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

[Lyre Mors]

Liking some of the shifts in aesthetic and scenery here. A lot! I've been looking forward to Calvard ever since I first met Zin.









Please have better exploration! And please have a little better pacing! I recently started Cold Steel 3 and the dungeon design/overworld travel seems to be on the better side of the series, so I have hope.

Still incredibly excited for Hajimari too, as it sounds like the Sky 3rd of this generation of Trails.

 

[jungl]

still looks like a ps3 game. Turn based combat the series had always been shit. It can't hurt for them to experiment with real time.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

The turn-based combat in Trails is one of the best things about it. And the best turn-based combat I've seen in any game.

This is major decline.

 

[cruel]

still looks like a ps3 game. Turn based combat the series had always been shit. It can't hurt for them to experiment with real time.

People like you are the reason why 95% of new games are total shit.

I can imagine somebody complaining about few things in Trails, but combat is one of the best things the game has to offer.

 

[Lyre Mors]

I'll reserve judgement on how decline this new combat system is until I see it in action. They straight up said it's not an action-RPG system, and that there is an additional option you can switch to to change it. My guess is something like ATB with a "wait" option.

I love the Trails series combat a lot, but since it's essentially been the same with little tweaks and variations since Trails FC, I'm interested to see how they switch it up. Also just have faith in Falcom to make fun, engaging combat in any game they put at this point.

 

[Ysaye]

I'll reserve judgement on how decline this new combat system is until I see it in action. They straight up said it's not an action-RPG system, and that there is an additional option you can switch to to change it. My guess is something like ATB with a "wait" option.

I love the Trails series combat a lot, but since it's essentially been the same with little tweaks and variations since Trails FC, I'm interested to see how they switch it up. Also just have faith in Falcom to make fun, engaging combat in any game they put at this point.

Maybe it will go back to something like a sophisticated LoH:Gagharv series style combat?

 

[Deleted member 7219]

I finished Trails to Azure today.

Overall impressions: A good game (of course it's good, it's Trails), and it has a great combat system (of course), but it's probably my second least favourite in the series so far. The storyline gets messed up half way through. The last 50 hours of the game feel like one big stretched out ending. In contrast to the other games in the series, there isn't really a central narrative / story structure taking you through the majority of the game - instead, it's just one big event after the other. I liked those events as I am a Trails fan, but if I was approaching this with a more critical hat on, I'd have to rate it down for the overall quality of its narrative.

Combat: Zero felt like the missing link between Trails in the Sky and Trails of Cold Steel. Azure doesn't do much different from Zero's format. You have burst mode (was that in Zero too? I can't remember). I still think TOCS 2 has the best combat in the entire series (I like TOCS 3/4 too with their orders, but the button presses still confuse me - I'm much more of a menu fag).

Characters: I know a lot of Trails fans on the internet love the characters of the Crossbell Arc. I don't really. I'm much more attached to the Cold Steel characters, who have their own extensive back stories and supporting characters, and a very different attitude and perspective to share. Lloyd and Randy have that, but Elie and Noel are quite dull, Tio and Rixia are frustratingly underdeveloped, and Wazy only gets interesting right at the end.

Quests: Typical Trails fare

Soundtrack: Good (it's Trails!). This particular tune is brilliant. It may originate in Zero but the super arrange version comes up fairly often in Azure:



Graphics/Presentation: Obviously the best they could do with the PSP engine. Some interesting experiments with camera angles / cutscenes in both Crossbell games.

Difficulty: Fucking HARD on hard. I couldn't get past the last phase of the last fight despite 10+ attempts. I had to hack my save file to downgrade to normal in the end. Probably the hardest Trails game I've played after TOCS 3.

I'm going to play through it again when the Geofront localisation is released, but I definitely prefer TOCS to Crossbell.

Ranking: TOCS 2 > TOCS 3 > TOCS 1 > TITS 2 > TITS 1 > Zero > Azure > TITS 3

Now I can finally start playing TOCS 4!

 

[Jermu]

Ranking: TOCS 2 > TOCS 3 > TOCS 1 > TITS 2 > TITS 1 > Zero > Azure > TITS 3

Never have I disagreed so much with a ranking list in codex TOCS2 is imo easily worst in the entire series and after it TOCS1 :D.

Tio and Rixia are frustratingly underdeveloped

Tio underdeveloped? Compared to cold steel characters (besides Rean and few more)? wtf.

Agreed with Ellie being quite dull worst char from main zero cast.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Ranking: TOCS 2 > TOCS 3 > TOCS 1 > TITS 2 > TITS 1 > Zero > Azure > TITS 3

Never have I disagreed so much with a ranking list in codex TOCS2 is imo easily worst in the entire series and after it TOCS1 :D.

Tio and Rixia are frustratingly underdeveloped

Tio underdeveloped? Compared to cold steel characters (besides Rean and few more)? wtf.

Agreed with Ellie being quite dull worst char from main zero cast.

Rean is given the most development of any character in Trails besides Estelle, Joshua, Renne and Olivier.

 

[Jermu]

Ranking: TOCS 2 > TOCS 3 > TOCS 1 > TITS 2 > TITS 1 > Zero > Azure > TITS 3

Never have I disagreed so much with a ranking list in codex TOCS2 is imo easily worst in the entire series and after it TOCS1 :D.

Tio and Rixia are frustratingly underdeveloped

Tio underdeveloped? Compared to cold steel characters (besides Rean and few more)? wtf.

Agreed with Ellie being quite dull worst char from main zero cast.

Rean is given the most development of any character in Trails besides Estelle, Joshua, Renne and Olivier.

Yes but my point is that if you think Tio is underdeveloped then pretty much all characters beside Rean in CS are way too underdeveloped. Which char for example in class 7 have more development?
Here is quite ok writeup about Tio you might have missed something:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hAAdwU_TMS8qd6Zi7nJb5M0BPm6oadWeeWdJBh6rYbw/edit

 

[jungl]

Best thing about it the turn based combat? Spam ultimate attack or strongest magic. Sadly it is the only thing it has going for it cause the plot for these games feels like I'm watching a anime that consists entirely of filler episodes.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Best thing about it the turn based combat? Spam ultimate attack or strongest magic. Sadly it is the only thing it has going for it cause the plot for these games feels like I'm watching a anime that consists entirely of filler episodes.

'Spam ultimate attack or strongest magic'.

You don't know what you're talking about. The toughest fights are fights where your S-crafts barely deplete the HP of the enemy, and they usually respond with their own S-craft that wipes your party out. In those fights you keep the S-crafts right for the very end, and chip away at their HP through other means.

Your strongest magic attacks also take the longest to cast, use the most EP, and the strongest enemies have resistances to their effects.

Of course, because you're a retard you were probably playing on Easy where you CAN win every fight using those tactics, and you were probably sitting thing there thinking, "Gosh, this is easy!".

 

[Jermu]

Best thing about it the turn based combat? Spam ultimate attack or strongest magic. Sadly it is the only thing it has going for it cause the plot for these games feels like I'm watching a anime that consists entirely of filler episodes.

'Spam ultimate attack or strongest magic'.

You don't know what you're talking about. The toughest fights are fights where your S-crafts barely deplete the HP of the enemy, and they usually respond with their own S-craft that wipes your party out. In those fights you keep the S-crafts right for the very end, and chip away at their HP through other means.

Your strongest magic attacks also take the longest to cast, use the most EP, and the strongest enemies have resistances to their effects.

Of course, because you're a retard you were probably playing on Easy where you CAN win every fight using those tactics, and you were probably sitting thing there thinking, "Gosh, this is easy!".

Well he is actually somewhat right (if we are talking about CS, c-craft spamming does not work in most cases with sky-Ao).

Here for example are speedruns for NG CS1-2 nightmare found out these last week (he also has CS3 but not nightmare):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSFUnVaEjHI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqHgCQV76Ws

Buffing str and spamming c-crafts does short work of most bosses

So considering nature of speedrunning gear/levels are not even close to optimal. CS2 speedrun is at least 100% AP so gear is somewhat better compared to CS1 speedrun. Also at least for me CS3-4 were easier games for nightmare than CS 1. I have only played CS games once but I think difficulty for me was CS1>CS2>CS3>CS4. Also every CS game was easier than any sky or zero/Ao but Sky 1-2 nightmare difficulty is unbalanced bs mess which is not even entertaining some of time (sky2 prologue comes to mind first).

 

[jungl]

I played cold steel 1-3 on hard. The combat sucks. I don't know how they did it for a game that comes out 10+ years after xenogears it has worst combat mech combat then it. Mech combat never feels exciting in trails but yet another autistic game where you watching numbers.

I'm sorry you zoomer trails fans missed out on actual jrpgs, playing them 10+ years after release is not the same thing and had to settle with this late 2000s post Skyrim shitty jrpg franchise.

 

[Jermu]

game that comes out 10+ years after xenogears it has worst combat mech combat then it. Mech combat never feels exciting in trails

Surprisingly good points for a troll account this is indeed true. Every mech combat in CS I wish I could have just skipped (heaaaar my calll valimaaaaar 100 times gets pretty boring when there is not really significant differences between each 1vsX instance. When controlling 2-3 mechs those fights were a lot better and some were actually quite fine).

In Ao there is actually interesting mech combat (non-playable) which was on the other hand presented poorly.

 

[rashiakas]

CS > TITS > CB. Fite me.

 

[Shadenuat]

how about a fishing contest instead?

 

[Gastrick]

For the first TITS game, when does it pick up? Around last year I played 11 hours in waiting for something to happen in the story, but when that story event was Team Rocket I stopped playing. Also the combat felt like there was only one possible decision you could have made. Does that get more complex later on?

 

[Deleted member 7219]

For the first TITS game, when does it pick up? Around last year I played 11 hours in waiting for something to happen in the story, but when that story event was Team Rocket I stopped playing. Also the combat felt like there was only one possible decision you could have made. Does that get more complex later on?

What difficulty are you playing on? The answer is yes - although TITS nightmare is basically Earth Wall wins the fight.

TITS 1 story is charming at the start, boring in the middle, but great at the end so keep playing - if you don’t like the game by the end then Trails ain’t for you.

 

[Shinji]

Just finished watching this, great video.

It's interesting that Makoto Shinkai worked at Falcom at one point.

 

[Jermu]

Kuro No Kiseki characters art:

Spoiler

Might be the oldest MC so far (or Kevin)

 

[Gastrick]

What difficulty are you playing on? The answer is yes - although TITS nightmare is basically Earth Wall wins the fight.

TITS 1 story is charming at the start, boring in the middle, but great at the end so keep playing - if you don’t like the game by the end then Trails ain’t for you.

Had to dig up my old PC to check. It doesn't display the difficulty, meaning I was playing on normal mode.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

What difficulty are you playing on? The answer is yes - although TITS nightmare is basically Earth Wall wins the fight.

TITS 1 story is charming at the start, boring in the middle, but great at the end so keep playing - if you don’t like the game by the end then Trails ain’t for you.

Had to dig up my old PC to check. It doesn't display the difficulty, meaning I was playing on normal mode.

Normal isn't hard in TITS. You can play through the game with melee and the occasionally arts/crafts.

You get punished for doing that on Normal in Trails to Azure and TOCS 3 and 4 though. Can't remember TOCS 1 and 2 as I always played those on hard.

 

[cruel]

Aaaand yet again, 4 boss fights in a row, with no save between, no option to change equipment / quartz setup, and bonus AP conditions. Wonderful. I'm 80h in, end of Act 2 (Cold Steel 4).

Spoiler

I'm playing on hard, and the boss fight with Bell / Fool / Shirley was kicking my ass like there's no tomorrow. All bosses with AOE attacks? Check. Poison? Check. Nightmare, confusion, deathblow? All check. And of course I had a crappy team for this fight.

Story wise, for a game so heavy on story, it went to shit. It's completely unbelievable that the bunch of powerful, smart people are happily working together to end the world and are happy about it. Horrible, horrible decision to go this path. Completely unbelievable and the weakest point in the whole 4 CS games I played.

Also, I'm wondering if anybody goes through the game to test the difficulty here. Hard gives you like 2 semi-difficult fights in the first 20 hours, then up until 80h mark everything is too easy, and then suddenly WTF difficulty spike. I would much prefer a more consistent difficulty level.

 

[Ysaye]

Aaaand yet again, 4 boss fights in a row, with no save between, no option to change equipment / quartz setup, and bonus AP conditions. Wonderful. I'm 80h in, end of Act 2 (Cold Steel 4).

Spoiler

I'm playing on hard, and the boss fight with Bell / Fool / Shirley was kicking my ass like there's no tomorrow. All bosses with AOE attacks? Check. Poison? Check. Nightmare, confusion, deathblow? All check. And of course I had a crappy team for this fight.

Story wise, for a game so heavy on story, it went to shit. It's completely unbelievable that the bunch of powerful, smart people are happily working together to end the world and are happy about it. Horrible, horrible decision to go this path. Completely unbelievable and the weakest point in the whole 4 CS games I played.

Also, I'm wondering if anybody goes through the game to test the difficulty here. Hard gives you like 2 semi-difficult fights in the first 20 hours, then up until 80h mark everything is too easy, and then suddenly WTF difficulty spike. I would much prefer a more consistent difficulty level.

That is one of the more difficult battles (the specific one of the four you mentioned) in the game that I can tell (I am in the finale now, can't think of one worse) if you have Emma in that fight then it is pretty easy because Zodiac/Luminary Force is broken when fighting magic based characters like that; the unfairness comes from not knowing what party to select pre-battle.

Spoiler

In some sense, only Albreich is working towards the end of the world. The motivation for those other characters is revealed further along the line but I believed that in the main is all linked with their belief that they (or their associated organization's representative/s) can win the rivalries and save the world (and achieving their goals, like grabbing the Sept-terrions or in the simplest case of Rutger, just seeing how far he can win till he dies again); working together in the meantime they believe only strengthens their position in the game, until such point as they are forced to start eating each other, which from where I am now in the game, has started to happen. And of course some are just double-crossers anyway.....