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

[Val the Moofia Boss]

6 hours ago, Weltall said:

Speaking of which, there's a lot of stuff to unpack from that stream and the subsequent review. Some CS4 spoilers involved.

I doubt that the Calvardian Intelligence Division would be the next protagonist group. For one, what kind of undercover operative goes around in a party of standout characters, introducing themselves to every NPC in town, raising a ruckus by massacring monsters and leaving a trail of corpses behind them, and gaining attention from every local authority and organization by doing sidequests for people? Realistically, an undercover operative would spend most of their time alone, not traveling in a large group. Thus, you would have a party of one, and the Trails battle system isn't really designed around controlling just one character. Turn based systems are best for groups of characters you control. Action gameplay is more conducive for controlling a singleplayer, which would make sense if you were a secret agent trying to stealth around. But I doubt that Trails is going to change from turn based to action based. Furthermore, the CID aren't really protagonist material. A running theme throughout the Trails series has been about fighting against ultranationalism, and the CID go around trying to violently subvert Calvard's rivals, even if it means killing people and paving the war for bloody war.

I think that it's more likely that the next protagonist will be a part of Heiyue, and the antagonists will be the CID. Heiyue will be treated as a romanticization of the local mafia/mob/triad/yakuza, where they might had bad attitudes but they are actually good guys and they are helping out the community. We've already seen this in Crossbell and CS3, where in contrast to the Revache, Heiyue is never depicted doing anything evil. They are presented as your cool frenemies like Zephyr in CS2, people who sometimes show up to mess with you for the lolz, but are actually good guys and you'd be fine chilling out on the sofa and playing cards with them.

Also, there was that picture of the Falcom 2020 Calendar that showed a long, red haired man with Eastern-style buildings behind him, and what might be Cao-Lee standing in the background. The red haired man is almost certainly a playable party member, and possibly the protagonist, and there is a good chance he is associated with Heiyue (or at least on good terms with them, like the SSS).  Note that Cao Lee is absent from Crossbell during CS3+4 and is away in Calvard, so this could mean that the game is actually set in Calvard during the year 1206, when Cao Lee was in Calvard visiting the boss (Shin's grandfather).

The CID will probably be the antagonists of part 2. Part 1 will be about fighting the Anti-Immigration League, and then they will be defeated, and the CID will become too powerful and their evils will be exposed, and they will be fought, before Ouroboros inevitably hijacks the plot at the end.

[Briar King]

I didn’t read the above. Is it safe for me?

For my play on last update:that was disappointing...lol

Stopped on tracks right now as my ambien kicked in super hard and early which probably for the best as I gots lots to do for storm prep early before it gets rowdy round here.

[Weltall]

There's nothing really spoilery there, no.

4 hours ago, Val the Moofia Boss said:

I doubt that the Calvardian Intelligence Division would be the next protagonist group. For one, what kind of undercover operative goes around in a party of standout characters, introducing themselves to every NPC in town, raising a ruckus by massacring monsters and leaving a trail of corpses behind them, and gaining attention from every local authority and organization by doing sidequests for people?

The kind that work as a team instead of as individuals and handle matters that might be too sensitive for or are out of the jurisdiction of the local police? They do exist in the real world, you know, and not everybody who works for an intelligence service is a secret agent. Meanwhile they would have very good reasons to be involved in anything that threatens the Republic's stability.

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Furthermore, the CID aren't really protagonist material. A running theme throughout the Trails series has been about fighting against ultranationalism, and the CID go around trying to violently subvert Calvard's rivals, even if it means killing people and paving the war for bloody war.

Minor spoiler for the back half of Cold Steel:

Spoiler

Hercules is not a CID group, they're a division of the Republican Army. The comparison is like saying that Liberl's former Intelligence Division and the Royal Guards are one and the same.

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The CID will probably be the antagonists of part 2. Part 1 will be about fighting the Anti-Immigration League, and then they will be defeated, and the CID will become too powerful and their evils will be exposed, and they will be fought, before Ouroboros inevitably hijacks the plot at the end.

You do know that the Rocksmith Agency became the CID, right? You really want to argue that a major supporting character from Sky is going to be an antagonist, one who has been actively helpful to the characters of every arc including the Erebonian ones who her country is in a cold war with, several of whom trust her implicitly? Consider too that we met one of her subordinates in CS4 as well, you really think they're antagonist material?

I can definitely see Heiyue being the 'cool' criminals who oppose nastier elements in Calvard's underworld but protagonists, no.

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Note that Cao Lee is absent from Crossbell during CS3+4 and is away in Calvard, so this could mean that the game is actually set in Calvard during the year 1206, when Cao Lee was in Calvard visiting the boss (Shin's grandfather).

The next arc has already been revealed to take place at the same time as Hajimari, so early 1207.

Edited August 22, 2020 by Weltall

[Briar King]

What’s the magic recipe this game?

[aneonfoxtribute]

I think it's still the omlette?

[Briar King]

That’s requiring beast flesh so I don’t think it would be that unless this game let’s you get in stores. Maybe one of the Onigiri?

[Weltall]

Yeah, the 'magic recipe' in CS2 is the onigiri; you want Tricolor Onigiri to turn a profit. In general you can assume that the profit-making recipe in any given game is the one that doesn't require any enemy drops to cook.

[Briar King]

That’s the one I was thinking.

CS2 Act 1 stuff. Pushing a bit further

onwards past Twin Dragon Bridge today. On the Byroad at last play session. Baby steps but I’m definitely starting to progress again at least[/spolier]

[Briar King]

Gotta pass on 2nd blue chest to. They way to hard. Just got one hit Ko ed for about 6,800 hp. Grr

[Weltall]

Assuming that's the chest I'm thinking of, the reason you're getting one-shotted is that the boss has attacks that inflict Death. Come back with Holy Chain accessories or similar; it's an entirely winnable fight the first time.

[Briar King]

It was some wasp thingiemahjigs

[Weltall]

Yeah, that's the one I was thinking of. Equip some accessories that prevent Death and you won't get one-shotted again.

[Briar King]

Leveled up and passed the trail chest.

Am gonna try and back track to the 1st one but I can see the game maybe blocking me at a certain point by the bridge. 
 

We ll see.

ed: yep I couldn’t go back through.

Edited August 24, 2020 by Briar King

[Briar King]

Doubt I will be lucky enough to get to play after tonight. Hopefully will be able to get some time tomorrow before Marco spins overhead but Laura gonna wreck my power the day after 97% sure.

Hell may not be able to play for quite awhile unless I put the things on the generators which I’m not to keen on doing.

[Briar King]

Passed the 3rd(my 2nd) blue Chest but I was an idiot right at the end so I’m gonna try it again with burning through the items this time.

In a cool palace right now.

[Weltall]

As a heads-up, spoilers for Hajimari no Kiseki are apparently starting to circulate (including the trophy list which someone I trust tells me contains spoilers) so now would probably be a good time to mute Twitter hashtags (#黄昏 and #創の軌跡 at least) and generally be careful about browsing discussions on other sites. I'm definitely going to be going into Internet Hermit Mode until I've gotten a chance to play it for myself starting Wednesday.

I may or may not post some general non-spoilery (but still tagged) thoughts as I go through and I'll definitely do a retrospective after the game.

Edited August 25, 2020 by Weltall

[aneonfoxtribute]

Ten bucks says the identity of C is one of those spoilers. Probably Loewe because its always Loewe.

[Weltall]

2 hours ago, aneonfoxtribute said:

Probably Loewe because its always Loewe.

Not sure if serious... ;p

Edited August 25, 2020 by Weltall

[aneonfoxtribute]

I have said that every single masked character is Loewe even when it's obviously not true, at least after I knew Loewe existed. 

[Eluvianii he/him]

I like that tradition. Mind if I adopt it?

 

So, I just noticed (remembered?) that the first batch of quests Class VII gets mirrors some of the first quests Estelle and Joshua had as bracers. And the code for the road light mission also follows the same pattern as in FC, just with different numbers. These references are everywhere.

[aneonfoxtribute]

Go right ahead 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I watched Chinaman's stream of Hajimari no Kiseki, he just got to chapter 1 of the C route. Some thoughts (spoilers for Trails of Cold Steel IV's ending don't click)

Spoiler

What if the bad ending timeline Rean is a servant of the Fuhrer? Like how Ishmelga had a pact with Osborne? Rean and Rufus spread the curse and both equally benefit from? And with bad ending Rean having TWO SEPTERIONS infused into him, and in posession of the True Divine Knight made up of the fragments of the Seven, bad ending Rean is the strongest being in the setting and would have ROFLstomped anything, and with Rufus emerging victorious in the Erebonian crisis... oh gosh, they conquered their Zemuria and are now invading other timelines!

Not going to look at anymore spoilers. Can already tell this is going to be a fantastic game. Urgh the two year wait is going to be so rough!

[Weltall]

Not looking now, wanna go in blind when I start the game tomorrow.

3 hours ago, Eluvianii said:

These references are everywhere.

Yes, yes they are. And it's not just to the past games within Trails but to other Falcom franchises as well. There's references all over to the Gagharv Trilogy if you know what to look for. And the casino playing cards have references to earlier Legend of Heroes games, Brandish, Gurumin and the Zwei duology... and Vantage Masters in CS3/4 is a card game recreation of the original VM and a surprisingly good one at that. Sometimes I wonder if the writers have a bet going on to see how many sly references they can work in. And then Tokyo Xanadu happened and that team told everyone else 'hold my beer'. xD

Oh, and speaking of Gagharv, they weren't kidding last week when they said that this week's Dengeki contained hints for the next game. We just got a few teases at the direction Falcom is going to be heading from here. The obvious stuff: It's an entirely new game and not a sequel to Hajimari, there will be returning characters but the core cast that drives the plot will be all-new and there will be hints in Hajimari as to the where and the who. The unexpected news is that the next game will not feature the traditional AT system but will have real-time combat elements. There aren't any details provided but my first assumption is that they're reviving the Gagharv Trilogy's realtime combat in some form. If so that is very awesome news because I loved those games and think the system could work really well in Trails too.

There's also some last-minute Hajimari news, describing in more detail the October 1 update that will add a lot of extra content. Minor spoiler so I'm tagging it.

Spoiler

There will be new levels of the True Reverie Corridor to explore along with new Episodes and new playable characters, along with a raising of the level cap. Also there will be new content related to the next game in the series. This will also be the date that the SSS-centric Communication Event at Elm Beach gets added to the game.

And with that, I'm going to get some sleep and hopefully have sweet dreams of tomorrow when Hajimari will be available.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Did you like turn based battles in Trails? Well, RIP. Hajimari is going to be the last Trails game with the turn based battle system. Next game is going to be action based.

If the next game is about Calvardian Intellgience Division agents, then I expect the gameplay will be stealth based, like Hitman or MGS.

If the next game is about Heiyue, then the gameplay could be an action beat em up like Yakuza.

[Zurvanight he/him]

Mini OST just got uploaded to Falcom Music Channel