How did you get around the save state thing? Do you mean loading directly from a save? I forget what a save state is.
What do you recommend doing to get around it?
Why would you need save states when every Trails game allows you to save anywhere?
Talking to every NPCs is also what i'm doing. With some exceptions, all my free time is pretty much dedicated to playing the trilogy because i'm so intrigued and into them. I've often said this but it's been a while since a serie grabbed me the same way The Legend of Heroes does.I'm frankly shocked you're going through these so fast. I lingered on SC for weeks, mostly because I would talk to every NPC after every story beat and hunted down every sidequest. Though the 90hrs playtime seems about right.
Does anyone think that Steam link on Apple TV will let me play the Sky trilogy?
I began Trail in the Sky the 3rd and played up till the start of Chapter 3.
Game started strong with a cool intro of Kevin on a mission aboard the Lusitania, then the rest happened. The game is quite the departure from FC/SC structurally. Gone seems to be the various cities and NPCs and instead in place is some hub whose shop inventory update periodically. Same with sidequests where now it's pretty much just watching what happened to the characters in the half a year span between SC and 3rd. Someone said it's pretty much a game about the side stories and less about the main plot and I don't know how I feel about that. I wouldn't call it a side game, definitely not, but so far it's easily the weakest of the trilogy. They just chug party members at you, then off you go exploring till you fight the next big bad of the plane and get more party members. I highly doubt this structure changes later.
Makes me wonder if I would've been just fine going into CSIII without playing this one, so far it just feel like i'd miss on what the characters did between SC and 3rd and I don't know how much that comes into play in CSIII. I still like what I played up to this point and I look forward to see more of it but I don't have the same drive with it like I did with FC/SC.
Well I do intend to finish it anyway, I won't leave the trilogy unfinished. Those are just the impression i'm getting from playing it 10 or so hours. Naturally, my opinion of it could change by the end but so far, it's entertaining but yeah...Ummm, no. You definitely want to finish Sky the 3rd before starting CS III.
Gotcha!It may be an odd format, but it's world building that Falcom really wanted out of the way. Zin's Star Door is certain to come back in the Calvard arc, as is another character's door who's yet to join. Kloe's Moon door leads into Olivier's Star Door which leads into Cold Steel I. Stuff from Tita's Moon Door also comes back in CS III. And Star Door 14? Hoo boy...
And yeah, Star Door 15 was censored to the point where roughly 80% of the scenes were cut. They did that to avoid a higher rating. Since PC games require no rating, the Door is completely intact in the PC version.
Gotcha!
True, true. Reading it that way it does have me curious and despite my seemingly negative first impressions I won't deny this whole thing has me super curious. Beside the characters side stories there's alsopersonal story that you uncover as you progress. The former definitely has me curious the most...I just have to wrap my head around the slightly different format, there's still a lot of story to be told but it seem to be mostly kept minimal in the main story department and found more within the side contents. It's coming to this one after FC/SC almost back to back it's quite different to an extent.Kevin and, I assume Rie's,
I, huh, didn't notice and now my brain is going wild trying to remember, there's...one I'm thinking about but that can't be right.. That's the thing with these big JRPG there's so much to take in...doesn't help I played 3 of them back to back so there's so much to process.Speaking of Ries, did you notice that her fighting style and set of crafts is almost identical to a certain boss you fought in CS1? It's a coincidence of course. :P
I, huh, didn't notice and now my brain is going wild trying to remember, there's...one I'm thinking about but that can't be right.. That's the thing with these big JRPG there's so much to take in...doesn't help I played 3 of them back to back so there's so much to process.
I really have to know lmao, not risking researching cause its a spoiler minefield. That or I'll revisit CS1 once im done with the trilogy, so I can pick up on those things I didn't react to in the past...yeah I'll do that.
Scarlet?
Damn, it's TOTALLY A COINCIDENCE. ;)Yup.
Scarlet wields a templar sword just like Ries, she had a line-attack called "Dark Fencer" that's pretty much identical to Ries' Arc Fencer craft and Scarlet's S-craft Bloody Storm was a souped-up version of Ries' Thousand Sparrows/Infinity Sparrows craft where she splits her blade into pieces, has them tear through enemies and then has them reassemble.
Worked great when i tested it on my iPhone, i assume it should work well on Apple TV, especially if it takes bluetooth controller support
It may be an odd format, but it's world building that Falcom really wanted out of the way. Zin's Star Door is certain to come back in the Calvard arc, as is another character's door who's yet to join. Kloe's Moon door leads into Olivier's Star Door which leads into Cold Steel I. Stuff from Tita's Moon Door also comes back in CS III. Star Door 2 (about the North Ambria incident) is a major plot point too. And Star Door 14? Hoo boy... Then there's all the church-related stuff. It's definitely much more than just "what did characters do after SC".
And yeah, Star Door 15 was censored to the point where roughly 80% of the scenes were cut. They did that to avoid a higher rating. Since PC games require no rating, the Door is completely intact in the PC version.
I began Trail in the Sky the 3rd and played up till the start of Chapter 3.
Game started strong with a cool intro of Kevin on a mission aboard the Lusitania, then the rest happened. The game is quite the departure from FC/SC structurally. Gone seems to be the various cities and NPCs and instead in place is some hub whose shop inventory update periodically. Same with sidequests where now it's pretty much just watching what happened to the characters in the half a year span between SC and 3rd. Someone said it's pretty much a game about the side stories and less about the main plot and I don't know how I feel about that. I wouldn't call it a side game, definitely not, but so far it's easily the weakest of the trilogy. They just chug party members at you, then off you go exploring till you fight the next big bad of the plane and get more party members. I highly doubt this structure changes later.
Makes me wonder if I would've been just fine going into CSIII without playing this one, so far it just feel like i'd miss on what the characters did between SC and 3rd and I don't know how much that comes into play in CSIII. I still like what I played up to this point and I look forward to see more of it but I don't have the same drive with it like I did with FC/SC.
Obviously this could all change by the time I make it to the end but those are my impressions after 10h.
I'm quite a big fan of Sky 3 (even if I think the only Trails game worse than it is Sky 1), so I'll add some thoughts to these impressions. What I love most about the game's structure, aside from it being a change of pace that I welcome, is that it has, essentially, no missables (aside from an unnecessary super weapon for Anelace). The missables in the other Trails games are the bane of my existence, so I feel like Sky 3 gets rid of my greatest complaint about the series. Unfortunately, it loses the town NPCs, which I view as the series' greatest strength, so the absence of missables is offset. However, I don't think you've realized what's awesome about the game tossing an absurd number of party members at you, which is that the main characters end up sort of replacing the NPC dialogue, since you can talk to everyone who's not in your party in the Hermit's Garden (and their dialogue can change dramatically depending on who you put in your party). After you have ten or more party members, there is a lot of new character-building dialogue in the main hub after each story development. Also, the game isn't completely devoid of towns; a few of the Moon and Star Doors contain towns and NPC dialogue. If you'd only completed up to Chapter 2, you definitely have not seen the best that the Moon and Star Doors have to offer. In fact, you may have only seen the worst, as Moon Door 1, Part 1 is generally seen as the worst Moon or Star Door in the game. Many of the other doors are either more interactive, making them more engaging, or tell better stories than Moon Door 1, Part 1.
About the comment you heard on sidestories, I don't entirely agree. I think Sky 3 tells one of the better paced main plots in the series, in my opinion, and it comprises a fairly large part of the game. I also like how much control the player has over the pace; if you want to, you can focus almost exclusively on the main plot for 90% of the game, and then do all the sidestories at once (or never), or you can choose to regularly check out the various Doors that become available. My only complaint about its main plot is that I found its twists incredibly predictable, but I don't think being predictable is the same as being bad, by any means.
Personally, I'd say you'd probably be fine playing Cold Steel III, even if you skipped Sky 3 (I can't say for sure since I haven't played Cold Steel III). I didn't think the Erebonia stuff in Sky 3 suddenly gave me new insight into the Cold Steel games (I'd basically inferred what happened), and I imagine the same would be true of Tita's story. Instead, it's probably much more important to play Zero and Azure before Cold Steel 3, which I'm guessing you haven't done yet. Of course, there is one scene in Zero that works more effectively if Sky 3 has been played beforehand. In any case, I believe people should play Sky 3 because it's a great game in its own right. If you're only playing the game in order to understand the rest of the series, I don't think you're playing it with the right mindset, since that will make it harder to enjoy Sky 3 for what it is.
I'm quite a big fan of Sky 3 (even if I think the only Trails game worse than it is Sky 1), so I'll add some thoughts to these impressions. What I love most about the game's structure, aside from it being a change of pace that I welcome, is that it has, essentially, no missables (aside from an unnecessary super weapon for Anelace). The missables in the other Trails games are the bane of my existence, so I feel like Sky 3 gets rid of my greatest complaint about the series. Unfortunately, it loses the town NPCs, which I view as the series' greatest strength, so the absence of missables is offset. However, I don't think you've realized what's awesome about the game tossing an absurd number of party members at you, which is that the main characters end up sort of replacing the NPC dialogue, since you can talk to everyone who's not in your party in the Hermit's Garden (and their dialogue can change dramatically depending on who you put in your party). After you have ten or more party members, there is a lot of new character-building dialogue in the main hub after each story development. Also, the game isn't completely devoid of towns; a few of the Moon and Star Doors contain towns and NPC dialogue. If you'd only completed up to Chapter 2, you definitely have not seen the best that the Moon and Star Doors have to offer. In fact, you may have only seen the worst, as Moon Door 1, Part 1 is generally seen as the worst Moon or Star Door in the game. Many of the other doors are either more interactive, making them more engaging, or tell better stories than Moon Door 1, Part 1.
About the comment you heard on sidestories, I don't entirely agree. I think Sky 3 tells one of the better paced main plots in the series, in my opinion, and it comprises a fairly large part of the game. I also like how much control the player has over the pace; if you want to, you can focus almost exclusively on the main plot for 90% of the game, and then do all the sidestories at once (or never), or you can choose to regularly check out the various Doors that become available. My only complaint about its main plot is that I found its twists incredibly predictable, but I don't think being predictable is the same as being bad, by any means.
Personally, I'd say you'd probably be fine playing Cold Steel III, even if you skipped Sky 3 (I can't say for sure since I haven't played Cold Steel III). I didn't think the Erebonia stuff in Sky 3 suddenly gave me new insight into the Cold Steel games (I'd basically inferred what happened), and I imagine the same would be true of Tita's story. Instead, it's probably much more important to play Zero and Azure before Cold Steel 3, which I'm guessing you haven't done yet. Of course, there is one scene in Zero that works more effectively if Sky 3 has been played beforehand. In any case, I believe people should play Sky 3 because it's a great game in its own right. If you're only playing the game in order to understand the rest of the series, I don't think you're playing it with the right mindset, since that will make it harder to enjoy Sky 3 for what it is.
I'm too lazy to actually put my thoughts into words and it'd be pretty exhausting having to defend the 3rd every time the topic came up, so I'm just gonna pull this out from now on instead lol
I enjoyed Trails 3rd, but the ridiculously "gamey" structure of the game kind of took me out of it a bit. I didn't think it was possible for a game to be too gamey, but that game changed my mind.
I still liked it a lot though, it's a fairly minor complaint overall.
And that's that on that!3rd is da best. Gamey nature? I don't care. If in a Trails game the plot suddenly stopped so that a character could do a monologue under a spotlight, and a lot of the story was conveyed via metaphor, I'd still be totally down if the actual content behind it was good.
By comparison, the only things you have to get your head around is the fact that the doors in a literal sense aren't canon. Easy! Especially since it's already in a series where fights are done in turns, everyone is quite happy to start cooking in the final dungeon or whatever, and main characters frequently abandon their duties to talk to people for books and do sidequests. It's far from the most gamey thing in Trails, because Trails... is a videogame series.
(But also that sort of fourth wally story device is in all sorts of media, like theatre and television and books, where the narrative and the viewing/reading experience aren't quite the same thing for whatever reason. Fourth wall breaking to communicate info to the reader without breaking the actual narrative, and scenes that only make sense in a metaphorical context that should be applied the text of the characters involved, both aren't unheard narrative techniques, even if they're not super common. So to describe the doors as "gamey" is perhaps not doing the idea justice to begin with)
I think the door's are pretty fucking interesting considering a decade later we're still contemplating how some of those doors are gonna play into future arcs. If a game's worldbuilding still has people talking and thinking about it a decade later, it obviously did something right.
I'd love to see it's structure come back some day since it allowed it to give world building and character development that FC/SC wishes it could've given to it's world and protagonists/side characters, but maybe with some better pacing and better designed dungeons.
I vaguely remember this part. You sure you talked with everybody in town? You might also need to examine the mine entrance but that's probably not required.I just reach Mainz Village in Zero and have no idea how to advance this plot.
The party just arrived and cannot into the mayor's office because he's busy. What do I do to advance this?
I think the door's are pretty fucking interesting considering a decade later we're still contemplating how some of those doors are gonna play into future arcs. If a game's worldbuilding still has people talking and thinking about it a decade later, it obviously did something right.
I'd love to see it's structure come back some day since it allowed it to give world building and character development that FC/SC wishes it could've given to it's world and protagonists/side characters, but maybe with some better pacing and better designed dungeons.
I just reach Mainz Village in Zero and have no idea how to advance this plot.
The party just arrived and cannot into the mayor's office because he's busy. What do I do to advance this?
Talk to everyone.I just reach Mainz Village in Zero and have no idea how to advance this plot.
The party just arrived and cannot into the mayor's office because he's busy. What do I do to advance this?
chapter 8 of SC is major kick in the nuts, what an awful way to kill the pace of the entire game
oh well, end is near, SC is really fun
when it comes to kiseki falcom doesn't do pacing, unfortunatelychapter 8 of SC is major kick in the nuts, what an awful way to kill the pace of the entire game
oh well, end is near, SC is really fun
I disagree strongly with that statement. The unrelenting willingness to slow things down, let things sink in, and focus on the little things is why I unconditionally love this series. I wouldn't be this invested into this series if they weren't paced the way they are.when it comes to kiseki falcom doesn't do pacing, unfortunately
bad pacing and slowness do not equal to the same, falcom can do slowness very well, but they also ruin their own pacing with boring filler. Just because they add some bits of lore in them doesn't make them good, eg. the tetracyclic towers in SC, the shrines in CS2, half CS4.I disagree strongly with that statement. The unrelenting willingness to slow things down, let things sink in, and focus on the little things is why I unconditionally love this series. I wouldn't be this invested into this series if they weren't paced the way they are.
The topic discussed was SC's chapter 8 though, which doesn't share the mold of those examples (don't know about CSIV). As I said before when I talked about the 3rd, Falcom is no stranger to padding, and yes, that includes the dungeon crawler segments that they usually have at some point in the narrative in their direct sequels. But Chapter 8 is completely different to that in purpose and execution. It's a final lap through Liberl where you directly see the effects of which has transpired, cram a bit more set up for events to come, and let the story take a last breather to focus on wrapping up some side stories and NPC plots. It's not flawless, it still has some problems, but it's far from a good example of Trails padding for the sake of padding, or butchering the pace. I'll definitely argue that chapter 8 is absolutely a net positive for pacing in the context of the narrative.bad pacing and slowness do not equal to the same, falcom can do slowness very well, but they also ruin their own pacing with boring filler. Just because they add some bits of lore in them doesn't make them good, eg. the tetracyclic towers in SC, the shrines in CS2, half CS4.
beat SC. god bless turbo mode
definitely my favorite trails game, outside of chapter 8 i was never bored. great cast too.
i think for me right now it goes SC > CS1 > CS2 > FC
FC was fucking boring for 80% of the game (basically everything except gracel).
now onto 3rd, and then zero and AO