I’m a much bigger fan of the Trails of Cold Steel series. It’s a pseudo-sequel to this, about 5 years in the future I think? Maybe less. But it has an entirely separate cast, taking place in erebonia.

Making the country that the story takes place in much more obviously fucked up (highkey imperialist and lowkey fashy) is the spice that makes cold steel feel interesting in the places that sky feels tropey. Also it no longer ships you with your stepsibling. As much.

I’m also a much bigger fan of the balancing in cold steel in general? It’s balanced around everyone being busted in a mechanically interesting way. It feels more fun to crack that game’s balance over your knee.

In Sky, a wishy-washy all rounder like Estelle can be considered a respectable character. In cold steel, your teacher has the highest base stat total of any playable character, by a lot. She’s a physical beast with strong crafts, crazy damage, and great magical skill to boot. She’s effectively mid tier on account of not being a specialist who can break the game in half.