NIHON FALCOM THREAD "To Meet Again Someday" Edition

Are there people already working on a YsVIII fan translation?

No.

There should

falcom must be saving a ton of money using nisa. it's a shame i have to pirate a ys pc port though.

レンの父が発見！まあ、と思う。

I find it hilarious how Lloyd's group keeps getting mistaken for Bracers, since the idea of Police actually doing their jobs is so foreign. Kek.

what are you doing son

It's a PSP game, user. I could try my hand at the PC version, but hey, that doesn't have save transfer.

I want to be wrong.
Good gods I want to be wrong.
Nothing would make me happier than being able to say "Wow NISA, you managed to not fuck up this time. Good job!"

We're all gonna get vindicated, aren't we?

From that speedinfo it looks like you're emulating it, you know you can make it look way better right?

Internal resolution is already higher. If there's an Evolution textures pack for PPSSPP, I haven't found it.

How will save importing work, if at all?

...

Randy, you're a fucking git.

Would this be considered fan-service?

A remix the TitS FC theme plays when they start talking to you.

I just wish they weren't around for the final dungeon, should just be a focus on the crossbell crew.

So far the focus has been on the fact that the S.S.S are pretty fucking pathetic compared to the guild, so I can't say that I'm surprised.

Just wait until Ao where they, Renne and Kevin and Ries all show up to steal the spotlight.

As long as they never cameo someone like Alisa I'm fine.

Well…she's gonna be in CS3…

There's that NISA QUALITY.

Adel is Arabic for "The Just" or "The Fair" so I guess it makes sense?
:^)

Can you shop/refine quartz in Phantasmagoria or do you have to do it in the garden first?

I've just started 3rd, but why is Tita being shown memories of recent events she should probably remember anyway?

Pretty sure the first one is Bandit Scamco.

The characters aren't the ones being shown the memories, as Campanella confirms in door 14.

You know, as much as I'm enjoying the 3rd, the doors are a bit of a pain in the ass. 99% of them are just a very long event scene and you spend all that time reading.

I know what you are thinking, "but user, reading a lot of text is common as hell in Trails, have you even played FC and SC?"

But in FC and SC, you had breaks from reading the text in form of gameplay and battles. In these doors most of the times you are just reading a lot of text with no breaks. It feels monotonous.

I guess I still prefer gameplay to story at the end of the day.

Geofront took a while to get used to. Felt modern and punkish.

...

I'm really hoping it's just some dumb NISA PR person or something who doesn't know about the game that put up that description.

If NISA changed Adol's name to Adel in the game, I don't think anyone who's played the previous games would be interested in getting it. They'd have to understand that, right?

They aren't changing the name, that was a mistake from NISA not knowing a single shit about Ys and just jumping into the money train.

So is there an explanation for why the Stahlritter dress exactly like Angels yet?

This reads like a Spurdo edit.

Why are you posting the best boys and Bluewhite the Ghoststealer?

Its listed as Adol on all of their websites etc. I think some one just fucked up the Amazon description.

3rd is ok

I think the girls and boys are both very attractive and cute. Couldn't help it.

They're getting a nice up-front bid from NISA + PC version, so it definitely looks good on their end though they're unaware of much shit those guys get. I just hope the localization's either good or easy enough to edit via script files in case they fuck things up.

Sensible answer, really. But it's less the PR people I'm worried about and more their editors.

It's also debatable whether or not segmenting these stories into books instead would have worked out better. I just read Gambler Jack for the first time and it matches the structure of the average Moon Door, but I can move back and forth across the story at will. The Doors really need saving at will + indicators of how long they'll take on average to beat, but the actual content's usually great, and many have cutscenes where enough's happening to break up pacing.

And I'm glad these stories don't have to adhere to explore -> story -> combat, rinse and repeat, and can instead explore a variety of subjects in Liberl and elsewhere.

I hope Vita returns

She's lovely

Any of the other monument stones you find in Phantasmagoria can do it.

There's a monument midway through each path where you can do those things. The enemies are also tailor made to get underleveled party members up to snuff for the final fights.

Those first girls are completely gay judging by their star door.

I think it was just a one off, but let me tell you something. There's a large group of people who would look at it and say, "So they changed one letter, big deal! Don't get so worked up over such a little thing." then probably make a joke about playing as Adele the singer and post song lyrics.

Arianrhod is the Goddess of the Silver Wheel. Makes sense she'd have angels by her side.

Well it fits the pseudo incest theme Falcom has been adherent to so far.

Even in a turn-based JRPG?

i hope it's not what i think it is

Well at least Cold steel 3 will be safe, right?

I was so pissed when I had to play 50,000 mira just to watch Mayor Maybelle's dumb fucking ass get into yet another comic misunderstanding with her maid.

What, you don't want to see more of Line Shwanzer's adventures with his friends, Aricia Linefeld, Lauren Est Arsed (and her catch phrase, "I can't be Arsed"), Fee Closer and Juicy Albert Rhea? I've heard in Flashy Trails 3 they're going to finally defeat the dastardly Olobolos and their Legionate of Extinguishers.

Don't you get 100k mira back, though?

Not nearly enough Mira.

I can see NISA go "we want the Neptunia audience".

In the NISA version, Emma's name is Peesthree.

Tita will apparently be part of the class Towa is teaching. Agate took Tita and moved to Heimdallr to help Olivert uncover the truth about the guild attacks in Erebonia and the truth about the Hundred Days War.

And Erika hasn't nuked Erebonia yet?

Suddenly, the speedy development of the Panzer Soldat falls into place.

I'd imagine that Tita, at probably 15 or 16 gave her mother a verbal slapping sometime.

Implying Erika isn't going to replace Novartis as 6th Anguis entirely accidentally.

...

Is Lacrimosa even worth it? I don't think I can sit through another game like Memories or Seven unless it's REALLY good and not just okay.

The people who've played it say it's one of the best out of the Ys games.

It's a vast improvement on Memories/Seven in every way, just pirate it or import it though. Don't support NISA no matter how much you like Falcom

I'd say it's tied for best with Origin. It doesn't waste time with the bullshit "in town talking" segments. Every NPC is within one screen of each other and you have fast travel between checkpoints from the very beginning. The combat is just a more refined version of Seven/Celceta's system but with platforming. It's also very fast, which is appreciated.

Vast improvement how, exactly?
Are the bosses still super easy and completely cheesable with flash move/guards?
Do I still have to use something a billion times to level it up instead of having the skill gain exp by skill finishes or damage or whatever?
Can I jump and is there platforming again?
Are chests and equipment pieces rewarding again or is it still Picked up x10 coal or Picked up ShittySword+1?
If there's one thing I truly liked about 7/Celeceta is that Adol's moveset was really good, except every other character's moveset wasn't.

If you have a PS4, there's a demo on the Japanese PSN.

I'm not sure how cheeseable the bosses are, but if you have the timing for their attacks down through trial and error you can probably cheese them?

And you can jump, and there is platforming. Not sure about movesets and stuff.

Just got to the boss of the 4th plane in Trails 3rd. The game has been a breeze until this one, it completely fucked me over in a few turns, doing 7000+ damage twice in a row plus its fucking comrades doing blind damage whole party to boot.

But I think there have been quite a few bosses in the series where surviving the first time is nigh impossible, you have to have the exact right gear equipped against certain statuses and elements. But yeah I'm taking a break for the day, maybe do a few Moon and Star doors instead to relax.

Doing the doors ASAP will net you good equipment and quartz, so maybe that'll help.

I bet there's a bunch of funny things happening just off-screen in these cutscenes, not just what you can see at 21:9.

From impressions I've read, and game footage, it seems like most bosses are a big jump in challenge, at least above Seven, and you can't cheese as easily anymore. I'm not going to say the improvements here are profound, but they stand out and impressions praise the hell out of VIII's boss fights.

Skill leveling got easy in Celceta and I can see it being quick here as long as you get the right accessories. SP regenerates quick as well.

Jeez, you could make the same complaint about Ys Origin with half of its chests having Cleria Ore which forces you to backtrack to Roos (not actually a problem). It's probably going to be a mix of materials and equipment again, but I do know there's better area traversal items here than in Celceta (other than Gale Boots).

Seems like the other characters have fun, unique movesets, and Dana gets two extra forms in the PS4/PC version which expand her utility.

That one hits hard, and I had to revive a couple of fighters, but Kevin's new S-Break does it in so long as you've got 200 CP, a STR buff, and maybe a Crit or damage-boost turn. Blind sucks, but that's why you abuse Sacred Breath or Vital Cannon.

Definitely relax with some Doors if the combat gets nuts. I've 4 out of 5 Moon Doors now and am about to cheat my way through Sun Door 2.

Kevin can fucking heal and cure blind you goofus

Based Zin.

Reminder that people will defend this because "muh pc port".

I've come to accept Zin but changing Bewitching Bell to Enchanting Bell is a step too far.

Just wait 'till they change Kloe to Klose.

my fucking sides

I managed to beat it on my second or third try on nightmare. Just have someone with high ats nuke down the orbs with dark matter, then as long as you have something to guard against demon spear, the rest of the fight is easy.

Also seconding to abuse kevin's new s break, it hit the boss for 11k damage without any buffs/debuffs on nightmare.

I think you guys need to git gud at fishing
:^)

...

Wuh… Gilbert's actually being a hero.

Yeah, uh, I'm gonna leave this chest for later.

For anyone that can't read nip, this says…
"You sense the presence of a strong monster from inside the chest.
Recommended Level: 35
Will you open the chest?"

My level is currently around 15.

Do it anyway, coward.

The DLC is just an outfit(s). It's oldschool Thors uniforms.

Anyway, the full magazine info is here:

pastebin.com/GP66jAdh

So it's pretty much confirmed that Rean teaches how to Gundam?

Translate it. Not like the in-progress translation will ever come out. :^)

I thought XSEED was going to steal it.

what is there to steal

A google doc full of partially input japanese text?

This. You're probably on normal anyway you casual. :^)

...

I just finished Chapter 1 in Zero, and holy fuck things ramp up quicker in this game than the other first games in each arc.

I would absolutely not recommend anyone play this as their first Trails. I can see how playing Cold Steel first might be fine, but if they're referencing a shitton of events from the previous games THIS early, then…

Anyway, shit's getting real fast. I'm gonna start putting this shit in spoilers.

Arios is super rad.

Have fun, user.
Soon you find out why Cold Steel is so disappointing in comparison.

I'm already there with the Quartz system. So much better than the simplified schlock that Cold Steel has.

It isn't the best but it isn't schlock either.

Answer me this, if lines don't dictate the possible arts you can get, then what's the fucking point of them?

Oh there's no point to the lines anymore. I have no idea why that graphic still exists. They really should get rid of it if they want to keep the new system.

Look who it is lads

That's amazing.

Oh baby blind procs here I come

The Heavy Blade cut his hair back.

I'm not sure how I should feel about that.

There's an official Ys Book 1 anime, and I think there's one for Book 2 as well.

I wonder how much sexual tension there is in that room. On a side note, is agate pretty weak in the grand scheme on things? It feels like the cold steel characters are a lot stronger, or is it just because he keeps getting yamcha'd?

Not if dragon dive has anything to say about it

anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=anime&aid=470
anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=anime&aid=471

Agate is at least around or slightly lower than Sara, who's above the main cast of students of CS

I can dig it

My understanding was, that by the end of cs2, the students were as good as Sara, and were on the way to surpass her / be on the level of the various godly characters that appear and give beat downs in the series, but I guess that's true for all of the protag party members.

Yeah at the end of CS2 Elliot can single handedly take down Arianrhod.

Not if "2 more years of training" Laura has anything to say about it.

I can't wait to see what she's like. I wonder if she cut her hair.

WHAT DID HE ASK

Benis

If she'd help him overthrow Osbourne, of course.

Marriage.

No, Rean in his Ogre form is able to surpass her, as shown in the Roer Bond. Maybe Laura and Fie are around a level of matching blades with her. There's a big margin between those three and the rest(Emma, Gaius and Millium would likely be the next step down though), and considering their paths as shown at the end of Cold Steel 2, Machias, Elliot, and Alisa will NOT be Ouroboros ready.

Hahahahaha, no. Rean could maybe take her down with Ogre mode (or with Valimar), but that's about it. Even Laura probably couldn't have beat her 1 on 1 at the end of CS2. We'll just have to wait and see how CS3 shakes out, but CS2 still treated her very much as stronger. Also, I doubt Elliot, Machias and Alisa at least will ever really be considered all that strong n the power tiers. Rean, Laura and Fie are the ones who really prop them up, with the others all falling somewhere behind them.

G. Schmidt better not talk any shit around Tita unless he wants the Heavy Blade to come down on him.

That's legal. Erika must cry herself to sleep every night.

Agate was a C-ranked Senior Bracer when we met him, right? I could believe he hit B or even A in the last three years since we saw him.

Whoa, we're a hive mind!

Yeah, its confirmed Agate is an A rank now. He's come a long way.

Tita is apparently part of Class IX in Thors as an exchange student (against her mom's wishes).
twitter.com/HDKirin/status/862322242398568448

Agate is an A Rank Bracer who got referrals from Sara and Toval.
twitter.com/HDKirin/status/862323023495389184

Also gameplay screenshots.

Apparently Yuna has two attack modes with her tonfas.

Tita's alternate mode will be the Orbal Gear mark whatever, Rean's is obviously his Ogre form. Laura will probably be able to switch between one to two handed Arseid school.

What about the Vander kid? Offensive and defensive?

I always had a feeling those swords could come together to form a larger Vander style blade, but that would likely be too much work for modelers.

Airgetlahm just flashes and becomes a magical hammer. They'll just do the same thing.

The fuck is this shit

What exactly is wrong here? The Sora artist likes fat arms, but that's not specific to Halle. She also gets a bunch of face expressions and looks very close to how I imagined her from Gambler Jack. The book implies she's not fully grown, which might explain the head/body proportions, otherwise I like this design.

So I was doing the first Julia - Vander memory, and got obliterated pretty fast playing on Hard. Can anyone who has won the battle tell me if there's anything special if I do win?

No extra/improved reward(s). Julia mentions how Mueller must have been holding back after she wins, but he assures her that he put his all into the fight.

Best duel music

Okay it turns out I can replay it by entering the door again should I want to autism it up in the future.

Better version

Tita is legal now?

Wonder if they have anti conception drugs in Erebonia.

That is so fucking stupid. I love it.

I think when the Calvard Trails games come, we're going to be members of the Rocksmith Agency.

Considering all the half-breeds of Nobility like Olivert and Jusis, I have to assume no.

I wonder if characters like Fie and Sara will have similar forms.

It would be awesome if Fie had her two gunswords but also had a fuckhuge squall leonheart style gunblade for modified Jaeger-Arseid kata.

That blonde chick Lucy from Kloe's moon door has a portrait and is from Remiferia. Anyone here play Akatsuki and know if a Lucy makes an appearance?

I guess she'd have a different name actually, so just blonde, young, maybe references Liberl?

She does make an appearance in Akatsuki. She's a researcher for Seirand Inc. Niece of Professor Seirand who appears in Zero and Ao. You could have just gone to the wiki and looked for her, user

...

I do believe she's in Akatsuki

Why does Joshua look like he's gonna kill someone

he's a broken doll

Why is Joshua such a faggot?

I love how the fishing mini-game rubber bands if you get 100+ points ahead.

There's no way I can lose this time right? h-haha

The dude is having sex with Aidios' daughter. I don't think you can get more straight than that unless you fuck Aidios herself which Cassius already did.

Easy.

Nigga has the princess of Liberl ready to spread her legs for him.

I am incredibly jealous.

Nostradamus here. Rean is an artificial human made from the DNA of Osbourne and Dreichels the Lionheart. Millium is made from a mix of Claire and another character as well. We'll also meet Altina's genetic donors as well.

Hell, he even has a former Erebonian noble lusting after his dick. Nigga has some kind of game with the chicks.

You mean Osbourne's family line is the true Dreichels line and he also has a stigma or whatever like Rean

Wait, how could that be? Cedric activated the Vermillion Apocalypse. Wasn't that only possible by a member of Dreichels' line? Plus how the fuck could Erebonia lose track of its royal line like that?

Kind of right. Rein IS Dreichels reincarnated due to the Divine Knight system, which keeps everyone in Erebonia living clockwork reincarnations (Time Sept-Terrion.)

Phew… Finally completed TitS SC. I somehow managed to get through the final fights without getting a Game Over once. I must be very lucky or I just got gud.

Joshua is the Lloyd and Rean of the Sky series in terms of harem potential.

That's because Joshua fits the Protagonist bill in every way. The only thing is that Sky is told from Estelle's perspective. It's like the Great Gatsby or Sherlock Holmes, I suppose.

...

And the game COULD have followed him for that time until we caught up with Estelle on the Glorious, but it didn't, because the story is being told from Estelle's perspective.

Aside from that, just finished up Anelace's Star Gate, and I noticed that the story beats there seem to be getting echoed and expanded on in Rean's character and relationship with Yun Ka-Fai. It's kind of interesting, and I surmise that once Rean solidifies his resolve, he'll be able to defeat and fully control his Ogre self in CS3.

Is this why cakes are usually always best girls?

I hope Anelace is a yuri option in the Calvard games.

No, please don't. Harem-shit is part of why the characters are so poor in Cold Steel… you can't have romantic relationships springing up between members of your party, because EVERYONE has to be able to want Rean's dick. As shitty as Alisa was and is, they really should've just stuck with either her or Towa. That way they'd have had more room to right in character development outside of the fucking bonding events.

write*

Yes but that wouldn't appeal to the persona audience goyim

No one complains about the characters in Zero and Ao and it's the same thing.

Romance works fine in these fantasy adventure games. It's not like Cloud gets shipped with every girl mandatory. Everybody knows it's just him and Aerith plus sometimes Tifa for love triangle shit but no harem anything. The point is there's just the whole cannon one pairings with the occasional love triangles for tension and it's fine. If there wasn't the romance shit people would bitch how the ending would be unfulfilling.

That… so… Wait, are you just upset that no one else gets involved in romantic relationships but Rean? That's not really why Cold Steel characters are weaker than Sky characters. Plus, it's not a Harem unless you can date multiple girls at the same time. Cold Steel locks you to one.

Plus there are plenty of other people hooking up, just not party members. Remember all those other members of the Sky party that were hooking up with each other…oh wait, that never happened. The closest thing is Agate and Tita and even that is debatable…at least for now.

No, it's really not.

Maybe I didn't put it the way I really should've, but basically Cold Steel's biggest issue is how the character actions constantly center around Rean. Not a damn person can have the same degree of development as characters in previous games without Rean getting his Ashen Dick involved. Romance is just the easiest example of it, Stuff like Olivier and Schera, or Tita and Agate, or hell even Johsua and Estelle. Making it so that every female MUST be able to want Rean's dick limits what sort of character development they can have, because - since it carries over - they can't assume that characters saw specific scenes. It's hell for a consistent narrative, and leaves a void that was otherwise easily filled in previous games.

I'll forgive Rean for being the center of most of the conflicts in Cold Steel 2, simply because Valimar means that - for the narrative - it makes sense that he'd be such an important piece of the puzzle. Plus, it's stupid to complain about protags seemingly being written for the plot, because that's just how stories are made. However, the character interactions and the over-reliance on bonding events are total cancer. I know it's not the most popular opinion, but I'd rather the character have one canon interest and if bonding events just got the FUCK out of dodge.

It's heavily implied that Olivier and Schera will be a thing.

Yeah, members of C7 pursuing romantic relationships wouldn't automatically improve their character. It COULD in theory help, but it wouldn't change the fundamental poor writing that holds them back in many ways.

If Alisa was forced as the love interest the game would be objectively worse.

When will we get good gameplay in the trails series? TIS3rd felt like it was going in the right direction but then they just fucked it all up with cold steel.

Every girl wants Lloyd's dick. And he has even less of a personality than Rean. They may not have had links and a bonding event system, but the blueprint was clearly there, or did you forget the amusement park?

Yeah, I'll agree that the fundamental problem is poor writing. Cold Steel was… ok, but then Cold Steel 2 just went pants on head retarded, and was all over the place. I really don't know what the FUCK happened with that. Certain characters need more development, other characters are just fundamentally flawed to begin with (Elliot), and the cast is just lopsided as all hell. I'm still hyped for Sen III (I've got it pre-ordered), but I won't lie - considering how many more characters they're bringing into the fold while certain members of Class VII STILL need development (Gaius, anyone?) isn't helping ease my concerns. Erebonia had too many damn characters to begin with, adding more to the mix has a huge potential to be an absolute train wreck. Hopefully Falcom deliver, Ys VIII's story gave me some hope on that front.

Personally I feel that Towa would've been a better route to go for, but she's too busy being a fucking mascot or some shit to become Rean's cumslut. I'd rather him hook up with Alisa than have Schrödinger's gf. Just rip that band-aid off and let bonding events, if they're gonna stay, have some fucking breathing room.

Crossbell.

You want them to form more interpersonal relationships within the cast, which you feel is held back due to bond events with Rean. I disagree that the bond events are the problem, though. Look at Laura and Fie, or Machias and Jusis. Millium and Jusis have it a bit too. What you're looking for is there, I think you're just losing sight of it due to the larger cast. Besides, they're students at a school. They each have clubs and other friends they interact with and have relationships with.

The Bond events aren't the problem with the characters of Cold Steel.

I'm not saying that Crossbell was perfect, but at least it's consistent. In canon, everyone's playthrough of Zero and Ao are more or less the same. Cold Steel and Cold Steel 2, though? Well, since players may or may not have seen certain bonding events, they have to write the characters as if said character development never happened. THAT'S my problem.

Yes there's still development outside of bonding events, but no I don't think they aren't part of the problem. The time spent investing in those events could be used for more story-consistent character development. I understand why they're there, to make every player feel unique, but it actively harms the narrative.

That's objectively false. The characters go through development whether Rean bonds them with or not. Alisa becomes friends with Ferris whether or not Rean helps. Laura helps Monica achieve her goal whether or not Rean helps. All of the bonding event scenes happens regardless. Rean being there or not only changes whether or not the player seers it, which I guess is a bit of problem, but you could say the same of picking different party members in the Sky games, or going with Agate rather than Schera in SC. Trails has had content before that was exclusive to your decisions.

At this point I think systems like bonding events, or supports in Fire Emblem, are flawed on principle because they overcomplicate the means of accessing character development and backstory without offering interesting mechanics in return. It seems like much less of a problem in Crossbell, and Ys VIII basically makes it damn easy to get everyone's scenes, so Erebonia's stood out so far because its bonding events are dull on average and encourage me to watch the scenes I've missed on YouTube rather than replay the game. Much as I'm disappointed in old Class VII's development, there's still enough to go on that I can't get mad.

What I've heard about Ys VIII's story is encouraging, and I think Falcom's going to loosen up and not pander as hard with Sen III while resolving loose ends and delivering a good (or bad, or great) conclusion for the arc. Right now they're showing off the least spoiler-filled new and returning characters because it's early in the press cycle, same as with Ys VIII.

Unrelated, but these Takeshita tracks in Nayuta are solid

Well I feel like a retard now. I'm still not the biggest fan of bonding events, but I guess I jumped the gun more than a bit while criticizing them.

Yeah, the biggest problem with Cold Steel then is probably the size and framing of the cast. Not to say that the actual story-telling - especially in Cold Steel 2 - was perfect, either.

Ys VIII was stupidly ys-y to 100% blind on my first playthrough. Well, stupidly easy isn't the right word but it's not nearly as bad as attempting the same feat with a Trails/Kiseki game. I've got to wonder how Tokyo Xanadu fairs, since I haven't touched that game yet.

Bond events aren't character development as much as character revelation. They're not like Social Links, they're their to reveal deeper layers of the characters. They're completely unnecessary, but they do fulfill a purpose. Well some of them do. Laura's CS2 bonds are pure fan service. But that's poor writing and not the problem of the bond events themselves.

It's easy to say if Falcom got rid of them they'd be able to add more to the story, but then the problem their is that more time wouldn't fix the problem. Because the problem is the inherent poor writing of the characters and lopsided focus. Elliot shouldn't exist, Alisa gets an undue amount of focus despite her incredibly simple issues, Laura and especially Emma are
fucked in terms of development, and Machias is too two dimensional. Gaius is fine if admittedly a little flat, and Fie and Jusis are the best written of the cast. Rean is… we've already talked about how Rean was written and you either love it or hate it. Crow never had enough time, and the same with Millium, though where that could've been fixed in CS2 was lost to… I don't know, saving up to blow their load in CS3, like everything that feels flat in CS.

This is probably true. Even for games as long as Trails games, Sky was effective became it had a much smaller cast, but the problem with each game is that each game adds more characters because the world is persistent. I have to admit though, I'm not stoked about the amount of new characters they're debuting.

For right now, I feel a lot of Cold Steel's problems are tied to it basically being chained to Crossbell's story. The concurrent timelines was an interesting idea but in practice it meant one game was always going to be massively stymied by the other. Of course, this puts a lot of pressure on CSIII. Still, I think the best part of Trails the NPC writing, it still really high quality in Trails. One of my favorite things about Cold Steel was coming back to Trista each chapter and seeing what each character was doing each month.

I don't even think the concurrent stories were the main issue, or even a "massive stymie". Admittedly, you know how it ends on the Crossbell side, especially with Aothat ONE fucking line still heats me the fuck up, but I think the story of how the events developed in the Erebonian Empire that effected Crossbell could make for an interesting tale. I know playing Cold Steel whet my appetite for Crossbell, though admittedly I don't know if it works the other way around. What I'm trying to say is that I don't see how taking place at the same time damaged the Erebonia arc. Could you elaborate on that?

You've got that right. Cold Steel 3 is the make or break for this entire arc. I want to believe but I'm still burnt from the last time I had hope that a third installment would redeem what came before it. We all know how that ended, then got hilariously re-animated into something almost as bad. I'm thankful everyday I saved that money.

Are you talking about complex motives?

Erebonia is much more tantalizing with what's happening in Crossbell, whereas in Ao they just straight up tell you what is happening in Erebonia:

Every major beat outside of the Gundamns was pretty much laid out, and the problem is the stuff that wasn't previously spoiled is the stuff they've only vaguely touched. Yeah, Rean's got a Divine Knight, but outside of the practical we don't know what that even means. The concept of Erebonian Sept-Terrions isn't even mentioned except in a bit of NG+ dialogue. The Witches get talked up a lot, but even having one in your party for a whole game while knowing she is one still only amounts to tantalizing hints. CS2's probably is that it's whole story is about an event people already know how it's going to end. The civil war isn't a cause for drama because if you played the Crossbell games you already know who wins. And even then, compared to, say, 3rd Chapter, Cold Steel seems to massively pull punches when it comes to stakes. Let's face it, Celdic was the only real tragedy in the way we see, and that amounts to a single casualty of a d-list NPC. Compared to Hamel, or Kevin or Renne's pasts or even stuff like the DG Cult it's very tame. Granted, they actually give an in-story reason for this, but that doesn't change the fact the game's tone definitely doesn't say "war" to me.

Now, I will add a caveat to this. I absolutely loved the tone of the divertessment and epilogue. It's those parts of the game that gave me hope for CSIII. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that CSII wasn't really a sequel to CS in the same way SC was a sequel to FC.CSII is more like the Grancel chapter of FC stretched across a whole game. Things are ramping up, but it's still relatively bloodless and the stakes are fairly low. It's on the end that drops a bombshell.

So there's a big part of me that just thinks Falcom still only knows how to tell stories in duologies and CSII was really just dragging out what should have been the second part of CS1 for a whole game.

PSVita was a mistake.

Well, PS4 does basically mean they can make the game as long as they want. Maybe they really can fit in everything they need to…

Here's hoping, anyway. Have they given a rough estimate for how long it should be? Probably not… I wonder if they're going to go the usual route and have characters start at much higher levels, or they're more or less starting over, level wise.

Given the HP we've seen in the screenshots, it looks like low levels again, which makes no sense, but whatever…Trails' combat has always been kind of disconnected from the actual story. As for how long, maybe jump to 150 hours from the usual 100. Enough for new and old characters alike to all get things to do.

I'm about to start Zero no Kiseki. Are there any perks in Ao for having a completed save of Zero? For getting all the DP?

This is how I imagine it's going to work. You know who once per chapter, towards the end, an NPC shows up and starts solving problems so you can resolve the actual arc of the chapter? Rather than those being rando, they'll be the former members of Class VII.

It does when you realize that at least the first third of Sen 3 will be essentially Cold Steel 1from Sara's perspective as Rean learns how to teach.

I think CS3 will work the same as CS1, where you have certain party members per chapter (Rean, some from the new class, one or some from class VII, and one or some returning characters)

I admit that the CS series isn't as powerful as Sky (haven't played Crossbell), which made me tear up like a little bitch at times. But I love it all the same and I'm extremely excited for CS3.

Ouroboros Estelle sounds hot.

You guy don't get that Elliot's entire characterization up until this point is set up the joke that after the time skip he's the only one to join the army and is a fuckhuge buff.

...

Ouroboros Estelle is just Duvalie.

Oh, I just remembered. Do you think Lysander or Barkhorn will show up in CS3?

I'm actually thinking of three games, and yes that's one of them.

All it takes is a snail in the road to ruin absolutely everything. Why in the fuck would he leave things like that!? It's some fucking unknown religious member that causes the disaster, and people will claim that's NOT a blatant sequel hook in a game that only barely got developed to begin with!? Was he out of his mind!? Team D doesn't even get proper closure! And what about Kyle!? My motives are too complex, life is simply unfair, fuck Uchikoshi.

Say what? I did all the quests and other stuff but even fumbling through Cold Steel like I did(it was my first Trails game) it only took me 73 hours. CS2 took 60. How did you reach triple digits outside of NG+? I do hope they don't pull a P5 and cut shit because it's too long. I want this to go into the triple digits and be as long as two games. I want to see the full length Falcom Trails game, because I heard once that like how CS and CS2 were meant to be one game, so we're FC and SC.

A lot of what you say here is correct. CS needed to be a more personal, character driven tale, and fell apart because of poor writing decisions. You're right for in what you say though.

I was just about to post that.

But Duvalie isn't even in Ourob- wait, was that the joke?

I do wonder what could drive Estelle to join Ouroboros. Hell, we're 60+% of the way though the Kiseki series, and we don't know why most of the people who joined Orobouros did, or how they were scouted.

I'm actually a bit confused about the way the sub-organizations within the society interact. My understand Duvalie IS in Ouroboros, the same way that the Jaeger Corps Gilbert was a part of were, she just isn't an Enforcer, and is trying to earn her way up the ladder. The one I'm most confused about is the Thirteen Factories, which seems to exclusively deal with Ouroboros but from the scene in 3rd sounds like a separate entity that's just aligned with them by virtue of Novartis, not the organization itself.

Duvalie is part of Ouroboros. She's not an enforcer, but at the very least she works for and is trained by one of the Anguises.

How membership works in Ouroboros is fucking weird. You can move completely counter to the will of an Anguis and multiple Enforcers if you want and still be considered a full member so long as you don't declare intent to leave.

In my own opinion, there's a difference between being part of the society and serving the society. The Jaegers in Sky served Weissmann, but I wouldn't consider them more than hired enhanced grunts. Gilbert went from serving Weissmann to being Campanella's toy. Joshua should technically have only served Weissmann, but for whatever reason was made to be an Enforcer despite the rule of voluntary joining. The Stahlritter serve Arianrhod, and Duvalie wants to be an Enforcer, but I think to truly be a part of the Society, you've got to have that darkness they keep talking about. Whatever it is that keeps Estelle and Duvalie from being fit to join.

(((Ouroboros)))

You're thinking of (((Calvard))).

...

The TitS games are on sale on GOG right now, get it if you missed the previous sales.

gog.com/promo/29170511_special_promo_legend_of_heroes?pp=4d89d294cd4ca9f2ca57dc24a53ffb3ef5303122

I'd like to know what they had on mind before the change. Maybe they have some sort of beta artwork or something.

Maybe they recycled her Ouroboros concepts and made Renne out of it.

I'm not sure why, but I have to admit Renne's crafts reminds me of Estelle's, just more edgy.

Sure hope not

So, Estelle is definitely an A-rank Bracer by the time Sen III happens, right?

That would give the record of being the youngest Bracer to achieve A-rank from Sara to Estelle

There's a chance, but I doubt it. She might be B or around there.

She's officially B-rank in SC even before the whole Liber Ark shenanigans, and considering her accomplishments following both that and the crisis in Ao, I'd be shocked if she wasn't promoted to A-rank already.

An article in Dengeki Playstation confirmed that Estelle, Joshua, and Anelace are canonically, B rank Bracers after SC

Apparently in Zero they say she's on-par with an A rank in terms of ability. tfw canon estelle is a filthy casual who doesn't do all available quests

Then it's very possible she could be A rank in CS3, and it could come up in conversation.

Though I think she'll be focusing on Renne for a bit before focusing on Bracer work, so she could still be B

Honestly I kinda don't see Joshua and Estelle appearing in CS3. They've been in five games already. Though I won't be disappointed if they do appear

Eh, I'd prefer they just stay out of events unless they get crazy.

Holy fuck these Moon doors are as long as a full-on movie.

Young Schera a cute

That one isn't as bad as the fucking Ravens one. Jesus Christ.

...

They vary. The Schera and Kloe ones are the longest, but they have gameplay so you can save. The Tita one is just a 45 minute cutscene. Same with the Estelle and Joshua one. The one with the orphans is shorter than most Star Doors, though, plus it has opportunities to save.

Why complain about Star Door 6 anyway. It's a nice challenge even with Whemler there to heal you. The dialogue's good, but I wish Whemler had more commentary based on what leg of the trip you were at.

Huh, so 5's the shortest Moon Door? I'll get through that easily then. Apparently it's the most bizarre of them, too.

It's…kinda weird yeah. I don't really think it was a worthy of being called a Moon Door, tbh. It's less relevant and more weird than most Star Doors. It's not a bad story per se, but it's a pretty short plot with a bizarre maybe dream sequence maybe not in the middle that isn't really explained.

The Estelle and Joshua Moon Door goes by fast, though. It definetly didn't feel like forty minutes. It almost made me tear up like a bitch too. It was adorable as fuck. It's things like that the CS really lacks. There's some decent pathos, but none of them hit you like Sky does.

"It's mommy… it really is mommy!"

Again, comparing a complete story to an incomplete one.

That fucking music made that scene.

Towa is a much better canon waifu than Alisa, but there's no doubt that Fie is the supreme choice.

Again, to me CSI and II are both comparable to FC, and apart from the very end I can't really think of any part of FC that made me particularly emotional. So again, I'm putting a lot of pressure on CSIII, but I don't think it's impossible.

I hope you two are right. For all my recent harping, I do love Cold Steel. Hell, it re-invigorated my love of video games. I really hope III knocks it out which is why I'm leaving this thread when it comes out to avoid spoilers.

That's not how you spell Sara.

There's no way I'd be able to abstain for a whole year. A year if we're lucky.

user's playing through Zero in Jap. He won't have to wait a year.

Ah…

I've been working at it, slowly. I just know if I stay I'll get spoiled on everything and I really want to experience the game myself rather than hear about it second hand. It'll be a great time to work on the games I've bought and barely touched.

That's not me, though I hope we'll have the ft around that time.

Rean's alternate mode could be the 8L1B Unarmed form.

Damn, I didn't check the ID.

That would be me, not the other guy.

…speaking of which, I don't know how the hell the nips played this shit on PSP. Some of those Kanji are so fucking pixelated on the damn screen. I've been swapping my save file between Adrenaline on my Vita and PPSSPP and I swear my comprehension is a magnitude worse on the pixelated PSP resolution. Thank god for the Kiseki wiki's summary.

I completely understood this, though. WEW.

The fuck is with adults in this game.

For a world full of deadly monsters sure they are calm.

When you think about it, the whole concept of monsters in Zemuria is kind of a nightmarish concept. Imagine if they had to install special lights on the sides of our highways just to keep giant creatures from coming in and killing everyone traveling. The sheer amount of monster on the road seems almost apocalyptic. Granted, some of this is just a video game conceit because you have to have random battles, but because Zemuria is such a well-realized world it just comes off as all the stranger.

My impression is that monsters might be getting stronger, the more commonplace that orbments become in Zemurian society. It's established that they're attracted to and eat Septium, and stronger monsters drop more Septium when they're defeated. Since Septium is more commonplace due to the rise of Orbments, it makes sense that the number and strength of monster would grow as well.

Is this a bug or am I missing something from Moon Door 10? It's not completed, despite me reading everything.

The guide says Renne gets her second S-Craft from this but I didn't get Paper-Mater.

Go back to the garden.

Thanks user!

That's not correct though. It's not as though they didn't have sepith/septium based technology/abilities before Orbments, it's that they were unreliable and essentially magical, an example being dark age Alchemy in Crossbell, or the Thaumaturgy of the Church (which we saw in FC uses consecrated Septium as a catalyst for magic/whatever).

Man, we should meet a Divine Blade of the unarmed form one day. That would be weird.

Maybe their limbs are so fast and sharp they become like blades.

XSEED forgot to translate some of Aina's combat dialogue in her and Schera's side story, in the GOG version at least. Is this fixed in that patch they talked about on Twitter?

Same thing with some of Dunan's.

Hatsuu mentioned elsewhere that it's been translated and edited, but they still need to sort out the technical issues causing this. Right now I'm sure they're busy fixing up omitted words and typos/grammar.

niatsu.

What the fuck is Niatsu?

She's bonking them with the briefcase. In mine that was english, it's either something like "Take that!" if she hits, or "Oops" if she whiffs.

It says TA-A-TSU!
Remember, ta is a cross with two horizontal lines and ni is a vertical line with two horizontal lines.

That's also a small つ (っ) which is not pronounced.

oh right
I didn't see the cross.
so Tatsu.
lets see.

The っ is not pronounced so it's just a simple vocalization of "taa!"

Oh right, I thought the small っ was only not pronounced when there was another character after it.
Yes I can, you little whore.

Maybe we'll get Zero & Azure, but you will never ever learn Japanese

T H I S

It's more that the book I learned kana from said the small っ thing only applied when there was "consonant" after it. If I can learn how to tell when は means ha and when it means wa, I can get this down.

And I'm happy to divert my time to better things. Like gardening.

A small "tsu" means a sudden but brief stop. It sounds like it doubles the first consonant of the next letter/kana/kanji, but it can also be used for interjections.

No offense but that's goddamn easy and also extremely basic.

Get back when you learn how to use morau, kureru and ageru with no mistakes.

NOT BUSTY ENOUGH

God fucking dammit

Guess who else isn't all that busty?

fug

If you mean you tried to IQDB it, that works awful on cropped images. Try Google's image search, or even resort to tag-based or filename searching.

I mean it's not on the boorus. I searched the character name on a few, plus on paheal.

Acceptable, since she's all about the butt.

Un-fucking-forgivable

Uncropped for you.

Laura has the second biggest bust of Class VII, forget that.

...

As much as I hate to give her credit, Alisa is actually second biggest. Laura is third.

Also I can see why Japanese guys and anime in general are obsessed with big tits, because goddamn every girl in Japan seems to be flat as a board. I mean, I'm good with some flat too, but I also love tits.

Maybe it's an Asian thing. They all seem naturally petite. I'd look up biological advantages related breast sizes, but I really should've fallen asleep seven hours ago and don't know how I'm awake now.

Are you sure about that? I genuinely believe Laura's are bigger, just that Alisa accentuates her's more. Though I might be biased because looks and is bigger than Alisa.

Will she show up to troll him in CSIII?

esterior.net/2017/05/q2-2017-financial-report-higher-numbers-than-forecasted/

We need a "it prints money" falcom gif

>mfw the two best girls have the best pillows

Wonder if Rean will start an international incident by head patting Tita.

Is Ka Fai an Anguis?

>Rean actually gets to use Emma's thigh pillows

The most likely candidates for the last three slots are Lechter as fourth, Ka-Fai as Fifth and the Pope or somebody at First.

Lechter? Why him?

Fourth Anguis talks the exact same way he does.

Would it kind of explain why Osborne apparently has one of the Factories under his control?

I'm still not entirely convinced most of the thirteen factories aren't the "normal" orbal tech companies.

If that's the oops when she misses, the patch fixed it.

Annnnd most of Aina's uncle's dialogue is untranslated. Except for his defeat quote.

His battle dialogue anyway. Aina's looked completely okay from my gameplay.

I'm deeply enjoying the characters and dialogues in 3rd.

>mfw Kevin tells the party no one in the Church knows happened to Weissmann

Yeah he straight up doesn't give a fuck at that point.

Ries looks at him with concern but doesn't spill the beans.

You thought that's fucked up? Later when he has a private talk with Joshua he admits with a disturbing face he was using Estelle to kill Weismann, he even knew what was going to happen and the danger Estelle would have to face could have killed her, and he couldn't care less if she died or not.

Then there's the last chapters, which are on a total different level.

Yeah, 3rd Chapter is easily the most fucked-up Trails game. Zero and Ao have their moments, but even then it still doesn't come close.

I hope Kondo really meant it when he said he wanted to release darker games.

I'd love for CS3 to touch on similar stuff. Trails 3rd was pretty heavy.

There are times when I wish these lines were voice acted.

I can see Rean's already rather significant guilt complex being a major issue now that he's more or less single handedly subjugated several nation states.

Follow up: The establishing moment for this will be Rean having a drink on his own.

This will still be silent on the upcoming PC release.

Yeah, these were the moments that really cemented Kevin's character for me. I like that they were said in Kevin's usual cadence with little to no indication he's lying. It was chilling.

I do hope to see some straight up Hamel moments in CS3. I want hearts to break. I want Rean to break. Then I want to see them rebuild.

I really hope they either replace Bryce or get him to stop doing that try hard 12 year old tough guy voice.

I'd imagine that Rean has seen some shit while working for Osborne and using Valimar.

Depends on how much he worked for him. We know that he was instrumental in the Occupation of Crossbell, but then he went back to Thors and graduated. Then some indiscriminate amount of time later became a teacher at Thors II. That's leaves only a few months unless he was regularly on call throughout his last year.

I think the previews mentioned he quit directly working for the army after he was involved in the North Ambrian occupation. I think LeGuin is the same, so some shit might have gone down there.

Unskippable cutscenes Falcom? Really? Again?

Fuck this shit. And not even a retry battle option. Love the lack of progression here.

I know it's just the prefabbed shit playing together but it makes toval look like a fucking shotacon

...

...

Don't forget Claire and Sharon.

I'm kind of hoping Rean fucks her mom to be honest.

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