History YMMV / TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky

* DevelopmentHell: To counter ''development heaven'' mentioned above: the localization team was not prepared for what awaited them while they started working on SC. Lots of things went wrong (including using the wrong format for the translation script and only discovering that ''after'' they completed the translation, unexpected delays, and worst of all, ''one of the localizers attempting '''suicide'''''). We should be thankful that the localization eventually concluded successfully. The chest with the message from the localizers pleading for help? It was put there as a memorial to remind everyone how difficult it was to actually localize the game!

* DevelopmentHell: To counter ''development heaven'' mentioned above: the localization team was not prepared for what awaited them while they were working on SC. Lots of things went wrong (including using the wrong format for the translation script, unexpected delays, and ''one of the localizers attempting '''suicide'''''). We should be thankful that the localization eventually concluded successfully. The chest with the message from the localizers pleading for help? It was put there as a memorial to remind everyone how difficult it was to actually localize the game!

** The final boss of ''SC'', [[spoiler:Angel Weissman]] has Ruined World Noaba. Small violet circles will appear around the party and you have one turn before they go off. That's your single chance to run like hell, because if they're in its range when his turn comes up, that character will be [[DeaderThanDead permanently Vanished for the rest of the battle]]. There's no way to revive them and they're out of commission for the final fight when you need them most. If it's [[CrutchCharacter Joshua]], you're screwed. And if your characters are trapped either due to the playfield being destroyed (which is a gimmick in this battle) or by being surrounded by enemies, welp, you're done.

** The final boss of ''SC'', [[spoiler:Angel Weissman]] has Ruined World Noaba. Small violet circles will appear around the party and you have one turn before they go off. That's your single chance to run like hell, because if they're in its range when his turn comes up, that character will be [[DeaderThanDead permanently Vanished for the rest of the battle]]. There's no way to revive them and they're out of commission for the final fight when you need them most. If it's [[CrutchCharacter Joshua]], you're screwed.

* The ''Save the Miners'' hidden sidequest in Chapter VIII of SC. It's basically a bunch of battles which place a civilian in your battle between you and the monsters. If the monsters gets to go first and they gang up on the civilian...
* The Battle to save Josette on the ark to during the Finale. Again, like ''Save the Miners'' above, you better pray that the monsters don't get first dibs and gang up on Josette.

* CompleteMonster: [[spoiler:[[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist Georg Weissmann]], the primary villain of both ''FC'' and ''SC'', [[FauxAffablyEvil masquerades]] as a seemingly-helpful archaeologist named Professor Alba before revealing himself as a high-ranking member of the secret organization of [[Characters/TrailsSeriesOuroboros Ouroboros]] and [[TheChessmaster the architect of the game's plot]]. Taking advantage of the [[HatePlague Curse of Ishmelga]], Weissmann would use soldiers influenced by the curse to trigger the Hundred Days War by massacring the village of Hamel, before brainwashing Joshua into becoming a ruthless used to assassinate rivals standing in Weissmann's way. After failing to assassinate Estelle's father Cassius, Weissmann attempted to have Joshua himself killed for his failure. At the end of ''FC'', Weissmann restores Joshua's lost memories just to gleefully observe Joshua going through an emotional trauma. Towards the end of ''SC'', Weissmann seeks the ancient city of Liberl Ark, intending on gaining the godlike power of the Sept-Terrion of Space within to reshape humanity as he sees fit. Manipulating Joshua's mind once again, Weissmann attempts to have him execute Estelle so that he can enjoy seeing Joshua break emotionally.]]

** Many Arts target an area instead an individual monster or indivdual monsters. Meaning that often you just have to cast based on you where you think the monster or monsters are ''going to be'' and hope.

* CompleteMonster: [[spoiler:[[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist Georg Weissmann]], the BigBad of both ''FC'' and ''SC'', [[FauxAffablyEvil masquerades]] as a seemingly-helpful archaeologist named Professor Alba before revealing himself as a high-ranking member of the secret organization of Ouroboros and [[TheChessmaster the architect of the game's plot]]. Taking advantage of the [[HatePlague Curse of Ishmelga]], Weissmann would use soldiers influenced by the curse to trigger the Hundred Days War by massacring the village of Hamel, before brainwashing Joshua into becoming a ruthless used to assassinate rivals standing in Weissmann's way. After failing to assassinate Estelle's father Cassius, Weissmann attempted to have Joshua himself killed for his failure. At the end of ''FC'', Weissmann restores Joshua's lost memories just to gleefully observe Joshua going through an emotional trauma. Towards the end of ''SC'', Weissmann seeks the ancient city of Liberl Ark, intending on gaining the godlike power of the Sept-Terrion of Space within to reshape humanity as he sees fit. Manipulating Joshua's mind once again, Weissmann attempts to have him execute Estelle so that he can enjoy seeing Joshua break emotionally.]]

* CompleteMonster: [[spoiler:[[ControlFreak Georg Weissmann]], the BigBad of both ''FC'' and ''SC'', [[FauxAffablyEvil masquerades]] as a seemingly-helpful archaeologist named Professor Alba before revealing himself as a high-ranking member of the secret organization of Ouroboros and [[TheChessmaster the architect of the game's plot]]. Taking advantage of the [[HatePlague Curse of Ishmelga]], Weissmann would use soldiers influenced by the curse to trigger the Hundred Days War by massacring the village of Hamel, before brainwashing Joshua into becoming a ruthless used to assassinate rivals standing in Weissmann's way. After failing to assassinate Estelle's father Cassius, Weissmann attempted to have Joshua himself killed for his failure. At the end of ''FC'', Weissmann restores Joshua's lost memories just to gleefully observe Joshua going through an emotional trauma. Towards the end of ''SC'', Weissmann seeks the ancient city of Liberl Ark, intending on gaining the godlike power of the Sept-Terrion of Space within to reshape humanity as he sees fit. Manipulating Joshua's mind once again, Weissmann attempts to have him execute Estelle so that he can enjoy seeing Joshua break emotionally.]]

* CompleteMonster: [[spoiler:[[ControlFreak Georg Weissmann]], the BigBad of both ''FC'' and ''SC'', [[FauxAffablyEvil masquerades]] as a seemingly-helpful archaeologist named Professor Alba before revealing himself as a high-ranking member of the secret organization of Ouroboros and [[TheChessmaster the architect of the game's plot]]. A classic NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist who desires to remake the world, Weissmann triggered the Hundred Days War by massacring the village of Hamel, before brainwashing Joshua into becoming a ruthless assassin Weissmann uses to assassinate rivals to consolidate power for himself. After failing to assassinate Estelle's father Cassius, Weissmann attempted to have Joshua himself killed for his failure. At the end of ''FC'', Weissmann restores Joshua's lost memories and gleefully observes as he goes through an emotional trauma. Towards the end of ''SC'', Weissmann pursues the ancient city of Liberl Ark, intending on gaining the godlike power of the Septarian of Space within to reshape humanity as he sees fit. Manipulating Joshua's mind once again, Weissmann attempts to have him execute Estelle so that he can free him from his mind spell and enjoy seeing him break emotionally.]]

* DiscOneNuke: [[BlowYouAway Aerial]] is at least a downplayed version. It's the first multi-target attack spell you get, it's cheap to cast, and the center point of its area of effect can be set to any square, not just where an enemy is. White Gehenna is similar, but it's NonElemental, costs 1.5x as much to cast, and has a chance of inflicting [[StatusEffects Faint]], though it's not available as early. Hell Gate on the other hand is only somewhat weaker and locks on to an enemy automatically, it's also cheap to cast and is very easy to install on every party member.

* OneTruePairing: Estelle and Joshua is so beloved that you'll almost never seen fan works pairing either with anyone else. At most, they'll go the [=OT3=] route below. Part of why later games going the "harem" route is so controversial is that many agree Falcom absolutely ''nailed'' the writing of an OfficialCouple in the ''Sky'' trilogy and would rather see later games play to that strength.

** A sidequest has you take on Abyss Worms in SC during Chapter 8. You know, the chapter where you probably only have two ZFG by the time you get to them? To make matters worse, there are '''8''' of them. All it takes is for 2-3 to remain alive after your desperate attack and your party gets wiped by earthquakes. If you choose to skip them, you can kiss your dreams of obtaining A rank goodbye.

* BaseBreakingCharacter:
** Josette Capua. Story-wise, she starts out as an antagonist and still acts abrasive even after her HeelFaceTurn, is mostly a {{Tsundere}} who's in "Tsun" mode 90% of the time, and has a petty rivalry with Estelle over Joshua. (Contrast with Kloe, who also likes Joshua [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy but is far less obnoxious about it and doesn't hate Estelle]]) That being said, many fans sympathize with her circumstances and find her dynamic with Estelle entertaining. Gameplay-wise she's the biggest TierInducedScrappy of the second game, joining very underleveled halfway through the final dungeon, [[MasterOfNone being outclassed at everything she can do]] and not having an S-Craft until you complete an annoying mini-dungeon that she's mandatory for. In ''The 3rd'', she receives [[GameBreaker a ridiculously useful Remote Ability]], but Remote Abilities only work when characters aren't in your party to begin with.
** Reis Argent. While most fans warmed up to her and fondly recall the character, fans are split on her CharacterDevelopment, or lack there of. While she's the co-protagonist of ''The 3rd'', her withdrawn, somewhat stoic personality traits can make it harder to like her. It doesn't help she's a case of RememberTheNewGuy and in a game all about celebrating the returning cast and their dynamics, she makes a point of keeping away from the group for about half the game. Compared to Kevin and his thoroughly-explored issues and backstory, Reis gets far less character focus. The characterization we do get is generally liked, but it's still debated if what's there is enough to flesh her out beyond her role as Kevin's best friend.
** In terms of antagonists, Luciola. In a game where every other Enforcer either has a deep backstory or falls under EvilIsCool or LoveToHate, many find her overall motivation ([[spoiler: she fell in love with her adoptive father figure, and when he understandably rejected her, she killed him]]) a bit of a letdown after all the buildup to it, and find her sympathetic treatment by the party [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic unjustified]]. It doesn't help that she re-uses [[FlunkyBoss Jubokko and Zaqqum]] for ''all'' her encounters, with neither of them changing much. On the other hand, she has her fans for the development and backstory she gives Schera, as well as her MsFanservice design.
** Erika Russel's antics are seen as either hilarious, or annoying, creepy and abusive. Being part of the Tita/Agate ShipTease by proxy also doesn't help matters.

* ThatOneBoss:
** From the SC:
*** The Prologue boss, [[spoiler:Kurt]], is durable, capable of healing himself, and has crafts that can knock party members across the battlefield to make it long and tiring to find opportunities to kill him. On Normal he's more of a GoddamnedBoss, but on anything higher this fight is a brutal roadblock for many players, as the boss' damage output is far more than you can reasonably heal off at this point in the game, and he can easily run you out of EP. And the BlownAcrossTheRoom effect on his basic attacks hurts Anelace's usefulness a lot, since she has no long-ranged Crafts. He's also very fast, and can often get multiple turns in a row to kill your characters before you can heal.
*** [[spoiler:Captain Amalthea's]] tank at the end of Chapter 3. Its HP and defense are ''stupidly'' high for this point in the game, ''[[FromBadToWorse and]]'' it's only the second fight of [[MarathonBoss three consecutive boss battles]]. (The third one, fortunately, is easier, but the tank is practically a MarathonBoss on its own. And it doesn't exactly slouch in attack power either.)
*** Luciola. She has powerful Fire attacks that hit several of your party members and is flanked by multiple minions with high evasion and the ability to cancel arts and inflict Sleep, AND two bulky minibosses that are immune to arts and physical attacks respectively. The second fight with her is particularly bad as she has TWO devastating S-Crafts to demolish you with AND can summon clones that cause you to hurt your party members when you attack them, meaning if you've been relying entirely on Area-of-Effect attacks until now, you're in for some serious pain.
*** Regardless of the difficult level, both fights against [[spoiler:Renne]], the "Angel of Slaughter", are tough because her S-Craft can OneHitKill the entire party (before you even get a turn) if you haven't equipped everyone with deathblow-preventing acessories. To make things worse she don't fight alone: in the first battle, she has some Gorgons, who love to shot petrifying lasers from afar; for the second battle, she fights alongside Pater Mater, who possess a mountain of HP and can punt you across the arena and revive [[spoiler:Renne]] if you go kill her first.
*** Justified with Loewe, whose fighting prowess is often commented on by others. He is such a formidable foe that the game actually lets you choose to proceed without defeating him. Loewe will create doppelgangers (which, unlike previous Enforcers, are not illusions but full-fledged new enemies to deal with), interrupt your casts (and his doppelgangers share this ability), is flanked by two tenacious mini-bosses that can heal him and will frequently open the fight with his S-Craft, [[ThatOneAttack Dead Emperor Sword]], which will most certainly hit all your team members (or only 3 of them if they are spaced out) and possibly kill them outright, or leave them at death's doorstep at best. In short, you will begin the fight severely wounded (unless you bring Kevin with you and use his S-Craft, Grail Sphere, right off the bat), and chances are Loewe will finish you off quickly if you don't heal your party to full health immediately. And if you manage to survive the first turns, then you will be outnumbered once the doppelgangers join the fray. The saving grace is that Loewe and the mini-bosses (but not the doppelgangers) aren't immune to Clock Down, allowing you some breathing room once you manage to stick the status debuff on them. For all these reasons, Loewe is considered to be the hardest boss of the game, even harder than the actual final boss.
** From the 3rd:
*** [[spoiler:Grimoire!Kevin and his five Death Sluggers]] from The Third. For starters, [[spoiler:he likes to spam Grail Sphere EVERY TURN. And the sluggers...OHMAIGAWD THE SLUGGERS. They have an attack that hits one ally unit ''multiple times with high damage each'' depending on the difficulty, with four times in nightmare mode. This boss fight is basically a race on who can inflict high damage the fastest and unless you bring Kloe for her +50% Def S-Craft bonus, you won't survive]].
*** The spider boss in Chapter 5 of The Third might qualify too. [[spoiler:Let's say that [[MamaBear you hurt its children too much]].]]
*** In The 3rd, [[spoiler:Cassius]] is often compared to Loewe and while he has slightly lower stats than [[spoiler:Schwarzritter]] on paper, he makes up for it with his cheap craft selection. His Lightning Flash craft has an AOE to rival S-Crafts and higher end arts, his Rend Armor craft is a fairly wide line AOE that AT Delays, his S-Craft hits the entire field, and he can buff his STR and SPD to make the previous points worse. He's also completely immune to debuffs and all ailments, ensuring that the player can't do anything to weaken him like with previous bosses. The only saving grace is that he has no minions and doesn't seem to inflict many ailments.
*** [[spoiler:In The 3rd Schwarzritter aka Loewe]] isn't quite as tough as [[spoiler:when he was a boss in SC]] due to summoning clones later in the fight and only having one robot minion, but like [[spoiler:Cassius]], he has complete immunity to both ailments and debuffs.
*** The first three bosses of the BossRush in ''The 3rd'' always start the battle as an ambush encounter, meaning they and their mooks get the first turn. If you don't have enough CP to S-Craft most or all of the mooks before they can move, you'll probably have to restart most or all of the final chapter. The worst of them is R-II Gespenst, which has Delay Cannon to AT Delay party members that are bunched close together. In contrast, the fourth boss [[spoiler:aka the FinalBoss]] gives you the first turn and more than enough time to set up buffs.

* MemeticMutation:
** Among the Japanese fanbase - [[LoliconAndShotacon LOLICON]] DIVE!!!
** On /vg/, spamming "TITS SC WHEN" is this. Another variation is "TITS ON STEAM WHEN".
** Website/GameFAQs seems to be fond of making fun of people who question Estelle's behavior towards [[TheTease Olivier]].
** A portion of the fanbase also loves to make a lot of salt-related puns towards [[BigBad Weissmann]]. [[labelnote:Explanation (Spoilers!)]] In reference to getting impaled and turned to salt at the hands of Kevin in the end-game.[[/labelnote]]
** "Time for ul-tra-vi-o-lence!" [[labelnote:explanation]] Just before she's about to lay a beatdown on Gilbert, she says this with an [[https://68.media.tumblr.com/f517b42b7f8045bbfef549d36890baa5/tumblr_nzeo056urL1syhowzo1_500.jpg amazingly smug expression]] that quickly grew popular when ''SC'' was released internationally.[[/labelnote]]
** "By my Arts, you will make a new save on Normal." [[labelnote:explanation]]Kurt's Craft abilities have him announce "By my Arts, (insert simile here)," and he's such a notorious WakeUpCallBoss for ''SC'' that players starting on Hard tend to restart on Normal.[[/labelnote]]

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: Through Xseed's localization, empty chests have its own different hillarious quips since FC and SC is now back at it again. [[http://imgur.com/a/wYodq look at this gallery]] and see it again after reading an article put in "TroubledProduction" trope below...

** The end boss of Chapter 1 of SC, the Storm Bringer. It on its own isn't too bad, apart from two things. First, [[FlunkyBoss it summons Puppet Fraggers]], which can inflict Faint with their basic attacks and ''buff the Strength and Speed of everything on the field when they die''. This forces a SadisticChoice of leaving them alive and risking getting overwhelmed, or killing them off but making the boss more dangerous. Second is its Curse Blade, which is a strong [=AoE=] attack that inflicts a random debuff. What makes this annoying is that one of the possibly debuffs is Delay, which often results in the boss getting to move again imidiately. Curse Blade's damage can be healed off on its own, but Curse Blade plus another [=AoE=] attack right after... not so much.

** In all three games, the Achievement for getting every chest in the game. There are a lot of locations you only visit once, so it's easy to miss out on a few. This includes monster chests, and the final dungeons have some pretty nasty ones. Also, the Achievement requires you to not only open each chest, but examine them again for their "chest phrase". It's easy to forget to do this. Additionally, whereas latter games have a quartz that allows you make chests become visible on your map, there's no such luck here.

* MagnificentBastard: Cassius. A rare case where such a character is on the protagonist's side. [[spoiler:Mostly.]]

** In all three games, the Achievement for getting every chest in the game. There are a lot of locations you only visit once, so it's easy to miss out on a few. This includes monster chests, and the final dungeons have some pretty nasty ones. Also, the Achievement requires you to not only open each chest, but examine them again for their "chest phrase". It's easy to forget to do this...

** The idea that the Kiseki world is the future of Ys seems exclusive to the English-speaking (and non-Japanese-reading) fandom; the game itself says the characters were drawn from different worlds (the setting is also largely derived from Xanadu Next but nobody seems to think that it's the same world as the Ys or Kiseki games) and it's pretty clear from [[spoiler:the [[UnusuallyUninterestingSight lack of reaction]] to [[BackFromTheDead Chester and Loewe]] and Lloyd not recognizing Renne or the Brights in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesZeroNoKiseki'' that the events of the game didn't 'really' happen.]] The connections to Gagharv are much more solid, mostly centered around the Doll Knight novels from Cagesong of the Ocean.

*** It's important to remember, however, that such cases happens in every arc of the franchise. In the case of the [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesZeroNoKiseki next arc]], Lloyd and the others were very quick to forgive and/or respect [[spoiler:Mariabell, who mentally tortured [=KeA=] to some extent, and Ian, who killed Lloyd's brother - and both of them are full grown adults.]] This last example is less known because of [[NoExportForYou complications with localization.]]

* DiscOneNuke: [[BlowYouAway Aerial]] is at least a downplayed version. It's the first multi-target attack spell you get, it's cheap to cast, and the center point of its area of effect can be set to any square, not just where an enemy is. White Gehenna is similar, but it's NonElemental, costs 1.5x as much to cast, and has a chance of inflicting [[StandardStatusEffects Faint]], though it's not available as early. Hell Gate on the other hand is only somewhat weaker and locks on to an enemy automatically, it's also cheap to cast and is very easy to install on every party member.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids: The first game, aside from the frequent adult jokes, has a lighthearted atmosphere reminiscent of Miyazaki that makes it easy to treat as a family friendly game until the infamous {{cliffhanger}}. The second game delves more into heavier themes like trauma and PTSD, but its general tone is on par with popular shonen anime. The third game, however, falls right into DarkerAndEdgier territory, with Star Door 15 taking this to an extreme as its contents are potentially triggering even for adults (so much so that Falcom censored it in every rerelease past the original PC version, though the English localization used the uncensored version).

** "By my Arts, you will make a new save on Normal." [[labelnote:explanation]]Kurt's Craft abilities have him announce "By my Arts, become (insert simile here)," and he's such a notorious WakeUpCallBoss for ''SC'' that players starting on Hard tend to restart on Normal.[[/labelnote]]