General Trails thread (Trails of Cold Steel 4 (PS4) out now).

[Rapier]

2 minutes ago, Anomalocaris said:

I'm not too worried about character choices and dialogue, I'm mainly talking about collecting things and stuff like that.

Is Carnelia 2.0 another binary choice like the staff for Estelle or the daggers for Joshua?

iirc it involves a weapon of choice for each playable character. I think you can make a weapon twice with that special item, but that's it.

[Anomalocaris]

3 minutes ago, Rapier said:

iirc it involves a weapon of choice for each playable character. I think you can make a weapon twice with that special item, but that's it.

If every playable character has a weapon, then it sounds like it can't be done in only two playthroughs anyway, so I guess I won't worry about that one.

[Jedi]

I believe you can get everything in one run in SC in terms of the achievements, NG+ does exist too, so that'd make it easier.

[Anomalocaris]

2 minutes ago, Jedi said:

I believe you can get everything in one run in SC in terms of the achievements, NG+ does exist too, so that'd make it easier.

In this context I'd be doing regular run blind and using NG+ for any achievements or other goodies I miss, yeah.

[Jedi]

7 minutes ago, Anomalocaris said:

In this context I'd be doing regular run blind and using NG+ for any achievements or other goodies I miss, yeah.

I still need to go back, and do NG+ myself, only 100%'d Third Chapter so far, but then again I played it 5 times in a row because I liked it so much. 

After I beat CS3 and CS4 I intend on doing a NG+ series repeat, starting from FC going allllll the way back to CS4.

[Thane]

Spoilers for the post act 1 in Trails of Cold Steel II. My thoughts.

Spoiler

I really liked the scene aboard the airship. At first I was skeptical of the similarities to Estelle, but seeing as that was handled by Ouroboros, there was no actual reasonable arguments being made for Estelle joining. Here, Rean has a reason to mull over the proposition, and he's got Rufus looking out for Alfin and Rean's sister no matter what he chooses. It does add a nice dimension to a hopeless situation; Rufus' role in the story continues to be among the highlights of the plot.

Unfortunately, my problem with the anime-ness of the villains remains the same. They're all super strong monsters of ultimate destruction, according to all the playable characters, which makes their survival after repeated run-ins with them all the more hard to believe. At this point it's a wonder they don't just run away whenever they see one of the bad guys because all the fights end with a loss. There's even the problem of gameplay and story segregation; Rufus did very little damage and I was wrecking him in the fight, yet the battle ends arbitrarily with Class VII on the ground wondering how he can be so strong.

I'm not even sure why Cayenne wants Rean considering he can just bring that airship and its ragtag bunch of misfits to any Imperial military stronghold and wipe it off the map. I would've preferred focusing more on the political aspect of the war - which there is some of, and I really love it - rather than quirky anime villains gloating. Why are there so many of them, anyway? I can barely keep track of them, much less find a reason to care about why they're there. EVen worse, Ouroboros is still there and will inevitably pull an "all according to keikaku".

Anyway, with Rean in this situation, I'm hoping Olivier shows up to save him - that, or he finds his own way out, which would be a refreshing change of pace; there are quite a lot of timely rescues and interventions in this series. I like the predicament Rean is in and how the game portrays it, just not how he ended up there.

Edit: Digging the conversations with the bad guys, but here's where the sheer number of them detracts. It would've been more interesting with longer conversations - creepy shots of a scantily clad girl and an Ouroboros fan girl aren't exactly as interesting as discussing what a guy does after fulfilling his quest for vengeance or Blueblanc's perspective on what happened in Liberl. Still, really good, and Xeno and Lionidas' was much funnier than I would've thought.

Edit II: That was a lot of fun! I really enjoyed that. Good show all around besides the shaky start.

 

Edited January 8, 2019 by Thane

[Anomalocaris]

I just finished the second chapter of, uh... Second Chapter.

It's a giant wooooorm! They're sinking cities with a giant woooooorm!

Or, uh, multiple worms that are only a consequence of the earthquakes, not the source, but I just wanted to say that.

The Direwolf's got pizazz and a sharp suit, I like that. Say what you will about the Enforcers all just standing around going "Feh, too weak", but you can't deny they're S-T-Y-L-I-S-H.

[Thane]

14 hours ago, Anomalocaris said:

Say what you will about the Enforcers all just standing around going "Feh, too weak"

I will say that it's grating.

Cold Steel II endgame spoilers. 

Spoiler

Aw man, I was kind of hoping for a finale to take place during a beautiful, sunny day, but they just had to summon the powers of satan, didn't they? I guess satan in Erebonia is a giant mech, however. 

Serious question, but how many of the story important boss fights against other humans have ended without someone coming to the main characters' rescue/interrupting the fight? Just beat that oboxious Ouroboros brat and Blueblanc for the umpteenth time (won on my first try somehow; crushed them to a paste until the girl one-shot my entire team besides Alisa who then resurrected Rean) and then bam anime power up and the protagonists have to be bailed out.  

This is kind of why they should finish the job when they have the advantage, but given that every single human opponent you face only passes out even though Laura splits them in two with her giant sword, I guess they don't want to do that. 

I'm just wondering why we're fighting against Ouroboros at all. They always win, their plans always succeed, they have the strongest people, the most advanced tech, can literally perform magic, etc. Is there any point to having them around when they'll always win because the plot demands it? Why not start the story from the part where they've achieved their goal, since they're unstoppable anyway?

 

[Armagon]

10 hours ago, Thane said:

I'm just wondering why we're fighting against Ouroboros at all. They always win, their plans always succeed, they have the strongest people, the most advanced tech, can literally perform magic, etc. Is there any point to having them around when they'll always win because the plot demands it? Why not start the story from the part where they've achieved their goal, since they're unstoppable anyway?

Ah, the curses of having an overarching plot. Trails is an ambitious series but it having an ovetarching plot means the majority of the bad guys will never truly go down until the very last game, whenever that is (and this is a general problem with most game series with overarching plots, it's not something exclusive to Trails. In addition, the problem is less noticable when there's less games).

It wouldn't be so bad if we knew more about what Ouroboros actually wants to do. The stuff they did in Liberl and Erebonia is all just a smaller step towards a grander plan.....except we don't know what it actually is or why they want to do it. t's pretty weird too because everyone in Ouroboros has their own motivations for doing things but said motivations seem to be unrelated to the final plan. Or idk, maybe there's some supplementary content i'm missing.

This is why i find the non-Ouroboros villains to be more compelling (mostly, the D G Cult still sucks). They have established motivations like the Ouroboros folk but unlike most them, they actually have proper conclusions to their arcs instead of just "you won but it was actually i who won". 

[Jedi]

13 hours ago, Armagon said:

This is why i find the non-Ouroboros villains to be more compelling (mostly, the D G Cult still sucks). They have established motivations like the Ouroboros folk but unlike most them, they actually have proper conclusions to their arcs instead of just "you won but it was actually i who won". 

Probably a good part of why a number of folks find the Crossbell arc to be the best of the 3, because even with Ouroboros involvement eventually theres still a lot of other people running around a bit more important than them (to the characters anyways) running around that they need to personally deal with that they do.

Although CS3/4 focus more on the Erebonian problems, as a result of what happens in CS2's 3 endings too, so it becomes a little less annoying with the Ouroboros faction even if they're still around (and everyone has generally gotten stronger, to the point that some fans complain about the player characters being too strong now).

Most notable of those is Rean, Gaius, Laura and Emma leaping hugely in power due to plot events in both 3 and 4 with the rest of Class VII also making gains through their efforts as well

CS2 as a result is in an awkward middle spot that makes it one of the weakest games in the franchise narratively (Although it cemented Crow as a fan favorite character), but one of the stronger ones gameplay wise, probably doesn't help that it and 1 were originally going to be one game but were split into two, (Like how FC and SC were but the cuts are much more noticable in CS). 

 

Edited January 14, 2019 by Jedi

[Thane]

I'm on what I assume is the final day of Cold Steel II. Sadly I need to hit the hay so I won't post my thoughts just yet, but I do have one question:

Spoiler

Is everyone but Rean leaving Thors? Like, for good? Don't these guys have another year left? I'm a bit confused. Kind of awkward for Olivert to suggest this class and pour so much time and energy into it and then they all leave.

 

[Armagon]

2 hours ago, Thane said:

I'm on what I assume is the final day of Cold Steel II. Sadly I need to hit the hay so I won't post my thoughts just yet, but I do have one question:

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Is everyone but Rean leaving Thors? Like, for good? Don't these guys have another year left? I'm a bit confused. Kind of awkward for Olivert to suggest this class and pour so much time and energy into it and then they all leave.

 

Spoiler

Yeah, everyone leaves Thors except Rean. I don't remember why but it's probably because of their good deeds during the war.

Them leaving doesn't invalidate Oliviert's efforts in making Class VII since a new Class VII, along with an additional Class VIII and IX (and i think a Class X) are introduced in Cold Steel III, though the original Class VII members are still featured prominantly, they're just doing other stuff since they graduated. Rean's also graduated by the time CS3 rolls around since it takes place two years after.

 

 

[Jedi]

1 hour ago, Armagon said:

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Yeah, everyone leaves Thors except Rean. I don't remember why but it's probably because of their good deeds during the war.

Them leaving doesn't invalidate Oliviert's efforts in making Class VII since a new Class VII, along with an additional Class VIII and IX (and i think a Class X) are introduced in Cold Steel III, though the original Class VII members are still featured prominantly, they're just doing other stuff since they graduated. Rean's also graduated by the time CS3 rolls around since it takes place two years after.

 

 

Yep and Rean becomes a teacher, alongside Towa and Randy from Crossbell, for those new classes

[Armagon]

11 hours ago, Jedi said:

 

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Yep and Rean becomes a teacher, alongside Towa and Randy from Crossbell, for those new classes

 

Spoiler

Oh that's pretty neat. I knew Randy shows up, i just didn't know he was a teacher.

Alright you know what, i can't wait anymore. I'm gonna go watch a playthrough of CS3 and 4 (i remember seeing a subbed CS3 playthrough pop up on my recommendations one time). But i should probably do the NG+ run of CS2 for the Black Diaries stuff first. Just to confirm, CS2 is the only game in the series with NG+ exclusive story content, right?

[Jedi]

4 hours ago, Armagon said:

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Oh that's pretty neat. I knew Randy shows up, i just didn't know he was a teacher.

Alright you know what, i can't wait anymore. I'm gonna go watch a playthrough of CS3 and 4 (i remember seeing a subbed CS3 playthrough pop up on my recommendations one time). But i should probably do the NG+ run of CS2 for the Black Diaries stuff first. Just to confirm, CS2 is the only game in the series with NG+ exclusive story content, right?

I could just link the Black Records here, and CS1 does have some but it’s more of a “oh Emma can notice this thing if brought for the clothing run near the end of the game”

Black Records in the spoiler since it is relevant to CS3 (in fact they openly talk about it).

CS4 has a bad and good ending but that’s determined in a run itself (or so I hear).

[Armagon]

There it is. Only it's being done by NISA this time and people....aren't happy. Either way i'm glad it's finally coming over. Time to start saving up for a PS4.

I'm still watching a playthrough first though because it's releasing near the end of the year and it's only January.

 

[Thane]

I'm glad it's coming over for sure. Too bad it's just on Playstation 4 so far. I'll be hoping for a later PC release.

[Interdimensional Observer]

36 minutes ago, Armagon said:

I'm still watching a playthrough first though because it's releasing near the end of the year and it's only January.

Well if NISA is Never Include Subtle Aspects, one could imagine them dropping important details and nuances in translation. You'd possibly be better getting it from another source, or at least double-checking things. Not that I can really judge here.

[Armagon]

37 minutes ago, Thane said:

I'm glad it's coming over for sure. Too bad it's just on Playstation 4 so far. I'll be hoping for a later PC release.

I feel like it will come to PC eventually. I know CS1 and 2 had their PC releases come out like a year after the PS3/Vita release.

24 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Well if NISA is Never Include Subtle Aspects, one could imagine them dropping important details and nuances in translation. You'd possibly be better getting it from another source, or at least double-checking things. Not that I can really judge here.

I was already planning on watching a subbed playthrough of CS3 and 4 so i was probably gonna be doing that to begin with.

That said, i don't think it'll be Ys 8 2.0 since apparently they're getting people who've worked on previous localization of the series.

Though they already had a typo on the announcement, that's why the tweet was deleted.

[Thane]

4 minutes ago, Armagon said:

I was already planning on watching a subbed playthrough of CS3 and 4 so i was probably gonna be doing that to begin with.

Is there a subbed version? I'm looking at a Japanese version now but I do need to look up quite a few words; it's not quite as easy as Fire Emblem, haha. Good practice though.

[Water Mage]

Now I wish I didn’t spoil myself with the story. It’s...something.

[Armagon]

9 minutes ago, Thane said:

Is there a subbed version? I'm looking at a Japanese version now but I do need to look up quite a few words; it's not quite as easy as Fire Emblem, haha. Good practice though.

I remember seeing a subbed playthrough of Cold Steel 3 pop up on my recommendations feed.

And a quick search revealed this playlist.

There's no subbed playthrough of CS4 though but i imagine that takes time to make.

Second edit: and that playthrough i linked to isn't even finished yet, it only goes up to Ch.1.

Edited January 17, 2019 by Armagon

[Interdimensional Observer]

2 minutes ago, Water Mage said:

Now I wish I didn’t spoil myself with the story. It’s...something.

My sincere sympathies, in the past, I've done that one too many times with myself. All with games I never thought I'd actually play. There is always the journey and experience to be had, even if you know the road's destinations, that is the silver lining.

[Thane]

16 minutes ago, Armagon said:

I remember seeing a subbed playthrough of Cold Steel 3 pop up on my recommendations feed.

And a quick search revealed this playlist.

There's no subbed playthrough of CS4 though but i imagine that takes time to make.

Second edit: and that playthrough i linked to isn't even finished yet, it only goes up to Ch.1.

This is neat though; it keeps the Japanese as well, so it's ideal practice. I'll still look words and kanji up but this is great, thanks!

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

It finally happened... Unfortunately two months too late for me because I went for a Switch and I have no desire to buy another expensive console. Anyways people who own a PS4 and love CS can be happy now. 

Still hoping it could come out for the Switch as well later.