I just finished (on January 9, 2024) The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC after knocking out FC in August 2023, and I plan to wrap up the trilogy at some point this year. These games are great for a lot of reasons, but the combat systems have been especially stuck in my head. I don't think everything about the combat is particularly necessary or good, but I do find it interesting. I wanna break it down and explore some of what I find interesting about it.
Turn Order
Probably my favorite thing to fiddle with in Trails' combat is turn order. There are 3 timings battle actions can have:
- Immediate: Character does the action as soon as you input it. Most battle actions use this timing.
- Delayed: When you input the action, the character queues up its execution for a later turn. This only applies to Arts (magic spells, basically), though some enemies have Crafts (special non-magic attacks) that have Delayed execution.
- Pre-emptive: These actions are inserted immediately ahead of the current friendly character's turn, without using up the current character's turn. This only applies to S-Crafts (stronger Crafts).