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FrickenMoron
May 6, 2009

Good game!
Speaking of Towa, she's actually a character I quite disliked back in CS1 because she seemed like "Waifu-Bait" pretty much. Super polite, cute, hard working, smart etc. But over the course of the games she really grew on me and especially in CS3 it shows that she's more than just that. Has anyone else had their opinions of certain characters change that much over the games?

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BearDrivingTruck
Oct 15, 2011

You see the most shocking sights sometimes
As the games went on my opinion of Claire went from "Eh, she's cool I guess," to "Wow that's a lot of doubling down on supporting the more iron-fisted policies of her boss." I'm a bit leery of her at this point.

Amppelix
Aug 6, 2010

yeah, she does, but isn't that way more interesting than "eh kinda cool train cop"

i think it is at least. for most CS1 and 2 she was very much just sorta there.

Nate RFB
Jan 17, 2005

Clapping Larry
I was a little lukewarm on Randy in the first 1/3 or so of Zero, which was weird given that I liked him fine in CS3 though he's way more chill in that one, but he grew into a pretty good character by the end of that game to say nothing of Azure.

E: Millium too I swerved a lot on, she became a lot more fun once she had Jusis to bounce off.

Nate RFB fucked around with this message at 17:08 on May 22, 2020

Idkbutlike2
Nov 5, 2011
I feel like the second half of CS screwed Claire up pretty hard. I actually liked her a lot in the first two games, but then she just became this gutless doormat with a sob story background.

Tesseraction
Apr 5, 2009

So playing through Ao and I'm wondering if even early on on chapter 1 it's revealing things that make the ending to CS3 obvious (or at least way more foreshadowed than I expected). Specifically when on the way to the Police Academy and bump into who I'm assuming is Randy's uncle. Certainly when you ask at Neinvalli the boss there quietly wonders that if it was the man she thinks it is then he'd be with 'his daughter' - aka Shirley who we saw alongside Lechter. But then if the Red Ogre is alive this is taking place during Chapter 5 of Cold Steel 1, meaning Fie's dad already died in battle with him, meaning he must have revived? In which case why is Shirley at all surprised to see the Jaeger King alive and kicking? And in the case of Shirley palling around with Lechter that makes her allying with the Ironbloods at the end of CS3 less surprising, given they're apparently already acquainted as friends.

Oh well, all the more to play and understand. How many Chapters is Ao again?

U-DO Burger
Nov 12, 2007




Tesseraction posted:

So playing through Ao and I'm wondering if even early on on chapter 1 it's revealing things that make the ending to CS3 obvious (or at least way more foreshadowed than I expected). Specifically when on the way to the Police Academy and bump into who I'm assuming is Randy's uncle. Certainly when you ask at Neinvalli the boss there quietly wonders that if it was the man she thinks it is then he'd be with 'his daughter' - aka Shirley who we saw alongside Lechter. But then if the Red Ogre is alive this is taking place during Chapter 5 of Cold Steel 1, meaning Fie's dad already died in battle with him, meaning he must have revived? In which case why is Shirley at all surprised to see the Jaeger King alive and kicking? And in the case of Shirley palling around with Lechter that makes her allying with the Ironbloods at the end of CS3 less surprising, given they're apparently already acquainted as friends.

Oh well, all the more to play and understand. How many Chapters is Ao again?

the Red Ogre is not the one who died fighting the Jaeger King, that was the War God

Ao is 4 chapters plus the epilogue.

Nate RFB
Jan 17, 2005

Clapping Larry
The chapter count for Azure is a little deceiving because the "Epilogue" might be the longest single Trails chapters, it's like 2-3x the normal length of one.

Endorph
Jul 22, 2009

Idkbutlike2 posted:

...or maybe it is and Falcom just wanted those sweet delicious otaku bucks after a decade of poor financial performance. Who knows?
most of the new fans cs brought in and the people it was aimed to appease were women tho

MythosDragon
Jan 3, 2016

My understanding is people are mad at CS4 for saying everything was caused by supernatural evil juju, but forgot that everything was caused by a dude having access to MIND CONTROL in Sky. Trails takes lovely plots, and then actually uses them well, its the series thing, and people just forgot that with CS4 for some reason.


Also uh, if the harem stuff is your biggest problem in CS...... I played half of Zero so far and its uh, several times stronger there since Lloyd goes around actually confessing to chicks without meaning to. Rean avoided that like the plague and girls just kinda started liking him cuz he was a counselor and most of them had some form of crippling trauma. In general, I strongly stand by most of the things I've seen people saying they hate about CS starting in CB. So seeing those same people not have issues with said things in CB rings really hollow with me.

Tae
Oct 24, 2010

Hello? Can you hear me? ...Perhaps if I shout? AAAAAAAAAH!
CS4 is complained about fans back when it was released because it could've been cut down in half with the pacing.

Idkbutlike2
Nov 5, 2011

Endorph posted:

most of the new fans cs brought in and the people it was aimed to appease were women tho

Weird. I don't think I've ever seen Kondo mention such a thing. I know the age range of the average CS fan was noticeably younger than the average Sky fan back in the day, but I've never heard anything about the Japanese fandom's gender demographics.

Supremezero
Apr 28, 2013

hay gurl

MythosDragon posted:

My understanding is people are mad at CS4 for saying everything was caused by supernatural evil juju, but forgot that everything was caused by a dude having access to MIND CONTROL in Sky. Trails takes lovely plots, and then actually uses them well, its the series thing, and people just forgot that with CS4 for some reason.


Also uh, if the harem stuff is your biggest problem in CS...... I played half of Zero so far and its uh, several times stronger there since Lloyd goes around actually confessing to chicks without meaning to. Rean avoided that like the plague and girls just kinda started liking him cuz he was a counselor and most of them had some form of crippling trauma. In general, I strongly stand by most of the things I've seen people saying they hate about CS starting in CB. So seeing those same people not have issues with said things in CB rings really hollow with me.

They also go out of their way to talk about how (most) everything was caused by the supernatural evil juju... except for the straight up evil fuckers from previous arcs. Like said dude with literal mind control. So it's not like it's not calling attention to the fact that there's been outright evil shits magically behind everything before now.

And yeah, Lloyd was harem king. Or capture king.

Supremezero fucked around with this message at 20:01 on May 22, 2020

BearDrivingTruck
Oct 15, 2011

You see the most shocking sights sometimes
From what I've seen of Lloyd he feels a good deal more generic than Rean does. Rean has his self-worth/loathing complex which even though I don't suffer from it to nearly that degree still makes him feel relatable (even if he is still kinda generic in the end), but Lloyd is this extremely competent guy who hits a lot of the same archetype notes as Rean does but a bit more textbook-y. Don't get me wrong, I like Lloyd and I like him not being an idiot, but he's missing something in my eyes that Rean has more of.

Nate RFB
Jan 17, 2005

Clapping Larry
Lloyd's life problems are, mostly, external. Left to his own devices he probably would have become a perfectly serviceable policeman who would have had fairly normal/happy career and life. He's not child of destiny with superpowers that Rean kind of is, and even Estelle kind of gains some international notoriety without doing anything at all thanks to her relation to Cassius. The most special thing about Lloyd is that he had a brother who was a little famous in one city. So at the end of the day Lloyd is just this normal dude who gets caught up in wild situations and has to make the best of it on his own and that he's able to keep his cool and get poo poo done despite it all is what makes him pretty novel comparatively. Also him becoming effectively a dad for both the SSS and KeA is very endearing and not something you really got out of either Estelle or Rean, even including the former's relationship with Renne and the latter's teacher profession.

I never want to hear him say the word "barrier" ever again though.

Nate RFB fucked around with this message at 21:59 on May 22, 2020

Tesseraction
Apr 5, 2009

U-DO Burger posted:

the Red Ogre is not the one who died fighting the Jaeger King, that was the War God

Ao is 4 chapters plus the epilogue.

Of course! I knew I'd hosed up somewhere.

Hwurmp
May 20, 2005

Nate RFB posted:

I never want to hear him say the word "barrier" ever again though.

Get over it :colbert:

Idkbutlike2
Nov 5, 2011
The real barriers were the friends we made along the way.

AFancyQuestionMark
Feb 19, 2017

Long time no see.

Hwurmp posted:

Get over it :colbert:

The possibility of that happening...isn't zero.:frogc00l:

Death Priest
Jun 24, 2004

FrickenMoron posted:

Speaking of Towa, she's actually a character I quite disliked back in CS1 because she seemed like "Waifu-Bait" pretty much. Super polite, cute, hard working, smart etc. But over the course of the games she really grew on me and especially in CS3 it shows that she's more than just that. Has anyone else had their opinions of certain characters change that much over the games?

Professor Schmidt for me. CS3 gave him a lot more screentime and allowed us to learn more about his circumstances. I'm not saying he's a great guy after all but he is not quite the 2 dimensional self-centered rear end in a top hat he was made out to be at first.

MechaX
Nov 19, 2011

"Let's be positive! Let's start a fire!"
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?

Oxxidation
Jul 22, 2007

MechaX posted:

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?

stay away from hard mode, quartz is superior to skills in the first game but it's vice-versa in the second, don't sweat the quests for the ultimate weapons because they're both very finicky and totally unnecessary

dmboogie
Oct 4, 2013

MechaX posted:

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?

some sidequests expire or appear at inconvenient times so if you're planning on doing them prioritize them over the main quest

U-DO Burger
Nov 12, 2007




MechaX posted:

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?

some sidequests are hidden and are really easy to miss. If you don't want to miss them, I would suggest using a spoiler-free guide that just tells you where those hidden sidequests are in each chapter.

Tesseraction
Apr 5, 2009

Death Priest posted:

Professor Schmidt for me. CS3 gave him a lot more screentime and allowed us to learn more about his circumstances. I'm not saying he's a great guy after all but he is not quite the 2 dimensional self-centered rear end in a top hat he was made out to be at first.

I think for me the turning point was when he comforted Altina when she was feeling depressed.

Shinjobi
Jul 10, 2008


Gravy Boat 2k
Claire sucks real bad and I'll give Falcom a dollar if they can successfully make me give a crap about her again in CS4. Millium is cool, Claire is not, and the difference really comes down to one of em doesn't wanna cry every time we meet.

Tesseraction
Apr 5, 2009

What gets me about Claire is CS3 Chap 4 side quest where after her whole sob story about her family, when you find the music box she breaks her Never Return To Rieveldt rule and instead of crying or showing any emotion she's just like "neat. pictures. well bye!" as if you found her spare holster or some bullshit. She literally put more emotion into reaching out as Rean runs past her at the very end of the game FFS.

Shinjobi
Jul 10, 2008


Gravy Boat 2k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc_6dlY5Qnk

Endorph
Jul 22, 2009
Claires cool

Tesseraction
Apr 5, 2009

I feel she was given poor characterisation in CS3. It's a far sight from when she sniped a soldat from so far away that Xeno and Leo decided to flee before they got shot too.

Justin_Brett
Oct 23, 2012

GAMERDOME put down LOSER
The heart to heart with her in Pulse of Steel made me think she's kind of naive or in denial about Osborne. "I could punish your uncle myself, easily, but how about YOU do it and alienate your immediate family?"

U-DO Burger
Nov 12, 2007




Justin_Brett posted:

The heart to heart with her in Pulse of Steel made me think she's kind of naive or in denial about Osborne. "I could punish your uncle myself, easily, but how about YOU do it and alienate your immediate family?"

i know what you're saying, but if i were in her situation i think i too would have chosen to personally make my family's killer eat poo poo, and have been grateful to the person who granted me that opportunity

Idkbutlike2
Nov 5, 2011
I can understand Claire's (CS3) revenge scheme against her uncle and being grateful to Osborne for helping her get her poo poo together after her family's death, but her sappiness and complicity in his schemes become less sensible as the arc goes on. She's supposed to be the Icy Maiden, a competent and level-headed military officer. You'd think that seeing Osborne team up with some extremely shady characters and engage in increasing belligerence and authoritarianism would give her some clue to get the hell away from him, but apparently not. (CS4) And then Falcom decides to justify her actions and mindset with the stupid curse. God, that the curse is such a lazy plot device it's not even funny. What the hell were they thinking?

Endorph
Jul 22, 2009
The main issue is that they seem afraid to commit. If she just made a firm 'this isnt good but I made a decision and I'm sticking to it' call, she'd be in the same boat as Lechter and Rufus. Instead she kind of just waffles alot. I guess its meant to make her seem more tragic, but it mostly makes her less sympathetic since its not like Rean would ever turn her away at any point.

Duvalie is a way better execution of a character who's conflicted about her devotion to someone and what's right, ironically because she gets made fun of for it more and the plot doesn't linger overlong on it.

Shinjobi
Jul 10, 2008


Gravy Boat 2k

Endorph posted:

The main issue is that they seem afraid to commit. If she just made a firm 'this isnt good but I made a decision and I'm sticking to it' call, she'd be in the same boat as Lechter and Rufus. Instead she kind of just waffles alot. I guess its meant to make her seem more tragic, but it mostly makes her less sympathetic since its not like Rean would ever turn her away at any point.

Duvalie is a way better execution of a character who's conflicted about her devotion to someone and what's right, ironically because she gets made fun of for it more and the plot doesn't linger overlong on it.

This pretty much nails my dislike of the character.

Veryslightlymad
Jun 3, 2007

I fight with
my brain
and with an
underlying
hatred of the
Erebonian
Noble Faction
Maybe we're not supposed to like Claire, and understand her simply as a villain. Remember, when she was introduced into the series, despite being on the side helping us, she was regarded with disdain by our actual super cool teacher that has supported us with her whole heart throughout the entire series. We've been able to trust Sara's wisdom on everything else, aside from the merits of alcoholism, so..... maybe her instincts just happen to be right about Claire?

MythosDragon
Jan 3, 2016

I like Claire, but I also take the plot dumbing a character down for drama as a given since its in 99% of stories. Plus, Its fully in Claire's character to just kinda go with the flow since shes facing options and not a single one of them ends well, so sticking with the one that involves just standing where she is is the easiest choice.

I can't comment on how well the curse is handled since we saw it for 10 minutes in CS3, but its been foreshadowed since Sky, so that automatically prevents like 80% of ways it can be used dumbly. And again, I'd rather deal with a supernatural being of immense power using dumb powers over your random dude using dumb powers, at least theres a solid justification of being supernaturally powerful.

Remember, like, 10% of the space mcguffin created another dimension, why wouldn't the entirety of 2 mcguffins be capable of widespread mental influence?

OneDeadman
Oct 16, 2010

[SUPERBIA]
I have just started CS3, and I didn't realize this game was gonna be all about Falcom giving everybody long flowing manes now that they are capable of harnessing the PS4's superior HAIR TECH.

GreenBuckanneer
Sep 15, 2007

Trails of Cold Steel 1 question:

Worth it to play on hard for the first time? I played a little of the beginning on easy and it's kind of too easy. I played to the first "boss" and only then did the difficulty even begin to be "harder".

I can't change it afterwards so trying not to waste time on something too hard.

Side question: should I bother watching these videos on the story summary of Azure/Zero? It sounds like some of them make a cameo in the 2nd game but IDK how important it is to know.

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Cyouni
Sep 30, 2014

without love it cannot be seen
Play on Hard if you want a challenge, and Normal is probably the lowest I'd go.

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