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

...Doesn't that mean I should play those games first?

IMHO, finish Cold Steel 2. There will be several Crossbell spoilers, but you've honestly seen a ton of them already (just not as explicit). Just don't read the newspaper article (that you can find by turning around as soon as you gain control) to minimize issues.

Just treat it like a teaser.

Edited by burnpsy on Nov 10th 2018 at 7:31:05 AM

Hm. I think what I'll do is finish the main game and then start playing the Epilouges. If I get really confused, I can always just stop and start playing Zero.

Things start out confusing but once you reach the end of the Divessment (sp) what it is will make sense. But... just do not read the newspaper.

Edited by Memers on Nov 10th 2018 at 6:37:24 AM

Got to the first phase of Vermillion Apocalypse. Lost to the first phase of Vermillion Apocalypse. Maybe it's because my brain's worn out from playing too much Trails today, but that first phase is BS.

I mean, for one thing, it forces you to use characters that you may not have been using since the start of the dungeon and probably haven't bothered to level up. On top of that, it throws out both physial and magical barriers on a semi-regular basis, and it also semi-regularly blasts you with an uper-powerful screen filling attack once you've knocked down half its health. It doesn't help that Elliot (my healer for this fight,) goes down in one hit from that, mostly because I didn't know I was supposed to be leveling him up. Maybe I'll be a bit more forgiving after I've had some rest, but right now I'm just pissed.

Edited by kkhohoho on Nov 10th 2018 at 8:51:36 AM

You weren't cycling your party? No wonder you found the dungeon easy.

Again, I didn't know I was supposed to. I certainly didn't have to for the first two Trails games, and the Third's final dungeon forced me to use near everyone from the start. The game also tended to level up my reserve party members when I did have to use them, so I thought it might do the same thing again. Obviously it didn't.

Edited by kkhohoho on Nov 10th 2018 at 11:09:17 AM

Beat the main game. Got Laura into the first phase by making her my last reservist and cheesed it. Lost the second phase on my first try, but got through it with a Retry-Reset. Third phase was a cakewalk. (Relativly speaking.)

Just started playing the Disinvertisment (or whatever it's called,) and right off the bat, Crossbell's got a different feel from either the Sky or Cold Steel games. It's much more modern, right down to the way people speak. They even have laptops! That said, I've got to wonder why this exsists, or at least as it is. Up until this point you could just play CSI&II and mostly understand what's going on without having played the other games, but suddenly you're saddled with the protagonist of a duology you may not have even played. Nevermind a number of characters and concepts you don't have a lot of real context for. If they still had you controlling Rean and showed Crossbell from his perspective, it might have worked better for these specific games and introduce it to new players better. But that's not what they did.

I've also got to wonder how XSEED or whoever brings over CSIII&IV is going to handle the Crossbell duology being No Export for You. Sure, we've got those fan translations, and I plan on playing them as soon as I'm done with CSII. But most people over here playing CSIII&IV probally won't have played the Crossbell dulogy unless they've gotten a proper localization, and I still don't see that happening anytime soon. So unless they work something out, you're probally going to wind up with a bunch of players wondering who half of these people are and what the hell is going on. Maybe they could include a summary of the Crossbell games, but it still wouldn't be the same thing.

EDIT: Beat the Disvertisment. That just leaves the Epilogue. Still wondering why Rean is helping with the Crossbell occupation. I mean, I do actually get why, but the game still hasn't really gone into it on its own. Hopefully they delve into it more in the epilogue.

Edited by kkhohoho on Nov 11th 2018 at 3:29:19 AM

Azure Spoilers: Holy crap Shirley is terrifying.

Beat Cold Steel II. Overall very good, but not without its' problems. The biggest one was that it left too many loose ends. By the end of the game, unless I'm missing something, we still don't know how the Knights or the Loa's came to be or why the Gnomes built everything, nor do we know what exactly the Infernal Castle is or what Vita was trying to accomplish. By contrast, we knew exactly what the Airole was by the end of Trails in the Sky SC, and we knew what Weissman was trying to do. Not so here. I get that they're saving most of this for CSIII&IV, and that playing the Crossbell duology (which is next my on list,) might help make things a bit clearer too. But strictly within the context of these two games, it doesn't feel very sastifying.

Okay spoilery question about Azure: Noel is apparently leaving the party at the end of the day in Chapter 4. How long is this for?

Edited by LordVatek on Nov 14th 2018 at 12:04:26 PM

Don't expect to have her back until just before you start the penultimate dungeon.

Edited by burnpsy on Nov 14th 2018 at 1:11:16 PM

Right, better take off her quartz. Thanks.

Edited by LordVatek on Nov 14th 2018 at 1:58:15 PM

A bit of self-correction: She comes back a bit before that. But still a very long time.

Started playing Trails of Zero. Not much to say about it so far, but that's kind of par for the course. That said, even though the story's just starting, it's already got a different feel than either of the other sub series. Liberl had a very mid-late 19th century quasi-steampunk Europe feel to it and was overall a rather laid back and, well, liberal nation. Erebonia had a similar aesthetic (maybe late 18th century early 19th as opposed to mid-late 19th,) but was much more imposing and imperial.

Crossbell is a completely different kettle of fish. By contrast, Crossbell is basically mid 20th century New York, which is a hell of a jump, and the technology is even more advanced to match up. There's even a fucking internet! At this point I'm not really sure how they end up justifying this, but I do think there are ways they can make this work. I just haven't seen the game confirm any of them yet. It still makes for a very cool and unique aesthetic, especially since there are still plenty of fantasy elements around. Which means now you can have a 20th century Not!New York cop conjure up a stalagmite and skewer a gang of mobsters all while checking Facebook. Which makes any discrepancies with the wider setting worth it.

They had the internet in Cold Steel, it was more limited in scope than Crossbell as only George and Towa were using it in CS 1 in the school but you catch more and more people using it in CS 2.

I just found out GOG has sales for SC and the 3rd right now!

I know what I'm buying as soon as I can confirm if transferring save data from Steam FC > GOG SC is possible!

...Huh, you're right. Still though, it wasn't as big of a deal as in Crossbell.

Edited by kkhohoho on Nov 16th 2018 at 7:04:00 AM

Just met Ian Grimwood. If I hadn't gone and spoiled myself, I wouldn't have a clue he's supposed to be the bad guy.

Edited by kkhohoho on Nov 17th 2018 at 8:04:21 AM

Game drops no hints at that until late Azure, so yeah...

In other news, Estelle and Joshua! Yayz!

I just purchased Trails in the Sky first chapter on Steam. Already completed the prologue.

I've watched one of my Steam friends play bits and pieces of FC and SC, and now I'll be starting it myself. Wish me luck.

Good luck!

And auuuuugh, I missed the Trails in the Sky 3rd sale. Guess I can't take a week off for it this week.

It's still on sale on the Humble Store for 25% off^note SC is 35% off and FC is 50% off.

I got SC there since I had referral credit from a while back.

And I like the achievements for replay value.

Edited by 32ndfreeze on Nov 18th 2018 at 6:15:57 AM

Azure Spoilers: So like, is Arianrhod actually beatable? Apparently I only need to break her mask to win but I can't even get that far and there's a DP bonus for totally beating her.

EDIT: Okay I was able to break her mask and then tried to fight whatever the hell that was. Emphasis on tried.

Edited by LordVatek on Nov 18th 2018 at 3:03:31 PM