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

(Azure)All we know is one of the attackers was Gideon and he died.

I finished Trails in the Sky FC last night. I thought the ending was really strong. And the final boss fights were really good too.

I think I might have had trouble with the monsters in the chests though, if I had not lucked into a really powerful set up. I think my Quartz setup was pretty sub optimum.

I had Joshua equipped with the Gladiator Headband and Belt, which let him use Black Fang 3-4 times a battle. It wasn't as helpful for the final bosses, but man did it make clearing out the 20+ chests so much easier.

The other party members I used for the final dungeon were Kloe and Schera. I got a LOT of use out of Kloe's defence and attack down special.

The wrapping up of the plot definitely feels in hindsight, like we've only just past the introduction to the story.

I do hope Joshua left a message for Cassius, letting him know Alba and his organisation have that information about him. I think it makes sense him acting non-optimally due to emotional distress, but I think it would be in character for him to make sure to let Cassius knows for his and Estelle's safety.

I definitely plan on buying the other two games in the series. If it was on sale ^note I believe it currently is 30% off on Nuveem, but I think the upcoming Steam sale'll probably have a better price. I'd be jumping into SC today.

That hits the nail on the head. It was originally planned as one big game with SC and they had to split it out of time constraints. Grancel ruins were going to be the Disc-One Final Dungeon, it looks like the end, but it's only really the beginning of the plot now that the characters have been introduced.

SC definitely benefited from the extra time, it's a more polished game than FC and some fan favorites got bigger roles because of their reception.

I'm curious to see if my favorite characters match up with the fan favorites.

I'll see if I can figure out who's well liked by screen-time in SC.

I really want to just buy SC and start now, but no. It makes so much more sense to move onto another game in my to play list and get SC and 3rd in the sales...

It also established the model that most subsequent subseries in the franchise have used, that being using one game to set things up and another one for the payoff. And since those later subseries like Cold Steel had that planned out from the start, they were also able to pace things out better. I still really like FC, but CS 1 is just a better paced and more well-rounded package.

Yeah, it's true. Though a lot of fans might like to say otherwise with a bit of nostalgia. From what I hear, Zero's even better-paced still.

Absolutely. Zero > Cold Steel > Sky in terms of pacing.

Now that Brittany and Tom are no longer with X Seed, what's everyone's outlook on CS 3 and 4 localization?

Tom claimed he was planning to leave for a while, and even had a job lined up, so him leaving isn't really noteworthy. Brittany's sudden departure is a little concerning, but a single person is not an entire company. They could still do Trails with someone else at the helm.

Taking a stab in the dark here, it may be that increased competition for these localizations has lead to trouble. What exactly have they put out lately that's worth noting aside from stuff owned by their parent company? Not much.

I can't say that's not a noteworthy loss to Xseed though. Still, CS 1 and 2 have gotten confirmation of localized PS 4 ports, so I'm still solidly confident we'll get 3.

Azure spoilers Is it wrong that I found Shizuku with her eyes open to be unsettling at first? That really took me off-guard.

I didn't find it too odd, but I get what you mean. She spent 1.9 games with her eyes firmly shut.

Only thing I'll never get is why Alisa is still getting DLC outfits in Sen IV when Juna's the poster girl these days.

Especially this outfit in particular◊.

Where's my Rean DLC outfit Falcom? Don't really like Alisa's Rummage Sale Reject outfit.

Edited by salvadorfranz on Nov 2nd 2018 at 8:34:04 AM

She's gone Final Fantasy on us. I like the Magical Girl Alisa one from TZ.

Laura also looks great in Saber cosplay.

About to do the last three Trials in Cold Steel II, and at this point, Laura and Emma are basically monsters. Laura's already got a pretty high attack power, but giving her a Tauros Master Quartz and leveling it up a bit raises her damage output by 125%, and Carnage ups her STR by 150. Give her a buff and she's a freaking beast.

Meanwhile, Emma's high ATS is usually balanced out (along with magic in general,) by magic being so darn expensive, but giving her Ingenuity makes that mute by letting her quickly regain EP on the field. You can spam spells like Cross Crusade, Seraphic Ring, and even Claiomh Solarion without having to worry about conserving EP for the next fight. On top of that, Pandora currently increases her Arts output by 70%, and gives her spells from 5 out of 7 elements to boot. They don't make the whole game a cakewalk, but some battles are still very much a joke.

Edited by kkhohoho on Nov 3rd 2018 at 2:32:52 PM

The power creep in CS is insane. I mean, what happened, Falcom? Did they just not playtest the boosted Quartz or just didn't realize how strong they made setups without Orbment Lines to balance them?

Or maybe it's because some bosses are still hard as nails with them. I'm on my second try against Magic Knight Heavy Ruby after dying the first time. The first go around was actually manageable (if still really tough,) despite the damn thing restoring huge chunks of HP whenever it felt like it. Then it decided to Attack! Attack! Attack! and slaughter my entire party without giving me a chance to breath. It was almost like the game decided it was taking too long and that I should just die already. But without those OP party setups, I don't know if I would've even stood a chance.

Beat it on the second try. Decided to split my party across the battlefield so the boss couldn't attack them all at once. Which also freed Emma up so she could spam Claiomh Solarion. After she used Cresent Mirror to boost her magic. Worked wonders.

Edited by kkhohoho on Nov 3rd 2018 at 3:06:43 AM

Just retook Trista Academy. While it was a nice moment, it ended up being a bit lessened by the fact that the fight with Patrick and co. was a fucking joke. Or at least it was with my Laura setup. All I had to do was use Radiant Wings and her S-Craft and I was able to oneshot all four of them on her first turn. She's a fucking monster.

Wait, Laura Saber cosplay? Where!? I NEED THIS!

Laura already basically cosplays as a blue version of her in 2.

I didn't see an armored Battle Ballgown.

So Falcom just released its financial report for the year, which also includes its plans for next year. Most of it is what you'd expect, but this bit stood out in particular:

CSIII&IV please?

Edited by kkhohoho on Nov 9th 2018 at 12:12:17 PM

That also sounds about as usual, their reports always mention international expansion. I do appreciate they're a small enough company they do make their overseas sales public.

Just beat Blueblanc and Duvale in CS 2. By all accounts, it should have been harder than hard. Most Enforcer/Ororbourous fights are. And it probably would have been if I were just using a normal setup. Instead I was using Laura and had basically turned her into a Destroyer of Worlds. As a result, the fight was a fucking joke. So much so that I was laughing my ass off.

I mean, I get wanting to give the player free rein to customize their setups. But there should still be a limit. Because otherwise you wind up with characters that could probably kill the Big Bad in their sleep.

And of course, Mc Burn went down like a pussy. He came the closest to giving a real fight, especially when he used his S-Craft. But some Recuria's and Laura Destroyer of Worlds (TM) took him down in five minutes flat.

EDIT: Just about to beat the main game. I know there are still two different epilogues after that, but I also know one of them probally isn't going to make much sense unless you've played the Crossbell duology first. Should I wait on the epilogues until beating Crossbell, or is it fine to just do those first?

Edited by kkhohoho on Nov 10th 2018 at 4:55:20 AM

It's fine, the first one won't make too much sense without the context of those games anyway, so it's not like you'll be spoiled by anything the CS games haven't already said.