Kiseki/Trails Community |OT| Familiar faces~, Zemurian places—SPOILER TAGS OR DIE!

Paperchampion23 · Jul 3, 2019

nivorae said:
recent game from a recent well performing series gets next instalment localised, what an achievement

At this point, the newer games have decent sales here to never really underperform. I expect CSIV next year, and the next one after that. But Crossbell is another massive undertaking with more risky sales because its probably the same size as CS3/4 with less payoff

Deleted member 26768 · Jul 3, 2019

Paperchampion23 said:
At this point, the newer games have decent sales here to never really underperform. I expect CSIV next year, and the next one after that. But Crossbell is another massive undertaking with more risky sales because its probably the same size as CS3/4 with less payoff

I know, in it's current state crossbell was too risky even for xseed, the same xseed that decided to localise zwei in 2018, a janky 2001 game

garion333 · Jul 3, 2019

nivorae said:
I know, in it's current state crossbell was too risky even for xseed, the same xseed that decided to localise zwei in 2018, a janky 2001 game

Zwei was likely nowhere near the undertaking that a Trails game is. Aaaaaaand I have a feeling it was Tom who was pushing those games and you'll notice Tom is no longer at XSEED, probably because all the games he was championing (Zwei, Exile's End, PopoloCrois, Brandish) underperformed.

Cqef · Jul 3, 2019

garion333 said:
Zwei was likely nowhere near the undertaking that a Trails game is. Aaaaaaand I have a feeling it was Tom who was pushing those games and you'll notice Tom is no longer at XSEED, probably because all the games he was championing (Zwei, Exile's End, PopoloCrois, Brandish) underperformed.

Those maybe weren't good bets for XSeed, but Tom also brought in Corpse Party which turned out to be doing quite well though.

Deleted member 26768 · Jul 3, 2019

garion333 said:
Zwei was likely nowhere near the undertaking that a Trails game is. Aaaaaaand I have a feeling it was Tom who was pushing those games and you'll notice Tom is no longer at XSEED, probably because all the games he was championing (Zwei, Exile's End, PopoloCrois, Brandish) underperformed.

it doesn't matter that Tom was pushing for them, he was not an executive.

ara · Jul 3, 2019

Pringles said:
As far as I know, yes.

Soo the attribute score (not-parenthesized one) basically means fuck all? I'm trying to push everyone's evade % as high as possible for shits and giggles.

lucancel · Jul 3, 2019

Crossbell imho deserve a current gen remake but falcom Is probably too small to work on it

Chaosblade · Jul 3, 2019

nivorae said:
it doesn't matter that Tom was pushing for them, he was not an executive.

They made it sound like games people liked or wanted to do was part of the process for deciding what to try to localize. People like Brittany and maybe Sara actively wanting to do 3rd might be a reason XSEED greenlit that so quickly. And Tom definitely made it sound like some of the games he pushed for and worked on only happened because he brought them up.

Eppcetera · Jul 3, 2019

Chaosblade said:
That's like the definition of an empty statement, Falcom didn't have to "try harder" to release a Trails or Ys game in the west. They just had to not suddenly refuse to license their games out. Multiple parties are interested in localizing their games.

A better example would probably be when they teased the PS4 ports of CS1 and 2, IIRC they mentioned considering it, and it wasn't long after that they made an announcement.

I think your better example is closer to what I was actually thinking of (but was too lazy to look up), which was this RPGFan article:

http://www.rpgfan.com/news/2018/8433.html

Not that far into it, the Falcom reports says, "We plan to expand the Trails of Cold Steel series in not only Japan but also North America, Europe, and Asia." Since this article, we've seen confirmation and then Western releases of the Cold Steel 1 and 2 PS4 ports, followed by confirmation of Cold Steel 3.

Oreiller said:
I'm not discounting that it may happen eventually but Kondo says a lot of things and not all of it happens to be true. But well, he did casually reveal Ys 9 was a thing in an interview with an obscure French blog way before its official announcement so who knows.

I'm not sure if what he says is untrue, per say, but a lot of it certainly has no weight. I found it easy enough to find an example of what you're talking about (like this news article from https://www.dualshockers.com/falcom-legend-heroes-titles-west/), where Kondo says in response to bringing over the Crossbell games, "That's something that I really really want to do, and it's something that I'll have to work with our partners or find a partner to make it happen." Obviously, this statement is empty since there are many things people want to do, but that's a far cry from having any plans to act. At the same time, the vague plans hinted at in such statements could eventually become realized, and there's a decent chance that could happen if Falcom actually brings the Crossbell games to PS4 (but that's a big if).

Zen Hero · Jul 3, 2019

I just finished Trails in the Sky the Third! Despite some initial bad feelings that I posted about in this thread, in the end I thoroughly enjoyed it.

On to Trails of Cold Steel, then!

As I understand it, there were two other games that released before Cold Steel but were never translated into English, right? Does anyone know of any good plot summaries out there I could read or watch? I don't mind if it's a lot!

Oreiller · Jul 3, 2019

Eppcetera said:
I'm not sure if what he says is untrue, per say, but a lot of it certainly has no weight. I found it easy enough to find an example of what you're talking about (like this news article from https://www.dualshockers.com/falcom-legend-heroes-titles-west/), where Kondo says in response to bringing over the Crossbell games, "That's something that I really really want to do, and it's something that I'll have to work with our partners or find a partner to make it happen." Obviously, this statement is empty since there are many things people want to do, but that's a far cry from having any plans to act. At the same time, the vague plans hinted at in such statements could eventually become realized, and there's a decent chance that could happen if Falcom actually brings the Crossbell games to PS4 (but that's a big if).

Yeah, I should have worded my thoughts better.
I'm not saying he's lying or anything of the sort, but he often talks about how he would like to make this or that even though Falcom has no concrete plans on the matter.
I'm sure it's made way worse that it really is by shoddy translations of his statements and by how desperate parts of this fanbase are for any sort of info.

Zen Hero said:
I just finished Trails in the Sky the Third! Despite some initial bad feelings that I posted about in this thread, in the end I thoroughly enjoyed it.

On to Trails of Cold Steel, then!

As I understand it, there were two other games that released before Cold Steel but were never translated into English, right? Does anyone know of any good plot summaries out there I could read or watch? I don't mind if it's a lot!

Yeah, Zero no Kiseki and Ao no Kiseki got released between the Sky and Cold Steel games. They haven't been officially localized but there are fantranslations of dubious quality available. They're quite subpar but they're still perfectly playable and understandable so it's up to you wether you want to risk it or not.

Deleted member 9746 · Jul 3, 2019

Zen Hero said:
I just finished Trails in the Sky the Third! Despite some initial bad feelings that I posted about in this thread, in the end I thoroughly enjoyed it.

On to Trails of Cold Steel, then!

As I understand it, there were two other games that released before Cold Steel but were never translated into English, right? Does anyone know of any good plot summaries out there I could read or watch? I don't mind if it's a lot!

There's a story summary for Zero on Youtube if you want to check it out. Unfortunately, it's not finished yet.

Eppcetera · Jul 3, 2019

Zen Hero said:
As I understand it, there were two other games that released before Cold Steel but were never translated into English, right? Does anyone know of any good plot summaries out there I could read or watch? I don't mind if it's a lot!

First, I'd recommend playing the Crossbell games with their subpar fan translations over watching or reading summaries. Second, you're a ways away from actually needing those summaries, since Cold Steel 1 and 2 do not (with the exception of one section near the end of Cold Steel 2) expect you to have played the Crossbell games. The characters and events from the Crossbell games do not become really important to Cold Steel until 3, so wait until at least the Divertissement chapter of Cold Steel 2 before looking at summaries, if you really want to catch up Crossbell without playing the games. Looking at Crossbell summaries can spoil parts of the first two Cold Steel games, not just the two games that weren't released here, so you will do yourself a disservice if you rush into these summaries.

Zen Hero · Jul 3, 2019

Oreiller said:
Yeah, I should have worded my thoughts better.
I'm not saying he's lying or anything of the sort, but he often talks about how he would like to make this or that even though Falcom has no concrete plans on the matter.
I'm sure it's made way worse that it really is by shoddy translations of his statements and by how desperate parts of this fanbase are for any sort of info.

Yeah, Zero no Kiseki and Ao no Kiseki got released between the Sky and Cold Steel games. They haven't been officially localized but there are fantranslations of dubious quality available. They're quite subpar but they're still perfectly playable and understandable so it's up to you wether you want to risk it or not.

Pringles said:
There's a story summary for Zero on Youtube if you want to check it out. Unfortunately, it's not finished yet.

Eppcetera said:
First, I'd recommend playing the Crossbell games with their subpar fan translations over watching or reading summaries. Second, you're a ways away from actually needing those summaries, since Cold Steel 1 and 2 do not (with the exception of one section near the end of Cold Steel 2) expect you to have played the Crossbell games. The characters and events from the Crossbell games do not become really important to Cold Steel until 3, so wait until at least the Divertissement chapter of Cold Steel 2 before looking at summaries, if you really want to catch up Crossbell without playing the games. Looking at Crossbell summaries can spoil parts of the first two Cold Steel games, not just the two games that weren't released here, so you will do yourself a disservice if you rush into these summaries.

Thanks for the advice everyone! I'll think a bit more about what I want to do.

Chaosblade · Jul 3, 2019

I was hoping we would get Geofront's Zero translation this summer, that was mentioned as a goal around the 80% update. But it doesn't seem very likely at this point. At their 2018 pace we would be on the verge of a 90% update, but by outward appearances it seems like things are going slower than that. Zerker basically never talks about the project anymore, took the editing note out of his Twitter name, and is working two jobs now.

Hopefully the mentioned possibility of ports and localization doesn't slow things down further, since there's no guarantee any of that will happen.

Mivey · Jul 3, 2019

Chaosblade said:
I was hoping we would get Geofront's Zero translation this summer, that was mentioned as a goal around the 80% update. But it doesn't seem very likely at this point. At their 2018 pace we would be on the verge of a 90% update, but by outward appearances it seems like things are going slower than that. Zerker basically never talks about the project anymore, took the editing note out of his Twitter name, and is working two jobs now.

Hopefully the mentioned possibility of ports and localization doesn't slow things down further, since there's no guarantee any of that will happen.

Well, zerker joined the project early on, and helped it a ton, but he's not the only one working on it. We can hope the remaining (two or three?) people keep working on it steadily enough. Of course, I think the plan was to give the entire script a third pass, but given their lack of people and pace of progress, that might be super unrealistic.

Sabin · Jul 3, 2019

Don't forget that the Falcom AMA with Kondo-san starts in around one hour on /r/games.

I also have some spicy questions for him regarding pc releases and port quality.

Not expecting them to be answered but who knows.

TheNotoriousAFG · Jul 3, 2019

https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/c8u8iy/ama_i_am_toshihiro_kondo_president_of_nihon/

The AMA is a little delayed since he's not back in the office, but jump in!

Oreiller · Jul 3, 2019

Falcom currently has 3 more arcs planned.

Vylash · Jul 3, 2019

cs3 turbo mode confirmed, friends

Shan · Jul 3, 2019

TheNotoriousAFG said:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/c8u8iy/ama_i_am_toshihiro_kondo_president_of_nihon/

The AMA is a little delayed since he's not back in the office, but jump in!

Looks like this is it for the AMA lol, I know Kondo got caught up in stuff but he answered only a whooping 4 questions. He's supposed to appear on the NISA stream starting soon...so maybe he'll answer more there.

Chaosblade · Jul 3, 2019

If they actually don't answer more questions it would be the second least number of questions I've seen answered on a scheduled AMA.

Pedro · Jul 3, 2019

They said on the stream that once it's over, they'll go back to the AMA and answer more stuff.

PK Gaming · Jul 3, 2019

All of you folks hang-wringing "bond events" finally got a proper answer as for why they were implemented in the first place.

Question said:
Will the Trails series ever go back to predetermined romances for the leads, or are the "choose your romance" bonding options here to stay?

Answer said:
The reason Cold Steel ended up in this fashion is because we wanted portray Rean's student life and the fact that he had options, so it ended up this way. Different from Trails in the Sky we wanted to the player to have some choice in the matter.

As for the new games, we are still planning them at the moment, so who know's how that will turn out! What I will say that is that we will use the system that best suits the game.

Choice was always the point.

Sabin · Jul 3, 2019

Its actually amazing that NISA can't even get a freaking AMA right.

Aaronrules380 · Jul 3, 2019

PK Gaming said:
All of you folks hang-wringing "bond events" finally got a proper answer as for why they were implemented in the first place.

Choice was always the point.

Oh hey my question :P

Chaosblade · Jul 3, 2019

Aaronrules380 said:
Oh hey my question :P

Congratulations on being one of six.

Thuddert · Jul 4, 2019

PK Gaming said:
All of you folks hang-wringing "bond events" finally got a proper answer as for why they were implemented in the first place.

Choice was always the point.

So future games will not look at Persona for inspiration :P

ara · Jul 4, 2019

Vylash said:
cs3 turbo mode confirmed, friends

I thought this was confirmed already? But yeah, good thing it's in. I don't think I could go through these games without some sort of a speed-up function.

garion333 · Jul 4, 2019

Chaosblade said:
Congratulations on being one of six.

He answered twelve times, so ended up being a bit better than it looked initially.

lucancel · Jul 4, 2019

So for falcom no switch support given low ys8 sales in Japan.
Really disappointing given i played the most on portable platforms (vita).
Probably cs4 Is my last trails given my future gaming time will be only portable.

Aaronrules380 · Jul 4, 2019

lucancel said:
So for falcom no switch support given low ys8 sales in Japan.
Really disappointing given i played the most on portable platforms (vita).
Probably cs4 Is my last trails given my future gaming time will be only portable.

I mean, hoping for switch support that didn't come from outside partners from Falcom was always a pipe dream tbh

Deleted member 26768 · Jul 4, 2019

lucancel said:
So for falcom no switch support given low ys8 sales in Japan.
Really disappointing given i played the most on portable platforms (vita).
Probably cs4 Is my last trails given my future gaming time will be only portable.

Falcom would gladly support Switch, if they had the manpower for it. Due to their current schedule of one game a year and small team it just isn't feasible to focus on more than one platform, and due to how much Sony helps them with development and localisation it is a normal pick for them to work with their systems.

Jiraiza · Jul 4, 2019

PK Gaming said:
All of you folks hang-wringing "bond events" finally got a proper answer as for why they were implemented in the first place.

Choice was always the point.

Funny how their idea of giving Rean "options" is just selecting people to spend time with (which really is just ultimately an annoyance to most people since they'd rather view all the choices in one playthrough instead of being forced to do it all in a second one). Surely they could've been more creative with what a typical student life entails.

But in context of Rean's story arc, it makes some sense; I'll give them that. The harem aspect was and is still hot garbage, though. That being said, I decided to shift my focus from expecting anything decent out of the protagonists in regards to romance and will root for side pairings going forward.

Jiraiza · Jul 4, 2019

Woops, double post.

JohannCK · Jul 5, 2019

Here's a summary of last week's 15th anniversary talk show if anyone's interested

lucancel · Jul 5, 2019

Interesting. Which things were the staff not satisfied of on crossbell?
I really would like to know

Anyway reading the interview next title is not this year and next arc far away imho

TK_Shrodes · Jul 5, 2019

Sabin said:
Its actually amazing that NISA can't even get a freaking AMA right.

Hey cool, blame me for that then. Due to the limited time we have with Kondo-san this week, I had to sort of pack the schedule and didn't account for LA traffic being twice as garbage as usual. We've added quite a bit since then, everyone being gracious enough to go back through and answer quite a few more in the meantime.

There's a lot of really in-depth responses in there, too, and obviously translation takes a substantial amount of more time than directly replying to an AMA w/o it. Technically, Kondo-san and staff spent at least twice as much time answering fan questions than any single interview this week.

Final total is 26 responses.

fargodog · Jul 5, 2019

I just hit Act 2 of Cold Steel 2, and with the knowledge in mind that Falcom often save their best writing for the final acts of their games, I am not feeling this one at all. It's an endless parade of Rean speeches about how they have no idea what they're doing, but they'll figure it out together. For a story on this scale and with the theoretical stakes the ending of Cold Steel 1 presented, the lack of any cohesive narrative arc or tension in the plot is incredibly disappointing.

Plus, the way almost all the female characters throw themselves at him upon seeing Rean again is tedious as hell.

Sabin · Jul 5, 2019

ToraShiro said:
Hey cool, blame me for that then. Due to the limited time we have with Kondo-san this week, I had to sort of pack the schedule and didn't account for LA traffic being twice as garbage as usual. We've added quite a bit since then, everyone being gracious enough to go back through and answer quite a few more in the meantime.

There's a lot of really in-depth responses in there, too, and obviously translation takes a substantial amount of more time than directly replying to an AMA w/o it. Technically, Kondo-san and staff spent at least twice as much time answering fan questions than any single interview this week.

Final total is 26 responses.

Shit happens so don't worry. I might be usually a bit angrier with NISA due to some of your companies quality issues that happend over the years and not having a PC version of Cold Steel III after i brought in some in friends who are now in total love with kiseki but have basically no chance to play them without having a PC version due to the countries they live in.

Yunyo · Jul 5, 2019

I actually was not expecting that many detailed responses in the AMA. Three arcs remaining answer is probably the biggest reveal. I'm only sad that Kondo didn't answer which of the CS3 songs is his favorite.

Mivey · Jul 5, 2019

ToraShiro said:
Hey cool, blame me for that then. Due to the limited time we have with Kondo-san this week, I had to sort of pack the schedule and didn't account for LA traffic being twice as garbage as usual. We've added quite a bit since then, everyone being gracious enough to go back through and answer quite a few more in the meantime.

There's a lot of really in-depth responses in there, too, and obviously translation takes a substantial amount of more time than directly replying to an AMA w/o it. Technically, Kondo-san and staff spent at least twice as much time answering fan questions than any single interview this week.

Final total is 26 responses.

Great job actually, considering the time constraints and that you had to translate everything back and forth. It seems like it was a bit of work to physically meet with Kondo, so did you consider using a Skype chat or something like that ?

Thuddert · Jul 5, 2019

ToraShiro said:
Hey cool, blame me for that then. Due to the limited time we have with Kondo-san this week, I had to sort of pack the schedule and didn't account for LA traffic being twice as garbage as usual. We've added quite a bit since then, everyone being gracious enough to go back through and answer quite a few more in the meantime.

There's a lot of really in-depth responses in there, too, and obviously translation takes a substantial amount of more time than directly replying to an AMA w/o it. Technically, Kondo-san and staff spent at least twice as much time answering fan questions than any single interview this week.

Final total is 26 responses.

Sometimes shit is outta your control. Nobody should blame you.

You peeps got more out of Kondo than his 15th anniversary stream.

logash · Jul 5, 2019

Alright, after much procrastinating on my part, and a lot of looking around the internet, I have finally secured ways of playing Trails 1 through Zero no Kiseki on my Vita. I am missing Ao no Kiseki but I figure I will cross that bridge when I get there. I also have Cold Steel 1 and 2 on my Vita so those are also locked and loaded.

I figure it's finally time for me to start this series in earnest after I beat Judgment (3 chapter left). I hope getting these up and running was worth it!

Anything I need to know before stepping into the first games? Is it bad if I play the first two series on easy? I plan on stepping it up when I get to Cold Steel but I just want to enjoy the story for the earlier games since they are so old.

TK_Shrodes · Jul 5, 2019

Sabin said:
Shit happens so don't worry. I might be usually a bit angrier with NISA due to some of your companies quality issues that happend over the years and not having a PC version of Cold Steel III after i brought in some in friends who are now in total love with kiseki but have basically no chance to play them without having a PC version due to the countries they live in.

Yeah, I get it. I just hate seeing NISA get flack about my dumb errors. Sorry for getting salty.

We hear yah about the other platforms.

Mivey said:
Great job actually, considering the time constraints and that you had to translate everything back and forth. It seems like it was a bit of work to physically meet with Kondo, so did you consider using a Skype chat or something like that ?

We were lucky enough to have him for the week, he is neck deep in Ys IX development and unfortunately is even less available when he gets back so unfortunately between interviews and travel that was determined to be the only block of available time for the week (though that turned out tricky anyway). Eyes bigger than our stomachs and all that.

KuwabaraTheMan · Jul 5, 2019

logash said:
Alright, after much procrastinating on my part, and a lot of looking around the internet, I have finally secured ways of playing Trails 1 through Zero no Kiseki on my Vita. I am missing Ao no Kiseki but I figure I will cross that bridge when I get there. I also have Cold Steel 1 and 2 on my Vita so those are also locked and loaded.

I figure it's finally time for me to start this series in earnest after I beat Judgment (3 chapter left). I hope getting these up and running was worth it!

Anything I need to know before stepping into the first games? Is it bad if I play the first two series on easy? I plan on stepping it up when I get to Cold Steel but I just want to enjoy the story for the earlier games since they are so old.

The Sky games are balanced around Normal difficulty (I don't think there even is an 'easy' difficulty, although I might be wrong on that). You should be fine with that. In contrast, the Cold Steel games require the higher difficulties to get a real challenge out of them.

Main thing to keep in mind when you play is that all of the NPCs update their dialogue after every story event, and it's highly recommended to talk to them constantly because their individual stories are really strong. Try to seek out the newspapers and books for some great worldbuilding and foreshadowing as well. Also, never google anything from the series or try to look it up on the wiki. Even something that seems like it could be incredibly safe to look up can wind up having some major spoilers involved. Just ask in here if you need any clarification on things.

logash · Jul 5, 2019

KuwabaraTheMan said:
The Sky games are balanced around Normal difficulty (I don't think there even is an 'easy' difficulty, although I might be wrong on that). You should be fine with that. In contrast, the Cold Steel games require the higher difficulties to get a real challenge out of them.

Main thing to keep in mind when you play is that all of the NPCs update their dialogue after every story event, and it's highly recommended to talk to them constantly because their individual stories are really strong. Try to seek out the newspapers and books for some great worldbuilding and foreshadowing as well. Also, never google anything from the series or try to look it up on the wiki. Even something that seems like it could be incredibly safe to look up can wind up having some major spoilers involved. Just ask in here if you need any clarification on things.

I've heard about this! It's one of the reasons I decided to jump into the series. I didn't know it would be basically after every scenario event (I assume within the time you spend in that town cause otherwise it would be crazy). Thanks for the spoiler tip too! I am sure I would have walked into one otherwise lol. I plan on starting this weekend :)

garion333 · Jul 5, 2019

ToraShiro said:
We were lucky enough to have him for the week, he is neck deep in Ys IX development and unfortunately is even less available when he gets back so unfortunately between interviews and travel that was determined to be the only block of available time for the week (though that turned out tricky anyway). Eyes bigger than our stomachs and all that.

I'm shocked he even made the trip with Ys IX literally right around the corner.

garion333 · Jul 5, 2019

logash said:
I've heard about this! It's one of the reasons I decided to jump into the series. I didn't know it would be basically after every scenario event (I assume within the time you spend in that town cause otherwise it would be crazy). Thanks for the spoiler tip too! I am sure I would have walked into one otherwise lol. I plan on starting this weekend :)

I find the side stories more interesting on second playthroughs.

And many of the stories aren't all that amazing, but it's how they continue on and evolve based on the world around them as the games progress I find more fascinating.

Sabin · Jul 5, 2019

ToraShiro said:
Yeah, I get it. I just hate seeing NISA get flack about my dumb errors. Sorry for getting salty.

We hear yah about the other platforms.

I can understand that and my reaction was definitely too much. Sorry for my overreaction and i hope you can work something out for other plattforms.

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