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

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Interesting that the Grandmaster is being advertised on the cover of the game. Again. Hopefully she will appear for more than 2 minutes and we will get some actual information on the big bad of this 14 game long series this time?

It's so funny to me how obsessed you are with this point, and how you see the Ouroboros as some kind of black and white villain situation, when it's been made clear time and again that isn't the case. Beyond that, there's been plenty of breadcrumbs dropped to make the fair assumption that the Grandmaster is

Spoiler

Aidios, or some aspect of her. In that same vein, it appears her goal is to "reset" the world and bring about a rebirth, as the name of the Eternal Reccurrence Plan suggests.

It's not as cut and dry as good and bad, and there is a metaphysical nature to the workings of the Ouroboros.

Ouroboros and the GM are the reason most of the conflict happens in Trails. Enforcers running around Liberl causing earthquakes and crushing shopping malls and massacring Grancel guards? Ouroboros torching Crossbell, loaning out giant super robots that melt and void thousands of people and escalating a cold war into a hot one? Enforcers threatening to burn down the Nord Highlands for shits and giggles? Enforcers unleashing hordes of killer robots upon highschoolers camping outdoors or upon a skyscraper of people? Enforcers hijacking railway guns and bombarding a densely populated city? Enforcers massacring a garrison? Enforcers helping perform child sacrifice? Enforcers trying to cause the end of the world? Ouroboros trying to gas everyone in the sewers underneath Oracion? And most of the Enforcers are just "whatever, I'm only in this organization because I'm strong and I do whatever the Anguis and the Grandmaster asks us to do" which offloads the motivation for all of these deadly conflicts onto the head honcho, the GM. She's guilty by association. Ofcourse she's a villain I want to see get her comeuppance. You can't expect her to cause all these heinous murders and then expect me to be satisfied if she gets off scott free "oh she just was trying to save us all from the REAL THREAT" like Sargeras or the Jailer from Warcraft.

 

[Jinn]

It has been pointed out over and over that above all, Enforcers are autonomous, and not all their actions are under the jurisdiction of the society. They serve a purpose within the organization, but they are not policed by it. Beyond all that, I don't think the series writers are doing anything wrong from a narrative standpoint by keeping the ultimate aim of the Ouroboros somewhat mysterious. They give us plenty if you read between the lines and do a minor amount of theorizing. The major arcs have plenty going on with them to facilitate this approach. Plenty has happened in Zemuria in the time that has been shown us - major and minor. The storytelling in this series just isn't for you, yet you expect it to change with each new installment. Why?

Also, kindly spoiler that news post. Not everyone here has played Kuro, let alone Kuro 2.

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

The storytelling in this series just isn't for you, yet you expect it to change with each new installation. Why?

I expect that my money will be used to make the next game better and improve upon the fault. The continual unsatisfying resolutions of these games have been near universally panned, from Ys to Tokyo Xanadu to Crossbell to Cold Steel to Kuro. This isn't an issue exclusive to Falcom. You have that hated writer at Bethseda who somehow didn't get his act together. If you write a story like Starfield and it is universally disliked, you didn't do your job. A company would have to be negligent to not do anything about this feedback. It's worse for Trails which is much less gameplay focused and relies much more on the writing to carry it.

 

[Jinn]

Well you'd think you'd have learned your lesson by now if it's that dissatisfying for you? There are plenty of issues I have with the storytelling in these games, but as far as overarching development and the grand storyline as it stands, it does it better than any series ever has and I still enjoy my time with them. The biggest misstep in terms of pacing with this series was making Cold Steel four games, when it easily could have been two or three. I personally don't have an issue with how it resolved, nor do I have an issue with how Crossbell resolved, because they aren't the end of the story and feed directly into the coming installments. When I see complaints about these points, I have a difficult time understanding what expectations people have for such a massive and unique form of storytelling/world building in a videogame format.

 

[Reinhardt]

The biggest misstep in terms of pacing with this series was making Cold Steel games

yes

 

[Jermu]

 

[Donald Gordon Lord]

Started with CS 1, finished 4 and decided never to pick up a Falcom game again. There’s a good game in there, liked the quartz system, but the writing… when everyone gets a redemption scene it’s like fuck off guys. Ya ok sure with Dad of the year at the end of 4.

Plus the constant smarmy “that wasn’t even my real power” shit fights that make up 90% of boss fights in the games.

And whatever kind of character Rean was supposed to be, enough of that. Complete dud until the end.

Think the writing is a jap cultural thing that I don’t like tho.

 

[Reinhardt]

Started with CS 1, finished 4 and decided never to pick up a Falcom game again. There’s a good game in there, liked the quartz system, but the writing… when everyone gets a redemption scene it’s like fuck off guys. Ya ok sure with Dad of the year at the end of 4.

Plus the constant smarmy “that wasn’t even my real power” shit fights that make up 90% of boss fights in the games.

And whatever kind of character Rean was supposed to be, enough of that. Complete dud until the end.

Think the writing is a jap cultural thing that I don’t like tho.

nigger, rean has same effect on people who enjoy nihongo gaems

 

[Donald Gordon Lord]

I believe it.

 

[Maxie]

Rean is offensively crap

 

[cruel]

Trails through Daybreak demo available now on PS4 / PS5 and Switch.

Sent from my KB2005 using Tapatalk

 

[Jinn]

Trails through Daybreak demo available now on PS4 / PS5 and Switch.

Absolute bullshit they're not offering it on PC.

 

[catfood]

I want to start playing The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky. Is there any mod that I need to install to unwokeify the official trannylation?

 

[Jermu]

I want to start playing The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky. Is there any mod that I need to install to unwokeify the official trannylation?

https://old.reddit.com/r/Falcom/comments/pt9j6s/falcom_games_mod_collection_evolution_mods_hd/

I would download evo voices at least, visuals is optional preference thing

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Cold Steel 2 is the best Cold Steel game hands down, followed by 4.

Where should I start the saga?

If you are interested in the Trails of Cold Steel games then start at CS1. Do not listen to the people who say that you have to do 400 hours of homeworking playing through other games you are not interested in before you can finally start the game you were interested in the first place. Each individual Trails arc is about its own characters and gives you the information you need to understand its own plot. Do not play the series in order in the hope that there will be a satisfying payoff for the overarching storylines. There isn't any. You should instead individual Trails games/arcs for their own appeal. If the fantasy Prussia setting and magitek mecha and airships and nobles in cravats who practice anime swordsmanship sounds cool to you, then that is what you should play.

 

[Jinn]

The satisfying payoff and overarching storylines are almost entirely based on character development, character recognition, and the relationships between said characters. Just because you haven't gotten your "big villain reveal" and whatever climax that you think should have happened that constitutes good storytelling in your eyes doesn't mean that satisfying overarching stories aren't happening. They're happening constantly throughout the series.

But yeah, start wherever you want. It is overall much more satisfying having started from Trails in the Sky FC, but it's not 100% necessary to understand the world and whatever is going on in a particular arc. It's just way more satisfying overall. The only things that dragged me through Cold Steel 1 were the gameplay, the built up curiosity about what the Erebonian Empire I kept hearing about through the Sky and Crossbell games was actually like, and seeing and hearing about characters I recognized from earlier games. And I'm glad I had those things to get me past the highschool bullshit, because I ended up liking a lot of the new characters by the end and it led me to the great enjoyment of CS 2, 4, and Reverie. If I had started with CS1 as my first game, I might have dropped the series and never looked back.

 

[KeAShizuku]

Comparing Baldurs Gate 3 complete lack of party banter or relationships to Zero no Kiseki.

Larian really are lazy fucks.

 

[n0wh3r3]

Cold Steel 2 is the best Cold Steel game hands down, followed by 4.

Where should I start the saga?

If you are interested in the Trails of Cold Steel games then start at CS1. Do not listen to the people who say that you have to do 400 hours of homeworking playing through other games you are not interested in before you can finally start the game you were interested in the first place. Each individual Trails arc is about its own characters and gives you the information you need to understand its own plot. Do not play the series in order in the hope that there will be a satisfying payoff for the overarching storylines. There isn't any. You should instead individual Trails games/arcs for their own appeal. If the fantasy Prussia setting and magitek mecha and airships and nobles in cravats who practice anime swordsmanship sounds cool to you, then that is what you should play.

The satisfying payoff and overarching storylines are almost entirely based on character development, character recognition, and the relationships between said characters. Just because you haven't gotten your "big villain reveal" and whatever climax that you think should have happened that constitutes good storytelling in your eyes doesn't mean that satisfying overarching stories aren't happening. They're happening constantly throughout the series.

But yeah, start wherever you want. It is overall much more satisfying having started from Trails in the Sky FC, but it's not 100% necessary to understand the world and whatever is going on in a particular arc. It's just way more satisfying overall. The only things that dragged me through Cold Steel 1 were the gameplay, the built up curiosity about what the Erebonian Empire I kept hearing about through the Sky and Crossbell games was actually like, and seeing and hearing about characters I recognized from earlier games. And I'm glad I had those things to get me past the highschool bullshit, because I ended up liking a lot of the new characters by the end and it led me to the great enjoyment of CS 2, 4, and Reverie. If I had started with CS1 as my first game, I might have dropped the series and never looked back.

So isn't Trails through Daybreak playable as a standalone title?

I would even start with Trails in the Sky but it's better for me not to play games on Steam or on PC at all (besides emulation, maybe) because for some reason that only makes me end up in endlessly increasing my backlog and library. So I have decided to only play games on my Nintendo Switch and see where this ends. But there I think the earliest you can start with the series is from Trails from Zero.

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

You can play Kuro no Kiseki without prior knowledge, it's just that the game itself isn't very good compared to Cold Steel or Sky. It's 110 hours long but nothing really happens until 70 hours in, and the cast is just as bland as Zero's, and the combat and character building never becomes challenging even on the highest difficulty. That being said I would still rate Kuro higher than Crossbell as it doesn't make any utterly infuriating story decisions and it looks nicer.

 

[Atlantico]

the cast is just as bland as Zero's

They said it couldn't be done, but who is laughing now?

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

2nd trailer for Kai has been leaked

Crow's outfit is dumb. He's not a boy who ran away from home and did punky school concerts anymore. He is in his mid 20s and is on call as part of Erebonia's elite agents. He should dress like a man, if not a professional. Infiltrating hostile territory is no excuse.

Interesting that Altina does not appear to have a big Combat Shell trailing behind her. From the first trailer I had thought that Claiomh Solais had been modified to be able to transform into a new form. It instead looks like she is wielding completely different equipment. I wonder if Claiomh Solais' AI core was removed from the shell and installed into that.

I wonder if Rean, Crow, and Altina will meet up with their inside man Julian and the latter becomes playable.

 

[Jermu]

Spoiler

 

[HoboForEternity]

Crow's outfit is dumb. He's not a boy who ran away from home and did punky school concerts anymore. He is in his mid 20s and is on call as part of Erebonia's elite agents. He should dress like a man, if not a professional. Infiltrating hostile territory is no excuse.

Nah it's on character IMO. I mean letchter is more or less the same. He's a punk at heart

 

[Yuber]

Had to quit Cold Steel 3 after 10h. It was too cringe. How in cutscenes EVERY character has to always say one line. Then repeat. Bad writing...
The endless time wasting dialogue it was just too much. When Elliot was playing music in the church I broke and skipped every dialogue. But then I noticed that I do not even enjoy the gameplay anymore. The Maps are so boring too. I don't think this series is for me and if the new games is the same style I will skip.

 

[Stoned Ape]

Had to quit Cold Steel 3 after 10h. It was too cringe. How in cutscenes EVERY character has to always say one line. Then repeat. Bad writing...
The endless time wasting dialogue it was just too much. When Elliot was playing music in the church I broke and skipped every dialogue. But then I noticed that I do not even enjoy the gameplay anymore. The Maps are so boring too. I don't think this series is for me and if the new games is the same style I will skip.

I couldn't finish Cold Steel 3 either. I didn't like the expanded cast and the story didn't really seem to be going anywhere in particular so I stopped playing for a while. When I started it back up I had no idea where to go to progress the plot and after half an hour of wandering around uselessly I uninstalled it.