The Legend of Heroes series.

[Gref]

Yeah, sorry. Cold Steel simply isn't romance heavy.

There are actual romances in the Trails series, but one of them develops among the side characters and the other is from a past game, and was controversial (because it was a love triangle a LOT of people were disappointed with who won. I'm still salty over that. They haven't really done romance since then).

I am totally ok we already determined plots. who is going to be with whom. my disappointment comes from being given options but ends up with nothing.
it is all good though, I am not hard core when it comes to stories (after seeing the horrendous writing that blizz came up with for character in bfa anyway)
I really enjoyed how romance was handled in all previous games, liberl and crossbell arcs. I just thought, this would be more open ended that is it. The game is great and having really great time with cs1 atm. Glad that I can finish all these before cs4 hopefully hits pc in english.

[Skorpionss]

Gonna start Trails in the Sky for the first time soon, any tips?

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Gonna start Trails in the Sky for the first time soon, any tips?

Play on normal difficulty. If you really, really want a challenge, you can go for hard mode. DO NOT play FC for the first time on nightmare.

The hard and nightmare difficulties were added in by XSEED during their porting process. The game was NOT balanced around those difficulties. They are flat damage modifiers that just make the battles take longer than they already are (Trails combat is kinda rough for FC and SC, it starts really improving in 3rd). Nightmare is almost unbeatable on your first playthrough without NG+ items. Hard mode on FC is beatable on your first playthrough (which I did) but the same can't be said for SC's hard mode, which is exponentially more difficult's than FC. When I played SC on hard, I made it a few hours in before I gave up and started over on normal.

Arts (magic) are very powerful, especially in SC.

FC and SC suffer from poor sidequest placement. When you arrive in a town, there are half a dozen quests on the quest board, so you do them before you move on with the plot... and then a major plot event happens, and you want to see what happens next, but oh no three more quests just appeared on the quest board! Really, you're not missing much if you skip the sidequests in FC and SC. Don't let yourself fall into the trap of feeling like you need to do all of them. That said, you'll be strapped for cash so you will actually need to do some sidequests in order to stay geared.

The first twenty hours of FC are really boring. The game begins to pick up halfway through chapter 2. Again, feel free to skip sidequests.

Don't Google or search for Trails on Youtube, or visit the Trails wiki. There are spoilers everywhere. Some of the mysteries in Trails in the Sky are revealed later on in the series and you definitely don't want to be spoiled, especially on the fates of some of the characters.

[blackpink]

Or they like her because she is literally the only character who makes romantic sense for Rean based on how both characters act around each other. It would honestly be better if there wasn't a choice at all, but people got to have their waifu wars I guess. It's clear the writers had no intention of Rean being able to romance any other girl, but got to sell the waifu bait to otaku.

That shit is better(but still not great) in Persona where the character is mostly silent and a blank slate. It's kind of awkward as hell with Rean who is clearly written to be in a relationship with Alisa.

Actually no...there's another reason ppl like her that I'm not gunna mention since I don't want to get banned. It's not that hard to know what I'm referring to lmao. And I don't care for it.

- - - Updated - - -

Ignore the posters above. There isn't really a "canon" romance.

You're kidding yourself if you don't think Falcom was trying to make Alisa the canon one. Yes, there is no "official canon" romance but come on...it's so freaking obvious.

[Velshin]

Ok I am at chapter 3 still (I am a slow player when it comes to JRPG I like to super take my time haha) and GOD I hate Juna..... I was tolerating her from the start but now in chapter 3? she remind me of god damn the character Naruto (I hate that anime/manga so much)...so loud so annoying so forced...it is like the developers forcing me to like her or to show me that she is important....grrrr..

[blackpink]

Ok I am at chapter 3 still (I am a slow player when it comes to JRPG I like to super take my time haha) and GOD I hate Juna..... I was tolerating her from the start but now in chapter 3? she remind me of god damn the character Naruto (I hate that anime/manga so much)...so loud so annoying so forced...it is like the developers forcing me to like her or to show me that she is important....grrrr..

Yup and it doesn't get any better when you find out why she was acting like that. She's a spoiled little bitch. Although I'm more referring to her treatment of Rean.

[Tech614]

You're kidding yourself if you don't think Falcom was trying to make Alisa the canon one. Yes, there is no "official canon" romance but come on...it's so freaking obvious.

Exactly, Alisa is the only character which has romantic hints thrown in actual story scenes and not just bonding events. Then you constantly have people like Sharon, Sara and her Gramps egging it on even more, you have Alisa acting like she finally reunited with her love after a long time in chapter 2 of CS3 etc. If that's not canan idk what is canan lmao. Falcom only won't come flat out and say it's canon because it would be bad for their business with trying to sell waifu wars. Hell there was literally a scene in CS2 that only happened if you romanced Alisa in CS1, and no other girl had a scene like that.

[Arrashi]

Exactly, Alisa is the only character which has romantic hints thrown in actual story scenes and not just bonding events. Then you constantly have people like Sharon, Sara and her Gramps egging it on even more, you have Alisa acting like she finally reunited with her love after a long time in chapter 2 of CS3 etc. If that's not canan idk what is canan lmao. Falcom only won't come flat out and say it's canon because it would be bad for their business with trying to sell waifu wars. Hell there was literally a scene in CS2 that only happened if you romanced Alisa in CS1, and no other girl had a scene like that.

Which is massive problem because if you, just like me, completely ignore Alisa many of later scenes just feel awkward.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Just finished my second playthrough of FC, on nightmare.

Nightmare was... a hassle. Not really fun TBH. It's just your enemies getting a big stat boost which drags out the combat and makes it more tedious.

The final dungeon took me six hours. I ran with Estelle/Joshua/Olivier/Schera as mages. Since in FC, STR buffs actually boost arts, I had Estelle use her Morale craft before we casted our offensive arts. For groups of enemies, spam White Gehenna. For single targets, Blue Impact. If there are many powerful enemies who can kill us very quickly and won't go down quickly, cast Chaos Brand on them to confuse them to reduce incoming damage. Stacking defense, HP, and agility was absolutely useless, only spam Earth Wall. I had Schera use her Heavenly Kiss craft to AT accelerate the team's casts, which proved to be a lifesaver during the final boss battle because I needed to get those Earth Walls in before the boss attacked.

I love the White Gehenna sound effect. Sounds like a train that passed by and you can still hear it, long after it's gone.

Thoughts

Spoiler: 

Counting the days, the story of FC is depicted across 21 days (actually 27 days but they skip a whole week towards the end, we only actually see 21 days ingame). Apparently the characters of FC became BFFs over a few days of knowing each other (remember, the party kept splitting up. They were never together for the whole duration).


I was surprised to find several instances of "holding back", though it is presented as more low key compared to Cold Steel and Crossbell. I think it has to do with presentation. In Cold Steel and Crossbell, you beat villains in battle... and then they stand up and go "well I was actually holding back, but I'll waltz off right now and let you go on your merry way for... reasons", whereas in FC they go "well I COULD continue fighting you, but at this point doing something else seems more productive". It was always clear as to why the bad guys waltzed off, even though they may have been still a match for us.


I liked how if you forgot to return the fishing rod you borrowed for a sidequest in Ruan and tried to leave Ruan for Zeiss, the characters stopped at the exit and went "Oh! Don't we have that fishing rod we need to return?". It was an unexpected extra tidbit of immersion.


One thing I really like about FC are the extra steps involved in a plot point, the extra attention to detail. It really feels like they really thought this through. Not that Cold Steel and Crossbell didn't have good writing, but I wish that they took a few extra steps in their plot points like FC did.

"Okay, so the thieves knew that the mayor ordered a jewel and that he probably had a safe to put it in. How did they open the safe?"
"The thieves must've coated the safe's combination lock in a powder, so that the numbers that were pressed have less powder than the ones that weren't."
"Okay, so the thieves know which numbers were pressed. How'd they figure out the order of the numbers?"
"As their finger accumulated dust, their fingers would accumulate less dust each time it pressed a number. So the one number with the least dust was pressed first, and so on."

"We have a pic of the men in black's airship found by Leiston Fortress. The professor is probably there. How do we rescue him?"
"How about taking a boat?"
"There is only a single wharf and it's always guarded. Using grappling hooks to scale the walls would cause too much noise. Besides, there is a watchtower that can see the entire compound and the lake. We'd be seen long before we actually reached the fortress".
"How about sneaking in on a maintenance airship?"
"Nope. They have sensors that can detect lifeforms."
"But we have the Black Orbment, which is a black hole for detection wave?"
"Oh snap you're right! Let's stow inside a concealed compartment in a container with the black orbment turned on, and wait until after dark to exit the container. Oh, and we'll bring and release a cat, so as to cause a false alarm and relax the guards' attention".

"Yay, we've rescued the professor! Now we need to go into hiding."
"Hold up. There are five of us. It'll be hard for all five of us to hide together. Furthermore, they don't know that you two are involved. You should go back and try to expose them while we hunker down."
"Okay. We'll go to Grancel. We'll order tickets for a passenger airship".
"Oh crap, the military predicted that we'd try to move by airship, and has grounded flights. They're also sending an inspection team to the airport."
"Let's hike to Grancel on foot"
"Oh crap they're on the look out for Bracers at the checkpoints too."
"Ah, being the escort of an archaeologist makes sense".


CS3 ending spoilers don't click

Spoiler: 

Wait a minute, the system the guarded the Sept-Terion of Space experienced a fluctuation 10 years ago? That would coincide with the Great Power nonsense (Lechter's dad and Weissman being compelled to start the Hundred Days War, Osborne meeting Ishmelga), and the founding of Ouroboros (presumably when the Grandmaster arrived in Zemuria). If I had to guess, either a catastrophe that threatens to destroy the world began snowballing 10 years ago, which caused Sept-Terrion and ley line/Septium Vein activity, and the Grandmaster arrived and began assembling Ouroboros to stop the catastrophe, or the Grandmaster's very arrival is what caused the Sept-Terrions and the Septium Veins to start going haywire in the first place.

Estelle's reasoning for opposing Richard was bullshit.




"We'll just hold hands and hope for the best!". Yeah. Sure. Whatever lady. Try that out when you're getting shelled from miles away by railway guns and battleship batteries from sea and invaded from six different directions by divisions of tanks, protected by air support. You should already know that Cassius and his bomber gimmick was a fluke; Erebonia was just getting warmed up when Cassius retook lost territory. Once Erebonia had fully mobilized, Liberl would've been screwed. Even if Liberl had an incredible kill/loss ratio, you can't beat economics. You had no hope of beating Erebonia in a prolonged war then, and you certainly have no hope of beating Erebonia in a war now.

Queen Alicia's "skilled leadership" is an informed attribute. We certainly don't see any indication of this in the Trails series. Not in Sky. Not in Crossbell. Not in Cold Steel.

Liberl is going to become a battlefield. Erebonia has been on a 14 year annexation spree and they are in the middle of an increasing tense cold war with Calvard. Erebonia is either going to try to annex Liberl, or Erebonia is going to get into a full blown war with Calvard, which means the countries in between Erebonia and Liberl are going to get crushed underneath.

What has Queen Alicia done to prepare for this eventuality?

Nothing at all.

Queen Alicia is content to just let Erebonia continue to get more and more powerful without taking adaquate measures to protect her country.

If she was a competent ruler, she would have had sit downs with the country's top strategists, such as Morgan and Richard. "Heya, we've got two monstrous superpowers surrounding us that are getting ready to fight and grab any resources they can, and they are way, way more powerful for us. Any suggestions?". The fact that Richard does not believe Queen Alicia is doing anything to prepare for the inevitable conflict implies that Queen Alicia has not consulted the military at all, which means Alicia is incompetent of basic teamwork and forthought. She is actively threatening the existence of Liberl as an independent nation.

Furthermore, Richard found out that there was a power in Liberl that could be used to save the country, and that Alicia knew about this power all along, and was doing absolutely nothing to acquire it. Another nail in the coffin for trusting the Queen.

With an imminent invasion within the next few years, Richard's evaluation of the situation was correct, and was right to try to seize control. The only problem would have been factors he could not have possibly forseen - the Liber Ark inhibiting orbal energy and the Empire invading with steam tanks - but Richard could have navigated around that. Once the Liber Ark was summoned, Weissman reached the Aureole almost immediately. He only waited around because he wanted to toy with Joshua and Estelle. In the event Richard's coup succeeded, Weissman would have had no reason to stick around, and Ouroboros would have taken off with the Aureole immediately. The power outage would've only lasted a few hours, and Richard would have been able to use orbal energy to counteract the Empire's steam tanks.

With the power outage gone, Erebonia no longer has a cassus belli to invade Liberl. In fact, the suspicious timing will be incriminating. Richard could call upon Calvard's air force to help out. At this point, Osborne still does not have complete control over Erebonia, and he does not have assets confiscated from the NA. The Empire is unprepared for war with Calvard, let alone a war on multiple fronts. Osborne will have no choice but to withdraw.


Ao ending don't click

Spoiler: 

Anyway, this was another infuriating example of egregious protagonist center morality. The big bad seizes power to protect his home from being eaten up by larger powers, and seeks a superpower to bring his dream to fruition. The protagonists - rather than confronting the reality of the political situation - instead close their eyes and go "well, we will survive without relying on superpowers!" - when they themselves only survived due to the use of said superpowers.

I don't think I will play SC on Nightmare. Maybe on hard. SC's combat system is only marginally better than FC's, and SC's nightmare is way, way harder than FC's nightmare, which sounds absurdly tedious. 3rd is where the combat system starts getting good so maybe I'll do that on nightmare.

- - - Updated - - -

Just found out that for Hajimari no Kiseki, you have to play through all of the routes. As in, during each chapter, you switch between each of the three protagonists, and you have to complete each protagonist's segment to unlock the next chapter...

Why couldn't just let us play through the route we were interested in, from beginning to end? Maybe that will be a feature of NG+?

[Velshin]

Just finished my second playthrough of FC, on nightmare.

Nightmare was... a hassle. Not really fun TBH. It's just your enemies getting a big stat boost which drags out the combat and makes it more tedious.

The final dungeon took me six hours. I ran with Estelle/Joshua/Olivier/Schera as mages. Since in FC, STR buffs actually boost arts, I had Estelle use her Morale craft before we casted our offensive arts. For groups of enemies, spam White Gehenna. For single targets, Blue Impact. If there are many powerful enemies who can kill us very quickly and won't go down quickly, cast Chaos Brand on them to confuse them to reduce incoming damage. Stacking defense, HP, and agility was absolutely useless, only spam Earth Wall. I had Schera use her Heavenly Kiss craft to AT accelerate the team's casts, which proved to be a lifesaver during the final boss battle because I needed to get those Earth Walls in before the boss attacked.

I love the White Gehenna sound effect. Sounds like a train that passed by and you can still hear it, long after it's gone.

Thoughts

Spoiler: 

Counting the days, the story of FC is depicted across 21 days (actually 27 days but they skip a whole week towards the end, we only actually see 21 days ingame). Apparently the characters of FC became BFFs over a few days of knowing each other (remember, the party kept splitting up. They were never together for the whole duration).


I was surprised to find several instances of "holding back", though it is presented as more low key compared to Cold Steel and Crossbell. I think it has to do with presentation. In Cold Steel and Crossbell, you beat villains in battle... and then they stand up and go "well I was actually holding back, but I'll waltz off right now and let you go on your merry way for... reasons", whereas in FC they go "well I COULD continue fighting you, but at this point doing something else seems more productive". It was always clear as to why the bad guys waltzed off, even though they may have been still a match for us.


I liked how if you forgot to return the fishing rod you borrowed for a sidequest in Ruan and tried to leave Ruan for Zeiss, the characters stopped at the exit and went "Oh! Don't we have that fishing rod we need to return?". It was an unexpected extra tidbit of immersion.


One thing I really like about FC are the extra steps involved in a plot point, the extra attention to detail. It really feels like they really thought this through. Not that Cold Steel and Crossbell didn't have good writing, but I wish that they took a few extra steps in their plot points like FC did.

"Okay, so the thieves knew that the mayor ordered a jewel and that he probably had a safe to put it in. How did they open the safe?"
"The thieves must've coated the safe's combination lock in a powder, so that the numbers that were pressed have less powder than the ones that weren't."
"Okay, so the thieves know which numbers were pressed. How'd they figure out the order of the numbers?"
"As their finger accumulated dust, their fingers would accumulate less dust each time it pressed a number. So the one number with the least dust was pressed first, and so on."

"We have a pic of the men in black's airship found by Leiston Fortress. The professor is probably there. How do we rescue him?"
"How about taking a boat?"
"There is only a single wharf and it's always guarded. Using grappling hooks to scale the walls would cause too much noise. Besides, there is a watchtower that can see the entire compound and the lake. We'd be seen long before we actually reached the fortress".
"How about sneaking in on a maintenance airship?"
"Nope. They have sensors that can detect lifeforms."
"But we have the Black Orbment, which is a black hole for detection wave?"
"Oh snap you're right! Let's stow inside a concealed compartment in a container with the black orbment turned on, and wait until after dark to exit the container. Oh, and we'll bring and release a cat, so as to cause a false alarm and relax the guards' attention".

"Yay, we've rescued the professor! Now we need to go into hiding."
"Hold up. There are five of us. It'll be hard for all five of us to hide together. Furthermore, they don't know that you two are involved. You should go back and try to expose them while we hunker down."
"Okay. We'll go to Grancel. We'll order tickets for a passenger airship".
"Oh crap, the military predicted that we'd try to move by airship, and has grounded flights. They're also sending an inspection team to the airport."
"Let's hike to Grancel on foot"
"Oh crap they're on the look out for Bracers at the checkpoints too."
"Ah, being the escort of an archaeologist makes sense".


CS3 ending spoilers don't click

Spoiler: 

Wait a minute, the system the guarded the Sept-Terion of Space experienced a fluctuation 10 years ago? That would coincide with the Great Power nonsense (Lechter's dad and Weissman being compelled to start the Hundred Days War, Osborne meeting Ishmelga), and the founding of Ouroboros (presumably when the Grandmaster arrived in Zemuria). If I had to guess, either a catastrophe that threatens to destroy the world began snowballing 10 years ago, which caused Sept-Terrion and ley line/Septium Vein activity, and the Grandmaster arrived and began assembling Ouroboros to stop the catastrophe, or the Grandmaster's very arrival is what caused the Sept-Terrions and the Septium Veins to start going haywire in the first place.

Estelle's reasoning for opposing Richard was bullshit.




"We'll just hold hands and hope for the best!". Yeah. Sure. Whatever lady. Try that out when you're getting shelled from miles away by railway guns and battleship batteries from sea and invaded from six different directions by divisions of tanks, protected by air support. You should already know that Cassius and his bomber gimmick was a fluke; Erebonia was just getting warmed up when Cassius retook lost territory. Once Erebonia had fully mobilized, Liberl would've been screwed. Even if Liberl had an incredible kill/loss ratio, you can't beat economics. You had no hope of beating Erebonia in a prolonged war then, and you certainly have no hope of beating Erebonia in a war now.

Queen Alicia's "skilled leadership" is an informed attribute. We certainly don't see any indication of this in the Trails series. Not in Sky. Not in Crossbell. Not in Cold Steel.

Liberl is going to become a battlefield. Erebonia has been on a 14 year annexation spree and they are in the middle of an increasing tense cold war with Calvard. Erebonia is either going to try to annex Liberl, or Erebonia is going to get into a full blown war with Calvard, which means the countries in between Erebonia and Liberl are going to get crushed underneath.

What has Queen Alicia done to prepare for this eventuality?

Nothing at all.

Queen Alicia is content to just let Erebonia continue to get more and more powerful without taking adaquate measures to protect her country.

If she was a competent ruler, she would have had sit downs with the country's top strategists, such as Morgan and Richard. "Heya, we've got two monstrous superpowers surrounding us that are getting ready to fight and grab any resources they can, and they are way, way more powerful for us. Any suggestions?". The fact that Richard does not believe Queen Alicia is doing anything to prepare for the inevitable conflict implies that Queen Alicia has not consulted the military at all, which means Alicia is incompetent of basic teamwork and forthought. She is actively threatening the existence of Liberl as an independent nation.

Furthermore, Richard found out that there was a power in Liberl that could be used to save the country, and that Alicia knew about this power all along, and was doing absolutely nothing to acquire it. Another nail in the coffin for trusting the Queen.

With an imminent invasion within the next few years, Richard's evaluation of the situation was correct, and was right to try to seize control. The only problem would have been factors he could not have possibly forseen - the Liber Ark inhibiting orbal energy and the Empire invading with steam tanks - but Richard could have navigated around that. Once the Liber Ark was summoned, Weissman reached the Aureole almost immediately. He only waited around because he wanted to toy with Joshua and Estelle. In the event Richard's coup succeeded, Weissman would have had no reason to stick around, and Ouroboros would have taken off with the Aureole immediately. The power outage would've only lasted a few hours, and Richard would have been able to use orbal energy to counteract the Empire's steam tanks.

With the power outage gone, Erebonia no longer has a cassus belli to invade Liberl. In fact, the suspicious timing will be incriminating. Richard could call upon Calvard's air force to help out. At this point, Osborne still does not have complete control over Erebonia, and he does not have assets confiscated from the NA. The Empire is unprepared for war with Calvard, let alone a war on multiple fronts. Osborne will have no choice but to withdraw.


Ao ending don't click

Spoiler: 

Anyway, this was another infuriating example of egregious protagonist center morality. The big bad seizes power to protect his home from being eaten up by larger powers, and seeks a superpower to bring his dream to fruition. The protagonists - rather than confronting the reality of the political situation - instead close their eyes and go "well, we will survive without relying on superpowers!" - when they themselves only survived due to the use of said superpowers.

I don't think I will play SC on Nightmare. Maybe on hard. SC's combat system is only marginally better than FC's, and SC's nightmare is way, way harder than FC's nightmare, which sounds absurdly tedious. 3rd is where the combat system starts getting good so maybe I'll do that on nightmare.

- - - Updated - - -

Just found out that for Hajimari no Kiseki, you have to play through all of the routes. As in, during each chapter, you switch between each of the three protagonists, and you have to complete each protagonist's segment to unlock the next chapter...

Why couldn't just let us play through the route we were interested in, from beginning to end? Maybe that will be a feature of NG+?

Hmmm so about Hajimari no Kiseki kinda similar system to Suikoden III back in ps2 era (not fan of that system myself tbh).


About FC in nightmare I am curious how tough Leonhardt at the end?

[Val the Moofia Boss]

About FC in nightmare I am curious how tough Leonhardt at the end?

Pretty much unbeatable, but not because of how much damage he deals. If your casting an art, he will use a craft that cancels your cast, and his insanely high speed means that you will have few chances to actually get an arts cast off, which is bad because arts is pretty much the only way to deal damage to him. If you walk up to him and attack him with a melee attack, I did hardly any damage, even with Estelle's STR maxxed out. He can also cast an art that applies two stacks of earth walls, so you have to waste two turns trying to get rid of it before you can deal damage to him again. Whittling down his health was extremely grueling, but it was all for naught, as he can cast Tearal on himself, which will heal for 15% of his HP, nullifying any gains you might have made.

His attacks aren't too bad. Each of my characters could survive 3 or 4 hits from him. I had to spread them out across the battlefield to avoid the AoE damage (because it is very hard to actually get an Earth Wall out, plus his arts cast interrupt craft is also a line AoE as well). His S-craft will likely one-shot a character if they are not near full health. I just needed my characters to heal themselves from time to time. The real problem was, again, he just mitigates so much damage, only to heal what damage he did sustained. I eventually just gave up and let him kill me so I could move on.

[Velshin]

Pretty much unbeatable, but not because of how much damage he deals. If your casting an art, he will use a craft that cancels your cast, and his insanely high speed means that you will have few chances to actually get an arts cast off, which is bad because arts is pretty much the only way to deal damage to him. If you walk up to him and attack him with a melee attack, I did hardly any damage, even with Estelle's STR maxxed out. He can also cast an art that applies two stacks of earth walls, so you have to waste two turns trying to get rid of it before you can deal damage to him again. Whittling down his health was extremely grueling, but it was all for naught, as he can cast Tearal on himself, which will heal for 15% of his HP, nullifying any gains you might have made.

His attacks aren't too bad. Each of my characters could survive 3 or 4 hits from him. I had to spread them out across the battlefield to avoid the AoE damage (because it is very hard to actually get an Earth Wall out, plus his arts cast interrupt craft is also a line AoE as well). His S-craft will likely one-shot a character if they are not near full health. I just needed my characters to heal themselves from time to time. The real problem was, again, he just mitigates so much damage, only to heal what damage he did sustained. I eventually just gave up and let him kill me so I could move on.

Ok I just finished it yesterday. I needed few hours to calm the adrenaline that I got at the end. Here we go spoilers:

That ending.... damn talk about sad. The death of cheerful characters like Millium, Olivert I call these kind of characters "happy to go characters" is soul crushing indeed...even though I can tell that Olivert, Toval, and Victor will come back maybe similar to Crow. That ending reminded me so much of Xenogears when Grahf Lacan grabbed Fei at the end. I personally dont mind the cliffhanger since it is already been announced and confirmed that next year CS4 coming.

My favorite moments (there are many and I will list them!):
1-The reveal of Sara loving old men man her story was awesome specially if you pay attention even in CSI you see how she can easily fell for older fatherly figure strong characters and then again in CSII in the infernal castle when Victor saved Rean and co from Mcburn.

2-Another awesome moment is the return to Hamel with Agate. Me as a fan of the sky series (I love it more than cold steel series) I was so happy specially with the sound track of Hamel.

3-Lechter opening up revealing his past and how he has very similar abilities of sensing others like Rean.

There are so many awesome moments tbh but these three are my favorites.


Ok now I will go with the postives and the negatives things in the game. First I will start with the postives:

Positives:

1-Smoother gameplay, combat system and questing compare to CS1 and CS2.

2-I love the focus of Ouroboros, one of the main reason why Sky SC is my favorite of the legend of heroes series mainly because of the focus of the society.

3-The fleshed out of the Ironbloods specially the reveal of Lechter and Claire.

4-Bringing up key moments from previous games like Crossbell and Sky series.

Obviously there are many positive points in the game but those are the main ones imo. Now we go with the negatives...


Negative points:

1-First is Gaius... I mean I like the guy but damn he is so under developed compare to old class VII characters really I mean yes he became the eighth Dominion and he explained why he was missing during the six months sure...but what about CS1 and CS2 what was his developments? other than he is from Nord? almost nothing really. Hell even minor characters like Patrick has better development than Gaius.

2-Maiden of Steel....all the hype, of her being one of the strongest of Ouroboros...and her story for being the right hand of Emperor Drechiel. I was super exciting to see someone in the society will finally rival Mcburn but I was so disappointed. The main reason I feel disappointed because of Aurelia Lu Guin... At first I like how bad ass she really is and I dont mind her defeating Victor since he was weakened and wounded from his fight with Mcburn at the infernal castle....but come on defeating the fucking Maiden of Steel at her first major serious fight in the cold steel series? come on... how many times did we fight Mcburn and yet he is still bad ass and almost unbeatable and didnt show any sign of struggle or defeat yet. I think it would have been better to see Aurelia get defeated by maiden of steel it will be a great shock scene (because its been extablished that she is insanely strong so to see her get defeated by Maiden of Steel will hype her up even more). It will be great development for her character so she can grow even more. In conclusion...Aurelia defeating Maiden if Steel in their first major fight is a big mistake imo.

3-Ash being the third survivor of Hamel? excuse me? as a player who played the Sky series recently I remember only Joshua and Loewe survived and I am pretty sure if there was a third person they would at least hint about it in the sky series...so this sound like a retcon. Another issue about the nobles are the one who were behind the hiring of jaegers to destroy Hamel? why there is no mention of Weissman the faceless? because in the Sky it was revealed that he was the one behind the Hamel destruction and the jaegers.. so did I miss something? or is that another retcon?

4-I love Crow really him and Rufus are my favorite characters in the Cold Steel series (Rufus remind me so much of Schneizel from Code Geass anime) but I think bringing him back from the dead wasnt needed. I feel the story could continue just fine without him being there really. His development and his story felt complete at the end of CS2 his death was perfect imo. I can understand bringing baxk Rutgar jaeger king back since he was a minor character before CS3 but Crow? he was pretty much done at the end of CS2.

Overall I loved the game I will give it 8/10 the pacing of the game is much better than the first CS but not as great as CS2. The sound tracks are awesome specially the shattered heart one and the lift off and cheap trap, those are my favorite sound tracks in the game.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

CS3 spoilers

Spoiler: 

1-The reveal of Sara loving old men man her story was awesome specially if you pay attention even in CSI you see how she can easily fell for older fatherly figure strong characters and then again in CSII in the infernal castle when Victor saved Rean and co from Mcburn.

When I played CS1+2, I had thought that the man Sara was moping over was Rutger (hence why Sara picked up Rutger's adopted daughter, Fie, after Rutger died and brought fie to Thors). But yeah, her obsession for dad/Victor makes sense.

Negative points:

1-First is Gaius... I mean I like the guy but damn he is so under developed compare to old class VII characters really I mean yes he became the eighth Dominion and he explained why he was missing during the six months sure...but what about CS1 and CS2 what was his developments? other than he is from Nord? almost nothing really. Hell even minor characters like Patrick has better development than Gaius.

I always liked Gaius because he was the Zin of the Cold Steel series. The man who had his crap together, the rock who everyone else could rely on. He had no tragic backstory or skeletons in his closet or behavioral problems. He was a solid dude you could count on and for that he was one of my favorites from CS1+2. Like Zin, Gaius doesn't really need development He's there to contrast against the rest of the group. Becoming a Dominion was a pleasantly surprising development, though.

2-Maiden of Steel....all the hype, of her being one of the strongest of Ouroboros...and her story for being the right hand of Emperor Drechiel. I was super exciting to see someone in the society will finally rival Mcburn but I was so disappointed. The main reason I feel disappointed because of Aurelia Lu Guin... At first I like how bad ass she really is and I dont mind her defeating Victor since he was weakened and wounded from his fight with Mcburn at the infernal castle....but come on defeating the fucking Maiden of Steel at her first major serious fight in the cold steel series? come on... how many times did we fight Mcburn and yet he is still bad ass and almost unbeatable and didnt show any sign of struggle or defeat yet. I think it would have been better to see Aurelia get defeated by maiden of steel it will be a great shock scene (because its been extablished that she is insanely strong so to see her get defeated by Maiden of Steel will hype her up even more). It will be great development for her character so she can grow even more. In conclusion...Aurelia defeating Maiden if Steel in their first major fight is a big mistake imo.

Personally, I think powerlevels are rather bullocks in the Trails series. Or, people are really overhyping "the strongest characters".

During the finale of SC, if you bring Zin to the Loewe fight, Loewe says that he and Zin are equally matched. Joshua (after his "switch" was flipped) is described as being nearly equal - if not equal - to Loewe. Cassius said he nearly died to Joshua during their fight. Muller was equal to Joshua. In FC, we find out that Loewe and Cassius are equally matched. Then, in CS2, we find out that Loewe and McBurn were equally matched, and McBurn and Victor were equally matched (with the side effect that McBurn's sheer heat seared Victor's lungs). In CS3, we find out that McBurn is almost at or is equal to Arianrhod's level. Then, we find out that Aurelia is straight up "yes really" stronger than Arianrhod. In Ao, Arios takes one look at Arianrhod and goes "nope". But that doesn't make much sense, as Arios was the most active member in the guild after Cassius and was constantly fighting. He should be an ace swordsman. Zin is the most active bracer in Calvard, so Arios should be at Zin's level or higher, so... Arios ran away from Arianrhod, as a McBurn/Victor/Cassius/Loewe/Zin tier warrior, when he had a really good chance of defeating her? What? During the finale of CS3, we find out that Victor, Olivier, and Toval are stronger than Xeno and Leo... but Xeno and Leo are jaegers who have been fighting almost every day all of their lives, whereas Victor, Olivier, and Toval don't have anywhere near as much combat experience...

Not that any of these powerlevels actually matter, when you have Llyod being said to be able to inexplicably solo cryptids in CS3, or Shirley - a character who was knocked out on the floor stone cold by the SSS, the weakest cast in the series - inexplicably being able to fend off Rean/Laura/Fie/Agate + Elliot whilst "holding back".

At the end of the day, it comes down to who the writer wants to win. Personally, I was rather relieved when Arianrhod didn't pull a "I was holding back" at the end of chapter 3, and had the good grace to just say "okay you won".

I am half way through SC and I've noticed an interesting pattern in how the climaxes of the first five chapters are built up. The first five chapters ends with the heroes chasing down and confronting an Enforcer antagonist. However, the Enforcer cannot be canonically defeated here yet or the story would fall apart, and must survive to the final chapter to be defeated for real by the protagonists. The developers could have had the heroes fight the Enforcers and then lose in the ensuing cutscene, but doing so for five chapters in a row would have been tedious and unsatisfying. So instead, the developers contrived a minion of the Enforcers for the player to defeat, thus fighting the Enforcers by proxy. In chapter 1, Bleublanc brings out an ancient mecha from nowhere. In chapter 2, the player fights Abyss Worms. In chapter 3, the player destroys a tank (which the villain bails out of, thus allowing the player to dominate the villain without killing her). And so on.

A similar approach is used in CS1. Rather than having the players fight G directly (with G defeating the player in the ensuing cutscene), G instead uses a flute to summon monsters for the player to dominate.

CS3 also uses this approach with the Aions, which the antagonists summon at the end of each chapter. However, CS3 also flukes it by having the player consistently fight the Enforcers and then lose to them in the ensuing cutscene anyway, rendering the whole "player feels satisfaction by dominating a proxy of the Enforcer" gimmick pointless.

3-Ash being the third survivor of Hamel? excuse me? as a player who played the Sky series recently I remember only Joshua and Loewe survived and I am pretty sure if there was a third person they would at least hint about it in the sky series...so this sound like a retcon. Another issue about the nobles are the one who were behind the hiring of jaegers to destroy Hamel? why there is no mention of Weissman the faceless? because in the Sky it was revealed that he was the one behind the Hamel destruction and the jaegers.. so did I miss something? or is that another retcon?

Yeah, Ash was obviously retconned in. You can tell that a lot of the new characters and plot points in CS3 came out of nowhwere.

• The "curse" storyline was hardly setup in prior games. Valimar drops the "your friend will become your sword" line in CS2 and that's it. There is nothing to suggest that Erebonia's actions were the result of a curse, or that it was Osborne's true goal.

• Matteus Vander is introduced as a high ranking Erebonian officer and a Cassius/Victor tier warrior, as well as the most powerful Vander style warrior. Such a character would have been spoken of as early as SC. You'd think that when Dorothy in SC, she would have said "oh, you're last name is Vander? As in, related to Matteus Vander, the Thunder God? The Empire's famous swordsman and bodyguard to the Emperor?". In CS2, when Aurelia is introduced, the wording heavily implied that she was the strongest living Vander style user. Matteus' name definitely should have been dropped then.

• New Class VII are retconned into the story of the series. In Sky 3rd, we find out that Muller has a younger brother, but there is no indication that he was ever meant to be a major character. The Vander dual-sword style was literally never mentioned or suggested prior to CS3; the Vander style was definitively a single greatsword. Ash is retconned into the story as being a third Hamel survivor, despite having never been seen in SC's Hamel flashbacks or referenced by Joshua and Loewe. Juna is hard retconned into having lived in the Bellheim apartments right next to the SSS, despite she and her family having never appeared in those apartments in the Crossbell games.

• A martial art style called "Hundred Forms Sword Style" being the standard style taught in the Imperial Army was literally never mentioned before. Muller would have mentioned it during his sit down with Nial and Dorothy in SC, when they were talking about the Imperial Army and the Vander style. It sure would have been brought up in CS1, by either Rean, Laura, Elliot, Vandyck, Neithardt, Zechs, or Craig.

4-I love Crow really him and Rufus are my favorite characters in the Cold Steel series (Rufus remind me so much of Schneizel from Code Geass anime) but I think bringing him back from the dead wasnt needed. I feel the story could continue just fine without him being there really. His development and his story felt complete at the end of CS2 his death was perfect imo. I can understand bringing baxk Rutgar jaeger king back since he was a minor character before CS3 but Crow? he was pretty much done at the end of CS2.

I think his resurrection was indeed planned. Kondo said in an interview that they had Crow's character arc worked out during the development of SC, and the Divine Knights and Ishmelga plot were foreshadowed in Crossbell. I don't think any of the Awakeners who had died before will survive the Cold Steel arc, though.

Overall I loved the game I will give it 8/10 the pacing of the game is much better than the first CS but not as great as CS2. The sound tracks are awesome specially the shattered heart one and the lift off and cheap trap, those are my favorite sound tracks in the game.

CS3 had some good tracks but yeah, I wish they had reused some of the iconic themes from CS1+2. I have no idea why they didn't, considering that SC and Ao also resued the most iconic themes from FC and Zero.

[Velshin]

CS3 spoilers

Spoiler: 

When I played CS1+2, I had thought that the man Sara was moping over was Rutger (hence why Sara picked up Rutger's adopted daughter, Fie, after Rutger died and brought fie to Thors). But yeah, her obsession for dad/Victor makes sense.



I always liked Gaius because he was the Zin of the Cold Steel series. The man who had his crap together, the rock who everyone else could rely on. He had no tragic backstory or skeletons in his closet or behavioral problems. He was a solid dude you could count on and for that he was one of my favorites from CS1+2. Like Zin, Gaius doesn't really need development He's there to contrast against the rest of the group. Becoming a Dominion was a pleasantly surprising development, though.



Personally, I think powerlevels are rather bullocks in the Trails series. Or, people are really overhyping "the strongest characters".

During the finale of SC, if you bring Zin to the Loewe fight, Loewe says that he and Zin are equally matched. Joshua (after his "switch" was flipped) is described as being nearly equal - if not equal - to Loewe. Cassius said he nearly died to Joshua during their fight. Muller was equal to Joshua. In FC, we find out that Loewe and Cassius are equally matched. Then, in CS2, we find out that Loewe and McBurn were equally matched, and McBurn and Victor were equally matched (with the side effect that McBurn's sheer heat seared Victor's lungs). In CS3, we find out that McBurn is almost at or is equal to Arianrhod's level. Then, we find out that Aurelia is straight up "yes really" stronger than Arianrhod. In Ao, Arios takes one look at Arianrhod and goes "nope". But that doesn't make much sense, as Arios was the most active member in the guild after Cassius and was constantly fighting. He should be an ace swordsman. Zin is the most active bracer in Calvard, so Arios should be at Zin's level or higher, so... Arios ran away from Arianrhod, as a McBurn/Victor/Cassius/Loewe/Zin tier warrior, when he had a really good chance of defeating her? What? During the finale of CS3, we find out that Victor, Olivier, and Toval are stronger than Xeno and Leo... but Xeno and Leo are jaegers who have been fighting almost every day all of their lives, whereas Victor, Olivier, and Toval don't have anywhere near as much combat experience...

Not that any of these powerlevels actually matter, when you have Llyod being said to be able to inexplicably solo cryptids in CS3, or Shirley - a character who was knocked out on the floor stone cold by the SSS, the weakest cast in the series - inexplicably being able to fend off Rean/Laura/Fie/Agate + Elliot whilst "holding back".

At the end of the day, it comes down to who the writer wants to win. Personally, I was rather relieved when Arianrhod didn't pull a "I was holding back" at the end of chapter 3, and had the good grace to just say "okay you won".

I am half way through SC and I've noticed an interesting pattern in how the climaxes of the first five chapters are built up. The first five chapters ends with the heroes chasing down and confronting an Enforcer antagonist. However, the Enforcer cannot be canonically defeated here yet or the story would fall apart, and must survive to the final chapter to be defeated for real by the protagonists. The developers could have had the heroes fight the Enforcers and then lose in the ensuing cutscene, but doing so for five chapters in a row would have been tedious and unsatisfying. So instead, the developers contrived a minion of the Enforcers for the player to defeat, thus fighting the Enforcers by proxy. In chapter 1, Bleublanc brings out an ancient mecha from nowhere. In chapter 2, the player fights Abyss Worms. In chapter 3, the player destroys a tank (which the villain bails out of, thus allowing the player to dominate the villain without killing her). And so on.

A similar approach is used in CS1. Rather than having the players fight G directly (with G defeating the player in the ensuing cutscene), G instead uses a flute to summon monsters for the player to dominate.

CS3 also uses this approach with the Aions, which the antagonists summon at the end of each chapter. However, CS3 also flukes it by having the player consistently fight the Enforcers and then lose to them in the ensuing cutscene anyway, rendering the whole "player feels satisfaction by dominating a proxy of the Enforcer" gimmick pointless.



Yeah, Ash was obviously retconned in. You can tell that a lot of the new characters and plot points in CS3 came out of nowhwere.

• The "curse" storyline was hardly setup in prior games. Valimar drops the "your friend will become your sword" line in CS2 and that's it. There is nothing to suggest that Erebonia's actions were the result of a curse, or that it was Osborne's true goal.

• Matteus Vander is introduced as a high ranking Erebonian officer and a Cassius/Victor tier warrior, as well as the most powerful Vander style warrior. Such a character would have been spoken of as early as SC. You'd think that when Dorothy in SC, she would have said "oh, you're last name is Vander? As in, related to Matteus Vander, the Thunder God? The Empire's famous swordsman and bodyguard to the Emperor?". In CS2, when Aurelia is introduced, the wording heavily implied that she was the strongest living Vander style user. Matteus' name definitely should have been dropped then.

• New Class VII are retconned into the story of the series. In Sky 3rd, we find out that Muller has a younger brother, but there is no indication that he was ever meant to be a major character. The Vander dual-sword style was literally never mentioned or suggested prior to CS3; the Vander style was definitively a single greatsword. Ash is retconned into the story as being a third Hamel survivor, despite having never been seen in SC's Hamel flashbacks or referenced by Joshua and Loewe. Juna is hard retconned into having lived in the Bellheim apartments right next to the SSS, despite she and her family having never appeared in those apartments in the Crossbell games.

• A martial art style called "Hundred Forms Sword Style" being the standard style taught in the Imperial Army was literally never mentioned before. Muller would have mentioned it during his sit down with Nial and Dorothy in SC, when they were talking about the Imperial Army and the Vander style. It sure would have been brought up in CS1, by either Rean, Laura, Elliot, Vandyck, Neithardt, Zechs, or Craig.

I think his resurrection was indeed planned. Kondo said in an interview that they had Crow's character arc worked out during the development of SC, and the Divine Knights and Ishmelga plot were foreshadowed in Crossbell. I don't think any of the Awakeners who had died before will survive the Cold Steel arc, though.



CS3 had some good tracks but yeah, I wish they had reused some of the iconic themes from CS1+2. I have no idea why they didn't, considering that SC and Ao also resued the most iconic themes from FC and Zero.

About sound tracks I noticed they brought back one single soundtrack from CS2 the awakening will, which is also one of my favorite.

About Cassius being almost dead by Joshua it was understandable because Joshua was an assassin type Enforcer and he sneaked attack Cassius. I was also annoyed how they teased us Mueller and Schera so much but they didnt show them! but yeah the game giving me so much Xenogears vibe which is an awesome feeling. I also notice how Thomas looks very similar to Lezard Valeth from Valkyrie Profile haha. Also do you think Osborne knew about the bombing of the Couragues? because surprisely he looked a bit sad when Olivert died really this is the first time in present day of Osborne to see him concerned and sad. About Valimar line in CS2 about your friend being your sword mostly about the Millium/Altina destiny.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

CS3 ending spoilers

About Cassius being almost dead by Joshua it was understandable because Joshua was an assassin type Enforcer and he sneaked attack Cassius.

Cassius' wording makes it sound like they fought a straight one on one, though I have no doubt it started as an ambush.

do you think Osborne knew about the bombing of the Couragues? because surprisely he looked a bit sad when Olivert died really this is the first time in present day of Osborne to see him concerned and sad.

Osborne certainly knew that the Courageous was rigged to explode. He himself may have even ordered George to walk in and plant explosives in the first place.

Osborne threatened to kill Olivier a couple times in prior Trails games. Osborne certainly respected Olivier and Victor but in the end they were obstacles to his plans and had to go.

About Valimar line in CS2 about your friend being your sword mostly about the Millium/Altina destiny.

I guess it's kind murky, since the Originator Zero OZ units were conceptualized from the beginning to be used to combat the curse but there is no suggestion that the curse even exists prior to CS3.

[Velshin]

CS3 ending spoilers





Cassius' wording makes it sound like they fought a straight one on one, though I have no doubt it started as an ambush.



Osborne certainly knew that the Courageous was rigged to explode. He himself may have even ordered George to walk in and plant explosives in the first place.

Osborne threatened to kill Olivier a couple times in prior Trails games. Osborne certainly respected Olivier and Victor but in the end they were obstacles to his plans and had to go.



I guess it's kind murky, since the Originator Zero OZ units were conceptualized from the beginning to be used to combat the curse but there is no suggestion that the curse even exists prior to CS3.

About Joshua vs Cassius keep in mind this is the version of Joshua that we may never even see before a fully ruthless deadly assassin with nothing hold him back no family no Estelle's love nothing just a fully killing machine and constantly trained by the society and with Loewe, which is understandable because in Sky FC he was watered down by Weissman memory manipulation and in SC while he retained his assassination skills but his morale and his love toward Estelle and the family holds him back. This is why I always think the version of Joshua who fought Cassius was the strongest or at least the most ruthless.


Yeah tbh even though it was so sad...I dont think Olivert or Victor or Toval died tbh specially not Olivert (I wish he does indeed dies ...I love the guy so much but it will be so impactful if he truly is dead). Let us be honest though, Olivert in CS3 didnt do much really..yes he did created the foundation and the idea of Class VII which later on got inspired and created the new class VII as an inspiration of Liberl bracers mentality to solve Erebonia issues but still other than that? there is nothing major he has done in CS3 other than his speech toward Lechter to deliver a message to Osborne that even though his wings are broken he still will go on and stuff like that. I mean usually Olivert is super smart like a chess player always think ahead 2 or 3 or even 10 steps ahead of others really (same goes with Osborne which is why Osborne show signs of respect toward him) but Olivert not thinking thr possibilty of rigging his airship is kinda fatal blunder usually he sees stuff like that but somehow he missed that? hmmm...

I fucking hate Cedric he is slightly better version of Joffrey from GoT god damn I wanna much him so hard in the face. I hope in CS4 we see every singleof our heroes bitch slap him in the face one by one...

The ironic thing about Cedric that back in CS2 in Infernal Castle we hated Caynne for what he had done to Cedric but now? I wish Caynne comes back and bitch slap that brat so hard to revert him back to a nice boy of how he used to be...

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Olivert in CS3 didnt do much really..yes he did created the foundation and the idea of Class VII which later on got inspired and created the new class VII as an inspiration of Liberl bracers mentality to solve Erebonia issues but still other than that? there is nothing major he has done in CS3 other than his speech toward Lechter to deliver a message to Osborne that even though his wings are broken he still will go on and stuff like that. I mean usually Olivert is super smart like a chess player always think ahead 2 or 3 or even 10 steps ahead of others really (same goes with Osborne which is why Osborne show signs of respect toward him) but Olivert not thinking thr possibilty of rigging his airship is kinda fatal blunder usually he sees stuff like that but somehow he missed that? hmmm...

Before CS3 I was thinking that they were setting up Olivier to be the guy who was going to unite and organize everyone against Ouroboros at the end of the saga. He's the only guy who knows every cast, has a lot of pull among almost every power in the setting, has a lot of resources, built the airship to ferry the heroes, etc.

I fucking hate Cedric he is slightly better version of Joffrey from GoT god damn I wanna much him so hard in the face. I hope in CS4 we see every singleof our heroes bitch slap him in the face one by one...

The ironic thing about Cedric that back in CS2 in Infernal Castle we hated Caynne for what he had done to Cedric but now? I wish Caynne comes back and bitch slap that brat so hard to revert him back to a nice boy of how he used to be...

I still think Cedric is pretty cute and huggable in CS1+2. It wasn't until CS3 that he became a jerk.

I really hope he dies but given Trails' unfortunate tendency to have the villains escape after being defeated at the end of an arc and continue haunting the series, I am not holding my breath. I'm hoping that they're just waiting until the end of the Trails series to kill off all of the villains for real, but again, given how people getting to walk off scot free for their crimes, I'm not holding my breath.

[Velshin]

Before CS3 I was thinking that they were setting up Olivier to be the guy who was going to unite and organize everyone against Ouroboros at the end of the saga. He's the only guy who knows every cast, has a lot of pull among almost every power in the setting, has a lot of resources, built the airship to ferry the heroes, etc.



I still think Cedric is pretty cute and huggable in CS1+2. It wasn't until CS3 that he became a jerk.

I really hope he dies but given Trails' unfortunate tendency to have the villains escape after being defeated at the end of an arc and continue haunting the series, I am not holding my breath. I'm hoping that they're just waiting until the end of the Trails series to kill off all of the villains for real, but again, given how people getting to walk off scot free for their crimes, I'm not holding my breath.

I agree 100% man. I think it is about time where we get a trail series focus in Calvard country since its military might and size comparable to Erebonia and with their new Ramda skills I do think it is a good setup for a Calvard focused series. And maybe making Zin as a major character there with some new ones as well.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I agree 100% man. I think it is about time where we get a trail series focus in Calvard country since its military might and size comparable to Erebonia and with their new Ramda skills I do think it is a good setup for a Calvard focused series.

“We have already decided on the area in which the latest entry in the Trails series will be set. That selected area includes The Republic of Calvard." - link (beware CS4 spoilers and Hajimari stuff on Gematsu's website)

From Kondo's wording, it sounds like the next arc isn't "the Calvard arc", but rather set in a collection of territories in the East, and we might visit part of Calvard in a chapter, but it won't be the setting for the whole game.

I have trouble visualizing Rocksmith division agents as the protagonists of the next arc. Infiltration and spying does not gel well with a series in which the protagonists are adventurers.

If there was to be a game about Rocksmith agents, it'd be completely unlike to the Trails we know and love. Rather than having a constant band of characters, it'd probably be a single character with maybe another agent dropping in or out at certain points. There'd be absolutely no reason to go around sidequesting or fighting monsters or talking to NPCs as that would only stir up a ruckus and draw attention to yourself, which is antithetical to being an undercover agent nobody notices. The ARCUS unit was built precisely for team combat (the LINK attacks), but the RAMDA was built for solo operation in hostile territory (ability to cloak for a short period of time). It'd probably be stealth based and therefore an action game as you infiltrate bases, impersonate officers/corporate managers/politicians/persons of interest, try to copy folders of information or take pictures of experimental technology, intercept communications, etc.

If there was to be a traditional Trails game set in Calvard, I'd imagine that the protagonists would be members of a Triad. The mafia in Italy, the triads in China, the Yakuza in China, etc, arose when the governments were weak. People rely on whichever power that can protect them and get the job done, and for a time the mafia and the triads were that power. With the Calvard Republic collapsing, I can see people relying on the Triads more than ever. The triads would be competing with each other for the public's trust. So you'd be playing as romanticized Triad member, going around talking to NPCs, learning about their problems, doing sidequests for them, etc. That way, you could have a traditional Trails games with a band of whacky party members and turn based combat and sidequests and hidden quests and a BP system and such.

Alternatively, they could just do Bracers again, which could be interesting if the game wasn't just set in Calvard, but you actually got to travel across borders between various territories in the East, see different rules and regulations and see how the guild is perceived in different countries.

- - - Updated - - -

maybe making Zin as a major character there with some new ones as well.

SC ending I'd be very interested if Walter was the mentor to the player in a Calvard arc, not Zin.

He started out thinking that he should become powerful for the sake of it, leading to him trying to beat people to a pulp, to prove that he was stronger than them. Then Zin revealed to him the truth behind his "victory" over his master.

I'd like to think that Walter is reflecting on life, that he will find strength in teaching Taito to protect then merely using it for personal glory. Using it save Zemuria.

Thus, Walter would be in a prime position to teach Taito to the player character.

(Ofcourse, this mean he'd get off scot free for massacring those six soldiers at Grancel, trying to cause earthquakes to kill tens of thousands of people in their homes, killing his master to sate his own thirst for glory, etc, but I've made my peace with that long ago).

I'd also be down for Zin. He was tied with Olivier as my favorite party member from Sky. Would absolutely love to see him again. Maybe we could even have the AWESOME tag team of Zin/Walter/Kilika in a party, all fighting alongside each other! That'd be super cool. I wonder how the love triangle will resolve, though.

[Velshin]

From Kondo's wording, it sounds like the next arc isn't "the Calvard arc", but rather set in a collection of territories in the East, and we might visit part of Calvard in a chapter, but it won't be the setting for the whole game.

I have trouble visualizing Rocksmith division agents as the protagonists of the next arc. Infiltration and spying does not gel well with a series in which the protagonists are adventurers.

If there was to be a game about Rocksmith agents, it'd be completely unlike to the Trails we know and love. Rather than having a constant band of characters, it'd probably be a single character with maybe another agent dropping in or out at certain points. There'd be absolutely no reason to go around sidequesting or fighting monsters or talking to NPCs as that would only stir up a ruckus and draw attention to yourself, which is antithetical to being an undercover agent nobody notices. The ARCUS unit was built precisely for team combat (the LINK attacks), but the RAMDA was built for solo operation in hostile territory (ability to cloak for a short period of time). It'd probably be stealth based and therefore an action game as you infiltrate bases, impersonate officers/corporate managers/politicians/persons of interest, try to copy folders of information or take pictures of experimental technology, intercept communications, etc.

If there was to be a traditional Trails game set in Calvard, I'd imagine that the protagonists would be members of a Triad. The mafia in Italy, the triads in China, the Yakuza in China, etc, arose when the governments were weak. People rely on whichever power that can protect them and get the job done, and for a time the mafia and the triads were that power. With the Calvard Republic collapsing, I can see people relying on the Triads more than ever. The triads would be competing with each other for the public's trust. So you'd be playing as romanticized Triad member, going around talking to NPCs, learning about their problems, doing sidequests for them, etc. That way, you could have a traditional Trails games with a band of whacky party members and turn based combat and sidequests and hidden quests and a BP system and such.

Alternatively, they could just do Bracers again, which could be interesting if the game wasn't just set in Calvard, but you actually got to travel across borders between various territories in the East, see different rules and regulations and see how the guild is perceived in different countries.

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SC ending I'd be very interested if Walter was the mentor to the player in a Calvard arc, not Zin.

He started out thinking that he should become powerful for the sake of it, leading to him trying to beat people to a pulp, to prove that he was stronger than them. Then Zin revealed to him the truth behind his "victory" over his master.

I'd like to think that Walter is reflecting on life, that he will find strength in teaching Taito to protect then merely using it for personal glory. Using it save Zemuria.

Thus, Walter would be in a prime position to teach Taito to the player character.

(Ofcourse, this mean he'd get off scot free for massacring those six soldiers at Grancel, trying to cause earthquakes to kill tens of thousands of people in their homes, killing his master to sate his own thirst for glory, etc, but I've made my peace with that long ago).

I'd also be down for Zin. He was tied with Olivier as my favorite party member from Sky. Would absolutely love to see him again. Maybe we could even have the AWESOME tag team of Zin/Walter/Kilika in a party, all fighting alongside each other! That'd be super cool. I wonder how the love triangle will resolve, though.

Oh man I absolutley love Walter he is so bad ass I would like to see him become a good guy and kinda semi defect from the society!

About Taito style you remind me! Celestin what the hell with that high jump kick! I mean it was obvious the guy can handle himself from the get go based on his knowledge and how he calmly deal with things I knew he was bad ass but does he use taito? because I was sure it was hand to hand combat without weapons.


About Angie what you think happened to her? do you think they erased her memory and she became like CS3 Crow or kinda like humuculus where she doesnt remember anything? tbh I dont believe she is dead.