|
I picked up Xenoblade 2 last week, but I'm weird and don't feel like playing it just yet, and was thinking getting through some of my RPG backlog first. I'm usually "gotta play every game in a connected series to fully grasp the references" kind of sucker, but I recognize that the Trails games are some long-rear end games and I don't want to hit some kind of burnout. Would it be better to start with the Trails in the Sky games, or go straight into Cold Steel? I was not sure exactly how interconnected the arcs truly were.
|
#
¿
Dec 9, 2017 19:09
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 16, 2024 01:59 |
|
|
I decided to pick up Ys 8 again after a long hiatus and after getting my bearings, I cleared Mt. Gendarme the first time. I dunno, the battle system is pretty ace (although the default control layout was hella awkward for me and even after remapping everything, I still find it super weird and I don't think I have ever had this problem in a video game before). The story... eh. Still seems like it's picking up steam slowly but the "stranded on island that wants to kill you" as the premise for an entire game like this is somewhat captivating to me. Does the story actually pick up from here though? The stuff with the serial killer doctor was extremely interesting to me; too bad they kinda nipped that entire plot thread in the bud pretty quickly. And as an aside, but still Falcom related, my partner is trying to convince me to just go through the Trails series instead of my initial plan of playing through the entire Kingdom Hearts series as my kind of gaming project for the year. Most of everything is/will be on PC, right?
|
|
#
¿
Mar 7, 2020 02:17
|
|
|
I finished Persona 5 Royal and was still itching for some RPG action (yeah, I’ll be playing Xenoblade next week but I still want something new). And after thinking it over, I think I’ll make a serious attempt to get into the Trails series for the first time. I’ll figure out if I just want to start with Sky or Cold Steel on my own, but I did have one big question, and you can be honest with me; are the conclusions for Sky 3 and Cold Steel 4 pretty satisfying? I remember reading one long rant on Import CS4 a while ago on Resetera or some place and my thought was “man I would probably be pissed as hell to play 4 JRPGs only for it to pull a Mass Effect 3 like this poster is saying”
|
|
#
¿
May 22, 2020 14:51
|
|
|
Thanks for the info from the posters on the last page, I have decided to try out Trails FC on Steam and go from there. Dunno if I'm going to try to blitz through the entire series as fast as possible like, say, what I did with the Yakuza series, but I do want to work on the Sky trilogy and then assess whether or not I want to keep going. Any newbie traps/etc I should be aware of?
|
|
#
¿
May 22, 2020 23:43
|
|
|
I’m only a few hours in FC, but with the steam sale I picked up SC and 3rd And after trying the demo to Cold Steel 3, decided to pick up the Cold Steel titles too, so seems like my PC is going to be getting a lot of Falcom rpg love this year
|
|
#
¿
Jun 29, 2020 15:50
|
|
|
Of course right after getting the Trails series on steam, someone just showed me a completely out of context scene involving a character named Shirley and a female knight in Cold Steel 3, and... uh... ... please tell me I don't have to deal with a lot of that in the Sky series
|
|
#
¿
Jul 10, 2020 15:37
|
|
|
The game has a very interesting idea of what a joke is it that’s the case, but if it’s only twice across a couple hundred hours of RPG-ing, I’ll deal with it I definitely do not like that character at all now, though
|
|
#
¿
Jul 10, 2020 16:07
|
|
|
Alright, I think I'm going to start Trails in the Sky for real this time and I have a question; I know these games have a lot of missables, but are they Tales of Symphonia/Abyss/Vesperia levels of bad where doing wrong steps or not talking to random NPCs in unexpected places will lock you out of entire lore-important side quest arcs, dungeons, or hidden bosses? At this point I'm more aiming to go through the series rather than aiming for 100% in everything, but I also don't want to end up missing major stuff because I didn't use a guide
|
|
#
¿
Jan 10, 2022 00:06
|
|
|
Thank you for the info everyone, somewhat relieved that the missables aren't older Tales level bad (there are still some secrets from Abyss and Vesperia that I am annoyed about to this day).Stabbey_the_Clown posted:If you want, MechaX, I could put together a mini-guide which is as spoiler-free as possible and PM that to you. It wouldn't take all that long since I've actually done at least a partial one for someone else. If it won't be a lot of trouble for you, that would be much appreciated. Otherwise I'll make sure to keep my eye on some of the important quests listed on the last page (and probably just have a guide in the background or up on my phone just in case)
|
|
#
¿
Jan 10, 2022 04:23
|
|
|
Endorph posted:ehhh. i like them but taion is a bit of a wet blanket sometimes and lanz really only has two modes, 'flex' and 'snark.' theyre a good jrpg cast but they're like, average tales party level. But what counts as "average" for a Tales party these days though; when I think back on it, the Abyss and Berseria casts do some big time heavy lifting for the quality average and the parties for the rest of the games have some problems imo
|
|
#
¿
Sep 10, 2022 14:20
|
|
|
Yeah XB3 was the first time since literally Berseria where I thought "man I'm going to miss this crew of dumbasses." Hell, the only Tales casts I can honestly say are great besides Berseria is Abyss and to a lesser extent Graces (the main plot is pretty dull, but the characters do shine in the skits plus post-game-scenario Richard is just too powerful) But to loop it back to Falcom, I'm (slowly) making progress in Sky FC, so honestly I'm hoping at least one of the casts in this entire series gets to XB3/Berseria levels
|
|
#
¿
Sep 10, 2022 17:23
|
|
|
So I'm maybe 8 hours into Trails FC between Scherazard and Oliver, I'm really going to need the game to stop having these adults creep on Joshua
|
|
#
¿
Jul 8, 2023 18:28
|
|
|
I think I just got Olivier for real in Trails FC and I googled him and got more than I bargained for "eldest Erebonian prince" I definitely laughed out loud at this, now I want to see where this goes
|
|
#
¿
Jul 8, 2023 22:28
|
|
|
I got distracted by other RPGs for most of this year but I'm going to get back to Trails FC. At this point I realized that I'm probably not going to be in this series for the gameplay until Cold Steel and maybe the Crossbell series. FC doesn't seem to have an easy mode (but does have that retry offset), but the remaining games do have Easy or Story modes right?
|
|
#
¿
Dec 3, 2023 17:04
|
|
|
I made it to Zeiss in Trails FC and the story is finally showing a little bit of a pulse. I’m definitely still playing for the story rather than the gameplay for sure, but my random thoughts so far; - Where in the gently caress is Cassius - Man Professor Alba seems to always be at the right place at the right time, and always at these sus-rear end towers - I’m actually curious to see what the deal is with this Orbment-cancelling Black Orbment device - The school play was pretty good - I’m indifferent to most of the cast besides Estelle so far, but Agate kind of sucks
|
|
#
¿
Dec 18, 2023 20:34
|
|
|
Oh, I did have a thought on another character we met (FC Chapter 3 spoilers) I took one look at Zin and said to myself "man, this is one Patrick Seitz-esque character, just like Dogi." And then he opened his mouth in battle for a few lines and I have been completely vindicated. I like Zin and would like to see more of him.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 19, 2023 03:33
|
|
|
Welp, finished FC and all I can say after that is... gently caress, I can't leave things on a cliffhanger like that *immediately installs SC*
|
|
#
¿
Dec 20, 2023 04:43
|
|
|
Just imaged to finish Trails SC; good poo poo, but thank god for the Turbo Button on some of those later chapters. Bringing Kevin to the final fights definitely paid off. lol weismann, I thought he was going to get away like the rest of Ouroboros for a second there, that death was kind of metal But anyway, on to 3rd
|
|
#
¿
Jan 10, 2024 06:14
|
|
|
Trails 3rd Progress Report: I just got the point where one character refers to Tita’s “juvenile scent” (I absolutely do not want to know what they mean by this) and another character just said “oh the age gap makes Agate and Tita even more cute!” *googles Agate and Tita’s ages* Okay Falcom I’ll 100% take a pass on you showing me anything more involving this running joke, I’m good
|
|
#
¿
Jan 12, 2024 15:27
|
|
|
I was not ready for Star Door 15 Star Door 14 has a lot of set up poo poo that doesn’t entirely make sense to me (yet), but was still neat. Not as good as Star Door 8, the Estelle/Joshua door, or Salt door though
|
|
#
¿
Jan 14, 2024 15:30
|
|
|
I’m at the start of chapter 2 in Zero; tbh for npcs I usually just talk to the roof cat and then book it to the Bracer Guild to see who’s there, and then maybe check on the downtown district weirdos
|
|
#
¿
Jan 16, 2024 19:08
|
|
|
So I’m in the middle of Chapter 1 in Azure, I’m just wondering how badly I got spoiled on something; I met Shirley and uh, yeah that was pretty bad. But I googled her and found out two things that I’m wondering if it’s supposed to be a gigantic deal or not Shirley “Orlando,” oh alright, probably Randy’s sister or half-sister. But tbh, she was next to the big eye-patch dude in the intro and I just met him in game thinking “lmao this has got to by Randy’s dad.” But the second thing is that now I know Dieter is up to sus poo poo which surprised me a little given how supportive he was in Zero It’s not going to make me stop playing but it would be a shame if these are supposed to be big things Azure is working to reveal (my lesson is that I’m just not going to look up any character ever until I’m completely caught up)
|
|
#
¿
Jan 26, 2024 17:44
|
|
|
Finished Trails to Azure; I had a lot of fun with the story in Chapter 4 and the first part of the Final Chapter for sure. Gameplay-wise, I eventually just went the Lloyd evasion-tank route because some of the boss encounters were annoying as all gently caress and honestly it started seeming like a lot of them were balanced purely around Tio's Zero Field when they start throwing out field-wide instakill S-Crafts (also gently caress that final dungeon and boss, holy poo poo). The Turbo Button did a lot of heavy lifting for me with the Trails games so far and I will be very sad if it's gone from Cold Steel (unless Cold Steel is just faster in general). The ending.. I didn't hate it but man I don't know how to feel about some of it. This game was pretty much my realization point that this just ain't the kind of series where people die all that much. I'm cool with that, but there were a few points that kinda stretched belief for me, such as when Baelz told the SSS that despite the white giant robot atomizing a good chunk of the Erebonian border fortress, no one died because KeA was still subconsciously considerate. I don't know how they found this out or why they would even believe a causality report from loving Erebonia at this stage, but... okay game. I was spoiled on the Dieter twist ahead of time but seeing it actually unfold in Chapter 4 was a treat. And given how much of a mess the Empire and the Republic were, I could totally understand why he would brute force independence like this. The twist on Bell was one I didn't see coming but really should have, but I was cool with that too. Arios killing Guy? I was figuring the game would go that route but was still surprised when they revealed it. But Grimwood really being behind everything including the death of Guy didn't land with me at all. Plus, one medium Lloyd Speech gets Grimwood to drop a half-decade of scheming. Bell being like "ah shucks, you completely foiled my plans. anyway see ya, joining the society and I also missed all of Grimwood's vital areas" was so strange to me. Like, I feel like she probably should have cared a little bit more about the SSS ruining her masterplan. The Orlandos and Wald didn't really do it for me towards the end either. I get that they wanted to replicate what happened in SC with Ouroboros fighting you one by one but I feel less miffed about that because the society was weird and explicitly let at least two of them work out their personal vendettas (Luciola and Walter) and they were very much stalling for time to let Weismann do his evil plans. Here it didn't even really seem like they cared that much about really stopping the team and just wanted to do their decided 1v1s as they sit in their respective magic dimensions. I can definitely understand the "good job on beating me, but i haven't even used a fraction of my true power" memes now. It wasn't all bad at first because Sigmund and Arianrhod did admit that the party caught them off guard, but I laughed out loud at Arios just doing "nothing personnel kid" and just wiping the party after his first fight. The last thing is that lmao @ at the game just casually text dumping Erebonia imploding with the Chancellor's death, and then doing it again in the ending with "the chancellor got better and owned the nobles and invaded crossbell" I want to go straight into Cold Steel but I kind want to give it a break because I feel like these games are probably where the threat of burnout is going to come in. Plus I know that CS1 has one hell of a cliffhanger and I already know how that will go down after FC's ending. Probably just going to take time to go through all of the JRPGs coming this month and last and get to Cold Steel in a few months from now. MechaX fucked around with this message at 14:52 on Feb 6, 2024 |
|
#
¿
Feb 6, 2024 14:49
|
|
|
Cool I have exactly 4 months to get through Cold Steel 1 through 4 and Reverie
|
|
#
¿
Mar 5, 2024 17:20
|
|
|
sailormoon posted:Thank you everyone for all the help getting through FC and getting through the world building. The final chapter was amazing and I’m starting SC immediately. Huge payoff and it’s what I remember loving about JRPGs as a kid. That's exactly how it went down for me a few months ago lmao People were not kidding about that cliffhanger at the end of FC
|
|
#
¿
Mar 31, 2024 14:46
|
|
|
Trucking though Cold Steel 1 right now The Nord Highlands is pretty chill but thank god for the horse + turbo button; I can’t even imagine how it was normally I also kind of like Rean more than Lloyd
|
|
#
¿
May 1, 2024 18:12
|
|
|
MythosDragon posted:Loved it? I’m sorry the what encounter system I was more referencing the fact that the area is loving huge even with the turbo button lmao
|
|
#
¿
May 1, 2024 20:42
|
|
|
ngl, I did do a google search for it because I have never heard it called that a single time in my life (usually they just say "the encounters are not random" and we get the gist that they're on the overworld) and came up with... not much but a Pokemon Sword and Shield presentation in Japanese where it's mentioned once. Then I did a search on this site and saw exactly 9 search results going back to 2015, with a third of said results being this topic. And then I just tabled my absolute confusion by starting this swim competition event with Class VII
|
|
#
¿
May 4, 2024 03:02
|
|
|
Just made it to the final chapter in Cold Steel 1. I’ll save a lot of my thoughts until after I finish it but goddamn, this game is long. I’m kinda waiting to see if the ending is crazy enough to make me jump straight into CS2 or if I’ll take a break and probably start it back up in the late summer. I kind of have a feeling on where this is all going given Azure already text-dumped some major events, but we’ll see what happens
|
|
#
¿
May 10, 2024 17:52
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 16, 2024 01:59 |
|
|
lol, lmao at the CS1 ending I love how a lot of the conflict with the final boss boils down to "we've put way too much work into this concert and would rather fight an evil god in the basement rather than let it get cancelled." I also did suspect Crow was C and that he would be the person that actually shot Osborne; what I did not expect was that everyone would get giant robots and for them to introduce a Xenogears-esque battle system at the eleventh hour. Also lmao at Emma just being like "wait a loving minute, she's the radio lady???" when Misty had her evil reveal. Man, Emma is just sitting on all kinds of important info but I'll give her a pass since she apparently doesn't listen to Abend Time and she wasn't with us whenever we met up with Misty. Well, can't just leave things at this cliffhanger and I think I can squeeze this in before the RPG deluge in June, so might as well get to it. MechaX fucked around with this message at 14:25 on May 11, 2024 |
|
#
¿
May 11, 2024 14:21
|
|