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

Korigama

Member
Since I do UX/UI design, I think it's hysterical. It's like when I'm trying to put stuff together and I'm all 'OHSHIT GET ME SOME LIPSUM, STAT'

I am guilty of doing exactly what they did in that screenshot- I've only done it TONS of times. rofl
Since the subject is text for graphics, I take it that this also extends to random book covers in Cold Steel (i.e., "Christ, Who's Gonna Die First?", "Woo Baby")?
 

Gu4n

Member
Since the subject is text for graphics, I take it that this also extends to random book covers in Cold Steel (i.e., "Christ, Who's Gonna Die First?", "Woo Baby")?
That shouldn't come as a surprise from a company who listed the Erebonian Bracers Guild branches as Wrest Rhea, Erepaus, Megiporig, Lapappe, Ajapar and Manchester in one of its background visuals, not to mention its comparison of orbal energy and Sept-Terrion.
 

omgfloofy

Banned
Since the subject is text for graphics, I take it that this also extends to random book covers in Cold Steel (i.e., "Christ, Who's Gonna Die First?", "Woo Baby")?

You hadn't heard of Christ, Who's Gonna Die First until now? It was on the Imperial Chronicle's best seller list three times in a ro-*bricked*
 

Psxphile

Member
ToCSII Facebook page continues to update w/ new english screens and DLC confirmations.

tumblr_obtqau4sqE1vsasu8o1_1280.jpg

Wasn't aware this was a thing.
 

Psxphile

Member
It was a shop preorder bonus for CSII. you had to get the game from a specific shop to get those costumes. Nice to see that we're getting them! :D

Yeah, but it doesn't say *how* we're getting them. They can still be pre-order shop exclusives!

Say it ain't so, Xseed. Say it ain't so.
 

CSX

Member
Finally finished Trails SC last night and enjoyed it.

My history of the series started years back with the PSP version of FC. As I played, I was thinking "How the hell do people find this game good? Combat is slow and boring. The story is predictable. Feels like a grind!"

So I gave up after getting to the third city in the game.

As the years passed by, I observed the fanbase getting bigger and more vocal. I also played Ys VI on PC and really enjoyed it. Thus this summer I decided to try playing Trails FC again but now on PC thanks to summer sales. I also bought SC just in case I found FC good after my 2nd attempt.

Oh man what a different opinion I started constructing for this game!

I still found a good chunk of plot points/twist predictable and the combat not exactly the best. However, I came to appreciate the attention to detail in creating the world and characters. I started to like Estelle and Joshua's banter and growth throughout their journey. The music I found fantastic (and even more fantastic when someone showed me a mod to replace it with the EVO soundtrack). The thing I appreciated the goddam most was the dialouge. My god, having nearly all the NPCs have different lines to say to the party whenever you advanced an inch in the main plot or a sidequest is INSANE! It doesn't bloat the story yet makes the world so much more alive. My favorite moment with this was (SC mid-late game spoiler)
when you return to Rolent with Joshua and all the citizens there are happy to see the two together again.

After finishing FC and seeing how it sets up the major conflict for SC, I immediately booted up SC and imported my save lol. This was around 2AM iirc. Few weeks later and voila I'm ready to get started on Cold Steel.

Since I didn't find combat the best thing about the two games, I really hated how they set up the final dungeon for both games. Way way too much mandatory battles scrunched up together and so many long ass straight corridors.

With my problems with the combat, I think that if I had the option to speed up or skip animations, I would find it a lot more tolerable. I do find the concept of utilizing location on the battle grid and manipulating the turn order interesting. I guess that SMT and Fire Emblem have spoiled me on how fast paced battles are in those series.

Fun tidbit : I told two of my friends that I finished Legend of Heroes, they were like "Oh shit Legend of Heroes!! That game was the shit back in middle school!" However, TiTS came out right before we started college. Turns out they played A Tear of Vermillion. I did some research and it seems that the major consensus is that Trails blows away ToV. I told them that and now they are hyped to wait for the same sale to buy FC and SC lol.
 

preta

Member
The music I found fantastic (and even more fantastic when someone showed me a mod to replace it with the EVO soundtrack).

Great to hear you enjoyed the games! But please tell me you at least listened to the regular versions of the soundtracks as well. I found them, in most cases, to be much better than the Evo versions. Of the five Evo soundtracks, the only one I think can stand up to the original is Ao/Azure's.

Also, have fun with Cold Steel! I'll just say this: Be glad you're starting it with Cold Steel II right around the corner.

Anyway, I've been thinking. Now, I may be misunderstanding something here, but (Ao endgame spoilers)
what's stopping Ouroboros from rewriting history to their liking at any time, now that they have the power of the Treasure of Zero? Is the power inert without a vessel or something, or are (non-KeA) users perhaps not immune to its effects, thus rendering it pointless since they won't even know anything past the point that they rewind to?

And now that I think about it, if they were ever to use it at any point in the future, history would have been rewritten in the past already, right? Since this series seems to utilize closed-loop time travel. (Maybe it has already been rewritten at some point? Who knows)

Related question: Do we know what, exactly, KeA did to get Estelle and Joshua (and Renne) to join up with the SSS for the raid on the Fortress of the Sun?
 

CSX

Member
Great to hear you enjoyed the games! But please tell me you at least listened to the regular versions of the soundtracks as well. I found them to be much better than the Evo versions (and I know many people here would agree with me on this). Of the five Evo soundtracks, the only one I think can stand up to the original is Ao/Azure's.

Yes! Liked both versions but i digged the "live instruments" of the EVO versions enough to not bother flipping back to original soundtrack.
 

preta

Member
Yes! Liked both versions but i digged the "live instruments" of the EVO versions enough to not bother flipping back to original soundtrack.

So do you really think this is preferable to this? Okay then...

Definitely listen to the Super Arrange albums and Sora no Kiseki Zanmai as well. They're excellent.
 
Holy moly, after about 45 minutes, I finally beat the Divine Penguin in SC. Outside of SMT, this may be one of the most frustrating bosses I've ever fought, I'm not sure if I was doing something wrong, but I was barely doing damage. Lousy experience reward too.
 

Shahed

Member
Since we won't be getting The 3rd next year anybody got any RPG recommendations?
Gonna try Xenogears and Grandia, anyone have any other suggestions?
Other than both games being amongst the best I've ever played in my life? Xenogears while it does have it's light hearted moments, is very story focused and quite serious about the tone of the whole thing. Fantastic game even if disc 2 is a bit rushed. The music in that game is just the best thing ever and only behind Chrono Cross.

Grandia is more light hearted. It feels like mkre of an adventure with a sense of excitement and discovery that few games have managed. Kind of like Skies of Arcadia although that game does it better. It's also the series that for me has the best turn based battle system to exist with it's positionals, AoE's, Tech cancelling and more.

Both awesome games. Just go for whichever tone of game you feel like playing at the moment.


So I bought Trails of Cold Steel but wanted to maximize my enjoyment of the series...so I logically got TitS FC and SC.

It'll be a long time before I play Trails of Cold Steel, but any gameplay advice for Trails in the Sky ? I'm playing them on PSP by the way.
The Bracer notebook is your Bible. Read an pay attention to it! Arte's are overpowered compared to physical attacks (well until Cold Steel anyway), so use your notebook to figure out how to use more useful spells like Aerial and White Gehenna. Speed/Action is your best stat!
 
So I bought Trails of Cold Steel but wanted to maximize my enjoyment of the series...so I logically got TitS FC and SC.

It'll be a long time before I play Trails of Cold Steel, but any gameplay advice for Trails in the Sky ? I'm playing them on PSP by the way.
 
So I bought Trails of Cold Steel but wanted to maximize my enjoyment of the series...so I logically got TitS FC and SC.

It'll be a long time before I play Trails of Cold Steel, but any gameplay advice for Trails in the Sky ? I'm playing them on PSP by the way.
Like Shahed says above, Speed/Action is super important. Anything that modifies turn order is valuable. And get used to using S-Crafts to interrupt your enemies and steal/deny bonuses. Setting up a spell (whether you need the spell or not) can also have the same effect, since it will schedule that character to cast a few turns later, which can muck up turn order and steal/deny bonuses too.
 
Man, the end game stuff sounds so bad
Reminds me Tower of Spirits from Dinosaur. The resurrection version is so much worse than the original
Huh. I expected to hear the FM Towns version instead, which sounds less dirty but just as powerful and has a clearer bassline. Resurrection version is pretty amazing though, close enough in quality if not better and more developed.

That game's final boss theme sounds better on FM Towns if you ask me. Sonoda's arrangement for Resurrection feels wimpy, and the original transition from rockin' march to something more like prog is gorgeous.
 
Since we won't be getting The 3rd next year anybody got any RPG recommendations?
Gonna try Xenogears and Grandia, anyone have any other suggestions?


Man, the end game stuff sounds so bad
Reminds me Tower of Spirits from Dinosaur. The resurrection version is so much worse than the original

If you haven't played Suikoden thats a series that kinda feels like Trails alpha in the way characters and locations are teased in one game and become relevant in the sequel. Grandia is fantastic and Xenogears has an amazing first disc before becoming one of the most fascinating cases of finishing a massive games on a budget you'll ever see.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Wait, did I miss a piece of news? Or is it still 2017?

There was probably supposed to be an "until" in there. A delay beyond 2017 would be insane since Brittany previously said it should be sometime early-ish in the year. That's subject to change of course, but at the least we know they weren't targeting a date that would be likely to get pushed to 2018.
 

Thoraxes

Member
I assume he meant to say "till 2017"

There was probably supposed to be an "until" in there. A delay beyond 2017 would be insane since Brittany previously said it should be sometime early-ish in the year. That's subject to change of course, but at the least we know they weren't targeting a date that would be likely to get pushed to 2018.

That's what I figured, but I wanted to make sure!
 

Mozendo

Member
If you haven't played Suikoden thats a series that kinda feels like Trails alpha in the way characters and locations are teased in one game and become relevant in the sequel. Grandia is fantastic and Xenogears has an amazing first disc before becoming one of the most fascinating cases of finishing a massive games on a budget you'll ever see.
Can you talk more about Suikoden? I played the first one for like 30 minutes wasn't really feeling it (and i have no idea how to save).
Also iirc Suikoden 2 had a crapload of glitches right? Was that fixed on the PSN version

I assume he meant to say "till 2017"

There was probably supposed to be an "until" in there.

Yes yes. ;_; sorry for the confusion. I'll edit the post
 
Can you talk more about Suikoden? I played the first one for like 30 minutes wasn't really feeling it (and i have no idea how to save).
Also iirc Suikoden 2 had a crapload of glitches right? Was that fixed on the PSN version

Suikoden is a series of jrpgs focused on various wars across different kingdoms in an innerconnected world. The main gimmick is that there are 108 stars of destiny and your main character in each game must recruit them in order to lead his side to victory. The 108 can either be characters for your actual combat party (which has 6 characters at a time), people who help out during the war battle scenes (these play differently each game s1 has rock paper scissors on steroids, s2 has fire emblem light, s3 reminds me of simplified ogre battle), or people who spruce up your castle with shops and other improvements.

The first game has a fairly simple story of a boy who's father is a great military general in the empire that is obviously corrupt and treating its expanded territories like garbage. When mc's best friend is targeted for a powerful magical item he possess the main character gets swept up and becomes the leader of the rebellion fighting against the empire. The first game is good but mostly sets up the ground work for the vastly superior sequels Suikoden 2 and 3. Suikoden 2 is the best in the series partially because it has a top 5 villain in all of gaming and the first two Suikoden games are worth playing for him alone.
 
I think I noticed something in TitS FC : does every opened chest have a unique line of dialogue when you check on them ? Likewise I feel like every NPC has something different to say every time I speak to them.

If it is the case I'm really impressed and I now understand why these games took so long to be translated, it must've been a nightmare to edit.

I'm 4 hours in and I'm hooked. The battle system is serviceable and tactical, plus it goes fast which is good. The game is charming and oozes with atmosphere, it feels like the golden age of PS1 RPGs
 

Gu4n

Member
The music in that game is just the best thing ever and only behind Chrono Cross.
Before Chrono Cross. ;)

I think I noticed something in TitS FC : does every opened chest have a unique line of dialogue when you check on them ? Likewise I feel like every NPC has something different to say every time I speak to them.

If it is the case I'm really impressed and I now understand why these games took so long to be translated, it must've been a nightmare to edit.

I'm 4 hours in and I'm hooked. The battle system is serviceable and tactical, plus it goes fast which is good. The game is charming and oozes with atmosphere, it feels like the golden age of PS1 RPGs
The way FC was programmed allowed XSEED to add these original teasure chests for all of them in the game; the Japanese version doesn't have this. And yes, the NPC's changes dialogue every time something happens. Their story lines are usually interesting enough to keep track of, and you'll have your favourites soon enough!
 

ZoronMaro

Member
The way FC was programmed allowed XSEED to add these original teasure chests for all of them in the game; the Japanese version doesn't have this.

I didn't know that, is that why SC had way fewer chest dialogues, cause it was translated more accurately? The treasure chests might have been my favorite part of FC so I was always disappointed SC didn't do it to the same extent, I assumed it was a budget thing before.
 

Gu4n

Member
I didn't know that, is that why SC had way fewer chest dialogues, cause it was translated more accurately? The treasure chests might have been my favorite part of FC so I was always disappointed SC didn't do it to the same extent, I assumed it was a budget thing before.
SC was programmed more efficiently by Falcom, indeed. But because XSEED knew how much the opened treasure chests messages are, they went the extra mile and added those in a post-release patch for the Steam version. I really can't praise them enough for the extra miles they go for fans.
 

ZoronMaro

Member
SC was programmed more efficiently by Falcom, indeed. But because XSEED knew how much the opened treasure chests messages are, they went the extra mile and added those in a post-release patch for the Steam version. I really can't praise them enough for the extra miles they go for fans.

Dang, that's awesome. Almost makes me want to replay it on steam.
 

omgfloofy

Banned
Meanwhile, Cold Steel didn't get any chest messages at all. :/

Because it would've been a programming change to get the chest messages going.

The reason why the chest messages happened in the first place in FC was because of a weird quirk to Falcom's programming of the game. Most games have a single string of text that is continuously referenced for things like empty treasure chests.

Falcom had a string for every chest.

If you have played SC on PC, you would've noticed that until recently, all of the unique treasure chests were missing. This is because it had to be patched and programmed in, as Falcom FIXED what they did in FC.

They have definitely gotten better at the chest strings by the time Cold Steel came around.
 

preta

Member
Great to hear you enjoyed the games! But please tell me you at least listened to the regular versions of the soundtracks as well. I found them, in most cases, to be much better than the Evo versions. Of the five Evo soundtracks, the only one I think can stand up to the original is Ao/Azure's.

Also, have fun with Cold Steel! I'll just say this: Be glad you're starting it with Cold Steel II right around the corner.

Anyway, I've been thinking. Now, I may be misunderstanding something here, but (Ao endgame spoilers)
what's stopping Ouroboros from rewriting history to their liking at any time, now that they have the power of the Treasure of Zero? Is the power inert without a vessel or something, or are (non-KeA) users perhaps not immune to its effects, thus rendering it pointless since they won't even know anything past the point that they rewind to?

And now that I think about it, if they were ever to use it at any point in the future, history would have been rewritten in the past already, right? Since this series seems to utilize closed-loop time travel. (Maybe it has already been rewritten at some point? Who knows)

Related question: Do we know what, exactly, KeA did to get Estelle and Joshua (and Renne) to join up with the SSS for the raid on the Fortress of the Sun?

Gu4n? Anyone? Unless CS2 goes into this.
 

Cruixant

Member
Gu4n? Anyone? Unless CS2 goes into this.

Ao spoiler:
I'm pretty sure the Zero Treasure's powers are destroyed at the end of Ao. Unless you mean the powered up mecha that annihilated Garelia Fortress, in which case we don't really know yet.
 

Gu4n

Member
Great to hear you enjoyed the games! But please tell me you at least listened to the regular versions of the soundtracks as well. I found them, in most cases, to be much better than the Evo versions. Of the five Evo soundtracks, the only one I think can stand up to the original is Ao/Azure's.

Also, have fun with Cold Steel! I'll just say this: Be glad you're starting it with Cold Steel II right around the corner.

Anyway, I've been thinking. Now, I may be misunderstanding something here, but (Ao endgame spoilers)
what's stopping Ouroboros from rewriting history to their liking at any time, now that they have the power of the Treasure of Zero? Is the power inert without a vessel or something, or are (non-KeA) users perhaps not immune to its effects, thus rendering it pointless since they won't even know anything past the point that they rewind to?

And now that I think about it, if they were ever to use it at any point in the future, history would have been rewritten in the past already, right? Since this series seems to utilize closed-loop time travel. (Maybe it has already been rewritten at some point? Who knows)

Related question: Do we know what, exactly, KeA did to get Estelle and Joshua (and Renne) to join up with the SSS for the raid on the Fortress of the Sun?
Ao spoiler:
They don't have the actual treasure, only the person with the knowledge as to how make the treasure. That's all we really know right now.

Zero/Ao spoiler:
No, we don't know at what point and how history was rewritten and probably never will. We just know it has been.
 

omgfloofy

Banned
Ao Spoiler:

Additionally, I don't think the Ouroboros are really interested in resetting time, as they are interested in somehow getting the power of the Mirage Sept-Terrion.
 

perorist

Unconfirmed Member
3rd, chapter 6

First time overdosing heavenly bliss plays in the game and it's against Phillip? (゚Д゚)

Also starting to feel the endgame imbalance starting, felt like he and his minions had double the HP of anything up to this point.
 

Gu4n

Member
3rd, chapter 6

First time overdosing heavenly bliss plays in the game and it's against Phillip? (゚Д゚)

Also starting to feel the endgame imbalance starting, felt like he and his minions had double the HP of anything up to this point.
Evo? If yes, that's the point the game became a drag and I wanted to give up.
 

perorist

Unconfirmed Member
Evo? If yes, that's the point the game became a drag and I wanted to give up.
Just finished the chapter and I don't think it had much to do with evo's tweaks. The chapter is just long and tedious as hell. Including doors it took about 10 hours to complete, whereas my total playtime for the 5 chapters before it was only 25 or so. Though regarding boss health
I checked the values for the psp version and the 'black knight' has about 80k HP and 30k HP for his copies whereas the evo version had 200k HP AND 200k for each copy on normal WTF. I gave up clearing the copies as soon as I saw how little my first S craft did. Didn't help that the chapter was nothing but running around (slightly restructured) dungeons that I just ran through in SC evo earlier this year. I don't know if it was just for the evo version but a lot of enemies (like half in some dungeons) were pinned in place and couldn't chase you, almost as if the devs knew how tedious the chapter was and wanted to just let you run past.

How many recycled dungeons does Ao use from Zero and Sen 2 from Sen? Is it as bad as this?
 

perorist

Unconfirmed Member
Finished 3rd evo, overall liked it better than FC/SC although SC's high points were higher.

3rd spoilers

Game had a really refreshing structure but most of the recycled FC/SC content still ended up being tedious. Forcing me to use all my party members was super shitty, mostly because of the prep time it took to get good accessories and quartz combinations set up on all 16 characters. It was kind of nice being forced to try out all the different party members that I would never use though. Wish I had found out sooner that Tita was such a monster with her orbal gear - she was invincible and hitting 20k with regular attacks by the end.

Final battle still ended up being an earth wall carnival as usual, especially with those broken ass instant-cast quartz. I hope they kind of mix things up in Zero and beyond because I'm starting to feel the limits of this battle system with how similar the final boss was to SC's.

Managed to finish all doors in the game with my favorite ones being anything related to Tita's parents and Schera/Aina's backstory. Entertaining all the way through and really made me like an npc that I didn't even bat an eye at before. Shame Aina turned into such a boring character.

The fishing wasn't as bad as I had been told (maybe easier in evo version, only failed one match) but kiseki de pon was a pain. Obscurity of questions aside, it seems they explicitly don't expect you to know some of the answers. For one question they played a voice clip from one of the pillars (anguis? according to the credits) and asked you to identify their number from their voice before you're even able to access the door it's from.

Also apparently glitched out pom de tempest by teleporting out to finish some doors right before I walked up to him. He kind of just despawned and I was never able to fight him or get the 4th zemuria stone ( ´_ゝ`)

So as far as I remember, the two big threads that lead into future games which I'm keeping in mind are Olivier's door with Osborne/Lecter and Campanella's "it's like I'm really evangelion" scene with the ouroboros pillars (I thought for a moment that pillar VII was Rufina since their VAs sounded so similar). Did I miss anything big that's Crossbell related other than making amends with Renne and just knowing Estelle/Joshua are traveling through there atm? Is Weissman's research on creating superhumans still relevant later?

Also, in the farewell scene did Olivier propose to Schera at some point while I wasn't looking or something?

The evo version apparently was pretty imbalanced HP-wise (alghouth overcome-able with some broken ass quartz setups) but I can't imagine playing 3rd without voiced Erika anymore. She was the best part of the game.

Think I'm going to take a break with Ys 8 before I move on to Zero
 

Gu4n

Member
Finished 3rd evo, overall liked it better than FC/SC although SC's high points were higher.

[spoilerwall]
You only need to have finished the easiest Kiseki de Pon level to access Star Door 14, so those are valid questions. Changing the voice actors for Anguis I and II wasn't so cool.

De Tempest only spawns after beating the three bosses before it. Yes, you need to do it in one run.

As for why which Door is relevant for the sequel(s), to name a few:

- Star Door 02 (
the outline of North Ambria and the possibility of resurrection
)
- Star Door 04 (
Kirika's new job is relevant, she becomes the Lechter of Calvard
)
- Star Door 05 (
info on the Eight Leaves One Blade school and Yun Ka-fai
)
- Star Door 07 (
general background information, Orbal Network
)
- Star Door 08 (
pretty much everything. I started heavily breathing when Olivert inquired about Osborne's connection to Ouroboros
)
- Star Door 10 (
very relevant in general
)
- Star Door 11 (
general background information
)
- Star Door 12 (
first mention of the state Ored
)
- Star Door 13 (
very relevant for Cold Steel
)
- Star Door 14 (
of the utmost relevance for the series as a whole
)
- Star Door 15 (
the uncensored version in the PC version is very relevant for the Crossbell arc
)
 
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