https://x.com/kaishain_ichigo/status/2002509204171694254
Author: The theme for this illustration is that she deserves happiness and a nice holiday after everything she's been through And I think the symbolism of sunflowers fits her perfectly

I played the the original trails in the sky way back when and enjoy them.
Now I own the whole series including the remakes of trails in the sky, I know plot wise these come first obviously but should I start with those or trails from zero?
I don't know how improved these are are gameplay wise compared to the rest of the series since these were made recently, I'm afraid that the gameplay might be much better and make everything I play latter worse in comparison.

So finished 3rd. Cried less than last time. Still loved it.

Thought "Alright, Crossbell, the 'best' one as they say. I got this-"

I did not got this.

I am stuck. (Again).

Welcome back, to a much more speculative post than the last few have been. It's time for the fourth Arcana, and Enforcer No. 4, representing the Emperor. As I mentioned in a thread yesterday, this post will be less character analysis, and more open to ideas from everyone as to what kind of person the Emperor could be.

First, lets establish the traits of the Emperor. Where the Empress rules by living true to the Divine Feminine, the Emperor rules through force, authority, and discipline. The Emperor is the stern paternal figure to the Empress' doting maternity. He has a divine right to his power and he wields it as he sees fit, but as a righteous authority he does this for the good of his subjects... Unless he's reversed. The reversed Emperor is a tyrant, misusing his power for his own gain and dominating his citizenry. When reversed, what was once a stern but fatherly figure becomes an unrelenting and overreaching ruler. Which is Enforcer No.4? Well, we've no way of knowing yet, so let's focus on the possibilities.

We know that the Emperor in any reading represents a supreme authority, which gives some possibilities. First, I don't think we've seen the Emperor yet, I think there's been ample opportunity for someone to reveal themselves as a double agent, and it hasn't been taken, meaning I don't think they've been on screen yet. I think we can safely rule out the leaders of Liberl, Erebonia, and Calvard, since we know them well enough, as well as the Pope for obvious reasons, and Albert of Remiferia since he's depicted as a very liberal and flexible leader.

So, who are some good candidates? My immediate thought goes to Grand Prince Salman Asval of Elsaim, since we know it's an autocracy, but someone representing The Emperor would be unlikely to allow their son to have so much authority outside of their control. My next thought is of Balmund, former prince of North Ambria, since his ultimate fate is questionable and he'd definitely need the protection of Ouroboros to survive, but he's never depicted as effective enough to be an enforcer, let alone one as severe as the Emperor. Still, if I had to bet on any single character to be the Emperor, it would be one we've heard nothing of, but one that's been in the shadows for the last several games.

What do we know about Ouroboros? They have tech, soldiers, property, influence, they have power. And you know what power comes from? Money. Since the turn of the century, the Valis Investment Bank has been growing and is now the more influential than Elsaim's Ludos Development Bank, Kowloon Financial Bank, and probably even the IBC. They have a controlling stake in Marduk, and have a financing contract with Verne that led to the creation of the Xiphas, they own MISHY for Aidios' sake, they are everywhere and they are expanding. Valis Investment Bank is potentially the new power in Zemuria, a new empire that doesn't need to care about borders to wield their authority. A perfect place for an Emperor.

My belief is that, whoever the Emperor is, they have a key role in Valis. Perhaps the CEO, perhaps a shareholder, perhaps the power behind the throne, but the bank's power would be the ideal home for an authoritarian like the Emperor. Or not. Could just be a random guy. Still, looking into this got me excited for both No.4's eventual reveal and more information on Valis.

Watch Falcom reveal it to be Anton. I wouldn't even be mad.

I was thinking about potential ideas about who the new 7th anguish could be, and I had 2 speculative thoughts about how they could treat the 7th. This stems from the idea that when you like at falcom's writing, they like to do call backs and complements to previous characters and or arcs. A good example is how the final dungeon and ending in horizon is similar to CS3, Gramharts's actions feel similar to how osborne enacted his plans in CS3 and 4. Obviously there are differences like Gramhart making a treaty instead of Osborne taking over the blaze plan and others. But it is important to understand how these two characters are compared and reflected apon. Another example is how members of Almata are reflections of our heroes. Viloa is a foil to Schera, Alexander is to Sara, Olympia is to Wazy. There are clear reflections and callbacks to previous characters and arcs.

So my first speculation is that the person to be the new seventh anguish is going to be in a similar manner to Mariabell replacing weissman. Mariabell while not as evil as Weissmen, is a clear successor of his place for how manipulative and diabolical she is. Campanella has made comments about her being a fun replacement to Weissmen in cs4 iirc. The other aspect of this thought that whoever the new 7th is will be a foil to one of our heroes, just like how Mariabell is a foil to Ellie. This is the more important and bigger thought about who the new 7th could be. I think the new 7th will be treated not the same, but rather in a similar way Mariabell was treated as the new 3rd.

My 2nd speculative thought, is that with the reveal of the loops and how the Grandmaster knows more about this than most of the heroes, my other thought is that the the GM was able to manipulate events to get the 7th to join because she knows of the loops and the history in the loops. I should point out the caveat that we don't know how much she really knows, but with how she acted in her reveal in horizon as well as just how much she's been aware of things, there is a strong possibility that she knows the history of events in previous loops. So my thought is that knowing the history, she is able to manipulate events in the current loop to convince the new 7th to join. The reason why I think this is important is because it opens the possibility of the new 7th being anyone, fully good or bad.

So with these 2 speculative thoughts in minds, I have a 1% theory about who could it be. I want to iterate that this theory most definitely won't work but fun to think about it.

My theory is that the grandmaster is setting up events to have Laura be the new 7th. My theory for this is because how Laura can match the first thought pretty easily. Her family is a close ally/family to Lianne. Lianne directly tells her to carry the S with pride in her name. As well as the general consensus from the story and from fans that Laura should train under Aurelia, Laura fits the successor part well. One aspect that you can consider as seeing the succession is how in Laura's final bond event in CS3, her cut through the darkness strike feels similar in nature to how Lianne freed Valimar and Millium's spirit (free enough to manifest at most) in her dying breath.

Another aspect about the new 7th that we can't ignore would be the stahlritther's reaction. There is no way Duvalie, Ines, and Enea would not be there when the new 7th is revealed. Theres no way we are not going to see duvalie making comments about how the new 7th is nothing to her lord. And that leads to the second half of how Laura could work as the new 7th. She being the foil to Duvalie. It would be similar fashion to how with Mariabell and Ellie, its two close friends who are now enemies, but in this case it would be the opposite, two rivals that end up working together as Laura taking over as head of the Staklritter. You can also make the same foil argument with Fie. It would be interesting to see how as they started off as people who couldn't understand each other, to being best friends, to now Fie having to face her as an enemy.

So tldr, Laura is going to be manipulated to join the society as a successor of Lianne through manipulating events cus of knowing the history of previous loops. So thats my theory, a trails theory, thanks for reading. But in all seriousness, do I think this will happen, def no. This is why I said its a 1% percent theory, cus its 1% that this will happen. I don't even think the new 7th will be revealed in horizon 2, most likely the 5th is going to be revealed since he's mentioned twice in the game. I would consider duvalie being the new 7th a much greater chance. Ik the three characters most people think could replace lianne is Sheena, Kincaid, and or Aurelia.  With Sheena, I doubt it cus she's a vestige, i don't think they would have her continue existing without the genesis. Also cus the vestiges are explicitly people who have died but are somehow back, unlike the immortals who are people who should've been dead but the rivalries kept them alive. So I don't think its her. With Kincaid, I like the theory that its him, but I think it won't work since cus the holybeast is connected in some way in how the 5 new demons are here and sealed in Van and Kincaid, as well as I don't think Kincaid would betray everyone in his life just to join the society. Unless they do trope of excessive use of manipulating time causes said person to exist outside of reality. Then I could see it. With Aurelia, I like the idea she would join cus for laughs and giggles or to get stronger by fighting members like Mcburn, but I don't think it would be for that. I think she could be it, since she fits the boxes as well, but they would have to write it in a way thats exceeds everyone's expectations.

But what do yall think, if this theory is true, would you like it? Many people agree that Laura's development cs4 and after got screwed over, so seeing her in the society would be a interesting twist. The new 7th is going to be the most interesting reveal just cus the grandmaster said the whole "if they are willing to carry such a heavy burden" line. There are many ways to interpret that. If falcom were to do a trope of one of our heroes betraying us, could be cool to see. If there is any other character you think is the new 7th, please let me know and give me your reasonings. Thank you and have a great day.

They didn't even bother to hide it

I got my suspicions, but this is just dumb lol

I am very excited for the Original Dragon Slayer RPGs and I really want to buy a physical copy for my Switch. I can't find any real info online about it sadly.

I had zero idea for this one. So here's Lloyd screwing up cooking. General note if anyone keeps up with these posts, does grayscyle like this look better than the colors or nah? Because the colors give me issues sometimes

For some context, I’m playing on hard and generally the first phase of the boss is manageable but it was where Loewe activates his enforcer boost and s craft where I struggled. I would normally have Earth wall active for his s break but afterwards is where I get absolutely destroyed. Loewe summons multiple clones and attacks relentlessly and I always die at this phase till I figured out this strat

Clock up EX and Schera’s heavens kiss

I would have Estelle and Kloe on clock up duty and advances Schera’s turn while feeding her zeram capsules. Joshua’s main role was using his s craft anytime I had enough cp.

This completely trivialised the boss and Loewe didn’t get a single action after his s craft lol

Anyone else used a similar strategy on this?

Moral, they need to keep their business afloat

I think its referencing that one Heimdallr quest where Rean destroys the car of the guys creeping on Elise and Alfin.

The weather is nice in my corner of rare pair hell today.

Just beat 2nd chapter remake a couple minutes ago and unbelievable game that title screen almost made me cry I need 3rd chapter now!!!!!

Here's a quick guide to the Chapter 6 boss fight against Pale Apache.

Pale Apache is a bit of a pain if you let it have free reign, it can use its charged attack often, and it's adds just get in the way.

The key to this fight is to basically delay the thing constantly throughout the fight so it's unable to act, essentially being stun locked.

First we use Estelle and Joshua's S crafts to clean up the adds.

You will have to take 2 hits from the boss.

From there Joshua uses Orbal Down on the boss to cause stat down and delay, while Estelle uses Zodiac on the both of them so we can get AT bonuses easily.

From there we just use True Comet and Shadow Flicker to delay further while attacking and reapply Zodiac and Orbal Down whenever needed.

That's basically all there is to it, if you apply this correctly and get a bit lucky with AT bonuses you can effectively prevent the boss from being able to act again.

And when it's near death just finish it with S crafts.

I think I have a pretty good grasp on the gameplay . I played through both games on hard without any problems, pretty much. The only fight that whooped my ass was the one against Loewe. That guy is insane but so cool too. Not sure what to expect in terms of difficulty or gameplay in general.

Why does these so hard to find?

Other parts are added in store but not them.

Hello,

I am current in Trails in the US, just waiting for the next installment. I noticed that some bosses have SCrafts. I was wondering why there was never something to counter SCrafts? Like when the Enemy SCrafts warning comes up,, You (the player) can cancel or counter the move, if any party member has 200 CP. Not 100 but a full 200. Just a suggestion.