Lurker > ZeldaTPLink

Cogwork Dancers was a cool gaming moment for me because I kept dying over and over for being careless, until I just decided to relax. Relax, enjoy the dance, focus on the enemy and think about each dodge before making it, without making unecessary moves.

Before I knew it I was getting to phase 3 without barely taking damage.

And after that I realized the trick was to switch my attention between the two dancers as they switched themselves, and won without much trouble.

It's not a case where repetition wins the fight, I had to find the right state of mind.

I enter the Citadel. Actually I try to, because the entrance is locked behind platforms I have no means to climb, and the only path is an elevator that breaks when I get in, dropping me into the area below, Underworks

Which is the most miserable place in the game so far, easily. A factory full of miserable overworked bugs, benches that actually charge you to sit on them (and everybody drops low cash), and some references to real life religion (like a confessionary where you can pay for an automated voice to tell you have sinned and needs to work harder)

Its interesting how the game immediately shows the darkness of the Citadel, rather than beating around the bush. How deluded religious workers slave away to sustain the luxury above

But I hate this place. And as soon as I find the first way out, on the top left of the map, I exit and find the next area, Choral Chambers

And this is where the luxury kicks in. The place is zombified like the rest, but instead of overworked peasants, you get middle class clerics and holy guards. And they drop a crapload of cash when you kill them.

I like this place, though. It has beautiful music and a pretty scenery too. Reminds me of City of Tears from the first game.

I also find Sherma taking a bath, and enjoying her time. Never change Sherma

The citadel doesn't have bell stations. It has air duct things that warp you around. So for a while, Im disconnected from the map. Until after a long trek, I find a place that has both a bell beast station and the air duct, connecting both lines like a real life subway.

I use it to return to the flea caravan, where they finally move again since Ive rescued so many fleas. This time to the room where I fought the Last Judge

Did more of choral chambers. I find an abandoned sanctuary and end up accidentally founding a town. Then a little next to it, I get to my objective, only to be greeted by the Cogwork Dancers boss. Pretty cool boss. Hard, but learning it is a joy. Reaper's Crest shines here.

Once they are down, I'm given this game's equivallent to the last one's 3 dreamers quest. Find 3 songs in the Citadel.

I really like the Reaper. But I find myself using the Reaper by default when switching to Wanderer when the hit and run strat is not enough and I need to actually kill things fast.

Hunter is unused ever since I got the Reaper, though. And Beast I guess I'm saving for the next gauntlet.

played a bit more, as I'm redoing previous areas to explore stuff that needed wall jump. Also doing sidequests

This time I spend some time in Greymoor. The not-crow enemies are still royally annoying, though they die faster now

I rescue a flea that opens a bath at the caravan. It charges very cheap for what restores my silk

The flea tries to spy Hornet while the bathes, though. Which is a terribloe decision, she whacks him and vows to kill him if he does that again. And now the spa is free.

I continue to clear previously missed stuff, this time at the final unlocked area, Shellwood

finding all poison polips gives me a polip tool, which lets me poison my other tools. Dope

I also rescue a lost merchant, who ran so far he almost got to the start of the world map. I find him being tormented by two bugs, kill them and he says he didn't need my help, then flies away. Jerk.

But rescuing him added more items to the Bellhart shop, whiich is cool.

One last stop before progressing on the game's mandatory content: the Savage Beastfly

It's very difficult, though having a better nail helps a lot. I had more trouble with the Widow

Takes me about 8 tries, and the winning one gets a poetic final blow where I hit it with the boomerang, it flies behind me, and gets hit again. Also the one time the RNG helped me and it didnt summon the big bug with the quick slashing attack.

I gain the fourth crest, the Beast. Which gives me a berserk mode whenever I heal. The pogo is really hard, though

Next area is the Blasted Steps, a mountain place with strong winds and pits of carnivorous worms that may as well be lava. It is also the final area before the Citadel, according to the map.

It's filled with Judges, armored bugs who judge pilgrim for their sins. By killing them ofc

I also fight the Great Conchflies, a duo of giant bugs with drills on their heads. Takes only 2 tries. But once I kill the first one, the other runs way, makes a cry of revenge at the back of the screen, and leaves. The bestiary says once they find a pair, they never leave each other. Sad.

Speaking of sad, I return to the bench at Bone Bottom after falling through a hole and a skull boss attacks the village. I tear it to shreds with the beast crest. But the friendly pilgrim who liked to hang out at the bench is now dead. Sad.

I find Sherma, the religious npc, near the end of Blasted Steps. She thinks the place is gorgeous and the judges look nice. Lmao. I suspect the judges aren't even attacking her since she's so religious.

For all this place is deadly, I suppose those who just believe hard enough, like Sherma, can actually thrive in it.

Got to the area boss, the Last Judge. Probably the most hyped boss in this game for its difficulty. I stop after 20-ish tries from getting too tired.

But honestly? Im enjoying it. The boss makes very predictable moves, there is nothing unfair about it. I know I'm going to win eventually as I learn to dodge everything. The first phase is already automatic for me, second one will get there.

Also I love how the judge just murders some random npcs in cold blood as soon as she enters the arena. To show what she is about.

Last Judge down. My head and hands hurt, but it was a load of fun. Wanderer's Crest hard carried here, too. Being able to land 10 hits whenever the boss gets tired then strikes a pose as it changes to the next phase is priceless. At the end of the day, the best strat is hard DPS.

With that, I enter the Citadel.

Act 1: beaten.

I love it when I learn someone made an alternative wiki to a fandom one.

I conplete Greymoor. Doing an area in reverse is fun. Also a weird slime thing gives me this game's hunter journal. She wants me to cut things. I'll happily oblige

I beat a gauntlet and get the Reaper's Crest. Crests are things that completely change your playstyle. This one makes my attacks slower, but increases range, makes them steal silk from enemies, and replaces the diagonal dash pogo for a slow downward arc. Basically, you are playing more defensive, keeping distance and pogo'ing over enemies. I like it

I feel the gauntlet was a little too easy so I guess it's time to finally attempt the early area I had skipped: hunter's march

It's filled with ant enemies of various types, who are very aggressive, but with the Reaper Crest, I just dance around them. Also the multiple bouncy ball things in the area are easier to navigate

There is a gauntlet in the middle, though, and that is very hard. Takes me a while. Apparently if I tried to do this as soon as I unlocked the region, the mapmaker would show up to help me, but since I came later with more upgrades, he leaves me on my own. Love these little variations

Eventually I go through I find the only bench in the entire region, which is trapped. I avoid the trap because I had already looked online to see where the damn bench was

Then I buy the map, unlock a door to the Deep Docks, and go to the boss, the Savage Beastfly. The thing is pretty infamous for being hard. I think I can kill it, but I'm tired now. Maybe later

Also the rest of the area is locked behind a wall I have to climb, so I guess I'm returning later when I can climb walls

My controller broke and Im waiting for the new one I ordered to arrive. Playing this game on keyboard is hard but can be done

I arrive at Bellhart, an area cursed by some threads. I pass by it and go to Shellwood, a fun forest area with lots of platforming

At the top of it, I find a boss, Sister Splinter. She is hard since she hits hard, but her attacks are predictavle. It takes a bit long mostly because of the minions she keeps summoning though

Beating her gives me the wall jump, another HK classic

I use it to open a tunnel to the top of Bellhart, where I find the second boss of the day, The Widow

Some kind of evil spider thing

That one takes a lot more tries. Maybe 15. But I have so much fun. Her attacks are easy to learn to dodge, but she also hits hard and the fight is long, so after a while it just turns into a dance you do instinctively to avoid her attacks

Beating her gives me the needolin, an ability to play my needle like an instrument. Also liberates Bellhart

The city has a bunch of new sidequests, the npc that upgrades my sword, and most important, some really dope area music

I spent time doing an optional area, the Wormways

Its as pleasant as the name suggests

Basically a mini Deepnest, the worst area of the first game

This one is shorter and easier, though

Among other things, I obtain a blue vial that lets me inject HP increasing blue liquid in myself

Hmm drugs

And a new crest, Wanderer's, which makes me attack really fast and crit sometimes. Fun
But only one red tool to shoot things with. Less fun.

Next optional area is Weavenest Atla, where I meet an ancient spider npc who upgrades my hunter's crest so that it now gives me a huge damage boost if I hirlt a lot of enemies without taking damage myself. She also gives me a free yellow slot on all crests. Noice

I then explore I found a boss fight against the first boss of the game. Except it's two of them and they have more hp each
Its insanely hard. They keep summoning little things and dropping rocks and the arena quickly turns to bullet hell

After a while I look for tips online and someone says the fight is easier with the beast crest, which I dont have

Im considering returning with it later and I realize I have only really tried using the reaper crest so far. Which relies on staying away from enemies, something not possible in bullet hell. But I havent tried my other two. Might as well try them before leaving for a new one

I try to abuse the Hunter's boost to kill the first boss before the second appears. It's not enough

Then I try Wanderer, with the strategy being hopping around like a madman and pogo'ing over and over, using skills to kill the minions if there are too many. A few more tries and it works.

Instead if trying to keep distance, I had to git gud and learn to dodge

Sup. I've been playing this (currently on Shellwood) and posting a mini playthrough thread on a discord chat. I think I'll do like the Trails threads and paste that content here. It's a lot more concise than the Trails threads though so it shouldn't be TOO much text, I hope. Also you people seem to like that stuff.

---------------------------------

2 mins into the game: I find a secret room to the right of the start with some money. Then find another secret room even further to the right, where a big thing kills me in two hits

the standard HK experience

second try, I kill the big thing using hit and run tactics, which takes a while. But works. Get a fragment of something I dont know the use of

menu says the fragment can be turned into money. Ok

In this game you play as Hornet, the deuteragonist from the first game who helped the Knight save Hallownest

Now mysterious creatures kidnapped hornet and took her to another kingdom, which is weird because the lore of the first game doesn't predict more than one kingdom of intelligent bugs existing

I find a moss thing boss and kill it on the first try. It's tricky but it hasn't been so long since I played the last game.

An old lady tells me to go to the citadel at the top of the kingdom, where I may find answers

I find the first town after that

I find an npc who is singing in front of a gate, saying her faith will open the gate

I go over some tunnels, fight a bunch of bugs and end at the other side of the gate, where I hit a lever that opens it

The bug goes: "See? My faith opened it"

[surprised pikachu face]

I find my first Tool, whatever that does

It makes me collect shards faster

shards are a thing that is not money, but looks like it. The actual money is another thing called rosaries, which is harder to find since enemies dont drop it. Shards are used for crafting, but I dont know how to craft yet

I enter the second area, the Marrow. After some exploring, I find the mapmaker npc, aka the most important character in any HK game

I dropped my first HK playthrough because I ventured too far into the fungus area without finding the mapmaker, and couldnt find the way back. This time I'm looking online if necessary, just to find the mapmaker

I complete the second area, The Marrow

I know I completed it because after beating a boss that took me about 20 tries, it unlocks the next area, The Hunter's March

But I also find another area nearby, the Deep Docks, and now I dunno where to go first

actually I do, the first one is spike hell, imma go to the docks first

fuck spikes

also I unlock Doggo

Which is actually a huge bug that, after I beat it in a boss fight, takes me to places, like the beetle in the first game

it totally acts like a dog tho

Played a bit more silksong last night. Got the tool that lets me place spike traps

The damage is amazing though its traps so they require some strategy to work

Played more silksong. Got through deep docks which is fairly short, beat Lace, which serms to be the this game's Hornet like Hornet was last game. Also got Hornet's spike traps from last game, which are useful in tight locations.

Fun fight. Also got the dash

Next I get to Far Fields, which is a green area with angry ant enemies

And lava. Because apparently this entire map is resting on a volcano so all botton areas have lava even if it doesn't match the theme. Which is cool

I explore around and find a second village, even smaller than the first one, where an npc named Mort charges 30 rosaries to use the save spot and the item shop

Also he owns the shop. Charging customers to see your products doesn't sound like good business practice

All his items are stuff that seems like it will be super useful but not now.

I also explore the botton area of Far Fields, where a woman sends me to collect 25 spikes on the caves behind so she can make me a new dress

I have a parachute now

On the way back a giant robot suddenly wakes up and gives me a boss fight. Not the hardest one, I just die 3 times. The end of it is pretty cool, you have to use the parachute to catch an updraft from lava, hit some lava rocks at the ceiling and drop the ceiling on the boss' head, killing it

Now I have access to updrafts, so next is use them to finally start going upwards on the world map, which is the goal of Act 1

Overall, this game is harder than HK1, but having experience from that, I think I'm having a similar level of difficulty so far

Everything dealing double damage is annoying but healing is so much easier

I play a bit more. I catch drafts on Far Fields to reach the next area, Greymoor

It is as pleasant a place as the name suggests

Well tbh its a pretty place, albeit very grey

I find the map maker and a save point. He tells me not to go to the right. I go to the right

Then I spend an obscene amount of time stuck there, because it's full of annoying crow like enemies and once you enter their territory, you can't leave until you beat them. So I keep coming back to recover my money. Which is alot (those crows are rich)

After I kick their asses, I unlock a bunch of bouncy balls, then soend a good half hour getting a crash course on why players hate the new pogo mechanic compared to HK1's one

It gets better once I realize I can parachute to give myself time to align the next dash though

Then I find my fifth flea, and after a lot of pogo'ing, reach a tall place where I get Hornet't slashing storm attack. Worth it

I then return to Greymoor and learn the mapmaker left... and took the save point with him! So I have to leave area manually and return to the one below to save if I dont want to risk going to new ones

After spending some of the money, I go to the Flea Caravan, where the fleas are so happy I helped them find their buddies they offer to give me a ride... back to Greymoor

And I take it. But the ride takes me to the end of the area. So I just skipped like 70% of it lol
Itss a crazy mechanic. But I think I will still take the time to go back and explore the area. Because I cant just skip part of a game. Though its nice I have a save point now.

Then I go online and learn the fleas actually parked where a boss was supposed to be. So the once mandatory boss became optional. Lol

Apparently the boss will reappear if I make the caravan move again. But thats only going to happen way later since I need more fleas

ZeldaTPLink posted...

Sup.

I need players for a Trails in the Sky mafia game and I heard some people here are either into Trails or mafia, or both.

https://mafiathesyndicate.com/viewtopic.php?t=2679

17 players, role heavy (each role has at least 2 abilities), 48/24 phases.

No post limits, but post count has been slow-ish in that site lately so it should be doable even if you have a job/school.

Must create an account to see the topic, unfortunately, but the info there is the same I just posted here.

To start in the last week of July, if I have enough players.

Still open and I need 6 more players!

I'm extending the deadline to the end of this month, then hosting with whoever signed up.

Sup.

I need players for a Trails in the Sky mafia game and I heard some people here are either into Trails or mafia, or both.

https://mafiathesyndicate.com/viewtopic.php?t=2679

17 players, role heavy (each role has at least 2 abilities), 48/24 phases.

No post limits, but post count has been slow-ish in that site lately so it should be doable even if you have a job/school.

Must create an account to see the topic, unfortunately, but the info there is the same I just posted here.

To start in the last week of July, if I have enough players.

MO Astray (PC)

got the good ending too. And beat it at the 2nd highest difficulty

great game

especially the story. Really sad stuff, and has some interesting twists

Sup.

I'm doing 2 games at a time, so i'm currently in a break. I don't think it will be a long one.

The thread archives can be found here: https://zyxyzarchive.42web.io/index_zeldatrails.html

5- Elliot

Sorry, Elliot haters, but I love this guy. He is a wuss, but is one of the better written versions of the wuss I've seen in recent history.

What makes Elliot work is twofold. First, he is never forced to drop his core personality and become a real soldier. He does learn to fight, but at the end of the day, he is a musician. There are no civil war, phantasmal blaze plans, or General Craig who can change that. You add any plot or sidequest that involves music and Elliot will naturally slip into it, as if he had written the plot himself. Not even Olivier fits that role as well as him. Elliot is an artist, through and through. The writers of Cold Steel don't need to write musical plots into the games to give Elliot something to do, they just let Elliot do his thing and the music plots work because he is there.

At the same time, Elliot finds something to take from all of this. He didn't have to be a soldier, but he realizes becoming somewhat of soldier made him a better person than if he have had none of this experience. And now he is a badass caster who can do crazy things with an orbal staff. The scene at the epilogue where he says he intends to keep practicing his orball staff while in music school is one of my favorites. He doesn't need a long, cliche arc about learning courage, he just organically grows into a reliable fighter by necessity.

That's a side character, not one who needs to appear a lot, but a very solid one.

4- Sharon

Our favorite ninja maid didn't get ranked before because she wasn't playable, but she was always good, and now that the gig is up, she is even better. Have you ever wanted an ourobouros party members? Not a child who got rescued from brainwashing, but an actual enforcer who is just taking a break? Well Sharon is here, and she delivers.

She is really damn cool, and her maid personality gives her a certain ironic-sadistic tone that is so fun. You never know if she really means well to the party or if she is trolling them, and it may as well be both. Sharon is a member of the more heavy side of the writing that decided to hang out at the lighter side and stayed there, and she makes everything more fun as a result.

3- Crow

Crow loses his position to Fie, and that is more on him than Fie, I'm afraid. The issue is that after giving his best shot in CS1 (literally), he has nothing else to do with his life. That's all of ILF really, and that's a big plot point. But that means Crow is just kind of... there. He is helping the Alliance because he needs to help clean up the mess he started, and he is also feeling depressed in the aftermath of his actions. Don't get me wrong, he is still a great character overall (his backstory and his death scenes are both solid), but I feel like the writers failed to make him a more compelling rival, someone who wants to fight Rean and prove something to him. Crow is just waiting to be taken down. Meh.

2- Sara

Another character who loses a spot to Fie, and again, that's more of Sara's fault too. It turns out the troll teacher role works better when you have a group of weaksauce students to be trolled. When your students become heroes, Sara no longer feels so cool, and is also mostly just there. And then you start relying on alcoholism and sexual jokes and I'm bored already.

Her jaeger backstory could have gone somewhere, but alas, it is all solved before the arc even begins. Sara is a complete character, which is normal for a mentor. She is still his high because of CS1 greatness, but I suspect she will start falling if she just keeps being a Schera 2.0.

1- Fie

"I spy with my little eye... the goods"

And now for someone who actually went up, and she deserves it. Her Zephyr arc is not the best ever but is done pretty well, and Fie continues to be a badass, even more this time than last game. Because she is no longer trying to learn the value of friendship nor she is being dragged down by some pointless feud with Laura, now she gets to be the one who gets along with everyone, is comfortable in her role, and yet is fun, edgy and cool. She is Tio, with less drama but more coolness. And a plethora of fun quotes. I'm happy that every game in the series from now will have Fie, because I want her in every game, please.

But now I'm thinking, can Fie land above Tio in the series rankings? I'm not sure. I don't feel like she can.

And since Tio was #7 there, what does this say about CS's cast? That on average, they are not great.

The group, overall, has a better dynamic than Sky's group. But the best CS characters are worse than the best Sky ones, and so are the worst characters from each group. And looking at the CS cast, I see some pretty likable people and nice backstories, so I suspect it's all a big collateral effect of being stuck in The Rean Show. In CS2, even more than CS1, Rean dominates the writing in such a way that other characters have to fight for scraps in characterization, and only a few, like Jusis and Elliot, manage to grab enough to stay afloat. Those who are likable enough manage to land somewhere near the Tita/Dudley area of the list, and that's about it.

And with that, I finish this topic, with the hope that CS3 manages to find some balance in its cast that allows its characters to flourish more. If not, there is always Daybreak I guess.

See you all next topic, in a few weeks/months (haven't figured yet, but I suspect it will be on the shorter side), when I finish the Cold Steel series! Thanks for reading.

10- Millium

Our favorite Not a Robot has gotten somewhat better this game, I think due to the setting. In school or field trips, she is annoying because she keeps trying to wreck havoc in otherwise normal social situations. Here, in a civil war, this little blob of chaos who is also pretty competent at fighting and spying feels at the right place, and helps bring some levity to a stressful scenario.

Or maybe she is being written better now, because I just enjoy interacting with her. Her inbteractions with Claire are cute, though. But she completely passed a chance to make something interesting from her "rivarly" with Altina, which I guess is being saved to next game, so for now, Millium needs to get a little more interesting.

9- Alisa

I really like her, but I feel like Alisa has hit a ceiling. Her relationship with her mother got solved in some pretty boring, least-resistance way, with her mother just deciding Alisa is good enough. She is one of the more "vanilla" members of the group. Kind of like Elie, but Elie has the benefit of a much better party to interact with, one not monopolized by the main character, and a political setting that lets her flex her diplomat muscles. Alisa is a decent diplomat, a decent mechanic, a decent person, but the setting and the Rean-centric plot force her into a side character position she never quite breaks from. So she is stuck at the middle of the list.

8- Machias

This is one of the bigger loses of this game, and not because he did anything bad. The problem is that it's dawning on me what made Machias interesting was what made him bad. His complete lack of social skills, his inability to see nuance and his intolerance of other people's faults (all stuff that feel like autism coding, tbh).

Thing is, he has developed, become a better person, etc... and now there is nothing to do with him.

He is a reliable source of comic relief with his constant bickering with Jusis, but nothing else. Honestly, his position in his list is being carried by the first game, because if I was ranking people based on CS2 only, he'd be much lower.

7- Alfin

Alfin exists to let the player learn the black sheep of the Erebonian royal family is not Olivier, it's Cedric. Because Alfin is basically Olivier!Princess edition. While not the incredibly chaos machine her brother is, she shows she could do the same thing if she wanted, she just chooses not to. But she is horny, she likes to tease, she is very skilled at reading people, she knows how to move between her polite and her clown personalities.

Actually I was going to rank her lower, but she deserves a higher spot. Give me more of this amazing family, please.

6- Jusis

Jusis passes Machias in the list because although his first game arc is over, CS2 tried to take him further. Not much further, since I feel like his back and forth with joining or not joining the party was a bit forced (it got solved in a horse race? really?). But it mostly works because you can see how the moral conflict of the war affects him, how hard it is for him to deal with his father spiralling down and becoming a monster, and how difficult it is to cope with his brother's machinations when it's clear Jusis really loves him. And he manages to come out of it as well as anyone could. Nice character.

14- Claire

This is a project character. She is probably better later, when her boss becomes the main villain. But right now, she is stuck being a spy for a faction that is on our side 99% of the time (the reformists). Which makes her a tad boring right now. Her ice queen personality is more of an informed trait, because Claire is trying to be a sweetheart all the time, while also trying to look cold and aloof. It's cute, really, but hard to pin down since her character is clearly not being pushed.

That's a long paragraph to explain I don't dislike Claire but have no reason to rank her higher.

13- Laura

Now this is a character I expected to like way more than I end up liking. CS1 wasn't kind to her overall, with the idiotic Fie feud arc and the constant dialogues about swords with Rean. CS2... was a bunch of nothing, really. There is a one-sided rivarly with Duvalie, which Laura reacts to in predictable ways. At least the bad stuff is gone and there is no new bad stuff. But really, Laura is a generic badass with a sword and a stoic personality that keeps her from adding any conflict to the story whatsoever.

12- Emma

The cat is more interesting and fulfills her role better.

I could end it here, but Emma is really a sweetheart in the first game, which puts her above Laura. But once she is outed as a witch, you realize the mystery was her main character trait and now she is struggling to be more useful than Celine as the resident source of magical knowledge. Her rivarly with Vita was promising, but Vita is too unreachable for it to work.

11- Towa

Ok put the torches and pitchforks down.

I love Towa! She is cute! She is good with people! She is good with everything, really! Without being a Mary Sue like Rean!

Yeah but we are now getting to the part of the list where people get arcs, and Towa doesn't. Her character is completely flat. She is cool as commander of the Courageous, but the game doesn't build anything out of that. It just gives you a cute commander, one that is so cute she lowkey undermines the seriousness of the missions with her little voice. She probably ranks decently at an overall series list, but hey I like most characters in CS too!

18- Elise

How can someone's voice be so annoying?

She exists to be a damsel in distress and to make annoying incest jokes and I'm bored already. She is boring. Better than Gaius, but Gaius will probably end up being the worst character in the entire Trails series when this is over, so that isn't amazing.

17- Angelica

....

Lesbians, amiright?

Angelica does have moments where she is cool and fun, but for each of those, you get another 5 of her being a sexual menace and/or a generic tomboy. Her arc with her father is not bad, but it is worsened by Act 2 terribleness.

16- Toval

You read the book, right? I mean. The book. Did you read it?

Cuz if you didn't this isn't a particularly compelling character. Problem is that the book sucks.

Outside the book, Toval is a generic bracer good guy, and all his jokes and character traits are references to the book. That's about it.

He's likable, though. We are now at the tier where people are likable, just not compelling characters.

15- Rean

Oh I have to rank this guy at some point, right?

It's a little harder this time, because I admit Rean has grown a little on me. A little. He's still a Mary Sue, maybe more than last time because the writers decided they don't have to develop the rest of the cast much more after CS1 so this is really The Rean Show now. He does get a decent arc or two this time, and his guilt over not saving everyone all the time is compelling. But his personality is so boring, man.

He is cooler than last time, though. Ogre mode is badass, his second s-craft is badass, and "Heed my call, Vamilar, the Ashen Knight!" is one of the best voice acted quotes in the series. Rean's American VA is certainly trying, I give him that. All in all, I don't hate Rean. But I do wish I could remove him from that party... all the time.

Character rankings.

I'll be ranking every playable character again. Non-playables don't get ranked no matter how important they are. That will have to wait until after CS4, or Reverie. Phantasmal Mirrors don't get ranked except for Crow (since he's a normal character in CS1).

19- Gaius

Describe this character in 4 letters.

I'll rank the rest later.

Thorn posted...

oh wait i was asleep at the wheel here

CS2 uniquely has an incredibly important story scene gated behind NG+. Falcom seems to have learned their lesson because I don't think they've gated anything that important ever since but CS3 will expect you to know this.

There's a NG+ quest where you collect some books and well...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTqHykleebE

Wow ok that was some HUGE stuff to gate behind a new game +.

Godanmit Falcom.

Question.

Is the anime worth it?

Panthera posted...

A fellow "the setup games are better than the follow up games" believer, I see

Honestly the one thing the Trails series has that makes it stand out from the rest is how good it is at setting up a new world to make the player care about it.

The sequel games are mostly just standard JRPG stuff, but they are enhanced by the work the prequel games do for them.

SC is a pretty mid game without FC to make it meaningful. Azure is not nearly as good without Zero, either.

Ok so quick review.

Man, this game is a mess.

When it's good, it's pretty good. Act 1 is probably the best start in the series. I wasn't joking when I said it was better than Sky SC. The Finale is also solid, albeit it suffers because the game isn't willing to explain what is going on to avoid future game spoilers. But the entire 5x final boss sequence and the boss rush before it are good stuff.

Divertissement is fun, Epilogue is better than I was expecting, though the final dungeon could be removed and the game would be better off. It would look like the end of FC, which is ok!

Act 2 is AWFUL, though. After all the excitement of fighting enforcers and then unlocking ogre mode and then getting a new ship, the game grinds to a halt. All the plots feel like sidequests, because Albarea and Rogner are side villains who don't really matter. And the reconquest of Trista is very underwhelming, both when it is announced as an objective and when it's done. This arc continues to suffer from the fact the school setting is just way less interesting than what older games did. I'm tired of hearing "we are students so we can't do much". No! Do much! You are RPG protagonists, I want to see you daring Impossible odds! I don't hate the fact threy are students, but I hate that it is constantly used as an excuse to make the plot less interesting.

Also retreading older areas works even less than the usual because you already did that in Act 1, and the fact you can fly anyway is an invitation to avoid walking as much as you can, so the side quests end up feeling boring too.

SC's first half was weak, but it was harder to notice because that game was a crescendo. You didn't initially fight enforcers, just got introduced to them. The stakes then got progressively higher and you only started fighting the main bosses in chapter 7. In CS2, you fight enforcers, then you are asked to go deal with second tier nobles and their generic henchman bosses, as well as the ILF has-beens. It's deflates hype. This game plot doesn't know how to handle its own hype.

The plot is fun, the civil war is done well enough, but the lack of a proper conclusion makes it less satisfying, so this doesn't rank high in plot either. The party is solid. Those characters are overall more likable now that their teenage issues are mostly solved, even if many of them don't develop further. They are just fun to have around. Rean is still bad, but he has a decent arc now. He is just inherently not very likable himself.

Gameplay wise this is ok, feels a bit like a toned down Azure. You have to abuse cheesy mechanics a lot to beat it on Hard, but the game just provides way more of it. The difficulty curve is clunky because most battles are a complete joke with a few being very hard, but TOCS 1's hardesr fights were way more difficult than the ones we got this time.

Mecha fights aren't great. But they aren't terrible. They need to be faster and to have a less abusable healing system.

Overall, I had fun, but I was bored as hell half the time. The last time I felt like this was Sky 3rd. This game has better highs than that one, but it also suffers more due to the length.

I'm somewhat hyped for TOCS3 since it's apparently the best of the four, and I'm interested in seeing the story continue. But I look at the premise, see "school" and just cringe. We'll see.

Zero > Sky FC > Azure > Sky SC > CS1 > CS2 > Sky 3rd

Also yeah I think I missed the Millum scene. But the series has been doing that kind of gating crap since SC. The Thomas scene posted above seems to be a new low, though. Who the hell plays NG+ unless they are younger than 20.

Will watch it later.

Panthera posted...

Holy fuck these playtimes are pretty much all 20-30 hours above mine for the same game, and I was doing fairly close to completionist playthroughs in most of them too! I'm guessing you let the full voice acting play out instead of skipping once you've finished reading waaaayyyy more than I do.

I almost never skip them!

Also also vary between skipping or watching combat animations (depends on how tired of them I am). And I also spend a lot of time setting up orbments, because I want to optimize whatever party I have instead of spreading the quartz thin among all characters.

The later may change soon, though. Now that Ive spread them thin at the end of TOC2 and noticed how much that enhances QoL.

Bowser

Yeah I'm not very creative rn

I can win if this is Paper Mario or Super Mario Odissey and I go back to normal after the first fight.

Trails of Cold Steel 2

Towa's s-craft is ofc the cutest thing ever

Alfin's s-craft is Kevin's. Took way too long to get it.

The game said this dungeon would be harder than the final class but I aint feeling it. So far it's been a joke, even the first boss, and I'm using a bunch of weaker side characters with worse orbments.

There are some mirror items for sale that let you turn into bonus characters, but they cost a kidney each and I'm not feeling like grinding for them. I just wanna beat this game already

One advantage of procedurally generated dungeons is there is a good chance the exit of a given floor will be just by the entrance, and you can skip most of it

for example:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/b/b4d357df.jpg

I have a dialogue with Claire on Lechter, which highlights the absurdity of both him and Towa having the same position despite being two completely (albeit equally competent) people

Ok I'll give you that, by floor 14, battles are getting pretty tough. I had to use Valimar to beat a chest battle. First time in this entire arc I have trouble with a chest battle

Alright, final boss time

Every character enters the boss room, which is a big deal because I'm not sure the boss was expecting 18 people (and George) to attack it at once

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/e/e6575f8c.jpg

Yeah bro I should be playing TOCS 3 by now. I already bought it and everything

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/e/ecfc9a52.jpg

Pretty cool design tho

Boss: "there is no reward for beating me"

I love it that the game is breaking the 4th wall by having a post-game boss admit that it is a post-game boss

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/3/327bd5aa.jpg

We are going to kill him because Rean misses his friends already and wants to have a goodbye party

Laura just went and dealt 224k damage in the first turn. But the thing has over 700k hp so we are a long way to go

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/7/774f9043.jpg

Who said Trails can't have kaiju fights?

Ok this was very easy. And I feel like it wasn't even the boss' fault. It had almost one million hp and was one-hit KOing the characters over and over. It's just that Class VII is at galactic levels of strength now. I've never had a party so strong before. Not even at the end of Sky 3rd. The series is in need of a level reset, which just happens to be around the corner

Trails 7: beaten (for good this time)

The class is happy. Millium starts crying. She doesn't know why she is crying

Then they all start crying

I love this party

It's not as good as the SSS, but it's still a great group

There is even a Ghost Crow watching

Daaaaaw they all thanked Sara for teaching them

And now she is crying. Look at what you've done kids!

They leave for the station, and the credits roll

Nice credits sequence, showing what the kids are going after the game. Also, Fie is apparently a bracer now.

Sky FC: 57h
Sky SC: 91h
Sky 3rd: 58h
Zero: 77h
Azure: 101 h
Cold Steel 1: 103h
Cold Steel 2: 93h

Total so far: 580 h

Thanks for reading this definitely longer than it should have been playthrough!

Review and party member rankings coming along next few days, then I'll likely take a short-ish break before I start the next Trails.

Feels almost unfair to be battling those scrubs after the marathon that was the final chapter. I didnt even change my orbments. Rean and Laura's attack poers are just through the roof

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/1/1f6d7f88.jpg

Oh come on

This is a fun quest lol

Now we gotta fight the principal and the nurse. Who are both known to be tough af

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/5/51ea2bd6.jpg

The image of impending doom

I get a 4th party member so I call Fie. I think I'll need an evasion tank

I finish beating up some seniors, who are insanely tough. They are impressed

Aaaaaand time to go to the old schoolhouse again

Toval drops by

He mentions how Osborne is unstoppable now. Someone had to say it

He invites Rean to become a bracer again, but he declines

I mean he kind of is a bracer already so what's the point

Oh so I guess we are getting a parade of optional party members now. Claire, Alfin and Elise arrive too

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/d/db9c178d.jpg

The shipping wars are real

We enter the old schoolhouse, which has gone full final dungeon again

Reverie? Isn't that 3 games too early?

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/2/2123ec51.jpg

We are on post game, basically

Everyone joins the party. And Sharon. We now have 18 party members.

I'm ok with Elise joining just so Rean can stfu about protecting her already.

But first, the last quest in the game: helping Anton try to get with Sharon

It goes like most Anton quests. Surprisingly well at first, until...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/f/ff2ce796.jpg

He completely drops the ball

Oh cool she actually gives him a kiss

Sharon is an awesome character tbh

Emma is going to look for Vita. And she left some rune thing Rean can use her to call whenever we need to

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/00df458f.jpg

That's a nice picture. I mean, not for prerverted reasons, it's nice to see those two being friends.

Laura is going to do some solo training with her father. Cool.

Rean turns his radio on before sleeping. Would be funny if Misty's voice appeared

Not Misty, just some dude talking about finance. Meh

Rean is as annoyed as me for that

Though getting a flashback of Misty's voice after all the experiences with her in this game feels... weird

Elise calls, and I'm just rolling my eyes at their decision to dub her voice but not Rean's.

One thing that is really cool is how, since I took so long to play these last two games, the rl time for me almost matched the one of the kids. Mine was a few months shorter, but we are both ending in March (if I beat the game this weekend, that is)

Edit: He did not beat the game in March.

Vincent FINALLY dumps Margarita. Took long enough

Though it seems Millium had to force him to

Jusis and Machias will have a chess match for a politics book. Fun.

We gotta help Anabelle not get married to the fishing guy from Azure. Interesting, I thought they would get married after all since they both love fishing

And now I gotta win a fishing battle to help them with that. Uh whatever.

Oh hey I get to battle one of the Elite Four

Narses the Crazy Wave

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/f/fc99cf3b.jpg

I beat him rather easily, now it's time for the Lakelords to battle with other

Kenneth is being really cool and I'm thinking he'll be the one to end with Anabelle

Next I have to control Kenneth, and this is harder, but manageable

Dawww Lakelord likes Kaguya from the Elite Four

And we have a new ship (Jenneth and Anabelle). I'm assuming I'll be helping find their missing wedding rings in Trails 10, or something like that

The two captains of the fencing club are going together on a trip. I feel like they will still be making cool appearances in this arc

Oh Mary is arranged to be married with someone? Spicy

Sounds like Mint may have to commit a murder

I finish a quest to help Trista Radio get some comments, and and up finding a letter from Vita. The radio host vows to make Misty come back. I somehow think he'll succeed

Time for another round of "Men Only" swimming lessons with Major Incel

I race Jusis, then Sara puts an end to the rampant misoginy and brings the girls. Good job Sara

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/e/e68541f1.jpg

And the cat

Alisa and Emma are joining just for the spirit, though, they clearly didn't want to be here

Rean starts checking out Alisa on swimsuit and Sara tells her to race him. The snake

He will be distracted and lose

But he doesn't, because at this point I've already mastered this minigame

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/aa24ee6b.png

lmao

(poor Millium though, I think she wanted to swim)

Yeah Major Incel deserved this

He turns it into a lesson about the unfairness of war. Which is a cool character moment for him, I give him that

And then they all play tag. Because.

Next, I race Angelica on a bike

Her losing then buying 5 drinks as if Crow was here too is a nice touch

Next, time to beat Patrick. Again.

A lot of these quests are just rehashes of stuff I've already done before. Seems the devs are scrapping the bottom of the barrel when they should have just ended the game already

I bring Laura and have her use a domination+morale boosted scraft on Turn 1. Because i'm cheap like that. Patrick falls immediately. His butler is tougher, though

Not that he lasts long, though

Next, the Florald siblings challenge me

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/3/36c14c93.jpg

lol

I bring Alisa. It's only fair.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/2/2dbcf1b9.jpg

This is what the end of Azure lacked tbh. An actual confirmation the shipping scene wasn't just an hallucination

Makarov lets on that the academy will be full of soldats too. I guess students will be learning to pilot mechas. Cool.

Heimrich: "I wonder how Rixia Mao is doing"
Rean: "I kind of tried to kill her last week"

Monica racing Laura in the pool is cool. I know she is going to lose, but the fact she wants to try shows how much she has grown

Paula thinking Jusis would be a better captain than her is also great development

Angelica is going to explore Zemuria on her bike. Which seems like a good plan for a rebeal noble who doesn't wanna deal with noble crap

The idea that Rean has to deal with remorse over his recent actions in Crossbell is interesting, but it's kind of weird the game is choosing to spend time with that given it's just an off-screen plot point that happened AFTER the main story ended. It's not like there will be a lot of time to develop that before we skip to CS3

feels like they just had to do this part of the story for coherence so they slapped into the end of CS2 because there was no better way to do it. Kind of how Sky 3rd's doors is full of set ups. This duology does not have an epilogue game, so this is where they did it

but I just want it to end already tbh

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/03037c51.jpg

Yeah that's an advantage of being a robot. Which is why they are cheaper than humans as labor

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/c/c09897ff.jpg

Towa being the best girl

She gets him to break. After everyone else failed to

Great scene

It's kind of amazing how this school formed such an open minded and critically thinking generation of students in the middle of a very authoritarian country

We learn Gwyn has returned to Reinford. Another nice development point

Now the students are discussing the fact Sharon is from Ourobouros. I suppose there wasn't much time to do it during the civil war. But now it's sticking out like a sore thumb

Time to talk to the students in the dorm

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/b/b2708e30.jpg

Now that's a nice character development. He used to be the kid who wanted to be a musician and wasn't allowed to. Now he's much more than that

Machias is going to a politics school. Him inviting Rean to hang out sometime is a nice touch, too. It's hard for Machias to be this casual

Jusis is now Duke Albarea. Not in name, but in practice. Ironic since he was the bastard son.

Gaius and Rean have a talk about art. Meh

Apparently he will be having to protect his homeland from Calvard or something like that

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/9/9814d302.jpg

Millium robot confirmed

She is going to the west on a mission

Rean's talk with Sara is pretty sweet too. She is rejoining the guild. And he promises her to never take on assignments that hurt civilians

Fie and Rean just go on about seeds. Rean promises to take the mantle of the gardening club

Alisa is also joining Reinford, which means all 3 Reinfords will be working together now

And she is breaking up with Rean. I think. They leave it open enough that Rean can plausibly date different people next games, I suppose

After a few weeks teaching Croossbellian chilkdren to properly fear their Erebonian overlords, it's time to go back to Thors to resume my education

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/e/e3677d4d.jpg

It took almost two games, but Rean FINALLY mistrusts Claire.

Good

He is not taking a stance on Crossbell though. Meh. He's just pissed about her not telling him about his dad

Gone are the glory days where EVERYTHING was Estelle's problem

I don't dislike Claire tbh. I buy that she is good inside. It just bothers me how everyone except Sara just gives her a pass when she is a freaking spy for a fascist dictator

Lechter didn't get the same pass, which is why he worked in Crossbell

Millium is harder to pin down, she has the Renne thing going where she is innocent at the same time she is not. And being with the party all the time makes it easier for me to like her too

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/1/1ad066fd.jpg

You are wrong. You need to be more childish. That's the only way to become an actual hero, not just a cog in the machine

The party comes to greet Rean as he is felling down. Sweet

Celine accidentally admits she was worried about him. K. O.

There is some indication ReanxAlisa is still thing, which is nice continuity

Epilogue: "Isn't the game supposed to be over?": begins

I get some plot. It seems Rean was not tasked with conquering Crossbell, just keeping Calvard from conquering it for themselves. Which... I guess is fine

For some reason the students are saying goobye to one another a year earlier than they should

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/4/4b14bdd9.jpg

You know, Heinrich sucks, but I kind of wish I had classes on this at school? My classes were always very swallow when it came to modern politics. Nobody taught how the current electoral system works! I suspect it is by design.

Of course, since it's Erebonia, they are probably getting a crappy version of it too, one way or another

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/5/5a095fd7.jpg

Fie on the education system

Jusis calls Sara a forever alone. Ouch

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/b/b1f7365e.jpg

The nicer ones tend to be more hurtful, though

Fie: "Just get some cats". Ouch again

They start going on about how Lechter likes casinos, and that reminds them of Crow, so now they are all sad

bump

the end is coming soon

We arrive at the end of the dungeon, where a computer awaits us. Always a computer in those geofronts

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/8/843dbb31.jpg

They literally found the internet

Sort of. Lloyd explains it and it becomes less magical

They boot the program, but then we are attacked by a bad guy

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/3/36557184.jpg

Danmit Rean

It's not just because I'm Lloyd, but I've never rooted so much for rean to get a beating. Whatever reasons he has, he's a jerk this chapter

this is a cool boss fight concept ngl

if he goes ogre mode we are screwed tho

Tricky fight, but I win since they don't have healing items/arts and we do.

We win the normal fight, so Rean goes ogre mode. GG

Or he would, but he takes too long to charge it and we win since the clock is on our favor

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/5/50e12caf.jpg

So Rean decides to cheat

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/0e73fda5.jpg

Atta boy. he destroyed the computer but lets us leave with the data... on a technicality. Sounds like Rean doesn't like his job

Lloyd just goes and names every character in the crossbell arc for no reason

Rean says he's jealous of the other PC party. For still being good guys, I suppose

Divertissement: "I hope you enjoyed having a good protagonist in a Cold Steel game": beaten

Rixia's clothes single-handedly justify the transition to 3D, damn

It's nice to hear geofront music after so long

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/8/8b50a312.png

Can we stay here forever, mommy? Plz?

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/4/496b6c4c.jpg

I mean

Oh hey crossbell battle music too!

We beat a boss, and Lloyd and Rixia mention their new orbments
Rixia comments on how she misses having art variety. So do I, Rixia. So do I

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/8/84fb93da.jpg

Dont make me ship it

Ok it's official, Lloyd's Japanese VA is better. Not just because it's Simon from TTGL, but English Lloyd just doesn't know how to yell "RISINGGGGG SUUUUUUUN" the same way

I also don't like his characterization as being horny for Rixia. Lloyd works because he's clueless bordering on being asexual, not horny.

Lloyd goes on a rant about how he's more of a jack of all trades than anything. Though he IS a great detective

They also give a rundown on where the cast went to after Azure

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/c/c418563f.jpg

We are attacked by a metroid

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/c/c0cfc6e6.jpg

Just what are these kids going through rn

3 months later, we move to a scene with some cool tank warfare between what I think are Erebonia and Calvard. Gone are the mechas.

Nvm, here are the mechas

Calvard doesn't have mechas so they autolose

They also have Valimar. Damn

Feels bad to watch Rean helping the chancellor. I mean, it is his dad, and he is defending his country against Calvard. But he is defending it in Crossbell, a land whose independence I give a damn about.

You suck, Rean

Well, he gives them a chance to retreat, at least. Rean is no coldblooded killer

Divertissement: "we are the bad guys now": begins

We get a narration from what is probably Lloyd, and I'm not used to Lloyd having an English VA at all

Crossbell in 3D is nice, though

Osborne makes a speech that says: "I'm blaming you people for everything bad that happened, but I'm a good guy so I'll forgive you if you forgive me. Or else"

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/a21ff8e1.jpg

Cayenne: "You could have been Duke Albarea"
Rufus: "I had different plans"

Well, he'll probably be a better ruler than Crois, I give you that

Next, we see Grace, and she has a good VA

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/6d2ad0ea.jpg

Reins is right. Also probably thinking what he will write in his next report to Richard too

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/a8e818bc.jpg

Lmao of course Grace knows who he is

Next, Lloyd and Rixia are talking to one of the biggest master manipulators in Trails

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/a323a45e.jpg

Unfortunately, a bunch of new master manipulators appeared in the last two games, and now he is busy catching up

Basically Cao is helping Lloyd for free because whatever Lloyd is doing will benefit them

And Lloyd is no longer being aggressive when talking to him. Daw, they are friends now

I played a bit of the Crossbell chapter (actual write-up later) and now I spent a whole day with geofront music in my head, and then I got home aching to play Trails.

It's like my brain is craving for good times that I had lost.

omg Rufus

He just went and killed Briannos. Noooooooo the blue bird

RIP twitter. It now has Xs in his eyes
(sorry)

Cayenne: "you did come to help me did you"

Rufus:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/4/4061d180.jpg

lol

Rufus has plans. All the plans.

The Ironbloods gather, and apparently Rufus is with them

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/e/e206e23e.jpg

That's some secret society shit

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/036ba6d5.jpg

DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUN

Trails Adolf has returned

Sorry Cayenne, you were not the main villain

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/6cc0fb9c.jpg

He didn't beat Ourobouros. He took over Ourobouros

The snakes are playing 4D chess and he's playing 40D

Rean realizes his friend died for nothing and gets mad

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/8/85a5f593.jpg

Lechter, having just spent two games dealing with another hoh-headed hero

Oh shit

It's Darth Vader time

Quick Rean, leave before he cuts your hand!

Osborne has the country, the plan, and now the protagonist

He survived because he has an ogre mode too, most likely

We get an ending sequence. With no credits, because this is not the real ending. It felt like one in my book, though

It's a bit tricky, but definitely not like the one from last game. The healing system more than makes up for whatever offense Crow can throw. I finish him off with Rean and Alisa's mecha s-craft

Jusis making fun of Rean's cheesy lines is great

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/4/48015271.jpg

THANK YOU FOR SAYING IT OUT LOUD, CROW

Rean's blatant cheating must be exposed

Vita says she doesn't mind losing. The good guys are like "wut". Cayenne is livid

It's Ourobouros for you, their wincon is never the obvious one

Cayenne realizes he wasn't invited to the party so he takes matters with his own hands. He forces Cedric to pilot the red mecha

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/3/3fa21b10.jpg

Ok I'll take it. That's a boss name

The mecha starts draining mana from everyone in Heimdarl, except our allies at the entrance because Mueller knows a cool yoga trick

I love how everyone just keeps saying "vermillion" and "azure" instead of like, "red". I mean, those are cool titles for the mechas, but at some point you'd think people would use normal words.

NPCs watching the situation.
Radio guy: "If only Misty were here"
Well THAT'S the problem isn't it

Cayenne's VA shows he can do an evil laugh

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/06df8c81.jpg

Eh Vita you should have done a better job at hiding you were going to betray him if your plan relied on him not fighting back using the mcguffin you conveniently left at arm's distance from him

So the heroes (who now include Vita and Crow) come up with a plan to have the 2 mechs fight the red one while Vita does some magicks to open a path for them

So we get a man vs mecha fight with all 11 characters. Cool.

Oh ok so it's two phases, with one party each, and Rean joining both phases.

I love how the ultimate mecha of doom still has half as much HP as McBurn. In human form.

Oh nvm the two forms have more HP

Ok this was a hard boss. I won in the first try, but came close to TPKing quite a few times. That puts it on a similar level as Zero's final boss, which was pretty hard too

Oh hey Ordine talks

A 4 part final boss is a new for this series, man

5 part. There is another mecha battle, this time as a duo

it's much easier to figure out mecha weak points when you have 2 mechas to use at once

The game giving you max bravery points so you can finish off the boss with a cool scene is a nice touch

Trails 7: beaten. Sort of. I know there is a weird epilogue thing that I'm not sure how important it is? I tried to avoid most spoilers.

Crow gets impaled so Rean can get an opening to save the prince. The red mecha finally explodes

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/08eb309c.jpg

Uh wut
I dont think I've ever seen Ourobouros lose

Damn Crow don't die just as the villain is in the middle of explaining the arc's plot!

Him saying his last goodbyes to every party member is nice

RIP Crow. You were Loewe done better

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/e/ef8d0818.jpg

Dude. Read the room.

We arrive for the previously shown royalty torture scene. The only Ourobouros agent left here is Vita. Crow and Duke Cayenne (who?) are here too

The kids make their best shot at trying to get Crow to change sides, so the Duke interferes when it looks like they are about to succeed

He then goes on about how he descends from some False Emperor who tried to take over Erebonia centuries ago

I like how this side of the Phantasmal Blaze Plan mimics the Crossbell side. Find the descendents of a once ruling family who have access to what is left of some world destroying mcguffin, and help them revive it

Duke: "I just saw a chance to take over the world and took it, who wouldn't?" Fair

Well I give you that, this is a decent villain

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/650edd80.jpg

Buuuuuurn

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/2/2cd07fe7.jpg

Uh Crow I don't want to rain on your parade, but we have already beaten you twice, and the last one was Rean alone. Bring the mecha or get out.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/7/7d3cf3d5.jpg

Oh ok. I'll take it.

The bad guys have a combat link. Oof

Wonder if they have overdrive too

Uh all characters came but I still only have 7. Meh.

I was really thinking I'd bring out a 11 character rotation here

Vita is super resistant to magic. Crow is not, though

This was fun, but is not hard at all. Those guys shouldn't have sent McBurn to fight us before then.

Gave me the incentive to build all those broken combos, so I just had to repeat them

Let's get down to the real business. To continue from the last game's cliffhanger

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/6531fa2d.jpg

Rean is sad the ship is sinking

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/a96d4bd4.jpg

Time to end this game in the most Japanese fashion. A mecha duel

So after taking advice from the interwebs, I built an assortment of party members with strategies against McBurn. No mages because he has resitance to all elements, except for a gladiator belt Alisa with lv 5 Angel and Seraphic Ring to be my panic button when he uses his s-craft.

Then Rean with Impede and Delay, evasion tank Fie with more delay, Millium with the spell that gives everyone arts reflect, and a Laura with Domination in the backburner and a pre-maxed CP for a really strong blow (which she did, totalling 135k damage, the highest one in any attack so far).

Took me just one try with all of this. Phew

Aaaand after the battle, McBurn smiles and says "looks like you guys will do just fine". Crap.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/1/13d9b035.jpg

Danmit Loewe you had one job

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/e/e54ecfce.jpg

Weeeeeeeeeeelllllllll.... we are fucked

Turns out he had an ogre mode too. Or demon mode. Whatever this is.

Then the last Responsible Adult shows up to bail us: Victor Arseid

Now that's some backup. The man is probably somewhere around Cassius Bright level. I'm not sure if that's enough to beat this guy, though.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/6a9946a7.jpg

lmao Sara

McBurn breaks open a hole in the fabric of reality and pulls out a sword. That's the sentence.

This has to be the most hype duel in Trails history so far

... it's going to be offscreened won't it

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/5/57aa83a0.jpg

"I know I'm just a top 10 character in trailsverse and you are like the top 1, but if I add all of my strength to the Power of Friendship, it might just work out"

Damn this is some COOL cinematics

we rush to the elevator, and leave for the two forces of unnature to break reality apart in the floor below

the final area is a short, linear corridor. Good. After McBurn, it doesn't feel proper to spend time running in circles

Rean proposes we get the whole party together for the final battle.

The real are you talking about, Rean? That's how we have done for the last 6 games. Respect your tradition!

(Well technically not Sky 3rd, which cooked some extra bosses guarding switches to keep all party members busy. And Zero, where some of the PCs just weren't official party members yet)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/8/8034ee28.jpg

That's some insane thinking from Millium

I make the last finishing touches to my equipment, and it's time for the final battle

While the elvator goes up, Rean makes a face that says "Crow is so going to get it"

Fie trying to act cool while meeting her old buddies is very emotional

Lots of things must be going over her head. Can she kill them? Is she strong enough to surpasas them? Etc

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/2/289dafc3.jpg

But she is here to make demands

They explain they abandoned her because their boss didn't want her to be a jaeger anymore

The difference between this and Randy's uncle is astounding. Clearly one of the jagger groups had the kinder leader here

She gives an epic speech, and it's time to kick ass

Well, this wasn't too hard. In the end, the big MVP was Laura with her s-craft, though Gaius also pulled through with earth wall spam. And Fie managed to tank an s-craft from the burly guy! I'm so proud of her

She also finishes the battle with the s-craft on the skinny guy, which is fitting too

The bad guys also reveal they are not done, so time for someone else to bail us now

I'm guessing Sharon and Claire

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/6900eed6.jpg

Yep

They reveal the rest of the corps is trying to bring back the boss... who is dead. Okay.

"The next foe you face is the strongest of all." Welp

time to burn

There is a random nosferatu at the start of the 3rd area. The game is marking it as something important for some reason. Weird how nosfferatu went from one of the hardest bosses in the previous game to a semi-common mini-boss in this one

Oh ok killing it unlocks a bridge

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/f/f821b516.jpg

Alien on a bike. Okay

The segment with the triple barriers is pretty annoying, because it amounts to luck, and missing gets you to fight an enemy who spams some strong AoE lasers

I arrive at the end. And it's time to face him.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/b/ba5cf23a.jpg

Sara tries to bargain with him, see if his boredom can convince him to leave

But Sara, can't you hear the boss music?

lmao he wants toi 1v1 Valimar

Of course he does. And I don't even know who would win!

Celine tells Rean not do it because they need Valimar against Crow's mecha. No! I wanna see it, danmit!

Emma mentions his skills must be related to the DIvergent Laws, whatever those are. McBurn admits it

Rean wants to get past him by force. He has balls

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/8/8d73ab4b.jpg

He says what we are all thinking

lmao how do I beat this guy

No seriously. How

After the initial shock of realizing both he and his minions have huge attack, I managed to get in a flow of using defensive s-crafts and having ogre Rean get some real goot crit hits. Im here thinking this will be like Arianhod and I just have to drop his HP down to half, which makes sense since he got almost 500 HUNDRED THOUSAND HIT POINTS

The turns out no, dropping him to half is not enough, and after sustaining my barrage, he responds with the most visually impressive s-craft in the series so far, and TPKs me with one hit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KtZ-ZqEkcE

Like... bruh

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/a6b85405.jpg

I love Duvalie

She actually puts a lot of resistance this time. It's not the hardest fight ever, but takes work. Anyway, see you next game Duvalie. And Bleaublanc.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/4/4fc397bb.jpg

Aaaaaand time for the Bleaublanc special: "I lost the fight so imma just trap you with strings"

Oh. Oh shit we broke Duvalie.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/4/4789d757.jpg

HEEEEEEEEEL YEAH. OLIVIER TO THE RESCUE (and Toval)

Man I've never been so happy to see him. And not just because he is one of my favs, it's because the game really managed to sell how screwed we are. I'm not sure I could tank a second round of this.

Duvalie is an annoyed she will have to fight some mages and not Mueller.

Because Mueller is busy helping Patrick's group at the door

They mention his "friend" and I'm here thinking it's going to be Julia Swchartz, but we are not worthy. It's just Major Incel.

The party leaves for the next floor, and Toval and Olivier begin their art spam

I feel like I'm in Sky again

So does Blueblanc, who is having a great time

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/c/cb6def0b.jpg

Fission mailed

I arrive at the end of the 2nd stratum and see a huge zephyr symbol at the door

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/2/23af23b1.jpg

I... may have overdone it

The last time someone was this OP at magic was Tio at the end of Azure. And the final boss had auto impede. I don't think those zephyr guys have auto impede

She can only cast Claiomh Solarion thrice before her EP runs out, but I have the feeling that won't be a problem

Of course, if it fails, we have 100% evasion Fie, multi earth wall Millium, and Rean/Laura with the most broken s-crafts ever

and huh... Gaius and Machias came too

Rean is pissed Elise is in the Courageous, and Machias/Jusis teaming up to make fun of him is awesome

Time for an airship battle. Because you don't tease the Pentagruel if we are not going to fight it.

This is no Arseille, and that is no Glorious, but this should be fun

The kids are also reacting at the Infernal Castle (cool dungeon name!)

Towa just ordering us to raise engine power when seeing the enemy mothership is badass

Eh we just dodge one wave of missilies. It was more fun in Sky SC

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/f/f611af3e.jpg

Noble students and One Commomer who is Good at Swords, to the rescue!

Patrick's voice acting is working really well here. He sounds cool.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/c/c6126df3.jpg

Interesting

Valimar knocks the front door with his sword. Because the final dungeon deserves a cool entrance
(yes I know this isn't the actual final dungeon, but it feels like it)

Valimar will have to use all of his power to break some barrier, so we will have to do the dungeon on foot for a while. Convenient

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/7/79edc474.jpg

See? Millum agrees!

The music is great, though hearing it while spending a long time equipping quartz is less great

I finally do what I should have done a while ago. Equip all 11 characters instead of swiching their gear each time I switch them. The later made sense for previous games with smaller parties and smaller orbments, but it doesn't anymore

We arrive at the end of the 1st area, but there is a boss, ready to fight us

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/06726bfb.jpg

Again?

I mean Duvalie. Bleublanc, we haven't fought in a while. But Duvalie is trying to take Amalthea's throne as the most defeated character in the series

Amalthea has 4 losses, she has 3, but if Duvalie loses this, she will not only tie Amalthea in total losses, but also get 3 in the same game, which is probably a record

Bleaublanc will have 5 losses himself, but it is less humilliating because he at least paces those out between games, taking a break in Crossbell arc. Duvalie has been making sure she is available to get her ass kicked each time the story has a climax

Duvalie wants to win a fight in the same place Lianne once conquered. She keeps coming up with new reasons to make her boss second guess her decision to make her captain of the stallritter

Celine casually drops that Arianhod is probably Lianne

Duvalie neither confirms nor denies it

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/02ffe1d6.jpg

Laura is certainly respectable here

We watch a cool montage of the final battle about to begin

You haven't seen true mecha war until you see a golden mecha cutting a cannon ball in two with a sword

And then the classic corrupt student vs disappointed master trope

Le Guin: "I will surpass even the Lance Maiden!"
Well she is on your side, so maybe you could challenge her now

The populace rejoices when the see Olivier's airship. Ofc.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/4/40c55949.jpg

Time to strike.

It's well defended though, so NPC students will fight the defenses while we go in and release the emperor

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/2/295797aa.jpg

I love the little battle scene

The first wave of guards that attack us gets KO'd in the first turn, as I start with a zero-arts turn, and give it to Emma

I complete what is the first mandatory enemy chest in the series so far. Probably. Because it gives the necessary key to open one of the doors.

Emma's magic offense with pandora is so busted rn she hits harder than most s-crafts. Even at 200.

See, this is what Liberating Trista should have been. Waves upon waves of soldiers and giant robots.

Makes up for a natutrally short section

If you can make an entire army just stand inside a palace, you could so it in Trista too

We arrive at the hostages, who are safe and unharmed. Though there was an orbment recharge station at the door, so I'm just waiting for a giant doggo to show up or whatever

Oh hey it's Altina. That will be fun

Wonder if this is the final fight against her though, since Millium is not mandatory in this section

She confirms she is not Millium's sister. Hmm okay. Back to business.

Altina's s-craft being the same as Millium but a sword instead of a cannon is pretty cool

Cool boss fight, and tricky enough too, thanks to barrier shenanigans.

Rean finally rescues the most annoying little sister ever so he can stop saying her name every other cutscene

And Machias rescues his dad. And we rescue the imperial family too....
... except Cedric

Which measns the game isn't over. The game only ends when the entire hostage list is finished.

Aaaaaaaand turns out this whole thing was a distraction. And Vita's plans are going exactly as intended

Ourobouros 875684576. Good guys 0.

Vita has summoned Luficen Lied. Whatever that is.

Apparently the plan involves torturing children, too

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/1/1584f63d.jpg

The 4th most important villain in this game, thinking he is not about to be turned into ashes by the magical WMD he thinks is going to be used by him.

(The first 3 are Crow, Vita and Rufus. Not necessarily in this order).

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/4/49732d38.jpg

The Final Dungeon has been summoned

Rufus and Vita have a chat about plans

Rufus says he is not participating in the final battle. Of course, he has even more plans prepared.
DDL

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/5/5299560e.jpg

Altina jumps out of a window, leaving us to just say "oopsie"

Claire, arrives just in the right time

And Machias's dad prepares to make his own play

The chess players are all acting. And we are pieces.

Rean declares he is going to the dungeon. Just as planned. By the bad guys.

Rean: I have feeling this is some kind of destiny
Yes, it's called "Phantasmal Blaze Plan"

The emperor gives us an accessory. Giving people accessories seems to be a royal family tradition.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/621b3687.jpg

Oooookay they somehow made Criminal even more broken

I'm now completing the quest bosses, and the high level monsters, to get a bunch of endgame stuff which I probably dont need, but hey this is fun

Ok fishing quest completed, quest monsters done, cryptids done except for one

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/4/47ede622.jpg

This looks powerful

Wow, it fell more easily than the 2nd strongest cryptid. We really are OP now

I take on a hidden quest to find what seems to be a teleporting priest

My money is on Bleaublanc

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/3/3f0c3f20.jpg

Who the hell is this guy

Some new dominion, I'm assuming

The game lets me know it is one of them

He is going to Western Erebonia, so that's a teaser for CS3, basically

I have completed the most important quest in Cold Steel II: Snowboarding. Now I'm ready to beat the game

Well there are still the lv 5 weapon trainings, but I dont feel like doing all the CP grinding and experimentation that will be needed to beat all 3 of them. Meh

There is also cooking, but I never do those lol

I also complete the book quest. Thanks to the fact the game sells missed books in pawn shops, which is a huge QoL feature for this series

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/b/b3654136.jpg

They go to someone who really wants them, for the most legit reasons

He gives me zemurian ore, which just happens to be his family heirloom. Nobles.

Alfin also gives me the remaining medals, after lamenting not being able to date Rean a few times

Rean and Laura get the zemurian ore weapons, being the party's heaviest hitters. Though I'm not bringing Laura next section due to party rotation. She's being saved for the following one

The cast is fitted with the mighitiest quartz and acessories 70+ hours of gameplay can obtain, so time to begin the operation.

Next, to have a talk with Valimar

Him offering to guard the town for us after seeing how much we care about it is a sweet character moment from him

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/9/99c32d13.jpg

Plot twist!

Well not exactly a twist, this was obvious

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/1/1a885f9f.jpg

The mecha has also learned to give talks on the power of friendship

Finally, it's time for shipping. Alisa is the only character whose affection level is high enough, so it's gonna be her

The requirements for affection in this game are harsh. You balance the encounters to see a bit of development from everyone, like I usually do. You have to really focus. Luckily, this time I had decided I wanted Rean to be with Alisa beforehand, so I picked a few more moments with her

Rean: "Let's go upstairs to check the state of the bedrooms". Yeah right

Rean is too much of a wuss to confess to her so she is doing it

this is an interesting reversion from the Lloyd/Elie scene

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/5/577e42e7.jpg

YAAAAAAAAY

THis scene is so good and then I remember you can probably date a different person each game (I mean I picked Emma in TOCS 1), which potentially ruins everything

they kiss, then start talking again

Stop talking and go f*** already

Well, this scene was pretty good. It was better than Lloyd/Elie too, because that one felt way more forced

The fact the two had all those bonding moments across two games helps, because it makes them falling in love natural. In Azure, the two mostly just had teasing from other characters, so Lloyd suddenly saying he loved Elie came out of nowhere

I mean I've seen people online criticize the bonding system because of some of its shortcomings (how it gates character scenes), but this is a good upside to it

Valimar's sword is finally complete, thanks to a last minute help from Makarov, who also happens to be Schmidt's student

lol at both George and Makarov ditching the idea of working with him again

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/b/b6a8cd2f.jpg

Well the color scheme does fit

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/7/7b5801eb.jpg

The biggest rpg party ever assembles

The principal makes a cool speech on why the kids shouldn't die

Rean unlocks his final s-craft, and I'm just hyped to see if I can reach damage over 100k with ogre mode

There are 4 quests, they are all about killing monsters, and they all come with dumb descriptions from our favoriute bard, as well as a "Ignore him, just kill the monster" from Mueller

Final Act: "Let's break into the royal villa to rescue Kloe - I mean, the emperor": begins

Towa gives me the emblem master quartz. Nice.

There are lv 4 weapon training exercises now

The melee one is turned into wet paper very quickly by Rean's scraft, which is pretty cool

And lv 5. The game does want me to spend a lot of time doing this stuff huh

This one just destroys me. I have to win without getting to low HP, and all of my party members have lower Speed stats than the opposition. Meh

The other lv 4 challenges go down with a little more effort, but I think lv 5 will be the last thing I do in this sidequest section

Patrick implies the reason he wants to help is to hit on Elise's sister. Well, I support this ship, if only to kill the alternative

We get a nice little backstory on Ferris and Vicent's maid on how she learned to use a gun just to protect them, even though it wasn't her thing

We talk to Beryl, who imples she knows I kissed Alisa last night. Because of course she does.

The Couragerous is pretty crowded, with even unnamed students joining the crew.

Next order of business: completing all overdrive chests, so I can finally have anyone overdrive without wondering if I did their chest or not

We get a montage with the students being happy, then flashback to them getting some sudden news in the afternoon

The imperial forces want us to join them in retaking the capital

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/1/1efb1588.jpg

Yeah right

this entire opportunity only surfaced because of your contant active role in the war, Rean

Surprise Lechter appearance!

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/65da2b50.jpg

Oh so we just beat Azure

That's it. We are finally ahead in the timeline relative to the end of Trails 5

The military guys make an offer we can't refuse. Crossbell is recovering from its endgame mcguffin events, so it's incredibly vulnerable to Calvardian invasion now. And Erebonia is in a civil war, which also makies it vulnerable. We need to end the civil war, or we are at serious risk of becoming a democratic republic soon (wait a minute, that's not a bad thing!)

Oh so our job is just to liberate the royal family, and presumably they will end the war themselves. Fair enough

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/d/dea1ca5d.jpg

The noble alliance would have won this war if they had just banned its members from kidnapping relatives of main characters

Rean seems to have a lot of stuff in his head, so the cat comes to give him counselling since all humans are busy rn

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/5/5bd78d32.jpg

Celine: "Oh crap I got exposed. Back down! Back down!"

I'm envious of Rean. I want to pet a talking black cat too.

She reminds Rean he should be hitting on girls rn, not petting cats

Time to make a stroll around Trista, just like old times

Mint has successfully got her uncle together with Mary. Epic win.

I find Towa's group on the rooftop, who are all feeling sad Crow is not with them. I like this scene
There has been too little focus on their relationship with Crow after the reveals of the last game, so this is a good correction of that

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/6fbbf605.jpg

The entire plot of Cold Steel so far has been to make Crow graduate

I feel like Korra already did a good job incorporating sci-fi into the Avatar world. The show ended with a fiant against a giant mecha, ffs. That's already edging the limit to where you can push tech without making bending irrelevant. And even before that, the show was already doing of interacting between technology and bending, with planes, electric weapons, and stuff like that.

After that, where else do you go? Space? The internet? All stuff that does't interact that well with bending.

A post-apocalyptic world is an elegant solution to this. It lets you still use technology whenever it works, while taking the show to a different, unexplored setting.

We enter Trista, and the kids feel nostalgic

We are greeted by Micht, who can stroll around the place like nothing is happen, because of course he can

I also just learned how to pronounce Micht

And then we have a nice chat with some low budget voice actors (the townsfolk)

So both teams are greeted by nobles. Team A gets Patrick, his butler, Gardening Club Girl and Horse Riding Club Guy

Class B gets Ferris, her womanizing brother, their maid, and Fencing Club Girl

I think Class B has the harder task. Mostly because of Fencing Club Girl. She is one of the more badass members of the student body.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/7/7fcddc62.jpg

Case in point

Is it really just going to be one battle for each team? Because that could mean I spent more time equipping my party than I will using them

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/9/94f4b491.jpg

Well can't deny his resolve

He all but implies he is joining us if we kick his ass, too

Both enemy parties are pretty easy to beat. Patrick's is a little harder because they have combat links, otherwise meh.

Everybody is chill with it except Patrick

Man... on a vaccumn this sequence wasn't half bad, but when you place 30 hours of gameplay on hyping up retaking Trista, this was VERY underwhelming

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/ab41c743.jpg

Ehhhhhhh that's some pretty kind way to put it, Rean. VERY kind

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/3/371f42c4.jpg

This is a stunning achivement in character development, though. Well done, Falcom.

Act 2: "The worst chapter in the Trails franchise so far": FINALLY beaten

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/02c85581.jpg

Valimar's new katana looks cool

I get to have a bonding scene with one character playing Blade before the big battle. I pick Millium. The scene is pretty mid.

Time for the operation

So Towa will be joining the party. Cool.

Can't retake school without the student council president. This is now Kill la Kill

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/f/f6fa157b.jpg

Somehow I believe it

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/5/56d8d2d5.jpg

Her magic being "who would say no to this cute anime girl". Got it.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/1/1def8354.jpg

The premise is still dumb but this is cool ngl

Towa has a craft that inflicts a new status exclusive to her. Cool.

So group A is Rean, Towa, and whoever else I pick. I'm going with Elliot, Jusis, Gaius and Fie

Group B will be Angelica, Laura, Millum, Alisa, Emma and Machias

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/1/1681832a.jpg

We face some hard opposition right from the start

I have a katana now, though. So get rekt

Uh those guys just suck tbh

I made two of the strongest mechas in the setting fold like wet paper and Schmidt is not even impressed yet. Interesting

The mecha phase of this mission is over pretty quickly, so it's to to beat some nobles up

The Trails series has a bunch of games on steam sale rn so I went and bought CS3 and CS4.

A dungeon later... we arrive at the boss room. Then we are about to fight it, when a bunch of red swords appear and kill it. Uh... okay.

Oh it's just Vita

Did she come to do the classic villain thing and steal the mcguffin from us when we were about to grab it?

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/6bc82ed9.jpg

That's one of the issues with being a charismatic villain. You may become popular with the fandom, but not the characters

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/f/f985b14a.jpg

Emma challenges her knowledge and she shows she is not short of bravado, at least

Lore time!

It's a flashback from Dreichles, the one I thought I had missed. And Lianne

And we learn people used to fight with giant mechas hundreds of years ago. Okay

So every once in a while, Erebonia has a mecha war. And then people forget it happened

The revelation probably hurts Vita. The way she is describing sounds like an evil job for the witches, but there are probably layers, which she is conveniently hiding from the good guys

You have activated Rean's trap card: Friendship Speech!

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/f/f67d7f9a.jpg

Oh shit. Abort! Abort!

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/8/8503990c.jpg

Celine's face learning she can probably do that too

Emma has an epiphany and unlocks her final s-craft, Epilepsy Beam

Birb is tough, but not as tough as the previous boss. Yes it has a spammy s-craft, but you heal from that and the rest of its arsenal is pretty middling. And not capable of hitting evasion tanks, either

We watch it struggling to keep up performing its projection role after taking half a dozen s-crafts and 5 phantom phobias to the face

We grab the loot, and now it's time to make a sword

I've completed all the quests in this chapter so let's just move straight to the story

Prof Schmidt is barely hiding his own excitement at this project, though he's doing his best to be an ass about it

Then suddenly, Claire calls us

To let us know the defenses around Trista are exposed, so it's finally time to do what the goal of this impossibly boring chaper was. Phew.

Retake the school, and resume classes

Oh cool our main enemy is Patrick

Bad move nobles, he got a ton of character development last game so he's probably gonna side with us

Clare says she is going to SWAT the hell out of it, but Rean asks her to wait till the sword is done so we can do it ourselves, because retaking school is the only thing resembling a goal those kids even have

Godamn I know the next section is going to be fun, but this whole dialogue is SOOOOOOO childish. Who cares about school!

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/c/c82da589.jpg

Thankfully we have somebody with people reading skills in this room

The game tells me Sara isn't joining, but everyone else is. So I need to equip 10 characters. Oh boy

My poor little wallet