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The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC |OT| More Olivier Than Ever

Psxphile

Member
Yeah, that's right keep those patches coming.

I noticed you can actually see enemy locations on the map now. Was that always a feature?
 
I'm not sure what was greater, the excitement for getting Estelle's first new S-Break or the disappointment when
I realized that the HP absorb perk only heals 10% of the damage you do.
 
Chapter 6 complete! Opening sidequests were fun (as was the getting the last rod), but I really wished there was a longer dinner conversation at
The Kingfisher Inn
.
Diaset's Secret
gave me enough drinking fun to last the whole game at least.

Major story spoilers:

Lila/Raini was a revelation, and I didn't even know it until near the end of the chapter. Obviously this was an interesting story: Raini was never meant to stay in Bose, hailing from Leman, but the war forced her parents' hand and so Mayor Maybelle Sr. took her in, right around the same time Agate blamed his loss on the Mayor. I figured right from the start that Lila having an in-game portrait was suspicious, but the blue-haired girl in the photograph was good enough a tip-off—I guessed who Raini was on the first try. This wasn't too hard, also, because we know how much Agate changed from his youth, and so the parallel between him, Lila, and Joshua jumped out at me. But this side-quest is played lightly, mainly as foreshadowing related to Estelle and Joshua meeting and then, to my surprise (didn't think it'd come so early), staying together.

The important point I got from Memories of Distant Days is that nationality means nothing when you can empathize with a person. Hamel was right across the border near Haken Gate anyway, closer to Liberl than Erebonia in ways. What happened there could have happened anywhere; I suspect the raid had deeper purpose than, as Loewe claims, mere brigandry. If a girl from Leman can integrate well into Liberlian society because of its openness, what's to say Joshua has any reason for loyalty to Erebonia? That's what prevented him from stowing away with Josette and the Sky Bandits to begin with. His plan to remove Glorious from the skies would have worked, but most likely with no future left for him since Loewe was aboard. Weissmann, meanwhile, probably knew Estelle wouldn't join the organization, but didn't want to inform the Enforcers that Joshua was more than capable of sabotaging their plans and so he needed the most effective bait. So now Joshua has been duped thrice, even if his love with Estelle's rekindled (and I totally buy the romance, as he was always a stepbrother and distant enough by circumstance to need very good reasons for his commitment). What happens in Liberl now affects every nation, such is the reach Ouroboros has (like the Gralsritter).

SC definitely isn't Berserk-dark or something like that, but Hamel is fucked up. The crucial difference here is that Joshua lost an older sister, but a sister nonetheless; he and Agate really aren't that different, except that Joshua was forced to get over his emotions for Weissmann's sake. Loewe meanwhile seems to have never cared as much for his Hamel friends vs. his Bracer aspirations, which after the incident corrupted and turned him towards Ouroboros. Words of his that crippled Agate have no effect on Joshua, though, as he knows how pathetic Loewe is (was) even. Far worse is the implication that, even when he was a mere child, Joshua had to destroy in hopes of saving his loved ones. He knew how to shoot a gun innately (or maybe just from luck and desperation, memory's a cloud), but did he know the soldier was about to rape Karin? She died pure, but she died regardless, and Joshua's been desperate this whole time not to have any of his loved ones killed or corrupted. I cried when he told his version of the story to Estelle aboard the getaway ship, partly because he never expected to live this long working against Ouroboros with such an experience. It hurts him more than Estelle to confide.

General thoughts on chapter 6: it's great, and not just as a story dump. The research lab felt like a retread of the Le Locle fortress, but maybe that's because this kind of fortress design is standardized outside Liberl and so it seems new if you aren't used to the conventions here. Joshua drones were a good reminder of just how much Ouroboros knows about each of its Enforcers, past and current. I got to use Olivier for the last time, it seems, and now I'll need to get some Fire Arts ready for Schera or Kloe. Glorious fights were easy for the most part; I still want to see if I can beat the Jaegers (and Gilbert...oh wow oh man was that hilarious) under the time limit. The helicopter boss sent by Campanella seemed hard at first but surprisingly the scout bots didn't heal/buff the boss, which made things way easier. Weissmann's Q&A was cool, and it lasted as long as it needed to. I'm really impressed at how Estelle kept her wits together all throughout, which tells me her over-reactions in much less tense parts of the story up to now have been a means of steeling resolve for later (expunging that pent-up teenage energy, so to speak). New music was awesome, of course.

Yeah, that's right keep those patches coming.

I noticed you can actually see enemy locations on the map now. Was that always a feature?
Well it should have been. Heaven's Eye has been a paperweight since launch, but it must be working now.
 

zakujanai

Member
Yeah, that's right keep those patches coming.

I noticed you can actually see enemy locations on the map now. Was that always a feature?

The Heaven's eye quartz makes enemies appear as red dots on the map. It was the same in the first game (eagle eye quartz)
 
I forgot that was a thing in the first game. I just equipped it without thought. I had thought "see enemies further" means you could see them roaming around on the field from further. Ah well, it provides a nice early spread of element levels so it wasn't a huge loss.
 

Finalow

Member
^Heaven's Eye is actually bugged, at least for me. it doesn't show red dots at all, Eagle Vision* works fine though.

any hidden quest in chapter 4? Seems like the guide I was using stops there, and so far I got all the BPs.
 
Wait, you don't even SEE the minimap in dungeons in TitS, I remember it being like that in FC as well. You only saw it in town areas and you could pull it up on the field. Or is it only in the field that this ability is active. I'm currently in a dungeon area and I can't check.

Another S-Break thing,
Did Lichtkreis always not do the healing on people that get revived?
 
Chapter 4 in the books.

The identity of the enforcer was obvious the whole way through, so it just makes Scherazard seem a bit reckless since she never even said anything. Still, everyone seems to be picking up a counterpart in Ouroborous. I guess Agate and Kloe need to pick up some rivals pretty soon.

The dream sequence from Estelle after the boss fight was really excellent, especially when you get to the harmonica moment. That was really just a perfectly executed moment. It reminded me a bit of Chapter 6 from Mother 3.

This game is really executing on the story front. Everything has been wonderful so far.
 
Chapter 6 complete! Opening sidequests were fun (as was the getting the last rod), but I really wished there was a longer dinner conversation at
The Kingfisher Inn
.
Diaset's Secret
gave me enough drinking fun to last the whole game at least.

Did you do the side quest
to get a fishing rod? It is pretty funny how it is hidden and does not count as side quest..
 

panzone

Member
Chapter 4 in the books.

The identity of the enforcer was obvious the whole way through, so it just makes Scherazard seem a bit reckless since she never even said anything. Still, everyone seems to be picking up a counterpart in Ouroborous. I guess Agate and Kloe need to pick up some rivals pretty soon.

The dream sequence from Estelle after the boss fight was really excellent, especially when you get to the harmonica moment. That was really just a perfectly executed moment. It reminded me a bit of Chapter 6 from Mother 3.

This game is really executing on the story front. Everything has been wonderful so far.

Just finished Chapter 4 myself:

The dream sequence is amazing: OST, dialogues, everything was incredibile. This is something I really like about both FC and SC: they haven't a complex or super original story but it's narrated in a very captivating way
 

bobohoro

Member
Reading through the LP of FC to get me up to speed for the release here on Tuesday. Finished chapter 1, already in love again. The writing is just miles above any other JRPG out there right now, especially when compared to Zestiria which I'm in the process of finishing off right now. The initial banter between Estelle/Joshua is so good.

Looking forward to joining into the discussion next week, it's been such a long wait, still can't believe it's finally my time to play SC.
 
Post chapter 4 sidequest:

That drinking contest. Oh man. Poor Olivier and Anton. Aina is too strong.

This series really has the best side quests out there. Without fail.
 
That's what I'm using. Just started chapter 8, ATS is over 700 I think.

Ch 8 start:
And now Kloe is gone. Jesus.

I don't know how much I am looking forward to this chapter. Walking around the world AGAIN to go to every guild house by foot this time.

I do love this game, but MAN it feels like Falcom pads the hell out of it sometimes.
 
I love it when the last enemy barely hangs on with a sliver of their HP bar, uses HP Super Recover and then Call Allies.

ugh if it's the one boss fight that you're talking about then I'm totally feeling your pain. I think chapters 3 and 4 will be the worst for subsequent playthroughs. 4 especially for the horrible sidequests.
 

Finalow

Member

wrowa

Member
Gnah, just realized that I've missed two BPs somewhere down the road. I don't particularly care, but I was still curios enough to look up what I missed ... only to realize that I should have received two bonus BP for my answer during "Threatening letter" sidequest that I somehow didn't get. I can live with this kind of stuff when it's my fault, but missing out due to what seems to be a bug really sucks.
 

Nabae

Unconfirmed Member
Final thoughts on SC:

First off, I’ll start with what I didn’t like so I can end this on a good note. My two minor gripes with SC are the first few chapters being formulaic and the way Ouroboros conducted their experiments. Because Chapters 1 and 2 each introduced an Enforcer, Renne also being one was just a little too predictable. Those Gospel experiments that Enforcers were conducting were so blatant that at some point, the bracer guild could just guess that it was their handiwork again, which makes it hard to believe that this is the same organization that still had almost mythical status at the start of SC.

All things considered, SC still earns its place as one of my favorite video games ever because of how much it gets right. The first few chapters may have been formulaic, but the character interactions were golden. Talking to everyone on the airship ride from one region to the next was one of my favorite things to do because I could just kick back and watch how Estelle interacts with everyone else. In hindsight, Agate is one of my favorite guy characters (with Cassius, Olivier, and Joshua being up there too.) Agate’s little sis is brought up in one of those airship rides, but Agate can’t find it in him to burden anyone else about it, so he just keeps it to himself and says he’ll introduce them to her in due time. For someone who puts on such a tough front, he really is a big teddy bear (which I’m pretty sure Estelle actually tells him at some point), and I like how that’s conveyed through personal information that he withholds out of consideration. Meanwhile, Kloe is one of my favorite girl characters for the exact reasons Estelle listed in the auditorium (smart, level-headed, polite).

Not at all a fan of Amalthea but I’m glad that Chapter 3 tied things up with her and the rest of the former intelligence division. I was curious about the embassies in FC so it was nice to finally to finally be able to visit them and learn a little more about the Empire and the Republic.

Estelle’s dream in Chapter 4 was one of the best parts of game for me. I’m glad players finally got the chance to actually see Lena’s face since it felt like Falcom went out of their way to hide it before, and the whole thing was just so well executed. Cassius being turned down by Lena and then Estelle was hilarious, Estelle playing Whereabouts of Light gave me goosebumps, and Estelle’s conversation with her mother just before waking up made my eyes a bit wet.

Chapter 5 was a real treat since because it was Agate centric and hardass General Morgan was finally warming up to cooperating with bracers. In Chapter 6, freakin’ Weissmann playing a giant organ is one of the most villain things ever and I loved it. Based on SC’s opening movie and that still in FC that looked like Loewe passing Joshua to the Weissmann, I kinda already figured what the story with Hamel was going to be about. Estelle convincing Joshua to stay with her was another highlight of the game. I’m glad the two have a romantic relationship going on because I never felt like they had a brother/sister dynamic. At the beginning, they talked as though they were good friends, so the direction that Falcom took seemed logical and natural. Besides, the Capua family already has the sibling dynamic covered well enough.

Duke Dunan was awesome in Chapter 8, and I didn’t think Olivier could get any more awesome but he found a way. Olivier looking for Cassius in FC had completely slipped my mind, so this was one of those beautiful “ah-ha” moments. And for the final chapter, I was suspicious of Cassius’ letter to Joshua and Joshua wanting some alone time with Kevin, but those two things quickly slipped my mind too and both of them being relevant to Joshua being free of the professor’s Stigma caught me off guard. It could have just as easily gone the deus ex machina/power of love conquers all route, and I'm impressed that it didn't. And like I said in an earlier post, I wasn’t a huge fan of Kevin until he demonstrated that he was a total badass. I’m completely on board the Estelle and Joshua ship, so that kiss scene at the end was beyond satisfying, and definitely my favorite moment in the entire series so far.
 
I love how this early chapter 5 sidequest was actually set up by some random NPC dialogue all the way back in chapter 1.

If you talk to Reina and Felicity near the end of the first chapter you hear Felicity talking about their vacation in Bose, and Reina mentioning that it's actually for an arranged marriage meeting. This random bit of dialogue then winds up paying off in a really neat little quest dealing with the fallout.

I really enjoyed the quest, and it highlights how good the characterization for the various NPCs are. This works so well because both Felicity and Reina are really good characters with an interesting relationship. It just leaves me want to see more from them.

This series is so good at paying off everything with the NPCs.
 
Lila/Raini was a revelation, and I didn't even know it until near the end of the chapter. Obviously this was an interesting story: Raini was never meant to stay in Bose, hailing from Leman, but the war forced her parents' hand and so Mayor Maybelle Sr. took her in, right around the same time Agate blamed his loss on the Mayor. I figured right from the start that Lila having an in-game portrait was suspicious, but the blue-haired girl in the photograph was good enough a tip-off—I guessed who Raini was on the first try. This wasn't too hard, also, because we know how much Agate changed from his youth, and so the parallel between him, Lila, and Joshua jumped out at me. But this side-quest is played lightly, mainly as foreshadowing related to Estelle and Joshua meeting and then, to my surprise (didn't think it'd come so early), staying together.

For the record:
the Lila/Raini quest was one of the last bits of the game I worked on, and it is by far one of my favorite sidequests in both games. Heck, I ended up adoring Maybelle & Lila by the end of my time with Bose (most of the Bose region NPC stuff is my handiwork, a few of the biggest files are almost exactly where I coughed out while working on them) and I'm really glad I finished just about all their dialogue before my Stuff happened. Do make sure to talk to them every time you see them after that quest, they get a couple
emot-3.gif
moments. Their story overall is pretty sweet, it was neat to see them expanded on tremendously from the FC appearance, and it is neat how it intersects and parallels Agate's in a few places.

As a bit of trivia, though: I am actually very slightly shaky on Lila's "real" name, as well as that of "Koruna" (if they kept that spelling in the print version - haven't gotten there yet), partially because I didn't really get a feel for what real-life culture Leman was meant to "map" to, if any. "Raini" and "Koruna" are pretty much mapped from the katakana, and internal flags suggest those are the intended names, but I'm still not sure if we missed something and there might be other ways of spelling those names - "Lainé" and "Corna", maybe? They didn't map to any name I recognized, so we cleaved close to the kana for those.

Final thoughts on SC:

Two things (minor, inferred late-game spoilers):

1) The whole deal with Renne is that nobody in-universe wants to believe she could be an Enforcer - they don't want to believe that Ouroboros could be that bastardly, that Joshua wasn't just a one-off and that they employ children as murderers regularly. I mean, even when confronted with it directly, for a little while Estelle can barely even say anything. She just does not want to believe it could be true (although she comes to terms with it a bit later, obviously). Yes, the player will figure it out far ahead of the party, and perhaps the reveal comes a bit later than pacing should really dictate, but the idea is meant to be that the characters haven't quite clued in to just how dirty Ouroboros is willing to fight - and it takes this to rip the scales from their eyes. (How well executed it ends up being will depend on the beholder.)

2) I do like that you pick up on the Estelle/Joshua thing and them not really being siblings - from where I sit, that is a large part of the point. Joshua had a sister. She died. Nobody can quite replace her. And Estelle never quite occupied the same space in his heart - he never really thought of her as a "sibling". Hell, he really thought of himself as more an extended-stay houseguest of the Brights, more than anything - yes, Cassius went through the legal motions of adoption, but that was more to give Joshua a cover, a legal identity for the public, and a way to give J a little distance from his past, more than anything. The whole duology is them realizing the truth of their feelings about each other and what they really want their relationship to be, and in the end I don't think it reads as "creepy" at all. If you have to do a relationship like the one found in Lunar Silver Star, with non-related "siblings" falling for one another, this is how you do it.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
As a bit of trivia, though: I am actually very slightly shaky on Lila's "real" name, as well as that of "Koruna" (if they kept that spelling in the print version - haven't gotten there yet), partially because I didn't really get a feel for what real-life culture Leman was meant to "map" to, if any. "Raini" and "Koruna" are pretty much mapped from the katakana, and internal flags suggest those are the intended names, but I'm still not sure if we missed something and there might be other ways of spelling those names - "Lainé" and "Corna", maybe? They didn't map to any name I recognized, so we cleaved close to the kana for those.

They actually did go with the alternate spelling you mentioned in the final game, for the latter character.
 
Only Aina could dive into this many bars and survive the hangover.

For the record:
the Lila/Raini quest was one of the last bits of the game I worked on, and it is by far one of my favorite sidequests in both games. Heck, I ended up adoring Maybelle & Lila by the end of my time with Bose (most of the Bose region NPC stuff is my handiwork, a few of the biggest files are almost exactly where I coughed out while working on them) and I'm really glad I finished just about all their dialogue before my Stuff happened. Do make sure to talk to them every time you see them after that quest, they get a couple
emot-3.gif
moments. Their story overall is pretty sweet, it was neat to see them expanded on tremendously from the FC appearance, and it is neat how it intersects and parallels Agate's in a few places.
Thank you again for working on that
side-quest
and doing your best job localizing it! It's a highlight of the game so far.

Chapter 7 complete!
I was glad to have some dungeons after the relatively easy one in the last two chapters, but these are a mixed bag. Amberl Tower's my favorite for having a seemingly tough layout that happens to circuit logically. Having so many item chests everywhere is hilarious, and thus renders item shops redundant for probably the rest of the game. The Enforcers are definitely still holding back...except Renne, maybe. Deathblows and petrification aren't fun at all, but that's why I gave Kloe the Grail Locket I suppose (and True Black Fang smoked most of the Gorgon Laser-spamming bots). Pater-Mater is a joke atm, but I expect the second fight against it to be a bit challenging. And I still haven't fought Loewe for what he's worth (apparently he's beyond hope).

Also, the super-rare big Shining Pom encounter in Amberl Tower catapulted my party several levels. It was something to behold. Joshua/Estelle are just about to reach level 80. I got some levels in on Tita and Kloe during my second trip back there, but now the former's really nerfed throughout chapter 8 because the Aureole showed its fat ass (Aidios didn't want us to meet Bizarro Laputa). I'm gonna need to get Zane some levels, otherwise the party's in great shape and I can't wait to do some reading after my dungeon crawling.
 

ULTROS!

People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
Man, this game is loaded with text. Props to XSEED for localizing this one. It's so wordy.

How does Trails of Cold Steel's text compare to this game?
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Man, this game is loaded with text. Props to XSEED for localizing this one. It's so wordy.

How does Trails of Cold Steel's text compare to this game?

The Cold Steel games have about 1.4-1.5m Japanese characters, each slightly smaller than Trails FC (around 1.5m). SC has more than double FC, between 3 and 3.5 million.

Still really big, apparently RPGs often fall in the 300k-600k range. Tom said FC is still the second biggest game they've worked on as a company.

I feel bad for wanting to keep Olivier on my team 24/7 even though my brain is telling me to mix it up. His lines are the best.

Due to the way arts work the difference between his and Kloe's are nearly negligible. Other than the low-level single target arts, the only offensive arts that are worthwhile are Aerial (best area magic - cheap to cast, low requirements to use, good range, manually set location), and maaaybe time arts and petrify breath (good effects, but they are more expensive in terms of slots and EP). None of the others are worth the EP cost.

So having a lot of water isn't a bad thing, since the only higher level arts that are very worthwhile are water and time (support arts). 3 forced water slots is a little much though, since two would be fine later in the game.
 
The Cold Steel games have about 1.4-1.5m Japanese characters, each slightly smaller than Trails FC (around 1.5m). SC has more than double FC, between 3 and 3.5 million.

Still really big, apparently RPGs often fall in the 300k-600k range. Tom said FC is still the second biggest game they've worked on as a company.

So the 3 biggest games they've worked on are sc, fc, and cs1? Damn
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
So the 3 biggest games they've worked on are sc, fc, and cs1? Damn

Apparently some of the sim games (Rune Factory/Story of Seasons) are also roughly in that ballpark, I'm not sure how those compare to the Cold Steel games. CS1 might be their third biggest, but I'm not sure CS2 manages to be 4th. Might be close.
 

Vylash

Member
The Cold Steel games have about 1.4-1.5m Japanese characters, each slightly smaller than Trails FC (around 1.5m). SC has more than double FC, between 3 and 3.5 million.

Still really big, apparently RPGs often fall in the 300k-600k range. Tom said FC is still the second biggest game they've worked on as a company.
now i wonder how much text Ao/Zero/3rd have
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
now i wonder how much text Ao/Zero/3rd have

IIRC Tom said the Crossbell games are each around 2 million and 3rd is around 1 million. Those are numbers from Falcom which will be a lot more accurate than the fan speculation that Zero and Ao were >4 million character behemoths and 3rd was somewhere between FC and SC.

Edit: Source

Full series approximations:

FC: 1.5 million
SC: >3 million
3rd: 1 million
Zero: 2 million
Ao: 2 million
CS: 1.5 million
CS2: 1.25 million

(So I'd say CS2 is almost certainly not XSEED's 4th biggest game)
 

ULTROS!

People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
Wow, 3rd looks like peanuts compared to the rest. Then again, the game is more of an extended epilogue right? Too bad Zero and Ao will never get localized unless there's probably a PS4 HD Port.
 

Dio

Banned
Wow, 3rd looks like peanuts compared to the rest. Then again, the game is more of an extended epilogue right?

Yep. Also, 3rd has like tons more sidequest text in it than FC and SC.

Too bad Zero and Ao will never get localized unless there's probably a PS4 HD Port.

Actually no, this is less likely. These days, Falcom outsources their Evolution versions of their older titles to Pyramid, and the voice acting is done by Chara-Ani. The reason we aren't getting any of the Evolution remakes of FC/SC/Zero/Ao etc is thanks to the fact that, according to Tom, XSEED would need to make deals with all three companies - and Chara-Ani is notoriously protective of using its voice actors outside of Japan, meaning all of them would need to be completely re-dubbed by XSEED (and they're fully voiced.)

This is why Cold Steel is dub only, by the way.

It's actually far more likely that we'll get tweaked original versions of Zero and Ao no Kiseki (Zero and Azure) IMO. There's already a PC version of Zero, and Ao was released as a Chinese-exclusive PC release, so there are in fact PC versions of both games, but they really need to be heavily done over, especially Ao.
 
Chapter 8's clever. I foresee the monster extermination quests in
Rolent
being a pain if I
forfeit my last Gospel ward
right from the start. So I'll have to cheat with a save and learn where the monsters are before continuing. Meanwhile,
it's awesomely dreadful to see Liberl in this state. The most absurd thing is how places like Mercia Orphanage finally, truly have found peace even in the midst of the potential end of the country. And the game doesn't need to shove this in your face: you simply talk with each orphan, they recognize Joshua's returned, and they say their courtesies before getting back to work and play. Contrast that with how agonizing the ferry wait in Ruan is, or the half-blind slog through Kaldia Tunnel to Zeiss. Everything's on the verge of falling apart, but hell if people aren't going to give in
.
 

wrowa

Member
You think XSeed is ever going to localize Evolution FC? Apparently there's even an evolution version of SC as well. I wonder if it's worth waiting for.

Look two posts above yours. :p

The situation is complicated and so far it doesn't look like it's something Xseed takes into consideration. However, the remakes have a bad rep anyway.
 
You think XSeed is ever going to localize Evolution FC? Apparently there's even an evolution version of SC as well. I wonder if it's worth waiting for.

Literally 0% chance of us getting any of the Evo games as it was said above. There are too many companies involved and too much work to be done even if the companies would be willing to part with the games (the voice work would be the biggest thing).

The new character art is also not very good compared to the originals and the music is largely worse, having voices is about the only thing they have going for them.
 

ULTROS!

People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
Look two posts above yours. :p

The situation is complicated and so far it doesn't look like it's something Xseed takes into consideration. However, the remakes have a bad rep anyway.

Why the bad rep? All I know is that they changed the portraits.
 
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