To be fair, it's the version without Turbo. I played FC and a good chunk of SC before realizing there was Turbo. I still remember the horror of how long some of those animations were, especially Aerial.
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Haha, it's a fair response; the games started on Vita yeah?
TBH I wouldn't mind having a Vita for the sweet classics library, great Japanese game library and remote play. But with a gaming PC, laptop, PS4, Switch, RetroPi, Bittboy and other devices I don't have enough time for already, I don't think the wife would be happy if I went out and spent half a grand on getting a Vita ;)
They started on PC with the Sky trilogy, then moved to PSP by the Crossbell games, and then were cross-platform with PS3 and Vita by the first two Cold Steel games (the Vita versions being the worst ones for those two even with development of those games compromised not to exceed the platform's specs).
Yeah,I'm not saying the vita is the ideal platform to play CS1 and 2 (tho I completed 1 on it. Was midly confused when I started up CS3 on the ps4, and had a bunch of achievements, till I realized that they were from the vita version.) (I frankly think the computer's the best way to play Cold Steel, but I ain't waiting)
PC is the definitive version for every English Trails game so far, but the PS4 versions of CS1 and 2 are close enough.
Should be the case for Zero too with the Geofront patch. CS3 will probably be the exception unless NISA contracts PH3.
Should be the case for Zero too with the Geofront patch. CS3 will probably be the exception unless NISA contracts PH3.
Ah, that explains why the games are so widely available on PC. I'm not used to PC being a platform for sweet JRPG action.
Seems legit, I might just go for PC then for infinite BC/best experience. Plus as relatively old games they should run well even on my laptop.
There are other component porting studios on PC too, like QLOC, but if NISA is actually willing to spend any serious money on porting this, then it would be weird not to hire the people/person who is already the most knowledge on getting Falcom games on Phyre Engine to run well on PC.
Hm, finding it quite amusing to discover that it wasn't the Cold Steel games but instead the Crossbell games that moved the series away from predetermined romantic pairings to letting the player decide whom the lead would drift toward.
Of course, Falcom were more aggressive about telling players which girl they wanted them to pick for Rean.
CS II ended up repeating what Ao already did years before it by having the pivotal scene occur the night before the final mission in a "join one and only one special person" bonding event.
Of course, Falcom were more aggressive about telling players which girl they wanted them to pick for Rean.
Contrast that to Lloyd, where they simply went like "So yeah, this pairing's canon" years after the fact. :P
Seems like it'll be the same for Rean by the time the next arc happens... well, maybe.
Eh, I think that the Crossbell games seriously favour Elie for Lloyd (and didn't Falcom just ignore player choice and hook them up years later, like Erpy said?). Anyway, the special bonding events in Azure are generally much better than the lame final bonding scenes in Cold Steel 2; the Azure bonding events actually add so much to some characters' backstories that it's a problem the player can't watch all of them.
This is true with the final event specifically at least, where they were most forward about it with those two specifically when compared with the other events, much like Alisa with Rean (saw something about supplementary material in the 15th anniversary book confirming Falcom settled on the choice). I'd still say they were more heavy-handed about it with Alisa though, which likely didn't help when being a much more divisive character (not my favorite in CS, but I'd still say she fits best with Rean). Given how much they went out of their way to give players even more options in CS IV, I'm questioning how committed they would be to any inkling of a canonical choice this time.
I do agree that how much the ones in Azure add to backstories make it a problem to lock them to only being able to view one. Things like
Rixia's upbringing by her father to become Yin, what happened in the village during one of Randy's Red Constellation missions, and where Wazy came from
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Finally finished watching the Pafdingo walkthrough of Azure. No idea why the PSP cover art has
Would rank Tio, Randy, and Rixia in that order as the best Crossbell arc characters (to compare, I would say Fie, Laura, and Sara in respect to best of the first two Erebonia games specifically).
Arios grouped with everyone, considering the fact that he never returns as a party member after the Prologue.
If they are, they haven't said anything about it yet.
To be fair... Uh... Cold Steel 4's premise kind of makes it something they can't talk about until Cold Steel 3 has been given enough breathing-room and a decent enough chunk of people have finished it.
Anything beyond a logo risks being major spoilers for CS3. And many would consider Logo-Only reveals to have been one of the many symptoms of XSEED's poor marketing strategies.
I'd bet on a proper Announcement Trailer dropping in January, maybe December.
Anything beyond a logo risks being major spoilers for CS3. And many would consider Logo-Only reveals to have been one of the many symptoms of XSEED's poor marketing strategies.
I'd bet on a proper Announcement Trailer dropping in January, maybe December.
Nice, did you view all of the final bond events? Some of those add some pretty important context to some characters, which kind of makes me wish they were all mandatory viewing.
Indeed, I did. Very much agreed that there was information that should've been told during the main story rather than being optional.
Considering how good the Crossbell games had been with character focus otherwise (minus Dudley and arguably Noel), it was an unfortunate decision.
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Chapters 2&3 of Zero done and WHEW LAD!!!!
Anyway! on to this "intermission" chapter!!!
Chapter 2 was pretty run of the mil; the game was still opening itself up
predicted that the letter was false; no was this high level assassin was going to stop a play; obliviously it was a setup for something else. Once they found out the politicians and other big wigs were comng I at least thought she was going for one them. Didn't expect the assistant of the mayor to be the real criminal though.
and I expected either llya or Rixia was the assasin Yin...I guess I was a little spoiled by this since I've played Cold Steel 1&2 with my assumption of Rixia being at least a future playable character.
Now...HOLY SHIT A CHAPTER 3!!!
Just when you think Renne's backstory can't get any sadder they drop the fucking hammer!! like holy shit!! she has a fucking family!!! Who thought she was dead!!! a fucking brother!! AHHHHHHHHHH!! oh Estelle I damn near cried too!!!
Also Holy Shit Randy!! since I've played cold steel I find out Randy was 2nd in command of Red Constellation!?!?!? and fucking Garcia was apart of Zephyr!?!?!?!?! YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
predicted that the letter was false; no was this high level assassin was going to stop a play; obliviously it was a setup for something else. Once they found out the politicians and other big wigs were comng I at least thought she was going for one them. Didn't expect the assistant of the mayor to be the real criminal though.
and I expected either llya or Rixia was the assasin Yin...I guess I was a little spoiled by this since I've played Cold Steel 1&2 with my assumption of Rixia being at least a future playable character.
Now...HOLY SHIT A CHAPTER 3!!!
Just when you think Renne's backstory can't get any sadder they drop the fucking hammer!! like holy shit!! she has a fucking family!!! Who thought she was dead!!! a fucking brother!! AHHHHHHHHHH!! oh Estelle I damn near cried too!!!
Also Holy Shit Randy!! since I've played cold steel I find out Randy was 2nd in command of Red Constellation!?!?!? and fucking Garcia was apart of Zephyr!?!?!?!?! YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
Anyway! on to this "intermission" chapter!!!
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I kind of feel like you knew about the family from door 15, but I played zero before the third,so maybe I just caught onto it more easily.
You do learn about them in the door, but it kind of leads you on in thinking that her parents purposefully sold her off into her situation, and not that they thought she'd died and had no way of knowing she was alive.
The thing with the Crossbell characters is that unlike most of class 7 they have interesting backstories that are unveiled over the course of the game. They actually feel like people that had shit happen in their lifes before the events of the games and you want to keep playing to find out more about them. Then there's also the fact that the low number of characters allows each one to have a lot more screen time instead of being relegated to bystanders for huge chunks of time.
I'm about to finish Zero and I can't wait to see more of the cast, while with CS I want to play the remaining games for the plot and characters from the other arcs, not because of the cast (except for Sara). I have hope that new Class 7 is better though and Rean as instructor is probably an improvement as well.
I'm not saying that they aren't there, just that I don't find most of them interesting, they're shallow and forgettable. Sometimes I forget Elliot and Gaius exist.
Well, Gaius is the epitome of boring. But i mean, he has a backstory. So does Elliot. Iirc, Gauis was recommended to Thors by the general who commanded the fort near the Nord Highlands. Elliot grew up without his mother, so his father loomed large in his life, so even tho he wanted to be a musician, he went to thors military to please his father. (that's not much back story, but we can't all be
super intelligent children who were fed an incredibly dangerous drug that gave people super enhanced reflexes, and intellect, with the possible side effects of turning into a deamon, or trauma induced sociopathy.
Yeah, that's what I mean. It's all so mundane.
Also, young girls have it rough in Trails.
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But you sort of skip over the point in my spoilers, which is that not everyone can have a super interesting backstory. Some people are boring, ordinary people caught up in extraordinary circumstances.
Overall, I would agree that a much better job was done with giving the Crossbell characters depth, and that featuring a smaller cast was quite beneficial in giving cast members sufficient focus. Even as someone who started with and enjoyed Cold Steel 1, Class VII starting out with a cast twice as large as the core members of Zero's Special Support Section did it no favors.
While on the subject, I can't help but feel that there was a massive downgrade in going from Tio to Emma and Elliot in regards to devoted mages, even though I wouldn't say that I dislike either of the latter. Nowhere near as interesting visually, or in respect to personality, interactions, or backstory, and they have far plainer/more basic orbal staves for some reason even though they too are beta-testing them and are tasked with submitting regular reports concerning their performance. If I were to be especially blunt,
they probably could've gotten away with condensing Emma and Celine into one character for better results when considering the fact that the latter put in far more work guiding Rean as he became an Awakener.
This is also fair though, it's just that much more difficult to avoid with a massive cast (Dudley and Noel fitting into the boring, ordinary category in respect to the Crossbell crew when compared with everyone else).
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I think its quite nice that not everyone in trails has some massive backstory full of insanity. Theres good variety. Class VII actually shows that variety very well. When you have Rean, Sara, and Fie with some pretty crazy backgrounds, and then Gaius with something rather simple.
Everyone else falls somewhere in the middle, but like Even Machias has a deeper backstory than Estelle and Estelle is still amazing.
Everyone else falls somewhere in the middle, but like Even Machias has a deeper backstory than Estelle and Estelle is still amazing.
But how would Celine hold an orbal staff?
It's like I said, sometimes you have ordinary people who are involved in extraordinary circumstances. There's a reason Gaius didn't have anyplace on my team (ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ, so goddamn boring)
I was thinking more in respect to their roles character-wise, as opposed to what the solution would be from a design standpoint.
Not that I hadn't already recalled something about them deciding to give Celine a human form by CS IV, so maybe they would've just skipped to that if they didn't come up with something new or just went with someone who still looked like Emma.
Finally finished Zero. Overall a fantastic game.
The 2 things that stand out to me are the excellent ost and how much I ended up liking the characters. Loyd, Randy, Ellie and Tio are a fantastic cast. Lots of great side characters too.
I was so, so happy when
Can't wait to start Ao, this is a cast you really want to spend more time with. Also looking forward to seeing more of Rixia.
The 2 things that stand out to me are the excellent ost and how much I ended up liking the characters. Loyd, Randy, Ellie and Tio are a fantastic cast. Lots of great side characters too.
I was so, so happy when
Estelle and Joshua joined the party and then as bonus it gave us a beautiful conclusion to their arc with Renne.
This cult is fucked up, bloody hell.
This cult is fucked up, bloody hell.
Can't wait to start Ao, this is a cast you really want to spend more time with. Also looking forward to seeing more of Rixia.
Need all the help you can get against an enormously powerful empire, even if it means you gotta hire the criminals
Ao's marketing was weird. You have this teaser where they barely show the game, and then you have the infamous trailer where they basically spoil the whole game.
I don't get Falcom.
Edit: Whoops meant to post in the CS3 thread. Oh well lol.
I feel your pain, Kurt. Olivert without his Mueller just ain't right. First he starts taking over other countries, now he's splitting up Erebonia's hottest couple... Osborne can't keep getting away with this!! >:(
Also I can't help but laugh at how I expected Juna to have a tragic backstory to explain her grumpy attitude, only to discover she's one of the rare jrpg protagonists with a loving, wholesome family, and both parents and siblings still alive lol.
Also I can't help but laugh at how I expected Juna to have a tragic backstory to explain her grumpy attitude, only to discover she's one of the rare jrpg protagonists with a loving, wholesome family, and both parents and siblings still alive lol.
Good point. I actually do like Juna's aggressive "take no shit" personality, it just took me a bit by surprise.
I guess Trails has trained me to expect dark, tragic backstories. :p
It's also refreshing to have a female character that's not immediately charmed by Rean. Something clearly went down between Rean, Valimar and her siblings, but I'm getting the impression that he saved them, which would make Juna's resentment toward him seem even more odd, though I guess she'd still blame him for being part of the "invasion"... anyway, I'm sure I'll find out what happened soon enough.
It's also refreshing to have a female character that's not immediately charmed by Rean. Something clearly went down between Rean, Valimar and her siblings, but I'm getting the impression that he saved them, which would make Juna's resentment toward him seem even more odd, though I guess she'd still blame him for being part of the "invasion"... anyway, I'm sure I'll find out what happened soon enough.
She did nothing wrong aside from being a legendary assassin, no? She didn't even get to off anyone from Crossbell iirc.
I mean...she's killed people. She's a wanted criminal, and assassin. I assumed some of the mob were killed by her in Zero.