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[DXLelouch153]

So I need to process this, but... Quick and dirty, if anyone cares:

+ Soundtrack (overall better than TitS, especially battle themes)
+ World-building
+ Combat (though it's too easy, I'll definitely play CS2 on Hard)
+ Decent character development
+ Overall plot is pretty epic
+ Non-school stuff is generally fun

- School stuff is generally zzz
- Pacing. Oh my god that pacing. COME ON
- Lame sidequests for the most part, especially during school stuff
- Too many terrible anime cliches
- Creepy moments (like the pervy granddad creeping on UNDERAGE girls, and somehow it's funny?)
- Inconsistent cast; some are cool, most are boring, some are awful
- Performance kind of sucks for a Vita game on PS3
- Mediocre VA for the most part. Some of the girl's voices are absolutely grating

And the biggest sin of them all...
- Not enough

Spoiler

Olivier/Olivert

, and he's too serious for the most part

you enjoy CS2 for that last complaint

 

[DXLelouch153]

i mean i just wanna know wth is going on in crossbell
i can always replay the crossbell games if they do get localized
editops dub post

 

[preta]

I mean if Xseed said it would NEVER happen and there was a c grade translation for zero and ao I think most of us would deal with the c grade translation.

Don't assume that that's the case. They absolutely want to do it, and Zero's not even a problem - the only thing standing in their way is getting the rights to a DRM-free version of the PC version of Ao. To do this, they'd either have to negotiate with Joyoland directly (the developers of the Chinese, DRM-riddled PC port, currently the only PC version of Ao) or wait for Falcom to do a fresh PC port of their own. And the latter is not out of the question - Falcom is well aware of all of this, and in their recent end-of-year report, one of their stated goals for 2017 is that they want to start being more proactive in international licensing and release of their games.

It's not a guarantee, of course - but I think it's more likely than not that XSEED will manage to figure something out for Zero and Ao. Another thing to keep in mind is that CS3 will almost certainly build off of Ao as well as CS2, so it would definitely be ideal, if possible, to have the Crossbell games localized by the time CS3 is.

 

[Pellegri Testament]

It's not a guarantee, of course - but I think it's more likely than not that XSEED will manage to figure something out for Zero and Ao. Another thing to keep in mind is that CS3 will almost certainly build off of Ao as well as CS2, so it would definitely be ideal, if possible, to have the Crossbell games localized by the time CS3 is.

I see no possible way for this to happen unless they delayed CS 3 for several years over here. We'll be lucky to get 3rd in the time frame they have it set for, no way would be get both Crossbell games within a year and a half after that (assuming CS 3 for the West would be roughly a year or so after it's Japanese release, making it late 2018).

 

[SolVanderlyn]

I see no possible way for this to happen unless they delayed CS 3 for several years over here. We'll be lucky to get 3rd in the time frame they have it set for, no way would be get both Crossbell games within a year and a half after that (assuming CS 3 for the West would be roughly a year or so after it's Japanese release, making it late 2018).

I'd take a delayed CSIII if we got Zero and Ao first instead.

That said, as it is, I expect to be mildly to moderately confused while playing CSIII in English.

I know some of the story beats in those games, but I've held off on spoiling myself for the most part. I held out this long...!!! I CAN DO IT LONGER!

 

[Pellegri Testament]

I'd take a delayed CSIII if we got Zero and Ao first instead.

That said, as it is, I expect to be mildly to moderately confused while playing CSIII in English.

From a business standpoint it would be a terrible idea though, especially if CS 3 releases on Vita as well as PS4. If they want both versions of the game to be released over here, they can't be sitting on it for too long.

 

[aravuus]

I'd take a delayed CSIII if we got Zero and Ao first instead.

I would take a cancelled CS3 if we got Zero and Ao instead lol

I haven't finished CS2 yet, and probably won't for a long time, but it's been awful so far

 

[desmax]

I'm pretty sure Falcom would push Xseed to release CSIII in the west as soon as possible, so I can't imagine it taking too long.

I kinda think Xseed should outsource some PS4 ports of the series before CSIII is out (Kinda like how Nisa did with Danganronpa); No need for fancy upgrades, just get the games there

 

[Pellegri Testament]

I would take a cancelled CS3 if we got Zero and Ao instead lol

I haven't finished CS2 yet, and probably won't for a long time, but it's been awful so far

Not really sure what to say about this other than the series is only going to get more "modern anime" as it goes, if that's a problem now, then the series probably isn't for you going forward. I'm assuming that's your complaint anyway since it was your complaint about the first game as well. In the end it's not like playing the Crossbell games and skipping Cold Steel is going to be filling, considering

Spoiler

Crossbell ends on a cliffhanger that CS 3 is likely going to resolve.

 

[aravuus]

Not really sure what to say about this other than the series is only going to get more "modern anime" as it goes, if that's a problem now, then the series probably isn't for you going forward. I'm assuming that's your complaint anyway since it was your complaint about the first game as well.

My main complaint isn't necessarily the anime-ness of it, but yeah, I've come to accept the bolded. I'll probably end up playing the rest of the series too, just with low expectations.

Still, I really hope I'll get to play Ao and Zero in English some day. They seem like games I could really come to love as they seem to focus more on the elements I have really liked in the Kiseki games I've played.

As for your edit - the journey is sometimes more important than the destination

 

[Glitter and Gold]

From a business standpoint it would be a terrible idea though, especially if CS 3 releases on Vita as well as PS4. If they want both versions of the game to be released over here, they can't be sitting on it for too long.

I also think the console games have just been way more lucrative for them and better for the brand as a whole in the west in terms of exposure.There's no way they're going to pass up on releasing a PS4 version in what would be record breaking proximity to a JP release for the series. Especially for another digital only Steam game after SC

Hopefully The 3rd proves steam releases are more viable for these games going forward. At least it doesn't have years of localization and a PSP version going against it this time..

 

[Pellegri Testament]

I also think the console games have just been way more lucrative for them and better for the brand as a whole in the west in terms of exposure

Hopefully The 3rd proves steam releases are more viable for these games.

I don't think 3rd will be a good indicator of anything, considering it asks you to play through both TiTS FC/SC before, something that a small amount of people have actually done. If you want a good indicator, I'd see how Tokyo Xanadu does, as it's one of their newest games. Older Falcom did well (other than Xanadu Next) because it had a name behind it and it got lots of good word of mouth, now it's time to see how modern Falcom does and if their latest games are viable. Another thing would be if we get a PC port of Cold Steel 1/2, because a port of 3 would be meaningless if 1 and 2 weren't there already.

 

[desmax]

I also think the console games have just been way more lucrative for them and better for the brand as a whole in the west in terms of exposure.There's no way they're going to pass up on releasing a PS4 version in what would be record breaking proximity to a JP release for the series. Especially for another digital only Steam game after SC

Hopefully The 3rd proves steam releases are more viable for these games going forward. At least it doesn't have years of localization and a PSP version going against it this time..

I really wouldn't expect the 3rd sales to matter at all. The game is way hard to get into, basically requiring you to beat FC and SC (Heck, it doesn't have any tutorials outside of the stuff they added to it, I believe);

I think Zero could be a good starting point to people; it's not as beginner friendly as Cold Steel, but it's still a new cast of characters and a new place.

Newcomers who feel like they're missing story stuff would have access to the previous games

 

[duckroll]

I think the most important thing is how well CS and CS2 sold. Anyone have any idea?

 

[Scrooge McDuck]

I think the most important thing is how well CS and CS2 sold. Anyone have any idea?

900k combined according to this:
http://www.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=1311642

 

[duckroll]

900k combined according to this:
http://www.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=1311642

No I mean for XSEED. Falcom obviously isn't going to stop making Kiseki because of poor sales anytime soon, or ever. The question is whether XSEED feels they can support the franchise as strongly as they have moving forward, especially with back catalog.

 

[PK Gaming]

I think the most important thing is how well CS and CS2 sold. Anyone have any idea?

Well according to vgchar-

Kidding. Tom supposedly said that CS1 pre-ordered well but I can't find the source.

 

[Glitter and Gold]

I don't think 3rd will be a good indicator of anything, considering it asks you to play through both TiTS FC/SC before, something that a small amount of people have actually done.

I don't really think that is that important. People buy games they'll never play on steam everyday.

I think what is important is price point. I think the 30 dollar launch price hurt SC more than anything and that was a result of the game being so expensive to produce. From the extended dev cycle to releasing on platforms that were never going to pay off. (PSP)

So I think The 3rd is a test for the series in that regard. How does a Kiseki game with more "regular" production and distribution costs, and (hopefully) a more marketable price point pay off for them.

 

[Rymuth]

Akatsuki is coming to Vita

http://gematsu.com/2016/12/legend-heroes-akatsuki-no-kiseki-coming-ps-vita

 

[IvorB]

I repeat, S-Crafts are now skippable when you update Trails FC and SC! Groundbreaking!

Why would you skip them? They're awesome.

 

[Bladelord Loewe]

I agree 100% with you, but I am talking about when I play new game+ it will be a crucial time saver on a game that thrives on you immersing yourself in it's gigantic world that takes hours and hours.

Anyone NOT named Mueller pulling the best S-Craft in the entire series Righteous Witness, is getting skipped. (because there is no beating a literal black hole, omfg wut)

 

[Morrigan Stark]

you enjoy CS2 for that last complaint

Yessss

 

[Pellegri Testament]

No I mean for XSEED. Falcom obviously isn't going to stop making Kiseki because of poor sales anytime soon, or ever. The question is whether XSEED feels they can support the franchise as strongly as they have moving forward, especially with back catalog.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=223955964&postcount=55

This would be the main thing to look at from that report.

The bolded here seems to have both the US and EU combined. This would be less than a month after CS 2 released in the US and before it's release in EU. The games that released during this time are Trails SC, Cold Steel 1 and Cold Steel 2 (US).

(THIS FISCAL YEAR) 10/1/2015 - 09/30/2016
Products and Services:
Sales to Customers ->
Products ::: 817,068
Licensed Products ::: 647,113
Total ::: 1,464,182

Region-based Information
Amount of Sales ->
Japan ::: 1,187,247
Asia ::: 37,322
North America ::: 239,613
Total ::: 1,464,182

Of that 239,613, both SC and FC did roughly 30k each on Steam in that time frame. While Napishtim did roughly 30k as well during that time, after it sat at 11-14k for it's first half a year (it was not noticed by people until it started having sales). These numbers are roughly what I tracked over time according to Steamspy so they may be slightly higher or lower.

So what we're left with is about 150k, which includes CS 1, CS 2 (US), GOG and PSN for TiTS and Ys, and Steam for the rest of the Ys games (not including Napishtim). There's also Gurumin between all those platforms which I'm sure did some amount. So I guess the main things to look at are, how well do you think GoG does compared to Steam on niche games and how well do you think the rest of the Ys games did on Steam? With PSN's complete lack of sales on Falcom games, it's probably safe to assume low numbers all around there, other than whatever bleep on the radar SC did at release.

I honestly would not say the games lit any kind of real fire here in the West, which is even more apparent when both games fail to chart on PSN every month. I guess one thing to look at though is that only CS 1 has had a PSN sale so far and it wasn't deeply discounted. When it comes to physical though, I have never seen either game at anything other than base retail ($40). Not entirely sure why they would keep the games high (both retail and PSN) if they didn't do well though.

 

[omgfloofy]

I see no possible way for this to happen unless they delayed CS 3 for several years over here. We'll be lucky to get 3rd in the time frame they have it set for, no way would be get both Crossbell games within a year and a half after that (assuming CS 3 for the West would be roughly a year or so after it's Japanese release, making it late 2018).

Mind you, Falcom's notoriously protective of their games/scripts. XSEED will not be able to even look at the script until its released in Japan. And I've even heard that the contracting process can't even happen until after its release as well.

It's likely that XSEED can't even get started on the negotiation process to license Sen III until the very end of 2017 to early 2018 at the earliest.

The bolded here seems to have both the US and EU combined. This would be less than a month after CS 2 released in the US and before it's release in EU. The games that released during this time are Trails SC, Cold Steel 1 and Cold Steel 2 (US).

Since you're pulling from my translation of the EOY report, I do want to add to something on that note: Falcom gave no metrics on how the numbers work. We're missing too much data to be able to extract exact numbers- those also aren't sales counts. That's the sales in thousand yen totals based on licensing. This means that it may not even be a 100% accurate representation of the sales themselves, but what Falcom earned from the licensing costs.

900k combined according to this:
http://www.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=1311642

Adding something on this, as well. The tweets are assuming that Falcom's meaning 'worldwide' - but they're using the same wording that they've used when talking about sales of Zero and Ao no Kiseki in the past. On top of the comments about MediaCreate's numbers- I know that Falcom's addressed that SKU changes (which they do a LOT) can sometimes mess with the total numbers via MediaCreate, and AFAIK, it also doesn't count DL purchases- and Falcom's done a number of sales there, too.

I am totally being the 'debbie downer' here on this, I know- but without information from XSEED on this, which I doubt we'll get, I doubt we'll be able to do a full extrapolation there, too.

The big thing about this is if MediaCreate's numbers show 400k for Japanese sales, that means North America and Europe would have made 500k in sales of the game. The reason why I'm dubious of the number that people are assuming is, as Pellegri pointed out with the regional breakdown of the financial report, the numbers would've been much higher for NA (and Europe) than they were if 500k copies were sold in English.

 

[KuwabaraTheMan]

No I mean for XSEED. Falcom obviously isn't going to stop making Kiseki because of poor sales anytime soon, or ever. The question is whether XSEED feels they can support the franchise as strongly as they have moving forward, especially with back catalog.

The best indication we have so far is that XSEED said the series had sold 350,000 copies for them when they announced the 3rd. CS II wasn't out yet, and given Steamspy sales for the Sky games and the presumably pretty low PSP sales, that probably worked out to around 100,000 or so copies of Cold Steel.

 

[godisntheradio]

i think we shouldn't lose hope of getting trails to zero/azure, that dotEMU Ys origin port using xseed localization might create an opportunity for them to do same thing with zero/azure, i think it's not too far fetched

 

[Marche90]

Mind you, Falcom's notoriously protective of their games/scripts. XSEED will not be able to even look at the script until its released in Japan. And I've even heard that the contracting process can't even happen until after its release as well.

It's likely that XSEED can't even get started on the negotiation process to license Sen III until the very end of 2017 to early 2018 at the earliest.

At times like this, I question why the hell did I pick such a franchise to be a fan of without knowing Japanese...

Oh well.

Let's change the topic to less depressing things. If I'm at the end of the Act 2-4 in CSII, how much game time do I have left? I've been doing all the sidequests and picking up all the chests, so my game time has ballooned to almost 50 hours.

 

[Gu4n]

At times like this, I question why the hell did I pick such a franchise to be a fan of without knowing Japanese...

Oh well.

Let's change the topic to less depressing things. If I'm at the end of the Act 2-4 in CSII, how much game time do I have left? I've been doing all the sidequests and picking up all the chests, so my game time has ballooned to almost 50 hours.

That really differs per person. I'd say another 25-30 hours.

 

[Holundrian]

Master Quartz were introduced in Ao, so that's a fairly big change mid-arc. With Cold Steel they tried to make it more accessible and introduced the combat links, so that was the biggest change. I expect them to build on the combat links, and hope they dismiss the ARCUS orbment setup in favour of the old one in Sen III or the game after that.

Thanks, damn all the possibilities that CSIII could improve on. Better not get too excited.

At times like this, I question why the hell did I pick such a franchise to be a fan of without knowing Japanese...

Oh well.

Let's change the topic to less depressing things. If I'm at the end of the Act 2-4 in CSII, how much game time do I have left? I've been doing all the sidequests and picking up all the chests, so my game time has ballooned to almost 50 hours.

Never to late to pick it up :-x pretty sure you could get ready before Calvard games release.

 

[duckroll]

The best indication we have so far is that XSEED said the series had sold 350,000 copies for them when they announced the 3rd. CS II wasn't out yet, and given Steamspy sales for the Sky games and the presumably pretty low PSP sales, that probably worked out to around 100,000 or so copies of Cold Steel.

That sadly does not sound like a lot for a series of this caliber.

 

[Marche90]

That really differs per person. I'd say another 25-30 hours.

Hmmm... Assuming I play 3 hours a day, I'll probably finish the game by Christmas. At least it'll be before the year ends. To be honest, I already want to sell the PS3 but this game is the only holdover I have for it.

Thanks, damn all the possibilities that CSIII could improve on. Better not get too excited.

While I agree that it is too easy to break the game with the current system (3 Impede quartz on Rean + Arc Slash and Fie + Perfect Dodge? Utter gamebreakers) I don't think we'll get back to the old sepith system of past games; for good or for bad, I don't know. I do hope, however, that the system gets big improvements. I think I used the Quartz creation NPCs like 10 time tops in my whole playthrough :x

Never to late to pick it up :-x pretty sure you could get ready before Calvard games release.

I assure you, it's not a lack of wanting :/
I haven't been able to find a guide online that fits my needs and missed both of my chances to go to classes this year. Hopefully next year. Or if you have any advice, I'm all ears

 

[Holundrian]

While I agree that it is too easy to break the game with the current system (3 Impede quartz on Rean + Arc Slash and Fie + Perfect Dodge? Utter gamebreakers) I don't think we'll get back to the old sepith system of past games; for good or for bad, I don't know. I do hope, however, that the system gets big improvements. I think I used the Quartz creation NPCs like 10 time tops in my whole playthrough :x

I assure you, it's not a lack of wanting :/
I haven't been able to find a guide online that fits my needs and missed both of my chances to go to classes this year. Hopefully next year. Or if you have any advice, I'm all ears

I actually don't want to go back to the old system mainly hope they improve or revamp the current one. I think I could do a third game with minimal changes but I would greatly appreciate some changes to mix it up after 2 games.

As for language learning everyone has their own process. For me I've taught myself by playing games in JP and doing anki for Kanji everyday the last few years. I've found that way more fun and engaging than classrooms. For grammar I just recognized patterns and googled them what they were about.

Although I've gotten a bit lazy since you actually don't need that much to get through games comfortably. Also maybe worth mentioning is that you gotta see writing, reading, speaking as three different skills. I've mainly focused teaching myself reading.
Most important thing is just to stick with it. The moment you do anything that makes you lose interest/motivation it's probably the death of any language learning ambition.

 

[Psxphile]

Akatsuki is coming to Vita

http://gematsu.com/2016/12/legend-heroes-akatsuki-no-kiseki-coming-ps-vita

I'd be more excited if it wasn't still F2P.

 

[Pellegri Testament]

The best indication we have so far is that XSEED said the series had sold 350,000 copies for them when they announced the 3rd. CS II wasn't out yet, and given Steamspy sales for the Sky games and the presumably pretty low PSP sales, that probably worked out to around 100,000 or so copies of Cold Steel.

Ya the number that Xseed gave for the series as a whole seems to paint a better picture for how Cold Steel did, considering the numbers we had on Steamspy at the time for Sky. It still sounds like a low number considering the scale of the series, but considering CS 1 was out for less than 3 months in the US and less than 2 in EU at the time, 100k doesn't look like such a bad number.

Since you're pulling from my translation of the EOY report, I do want to add to something on that note: Falcom gave no metrics on how the numbers work. We're missing too much data to be able to extract exact numbers- those also aren't sales counts. That's the sales in thousand yen totals based on licensing. This means that it may not even be a 100% accurate representation of the sales themselves, but what Falcom earned from the licensing costs.

Yep that's a thing too, for all I know I read into the report wrong lol. I was mainly looking at it as a start, but if it's in something other than sales, then what I did probably doesn't mean much.

 

[ShadowSoldier89]

I love TitS, but fuck Olivier...seriously. I really don't understand the love for this character.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

I love TitS, but fuck Olivier...seriously. I really don't understand the love for this character.

Because he's always entertaining.

 

[hosannainexcelsis]

I love TitS, but fuck Olivier...seriously. I really don't understand the love for this character.

He's endearingly goofy.

 

[PK Gaming]

I love TitS, but fuck Olivier...seriously. I really don't understand the love for this character.

Haven't experienced him in TiTS yet but he is without a doubt one of the most entertaining, charming and fun characters in CS. But he doesn't feel like a complete joke either, contrary to his archetype.

And Matthew Mercer kills it.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

I feel like Agate should get more love. He's a badass dude with a giant sword who looks cool. What else do you want?

I guess you could claim that he's tropey (by Trails standards) or boring, but I liked his backstory in SC.

 

[Glitter and Gold]

CS Olivier feels more subdued because of the voice in my mind

I always read him in the voice of Team Rocket James from pokemon throughout the Sora games. lol

I feel like Agate should get more love. He's a badass dude with a giant sword who looks cool. What else do you want?

I guess you could claim that he's tropey (by Trails standards) or boring, but I liked his backstory in SC.

Idk man. Ladies love Agate. Dude is pretty popular

and of people I've talked to, he's one of the most consistently picked party members that people take in the Final dungeon in FC.

 

[Nabae]

Olivier is top tier, but Agate and Cassius were my two man crushes in Trails.

 

[ShadowSoldier89]

TitS' best character not named Estelle was definitely Kloe.

 

[PK Gaming]

Where are my Dorothy peeps at

 

[ShadowSoldier89]

Where are my Dorothy peeps at

Dorothy is great. Side characters in TitS are generally really good. Really hearkens back to the older JRPGs in that way.

 

[Holundrian]

Everyone misspelling Gilbert.

 

[Glitter and Gold]

A rags to riches story.

From Team Grant member *shivers* to a full party member.

I was rooting for her every step of the way


I'm also an irrationally huge fan of Richard as well and think he's the best written

Spoiler

antagonist

the series has ever had.

 

[SephLuis]

I can''t wait for you all to play the 3rd. The game gives a lot of attention to the side characters of FC and SC.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

Kurt Nardin was my absolute fav.

Spoiler

When he joined you in SC I had a little moment of jubilation

Spoiler

I also hear he's not in 3rd. :/

 

[Glitter and Gold]

Kurt Nardin was my absolute fav.

Spoiler

When he joined you in SC I had a little moment of jubilation

Spoiler

I also hear he's not in 3rd. :/

Spoiler

He has to be in Calvard arc. He HAS TO BE

 

[Bladelord Loewe]

Trails FC+SC Spoilan

Spoiler

Weissmann

Is probably the greatest villain of all time.

Spoiler

The way he planned everything out and set up Joshua to be his eyes and ears on everything Cassius was just.. amazing. The reveal itself still gives me the chills to even think about, and the way he breaks down the events that happened in the Ark was seriously some of the creepiest dialogue I have ever read in a JRPG, that was some fucked up chain of events.. but of course how can that not happen? How can people not be addicted to miracles and become so dependent on them.