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

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Trails series is getting pretty long now isn't it?

It's already twice as long as it should have been.

Spoiler

• The first half of SC is filler. You are running around accomplishing jack all while the B-team is off doing the actually important stuff of tracking down the bad guy's secret base. You don't start progressing the plot until chapter 6 once the B-team has found the base.
• 3rd has a decent story but doesn't advance the plot in any meaningful. The Ouroboros door is just teasing and could have been stuck at the end of SC anyway.
• The Crossbell arc is complete filler. You don't come closer to stopping Ouroboros or learning anything more about them.
• CS3 is redundant filler. CS2 ends with the heroes knowing that Osborne is evil and that they need to get stronger and forge more connections before they can take on Osborne... then you reach CS3 and nobody is ready and they're going through the fun school days of CS1 all over again and fruitlessly chasing Ouroboros, until the last 20 hours of the game when the heroes realize (again) that *gasp* Osborne is evil!
• From what I've heard, Hajimari and the first two Kuro games are filler as well. No progress made on taking down Ouroboros at all.

The Trails series' length is a combination of the company rushing out one game per year regardless of whether or not they are ready, so you end up with stuff like Sky being divided into two games and the two Erebonia games becoming 4. And Trails has a dedicated fanbase so Falcom is incentivized to drag the story out as long as possible and milk them. At this point, the final showdown with Ouroboros won't happen until the 2030s, and we will probably get more games after that.

 

[Hammer Of The Heretics]

I'm half-convinced that the Grandmaster knows they're in a video game series and her goal is to drag them out as long as possible so their world doesn't end.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Well, are they fun? I've considered the first game as it has a nice familiar aesthetic to me. Those later games look very different.

2030 isn't too far away. :p

Edit---

Oh ho ho! So there are some really realy oldies in this series. Hmmm...

19 games? Lordy! Are those all on steam because gog only has a handful.

Best to start at the beginning.

 

[Jermu]

July 7 2023

 

[HoboForEternity]

Sooner than expected

 

[Ysaye]

In the meantime, I thought this video was good.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Oh man! That pc-98 version looks rocking! Rando extra quest, kill lights & dark. Man! Wtf with the windows? Patch thst shit back in. Or is there a translation edition pc-98?

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Those old PC-98 LoH games look aesthetically great. Too bad there is no English translation for them. The PSP remakes had English translations but look awful.

 

[Abu Antar]

I'm probably close to the end in Cold Steel II?
I'm on December 31, and I have wrapped up all fishing, cooking, books, and quests that I can find. Crafted one ultimate weapon and the game tells me that I won't have the ship if I continue on with the story, which makes me think that I'm at the point of no return.

 

[Jermu]

pretty much every jrpg ever made has ultimate weapons at the end of the game (mainly before last dungeon) and trails is not exception

good job suffering through cs2 next game is better

there is some more stuff to do which you dont want to miss after finishing the main story so check those out

 

[Hammer Of The Heretics]

Cold Steel II goes on for quite a while after the point of no return. Like "plan for a weekend, not an evening" long.

 

[Abu Antar]

I'm at what I think is the final dungeon. This game really lets you cheese the game unconditionally. With overdrives, swapping characters, high speed and delaying. I slaughtered three bosses. There is a fire elemental boss to tackle next, but I had to quit for now. The game has been really fun, but I am ready to take a little break from Cold Steel.

My main team consists of Rean, Laura, Alisa, and the last slot is rotated between Fie and Sara. I have Emma and one more character in reserve. Before a boss fight, build up overdrives and have 200 CP.

 

[Ysaye]

I'm at what I think is the final dungeon. This game really lets you cheese the game unconditionally. With overdrives, swapping characters, high speed and delaying. I slaughtered three bosses. There is a fire elemental boss to tackle next, but I had to quit for now. The game has been really fun, but I am ready to take a little break from Cold Steel.

My main team consists of Rean, Laura, Alisa, and the last slot is rotated between Fie and Sara. I have Emma and one more character in reserve. Before a boss fight, build up overdrives and have 200 CP.

Yes the last random dungeon of CS2 is a bit too much, but they added it to not leave Rean in a complete psychological mess and have one last connection with his friends.

 

[Jermu]

Also Kuro 2 releasing this month hope we get translation patch soonish

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Are they localizing the fantastic looking PC-98 version or the ugly looking PSP remake?

 

[Hammer Of The Heretics]

Given that NIS America dropped a C&D on the translation patch for Kuro I'm not expecting one for Kuro II.

 

[Ysaye]

Are they localizing the fantastic looking PC-98 version or the ugly looking PSP remake?

They had a live panel discussion this morning (Aus time) and I didn't stay for the whole thing because it kept dropping in and out (Apparently the Wifi they were using in the Gaylord Hotel that they were at wasn't that great) but I was talking with Floofy in the chat about the Dinosaur Resurrection before they got into things and listening to the initial discussion about their approach and they were talking about doing games that were still commercially available in Japan via the DL website so I believe it will be the Windows XP version, which I believe is a version of the PC-98 (Would need to rewatch the Basement Brothers video again that I copied in on the page before). This article also seems to confirm this:

https://noisypixel.net/geofront-fan-translation-the-legend-of-heroes-iii-the-white-witch/

 

[Ysaye]

Given that NIS America dropped a C&D on the translation patch for Kuro I'm not expecting one for Kuro II.

Yes they (the Geofront) said they were going to concentrate on the older Falcom games that were unlikely to be translated by NIS/Xseed/Aksys/etc.

They also flashed up reminding people that they had (recently) translated Falcom's game Computer the Golf!

https://geofront.esterior.net/2022/...ics-volume-1-computer-the-golf-patch-out-now/

 

[Abu Antar]

It took longer than I wanted to get back and do the two final boss. Now that Cold Steel II is done, should I get Cold Steel III-IV and Trails fo Zero on Switch for $90?

 

[Rephyrnomicon]

It took longer than I wanted to get back and do the two final boss. Now that Cold Steel II is done, should I get Cold Steel III-IV and Trails fo Zero on Switch for $90?

Absolutely. Play Zero before CS 3 and 4... Probably Azure too, if that comes out anytime soon.

 

[Abu Antar]

It took longer than I wanted to get back and do the two final boss. Now that Cold Steel II is done, should I get Cold Steel III-IV and Trails fo Zero on Switch for $90?

Absolutely. Play Zero before CS 3 and 4... Probably Azure too, if that comes out anytime soon.

It comes out in March.

 

[Rephyrnomicon]

It took longer than I wanted to get back and do the two final boss. Now that Cold Steel II is done, should I get Cold Steel III-IV and Trails fo Zero on Switch for $90?

Absolutely. Play Zero before CS 3 and 4... Probably Azure too, if that comes out anytime soon.

It comes out in March.

Then definitely play Zero and Azure before starting on CS 3, you'll be glad that you did. A ton of returning characters from the crossbell arc will show up and it'll be nice to have the context.

Did you play the sky trilogy as well, or did you start with cold steel?

 

[Abu Antar]

It took longer than I wanted to get back and do the two final boss. Now that Cold Steel II is done, should I get Cold Steel III-IV and Trails fo Zero on Switch for $90?

Absolutely. Play Zero before CS 3 and 4... Probably Azure too, if that comes out anytime soon.

It comes out in March.

Then definitely play Zero and Azure before starting on CS 3, you'll be glad that you did. A ton of returning characters from the crossbell arc will show up and it'll be nice to have the context.

Did you play the sky trilogy as well, or did you start with cold steel?

Sky trilogy + Cold Steel I/II are done. I got Cold Steel III/IV and Zero just now, on the Switch digital shop. I had $100 worth of store credit on there.

 

[Rephyrnomicon]

It took longer than I wanted to get back and do the two final boss. Now that Cold Steel II is done, should I get Cold Steel III-IV and Trails fo Zero on Switch for $90?

Absolutely. Play Zero before CS 3 and 4... Probably Azure too, if that comes out anytime soon.

It comes out in March.

Then definitely play Zero and Azure before starting on CS 3, you'll be glad that you did. A ton of returning characters from the crossbell arc will show up and it'll be nice to have the context.

Did you play the sky trilogy as well, or did you start with cold steel?

Sky trilogy + Cold Steel I/II are done. I got Cold Steel III/IV and Zero just now, on the Switch digital shop. I had $100 worth of store credit on there.

That's awesome! Finish Zero and Azure and you're fully prepped for CS3 and 4!

Enjoy!

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

It took longer than I wanted to get back and do the two final boss. Now that Cold Steel II is done, should I get Cold Steel III-IV and Trails fo Zero on Switch for $90?

These are 60-100+ hour long games. Don't feel obligated to play games that don't appeal to you as a "prerequisite" for playing the games that you actually wanted to play. Just play the games that appeal to you.

Trails fanboys rave about "you have to play all the games in order to get the most out of the continuity!" but honestly, the series never delivers on those payoffs. You have to recommend the games based off of their own merits.

I thought Zero was okay but nothing to write home about. Azure infuriated me and soured me on the franchise, I'd say it is almost a bad game. CS3 and CS4 are... a mixed bag.

nooo, don't do it, or you'll learn the series peaked

Also, this. Not trying to poison the well here, but I think CS2 was the last great Trails game. But again, play what appeals to you. If the modern urban setting of Crossbell and the character designs and the chibi sprites appeals to you, then play Crossbell. If it doesn't appeal to you then skip it. If you like the aesthetics of Cold Steel and the combat and the characters, then play Cold Steel. If neither appeals to you then you can hang up the series here.