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

[Deleted member 7219]

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.

You can already get Trails from Zero from dlsite.com and the excellent Geofront localisation from here.

 

[Harry Easter]

Rean Merci!

 

[cruel]

I need to rant a little bit. Heavy spoilers below, don't read if you haven't played CS4 yet.

Spoiler

I really don't like some of the plot decisions they make, and how they treat legends in CS4. First, Viscount Arseid - fantastic, epic character. It was obvious from the start that his death in CS3 is fake. Sure enough, he is indeed alive, but what? He lost his left arm. Why? What's the point? First, some injuries after McBurn fight, now the guy has only one arm left. Totally unnecessary for one on my favorite characters, and at the same time Toval is perfectly fine without a single scratch.

And next, worse, the Steel Maiden. One fight, followed by harder Divine Knight fight, some drama, and it seems that they were able to convince her to stay with them. I'm already imagining, how epic would it be to give player control of her, even for some time? Truly epic material right there. But no, what happens? Rufus appears out of nowhere, NOT SEEN by 20+ people, including legendary knight and the most powerful witch in the world, and kills her in one hit. And a moment later deflects Rose's pure wrath, no problem, she is only the most powerful witch in the world. What a load of bullshit.

Also, Jermu was right. Difficulty on Hard in later parts of the game is virtually non-existent (at least for non Divine Knight battles). Nightmare should be the way to go for people wanting some challenge.

 

[Ysaye]

I need to rant a little bit. Heavy spoilers below, don't read if you haven't played CS4 yet.

Spoiler

I really don't like some of the plot decisions they make, and how they treat legends in CS4. First, Viscount Arseid - fantastic, epic character. It was obvious from the start that his death in CS3 is fake. Sure enough, he is indeed alive, but what? He lost his left arm. Why? What's the point? First, some injuries after McBurn fight, now the guy has only one arm left. Totally unnecessary for one on my favorite characters, and at the same time Toval is perfectly fine without a single scratch.

And next, worse, the Steel Maiden. One fight, followed by harder Divine Knight fight, some drama, and it seems that they were able to convince her to stay with them. I'm already imagining, how epic would it be to give player control of her, even for some time? Truly epic material right there. But no, what happens? Rufus appears out of nowhere, NOT SEEN by 20+ people, including legendary knight and the most powerful witch in the world, and kills her in one hit. And a moment later deflects Rose's pure wrath, no problem, she is only the most powerful witch in the world. What a load of bullshit.

Also, Jermu was right. Difficulty on Hard in later parts of the game is virtually non-existent (at least for non Divine Knight battles). Nightmare should be the way to go for people wanting some challenge.

I generally agree with those examples being not great choices.

Spoiler

I generally agree that Victor losing an arm was a bit of a weird choice; I had read speculation before playing the game that Toval would survive but lose a leg but that doesn't seem to have happened? I think what they were trying to do with Victor is to pull him down (power level wise) to make him equal or otherwise to Aurelia. That and/or to "level out" some gameplay stuff which I am guessing you haven't got to yet?

I suspect you may not like the final treatment of Claire and maybe Lecter. On the other hand, I liked the final treatment of Cedric as well as some other characters that get developed a bit more that I was surprised at. There is even a little more of Lianne in the "true ending" - just make sure you finish all the sub-quests so that you get the ??? quest so that in turn you can easily get to the final "true" ending.

 

[Falksi]

Just started the first Trials of Cold Steel. Never played any of these games before and, despite quite a jarringly odd first 5-10 min, the first few hours on the whole have been very enjoyable.

Looking forward to delving deeper.

 

[Harry Easter]

Just started the first Trials of Cold Steel. Never played any of these games before and, despite quite a jarringly odd first 5-10 min, the first few hours on the whole have been very enjoyable.

Looking forward to delving deeper.

It is quite slow isn't it? But once you're hooked, you're hooked on the games. I think it really is the writing.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Just started the first Trials of Cold Steel. Never played any of these games before and, despite quite a jarringly odd first 5-10 min, the first few hours on the whole have been very enjoyable.

Looking forward to delving deeper.

It is quite slow isn't it? But once you're hooked, you're hooked on the games. I think it really is the writing.

Yep, TOCS is probably the slowest game in the series (even more so than TITS and Zero, just because the writing in TOCS admittedly isn't as good), yet it's still great.

If you start to get bored or annoyed with the twee-ness of it all, just push through, it's worth it.

 

[Harry Easter]

It's interesting, that they make even the twee-ness work. I don't know what their writing does better than other JRPG's, but it works. Even in the Ys - Games.

 

[Falksi]

They have nailed a great rate of pacing between being active and watching the story, which I think helps a lot.

It also made me laugh how at the start they stated "Class 7 is a diverse selection of students" after the 1st boss fight in the prologue, and yet there's not ONE negro, paki, feminazi, faggot amongst them

Proper, straight white supremacy like only the slopes know how. Brilliant stuff.

 

[Harry Easter]

What is a slope?

 

[Deleted member 7219]

What is a slope?

An ethnic slur used to describe Asian people.

 

[Valestein]

They have nailed a great rate of pacing between being active and watching the story, which I think helps a lot.

It also made me laugh how at the start they stated "Class 7 is a diverse selection of students" after the 1st boss fight in the prologue, and yet there's not ONE negro, paki, feminazi, faggot amongst them

Proper, straight white supremacy like only the slopes know how. Brilliant stuff.

They aren't considered honorary aryans for nothin'.

 

[Ventidius]

I finished Cold Steel 2 last year and already bought and started CS3 a couple days back. I gotta say, even though I'm only around 15 hours into the 3rd, both games feel like a noticeable improvement over the first. Not that the first game was bad, mind you, I would probably not be playing the newer ones if it hadn't hooked me, but it does seem Falcom just keeps iterating the gameplay into perfection while maintaining an uncompromising diligence in developing the setting, characters, and overall narrative with care. In that connection, I'm frankly glad they decided to extend the franchise into a fourth game.

I like the changes and additions to the combat and character systems they've been making with each game, even if it took a while for me to get used to the new combat interface of 3. The dungeons seem to have gotten more interesting in their design in 2, and so far 3 has been solid in that regard, especially the Keep areas. I hope they keep it up.

So far I think CS3 has the strongest early game of the bunch, if they can maintain this level of quality I might end up liking it more than CS2, which is one of the best Japanese RPGs I've played in the last decade. One thing I am liking about 3 more than 2 so far is that it doesn't have anything as tedious as the whole "find the students" side-tasks were in that one. But it's still early in the game, they might still come up with something like that.

I'd probably be a bit bummed that they don't let you carry over your save from 2 to 3 if it wasn't for the fact that I switched from playing 2 on the Vita to playing 3 on the Switch. The Switch version is great so far in portable mode (certainly much better than Ys VIII, which has some graphical issues), my only issue is this bug where the game freezes when you start moving in the dorm after fast travelling to it. Not sure if that's a Switch thing or whatever, but it's no biggie either way.

Anyway, great series. A while back I thought I'd only have bought and completed CS3 after CS4 got its Switch release, but at the rate at which I've been playing these games, I'll probably have to wait for 4. In the meantime, there are always replays (which I'm already looking forward to), plus the other Trails games.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

If it makes any difference, Cold Steel 4 scans your disk drive for save games from ALL CS games.

On PS4 this was meaningless because I only had CS 3 saves there, but I expect the PC release of CS4 to check saves of CS 1, 2 and 3.

You'll get bonus items but not much else, so it's not that important.

 

[cruel]

I think that you are also getting some additional dialog with your 'chosen one' based on save import.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using Tapatalk

 

[Endemic]

It also made me laugh how at the start they stated "Class 7 is a diverse selection of students" after the 1st boss fight in the prologue, and yet there's not ONE negro, paki, feminazi, faggot amongst them

They aren't talking about skin colour when they say that social class, home region and academic background was the point.

 

[cruel]

Why did they put the last master quartz locked behind a shitty mini game like Pom? there is no way I'm suffering through that.

Btw, 130 hours on the clock and still playing. Huge, huge game with a lot of content (and not boring!).

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using Tapatalk

 

[HoboForEternity]

Pom! Is pretty fun

 

[cruel]

With first few opponents, sure is. After that, they all start playing like Japanese kids on steroids - not doable with my reflexes.

 

[Ventidius]

So, an April release has been confirmed for the Western Switch version of IV:



Funny that the announcement came out just as I'm wrapping up the third. Waiting for a release date is a bitch.

 

[HoboForEternity]

when is PC?? ? ? ? ?

 

[Ventidius]

Some impressions after having finished CS3 (spoilers included):

-I didn't expect it to take me longer to beat than 2, but it did, despite my liberal use of the speed-up options. Thankfully the game retains a high level of quality right up to the epic final boss gauntlet.

-Despite being longer than 2, I thought the pacing was better. The start is much stronger (I liked the Ymir start in 2, but the reunion with Class VII dragged on a bit too much for my taste), the middle section is suitably exploratory while having the best content in the game, and the ending doesn't drag as much as it does in 1 or 2: once the campaign and story reach peak momentum the game just rushes to its climatic ending, as it should be. To be fair to 2, in its case there were extenuating circumstances, such as the fact that there was no other section of the story where they could have comfortably stuck the Lloyd chapter and the fact that the "true" finale was essentially a post-game dungeon, but CS1 does just drag its ending out.

-The cities and regions are great. Both Crossbell and Ordis-Raquel were very well done. Great music, very cozy atmosphere, distinct aesthetics that nevertheless fit the setting well, plus plenty of content and solid overland exploration in the surrounding areas. There is even some incentive to check out the smaller shops for unique items (such as the gifts) that aren't available elsewhere, not to mention the department stores have gear that you can't get in other shops. There are also points of interest that are not marked on your journal that have some interesting stuff or contribute AP. Overall, it feels like non-dungeon exploration is a massive upgrade over the previous two games, which makes the more linear structure (compared to 2) all the more of a shame.

-Dungeons also feel like an improvement. The Dark Dragon's Nest and Juno Naval Fortress are probably the best designed dungeons in the series. I also liked how they handled the huge cast by implementing parties that operate separately but coordinate in their navigation of the dungeons. Very solid mechanic that makes party building all the more interesting (if also more time consuming) while also enhancing exploration. The Keep levels also maintain a solid level of quality throughout.

-Both the combat and the party/character building retain the strengths of the previous entries while adding new stuff that makes it, if anything, more interesting. Break is a pretty good mechanic that makes encounters and tactics more varied while, incidentally, also making Earth slots more useful to physical attackers. I'm not sure that delay is as broken as it was in 2, but this time around there seems to be a lot more stuff to experiment around with, so I didn't focus as much on it as I did back in 2. I think I prefer the Brave Orders to Overdrive in 2. However, I'll admit some of this stuff is just broken, like Ash's Crazy Hunt order. Well, at least that one is not available in the final gauntlet. Domination is still busted, hehe.

-World-building and characterization seem, if anything, to be an improvement over previous games. Western Erebonia ended up being, perhaps paradoxically, even more interesting than the Eastern part. We see fewer distinct areas, but both Sutherland and Lamarre feel more detailed than the Eastern regions. This connects to the point I was making above regarding exploration. Crossbell is also great, of course, and has made me even more curious about the Crossbell games. The new Class VII is alright, none of them is as consistently annoying as the worst of CS1's main cast. They toned down the tropey anime high school drama despite returning to the academy setting. Old Class VII is more likeable than ever as well. Rean is finally a strong protagonist (he was something of a nonentity in 1 and 2 tbh), insufferable characters like Machias are tolerable now, and bland characters like Gaius are actually cool now.

To be fair, this game benefits massively from a lot of setups from previous games that add a lot to what we see, thanks to the fact that the devs were committed from the get-go to crafting a meticulously interconnected world.

-I'm not a huge fan of the fact that they've moving away from factional and international politics and further towards "Dark Dragon" and "Ancient Evil" shenanigans, but whatcha gonna do? This sort of thing was baked into the setting from the beginning as far as I can tell (e.g. the Sept-Terrion as a motivation for Ouroboros), so I guess they have no choice but to incorporate it into things despite the fact that Erebonian politics are probably more interesting than that stuff. Not to mention this kind of thing is to be expected in a JRPG. Still, I have to admit the timing for this shift in gears wasn't the best: things were just starting to get interesting with the Calvard special forces story. Would have liked to see a bit more of that.

Not a fan of having another cliffhanger ending either, though I sorta saw it coming (I figured they'd repeat the structure of 1 and 2 with 3 and 4) and I plan on getting 4 when it comes out for the Switch in any case.

Overall, I liked CS3 a lot. Right now, it's probably my favorite in the series along with 2. I'm not sure of which I'd rank higher, they both have their strengths and weaknesses. As I mentioned, I find the more open-ended structure of CS2's midgame to be an advantage over CS3, even if CS3 has overall better areas. Either way, they are both great games, and they are both among the very best JRPGs as far as I'm concerned. It's been a while since a series has hooked me like this one did. Already looking forward to the Calvard arc.

 

[Ysaye]

Some impressions after having finished CS3 (spoilers included):

-I didn't expect it to take me longer to beat than 2, but it did, despite my liberal use of the speed-up options. Thankfully the game retains a high level of quality right up to the epic final boss gauntlet.

-Despite being longer than 2, I thought the pacing was better. The start is much stronger (I liked the Ymir start in 2, but the reunion with Class VII dragged on a bit too much for my taste), the middle section is suitably exploratory while having the best content in the game, and the ending doesn't drag as much as it does in 1 or 2: once the campaign and story reach peak momentum the game just rushes to its climatic ending, as it should be. To be fair to 2, in its case there were extenuating circumstances, such as the fact that there was no other section of the story where they could have comfortably stuck the Lloyd chapter and the fact that the "true" finale was essentially a post-game dungeon, but CS1 does just drag its ending out.

-The cities and regions are great. Both Crossbell and Ordis-Raquel were very well done. Great music, very cozy atmosphere, distinct aesthetics that nevertheless fit the setting well, plus plenty of content and solid overland exploration in the surrounding areas. There is even some incentive to check out the smaller shops for unique items (such as the gifts) that aren't available elsewhere, not to mention the department stores have gear that you can't get in other shops. There are also points of interest that are not marked on your journal that have some interesting stuff or contribute AP. Overall, it feels like non-dungeon exploration is a massive upgrade over the previous two games, which makes the more linear structure (compared to 2) all the more of a shame.

-Dungeons also feel like an improvement. The Dark Dragon's Nest and Juno Naval Fortress are probably the best designed dungeons in the series. I also liked how they handled the huge cast by implementing parties that operate separately but coordinate in their navigation of the dungeons. Very solid mechanic that makes party building all the more interesting (if also more time consuming) while also enhancing exploration. The Keep levels also maintain a solid level of quality throughout.

-Both the combat and the party/character building retain the strengths of the previous entries while adding new stuff that makes it, if anything, more interesting. Break is a pretty good mechanic that makes encounters and tactics more varied while, incidentally, also making Earth slots more useful to physical attackers. I'm not sure that delay is as broken as it was in 2, but this time around there seems to be a lot more stuff to experiment around with, so I didn't focus as much on it as I did back in 2. I think I prefer the Brave Orders to Overdrive in 2. However, I'll admit some of this stuff is just broken, like Ash's Crazy Hunt order. Well, at least that one is not available in the final gauntlet. Domination is still busted, hehe.

-World-building and characterization seem, if anything, to be an improvement over previous games. Western Erebonia ended up being, perhaps paradoxically, even more interesting than the Eastern part. We see fewer distinct areas, but both Sutherland and Lamarre feel more detailed than the Eastern regions. This connects to the point I was making above regarding exploration. Crossbell is also great, of course, and has made me even more curious about the Crossbell games. The new Class VII is alright, none of them is as consistently annoying as the worst of CS1's main cast. They toned down the tropey anime high school drama despite returning to the academy setting. Old Class VII is more likeable than ever as well. Rean is finally a strong protagonist (he was something of a nonentity in 1 and 2 tbh), insufferable characters like Machias are tolerable now, and bland characters like Gaius are actually cool now.

To be fair, this game benefits massively from a lot of setups from previous games that add a lot to what we see, thanks to the fact that the devs were committed from the get-go to crafting a meticulously interconnected world.

-I'm not a huge fan of the fact that they've moving away from factional and international politics and further towards "Dark Dragon" and "Ancient Evil" shenanigans, but whatcha gonna do? This sort of thing was baked into the setting from the beginning as far as I can tell (e.g. the Sept-Terrion as a motivation for Ouroboros), so I guess they have no choice but to incorporate it into things despite the fact that Erebonian politics are probably more interesting than that stuff. Not to mention this kind of thing is to be expected in a JRPG. Still, I have to admit the timing for this shift in gears wasn't the best: things were just starting to get interesting with the Calvard special forces story. Would have liked to see a bit more of that.

Not a fan of having another cliffhanger ending either, though I sorta saw it coming (I figured they'd repeat the structure of 1 and 2 with 3 and 4) and I plan on getting 4 when it comes out for the Switch in any case.

Overall, I liked CS3 a lot. Right now, it's probably my favorite in the series along with 2. I'm not sure of which I'd rank higher, they both have their strengths and weaknesses. As I mentioned, I find the more open-ended structure of CS2's midgame to be an advantage over CS3, even if CS3 has overall better areas. Either way, they are both great games, and they are both among the very best JRPGs as far as I'm concerned. It's been a while since a series has hooked me like this one did. Already looking forward to the Calvard arc.

Things you will like if you play CS4:

• The CS2 midgame open structure returns in CS4, and there is no school life at all
• Whilst based around the areas shown in CS3, there are even more areas to explore that didn't appear in CS3
• CS4, whilst the end game for many characters revolves around the Sept-terrion and it's associated influence, it is also very much against the background of the upcoming world war, the conscription and it's impacts big and small (visiting the small towns as it progresses is heartbreaking), internal factional moves flagged towards the end of CS3, and the politics and aggression that force pretty much everyone to go all in. You learn a bit about what is happening on the Calvard side, although some of it is only taster for now, as well as interactions with two other nations. One of the reoccurring themes in CS4 is that although there is are supernatural forces at play that may "place a gun in your hand", at the heart of the matter are the choices that humanity takes - humanity is the one to pull the trigger.

Things you will less like:

• CS4 sports a cast of thousands, and whilst they did put some management measures to get most some screen time, combined Class 7 is at points still a very large class to choose from.
• Further to that, finding everyone and connecting them together through the power of "Heart" is an anime trope it keeps throwing at you; as Altina says at one point "Lovey Dovey levels (are) reaching toxic levels, any further exposure is likely to induce vomitting". at times it is jarring against the backdrop of the upcoming war (but I suppose it is also important because it shows that they haven't lost hope, whilst the general community have).

 

[Ventidius]

To be honest, I don't necessarily mind the "Powah of Frenship" stuff. It's so commonplace in JRPGs and anime that it's pretty much obligatory at this point, so I have a hard time holding that against the games. What you are saying here seems to more than compensate for that:

CS4, whilst the end game for many characters revolves around the Sept-terrion and it's associated influence, it is also very much against the background of the upcoming world war, the conscription and it's impacts big and small (visiting the small towns as it progresses is heartbreaking), internal factional moves flagged towards the end of CS3, and the politics and aggression that force pretty much everyone to go all in. You learn a bit about what is happening on the Calvard side, although some of it is only taster for now, as well as interactions with two other nations. One of the reoccurring themes in CS4 is that although there is are supernatural forces at play that may "place a gun in your hand", at the heart of the matter are the choices that humanity takes - humanity is the one to pull the trigger.

This sounds like incline. Blaming everything on a magical dark power more or less would negate the importance of a lot of the tensions and themes that they've been setting up since the first game. From around the conversation with the emperor onwards, the story in 3 seems to be very much heading in that direction, so it's good to hear that they didn't actually commit to that road in 4.

CS4 sports a cast of thousands, and whilst they did put some management measures to get most some screen time, combined Class 7 is at points still a very large class to choose from.

I don't really have a problem with this. I enjoyed the sections in CS2-CS3 where you could play with characters from the other Trails games, even if I'm mostly familiar with Cold Steel. So I look forward to more of that. Plus, I actually like both Class VIIs as they are now. Some of the Class VII characters annoyed me back in CS1, but even most of those have grown on me while also getting better along the way. Even in CS1 I liked most of the main cast.

They also refined the gameplay aspect of cast juggling in CS3 to the point where I don't really find it an inconvenience either.

 

[Lyre Mors]

Things you will like if you play CS4:

• The CS2 midgame open structure returns in CS4, and there is no school life at all
• Whilst based around the areas shown in CS3, there are even more areas to explore that didn't appear in CS3
• CS4, whilst the end game for many characters revolves around the Sept-terrion and it's associated influence, it is also very much against the background of the upcoming world war, the conscription and it's impacts big and small (visiting the small towns as it progresses is heartbreaking), internal factional moves flagged towards the end of CS3, and the politics and aggression that force pretty much everyone to go all in. You learn a bit about what is happening on the Calvard side, although some of it is only taster for now, as well as interactions with two other nations. One of the reoccurring themes in CS4 is that although there is are supernatural forces at play that may "place a gun in your hand", at the heart of the matter are the choices that humanity takes - humanity is the one to pull the trigger.

Sounds like my Cold Steel ranking is going to end up being CS4>CS2>CS3>CS1. Kind of how I thought.

Enjoying CS3 quite a bit right now, but again, Falcom, bro, fix your fucking pacing. I could not believe how long Field Exercises Day 1 of Chapter 3 ended up being. I have no doubt I'll be wrapping up Chapter 3 at something like 70 hours into the game, which is just a bit much with a whole 'nother chapter and finale waiting around the corner.

Like, I get wanting to slowly flesh out the locations, and I get why that is a vital aspect of the series, but there just has to be a better way of doing it organically than the extremely tired formulaic chapter structures. It really starts taking you out of the story too, because it feels so mechanical and structured. Even worse than that I think, is the slog of a start every chapter is with the campus stuff. This arc really would have benefitted much more without the school setting in general. This is part of why I liked CS2 better than 1, even though it only kind of deviates from the formula. And another reason why Trails in the Sky 3rd is still probably my favorite game in the series. I know they changed it up a bit in Hajimari too, which makes me very excited. Here's hoping they ditch this forced formulaic structure in the Calvard arc. It's probably one of my few major criticism of the series when it comes to game-flow.