The Last To Post Wins!

[Karimlan]

10 hours ago, Shrimperor said:

I mean

I am 27...

probably Grandpa by this Forums's standards

If you're Grandpa, call me antediluvian. XD

[Armagon]

@Interdimensional Observer was the hit detection for First Strikes in the Wii U version of TMS always so wonky. Cause i swear i initate battles from behind after stunning the enemies in the overworld but First Strike only activates sometimes.

Also question, i've unlocked multiple Carnage Unities (like for example, with Touma, i unlocked the Spear and Wing Spear) and i wanna know, would it be better to master each weapon in the order that i unlock them or is skipping some of them ideal?

 

[Lightcosmo]

5 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Also question, i've unlocked multiple Carnage Unities (like for example, with Touma, i unlocked the Spear and Wing Spear) and i wanna know, would it be better to master each weapon in the order that i unlock them or is skipping some of them ideal?

 

I think this is a preference thing, depending on what mode your playing, of course. But either way, mastering weapons doesn't take that long so I would say pick whatever you like, but don't quote me on that, as I barely beat Lunatic mode.

[Armagon]

5 minutes ago, lightcosmo said:

But either way, mastering weapons doesn't take that long so I would say pick whatever you like

True, from what i've played so far, you can master like two-to-three weapons per dungeon though i imagine the higher-tier weapons take longer to master.

[Lightcosmo]

Just now, Armagon said:

True, from what i've played so far, you can master like two-to-three weapons per dungeon though i imagine the higher-tier weapons take longer to master.

To me it feels like, the more the character participates in battle/sessions, the more skill points their weapon gets, so it's never really taking "too long", thankfully. TMS has nice pacing for it's gameplay, which is something I really like about it. Nice, relaxing gameplay, while being fun to watch as well.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

.

Edited February 1, 2020 by Rosalina

[Shadow Mir]

10 hours ago, WeAreNewcastle1053 said:

Also, it gives you free ore! Especially the Umbral Steel needed to repair your Hero's Relics.

There's that too, but I honestly think the Hero's Relics mostly fail to live up to their storyline reputation in gameplay; the Crusher in particular is especially awful.

[DragonFlames]

4 hours ago, Shrimperor said:

We are getting old ;_;

A-yup, that we are.

3 hours ago, Armagon said:

Y'all old

Meanwhile there's me at the wee age of 19. Still just a young lad in comparison.

You are henceforth obligated to call us "senpai"...

 

Nah, just kidding. XD

3 hours ago, Armagon said:

Worth noting that Super Neptunia RPG was actually Artisian.....something. I forget the full name but basically, it wasn't developed by Compile Heart, at least not completely.

Meanwhile, all the other Compile Heart games were developed directly by them and it shows. So yeah, pretty good track record.

Right, I forgot about that!

---

Oookay, Trails of Cold Steel III, you have my attention, though some skepticism remains. I finished the (second) prologue earlier. Here are some thoughts:
Suffice to say, the gameplay is as enjoyable as the previous games. I mentioned this before, but they smoothened out battle animations, so everything flows better.
Now, what immediately struck me during my current playtime was how many times I said "well, doesn't this seem familiar?", because holy crap, the entire beginning of this game is a repeat of Cold Steel 1. It starts in medias res with an attack on a fortress, only to flash back a few months to show... Rean on a train, on his way to school (though as a teacher this time). Events from then on play out shockingly similar to the first entry in the story of Erebonia, right down to that scene. You know... boy and girl fall through a hole that randomly opens in the floor and...

 

Yeah, that. Rean promptly lampshades it, too.

Speaking of, the new characters are all pretty great. Kurt feels like he was intended to be the protag at first; he's rather inoffensive and he dual-wields swords. He's also voiced by none other than the guy who voiced Claude, Joe Zieja. Altina is pretty cool, too, an amazing foil to Rean and the others with her emotionless snark. New girl Juna, however, deserves special mention for this line alone:

XD

On a different note, Thors Branch Campus has three classes, you play as a newly appointed teacher who isn't too much older than his students and bears special powers... yeah, the Three Houses comparisons write themselves, really.

There have also been two characters appearing that seem to be important. I don't know who they are, but I think if they appeared somewhere before, it would have been the Trails in the Sky games. Series veterans might be able to inform me: One small, blond girl who is called Tita and one red-haired dude (and his hair really is red this time, trust me!), who is a member of the Bracer guild. The two claimed to be from Liberl.

Edited January 31, 2020 by DragonFlames

[Shadow Mir]

47 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

one red-haired dude (and his hair really is red this time, trust me!), who is a member of the Bracer guild.

That would be Agate. And yes, he and Tita are from the Trails in the Sky games.

Edited January 31, 2020 by Shadow Mir

[Shrimpica]

1 hour ago, DragonFlames said:

One small, blond girl who is called Tita and one red-haired dude (and his hair really is red this time, trust me!), who is a member of the Bracer guild. The two claimed to be from Liberl.

TITTTTTTTTTTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. 

''PREPARE TO MEET YOUR DOOM!''

NGL the one and only reason i want to play CS3/4 is returning characters. 

But then i remember other stuff....

1 hour ago, DragonFlames said:

One small, blond girl who is called Tita and one red-haired dude (and his hair really is red this time, trust me!), who is a member of the Bracer guild. The two claimed to be from Liberl.

everytime he doesn'T we have to call @Armagon out on it.

[DragonFlames]

1 hour ago, Shadow Mir said:

That would be Agate. And yes, he and Tita are from the Trails in the Sky games.

Gotcha! Thank you!

32 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

TITTTTTTTTTTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. 

''PREPARE TO MEET YOUR DOOM!''

NGL the one and only reason i want to play CS3/4 is returning characters. 

But then i remember other stuff....

Seems I've stumbled upon a fan favorite there.
It doesn't seem like she'll be playable, though, sadly. She did some mission control stuff during the prologue.

And I legit forgot there was a CS4.

Also, funny story: Thor's Branch Campus (which is the school Rean is teaching at) is supposedly for the "trash" (and yes, that's the actual word they use) that's become useless to the Empire. Rean teaches there.
They know what they're doing... XD

Edited January 31, 2020 by DragonFlames

[Armagon]

1 hour ago, DragonFlames said:

There have also been two characters appearing that seem to be important. I don't know who they are, but I think if they appeared somewhere before, it would have been the Trails in the Sky games. Series veterans might be able to inform me: One small, blond girl who is called Tita and one red-haired dude (and his hair really is red this time, trust me!), who is a member of the Bracer guild. The two claimed to be from Liberl.

As mentioned above, they are Tita and Agate. This is what they looked like in the Sky trilogy, which takes place four years before Cold Steel 3

Tita

 

Agate

 

The tl;dr with them is that they have an honorary brother-sister relationship though Tita also has an honorary sibiling relationship with Estelle and Joshua as well. There's another character important to this group as well but i'll save that for later for when it comes up. 

Unrelated but Agate Trails is one of the two video game characters i know is named Agate, the other being Agate Xenoblade

If the artstyle looks familiar, it's because she was designed by Yusuke Kozaki, the character designer for Fire Emblem Awakening and Fates.

33 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

''PREPARE TO MEET YOUR DOOM!''

Tita was lowkey busted in the Sky trilogy. 3rd especially because of the mech she gets, which negates basically every status effect and doubles her HP. She keeps the mech in CS3/4 but i don't remember how good she is overall (although there isn't anyone that's really "bad" in Trails games).

34 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

everytime he doesn'T we have to call @Armagon out on it.

Wait, what am i being called out on?

3 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

It doesn't seem like she'll be playable, though, sadly.

No she is. Although i think in this game, it's only temporary while in CS4, she's playable from the moment she joins your party.

[Shrimpica]

24 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

Seems I've stumbled upon a fan favorite there.

Yes! She such good nerdy girl :3

And she did Mechas before Mechas were cool

Here, time stamped some S-crafts for ya https://youtu.be/chewcdo5afM?t=207

The Mecha is not to be seen however.

Kinda wished Alisa would've been like a grown up Tita all the time, but instead we got the Alisa we have...

Like, the one point i loved about Alisa is her nerdiness, but we don't get enough of it, if at all

18 minutes ago, Armagon said:

which negates basically every status effect and doubles her HP

and iirc +20% to her stats, too!

18 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Wait, what am i being called out on?

 

You have to call us Senpai, kiddo.

Edited January 31, 2020 by Shrimperor

[DragonFlames]

3 minutes ago, Armagon said:

As mentioned above, they are Tita and Agate. This is what they looked like in the Sky trilogy, which takes place four years before Cold Steel 3

Tita

 

Agate

 

The tl;dr with them is that they have an honorary brother-sister relationship though Tita also has an honorary sibiling relationship with Estelle and Joshua as well. There's another character important to this group as well but i'll save that for later for when it comes up.

Yeah, these are certainly them. Though Tita looks very different from her picture here, aside from the very long hair.

6 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Unrelated but Agate Trails is one of the two video game characters i know is named Agate, the other being Agate Xenoblade

This looks freaking awesome!
Why couldn't his designs for Fateswakening be this good?

6 minutes ago, Armagon said:

No she is. Although i think in this game, it's only temporary while in CS4, she's playable from the moment she joins your party.

Neat!

3 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

Yes! She such good nerdy girl :3

And she did Mechas before Mechas were cool

Here, time stamped some S-crafts for ya https://youtu.be/chewcdo5afM?t=207

The Mecha is not to be seen however.

Kinda wished Alisa would've been like a grown up Tita all the time, but instead we got the Alisa we have...

Yeah, she did seem to have an affinity for tech stuff.

She was practically fangirling over Valimar in her introduction scene. In Erebonia, a giant f***ing robot from legend is normal cargo on a train, apparently.

S-Crafts be looking amazing, as usual. I love these kinds of over-the-top attacks in games, be they S-Crafts, EXE Drives, Mystic Artes, what have you.

Speaking of Alisa, old Class VII weren't featured anywhere in the opening movie.

[Shadow Mir]

22 hours ago, DragonFlames said:

Figures. So beating him up the old fashioned way is the only way to do it.

Ayup. And as he has super armor, you'll have to be careful about how you attack him. That being said, not all the most sadistic spirits are Legend tier. The Ace tier has some stinkers too. Like Great Fairy, which pits you against a giant Zelda with increased Final Smash Meter gain on the Fountain of Dreams (which is rather fitting as in the Zelda franchise, fairies and Great Fairies are found in fountains). Those alone are a bad enough combination, but what makes this really aggravating is that her special moves are boosted AND she heals at high damage (specifically, at 100% damage... and she heals all the way back down to 0% or close to it). The icing on top of the sadistic cake? Zelda's new Final Smash (Triforce of Wisdom) is nearly impossible to avoid, and if you are unlucky enough to be at or over 100% damage at the end... you are instantly KO'd. Or Metal Mario, which, like I stated earlier, is pretty much a reprise of the Metal Mario fight from Smash 64, except he takes much less damage and is even harder to eject.

Edited January 31, 2020 by Shadow Mir

[Shrimpica]

Speaking about smash

SCREW THE GENO FIGHT!

like wtf 1 vs. 5 how is that fair <.<

[Armagon]

29 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

Like, the one point i loved about Alisa is her nerdiness, but we don't get enough of it, if at all

I don't......recall Alisa being nerdy being one of her character traits. Like yeah, she knows a lot about technology because she grew up as the heiress to the biggest industrial company on the continent but she never struck me as particularly nerdy.

29 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

You have to call use Senpai, kiddo.

Ah, you quoted the wrong thing, that's why i was confused.

20 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

Though Tita looks very different from her picture here, aside from the very long hair.

Well in the Sky trilogy, Tita is 12-13 while in CS3/4, she's 16.

20 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

This looks freaking awesome!
Why couldn't his designs for Fateswakening be this good?

To be fair, the design process for Xenoblade 2's Rare Blades was a unique one: all of them are designed by different artists different than the main one (and Nomura, who designed the villains) and the Rare Blade artists all had one rule: they were assigned to an element and a weapon. Besides that, anything was fair game. Provided it wasn't inappropriate, they could design the character to be whatever they wanted (though obviously it had to get approved in the end). Which is why you have a lot of really cool Rare Blades and some that........could've been better. 

Kozaki did another Xenoblade design, Aegaeon, and this one is more obvious that it was him

He's doing the Chrom pose. This is one of the cool ones.

20 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

Speaking of Alisa, old Class VII weren't featured anywhere in the opening movie.

Yes they were: the group picture at the end.

Old Class VII's role overall isn't as big in this game and they'll serve as temporary party members. Although Fie, Alisa, Emma and Jusis do have bigger roles than the rest of old Class VII in CS3 and especially CS4. Though i won't say what.

13 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

Speaking about smash

SCREW THE GENO FIGHT!

like wtf 1 vs. 5 how is that fair <.<

Ok imma tell you the Smash Spirits strat: Get a Spirit that makes you giant. Get a Spirit that increases attack power (particularly Smash attacks). Use both of them on Ganondorf or Little Mac or Bowser. Win.

Edited January 31, 2020 by Armagon

[Shadow Mir]

14 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

Speaking about smash

SCREW THE GENO FIGHT!

like wtf 1 vs. 5 how is that fair <.<

That's one of those battles where a "KOs Heal Damage" spirit (e.g. Metroid) can help. But yeah, it sucks.

[Armagon]

Speaking of Cold Steel 3

The Kai versions of the Crossbell games are gonna have cameos from Cold Steel characters who were in Crossbell during the Crossbell arc. There's Juna obviously, but it likely means we'll see a Towa cameo as well.

[Shrimpica]

42 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Like yeah, she knows a lot about technology

That's what i am referring to. And sometimes it shows. When she fixes stuff or talks about stuff that isn't Rean.

There is a reason why i started to like her a bit during the chapter where we met her Grandfather, only to end up hating her more and more along CS1/2.

44 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Use both of them on Ganondorf or Little Mac or Bowser. Win.

don't have those xD

[Armagon]

2 hours ago, Shrimperor said:

don't have those xD

Oh, you're unlocking them through WoL, aren't you?

[Shrimpica]

Just now, Armagon said:

Oh, you're unlocking them through WoL, aren't you?

yup

i have them on normal play (unlocked everyone already), but not WoL

[Interdimensional Observer]

10 hours ago, Armagon said:

@Interdimensional Observer was the hit detection for First Strikes in the Wii U version of TMS always so wonky. Cause i swear i initate battles from behind after stunning the enemies in the overworld but First Strike only activates sometimes.

Also question, i've unlocked multiple Carnage Unities (like for example, with Touma, i unlocked the Spear and Wing Spear) and i wanna know, would it be better to master each weapon in the order that i unlock them or is skipping some of them ideal?

 

When I rewatched the quick tutorial they give you on them First Strikes are stated to not be guaranteed. Annoying, but given the ease of knocking down enemies I can see why they made it only a chance. Although, on the chance an enemy touches you from behind, there is likewise only a chance they'll get a first strike on you.

 

As for Carnage Unity, you can easily master them all with fairly minimal grinding. But skipping ones with skills you don't think you need is fine too.

And as Lightcosmo said, you do master weapons faster the more a character fights. So once you have more than three characters, if you feel like someone needs to master a Carnage faster, put them on the main team.

Edited February 1, 2020 by Interdimensional Observer

[Armagon]

8 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

When I rewatched the quick tutorial they give you on them First Strikes are stated to not be guaranteed. Annoying, but given the ease of knocking down enemies I can see why they made it only a chance. Although, on the chance an enemy touches you from behind, there is likewise only a chance they'll get a first strike on you.

Mmm yeah, that's definitely annoying. Especially since First Strikes in this game are kinda sucky, since only one character at random gets to go first and it's normal turn order after that. If they were garuanteed, it would've mitigated the problem.

That and there's a lot of JRPGs where stunning enemies and getting a First Strike is super simple and garuanteed. So TMS not doing that is odd.

10 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

But skipping ones with skills you don't think you need is fine too.

Oh, you can check what skills you get from each Carnage Unity before committing to it? I just thought it was random.

[Interdimensional Observer]

26 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Oh, you can check what skills you get from each Carnage Unity before committing to it? I just thought it was random.

Yep, you can check in the main menu once you've made them, or you can check before you even make them with Tiki. On the Carnage Unity menu, you'll just have to press a button that'll flip from the required Peformas needed to make the Carnage, to the skills it offers. Only a Carnage's fifth skill is hidden, but you don't need to be thinking about those yet, they aren't made available until later.