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

[aneonfoxtribute]

12 hours ago, Briar King said:

Have you played them? Didn’t you do something that your console to read the Japanese disc?

I played Kuro 1. I couldn't play Kuro 2 because there's no good fan translation for it.

The discs aren't region locked anymore, at least on Playstation. But I didn't get a disc anyway, I had to make a Japanese PSN account to play it, which wasn't that hard.

[Briar King]

So tempting to go for Zero today instead of XC3..

[Briar King]

Ok my Heroes peeps is there any word on Reverie in the get on this console instead of that console yet?

I believe that’s next month.

Oh Rusty rusting ruststicks…XC3, FF16 & Rev..I’m going to be in trouble with that cluster…

[Eluvianii]

I believe they're all about the same. Switch should be lower res and lower quality textures so there's that. 

[Briar King]

Wonder if there is any kind of transference from CS for it? I’m sure there is no haptic feedback on this. Is there for Calvard? 

[aneonfoxtribute]

4 hours ago, Briar King said:

Ok my Heroes peeps is there any word on Reverie in the get on this console instead of that console yet?

I believe that’s next month.

Oh Rusty rusting ruststicks…XC3, FF16 & Rev..I’m going to be in trouble with that cluster…

They should be the same. Biggest difference is probably worse performance on Switch, but idk how CS3 and 4 ran on Switch so I can't say if it is an actual issue

[aneonfoxtribute]

3 hours ago, Briar King said:

Wonder if there is any kind of transference from CS for it? I’m sure there is no haptic feedback on this. Is there for Calvard? 

There is transference to Reverie. PS5 users get the transfer for free, the other systems need the save data on that system. I think there is for Calvard but I haven't played Kuro 2

[Briar King]

You talking about transfer or haptic feedback for Calvard? It’s a PS5 game so I’m guessing it would have it?

[aneonfoxtribute]

11 hours ago, Briar King said:

You talking about transfer or haptic feedback for Calvard? It’s a PS5 game so I’m guessing it would have it?

Transfer. I missed where you mentioned haptic

[aneonfoxtribute]

Reverie is tomorrow! I won't be getting it day of I'm pretty sure, the shipping emails from NISA's store came super late. Not too bothered though

[Eluvianii]

Mine hasn't even shipped yet. Hell, I got it from Amazon so there's always a chance they'll go "Oops, actually we ran out of stock" D':

Tbh these last few days I'm struggling to keep motivation up for other games, and even if Reverie is only a few days away, the wait is legit feeling long. I don't remember the last time I was so excited for something that time slowed down to a crawl, it's like being a kid waiting for Christmas. It's a nice feeling honestly.

[Eluvianii]

The game came today! I was rather sleepy so I thought, maybe this time it won't consume my life and I'll prioritize sleeping, so naturally I ended up with a 9-hour session. 

The impressive thing is how little I accomplished in those 9 hours, two short dungeons and two dialogue runs. I genuinely don't know how that took so long, given the lack of side-quests. Still, it was an amazing start, and it feels great to be with these characters again. 

[Briar King]

SKIPPING THREAD I FORGOT REVERIE WAS OUT ITS STILL GOING TO BE A BIT BEFORE I GRAB AND PLAY IT!

 

woot woot

[aneonfoxtribute]

18 hours ago, Briar King said:

SKIPPING THREAD I FORGOT REVERIE WAS OUT ITS STILL GOING TO BE A BIT BEFORE I GRAB AND PLAY IT!

 

woot woot

We're not gonna talk spoilers untagged. You don't need to worry about that

[Eluvianii]

Yeah, the system we've been using works just fine. 

Speaking of, Early Act 2 for everyone 

Spoiler

Ok, first impressions. Act 1 was very short. I'm not sure whether this means it was just an extended prologue or if this is actually a short game, but I've been hearing the latter. 

I like the different focuses for each route. They all feel different enough that you can avoid burnout just by switching from one to the other.

C's party is great, I've seen those 4 share the same room for a single, very short dungeon and yet the dynamic feels so perfect. Swin and Nadia are indeed the perfect pair. His earnestness in trying to protect Nadia is amazing. The fact that Nadia is always sleepy is the saddest and most endearing thing. Lapis is so precious, she's so confident yet knows nothing of the world, and watching her learn new things through the unreliable narrators accompanying her is adorable. C looks so emotionless yet he genuinely seems to enjoy the company of such an admittedly noisy group, it's cute in a way. Papa C is gonna be his nickname and there's nothing he can do about it.

The music is a step up from CS4 imo. Lapis is already one of my favorite tracks in the whole series, it's so, so beautiful. Which makes it a bit frustrating that we don't know who the composer is.

Ok, so I made it to the Reverie Garden, and, lots to unpack there. So basically someone hacked the matrix to make things that shouldn't happen, happen? For one thing, this makes C's character make a hell of a lot more sense.

He's 

Spoiler

Rufus, right? I've seen pictures of the dude without a mask, and I didn't get a good look but he was blond and Rufus makes way more sense than Cedric. I thought at first the mask was because, well, he's supposed to be in prison, but the whole deal in Crossbell adds another layer to that necessity.

And for another, it gives me enough facts to make an actual theory. One that I seriously hope is wrong but hey, might as well put it here. 

So, I think Zemuria might be a simulation, it only simulates the continent, that's why they can't get out, and each run simulates all of human history up to its destruction two years from now. All of it is set in stone. Some system makes sure that the plot doesn't go off course, and if it does, it intervenes, which is what happens in this game. The Grandmaster has seen more than one run, and she knows how it ends. She wants to prevent it, and that's what the Orpheus plan is for.

I don't like the theory, it's too depressing but, well, CS4 and this give some ground to it.

Well, enough for now, gotta spend some time with my daughter Altina in the creepy labyrinth. Enjoying the game immensely.

[aneonfoxtribute]

2 hours ago, Eluvianii said:

Yeah, the system we've been using works just fine. 

Speaking of, Early Act 2 for everyone 

  Hide contents

Ok, first impressions. Act 1 was very short. I'm not sure whether this means it was just an extended prologue or if this is actually a short game, but I've been hearing the latter. 

I like the different focuses for each route. They all feel different enough that you can avoid burnout just by switching from one to the other.

C's party is great, I've seen those 4 share the same room for a single, very short dungeon and yet the dynamic feels so perfect. Swin and Nadia are indeed the perfect pair. His earnestness in trying to protect Nadia is amazing. The fact that Nadia is always sleepy is the saddest and most endearing thing. Lapis is so precious, she's so confident yet knows nothing of the world, and watching her learn new things through the unreliable narrators accompanying her is adorable. C looks so emotionless yet he genuinely seems to enjoy the company of such an admittedly noisy group, it's cute in a way. Papa C is gonna be his nickname and there's nothing he can do about it.

The music is a step up from CS4 imo. Lapis is already one of my favorite tracks in the whole series, it's so, so beautiful. Which makes it a bit frustrating that we don't know who the composer is.

Ok, so I made it to the Reverie Garden, and, lots to unpack there. So basically someone hacked the matrix to make things that shouldn't happen, happen? For one thing, this makes C's character make a hell of a lot more sense.

He's 

  Reveal hidden contents

Rufus, right? I've seen pictures of the dude without a mask, and I didn't get a good look but he was blond and Rufus makes way more sense than Cedric. I thought at first the mask was because, well, he's supposed to be in prison, but the whole deal in Crossbell adds another layer to that necessity.

And for another, it gives me enough facts to make an actual theory. One that I seriously hope is wrong but hey, might as well put it here. 

So, I think Zemuria might be a simulation, it only simulates the continent, that's why they can't get out, and each run simulates all of human history up to its destruction two years from now. All of it is set in stone. Some system makes sure that the plot doesn't go off course, and if it does, it intervenes, which is what happens in this game. The Grandmaster has seen more than one run, and she knows how it ends. She wants to prevent it, and that's what the Orpheus plan is for.

I don't like the theory, it's too depressing but, well, CS4 and this give some ground to it.

Well, enough for now, gotta spend some time with my daughter Altina in the creepy labyrinth. Enjoying the game immensely.

Spoiler

Nah Act 1 is just a short prologue, the game is meaty. It doesn't stack up to CS4 for sure but it's still pretty long. 

Yeah "Zemuria simulation" theory has been pretty prominent since CS4 revealed that nobody can leave the continent.

 

[Eluvianii]

Act 2 Ending

Spoiler

Ok, that's reassuring. I saw reviews saying this was like half as long as CS4 which was a bit concerning. That said Act 2 was about as long as the first, though I can see myself spending increasingly more time in the Corridor.

Second part is not as reassuring. I've only seen Simulation theory painted in a positive light like, once (Hello World was a trip). Imagine a final arc where everyone is freaking out because they just found out they're made of bits. Depressing. 

Ok, at this point I won't be surprised if the Rufus, Garcia, and Dieter in Crossbell literally don't exist. Just artificial people there to fulfill the roles needed.

The scene where Nadia is describing torture methods was great. I swear, Lapis' reactions to literally anything are gold. And of course, the conversation afterwards made me like Nadia's character that much more.

Oh yeah, the whole final sequence (final? The whole act more like) with perspective changing between Class VII and C's party was great. The double-battles were so cool. They're really making the most out of this concept.

C was revealed way earlier than I thought. Dude looks good with short hair, he should keep it. Cocoa, Lemon, and the two girls in front of Times are gonna faint.

Oh right, Magical Girl Alisa has a plot! I legit thought it was going to be one singular level with the bare minimum for writing. But this, this is great. 

Well, on to Act 3. I'll have to step up my game. Battles are longer than they should be and that cube thing was hard. I'll have to spend some time min maxing.

 

Edited July 18, 2023 by Eluvianii

[aneonfoxtribute]

Obtained! That's the collectors box that I got with the collectors edition, I got a lot of other goodies with it

 

[Eluvianii]

Nice! It took its time but I'm guessing it was worth it. 

[aneonfoxtribute]

Just now, Eluvianii said:

Nice! It took its time but I'm guessing it was worth it. 

Indeed

[Eluvianii]

Act III stuff. Including endings for Lloyd and Rean

Spoiler

Ok hear me out. What if this person/memory possessing Rean is the Rean from CS4's normal ending? Don't worry about the logistics, this series stacks magic systems on top of each other with every new entry, this absolutely makes sense. Or will at some point.

Man, that sequence was so cool. Everything from the moment we take control of Olivier was perfect. It was mostly cutscenes but I'm okay with that. Also they're gonna have a kid holy Aidios that was fast. Watching Musse go full thinking mode is always fun too.

Overall I love all the development Rean's side is getting. I already like Rean more as a protagonist, Kurt is getting some much needed attention, and I think I liked Elise more during her introductory scene here than in the past 4 games.

Took me a while to figure out the pace of this game. There's not a lot of urban exploration, no side-quests, dialogue runs are kept to a minimum, no free time. Of course the acts can feel short, the whole thing is pure distilled plot. So when you look at it that way, 15-hours of non-stop story is kind of a lot.

And the Corridor provides some downtime! I love Daydreams. They fulfil my needs of SoL and side-questing, and the latter I wasn't expecting. Even if you can't participate actively, things like the St Astraia incident totally feel like another day in the life of Class VII. Back when I should have played Sky 3rd I didn't have a pc, so I had to resort to watching a gameplay, meaning I didn't get the satisfaction of unlocking all those scenes through playing. It feels good.

The Corridor is quite fun, and the bosses are brutal. That stupid cube was a wake up call, and the Hollow SSS even more. Even the boss after that I was too tired and scared to stop and think of some strat, so I winged it by farming cp and spamming s-crafts, but I could tell I wouldn't even have time to analyze them.

VM is hard this time around. As soon as the second game I won (Alfin) I was already on the defensive the whole match, and only could attack when she had literally run out of cards.

Dude, that character development for the SSS caught me off-guard. Not only applying to them but to every character. I do look at everyone here like the heroes of the story, and I got used to them acting like so. It's easy to forget that during the first game of each arc you get newbies as protagonists and they're constantly reminded how incapable they are. Sure, they overcome things and become heroes by the end, but they're still supposed to be people literally doing their job, not some symbol of peace. Talk about a bucket of cold water. I mean, in the end it doesn't change much, I'll keep seeing them as heroes, other characters will keep seeing them as heroes, but this perception that since they're the heroes they're the only ones supposed to be acting was quite warped indeed.

Now, how did Lloyd figure out Rufus was Rufus? How did Renne figure out that Lloyd figured it out? Ok, sure, she's a literal genius but both her and Rufus (granted, also a genius) talk about it like it's obvious. I get some of the others, Tita obviously knows Renne's intonation, Sharon worked on the same side as Rufus for a good while, but. Well whatever, I clearly underestimated his detective intuition.

McBurn was hard. I had to stop and reload because the dude was healing more than I could hit. After realizing that Lloyd and friends still had their starting equipment, I fixed that, buffed everyone to Gehenna and back, and tried again. After that, the fight wasn't too hard, but you still have to be careful and it was really long, 24 minutes.

Well, I guess this disproves my "Manifesting doppelgangers through hacking the fabric of reality" theory, they're just robots. That works too I guess. It was far-fetched from the start (though something like that happened with Kevin).

Well, on to C's finale for the act. I am so happy Renne gets to join a main party, if only for a while. It's been so long, I thought her development for the game would be relegated to Daydreams. She could compete for true protagonist by sheer number of appearances, but some of those appearances have been 2 minutes long. Her last big role was Zero. I know she gets to shine in Kuro but that's a ways off, let me see my favorite character under the spotlight for a bit, please and thank you.

I don't know how much of this is her character and how much is NISA's weird localization choices, but either way, Nadia is such a quote machine, I love her.

 

[aneonfoxtribute]

Spoiler

Its partly Nadia's character but I imagine the localization also did a lot for Nadia being insanely quotable. 

 

[Eluvianii]

Figures. It's a bit of a conflict because on one hand the dialogue is funny. On the other I can't help but wonder if I'm getting different characters here. 

Anyway, Act III C ending

Spoiler

Ok, this whole thing was cruel as hell. It's like Luci's stunt all over again but worse. And three times.

I find it so sad that Renne doesn't seem to have any plans to tell her parents the truth. I get why she wouldn't want to. How do you even tell your parents all the stuff that happened after she disappeared? Will they feel guilty for setting her on that path even though she doesn't want them to? Will they blame her for all the blood she's spilled even though it's not her fault? I think it might be a hard pill to swallow for them, but if she doesn't say anything, all 3 of them will just have that thorn draining them for the rest of their lives. Come on, Renne, it'll be alright.

And Lapis. Man, what even is the purpose of that? What is the purpose of any of these "experiments"? What was this cremhole testing for? She struggles with the concept of self as it is, why would you go out of your way to torture her for it? Rufus got so many points here. I typically forgive villains the moment they repent, but redemption is a different beast. This is a good step, I don't even want to know what would have been of Lapis without him there.

The Emperor, well, he was interesting. These robots have a sense of self, and they can diverge from their originals to become their own person. He was mad, but that madness represented him becoming a different person to the one the two kids killed. I guess I'm just saying that raises the typical moral questions. The moment you turn on these, it's not right to treat them as "things". The process is different, and their memories might be copies from another person's, but for the most part, I think they're in the same boat as Lapis here.

Did I misunderstand? I remember back when I read Three and Nine the implication was strong that they were raised by Ouroboros. But maybe I was looking for implications and fell into a confirmation bias. Because when Novartis, Renne, and Rufus started talking openly about the society, they showed no reaction. Sure, they were at the bottom of the chain, but surely they would have known something. Are they two different organizations after all? If so, the underground of Zemuria goes deeper than I thought.

 

[aneonfoxtribute]

Quote

Figures. It's a bit of a conflict because on one hand the dialogue is funny. On the other I can't help but wonder if I'm getting different characters here. 

I mean, Estelle's character as we know her is pretty much made up by the localization. Plus as someone who played the fan translation, she's pretty memeable there too. I haven't played enough to get to her yet in the localization but I doubt she's THAT different.

Spoiler

To be fair, Renne's parents are implied to already know its her. Like how could they not, its pretty obvious. And Renne is working on getting closer to them so.

You are misunderstanding, but it's a fair misunderstanding. We were never told the organization they worked for, only that they had a Tarot Card motif and were working in the shadows. The obvious assumption is that it's Ouroboros. But it's not, it's actually a different organization. This isn't too hard to figure out, as the two organizations are worked VERY differently. Ouroboros doesn't have a ton of child soldiers working for them, they don't treat them as mere weapons (some of them do like Weissman, but the organization on the whole doesn't and most of the members care for the children in their ranks), and they don't have any policy about people running away. Most people assume immediately that its Ouroboros but realize it's not after they think about it for a while.

 

[Eluvianii]

Rean Act IV

Spoiler

Well, true. They saw the signs and tried to talk about it but Renne denies everything before the question fully leaves their mouths. Still, as much as they seem to be almost certain of it, whenever they're about to say it out loud, they back pedal and revert to the guardian angel thing (which, I just realized as I write this, is like the reverse of her Angel of Slaughter thing. That's amazing, it's like an acknowledgement that Renne's efforts paid off). It's like they're still afraid to get their hopes up, even now. So there's still that last barrier to cross and it kinda looks like Renne won't be the one to do it. It would be cool if it's the parents who, in a moment of need, skip the questions and just outright call her Renny.

Ok, I see. I probably thought the tarot thing was proof enough. Tbh I thought it was like a revelation of "the other side of Ouroboros", you know? Like we know they treat their enforcers with a lot of freedom and care, and they seem to be pretty noble overall, but we don't really know what kind of life the low ranking jaeger lives. Very glad to know that's not the case.

 

Welp, did the whole Act IV for Rean without switching. That was a mistake. Game told me "if you play with the others, the door in the Corridor will unlock, and you can take on the rest of this chapter with extra levels", and I didn't take the hint. Parallel universe Rean was tough. This also made me realize so many things are gonna happen this act, it's probably better to tackle them separately. So here I am.

Parallel universe Rean! So it seems I'm going to be right about that one. Dude doesn't seem like a villain, but he also absolutely seems like one. I don't know, that interaction was confusing. He seems happy to see everyone, yet he looks ready to kill them if they don't kill him first. I need more pieces.

My Switch wanted to die during the segment on the villas, which is interesting because it's not that big. Too much lake I guess. sigh There goes any hope of a Kuro port.

Ok, forgot to mention this since like Act II, but Zeit is uncanny. His talking animation makes me uncomfortable. I also want to hug him.

So, I feel like some things don't add up. The EDF is with Mecha Rufus, so far so good. Why were they watching Mishelam? Everyone is assuming Space Rean is working with Mecha Rufus, but if anything, this makes it look like they're at odds with one another, and that Rufus is afraid of him. You know, heavily watching and guarding the place where he is holed up in case he gets out. So are there more sides to this than it seemed at first?

We don't even know what the Unified Nation is for, you can't throw a new unknown goal into the mix. Yet of course, the seashell was there, which pretty much proves it was the Supreme leader after all. I don't know. Rean seems to have a guess though. This many impossibilities would normally be the work of a Sept-Terrion but I feel like with two Holy Beasts around they would be the first to know.

(if there was a Sept-Terrion involved though it would totally be Water because everything here is a reflection of another thing)

Mischneider was, a thing. On the one hand I couldn't take the thing seriously. On the other it seems he believed himself to be real and that is tragic as hell. But final verdict seems to be "don't worry about it, he was just a mascot". Which makes one hell of a tonal whiplash with what haplened right after. This is the last stretch of Alliance of the Golden Witch all over again...

This was such an eventful act, I'm really looking forward to the counterparts. Can't believe we're going to see Ian.