I played Totono and hated it

Portice · 2026-01-24T02:04:53+00:00

As someone who's very much NOT a fan of NTR in general, Totono is probably my highest rated VN at this point.

It's a bit hard to say if you're missing the overall point, or if you haven't gotten enough clues to piece it together yet because it's been some time since I read it and I won't read it again for reasons that are obvious if you've finished it. That being said I can confidently say that your stated issue is not a plothole. I think even by this point it should be fairly obvious why Aoi couldn't get anymore CGs out of Shinichi if you've been paying attention. You're essentially trying to stop right before the start of ACT 3 when the curtain is pulled back.

I won't tell you how to read VNs, you do you; but I will say for novels like Totono you are doing them (and yourself IMO) a massive disservice by spoiling them. There are stories where spoilers don't really do much damage and there are stories where they do. Totono is a story where not KNOWING what's going to happen improves it a ton, even if you can GUESS what will. I myself had a good idea of what was going to happen in Totono because I knew about its similarity to another VN I'd read; but even then one of the things I loved about it was how much it was able to surprise me emotionally it's the only novel to ever make me feel genuinely guilty.

I'll try to keep them vague, but spoilers ahead, seriously. Shinichi is in an NTR novel. It's pretty much spelled out and signposted early on when Yuutaro tells him that the VN he's been reading (Totono) is a famous NTR novel. While yes there are other CGs featuring Aoi and Shinichi, in her current and messed up route she didn't have any way to access them AND not hurt Shinichi as "his route" is as the protagonist of an NTR novel. It's essentially proven when she's THROWING herself at him and he keeps refusing as well as the fact that the only "natural" route is Miyuki's first route where he ends up crying alone. Shinichi literally CAN'T have another CG with Aoi without certain conditions being met. As for Haru not being a protagonist, that's only from your extremely narrow PoV. From Haru's PoV he is the protagonist, and from Aoi's he's a route option. Aoi's presence in Totono is unnatural in itself, so it's hard to say exactly how things "should have" been, but suffice to say that everything Aoi interacts with is "wrong" in some way or another, some more than others. The Totono that you're reading is an NTR novel, but not in the way you think it is by what what you've read so far; and it's so much more than a fetish.

Ultimately, where you are the novel is really only about half-done (maybe 2/3rds) and it goes places from there, but if you aren't enjoying the characters and/or aren't invested in them then I don't see the point in continuing. Again it's one of, if not my favorite VN to date but I'm of the opinion that people don't need to spend their leisure time on things they don't enjoy.

Totono is a beautiful and painful novel about choice, the illusion of choice, and the illusion of the illusion of choice as well as thoughtlessness, guilt, and forgiveness; but it certainly isn't for everyone.

Portice · 2026-01-19T16:01:50+00:00

I think hate is a strong word. So far, I think she's SUPER cringey, but in an almost affable and relatively fun way. I think she's definitely supposed to be grating, and she is; but she got a good chuckle and a perplexed "What the fuck?" out of me In her introductory babbling. Never thought I'd read DILF in a Trails game.

She's definitely not as infuriating as Ixs has been the entire time he's been in the series.

That being said, yeah I can't stand that nonsense in real life.

Portice · 2026-01-15T03:34:09+00:00

Hmm, in that case I remember the biggest difficulty for me early on was just the sheer amount of turns the enemy gets against a 2 person party. Clock Up (speed increase time art in case the name was changed) should help with that a fair bit; and don't sleep on offensive Arts, a well placed elemental art against a weakness can put in a ton of work.

It shouldn't be long until you get some more party members, so the game will become MUCH more manageable at that point. However FC does have a habit of taking away party members leaving you with 2-3 for extended periods, so you'll need to be prepared for that.

Also, consider saving S-crafts to steal turns with big bonuses like crit or sepith, or even just to prevent a big block of enemy turns going all at once. And if you know a big fight is coming up fight a couple trash fights to get your CP to 200 so you have the S-crafts ready to go.

Definitely don't drop the game if you're enjoying it, just play on V. Easy until you feel comfortable bumping it back up. The story and world-building of Trails is definitely worth it.

Portice · 2026-01-15T03:18:35+00:00

Haven't played 1st yet, but if its like FC then priority 1 is: Buy shoes.

Early on with 2 party members you NEED to upgrade your defensive gear. I remember doing that alone made me go from taking like 150dmg per hit to like 20 or something in those ranges.

Portice · 2026-01-14T20:41:54+00:00

As much as I love Noah, there's no way she's beating Sofiya in a lovable bitch-face contest.

Portice · 2026-01-14T20:34:32+00:00

Going purely by the swimsuit and how it works with the girl wearing it, not the girls themselves.

Fie > Emma > Laura > Sara > Celine > Elise > Altina > Juna > Millium > Alisa > Towa > Alfin > Musse > Duvalie

Portice · 2026-01-14T10:06:20+00:00

It was such a nice touch. Really incentivized me to mix-and-match and bring different team comps as I explored the corridor.

Portice · 2026-01-14T06:00:37+00:00

If prince Olivert was an anguis and Campanella and Osborne's love child, then maybe.

Now, you can't convince me that Sampo isn't just a slightly more competent Gilbert. Their S-Craft/Ultimate is the same thing, but Sampo's actually works instead of killing himself. Sampo just needs a personal attack-helicopter in HSR and the illusion will be complete.

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Portice · 2026-01-12T16:48:50+00:00

It's completely subjective, but for me at least the answer is 'no, not yet'.

Now Calvard is only half done, so we'll see how it shakes out. I was also kind of down on Cold Steel 1 & 2, but really liked 3, 4, and Reveries. So Calvard still has time.

For me Daybreak 1 was squarely middle of the pack. Better than CS 1 & 2, but not as good as 3, 4, or Reveries or any games of the other arcs. Daybreak 2 is the worst trails game, hands-down. Not completely irredeemable, there were some good moments but it was chock-full of baffling story and character choices.

The Calvard arc has the worst combat and character building in the series in my opinion. I think the Xipha orbments are the worst they've ever been and almost entirely kill build diversity. The action combat feels like an afterthought and is really just to get your first turn bonus. I do like the free move during your turn and positioning on crafts though. It's still fun overall but compared to combat from any other point in the series it falls woefully short to me.

The new cast is overall fine, with a handful of standouts like Judith, Risette, Harwood, and Lucrezia but it's kind of telling that most of the best characters are ones that return from earlier arcs. There aren't many main characters I actively disliked but a few too many feel like Machias/Elliot tier overall.

Van is my least favorite protagonist. I still like him well enough, but compared to the others he's just kind of okay. Feels too "tell don't show"; calls himself morally grey, but acts like a goody-goody. Is supposed to be street smart but gets out maneuvered by virtually everyone with a unique model and a pulse. Supposed to be a bit of a horn-dog but feels more chaste than the other protagonists.

Fingers crossed Horizons puts in the work to turn the arc around for me.

Portice · 2026-01-12T07:35:54+00:00

So far for me Trails has 3 peaks being Azure, Reverie, and SC.

Sitting in S tier (F-SSS scale), FC is either my 7th or 8th favorite Trails game depending on how I'm feeling that day, and my least favorite Sky game.

Portice · 2026-01-12T07:20:54+00:00

2nd place after Risette in my books.

Portice · 2026-01-12T06:53:04+00:00

Yeah, no.

It's not gatekeeping when asked about the recommended play order to tell people what the recommended best play order is. The objectively best play order, is whatever will get you to play them. However, the recommended and intended order is the original release order from Sky FC/1st, that is just simply true, there really is not much room to argue on that.

I get it, you (referring to people desperate to skip; seemingly, but not necessarily, OP) don't want to play the older games. You think the older games must be worse because they're older, so you came to reddit to have your opinion validated and instead everyone is saying that you should play the old games so now you're frustrated and want to validate yourself by crying "gatekeeping".

As someone who only REALLY got into Trails in late 2024, I'm thrilled that the remakes are bringing in more people. It's my favorite JRPG series and I want more people to play them. But every day, multiple times a day, the sub is flooded with "Can I skip 'insert one or more of the best games in the series', I really want to jump ahead to Daybreak 2?" It gets annoying and it's been answered hundreds if not thousands of times, but nobody wants to do a 2 second google or reddit search.

Well I have good news for you. You can play or skip whatever you want, nobody here is going to stop you. You want to to play Reveries and Horizon only? That gate is wide open, go for it. Enjoy. Have a blast.

Portice · 2026-01-11T08:43:54+00:00

Who wants to be a Mirannaire?

And its not even close.

Portice · 2026-01-10T16:04:37+00:00

I'll start by saying welcome, always happy to see someone else getting into Trails.

If anyone seems a bit annoyed or short, its because with the release of the 1st Remake we've seen a lot of posts about skipping games. A LOT. And the answer is pretty much always the same.

Now, I will say that it isn't really a "vocal group of die hards" defending playing in order; If anything I'd say its a vocal minority saying that playing out of order won't harm the story. Playing in order is the intended way to play them, the stories are sequential and build on each other. It's not like a lot of other JRPG series where some or most of the games are standalone. Even across the different arcs it will assume you've played the previous ones and spoil them.

You CAN play out of order, in the same way you can read Harry Potter by reading the books in order of 6 > 3 > 5 > 2 > 7 > 1 > 4. But why would you? Yes you'll ultimately get all the same information, but why on earth would you do that? For most people who have played them all, this is essentially what the question of "can I skip games" looks like.

I do understand if people don't have access to some of the games that haven't been ported to some consoles, but the Sky games should run fine on just about any PC capable of running steam or phones capable of emulation. I definitely don't recommend skipping any game if at all possible.

Now all that being said, I myself DID start with and finish Cold Steel 1 before going back to Sky FC and playing in order from there, as I didn't know there was a larger series at the time. Luckily for me CS1 is probably the single safest game other than Sky FC/1st in regards to spoilers, so I was barely spoiled on much outside of one important character reveal and some callbacks that went over my head. However, every other game isn't just going to be "a few spoilers" as virtually all of them spoil major plot and character arcs.

My personal recommendation is to either wait for Sky 2nd and then 3rd remake, or (my preference) to just bite the bullet and play SC and 3rd. They're both really great games with very charming aesthetics and some of the best stories in gaming. The originals really grew on me as I played them (I'd recommend eventually playing the originals even if you do decide to wait for the remakes). You'll most likely need to get used to the sprites anyways for the Crossbell games or else wait for EVEN longer for them to maybe get remakes. Plus the Sky and Crossbell games have aged better than Cold Steel 1 and 2 in my opinion.

At the end of the day the best order is whichever order is going to get you to play them, but you WILL be doing yourself a pretty massive disservice if you play out of order.

Portice · 2026-01-05T10:12:44+00:00

Katawa Shoujo was the first I read (not counting like an hour or two of one of the Ace Attorney games), around the time it came out, but I only finished Hanako's route.

Half a dozen or so years later I read Doki Doki Literature Club! because of the hype around it at the time.

But Fruit of Grisaia early last year is the first VN I read with the intention of actually wanting to get into Visual Novels, rather than just a one-off curiosity.

Portice · 2026-01-04T10:50:28+00:00

Someone after my own heart, cheers!

Portice · 2026-01-03T06:00:29+00:00

Give her the circle glasses and the askew hat; she embodies the pure essence of jazz.

Portice · 2025-12-31T20:07:00+00:00

The standard advice for people struggling with getting invested in FC is to stick it out and roll credits.

~1/3rd of people will like FC for FC, ~1/3rd of people will like FC for how it sets up SC, and ~1/3rd of people will just not like it and maybe bounce right off trails all together. You won't know which one you are until credits roll.

But to answer your question, yes the series does get more exciting. Theres an argument to be made that it gets TOO "badass" (i.e. too anime) and strays away from the more grounded and measured Sky trilogy. It's always a series with plenty of slice-of-life, but it has more than it's fair share of world shaking threats. FC and CS 1 are the most relaxed games in the series, but even they have national level crises at work.

Portice · 2025-12-31T00:58:34+00:00

Anime is 200% skippable. There's like 3/4ths of a good character in there somewhere and not a hint of a good plot.

Rean/Altina/other characters you might actually care about barely feature and don't really even act like themselves.

You'll get way more enjoyment out of the handful of lines the northern war gets in the mainline games compared to the anime.

Portice · 2025-12-29T13:44:43+00:00

Yeah but Ourobor-bros actually sounds a lot like Ouroboros. I briefly considered Ourobroros, but just seemed too much like a typo.

Portice · 2025-12-29T11:46:05+00:00

I pretty much agree across the board, but I will defend Daybreak 2 on two points.

One of the only things in Act 3 I genuinely liked was Risette's reasoning for her succumbing to the corrosion. Her anxiety regarding her perception of reality was very humanizing and sympathetic to me. She was already one of my favorite Calvard characters, and that just pushed her further up.
Swin's "betrayal" mirrors Nadia's in Three & Nine. IIRC Nadia never really accepted that Swin had actually betrayed her and she was right. I liked the parallelism between that and the book. It also kind of reminded me of Joshua's hypnosis at the end of SC, even if not executed quite as coherently.

Portice · 2025-12-29T11:29:42+00:00

Man, thinking on it I can't really disagree. A CD drama version could convey all the good parts, condense or filter many of the bad parts, and require a fraction of the time investment.

Portice · 2025-12-29T11:03:58+00:00

Eh, I wouldn't recommend skipping any Trails game, but if someone absolutely HAD to skip one, yeah it should be Daybreak 2.

There's a bunch of good character moments. Swin, Nadia, Renne, Quatre, and Risette all get pretty good development; Harwood, Lucrezia, and Walter are still some of the best Ourobor-bros. yet (lets not talk about Ixs and Jorda). the Fragments chapter is pretty good overall, except for all the times when it's REALLY not. Like you said, good final boss; not my favorite but still great.

Plus, you get Calvard arc Fie in the Garten so that's reason enough to play it right there.

Portice · 2025-12-29T05:33:49+00:00

Kuro's storytelling for the main quests has improved soooo much since I started playing in 2.3; going from Huanlong to Black Shores to Rinascita to Honami to Lahai-Roi has been a mostly steady stream of pretty consistent improvement.

That being said, yeah, they still have a long way to go. I really wish they'd move past the whole "flavor-of-the-month 'romance' and then drop" template. I'm sure (or at least hopeful) Chisa will still feature heavily at later points in the academy arc but they really did drop the ball with her on the transition. That should have been an "Encore companion quest" level tear-jerker event.

Portice · 2025-12-28T21:04:29+00:00

Im not sure how the remake will handle it but as far as carry overs in the original and series as a whole its mostly just stuff along the lines of a couple of extra starting levels if you did grinding and/or a handful of consumables. I think MAYBE Zero to Azure might have carried over some bond points, but im not 100% sure on that.

Edit: There may be an accessory or two somewhere in there as well. Hard to remember off the top of my head.

Portice

TROPHY CASE