If you hate the downtime talk because you hate the characters and the story than so be it. But please don't act like just because you dislike something, its objectively bad and we're all just shrugging it off. We all have our issues with the game, but there are many (including myself) that enjoy Cold Steel's characters.
Personally i can't stand Persona and its characters and story but im not running around telling everyone they're wrong for enjoying it and are just shrugging off it's issues.
Why are you so hung up on the train station cutscene. They take like two minutes lol.
As for your adventure thing, like i say a lot, context is really important. A traditional adventure works for something smaller and more connected like the country of Liberl. But Erebonia is massive and would take days to walk from one city to another. You can't go for the same type of traditional adventure theme in a country that's much more involved in politics and the military. I thought it was a very smart decision to have the game take place in a military academy as it gives the narrative an excuse to have characters group up and the field studys serve as a reason to explore a large number of areas in Erebonia, while having them involved in the political struggles throughout the game.
The game is still mostly based on going on an adventure, with the field studys being the core component of your class. Its just also mixed in with life sim aspects as well.
it was good from beginning to end, yes. i'm not telling you what to enjoy. you can enjoy the biggest turd and i won't care. i just explained why it's bloated and boring, that's it. you never explained what's so great about all that spam. the train cutscenes are just examples. they go on endlessly about nothing for no reason.
it wasn't very adventurous to me. you were either in your school or right next to town. it was all too safe. i think i've said all i wanted to say. not my fault some people only focus on negative elements.
Yup. OST is arguably the best part. I think the voice acting for the most part is very well done as well. There's great sound design all around for this game.
With the voice acting as well, Class VII kind of drew the short end of the stick imo. Although Rean showed some promising emotional range in the end.
But some of the major NPCs? Damn did they pick some talent for those. Rufus, Olivert, Sharon, Towa, Angelica, Crow, Alfin, Claire, Misty were all amazing. Exceeded all my expectations. Sara is a bit mixed but she grew on me.
it was good from beginning to end, yes. i'm not telling you what to enjoy. you can enjoy the biggest turd and i won't care. i just explained why it's bloated and boring, that's it. you never explained what's so great about all that spam. the train cutscenes are just examples. they go on endlessly about nothing for no reason.
it wasn't very adventurous to me. you were either in your school or right next to town. it was all too safe. i think i've said all i wanted to say. not my fault some people only focus on negative elements.
I enjoy it because I like the banter between the characters whether its heavier dialogue or just talking about dumb school stuff. There's nothing to explain about "what's so great" because you either like it or you don't and you clearly don't. What you call "tedious spam," I call banter or conversation.
CS gives you the option to speed through dialogue though. Maybe you would've enjoyed it more if you just held down the O button during the cutscenes?
I do agree that the game has little in terms of environmental exploration. The closest we got is chapter 3, but even then I agree with others that it kinda got boring to explore pretty quickly. Also, if you choose to highlight the negative elements then good for you I guess? I really don't care either way.
With the voice acting as well, Class VII kind of drew the short end of the stick imo. Although Rean showed some promising emotional range in the end.
But some of the major NPCs? Damn did they pick some talent for those. Rufus, Olivert, Sharon, Towa, Angelica, Crow, Alfin, Claire, Misty were all amazing. Exceeded all my expectations. Sara is a bit mixed but she grew on me.
Besides maybe Rean, Jusis, and Fie, I definitely agree that Class 7's VA is lesser compared to the major NPCs. I don't think any of them are bad, but there's a pretty noticable difference in quality between the two groups.
So finally got to the end of Chapter 1 today before stopping. Enjoying it a lot so far. Liking all the characters. I've not found any hidden requests though gotta try harder in the next Chapter.
Also small NPC spoiler from the field study trip in Ch1:
I enjoyed how every so often when running past the kids near the chapel, things kept changing/updating. It was fun to see though Jake is a meanie .
So finally got to the end of Chapter 1 today before stopping. Enjoying it a lot so far. Liking all the characters. I've not found any hidden requests though gotta try harder in the next Chapter.
Also small NPC spoiler from the field study trip in Ch1:
I enjoyed how every so often when running past the kids near the chapel, things kept changing/updating. It was fun to see though Jake is a meanie .
The hidden requests are really tough to find, especially if you're going for 100% of them. You'd have to talk to every NPC during each time change or after a significant event in order to actually be able to find all of them. I'm using a guide for my second run and can't believe how many I missed lol.
And yeah, NPC's having their own little stories is great. One of the best part about the school setting in this game is following each classmate's story. It really helps to flesh out the school environment.
With the voice acting as well, Class VII kind of drew the short end of the stick imo. Although Rean showed some promising emotional range in the end.
But some of the major NPCs? Damn did they pick some talent for those. Rufus, Olivert, Sharon, Towa, Angelica, Crow, Alfin, Claire, Misty were all amazing. Exceeded all my expectations. Sara is a bit mixed but she grew on me.
I agree on all counts here.
XSEED knocked it out of the park with ALL of the secondary characters.
I think out of all of those my favorite was Olivier and Sharon's voices, though sometimes I felt like Sara and Claire's voices were a little off sometimes.
if you manage to do enough damage he will always try to trap one of your guys. i just used speed up spells and tried to have 100cp ready to disrupt him. didn't use anything fancy.
Once he sucks up your team mates if you do enough damage he'll spit them out. Do your best to save S-Crafts for that. Also, I played the game on Normal and was at a higher level on that boss and still had a difficult time.
If you have Alisha in your party and her default master quartz is maxed out it's good to throw her into the fray because she gets 2 revives that max out her CP on revive making it easy to get S-Crafts for those moments. Once she is out of revives I would probably swap her for either Laura or Emma as both of them can do a ton of damage make sure their Quartz and items are set up to max Attack and ATS respectively.
I would put both Jusis and Elliot in your party and absolutely spam both Noble Command and Resounding Beat (they can stack 2 times).
Finally Rean as he can interrupt spells and can quickly get up his S-Craft by killing the respawning trash mobs (with default master quartz).
use all your Zerum capsules to gain quick CP and boost and hit them with an s-craft whenever it steals one of your teammates. Try to constantly have a regen spell going whether its through one of elliot's skills or through that one quartz that fully heals all teammates and puts a regen on them. Speed and attack buffs are always good as well.
I won my auction today for a new copy of CS2, it should arrive from Japan in a week or so. (a new physical copy costs 2200 yen, but the digital version on PSN costs 6800 yen... ok).
use all your Zerum capsules to gain quick CP and boost and hit them with an s-craft whenever it steals one of your teammates. Try to constantly have a regen spell going whether its through one of elliot's skills or through that one quartz that fully heals all teammates and puts a regen on them. Speed and attack buffs are always good as well.
If you buff Laura and then do her Armor Breaker craft, it should free your buddy. Her STR is so high, that Armor Breaker with proper STR+ quartz and buffs should exceed most of the S-Crafts in your party in terms of damage.
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I thought that boss was pretty easy sadly, since he only really has one threatening attack, and his speed is not very good either.
Seraphic Ring
really trivializes the game after this point sadly.
So I'm not sure what it is yet or if I missed a tutorial on it or something but what is that golden light I see sometimes around characters? Like when they attack and a big golden circle that appears and becomes smaller?
So I'm not sure what it is yet or if I missed a tutorial on it or something but what is that golden light I see sometimes around characters? Like when they attack and a big golden circle that appears and becomes smaller?
I won my auction today for a new copy of CS2, it should arrive from Japan in a week or so. (a new physical copy costs 2200 yen, but the digital version on PSN costs 6800 yen... ok).
Regarding that boss
If you buff Laura and then do her Armor Breaker craft, it should free your buddy. Her STR is so high, that Armor Breaker with proper STR+ quartz and buffs should exceed most of the S-Crafts in your party in terms of damage.
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I thought that boss was pretty easy sadly, since he only really has one threatening attack, and his speed is not very good either.
Seraphic Ring
really trivializes the game after this point sadly.
aoe healing spells between holy breath and seraphic ring. Like its either you heal 30%-50% in a large range or you heal all in a max range, from death and with a regen spell as well. Its pretty nuts.
Speaking of the S-Crafts... my memory is a bit fuzzy, but I'm pretty sure in Cold Steel the S-Craft priming sound when you activate one is a revolver barrel click. In Sky it did a soft chime echo, so I wonder if Ao/Zero have a different sound for S-Craft lock-in.
aoe healing spells between holy breath and seraphic ring. Like its either you heal 30%-50% in a large range or you heal all in a max range, from death and with a regen spell as well. Its pretty nuts.
Speaking of this quartz, I remember one poster here arguing near launch that Elliot gets made redundant late-game... and yeah, now that I've beaten it, he definitely does. Not sure why they made Emma outclass him so hard. Probably because the dev team thinks Emma is just so much cooler or whatever.
so many times i was one step to hell, serphant ring is so effective (specially how fast it is), also spamming that mighty shield (didnt know it will resist the sucking).
throw most of my rare items..trusting your word that nothing more powerful is waiting for me @@
wasnt lucky at all with the criticals (it can change everything)
so many times i was one step to hell, serphant ring is so effective (specially how fast it is), also spamming that mighty shield (didnt know it will resist the sucking).
throw most of my rare items..trusting your word that nothing more powerful is waiting for me @@
wasnt lucky at all with the criticals (it can change everything)
fights to go and (no story spoilers, little spoilers about the nature of the fights)
there's only one regular fight that shouldn't pose that big of a problem, one fight that you cannot win and two fights where you cannot use items in for a certain reason
, so yeah, even if you've used tons of cp-recovering items, that doesn't really affect the rest of the game for you all that much.
Speaking of this quartz, I remember one poster here arguing near launch that Elliot gets made redundant late-game... and yeah, now that I've beaten it, he definitely does. Not sure why they made Emma outclass him so hard. Probably because the dev team thinks Emma is just so much cooler or whatever.
It's sad cuz elliot is actually really good in the early to mid game. Defense buffs, detector and regen right from the beginning is a god send, but then Emma gets all that shit and more and with a better ATS and i start to wonder who would use elliot over her by the endgame unless you really like elliot/dislike emma.
I still got a ton of use out of Alisa since she has strong magic, a god tier master quartz at level 5, and the 50% chance to burn enemies on one of her skills is great to have.
now. It's been fun so far. While do find myself liking Sky much more due to various reasons, I can't wait to see how this one ends. Especially with the praise I've heard over Sen II.
Yeah, figured that out after seeing this post. Paid attention to when it was happening after reading this.
Anyway Chapter 2 done, enjoying it a lot so far, really curious about a number of things, characters, what's going to happen later in the game and what references are from previous games (this being the first Trails game I've played properly despite owning FC/SC on Steam). It's been quite fun though and considering people say this is a slow start and stuff, it makes me look forward to the bits people say are 'good' later in the game when the plot supposedly gets going.
I have gotten a bit rekt'd by some monsters (ones that stun/confuse mainly, especially ones that stun/confuse and have so many enemies that it happens 4+ times in a row) along with some bosses. Only one boss though so far that some members were dead when I ended it which annoyed me .
The 3 enemies in that old school house which used a cry of some sorts on me. Do I need to finish each floor of that place when we're told to investigate it in each chapter or can we put it off til later? Just curious.
But yeah, providing this doesn't go downhill, I'll almost certainly buy Trails of Cold Steel 2 whenever it's out.
Yeah, figured that out after seeing this post. Paid attention to when it was happening after reading this.
Anyway Chapter 2 done, enjoying it a lot so far, really curious about a number of things, characters, what's going to happen later in the game and what references are from previous games (this being the first Trails game I've played properly despite owning FC/SC on Steam). It's been quite fun though and considering people say this is a slow start and stuff, it makes me look forward to the bits people say are 'good' later in the game when the plot supposedly gets going.
I have gotten a bit rekt'd by some monsters (ones that stun/confuse mainly, especially ones that stun/confuse and have so many enemies that it happens 4+ times in a row) along with some bosses. Only one boss though so far that some members were dead when I ended it which annoyed me .
The 3 enemies in that old school house which used a cry of some sorts on me. Do I need to finish each floor of that place when we're told to investigate it in each chapter or can we put it off til later? Just curious.
But yeah, providing this doesn't go downhill, I'll almost certainly buy Trails of Cold Steel 2 whenever it's out.
Huh... I'm about 6 hours into the game, and I love it. This is basically exactly the game I wanted to play.
I know it's supposed to be a slow burn early on, so if I'm liking it this much right now, I'm hoping I'll be floored when the game kicks into high gear.
"A Personal Request" - the guides mention you get +2 bonus ap for winning the fight against Angelica (though it seems you get a game over if you lose?), doesn't bonus AP actually show up on-screen when you meet the requirements? They didn't show up for me, and now I'm fretting whether I'll get those bonus AP or not... I'd need to actually progress a bit before I'll get the end-of-day evaluation to see if I got the extra points.
Someone please tell me I'm worrying over nothing, lol
I think someone mentioned in the past missing out on some AP even though they followed a guide to the T, I just don't recall what chapter it was in. I hope I didn't run into the same problem!
Final dungeon on Nightmare, dun. Dat Zeram CP-heal whoring. :3 Really, the toughest thing about Nightmare is how easily your characters can die. Dealing damage really isn't the problem, dying to a single powerful attack even when you over 10,000HP, defense buffs & everything is kinda annoying. At that point it's really just down to luck, whether some character dodges an attack or not.
Anyhoo, about the final, FINAL boss...
Is there really no noticeable difference between two of the extremely similar stances that have two different weak points? Also, what's the absolute best tactic for beating Crow? I had a hard enough time beating him on Normal, can't even imagine how bad he might be on Nightmare... Do Rean's quartz & equipment matter to the Azure Knight's stats or is it just based on level?
"A Personal Request" - the guides mention you get +2 bonus ap for winning the fight against Angelica (though it seems you get a game over if you lose?), doesn't bonus AP actually show up on-screen when you meet the requirements? They didn't show up for me, and now I'm fretting whether I'll get those bonus AP or not... I'd need to actually progress a bit before I'll get the end-of-day evaluation to see if I got the extra points.
Someone please tell me I'm worrying over nothing, lol
I think someone mentioned in the past missing out on some AP even though they followed a guide to the T, I just don't recall what chapter it was in. I hope I didn't run into the same problem!
Is there really no noticeable difference between two of the extremely similar stances that have two different weak points? Also, what's the absolute best tactic for beating C? I had a hard enough time beating him on Normal, can't even imagine how bad he might be on Nightmare... Do Rean's quartz & equipment matter to the Azure Knight's stats or is it just based on level?
Just finished the game tonight, took my time and probably clocked in at around 80 hours by the end. Super enjoyable experience, the wait for part two is gonna be excruciating.
Probably a good time to finish up Trials in the sky FC and SC. Gonna be hard to go back after playing with all the improvements they did with the Cold Steel battle system. lol
Wow, I had no idea all of Falcom's soundtracks and albums are up on Spotify. Full version of Ashita Eno Kodo (op song) is so, so good. Listened to it on repeat all the way to work this morning. Dat Cold Steel withdrawal symptom, lol.
Though I'm not sure why the boss theme (don't be defeated by a friend) ends up being the most played piece of music from the soundtrack. Do people just play boss music in their everyday activities or something?
Anyway, it's finally out in the UK tomorrow so hopefully will arrive with me then. Quite when I'll get round to playing it in a week that also had The Witness and Rise of the Tomb Raider PC
and Lego Avengers which is what has taken up most of my time shut up
I wasn't able to wait for the EU launch and I'm glad I didn't The XSEED LE is also snazzy as hell
Here's hoping the thread gets a bit of an activity bump next week! For what it's worth, NISA EU is doing a good amount of promotion on social media for the game.
I avoided the thread a bit while I was playing but I'd love to read some more fresh impressions without worrying about getting spoiled
EDIT: My only regret is not being able to use Emma's casual clothes DLC. It looks so good
I've been preaching this game as hard as I can to all of my friends, and so far i've gotten a good 6 people to pick it up (and they all love it so far too). Though I think i'm the only one who bought a PS3 and Vita copy lol.
I even lent out my Vita TV to the first guy I convinced to pick it up, too.
Anyway, it's finally out in the UK tomorrow so hopefully will arrive with me then. Quite when I'll get round to playing it in a week that also had The Witness and Rise of the Tomb Raider PC
and Lego Avengers which is what has taken up most of my time shut up
The kids are probably the only school area NPCs I consistently ignore. I might talk to them if they're in a situation that looks interesting (like Kay talking to the nun, excited as all hell), but for the most part they're the only NPCs that I just run past and go "eh" all the time.
I even talk to the flower shop lady every day, and flowers are literally the whole world for that dull bitch
gotta try harder in the next Chapter.
