Tita also gets a craft that's essentially Rean's Spirit Unification, turning her into a tank who can endure some of the most lethal attacks the game throws at you, takes increased advantage from stat boosting spells/skills and can do S-craft grade damage with cheap 10-CP crafts when properly set up.
The Sky cast was awesome though. Lots of fans consider them superior to the Erebonia arc cast due to the interactions being slightly less main character centric.
I don't think the main problem with the Cold Steel cast, from what I've played, is that everyone is centered around Rean, though there is a bit of that, but rather that a good number of the characters feel more shallowly portrayed than the Sky cast - there's more coasting on cliches than fleshing each character out fully (perhaps partly as a result of the expansive main cast).
Tita also gets a craft that's essentially Rean's Spirit Unification, turning her into a tank who can endure some of the most lethal attacks the game throws at you, takes increased advantage from stat boosting spells/skills and can do S-craft grade damage with cheap 10-CP crafts when properly set up.
Why do I not remember Juna interacting with Lloyd in Zero or Ao? I played these games back to back. Was she a smaller NPC? She must have been. I remember her family name, though.
That's actually the most realistic thing. No matter how important you are, you're teenage kids will always treat you the same as any other teenager does their parents
That's actually the most realistic thing. No matter how important you are, you're teenage kids will always treat you the same as any other teenager does their parents
It will never not be the funniest thing in the world to me that this blockhead 15 year old boy mustache having sitcom dad is one of the most powerful people in the universe.
The problem is those two have a strong enough mustache that they were able to actually shape and sculpt it. Cassius has like a dozen hairs in his that he just lets grow out and can't even shape up.
Schera not being in Top tier instantly invalidates it when she breaks turn order with her 20SP skill.
Renne and Olivier aren't a tier part (they're functionally identical since his sole quartz restriction doesn't matter when there are broken mirage quartz).
Joshua isn't top tier literally for the reason they listed as a con. AT Delay is nerfed to shit in 3rd.
Anelace is doing overkill damage when she gets Jinu, and then it freaking upgrades when weapons start catching up.
Schera not being in Top tier instantly invalidates it when she breaks turn order with her 20SP skill.
Renne and Olivier aren't a tier part (they're functionally identical since his sole quartz restriction doesn't matter when there are broken mirage quartz).
Joshua isn't top tier literally for the reason they listed as a con. AT Delay is nerfed to shit in 3rd.
Anelace is doing overkill damage when she gets Jinu, and then it freaking upgrades when weapons start catching up.
Doesn't Renne have higher base ATS than Olivier on top of the advantage of female exclusive equipment? That's why I assume Kloe and Olivier are in the same tier despite Olivier having a better line.
I also don't remember Jinu upgrading that quickly, I thought she fell behind a bit by the time it got upgraded, but I might be remembering wrong.
Thanks! I'm planning on chipping away about an hour or two at a time like I did with SC, although the small amount I've played of 3rd so far seems to suggest that the cutscenes are going to be a lot longer in this one.
Why do I not remember Juna interacting with Lloyd in Zero or Ao? I played these games back to back. Was she a smaller NPC? She must have been. I remember her family name, though.
It's a fairly poor first impression for the doors IMO. It's really long and offers no opportunity to save or anything. IIRC all the other moon doors have gameplay segments where you can save partway through, and the star doors that are pure cutscenes are shorter (though a couple are still fairly long, but not moon door long).
Hm, same as Towa being retconned into being at the Trade Conference in CS I then (was looking for her to show up somewhere during the Pafdingo walkthrough of Ao only for it not to happen).
Hm, same as Towa being retconned into being at the Trade Conference in CS I then (was looking for her to show up somewhere during the Pafdingo walkthrough of Ao only for it not to happen).
ha, yeah, same. But Towa's a bit easier to accept, since you can imagine they just didn't interact with her on-screen,
but I admit I haven't seen the part where Juna interacts with Lloyd (apart the flashback during her bonding scene in chapter 1, but that seemed like it could've easily happened in the 18 months since the end of Azure), so I dunno if it's a scene that happened in Zero or Azure.
(also, maybe towa's sprite in Ao was too tiny, and we missed it :)
Also, Gideon was retconned into the group that assaulted the trade conference.
It's a fairly poor first impression for the doors IMO. It's really long and offers no opportunity to save or anything. IIRC all the other moon doors have gameplay segments where you can save partway through, and the star doors that are pure cutscenes are shorter (though a couple are still fairly long, but not moon door long).
ha, yeah, same. But Towa's a bit easier to accept, since you can imagine they just didn't interact with her on-screen,
but I admit I haven't seen the part where Juna interacts with Lloyd (apart the flashback during her bonding scene in chapter 1, but that seemed like it could've easily happened in the 18 months since the end of Azure), so I dunno if it's a scene that happened in Zero or Azure.
(also, maybe towa's sprite in Ao was too tiny, and we missed it :)
Also, Gideon was retconned into the group that assaulted the trade conference.
Would indeed say that the previously specified generic "Terrorist Leader" for the ILF group gunned down by the Red Constellation in the parking garage being given an actual identity as Gideon/G also counts as a retcon, yeah.
Expected a too small to see her comment regarding Towa. :P
Getting close to the finish line in Ao, and experiencing some interesting glitches that I can only assume is caused by the english patch I'm using (on PSP hardware):
During the Orchis Tower infiltration specifically, when entering the room with Shizuku. It rolls out as a cutscene where the gang are all supposed to walk up to her but on-screen you can only see Lloyd standing behind her, who then changes to Elie when she's consoling her. The following cutscene outside the room exhibits the same behavior, and text boxes and bust art don't seem to be attributed to the right characters (bust artwork of Wazy, says it's Lloyd speaking in the box. It happens again when you confront President Shin-ra Crois on the roof. Fortunately it stopped happening after I reloaded my save.
I seem to recall some vague warning quite a while back that Flame's edit of the Ao english script introduced some bugs, but not sure if that was concerning the PSP or PC versions of the patch. I also don't recall if I used it, or the original patch. Was certainly getting some funky-reading dialogue (missing words, mispelled words, incorrect grammar) by this point of the game.
Doesn't Renne have higher base ATS than Olivier on top of the advantage of female exclusive equipment? That's why I assume Kloe and Olivier are in the same tier despite Olivier having a better line.
I also don't remember Jinu upgrading that quickly, I thought she fell behind a bit by the time it got upgraded, but I might be remembering wrong.
Her base ATS is higher by an inconsequential amount. I also don't remember female exclusive equipment being that much of a factor either, though I'm not 100% sure. She's definitely better, though I still feel the tier gap is a bit unwarranted.
Kloe's value should come from her debuff craft (which got nerfed like crazy sadly) and emergency healing. The fact that she has 3 forced water orbment line hurts her offensive power considerably. They're in the same tier because Olivert's crafts are kinda subpar, so he almost entirely depends on magic.
Jinu upgrades just before the endgame, but it does so literally the moment Jinu drops off in power. Hence why Anelace's Jinu phase pretty much lasts the entire game.
Random supporting character thought, but Wald went on my shit list the very moment that
he suggested that Lloyd and Randy leave Tio and Elie alone with him and the rest of his Saber Viper goons for a couple of hours and then come back in exchange for information.
Currently up to speed on Ao as far as the end of Ch. 4, little surprise that there continued to be reasons along the way for him to stay there.
Jinu upgrades just before the endgame, but it does so literally the moment Jinu drops off in power. Hence why Anelace's Jinu phase pretty much lasts the entire game.
If I recall correctly store-bought weapons pass it in damage when you get to Chapter 6 at which point she gets a higher damage output with one of those and the upgrade doesn't happen until you're some ways into Chapter 8. So during the most combat-heavy part of the game, it's actually collecting dust in your inventory.
Would indeed say that the previously specified generic "Terrorist Leader" for the ILF group gunned down by the Red Constellation in the parking garage being given an actual identity as Gideon/G also counts as a retcon, yeah.
Expected a too small to see her comment regarding Towa. :P
I mean, the thing is, her intro in CS3 is so dumb. There's no way Rean couldn't see her. My field of vision is wide enough that I can see my body if I'm staring straight ahead. I get that it's a joke, but....well, she's not my favorite characters, so I'm not too fussed about it.
Doesn't Renne have higher base ATS than Olivier on top of the advantage of female exclusive equipment? That's why I assume Kloe and Olivier are in the same tier despite Olivier having a better line.
I also don't remember Jinu upgrading that quickly, I thought she fell behind a bit by the time it got upgraded, but I might be remembering wrong.
Getting close to the finish line in Ao, and experiencing some interesting glitches that I can only assume is caused by the english patch I'm using (on PSP hardware):
During the Orchis Tower infiltration specifically, when entering the room with Shizuku. It rolls out as a cutscene where the gang are all supposed to walk up to her but on-screen you can only see Lloyd standing behind her, who then changes to Elie when she's consoling her. The following cutscene outside the room exhibits the same behavior, and text boxes and bust art don't seem to be attributed to the right characters (bust artwork of Wazy, says it's Lloyd speaking in the box. It happens again when you confront President Shin-ra Crois on the roof. Fortunately it stopped happening after I reloaded my save.
I seem to recall some vague warning quite a while back that Flame's edit of the Ao english script introduced some bugs, but not sure if that was concerning the PSP or PC versions of the patch. I also don't recall if I used it, or the original patch. Was certainly getting some funky-reading dialogue (missing words, mispelled words, incorrect grammar) by this point of the game.
are you playing on PC or PSP? I played the PC version in August/September and had no issues with the Nyaa version, it was surprisingly smooth actually, besides the turbo being cranked up a bit too much
Nyaa is a torrent site so I don't know what you mean by a version of that. I know that the first edit of the Ao english script released is often called the "Guren" patch or edit, and then later "Flame" did an editing pass of the "Guren" script and released his version. Both can be found on the respective Romhacking page (apparently they're "v.10" and "v.15"):
I don't remember which one I used. In any case, while looking stuff up I came across this post on Reddit that suggests the graphic corruption problem was an inherent issue of the original game when played on a PSP:
Character positioning being weird and other things were bugs present on PSP hardware that tended to happen the longer the PSP remained on and the memory started acting funky. Doing a complete shutdown of the PSP fixed it, though if you're playing on emulator I have no idea how that would go. I would have assumed just shutting down and restarting would fix it
So I guess I can't blame the patch for that at least. And it lines up because I was just clearing a long dungeon (been playing for almost an hour straight) and a game reset did fix the issue. I don't know what that says about Ao that prolonged play can cause cause memory corruption on a PSP, though. I played through Zero on PSP too and didn't come across anything like that (rather, that patch *did* introduce some crash bugs).
Hm, same as Towa being retconned into being at the Trade Conference in CS I then (was looking for her to show up somewhere during the Pafdingo walkthrough of Ao only for it not to happen).
I mean, the thing is, her intro in CS3 is so dumb. There's no way Rean couldn't see her. My field of vision is wide enough that I can see my body if I'm staring straight ahead. I get that it's a joke, but....well, she's not my favorite characters, so I'm not too fussed about it.
So I guess I can't blame the patch for that at least. And it lines up because I was just clearing a long dungeon (been playing for almost an hour straight) and a game reset did fix the issue. I don't know what that says about Ao that prolonged play can cause cause memory corruption on a PSP, though. I played through Zero on PSP too and didn't come across anything like that (rather, that patch *did* introduce some crash bugs).
It's amazing that a fan patch for a game released on a 15 year old platform is at all stable, especially when even the main game itself has weird memory issues.
Not sure why people would actually proceed to play long games on there, I myself wouldn't even think about that when a greatly improved PC version exists, but at the same time, I approve that people keep these things alive. Video game history is important and should be preserved.
Finished the prolouge and 1st chapter in Zero, impressions:
Really enjoying the cast of characters although they're your typical JRPG tropes
Poor Llyod an co.; Constantly got dunked on by everybody and the bracers.
Did not expect to see Estelle and Joshua!!! also Renne!! didn't expect Ouroboros to be shown so early as well, guess the chase between them continues; I guess Renne mellowed out since Pater-Mater is in the shop
Arios seems cool....Looks a lot like Rean imo...And he's near Cassius level...I'll believe it when I see it!
Interesting seutp at the end of chapter one...Arious and Renne...what are they be plotting...?
I think I'm liking SC a lot more than FC, Estelle is a lot better without Joshua around and it's nice actually having a full party of characters for most of the game. There's been at least 2 tunes as well that are way better than anything in FC
Her arc is heart breaking, and tragically unfinished by the end of the third. The third completely changed how I viewed her, and made me glad that her arc finishes the way it does, rather than being annoyed, as I was at the end (I played the games out of order, and played the third last)
Her arc is heart breaking, and tragically unfinished by the end of the third. The third completely changed how I viewed her, and made me glad that her arc finishes the way it does, rather than being annoyed, as I was at the end (I played the games out of order, and played the third last)
I'm glad I stumbled upon this thread. I've been interested in trying the Trails series but wasn't sure where to start. I'm into turn based JRPGs, and it seems this series has a lot to offer.
I think I'll just dive into Trails of Cold Steel, then circle back to some of the other arcs if I really enjoy it. I've added the first one to my Steam and PS4 wishlists, and will grab it wherever it first goes on sale. I hate to be that guy... But these games would be great on Switch.
I'm glad I stumbled upon this thread. I've been interested in trying the Trails series but wasn't sure where to start. I'm into turn based JRPGs, and it seems this series has a lot to offer.
I think I'll just dive into Trails of Cold Steel, then circle back to some of the other arcs if I really enjoy it. I've added the first one to my Steam and PS4 wishlists, and will grab it wherever it first goes on sale. I hate to be that guy... But these games would be great on Switch.
It's actually kind of funny. Everyone asking for a switch port, so they can play on the go, when the first 2 games are already available on a portable system.
