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Mivey

Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,809
I was very skeptical to what they would do regarding Crossbell, but assuming this translation is accurate this honestly sounds like they could be working on a Crossbell remake while slowly working on the next arc. Maybe even working in a short epilogue at some point to bridge to Calvard?
So something like Trails of Cold Steel The 5th?
 

Yunyo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,824
Very interesting posits by Kondo. Really looking forward to that March event now.

EDIT: I am in FULL SUPPORT of Sen the 5th or a game in that style.
 

skLaFarebear

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,174
Normally I wouldn't put too much stock into what Kondo says regarding future plans and stuff, but it's at least worth thinking about considering how he's almost basically teasing an announcement for the March event.
 

Aters

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
7,948
This is the end of a console generation. I don't think they will start a new huge arc, only to discard all the assets they built when PS5 comes out, like what they did with CS3. I think they will use the assets they current have to make a small arc that mostly set in Crossbell, and wait for PS5 launch. I think Yuna will be the lead. Falcom seems to be pushing her pretty hard.

I don't think they will remake anything though. These remakes are guaranteed to sell less than a new entry and they take a lot of work. Ao is a massive game.
 

Oreiller

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,828
I've been playing through Zero (currently halfway through Chapter 3) and it probably has my favorite tone and setting in the series.
I think they overdid it with the NPC dialogues though, it seems like there are more generic NPCs that aren't interesting and it's way more time consuming than in the other games. The harem stuff with Lloyd is really annoying too.

Also, I may be off-base but it seems like Falcom took a lot from Zero when they developed Tokyo Xanadu. It may be the fact that they're both in big cities, but there are common story elements too (like the group of punks or the mysterious masked character, that kind of stuff).
 

NexasX

Member
Oct 29, 2017
263
I'm really not convinced Falcom cares as long as whatever they release continues to sell.
They clearly do have an interest in getting their games out to a wider audience, but they're probably picking their battles. Not sure how the Ys games compare but the Kiseki series hasn't gotten it's breakout hit, much as it's getting traction in recent years.
 

ErrorJustin

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,463
Wrapping up SKY FC finally. Clock time is 42 hours currently. Finished the Royal Villa section and going into the sewers now, so it feels like I'm in the endgame.

Been trying to do the game mostly FAQ-free (I wasn't trying to get all BP) but I've heard so many things about the final boss and dungeon I'll probably look up how to have my orbments and team set up to avoid major headaches and avoid getting trapped into points of no return, and just power through to put the game to bed for good.

I've decided I really love the game, but it isn't a very easy one to love at times.
 
Oct 27, 2017
6,348
Wrapping up SKY FC finally. Clock time is 42 hours currently. Finished the Royal Villa section and going into the sewers now, so it feels like I'm in the endgame.

Been trying to do the game mostly FAQ-free (I wasn't trying to get all BP) but I've heard so many things about the final boss and dungeon I'll probably look up how to have my orbments and team set up to avoid major headaches and avoid getting trapped into points of no return, and just power through to put the game to bed for good.

I've decided I really love the game, but it isn't a very easy one to love at times.

Be prepared that the game will break your heart though...
 

Eppcetera

Member
Mar 3, 2018
1,906
Wrapping up SKY FC finally. Clock time is 42 hours currently. Finished the Royal Villa section and going into the sewers now, so it feels like I'm in the endgame.

Been trying to do the game mostly FAQ-free (I wasn't trying to get all BP) but I've heard so many things about the final boss and dungeon I'll probably look up how to have my orbments and team set up to avoid major headaches and avoid getting trapped into points of no return, and just power through to put the game to bed for good.

I've decided I really love the game, but it isn't a very easy one to love at times.

For Orbments, speed is the most essential stat to boost. Then, tinker with the Orbments until you can cast Earth Wall with two characters, making sure that those two have both Cast 2 and Action 3 equipped; since Estelle has to be in your party and she isn't very good, she should basically just be an Earth Wall tank (this will apply to Sky 2 as well...and Sky 3). That's basically all you need to do to win the late boss fights in the game, assuming you're playing on Normal, as casting Earth Wall repeatedly will mean that enemies cannot damage you. Personally, I used Estelle, Joshua, Kloe, and Olivier. My strategy was for Estelle and Olivier to cast Earth Wall and heal, as needed, while Kloe and Joshua used attack magic; I gave Joshua a Gladiator Belt so that his amazing S-Craft would charge automatically, and I'd have him use the S-Craft instead of magic when possible.

Sadly, the final dungeon in Sky 1 will require you to fight a ridiculous number of awful chest battles. These chests are, unfortunately, the only way to get most of the best equipment (aside from Estelle and Joshua's best weapons), and they also give a lot of experience points. If you fight those battles, just spam Joshua's S-Craft, taking advantage of the Gladiator Belt, and cast White Gehenna as often as possible (the chests contain evil enemies that can cancel Arts, so Joshua's S-Craft is the most reliable source of damage against them).

It's good that you love the game. I think it gets better as it goes along, but I never loved it since I think it's mediocre or worse for too large a percentage of the game (I am a big fan of its NPC dialogue, though, which is the only area where I think Sky 1 truly excels).
 

Erpy

Member
May 31, 2018
2,996
That said, Earth Wall spamming is a very boring strategy and generally not particularly necessary on Normal, so only use it if you're underlevelled and can't win otherwise.

Also, Estelle's well-balanced enough to do most of what you want her to do assuming you set her up correctly. She can be your healer if you need it, she can assist with physicals if you give her Attack quartz, use her buff and attack with Hard Break and she can assist with offensive art-casting if you set her up that way.
 

Oreiller

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,828
So, chapter 3 was pretty great. All the scenes involving Renne were very satisfying, I wasn't a huge fan of her in SC (she was pretty much a standard yandere child character which I've always found ridiculous and boring) but the 3rd did a good job of giving her more depth (even without going into her door, which was heartbreaking and disgusting).
But yeah, having her discover how and why she was separated from her parents was pretty bittersweet in a great way. They also did a good job showing how vulnerable she really is. I didn't expect to be this invested in her character tbh. Good stuff all around.

Anyhow, I'm pretty surprised by how much I enjoy KeA as a character so far. I don't know shit about her but she's adorable without being annoying, which is a difficult balance to hit.
 

Aters

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
7,948
So, chapter 3 was pretty great. All the scenes involving Renne were very satisfying, I wasn't a huge fan of her in SC (she was pretty much a standard yandere child character which I've always found ridiculous and boring) but the 3rd did a good job of giving her more depth (even without going into her door, which was heartbreaking and disgusting).
But yeah, having her discover how and why she was separated from her parents was pretty bittersweet in a great way. They also did a good job showing how vulnerable she really is. I didn't expect to be this invested in her character tbh. Good stuff all around.

Anyhow, I'm pretty surprised by how much I enjoy KeA as a character so far. I don't know shit about her but she's adorable without being annoying, which is a difficult balance to hit.
I know some people hate her, I don't know why. She's an innocent little girl, like a daughter.
 

ErrorJustin

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,463
Beat Sky FC. I didn't feel particularly moved by the ending, maybe partially because I knew a twist was coming (even though I didn't know the nature of it). And partially because that final dungeon literally goes on forever, and then the post-game epilogue is ~90 minutes too, so I didn't finish up until ~2 hours after I should have gone to bed.

I'm not down on the game overall - my esteem for it has only increased the deeper I got into it. But I guess I was expecting a more action-spurring inciting event to lead into SC. Something that would make me feel like I HAD to fire it up and get started ASAP. Instead, although there are emotional stakes to go track down my brother-lover, there's not much outside of that, at least as FC wraps up.

Gonna take a break and give myself a buffer game before jumping into SC. I'm scared of its length, tbh. Final clock time on FC was 50 hours even, and by most metrics SC looks to be about 50% bigger, which is scary.
 

skLaFarebear

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,174
Beat Sky FC. I didn't feel particularly moved by the ending, maybe partially because I knew a twist was coming (even though I didn't know the nature of it). And partially because that final dungeon literally goes on forever, and then the post-game epilogue is ~90 minutes too, so I didn't finish up until ~2 hours after I should have gone to bed.

I'm not down on the game overall - my esteem for it has only increased the deeper I got into it. But I guess I was expecting a more action-spurring inciting event to lead into SC. Something that would make me feel like I HAD to fire it up and get started ASAP. Instead, although there are emotional stakes to go track down my brother-lover, there's not much outside of that, at least as FC wraps up.

Gonna take a break and give myself a buffer game before jumping into SC. I'm scared of its length, tbh. Final clock time on FC was 50 hours even, and by most metrics SC looks to be about 50% bigger, which is scary.

The actual plot relevant stakes get introduced very shortly into SC. SC is a behemoth though and has some considerably slow pacing especially in the first half. As much as the ending kinda pushes you want to start up immediately, you're better off taking some time before jumping right in if you're feeling a bit burnt.

Damn kids these days are lucky, back in my day we had to wait for three whole years at least before we got to play SC
 

ErrorJustin

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,463
Yeah, I completely understand and get that SC does a good job of raising the stakes and getting things moving early on in its scenario.

I'm just saying as FC closes out, there's no Empire Strikes Back-style feeling of "We have to get after him and get going RIGHT NOW."

It's sort of like FC as a whole, really. There are character reasons and emotional reasons to proceed, but not much in a way of an actual plot-related reason.
 

Oreiller

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,828
I know some people hate her, I don't know why. She's an innocent little girl, like a daughter.
Really? Well, everyone is different I guess. I don't really know how the story is going to treat her but she reminds me a lot of my nieces. I already like her more than Tita at least.

Gonna take a break and give myself a buffer game before jumping into SC. I'm scared of its length, tbh. Final clock time on FC was 50 hours even, and by most metrics SC looks to be about 50% bigger, which is scary.
Yeah, take your time. My main issue with SC was how padded it was at times and how similar to FC it is, so you could really burn yourself out if you play them back to back.
 

Deleted member 26768

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 30, 2017
1,765
Really? Well, everyone is different I guess. I don't really know how the story is going to treat her but she reminds me a lot of my nieces. I already like her more than Tita at least.


Yeah, take your time. My main issue with SC was how padded it was at times and how similar to FC it is, so you could really burn yourself out if you play them back to back.
i think what makes it worse is how the game is incredibly formulaic
 

Eppcetera

Member
Mar 3, 2018
1,906
Gonna take a break and give myself a buffer game before jumping into SC. I'm scared of its length, tbh. Final clock time on FC was 50 hours even, and by most metrics SC looks to be about 50% bigger, which is scary.

I think it's worthwhile to check out the opening parts of SC fairly soon, but not the rest of the game. The sequel continues immediately after the first game (and I think some of those introductory scenes in SC maybe should have been in the first game). The prologue for SC has a bunch of new stuff to do, but the first five chapters of the game involve doing a lot of the same things and going to the same places from FC. I mean, I think it basically does them better since it has more villains and tension, but it's good to wait a while before moving on due to the sameness.
 

Chaosblade

Resettlement Advisor
Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,589
I think it's worthwhile to check out the opening parts of SC fairly soon, but not the rest of the game. The sequel continues immediately after the first game (and I think some of those introductory scenes in SC maybe should have been in the first game). The prologue for SC has a bunch of new stuff to do, but the first five chapters of the game involve doing a lot of the same things and going to the same places from FC. I mean, I think it basically does them better since it has more villains and tension, but it's good to wait a while before moving on due to the sameness.

Nah, those first scenes do a good job refreshing you on FC's ending. I'd say just take the break, it will probably help with appreciating SC's first half.

I think FC's ending is great since it nicely wraps up the main plot threads and ends by putting the focus on different ones. Way better than Cold Steel which sets up a bunch of stuff then drops a cliffhanger at the climax without resolving any primary plot threads.
 

skLaFarebear

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,174
Nah, those first scenes do a good job refreshing you on FC's ending. I'd say just take the break, it will probably help with appreciating SC's first half.

I think FC's ending is great since it nicely wraps up the main plot threads and ends by putting the focus on different ones. Way better than Cold Steel which sets up a bunch of stuff then drops a cliffhanger at the climax without resolving any primary plot threads.

You have a point, but also considering that CS1 runs concurrently with the Crossbell games where you generally have an idea of what's happening in Erebonia at the time, I don't think it would've made any sense for CS1 to wrap up it's own plot threads by the end of that game lol.
 
Oct 27, 2017
6,348
Yeah, I completely understand and get that SC does a good job of raising the stakes and getting things moving early on in its scenario.

I'm just saying as FC closes out, there's no Empire Strikes Back-style feeling of "We have to get after him and get going RIGHT NOW."

It's sort of like FC as a whole, really. There are character reasons and emotional reasons to proceed, but not much in a way of an actual plot-related reason.

What the hell did you smoke, "We have to get after him and get going RIGHT NOW." is literally what I thought when FC's ending happened.
 

ErrorJustin

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,463
What the hell did you smoke, "We have to get after him and get going RIGHT NOW." is literally what I thought when FC's ending happened.

My expectation was that he would be in some kind of danger, thereby motivating Estelle. Instead, at least from HER perspective at the end of FC, he just chose to leave on his own.

As I said she has a strong emotional reason to pursue him, but it is not a rescue. He's not looking for her help.
 
Oct 27, 2017
6,348
My expectation was that he would be in some kind of danger, thereby motivating Estelle. Instead, at least from HER perspective at the end of FC, he just chose to leave on his own.

As I said she has a strong emotional reason to pursue him, but it is not a rescue. He's not looking for her help.

Well in the end it was a rescue technically...
 

Yunyo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,824

Joshua may not be looking for help, but he still needs to be rescued. You can tell by his dialogue in the end that Joshua is just running away out of a mistaken fear of hurting or betraying others, which ties into an impetus of rescuing him from his self-destructive way of thinking. Ultimately to pull off this rescue Estelle will have to chase him down.

I disagree with leaving by choice negating a need to be saved.
 

Aters

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
7,948
Started playing CS4, and the dialogue is killing me. After every two people fight together for the first time:

"You are so strong, just as what I've heard about you"
"You are not bad either, sasiga ~insert fancy title here~"

It was a problem in CS3, but CS4 has a lot of characters, and many of them never met before....

And it gets better:

"Aren't your father/mother/brother/teacher the famous ~insert famous people here~?"

But the best is this:

"Hey, do you know this guy called Rean?"
 
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Mivey

Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,809
Sounds like a natural problem when you have a huge cast, and need to justify why they all share some screen time. Might be better for the next Arc to reduce the cast, and focus on a smaller party, 4 to 5 people in the main party, with some secondary and tertiary characters you meet less often (basically what they had in the Sky games) would be ideal.
 

Deleted member 9746

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
5,406
I remember Hatsuu talking about that in some of the localization blogs for CS2, seems to be commonplace in Japanese writing. XSEED usually worked around that to sound more natural, I wonder how it'll be under NISA.
 

nintendoman58

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,107
So after over a year of putting it off, I finally beat the final boss of FC and have now started SC.

I can't beleivee how easy it became once I realized the best strategy against it was as simple as spamming Earth Wall.
 

Gu4n

Member
Oct 26, 2017
245
NL
I remember Hatsuu talking about that in some of the localization blogs for CS2, seems to be commonplace in Japanese writing.
That's true, to some extent, but it's bordering on ridiculous in Sen IV. Sen III , too, started way too many dialogues with variations of "How many months has it been?".
 

Deleted member 26768

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 30, 2017
1,765
That's true, to some extent, but it's bordering on ridiculous in Sen IV. Sen III , too, started way too many dialogues with variations of "How many months has it been?".
tenor.gif

basically
 

Deleted member 9746

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
5,406
That's true, to some extent, but it's bordering on ridiculous in Sen IV. Sen III , too, started way too many dialogues with variations of "How many months has it been?".
I'm playing Tokyo Xanadu and it's hilarious how many times this happened in Chapter 1. I hope NISA can work around that in CS3.