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Iverron posted:I just finished Crossbell and am glad I waited to start Cold Steel until doing so because I'm not huge on the school aspect but I can appreciate it more knowing what's to come. What is the timeline between Crossbell arc and Cold Steel? I thought Crossbell arc took place right before or something but sounds like they are interspersed? I’m halfway through CS1 and I assumed all the references to “recent events in Crossbell state” were to those games.
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May 7, 2020 18:36
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I see, so I imagine there’s no consensus on recommended play order really and everyone’s just got a personal preference (if they’ve played azure at all given the translation state)?
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May 7, 2020 20:32
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Nate RFB posted:There's no need to overthink it. Despite what a very vocal subset of Trails fans like to yell to the heavens about, all of the subseries are written such that they can be more or less enjoyed in a vacuum. Most people in this thread played Cold Steel 1-3 well before the Crossbell games and enjoyed them just fine, and now with those games reasonably available in English they're having fun with them too now. I put a pause on CS1 to go back and play the Skies trilogy with my wife since she loves big epic animes and there are definitely some QoL things that are giving me whiplash that didn’t bother me the first time through. Mostly the awful way the menu navigation works when playing with a controller. Assuming my wife wants to stick with it (she is reasonably skeptical of the amount of tedious battles, to me it is a breath of fresh air compared to 90s-era Final Fantasy) we’ll probably just intersperse CB arc and CS 1&2 in some arbitrary order then.
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May 7, 2020 22:46
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Playing through Sky 2 right now and was really annoyed at the casino minigames until I lucked into getting three 7s on blackjack which apparently pays out 100 to 1 for... reasons?!?!
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Jun 3, 2020 21:51
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Is there continuous save carry over from CS1 through CS4? I bought CS1 and CS2 on PC a while back but am wondering if there’s somewhere I could swap machines without losing a save import.
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Jun 13, 2020 14:34
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Rad, thank you.
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Jun 13, 2020 14:35
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I haven’t played CB or CS yet but I’ve played Sky 1.67 times now and definitely don’t think the “plot” is the strong suit. What propels it is the moment to moment character writing even when the plot is boring or bad (usually boring in FC and bad in SC) and also the intrigue generated by Zemurian ruins and artifacts (which IMO the truth of the Aureole delivers on pretty well).
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Jun 15, 2020 16:43
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I’m halfway through chapter 1 of Zero and not really loving it so far. Have only played the Sky trilogy but the characters just seem really underwritten compared to Estelle, Joshua, and all. Basically only Randy has a personality and it’s an awful one so I’m finding it hard to give a poo poo. 
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Sep 3, 2020 23:46
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I mean it could be that they are characters that slowly and subtly develop over time. It’s hard for me to go back and consider how the Sky cast seemed before I read tens of hours of dialog by them, but I remember the Estelle/Joshua goofy/serious dynamic showing up right away and driving a lot of good dialog. Whereas at least so far you could change the speaker for most non-Randy lines and I’d be hard-pressed to notice. And Randy hitting on women being the only comic relief is kind of killing me. At least with Olivier there was some humor from the other characters reacting with derision. In Zero they just pop a sweat drop and move on. I’ll still finish it because I’m invested in the world and series plot but hoping CS characters are a little stronger.
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Sep 4, 2020 00:41
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Is there a clear consensus on whether PC or PS4 versions of CS I and II is better or are they basically the same?
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Sep 15, 2020 18:37
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It’s wild that the cold open of Zero just omits that Estelle and Joshua are with you for the final act. I wish they just didn’t have these, the one in CS1 is also kind of bad since it’s immediate character overload. Almost done with Zero and going to have Trails withdrawal while I wait for the Azure geofront release. Might end up biting the bullet and just finishing CS1 (which I dropped halfway through to play the prior series) in the meantime.
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Sep 21, 2020 05:17
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Erpy posted:The reason they did this doesn't become clear until Azure. Oh my. I really need to stay out of this thread until I’ve caught up with the series (in 5 years...)
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Sep 21, 2020 17:46
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I couldn’t wait for the geofront patch for Azure so decided to jump into CS1. In chapter four now and so far it seems like all Crossbell references are to Zero but how spoiled is Azure going to be for me? I will play CS2 after Azure since I read it takes place chronologically after Azure.
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Oct 12, 2020 17:20
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King of Solomon posted:Almost not at all. CS1 and 2 happen simultaneously with the Crossbell games, so the events of Azure don't even happen until CS2. Okay, that’s good. I think I read something similar but then the first chapter of CS1 references endgame events from Zero so I was worried later chapters would get deep into Azure territory.
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Oct 12, 2020 17:25
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unimportantguy posted:I haven't found compelling reasons to keep moving forward with Trails from Zero. Part of that is just I have to reboot into Windows every time I want to play it, but part of it is I'm just not in love with the SSS. They're all fine enough, I guess, but they don't feel as special to me as the Liberl crew did and I'm starting to wonder if I should cut my losses and move on. I really want to see how the Estelle/Joshua/Renne stuff turns out though. I basically felt the same, and while the SSS grew a bit on me by the end I still rate Zero well under any Sky game (even 3rd) and CS1 (haven’t played the rest). There are those who love Lloyd and team but you’re definitely not alone in finding them bland and underwritten.
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Oct 19, 2020 01:00
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MythosDragon posted:Also appendum to my last post, the sexy 2.5D chibi sword fights have not been topped and those were the best. Yeah, the fight cutscenes in Sky 2 absolutely rule. It’s a shame they mostly dropped them for Sky 3.
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Oct 29, 2020 03:25
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Well just wrapped CS1. Waiting for Geofront Azure next so I’ll have to hang on that cliff for a while. My wife is really mad that it turned into a Gundam game. Probably my second favorite in the series so far behind SC. Voice acting does a lot for bringing the characters to life.
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Nov 9, 2020 01:43
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The most impactful mechanical change between Sky and CS is making line crafts and arts wider. I could probably count on one hand the number of times a standard line craft could target three or more enemies in Sky.
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Nov 18, 2020 17:46
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Azran posted:Alright, currently in CS1 Ch.6, just got aboard The Courageous, some observations: Olivert is even better in Trails in the Sky though he lays it on a little too thick in his first chapter.
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Jan 20, 2021 22:41
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The Geofront Azure release finished editing! https://geofront.esterior.net/2021/01/29/azure-editing-finished-test-underway-other-geofront-news/ I’ve been waiting for this to play Azure and CS2-4 so I’m dying for more Zemuria (I’m sure I will not feel this way after 400 more hours of Zemuria).
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Jan 30, 2021 19:30
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What I like about Trails games is the Power of Friendship.
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Feb 8, 2021 00:03
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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/ 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.
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Mar 29, 2021 17:00
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I watched Castle in the Sky tonight and it’s crazy how much Whereabouts of Light resembles the main theme from this movie.
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May 15, 2021 06:06
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I’m playing Zero -> CS1 -> Azure -> CS2 since that seems to be the rough chronological order even though there is overlap.
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May 24, 2021 01:29
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Seems like a very weird choice to (presumably) delay Hajimari in order to translate Crossbell when the Geofront translations exist, but maybe I'm underestimating how many casual fans the series has in the west that would never hear about or be willing to configure a fan translation. Oh well, I still have half of Azure and then CSII-IV to play which might take me until 2023 anyways.
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Jun 24, 2021 19:34
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There are a few great songs: Orchis Tower theme, Whereabouts of Light (though it’s very derivative of the theme from Castle in the Sky), one from Sky soundtrack called something like Rememberemce of a Dream. But mostly I find the music in these games replacement level. I remember in Sky 2 I really grew to hate the “emotional” track that played during every backstory conversation that has the sound of like a music box cranking at the beginning.
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Jul 23, 2021 14:40
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Endorph posted:for estelle and josh not being incest they sure do have cassius keep calling him son and josh keep calling him dad and have cassius say theyll always be family In the CS2 prologue they do they the same thing with Rean and Elise: the characters that are teasing them about Elise's crush are citing how close their family bond is in the exact same scenes. The writers not only make no effort to separate the sibling dynamics from the lover dynamics to make it less weird, they actively thread them together. Eggnogium fucked around with this message at 23:35 on Sep 6, 2021 |
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Sep 6, 2021 23:26
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SyntheticPolygon posted:I don't think the CS1 prologue needs to be spoilered. Oops it was the CS2 prologue I meant, and yes it's less impactful overall but boy is it in your face for the first three hours of CS2.
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Sep 6, 2021 23:40
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Mr. Fortitude posted:It's kinda distracting because they bounce around even in her idle pose. Like it's a Dead or Alive game or something. God damnit.
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Sep 30, 2021 22:12
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Kevin is entirely to horny to be the best protagonist. Keep that poo poo in the side characters like Olivert where it can really shine.
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Oct 4, 2021 00:03
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Wow the end of CS2 really drags on and on and on… I’m not necessarily complaining (and it was awesome to play as Lloyd and Rixia) but I thought credits were about to roll 5 hours ago.
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Oct 5, 2021 06:47
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unimportantguy posted:I think it really is a matter of technology level escalating really quickly over the course of the series. As noted, it's mentioned multiple times that Liberl is a technologically advanced nation in the Sky games. I really liked that early industrial revolution vibe of Sky and missed it when I got to Zero. Yeah the Capel being a very rudimentary orbal computer is awesome and really sells that this is a society in transition, with lots of technologies in their infancy. Then suddenly every building has a terminal to the orbal net and the tech just fades into the background until it’s basically just the ‘90s except with airships.
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Oct 26, 2021 22:08
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SgtSteel91 posted:In the grand scheme of things it’s also been 50 years since Orbments were a thing, and the massive technological jumps are coming from the two biggest super powers on the continent Speaking for myself the issue isn’t the internal logic of it, it’s just that it’s way less interesting as a setting.
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Oct 26, 2021 23:00
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Taking stamina damage from a mile wide laser beam shot down from space.
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Nov 25, 2021 19:01
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Some Numbers posted:Honestly, I think that CS2 spoils less about Azure than the reverse, so I would recommend playing CS2 first. The only way this is true is if you pause at the beginning of the epilogue and go play Azure.
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Nov 30, 2021 00:08
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Started CSIII last night and made it through the prologue and the first free day in chapter one. Immediate impressions: I hate the cold opens in every single one of these. The draw of these games in the characters and world, not the moment to moment action, so having a bunch of unknown characters play through a contextless action set piece does nothing to raise my excitement. Stop it, Falcom. Other than the Vander the new characters seem interesting. Excited to see them develop. Translation seems noticeably worse so far. There’s very little flair or personality to the dialog, it seems like it’s basically been stripped to its informational essence. I found Valimar and the mech stuff to be totally lame in CSII so I’m sad we’re carrying on with that. Hope that Hajimari is enough of a setting shift to do away with that crap. Character art and outfits look nice, I enjoy that we get a little Rean’s-eye-view camera shift when talking to NPC’s, makes the environment feel a little less like a dollhouse. Kind of negative, I am still enjoying it so far but I’m beginning to get why opinions on the CS arc seem to turn down at this point.
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Apr 5, 2022 19:12
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I don’t really think there’s anything interesting about characters I don’t know, wearing basically the same outfits and distinguishable only by their hair, fighting anonymous robots. If that is the hook you need then you are playing the wrong game: whether you know there is a battle set piece coming up or not you are still not going to enjoy 30 hours of character work and chill village tours if it’s just a means to an end.
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Apr 5, 2022 22:29
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This thing in CSIII where every boss has a self-heal is very bad.
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Apr 19, 2022 05:37
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SyntheticPolygon posted:Claire is just extremely boring. She was already pretty dull but its worse in CS4. All the ironbloods except for Cedric suffer from that though. Thanks for the untagged spoiler.
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Apr 19, 2022 15:14
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:This results in a skewed version of morality. It's like the world operates on a merit-based system where "has a unique design" is worthy of being given every chance, and where what happens to people with the "NPC model" is beneath consideration. That's what feels unsatisfying, it's not just an irrational bloodlust by the players playing the game. This is a contradiction that goes far, far beyond Trails though. Action movies are rife with protagonists who gun down goon after goon but then have some moral dilemma with killing the final baddie. And honestly it’s a contradiction that extends beyond fiction and into how people process death in reality: it’s very easy for people to compartmentalize tragedy the less familiar the victims or circumstances are. I think it is an interesting problem within various genres but as a critique of an individual game it’s kind of a “water is wet” situation.
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Apr 23, 2022 19:00
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