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[Crimson_Justice]

World and story-wise, yes. Character-wise, your mileage may vary. I personally think out of all the localized games, Estelle-Joshua haven't been beaten.

That Sky FC ending

Spoiler

has cheesy lines thrown around, but they felt really sincere because by then you're already very familiar with the characters through the slow build-up.

That's good to hear. Thanks for the reply. Estelle and Joshua have been great so far, but a lot of the other characters have plenty of charm, so I'm glad it sounds like the same quality holds throughout the series.

 

[Thoraxes]

Spoiler

I just hate that, apparently, Reinford SECRETLY was making giant robots that are like... 10 generations more advanced then the MBT they were making? I mean, is there any indication that giant robots with "super-alloy" and "reflective coating" even makes sense? Nothing even approaching that was mentioned before. And don't get me started on Ouroburos who in a logical setting probably would've taken over the world by now. For a game that goes out of its way to show you where people grow their food and mine their iron, one wonders where Ouroboros gets the metric ton of iron and bullshit to fund their entire robot-army? Argh, it's because I love this series that I nitpick over this.

CS2 addresses your complaints and faulty logic arguments. (Not actual CS2 spoilers, just addressing CS1 points you mention in your argument that do get addressed in CS2 with no specifics)

Spoiler

The Reinford and divisions stuff coupled with their secrecy is explained, the tech is explained. The Ouroboros stuff you have wrong (the Soldats are ILF/Noble Alliance tools, not Ouroboros) as is explained at the end of CS1. Their (Soldats) origin as well as the timetables of the tech development get explained too.

You'll probably like some of the answers you get in CS2.

 

[PK Gaming]

Maybe I shouldn't have started on hard because god DAMN these obnoxious ladybugs!

It's mostly my bad, but I hate how the game gives you this illusion of not having a random encounter system. Those bastards pop out of nowhere!

 

[Nyoro SF]

http://i.imgur.com/xmV55UB.png[img]

Maybe I shouldn't have started on hard because god DAMN these obnoxious ladybugs!

It's mostly my bad, but I hate how the game gives you this illusion of not having a random encounter system. Those bastards pop out of nowhere![/QUOTE]

One benefit of the Sky games that I very much enjoy is that you will soon come across quartz which turns the encounter system entirely under your control. The first part of dodging those super fast monsters is quite the shock though.

 

[Paches]

Kloe purple outfit >

E: SC Final Chapter

Spoiler

So basically Dragon Diving and Death Screaming my way to victory. Is this pretty much the way to go? What did others do? Right now my favorite squad is Estelle/Joshua/Aegis/Kloe with Aegis selling out almost everything for STR and CP gain in his accessories and spamming Dragon Dive and Kloe nearing 1k ATS doing insane Arts damage. I decided to do SC on Normal after beating the first one on Hard, just because I felt the difficulty was more of a way to make me farm everyones S-Breaks before bosses and monster bounties and that was pretty much it, but now that I am deep in to SC I feel I have definitely hit the point where I am completely crushing everything, which I suppose happens to a lot of JRPGs if you do all side content and search every room.

 

[Nyoro SF]

Zero no Kiseki Chapter 3

Have I mentioned how incredible the Zero opening theme is?
Cause seriously, that is fire.

An exciting and interesting long chapter awaited me here.

Spoiler

This chapter was very long, but very exciting and interesting! The anniversary of the founding of Crossbell (only 70 years old! Wow!) all to the way to the end with the black auction and the "doll" from the Rosenberg factory.

The beginning with Lloyd and Cecile was cracking me up, then Fran and Noel came in and made it 10x funnier by linking arms with Lloyd after conspiring together. Maybe this brand of humor really appeals to me but I really find it quite funny. Lloyd you lovable dummy.

So there's a quest in this game where you look for someone illegally importing fake brands. And you discover that it's the grandma and the personality shift and getaway afterwards is god damn hilarious. Foul-mouthed grandmothers will never not be a good source of comedy. Then she calls Tio a "midget brat" and Tio's like "A-a midget brat...?" and Lloyd won't stop sighing /dead

Speaking of Tio, in this chapter you learn more about Tio and her background during the hacking chase-down in Geofront. And that she met your brother Guy and he gave her the Mishy chain. But that's not the good part, the good part is how Tio is frank about who she is as a person. And her honesty about how who she is has caused her to end up alone. And it's a bit sad to hear Tio say such things, but Lloyd is there for her so it all works out. This is another well-written portion of the game where Tio shows that she's aware of who she is and how that's caused her to become ostracized.

Lloyd also learns more about what Guy was doing back then. The questions are becoming more fanatical almost...

This chapter also teaches us a lot more about Randy. After defusing the situation between the gang members by offering up a challenge scenario (and after Estelle tosses Vlad; why is Estelle the best?). After powering up and winning the race he opens up to Lloyd about who he is as a person and how he's not even sure if how he acts everyday is really representative of the real him. Lloyd and Randy share a camaraderie moment and Joshua and Randy share a knowing expression after Joshua questions his health (I think there might be a subtle reference I am missing here...? Randy doesn't have a stigma inflicted by Ouroboros, does he?). But it ends with Randy having his true identity revealed as the son of one of a very famous and deadly soldier (with a title and everything!). After the DBZ powerups and escape moment, Randy jokes about how it's over for him and the SSS but everyone tells him to cut it out; such a great team, they won't even entertain that thought for a second.

Arios makes his appearance saving our butts from these deadly giant lizard guys after these dumb tourists wander into the historical battlefield. I'm kind of miffed at this because in SC the Sky crew were able to defeat similar creatures with crippled orbments! Arios does make a statement how he feels that the SSS have gotten a lot stronger. Dude's an inspiring speaker. And a villain. Oh god Arios, why are you such an obvious villain? I am not looking forward to fighting this guy in the future!

Number of times Renne has made me say "oh shit" is around 3 since she started showing up. Here she shows up and in a thunderclap moment I realize Mr. Pink Hair, as in Mr. Hayworth, is actually her pops because of the hair. The family in the Residential District is HER family! The one that abandoned Renne! Renne helps us out in the search for her missing little brother and we learn that she is, uh, a top notch computer hacker codenamed "Kitty" that screwed with us prior (wtf)? She even hijacks Tio's computer to help search. I like how Lloyd is like "well, it's pretty obvious you're not your typical little girl" hahaha. She rescues her brother in a tearjerking moment and we learn the real reason behind what happened between her and her family. Very sad. ;_; As she leaves Estelle shows up and appears to be searching for Renne. Estelle is shown to have a very emotional attachment to Renne which is great as a continuation from the last time Estelle saw her in SC. Hopefully Estelle can catch up to Renne soon!

Speaking of Estelle and Joshua, having unlocked a few combination crafts I realized the "cinematic" I saw earlier with Estelle and Joshua near the disabled bus was actually Estelle and Joshua's combination craft! So I will get to control them again for sure. Great!

Also I can't believe this, but Falcom gave Garcia the mafia boss a fucking S-Craft piledriver... and he grabbed Tio and just piledrived a little girl with a meteor smash! Truly, the mafia shows no mercy. Too bad for him that he's weak to SPD Down, two of those and he became helpless.

So let's talk about this random ass little girl with the green hair. Falcom in typical Crossbell fashion gave her a name I'm not sure how to pronounce. I can't tell if it should be "Kiira", "Kiya", "Keeya".... yeah. Maybe there's an English reference I can look up but I'm scared to google. We'll just stick with "Kiya" for now. Naturally she is an incredibly suspicious existence given the circumstances in which we found her; looking forward to seeing her story implications later since she can, uh, cast her voice in a way that only Lloyd can hear (and I believe we heard that same voice asking to save her in the media res intro). Her voice is incredibly grating on my ears, thanks Japan. However the way she casted buffs and debuffs is incredibly hilarious, so I'll let her rock.

Wow that was a long chapter. But it was exciting and very intriguing! For all the people that complain that "nothing happens in FC" (which is very untrue), you'll probably be happy to hear that a lot happens in Zero.

 

[Gu4n]

The official reading is 'KeA' .

 

[Nyoro SF]

The official reading is 'KeA' .

Well that is a funky but fitting title. I'm sure there's a reason behind it.

 

[Dio]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdLQA_G-FvQ

http://www.esterior.net/2016/10/fal...-the-we-love-sora-no-kiseki-re-arrange-album/

Sounds great as usual. Looking forward to it.

 

[Dragoon En Regalia]

Sounds like a solid but unremarkable orchestral album by Jindo. It's got too many tracks which have enjoyed similar, equally solid arrangements in other albums. FC SAV is already much more creative; I'm conflicted about whether to buy this or not if doing so means validating Falcom relying on Jindo instead of finding new arrangers.

 

[Dio]

Sounds like a solid but unremarkable orchestral album by Jindo. It's got too many tracks which have enjoyed similar, equally solid arrangements in other albums. FC SAV is already much more creative; I'm conflicted about whether to buy this or not if doing so means validating Falcom relying on Jindo instead of finding new arrangers.

You're right, there are a few tracks in there that already got incredible arrangements (Sora no Kiseki Zanmai) but I absolutely love every version of Hollow Light of the Sealed Land that I hear no matter how many times it's been redone (like four IIRC - on Zanmai, Evolution version, on this, and on the original soundtrack.) Maybe I have tunnel vision on how awesome the CD will be because of that.

 

[cwistofu]

I started Cold Steel II yesterday, I'm really loving it. I liked the first game fine, but it never felt like it got into the comfy JRPG groove that the Sky games maintain. Thankfully TOCS2 has that sense of adventure, combined with a bunch of nice quality of life improvements over the first game. Smoother controls and camera, the ability to interact with things while the party is talking, the option to quickly return to the previous area after completing a quest, and what feels like a slightly steadier framerate.

Im hyped for the rest of this game.

Oh, and you best know I dropped the 99 cents for Ride-Along Estelle.

 

[asagami_]

Maybe I shouldn't have started on hard because god DAMN these obnoxious ladybugs!

It's mostly my bad, but I hate how the game gives you this illusion of not having a random encounter system. Those bastards pop out of nowhere!

What it's? FC or SC? Anyway, both games are really bad in hard. SC more, specially in the early chapters..

 

[Nyoro SF]

Sounds like a solid but unremarkable orchestral album by Jindo. It's got too many tracks which have enjoyed similar, equally solid arrangements in other albums. FC SAV is already much more creative; I'm conflicted about whether to buy this or not if doing so means validating Falcom relying on Jindo instead of finding new arrangers.

Indeed, I listened to the samples a few days ago. I enjoy arranges of FC and SC as always, but I think in this instance it doesn't bring much to the table.

I would like to hear more creative and challenging arrangements in the future.

 

[PK Gaming]

What it's? FC or SC? Anyway, both games are really bad in hard. SC more, specially in the early chapters..

FC is seriously pushing me around. Tempted to restart...

PSYCHE. I got this. I think. I just need to keep on pushing forward, since it's the Estelle way.

 

[Nyoro SF]

Zero no Kiseki Final Chapters

Powered through them all and decided to combine all my thoughts so people don't know how many chapters are in the game total. :^)

All I have to say is, WOW, I did not expect the introduction of that plot element for the last 20% of the game. That might be the most serious and yet awesome this series has gotten, and it's a real credit that I was really afraid of what could happen next to Crossbell.

Spoiler

The introduction of narcotics (trade and abuse) is not something I expected to see in a Kiseki game, but it does remind me of Sky FC where Ouroboros used drugs to manipulate the behavior of certain people. Same red eyes and same aggressive effect. That being said the part where Lloyd requests to search Gantz's belongings stood out to me, along with the mysterious disappearances around Crossbell and ultimately the manipulation of the army and the mafia, which was very unexpected.

Then we shift into more grave subjects such as human experimentation and the game gets very heavy... and you see Renne's picture and realize that she was a victim as well. The whole investigation into the hospital was actually kind of scary since you don't really know who is there to oppose you (the game does love its twists, and despite thinking that all evidence pointed to Joachim, we met Ernest instead). The music really added to the feel. Speaking of Ernest, the sword he was using... wouldn't have to be a Divergent Laws weapon, would it? It looked mad suspicious but no one commented on it after we knocked him out.

That being said the drug is more supernatural this time around. And the introduction of a cult of Gnostics who deny the existence of Aidios and worship KeA instead is really quite the amazing plot addition. The final chapter where you're running from the raid and fighting against the waves of soldiers while taking shelter at the IBC might be the most high octane moment in Kiseki yet! DEFEND THE GATE!

During the hole-up at the IBC I talked to Tio and she talked more at length over her history. Then Lloyd said he would do anything for her (eliciting a funny reaction) but then she asked Lloyd to take her to the amusement park, which was cute.

Though I claimed Arios was a villain all along and was waiting for the moment where he would stab me in the back, it never happened. Despite his sad past setting him up perfectly to betray us in tragic fashion, and his knowledge of the Society... not much happened with him. I suppose Falcom fooled me this time. In fact the ending of the game wrapped things up rather nicely, with the remaining plot threads being mostly tied up. We still don't fully understand the implications of who KeA is and there are many characters (and locations) who definitely haven't had their full story told, but all in all I can say I was very satisfied with the ending. Although it did give THE LONGEST CONVERSATION BETWEEN A FINAL BOSS AND THE PROTAGONISTS BEFORE A FIGHT EVER.

So the game did give me Estelle and Joshua to play and I had a lot of fun using them again in the final dungeon. Joshua's double-strike craft with a Gladiator Belt equipped is still crazy good, and Estelle is just as good as I remember her being. But when it came to fight the last few bosses and the final boss, I decided to keep the SSS in, because it's their story. I think Estelle and Joshua were implemented very well in this game, they do pop in very infrequently but they don't distract from our main protagonists, which is excellent. Their new combat animations really look great too, you can see Falcom's improvements with stuff like Estelle's Hurricane and her Impact Break.

Oh yeah and Renne is now coming home with Estelle and Joshua! Welcome to the Bright family, Renne. :')
Oh and Pater-Mater can come too. Pater-Mater Bright. The Bright family is now the strongest family in Zemuria!
Number of times Renne appearing in a scene to cause me saying "oh shit": 5

Anything else I forgot? Dudley is freaking awesome, the super combat lawyer with the awesome S-Craft where he undoes his tie is fantastic. Sergei is such a badass too, you can tell that Falcom referenced all those 80's cop shows for him lol. Shizuku is cuter than KeA and Arios is one lucky dad. I couldn't tell if Ernest was genuinely being an asshole or if it was all the drug... was he under the drug's influence when he attacked the mayor or was he already part of the DG society at that time? It would explain why he was able to tank Randy's hit when running from the theater though. It's just like Falcom to introduce another antagonist cult to this series. I wonder what's next for the SSS and our glowy blue priestess sunday school attendee?

The soundtrack was top notch as always. Don't think I've played a Kiseki game without a good soundtrack, but this one might be the best at fitting properly into moments and drawing me into the weight of scenes. I mean, just listen to THIS. That's some hair standing on end music right there when realizations suddenly start firing off. The opening theme being remixed for certain songs was touching. The game implementing Eastern music into its motifs was very powerful when you consider the influence of the Republic on Crossbell. Firm Strength is probably my favorite "set" theme in the game.

Stuff I didn't like about Zero:
There's no Cloak or Haze-type quartz in the game. The best you get is a quartz that makes enemies more likely to run away. Dodging some enemies in dungeons is really hard, and you will get an Enemy Advantage encounter for your troubles. I really hate this because I'm the kind of player that likes to pick and choose to fight, but it's very tough when enemies walking in random directions in tiny hallways try to stop you.
AT Delay is a little too strong...
There's NG+ exclusive content and a quest that only unlocks if you have a basically perfect run up to that point. That is some BULL SHIT, or as I call it "Youtube Material".

So yeah, this game needs a [good] localization... badly. I'll drop all my dollars for it XSEED.
Now that I finished the game I watched the Zero EVO opening and the animation was low quality and cut out a lot of the cool character shots, so... yeah. No loss.

 

[hotsoup]

Seeing how much you are praising Zero, can't wait to see your thoughts when you finished Ao which IMHO is even better than Zero and that is saying a lot.

 

[kromeo]

Can't bring myself to start SC, think I'm going to just have to skip straight to CS.. I really can't stand the 2 main characters

I know Cold Steel takes a long time to get going like FC but does it at least have a slightly more interesting overarching story?

 

[duckroll]

Can't bring myself to start SC, think I'm going to just have to skip straight to CS.. I really can't stand the 2 main characters

I know Cold Steel takes a long time to get going like FC but does it at least have a slightly more interesting overarching story?

FC/SC is better than CS/CS2 in pretty much every possible way.

 

[kromeo]

Ok let me word it differently lol, is there any kid romance in Cold Steel?

 

[duckroll]

What is kid romance?

 

[hosannainexcelsis]

Can't bring myself to start SC, think I'm going to just have to skip straight to CS.. I really can't stand the 2 main characters

I know Cold Steel takes a long time to get going like FC but does it at least have a slightly more interesting overarching story?

Hahahahahahaha, no.

Ok let me word it differently lol, is there any kid romance in Cold Steel?

You mean, is there romance between high school age characters? Yes, there most certainly is.

If you don't like Estelle and Joshua, well, the main characters in Cold Steel are a million times worse.

 

[BassForever]

Ok let me word it differently lol, is there any kid romance in Cold Steel?

Not only is their "kid romance" you get to pick the lucky girl in cold steel though their is a canon option.

Also that "kid romance" is one of the best written love stories in video games. Low bar I know but still.

 

[PK Gaming]

Can't bring myself to start SC, think I'm going to just have to skip straight to CS.. I really can't stand the 2 main characters

I know Cold Steel takes a long time to get going like FC but does it at least have a slightly more interesting overarching story?

What don't you like about them?

Estelle (and by extension her dad and a few others) is about as good as you're going to get with this franchise.

Joshua... well if you didn't like him you're definitely not going to like the protagonist of Cold Steel, lmao.

 

[duckroll]

I like how no one wants to tell him that CS also has a sister who wants to bone her brother bad.

 

[BassForever]

I like how no one wants to tell him that CS also has a sister who wants to bone her brother bad.

They're not REALLY related though /anime

 

[PK Gaming]

On the plus side, CS has Sara, Victor, Towa, Olivert and Crow

 

[kromeo]

I already bought it when it came out so I'm at least going to give it a try. I did actually like the Gagharv games despite their comedy translations

 

[Basileus777]

FC/SC is better than CS/CS2 in pretty much every possible way.

There's no way the combat is better in FC/SC,

 

[Korigama]

There's no way the combat is better in FC/SC,

This. An argument can be made for writing, but definitely not for combat.

There are tracks I've enjoyed from the soundtracks for FC/SC, but overall I would give the nod to CS I/CS II for music as well.

 

[hosannainexcelsis]

I for one love the combat in FC/SC while I hate the combat in CS. FC/SC feels really well balanced - just challenging enough without being ridiculous - whereas with CS either you're steamrolling the enemies or they're steamingrolling you, which I don't find enjoyable. I know people dislike the slower pace of FC/SC's battles, but my feeling is that if you want combat to be over with quickly maybe you shouldn't have combat in your game in begin with.

 

[Basileus777]

I know people dislike the slower pace of FC/SC's battles, but my feeling is that if you want combat to be over with quickly maybe you shouldn't have combat in your game in begin with.

That's a ridiculous way to dismiss pacing problems that you would mock if put in a different context. But I don't think the difficulty curve is much different in the Sky games, other than a few boss battles the combat is largely mindless, you're just waiting for animations to play out in trivial encounters.

 

[Korigama]

I haven't found pre-CS combat any more balanced so much as just slow, with underpowered crafts (and S-Crafts, generally doing too little damage on top of the earliest ones being that much more limited by being single-target) and a CP restoration rate that's also slow. Combat didn't start becoming more tolerable to me in FC until quartz setups for more advanced arts, particularly powerful AoE arts such as White Gehenna, started becoming available.

Battles intentionally designed to be unwinnable aside, enemies steamrolling a player who knows the battle system isn't a factor in CS. I also find it disingenuous to suggest that a preference for combat with better pacing means that one shouldn't have it to begin with.

 

[hosannainexcelsis]

That's a ridiculous way to dismiss pacing problems that you would mock if put in a different context. But I don't think the difficulty curve is much different in the Sky games, other than a few boss battles the combat is largely mindless, you're just waiting for animations to play out in trivial encounters.

Sorry if I was misunderstood; I was just trying to say that I don't think speedier animations alone make combat good. Speed doesn't impress me if the battles are still annoying to play through. I do like fast battle systems if they're interesting, such as Mana Khemia 2, but I don't find Cold Steel to be like that. I'll also admit that playing Cold Steel on Hard may have colored my impressions of the battle system; I chose that difficulty based on the recommendations of others but it feels like such a slog, and battles usually dragged on for me anyway even if the individual animations were relatively fast.

I don't know; maybe I'm just too stupid to understand Cold Steel's combat but ultimately I simply find it a chore to play while FC/SC are endlessly fun. Maybe I'm the only person who feels that way.

 

[PK Gaming]

FC's battle flow is definitely worse than CS's. I've only touched the surface of FC so take this with a grain of salt, but:

• Battle animations are slow. This wouldn't be as big of a problem if the attacks themselves looked great, but they're pretty bland for the most part (and unskippable?).
  
• The random encounter system. Apparently detection quartz helps mitigate this, but I bet they're still annoying to deal with.
  
• Getting ambushed (at least on hard) is basically an instant game over, so you basically wait until your party wipes before retrying the battle. Happens semi frequently too, so it's all kinds of frustrating.
  
• You don't get much experience for beating minibosses/bosses so they feel less rewarding than they should.
  
• Really, the act of going through battle after battle is a chore since your characters get worn down pretty quickly (and the high cost of healing items doesn't help). Hopefully this changes later on, but I'm currently not a fan of the battle flow.
  

On the other hand, the varied battle objectives are nice. You can't spam S-crafts to victory either, and the balance is undeniably better than CS. I think i'll enjoy it more once I start to get more party members/get more quartz.

 

[kromeo]

I think i'll enjoy it more once I start to get more party members/get more quartz.

You only actually have 4 characters for short parts of the game, something I found particularly annoying, not sure about SC

 

[Korigama]

Sorry if I was misunderstood; I was just trying to say that I don't think speedier animations alone make combat good. Speed doesn't impress me if the battles are still annoying to play through. I do like fast battle systems if they're interesting, such as Mana Khemia 2, but I don't find Cold Steel to be like that. I'll also admit that playing Cold Steel on Hard may have colored my impressions of the battle system; I chose that difficulty based on the recommendations of others but it feels like such a slog, and battles usually dragged on for me anyway even if the individual animations were relatively fast.

I don't know; maybe I'm just too stupid to understand Cold Steel's combat but ultimately I simply find it a chore to play while FC/SC are endlessly fun. Maybe I'm the only person who feels that way.

Well, even on Hard, it shouldn't feel like a slog. Without knowing your approach to combat in CS though, there's not much I can do to identify the problem, so I'll just advise on what the general mindset should be when approaching it.

Compared to something like FC, there's considerably more emphasis on making use of crafts to damage and eliminate enemies, particularly since CP doesn't take as long to build back up. Just as important is accounting for Combat Links, which weren't a factor with the older games. Basically, you want to go for as many opportunities to unbalance the enemy with regular attacks and crafts as possible, with it being just as important to account for the attack properties of everyone in your party (Slash, Thrust, Pierce, Strike) during battle as it is before it, since the weaknesses of enemies that can be dazed before a fight effect who in your party can do so (by default, you want to go for Triple Advantage every chance that you can, which makes it that much less likely that the enemy will even have the opportunity to act). Usually, you'll want to stock Bravery Points from unbalancing the enemies and going for link attacks, waiting until you find a large mob and spending five points on a Burst being one of the best ways to restore CP for the whole party. Or if you don't have Burst yet, spending points on Rush attacks against sufficiently weakened enemies can have its uses.

Just as important is abusing status effects when possible. Making proper use of immobilizing statuses such as Freeze, Sleep, Nightmare, and Faint can help you see to it that most enemies don't even get turns, with the latter three giving free criticals (something else changed from the older games).

• The random encounter system. Apparently detection quartz helps mitigate this, but I bet they're still annoying to deal with.

Eagle Eye quartz (see enemies from a distance) and Haze quartz (enemies don't notice you) are what you'll want.

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

Hating on Estelle and Joshua?

*illremindyouihaveaverylargestick.png*

I for one love the combat in FC/SC while I hate the combat in CS. FC/SC feels really well balanced - just challenging enough without being ridiculous - whereas with CS either you're steamrolling the enemies or they're steamingrolling you, which I don't find enjoyable. I know people dislike the slower pace of FC/SC's battles, but my feeling is that if you want combat to be over with quickly maybe you shouldn't have combat in your game in begin with.

CSs are built like most JRPGs are nowadays so that breaking them open is basically handed to us instead of having to do some thinking and digging around under the hood. (compare and contrast Schera's instaturn move vs Machias' to how powerful they are in use)

It is what is, but i miss Haze the most though.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

There's no way the combat is better in FC/SC,

Soundtrack is also massively improved in CS

SC had some good tracks, FC had like, one or two (Factory City of Zeiss is the only one I remember liking). It's the most boring set of Falcom OSTs to ever exist. The battle theme is terrible.

 

[DrROBschiz]

FC/SC is better than CS/CS2 in pretty much every possible way.

So far this is my impression as well

going to finish cold steel 2 and put my thoughts out more clearly

 

[Aters]

There's no way the combat is better in FC/SC,

Well I think CS and CS2's combat is dumbed down a bit, I actually prefer SC. Then again I played SC five years ago so..

 

[Taruranto]

I enjoy the orb system in FC/SC better, but lack of animation skip really hurts the games.

Also way too much time spent setting up people orbments because they leave/they become unavailable/etc. Well, I guess it's an issue in CS1 too.

 

[preta]

Well I think CS and CS2's combat is dumbed down a bit, I actually prefer SC. Then again I played SC five years ago so..

How can you say CS/CS2's combat is dumbed down? It adds plenty of new mechanics without removing anything (except Chain Crafts) that was in SC. The games themselves are much easier, sure, and the orbment system is definitely dumbed down, but the combat itself certainly isn't.

 

[ShadowSoldier89]

overall I like the additions to CS combat a lot, but the balance just isn't there.

FC/SC were a lot better balanced and the orbment system was leagues better.

Also one thing I found odd in CS was that you were basically never out of range to run up and smack someone. Maybe once every 10 fights.

 

[duckroll]

FC/SC are slower, the animations get really repetitive, but I think there were better bosses, better medium/hard encounters, way better Orbment system, and just more interesting balance in general. At least compared to CS1. CS1 was a real disaster in terms of a meaningful battle system. It's broken from the start and it doesn't feel worthwhile putting effort into party customization at all when you can just spam crafts to win anything. CS2 is better in this regard so far, and getting better. Still not anywhere close to SC though. My biggest beef with CS2 is how their idea of "challenging" boss battles is to make really unfair shit and then invite you to clear certain hidden objectives before you lose to get bonus AP. It's boring because the best solution to pretty much any of those battles is just to go in with 200 CP on everyone and spam S-Crafts. Doing it a "proper" way isn't even fun.

 

[ShadowSoldier89]

FC/SC are slower, the animations get really repetitive, but I think there were better bosses, better medium/hard encounters, way better Orbment system, and just more interesting balance in general. At least compared to CS1. CS1 was a real disaster in terms of a meaningful battle system. It's broken from the start and it doesn't feel worthwhile putting effort into party customization at all when you can just spam crafts to win anything. CS2 is better in this regard so far, and getting better.

I found CS2 far more easily broken than even CS1. By the middle of act 2 without putting much thought into it I was able to beat every boss without giving them a turn.

SC's final dungeon fights were fucking epic, nothing in CS has come close to that design and balance.

 

[DrROBschiz]

Yeah i cant do anything but agree with all the criticisms here

Im struggling to see what makes Cold Steel superior outside of Visual and Audio fidelity

It just falls short in maturity, storytelling, and structure

I do find the combat fun but that just appeals to my casual nature lol

 

[duckroll]

I found CS2 far more easily broken than even CS1. By the middle of act 2 without putting much thought into it I was able to beat every boss without giving them a turn.

SC's final dungeon fights were fucking epic, nothing in CS has come close to that design and balance.

The bosses in CS2 are still godawful, but I was talking about general encounters where you wouldn't feel the need to spam S-crafts for no reason. They're better balanced than CS1 because when you get to a new area you tend to actually have a couple of battles where it feels like they weigh the options you have well so however you choose approach the battle feels somewhat satisfying. In CS1 the only right answer was using crafts and motivate, because if you were dumb enough to do anything else you're just wasting a turn.

 

[Aters]

I found CS2 far more easily broken than even CS1. By the middle of act 2 without putting much thought into it I was able to beat every boss without giving them a turn.

SC's final dungeon fights were fucking epic, nothing in CS has come close to that design and balance.

Same here. Those four poor hidden bosses couldn't even touch me. Maybe I should start on hard. CS and CSII are more balanced in that regard.

 

[DrROBschiz]

The bosses in CS2 are still godawful, but I was talking about general encounters where you wouldn't feel the need to spam S-crafts for no reason. They're better balanced than CS1 because when you get to a new area you tend to actually have a couple of battles where it feels like they weigh the options you have well so however you choose approach the battle feels somewhat satisfying. In CS1 the only right answer was using crafts and motivate, because if you were dumb enough to do anything else you're just wasting a turn.

Between S-Crafts, Quartz and Equipment stacking, Overdrive etc..

It reminds me of Kingdom Hearts 2 where they just throw everything and the kitchen sink at you

Im having dumb fun with it but I find myself focusing less and less on it since its been so easy