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

[Heresiarch]

I have just discussed about Trails series in a major Chinese gaming forums with naturally tons of JRPG fans. It seems that FC/SC is the highest point, while everything else after it are more or less in a decline. 3rd is basically a fandisk which is great if you like the series. Zero is pretty bland but has a good endgame, Ao has GREAT stories but falls flat in the end. In general Zero + Ao is ok.

Cold Steel 1 is ok, but CS2 is shit. They are anxiously waiting for CS3 which will determine if the whole CS arc is shit or it can be redeemed.

They also said that the games themselves are not THAT bad, it's just Falcom ditched some of the strong points of Tits while introduced some questionable elements (e.g. going into a school-life story; introducing some galgame features). The more you love FC/SC, the more you will hate the newer games. Gameplay wise the newer games are better though, especially Zero + Ao is far more fun to play. But they went overboard with NPC sideline conversations there; some guys said that if you hated the backtracking in SC, Zero + Ao will drive you insane.

It's quite interesting to see how you guys seem to be more tolerant to the newer games, and even saying CS2 is better than CS1.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Cold Steel 2 IS better than Cold Steel 1. It focuses more on the characters. It develops the overall story of the series. CS 1 is still a great game but it is a bit more by-the-numbers. The bulk of the game consists of you going off on class assignments with set characters - there's not as much freedom afforded to you. There's also a lot of annoying JRPG tropes including enemy characters with seemingly invincible resources and always getting away from you even when you manage to beat them (you know the type, "Aha, you've beaten me, but it is what I wanted all along! I wanted to waste my time in this shitty town and get beaten by a bunch of school kids because it all fits into my master plan!".

Cold Steel 2 also develops on the systems a bit more and makes it more rewarding to use arts - by the end of the game you'll be able to strategise your team choices better because everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. It also reveals just what the enemy is trying to achieve - something that was sorely missed in CS1 - which brings added weight to the story because you understand just what the stakes are.

I'd like to know just what was so incline about FC and SC in terms of their central premise. Incest between brother and sister? Brother going all super edgy and JRPG tropey?

Spoiler

Even the guys who led the coup against the monarchy get given a pardon - there's no consequences to anybody's actions

I'm not criticising TitS (I love them), but there's no decline in quality since those games and they were not perfect. The only thing they had which was missing from ToCS was the isometric perspective.

Can't speak for Azure and Zero because I haven't played them, but to dismiss TitS 3 as a fan disk - wow. TitS 3 is very much a game off on its own - a dungeon crawler set in the Trails universe. Fucking Chinese being overcritical. They probably haven't gotten over Nanking.

 

[Malpercio]

CS is not bad, but it doesn't measure to Trails. Writing went full otaku pandering and Rean is a shit character, a masturbatory fantasy for the player.

 

[Heresiarch]

Can't speak for Azure and Zero because I haven't played them, but to dismiss TitS 3 as a fan disk - wow. TitS 3 is very much a game off on its own - a dungeon crawler set in the Trails universe. Fucking Chinese being overcritical. They probably haven't gotten over Nanking.

Well, they did not say that TitS3 being fandisk is bad. It has great closure to the arc, good build upto the future games, fantastic fleshing out of old characters, and has a fun grinding experience. It is just not a "core" experience if you are not a fan of the games, but is a must-play if you care about the characters in FC/SC even in the slightest bit.

CS2 is pretty much criticized by older gamers or if put in direct comparison with FC/SC. Don't know if nostalgia is at work here.

Regarding being overcritical - the guys there are very critical to stuff not unlike a certain hypercritical RPG forums that we all know and love. But considering that Chinese players are very hardcore in JRPG, with many of them actually played the Trails games years, if not a whole decade before western players; and also they have faster, easier exposure and access to more JRPG/anime (I'm not talking about piracy; it's just Chinese players almost universally has a certain control of Japanese language; fan-localization teams are often very fast; and Japanese aesthetics are just more pleasant to Asian gamers in general), which gives them a broader perspective in reviewing games; they may have a valid point in pointing out issues that are not considered to be bad to western gamers.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

CS is not bad, but it doesn't measure to Trails. Writing went full otaku pandering and Rean is a shit character, a masturbatory fantasy for the player.

Meh, Rean gets quite interesting by the end - but, granted, it takes two full games to do it. Masturbatory fantasy - maybe that's fair - he's surrounded by hot women and he has an awesome sword.

 

[Somberlain]

CS2 is better than CS1. Not sure what is supposed to be better in CS1, unless you like school settings, I guess. I don't really and CS2 makes many improvements to gameplay.

TiTS SC and CS2 are best of the XSEED localized games so far IMO.

 

[Heresiarch]

CS2 is better than CS1. Not sure what is supposed to be better in CS1, unless you like school settings, I guess. I don't really and CS2 makes many improvements to gameplay.

The main complaints are about the story. Players and critics complain that it is not up to Falcom standards. The most extreme people would say it is shit, the more neutral players say it is weak/a disappointment. I don't dare translating what the main issues are since I don't want to be spoiled of course, but the general consensus is the story feels..."meh". Especially:

- With how CS1 ended, it makes players very look forward to how it goes in CS2, and then get disappointed;
- With how CS2 compared to Zero/Ao, which have great stories (if not compared to FC/SC), the story in CS2 are lacking in logic and oomph.

Disclaimer again: I have not played any of them and I don't intend to read carefully the fan reviews and in depth analysis (since they're full of spoilers, and often ask very critical/detailed questions) so I can't really give you an explanation why they say so. I have several links of these articles though, but all are in Chinese.

Also, just in case of "STUPID CHINK RACIST HATE ON JAPAN", it should be noted that the Japanese gamers seem to hate CS2 even more (especially on the story and the protagonist):

https://www.amazon.co.jp/英雄伝説-閃の軌跡II-通常版-PS-Vita/dp/B00K73DAC0

https://www.amazon.co.jp/日本ファルコム-英雄伝説-閃の軌跡II-通常版-PS3/dp/B00K73DAE8/ref=pd_rhf_dp_s_cp_4?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00K73DAE8&pd_rd_r=CF5Y73247RG4Z7N4APZF&pd_rd_w=rsdIS&pd_rd_wg=gnwAe&psc=1&refRID=CF5Y73247RG4Z7N4APZF

http://www.psvita-mk2.net/title.php?title=427

http://www.4gamer.net/games/242/G024287/index_userreview.html

YMMV of course. We are talking about two completely different cultures reviewing an Japanese game.

 

[Somberlain]

Unfortunately, I don't speak Japanese or Chinese so I have no idea what the reviews are saying and Google translate doesn't really help either.

I can definitely remember various moments in CS2 where some character actions didn't make sense and the game leaves some stuff unexplained by hinting that they will be revealed in the sequel but that's true for all these games. It's probably, at least partly, some cultural and exposure-related thing why Japanese or Chinese are disliking the game (or the story).

I also think gameplay is more important than story and CS2 has better gameplay.

 

[Heresiarch]

Unfortunately, I don't speak Japanese or Chinese so I have no idea what the reviews are saying and Google translate doesn't really help either.

I can definitely remember various moments in CS2 where some character actions didn't make sense and the game leaves some stuff unexplained by hinting that they will be revealed in the sequel but that's true for all these games. It's probably, at least partly, some cultural and exposure-related thing why Japanese or Chinese are disliking the game (or the story).

I also think gameplay is more important than story and CS2 has better gameplay.

I would say that as a western gamer, you don't need to look at what the Asian guys think about. They start playing Japanese/Chinese games since DOS and fucking PC98, and many of them can write you an essay about the downfall of the eroge developer ELF covering over two decades of history. Just enjoy it and be happy that more Japanese games are coming to the west.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Rean's a better character than Estelle. Estelle's sole purpose in life is Joshua. She's appalling as a main character. Not sure why there's hate for Rean.

 

[Somberlain]

Rean is a typically bland harem protagonist, so if you've watched a lot of (school) anime, you've probably seen his type a million type. At least that's the understanding I have but I can't confirm how much or little he fits various tropes since I've never watched any school anime.

 

[Malpercio]

He's a literal LN protagonist, low-self esteem, altruistic and humble, but he doesn't get taken advantage of, has a harem of girl who want his dick, his sister wants his dick, he has a giant robot and chuuni superpowers who are "dangerous" except not really. If you have watched/read anime for a while you become aware of the tropes writers employ over and over for these kind of characters.

Estelle was a simple character, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. She was actually written as her own person, and she's actually fairly different from the usual RPG main characters, which allowed her to shine.

 

[jungl]

All the nihon falcom games I played so have been lackluster. All the stories and characters suck ass. YS games silent protagonist faggot. Trails in the sky are so fucking generic like 90s saturday morning cartoon generic. Estelle and Joshua are ripped out of stuff like rorone kenshin and inuyasha. There is nothing original or good about them.

 

[Nomad_Blizz]

 

[Deleted member 7219]

If only Estelle did actually kill someone.

 

[yes plz]

Video of Cold Steel's PC port's first 110 minutes:

 

[LESS T_T]

"Trails of Cold Steel PC Port Impressions": http://www.rpgsite.net/preview/5859-trails-of-cold-steel-pc-port-impressions

Visuals and menus aside, the best addition to this release is the inclusion of Turbo Mode. And boy, I love Turbo Mode. A whole lot. Essentially, Turbo mode is a toggle that defaults to the Right Trigger / R2 of your controller and will speed the game up without compromising the music or voiceovers. If you've played the recently released Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, the implementation is similar here. This trigger was selected as the button of choice because it does not have a standard purpose inside of battles or cutscenes: the areas where speeding ahead would likely be most beneficial. Grinding or crossing a large map area become a breeze and takes a fraction of the time with this option enabled.

The fact that dialogue is unaffected by this toggle means that even cutscenes can be watched when this is held down without the result sounding like a VHS tape on fast-foward, Even more neat, when holding the turbo mode toggle down during a battle, the implementation of this system is "smart" enough such that in battle it will automatically stop speeding things up when the link action prompt occurs. I would find myself go whole encounters without ever letting go of the trigger. Needless to say, I think Turbo Mode is a fantastic addition and playing without it enabled now feels like playing in slow motion.

The verdict? This is the best way to play this game.

 

[Nomad_Blizz]

Steam page us up...where's gog?
http://store.steampowered.com/app/538680/The_Legend_of_Heroes_Trails_of_Cold_Steel/

 

[Valestein]

And so it begins.

The game's 10 percent off until Aug 9th btw.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

And so it begins.

The game's 10 percent off until Aug 9th btw.

Downloading.

Can't wait to play this again.

 

[Valestein]

"Turbo mode" is a nice little feature, not only does it allow you to fast forward through cutscenes but it'll make the highlands.... quicker to navigate.

 

[Morality Games]

$40?

The game has been released for years.

 

[tet666]

Undub mod:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1098670747

 

[HoboForEternity]

downloading now! and i still have to go to work

 

[Morality Games]

No need for butthurt. The game is probably worth $40.

But this game has the kind of legacy where a release at $20 could have triggered a Valkyria Chronicles style feeding frenzy (probably smaller than that, but still). $40 is just going to make a lot of people wishlsit it.