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

Gu4n

Member
I don't mind the wait, it will only make actually playing it so much better. It always feels a bit like you're meeting friends you haven't seen for a while and it really enhances the experience for me :) As long as the localizations are confirmed and aren't stuck in limbo, I'm happy with it. And I 100% believe we'll get Cold Steel III
This is especially true for Cold Steel. I had no idea exactly how fond I'd grown of Class VII until Cold Steel II's second opening hit and I just couldn't control my feelings -- and for me the wait was merely swapping the cartridge and grabbing a cup of coffee.
 

Shahed

Member
I don't mind the wait, it will only make actually playing it so much better. It always feels a bit like you're meeting friends you haven't seen for a while and it really enhances the experience for me :) As long as the localizations are confirmed and aren't stuck in limbo, I'm happy with it. And I 100% believe we'll get Cold Steel III
See I hate waiting for things that are directly linked. I can understand your sentiment and even agree to a certain extent. It depends on how long the wait is. While I wouldn't want to, I can wait years for something that's a one off. For example I can't watch a TV or anime series until the entire season is finished and I can watch it all in one go. Same with books. I might read the first one to.see if I like it, but after that I'll wait till they're all finished. I've been through a situation where it took years for an author to release a book due to bad health, and sadly they even passed away. Another author took over but that takes time and the several year gap was excruciating even if it was understadable. I like to consume media, fiction or anything remotely story related ws close together as I can. I played 999 and VLR back to back and then when I wasn't sure if we'd ever get ZE3 it was hard. Now that ZTD is here I've ignored it as much as I can because if don't then I'll have the same near unbearable wait I have for Cold Steel II.

Funnily enough I don't have that issue when it comes to films like Lord of the Rings or Star Wars. But it helps that films are more of a shared experience and that I'd already read the books for LotR.

It shouldn't be much of a problem. It'll just take me a little bit because I work full-time, but i'll start on it this weekend. The longest part is going to be the three people I have to get on my nightmare run save lol
Thanks for that. I'm in no rush though so take your time. I wish there was an actual skip scene option on top of speed up though!
 

Thud

Member
Another reason why I'm holding out on Cold Steel. I don't wait to so long for CSII after finishing CS.

Although I do have a huge interest in this series now after replaying FC and finishing SC. Before I couldn't really care that much, just thought it was cool XSeed was working on it for the fans.

I actually started replaying FC after I got burned out by Xenoblade X's story. Loved the simple somewhat heroic tale of Xenoblade, but X got worse and worse. It's strength lies elsewhere which I did enjoy. I just couldn't finish the story and needed something closer to home.

Well and the fans are really cool :)
 

Holundrian

Unconfirmed Member
Working towards the Platinum and the Character trophies really annoy me.
Why are they tied to a 1 time event forcing resets.... the talk you have with them ain't even great...
(Well compared to Persona Slinks where the last one usually provides catharsis)

Is this something that will still be in CS II?
 

Famassu

Member
Working towards the Platinum and the Character trophies really annoy me.
Why are they tied to a 1 time event forcing resets.... the talk you have with them ain't even great...
(Well compared to Persona Slinks where the last one usually provides catharsis)

Is this something that will still be in CS II?
It's not really all that surprising if Cold Steel I doesn't give them hugely cathartic final events. This is only the first half of the story so it doesn't make sense to give them some ultimate closure. I think they weren't great but they were sweet moments between Rean & the others. A bit on the short side, but still nice. Really showed how much some of the characters had grown, especially ones like Machias.

That said, I don't know if they are all that more cathartic in CSII either. I'm hoping they offer some more closure, but I'm not setting my expectations too high.
 

Holundrian

Unconfirmed Member
It's not really all that surprising if Cold Steel I doesn't give them hugely cathartic final events. This is only the first half of the story so it doesn't make sense to give them some ultimate closure. I think they weren't great but they were sweet moments between Rean & the others. A bit on the short side, but still nice. Really showed how much some of the characters had grown, especially ones like Machias.

That said, I don't know if they are all that more cathartic in CSII either. I'm hoping they offer some more closure, but I'm not setting my expectations too high.

It's not the catharsis that irks me mainly. It's the this is a once per playthrough thing forcing you to reset. The events themselves didn't really feel special enough to warrant them trophies + locking you out of the other ones without resetting. Like why not just let the player have these talks with everyone that fulfills the conditions?

I mean overall it's just a poor implementation of Persona mechanics in general.
Like the Game would have been better without the Bondage Point limit given, it's even more stupid that it's a 4 point unlock at which point few will even bother with that since you can see pretty much almost everything in 2 playthroughs.

I still had tons of fun in first playthrough, I mean after all I'm aiming for the platinum and I treat platinums like love letters to games I really liked(well at least if they're not unreasonably painful to do, some were on the line breaking me like Ni no Kuni or Tales of Vesperia).
 
I had no problem with the bonding points or events, that part just had bad trophy design.

Although it gave XSEED the opportunity to come up with some great puns.
 

Nyoro SF

Member
It's not the catharsis that irks me mainly. It's the this is a once per playthrough thing forcing you to reset. The events themselves didn't really feel special enough to warrant them trophies + locking you out of the other ones without resetting. Like why not just let the player have these talks with everyone that fulfills the conditions?

I mean overall it's just a poor implementation of Persona mechanics in general.
Like the Game would have been better without the Bondage Point limit given, it's even more stupid that it's a 4 point unlock at which point few will even bother with that since you can see pretty much almost everything in 2 playthroughs.

I still had tons of fun in first playthrough, I mean after all I'm aiming for the platinum and I treat platinums like love letters to games I really loved(well at least if they're not unreasonably painful to do, some were on the line breaking me like Ni no Kuni or Tales of Vesperia).

Ah, so that's why it's called Cold Steel...
/jokes

But many people have agreed with you. And not just that, the sequel doesn't fix any of it, it makes it worse in terms of limitations. I'm not sure why Falcom does it, I feel like it's kind of silly to make your most hardcore fans suffer (the ones most likely to attempt NG+), and to hide both important and non-important story elements behind continual replays.
 

Holundrian

Unconfirmed Member
Uff got my platinum wohoo...

But now I'm facing the conundrum of not wanting to wait.
I got the EU PSN store version for CS because of the same reason.(Importing takes about 3-4 weeks for stuff to arrive)
But since it's going to be months until CS II EU will arrive I'm very tempted now to just import CS II now(and probably picking up Zero and AO Evo as well).

How much would I lose out on if I don't have a carry over save?(Since I heard things like the dance are affected)

To people that finished CS II is it likely that CS III will have carry over stuff as well? Or does CS III right now seem more like a TheThird kind of deal?(I'm aware that no one really knows but maybe some have educated guesses based on how CS II ended)
 

Danny Dudekisser

I paid good money for this Dynex!
I finished the game about a week and a half ago, so I've had a bit of time to consider how I feel about the game.

This is one of my favorite RPGs I've ever played. I liked everything about it. I loved the story, I loved the characters, and I loved XSEED's localization that made it all read so naturally. The thing that impressed me the most about the game was the sheer scope of it. It's incredibly dense, but it feels like there's purpose to it. I can tell you more about world of Erebonia than I can tell you about the last 5 RPGs I played through, combined. And despite the game being so ridiculously big, I never felt like I wanted the game to be over; at some point, I just acknowledged that I was along for the ride, and trusted Falcom to take me someplace cool.

Despite being a PS3 game and looking like a high-res PS2 game, this reminded me an awful lot of the PS1 era. The reliance on text over overblown cinematics, the brisk pacing of dungeons, and charm all brought me back to when JRPGs used to be great. And the soundtrack is among the best I've heard in a game.

So, yeah. I clocked in at a little under 55 hours, and I was completely satisfied with the game. Given XSEED's progress on the sequel, I'm really hoping it'll be out sometime in summer... but then, I haven't played Trails in the Sky yet, so maybe I should tackle those games first. I've heard Cold Steel 1 is one of the lesser Kiseki games, so if that's true... I might have a new favorite RPG series.
 

Finalow

Member
XSEED posted a new CS2 localization update on Facebook.

Translation: 100% complete
Editing: 67% complete (actually a bit higher)

Dub recording will wrap up this month, game is still on track for a 2016 release.
--
that's nice. I still have to play the first one but at this point I might as well wait and play both of them together, like I did with TitS.
 

Famassu

Member
Wasn't Trails of Cold Steel I's translation complete around the time they announced the localizations for I & II last year? And yet it still took until December for the game to be released (though maybe they worked a bit more slowly because they were working on the two games simultaneously?). So I'd tamper my expectations a bit in regards to getting the game in the next ~3-4 months. If Cold Steel II is maybe roughly around the same point completion wise as Cold Steel I at the time of the announcement (though IIRC, they had already recorded some voice acting for Cold Steel for the announcement trailer & demo, so maybe it's not quite as far yet), I'd also expect a late August release at earliest if everything goes extra smoothly, September perhaps a bit more likely and October or by mid-November at latest, I hope.

I'd imagine VA recordings will take a while after they start, then they've got to finish editing & implement all of that text & voice into the game and then there's QA that can take a while with bigger JRPGs and then there's Sony's certification process that will take some time & manufacturing isn't instantaneous either. I could see that still taking ~6-7 months, give or take a few weeks.
 
Wasn't Trails of Cold Steel I's translation complete around the time they announced the localizations for I & II last year? And yet it still took until December for the game to be released (though maybe they worked a bit more slowly because they were working on the two games simultaneously?). So I'd tamper my expectations a bit in regards to getting the game in the next ~3-4 months. If Cold Steel II is maybe roughly around the same point completion wise as Cold Steel I at the time of the announcement (though IIRC, they had already recorded some voice acting for Cold Steel for the announcement trailer & demo, so maybe it's not quite as far yet), I'd also expect a late August release at earliest if everything goes extra smoothly, September perhaps a bit more likely and October or by mid-November at latest, I hope.

I'd imagine VA recordings will take a while after they start, then they've got to finish editing & implement all of that text & voice into the game and then there's QA that can take a while with bigger JRPGs and then there's Sony's certification process that will take some time & manufacturing isn't instantaneous either. I could see that still taking ~6-7 months, give or take a few weeks.

This seems to be a more reasonable time table than to expect it by Summer.
 
Working towards the Platinum and the Character trophies really annoy me.
Why are they tied to a 1 time event forcing resets.... the talk you have with them ain't even great...
(Well compared to Persona Slinks where the last one usually provides catharsis)

Is this something that will still be in CS II?

Most of the
bonfire talks are pretty much nothing, but you really should see Sara's at the least. Her's has some real interesting backstory to it.
 
Wasn't Trails of Cold Steel I's translation complete around the time they announced the localizations for I & II last year? And yet it still took until December for the game to be released (though maybe they worked a bit more slowly because they were working on the two games simultaneously?). So I'd tamper my expectations a bit in regards to getting the game in the next ~3-4 months. If Cold Steel II is maybe roughly around the same point completion wise as Cold Steel I at the time of the announcement (though IIRC, they had already recorded some voice acting for Cold Steel for the announcement trailer & demo, so maybe it's not quite as far yet), I'd also expect a late August release at earliest if everything goes extra smoothly, September perhaps a bit more likely and October or by mid-November at latest, I hope.

I'd imagine VA recordings will take a while after they start, then they've got to finish editing & implement all of that text & voice into the game and then there's QA that can take a while with bigger JRPGs and then there's Sony's certification process that will take some time & manufacturing isn't instantaneous either. I could see that still taking ~6-7 months, give or take a few weeks.

6 months seems about right. Trails of Cold Steel was at about the same progress last year (fully translated, mostly edited, about to start recording the voice acting), and it took six months from that point (early June). So September would likely be the time to be hoping for Cold Steel II to be releasing.
 

Xeteh

Member
XSEED posted a new CS2 localization update on Facebook.

Translation: 100% complete
Editing: 67% complete (actually a bit higher)

Dub recording will wrap up this month, game is still on track for a 2016 release.

More info: https://www.facebook.com/XSEEDTrails/posts/1343859172306159

Wow, that is awesome. Way further along than I expected.

Most of the
bonfire talks are pretty much nothing, but you really should see Sara's at the least. Her's has some real interesting backstory to it.

She's pretty awesome.
 

Danny Dudekisser

I paid good money for this Dynex!
Maaaaaan, 6 months till part 2?

I really should go play Trails in the Sky, shouldn't I? It's like XSEED is telling me "brah, you need to play that shit like... now."
 
Maaaaaan, 6 months till part 2?

I really should go play Trails in the Sky, shouldn't I? It's like XSEED is telling me "brah, you need to play that shit like... now."

3GMdsW3.png


Yes. Yes you should.
 

Stuart444

Member
And I have got the Platinum Trophy :D. 162 hours and 3 playthroughs later.

The only bit I didn't skip on any of my subsequent playthroughs was (end game spoilers):
The instructors fighting. It is awesome watching them have their moment. Plus Sharon is pretty kickass in that section.

It's been a great game and easily one of my GOTYs this year. Loved every second of it.
 
After two thousand years... my Trails of Cold Steel import has come at last.

I only got to play it for a short while (not even through the first dungeon) and boy, the anime tropes is really strong with this one. Fortunately, it's not as obnoxious as I feared it would be, yet.
When Alisa bumped onto Rean at the beginning, I half expected her to blow her fuse right there. And while the whole faceplant-onto-bosom afterwards was eyeroll-worthy, Rean going "calm down, hands where she can see them" at least made it somewhat refreshing.

Machias needs to calm down, though. Gosh.

EDIT:
I just realized that every single artwork I've seen of him is scowling.
 
After two thousand years... my Trails of Cold Steel import has come at last.

I only got to play it for a short while (not even through the first dungeon) and boy, the anime tropes is really strong with this one. Fortunately, it's not as obnoxious as I feared it would be, yet.
When Alisa bumped onto Rean at the beginning, I half expected her to blow her fuse right there. And while the whole faceplant-onto-bosom afterwards was eyeroll-worthy, Rean going "calm down, hands where she can see them" at least made it somewhat refreshing.

Machias needs to calm down, though. Gosh.

Don't worry too much, they become Real-Ass Trails Characters later.

There is a bit of out-of-place otaku bait to be sure, though.
 

Nyoro SF

Member
Speaking of imports, if anyone in the US wants to buy my CS2 Japanese version, I'll sell it for 25 american dollaroos (paypal).

Thought I'd give fans a crack before I posted in BST. PM me if you're interested.
 

Shahed

Member
Speaking of imports, if anyone in the US wants to buy my CS2 Japanese version, I'll sell it for 25 american dollaroos (paypal).

Thought I'd give fans a crack before I posted in BST. PM me if you're interested.
If I could understand Japanese I'd buy it. I'd buy the whole series :(

But I live in the UK anyway so the point is moot!
 
Don't worry too much, they become Real-Ass Trails Characters later.

There is a bit of out-of-place otaku bait to be sure, though.

Yar, I'm counting on it. Trails in the Sky was full of popular anime tropes too. They're just not as grating because they're a bunch of pleasant people. Here I assume half of the point is to make the group dysfunctional.
 

Wagram

Member
If I didn't care for the story and (easy difficulty) gameplay of Trails in the Sky, would I like this? If so, should I get it on PS3 or Vita.
 

Erheller

Member
Out of curiosity, are those of you who have played CS2 in Japanese planning on playing through the localized version later this year?
 

Nyoro SF

Member
Out of curiosity, are those of you who have played CS2 in Japanese planning on playing through the localized version later this year?

I plan on buying it and then waiting to see what XSEED is going to do with the series before I commit on doing a replay.
 

bryt

Member
Does this game get any deeper than just going to various towns and doing fetch quests? I've had this game for almost 2 months and I'm still in chapter 2 since I'm finding these field tasks super boring. I've read that the story is really good, but having to go through these field tasks is such a chore.
 

Shahed

Member
Yar, I'm counting on it. Trails in the Sky was full of popular anime tropes too. They're just not as grating because they're a bunch of pleasant people. Here I assume half of the point is to make the group dysfunctional.

Machias never redeems himself!

If I didn't care for the story and (easy difficulty) gameplay of Trails in the Sky, would I like this? If so, should I get it on PS3 or Vita.

Do you mean both Sky games? If you only played First Chapter then I'd strongly recommend playing Second Chapter as well before deciding you don't like the story. The 2nd game is a lot better.

However if you've played both then and find they weren't worth it then I'd advise against getting this. Personally despite enjoying the game I find it weaker than the Sky games in numerous ways and the combat is still easy to break even on Nightmare mode.

I played on Vita and bar some small text and slight performance issues in large crowds near the end I thought it was fine. PS3 version is probably a bit better but they're largely interchangeable from what I've heard.

Does this game get any deeper than just going to various towns and doing fetch quests? I've had this game for almost 2 months and I'm still in chapter 2 since I'm finding these field tasks super boring. I've read that the story is really good, but having to go through these field tasks is such a chore.

Is this your first Trails game?

As for what you said it doesn't really change much in terms of mechanical structure. The story expands and increases in tension the further you go, and.near the end goes berserk. But until then how you play doesn't really change. It's a shame because I can understand why somwill find it a bit boring and even agree to some extent. But it's kind of a necessity for what they're going to set up for in the next game
 

bryt

Member
Is this your first Trails game?

As for what you said it doesn't really change much in terms of mechanical structure. The story expands and increases in tension the further you go, and.near the end goes berserk. But until then how you play doesn't really change. It's a shame because I can understand why somwill find it a bit boring and even agree to some extent. But it's kind of a necessity for what they're going to set up for in the next game


Yes, it's my first Trails game.

Damn, maybe this game just isn't right for me then.
 

Shahed

Member
Yes, it's my first Trails game.

Damn, maybe this game just isn't right for me then.
It's a heavily narrative focused series. You need to know the characters, areas, different factions and even political situation in order to grasp and enjoy the overarching story. It constantly builds on what's come before in order to have the payoffs later on. This particular game is a bit too structured and rigid in how it handles this which is why I'd rank it as the weakest entry of a series I really enjoy. I feel the earlier series (within a series!) of Trails in Sky did it much better. The first game was still somewhat introductory, but it was a more enjoyable ride with a greater sense of thrill and adventure that was much more fun to play while also have a more contained narrative despite also setting up for a sequel at the same time. Cold Steel kind of sacrifices itself in order to prepare for the next game to deliver.

If it means anything, from those who have played it Cold Steel II supposedly ranks quite highly amongst the games in the series with people saying the payoff innthe next game is worth it.
 

bryt

Member
It's a heavily narrative focused series. You need to know the characters, areas, different factions and even political situation in order to grasp and enjoy the overarching story. It constantly builds on what's come before in order to have the payoffs later on. This particular game is a bit too structured and rigid in how it handles this which is why I'd rank it as the weakest entry of a series I really enjoy. I feel the earlier series (within a series!) of Trails in Sky did it much better. The first game was still somewhat introductory, but it was a more enjoyable ride with a greater sense of thrill and adventure that was much more fun to play while also have a more contained narrative despite also setting up for a sequel at the same time. Cold Steel kind of sacrifices itself in order to prepare for the next game to deliver.

If it means anything, from those who have played it Cold Steel II supposedly ranks quite highly amongst the games in the series with people saying the payoff innthe next game is worth it.

I'm liking what I hear about the narrative and if Cold Steel II is really good I'm gonna be mad if I miss out. I'm gonna spend this weekend trying to play through the game more.
 

Shahed

Member
I'm liking what I hear about the narrative and if Cold Steel II is really good I'm gonna be mad if I miss out. I'm gonna spend this weekend trying to play through the game more.
If you do finish it, I highly recommend playing Trails in the Sky FC and SC afterwards. Not only are they part of the same series overall (Cold Steel set about 2-3 years later?) and have linking information, they're just good games that I think are better than this. I played them quite recently and they're not dated at all. As in I played FC a while back, but then recently replayed it, played Sky SC and then Cold Steel all in the space of a a few months and while Cold Steel has some mechanical improvements they're perfectly playable.
Cold Steel starts less than half a year after 3rd, and 3rd starts half a year after SC.

kiseki-time-relation02.jpg
Thanks for the correction
 
I'm liking what I hear about the narrative and if Cold Steel II is really good I'm gonna be mad if I miss out. I'm gonna spend this weekend trying to play through the game more.

One of the things I couch wavering players of Trails games is that the game is paced and methodical (chapter 2 of FC what whaaaaaaaaat) and shouldn't be rushed or ground thru as...

1. it's really good light dialogue and narrative full of clever turns of phrase and character motivations and...

2. has an electric shit-ton of knowledge base you'll need for later.

So it's not a good thing to think "oh, I have to grind thru this slow boring first half to get to where "That Thirst" is that crazy guy is always on about'll be", as the games are very holistic this way.

If push comes to shove, you can ignore talking with every NPC (despite the fact that they have dialogue that'll change after story events that affect them) and skip optional side-quests (even though like Witcher 3 they are aces). The series has this great modularity to it, giving you "need to know basis" info but having some incredible deep dives for us lore junkies.
 

kubricks

Member
Maaaaaan, 6 months till part 2?

I really should go play Trails in the Sky, shouldn't I? It's like XSEED is telling me "brah, you need to play that shit like... now."

I finished Sen I and II not long ago, started FC to wait for Sen III.
I thought I will just play it slowly, then 2 weeks later I am on SC already!

Just do it!
 
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