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[adamsapple]

Quick question guys.

What does that one option about affinity points do in new game plus ? IIRC it says 'max' so does that mean 5 every time or INFINITE ?

 

[Psxphile]

Quick question guys.

What does that one option about affinity points do in new game plus ? IIRC it says 'max' so does that mean 5 every time or INFINITE ?

I think it means you have the max amount of bonding points for all Free Days (and evenings). If there's a total of 6 bonding events for the day, than you'll have 6 points to spend.

 

[Dragonslayer_023]

Hooo boy, the end of Chapter 6 is like a brick wall for my nightmare playthrough. It was going pretty smooth until then!

 

[Famassu]

Hooo boy, the end of Chapter 6 is like a brick wall for my nightmare playthrough. It was going pretty smooth until then!

Just make sure everyone is at full CP at the start of the fight, get rid of the two motherfuckers ASAP with S-craft, use a certain someone's "speed up everyone else" craft as much as possible, spam those capsules that give you 100 or 200CP and, most importantly, keep at least one character as far away from

Spoiler

a certain C

as possible so that his supermove won't one-shot kill everyone if they are all lumped together. Also make sure that at least 1 character has at least 100CP at all times for an S-break in cases of critical turns. Damage nullifying magic is pretty hot as well, especially if timed well.

 

[WildEagle18]

Finally started this game even though I bought it during launch. (My massive backlog on JPRG on ps4, vita and ps3 isn't helping lol).

So, my gf and I made a bet when he started, we are competing who can beat the game first on nightmare difficulty. I just finished the prologue and right now I just made it to Celdric. My impression so far? The game has been awesome so far, I'm a sucker for those anime tropes so Alisa acting like a Tsundere cracks me up. Gargoyle was tough and it took quite a while to beat but the battle system is fun so that's no problem.

I'm playing without a guide so far and I think I'm managing very well. My question about bonding points is that, will I be able to get everyone or will I need multiple playthrough? My first 3 bonding points I went for Elliot, Laura and Alisa then I saw Towa had the ! during the afternoon/evening when I used my extra BP on Alisa.Though it would seem pointless on Towa since I don't think link would benefit her since I doubt she joins the party. Another question, it doesn't matter who I choose to spend my bp with right? I was mostly thinking using it up on Laura and Alisa the most while spreading it out equally among the rest if that is possible.

 

[Saphirax]

Finally started this game even though I bought it during launch. (My massive backlog on JPRG on ps4, vita and ps3 isn't helping lol).

So, my gf and I made a bet when he started, we are competing who can beat the game first on nightmare difficulty. I just finished the prologue and right now I just made it to Celdric. My impression so far? The game has been awesome so far, I'm a sucker for those anime tropes so Alisa acting like a Tsundere cracks me up. Gargoyle was tough and it took quite a while to beat but the battle system is fun so that's no problem.

I'm playing without a guide so far and I think I'm managing very well. My question about bonding points is that, will I be able to get everyone or will I need multiple playthrough? My first 3 bonding points I went for Elliot, Laura and Alisa then I saw Towa had the ! during the afternoon/evening when I used my extra BP on Alisa.Though it would seem pointless on Towa since I don't think link would benefit her since I doubt she joins the party. Another question, it doesn't matter who I choose to spend my bp with right? I was mostly thinking using it up on Laura and Alisa the most while spreading it out equally among the rest if that is possible.

You can get between 4-6 max links on your first playthrough. Some bonding events have character notes tied to them. However, seeing how you're playing without a guide you're bound to miss a lot of notes.

 

[WildEagle18]

You can get between 4-6 max links on your first playthrough. Some bonding events have character notes tied to them. However, seeing how you're playing without a guide you're bound to miss a lot of notes.

Should I just use a guide? I usually just go blind on my first playthrough but are notes important? Do they transfer into new game+?

 

[Famassu]

Should I just use a guide? I usually just go blind on my first playthrough but are notes important? Do they transfer into new game+?

Notes are important if you want to go for Platinum. They can be transferred to NG+. There is a pretty spoiler-free point-by-point Platinum guide for the game that points out all the one-time "you should talk to this person now to get an update to his notes" & hidden quest stuff that you'll easily miss if you don't constantly talk to everyone at the school (& sometimes outside the academy town).

 

[Saphirax]

Should I just use a guide? I usually just go blind on my first playthrough but are notes important? Do they transfer into new game+?

It's a bit tricky. Notes transfer if you choose so. However there are two occasions where you won't have enough BP to get all character notes, so you'll have to get the rest on your second playthrough.

Then there's an event where you'll have to choose between 2 master quartz. In order to get that event there are a few prerequisites, one of them being finishing 40 quests. Seeing how there are both optional and hidden quests in the game you may end up missing out on the MQ.

This is only important if you're after the plat. If not, disregard!

 

[Dragonslayer_023]

Just make sure everyone is at full CP at the start of the fight, get rid of the two motherfuckers ASAP with S-craft, use a certain someone's "speed up everyone else" craft as much as possible, spam those capsules that give you 100 or 200CP and, most importantly, keep at least one character as far away from

Spoiler

a certain C

as possible so that his supermove won't one-shot kill everyone if they are all lumped together. Also make sure that at least 1 character has at least 100CP at all times for an S-break in cases of critical turns. Damage nullifying magic is pretty hot as well, especially if timed well.

The problem is there's 2 hard fights in a row, but I do have some Zeram capsules saved up.

 

[adamsapple]

I think it means you have the max amount of bonding points for all Free Days (and evenings). If there's a total of 6 bonding events for the day, than you'll have 6 points to spend.

Gotcha. Meaning at any given points you will *never* not have enough points to max them out, the only way you can miss them is .. if you just don't do them.

Sounds great. Thanks.

 

[Phoenix944]

Wow the difficulty spike in chapter 2... Or maybe it's because my team is weak, I don't know...

Spoiler

I've killed the big flower thing yesterday, on my 4th attempt. This fight was awfully difficult for me, the aoe were just too punishing (op damage + blind). Oh well, I got lucky on my last try, since it decided to not spam its weird aoe ><
And then come the 2 dogs, they can easily OS a character me with their special attack. And since I have only 1 person who can resurrect, my victory was also a matter of luck

But I wonder, why do I have crappy damage and such low life on all my characters ? The only one with good stat was Laura but she's not available on this chapter :/

Oh and I'm playing on normal... Nightmare mode will be fun I guess...

 

[FallenGrace]

Wow the difficulty spike in chapter 2... Or maybe it's because my team is weak, I don't know...

Spoiler

I've killed the big flower thing yesterday, on my 4th attempt. This fight was awfully difficult for me, the aoe were just too punishing (op damage + blind). Oh well, I got lucky on my last try, since it decided to not spam its weird aoe ><
And then come the 2 dogs, they can easily OS a character me with their special attack. And since I have only 1 person who can resurrect, my victory was also a matter of luck

But I wonder, why do I have crappy damage and such low life on all my characters ? The only one with good stat was Laura but she's not available on this chapter :/

Oh and I'm playing on normal... Nightmare mode will be fun I guess...

A lot depends on the skills you are using I think. I found the game got way easier from chapter 2 on normal once I got more Quartz/master quartz and unlocked more crafts to experiment with, I roll through everything now.

Might be worth also changing positions in tactics before battles putting Laura and Reim up front and weaker characters behind but leave spaces to lessen the AOE attack chance.

 

[ChasingComets]

What's a good difficulty for a new player to the series wanting a sufficiently challenging playthrough without the game becoming frustrating?

I heard normal was considered to be pretty easy, so would hard be better for my first run?

 

[FallenGrace]

What's a good difficulty for a new player to the series wanting a sufficiently challenging playthrough without the game becoming frustrating?

I heard normal was considered to be pretty easy, so would hard be better for my first run?

I'm new to the series myself and a few early battles aside I'm crushing through it now on normal barely getting hit in fights so hard might be a good bet. Are you an experienced RPG player?

 

[Lusankya]

And since I have only 1 person who can resurrect,

Everyone can resurrect, don't forget you also have items to toss on your teammates.

 

[Phoenix944]

A lot depends on the skills you are using I think. I found the game got way easier from chapter 2 on normal once I got more Quartz/master quartz and unlocked more crafts to experiment with, I roll through everything now.

Might be worth also changing positions in tactics before battles putting Laura and Reim up front and weaker characters behind but leave spaces to lessen the AOE attack chance.

I'm using all buffs/support spell I have, and I always put my casters in the back. Still, Rean getting 1 shot is painfull, I even gave him Defense quartz :/

Everyone can resurrect, don't forget you also have items to toss on your teammates.

I already used most of my rez items (I'm keeping the big ones for finals bosses since it seems so rare). I'd like to buy more but money is tight right now, and it doesn't help that most sidequests don't give mira.

 

[Augemitbutter]

What's a good difficulty for a new player to the series wanting a sufficiently challenging playthrough without the game becoming frustrating?

I heard normal was considered to be pretty easy, so would hard be better for my first run?

play on hard. you will meet some harder bosses on the way but there is nothing that can't be solved with strategic thinking. normal is too easy.

 

[R_thanatos]

Nightmare difficulty is actually easier than one would think ( unless one would want to experiment again )....
Untill you reach chapter 5/6 that is.

 

[Alucrid]

Nightmare difficulty is actually easier than one would think ( unless one would want to experiment again )....
Untill you reach chapter 5/6 that is.

Yeah some of the back to back bosses are a pain

 

[max_505]

Just finished the game. Man, what a final chapter that was! My jaw dropped and stayed that way until the end and I couldn't count how many times I said "WTF?!". Good times.

Spoiler

WTF Crow shot the Chancellor! (He had it coming, though)

WTF the clinic nurse wields a sniper!

WTF Sharon is an Ouroboros enforcer?!

WTF Misty is an evil biatch?! AND she's the second anguis?

Thanks to omgfloofy and the gang's Star Door #14 Translation Tuesday for this. Watching that made this part sweeter.

Spoiler

WTF robots!

WTF why did Emma tie her hair up again?! She looked hot with her hair down!

And here's a question:

Spoiler

IIRC Angelica said that a woman taught her the Taito style of fighting? Was it Kilika? Spoil me if you want.

I WANT COLD STEEL II NAO!

 

[Phoenix944]

How can you farm mira ? I'm at chapter 2.

 

[Psxphile]

How can you farm mira ? I'm at chapter 2.

1) buy as many ingredients as you can afford for Simple Omelette
2) pair up w/ Elliot and cook up multiple omelettes
3) receive multiple Warm Egg Soups, etc.
4) sell off all of it, make a tidy just-shy-of-2000 mira profit
5) repeat

Elliot won't be available during the Field Study, you need to do this when you tackle the Old Schoolhouse. Remember, you can go in and leave as many times as you need to, the mission only ends after the boss at the end is defeated.

 

[R_thanatos]

I WANT COLD STEEL II NAO!

99% of the people here had this reaction went they got the ending ..

I sure did .. welcome to the waiting club. Have fun in your nightmare run

 

[Phoenix944]

1) buy as many ingredients as you can afford for Simple Omelette
2) pair up w/ Elliot and cook up multiple omelettes
3) receive multiple Warm Egg Soups, etc.
4) sell off all of it, make a tidy just-shy-of-2000 mira profit
5) repeat

Elliot won't be available during the Field Study, you need to do this when you tackle the Old Schoolhouse. Remember, you can go in and leave as many times as you need to, the mission only ends after the boss at the end is defeated.

Nice! Thanks.

 

[bobohoro]

Reading Kreuger all the time is weird, especially since they got most of the other germanised stuff right.
And pronounce it right, even.

Cruising through Chapter 3 right now and while it doesn't quite reach the levels of charm Trails In The Sky could manage, I might end up liking Cold Steel better overall. The laid back progression, the many different locations and rather endearing cast are really enjoyable.

And the many small things and characters that link back to FC/SC are awesome. Can't wait for some of the big-shots to make their appearance.

 

[Gu4n]

And here's a question:

Spoiler

IIRC Angelica said that a woman taught her the Taito style of fighting? Was it Kilika? Spoil me if you want.

No official confirmation so far, but that seems to be the best guess for now!

 

[FallenGrace]

I'm using all buffs/support spell I have, and I always put my casters in the back. Still, Rean getting 1 shot is painfull, I even gave him Defense quartz :/



I already used most of my rez items (I'm keeping the big ones for finals bosses since it seems so rare). I'd like to buy more but money is tight right now, and it doesn't help that most sidequests don't give mira.

Have you been skipping many battles as you've progressed? You could just be under levelled because nothing should one shot you on normal that I experienced.

Using gear to up your speed and evasion I found more helpful to survive then defense quartz tbh.
Not sure what else to recommend without seeing your set up. Keep Elliot/Emma with Cannon for healing, use buffs initially then spread out a little by attacking. Use S Craft/crafts to take out smaller enemies if there are any out the gate before focusing on the boss.

 

[Dragonslayer_023]

Ahaha trashed the Chapter 6 boss when I gave Rean the Master Quartz that ups attack and got a crit turn at the very start. The two things died in one shot and

Spoiler

C

lost about 2/3rds of his health.

 

[Shahed]

Is Gladiator equipment kind of unnecessary in this game compared to the others? It feels wrong not using them but I'm in Chapter 4 now and there's accessories like Evergreen, Passionate Rouge and two more I can't recall the names of. They seem so much better not only in terms of stats but also the status resistances. CP isn't an issue in this game comparatively and the only Gladiator gear that I feel would be useful if there's a Belt and to give that to Alisa so she can constantly refresh CP for everyone.

 

[R_thanatos]

evergreen is such a good accessory i think i've got 1 on everyone..
it's just so usefull starting chapter 5 and beyond.

 

[Ryan95]

I'm actually at Chapter 3,and I have just one thing to say:

Spoiler

The Highlands are so freaking gorgeous. The feeling of riding the horse at full speed in these huge environment at sunset was so breathtaking

If I have some time and if they are not too spoilerish(?) I'll post some Screenshots

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

Just finished the game. Man, what a final chapter that was! My jaw dropped and stayed that way until the end and I couldn't count how many times I said "WTF?!". Good times.

Spoiler

WTF Crow shot the Chancellor! (He had it coming, though)

WTF the clinic nurse wields a sniper!

WTF Sharon is an Ouroboros enforcer?!

WTF Misty is an evil biatch?! AND she's the second anguis?

Thanks to omgfloofy and the gang's Star Door #14 Translation Tuesday for this. Watching that made this part sweeter.

Spoiler

WTF robots!

WTF why did Emma tie her hair up again?! She looked hot with her hair down!

And here's a question:

Spoiler

IIRC Angelica said that a woman taught her the Taito style of fighting? Was it Kilika? Spoil me if you want.

I WANT COLD STEEL II NAO!

Welcome to the desert.

evergreen is such a good accessory i think i've got 1 on everyone..
it's just so usefull starting chapter 5 and beyond.

Farming those and the Rouges up was smart I know that much.

I'm actually at Chapter 3,and I have just one thing to say:

Spoiler

The Highlands are so freaking gorgeous. The feeling of riding the horse at full speed in these huge environment at sunset was so breathtaking

If I have some time and if they are not too spoilerish(?) I'll post some Screenshots

I like

Spoiler

that it's a noticably non-European area. I don't know how Crossbell is, but the technic and/or ancient areas are the places that feel like you're really somewhere different outside of Nord. It's why I'm so interested in Calvard.

 

[omgfloofy]

I WANT COLD STEEL II NAO!

Funny enough, I wouldn't be surprised if the English speaking fans will have less time to wait for it than the ones who played the games in Japanese. ;D

 

[Psxphile]

Game froze up during THE BIG EVENT in Final Chapter:

Spoiler

fighting Azure Knight, finally having a leg-up on the guy and it freezes mid-transition of one of his attacks

. smh... is this what people meant by "needing luck to win"?

Not the first time the game's frozen on me either. I hope FALCOM got their shit together for CSII.

 

[Famassu]

Mine didn't crash or glitch even once through my 110+ hours of playing.

And needing luck is more about the fact that

Spoiler

the Azure Knight has one stance that has two possible weak points but not simultaneously so it's very easy to choose the wrong one and deal only small amounts of damage. This + the fact that the Azure Knight hits HARD with some of its attacks + the fact that he of course chooses the stance/next attack completely randomly + the fact that the boss can unbalance you as well + the fact that you have a very limited number of times you can heal yourself + the fact that unbalancing with the Crafts has fairly low percentages + the fact that the Craft that let's you dodge & then counter-attack is also reliant on luck means that winning can be completely luck based. If you have such good luck that you evade-counterattack the boss constantly, can unbalance the boss with other craft you might use and never miss the weak spot when having to choose with that one stance, then the boss CAN go down pretty easily (that's how it went for me on my Normal run). If you have the bad luck of not dodging the AK's attacks and you miss the weak spot even just 2 or 3 times and you have sucky luck unbalancing him with Crafts if you use them, you are pretty screwed.

It's not too bad on Normal since I think the boss has less HP & is maybe a bit weaker (?), but Nightmare was pretty bad when even a couple of missed weak spots can mean that you won't deal damage fast enough no matter how successful you are during rest of the fight. You really have to succeed with almost every attack you perform.


Soo... yeah, there are soooooooooo many things that are luck based in the fight against the Azure Knight that it's easy for the battle to go in a direction where you screw up a few times and the boss lucks out with unbalancing a few times and then it's impossible to win the fight no matter how good of a strategy you have.

 

[Gu4n]

Game froze up during THE BIG EVENT in Final Chapter:

Spoiler

fighting Azure Knight, finally having a leg-up on the guy and it freezes mid-transition of one of his attacks

. smh... is this what people meant by "needing luck to win"?

Not the first time the game's frozen on me either. I hope FALCOM got their shit together for CSII.

Neither Sen (Vita) nor Sen II (Vita+PS3, two playthroughs) froze once on me. Cold Steel (PS3) did freeze once, but I don't know whether that's because of an error in the platform, the localised version or just my PS3 which really is on its last legs.

 

[Psxphile]

Credits are rolling.

Rean doing

Spoiler

his best 10th Doctor impression... ;_;

EDIT: wow, that last shot

Spoiler

is morbid as fuck

Welp, that's 131 hours I'll never get back.

... Good.

 

[FallenGrace]

Neither Sen (Vita) nor Sen II (Vita+PS3, two playthroughs) froze once on me. Cold Steel (PS3) did freeze once, but I don't know whether that's because of an error in the platform, the localised version or just my PS3 which really is on its last legs.

In 80+ hours on Cold Steel I've had one crash during a game of Blade and that's it. Occasionally the game hiccups when approaching a chest before dialogue comes up but otherwise it's been perfectly fine for me.

 

[Diablos54]

In about 14 hours I'll finally be playing this! Can't wait!!

 

[ULTROS!]

Something I noticed similar to this and TitS:

Spoiler

sister falls in love with adopted brother who's kinda oblivious that his sister is in love with him. This is kinda borderline incestuous. Does Ao/Zero no Kiseki have something like this too?

 

[Gu4n]

Something I noticed similar to this and TitS:

Spoiler

sister falls in love with adopted brother who's kinda oblivious that his sister is in love with him. This is kinda borderline incestuous. Does Ao/Zero no Kiseki have something like this too?

No.

 

[Famassu]

Something I noticed similar to this and TitS:

Spoiler

sister falls in love with adopted brother who's kinda oblivious that his sister is in love with him. This is kinda borderline incestuous. Does Ao/Zero no Kiseki have something like this too?

Although I don't really like what they are doing with that in Cold Steel and generally aren't a fan of such characters/character development,

Spoiler

it's not incest or even "borderline" incest if one is adopted, especially when neither were babies when one entered the other's life. And it's not like Rean's little sister is actually pursuing that relationship, even if the feelings are there.

 

[max_505]

Game froze up during THE BIG EVENT in Final Chapter:

Spoiler

fighting Azure Knight, finally having a leg-up on the guy and it freezes mid-transition of one of his attacks

. smh... is this what people meant by "needing luck to win"?

Not the first time the game's frozen on me either. I hope FALCOM got their shit together for CSII.

The same thing happened to me.

Spoiler

It was on my second try fighting Azure Knight because I failed horribly on my 1st attempt. Got him to about 1/4 of his life when it froze.

 

[Nyoro SF]

PS3 definitely chokes on the transition for team member followups. That's the only time the game crashed for me, in Chapter 6.

So from that point onward I always made sure I didn't hit the button too fast.

 

[Phoenix944]

Have you been skipping many battles as you've progressed? You could just be under levelled because nothing should one shot you on normal that I experienced.

Using gear to up your speed and evasion I found more helpful to survive then defense quartz tbh.
Not sure what else to recommend without seeing your set up. Keep Elliot/Emma with Cannon for healing, use buffs initially then spread out a little by attacking. Use S Craft/crafts to take out smaller enemies if there are any out the gate before focusing on the boss.

I usually clean the maps (at least the first time), well I won't do that for Chapter 3 because the maps are huge :v
I'll try to boost my evasion, I don't think I have many items that can do that but I'll look into it.

Also I noticed that my stuff is kinda low compared to merchants stuff (that may be why Rean is so useless...). I still need to do that omelet trick to increase my mira. By the way, can I sell my "sepith mass" or I'll need it for smething else ? I have 4000+ and that could help me buy some shit.

 

[Nyoro SF]

I usually clean the maps (at least the first time), well I won't do that for Chapter 3 because the maps are huge :v
I'll try to boost my evasion, I don't think I have many items that can do that but I'll look into it.

Also I noticed that my stuff is kinda low compared to merchants stuff (that may be why Rean is so useless...). I still need to do that omelet trick to increase my mira. By the way, can I sell my "sepith mass" or I'll need it for smething else ? I have 4000+ and that could help me buy some shit.

Oh, that explains a lot.
Someone skipped the sepith tutorial from George lol
George quite directly says "Sell your sepith mass, it's only good for selling to make money."

 

[coredecepts]

I usually clean the maps (at least the first time), well I won't do that for Chapter 3 because the maps are huge :v
I'll try to boost my evasion, I don't think I have many items that can do that but I'll look into it.

Also I noticed that my stuff is kinda low compared to merchants stuff (that may be why Rean is so useless...). I still need to do that omelet trick to increase my mira. By the way, can I sell my "sepith mass" or I'll need it for smething else ? I have 4000+ and that could help me buy some shit.

Yeah man, sepith mass is meant to be sold. 4000 sepith mass will net you 40,000 mira. It's supposed to be a steady income.

 

[Diablos54]

Less than 10 hours to go!!

 

[Augemitbutter]

Game froze up during THE BIG EVENT in Final Chapter:

Spoiler

fighting Azure Knight, finally having a leg-up on the guy and it freezes mid-transition of one of his attacks

. smh... is this what people meant by "needing luck to win"?

Not the first time the game's frozen on me either. I hope FALCOM got their shit together for CSII.

game froze my ps3 there too. seems to be a common glitch. i had no other issues.

Reading Kreuger all the time is weird, especially since they got most of the other germanised stuff right.
And pronounce it right, even.

.

bothered me too. change it to krueger pls, kthx~