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

(+) Yeah! (+)

Yea the Chapter 1 Merchants is really the only part that is not explained. Thinking about it. Not sure what the point was other than I guess they might have been testing the flute and were planning on using the Bandits or the RMP as the bait instead?

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The stated rationale for the Chapter 1 stuff is that Jusis's dad is trying to make Celdic's Merchant Association's life hell until their spirits break and they stop protesting the tax hike that has been imposed upon them. Said tax hike is all but said to be related to the Noble Faction's building up its military as seen as early as in Chapter 2 when the party sees Aurochs Fort and how they've built up its defenses and bought a ton of modern tanks. It's framed at the time as part of the cold war between the factions within Erebonia at the time, but in retrospect with the ending it's clear that the Noble Faction was planning this coup for years.

That's to say I don't think Chapter 1 was an ILF operation, per se. They appeared to be testing the RMP's response time and capability which may have been their angle on the whole thing - taking advantage of the situation Duke Albarea was setting up to gain information for their own purposes since the RMP and Intelligence Division are their chief adversaries in their chess game against Osborne.

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xp1337 posted...

Actually, IIRC, the disembodied voice starts talking about a potential Awakener being within a certain distance when Elise approaches the door before the "test" begins. And while it does specify a radius IIRC it's not so large that I immediately thought "okay yeah that includes the Thors campus" and at that time only Elise and Celine were in the Old Schoolhouse. I don't think it says anything by the time Rean and Crow arrive and Elise only remembers parts of what it was saying when asked later.

It initiated when Elise approached, yes, but the behavior changed when Rean and Crow arrived.

xp1337 posted...

He doesn't really need that to have happened, I think. I'm not even sure C would appear in Chapter 6 if not for the fact that Class VII forced Vulcan to get serious and he was trying to mitigate that situation.

I considered that, if not for the sniper rifle. But since the sniper rifle was left behind for Sharon to analyze later, you might be right that it was somehow pre-rigged.

xp1337 posted...

This might legit be Rufus being a troll....being one of the major players in the Noble Faction almost certainly knows what's going on with Crow and the ILF seeing as how they're backing them.

So Rufus is trolling the ILF by sending these kids everywhere they go? Meh, I dunno. Rufus is written in a way that we're supposed to like him. Whether that's to make it feel worse when he ends up being one of "them" or because he's not completely drinking the kool-aid, I dunno, but I suppose the latter fits with that reasoning.

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Not sure why you were surprised by the Crow twist, when you of all people should know that

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxXfJR-6ry0

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...I don't get it. Was that just a bad use of the words "Seize the Truth?"

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bumping once in case I decide to play ToCS 2, albeit it's not on my agenda right now

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I'm thinking about it...I just finished Hollow Knight, and while I have a ton of stuff in my backlog, the knowledge that the story I experienced is only one-fourth finished is really staggering.

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it's more that it's one-half finished. CS1 and 2 are two halves of the same book in the series of Cold Steel (or Kiseki in general)

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Are 3 and 4 also halves of a whole?

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i dunno i haven't played them. probably i'd guess

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Cold Steel 3 is painfully unfinished on its own.

Also yeah go Hollow Knight. Really great game imo.
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Finally catching up, loved the descriptions of everything happening.

As far as Crow goes, definitely did not see it coming, but there is some free time dialogue that gives his backstory and character a bit more flavor towards his "why." I'd say I'd be confused on the "how" (as in 'how is he the powerful leader of a renegade terrorist faction'), but it's a Trails game. Look at the opening of FC. Josh is like, what, ten?

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Finally caught up.

azuarc posted...

So, stupid question: why are the robots called Archaisms? Doesn't that name imply that they're obsolete? I mean, yeah, there's the implication that they're of ancient design, but archaic?

Wayyyy back in Sky FC, they appear in exactly one brief scene, where they're called "Overmuppets" written with the kanji for "Doll Weapon." The former is kinda trademark infringement and the latter is lame, so XSEED had to come up with a new name. In that one scene, they're specifically described as "ancient Overmuppets," so they decided to go with "archaisms." The name has made increasingly less sense as the series has gone on, but we appear to be stuck with it.
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After a couple bumps from others, I decided to go back and reread this thread for the hell of it. Holy shit that took a while. Also, my apologies for all the weird word swaps. I should probably go back and proofread this stuff before I hit post, but I'm just flying along at a fast pace and my brain gets ahead of my fingers. (Even so, some of those substitutions are plain weird.) Definitely a lot of points where my comments were ambiguous, too. Not up to snuff at all for someone who claims to do a little writing on the side.

Anyway, it's a shame that ToCS 3 is on sale right now, and not ToCS 2. I was actively trying to pick something new to dabble with last night. I bought Fell Seal, which proceeded to not install properly despite everything I tried, so I returned it as not being worth the bother. I almost bought Greedfall over the weekend when it was half off. Now, I dunno. If there are enough people that are eager to see this thread continue, maybe I'll just bite the bullet and pay full price for CS2. If we do go that route, please tell me what you'd like to see more or less of from the write-ups, because although nobody critiqued my commentary in that time -- understandably -- I can see in hindsight how a reader might have appreciated either greater depth or a lower wordcount to slog through.

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I think my post on my final session of Trails SC ended up being like 8 posts long so I am 100% not qualified to answer that.

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Cold Steel 2 on sale right now on PSN

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Bleh. If only I owned a Playstation. But thank you for thinking of me.

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It's Towa Time

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