Board 8 > I've always seen the Trails games as a "b8" thing, ya know

(+) Yeah! (+)

I literally have never seen it talked about any where else

So it always creeps me out when we get marketing for it



"B8 is here right now "

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It looks like a J-animes.
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wow such disrespect for the imminent goty

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i have seen it talked about elsewhere plenty of times

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I first heard of this series through B8 and it helped me get one answer in a GameFAQs Competition last year: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/20-gamefaqs-competitions/77978736

But I've never even seen it mentioned or discussed anywhere else on the internet.

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it's an RPG site thing.
and steadily more mainstream over the years as anime games became more popular.


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It's only natural the most consistently good JRPG series gets talked about

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But also it wasn't until NISA took over localisation with cold steel 3 that the series really started getting marketing in the West

XSEED has never been good at that kind of thing

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I've always thought that about Trails in the Sky...which as I am typing this realizing this is the same exact thing said in the OP. Ok I am going to bed now.

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xp1337 posted...

wow such disrespect for the imminent goty

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I hate that font/capitalization in that tagline.

In a World Ablaze with War. Heroes Must Unite.

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It's popular with turn-based JRPG fans, but who still likes turn-based JRPGs in this day and age?

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DeepsPraw posted...

It's popular with turn-based JRPG fans, but who still likes turn-based JRPGs in this day and age?

Good, decent people.

DeepsPraw posted...

It's popular with turn-based JRPG fans, but who still likes turn-based JRPGs in this day and age?

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DeepsPraw posted...

It's popular with turn-based JRPG fans, but who still likes turn-based JRPGs in this day and age?

LOL

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Pokemon is a turn-based RPG that sells better than almost anything else...
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I thought it was just for waifu/anime people.
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andylt posted...

I thought it was just for waifu/anime people.

Trails didn't even really start out as a series like this at all, though the more recent Cold Steel games have moved the series in this direction.
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andylt posted...

I thought it was just for waifu/anime people.

Yeah, the series didn't really start leaning into that aspect until Cold Steel. Sky has a little of that, but not that much.

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pyresword posted...

Trails didn't even really start out as a series like this at all, though the more recent Cold Steel games have moved the series in this direction.

yes, and it's absolutely the worst part of Cold Steel aka The Harem Adventures of Rean Schwarzer

(love the games, I'm just saying they're also kind of gross)

*pats Towa's head*

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Mac Arrowny posted...

Pokemon is a turn-based RPG that sells better than almost anything else...

pokemon is a japanese RPG, but it isn't a JRPG

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DeepsPraw posted...

pokemon is a japanese RPG, but it isn't a JRPG

exactly. i don't see why people don't get this. just because it's turn-based, has a heavy focus on leveling up, learning skills and optimizing stats and features a child protagonist embarking on an adventure to stop an evil organization doesn't mean it's a jrpg

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DeepsPraw posted...

pokemon is a japanese RPG, but it isn't a JRPG

Pokemon WaifuSEX disagrees

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If Square Enix actually made a mainline Final Fantasy game turn-based, they would be popular again. The decline in popularity of turn-based games has been entirely a self-fulfilling prophecy because they made the choice to stop innovating in that direction and regulating the battle system to secondary titles.

It's revisionist history to say that gamers "turned against" turn-based combat in JRPG's. What happened is they turned against a bunch of mediocre games released after the genre's post-FF7 popularity boom. These games sucked on their own merits, not because they were turn-based.

NFUN posted...

exactly. i don't see why people don't get this. just because it's turn-based, has a heavy focus on leveling up, learning skills and optimizing stats and features a child protagonist embarking on an adventure to stop an evil organization doesn't mean it's a jrpg

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colliding posted...

yes, and it's absolutely the worst part of Cold Steel aka The Harem Adventures of Rean Schwarzer

(love the games, I'm just saying they're also kind of gross)

Oh it really is one of those creepy harem waifu little-girls-who-are-technically-18-or-1000 ridiculous breast physics everyone in love with the self insert protagonist games now? Probs a pass for me then. Cool to learn it wasn't always like that though!

Are there any decent anime JRPGs these days that don't have that kind of component >_>
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Trails in the Sky

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DeepsPraw posted...

pokemon is a japanese RPG, but it isn't a JRPG

It might not be a JRPG in the line of something like FF, but its unquestionably a JRPG

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DeepsPraw posted...

pokemon is a japanese RPG, but it isn't a JRPG

what are you talking about

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andylt posted...

Oh it really is one of those creepy harem waifu little-girls-who-are-technically-18-or-1000 ridiculous breast physics everyone in love with the self insert protagonist games now? Probs a pass for me then. Cool to learn it wasn't always like that though!

Are there any decent anime JRPGs these days that don't have that kind of component >_>

I mean Cold Steel doesn't really go to that extreme with it for the most part

I just wish the series would stop acting like stepsiblings falling in love with each other isn't at least a tiny bit ick though

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The amount of haremness present in these games is being seriously overstated

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I never thought the Cold Steel games were particularly perverted or fanservice-y in nature, but it's possible I've been desensitized by years of anime watching. To me it's more just that there's many female characters who are probably romantically interested in the MC and that the game incorporates some sort of affection/bonding system with them.

Hajimari has a minigame that uh...is, but it's my understanding that it's separate from the main game itself.
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What can I say? Chicks dig giant robots.

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Yeah, I wouldn't say it's a major component of the games. It's mostly avoidable if you don't want anything to do with it, but the fanservice is certainly there if you want it. And it's definitely tamer than in other stuff.

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pyresword posted...

I never thought the Cold Steel games were particularly perverted or fanservice-y in nature

there's many female characters who are probably romantically interested in the MC and that the game incorporates some sort of affection/bonding system with them.

Having admittedly not played Cold Steel, reading this was kind of funny

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ninkendo posted...

The amount of haremness present in these games is being seriously overstated

it's not any worse than what you would find in a persona game

It's honestly tamer than Persona, even. You can't romance multiple girls, for one thing, and a kiss is the most risqu thing you'll ever see even implied.

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the important thing here is these games are good enough that I'm taking an entire week off work just to play CS4, which is a privilege I only reserve for 1-2 games per year.

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If you're trying to imply that to you those are the same thing:

There are anime/visual novels/whatever that deliberately try to sexualize this by emphasizing the attractiveness of the girls, constantly putting them in revealing outfits, etc. I am saying that Trails of Cold Steel does not especially do this. I'd compare it to a series like Persona in this respect.

edit: responding to post 37 should have just quoted it
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Eh, if it's not so bad that's ok I'm just sick of these tropes showing up everywhere in otherwise good games. I don't have experience with Persona but Fire Emblem really annoyed me with how hard they leaned into that stuff around Fates time.
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I haven't played the newer Fire Emblem games but I suspect those would also be a good comparison? Obviously I will defer to anyone with experience in all of the aforementioned games.
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If you didn't like it in Fire Emblem, you're not gonna like it in Persona or Trails. The latter games lack the whole offspring aspect, but lean heavier into the actual dating/waifu aspect.

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Eh, I think the newer Fire Emblem games leaned harder into waifu stuff than Trails does. I'd say it's closer to something like Xenoblade if you've played that.

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Tharja alone is pervier than anything in Persona/Trails.

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The level of waifu-ism in Fire Emblem depends largely on the game.

Not present: every US-localized game before Awakening lol
Somewhat present: Three Houses
Present, but at least its integrated alright: Awakening
Present, in your face, and really bad about it: Fates

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Well, I should probably break it down further.

Fire Emblem definitely leans into the waifu aspect harder with the character designs and the like, but until Three Houses, it still kept everything to the typical support system, and even then it still mostly does. Persona and Trails amplify the actual dating aspect.

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Got it I think, I still enjoyed Fire Emblem Awakening and especially Echoes (though Fates was bad enough in several ways that it put me off getting Three Houses) so it's probably not a dealbreaker.

I'll look into the series at least and see how off-putting that stuff seems, I'm not theoretically averse to any kind of dating stuff it's just so obnoxiously done 99% of the time that I'd rather avoid it if possible, and I hate when it impacts main story/is almost mandatory and the female characters just get reduced to sex objects pining after the MC. If the writing is good and I can ignore most of that stuff it shouldn't be too bad.

On a different note, these games are all in the same world right? Can you just start with the newest one or is it best to go back to the first Cold Steel/Trails in the Sky/whatever.
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The very beginning of Cold Steel had that accidental groping and was one of the worst things about the game but the rest of it was fine in terms of fanservice junk.

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andylt posted...

On a different note, these games are all in the same world right? Can you just start with the newest one or is it best to go back to the first Cold Steel/Trails in the Sky/whatever.

It's fine to start at the beginning of any subseries.

Trails in the Sky (PSP/Vita/PC)
Trails from Zero (Fan translation, PC)
Trails of Cold Steel (PS3/Vita/PC)

If you start with Cold Steel, it's recommended that you go and play the other games before Cold Steel 3.

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