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

[Weltall]

Just wait until you play Azure and are exposed to the mortal avatar of Cuteness that is... Penguin KeA.

Planning to jump right to it, or wait for the Geofront patch?

[Eluvianii]

1 minute ago, Weltall said:

Just wait until you play Azure and are exposed to the mortal avatar of Cuteness that is... Penguin KeA.

Wait, why did I never see that? 

[Weltall]

Just now, Eluvianii said:

Wait, why did I never see that? 

It's linked to an event you might have missed.

Spoiler

The one you get from collecting all of her room-decoration items.

 

[Eluvianii]

5 minutes ago, Weltall said:

It's linked to an event you might have missed.

  Hide contents

The one you get from collecting all of her room-decoration items.

 

Oh crap. 

Spoiler

I was interested but I think it was expensive or something and only got like two or three. 

 

[NattyBo]

32 minutes ago, Weltall said:

Just wait until you play Azure and are exposed to the mortal avatar of Cuteness that is... Penguin KeA.

Planning to jump right to it, or wait for the Geofront patch?

Wait..is there another way to play it in English? I was planning to wait on the geofront patch 

[Weltall]

1 minute ago, NattyBo said:

Wait..is there another way to play it in English? I was planning to wait on the geofront patch 

The non-Geofront version that people have been playing for... a while now. It's one of those 'good enough to understand what's going on but not very polished' ones, and with no bells and whistles. So yeah, no reason to jump for it if you're already planning to wait for Geofront.

[NattyBo]

19 hours ago, Weltall said:

The non-Geofront version that people have been playing for... a while now. It's one of those 'good enough to understand what's going on but not very polished' ones, and with no bells and whistles. So yeah, no reason to jump for it if you're already planning to wait for Geofront.

Hmm. Not sure how long I’m willing to wait for Geofront. Guess it’s a play by ear situation 

[Weltall]

17 minutes ago, NattyBo said:

Hmm. Not sure how long I’m willing to wait for Geofront. Guess it’s a play by ear situation 

It sounds like it's going to be either this month or maybe the next (March was the original plan) so it's not like you should have to wait too long.

[Eluvianii]

I storming love Osborne as a character, he's one of my favorite villains probably since the first time he opened his mouth in The 3rd. Falcom doesn't put on any restraints while writing his dialogue. I particularly like how he can threaten everyone in the room one by one by wishing them the best. 

[aneonfoxtribute]

Oh yeah Osborne is gonna have a tough time being topped as a villain by Falcom going forward. The Grandmaster is his only real competition and even then I see her having a hard time catching up. 

[Briar King]

Spoilers 

I hate them with a passion.

CS3 ch 3 stuff

Im still in Levees in Einhel for lvl 3 event. I’ve now run across 2 4 way convos where 3 people are talking and Rean is txt only in this chapter. I do oh so hate this crap this game. I finally figured out thanks to Emma that I could take hats off so I now have Altina’s off as well with the Branch campus uniform. Better believe I put them back on after Cedric’s offer in ch 2... I unfortunately can’t take Musse’s hat off. Boo. Hopefully this will unlock as I go on. Been slow few days as I’ve been on STARZ account while I have access through someone limited time wise and have watched 40+ hour long episodes the past 5 days with more lined up for tomorrow. Consider me very disappointed with Ash for now. I expected a power hitter and he sure ain’t that yet. Laura was a beast from the get go pretty much.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Osborne (CS3 ending spoilers)

Spoiler

I liked Osborne up until CS3 retconned him from being an immoral conqueror and a quick thinking man who set up lots of dominos... to just having read a script of future events from a book with prophecies in it. Really doesn't make his conquests and plans so impressive anymore. Also didn't like how they retconned him from being a normal guy who had won the respect of high power level characters who could kill him on the spot if they wanted to, but don't because he won their loyalty... to just being "I was actually hiding back my true secret warrior skills the entire time!". I don't know why JRPGs keep doing this. Vayne and Raiko were mastermind chessmasters and it was especially cool that they had no powers, but had won the respect of powerful warriors, so powerful warriors bowed to them... but then they get random superpower reveals out of nowhere and it diminishes their character so that they're only on top because they are the most physically powerful.

CS4 ending

Spoiler

Also didn't like how CS4 changed his motivations being an immoral conqueror... to being "actually he was a good guy all along who only wanted the best for his country!", turning him into our third Richard clone. No doubt Gramhart will be one too. This series is hellbent on victimizing evil and making everyone a woobie you should feel sorry for. No one is allowed to be truly evil.

 

Edited April 15, 2021 by Val the Moofia Boss

[aneonfoxtribute]

50 minutes ago, Val the Moofia Boss said:

Osborne (CS3 ending spoilers)

  Hide contents

I liked Osborne up until CS3 retconned him from being an immoral conqueror and a quick thinking man who set up lots of dominos... to just having read a script of future events from a book with prophecies in it. Really doesn't make his conquests and plans so impressive anymore. Also didn't like how they retconned him from being a normal guy who had won the respect of high power level characters who could kill him on the spot if they wanted to, but don't because he won their loyalty... to just being "I was actually hiding back my true secret warrior skills the entire time!". I don't know why JRPGs keep doing this. Vayne and Raiko were mastermind chessmasters and it was especially cool that they had no powers, but had won the respect of powerful warriors, so powerful warriors bowed to them... but then they get random superpower reveals out of nowhere and it diminishes their character so that they're only on top because they are the most physically powerful.

CS4 ending

  Hide contents

Also didn't like how CS4 changed his motivations being an immoral conqueror... to being "actually he was a good guy all along who only wanted the best for his country!", turning him into our third Richard clone. No doubt Gramhart will be one too. This series is hellbent on victimizing evil and making everyone a woobie you should feel sorry for. No one is allowed to be truly evil.

 

They did none of this. 

Spoiler

Osborne used the prophecies, yes, but those didn't make even a third of his plans. He still made all those plans on his own and those plans are still absolutely genius. Additionally, Osborne's battle capabilities never played any part in any of his plans. Yes he is an exceptional fighter, but that's no surprise. But NONE of his most impressive moments are a result of his fighting capabilities, they're the result of his intelligence. He didn't get Ouroboros on his side because he could overpower them, he got them on his side because he OUTWITTED them.

Osborne is not a Richard clone at all. The twist that he was good all along just makes him better, and he is also still far more ruthless than a vast majority of characters. Also if you mean Dieter as the second Richard clone, he isn't that either

 

[Briar King]

CS3 ch 3 stuff

that bath scene...lol. Aurelia may tempt me away from Emma. Musse is killing me.

Should be ready to ship out to Ordis when I get back on I think. Levees actually takes a hell of a long time to get through.

[Eluvianii]

So, I'm mainly a Rean x Alisa guy because at first glance they're so canon it hurts, but I'm starting to notice he has some pretty good scenes with Towa too. Now I'm torn here. 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

1 hour ago, Eluvianii said:

So, I'm mainly a Rean x Alisa guy because at first glance they're so canon it hurts, but I'm starting to notice he has some pretty good scenes with Towa too. Now I'm torn here. 

I was leaning towards Laura and Emma during CS1, but became a diehard Rean x Towa shipper after CS2 and have remained that way since.

Edited April 17, 2021 by Val the Moofia Boss

[Briar King]

It’s April 17th! Cold Steel 1 started a year ago and one of these games has been played every single day be it 2 seconds or 7 hours except during the double hurricane whammy that shut me down a few weeks.

[aneonfoxtribute]

Meanwhile I got through every game up to CS3 in half a year. I started playing Sky FC in May, and I caught up right when CS3 released in November. I was also apparently reading Era 2 at the same time 

[Eluvianii]

And here I am, stuck on CS1 for like 3-4 years while I waited to have a place to play it. 

14 hours ago, Val the Moofia Boss said:

I was leaning towards Laura and Emma during CS1, but became a diehard Rean x Towa shipper after CS2 and have remained that way since.

Darn. Well, I'll see what happens. I want to do this as vanilla as possible but these two do look promising. 

[Briar King]

I’m getting my $’s worth out of them. 

[Briar King]

Woot CS3 ch 3 stuff

I got Musse’s hat off! Speaking of her she is NC7’s Emma magic death dealer and her attacks pack a punch to esp her craft. I’ve got her magic up to around 950 at present with accessories and droplets/quartz. Ash is still meh but his S is a beast hit no doubt. I haven’t gotten to Ordis/Juno yet just wandering around the area off the EX camp doing a bit of fighting before I have to get to my opening dialogue rounds of this new area. Looking forward to Raquel.

[Briar King]

CS3 ch 3 stuff

ok Ash isn’t as weak as I was thinking among NC7. Altina is really close to topping all of them on current setup. Speaking of her I just got her blue hair last night during ambien blitz so I had quite a shock this AM when I saw her...and she doesn’t look bad at all. I mayyyyyyyyy actually keep it on her..

[Eluvianii]

So, apparently, there are a couple new gameplay clips for Kuro and, is it just me or is turn based mildly broken now? Being able to literally circle around enemies to get the perfect angle and all that. 

[Weltall]

I'm hesitant to read too much into early gameplay footage that's been created for demo purposes since it's usually missing important elements or has had the difficulty cranked down to better show off whatever the devs are trying to, rather than to give an idea what a typical segment of gameplay will look like in the final product. Like in this footage you can see all the Crafts have a CP cost of zero, which means it's pretty clearly test content.

Actually I'm inherently suspicious of almost all images Falcom releases and not just early video, since they have a tendency to alter details to show things that never happen in the actual games by taking characters from one part of the game and a location from another and mashing them together. Case in point, CS3 pre-release art showing Sara apparently tailing Lechter through the streets of a city. The Sara art is taken from the right part of the game (broadly speaking) but she's actually following somebody else, and in a somewhat different location.

2 hours ago, Eluvianii said:

So, apparently, there are a couple new gameplay clips for Kuro and, is it just me or is turn based mildly broken now? Being able to literally circle around enemies to get the perfect angle and all that. 

Above comments aside, since there is a realtime system where we can run about and position ourselves freely before attacking, it makes some sense for the Command Battle system to allow more freedom of movement as well. It's equally likely that the enemy will be able to take advantage of this as well, maneuvering so that self-centered or line-targeting Crafts will be more effective. We'll just have to wait and see how it all plays out in the end.

Meanwhile now I want to see Feri and Aaron footage so we get some idea what Crafts they're going to be working with. Aside from some tidbits on their Crafts we also get a hint of positioning mechanics, since both of Van's moves have a 'Flanking' property listed along with Impede. I suspect that means they'll do more damage when targeting an enemy from the side.

[Briar King]

CS3 ch 3 stuff

I have entered Ordis. It is um veryyy blue and big(as was Juno) and it does a very good job of showing how both the region and Cayenne had so much power. It screams defiance/independence. I have dialogue round to get through... I also will have many hours of fishing in store as power droplets finally came with these fish and I want to beef up to insane lvls. I can see a similar 20 hrs spent just like I did with magic droplets. Addictive...