Board 8 > NFUN Plays Zero no Kiseki

(+) Yeah! (+)

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probably not gonna be an actual playthrough topic and more of a place to share my general shitposts and frustrations so that I don't clog the falcom channel. topic will have sporadic spoilers for trails in the sky, CS1 and 2 (haven't done the bonus mission at the end of cold steel 2 yet) and progressive on zero.

I've done the first Geofront expedition. The boss fight was pretty annoying since sometimes those slimes just really wanted to kill the kid, but after having beaten 3rd on Nightmare on a clean save I've become extremely patient with bullshit. Nothing here is gonna be worse than Cassius or the Enforcers or delay cannon spam black Dragion THAT YOU CAN'T ADJUST QUARTZ FOR

Lloyd seems pretty similar to Rean so far. Other characters are just alright and have potential

I like how you can really see how the series progressed between Sky and Cold Steel. The magic setup is like Sky's but the spells themselves are like Cold Steel (Breath instead of La Tear, for example). The game is isometric with overworld chibis like Sky but you attack enemies to stun them for battle advantages. etc

I saw this dancer girl leaving the circus who said she was going to the city hall to get housing information. I went to city hall and she was leaving after having a Downtown apartment recommended to her by the receptionist who became concerned that she suggested a place so seedy. I feel like this is already a hidden quest where I'd have to rescue her, but I explored Downtown again and nothing was up. Maybe my instincts are overtuned after getting all Sky BP
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Zero has the best battle theme in the entire series.

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shane15 posted...

Zero has the best battle theme in the entire series.

If you mean normal battle theme, I knew the answer July 28th, 2016 when I whacked my first dirty rat with my first giant stick
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Is there a quest with this acrobat that I'm missing, or can I visit the station and complete my first mission?
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I believe you're free to complete the mission.

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man the receptionist gives off strong Persona vibes. I think I prefer the Sora artstyle in general, though I appreciate how the eyes in this are less grotesquely anime and seem actually attached to every character's face

Can't believe we had to meet a cult so early in the game. Yes I am talking about the FISHERMAN'S GUILD what did you thing i was referring to? speaking of which one of the people here knows that lloyd used to fish. now it is my headcanon that lloyd is the same lloyd in sora (remember he told you about the ID meeting with the capuas at valleria? he gave estelle her fishing notebook and rod? you duel him in the first fishing game in 3rd? HE'S VERY IMPORTANT TO THE LORE)

Oh hey Formidable Enemy*!... and this guy is a formidable enemy sheesh. maybe i should give lloyd literally any quartz. Now I have food and actual magic! GO SPEED DOWN GO STR UP!... wow buffs in this game last no time at all do they? At least in CS I think they often stuck around for five turns? Honestly the fights I hated most in 3rd were in the doors where you had very little flexibility in setups or tactics, and often ended up needing to do a cycle of "attack attack heal attack attack heal" to win the fight. oh thank god i don't need to actually kill him that would've been problematic

this reporter is just nial and dorothy rolled into one

*this sounds a little different than I'm used to I think? oh apparently the one i know is Evo but i mislabeled it oops. almost want to use the evo soundtrack now
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I still prefer the original soundtracks overall but the Zero/Ao Evo ones are way better than the Sky Evo OST's imo. I don't think Formidable Enemy was one of them, but there are definitely a good chunk of the songs here where I prefer the Evo version. (Ancient Pulsation and Silence in the Sunlight Filtering Through the Trees are immediately coming to mind as examples)
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Yeah, in Snrkiko's[sp] Vita topic he said he was gonna try to get the Sky Evo songs on it and I asked why; as far as every song I heard, no Evo Sky song was better than the original. I've heard a lot of great Crossbell Evo songs to the point where I'd begun to think it was the "standard".

i've heard azure arbitrator evo, though. dont want that in my game over the original
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I once beta-tested a fangame. 90% of my issue reports were of grammatical mistakes. I am excited to continue this tradition


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Is the Geofront team making it a gimmick for Tio to namedrop songs randomly?


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This topic has reminded me of something I need to do when I get home in the morning

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okay I did it





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I have no idea what this game is, but I've scrolled past this topic multiple times and every single time my brain has read it as "Ni No Kuni" and I stop for a second before realizing it's not even close.

Just thought I'd let you know.

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davidponte posted...

I have no idea what this game is, but I've scrolled past this topic multiple times and every single time my brain has read it as "Ni No Kuni" and I stop for a second before realizing it's not even close.

Just thought I'd let you know.

the 4th game in the Trails series after Trails in the Sky the 3rd

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Maybe I should play this series.

Or at least figure out what it is because I have no idea.

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the marvel cinematic universe of JRPG series

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ninkendo posted...

the marvel cinematic universe of JRPG series

Except its actually good

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That description isn't wrong, but I think it's really the character writing and the attention to detailed worldbuilding that makes the series shine, rather than just the scope itself.
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I guess they really want to make Guy the Cassius of this game. Nobody can replace Papa in my heart, especially if they're not talented enough to achieve immortality like him

Two new bracers? KIDDOS? Could it be...!

YES

I knew that they were showing up eventually but I didn't expect it to be this early! Half the motivation I had for replaying the series came from me missing Estelle

oh god the artstyle change for them is jarring

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who needs Guy when you have Arios

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Arios is also no Cassisus! You need to have an impenetrable ego to be Cassius, a complete belief that you're the baddest motherfucker around... because you are

I've been thinking. Estelle and Joshua had to kill four rats and a couple of swarms of moths in the sewers under their tiny hometown in order to get their junior bracer certification (along with the baby easy test that every eight year old who's done a year of Sunday School could pass). The Ravens had to clear a secluded mountain cave that used to be inhabited by a dragon, fighting ice elementals, dinosaurs and SPACE CUTTLEFISH and eventually AGATE... only to becomes juniors conditionally! Rocco almost died!

Another thought occurs: there's probably a nonzero amount of people who hated the Bright kids and rolled their eyes in disgust when Estelle and Joshua popped up here.
Wait, can they even be considered people?

....presented without comment


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Hmm, this is apparently the Hayworth residence. Sophia Hayworth... why does that ring a bell...?



YO

I don't know why I'm so surprised/excited about these connections when it's half the reason the Crossbell games exist

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The black market lady commented on Randolphin's profession and hair color, and I can't help but notice her kid is a redhead...

yeah tio's all now. poisson better watch the fuck out

I reached Armorica. Honestly I'm not a huge fan of rustic farming village settings in these types of games. Manoria was alright, I guess, independently of the setting. Hopefully this one can keep my interest. It almost has a Pokemon XD feel? It's kind of interesting how often this game mentions the whole of Zemuria. SnK and CS tended to mainly mention Erebonia, Liberl, Calvard or Crossbell, but I suppose that Crossbell's role as a trading hub makes them reference trade to the rest of the continent more often?

HA! I knew Harold was gonna show up here!

Yeah I don't think any of this Divine Wolf stuff will be interesting. More Chapter 1 setting-the-stage plot that's nice in retrospect but whatever in the moment.

...you ever just want to play atelier?

Oh sick, fast travel. Was wondering if this would turn up. At first I was really confused while he was giving us a map; we already had one!

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I was pleasantly surprised by chapter 1 but yeah I still wouldn't say it was especially groundbreaking.

Crossbell arc easily handles the world politics aspect the best out of the games

For the most part I'd say the Crossbell outskirts don't matter too much overall, since you aren't spending excessive amounts of time at any particular spot.
I also don't really care about the towns anyway, although a lot of the scenery is nice. I do like Saint Ursula Medical College but I think that's the only populated area I cared about other than Crossbell City itself.
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NFUN posted...

...you ever just want to play atelier?

all the time

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NFUN posted...

At first I was really confused while he was giving us a map; we already had one!

"Yeah, but this map lets you go fast."

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"We like to boast about how this building is the safest place on the entire continent". Now that's some pretty blatant foreshadowing

Some of the emotes, like the music note, have sounds extremely similar to that of Discord's notification and I'm having a crisis

Estelle and Joshua come to save the day! I feel like they could've made a better entrance (hell, they did when saving the kids in FC's Prologue) but I'll take what I can get. And nice, their theme has the Whereabouts motif

Whoa, this place is just selling medical masks!! How unrealistic

"He's supposed to be a medical intern, yet he still found himself hospitalized". Looks like they've got Charlie Kirk as a patient

The trope of Tio glaring and Elie commenting whenever anybody mentions anything amorous around Lloyd was old the first time they did it and really should just stop

Hmm, the girl here is hospitalized under "special circumstances". Estelle and Joshua were heading to the hospital. I don't think it is yet the time for Her to make her debut, but perhaps...

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Randy would be so much worse without voice acting

Five or six years ago Guy escorted a girl who was nine at the time. The only person I can think of that fits the age is Tio, which I don't think makes a ton of sense but who knows

Ah, yes. An escort boss fight where the boss can two-hit your support NPC who is also too stupid to stay out of the way. And you only get to use two characters. Makes sense. I guess every early-game boss fight is just gonna be Randy spamming Delay... JUST LIKE JOSHUA IN SORA! But at least then those techniques weren't mandatory (except in nightmare shoutouts to the spider that oneshots you and fully heals herself if you ever let her attack)

Man, it wasn't enough to just make Quattro kind of a dick, they had to turn him into a complete Javert too. It's tough to tell when I do a quest completely right and when I blow it because I feel like most of the time they'll insult us anyway. At least this time it was clear-cut that I didn't miss anything

I tell people not to play Cold Steel 2 before Crossbell. I should be telling them not to play Cold Steel at all before it. I'm sure the Whack-a-Mishy game will have a much different impact by the time I return to Erebonia

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The Mishy Cinematic Universe is a clear prerequisite.

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I meant to say this last time but The Wind from Liberl is low-key one of my favorite songs in the series. They take the Whereabouts of Light melody but then make all the notes staccato instead of drawn out and change the melody of the phrase that plays at 0:08-0:10 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJ_PVyDYARY), for example, by making the eighth notes go straight up a scale rather than jumping up to the higher note that they do in the original before resolving the melody. It makes the song sound less about EMOTIONS and DRAMA and makes it sound more...stable, I guess, and it's just a perfect representation of Estelle and Joshua's character progression and aaa I love it.

I've kind of wanted to nominate it for VGMC but at the same time I can't even explain why I love the song so much to someone--much less have any hope of them also liking it--unless they both interpret music the same way I do and also have already spent 200 hours playing through the Sky games themselves.
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tag. Recently finished this and also feel like playing Cold Steel after this would have been better. (I played CS1+2 before I even played the Sky Series). I'm probably gonna replay em after i finish ao

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topic may be on hold for some time if my laptop doesn't decide it wants to keep living

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NFUN posted...

topic may be on hold for some time if my laptop doesn't decide it wants to keep living

Were you able to get over the barrier?
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https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YHCLsd0wsMU

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https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mqAzKJIr5aQ

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

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSmJUB74bdM

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https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sJ_PVyDYARY

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