What I meant by my quote is to point out that the way StereoVsn was framing his criticism. That his poor experience was a result of deliberate design on the part of the developer. Which isn't the case on any level.
1) not getting along with some design choices in a game,
and
2) not getting along with some design choices in a game *and* thinking about why a game did what it did in that case.
The latter is a much better approach (for example, the underappreciated Code Name STEAM was criticised for not having an overhead map, but many reviewers didn't even try and think about why that game did what it did), but it's not one that's easy to do, and arguably harder to do when you're criticising a narrative-driven RPG that goes on for dozens of hours.
Basically, I can see where StereoVsn is coming from, even though I don't agree with his criticism.
Well my point is that what he's talking about has nothing to do with game design lol
He framed it like it was Falcom's master plan that everyone would have a bad time in the first half only for it to be redeemed by the second. Which is asinine.
Put me down as one of those who liked the game, the overall story and all, but not the cast in general. Well when i say not the cast, I mean Class VII in particular. Sure I liked Laura, and there wer a couple other decent ones, but by and large the characters I liked were the older ones such as Sara, Toval, Claire, Sharon and so on. I felt Rean had to be too neutral in all aspects and thus boring. Like a typical anime lead.
Still this is only the first game so I'll see where it goes in the sequel
Put me down as one of those who liked the game, the overall story and all, but not the cast in general. Well when i say not the cast, I mean Class VII in particular. Sure I liked Laura, and there wer a couple other decent ones, but by and large the characters I liked were the older ones such as Sara, Toval, Claire, Sharon and so on. I felt Rean had to be too neutral in all aspects and thus boring. Like a typical anime lead.
Still this is only the first game so I'll see where it goes in the sequel
Let me be clear that my criticisms are made out of love for the game and the series as a whole and I still loved the complete package of Cold Steel
My disappointments just stuck out like a sore thumb thanks to expectations set by FC/SC. And thats not to say that FC/SC arent riddled with flaws themselves. They just occur in different aspects of those games
I was digging up some Japanese user reviews of Trails games this morning and it's safe to say that everyone who has posted in this thread has been relatively mild in terms of criticism.
Commonly heard critique of the game includes (and is certainly not limited to) horribly graphics, in particular the character modelling; the foreshadowing is so unsubtle it was starting to look like a Tales game; the shift to the ARCUS orbment system made it too simple; Crafts were generally considered as too overpowered; a strong dislike for Rean; the game was too rigidly structured; the pacing was too slow; the small maps offered little room for exploration, et cetera. And these reviews were probably written after Falcom fixed the appalling loading times.
What they do like is the soundtrack, the linking aspect in the battle system and the NPC's at school.
The website's aggravated user review score was 63 for the PS3 version and 57 on Vita. The sequel didn't do much better with 65 and 66, respectively.
I was digging up some Japanese user reviews of Trails games this morning and it's safe to say that everyone who has posted in this thread has been relatively mild in terms of criticism.
Commonly heard critique of the game includes (and is certainly not limited to) horribly graphics, in particular the character modelling; the foreshadowing is so unsubtle it was starting to look like a Tales game; the shift to the ARCUS orbment system made it too simple; Crafts were generally considered as too overpowered; a strong dislike for Rean; the game was too rigidly structured; the pacing was too slow; the small maps offered little room for exploration, et cetera. And these reviews were probably written after Falcom fixed the appalling loading times.
What they do like is the soundtrack, the linking aspect in the battle system and the NPC's at school.
The website's aggravated user review score was 63 for the PS3 version and 57 on Vita. The sequel didn't do much better with 65 and 66, respectively.
I was digging up some Japanese user reviews of Trails games this morning and it's safe to say that everyone who has posted in this thread has been relatively mild in terms of criticism.
Commonly heard critique of the game includes (and is certainly not limited to) horribly graphics, in particular the character modelling; the foreshadowing is so unsubtle it was starting to look like a Tales game; the shift to the ARCUS orbment system made it too simple; Crafts were generally considered as too overpowered; a strong dislike for Rean; the game was too rigidly structured; the pacing was too slow; the small maps offered little room for exploration, et cetera. And these reviews were probably written after Falcom fixed the appalling loading times.
What they do like is the soundtrack, the linking aspect in the battle system and the NPC's at school.
The website's aggravated user review score was 63 for the PS3 version and 57 on Vita. The sequel didn't do much better with 65 and 66, respectively.
I was digging up some Japanese user reviews of Trails games this morning and it's safe to say that everyone who has posted in this thread has been relatively mild in terms of criticism.
Commonly heard critique of the game includes (and is certainly not limited to) horribly graphics, in particular the character modelling; the foreshadowing is so unsubtle it was starting to look like a Tales game; the shift to the ARCUS orbment system made it too simple; Crafts were generally considered as too overpowered; a strong dislike for Rean; the game was too rigidly structured; the pacing was too slow; the small maps offered little room for exploration, et cetera. And these reviews were probably written after Falcom fixed the appalling loading times.
What they do like is the soundtrack, the linking aspect in the battle system and the NPC's at school.
The website's aggravated user review score was 63 for the PS3 version and 57 on Vita. The sequel didn't do much better with 65 and 66, respectively.
I'm not sure which website you're looking at, but I'd be curious to know how much worse (or not) the reviews there of Cold Steel I and II are compared to the earlier Trails games.
When was the foreshadowing ever unsubtle in Trails lol. You can see most twits in FC, SC miles ahead too.
Looking back, I'm kinda cold toward the game. The cast was probably the worst offender, they are just kinda... boring sans some exceptions. It's hard to image these people are from the same series that gave us characters like Schera and Olivier. I dare to say I probably have more fondest memories of the Gagharv trilogy characters.
Plus, Nepnep, Elise and Towa are really some of the shittest characters ever.
I'm not sure which website you're looking at, but I'd be curious to know how much worse (or not) the reviews there of Cold Steel I and II are compared to the earlier Trails games.
Looking back, I'm kinda cold toward the game. The cast was probably the worst offender, they are just kinda... boring sans some exceptions. It's hard to image these people are from the same series that gave us characters like Schera and Olivier.
The only one I found fundamentally boring is Elliot. He didn't even want to be there ("Then go!", I thought to myself). He and Crossbell's Elie can compete for the award of most boring Trails character. Geez.
The structure while similar to FC, is still so much more rigid. You have less freedom to explore and do othe things, and it got annoying seeing the school again constantly. Look these were my initial thoughts on the game
Okay now that I've finished my 2nd playthrough of cold SteeI figured I'd share my thoughts on the game. I'll try and keep spoilers to a minimum.
First of all I quite enjoyed the game. Was it as good as SC or even FC? No. But I still liked it. I liked the battle system and Orbment Grid changes from the Sky Trilogy. It made it more tactical overall. Made physical attackers more relevant (although Laura is probably overpowered) with the break system and having a support character (Alisa is awesome at this, so is Machias) more worthwhile. In Sky it was easier just to nuke everything with Artes. They could have done a bit more to make Gaius and Jusis more useful, but it's difficult to balance 9 characters out to be equally useful.
While the music wasn't as good as Sky, it was still pretty good. The general field theme is awesome and I have a real soft spot for the Nord Highlands song which is amazing, as were action songs like this. The only thing it lacked was a recurring theme like either FC or SC's Dancing with the Wind that just delivered and set the moment whenever it appeared. It could have also used a regular leitmotif such as the theme from the title in SC that was present is so many other tunes throughout the game. But again that worked so well in that game because because it was built up over time, and might be something they'll revisit in Cold Steel II and III. again the music was pretty good in Cold Steel, just didn't quite hit the heights of Sky.
The characters were a mixed bag. By and large when you have moments with them individually at various places they were fine, but I wasn't really a fan of them when they were portrayed collectively, and Rean's speeches didn't exactly help. Then the drama between certain members that was just annoying. the characters
Machias and Jusis
never managed to win me over after their initial spat, and while it wasn't really annoying in this case, the same situation with
Laura and Fie
felt even more forced, especially since those two are usually more level headed. As for the characters themselves the only ones I really liked were Laura and Gauis, while Emma and Elliot had their moments. Alisa never really stopped being annoying, but I've never been a fan of the tsundere archetype except in extremely rare cases. Never liked Machias either, and while Jusis wasn't that bad he gets lumped with him. Fie didn't really do anything wrong, but she just looked like she'd be the annoying little girl/loli of the group so even if she didn't act the part, I could never like her. Oh and then
Millium
took over that role and became the really annoying person.
As for auxiliary characters, I suppose the 2nd year students were fine. Towa's voice was a bit too high pitched for my liking (especially during the repeated "You did really well Rean") but she was fine. Crow was all right, as was George. I thought Sara and Angelica would be annoying by filling in the usual stereotypes, but they did manage to win me over. As for Elise I never liked her. I'm really not a fan of the
clingy, jealous, overly attached little sister trope that comes across as semi-incestuous. Sure they're not blood related, but they've already done the brother sister thing before so why do it again.
The interaction between Gaius and his family as well as Elliot with Fiona were much better handled. Also I pity those who play this game before FC and SC as you'll miss out on a lot of the fun with certain characters in this game since everything will go over your head. I'm talking about
Olivert
and
Bleubanc
in particular, as well as the affiliation of characters like
Vita Coltilde
and
Sharon
.
On a related note to characters, I really was not a fan of the whole school setting idea. I just don't like how it works. Sure this game handled it a lot better than FF Type-0 did which was a disaster on pretty much every level. I don't think that game had any redeeming qualities at all when it came to the school stuff. This game at least had actually interesting and likeable characters. However it has the same side affect from having a school setting in having similarly annoying outfits. The guys weren't that bad if a little bland, but I really don't get the obsession with school girl outfits and skirts that have to be so short. Thankfully they decided not to go with the panty shots unlike a certain other game, but in order to get the Triple Attack bonus, I spent a lot of time controlling Laura, Fie and Alisa and I just did not want to look at them wearing what they were. I even contemplated buying the DLC outfits but they weren't particularly brilliant either so I left it alone. Here's hoping for better outfits next time around.
Also related to the school like setting was the structure of the game which I didn't like. It was too rigid and formulaic with little freedom to do anything else. With few exceptions the game boiled down to this. Free Day with Bonding Events> Random quests plus one for the Old School > Practical Exam being a fight with certain rules> Field Study with more random quests for 2-3 days> Chapter End> Free Day with Bonding events> Old School with quests and so on until you finish the game with little to no deviation. Sure Sky had a similar structure as well. You went to each area and did quests at the local bracer guild for a while until you moved onto the next and so on. But it didn't feel as rigid in it's approach. Cold Steel had a hub at each location with little to do. Sky at least had other places to go and explore like the random villages such as Elmo, Ravenna, Manoria and so on as well as things like the various Forts/Gates and the Towers. There was little else to do or mess around in in this game. You also felt like you were more on an adventure, travelling around and discovering new places while CS felt more like you were bouncing around between doing the same Actions at either school or your next field Study.
I'm hoping with Cold Steel II they move away from the school setting. Not only would it help with the aforementioned structure and even outfits, it allow you to be more meaningfully connected to the overall plot. The main problem with cold Steel compared to FC is that while both games set up events for future games, FC as a whole was a contained game with a beginning and an end. Cold Steel feels like more of an introduction to the characters and world. There's not enough of a narrative pay off at the end of the game, too much of it is building for later. It's almost like this game was sacrificed in order for Cold Steel II and III to be much better and eventful games, while FC got the balance right between that game and SC even if the latter is a lot better.
Despite a lot of what may seem criticism, I still quite enjoyed Cold Steel. It might be my least favourite of the trails series thus far, but that doesn't mean it isn't a good game. The last few hours are a thrilling ride and I'm eagerly anticipating Cold Steel II! Now I just need to avoid the temptation to look things up while I wait...
Now a lot of time has passed and I view some things and characters slightly differently, it's still pretty much how I feel. And while I didn't address the technical aspects, it matches pretty well with the critique Guan posted just before
Interesting indeed. There's a large gap between Zero and the rest of the entries. Going by this list, it sure seems like Falcom made a mistake in not following up on whatever people liked about Zero.
Also, looking at 4gamer for myself, it seems to justify Falcom's opinion that Ys Celceta had a good reception among their fanbase, in contrast to the poor reception it has from most people here on GAF. It's got a user score of 91, better than any Trails game other than Zero.
4Gamer. User review scores of the earlier games (the initial releases):
FC: 84
SC: 80
The 3rd: 65
Zero: 95
Ao: 79
Nayuta: 66
CS1: 63/57
CS2: 65/66
That sure is an interesting list.
The only one I found fundamentally boring is Elliot. He didn't even want to be there ("Then go!", I thought to myself). He and Crossbell's Elie can compete for the award of most boring Trails character. Geez.
At least Elliot was charming in a few ways. Gaius was the most boring.. Not that he was a bad character... He was one of the most fully formed and well understood. He just wasnt given anything to do. No dramatic angles, very little dialogue and interactions. He just faded into the background
Same for Machias. Starts off as this annoying thorn to outline the class struggles in Erebonia and then fades once this arc is resolved
Even Emma falls into this trap as a constant tease that shes up to more than she lets on but its kept under wraps all the way until the end
I mean.. there are so many characters to consider and you do have those bonding events for small fleshing (although ultimately inconsequential) so I get that its challenging to build out the cast and fit them into the world
Its a pretty chaotic and messy game. It would have vastly benefitted from the focus you see in FC/SC
The structure while similar to FC, is still so much more rigid. You have less freedom to explore and do othe things, and it got annoying seeing the school again constantly. Look these were my initial thoughts on the game
Now a lot of time has passed and I view some things and characters slightly differently, it's still pretty much how I feel. And while I didn't address the technical aspects, it matches pretty well with the critique Guan posted just before
I can find myself in the majority of your criticism. Coming from Ao, which almost hundred hours of non-stop tension, the rigid structure and laid back setting of Cold Steel made it very difficult to me to keep my attention with the game. I knew Sen would be a different gear and tried to adjust by taking a one month break between the games while playing other similarly paced games, like Atelier Rorona, but it didn't work out. Ao reveals at least one of the major things happening in Cold Steel, so I generally was unimpressed with Cold Steel.
Rationally, I was disappointed by the cast. Popping in the Sen II cartridge, however, and watching its second opening triggered very strong feelings within me. I'd come to love Class VII much more than I thought at the end of the first game.
Interesting indeed. There's a large gap between Zero and the rest of the entries. Going by this list, it sure seems like Falcom made a mistake in not following up on whatever people liked about Zero.
Simply put, Zero (and Ao) was born under 'ideal' circumstances.
FC and SC had a rough development because it was the first game of something new and big, and they had to split the game in two. The 3rd changed directions many times, even relatively late in its development cycle (they initially were directing the series toward Erebonia but decided to move to Crossbell first mid-development). Then they started working on Zero, which would take more than three years to finally hit Japanese shelves. They used that time to meticulously plan the Crossbell arc from beginning to end, keeping the limitations of the PSP and themselves in mind.
Cold Steel brought along new challenges (new hardware, 3D, Erebonia's immensity). I'm positive they had already started working on the fundamentals of that game when Ao was still in development (I found evidence for that in the game's files), similar to how they started working on Cold Steel III during the development of II. All in all, while Cold Steel couldn't live up to the standard of the series, an enjoyable RPG of that size is a feat in its own. Or does that make me a Falcom apologist?
The story structure is probably my main complaint. FC/SC were rigid, but the CS structure had this huge dead zone at the beginning of each chapter where you're just at the school and nothing is really happening. I think that they tried to fix this with the schoolhouse, but since in most chapters nothing actually happens down there, it made it worse.
From what I saw in XSEED's post-E3 stream and the website, I'm hopeful that CS2 fixes this since
the airship should let you effectively take your base with you, removing the need to force yourself to spend days there where nothing is happening.
User reviews are a very fickle thing, not saying what they disagree with are at all unjustified but fans can be extremely critical of something they don't like or enjoy.
Just FYI full game spoilers throughout this post.
Personally I loved all of the cast. I generally don't mind certain tropes if they are at least explored well (as in the trope itself is explored well) but what I really liked is that while pretty much every character is a trope there is a lot more depth to at least most of them then it first seems. I'm really surprised to see so much praise for Laura from some people when I thought she was less fleshed out then Gaius was. She's very much a proper strong 'lady' character but even her reasoning for disliking
Fie
is rather simple minded and instead of just showing her as maybe a bit vain which would give her a bit more interesting personality she and
Fie fight and then EVERYTHING IS OKAY NOW THANKS EVERYONE
. >.> When they don't actually seem to ever have a reason for fighting at all. I really enjoyed using Laura in battle but her personality is just to simplistic and there isn't a lot of depth shown to it unlike a lot of the rest of the cast. I really would have liked her to have more interactions with
her father in chapter 5
and maybe show another side to her, she never shows any real weakness or anything so it makes it hard to relate to her.
I'll be honest Gaius wasn't exactly a super interesting character but I never thought he was intended to be. Everyone else has either a fucked/complicated family life or their family is in a rather difficult political position because of how the class system works, Gaius has a rather normal family who loves and cares about each other. The point of his character and his family is to show what a strong contrast there is between the life of the rest of the cast and the outside world and I think it does a really good job of that.
Rean I always enjoyed as well, hes dense in many ways sure and a bit to much of a Gary sue at times but I really enjoyed the end of the game...
His reaction to Crow being C is at first pretty lame and a 'IT CAN'T BE TRUE' kind of thing but they get off of that pretty quick and instead its about two friends who are forced to fight. Then the Epilogue where Valimar flies away he literally starts to break down at the thought of his friends might be sacrificing their lives for him, its a really impressive moment and I hope we get to see more of that emotional side of him in CS2.
Also on him being dense...
If you go with Alisa (best girl btw, haters can shove it ) He pretty much confesses his feelings for her which isn't something I was at all expecting to see in THIS game when we have a whole second game to really explore said feelings. If this was pretty much any other JRPG series he would have remained dense until the end of CS2 at BEST if he ever got a fucking clue at all.
Does this game throw your hit% in the trash when you are facing much weaker enemies? I'm backtracking through an underground area and all of a sudden I'm missing every other strike with every character.... WTF?
Yeah Gaius is an interesting character that isnt given anything interesting to say or do.
Which is odd because he has powerful motivations for being at thors and abundant curiosity of the world outside his own. If he had been the games lead he would at least been forced to react to the other characters more often
Rean HAD potential to be a great character and they threw it away so fast. He does have a few quirks and points but they dont double down on them
It doesnt help that the plot devices they throw him into ruin what little connective tissue they could build between him and the player.
I felt connected to Estelle after the first town in FC and I didnt even realize it since it was a slow burn and i initially didnt like her
Rean starts out intriguing and then its just a mess
Does this game throw your hit% in the trash when you are facing much weaker enemies? I'm backtracking through an underground area and all of a sudden I'm missing every other strike with every character.... WTF?
User reviews are a very fickle thing, not saying what they disagree with are at all unjustified but fans can be extremely critical of something they don't like or enjoy.
Just FYI full game spoilers throughout this post.
Personally I loved all of the cast. I generally don't mind certain tropes if they are at least explored well (as in the trope itself is explored well) but what I really liked is that while pretty much every character is a trope there is a lot more depth to at least most of them then it first seems. I'm really surprised to see so much praise for Laura from some people when I thought she was less fleshed out then Gaius was. She's very much a proper strong 'lady' character but even her reasoning for disliking
Fie
is rather simple minded and instead of just showing her as maybe a bit vain which would give her a bit more interesting personality she and
Fie fight and then EVERYTHING IS OKAY NOW THANKS EVERYONE
. >.> When they don't actually seem to ever have a reason for fighting at all. I really enjoyed using Laura in battle but her personality is just to simplistic and there isn't a lot of depth shown to it unlike a lot of the rest of the cast. I really would have liked her to have more interactions with
her father in chapter 5
and maybe show another side to her, she never shows any real weakness or anything so it makes it hard to relate to her.
weren't able to like fie that much up to her reveal made much more sense that it was just something that was bothering her , that she couldn't let go rather than some grudge that would connect the 2 characters . Make them more human. People get frustrated for the smallest of things , and laura competitive spirit took off
I like the simple laura that want to follow her father footsteps and does her best. It's boring for some , but it's those simple attititudes with the CS1 cast that i liked .. most of their problems were simple, often born of frustration ( machias for exemple ) and their inevitability to change things ..much intresting to hang around than a class that would be filled to problem with plenty of corpses buried in each of their closets. and as i type this i realise that most of them do have problems that need solving.
Let me be clear that my criticisms are made out of love for the game and the series as a whole and I still loved the complete package of Cold Steel
My disappointments just stuck out like a sore thumb thanks to expectations set by FC/SC. And thats not to say that FC/SC arent riddled with flaws themselves. They just occur in different aspects of those games
I can find myself in the majority of your criticism. Coming from Ao, which almost hundred hours of non-stop tension, the rigid structure and laid back setting of Cold Steel made it very difficult to me to keep my attention with the game. I knew Sen would be a different gear and tried to adjust by taking a one month break between the games while playing other similarly paced games, like Atelier Rorona, but it didn't work out. Ao reveals at least one of the major things happening in Cold Steel, so I generally was unimpressed with Cold Steel.
Rationally, I was disappointed by the cast. Popping in the Sen II cartridge, however, and watching its second opening triggered very strong feelings within me. I'd come to love Class VII much more than I thought at the end of the first game.
Yeah me and DrROBschiz have been over this a few times. It's not that we dislike the game, far from it. It just has aspects that are disappointing and they've made design choices that we feel has affected the game negatively. Honestly part of me could say the majority of the flaws in the game are a result of two inclusions. The school setting and the Social Link or Bonding aspects.
The school setting necessitated a certain structure in terms of narrative and content. By including that, the game became rigid and and formulaic. Since they are students, you had to have those moments in between field studies where the game bogged down and pacing slowed. Obviously they could have done a better job of it and not made it repetitive, but the way they framed everything they put themselves into a corner with little freedom.
The social link aspect is what harms the cast the most. In terms of character dynamic and relationships it essentially makes Rean the center of a wheel and the other members spokes that branch out. It makes any development dependant on Rean's presence. For example by being able to choose any one of the cast at the end, you prevent other members from choosing each other. Say Emma and Jusis hit it off, that can't happen because by allowing Rean the option to choose either you're interfering with the characters to develop with each other or in their own way outside of Rean.
This is partly why the older adult members seem more likable to me. They exist outside the Social Links or have limited exposure, meaning they can get on with their own development and whatever without being dependant on Rean. On top of that with the limited nature of bonding events you're only going too see some of the Class VII interaction. This will more than likely be you're favourite characters while you ignore the others which will only put them further behind. This doesn't affect the older cast.
This is also why I'm not a fan of Rean. He's an actual character, not a blank slate like those in Persona. But since he's the focal pointbthey made him as neutral as possible so he can interact with each character equally, but instead I just felt like since they required everything to go through him, he just interfered with the other characters ability to grow.
I think the reason people find Gaius boring is probably because he's the most balanced member of the cast.
He has no traumatic backstory, doesn't get caught up in any interpersonal conflict with other cast members, comes from a loving family and most of all he's just very secure in his identity. Not only of who he is and what he's capable of, but also of who he wants to be and what he wants to accomplish.
There's no real melodrama with him outside of his attachment to his homeland and his feelings when it's threatened. and to most that's probably boring. lol
I feel the intrigue around his character is supposed to be similar to Emma, but unlike with her I feel the mystery around Gaius is much less in your face, and doesn't pay off in the first game.
I think the reason people find Gaius boring is probably because he's the most balanced member of the cast.
He has no traumatic backstory, doesn't get caught up in any interpersonal conflict with other cast members, comes from a loving family and most of all he's just very secure in his identity. Not only of who he is and what he's capable of, but also of who he wants to be and what he wants to accomplish.
There's no real melodrama with him outside of his attachment to his homeland and his feelings when it's threatened. and to most that's probably boring. lol
I feel the intrigue around his character is supposed to be similar to Emma, but unlike with her I feel the mystery around Gaius is much less in your face, and doesn't pay off in the first game.
I think the reason people find Gaius boring is probably because he's the most balanced member of the cast.
He has no traumatic backstory, doesn't get caught up in any interpersonal conflict with other cast members, comes from a loving family and most of all he's just very secure in his identity. Not only of who he is and what he's capable of, but also of who he wants to be and what he wants to accomplish.
There's no real melodrama with him outside of his attachment to his homeland and his feelings when it's threatened. and to most that's probably boring. lol
I feel the intrigue around his character is supposed to be similar to Emma, but unlike with her I feel the mystery around Gaius is much less in your face, and doesn't pay off in the first game.
I think that's the intriguing part. He's kind of unassuming and people dismiss him as dull. You don't expect much from him. With Emma it's clear as day that she's so much more than she appears to be. There are quite a lot of ways Falcom can surprise people with Gaius, especially with CS3 coming out next year. I hope they'll capitalize on his potential.
Gaius' problem is that he is little more than a background extra for most of the game. He has one early chapter focused on him and then leaves the narrative.
I think that's the intriguing part. He's kind of unassuming and people dismiss him as dull. You don't expect much from him. With Emma it's clear as day that she's so much more than she appears to be. There are quite a lot of ways Falcom can surprise people with Gaius, especially with CS3 coming out next year. I hope they'll capitalize on his potential.
LOL, no worries, I've just had really bad luck with bosses in this game and now random stuff like this pops up, but thankfully, it is inconsequential...
The problem with Gaius relates to what Shahed said. We don't exactly see characters outside of Rean's perspective very often. It's the worst with him. Like, he barely seems to interact with everyone. He seems to be friends with Eliot and Rean, and be generally liked, and that's about it. Even a lot of the characters that took center stage like Jusis and Machias' rivalry, we also get things like Jusis absolutely loathing Millium that flesh him out. We see that Emma acts like a big sister type to Fei in addition to their big dramas. We don't even really get a minor relationship like that with him. There's no banter or memorable character moments. He's just a nice guy that everyone likes. You'd think given the whole class dynamics theme that one of the main cast would have had issues with him being a foreigner or something, at least.
The social link aspect is what harms the cast the most. In terms of character dynamic and relationships it essentially makes Rean the center of a wheel and the other members spokes that branch out. It makes any development dependant on Rean's presence.
I actually like the "social links" in this game because it doesn't do this. Where as in Persona where nothing progresses for a character without you witnessing it, regardless of the passage of time or their development in other character's links, in Cold Steel that isn't the case.
Elliot will perform at the church whether you witness it or not. Fie will join the flower club and protect them in the rain. Crow will move into the Class 7 dorms with or without your help. Alisa will butt heads and eventually come to terms with Faris. Same with Laura and Monica in the swim club.
I feel the bonding events are less about Rean developing relationships with the cast members, and more about letting the player pick their favorite characters and witness their stories. Stories which progress whether you're there or not, much like the other students of Thors.
Obviously things play out differently with Rean's presence and the relationship he has with those characters does deepen, but they aren't about Rean doing things for those other characters so much as it's just him being a supportive friend and witnessing things they would have done on their own.
In that regard I think the Bonding Events actually improve on Social Links from a narrative stand point in a way that only Kiseki probably could.
For example by being able to choose any one of the cast at the end, you prevent other members from choosing each other. Say Emma and Jusis hit it off, that can't happen because by allowing Rean the option to choose either you're interfering with the characters to develop with each other or in their own way outside of Rean.
I don't know. I think it's more believable that they aren't attached at the hip and actually interact with students outside of their group, which ends up being the case.
and even then there are mini groups within the cast. Like Emma and Fie in the background, whom are often shown hanging out on their own and studying together.
and then there's relationships like Laura and FIe and Machias and Jusis, which are very much developed at the forefront of the game and without very much interference from Rean.
One of my opinions that have changed over time is that of Gaius. When playing the game I appreciated and respected him, in fact alongside Laura he was one of the better VII members. But over time I realised he doesn't actually do a lot or get involved much. Then I realised one of the reasone I like him isn't really down to himself. This also happens to be one of the reasone I dislike Rean.
I'm a sucker for familial bonding moments. Always have been. That scene when Gaius first sees his family was endearing, and thus I liked him and his family more because of it. It wasn't just that though. I liked talking to his family off an on in that Chapter and also later on and seeing how close knit they were. There was also stuff like that sidequest with his younger brother and that girl who's rhe daughter of the chef at the fortress. I liked all of that, so it made me like Gaius more even if he himself isn't directly involved in certain aspects or do mucn.
That also works elsewhere. Elliot for example doesn't seem all that involved at times either. But I liked his interaction with Fiona and that made me like him more. It was a similar case Laura. Sure in her case I already liked her, but seeing her with Victor made me smile. On the flip side you have Alicia with her mother. Now I already wasn't a fan of Alisa, and the interaction between the two didn't exactly help. She seemed too bratty.
Then there's the special case of Rean with Elise. I hated their dynamic and relationship. I generally despise that sort of thing, so unsurprisingly I did not like Elise at all, and the whole thing made me dislike a Rean more by association. It's not that I need strong positive relationships between family for me to like their interaction. I'm perfectly fine with Rufus and Jusis. Just said interaction neede to be good, and I didn't feel like it was with Alisa and especially Rean.
The problem with Gaius relates to what Shahed said. We don't exactly see characters outside of Rean's perspective very often. It's the worst with him. Like, he barely seems to interact with everyone. He seems to be friends with Eliot and Rean, and be generally liked, and that's about it. Even a lot of the characters that took center stage like Jusis and Machias' rivalry, we also get things like Jusis absolutely loathing Millium that flesh him out. We see that Emma acts like a big sister type to Fei in addition to their big dramas. We don't even really get a minor relationship like that with him. There's no banter or memorable character moments. He's just a nice guy that everyone likes. You'd think given the whole class dynamics theme that one of the main cast would have had issues with him being a foreigner or something, at least.
I think that's just part of his characterization though. He's the soft spoken, compassionate, mature character that keeps to himself . He prefers to keep to himself and focus on his art.
but despite that I think he deeply cares for all his friends and would not hesitate to come to their defense. Something I imagine we'll see more of in CSII than in CSI
I don't think they need to force him to do something just to make him more likeable.
Then there's the special case of Rean with Elise. I hated their dynamic and relationship. I generally despise that sort of thing, so unsurprisingly I did not like Elise at all, and the whole thing made me dislike a Rean more by association.
Would you mind elaborating? For me, at this point in the narrative, it felt like another trope that also had some comedic value to it (with Alfin teasing Elise). Which, given the number of tropes Rean carries anyway, makes me wonder why you disliked Rean more for it?
Well so based on what is established with Gaius there are several moments I would have expected him to be more involved and have more to say
He comes off as a peace keeper so naturally he would fall in line with Alisa with regards to how the military contributes to the arms race with Calvard and the Giant Cannon pointed at Crossbell
Maybe have him aspire to climb the ranks and deescalate from within based on his relationship with Zecks
Maybe even have him inspired to pursue a leadership role or drop hints to it.
But after his chapter he mostly fades into the background. Plenty of avenues for exploration there even though he is well established
Would you mind elaborating? For me, at this point in the narrative, it felt like another trope that also had some comedic value to it (with Alfin teasing Elise). Which, given the number of tropes Rean carries anyway, makes me wonder why you disliked Rean more for it?
overly attached little sister with semi-incestuous
undertones. I've seen it often enough in various anime. I can see that they're trying to make it seem adorable or cute at how a younger sister may look at an older brother, but I've always found it annoying and repeated exposure hasn't helped. Even the teasing with Alfin is just eye rolling instead of funny. So yeah that's why I don't like Elise or her relationship with Rean.
As for why I dislike Rean more for it. Association mainly. Jusis is a decent char, but Machias is annoying. Due to their drama and interplay, Machias drags Jusis down. Going back to my earlier mention of Gaius and his family. I liked what happened between them all so it makes look at them more positively, thus Gaius gets propped up. Conversely I don't like the Rean and Elise angle so even if he isn't specifically the one with the aspects I don't like, by association he is part of ot as a whole so it makes me dislike him more.
Yeah Elise just ends up being the worst plot device ever
Honestly they would have been better off leaving her till the second game or something and ditching Reans "hidden power" and "chosen one" status
Unbelievable that they thought this was a good path. They already established him as an Eight Leaves dropout. They should have leaned heavily on that story instead and deal with his family ties later
I was digging up some Japanese user reviews of Trails games this morning and it's safe to say that everyone who has posted in this thread has been relatively mild in terms of criticism.
Commonly heard critique of the game includes (and is certainly not limited to) horribly graphics, in particular the character modelling; the foreshadowing is so unsubtle it was starting to look like a Tales game; the shift to the ARCUS orbment system made it too simple; Crafts were generally considered as too overpowered; a strong dislike for Rean; the game was too rigidly structured; the pacing was too slow; the small maps offered little room for exploration, et cetera. And these reviews were probably written after Falcom fixed the appalling loading times.
What they do like is the soundtrack, the linking aspect in the battle system and the NPC's at school.
The website's aggravated user review score was 63 for the PS3 version and 57 on Vita. The sequel didn't do much better with 65 and 66, respectively.
Hardcore Japanese gamers can be just as insufferable and impossible to please as Western ones then, no surprise there I suppose (not that the game couldn't look better for something running on PS3 hardware, even if "horrible graphics" is hyperbolic). To be honest, the strength of Crafts is exactly what I was looking for, as I found both Crafts and S-Crafts underpowered in what I have played of FC so far. Personally, with Rean, I liked both his essential straight man to the rest of the cast status, and yes, even the aspect of
the hidden power, and how wanting to control it led to him taking up the sword, but then dropping from the Eight Leaves school early when he felt that it wasn't helping
. Just so that this doesn't come across as ceaseless fawning, though, I will say that having Emma be so secretive for so long did bug me, and that matters concerning Elise did get awkward.
To say that this is exactly what I had been looking for in respect to an RPG after an entire generation of PS3 efforts being largely disappointing in that regard (with few exceptions) would be an understatement.
That does appear to be the case. I should hope those games live up to their immense hype by the time I play through both of them in their entirety, but if I enjoy them anywhere near as much as I've enjoyed CS I, then I should be more than satisfied. Still looking forward to hopeful localizations of the Crossbell games more in respect to the older titles, though.
