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Act 2 of CS4 is a pretty strong contender for the worst segment of the entire franchise. Almost everything I like from CS4 and CS3 comes from New Class VII. They're mostly better characters then the original set and none of the massive issues with 4 are remotely related to them. gently caress, Act 1 of CS4 is by far the best part of the game.
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Jun 20, 2022 22:06
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Erpy posted:
I’m in the middle of Act 2, and this is my takeaway as well. Class 7 has no idea where the rest of the Awakeners are to challenge them to a Rivalry battle and they need intel to stop Operation Jörmungandr, which then also don’t have. So like in CS 2 where Class 7 wanted to liberate Thors but had to bide their time until they found the opportunity, they’re doing a similar thing while also trying to find their friends, and in Rean’s case, students and sister. Plus, Musse also has her own Plan running, Mille Mirage (I think it’s called) that’s supposed to run counter to Operation Jörmungandr. I’m done with the operation that saved Tita and Musse even says that part of her plan hinges on having Tita safe (which I’m pretty sure is going to involve Liberl and saving Tita meant denying Osborne a political hostage) SgtSteel91 fucked around with this message at 22:49 on Jun 20, 2022 |
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Jun 20, 2022 22:43
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Act 2 is just mainly very boring
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Jun 20, 2022 22:47
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Act 2 contains Laura’s bonding event, which imo is the best in the Cold Steel series, so it has that going for it
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Jun 20, 2022 22:50
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Back to my prior topic I'd basically move half of Acts 1 and 2 to CS3, in order to have some of the plot handled there and start the rivalries there with Crow and Rutger before leading into the Finale. Crow would thus be part of the team at the start of 4, getting a full game for the first time, and hopefully becoming more compelling as a result, which would take us straight to Rean at the start of CS4 since we now have several characters who can figure out where he is. Act 2 would be split between gathering Team Liberl and the SSS as allies, who don't fuckoff to the side after while still saving the people who get saved obviously,, and actually portraying the hellish situation better. Olivert flies in on the Courageous at a huge crisis for the finale and saves us since Mille Mirage would obviously be deleted without Musse. Personally, Act 1 dragged a lot more than Act 2 for me, I did really enjoy wandering Erin as different pancake bracers as temporary protag though. Both really drop the ball on making me feel like the apocalypse is coming.
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Jun 20, 2022 22:59
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Ash is good. Juna is good. Altina is fine. Kurt is a department store mannequin. I like Musse substantially more in CS 4 than the one-note-one-track-mind act which she put on for far, far too much of CS 3, but I still dislike her a lot. (I will say that to Musse's credit, she was perfectly professional for the mandatory "touring" section for Act 2, and even her bonding events were surprisingly good and insightful.) Act 1 for me dragged quite a bit, if only because of lots of combat using character with weak equipment and weak quartz, which took a while to wear enemies down. Erpy posted:Ironically, the easiest way to finish the boss battles ahead is to ignore Alisa's personal ties and put her in the other group where her "put Insight on everyone including myself"-craft and (knowing your preferred setup) ability to survive death once makes a frustrating battle with a frustrating AP condition less harrowing since your party (which contains a lot of people with locked-in suboptimal setups) might last long enough to withstand the onslaught while you fulfill the condition. If possible I would have done that, but like Fragments, it's a mandatory gender divide. Only boys on team A, girls on team B. Thanks for the tip, though, I'll just spend 2000 Space Sepith and synth a second Seraphic Ring R for Elliot to use. Honestly though, due to the inflation of enemy HP, it has long become clear that arts are the key to damage in the game, so team A is already in trouble for that reason alone. S-Crafts are only effective on trash enemies, and no longer even one-shot a lot of trash either (without buffs out the wazoo). Erpy posted:BTW, to come SLIGHTLY to Class VII's defense, Crow was the only Awakener whose location they knew. Wanting to speed things up is all well and good, but it takes two to tango and the only guy they found thus far actively wanted to be found. That's true, but they also didn't seem to be trying too hard on that problem. I'm complaining largely because when I was watching the climax of the Act 2, Part 3 operation where everyone is talking about finding the true spirit of Thors, and what have you, and I remembered the tone from the start of the act, and how it clashes with this tone here. *** Quick quick Miscellaneous Act 2 stuff roundup 1) In Ordis, Patrick and Ferris mysteriously showed up, then just as mysteriously vanished. In Alster, the audience got to see Schera, but she did not want to be seen. Then there are all the other mysteriously missing Thors graduates and associates. They’re not likely to be associated with the faction in power and the groups associated with it, nor are they with the Weissland army. They are avoiding contact with our faction despite being our allies. They must be with Olivert. I imagine that Olivert learned a lesson from Osborne that if everyone thinks you’re dead, you can move unseen. He also may have taken a lesson from the Black Fang, that the most effective strike comes from the shadows. I’m sure that there’s some unspeakably implausible rear end-pull coming. It had better be really, REALLY good. 2) Mary - After seeing her as the kind, gentle, Fine Arts Instructor from the first two CS games, It feels very wrong and implausible for her to be skilled with a brand new Zauber Soldat. ...I mean I suppose that since all the Fine Arts classes and clubs were cancelled, she must be doing something to still be on campus, but it comes completely out of left field. 3) Quest: The Hot Spots - I appreciate that this one lets me pick a party member. (It should be obvious who I picked, and by total coincidence they were already in my party at the time.) Quick quick Act 2 Bonding Events roundup
Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 03:18 on Jun 21, 2022 |
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Jun 21, 2022 00:37
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MythosDragon posted:Back to my prior topic I'd basically move half of Acts 1 and 2 to CS3, in order to have some of the plot handled there and start the rivalries there with Crow and Rutger before leading into the Finale. Crow would thus be part of the team at the start of 4, getting a full game for the first time, and hopefully becoming more compelling as a result, which would take us straight to Rean at the start of CS4 since we now have several characters who can figure out where he is. Act 2 would be split between gathering Team Liberl and the SSS as allies, who don't fuckoff to the side after while still saving the people who get saved obviously,, and actually portraying the hellish situation better. Olivert flies in on the Courageous at a huge crisis for the finale and saves us since Mille Mirage would obviously be deleted without Musse. How are your opinions always so consistently bad
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Jun 21, 2022 00:44
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RevolverDivider posted:How are your opinions always so consistently bad Right backatcha?
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Jun 21, 2022 01:01
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:
It’s okay to have different opinions, even incorrect ones. See my point by point, totally objective analysis of the bonding event  (Being sarcastic, just in case) Though I’m with you partly that this bonding event actually takes place I guess between morning and lunchtime of the West Erebonia tour day, but Rean and Laura still put up tents for their
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Jun 21, 2022 01:15
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pPYONiTzCY 1:39
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Jun 22, 2022 14:32
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That's a fanmade trailer, nothing official.
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Jun 22, 2022 21:51
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Moofia Boss Val posted:That's a fanmade trailer, nothing official. It is? drat 
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Jun 23, 2022 08:12
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CS 4 - Act 2 End - Angelica’s behavior towards 15-year girls when she was 18 or 19 wasn’t great at the time. It’s worse now that she’s doing it at 20 or 21. - When the best supporting argument Rean can find to say about Chairman Irina’s good character is “she raised a wonderful daughter”, that’s so damning. It isn’t actually saying much about the quality of Irina’s character. Rean is using the somewhat flirtatious line as a way to distract Alisa from the fact that he didn’t actually have anything positive to say about Irina herself. What makes that hysterically funny is that from what we’ve seen and heard, Irina (CS 2 implied, CS 3 confirmed) largely stopped raising Alisa and instead handed off that chore to the emotionally warped assassin who murdered her father. Who does that? What kind of person does that? That’s an absolutely twisted thing to do. - No seriously, there are twenty-eight mandatory sub-events. I counted them. Twenty-nine if you count the one which takes place in between the large sets. The big meeting - Oh boy, things really must be grim when even cheerful, optimistic (Azure)KeA, with her gifts for getting an impression of the future – thinks that starting a world war is a reasonable option. - Minor logistics quibble, which doesn't really matter: As the real world demonstrates, there’s a huge difference between external and internal supply lines. When the defending side has the same troops, of better quality, with superior technology, the defender's advantage only increases. That said, it doesn't matter much since The allies can only muster 1.2 million of their own, with only the stuff they have now, and that’s the best they can do. My quibble is that calling it "even ground" seems to be grossly overstating the strength of the alliance position. - I do appreciate that the hero teams acknowledge the reality that the war might be necessary, and that they don’t begrudge the countries for choosing to go that route. They also do not seem opposed to cooperation with the Allied Forces. This feels right. -- It does make sense for all hero teams to decline siding on. The SSS are a small team of essentially community support workers, they don’t have the mindset of soldiers. The Bracers are by charter explicitly forbidden from taking sides in conflicts between nations, and so their role of protecting civilians is a natural fit to take. Rean has been explicitly warned that once the war starts, he could lose control, so that all by itself is a reason for him to try and avoid participating in the war. - That orchestral remix of "Atrocious Raid" is 
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Jun 24, 2022 20:00
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Playing Ys 8 for the first time and it's tons of fun! I just through the mountain and am seeing all the ruins. A few things I've been wondering: 1. How hard is nightmare? Because hard so far isn't really very hard 2. I understand there's a true ending - is it difficult to achieve without a guide? I've kept up with all the quests so far except for one 3: are there any important missables to look out for? 4: some skills just seem way better than others, but idk how the unlock system works. Do I have to keep using new skills to get more new skills?
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Jun 30, 2022 19:22
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Paperhouse posted:Playing Ys 8 for the first time and it's tons of fun! Can't really speak for the others but I got 2 just by doing every obvious side quest.
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Jun 30, 2022 19:29
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Never mind, I passed that part now. I guess I should post some content here, thought. CS 4 - End of Act 2 / Start of Act 3 The thing which was expected. The explanation for it does somewhat work to explain the survival or people in a "no would could survive that" scenario. Still feels very cheap, though. The other twist, the unexpected one had me literally face palm for a full minute. I did not like it at all. Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 12:28 on Jul 2, 2022 |
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Jul 1, 2022 17:41
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I'm in Sky SC chapter 8. How stupid would it be to try and beeline to the end of the game this weekend?
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Jul 9, 2022 07:49
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If you're planning on exploring all of Liberl, it's a very bold move. I've seen someone do it over a similar period, but totally depends how much time you have.
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Jul 9, 2022 07:57
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That's a hard no then. Alright. Damnit, I'm so close I can taste just being done with this. OCD sucks.
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Jul 9, 2022 08:01
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Rule number 1 when you're near the end of a Trails game, don't try to rush to the end. The ending's always farther away then you anticipate. The chapter after this one is fairly long too.
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Jul 9, 2022 09:05
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secretly best girl posted:I'm in Sky SC chapter 8. How stupid would it be to try and beeline to the end of the game this weekend? Chapters 8 and 9 are both pretty long.
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Jul 9, 2022 16:00
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:Never mind, I passed that part now. Yeah that entire sequence is the low point of the entire franchise
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Jul 9, 2022 16:30
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secretly best girl posted:I'm in Sky SC chapter 8. How stupid would it be to try and beeline to the end of the game this weekend? Answer: very stupid, and also, my entire party wiped on the fight with Renne on the Ark, because I didn't know she'd get revived if I killed her before the robot, nor that she could proc deathblow and wipe out 3/4ths of my party on a bad roll! Cool! Losing two bosses of progress is definitely where I stop this marathon and collapse.
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Jul 10, 2022 04:37
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I've stopped commenting on my CS 4 progress because it was only making GBS threads up the thread, but I am pretty far by now, I think. I just caught my second-to-last fish. (And also Alisa won an archer duel with an S-Craft which did 52,000 damage, which was a lot more than I was expecting her to be able to deliver. I was expecting a certain other person to have to finish the fight off.)secretly best girl posted:Answer: very stupid, and also, my entire party wiped on the fight with Renne on the Ark, because I didn't know she'd get revived if I killed her before the robot, nor that she could proc deathblow and wipe out 3/4ths of my party on a bad roll! Cool! Losing two bosses of progress is definitely where I stop this marathon and collapse. I mean, she introduced herself as The Angel of Slaughter and she carries a scythe. That screams "protect against deathblow" to me, at least. For another subtle tip, in Sky SC Chapter 7, the tower dungeons had items which protected against two specific status ailments. Those are the ones which the boss encounter of that tower uses. The boss after that one is really strong as well. Someone like Kevin or Kloe in your party for damage protection or emergency healing would be a good idea (I recommend Kevin with a True Gladiator Belt, because nothing beats 2 turns of Max Guard). Do save before facing that boss, as that is the point of no return and you can't change your party after that (although the boss has a unique comment for all your members). Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 05:30 on Jul 10, 2022 |
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Jul 10, 2022 05:12
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Aw, really? Though I'm a bit behind since I was out of the country for the past two weeks, we were roughly in the same place in our playthroughs and I liked to see your takes on plot beats in CS4
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Jul 10, 2022 06:10
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SgtSteel91 posted:Aw, really? The thread was in a quiet place, and posting very long takes one after the other would feel like spamming the thread. I could PM my takes to you directly though.
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Jul 10, 2022 06:25
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secretly best girl posted:Answer: very stupid, and also, my entire party wiped on the fight with Renne on the Ark, because I didn't know she'd get revived if I killed her before the robot, nor that she could proc deathblow and wipe out 3/4ths of my party on a bad roll! Cool! Losing two bosses of progress is definitely where I stop this marathon and collapse. I'm honestly surprised that didn't happen to you during the tower fight, that's famous for hell RNG if you don't guard both statuses. Also remember there's autosaves.
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Jul 10, 2022 07:31
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secretly best girl posted:Answer: very stupid, and also, my entire party wiped on the fight with Renne on the Ark, because I didn't know she'd get revived if I killed her before the robot, nor that she could proc deathblow and wipe out 3/4ths of my party on a bad roll! Cool! Losing two bosses of progress is definitely where I stop this marathon and collapse. Ironically, the first time you fought that boss, they didn't just have the same "10% Deathblow on normal crafts and 50% Deathblow on S-craft"-schtick, but they also had a small army of ads that spammed lasers that could petrify you. (which, in a battle with 7 targets, meant you WOULD die before your next turn came up) It's kind of a surprise you lived through that. Anyway, as mentioned, the Sky games have autosaves and an autosave is created each time you enter a room. (as opposed to the later games which save the game like every 5 minutes) Simply go to page 0 on the load screen and you should be in the room just before you faced that boss.
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Jul 10, 2022 09:43
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Erpy posted:Anyway, as mentioned, the Sky games have autosaves and an autosave is created each time you enter a room. (as opposed to the later games which save the game like every 5 minutes) Simply go to page 0 on the load screen and you should be in the room just before you faced that boss. Oh right, I had to rely on that because FC crashed so much on my last PC. Thanks, gonna pick up and try to power on to the ending. edit: i'm free, genie claw game handjob fucked around with this message at 11:19 on Jul 10, 2022 |
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Jul 10, 2022 09:49
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secretly best girl posted:Oh right, I had to rely on that because FC crashed so much on my last PC. Thanks, gonna pick up and try to power on to the ending. You finished? Thoughts on the ending and some of the surprise twists? *** I have reached a certain point in Cold Steel 4's late game.      EDIT: One downside of using unlimited bonding points: "The main story will advance once you have spent five tickets." Oh, well, hmmm... how the heck am I going to choose - wait. *looks at the UI and sees Tickets x 20* Ohhhh... I can feel that monkey's paw curling! Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 02:03 on Jul 11, 2022 |
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Jul 11, 2022 01:22
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:The thread was in a quiet place, and posting very long takes one after the other would feel like spamming the thread. I could PM my takes to you directly though. The answer is always to just post, I was also enjoying reading your feelings about the game since I had just finished it last month.
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Jul 11, 2022 01:52
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:You finished? Thoughts on the ending and some of the surprise twists? I'm still processing it a little, given that I blazed through the final chunks of the game like a psychopath over 27 hours*. The only things I could consider twists seemed a little cheap, like surprise! Weissmann is responsible for everything terrible that ever happened to Joshua or Loewe! Also maybe it's that I'm coming to this in reverse order but I'm unsure of how I feel about all the Enforcers being dark mirrors of half the cast, compared to CS 1/2 where you can maybe say this about two of them. Especially since nearly all of them just fall off a tower and die, sometimes by choice. I did love how the ending is a pure focus on our two protagonists, though, and I'm curious what part of that has to do with an entire epilogue title afterwards. I told myself I was going to take a week off from Sky before starting the 3rd, and then someone told me the plot was Father Kevin finds the Lament Configuration and I kicked it off instantly. Then I got to the part where it Metroided me and I got mad and set it down for today. * in my defense I napped in there once, by which I mean I passed out at the PC
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Jul 11, 2022 01:53
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The 3rd is so good. E: Though I also went into it straight after SC only to burn out 2 chapters in. And then come back to it a few weeks later and blaze through it because it was in fact extremely good
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Jul 11, 2022 01:58
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3rd is the best Sky game
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Jul 11, 2022 02:14
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secretly best girl posted:I'm still processing it a little, given that I blazed through the final chunks of the game like a psychopath over 27 hours*. The only things I could consider twists seemed a little cheap, like surprise! Weissmann is responsible for everything terrible that ever happened to Joshua or Loewe! Also maybe it's that I'm coming to this in reverse order but I'm unsure of how I feel about all the Enforcers being dark mirrors of half the cast, compared to CS 1/2 where you can maybe say this about two of them. Especially since nearly all of them just fall off a tower and die, sometimes by choice. I did love how the ending is a pure focus on our two protagonists, though, and I'm curious what part of that has to do with an entire epilogue title afterwards. Sky SC Ending - Yeah, it does have a feeling of convenience that Weissman is responsible for Hamel in some way. But if you think about it, in Joshua's story, he says he was so traumatized that he wasn't eating. Someone couldn't last very long in that state, so Weissman showing up in that time would be one hell of a coincidence if he hadn't been paying attention. The epilogue title is in part so that other people also get their own epilogues and hints at their future arcs.
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Jul 11, 2022 03:19
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secretly best girl posted:I'm still processing it a little, given that I blazed through the final chunks of the game like a psychopath over 27 hours*. The only things I could consider twists seemed a little cheap, like surprise! Weissmann is responsible for everything terrible that ever happened to Joshua or Loewe! Also maybe it's that I'm coming to this in reverse order but I'm unsure of how I feel about all the Enforcers being dark mirrors of half the cast, compared to CS 1/2 where you can maybe say this about two of them. Especially since nearly all of them just fall off a tower and die, sometimes by choice. I did love how the ending is a pure focus on our two protagonists, though, and I'm curious what part of that has to do with an entire epilogue title afterwards. 3rd is less an epilogue and more a bridge game to Crossbell/Cold Steel. Also random fun facts.
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Jul 11, 2022 03:22
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:You finished? Thoughts on the ending and some of the surprise twists? At least you'll get to go hog-wild figuring out the best combination of Rean-only accessories you get as a result.
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Jul 11, 2022 07:16
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Erpy posted:At least you'll get to go hog-wild figuring out the best combination of Rean-only accessories you get as a result. I put them into a spreadsheet for easier comparison. I should be able to get them all, even though I skipped both of Emma's bonding events. Some of them seem to be almost useless, because they're aimed for casters, which Rean isn't. None offer stat-down protection, which is a problem. I am leaning more towards ones which offer +100% CP Gain, or +6 CP/turn, but even then, I need to consider the drawbacks for status protection and stat-down. I guess I can handle status protection through a certain MQ, though. **** Cold Steel 4, Act 2 End, the big, long scene. 1) A certain classmate’s mother choosing to side with evil?  This is my shocked face. I don’t begrudge Irina for working with the Erebonian military for official projects; the Imperial Mobilization Act would have forced Reinford to comply and she would have been removed from the company if she had opposed them. Her appearance here, however, does not have the feel like it’s something she was forced into doing, it feels more like a voluntary choice. 2) The actually surprising twist: I thought that I was prepared for how stupid this plot could get. I was not. I was not prepared at all. I facepalmed for an entire minute at the twist. Not the twist which people were expecting; the one which they were not. How exactly would Osborne and company not know Olivert survived if they already have Victor loving Arseid there and on their team? It’s been more than a month, he did not get recruited by the bad guys only ten minutes ago. Surely, someone would have been curious enough to ask him about that. Another complaint is that of all the possible reasons for conflict in stories, perhaps the least, most uninteresting reason of all is being magically compelled to do things against your will. *throws up hands in a gesture of surrender* 'I don't know how to have this make sense so let’s just you and him fight'. 3) A truly terrible person: Cedric. First of all, gently caress him for actually loving saying he was relieved that Olivert wasn’t dead. No. He isn’t. I remember that loving cutscene in CS 3. He approved of the killing of Olivert. He made his choice at that moment, and his choice was that he preferred a world where Olivert was dead, period. I don’t care if he has any lingering regrets or guilt. Let’s dive deeper. Why did he want Olivert killed? Because he feared that Olivert was going to stand in the path of his new world order (which, incidentally would be built on the death or enslavement of millions of people). Cedric is still on that path, perhaps even more so than he was before. If guilt and regret are not strong enough to steer him off of that path, if those feelings do not lead to action in the proper direction, then they are utterly without meaning. There is no redemption to be had. 4) This applies all over the series, but how can all these otherwise functioning adults not grasp the concept that sometimes people might actually have a different moral code than what they present to others? The good guys keep being surprised at those they know doing bad things. If you ACTUALLY knew them and had insight into them, then you wouldn't have been shocked or surprised in the first place at their betrayals. You can’t claim special, superior knowledge over "who they really are" when you have already demonstrated you lack such knowledge. Whoops, sorry, there I go "applying logic" again.
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Jul 13, 2022 18:04
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Your mistake is assuming any villain that isn't a random monster is actually evil and not just a fun pal who sometimes does mass murder, torture and genocide
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Jul 15, 2022 22:49
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He's really good
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Jul 15, 2022 22:53
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