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

[Somberlain]

Can't wait for Hajimari no Kiseki

 

[Nostaljaded]

Hajimari no Kiseki
Jap Release 28 Aug 2020

Self-composite character portraits (May still have more character reveals)

More fanservice

 

[rashiakas]

After giving TITS another try and stoped about 3 hours into the game (again) I found this LP. So if anyone else is interested in the story but cant stomach the gameplay, its a good way to enjoy that.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Imagine not liking the gameplay of Trails. The gameplay is Trails' strongest asset.

The story can be great but it can also be juvenile, twee and facepalmingly nonsensical.

 

[Somberlain]

Well, TiTS FC starts very basic in the gameplay department and all the best fights and available spells/tools are in the last two acts so I can understand why someone would find the early game boring.

 

[Jinn]

Imagine not liking the gameplay of Trails. The gameplay is Trails' strongest asset.

My guess is that he and those like him are playing on Normal difficulty. If that's not the case, they might as well just move on from the Trails series in general.

There have been very few JRPGs in existence that have done gameplay as well as Trails above Normal difficulty. Always an absurd complaint to hear.

 

[Shackleton]

Well let's not be too critical here. What do you mean when you say 'the gameplay of Trails'? Because the combat part of the gameplay I loved, however between combat parts are lots and lots of going from point A to B and then to C and back to B again which I find hard to believe anyone can say is the pinnacle of gameplay.

I really enjoyed ToCS, but if I wasn't invested in the characters and there wasn't a turbo mode and fast travel I'd certainly have got fed up of going back and forth through every area talking to every NPC after every plot advance. The combat is great but it's only half the game don't forget.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Well let's not be too critical here. What do you mean when you say 'the gameplay of Trails'? Because the combat part of the gameplay I loved, however between combat parts are lots and lots of going from point A to B and then to C and back to B again which I find hard to believe anyone can say is the pinnacle of gameplay.

I really enjoyed ToCS, but if I wasn't invested in the characters and there wasn't a turbo mode and fast travel I'd certainly have got fed up of going back and forth through every area talking to every NPC after every plot advance. The combat is great but it's only half the game don't forget.

Talking to every NPC is optional.

Why don't you like going from Point A to Point B to Point C? Would you rather stay at Point A for the whole game? I don't understand.

 

[Shackleton]

Well let's not be too critical here. What do you mean when you say 'the gameplay of Trails'? Because the combat part of the gameplay I loved, however between combat parts are lots and lots of going from point A to B and then to C and back to B again which I find hard to believe anyone can say is the pinnacle of gameplay.

I really enjoyed ToCS, but if I wasn't invested in the characters and there wasn't a turbo mode and fast travel I'd certainly have got fed up of going back and forth through every area talking to every NPC after every plot advance. The combat is great but it's only half the game don't forget.

Talking to every NPC is optional.

Why don't you like going from Point A to Point B to Point C? Would you rather stay at Point A for the whole game? I don't understand.

Because I've already seen point B and C several times at this point. There's no joy of discovery, no challenge to overcome, just the routine, humdrum travel between familiar points doing a sweep of NPC's to see if they've got something to give you. And you say talking to NPC's is optional and it is, if you don't mind not getting powerful weapons, items and quartz. The only thing that makes sense if you find all the to-ing and fro-ing too tedious is to use a guide to see exactly who to speak to at what point, but personally I find that also destroys the joy of discovery and kills my motivation.

I thought they just about got the balance right in ToCS, between the combat parts and the talky parts, but right at the end I did get bored of it and used a guide. Just too many NPC's at that festival man, and I didn't want to miss that book! In fact, that's a good example. If you don't go to the lower class dorms just at that particular point and talk to that particular NPC, you'd never know she was the one that took the Red Moon Rose books off your hands. It'd never been breadcrumbed throughout the game that she was looking for them and you had no real reason to go to the Dorms at that point, it was just expected the player would do a sweep of everywhere and talk to everyone. I tip my hat to the player who can go through games knowing there's loads of stuff they'll miss if they just play it going from main quest to main quest, but I don't think there's that many of them.

As I said, I enjoyed the game and it was charming with good combat and likeable characters, but let's not pretend it's the pinnacle of game design and gameplay.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

I tip my hat to the player who can go through games knowing there's loads of stuff they'll miss if they just play it going from main quest to main quest, but I don't think there's that many of them.

You're on the Codex, so we are all anally rententive, but trust me, there's a lot of people out there who don't play video games the same way we do.

I saw one of my colleagues at work go into Portal 2 despite not having completed Portal 1. I told her she'd get more out of it if she played the first game - although the second is better, the story is actually quite fun, especially the relationship with Glados, which doesn't make sense unless you play the first one. She ignored me. She just plays games for the gameplay and doesn't care about characters, worldbuilding, lore or any other story element and I think most people I know are the same.

Looking at the play hours from my closest friends, a lot of those hours are in games I like to play myself, like the Total War series, others are into absolutely boring casual shit that has no reason for existing other than to sell to casual players who can't deal with story.

 

[Slaver1]

So Hajimari is going to feature cast from the previous games and they're going to make Lloyd's relationship with Elie canon. Now, I'm legit worried they're going to try and do the same thing with Rean & Alisa...

Hopefully they rather just cut him out of the next arcs entirely. His relationship with Sara is the best thing he had going for him.

 

[Somberlain]

Sara was a mistake.

 

[rashiakas]

Imagine not liking the gameplay of Trails. The gameplay is Trails' strongest asset.

The story can be great but it can also be juvenile, twee and facepalmingly nonsensical.

But is it? Maybe it was when it was released. You run around with 2 characters that have 0 abilities and 0 customization bc unlocking orbment slots costs so much. You kill plants and flies and plants and more plants and some bees and then some other animal, spaming the same attack/magic over and over and over again while slowly trotting trough boring landscapes, back and forth, because that is so much fun and good gameplay.

Anyway, I liked the story, and some of the characters, and I will give SC a try because you start with a higher level and get a full party soon if what I have read is true.

 

[Reinhardt]

You run around with 2 characters that have 0 abilities and 0 customization bc unlocking orbment slots costs so much.

Actually sounds good.

 

[Ysaye]

i don't mind some of the plot element in CS3. vampires, gnomes, etc all are foreshadowed since the beginning (at this point you know trails books are foreshadowing something. red moon rose is obviously real) and crosbell games already have exposition of certain clans of supernatural powers guarding sept -terrion.

my only worry is (ending spoiler)

Spoiler

the curse thing. i am afraid they will make the curse central and blame it for every shitty things the antagonists did. it takes characters agency out. don't say osborne, the guy whoi they have been hyping for more than 10 years act like that because of a curse.

I haven't played CS4 yet, but my thoughts is that this character is the "Wotan" of this story ->:

Spoiler

If the Cold Steel series has some relation to Wagner's the Ring of Nibelung cycle (and obviously so far there is:

• Siegfried (A hero who is made to forget whom he is);
• Alberich (A dwarf/gnome who has forsaken love in order to obtain power);
• Arguably "Valkyries" in Ari and the Stahlritter;
• the forging of a magic sword by one free of "fear/emotion" (I am claiming Millium and Altina lack certain emotions because of this); and
• a curse etc. so there are a heap of parallels).

Then I think Osborne is the Wotan (King of the Gods) of this story, in as much as perhaps he is trying use all of his power to break the curse and save everyone (or at least the Gods from their demise), but his methods end up being very manipulative, deceitful, arguably appalling and he is blinded by his own weakness to seek power and also his love for both his immortal (In the case of Freia and then Brunhilde) and mortal (In the case of Siegmund, Sieglinde and Siegfried) children.

Clearly from the flashbacks in CS2 Osborne is highly related to Dreichels or is even Dreichels himself (not sure how but anyway guess I will find out?), so he has likely been around a long time and is obviously very powerful, he clearly knows what is going on, and clearly he did / does care about Rean to the point where he sacrificed his heart to save him (revealed in CS3) - perhaps that is being used by Alberich to manipulate him into certain actions? I also draw attention to the parallel's with Wotan trying to get children of his to do things "of their own free will" which is the only way to break the curse, which as his wife points out are not free will but self-deception. Obviously this might relate to Rean, but also even people like for example Claire where he told her that he could sought out her problems, but it would be better if she solved them herself with her own will.

If I am right about the Dreichels thing, then it will be interesting to see how his relationship with Ari plays out because it was also implied that she was in love with him, and also Rose given she guided Dreichels previously.

 

[rashiakas]

Just finished chapter 1 of tits2 and I had a blast. Olivier is way cooler as he was in CS, game is overall much better then tits1. Now onto Zeiss.

 

[Ysaye]

Just finished chapter 1 of tits2 and I had a blast. Olivier is way cooler as he was in CS, game is overall much better then tits1. Now onto Zeiss.

That's also the impression I had (That TitS2 is better than TitS1) - but I suppose the question is how important is TitS1 in setting the scene making it as enjoyable as it is?

 

[4249]

Played TitS FC to 100% on nightmare after ToCS III because of the feels. The final fight was actually pretty fun on that difficulty! My characters were only 2 levels higher than on my normal saves due to the exp system, even after going through the game for the second time. Attempted the no s-craft achievement a few times, but had to use them in the end to get him down and do that on my normal saves.

Spoiler

 

[Valestein]

So I finally started CS3 yesterday and it's already off to a great start with Rean having a great revelation.

 

[Slaver1]

So I finally started CS3 yesterday and it's already off to a great start with Rean having a great revelation.

I just finished it earlier today & I now feel completely empty waiting for IV... Enjoy it! I think you'll really enjoy the relationship dynamics with Sara in this.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Took you long enough, Valestein.

 

[Valestein]

Took you long enough, Valestein.

True enough, I cleared the prologue yesterday and left off at the start of Chapter 1. I plan on doing a CS3 rampage this wednesday on my day off.

This callback/homage to CS1 was good stuff too:

Spoiler

 

[Shadenuat]

 

[4249]

I'm too lazy to look for this info, so just gonna ask. Can you acquire Zero and Ao in the west through legal means, and how good are the fan translations? Zero is in pretty good shape, right? I have a burning in my loins for more Trails.

 

[Somberlain]

The Geofront Zero is excellent and the Ao translation is perfectly fine, though it doesn't have the quality of life additions and the official PC version is really barebones.