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

[Briar King]

Complete bust today progress wise. Just farted around in handheld watching the circus on the news and opened up the 80s chest for bells.

I tried a 100 that hammered me with ice spells. Actually killed a few of them once but I was to in the hole trying to stay alive with items not having Randy with Mobius in party. I do miss having CS switch option here. Might try again later and sideline Noel since it’s looking like I won’t be able to burn yet again in 40 minutes time with rain and lightning deciding to hit this last hour.

[Briar King]

I’m currently at least IN the Geofront… not much progress today. Just got Juggler from a chest. Man i really wish I had more people to use these quartz on. I loved having Sharon with this one in CS inflicting ailments on foes. I want to use it but I’m feeling locked in with the quartz I have set already. Noel would be a good choice for this quartz but I have Force on her turning her into a fairly strong beast with her aoe attack. She can pop most normal foes in one hit with the strength boost. She won’t be near as powerful if I take it off but being able to put ailments on multiple targets could be beneficial…ugh I just don’t know what I want to do… 

What did y’all do?

[Eluvianii he/him]

I'll be honest, I don't remember. Though I probably wouldn't be much help. My grasp of the combat system was pretty poor back then. I think I made it to CS before I even started using crafts consistently, I just hoarded cp to always have s-crafts available. And my orbment configurations were entirely focused on unlocking arts, I paid little attention to the stat benefits.

 

Now, time to do a little spoilering of my own. I left Reverie hanging halfway through the post-game, but Daybreak is a month away, so I decided to get to it. Tonight I was supposed to do some progress with the dungeon, but I started the penultimate stratum's reverie, and that was a long one. Possibly the longest so far.

Spoiler

Dude I'm so happy right now. It's been a stressful couple weeks, and this is just what I needed right now. I got to play as my favorite Class VII member for a couple hours and a half, it was practically a festival, really good stuff.

It's interesting how the stuff from other reveries comes together. Like Randy spending the last of his time in Leeves before going back to Crossbell, or Michael telling Ash about Towa's replacement coming to campus.

The best part of this is that it's essentially another free day from CS3 though. CS3 has easily the best downtime of the series for me. The plot was great sure, but my favorite part of that game was by far spending hours during the free day and the afternoon before, talking to my students, completing their small requests, maybe inviting someone over for a bond scene. Leeves ended up becoming my favorite hub in the series and man, did I miss it.

The ship with Tatiana is progressing nicely. I demand a notice that they're touring the country a couple years from now or something. It was cute to see Juna's family coming over. Kairi, hasn't progressed much. Valerie is like a different person. Sidney, almost didn't mess up while inviting Ada to hang out? And she accepted? I'm intrigued I'll tell you that.

And of course, not in a million years would I have predicted Ash becoming council president. But you know what? That's great. I'm sad I don't get to see him in action but I'm sure he'll to great. Now that I think about it, I thought it was weird that Towa suddenly started telling Ash about her time as president for no apparent reason. Guess that explains that.

Really looking forward to the last two reveries. Strictly speaking I only have one left to unlock, but the one with the Grandmaster on the cover appears at the bottom of the list, so I plan on watching that one last.

 

[Briar King]

Welcome to the Independent State of Crossbell.

 

[aneonfoxtribute]

Peak fiction

[Eluvianii he/him]

Demo is up! 

[Eluvianii he/him]

Done with the demo! I had heard it included chapter 1 but, guess not? Still over 3 hours though.

My boy Battler is Van! That's a nice surprise. I like how quick the story was to establish a sense of "home". The small office above the restaurant, whose owners you are friends with. Cozy. I like it.

The battle system takes some getting used to but I like it already. It's pretty fast paced, even in command mode. Field mode is not quite as deep as I expected (hit, dodge, hit, dodge) but it helps with the pacing.

The soundtrack has this jazzy feel to it that I'm enjoying a lot. The game as a whole is a lot more cinematic too. Very enjoyable.

Going into slight spoilers

Spoiler

Based on the opening, I'm guessing Agnes is the president's daughter? She did talk about how he's really absorbed into his work, to the point he neglects her, and she had a bit of a reaction when talking about the president (can't remember his name atm).

Renne is here! I mean we knew that, but it's good to see her! I don't know what she's doing here though. Maybe that last reverie will clear some things up.

Agnes being hired at the end of the prologue only enhances the homey feeling of the office. Hope it's big because it looks like a hire at the end of each chapter will be the norm.

Oh, and it surprised me. This looks and runs quite a bit better than Reverie on the Switch. The fps count is butter smooth now. So that's pretty cool.

Overall very happy so far. Very excited for July 5th.

[aneonfoxtribute]

9 hours ago, Eluvianii said:

Done with the demo! I had heard it included chapter 1 but, guess not? Still over 3 hours though.

My boy Battler is Van! That's a nice surprise. I like how quick the story was to establish a sense of "home". The small office above the restaurant, whose owners you are friends with. Cozy. I like it.

The battle system takes some getting used to but I like it already. It's pretty fast paced, even in command mode. Field mode is not quite as deep as I expected (hit, dodge, hit, dodge) but it helps with the pacing.

The soundtrack has this jazzy feel to it that I'm enjoying a lot. The game as a whole is a lot more cinematic too. Very enjoyable.

Going into slight spoilers

  Reveal hidden contents

Based on the opening, I'm guessing Agnes is the president's daughter? She did talk about how he's really absorbed into his work, to the point he neglects her, and she had a bit of a reaction when talking about the president (can't remember his name atm).

Renne is here! I mean we knew that, but it's good to see her! I don't know what she's doing here though. Maybe that last reverie will clear some things up.

Agnes being hired at the end of the prologue only enhances the homey feeling of the office. Hope it's big because it looks like a hire at the end of each chapter will be the norm.

Oh, and it surprised me. This looks and runs quite a bit better than Reverie on the Switch. The fps count is butter smooth now. So that's pretty cool.

Overall very happy so far. Very excited for July 5th.

Hell yeah, Daisuke Ono is Van. It's so peak. 

I take it since you only did the prologue you're playing on Switch? On PS4, the demo has chapter 1 as well

[Eluvianii he/him]

Ah, so that's it. Yeah I'm on Switch. That's a strange choice really. 

[Briar King]

Holy rust I didn’t get hit once. Also I ll have to check it out in a bit but it only clocked the exp till it reached the lvl up point. I was expecting it to keep going for awhile. 

It wouldn’t let me type anything after the attachment..

I so need to get on CS2? and read the newspaper. Man that long sequence was off the chain! I was expecting ch 4 to last longer than 1 day but boy oh boy what a day that was..

[Eluvianii he/him]

Chapter 4 might have gone fast, but chapter 5 makes up for that. Good luck man, you're in the middle of one of the best gaming sequences ever.

[Briar King]

Oh noice! They did keep going with all that exp I earned. I’m at 86!

[Briar King]

CB2 Fragments stuff

kinda cool that CS4 has a Fragments section to. Never thought in CB1 I’d be playing Garcia.. Zeit turning into his true form was cool and reminded me of Rose/cat thing. Lots of info dumping and dot connecting ensued. Wazy reveals himself. These games like making Dominions party members. Shoutout Gaius. Merkabas!

 

Tomorrow I move on. I loaded up CS1&2 to read newspaper but there isn’t much CB info like I thought. I really need to see the CS scenes after this long on any CB stuff but I’m sure not going anywhere near YouTube/net and getting unplayed games spoilers. May try and do some replay segments if time allows though I suspect it won’t.

[aneonfoxtribute]

Zeit should remind you of Rose. They're both Holy Beasts, basically siblings.

Yeah 3rd's MC was a Dominion. 

[Briar King]

And they mentioned a dragon several times to. Idr in CS how much Sky info there was other than the orbal shutdown/100 day war. Certainly don’t remember any dragon talk other than the few dragon like things I fought.

Not much progress. Was a longggg day. All I really did was land and move close to St Ursula before deciding it was time to cut the knee high grass since the yard was finally dry enough to not rut up. Rain has been crazy lately.

[Eluvianii he/him]

You're right about that one. There's all sorts of weird animals in Zemuria, but if at any point an honest to Aidios mythical creature appears, it's usually safe to assume it's a holy beast. 

[aneonfoxtribute]

1 hour ago, Briar King said:

And they mentioned a dragon several times to. Idr in CS how much Sky info there was other than the orbal shutdown/100 day war. Certainly don’t remember any dragon talk other than the few dragon like things I fought.

Not much progress. Was a longggg day. All I really did was land and move close to St Ursula before deciding it was time to cut the knee high grass since the yard was finally dry enough to not rut up. Rain has been crazy lately.

Yeah there's a dragon Holy Beast in Sky. He's a cool dude.

[Briar King]

*grrrrrrrrr! Why did no one correct me when I said that someone in the comments section of guide said there was no “prize” for defeating all Pom Pom opponents in this game unlike in CS?! zoelius just said I get the Magius Quartz for it. I’ve been unconcerned with the game unless DP was on the line this whole time now I ll have to attempt this huge multi player event..

Also not hard to deduce who Ursula descendants would be without outright telling me so far.

[aneonfoxtribute]

1 hour ago, Briar King said:

*grrrrrrrrr! Why did no one correct me when I said that someone in the comments section of guide said there was no “prize” for defeating all Pom Pom opponents in this game unlike in CS?! zoelius just said I get the Magius Quartz for it. I’ve been unconcerned with the game unless DP was on the line this whole time now I ll have to attempt this huge multi player event..

Also not hard to deduce who Ursula descendants would be without outright telling me so far.

I didn't remember there was something you get from Pom. 

Wdym Ursula descendants?

[Briar King]

CB2 descendants stuff

Zeit said in the info dumps that Ursula didn’t die like in the book but married the knight who was going to kill her and their descendants were still in CB. I automatically thought of Cecile and sure enough in St Ursula she pets his head and says she can’t explain it but it just feels right. They haven’t yet come out and said it but it’s not hard to see it.

Ive got Tio back. Talked to Ilya before turning off to gather trash for tomorrow’s pickup. Tomorrow I ll talk to Raymond and take off with Fran in the MerKabha.
 

I can feel Reverie approaching. Hopefully not much longer.

[Briar King]

Ok it was officially said finally.

[Briar King]

Ok up super early for my TX appointment and decided to go ahead on Pom. I beat Tio, Fran and Abbas…*sigh and it might all be for nothing since I have other people to beat that I can’t access at present and one might be beyond playing at this point idk.

Sure wish I wasn’t misled…I’d have Magius now as I type this..

[Briar King]

Ugh that opening dialogue between Joerg and Zeit went right over my head but I’m sure it’s interesting stuff.

[Briar King]

Grrrrrrrr! I just turned on PS5 to load up CS2 on a wild hair. CS2 stuff

I wasn’t keeping many save tabs back then unfortunately..I thought I had the bit where Lloyd and Rixia were playable but nope..

 dang man i really wanted to play a bit of that segment..

[Briar King]

CB2 ch 5 stuff

good thing this game auto saves multiple times.. after running into Gareth s rusting sniper rifle I got on guide and saw that if I didn’t step on any mines I’d get an extra DP and I sure enough had stepped on one and saved my game last night. I shut the game down mid Gareth fight and loaded up an auto save from before going into the tunnel. Plus 1 DP for me..

 

I reallllly need to step on the gas here..been very lazy this week.