I'd assume $40, but $30 is my personal preference ('m buying it no matter what).
Maybe have a discount for people who own the Sky games or something.
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The Kiseki / Trails (of the Sky/Zero/Ao/Sen/Etc) Community Thread: SPOILERTAGS OR DIE
- Thread starter Bebpo
- Start date
I'd assume $40, but $30 is my personal preference ('m buying it no matter what).
Maybe have a discount for people who own the Sky games or something.
I'm just joking around
Chapter 6 spoilers
He manages to escape by abandoning his friends. It was the honestly the correct thing to do, but still...
Don't abandon your friends!
-Every shonen asshole protagonist
Don't abandon your friends!
-Every shonen asshole protagonist
Oh yeah.
Trails is really good about balancing ideology and pragmatism in how the characters operate.
chaosblade
Unconfirmed Member
The games released on PS3/Vita at $40, no way XSEED is going to release a late port at the same base price as original.
They will probably be $30.
Umm, with better performance, resolution options and more voice work on top of that? I don't know that they'll charge $40, but it won't exactly be unjustified if they do.
Scrooge McDuck
Member
To tell the truth, during FC and SC I kinda assumed that Kurt is just some kind of a middling B-rank bracer at best because [FC+SC]
.
I agree with a lot of this. If I might add, the meticulous character build-up also helps in making otherwise cheesy scenes feel really, really sincere. Like, [FC Ending]
I If I have to lay some criticism, sometimes I feel that everyone around Estelle and Joshua are a bit too understanding and accommodating of their plights, but I suppose optimism is a core tenet of this series.
his first notable involvement in the story is his team losing to Zane's team, then he's revealed to have botched a delivery mission to Cassius, getting played around by Weissman and finally goes through a disastrous infiltration mission
I agree with a lot of this. If I might add, the meticulous character build-up also helps in making otherwise cheesy scenes feel really, really sincere. Like, [FC Ending]
Joshua's entire speech, capped with "you're like the sun" is the corniest thing but that situation, their past interactions and the fact that that Joshua says it makes it sublime.
I If I have to lay some criticism, sometimes I feel that everyone around Estelle and Joshua are a bit too understanding and accommodating of their plights, but I suppose optimism is a core tenet of this series.
ResourcefulStar
Neo Member
Is this something that's changed in the later games?
The Evo games introduce a field attack mechanic similar to what the Cold Steel games have for easy pre-emptive battles. Certainly does save you the hassle of grinding Sepith near the end of the game.
ResourcefulStar
Neo Member
I haven't played ToCS yet, although this should change this month. Do field attacks give you an advantage even if you attack from the front, as long as the enemy doesn't touch you first?
Definitely. I think XSEEDs flavorful writing helps to keep the pleasantries from ever becoming too much of a sugar rush.
I would also add that more than just optimism, I think a lot of Trails general worldview is rooted in pacificism, specifically. I think that really comes out whenever
Estelle and co. get to speak with Queen Alicia and especially when Olivier is explaining his motivation to Zechs after his conversation with Kloe.
It's a tiered system. There's advantage, double advantage, and triple advantage. I don't recall the condition for each.
Advantage is walking behind on an enemy. Double Advantage is walking behind on an enemy after an attack. Triple Advantage is walking behind on an enemy after an attack that stuns the enemy.
From what I remember, there are five different scenarios:
Enemy advantage, where the enemy back attacks you.
A regular fight, where you just do whatever.
Single advantage, where you run into the enemy from the back.
Double advantage, where you attack the enemy from the back and stun them
And triple advantage, where you attack the enemy from the back with their weapon weakness... or you attack them a bunch of times from any direction, with some characters for some reason. I honestly don't know why this worked for me. Wonky hitboxes? The characters are just that OP? Regardless, stars need to be spinning above the enemy.
Young Magus
Junior Member
There's
8 chapters and a prologue
EDIT: I have the worst posting luck. What they ^ said.
ResourcefulStar
Neo Member
Thank you for the replies! Different physical damage types sound like an Ys Seven influence.
How is quartz balance this time around? I thought it was questionable in the Trails in the Sky trilogy. The effects of Hit 5 and Evade 5, for example, were dwarfed by what you could find on armor and accessories. Impede was probably the worst offender: Impede 5 only offered a 30% activation rate (not even a coin flip for an effect that only applies in specific circumstances to begin with), yet half the cast had crafts that were guaranteed to trigger Impede.
Coming from TiTs to Cold Steel, you might be thrown off a bit.
See, quartz this time round already have effects of their own e.g Evade+5%, spell quartz (e.g equipping this quartz allows you to cast group heal+a couple of others, but make enemies more aware of you), so you no longer have to match say, different elements in a row together to gain access to those spells that you can use against enemies
To add on to that, there's also what we call the Master Quartz system this time round. You can gain some basic ones on your characters as well as unlock others through the course of the story.
You can choose which ones to equip for their passive abilities e.g certain Master Quartz already come with some default spells that you can gain access to when you have them equipped. By taking part in battles, you can earn exp which goes into the Master Quartz and at certain levels, new abilities will be unlocked....and at max level, the bonuses can get a bit crazy.
E.g maybe you can inflict certain statuses on the enemies with normal attacks at a certain percentage, but leveling the Master Quartz up to max can make it happen 90% of the time along with various other QoL improvements like CP recover outside of battle by walking, gain CP via killing enemies etc.
Dragon1893
Member
I really enjoy that sort of minigame of combining quartz for different spells, trying to fit the right amount of each sepith into a character's orbment to get the spells I want.
Was disappointed when I realized CS threw that out the window.
Was disappointed when I realized CS threw that out the window.
SatelliteOfLove
Member
Odd, I figured quickly it was about
liberalism, strengths and weaknesses all. Liberty, respect for all, striving for peaceful debate, etc, while also pointing out what happens when that is tunnel-visioned, passive, or self-paralyzing. This is especially evident towards Erebonia's machinations for hegemony and Richards' pre-coup reasoning.
It's also in the name!
It's also in the name!
ResourcefulStar
Neo Member
Thank you for the write-up. The Master Quartz effects, if all of them are as powerful as the ones you described are, sound very impactful and playstyle defining. If I could put the ailment infliction rate boosting one on Olivier back in TitS, his role would change entirely, from dealing magic damage to disabling groups with Quick Draw.
I actually like the sound of this. In the Trails in the Sky trilogy, it's literally impossible to fully equip a character with endgame quartz without having them gain access to a very significant percentage of the spell list, which eliminates much of character identity. Do the smart thing, put Action 5 on everybody, and suddenly the whole party (with the exception of Agate, Zin, and Mueller who dumpstat ATS too much) gets very adept at casting Time arts. To counter this, I even started doing a challenge run halfway through the 3rd and had characters only cast arts that matched the element of their central orbment slot. I was very pleased with the results and found that it made party composition significantly more interesting, particularly in the final dungeon. I intend to replay the entire trilogy like this eventually, although I may have to break the rule in a couple of sequences. In SC,
stealing the Bobcat probably requires Joshua to cast healing arts, unless there are respawning enemies that drop healing items, or he has access to Estelle's inventory at that point.
The way the ToCS system is described to me, every art not granted by the Master Quartz has to come at the cost a stat boosting quartz, which should encourage the player to keep the spellbooks as lean as possible. Encouraging specialization in a party-based RPG is a good thing, IMO.
I have another question about orbments in ToCS. The official site of the first game has this screenshot showing that orbments still have lines:
What is their purpose now, if arts are no longer granted by accumulating sufficient elemental points on a single line? Also, what's up with the ACC+ and EVA+ stats? Why are they separate from DEX and AGL?
Really? I'm already on chapter 4. I'm enjoying it so much I'm a little sad.
This all definitely applies!
I have another question about orbments in ToCS. The official site of the first game has this screenshot showing that orbments still have lines:
What is their purpose now, if arts are no longer granted by accumulating sufficient elemental points on a single line? Also, what's up with the ACC+ and EVA+ stats? Why are they separate from DEX and AGL?
The only purpose of lines now is determining a character's max EP. ACC and EVA are not separate from DEX and AGL, they're just displayed separately so you can more easily tell their actual effects iirc.
Pretty sure you can also only have one status-inducing quartz per line (like the 10% chance to petrify, freeze, etc.)
Reluctant-Hero
Member
Just completed Chapter 2 of FC. Man, the end chapter cutscenes with Agate and the parting scene with Kloe were just what I needed to see to amp me up for chapter 3. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing where all these
shenanigans lead.
mind control and secret identity
ResourcefulStar
Neo Member
Thank you both. Good to hear that orbments with several lines now have a unique advantage, one that encourages heavier use of physical attacks and crafts. Single line orbments were straight up better in TitS.
You'll be installing SC as soon as the credits end, that's where.
Don't get too excited yet, you'll likely find that orbment customization is overall shallower in CS (plus, you can easily get ridiculously overpowered in CS2 with the new system).
Well they're selling the 3rd at $30 so my bet is on $40
Reluctant-Hero
Member
Oh, both FC and 3rd are already installed via my Steam account.
Scrooge McDuck
Member
I read some people found it boring, but I really like its low-keyness. At the end of the day, it's actually a rather mundane high school trouble but the characterizations really shines through. Also, it effectively [Sky the 3rd, Moon Door 3]
changed my overall impression of Lechter from "that spy guy" to "Kloe's guy".
chaosblade
Unconfirmed Member
I found it boring. It would have worked better as a star door instead of a moon door. Would have swapped it with star door 8.
Scrooge McDuck
Member
Wah, I disagree pretty hard on this. Star Door 8 is pure, distilled culmination hype point, has the perfect length for that, and could only be that way due to all those meticulous Trails-style plot and character build-up beforehand.
Basically what makes it great is
how we finally get to meet Osbourne and see Olivier interacts then even proclaims war with him as the culmination of all those teases throughout FC and SC, as well as how we see Kloe's reunion with Lechter and them sorting out their relationship as the culmination of, yep, Moon Door 3.
Scrooge McDuck
Member
Oo, I wonder what kind of things necessitates that. Sky the 3rd also only got CERO B and that one got pretty gruesome, even discounting the cut stuff from the unrated PC version.
I could see how someone would find it boring, but I love the mundanity of it, myself. One choice that I think was genius on their part was
never explicitly bringing up the fact Kloe is royalty.
And yeah,
having played CS before this it's really interesting to see Lechter here. They have an uncanny ability to just add depth to characters who are just in the peripheral elsewhere. Kevin and Carnelia are turning out to be excellent examples of this as well.
Some decidedly brutal stuff is referenced in SC as well. Excited for Falcom to take off the kid gloves. They've been very responsible from what I've seen thus far.
Just chiming in to say Persona 4 Golden/ Person 5 got Cero C, a couple Final Fantasies and some other JRPGs have gotten Cero C, it doesn't mean much. Even Bravely Default on the 3DS got Cero C. Its the equivalent of a teen rating.
Edit: Just realized Ao no Kiseki Evo on the vita also got a Cero C.
I think the Evo games got some fanservice scenes added, could be from that
You would think the
Red Constellation massacre scene
Scrooge McDuck
Member
Persona 4 Golden and Persona 5 got ESRB M so they are not really ideal examples of teen rating games, haha.
But ya, I know that standards between countries are different and CERO C is 15+. Just wondering what the difference might be. (and apparently it's most likely cleavages? Booo)
So I guess the question comes down to whether it's fanservice or violence that triggered the change.
Maybe Arianrhod shredding people to death with her lance triggered the rating jump, or maybe Shirley slicing people's necks open.... or maybe we get a Thors II Student Vacation episode.
Just as a heads up, it's always good to mark your spoiler before the black box for which game it comes from, not after, since the series is so long, the mysterious black box could be from any game!
Maybe Arianrhod shredding people to death with her lance triggered the rating jump, or maybe Shirley slicing people's necks open.... or maybe we get a Thors II Student Vacation episode.
Just as a heads up, it's always good to mark your spoiler before the black box for which game it comes from, not after, since the series is so long, the mysterious black box could be from any game!
Star Door 2:
Star Door 3:
Holy shit. Pretty interesting that Ries actually did the report. They make it clear early on she knows Kevin killed Weissman without any mercy, but that knows the very specific details of how and why he did it? Yikes. That's extra weight. Weissman himself is pretty tragic from a more objective standpoint as laid out here.
Star Door 3:
This was excellent. It's great to see the cast just relaxing after everything that happened in SC, and extremely satisfying to have the other shoe drop re: Kloe's feelings for Joshua. I gotta say I really love how they laid out the room though, lol. Schera/Olivier off in their own little corner, same for the Russels and Agate, the mayors got their own table, Kevin being the friendly loner he is, Mueller working on that obvious crush on Julia... Perfect. Love that attention to detail.
Last time a Falcom game got a CERO C - Ys SEVEN - was because of a torture scene. With everything that has to be resolved in Sen III, it wouldn't surprise me if there's more violence. Falcom maybe also reasons that the teenagers that happened to grow up with Sen I and II are now old enough for a CERO C rating - kind of how Harry Potter grew alongside its fanbase.
Dragoon En Regalia
Member
Their audience on PS4 is undoubtedly older and more likely to accept shocking material in even a Trails game, which seems part of the plan since this game has to merge two arcs hard and fast while still having a crazy conclusion.
Found it funny how only Luciola got that one CG image, emphasizing her bust no less, of the four enforces at the towers. Truly a mystery how she even keeps her clothes on.