• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Trails in the Sky the 3rd |OT| Time's the Charm

djtiesto

is beloved, despite what anyone might say
I just made it to the end of chapter 6, it's great but I don't feel like is 'essential' as far as Kiseki games go. With all the reused content, large party, and small character scenes it feels more like an "omake" game if anything. That said still enjoy it a lot since I love this series so much, but when it's over I'm gonna be depressed with no Crossbell in English yet.
 

isamu

OMFG HOLY MOTHER OF MARY IN HEAVEN I CANT BELIEVE IT WTF WHERE ARE MY SEDATIVES AAAAHHH
Gaia Shield is an art like Earth Wall but it covers the entire battlefield instead of a small circle. It's way more expensive and has a casting time but you can use it at any time unlike Grail Sphere.

Kevin with Onyx + Time, CP restoration accessories, Grail Sphere, and Earth Wall (optionally Gaia Shield, but it's so expensive) is pretty OP, at least on normal difficulty. I don't think any fight gave me much trouble at all once I started using that.

Also if you have Analace in your party she get's a REALLY good sword upgrade when you beat it for the first time.


Thanks guys much appreciated. I'll tackle it later tonight after a bit of grinding in the abyss.

OK two important quick questions so bare with me here:

1)Y'know, up til now, I've been playing this entire series using S-Crafts the "normal" way, ie wait til it's the character's turn with the full CP and unleash it on the enemy. But lately I've been reading people suggesting spamming S-Breaks when your character has enough speed and CP Buff accessories equipped(which mine does).

I know this gonna make me look stupid but I have never used the S-Break feature. I really don't understand it. All I know is that it allows you to somehow intercept an enemy's attack in some way. That's all I know. But now I really want to learn how to use it. Would someone be so kind as to explain how to activate an S-Break and spam them? Particularly with Richard? Is there a specific S-Break button I can assign to my controller, or how exactly does it work?

2)Question about Kevin's Grails Sphere: What is the difference between using it at 100 CP and 200 CP? Do the party still get protected for two turns using 100 CP? Is it worth waiting to do the full 200 CP version or is the 100 one enough?
 

isamu

OMFG HOLY MOTHER OF MARY IN HEAVEN I CANT BELIEVE IT WTF WHERE ARE MY SEDATIVES AAAAHHH
There is a way to quickly farm those 400 hundred battles? I'm in Chapter 8 but I need around 180 battles before I can open this door...

It also seems you need to win 400 so no running either

OK I need clarification on the requirements needed for this Quartz...... at the moment, I am clearly ineligible because I ran a lot of times while trying to farm the Shining Poms in Chapter 6. BUT.....If I decided to start the count all over from 0, and do 400 without running from now, can I get the reflect Quartz then?
 

Tonton

Member
OK I need clarification on the requirements needed for this Quartz...... at the moment, I am clearly ineligible because I ran a lot of times while trying to farm the Shining Poms in Chapter 6. BUT.....If I decided to start the count all over from 0, and do 400 without running from now, can I get the reflect Quartz then?
No, you can only get it if you never run on a given playthrough and fought 300 battles
Once you run you can only get the one for running 300 on that playthrough
 
No, you can only get it if you never run on a given playthrough and fought 300 battles
Once you run you can only get the one for running 300 on that playthrough
Is this a bonus quartz seperate from the 400 battles? I did the win 400 battles door while running a decent amount in between and I got the prize.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Thanks guys much appreciated. I'll tackle it later tonight after a bit of grinding in the abyss.

OK two important quick questions so bare with me here:

1)Y'know, up til now, I've been playing this entire series using S-Crafts the "normal" way, ie wait til it's the character's turn with the full CP and unleash it on the enemy. But lately I've been reading people suggesting spamming S-Breaks when your character has enough speed and CP Buff accessories equipped(which mine does).

I know this gonna make me look stupid but I have never used the S-Break feature. I really don't understand it. All I know is that it allows you to somehow intercept an enemy's attack in some way. That's all I know. But now I really want to learn how to use it. Would someone be so kind as to explain how to activate an S-Break and spam them? Particularly with Richard? Is there a specific S-Break button I can assign to my controller, or how exactly does it work?

2)Question about Kevin's Grails Sphere: What is the difference between using it at 100 CP and 200 CP? Do the party still get protected for two turns using 100 CP? Is it worth waiting to do the full 200 CP version or is the 100 one enough?

You can't spam an s-craft, you can only spam normal crafts. Richard's have extremely low cooldowns, so low that he can often get several turns in a row.

S-break is simple, hit left or right on whatever control scheme you are using, and you should be able to scroll between each character that has a red orb/100+ CP. Just select it to use their S-craft at any time during battle. It will only use whichever one you have selected in the Tactics menu though, you can't just pick any of them.

The primary uses are stealing a turn bonus, or using a defensive s-craft like Grail Sphere and Lichtkries while you are vulnerable.

Using an s-break has a bigger cooldown than using s-crafts on a character's turn though.
 
I am one of those neurotic jerks who can't deal with missing missable things, but also hates using guides and spoiling all the surprises. Because of this I am stuck at the start of chapter 1 in FC. God help me GAF but I want to play these games, it's just so hard.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
I am one of those neurotic jerks who can't deal with missing missable things, but also hates using guides and spoiling all the surprises. Because of this I am stuck at the start of chapter 1 in FC. God help me GAF but I want to play these games, it's just so hard.

IIRC yangxu's guide covers everything like items and optimal choices for BP, while not really spoiling any game events.

You're probably going to have to deal with a guide or deal with missing some things. If you're extremely thorough and spend 100+ hours on the game you could probably catch almost everything, but even then there is some sneaky BP you could miss, and the Carnelia book locations and timing can sometimes feel like Falcom was trolling the players.


Also, community thread is here.
 

isamu

OMFG HOLY MOTHER OF MARY IN HEAVEN I CANT BELIEVE IT WTF WHERE ARE MY SEDATIVES AAAAHHH
You can't spam an s-craft, you can only spam normal crafts. Richard's have extremely low cooldowns, so low that he can often get several turns in a row.

S-break is simple, hit left or right on whatever control scheme you are using, and you should be able to scroll between each character that has a red orb/100+ CP. Just select it to use their S-craft at any time during battle. It will only use whichever one you have selected in the Tactics menu though, you can't just pick any of them.

The primary uses are stealing a turn bonus, or using a defensive s-craft like Grail Sphere and Lichtkries while you are vulnerable.

Using an s-break has a bigger cooldown than using s-crafts on a character's turn though.

Hi chaosblade. Thanks a bunch for your answers. I think I get it now. Very interesting! I'm wondering though.....if the S-Breaks allow you use your S-Crafts at will(once the CP fills up of course), why would I have my character wait "their turn" before using the S-Crafts the "normal" way? Why not just use S-Breaks all the time instead of waiting to unleash it the regular way?
 

isamu

OMFG HOLY MOTHER OF MARY IN HEAVEN I CANT BELIEVE IT WTF WHERE ARE MY SEDATIVES AAAAHHH
No, you can only get it if you never run on a given playthrough and fought 300 battles
Once you run you can only get the one for running 300 on that playthrough

Thanks TonTon. Looks like I'm screwed then lol. It's all good, I would feel pretty dirty using that quartz anyway. Maybe on a second playthrough.
 

Arthea

Member
I am one of those neurotic jerks who can't deal with missing missable things, but also hates using guides and spoiling all the surprises. Because of this I am stuck at the start of chapter 1 in FC. God help me GAF but I want to play these games, it's just so hard.

I'm in the same camp and I think that normal, not neurotic!

how do you get stuck at the start of chapter 1 anyway? You mean you are afraid to miss something and don't play? If yest, it;s kinda funny
 

Marow

Member
Hi chaosblade. Thanks a bunch for your answers. I think I get it now. Very interesting! I'm wondering though.....if the S-Breaks allow you use your S-Crafts at will(once the CP fills up of course), why would I have my character wait "their turn" before using the S-Crafts the "normal" way? Why not just use S-Breaks all the time instead of waiting to unleash it the regular way?
It's as chaosblade said: s-breaks have a longer cooldown than a normal s-craft (or, if not cooldown (I'm not sure if that's the case myself?), it at the very least pushes your character's turn phase later). This means there's a risk involved: should I s-break now, or is it better to wait? If you s-break carelessly, you might end up in a situation where the enemies can attack multiple times in a row, but your own characters cannot do anything!
 

isamu

OMFG HOLY MOTHER OF MARY IN HEAVEN I CANT BELIEVE IT WTF WHERE ARE MY SEDATIVES AAAAHHH
It's as chaosblade said: s-breaks have a longer cooldown than a normal s-craft (or, if not cooldown (I'm not sure if that's the case myself?), it at the very least pushes your character's turn phase later). This means there's a risk involved: should I s-break now, or is it better to wait? If you s-break carelessly, you might end up in a situation where the enemies can attack multiple times in a row, but your own characters cannot do anything!


OK gotcha. Thanks a bunch dude!
 

isamu

OMFG HOLY MOTHER OF MARY IN HEAVEN I CANT BELIEVE IT WTF WHERE ARE MY SEDATIVES AAAAHHH
I just wanna offer a humble and sincere thank you to everyone in this thread that helped me out and offered advice on my questions. Much MUCH appreciated you guys are the BEST!

Good news! I beat nightmare arena not once but twice! That strategies you guys talked about works WONDERS! First time, party was Richard, Kevin, Tita, Renne. Second, same party except I swapped out Renne for Analece.

Now the Bad News! I didn't obtain this super duper powerful weapon for Analece that you guys said they would give her. I fought them and she had some weapon called the Katsuguchu or some shit. But they didn't give anything to her after the fight? Can someone point me in the right direction of where this amazing sword for Analece is?
 

Ascheroth

Member
I just wanna offer a humble and sincere thank you to everyone in this thread that helped me out and offered advice on my questions. Much MUCH appreciated you guys are the BEST!

Good news! I beat nightmare arena not once but twice! That strategies you guys talked about works WONDERS! First time, party was Richard, Kevin, Tita, Renne. Second, same party except I swapped out Renne for Analece.

Now the Bad News! I didn't obtain this super duper powerful weapon for Analece that you guys said they would give her. I fought them and she had some weapon called the Katsuguchu or some shit. But they didn't give anything to her after the fight? Can someone point me in the right direction of where this amazing sword for Analece is?
You'll need to
beat Nightmare arena with Anelace in the party equipped with Jinu (you get this weapon by defeating Richard during that one Star Door where they duel, forgot the number)
if I remember right.
 

isamu

OMFG HOLY MOTHER OF MARY IN HEAVEN I CANT BELIEVE IT WTF WHERE ARE MY SEDATIVES AAAAHHH
You'll need to
beat Nightmare arena with Anelace in the party equipped with Jinu (you get this weapon by defeating Richard during that one Star Door where they duel, forgot the number)
if I remember right.

Oh crap! No wonder I didn't get it. I didn't have the
Jinu
in the *FIRST* place :( :( :( And that just happens to be THE one on one fight that I couldn't win :( Damn...I'm not even dreading doing Nightmare Arena again. It's that damn 1 vs 1 fight that I hate. Any tips on how to beat
Richard with her?
 

ResourcefulStar

Neo Member
Oh crap! No wonder I didn't get it. I didn't have the
Jinu
in the *FIRST* place :( :( :( And that just happens to be THE one on one fight that I couldn't win :( Damn...I'm not even dreading doing Nightmare Arena again. It's that damn 1 vs 1 fight that I hate. Any tips on how to beat
Richard with her?
Use Anelace's crafts. Keep the Petal Dance going and attack with Fallen Leaves. Don't waste CP on S-Crafts.
 

Marow

Member
Oh crap! No wonder I didn't get it. I didn't have the
Jinu
in the *FIRST* place :( :( :( And that just happens to be THE one on one fight that I couldn't win :( Damn...I'm not even dreading doing Nightmare Arena again. It's that damn 1 vs 1 fight that I hate. Any tips on how to beat
Richard with her?
I recommend saving the nightmare arena until the very end as that'll save you a lot of hassle!

As for the question:
Use her "attack up, defense down" buff craft and attack normally. You could consider also using the AT delay craft, just take your CP into consideration as the buff is needed. S-craft, however, isn't needed.
 

Arthea

Member
Does anyone know how to turn animations off? I'm only in Chapter 1 and am completely over it.

Also: Ries is best girl, behind Estelle.

you mean battle animations? I don't think you can, but you can skip S-craft animations, somewhat by cancelling them, it's not perfect, but still better than nothing.
 

isamu

OMFG HOLY MOTHER OF MARY IN HEAVEN I CANT BELIEVE IT WTF WHERE ARE MY SEDATIVES AAAAHHH
Use Anelace's crafts. Keep the Petal Dance going and attack with Fallen Leaves. Don't waste CP on S-Crafts.

I recommend saving the nightmare arena until the very end as that'll save you a lot of hassle!

As for the question:
Use her "attack up, defense down" buff craft and attack normally. You could consider also using the AT delay craft, just take your CP into consideration as the buff is needed. S-craft, however, isn't needed.

Thanks to both of you for your help. I put this sucker down! Took me a 2nd try but I got him. Used the Pedals Falling or whatever for the strength buff, then used a couple other normal crafts in addition to regular attacks. Then at the last minute I whipped out her S-Craft and sent him packing!

Went ahead and did the arena(for the third time) and FINALLY got the powered up
Jinu!

OK quick question guys....

As you enter
Phantasmagoria
and you form all your parties, once one of your groups kills their respective boss, before the game switches you over to the other party will it allow you to unequip your stuff from the *other* party members so you can use them on the party you're about to play? I hope so, because I really want to give the Time Quarts and Super Gladiator Belt to at least ONE member of the party before I enter the gate. Can I do this?
 
Thanks to both of you for your help. I put this sucker down! Took me a 2nd try but I got him. Used the Pedals Falling or whatever for the strength buff, then used a couple other normal crafts in addition to regular attacks. Then at the last minute I whipped out her S-Craft and sent him packing!

Went ahead and did the arena(for the third time) and FINALLY got the powered up
Jinu!

OK quick question guys....

As you enter
Phantasmagoria
and you form all your parties, once one of your groups kills their respective boss, before the game switches you over to the other party will it allow you to unequip your stuff from the *other* party members so you can use them on the party you're about to play? I hope so, because I really want to give the Time Quarts and Super Gladiator Belt to at least ONE member of the party before I enter the gate. Can I do this?


No, it's a straight boss rush that switches from party to party with no time in between.
 

djtiesto

is beloved, despite what anyone might say
Yeah, I'm done with everything but fishing and the arena. Only managed to beat round 1 of fishing... do you need to beat all the rounds to be able to unlock door 14? Apologies if these questions have been asked...

God damn, I am so sick of fishing minigames... it's the only thing keeping me from the FFXV platinum, too :p

Also with the arena, what's a good level to be on? Gotta do some grinding in the abyss area methinks. And any good cheapo tactics? I see Kevin with Grail Sphere and CP recovery accessories in a previous page... but was hoping for something a bit quicker and even cheesier :p
 

Loz246789

Member
Yeah, I'm done with everything but fishing and the arena. Only managed to beat round 1 of fishing... do you need to beat all the rounds to be able to unlock door 14? Apologies if these questions have been asked...

God damn, I am so sick of fishing minigames... it's the only thing keeping me from the FFXV platinum, too :p

Also with the arena, what's a good level to be on? Gotta do some grinding in the abyss area methinks. And any good cheapo tactics? I see Kevin with Grail Sphere and CP recovery accessories in a previous page... but was hoping for something a bit quicker and even cheesier :p

Good news! You only need to beat one round of both to access door 14.
As for the arena, there's what you mentioned, but if you want even more insurance, earth wall is worth considering. You can also give
Richard
a bunch of speed related stuff (Action quartz, etc.) and have him spam crafts. He's stupidly fast when using crafts for some reason, and the enemy will get very few turns in. If you can equip him with cp stuff as well, all the better.
 
Hahaha thanks for the help guys - I'm a bit sad that you can't skip animations but that's prolly because I was spoiled with the Cold Steel games. Did not recognize it as an issue when I played through FC+SC for the first time.

Anyways, I'm four hours in and already on Chapter 2. The emphasis on characterization is pretty damn good, but I'm not a fan of the essentially "elongated dungeon crawl for the entire game" aspect, and am glad that this was a one-off title in the Kiseki series. It's really good for filling in holes in backstories and setting up plot points for future games, but it (SO FAR) seems kinda meh to me. Feels like a transition game, which I guess it essentially was. Party building is going to be tough though with all the options, especially since the difficulty seems ramped up from FC and SC. Any tips or advice for a normal playthrough?
 

Nyoro SF

Member
Hahaha thanks for the help guys - I'm a bit sad that you can't skip animations but that's prolly because I was spoiled with the Cold Steel games. Did not recognize it as an issue when I played through FC+SC for the first time.

Anyways, I'm four hours in and already on Chapter 2. The emphasis on characterization is pretty damn good, but I'm not a fan of the essentially "elongated dungeon crawl for the entire game" aspect, and am glad that this was a one-off title in the Kiseki series. It's really good for filling in holes in backstories and setting up plot points for future games, but it (SO FAR) seems kinda meh to me. Feels like a transition game, which I guess it essentially was. Party building is going to be tough though with all the options, especially since the difficulty seems ramped up from FC and SC. Any tips or advice for a normal playthrough?

Remember, you can fight as much as you want in the dungeons. Once you have Haze, you can run through them fairly freely. The dungeons rarely overstay their welcome in the 3rd. By the time I was halfway in I was breezing through a lot of them. I suppose that's the advantage of their extreme simplicity.

I can't speak for your opinion, but if you didn't enjoy the Sky characters and Sky world, you are not going to like 3rd, period. But it would be shocking to me that you beat FC and SC and didn't enjoy the world and characters. I suppose it's up to you to what you want to like.
 
Remember, you can fight as much as you want in the dungeons. Once you have Haze, you can run through them fairly freely. The dungeons rarely overstay their welcome in the 3rd. By the time I was halfway in I was breezing through a lot of them. I suppose that's the advantage of their extreme simplicity.

I can't speak for your opinion, but if you didn't enjoy the Sky characters and Sky world, you are not going to like 3rd, period. But it would be shocking to me that you beat FC and SC and didn't enjoy the world and characters. I suppose it's up to you to what you want to like.

Oh no, I love the characters! A game focused mainly on characerization is not something I'm opposed to, per se. I just don't like the "Phantasm" setting, despite it simply being a vehicle to allow for the random "Memory Fragment" segments. I just prefer narratives a la FC+SC, not that I'm opposed to TC! Plus, I'm only on Chapter 2 LOL so me posting my opinion atm is prolly jumping the gun a bit.
 
The doors break up the dungeon crawling a lot, to the point where it doesn't feel much less text heavy than the other games, and the dungeons rarely feel too long as a result.
 

Thud

Member
Skipping animations isn't that good if there's still a loading time between the actions.

It helps a bit, but not much. I think it would be better if there's not a skip button but an option to turn the animations off completely.

Something to mull over for the Calvard arc perhaps.

Anyway after playing through the sky and cold steel games, I think the 3rd is my favorite. It has an interesting approach in gamedesign and storytelling which really works well together imo.
 

Psxphile

Member
Skipping animations isn't that good if there's still a loading time between the actions.

It helps a bit, but not much. I think it would be better if there's not a skip button but an option to turn the animations off completely.

Someone should have mentioned it to Kondo while he was here in the states.
I wonder if he would have laughed it off or been offended at the idea of removing all the long, flashy moves via toggle.
 

Thud

Member
Someone should have mentioned it to Kondo while he was here in the states.
I wonder if he would have laughed it off or been offended at the idea of removing all the long, flashy moves via toggle.

I really like watching them the first ten or so times, then skip. Especially on replays this would be a thing.

I do the same thing with Fire Emblem. First playthrough is watch the animations and a second playthrough is max speed skip a ton.

Either way the base has always been good. If you have a turd, you can polish it however you want but your hand will still stay smelly.

Another thing to note is climbing ladders in Cold Steel. Thank Aidios it ain't some metal gear solid type of ladder.
 
Another thing to note is climbing ladders in Cold Steel. Thank Aidios it ain't some metal gear solid type of ladder.
They let you dash up and down ladders in Cold Steel II, at least. I think they'll eventually add animation skip, but only when heavily reworking their engine for Calvard.
 

djtiesto

is beloved, despite what anyone might say
Good news! You only need to beat one round of both to access door 14.
As for the arena, there's what you mentioned, but if you want even more insurance, earth wall is worth considering. You can also give
Richard
a bunch of speed related stuff (Action quartz, etc.) and have him spam crafts. He's stupidly fast when using crafts for some reason, and the enemy will get very few turns in. If you can equip him with cp stuff as well, all the better.

Nice, you just made my day! I'll hopefully be able to finish this weekend, that is if the Anjunadeep boat party doesn't drain me :p

It's just a shame the final battle apparently does one of my least favorite RPG cliches -
having to use multiple parties at once - I like sticking to the same charas when I play... Suikoden 3 and 5 did this too :p
 
Didn't get the achievement for Nightmare mode just beat it about an hour ago. I carried over from SC and this was a new game+ playthrough but never got the achievements (did normal so i should've got hard AND Nightmare achievements.
 

Arthea

Member
Didn't get the achievement for Nightmare mode just beat it about an hour ago. I carried over from SC and this was a new game+ playthrough but never got the achievements (did normal so i should've got hard AND Nightmare achievements.

you should have asked before starting a game, atm some achievements are broken, as nightmare cheevo for completing a new game + and all quartz broken at the start of it bug.
I'm waiting for it to be fixed, but as Xseed is extremely busy this year with Steel and Ys, I don't see it happening any time soon.
 

Psxphile

Member
Those still haven't been fixed? Dang.

After about a month of no activity due to distraction I've been making progress again. Completed Chapter 6 and 7 soon after. Now in the Finale, just need to complete some doors and see what else needs to be done before moving beyond the point of no return.
 

Cqef

Member
So basically the quartz from your previous playthrough don't carry-over to your new one even though you chose them to when you start New Game+?
 

Thud

Member
So basically the quartz from your previous playthrough don't carry-over to your new one even though you chose them to when you start New Game+?

Yes. You can carry them over, but the breaking still applies. That's something that shouldn't happen in NG+. I suppose they are swamped with work and this got the lowest priority.
 

Arthea

Member
It's more than that, they should carry, but also ng+ has end game cheevos bugged atm, so if quartz are not big deal for you, cheevos could be
 

Cqef

Member
As a proud user of the GoG version, the cheevos being bugged don't concern me :^)
The quartz not carrying over are a real bummer though. I guess steamrolling through the game won't be so quick. I wish I didn't need to worry about collecting and setting up quartz on a second playthrough, but meh, I still can live with that.
 

Taruranto

Member
X4Xe4vL.jpg

lol Time gem + Swiftness basically break random encounters, they don't even get a chance to attack.
 
Top Bottom