just finished both games and the comparison with this game and the current FF14 story are striking ... I won't divulge because I don't want to spoil anything but SC was incredible had me gripped for 96 hours

Great vid!! Love her 😭 Can I get a “BESTELLE” in the chat?? 😂

I think Rean was the character that made me love Trails (most of japan  and asia loves rean too). I tried trails in the sky and i can't say i like it very much. I slogged thru the 1st game just for the story which was good. But estelle is mad overrated as the players characters, she works alot better as a side character. Rean is way better as player character.

"When estelle doesnt understand something, we dont either..."

Hard disagree brother 😂. Shes usually the last to understand and by then everyone else and their grandmama understands including the player. I like bestelle but i want my favorite protag to not be an airhead lol

Excellent video Kirk - you brought up a lot of good points.  Estelle is one of my favorite protagonists of all time, too.  The reason I love her so much is - as you say, she's very flawed and immature.  She has a lot of development that she necessarily NEEDS to contend with the life she's chosen.  But beneath all of that, my favorite thing about Estelle is how emotionally intelligent she is.  Just notice her whenever anyone is struggling around her.  No matter how badly they try to hide it, Estelle keys in on them.  Her dialogue writing when she talks more than one character off the precipice  is a masterstroke of dialogue writing.  A lovely character who saves people by being so unapologetically... her.  Where she could have been a campy "lawful good, I will smite all evil!" archetype, she ended up being a much richer character than that.  She's good to the last drop to be sure, but in a confused "let me bumble along and build the plane while I'm flying" sort of way - all while not missing a beat when the chips are down, and being the rock to everyone around her.

Just found out about this game and it seems pretty pretty cutr🎉🎉🎉

I'm in Chapter 7 of Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter. I get why she is a much loved character now 🙂

Because Estelle is Bestelle and here character development in FC and especially in SC solidified that for me.

Estelle is generally translated to "star" in English.  Her name is literally Star Bright.  I'm not sure how to feel about that.

Wordplay aside, yes, Estelle is a character that you want to spend more time with.  She's dorky and endearing in all the right ways, and her go-get-'em attitude and general obliviousness hurts her as much as it helps her, especially in the early chapters of FC.  But that's what you want - a character that has clear strengths (that are relatable) but also things that she clearly needs to work on.  She almost ruins the early Sky Pirate mission when she can't act the part of "normal civilian" in front of General Morgan for 3 entire minutes.  She makes snap judgements about people - even her Bracer clients - and gets mouthy with them if she decides they're sus for whatever reason.  If the game was just her with no Joshua, the events of the Coup would be going on while she was still bumbling around in Rolent or maybe Bose, failing half her side quests and taking forever to earn Bracer Points to rank up, or needing constant Joshua-like support from Shera to get even moderately complex tasks done.

That's what makes her so great - the flaws, the relate-ability, her enthusiasm, and her genuine compassion for those around her.

In addition, she works as the audience stand-in (again, at least in FC).  She clearly isn't a "memorize details in class" person, she's a "learn things by doing" person, and that shows.  While the number of times she goes "Huh?  What?" about some obvious aspect of Liberl that she should absolutely have at least heard of by now is a bit ridiculous, it does allow one of other Party Members/NPCs to "as you know" an explanation to us clueless players for world building reasons.

I also like how she hides behind the "he's just family" or "we're not like that" excuse any time her true feelings for Joshua threaten to get too close to the surface.  She won't admit she's jealous of Joshua staring at Kloe (even if it's only because he's putting 2 and 2 together about her true identity) but she absolutely, 100% is.  And that is (again) endearing, often funny, and 100% how a teenage girl struggling with a crush (and her first big one, at that) would tend to act.

Lastly - and this is pure fluff to end things off - I love how she takes her FC "Bracer uniform" and modifies it to look more like Anelace's outfit for SC.  I loved Anelace's look in FC and seeing Estelle's SC look being essentially a hybrid of her and Anelace's was such a pleasant surprise.  I can't wait to see it in the new engine.

She’s BESTELLE

Estelle truly is one of the greatest protagonists in not only Trails, but video games in general.
The foundation of a well written protagonist is that they are flawed, but likeable. Something that is not as easy to achieve as it sounds.
That said, for a 'good' protagonist to become 'great', other factors come into play. Take  for example, someone like Rean. He is a 'good' protagonist because, as stated, he is both likeable and flawed.
But he's not as relatable as Estelle. Special powers, grand destiny and a harem that dwarfs similar protagonists. Estelle's relatability is one of the things that turn her from 'good' to 'great'.

Estelle is Bestelle.  She brightens the mood because she's Bright?  Pun intended.

Estelle is great

Trails games have some of the best characters in videogames cus they feel "human" they are not perfect, they struggle, learn, fall down, get up and try again.

Trails in the sky did not want to rush things, the first game is a bit slow, but you get to know numerous amazing things. In the end having that pace helps a lot.