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

[Sarathiour]

So, as planned, i'm currently replaying CS3 using Softbrillant's difficulty mod. Technically it's a ng+ run, but i only carry over bonding point, cosmetic and the mira + sephith bonus ( as to avoid farming trash as much as possible).

Honestly, it's quite good. I was afraid that lot of fight would get tedious or force you to adapt your whole setup to counter-gimmick the boss, but it's been mostly fine. I only had to do it against the zephyrantes (laser archaism that inflict S-down) in chapter 1, but they were already a pain in hard and nightmare. Also, you sometimes have to restart the fight, because if rng say "fuck you, the whole ennemy team is acting before you're gonna have a bad time. Granted, it only happened once for me for the final fight of chapter 1, but it's still annoying.

I just finished chapter 2, Mc Burn was way more interesting and challenging than before, notably because boss are way harder to break, so you can't stunlock them to oblivion like in the base game. Trash fight are still over pretty quickly, apart from those in stargazer tower, and i guess that it will be the same in chapter 4 and finale.

The mod has two difficulty setting, hard (which his harder than nightmare in base game) and nightmare. I'm playing on hard, and i would only recommand nigthmare for masochist.

 

[cruel]

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.

There was only one spot, and I was having a tough decision between Emma and Alisa - choose Alisa here, unfortunately. Didn't know what to expect and was hoping that her crazy CP-regen plus being immortal (Sophia) will help more. And then, it turned out, she got killed two turns in a row with a deathblow attack I can understand now how Emma would make it much easier.

 

[Ysaye]

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.

There was only one spot, and I was having a tough decision between Emma and Alisa - choose Alisa here, unfortunately. Didn't know what to expect and was hoping that her crazy CP-regen plus being immortal (Sophia) will help more. And then, it turned out, she got killed two turns in a row with a deathblow attack I can understand now how Emma would make it much easier.

As far as I can tell (Still have the last bosses to go) that is the last of the AP condition battles and also the multiple battles in a row without a break to reorder - I agree they are silly and annoying. The bosses since then I have absolutely mowed down including a duo that should have been terrifying power level-wise and I am sure I haven't even used the worst of the tactics available (I just read something someone pointed out about Gauis + Chevalier MQ which sounds legitimately broken+).

I hope the plot gets better for you - there is a bit shortly coming up in the story which will allow the characters to link together and expand those historical fragments they have seen to better understand the motivations of some of the characters and why they are sitting on the wrong side of the fence.

 

[Alrik]

So, as planned, i'm currently replaying CS3 using Softbrillant's difficulty mod. Technically it's a ng+ run, but i only carry over bonding point, cosmetic and the mira + sephith bonus ( as to avoid farming trash as much as possible).

Honestly, it's quite good. I was afraid that lot of fight would get tedious or force you to adapt your whole setup to counter-gimmick the boss, but it's been mostly fine. I only had to do it against the zephyrantes (laser archaism that inflict S-down) in chapter 1, but they were already a pain in hard and nightmare. Also, you sometimes have to restart the fight, because if rng say "fuck you, the whole ennemy team is acting before you're gonna have a bad time. Granted, it only happened once for me for the final fight of chapter 1, but it's still annoying.

I just finished chapter 2, Mc Burn was way more interesting and challenging than before, notably because boss are way harder to break, so you can't stunlock them to oblivion like in the base game. Trash fight are still over pretty quickly, apart from those in stargazer tower, and i guess that it will be the same in chapter 4 and finale.

The mod has two difficulty setting, hard (which his harder than nightmare in base game) and nightmare. I'm playing on hard, and i would only recommand nigthmare for masochist.

Is the difficulty curve consistent?

One of my main gripes with vanilla nightmare is how fast the difficulty drops off. The early game is legitimately challenging but as soon as you get the freedom to make proper builds it's still a cakewalk. The game is obviously balanced around a player who has no idea what they're doing (just look at the quartz loadout of guest characters) and the pure stat bloat of nightmare is not nearly enough to counteract this.

Would consider another playthrough if there was a consistent challenge since I love the battle system when you're not on autopilot.

 

[Jermu]

After finishing CS4 there is quite informative interview some people might find interesting

Spoiler

https://gu4n.medium.com/trails-of-c...en-interview-with-kondo-toshihiro-3fed57af363

link obviously has spoilers for CS4.

Regarding difficulty spikes if you want CS4 offers the most cheese methods in any trails game. Chrono burst and accelerate command order are probably easiest ones and stacking break. I would not use chrono burst CS4 is the easiest game in trails series already. Hardest fight was the one where you need a calculator for max AP

 

[Slaver1]

Anyone know if Hajimari will reference who Rean had a relationship with in TOCS4/if you can use TOCS4 savefile in the next game?

 

[Ysaye]

Anyone know if Hajimari will reference who Rean had a relationship with in TOCS4/if you can use TOCS4 savefile in the next game?

I thought I had heard that it could do a load from CS4 to keep the relationships consistent and continued, much to the annoyance of a number of the fans who are kind of over the choose-your-own-waifu when clearly they should just set down Alisa as the canon and just keep running with it - although she is off running a business whilst he is still teaching at an academy in another part of the country so I suppose anything is up for grabs there.

 

[Lyre Mors]

Pretty sure I read that Alisa is canon waifu in Hajimari, which is not only stupid, but also sucks as she is one of the worst Trails series characters ever.

Really not a fan of the harem shit in Cold Steel to begin with.

 

[cruel]

Alisa is the best waifu. We definitely need a Codex poll for best Trails waifu.

Worst character award should go to Cedric, or maybe this Crossbell reporter.

 

[Valestein]

Pretty sure I read that Alisa is canon waifu in Hajimari, which is not only stupid, but also sucks as she is one of the worst Trails series characters ever.

Really not a fan of the harem shit in Cold Steel to begin with.

Hajimari is clearly a gaiden title as we all know that Sara is the canonical waifu.

 

[Sarathiour]

Is the difficulty curve consistent?

One of my main gripes with vanilla nightmare is how fast the difficulty drops off. The early game is legitimately challenging but as soon as you get the freedom to make proper builds it's still a cakewalk. The game is obviously balanced around a player who has no idea what they're doing (just look at the quartz loadout of guest characters) and the pure stat bloat of nightmare is not nearly enough to counteract this.

Would consider another playthrough if there was a consistent challenge since I love the battle system when you're not on autopilot.

I'm only halfway through, but basically, trash mob can still be cleaned pretty fast if you double or triple them. Boss get more interesting, in base game only few token fight somewhat give a challenge if you're not abusing the various mechanic. In the mod they put more of a challenge, i had to weight some of my option instead of just being on autopilot. End chapter spike a bit in difficulty, but that's fine by me. It will probably still be more difficult in the beginning of the game rather than in the end, given how MQ, itemization and battle system works. By the way, i think he modded a bit the loadout of guest character to be a bit less shitty, and buffed aurelia, in order a to make her a real asset for chapter 3.

I thought I had heard that it could do a load from CS4 to keep the relationships consistent and continued, much to the annoyance of a number of the fans who are kind of over the choose-your-own-waifu when clearly they should just set down Alisa as the canon and just keep running with it - although she is off running a business whilst he is still teaching at an academy in another part of the country so I suppose anything is up for grabs there.

I really don't get the hate for alisa on the west. Yes, she's the stereotype anime tsundere , but she's at least less one-dimensional than other character, like towa for exemple. Also the pool of waifu is way too big, i did not pick this game to play some sort of dating sim, and we end up with garbage-tier character like Elise.

 

[StaticSpine]

I have a feeling they wanted to force Alyssa as canon waifu in ToCS 1 but backed off in later parts.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

I have a feeling they wanted to force Alyssa as canon waifu in ToCS 1 but backed off in later parts.

Who is Alyssa?

 

[StaticSpine]

Sorry, Alisa Reinford.

 

[cruel]

Objective truth about Alisa: she is a cute petite blonde with big boogs, who is also smart, warm and cares for you (Rean). Obvious choice.

 

[Maxie]

did you people seriously bang anyone else than Towa?? shit taste central

 

[Mark.L.Joy]

You back away from Towa right now you fat perverted polack!

 

[Ysaye]

I have a feeling they wanted to force Alyssa as canon waifu in ToCS 1 but backed off in later parts.

I thought Alisa was originally the planned main protagonist for the cold steel arc? She is also the preferred waifu in Japan...As much as I prefer Emma as the "best Waifu" as a personal preference throughout the CS series, I think the decision to have given the player the choice was a bit silly (ie. they should have just made it Alisa), but it is understandable given the more general audience support for it.

Anyway - almost at the end of CS4 (just got the true ending to go) and have noted that other characters seem to have been partnered up:

• Kurt and
  Spoiler

  Sully
  - this is a pairing that works IMO - they both have commonality in working hard on their own and just being down to earth kind of people. Having him carry her off in one scene so that she doesn't hurt her legs, and then have his mum force him on a date with her was kind of funny as well.
• Ash and
  Spoiler

  Tatiana
  - Didn't really see this one coming, thought it was more likely to be
  Spoiler

  The sister at Raquel - I have forgotten her name
  but she even gives him a book to read between the final boss battles, which he duly does;
• Gaius and
  Spoiler

  Linde
  - yet another thing that Gaius was keeping under wraps - didn't realise he had a whole nurse thing going on?
• Machias and
  Spoiler

  Patiry
  - I suppose I could see that one coming, he was always pretty sympathetic towards her, despite her aggressive tones.

I haven't quite picked up who Elliott is going out with but it was alluded to a couple of times? (I presume that it is the girl from the music academy?)

I was also wondering if Campanella has fallen in love with Juna, given the amount of interaction between the two and the amount of information that he/it/they give out to her about their role in the society and the fact that she alone seems to be able to make him lose his cool?

Also I know people hate Cedric as a character, but IMO they have set him up for some interesting stuff going forward whereas Rufus really is just a dufus in this game (I know enough to know he has a prominent role in Hajimari but....) and deserved

Spoiler

getting punched in the face by Jusis at the end.

 

[cruel]

I'm 98 hours in, nowhere near the end, and the game keeps getting better and better. Some plot holes were actually explained nicely, some of the things that happened that I didn't like had a twist / surprise, overall I'm very happy. All of you guys who are still waiting for PC release are in for a treat, probably this is the best Cold Steel game yet (unless they mess up something at the end, but I doubt). Much better game, on almost all levels, than Persona 5 - and there is even no comparison. The bar in JRPG genre was raised very, very high by this.

 

[cruel]

FYI, for those interested - Trails from Zero is 50% off currently on DLSite:

https://www.dlsite.com/soft/work/=/product_id/VJ009178.html

Now I just need to decide should I buy it, if I got bored with first TitS after 10h :/

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using Tapatalk

 

[rashiakas]

Zero is even worse than TitS.

 

[Lyre Mors]

Now I just need to decide should I buy it, if I got bored with first TitS after 10h :/

I really can't see how you wouldn't enjoy Zero and Ao if you played through and like all of the Cold Steel series. For me, the setting was so interesting in Zero that even though it started a bit slow, I enjoyed every minute of it and couldn't stop playing. Definitely can't say the same for Trails in the Sky FC.

At that point, I can't really see how you wouldn't want to and enjoy going through the three TitS games too. Like, if you plowed through those Cold Steel games in the span of 6ish months, I can't see you getting bored playing the older games, especially since you're invested in the world and characters now.

EDIT: I also can't express how fucking cool it feels to wander around Crossbell in Cold Steel III rendered in this engine. Looking face to face with all those characters you grew to know as sprites is just too cool, and seeing how the city has begun to change. East Street is particularly gorgeous. There's just nothing like this out there.

 

[kain30]

I loved tits 1 and 2. I cannot wait for tocs4. Is the tocs saga going to end in the 4th game?

 

[Lyre Mors]

Is the tocs saga going to end in the 4th game?

Technically yes, though its all kind of wrapped up in the game that follows it - Hajimari no Kiseki. Hajimari kind of serves as an end to TitS, Crossbell, and ToCS all in one, while serving as a beginning leading into the Calvard arc coming up.

Can't wait for Hajimari. It really looks amazing.

 

[Harry Easter]

I loved tits

Who doesn't? Sorry, I couldn't resist :D.

I started playing Trails in the Sky 1 and I like what I see. I'm thinking of getting the Crossbell-Arc next, since that should come out in summer. I think I get the appeal of the series. It's just so wholesome right now.