Trails of Cold Steel (and the Kiseki series in general)

[aneonfoxtribute]

I doubt the protagonist of Calvard will be an Eight Leaves user. We just got Rean. 

[Weltall]

Sorry, I should have been more clear there; those are two separate pictures in the calendar. And yeah, if the protagonist of the next arc is a martial artist they're more likely to be a Taito practitioner if anything.

[Briar King]

So what CS is the fan favorite generally?

I just want to be on it already so I can get to all the other stuff I bought in last few months and also cause I think I recall someone here saying it was a bit more open world.

Having a blast though.

[Briar King]

Pretty cool event here.

touring Heimdallr from the air

[aneonfoxtribute]

CS is actually the least liked in the fanbase in general. People point to the large cast size not giving certain individual members a chance to shine, the harem shenanigans, the poor modeling compared to the spritework, stuff like that. Its not bad by any stretch, it has some of the best games in the seires, but Sky and Crossbell are both liked so much more.

And yeah CS2 is slightly more open world but not much. You get the ability to go wherever around the explorable parts of the kingdom at a certain point, but there's little reason to not go where the plot wants you in most cases.

[Weltall]

Yeah, Falcom and 'open world' don't really go together but CS2 and CS4 are closer to it than most of their games. The Crossbell games are also relatively open in the sense that for most of its two games you can go wherever you want in the state, and a couple of hidden quests depend on you sticking your nose in places the plot isn't sending you.

19 hours ago, Briar King said:

So what CS is the fan favorite generally?

In terms of the Cold Steel games specifically, depends on who you ask. My personal take is that the games get progressively better (with a caveat or two) so my overall ranking in decreasing order is 4>3>2>1. I do think CS3 does some things better than CS4 and so on, but there's my general take.

But yeah, in a broad sense the Cold Steel games are more divisive due to a combination of how many of them there are (it's the longest arc, a fact that Falcom acknowledges was the result of some issues during development that they don't want to repeat) and some writing issues internal to the games. The enormous cast size contributes to some of it since it's hard for so many people to shine when you have almost a dozen characters to juggle in the first game alone. Another reason the CS games aren't as liked writing-wise is that moreso than any other arc, Cold Steel focuses extremely heavily on its protagonist to the exclusion of other characters at times. There are reasons for this and the upcoming Hajimari might retroactively explain some more of the writing decisions, but it's definitely a factor in people's thinking. Again to give you my personal perspective, my top three games are all from the Sky and Crossbell sagas, with only CS4 having a shot at cracking the number three slot. It's fighting it out in my head over Trails in the Sky The 3rd and I'm still not sure which of them is winning.

Mind you, even a 'less good' game in this franchise is still a very good game. xD

18 hours ago, Briar King said:

Pretty cool event here.

  Reveal hidden contents

touring Heimdallr from the air

 

Fun factoid: The flashback with Olivert and Osborne that plays in that sequence (and the accompanying song) are callbacks to a scene in The 3rd and involved the ship that the Courageous is based on.

[Zurvanight he/him]

On 6/17/2020 at 1:02 PM, Weltall said:

The other thing 'hidden' in the pictures is a piece showing an unknown red-haired individual standing in a street with a distinct Eastern look to it. The odds are pretty good they're teasing a major character (possibly even the protagonist) of the upcoming Calvard arc. 'Hidden' because Falcom's very careful about this kind of thing so they obviously want us to see it and go nuts speculating, just like when they teased concept art of a certain character during Cold Steel 1's development. Anyhow, hype levels increasing.

You know where I can find a picture of this?

Edited June 18, 2020 by Zurvanite

[Weltall]

3 hours ago, Zurvanite said:

You know where I can find a picture of this?

Here you go.

Edited June 18, 2020 by Weltall

[Zurvanight he/him]

35 minutes ago, Weltall said:

Here you go.

Thanks! Looks like they have a long red ponytail. I thought it was Shirley at first, or Adol lol.

[Briar King]

Bruh I just want to play and get done with this one but I have hardly been able to with my son here this week. He is on corona hours so he literally stays up all night hogging my tv for gta and Fortnite so I’m not getting my before bedtime play in, only my 4-6pm time. He finds this game soooo boring lol. I’m just gonna have to start playing when I get up and he goes to bed and sacrifice some of my daily Fox/CNN news time.

Im in

Roer now. I’m not to impressed yet like in most other new places but I’m only just getting control and starting dialogue trek. I did like the models set up in RF building though.

[Eluvianii he/him]

I've been relegated to replay the Crossbell arc in my phone. It feels good to see Crossbell again though a malfunctioning touch screen and my sweaty hands make a terrible combination.

The question now is if I'll finish this again before getting a new laptop or if I'll have to stop midway so I can stop suffering with the controls and get into Cold Steel by morally-better means.

[Zurvanight he/him]

 

YES!

[Weltall]

I'm not at all surprised that NISA had the license (we've known someone had it for a while now and they're by far the most likely choice) but I wasn't expecting them to confirm it so soon, with CS4 still months away. But now we know and people can start looking forward to the game in English. It's gonna be worth the wait. That also looks like a kickass LE set, with not only the goodies that came with the Japanese edition (minus the cool box with heat-sensitive art, but it's got one of its own that looks pretty nice) but a bunch of other feelies like an Adol figurine and keychains on top of it. And that includes putting the effort in to translate the prologue novella with its tie-in to Ys Seven. Very nice!

Also, between that and the trailer it looks like they've settled on 'Grimwald Nox' for that story/gameplay mechanic instead of 'Grimwald Night' and Adol's Monstrum title is 'Crimson King'. And speaking of wtich, the teaser:

 

Edited June 23, 2020 by Weltall

[aneonfoxtribute]

NISA already announced that they would be doing it this year even before this

[Weltall]

They did? I know everyone's been expecting it and Falcom leaked that someone had the license late last year but I don't recall anything from NISA directly before now, unless it was some veiled hint that I missed.

[aneonfoxtribute]

1 minute ago, Weltall said:

They did? I know everyone's been expecting it and Falcom leaked that someone had the license late last year but I don't recall anything from NISA directly before now, unless it was some veiled hint that I missed.

Last month there was a story trailer for it. I think there was aa reveal trailer before then

[Weltall]

Just to be clear, I'm talking about the Ys IX reveal there, not CS4. Wanna make sure we're on the same page. Because I don't recall anything official on the former before a few hours ago.

[aneonfoxtribute]

Ah I see, I was talking about CS IV

[Briar King]

Are they related? I really hope I’m still not playing CS by then but being able to play 1-4 straight would be nice for my notes. Ah Ghosts of Tsushima will slow me up I just thought about so I likely will be able to to do 1-4 consecutively.

Edited June 24, 2020 by Briar King

[aneonfoxtribute]

Ys is not related to Trails, no

[Weltall]

Well, we just had another Hajimari update. Spoil-tagged for Briar King's sake. (There be some big CS4 spoilers, also Crossbell arc)

Spoiler

- Crow returns to Jurai after CS4 and learns about the new 'Imperial Liberation Front'. The fact that he is not the new C is made plain because the two are seen fighting one another. Crow seems to be acting independently.

- Wald returns and is said to be a Squire in the Gralsritter. His mind and body have recovered from his use of Gnosis thanks to therapy in Arteria but it left him badly weakened and he's taken up intellectual study in the meantime. He now wears glasses because of weakening eyesight. He's seen in the company of Wazy (his boss) and Scarlet (fellow squire).

- Sara and Fie continue their work as bracers and are active throughout Erebonia and Crossbell. There's a group shot of bracers which includes the two of them, Michael, Aeolia and (I think) Scott.

- Claire is seen in Rean's company at Ymir's onsen. She's working every day to atone for her actions during Operation Jormungandr.

- Garcia was just released from prison prior to the start of Hajimari.

- Duvalie appears and is speaking with C in one scene in the company of Arios. She is at least temporarily working as part of Ouroboros once again and is paying back the debt she feels she owes Crossbell from her role in Phantasmal Blaze by helping confront Rufus' garrison troops. Her general attitude is alive and well.

- Ennea and Ines also appear and are getting a role in the Magical Alisa game as well, though the context for their roles isn't provided.

- The 'Scramble Raid' system got some more details. They're special treasure chests that trigger battles and draw on your standby party members rather than your active ones.

- The Phantasmal Hill is a region within the True Reverie Corridor where enemies and field objects can drop rare items.

- The True Reverie Corridor can, like the original one from CS2, be reset and thus cleared over and over and the rewards accumulated.

- Another pair of Episodes have been revealed: 'Reunion ~ A Maiden's Melancholy' and 'A New Life of Light'. The latter's a play on Olivier's group in CS4 and uses the same phrasing, kinda awkward to translate though. Anyhow, the former Episode sees Claire, Sara and Sharon investigating an incident in Heimdallr between CS4 and Hajimari and looks like it will involve Claire's past, while the latter depicts preparations for Olivier and Schera's wedding, with the former talking with Mueller and Zechs and the latter looking at wedding dresses with Priscilla.

- The Magical Alisa minigame is officially called 'Mahou Shoujo Magical Alisa RS' with the letters being short for Returns Shooting. The 'Returns' bit was already in use in the spinoff material to designate the second 'season' which added CS3/4 characters. There's story elements to it, as can be seen from the menu screen where 'Event Viewer' is one of the options.

 

3 hours ago, Briar King said:

Are they related? I really hope I’m still not playing CS by then but being able to play 1-4 straight would be nice for my notes. Ah Ghosts of Tsushima will slow me up I just thought about so I likely will be able to to do 1-4 consecutively.

As @aneonfoxtribute said, Ys and Legend of Heroes are unrelated. They're made by the same company but they're completely different sorts of games taking place in completely different worlds. Ys is Falcom's action RPG franchise to Legend of Heroes' turn-based RPG franchise. If you like that sort of game, the odds are really good that you'll love Ys but you don't need to play anything of one franchise to understand the other.

While we're talking other Falcom franchises, if you're able to run Steam or GoG there's a huge library of Falcom games out there to check out, including Gurumin (A-RPG with some rhythm game elements), the Zwei duology (A-RPG), Xanadu Next (a bit more Diablo-esque, nice and atmospheric), Tokyo Xanadu (A-RPG urban fantasy) as well as every Legend of Heroes game that's been officially localized and every Ys game that's been localized (which means every first-party Ys game except V and IX, and the latter's only a matter of time).

Edited June 24, 2020 by Weltall

[Weltall]

Making a new post because this is just too big not to get one: Hajimari's big trailer just dropped and there is a ton of stuff packed in there.

Highlights include:

Spoiler

- Someone released Rufus from prison and he's causing the chaos in Crossbell. I suppose this means we'll get to enjoy the pleasure of kicking his chull again, so I can get behind that. Once was not enough for what he did.

- Weird things are happening with Rean and his left eye is now behaving oddly.

- Seeing Wazy and Arios' S-Crafts in 3d is amazing. Also, the former is fighting Demon McBurn and the latter is in what must be the most overpowered party ever assembled in-game so far. It's the Salt Pale E group from CS4, plus Arios and Roselia. Something is about to be very very dead.

- There's so many little things hidden in the screen of small images. A quiz minigame with Beryl, Aurelia and Orie facing off against Rean, Laura, Fie and Duvalie, Millium borrowing Naglfar to fight with (but George also appears playable), Cedric on the Glorious, a not-so-happy meeting between Renne and the Hayworths...

- Whoever C is, they definitely are part of the 'Die Rufus Die!' club, since they've got a nice duel scene going on.

- RIP Juno

- Five Merkabah in one place is Not A Good Sign. Also, there's at least one new Dominion getting involved (or they're confirming our suspicions that Gaius was never really the Eighth Dominion) and Kevin's showing up too since we can see Merkabah 05 in the group.

- Something shows up there quickly at the end, my money's on 'the Great One at full power' since it kinda looks like a fusion of elements from the seven Knights.

- Schwarzreaner with Normal Ending 'Ishmelga Face' confirmed.

EDIT: Replaced the original video link with Falcom's own, which is higher-resolution.

Edited June 26, 2020 by Weltall

[Zurvanight he/him]

Yeah I was gonna post it but you beat me :') 

 

Spoiler

I saw a watermelon splitting minigame too. And at the beginning of the trailer you'll notice that Rean is having flashbacks to the normal ending of CSIV. Some people have said that Rean and Lapis are sharing the weird eye thing but I don't know.

Wald was also confirmed as a character who now wears glasses, works for the Septian Church, and wields what looks like a bokuto. Michael Irving's sister Isara is also shown talking with Claire. And there's a mixed bathing scene between Rean and Claire because of course there is.

 

[Weltall]

I've been geeking out over the trailer for half the morning with friends who are also huge Falcom fans. xD

2 hours ago, Zurvanite said:

Yeah I was gonna post it but you beat me :') 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

I saw a watermelon splitting minigame too. And at the beginning of the trailer you'll notice that Rean is having flashbacks to the normal ending of CSIV. Some people have said that Rean and Lapis are sharing the weird eye thing but I don't know.

Wald was also confirmed as a character who now wears glasses, works for the Septian Church, and wields what looks like a bokuto. Michael Irving's sister Isara is also shown talking with Claire. And there's a mixed bathing scene between Rean and Claire because of course there is.

 

Yeah, I spotted that interesting flashback on a rewatch. Or whatever it is, the term 'mindscrew' seems appropriate.

We actually saw Wald in the magazine scans a day earlier. Some of the reveals were surprising, others we've known by implication since Ao.

Spoiler

Gralsritter we've known since he's in a screenshot with Wazy in uniform. Wooden sword was always his schtick (he seems to have dropped the chain he used to have wrapped around it) but the whole glasses thing and how he's spend two years attending to his education was all-new information. I'm sure the one nun who was always complaining about how the kids in Downtown never went to Sunday School would have a thing or two to say to Wald now. That plot thread became so funny in retrospect when you find out that one of the two gangs was run by a pair of high-ranking church members. xD

Speaking of which, any chance for playable (or at least sparring match with) Abbas, Falcom?

Oh, and the official website got an update as well. New chapter of Three and Nine, the Episodes revealed in yesterday's magazine scans got added to the site and there's now a System page for the Magical Alisa RS minigame. It's got a summary of the story: A sudden change comes over 'Demon Prince Rean' after the death of the Demon King and his forces once again invade the human world, in spite of the understanding he and Alisa had previously come to. To help fight them, Alisa's underclassmen are given magical girl powers of their own.

There's also a brief mention of gameplay mechanics with the various types of attacks available and there's screenshots from the minigame. They're serious about it having a plot, which looks like it's gonna be told visual novel-style. And there's a ridiculously adorable Mona following the cursor around the screen.

Oh, and there's a shot of Ennea and Ines and a horrible pun on Falcom's part.

Edited June 25, 2020 by Weltall

[Eluvianii he/him]

So, currently my knowledge stops before the end of CS1 Chapter 6. Would it be too bad an idea to watch the trailer?