Getting to Work in Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter
Contains some plot details from chapters 1 and 2
Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter doesn’t often ask you to do traditional RPG dungeon crawling. You’re not asked to delve into the ruins of some ancient civilization’s temple to some forgotten god to find a mythical orb that when combined with three other orbs of different elemental affinities can unlock the power to destroy a newly awoken ancient evil. No, you’ve got a job to do. Estelle and Joshua Bright, the game’s main heroes, are following in their father’s footsteps and becoming bracers, members of a guild of adventurers that take on jobs given to them by the local populace. Jobs like “Clear out these monsters that appeared and are blocking a major roadway” or “I lost my keys to the warehouse and my boss is gonna kill me if you don’t find them for me.” When the Bright children pass their final training exam and become junior bracers, they immediately set their sights on achieving senior bracer status like their father. To reach that goal the bracer guild tells them, get to work.
Every chapter in Trails in the Sky leads Estelle and Joshua to a new region in their kingdom of Liberl, finding a new major city, joining the local bracer guild, and hoping to do enough work to get that guild’s recommendation for senior bracer status. To do this they’re going to need to find some mushrooms a client wants from a monster filled grove, search for and provide backup to a group of bracers that haven’t yet checked back in after going out for their last job, and find someone’s lost kitty. The main plot may lead to the guild asking you to investigate the case of a hijacked airliner or hunt down the people who’ve been causing trouble for the local orphanage but they still ask you to take a step back and work on some requests from the job board. At one point the guild stops you from following up on one of these story lines when a senior bracer steps in and asks to take the job over for himself, clearly having some personal involvement in the case and not trusting junior members of the guild to get the job done right. That’s how the organization works, the guild representative tells you, senior bracers get to take priority on a job if they so choose to and there isn’t anything you can do about it. You need to let them get to doing their work regardless of how much you want to follow up on this plotline. The game stops you in your tracks and makes you deal with the bureaucracy of working within an organization that has real rules and regulations. It may be frustrating, but it’s not a grand adventure and you’re not some sort of chosen hero, it’s a job.
The game also makes these jobs important to you as a player, mechanically, through the way your character’s stats are balanced. This is a game where a boost to attack or defense can make a huge difference and if you haven’t geared up before a job, there’s a good chance you’re going to struggle against some of its tougher enemies. Every new city is a new opportunity to buy and upgrade new weapons, armor, and accessories and it’s going to cost you. You don’t earn money directly from random battles against the monsters on the roads. These enemies do drop some junk gems that you can sell but your main source of income is going to be the various odd jobs posted on the board in the guild. Clear out some monsters that have been harassing travelers and you’ll be able to afford a shiny new staff with a pretty solid attack bonus or a new pair of boots with a decent upgrade to your speed stat. You’ll quickly feel the difference in battle, especially with skills like the critical hit bonus, which will let you knock enemies down to get an extra team attack in, and your speed skill, which will allow you to get more attacks off in battle, a necessity to build up to and take advantage of the enemies’ defenseless staggered state. The odd jobs you take on are not just random side quests you choose to do to fulfill your character’s destiny as a hero of the people. They’re an important part of your work as a bracer and a necessity if you want to be able to do your job more effectively in the future.
The game does have traditional dungeons filled with forking paths that lead to stronger enemies and better treasure but you’re almost always only asked to explore these areas when your job guides you there. When you get to the Amber Tower in the Bose region you hear a troubled voice from within. These towers, of which there are a few scattered around the Liberl kingdom, are ancient structures left over from a former, more advanced, civilization. The voice coming from within this tower is a professor studying these towers to uncover unknown truths about these people and their technologies. Our bracers are not particularly interested in the answers to any of these questions and only investigate this tower when someone, whose job it is to be interested, ends up getting themselves in over their heads with the strong monsters that now make the tower their home. This game sticks to its themes and doesn’t force the characters to get involved in all this ancient mystery, instead keeping Estelle and Joshua grounded in their focus on their work.
Your adventuring in Trails in the Sky 1st chapter is always tied up with the character’s ambition to gain recognition in the organization that employs them while taking pride in their work and the help they provide to the people. The systems and the story all lead back to that one goal and the game builds its world and its lore through the work it makes you do. That’s the power fantasy in this game. It’s having a job that does good and actually helps people in the world. It’s having your work be recognized and rewarded. That’s just something you can’t get in real life. It’s as impossible as shooting an actual fireball and defeating a real demon king.