-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
And they have to keep the Japanese honorifics intact, they are strictly necessary to grasp the original meaning of the text, after all.
all the rean-kyokan's, truly a contemporary masterpiece
in all seriousness i think the biggest thing nisa can do to turn me in a believer is show proof they are going to add dubbed lines, 3 and 4 have some really jarring choices regarding this which cheapens a big lore dump
I'll be surprised if they don't cut dubbed lines as they're used to doing.
More dubbed lines would likely also depend on Falcom's cooperation. I wouldn't hold my breath.
I don't see NISA of all people spending a dime on the PC port unless they feel it's absolutely necessary.
I freaking hate Musse Egret as a character. She's the only one I actively dislike in CS3. Utterly pointless character that hurts the setting. I hate how she consistently tries to hit on Rean, what's with 16 year old girl flirting with instructor? And her arc just got worse in CS4.
What a fucking trainwreck of a character, absolute garbage writing. She'd do fine in Fire Emblem Fates.
She's literally the mastermind that rivals Osborne. The little girl plays 4D chess with the man who plays Ouroboros like a fiddle. It's big slap to the face to Osborne, and to all the other characters. But I can cope with that. The worst part is, this great strategy mind just gives up her position as the leader of an army to join the team. Yeah, her big brain is not as useful as her rifle. What the fuck? And she literally joins the party cuz she needs a bit of Rean.
What a fucking trainwreck of a character, absolute garbage writing. She'd do fine in Fire Emblem Fates.
You hating her speaks volumes about the quality of her character
I expect her to be quite good as a character in practice
Not to comment on the execution in CS3 specifically since I haven't played it, but older teenage girls falling for their hot, younger male teachers isn't exactly uncommon in real life. I've heard many discussions in my high school days about "isn't so and so the sexiest man in the school building". Teenagers are horny, that's just how it is.
It's how the teacher reacts to the situation, and how the student acts on their horniness, that can be potentially problematic.
It's how the teacher reacts to the situation, and how the student acts on their horniness, that can be potentially problematic.
I saw this happen many times when I was in highschool. I'm also pretty damn sure (as was everyone) that at least one of the girls had an affair with the teacher.
Ive got the news reports from my high school to show it...
The best JRPG combat in recent years thread got me thinking that people have been taking Trails combat for granted for too long. It truly is a masterfully designed system. Usually it takes several iterations for a series to find the sweet spot, but Trails got it right in first try. It opens so many different strategy spaces, and players make meaningful choice in all of them.
I like the way the series handle EP and CP separately. Both the S skills and normal skills are useful and players have to make hard choice regarding what to use.
The turn system was taken straight out of FFX, and it works wonderfully. Big skills or magic give big delay, so you can't just spam the attack with highest damage.
The movement system adds a unique strategy layer. You have to decide where to put the characters in battle. Depending on different situation, you'd want to scatter them around or keep them close to each other.
Cooking is absolutely crucial in higher difficulty. I read a Nightmare first run guide for Ao, and dish was the main damage dealer at the beginning.
The quartz system is the ultimate evolution of FFVII, too bad they dumb it down in CS. But still, it provides a much more strategic way to grow character than level up. It also sort of defines the "job" for each character without strictly binding it.
What truly amazes me is how everything is integrated together and complements each other. There is no one component that dominates everything. What a leap from the utterly forgettable Gagharv trilogy system to FC. Recent games have balancing issue, but the backbone is still solid. You can still have fun with the system if you apply some restrictions to yourself. I definately wouldn't be able to play through nine games if the combat wasn't fun. It doesn't get enough credit.
I like the way the series handle EP and CP separately. Both the S skills and normal skills are useful and players have to make hard choice regarding what to use.
The turn system was taken straight out of FFX, and it works wonderfully. Big skills or magic give big delay, so you can't just spam the attack with highest damage.
The movement system adds a unique strategy layer. You have to decide where to put the characters in battle. Depending on different situation, you'd want to scatter them around or keep them close to each other.
Cooking is absolutely crucial in higher difficulty. I read a Nightmare first run guide for Ao, and dish was the main damage dealer at the beginning.
The quartz system is the ultimate evolution of FFVII, too bad they dumb it down in CS. But still, it provides a much more strategic way to grow character than level up. It also sort of defines the "job" for each character without strictly binding it.
What truly amazes me is how everything is integrated together and complements each other. There is no one component that dominates everything. What a leap from the utterly forgettable Gagharv trilogy system to FC. Recent games have balancing issue, but the backbone is still solid. You can still have fun with the system if you apply some restrictions to yourself. I definately wouldn't be able to play through nine games if the combat wasn't fun. It doesn't get enough credit.
I recently started Sen 4 and I just cleared Part 1. I'm playing the Chinese version on a normal PS4 and here are some non-spoiler thoughts:
- Tech-wise, there were some crowded areas with very noticeable framerate drops in Sen 3. This seems to be mostly fixed in Sen 4.
- Combat-wise, it's interesting how Falcom fixed the broken "Break" system through a big nerf (no more huge delays exploit). Oh and bosses can instant cast Arts/Crafts and are so fast that they can play 2 turns in a row!
- Structure-wise, well... it's very/too similar to Sen 2. The problem I'm having with Sen 2/4: I feel like I'm putting hours and hours into the game but I'm not feeling that I progressed a lot.
- Vantage Master got harder
- Tech-wise, there were some crowded areas with very noticeable framerate drops in Sen 3. This seems to be mostly fixed in Sen 4.
- Combat-wise, it's interesting how Falcom fixed the broken "Break" system through a big nerf (no more huge delays exploit). Oh and bosses can instant cast Arts/Crafts and are so fast that they can play 2 turns in a row!
- Structure-wise, well... it's very/too similar to Sen 2. The problem I'm having with Sen 2/4: I feel like I'm putting hours and hours into the game but I'm not feeling that I progressed a lot.
- Vantage Master got harder
Coincidentally, I also just finished part 1.
I agree with your points, but I would add the following too:
- The battle system is still rock solid and really enjoyable
- I think there are more field time in dungeons and roads than story compared to sen 3
- I'm really having difficulty to keep caring about the story, when the events are pretty much always the same, with so many characters we meet. Falcom clearly went for breadth, not depth in this game so far. I miss having "touching" character moments (well, I can still think of one, maybe)
I agree with your points, but I would add the following too:
- The battle system is still rock solid and really enjoyable
- I think there are more field time in dungeons and roads than story compared to sen 3
- I'm really having difficulty to keep caring about the story, when the events are pretty much always the same, with so many characters we meet. Falcom clearly went for breadth, not depth in this game so far. I miss having "touching" character moments (well, I can still think of one, maybe)
I don't know, it took me around 50h to complete part one.
As Japanese is very difficult for me (year two, motivated and helped by tooling but that is far from sufficient), I need a lot of time to translate the story (even though I made progress since I started with Sen 3 and continued with zero, I still find the text more difficult in sen than in zero for some reason), but I also tend to skip a lot of minor npc dialogue (which is a shame, because the new students from sen3 were fun to read, and I find the situation in Sen IV rather well depicted). I also do less quartz optimization than usual. Maybe the text I skipped contained the touching character moments I'm missing so far? Maybe skipping that text explains why I went faster than you? Or maybe you just have very little time for video games?
(50 hours over 4 months is not a lot for me, but smash happened, and also playing in Japanese is exhausting... Kiseki curse, what did you do to me?)
(Agreed about the ailments, I met a lvl 100 boss that went a bit overboard with vanish, freeze and poison. Ouch)
As Japanese is very difficult for me (year two, motivated and helped by tooling but that is far from sufficient), I need a lot of time to translate the story (even though I made progress since I started with Sen 3 and continued with zero, I still find the text more difficult in sen than in zero for some reason), but I also tend to skip a lot of minor npc dialogue (which is a shame, because the new students from sen3 were fun to read, and I find the situation in Sen IV rather well depicted). I also do less quartz optimization than usual. Maybe the text I skipped contained the touching character moments I'm missing so far? Maybe skipping that text explains why I went faster than you? Or maybe you just have very little time for video games?
(50 hours over 4 months is not a lot for me, but smash happened, and also playing in Japanese is exhausting... Kiseki curse, what did you do to me?)
(Agreed about the ailments, I met a lvl 100 boss that went a bit overboard with vanish, freeze and poison. Ouch)
I played a bit further tonight (well... 1 hour...): dungeons with multiple teams is a very nice addition to the series. That's the way to go with a main cast of "far too many" different playable characters.
In Part I, I like how they gave some room for
Aside from that, I'll refrain from further discussing about anything related to the story/character development/potential Sen5/DLC until I'm done with the game.
Hmm, I'm playing on Normal, pressing start to skip all the battle animations and using a guide for the side stuff to avoid spending too much time looking around. Oh and I don't talk to every single NPC in a Kiseki game (even though it's part of the series' charm). Not the usual best practices to follow for tackling this series... I don't want to spend the next 2 months dedicated to Sen 4 only.
In Part I, I like how they gave some room for
New Class VII to be more independent without having Rean behind their back.
Hmm, I'm playing on Normal, pressing start to skip all the battle animations and using a guide for the side stuff to avoid spending too much time looking around. Oh and I don't talk to every single NPC in a Kiseki game (even though it's part of the series' charm). Not the usual best practices to follow for tackling this series... I don't want to spend the next 2 months dedicated to Sen 4 only.
Seems like you are doing what I did. Guess I just couldn't find enough time to play.
lol I thought you were playing the Asia version, which came out not too long ago. You sir has been taking your time.
Edit: the game still has some great dialogues. Start feeling it at the end of CS4.
Last edited:
So I played through all of the Sky games last year and absolutely adored them. I'm now stuck in a dilemma though, so if you more experienced folk could advise I'd hugely appreciate it.
I have access to both Zero and Azure with the most available English patch, and started Zero. The current script is just about bearable, and I've heard Azure is much better. However I was wondering if a better option would be to play the two currently available Cold Steel games first, then go back and play through Zero and Azure with the hopes the fan patch would be out for Zero?
The problem there might be that going from a (hopefully) rigorous fan translation for Zero then to Azure might be a little jarring, and it might be better to have Cold Steel emotionally fresh for 3.
I'd super appreciate any suggestions!
I have access to both Zero and Azure with the most available English patch, and started Zero. The current script is just about bearable, and I've heard Azure is much better. However I was wondering if a better option would be to play the two currently available Cold Steel games first, then go back and play through Zero and Azure with the hopes the fan patch would be out for Zero?
The problem there might be that going from a (hopefully) rigorous fan translation for Zero then to Azure might be a little jarring, and it might be better to have Cold Steel emotionally fresh for 3.
I'd super appreciate any suggestions!
I'd play through the first two Cold Steel games first and then hopefully a better script for Zero will be out.
The end of CS2 is a perfectly fine stopping point to wait for either the fan translations to be finished, or a hypothetical localisation miracle of the Crossbell duology. Having replayed CS1 and 2 when the pc ports came out, there's certainly Crossbell stuff referenced, but you don't have worry about major spoilers or anything (Although I hear that you shouldn't read endgame newspapers).
With Azure especially, from what I've heard, it would be best to at least wait until the current fan localisation is done. It's not worth ruining your experience just to be caught up for CS3.
The transition from a good fan translation of Zero to the okay one for Azure would be jarring, but it wouldn't be as bad as the transition from the professional translation of Sky 3 to the current awful translation of Zero (I found the leaked translation tolerable enough to play it, but that doesn't mean that it isn't really bad). Personally, I think it's better to just play all the current localized games before playing the fan translations (I'm also of the opinion that playing the first two Cold Steel games before the Crossbell games won't ruin enjoyment of the older games).
If you want to keep Cold Steel 2 fresh before Cold Steel 3, you could keep a save file before the Divertissement section (where you play as Lloyd Bannings from Zero and Azure), so that you can replay the Divertissement with familiarity with the characters and replay Cold Steel 2's epilogue to refresh yourself on that game's events. Like Lozange said, it's probably best not to read any newspapers starting with the Crossbell Times issue in Cold Steel 2, although the spoilers in those newspapers aren't as great as they seem since many Azure events are misrepresented and/or omitted.
Also, I think Lozange meant that with Zero, especially, it's good to wait for the better fan translation patch. At this point, the Zero translation is noticeably worse than the one for Azure, and it's uncertain when or if a better translation for Azure will be released (at their current pace, it could take the GeoFront team three to five years after they finish their Zero translation to have a better one out for Azure as well, and that's assuming they continue with the series--by that point, Cold Steel 3 and 4 would already be out).
Last edited:
Maybe? The GeoFront team members themselves are unsure when they'll have it finished by.
Awesome, thank you all so much for your help! I really appreciate it.
I'll be digging into the Cold Steel games soon, then. Even though I've heard they don't quite match up to Sky, I'm still excited.
I've been itching to play Zero and Ao and it got me thinking, how is Ao's situation on PC? Does it have an accessible version like Zero?
they're striving for it but to be fair the larger connections will be more from Ao than Zero which does not do the cliffhanger like FC and CS1 did.
There is a Chinese port that Falcom never backported like they did with Zero which makes it very hard to get access to featuring SecuROM DRM. There might be plans of working on it but i think a good version will have to wait until Geofront moves onto it and JoseJL starts working on that, he's doing big work on Zero still.
The Korean modding community published mods to change the script into Japanese and Korean, which include DRM-free executables, years ago. DRM will hardly pose the challenge the volume of the game will.
I'm playing through the Flame edited translation of Ao at the moment, it's a bit spotty in parts but it's more than playable.
I think the main concern is being able to legally purchase the game in order to mod it. Is that still possible?
I remember the company involved tried to get both Zero and Ao published on Steam but were apparently blocked.
Yeah, that's my main concern.
Anyway, thanks for the replies everyone! I can't for Geofront's localization and I'm sure Ao will be fine. I'm managing to play through Tokyo Xanadu, after all.
45 hours of playtime, slowly reaching the end of chapter 2 with plenty of complaints:
- I have the exact same complaints as Sen 2's own Chapter 2: it's 20+ hours of filler... and I have the feeling that whether I played it or not wouldn't have changed anything to the overall picture of the story.
- I already saw some discussions here regarding the Bonding System: all the non romance events (the ones without the little heart next to the character's icon...) are actually quite good so far. As for the romantic events, it's like Falcom didn't bother to maintain some form of consistency on that matter... Here's what happened on my save:
- Last complaint for this post: the music. It's not bad but it's quite bland which is a shame for a Falcom game...
Aside from the normal battle theme (which is far from being my favorite in the series) and the field themes (Twilight Green Field has a nice progression which is unnoticeable while playing the game...), I don't have any other tracks which I remember clearly when I turn off the game. Repetition is the main mechanism to make things memorable and I'm wondering: was it really necessary to have so many different new boss battle themes?
- I have the exact same complaints as Sen 2's own Chapter 2: it's 20+ hours of filler... and I have the feeling that whether I played it or not wouldn't have changed anything to the overall picture of the story.
- I already saw some discussions here regarding the Bonding System: all the non romance events (the ones without the little heart next to the character's icon...) are actually quite good so far. As for the romantic events, it's like Falcom didn't bother to maintain some form of consistency on that matter... Here's what happened on my save:
- I chose Alisa as a partner for Rean in Sen 3.
- 1st Heart event with Alisa: she decides to break up with Rean due to the events of the main story.
"Wow, I didn't expect that, it's a nice touch, it's relatable and makes sense."
- In game calendar, 3 days later: Laura is kissing Rean in a cave and could start dating 3 other girls???
"I think I missed an episode but since when all these characters are ok for having an open relationship??????"
- 1st Heart event with Alisa: she decides to break up with Rean due to the events of the main story.
"Wow, I didn't expect that, it's a nice touch, it's relatable and makes sense."
- In game calendar, 3 days later: Laura is kissing Rean in a cave and could start dating 3 other girls???
"I think I missed an episode but since when all these characters are ok for having an open relationship??????"
Aside from the normal battle theme (which is far from being my favorite in the series) and the field themes (Twilight Green Field has a nice progression which is unnoticeable while playing the game...), I don't have any other tracks which I remember clearly when I turn off the game. Repetition is the main mechanism to make things memorable and I'm wondering: was it really necessary to have so many different new boss battle themes?