Committing myself to evil atrocities in my second full playthrough as The Dark Urge origin character was pretty fun and something I really recommend for a second playthrough. I also used it as a chance to do things I had missed out on in my first playthrough of Balders Gate 3 where I did mostly play a good character. Now I’m considering could I actually try and play in a harder difficulty and see just what else I’ve missed because honestly I’m pretty sure there is a lot. This will contain plot spoilers for Balders Gate 3 and some choices I made for companion quests.
My Dark Urge Character
The Dark Urge is a really interesting way to play Balders Gate 3 as it adds such an interesting origin story. I wanted to commit to an evil playthrough to see some different choices not only for my own character but how much I could corrupt my companions too. Having already played through Balders Gate 3 and completing the game, as well as reading the PSN trophy list I did know where that was going to go but the ride along the way was very fun and had some unexpected surprises. I really liked that the character still had a choice to try and repress their evil nature but I completely basked in the blood of my enemies, and friends in some cases. Ending the game in the name of Bhaal, the god of murder and seeing my character sitting there in Orin’s clothes on a throne watching the world end was pretty glorious.
I mean, she looks pretty evil. Both playthroughs I’ve completed now have been playing a magic caster, first as a warlock and this time I was a sorcerer. The wild magic surges certainly added to the chaos from time to time which was sometimes to my benefit but not always. I am pretty sure I put all 12 levels into sorcerer as well but I’m pretty interested in trying a multiclass build to see how that works out. I did this playthrough as a Lolth-Sworn Drow as I thought it would give me an edge with intimidation checks and helped me pass through some encounters without combat.
Corrupting Companions to do Evil Things
My party for most of the playthrough was Astarion as a Rogue Assassin, Shadowheart as a Life Domain Cleric and Lae’zel as a Battlemaster Fighter. I did switch in Minthara for a lot of Act 2 because she seemed pretty at home in the Shadowcursed lands and felt for story reasons she was a great choice. However, in my first playthrough of BG3 I accidentally shot and killed Lae’zel early on and missed all of the Githyanki plot so I wanted to do that this time around. Will left the party after the raid on the emerald grove and Karlach attacked me on sight for my atrocities. Gale was there. I did use him a little bit but as I was playing a magic character I didn’t have much need for him but I did see more of his companion quest this time around which I kind of failed to do previously. This playthrough I had Astarion commit to becoming an Ascended vampire and Shadowheart become a Dark Justiciar. It was pretty brutal but actually made some combat encounters a lot easier than on a good playthrough. I’d like to say some of that is because I learned a lot in my first playthrough of BG3 and kind of know what I’m doing now but it also helps that I wasn’t completely and utterly outnumbered. I did do one redeeming thing though and that is to pet the dog.
How Would I Play Again?
Balders Gate 3 has a lot of replayability value because you can’t see everything in one playthrough and because there are some interactions you can get locked out off based on if you’re good or evil. Or you end up making mistakes, and there are plenty of options to make mistakes, and so can’t see certain things through to the end. There is so much content available in Balders Gate 3 that makes playing a second or third playthrough desirable with more challenging difficulties, different classes to try and play and character companion quests to enjoy. Not to mention the opportunity to play as an Origin character and see how things are different in comparison to how they are as a companion.
I think if I were to play again I would probably go for a ‘good’ character approach again and try completing some of the quests I’ve still not managed to solve. I would like to try and complete the game on tactician difficulty although it’s a little intimidating but now I kind of know what I’m doing, what I can get away with and how to make things more challenging or easier on myself I feel I would be able to do most of a playthrough in this mode. There are some legendary weapons, gear and items I’d like to try and get. I think if I were to play again I’d try playing a physical class more than a magic one. I did start a ranger character playthrough but I feel like I’ve made too many mistakes on that one or missed way too much to be able to make the most of the playthrough. I’ve tried to learn more about D&D in general too which has helped me understand some of the rules a bit better like advantage, concentration spells and just how much you should/can do between each long rest as well as how character stats work.
Having never played any Yakuza game in my life, picking up Yakuza: Like A Dragon with very little context on the series was a choice, largely dictated by the availability on Game Pass, seeing two odd screenshots in a discord server and exactly one commendation of someone saying they liked it. I remember seeing many memes following release footage of Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth and Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth including a trailer full of random features that did intrigue me but probably more along the lines of ‘that looks like a weird game’ rather than ‘hey I should play that sometime’. Here I am, just short of 55 hours of playtime later, having finished Like A Dragon and actually being quite surprised with how much I liked it.
I did read a few mostly spoiler-free reviews which gave me the impression that Like A Dragon is new-to-the-series friendly, and it is but also had some pretty scathing comments about combat. Not an issue for me, I like turn based combat, so it didn’t really affect my opinion when starting the game. One issue I’ve had playing, which is more of a performance problem rather than gameplay is that the game did keep shutting down, sometimes at very frustrating moments when I wasn’t able to save, so a lot of repeat progress had to be made. It was not an issue with my PC, my specs are more than capable of running Like A Dragon and I made a few adjustments that did prevent that from happening too much. I was, however, going through the very last chapter with no where to save and kind of wanting cutscenes and things to speed up so I could save my clear data and not have to do the end for the second time.
I played Yakuza: Like A Dragon subbed with Japanese voice acting which I liked. All the emotion came through incredibly well. It isn’t unusual for me to play JRPG’s like this, I’m used to enjoying Japanese voice acting and reading subtitles when playing games although I’m not a purist either, and have enjoyed English voice acting just as much. I managed 43 achievements which was pretty good going for a first playthrough and think I managed to beat the game with my party around level 58 without too much level grinding. It was challenging enough but not rage inducing.
There were times during the main story that I was a bit lost but not because I didn’t understand what was going on or didn’t have much context due to a lack of knowledge from previous games in the series. I just felt there were some points where the plot was a bit weak or didn’t really get full explanations as to why things happened. Perhaps that’s me being a bit picky or I missed something but overall I did enjoy playing. Like a Dragon’s charm is in it’s characters and their interactions with each other. Ichiban Kasuga became a pretty easy to love protagonist with unwavering optimism, loyalty and kindness to others he interacted with. He was charming, goofy and wasn’t afraid to wear his heart on his sleeve or show what he was really feeling. There were some interesting opinions I’ve read about him being the inverse of Kiryu, with his choice of suit representing that most obviously.
Kasuga’s dialogue options were a good mix of heartwarmingly wholesome, goofy and maybe a little outrageous at times. His delivery was usually pretty charming and I just found him incredibly likeable. He draws people to him pretty effortlessly. His way of seeing the world like an RPG and getting to play the Hero, and all of his Dragon Quest references made his character feel fun to play. Other party members where just as engaging and offered fun dialogue and what really felt like strong friendships developing between them all. I particularly liked Saeko, who made for a great female party member which an interesting range of jobs to choose from. She was a constant in my party. She was cute, headstrong, funny and completely on par with the rest of the characters, rather than just there solely to fuel the main protagonist’s ego. In fact, her introduction is that of her shutting a conversation down about a particularly unsavory character which made me like her instantly.
There are so many minigames to choose from when you want a break from fighting and I found some of them really fun. The business management minigame was something I did really quite enjoy, because I like making money, and it gave me a lot of satisfaction shutting down shareholders because my sales and net worth wasn’t as high as it could be because I was paying employees a fair wage, giving them bonuses, pay rises and promotions all the time to keep morale high. Who doesn’t want to run a business with a chicken called ‘Omelette’ as it’s mascot though? I also did all of the quizzes at the vocational school for many academic achievements and watched a few of the movies. I even tried my hand at Dragon Kart racing which was pretty fun. Too much of my time was spent not winning cats at claw machines much like how my time is spent in actual arcades in real life.
For someone like me, not just unfamiliar to the series but someone that does tend to gravitate towards more cutesy animation, cozy games or quite high fantasy RPG’s this was pretty fun. I hard my reservations, not everything was to my taste, there were plenty of cringe moments with some more lewd and crude content but overall Yakuza: Like a Dragon was engaging, fun and full of emotion. There were a fair few moments I had chills and felt myself tearing up. I’m glad I gave it a chance.
I have so many words to say right now that it’s hard to find the exact right place to start but I am writing this as someone that has only very recently heard of Trails in the Sky and completely new to the series but I am already feeling myself ready to completely gush about how much I have loved playing this game for the last week or so. I’ve always loved and enjoyed a variety of video games but RPG’s have been my ‘thing’ when looking for something to completely immerse myself into. I think the mix of storytelling, worldbuilding and going through a journey with a character both physically and usually emotionally has always been a big appeal so I’m always happy to listen to other people’s recommendations when it comes to these types of games. It’s also not uncommon for me to start becoming slightly obsessed with the fandom surrounding other games and actually books now I come to think of it – I genuinely worry sometimes the amount I think, talk, look at fanart etc of A Court of Thorns and Roses as an example – I suppose I can put it down to the autistic part of my brain wanting to fully consume and know everything about something when I find something I just fall in love with.
Finding New Games to Play
I have been mostly consumed by one game for the past eighteen months or so which has mostly been an enjoyable and positive experience. However for the past six months or so I’ve not found it as compelling as I once did and that’s been a source of frustration for me in a time where I’ve been lacking in focus, motivation and dealing with some personal things I’ve been dealing with. My usual methods of escapism have been alluding me for quite some time and it ended up with me really needing to take a step back from what I was doing in FFXIV – which really wasn’t very much – but I was stuck with not having much to do and no other games were really gripping my focus or attention. After I finished levelling all of my jobs in FFXIV it felt like the right time to sort of push myself into doing something else but I wasn’t really sure what. For the first time in what feels like a very long time I don’t feel like I have to log in all day every day and that I can actually just focus on doing things I want to do and at the moment I am pretty content with just doing savage raids with my static group and occasionally doing fun content with friends who are also not online as much at the moment.
I’ve written before how I was hesitant about playing Final Fantasy XIV because I was going to have to deal with other people in the social aspect of the game. Although I went in with the intention of not really talking to anyone it turns out that the social part of an MMO is something I’ve enjoyed quite a lot and getting to know other people that have not only enjoyed playing video games but have absolutely loved Final Fantasy as a series just as much as I have has been a truly wonderful experience. I’d like to think I’ve made some genuine friendships with other people and as time has gone on the conversations that started out as raid mechanic call outs, strategy planning or casually chilling doing treasure hunting have turned into hanging out just because and talking about other things we’ve played and absolutely loved. One such conversation lead to my introduction to Trails in the Sky and after listening to someone speak with such fondness of a game made me curious and lead me to purchasing it on Steam and I have not regretted that choice one little bit.
Aforementioned fun content with friends was doing the new variant dungeons in Final Fantasy XIV and finding all possible outcomes. Making friends with other video game enthusiasts thanks to FFXIV has lead to some wonderful friendships and conversations with them have introduced me to other video games that I might not have found out about before.
I’m not usually one to read lots of reviews about a series prior to playing something but a glance over the reactions on steam to the game being positive within the community – and hearing someone who I have, I suppose, looked up to and followed in the footsteps in a way in Final Fantasy XIV and therefore come to respect and appreciate the opinion of – lead to me already feeling it would be something I’d enjoy but I didn’t quite anticipate it gripping me just the way it has done. I would say I had fairly high expectations but for a game that was just under £13 it wouldn’t have been a huge loss so to speak if I hadn’t enjoyed it. However, the age of the game originally being released in 2004 in Japan meant it was going to be quite different from what I’ve been playing lately, although I did start another (and finish this time) playthrough of Final Fantasy IX in the summer…I digress, it didn’t put me off but I was told it was more of a slow burn type of game with most of the world building coming through from reading dialogue not only from the characters interactions but other pieces of information you can pick up through the game.
Being someone that has such fond memories of playing earlier text based RPG’s such as Final Fantasy, prior to voice acting being introduced in FFX and many Dragon Quest games alongside other JRPG’s a written game isn’t really something to put me off playing. On one hand reading the information helps me process things a lot more as I’m more active whilst playing whereas I can get distracted by lengthy, acted out cut scenes. However, as I haven’t really been able to focus on reading in general lately I wasn’t sure if Trails in the Sky would be a game I could fully get into but I’m glad to say that wasn’t the case at all. It’s also been nice having someone around to talk to about it as I’ve played through although they haven’t given much away at all which in some parts I think has been equally frustrating for them having to navigate spoilers.
Playing Trails in the Sky
I can only really describe Trails in the Sky as completely charming and having everything you’d expect from an JRPG but also I suppose just giving that little bit more by having character portraits full of expression during dialogue scenes. The characters you control around the maps are chibi like versions which I suppose are commonplace in older RPGs and something I’ve always found quite endearing but seeing the full scale faces and expressions has been a really nice touch and added to, not only the humour of the interactions between characters, but also some of the more touching, emotional moments. One of my absolute favourites has been reading hidden messages and references to other media from empty treasure chests.
Some of these messages have really made me laugh and I have loved the additional thought and references put into these. ‘Feed Me Seymour’ being a well loved reference to Little Shop of Horrors which I absolutely love and something I do actually quote in my real day to day life
Each character you come across has their own unique personality and way of handling scenarios and that is so clear cut in the dialogue you have and the situations you find your characters in. Playing as Estelle Bright, who is accompanied by her adopted brother Joshua on their journey around the Liberl Kingdom to become senior bracers you see this truly beautiful friendship and dynamic between the two really flourish. Estelle is exactly the sort of main character I adore; one that isn’t afraid to keep her opinions to herself but with that kind of youthful obliviousness of coming-of-age characters that I have always loved in these sorts of games and probably why I still love and appreciate YA Fantasy novels.
Estelle is not a complex character but she is flawed which is what makes her fun to experience going through the story with. She is impulsive and quick to act which sometimes gets her into sticky situations and I like that through the gameplay she progresses at a really nice pace without losing that initial charm and spark about her. She is brash, opinionated and a little hot headed in comparison to the much more collected, strategic Joshua and the balance between them is what makes the game feel so utterly wholesome. Joshua, on the other hand, is much more reserved and sometimes almost calculating although their are plenty of interactions that play out in which you see a real gentle, heartwarming side to him too. However, with the way the game begins with Estelle’s father Cassius bringing an injured Joshua home with very little explanation and a secretive past did leave me to I suppose, I wouldn’t say suspicious, but I knew that eventually his story would come out and it wasn’t going to be an easy one to witness.
Having real societal influences and themes in games feels commonplace in RPG’s and has always been something I’ve appreciated and loved.
The cast of characters throughout the game are all built with their own unique histories and styles which makes it easy to immerse yourself into Trails in the Sky
It’s pretty clear from the start of the game from a conversation Estelle and Joshua have with their mentor Schera that the trope between the two is going to be a ‘childhood friends to romance’ dynamic which is something I suppose I don’t usually like in any type of fiction or setting. I have always been an enemies to lovers trope appreciator because I think the tension between characters is always interesting and exciting to witness particularly when they’re on opposing sides to something. Their are just very few couples that have evolved from friends to more that I have enjoyed the dynamic between but I think it’s the opposing characteristics of the two of them that add to that wholesome charm. They’re also both only sixteen so the game doesn’t focus on an outright romance between the two but as people point things out to Estelle more and she starts to process feelings she didn’t really consider or had potentially brushed off before it becomes a recurring underlying theme. So not only does Trails in the Sky focus on overall character progression by playing through quests and having to do things as Bracers but also watching Estelle become more aware of herself, her feelings for Joshua and what that might mean for them in the future is incredibly sweet.
Trails in the Sky is full of wholesome content and is overwhelming charming. The world building and character interactions make for an interesting gameplay experience.
The way Trails in the Sky unfolded was such an enjoyable experience and each new town you visit just builds layer upon layer of intrigue, mystery and development for the characters and the plot. I actually found it a really nice, easy to process style of gameplay to follow and nothing felt too heavy or overwhelming at one time. You learn what’s going on at the same time the characters do and there is an option to learn more with the addition of news articles and books you can pick up and read about the world Estelle and Joshua live in. The quests include a variety of escort missions, fetch quests and combat based monster killing which adds a really nice level of diversity to the game play. The combat is time based and strategic which I tend to prefer as it gives you a little bit more time to think and plan ahead. The orbment and quartz system did take me a little bit of time to get used to but eventually I ended up with some really well balanced characters that had a mix of offensive and support spells. It was reminiscent of using Materia in FFVII a little but more complex I felt.
I’ve come away from Trails in the Sky eager to continue and start Second Chapter which I promptly purchased and downloaded ready to go as I want to spend more time in this world and with these characters unveiling what is going on. I still have many unanswered questions about events that unfolded and I really can’t wait to see what will happen next.
Having funny moments like this helps break up some of the more serious context of the plot which allows for the player to appreciate, enjoy and process the plot in a comfortable pace
