Trails franchise (Trails In The Sky, Trails Of Cold Steel etc)

How do you restore CP/MP for arts? How do you do Link Attack so that I would no have ot rely on them so much?

"We are just like Irregular Data. And that applies to you too, Ri CO. And as for you, Player... your job is to correct Irregular Data."

CP is for crafts, it is restored via attacking or taking hits. Rean's Master Quartz grants CP per enemy killed, so have him finish things off if you want more CP.

EP is like other games' MP, its primarily restored at restore points and Inns. Certain Quartz have the ability to regen EP as you walk on the overworld or as you hit things.

Link attacks are done when a character unbalances a target and is linked with someone (Link with someone via the L1 button) Each character has a grade in 1 of the 4 weapon skills Slash, Pierce, Thrust, Strike. Rean is an S rank in Slash for example. And each mob shows their unbalance chance at the bottom of their info, its the icons below their HP.◊ Rean's S rank in slash and say 4 stars under slash equals 100% chance to unbalance.

The detector skill adds 1 star to each which increases the chance. All crits automatically unbalance 100% chance without fail.

edited 4th Jul '17 3:10:44 AM by Memers

There are also equipment items and quartz that restore them on a per turn basis.

They'll start popping up late in the game.

edited 4th Jul '17 6:40:10 AM by burnpsy

My explanation made sense right? I mean it's simple mechanics that I probably made more complex than it actually is.

Man I can't wait for 1 PC, if only for more people to play it, we need a date!

edited 4th Jul '17 7:52:29 AM by Memers

Your explanation was on point. I'm more confused that anyone would need external explanation for these things. Something to keep in mind when I have to design tutorials, I guess.

And yeah, Cold Steel was held back by its release platforms for sure.

And yet it managed to be just as, if not slightly more popular than Sky, somehow. I didn't think many people owned a Vita.

It is on PS 3 as well but way after the PS 4 came out in the west, in Japan it was a bit more current being 2013. It's the version I have.

Vita though is really the JRPG console. It's got damn near everything and RP Gs and visual novels are still coming on it.

edited 4th Jul '17 1:46:31 PM by Memers

Yeah, its platforms in the West were a popular, defunct platform and a niche JRRG machine. Fine platforms for a niche game, but not when you want to hit a wider audience and expand its popularity.

Also it quite literally limited the game, as in they had to make a third game because the second game suffered many cuts because Vita couldn't handle everything they wanted to do.

They had to make cuts to 2 but I don't think it hindered the game much if at all, if anything it helped the atmosphere of the second act. Not visiting Jurai City is the only real loss I think.

It will be nice to see western Erobonia though, and hopefully a little of Liberl, in 3.

edited 4th Jul '17 3:48:27 PM by Memers

Overall I think Cold Steel is a better duology than Sky.

On the Sky side

• Sky has Estelle and no one really can match that really.

Steel Side

• Cold Steel's party is largely better than Sky's I think.
• Cold Steel's expanded cast is insane, even the littlest character has an arc and it ends up mattering.
• Cold Steel's combat is a LOT better than Sky's once it gets going. The upgrades to Cold Steel 2 makes it even better.
• Minigames are better across the board, especially fishing.
• The escalation from 1 to 2 is handled a LOT better.
• The bad guys are largely the same level of quality, except for The Rival which Cold Steel hits it out of the park.
• While Olivier in Sky kinda floats with being Bi, Cold Steel has an openly lesbian cast member that floats in an out of the party and is really REALLY awesome.
• Graphics are obviously better in Cold Steel with not using sprites, although you can tell its a bit low budget.

Other points but those would be spoilers.

edited 5th Jul '17 5:41:11 AM by Memers

That's nice to know the Anelace joke is something they could take seriously. Representation is always nice.

I agree that Cold Steel is the better set of games, but it does have its fair share of issues.

All of which fall under heavy, massive spoilers, so I'll hold my tongue out of respect to all the frequenters of this thread who are still on Sky SC or early in Cold Steel.

Eh, put "seriously" in massive airquotes there. Still mostly played as a joke.

edited 5th Jul '17 8:23:47 AM by burnpsy

Eh? She is treated about as seriously as the rest of the cast. She is just flirty with a Urban Legend Love Life and a rebellious streak that gets her in trouble.

She is probably Rean's best friend outside of the bondable party and one of his closest allies. Not to mention a Taito school practitioner and has most of Walter's move set so she will rip you apart barehanded.

Every other part of her is super serious, but the characters vocally eyeroll whenever the attraction to women comes up.

Eh I didn't really get that at all, it was more the fact that she was overzealous hunting for a relationship at all, which goes along with the Urban Legend Love Life trope. And only really before everyone got to know her.

The so-called Ladies Man Crow got the exact same treatment from the exact same people for the exact same kind of things before getting to know him as well.... hell even after getting to know him.

... anyway... need date damnit.

edited 6th Jul '17 9:12:03 AM by Memers

Just learned that Claire was voiced by Miyu Matsuki, who died a while back. Has there been any announcement of if Claire would be back for CSIII or no?

Japanese works have a tendency to not replace beloved V As, instead write them out or cancel the whole series soooo...

edited 9th Jul '17 9:35:51 AM by Memers

Eh, I've heard that, but in practice I've not seen that be the case (see: Monokuma).

Anyway, I knew her VA died, but we've seen nothing one way or the other about Claire coming back. Given that not all scenes are voiced, they could always have her just be silent.

Well several of the series she was in were slated for sequels or at least OA Vs but have been completely silent since her death.

In other series Toei has straight up said that if Masako Nozawa dies that will be the end of Dragonball Super right then and there, no matter what is going on in the show.

And you don't even want to know how much they have danced around replacing Igor in Persona after his V As's death. Instead reusing lines from previous games, having other people speak for him, etc. to this day they still haven't replaced him.

Anyway on topic... The steam icon if you have Cold Steel on your wishlist has changed from Alisa to Laura... let the shipping or best girl wars begin!

edited 10th Jul '17 6:00:47 AM by Memers

That still seems so strange to me being able to pick a love interest in a Trails game. I can definitely see some Persona 3 influence.

Bonding is the term used in game and only 2 or so character's bonding moments actually have romantic tones to them, most of the girls' are actually platonic.

And you compare it to Persona 3 and it's really close, in free time you get like 3 or so bonding points and spending time with one of the 12 party members spends one. You earn Link xp from the events and taking them into battle, as you level up your links you get combo skills with that person.

However unlike Persona 3 maxing them out and choosing one to be that BFF has actual effects in story cutscenes.

In New Game Plus you get a Grade Shop like Tales games and there is an option for infinite Bonding Points so first play through spend with whoever you like.

edited 10th Jul '17 10:48:43 AM by Memers

Whoa, so the battle system is like Persona meets Neptunia. That sounds really cool, just kind of a shame as it seems like the unique customization of Quartz from Sky has been dropped. And seems like the Chain Craft mechanic has been expanded.

Quartz are still very much a thing, they just removed the part where you balance the amounts of your elements to unlock spells (the individual quartz or your master quartz now has to directly give it to you).

But arts are very much de-emphasized compared to Sky anyway, so no big loss.

edited 10th Jul '17 12:54:35 PM by burnpsy

The big deal with Quartz in CS is fusions, fuse 2 of the same together for stat boosts + the spell(s) with the Quartz. Your build becomes pretty clear since each character prefers certain stats.

And yeah the game does focus more on crafts than arts in general, they aren't completely useless though, CS 2 makes arts far more valuable and easier to chain cast with the higher EP pools.

edited 10th Jul '17 4:53:50 PM by Memers

...I beat the whole first game and I didn't even know you could do that. Is that something that only gets introduced in the second game on?

In the first game you do it in the Trade shop in Trista, it's next to the flower shop, costs the Quartz and some upgrade materials.

It could only be done between adventures so any new Quartz you make or get on the trip you gotta balance the usefulness of the spell vs loss of stats.

Also if you miss a treasure chest on one of your trips, the loot can be bought in that shop as well as a 1 time only buy.

In the second game the Trade shop is far more accessible with one pretty much where ever you make your base over the course of the game. However the fusions always stay one tier behind the strongest Quartz you can craft at that point, so the strongest spells vs stats + last tier's spells.

edited 10th Jul '17 5:21:49 PM by Memers