In Trails most NPCs tend to talk about a large event that revolve around multiple towns. Comparatively in Dragon Quest NPCs mostly react to events happening in their local town. Oh, did I mention you can also talk to your party members? Granted NPCs in Dragon Quest rarely ever offer deep dialogues, but I prefer it more simply because each one is lovingly crafted with vibrant personalities (and accents). This was a nice chill RPG without any kinds of melodrama. It was simply relaxing from start to finish and I ended up craving for more conventional JRPGs to play.
Yuuup, this was a surprise release that nobody expected. Atlus has many great games but is notorious for being anti-PC. So I'm glad SEGA has a say in porting their games nowadays. I've known Atlus as a publisher who publishes quirky games either quirky in terms of storytelling or in gameplay. Despite this, I still ended up getting surprised both by Catherine's overall presentation and gameplay depth. More than anyone, Atlus is able to prove a game can have both style and substance at the same time. It's great that every level does not feel the same and requires different block pushing techniques. However I really suck at fast-paced puzzles and this game is no exception.
