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[chaosblade]

Finished SC's fourth chapter. The game's formula has gotten really old.

Spoiler

Go to region that I've already thoroughly explored in FC! Something goes wrong! Some Ouroboros member we haven't met yet is inevitably involved! Confront said person! Difficult battle! Enemy taunts you and then flees the scene! Rinse and repeat!

I still mostly like the game, due to the charm of the character writing (even if Estelle is significantly more irritating without Joshua around as balance) but it's hard not to feel like it's spinning its wheels, even more so than FC did because at least that game had the benefit of all its areas being fresh. Hopefully things pick up soon.

Thankfully you are about to the point it gets better. My thoughts were pretty much the exact same as yours, and I thought the second half of the game was a lot better.

That said, I could easily see someone just not liking the game much at all due to those issues with the first half-ish of the game, and then different issues later.



Finished 3rd, really good but definitely something a bit different. Probably for the best since a third proper romp around Liberl just wouldn't have worked. Does a decent job mixing in re-used assets and locations with new ones, and the doors help balance out what could have ended up being rote dungeon crawling.

Can definitely see how Falcom could have backpedaled while starting on Zero to make 3rd, even without playing any further games. Just knowing that's apparently the case makes it easy to see how the game was written

Spoiler

to safely avoid meaningfully affecting the world, while also setting up plot points and developing characters and their relationships further.

I hate that it just makes me want the Crossbell games that much more when we were fortunate to get this game at all.

 

[Kvik]

Looks like we're in community now. Since I can't find the thread in Gaming side any more. :-\

I can't wait for the weekend so I can play 3rd again.

 

[CrimsonFist]

And more returning characters in CS III: http://gematsu.com/2017/05/legend-h...dds-prince-olivert-randolph-orlando-tio-plato

 

[Psxphile]

Looks like we're in community now. Since I can't find the thread in Gaming side any more. :-\

I can't wait for the weekend so I can play 3rd again.

This is why the Subscribe to threads is a thing.

And more returning characters in CS III: http://gematsu.com/2017/05/legend-h...dds-prince-olivert-randolph-orlando-tio-plato

Divertissement II: Electric Boogaloo

 

[Sciel]

And more returning characters in CS III: http://gematsu.com/2017/05/legend-h...dds-prince-olivert-randolph-orlando-tio-plato

It pleases me that we've not heard much about returning characters from CS1/2.

Spoiler

The less the rehashing of the cheesy Class VII power of friendship/nakama bs in CS3 the better. No doubt some of Class VII will be back, I just hope they don't give EVERYONE a larger role in the story.

 

[jb1234]

It's my least favorite of the franchise sorely because of that

Thankfully you are about to the point it gets better. My thoughts were pretty much the exact same as yours, and I thought the second half of the game was a lot better.

That said, I could easily see someone just not liking the game much at all due to those issues with the first half-ish of the game, and then different issues later.

It's not terrible or anything but the final third of FC proves that these writers know how to pick up the story when they feel its necessary. I just wish they did it more consistently. The games all have pacing problems and they don't need to. I'm glad to hear that SC picks up soon.

 

[Gu4n]

See Twitter thread for details on Tio, Randy and Olivert as posted on 2chan.

 

[duysieuhero]

 

[Nabae]

So Elliot has a ponytail now.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

Fie and Elliott's designs already look 100x better than before

 

[Tonton]

Fie and Elliott's designs already look 100x better than before

I don't understand
How do you improve upon perfection

 

[MSMrRound]

I don't understand
How do you improve upon perfection

Fie (Cold Steel 1)->Fie (Cold Steel 2)

By giving her that battle outfit of hers of course.

Pfft our little precious healer boy's ponytail looks good. Liking the potential of Fie's design too.

 

[Sitrus]

So great so see Randy and Tio again! They are among my favorites of the Crossbell arc. Also looking forward to the redesigns of Class VII. And Fie with long hair? Am I the only one who thinks she and

Spoiler

Shirley

will confront each other?

 

[Nyoro SF]

Holy crap this CS3 info dump.

Randy and Tiooooooo are back baby! I just need to see what they look like!
And Class VII teasing with those portraits!

I'm super curious how this plot is going to play out, since they have to cover a lot of bases. Here's hoping for a 200 hour scenario.

 

[Marche90]

Holy crap this CS3 info dump.

Randy and Tiooooooo are back baby! I just need to see what they look like!
And Class VII teasing with those portraits!

I'm super curious how this plot is going to play out, since they have to cover a lot of bases. Here's hoping for a 200 hour scenario.

I'm more curious about who, if anyone else from the Sky games are going to come back. I'm personally hoping for Estelle, Joshua and/or Kevin. Unfortunatedly I'm not as excited for the Zero/Ao cast since I've never played their stories. Surprisingly, I'm not that excited for the Class VII teases either. I'm guessing that's because I just finished playing The 3rd and got too burned in my second playthrough of CSII

And at this point I'm getting worried about who's going to be playable. Not exactly about how many, but which of them. As long as I can play as the playable cast from past games I'm good.

 

[MKIL65]

Muh boi Jusis is back!

And Laura!

And... Alisa. zzzz

 

[Basileus777]

Hopefully all these characters aren't playable, I'm not really looking forward to a 50 person party.

 

[Nyoro SF]

I'm more curious about who, if anyone else from the Sky games are going to come back. I'm personally hoping for Estelle, Joshua and/or Kevin. Unfortunatedly I'm not as excited for the Zero/Ao cast since I've never played their stories. Surprisingly, I'm not that excited for the Class VII teases either. I'm guessing that's because I just finished playing The 3rd and got too burned in my second playthrough of CSII

And at this point I'm getting worried about who's going to be playable. Not exactly about how many, but which of them. As long as I can play as the playable cast from past games I'm good.

I just hope they don't waste a lot of time retreading history and reintroducing people. Just make it all nice and seamless and part of the story. It's much more hype that way for people who played the past Cold Steel (and Crossbell) games.

And they better make it so that I can skip the tutorial right away. Not getting my hopes up for that one though.

 

[ThatChairMan]

While I'm still excited, the more CS3 news that comes out, the less hype I'm getting since it definitely does seem that Crossbell is going to pretty relevant and it'll be quite some time before those games will be translated.

 

[Marche90]

While I'm still excited, the more CS3 news that comes out, the less hype I'm getting since it definitely does seem that Crossbell is going to pretty relevant and it'll be quite some time before those games will be translated.

Then again, it's not like we're going to be playing CS3 in English any time soon. At the soonest, at the tail end of Q3 of next year, and that's being overly optimistic

And they better make it so that I can skip the tutorial right away. Not getting my hopes up for that one though.

That would be amazing. It was great to see how fast I was able to get into combat at full gear in The 3rd

 

[Jiraiza]

Sucks to be Millium, forever a midget. Fie, on the other hand, outgrew her. And I see my boy Jusis, looking fly from just his silhouette alone.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

Hopefully all these characters aren't playable, I'm not really looking forward to a 50 person party.

I partially expect an FC scenario, where people come and go all the time.

I would be ok with that. Forces you to change things up and use characters you might avoid otherwise.

 

[KuwabaraTheMan]

Hopefully all these characters aren't playable, I'm not really looking forward to a 50 person party.

Given where a lot of Class VII were at the end of CS II, I'm guessing a lot of them would probably just be guest characters for specific parts of the game, and then around for the final dungeon.

Spoiler

I mean, I doubt Jusis is in the position to just leave Bareahard behind given that he's the ruling lord. Machias and Elliot will probably be busy with school, Alisa is busy with Reinford (so probably heavily involved with the story during chapters dealing with their Western Factories that were mentioned a lot in CS II, and maybe during a return to Roer, but I doubt she could just travel all over the country for the whole game), etc.

 

[StarSketch]

Yet another screenshot collection of my playthrough of CS1. There's less commentary this time, but whatever.

 

[Psxphile]

Yet another screenshot collection of my playthrough of CS1. There's less commentary this time, but whatever.

I enjoyed that, thanks. Kinda nostalgic.

 

[Nyoro SF]

There are shots of Olivier, Randy, and Tio about. However they are technically magazine leaks, so you will have to find them through other channels.

Tio looks absolutely fantastic, both in art and model. And of course she gets a picture next to Mishy biscuits. I will admit she looks a little strange without her signature chest protector, though it probably would look a little out of place on a full 3D model.

Randy, in comparison, looks like he hasn't changed at all. lol

 

[BassForever]

Randy and Tio are characters from zero/ao correct? Part of the team Lloyd and Rixia were from ya?

 

[Nyoro SF]

Randy and Tio are characters from zero/ao correct? Part of the team Lloyd and Rixia were from ya?

Yeah, they're the two characters from the core SSS team, the other two being Lloyd and Elie (yes, spelled with one L by Falcom...).

 

[Kvik]

I can't tell from the silhouette if Laura has her claymore with her.

EDIT: ah ok, she does.

 

[Oreiller]

It seems like Emma is wearing a similar hat to Misty.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

Randy looks like Lechter with long hair when done by this artist.

 

[Blue Stream]

Tio :3

 

[SerRodrik]

In the middle of a playthrough of CS1:

Spoilers up to 7/24:

Spoiler

I'd forgotten how frustrating it is at that point in a Trails game where everybody has a bunch of secrets but hasn't yet started divulging them. Let's not talk about why Rean suddenly got white hair and red eyes and started glowing. It's probably fine. And don't think I don't see you talking to that cat Emma. Don't think you can get away with that just because your super cute and smart.

And I rolled my eyes so hard when they tried to start setting up romantic feelings toward Rean from his little sister. Nuh uh. You got away with that in Trails in the Sky but that shit don't fly here.

 

[StarSketch]

In the middle of a playthrough of CS1:

Spoilers up to 7/24:

Spoiler

And I rolled my eyes so hard when they tried to start setting up romantic feelings toward Rean from his little sister. Nuh uh. You got away with that in Trails in the Sky but that shit don't fly here.

It took me way longer than it should have to realize why I was ok with that in Sky but not CS. In Sky,

Spoiler

Estelle and Joshua have good enough chemistry that had they been childhood friends instead of adopted siblings, there'd be 100% no problem instead of 10% of a problem. They're also your main party for the entire game so you grow to like both of them as their own characters and you get to watch Estelle slowly go from "lol yeah right" to "I love you."

In CS,

Spoiler

Elise shows up halfway through the game and isn't very well defined. Her crush on Rean doesn't do anything for either of them as characters. Maybe if they made Elise being distant because of the crush more of a problem for Rean it might work better. He's already pretty insecure about his position in the family, so he might mistake that for her being scared of or embarrassed by him. But it still feels like they're checking a completely arbitrary checkbox because of Rean's archetype, and instead of messing with it like they usually do, they just play it totally straight. And Alisa's the canon love interest so it's not gonna go anywhere either :/

 

[StarSketch]

As an addendum to the above, I kinda knew

Spoiler

Elise's crush

was a thing going into CS, so I expected to hate her. But... somehow I don't? It's probably because Alfin keeps teasing her about it, and gets some pretty good reactions out of her as a result. But like, if they made

Spoiler

Elise be as protective of her brother as he is of her,

this would still work out without

Spoiler

the whole crush thing.

It'd also be more interesting because she reads as the more passive one of the two.

 

[Scrooge McDuck]

As an addendum to the above, I kinda knew

Spoiler

Elise's crush

was a thing going into CS, so I expected to hate her. But... somehow I don't? It's probably because Alfin keeps teasing her about it, and gets some pretty good reactions out of her as a result. But like, if they made

Spoiler

Elise be as protective of her brother as he is of her,

this would still work out without

Spoiler

the whole crush thing.

It'd also be more interesting because she reads as the more passive one of the two.

General things about Elise in CS:

Spoiler

I don't dislike her as a person but I really, really dislike her characterization as a "protagonist cheerleader", where a character's obvious motivations and actions seem to only tied to and revolve around the protagonist they cherish. I wish she could move on to do more interesting things.

 

[Ants]

Hey guys, a friend and I both independently played through this game, and, feeling like we were pretty thorough, managed to both miss the same 4ish parts of the 32-part story, and the same 2 parts of the 12-part story hidden in the chests. That's a staggering amount of content to have missed! I was wondering if anyone had any idea where parts 28-32 of the longer story and 9/10 of the 12-parter were. I was gonna search it in the thread but nearly stepped on spoiler landmines as to the identity of some of the Anguis in attempting to do so. Since I have yet to touch Cold Steel or the ones that were not officially localized, yet, I'm trying to avoid that.

 

[StarSketch]

Hey guys, a friend and I both independently played through this game, and, feeling like we were pretty thorough, managed to both miss the same 4ish parts of the 32-part story, and the same 2 parts of the 12-part story hidden in the chests. That's a staggering amount of content to have missed! I was wondering if anyone had any idea where parts 28-32 of the longer story and 9/10 of the 12-parter were. I was gonna search it in the thread but nearly stepped on spoiler landmines as to the identity of some of the Anguis in attempting to do so. Since I have yet to touch Cold Steel or the ones that were not officially localized, yet, I'm trying to avoid that.

Which game, Sky FC?

 

[Scrooge McDuck]

Hey guys, a friend and I both independently played through this game, and, feeling like we were pretty thorough, managed to both miss the same 4ish parts of the 32-part story, and the same 2 parts of the 12-part story hidden in the chests. That's a staggering amount of content to have missed! I was wondering if anyone had any idea where parts 28-32 of the longer story and 9/10 of the 12-parter were. I was gonna search it in the thread but nearly stepped on spoiler landmines as to the identity of some of the Anguis in attempting to do so. Since I have yet to touch Cold Steel or the ones that were not officially localized, yet, I'm trying to avoid that.

Are you talking about Trails in the Sky the 3rd? Check the chests in

Spoiler

Grancel and Le Locle

again. Their messages are different at night.

[EDIT]
There's a thread focused on Sky the 3rd stuff thataway, by the way. This one is for general Trails stuff.

 

[Acid08]

It pleases me that we've not heard much about returning characters from CS1/2.

Spoiler

The less the rehashing of the cheesy Class VII power of friendship/nakama bs in CS3 the better. No doubt some of Class VII will be back, I just hope they don't give EVERYONE a larger role in the story.

I don't understand your complaints even a TINY bit, especially considering you're sporting an avatar of a character from Persona 4.

I swear when people bring up this junk about CS it's like we played an entirely different game.

 

[Thud]

It took me way longer than it should have to realize why I was ok with that in Sky but not CS. In Sky,

Spoiler

Estelle and Joshua have good enough chemistry that had they been childhood friends instead of adopted siblings, there'd be 100% no problem instead of 10% of a problem. They're also your main party for the entire game so you grow to like both of them as their own characters and you get to watch Estelle slowly go from "lol yeah right" to "I love you."

In CS,

Spoiler

Elise shows up halfway through the game and isn't very well defined. Her crush on Rean doesn't do anything for either of them as characters. Maybe if they made Elise being distant because of the crush more of a problem for Rean it might work better. He's already pretty insecure about his position in the family, so he might mistake that for her being scared of or embarrassed by him. But it still feels like they're checking a completely arbitrary checkbox because of Rean's archetype, and instead of messing with it like they usually do, they just play it tsotally straight. And Alisa's the canon love interest so it's not gonna go anywhere either :/

I felt betrayed when I couldn't pick

Spoiler

...Towa...

in Cold Steel

 

[Scrooge McDuck]

I don't understand your complaints even a TINY bit, especially considering you're sporting an avatar of a character from Persona 4.

I swear when people bring up this junk about CS it's like we played an entirely different game.

I don't mind it but I can see how people could dislike it. If I am to lay criticism on how its conveyed, Class VII's friendship with each other was never really tested, making their sugary tight bond felt overbearing and even a bit fake sometimes.

My most memorable moment in Persona 4 was when they [P4 spoiler]

Spoiler

got into a heated argument on whether to kill a "murderer" or not

. Class VII never got something that intense.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

LOL

 

[Scrooge McDuck]

Is it just me or is the graphics actually getting better compared to the early screens?

 

[Tonton]

Is it just me or is the graphics actually getting better compared to the early screens?

I was actually feeling like this new batch of screens looked better too

 

[Krelian91]

Hi, I heard a few times that originally Cold Steel I and II were supposed to be one game but got split into two because of the Vita's limitation. If anyone knows some more details about it could you explain briefly how was Falcom's original plan? I've tried looking all over on the internet for information but couldn't find much.

 

[StarSketch]

I felt betrayed when I couldn't pick

Spoiler

...Towa...

in Cold Steel

I think you can pick her, but her flag is different than everyone else's.

Spoiler

meanwhile I'm just over here assuming that I locked myself out of Alisa because I chose to hang out with Millium. Oh well.

I don't understand your complaints even a TINY bit, especially considering you're sporting an avatar of a character from Persona 4.

I swear when people bring up this junk about CS it's like we played an entirely different game.

I'm a huge friendship nerd so I'm totally ok with this sort of thing lol.

That said I can totally understand people being annoyed with that. Hell, I wonder if me being ok with this isn't a sign of a bigger problem...

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

Tio :3

"Shit's on fire, yo"

 

[Vamphuntr]

It appears people that didn't play the Ao/Zero games will miss out big this time. Falcom pls.

 

[Blue Stream]

It appears people that didn't play the Ao/Zero games will miss out big this time. Falcom pls.

Well, XSEED handles the localization of the LoH series in english. So it's up to them.