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

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
I'm looking into purchasing a Vita. How well does this, as well as FC, run on the system?

Does the Vita upscale both of them quite well? Is extra pixelation or blurriness quite noticeable?

PSP games in general look fine on the Vita since the resolution is exactly 4x the PSP. There is also optional bilinear filtering.

Every PSP games I've dabbled with on Vita has been as good or better than on PSP.
 

Hobbun

Member
PSP games in general look fine on the Vita since the resolution is exactly 4x the PSP. There is also optional bilinear filtering.

Every PSP games I've dabbled with on Vita has been as good or better than on PSP.

Ok, thanks for the response. Maybe I'll give the Vita a try.

Although I've actually started FC already on my PSP. I assume there is no way to transfer my saved data over to the Vita?
 

Gu4n

Member
Ok, thanks for the response. Maybe I'll give the Vita a try.

Although I've actually started FC already on my PSP. I assume there is no way to transfer my saved data over to the Vita?
You can copy transfer it from PSP through its USB mode to Vita using the Content Manager Assistant.
 

zelhawks37

Member
Just finished the game a couple weeks ago and man, what a ride it was from beginning to end. after that huge cliffhanger in FC, I've been impatiently waiting for this game and the payoff was more than worth it.

Prologue: Couldn't have started the game better.
The way they handled Estelle's emotions after Joshua left couldn't have been done any better. The training area was a nice place to get used to the game again, although the bosses in the prologue had way too much hp for my liking, especially Kurt.

Chapter 1:
Good startup to the long journey. It was cool to choose either Agate or Scherazard to start with. It was also nice to get Kloe back and see her side of things regarding the Joshua situation. Liked Bleublanc as a villain too.

Chapter 2:
Probably my least favorite chapter personally, but still good regardless. There was too much back and forth with quests and Zeiss isn't a memorable area for me either. Walter was way too OP for my taste too. Liked how Estelle stood up to him anyway despite this. It was also good to see Zane get some backstory as well.

Chapter 3:
The game picks up a bit here for me from here on out. Figured Renne was suspicious, but the way her plan unfolded was pretty cool. Good to see the villains from FC make their appearance here as well.

Chapter 4:
Sherazard's chapter and it didn't disappoint. Liked the tragedy that struck Rolent as opposed to the previous chapters too. Loved the dream sequence Estelle had with her mother. Almost shed a tear there. XD

Chpater 5:
Here we go. Bose, the most boring place in FC becomes my favorite in SC. It was also Agate's chapter and since he is one of my favorite characters in the game, this chapter couldn't have disappointed. One small thing I loved was while going after Agate inside that cave, the song Silver Will was playing the entire time. It really gave an urgent feel to the situation that played out. The way Tita was desperately trying to help Agate and how he responded to it was so adorable too. Of course, who couldn't forget the awesome dragon?

Chapter 6:
As if Chapter 5 wasn't enough, this chapter rides that momentum and goes full speed. Infiltrating the base and saving your fellow bracers was pretty cool. Poor Kurt doesn't get a break haha. The Joshua trap was perfect and the music for that boss fight was awesome too.

Of course, the best part of the chapter was when Estelle was taken captive aboard the Glorious. She straight up defies Weissmann's nonsense and goes after him despite her being in a disadvantage. The reunion with Joshua was awesome too, although I am certain that Estelle could take the soldier and Gilbert by herself. My favorite part of the whole game was how Estelle tells off Joshua as to why he was running away from her and the way she says it is so perfect. Despite not coming close to Joshua's or any of the enemies she is facing, Estelle was going to defy that disadvantage and continue forward. I love that about her.

Chapter 7:
Liked this chapter, but it was a step down from the previous two. It was just 4 dungeons that were extremely similar with bosses on top of each one. Good dialogue with the villains, but it would have been nice to get some variety in the enemies and dungeons.

Chapter 8:
Oh man is this chapter awesome. The grim music that played in each city and how hope seemed to be lost was apparent, but the way the bracers and Liberl fought on was powerful. I thought traveling from region to region was going to be a chore, but I ended up not minding it as much. I just did the quests in a timely manner so that I didn't have to backtrack nearly as much. The sequence with Oliver was awesome as usual and the way he trolled his own country was clever.

Final Chapter:
Final dungeon didn't disappoint. It was cool to navigate the city and learn of its origins and how it was connected to Liberl. The dialogue with the villains was much better and it wrapped those plotlines nicely, although Renne and Bleublanc look to be in future games. The sequence with Loewe was awesome and his fight.... the hardest in the game IMO. His duel with Joshua was perfect too, but of course Weissmann had to be a meanie and ruin the touching moment.

The final sequence with Weissmann was awesome too, although my one gripe was that Estelle was so easily dispatched by Joshua. There was a good opportunity for a fight there, but instead it was just a one move battle. Otherwise, how Joshua fooled Weissmann was pretty cool. Inevitably, after the easy first battle and second battle, the final battle comes and that music..... flawless. The boss fight was challenging enough, but I feel Nightmare will be much harder (Played on Normal difficulty). Loved the design of the final boss too.

My last gripe of the game comes after Weissmann's defeat. He magically teleports away and Kevin, who I feel doesn't deserve to deliver the final blow, does so. C'mon, at the very least, let Weissmann die when Estelle and company destroy Angel Weissmann or maybe Estelle/Joshua slays him in human form. Just a minor nitpick though. The ending sequence afterwards was great, especially how Estelle and Joshua didn't seem to care that they were going to die, instead are glad that they got to spend their last moments together. Of course, Cassius comes in last second to save the day.

All in all, a wonderful game that I will put up with Persona 3 FES and Tales of Symphonia as my favorite of all time. The characters were amazing (Estelle being my favorite in case you couldn't tell) and the story drove the game forward at a great pace. I know these games take time for it to develop, but I like it when each chapter seems to do better than the previous rather than doing great in the beginning then fall off later on. Anyways, just my thoughts.

Also, first post on here. Figured it would be perfect to do it on this great game. :)
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Final Chapter:
My last gripe of the game comes after Weissmann's defeat. He magically teleports away and Kevin, who I feel doesn't deserve to deliver the final blow, does so. C'mon, at the very least, let Weissmann die when Estelle and company destroy Angel Weissmann or maybe Estelle/Joshua slays him in human form. Just a minor nitpick though.

I think it's supposed to be sort of anticlimactic and humiliating. Weissman is a dishonorable scumbag, and he went out like a dishonorable scumbag.
 

Eusis

Member
I think it's supposed to be sort of anticlimactic and humiliating. Weissman is a dishonorable scumbag, and he went out like a dishonorable scumbag.
And maybe it's after a bunch of anime and games that
make it a point for heroes to avoid killing, but I feel like that'd drag Estelle down and take Joshua back to the past he's moving on from if they dealt the killing blows. Better for him to go down with the city ala the anime movie this is most similar to, or for a third party (Kevin) to take him out. And it was in a way that further added to the intrigue rather than just be removing a difficult situation from Estelle and Joshua to be in.

And man, I had heard and kept listening to the final battle theme YEARS back, as in when SC was actually a recent game rather than something that's really nearly a decade old. It was fantastic to finally hear it in its proper context.
 

Danny Dudekisser

I paid good money for this Dynex!
Yes. Different people seem to fix it in different ways, I think once I turned off hardware vertex shading it ran smooth as butter. Or turned it on. I changed that one way or the other to fix it. Some people have mentioned changing the v-sync or mipmapping setting fixed it for them.

Huh, I think I found the solution. I'm on Windows 10, which apparently doesn't play nicely with the game. Setting it to run in Windows XP compatibility mode fixed the problem immediately. The game couldn't be any smoother.

Phew.

Worth keeping in mind if anyone else runs into issues with the game stuttering.
 

omgfloofy

Banned
My last gripe of the game comes after Weissmann's defeat. He magically teleports away and Kevin, who I feel doesn't deserve to deliver the final blow, does so. C'mon, at the very least, let Weissmann die when Estelle and company destroy Angel Weissmann or maybe Estelle/Joshua slays him in human form. Just a minor nitpick though.

I actually have a comment on this.

Endgame SC spoilers:
I actually spent much of SC hoping that Estelle wouldn't kill Weissmann. Because that was so much against what I saw of her and felt of her as a character. And even Joshua- I didn't want him to do so either, because of how much he's trying to pull away from what he was before he met the Brights. I thought it was an amazing and wonderful surprise with Kevin showing up. Once more details start coming out on Weissmann's background, then Kevin's decision and reason for being there make a lot more sense.

There's also some data that was removed from another game that, if it is actually canon, makes it equally appropriate that Kevin was there to finish it off, in my opinion. There's just not enough information for someone who's only played SC yet.


EDIT:
Though now I also see that Eusis saw it the same way I did. xD
 

zelhawks37

Member
Thanks for the replies everyone. I was just thinking of that part this morning.
I actually have a comment on this.

Endgame SC spoilers:
I actually spent much of SC hoping that Estelle wouldn't kill Weissmann. Because that was so much against what I saw of her and felt of her as a character. And even Joshua- I didn't want him to do so either, because of how much he's trying to pull away from what he was before he met the Brights. I thought it was an amazing and wonderful surprise with Kevin showing up. Once more details start coming out on Weissmann's background, then Kevin's decision and reason for being there make a lot more sense.

There's also some data that was removed from another game that, if it is actually canon, makes it equally appropriate that Kevin was there to finish it off, in my opinion. There's just not enough information for someone who's only played SC yet.


EDIT:
Though now I also see that Eusis saw it the same way I did. xD

I definitely agree with the first point concerning Estelle after thinking of the reason she chose her weapon as well. Its not one to kill, rather its one that resembles peace. Plus, as much as weissmann was the worst person in the world, it would indeed ruin estelle and joshua's character development to do it singlehandedly. Thats why i thought after defeating angel weissmann might have been better, but after hearing about you talk about kevin, the way it turned out might have been best. Maybe its from third chapter that we get an answer?
 

omgfloofy

Banned
Thanks for the replies everyone. I was just thinking of that part this morning.

I definitely agree with the first point concerning Estelle after thinking of the reason she chose her weapon as well. Its not one to kill, rather its one that resembles peace. Plus, as much as weissmann was the worst person in the world, it would indeed ruin estelle and joshua's character development to do it singlehandedly. Thats why i thought after defeating angel weissmann might have been better, but after hearing about you talk about kevin, the way it turned out might have been best. Maybe its from third chapter that we get an answer?

You definitely get a lot more answers in 3rd, regarding Kevin. You basically learn his background and history in it.

Also. oh.

Disclaimer: Shill moment!

If you hadn't seen it, I've been running a column series on my site, www.esterior.net, called Translation Tuesday. Myself and several others have been translating some side quest events and so forth from 3rd and other stuff if you're interested. One of them may give you some more information on that one question in particular.

(shill moment over. :D)
 

zelhawks37

Member
You definitely get a lot more answers in 3rd, regarding Kevin. You basically learn his background and history in it.

Also. oh.

Disclaimer: Shill moment!

If you hadn't seen it, I've been running a column series on my site, www.esterior.net, called Translation Tuesday. Myself and several others have been translating some side quest events and so forth from 3rd and other stuff if you're interested. One of them may give you some more information on that one question in particular.

(shill moment over. :D)

Oh thats super neat! Bookmarked for later use. :) Still hoping 3rd comes stateside, but it seems only a miracle will make that happen at this point.
 

omgfloofy

Banned
Oh thats super neat! Bookmarked for later use. :) Still hoping 3rd comes stateside, but it seems only a miracle will make that happen at this point.

I personally don't think it'll be a miracle. Remember, you have someone like Hatsuu who desperately wants to work on 3rd, Zero, and Ao. You have the very best cheerleader to get you to play the games in English actually employed by XSEED.
 

zelhawks37

Member
I personally don't think it'll be a miracle. Remember, you have someone like Hatsuu who desperately wants to work on 3rd, Zero, and Ao. You have the very best cheerleader to get you to play the games in English actually employed by XSEED.
Yeah shes freaking amazing. I donno if falcom will be convinced though as SC isnt selling too well at the moment.
 

omgfloofy

Banned
Yeah shes freaking amazing. I donno if falcom will be convinced though as SC isnt selling too well at the moment.

We don't know the threshold necessary for the sales, and Tom's stated himself on the XSEED forums that there was never any expectation of SC to sell like hotcakes. In fact, when SC released, it also gave FC a boost in sales, too.

A game that pushes sales for other games and keeps a steady pattern is just as important as one that sales tons of copies at launch.
 

zelhawks37

Member
We don't know the threshold necessary for the sales, and Tom's stated himself on the XSEED forums that there was never any expectation of SC to sell like hotcakes. In fact, when SC released, it also gave FC a boost in sales, too.

A game that pushes sales for other games and keeps a steady pattern is just as important as one that sales tons of copies at launch.

That last bit is the hope i have been clinging to. I freaking love this series and think it is criminally underappreciated.

Im just thankful we got sc to begin with given the development hell it went through.
 

omgfloofy

Banned
That last bit is the hope i have been clinging to.

I want to add a comment that isn't exactly relevant to XSEED, but it does give an idea of perspective for a smaller company.

When Falcom was asked about the potential for making a sequel for Tokyo Xanadu, they said that their 'sales threshold' to put it into consideration was breaking 50,000 copies sold. (Thankfully, they did well over that in the first week.)

Smaller developers and publishers don't need the insanely high numbers you'd see everywhere else- which is a disservice that I think the AAA side of the game industry is giving to everyone else. People start looking at higher numbers and those end up being the scale, but smaller companies have a much much smaller scale.

I remember once upon a time that Tom even said that XSEED selling 100,000 copies was incredible for them.
 

Eusis

Member
Yeah, once I started to actually understand what's "good" for sales of games in general I had heard Disgaea managed to pull 50k and be a smashing success for Atlus and NIS, enough for NISA to be formed as a response. These games really can and do have a small threshold to success, and this is what makes AAA gaming so frustrating in that you could have a game pull in MILLIONS in sales and be considered a failure because the budgets are so fucked up.
 

Famassu

Member
Yeah, SC should probably be ok. It's at almost 20k copies sold on Steam alone (could be higher, I've understood Steamspy isn't all that accurate/reliable for the kind of sales niche games have) and I hope GOG and PSN combined add at least 5-10ks to that. And this is prior to any kind of sales happening, at full price. FC sold a lot more, but its initial price was also only ~66% of SC's day 1 price and IIRC it had sales faster than SC that hasn't seen a single drop in price in the ~4 months it's been available, so every copy of SC sold so far is noticeably & considerably more profitable than a copy of FC.
 

Eusis

Member
SC has had sales, just not bargain bin type half off or more sales. A few bucks shaved off to be a bit more appealing to people during the holidays, which means it was still quite profitable per copy.
 

UberTag

Member
Can anyone confirm for me whether the Seafood Jelly treasure chest inside Carnelia Tower {Chapter 2} is bugged?

Haven't been able to get it to count towards the Baby, Come Back achievement at all.
 

evilalien

Member
Can anyone confirm for me whether the Seafood Jelly treasure chest inside Carnelia Tower {Chapter 2} is bugged?

Haven't been able to get it to count towards the Baby, Come Back achievement at all.

There was definitely a bugged chest in Carnelia Tower back when I played the game at release, but I figured that would have been fixed by now.
 

UberTag

Member
There was definitely a bugged chest in Carnelia Tower back when I played the game at release, but I figured that would have been fixed by now.
There are people with the achievement unlocked so there's clearly some workaround for it. Wish I knew what it was, though.
 

creid

Member
I finally finished this a few days ago and loved it. In SC I was surprised to find myself come around on a lot of things that didn't thrill me in FC: the structure, some of the characters, the battle system... When I first heard 3rd was pretty much a dungeon crawler I lost most interest in it, but now I look forward to eventually playing it, someday.

I feel like SC succeeds at something that other Tales-ish JRPGs try and fail to do. Not to rag on Tales games too much, but there I feel like the protagonists there just seem like one of each personality type, who all stick together because they all happen to be "good-guys". In Trails I think the protagonists believably care for each other.

One odd thing that I was surprised I hadn't seen mentioned here - after beating the game I went back and read the XSEED translation blogs for some extra context, and noticed that some of the changes they mentioned putting in the PC version aren't actually there. They mentioned changing Hamel to Hemel, and how "Haru" in Gambler Jack really should've been "Halle". As of a few days ago, in the PC version they are still Hamel and Haru.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
I finally finished this a few days ago and loved it. In SC I was surprised to find myself come around on a lot of things that didn't thrill me in FC: the structure, some of the characters, the battle system... When I first heard 3rd was pretty much a dungeon crawler I lost most interest in it, but now I look forward to eventually playing it, someday.

I feel like SC succeeds at something that other Tales-ish JRPGs try and fail to do. Not to rag on Tales games too much, but there I feel like the protagonists there just seem like one of each personality type, who all stick together because they all happen to be "good-guys". In Trails I think the protagonists believably care for each other.

One odd thing that I was surprised I hadn't seen mentioned here - after beating the game I went back and read the XSEED translation blogs for some extra context, and noticed that some of the changes they mentioned putting in the PC version aren't actually there. They mentioned changing Hamel to Hemel, and how "Haru" in Gambler Jack really should've been "Halle". As of a few days ago, in the PC version they are still Hamel and Haru.

Pretty sure the change to Hamel was the other way around, it went from Hemel to Hamel.
 

creid

Member
Pretty sure the change to Hamel was the other way around, it went from Hemel to Hamel.

Such was our in-house Kiseki nut’s determination to normalize all conventions that even location names barely mentioned in passing like “Hamel” from FC would be updated to “Hemel.” These changes were applied both retroactively to FC’s Steam version, and incorporated into SC before and during the QA period, and we hope that fans will nerd out as much as we have over the rich lore that has been lovingly poured into this game
http://xseedgames.tumblr.com/post/126706403020/the-legend-of-heroes-trails-in-the-sky-second
 

Thud

Member
I bought the game today. Still in the tutorial mission. I'm wondering if I should aim for that A+ rank for this first playthrough or just go with what feels right.

They just got it backwards on the blog then. 99% sure.

Yeah, I saw Hamel in FC. Finished it yesterday, so I'm sure.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
I bought the game today. Still in the tutorial mission. I'm wondering if I should aim for that A+ rank for this first playthrough or just go with what feels right.



Yeah, I saw Hamel in FC. Finished it yesterday, so I'm sure.

PSP or PC? If it was in the PSP version it wasn't changed. Almost certain that the PSP version had Hemel though, and some searches are backing that up.
 

Hatsuu

XSEED
One odd thing that I was surprised I hadn't seen mentioned here - after beating the game I went back and read the XSEED translation blogs for some extra context, and noticed that some of the changes they mentioned putting in the PC version aren't actually there. They mentioned changing Hamel to Hemel, and how "Haru" in Gambler Jack really should've been "Halle". As of a few days ago, in the PC version they are still Hamel and Haru.

Hamel is correct, so the blog is wrong for...some reason. FC PSP had Hemel, and we corrected it. Weird about Haru/Halle, though, as I'd changed that months ago. No one ever said otherwise once I updated the text, so I thought the issue had been fixed. I'll check again once we're back in the office, I guess.
 

Hatsuu

XSEED
Hamel is correct, so the blog is wrong for...some reason. FC PSP had Hemel, and we corrected it. Weird about Haru/Halle, though, as I'd changed that months ago. No one ever said otherwise once I updated the text, so I thought the issue had been fixed. I'll check again once we're back in the office, I guess.

Turns out my text tool was being finicky and dating files I had updated...except it wasn't updating the files. Then I passed them along as if they were fixed to our lovely programmer. Technology is fantastic.That does leave me wondering if a couple other fixes I've made in the past to the PC version haven't made it in, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. I'll probably find out once I get around to finishing a playthrough of the game myself, haha.

Haru > Halle has been corrected in my files (for real this time) and I've passed them along to our programmer. They should hopefully be in Trails SC's next update.

Feel free to kindly post here if you come across anything else. I moved straight to Cold Steel and then Cold Steel II after SC so I haven't been able to give the text the attention I would like, but hopefully what we've missed so far has been minimal to everyone.
 

Elios83

Member
I'm almost done with chapter 5 at this point.
Tbh I expected more, FC had a much better story pacing.
Here the story overall is still good but unfortunately it's too much diluted and in every chapter you go through the same scheme of actions over and over just to get rewarded with a few key developments for each chapter.
Also being set in the same world there are hardly new locations.
Gameplay is pretty much the same, it does its job, the slot upgrade mechanic doesn't change a lot since you definetly have enough sephits to upgrade everything quickly.
I'm still gonna finish it of course but I hope that Trails of Cold Steel is a better game.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
I'm almost done with chapter 5 at this point.
Tbh I expected more, FC had a much better story pacing.
Here the story overall is still good but unfortunately it's too much diluted and in every chapter you go through the same scheme of actions over and over just to get rewarded with a few key developments for each chapter.
Also being set in the same world there are hardly new locations.
Gameplay is pretty much the same, it does its job, the slot upgrade mechanic doesn't change a lot since you definetly have enough sephits to upgrade everything quickly.
I'm still gonna finish it of course but I hope that Trails of Cold Steel is a better game.

Fortunately, it's about to get better from there.

But yeah, the first half of SC could have been better.
 

Thud

Member
Fortunately, it's about to get better from there.

But yeah, the first half of SC could have been better.

I really like the introductions. Still in chapter 3, but there's a lot more going on than in FC. Well the difference is that in FC every chapter kinda resolved itself. In SC I feel like the chapters blend more into each other.

I'm glad I'm aiming for that A+ rank, wouldn't want to miss some of these sidequests.
 
I started this game back when it was finally released, but it came out at a rather busy time for me (and Xenoblade X was releasing soon), so I got distracted. Then class started back up, but.. finally back into the game during free time. I'm toward the end of Chapter 2 (I think). I loved the first game, and enjoying this one, too. I do wish it wasn't such a re-tread of previous areas, though. It's a little lucky that I hadn't played FC in so long, so I forgot the layout of some of these areas, but ehh... I realize it's the same world so there wasn't much they could do, but still. Loving the characters as much as I did the first game. Wish Joshua played a bigger role in the story, but I know he comes in later.
 
Do characters not in my party gain exp at all or will they be underleveled if I don't use them? I'm trying to decide on a good party that will last me the whole game. I just finished Chapter 2, so I have
Estelle, Agate, Kloe, Olivier, Tita, and Zane
available. I prefer the first 4 as my party setup, but will any of those characters eventually go away? I'll switch Agate out for Joshua probably when he joins, but other than that, does any character leave for an extended period of time?

Edit: Sorry, double post.
 

Psxphile

Member
Party members will fall behind if you don't use them, yes. But due to the way this game hands out XP, characters who are low-leveled will gain experience much quicker.
 

Famassu

Member
In addition to underleveled characters getting exp/lvls faster, I'd say generally quartz & equipment are more important than levels.
 
Gotcha, thanks for the info!

EDIT: Damn, the Grancel Chapter 3 sidequest monster hunt in the Sewers is fucking hard. It's mainly the Confuse attack that does me in. I also need to equip Faint accessories for the smaller enemies, I guess. Such an annoying encounter. Died several times. :(
 
Sorry for another double post, but does anyone know how to fix the camera spinning around nonstop issue with controllers? It worked perfectly fine using the analog stick to control the camera for the first 20 hours when suddenly, it just started to spin nonstop no matter how many times I restart the game or mess with the settings.

Thanks for any help!
 

jonjonaug

Member
Sorry for another double post, but does anyone know how to fix the camera spinning around nonstop issue with controllers? It worked perfectly fine using the analog stick to control the camera for the first 20 hours when suddenly, it just started to spin nonstop no matter how many times I restart the game or mess with the settings.

Thanks for any help!
Have you tried unplugging your controller and plugging it back in? Sounds more like an issue with the controller itself.
 

Famassu

Member
Sorry for another double post, but does anyone know how to fix the camera spinning around nonstop issue with controllers? It worked perfectly fine using the analog stick to control the camera for the first 20 hours when suddenly, it just started to spin nonstop no matter how many times I restart the game or mess with the settings.

Thanks for any help!
The only permanent fix I found was to switch camera controls to L1 / R1 instead of analog sticks. Completely restarting the PC usually helped, but it would just come back later on.
 
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