Having trouble finishing IV, i'm second chapter and already burned out, the gameplay isn't good enough for this games to be so long and they put in way too many characters in this one game already
cold steel I and II should've been one game and III and IV should be one game, they reuse the same maps and the developers are just milking the shyt
feel like they don't respect my time playing this see why the other game is selling poorly
I mean yes it should be. But I ended up doing mostly everything in CS 3 & 4 and was damn near 300 hours. Unless you rush through the games you are going to spend at least 100 in each of them. In turn the game's content would have to be cut if they were to make them into one game, which would kill the pacing for many parts.
Of course Falcom could make these game smaller in scale, but that doesn't seem like that will be changing anytime soon.
Been looking for a game that has that Trails like feel in terms of story and characters and if you can accept a visual novel Utawarerumono is it.
A few issues. Unless you already own the second and third game on Playstation digitally they're both unavailable but all 3 are available on PC. The whole shebang is just under $70 on Steam.
Second is the battle part of the game is mostly easy as hell.
Third these are graphically Playstation Vita games when not just a straight up visual novel.
This is really a 3 game series
Prelude to the Fallen
Mask of Deception
Mask of Truth
Nothing else at this point matters. I'd avoid the anime and just play the games. The first anime is solid but the second one is a trash adaptation.
So I just got to the start of the prologue in Hajimari here is the rundown of the overlay and the Pros and Cons.
Pros:
- Subs are available for all main story and side content (structure is a little different then Cold Steel).
- Also progressing through the lines of dialogue is very intuitive. Just a matter of preference if you want to assign a button on your controller or if you want to use the keyboard.
- Everything needed to get through combat is given to you. In the combat overlay there is an option see what is the corresponding items, accessories, Quartz, crafts and Orders. Altho some of these will be easily remembered by position like in Cold Steel.
- Get to play the main story much sooner
Cons:
- New Tutorials aren't translated per say, which may be a big deal later on in the game. But it basically feels exactly like CS 3 & 4 combat wise.
- There is a lot of things to keep track of in terms of equipment, quartz, crafts, etc. Altho writing this on my phone seems to be good enough.
- From what I recall the PS4 version which has you using PS Remote play to use the overlay caps out at 720P for PS4. 1080P for PS4 Pro and PS5. Not the case with a capture card and that will vary. You could use the PC port, but I have heard its a mess optimization wise.
- Difficulty may not be worth it depending how much effort you want to put tracking everything. But then again the issue is that Cold Steel difficulty wise was a giant step down from both the Sky and Crossbell games.
Overall I like it so far despite some its obvious flaws since its the best option atm. Hell by the time the actual localization comes out it will be two years and I could have a different experience it the 2nd time around. (English dub, Lunatic difficulty, much easier to optimize, etc).
So I just got to the start of the prologue in Hajimari here is the rundown of the overlay and the Pros and Cons.
Pros:
- Subs are available for all main story and side content (structure is a little different then Cold Steel).
- Also progressing through the lines of dialogue is very intuitive. Just a matter of preference if you want to assign a button on your controller or if you want to use the keyboard.
- Everything needed to get through combat is given to you. In the combat overlay there is an option see what is the corresponding items, accessories, Quartz, crafts and Orders. Altho some of these will be easily remembered by position like in Cold Steel.
- Get to play the main story much sooner
Cons:
- New Tutorials aren't translated per say, which may be a big deal later on in the game. But it basically feels exactly like CS 3 & 4 combat wise.
- There is a lot of things to keep track of in terms of equipment, quartz, crafts, etc. Altho writing this on my phone seems to be good enough.
- From what I recall the PS4 version which has you using PS Remote play to use the overlay caps out at 720P for PS4. 1080P for PS4 Pro and PS5. Not the case with a capture card and that will vary. You could use the PC port, but I have heard its a mess optimization wise.
- Difficulty may not be worth it depending how much effort you want to put tracking everything. But then again the issue is that Cold Steel difficulty wise was a giant step down from both the Sky and Crossbell games.
Overall I like it so far despite some its obvious flaws since its the best option atm. Hell by the time the actual localization comes out it will be two years and I could have a different experience it the 2nd time around. (English dub, Lunatic difficulty, much easier to optimize, etc).
I'll just wait. I'm not too crazy about another game where Rean and co are 1/3 of the game anyway. Honestly I wish they'd just skip it and go straight to Kuro. I mean I don't dislike the CS and Crossbell characters but after IV I'm ready to move on. This is only getting played out of a sense of obligation and because I heard the main plot addresses the CSIV regular and true endings which seems like somehow maybe both could be canon endings.
This is just a guess but I'll spoiler it.
I haven't looked into it but there's a masked character that might be Rean from the original ending. Maybe an alternate reality.
Just finish Hajimari. For the most, it was a step back in the right direction for the series. I will tag my thoughts on the game since the majority of people here are waiting for the localized version in mid-2023. I won't include major spoilers like major plot details and the identity of the 3rd route's protagonist.
In this game, Rean was at his best compared to the Cold steel games. Where he was alright in CS 1 & 2 but fell off in CS 3 & 4 to me.
As good as Rean was here. C and his group were easily is the highlight of Hajimari. The main group of C, Lapis, Swin, and Nadia were a great group. In one game they outshined class seven as a group easily. Lapis definitely bring a lot of charisma to the group. C might be my 2nd favorite protagonist in the series only behind Kevin.
Lloyd's route felt very safe and would be the worst of the 3 routes. That isn't a bad thing tho. But I enjoyed it considering that Azure & Zero are my two favorite games in the series. Seeing the entire crossbell cast that wasn't included in CS 4 come alive was a joy to see. Even NPC characters like Mireille and Fran.
This game's combat is very fun and funny at the same time. One negative thing about CS 4 was that the super large cast didn't feel needed. (Considering the fact you could just have a main group of 6 people including Rean that you can always have on your missions). It is handled much better here and the ironic part is you have more characters you can use.
While the combat isn't balanced, they made enemies tougher and have more hp than you would have in CS. I played on nightmare again. The game really rewards you for going for high damaging setups. By the time you get to post-game, it becomes extremely satisfying. Sure you could go for overly defensive setups with orders, but the time per battle will increase exponentially. (Bosses can take up to 45 mins with this strategy since I was not prepared for one such boss)
This game is very similar to Sky the 3rd. Instead of essentially playing the role as a bracer, (with regards to being assigned quests) it is much more gameplay driven and you have episodes to add lore to each of the crossbell and CS characters. (Episodes are essentially doors in this game) Also you actually have a good amount of replay value, which isn't usually the case in Trails. (NG+ is not replay value for this series)However this game does set up what is happening in Kuro, so definitely don't skip it if you are still a fan of the series after CS 4. But don't skip out on the crossbell games they are essential for this game if you haven't played them yet.
As far as the overlay is concerned the only real negative is quartz and accessory management. But beyond that everything else is very straightforward to use as I mentioned before.
My rankings of the series after getting caught up:
1) Trails to Azure
2) Trails from Zero
3) Trails in the Sky the 3rd
4) Trails into Reverie
5) Trails in the Sky SC
6) Trails of Cold Steel II
7) Trails in the Sky FC
8) Trails of Cold Steel I
9) Trails of Cold Steel IV
10) Trails of Cold Steel III
Just finish Hajimari. For the most, it was a step back in the right direction for the series. I will tag my thoughts on the game since the majority of people here are waiting for the localized version in mid-2023. I won't include major spoilers like major plot details and the identity of the 3rd route's protagonist.
In this game, Rean was at his best compared to the Cold steel games. Where he was alright in CS 1 & 2 but fell off in CS 3 & 4 to me.
As good as Rean was here. C and his group were easily is the highlight of Hajimari. The main group of C, Lapis, Swin, and Nadia were a great group. In one game they outshined class seven as a group easily. Lapis definitely bring a lot of charisma to the group. C might be my 2nd favorite protagonist in the series only behind Kevin.
Lloyd's route felt very safe and would be the worst of the 3 routes. That isn't a bad thing tho. But I enjoyed it considering that Azure & Zero are my two favorite games in the series. Seeing the entire crossbell cast that wasn't included in CS 4 come alive was a joy to see. Even NPC characters like Mireille and Fran.
This game's combat is very fun and funny at the same time. One negative thing about CS 4 was that the super large cast didn't feel needed. (Considering the fact you could just have a main group of 6 people including Rean that you can always have on your missions). It is handled much better here and the ironic part is you have more characters you can use.
While the combat isn't balanced, they made enemies tougher and have more hp than you would have in CS. I played on nightmare again. The game really rewards you for going for high damaging setups. By the time you get to post-game, it becomes extremely satisfying. Sure you could go for overly defensive setups with orders, but the time per battle will increase exponentially. (Bosses can take up to 45 mins with this strategy since I was not prepared for one such boss)
This game is very similar to Sky the 3rd. Instead of essentially playing the role as a bracer, (with regards to being assigned quests) it is much more gameplay driven and you have episodes to add lore to each of the crossbell and CS characters. (Episodes are essentially doors in this game) Also you actually have a good amount of replay value, which isn't usually the case in Trails. (NG+ is not replay value for this series)However this game does set up what is happening in Kuro, so definitely don't skip it if you are still a fan of the series after CS 4. But don't skip out on the crossbell games they are essential for this game if you haven't played them yet.
As far as the overlay is concerned the only real negative is quartz and accessory management. But beyond that everything else is very straightforward to use as I mentioned before.
My rankings of the series after getting caught up:
1) Trails to Azure
2) Trails from Zero
3) Trails in the Sky the 3rd
4) Trails into Reverie
5) Trails in the Sky SC
6) Trails of Cold Steel II
7) Trails in the Sky FC
8) Trails of Cold Steel I
9) Trails of Cold Steel IV
10) Trails of Cold Steel III
1) Trails in the Sky SC
2) Trails of Cold Steel III
3) Trails to Azure
4) Trails of Cold Steel IV
5) Trails from Zero
6) Trails in the Sky FC
7) Trails of Cold Steel I
8) Trails in the Sky the 3rd
9) Trails of Cold Steel II
It’s not even that tbh. It’s just a weird point to use. If someone knows nothing about the series they won’t know any of these characters or the backstory minus the new protagonist. It’s like starting with cold steel with 3.
I think they've made so many poor decisions managing this series. No way should Cold Steel have been over 3 games. These games need 12 month western releases after the release in Japan. The focus on heavy plot references to previous games being required to understand everything needs to be cut back. I look at this series and ask why couldn't it be bigger? Why couldn't it blow up like Persona? They have it stuck as a niche title to a shrinking audience and the prioritize the fastest shrinking segment of the audience (Japanese console gamers). A Switch pivot should have also happened a while ago.
The investment required to get into this series is becoming too daunting. They need to let all the baggage go. This isn't even getting into the wacky pacing of some of these games where almost nothing happens the 90% of the game then at the end plot is crammed in at the last moment to a cliffhanger ending that instantly gets de-escalated in the next game and back to nothing happening much of the game again.
I like this series but Falcom leadership is too stuck in their ways and they'll end up smothering it if they aren't careful.
I think they've made so many poor decisions managing this series. No way should Cold Steel have been over 3 games. These games need 12 month western releases after the release in Japan. The focus on heavy plot references to previous games being required to understand everything needs to be cut back. I look at this series and ask why couldn't it be bigger? Why couldn't it blow up like Persona? They have it stuck as a niche title to a shrinking audience and the prioritize the fastest shrinking segment of the audience (Japanese console gamers). A Switch pivot should have also happened a while ago.
The investment required to get into this series is becoming too daunting. They need to let all the baggage go. This isn't even getting into the wacky pacing of some of these games where almost nothing happens the 90% of the game then at the end plot is crammed in at the last moment to a cliffhanger ending that instantly gets de-escalated in the next game and back to nothing happening much of the game again.
I like this series but Falcom leadership is too stuck in their ways and they'll end up smothering it if they aren't careful.
I feel bad because it's clear they love the series and wanted to try to get it to at least have cult following out here in the States but it was too daunting a task for such a relatively small company.
I feel bad because it's clear they love the series and wanted to try to get it to at least have cult following out here in the States but it was too daunting a task for such a relatively small company.
Their creative process is too sloppy though. They work on the script up until the final moments and some partners can't get in on the localization process. Kuro is looking at a 4 year delay between the Japanese release and the western release. There's no way that should be acceptable to them. Releasing a PS4 game 4 years after the successor console was released is brutal. Even if you can play that game on a PS5 the possible excitement for it will be dead except for the most hardcore of fans.
They should bring translators or some level of liaisons on staff in Japan so they can get the ball rolling on localizations much earlier. NISA got stuck with this insane backlog of 3-4 games just to get the series current. Considering Falcom releases games every 1-2 years in this series it will never be close to current in the west. By the time Kuro releases in the west. Kuro 2 and assumably the next game beyond that will be out in Japan. If they skip next year for Y's then 2024 Kuro 3 of whatever will be there and Kuro 1 might be coming out in the west.
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