The Legend of Heroes series.

[blackpink]

CS3 spoilers

Spoiler: 

He is Barkhorn. He was first introduced in a door in 3rd, as the 8th Dominion of the Gralsritter. His codename is "Roaring Lion. It was he who wrote up the report on the Salt Pale that struck North Ambria. In CS1, we find out that he was the wandering priest who would travel to Gaius' village and minister to them.

In CS2, right before you head out to rescue the royal family, you can take on a quest from the priest in Trista, and you basically end up flying around Eastern Zemuria in the Courageous, tailing Barkhorn in his faster (and cloaked) Merkabah. He knew that you were following him and gave you some of his quartz as a gift.

In between CS2 and CS3, a border skirmish between Erebonia and Calvard breaks out in Nord. Calvardian airships attack Gaius' village encampment. Barkhorn bodyblocks airship gunfire for Gaius, and transfers his stigma to Gaius. According to Gaius, Barkhorn then died from the blood loss. With Gaius having inherited Barkhorn's stigma, Gaius became the new 8th Dominion.

It would appear that Barkhorn did not die, but instead used the opportunity to fake his death. It is possible that he really did die in Gaius' arms and then was secretly resurrected. We know from 3rd that Kevin had the Salt Pale weaponized into a Salt Bolt explicitly because he feared that Weissman could be resurrected, which implies that there are other means of resurrection outside of what we see in the Erebonia arc. Alternatively, Gaius could have been lying to his friends that Barkhorn died in order to cover for him, but that would be inconsistent with the tone with which Gaius retells the story, his characterization, and the tone of the Trails series. In CS3, we find out that the SSS told Juna - a random SSS fangirl - about Wazy's true identity, so it's not like Trails protagonists care about keeping the Gralsritter's identities a secret.

The real question is whether or not Barkhorn is 1. do the Gralsritter know that Barkhorn is alive? 2. is he still working for the Church? And 3. is he the 5th Anguis, who has inside intel on the Gralsritter?

you gotta be kidding me....(bolded in the spoiler)

[Velshin]

One of the reasons why I love the Legend of Heroes series (specially Sky and CS and zero), the npcs dialogs in cities or village or anywhere, the npcs in general their dialogs are really well done most of them. This fact is kinda overlooked by many players tbh. Many JRPGs either old games or even modern ones have really silly npcs dialogs but in Legend of Heroes? most of the dialogs are either history of the world which is fantastic for world building or incidents that happened in the story or some side story or something about certain characters or background about them. And to make things even better the dialogs get updated the more you advance into the story it keeps things fresh and kinda make the npcs are alive and not mindless.

[Gref]

@Velshin yesterday I was thinking about just this. At this point I think no worries to with handing out spoilers about CS4 but, like I met Ellie's mother. She doesn't say directly, but can be understood from Tio's reaction. You get tips, info about world from random npcs.

And I was damn happy and almost cried in joy when I saw Kloe entering the meeting on Pantagruel The way she speaks is simply way too calming, a cure to my any worries. Can listen to her all day. I want to see the whole game as fast as possible but I also do not want the game to finish. It will be a long time till we get pc releases for the next episodes.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

One of the reasons why I love the Legend of Heroes series (specially Sky and CS and zero), the npcs dialogs in cities or village or anywhere, the npcs in general their dialogs are really well done most of them. This fact is kinda overlooked by many players tbh. Many JRPGs either old games or even modern ones have really silly npcs dialogs but in Legend of Heroes? most of the dialogs are either history of the world which is fantastic for world building or incidents that happened in the story or some side story or something about certain characters or background about them. And to make things even better the dialogs get updated the more you advance into the story it keeps things fresh and kinda make the npcs are alive and not mindless.

I feel that the NPC dialogue only really worked in the Cold Steel games, namely the hub cities/airships.

In Trails in the Sky, you only spend one chapter in each region, about 5-10 hours of gameplay. And you only really spend... maybe an 1-2 hours in each town at most (except for Grancel). Without dialogue portraits, and with most people having reused character models/sprites, it makes it very difficult for the NPCs to standout and be memorable, especially with so little time you get to spend with them. And then once the chapter is over, you don't see them again for another 50-60 hours until you come back in the next game. By that point I've completely forgotten almost all of the NPCs. And since I hardly remember any NPCs, well... I'm not really inclined to go around talking to anyone again. The NPC dialogue also negatively impacts the pacing of SC, I feel. FC promises that the comfy times are over and that you're going to go off on a dangerous quest fighting Ouroboros, but the actual gameplay is just doing more FC: walking around regions aimlessly doing comfy sidequests with nothing really urgent going on. But that ties into the structural problems with SC.

In Crossbell, they tried out having a hub city of NPCs that you spent the entire game with. Unfortunately it doesn't work. As mentioned before, almost all of the sprites are reused and only major characters have portraits. This makes it very difficult for individual NPCs to standout in my mind. The other problem is that there are far too many of them, and they update too often. It very quickly becomes exhausting spending an hour after every single story update going around talking to everyone, so once again I eventually stopped bothering. Crossbell also has a problem where it's not clear when NPC dialogue has updated.

I think with Cold Steel, they got it right with the hubs (Trista, Ymir, Courageous, Leeves). There is minimal reuse of the same character model in the hubs. The game is in 3D, and when you talk to an NPC, your camera zooms in real close so you get a good look at their distinctive face to burn into your memory (and sometimes their 3D face appears in the dialogue box, a step up from Sky and Crossbell). There also isn't a billion NPCs to talk to; there are a small, maneagable number. The NPC dialogue is also very greatly improved here, as the NPCs in town have relationships and ongoing subplots with other NPCs. For example, the fencing club drama at Trista, or Franky's family drama at Leeves. When I talk to an NPC, I'm curious to find out what will happen next. Another thing Cold Steel did really well was the NPC placement. You usually begin a free day with Rean standing in the middle of the school/dorm hallway with an NPC walking down the corridor right in front of him, making it really easy to get sucked into the chain. Vincent talks about Margarita, I'm inclined to go hunt down Margarita and talk to her. And she talks about Mint, I want to go hunt down Mint and talk to her. And she talks about Professors Mary and Makarov, I want to go talk to them. Also, there are never really more than 5 NPCs clustered together onscreen at once, so it never feels intimidating (contrast that with every time I walked out of the SSS building into Crossbell's central plaza, and there were 20 NPCs onscreen. Very intimidating, feels like too much work to bother).

I think the old problems with Sky's NPC design resurfaces with the field studies, as again you spend too little time in the field study locations to really know the NPCs. Too little reward for too much effort. When the plot ramps up, the slow pace of talking to NPCs kills what should otherwise be an urgent story. The 3D models do help them be more memorable. The one thing CS3 and CS4 has going for it though is that the large extended cast of NPCs from Trista in CS1 CS2 are incorporated throughout the field study locations, so keeping an eye out for fellow Thors alumni is fun.

[Velshin]

I feel that the NPC dialogue only really worked in the Cold Steel games, namely the hub cities/airships.

In Trails in the Sky, you only spend one chapter in each region, about 5-10 hours of gameplay. And you only really spend... maybe an 1-2 hours in each town at most (except for Grancel). Without dialogue portraits, and with most people having reused character models/sprites, it makes it very difficult for the NPCs to standout and be memorable, especially with so little time you get to spend with them. And then once the chapter is over, you don't see them again for another 50-60 hours until you come back in the next game. By that point I've completely forgotten almost all of the NPCs. And since I hardly remember any NPCs, well... I'm not really inclined to go around talking to anyone again. The NPC dialogue also negatively impacts the pacing of SC, I feel. FC promises that the comfy times are over and that you're going to go off on a dangerous quest fighting Ouroboros, but the actual gameplay is just doing more FC: walking around regions aimlessly doing comfy sidequests with nothing really urgent going on. But that ties into the structural problems with SC.

In Crossbell, they tried out having a hub city of NPCs that you spent the entire game with. Unfortunately it doesn't work. As mentioned before, almost all of the sprites are reused and only major characters have portraits. This makes it very difficult for individual NPCs to standout in my mind. The other problem is that there are far too many of them, and they update too often. It very quickly becomes exhausting spending an hour after every single story update going around talking to everyone, so once again I eventually stopped bothering. Crossbell also has a problem where it's not clear when NPC dialogue has updated.

I think with Cold Steel, they got it right with the hubs (Trista, Ymir, Courageous, Leeves). There is minimal reuse of the same character model in the hubs. The game is in 3D, and when you talk to an NPC, your camera zooms in real close so you get a good look at their distinctive face to burn into your memory (and sometimes their 3D face appears in the dialogue box, a step up from Sky and Crossbell). There also isn't a billion NPCs to talk to; there are a small, maneagable number. The NPC dialogue is also very greatly improved here, as the NPCs in town have relationships and ongoing subplots with other NPCs. For example, the fencing club drama at Trista, or Franky's family drama at Leeves. When I talk to an NPC, I'm curious to find out what will happen next. Another thing Cold Steel did really well was the NPC placement. You usually begin a free day with Rean standing in the middle of the school/dorm hallway with an NPC walking down the corridor right in front of him, making it really easy to get sucked into the chain. Vincent talks about Margarita, I'm inclined to go hunt down Margarita and talk to her. And she talks about Mint, I want to go hunt down Mint and talk to her. And she talks about Professors Mary and Makarov, I want to go talk to them. Also, there are never really more than 5 NPCs clustered together onscreen at once, so it never feels intimidating (contrast that with every time I walked out of the SSS building into Crossbell's central plaza, and there were 20 NPCs onscreen. Very intimidating, feels like too much work to bother).

I think the old problems with Sky's NPC design resurfaces with the field studies, as again you spend too little time in the field study locations to really know the NPCs. Too little reward for too much effort. When the plot ramps up, the slow pace of talking to NPCs kills what should otherwise be an urgent story. The 3D models do help them be more memorable. The one thing CS3 and CS4 has going for it though is that the large extended cast of NPCs from Trista in CS1 CS2 are incorporated throughout the field study locations, so keeping an eye out for fellow Thors alumni is fun.

I agree with you about the Sky series in that aspect but I have to disagree about Crossbell, personally? I really really enjoy talking to npcs and have no problem spending hours and hours doing it.

That aside, now tell me which divine knight and awakener is your favorite?

[Val the Moofia Boss]

That aside, now tell me which divine knight and awakener is your favorite?

I will go with the vanilla answer of Rean and Valimar. I really like the grim, "against all odds" feeling of their quest in CS2 and CS4. Valimar is also the only one with a real personality and he has some dork moments. I also quite like Valimar's design, though I prefer Argerion's wings to Valimar's tuning fork wings.

Ending CS4 spoilers

Spoiler: 

I quite liked the wings Valimar got, but too bad he only got them right near the end.

I also quite liked Rufus for having the audacity to shank milf knight. That said, I'm not fond of Rufus' inexplicable high powerlevel. He had his hands full 1. running Kreuzen on behalf of his incompetent father, 2. leading the Ironbloods, and 3. running the Noble Alliance to set the board for the annexations and Osborne's plan to lift the curse. It's incredulous to me that on top of all of that, he could SOMEHOW be able to fit in enough sword practice to become a highpowerlevel character. In CS2, he solos every member of Class VII at once (except for Rean and Crow), and Class VII have the advantage of being able to use ARCUS links, which Rufus couldn't make use of by himself.

I wasn't too fond of Osborne turning out to be an Awakener or a great warrior. I felt he was really intimidating as just being a normal guy who happened to be very smart and ruthless. When you have strong people bowing to him out of respect, that makes him even more terrifying.

Rutger was cool.

Cedric is a punk and I wanted him to squirm and scream as he was crushed like a watermelon inside his own mech. Sadly he lived and will probably be "redeemed" and let off the hook for everything he did along with the rest of Ouro by the end of the series.

Thoughts on the Awakeners? Favorite knight and soldat? Favorite airship?

[Velshin]

I will go with the vanilla answer of Rean and Valimar. I really like the grim, "against all odds" feeling of their quest in CS2 and CS4. Valimar is also the only one with a real personality and he has some dork moments. I also quite like Valimar's design, though I prefer Argerion's wings to Valimar's tuning fork wings.

Ending CS4 spoilers

Spoiler: 

I quite liked the wings Valimar got, but too bad he only got them right near the end.

I also quite liked Rufus for having the audacity to shank milf knight. That said, I'm not fond of Rufus' inexplicable high powerlevel. He had his hands full 1. running Kreuzen on behalf of his incompetent father, 2. leading the Ironbloods, and 3. running the Noble Alliance to set the board for the annexations and Osborne's plan to lift the curse. It's incredulous to me that on top of all of that, he could SOMEHOW be able to fit in enough sword practice to become a highpowerlevel character. In CS2, he solos every member of Class VII at once (except for Rean and Crow), and Class VII have the advantage of being able to use ARCUS links, which Rufus couldn't make use of by himself.

I wasn't too fond of Osborne turning out to be an Awakener or a great warrior. I felt he was really intimidating as just being a normal guy who happened to be very smart and ruthless. When you have strong people bowing to him out of respect, that makes him even more terrifying.

Rutger was cool.

Cedric is a punk and I wanted him to squirm and scream as he was crushed like a watermelon inside his own mech. Sadly he lived and will probably be "redeemed" and let off the hook for everything he did along with the rest of Ouro by the end of the series.

Thoughts on the Awakeners? Favorite knight and soldat? Favorite airship?

I still didnt finish CS4 yet but from what I have seen so far? I love Ishmelga the Ebon knight mainly because I usually love darker colors and his powers and his looks reminded me so much of Grahf from Xenogears with his Weltall gear


But who knows maybe my opinion will change after I finish CS4.

[Gref]

i am crying with happiness seriously crying. omfg big spoilers Prince Olivert is alive!!!!!

[Velshin]

@Velshin yesterday I was thinking about just this. At this point I think no worries to with handing out spoilers about CS4 but, like I met Ellie's mother. She doesn't say directly, but can be understood from Tio's reaction. You get tips, info about world from random npcs.

And I was damn happy and almost cried in joy when I saw Kloe entering the meeting on Pantagruel The way she speaks is simply way too calming, a cure to my any worries. Can listen to her all day. I want to see the whole game as fast as possible but I also do not want the game to finish. It will be a long time till we get pc releases for the next episodes.

Yeah man I am on the same boat! somehow I dont want thr story to end at least not soon haha

[Val the Moofia Boss]

New Kuro no Kiseki trailer



- - - Updated - - -

Starting to get worried that Zephyr is going to suffer from overexposure, as it looks like Fie is going to have a subplot about tracking down that other Zephyr woman who we saw in flashbacks but never showed up in Cold Steel. On the other hand, Fie being in Calvard means that there is the possibility of more Fie x Rean shipping screentime.

Zin's new outfit looks cool but I wish he had more facial hair.

- - - Updated - - -

Also, the special edition pre-order bonus gives us a look at what Professor Hamilton looks like (basically Quistis from FF8/Touko from the Nasuverse). Um... aren't the 3 disciples of Epstein supposed to be at least 60-70 years old? Epstein died in 1154, and Kuro takes place 54 years later. So if the professors were at the minimum age of 10 when they became Epstein's students... they would be at least 64 years old today! Probably in their 70s! And this woman looks like she is in her 20s/30s at the most.

[Velshin]

New Kuro no Kiseki trailer



- - - Updated - - -

Starting to get worried that Zephyr is going to suffer from overexposure, as it looks like Fie is going to have a subplot about tracking down that other Zephyr woman who we saw in flashbacks but never showed up in Cold Steel. On the other hand, Fie being in Calvard means that there is the possibility of more Fie x Rean shipping screentime.

Zin's new outfit looks cool but I wish he had more facial hair.

- - - Updated - - -

Also, the special edition pre-order bonus gives us a look at what Professor Hamilton looks like (basically Quistis from FF8/Touko from the Nasuverse). Um... aren't the 3 disciples of Epstein supposed to be at least 60-70 years old? Epstein died in 1154, and Kuro takes place 54 years later. So if the professors were at the minimum age of 10 when they became Epstein's students... they would be at least 64 years old today! Probably in their 70s! And this woman looks like she is in her 20s/30s at the most.

Well! maybe some kind of nano machine tech to make cells looks still young like in Xenogears? or maybe another branch facility from the Gnome scientists?

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Gnome scientists

Unlikely given that the Gnomes were concerned with events going on in Erebonia and had little reason to go far away from it. Likewise, we are told in Sky that after Epstein died, the 3 disciples went their separate ways and established factories in different countries, and none had seen each other since. Plus, Calvard and Erebonia had been in a very long cold war with each other, and Reinford and Verne very quickly became aligned against each other through their association with their respective countries. So Hamilton would have had little reason to go to Erebonia. I don't see how the Gnomes or Hamilton could have come into close proximity with each other.

- - - Updated - - -

I suppose Chinese Chi/Qi could be involved? "Qi" was introduced in the Crossbell arc as being used by Eastern clans. Not sure if it is just the Easterner's term for "mana" as used in Western Zemuria, or if it is a completely different power system.

In Chinese fantasy novels (Wuxia and Xianxia novels), people who cultivated their Qi could extend their lives, perhaps even become immortal. The main character becoming an immortal is the usual main plot objective of Xianxia novels (called a "cultivation" quest). And Kuro is set in Calvard so we're going to be dealing with a lot of foreigners of Eastern descent, and even a clan of ninjas. So that could be one source of immortality.

[Velshin]

Unlikely given that the Gnomes were concerned with events going on in Erebonia and had little reason to go far away from it. Likewise, we are told in Sky that after Epstein died, the 3 disciples went their separate ways and established factories in different countries, and none had seen each other since. Plus, Calvard and Erebonia had been in a very long cold war with each other, and Reinford and Verne very quickly became aligned against each other through their association with their respective countries. So Hamilton would have had little reason to go to Erebonia. I don't see how the Gnomes or Hamilton could have come into close proximity with each other.

- - - Updated - - -

I suppose Chinese Chi/Qi could be involved? "Qi" was introduced in the Crossbell arc as being used by Eastern clans. Not sure if it is just the Easterner's term for "mana" as used in Western Zemuria, or if it is a completely different power system.

In Chinese fantasy novels (Wuxia and Xianxia novels), people who cultivated their Qi could extend their lives, perhaps even become immortal. The main character becoming an immortal is the usual main plot objective of Xianxia novels (called a "cultivation" quest). And Kuro is set in Calvard so we're going to be dealing with a lot of foreigners of Eastern descent, and even a clan of ninjas. So that could be one source of immortality.

Yeah maybe some kind of legendary rare medicine herb that only grows in Calvard or something.

Anyone here have a spread sheet of the timeline Year of the the series? at least we start from the Sky FC all the way up to Kuro (the one after Hajimari).

Also silly me I never noticed until the end of CS3 that Rufus Albarea voice actor in English is the same guy who does Albert Wesker in Resident Evil series!

[blackpink]

Fie looking good :0

[Val the Moofia Boss]

New Famitsu scans and screenshot for Kuro came out.




Kaeya is telling a bracer (childhood friend of hers, probably) to leave the Bracer Guild. Seems like the guild's reputation has been damaged. Would be nice if the Bracer Guild finally gets to experience the fallout for their actions. "Non-interference in the political affairs of other nations" my ass. Erebonia and Calvard should've banned them after the stunts they pulled in Liberl and Crossbell, and ESPECIALLY after CS4.







These are the childhood friends of Van (the main protagonist): Elaine (Bracer girl, age 24) and Rene (CID agent, age 25).

Rene's 3D model looks quite handsome.

It is clarified that the Rocksmith Agency has been reorganized as the CID (there was some confusion as to whether or not they were separate organizations), and that Kilika is no longer the head of it. Not sure if this means that Kilika has gone back to being a Bracer. Maybe she went back home and reopened her father's (master Ryuga's) dojo and teaches Taito to anyone who walks in.

- - - Updated - - -

Also, upon closer inspection, that is a very fancy sword Elaine has. Previously, the swords characters used were either family heirlooms (like the swords the Albareas, Arseids, Vanders, or Arnors wielded), or they were cheap mass produced swords (like Rean's tachi). This implies that Elaine might come from a prestigious family (perhaps the remnant of a noble family from when Calvard was still a kingdom?), or she was given it by her swordmaster.

- - - Updated - - -

Trails localizations by NISA have been leaked:

• Hajimari no Kiseki is being localized as Trails into Reverie, coming 2023.

• Nayuta no Kiseki being localized as "Boundless Trails", set for 2023.

• Zero being localized, coming 2022.

• Ao for 2023.

They're coming to the Epic Games Store. Not sure if this means that they will be EGS exclusives.

[Saltysquidoon]

Trails localizations by NISA have been leaked:

• Hajimari no Kiseki is being localized as Trails into Reverie, coming 2023.

• Nayuta no Kiseki being localized as "Boundless Trails", set for 2023.

• Zero being localized, coming 2022.

• Ao for 2023.

They're coming to the Epic Games Store. Not sure if this means that they will be EGS exclusives.

2023, This ain't it chief.

Hajimari came out last year NISA needs to get off its arse, they want me to wait three years for a game that's not even part of a new arc? Bruh.

[Poppincaps]

It's likely for logistical reasons I'd imagine. If Hajimari heavily features characters from Ao and Zero, it only makes sense that they'd want those localized first. It's probably the same team localizing all of them. Unfortunate for die hards who've played Ao and Zero using Fan Translations but it makes sense from a business sense.

[Cattleya]

Trails fans: "Why aren't they localizing Crossbell!? Stupid NISA"
Also Trails fans: "Why are they delaying localizations for the new games by localizing Crossbell!? Stupid NISA"

[blackpink]

Trails localizations by NISA have been leaked:

• Hajimari no Kiseki is being localized as Trails into Reverie, coming 2023.

• Nayuta no Kiseki being localized as "Boundless Trails", set for 2023.

• Zero being localized, coming 2022.

• Ao for 2023.

They're coming to the Epic Games Store. Not sure if this means that they will be EGS exclusives.

Better not be exclusive...

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Looks like NISA is working with the Geofront team on the official localization of the Crossbell games. The Geofront team took down their fan translation patches for Zero and Ao. It's unclear if the Geofront script is being straight up licensed, or if the Geofront members are being employed and a new script is being translated. If it's the former then I don't know how NISA worked that out, since the last time a fan translation was straight up localized it caused (XSEED licensing the Ys Oath in Felghana TL) problems, and with the Gefront there is simply just too many people involved to track down everyone's signatures.

The games are coming to PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC (Steam, Epic Games Store, and GOG). Zero and Ao will not receive an English dub, subtitled only. Nayuta and Hajimari will get an English dub.

- - - Updated - - -