The Legend of Heroes Thread - Trails of Cold Steel in the Sky

[InD_ImaginE]

Started playing Cold Steel

Gaius and Machias English VO are horrible. Laura feels like she tries to impersonate a man. Sara is kind of floaty? Overall decent English VO though. How does the Japanese VO compare? And how much line is missing in Japanese? XSEED added new voice for English yes?

And yeah. release timing for the game is unfortunate. I am tempted to help them by buying now instead of waiting at least 25% discount.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Started playing Cold Steel

Gaius and Machias English VO are horrible. Laura feels like she tries to impersonate a man. Sara is kind of floaty? Overall decent English VO though. How does the Japanese VO compare? And how much line is missing in Japanese? XSEED added new voice for English yes?

And yeah. release timing for the game is unfortunate. I am tempted to help them by buying now instead of waiting at least 25% discount.

How are you playing it if you didn't buy it already?

 

[InD_ImaginE]

Started playing Cold Steel

Gaius and Machias English VO are horrible. Laura feels like she tries to impersonate a man. Sara is kind of floaty? Overall decent English VO though. How does the Japanese VO compare? And how much line is missing in Japanese? XSEED added new voice for English yes?

And yeah. release timing for the game is unfortunate. I am tempted to help them by buying now instead of waiting at least 25% discount.

How are you playing it if you didn't buy it already?

Just bought the first. Tempted to buy the second.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Started playing Cold Steel

Gaius and Machias English VO are horrible. Laura feels like she tries to impersonate a man. Sara is kind of floaty? Overall decent English VO though. How does the Japanese VO compare? And how much line is missing in Japanese? XSEED added new voice for English yes?

And yeah. release timing for the game is unfortunate. I am tempted to help them by buying now instead of waiting at least 25% discount.

How are you playing it if you didn't buy it already?

Just bought the first. Tempted to buy the second.

Ah, ok. I own the games on PS3 and Steam. I'd buy them on GOG too if I wasn't trying to save....

 

[Urthor]

Christ the sales are shit.

Get ready for NISA to do Sen III people

 

[Malpercio]

XSEED never had timing for releases, they keep releasing niche games without marketing in the middle of big releases.

 

[Urthor]

I mean there is literally no good timing for release, honestly there just flat out isn't a "quiet week" in the entire gaming calendar at this point. The bigger issue is that releasing games without marketing is doomed to failure.

 

[a bear named spigot]

wouldn't have expected much more. going by steamspy and achievements only ~10k people who bought CS1 on steam finished it, and sequels to niche games will only ever trend downwards. and for xseed in particular the trails in the sky games have already shown this.

 

[jungl]

Not many people out there want to play falcom jrpgs where they reuse a ton of assets. Also the story in trails games is shit. You better off watching any B rate anime.

 

[flyingjohn]

on the other hand game isn't selling too hot atm

http://steamspy.com/app/748490

pretty much fell out of global seller too whence it was #2 behind KC:D.

CS I stayed in the top 10 for at least a week.

it just hurts

Releasing in the same week as KCD, and only a few weeks after Final Fantasy XII weren't good moves. People who like RPGs will be playing KCD and the hardcore JRPG audience will still be busy with FF XII.

Then Steam launched a sale a day later. That was extremely unfortunate but this kind of thing happens all the time.

They should have released in January when there was no competition.

Ironic,their best selling game trails in the sky was released in the summer drought,and that probably led to the big sales.

Every single other heroes game after that seems to have been released near big hitters(tits2 near fallout and other jrpg,cold steel 2 near kcd,etc).

I remember them talking about it in the forum saying that people will buy the game regardless of other big titles coming close to their release date.

Unfortunately people have a limited budget per month and will always choose the most popular option instead.

 

[a bear named spigot]

you're deluded if you think there is a bunch of people who bought kcd that were tossing up between that and cs2. trails in the sky 1 fell into some good sales and then most people who bought it either never played it enough to get into it, or played it just enough to realise they don't like it. either way they didn't buy into the series. the legend of heroes is a known quantity now and no matter how dry the schedule was it was never going to strike gold again.

 

[Urthor]

Ironic,their best selling game trails in the sky was released in the summer drought,and that probably led to the big sales.

Every single other heroes game after that seems to have been released near big hitters(tits2 near fallout and other jrpg,cold steel 2 near kcd,etc).

I remember them talking about it in the forum saying that people will buy the game regardless of other big titles coming close to their release date.

Unfortunately people have a limited budget per month and will always choose the most popular option instead.

More games should be released in the summer drought idk why developers respect it. If you have a big box release you are selling to kiddies maybe don't release it in july, if you have an edgy indie title you could probably make an awful lot of money by being #1 on the steam charts and getting PS4 store promotion with a mid july release

 

[Irxy]

Sales are as expected, imo.
The game is niche.
The game is old. Which means both the outdated graphics and the fact that most interested in it have played it already.
The publicity is non-existent. None of the gaming resources I follow even bothered to mention the release, no reviews/previews.
The original Trails got great sales over the years over the sales, because it was one of the 1st JRPGs ported to pc so the attention was outstanding.
Yet you can't expect it to be easy mode nowadays, times have changed, the market is flooded with jrpgs.
Want decent sales? Release the pc version on day 1, not 5 years late, work with press etc.

 

[Nirvash]

Ok, starting steel after the sky duotrilogy. (the hell was the 3 game)

Is nightmare doable for 1 run? (nightmare in sky 2 was a no fun war of attrition, no more plz)

 

[Somberlain]

Cold Steel 1 is probably the easiest game in the series if you pay attention to the mechanics. Nightmare is doable for first playthrough.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

My thoughts 12 hours in to the PC version:

Durante and the XSEED programmers have pulled it off again. Stable 60 FPS with all settings maxed (but 4xMSAA, shadows not at absurd levels because there's no point when you're at 1920x1080). I've never seen it drop below.

The gameplay is super smooth, the loading screens are quick and generally only appear after the conclusion of big events (so they help break things up and allow you to take a quick breather).

Resuming the last save allows you to jump in and out of the game at ease. It's been good for me when the buggy jankiness of KCD gets too much and I want to play a polished turn-based RPG again.

As for the game itself, it is fucking epic but I already knew that from the PS3 version. Massive improvement over CS1 in terms of the story, all the different subplots, and how high the stakes are.

 

[HoboForEternity]

just got to crow's backstory. and this is one of those moments that it reminded me why i love the series. it's just a grounded event, basic economy and predatory business practice/political manipulation, coupled with some fantasy background (the salt pale incident shown its effect both geographically, technologically, economic and socio-politics)

it's just brilliant, brilliant writing and these are themes that are never brought up in JRPGs or even RPGs in general. the writing and the world are relatable for the most part, and the parts thats made up are done tastefully and clever enough with enough believable made up reality that totally hold the suspension of disbelief.

at one side you got totally grounded stuff like industrial revolution, class warfare, politics and the grey and grey morality of war. on the other side, you got mechs and dragons and device the size of a phone that can summon fireballs and glaciers and shit and it works.

 

[HoboForEternity]

Well, they just made me sit down and talk and drink tea in a luxury cabin with most of the "bad guys" you fought in cold steel 1.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

just got to crow's backstory. and this is one of those moments that it reminded me why i love the series. it's just a grounded event, basic economy and predatory business practice/political manipulation, coupled with some fantasy background (the salt pale incident shown its effect both geographically, technologically, economic and socio-politics)

it's just brilliant, brilliant writing and these are themes that are never brought up in JRPGs or even RPGs in general. the writing and the world are relatable for the most part, and the parts thats made up are done tastefully and clever enough with enough believable made up reality that totally hold the suspension of disbelief.

at one side you got totally grounded stuff like industrial revolution, class warfare, politics and the grey and grey morality of war. on the other side, you got mechs and dragons and device the size of a phone that can summon fireballs and glaciers and shit and it works.

The salt thing was handled really well in TITS 3 too. I think I played and completed TOCS 2 first and it was only after completing TITS 3 did I understand just how fucked up the situation was in the world.

It's a nice counterpoint to Class VII themselves being annoyingly nice and friendly to everyone they meet. Someone new to the series might think Trails is all rainbow and sunshine and nobody dies but the political situation is dark as hell.

I've heard TOCS 4 is going to be dark - if it is anything like TITS 3 we're in for a great game - assuming TOCS 3 actually gets westernised!

 

[HoboForEternity]

Just show then renne's star door.

Even then it took me half way to realize whats happened. Like there is quite a hint of what happened even early but i was like "yeaaaah they probably wouldnt go that way. It was too damn dark" until even further trough it became more and more apparent and honestly, they pulled it wonderfully, tastefully. Brilliant writing.

also that reaction when rean learned scarlet was a "sister" in training. That disbelief of his, the subtleties of worldbuilding. Hngggggg

 

[HoboForEternity]

one thing that i remember, don't ARCUS double as a phone or it has limited range? i don't remember if they said the range is limited, but i remember they do use them as communication menthod in garrelia fort in CS 1.

wont that makes it easy for them just to arrange a rendezvous?

 

[Deleted member 7219]

one thing that i remember, don't ARCUS double as a phone or it has limited range? i don't remember if they said the range is limited, but i remember they do use them as communication menthod in garrelia fort in CS 1.

wont that makes it easy for them just to arrange a rendezvous?

I think orbal technology is short range. Interesting point: does Radio Trista broadcast anywhere else or can it only be picked up in Trista?

 

[HoboForEternity]

one thing that i remember, don't ARCUS double as a phone or it has limited range? i don't remember if they said the range is limited, but i remember they do use them as communication menthod in garrelia fort in CS 1.

wont that makes it easy for them just to arrange a rendezvous?

I think orbal technology is short range. Interesting point: does Radio Trista broadcast anywhere else or can it only be picked up in Trista?

i think I remember people in heimdall or other towns / cities know of abend time. Idunno. I dont remeber thay much detail

 

[HoboForEternity]

https://geofront.esterior.net/2018/02/23/trails-zero-60/

Trails from Zero: 60%


Hello, everyone! Once again, I’m here with news of another 10% done on the editing of Trails from Zero. Quite a lot of things have been going on behind the scenes aside from the editing, but don’t worry, I’ll get into that in a bit.


Editing Progress
Personally, I continue to become happier and happier with my edits. My recent work consisted of finishing up Armorica Village, Mainz, and moving on to St. Ursula Medical College and the border gates. Man, you would not believe how big St. Ursula really is. I finished up everything there except the hospital and decided to switch things up and try my hand at the gates. It’s going to be crazy when all that’s left is to edit the rest of Crossbell City. All in all, I’m proud of how I’ve improved as an editor (and I most certainly plan to fix my early stuff during QA!)



Behind the Scenes
The others that are working on programming and pseudo-QA right now really don’t get enough credit. Jose, our programmer, is always ready to help and has made some amazing improvements to Zero’s PC version. On the other side of the coin, Ribose never fails to give me a helping hand and keep the script consistent. I owe a lot to my teammates and they haven’t let me down. In the meantime, we’ve managed to translate and get crisp versions of the battle UI, menu names, and even the font we’re using. On top of that, Jose has been able to figure out how colored text spacing worked and Ribose was able to translate the debug menu, which helps our testing of the game immensely. Keep this under wraps, but we might be contemplating inserting portraits into the game for the primary two characters that don’t have them in Zero.





Video Shenanigans
While talking to one of my friends, DrCullenPHD, the topic of video editing popped up. One thing led to another, and a few hours later, we had proof that it would be possible to replace the Japanese logo and text within the opening and editing with our own logo and translations. I, for one, was pretty blown away by it, so I hope you guys can look forward to that in the future. Who knows, perhaps a trailer for Trails from Zero might happen at some point…?

Gameplan
From here on out, I intend to edit Bellguard Gate and Tangram Gate before swinging back around to finish St. Ursula Medical College. Like I mentioned before, I was really caught off guard by just how large the script is there. As of now, I’ve finished the exterior, Research Ward, and the cafeteria and dormitories. The hospital section is certainly the largest, but I’m excited to go back to it later down the line. I’m thinking that we might try to do something special for 75% and April Fools’ Day. We’ll see what happens.



In some ways, I feel like I got stuck in a bit of a rut after hitting 50%. A barrier, if you will. Anyways, I don’t intend to stay stuck in it and I want to continue to make solid progress on editing while maintaining the quality I believe I’ve been hitting. As always, thanks to my girlfriend, teammates, and friends who have never stopped encouraging me and the team. Here’s to you!

 

[Valestein]

So i finally got around to starting the PC version of CS2 and checked out the kind of steam profile backgrounds there were for it, and they have one with Sara but she shares it with that punk Toval, and meanwhile, Claire gets a background all to herself.