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The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel (PC) |OT| Enter Erebonia
- Thread starter jj984jj
- Start date
StereoVsn
Gold Member
Also, considering that Trails games are really set in "not-Europe", it's not like we are missing crucial "ambiance" or anything like that. I usually prefer Japanese dubs, but for a lot of games English ones are fine. Hell, P4G is as "anime" as it gets and the dub there was pretty amazing.
All-in-all it depends on the game. Speaking of which, after playing through first couple of hours, I now remember that I really dislike MC and a few other characters here... Alise is terrible and stays terrible the rest of the game (she is just especially terrible in the beginning) and don't start me on the walking cliche that is embodied in Sarah.
On the other hand, graphical enhancements are pretty darn good. FPS is steady, 21 x 9 support is awesome, various options are much better then on the consoles (well, on Vita at least) so from that perspective we got an excellent port.
Edit:
There are a few characters that are simply pretty bad. On the other hand, there are also some interesting ones and story picks up in 2nd part of the game. Plus turbo button helps quite a bit.
ResourcefulStar
Neo Member
Thank you for fixing this quickly. Shame about the shadows. Do you know if ToCS II suffers from the same issue?
I have also found a minor problem with text in one of the books. A line break is missing on page 18 of the second chapter of Red Moon Rose.
sorathecrow
Neo Member
It's absolutely killing me. And the mods don't do anything about the duplicate threads complaining about it. Does XSEED even moderate the Steam forums for that matter?
Sinh_Magnus
Member
I didn't think that the game was neither good neither bad when I played the first chapters of the game, just ok.
Thankfully by chapter 3 I started to really get into the game , in part thanks to the worldbuilding that I think is a really strong point here, characters aside.
And for characters, I began to like some of them by chapter 2. I also liked them more and more as the game continued.
By the end of the game I was really engrossed into the story, which is what I think is what they planned from the start.
Thankfully by chapter 3 I started to really get into the game , in part thanks to the worldbuilding that I think is a really strong point here, characters aside.
And for characters, I began to like some of them by chapter 2. I also liked them more and more as the game continued.
By the end of the game I was really engrossed into the story, which is what I think is what they planned from the start.
sorathecrow
Neo Member
"Slow burn" I feel sums up the whole series. It's something that sneaks up on you as you play. I wouldn't ever tell someone it gets good/better, per se, but either you warm up to it or you don't.
Elaugaufein
Member
It seems up to the Publisher if they do. Some don't even read the forum's at all. Some actively read and moderate. Some have a semi-dedicated mods / community managers.
Steam does have some general purpose moderators but they are spread fairly thin (read as largely moderate only communities they would normally participate in unless something draws attention) and generally only enforce Valve / Legal rules (which makes sense since they often don't know enough about a given community to moderate on appropriate standards).
Sinh_Magnus
Member
There isn't an undub patch already available?
Also for the people playing the game, are the new voice lines really noticable? I think I remember weird moments when the characters will talk but Rean will stay silent? Are those voiced this time? If so, that's a great enhancement compared to the original versions.
sorathecrow
Neo Member
I think I noticed a couple instances of that happening, but not as often.
And yeah, there's an undub patch already, and a thread about it in the forum. Not that I've honestly cared enough to look into it. I kind of prefer the Eng voices in this case since I feel like I'm getting moar content anyway.
Trading for a language that wouldn't really add any nuance to this setting, that I don't speak, that covers fewer lines of text, just seems like a waste of time in this case.
Sinh_Magnus
Member
Yes, I also think that this game in particular either resonates with you at some moment, or you end up hating it, as show by some fans of the saga that love the other arcs but hate the Erebonia arc.
Yep, I remember hating FC when I first played it and dropped it 3 hours in. Trails is now one of my favorite jrpg series.
Those people are lost causes and the steam forums are a cesspool of trolling and idiocy, with a few noble souls trying to salvage something.
It will probably calm down after a few days and the trolls lost interest.
I actually prefer the English dub over the japanese one for this game (watched an undub on youtube for comparison), and I watch all my animus subbed
. The voice actors are great, the voice direction is even better and combined with the terrific translation it's a treat. The bonus lines are just the cherry on top.Kresnik258
Member
To provide a counter-viewpoint - I really don't think I was enjoying the game until around Chapter 5. I would rate it as an average game before that. The latter few chapter elevate it to "great" game, but the slow experience early on really pulls the whole package down.
Also, final boss spoilers:
What on earth were they thinking? Going from that fun, tactical battle system to some crappy rock-paper-scissors in mechs? I could not be more disappointed.
The only saving grace is the boss before it in the schoolhouse was amazing, but I'd rather they finished on that than the crappy soldat battle
The only saving grace is the boss before it in the schoolhouse was amazing, but I'd rather they finished on that than the crappy soldat battle
The attack animations in battle are extremely budget as well
hans_castorp
Member
Indeed.
We are able to change the music and people put that boring P5 theme instead of
Inevitable Struggle or Overdosing Heavenly Bliss.
This is why we can't have nice things.
The whole thing was consciously made on a budget. The company is like 60 people.
sorathecrow
Neo Member
Falcom may have been around since basically the gaming Stone Age and its series's are mostly that old at this point, but Falcom itself is still a pretty small company. I've seen people scoff when people refer to Falcom as "indie," but if any company can be around this long and still lay claim to that description, it's Falcom. They've survived by being small and adaptable, despite never being major sales successes.
I think it looks fantastic for what it is. Falcom always puts a lot of details into buildings/environment and all that and that really shines at higher resolutions and the extra graphical bells and whistles.
It's such a small thing, giving NPCs a new line as the game progresses, big event or not. But yet it breathes life into these characters in a way that us, the player is actually looking forward to see what they're up to -- It gives the impression the world of Zemuria is a living, breathing world.
Not many western games does this, unfortunately. Except perhaps cRPGs of old, or maybe from my most recent memory, Tyranny.
Not yet.
(Note that I'm not saying that I'll never fix it, especially if I work on 2 and it has the same issue -- I have a plan for that, it's just a lot of work and not high priority)
Fixed, thanks.
It's not just giving them a new line with every step of progress, it's the content of the line that is even more important. I mean it would be easy to just give NPCs new throwaway lines every now and then, but in Falcom games the NPCs have relations, they have little stories of their own. They have lives.
Cross-posting from the Steam-thread:
Trails of Cold Steel - first 4 or 5 hours, right at the beginning of Chapter 1
Amusingly enough I'm kind of getting Persona vibes, lol (haven't played 5, only 3 and 4). Obviously there's no personas, no 'normal life/secret life' distinction and it's not set in our world, but you have a school setting and a version of Social Links. And then this soundtrack really gives me Persona OST flashbacks. It's way less anime though, although a bit more anime than Trails in the Sky.
Anway, I just reached the first Free day and went around talking to everyone. And here's where a Falcom game separates itself from your typical 0815 JRPGs. At this point in time I can't tell you much about the main story yet, but I could tell you all day long about the NPCs.
- There's friction in the fencing club, as an arrogant noble student wants to join, demanding to be made captain and clashes with one of the commoner members.
The current captain sees this as some needed rivalry to make things more interesting.
- There's a student that has requested permission to help out the church in her free-time.
- The chess club has kept losing to nobles again and again, so all members except one have left over time.
- There's a boy that wants to join the photography club and only wants to photograph girls, which troubles the club president and he wonders if this club even has a future at this rate.
- One of the main characters joins the Music Club to play violin. One of the members plays the violin too and he hopes the other can play well, so that they can improve together.
- Another of the main characters joins the Lacrosse club and a rivalry with a noble girl starts brewing immediately, who wants to one-up the other one. That girl also has an idiotic brother who always chases after girls, but has no idea what he's doing and always fails.
- In town there's an annoyed housewife who complains that her husband treats her like granted.
- The art club has an eccentric president who only wants to draw in peace and doesn't care at all about the newcomers. Another one of the main characters joins that club. He's self-learned so he wants to improve with some real teaching. There's also a shy girl that joins and the situation is kind of awkward with the president and the main party character seems hard to approach. She does it however and he's more easygoing than he looks like and she kind of starts telling him how to improve his drawing skill, while wondering why she's the one doing this as a fellow newbie.
And so many more. And all of this is entirely optional. You don't have to read a single line from those conversations if you don't want to. Note: they are much better written than my cliffnote-versions
Talking about writing, the localisation is terrific. I actually like the english dub more than the japanese one. The voice acting is great, the voice direction even better, and combine this with the even better translation and you have a winner.
Bonus: The normal battle theme rocks.
And so does the victory jingle .
Lanrutcon
Member
Bought this on a whim, played the prologue. I'm intrigued.
So..anything I should know before I dive in? I hear people are using NG+ saves to start out with? Are there a lot of missables? (should I be using a guide)
I don't generally play through an JRPG multiple times unless it's FFV, FFVII or FFXII.
So..anything I should know before I dive in? I hear people are using NG+ saves to start out with? Are there a lot of missables? (should I be using a guide)
I don't generally play through an JRPG multiple times unless it's FFV, FFVII or FFXII.
Oh, I plan on keeping an eye on everyoneAscheroth, keep an eye on the girl from the art club. Not the captain, but the other one.
And I know who you mean People are using new game plus saves due to being able to get unlimited bonding points for bonding events - you're gonna be introduced to this mechanic in a little bit, but without this you either have to reload your save to see all available scenes, or replay the game later. (If you do the former, this does work for the most of the related scenes, however you'll hit a brick wall at the end due to reasons. At that point you can probably just youtube the scenes though if you don't care about achievements.)
Are there missables? Well uh, bad news. There's a lot of missables. To the point that even with a guide, you'll might still miss something. In summary:
The bonding events, as mentioned.
Most of the treasure chests.
All of the side quests, and it's not due to any single event either. Most are easy to find, a few aren't.
Books. (These are probably the easiest to miss. No really.)
All of the cool npc dialogue, since it changes as you play the game.
Most of the treasure chests.
All of the side quests, and it's not due to any single event either. Most are easy to find, a few aren't.
Books. (These are probably the easiest to miss. No really.)
All of the cool npc dialogue, since it changes as you play the game.
I played with a guide for my first trails game, and then just enjoyed the ride for the rest because no one had written an english guide on launch day for most of them. It's really up to you.
Lanrutcon
Member
Ok, using a guide then. Let's do this.
I think it's something related to the shadows?
Dragoon En Regalia
Member
Falcom typically focuses more on animations when doing their action games, especially on platforms/engines they know really well at this point (Seven and Nayuta both use an internal engine called Yamaneko). The move to PhyreEngine on PS3/Vita for Cold Steel complicated their development schedule and, sadly, I feel both CS games so far were compromised because the company bit off more than they could chew. That's one reason to get excited for Sen III, and CS (II)'s a really nice experience despite flaws like rushed content.
Trails in the Pharcyde is the real deal, not this
pretty damn smooth and iconic
Kondo's estimated it at 50 people as of recent interviews, around 40 of whom actively work in development (not counting outsourced contractors).
Ascheroth, keep an eye on the girl from the art club. Not the captain, but the other one.
Oh, I plan on keeping an eye on everyone
She and her sister are adorable
I just set version 1.1 of the game live on Steam.
Release notes here.
(The bonding points are one of about 12 or so elements in the game which used fan triangle geometry to render, which is unsupported in DirectX 11)
Release notes here.
Winner.
(The bonding points are one of about 12 or so elements in the game which used fan triangle geometry to render, which is unsupported in DirectX 11)
Rean isn't really as bland as people make him out to be. Sure, they should have made him a bit more focused. He's juggling all these roles just to make him interesting and in the center of things.
A lot of the meat is on the field trips. Which is why having a free day before it feels so weird. Its sequel really fixed that, even though chapters got quite long
.everybodyman
Neo Member
I'm playing the game on my laptop and it runs on my integrated GPU instead of my Nvidia one. Is there any way to force the game to run on my GPU or am i doomed to 20 fps?
Matt Attack
Member
On paper, I think Rean is a fairly boring character, but Sean Chiplock really elevates him for me. More voiced lines in the PC release is a huge selling point for me.
Suzushiiro
Banned
Yeah, the final battle is kind of weird in that
it's basically a tutorial fight for a new system that doesn't really come into its own until the next game. They add more depth to it in CS2 and also use it sparingly enough that it doesn't get old, thankfully. It just reinforces the idea that CS2 isn't a sequel so much as the other half of CS1.
Ultimadrago
Member
Unfortunately I find Rean rather dull in practice as well (only speaking for Cold Steel I so far). Still, I'd agree that Sean Chiplock's performance has been more of a positive than a negative for the character. Rean could have gotten much worse.
Kresnik258
Member
I figured as much (I haven't played Cold Steel II yet).
It honestly really soured the experience for me. Prior to that it was like a solid 7/10 game for the first 2/3rd but then the final 1/3rd was amazing, like 10/10 good for me with amazing boss fights; story finally going places; nice character progression etc.
Some of the revelations in the final chapter are just amazing - I loved seeing the instructors fighting the Soldats for example.
Then that boss really sullied the experience for me and the game ended straight after.
It felt like a very, very poor way to end things and it's glaringly obvious that there's more to come
Some of the revelations in the final chapter are just amazing - I loved seeing the instructors fighting the Soldats for example.
Then that boss really sullied the experience for me and the game ended straight after.
It felt like a very, very poor way to end things and it's glaringly obvious that there's more to come
ShadowSoldier89
Member
I put a tutorial up in the series thread for using cheat engine to get as many NG+ points as you want from the imported clear save that is floating around
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=245377503&postcount=8431
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=245377503&postcount=8431
I'm actually kind of disappointed in the writing of this game so far. Not extremely so, but a little.
The school setting and anime "hijinks" I knew was going to be a thing going in: such as how Rean and Alisa first meet, but I figured hey the Sky trilogy made the whole "technically not siblings romance" work to some degree so I figured maybe some tropey dialogue and situations would be carried by good writing and characterization.
Well...so far I'm mixed.
I'm in the middle of chapter 2, and of the 9 characters, I think 7 or 8 of them have either made it painfully obvious to the player that something is being hidden and yet to be revealed, or has had something revealed about them already. It's like this game has just learned the basics of writing intrigue in this manner and rotates through the same process over and over again, hint-reveal-reconcile.
Rean's an
Alisa is
Jusis is a
Emma can
Fie has
Machias is a "
It's not the characterizations specifically that annoy me. I mean, Class VII obviously is made up of non-standard individuals. It's just the manner of which the writing is unfolding so far. I think in 10-15 hours of gameplay I've heard the "oh, it's nothing!" phrase a half dozen times when a character trait or other important plot point is hinted at but then withheld. It's frustrating.
The school setting and anime "hijinks" I knew was going to be a thing going in: such as how Rean and Alisa first meet, but I figured hey the Sky trilogy made the whole "technically not siblings romance" work to some degree so I figured maybe some tropey dialogue and situations would be carried by good writing and characterization.
Well...so far I'm mixed.
I'm in the middle of chapter 2, and of the 9 characters, I think 7 or 8 of them have either made it painfully obvious to the player that something is being hidden and yet to be revealed, or has had something revealed about them already. It's like this game has just learned the basics of writing intrigue in this manner and rotates through the same process over and over again, hint-reveal-reconcile.
Rean's an
adopted son of a noble!
seemingly also a noble (??)but IDK yet! Something about her last name has been telegraphed to me as being important.
bastard child!
heal or some shit
combat training and a mysterious past ooo
high rank commoner" or something
It's not the characterizations specifically that annoy me. I mean, Class VII obviously is made up of non-standard individuals. It's just the manner of which the writing is unfolding so far. I think in 10-15 hours of gameplay I've heard the "oh, it's nothing!" phrase a half dozen times when a character trait or other important plot point is hinted at but then withheld. It's frustrating.
This is why I said folks should talk to every NPC. The prologue doesn't do a good enough job of getting people hooked, but the NPC's do.
Glad you're enjoying it~
Yeah, like I'm pretty sure I'd dislike Rean if I played the Japanese version. Boring voice + text = no thanks.
Novel Mike
Member
Well to be fair all of those points are for a reason more or less...
Rean:
Immediately sees the potential problem of revealing himself to be a noble because Machias is a giant dick, he also is in a fairly odd place in the class system and that becomes more and more apparent as you play through the game. He's not of noble birth yet is a noble which causes other nobles like Patrick to look down on him and commoners to be unable to relate to him. I wouldn't want to reveal that either unless I had to.
I'm honestly surprised you haven't caught onto that one yet so I won't say anything but I think the writing is doing its job if it hasn't be super obvious to you as of yet.
Jusis being a bastard isn't really kept secret though its just part of his backstory and one reason he actually likes Rean is because their situations are very similar. Commoners fear him because of his name while other nobles like his father think less of him because hes still a bastard. Hell if Machias wasn't such a dick at the beginning I don't think we would've have really seen his more arrogant side to begin with.
Shes the one I'll give this to you with and the actual explanation isn't nearly as interesting as the build up imo
Fie's background isn't really something thats kept hidden and isn't really mysterious shes just not forthcoming with such information because she is very reserved. She opens up a lot more as time goes on and her backstory is pretty great.
You learn this in the prologue, hes the Governers son. To be fair Machias is a complete and total dick but I will say his actual reasons for hating nobles is pretty understandable. Doesn't stop him from being a dick but there is some depth their although it takes a long time to get to it.
Although I will say the biggest case for the issue you have with the writing turns out to be for a character you didn't mention yet and really turns out to be nothing much. I'll agree that the game certainly overuses the idea of all the characters having some sort of 'mysterious' past that isn't instantly revealed but at the same time I think it'd be much worse if they just explained everything from the moment you meet them to. There is depth to these characters and I do think that early on it can seem like its overused plot device but I think thats largely because despite Rean being the character you control all of Class VII is meant to be the protagonists and so they treat all of them in the same way, they all have at least a somewhat complicated backstory and most are not interested in instantly revealing that because they all just met and its personal. It's only as they actually start to understand and relate to each other and become friends that they become more open with each other.
I think Fie is a great example of this, she clearly knows Sara and knows more about her then the rest of the class but she doesn't reveal that because of her own past and not feeling comfortable around all of these new people. This is a slight spoiler so I'll tag it but...
Shes only ever known the one 'family' and Class VII is vastly different to what she is used to, what she was comfortable with so she finds it hard to really open up to everyone there.
TLDR: Yes the plot point is overused but I think as you learn more about the characters the less it seems like a plot point and more about the story treating each of these characters as if they were the main protagonist making them all feel equal in a way that I don't think many games do.
I understand japanese people asking the JP dub, but for westerns i dont get the point, is there famous Voice actors on the JP dub? The English is good, And as far as i know Makes more sense, since erebonia looks like an european monarchy with the european nobility titles, like England has.
Years and years of terrible 'anime' games dubs.