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[Bebpo]

The Kiseki / Trails Thread

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Games in the series:
===============

The Main Games

Trails of the Sky/Sora no Kiseki First Chapter, Second Chapter, and The 3rd - The original trilogy set in Liberl, which was actually the 6th or 7th game in the The Legend of Heroes series. But is unrelated to any of the prior Legend of Heroes games and has spun off into its own "Kiseki" franchise. FC has been released in the west with SC coming soon (including Steam versions of FC & SC!). These were initially released on PC then ported with improvements to PSP and then later ported to PS3 in PSP HD editions. FC & SC are available in English with The 3rd announced and coming.

Zero no Kiseki, Ao no Kiseki - The second story arc set in Crossbell. Originally released on the PSP, these have been ported to Vita with voice acting. This series is Japan-only for now.

Trails of Cold Steel/Sen no Kiseki, I, II and III - The third story arc set in the Erebonia Empire. Cold Steel 1 is out in English, with Cold Steel 2 out in English fall 2016. Cold Steel 3 is currently announced for TBD in Japan.

These all take place within the same world and same overarching storyline. To me personally, it reminds me of Suikoden and how those games were handled with their own individual storyline while making advances in the overall world storyline. Hopefully, unlike Suikoden where the creator left everyone hanging and the story unfinished, the Kiseki series will finish its overall plotline eventually.

Other:

Nayuta no Kiseki - This was a spinoff action rpg released for the PSP that has no story connection to the main Kiseki series and is more like a "final fantasy" entry where it shares similarities in style and enemy types but is a completely isolated adventure.

Ys vs Sora no Kiseki - A fanservice fighting game released on PSP that features short (non-canon) stories of the characters from Sora no Kiseki and Ys interacting with each other.


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Ok, now RULES. SPOILER TAG EVERYTHING STORY RELATED AND PUT THE NAME OF THE GAME YOU ARE DISCUSSING IN THE TOP OF THE POST.

This series is extremely story based (and pretty long with six 40-60 hour rpgs!) and people are at different points in the story. DO NOT SPOIL THINGS.

 

[Bebpo]

Ok, so I've never made a community thread, so I dunno what to put in the OP. But I want a place to talk about any of the Kiseki games at any time instead of just people like me posting about older Kiseki games in the latest entry's OT because there's no community OT!

If you've got suggestions or want me to copy & paste stuff into the OP, go for it! I've only played FC & SC so I don't know anywhere near as much as all you other Kiseki players about the series and I'm not going to go googling and spoil stuff

 

[kiriin]

Holy shit been waiting for a LoH community ot forever. Shouldnt it be in gaming side for the first month before moving? Im pretty sure you want to pm a mod to move it over gaming side.

 

[Bebpo]

Alright, so I finally made this thread because I just finished SC the other night and I want to talk about it!

So, SPOILERS FOR THE SECOND CHAPTER OF TRAILS IN THE SKY. DO NOT READ IF YOU'VE ONLY PLAYED FC.

SC ENDING:

Spoiler

Now that was a weird freaking game that was totally a mess of pacing, boring at times, yet the end goes overdrive into making me really like it overall.

It's so weird. My final time, having done like 95% of the quests (only missed hidden ones), was 65 hours long. I think I got to chapter 7 (the 4 towers) around 40 hours in and the final chapter around 50 hours in. So it was like 40 hours of re-visiting old areas, monster/agent of the week, almost no plot, kind of fun, kind of boring, then WOAH SCI-FI TOWERS but then it's like "wait, but all the entries are a bit too encrypted to read" and then you fight an agent and you're like "awesome, story advancement" but then they just leave and nothing was advanced and you repeat that 4x. Then you walk around THE ENTIRE FREAKING MAP ON FOOT which I actually thought was cool in the fact that instead of being an epic rpg where you're saving the world, you're a bunch of part-time jobbers whose main job during the end of world crisis is to walk around the entire country delivering batteries for phones. That's...kind of awesome. But yeah, you do that while fighting a bunch of quest boss fights and a couple of sidequests to wrap up some world story stuff.

Then you get to the final chapter on the floating city and it's like 10-15 hours of A SINGLE DUNGEON mixed with story...but it's an interesting location even if ripped so hard off Solaris in Xenogears hehehe, and then you get to final boss rush and the the final boss.

When you step back and see how they structured the game, with 1 chapter per city again, agent of the week. Solve the crime, find the agent, introduction and then they run after doing gospel test, then attack enemy base -> escape enemy reunite with Joshua, then 4 repeat towers and then 3-4 repeat undergrounds -> 4-5 repeat tower floors each ending with agent fight -> final boss...it's like face-palm structure. It's just so terribly generic and unoriginal in how it's designed. Which is the main crime of the game.

Because despite all that, by the ending it's actually a really satisfying rpg. The cast was great throughout FC and SC and yeah, everything just came together so well in the end with the pirate crew, Olivier's plot, the agents and their connections, KEVIN. The ending bit after the final boss with Wiessman and Kevin and the Joker guy was deliciously entertaining setup for the future games. Same with the finish for most of the agents with Phantom Thief guy running off to be seen again, Ren flying away confused, Walter's smoke 'em if you got 'em iconic zatoichi's collapse, fan girl's sisterly moments and fall; then hugs and dragons and it's all just so damn satisfying. Really makes me excited about the series.

That being said, the only thing that pissed me off about the ending was Lowe dying. The writing in the series is generally good so the second Lowe told Joshua that he was done with the organization and Joshua runs up and hugs I was just waiting for Weissman to show up and kill Lowe because the cliche in every Japanese game is whenever a enemy boss turns good they have to DIE SACRIFICING THEMSELVES FOR EVERYONE (why? Because if they live it raises questions of do they go to jail or how do they live with themselves afterwards). I hate this cliche and I really liked Lowe and it was nice seeing Joshua's big brother recognize and respect Joshua and go back to him. I really wish they hadn't pulled the dumb cliche and had Lowe hang around as big brother family with Joshua, would've made the ending even happier.

Btw, that Lowe fight was complete bullshit and took me a few retries until he didn't destroy my party early on with S-Breaks (without his S-breaks, he's fine. But his S-breaks are waaaay too powerful and the fact it's a tough fight and he can launch one at any time makes it too unpredictable).

Anyhow, loved the battle system through and through. Characters were great. Storyline was solid even if very generic. But the overall world storyline has definitely got me interested, especially because I love the agent characters.

I think one of my main issues with the game though, despite the terrible pacing, is that it felt like everyone introduced in SC was underdeveloped. By the end of SC, I really felt like the FC cast had tons of development and the game was done as a standalone arc, but the Agents and Kevin all felt very underdeveloped. Sure they had their stories, but they were all one note and it was like "sub-story introduction on first meeting with connection to party member -> further information on tower fight -> and the final info and finish at final tower". The fact the structure of all the agent's sub-stories was like that made it kind of lacking for them. Half the fun in having an evil organization with all these cool agents is seeing them interact with each other and show up at random times unexpected. The unexpectedness is what makes them exciting, when everything is so rote it's just, yeah...

Also SC had some random plot stuff to make it work as a typical rpg that kind of took me out of it. Like for the kagayaku kan artifact, so it's this infinite energy somewhat self-aware power source that attacks anything trying to stop it and is so invincible that 1200 years ago they had to banish it to another dimension....yet your party punches it a bunch when it gets absorbed into Weissman and it just goes poof? That seemed really, really freaking odd.

Anyhow, no spoilers or anything but I just want to say the most interesting part of that whole final fight was when Lowe breaks the shield barrier and Weissman or Lowe remarks that the weapons the leader gave each of them are not of this world/dimension and thus aren't controlled by the physical laws of this world, making the player wonder where did he/she get these magical weapons from (also what a waste Joshua leaves it at his sisters grave site, so there's this ultimate magical sword just sitting there for anyone to take... I thought Joshua would inherit it and it'd play into the later story that he has this crazy sword to use in interesting situations.


But yeah, good game somehow haha. I have so many problems with it, but overall I'm really positive on the FC/SC adventure and can't wait to jump into The 3rd and then into Zero no Kiseki.


So MY questions for The 3rd (since I'll probably take a few months before I play it so I'm not burned out, 65 hours is a lot!):

1) Are any of the characters introduced in SC (the agents & Kevin) fleshed out more with The Third? (you don't have to say which, just yes/no it fleshes out SC's characters or not) I like the characters and their stories in SC, but I really want them to have a little more to them.

2) About how long is The 3rd?

3) About how hard is The 3rd? Because that Lowe battle was seriously fucking hard >_<

4) Is Zero no Kiseki better paced than FC/SC?

5) So I'm planning on playing Zero no Kiseki Evolution since I like voice acting and I think it'd add to the experience. I hear the ost isn't as good, but honestly I didn't think the music in FC/SC was anything special so if that's the only negative I'm going with the Vita version. Any other problems with Evolution compared to the original?

6) Does Sen no Kiseki have voice acting? I have no idea, but wondering if it'll be weird going from voice acted Zero/Ao to no voice again with Sen if it doesn't.

Ok, that's a lot of text. Sorry for any typos. Don't feel like editing it right now z_z

 

[PhantomOfTheKnight]

Now seems to be a good time to restart my sidequest run of FC.

 

[RyougaSaotome]

I HAVE LOST THE BATTLE. That's what I get for sitting on my ass though, haha. Sorry Aeana ;_;

I actually have a super cool community banner if you wanna use it. Floofy made it for me back when Sen hit storeshelves.

 

[Mieu]

so far, how many games of this series has been localized? I can't seem to find them on the PSN Store.


@RyougaSaotome
Ohh... the mighty Tower Persona Mara!!

 

[Bebpo]

so far, how many games of this series has been localized? I can't seem to find them on the PSN Store.

Just Trails in the Sky First Chapter. Second Chapter is coming this year I think on PSP and Steam.

I HAVE LOST THE BATTLE. That's what I get for sitting on my ass though, haha. Sorry Aeana ;_;

I actually have a super cool community banner if you wanna use it. Floofy made it for me back when Sen hit storeshelves.

Sure! Will take it. And if you wanna add anything into the OT just let me know and I can copy & paste it in

 

[Parakeetman]

I HAVE LOST THE BATTLE. That's what I get for sitting on my ass though, haha. Sorry Aeana ;_;

I actually have a super cool community banner if you wanna use it. Floofy made it for me back when Sen hit storeshelves.

I was just about to say Im surprised that its not you doing the thread lol

 

[RyougaSaotome]

I was just about to say Im surprised that its not you doing the thread lol

Maybe it was fated.

*sacked*

I gotta dig around to find the image. I'll PM it to you when I get the chance.

 

[kiriin]

4) Is Zero no Kiseki better paced than FC/SC?

5) So I'm planning on playing Zero no Kiseki Evolution since I like voice acting and I think it'd add to the experience. I hear the ost isn't as good, but honestly I didn't think the music in FC/SC was anything special so if that's the only negative I'm going with the Vita version. Any other problems with Evolution compared to the original?

6) Does Sen no Kiseki have voice acting? I have no idea, but wondering if it'll be weird going from voice acted Zero/Ao to no voice again with Sen if it doesn't.

Ok, that's a lot of text. Sorry for any typos. Don't feel like editing it right now z_z

Don't think I need to spoiler tag this.

4. I haven't finish Zero yet but the pacing hasn't really change atleast not with the prologue. Personally I dont think the pacing in most of the Kiseki games are that bad.

5. What? Said who? IMO Zero/Ao has a terrific ost much better Sora.

6. Yes almost as much as Evolution. There are some text dialogue within the story scenes though.

Doesnt really answer all your questions but Im sure other gaf nembers can comment on the matter in much more detail than me. ;p

 

[Bebpo]

5. What? Said who? IMO Zero/Ao has a terrific ost much better Sora.

That's good to hear. Yeah I was talking more that I remember reading that Zero no Kiseki Evolution has a re-arranged ost from the original Zero no Kiseki PSP and most of the kiseki fans preferred the PSP versions of the tracks.

I also remember there being game crashing bugs, but I'm pretty those were all patched?

 

[killatopak]

Fuck yes. I just started FC myself.

 

[Parakeetman]

I still need to finish Sen D:

 

[Mauricio_Magus]

This thread is just going to make me jealous of everyone that knows japanese.

I'm hyped as hell for SC, I didn't do many of the side stuff my first time playing FC so when it gets released on Steam I'm planning on 100% it.

 

[Hours Left]

Trails is filling the Suikoden shaped hole in my heart currently. I love it so. One day they shall work together.

Trails SC is my most anticipated game of 2014, true fact.

 

[Hasemo]

Yay, Trails community thread.
I've cleared SC 2 weeks ago and have been playing 3rd since. Planning to pace my playthroughs so that I'll be done with Zero Evo for the Ao Evo release.

 

[Parakeetman]

Yay, Trails community thread.
I've cleared SC 2 weeks ago and have been playing 3rd since. Planning to pace my playthroughs so that I'll be done with Zero Evo for the Ao Evo release.

I still want Zero Evo but what held me off was all the talk from the J gaming community of the bugs and other what nots which were not present in the PSP version. Granted they also said patches made it better, still concerns are to be had.
D:

Its not like its that big of a loss to me anyways, as still have the original PSP versions, but wanted to play it again on the Vita.

 

[Hours Left]

I still want Zero Evo but what held me off was all the talk from the J gaming community of the bugs and other what nots which were not present in the PSP version. Granted they also said patches made it better, still concerns are to be had.
D:

Its not like its that big of a loss to me anyways, as still have the original PSP versions, but wanted to play it again on the Vita.

I'm pretty sure I heard that pretty much all issues have been solved post-patch.

 

[kiriin]

That's good to hear. Yeah I was talking more that I remember reading that Zero no Kiseki Evolution has a re-arranged ost from the original Zero no Kiseki PSP and most of the kiseki fans preferred the PSP versions of the tracks.

I also remember there being game crashing bugs, but I'm pretty those were all patched?

Ops misread your question then yeah it really didnt need a rearrangment imo. It been patched -haven't ran into any problems.

 

[Hasemo]

I still want Zero Evo but what held me off was all the talk from the J gaming community of the bugs and other what nots which were not present in the PSP version. Granted they also said patches made it better, still concerns are to be had.
D:

Its not like its that big of a loss to me anyways, as still have the original PSP versions, but wanted to play it again on the Vita.

The bugs are supposed to be fixed and I got the game for 3k during Falcom's PSN Zero Avo sale, so I can't really complain.

 

[Parakeetman]

I'm pretty sure I heard that pretty much all issues have been solved post-patch.

Yeah thats what I read also. Still held off regardless of that. I plan on getting the physical copy just to have the cases lol. That and need to save space on my 2 64GB cards for PSP titles~

Im curious as to how much better Sen got since I last played it. Really hope that there is another patch cutting down the loading times even more, since even post patch I still thought it was too long considering how much the game needs to load stuff.

 

[Ratrat]

Awesome thread! I just finished SC last month and pretty much agree with you. The amount of backtracking and repetition was somewhat infuriating. All the last bosses were pushovers though.

Got 3rd from ps+ but I'm gonna wait a few months before playing.

 

[encephalon]

Zero Evo is actually kind of weird. When I first tried the demo I was wowed by the VA. But then I bought it and my impression of the VA is that the dialogue sounds much more natural in my head, lol. Not necessarily "bad" VA, but it's trying to hard to be something ... unnatural. If that makes sense.

The font is also strangely out of place, like it was ripped directly from a PS1 game (but more than likely it's the Ao font, exactly).

There's also a LOT of VA and it's almost unbelievable but then there are these weird moments in the very midst of dialogue where a line isn't uttered and the chain of voice after voice is briefly interrupted for seemingly no reason. It's a little jarring.

Furthermore, although the clarity may initially strike you as a major improvement, it's clearly unfinished. The game is still full of blurry pixelated messes.

I HAVE LOST THE BATTLE. That's what I get for sitting on my ass though, haha. Sorry Aeana ;_;

I actually have a super cool community banner if you wanna use it. Floofy made it for me back when Sen hit storeshelves.

I was just thinking about messaging you about this but figured you'd still wait until the whole FC steam thing got sorted out. But oh well, I don't want to wait either!

 

[kiriin]

Zero Evo is actually kind of weird. When I first tried the demo I was wowed by the VA. But then I bought it and my impression of the VA is that the dialogue sounds much more natural in my head, lol. Not necessarily "bad" VA, but it's trying to hard to be something ... unnatural. If that makes sense.

The font is also strangely out of place, like it was ripped directly from a PS1 game (but more than likely it's the Ao font, exactly).

There's also a LOT of VA and it's almost unbelievable but then there are these weird moments in the very midst of dialogue where a line isn't uttered and the chain of voice after voice is briefly interrupted for seemingly no reason. It's a little jarring.

This is exactly how I felt after hearing

Spoiler

Joshua and Estelle speak in Zero

. It weird when your used to three games worth of text dialogue.

 

[Hours Left]

Sorry to nitpick, but shouldn't the OT title say Trails in the Sky? (Not of the Sky?)

 

[Bebpo]

Furthermore, although the clarity may initially strike you as a major improvement, it's clearly unfinished. The game is still full of blurry pixelated messes.

Are you saying the graphics look better in Zero PSP?

I actually own Zero on PSP, but was planning on double dipping and playing it on Vita instead. I remember it looking pretty nice and colorful on PSP when I played about an hour when it first came out to try it out.

I don't think the voices would weird me out because I played FC & SC on the PSP versions (well SC on the PS3) and they have battle voices so I know what the characters are supposed to sound like.

 

[Bebpo]

This is exactly how I felt

Spoiler

after hearing Joshua and Estelle speak in Zero. It weird when your used to three games worth of text dialogue.

Spoiler

Probably should spoil tag that they appear in Zero. I didn't know that!

 

[Bladenic]

Can't wait for Second Chapter. If I have time, I wouldn't mind replaying FC on Steam, as my old PSP save wasn't 100% as I missed a side quest or two. Great game.

 

[kiriin]

Sorry to nitpick, but shouldn't the OT title say Trails in the Sky? (Not of the Sky?)

Yes but the rough translation for Zero/Ao is Trails of Zero/Azure (Should have been Trails in the Void). Though honestly theyre not exactly the best named titles, haha.

 

[Alric]

Definitely looking forward to the second chapter, great OT that will soon have 400% more spoiler tags.

 

[Parakeetman]

Definitely looking forward to the second chapter, great OT that will soon have 400% more spoiler tags.

The posts in the OT is going to look like a declassified intel doc lol

 

[Kysen]

I was going to buy Ao on vita after completing Zero but after trying Sen I can't go back to the old crafts/sepith systems. Finished sen yesterday at around 90hrs using a guide. Way better than Zero, one thing that annoys me though is the amount of missable content in these games. Can't wait for the sequel this year.

 

[RyougaSaotome]

I will personally eat the first person who decides to call Sen no Kiseki by Siliconera's awful translation.

FLASSSSSSSHHHHHH

 

[encephalon]

For those who have played ***Sen*** and as far as the above reference to

Spoiler

Xenogears

/90s Square PS1 game goes, this screen had me wondering if it was an allusion.

Are you saying the graphics look better in Zero PSP?

I actually own Zero on PSP, but was planning on double dipping and playing it on Vita instead. I remember it looking pretty nice and colorful on PSP when I played about an hour when it first came out to try it out.

I don't think the voices would weird me out because I played FC & SC on the PSP versions (well SC on the PS3) and they have battle voices so I know what the characters are supposed to sound like.

More like ... they look better, but not uniformly better. I've only played through some of the prologue though, so I can't really say how true that is for most of the game. You might just want to play the game on PSP again, idk. Personally I was a little excited for this ver. because I thought it might be easier for me to read words that I don't know, but it doesn't appear to bet he case.

Hopefully Ao Evo is better.

 

[Hours Left]

Yes but the rough translation for Zero/Ao is Trails of Zero/Azure (Should have been Trails in the Void). Though honestly theyre not exactly the best named titles, haha.

I just think it might be a bit confusing for newbies. Trails in the Sky is the only "official" English title we have right now.

 

[Bebpo]

I just think it might be a bit confusing for newbies. Trails in the Sky is the only "official" English title we have right now.

Yeah, I'm fine with a mod changing the topic title from "of the sky" to "in the sky", that was just a typo.

 

[Hours Left]

So, who's making the OT for the Steam release of FC?

This release is really our big chance to show off the series to a lot more people, so I'm hoping we can get some quality GAF hype behind it.

 

[RyougaSaotome]

So, who's making the OT for the Steam release of FC?

This release is really our big chance to show off the series to a lot more people, so I'm hoping we can get some quality GAF hype behind it.

Good question. Part of me suspects Volc might be good for it to be honest. Broseph makes killer OTs.

 

[expel]

Need to get my ass to start playing Zero evo one of these days....

 

[Hours Left]

Good question. Part of me suspects Volc might be good for it to be honest. Broseph makes killer OTs.

I just hope it gets the royal treatment.

 

[clay_ghost]

I started Ao no Kiseki but only finished the 1st chapter (after the beginning chapter) I think. Good time to go back to it I guess

 

[encephalon]

I just hope it gets the royal treatment.

I hope it gets enough attention throughout the internet if not for being a JRPG on PC/Steam alone. It would be great if the series was successful enough to make Zero possible.

 

[Nightengale]

I hope it gets enough attention throughout the internet if not for being a JRPG on PC/Steam alone. It would be great if the series was successful enough to makeZero to Ao possible.

Fixed.

 

[encephalon]

"Trails of the Void" sounds cool and I'd support Trails of the Void FC and SC for the localization. It no longer has the double meaning of "ghost," anyways.

Fixed.

Sorry, I did mean both. Unless I'm mistaken, a deal between Falcom and XSEED for the localization of Zero would probably include Ao.

 

[Eusis]

I will personally eat the first person who decides to call Sen no Kiseki by Siliconera's awful translation.

FLASSSSSSSHHHHHH

Man, I hate those presumptuous translations, should only do that if the title's too long winded and regardless the actual Japanese name should be used at least in addition. Though I guess at least something like Nayuta no Kiseki would be Trails of Nayuta.

 

[encephalon]

"Over My Dead Body" is the worst one.

 

[Nightengale]

Damn it, Falcom. You're really spoiling me with Sen.

My PS3 had died for a while, so I've played like...3 hours into Chapter 1 at my friend's place, and I'm really, really enjoying how expansive that Falcom has brought the Kiseki experience by... its full-transition to a 3D game.

Heck, so much so that I'm practically going to stop playing. As someone who only played the prologue of Zero, Sen is going to spoil me badly if I continue with Sen anymore than I do.

... What's with that

Spoiler

Persona-like

music for the school though? Falcom plz.

 

[Itsuki]

Finally a Kiseki OT!.
I'm planing to replay Zero Evo on May before Ao Evo comes out. Also, I hope that when Ao Evo comes out, it doesn't have the terrible bugs that Zero Evo had. How much did they took to fix the bugs?. Almost 1 month, right?.

 

[kiriin]

^ Yup I havent ran into any bugs so far. Wonder if theyre planning to release Ao Evo on the 10th anniversary of Sora no Kiseki.