The Legend of Heroes Thread - Trails of Cold Steel in the Sky

[Abu Antar]

I'm playing more CS1, and it's jarring to me, when in the same cut scene, some characters have VA, while others do not.

Are you playing the Vita/PS3 versions? XSEED added 5,000 new voicelines to the PC version (which carried over into the PS4 port) and all scenes are consistently voiced acted.

The PS3 versions.

 

[Sarathiour]

In Cold Steel one: is there a benefit fully level up master quarts, or should I just swap to another one, if it seems better? I'm assuming swap?

As Val pointed out, most MQ get a tremendous boost upon reaching level 5, and some broken ability, especially the one that give "bell effect", because it stack with bell quartz for stupidly broken shit.
So it's more rewarding to have a few at max level than a bunch sitting at level 4.

The game is not really hard anyway, the only thing that could be difficult in the first is the special thing at the end of the game (litteraly the last fight before cliffhanger)

 

[Alphard]

so i have restarted CS 1 and i'm at the first field study ( iirc last time i dropped the game at second one). now i remember why i must have stopped playing: music is fantastic, art style for character is good, character themselves have enough charisma , overall setting is is quite well built, combat and gear system is also well articulated and decently deep. BUT the greatest flaw imo manage to somewhat compensate all pros of the game: the amount of dialogue. Every second someone of the cast of the character has to comment on the smallest thing happening, and then all others reply in a never ending amount of chit chatting. You must read all anyway because in the middle of 100 sentences about the weather they casually drop some lore. Really i think the ratio of combat:dialogue must be sonething like 1/10 or less. as result everything moves at snail pace

 

[Abu Antar]

^i'm 17 hours in and I'm only on day two of the second field study.

 

[Endemic]

New gameplay footage from Kuro 2:

Spoiler

 

[Rean]

What do you mean Kuro 2? I'm still waiting for Kuro 1.

 

[Rean]

so i have restarted CS 1 and i'm at the first field study ( iirc last time i dropped the game at second one). now i remember why i must have stopped playing: music is fantastic, art style for character is good, character themselves have enough charisma , overall setting is is quite well built, combat and gear system is also well articulated and decently deep. BUT the greatest flaw imo manage to somewhat compensate all pros of the game: the amount of dialogue. Every second someone of the cast of the character has to comment on the smallest thing happening, and then all others reply in a never ending amount of chit chatting. You must read all anyway because in the middle of 100 sentences about the weather they casually drop some lore. Really i think the ratio of combat:dialogue must be sonething like 1/10 or less. as result everything moves at snail pace

What we have here is a typical issue of expectations versus reality.
The series would not be where it is without the deep lore and massive exposition. You either learn to love it or don't.
I, personally, am a sucker for all the cutscenes and development because they represent the moving parts of the game; moving the storyline forward, often without the main group or hero even being involved.

Try Ys if you want another Falcom series that would be more to your liking.

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I don't think Trails has "deep lore". The setting isn't particularly interesting, IMO. Probably the most unique part of Trails' lore was the Divine Knight stuff from the Cold Steel games.

 

[Sarathiour]

The setting put a lot of emphasis on geopolitical incident and the inner working of the nation social order, at the very least way more than you average jrpg. The lenght of the game unfortunatly come with quite a bit of repetition, because they are not excepting the average player to remember what has happened two chapter ago.

 

[Maxie]

geopolitical stuff in Trails is never interesting and I'm hard pressed to think of anyone non-demented to regard it highly

 

[Sarathiour]

geopolitical stuff in Trails is never interesting and I'm hard pressed to think of anyone non-demented to regard it highly

Well, as far as I remember, you don't even like trail past the sky trilogy.
It serves as a canvas to ground the story, and contrary to a lot of shit you usually see in modern media, try to keep it somewhat nuanced.

 

[Maxie]

geopolitical stuff in Trails is never interesting and I'm hard pressed to think of anyone non-demented to regard it highly

Well, as far as I remember, you don't even like trail past the sky trilogy.
It serves as a canvas to ground the story, and contrary to a lot of shit you usually see in modern media, try to keep it somewhat nuanced.

I do like Zero a lot, it's Ao that really disappointed me

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I've given it some more thought.

I play games to explore fantasy worlds, and to me there isn't that much that is fantastical about Trails. It's just real life, but with airships. Perhaps if there were other races, or if there were more fantastical environments, then Trails' setting might appeal to me more. I felt the same way about Valkyria Chronicles 1, but playing through VC4 piqued my interest a bit now that they have added some more fantastical landscapes to the series (the Crystal sea), so it makes me more interested in exploring more of that setting.

The Sky games and the first two CS games hold the most charm to me, as they are set in some sort of Renaissance era/early WW1 feel, with cool mechs and airships layered on top. Picturesque French/German villages, travelling across not-Prussia in a cozy train, running down a dirt road in Liberl to warn a village of danger because there are only five telephones in the whole country, etc. The later games eroded that charm. I really dislike Crossbell, the later CS games, and by the looks of it, Calvard, with their generic skyscrapers, flatscreen TVs, people immediately warning each other because everyone has smartphones now, people wearing tuxedos, etc. That's not a fantasy world. That's just mundane real life.

 

[Endemic]

The Sky games and the first two CS games hold the most charm to me, as they are set in some sort of Renaissance era/early WW1 feel, with cool mechs and airships layered on top. Picturesque French/German villages, travelling across not-Prussia in a cozy train, running down a dirt road in Liberl to warn a village of danger because there are only five telephones in the whole country, etc. The later games eroded that charm. I really dislike Crossbell, the later CS games, and by the looks of it, Calvard, with their generic skyscrapers, flatscreen TVs, people immediately warning each other because everyone has smartphones now, people wearing tuxedos, etc. That's not a fantasy world. That's just mundane real life.

Crossbell was developed before CS though. Falcom had already decided to go with more modern tech in the setting way back in like 2008. Liberl was a relative backwater from the start, besides airships they were technologically behind Erebonia.

I don't think the setting's technology level is the issue anyway, just bad writing seeping in (what is death?) and constant ad-hoc changes\retcons. I don't believe Falcom had this all planned out back in 2002, that's extremely unlikely.

 

[Rean]

Order 66 out on all haters.

 

[Maxie]

Order 66 out on all haters.

remove titty waifus from cold steel and say the game still has anything

 

[Rean]

Ok, let's say you remove Emma, Sara, Alisa and Laura. Emma and Laura especially have major plot points revolving around them, Sara is still an important character, Alisa is the one who could actually probably go. Who else qualifies? Elie?
The games would still have 95% of everything even if you removed all those characters.

Rather remove you from this thread tbh.

 

[Maxie]

cope away bro, you and @valenstein or however the fuck he named himself these days

 

[Rean]

You would know her name if you'd played the games. You haven't, and this is more proof.

 

[Arthandas]

remove titty waifus from cold steel

I wouldn't do that if I were you pal

 

[pongle]

Just finished Trails in the Sky (my 2nd attempt, already tried once in 2014 but the school festival part and me not knowing it had a turbo mode back then broke me). The first 3/4 was a real slog but it picked up in the later chapters. Wish it had actual dungeons instead of just straight passages and these tiny ass towers. Also i don't care if they arent blood related the Joshua/Estelle romance is just weird.

 

[Rean]

Also i don't care if they arent blood related the Joshua/Estelle romance is just weird.

Not weird if you're not gay.

 

[Abu Antar]

I'm at chapter 4 now. I suck so hard on the swimming minigame. I just gave up on it.

Storywise, it is finally picking up. I liked chapter 3 the most, barring the new character you get.

The series could do with less little girls in general.

 

[somerandomdude]

Kuro got an English translation/injection patch the same as Hajimari did. For anyone who wants it:

https://mega.nz/folder/AYthzT6C#CzegMJ8nUEDi3HhsqYd2Aw

 

[Ysaye]

Kuro got an English translation/injection patch the same as Hajimari did. For anyone who wants it:

https://mega.nz/folder/AYthzT6C#CzegMJ8nUEDi3HhsqYd2Aw

Does it work on the Clouded Leopard Steam version?