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[DrROBschiz]

Has anyonr uploaded the various character scenes on youtube?

I dont have time to replay this to see all the dialog i probably missed

 

[Mudo]

What an amazing surprise of a game!! I bought at launch but didn't start playing till last week since I have only played about 15 hours of TitS and wasn't sure I could play out of order. I can't say enough good about the game. it's got that school persona vibe but I am enjoying this take in it MUCH more. fantasy is more my thing and I adore the orbment system. it's possibly my 2nd favorite magic system after materia. I thought having so many party members would make most of them empty shells but am constantly shocked by the great character development. oh and the music? GOD TIER holy shit I have been humming random tunes at work for the last week. it's just the perfect rpg for me at the perfect time. games like this really don't get made anymore. I'm at around 43 hours and feel like i just hit halfway through the game. this could very well end up being my GOTY and I'm anxiously already awaiting part 2 (this year?!?). sorry I just had to find post about this game since it has basically consumed me for the last week.

 

[Phoenix944]

Chapter 4 spoiler:

Spoiler

Aww yiss, the Laura & Fie scene was quite good Well not the combat part, that was pretty lame. I know it's Falcom and all but the game deserves some good quality cutscene...
Anyway, my reaction after this was pretty much this :

Also I got a 4.3 xp multiplier (granted me 9999xp) since I just figured out I can interrupt enemies spells :v

 

[bobohoro]

Chapter 4 spoiler:

Spoiler

Aww yiss, the Laura & Fie scene was quite good Well not the combat part, that was pretty lame. I know it's Falcom and all but the game deserves some good quality cutscene...

Non-spoiler: It's kinda funny that Sky had way more awesome and intense action scenes than Steel. By quite a margin as well. At least from what I've seen, I am pretty much at the exact same spot as you right now.

 

[FallenGrace]

Finally beat it. Took me like 100 hours as I spoke to everyone whenever I could. Fantastic game. That ending sequence... Whaaaa?

 

[Lusankya]

Finally beat it. Took me like 100 hours as I spoke to everyone whenever I could. Fantastic game. That ending sequence... Whaaaa?

That's what you need to do to find all these hidden quests without a guide anyways. -.-


Btw. how can they name an ingame company Zeiss, when there is a real life company named ZEISS?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Zeiss_AG

 

[Gu4n]

That's what you need to do to find all these hidden quests without a guide anyways. -.-


Btw. how can they name an ingame company Zeiss, when there is a real life company named ZEISS?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Zeiss_AG

It's not a company. The Zeiss Central Factory (ZCF) is a factory situated in Zeiss, one of Liberl's five regions.

 

[pariah164]

Finally let myself start playing this game again after holding back. Just finished chapter 2 and started chapter 3. Really having a ball with it; my favorite characters are Fie and Laura so far, but they're all great.

Spoiler

The final boss of chapter 2 was so fucking cheap. SO CHEAP.

 

[Uchigatana]

I finally beat the game. Geez,

Spoiler

the events that happened in October 30th was cray-cray! From Giliath's assassination to revealing the two enforcers: Sharon and Clothilde. Anyway, I knew Crow was C since the OST cover for Sen no Kiseki II gave it away. However, I was bummed out to see him as the main antagonist even though he was kind towards class VII and the second year students. Also, I liked using him whenever he is available.

Now I know what's going on, I am gonna replay the lengthy demo of Sen no Kiseki II. If you plan to get the demo of Sen no Kiseki II (Trails of Cold Steel II), it's still up on JPN PSN. However, I implore you to beat Trails of Cold Steel first before taking on the demo because it spoils everything from the first game.

 

[DrROBschiz]

Ok

Spoiler

That scene in front of the School House when the bell tolls for the final dungeon

WHAT THE FUCK. Im sorry but this game has some seriously dumb story beats. No more Rean Speeches please.

Gross

 

[SliceSabre]

Oh yeah Rean speeches are the fucking worst I would cringe whenever he decided to get up on a pedestal and start preaching to everyone.

 

[DrROBschiz]

Cold Steel is clearly the weakest link in the series so far with regards to script and story

I just dont remember being this disgusted by certain moments in TiTs 1+2 except in the very very beginning? And even that was quickly forgiven once the story picked up

They just dont have that natural dialog in certain parts which is bizarre given that the characters are more believable in others

I think the whole Class 7 thing is the problem. Anytime they are all together trying to do something heroic it feels cheesy, forced and ridiculous

Like the whole story takes a dive

 

[Abdiel]

Cold Steel is clearly the weakest link in the series so far with regards to script and story

I just dont remember being this disgusted by certain moments in TiTs 1+2 except in the very very beginning? And even that was quickly forgiven once the story picked up

They just dont have that natural dialog in certain parts which is bizarre given that the characters are more believable in others

I think the whole Class 7 thing is the problem. Anytime they are all together trying to do something heroic it feels cheesy, forced and ridiculous

Like the whole story takes a dive

(Head scratch)

Uh. Your entire post can be summarized as: opinion!

I love class 7, their dynamic, the interactions, development and flow of the game. I'm chomping at the bit to get more time with this cast of characters.

So it's unfortunate you seem so let down by what was such an awesome follow up to second chapter.

Oh well, I guess. That's the nature of differing perspectives. I just couldn't disagree more.

 

[DrROBschiz]

(Head scratch)

Uh. Your entire post can be summarized as: opinion!

I love class 7, their dynamic, the interactions, development and flow of the game. I'm chomping at the bit to get more time with this cast of characters.

So it's unfortunate you seem so let down by what was such an awesome follow up to second chapter.

Oh well, I guess. That's the nature of differing perspectives. I just couldn't disagree more.

Im not saying its universally bad but the low points are hitting me hard

Im about ready for these characters to be free from the cyclic structure of the plot so they can breath a bit because the individual interactions are actually the best parts.

 

[Lusankya]

Oh yeah Rean speeches are the fucking worst I would cringe whenever he decided to get up on a pedestal and start preaching to everyone.

Well, all his class mates think the same.

The only thing that really irritates me is how they call each other by their name all the time.
I mean in situations where somebody says something "deep" and the response is just a "Rean..." or the name of whoever did the speech before.

 

[Novel Mike]

Im not saying its universally bad but the low points are hitting me hard

Im about ready for these characters to be free from the cyclic structure of the plot so they can breath a bit because the individual interactions are actually the best parts.

Funny I don't remember thinking of a single moment in the game that I would actually consider a 'low point' but like the poster above said just different opinions and all.

 

[DrROBschiz]

Funny I don't remember thinking of a single moment in the game that I would actually consider a 'low point' but like the poster above said just different opinions and all.

My low Points

Spoiler

- Rean himself. Not a fan of his character, how he is written. He bears the brunt of all the dumb stuff they put into the script. He does get great moments here and there though.

- Reans Sister. Pretty much the entire introduction, Her relationship with her brother. The schoolhouse scene... WTF

- Obvious intro Cliches with the Characters. This is surface stuff that mostly melts away as the plot goes on (Jusis/Machias, Fie/Laura). I just feel like there wasnt enough personal nuance added to how they interact sometimes. They just do callbacks and go "haha thats so you all right". These deliberate nods to character beats piss me off. Make the dialog natural for christs sakes and update it to reflect that these characters have spent so much time together.

- Explicit callouts. You know. Where a character repeatedly calls out a trait of someone else unnaturally as if it should be obvious from their actions. When people get close they tend to be more subtle, empathetic and even playful with how they converse. They get there with some scenes and then throw it away in others

- Schoolhouse Final Dungeon Scene. This might have been THE lowest and worst scene of the game so far. Every piece of dialog is hot garbage and I cant even wrap my head around the whole thing.

Look I realize its all opinion and not really well organized at that. What I am certain about is that my emotions and feelings in reaction to the story segments and interactions of the characters have been mixed.

When I plowed through Tits 1+2 I know I had far less of those moments and was excited to push from story scene to story scene. Cold Steel isnt bad but it is inferior in this regard

The characters feel like they are in chains and doomed to repeat character and dialog beats unless you are put in a situation specifically designed to open that character up.

 

[Nyoro SF]

Ok

Spoiler

That scene in front of the School House when the bell tolls for the final dungeon

WHAT THE FUCK. Im sorry but this game has some seriously dumb story beats. No more Rean Speeches please.

Gross

Yeah that was one of the weirdest and worst parts of the game in terms of making sense.

 

[DrROBschiz]

Yeah that was one of the weirdest and worst parts of the game in terms of making sense.

Spoiler

I would say a lot of the worst material in the game is tied to that damn schoolhouse lol

 

[omgfloofy]

Sen endgame spoilers:

Spoiler

Unfortunately, there are some things in that scene that's being brought up about the old schoolhouse that calls back to stuff from Zero and Ao in some less than subtle ways. Skipping the two games means that these tie-backs are completely missed.

 

[Diablos54]

You have to get all the AP to get an S-Rank.

Ahh, thanks! Only got an A for chapter 2 though unfortunately.

About to go on the field study in chapter 3, but annoyed it's not in Orvid considering

Spoiler

a certain prince seems to be making an appearance there!

 

[Nyoro SF]

Spoiler

I would say a lot of the worst material in the game is tied to that damn schoolhouse lol

I don't mind putting this in no spoilers; the old schoolhouse is easily one of the worst parts of the game period.

I'm pretty sure I said this earlier, but I really did not like having to do an optimization exercise with my large team of cast members with nothing to show for it other than tedium. Super slog.

Sen endgame spoilers:

Spoiler

Unfortunately, there are some things in that scene that's being brought up about the old schoolhouse that calls back to stuff from Zero and Ao in some less than subtle ways. Skipping the two games means that these tie-backs are completely missed.

Yeah, but Rean and co. doesn't know those things, so

Spoiler

it makes his speech and everyone's dialogue there really strange and out of place. We're hyping up being the next foundation of an era over a schoolhouse that we don't understand wrapped in a light that we don't understand; it doesn't make sense.

 

[DrROBschiz]

I don't mind putting this in no spoilers; the old schoolhouse is easily one of the worst parts of the game period.

I'm pretty sure I said this earlier, but I really did not like having to do an optimization exercise with my large team of cast members with nothing to show for it other than tedium. Super slog.



Yeah, but Rean and co. doesn't know those things, so

Spoiler

it makes his speech and everyone's dialogue there really strange and out of place. We're hyping up being the next foundation of an era over a schoolhouse that we don't understand wrapped in a light that we don't understand; it doesn't make sense.

Not to mention the dialog itself is cringeworthy and dumb

Its like they exist in some weird parallel dimension

 

[SxP]

The only thing that really irritates me is how they call each other by their name all the time.
I mean in situations where somebody says something "deep" and the response is just a "Rean..." or the name of whoever did the speech before.

I'm pretty sure that's just a Japanese thing. A lot of Japanese games are full of it (Persona, Yakuza, Danganronpa, etc.).

But, I agree with you. It's awful and a good argument for why literal translations are terrible. I guess most (if not all) localization teams cannot remove a text box/line when there was one in the Japanese version. Because I often wonder why they don't just skip to the next meaningful line as it would seriously improve the translation.

 

[ULTROS!]

Class VII feels like Class 0 (of FF Type-0) done right and with characters who are actually interesting IMO.

 

[Quonny]

Really enjoying the combat and such, but good lord if you don't get a triple/double advantage the battles take so long.

 

[omgfloofy]

Yeah, but Rean and co. doesn't know those things, so

Spoiler

it makes his speech and everyone's dialogue there really strange and out of place. We're hyping up being the next foundation of an era over a schoolhouse that we don't understand wrapped in a light that we don't understand; it doesn't make sense.

Falcom has done things on a meta level for the players. Even the camera angles of the old school house were part of that.

Also,

Spoiler

if I recall correctly, his speech is coming up based on what was intended from Class VII from the get go. This is a step forward to be that foundation- to not back down, and to take control of their future. Even if it's for something as insignificant as ensuring that a school festival continues on, it's a pretty significant step forward. To me, that scene showed me that they've finally put aside their differences and finally become capable of standing together. Sure it's cheesy as hell, but it's relatively important for what they will be dealing with in Sen II and beyond.

 

[DrROBschiz]

Falcom has done things on a meta level for the players. Even the camera angles of the old school house were part of that.

Also,

Spoiler

if I recall correctly, his speech is coming up based on what was intended from Class VII from the get go. This is a step forward to be that foundation- to not back down, and to take control of their future. Even if it's for something as insignificant as ensuring that a school festival continues on, it's a pretty significant step forward. To me, that scene showed me that they've finally put aside their differences and finally become capable of standing together. Sure it's cheesy as hell, but it's relatively important for what they will be dealing with in Sen II and beyond.

Spoiler

Its just bizarre. They are in a Military Academy and they are talking about evacuating the ground because peoples lives might be in danger due to this creepy schoolhouse.

Instead he draws on saving the festival... like what? The festival is inconsequential. Sure they care about it as something cool to do but when the core issue is the potential threat of... whatever the schoolhouse is supposed to be. Then they magically just enter the barrier cuz reasons.

 

[Nyoro SF]

Falcom has done things on a meta level for the players. Even the camera angles of the old school house were part of that.

Also,

Spoiler

if I recall correctly, his speech is coming up based on what was intended from Class VII from the get go. This is a step forward to be that foundation- to not back down, and to take control of their future. Even if it's for something as insignificant as ensuring that a school festival continues on, it's a pretty significant step forward. To me, that scene showed me that they've finally put aside their differences and finally become capable of standing together. Sure it's cheesy as hell, but it's relatively important for what they will be dealing with in Sen II and beyond.

I think it would have been better

Spoiler

if what was going on in the old schoolhouse at the time seemed more like a "threat" so it made more sense that they had to get motivated before heading in. Since it's a very passive event (I haven't initiated it, and I don't know why it's there) it didn't make sense to do a fiery motivational speech, especially over something like a school festival being canceled.

I'm becoming the foundation of an era over a school concert??? There's cheesy goofiness and then there's cheap motivation, I really felt like that was very cheaply done, just like the whole implementation of the schoolhouse in CS1.

I was never under the impression that Class VII had any real differences between them other than the minor spats between Jusis/Machias and Fie/Laura. By the time chapter 5 ends everyone gets along pretty well with one another and they're already a very well-formed team and good friends.

Spoiler

Its just bizarre. They are in a Military Academy and they are talking about evacuating the ground because peoples lives might be in danger due to this creepy schoolhouse.

Instead he draws on saving the festival... like what? The festival is inconsequential. Sure they care about it as something cool to do but when the core issue is the potential threat of... whatever the schoolhouse is supposed to be. Then they magically just enter the barrier cuz reasons.

Yeah, this comes back to me saying to floofy that

Spoiler

I wish it had been framed as more of a threatening thing, rather than just "there".

 

[aravuus]

The only thing that really irritates me is how they call each other by their name all the time.
I mean in situations where somebody says something "deep" and the response is just a "Rean..." or the name of whoever did the speech before.

Yeah, I hate that so much lol

 

[omgfloofy]

I actually have other theories about this in particular, but they're not things that can be brought up without Sen II, which I think is part of the problem here. This is still just half of the story.

Still just Sen endgame spoilers:

Spoiler

The people involved in watching the school building have been involved for awhile. Though there's still more I can't go into here regardless, there are other things in play with the administration's decision, too, I believe. Beyond just the 'it's a creepy building.'

 

[DrROBschiz]

I actually have other theories about this in particular, but they're not things that can be brought up without Sen II, which I think is part of the problem here. This is still just half of the story.

Still just Sen endgame spoilers:

Spoiler

The people involved in watching the school building have been involved for awhile. Though there's still more I can't go into here regardless, there are other things in play with the administration's decision, too, I believe. Beyond just the 'it's a creepy building.'

Well Im expecting that part to be explained..

but the way that particular scene is framed is just weird and offputting

 

[Nyoro SF]

I actually have other theories about this in particular, but they're not things that can be brought up without Sen II, which I think is part of the problem here. This is still just half of the story.

Still just Sen endgame spoilers:

Spoiler

The people involved in watching the school building have been involved for awhile. Though there's still more I can't go into here regardless, there are other things in play with the administration's decision, too, I believe. Beyond just the 'it's a creepy building.'

Oh? That's interesting. Well, it doesn't really change how I viewed that scene at the time, but we'll see.
Hurry up XSEED! lol

Yeah, I hate that so much lol

Happens in pretty much all Japanese games.
That and abuse of "This is..." "That is..." "This voice is..." "That sort of thing..."
Maybe it's just a thing that would sound more dramatic to a Japanese native, but I dunno, I think even I'd get tired of that as a Japanese person heh

 

[DrROBschiz]

Oh? That's interesting.
Hurry up XSEED! lol



Happens in pretty much all Japanese games.
That and abuse of "This is..." "That is..." "This voice is..." "That sort of thing..."
Maybe it's just a thing that would sound more dramatic to a Japanese native, but I dunno, I think even I'd get tired of that as a Japanese person heh

Im not a fan of the explicit aknowledgements like "Thats "insert chracter" for You!" Har har some things never change

Only you could be you!! Har har

I know everyone does it but it just gets in the way of genuinely great character banter that could otherwise be filling those lines

 

[omgfloofy]

Oh? That's interesting. Well, it doesn't really change how I viewed that scene at the time, but we'll see.
Hurry up XSEED! lol

The way this series is written, you can't take things as they are always. There's a reason why some of us are wildly paranoid over little things because we no longer believe in coincidences with this series. I'm even notorious for a stupid 'THAT ISN'T A COINCIDENCE' sort of thing, since two completely unrelated characters having the series having the same hair and eye color. (BECAUSE IT'S SUSPICIOUS. lol)

But at the mid-point of an arc, there will be a lot of things that can't always be taken at face value because they aren't always completely tied off and so forth.

But I absolutely agree that the scene is cheesy as hell. The series also has its fair share of those. I find it refreshing, though, since it has such a positive look at everything in contrast to other games with long stories.

 

[aravuus]

Happens in pretty much all Japanese games.
That and abuse of "This is..." "That is..." "This voice is..." "That sort of thing..."
Maybe it's just a thing that would sound more dramatic to a Japanese native, but I dunno, I think even I'd get tired of that as a Japanese person heh

Oh sure, I hate it equally in other games, shows and whatever too lol

I've played a bunch of visual novels too, and I've always felt that Japanese writing in particular feels clunky as hell a lot of the time. Could be a cultural thing, could be mediocre translations, could be a mix of both.

Im not a fan of the explicit aknowledgements like "Thats "insert chracter" for You!" Har har some things never change

Only you could be you!! Har har

I know everyone does it but it just gets in the way of genuinely great character banter that could otherwise be filling those lines

Haha yeah, that's another one I hate. "That's the XXXXX we all know and love!! HAHAHA!!!!!!"

 

[Lusankya]

I'm pretty sure that's just a Japanese thing. A lot of Japanese games are full of it (Persona, Yakuza, Danganronpa, etc.).

But, I agree with you. It's awful and a good argument for why literal translations are terrible. I guess most (if not all) localization teams cannot remove a text box/line when there was one in the Japanese version. Because I often wonder why they don't just skip to the next meaningful line as it would seriously improve the translation.

Yeah, even just a "..." would be enough.
I mean I am kinda used to it, because I play so many Japanese games, but I think ToCS takes the cake.

 

[DrROBschiz]

the best written scenes tend to be all the one on one scenes

Its when you have the ensemble that it breaks down I guess? Im trying to put my finger on it but I know there was just as much to love as there is to hate

Cold Steel is a very mixed bag and Im not sure how that happened following such strongly written games that came before it.

Maybe Im being too harsh but hey.... THEY set the standard right?

 

[Nyoro SF]

the best written scenes tend to be all the one on one scenes

Its when you have the ensemble that it breaks down I guess? Im trying to put my finger on it but I know there was just as much to love as there is to hate

Cold Steel is a very mixed bag and Im not sure how that happened following such strongly written games that came before it.

Maybe Im being too harsh but hey.... THEY set the standard right?

Honestly though, despite the major shortcomings, CS1 might be the best attempt I've ever seen in trying to juggle a really large cast and trying to make them all relevant at the same time. Even if CS1 didn't execute it in the way I liked, I'd be hard pressed to think of another game that does a better job of it.

It's a herculean effort in any form of media and having too many main characters is definitely a trap that many writers and producers have fallen into, so to forcibly try to get over that barrier is worthy of praise.

(Still doesn't excuse a lot of bad parts though... heh heh)

 

[omgfloofy]

That and abuse of "This is..." "That is..." "This voice is..." "That sort of thing..."

I've played a bunch of visual novels too, and I've always felt that Japanese writing in particular feels clunky as hell a lot of the time. Could be a cultural thing, could be mediocre translations, could be a mix of both.

This is definitely a language quirk and it's absolutely a pain in the ass to translate well. I've been running headlong into it with the current Translation Tuesday I've been working on. It's one of those things that kind of carries over because you can't just remove the line, and sometimes you don't have the freedom to just edit it out entirely.

The hardest part is cleaning it up without losing its purpose entirely. Things like that can, and often do, intend to bring someone's attention to something specific.

Yeah, even just a "..." would be enough.

Unfortunately, in many cases, that can actually change the meaning of what was there in the first place. Especially since the meaning behind '...' can be so subjective. You need context to help emphasize the exact meaning you want out of it.

 

[DrROBschiz]

Honestly though, despite the major shortcomings, CS1 might be the best attempt I've ever seen in trying to juggle a really large cast and trying to make them all relevant at the same time. Even if CS1 didn't execute it in the way I liked, I'd be hard pressed to think of another game that does a better job of it.

It's a herculean effort in any form of media and having too many main characters is definitely a trap that many writers and producers have fallen into, so to forcibly try to get over that barrier is worthy of praise.

(Still doesn't excuse a lot of bad parts though... heh heh)

Oh I still love the game

I can see the foundation they are building with these characters and I hope they go to interesting place and hopefully get some more internal conflict

 

[Jiraiza]

Honestly though, despite the major shortcomings, CS1 might be the best attempt I've ever seen in trying to juggle a really large cast and trying to make them all relevant at the same time. Even if CS1 didn't execute it in the way I liked, I'd be hard pressed to think of another game that does a better job of it.

It's a herculean effort in any form of media and having too many main characters is definitely a trap that many writers and producers have fallen into, so to forcibly try to get over that barrier is worthy of praise.

(Still doesn't excuse a lot of bad parts though... heh heh)

I'm sure Persona 5, Star Ocean 5, or Final Fantasy 15 (that's a lot of 5's!) will be worthy challengers.

...I hope.

 

[R_thanatos]

That feelign when you're in (chapter 7 )

Spoiler

Old school house level7 boss

and he's down to like 9,752 HP left and he does 2 giant AOE attacks in a row and wipe your entire party ...

After a 25 minute fight

WTF

WTF


PS: Red hot soda are the BEST

 

[Powwa]

I'm probably in the minority here but I find Cold Steel's story really boring and uninteresting, it feels like I'm playing a VN with a mediocre setting. Gameplay is fun but I wish it had more of it (Mind you I really liked Steins;Gate and Danganronpa).

I'm currently at the beginning of Chapter 5, does it gets better after here or should I expect more of the same?

And I'm wondering about CS II, is the story better than the first one? Because I started to doubt my future purchase about it even though I got the LE for this one.

 

[Famassu]

If you didn't find any enjoyment in Chapter 3's

Spoiler

border-tensions

or what happens at the end of Chapter 4 or Chapter 5, then I doubt these games are for you. I would still suggest you play until the end, there are some very exciting Shocking Twists (tm) in the last chapter that the story builds up to throughout the game, slowly but surely. Cold Steel I IS mostly set up for larger things to come. You are introduced to the nation of Erebonia, the main characters and the main factions of the story, but apart from some thrills & major incidents ALMOST happening near the end of chapters, it's still very focused on world-building & character development & setting up the arena for the larger conflict that will be mostly handled in Cold Steel II.

Can't really agree with the "mediocre setting", though. If anything, world-building & offering a setting that is worth giving a damn about are some of the strengths of Trails games. Even the clichéd school setting is far above most other school settings in games, with lots of NPC students who are actually worth giving a shit about & it's fun to follow many of their little stories throughout the game.

 

[Ludger Kresnik]

Is there a point where this starts "picking up"? I'm still in chapter 1 (8 and a half hours in) but so far I'm not engaged by the setting, I don't particularly like any of the characters, and the fetch quests are getting really dull. The only thing to continuously hold my attention is the battle system, which is almost never the case with any JRPGs.

I get that this is a slow burn kinda game, but I'm coming off Atelier Escha & Logy Plus which was also kinda plotless and just dumped you into a random village with a big checklist of things to do, mostly involving the same kind of fetch quests as Cold Steel, but I loved it. The character interactions were great and I felt a sense of progression to a greater goal with most of my given tasks while the game continuously teased more interesting events to come, which it definitely delivered on. In short, Atelier E&L engaged me instantly and the experience was satisfying.

Cold Steel so far just feels like doing a bunch of inane chores in a place I don't care about because Titty Teacher told me to. And out of all the stock anime archetypes, the only characters whose interactions I come close to enjoying are those of Rean and Alisa, and even that's really standard tsundere stuff. The relatively poor English dub isn't helping much, and I usually play Japanese games dubbed anyway.

I wanna like this, though. Like, I'm not ragging on it because I think it's shit, because I'm definitely seeing potential. A lot of people also seem to really like this so I'm reluctant to dismiss it just yet. Which brings me to my first question of... is there a point where everything starts coming together? Am I just being overly critical of this game's first eight and a half hours while its true greatness lies beyond?

tl;dr version: I think this game is really fucking boring but I don't want it to be and I'm wondering if, and if so when, it starts getting more interesting.

edit: oh someone made pretty much the exact same post that I did but shorter and they're in chapter 5 well then welllll thennnn............

 

[Powwa]

If you didn't find any enjoyment in Chapter 3's

Spoiler

border-tensions

or what happens at the end of Chapter 4 or Chapter 5, then I doubt these games are for you. I would still suggest you play until the end, there are some very exciting Shocking Twists (tm) in the last chapter that the story builds up to throughout the game, slowly but surely. Cold Steel I IS mostly set up for larger things to come. You are introduced to the nation of Erebonia, the main characters and the main factions of the story, but apart from some thrills & major incidents ALMOST happening near the end of chapters, it's still very focused on world-building & character development & setting up the arena for the larger conflict that will be mostly handled in Cold Steel II.

Can't really agree with the "mediocre setting", though. If anything, world-building & offering a setting that is worth giving a damn about are some of the strengths of Trails games. Even the clichéd school setting is far above most other school settings in games, with lots of NPC students who are actually worth giving a shit about & it's fun to follow many of their little stories throughout the game.

Thanks for your answer. I'm really trying hard to like this game, but it just didn't click with me. The reason of my disappointment is probably because I expected too much out of it cause of the hype around it. Most likely I'll end up getting CS II as well though, time will tell.

 

[desmax]

Star Ocean 5

pff

 

[Famassu]

Is there a point where this starts "picking up"? I'm still in chapter 1 (8 and a half hours in) but so far I'm not engaged by the setting, I don't particularly like any of the characters, and the fetch quests are getting really dull. The only thing to continuously hold my attention is the battle system, which is almost never the case with any JRPGs.

I get that this is a slow burn kinda game, but I'm coming off Atelier Escha & Logy Plus which was also kinda plotless and just dumped you into a random village with a big checklist of things to do, mostly involving the same kind of fetch quests as Cold Steel, but I loved it. The character interactions were great and I felt a sense of progression to a greater goal with most of my given tasks while the game continuously teased more interesting events to come, which it definitely delivered on. In short, Atelier E&L engaged me instantly and the experience was satisfying.

Cold Steel so far just feels like doing a bunch of inane chores in a place I don't care about because Titty Teacher told me to. And out of all the stock anime archetypes, the only characters whose interactions I come close to enjoying are those of Rean and Alisa, and even that's really standard tsundere stuff. The relatively poor English dub isn't helping much, and I usually play Japanese games dubbed anyway.

I wanna like this, though. Like, I'm not ragging on it because I think it's shit, because I'm definitely seeing potential. A lot of people also seem to really like this so I'm reluctant to dismiss it just yet. Which brings me to my first question of... is there a point where everything starts coming together? Am I just being overly critical of this game's first eight and a half hours while its true greatness lies beyond?

tl;dr version: I think this game is really fucking boring but I don't want it to be and I'm wondering if, and if so when, it starts getting more interesting.

edit: oh someone made pretty much the exact same post that I did but shorter and they're in chapter 5 well then welllll thennnn............

There are plenty of things that are more exciting that start happening after the first chapter, though yes, each chapter starts off slow because they introduce the new area and how it relates to the bigger picture of Erebonian politics + there are some fetch quests that may or may not relate to the bigger picture, and then steadily build up to the climax of the chapter. Some of the more intriguing stuff is about the implication of all kinds of things happening behind the scenes, but there's drama & big things that happen in the open too that you are directly participating in that offer some excitement & pay out for going through the meticulous build up.

And the dub is far from poor. There are a few weaker characters, but all in all they do a relatively good job with such a large cast. It's not Uncharted levels of quality or anything, but it's perfectly adequate and far from actually poor English VAs.

 

[Ludger Kresnik]

Maybe poor wasn't a good way to describe the dub. It just seems to lack character or punch when compared to a lot of other Japanese games. Rean and Fie sound great and Sara's character is definitely carried across very well, but I'm only getting serviceable but unmemorable performances from most of the cast. The dialogue is also pretty dry imo, which could have more to do with it. But in general, I'd rank this below the average NISA dub.