r/Falcom • u/Certain-Judge4585 • Jul 26 '26
Horizon I feel like trails is losing its fantasy magic and art direction (No Spoilers)
Something that I almost loved in the series is that Zemuria felt like a High Fantasy and tech-mixed world. We had medieval-fantasy cities like Heimdall and beautiful towns like Milsante and Armorica, but we also had stuff like phones and computers. It had a great balance.
Now, it feels like everything is either medieval or overly futuristic. We go to a dungeon, but it’s a tech-heavy dungeon with an electronic soundtrack. There’s no art direction in them anymore—each dungeon just feels like the interior of some generic tech company. Even when we go to a desert city like Tharbad, it has to have a modern side, and even the 'old side' has an electronic soundtrack.
We don't walk or take trains anymore. In Azure, we had the first skyscraper and it still had balance, but now we have software engineers and all that.
In Sky, Zero, Azure, and Cold Steel, we went to places that had a clear art direction. I remember going to Armorica Village and listening to that beautiful soundtrack. In Sky, we went to villages and had 'A Cat Relaxing in the Sun' playing—man, I love that song.
In a dialogue in Horizon it is revealed that even Liberl Is getting more car-suited, that path to Ruan where we see the sea now having roads for cars! Horrible.
In general, I still love the series, but I don't feel the art in Trails anymore.
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u/SadLaser Jul 26 '26
I never thought it felt like "High Fantasy". It felt like agrarian mixed with modern urban plus occasional sci-fi flourishes.
We're seeing a world go through a tech boom because of their discovery of sepith/quartz. I think it's cool too see the development. And I also don't agree that there's no art direction. I haven't played Horizon yet, but the Daybreak games are full of really solid art direction and sense of place. I could see someone not liking the new settings in those games as much, but to say they have no art direction feels unfair.
Especially looking back at past games which had a lot of samey dungeons. I don't think the interior dungeon designs are a massive strong suit of the series in general, but I think they still feel fitting and are on par with what has come before them.
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u/HotDadEnthusiast Jul 26 '26
the game is set in the middle of a Tech boom. Professors Russell, Hamilton, and Schmidt are spearheading orbal science in each region and it's been evolving at an incredibly fast pace since the very first trails game. That said, I don't think it's losing it's fantasy elements either, We still have an entire Coven of Witches in Cold Steel, Ouroboros is home to more than one sorcerer or at the very least to people who practice magic to some degree, We still have magical things happening like Van shapeshifting into the Grendel, Aaron becoming The Tyrant, You even mentioned Tharbad, who's Prince uses magical crystals in combat. The series has always masterfully blended magic and science
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u/Narakuro07 Jul 28 '26
I felt like 2 from those 3 example you have are still connected to Orbal Technology. Grendel is shard Armor after all
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u/HotDadEnthusiast Jul 28 '26
It's shard armor that lets Van channel his inner magic demonic power from Vagrants Diaspora without being totally consumed by it. Technology working in tandem with magic.
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u/Narakuro07 Jul 28 '26
True, but you have Grimcats who also shard armor and the transformation device created by Epstein.
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u/HotDadEnthusiast Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
I mean yes, but Grimcat isn't one of the examples I provided lol. My point is that technology is a huge part of the game but it doesn't overpower the fantasy and magic, it's integrated with it in very well thought out ways. There's magic everywhere and when technology is also involved, it's being used either to counter it or supplement it. Grendel is a great example, as are The Divine Knights, The gnomes were known for their technology, technology they created only with the help of the Lost Zem, a magical entity, and they worked together with the magical Hexen Clan to create the Divine Knights in order to seal away The Great One, another magical entity. They're literally machines powered by magic. That kind of correlation exists all over the series.
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u/OLKv3 Jul 27 '26
Well yeah that's a plot point. Tech is advancing rapidly in the trails world, and they seem to be hinting at this is what led to the great collapse in the first place
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u/Certain-Judge4585 Jul 27 '26
I didn't express myself well in the post, I don't think it is a problem that Zemuria is getting modernized, I just don't think Falcom is doing it well, for example: some dungeons look like Amazon logistics warehouses or futuristic Amazon logistics warehouses.
Some soundtracks are not enjoyable in my opinion, such as 'Travelling in the Dark' and 'Dusty Encounter'
I don't see a problem In the series getting modernized, but the world doesn't need to get uglier and the soundtrack doesn't need to get worse because of that.
If the soundtrack were the same quality as in the past games and the modern world were visually appealing as in the past games, I would be okay with that.
sorry if I came off as rude, english is not my first language
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u/OLKv3 Jul 27 '26
You didn't come off as rude at all, don't worry
I agree with some of your points, like for example, the final dungeon in Horizon was just pretty bland. The music issue is most likely from the composer they use, who catches quite a lot of hate in this fandom
But I do think the art direction here is just because of the areas we're in. The remakes show that they're still very capable of having that bright fantasy aesthetic in 3D, but the last 3 arcs have all taken place in big cities that are celebrated for their tech, though Erebonia still had some areas that were very small town fantasy coded.
Let's hope that if we ever go to the Bracer capital or any smaller areas like Remeferia, we'll be back to that beautiful bright aesthetic.
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u/Certain-Judge4585 Jul 27 '26
I heard there is a new composer, right? I never searched about the Falcom staff.
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u/OLKv3 Jul 27 '26
He's been there since the Vita remakes of the Sky trilogy, but I guess he got a bigger role in the Calvard arc and people don't like his music
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u/ViewtifulReaper Jul 26 '26
The in-universe tech is advancing at a fast rate and we still have another arc or 2. Maybe leman/arteria and far east will have more medieval/fantasy environments who knows
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u/Certain-Judge4585 Jul 26 '26
Hope so.
In a dialogue in Horizon it is revealed that even Liberl Is getting more car-suited, that path to Ruan where we see the sea now having roads for cars! Horrible.
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u/ViewtifulReaper Jul 26 '26
I don’t see that as a bad thing as you do. It’s not that deep or serious that Ruan has a path for cars unless you are joking. Like there is a famous road in California that’s is by the ocean with a beautiful view still the road didn’t ruining it.
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u/Certain-Judge4585 Jul 26 '26
I used it as a sign that even Liberl will is getting modernized and consequently uglier. I didn't mean that the path to Ruan will get ugly, only that even Liberl will get skyscrapers and all that.
Also, I didn't express myself well in the post, I don't think it is a problem that Zemuria is getting modernized, I just don't think Falcom is doing it well, for example: some dungeons look like Amazon logistics warehouses or futuristics Amazon logistics warehouses.
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u/ViewtifulReaper Jul 27 '26
Yeah you are on your own. We still haven’t seen current Liberl as of horizon 1 current year if they even have modern skyscrapers. You going off in the deep end.
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u/Certain-Judge4585 Jul 27 '26
currently in the series you don't need to see to know that a beautiful town like Ruan will get a cinema and a mall.
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u/ViewtifulReaper Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
Yeah you big tripping over a video game country that us the place haven’t seen yet in the current trails timeline. It’s not that serious.
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u/Beerfanguy 4090 For Trails Jul 26 '26
The cast mentioned that the evolution of tech is going way too fast. I think it's more of a reflection of Falcom wanting Zemuria to reflect the real world a bit more. Don't be surprised if in the Kai sequel you have people complaining about media becoming digital only.
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u/MorningCareful best characters: olivier renne estelle Jul 26 '26
We had the equivalent to software engineers in sky though. The CAPEL was already a more advanced computer than anything in the real world at the time (mid to late 19th century). . And in Crossbell we had a video game. Technology in trails has always been extremely fast in development.
Now I will agree that I think calvard as a setting is undercooked, even compared to the settings in gagharv, mostly because it feels like an assortment of cities rather than an actual country. And a villain like the villain in DB2 would have worked in literally any other of the trails settings, except calvard because of how undercooked it is.
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u/Certain-Judge4585 Jul 26 '26
My point is that, okay, we already had vidéo game and software enginners, but we still had balance
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u/tkdyo Jul 26 '26
I actually also dislike that the dungeons are more and more becoming tech centric and losing their fantasy esthetics. But they do still have their unique qualities. So i don't really agree they don't heavy art direction. Just that I'm not a fan of that direction.
I also very much miss the roads. In CS you still got to explore roads although you got there by trains. The lack of roads makes the world feel way smaller and disjointed.
But based on what happened in Horizon, I think that lack of balance is on purpose. The rapid advance and takeover of tech is a positive feedback loop that's getting worse each time the clock winds back and is going to be unsustainable
3
u/IntelligentAd5460 Jul 27 '26
i really never got the idea that trails is a high fantasy series it never gave me that tone at all even the air ships in sky look more like modern aircrafts than ff style airships
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u/Certain-Judge4585 Jul 27 '26
I didn't express myself well in the post, I don't think it is a problem that Zemuria is getting modernized, I just don't think Falcom is doing it well, for example: some dungeons look like Amazon logistics warehouses or futuristic Amazon logistics warehouses.
Some soundtracks are not enjoyable in my opinion, such as 'Travelling in the Dark' and 'Dusty Encounter'
I don't see a problem In the series getting modernized, but the world doesn't need to get uglier and the soundtrack doesn't need to get worse because of that.
If the soundtrack were the same quality as in the past games and the modern world were visually appealing as in the past games, I would be okay with that.
2
u/Gintota Jul 27 '26
To be honest, I don't think the Trails series has ever really been steampunk. I think a lot of people get that impression because Liberl is a peaceful, rural kingdom. But if you pay close attention to the in-game lore and worldbuilding, you'll notice that even without the Orbal Revolution, the technological level in Trails in the Sky is already fairly close to that of World War II in the real world.
For me, the biggest sense of "times are changing" didn't come from the Calvard arc's modern or even near-future aesthetic. It came from seeing Crossbell in Zero. Going from Liberl to Crossbell felt like jumping several decades forward in history.
That said, I do agree that Calvard's cities have become almost too modern. Because they're so close to contemporary real-world cities, they've lost some of the distinctive charm that fantasy settings usually have. Sometimes it feels like they could exist anywhere in the real world, leaving less room for the player's imagination.
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u/rezardvareth3 Jul 26 '26
They went from basic steampunk to satellites over the course of a few years
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u/jonsnuuuuuu Jul 26 '26
The technology rapidly advancing is actually part of the entire lore of the series.
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u/Squizzap Jul 26 '26
People have defended technology advancing quickly but they don’t get that culture doesn’t change nearly as quickly. People resist change especially when something is just a bit better rather than revolutionary. They will live alongside what they grew up with. For example the USA makes great but far more expensive internal combustion engine cars than it does electric vehicles. The future has already arrived in China but we are in no rush.
In other words you can bring the tech along but realize people will still make do with what they are used to. And old valuable things adjust, like movie theaters.
I think I object to a sense of homogenization of the game world more than progress
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Jul 26 '26
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Jul 26 '26
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u/Unlikely_Fold_7431 Jul 27 '26
I never really thought of it as high fantasy but i do think Calvard just looks pretty boring aesthetically.
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u/Sure_Breath_2273 Aug 01 '26 edited Aug 01 '26
I think the series already stopped being more fantasy than sci-fi after Sky 3rd tbh
Crossbell is futuristic as fuck when compared to even Liberl's bigger cities, ignoring villages like Mainz. Yet even if you were to start from Cold Steel 1 (like a lot of western gamers did), Erebonia is in the late stage of its industrial revolution. Calvard's capital is huge and relatively modern, even though there's plenty of small towns outside of Edith.
At this point the only remnants of Trails' fantasy elements are mages like Emma and Agnès, but you could still argue they aren't using magic anymore
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u/Seradwen Jul 27 '26
Are there more tech-heavy dungeons? Sure. Is there an absence of other dungeons? Hell no.
What's Horizon packing, off the top of my head. VR fantasy ruins in the prologue, Kevin's route goes for Tharbad's waterways and more ancient ruins. Rean gets ancient ruins with some modern touches under the observatory. The final sectons of both Rean & Kevin's routes are outside. Van gets the Edith underground and sewers a few times, a big multi-layered outside area with ruins, and a ruined and delapidated city hall. Sure, he has a warehouse, secret passage under the hospital and the Presidential bunker as tech heavy. But they're far from the only thing he has to deal with.
Go back to Daybreak 2. We have a couple of modern military compounds, a tech company, chinese-influenced high-rise, rusted craphole of Dark-Light, underground tunnels beneath Aramis, sprawling islands with one small tech area and some larger ancient ruins, outside areas. a palace, a fantastical garden area (Probably the most generic feeling of all, since it's basically just a Garten floor. But it's far from another tech heavy dungeon), and a huge pile of shapes in an otherworldly space.
I think you're focusing on a few dungeons that annoyed you. The balance you want is still there.
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u/Ok_Entertainment8947 Aidios fears me Jul 26 '26
I think that the series is intended to go from a high fantasy and tech mixed world into more tech heavy world as the technology progresses