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

We may get further info tomorrow since NISA is doing a livestream.

I took the Sky trilogy cast and ran them through a heavily-customized Hunger Games Simulator save.

The results were beautiful. Possibly the best HGS season I've ever had.

Pay special attention to Anelace and Nial, they have good runs.

Edited by Anomalocaris20 on Jun 17th 2019 at 3:51:05 PM

Nial defeating Ragnard is now canon to me.

Defeating Ragnard and Celeste is only the beginning of Nial's true power, my friend.

OH MY GOD HE SHOT KEVIN WITH THE SALT ARROW AND WON. FUCK.

Nial's the Grandmaster CONFIRMED canon.

Weissmann: "YES! THAT'S HOW IT FEELS!"

Also, let's not overlook the fact that Anelace had sex with the Aureole. The simulator later says she's got a sunburnt crotch from nude sunbathing, but we know where those burns really came from.

Highlights of mine.

Matron Theresa's got a gun.

Mueller and Butler Philip duel for the affection of Father Kevin.

Luciola, Walter, Weissmann, Bleublanc, and Anelace form a rock band. Why can't this be canon?

Estelle is here to kick ass and chew bubble gum, and she is all out of bubble gum! Probably canon.

Duke Dunan spends the night with his head stuck in a tree hollow. Also probably canon.

Josette makes a crude drawing of Queen Alicia and Joshua making love.

Mueller and Bleublanc wind up cuffed together and have to work together for the day. Legitimately a great premise

Tita, Estelle, and Anelace work together to make Tita: The Musical! Again, so close to canon!

Leonhardt gains a harem containing Sister Ries, The Lord of Phantasma, Father Kevin, and Weissmann. It becomes the most popular harem anime of the current season. You need that one bad boy for the ratings.

Nial shoots Father Kevin with a salinifying crossbow bolt, reducing him to a pile of salt. Wow

And Nial is the victor!

That was pretty amusing.

It's been a while since I've played a Trails game, but I've got about a month free coming up soon once exams finish, and boy am I looking forward to that.

The day I'm done with assessment I'll be jumping right into Cold Steel 1.

I know I could have been playing it earlier, but half the half of Sky and Crossbell was the level of engrossment in the games. So I think it'll be better this way rather than playing each game over a month+.

...What sort of utter insanity is this and how did I managed to live for so long without it!?

So 2 hours after my last bit of assessment was done I jumped into Cold Steel 1, its a bit annoying my next few days are a tad busy, so I can't fully engross myself, but I've been excited to play this since February when I finished Ao no Kiseki.

On the Prologue, it's kind of cool having the whole cast of nine character's straight from the start.

I imagine this choice was made because its a 4 games series.

The jump to full 3D is pretty nice, but I hope it doesn't affect the quality of anything else. Character's feel a little less expressive in their animations so far. But that might be because its still the first game of four. IIRC I've heard Falcom get better as it goes though.

Also Alisa is 100% a Reinhart and I'm 90% sure she's the canon love interest in the vein of Elie in Crossbell.

Honestly prefer how they did it with Sky, but nothing I can do about it.

The whole hidden skill thing with Rean would bug me, but I suspect that probably applies to half the class.

Laura's a cool girl, I laughed out load at the attempts to "protect" the girls, but I hope it doesn't become a Thing later. Because its kind of stupid and irritating. I doubt it, Trails has been good about stuff like that so far.

A question for others in this thread.

I was planning on following this spoiler free guide to make sure I don't miss Quests or other missables. Is this a fairly decent guide to follow? Or is there a better one?

From that simulator, I laughed out loud at this bit.

"Queen Alicia finds Sieg's secret diary and starts reading it."

@guides Cold Steel's a lot more linear with main quest stuff, so if it has the hidden quests, you should be good.

Also Cold Steel easily has my favorite NPC side stories. It's the benefit of being in a school setting, it's easy to catch up on what the students are doing. Vivi and Mint are comedy gold.

Probably the best NPC's period. The students are basically one large supporting cast.

Thanks

That's nice about the NP Cs, I haven't talked to them a whole lot since I'm only at the start of C1, but the "day" structure makes me think its easier to remember to talk to everyone in this game compared to the last ones.

Edited by 32ndfreeze on Jun 25th 2019 at 11:46:18 PM

Done with Chapter Two of Cold Steel 1.

I'm finding it different to Sky and Crossbell so far.

I'm definitely talking to way more people. Because of how easy it is to do rounds of the Academy and the towns visited, I'm getting about 90-95% of conversations. I've also been resetting so I see all Bonding Scenes. A bit silly that you can't just see them all in Zero/Ao, but at least the same lets you know where to find them.

I seem to have less things to say compared to Zero/Ao, but maybe that's because Trails games do hit certain familiar beats in the opening.

It was cool seeing Bleublanc again, and his presence made me think that the Silver Object might be another one of Ouroboros's giant robots, but going off past patterns its a bit too early in the story for them to be showing up in earnest. It being Osbourne's side makes a lot more sense from a narrative perspective. I wonder if that was the point of Bleublanc showing up when he does.

I also do really like how the parties get shifted up a bit. Hopefully that continues, since I dislike being given too many party members to choose from.

A bunch of new info regarding the future of the Trails series came out.

There are spoilers for the Cold Steel games in the article but highlights include:

• Two new games are in development, a Cold Steel spin-off involving Rixia, Wald, Scarlet, and someone who looks like Toma (I'm guessing it will be closer to Sky Third) and the next chapter in the franchise exploring the Eastern portions of Zemuria. This was said in March too.
• They're looking into porting the Liberl and Crossbell arcs to modern consoles.
• Two new characters were teased. One is a girl with pigtails and the other is a boy with a blue jacket. They were apparently hinted at in Cold Steel 4.
• Noel, Rean, and Elise are confirmed to be in the new games.
• They're reworking the graphics engine.

Edited by LordVatek on Jun 29th 2019 at 1:59:42 PM

Also, apparently the "married" woman on the Lusitania who tried to get Kevin's dick during 3rd's prologue was confirmed to have been Vita Clotilde.

That raises some interesting questions...

Especially since she totally wasn't the only Anguis on that ship. You may not have your eyes on anything, Nielsen, but I've got my eyes on you.

Holy shit, that's hilarious!

Sleeping with the enemy, dear Kevin, for shame!

seriously hope for once that was a sheer coincidence. Just, please, let me have this, a Dominion and an Anguis came this close to screwing on an airship party, and neither knows.

Edited by darkabomination on Jun 29th 2019 at 3:06:45 AM

I wasn’t saying she was there for him - merely wondering if she was there for other reasons.

Moving into Chapter Three of Cold Steel, I can definitely see why a lot of people have said there are Persona influences, in how they have exams and a Social Link equivalent.

I'm really enjoying talking to everyone as time move forward. Vivi's conversations are great, although I wouldn't blame Linde if she one day snaps and stabs her sister.

I also like the couple Harrison and Hanna who are ridiculously in love. And Rosine's story is nice too.

Speaking of, there's that noble father in Chapter Two who talks about worrying about his daughter's friendship in the lacrosse team. That's gotta be a common concern, given how many noble/commoner pairs you can see around the campus either as friends or dating.

It's kind of funny about people already knowing Rean's name, normally its a sign of suspicious, but in these cases it pretty much just signifies someone whose done their research.

I'm also sympathetic towards Alisa about the Sharon situation, it's unfair on Sharon's part in my opinion for pushing for a closer relationship when it hurts Alisa that, though no fault of her own, she's going to put the wishes of her mother above those of Alisa. The fact she's ignoring that those concerns exist reflects poorly on her.

Sharon is also probably a ninja if I know my tropes and Sara's reaction is anything to go by.

Edited by 32ndfreeze on Jun 30th 2019 at 4:12:57 AM

Just imagine every line Vivi spouts in the voice of her English VA Melissa Fahn aka Neptune and be amazed that Linde has yet to stab her.

It's sad there's not more voiced lines for NPC characters, because if there's one VA that's the personification of smug, it's her. Still, it is a nice treat there's a few voiced lines in CS 2. I mean really, the first thing you find her saying is in the book shop where she asks Rean if he likes the color panties she's wearing. That...sums her up quite well.

Oh, I'd heard Neptune's VA a couple of times, but that's great news she voices Vivi.

And that's a wrap for Chapter Three.

No regrets on keeping Jusis in the backline, he had barely any character moments this chapter, not sure why they even had him along.

Lots more on Osbourne's faction. Really, I'm starting to think they could have easily made a game staring his Children.

Still dislike Sharon. Does she have to rub salt in Alisa's wounds at every opportunity? Honestly, it wouldn't bug me so much if it wasn't exactly the sort of issue that'll get swept under the rug when Alisa and her mother reconcile...

Blue haired girl is neat (Googling correct spelling is a dangerous proposition when it comes to a Trails game), she was also super helpful in the boss fights due to her 8K screen nuke.

And with Lechter showing up boy is this a chapter for the few Trails characters I actively dislike.

That said, I did like this chapter quite a bit, not as good as Two, but still enjoyable.

Riding horses is fun, and the areas felt like I was planing Berseria with the mapsize. I'm glad its not too common a design choice though.

EDIT:

Halfway into Chapter Four. This is certainly shaping up to me a long one.

I guess I know what Rean was thinking about doing in the Schoolhouse at the start. I'll admit it was cheesy and edgy. But I still got very excited watching him transform :P

I like his sister, but man would her character work so much better without the incest pandering. I hope they don't get too trope-y about it.

I also love Fie's backstory, in how the hints I've gotten link her to the Jagar group Red Constellation destroyed pre-Crossbell, and were possibly responsible for the mess Cassius had to deal with in Sky FC.

I can't praise enough how great it is I can see the issues you deal with in the Free Days develop over time. Like the issue with Patrick and Alan.

Sometimes I think its a bit annoying the rigidity of the Afternoon > Free Day > Field Study cycle. But the way I get engrossed in the side stories is worth the change. I'm very rarely missing any conversations because I find them so interesting.

EDIT TWO:

The field study in chapter four was certainly a long one. Very enjoyable though, loved the conversations in the capital.

It was a really cool touch that when you confront Bleublanc in his side quest the Ouroboros theme starts to play.

As for NPC's in this area, I loved both the redheaded delinquent in the Ose district, who's Tsun about being a good person and Claris.

I just adore her plotline of deciding she needs a venue to show off her new dress and then spends two days politic-ing her low ranking noble family into an invitation to one of the biggest parties of the year.

Meeting Olivier's siblings was also quite nice. I like both of them and suspect Cedric may visit Thors in a later game given his discussions with Olivier.

The boss of this chapter was really really easy. It actually used an Art every turn which I canceled, so I ended up with the Unscathed reward from that battle.

I also liked the anger Rean's VA portrayed with Elise kidnapped. It's a nice touch how Rean's much less amiable in talking to G compared to other end of chapter confrontations.

Lastly, I didn't want to mention it before because it felt too shallow. But I suspect Tio & Claire are somehow indirectly connected. Mainly because of the hair being the same colour, but also because of Sara mentioning Claire's mind.

I'd check Tio's backstory before DG, but I'm very very wary of googling anything about Trails until I'm up to date, and maybe not even then given 3&4 spoilers.

Edited by 32ndfreeze on Jul 3rd 2019 at 2:53:03 AM

Chapter Five

I feel like the game has hit the point where theory crafting is easier as more of Erebonia is known to the player.

I didn't totally predict Millium joining Class VII, but I did think it was odd Crow was added given Osbourne's foreshadowing.

Also I've suspected Emma is a witch for a while, but it was a surprised to see Misty might be one too! Or a least something similar.

Laura's Dad is pretty cool. I really like that whole sequence with Reen using his dark side in the duel because he could do it safety. I mean, Sara probably would have worked just as well, but Reen probably has some implicit trust due to training under a similar master.

It's nice that he also showed it to the class without another emergency. I didn't consider it before, but in how he talks about it being like a beast and the eye of a hawk thing later I bet its connected to animism.

Speaking of, seeing the door in Sandlot's Castle made me think its pretty cool that the protagonist is part of a family with a special bloodline, but he's adopted, so it doesn't really matter aside from connecting him emotionally to someone with the ability.

I'll admit, I had been assuming The Steel Maiden was the Lance Maiden since I forgot the exact name used in Azure, and they both use Lance's and have an Eisenritter. But according to Celine they're different people. Although she did imply the Lance Maiden is still alive in some form. I wonder exactly how they're connected. Given the other stuff in this chapter I was ready to assume the reason the Steel Maiden was so hilariously OP was because she started at the S rank equivalent 250 years ago and some form of immortality allowed her to reach the SS or SSS tier. But I guess that may be incorrect.

...And Ouroboros was revealed much more matter of fact than last time.

Also they did one of my favorite things again. Giving you a party member in the form of Sara who is out of your league. I love how they adjust the Crafts for these situations. She's got Seal 90% which is far better than anyone else, a great Master Quartz and a buff that is just Laura's skill without the downsides.

Back to the teaser at the start. Not the biggest fan of the fake out. Would have worked a bit better has Millium flat out said having a blank is proper policy rather than guessing.

I can't actually recall if Crow and Millium were in the opening cutscene with the group. Spillover from Ke A maybe?