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The Kiseki / Trails (of the Sky/Zero/Ao/Sen/Etc) Community Thread: SPOILERTAGS OR DIE

OrionX

Member
CS1 Chapter 5! *dramatic gasp*
The Lance Maiden! A ghost, immortal, or secret descendant? But then the cat called her the Steel Maiden... and what is Celine's deal anyway... I'm assuming she's one of those trickster fairies I read about in the library lol. There seems to be way more going on with Emma than I ever expected. I figured she was some kind of witch at first, then I started to think she was working for the church but when Laura asked her she denied it and said "more like the opposite" so I was like enforcer?!! XD But that's highly unlikely so I'm back on witch... I'm guessing Rean has a stigma but how has Emma known about it all this time...
For the record I'm not actually expecting someone to answer all these questions, I'm just excited and needed to let it out somewhere. I should probably finish the game, or at least the chapter, before going on rants like this. Needless to say I'm enjoying it. :p
 

Thud

Member
CS1 Chapter 5! *dramatic gasp*
The Lance Maiden! A ghost, immortal, or secret descendant? But then the cat called her the Steel Maiden... and what is Celine's deal anyway... I'm assuming she's one of those trickster fairies I read about in the library lol. There seems to be way more going on with Emma than I ever expected. I figured she was some kind of witch at first, then I started to think she was working for the church but when Laura asked her she denied it and said "more like the opposite" so I was like enforcer?!! XD But that's highly unlikely so I'm back on witch... I'm guessing Rean has a stigma but how has Emma known about it all this time...
For the record I'm not actually expecting someone to answer all these questions, I'm just excited and needed to let it out somewhere. I should probably finish the game, or at least the chapter, before going on rants like this. Needless to say I'm enjoying it. :p

You still have quite a bit to go :p
 

shimon

Member
CS1 Chapter 5! *dramatic gasp*
The Lance Maiden! A ghost, immortal, or secret descendant? But then the cat called her the Steel Maiden... and what is Celine's deal anyway... I'm assuming she's one of those trickster fairies I read about in the library lol. There seems to be way more going on with Emma than I ever expected. I figured she was some kind of witch at first, then I started to think she was working for the church but when Laura asked her she denied it and said "more like the opposite" so I was like enforcer?!! XD But that's highly unlikely so I'm back on witch... I'm guessing Rean has a stigma but how has Emma known about it all this time...
For the record I'm not actually expecting someone to answer all these questions, I'm just excited and needed to let it out somewhere. I should probably finish the game, or at least the chapter, before going on rants like this. Needless to say I'm enjoying it. :p

Heh I remember having similar thoughts about Emma: "Who the hell is she?"

Great game.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Heh I remember having similar thoughts about Emma: "Who the hell is she?"

Great game.

I found it annoying that
the game never actually goes anywhere with it. CS1 constantly hints and teases and then never pays off before they drop the cliffhanger apart from "she has ties to Vita." You still don't have any idea who she is or what her motivations are, apart from her not aligning with Vita.

But that's kind of a theme for the whole game, it was one of several things that irked me about Cold Steel's ending. FC's ending was much better in that regard. I feel like I literally played half a game with Cold Steel.
 
I found it annoying that
the game never actually goes anywhere with it. CS1 constantly hints and teases and then never pays off before they drop the cliffhanger apart from "she has ties to Vita." You still don't have any idea who she is or what her motivations are, apart from her not aligning with Vita.

The entire series is like that, though. [Sky]
Who the heck is Olivier? What the heck is Ouroboros? Who the heck is Lorence? What the heck is the Gospel Plan? We had no idea what those are or what the motivations of those people are.
Isn't series-spanning mysteries part of the appeal?
 

Nabae

Unconfirmed Member
The entire series is like that, though. [Sky]
Who the heck is Olivier? What the heck is Ouroboros? Who the heck is Lorence? What the heck is the Gospel Plan? We had no idea what those are or what the motivations of those people are.
Isn't series-spanning mysteries part of the appeal?
It certainly is. For my second run through Cold Steel, I'm putting together a folder of screenshots for things I want answered. When CS2 PC comes, it'll be interesting to keep track of what gets addressed and what new mysteries are posed.

As a single game I think it did fine. Cold Steel 1 spoilers:
Class VII worked out their differences, we learned about why Class VII was formed and about Sara's past, we learned that Sharon has ties to Ouroboros, the mystery behind the old schoolhouse was answered, and C was unmasked, to cover most of the big ones.
Overall I thought it did at least as much as Sky FC.
 

Nyoro SF

Member
The entire series is like that, though. [Sky]
Who the heck is Olivier? What the heck is Ouroboros? Who the heck is Lorence? What the heck is the Gospel Plan? We had no idea what those are or what the motivations of those people are.
Isn't series-spanning mysteries part of the appeal?

I think he was not criticizing mysteries as a concept, but the presentation of said mystery.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
I think he was not criticizing mysteries as a concept, but the presentation of said mystery.

Exactly. It worked fine in Sky
where you actually had a degree of closure and the story passed from one arc to another between FC and SC. You spent FC learning about the black orbment and challenging the intelligence division, while rising through the ranks as a junior Bracer. All that has closure and transitions to SC where you are dealing with Ouroboros and finding Joshua.

On the other hand Cold Steel
resolves nothing at all except the old school house, which was never positioned as a major part of the main story unlike the events that got closure in FC. The actual story events you spend most of the game dealing with reach a climax and leave you hanging.

As far as characters go the arcs handle things similarly, but
Emma bothered me more than Olivier just because they completely forgo all subtlety with Emma.
On the other hand Cold Steel did a better job with most of the rest of the cast, but it did have the advantage of having more people around more often. One of my criticisms for FC would be that too many party members get very little development until SC.
 
Exactly. It worked fine in Sky
where you actually had a degree of closure and the story passed from one arc to another between FC and SC. You spent FC learning about the black orbment and challenging the intelligence division, while rising through the ranks as a junior Bracer. All that has closure and transitions to SC where you are dealing with Ouroboros and finding Joshua.

On the other hand Cold Steel
resolves nothing at all except the old school house, which was never positioned as a major part of the main story unlike the events that got closure in FC. The actual story events you spend most of the game dealing with reach a climax and leave you hanging.

I feel like that's another problem entirely.

The main example of your argument is how [CS1/FC]
Emma is continuously teased to be somebody yet the game never answered that except vaguely. The exact same thing could be said with Olivier, with his occasional mysterious conversations. We learnt about black orbment but never told what it actually is. We ventured the mysterious labyrinth beneath Grancel but what the heck is that? Some mysterious powerful villains appear but who the heck are they?

The only difference is we actually defeated the Intelligence Division (who knows nothing, by the way) and thus there's a sense of accomplishment there. So sure, FC is better in providing plot closure, instead of leaving things where we feel defeated in all fronts. I don't disagree at all.

However, I don't think us not knowing who Emma is has anything to do with that.
 
Emma's character development isn't really handled well.
All the teases in the first game don't lead to a satisfying conclusion in CS2. The narrative would have been far better served putting those reveals in the first game instead of putting her on freeze for so much of the series.

Though FC ends on one of the biggest cliffhangers I have ever experienced in media, so I wouldn't exactly praise that for its conclusiveness.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
I feel like that's another problem entirely.

The main example of your argument is how [CS1/FC]
Emma is continuously teased to be somebody yet the game never answered that except vaguely. The exact same thing could be said with Olivier, with his occasional mysterious conversations. We learnt about black orbment but never told what it actually is. We ventured the mysterious labyrinth beneath Grancel but what the heck is that? Some mysterious powerful villains appear but who the heck are they?

The only difference is we actually defeated the Intelligence Division (who knows nothing, by the way) and thus there's a sense of accomplishment there. So sure, FC is better in providing plot closure, instead of leaving things where we feel defeated in all fronts. I don't disagree at all.

However, I don't think us not knowing who Emma is has anything to do with that.

You're right, the Emma thing is a symptom and not the actual problem.

I almost feel like CS1 and CS2 together are going to roughly be equivalent to FC in terms of the story being told, while CS3 and CS4 will be more akin to SC.

Though FC ends on one of the biggest cliffhangers I have ever experienced in media, so I wouldn't exactly praise that for its conclusiveness.

It's really only those last couple scenes that are doozies. Before that the main plot threads for the game get some closure, even if there are still some lingering questions about the details.
 
You're right, the Emma thing is a symptom and not the actual problem.

I almost feel like CS1 and CS2 together are going to roughly be equivalent to FC in terms of the story being told, while CS3 and CS4 will be more akin to SC.

Eh, CS2 doesn't leave things many more loose threads dangling than SC. It's just that there isn't a change in geography or lead character afterward.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
On another note entirely, Guren is a beast and has Ao up to about 72% translated.

With Catasplurge helping now I wonder if they will get to 50% on editing Zero by the end of the month, since they've been hitting about 10% per month since May.
 

preta

Member
On another note entirely, Guren is a beast and has Ao up to about 72% translated.

With Catasplurge helping now I wonder if they will get to 50% on editing Zero by the end of the month, since they've been hitting about 10% per month since May.

It's got both Guren and Flame working on it.
 

lisaeves

Neo Member
SC is probably the least surprising game in the entire series, whereas by the the sounds of it CS3 has a billion twists and turns throughout, so i'm not sure if the comparison makes sense anymore tbh. CS1/CS2 together did feel like FC though.
 

ResourcefulStar

Neo Member
I'm always surprised to see people sort of lump CS and CS II together when discussing their strengths and weaknesses because I found them to be very different games. I thought CS struck a fantastic balance between world building, character development, and dungeon crawling in every single chapter after the prologue. It's my favorite of the localized Trails games for this reason.

CS II, on the other hand, limits most of its interesting developments to the Intermission, the Finale, the Divertissement, and the Epilogue. Acts 1 and 2, the bulk of the game, primarily consist of highly episodic action sequences, and the series remains bad at them because of
the writers' reluctance to kill characters off, including interchangeable faceless, nameless goons, which becomes doubly silly in a game about a civil war
.

Act 1 feels almost completely pointless. The only scenes of note are the ones that
introduce new antagonists and set up rivalries between them and some of the Class VII members at the end of each sub-chapter
. Focusing on
Toval, Claire, and Sharon
instead of
melodramatic reunion scenes
would have given it much more purpose. As it stands, it's mostly padding.

Act 2 is better and gives
Angelica, Sara, Emma, Jusis, Vulkan, and Scarlet
some deserved attention, but it still feels disjointed and rushed in a way that CS never did. There's no equivalent of the first day of a field study. Every sub-chapter you do the equivalent of a free day and then go straight to the supposedly exciting climax, which ends up being far less exciting than it should be because it received no setup other than
Towa's briefing
immediately before it.

I don't think the split itself was a mistake.
The civil war
(CS Final Chapter spoiler) absolutely deserved an entire game of its own instead of being resolved in 20-30 hours, like it probably would have happened if CS and CS II had remained a single game. The problem is that Falcom messed up the execution and didn't flesh out the story anywhere near enough to carry a 100 hour game. For this reason, CS II is my least favorite of the localized Trails games.
 

Thud

Member
They're the same game with the same structure. Acts are just longer chapters.

2 is slightly better with more crafts, more characters and more bosses (trial chest da best). While plotlines are still on hold the game has a satisfying ending.
 

ResourcefulStar

Neo Member
They're the same game with the same structure. Acts are just longer chapters.
CS II acts aren't the equivalent of CS chapters, CS II parts are, of which Act 1 has 3, and Act 2 has 4. Each part focuses on a different location and different characters and offers a new round of side quests and bonding events. Basically, CS has 8 chapters (Prologue, 6 numbered chapters, Final Chapter), while CS II has 12 (Prologue, 3 part long Act 1, Intermission, 4 part long Act 2, Finale, Divertissement, Epilogue). At the same time, both are 100 hour long games, so the plot in CS II moves about 1.5 times as fast as in CS. The action may benefit from it, and it does help in creating an impression that
the party members are wanted fugitives
for much of the game, but the exposition and character development suffer.
 

Thud

Member
I would go even as far as saying all games with the exception of the 3rd have the same structure.

Cold Steel II doesn't do anything different in that regard. Every Act is a chapter, something that fits a certain theme. Acts break up into parts, where each part has a different story beat but the structure is the same of all parts. The objective is clear from the start and you know the game will abide to that.

The Intermission or Divertissement aren't new concepts as well (see Zero and Ao). They're meant as breaking the pace giving the player food for thought before continuing the main story. Cold Steel would have had one if they didn't cut it from the game and put it into a drama cd.

Each individual game does try to shake things up with gameplay or plot twists, but that doesn't make Cold Steel II that different from Cold Steel.

The one notable difference would be (CS2 spoilers)
you're no longer a regular school student. Basically rebels that try to reclaim their place.

Which also means the school system which Cold Steel was known for vanishes.
I also wouldn't say Cold Steel II has a much faster pace. (CS2 spoilers again)
For the most part of the game you're playing one month. That's one chapter in other games.

What does make a difference is that Cold Steel II has more reveals in sequence. Just like SC and Ao it builds on the previous game. It doesn't have to build from scratch again, but that doesn't make the game that different from its predecessor.

I do think everything Cold Steel does Cold Steel II does better, but yeah the games are pretty similar imo.
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
and the series remains bad at them because of
the writers' reluctance to kill characters off, including interchangeable faceless, nameless goons, which becomes doubly silly in a game about a civil war
.
I hated this so much. How can I take this story seriously when they are too cowardly to actually
show the horrors and consequences of war?

I've said this before, but Cold Steel, and probably Kiseki in general, is just way, way too sanitized. That's a shame, because there's some really good storytelling in the series, but it's marred by its overuse of Anime clichés and overly sanitized setting.

Is the gameplay/combat of CS II similar to the first or did they make a lot of changes?
Similar. I think the only difference is they tweaked chain attacks (IIRC).
 

ResourcefulStar

Neo Member
I would go even as far as saying all games with the exception of the 3rd have the same structure.

Cold Steel II doesn't do anything different in that regard. Every Act is a chapter, something that fits a certain theme. Acts break up into parts, where each part has a different story beat but the structure is the same of all parts. The objective is clear from the start and you know the game will abide to that.

The Intermission or Divertissement aren't new concepts as well (see Zero and Ao). They're meant as breaking the pace giving the player food for thought before continuing the main story. Cold Steel would have had one if they didn't cut it from the game and put it into a drama cd.

Each individual game does try to shake things up with gameplay or plot twists, but that doesn't make Cold Steel II that different from Cold Steel.

The one notable difference would be (CS2 spoilers)
you're no longer a regular school student. Basically rebels that try to reclaim their place.

Which also means the school system which Cold Steel was known for vanishes.
I also wouldn't say Cold Steel II has a much faster pace. (CS2 spoilers again)
For the most part of the game you're playing one month. That's one chapter in other games.

What does make a difference is that Cold Steel II has more reveals in sequence. Just like SC and Ao it builds on the previous game. It doesn't have to build from scratch again, but that doesn't make the game that different from its predecessor.

I do think everything Cold Steel does Cold Steel II does better, but yeah the games are pretty similar imo.
Here's the structure of a typical CS chapter:
1. Free day. Quests for the student council, bonding events, schoolhouse exploration.
2. First 1 or 2 days of a field study. The introduction of a new city and its NPCs, character development for members of Class VII, foreshadowing for the chapter's climax.
3. The final day of a field study. Something big happens, and the main plot thread of the game (
ILF
) is advanced.

Here's the structure of an Act 2 part in CS II:
1. Revenge of the free day.
Quests for Olivert, recruiting students, elemental shrine exploration
.
2. The big set piece that advances the main plot thread of the act (
liberating cities in a very neutral, third party fashion
).
3. Bonding events in
the newly liberated city
.

The big change is the omission of the second part of the CS template in CS II's Act 2. It may not look like a big deal at first because hey, the cities and the characters were already introduced in CS, right? The problem is that a ton of character development scenes used to be placed there:
Machias overhearing Rean and Jusis
in Chapter 2,
Laura and Fie having a duel and teaming up to fight Rean and Machias after that
in Chapter 4,
Rean and Fie sneaking out to meet Claire
in Chapter 6. They couldn't really be moved anywhere else either: action sequences at the end of each part don't lend themselves to quiet, introspective scenes, while the opening segments are meant to be a little sandboxy and focus on exploration of
liberated areas
, side quests, and dungeon crawling in
the shrines
instead of storytelling and advancing character arcs. As a result, scenes like that are mostly gone in CS II, and it's not like CS II has no more use for them:
the decision of everyone except Rean to drop out of Thors
in the Epilogue kind of comes out of nowhere and definitely could use some buildup throughout the game.

I like the main plot line of CS II and Rean's development. My issue with the game is that characters who aren't Rean don't get as much attention as in CS. Even Sky the 3rd gave secondary characters more love, thanks to the Star and Moon doors.
 
I'm still ok with Kiseki's saccharine storytelling. Its one of the only epic stories I can enjoy without it trying to flare my depression up ever few hours.

Until you get to Star Door 15 in 3rd...

Perhaps the writers felt bolder because it was an out-of-the-way optional side story, but it’s still a bit strange that they were willing to be so dark there and yet be so wary of getting dark elsewhere in the series, most notably in Cold Steel.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Until you get to Star Door 15 in 3rd...

Perhaps the writers felt bolder because it was an out-of-the-way optional side story, but it’s still a bit strange that they were willing to be so dark there and yet be so wary of getting dark elsewhere in the series, most notably in Cold Steel.

3rd in general is a bit darker, I wonder if there was some backlash to that so later games avoid that.
 
Until you get to Star Door 15 in 3rd...

Perhaps the writers felt bolder because it was an out-of-the-way optional side story, but it’s still a bit strange that they were willing to be so dark there and yet be so wary of getting dark elsewhere in the series, most notably in Cold Steel.
Kiseki always tells its most wrenching bits in backstories. Star Door 15 hit extremely strongly, but its easier to get past.


The backstories of Machias, Joshua, Kevin, Renne, Ries etc are all very dark, but they keep the present more saccharine
 

PK Gaming

Member
Until you get to Star Door 15 in 3rd...

Perhaps the writers felt bolder because it was an out-of-the-way optional side story, but it's still a bit strange that they were willing to be so dark there and yet be so wary of getting dark elsewhere in the series, most notably in Cold Steel.

3rd in general is darker across the board. It still has its fair share of saccharine moments, but a heap tone of heavier moments to balance it out. It easily has my favorite narrative and atmosphere in a Kiseki game, hands down.
 

ResourcefulStar

Neo Member
Underage Schera drinking an explicitly alcoholic beverage
in Sky the 3rd is almost more shocking than Star Door 15, considering how the series handles the subject usually.
 

Nyoro SF

Member
Let's do some work for the ESRB (lol). Obviously not counting generic battle attacks, only story scenes and S-Crafts.

FC has one of the final boss s-crafts draw out a large amount of blood on contact. I believe this is the only incidence of blood in the game. Outside of that I don't recall any heavy violence in the story.

SC has an implied suicide and someone getting murdered in a non-bloody fashion. I don't recall any blood or heavy violence in the game, someone can correct me. Also has a flashback scene with an implied rape.

3rd goes without saying. Suicide, stabbing, projectile death, blood is visible many times, Star Door 15, Star Door 2 describes someone getting executed in rather nasty detail given the buildup, Star Door 10 describes human trafficking and experimentation in detail as well (not sure if these last two count as they are 99% text). One character's s-craft has big blood draw. Underage drinking.

Zero has one person die nonviolently (anime fashion). There's also a scene where someone gets shot in the leg and I believe you can see a small bloodstain there. There's some ghastly stuff that references human experimentation but it's only a text description and not visual. There are instances and scenes of narcotic abuse and trade.

Ao shows many people getting gunned to death both with and without blood. There's one scene where someone gets stabbed right through the stomach with a pool of blood afterwards. There's also a scene where someone is getting beaten up and there's a pool of blood under them. There's also several in-game scenes of non-bloody violence like heavy blunt injuries. Several bosses show blood draw with s-crafts but it's black lines on a red background. Visual references to mercenary raids with violent results. There's also torture (pre-final boss) but it's done in a roundabout way.

CS1 has several scenes with corpses lying in pools of their own blood. The game also shows non-bloody story scenes of soldiers getting shot or cut to death. One person gets shot right through the chest and there is a large pool of blood afterwards. Several suicides by poison capsule.

CS2 has a blackout scene of someone getting shot with blood pooling afterwards. There is one suicide scene in the game and an attempted suicide scene in another. One off-screen death; probably doesn't count. One character gets stabbed in the chest out-of-picture but dies in-picture but I don't believe there is any blood shown and the wound is covered by a hand.

Thought about including kidnapping and hostage taking here but wasn't sure.
 

PK Gaming

Member
Underage Schera drinking an explicitly alcoholic beverage
in Sky the 3rd is almost more shocking than Star Door 15, considering how the series handles the subject usually.

Not even just Kiseki, but Japanese media in general. Underage drinking is a serious taboo and a terrible fodder for "older character tries to rope a younger character into drinking" jokes (sorry Sara)

...Which is why CS3 is so refreshing because the characters are all finally old enough to drink.
 

shimon

Member
Thx for answers guys. Good news then,I was afraid they could go nuts and start changing shit. I very much enjoyed combat in 1, can't wait for 2!
 

preta

Member
CS3's got
attempted and (I think?) successful suicide, implied deaths by gunshot and explosion, and the bloody onscreen death of a child
. (As vague as the descriptions above, but tagged anyway just in case because the game's still new.) I imagine the last one in particular is what earned it the CERO C rating.
 

Erheller

Member
Let's do some work for the ESRB (lol). Obviously not counting generic battle attacks, only story scenes and S-Crafts.

FC has one of the final boss s-crafts draw out a large amount of blood on contact. I believe this is the only incidence of blood in the game. Outside of that I don't recall any heavy violence in the story.

SC has an implied suicide and someone getting murdered in a non-bloody fashion. I don't recall any blood or heavy violence in the game. Someone can correct me.

3rd goes without saying. Suicide, stabbing, projectile death, blood is visible many times, Star Door 15, Star Door 2 describes someone getting executed in rather nasty detail given the buildup, Star Door 10 describes human trafficking and experimentation in detail as well (not sure if these last two count as they are 99% text). One character's s-craft has big blood draw. Underage drinking.

Zero has no blood or deaths IIRC outside of one boss (nonviolent death). There's some ghastly stuff that references human experimentation but it's only a text description and not visual. There are instances and scenes of narcotic abuse and trade.

Ao shows many people getting gunned to death both with and without blood. There's one scene where someone gets stabbed right through the stomach with a pool of blood afterwards. There's also a scene where someone is getting beaten up and there's a pool of blood under them. There's also several in-game scenes of non-bloody violence like heavy blunt injuries. Several bosses show blood draw with s-crafts but it's black lines on a red background. Visual references to mercenary raids with violent results.

CS1 has several scenes with corpses lying in pools of their own blood. The game also shows non-bloody story scenes of soldiers getting shot or cut to death. One person gets shot right through the chest and there is a large pool of blood afterwards. Several suicides by poison capsule.

CS2 has a blackout scene of someone getting shot with blood pooling afterwards. There is one suicide scene in the game and an attempted suicide scene in another. One off-screen death; probably doesn't count.

Thought about including kidnapping since SC and 3rd have it, but wasn't sure.

SC had implied
rape in Joshua/Loewe's backstory, unless I'm misremembering
 

Jiraiza

Member
Is it safe to say that Jusis after CS3 has the
worst family situation
of all time in this series? Why's my boy gotta
suffer
like this?
 

Nyoro SF

Member
Updated my post a few more times to fill in the gaps in my memory.

So the gist of it is that FC is the Trails game with the least amount of violence or adult themes followed by SC and then Zero and then CS2. Zero and (especially) Ao have more sexuality on display than the Sky and Steel series as well.

Violence has always existed in the Trails series but the degree and display of how it is shown has changed per title. I believe Ao has the most prominent display of violence because the violent scenes actually happen in real time and are not relegated to flashbacks or side stories most of the time. 3rd has the most prominent display of adult themes without competition but all the violence in 3rd happens in the side stories/flashbacks (still very gruesome).

CS1 shows way more violence than Zero, and if it showed violence in real-time like Ao did instead of relying on cutscene angles, timing, etc., I think it would actually be close to Ao for the most violent Kiseki game. The game has almost no adult themes outside of anti-terrorism but I suppose that makes sense considering the majority of the setting. Would be kind of weird if drug trafficking or gangs were part of the fabric of Thors, lol. And you can't have characters like Wazy being a sexy host for the Literature Club either. I suppose Falcom thought that the military theme would be enough but that's not really demonstrated until late in the game and it's only for half of one chapter.

CS2 funnily enough despite the change in setting has less violent content than CS1. The suicide and attempted suicide are not displayed in a violent way. The CS1 scene of someone getting shot in the chest is shown with way more violent context than the scene in CS2 where someone gets stabbed in the chest. Off-screen death is obviously not very violent lol. Almost included the hostage situations from CS1 and CS2 but decided against as no real violence is inflicted during those times. Regarding adult content or themes I think we can include (CS2 major spoiler)
war crimes (firebombing civilians), and of course the fallout of war theme.
.

tl;dr whether you enjoy violence or not I thought someone might be interested in reading about Trails's history of it. I think they are careful to not show violence when they can so that when real violent scenes happen they can shock you. And I think how many adult themes they incorporate into their games is highly dependent on the setting.
 

OrionX

Member
Yeah the past definitely has a tendency of seeming far darker than the present. I was pretty shocked in CS1 ch. 3 when a
named npc soldier I had just met died in that terrorist attack. I got used to FC and SC being all "but don't worry nobody died!" anytime something dangerous happened and people mostly just fainting pokemon-style. lol

Anyway, I'm currently at the start of Chapter 6,
onboard the Courageous.
It's good to see the lovely
Mueller
getting a little screen time~

Oh yeah and I'm pretty sure I have a good idea who C is... I don't wanna be right though. :(
 

Nyoro SF

Member
Ladies and gentlemen.... we at Kiseki GAF are at a bit of a crossroads with the current site owner. Should you decide to stay or go, I won't judge anyone. As for me, I may periodically drop in, like I always have. I never posted in this thread for the sake of anyone but the community here and I'm also not a fan of the alternative forum options.

Should you find the environment a little too virulent and unstable and/or you find the site owner a very disagreeable fellow of which you want no dealings with, feel free to PM me for discord links. Even if you're an eternal lurker, we will welcome you. Not if you're a shitposter though. :)

EDIT: Apparently I can only send PMs every 10 minutes, so if there's a delay, that's why. Sorry!
 

Neoweee

Member
Where is everyone going to now?

Wherever takes off as the heir to this place, I guess. Time will tell.

GAF is still salvageable. It went down more to Evilore throwing the mods under the bus as he slowrolled his shitty statement and let them deal with the shitstorm. He either has to sell and hope for a decent buyer, or get a bunch of mods and try to weather the storm

*shrugs*

who da fuq knows.

Ladies and gentlemen.... we at Kiseki GAF are at a bit of a crossroads with the current site owner. Should you decide to stay or go, I won't judge anyone. As for me, I may periodically drop in, like I always have. I never posted in this thread for the sake of anyone but the community here and I'm also not a fan of the alternative forum options.

Should you find the environment a little too virulent and unstable and/or you find the site owner a very disagreeable fellow of which you want no dealings with, feel free to PM me for discord links. Even if you're an eternal lurker, we will welcome you. Not if you're a shitposter though. :)

EDIT: Apparently I can only send PMs every 10 minutes, so if there's a delay, that's why. Sorry!

On second thought, I could use a link as well.

Waaaay more people care about mod drama and their personal failings than I had ever expected, based on how many people are committing account suicide.
 
Ladies and gentlemen.... we at Kiseki GAF are at a bit of a crossroads with the current site owner. Should you decide to stay or go, I won't judge anyone. As for me, I may periodically drop in, like I always have. I never posted in this thread for the sake of anyone but the community here and I'm also not a fan of the alternative forum options.

Should you find the environment a little too virulent and unstable and/or you find the site owner a very disagreeable fellow of which you want no dealings with, feel free to PM me for discord links. Even if you're an eternal lurker, we will welcome you. Not if you're a shitposter though. :)

EDIT: Apparently I can only send PMs every 10 minutes, so if there's a delay, that's why. Sorry!
I am there already, I think. I mostly lurk though.
 

apd_ng

Member
Ladies and gentlemen.... we at Kiseki GAF are at a bit of a crossroads with the current site owner. Should you decide to stay or go, I won't judge anyone. As for me, I may periodically drop in, like I always have. I never posted in this thread for the sake of anyone but the community here and I'm also not a fan of the alternative forum options.

Should you find the environment a little too virulent and unstable and/or you find the site owner a very disagreeable fellow of which you want no dealings with, feel free to PM me for discord links. Even if you're an eternal lurker, we will welcome you. Not if you're a shitposter though. :)

EDIT: Apparently I can only send PMs every 10 minutes, so if there's a delay, that's why. Sorry!

Is it the one linked via reddit? Might think I have it, if not. Are you able to pm me? :)
 
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