Board 8 > azuarc plays LoH: Trails of Cold Steel (progressive spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Someone bought ToCS for me as a gift recently, and I realized I missed a chance to do a playthrough topic earlier this year when I ran through Ace Attorney trilogy earlier this year, so I figured if I'm going to play this, I might as well try a PT. I make zero promises I'll follow through to the end, considering it's a long game and I've got a lot in my back log, but hey, what the hell, here goes.

My first session was 4 1/2 hours, so this opening series of posts is either going to be really long or really summarized. Going to do my best to remember most of what happened.

Game menu has almost no options in it, surprisingly. I was expecting to at least look for an option for subtitles, but as I played, I realized why that isn't the least bit necessary. Game gives me the option for playing on four difficulties, warning me that the top one is for New Game+. I'm tempted to pick the bottom one just because I'm most interested in the story, but I'm not that big a scrub, so I'm playing on Normal.

We begin with an anime opening, because this is a Falcom game, so why wouldn't we begin with an anime opening? It tours a bajillion characters, and I don't know who any of them are, other than that I've seen pictures of the class members before and I've probably watched this exact video on the Steam page for the game, but it tells my absolutely nothing. Then two soldiers hunker down behind a wrecked tank while enemies mechanized forces advance and assault their city wall. We get some context-less exposition from them, and then a group of kids in red shirts run into an opening in the wall. They're all named "black-haired boy" or "bespectacled girl," and the game makes a point of giving every one of them a line so I can learn that their names are black-haired boy or bespectacled girl, which is really kind of the writers. Two other characters, leading the charge, are referred to as instructors, and the guy instructor is clearly in charge. He begrudgingly admits that we're going to go run in and try to save the day because there's no time to get help and this is what we've trained for over the last six months. By now, the incident is very blatantly a flash-forward, which doesn't thrill me. Instructor.dude gives the team some orders, splits the group, and sends the leader with instructor.chick to the right while he takes everyone else to the left.

We charge through an empty corridor while my menu options are basically all locked, so all I can do is charge ahead. We get into combat with some robots, and I'm 100% left to fend for myself with the combat mechanics, which is overwhelming because I'm controlling endgame characters. I can attack, use an item, retreat, defend, or engage in Arts & Crafts. It's like summer camp all over again. I decide to build a popsicle stick bridge for the robots, and they think that's sweet and leave us alone. My characters have both EP and CP, and about five options under each menu, and I feel like I should have expected this from my partial playthrough of TitS FC, but right now there's way too many options.

Two more fights follow, down completely empty corridors, with no deviations or anything to explore, so for a moment I wonder if I've stepped into FF13, but then we exit out of a door and oh, no! The railway guns! The enemy advance has opened very planned, engineered openings in our city's walls, slid very clearly meant-to-be-here artillery that they couldn't have possibly pushed through the exterior side of the wall themselves, and I'm wondering why in the world the defenders built cannons on the inside of the wall that have no purpose but to assault their own city. However, the game treats this as though the enemy did all this, so fine, sure. The team's banter, which includes more context-less exposition, suggests that the invaders are cruel heartless bastards for having the audacity to use the railway guns, and on a city, no less! I don't see why, because war is war, and they clearly came to sack the city, but there's also talk about something something chancellor something something merchant conference. Right now, I'm clearly supposed to be the 8-year-old watching a Disney movie and having the adult jokes fly right over my head.

Our team is preparing to Do Something (tm) to intercept the enormous hunks of well-built metal that are on platforms considerably above us and to the side, and wouldn't possibly take a scratch from mere mortals, but suddenly two mechs burst out of invisibility and attack us. Oh, yay. A boss fight. Just what I want when I have no idea what the hell I'm doing. Still, I'm not too worried. My team is level 49, and these dudes are not exactly putting a beatdown on us. They're basically damage sponges and black-haired boy's time slow proves to be a really good choice. One of my characters attacks, and at the end I get a quicktime event where another one tag-teams. I wonder what the hell that's about, but eventually I notice the group seems to be linked together by a pair of blue and yellow lines. Blue-haired ponytail girl is linked to spear man, and black-haired boy is linked to...whichever member of the female cast I had. This seems to remain the case as they move throughout the battle. No explanation offered. Maybe it has to do with my fingerpainting and crude clay pots.

The two mechs die, the kids expose more banter, and then the guns shifts into position to actually fire. Black-haired boy gets really angry, and then the scene fades to black. Hurray, I've finished the intro! As a reward, I'm given...a different anime opening. This one actually runs through the entire cast and starts naming them, beginning with Rean (black-haired boy), followed by the girl with blonde pigtails, and then everyone else shows up in pairs. So Pigtails is our main female character, and that disappoints me because the blue ponytail girl seems way more my type. I think, maybe the game will just show us the party, but nope, it just hits us with three dozen names characters, including three people with a single letter for their name who are obviously this game's version of Team Rocket. I don't know why the game's bothering to dump all the names on me now, since it was so fastidious in not giving me the names earlier, but I'll put it together eventually.

And with that, we're ready for the game to actually begin...right? Right?

---

omg tag tag tag

i have to go right now so i couldn't even read the OP yet but tag

---

Black-haired boy is now riding a train, navelgazing on how he's traveling to his new school where he'll be for the next two years. The game is super oblique, with the writers trying not to make their infodumping obvious, but they're pretty obviously infodumping and I wish they'd just rip off the band-aid and tell me what I'm supposed to know rather than being coy about it.

Rean -- who I'm absolutely done with calling black-haired boy, btw -- stared around the train, wondering why of all the passengers, everyone else is wearing a green uniform while he's wearing a red one. This clearly must be the train to Hogwart's, because only students are on the train and Rean talks like the students couldn't possibly be arriving by any other means.

Finally, we arrive at our stop, Trista, and Rean gets out to gawk at how beautiful the city is. The devs must have been super proud of themselves for constructing a fully 3-D town, because we're treated to a two-minute virtual tour as the game shows us what every street and building looks like. As Rean is standing in the middle of the path, taking in the sights, Pigtails emerges from the train station, also gawping as she walks, and plows right into Rean. She falls, he does not, and he offers her a hand up like a gentleman. Then he apologizes for standing still, and she says oh no, it's my fault, I should have watched where I was going. They play the getting-to-know-you dance without actually exchanging names, and she runs off to the school to not be late for the admission ceremony. Clearly, I should hurry to do the same.

Clearly, this is an RPG and I should explore the town. Not that I didn't already see what it looked like in Visio. Almost all the buildings are closed anyway, so the best I can do is talk to NPCs. I find a "third dormitory" before advancing to the next part of town, where I find the first and second dormitories, and then finally I'm at the school. Two upperclassmen greet us, take our weapons, and tell us to shuffle off. Along the way, I meet two other characters wearing red -- a nobleman who literally pulls up in a limo and tells his chauffeur to piss off so he doesn't stand out from the other students, and the blue-haired girl who parts ways with her butler.

The ceremony, which we fade in on near the end, has 50 generic NPCs mixed in with a few of the red-shirts. The nobles, all sitting in the front row, are part of classes I and II, while the commoners are in III, IV, and V. Now please go to your designated location, indicated by your...oh, oops. We don't have one. Rean banters with the redshirt beside him, a short boy named Craig. Wait, no, that's his last name, but for some reason Craig is what sticks with me. Then another member of the faculty emerges from the other direction while literally only the redshirts are still here, standing stock still rather than asking questions about where they should go, and asks, "So I bet you've all got questions about where you should go, huh?" The writers know they're committing a faux pas and just lampshade the hell out of it, which seems to be a running theme in this game.

Instructor Sara, who is surprisingly laidback and borderline unprofessional, tells us to all follow her into some creepy old haunted (school)house. She says, hey, you're part of Class VII, and someone goes "wait, aren't there only five classes?" to which she says there were, but now there's six -- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and...7. Remind me not to let her throw my holy hand grenade of Antioch. Before explaining anything else she's going to put the kids on an orienteering exercise, and I think, shouldn't that be orientation, which one of the kids helpfully asks for me eventually, but no, it's orienteering, which is a word I'm completely unfamiliar with. Obviously it means we're about to be Shanghaied.

Sara pulls a switch, the floor gives way, and six of the students tumble in. Pigtails is trying to hold onto the tilted floor. Rean's is a better position to hang on, but he jumps from his spot to shield her and they both tumble down. The ninth chick says uh, nope, and hits the rafters with a grappling hook. Sara clearly knows her and says you have to play nice, and tosses a knife at the rope. The girl gives the camera an exasperated sigh as gravity pulls her down.

Speaking of gravity, Rean's getting a nice face full of sweater meat right now. In the basement below, Pigtails has landed on his chest and fainted, and he's studiously keeping his hands where everyone can see them rather than getting up. The other kids lament how they got here, Pigtails comes around and gets SUPER angry at Rean for no reason, and then two of the boys get into a pissing match. Or rather, they continue their pissing match, which started before the trapdoor incident. Jusis, the high noble, puts Machias, the commoner with glasses who is raging about the existence of the class system and how horrible nobles are, in his place by pointing out that he's the capital governor's son. Machias says, well noOOoo, I'm not a hypocrite 'cause my daddy worked for his position. Whatever.

Sara calls us on our cell phones, which we didn't even know were cell phones, but I guess the kids can be forgiven that because they weren't around to remember the days when everyone used flip phones. We get our first quartz for our ARCUS, and I'm like, hey, I guess I'm going to tie a link of arcus now, huh.

The group is supposed to fight our way through a dungeon, set up just for us. Oh, yeah, I forgot the cutscene as we're walking into the haunted house, where four people who are seemingly upperclassmen, watch us from a ridge and engage in context-less exposition about what's in store for our class. It's so oblique that I almost wanted to just mash the A button and skip it. That kind of scene might work in an actual program, but in a game, it's just a distraction.

Also a distraction is Justis and Machias, who get into it again, and both storm off to navigate the dungeon on their own. The girl with the grappling hook also leaves. Blue-haired girl -- Laura -- takes charge and says hey girls, come with me. You fellows might want to stick together, too, by the way. We watch the ladies leave, chat up a bit, and then enter our first dungeon.

---

Rean-san...

---

As of right now, my team consists of Rean, Craig -- er, sorry, I mean Eliot -- and a dude whose name I've forgotten so I'm looking at a wiki now and holy crap there's a dude in this game named Leonidas? Oh, um, er, Gaius. The tall spear user is Gaius. The three of them engage in a round of admiring each other's weapons, and then we're off to fight winged cats. The next battle is against slime monsters that basically force us to use arts. And then we enter a third room where we fight a bajillion scarab monsters. Rean gets his ass kicked (actual gameplay) and barely survives. Then Crai--Eli--y'know, I'm just gonna call him Craig. He could use a more manly name, anyway. Craig collapses from anxiety. Just as Rean and Gaius talk him through it and he's standing, a scarab jumps down, and is blasted by Machias, who arrives from stage left "just in time." He's wielding a huge-ass shotgun, which must be firing slugs, because somehow he hit that thing from like 30 yards out.

Machias joins us for a couple battles, as we find the girls, and Machias proves that he's not just a classist, but that he can be denigrating to the girl squad as well. No, he's an equal opportunity bigot. The other boys are like, umm, Laura looks like she knows how to use her buster sword, and she's the daughter of the best swordsman in the land, so just let her play SOLDIER. Their team is probably safer than ours, thank you very much. We then bump into Machias's best friend, Jusis, who single-handedly fights off six monsters that he would never be able to handle within the game's combat mechanics. The guys watch him fight, and then Machias gets into another argument, which has him wander off, defeated. Jusis joins our party instead, trying to act like we're not beneath him. He's clearly making an effort to be open-minded about the class system, unlike Machias, but he's so cold and distant that he still comes off as an arrogant bastard.

Fie, the grappling hook girl, cheers us on that we're halfway there, and Rean thinks, "wait, how does she know unless she went all the way to the exit and then came back?" She executes some parkour moves and leaps up to a balcony. We take the long way. Somehow we get to the exit before the girl squad, even though they went that way before us, and everyone else is grateful to be done but Jusis is disappointed it was so easy. The game, as if to satisfy his desire for a challenge, transforms a gargoyle in the room into an animated construct and a boss battle ensues. Phase two gets dicey because I can only use physical damage, and he periodically does a group attack that really hurts. Plus my healer's OOM by the end, so I just zerg him down at the end.

Then he gets back up. Well, shit.

But never fear, Laura's here! The girls run in, and Cloud jumps in to take the heat while Pigtails fires her bow, and they create an opening, but it's not enough. Then from the door, Machias and Fie show up. Machias blasts it, Fie does a thirty-foot somersault behind it and hamstrings it (which I'm sure does a lot of good to a stone gargoyle,) and Laura finally beheads it. Then everyone charges in together, all glowing, and finish it. Rean's all like WTF was that, and Instructor Sara shows up from the exit to applaud them and invite them to join the school's special new Class VII for realz this time. You guys have some special orbment because you have an affinity for it and can you imagine how amazing a unit people who can actually use this with the ability to know what your teammates are doing and what they're thinking in battle? She sounds like she's trying to sell an army general on her new tech rather than pitching the students to take part in the class. But oh, no pressure, you can totally back out and join a regular class.

Everyone stares at each other, and finally Rean steps up and says he's in. Laura follows, and soon the entire class is in. Machias is the last to join, after Jusis baits him by saying "I'm in the class, so you might as well leave so we don't have to deal with each other," and Machias is like pssh, I do what I want, and joins just to spite him.

And now I'm done the prologue. Oh. So what the hell was that first part with the flash-forward then?

I get to watch the first anime opening again, because I guess they didn't have the budget to do a third one, but they had to hammer home that hey, you're really really starting the game now, kay?

Uhh, kay.

---

Don't have time to read now but tag
---

God, it's going to take me longer to write these summaries than it is to actually play the game.

So chapter 1 begins three weeks later, with the semester well under way. Rean and Craig walk to class from the dorms. Pigtails helps Rean answer a question in history class, even though she's still holding a grudge and being snotty at every opportunity. Instructor Sara tells them that they'll have a free day tomorrow, so make good use of it, but oh, wouldn't somebody be sweet and run an errand for me to the Student Council room? Rean volunteers because only Craig and Gaius are still here, and they're considering joining clubs.

I spend over an hour running around the campus, learning where everything is, and holy crap they made a big school. It's bigger than the town. Heck, just Old Main is bigger than the town. And that's with half the places closed off.

I discover that clubs at the school include cooking, art, wind ensemble, photography, fishing, literature, swimming, fencing, and lacrosse. Rean approaches the lacrosse captain and she says, "You want to join? Oh, wait. Sorry, this is just for girls, lol." Unsurprisingly, this is where Pigtails ends up. Laura's in swimming. Gaius, art. Craig, music.

I find a bajillion books at the library that mostly tell me stuff I kinda already knew from FC or provide worldbuilding I don't really need right now. I try to go to the old schoolhouse, but Rean gets spooked and says nah, what for? Finally I get to the SC office and meet the girl who took my weapons on day 1. Rean notes how young she looks, and clearly the undertones of someone being a fae has flown right over his head. (Fie is undoubtedly also a fae. So are fo and fum.)

She gives Rean the class's handbooks and suggests that Sara has volunteered Class VII for helping the student council with their sidequests, er, I mean, tasks that other people needing help have come to them with. Like a spineless dummy, Rean lets himself be talked into it, and the next day we're off to be a bracer! After passing out the handbooks, that is. I find Pigtails last and she reluctantly meets Rean at her door. He checks inside to make sure it's her and sees "Alisa Re--," which is one more letter than we knew previously, before she angrily grabs the book and slams it shut. She really doesn't want us to know she's part of the Reinhardt family for some reason. Then again, Rean is clearly keeping his own skeletons, since it's not really clear if he's a noble or not. (His earlier remark of "there's not a drop of noble blood in me" leads me to believe he was adopted and raised by nobles, especially since he's a sword user.)

Anyway, Alisa continues to be a total bitch to him, and Rean's such a softy that he doesn't stick up for himself. I'd say that their squabbles are evidence that they're clearly going to come together by the end of the story, but that pairing clearly belongs to Machias and Jusis, who are totally going to be making out by the end of chapter 2.

Sidequests! I have three of them. Rather than talking to every last person in school again, I cut right to the chase and hit the principal's office. He wants me to clean out the schoolhouse. I sense this is what will advance the game, so that takes lowest priority. I find some chick's lost student handbook and deliver three orbal whozeewhatzits to people around town. It's my first time in the radio station and I still don't understand the pawn shop, but Rean even says to himself afterward that this errand seems like it was specifically designed to show him where those things were. Too on the nose, game. Much too on the nose.

The engineering guy tells me I can now do all kinds of orbment stuff, and I reluctantly pass for now, but he does tell me I've collected some junk I can sell, and suddenly holy crap, I'm loaded. I run back to town and buy new clothes for myself, Gaius, and Craig. Oh, and I get a fishing rod. There's fishing in this game...yay...

Speaking of Craig, I do a free time, er, I mean, bonding event where I help him carry a bunch of packages and he tells me about his love of music and how he almost went to a music school instead. I have the option to spend my other bonding time with Bigotus Maximus, but fuck that, so I go into school and realize I also can spend time with Laura. Much more my speed. And she's wearing a swimsuit. Rean, you old dog, he just goes up to her and asks "do you mind if I watch you swim?" She doesn't even see him as a lech and says sure, can you time me? So now he has a specific excuse to watch her ass swim across the pool. Laura's not happy with her time, but Rean tells her she's still amazing, and she implies he should try swimming some time as a way to help with his swordsmanship.

After all that, it's probably time to go to the schoolhouse, but it's been long enough and I stop for the day before embarking on another adventure. It does seem notable that we've been playing for 4 1/2 hours, and other than an intro sequence where I didn't have any idea what I was doing, we've only had one segment of the game where combat was even possible. I expected the game to be heavily skewed toward story moments, but gawddamn.

Okay, now I'm done.

---

Tag.

There's plenty of combat to come, but the game's structure with the free day sections obscures how much there actually is somewhat. Not quite as bad as Persona in that way, but similar.

---

Apologies for typos. I'm writing stream-of-consciousness. In particular, I tend to write my novels in past tense, and this is written in present, which is going to lead to a lot of S vs D errors.

---

I'm glad you seem to want to continue playing it! And I still think Makemeass and Juicy are gonna end up making out at some point >_>; There's some hardcore tsundere energy going on between those two.

azuarc posted...

And now I'm done the prologue. Oh. So what the hell was that first part with the flash-forward then?

trails of cold steel 0.II final pre prologue

---

It's finally time to go down into the creepy schoolhouse. Rean thinks about it, then says maybe he should call for back-up. Given who's available, looks like it's gonna be the three amigos once again. I know Rean, Craig and Gaius are supposed to have this sort of closeness, but I really don't feel the chemistry.

Which is ironic because the very first battle is a tutorial on combat bonds. The whole layout of the schoolhouse has changed, giving me some serious House of Leaves vibes. I wonder if the whole game will just be periodic trips into the creepy schoolhouse. I mean, it already looks like they ripped off one of the tile sets from Recettear, so it would make sense if the place obeyed the living dungeon phenomenon. Maybe we'll find Charme at the bottom.

Alas, we do not. After some battles where I get to watch the Rean and Gaius show, tag-teaming everything with extra hits, we get to the bottom. I don't know how Craig knows it's the bottom, but I certainly do because there's a health refill, so obviously a boss fight is next. And all I do is beat him down with basic attacks with regen up. Yawn. The sausage party is now level 7.

We report to the president, Sara's there, and she implies we'll be doing more of this stuff. She continues to twist Rean's arm and take advantage of him. I get one more bondage point, and I have a chance to spend it with Pigtails, but she's been a bitch to me, so I don't care if she has MFC status. The student union building has Laura and someone else, with a second option, so I go there instead. Turns out Laura just chats and it's the someone else, who happens to be the Student Council president. No wonder I didn't recognize the portrait. So apparently I can increase my bond with her? She's not a party member, which means this sounds precisely what I shouldn't do...so that's what I do.

Not much else going on in town. I return to the dorms, where I listen to Radio Trista. I thought this might be something I did with Craig since the game told me bonding with people would lead to certain events at night and he likes music so much, but no. Rean just pops it on while he's studying to get ready for the practical exam.

And then the calendar skips ahead three days to the practical exam. Hope I'm ready.

---

"The winds must be on our side."
"Yeah, 'cause that was a breeze."

Gimme a Y. Gimme a R. Gimme a break, fellas.

Sara introduces us to our practical, complete with a close-up on her boobs. It's occurring to me that if you changed the color of her outfit and slipped her hair bundled at the back of her head over her shoulder instead, she'd look like Lightning.

She starts off by calling the three amigos forward, and it's pretty obvious what she intends. She pounds us with a clue-by-four if it wasn't obvious, though -- she wants to see us use combat links. And then DBDBAF starts playing, and I'm suddenly way more interested in the music than the fight. That title, "Don't Be Defeated By a Friend," is auspicious when our condition is for nobody to get KO'ed. The scarecrow is freaking easy with regen up, except at one point it hits everyone for 900, which is almost Craig's max HP. I probably didn't need to take a turn to heal, since it died right after, but the funny thing is that I wasn't even using combat links until the very end because I just assumed the game kept the same ones from last time. Whoops.

After the other two teams have finished, Sara admits that she doesn't like using the machine we fought, but it's something she worked on, rather customizable, and did it's job. Yeah, we trashed your robot, Sara. Is that really its best use? Then she announces a field study, which I totally predicted, but the entire class fills up with "..." bubbles and then tilting question marks. The devs needed to add a confused dog emote to their repertoire. But I'm being sent out on a four-man team with Craig, but no Gaius. Instead, I've got Laura (nice) and Alisa (bleh). Oh, that means Monkey-ass and Jusis are together in the other team.

Then I get a quest report and ah shit, I forgot to get the seasoning for the dude at the cafe. I go back to reload and try again, but I'm a dumbass and saved over the point where I could go back...unless I felt like reclearing the entire school sequence, too. Not worth it, unless being rank B6 now is important. (I hope not.) Battle is even easier the second time, though. And I swear when Gaius counters, he's saying "Your mom!" rather than "You're mine!"

On the bright side, when the day comes, Alisa finally comes to her senses and apologizes. Rean, being the doofus he is, tries to apologize concurrently, but Alisa's like, no, dumbass, listen. I'm the dumbass here. So just shut up and let me admit I was a dumbass, kay? Guess I need to stop calling her Pigtails since that name isn't really accurate anyway.

At the train station, we meet the other group, and they make a big deal out of Rean and Alisa. Here's to hoping that has some carry-over for M&J, who are literally standing with their backs to each other, arms crossed. Team B leaves, then we board. Our trip's much shorter than theirs. I love how the team's talking about the trip to Celdic and they don't have a clue what they're going to be doing when they get there, but once again, lampshading. Oh, and then Sara strolls down the aisle. The group asks why she didn't go with the other team, since they'd need her help more, and she says, "oh, they'd be a nightmare." Ladies and gentleman, your education system at work...

Alisa: "I don't think I've seen someone less inclined to be an educator than her."

Three rounds of the world's simplest CCG later, we arrive at Celdic, which seems way too rustic for a location of its seeming importance. The grand market looks like a minor country fair that sprung up just because this was the meeting point of the railways. Some dude with a lavendar ponytail totally creeps out on Sara and the two girls as we walk to the inn. This game is just full of people spying on us, like that cat on the schoolhouse roof that I didn't mention earlier.

Alisa's back to being nasty as soon as she learns we're all sharing one big room, despite Laura persuading her to deal with it. And our envelope with our instructions contains...three quests. Looks like we really did join the bracer guild. One of them even sounds like it'll involve leaving town, too, so yay, freedom! Independence! Sara's too busy getting her drink on to offer us any guidance, so though she won't admit it, the real reason she came was for the vacation to spend a weekend in a pub, I'm sure.

Oh look, I'm going to be replacing a lamp along the highway. That doesn't sound familiar at all...quick trip around time and it looks like we're truly going out into the field now.

---

azuarc posted...

The group asks why she didn't go with the other team, since they'd need her help more, and she says, "oh, they'd be a nightmare." Ladies and gentleman, your education system at work...

best teacher

---

They're all good girls. Must protect Towa.

---

Two quests for the western highway and one for the east, so let's go west!

Second battle out of town, I'm attacked by a swarm of dragonflies who literally AE my party to death. Craig drops. Alisa would have, except her quartz keeps her alive. I recover and kill them, but this is easily the biggest wall I've hit. Am I too low level? Should I have left town the other way?

I run back to town, figuring surely there's a way to revive my fallen teammate, but no. It's either item or arts. And because we never ever ever use items in an RPG unless absolutely necessary, Alisa gets him back up. Curiously, everything from that point forward is smooth sailing. I reach the farm, find out I need to kill a creature, learn about S-crafts (which I already used, thanks,) to take out a swarm of creatures and then find a raging dinosaur that attacks once and then uses some super-long charge attack that's blatantly targeting Rean. I decide, ehhh, maybe let's just have him move out of range. Turns out that's exactly what you're supposed to do, and the dinosaur never attacks again as we play a big game of keepaway. Alisa's privately expressing remorse that the ARCUS units are useful -- clearly she's got family problems. Laura seems to pick up on this, but doesn't share with Rean. She's also not very happy when she finds out the army won't help the farmers deal with their monster problem.

As party members, Laura is great. She hits twice as hard as Rean most of the time and seems to dodge-counter fairly often. Alisa is significantly less useful. Her bow is painfully weak, she's already out of EP from rezzing Craig, and she doesn't seem to have much else going for her.

By the time I finish exploring the entire west side of town, I've gained 3 levels, but never found the broken light bulb I need to replace. How many Class VII members does it take to...wait, this is the EAST side?? Yay for rotating maps. It was on the left when I exited town.

Back in town, I'm tempted to shop for equipment, but I don't really have any more money. I bought new equipment for the girls before I left Trista, and while it's standard RPG fare if you go back to the 80s, having separate female-only equipment was a bit of a surprise. I also find it hilarious that Pink High Heels apparently give a bigger speed boost than the male equivalent. I'm also surprised there are weapon upgrades here, considering I was able to give my sword a +1 back in Trista, and I assumed that meant this was simply my signature weapon and I had to upgrade it throughout the game. Nope. Now I wish I hadn't bothered.

---

Fixed map always.

---

azuarc posted...

Alisa is significantly less useful. Her bow is painfully weak, she's already out of EP from rezzing Craig, and she doesn't seem to have much else going for her.

Later on Alisa becomes an absolutely amazing support unit, but yeah early Alisa has none of those tools.

azuarc posted...

wait, this is the EAST side?? Yay for rotating maps. It was on the left when I exited town.

this is what you get for not making one of your top priorities to go into options and make sure the minimap is fixed north. in every game. ever. because rotating is always the default because this is a cruel world.

azuarc posted...

I'm also surprised there are weapon upgrades here, considering I was able to give my sword a +1 back in Trista, and I assumed that meant this was simply my signature weapon and I had to upgrade it throughout the game. Nope. Now I wish I hadn't bothered.

As a general rule each weapon has its base version that you can typically buy in a shop and a +1 version you can create with Customize. Aside from the stat boosts the +1 version typically adds an extra effect depending on weapon type. IIRC, Rean's +1 weapons give like a 5% Crit Chance, Laura's is like a 5% chance to inflict Faint on hit, etc.

In Cold Steel 1 you may want to be a bit frugal with your cash. Absent grinding (or the fact that there's a money trick in each Trails game where there's always one recipe that can sell for a profit over its ingredients cost) you're unlikely to have enough cash to keep everyone at cutting-edge equipment. Personally I prioritize weapons over armor but if you're struggling with getting wiped out then armor can be a solid investment. And I'd prioritize equipment for characters you think you'll be using more often - starting with Rean since he's the MC, obviously.

btw, if you do happen to be interested in that "cook for profit" thing the Celdic Field Study will be your best opportunity for some time. Elliot cooking Omelets is the combo that nets you a profit and in general it's just less tedious to do do this on a field study since everyone is in the party already. You can still do it in Trista but there's extra tedium steps involving loading zones.

---

Other side of town is a breeze. I should have come here first. Or maybe the levels just make it that much easier. Either way, I change a light bulb, I pick up a carrot delivery, and I find a walled-in place on the far reaches of our territory that seems like some kind of wildlife preserve. Whatever it is, the guards are total snots to us and chase us off.

Level 10/11 now, and my quartz levels up for two characters. Neat. I'm going to have to look into actually configuring my choices intelligently soon. Right now I just have some of the magic-oriented orbments on Eliot and Alisa, and mostly passive stat bonuses on Rean and Laura. Hopefully I'll be able to unlock a few more lines now.

In town, I accidentally turn in the required quest before the optional and have a brief panic that it's going to advance without giving me the chance. Thankfully, it lets me proceed, and then before I enter the inn, there's a scuffle at the market which leads me to meeting Market Master Otto. (Sounds like a DJ name.) He rambles about the difficulties with Jusis's dad, Lord Albireo. Between tariffs and the guards shirking their duties, Laura looks like she wants to start snapping 2x4's with her bare hands.

Sara meets us outside and announces she's leaving to check in on Group B. Somehow she knows they're in trouble. Clearly they have orbal radios, but that kind of communication seems above the scope of what's available here, so I'm certainly curious about that. What I remember of the bracer guild in TitS, I think they had something like a telegraph, but there's no central place where that would obviously be set up here. OTOH, Mix Master Otto got all our tasks ready for us, so he must have been in communication with Sara. Either way, she takes off on the train, late in the evening, looking perfectly sober.

The group muses about how she must know a lot more than she puts on, and then waxes about the nature of Class VII. Rean asks why everyone else enrolled, and then dodges the question when it comes back to him. Laura approaches him after about his sword technique, accusing him of holding back. Turns out Rean studied an eastern style of swordsmanship, but claims he dropped out and he's simply not very good. Laura is massively disappointed, but she masks it by pushing her contempt onto Rean and saying she's going to go practice by herself and you go run along and do your reports with the others rather than sparring with me. Other than Eliot, who's completely transparent, each of our group members is keeping a part of themselves private. Rean is, honestly, the biggest mystery since he's the player character and therefore it's easy to overlook the way he dodges talking about his own past. At least Alisa and Laura have ambitions or personal lives that I can guess at, but I don't even know where to start with Rean, and I'm sure that's on purpose.

The day ends, and it will be time to start a new wave of quests tomorrow.

---

liberl's bracer guilds had telephones

---

Okay, I thought they might. I didn't remember very well. I know there was that whole escapade in chapter 2 where they're trying to figure out where the downed airship was and where Dad is, but I couldn't remember how quick the communication was.

---

Only two quests today, but WAIT! There's a ruckus at the market. The two merchants in last night's scuffle have both had their stalls destroyed and their wares burgled. This reeks of corruption within the guard, considering they're weird about breaking it up, and Rean notices, too, so we're off to inspect the guardhouse. But first I need to find the owner of a lost wallet. The merchant who hands us the wallet says there was over 300,000 mira inside, which I just assumed she held onto for safekeeping, but no, when we finally catch up with the woman, she offers us half of the contents. We literally could have just walked off with a wallet containing a crapton of money and nobody would have said a thing.

At the barracks, everyone's thinking on their heads, and Eliot tricks the guard captain into revealing that he knows more about the incident than he's letting on, and he responds by dismissing us and arguing that his top priority is obeying his lord because that's how the military works. A couple leads later, a little girl points out the drunkard on the edge of town and Alisa has this little gem: "If he's drinking in the middle of the day and isn't Instructor Sara, then..."

Wandering monster quest is a pushover and we arrive at Lunaria Nature Park, where Alisa spots one of the merchant's bracelets, and turns it over to Laura to confirm, who basically says she's not a fashion girl. No, she's a sword girl, and Rean stops her from chopping the lock off, volunteering to do it himself. After he uses literally the exact same skill I've been spamming with him in battle, Laura is mad sweating his sword techniques. Too bad that only means his kazekiri.

Speaking of Laura, getting triple advantage using her as lead is comically easy. I can just spam attacks and she clubs the enemies over the head with her giant two-hander until they're seeing stars.

The nature park is mostly pretty easy. Mostly. But then there's these damn giant baboons. I got mugged by a group of 3 and finally blew Laura S-craft on it. As luck would have it there's a second group deeper in. And then, when we confront the thieves, a third pair with a boss baboon attacks. Rean's S-craft gets unlocked, but that's only minor consolation since by the time they're close enough to hit two with anything, my team's all stunned. And the boss even hung back for two turns. Y'know, just when I thought I was finding the game a little too easy...

So first we fight the bandits. Then we're interrupted by the baboons. And then the local soldiers walk on and threaten to arrest us, suggesting that they don't know who's the guilty party and we better stand the fuck down. And just as we're about to give up the ghost, another group of soldiers with another military branch intervene. Where have I seen this before? But thanks for the save, lady.

Instantly we're back in town, giving our report, when Sara predictably shows up. Apparently she and the RMP leader know each other. But with that, we're on the train, and I'm realizing that I didn't get the chance to turn in one of the sidequests that was in this direction from town...and it literally involves talking to the Market Master, who is right there in the fucking conversation.

On the train ride home, Rean makes the connection between our actions and the bracer guild, and Sara sweats guiltily and "goes to sleep." Rean finally comes clean about being adopted by nobles, so point for me...not that it was that hard to call. And then Sara stares off, thinking to herself about how things really did spiral out of the control she intended. Some evil guy being evil stares at our train go by, where he's met by Darth Vader with a red visor. Ominously, he concludes the discussion, "The tyrant must yet face the merciless hammer of judgment." Whatever the hell that means. I just want to know which one of them is Jusis's old man.

Chapter 1 end result: 46 points. (Out of 50? I know I missed at least one.)

---

The first field trip team has a really nice balace to it. I remember the second one being a bit more challenging.

---

I think it's more so Elliot and Laura are just strong out of the box. Resounding Beat and having a S-Craft is really strong. Brave is a shockingly strong early game Quartz stat wise and Chapter 1 is when Master Quartz Stats matter the most because your character level is still really low.

The 2nd field trip party has more people like Alisa that are just missing what they need to be good.

---

azuarc posted...

and I'm realizing that I didn't get the chance to turn in one of the sidequests that was in this direction from town...and it literally involves talking to the Market Master, who is right there in the fucking conversation.

would he really be the market master if he didn't take advantage of a situation to screw you out of payment

that's just profit for him

azuarc posted...

Chapter 1 end result: 46 points. (Out of 50? I know I missed at least one.)

Max AP for Chapter 1 is 55.

If I had to guess: That quest you didn't get a chance to turn in (West Highway Monster?) was worth 4. And there's a Hidden Quest the first evening where if you go to the market and talk to one of the shopkeepers (I forget his name, but he turns out to be the dad of one of the students at Thors, Becky, the one with the Scottish accent) where he lets you man his shop for a bit to see how well all of you can do. If you make all the right choices it's worth 5 AP.

---

SythaWarrior posted...

I think it's more so Elliot and Laura are just strong out of the box. Resounding Beat and having a S-Craft is really strong. Brave is a shockingly strong early game Quartz stat wise and Chapter 1 is when Master Quartz Stats matter the most because your character level is still really low.

The 2nd field trip party has more people like Alisa that are just missing what they need to be good.

Yeah this is spot on tbh. Early game Elliot is miles better than Emma. The second team also suffers from having too many characters that just don't really excel in one area. Machias is like a bootleg Elliot, Fie doesn't have the damage to be like Laura and i've always found Jusis to be a jack of all trades master of non character that i usually end up sticking on a support roll.

---

Class VII so far:

Rean - the main dude. Not very strong-willed for an MC, but he still does heroic stuff and people still look to him for leadership. He's finally told us where he's from, but not why he's here even when asked directly after he brought up the topic. Doesn't have any actual interests, which makes him very much a blank slate type hero, even if he does talk and have a personality.

Eliot (aka Craig) - the diminutive sidekick who seems so far to always be around. Makes Rean look like an alpha. Plays the violin. I don't suspect we're going to get more of a backstory from him than that. Orbal staff is definitely helpful in some fights, and has been reliable as a caster so far.

Gaius - Mysterious without trying to be, simply because he's from another country and never actually talks about himself. For a while he looked like the third part of our little triumvirate, but wasn't part of the first field trip team. Frequently "senses" things without that being explained. Makes for a good foil for introducing information because he legit doesn't know some things about Erebonia, which the game doesn't overdo (because it's always introducing things uninvited when the characters muse for our benefit anyway.) Decent fighter.

Machias - Annoying. Bigoted. Have not really used in combat yet. He's the commoner equivalent of a nobleman and sounds like he's read Karl Marx a few too many times. I can't imagine he's gotten all those attitudes from his father, who clearly enjoys a prominent station, but the slightest hint of someone being noble sets him off. Currently hates Rean for having lied to him, which is just a thin excuse for realizing that he hails from a noble family. I'm sure there's more to him, but I have no desire to learn about it.

Jusis - Extremely cold and distant, aloof and isolated. Son of the central villain of chapter 1 (and maybe the game?) and definitely implies that he is somehow apart from his family without ever really talking about it. Or anything at all. Very open-minded for a noble, but his natural tenets still make him seem like he thinks he's better than everyone.

Fie - Speaking of distant and aloof. Very little idea what her deal is. She seems to be the ultimate rogue, with tremendous freerunning skill and has demonstrated proficiency with Batman-esque grappling hooks. Her apathy toward the world around her is kind of amusing, but I'm wondering when she'll become a legitimate part of the story.

Emma - Rounding out our "we know nothing about these people" block, I've basically only got two things on Emma: she scored the highest on the entrance exam, and she's helping Fie study. She seems about as polite as the three amigos; her path just hasn't drifted into the spotlight yet.

Laura - Best girl so far. I don't think that will change. Very much a samurai, committed to her swordcraft and bettering herself, while holding a very idealistic opinion of what everyone should be without holding that over everyone. Her voice is surprisingly husky, which I wouldn't expect from a Japanese game, and doesn't really fit her anime girl aesthetic. Best fighter so far, and the other characters treat her as such. Speaks assertively, as the lone daughter of a prominent nobleman, without being arrogant or ever talking out of turn. Has teased that there's more to her, but she's developed enough as a character that the game wouldn't really need to do much more for her and I wouldn't feel like I'm missing out.

Alisa - Rash; bashful in a way that results in her lashing out at Rean. I can tell there's a decent enough person under the armor, but she bristles more than a hedgehog. She's clearly let other people into her life, as she talks much more freely to Laura or Eliot than to Rean, but she gets incredibly flustered around our protag. Is also very much holding back about her past, when she had the perfect opportunity to follow suit after Rean talked about where he was from. It's pretty obvious she's from the Reinford family, so I don't know why she's so intent on hiding that, but she clearly doesn't want to be connected to her family even more than Jusis does. Her fighting prowess is generally lacking so far, and I'm not all that fond of her, so I wish the game would just hurry up and show us who she is and all, because I can tell she's supposed to be the MFC, but right now Laura is far more prominent in the game and doesn't have all this obnoxious tension with Rean.

---

I think one of the things Trails of Cold Steel does best is how Class VII as a whole is a little microcosm of the various social classes/groups that exist in Erebonia, and it provides a pretty cool way to develop the nation as a whole.

Also Jusis the best.
---

pyresword posted...

I think one of the things Trails of Cold Steel does best is how Class VII as a whole is a little microcosm of the various social classes/groups that exist in Erebonia, and it provides a pretty cool way to develop the nation as a whole.

That certainly seemed like their intent from the start. We have a high noble, a less-high noble, a merchant family, a foreigner, an angry well-to-do commoner, a not-so-angry commoner, and a commoner too poor to afford coming on her own but gets a scholarship...and I assume whatever Fie is will be represented. That really just left Rean as a question mark, and he's clearly done his level best to stand at the crossroads, as a commoner-born child adopted by nobles.

---

and yea Jusis is the best class 7 character. I'm definitely on that boat.

Your chapter 1 opinions of characters seems about right. You'll flip around a bunch as the chapters go.

---

I love how chapter 2 opens with the girls attending home ec while the boys get to go to computer class. Yes, girls, run around in your pink high heels to get around the kitchen extra fast. Even you, Fie.

Two town errands later, I'm back to the schoolhouse. Yay for giving history lessons that require me to study beforehand. Got all the questions right easily enough, at least. The schoolhouse now has an elevator, and oddly it seems to be unlocking one floor at a time. There are four more floors currenlty unavailable. The dungeon's easy enough, but then we hit the boss and I'm attacked by three floating stone peacocks that look like they want to punch me with their boobs.

And holy crap these peacock gargoyles hurt.

They stand at range and don't move, so there's no way to group them. Plus, their regular attack has a small range, so I split the party, 2 and 2, so nobody's too close to anyone else. Everything seems to be fine...and then they use their other attack. It's literally a battleground-wide nuke that deals 600 damage and lowers both defense and speed. For reference, Eliot's got 1700 HP max, and after all three of them do this, he's dead and everyone else is nearly. From that point forward, I get into a lock of using items just to survive to the next turn so I can use another item. I try subbing in Alisa, and I get as far as reviving Eliot, only to watch him get cut down again. And before long, so is the rest of the party. I'm dead. I lost.

Now I'm regretting not making use of all the sepith I've got to open some new lines and buy some new stat bonuses, but this fight seriously blindsided me. I go in for a second try, and this time I blow both S-crafts on one from the beginning. It's still not dead. I've got Laura in front, Rean in back, Gaius standing a little bit away, all hacking away. And Eliot, oh, poor Eliot, they all keep targeting him. Doesn't seem to matter what I do. I'm beginning to think that attack is programmed to hit whoever is farthest away, because that's the only way the boss behavior makes any sense. But how am I supposed to test that theory? Eliot literally never gets a turn to move. In fact...he's dead.

Laura's also hurting, so I bring in Alisa. She rezzes Eliot, and from this point, the two of them are working together just to keep him alive. The first Cherub Gate is dead and I'm working on the second one, but it is slow. 7 or 8 minutes later, I've finally gotten the second one down, and now I finally have the advantage. Eliot's regen keeps us alive, even in spite of the occasional hit confusing one of my teammates into defecting for a turn. Alisa gets the killing blow and asks, "Giggle, is everyone all right?"....No. No, we are not all right. But we lived. JFC. And Laura's just like, "It was nothing we couldn't handle," and for once, I want to punch her because that was not cool. I'm going to have to really step up my equipment and my set-up before I move on.

The things Rean does with his free day. WTF, dude.

The black cat that saw us last time we left slinks out and watches us again. She must be the keeper of the building or something. Alisa reports she couldn't get the elevator to go deeper -- earlier Laura says gee you're really good with machines -- and it makes me wonder why she doesn't get to go to computer class.

Why is Dreichel's companion named Sir Sandlot? Geez, that invites so many jokes...it's actually Saint Sandlot and she's a girl. Also, Sandlot fought with an Eisenritter and I'm starting to wonder what the deal is with the writers and all the German. Seems like a strange preoccupation a lot of Japanese sources seem to have. (Also, sprach Zarathustra.)

OH MY GOD RIGHT BUMPER MAKES THE GAME PLAY IN DOUBLE SPEED!! WHY DID NOBODY TELL ME THIS?? Zoom I go racing around the campus and speeding through all the slow, choreographed animations now. Like, seriously, I just happened to squeeze the triggers by accident and saw "Turbo mode" in the corner. I would have loved to have had this twelve hours ago. I find the extra sidequest, a girl who wants me to get flowers, and on the way out of the campus, she calls out to me, "Rean, slow down!"...lol

The cat's wandering around in town, cuddles me for a moment, and then hisses and lashes out. Doesn't seem to like being called a girl. Speaking of girls, the florist sells me a grand rose with some overtones that this is some grand romantic gesture. I get to the art student, hand her the rose, and she gets all flustered. Rean's confused, as he should be, because we're being pranked. I saw the other pink-haired girl standing outside the florist talking about some kind of practical joke, but I honestly didn't think that was going to loop back on me.

Back at the dorm, Emma is asking all pally and offering to come with me on my next expedition into the schoolhouse. She also gets super alarmed when she finds out I got clawed up by a black cat, though she nervously swears she doesn't know it. I know she's not, like, secretly a werecat because I saw her at the lit club earlier...although that would be a really funny twist.

And with that, night falls.

---

azuarc posted...

I'm starting to wonder what the deal is with the writers and all the German.

To be fair on this one, all of the countries in Kiseki have taken some form of inspiration from real world countries, and though Erebonia draws heavily on Prussia/Germany that isn't always the case.

For example East Zemuria strongly takes after China; Calvard looks like some mishmash of America and China; and Crossbell is inspired by Hong Kong. Also I'm told Liberl is inspired by a combination of Thailand and Austria, but I don't know enough about those cultures to recognize it myself.
---

Rean waxes on Jusis and Machias and needing to bring them together and then Abend Time (Evening Time) starts. Between her voice and the types of remarks she gives, I'm pretty convinced Misty is actually Instructor Sara.

Time for practical exam #2. These events feel like they belong in Danganronpa sometimes. The whole team lined up, forced to deal with what the powers that be deal them, with DR-esque music playing. I dunno, I joked that the first school day's trip into the schoolhouse felt that way, too, up until we actually went into the dungeon, proper. During the fight, I have an objective to interrupt a combat art, but I don't have a clue how to do this. The skills the dummy uses go off immediately, and my only guess was to use an S-Break before it could attack, which didn't help, so guess I didn't get that AP.

And for the next field exam, I'll be working with literally everyone I've never had on my team before. I felt bad when Eliot got left out of the attack on the dummy, but now I'm the one being left out. This is literally the first set of groups, except I'm trading places with Gaius. Not really a fan, but now I get to see the M-J dynamics up close. Yay?

Then the unexpected. Machias and Justis tag-team Sara, saying her group assignments are terrible, and she says fine, make me. They sidle up, prepared to take her up on her offer, and she pulls out her weapons for the first time ever, both a gun and a sword. Looks like she's got the same loadout as the two of them combined. Oh, but then she tells me to join the party. Huh. Except I literally can't hurt her. When she called it extreme extra credit, I was actually thinking it would be super tough but doable. Nope.

The trip begins to Bareahard, and Rean somehow convinces Jusis and Machias to take it down a notch for purposes of the field study so they don't all fail like the group apparently did last time. Machias seems perfectly stubborn still, but reigns in his defiance. And then we get snowed by Jusis's brother, who is not only charming, but completely disarming. Rean seems like the only one in the group comfortable talking to him; everyone else is on eggshells.

---

azuarc posted...

I'm beginning to think that attack is programmed to hit whoever is farthest away, because that's the only way the boss behavior makes any sense. But how am I supposed to test that theory? Eliot literally never gets a turn to move.

I'm not sure on the boss AI but you can set your starting formation from the Tactics option in the menu so you could theoretically put someone in a corner if you really wanted to test it. I mean, I know it's too late now but in the future.

Also on the "welp too late" advice - not sure if you were making use of it (scratch that it seems you were but I already wrote this so...), but Elliot's Resounding Beat craft is crazy good in the early game. 30% HP Regen/turn + DEF+25% in an AoE. On that line of thought, regarding buffs, they cap at 50% up/down. While some abilities might put you there to start with, others are +25% but you can stack them (either by casting the same 25% ability or a different one) which will bump it up to 50% while also refreshing the buff timer.

So as an example using Elliot's Resounding Beat. IIRC it's a 3 turn duration. So if you cast it once it'll grant DEF+25% for 3 turns. As it ticks down, if you were to cast it again when it's only at 1 turn left on someone, it'll refresh back to 3 turns while also stacking with the initial +25% to make it +50%.

azuarc posted...

Rean's confused, as he should be, because we're being pranked. I saw the other pink-haired girl standing outside the florist talking about some kind of practical joke, but I honestly didn't think that was going to loop back on me.

best character vivi has arrived

azuarc posted...

During the fight, I have an objective to interrupt a combat art, but I don't have a clue how to do this. The skills the dummy uses go off immediately, and my only guess was to use an S-Break before it could attack, which didn't help, so guess I didn't get that AP.

As you may have noticed, when you cast arts they don't go off immediately there's a delay where the character is in a casting animation while other turns pass. This is also true for enemy arts and some of their crafts. While a lot of low-tier spells fire off fast so that it's entirely possible the spell might cast before anyone else gets a turn, this isn't always the case and you can see where a spell will go off on the turn order.

You can interrupt this with anything that is labelled "Impede." Rean's starter craft has this in its description, for example. This cancels the enemy cast. There are also quartz called "Impede" that add a % chance of your attacks doing this by default but obviously that can whiff unlikely the crafts that have Impede built in.

azuarc posted...

Oh, but then she tells me to join the party. Huh. Except I literally can't hurt her. When she called it extreme extra credit, I was actually thinking it would be super tough but doable. Nope.

Yeah, on NG+ you can have the stats to handle this fight but Sara will stick at 1 HP should you manage and in response will start cheating and spam attacks that do 49999 damage and pierce any possible protections you might have which is absurd overkill.

---

xp1337 posted...

best character vivi has arrived

---

xp1337 posted...

You can interrupt this with anything that is labelled "Impede." Rean's starter craft has this in its description, for example. This cancels the enemy cast.

I found this while playing with orb load-out a bit later. Doesn't exactly help me now, but I don't think it would have anyway. The skills my opponent was using were so fast I didn't have a chance to interrupt them. I've fought some bosses that had a skill with a super long wind-up, but this was not one of them.

xp1337 posted...

but Sara will stick at 1 HP should you manage and in response will start cheating and spam attacks that do 49999 damage and pierce any possible protections you might have which is absurd overkill.

Wow, hax. Who needs an army when you have her?

---

The game is gradually adding people to the train ride on the title screen as the story progresses. That's kinda cool. I have everyone but Emma and Fie now.

I do a lap around Bareahard, where everybody knows Jusis, much to his chagrin (and definitely Machias's.) Nowhere to buy weapons, oddly. It's implied I'm going to have a really tough journey for my one quest and I should do the others first, but heading out on the highway, I don't find my team to be very strong as it is. Definite downgrade from chapter 1. Fie's weapons are really cool, though. Basically a dagger version of a gunblade. Her VA's flat nonchalance about everything is funny, too. She completes her S-craft and just says, "That's that," and everything dies.

I recover the Dryad's Tear, watch a commoner-noble squabble where Machias jumps in and then Jusis bails him out, and get ready to go back on along the other path. My first fight is with "Stealth Turtles," who are definitely not stealthy, but they are basically immune to physical attacks and my team isn't great with arts outside of Emma.

We finally reach the monster we're targeting, and Jusis and Machias make it sound like this is the time they're going to properly bond via ARCUS, and I'm like, okay fellas, I guess this is your moment. So I sub out Rean for Machias and try to link them and...I can't. The game won't let me, lol.

So I link Machias to Emma and Jusis to Fie, and on we go. One turn into the fight, I get a notice saying the link between Jusis and Machias was severed and I'm like, lolwut? The battle ends up being a bit more than I bargained for, too, because this guy also has super high armor, and I end up using a bunch of revives and cycling in my extra member, and finally we win. Jusis and Machias are at each other's throats for breaking the link, and Rean tries to jump in and break them up, and the monster surges up and slashes him. Fie quickly finishes it off, but suddenly everyone's worried about Rean. Jusis and Machias realize their feud has caused Rean trouble, and Rean's all, like, hey, it's no big deal. I don't have the use of my shoulder any more, but s'all good. I should have watched better. ^_^

Anyway, Emma does some first aid, and I'm not going to be allowed to use Rean for a bit now. As the group parts, Emma chants some Latin and Rean swears he felt something warm spread through his body. Up until she applied whatever kind of bizarre magic that was, I thought she had the hots for him or something and this was her chance to go all Florence Nightingale on him. A bit down the road, Rean questions this, and Emma's like what um yep perfectly normal nothing weird about me nope hey fie what's up with how you killed that monster? Attention successfully deflected as everyone wonders about her agility and her supposed status being two years younger. Guys, she's a fae. Duh.

We get to the fort, Jusis is clearly stunned by the fort for some reason, and Fie recognizes tanks being transported on a train nearby as the German word for 18. Machias confronts Jusis on the way back, and we get the increasing awareness that Jusis is not exactly drinking the family Kool-Aid. That night, we find out why in a heart-to-heart between him and Rean. He's a bastard. Surprising that everyone would know him, yet this wasn't common enough knowledge for the kids to be aware. Surely he wouldn't just enter the Albarea house at the age of 7 or 8 and have nobody notice. He's made the transition to playing the part of a noble, but evidently that background is what sets him apart in his attitude. If only Machias knew...

I'm up to 80 AP. The next tier is at 100, so I have a funny feeling that's how many I could have. So yay for B minus?


---

azuarc posted...

Rean's all, like, hey, it's no big deal. I don't have the use of my shoulder any more, but s'all good. I should have watched better. ^_^

haha...

---

azuarc posted...

Nowhere to buy weapons, oddly.

That... doesn't sound right. At Bareahard's "Department Store" there's a staircase up to the second floor and IIRC a weapon shop up there.

azuarc posted...

I'm up to 80 AP. The next tier is at 100, so I have a funny feeling that's how many I could have. So yay for B minus?

Nah, I think you'd have like 92 right now if perfect.

---

xp1337 posted...

That... doesn't sound right. At Bareahard's "Department Store" there's a staircase up to the second floor and IIRC a weapon shop up there.

There is. I found it later. I was so intent on going from vendor to vendor on the first floor that I missed the staircase.

---

Morning comes, Machias and Jusis look like they might be on the path to coming together, and then Lord Albarea summons Jusis. He reluctantly agrees, and the rest of the party takes care of the two assigned tasks. On the way back, guards decide to arrest Machias at the gate on false pretenses. Rean, Emma and Fie can do nothing, but make a plan to comb the waterways to rescue him. Because this totally couldn't end poorly. Why don't they just send Fie into the Albarea manor to get Jusis, with her mad cat burglar skills?

One battle, one retreat, one drop back to the shops in town to look for a solution. Apparently my team can handle fearsome beasts, but stink bugs make us keel over. A trip to the wiki later to learn what the status effect is called that's stunning us to death, and I'm dropping my entire wad of cash on two trinkets because even though they're painfully expensive, they're the only ones I can find that prevent "Faint." Then I go back in and...get triple advantage on the same battle, and wipe them out before they touch me. Swell. At least there's going to be more of these guys, right?

Jusis finds us combing the sewers, explains how he was placed on house arrest and that he can't believe his father's brazen attempt to gain leverage over the Reformist faction, and leads the group to the guardhouse. Along the way, Fie makes repeated cracks at Emma's boobs, which I have to admit is not something I expected to hear from She Of Few Words.

Emma opened the first gate to get in, using her voodoo magic tricks that she's keeping secret, pretending to pick the lock, but now we're confronted by an iron gate with no obvious way through, and Fie steps up. She places something on the door, steps back and says ignition, and the door semi-explodes, and then falls forward off the hinges. Fie, bored, says "Done" and the rest of the group goes uh wut? Afterwards, she admits to being a jaeger.

Everything about this entrance screams boss fight, but the soldiers go down easily...and then the boss fight comes. Confronting noble business, fighting some stupidly overpowered boss that I can't handle? Yeah, I definitely haven't seen this before in chapter 2 of a trails game. The dogs I'm fighting absorb 3 S-crafts without blinking, and are...manageable as I mostly melee them with two healers going. Then they use some bullshit twin attack (that doesn't even use both their attacks on the ATB bar) and nuke the shit out of two of my teammates. They hit for 1700 and my healthiest teammate has 3200 max. So if they target the same person, it's an automatic one-shot. And they start chaining this shit. I honestly don't have a clue how to deal. Unless there's some way to prevent them from using this skill, there's literally no way past this fight. So I'm sure there's a trick to this fight, but I couldn't possibly imagine what it is. Gonna have to come back to this when I have some inkling how to handle this fight.

---

I ended up focusing on the one of them and the second becomes pretty easy after. That boss really needed Elliot.

---

I did focus on one of them. I hit it with three S-crafts, and that knocked off a total of like 40% of its life. Then I put every single bit of damage I had into it and got it down to maybe 30% before they started spamming the twin attacks.

---

azuarc posted...

A trip to the wiki later to learn what the status effect is called that's stunning us to death, and I'm dropping my entire wad of cash on two trinkets because even though they're painfully expensive, they're the only ones I can find that prevent "Faint."

...I hope you mean Green Pendulum and not Evergreen. Both are top-tier accessories and worth holding on to (and will come in handy throughout the game), with Evergreen being an endgame-tier one but yikes the cash hit. Unless you have a save from before you rejoined with Jusis it's not like you could check but I'm honestly doubtful there was no Faint accessory elsewhere. IIRC, the cheap ones are somewhere in that department store, you'd be looking for "Citrus Bottle." The game is generally very good at giving you access to these at almost all times so if it was simply missing from Bareahard that'd be surprising to me.

doggos are one of the tougher fights iirc, particularly if you're unprepared.

Not sure on your level but...

A few ways you could probably approach it, but depending on where your save is you may not be able to restock/buy stuff so...

The low maintenance/RNG version would be to embrace the glory of AT Delay. Rean's Arc Slash is one of the most busted moves in the game because it's super quick and AT Delay is busted. Jusis's Rapid Thrust also has Delay. Unfourantely I'm pretty sure the doggos (and like every boss) have 80-90% resistance to AT Delay so you only have a 10-20% chance of it landing. If it does though you can keep trying to push their turns back indefinitely.

Your recovery options are limited compared to Elliot with Emma's Serene Blessing which is Single Target and Machias's Energy Shell which is 25% and doesn't affect himself IIRC. So if those are insufficient you'll want/need healing quartz like Tear/Teara/Breath. If you have a defensive one like Crest you can try to use its defense buff as well.

Not sure on your CP level coming into this fight but it should help if you can have Rean's Motivate buff everyone's STR before using your S-Crafts. Preferably twice so it jumps up to 50% (Red Arrow on the buff icon.)

I'd definitely try to focus fire on one to take it out of the fight if at all possible. I think aiming for the gold one first is better but I'm not 100% sure.

---

Yes, Green Pendulum. I assumed there was a cheaper option, but I didn't see one.

I was doing my best to stock up on CP before hitting this point, so the full playbook's open in that regard. My orb options might be more limited. I'll check on Crest, but I was favoring passive bonuses over buffs up to this point (other than Elliott's beat.) Seemed to be serving me just fine up to this point. Clearly I need to rethink that now.

I had both Tear and Breath via equipped orbs.

Something I read suggested I just needed to go full tilt with buff effects, and I had honestly forgotten I had a haste buff since it isn't the least bit relevant in most field battles if you're patient enough to get triple advantage. I may try again with Chrono whatever and Motivate and see how that goes. I'm really skeptical though, because the dogs can back-to-back one-shot people. Have to be able to bring one of them down super quick, and I doubt that's happening.

I forget exactly where my save is before this. I have been keeping rolling saves, a new one roughly every 2 hours, so I might have one shortly before the sewers, but I suspect it's more likely that I'd have to do the morning fieldwork, too.

---

azuarc posted...

I did focus on one of them. I hit it with three S-crafts, and that knocked off a total of like 40% of its life. Then I put every single bit of damage I had into it and got it down to maybe 30% before they started spamming the twin attacks.

Never blow your S crafts in 1 go unless you know it'll kill or your party member is likely to die with the cp available.

---

Strictly speaking, the Point of No Return for Chapter 2 is regrouping with Jusis. You're free to leave the sewers any time before that.

---

Oh for the double dog boss.

First suggestion is good at your master quartz. Machias has Crest on his Iron Quartz (this is maybe the worst one in the game but it's kinda useful now.) You can actually take Gaius, Alisa and Elliots Quartz too if you want. Gaius's Quartz namely is really strong since it gets Shining on it at level 2. Which is insight status effect. Which is an amazing self-buff that gives a lot of evasion.

Beyond that. Focus one. One of them casts buffs for the other one. That's the one that should be focused. Don't use S-crafts right away. Bosses tend to power up when they drop below HP thresholds. (Unsure if the dogs do that. I can't remember).

I think the party I suggest is actually Machias/Rean/Jusis/Emma. Machias is surprisingly useful here since he is not only the tankiest party member but he also has a heal. Jusis and Rean will outdamage Fie for the most part. Emma is best option for a healer.

---

Came back to it today, beat the dogs on the first try, and it wasn't even close. Turns out buffs are important, y'all. (And knowing that you can double-stack them.)

Rean motivates twice, Fie chrono drives twice, Jusis uses Soul Blur initially to proc faint, and wouldn't you know it, they barely even touched me. I had to reapply at one point, but the fight wasn't even a challenge. Amazing turnabout. Also, one of my party members literally gained two levels for finishing that fight.

Once again, we're surrounded by yet another group of soldiers preparing to bear down on us, and once again we're bailed out by external forces chasing them away. Is every chapter going to end like this? Human sub-boss, monstrous real boss, threatened by soldiers, rescued by "good" soldiers? FC did something similar in chapter 1, I recall, but they didn't repeat it after that. The chapter concludes with two of the people we've interacted with having a nice chat, including "Baron Bleublanc," who is totally nobody I've ever seen before. The other fellow is a bracer, so it's hardly surprising they have some mutual acquaintances. He seems to think the baron's trouble, and needs to contact his allies...clearly there's a ton of intrigue being set up here, but I dunno what any of it is yet.

Sara gets all sentimental with us on the train ride home, and nobody takes her seriously. She gets a little butthurt, and considering this is the first time I feel like she was actually letting her guard down and revealing a pinch of her true motives, I can understand.

The white flying streak we saw leaving the fort gets to be our train observer this chapter, a blue haired girl calling herself White Rabbit. She seems strangely aware of some things and completely unaware of others. We don't see her conversation partner since she's on her cell--I mean, ARCUS, but she summons "Lammy," some machine speaking a strange language, and flies off.

I missed a quest called The Bite of Nostalgia. Thought I looked around for bonus quests, but I must have missed that. This is what I get for playing without a guide. 44 AP on the chapter and a B rating. 18.5 hours played.


---

Chapter 3 begins with Sara telling us about midterms in her usual ramshackle fashion. Literally everyone stays in the room to make study plans, except Laura, who is convinced she needs to work on something privately. And then I have free time to bond with people, and my classmates have paired off in such a way that Laura's now with Alisa. I help them learn art. Then Towa helps me learn economics and poly sci. Finally Crow gives me a hand with CPR and survival skills. Sara's at the schoolhouse to inspect, but nothing has changed. Guess that won't be a part of this current arc, unless something suddenly happens. Other people around the school give me some pointers on the test as well, including the instructors.

Then I start walking back in the rain with Alisa, and she's talking about the exams in past tense?? How do I think I did? I didn't take them yet! Alisa seems concerned she might know the maid who dropped in on me a couple minutes prior and mysteriously knew my name. Soon after, we'll have her join as the dorm maid and make trouble for Alisa maintaining her privacy. Whoops!

Then the exams begin...and hey wait, Towa never said anything about the ORDER of the stupid acts. I should have been able to get that one right without stressing. (The art one didn't seem too obvious, either.)

Jusis, on if Sara might be leaving us for a date: "Impossible. The Empire hasn't yet turned out a man desperate enough to woo that alcoholic typhoon."

Sharon cooks an impressive spread for breakfast, and everyone's impressed and complimenting her, but Alisa looks like she's about to spit nails. Holy font size, Batman. But at least it's Alisa's mom that is the company chairman, for better gender representation. I wonder if her pink high heels give her +3 speed, too.

Free time: I help Fie with some plants, get trapped in the computer room with Alisa until her maid comes to rescue us, and WEEE! Motorcycle ride! (No player interaction, though, beyond telling Rean how to work a clutch.) Finally I go shopping with Laura to help her understand what it means to be a girl, whereupon she brushes off my plushy suggestion to ask if other girls would like a buff action figure dude. She thanks me for helping her shop and says we should do it again. Link level 3 reached.

Ashes hops up on my desk as soon as I talk to Celine. Apparently she's curious in the other kitty noises coming out of my speakers. Also, Vivi did not buy the grand rose for another prank, though I was kind of hoping. I knew it would be Margherita, but I still would have rather seen another Vivi prank.

Schoolhouse time next.

---