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

Yeah but the problem is that Olivier's section is on the Sky page and it's a mess of spoilered out text due to that.

Potentially then we could do

Olivier

• General tropes
  • Sky Tropes Folder
  • Crossbell Tropes Folder
  • Cold Steel 1 and 2 Tropes Folder (nothing actually changes for him between 1 and 2)
  • Cold Steel 3 Tropes Folder
  • Cold Steel 4 Tropes Folder

With potentially a picture in each because there is no way we could put his key art for his Cold Steel 1 self or especially 4 self without spoiling people.

The big con with that is mentioning some characters are even in Cold Steel 3 or 4 is a massive spoiler.

With a series as interconnected as this there really is no good option without any possibility of spoilers.

Personally I'd say a series wide page sorted by faction with subfolders for games under each character(like that) is the least bad option in terms of usability with minimal spoilers. Add a note in the page header to caution about the spoiler potential and there's really not much more that can be done.

I will say that a lot of other series already have different folders for characters depending on what game the page is for. They ususally have "for tropes pertaining to this character in "previous/later installment" click "insert link here", and then simply keep the tropes between the different character pages not redundant. Seriously you don't need to post "this character has red hair" or whatever in every single character folder that they appear in, you can keep general tropes like that for their first game's folder.

There's a line in Trails of Cold Steel 1 that's been bugging me ever since I heard it.

Okay, so I've been spoiled and I know that Osborne isn't dead. He's actually the grand architect of a lot of the plot.

So, my question is, what's the deal with him saying "Well played, Armbrust." after being shot? Like, he really seems to be muttering that to himself under his breath, since Crow is miles away along with his troops. So it doesn't appear to be something he's saying just for show.

But if he planned all this out, why would he say that kind of line to himself? It feels like a bit of narrative cheat (sorta like Hans in Frozen smiling warmly at Anna when he's under a boat where literally no one could see him). Doesn't help that I really want villains who aren't Osborne to be competent as well. So it felt like a bit of false hope. XD

Edited by GNinja on Nov 1st 2019 at 8:39:51 AM

There is an explanation for that but I can't say without spoiling how Osborne survives in the first place.

No future spoilers but safety tagging... If you were shot and you suspected someone wanting you dead, you would think that they did it till proven wrong. The whole reason why Millium was assigned there by him was to watch Crow, Millium says so right as the event is going down.

Edited by Memers on Nov 1st 2019 at 1:48:35 AM

That's not what I mean.

What I mean is: If you were orchestrating your own fake death in order to enact some kind of scheme, why would you be impressed that someone managed to outmaneuver you when they really didn't. Osborne's reaction to being shot is to act like he thought Crow had gotten one over on him. My problem is that this doesn't feel like a manipulative performance on his part because his line is only really audible to himself and us. It feels like he expected Crow to try and shoot him, but he's surprised that Crow succeeded.

So I guess my question is: Was Osborne's fake death something he improvised after genuinely being outmaneuvered by Crow? Or was that his plan all along? Because if it's the latter, then his surprise at being shot feels like a cheat.

Edited by GNinja on Nov 1st 2019 at 9:02:12 AM

It's the first one. Sort of. Anything more is a spoiler.

Edited by LordVatek on Nov 1st 2019 at 5:03:37 AM

That would... get into some massive spoilers. It will be explained eventually.

I'll put it this way. If the spoiler is going to annoy me then I'd rather hear it now, rather than play dozens of hours of a game to reach a twist that might harm the fun I've been having up until that point.

If the reveal that Osborne is behind everything makes every villain but him look retroactively incompetent, then I might just take a break from Trails for the time being. Not insulting it or anything, but I'd rather be informed about that kinda stuff so I can brace for it.

Edited by GNinja on Nov 1st 2019 at 9:12:50 AM

Osborne is the main antagonist of the Cold Steel games but he does not retroactively ruin the other villains.

The arc is more or less a giant chess match between himself and Ouroboros and they sort of alternate between having the upper hand.

Osborne is not the sole villain behind everything though if that's your main concern. Not even close.

Edited by LordVatek on Nov 1st 2019 at 5:20:54 AM

I think I'm mainly worried about Cold Steel 2. Because, well, Noble Factions in fiction are almost unanimously treated as being idiots for some reason. Like, why can't a pompous noble be pompous AND highly intelligent?

Oh well that isn't an issue at all. Trust me.

All I’ll say is that I do think that Osborne’s legitimately impressed, and he really didn’t see it coming. That it failed is not Crow’s fault.

Edited by KarkatTheDalek on Nov 1st 2019 at 5:26:39 AM

I would say CS 2 portrays nobles as being massively varied. There may be an idiot starting shit but the nobles are not as unified as you might think.

Well, massive spoilers for CS IV Osborne is connected with an Eldritch Abmination that essentially makes him immortal. He doesn't have a heart, for starters.

Seriously, really huge spoilers there.

Oh, I knew that. It's more the "how much of this has he got planned out?" thing that I'm worried about.

Edited by GNinja on Nov 1st 2019 at 1:05:55 PM

He doesn't have everything planned out exactly the way it happens. There is a lot of Xanatos Speed Chess.

Well seeing how we are talking CS 4 now.... also remember this basically already happened before, the repeat of the War of the Lions which he originally 'won' as Dreichels Reise Arnor. Someone had to die to get the ball moving, attempt 1 it was him... Attempt 2 it was the Emperor. And Ash is flat out told in CS 4 that even shooting him in the head wouldnt ever kill him.

Edited by Memers on Nov 1st 2019 at 6:40:42 AM

Falcom's financial report is in.

There's a pretty major CSIV spoiler in there so I wouldn't recommend clicking on it but the gist of it is that they saw a record profit financial year with increases pretty much across the board.

Notably, they saw a nearly 9% increase in the West compared to last fiscal year.

For 2020, they're focused on more worldwide IP expansion. Including promoting older titles *cough*Crossbell*cough*.

Edited by LordVatek on Nov 6th 2019 at 2:19:51 PM

The Ys 8 and CS 3 promotion, say what you will, but it's really done a lot to raise awareness. When it comes down to it, regardless of localization, having an advertising presence is what Falcom needed in the west, and NIS delivered.

I'm finally playing Trails in the Sky. ^^

Annoyingly, the game crashed and I lost an hour of progress. Nothing too bad though.

It should be auto-saving.

I thought it was, but I somehow still lost about an hour.