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

[hemtae]

http://kotaku.com/holy-crap-trails-in-the-sky-sc-comes-out-next-week-1738283562

Holy Crap, Trails in the Sky: SC Comes Out Next Week

Yesterday, the publisher XSEED tweeted a picture of pigs flying. Today it’s clear why: Trails in the Sky SC is actually coming out. NEXT WEEK. On October 29.

It’s been four and a half years since XSEED released the first chapter ofTrails in the Sky—an excellent RPG that ends on a tantalizing cliffhanger—and since then, fans have been bugging the publisher non-stop about the second game. It’s been a nightmare to publish, for many, many reasons including script size, technical issues, and all sorts of interpersonal drama.

I’ve been planning a big feature that tells the whole story of Trails SC, so you can expect that at some point soon. For now, all you have to know is that Trails is an excellent game and that the second chapter will be out on PC and PSP (aka: Vita) next week. FINALLY.

 

[Durandal]

http://store.steampowered.com/app/251290/?snr=1_5_1100__1100
It's real.
(For once, Slowtaku isn't slow as shit)

 

[Crooked Bee]

 

[Valestein]

Release date trailer for SC

 

[Valestein]

And here's 8 minutes of off-screen Cold Steel gameplay

 

[Abu Antar]

It's about damn time that I get to play this. My PSP is ready.

 

[insukk]

I need to read some summary of the first one plot, because i remember almost nothing from it. ;;

 

[Siveon]

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky Second Chapter *IN SIX DAYS* Blog

So it’s been a very long road to get here, but finally the launch of The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC is imminent. Looking back at the release of the first game on PSP in early 2011, we only had 9 people at XSEED – 3 people in executive/admin, 3 people in sales/marketing/PR, and a paltry 3 people in localization. It was a miracle that our localization team was able to handle the first game at all considering the volume of text in the game, not to mention all the other releases we were working on at the time, and the only way to get it done was to have our po’ main Trails editor, Jess (aka H.Protoganist), work from home for the final 6 months so she could edit it essentially 24/7 without worrying about commute times.

Linking to Shitaku and not the blog. Tsk tsk.

 

[Crooked Bee]

It's out now: http://store.steampowered.com/app/251290/

 

[Crooked Bee]

 

[amdus]

It's out now: http://store.steampowered.com/app/251290/

There's also DRM Free version on GOG http://af.gog.com/game/legend_of_heroes_trails_in_the_sky_sc_the?as=1649904300
I'll remove it from GOG inventory when i'm back from work.

 

[St Antony of Padua]

I only played about 20 hours of the first chapter. For some reason I stopped and cannot remember why.... Now that I have the second chapter as well might as well give it another go.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Are the character models meant to be blurry and low-res compared to the rest of the assets?

 

[St Antony of Padua]

Are the character models meant to be blurry and low-res compared to the rest of the assets?

I haven't noticed unless you perform a S Break which zooms on the asset. What resolution are you using?

 

[Deleted member 7219]

I haven't noticed unless you perform a S Break which zooms on the asset. What resolution are you using?

1920x1080, and I'm playing the FC at the moment. Character models stand out quite noticeably.

 

[spekkio]

^
I've notied the same thing in 1680x1050.
It looks that the models are low-res and upscaled (same thing with the 3D stages, but more visible). No wonder - it was originally a PSP game...

 

[Jack Dandy]

Actually, the PSP titles were ports of the PC version.

There's a very simple explanation for the lo-rez\hi-rez conflict: These games are OLD! And Japanese, to boot! They didn't have today's hi-rez standards in mind back then.
Textures are bound to look crispier with higher resolutions, but you can't do the same for the sprites as easily.

 

[Shadenuat]

I don't remember 1st game having difficulty modes except some side boss fights, anyone tried different ones in 2d?
I'll try 3d for now I guess. Knowing JRPGs and 1st game it may turn out that hardest is either one and only worth playing or easy being only one that is not frustrating and grindy.

Wow it even found my old save data somehow
what sort of wizardry is this (not one where you equip the ring I am sure)
does it do Mass Effect thing or maybe translates my mercenary stats into 2d part? hmmm

Oh hi Grancel castle. so game picks off right after Joshua drugged his own sister and...

...anti aliasing looks bloody awful for this game

waking up in Joshua room, dad said Estelle--
fuck the beginning is super awkward, how drunk must I be to take writing seriously here

...I miss western RPGs doing these sort of Back to The Future stories where next part of story takes place right at the moment previous one ended.

YEA YOU TELL HIM SCHERA
dad is miserable son of a bieaatch.

fuck it, let's go adventure.

Man japanese r totally cool 'out young priests hitting on teenage girls on planes

GODDAMN RIGHT
Killing monsters while looking totaly fashinarbn fashu fashinaburouru. letz go.
...INTO THE SEWARZ!

 

[TigerKnee]

There's really no good middle ground in Difficulty settings for SC.

Hard Mode enemies deal around 3x damage that Normal mode does. I lost the TUTORIAL battle just because I wasn't prepared for mobs that can kill you in 2-3 hits and I think it gets worse past that. I don't think Nightmare Mode is winnable except for NG+ players.

Normal Mode's the same generally ho-hum difficulty from the original with a few rough spots.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Nice feature at Kotaku about just how challenging localizing SC turned out to be: http://kotaku.com/the-curse-of-kiseki-how-one-of-japans-biggest-rpgs-bar-1740055631

(Alternative link for antikotakus: https://archive.is/g2wWN)

 

[4249]

I bought the first game from the Halloween sale on Steam and have been playing around with it a bit. I started on the hard difficulty level as I heard that normal is fairly easy, but hard doesn't seem too interesting. Mostly seems to come down to having a fuckton of consumables with you as the enemies usually hit for half or a third of your characters HP. Which I feel will lead to grinding for money to get those consumables if it continues like this. Is it worth playing on hard for your first playthrough or should I just restart on normal?

 

[Crooked Bee]

I bought the first game from the Halloween sale on Steam and have been playing around with it a bit. I started on the hard difficulty level as I heard that normal is fairly easy, but hard doesn't seem too interesting. Mostly seems to come down to having a fuckton of consumables with you as the enemies usually hit for half or a third of your characters HP. Which I feel will lead to grinding for money to get those consumables if it continues like this. Is it worth playing on hard for your first playthrough or should I just restart on normal?

Normal has no grinding at all (see my OP), and this isn't a combatfag RPG anyway, so yeah, I'd say Normal is the way to go.

 

[4249]

Normal has no grinding at all (see my OP), and this isn't a combatfag RPG anyway, so yeah, I'd say Normal is the way to go.

Might as well restart it then and save myself from the frustration, I'm only about an hour or two in.

The combat seemed pretty fun and original for me so far, but if it's not a combatfag game, then what kind of fag game is it?

 

[Crooked Bee]

Might as well restart it then and save myself from the frustration, I'm only about an hour or two in.

The combat seemed pretty fun and original for me so far, but if it's not a combatfag game, then what kind of fag game is it?

I'd say classic JRPG-fag, if that makes sense. It's also well-written (JRPG tropes notwithstanding) and well-translated, and has a fairly low-key story (as far as the first game is concerned). Again, see my OP

The combat is fun enough, true, and the orbment system is good enough, but higher difficulty simply tends to mean that enemies hit much harder, which forces you to either abuse consumables or grind for levels. At least in my experience. It's not like in other RPGs like e.g. Tales of Zestiria that I'm playing at the moment, where playing on Hard makes you actually learn the systems and have better reflexes.

 

[4249]

I was kind of expecting a Nihon Falcom game to have good difficulty modes when starting this thing, as I've only played the Ys games from them and in those they are usually excellent. I read the OP(and a few posts after it) and apparently in the PSP original they weren't even selectable at the start, without completing the game once, so it kind of makes sense they're not very interesting.