It was mostly just a matter of misplaced expectations. The game's ending was more interested in bringing Estelle and Joshua's story to a close, whereas I wanted to see moments for everyone else, like FC's very leisurely and satisfying ending. The 3rd remedies some of this by including several flashbacks which take place in between the start of that game and the end of SC.
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The Kiseki / Trails (of the Sky/Zero/Ao/Sen/Etc) Community Thread: SPOILERTAGS OR DIE
- Thread starter Bebpo
- Start date
Everyone still gets their moments. Some larger ones than others.
I take every nugget I get from certain characters. I'm quite pleased with how they handled Richard so far. (3rd)
Seeing how they ended in 3rd, wouldn't surprise me to see Zin and Richard back in the Calvard.
Jesus christ, 3rd is obscenely good.
Every time I clear a chapter, I have to brace myself for the impending feels bomb. Kevin and Ries are just too goddamn compelling as characters. Hell, everyone's compelling... each character somehow manages to stand out in such a huge cast.
Oh and 3rd straight up has the best difficulty curve in the series. Bosses are pretty challenging too!
Every time I clear a chapter, I have to brace myself for the impending feels bomb. Kevin and Ries are just too goddamn compelling as characters. Hell, everyone's compelling... each character somehow manages to stand out in such a huge cast.
Oh and 3rd straight up has the best difficulty curve in the series. Bosses are pretty challenging too!
Do you want Sen the 4th as badly as I do now?
I MIGHT
Kevin and Ries holding the bow gun together was fabulous. Loved it.
Zero, Chapter 3 End:
Can't say I'm a big fan of the "only MC can hear/see the voice/flashback of whatever special thing" they have going on with these games. Only Lloyd can hear KeA's voice and only Rean can see those flashbacks at the ruins, etc. What exactly makes the MC so special that the others don't experience the same thing? Needless fellating of the MC, I feel. Interestingly enough, Lloyd taking up Guy's name reminded me of Joshua taking up his sister's name as a fake name. Their formal outfits were fun to see, though I gotta say, Elie is on another level of attractiveness (Alisa could learn a thing or two from her).
It was nice to see Kilika help out the gang in their escape, you can always count on her. Her giving advice to Lloyd and company was also a nice callback to her position back as a Bracer receptionist. Still honestly have no idea what the deal with her is now, what with this whole Rocksmith organization and the discussion with Lechter, but I suppose we'll see soon. As for Lechter, i really want to take this guy off his high horse one day, seriously.
The coolest part of the entire auction arc, however, was definitely hands-down the Randolf reveal; Randy's past as a badass mercenary was cool as hell. I was super hype to see him get serious... only for him to get blueballed again--this is the second time now--by Zeit. I guess it's not time for him to get serious yet. But soon!
It was nice to see Kilika help out the gang in their escape, you can always count on her. Her giving advice to Lloyd and company was also a nice callback to her position back as a Bracer receptionist. Still honestly have no idea what the deal with her is now, what with this whole Rocksmith organization and the discussion with Lechter, but I suppose we'll see soon. As for Lechter, i really want to take this guy off his high horse one day, seriously.
The coolest part of the entire auction arc, however, was definitely hands-down the Randolf reveal; Randy's past as a badass mercenary was cool as hell. I was super hype to see him get serious... only for him to get blueballed again--this is the second time now--by Zeit. I guess it's not time for him to get serious yet. But soon!
That said, KeA is just a huge lump of cuteness. Goodness gracious, I want to take her home! On top of that, she's voiced by Rie Kugimiya, one of my favorite VAs! God she's adorable.
I'm a little put off that she's attached to Lloyd the most for whatever reason (MC privilege), but I guess we'll see.
Regarding the bonding system, playing Zero further reinforces my opinion that it is terrible and only serves to limit the writing more than it helps. Obviously it's not as offensive as the Persona-lite bonding system in Cold Steel, but being forced to choose a character with the MC for whatever event is kind of infuriating, and I certainly didn't like it in the Sky games, either; though in the latter case, it was a choice between Agate and Schera for a good portion of SC, and choosing between party members for dialogue changes depending on the enemies you face. Another thing that bothers me is how the optional characters typically just have variations of a template script. On top of that, the whole optional character decision adds some weird inconsistency to the timeline because the story branches over several arcs, so who am I supposed to consider as the canon choice in all these events where it had to be only MC and the optional character? Absolutely unnecessary. If these events that forced you to choose a character were all turned into mandatory party sections instead, I'd feel the writing would be a lot stronger, both for the characters and the story.
Anyway, rant over, onto the intermission chapter!
SolVanderlyn
Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
HOLY SHIT
Chapter 1 Zero
Chapter 1 Zero
ESTELLE AND JOSHUA! And this happens concurrently to Sen/Cold Steel... this is what they were doing!! AHHHHHHHH
Yeah, I mostly skimmed those as well...
"Carnelia" is the one Cold Steel references, and it seems like CS3 references "Red Moon Rose" from the series itself.
I ignored that one in FC, since you almost need to play with a walkthrough to really catch all the books. However, in SC in Chapter 3 you can easily read all of them in
the Erobonian Embassy.
Carnelia has relevancy for 3rd and CS1.
But of them are great, so read all of them.
All of them contain information that references or is relevant to future concepts in Trails. This includes The Doll Knight, though that one is probably the least "relevant".
NoctisCaelum
Member
Interesting theory I've read is that lechter
is the 4th Anguis. Someone pointed out that they have the same manner of speaking in the jap version and 4th is described as smooth talker from erobonia
I read this a few days ago, myself. I could see it, honestly.
Sinh_Magnus
Member
Trails from Zero it's almost 1/3 edited.
Great work from these guys. Love the change for the title of the game.
Also, pardon my question, but that teaser trailer for Sen III ended up being just the mini Ost preview, didn't it?
Great work from these guys. Love the change for the title of the game.
Also, pardon my question, but that teaser trailer for Sen III ended up being just the mini Ost preview, didn't it?
Yeah, it was just the preview.
Gambler Jack and Carnelia.
Gambler Jack also has a sequel named Gambler Jack II in Cold Steel II. Hoping for Gambler Jack III in Sen 3
.I personally found neither Gambler Jack nor its sequel compelling like Carnelia and Red Moon Rose. The Hundred Days War book is an insightful book as well.Gambler Jack and Carnelia.
Gambler Jack also has a sequel named Gambler Jack II in Cold Steel II. Hoping for Gambler Jack III in Sen 3
Palette Swap
Member
Speaking of books, I was looking earlier at dumping the PC text files and converting them to an ebook format so that I could read them on the kindle.
That's easily doable but this is going to need a lot of manual formatting.
That's easily doable but this is going to need a lot of manual formatting.
MulderYuffie
Member
So how does Estelle , Joshua and Renne's story wrap up? Specific spoilers for Renne moreso i'm just dying to know
You should really just play the game yourself but if you really wanna know:
Renne finds and observes her real parents from a distance and has a run-in with her little brother, realizes they never meant her any harm but eventually decides that she doesn't want to live with them anyway. She never runs into Estelle and Joshua until the very end of the game when the final boss is about to kill everybody, Renne comes in and rescues everyone, then Estelle takes the opportunity to tell her they want her to live with them one more time and she accepts this time.
Just copy them from the Kiseki Wiki and do some bulk replacing ('== ' -> '<h2>', etc.)
Palette Swap
Member
Browsing the timeline page on the kiseki wiki, I wonder if I spoiled myself an event from the very end of Ao or if this is something from an extraneous source (like current CS3 media spoil events that take place between CS2 and 3)
(Potential Ao spoilers and definitely CS2 spoilers)
Of course I had to notice you guys had done all the heavy-lifting after I was done with Carnelia!
Oh well, that still made things simpler for the other series.
Copy/pasting the web contents into word and sending the docx to my kindle worked surprisingly well.
(Potential Ao spoilers and definitely CS2 spoilers)
There's a 1207 entry that says the phantasmal blaze plan is ultimately successful and Crossbell is liberated.
Without spoiling Ao too much, does it come from some kind of epilogue, the same way CS2 shows an annexed Crossbell?
Without spoiling Ao too much, does it come from some kind of epilogue, the same way CS2 shows an annexed Crossbell?
Thanks!
Of course I had to notice you guys had done all the heavy-lifting after I was done with Carnelia!
Oh well, that still made things simpler for the other series.
Copy/pasting the web contents into word and sending the docx to my kindle worked surprisingly well.
(Ao and CS2 spoiler).
At the very, very end of Ao, it is said that the Imperial occupation of Crossbell lasted two years. In Cold Steel II we learn it was occupied mid-January S.1205.
And yes, Kindle's great for that. I read the whole of Xenogear's Perfect Works on it back when.
Finished FC. Very strong ending, but I wish the quality was a bit more consistent for everything up to the middle of Zeiss.
Starting SC, a few things stand out:
- The script seems much more verbose.
- The writing generally seems a bit sharper?
- It feels like a lot of the world building about the continent wasn't really set in stone through FC. Already, in the first fifteen minutes, characters are talking more about groups, countries, and organizations.
- Nice, new, snazzy interface.
Starting SC, a few things stand out:
- The script seems much more verbose.
- The writing generally seems a bit sharper?
- It feels like a lot of the world building about the continent wasn't really set in stone through FC. Already, in the first fifteen minutes, characters are talking more about groups, countries, and organizations.
- Nice, new, snazzy interface.
Are you talking about the prose and dialogue in this point? If you are, I agree. It's a small difference, but I definitely prefer SC's over FC's (both are great and miles ahead of almost all other localizations).
DXLelouch153
Banned
I beat it on ppsspp on win 10 so yea it should be fine
Also unrelated, but on final chapter of Ao
Sometime tomorrow I'll FINALLY be caught up with this series
Huh? I'm talking about the PC version.
I've thought about playing it in PPSSPP but it looked pretty bad when upscaled.
encephalon
Member
SolVanderlyn
Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
Also about halfway through Chapter 1 of Zero.
I like Tio a lot more than I thought I would. It's actually Elie who's the least interesting so far, although she's not a bad character by any means, just very vanilla compared to the others (I guess Lloyd is too, but he's not as... mundane?) I see a lot of room for all four to grow, though. Randy is hilarious. I love the character designer they got for the Crossbell games.
I just wish my Japanese was good enough to 100% understand NPC dialogue. I get the gist of it, but that's not really good enough for a game like Trails, where NPC dialogue is one of the main appeals. Maybe someday I'll be able to read it... in whatever language.
I like Tio a lot more than I thought I would. It's actually Elie who's the least interesting so far, although she's not a bad character by any means, just very vanilla compared to the others (I guess Lloyd is too, but he's not as... mundane?) I see a lot of room for all four to grow, though. Randy is hilarious. I love the character designer they got for the Crossbell games.
I just wish my Japanese was good enough to 100% understand NPC dialogue. I get the gist of it, but that's not really good enough for a game like Trails, where NPC dialogue is one of the main appeals. Maybe someday I'll be able to read it... in whatever language.
Sinh_Magnus
Member
Though Tio and Randy are the best, in my opinion if Zero/Ao does something incredible well is how they develop the SSS throught these games.
By the end of Zero I couldn't really judge a character alone on its own, because each of then have become an integral part of the SSS.
And even if Ao is known to be a crazy rollercoaster, the minor details in that game are what really sold these characters for me.
By the end of Zero I couldn't really judge a character alone on its own, because each of then have become an integral part of the SSS.
And even if Ao is known to be a crazy rollercoaster, the minor details in that game are what really sold these characters for me.
Seeing how the only way to get the PC version is probably by importing it from here, not many people will have ever played it.
An issue for me is also that my current PC doesn't have a DVD reader. Never thought I would need one in 2017. But goddammit, a good Trails game is probably still worth all that hassle. *sigh*
EDIT:
Forget what I said: This store (http://n.shop.vector.co.jp/service/servlet/Catalogue.Detail.Top?ITEM_NO=SR378422) has a digital version, and they allow Paypal, and its way cheaper. (2700 yen, so around 25€
You can pick up a cheap USB external one, it's handy to have one.
It's also a lot more to buy the PC version than just buying a used PSP copy, so I'm trying to see if it's worth it. Also not sure what the situation is with Ao on PC so if I'd have to switch I may as well do it all on PSP.
DXLelouch153
Banned
Wait till Ao, ch2 alone took me 2-3 days
Soo, to go back to your original question.
I have bought and downloaded a digital PC version through that Vector place (getting an account set up was a bit of a hassle, but my friend Google Translator carried me trough). It's 22€ and I'm assuming some of that money actually goes to Falcom, so even if a used PSP copy is cheaper, you are supporting the Japanese devs. Also, it's DRM free.
You have to set your "Non-unicode language" to Japanese (This shouldn't affect anything and really the only people writing non-unicode programs these days are pure and utter evil) Also, native fullscreen is broken, you have to set it to Windowed mode and then use something like Borderless Gaming to make it cover the screen.
The actual port is pretty much a straight up PSP port. Not as high quality as the Sky games, but those were actual Windows games before being ported to PSP/PS3. You can force AA and better texture filtering, and use your mouse to do everything for you, but there is no actual ingame mouse, so you always see your Windows cursor. There are a few functions, like switching companions that might need keyboard keys, but if you have a mouse with additional buttons (like mine), you can also easily map those to the mouse.
The framerate is certainly not 60, either it lags on my i7 3770/ GTX 970 or it is locked to 30. Maybe something this "hacker" from the translation project can look into.
Chapter 3 is even more insane.
Ao took me about 55 hours just with spreadsheet.
I believe you can double that amount easily
.Sinh_Magnus
Member
On a related note and for those interested in Kiseki stuff, I was able to get these two artbooks for 20 each one for a total of 47 including shippment from Japan in amazon. Granted, they are second handed (first-hand cost around 50 each) but they are in a perfect condition from what I can see.
The left one are for characters art and the right one are illustrations, for both Sky/Crosbell arcs. Pretty good stuff, though there are spoilers for the series.
I haven't seen one similar for Erebonia arc, I suppose after Sen III they will make one.
They are still second handed left from what I can see, so for people interested, they can get them at a cheap price.
The left one are for characters art and the right one are illustrations, for both Sky/Crosbell arcs. Pretty good stuff, though there are spoilers for the series.
I haven't seen one similar for Erebonia arc, I suppose after Sen III they will make one.
They are still second handed left from what I can see, so for people interested, they can get them at a cheap price.
I like how doing a full AP New Game+ run on CS1 takes around 10 hours, including watching all the bonding events and (last chapter spoilers)
Bless Turbo Mode.
So I'm basically done now, with the exception of a couple achievements, but those sound like a pain, so why bother.
Ready for CS2.
I watched all of the festival afterparty events as well.
So I'm basically done now, with the exception of a couple achievements, but those sound like a pain, so why bother.
Ready for CS2.
Oh, thanks for letting me know about that digital version, that's a good price if I can figure out the site. I might pick that up closer to the fan translation release.
DLsite has frequent Falcom sales (another one just ended) during which all their games are half off. The PC version runs fine on Windows 10 and is definitely the best-looking version of the game. Sure, Evolution has the voice acting but the font is garbled and low-res compared to the PC version.
Well, there's this. No real surprises there, just a complete collection of artwork.
DXLelouch153
Banned
Well I'm on the final chapter with 80hrs currentlyAo took me about 55 hours just with spreadsheet.
I believe you can double that amount easily
I haven't played Zero/Ao yet, and I like the art, but man, Estelle and Joshua look like completely different people compared to Sky.