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The Kiseki / Trails (of the Sky/Zero/Ao/Sen/Etc) Community Thread: SPOILERTAGS OR DIE
- Thread starter Bebpo
- Start date
And they max out at Lv. 7 now, so even returning MQs will be better than before.
You know one thing that's really disappointing about the Crossbell games
The ending themes
I gotta enjoy this month I'm gonna have where I can see the spoilers
CS3 wait is gonna be brutal
The ending themes
I gotta enjoy this month I'm gonna have where I can see the spoilers
CS3 wait is gonna be brutal
Hmmm
I don't know what you're insinuating, but Nero sucks.
Morded's the better Saber.
ResourcefulStar
Neo Member
Completed Part 2 of Act 1 in CS II.
Craft set is one of the funniest things I've seen in an RPG.
Sharon's
KO, Seal, Delay, SPD and MOV debuffs, and... full party HP, CP, and ailment recovery? The creepy contrast even extends to her default orbment setup: she comes with the Demonic Scythe and Teara quartz equipped.
Hey now, do I seem like the type of person that would like Nero? I was just noting how she borderline plagerizes Estelle in her current summer swimwear.
That's the power of tea son.
CrimsonFist
Member
Guess the Capua's delivery business really took off.
CrimsonFist
Member
KuwabaraTheMan
Banned
I better get some Josette in Cold Steel III.
Someone has to steal Rean's heart.
Musse's going to have some competition.
ThatChairMan
Member
It's time for Gilbert's comeback.
100% Accurate Cold Steel III prediction:
Rean and his party are confronted by a mysterious man.
???: Sorry, but this is the end of the line. I don't like fighting kids, but orders are orders...
A brutal battle ensues between Rean's party and the mysterious individual.
Laura: Unbelievable... we couldn't even scratch him.
Fie: He's faster than pops.
Emma: This mana...
Rean: (He might actually be more powerful than McBurn....!)
Jusis: Just who are you, anyway?!
???: Ah right, it's only fair that I introduce myself. My name is Gilbert Stein and I'll have you know that I'm currently Ouroborus Enforcer No. 2. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance.
Rean: Forget going all out, if I don't call Valimar right now we won't stand a chance...!
Gilbert: Showtime.
???: Sorry, but this is the end of the line. I don't like fighting kids, but orders are orders...
A brutal battle ensues between Rean's party and the mysterious individual.
Laura: Unbelievable... we couldn't even scratch him.
Fie: He's faster than pops.
Emma: This mana...
Rean: (He might actually be more powerful than McBurn....!)
Jusis: Just who are you, anyway?!
???: Ah right, it's only fair that I introduce myself. My name is Gilbert Stein and I'll have you know that I'm currently Ouroborus Enforcer No. 2. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance.
Rean: Forget going all out, if I don't call Valimar right now we won't stand a chance...!
Gilbert: Showtime.
Never trust a man with closed eyes.
icecreamsnow
Member
I've just caught up on all the CS3 scans, shortly before leaving the thread and sticking my fingers in my ears, to avoid any potential Japanese spoilers from the release.
CS1/2 spoilers, and CS3 scan spoilers
CS1/2 spoilers, and CS3 scan spoilers
But seriously, Crow back from teh dead? Wasn't his death scene annoying enough?
I also have this nasty feeling Lechter is going to end up knifing Osborne in the back, as he reveals himself as an Anguis
I also have this nasty feeling Lechter is going to end up knifing Osborne in the back, as he reveals himself as an Anguis
Wait until you hit chapter 3. Ha ha ha.
Fixed
I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.
I'm upset because I made a critical error. The last line should be:
Gilbert: Let's see what color your blood is.
SatelliteOfLove
Member
Took me some time but I finally bought 3rd \o/
I had said this when I finished SC:
Goddamnit
edit:
I had said this when I finished SC:
Goddamnit
edit:
Okay, now the game is just talking directly to me
PunishedOkabe
Member
Holy shit that ending
Ao, Chapter 2, End of Day 1 and Beginning of Day 2:
Back to the NPC grind...
God damn, all that Randy focus near the end of day one. Wasn't expecting him to get all that shocked/depressed after the talk with his uncle. Not to mention they want to drag Randy back into the Jaeger world again by making him succeed his father. The small mention of Randy doing something to a village was also super intriguing; wonder what happened there? And where's Tiosuke when you need her?
And all the Sky characters showing up is giving me all sorts of tingly feelings. This is crazy stuff. But the highlight has to be after these scenes: Mueller immediately puts up a request to find Olivier already. Holy cow, he'll never get a break, will he?
And all the Sky characters showing up is giving me all sorts of tingly feelings. This is crazy stuff. But the highlight has to be after these scenes: Mueller immediately puts up a request to find Olivier already. Holy cow, he'll never get a break, will he?
Back to the NPC grind...
Nightengale
Member
Now that we're in the final stretch of CS3's Japanese release, I'm gonna do some predictions of my own of how the game will pan out: >
Tales-from-my-arse:
First half of the game would be
setting up the new situation of Thors Reeves, and introduction of the new cast/etc, mini-arcs in each location, building up the escalation of the main story, reintroduction of the old cast bit-by-bit accordingly...
Second half of the game would be
major incident occurs that is seen as an act of aggresion by Calvard (orchestrated by Osborne to start a war against Calvard ), something happens to the Emperor/Empress that forces them to temporarily cede imperial authority to crown prince Cedric, Cedric is revealed to be influenced by Testarossa possession from CS2 and is pro-war, this escalation puts Olivert to the limits of his tolerance and decides to pulls a Driechels against Cedric and the Empire, Civil War 2.0 that centers around Crossbell, Class VII and co. liberates Crossbell, Osborne's plan is halted and stopped by Olivert, whom as the rebel who sparked a civil war to steal the throne from Cedric, is then killed and thwarted by Alfin. Cedric cedes the position of heir apparent to Alfin. Final scene shows a weird bard travelling to Calvard, wondering what adventures he might find there.
=P
So I beat Trails in the Sky 3rd, and I'm teary eyed and at a complete loss of words
One minor edit to make it perfect
Now that we're in the final stretch of CS3's Japanese release, I'm gonna do some predictions of my own of how the game will pan out: >
Tales-from-my-arse:
First half of the game would besetting up the new situation of Thors Reeves, and introduction of the new cast/etc, mini-arcs in each location, building up the escalation of the main story, reintroduction of the old cast bit-by-bit accordingly...
Second half of the game would bemajor incident occurs that is seen as an act of aggresion by Calvard (orchestrated by Osborne to start a war against Calvard ), something happens to the Emperor/Empress that forces them to temporarily cede imperial authority to crown prince Cedric, Cedric is revealed to be influenced by Testarossa possession from CS2 and is pro-war, this escalation puts Olivert to the limits of his tolerance and decides to pulls a Driechels against Cedric and the Empire, Civil War 2.0 that centers around Crossbell, Class VII and co. liberates Crossbell, Osborne's plan is halted and stopped by Olivert, whom as the rebel who sparked a civil war to steal the throne from Cedric, is then killed and thwarted by Alfin. Cedric cedes the position of heir apparent to Alfin. Final scene shows a weird bard travelling to Liberl with a wedding ring in hand, ready to propose to Schera.
=P
One minor edit to make it perfect
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.
Zero Chapter 3:
-Sidequests: The Chapter... buuuuut, they were generally interesting this time around. A lot of them contributed to the worldbuilding of Crossbell and gave more information about the relationship it has with Calvard and Erebonia.
-KeA is awful. Little anime girl who speaks in third person. It's like Renne, but worse.
-Speaking of Renne, I knew I recognized Harold as the puppet she used in Sky. I was wondering how they were going to reconcile nice guy Harold as the parent who abandoned Renne, but they pulled it off surprisingly smoothly. I don't get why Renne didn't show her face to her real parents... seems kind of... harsh? More so for Harold and his wife than for her.
-The auction was cool. But man, this chapter was just... really, really slow all around. Not necessarily boring, but slow. I also don't like how absent Ouroboros is (outside of the one Bleublanc quest and Renne) and how none of the overarching plotlines about the church, the salt pale, or really... anything seem to be rearing their heads yet, halfway through the game. I love whenever Osborne is name dropped, because it reminds me I'm following a huge interconnected story, but those moments are few and far between. Certainly far less than I expected for such a celebrated game in a series known for its world building.
-SSS remains my favorite group of Trails protagonists so far. They just keep getting better as the game goes on.
-KeA is awful. Little anime girl who speaks in third person. It's like Renne, but worse.
-Speaking of Renne, I knew I recognized Harold as the puppet she used in Sky. I was wondering how they were going to reconcile nice guy Harold as the parent who abandoned Renne, but they pulled it off surprisingly smoothly. I don't get why Renne didn't show her face to her real parents... seems kind of... harsh? More so for Harold and his wife than for her.
-The auction was cool. But man, this chapter was just... really, really slow all around. Not necessarily boring, but slow. I also don't like how absent Ouroboros is (outside of the one Bleublanc quest and Renne) and how none of the overarching plotlines about the church, the salt pale, or really... anything seem to be rearing their heads yet, halfway through the game. I love whenever Osborne is name dropped, because it reminds me I'm following a huge interconnected story, but those moments are few and far between. Certainly far less than I expected for such a celebrated game in a series known for its world building.
-SSS remains my favorite group of Trails protagonists so far. They just keep getting better as the game goes on.
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.
She might be my least favorite thing in any Trails game, right next to Elise.
Novel Mike
Member
Alright Finished Sky FC and now in Chapter 2 of SC.
Sky FC final thoughts:
So Overall Trails in the Sky FC was pretty good but I infinitely think Cold Steel is the better first entry. It's not just the combat being faster or being on better hardware, for all the complaints I saw about Cold Steel's characters you gets tons of more development for its cast over the course of the game and even characters like Gaius who don't have much of an arc still have more character development then almost all of the Sky cast. I think the banter between characters in Sky is much better but in terms of the plot, the characters and their development Cold Steel makes some mistakes by throwing all of Class 7 at you at once but everything else about it is really handled better. Yes even the stupid tropes are handled better there as they at least use them as a growing point to develop the characters further. Agate in FC is a huge trope as well but his development itself is a continued trope without any real information on his history or background outside of a name and on the whole I think a lot of character development was largely left OUT of FC in favor of putting it in SC (which I'm already finding as I play SC). To put it another way, imagine playing Cold Steel without ever hearing about Rean, Alisa, Machias, Jusis, or anyone else of Class 7's backstories, thats largely what I felt most of the FC cast was lacking. Like we hear mentions of things that happened before like Scharzard's nickname Silver Streak but we never get a story to really explain it (unless I missed something or its in SC), we hear Agate mention a sister but nothing more about her or his motivations for becoming a bracer, ect. I liked these characters and I wanted to get to know them more.
I get the feeling I'm going to like SC a lot better then Cold Steel 2 (which I'm not the biggest fan of as I think they really wasted using the...
)
but when it comes to the first games in each trilogy Sky falls short. Now granted its a much older game but as I said I'm already into SC and I'm seeing more character development and even better character moments and banter then I did in the first game. Which again, makes me think that a lot of things were held back in FC in favor of making SC a much more character driven story.
Sky FC final thoughts:
The post final boss stuff was pretty great and does a great job of setting up SC but everything before that is extremely predictable from whom Kloe was to the villains and even the moment Cassius showed up, also totally called the Professor guy being evil. I liked a lot of the characters but I think the game does a poor job of fleshing out many of the side characters and giving them appropriate development. Zin for example is a fun character to use but he doesn't really have any kind of arc hes just pretty much a power house with the only revelation about his character being that hes an A rank bracer and was asked by Cassius to help the kids in his place, thats not really development for his character at all.
Estelle is a pretty great lead but I wish they game didn't spend so much of its time with her trying to figure out her feelings for Joshua because while its cute at first its repeated again and again to the point where you just want her to say something to him or shut up about it.
Joshua secretly giving Oroborous information and being an unwilling spy was a nice twist but I wish he we had more time to see how much he really loved Estelle and his new life. You can clearly see what Weissman says absolutely devastates him but his enjoyment of his new life isn't showed that well. I mean you can tell he absolutely loves Estelle and being the person he knows her as but we don't get barely a mention of him before this with how much he himself cares about her and all of them. I guess some extra scenes with him just expressing himself a bit more would have helped, less about how he feels for Estelle and more about how this new life gave him a peace he never knew before, that kind of thing. You kinda get it at the very end but having done it earlier would have been better foreshadowing.
That said the game has some great moments, I enjoyed the Play, The Sky Bandits, almost all of the Final Chapter, Tita and Agate, Olivert and Vander, ect. It's a special game to be sure.
However, it also has a lot of problems I think people overlook. You have the stuff I mentioned above but then you also have the constant backtracking for side quests which just gets really fucking tedious since unless you are using a guide you won't know when some missions expire and when others last through multiple story arcs (no the long/short doesn't cover it well enough) and several times you'll be sent out to areas you already completed at later points in the chapter to complete quests that all could have been done at one time if they had just given you all the quests at the same time.
Then you also have the really slow paced combat which makes the first part of the game when you don't have any useful arts or crafts (seriously why make it take so long for Estelle to learn Hurricane? It should've been her first/second craft its range is already extremely limited anyway so by the time you get it you've got AoE arts that are all around better) extremely boring. It gets a bit better later on but battles always felt like a chore from the slow and uninteresting animations to just the distance you'd at times need to move to hit certain enemies. The Turbo feature helps with both of these issues and without it I would have never finished the game, it really was that bad without it. I also hated the quartz system, its a good idea but poorly executed with no way to really know if you are setting the right amount of Quartz to get certain arts without going back to check the bracer book every time you want to mix up builds. It's not a huge deal but just having it brought up on the side in some way while your setting up your Quartz would have gone a long way to make it more intuitive. I think its also a huge barrier of entry for newcomers to the series because every element type requires different amounts to get certain abilities, its never consistent.
Estelle is a pretty great lead but I wish they game didn't spend so much of its time with her trying to figure out her feelings for Joshua because while its cute at first its repeated again and again to the point where you just want her to say something to him or shut up about it.
Joshua secretly giving Oroborous information and being an unwilling spy was a nice twist but I wish he we had more time to see how much he really loved Estelle and his new life. You can clearly see what Weissman says absolutely devastates him but his enjoyment of his new life isn't showed that well. I mean you can tell he absolutely loves Estelle and being the person he knows her as but we don't get barely a mention of him before this with how much he himself cares about her and all of them. I guess some extra scenes with him just expressing himself a bit more would have helped, less about how he feels for Estelle and more about how this new life gave him a peace he never knew before, that kind of thing. You kinda get it at the very end but having done it earlier would have been better foreshadowing.
That said the game has some great moments, I enjoyed the Play, The Sky Bandits, almost all of the Final Chapter, Tita and Agate, Olivert and Vander, ect. It's a special game to be sure.
However, it also has a lot of problems I think people overlook. You have the stuff I mentioned above but then you also have the constant backtracking for side quests which just gets really fucking tedious since unless you are using a guide you won't know when some missions expire and when others last through multiple story arcs (no the long/short doesn't cover it well enough) and several times you'll be sent out to areas you already completed at later points in the chapter to complete quests that all could have been done at one time if they had just given you all the quests at the same time.
Then you also have the really slow paced combat which makes the first part of the game when you don't have any useful arts or crafts (seriously why make it take so long for Estelle to learn Hurricane? It should've been her first/second craft its range is already extremely limited anyway so by the time you get it you've got AoE arts that are all around better) extremely boring. It gets a bit better later on but battles always felt like a chore from the slow and uninteresting animations to just the distance you'd at times need to move to hit certain enemies. The Turbo feature helps with both of these issues and without it I would have never finished the game, it really was that bad without it. I also hated the quartz system, its a good idea but poorly executed with no way to really know if you are setting the right amount of Quartz to get certain arts without going back to check the bracer book every time you want to mix up builds. It's not a huge deal but just having it brought up on the side in some way while your setting up your Quartz would have gone a long way to make it more intuitive. I think its also a huge barrier of entry for newcomers to the series because every element type requires different amounts to get certain abilities, its never consistent.
So Overall Trails in the Sky FC was pretty good but I infinitely think Cold Steel is the better first entry. It's not just the combat being faster or being on better hardware, for all the complaints I saw about Cold Steel's characters you gets tons of more development for its cast over the course of the game and even characters like Gaius who don't have much of an arc still have more character development then almost all of the Sky cast. I think the banter between characters in Sky is much better but in terms of the plot, the characters and their development Cold Steel makes some mistakes by throwing all of Class 7 at you at once but everything else about it is really handled better. Yes even the stupid tropes are handled better there as they at least use them as a growing point to develop the characters further. Agate in FC is a huge trope as well but his development itself is a continued trope without any real information on his history or background outside of a name and on the whole I think a lot of character development was largely left OUT of FC in favor of putting it in SC (which I'm already finding as I play SC). To put it another way, imagine playing Cold Steel without ever hearing about Rean, Alisa, Machias, Jusis, or anyone else of Class 7's backstories, thats largely what I felt most of the FC cast was lacking. Like we hear mentions of things that happened before like Scharzard's nickname Silver Streak but we never get a story to really explain it (unless I missed something or its in SC), we hear Agate mention a sister but nothing more about her or his motivations for becoming a bracer, ect. I liked these characters and I wanted to get to know them more.
I get the feeling I'm going to like SC a lot better then Cold Steel 2 (which I'm not the biggest fan of as I think they really wasted using the...
Civil War setting
but when it comes to the first games in each trilogy Sky falls short. Now granted its a much older game but as I said I'm already into SC and I'm seeing more character development and even better character moments and banter then I did in the first game. Which again, makes me think that a lot of things were held back in FC in favor of making SC a much more character driven story.
Nice bait. You literally just met her.
Sinh_Magnus
Member
I wasn't fond of her at first, but she grew on me as the game went on. Then again I loved that chapter and found it streessful with so many things going on
SatelliteOfLove
Member
FC:
Estelle does have a shojo air about her in FC true, but two things: first, that the actual scenes pointing this out are really great just that the overall situation like you said went on for a while ala what a shojo heroine would do, and secondly BETTER BUCKLE UP BUTTERCUP cuz Estelle's goin' places. Trust me.
I don't remember how much of this is in FC rather than SC or 3rd but, note how Josh speaks of himself and this situation. There's a TON of subtlety about the entire "bringing this kid we rescued from life in Ouroborus that went uncannily well until it really, really didn't and oh yeah, he's head over heels for Estelle". There's alot of wording and phrasing coming out of his mouth that paints a picture that will show you what's going on in his head. Again, just play SC.
This ties into the "character development" thing. No, it's not presented, contextualized, endangered, rescued, and resolved in the span of a chapter or even a game, but it is there, will be (some STILL ain't resolved)! Remember: Trails is a marathon, not a sprint by default.
I don't remember how much of this is in FC rather than SC or 3rd but, note how Josh speaks of himself and this situation. There's a TON of subtlety about the entire "bringing this kid we rescued from life in Ouroborus that went uncannily well until it really, really didn't and oh yeah, he's head over heels for Estelle". There's alot of wording and phrasing coming out of his mouth that paints a picture that will show you what's going on in his head. Again, just play SC.
This ties into the "character development" thing. No, it's not presented, contextualized, endangered, rescued, and resolved in the span of a chapter or even a game, but it is there, will be (some STILL ain't resolved)! Remember: Trails is a marathon, not a sprint by default.
So in closing: Play SC.
Novel Mike
Member
FC:Estelle does have a shojo air about her in FC true, but two things: first, that the actual scenes pointing this out are really great just that the overall situation like you said went on for a while ala what a shojo heroine would do, and secondly BETTER BUCKLE UP BUTTERCUP cuz Estelle's goin' places. Trust me.
I don't remember how much of this is in FC rather than SC or 3rd but, note how Josh speaks of himself and this situation. There's a TON of subtlety about the entire "bringing this kid we rescued from life in Ouroborus that went uncannily well until it really, really didn't and oh yeah, he's head over heels for Estelle". There's alot of wording and phrasing coming out of his mouth that paints a picture that will show you what's going on in his head. Again, just play SC.
This ties into the "character development" thing. No, it's not presented, contextualized, endangered, rescued, and resolved in the span of a chapter or even a game, but it is there, will be (some STILL ain't resolved)! Remember: Trails is a marathon, not a sprint by default.
So in closing: Play SC.
I am, just got to Chapter 3 and I think SC is much better about this right from the get go.
Estelle shows growth in the short amount of time that takes place between the games and her reactions and everything are better for it. She also does act more like a leader putting Olivert in his place constantly (which is always entertaining) and I picked Agate to journey with and the banter between the two feels natural and well earned. Its like this for all of the characters so far, its a much more noticeable step up from the previous game and it helps that characters join you and stay with you through chapters (at least for now, not sure if its going to pull a Cold Steel 2 and take away some of the characters at some point) I just got Zin who also almost immediately we get some backstory on, just what I was wanting to see in the first game.
So yeah while I know the trails games are a marathon my comparison to Cold Steel largely comes from being constantly told in the Cold Steel 1 and 2 OT's that the sky games were so much better which having played FC I don't think is accurate (at least comparing FC to CS1 as I did in my original post) still really enjoying SC through and I can already see how its certainly making me think its a better sequel then CS2 was.
It's too early to judge her in Zero. People have to play Ao to actually know her. I like her because she makes the protagonist take up a "fatherly" role, and that's an interesting and uncommon angle for a JRPG protagonist.