/fg/ - Falcom General #6

Cold Steel had some pretty hype moments. I'm not going to spoil them here but CS2 in particular did an awesome job of setting the atmosphere with the scenario and also the soundtrack, which made everything more epic.

This one's better. Also, it's Juna.

Well, pronounced Yuna and spelt Juna. Like Jusis.
I could only count 3-4 moments like that from my playthrough from both games.

Let's say CS1 and 2 add up to one Zero. Which makes sense if they really were split from one planned game.

user, are you trying to have an actual discussion or are you just here to shit on Cold Steel? There are more than that in Cold Steel 1 alone.

Oh, whatever. Crossbell is the shiny new toy so I guess I can't really expect y'all to look at it objectively.

I disagree. The entire Act 2 of CSII is a fucking drag. It's FOUR chapter worth of fillers. The thing with Celdic and Albarea is pretty cool, but Rogner? Elliot's arc? Zemurian Ore gathering? I wish I pirated that game.

user just because he doesn't agree with you, doesn't mean he's trying to shit on Cold steel.

I guess that makes sense. The Crossbell Dulogy seems to be the more fairly planned out in their sequence of games compared to FC-SC and CS1-2 where two games were supposed to just one.
I didn't hate it, I just didn't feel like too many scenes were as exciting. Although I won't like the Crossbell train is going strong and that's probably cause it's using more shounen/police tropes that I find a bit more entertaining.

Stop calling everything you don't like filler. If you want filler than look at the intermission of Ao, nothing but 100% pure filler. Act 2 of CS2 is not filler any more than any other chapter in any Trails game.

Cold Steel haters never want to have an actual discussion about Cold Steel. All they want to do is say "EVERYTHING IN THE GAME IS FILLER AND EVERYTHING SUCKS CROSSBELL IS THE BEST"

no one has shit on cold steel in this thread user, calm down.

Since we can all respect spoiler tags here, I'd like to hear those moments.

>Most games published by XSEED now to be developed with a PC release in mind ( gamesindustry.biz/articles/2016-09-09-no-fan-left-behind ) (end of the 9th paragraph)
Hold the fucking Orbal Phone. Does that mean that if XSeed brings over Cold Steel III we'll get a PC release?!

Assuming people buy CS1 and 2 on PC, yeah.

Most likely yes. Every single trails game has been on PC in one way or another, now that Xseed is bringing Cold steel over to PC

>Breaking Machias out of jail in Bareahard
>The terrorist attack in Heimdallr
>The attempt to start a war in Nord Highlands
>Fighting your way through the mine in Roer
All just as hype as anything in Zero. I'll admit the ending of Zero was probably better, but pretending that Cold Steel wasn't fun to play is so fucking lame. All those events are just as good as their counterparts in Crossbell and Liberl

Wait, I just started Third so it might be explained later but is Analace a practitioner of the eight leaves school? I'm fighting her clone and she's using a move called "Eight Leaves Blitz"

I don't think I can agree with those, although the contextual reasons for the third one makes it pretty interesting but the highlands got pretty old with me by the time I finished. Keep in mind I played CS1-2 before I even touched Zero and I don't think the stuff you mentioned matched the entertainment value of Zero's Chapter 3. CS1's ending is probably my favorite part of it, aside from bonding with Jusis at every opportunity. In retrospect, I enjoyed Legram and the spooky castle a lot more than some chapters, and you didn't even mention Garrelia Fortress.

You never noticed? Yeah, she is practitioner, in fact, it will get into more detail later in the 3rd.

Yes. Think it came up in SC. She definitely has an eight leaves craft in that game at least.

cntrl + s, user
Yeah, she's the granddaughter of the style's founder. She just doesn't do the best job of conveying that compared to the other practitioners.

So has someone actually succeeded in inserting Crossbell Evo voices into the PSP isos? The guide is there, but it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, sadly. youtube.com/watch?v=bIuZGeDUU4U

Seems like a lot of work so I think everyone is just waiting for someone to do it for us.

>[spoier]

Story events in Zero and Sky FC were not that interesting, by and large. Things got a little weird at the end of Zero, and that is fine, but generally all the story events in Cold Steel/Crossbell/Liberl are fairly close in quality to their immediate counterparts in the other countries.

That's my position. For the most part I don't hold any of them in higher esteem than the others, although the different arcs did different things well. Sky was a more moving and personal story, Cold Steel had more political intrigue, and Crossbell went more into the "now things are getting weird" category

Yeah I guess I never put 2 and 2 together since Eight Leaves didn't mean anything until after I played Cold Steel 1 and 2. Neat

She doesn't even use the right sword for it!

>For the most part I don't hold any of them in higher esteem than the others, although the different arcs did different things well. Sky was a more moving and personal story, Cold Steel had more political intrigue, and Crossbell went more into the "now things are getting weird" category
Probably the most accurate assessment. Although, compared to the final "dungeons" and set pieces, I felt the Old Schoolhouse wasn't generally as interesting as the setpiece of retaking Grancel Castle and finding the best musical piece accompanying one of the least interesting final dungeons and raiding the cult temple, how matter how long it was

But I will admit, Realm of Great Shadow and what lied beneath there was great the 1st time, not so much the 2nd time.

Don't forget the promise, user-kun~

Crossbell has tons of political intrigue too though. You see it all the time with how Crossbell keeps getting kicked around due to it's laws, since they are being squeezed by Calvard and Erobonia, plus all the Mafia shitting all over the law.
It also helps that the cast is as really likable, since unlike Cold steel, you see them interact with each other a lot, and there's not stupid drama, like Fie being an ex-Jaeger somehow being a problem, or Jusis and Machia's poorly finished rivalry. Cold steel's cast was kinda bloated since you had too many people at once at all times, in sky you did have a good amount, but each city made you stick with only a few of them at a time, until SC developed them further, and so did 3rd. Crossbell's main cast is smaller and thus easier to develop, and when Ao happens, you get to see even more and new ones added as permanent members.

I don't mind Cold steel, but i don't see it in the same light as yours personally. The other arcs were just way more polished and nicer by comparison. I still liked them, but not nearly as much.

If you had to reduce the size of Class VII to 5 people, who would it be?

>To be fair, every single new location starts out slow.
Zero was a slow burn, but it had a lot of consistency and polish in its design. Having Crossbell City serve as a central hub was a pretty smart move on Falcom's part. Zero had you trekking all over Crossbell from a fairly early point in the game. That allowed for more interesting and varied quests than Sky or Cold Steel, since you weren't just stuck running around a single town's periphery (well technically, you were, but you know what I mean).

Cold Steel 1 went back and tried to polish up FC's formula, but it made things too rigid by tying the plot and progression to a fixed schedule. Almost every field study plays out as such:
>group arrives at their lodging and eats some delicious food
>spends the first day doing chores for NPCs
>some shit goes down on the second day
>group resolves the issue and boards the train back to Trista on the morning after

You can argue that FC and Zero were also somewhat structured and formulaic, but not to that extent. They also didn't have dumb shit like the Old Schoolhouse.

Why do people feel the need to argue that one arc is "better" than the other in the first place? I loved every Trails game I played.

I don't think it's filler but it's as boring as one.
>Do sidequest
>Random noble alliance shenaningans
>Immediately transported to the random corridor of the week
>Beat the shit out of the mustache-twirling nobles
Repeat three times. I'm not even going to spoiler that shit.

I think 6 would be fine, or the current amount. The main issue is having them interact properly, or do it like FC, where you will be stuck with only certain ones at a time for a good chunk, and them see more sides to them, and when everyone comes together, have them share a few moments.
If i had to choose i think the most important ones would be Jusis, Laura and Emma.

I don't think it's the most far-off claim to think CS felt a bit lack-luster but like someone else said, CS1-2 is still a prelude to CS3 which has the juiciest premise and political climate for some next level shit to happen.

If my problem is with how some of the characters were handled. I still can't give any shits about Alisa and she's supposed to be the "main girl".

You and me user.

The only argument worth having is who is best girl.

Keep in mind that I actually liked the first act and the finale up to the epilogue. But that part seriously killed my hype.

There's no argument to be had. There is only one answer to that question, and it is bEstelle

>next arc you play as a jaeger
>j points

>my problem is with how some of the characters were handled
Class VII did feel pretty bloated overall. Despite being smaller than Sky's playable cast, a lot of characters either didn't get the development they deserved or were so simplistic in concept that you could describe their entire role in a single paragraph.

You're stuck with Rean, so I'd say Laura, Fie, Emma and Jusis are probably the most important. Gaius is too probably, but he got nothing in either games, but he does seem to have that build up, considering how he was the only one who didn't get trapped by the spooky ghost magic, the whole plot with Nord, and his mentor.

Looking at it, I'm hoping Gaius is actually important.

I'd drop it down to
>Commoners
Alisa, Emma, Fie
>Nobles
Rean, Laura, Jusis

Then probably replace Class VII with some general after school club. Crow would be playable in the first game only and then he'd get replaced by Millium in CS2 since Kiseki loves having a character to represent each element.

Gaius would still be around but considering how well rounded and level headed he is, I feel like he'd probably end up being a temporary member that helps out once in a while before joining for real later on.

They could have fixed a lot of they tried to maximize some of the bonding events to include more than just one character sometimes. The inherent problem with this is that you'll miss out on other characters' bonding events until the next playthrough or just savescum to see all of them but I feel like they could have been ever so slightly less mundane and have more of the cast interact a lot regularly with each other. I can only name one non-event bond-raising activity being finding Fie to have her go study with Emma which raises both of their bond ranks.

Just switch Gaius with Crow and make him Class VII's guide in Nord with the excuse of they're going to a foreign land or something. I think Machias would make a nice contrast with Jusis if they actually give him more characters than just NOBLES REEEEE.

The only useless character is Elliot. I wish we can switch him with Patrick.

...

Zin is no more developed than anyone in Erebonia.

I just wanted to say CS1 Gaius looked like a woman

Yeah but CS have like, 4-5 Zins instead of just one.

I don't know, enforcer connection and tragic "killed my sensei and I want to know why" past as well as being the earliest expy to Calvard is still pretty decent.

>"killed my sensei and I want to know why"
Talking about Walter ya? I feel like there's a bit more to it. Sure that's what lead him to disappear but something else must've caused him to join Ouroboros.

Wasn't it because of muh dark Taito and the pursuit of fighting stronger foes?

Least he gets a fancy new spear.

Yes. I wouldn't be surprised if he's on hiatus like Sharon after his duel with Zin though.

That's probably a good chunk of it. But I feel like there's a big thing we're all missing. There has to be something that keeps all the Enforcers loyal to the Grandmaster. Blueblanc mentions he and the others love the Grandmaster and asks Sharon if she still does.

Can we take a moment to talk about best crossbell girl?

I wonder if we're going to fight Sharon in CS3 or if she's going to drop Ouroboros because she prefers being a maid instead of an enforcer?

>Fancy Ass Bow and Arrow
>Angbar
>Modified Blade Rifle
>Fancy Cross Spear
>Crow's golden guns
>Red Puppet
>Arcus II
I wonder who owns that blade rifle and the doll.
So the Orlandos are the things about Crossbell huh
She never divulges about her past and I feel like she's seriously indebted to the grandmaster hence why she looks so sullen when she's with the Enforcers in that one promo image.

Be shocked if we didn't. Of course she could still drop out afterward.

Is it bad that it brings joy to my heart every time Shirley laughs happily while slaughtering some poor son of a bitch?

It's always a pleasure to see someone who loves their work.

Definitely. Sharon said until the whole civil war is over she will be Rean's ally, but it's already over for a long time.

From what I've seen, it seems that Red Constellation is a family-run group of psychopathic murderers that enjoy their line of work while Zephyr seems more way professional given how they have uniforms and how they were financially and mentally stable enough to raise a kid and still not have her do any dirty work.

I'm a third to halfway through Sky 2nd chapter.

I know cold steel is in erebonia, but what's this about crossbell? There's a third subseries?

How'd she get a fancy jaeger nickname if she didn't do anything though

Sky- Liberl
Zero/Ao- Crossbell
Cold Steel- Erebonia

ah, gotcha

Maybe monster hunting for provisions and missions they weren't allowed to kill anyone.

Why are they reading porn mags when there's 3 cuties right there

>3

Crossbell games were released before Erebonia, but I recommend playing Erebonia first. Crossbell spoils Erebonia more than Erebonia spoils Crossbell. In fact, the ending to the second crossbell game includes a spoiler for Cold Steel 3, which hasn't even been released in Japan yet

It's a guy's night, man. Not sure what the drinking age is in Crossbell but either Lloyd and Randy had themselves quite the night or Randy had a good helping of everything by himself

You're right, Randy is cute too

Crossbell isn't a full-fledged country so they have no ambassador in Grancel like Erebonia and Calvard, but they're mentioned a few times in SC. Or maybe in FC too? I didn't know what kinds of series Trails is when playing FC so I never paid attention to the NPCs and newspapers.

Does KeA just refer to the SSS by name or does she have nicknames for them?

Just finished the campanella fight, it was pretty weird. Felt more like he was playing around with us rather than fighting

Well, he's Campanella

What gave you the hint, his joke salt pale?

>playing around with us
That's what he does. He probably went all meeheehee and teleported away at the end too.

By name, Randy's the guy who hands out the nicknames.

that is confusing as fuck. So sky 3rd, CS, CS 2, THEN crossbell games?

What does he call KeA? All I know is he calls Tio, Petito or something.

That works
I think it was a Keddo. No idea what he calls her in the original Japanese. I think in Jap he calls Tio Tiosuke and Elie as Ojou

Does Ao have a intermission like Sky and Steel? Like when they are both on an airship and all.

The second crossbell game and the cold steel games happen mostly at the same time, but crossbell jumps ahead at the very end.

You'll understand after you finish CS2

As he said, it's better to play Cold Steel 1-2 first before Zero and Ao due to the latter games spoiling more of the former and not the other way around.

Clearly you will actually play as President Rocksmith and gain Calvard points.

Didn't Zero happen at the same time as CS1 too? I remember the newspaper referencing the final chapter of Zero, or was it early in the game?

キー坊, pronounced like "kee-bou"