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

[frajaq]

I've been enjoying Cold Steel 4, and just started the Finale chapter, but good lord the plot and cast feels a bit bloated.

Tell me you haven't played Trails Into Reverie without telling me you haven't played Trails Into Reverie.

I dont believe you, there's no way all the Thors Main Campus Graduates + Instructors and Branch Camp Students show up again

 

[Hammer Of The Heretics]

If memory serves me correctly there are 55 playable characters in Reverie, although some are only usable in the True Reverie Corridor.

 

[frajaq]

I did it, im glad I finished this, even thought CS 3 and 4 had problem with pacing/bloat

I was pleased that the way they ressurrected Crow and Millium didnt feel like an asspull considering what was spent for it

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I hate when Falcom wants to have their cake and eat it too. This was the third time they've done this after Ys VIII and Tokyo Xanadu, and once again the normal ending was more memorable than the true ending.

 

[frajaq]

holy shit Falcom actually increased their size, have they gone too far?

 

[HoboForEternity]

holy shit Falcom actually increased their size, have they gone too far?

Yea i love boobies as much as the other guys but the proportions have become one piece level of ridic

 

[Maxie]

holy shit Falcom actually increased their size, have they gone too far?

I am aroused

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Finally some news for Kai no Kiseki:

Van and Agnes get new outfits and 2D illustrations. Bergard was also reintroduced in the news post but doesn't have a new model or illustration. I won't bother reposting their reintroduction text as it is doesn't say anything new. It's just a summary of where their characters left off after Kuro 1, as Kuro 2 is a filler game.

Looks like Yun Ka-Fai will make his debut.

First look at Ored

MTSC headquarters:

Grendel transformation available for action mode trash battles.

A new turn order bonus called "Blitz" is being introduced. If you proc a link attack on a Blitz turn, then an additional third character will also make a followup attack. Also works on and amplifies the effectiveness of healing spells and items.

 

[Reinhardt]

why man wearing earring? is he fag?

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

why man wearing earring? is he fag?

It's just millennial and zoomer punk fashion. I go to the mall and see girls ranging from teenagers to moms in their early 30s with kids trailing behind them having exposed midriffs and piercings all over, and sometimes guys with piercings. I went to a rodeo last week and some late teens/early 20s kids sat down on the bench in front of me, again exposed midriffs and piercings. Young gentlemen wearing chinos and button up longsleeved shirts and sport coats are a rare breed these days. Parents no longer teach their sons to dress like respectable men.

 

[frajaq]

Welp, finished Reverie for real (optional final boss in Reverie Corridor). Enjoyed it a lot!

Now to take a break and play other stuff since Daybreak 1 is coming very soon

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Welp, finished Reverie for real (optional final boss in Reverie Corridor). Enjoyed it a lot!

Now to take a break and play other stuff since Daybreak 1 is coming very soon

You could just play it now with the fan translation patch, which was more polished than Reverie's official "localization".

Though I guess it might be worth to wait and hope that NISA patches the game and fixes the stuttering that happens during certain craft and S-craft animations.

 

[frajaq]

I thought about it but with the official version on steam being so close (even with the risk of localized troonslations) I'll just wait.

Since from what I understand there's a fan translation for sequel, and THAT one will take awhile, I'll play Kuro 2 with the fan translation after this when I have time

 

[Jermu]

The Legend of Heroes Kai no Kiseki -Farewell O Zemuria- Launching in Japan for PS4 and PS5 September 2024

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

First trailer is out.

Official Pre-release promotional materials

Three protagonists wearing sport coats hehe


News post

Interesting that the Grandmaster is being advertised on the cover of the game. Again. Hopefully she will appear for more than 2 minutes and we will get some actual information on the big bad of this 14 game long series this time?




New Feri illustration. Looking better than her Kuro 1 design. Shame about the short hair, though.










Four characters now wearing sport coats? Hm I don't know about this black jacket + red hair combination. I think the white jacket + red hair looked better.










New Risette outfit. Eh








What on earth is this new Quatre outfit? It looks like he's either going to the beach, or he walked out of Bakugan or something?






Well it's nice we can see some collarbone. He looks a little more like a man this time.






Judith's new outfit is bad. First one was straight up better. Hope I can swap back to that one.










New city of Anchorville. Looks like yet another boring Calvardian city with brutalist blocky modern architecture.

We have fin funnels in Trails now.

I wonder if Rean can now canonically tap into the Realm of the Great Shadow (via the soul of Valimar which now possesses the Tyrfing?), or if this is just a fancy non-canon S-craft background.

What is this black thing? That can't be Claimh Solais because that thing has way more mass/volume, unless Claim Solais' AI is being transplanted into a bigger machine? Or is this some other external attachment?

The lighting and magic effects in the Kuro games is nice.

Why is Rufus lounging around in the empty castle at Oracion? And, oh dear, is this guy wearing a suit and a vest, but no tie and leaves his collar unbuttoned? He should either ditch the vest or fully suit up. And how did he get the Holy Sword of Ishnard back? He wasn't even able to take the Helmord with him into his exile. Did he still it back? Don't tell me Jusis mailed it to him.

 

[Jinn]

Interesting that the Grandmaster is being advertised on the cover of the game. Again. Hopefully she will appear for more than 2 minutes and we will get some actual information on the big bad of this 14 game long series this time?

It's so funny to me how obsessed you are with this point, and how you see the Ouroboros as some kind of black and white villain situation, when it's been made clear time and again that isn't the case. Beyond that, there's been plenty of breadcrumbs dropped to make the fair assumption that the Grandmaster is

Spoiler

Aidios, or some aspect of her. In that same vein, it appears her goal is to "reset" the world and bring about a rebirth, as the name of the Eternal Reccurrence Plan suggests.

It's not as cut and dry as good and bad, and there is a metaphysical nature to the workings of the Ouroboros.

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Interesting that the Grandmaster is being advertised on the cover of the game. Again. Hopefully she will appear for more than 2 minutes and we will get some actual information on the big bad of this 14 game long series this time?

It's so funny to me how obsessed you are with this point, and how you see the Ouroboros as some kind of black and white villain situation, when it's been made clear time and again that isn't the case. Beyond that, there's been plenty of breadcrumbs dropped to make the fair assumption that the Grandmaster is

Spoiler

Aidios, or some aspect of her. In that same vein, it appears her goal is to "reset" the world and bring about a rebirth, as the name of the Eternal Reccurrence Plan suggests.

It's not as cut and dry as good and bad, and there is a metaphysical nature to the workings of the Ouroboros.

Ouroboros and the GM are the reason most of the conflict happens in Trails. Enforcers running around Liberl causing earthquakes and crushing shopping malls and massacring Grancel guards? Ouroboros torching Crossbell, loaning out giant super robots that melt and void thousands of people and escalating a cold war into a hot one? Enforcers threatening to burn down the Nord Highlands for shits and giggles? Enforcers unleashing hordes of killer robots upon highschoolers camping outdoors or upon a skyscraper of people? Enforcers hijacking railway guns and bombarding a densely populated city? Enforcers massacring a garrison? Enforcers helping perform child sacrifice? Enforcers trying to cause the end of the world? Ouroboros trying to gas everyone in the sewers underneath Oracion? And most of the Enforcers are just "whatever, I'm only in this organization because I'm strong and I do whatever the Anguis and the Grandmaster asks us to do" which offloads the motivation for all of these deadly conflicts onto the head honcho, the GM. She's guilty by association. Ofcourse she's a villain I want to see get her comeuppance. You can't expect her to cause all these heinous murders and then expect me to be satisfied if she gets off scott free "oh she just was trying to save us all from the REAL THREAT" like Sargeras or the Jailer from Warcraft.

 

[Jinn]

It has been pointed out over and over that above all, Enforcers are autonomous, and not all their actions are under the jurisdiction of the society. They serve a purpose within the organization, but they are not policed by it. Beyond all that, I don't think the series writers are doing anything wrong from a narrative standpoint by keeping the ultimate aim of the Ouroboros somewhat mysterious. They give us plenty if you read between the lines and do a minor amount of theorizing. The major arcs have plenty going on with them to facilitate this approach. Plenty has happened in Zemuria in the time that has been shown us - major and minor. The storytelling in this series just isn't for you, yet you expect it to change with each new installment. Why?

Also, kindly spoiler that news post. Not everyone here has played Kuro, let alone Kuro 2.

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

The storytelling in this series just isn't for you, yet you expect it to change with each new installation. Why?

I expect that my money will be used to make the next game better and improve upon the fault. The continual unsatisfying resolutions of these games have been near universally panned, from Ys to Tokyo Xanadu to Crossbell to Cold Steel to Kuro. This isn't an issue exclusive to Falcom. You have that hated writer at Bethseda who somehow didn't get his act together. If you write a story like Starfield and it is universally disliked, you didn't do your job. A company would have to be negligent to not do anything about this feedback. It's worse for Trails which is much less gameplay focused and relies much more on the writing to carry it.

 

[Jinn]

Well you'd think you'd have learned your lesson by now if it's that dissatisfying for you? There are plenty of issues I have with the storytelling in these games, but as far as overarching development and the grand storyline as it stands, it does it better than any series ever has and I still enjoy my time with them. The biggest misstep in terms of pacing with this series was making Cold Steel four games, when it easily could have been two or three. I personally don't have an issue with how it resolved, nor do I have an issue with how Crossbell resolved, because they aren't the end of the story and feed directly into the coming installments. When I see complaints about these points, I have a difficult time understanding what expectations people have for such a massive and unique form of storytelling/world building in a videogame format.

 

[Reinhardt]

The biggest misstep in terms of pacing with this series was making Cold Steel games

yes

 

[Jermu]