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

My god, that is some IMPRESSIVE range from Oliver's sniper shot. Suck it Elie and Machias, you bush league support gun users.

...Hey! You're new. So what's your gimmick and character bit?

Huh, I haven't heard of this asshole in the other games IIRC. Walter really doesn't ring any bells.

ALRIGHT! So his gimmick is that he's a psychopath, wanted to test the Gospel powered earthquake device the Society made on Zeiss hoping to see as much blood and death as a result of earthquakes. And he was very graphic about describing it too.

And like every other Ouroboros enforcer, after monologuing about how powerful he is, he summons some archaisms, or monsters empowered by the spetium vein disruptions to fight our heroes.

Good to know these guys still commit to their brand.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Apr 27th 2024 at 12:28:42 AM

Hey, so the worm group boss fight is just a massive gimmick, basically every time I hit them, they spam an earthquake move, so resist the urge to hit all of them at once, focus all the wind spells they are weak to on one of them at a time, and then end the fight. Wow, this wasn't so hard at al-

Of course, we get our asses kicked in a cutscene. So who is going to save our asses this time?

Oh, Zin and Kloe, huh? Well okay then. So they fight, seems Walter knows who Zin is, and Zin brings up Kilika and that touches a nerve. Then Walter runs away, but not before revealing Lorence's name is actually Loewe.

So uhhhh.....are all the Ouroboros enforcers just going to be evil versions/rivals to our party members?

We got Bleublanc for Oliver, Renne for Tita, Walter for Zin, Lorence/Loewe for Agate and possibly Joshua. Only ones missing so far are members for Kloe, Schera, and Estelle.

So what? Is the Bewitching Bell going to be Schera's nemesis then? I feel that title would fit a nemesis for Schera than Kloe or Estelle. Is she going to be some kind of evil seductress? Maybe she can ALSO see the future? Possibly have some backstory going on with Schera like Zin and Walter, as well as Loewe and Joshua?

I don't think there's anything wrong with evil versions/rivals in principle.

If you notice, I wasn't actually complaining about it, just lampshading it, nothing I said was actually negative about the idea of the Ouroboros agents being EVIL versions of party members.

On the contrary, I actually welcome this lovely trope. Wonder who gets to play foil to Estelle.

Oh hey, an exhibition match between Cassius and Julia. Finally, we actually get to see more of his skill without stealing our credit.

Damn, you escaped somehow? Guys, you had ONE JOB, keep her captured, and now she's going to do even more insurgence for a guy who has already seen the error of his ways. This is going to end badly.

Alright, Chapter 3 start. Mad Tea Party, hmmmmmm is that an Angel of Slaughter I see?

I feel like there's a lot of "embarrassing" mom energy that Tita is desperate to downplay and escape from.

I just caught Oliver serenading Schera with his lute, these two def have something going on in the background. Granted, I cannot imagine Oliver being a family man right now.

Alright, we're going to Grancel because we got a direct request from the military for aid which presumably means Ouroboros is doing a thing there as well. Not sure how I feel about travelling by Airship now, it really makes the world feel small. Granted it would be REALLY annoying to do the whole journey again on foot but what the hell.

I gotta say, the plot so far is strangely lowkey so far, even the earthquake machine didn't amount to much. Cold Steel 2 established the tense atmosphere and stakes really early into it's introduction. Hell, Rean's hometown actually got attacked by Jaegers, and PS Vita Repulsa kidnapped Alfin and Elise.

Here, it's just: "go foil the Ouroboros member of the week" Liberl doesn't at all feel in danger.

Okay, so we're supposed to look for a missing child who is hiding somewhere in the villa, and then this scene showed up.

Gah, what the heck was that? I wonder how the other party members would react.

Oh hey Duke Dunan, under house arrest? Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's far more merciful that what Osborne did to Cayenne. Betting 50 mira it was a very public and painful execution.

Then again, considering how many times I've been gaslit into thinking Osborne is far more evil than he looks, maybe Osborne is went the cruel mercy route. It was pretty hilarious seeing Cayenne react to losing to Osborne when his entire evil plan was because he felt slighted his ancestors lost to Dreichels, and he himself lost to a man with NO royal blood at all.

Yes, I'm still thinking about Cold Steel, why do you ask?

THAT"S IT! I CAN"T TAKE IT ANYMORE! I AM SO BORED BY THE NOTHING GOING ON IN THIS FUCKING GAME! I"M STILL BOTHERED THAT I MISSED THE INVESTIGATION HIDDEN QUEST, the music is still quite good tho, BUT I"M BURNT OUT BY THE GAMEPLAY BEING THE SAME FUCKING THING ALL OVER AGAIN.

I QUIT! I CAN"T DO THIS SHIT ANYMORE!

I SHOULD HAVE SKIPPED TO COLD STEEL 3, EXISTENCE IS MISERY AND PAIN!

Oh hi Renne.

So.... seems her parents left her here, because they had important work to do. Oh no....... I can feel her trauma and abandonment issues from here.

And out of the goodness of our heart, we're going to let her, the psychotic serial killer little girl, in to the guild so she can be safe while we find her parents who left her behind.

Seriously, what ARE her parents?

TITA! NO!!!!!

Edited by RedHunter543 on Apr 27th 2024 at 5:31:36 PM

Looks like the early scenes from a horror game.

Come to think of it, I'm not entirely sure what happened to Cayenne. Maybe Osborne stripped him of his title and made him work as a mascot at Mishelam.

Hmmmmm guess I'll find out when I try Cold Steel 3 and 4.

Yeah, Renne has that Japanese horror film girl air about her. Even if I didn't know about her real identity, there's all sorts of subtly unsettling things about her, like her keen interest in Estelle, the way she carries herself, and her uncanny valley parents.

I'm playing through the endgame of Zero now. Renne showing up at the hospital was surprisingly unnerving, even though she's on your side (more or less).

Continuing to play through the endgame of Zero and wow this is longer than I expected.

Extremely extremely minor CS 3 spoilers

Tossed in Jail and the key is thrown away, just like Jusis's father. Not even their families want to deal with them either. I think Angie's father is the only one that is still under house arrest like in CS 2 and the only leader of the three warmonger houses that even has family that cares about em enough to get even a mention.

The Renne thing is even more obvious with the Japanese voices, the direction with her doesn't even try to be subtle.

Due note that the Japanese VA work was done 9 years later, by that time it was just obvious where it was going.

The conceit that the Evo versions were meant for a replay is one of the oddest creative decisions Falcom supervised. The openings, voice direction with disguised or obscured characters, and CG art really tries its best to ruin any surprises. Thanks Zero/Azure, for just telling us what's going to happen in Azure's endgame.

Just about everything in the Evo versions were outsourced outside Falcom.

True, but the direction was supervised by them in terms of general design.

Jeez, the final dungeon of Zero is long.

Finally, first steps into Calvard.

Okay, so the Bracer guild has been alerted to the fact that threatening letters have been sent to people in locations that are relevant to the upcoming peace treaty between Liberl, the Empire, and the Republic, such as their respective embassies. This is suspected to be an Ouroboros plot since they can only profit from sowing discord and distrust among the countries to keep them divided.

So we're here to ask about the letter. While our adorable mascot, Tita, is shopping with Renne who is TOTALLY trustworthy and isn't seconds away from murdering Tita in cold blood in an alleyway.

We then meet up with the head diplomat of the Calvardian embassy who has her own suspicions.

Racist, just because Erebonians commit 75% of war crimes in the setting doesn't mean they are responsible for this particular war crime. She does add that however that the Erebonians are actually unlikely to be the culprits because despite all the war hawks on that side, the upcoming treaty has a stipulation that as long as it's signed, Liberl will provide prototypes of their new cutting edge airship engines to both Erebonia and Calvard which is a very exciting prospect for both of them since their airship industries aren't as advanced as Liberl's.

Clever, albeit risky since Liberl will have to work harder to stay ahead of Erebonia and Calvard since this is the one field of industry they are steps ahead of the other countries, and those two nations are far more advanced technologically and larger than Liberl with all the resources that entails.

So the ambassador thinks the Erebonians aren't responsible for this because the engine protoype is far too valuable to both sides so they all have incentive to play along. For now.

AND THERE IT IS! I was wondering how long it took for someone to bring up Osborne now that we're in the Erebonian embassy.

Oh ho! So Oliver quickly establishes that he's not so fond of the blood and iron chancellor. "Subtly" critiquing the chancellor's policies of conquering smaller states near the Erebonian border by flat out calling it what it is.

Love the foreshadowing that the head diplomat is flabbergasted at Oliver's statements but doesn't bother to tell him to shut up because Oliver is on a higher pay grade than him. Seems Oliver has yet to really establish his third way faction yet.

Honestly, the more I understand Imperial politics, the more Class VII remaining on Oliver's side by claiming neutrality in the civil war makes sense.

So in the middle of our questioning, Kloe asks the head diplomat what Osborne's reaction to the treaty is, and he has this to say:

Yep, Osborne basically ordered the Emperor to accept the treaty but isn't interested in the engine for whatever reason since he pushed for acceptance before the engine was offered as a stipulation for signing. Hmmmm....quite an enigma, that man is. I look forward to our first meeting.

So this is the first indicator that Osborne is opposed to Ouroboros since we can assume that Osborne knows that Ouroboros wants to keep the nations at odds with each other, and Osborne really isn't friends with that society as Vita can attest to, so agreeing to this treaty even before knowing about the engine can only benefit the Ironbloods.

Clever.

You'd think any of the Liberl stuff would ever get brought up in CS, but nah. And not even in a But for Me, It Was Tuesday kind of deal, it just doesn't. A few references in the library, a few nods from Olivier, but that's about it.

Kinda feels like CS goes out of its way to ignore a lot of prior setup sometimes to lighten up the high school antics.

Oh dang it. But it isn't to soft reboot levels right?

Because Olivert's actions in the Sky games are referenced in Cold Steel 1 as him helping out with the Orbal Shutdown crisis that I've yet to see. Also Renne shows up in 4 I think?

Because dang it, I want my time rewarded playing Sky so Cold Steel 3 and 4 hit harder.

I'm told by Anom that there's a lot of set up in the Third like how Oliver's political war with Osborne starts and what leads to the formation of Class VII.

EDIT: Oh yeah, while asking around at the castle about the threatening letter. Hilda mentions that Renne's parents DID show up for a tour of the castle but they seemed like they weren't paying attention despite it being a tour and Renne having fun.

Okay, something is off but what? If they were robots provided by Joerg then wouldn't they be able to fake human behavior better or is his programming ability limited? Or possibly they were just rando people that Renne and Alba mind controlled and surgically altered to think they are Renne's parents. And in these cases, how would Renne know what her parents look like? IIRC, Zero is the first time she's met them, but she somehow knows enough about their physical identities and names have them replicated but not Colin, who I def recall Renne know about.

Assuming they aren't somehow the real Hayworths. But that's impossible otherwise they would bring up these events in Zero.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Apr 29th 2024 at 3:36:38 AM

Okay, so Bleublanc stole a painting in the proud tradition of a phantom thief, and one of the clues was a foreign manse and will of the blue knight. So I thought instantly of the Calvard Embassy and the doll knight books they had there.

And I was skimming through them till I found the card but I did notice the words Thirteen Factories which evil bowlcut man was a head of, and Loewe mentioned the gospels were created by said Thirteen Factories.

Are those books plot relevant? There are so many of them, and I don't feel like reading them.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Apr 28th 2024 at 4:22:25 PM