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

[aneonfoxtribute]

F-Falcom played with the formula! They're not supposed to DO that! When did they get savvy! I got whiplash from that.....

[aneonfoxtribute]

Finished Chapter 4 of Kuro. I really enjoyed it

[Weltall]

I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on the last two Chapters. They make quite a contrast with each other.

Spoiler

Personally I found myself liking the setting and characters of 3 more than 4, but agree with what seems to be the majority opinion that the writing of 4 was better overall. Repeating story beats back to back from Hajimari didn't bother me too much and in the case of Tharbad I kind of liked that they threw in a more laid-back story that didn't involve the kind of death and despair that the earlier ones had. Works better if you have a bit of uncertainty in that respect.

The nightclub was definitely gratuitous, did a couple things aside from fanservice but a regular bar could probably have done that just as well. I did enjoy the cocktail porn though. xD

 

[aneonfoxtribute]

Oops, I mistyped. I finished chapter 3, not 4. I just started 4. 

[Weltall]

In that case, please ignore my previous spoilered comment until you've finished 4.

[aneonfoxtribute]

Exciting things are happening in Kuro. To begin with, most importantly, 

Spoiler

WE FINALLY HAVE A NAME FOR EMPEROR'S ORGANIZATION! Garden is its name! As well as confirmation that Melchior and bandage girl are from there. Second, we fought Cao and Walter with Zin and Van, very exciting.

Now for some idle musings. First, the hooded people at the meeting. Who are they? My only real thought is the church, but that's a stretch mostly because I don't know who else it could be.

Second, Yume! She's special in some way. I was thinking "there's probably something special about Yume because she's just a normal little girl with relative importance, and we can't have that in Trails, every little girl has to be special in some way in this series". I didn't have any real evidence otherwise, UNTIL NOW! Her connect event with Van where they played chess (adorable as hell by the way), has something weird happen where Van's Orbment glows, and then Yume makes a good move. That's important somehow. I don't know how or why. 

Next up, Sharid. He seems set up to be the replacement for Olivier. I doubt Olivier will play much of a role anymore in the series. I'm sure he'll be around, but he'll take a far greater backseat than he has so far. Seems fairly obvious, even Sharid himself says he was inspired by Olivier. 

Next, Hermes. I wonder if we'll learn what's under the mask, and if that will matter. That's it, that's all I'm wondering. 

 

[Weltall]

Ahhhh, so that's where you are now.

7 hours ago, aneonfoxtribute said:

Exciting things are happening in Kuro. To begin with, most importantly, 

  Reveal hidden contents

WE FINALLY HAVE A NAME FOR EMPEROR'S ORGANIZATION! Garden is its name! As well as confirmation that Melchior and bandage girl are from there. Second, we fought Cao and Walter with Zin and Van, very exciting.

Now for some idle musings. First, the hooded people at the meeting. Who are they? My only real thought is the church, but that's a stretch mostly because I don't know who else it could be.

Second, Yume! She's special in some way. I was thinking "there's probably something special about Yume because she's just a normal little girl with relative importance, and we can't have that in Trails, every little girl has to be special in some way in this series". I didn't have any real evidence otherwise, UNTIL NOW! Her connect event with Van where they played chess (adorable as hell by the way), has something weird happen where Van's Orbment glows, and then Yume makes a good move. That's important somehow. I don't know how or why. 

Next up, Sharid. He seems set up to be the replacement for Olivier. I doubt Olivier will play much of a role anymore in the series. I'm sure he'll be around, but he'll take a far greater backseat than he has so far. Seems fairly obvious, even Sharid himself says he was inspired by Olivier. 

Next, Hermes. I wonder if we'll learn what's under the mask, and if that will matter. That's it, that's all I'm wondering. 

Obvious Kuro spoilers are obvious (also for Hajimari/Reverie)

Spoiler

- Technically we had the name of the Garden in the previous game, as Ishmelga-Rean refers to Swin and Nadia as being the ones who 'escaped the Garden' and they react appropriately to him knowing that name. There was an intriguing bit of foreshadowing in their Episode too, where they mentioned finally managing to escape 'those persistent Thorns' which set up Melchior's particular sub-group within the organization.

- Yeah, that fight scene (and the whole sequence really) was just amazing; Van was so done with that by the end. And Mom eventually had to come and break it up. xD

- Sharid in many ways feels like Olivier 2.0 and he's a lot of fun. Now just imagine if those two were to meet...

Hopefully you'll enjoy the next part of Chapter 4!

[aneonfoxtribute]

4 hours ago, Weltall said:

Ahhhh, so that's where you are now.

Obvious Kuro spoilers are obvious (also for Hajimari/Reverie)

  Hide contents

- Technically we had the name of the Garden in the previous game, as Ishmelga-Rean refers to Swin and Nadia as being the ones who 'escaped the Garden' and they react appropriately to him knowing that name. There was an intriguing bit of foreshadowing in their Episode too, where they mentioned finally managing to escape 'those persistent Thorns' which set up Melchior's particular sub-group within the organization.

- Yeah, that fight scene (and the whole sequence really) was just amazing; Van was so done with that by the end. And Mom eventually had to come and break it up. xD

- Sharid in many ways feels like Olivier 2.0 and he's a lot of fun. Now just imagine if those two were to meet...

Hopefully you'll enjoy the next part of Chapter 4!

Spoiler

I forgot about that line. But also at the time I probably thought it was some weird metaphor thing, like calling Ouroboros the "snake". Not the actual name of the place. 

I'm sure Olivier and Sharid will meet onscreen either in a flashback where we see the time they did meet (because Sharid confirmed that they have met), or, more likely, during some sort of meeting of world leaders. That will likely happen again for one reason or another, and this time we'll have more than just Rocksmith from Calvard. It'll probably be in relation to whatever scheme Gramhart is cooking.

 

[aneonfoxtribute]

Finished chapter 4 and I'm gonna throw out another theory

Spoiler

Quatre is definitely trans

 

[aneonfoxtribute]

Oh my GOD! THIS WAS NOT SOMETHING I WAS EXPECTING!

Spoiler

Freaking ROCKSMITH just rocks up out of NOWHERE! I was WONDERING when and how he'd play into things, I wasn't expecting like this

 

[aneonfoxtribute]

Hell yeah! One of my theories was confirmed!

Spoiler

Agnes is Gramheart's daughter!

 

[aneonfoxtribute]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO THAT WAS ONE THEORY I REALLY DID NOT WANT TO BE RIGHT ABOUT

Spoiler

DINGO'S DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAD *crying*

 

[Weltall]

I have a comment to make about one thing you've said but I want to wait until you've finished the game first for Reasons.

14 hours ago, aneonfoxtribute said:

Oh my GOD! THIS WAS NOT SOMETHING I WAS EXPECTING!

  Reveal hidden contents

Freaking ROCKSMITH just rocks up out of NOWHERE! I was WONDERING when and how he'd play into things, I wasn't expecting like this

Hell yeah! One of my theories was confirmed!

  Reveal hidden contents

Agnes is Gramheart's daughter!

I think it's safe to say that nobody was expecting that.

As for the theory, I was thinking there had to be a connection but that it wasn't going to be that direct. Sometimes the most obvious guess really is the right now.

10 hours ago, aneonfoxtribute said:

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO THAT WAS ONE THEORY I REALLY DID NOT WANT TO BE RIGHT ABOUT

  Reveal hidden contents

DINGO'S DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAD *crying*

 

And speaking of things we weren't expecting (Kuro Intermission/Chapter 5)

Spoiler

Nuking a village (more or less literally) to test your new weapon? We haven't seen antagonists this vile in the series for a long time.

I had a somewhat similar reaction to you, in that I was worried that Dingo might have been up to something and I was horrified when the game proved me wrong in that way.

 

[aneonfoxtribute]

6 minutes ago, Weltall said:

And speaking of things we weren't expecting (Kuro Intermission/Chapter 5)

  Hide contents

Nuking a village (more or less literally) to test your new weapon? We haven't seen antagonists this vile in the series for a long time.

I had a somewhat similar reaction to you, in that I was worried that Dingo might have been up to something and I was horrified when the game proved me wrong in that way.

 

Spoiler

Nah I was never afraid that Dingo was doing anything wrong. I figured he was a good guy. But I just knew from how he was speaking that he was gonna die. He said he was gonna do something stupid, he CUT HIMSELF OFF when he was like "Van, if I-", and you just KNOW that the follow up to that is "if I die". The scene with Marielle was just death flag central. 

Also I'd argue against this being the most vile we've seen villains in a long time. Alberich was pretty evil. There's usually at least one genuinely evil villain. Jusis' dad shot up an entire village just because he was a little bit angry at the commoners (even if only one person ended up dead, he still wanted to kill them all)

 

[aneonfoxtribute]

Alright a lot happened in my play session today. First and most hilarious has to be

Spoiler

the identity of the hooded man. Askeladd, a member of the Papal Guard. Specifically, their secret branch named GOD DAMN ISCARIOT! You may as well have named it the freaking villain sect of the church for how subtle that naming choice is. 

Second, Bergard showed up and surprise surprise wouldn't you know it, he's Father Barkhorn. The most obvious plot twist.

Third, THE OATHBREAKER JUST WALTZES INTO VAN'S OFFICE AND TELLS HIM TO KILL ALMATA SO THAT WAS AWESOME! He also admitted to literally creating the Garden by getting the remains of the DG Cult and the remains of the Order of the Moonlit Horse to come together.

And it looks like I'm coming up on the final alignment choice. I'm not quite there yet, just arrived in Oracion, and I don't know who I'll choose. I've also learned that there's a fourth route, and I don't even know who that is. Law is the Guild, Gray is the CID, and Chaos is Walter (may or may not also be with Cao?). The fourth route is probably either Cao, if he's even playable and he's not with Walter, or most likely Shizuna.

 

[Weltall]

19 hours ago, aneonfoxtribute said:

  Reveal hidden contents

Nah I was never afraid that Dingo was doing anything wrong. I figured he was a good guy. But I just knew from how he was speaking that he was gonna die. He said he was gonna do something stupid, he CUT HIMSELF OFF when he was like "Van, if I-", and you just KNOW that the follow up to that is "if I die". The scene with Marielle was just death flag central. 

Also I'd argue against this being the most vile we've seen villains in a long time. Alberich was pretty evil. There's usually at least one genuinely evil villain. Jusis' dad shot up an entire village just because he was a little bit angry at the commoners (even if only one person ended up dead, he still wanted to kill them all)

 

Chapter 5:

Spoiler

The difference between Almata and most previous villains is that they don't even have the fig leaf of a higher cause that they uphold or at least claim to be upholding. Alberich wasn't a nice guy in any sense but he at least seems to have believed his story about warfare making humanity stronger and reuniting the world with the power of Science!!! Helmut doesn't have that but he's also transparently a second-tier antagonist and the Noble Alliance as a whole is a very mixed bag. Almata though? "Yeah, we're just in it to cause all the terror we can because we think it's the true equalizer".

 

6 hours ago, aneonfoxtribute said:

Alright a lot happened in my play session today. First and most hilarious has to be

  Reveal hidden contents

the identity of the hooded man. Askeladd, a member of the Papal Guard. Specifically, their secret branch named GOD DAMN ISCARIOT! You may as well have named it the freaking villain sect of the church for how subtle that naming choice is. 

Second, Bergard showed up and surprise surprise wouldn't you know it, he's Father Barkhorn. The most obvious plot twist.

Third, THE OATHBREAKER JUST WALTZES INTO VAN'S OFFICE AND TELLS HIM TO KILL ALMATA SO THAT WAS AWESOME! He also admitted to literally creating the Garden by getting the remains of the DG Cult and the remains of the Order of the Moonlit Horse to come together.

And it looks like I'm coming up on the final alignment choice. I'm not quite there yet, just arrived in Oracion, and I don't know who I'll choose. I've also learned that there's a fourth route, and I don't even know who that is. Law is the Guild, Gray is the CID, and Chaos is Walter (may or may not also be with Cao?). The fourth route is probably either Cao, if he's even playable and he's not with Walter, or most likely Shizuna.

 

Likewise:

Spoiler

- I suspect someone at Falcom is a fan of Hellsing, to give us that title.

- This wasn't so much obvious as blatantly telegraphed with flashing neon signs and a marching band.  All the pre-release interviews and livestreams had either Kondo or the people presenting info talk about Bergard and add 'players of earlier games will know who he is' but stop just short of actually saying his name. The fact that his profile on the official website straight-up says that 'Bergard Zeman' isn't his real name and he was rumored to have died in an incident in Erebonia is just icing on the cake.

- Yeah, that scene was cool even if it did put the final nail in the coffin of a theory I had about Garden.

- I'll be looking forward to seeing how that works out for you

 

[aneonfoxtribute]

I have made my decision

[Weltall]

And how many options did you get to choose between?

[aneonfoxtribute]

All four, I got level 3 in each of the alignments

[Weltall]

I belatedly realized I probably should have added 'and which did you pick?' to that question.

Spoiler

I ended up not having quite enough points in Gray to unlock Heiyue as an option and I picked Ikaruga for my first run.

 

Edited May 11, 2022 by Weltall

[aneonfoxtribute]

1 minute ago, Weltall said:

I belatedly realized I probably should have added 'and which did you pick?' to that question.

  Hide contents

I ended up not having quite enough points in Gray to unlock Heiyue as an option and I picked Ikaruga for my first run.

 

And I'll say to you what I said to everyone else who asked: Take a guess! I did do the start of all four routes, just to see S-Crafts and those scenes, but there's only one I'm actually going forward with

Edited May 11, 2022 by aneonfoxtribute

[aneonfoxtribute]

I've gotten farther in chapter five.

Spoiler

I've beaten both Viola and Alexandre. I spared them both. Tomorrow is when I start stone cold murdering people, Olympia and especially Melchior are gonna die

 

[Briar King]

Popping in

CS4 vantage master stuff

Angie is no joke. I can’t get her yet.

[Eluvianii]

52 minutes ago, Briar King said:

Popping in

CS4 vantage master stuff

  Hide contents

Angie is no joke. I can’t get her yet.

 

Spoiler

My start with her is to defend only. She's aggressive and runs out of cards before you. By then you can be buffed and finish her in a couple turns. 

 

Edited May 11, 2022 by Eluvianii

[Briar King]

1 hour ago, Eluvianii said:

  Hide contents

My start with her is to defend only. She's aggressive and runs out of cards before you. By then you can be buffed and finish her in a couple turns. 

 

I’ve attempted Bard to try and seal so far only and got stomped. Very aggressive yes. Idk if I should try Witch or the heal master next if no luck. Always at the mercy of the luck of the draw though.

I just recently got the water archers but they are  5 skill orbs a pop to place. If I could get 3 on somehow with 3 uptides I could wreck her probably but I don’t think that will happen orb wise.