This is a series I've been collecting but haven't managed to play yet. Fans have told me that there's nine must play games in the series, otherwise you'll be lost come ToS III and IV. I guess the play order goes...

• Trails in the Sky
• Trails in the Sky SC
• Trails in the Sky the 3rd
• Trails to Zero
• Trails to Azure
• Trails of Cold Steel
• Trails of Cold Steel II
• Trails of Cold Steel III
• Trails of Cold Steel IV: End of Saga

Zero and Azure aren't officially in english yet, but I guess you can get the games with english patches on DLsite or something like that? I haven't looked too much into it.

Anyway, I hope to be all caught up on the series by the end of 2021. :P

Yeah, that's the order it's supposed to be played, but like you said Zero and Azure haven't been released in the west, at least yet.

#40: A very unusual RTS in space, where you start with a small capital ship and 3 planets to govern, but the map (and thus the number of planets to govern) and fleet grows at specific points in the story when you reach a new rank.

Hint #1: You start this game with your main planet almost in ruins, with most buildings massively damaged.

Hint #2: The Alien factions make war independently from you, even way before you have even the rank and thus ability to contact them, quite possibly eliminating some races before you ever had the chance to meet them.

Hint #3: Your quarters are on your main capital ship, and you can move around there when not looking at the sector map.

Hint #4: In the end, you're about to build a galactic empire.

#38: A PC-exclusive Pinball game with a horror theme.

Hint #1: Tables are a haunted Castle, a Dungeon, and Frankenstein's Laboratory, complete with the Monster in it's center.

Hint #2: It's the second game in that specific series, 3 more were to follow.

Hint#3: The predecessor had 3 tables in space, with buildings from Outpost, the successor had Dinosaurs, the next one had a NASCAR theme and the final one a rollercoaster theme.

Hint #4: They also made a Minigolf game with an identical naming scheme, just switching out the Pinball at the end for Minigolf.

#37: Bring your console-making back from the brink of death by hiring 2 kids and beat your programmers into submission in RPG-like combats.

Hint #1: This game came out shortly before the company making it stopped making consoles for good, making the premise highly ironic.

Hint #2: While most of the game is for the most part an RPG mixed with a tycoon game, the finale goes straight to Shmup, where you have to fight several iterations of Sega consoles.

Hint #3: This Dreamcast title from Sega never left the shores of Japan, but has pretty much all their IP playing some part here.

#32: Hire some Mercs to support a group of rebels to defeat the evil queen of the country.

Hint #1: You can hire your mercenaries from 2 different companies called A.I.M. and M.E.R.C.

#30: Capitalism, ho!

#29: The successor to this game just came out, but the title before that came out over 20 years before this one got released.

More stuff:

33) This is the newest game in its franchise which is a spiritual successor to an older franchise.

Hint 2: The two franchises share part of their name.

32) Features a pretty iconic merchant

31) If you look up "universal acclaim" in a dictionary, you'll see this game

32) Is it Resident Evil 4, stranger?

33: Xenoblade Chronicles 2

31: Ocarina of Time, otherwise this hint is wrong

#32: The secret of Monkey Island... Nobody is more iconic than Stan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mKj1MMwniQ&ab_channel=jimthenglishman

I forgot about Final Fantasy X in the past lists, but as it's HD-rerelease got a Switch release I am now reminded how I invested many hours on the PS2 into this game.

This is one of the big JRPGs and I think it's the last mainline Final Fantasy game with turn-based combat (which I in most cases prefer over action based combat as it allows for more depth if used correctly).

The plot is that Blitzball-player Tidus awakes in Spira, after his hometown zanarkand is attacked by a mystic beast named Sin. He learns that Zanarkand was destroyed 1000 years ago, so seemingly Sin transported him through time. Tidus meets a few new people, including most importantly a summoner named Yuna, who sets out to defeat Sin.

Character development had an interesting twist in this game with the spherical grid on which you activated nodes to gain abilities. Choosing a path decided over the development of the character.

And Final Fantasy X had with Blitzball the probably best minigame ever in a RPG. I had a lot of fun just playing Blitzball. Once I learned how to be good at it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcTbhsWaQ6g

Ahh, I'll buy it at a high price! (yes)

31 is right of course, but 33 is not.

Nope, Truck already got it.