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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ze5FLQtV94  Oh poo poo, ya boi Durante's making a new port of some PS3/Vita game? And it has new content, including 50% more voiced lines?? And it's releasing August 2nd??? Now what's this game about?  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqYqM-Vrvxo The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel is part of the Legend of Heroes series, but you can ignore that part. More importantly, it is part of the Trails series, being the sixth game in that series. The Trails series, starting with Trails in the Sky, takes place in the world of Zemuria at the start of the thirteenth century. You don't need to play Trails in the Sky before playing Cold Steel, though some events will be referenced - Trails in the Sky takes place in the year 1202, and Cold Steel in the year 1204! Besides, they're fantastic games. Also, these games take place concurrently to the events of the 4th and 5th game in the series, which takes place in a small city-state to the east called Crossbell. Thing is that these games are not localized yet. Please support the series. These games are really big, and really meaty. Trails of Cold Steel 1 is itself a 70-80+ hour game with a ton of sidequests and a mountain of cool, interesting NPCs whose stories develop as you make your way through the game - stories that continue into Trails of Cold Steel 2, which is coming to PC later. Trails games are infamous for being slowburners - the games take their time to set up the pieces before knocking down the dominoes, but once they do, it's all the more satisfying. There is no other game series that does world-building quite like Trails, and those of us who have been charmed by the world of Zemuria are all willing to talk your ears off why exactly. Story  quote:Among the nations on the Zemurian continent, the mighty Erebonian Empire has been quick to outwardly stake its claim militarily; yet politically, ugly bouts of internal conflict between the upper class and commoners attempting to rise to power have been steadily intensifying day by day. The Noble and Reformist Factions have been none too kind to one another over the years, and tensions between the two only stand to worsen if compromises aren’t made in the very near future. Gameplay  (image is from a wip build) Combat in Trails of Cold Steel is turn-based and works similarly to games like FFX, though you can move around during combat and aim your special attacks. Enemies are visible on the field, and can be attacked prior to entering combat, which will grant bonuses. Every character has their own unique set of abilities called Crafts, but you can also customize the characters through equipment by slotting different quartz into your orbments (see the Terms segment further down). By doing this you can customize their stats, the effects their attacks will have, and what spells, or "Arts", they can cast. But don't try and make Elliot your physical powerhouse, there's not that much customization.  Turn order is based on the character's speed and the attacks they're using. Some attacks can inflict AT Delay, which influences your position on the turn gauge - enemies that are weak to AT Delay can have the amounts of turns they take greatly reduced. Sometimes, bonuses show up on the turn gauge, and the character that takes their turn at that point will receive those bonuses. Watch out so that the big boss monster doesn't get a Critical bonus on their turn! There are four different "types" of physical-based attacks - Slash, Thrust, Pierce, and Strike. Rean's sword is lean and mean, and inflicts Slash damage, whereas Laura's sword is big and brutal, which doesn't deal as much Slash damage, but instead also deals a hefty amount of Strike damage. Depending on what type of damage the enemy is weak to (flying enemies are generally weak to Piercing damage, bulky enemies are generally weak to Strike, for example), you can get extra chances to team up with your party members to deal damage as well as stun the enemy. This extends to outside of combat as well: you can strike enemies on the map from behind, and depending on the character, they be stunned in different ways. You'll want to try to start every battle you can with the enemies having three stars swirling over their heads. Protip: whenever you have Fie in your party, just shoot the enemies in the back from afar and she'll get the highest level of stun against like, 80% of all enemies. When you win fights, you'll earn experience points (you'll never guess what these do) as well as sepith. Sepith can be forged into quartz, which as I mentioned, is your primary way of customizing your characters.  Outside of combat, you'll be running around different towns and areas, talking to NPCs and solving their problems. In the Trails series, 95% of NPCs that you can interact with have their own names, their own connections to people in town, and their own stories to tell. And if you want to partake in these stories, you'll have to be on the ball - NPCs update their dialogue after every decently major story event, and sometimes hidden sidequests will show during short timeframes between the story moving forward. You can also collect a series of books by talking to some NPCs at certain times. Collect them all, and maybe, just maybe, you'll get a bonus at the end! (Unlike in Trails in the Sky, you can buy these later. The books, I mean, not the bonus) But why would you wanna do sidequests? Well, outside of being a swell dude/tte who likes to help others, by completing sidequests you'll gain AP, Academy Points, which will give you helpful bonus items at intervals, if you get enough. You can also get new items and equipment. Speaking of which: you'll need to prioritize who you buy equipment for or you'll end up dead broke. Alternatively, just spend an hour having Elliot cook a bunch of Egg Soup and sell them. You'll be graded at the end of every chapter, and if you manage to be a good little student and do all sidequests perfectly during that chapter, you'll earn an S rank. And you know you want to chase those, you filthy 100%er. During downtime at the academy, you can spend time with your party members and important NPCs. This will grant bonuses in battle, as well as give access to extra scenes with those characters if you've gotten to know them enough. Just hang out with whoever you like. You can't spend time with everyone in a first playthrough (unless you cheat), but you will be able to if you pick that as an option during a NG+. Also, you can fish.  Terms There's a lot to Zemuria, and while the game does a good job of teaching you what's what, here's a primer of all the most relevant terms you'll encounter: Erebonia: The empire in which our story takes place in. To the south lies the small kingdom of Liberl, and to the east lies the Republic of Calvard. Situated in-between Erebonia and Calvard is the small city-state of Crossbell, which Erebonia and Calvard both claim ownership of. Orbment: Some 50-ish years before the events of the Trails series, the world of Zemuria was basically a standard ye olde RPG setting, with knights on horses and making GBS threads in the woods. But that changed after Professor Epstein managed to figure out a way to refine a decently common ore known as septium (the fragments of septium is called sepith) into quartz, and slot them into orbments, clockwork-like machinery. In doing so, orbments could produce self-refueling energy. And just like that, technology exploded. In the years that have passed since then, the engineers and scientists of Zemuria have developed washing machines, computers, vacuum cleaners, guns, tanks, airships, radio, video, electric guitars, and so on... and most relevant to our gameplay, Combat Orbments. These specialized orbments allow individuals to perform a sort of "fake" magic that can be used during combat. Bracer Guild: The Bracer Guild is an international organization that gives trained civilians the right to arrest unscrupulous individuals and save kittens from trees, as well as act as neutral mediators in the case of conflict between nations. Bracers are respected and accepted in every nation in Zemuria - except Erebonia. Some time prior to Cold Steel, a bunch of jaegers attacked several of the different Guildhouses across the Empire, and the Bracers' presence was decreed too "dangerous" by the powers that be in the Empire. As such, bracers can only act on the down-low, in principalities who are cool with their presence. Jaegers: Jaegers are mercenaries. They can belong to different jaeger corps, and professional jaegers will perform any task for the right sum. As such, hiring jaegers is generally frowned upon, if not illegal. Think of them as reverse bracers. Aidios: The Church of Aidios is the biggest institutionalized religion in Zemuria. Unlike most JRPG religions, these are good guys. Probably? Other than healing the hearts of those in need and producing medicine, a segment of the church known as the Gralsritter are tasked with retrieving artifacts from individuals and take them into the church's possession. Oh yeah, speaking of which. Artifacts: One of the big reasons technology exploded so fast was because there already existed versions of these technologies in the form of artifacts. These ancient doohickeys were created by the ancient Zemurian civilization, which seemed to enjoy the same level of technology, if not greater, than the civilizations of today do. What happened to them? Who knows! Point is, by examining the inner workings of these artifacts and through the magic of reverse-engineering, the amount of time it takes to create new pieces of tech is greatly reduced - and this tech boom is showing no signs of slowing down. For a deeper insight into all of these things, Trails in the Sky is for you. Cold Steel covers a lot, but not everything. Goonpinions Endorph posted:anyway since all you motherfuckers call me a troll, here is *my* 100 games of all time. Cake Attack posted:i love this big impossible to translate series, and the people who make it, who right now are probably chained to their desks until they write a full sized novel of dialogue for a npc who owns a store in a place you go to once quote:
 
Terper fucked around with this message at 11:44 on Aug 4, 2017 |
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Jul 26, 2017 07:58
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Want a taste of the series without spending a dime? Cake Attack has made a Let's Play of the first game in the series here. Really Pants made an LP of the second game and is currently doing one for the third, but you should absolutely get through the first game before those. Some Numbers is currently doing a Let's Play of Cold Steel, so if you want a quick look at this game, steer yourself there. SPOILERS UNDER BARS, ASSHOLES. That includes spoilers from Trails in the Sky and the not-yet-localized games!
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Jul 26, 2017 07:59
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No Rean Coldsteel in OP, 0/10. Edit: Also on a serious note post the comparison video showing the abolishment of Oddly Silent Rean, since that's a pretty big point in the PC version's favor. Last Celebration fucked around with this message at 08:17 on Jul 26, 2017 |
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Jul 26, 2017 08:14
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should i buy this game again even though i haven't beaten it on vita yet, or beaten sky sc or 3rd? make my decisions for me, thread (Also having only finished the first trails in the sky game, these games own bones and anyone on the fence should hop on this poo poo immediately.)
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Jul 26, 2017 09:17
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Also, no, there's no dual audio. XSeed tried, but wasn't allowed to use the Japanese voices due to the actors or agencies using Asia-only contracts. But XSeed put A LOT of effort into properly directing the voice recordings and it shows. People familiar with both voicetracks (and fluent enough in Japanese to properly compare the two) have mentioned the English dub is definitely on par with the Japanese voices. So lay down the torches and pitchforks, ya weaboos. Also, the Japanese voice actor portraying protagonist Rean was apparantly very expensive and somewhat of a prima donna, so either he couldn't make time to record all of Rean's Japanese lines or Falcom couldn't afford them. As a result, in the console versions, Rean is frequently unvoiced in cutscenes that do have voice acting for other characters. XSeed offered to fill in the blanks in the console version, but Falcom didn't want to make the required changes to the code. With them having complete control over the PC version, XSeed has fixed up the "Silent Rean" problem by recording additional lines and inserting them into the cutscenes where other characters are voiced. This eliminates a rather jarring issue the console versions had. XSeed also added voices for characters who are voiced in the sequel, but not in the first game.
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Jul 26, 2017 09:21
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Charlie Bobson posted:should i buy this game again even though i haven't beaten it on vita yet, or beaten sky sc or 3rd? This version is better than the Vita version, not just because of the added voice acting, but also because it performs much, much better. The game suffered frequently slowdowns and FPS hiccups on the vita. The PC version is said to run at a steady 60 FPS and has less loading time than the Vita version to boot.
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Jul 26, 2017 09:23
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Interestingly, the Steam page for the PC version now has ticks for Japanese text and subtitles so even if J voices aren't possible then you (I) can still play it with the original script. Just in time for a refresher before CS3! Also, Koki Uchiyama suuuuuucks. *makes weird clicking/sighing sound with throat at the end of every sentence*
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Jul 26, 2017 10:05
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Erpy posted:Also, the Japanese voice actor portraying protagonist Rean was apparantly very expensive and somewhat of a prima donna, so either he couldn't make time to record all of Rean's Japanese lines or Falcom couldn't afford them. As a result, in the console versions, Rean is frequently unvoiced in cutscenes that do have voice acting for other characters. XSeed offered to fill in the blanks in the console version, but Falcom didn't want to make the required changes to the code. With them having complete control over the PC version, XSeed has fixed up the "Silent Rean" problem by recording additional lines and inserting them into the cutscenes where other characters are voiced. This eliminates a rather jarring issue the console versions had. XSeed also added voices for characters who are voiced in the sequel, but not in the first game. As often as Silent Protagonist Rean (rightfully, goddamn Falcom) gets ragged on, it's kind of an issue with the whole game with a lot of named characters not getting voice acting and Generic Jaeger/Soldier not getting VA in otherwise voiced cutscenes, and it becomes flat-out absurd in CS2, so I'm inclined to say it's purely a budget thing.
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Jul 26, 2017 10:07
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Is it available for pre-order on gog yet? I've only seen it for sale on steam.
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Jul 26, 2017 13:19
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Last Celebration posted:No Rean Coldsteel in OP, 0/10. Pfft. You want a favor from me? Rean Coldsteel?
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Jul 26, 2017 13:42
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Terper posted:Pfft. You want a favor from me? Rean Coldsteel? Sean Chiplock is a Zemurian treasure.
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Jul 26, 2017 14:42
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https://soundcloud.com/anime_sonicmega/rean-coldsteel put it in
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Jul 26, 2017 14:44
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Billzasilver posted:Is it available for pre-order on gog yet? I've only seen it for sale on steam. I don't think Falcom/Xseed does pre-orders. It will show up for sale on gog though. All the other trails games showed up there.
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Jul 26, 2017 14:46
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I wanted to play through tits 1 but drat that game is long and slow
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Jul 26, 2017 15:02
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queeb posted:I wanted to play through tits 1 but drat that game is long and slow It gets moving, eventually and you're thoroughly invested in the characters by then. tits 2 gets moving much quicker than 1 and tits 3 is its own great thing.
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Jul 26, 2017 15:04
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Battles in tits can be sped up with Cheat Engine's speedhack. Battles in Cold Steel don't need to be faster. There's a skip button available for every single animation.
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Jul 26, 2017 15:05
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There is a decent chance I'll buy this without ever intending to play it, at least not until there are some NG+ saves floating around since I can't imagine there'll be any decent way to get my PS3 save onto it.
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Jul 26, 2017 15:07
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This game and its sequel have easily some of the best dubs in the business. Please do not mourn the lack of jp voices.
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Jul 26, 2017 15:08
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https://twitter.com/Hatsuu/status/862086349028970496
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Jul 26, 2017 15:19
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 Brittany rules. I'm so glad she's in charge of these games.
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Jul 26, 2017 15:34
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queeb posted:I wanted to play through tits 1 but drat that game is long and slow It's pretty slow before the school play -> boat scene, and then before Zin helps Agate with the poison but I personally look back on those slow parts with a great big smile. It's hard to appreciate at the time, but for a 200 hr journey, the slow parts are delightfully paced.
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Jul 26, 2017 18:23
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http://xseedgames.tumblr.com/post/163454030210/loh-trails-of-cold-steel-pc-guest-blog-2-from Durante's second blog post!
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Jul 26, 2017 19:20
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Terper posted:http://xseedgames.tumblr.com/post/163454030210/loh-trails-of-cold-steel-pc-guest-blog-2-from Gonna want a PC Cold Steel 3 if we can get unlimited draw distance in it too.
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Jul 26, 2017 19:35
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The most important question is whether I can play Cold Steel with my mouse like all the Sky games.
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Jul 26, 2017 20:47
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Some Numbers posted:The most important question is whether I can play Cold Steel with my mouse like all the Sky games. Got a bad feeling you may be out of luck but we'll see. edit: I mean there is a "configure mouse & keyboard controls" on that launcher so you may need to use your keyboard too.
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Jul 26, 2017 20:48
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im a person who actually knows japanese and id like to say that the dub is actually better than the jp performances. and not that the jp voice track was noticeably bad or anything. the dub is just incredibly good.
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Jul 26, 2017 21:43
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I've been looking forward to this port for a while now, with this and Trails 3rd 2017 is a loving amazing year for PC JRPGs. Trails in the Sky set my standards for "good RPG writing" so unfathomably high I won't be terribly disappointed if ToCS doesn't quite meet the expectations TitS set (after all 3 games are out, of course), but I trust Falcom and XSEED to still put out a pretty drat good set of games.
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Jul 26, 2017 22:02
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So this started out as a Vita game? Does it work on the PSTV?
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Jul 26, 2017 22:05
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I am glad that the poll agrees with me so far.
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Jul 26, 2017 22:05
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Little disappointed Olivert is losing but I understand that.
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Jul 26, 2017 22:17
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I beat Coldsteel in like 50 hours  and I got basically all the extra sidequests and points.
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Jul 26, 2017 22:22
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StandardVC10 posted:So this started out as a Vita game? Does it work on the PSTV? It does, it's also on ps3.
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Jul 26, 2017 22:22
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsSuL-EN4w4 110 minutes of PC footage!
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Aug 1, 2017 07:55
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It looks so smooth!
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Aug 1, 2017 08:28
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StandardVC10 posted:So this started out as a Vita game? Does it work on the PSTV? PC version looks so good and smooth I want to double-dip.
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Aug 1, 2017 10:18
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They've also re-recorded some lines they felt they could do better now. Compare this with this
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Aug 1, 2017 12:18
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Terper posted:They've also re-recorded some lines they felt they could do better now. Compare this with this Sara's VA was my favorite before but it's cool to see how some experience with the character leads to better stuff like that. Double dipping for PC is a no brainer for me.
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Aug 1, 2017 12:53
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Oh wow, that's neat. I love how dedicated they (Brittany) are to making the Trails localizations the best they can be.
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Aug 1, 2017 14:10
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Game is out today, friends. I doubt my toaster can run it but you know I'm gonna drop the money on it the second i get home from work.
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Aug 2, 2017 12:42
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Should be in about 5 hours, but some "last-minute bureaucratic hoopla" may push it back a couple.
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Aug 2, 2017 12:59
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