Board 8 > SaveEstelle/LeonhartFour in Different Houses: Featuring Doggo Edition [SELF]

(+) Yeah! (+)

Buu stuff is definitely a bit of a slog, but Super has been very fun so far, so its worth getting to.
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I'm reading the character profiles on the title screen, and I gotta say, I really like the music here. It reminds me of something out of Umineko, actually, with the way it uses the piano.

This pink-haired girl reminds me of Yui Yuigahama in appearance, but definitely not in personality.

Huh, are we starting en media res again? This feels very familiar, almost like the Cold Steel 1 prologue! Oh hey, it's Duvalie, and she's got a couple of other Stahlritter with her this time, the Stout and the Sharp, to go along with her being the Swift! Sounds like they'll be recurring foes in this game! Also, I read Duvalie's profile and it said that they revealed that the leader of the Stahlritter was the Lance Maiden inside the Infernal Castle. Did that actually happen or is that a retcon? I mean, it was pretty heavily implied that it was her, but I don't feel like they ever outright said it! Also, I'm glad they got Duvalie's VA back, because man, she's so good!

It's weird hearing four total strangers (and Altina) talking so flippantly about Rean when he's not around! Totally different than how the original Class VII spoke of him...!

I love the Trails trope of us winning a battle and yet appearing like we're exhausted while the bad guys are standing around perfectly fine! It's nice to see the original Class VII get to be the guys who charge in to save the day at the last minute though! Also, Sara shows more and more cleavage with each passing game!

wait wait wait wait wait

did I just see AGATE AND TITA in the opening credits?

HYPE HYPE HYPE

oh hey there's Campabella and a girl who's dressing just like Yoko from Gurren Lagann
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The Mana Sword posted...

Buu stuff is definitely a bit of a slog, but Super has been very fun so far, so its worth getting to.

What were your impressions of all the stuff prior to Buu?

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You mean like the Teen Gohan and World Tournanent? Those I like. Feels a bit more like original Dragonball and its a nice change of pace.
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The start of the Buu arc is fantastic. Loved it. Everything up until those three appear is great.
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Randy > Tio = Wazy > Rixia >= Noel >> Lloyd > Elie

looks about right. Noel's in a weird place for me where I think she could be removed from the game and not change anything about it, but I still like her better than the beta version of Rean that is Lloyd.

though implying Kea not a main character XP please.

And yeah, Ao's incredible. Some of the plot points in and around the final battle in particular have really stuck in my mind and aged like a fine wine, if that makes any sense. Especially when (Ao, DQ11 spoilers) I went from playing the former to the latter, which takes literally the exact opposite position on "let's reset time to save people, even if that means never becoming the people we are now," except DQ11 wusses out of it by just magically having everything in Act 2 that they wanted to happen happen anyways DQ11 has problems, is what I'm trying to say anywhoooooooo

oh hey CS3 time! In general, probably gonna refrain from responding to specific things because spoilers but rest assured my popcorn is ready.

though speaking of the CS3 opening credits THE MUSIC'S SO GOOD <3 <3 <3 still blows me away just thinking of it.
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The Mana Sword posted...

You mean like the Teen Gohan and World Tournanent? Those I like. Feels a bit more like original Dragonball and its a nice change of pace.

Oh, I actually meant... everything prior to Buu Dragon Ball and all of Z up until that point. But then again, thats kind of a big question, haha.

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Yeah I'm definitely a fan of the CS3 title screen music also. Some nice highway themes a bit further into the game as well imo.

LeonhartFour posted...

Also, I read Duvalie's profile and it said that they revealed that the leader of the Stahlritter was the Lance Maiden inside the Infernal Castle. Did that actually happen or is that a retcon? I mean, it was pretty heavily implied that it was her, but I don't feel like they ever outright said it! Also, I'm glad they got Duvalie's VA back, because man, she's so good!

I don't think they ever directly state it, but if you've played Ao you know this because you've seen the character before.
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Okay, so they make it clear that the prologue is 3 months in the future.

Oh hey, looks like we're in western Erebonia! They never let us see this in the first two games! It's interesting to see everyone react to Rean like he's some famous celebrity, which I guess he kinda is at this point! Aw yeah, DC Douglas is back as Valimar, which means he's almost certainly back as Rufus, too!

Oh man, wasting no time bringing Agate and Tita into the game. I like it. Wonder what they're doing in Erebonia. Whoa, when did Rean and Patrick become besties? But even so, he'll still be eternally blocked from Elise by Rean, it seems! Oh hey, so we're not teaching at Thors in Trista. We're in a similar locale in a place called Leeves to the west of Heimdallr. I guess it's a new branch.

Looks like Towa is all grown up! Well, sort of. Oh hey, they managed to recruit the famous Cowboys WR to teach here, too! Oh wait, this is Michael Irving, too bad. Huh, I definitely didn't expect to see Aurelia and Professor Schmidt as the two people in charge of the school. Wait, is Rean trying to go Clark Kent here?

Tita is enrolled here? And I already know she won't be in my class, darn. Oh man, Tita being taught by Towa is like mini-moe overload. Wow, Aurelia doesn't sugarcoat the situation here. I like her already, although I wonder why they considered Tita "not good enough" for the main Thors campus. Maybe because she's a foreigner? Oh, she's basically an apprentice for Professor Schmidt, looks like. Makes sense, although I wonder what Tita's grandpa thought of this! I thought the two of them didn't see eye to eye.

Okay, so pink-haired girl is from Crossbell, it seems. And blue-haired boy is a Vander, Mueller's little brother, to be precise. Looks like Altina is about as careful with sensitive information as Millium was!

And of course they do THAT callback to the original Cold Steel. Wow, Crossbell has Guardian Forces? I really need to play those games then...!
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man am I playing Trails of Cold Steel III or Metal Gear Solid 2

it's like I'm playing a rehash of the original game with a different purpose
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I just won my first ever multiplayer Triple Triad match. I had a far worse deck than my opponent too but I lucked out big time because they chose the swap rule which ended up prompting me to ditch one of my bad cards in favor of one of their five-star extreme rares.

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Oh bloody hell, CS3 has a Gwent. Gonna lose many hours playing it, guaranteed.
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I like the scene where Rean forces everyone to come up with their own reasons for choosing to stay in Class VII. I like that Kurt and Juna basically just want to show him up, and that he made Altina come up with a reason other than "I was ordered to."

So Agate's here because of Ouroboros and Osborne. Yeah, I should've figured as much. Oh hey, a conference call with Lechter, Rufus, and Claire. Looks like Osborne's trying to lure Ouroboros out of hiding himself. Villain vs. villain subplots are usually pretty fascinating, so I'm all for this. Ah, so this branch campus was Olivert's idea, although Osborne doesn't seem too concerned about it (not exactly endearing yourself by calling Rean your "worthless son" though, ouch).

Whew, Prologue beated. Sounds like they got most of the Class VII VAs back, although Millium is noticeably different.
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Getting Ashly Burch back for Millium was a longshot at this point, but her new VA has done a pretty good job so far.
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Yeah, the new VA still captures the essence of the character. You can just tell she's not Ashly Burch.
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dowolf posted...

looks about right. Noel's in a weird place for me where I think she could be removed from the game and not change anything about it, but I still like her better than the beta version of Rean that is Lloyd.

though implying Kea not a main character XP please.

Yeah, Noel is totally removable from a narrative standpoint but she's such a dork she makes me smile. KeA was admittedly an unfortunate oversight because I was thinking party members minus Dudley in a show of my disrespect (kidding aside he'd be last easily) Put KeA in... 4th maybe? Behind Tio/Wazy but probably ahead of Rixia?
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dowolf posted...

Randy > Tio = Wazy > Rixia >= Noel >> Lloyd > Elie

looks about right. Noel's in a weird place for me where I think she could be removed from the game and not change anything about it, but I still like her better than the beta version of Rean that is Lloyd.

though implying Kea not a main character XP please.

And yeah, Ao's incredible. Some of the plot points in and around the final battle in particular have really stuck in my mind and aged like a fine wine, if that makes any sense. Especially when (Ao, DQ11 spoilers) I went from playing the former to the latter, which takes literally the exact opposite position on "let's reset time to save people, even if that means never becoming the people we are now," except DQ11 wusses out of it by just magically having everything in Act 2 that they wanted to happen happen anyways DQ11 has problems, is what I'm trying to say anywhoooooooo

Eh, they still had some dumb stuff at the end of Ao there, telling KeA that her powers are evil (but she definitely shouldn't undo the part where she saved all of them, because her powers were totally good in that case, BUT NEVER USE THEM AGAIN BECAUSE THEY'RE EVIL). Felt like one of those cases where the bad guys were right and the good guys were wrong. I liked Lloyd a lot more in Zero than Ao.
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That's not quite the take I had of what all went down at the end of Ao!

Major Ao no Kiseki Spoilers: IIRC Lloyd (someone did for sure; Randy mentions the hypocrisy of the situation for sure) bluntly states it's entirely possible it'd be better if the timeline hadn't been altered to save them. They also don't really deem her powers evil so much as a crutch that would stunt mankind's growth by basically solving all their problems with miracles - much like the Aureole was.

Furthermore, they contend that KeA's personality would either torment her over it or burden her with the responsibility of the entire world if they just let her continue using her power and since they're interested more in KeA's happiness as a person than the philosophical, ethical, and practical dilemmas KeA's abilities raise they want her to stop. Lloyd notes that KeA suffers because she realizes that "just" using her power to save the SSS - people she's personally close to - is unfair which locks her into a position of constantly feeling awful for being selective or forces her to bear the weight of solving everyone's problems forever.

Mariabell and Grimwood had a point insofar as they conceivably had obtained the means to basically end human suffering forever (or as long as KeA didn't suffer a breakdown in spite of their precautions) but you still have to grapple with the "is it worth the cost of stagnating humanity's growth" and "is it worth sacrificing one girl's happiness to do it" and obviously the SSS is a no on both points.

Lloyd and Elie were both kinda "there" and boring IMO. What probably put Lloyd ahead of Elie were his better moments and that final conversation with Guy absolutely cemented it. That was great.
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CS3 Started. Prologue beated. Also played a little bit of Chapter 1, on the first free day, but not very far on it (I think.)

New guys seem cool. Still not entirely used to the UI's updated design for post-battle stuff sometimes feel like I have to double-take. Duvalie still the best, and aww yeah Arianrhod sighting too. Back to the "present" Towa is great as usual and Aurelia's speech still amazing lol. I assume Altina became a troll somewhere down the line because she clearly has the capacity to keep to opsec given she successfully acted as a mole in the Noble Alliance during the entirety of CS2 but just casually drops knowledge here. I approve of this development.

Also in one of the Leeves panning shots did I see a Neinvalli sign? aaaaaaaaaaaaa. hype. what are they even doing there. I knew that we'd see it in some form because I saw Jingo in the artbook but I assumed we'd just visit it in Crossbell or something but they're here aaaaaaaaaa.

Rean's new S-Craft is cool too. loss of arc slash (for now, at least) is a tragedy though
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I can definitely already notice NISA's..."influence" on the localization. Multiple typos and in the library where they have entries on other nations, they have two labeled Leman State, where one of them is meant to be Liberl.

Also, these new students feel like they wouldn't be all that out of place in a Danganronpa game.

And of course there are bathhouse bonding events.
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SaveEstelle posted...

The Mana Sword posted...

You mean like the Teen Gohan and World Tournanent? Those I like. Feels a bit more like original Dragonball and its a nice change of pace.

Oh, I actually meant... everything prior to Buu Dragon Ball and all of Z up until that point. But then again, thats kind of a big question, haha.

Oh!

For the most part it's all good stuff. I still think the very beginning of DB is the best - from the start up through the end of the first WT. Pretty much everything through Cell is varying degrees of good, though. I tend to get a little fatigued by the long protracted fights, so like the end of the Frieza saga gets to be a bit much (even though the early Namek stuff is great). Red Ribbon Saga is something of a low point as well.
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Yeah I have been very pleasantly surprised by Altina so far. I also liked her somewhat in CS2 but she's been way better here. I've been a big fan of all the "new" main characters so far (ie. Altina and then all the mains who are actually new)

Also yes Neinvalli is still a thing and continues to be amazing. Jingo one of my favorite NPC's
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Yeah, Altina has been a pleasant surprise so far. I love the emotionless doll girl trope to begin with, but the fact that she's added snark to her repertoire has made her even better.
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sometimes it's kind of hard to believe that Elliot in Cold Steel and Felix in Three Houses share the same VA
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Boo is great almost the whole way imo.


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For DBZ, it's great up until Cell shows up. He's just a boring villain. Saiyan arc is real good, and even the Android stuff is all excellent (up to Cell).

For original DB, it's solid up until Piccolo shows up, where it gets great IMO (this is based on the manga rather than the anime). The comedy is mostly good, but I prefer the epic stuff in general.

xp1337 posted...

Major Ao no Kiseki Spoilers:

Considering how many cataclysms beset the Kiseki world, the "stagnating humanity's growth" argument feels like bullshit. It's pure luck that humanity wasn't wiped out again just in the course of the Trails games (and you might say that humanity would've been wiped out if KeA had let Lloyd & co. die). It's the argument that people who are privileged enough not to be beset by terminal illness and starvation would make. Just makes Lloyd feel incredibly elitist.
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Cold Steel 3 time

Oh man, this delivery guy is wearing a visor with "Capua" on it like Josette in Trails the 3rd. Does that mean she's around here somewhere? Hype.

I do like how all the buildings on the branch campus are connected, making it easier to get from place to place, even with quick travel.

Rean's shout of THERE when fishing is so awkward. I do like that they've simplified the fishing mini-game and it's no longer a button mashing fest though.
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last thought on
Mac Arrowny posted...

xp1337 posted...

Major Ao no Kiseki Spoilers:

from me, but:

You can make an argument that Ian is in the right, sure. And certainly it takes a certain level of privilege to say "I want humanity as it is, warts and all, not some gilded mockery of life"; the metric is very different when one suffers the warts themselves. Yet there is also beauty in the struggle, and characters in a story are allowed to embrace that beauty regardless of the utilitarian value of it. In fact, I would argue reducing characters to strictly utilitarian instruments would make for a rather boring story. and to the original point, I would argue that an ending where one side is unambiguously right is less interesting than one where you can appreciate both.
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The Mana Sword posted...

Oh!

For the most part it's all good stuff. I still think the very beginning of DB is the best - from the start up through the end of the first WT. Pretty much everything through Cell is varying degrees of good, though. I tend to get a little fatigued by the long protracted fights, so like the end of the Frieza saga gets to be a bit much (even though the early Namek stuff is great). Red Ribbon Saga is something of a low point as well.

I feel you on getting fatigued. Thats something I definitely prefer about Dragon Ball over Z, although on the flip side DBZ really sells itself on how epic some of its confrontations can feel.

Ive really been enjoying Gokus journey so far and I think its smart of Toriyama to feature several time skips along the way. Helps to shake things up.

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I definitely agree that long fights are exhausting. Thats a big part of why DB > DBZ.

I liked the Red Ribbon Army stuff, though!

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That's fair, dowolf. Having sympathetic villains was one of the best things about Ao. Lord knows I had no sympathy for the Sky/Cold Steel villains... The main thing is probably just that I wasn't a fan of Lloyd. I think I would've liked the Crossbell games a lot more if I'd liked him as much as I liked Estelle.
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I can't handle all of this Lloyd slander. Lloyd best.
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delete the harem elements and he might be best
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I mean.

On the one hand, Estelle is such a good protagonist that it feels unfair to compare everyone else to her.

On the other hand, like even if you like Lloyd you gotta admit he's bottom-tier in his own games.
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dowolf posted...

On the one hand, Estelle is such a good protagonist that it feels unfair to compare everyone else to her.

i remember playing 3rd and thinking kevin might actually pass her and then she slammed the door in his face in the ending lmao
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I mean, Estelle's a bit overrated on B8, but Kevin? Ehhhhhh.
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i will not hear slander towards the protagonist of what may possibly be the greatest game of all time
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I don't intend to slander Squall anytime soon, don't worry.
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squall not even the best protagonist that mains a gunblade in his own series

(i like squall i'm just sayin')
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xp1337 posted...

squall not even the best protagonist that mains a gunblade in his own series

(i like squall i'm just sayin')

I like Lightning but yikes this is tantamount to heresy
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Personally I thought Lloyd was one of the best Crossbell characters. Close call between him and Rixia but those were definitely my top 2.
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LeonhartFour posted...

xp1337 posted...

squall not even the best protagonist that mains a gunblade in his own series

(i like squall i'm just sayin')

I like Lightning but yikes this is tantamount to heresy

and you know who would deal with heresy?

kevin graham
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Squall is capable of taking out time traveling heretics all by himself
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xp1337 posted...

squall not even the best protagonist that mains a gunblade in his own series

(i like squall i'm just sayin')

yeah thancred is pretty cool
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Pro tip: Millium's Brave Order is available to you early on for a reason.
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More Cold Steel 3!

Oh hey, it's Munk. Wow, I wouldn't have expected him to have such a deep voice! And Rosine is here, too! And here's the part where the NG+ sidequest from CS2 comes into play. Seriously, what a bad idea to hide content like that behind NG+ when each game is so ridiculously long.

And I will never play this card game again. This is the Tetra Master of Trails, no thanks.

So Lechter is the inside man for the branch school, huh. Well, maybe he'll play a bigger role than he did in the first two games. And the more scenes Aurelia is in, the more I like her. She's great.

And I see what Osborne's plan is here. He basically gets to kill two birds with one stone. He's planning on throwing the branch school students to the wolves in hopes of luring them out so he can capture them himself, which would have the added benefit of undermining whatever hopes Olivert had with the school. "The trash bin" indeed. Oh well, at least this means we get to go to new places since we were relegated to eastern Erebonia for the first two games!
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Boo I really like the card game in Cold Steel 3.

Anyways I finished chapter 1 and this game's hype levels are already through the roof I guess.

There's a lot I could say here but I'll just leave it to these for now:

--The scene of all of the Thors students offering flowers at the gravesite toward the end of the chapter is very beautiful. (along with most related scenes at the same location)

--All hail the (Jaeger) king

--Ok seriously who in the actual fuck is Musse?
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pyresword posted...

Boo I really like the card game in Cold Steel 3.

Takes too long and I don't need a mini-game that's more complex than actual game.
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Yeah I guess as someone with a lot of experience and interest in TCG's this is exactly the type of thing I'll immediately start running with in a game. Also the system is similar enough in structure to some actual TCG's I've already played which made it relatively easy to pick up.
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overly complicated card-based minigames?

let me tell you about xenocard
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