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The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel |OT| Class Warfare

It doesn't make sense then since Zero Evo came out in 2012.

If it's space that is an issue, at least they could do the usual compromise and only voice major plot events instead of sporadic voice acting

Falcom didn't develop EVO. It's a license job where Kadokawa Games were the one who added in all the new art, music and voice acting.
 
Falcom should have a clause in their Kadokawa contract stating : we reserve the right to release a definitive version of our game with the voice acting from the Evo games after a period of time.

Not going to happen, but it would be nice to have.
 
Woah lol.

Well, even with that it's still a bit... regressive. Falcom had no involvements for the evo games at all?

Falcom acknowledges them and helps to market them on their social media. And gives Kadokawa the original source code to port the games.

Aside from that, pretty much nothing. Falcom effectively licences out their games, just like how Disney licenses out Star Wars to a toy companies.
 

Dio

Banned
Falcom acknowledges them and helps to market them on their social media. And gives Kadokawa the original source code to port the games.

Aside from that, pretty much nothing. Falcom effectively licences out their games, just like how Disney licenses out Star Wars to a toy companies.

It's not like it's new, either. Falcom outsourced Ys 4 to two different companies, for example, back in 1993 - one version, Dawn of Ys, was by Hudson Soft and Tonkin House made the other Ys 4, Mask of the Sun.

The first time Falcom made their own version of Ys 4 was the recent Ys Celceta.
 

Shizuka

Member
The secret is that this has been all of Falcom's non-Ys games (cause of close to zero voice acting in those) since Zero no Kiseki in 2010. Zero had the least voice work, Ao had a bit more, CS had significantly more, CSII built on that, and then Tokyo Xanadu probably has the most of the bunch.

I get that it wouldn't have a lot of voiced dialogue, but it could've been at least consistent. I don't mind unvoiced dialogue on introductions or middle of the chapter scenes, they could've cut those out of place voicework and saved even more money.
 
I get that it wouldn't have a lot of voiced dialogue, but it could've been at least consistent. I don't mind unvoiced dialogue on introductions or middle of the chapter scenes, they could've cut those out of place voicework and saved even more money.

It's their first attempt at this at a large scale, probably not as well optimised as it could've been, or the cost of making it thorough exceeded their expectations.

And they rarely ever seen to spend more than they need to, this modest expectations each time.

Gonna have to wait for that Sen no Kiseki Evolution port/remake/remaster/reissue, bro.

And enjoy it never coming to the west? :p
 

Shizuka

Member
The way Machias is portrayed drives home with the issue I have with some RPGs: I'd rather have just the protagonist or a small party at the beginning and slowly increasing your numbers instead of beginning the game with a large party. With the latter, you risk having the characters kinda fading into the background, so you create specific draws to each of them to avoid that.

Machias' hatred for nobility, even if explained later into the game, is just that, a draw to make him stand out and not fade into the background when you have a JRPG with nine members right off the bat.
 

Aeana

Member
It's not like it's new, either. Falcom outsourced Ys 4 to two different companies, for example, back in 1993 - one version, Dawn of Ys, was by Hudson Soft and Tonkin House made the other Ys 4, Mask of the Sun.

The first time Falcom made their own version of Ys 4 was the recent Ys Celceta.

I wouldn't say "outsourced." They licensed it out. But that was their primary source of income for years: licensing out their games to other companies. This includes a couple hundred different ports of Ys 1 and 2, including the abysmal DS versions. Even the Scriptarts PS2 remakes of Ys 3-5. As far as Ys 4 goes, Falcom was working on their own with Sega for Sega CD but it got canned.
 

TraBuch

Banned
I'm assuming there are anti-stun accessories? I'm starting to think I'm gonna need to leave one on everybody the entire game.
 
So I've been noticing something off while playing this, does this drain battery life faster or something? Compared to other games, a full charge doesn't seem to last nearly as long while playing this.
 

Xenoflare

Member
So I've been noticing something off while playing this, does this drain battery life faster or something? Compared to other games, a full charge doesn't seem to last nearly as long while playing this.

Games do vary in terms of battery life. That is true.

IIRC does this game have that "Network features is turned off" notification upon booting? Usually those games in my experience takes more battery as devs can utilize that to give the Vita a cpu speed bump
 

Shizuka

Member
So I've been noticing something off while playing this, does this drain battery life faster or something? Compared to other games, a full charge doesn't seem to last nearly as long while playing this.

I thought I was going crazy, even told a few friends that my Vita's battery was starting to die while playing this game for the last week. Now I really do believe it's the game, because it's lasting me 3.5-4 hours per full charge, when I used to get a little over 5 hours with other games. As a conscious Vita owner, I always leave wi-fi turned off and the battery at a reasonable level.
 

Bladenic

Member
So uh the first boss fight in chapter 2 ain't no picnic. Mainly because I have no anti confusion equipment and I don't believe there are any ways to prevent it. Damn.
 
I thought I was going crazy, even told a few friends that my Vita's battery was starting to die while playing this game for the last week. Now I really do believe it's the game, because it's lasting me 3.5-4 hours per full charge, when I used to get a little over 5 hours with other games. As a conscious Vita owner, I always leave wi-fi turned off and the battery at a reasonable level.

Ya wondered if it was some special setting or if the game was just more demanding on the system. Not a huge fault for me since i'm usually a few feet away from my outlet and can charge anytime, just a little jarring seeing that bar go down so fast.
 
Gonna assume cold steel 3 has a good chance of being release state side as well? Even tho it was recently announce.

As long as CS 2 doesn't outright bomb due to being a sequel and not enough finishing 1 to care about 2, I'd say there's a high chance of it coming here. Probably safe to assume that CS 1 has also payed off so far if you look at retailers actually running out of stock and it actually getting a good amount of reviews/media attention.
 
CS3 is also probably going to be on the PS4 as well.

Going to be a bit of a wait though... Unless Falcom surprises us with a Fall 16 release for CS3, it's going to be 2017, and 2018 for localisation.
 

Xenoflare

Member
That reminds me, the Chinese/Asian version of CS and CS2 only had a 3 month gap, and the Asian CS2 launched alongside with the Japanese version on release day.

Crazy, never going to happen here in the west
 
Rarely happens with other localized titles for the west, why would a Falcom jRPG be any different?

Well, for the longest time, even Asia gets shafted in terms of localisation, but suddenly they're surging ahead of the "assumed" bigger western market and are now almost tier-1 markets for Japanese games with priority localisation.

Though a part of that is apparently contributed by SCEJA (Taiwan) and their team that apparently does a lot of localisation work for 3rd party games.

Too bad there's no SCEA/E equivalent of equal speed and aggressiveness...
 
Chapter 4:
I got so excited when I heard that lute, and was not disappointed

Edit:
And he's chairman of the board of Thors. Awesome
 

Bladenic

Member
He notices you when you first enter the town and he comments on Sara/the girls in your party. Unless I missed a side quest with him in ch1, that's all he really does there.

That's what I figured. I squealed when I saw him though.

Also, when should I have read that 3rd Star Door translated on Endless History if anyone knows?
 

StereoVsn

Gold Member
Finally had a bit of time so started and actually played for couple of hours. So far my impressions are not good.

- Graphics: don't care, certainly serviceable. Reminds me of Tales games.
- Voice Acting: pretty cringeworthy. It's not good at all. Funny enough... Reminds me of Tales games.
- Characterization of the team chars: Just plain bad and super tropey. Also reminds me of Tales games.

So far it's like Falcom decided that "Tales of" was the best series ever for graphics, VA and characters and ran with it. It's extremely disappointing after Trails FC and SC. I sincerely hope it will get better since Trails characters certainly improved (but they were never this bad).

Also not sure about having the whole team immediately in place.

Oh, and loading is everywhere and while it's not bad it's certainly not good. If the game gets better I may have to get PS3 version.
 

Xenoflare

Member
Finally had a bit of time so started and actually played for couple of hours. So far my impressions are not good.

- Graphics: don't care, certainly serviceable. Reminds me of Tales games.
- Voice Acting: pretty cringeworthy. It's not good at all. Funny enough... Reminds me of Tales games.
- Characterization of the team chars: Just plain bad and super tropey. Also reminds me of Tales games.

So far it's like Falcom decided that "Tales of" was the best series ever for graphics, VA and characters and ran with it. It's extremely disappointing after Trails FC and SC. I sincerely hope it will get better since Trails characters certainly improved (but they were never this bad).

Also not sure about having the whole team immediately in place.

Oh, and loading is everywhere and while it's not bad it's certainly not good. If the game gets better I may have to get PS3 version.

Hey Xillia 2 had a great dub.

Characterization part I get, as someone already pointed out the cast should have been trickled down to the player instead of having them appear at the same time
 

StereoVsn

Gold Member
Hey Xillia 2 had a great dub.

Characterization part I get, as someone already pointed out the cast should have been trickled down to the player instead of having them appear at the same time

Xillia 2 was alright but far from say Atlus work. This really reminded me of Zesteria voices with latter actually being better.

And for characterization, it's not just that the team is dropped on you wholesale but it's just some characters are straight out of some really low quality anime.
 

Xenoflare

Member
Xillia 2 was alright but far from say Atlus work. This really reminded me of Zesteria voices with latter actually being better.

And for characterization, it's not just that the team is dropped on you wholesale but it's just some characters are straight out of some really low quality anime.

The low quality anime is due to the fact that it's dropped at once. They need shitty tropes to make them standouts

The dub is more about the combination of the script and subpar characterizations.... some of the in battle voices are very errr... iffy.

A couple of the actors (if Behind the Voice actor's list is credible for this game), you have a couple actors who worked on Atlus games
 
You don't have to mince words. Just say "all of them."

The game plays with your expectations and perceptions of the characters a bit here and there. Not everyone will like Class VII ( I don't like them as much as Liberl Bracers and SSS), but I grew really fond of Class VII, even though I disliked everyone except Jusis in the prologue back when I first played it.
 

Xenoflare

Member
You don't have to mince words. Just say "all of them."

The game plays with your expectations and perceptions of the characters a bit here and there. Not everyone will like Class VII ( I don't like them as much as Liberl Bracers and SSS), but I grew really fond of Class VII, even though I disliked everyone except Jusis in the prologue back when I first played it.

I'm still trying to figure out if I'm getting old or the character quality just dropped. Although I'm still going over chapter 1. It's not having the warm feeling I had for FC in 2006

I just feel all the kids are a bit....... less.... varied in terms of background. I don't know if it's a Kiseki thing in general but the entire cast has a hamfisted background where even the most mundane characters come from a "big family"

Although, it's an thing in TiTs too. Although that was trickled down as well.
 

StereoVsn

Gold Member
I'm still trying to figure out if I'm getting old or the character quality just dropped. Although I'm still going over chapter 1. It's not having the warm feeling I had for FC in 2006

I just feel all the kids are a bit....... less.... varied in terms of background. I don't know if it's a Kiseki thing in general but the entire cast has a hamfisted background where even the most mundane characters come from a "big family"

Although, it's an thing in TiTs too. Although that was trickled down as well.

I have played FC and SC this year. Neither is this bad, they are hugely better characters from the get go.
 

Psxphile

Member
Also, when should I have read that 3rd Star Door translated on Endless History if anyone knows?

The latest one? Since it vaguely addresses a short scene that occurs during the ending of Trails in the Sky SC it's recommended you beat that game first, otherwise you'll lack the context to understand some of what the door reveals. Apparently the information discussed in that door won't be relevant until ToCSII so there's no hurry, I suppose.

If you meant the one before, watching it before playing SC is probably okay since it reveals what happened with Cassius during the events of FC and will apparently have some relevance in ToCS.
 

Bladenic

Member
Finally had a bit of time so started and actually played for couple of hours. So far my impressions are not good.

- Graphics: don't care, certainly serviceable. Reminds me of Tales games.
- Voice Acting: pretty cringeworthy. It's not good at all. Funny enough... Reminds me of Tales games.
- Characterization of the team chars: Just plain bad and super tropey. Also reminds me of Tales games.

So far it's like Falcom decided that "Tales of" was the best series ever for graphics, VA and characters and ran with it. It's extremely disappointing after Trails FC and SC. I sincerely hope it will get better since Trails characters certainly improved (but they were never this bad).

Also not sure about having the whole team immediately in place.

Oh, and loading is everywhere and while it's not bad it's certainly not good. If the game gets better I may have to get PS3 version.

You don't actually have the whole team accessible from the get go. Somewhat minor spoilers but you don't get to even use 2 characters for the first time until chapter 2.

As for the Tales comparisons, I definitely think Falcom must be big fans of mystic artes and cut-ins haha.
 

Xenoflare

Member
You don't actually have the whole team accessible from the get go. Somewhat minor spoilers but you don't get to even use 2 characters for the first time until chapter 2.

As for the Tales comparisons, I definitely think Falcom must be big fans of mystic artes and cut-ins haha.

It's more about how the cast is introduced, not played

About mystic artes, I'm pretty sure that Falcom did "Persona eyes" before persona with those S-crafts in TiTs. P3 is a 2006 game while FC released in 2004
 

Gu4n

Member
I wish [Trails in the Sky SPOILER]
Olivier (ver.Olivert Reise Arnor) was a look I could've had for end game SC.
:(
Let's hope The 3rd comes soon then!

Finally had a bit of time so started and actually played for couple of hours. So far my impressions are not good.

- Graphics: don't care, certainly serviceable. Reminds me of Tales games.
- Voice Acting: pretty cringeworthy. It's not good at all. Funny enough... Reminds me of Tales games.
- Characterization of the team chars: Just plain bad and super tropey. Also reminds me of Tales games.

So far it's like Falcom decided that "Tales of" was the best series ever for graphics, VA and characters and ran with it. It's extremely disappointing after Trails FC and SC. I sincerely hope it will get better since Trails characters certainly improved (but they were never this bad).

Also not sure about having the whole team immediately in place.

Oh, and loading is everywhere and while it's not bad it's certainly not good. If the game gets better I may have to get PS3 version.
Cold Steel had its visual toned down until it was able to run roughly equally on both PS3 and Vita. My problem with Cold Steel is mostly the animations; they run like kids' robots. It might sound minor, but they addressed this issue in Cold Steel II and it's absolutely jarring to go back.

You don't have to mince words. Just say "all of them."

The game plays with your expectations and perceptions of the characters a bit here and there. Not everyone will like Class VII ( I don't like them as much as Liberl Bracers and SSS), but I grew really fond of Class VII, even though I disliked everyone except Jusis in the prologue back when I first played it.
Based on their respective endings and my reactions to them, I might like Class VII the best of the series. I was inconsolable.
 
Let's hope The 3rd comes soon then!

I'm hoping that he'd...
be playable/is the protagonist of Cold Steel 3


Cold Steel had its visual toned down until it was able to run roughly equally on both PS3 and Vita. My problem with Cold Steel is mostly the animations; they run like kids' robots. It might sound minor, but they addressed this issue in Cold Steel II and it's absolutely jarring to go back.

Animation and lack of cinematography/scene direction in Cold Steel 1, despite its now far more 'realistic' visuals was really jarring. It was the one thing they practically lifted 1:1 from their old-school style of making Trails. Nice to hear CS2 massively improves that.

Based on their respective endings and my reactions to them, I might like Class VII the best of the series. I was inconsolable.

Well, there's still CS2 for me to bite through. Right now my ranking is :

1. Estelle/Joshua/Olivier + Liberl Bracers ( as of FC/SC, nothing of 3rd)
2. Special Support Section ( I only played Zero, so nothing of Ao)
3. Class VII (as of end of CS1)
4. Liberl Bracers excluding Estelle/Joshua/Olivier ( as of FC/SC, nothing of 3rd)

So yeah, it's Bracers > SSS > Class VII in absolute terms, but that's mainly because I love the hell out of Estelle/Joshua/Olivier. ;)
 

Dio

Banned
So yeah, it's Bracers > SSS > Class VII in absolute terms, but that's mainly because I love the hell out of Estelle/Joshua/Olivier. ;)

Well, the Japanese would agree with you, I think. The last poll I saw rated

1. SC
2. Azure
3. FC

as the top 3.
 

Taruranto

Member
I find the graphics ugly as sin. I wish Japanese studios would stop going for a "realistic" art style when it's obviously they don't have the budget for it.

I'm not even a graphic dude, but in this case I really feel it detracts from the narrative, it's jarring when the main character models barely look better than the NPC. I wish Falcom could conjure whatever magic Gust was using for Dusk character models. :(
 
Considering they went for military school approach I feel the dump of a large class feels justified when compared to the other Trails games. It'd be super weird if class VII only started with like 4 selected students and every in game month they did the Persona "oh we found another student compatible with Arcus" route.
 

Dio

Banned
The more I play CS, the more I feel like they intentionally went with the character archetypes right off the bat to lure in the modern crowd - you know, the ones who will buy a game because they saw a character archetype in it (like a tsundere or whatever) and then did a bait and switch and actually gave them the personalities of normal people once you spend more time with them, there are way less MISUNDERSTANDINGS than you'd think since generally things get resolved pretty quickly except for a few conflicts, et cetera.

I feel like Falcom is acutely aware that they needed to appeal to the crowd that buys games these days in Japan, but at the same time wanted to show them a damn good RPG as well as a well-written story to back it up, as well as surprise them with multi-faceted in-depth characters instead of what they probably expected, which was 'generic tsundere' and 'apathetic loli' and 'class president.'

I'm in Chapter 4 and essentially this feels a hell of a lot like the Trails I know and love. There are a couple rough spots but so far I have been convinced that this takes place in the same world as FC/SC. Hell, there were less-developed character archetypes in FC/SC too that got way less character background than the people in Cold Steel.
 
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