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

[Eluvianii]

Can you catch every type of fish right before the last fishing event in CS3? I'm missing 12 and decided to actually try and catch up but I don't know if it's even possible. 

I keep getting the same 3 or 4 types of fish and I don't know if that's all I'll get or if it's just bad rng as punishment for my procrastination.

Edit: Never mind. It either was entirely possible, or I was lucky enough that the ones I was missing were possible to catch. I just wasn't visiting enough fishing spots. 

Edited December 14, 2021 by Ookla the Scarecrow

[aneonfoxtribute]

 

SO KURO 2 IS COMING ALREADY I GUESS

[Eluvianii]

At this point I'll be more surprised the year they don't release a game. 

Also, CS3 Chapter 4

Spoiler

I apparently spent a month and a half on this chapter, also almost 50 hours which is almost double the others. I couldn't tell the difference. This one was too intensive to feel the time passing.

If this isn't the best chapter finale since Ao Chapter 4, I don't know what it is. I'm not supposed to have this much difficulty processing things until the end of the game. 

Dude, why Ash?! And why Eugent?! He seemed so genuine right there at the last moment, it was the noblest thing ever but now there will be chaos and Ash's life is basically over.

I may be in denial here but I really hope he makes it. 

I didn't expect, or maybe didn't want, to feel for Osborne either. This is the most human he's ever felt. Every other game was like "Oh yeah, he's the devil, just wait for it". Now he just seems like a tragic man with way too much brainpower. Though it seems there's a lot to find out still. 

I like Priscilla. She has a lot more to her and seems to be more caring than I expected. Just makes the whole situation more painful. 

I loved how one of the main themes of the chapter was for everyone to make their feelings toward each other clear because they knew they might become enemies as soon as next day. That's going to make for some touching moments in the future I'm sure.

The freaking party, man, it was like a trailer for 4. "It would be nice if you could meet Cassius", "Juna is destined for greatness", "You may have a chance to test your skill against Rufus soon, Jusis", so much teasing, dear Aidios.

Correct me if I'm wrong (or maybe don't) but I saw enough of Cedric to conclude that, at the very least, he means well. People seem to hate him but I really don't want to and I think Chapter 4 will be integral to that. Scared to see what is this thing he does.  Same for Lechter and Claire but I already liked them so...

I wholeheartedly like Class I now though. 

On more standard notes, two games of teasing made me forget how good Falcom could be at romance (Alan and Bridget were there to remind me but I'm stupid and separate npcs fro protagonists). Apparently not a lot of people to romance in this game but I went for Emma and for a scene so short it was really storming adorable. I guess I was just annoyed because it's impossible to bring up the topic of Rean liking someone without it turning into a gag of everyone blaming him for being so charming/dense or something? Even Lloyd's gag was tamer. But when he's actually focused some really good scenes happen.

Also Towa shipping George and Angie threw me for a loop and I can't tell if there's something going on there or it was just for the punch in the gut you feel watching the scene.

I'm really proud of Altina. That's all I can say about her.

That's what I can think of right off the bat but there's just so much happening. I might lose sleep trying to finish it now that I'm on the final stretch. 

Darn, I'm so close to catching up with the series and now that I can see the finish line I feel like I don't want to XD. Guess after 4 it will be time for a second run (complete or otherwise) while we wait for Reverie. 

[Eluvianii]

Once again sorry for the double post but I need to drop a word. 

What?! 

That's all, carry on.

 

Edit: Ok I wanted to leave it at that but not pouring my head somewhere is bothering me physically so here it is. 

CS3 ending

Spoiler

Alright so I still don't believe George doesn't care. Nor that he killed Angie. The rule about there not being a body hasn't failed me yet. 

I also have been spoiled about things in CS4 so what's bugging me now is the explanation. I need some answers. 

What happened to Gilliath? How did we go from "I will rule with an iron fist as a consequence of my trauma" to "humanity should progress through conflict"? I need to know, what's the time frame between mourning and being completely nuts? 

Is Millium gone for good? Surely not, right? Don't answer. 

I seriously pity Cedric now. I expected the brainwashing but his initial motivation is just sad. I'd love to see how he justifies everything to himself. Interested to see where his character goes. 

Coming back from the dead is related to divine knights then? Being a sept-terrion I guess it makes sense. 

What is Arianrhod's version of the story? I've always believed Ouroboros aren't truly villains and I fail to see how someone as noble and preoccupied about Erebonia could see this as the right thing to do. Maybe she wants to consummate the curse so that there's a way to destroy it? I have faith in her but... 

What's with that 'yahari'? Are we supposed to have a clue about where the seventh knight is?

And I need to solve the mystery of the loading screen. You know, the one with the title on it. It appeared lots of times but exactly 4 times it changed colors to red. I need to know the significance.

Should I be crying? Storms, at this point I'm too starved for more to cry. Starting 4 asap. Though it's the holidays. Storms. 

 

Edited December 21, 2021 by Eluvianii

[aneonfoxtribute]

CS3 ending

[Briar King]

Woot they do have droplets! Oh the hours will pile up after all it looks like! Yay

[Eluvianii]

Barely starting Act 1 in CS4 but, they really stepped up the soundtrack. Not saying that 3's was bad mind you, just that 4's is soooo good.

The area and dungeon themes around Eryn are great, particularly the last one you hear. On that same note, Roselia's battle theme is amazing. I also absolutely adore Twilight Green Passage. Loving the general focus on piano so far.

[Briar King]

Popping in 

I have made barely a dent in progress since last update and it’s only going to keep up between NFL, the Olympics and the news cycle with rising tensions..

I unlocked some very stupid Pom game on my phone today. I will have my offspring do this in future. I suck at puzzle games anyway.

[Briar King]

Mishy is utterly destroying me at Vantage Masters today.

[Briar King]

*YELLS

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

I can not beat Mishy for days we have been going back and forth and I don’t want to proceed with defeat hanging, but I may be willing to IF I am able to revisit this area at a later time in the story.

So yay or nay on that?

[aneonfoxtribute]

You do come back later, but I'm not entirely sure if you can challenge Mishy again. You might be able to, I dont see why not, but I can't guarantee it

[Briar King]

Managed to get lucky with early archer draws and took him out. Phew that sucked. 

[Eluvianii]

If only he was the last difficult opponent. There's a match later that made me lose hard several times, and when I won it was only because I had to be patient and made the other person literally run out of cards. 

[Eluvianii]

Stuff about Acts 1 and 2 CS4:

Spoiler

Ok so, remembering the Act 1 finale, and coming fresh from Act 2's, these are some intense sequences. 9 boss battles in a row was really testing back in Act 1, particularly the last one. They go all out with the optional objectives here. I still have no idea how I managed to beat Arianrhod and Gilliath with the same blow but that's a lot of AP I don't have to worry about now. And now Act 2 has only 6 battles and the dungeon was way shorter, but the sequence itself was long as hell. I loaded my game right before departing for the Pantagruel at around 7pm, pretty confident about having enough time, and boy was I wrong. I finished at past 2am, with precisely 6 hours of new gameplay time. Not even idle time either, there must have been a short book worth of text across the whole thing.

So, first things first, I'm really liking Cedric's arc so far. It's such an interesting take. Ouroboros is known for playing around, and they still do. Furthermore, other villains like the Ironbloods have personal connections with the main cast that are very important to them. So I'm very used to the friendly (like, actually friendly) banter before battles, or the positive reactions on defeats. They all just go "Heh, nicely done. Welp, see you around." and call it a day. So I find it interesting how Cedric is the only one to get openly frustrated on defeats and his disbelief at being the only one. He's really hot-headed, misguided, and still has a lot of people on the side of the good guys who care for him, I'm excited to see where that goes.

On the note of friendly villains, I'm having a hard time getting used to Mariabell's treatment here. She's not the only traitor around, she's not the only killer around, but she's by far the most antagonized one out of the bunch, second only to Osborne. Even Rean who had never even seen her was staring daggers at her like 10 seconds after meeting. She's not a saint or anything but this feels weird considering we have other traitor characters who still get plenty of kindness or at least civil conversation when they appear. I'm placing my hopes on Elie here but I doubt this arc is gonna happen any time soon. Also, gotta say I just find her really cool as a villain. An alchemist who makes her favorite dolls fight for her. The ever present smirk on her face no matter what she's doing. The whole "A state-wide conspiration a thousand years in the making? I'm done with that, I have bigger plans". She's just such a cool character.

George is redeemed in my eyes. I don't know what happened but it's clear to me he used whatever he had at his disposal to avoid as much damage as possible when the Courageous blew up, and that's just exactly what I wanted to hear.

Kloe is still best girl, nothing has changed on that front. One of the highlights of this last chapter was playing Pom with her.

Oh yeah, I met Elie's mom. I looked at the photo and I still didn't figure that out until the second time you meet her like 50 hours later. I wonder where that is going. Will we meet the dad in Kuro?

I always felt a bit uncomfortable with the whole cast shipping Agate and Tita but, well, for the first time in the history of ever I saw Agate actually showing interest. So, wherever that ends, at this point let them just be happy I guess. My whole issue with it was that Agate was dead set on big brother mode but, if that changes, nothing I can say.

Oh yeah, speaking of that, really enjoyed the hot spring request. Watching Rean geek out about hot springs all over the empire was great, it's just a side of him that doesn't come out often. Plus, I made him hold hands with Randy at the end of the request which is always a good thing to witness.

There's a whole arc about Ymir in this game and the whole thing is hidden behind bonding events. That's so creative but I'm so conflicted about it. I save scum during each bonding day so I get to see everything anyway but you're not supposed to need that. Come on, there's a risk of missing plot here. There's a lot of story in general hidden behind bonding events in this game, which yes, makes the events this time around really storming good, but also makes a big chunk of important plot points completely optional. It's mostly in those where you see how much the characters are willing to sacrifice to save the world, or see which ones already gave up on even surviving. That seems a tiny bit important to limit it the way they do.

Oh, and this game is so well optimized, it's like black magic. The difference between 3 and 4 is night and day. I can finally relax while exploring Crossbell. Now the only things that give my pc trouble are really long sequences with lots of things to load (Act 2 finale was one of those, it took a while but it made it through without major issue), and places where they upped the poly-count, which says more about my video card than my ram anyway. Everything related to Milsante runs at like 15 fps in the best of cases because of, I can only assume, the big number of models around, mainly trees. In the old scenarios there were just a few trees sprinkled around, but Lake Gala byroad? That's a forest.

I like the misguided way Lechter and Claire are dealing with grief. Not gonna lie though, after all that setup during the past two arcs, I expected Lechter to hold out against Osborne's influence a little longer. Wonder if that comment will come back to bite me.

Having not only a main party and returning characters, but also all of Thors running about and helping, really helps with the scope of the game. Most party members just stay with you, so there's not much of a big picture to be seen there, but with the students and alumni doing stuff on their own, investigating, going on their own missions, it really feels like a network now, and the realization of what Olivert introduced in the first game. Nice eye-patch by the way.

Speaking of that, wish I could be surprised about his survival, but I was spoiled about the wedding at the end of the game long ago, so the only question left in my mind was (and still is), how?

Oh, and I really like the chemistry between all the characters, new and old. I like how the game is self-aware about repeated tropes and points out the similarities between characters. The whole bro relationship between Rean and Lloyd is fun, though because of it Rean is beginning to steal his catchphrase. For better or worse I like that there was no drama when they met up. I was half expecting Estelle and company to be distrustful of Rean for a few hours. Given that there was a good deal of contact between both groups beforehand, it makes sense that they were informed about what kind of person he is, but still, you never know.

Btw, am I imagining things or do the witch uniforms in Eryn match the coat Rose was wearing in Red Moon Rose? If' they're the same, good Aidios this level of detail.

Sorry, I keep coming up with moments I liked with no order or method whatsoever and this just keeps going on. Guess I'll wait for the next jaw-dropping moment to get an excuse to continue. I have a feeling there will be a lot of those from now on anyway.

 

[Briar King]

Popping in

CS4 Act 1 stuff 

only took me close to 2&1/2 months but I was in a mood today and finished up Crossbell segment just now. NFL/Olympics and then ugh war kept me from getting past this quickly. I enjoyed this part other than the Mishy park. It was super boring and long for me. I hated the Aleister/Phantom reveal. I’m sure there was hints in CS3 but meh.. KeA and Renne are coming with me back to Eryn. I’m not going to promise myself I ll speed up progress now but we ll see. Got 80+ hrs clocked so far.

[aneonfoxtribute]

1 hour ago, Briar King said:

Popping in

CS4 Act 1 stuff 

 

  Hide contents

only took me close to 2&1/2 months but I was in a mood today and finished up Crossbell segment just now. NFL/Olympics and then ugh war kept me from getting past this quickly. I enjoyed this part other than the Mishy park. It was super boring and long for me. I hated the Aleister/Phantom reveal. I’m sure there was hints in CS3 but meh.. KeA and Renne are coming with me back to Eryn. I’m not going to promise myself I ll speed up progress now but we ll see. Got 80+ hrs clocked so far.

 

Spoiler

Aleister being Bleublanc is great. It shows that even in the game he wasn't in, he was still in the game. 

 

[Eluvianii]

About that one scene at the beginning of Act 3

Spoiler

Now, that's what I call a good twist. Or rather, several twists in a row I guess. 

Now Lianne's behavior makes sense. Sort of. Now George and Franz have shown hints of a chance of coming back. Wish I could say the same about Millium. Now I'm extremely empathetic towards Gilliath.

The "This is the true villain so everything was actually no one's fault" seems a tad convenient but I won't turn down a chance to redeem this many good characters.

Also the fact that everyone's hero turned out to be the biggest villain in the series is pretty amazing.

I also like that they addressed the battle between the jaegers. The story about the battle lasting three full days had been around for a while without anyone questioning it, like it was something expected from those two, but it always seemed a bit hyperbolic. 

Roselia has to be one of the coolest bosses of the series.

Tears were shed, on to the Rivalries. 

 

[Briar King]

What’s the Mira dish for CS4?

[Eluvianii]

29 minutes ago, Briar King said:

What’s the Mira dish for CS4?

I was searching this topic last night. Apparently there's none.

[Briar King]

I really miss Luminous Ray, Dark Matter and Demon Scythe.

Random.

[Briar King]

Popping in

CS4 Fragments stuff

proceeded to leave Eryn. Many things happened…

Im split by gender teams now. Got controller on the charger for a bit and may get started exploring later today.

[Eluvianii]

I swear, Pom is the real game here. I just spent like half an hour against Gaius in a single game. My usual strategy of tanking to save the cp and then attacking when they can't defend wasn't working because that guy gathers cp at lightning speed like, crem was intense. 

[aneonfoxtribute]

Pom gets really rough 

[Briar King]

Popping in

CS4 Fragments stuff

goodness me I just went through 3 straight boss battles. So happy it gave me a save break! Those tallied up an hour. I’m done for the day. I hate fighting McBurn though this was likely the easiest of his fights so far.

[Briar King]

Popping in 

CS4 Fragments stuff

ugh another long stretch I’m in the middle of! I so wish they gave me another save option after Rean fight and massive dialogue skit before the Osborne/Lianna fight! I see on guide that 10 AP are on the line and I have to get them both to 50% at the same time. Ugh idk if I have the energy to do this today. PS5 is on rest mode for now till I can commit but severe weather is incoming so I ll have to turn it off before the lightning comes. This means I may have to completely redo Rean battle and dialogue tomorrow after weather passes. That won’t be cool.