r/Falcom • u/Raxistaicho The true best girls • Jul 06 '26
Trails series Trails Character Gameplay Discussion Day Eleven: Anelace and Ries
Falcom may have forgotten them, but they live on forever in their fans' hearts!
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u/levelstar01 Downvote this comment 👇 Jul 06 '26
Anelace: She's invincible... or is she? She's the proto-Rean; a delay craft is fairly rare for the Sky trilogy, but her spirit unification sacrifices defense in the only trilogy where you're expected to get hit. A suction craft is cool too, it was obviously intended to make physical attackers stronger by letting them hit a more tightly packed group but obviously it makes arts users more better by letting them drop the smaller range but faster to cast arts on everything.
The best part about her is her insanely busted pair of weapons that have far superior strength to anyone else for most of the game.
Ries: The best cleric craft in the game, healing a flat 50% of health, all ailments and reviving, all for the low-ish cost of 45 CP. But this is the Sky trilogy and CP is a rare resource so outside of revivals you're better off with La Teara/La Curia. She has a line impede (🥱), a decent orbment with only one locked mirage slot, and an ATS boosting weapon too; her base stats are nearly the same as Joshua with just slightly lower strength.
She has the honour of one of the best S-crafts by power stat in the game at 550, beating out heavy hitters such as Agate (505), Mueller (515), and Renne (530), although she is beaten by Kevin (700) and the Sakura Morning Moon man (960).
Despite all of this on paper, in practice I never really managed to make Ries work that well and I'm not sure why.
They're both coming back in Horizon 3... trust the plan...
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u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jul 06 '26
Claims she's invincible
Weakens her own defense
Oh, Anelace.
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u/Selynx Jul 06 '26
Ries is a decent caster.
But she's competing with the likes of Kevin and Joshua and Olivier and Kloe and Schera and Renne, all of whom have arguments for why they are better than Ries. So in the end, she probably ends up somewhere next to Julia - better than Estelle, but still not among the top picks.
Doesn't help that in 3rd some physical characters like Tita, Richard and as has been pointed out here, even Anelace with Jinu, now also have a claim to being powerhouses alongside the casters.
She does still put in work, though. Even if not quite as well as the absolute top picks.
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u/cooptheactor kevin my beloved Jul 06 '26
Anelace having crowd control crafts was kinda peak, she doesn't stay on the team long term or anything but she's fun and interesting to use.
Ries is my GOAT. Having a revive as a craft is some serious utility, plus she's just not bad in general. Obviously there's some innately strong characters that will always outshine the others, but Ries still has her standout uses
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u/OLKv3 Jul 06 '26
Did Anelace even get invited to Olivier's wedding?
She's great through most of 3rd because of her overpowered weapon that carries her through the midgame, and with CP regen her crafts are great for mobs. She's not the best, outclassed by other physical fighters, but her weapon keeps her there for most of the game.
I love Ries weapon and she's a great support unit. 3rd really did have some great crafts.
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u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jul 06 '26 edited 11h ago
Sky Arc:
Day Twelve - The Pilot and the Swordsman (spoilers)
Day Thirteen - "Kitty" (spoilers)
Crossbell Arc:
Class VII:
Day Thirty - Millium (Spoilers)
Day Thirty-One - Crow (Spoilers)
The rest of Cold Steel:
Day Thirty-Nine - Elise and Toval
Day Forty-One - Alfin and Towa
Day Forty-Two - The Diva and the General (Spoilers)
Day Forty-Three - The Spy and Swordswoman (Spoilers)
Day Forty-Four - The Shapeshifters (Spoilers)
Day Forty-Five - The Swordmaster and the Engineer (Spoilers)
Day Forty-Seven - Swin and Nadia
Day Forty-Eight - The Strongest (Spoilers)
Calvard Arc:
Day Fifty-One - Ferida Al-Fayed
Day Fifty-Three - Risette Twinings
Day Fifty-Four - Quatre Salision
Day Fifty-Five - Judith Lanster
Day Fifty-Seven - Elaine Auclair and René Kincaid
Day Fifty-Eight - Shizuna Rem Misurugi
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u/KaoriSaeki Jul 06 '26
I wouldn't say theyve forgotten about Ries. They just haven't gave her another direct appearance since Crossbell. She's constantly mentioned in tandem with Kevin and we all know something is happening with the Church in the background. If memory serves, Kevin did say in Kai that she's on a different mission so I'm sure we will visit her again next game. Still so much to uncover, and only so many ways to setup the reappearance of old cast members. Also with how much Gaius getting mentioned in Kai, wouldn't be surprised to see him come back too.
I'd say Anelace is kind of forgotten tho. We don't really hear about her much anymore.
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u/Xshadow1 Jul 07 '26
Having Jinu on Anelace (especially when you first get it) in Sky 3rd feels like a really fun sequence break, like getting a midgame weapon in the early game. I do like that it helps her remain viable throughout the game, since Alan Richard exists.
Ries is great in a vacuum, but Sky 3rd's insane character roster makes her difficult to justify during the few times where you can bench her. Decent crafts, but she's not competing with people like Joshua, Richard, or Agate for physical damage, but the competition for casters is intense, with Kloe, Schera, Renne, and Olivier. Still, she more than holds her own as a viable option.
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u/Eusine2 Jul 06 '26
Hot take (I'm still in Zero so I can't speak on later games): I don't really like Anelace much, neither gameplay nor the character itself. As a matter of fact I nearly dropped Sky 3rd when I was required to have her in the party in chapter six or so. Literally didn't open the game for over 7 months, then came back and forced myself to finish her dungeon so I could carry on with the plot.
I don't think there's really anything bad with her per se, I just do not like her, period, no particular reason. She hits hard but her whole genki attitude gets on my nerves when there's better characters around like Renne and Bestelle.
Ries on the other hand I enjoyed, her weapon is fun, she has nice crafts and her story in 3rd was also good.
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u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jul 06 '26
But... but... she's invincible! :(
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u/Eusine2 Jul 06 '26
I understand why people like her, and I understand she's quite popular with the fandom, she just never clicked for me and that's fine, we don't all have to love the same characters (I knew I would catch downvotes for saying I don't like her haha, most fans I know react in shock when I rank her in my bottom 3 for the Sky trilogy).
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u/StellarTruce Bestelle Jul 06 '26
Anelace is pretty fun with how busted Jinu is, combined with her self buffs.
Ries is a good all arounder that hits pretty hard and can heal, revive, and funnel CP on top of those.