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

So we failed to find anyone behind the threatening letters, and Nial is convinced it's just a prank, bro, and the real intent was to sow confusion.

But enough about that, the cast decide that they could all just hang out at the local restaurant since they now have downtime. Sounds like a hell of a party with us inviting Renne, Mueller and Nial to join. WOOO!!!!!

And it's ENTIRELY off-camera. Boo!

Anyway, it's time for bed, and turns out we only have two rooms with two beds each. Well that should-

Oh no. RUN AWAY ESTELLE!!!!!! SHE"S GOING TO MURDER YOU IN YOUR SLEEP!

For me, that was legit the part where I went from 'okay, something's off about this setup', to 'okay, what are you not telling me?'

It's her expression that sells the horror, it looks like she's going to murder Estelle in her sleep and use her corpse as a puppet. It's just so uncanny in a different way than her loving parents.

Also I notice how quick she is to ask if Estelle used the room as a love nest with Joshua. Foreshadowing of her traumatic backstory.

Also also:

CAMPY! It's been a while. Like I said, that title of yours really makes it sound like you have little confidence in yourself. He even outright states that the point of the fool is to laugh at him, not worry about him.

HOLY SHIT! DID CAMPY JUST EXPLODE HIS OWN TROOPS!?

Oh wait, there's no blood. So they are fake. So robots of some kind.

Yep, I think I know what Renne's so called parents are now.

So in the Royal Villa section if you brought Olivier and continued to wander around and not find Renne… Olivier starts talking about the War of the Lions, Nord and such.

It is the only place you can find the answer to the first in class question in cold steel before the question is asked.

Edited by Memers on Apr 28th 2024 at 2:27:26 AM

@Red Hunter 543: I think Campanella wants people to laugh at him, and not consider him a serious problem.

@darkabomination: There weren't a huge number of references to the Sky games in CS 1 and 2, but I think that had less to do with tone and more to do with creating a place for new people to get into the series. CS 1 first came out ten years after Sky 1, right?

He's supposed to be the emissary/eyes of the Grandmaster, so I'm curious to know how that works since Campy is...campy. Then again, the point of a fool jester in the king's court is to deliver honest advice and truths through jokes.

Honestly, I wanna know how this jester landed the job. Is he like the kid of the grandmaster? He doesn't have that air about him but you never know.

It will, trust me. There's at least one thing from Sky that comes back in Cold Steel and it comes back hard.

I've heard speculation that Campanella is an Artificial Human created by the Grandmaster. It seems possible to me.

I think I know what you're talking about, and it hits pretty hard even if you haven't played Sky.

Edited by MisterTambourineMan on Apr 28th 2024 at 9:44:30 AM

It better blow my mind away because there's one more game after this 50+ hour game.

So, I just finished Trails from Zero.

I liked it, and I'd definitely say it's a good game, but the plot felt pretty badly backloaded. It almost didn't feel like there was a main plot until about the last third of the game, though Cold Steel 1 felt much the same way. The world building and gradual reveal of character backstories would probably hit a lot harder if I were playing the game blind, but I can't really say there were many of the kind of scenes that sometimes annoyed me in CS, either.

The final portion of the game felt pretty long, but it was also definitely my favorite part.

I'll probably take a little break and then start on Reverie, since I can't find a physical copy of Azure. But I do intend to play Azure, someday. And I've got a trip coming up, so I'll probably have plenty of time to play soon.

PS: Tio finished off the final boss. It felt fitting.

Same here, Tio did kill Joachim in my run. Both the second form, and last one but that one is easy to time.

Remember that Tio Plato sent Joachim to Gehanna.

Zero doesn't really have a plot going on till we get to the auction but I really loved the setting and cast so I didn't have much of a problems. It did a really good job of getting me to care about the SSS and Crossbell, so when shit hit the fan, I very much got into what was happening.

Plus Azure delivers the goods with extra things I didn't know I wanted but really liked.

God, I miss Crossbell right now. I wonder how it's doing under Rufus.

Zero was the most slow going for me. The fact that the main cast was assembled so quick made me grate on the 'Lloyd is so clueless' gags. I like the group as a group, but the conversation structure can get really repetitive.

I just imagine this song from Halloween playing every time Renne shows up:

Seriously, she has that energy. I'm legit surprised Estelle wasn't found dead in her hotel room.

I think that's where the horror comes, I genuinely don't know WHEN she's going to strike, or WHY she's so interested in Estelle in particular.

I'd assume it's because Estelle is a threat to Ouroboros but they aren't all that concerned with killing her since everything is going according to plan even when they are foiled so they never really bother getting rid of any protagonists unless said protagonists are directly interfering with their plan.

So why? Why is Renne obsessed with Estelle? Renne is about 11 so she's too young to know Joshua and doesn't really bring him up, in fact, she only learns of Joshua when Estelle tells her about him.

Hmmmmmmm..... and then there's that tea party planned. It can't be Campy who planned it since he's supposed to observe, not directly interfere. Right?

I can just feel the murder energy emanating from Renne in this scene.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Apr 29th 2024 at 2:51:58 AM

As I had said before the big spoiler CS 3 has for Sky you already found out about in FC, Hamel. There is no real big surprise to be had, everything else is covered in Azure and Cold Steel 2.

Even the fates of all the Enforcers in Sky get brought up in either game, Edit: but such an out of context spoiler probably got glossed over so… that might be the only thing.

You could start CS 3 right now without issue and just come back to SC when in a better mood for its gameplay.

Edited by Memers on Apr 28th 2024 at 11:59:13 AM

I'm thinking of playing Cold Steel 3 after SC but gut feeling tells me not to.

And Osborne should be showing up in either SC or Third Chapter so I feel it's important to see the grand debut of the blood and iron chancellor and see if I can find any clues as to how he survived.

Oh wow, so Norman won by a slim margin. Seem the tourism industry is now Ruan's primary business.

I guess that makes sense thinking about it, since the shipping business has taken a major hit with the invention of airships, but tourism has it's own problems. That said, I'm still bummed I missed the investigation quest but it bothers me a lot less now.

Also trying to find Renne who just walked out while we were having a Bracer meeting.

Bleublanc: I was quite proud of my dear Renne when I saw that she was playing mind games with Princess Klaudia and her companions. I dare say that riddle of hers was quite inspired.

Rean: Yeah....I'm sure the bar for riddle master wasn't very high in the society if that's the quality I can expect.

Bleublanc: Less witty comments from the peanut gallery please. So as I was saying-

Rean: Well, even I could answer the riddles sent to Prince Oliver and his companions. And I haven't even been to Liberl.

Bleublanc: I'm sure you're very proud of your Imperial education, but as I was saying-

Rean: Actually, you and the society kind of ruined my school year by invading Thors and then kidnapping my sister, and then me. It's pretty difficult to study for economics and my trigonometry exam under these cond-

Bleublanc: INTERRUPT MY STORY AGAIN AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS!

Rean: Fine, fine. Can't wait to get to the part where they kick your ass.

Sky 3rd is a lot faster-paced than FC and SC. It ushers you along pretty quickly.

Aside from the side-stories, that's where they put all the lengthy dialogue scenes and worldbuilding.

Even then, it's still a shorter game overall.

You monster! You know my weaknesses. God, now I for sure am going to play Third Chapter before Cold Steel 3 and Knuckles.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Apr 30th 2024 at 3:34:47 AM

ESTELLE NOOOO!!!!!!!!! IT"S A TRICK! RENNE WROTE THAT LETTER, NOT JOSHUA!!!!!

SCHERA DON"T ENCOURAGE HER TO GO TO THE SECLUDED AREA WHERE THERE WILL BE NO WITNESSES TO MURDER!

STOP! ESTELLE GO BACK! Damn it, she's not following my orders and going back to Grancel. This is so obviously a trap.

Wait, it was Father Kevin who sent that letter?

OH MY GOD, that's hilarious. Epic prank bro.

EDIT: OH SHIT! HE WAS ALSO BROUGHT HERE BY A LETTER!.

Okay, this PRANK has gone too far!

Edited by RedHunter543 on Apr 30th 2024 at 3:48:17 AM

LMAO! Estelle knows what series she's in.

Too bad she missed the big dramatic reveal that Alba was the evil mastermind behind everything. That was a doozy.

You can beat 3rd in like 30 hours, maybe a little less. It's about half the length of FC, give or take.

It's also my fav in the series, just because it doesn't faff about and uses the development of the cast already established to jump to the more interesting bits. Kevin gets better use of his screentime in 3rd than Rean gets in like, 1.5 Cold Steel games.

So Amelthea has some kind of advanced tank at her disposal, has kidnapped the duke, (And supposedly Renne.) and is going to attack the castle to force the queen to stand down and install the duke as a puppet.

This is some serious cornered animal plan, there's no way something this desperate actually works. But she seems like a useful idiot for Ouroboros to continue their plans to destabilize Liberl.

Boy, Amelthea is going to get an earful when she learns Richard regrets his dumbass coup attempt, considering all he achieved was giving Ouroboros exactly what they want.

And oh shit, it's a gospel powered tank that disables all the tech in the area. Damn, that's an actual problem.

Luckily Kevin reveals he confiscated the Chronos rod from Ruan's former mayor, and slams it into the gospel emitting the deactivation rays, buying us all time to attack the tank.

Oh joy, haven't fought a mech in a long while.

Oh, she's going to fight us after that gruelling tank boss.

5 minutes into the fight, and this feels like the SC version of that C boss. She just has so much health and a crazy amount of free turns to set up mines.

You and me both, that was exhausting, the danger music was playing by the end of it, none of my party members were at above half health, if Julia and Estelle missed their chance, we would have been all dead.

So Estelle demands to know WHERE IS SHE! to Amelthea who laughs and realizes what's going on.

And here it is, the angel of slaughter. Nice to meet you, big fan of your work, but your tea party is all out of refreshments.

Ah, KNEW IT! Whew, they were creeping me out, but I KNEW they had to be fake somehow.

So Pater mater makes it's grand debut. Hmmmm... so what's your motive Renne? Was it just to use the gospel?

WAIT, SHE KNEW JOSHUA!? DAMN IT ALL, I PLAYED MYSELF. I really am slipping.

Ah, so she WAS going to murder Estelle, but decided she enjoys tormenting her too much to kill her now. Also she unironically enjoys Estelle's company.

Ah so it begins then. Well glad that Estelle has found a new personal nemesis to really shaken things up, it'll help fill the void left by Joshua.

Renne decides she's had enough fun at her tea party, and so escapes with Pater Mater.

Alright, Renne. Let the game begin, this is going to be FUN.