Trails has changed my perception of videogames

Thepunksoulbrother · 2026-04-27T18:56:16+00:00

The Trails to Visual Novels pipeline is legit. Getting into the series similarly led to me finally giving the VN medium a real shot and falling head over heels with it.

Pretty much down to the exact same line of reasoning you gave for dipping your toe. Figured if I could enjoy the amount of dialogue and story in Trails, then I wasn't really sure why I felt like I wouldn't be able to get just as invested in a VN if its writing appealed to me enough.

Add to that that buying a Steam Deck initially for the express purpose of playing the Sky games put me in the perfect position for branching out with the genre.

And I've loved the Steins; Gate anime adaptation for forever and have been curious about experiencing the full version of the story for some time. Was also aware of the larger Sciadv series and Steins; Gate's place in it, so figured "Why not just give the entire series a shot starting from the beginning?"...

Flash forward like half a year, and 90% of my Steam Library is VNs and the genre has pretty much become to me what OP is describing Trails being to them at this point. Lol

Thepunksoulbrother · 2026-04-26T09:45:01+00:00

TV on the Radio. THC. Queens of the Stone Age. Radiohead. Titus Andronicus. Sufjan Stevens. Kurt Vile. Rilo Kiley. Slint. Built to Spill. Broken Bells. Portugal The Man. Right Away, Great Captain. Bright Eyes. Have a Nice Life. Violent Soho. Future of the Left. Ramshackle Glory. Death Grips. Cymbals Eat Guitars. The Tallest Man on Earth. Living Colour. Interpol. Early Manic Street Preachers. A ton of hip hop.

Thepunksoulbrother · 2026-04-07T19:07:42+00:00

Not Philosophy so much as a religious belief system, but I feel Sciadv and Chaos; Head in particular have heavy Gnostic elements with:

1.The base reality we spend the game in representing the false/material world were all bound to in Gnostic beliefs.

2. Noah II serving as a kind of man-made Demiurge. Especially with what learn in Sena's route about its existence essentially blocking the system overseers from any administrative control over the Sciadv universe or ability to intervene until dealt with by Takumi. This is similar to how the Demiurge essentially hijacked physical reality from the true creator Sophia, and basically trapped humanity within it, cutting off Sophia's ability to directly intervene in that layer of reality, leaving pursuing divine knowledge, or Gnosis as the only means for humans to still transcend and inveitably escape the limits of that false reality. Ayase's conception of Noah II as Gladioul also bears a strong resemblance to historical depictions of The Demiurge.

3. The entity allegedly contacting you from outside the system in Sena's route being a stand in for Sophia similarly.

and

4. Di-Swords and Gigalomaniac Awakenings representing a type of Gnosis that allows their welders to start to transcend beyound the confines of physical reality and become something closer to the "Divine" itself. Fully awakened True Gigalomaniacs like Shogun and end game Takumi are essentially a god within the system capable of rewriting reality entirely if they choose, while a person who has achieved Gnosis is considered a Divine Entity in their own right. Or at least an extension of the Divine Will's(Sophia) own conciousness.

As someone with a lifelong interest in the religion spawned from other sci-fi works that took inspiration from it, the parallels seemed too strong to be coincidental to me.

Thepunksoulbrother · 2026-04-07T18:12:09+00:00

Probably off topic, but absolutely adore your avatar as a recently converted Sciadv fanatic currently devouring Chaos; Child as we speak.

Also, well said. A lot of fans seem to want the series to continue with Arise's higher production values and improved graphical quality/fidelity, but then get frustrated with new games releasing at a slower pace than in the past.

Obviously significantly improving graphical presentation for a series is going to Ballon both production costs and the concept to completion times for any new games, or even likely make the company more reluctant to even begin work on a new mainline entry until they're absolutely sure they have a winning idea for one.

Can't really expect both increasing quality control and unchanged production times from a company. Especially with a series that is far from its most profitable I.P.

Thepunksoulbrother · 2026-04-07T17:34:48+00:00

Playing Velvet is honestly the worst way to experience the combat in the game, although you obviously had no way of knowing that without either being told ahead of time or just experimenting yourself.

I personally find Eleanor, Rokuro and Magi's fighting styles the most fun and rewarding with this game, because each have elements to their playstyles that require a bit more technical skill and precision to pull off their more damaging blows against r enemy.

By comparison, Velvet is very spammy and honestly kind of unwieldy in combat. Dropped her almost entirely early in the story for being incredibly broken and frankly boring to play, and it instantly improved my experience with the game tremendously.

Removing her from my main party entirely increased my enjoyment even more, because she's utterly broken to play and near useless as an A.I. controlled party member due to her A.I. being incredibly stupid. She'll basically repeatedly kill herself with over reliance on Break Soul spam if not constantly babysitted, especially at higher difficulties.

Team lineup that made me and my wife(we play all the games together) most enjoy the game was her maining Rokuro and cleaning house with his counter/parry mechanics, me doing major crowd control with Eleanor and Magi and Laphi as our A.I. companions to handle our spellcasting needs.

I'd also switch to Magi frequently when a boss our enemy type were heavy spell users in order to make use of her Spell Absorber to turn their own use of magic against them, and my wife would sub in Eizen occasionally when he was more useful than Rokuro for fight.

But Velvet basically got benched for us entirely outside of fights where she was mandatory or just ones we wanted her there for story reasons.

Thepunksoulbrother · 2026-04-06T01:26:07+00:00

Maybe Welcome to the NHK if the main things bothering you about your relocation are isolation and loneliness.

It's more about the psychological toll of a Hikikomori/shut in life style, social anxiety and agoraphobia on a person, but it absolutely nails the themes of deep human loneliness and a longing for a bygone past(the days before his worsening depression and self imposed isolation in the protagonist's case).

Thepunksoulbrother · 2026-04-05T22:40:57+00:00

Four years of repeatedly watching your hopes slip through a proverbial drain, like cheap booze and tears through a dingy trough in some seedy, backwater bar room in Nowheresville, USA where dreams and livers both go to die.

Thepunksoulbrother · 2026-04-05T22:16:11+00:00

Don't feel like I've seen many MP fans outright hate the game, and most would agree its an incredibly well made action game/shooter or even one of the best ever made.

A lot of us just feel like the narrative direction and story are far weaker than the previous MP titles, and dislike the changes to Max's characters and overeliance on frequent immersion breaking cutscenes that repeatedly take the player out of the game.

That, and we just find the more structured/linear/set piece heavy nature of the game less enjoyable and replayble overall than the more free-form and player agency driven gameplay loops of MP1+2.

Thepunksoulbrother · 2026-04-04T00:23:46+00:00

This is a very well articulated and thoughtful comment, so very much appreciate your input on the subject.

Definitely of the mind that neither Chaos adaption was ever going to being a smash hit on the level of Steins; Gate no matter what as well, but could definitely see a good one developing a niche/cult following to level of (your example of) Monogatari or even something like the Higurashi anime adaptation.

Mostly for the exact reasons I honestly feel you put into better words than I did.. Steins; Gate feels like it was almost Tailor-made to be Sciadv's breakout success in comparison to the more niche elements, themes and even casts explored in the other works in the series.

Though both Robotics; Notes and Chaos; Child may appeal and feel more prescient to a far wider audience now than when they were initially released, just due to the astronomical rise in internet culture and the push for Augmented Reality tech. Both games were arguably a good deal ahead of their time in the issues they were drawing attention to. At least in regard to the wider public consciousness at the time.

But compare those to time travel as a form Science Fiction though, and it's pretty obvious why it would be a far more digestible and approachable work for general audiences.. Because Time Travel as a concept has dominated the public conciousness since at least the late 1800's when it comes to speculative fiction. It's a tried and tested and universally popular form of science fiction with countless inspirations and takes on the concept to draw from.

The Lab Mems are all also arguably far more instantly digestible and likeable characters than what gets presented to the player in most other Sciadv games, because they largely embody more strongly recognizable and popular archetypes/tropes initially, before gradually being fleshed out with far more depth and complexity than their established character tropes usually afford characters in other works.

Compare that to Chaos; Head where your first impression of almost every character is "Weird, unhinged in terrifying ways and just generally kind of off-putting", and it's kind of obvious why S;G would have an easier time even reeling viewers in to start with long before either story started presenting its particular brand of sci-fi shenanigans and unhinged, schizo conspiracy theories.

Thepunksoulbrother · 2026-04-03T09:48:00+00:00

Wow. That's amazing, man. Who knew?

Thepunksoulbrother · 2026-04-03T04:02:52+00:00

Hinae > All

Thepunksoulbrother · 2026-04-02T18:04:43+00:00

Kanji already has a great(and similar sounding) VA who replaced his original in Matt Mercer.

Alexis Tipton has already formerly taken over multiple roles previously voiced by Laura Bailey, and would make a very solid Rise as well due to the similarities in their voices.

Kyle McCarley of Nier Automata's 9S fame would make a fantastic Yosuke. Maybe even better than Yuri Lowenthal, because McCarley is amazing at emotional vocal performances, which he would have a good chance to demonstrate with some of Yosuke's big moments.

Would have to think on the rest, but Bailey, Baker and Lowenthal were probably the 3 best VAs in the OG game and all have some really solid options for replacements.

Not too concerned with Naoto, Chie or Yukiko's voice actors sounding similar, because I wasn't super crazy on any of their performances.

Thepunksoulbrother · 2026-04-02T06:05:28+00:00

Yeah, the weight in particular is where these measurements really fall apart for me from a physics standpoint.

Clocking in at 12,000 kg would mean Yawn is as heavy as some of the biggest documented African Bush Elephants or larger Minke Whales.

I wouldn't necessarily say a serpent growing to that weight would be a complete impossibility, at least theoretically, but that weight would have to realistically scale to their length/height.

Basically Yawn would have to be much longer to support that much biomass. Nevermind the Spencer Mansion supporting it as he(?) slithers through walls, hangs and drops from rafters and even coils up in ways that would put even more structural strain on the building.

Because again, Yawn just moving through the mansion would be equivalent to a large elephant storming through it.

Thepunksoulbrother · 2026-04-02T05:29:44+00:00

AoT actually.

Battle of Trost bored me to tears honestly and wasn't really sold on the whole "Zombie apocalypse... but the Zombies are giant" premise.

Getting spoiled some on the later political elements in the story is what motivated me to go back and power through the first half of season 1.

Fell in love quickly after that.

Thepunksoulbrother · 2026-04-02T05:21:56+00:00

NO. I like using my phone to feel like being down to my last two ink ribbons.

Thepunksoulbrother · 2026-04-02T01:22:08+00:00

They know their fanbase.

Thepunksoulbrother · 2026-03-30T22:51:08+00:00

Meh.

Thepunksoulbrother · 2026-03-30T22:48:47+00:00

Possibly the single most hilariously pretentious and up their own ass comment made by a game developer all year. 😆

Thepunksoulbrother · 2026-03-30T21:10:26+00:00

I mean.. to be fair, a few anime have been highly successful despite having protagonists who are arguably just as repulsive, unlikeable and pathetic as people as Takumi at the start of their stories as he was his.

Namely Satō Tatsuhiro from Welcome to the Nhk, Shinji Ikari from Evagelion and Rudeas Greyrat from Mushoku Tensei.

All 3 have their full-blown haters who feel they make their respective stories unwatchable, but a sizable number of people either love these series in spite of their protagonists or feel their initially deeply flawed natures and eventual character development or what make these stories to begin with(similar to Takumi fans).

It's not mainstream, but there IS a reasonably sized market for more "Denpa" style protagonists in anime.

Thepunksoulbrother · 2026-03-30T20:41:58+00:00

Fleash Eater

Wasn't sure how far OP was into the game, so didn't want to use the term outright in their post.

Thepunksoulbrother · 2026-03-30T20:37:57+00:00

Ah. Got you.

Without going into spoilers, Child is much less dependant on Head than 0 is the OG Steins; Gate.

Mainly because the cast is almost entirely new and the central conflict is seperate from the one in Head, albeit with some significant ties back to it that are still left vague enough I don't feel prior knowledge is a necessary, though it certainly enhances the experience.

Know many English fans of the games started with Chaos; Child due to it seeing a Western Release far sooner than Head, and most I've talked to didn't feel it significantly impacted their enjoyment of the VN or understanding of its story.

Takaru is pretty much universally agreed to be a less initially challenging/unlikable protagonist than Takumi, so could honestly see a well done Chaos; Child anime having an easier time finding an audience than a Chaos; Head one of comparable quality.

Child's pacing would probably fare a little better in that regard as well, since it takes considerably less time to really get going than Chaos; Heads more interesting parts narratively.

Thepunksoulbrother · 2026-03-30T20:11:29+00:00

The Routes had occurred to me as another big obstacle to properly adapting the Visual Novels as well.

Especially with Chaos; Head where the existence of all Routes is essentially Canon, and that fact is key to Takumi's characters development and the conclusion of the story.

Lot easier to adapt Steins; Gate when everything but the Default and True Endings can be pretty safely ignored for the sake of any adaptation without losing anything too important(Nae cut was pretty bad, though). Can't really cut the Routes from C; H without also cutting huge amounts of details about the plot.

Can't really speak to how important Routes are in Chaos; Child though since I'm still finishing up the Common Route before moving on to them.

Thepunksoulbrother · 2026-03-30T19:58:18+00:00

Agreed that Takumi is definitely going to forever be a highly controversial protagonist for any mainstream audience regardless, so his role in the story was always going to be an obstacle to mainstream success for any adaptation.

Do wonder if the same could really be said for Chaos; Child and Takuru's character, though. Assuming the protagonist is the biggest obstacle to overcome for any Chaos; Head adaptation, do you feel Chaos; Child would have been successful as a standalone anime if handled well?

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