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GreenBuckanneer posted:Those seem like useful items, why sell them all? They sell for a lot of money?  I sold like half and still had most of them left by the end of the game and I sucked even on normal
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May 28, 2020 23:20
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Is there any benefit to matching colors on the Quartz "board"? I see they have different line colors but idk if it matters where I place quartz
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May 29, 2020 00:03
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For Coldsteel? Not really. It only matters for status inflicting quartz I think? Like you can only have one stat down and one ailment quartz per line iirc
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May 29, 2020 00:04
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GreenBuckanneer posted:Is there any benefit to matching colors on the Quartz "board"? I see they have different line colors but idk if it matters where I place quartz The colored slots have to be matched; otherwise in Cold Steel you can do whatever you want.
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May 29, 2020 00:07
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I fiddled some more with the PC versions of CS1 and CS2 and made a tool to fix some problems and nitpicks: https://github.com/AdmiralCurtiss/SenPatcher/releases I'd appreciate if people playing through the games checked this out and gave me some feedback; in particular, the CS2 audio patch needs some extensive testing to make sure I didn't break something with that. If you've used my previous turbo mode skip patches please revert them before using this tool to re-apply them; just verify game files on Steam or GoG Galaxy and it'll redownload the unmodified exe. Current feature support for CS1: - Remove animation skip in Turbo mode - Enable R2 Notebook Shortcut when Turbo is enabled - Remap turbo mode button Current feature support for CS2: - Remove animation skip in Turbo mode - New implementation of the audio timing thread (fixes things like slow fades and missing sound effects) and BGM enqueuing logic hacks (fixes the missing music in the Intermission chapter, but may break other stuff; this in particular needs a lot of testing) Admiral H. Curtiss fucked around with this message at 23:47 on May 29, 2020 |
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May 29, 2020 23:44
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DC Douglas shows up as a voice actor  The way things are probably will get cold steel 2, though I probably won't replay it for a while (I don't do that) Will I have missed out on any new info by not doing NG+?
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May 30, 2020 00:28
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In Cold Steel 1, no. In Cold Steel 2, yes, but it's easy enough to just look up a video for the NG+ exclusive stuff for CS2.
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May 30, 2020 00:29
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OK, started Chapter 3 after about 30 hours. So far, I don't like Machias, I think Jusis is pretty cool. So far, all the characters are interesting and the story is interesting, and the english voice acting is good. Wish it had an auto-save, though. Also, auto-text advance.
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May 30, 2020 06:24
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GreenBuckanneer posted:OK, started Chapter 3 after about 30 hours. I take it you're playing the console version? Because the PC version definitely has auto-saves.
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May 30, 2020 08:58
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Erpy posted:I take it you're playing the console version? Because the PC version definitely has auto-saves. Yeah, console. Seems to be a visual improvement over the examples I've seen on the PC version, and seems to run at 2160p on my PS4 Pro, which is cool. I'll be buying the rest of the games on PS4.
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May 30, 2020 13:50
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Admiral H. Curtiss posted:I fiddled some more with the PC versions of CS1 and CS2 and made a tool to fix some problems and nitpicks: https://github.com/AdmiralCurtiss/SenPatcher/releases Is this where there's this hilariously awkward pause between one person finishing speaking and the music sloooooowly fading out while everyone just stares at each other until the music has stopped before the next line is spoken? Because if you have solved that you are my hero. I'm in the final chapter of Ao but will be back on Steel so will try that then.
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May 30, 2020 14:42
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Tesseraction posted:Is this where there's this hilariously awkward pause between one person finishing speaking and the music sloooooowly fading out while everyone just stares at each other until the music has stopped before the next line is spoken? Yes, exactly that. The scene will still pause as long as the music takes to fade, as that's just how those scenes are programmed, but the fades will be much faster and closer to the time it takes in the console versions.
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May 30, 2020 14:52
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Brilliant, I'll definitely be happy to check this out. Thanks!
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May 30, 2020 15:00
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So I just finished CS2 and I have some thoughts. ALL SPOILERS FROM HERE ON! (I've played all of the games up to this point.) I think it really whiffed the ending. Basically everything from the final dungeon on. First it was totally lame how every single fight, you had to be "saved" by someone else, made all the work seem not worth it. Then, you're basically told that everything went according to some osborne's plan, a plan that was never explained and didn't begin to make sense. Then it just pulls a "I'm your father" and Rean starts working for the army?!?! WTF!?! I mean, to me (having played the crossbell games) it seems obvious that Lloyd and Rixia are good guys and Rean is a bad guy, but whatever. At least give us some motivations as to why he does that? Is it duty to his "father"? How did they not even try to explain this? I mean it's just so crazy, it seems like the entire plot of the game was meaningless and noone acknowledges it. It's sad to me because I thought 1 was good, and they were building up well, but basically it was all just bullshit. Also, throughout the game, they talk about a 3rd path, but everything they do aids the reformist faction and hurts the noble faction. I don't understand why they even pretended there was any ambiguity. I also thought it was quite funny that the final dungeon ends with the boss saying "This is all pointless" kind of sums up the whole thing. It ends with tons and tons of ambiguity as well, such as rean's scar, or why he and crow are awakeners. or why he saw visions of dreichel. sure they could be answered in 3/4, but it seems to me that 1+2 are supposed to be a self contained story, so to have these constantly teased with no resolution is frustrating. wrt characters I have mixed feelings. Rean was ok other than not explaining his motivations at the end. I like pretty much every girl character, especially Alisa (who I expected not to). On the other hand, I feel the main cast was far too large, and as a result, there's several characters with basically no personality, or just one note personalities. For example, that girl that knows vander and arseid swordsmanship and the northern guy play literally no role in the game at all. Elliot is probably the worst party character of any trails game ever. It's pretty disappointing because it really feels like some of them are just phoned in. Crossbell is a great example where a small cast gets really fleshed out and feels much better. Gameplay-wise it was fine. I enjoyed it moment to moment. It just really feels as though the writing was much better before, both characters and grand scheme/politics. In crossbell and sky osborne is really built up as a smooth operator, and you don't really see as much of that which is frustrating. They also do basically nothing with the class dynamics/ nobles vs. commoners. It feels like a lot of missed opportunities. Would love to hear discussion about all of this, hope I haven't said anything too controversial. I'm still gonna play 3 and 4, but it's just disappointing. It seems like with crossbell, they kind of figured it out, but in cold steel they revert to a lot of bad habits. I heavily recommend anybody on the fence to play 0 and azure. Really excellent games. Even azure's fan translation I found to be far more than adequete, and I enjoyed both of them tons.
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May 30, 2020 18:25
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Mirello posted:Also, throughout the game, they talk about a 3rd path, but everything they do aids the reformist faction and hurts the noble faction. I don't understand why they even pretended there was any ambiguity. Class VII, and by extension Olivert, got played. The war, through subterfuge and political manipulation, has the Noble faction clearly positioned as the aggressors and "evil". Even while people like Rean want to espouse neutrality along with Olivert, the circumstances gradually funnel and force them into service of helping the Reformists. By the end of it all Rean is a war hero who rescued the royal family against the obviously evil Cayenne, and Osborne makes this obvious throughout the Empire (this is made a bit more clear in CS3). At this point Erebonia is even more under Osborne's thumb and is marching on with even more power and determination than ever before, and Rean's hand is effectively forced where it would look exceptionally bad (and by extension those close to him) if he turned his back on the Empire or rather Osborne specifically. But because of how CS2 and Cold Steel in general is paced and structured, to say nothing of the next 5ish hours or whatever after that supposedly final CS2 battle, it doesn't land nearly as well as it could have. It kind of reads to me like a far more deft usage of (Azure) how Dieter clumsily tried to force an independence movement through Crossbell's democracy by hiring Red Constellation to attack the city. Osborne just didn't gently caress it up.
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May 30, 2020 19:01
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Nate RFB posted:I think this is sort of CS2's plot in a nutshell, and I don't mean that in a bad way. Mostly. I mean my problem is that it just doesn't really make any sense. why do any of it? osborne started cs 1 in an extremely strong position and finished cs 2 in a marginally stronger one. It really just makes your party's actions feel pointless. It just really sucked compared to sky and crossbell, all of which I consider to have excellent/well explained endings. Also you could say "that's the point" but it feels frustrating to spend like 100 hours on that, also all the characters seemed pretty happy. Why were they so oblivious!
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May 30, 2020 19:35
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Even ignoring that this ISN'T the whole story, I'm incredulous at complaining about CS2's ending and then coming back with "Ao has good ending." Because you see your party's collective response to the main villain torturing KeA and killing Sergei (just kidding! ...she just did something that should have horribly injured him at a minimum) and then just walking off at the end was effectively a shrug and, "well, I guess that person will be themselves," is such a great and fulfilling ending. Yes, the rest of the ending was fine and conclusive, but that was such a joke it just killed everything.
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May 30, 2020 19:46
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Lord Koth posted:Even ignoring that this ISN'T the whole story, I'm incredulous at complaining about CS2's ending and then coming back with "Ao has good ending." Because you see your party's collective response to the main villain torturing KeA and killing Sergei (just kidding! ...she just did something that should have horribly injured him at a minimum) and then just walking off at the end was effectively a shrug and, "well, I guess that person will be themselves," is such a great and fulfilling ending. lol, that's true. I think the "twist" Kea saving everyone before was prob the most well executed trails story beat ever, so that really defined the ending for me. Also, I kindve take it as a given that every trails game has some cartoonishly evil bad guy and don't really care about them or think they're important, so I don't even remember her, lol.
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May 30, 2020 20:01
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Mirello posted:I mean my problem is that it just doesn't really make any sense. why do any of it? osborne started cs 1 in an extremely strong position and finished cs 2 in a marginally stronger one. It really just makes your party's actions feel pointless. It just really sucked compared to sky and crossbell, all of which I consider to have excellent/well explained endings. Also you could say "that's the point" but it feels frustrating to spend like 100 hours on that, also all the characters seemed pretty happy. Why were they so oblivious! That said I feel like CS1 does a pretty good job of showing how someone like Osborne, even as powerful as he is, is hamstrung and limited by the power structures in Ereobnia as barriers to his obviously grander designs. Erebonia is like the oldest and largest country in Zemuria with ancient institutions in power, it would take more than just one anime Otto von Bismark coming to power to just make all of it dance to his tune out of the gate.
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May 30, 2020 20:03
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beyond padding, it just feels really odd to me that rean goes from "wow osborne's a piece of poo poo, my best friend crow was right to shoot him" to "I'll help osborne occupy this country with my god powers" with no explenation whatsoever. it seemed extremely out of character for him, and for a game with tons and tons of exposition, it feels like a lots missing at the end. Like, wtf does osborne being his daddy have to do with working for him/ ethics/ awakener/ anything??!?!?" sorry I'm just pretty frustrated with the ending obviously. It's possible this is all explained in 3 and 4, but even if it is I think it's too late. I'll still play and enjoy them, but god, I can't wait to get away from rean. I really hope calvard has a female protagonist and less harem bullshit.
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May 30, 2020 20:12
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Mirello posted:Like, wtf does osborne being his daddy have to do with working for him/ ethics/ awakener/ anything??!?!?"
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May 30, 2020 20:21
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Mirello posted:I mean my problem is that it just doesn't really make any sense. why do any of it? osborne started cs 1 in an extremely strong position and finished cs 2 in a marginally stronger one. It really just makes your party's actions feel pointless. It just really sucked compared to sky and crossbell, all of which I consider to have excellent/well explained endings. Also you could say "that's the point" but it feels frustrating to spend like 100 hours on that, also all the characters seemed pretty happy. Why were they so oblivious! Actually, that's not exactly true. The situation at the start of CS1 was like this: (CS1 and CS2 spoilers) Osborne pretty much completely controlled the capital and surrounding areas as well as the annexed territories and 70% of the federal army. The Four Great Houses controlled pretty much everything outside the capital and each House had a private army on top of that. The public at large was generally in favor of reforms, but there were enough responsible nobles that a federal crackdown, even not taking the various armies into account, might have received significant pushback. At the end of CS2, the Four Great Houses are pretty much in disarray. The two most powerful nobles in the country have been arrested and are unlikely to see the outside of a jail cell anytime soon. The most prominent figure in the Noble Alliance, now that those two are out of the picture, is Osborne's mole Rufus, meaning Osbore now also controls a large part of the Noble Faction by proxy. The Nobles are seen throughout the Empire as traitors to the throne and are forced to keep their heads down while Osborne now has popular opinion on his side to start severely diminishing their power even further. CS1 started with both sides in a delicate balance. CS2 ended with Osborne in complete control and the Noble Faction unable to stand up to him anymore. As for Rean, he didn't truly become "evil". What happened was that Osborne was going ahead with the Crossbell annexation with or without him and Rean was put in a position where the hero of the empire could either sit back and watch two roughly equal sides engage in a long and drawn-out conflict with plenty of casualties on both sides (to say nothing of the Crossbellians getting caught in an extended crossfire) or he could help Osborne achieve a decisive victory that would at least end up relatively bloodless for all involved. Rean being someone who hates even seeing enemies lose their lives in the conflict, chose the latter option even though he hates the situation he's in. As for the characters being pretty happy, all of them were aware of the direction Erebonia was heading and they were preparing to do their part to make a difference, but for the time being they were simply happy with the temporary period of peace after having lived through several terrorist attacks and a civil war.
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May 30, 2020 20:31
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Erpy posted:As for Rean, he didn't truly become "evil". What happened was that Osborne was going ahead with the Crossbell annexation with or without him and Rean was put in a position where the hero of the empire could either sit back and watch two roughly equal sides engage in a long and drawn-out conflict with plenty of casualties on both sides (to say nothing of the Crossbellians getting caught in an extended crossfire) or he could help Osborne achieve a decisive victory that would at least end up relatively bloodless for all involved. Rean being someone who hates even seeing enemies lose their lives in the conflict, chose the latter option even though he hates the situation he's in. I know this is what the writers were going for but it didn't really land for me. If Rean really was opposed to this aggressive colonial war, why the hell wouldn't he try to stop it? Osborne has maneuvered him into the perfect position to do so. He's the famous hero who saved the royal family, beloved by all. Plus he has a shitload friends in extremely high places. Him speaking out against the invasion in public and getting all the other prominent figures he personally knows like Olivert, Alfin, General Craig, Governor Regnitz, Viscount Arseid, Jusis, etc., to join him would definitely help sway public opinion against the war. Not to say this would have stopped the war, but it would at least open an avenue of actual political opposition and resistance to Osborne. Instead Rean shrugs and goes "Oh no, I am so conflicted about all the war crimes I'm doing, but I'm only doing them for the greater good." gently caress off, Rean. Extra stuff with minor CS3 spoilers: I also don't buy this walk-back they try to do in CS3 where they attempt to explain that while Rean was constantly participating in all these wars of annexation, he was only helping people and saving lives while doing so. Come on. During the CS2 epilogue he's down in the Geofront trying to steal the database full of every Crossbell citizen's data to hand over to Osborne's secret police.
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May 30, 2020 21:31
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Ojetor posted:I know this is what the writers were going for but it didn't really land for me. Crossbell took out Garrelia. Even as a shounen protagonist there was no way in hell Rean could have successfully swayed public opinion against retaliation/invasion E: also, it's OSBORNE. he would not have allowed Rean to gain that war hero status it if it meant he could have stopped his plans to invade U-DO Burger fucked around with this message at 21:49 on May 30, 2020 |
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May 30, 2020 21:42
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(Cs2 ending) The crossbell bit of cs2s ending was just an exceptionally bad idea that kills the endings pacing (I get the reverie corridor on a thematic level, at least) and gets mostly retconned in cs3. It really seems to only exist so that Rean can have met Lloyd once.
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May 30, 2020 21:45
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Ojetor posted:I know this is what the writers were going for but it didn't really land for me. Also I think calling Rean's actions war crimes is pretty unrepresentative of both the text and the character. Which is not to say that Falcom loves to treat war crimes as weirdly easy to forgive elsewhere (Azure honestly is probably the most egregious).
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May 30, 2020 21:50
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U-DO Burger posted:Crossbell took out Garrelia. Even as a shounen protagonist there was no way in hell Rean could have successfully swayed public opinion against retaliation/invasion Let's not award Osborne any more omniscience/12D chess proficiency than he already has. Though I guess Osborne could know his son well enough to know Rean's too much of a coward to do anything other than meekly march into oppressing people because he got a fancy signed order.
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May 30, 2020 21:56
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Ojetor posted:Let's not award Osborne any more omniscience/12D chess proficiency than he already has. Though I guess Osborne could know his son well enough to know Rean's too much of a coward to do anything other than meekly march into oppressing people because he got a fancy signed order. it's less about omniscience and more an acknowledgement that at the end of CSII Osborne has significant power, is completely ruthless, and likely has control of the press, so any resistance from Rean could be easily quashed before anything could possibly come of it.
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May 30, 2020 22:08
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Nate RFB posted:I mean think about it this way, you have a literal member of the Royal family that our lovely Chancellor has sworn loyalty to who has thrown everything but the kitchen sink at sinking such plans, from scrounging up political capital abroad to basically literally recruiting his own personal army in Class VII. That he had to do that despite being in the position that he is should tell you just about everything you need to know about how powerless Rean would also be in this situation. The world keeps turning with or without him and Class VII and I think I actually sort of appreciated that at the time. Here's the thing: You correctly mention Olivert's opposing Osborne in a myriad ways, doing everything in his power to fight back. Contrast that to Rean, who doesn't do anything to oppose Osborne's invasion of Crossbell. In fact, he does the exact opposite and actually helps instead. After all his speeches of "never giving up" and "fighting against impossible odds", Rean ends up looking like an incredible hypocrite. It stands in absolute contrast to the rest of the game. I was being mostly hyperbolic when I said war crimes, but giving Osborne's shady secret police access to all the personal data of an occupied population is pretty drat bad. That action by itself might not be a war crime but it's clearly meant to enable one. U-DO Burger posted:it's less about omniscience and more an acknowledgement that at the end of CSII Osborne has significant power, is completely ruthless, and likely has control of the press, so any resistance from Rean could be easily quashed before anything could possibly come of it. You might be right, but it doesn't change the fact that Rean doesn't even try.
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May 30, 2020 22:13
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Isn't that supposed to be the point, though? Rean post-CS2 feels like he's at the midpoint of his shounen character arc, when the conflict has been revealed but he has yet to grasp all the right lessons to overcome it. I may be talking out of my rear end here since I haven't played CS4 yet, but that seems to be the direction this is all headed.
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May 30, 2020 22:24
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Rean has always been kind of aimless nice guy with crippling depression that’s easy to push in directions. It makes total sense that Osborne can easily weaponize that to play him like a puppet. He can’t even turn down student council tasks, there’s no way he’d be able to turn down getting involved in the war when he thinks he can end it quicker.
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May 30, 2020 22:28
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fwiw and i know this is splitting hairs, iirc Rean doesn't help with the initial invasion, but rather with repelling the Republican counter-offensive after the occupation had already been established
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May 30, 2020 22:32
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RevolverDivider posted:Rean has always been kind of aimless nice guy with crippling depression that’s easy to push in directions. Who also somehow becomes a charismatic party leader that no one ever bothers to question.
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May 30, 2020 22:34
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it's because he's nice
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May 30, 2020 22:35
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I'm of the mind that II definitely makes III and probably IV better for being the way it is, but it's still kind of an irritating game to play on its own.
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May 30, 2020 22:42
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Ojetor posted:You might be right, but it doesn't change the fact that Rean doesn't even try.
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May 30, 2020 22:52
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Mirello posted:CIA Document Paragraph 1: The answer is politics and plot. Everything makes perfect logical sense there. Rean is loving BSODing extremely hard being forced to do this and it basically regresses his character development for the 3rd time. Being Suicidal fucks you up man, even with people trying to help you. Also its easy to fight a dude, but pulling political war ending savvyness is a bit different. Paragraph 2: I love Elliot, Music boy. And I feel like even characters like Neithardt got more love than Zin ever did, so I disagree. Harem Stuff: Don't bash CS for things CB also does. This has quickly become my pet peeve of the series.
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May 30, 2020 23:40
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i recognize that elliot is extremely extraneous but he is a good friend and a good kid
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May 30, 2020 23:51
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As far as Rean's actions end-game CS2 through CS3, I think it's bizarre to be surprised given that (CS3 mid-ch1 at worst) he specifically only ever acts when forced to by Imperial order. It's clear that his hands are tied in the extreme since many of his friends are easily people that the newly powerful Osbourne can retaliate against. It's made very clear, very early in CS3, that he's blackmailed into his actions. Even going by the end of CS2, he allows Bannings to escape because "there's no arrest warrant out for you" rather than anything further - and he says he wishes he had that freedom (to rebel against the ruling power). He clearly isn't a wilful actor in those situations.
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May 31, 2020 00:38
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I would agree that the ending of CS2 kinda makes everything you've done so far pointless, but that's the point isn't it? That feeling of helplessness and powerlessness is exactly what Rean is feeling.
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May 31, 2020 00:40
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