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

[Briar King]

Hmm. I had to watch that twice as I was utterly lost.

[Briar King]

Oh my this is quite a difference! CS3(yes finally) prologue stuff

I have new people! This makes me so.....sad after almost a year IRL having my peeps. I want Fie and Laura and Alisa and EMMA back! This is gonna take some crazy adjustment to get used to. The menu system is all different. BUT THE GRAPHICS UPDATE IS BALLING! My son is going to love this this weekend when I show him! I will go back and show him the CS2 stuff with Crossbell stuff and the School House.

 

Im only just now getting to start the game but it’s an early ambien night as I have another busy day with repair crew and ex wife early so I can’t really get into it more then just getting control of my character to save the game.

[Briar King]

Went straight to it this AM before I set out on my rl stuff. OH MY! I won’t post spoiler stuff but I will list some grumbles I’m having: I don’t like the menu colors and I don’t see a way to change it up but that blue/green just doesn’t sit well with my aging eyes. And then icons are moved from bottom to right corner and the numbers are so small I can’t read them at all on this 32in tv. Ugh I wish I had my old 65 in still. It wouldn’t be so bad then probably. I absolutely hate the camera in battle zooming in over which character is up. It’s jarring and annoying I have to move out every single time. I’d love to turn that off if I can??

But I do love that any items in barrels zip to me now instead of having to click the glowy on ground after breaking!

[aneonfoxtribute]

The only criticism I agree with is the icons and numbers and stuff. I also don't like how they changed how visible the CP Meter was 

[Briar King]

I like the CP wrap around. My normal size tv probably will eliminate my problem with the new gauge and plus when I get back in house I’m upgrading to a 75 or bigger..

I also just got excited CS3 start stuff

as I have control of Rean and equipping MQ on a new Arcus...it looks like there is room to equip TWO of them! Oh boy if that’s the case I’m in for some fun times pairing them up!

[Weltall]

Yes, it's a new system introduced in CS3 that will unlock soon(ish) and the game will explain the mechanics of it when it does.

Edited February 11, 2021 by Weltall

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I felt that the change of the color scheme from CS1+2 to CS3's blue was jarring. Feels inconsistent with the rest of the Cold Steel series, especially when you see the calendar change.

Combining the effects of master quartz is a ton of fun.

[Briar King]

Yeah I don’t really like it. My eyes aren’t weren’t what they were even 5 years ago but that color combo is giving me fits. Wish they had a customize option for it.

I so can’t wait for that to be opened up. I haven’t made any further progress yet but I hope to a bit more later on tonight.

[Briar King]

Man this intro feels sooo long! CS3 ch 1 stuff

it’s an interesting twist having Rean be a teacher but I just want to get away from school! Especially after the freedom and growth of CS2. Didn’t expect this even though my peeps all went off at the end there. Not over the moon with this route but I’m sure I ll enjoy the game anyway. The graphics update really is in your face apparent esp doing a series power through like I’m doing. I’m happy Altina’s stupid tail thing went away. Japanese people are so weird sometimes *cough Kitty Noir! Musse is going to be fun. Taboo much.. The Juna/Kurt breast in face exact same move as Rean/Alisa was funny but annoying. Thank god she got over it almost right away unlike the drag out attitude Alisa had in CS1! Ash is an ass so far. Can’t wait to see how those two make to class 7. I’m going to encourage Musse just to see how dirty those Japanese people make it. Aurelia as principal is cool I guess but she was under used in CS2 to be really mind blowing for me to see her in role. I like having Towa as a fellow teacher but I feel bad for her career choice noble as it is. She had so much potential with jobs thrown at her both games. I like having a ++ option on quartz mods instead of just the one +. If there’s one thing I didn’t really like besides the school setting of CS1 is that these games had no EP growth on lvl up yet every other stat increases. I suspect that continues here. Even 1 point would have been welcome but oh well. I like Levees much more then Trista(mirror that it is) and it feels great to finally be WEST of Heim after over 300 hrs total on the east side of it. I got a fishing rod today. Can’t say I’m over the moon about that still being a thing..my hands don’t look forward to that punishment. It’s been a long multi hour day of dialogue and event scenes with zero combat which I’m craving. It’s going to be awhile before I get there I suspect irl though as my son is here for weekend which is extra long due to Mardi Gras break and possibly even longer due to a super rare possibility of an ice storm rolling in this week. Haven’t had one of those this far south in Louisiana since mid 90’s when I was in high school. I suspect my PS4 will be mostly taken up by GTA 5 ugh.

[aneonfoxtribute]

Yeah CS1 and 2 focus on Eastern Erebonia, and 3 and 4 focus on Western. You basically never go back to the east in gameplay now

[Briar King]

Kinda makes me sad. I was hoping to be able to see some of those places with the better graphics but seeing new stuff is good for sure.

Im pretty bummed to as there is no gamefaqs guide..but the same guy atleast wrote it on neoseeker. I just don’t like it as it’s full of ads some of which block txt even after X’ing it out it leaves a huge white block. That is frustrating as hell.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

1 hour ago, Briar King said:

Man this intro feels sooo long! CS3 ch 1 stuff

  Hide contents

it’s an interesting twist having Rean be a teacher but I just want to get away from school! Especially after the freedom and growth of CS2. Didn’t expect this even though my peeps all went off at the end there. Not over the moon with this route but I’m sure I ll enjoy the game anyway.

 

Those were my thoughts on CS3 as well. I thought that the school segments were very well executed, but it's just not the direction the story should have gone after CS2.

1 hour ago, aneonfoxtribute said:

Yeah CS1 and 2 focus on Eastern Erebonia, and 3 and 4 focus on Western. You basically never go back to the east in gameplay now

One of the things that disappointed me about CS3+4. They threw out the CS1+2 assets, so no revisiting Eastern Erebonia. I would have loved to have revisited Celdic and seen how they were recovering. Or see the rebuilding of Garellia Fortress. Or had seen how Bareahard was under Jusis' rule. Or seeing those three Laura fangirls again and seeing how the Arseid dojo was getting by. Or going to the Eastern side of Heimdallr and visiting Elliot's and Machias' houses and going to the old Bracer guild again. Or just visiting mom & dad at Ymir.

Honestly, I would have been fine if CS3+4's environments had remained at the same quality of CS1+2's if it had meant we could have gotten Eastern Erebonia too. The environments in CS3+4 are not a large leap from CS1+2's. The noticeable leap is in the character models, not the environments.

It also doesn't help that I wasn't too impressed by a lot of the new CS3+4 towns. I feel that most of the towns are just remixes of old towns. Parm is just a different layout of Celdic. Saint Arkh is just a different layout of Bareahard. Raquel is just a different layout of downtown Roer/Heimdallr/Crossbell. Leeves is just a different layout of Trista. I don't think these new variants are better than their old counterparts. I feel way more attached to the old locations. I felt that the only worthy new locations were Ordis, and a village in CS4.

Edited February 13, 2021 by Val the Moofia Boss

[Briar King]

So slow granted I only had maybe an hour total playtime with offspring here but I’m still CS3 ch 1 stuff

in Levees going through the get to know the area phase. Millium showed up and even though she was always one of my least used characters I always loled when she talked in skits. So I’m happy to have the connection to the past here with her. Fishing thankfully isn’t a button mash. Phew! I did have to reset to get the hang of it though. Also happy with the card game revamp cause Blade was BORING! This reminds me a tad of FF 7-9 card mini game. I think I ll enjoy this bit. That’s about it today. I just want to fight something though!

Edited February 14, 2021 by Briar King

[aneonfoxtribute]

Why do you think Milloum is annoying? She was always one of my favorite characters

Yeah they made Fishing way better and Vantage Masters actually has strategy so it's way better than Blade. Oh also, fun fact, the people who localized CS1 and 2 are no longer working on the series. Xseed was replaced by NISA as the localizers

 

Edit: Oh also, the three girls you fought in the prologue are actually in the Crossbell games. You already know Duvalie from 2, but Ennea and Ines are also in Crossbell. They're known as the Stahlritter and they are in Ouroboros but only on a technicality, because they are less working for Ouroboros and more working for Arianrhod herself, one of the Anguis like Vita. While they are technically part of Ouroboros, they're not actually looking to it, they are loyal to specifically Arianrhod. They're also said to be on the same level as Enforcers in terms of strength.

Edited February 14, 2021 by aneonfoxtribute

[Briar King]

Not annoying I get a kick out of her most times just wasn’t fond of her in battle. I’m sure if I play again I will use her better.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

As a game, I prefer Vantage Master to Blade. VM is more fun mechanically, and I also liked how they did the FF8 and FF9 thing where there were plenty of NPCs you could walk up to and duel (whereas in CS1+2 you could only play Blade a handful of times). I also liked the art on the cards and the tidbit of lore.

I'm more attached to Blade because of the character connection to Crow. Wish Rean could have taught the kids how to play it.

As far as JRPG card games go, FF8 Triple Triad = CS3 Vantage Master > CS1+2 Blade >>>>> Tetra Master (holy crap was Tetra Master baaaaad. It was 95% RNG. You could have the best cards and still lose half the time due to RNG).

47 minutes ago, aneonfoxtribute said:

Oh also, fun fact, the people who localized CS1 and 2 are no longer working on the series. Xseed was replaced by NISA as the localizers

Half truth. About half of the people who localized CS3 had worked on prior Trails games.

• Eric Budensiek [Editor]
• Moet Takahashi [Translator]
• Ryan Thomson [Translator and proofreading] (worked on CS1 + 2)
• Kris Knigge [Editor and consultant] (worked on CS1 + 2)
• Brittany Avery aka Hatsuu [Editor/localization producer] (worked on FC, SC, the 3rd, CS1, CS2)

Valerie Arem, the English voice of Aurelia LeGuin, is still the voice director. And Durante is still working on the PC ports, just as he did for CS1+2. Almost all of the English voice actors for CS1+2 returned for CS3 (with the exception of Millium's).

So the people behind the English localization of the Trails series hasn't really changed that much. What did change was the name it was being published under... and the higher ups. The higher ups at XSEED were really passionate about Trails, so they went the extra mile and recorded extra English dialogue for scenes that weren't voiced in Japanese. But NISA is owned by Marvelous, and Marvelous doesn't care about putting extra effort into anything that they don't own. Hence, why there no greenlight for extra voicelines like in CS1+2.

The English dub of CS4 has a lot of changes in voice actors. Ostensibly this is due to Covid, but I believe that if it was being published by XSEED, XSEED would have taken the time to wait until the voice actors were available. I think it's pretty clear that the people are passionate about Trails, but it doesn't matter so long as the higher ups say "we're going to pay you to work on this game for this many days and then you have to work on a different project, no we're not giving you extra money to do extra work".

Edited February 14, 2021 by Val the Moofia Boss

[Weltall]

14 hours ago, Val the Moofia Boss said:

As a game, I prefer Vantage Master to Blade. VM is more fun mechanically, and I also liked how they did the FF8 and FF9 thing where there were plenty of NPCs you could walk up to and duel (whereas in CS1+2 you could only play Blade a handful of times). I also liked the art on the cards and the tidbit of lore.

There's a reason for all that lore: Vantage Masters is based on an older Falcom game where the titular Masters were characters and there's a lot of background lore that went into that which Trails is just scratching the surface of. The game got a sequel set in Fantasy Japan and an enhanced port of the original title to PSP, which replaced the earlier guest Masters (from other Falcom games like Ys and Brandish) with a selection of characters from Trails in the Sky.

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The higher ups at XSEED were really passionate about Trails, so they went the extra mile and recorded extra English dialogue for scenes that weren't voiced in Japanese. But NISA is owned by Marvelous, and Marvelous doesn't care about putting extra effort into anything that they don't own. Hence, why there no greenlight for extra voicelines like in CS1+2.

Not really. XSEED only added extra voiced lines for the ports, not the initial releases. Maybe if NISA were focused on one port at a time they could spend some extra cash for more voiced lines but they've instead focused on doing PC/Switch releases at the same time. Meanwhile they do put extra effort into the games in other ways (like the improvements to the PC port of Ys VIII) and they put more into their limited editions. It's less 'Who cares more?' and more 'Where does the time and effort go?'.

Edited February 14, 2021 by Weltall

[Briar King]

Hmm I didn’t notice a difference in her voice at all.

[Briar King]

Ok I can tell the difference now that I know it’s not same actor. Still pretty spot on though.

Thankfully I’m now doing some fighting.. that was like almost 4-5 hours game time of skits and dialogue rounds from lvl 0. Felt even longer considering it was literally days irl for me to get through.

[aneonfoxtribute]

I disagree that it's spot on. If it was a few years later than maybe, but she sounds totally different after just one year. Thankfully hers is the only VA change for CS3. CS4 has, like, four or five VA changes though and it sucks, especially since one of them is Osborne who is THE best acted character in the series

[Val the Moofia Boss]

My only real problem with the voice acting in CS3 is for Campanella, and for a few spear carriers. I feel that the students, random guards and townsfolk who get one liners don't sound good.

Campanella's voice was miscast. He grates my ears. I never liked the character before. I feel he is a discount Seta Sojiro (trollish, young boy right hand man of the big bad), but the voice definitely does not help him. I didn't like his Japanese voice acting either when I played Crossbell. He comes off as an ass, and not the likeable kind.

Peter Beckman not returning as Osborne in CS4 was the biggest loss. Well, there is also another character in CS4 whose voice I felt was miscast (that one general)

Edited February 15, 2021 by Val the Moofia Boss

[Weltall]

Osborne was a shame but the new actor absolutely nails the big moments. Meanwhile, and counter to the earlier assertion that NISA somehow just doesn't care, they got the original actors for much of the returning Sky cast (and Tita being recast is perfectly understandable since the character is now four years older) including Johnny Yong Bosch for Joshua.

Oh, and the voice acting for Ys IX has been phenomenal from what I've heard so far too. Picking Erika Harlacher (who voiced Juna) to do Raging Bull was inspired.

[Eluvianii he/him]

Reading this, gives me some hope I'll start liking Osborne's voice in the future because right now, in the few appearances I've seen in Sen I, I kind of don't. 

[aneonfoxtribute]

8 minutes ago, Eluvianii said:

Reading this, gives me some hope I'll start liking Osborne's voice in the future because right now, in the few appearances I've seen in Sen I, I kind of don't. 

If you mean dub Osborne, it's mostly because he doesn't do much in 1. His voice actor shines when he's giving speeches and trying to be charismatic, and he shows that off most at the end of the game. 

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Osborne was a shame but the new actor absolutely nails the big moments

I quite disagree. He isn't bad, most certainly, but he doesn't match up to the legend. It's like what happened with Xehanort in Kingdom Hearts, The new actors they got for him aren't necessarily bad, but when put up against Nimoy, they will ALWAYS pale. The voice change made him less charismatic. A large reason why Osborne is so charismatic in the other games is his VOICE, he just sells every line of dialogue and it makes you think that maybe he has a point. That isn't there as much in 4.

Edited February 15, 2021 by aneonfoxtribute

[Briar King]

How is exp determined in this game cause I’m noticing it’s uneven. Not the set number of points with the less earned the higher character is. It’s kinda strange after 1&2