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Trails of Cold Steel (and the Kiseki series in general)


Zurvanight

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Trails of Cold Steel has got to be my favorite JRPG series ever. With a fun combat system, a huge cast of diverse characters, excellent world building and lore it never gets boring. The first game follows the exploits of Class VII of Thors Military Academy in the Empire of Erebonia. You play mostly as the lead Rean Schwarzer, a 17 year old student at his first day in the Academy. You meet your classmates who are all very well fleshed out, if not stereotypical at first. That changes when you go on field study assignments to different parts of the Empire to learn not only about your friends, but the political and economical state of the Empire and its effects on the citizens, some of which you witness first hand.

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Beyond all the stress in the Empire there is a terrorist group you and your classmates must stop, and another even more shadowy organization behind that known as Ouroboros. Led by a figure known as the Grandmaster, they have access to technology beyond mortal understanding and can even forge weapons that ignore causality. They search for the Sept-Terrion, seven divine treasures that were supposedly given to mankind by the sky goddess Aidios. As much as they seem like villains at times, I get the feeling they aren't actually evil even though their actions can be considered as such. Some however are pretty evil like F. Novartis, Georg Weissman and Campanella.

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A neat thing about the Trails series is that characters from other games constantly bump into each other. Some characters from other games become team members in others. This is especially apparent in the upcoming third game. One of the members of Ouroboros, Bleublanc, literally shows up in every Trails game. He even shows up in the drama CD. Trails of Cold Steel IV is basically the Avengers version of Trails with all the main characters from the other series teaming up. The game also boasts a massive roster of team members. The first game has almost a dozen, second has about 15-20, third has over 25, while the 4th game has over 30 I believe.

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The gameplay is turned based with characters being able to move around in the field when it's their turn, which allows flanking and back attacks. You can 'link up' with another character to perform special abilities like back up attacks, buffs if your partner takes too much damage, or all-out-attacks like Persona. Each character has a device called an Orbment that you can customize with different gems called quartz for effects and spells. Think materia slots from FFVII but much more customizable. Weapons can be bought and upgraded at shops for better stats.

There are a couple of neat minigames like Blade, a card game that is actually pretty fun. Fishing, which can really be useful as it can restore CP (which you can normally only recover in battle), plus you can get some rather good items from it. The second game has a snowboarding minigame, Blade II, and more fishing. You can even cook. Each character has recipes that they are good and bad at. Some can even create speciality foods. Even "failed" recipes are useful. Some can be used as attack items.

There is a social aspect to the game as well if you like games like Persona. You can hang out with your friends and classmates, and even form a relationship with someone. It's simpler than Persona, but you still get to learn a lot more about your favorite characters and increase their link experience with you, unlocking more abilities you can perform together. The soundtrack is absolutely fantastic, ranging from heavy metal, to smooth jazz, to sciencey sounding synth. Almost every single track is amazing.

Here's a boss fight that kinda shows what battles are like in the game. You'll notice how the guy playing gets a ton of turns before the enemy. This is because of a unique mechanic called 'delay' which if you hit an enemy with a skill that causes delay, it pushes back the enemies turn. You can go through entire fights without enemies getting a single turn if you play it smart.

And there are also mech fights in the later games. Fights operate on a 'Rock, Paper, Scissors' battle system where you target enemy mechs body parts. Hitting the right one when they are in a certain stance opens up a follow-up attack and deals much more damage. After getting a stock of 3 or 5 Bravery Points you can unleash super moves:

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All in all, this game series is MASSIVE and the 3rd game is coming to PS4 in less than two months. If you like older JRPG series like Xenogears, Persona, Tales, and Final Fantasy, then I highly recommend trying it out.

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Edited by Zurvanite
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Ahhh, another Kiseki fan! Always good to see someone else who appreciates the series; there's a few of us here as well. I first realized this when @natc made a Bank of Rean reference, only replacing it with Hoid.

I may or may not have a bad habit of bringing up the series every so often on the Cosmere boards to try and convince people to play a game series that's organized in a similar way to Brandon's books, and vice-versa when discussing his books when other people are talking about the games. One of these days I need to write down my crack theory that Brandon and Falcom's CEO Toshihiro Kondo have some sort of subconscious mental link because it's spooky how similar ideas crop up in both of their creations... and because both are grandmasters in the art of the RAFO and teasing the fanbase. xD

Anyhow, nicely done summary of the Cold Steel games!

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@Weltall I'm actually wondering if Kondo read some of Sanderson's books. Gaius looks almost identical to what I think Kaladin looks like. Minus the forehead tattoos (although Gaius has them on his arms instead). Speaking of, there was a thread a long time ago that asked people to sort non-Cosmere characters into Radiant orders and I couldn't resist comparing Class VII to different orders.

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Now that I look back on it, Millium might make a better Dustbringer because of her penchant for bringing out Airgetlam at the worst possible moments to destroy stuff. I had a hard time sorting her and Alisa.

Speaking of, I really like how the characters evolve from being two dimensional stereotypes. Even Gaius who is admittedly the most static character in the group. It's funny how he grew up in a nomadic tribe but ends up being really good with technology. He could tone it down with the wind talk though haha. While Alisa who you think is just a trendy rich girl, turns out to love tinkering with complex machines. Jusis and Machias are probably the best examples of character development in Class VII though.

Trails 3 and 4 spoilers that remind me of the Cosmere:

Spoiler

Awakeners like Heralds are immortal, like Arianrhod who is like 300 or so years old I think.

There's confirmation that other worlds besides Zemuria exist, and Zemuria itself is sealed from The Outside by Aidios, which might not be a good place. The Salt Pale/North Ambrian Disaster is another mystery that echoes the Scouring of Aimia.

Ishmelga is similar to Odium in a way being a "thought entity born from malice"

 

Edited by Zurvanite
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@Eluvianii 

I actually discovered Trails from Tokyo Xanadu. There are so many in-game references to the series (if you go to the bookstore in the game there's Crow Armbrust doujins and Class VII posters everywhere) that it basically forced me to check it out. Nice Lechter profile pic by the way!

The discovery of the Cosmere came to me in a similar manner (in a book character vs battle Facebook page haha).

I played the older Legend of Heroes games, the ones before Trails universe but the never stuck like this series. I'm glad they got most of the VA's back for 3 (Sean Chiplock is literally a treasure that must be protected,  dude is so humble and amazing, and he really cares about his fans), but I'm a bit worried about NIS localizing it. They have been known to censor stuff...

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Darn, I missed even seeing that topic and it's a bit old so I don't want to bump it but you could have a lot of fun sorting the Sky/Crossbell characters into Radiant orders as well. Just for fun, I'm going to have to do the members of the new Class VII from the back half of the series. Let's see now...

Juna Crawford: Stoneward easily. Dependable, very resolute, kinda stubborn and the powers fit her perfectly.

Kurt Vander: Edgedancer, for similar reasons I imagine you put Fie there.

Altina Orion: She's tough, fitting the Windrunners well in terms of powers and the 'Protecting' attribute, but I could see her as a Lightweaver as well for some of what she does and she fits the 'Honesty' divine attribute while watching her work on the 'Creativity' part is absolutely adorable.

Musse Egret: Truthwatcher, no question.

Ash Carbide: Dustbringer, for the guy who loves a good scrap.

Oh, and I can't help but notice that Crow and Sara were excluded from the original discussion so I'm gonna have to fix that. xD

Crow Armbrust: Willshaper, he's close to what seems to be their stereotypical personality and Transportation kinda fits with his skillset.

Sara Valestein: Willshaper again, mainly because she really fits the associated divine attributes, though she's also got the same appropriate personality aspects as Crow.

2 hours ago, Zurvanite said:

Gaius looks almost identical to what I think Kaladin looks like. Minus the forehead tattoos (although Gaius has them on his arms instead).

Awesome, someone else who's had the same idea! Agreed that Gaius absolutely must be a Windrunner, not just because of all the damned wind puns but it really does fit his personality type... and yeah, the similarities between him and Kaladin are spooky.

Spoiler

And when you find out he's a Dominion in 3 it gets even better, since the Stigma manifestation looks similar to what we've seen happen whenever a Windrunner swears a new Ideal, just in midair instead of on the ground.

 

Quote

Speaking of, I really like how the characters evolve from being two dimensional stereotypes. Even Gaius who is admittedly the most static character in the group. It's funny how he grew up in a nomadic tribe but ends up being really good with technology. He could tone it down with the wind talk though haha. While Alisa who you think is just a trendy rich girl, turns out to love tinkering with complex machines. Jusis and Machias are probably the best examples of character development in Class VII though.

Yeah, it's something the series is very good at, starting all the way back in Trails in the Sky with Olivier who's way deeper than his initial 'spoony bard' impression would have you believe. Or watching Estelle grow up from being a rough and tumble tomboy who's overly obsessed with hitting things really hard to a reasonably skilled problem-solver and negotiator who's comfortable with femininity... while also still liking to hit things really hard.

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Trails 3 and 4 spoilers that remind me of the Cosmere:

  Reveal hidden contents

Awakeners like Heralds are immortal, like Arianrhod who is like 300 or so years old I think.

There's confirmation that other worlds besides Zemuria exist, and Zemuria itself is sealed from The Outside by Aidios, which might not be a good place. The Salt Pale/North Ambrian Disaster is another mystery that echoes the Scouring of Aimia.

Ishmelga is similar to Odium in a way being a "thought entity born from malice"

Ahhh yes, the endless rabbit hole that is the end of Cold Steel 4. :D

Spoiler

- Yeah, Arianrhod is about 300 but I don't believe that all Awakeners are immortal, just the ones who have special circumstances where they're resurrected and have their lives tied to their Knights. If simply becoming an Awakener made you immortal, the line the one Awakener has about wanting to become an immortal wouldn't make sense.

- There's an even better one for Ishmelga. You have an insane fusion of two Sept-Terrion which were used to fight a war against each other ages ago and the powers don't really play nicely with each other. Sounds a bit like the fusion of Devotion and Dominion that is the Dor, doesn't it?

- Beryl is totally Hoid. And Towa is a worldhopper since she shows up in Tokyo Xanadu. I know they're technically completely different people but we all know she must be using Connection hax to make everyone think she's always been there.

- The Curse of Erebos is absolutely positively not the Thrill.

Quote

I actually discovered Trails from Tokyo Xanadu. There are so many in-game references to the series (if you go to the bookstore in the game there's Crow Armbrust doujins and Class VII posters everywhere) that it basically forced me to check it out. Nice Lechter profile pic by the way!

Random aside, Lechter's one of my favorite characters too. xD And there's an even more subtle reference to another Falcom series you might have missed. In one of Shiori's events, you can go to the library with her and one of the books she and Kou talk about is very obviously about Adol from the Ys series. Ahhhh, TX, I hope you get a sequel one of these days.

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I played the older Legend of Heroes games, the ones before Trails universe but the never stuck like this series. I'm glad they got most of the VA's back for 3 (Sean Chiplock is literally a treasure that must be protected,  dude is so humble and amazing, and he really cares about his fans), but I'm a bit worried about NIS localizing it. They have been known to censor stuff...

With you all the way on Sean Chiplock, he's amazing. I can't wait to hear him in CS3 and I hope someone gave him a huge hug after all the recording was over, and maybe a nice cold drink to help with the inevitable sore throat after some of those endgame scenes.

I wouldn't worry too much about NISA here, they didn't censor anything in Ys VIII and there really isn't anything to censor in the Cold Steel games... except maybe Dorothee's novels which are full of totally unobjectionable content and contain absolutely no salacious imagery...

And the Gagharv Trilogy is a sad victim of a subpar third-party remake (which is what got localized) combined with a very bad translation. The original games are worlds more interesting in their gameplay and they could really shine with a great localization. And so much stuff in Trails got started there, with all manner of references to the older games being made constantly. Alas, they're almost twenty years old now so we'll probably never see them again in English unless Falcom remakes them, but I can always hope.

Edited by Weltall
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37 minutes ago, Weltall said:

Oh, and I can't help but notice that Crow and Sara were excluded from the original discussion so I'm gonna have to fix that. xD

The only reason I didn't put them in was because I wanted to have enough characters for one of each Order. And seeing how Sara is your teacher and Crow is well...yeah, I figured it would be ok.

Sara is legit in my like top 3 favorite female characters though just because of how hilarious and lazy she is. Or as Rean likes to say: 

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Quote
Spoiler

- Yeah, Arianrhod is about 300 but I don't believe that all Awakeners are immortal, just the ones who have special circumstances where they're resurrected and have their lives tied to their Knights. If simply becoming an Awakener made you immortal, the line the one Awakener has about wanting to become an immortal wouldn't make sense.

- There's an even better one for Ishmelga. You have an insane fusion of two Sept-Terrion which were used to fight a war against each other ages ago and the powers don't really play nicely with each other. Sounds a bit like the fusion of Devotion and Dominion that is the Dor, doesn't it?

- Beryl is totally Hoid. And Towa is a worldhopper since she shows up in Tokyo Xanadu. I know they're technically completely different people but we all know she must be using Connection hax to make everyone think she's always been there.

- The Curse of Erebos is absolutely positively not the Thrill.

 

Spoiler

Ok I kinda messed up there. Their lives are tied to their knights but on the wiki it says because of that, if any of the Awakeners die they will resurrect and become immortal.

I really like your Ishmelga theory better than mine! That's really neat.

Beryl fits a Worldhopper status pretty well. She always seems to be aware of what's going on... and I kinda forgot about Towa in Xanadu, despite her being super adorable and hard to forget in both series. "Our darling marshmallow mascot" as Prince Olivert likes to call her. She's also like 23 or something in Xanadu, which makes her older than she is in IV. Makes me think The Outside is just Earth haha. Although McBurn is a king in The Outside so probably not.

-totally not the Thrill. ...totally. :^)

 

Edited by Zurvanite
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Oh Eidos, as someone who's in chapter 6 of Sen I, I feel threatened.

I actually discovered them in a far more ordinary way. I was looking for rpgs for PSP and this always came up. Though like two years passed before I played them, the name and cover just didn't seem like something worth playing. Oh the irony.

The character development is great, but I think something that tends to be overlooked is the way it tells stories. They get you used to a routine both gameplay and story wise so you never expect anything too big to happen, and then suddenly everything explodes. That's some use of the status quo I had never seen before. I remember liking FC just like any other game until the ending of chapter 3. From that point onwards it started scalating quickly from a pretty good game to the freaking best I had played, and that was before I knew everything that was hiding behind.

I haven't played Tokyo Xanadu (my pc doesn't run it), or any Ys game for that matter. I played VII for a while on PSP but stopped for reasons I can't remember, and now my PSP is dead so...

I am planning on playing them starting with Oath in Felghana when I have the opportunity. As for the Gargharv trilogy, wasn't Kondo a big fan of them from before being director? He might come back to them sometime.

I do think the voice acting is pretty good but there are some voices I don't like (Millium for example) and I don't know if I'll be able to like the voices when the Liberl and Crossbell parties arrive. Good thing it'll be dual audio iirc.

And you guys have suddenly created a need in mind to sort all of Liberl into Radiant orders.

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@EluvianiiTokyo Xanadu is for PS3 and PS4 if you have those. It *might* be for Vita too if I'm not mistaken. So if you have any of those consoles you can get it! It's definitely not as good as Trails but it's still really fun.

I like Millium's VA! It's Alisa I can't stand. Millium is also Sean Chiplock's (voice of Rean) favorite character haha. Honestly I swear if Sara's English VA is different for 3 I will be so sad I might switch to Japanese audio. I *love* how she delivers her lines.

Also my favorite conversation in the entire series:

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I really like to think this was done on purpose, but I heard that the translator had moments where she lapsed because of the sheer amount of lines that needed to be done, and some of her mistakes made it into the game and never got patched out.

Edited by Zurvanite
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I don't have a ps3, ps4, ps vita or ps tv. I'm saving up for a ps4 though. It would be impossible to have one before Sen III comes out (and I haven't even got to Sen II so it doesn't really matter), but I plan to have everything ready before Sen IV. I'll get the opportunity then.

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1 hour ago, Eluvianii said:

And you guys have suddenly created a need in mind to sort all of Liberl into Radiant orders.

You want to do that and I'll tackle the Crossbell characters? :D

1 hour ago, Zurvanite said:
  Hide contents

Ok I kinda messed up there. Their lives are tied to their knights but on the wiki it says because of that, if any of the Awakeners die they will resurrect and become immortal.

 

This one's sort of a confusing area because there are at least two possible outcomes and that one is implied to be considerably less common than the other. (CS3/4)

Spoiler

The other option is that the fallen Awakener resurrects... as a Nosferatu, the creepy undead monstrosities that Class VII runs into repeatedly over the course of the games. Given that only one Awakener before the start of the games went the 'resurrects as a quasi-immortal' route but the graveyard where Rean and co fight Loa Erebonius is full of weapons that came from when Divine Knights were defeated in the past, the 'resurrect as a mindless undead' option seems to be the far more common result of an Awakener dying in battle.

1 hour ago, Zurvanite said:

Tokyo Xanadu is for PS3 and PS4 if you have those. It *might* be for Vita too if I'm not mistaken.

Yeah, TX started as a Vita game and then got ported to PS4 as Tokyo Xanadu eX+ with a bunch of extra content (including the Sidestory segments and After Story) so if you want the entire experience it's not really the best buy. Ys VIII is similar, except that it was originally planned to be a simultaneous Vita/PS4 release without extra content, then the latter version was delayed and they wound up adding things anyways to make it the definitive one.

Once nice thing about the last two Cold Steel games is that they were designed exclusively for the PS4 so you have one version of each game with all the content and if there are any ports to PC or other consoles afterwards, that'll be up to NISA.

Edited by Weltall
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I was actually thinking of doing Radiant Orders for Ouroboros members. 

Lightweavers: Bleublanc is so obviously a Lightweaver.

I'm torn on whether Campanella would be a Lightweaver or Willshaper

Dustbringers have a few: Walter, McBurn, Shirley, and Cedric

Stonewards: Arianrhod and the Stahlritter (Duvalie, Ines, and Ennea)

Truthwatchers: Georg Weissman, F. Novartis, and possibly Mariabell Crois. Ok seriously just think about it.

Elsecaller: Vita Clotilde. She's a witch and Elsecallers feel the most like witches to me. Maybe Luciola?

Edgedancer: Sharon Kreuger. Very caring, despite being a super assassin maid. Renne probably. If it's later series Renne.

Windrunner: Joshua Astray

Skybreaker: Leonhardt (Loewe). His whole attitude fits a Skybreaker perfectly.

Feel free to add or change anything

Also for the fun of it:

Spoiler

Giliath Osborne is a Bondsmith bonded to Ishmelga.

 

Imagine: Giliath vs Dalinar. Dad fight.

 

Edited by Zurvanite
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Haha, yeah, we might be getting just a tad excited. Justifiably so, of course. xD

In terms of selling it, I figure the comparison to Brandon should work pretty well. Each respective creator is the one I tend to compare the other to since there are so many similarities in how their works are structured and how they approach certain aspects of the creative process.

Both franchises are amazing when it comes to worldbuilding and characters, with the feeling that you're looking at a small but very detailed slice of a much larger and more vibrant world in each book or game; The various arcs of Kiseki/Trails being similar to the book series that make up the Cosmere and the games serving the same function as the individual books. Kiseki is very similar to the Cosmere in the sense that there's a ton of little details in each game and if you pay really close attention and do some lateral thinking, you can usually predict at least one or two big developments well in advance from the clues given, only to be blindsided in a good way by all the stuff you couldn't predict. Continuity across the games is a huge deal. At the same time, like the Cosmere lets you pick up any given series as a starting point, you can generally pick up any given arc of games and use it as your starting point.

There's even a fansite dedicated to speculation, some of which has even turned out to be right just like the various theories on the 17th Shard sometimes wind up being spot-on.

 

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I always thought it was cool how Trails of Cold Steel 1 & 2 and Zero no Kiseki/Ao no Kiseki took place at literally the exact same time, just in different places. You even see the effects of what happens in Ao in Trails 2. I just really like that. It really let's you know these games are connected to each other.

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<Uses AT Advance on this topic>

Since the topic's been quiet for a couiple days, I might as well give it a little nudge with some more sorting of Trails characters into Cosmere categories. Tagged for length and because some of the stuff is kinda spoilers for later games that new players might not want to know about. So, about those Ouroboros characters:

Spoiler
On 9/6/2019 at 7:24 PM, Zurvanite said:

I was actually thinking of doing Radiant Orders for Ouroboros members.

Don't forget the Grandmaster, who is... I dunno, Hoid? :P Nah, probably a Truthwatcher would be the best guess since they've got some sort of prescience.

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Lightweavers: Bleublanc is so obviously a Lightweaver.

Undoubtedly. Now... imagine how much more terrifying he'd be if you also gave him allomancy, the system that was literally designed by Brandon to be useful for thieves...

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I'm torn on whether Campanella would be a Lightweaver or Willshaper

Dustbringers have a few: Walter, McBurn, Shirley, and Cedric

Campanella I think would make a better Lightweaver, since he's so fond of creating wide-scale illusions (particularly in Crossbell) and when he fights in Ao no Kiseki he's all about messing with your head and creating illusory effects. You could add early Renne as a Dustbringer too, since she's so fond of destroying things. Afterwards Edgedancer sounds like a good fit.

Quote

Elsecaller: Vita Clotilde. She's a witch and Elsecallers feel the most like witches to me. Maybe Luciola?

I think Lucciola would be a Lightweaver, since she creates visual and auditory illusions as her primary power.

Quote

Windrunner: Joshua Astray

Skybreaker: Leonhardt (Loewe). His whole attitude fits a Skybreaker perfectly.

The only thing with Joshua is that during his time as the Black Fang, he really doesn't fit the Windrunner ideals at all. Given Szeth, he might be a better fit with the Skybreakers alongside Loewe. It's kind of amusing how the latter's sword is pretty much already a deadeye Shardblade in its powers and appearance, if not in size.

And now the Crossbell playable cast:

Spoiler

Lloyd Bannings: I'm tempted to say Stoneward for similar reasons to Juna but given that he's the glue that keeps some of the weird personalities that are the rest of the SSS in line, I think Bondsmith would really be the better pick for him.

Elie McDowell: Her healing focus fits well with the Edgedancers and some of her fancy footwork while fighting plays well with the use of Abrasion so I'm going to stick her with them. Also, since she's so tied into Crossbell politics and what's going on in the entire city, the Edgedancers' focus on the common people who often get overlooked fits her well. And unlike Lift, she really is refined and articulate.

Tio Plato: Elsecaller, very easily. She's got the logical personality that the Inkspren seem to look for and some of her abilities could probably be replicated with creative use of Soulcasting and the Surge of Transportation. And now I'm wondering what it would be like if she and Jasnah could meet...

Randy Orlando: I think there's enough Dustbringers in the series for now so while he's really good at breaking things, I'm going to stick him with the Willshapers instead. He's got the personality for it and he's certainly seen his fair share of places.

Noel Seeker: Gotta be a Skybreaker, she's the soldier who follows orders and the law even when it sometimes conflicts with what she thinks is right. Though like Rean with Elise, she's pretty much a Stoneward where Fran is concerned. xD

Wazy Hemisphere: 'An elegant thing of beauty' sounds like something Wazy would say about himself, so I'm going to place him with the Edgedancers. The fact that he spent two years hanging out in Crossbell's slums playing bartender and gang leader to some of its poorer citizens kinda fits the Edgedancer ethos as well. You might even be able to replicate his distinctive weapon, if you could summon Shardplate that only covers part of the body.

Rixia Mao: She's a bit tricky since her powers and personality are good fits for different orders. I'm going to split the difference and place her with the Lightweavers because Illumination fits some of her abilities pretty well, Soulcasting would work for some of the tricks she has up her sleeves and her identity crisis is close enough to what we see with Shallan coping with her personas.

Alex Dudley: He's a bit less conflicted than Noel and more willing to pick the 'Right' option over the 'Lawful' one but he still fits the Skybreakers pretty well.

Arios MacLaine: He's known as the Divine Blade of Wind and as a bracer, protecting people is one of his primary responsibilities so he gets to be the Windrunner of the group.

And because I was on a roll, I decided to play around with the members of a certain recurring group that never gets formally introduced until the second game of any given arc, pretty much every one of whom is some sort of spoiler:

Spoiler

And that would be the Gralsritter of course. xD

Ein Selnate: Given the many hints that she's got some sort of prescient ability, she's gotta be a Truthwatcher. Although given some of the other things said about her, I'm tempted to go full munchkin and say she's a Truthwatcher with Ishar's Honorblade and, I dunno, fullborn powers or something...

Thomas Lysander: Sorry, I've gotta get away from Stormlight Archive here because Thomas is so totally a Slider that it's not even funny. Hmmm, maybe a Twinborn with F-Copper as his second power, since he's also such a scholar.

Kevin Graham: Pre-epiphany he'd probably be a Skybreaker since he ruthlessly enforces the Church's laws (even if the people deserve it) while after The 3rd and his change of title he'd probably be a good fit for the Windrunners.

Barkhorn: We know so little about him that it's really hard to say. Given how widely traveled he appears to be I'm going to tentatively say he'd fit with the Willshapers.

Gaius Worzel: As Zurvanite already covered well, Windrunner.

Wazy Hemisphere: Edgedancer, see the Crossbell section above.

Rufina Argent: Given her ability to resolve issues without having any actual supernatural powers, I'm going to declare her the Adolin of this group and not assign her to any Radiant order or give her any other powers, other than being Awesome in the non-Liftian sense.

Ries Argent: The girl whose first and only suggestion for problem solving is to hit things with her Templar Sword until they go away is definitely a Dustbringer... and she'd probably try to visit the Nightwatcher to get the same power that Lift has if she knew about it. Then she could justify how much food she eats.

Abbas: Probably the Stonewards, for embodying the divine attributes of Taln pretty well, especially when it comes to reliably keeping the Testaments running whenever Wazy is off doing other things... and putting up with Wazy generally.

Rosine: Hmmm, probably an Edgedancer for a similar reason to Wazy; she spends most of her time looking out for children as her cover identity and generally does the 'listening' thing really well.

 

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Okay, here it goes:

Spoilered because this may become a novel in and of itself and because. You know. Spoilers I guess.

Liberl Radiant Orders:

Spoiler

Estelle: Willshaper. She fits with the resolute part and she's definitely the adventurous type. Though a speech of hers I seem to recal from SC makes me think she might fit as a Windrunner.

Joshua: Elsecaller. I have to disagree a bit with what has been said. He's pretty centered and ruthless when needed (see scene at the farm.). You might argue that that is his past self but I think it's still him at his core. That side of his personality is just balanced out with Estelle's and vice versa.

Cassius: Windrunner. I was thinking Bondsmith but he's more of acting in the field, can't ignore someone in neeed, he's one of the best leaders you'll ever find, he's perfect for the order.

Scherazard: Edgedancer. I'm not entirely sure why, she just seems to fit there. She has a tragic past she remembers fondly and I feel because of that she resonates with others'. Also she's quite graceful with her weapon, if also quite sadistic.

Dorothy: Willshaper. There's one sole reason for this. There can be a catastrophe happening in her house and after being notified she'll somehow end up three countries away taking photos at a shop of some souvenir she found cute. That's the epitome of the "worst" qualities of Willshapers.

Agate: Dustbringer. Doesn't need an explanation, he's such a Dustbringer.

Tita: Edgedancer. The bond she forms with Agate, the bond she forms with Renne. This girl can accept anyone and everyone along with their pasts, serial killers or not. I'm not sure if that's how Edgedancers are supposed to work but it felt fitting.

Olivier: Lightweaver. He's always scheming something behind the scenes and you'll always somehow be happy with the result. Everything about him seems like a lie but it's always to deviate attention from an actually really good truth.

Don: Stoneward. He's the immovable root that kept things going forward for the Capuas even when everything was going to Gehenna.

Josette: Lightweaver. Another one I don't really have an explanation for. She just seems to fit.

Kloe/Klaudia: Willshaper. If I understand this well, Willshapers are kinda afraid of responsibility, which she is, but she completes the arc, finds her resolution and becomes really dependable (I'm relying too much on the divine attributes here).

Lechter: Lightweaver. I'm putting everyone who hides their personality as Lightweavers apparently. But yeah, you get the idea. He's always making you wonder what he's thinking and you know there's a plan behind way bigger than he lets on (you probably know its full scope by now, please don't spoil).

Maybelle: Skybreaker. Ok, hear me out here. It's not that she's a law psycho, but she abides to such a tight schedule and takes on so many responsibilities I can't help but seeing her there.

Lila: Edgedancer. Because, who else would take care of Maybelle?

Morgan: Stoneward. He's like a wall. Firm and stubborn to a fault.

Campanella: Lightweaver. As its been stated before.

Gilbert: Lightweaver. Or a squire at least. Campanella's probably. Not a really good one.

Dunan: Lightweaver. You know why? Because he reminds me of Elhokar. That's all I need.

Theresa: Edgedancer. She's just one. She can't not be one.

Alicia: Bondsmith. She's the prefect Bondsmith the way I see it. Best ruler ever and have you seen how skilled she is at uniting them?

Claire (You know, the little girl in Rolent): Truthwatcher. She's calm, she's collected and, above all, she knows things. I also think she's the Grandmaster.

Grandmaster: Truthwatcher. To make a plan of that scope you have to be one. Also, see above.

Renne: Edgedancer. I have to agree there. But would put her only on that order. The early games are just her journey to find her path.

The list right now is kind of a mess, incomplete and with no particular order. I will be updating it as I have time to (because right now I'm running out of brain processing energy) and as I replay the arc to get a better grasp of certain characters, because when I said all of Liberl I meant ALL of Liberl.

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Haven't played Sora in a long time so I just kinda forgot Joshua's personality. It probably got mixed up with other JRPG characters...

 

Also I found english translations of Zero and Ao no Kiseki! But I can't link them for obvious reasons. But I will tell you that I am really enjoying Zero despite the translation being a little wonky. You can tell some sentences were translated directly from Japanese and it just sounds bad. You can especially tell this with Lloyd because he talks pretty formal a lot of the time.

 

EDIT: I thought I'd bring this up too since I forgot but @Weltall mentioned Beryl earlier and she's just too weird and fascinating a character for her to not be important somehow. I believe...

Spoiler

Beryl is secretly either a Holy Beast or...(and I highly doubt this) the Grandmaster herself. She can sense septium veins and can basically teleport. She also knew Valimar was under the Old Schoolhouse. She's most likely a Holy Beast in human form, like Roselia.

She could also be a Sept-Terrion in human form like Demiourgos but I also doubt that.

Or like McBurn she is from The Outside which is why laws concerning Zemuria don't seem to apply to her.

 

Edited by Zurvanite
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16 hours ago, Zurvanite said:

Also I found english translations of Zero and Ao no Kiseki! But I can't link them for obvious reasons. But I will tell you that I am really enjoying Zero despite the translation being a little wonky. You can tell some sentences were translated directly from Japanese and it just sounds bad. You can especially tell this with Lloyd because he talks pretty formal a lot of the time.

Ohh, those were great, the one thing that bothered me though, is that in Zero they say "As expected" enough times that it has become a personal meme of mine. Maybe the Geofront one will fix it. Last I checked it was at 90% I believe?

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15 hours ago, Eluvianii said:

Ohh, those were great, the one thing that bothered me though, is that in Zero they say "As expected" enough times that it has become a personal meme of mine. Maybe the Geofront one will fix it. Last I checked it was at 90% I believe?

I actually went ahead and bought a bluetooth controller that my phone docks into because the touch controls for the emulator are kinda awful.

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5 hours ago, Zurvanite said:

I actually went ahead and bought a bluetooth controller that my phone docks into because the touch controls for the emulator are kinda awful.

 I should do the same at some point. I finished the entire arc on my phone and let me tell you, it's terrible when you have sweaty hands.

Also, battery becomes kind of a big deal when you know the last session is going to be two hours long at the shortest.

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18 hours ago, Eluvianii said:

 I should do the same at some point. I finished the entire arc on my phone and let me tell you, it's terrible when you have sweaty hands.

Also, battery becomes kind of a big deal when you know the last session is going to be two hours long at the shortest.

20190913_123709.thumb.jpg.c7911f0bcac827d709c64797b298bc60.jpg

This is what I got. A Flydigi Wee 2. You have to scan a QR Code it comes with and download some software to use it (which was all in Chinese so I had to fumble around to get it to work) but it works really well! My Galaxy s8 fits it and controls have no input lag. Only issue I have with it is I can't charge my phone or use a headphone jack. I have a bluetooth headset which should work though.

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I go away for a week and see that I've missed a lot while I was gone. xD

4 hours ago, Zurvanite said:
  Reveal hidden contents

Beryl is secretly either a Holy Beast or...(and I highly doubt this) the Grandmaster herself. She can sense septium veins and can basically teleport. She also knew Valimar was under the Old Schoolhouse. She's most likely a Holy Beast in human form, like Roselia.

She could also be a Sept-Terrion in human form like Demiourgos but I also doubt that.

Or like McBurn she is from The Outside which is why laws concerning Zemuria don't seem to apply to her.

Funny you should mention that, because one of my crack theories about Beryl was exactly one of those, well before CS3 came out. If I may sing my own praises like Hoid for a minute here.... behold, it's in there somewhere amidst making many errors that are amusing in retrospect, and me clearly having not gotten used to the localization yet because I was mixing up unofficial translations with what XSEED ended up using. Anyhow, my own current take is based on something else that we couldn't have predicted before CS4:

Spoiler

I don't think that she's a Divine Beast anymore (because Roselia already covers that option) and I don't think she's a Sept-Terrion in human form because Demiourgos was supposed to be unique in how much more human-like it was than the others. What I do think she is now is connected in some way with the source of the Black Records. I think she might be some sort of agent of AZOTH that it uses to gather information. One thing's for sure, Kondo has admitted that Beryl is being saved for later so she's got to be interesting/important in some way..

 

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