I mean, isn’t it obvious?

I don’t usually laugh at comic strips but this one genuinely made me laugh.

It’s kind of odd how the Canadian government is so passive in the face of obvious American disinfo, even as this disinfo threatens national security and unity.

Notice I wrote in present tense, not past tense. Square Enix are one company now.

You’re missing why Trails matters.

This isn’t about “a lot of games.” It’s about building something no other JRPG studio has ever pulled off—a single, continuous saga that’s been unfolding since Trails in the Sky in 2004.

No resets, no reboots, no discarded lore. Every event, faction, and character connects across a dozen titles. That kind of long-form narrative discipline doesn’t exist anywhere else in the genre.

And don’t minimize how hard that is. Most JRPG studios can barely keep one trilogy coherent. Falcom has been weaving one uninterrupted storyline for over twenty years—through console generations and shifting hardware.

Holding a narrative together across decades isn’t just impressive, it’s almost impossible. Doing this wasn’t just because of luck. It’s taken discipline, patience, and vision on a scale no other studio has matched.

Influence is easy to trace. XSEED’s Trails in the Sky localization raised the bar for how seriously Western publishers approach text-heavy JRPGs. At the time, bringing over a game with hundreds of thousands of lines of dialogue was considered unworkable. They did it, and it set a precedent for the kind of effort fans now expect from localizations.

Falcom also helped legitimize PC as a JRPG platform in the West—back when most people dismissed the genre as “console only.”

And if you look at modern RPGs built around serialized storytelling and grounded politics—Disco Elysium, Baldur’s Gate 3, even the way Persona 5 structures its arcs—you can see Falcom’s fingerprints everywhere.

Critics agree. RPG Site flat out said this about the remake of Trails in the Sky FC:

If you’re here strictly for the magical number, here it is: Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter remake is a 10/10. What’s more, it’s the easiest 10/10 I’ve ever given.”

https://rpgsite.net/review/18452-trails-in-the-sky-1st-chapter-review

And the numbers back it up. Trails in the Sky sits at Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam with a 93% approval rating from thousands of reviews. Recent reviews are even better—96% positive.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/251150/The/_Legend/_of/_Heroes/_Trails/_in/_the/_Sky/

Rather than burning energy on outrage, put that time into actually playing more games. You’ll get more out of them—and you’re better than just dismissing something this significant.

If it’s bananas, tell me why.

But we’re not talking about technical merits but artistic.

There is no RPG series as big and immense as Trails.

This is Nihon Falcon’s crowning achievement. In terms of sheer craftsmanship, only one other JRPG compares.

The big thing about FFVII when it came out was the huge—for the time—fully realized world.

It felt like stepping into a movie. There was nuance. And there were story curveballs.

Same deal with Trails in the Sky. Fully realized world—immense. And the narrative ambition is not just huge, Nihon Falcom actually pulled it off.

Okay, but I’m not talking about commercial appeal. I’m talking about artistic achievement.

What Nihon Falcom accomplished with this game is unmatched. Trails in the Sky is, without question, the most expansive and intricate saga in JRPG history.

Because unlike other series that reset with each new title, Falcom committed to one continuous world. Every town, every political faction, every character connects across dozens of games.

And this game was the beginning of it all.

Never bought the deluxe edition—so I don’t know.

What’s the whole purpose of them other than just giving devs more money?

That’s more of a killer feature for Linux in general.

And I can’t undersell how big of a deal that is. When Windows 10 dies, I’m switching my desktop to Linux simply because Proton makes me want to use Linux.

I’m hearing you loud and clear.

Provide research with accompanying links or GTFO.

Dismissing? Nah.

Calling out groupthink when I see the same tired talking points—no research, no citations, just noise? Hell yeah, I’m gonna call that out.

I’ve never defended “corporate garbage.” I’ve said straight up: there are hundreds of thousands of mobile games, some you can buy outright—no microtransactions attached. More premium paid games on iOS alone than the entire NES, SNES, N64, and GameCube libraries combined.

Let me say it again: you don’t have to play gacha games. Plenty of premium mobile titles exist if you’re willing to look.

But here? Everyone ignores that fact, chooses groupthink instead, and barks the same tired lines.

And yeah, I know this won’t convince anyone here. They’re too busy flexing their Lemmy in-group credentials to entertain anything that breaks the echo chamber.

I’m saying it anyway, loud and clear.

There are literally people here insisting all mobile games are gacha. When I drop hard stats proving otherwise, instead of reconsidering, suddenly I’m a secret shill pushing for some stats company.

That’s the quality of convo I’m dealing with in this thread. And you? No different.

Ha! A “few” interactions…

Lemmy isn’t a big place. People who populate gaming threads are an even smaller fraction of the userbase. So to see the same handful of opinions, repeated again and again, upvoted ad infinitum – that’s a pretty good sample size.

I deliberately posted this thread as a contrarian take. And what do you know, it proved to be contrarian.

I didn’t say anything outrageous or mean-spirited. Everything has been quite reasonable. But judging by the responses – you all think every mobile game is a gacha game – I can safely say few of you have nearly as much experience with games as you believe you do.

By the way, this is why I generally put little stock into self-declared “gamers” opinions. Most of you are obsessed with playing things in a prescribed manner, in a particular way, regarding a specific canon. And you generally adhere to the same bland culture with little appreciation for diversity.

I’m skeptical that people here are as knowledgeable as they claim.

I know from several other threads that the majority of folks here stick to a few handfuls of games and sink 1,000s of hours into them. That might make them an expert at a specific MMO, but it certainly doesn’t make them experts in every game at a glance.

I have a more compelling suggestion: only judge games you play.

Hey, I’ve played every game I purchased between 2012-15.

Wrong. Not ignored—not played yet.

Out of the thousands of games I have, not once have I noticed anything like you describe.