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

[Somberlain]

I found SC to be a lot more fun than FC, not that FC wasn't good too. I like sequels that are mostly the same as the first game but add new mechanics and a lot more content.

 

[HoboForEternity]

honestly, chapter 5,6,7 (or whatever where you just travel on ship and beat boss on the towers) are kinda dull.

the beginning was awesome, the end was pretty good too, but the middle felt like a slog. because the appeal of the game is doing bracer stuff, sidequests and explore to see how the NPCs react to your doings and the events unfolding. those chapters took most of them imo and turned it into dungeon crawler lite

 

[Theswweet]

honestly, chapter 5,6,7 (or whatever where you just travel on ship and beat boss on the towers) are kinda dull.

the beginning was awesome, the end was pretty good too, but the middle felt like a slog. because the appeal of the game is doing bracer stuff, sidequests and explore to see how the NPCs react to your doings and the events unfolding. those chapters took most of them imo and turned it into dungeon crawler lite

I believe the towers was all just Chapter 9. Trails games tend to really be bottom-heavy... I can't speak for Cold Steel yet, but at the very least the chapters seem to keep getting longer the more I play. Just started Chapter 5.

 

[HoboForEternity]

^ i see. my bad for mistakig the chapters.

still, excited for TC, who don't after that particular scene with kevin in the end?

 

[Crooked Bee]

The towers are chapter 7. That one, and chapter 6, were pretty linear and dungeon-crawlish, yeah. Chapter 5 wasn't like that iirc. Chapter 8 opens up again.

SC does have its low points, but I'm still enjoying it a lot, even though I liked the lower-key plot and tone of FC more.

 

[HoboForEternity]

The towers are chapter 7. That one, and chapter 6, were pretty linear and dungeon-crawlish, yeah. Chapter 5 wasn't like that iirc. Chapter 8 opens up again.

SC does have its low points, but I'm still enjoying it a lot, even though I liked the lower-key plot and tone of FC more.

agree.

one thing i doesnt like is also

Spoiler

how weissman turned into that final boss monster thingy. it would be fine if he just "upgraded", he is still in human form, but have those aura thingy like in animes, instead of changing forms like cliched final boss

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Thank you for using spoiler tags! This has become my favourite thread on the Codex but I don't want to find out any plot details.

And yes, Olivier really is a great character. When he was first introduced in FC I thought he would be foppish and annoying, but he is genuinely funny, especially paired up with Schera. The two of them never leave my party.

 

[HoboForEternity]

agreed. i heard he is useful in battle, but i never figured out how to build him properly, so he ended being the weakest in my party member (compared to those who are obvious which quartz to put) but i still have him for the sake of dialogue as sassyness

 

[Somberlain]

Olivier is arguably the best magic user in the game. He has very good stats for casting but he also has the best quartz setup for it, since it's a single line with only two mandatory Mirage slots. Mirage being a neutral quartz type, he really isn't hindered by it at all.

Kloe is the strongest caster in the game (at least in SC), but she has three mandatory water slots so she's more restricted in that sense.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

I use Olivier as a healer, with Estelle and Schera being front line damage dealers and Tita at the back with her awesome gun as backup.

Kloe did seem good quite good in FC (for the parts where she was available), but her physical damage was extremely poor. Olivier can pull off some good shots with his gun (and he has some very good crafts), so taking that into consideration, as well as his dialogue, I just don't know why anyone would go with Kloe.

I like the big tank guy but it doesn't make sense to have three up-close-and-personal damage dealers in the same party, so I don't use him. And seriously, fuck Agate - he's a terrible character. Slapping a frightened little girl across the face? I can never forgive him for that. He should have been kicked out of the fucking Bracers for that action.

 

[Crooked Bee]

I sort of regret playing on Normal since it's so easy your builds don't really matter. This isn't a particularly interesting game mechanically and I'm mostly in for the writing and exploration, but still, if I had infinite time, I'd definitely replay it on Hard.

 

[Somberlain]

Kloe did seem good quite good in FC (for the parts where she was available), but her physical damage was extremely poor. Olivier can pull off some good shots with his gun (and he has some very good crafts), so taking that into consideration, as well as his dialogue, I just don't know why anyone would go with Kloe.

I used Kloe all the time, she's IMO the best caster in both games (though Olivier is more versatile), she has the best magic stats and a straight line quartz, her S-craft is immensely useful too. And since Kloe is a pure magic user stats wise, her physical damage doesn't really matter, especially since her physical crafts consist of debuff and impede where damage is pretty irrelevant.

Problem with Olivier's and Schera's (S-)crafts is that they both have caster stats aka weak physical damage, yet their (S-)crafts deal physical damage so it ends up being really weak. Kloe's S-craft heals, resurrects and boosts defense for a large area, so it's really useful.

My end game party

Spoiler

in both games consisted of Joshua, Estelle, Olivier and Kloe, though I switched Olivier to Mueller in the very end of SC. Joshua and Mueller were the physical damage dealers, Kloe and Olivier were the magic users and Estelle, who's terribly mediocre in every way, served as the backup healer and buffer, mostly casting spells that have fixed effects, since her magic stats aren't good. I played on hard though. On normal these games are easy enough that you hardly need to think about optimal strategies or builds.

Of course that's just about the gameplay effectiveness, story and dialogue reasons are another thing.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Beaten SC. The last boss was lame, but otherwise, I enjoyed Chapter 8 and even the Finale a lot. I gotta say, it was quite a conundrum to decide which party members to take along for the final battle, given all the people who join you and the different dialogue you (are supposed to) get. I might replay the final couple of bosses with different party members later just to see the extra dialogue.

Can't wait for Trails in the Sky the 3rd.

P.S. Josette's photo shoot was really the most ridiculous and out-of-the-blue thing ever.

Spoiler

 

[Somberlain]

You don't get too much extra dialogue for most characters in the finale.

Spoiler

Zane/Walter and Schera/Luciola get major dialogue and cutscenes, Tita/Renne and Olivier/Kloe/Bleublanc get some too. Most optional characters get just a few lines I think. I didn't try with all of them though.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Just as a heads-up, Falcom has a lot of their soundtracks, including all Legend of Heroes and a bunch of Ys games, available on iTunes - search for "Falcom Sound Team jdk".

I bought most of LoH ones and have been listening to them for the past week. I like them (and they make for some nice background music when you're working, too).

 

[Valestein]

You don't get too much extra dialogue for most characters in the finale.

Spoiler

Zane/Walter and Schera/Luciola get major dialogue and cutscenes, Tita/Renne and Olivier/Kloe/Bleublanc get some too. Most optional characters get just a few lines I think. I didn't try with all of them though.

Here you can see the transcript of the unique Schera/Luciola and Zane/Walter dialogues: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/937451-the-legend-of-heroes-trails-in-the-sky-sc/72839295 (they're the posts with the black spoiler markings)

And this link shows all the unique interactions with Loewe after his boss fight: http://pastebin.com/9AYxb3kt

Just as a heads-up, Falcom has a lot of their soundtracks, including all Legend of Heroes and a bunch of Ys games, available on iTunes - search for "Falcom Sound Team jdk".

I bought most of LoH ones and have been listening to them for the past week. I like them (and they make for some nice background music when you're working, too).

Amazon has them as well, which is where I got my MP3s.

And as for who I used for the final dungeon, it was Josh, Estelle, Kloe and Olivier(he's always in any team that I can assemble). I would've preferred using Schera over Kloe as far as characterization goes, but Kloe is ace as a medic(tho I did use Schera over her up until the final dungeon).

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Stormed through chapters 6 and 7 yesterday. Longest single play through of the game so far.

I found the towers to be very boring but I put a couple of podcasts on to get me through them. With exp from the bosses and the chest monsters, my party is now around lv 75.

Chapter 8 when I get home from work. I feel ready to say goodbye to Liberl and those characters at this point. I've enjoyed the story and the characters but I'm looking forward to a new one (got TOCS waiting). Not sure how interesting 3rd Chapter will be - I really don't want to go around the same towns in Liberl again.

 

[HoboForEternity]

iirc 3rd doesnt take in liberl

 

[Theswweet]

Beat Cold Steel. I was wondering how they were going to top FC's cliffhanger...

 

[Arkeus]

So finally played FC (I first played the prologue a year ago or so but got distracted) and it really was very good. The world just seeps into you slowly and it's pretty great at being an ensemble story.

Estelle is also pretty damn fun, which does make the whole "Estelle is so dumb huhuhuh" thing a few characters like Joshua and Agate do rather annoying. I'm hoping those are on purpose in order to showcase how those two are dumbasses though.

The whole incest subplot felt really tacked on and useless, though it was pretty obvious from the get go that Joshua had a huge crush on Estelle. OTOH that crush was shown in really paternalistic and condescending ways, so it makes other characters cheering for him even stranger (aside from the incest part).

I'm a bit sad that Estelle stopped doing LOVE AND JUSTICE speeches later on in the game though, those were awesome.

 

[Valestein]

I find it peculiar how we never get to see what Cassius thinks of Josh and Estelle hooking up(unless it's shown in TC?).

 

[Deleted member 7219]

I've finished SC. I loved the story, the characters and the writing. One or two silly Japanese moments, like the first game, but overall I was impressed by the maturity of the content. The only other time I've seen the Japanese do story this well is Studio Ghibli.

The presentation was great, I loved the in-game cutscenes that started and ended each chapter, where you actually get to see what else is happening in the world.

Music was great again too.

My main criticism is the latter part of the game, which just gets a bit tedious.

Spoiler

Chapters 6, 7 and 8 specifically. You just have to run around killing things, which isn't fun, and makes you want the whole thing to be over. I knew what the stakes were and I didn't like fighting my way through three chapters to get to the ending. Chapter 8 was really shitty having you run around the whole fucking country, and because I left Grancel to last, I missed out on the bounty hunts there and fucking lost out on getting Bracer Rank A. Fuck that shit.

Finale was better, though. The Liber Ark city was really nice.

Ending party:

Spoiler

Estelle, who was fucking amazing by the very end - give her the best gear, and STR +50 accessories, and she'll out damage anyone in the party except for Zane.
Joshua, because of his S-Craft
Zane - best stats of any character besides Estelle, and his Aural Blast S-Craft / Dragon Kick normal craft are fantastic
Kloe - you lot are right, she is the best magic user in the game

My strategy for the final bosses was to use the speed up EX to get everyone going, use Estelle's morale craft to up STR, and then pound the shit out of everything with melee - with Kloe using teara all and the AOE wind spells as backup. Everyone was lv 92 by the time I faced off with the Professor/Aureole.

I also used a few other party members because of story content.

Spoiler

I really liked the Olivier reveal... hope he appears in the next games because he's one of the funniest characters I've seen in a video game.

I'm ready for Third Chapter. I'm done with Estelle, Joshua and Liberl, so I hope it is somewhere new and different. I have Trails of Cold Steel so I'll be playing that next, and I hope it doesn't spoil too much.

 

[TigerKnee]

I find it peculiar how we never get to see what Cassius thinks of Josh and Estelle hooking up(unless it's shown in TC?).

Fucker probably planned for it all along.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Trails in the Sky The Third is being localized for PC (but not PSP)

http://nichegamer.com/2016/03/the-legend-of-heroes-trails-in-the-sky-the-3rd-comes-west-on-pc/

XSEED Games have announced a western release for The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd.

The game will release on PC sometime next year.

To celebrate the announcement, XSEED has discounted both The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky and its sequel The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC, which have been cut down to $9.99 and $20.99, respectively.

XSEED also confirmed that The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II will be out sometime this fall on PlayStation 3 and PS Vita.

And some comments by Xseed's tom relating to this release.

http://forum.marvelous-usa.com/index.php?showtopic=28074&st=350#entry915547

Our official announcement is going out right now.

To address some common questions thus far:

• PC version only. Sorry, but we couldn't swing the PSP, PS3, or Vita versions of the game (and all for completely different reasons, to boot -- none of which I'm really at liberty to talk about in any great detail, so you'll just have to trust that we tried our best!).
  
• Localization duties are not being handled by Carpe Fulgur as with SC, but by more or less the same team responsible for the Trails of Cold Steel games. So if you liked the way Cold Steel turned out, you've got nothing at all to worry about with 3rd!
  
• Nothing is being edited out or removed. In fact, as others have said, I believe Sara will even be attempting to add the previously PSP-exclusive elements to the PC release -- though of course, nothing can be guaranteed there, especially at this early stage. It's just sort of an idea/goal at this point.

So, yeah... to all y'all who said there was no way in hell 3rd would ever see the light of localization, all I can say is, EAT IT.

Heheheheh...

-Tom

It is these developers who really deserve awards, for their excellent port/translation work and attention to detail. I can't imagine there's that much money in this for them - they are doing it because they love the series.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

I've completed Chapter 1 of Trails of Cold Steel.

I'm loving the school vibe, which was one of the reasons I really liked Bully and I haven't seen it done in a game since. I'm also liking the characters... well, Rean, Alisa, Laura, Elliot and Sara at least. Not sure about the others, although I'm harbouring an intense dislike of Machias.

Got an S rank in Chapter 1 because I ran around talking to everyone... I tried to do that in Trails in the Sky too, but I got bored after a while and just wanted to press on with the main story... wonder if I'll end up doing the same here.