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The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel |OT| Class Warfare
- Thread starter Dandy Crocodile
- Start date
Laura too. Not as obvious as Alisa, but she is the only other girl that has some kind of romance going on with Rean in CS1 IIRC. If you are talking about CS2....everyone and no one.
I actually quite liked her progression as a character in the game.
She starts off distant from everyone taking naps, makes sense considering what she went through. Then she opens up more after some events and takes on gardening which by the way is right across from she naps often (I thought that was a cool detail). And then if you choose her at the dance event, the talk there is a genuinely sweet moment. I feel kinda bad not using her effectively in battle from what I'm reading. There's always the sequel!
My personal favourite from the sequel's bonding events was Fie's, so you're on the right track.
Noted and will do. 2 can't come soon enough.My personal favourite from the sequel's bonding events was Fie's, so you're on the right track.
R_thanatos
Member
Laura's still the best
THE BEST
THE BEST
Ultimadrago
Member
Aw, gotcha. Well, at least someone else that gets that treatment!
I'm only now starting Chapter 4, so I've only seen a couple of her events. I could definitely see the promise in her development though. In battle, she's my only Link (when available), but from what I see combat experience is minimal in overall Link Exp gain regardless. Still, her speed/evade has been a treat to work with thus far.
Keeps brushing him off, poor Rean.
I am at the end (?) of Chapter 6, and I can say I've found the most difficult part of the game up two now:two boss fights in a row is very difficult to handle this time without already spamming the S-Crafts against
. My party is at 61 (Normal difficulty). Any advice/set up to get over this point?
Vulcan
The first boss battle is easy. IIRC he might have an AoE attack or something, just keep a bit of a distance between your own characters so they don't all get hit with strong moves at once, kill the nameless soldiers ASAP and the fight shouldn't prove to be too much of a hassle. The second battle can be far, FAR harder, even with S-craft spammage. Again, destroy the two thingies first (preferably before they have any time to attack) to reduce risk of disadvantageous status ailments and then just try to survive the main baddie's attacks. Keep one character with a filled s-craft meter just in case of really unfortunate timing of Critical Attack turns, those will easily one-hit-kill you. Keep one character as far away from the main baddie as possible (preferably draw the main baddie to the edges of the arena with a character with a high evade stat) since it can perform a very powerful special AoE attack that can easily kill you if you're not at full health and some characters even if they are.
Ultimadrago
Member
Okay guys, so CHAPTER 3 Spoilers
and they completely annihilated the Chapter Boss with their S-Craft while Alisa kept refreshing the CP. Is this person this useful through the whole game? I was thinking of having them as a backseat character just for tank situations and the like.
I just ran into Millium
R_thanatos
Member
Millium is a decent tank in the party ..but her usefullness will depend to her build
I didn't fuck with them personally, but they do have potential to be good. Just didn't like the character or the design, and I think there are better characters anyway.
Bretty gud. An S-Craft that affects the entire area (instead of only a fraction) and the only one on your team w/ S-grade Strike capability. Usefulness adds up as new skills are learned, being able to induce Faint status will save your ass on occasion. I relied on the character a lot during my first run.
But you know, YMMV.
Ultimadrago
Member
Thanks guys! I'm leaning towards adding them to the team, but I'll wait
, for me to get a fuller idea of their capabilities again.
for them to return
Daymos
Member
im really loving this game. Fun dialogue, interesting story, addictive battle system.. who needs photorealistic graphics! My most anticipated rpg of the fall is cold steel2, not ff15. Even though ive finished every main entry in the ff series, its games like cold steel that make me remember the great old ff games like ff4, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10.. its not 15.
Thank god for these small niche jrpg import/translation companies like xseed and atlus! <3
Thank god for these small niche jrpg import/translation companies like xseed and atlus! <3
Ultimadrago
Member
80+ hours and haven't started Chapter 4's Field Day yet. A good chunk of that is idle/omlet grinding for money, I assume though.
Damn I finished it around 80 hours. There were some times I grinded for U-Materials but they give them to you like candy later near the end.
Ultimadrago
Member
Yeah, I'm only blaming myself for that. Haha. I don't think I'll grind with omlets anymore (it's tedious and my money issue is buying too many unnecessary heal items with money anyways).
I am concerned about the ever increasing requirement for U-Material to upgrade items, however. I only upgrade Rean and (Partner)'s weapons due to this. By "give them away" do you mean enemy drops or are they ever purchasable?
Drops. A lot of enemies near the drop them so just use equip a Quartz that increases item drop rate.
You'll almost never have enough U-Materials to upgrade everyone's weapons every chapter without grinding (trust me, I know) so that's a viable path to take. And that's fine, since anyone you didn't have with you on the Field Study will have slightly better (and free) weapons and armor when the next chapter starts. Saves you U-Materials and money in the long run.
Ultimadrago
Member
Alright sounds good.
Also, I couldn't help but notice that it takes a while to Max a Master Quartz? Should I be concerned about this? Any easy way to level them? I feel that everyone should be on their 2nd by end-game, no?
You're not likely to max Master Quartz until the final two chapters anyway. MQs gain only a fraction of experience the character gains from battle. And your XP yield decreases as you gain levels vs. the same enemies. Leveling Master Quartz faster means fighting stronger enemies.
Ultimadrago
Member
Okay, so I shouldn't grind in one place too long if I got you right? I can deal with that.
I'm 45 hours in and on the Chapter 4 field study. I'm just coming back from a hiatus caused by Dark Souls 3, Ratchet, Uncharted 4 and then surprisingly Doom.
Roughly how far into the game am I? Up until now I've been talking to literally every NPC after every story beat to try and find all the secret quests etc. but it's pretty exhausting, especially as all of the areas keep getting bigger.
Roughly how far into the game am I? Up until now I've been talking to literally every NPC after every story beat to try and find all the secret quests etc. but it's pretty exhausting, especially as all of the areas keep getting bigger.
NPC-wise, all the later areas are much better/more interesting than chapter 4's field study area, so I'd suggest you still keep at it. That was the only place where I really didn't care to talk to everyone after every story event.
And like Famassu said, you're a bit over halfway through. I also took a break from the game at the same spot as you, recently picked it up again and I think it took me another 30-ish hours to finish.
R_thanatos
Member
There's still the epilogue chapter that is/can be really long, with all sorts of craziness happening.
KuwabaraTheMan
Banned
It depends on how much time you spend talking to people and such, but probably at least 10 hours. Possibly more.
The game's final act is pretty involved.
Novel Mike
Member
As others have said about double it, last chapter is surpisingly long. Can't wait to hear what you think of it!
Man, this game just won't end. I'm only slightly behind Jason and, honestly, it's starting to overstay its welcome a bit. I thoroughly enjoyed it for the first 50 or so hours but at some point the routine got to me and now I'm getting a little sick of always returning to Trista and doing all that repetitive/boring shit every single time.
I mean, I went in expecting it to be slow-paced like FC. I was prepared for that and at first I was embracing the slow pace and taking my time with it. But when FC started to pick up storywise, it kept at it until the end. Cold Steel is doing this stop and start thing that's getting a little tedious. It's gotten to the point where I have to fight the urge to rush through the beginning of each chapter just to get to the good part ASAP. And it's a shame because up until that point I was enjoying it a lot more than FC on my first playthrough.
Is Cold Steel II also structured this way? I've seen a lot of people criticize this one and claiming that CSII is a huge improvement over it, so I'm assuming there's a lot of changes to pacing and structure? Is it anything like the FC -> SC leap in quality?
I mean, I went in expecting it to be slow-paced like FC. I was prepared for that and at first I was embracing the slow pace and taking my time with it. But when FC started to pick up storywise, it kept at it until the end. Cold Steel is doing this stop and start thing that's getting a little tedious. It's gotten to the point where I have to fight the urge to rush through the beginning of each chapter just to get to the good part ASAP. And it's a shame because up until that point I was enjoying it a lot more than FC on my first playthrough.
Is Cold Steel II also structured this way? I've seen a lot of people criticize this one and claiming that CSII is a huge improvement over it, so I'm assuming there's a lot of changes to pacing and structure? Is it anything like the FC -> SC leap in quality?
UberTag
Member
It probably doesn't speak well of the game when almost every post in this OT is "am I close to the end", "is the game over yet", "why won't this game end already".
Falcom is going to start dividing these games into smaller chunks given how unappreciative we all are of the quantity we're getting for our investment.
Falcom is going to start dividing these games into smaller chunks given how unappreciative we all are of the quantity we're getting for our investment.
The pacing is not great. Every chapter ends with all this exciting action and then bam you have to spend the next hour doing menial tasks and exploring the schoolhouse.
I don't even know how to address this. Do I start from judging the end of the game being judgmental of the whole game, or the "unappreciative of quantity" nonsense? (Or even entertaining the idea that Western feedback influences jack shit, lol... though Japanese feedback was pretty much exactly the same as ours)
If you have Cold Steel 2 questions you may want to ask the Kiseki general thread. I'll say the structure changes quite a lot in CS2, but changing your structure doesn't necessarily fix pacing.... there is definitely a big chunk of the game that could be better paced.
Exactly, so after 60+ hours that stuff starts to get a little old. It's a shame because the good parts are really good, which makes the tedium all the more frustrating.
Yeah, I'll probably pop in there once I'm done with the game. It's just that with the amount of Japanese-speaking Kiseki fans we have I figured someone could probably answer me in either thread. Anyway, thanks for the answer.
UberTag
Member
It's a bit of an odd predicament in that the game is paced in a way that it would lend itself to an episodic release and yet I doubt very much that an episodic release would have been a financially viable approach to releasing Cold Steel.
I'm not even sure that setting the expectation of a stop-start dynamic to the game's storytelling in advance would have made a lick of difference in that formula settles in rather quick and most of the "are we there yet" exclamations are from folks who already know what to expect.
There is a similar de-escalation in storyline pacing within the chapter breaks of FC & SC as well but they don't feel as defined because you're going to a different section of Liberl and chatting up new NPCs whereas Cold Steel sends you write back to Trista for a generic schoolhouse romp amongst a handful of fetch quests.
I suppose my use of "unappreciative of quantity" was a mite hyperbolic. The "am I close to getting done" posts are more endemic of anxiousness than distaste. Sort of like when everyone laments why Amazon hasn't shipped their game to them yet. If people were genuinely unappreciative, they'd just stop playing as opposed to chugging right along with it wondering how close to the end they were.
In my case it's really more of a "this game is way longer than it needs to be". It definitely could've lost a chapter in there somewhere or at least compressed some stuff to not be so drawn out. I'm still enjoying it a lot, I'm just at a point where I'm ready to wrap it up but the game doesn't seem to be.
They DID take out a chapter.
They turned it into an audio drama CD:
http://eiyuutrans.blogspot.com/2014/04/sen-no-kiseki-drama-cd.html
Takes place between Chapter 6 and the epilogue.
It's not the number of chapters that's the problem.
First, having designated "social link events" where you spend points to initiate cutscenes slows things down as opposed to having a traditional story progression where characters talk to you and progress the story at the same time. So it can feel like you're just wasting time with idle talk instead of engaging in a plot which can give the feeling of a slog. Somewhat mitigated by talking to your waifus and whatnot. (Not addressed in CS2)
Compared to FC and SC the game has way more cutscenes that stop the pace (and cutscenes in full 3D are slower with way more animations). The ones that take place before and after the schoolyard training sessions and the train departure ones comes to mind as examples. You feel like once again there's just a lot of busy and inter-character talk without anything actually happening except for end-chapter scenes (Keep in mind that there are lots of party members that have to get their voiced word in a lot, even if they have nothing really important to say). In fact all of the cutscenes in the game are very long and/or frequent and the ones of actual importance are few which adds to that problem. (Addressed somewhat in CS2)
In FC and SC, in even the longest field areas (like the mountain path to the orphanage) can be sprinted through very quickly due to the limited scope of movement. Full 3D space in comparison means you're running around way more period even in small areas, so it's not just straight distance that's an issue. So it can feel like you're not progressing on foot in the field as efficiently as you'd like just to complete a simple quest which can add to a lot of mental fatigue. Citing Nord Highlands and well, any field area in the game outside of maybe Legram? (Almost fully addressed in CS2)
The old schoolhouse was very badly implemented for pacing and plot and adds around 15 hours to the game. I honestly think this is the biggest black mark of pacing in the game outside of unwarpable Nord which makes it feel sluggish. It's so bad even the characters in-game comment how pointless it is (or maybe that was just a Jusis-specific line, lol). I fully blame this place for making CS1 feel like it was overstaying its welcome. (Slightly addressed in CS2, but...)
So they can do better. I don't get into nonsense quality vs quantity arguments cause they devolve into some of the most useless comparisons ever. I'd rather just talk straight feature balancing.
That's why when people ask me what I want from Sen III the first things I say are "Tighter writing, better plot focus, fewer main characters" because it addresses all of the above and some of the things in CS2.
First, having designated "social link events" where you spend points to initiate cutscenes slows things down as opposed to having a traditional story progression where characters talk to you and progress the story at the same time. So it can feel like you're just wasting time with idle talk instead of engaging in a plot which can give the feeling of a slog. Somewhat mitigated by talking to your waifus and whatnot. (Not addressed in CS2)
Compared to FC and SC the game has way more cutscenes that stop the pace (and cutscenes in full 3D are slower with way more animations). The ones that take place before and after the schoolyard training sessions and the train departure ones comes to mind as examples. You feel like once again there's just a lot of busy and inter-character talk without anything actually happening except for end-chapter scenes (Keep in mind that there are lots of party members that have to get their voiced word in a lot, even if they have nothing really important to say). In fact all of the cutscenes in the game are very long and/or frequent and the ones of actual importance are few which adds to that problem. (Addressed somewhat in CS2)
In FC and SC, in even the longest field areas (like the mountain path to the orphanage) can be sprinted through very quickly due to the limited scope of movement. Full 3D space in comparison means you're running around way more period even in small areas, so it's not just straight distance that's an issue. So it can feel like you're not progressing on foot in the field as efficiently as you'd like just to complete a simple quest which can add to a lot of mental fatigue. Citing Nord Highlands and well, any field area in the game outside of maybe Legram? (Almost fully addressed in CS2)
The old schoolhouse was very badly implemented for pacing and plot and adds around 15 hours to the game. I honestly think this is the biggest black mark of pacing in the game outside of unwarpable Nord which makes it feel sluggish. It's so bad even the characters in-game comment how pointless it is (or maybe that was just a Jusis-specific line, lol). I fully blame this place for making CS1 feel like it was overstaying its welcome. (Slightly addressed in CS2, but...)
So they can do better. I don't get into nonsense quality vs quantity arguments cause they devolve into some of the most useless comparisons ever. I'd rather just talk straight feature balancing.
That's why when people ask me what I want from Sen III the first things I say are "Tighter writing, better plot focus, fewer main characters" because it addresses all of the above and some of the things in CS2.
Ultimadrago
Member
Having just started Chapter 5, I must say Nyoro's post aptly hits the nail on the head for me as to why I'm not enjoying the story beats as much in this game so far. I mean, I know it has yet to ramp up (and I'm leaving my unnecessary grinding out of the run-time), but the steam really has gone out the sails for me faster than I'd like due to the overall structure of the thing. A static school setting only amplifies this issue for me (as Uber touched on) versus the Chapter basis hidden behind walking to new areas and meeting a new crowd of people working with their personal/local issues. The Noah's Ark two-by-two with the Class VII conflicts as the group learns to co-exist is also not my favorite approach to characterization and it comes off rather stiff. That said, I've still found some really sweet moments within those realizations. It's the context and pacing of it that I find myself not digesting smoothly.
I'm still enjoying the game, but at this point at least, I'm not liking it as much as FC at its halfway point. I find, while also being deliberately paced, a lot more was accomplished in the narrative there within the time. In FC (and to a lesser extent SC), I found myself more engaged in the present slice-of-life events to a point where I was satisfied with any standby issued to the most major devices. I'm not finding myself satiated with the interpersonal development here for the time allotted where I am "okay" with the weight of the narrative being levied further out.
I'm still enjoying the game, but at this point at least, I'm not liking it as much as FC at its halfway point. I find, while also being deliberately paced, a lot more was accomplished in the narrative there within the time. In FC (and to a lesser extent SC), I found myself more engaged in the present slice-of-life events to a point where I was satisfied with any standby issued to the most major devices. I'm not finding myself satiated with the interpersonal development here for the time allotted where I am "okay" with the weight of the narrative being levied further out.