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Amppelix
Aug 6, 2010

is that the same as the PC release date of CS4?

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Artix
Apr 26, 2010

He's finally back,
to kick some tail!
And this time,
he's goin' to jail!
Yeah, PC/Switch are both also April 9th. Congrats to google for getting 1/4 games on time?

hamburgers in pockets
Jun 18, 2005

Yeah, that's blood. It'll get better before the show.
Hopefully all this means is that NISA got enough money from Google that they can fast track the localization for Hajimari.

Sakurazuka
Jan 24, 2004

NANI?

I don't want NISA fast tracking translations no matter how much money they have tbh

SyntheticPolygon
Dec 20, 2013

Pretty much at the endgame of 3rd and making my way through the last doors.

Most of them are good but man, I kinda think this Renne backstory is a tad too heavy for Trails.

Endorph
Jul 22, 2009
i think the renne stuff is the high water mark of trails writing quality-wise honestly, its a strong throughline and it handles it pretty delicately, and it makes the found family stuff with her and estelle land. itd be easy to gently caress up and its not like trails is the most carefully considered thing in the world but the fact that they knew not to gently caress it up makes me respect it a lot. i can get thinking its heavy but at the same time i think renne and the series would be substantially weaker for its absence.

SyntheticPolygon
Dec 20, 2013

I didn't think it was weak writing or anything and I'd say Renne is easily one of the better characters from the Sky cast but for something that comes right at the end of the game as a fairly short interlude I dunno it felt weird. Not poorly handled but just something I wasn't expecting a Trails game to cover.

SyntheticPolygon
Dec 20, 2013

And that's Sky the 3rd done. A fantastic game and a great send-off for the arc. If it weren't for CS having much more fun gameplay this honestly might have overtaken CS1 as my favourite Trails game.

I didn't expect when I started that I would enjoy this weird epilogue game so much but I really liked it. I liked FC and SC but they had their ups and downs and sometimes the downs were more noticeable but this was just a really fun ride and it's left me with a greater appreciation for the Liberl crew. The doors were a great mechanic for exploring these characters and outside of like Josette and Agate I think everyone's coming out of this game a better character than when they came in.

Kevin's also probably the best Trails protag so far. Estelle's arc with Renne is some of the best writing in Trails but there's a lot of moments in the previous games where I think she's not used the best but Kevin's a fun guy all throughout this game and I liked him a lot in SC as well. It helps that 3rd is a bit better paced than the other games and Kevin doesn't need to have his arc stretched over multiple titles. I also thought Ries was pretty rad and she had a good dynamic with Kevin, though I think she could have used another chapter where she was the focus.


Probably not going to jump into the next Trails game right away but i'm feeling nostalgic for Erebonia so I think i'll be trying CS3 before Crossbell. I was feeling a bit burnt out after CS2 and SC but 3rd's really pumped me up for the rest of the series!

Some Numbers
Sep 28, 2006

"LET'S GET DOWN TO WORK!!"

SyntheticPolygon posted:

Probably not going to jump into the next Trails game right away but i'm feeling nostalgic for Erebonia so I think i'll be trying CS3 before Crossbell. I was feeling a bit burnt out after CS2 and SC but 3rd's really pumped me up for the rest of the series!

I would strongly urge you to play Zero next.

hamburgers in pockets
Jun 18, 2005

Yeah, that's blood. It'll get better before the show.

Some Numbers posted:

I would strongly urge you to play Zero next.

Same here. A LOT of stuff in CS3 hits way harder if you've at least played Zero.

Tesseraction
Apr 5, 2009

The Crossbell Arc is definitely the tightest of the series and I join in those suggesting you go for it.

GreenBuckanneer
Sep 15, 2007

I watched a lets play of duo and didn't like it. Maybe I'd have liked it if it was more like Cold Steel and less like Sky.

That being said I really need to finish CS4...

Nate RFB
Jan 17, 2005

Clapping Larry
It was a moot point when CS3 first came out because Zero did not have a decent TL yet, but having gone CS3->Zero->Azure->CS4 in late 2019 and across 2020, I do think I would generically recommend trying the Crossbell games first if you can help it before CS3. Despite what anyone will say it really is pretty much an unnecessary concern with CS1/2, but with 3 they start more explicitly actually getting into the weeds on the events of those games in a way that while doesn't really matter for playing CS3 it does feel like it takes a little of the wind out of the sails of Azure in particular. It's definitely not a big enough deal if you are dead set on returning to Erebonia, I played CS3 and and still loved my time with the Crossbell games later, but that was mostly just because it was the only real option available at the time.

Ryuga Death
May 14, 2008

There's gotta be one more bell to crack
Fun Shoe
Is there any easy way to play the crossbell games?

Nate RFB
Jan 17, 2005

Clapping Larry
How easy it is probably going to be probably a bit relative, but you can buy it on DLSite. Some cards get tripped up though so you might have to tell your c. card company that the purchase is on the level. But it really was as simple as adding it to cart->buying->downloading it otherwise.

Azure is more complicated because it was technically never released in Japan on PC but Geofront have worked out a means apparently to do so from some of the Chinese vendors via paypal.

GrandpaPants
Feb 13, 2006


Free to roam the heavens in man's noble quest to investigate the weirdness of the universe!

Ryuga Death posted:

Is there any easy way to play the crossbell games?

In Summer 2021:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1457520/The_Legend_of_Heroes_Zero_no_Kiseki_KAI/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1461920/The_Legend_of_Heroes_Ao_no_Kiseki_KAI/

J Detan
Apr 24, 2008

Wir haben uns zu Meistern der Wissenschaft!

Grimey Drawer

Bear in mind that the Geofront translation will not work on these.

kirbysuperstar
Nov 11, 2012

Let the fools who stand before us be destroyed by the power you and I possess.
https://twitter.com/omgfloofy/status/1376029244048936961

GreenBuckanneer
Sep 15, 2007


That's not english.

Tesseraction
Apr 5, 2009

Ryuga Death posted:

Is there any easy way to play the crossbell games?

As Nate RFB says you can buy it on DLsite, there's a Reddit guide here https://www.reddit.com/r/Falcom/comments/7jee3m/how_to_legally_buy_zero_no_kiseki_trails_to_zero/

That's in Japanese, of course, so if you add this fan patch https://geofront.esterior.net/titles/trails-from-zero/

You're golden. By the time you finish this hopefully a similar system will be in place for Trails of Azure because part of GeoFront's desired effort is making these games legally obtainable in the west even without an official translation.

Eggnogium
Jun 1, 2010

Never give an inch! Hnnnghhhhhh!

Tesseraction posted:

As Nate RFB says you can buy it on DLsite, there's a Reddit guide here https://www.reddit.com/r/Falcom/comments/7jee3m/how_to_legally_buy_zero_no_kiseki_trails_to_zero/

That's in Japanese, of course, so if you add this fan patch https://geofront.esterior.net/titles/trails-from-zero/

You're golden. By the time you finish this hopefully a similar system will be in place for Trails of Azure because part of GeoFront's desired effort is making these games legally obtainable in the west even without an official translation.

They already have a solution for purchasing Azure from the US: https://geofront.esterior.net/2020/06/30/trails-to-azure-now-available-to-purchase-via-paypal-on-joyolands-website/

Their translation is done and they are just testing their patch, hopefully out by the beginning of Summer.

They have said that neither of their patches will work on the Steam releases coming out and will not ever be making them compatible.

Tesseraction
Apr 5, 2009

Yeah I think I did actually buy that version in preparation. I meant that their patch should be in Release Candidate.

As for the KAI versions... yeah I remember when those came out one of the GeoFront people was astounded how the PS4 version (which is the Steam version) looked like total dogshit compared to the original game.

Some Numbers
Sep 28, 2006

"LET'S GET DOWN TO WORK!!"
I will say that I played Azure with the existing translation and it was bad, but passable.

Azures story is strong enough to shine through even a mediocre translation.

Definitely play with the full voice track enabled, because even though it's Japanese, the cast is incredible and adds so much to the experience.

Some Numbers fucked around with this message at 17:22 on Mar 29, 2021

MythosDragon
Jan 3, 2016

After 275 hours, I finally beat CS4. In a strange twist of fate, starting up the rest of the Finale after taking a break 2 months ago, somehow led to me finishing it today, my birthday, with no prior planning.

I'm gonna be completely honest, CS4 has the second most problems in the series after SC. But I think most of those problems stem from them deciding to make the Power Rangers the central cast of Arc 4. That's not to say I dont like them, its just that we didnt need a new cast of fresh eyed youngsters for the 4th Arc, that wraps up most of the content from the prior 3 arcs. CS3 by itself isn't bad at all, but the issue is that CS3 didnt do much for the big huge conclusion arc so CS4 had to do it all, and it also couldnt ditch these children, so we had to waste more time on them, so we couldn't use that time on say Arianrhod who's lack of payoff is easily the worst part of the game considering she's been hyped up since the conclusion of Arc 2 and all of Arc 3. Also you absolutely in no way shape or form have to play Sky or Crossbell before CS4, I was so extremely excited to have all 3 protags work together, but Estelle and Lloyd are around for like 1% of the game and never for anything important, you still get moments out of them but unlike the CS cast which I grew to love more, my love for them has mostly been stagnant barring their growth as people over 2/4 years. Your love of Randy in CS4 will transfer to Azure, and vice versa perfectly well.


Same, TC left me super happy and I'm hoping Origins can do the same in uh a year and half hopefully, I'm hoping they can bumrush Zero and Azure out fast while also working on that.

Some Numbers
Sep 28, 2006

"LET'S GET DOWN TO WORK!!"

MythosDragon posted:

but Estelle and Lloyd are around for like 1% of the game and never for anything important,

goddammit falcom

MythosDragon
Jan 3, 2016

Some Numbers posted:

goddammit falcom

I was super loving excited for the teams to actually work together and interact, even if Class VII was the driving force, but the narrative did everything it goddamn could to keep them separate. Literally all it would have taken to fix this to a major extent, would be for them to not wander off and do literally nothing off screen, and just sit around at the home base to have npc text.

Also in fairness I am exaggerating a tiny bit, My see literally every line of text playstyle had them around for like 1%, but a normal person's Just do everything once, can probably bump that to 5% or even 10% if they don't do town npc runs and the aformentioned Duvalie Fan girl scene is the best showing they get too, that addresses your "why do these people get along" questions extremely well.

Nate RFB
Jan 17, 2005

Clapping Larry
On the other hand you get Renne hanging around the crew for extended periods and honestly that's more fun than Estelle/Lloyd.

GreenBuckanneer
Sep 15, 2007

MythosDragon posted:

I was so extremely excited to have all 3 protags work together, but Estelle and Lloyd are around for like 1% of the game and never for anything important, you still get moments out of them but unlike the CS cast which I grew to love more, my love for them has mostly been stagnant barring their growth as people over 2/4 years. Your love of Randy in CS4 will transfer to Azure, and vice versa perfectly well.

As someone who's watched full lets plays of non-Cold Steel games, this is what I've been saying. Sure, the easter eggs make sense or maybe give you more feelyfeels when Character X shows up on screen, but Cold Steel is basically Its Own Thing, and the game spendswastes a lot of time bringing the player up to speed for something you might not have seen. Though, this is more of a problem with each new cold steel game start to a degree.

Nate RFB
Jan 17, 2005

Clapping Larry
The two big parts are everyone getting together on the Pantagruel and Olivert's wedding, the latter of which in particular does have a strong "this is a capstone to all of the games up to this point". But other than that yes Cold Steel is very much its own thing and is going to stay a Rean-focused story and people should probably not going into it expecting otherwise lol.

MythosDragon
Jan 3, 2016

Nate RFB posted:

The two big parts are everyone getting together on the Pantagruel and Olivert's wedding, the latter of which in particular does have a strong "this is a capstone to all of the games up to this point". But other than that yes Cold Steel is very much its own thing and is going to stay a Rean-focused story and people should probably not going into it expecting otherwise lol.

Cold Steel 1&2 and Cold Steel 3&4 are two thoroughly separate things, and this 4th arc has been constantly billed as the capstone to all 3 previous arcs in my experience. So it's a huge let down.
Also legit upset that the wedding was just the ED, I was hoping for an hours worth of cutscenes.

Nate RFB
Jan 17, 2005

Clapping Larry
Having gotten farther in Ys IX, I think the issue with the game is not some hand wringing about its juvenile takes on sociopolitical issues or whatever and more that the cast is just as a whole a decent step back from VIII's party. Credo is a try hard who sucks out the fun in every scene like a black hole (the equivalent character in VIII, Hummel, turns out to be such a dork that he wrapped around to being fun), Krsyha is just kind of dull compared to Ys heroines in the past in general, and there's not really a big oaf like Dogi or Sahad around to liven up scenes either, so it's just kind of a dry game in most cutscenes.

Which is to say that it's still pretty good for a Ys game, but yeah I'd probably put it a clear notch below VIII and Celceta. Maybe even Seven too in terms of having a fun party though it obviously plays a lot better than Seven.

SyntheticPolygon
Dec 20, 2013

Credo rules actually.

Artix
Apr 26, 2010

He's finally back,
to kick some tail!
And this time,
he's goin' to jail!
Yeah I liked Credo a lot, but he was probably the only real standout in the cast. Him and Krysha carried the party a lot more than they really should have had to.

infraboy
Aug 15, 2002

Phungshwei!!!!!!1123
The Island is actually kind of interesting to explore, the cast is a nice mix of people from all over, Dana was actually a really cool alternative protaganist. The captain dying was genuinely quite sad

Ys9’s story isnt quite as memorable, it gets a better towards the end but still felt a bit flat. Overall I enjoyed the combat a bit more, it was way easier to charge up the super attacks. Also the soundtrack didn’t really have songs that really get stuck in my head that Falcom almost always does.

SyntheticPolygon
Dec 20, 2013

Artix posted:

Yeah I liked Credo a lot, but he was probably the only real standout in the cast. Him and Krysha carried the party a lot more than they really should have had to.

I liked Anemona a lot too. Especially towards the end because she has the closest link to Apryllis.

Krysha's probably the weak link and she's the most featured, which is a shame.

Nate RFB
Jan 17, 2005

Clapping Larry
I really hope the payoff to Aprilis' character is everyone making fun of her for being insanely chuuni.

Tesseraction
Apr 5, 2009

One of my overwhelming feelings as I played Ys 8 was wondering if I was single-handedly responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs.

Apraxin
Feb 22, 2006

General-Admiral
Yeah, I've got no real complaints about the cast (and am really liking the overall aesthetics and story), but I wish we'd got more than like 10 seconds of this Krysha:

Saoshyant
Oct 26, 2010

:hmmorks: :orks:


The port of CS4 on the Switch has come out last month in Japan and is coming out West tomorrow. Does anyone know how much of a disaster is it? CS3 was crash city, super slow downs, and weird glitches like the cat model not loading.

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ChiTownEddie
Mar 26, 2010

Awesome beer, no pants.
Join the Legion.
Should I not play CS3 on the switch then? Switch is the perfect platform for these RPGs imo :(

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