This game could be SO much better, but it really struggles to implement all of the pieces into a solid experience. The variety in building, tech tree, research mechanics, etc, don't matter at all when the execution is so poor. If you buy this game, get ready to spend a few hours just staring at the screen wondering why your drones aren't doing anything. Occaisionally they follow commands and build, often they don't, and it's really incredible that a city building game makes it so difficult to actually build anything. Even after doing the tutorial, I have played several rounds without even being able to get a single colonist. My drones will either not do anything, or build a couple structures before just stopping entirely. Forget a city - it's a struggle to get a single citizen.
I started the Trails in the Sky series after reading all the reviews. After finishing the first game I liked it, but didn't love it. It was good but dated. I started SC just to see where the story went, wasn't expecting too much. But WOW. What an emotional ride. A game and a half of setup and world building all pays off in the second half of SC, and what I thought was a pretty good series jumped into my favorite games of all time list. Sky SC does an incredible job of making complex themes relatable, tacking death, family relationships, politics, war, and more. And while the story centers around two main characters - Estelle and Joshua - never has an RPG made me care so much about villians and side characters.
Just replayed this game for the first time since it released on Dreamcast over a decade and a half ago. There's parts of it that are rough around the edges, but what it does well it does really well. The graphics didn't age very well in my opinion - this looks like a high res N64 game. Textures can be blurry and character models are very low detail. But it's easy to look past when the game shines where it counts: 1) The story, dialogue, and voice acting are surprisingly good. I remember this as being the weaker RPG story on Dreamcast (behind Skies of Arcadia), and that was a bit unfair. It's not an all time great but it is very good and much better than most JRPGs. 2) The combat, which is still widely praised today, holds up. It's extremely deep and strategic, very well done, and addictive. My one minor gripe was that the game is slightly easy, even on hard, but I still really enjoyed it.
