It may not have the same structure of the previous two games, but this is Trails at its best when it comes to the writing, gameplay, and music. Especially the music. Don't skip this one. This game acts as a story bridge between the more self-contained FC / SC and the larger world seen in later Trails entries, giving a lot of welcome backstory and epilogue to all your favourite characters and some you didn't think about much, as well as a decent amount of foreshadowing. It's not nearly as long as the previous games, and a lot of it is technically optional, so it doesn't overstay its welcome.
To be honest, if you aren't willing to put up with the ancient gameplay quirks that come from 2D sprites representing 3D objects in space that you're supposed to be aiming at while travelling and turning at a speed dependent on how many objects are in your view range (getting down to a pitiful fraction of the full speed in many encounters), the first game might need to be passed over. But parts of its presentation are impressive even today, and the storytelling of the series is a great focus from the start. There are several possible branching paths for the story and the missions to go depending on how good or bad you do, with cutscenes and chats among the pilots for it all. This game is incredibly hard if you want to stay on the "best" path, but quite fun if you can look past its age. The second game improves on the first in almost every way except story branches, and makes the gameplay much smoother, so it's easier to start with. Way more (good) cutscenes and story. Still stupid hard though, if not harder. If you want to taste the beginnings of the genre, it's still ready for you, but less dedicated gamers will probably enjoy the third game or later classics like Tie-Fighter and Freespace 2 infinitely more.
As much as I love Rayman 2 with a similar nostalgia to this game, thinking on it now I can say 3 has much better combat and enemy design, and is generally less frustrating in the platforming department due to a better camera and no instant death water/pits. This game is also notably harder than 2 to my memory, though in a fair way, with much more complex fights, and a tough struggle to get a high "score" through a combination of collectible gems and enemy kill combos. There's a lot of variation in the levels, and each section generally has its own gimmicks not seen elsewhere which add rather than detract from the game so long as you're paying attention to how they work. This time around there is a focus on humour with the introduction of voiced dialogue, and it generally is actually funny in a sarcastic way with no fourth wall, but of course that's going to be subjective. The music in this game is excellent, to cap it off. I think the main game was a little too short though, even if as a kid it took me ages to complete (especially that beautiful devil of a last boss--perhaps the most satisfying action finale I've played, but man was it hard the first time around). Sadly, the tutorial guide character lies when he promises that he will "see you in Rayman 4"...
This game surprised me with how much depth it offered and how much I liked the characters, even if it isn't quite "amazing" at anything. Perhaps the greatest strength of this game is in it's high attention to detail in its world and setup for future mysteries (and sequels) without feeling the need to make a big deal of it. Nearly every NPC in the game will have a name, and will change their dialogue over time or act as recurring extras you can get a small story from if you pay attention. The overall story was also well done, if a bit too cliche and predictable at times, with an excellent build-up in scale. It's no Final Fantasy VI, but it tries hard. The protagonist is basically the daughter of a previous (non-existant) story's legendary hero, but doesn't know it, and sets out to fill his shoes while he's away, which is a premise I really like. The combat was enjoyable, often required actual thought, and rarely required grinding if you did sidequests, with the XP gains from particular monsters scaling down relative to your level till it becomes worthless. I definitely liked it more than the classic Final Fantasy style, but it has its weaknesses when it comes to the lack of variety in ways to counter spells and effects. I felt like I abused the powers the game gave me to make the final boss a cakewalk by simply spamming the completely impervious "Stone Wall" spell each round which negates an attack on each party member. Plus some fights (notably one of the last bosses) were heavily dependent on a particular status effect to be challenging, and so were either a nigh-unwinnable nightmare or rather simple with the right equipment. Some enemies *always* try to stop you from casting a spell if you are doing so, which is easily abusable to prevent bad attacks. New equipment was almost always a linear upgrade rather than an interesting choice, with accessories being the exception. Spell animations also were painfully long, but there is a turbo button. Solid 8/10 for me.
This game is fun and beloved for a reason, don't get me wrong, but it has major flaws once you get familiar with it enough. On the gameplay side there are huge disparities between the power of different stats and classes as the game goes on due to how underutilized many of the systems are. For instance, a force-power-focused character (especially dark-siders) built right will start a little weak but go on to become death incarnate to a degree that honestly makes combat boring with few exceptions. The reason for this is huge area-of-effect powers with no risk of friendly fire, whereas everyone else is stuck dealing with a single enemy at a time. Furthermore, only Persuade is an important skill for the player to have (some Repair helps with one companion though), since everything else can either be done by your easily-swapped companions or simply ignored due to its trivial benefits. Another major issue has to do with the fact that the main character doesn't gain force points or powers retroactively, meaning that it is usually best to simply never level up your character for the first few hours until you change to a Jedi class, due to the level cap. Not fun. The gameplay UI is truly awful, too, since you need to constantly cycle through items and powers one at a time with no quickbar. Story wise things are better, but often still a little basic and cliche. Dialogue is nothing to write home about, and only a few quests really stand out. Your dialogue choices tend to be painfully basic and binary, with the dark side options being cartoon-villainy with no hint of cunning or tact. One of the companions is really great and lampshades these sorts of things, but he is contrasted by mostly-shallow alternatives. The plot involves some interesting elements and a famous twist, but again it's really lacking in complexity, especially compared to KOTOR 2. Alas, this game is outdone in almost every way by its flawed masterpiece of a sequel (given community patches).
