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

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Harry Easter

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The CS games reveal that quite a number of the snakes are musicians in their spare time.

But can they do it as deliciously extra as this one?
 

Ventidius

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So, I couldn't wait for CS4 to be released on other platforms and just went and bought it for PS4, despite the fact that I had pretty much stopped buying PS4 games a while back.

Talk about getting off on the right foot, that was one heck of a start. Best intro in the Cold Steel series, hands down.
 
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Harry Easter

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Playing TitS the 3rd right now. I have already finished the Prologue and Chapter 1, 2, 3 and 4. The pacing seems to be faster in this one, which is good. But I shove the doors so far away away, so what's the best point to stop and do them in one rush? Is Chapter 7 still early enough or should I think of doing all that stuff earlier? And do the chapters stay short until the finale or will they get longer before that?
 

Jinn

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The pacing seems to be faster in this one, which is good. But I shove the doors so far away away, so what's the best point to stop and do them in one rush? Is Chapter 7 still early enough or should I think of doing all that stuff earlier? And do the chapters stay short until the finale or will they get longer before that?

Do doors whenever at this point, though I found that it's much better to just do them as they come so you have some variety in between the story heavy ones. Chapters stay a fairly consistent length throughout, but really they wouldn't have been so short if you had just done doors as you found them.

Either way, enjoy my favorite game in the series! It kind of sounds like you're just trying to rush through it. Slow down and enjoy.
 

Deleted member 7219

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The pacing seems to be faster in this one, which is good. But I shove the doors so far away away, so what's the best point to stop and do them in one rush? Is Chapter 7 still early enough or should I think of doing all that stuff earlier? And do the chapters stay short until the finale or will they get longer before that?

Do doors whenever at this point, though I found that it's much better to just do them as they come so you have some variety in between the story heavy ones. Chapters stay a fairly consistent length throughout, but really they wouldn't have been so short if you had just done doors as you found them.

Either way, enjoy my favorite game in the series! It kind of sounds like you're just trying to rush through it. Slow down and enjoy.

One thing I wish I had done when playing TITS 3 was to chill out and explore the home base more.
 
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Harry Easter

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One thing I wish I had done when playing TITS 3 was to chill out and explore the home base more.

Lots of missable content?

Either way, enjoy my favorite game in the series! It kind of sounds like you're just trying to rush through it. Slow down and enjoy.

Oh I enjoy this one too! It has so far the best boss fights, the monster design is also my favorite (I'm a sucker for good monster design) and Kevin is a way more appealing maincharacter than Joshua (who was alright, but meh) and the plot hooked me. That's the problem though: I'm so hooked by the plot now, that I don't want to be slowed down by the doors. Titas door scared me a little in that regard (one hour and no gameplay at all!), so I want to see the bosses first before I do the sidestuff. I mean, I see the practical side (money and Orbs), but it's so exciting right now :D.
 

Jinn

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Oh I enjoy this one too! It has so far the best boss fights, the monster design is also my favorite (I'm a sucker for good monster design) and Kevin is a way more appealing maincharacter than Joshua (who was alright, but meh) and the plot hooked me. That's the problem though: I'm so hooked by the plot now, that I don't want to be slowed down by the doors. Titas door scared me a little in that regard (one hour and no gameplay at all!), so I want to see the bosses first before I do the sidestuff. I mean, I see the practical side (money and Orbs), but it's so exciting right now :D.

Well, just remember that many of the doors provide a backbone for a lot of world building you will see and be piecing together for the next 6 games. It's all very exciting stuff on its own. While Tita's door was touching and interesting in its own way, there aren't too many that are quite that slow moving/long.

Don't miss any of the doors, except maybe the Sun doors!

EDIT: Oh yeah, I think you actually have to complete all the Sun Doors to get access to all the doors.
 
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Oh I enjoy this one too! It has so far the best boss fights, the monster design is also my favorite (I'm a sucker for good monster design) and Kevin is a way more appealing maincharacter than Joshua (who was alright, but meh) and the plot hooked me. That's the problem though: I'm so hooked by the plot now, that I don't want to be slowed down by the doors. Titas door scared me a little in that regard (one hour and no gameplay at all!), so I want to see the bosses first before I do the sidestuff. I mean, I see the practical side (money and Orbs), but it's so exciting right now :D.

Well, just remember that many of the doors provide a backbone for a lot of world building you will see and be piecing together for the next 6 games. It's all very exciting stuff on its own. While Tita's door was touching and interesting in its own way, there aren't too many that are quite that slow moving/long.

Don't miss any of the doors, except maybe the Sun doors!

This is absolutely correct. At least two of the doors (Renne and Ouroboros) have importance right through Zero, Azure, all the way to Cold Steel IV.

Playing Cold Steel IV right now, I want to go straight back to TITS 3 and see the door content again.
 
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Harry Easter

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Little update: I finished more doors than I thought. Right now I did 9 star doors, all moondoors and almost all sundoors :D. But yeah, this was the right tactic. Now I have finished a lot of the sidecontent and can just soldier on.

My favorite group right now: Kevin, Ries, a certain soldier and Josette. I try to skip on Olivier, Schera and Joshua, since those three, combined with Estelle, were my standard group back then and I like trying new dynamics.
 

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Little update: I finished more doors than I thought. Right now I did 9 star doors, all moondoors and almost all sundoors :D. But yeah, this was the right tactic. Now I have finished a lot of the sidecontent and can just soldier on.

My favorite group right now: Kevin, Ries, a certain soldier and Josette. I try to skip on Olivier, Schera and Joshua, since those three, combined with Estelle, were my standard group back then and I like trying new dynamics.

Josette?

:hmmm:
 
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Harry Easter

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Jupp. Just for fun. Descent shot, she creates earthquakes and her S-Craft is okay. But mostly just to have a character in the group, that I normally would never use. If I could chose any of the Capua Siblings,it would be Kyle. He always was the most dangerous.
 
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I'm playing through Trails of Cold Steel for the first time, and I was wondering whether you get something worthwhile for completing the chapters with an S rating? Do you get bonus dialogue, cutscenes, or anything like that?

Also do the relationship mechanics actually matter?
 

Ysaye

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I'm playing through Trails of Cold Steel for the first time, and I was wondering whether you get something worthwhile for completing the chapters with an S rating? Do you get bonus dialogue, cutscenes, or anything like that?

Also do the relationship mechanics actually matter?

No not fundamentally or directly, however an S rating is normally based upon completing all the subquests (sometimes it is an indication that you missed a hidden one) or talking to important people, and subquests and talking to important people often have a lot of lore /relevant titbits that will often help give even more context to stuff that will jump out at you later and become more rewarding. The first time I finished ToCS I didn't get S for all the chapters (I was pretty close) and I wasn't disappointed.
 

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I'm playing through Trails of Cold Steel for the first time, and I was wondering whether you get something worthwhile for completing the chapters with an S rating? Do you get bonus dialogue, cutscenes, or anything like that?

Also do the relationship mechanics actually matter?

No not fundamentally or directly, however an S rating is normally based upon completing all the subquests (sometimes it is an indication that you missed a hidden one) or talking to important people, and subquests and talking to important people often have a lot of lore /relevant titbits that will often help give even more context to stuff that will jump out at you later and become more rewarding. The first time I finished ToCS I didn't get S for all the chapters (I was pretty close) and I wasn't disappointed.

Also, the relationship mechanics give you a special cutscene at the end of the game (and more special cutscenes in the sequels).
 

Sarathiour

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I'm playing through Trails of Cold Steel for the first time, and I was wondering whether you get something worthwhile for completing the chapters with an S rating? Do you get bonus dialogue, cutscenes, or anything like that?

Also do the relationship mechanics actually matter?

You need S rank on all chapter to max out AP on CS1, which give a special item, and some minor bonus for CS2.

I've nearly finished replaying CS3 with difficulty mod (summer festival, i'm past sewer special guest section) , i will probably leave a review here when it's over.
 

HoboForEternity

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Happy Valentine's day from the seeker of love, Olivier The Bard

EuLyzDvXAAEPWqD.jpg
 
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Harry Easter

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Happy Valentine's day from the seeker of love, Olivier The Bard

View attachment 17576

If those two aren't doing it in Trails 1-3, they did at least before the start of the game. Also, Olivier is the best character. Always.

Edit: I finished 3rd! 50 hours, I almost did all doors and overall I enjoyes this one. Kevin and Ries are a compelling mainduo, the plot overall is good and we had a nice sendoff for all characters. I do get the feeling that this once started as a playable epilogue and then got bigger. Good for me. The combat was perfected in this one, the monster design is the best in all three games and until the last boss, the bossfights are also the biggest highlight for me.

I also love how they deepened the religious lore. In Dragon Quest they believe just in a goddess and there are demons. In Trails I do now know, what the church really believes. They are still fantasy-catholics, but at least now I know, that they are very very catholic :D.

But I do feel, that the pemise of the game is a bit underused. The whole scenario could've been separated from the other games and shouldered it's own, but that's overall a minor nitpick.

Now I will have a pause and wait until I start with Zero. Curious how that duology will be, since I read the second Crossbellgame has the best story of the series. We'll see, right now SC is my favorite.
 
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I completed Trails of Cold Steel 4 last night, and I'm now reading back through this thread to see the thoughts of cruel and Ysaye. They've said the most important things much better than I ever could.

So here are my own raw, undiluted thoughts:

It wraps everything up quite nicely for the TOCS series, while keeping some key Trails mysteries open for the next games. It also deals quite nicely with some plot points left open from TitS and Zero/Azure. The main story still has some problems originating from the end of TOCS 3. It does its best to explain them away, but I just don't buy all the character motivations, and I wish they would be made to deal with the consequences of their actions (other than a stern telling off by Class VII when they get beaten).

As others have said, the enthusiasm shown by so many characters to END THE WORLD is unbelievable and takes you right out of things. They try to explain it in TOCS 4 by saying they were affected by the curse or whatever. For me, this did explain Ash's actions quite nicely, but Rufus isn't shown to be curse affected and neither is Lechter (unless I missed the eye thing with them). It's outrageous that only Rufus goes to prison at the end and not Lechter too. Frankly, a whole bunch of Erebonian characters should be put in the Zemurian equivalent of The Hague (maybe a trial in Arteria) for the outrageous shit they pulled. Principal Vandyck is another who should know fucking better. The jaegers absolutely should not be going along with this shit. The end of the world for them means no more money. Arios MacLaine should also be rotting in a prison cell for the horrific shit he did in Azure.

The only bad guy motivations that made sense were Ouroboros, because at least with them they're always about the master plan... although, what if Class VII failed, and the Great One got reborn? Did Ouroboros have a backup? Or do they actually want to see the world go to shit because they're actually all about multiple worlds (hinted at in the game?). I guess that has to be the case, otherwise they are fucking stupid too.

I was glad to see in the epilogue slides that the other Zemurian nations demanded reparations from Erebonia - the closest we'll see to realistic politics in Trails. At least people were actually pissed off instead of, "Oh, you did evil shit, but we're friends! We're friends! Let's be friends again and pretend it never happened", which happens far too much in Trails. I hope in the next games they show further repercussions against Erebonia, maybe disarmament (though hard to see this happening when Erebonia was not beaten militarily in any way), reduction in territory etc. It would have been nice to see some deaths, quite frankly. Campanella would be a good start. Cedric is a cunt and should be punched in the face repeatedly - with Olivert being made Crown Prince and heir. Sharon cannot be trusted and should be locked up (the behaviour of Alisa towards her is mystifying at this point), alongside Alisa's mother too for war crimes.

Character wise, it was nice to see so many returning favourites, acting just like they did when we last saw them (although Renne and KeA are shown to be a little bit older, given that this is set 2 years after Azure). I got a lot of satisfaction out of playing Estelle and Joshua again. They pretty much sound like I imagined them... I get the feeling they hired the same voice actors who did the S-breaks in TITS.

As for the game itself... I liked the length. I felt that the story was given all the time it needed to be a satisfying wrap up for Class VII. I aslo appreciated the treatment of all the Class VII characters, bonding events etc. My main party throughout most of the game was Rean, Juna (replaced by Fie when cheesing bosses), Altina and Musse with Kurt, Ash and Sara in reserve. I didn't feel the need to use the old Class VII characters that much because they did such a great job building up the new Class VII characters this time around - but the old Class VII characters get attention too, be it in main story events or bonding events. Other than that, the main gameplay is the same, combat is still good, orders have been expanded. I really liked having the Courageous back. I didn't play Pom Pom as I hated it in Azure (I think only autistic Japanese people can keep up with the speed of that game), played a bit of Vantage Masters but not to a huge extent.

I think they very nearly fucked it up massively at the end. When I saw the first ending I thought, "Seriously? You gave this the subtitle "End of Saga" in Japan yet you're leaving it on a cliffhanger worse than the one in TOCS 1? What are you doing?". But I had already unlocked the true ending thanks to wanting to kill all the Cryptids (for the sweet quartz) so I carried on straight through. Anyone who hadn't done that would have been seriously pissed though, and missed out on a huge amount of story wrap up.

I'll have more to say when I've had time to process. I think I'll write a better post on TOCS 4 when I've completed it again on PC. For now, bring on Hajimari!

Obligatory series ranking:

TOCS 2 > TOCS 4 > TOCS 3 > TITS > TITS 2 > TOCS > Zero > Azure > TITS 3
 
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cruel

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It's amazing how different people can be. Your main party was 'never use those guys' in my case, unless forced to.

What game are you planning to fill the void after CS4? I'm trying 13 Sentinels, and while it's pretty good (and gives some high school vibes + good story + interesting characters), it's not exactly the same level of pleasure as Cold Steel :(
 

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It's amazing how different people can be. Your main party was 'never use those guys' in my case, unless forced to.

What game are you planning to fill the void after CS4? I'm trying 13 Sentinels, and while it's pretty good (and gives some high school vibes + good story + interesting characters), it's not exactly the same level of pleasure as Cold Steel :(

I'm currently replaying TOCS 2 PC on NG+, Nightmare. I want to complete the extra shrine and also go for 100% achievements, having done that already on TOCS 1 PC. Then I'll look at doing the same for TOCS 3 PC unless TOCS 4 PC is released first - that'll take priority.

Other than that, I'm not playing any other RPGs at the moment. I've put Persona 5 PS4 on hold as it looks like we might get a PC version. That'll probably be the next JRPG I'll put time into that isn't Trails.
 

Jermu

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It's amazing how different people can be. Your main party was 'never use those guys' in my case, unless forced to.

What game are you planning to fill the void after CS4? I'm trying 13 Sentinels, and while it's pretty good (and gives some high school vibes + good story + interesting characters), it's not exactly the same level of pleasure as Cold Steel :(

Even when I'm huge trails fan I liked 13 Sentinels more than CS4 which is quite something. If you haven't you should try the Yakuza 7
 

StaticSpine

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It's amazing how different people can be. Your main party was 'never use those guys' in my case, unless forced to.

What game are you planning to fill the void after CS4? I'm trying 13 Sentinels, and while it's pretty good (and gives some high school vibes + good story + interesting characters), it's not exactly the same level of pleasure as Cold Steel :(
Dude, Yakuza: Like a Dragon.
 
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cruel

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Thanks, will try Yakuza.
 

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