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

[Ventidius]

Is it just me, or is Mirage is bar none the best element for offensive casters in Cold Steel IV? I mean, Albion Wolf alone seems to make even Lost Arts superfluous: high power, bypasses reflections, and removes positive effects... combine that with the delay reduction from Silver Bells, and it's just insane.

At least in CS3, you got the feeling that Water was a viable alternative. If nothing else, the power curve and pacing/structure of the game ensured that Mirage could only reach its potential relatively late in the game, but now you can get to that setup much faster.

Not that I'm complaining, mind you, I really dig how much stuff you get to play around with in these games.

Against humans, yes, Albion Wolf is boss. SS+ damage and All Cancel, very strong. Anything else you utilize vulnerabilities for. A surprising amount of enemies lategame actually hate Water.
Lost Arts should be used for utility only. I actually put them on the non-casters.

Yeah, taking vulnerabilities into account never really ceases to be rewarding. Another thing I love about the series' combat.

Probably should have specified that Lost Arts feel superfluous mostly as offensive tools. They obviously retain a lot of usefulness due to their various boosts and effects, as you say.

 

[Rean]

Yeah, taking vulnerabilities into account never really ceases to be rewarding. Another thing I love about the series' combat.

Combat has peaked in CS4. It has evolved from something relatively barebones in the first CS1 into now providing a massive amount of options that make for a very tactical experience. Looking at utilizing orders to their fullest extent, the right spells and abilities at the right time, managing your resources and tracking turn ordering, it's all so fuckin good.
The only problem remains balance:
- bosses have too much HP and resistances, anything else is too easy. They also have the occasional bullshit teamwipe ability.
- hard difficulty is not hard enough

 

[Sarathiour]

Probably should have specified that Lost Arts feel superfluous mostly as offensive tools.

Withtout proper setup, probably.

Now if you combine them with ats boost, art support 2+ and BO like valiant heart (or god forbid even use hades gem), add some spicy MQ to the mix, it suddenly become way more powerful.

 

[Rean]

Friends, here are my thoughts on the final nighttime romance events in CS4 (current beer count is 10):

Spoiler

- Altina was a bit underwhelming and low energy.
- Juna was really really good. I expected it to be a bunch of bullshit about saving Crossbell- it was actually a pleasant surprise with how personal it ended up being.
- Alisa has been a bitch throughout this game so I ignored her, she can go fuck herself.
- I had to skip Sara and Towa. I checked out what they had to say in the evening bonding events and then had to reload because not enough tickets. There seemed to be other better choices. Sorry Valestein. At least the drinking event was good.
- Musse. Woah, had really low expectations but that turned out really good. Unfortunately, I don't think I could choose her to be the one.
- Laura. I thought she'd be my top choice but the event did not reflect her past behavior. Too lukewarm, meh. I'm using that ticket on Sara next playthrough.
- Emma, perhaps a little bit better than Laura. The safe, non-spicy, not too exciting choice I suppose.
- Fie. Really good. She's been very sweet throughout this game and this did not disappoint.
- Elise. This one was bound to be good, and it is, but it's semi-ruined by Rean autism.
- Alfin. This whole arc seemed like a joke from the moment it started a couple games ago but she's actually always been a cool, grounded girl, and the event reflects that.

I think, after all, I'll go with Fie.

 

[Ysaye]

Friends, here are my thoughts on the final nighttime romance events in CS4 (current beer count is 10):

Spoiler

- Altina was a bit underwhelming and low energy.
- Juna was really really good. I expected it to be a bunch of bullshit about saving Crossbell- it was actually a pleasant surprise with how personal it ended up being.
- Alisa has been a bitch throughout this game so I ignored her, she can go fuck herself.
- I had to skip Sara and Towa. I checked out what they had to say in the evening bonding events and then had to reload because not enough tickets. There seemed to be other better choices. Sorry Valestein. At least the drinking event was good.
- Musse. Woah, had really low expectations but that turned out really good. Unfortunately, I don't think I could choose her to be the one.
- Laura. I thought she'd be my top choice but the event did not reflect her past behavior. Too lukewarm, meh. I'm using that ticket on Sara next playthrough.
- Emma, perhaps a little bit better than Laura. The safe, non-spicy, not too exciting choice I suppose.
- Fie. Really good. She's been very sweet throughout this game and this did not disappoint.
- Elise. This one was bound to be good, and it is, but it's semi-ruined by Rean autism.
- Alfin. This whole arc seemed like a joke from the moment it started a couple games ago but she's actually always been a cool, grounded girl, and the event reflects that.

I think, after all, I'll go with Fie.

Canonically Rean didn't romance anyone that night....but any more than that would be spoilers.....

 

[Rean]

Canonically Rean didn't romance anyone that night....but any more than that would be spoilers.....

Hmmm, that's already a pretty big spoiler.
Yeah, I'm going through the game quite slow, I don't expect to finish it for another couple weeks.

 

[Valestein]

CS3 does act like Rean didn't romance anyone in CS1 or 2, which is a bummer. God damn consoles preventing 2->3 save transfers.

 

[Reinhardt]

CS3 does act like Rean didn't romance anyone in CS1 or 2, which is a bummer. God damn consoles preventing 2->3 save transfers.

Very realistic depiction of character too bland and stupid to remember what happened in previous game.

 

[Gearmos]

CS3 does act like Rean didn't romance anyone in CS1 or 2, which is a bummer. God damn consoles preventing 2->3 save transfers.

They could have fixed it with a recap before starting the game, where you could select the character you had the final bonding event with. Some games do that, like The Witcher or The Walking Dead.

 

[Reinhardt]

Or write proper story instead of shitty harem.

 

[Rean]

It's not a harem as he's not actually with them and it's not even specifically about Rean, it's more forced fangirlism over the main character that the player controls. It's less anime and more RPG trope in this case.
This is one of the most fundamental problems of being a player in an RPG videogame. By virtue of wanting to encourage choice in picking your favorite girl, they have to make all of them available. The NPC/PC disconnect should never be there in a tabletop setting, but it has to be there in videogames to provide the choice, because the medium is inherently restraining. I personally very much enjoy having the freedom to explore all available girls as choices and pick one I like rather than having some annoying whore forced upon me.
The game anyway quite heavily promotes monogamy for Rean and the majority of other characters are mostly quite traditional romance+marriage inclined.


And I don't recall CS4 mentioning any romance choices from CS3 either, but I might have missed it during the intro.

 

[rashiakas]

The whole romance shit hasn't any impact anyway. Aside from the short cutscenes there is no change in behavior between the characters after any of these events, so why even bother?

 

[Rean]

Why do fuckin anything in life?

Do you go into a story for the ending or for the journey it involves?

 

[rashiakas]

This was more aimed at the devs. The romancing part is so half-assed that it would have been better left out instead of feeling like some tacked on shit. I vastly prefer the relation build up between estelle and josh per example.

 

[HoboForEternity]

this series (cs 3 and 4 especially) is proof broken and unbalanced can be fun. i think it's always good to have crazy adjustable setup like this if the players are asked to be involved a bit. sure you can just auto-equip everyone and get decent party to get you through normal or even hard difficulty, but if you're a bit more involved you can have the chance to outwit, then completely break the system. like in CS 3 kurt is by default the designated EVA tank, but with little bit know-how you make juna eva tank in gunner mode for less counter damage output but reliable because she can counter ranged attack and so on.

in CS 4 I made crow and rean both eva tanks and crow has super high STR stat and a gunner mode even his melee weapon have higher range than average so he's absolutely strong. or stacking ATS on emma/musse with pandora and mirage bell so they do like 90k damage/ albion wolf using arts celebration so they only use like 100 EP/cast. i think my record was almost 200k (granted against enemy with 100% weakness against the element) using mystic art, ats buff stacking from orders, buff spells and art supports from linked party members.

 

[Sarathiour]

in CS 4 I made crow and rean both eva tanks and crow has super high STR stat and a gunner mode even his melee weapon have higher range than average so he's absolutely strong. or stacking ATS on emma/musse with pandora and mirage bell so they do like 90k damage/ albion wolf using arts celebration so they only use like 100 EP/cast. i think my record was almost 200k (granted against enemy with 100% weakness against the element) using mystic art, ats buff stacking from orders, buff spells and art supports from linked party members.

Crow has the highest overall stats from the whole class 7 (old and new ), a powerful kit and great orbment line, just like sara, you can pretty much build him anyway you want. Also, lost are going to surpass anything in term of raw input, regardless of vulnerability.
Lastly, i know i'm going to get some flak for that, but alisa is probably the best caster of class 7. Musse and Emma are only slightly under , with different niche.

 

[HoboForEternity]

in CS 4 I made crow and rean both eva tanks and crow has super high STR stat and a gunner mode even his melee weapon have higher range than average so he's absolutely strong. or stacking ATS on emma/musse with pandora and mirage bell so they do like 90k damage/ albion wolf using arts celebration so they only use like 100 EP/cast. i think my record was almost 200k (granted against enemy with 100% weakness against the element) using mystic art, ats buff stacking from orders, buff spells and art supports from linked party members.

Crow has the highest overall stats from the whole class 7 (old and new ), a powerful kit and great orbment line, just like sara, you can pretty much build him anyway you want. Also, lost are going to surpass anything in term of raw input, regardless of vulnerability.
Lastly, i know i'm going to get some flak for that, but alisa is probably the best caster of class 7. Musse and Emma are only slightly under , with different niche.

I use alisa as CP generator along with jusis they prettt much can cast adamantine shield every turn so your party is invulnerable amost all the time.

 

[Sarathiour]

I use alisa as CP generator along with jusis they prettt much can cast adamantine shield every turn so your party is invulnerable amost all the time.

Well you're missing out on something ,because they both make great caster with their high ats and speed. Angel's gift and platinium shield sure are excellent tool, but prefer using offensive option, most of cs4 ennemy so far did not hit very hard, even in nightmare. I'm just at the beginninjg of finale though, maybe i will meet more things that could actually pack a punch.

 

[Valestein]

I'm sad that I'm not able to use Laura as my S-Craft nuker in 3 and 4 with Domination like i did in the first two since they nerfed the s-crafts.

 

[abnaxus]

 

[Ventidius]

I'm sad that I'm not able to use Laura as my S-Craft nuker in 3 and 4 with Domination like i did in the first two since they nerfed the s-crafts.

Actually, Laura is still a powerful Domination nuker in Cold Steel 3, however, she does feel the nerf in 4. That said, she was a mainstay during my first playthrough of 4 and I still got some good use out of her: she still packs a huge punch, which means that she can either 1) put a considerable dent on enemies in Break state or 2) help put them in Break state fast. She also requires minimal setup to work well (Minotauros, Domination, and some Break tools if you want her doing that) and has an excellent Brave Order that synergizes well with other characters (especially Crow). It's kinda sad that she no longer towers over other units like she did in previous games, but she's still great.

 

[Sarathiour]

Actually, Laura is still a powerful Domination nuker in Cold Steel 3, however, she does feel the nerf in 4. That said, she was a mainstay during my first playthrough of 4 and I still got some good use out of her: she still packs a huge punch, which means that she can either 1) put a considerable dent on enemies in Break state or 2) help put them in Break state fast. She also requires minimal setup to work well (Minotauros, Domination, and some Break tools if you want her doing that) and has an excellent Brave Order that synergizes well with other characters (especially Crow). It's kinda sad that she no longer towers over other units like she did in previous games, but she's still great.

I would not say that laura really tower over other that much. She's great in CS1 because she give early acess to S-break and the cast stay relatively small, but millium is just a better nuker in cs2 ( yes, it irks me too ). Alos, what dragh her down in cs4 compared to cs3 is how much competition she suddenly get : gaius, crow, ashe and kurt can do as much as her, if not even better. She still got a very good BO, but she moved to being a good unit to an average one, just because the average got much better.

 

[Ventidius]

Actually, Laura is still a powerful Domination nuker in Cold Steel 3, however, she does feel the nerf in 4. That said, she was a mainstay during my first playthrough of 4 and I still got some good use out of her: she still packs a huge punch, which means that she can either 1) put a considerable dent on enemies in Break state or 2) help put them in Break state fast. She also requires minimal setup to work well (Minotauros, Domination, and some Break tools if you want her doing that) and has an excellent Brave Order that synergizes well with other characters (especially Crow). It's kinda sad that she no longer towers over other units like she did in previous games, but she's still great.

I would not say that laura really tower over other that much. She's great in CS1 because she give early acess to S-break and the cast stay relatively small, but millium is just a better nuker in cs2 ( yes, it irks me too ). Alos, what dragh her down in cs4 compared to cs3 is how much competition she suddenly get : gaius, crow, ashe and kurt can do as much as her, if not even better. She still got a very good BO, but she moved to being a good unit to an average one, just because the average got much better.

Yeah, I'd agree that the unit balance - and thus competition - generally got better, which took her down a notch, comparatively speaking. That said, she still seems above-average to me.

She still excels in her niche: Gaius and Ash only start to rival her when they get their second S-Crafts , which is late in the game. Even then, I'd say only Gaius can actually outshine her (thanks mostly to Absolute Delay), since Ash's second S-Craft is more situational (being single-target in a game that loves its boss squads).

Even against Gaius she has some advantages like better affinities and the useful CP recovery options offered by her Linkages, which are especially handy in a game like this where enemies are often beefy.

As I said, she also has the advantage of being relatively low-maintenance: apart from minimal setup, she has no need to do Trial Chests to use her already top-tier BO or anything like that.

To me, what hurt her the most is that her specific niche is no longer as relevant as it was before. Evasion-tanking, spell-casting and AT Delay seem to dominate the meta more than ever, while burst damage seems to have been somewhat left in the lurch. At the very least, they should have improved her versatility a bit, as her lack of it has always been her biggest weakness (one that is now more comparatively pronounced).

 

[Rean]

One important thing that has not been mentioned about Laura is the Lion Rush craft, which is very important. It's one of the few crafts that allow you to reposition exactly where you want to be. Being able to get your tanky person in the frontline or between or behind enemies is vital.

 

[Valestein]

I gotta say that Juna has grown on me a lot in IV. It's too bad Rean is too much of a liberal chump that doesn't support Erebonian annexation of Crossbell that he doesn't give that Crossbellan cooter a good eight leaves dicking to get her on board with it.