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

[Eluvianii]

Storms, that looks amazing! We've come a long way since CS1. Crossing fingers while we wait for details on the combat system. 

And I also had read about Nayuta. They're making an interesting effort in bringing the entire series to modern consoles.

[Weltall]

Oh, more info is starting to come out from the leak and there's a lot in there. Spoil-tagging for anyone who doesn't want to know and there are some inherent (though minor) spoilers for late CS/Hajimari.

Spoiler

The game is confirmed to take place in Calvard and be set in 1208, as Hajimari so strongly implied. The events of Beyond the Beginning act as a sort of prologue to Kuro.

Calvard is geographically smaller than Erebonia and represents the merging of European and Asian influences, so think of it as 'Eastern Europe'.

There will be more morally grey characters appearing, examples given are an 'Investigator', a 'Negotiator' and a bounty hunter.

90% of the cast will be new, three characters have been shown but we don't know which is the protagonist yet (or if it's one of them, though that seems likely). One sounds like the red-haired figure from the calendar who is described as being 'Arabian-like'. The playable cast will be smaller than CS' owing to the profession of the protagonists.

The new system will feature seamless transition between exploration and combat, with realtime input but it's described as 'accessible' and some option to switch to command input is being offered. Arts and Crafts remain, Links and Brave Orders are removed and there will be new mechanics. Rather than giving us the RAMDA we have a new Orbment called the Xipha. This may be what Beyond the Beginning foreshadowed when talk of a slimmed-down RAMDA came up.

There's going to be a 'Topic System' involved in conversations but no details are provided.

There will be an Alignment Frame system and your actions will shift characters along an axis of Law/Grey/Chaos which will affect the scenario, but it won't lock you out of events. No more detail on that has been provided yet.

There was also an amusing aside in the announcement of the Nayuta port.

Spoiler

Apparently they felt it necessary to explicitly state that no, Creha is not the Grandmaster. xD

EDIT: A bit more news has come from the release of the full article. A (minor) Hajimari postgame spoiler is in here and by implication a midgame one.

Spoiler

- The biggest is that there's a 'Prologue' narrative which, to quote one commentator, sounds like Kiseki is doing Sam Spade. I've been hoping for that kind of aesthetic to Calvard and it looks like we just might be getting it. Also, we have our protagonist group, an underground group of fixers called Spriggan. That would explain the smaller playable character pool.

- I've seen theorizing that the blonde female could be the one Aramis student we see during that sequence of Beyond the Beginning who's part of the.student council. Or the eponymous heroine of Sunshine Agnes from Azure which was set in Calvard. Or both at once.

- Traces of the old monarchical system can still be seen in certain locations.

- The protagonist will be the oldest in the franchise (not counting Hajimari's C) and the feeling of the game will reflect this.

- Rocksmith will have a role to play despite no longer being the president.

- Alignment Frame points can be carried over into NG+. They'll affect not just the scenario but character stats as well.

 

Edited December 16, 2020 by Ookla the Crimson King

[Val the Moofia Boss]

The man on the cover looks like he might either be President Gramhart (possibly the villain?) or the Thousand Oathbreaker (possibly the villain?).

The blue haired swordsman is either Rean or he's the Elaine's other love interest (the guy who joined the Rocksmith Agency).

Awww red haired dude isn't a Taito user... BUT HE WIELDS A CHINESE DAO!!!

Interestingly, it seems that Elaine is not in any of the screenshots, despite being apart of the trio of the redhead and the blue haired guy. So the blonde haired girl is someone else?

Kondo has promised that there will be a proper ending (so an epilogue like CS2? Nice!)

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Two new pieces of art of the Kuro no Kiseki characters by Enami Katsumi are out.

Spoiler

 

Is this just a one off commission of Enami Katsumi? Or is Katsumi going to be doing the character art for a Trails game again? (Enami also did the art for Zero. The Ao art was done in house). I'm not sure, because the Trails 2020 Calendar that featured the red hair guy seemed to be done in the style of Fumika Murakami (the Cold Steel artist).

The blonde haired girl is being described as "the heroine of Kuro no Kiseki" by translators, so does that mean Elaine is not going to be the heroine? Is she going to get Kloed? Damn that would suck. Unless they're going the harem route.

Edited December 20, 2020 by Val the Moofia Boss

[Eluvianii]

Well, at the very least I can say that artwork looks amazing. Seeing this would it be too much to wish we go back to portraits in dialog boxes? 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

6 hours ago, Ookla the Divine Blade said:

Well, at the very least I can say that artwork looks amazing. Seeing this would it be too much to wish we go back to portraits in dialog boxes? 

That depends on how good the portrait art is. The portrait art in Sky was incredibly expressive. Unfortunately, Enami Katsumi's portraits for Crossbell were not, and often times felt flat. I felt that the Cold Steel 3D models were more expressive than the Crossbell portraits. If Katsumi can't draw expressive portraits like the Sky ones, then honestly I'd rather just stick with the 3D models.

There is also the problem that you can't draw a 2D portrait for every NPC in a game with hundreds of NPCs. This was one of the flaws of Sky and Crossbell, where you could narrow down the list of suspects to a small pool based on whether or not they had a portrait or not. If you had played Sky before playing Crossbell, then in Crossbell it is likely you will have figured out who the villains were, simply because you're acquainted with the Trails formula and know what to look for, and since there are only like 2 dozen characters with portraits, you can pretty much pick out the culprits on the spot (because they're the only people with those portraits who meet the criteria).

I was pretty shocked by the character reveals in Cold Steel. It wouldn't have worked if there were character portraits, because I wouldn't really be surprised.

[Weltall]

Voicework is an even bigger giveaway since you can tell someone is extra-important if Falcom paid to have them voiced. This wound up beautifully twisted in Azure where a character didn't get any voiced lines in Zero or the first half of Azure and the reveal that there was Something More to them coincided with their first voiced line. The Evo/Kai versions did away with that little meta element since the main story had full voicework. I'd say it also helped obscure the 'voice=important' twist, if I thought that anyone actually played the latter version at least without already knowing all the details via Cold Steel.

On the idea of portrait art, if Falcom did return to using it it would be interesting to see if they also went the Brandish 4 route and had alternate art for the playable cast based on their Alignment Frame.

On 12/20/2020 at 3:42 AM, Val the Moofia Boss said:

The blonde haired girl is being described as "the heroine of Kuro no Kiseki" by translators, so does that mean Elaine is not going to be the heroine? Is she going to get Kloed?

Elaine doesn't really think of herself as 'the hero(ine)' but that doesn't mean she can't be one, it just means she's not part of the group of three important characters that were the first to get revealed. Meanwhile Kloe was never the heroine of the Sky games so I'm not sure what that comparison was for.

Edited December 21, 2020 by Weltall

[Val the Moofia Boss]

18 minutes ago, Weltall said:

Elaine doesn't really think of herself as a heroine, but that doesn't mean she can't be one, it just means she's not part of the group of 'big three characters' that were the first to get revealed. Meanwhile Kloe was never the heroine of the Sky games so I'm not sure what that comparison was for.

Well my point was

Sky SC spoilers

Spoiler

When I meant "is she going to get Kloed?" I was wondering if there was a canon romance, she was going to lose to the main heroine, like Kloe lost to Estelle. Since in her episode in Hajimari, she is infatuated with the MC, but now this blonde haired girl is said to be the heroine, and heroine in Japanese culture implies love interest (not necessarily main female character), so it seems like the MC might get with the blonde haired girl and Elaine will lose. Which will be sad.

 

[Briar King]

Oh man CS2 Act 2 stuff

i have liberated Roer and it was fun stuff! Irina got a taste of her on medicine. I got my monk on with Angie. Angie and her father working their issues out and him changing sides back to imperial family. The death of Vulcan!

 I’m getting a tad nervous the lvls cap out at 99 of which I’m at 94 on the group I took with me here. Don’t know how much longer game is but considering I’ve gotten spanked by lvl 110 Cryptids I hope it’s not a 99 cap..

[aneonfoxtribute]

The cap is not 99. The series typically has far greater than that because the levels sort of add up across the series

[Briar King]

Well that’s good I ll be able to go beyond that then. If it was max I’d cry with those Cryptids.

[Briar King]

It’s just been one of those good days for me. All that stuff earlier and a bit of follow up since I didn’t have cable most of the day.

 I’m a bit disappointed in Pandora this game. Yeah it hits hard on Emma but the area for spells hasn’t ever increased like in 1. I really like  Tauros on Laura esp if she is at 200 CP and I motivate her with Rean and unleash Radiant Waltz...she can do up to like 50K damage which has saved me big time on some of these fights. She is a beast. Alisa with Criminal is OP and fun as rust. 
 

CS2 Act 2 stuff

I mean come on Thomas has to be Blublanc lol(SHHHH!!!) poor Machis lmao getting tied up like that.

[aneonfoxtribute]

Yeah Tauros on Laura is, like, the most broken thing in this game. She just becomes a god of destruction and the drawback of Tauros doesn't matter because the only fights that go on long enough for characters to start getting two turns are bosses.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Eh, I'd argue that a Gaius (who has long reach and high STR) + evasion build + wrath (counterattacks after an evasion always crit) + Murakumo (crits deal 3x damage) deals more damage on average. Or even just a crit build Rean + Spirit Unification (50% STR up buff and 5S S-craft) + Murakumo. I think Tauros is overall a DPS loss due to the time delay (which can be crucial, like using items to heal and such).

[Briar King]

I need to start experimenting with Gaius. He and Elliot really are my most least used characters. Elliot is annoying to deal with and a geek which while nothing is wrong with that he just doesn’t jive with me for an extended time. His actors voice makes my ears bleed, but he has cool crafts when I have no choice but to include him. I like Gaius just have never had the need to play him. Don’t use Millum much either. I like her as comic relief more then playing her. Rean, Fie, Laura and Emma are usually my standard with Alisa and Machis(Mobieus) as back up.

Edited December 25, 2020 by Briar King

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Elliot has two uses: craft healing (aka on demand, instant healing, no need to wait for your art to cast, but if you're using an item healer with Moebius than that will be better) and inflicting nightmare on enemies. My favorite build with him is to equip him with Juggler, and then stack Nightmare quartz on him, and then spam his Nocturne Bell craft. Enjoy watching your enemies burn while asleep.

For Gaius, I've already mentioned the counterattack build. The other thing you can do with him is throw Chevalier on him (which you get from completing the training courses on the Courageous). Chevalier makes you do more damage the less health you have, which pairs nicely with Gaius' Wild Rage ability. So if you can buff Gaius' STR by 50% during battle, and pop Wild Rage, you can then pop an S-craft or a Savage Fang and deal huge damage.

Millium is good at dealing high AoE physical damage (her basic attack is also AoE) and inflicting status conditions. She is also the only other character besides Rean who can deal the most damage in one single turn, as she has a 4S S-craft (so equip Murakumo on her and jack up her crit and STR).

[Briar King]

Phew I only thought the dialogue rounds were cray cray in CS1...I’m in the process of going around now in all these locations. It’s a lot!

[Briar King]

Wait WHAT! CS2 Act 2 stuff

so I got Milliums 2nd S craft...it’s a spaceship and Lammy nukes from orbit! Cool beans! I guess that’s a clue where the Black Foundry is located.. hmm

Also how the hell do I get back to the blue chest by Dragon Bridge with the vent now closed off?

[aneonfoxtribute]

Black Foundry? Do you mean the Black Workshop?

[Briar King]

I guess. I’m doing to many things with CS2 Act 2 stuff

Black so and so in other projects so I’m bound to mix them up. Library, Foundry, Workshop whichever it is lol.

I had one of my toughest fights yet and it was frustrating!! The ship hi jacking Jaegers...oh my lord that was tough that disadvantage sucked. I got wiped out so many times before I could even get a hit in. Lucky I got Fie in on the last time and her evasion was working. I scraped by with just her.

Barely...

[Val the Moofia Boss]

So Guan interviewed Kondo for Kuro no Kiseki.

https://gu4n.medium.com/interview-with-kondo-toshihiro-aiming-for-the-trailss-new-direction-with-kuro-no-kiseki-638614dc7f89

Quote

Guan: Looks like the battle system will seamlessly shift from action-based field battles to command-based turn battles.

Kondo: Based on screenshots it may look like an action RPG, but it’s a proper command-based battle system. Aspects of the AT Battle system will be inherited, but the battle system as you know it from Trails in the Sky up to Hajimari no Kiseki has temporarily ended and we will start from scratch again in Kuro no Kiseki.

Kondo is suggesting that turn based combat might not be gone forever. I guess he's leaving the door to return to it depending on the reception of Kuro no Kiseki.

This line caught my eye, though:

Quote

Kondo: However, the battle system of the series so far can be seen as completely command-based and it was a weak point for it hurt the tempo of the games.

So Kondo is saying that turn based combat hurt the pace of the game? What? What on earth? I do not understand this statement.

Also Kondo confirmed that Enami Katsumi is the character designer. *Sigh*

[aneonfoxtribute]

When he says it hurt the pace of the game, thats probably saying that regular battles can take too much time, which is fair.

[Briar King]

I so hate how old I can tell I’m getting by the ache of my hands the past few years. I played thousands of hours of Destiny since 2014 and those sweaty matches didn’t usually have rust on the occasional fish these games have me try to catch. Today I had to hand controller to my son to catch a fish and snowboard for me. Some fish end my day.

[Briar King]

CS2 Act 2 stuff

ok it wouldn’t let me go to Ignis Shrine when I 1st came across it. Now I have to go back to other shrines for Zemuria Ore. so the question is should I go straight to Ignis or go to one of the others I’ve already cleared? I don’t want to miss a new vision if one is at Ignis like all others so far.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Don't worry about the order in which you do the shrines. You have to clear them all anyway so you won't miss anything.