lot of the characters are very trope-y. But, uh, so are a lot of 90s JRPG characters...
Well to elaborate a bit at least, it's not exactly "like" it but I do think it takes inspiration from it. Your mileage may vary but I at least don't think it's *entirely* a coincidence that our protagonist is an amnesiac orphan that occasionally goes berserk and ends up piloting a kind of legendary mech. Also this is going into Saga now but the dynamic between the Noble Alliance, Enforcers, Reinford (Alisa) and Osborne also kiiinda has vibes of the Ormus, Testaments, Vector (Shion) and Yuriev dynamics. It does a fairly good job not making its inspirations dominate it much though I think, it is very much its own thing.
The Suikoden side is more straightforward though, Kiseki/Trails in itself being a series where every (major) entry takes place in a different country with its own political structures and trifles, with some characters and plot threads intersecting. Cold Steel in particular also having you gather up allies from around the world and bringing them into your base of operations. It's not "the same" of course but I think you can get what I'm getting at I hope.
2 decades ago? It should be more than a hundred hours gameplay?
Now? A few hours and endless DLCs that will cost ya. Just look at FF XV when it was first released.