BassForever
Member
To be fair had it not been for GAF I probably would have completely missed Trails. I had at least heard of Ys even if I had never played it before GAF.
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The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel |OT| Class Warfare
- Thread starter Dandy Crocodile
- Start date
I think if Cold Steel 3 is PS4 (possible, because Falcom said they're upping the graphics by a big leap, and Ys 8 is PS4/Vita) that things could change if we actually seriously got caught up (we will as of CS2) and manage to get CS3 in a reasonable time frame.
Releasing a PS3 game at the end of 2015, and its sequel in 2016, is seriously pushing the limit of dying systems. It helps that it's on Vita, too, but seriously. Last of Us was considered a 'last gasp of the PS3' and it was released in 2013. Yes, Cold Steel was too but only in Japan.
I mean sure, a hell of a lot more people are going to buy it on PS3 as opposed to the abysmal sales on PSP in the West, but still.
Not much that can be done there, but still. I am so glad that we're getting it at all.
Man, I think I should have went with Easy in this game. The Chapter 3 Schoolhouse boss is fucking bullshit and I'm playing on Normal. I guess if I find this difficult, then no way I'm touching Nightmare unless I have some form of ultimate weapon/skill/equip that can wipe the floor with any enemy to compensate with the stronger enemies. And all of this is coming from someone who found Easy of SC challenging. Ugh, gave up with the boss and just decided to weaken and retry it after 3 tries. I'm going to trash this boss on my second playthrough.
It's not so bad if you have a good Quartz loadout, and have a decent amount of CP at the battle start. I did it on Hard without that much trouble, and you don't even get the option to weaken on retries.
My thoughts on Hard so far: Definitely the way to go for people interested in gameplay, but there are some scattered moments of BS, and I outright skip a Chapter 3 side mission that just wasn't going to happen. If I had ridden back after leveling a bit I could have done it.
SatelliteOfLove
Member
It's difficult for me to discuss this as I can get passionate about this cluster of issues and it's by its very nature a passionate subject, but it's very difficult to make someone receptive give a shit without the snowball effect of popularity and social feedback loop.
The frustrating part is like what's being discussed here, that putting money where mouths are is random at best. Add to that the...well, track record for competance of SE these last 15 years versus the difficulty of Trails all coming out and that big, aggressive spectacuthon of XV still has more of those eyes on it, even though it's in the same ballpark of coming up short of expectations.
JRPGs have been a trifecta of FF/Pokemon/KH and that hegemony continues. Believe me, I've talked with people in life; their comprehension craters when most other series appears in conversation even for self-described JRPG fans from way back. It's really odd but not.
StarCreator
Member
Just wanted to fill in a blank in between these two events for those not aware, because I think they're significant.
Before any of this could happen, XSEED needed convincing that Steam was a viable platform. I recall SpaceDrake had been the one pushing for it to happen, and the result was the Steam releases of Ys Oath in Felghana and Origin, which was also Sara's first involvement with XSEED. They beat expectations, so both FC and SC (with Carpe Fulgur taking on localization duties of the latter at first) were greenlit simultaneously.
I have no idea whether Cold Steel would have happened even if SC and FC Steam had never happened, but the fact remains Steam sales alone are what enabled SC to happen at all.
Se7enSword
Banned
Finished Chapter 4
That was quite an interesting end. Kinda curious about the triggering condition of Rean's scar. Why did it react to Osborne?
I can see CS III being a PS4/PS3/PSV game.
Yeah, actually getting to Zero/Ao is always the bigger problem. I just thought it was silly he thought 3rd could scare people away when we'd be four games in by the time it actually came out (if it does) and still has some of the key selling points for the series (the story and further development of the setting.)
chaosblade
Unconfirmed Member
Possibly, since Cold Steel was localized at Falcon's request.
midasmulligan
Member
To be fair, you've gotta have the patience and a will of steel to put up with trails SC as long as you have to in order to see something, hell, anything worthwhile. After 20 hours or so, as I've mentioned previously, I had to put it down. Its definitely niche....like niche niche
KuwabaraTheMan
Banned
Chapter 2, end of first field day:
I figured that's what was up with Jusis, but it was nice to have it confirmed. The scene with him and Rean talking during the night was a really good window into both characters and how they view the world. I like Jusis a lot more after watching that whole bit.
YianGaruga
Banned
To be fair, you've gotta have the patience and a will of steel to put up with trails SC as long as you have to in order to see something, hell, anything worthwhile. After 20 hours or so, as I've mentioned previously, I had to put it down. Its definitely niche....like niche niche
That's not true for everyone. I found SC to be engaging from the start. But the problem is exaclty that no one bothers to cover the niche, but instead the super marketed games everyone knows about anyway. Gaming media is nothing else than advertising for big publishers who don't even need it. Everyone's crying for diversity in games but doing jack about it.
To be fair, you've gotta have the patience and a will of steel to put up with trails SC as long as you have to in order to see something, hell, anything worthwhile. After 20 hours or so, as I've mentioned previously, I had to put it down. Its definitely niche....like niche niche
20 hours of SC has a ton of events though. As a sequel it does a fantastic job even in the first few hours tying itself into FC; cue Estelle and Kevin's first scenes.
Did you and I play the same sequel?
Only played it because Steam kept recommending it to me and I liked the cover art. Then I read the positive reviews that specifically mentioned the great writing.
It's unfortunate that it's not considered among other great RPGs but I don't have a magic bullet solution other than just keep talking about how good it is and why.
StarCreator
Member
Perhaps, but XSEED could have turned the request down if they didn't think the series as a whole had potential after FC's initial failure.
iRAWRasaurus
Banned
There is definitely a slow start, but I find most jrpgs have a slow start. It's the 2nd part of the game so I would assume the characters and events of the 1st game are the main driving point for the beginning of SC.To be fair, you've gotta have the patience and a will of steel to put up with trails SC as long as you have to in order to see something, hell, anything worthwhile. After 20 hours or so, as I've mentioned previously, I had to put it down. Its definitely niche....like niche niche
To be fair, you've gotta have the patience and a will of steel to put up with trails SC as long as you have to in order to see something, hell, anything worthwhile. After 20 hours or so, as I've mentioned previously, I had to put it down. Its definitely niche....like niche niche
Not your kinda game =/= niche, though.
And dropping the game after 20 hours because supposedly nothing worthwhile happened is a load of crap.
midasmulligan
Member
No, I didn't make it through the first let alone the second. I'm not saying dont do a 180 degree turn after the first 20-25 hours, but that's asking the average gamer to sit through. I've heard the story is stretched over three games, so the arc peaks around the second or so...
midasmulligan
Member
No, you're right, but the sales and media attention suggest niche
If you didn't even play either game then why did you just drop a load of bollocks about "SC requiring an iron will to play the first 20 hours"
I would refrain from spouting complete nonsense in the future unless you enjoy your opinions having zero weight
Basileus777
Member
Are you really denying that these games are niche in the West?
SolVanderlyn
Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
They shouldn't be. >=o
they are though
They are more niche than they should be, though. Even fans of RPGs like Suikoden, Xenogears, etc. seem to pass over Trails. To be fair, Sky is more low key than most people might be used to, but Cold Steel has every reason to catch their interest.
Basically, this. I do think a PS4 port would have immensely helped the game's marketing (even big Yakuza fans skipped out on Yakuza 5 due to not wanting to go back to PS3 or no longer owning one) but still, it's way more under the radar than it should be. Jason Schreier shouldn't be the only one talking about how good the game is. It kills me that the Tales series is coasting on its brand name these days and enjoying relative success when Trails is everything Tales wants to and should be.
midasmulligan
Member
Damn, I meant FC...my error
midasmulligan
Member
Which is why I'm hanging around here, it looks like the game tweaks the formula in a couple areas, so I'm thinking of picking it up based on the comments here
BassForever
Member
I'll admit, trails looks like a dime a dozen jrpg. It was due to very positive word of mouth I took a second look.
Oh I see...
However if your suffering was so profound I would've stopped much earlier. These games have a style that doesn't change when it comes to storytelling.
We can guess all day as to why these games don't receive attention but second guessing things like quality and platform can bring up some ugly arguments like in the Tearaway thread so I usually like to avoid it.
No, I was just pointing out that there is no causality link between being bored of a game (which is natural for stuff you're not into) and its niche nature (which Trails in the Sky is, but the niche condition doesn't lie intrinsically in the gaming experience, but only in outside quantifiable factors like dev cost, marketing and sales).
SolVanderlyn
Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
I can see this. I've been listening to their OSTs forever, and they always seemed like generic run of the mill JRPGs to me. I think it was actually Kotaku and GAF that sold me on Sky, and that wasn't until the entire Second Chapter localization debacle, which was sort of a marketing tool in and of itself in an odd way. I mean, there's not much to differentiate this
From, say, this (which is a very mediocre JRPG):
At first glance. I feel like more media outlets should parrot how much more of a full course meal Trails is compared to the fast food nuggets that have been put out in recent years, especially Cold Steel, which is more immediately accessible to typical JRPG fans due to its better pacing as compared to Sky.
I suppose this is true, but the school setting is more of a backdrop than an outright focus. The story is more about the land of Erebonia and the characters enrolled at the school than it is about school life and drama. It's not Persona lite like you might expect. This is difficult to convince people of, though, seeing how the game presents itself. And the school segments are definitely there. It's just that, even with the anime school setting, the game is much more JRPG and much less Onii-chan/Notice me senpai than people might think it is, especially if they've never played a Trails game before.
chaosblade
Unconfirmed Member
Cold Steel has the issue of being an anime school game. If not for the fact it's a Falcom game and I enjoyed FC (and later SC) I'd have written it off immediately after first seeing it.
And honestly I still think it looks unappealing, and am putting off playing it until closer to CS2.
iRAWRasaurus
Banned
I won't lie, IMO There are def a decent amount of generic battle high school anime tropes..nonetheless I still really like the game and lookin forward to playing CS 2, FC and SC later on.
Dragoon En Regalia
Member
Hopefully people can see the difference between that banner with a generic artstyle and the one drawn by Haccan with glorious shading and detail. I get touchy when people call Ys and Trails art "generic" when it seems like they never go into detail about why it seems generic. At least no one's said that about Sorcerian art.
And you guys keep having all the fun discussions without me, lol. I'm optimistic that we'll get 3rd and then Crossbell for the reasons listed above. Falcom also doesn't need to release Ao on PC themselves, they just need to do the DRM-stripping and cleanup work on the Joyoland port before sending it to XSEED. That way Falcom can keep getting retail sales if that matters so much more than the paltry amount they get from Japanese digital distribution.
Basileus777
Member
I'm not certain the school game thing is much of an issue, the setting is probably a draw for a lot of people.
chaosblade
Unconfirmed Member
When talking about fans of games like Suikoden or Xenogears, its probably a deterrent more often than not. It might be a draw for some modern anime fans, but most of them seem to be more interested in fanservice-driven games.
YianGaruga
Banned
cool generalization.
What this series needs the most is more people to check it out. If the school setting helps to attract a different group of people, that's only positive. The JRPG fans of the PSX days are not enough anymore to justify these localizations.
Ugh yeah played a few more hours and even the boss wasn't a challenge.
I love the game but not being able to enjoy combat at all has ruined it for me. One of the best jRPG systems I've ever played completely ruined by making nothing even remotely challenging. And now I'm about 22 hours in, there's no way I will restart.
Shelving it. What a fucking shame. If only they labeled the difficulty correctly or god forbid let you change it after starting.
Basileus777
Member
No one bought Suikoden games even in their heyday. Appealing to actual existing fanbases such as those who buy Persona games is probably more meaningful.
What chapter are you in? I don't think he was being all that fair, it only gets easier if you minmax the shit out of quartz stuff. I found the tail end of the game to be harder than the first three chapters. I started actually dying sometimes later on.
Fair enough.
Man, you know, I personally think you should really just restart on a higher difficulty. If you just finished part 2 you're not even halfway through the game.
The game's so good I'd hate to see people miss out.
Hmmmm... I think you missed a game there. *wink*
I'm grateful to my editor-in-chief has given me the opportunity to write three full-length articles about Trails (in Dutch) this month - a retrospective on FC, a review of SC and a personal view on SC as GOTY - but apart from that, omgfloofy summed up my experiences with media sites perfectly:
elitewillie1
Banned
one of my characters has stopped gaining or replenishing EP whats going on?
SolVanderlyn
Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
Kind of off topic, but is there really no Dutch word for this? lol
Come back to it in a couple of weeks. If you let it sit for a while it won't be as grueling to sit through a second time. A few months might be overkill, but it's up to you. Don't use Laura if you want some extra challenge; she's insanely broken compared to everyone else.
Man, I find it weird that people say the game has no challenge at all when I find Normal to be difficult especially with some bosses. I say I even want to play the game on Easy. Oh well, guess people have different tastes when it comes to challenge. Because defeating enemies effortlessly is something I always strive to do in RPGs especially if it involves min-maxing stuff.
Some of the bosses I've found tricky just because they can deal a lot of damage really fast, at least to me, but overall it really is pretty easy. Pretty much any non boss mob can be fought with an advantage and wiped out before they ever get a turn, CP is so easy to generate you can just spam crafts all day long with no worries. Especially if you use Laura as someone else said. She basically one shots entire groups of mobs with her crafts.
Wait I think you can in the options?
I'm on normal and I find it pretty normal, it's not overly challenging because CP is gained so quickly. I think it was intended.
Novel Mike
Member
Okay so I finished it, loved it just hate that I rushed through (well not really rushed but played non-stop) it and now I have to wait MONTHS for Cold Steel 2. Has XSEED given any indication on when they planned to get CS2 out? I'm hoping not next holiday season, that would be awful.
Also few things...
1) What DLC will be available for the game? I know theirs a lot of little bonus items but is there real DLC like the (endgame spoilers)
or costumes and the like and if so has there been any information given on when they will be released?
2) So just a plot related question for both this and the other series we haven't gotten yet. Endgame spoilers!!
Thanks in advance.
Also few things...
1) What DLC will be available for the game? I know theirs a lot of little bonus items but is there real DLC like the (endgame spoilers)
vacation to Ymir?
2) So just a plot related question for both this and the other series we haven't gotten yet. Endgame spoilers!!
So the events of Crossbell are what bring the tension to the forefront in the final chapter, from what I herd the other games we haven't gotten in English yet take place during the same time frame as this one and I'm guessing answer what the weapon that takes out the Fortress with the Railway Guns at the end of the game is? Is there any plot summery or anything I can read up on this, seems really interesting since its very unclear if we will ever get those games in English.
Thanks in advance.
Oh boo hoo, you have to wait a few months for CS2. We had to wait four fucking years for SC after the Sky FC cliffhanger. It's supposed to be 2016, but they haven't nailed down a date.
No, it's all bonus shit you don't actually need. There's no 'content' DLC.