Board 8 > TPLink Plays the Trails Series - Book 3: Fire

(+) Yeah! (+)

Previous playthrough threads can be found here: http://zyxyzarchive.42web.io/index_zeldatrails.html

This topic contains spoilers for the Trails series up to the Cold Steel Arc, and including all previous games (Sky 1-3, Zero and Azure)

So I've had an idea for na intro post ever since I read spoilers for the end of Azure ever since I finished Azure, and I finally get to post it.

------------------------------------

Water, Earth, Fire, Air, Space, Time and Mirage

Long ago, the Continent of Zemuria lived together in Harmony.

But, everything changed, when the Fire Nation Erebonian Empire attacked.

Only Bestelle, Master of the 10 Thousand Quotes, could stop them.

But when the world needs her most, she stops being a playable character.

Now, 100 gameplay hours later... the situation has really gone to shit. The Fire Nation Erebonian Empire
has invaded and conquered the city of Ba Sing Se Crossbell. And although the latest group of protagonists was great, they have a lot to learn before they can measure up to the Sky cast.

But there is hope. Because now, we venture into the Fire Nation empire itself. We have a new group of protagonists, one that may be our last hope to free Zemuria and restore balance to the world.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/c/cc475475.jpg

Some school kids.

Well damn.

But who knows, maybe some 200 sidequests and 500 gameplay hours will turn them into the bargain bin bracers heroes we need!

Will that be enough? Follow me to find out, in the third arc of this story:

Trails of Cold Steel

a.k.a.

Trails Series: Book 3: Fire

a.k.a.

TRAILS SIX

Cool opening. Highlights:

• Watching the opening before playing some of the game is new. I dunno I guess I'm just spoiled by Sky SC's ridiculously emotional sequence
• Kids in high school uniforms fighting a dragon. I know Im gonna enjoy this when the time comes, but it just doesn't look cool rn.
• Hell yeah Chancellor Whatshisname is back. Forgot his name. Maybe I'll call him Not Adolf but that might offend some people
• We end showing some giant, dark demonic thing who is 90% the final boss of this game. And 10% the final boss of one of the following games.
• Ofc the school teacher is some young girl with big boobs. Fucking Japanese.

Difficuly settings are trying to scare me. Normal is "tough". Hard will "take everything I got". Nightmare has red font and is "balanced for New game+"

But I'm onto those devs. Trails 4/5 were fine on hard, and Cold Steel is infamous for being too easy. I'm playing on Hard

It's the year of 1204. Which I have no idea what means but I know this and Cold Steel 2 happen at the same time as the Crossbell game. So yeah, another 2 games before we get to where we last stopped.

We get some tank warfare, which would have looked cool in 2005. But hey I'm not a graphics junkie, just give me the story beats.

Oh hey, In Medias Res. I like that. Last time we had an In Medias Res intro, it led to some bizarre time travel shenanigans. Let's see what the devs have cooked now.

Blond Guy: "They completely blindsided us!". Welcome to trails, dude.

They removed the button to read previous dialogue? I want a refund.

Oh ok so this is during early Azure

The MC has a cool voice. That will either grow on me or get tired fast

"they would attack the chancellor?" - yes, please do that.

Or don't, because I played Azure and I know it backfires in every conceivable way

Hot Teacher has a snarky voice and I love it

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/f/f6acc4f7.jpg

Oh kids you have no idea how unprepared you just are

We are in Garrelia Fortress. You know, that building everyone spent the last two games scared shit of because they had huge gun pointed at Crossbell? Perspective is everything

Who the hell names their son Jusis

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/f/fe9d8ddc.jpg

I have a party of 6 but can only control 4. Damn I wanna play with the girl with the huge anime sword!

Heroes are scared because robots. Robots means Orobouros. So they should be scared. But they don't know yet.

oh you can swap party members mid battle. thats pretty cool

We beat the robots. Its nice to give me all those high level moves before taking them away from me

Teacher has heard of Orobouros before. Hmm

Jusis sounds like a dick ngl

I just called blue hair girl and her her s-craft some enemies into oblivion. Her scraft is literally just her swinging her sword which is the size of a battlefield, Arianhod style. Cool

Teacher san, I know fighting with a gun AND a weapon is metal as heck, but it can't be practical. You are a teacher, you should know that.

[used her scraft,Plasma Storm]

Yeah never mind what I just said. You do you.

I was expecting black mage girl's scraft to be flashy. I wasnt expecting her to summon 6 huge towers. Cool.

Theres a dude named Gaius. Oh hey, that's my irl name!

Well sorta. Gaius is how it's spelled in Latin, cuz it's an ancient Rome name. In Portuguese it's Caio, which is pronounced almost like Kyle. Maybe I should call him Kyle for the lulz.

I hope the guy who has my name doesn't suck.

Well this is some interesting lore. On top of all the shit the terrorists did in Azure, they also tried to hijack the railway guns.

Kyle's scraft is cool enough I suppose

And hes got Wild Rage. Interesting

Why is dialogue still showing names like "Bespectacled Girl" and "Blond Guy" when I've already seen their names in the menu?

We stop at a cliffhanger, right before the terrorists DON'T disintegrate the entire cast of Trails to Azure

Then there's a Cast List! That explains the early opening. I dig it. I also really dig the Olivier appearance. Knowing Olivier would be in this game is 60% of why I bought it ngl

5 months earlier. We are back at lv 1 and just one party member. Also he's in a train. Where have I seen that before

We arrive at Trista, the typical Initial RPG Town

So High School is just two years in Zemuria? Sounds easy

Rean, our protagonist, is daydreaming when suddenly the female lead, Blond Hair with cute hairpins, bumps onto him while also daydreaming.
A ship is born.

Shes already excited about being in the same class as Rean. Dude, she is totally into you

I had heard tales of Rean's legendary harem powers but it's different to see it happen in real time

Shes nice and shes cute. But her voice is annoying omg. Maybe it will grow on me tho.

I know this is trails but carrying a sword to school is weird. You are not even a pseudo-bracer yet

ZeldaTPLink posted...

I had heard tales of Rean's legendary harem powers but it's different to see it happen in real time

"Haha."

you haven't even seen the master at work yet

(tag)

ZeldaTPLink posted...

Shes nice and shes cute. But her voice is annoying omg. Maybe it will grow on me tho.

I searched for a way to play with the JP voices on Vita specifically because of her

Tag

I want to come in here and say I'm down on Cold Steel compared to the earlier Trails games--which is true--but honestly on this board I often feel like a defender of the games.

I like Trista a lot honestly. I guess I'm a sucker for these type of RPG starting towns.

I mean if this arc is half as good as the previous ones it will still be great.

cold steel was what really hooked me into the series, what a good game

teacher and towa best girls

ZeldaTPLink posted...

I mean if this arc is half as good as the previous ones it will still be great.

Having just finished CS2... How does 1/3 or 1/4 as good sound?

Although I'm apparently one of a very small minority that isn't bothered by Alisa's voice at all.

I walk two steps into a little park and already trigger a cutscene

theres a girl laying on the bench. I guess I'm going to randomly meet students in places until I explore everything?

silver hair girl has mastered the art of sleeping whenever she wants and waking up whenever she needs

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/8/88478ac1.jpg

No. Bad Rean! Bad! Going into strangers' homes is how you trigger sidequests!

And theres Gaius at the church. I've decided I won't keep calling him Kyle because it will confuse the hell out of people who start reading this playthrough from the middle.

I don't know if I think hes cool because hes clearly not wearing the uniform properly or uncool because he seems to be the religious one

Not Arianhod receives her massive sword from her butler. Yeah shes the noble one of the bunch. Her voice is also pretty low pitched. Interesting character

"Thors" is certainly a name you pick when you want your school to feel fancy

another rich kid arrives, with their respective butler. Everyone gets butlers in this school. Except Rean, I'm guessing

Oh it's Jusis, the one who seemed like a jerk

We meet another two characters, and those weren't in the party at the intro
but the girl I'm pretty sure is the one who hijacked the cast of Azure. The one who kept randomly throwing references as if she knew she was a cameo

I'm not sure if her voice is cute or annoying. Gonna stay with cute for now

well ceremony is starting and I've only run into 5 out of the 8 fellow party members along the way. I assume this is how it's supposed to be, or I'm doing a really bad job at checking for cutscenes, but I think I checked them all

This principal feels like he'll either be a chapter antagonist or completely irrelevant to the story. Vandyck is a sort of villanious name, so I'm taking irrelevant, because trails likes to do that. If they want someone to be evil, they call them Ernest

It's a military academy, but they don't mind if you don't want to join the military. For now. Though I feel that if you give it another decade or two of Osborne's regimen, that might change

his speech is boring af and I miss Dieter Crois already

Rean makes friends with another future party member, Red Haired Wuss

Elliot Criag does sound like a name of someone that won't make it high in most people's character rankings, but I could change my mind

Most students are wearing green. The noble ones are sitting in front, and wearing white. And then you have the red ones, who may or may not be noble. I'm guessing thats reserved for the pseudo-bracers

Everyone leaves, except the red uniforms, who are confused because they got no instructions. And then... it begins

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/0ff6c8e4.jpg

"Orienteering exercise". Ok I love this teacher already

white uniform students are watching with confused faces at what seems to be a blatant violation of the social hierarchy

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/6986283d.jpg

and we have some shady characters already

Blue Ribbon girl is with them tho, and shes probably a good guy, so I guess they just look shady

oh ok so this is the student council. I see

Professor Goofy's name is Sara. The one who uses a gun and a sword at the same time and has a metal s-craft

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/d/d4fd6ad3.jpg

Two pleasures, specifically

There are normally 5 classes, but this year there's a 6th class: Class VII. And it's the only class that doesn't separate nobles and commomers

wait wheres class 6. What happened to Class 6. WHAT HAPPENED TO IT

Glasses boy is pissed. Sara properly responds with: "and who are you again?" lol

I thought Jusis was the jerk but I was wrong, this is the jerk. The Machias guy

Well Jusis could be a jerk too but RPG party balance says he probably won't. He's just a serious dude

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/7/7c3d3870.jpg

Wow

someone is in need of a communism

Where's Estelle when we need her. Her staff would have already properly connected to his head by now. or she would have threatened it, which would have been funny

Jusis tells Machias to stfu and I'm sorry for doubting him

also Machias learns a big lesson of social hierarchies. Acting like your class makes you the best only works as long as someone better doesn't appear. And they always appear.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/00bb5769.jpg

you're all screwed

Rean IMMEDIATELY jumps to save blonde. The absolute player

Fie, the sleepy silver hair, uses some ninja shit to avoid falling into the trap. Sara counters it with more ninja shit and tells her she will socialize whether she wants it or not. Love it.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/0f17f475.jpg

things have escalated VERY quickly

Rean gets slapped in the face and honestly I think he deserved it

the game tells me to go grab my weapon, so I'll just go and talk to everyone else first as they are grabbing their weapons

Oh we already start with master quartzes. Nice

orbments now hold up to 9 quartz, an upgrade from the previous 7. this is gonna get extremely convoluted by the 3rd game, isn't it

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/9/9d9f41c1.jpg

I don't know how she's doing it, but Sara is my fav character in this game so far and it's not even close

Jusis got offended that I said he wasn't a jerk and decided to prove me wrong, so he tells everyone to fuck off and heads to the dungeon alone. So RPG party balance be danmed, we have two complete jerks

I'm guessing the difference is that Machias hates poor people, and Jusis hates everyone. I suppose I vibe more with the later, tbh

But then he drags Machias so hard I'm not sure if I even dislike him. This is satisfying to watch

Like he dragged Machias so hard the later ended up abandoning class systems himself just to prove a point. Beautiful

blue haired girl tries to make a Girl's Club, but Fie is having none of it and leaves alone too. So I'm guessing we are having a party of 3 boys, and a party of 3 girls

Elliot and Gaius get to be the first party members of the game

Gaius has a huge lance that's not exactly a lance. Elliot gets an orbal staff. I have questions. Pretty sure only Tio is supposed to have access to this stuff at this point of the timeline

I'm guessing Thors just got access to stuff

And Rean has a katana. For once, the MC of a trails have has a regular anime weapon

So I'm understanding Gaius is a tank, Elliot is a mage, and one that is more on the healing side, and Rean is the speedy attacker with fancy crafts

oh ok so I finally get the function to see old dialogue, its just in the menu

I had heard they simplified the quarts system, and I'm figuring it now. You dont get both stats and arts from every orb. Some orbs give you just stats, other give you just arts, some may give you both. I suppose this makes it much easier to keep track of how to get spells. But I think i'm gonna miss the orbment puzzle

That said, with a whopping 9 quartz per character, there's still a big customization space

Not that the puzzle was fully functional, though. Mages would often just grab Mind/Action then ignore other bonuses to focus on spellists. Melees would ignore spells altogether and maximise bonuses. Now there are quuartz that are better for mages and quartz that are better for melees, so maybe this is more balanced

Not having chest messages anymore feels wrong, man

Elliot is currently the party MVP, being healing and support and all

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/1/1fadecb1.jpg

But he's a wuss

Gaius is used to monsters, because apparently he's the one with the dark backstory

And Rean is used because... reasons. Probably got some samurai training or something

Some monster almost jumps on Elliot but we are saved by... Machias. Ok didnt expect it

Cool rifle btw

Wait, I'm starting to realize I may have misunderstood it. I was thinking Machias was a jerk because he is a noble who hates commoners. But he's a commoner who hates nobles! Forget everything I said before, I like him now

(though he was still made to look like a tool by Jusis)

He apologizes. Character development!

So this is a full party of commoners. Though I think Rean kind of dodged the question.

CP gain is extremely lenient in this game. Most of my characters are using crafts every turn and their CP is not going down. It's like everybody is wearing a gladiator item, except they aren't

Like, you could say Gaius isn't that strong because his craft hits a line and only seals 50% of the time, but if he can spam that EVERY turn, he may as well be Tita, but with good defenses

We meet the girls. Blue hair proceeds to take her chance at making Machias look bad.

see, the thing with ideologies, left or right, is that you can't just make everything in life about them. Things like making friends at school is ideology-less. Radical people try to make every aspect of their life about their ideology, and end up being annoying to everyone else. Machias was kind of like that at the start tbh

But this is an RPG party, so those kids will all get along. I'm guessing real attrition may come against kids from other classes though, like the guys in white uniforms

blue hair is called Laura, and she is formal but not mean

Glasses girl is called Emma, and she is the nerd

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/068bdbd8.jpg

Machias kinda just sucks, doesn't he

Blonde is named Alisa... R

(pshhh. I know what R means. character names appear online and stuff. But let's follow the plot for now)

She is having none of Rean. None at all. Lmao

Machias tries to be that guy and Laura just shuts him down. What can I say, thats a big sword.

Machias omg just put a sock in your mouth or something

So Laura's family are badass knights. Now I REALLY wanna see her and Arianhod meet. I bet theres a cool character interaction in the making

We run into Fie, who is hiding behind a pillar, but she gets outninja'd by Gaius

She compensates by doing some Metroid shit and skipping to the end of the dungeon

Jusis is also dealing with monsters all by himself. The lesson kids? Screw teamwork, just be a badass

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/d/d4e4f155.jpg

Yep

The thing with Jusis is while he is kind of a jerk, he has enough emotional intelligence to just bait and troll Machias instead of taking him seriously

He then goes and exposes Machias as a filthy 1%. LOL

Machias: "But MAH meritocracy!" Dude. Just stop.

Oh so Machias's dad is friends to Osborne. Makes sense.

The game prompts me to stop either Machias or Jusis, and I pick Machias. Something needs to be done to end his misery

Machias has issues, but he also has low self esteem. I feel bad for him now, ngl

And now we learn Elliot is a massive bootlicker. Ew.

Machias leaves the party, Jusis joins it.

I think a lot of people found it annoying but I quite liked this stuff with Machias and Jusis at the beginning.

I ended up liking the modern Trails battle system more once you get to like Cold Steel 3 and they're adding more stuff, but I think it really felt like a downgrade the first 2 games. I thought the old quartz system with spells was very cool.

jusis asserting dominance early

I do miss the old puzzle

the old quartz system is way more interesting

Azure's quartz system was perfect and I don't know why they felt the need to change it.

pyresword posted...

I think a lot of people found it annoying but I quite liked this stuff with Machias and Jusis at the beginning.

Oh I'm loving it. I keep saying they are annoying but I'm looking at Machias and seeing a great character arc being constructed. It's just that sometimes you need people to suck in the beginning so they can be great later.

NBIceman posted...

Azure's quartz system was perfect and I don't know why they felt the need to change it.

I guess too many people complaining it was difficult. I suppose the old system was a casual player repellant. Ive read reddit threads on old games and quite a lot of people play in minimum difficulties so they don't have to understand orbments, or copy pre-made builds from online guides.

Which sucks, but sometimes a game studio gotta make money, and they do it by making their story focused rpg series more friendly on the gameplay side.

We get to the end of the dungeon and Jusis complains this has been too easy. Which obviously triggers a boss fight. Jusis needs to play more videogames.

Boss beaten. Its a little tough, but its hard to lose on 4x1

But it is still alive, so that the rest of the students can show up to learn a lesson on the importance of teamwork

(and so Laura and Fie can look cool)

Sara shows up to make some exposition. Turns out the party was mostly chosen for for their aptitude with the new orbment. Eh Im not sure if I buy it

She asks if we wanna stay. Rean ges a short glimpse of his sad backstory and says yes.

He says something about his family. Mysteries gonna mystery

Estelle and Lloyd were open books. Josh wasn't, but he wasn't the MC. Its weird to have an MC who is full of mysteries

Yeah I know, Kevin, but he didn't feel that much like an MC, especially while sharing his game with so many characters, Estelle/Josh included.

Laura and Gaius accept too because they are badasses

Emma because she is kind. Then Elliot manages not to be near the bottom ones, against all expectations.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/d/d2cdebdd.jpg

Not sure where he got that impression from, though

I was thinking Alisa would be the last due to slapstick teenage anger but she is the 6th one, at least

Alisa: "I'm a rebel but if I rebel too hard I'll just lose all opportunities"

Fie: "Meh"

All thats left are the class warfare duo

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/4/41ee3f54.jpg

I can almost smell the snark

Machias tries to make a communist manifesto. Jusis ignores him and says yes. Machias once again comes out looking worse. This is poetry.

Jusis: "It doesn't matter if people are nobles or commoners, you all suck compared to me anyway"

And he then reverse psychologies Machias into joining

Sara probably patting herself in the back mentally rn at her 100% approval rate. Shes gonna call everyone who doubted this would work and tell them to suck it, I bet

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/c/c3b94a67.jpg

A WILD OLIVIER APPEARS

Olivier: [everything is going according to keikaku]

Opening plays again, this time being a bit more climatic due to knowing the characters

Prologue: "At least this high school will only last 2 years": beaten.

some bullet points:

• This prologue was average compared to most Trails ones. Story wise it was flawless I suppose, but Zero's is still my favorite.
• Game is good so far. I'm waiting for it to get bad, assuming it will. But FC and Zero are my fav games in the series, I just love the set up games, so I think this game is in a good shape.
• None of the characters are bad, either. I mean Machias is terrible, but that's intentional and is actually great. Jusis is great. Fie is great. Laura is cool. The rest are meh, though.
• Sara is better than the entire cast combined. If she keeps up she could end up the arc hanging out with the Randies and the Oliviers of my list. I'm not joking
• That said, I kept playing a little after the opening and what started next was a scene at a school dorm, so I gave up. This school setting is very unexciting. I just can't bring myself to feel hyped about friggin high school after the epic sequences we just had. Let's see if this changes. It's hard for anything to come after Crossbell, I suppose.

Cold Steel 1 is more FC paced? compared to Zero for sure

So we are back to a few weeks later of well, school

R.I.P.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/4/4eff68d0.jpg

Rean looks at a family photo. Quick, let me calculate the odds that at least one of those people is a member of Orobouros. I'd say... 40%

Rean's best friend in class is Elliot, the resident wuss. Can relate. I used to make friends with the losers too, being a nerdy kid myself. Though Rean is definitely not a nerdy kid.

then again, he's kind of a sword geek isn't he

Rean says something about how he's not sensing others and I'm thinking they all have that ability from the new orbment. Then we get this:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/b/b73f4b79.jpg

So Rean is psychic. Cool.

Alisa is also friends with another nerd, Emma. And she still doesn't want to even hear of Rean

Eh I'm starting to side with Rean here. Talk about an exaggerated reaction

Elliot: "As long as you keep trying, she'll understand eventually"

Nah, screw this. Don't waste your time trying to please people who just choose to be dicks to you. Let them stay mad.

So Emma and Machias are the best students in class. Emma we knew, Machias we did not. I'm guessing it's only his emotional intelligence that is negative

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/a31bee6f.jpg

In Trails? A tough boss battle followed by a dramatic cutscene where one of them saves the other's life

Elliot is struggling to treat nobles as the same as him. Well I suppose he's not a complete bootlicker, he just has a lifetime of indocrination on a class system weighting over him. Interesting how it doesn't affect the rest, though

Let's see... Gaius is not from here. Machias is affected, in the other direction. Fie doesn't seem like the type to care. Then we have Rean, Laura and Emma who... I guess are used to it but are chill enough not to make a big deal over it?

Class 7's dormitory was abandoned until now. Just like the SSS building.

We then get a scene with some noble students being assholes. And I learn the two who got picked for Class 7 are actually way nicer people than the average for nobles. Like, Laura is cool, Jusis is a dick but not over classes, he just hates people.

And now the talk moves to what clubs to pick. Persona: Trails Edition

We watch a history class. I love history! Unfortunately this is a history class in a a fascist regimen, so it's more "how our rulers saved us all" and less "why everyone who's ever lived sucked and history is just a battle for resources", like I used to have in school myself

Its also focused on random facts lile dates and name of places so students dont spend time thinking on the reasons people actually did stuff (resources, mostly).

My parents went to school during a dictatorship, so I know how that stuff works from them. You remove all the thinking from History and make students memorize random crap instead.

Rean (and I) dont know the name of a place. Alisa helps him by writing on her notebook where he can see. The tsundere.

I gain a BP. I mean, DP. I mean, AP. The thing that gives me gladiador items and unlocks bonuses in the second game.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/4/4b37c30b.png

Game: "You are an idiot, but we are giving you the points for free because this is a tutorial. Next time, study."

Rean has no clubs to go to, so he's sent on a fetch quest at the student council. Calling it, he's joining the council.

Game lets me switch Gaius and Elliot's gear even though they aren't here. Im guessing they are the actual party members, while everyone else is a guest

Exploring the campus. I meet the science teacher, who asks me not to fail the exams so he doesn't have to make retests. Rean thinks that it's not proper for a teacher to say that out loud. Jokes on him, I used to hear it all the time in college. There were even teachers who always failed students on retests to get revenge for them making the teacher work in vacation time

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/3/302b66b4.jpg

This got weird fast

I meet Fie at the roof.

Rean: "What are you doing up here?". Fie: "being bored"

Gotta memorize the school layout for when the Phantom Thief inevitably makes me search for clues in it

Alisa is joining the lacrosse club and some noble girl says she is gonna teach her to have respect for nobles. This is gonna backfire, and I'll be here to watch it

Alright.

Who designed this game's camera? I'm getting echoes of Super Mario 64 here.

seriously, this is making me miss the previous games' view from above so hard.

on the way to the student council, I meet some dude who asks me if I wanna see some coin tricks

He doesn't reveal his name but he's clearly important

He also steals my money. lol

I'm getting Lechter vibes

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/1/1618f2e8.jpg

Yes, you were standing in front of the door

I finish exploring the campus and talking to everyone. The first of 100 times, I presume.

I also drop by the abandoned building of the prologue, where Rean gets a flash of... something
Imagem

I find the HQ of most powerful organization of Erebonia

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/b/be1a68de.jpg

At the student council, I'm introduced to the Azure Cameo Girl, whose name is Towa, who is the president, and who looks like she's 10

She hands us the Student Notebook, another tried Trails tradition. Time to check spoilers for future spells

And then I learn we are going to help the student council. of course. How else are we getting sidequests

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/c/c00991ca.jpg

Holy crap Sara is a snake

not only she set up the kids to do sidequests, she also set them up to help Towa with her job... so that Towa can have time to do Sara's job. Genius.

And Rean won't even be able to say no since Towa is so adorable

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/3/3ddb72e1.jpg

Everything is part of Sara's keikaku. No one can escape.

Sara says some mysterious sounding stuff about Rean being special. Yeah I get it

Chapter 1: "Wait NOW we are starting chapter 1?": begins

ZeldaTPLink posted...

Jusis is a dick but not over classes, he just hates people.

relatable

Towa best

Bump.

Sorry for the terrible pacing folks, I just haven't had time/motivation to play this every day like I used to. I'm afraid the pacing won't change anytime soon.

Post coming today or tomorrow, though.

Better late than never.

I deliver the notebooks to all classmates. One thing I notice is how back in Zero, we took time to visit each others' rooms and make funny comments about it. Now nobody invites Rean inside except for Elliot and Gaius, and a lot of them just act grumpy at him. This is certainly not a party. Yet.

Heck, even Elliot and Gaius don't have much party chemistry. Especially Gaius.

Time to indulge an important Trails activity. Getting to know all the random townsfolk.

Next one: buying the newspaper and learning the politics of the land. Rean and his friends surely don't give a damn, but they will soon. They always do.

newspaper TL;DR: Osborne's power increasing. Of course.

Then, a fateful encounter happens

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/6fdd15a6.jpg

Rean receives a fishing rod, and is now officially a Trails protagonist

I'm guessing the guy's father is the Lakelord dude who was the Fishing Antagonist in Trails to Azure. So now we see his side of the fishing world

ok so why do I have to do some button mashing to catch fish? Is this Mario Party now?

so its bonding day, but the game doesn't let me bond with everyone. Right now, only Elliot, Laura and Machias are available, and I get to pick 2

I love how every other character in this setting discusses the purposes behind the existance of free days as if they are meant to be special and unique when they are just like, weekends

I forget this is a quasi-medieval world where the concept of days off is probably alien for most of those people

I learn Sara was the one who came up with the idea for the trap door in the prologue. The lady knows the importance of a good set up

if she joined Orobouros we'd all be screwed

I do a bonding scene with laura, where we learn she is an amazing swimmer, and also that Rean thinks shes hot. The game doesn't waste time

I spend at least half an hour looking for a notebook on some sidequest, until I give up and check online. Then I learn it's in a place I had already checked like 5 times, but couldn't see the notebook because the thing is the size of a coin. Nice 3D modelling

I deliver a thing to Mitch, who I remember being the guy from that Carnelia book, way back in Sky

it's the smartass who wrote that Ein Selnate died in the book even though she is alive and giving orders in Trails 3

I also do a bonding scene with Elliot. The scene... exists.

I like it how even the more basic of the status protecting items now raise stats too. Such as silver chain giving +10 to defense. I didn't like how accessories were useless at the start of every Trails game

time to explore the old schoolhouse again. The game introduces the party member selection mechanic, which is necessary because we have a whopping 9 playable characters (and at least one more later, i. e. Sara). But right now, only Elliot and Gaius are available. The more interesting cast members need to be made friends with

Elliot is scared but he is also scared for his friends so hes staying. The power of friendship

You know, those guys are boring, but I like how they all just decided to hang out together. As someone who had a hard time making friends myself (and still do), I value that stuff

so the school's layout changes magically. Fun. Even Crossbell took a while to give us those magical haunted dungeons.

ok so whats up with Rean and his craptastic Evasion? The only party member who ever gets counters is gaius. Rean is a punching bag.

the menu says Rean and Gaius both have 5% evasion but it's lying to me. There has to be something else going on here

ok google says it's Gaius's master quartz that is doing this. figures

back to the principal's room after beating the dungeon, the npcs all but confirm this is some alchemy shit going on. And I thought only the Crossbell games would have that

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/b/b9dfd1fa.jpg

thats the way

I get an extra bonding point... which can only be used with Towa. Hmmm

Towa is good at reading people, and she reads Rean like a book

(which isn't too hard, considering how one-dimensional he is)

she invites him for more tea later. I kind of ship it

actually I guess it could be used on Alisa too? But I missed it

whatever, Towa is more likable

back to the dormitory, Rean is doing cool ninja stuff. Putting down a candle with his sword

then we tune in to the weirdest radio show ever

We then skip to the day of the practical exam

the practical exam is a boss fight. The boss has exactly one attack, an art with small AoE that gets telegraphed before it casts it. easy peasy

that said, it was easy for the PC trio, Rean, Elliot and Gaius. I suspect the others might not have the same easy time

never mind, we skip ahead and apparently everyone passed. Though everyone says it was hard in the cutscene, including the PCs

and now we get sent to do sidequests somewhere else. in two groups. Wonder who is joining the party now

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/3/34d31173.jpg

Sara knows how it's done

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/2/23f10e9f.jpg

So we lose Gaius, but get Alisa and Laura. Time for some unneeded tsundere shenanigans, yay!
oh yeah Machias and Jusis in the same group. Damn, I wish I could be in it

I go to the classic quest rewars screen, where I learn Towa is this game's Fran. I'll take it

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/3/38926b48.jpg

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!

Omg I wantes to see this so much. Not because of the shipping, mind you, but because this whole debacle has way outstayed its welcome

she does get a tsundere-last-word, though, but whatever. No crisis. Let's be friends

ZeldaTPLink posted...

The game doesn't waste time

Rean's got a lot more characters to add to his harem we can't just waste time mulling about!

ZeldaTPLink posted...

then we tune in to the weirdest radio show ever

Abend Time is the best you take that back

Didn't play today but I'm probably only playing again next fri/sat and theres some residual text from yesterday so imma post it now.

Before going out for the field studies, we go shopping a bit. Towa called her favors and got all the shops in the town to open early for us. The little girl has not just the school, but the city under her full control

theres a scene where we stop to notice some lady coming out of the radio station. Probably Misty, I'm guessing

oof, our group is going to a city one hour away from here, while the other one will have to travel for a whole day. Sara really does have a favorite student, huh

so... I'm assuming we will never really walk the Empire by foot? Because that would make sense. The place is many times bigger than Liberl, which would make for an obnoxiously big world map. I guess it's more sensible if we just explore some areas, connected to each other by train. But this is speculation, maybe at some point the game will make us walk around

Sara is coming with us. Yep, she has a favorite student.

Sara: "I'm here to help you!"
Kids: "But doesn't Group B need help too?"
Sara: "Yeah but Machias and Jusis are a mess and I don't feel like dealing with that"

I'm addicted to Blade. Help.

I love card minigames made for RPGs. I remember spending a lot of times in the one they made for Trails of Berseria. And don't even get me started on Bug Fables

I also love that they finally got rid of poker/black jack. Those started out fun in Sky SC, but got progressively more boring each game, probably because the devs didn't want to scare people who don't know cards games. Fast forward to Blade, which is simple enough, but also balanced, nuanced, and has decent AI

And instead of playing against some boring ass casino clerk, you play the party members, which means I get to hear Alisa making little tsundere noises as I outplay her, or Laura yelling DIVINE BLADE!

We arrive at Celdic, where we are promply greeted by...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/0031e61c.jpg

IS THAT WHO I THINK IT IS?
(Beaublanc?)
Of course it is. There is an unspoken rule that Phantom Thief B must appear in every Trails game. Always.

The kids are flustered because all 4 will have to sleep in the same room, both the boys and the girls. The Laura goes "We are in a milatary school. Military has mixed gendered bedrooms"

Kind of weird when the army is the more progressive institution in terms of gender, but it actually makes sense in universe, when you consider the political landscape here is Feudalism vs Fascism, with the fascist side being the one that wants to modernize the country

next, we see Sara getting wasted, and I realize she is this game's answer to Scherazard. Except I like Sara much better

Rean seems like he is reading the motivations behind everything Sara does. He is good at realizing things. Maybe he will end up being a good replacement for Lloyd at some point

The kids don't get why she is just handing some side quests and letting them do whatever they want. It's simple, really. She is turning them into bracers.

Olivier: "all according to the beautiful keikaku"

Blade's a fun minigame.

first quest outside of the school: find a bear claw to help the church make medicine

[Captain America I get the reference.GIF]

next, replace a broken orbal lamp. We are on full nostalgia mode now

it doesn't feel the same though, because we don't have a clueless girl asking dumb questions about orbments

this party seriously lacks a proper dumbass

we run into cops on the way out of town and they ask us for ID

The difference between a fascist military state like Erebonia and a semi-democratic, weak state like Crossbell. The cops are much bolder

so they are actually the feudal lord's personal army. just as authoritarian tho

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/3/32f4cdfa.jpg

timeline indicator. this is some time after Zero's chapter 3. Lloyd's group already rescued KeA. I epect to see Zero's climax in the newspaper soon enough

the saddest thing about playing this game is the fact nothing happens when you try to interact with opened chests

I get it. It's because the coding for TOCS is different. But I hope Falcom eventually gets a clue and throws western fans this bone in some future game. And maybe Japanese fans too. They would enjoy it maybe.

I unlock my first s-craft, weirdly late for Trails series. It's Laura's, which makes sense since shes the resident party badass. It's... powerful. This happens in the game's first monster extermination mission, which ends up being an s-craft tutorial

So I'll get s-crafts based on story, just like they once did with Josette. Hopefully nobody gets at the end of the 2nd game, like Josette

I reach the end of this region and the game tells me to stop. Erebonia is indeed to big for foot travel. For now, at least

I was about to say Alisa is the game's Elie because shes got the most useful overworld attack for stunning enemies... when suddenly I get this

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/2/27522a1e.jpg

Yep. That's the Elie. And this seems closer to the broken version from Zero, or the decent version Kevin had, than the crappy one Elie had in Azure

no self targetting. But more CP. and same cost as in Zero. This is more powerful, but less spammable. I like it

Not recovering EP when you level up is a terrible mech change, though. I mean, EP wasn't easy to recover already!

so the monster I fought earlier wasn't the quest one, its the next one. But I prepared and got Laura to 200 CP before getting there. I eat it for breakfast

characters getting a combined victory speech when they finish a battle with a link is a nice touch

The quest about fixing the light ends with Rean doing it while the rest of the chars fend off incoming monsters... off screen. Lame

I find a park, which is off limits. For... secret reasons

time for some story. After stopping a very badly animated fight between two merhcnats, we meet the market manager which seems to be the equivallent of this town's mayor

we also learn Jusis's dad is apparently an asshole who has been taxing merchants into ruin

The guy asks us not to interfere. Ofc we are gonna interfere. In good bargain bin bracer fashion

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/4/493eb0b6.jpg

Sara, watching her students plot against the status quo

she decides we are doing fine and moves to where group B is, so she can help them mess with a different status quo

I do a little sidequest that is basically recettear in a trails game. We learn Alisa is an amazing seller

at night, the kids have a heartfelt comnversation about the reasons they came to school

Rean, like always, is hiding stuff. Laura is onto it and comes confront him. Let's see if she can make him let something out. Anything

We learn Rean is from the same sword school as Cassius and Anelace. Basically they are his senpai

Rean: "Sorry I'm a scrub"
Laura: "meh"

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/5/5f706daa.jpg

BAAAAAAAAKA

Alisa also admits shes hiding stuff

Next day. Rean and Laura make peace again. Even though they sort of never really had a fight. This is anime, people who use swords are almost like a separate species. They understand each other.

Suddenly, we learn the market has been robbed. Mrs. NPC tells us to focus on our quest and leave for the locals to figure it out

Sorry, but those quests you gave me are all optional. It's clear Sara wanted us to meddle with something else

ZeldaTPLink posted...

Next day. Rean and Laura make peace again. Even though they sort of never really had a fight. This is anime, people who use swords are almost like a separate species. They understand each other.

Swordsmen in this world are experts at discussing every aspect of swordsmanship other than how to actually use swords

Panthera posted...

Swordsmen in this world are experts at discussing every aspect of swordsmanship other than how to actually use swords

I mean that's literally every battle anime/JRPG

so we go to the market and find the same two guys fighting. They won't let us stop them, so the cops arrive

the cops threaten to arrest them if they don't stop trying to find out who robbed them. Classic cops

its clear Jusis's dad is the villain of this part of the story. I just want to see how Jusis will react when we return

We interview the victims and find nothing. Rean says we should investigate the police. Bold.
If this was rl I'd just tell him to write a suicide letter beforehand, but this is a JRPG so do whatever

We help an overdramatic pink haired lady find her lost wallet. I smell recurring character

how to get cops to talk to you: lick their boots

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/1/1bea21d8.jpg

Rean aint Lloyd, but hes good. I like detective type characters
(he could use a personality though)

so the cops are refusing to investigate crimes in the market not even because the merchants aren't paying taxes. It's because they are complaining about taxes

complaining about taxes gets the police to withdraw "protection" and then (likely) break your property at night to force you to lower your head. Damn

Elliot makes the cop slip though, and they reveal they know too much

I know the next place we have to go to is the nature park, because it's literally the only place in this region we haven't gone to yet. But the game comes up with a weird plot hook for that. We have to randomly talk to a little girl, who mentions a drunk guy being well... drunk. Then we talk to him and learn he randomly saw the culprits going to the town at night. The writing is somewhat forced here, I guess

We get to the park. Rean does some samurai stuff and breaks the lock

Laura: "It's an honor to see an eight leaves one blade form"
Rean, having used the exact same move 100 times in battle already: "Am I a joke to you?"

a dungeon later, we find the Sky Bandits - I mean, the Fake Park Rangers

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/9/99944426.jpg

I beat them pretty easily. Then someone plays a flute and calls the actual chapter boss

A giant friggin baboon

Ok this thing is huge enough to be a sept terrion beast ngl

Its a tough boss. Starts with some bulky minions, stats are very inflated for this stage of the game, it has an aoe move and an attack that is almost guaranteed ko against one party member. But not particularly tricky. Rean also gets inspiration for his s-craft at the start of the fight too, so now I have two. Just about time

the cops arrive, to arrest the kids for inteferring with feudalism

then a different groups of cops arrive to bail us, the ones who work for Osborne. We have been saved by fascism

once again, every move that we make advances Osborne's plans

They are led by some girl named Icy Maiden, or Claire.

Sara shows up, and I'm guessing she used to be part of the imperial army too, since she knows those folks

The kids have a talk about what exactly the point of Class 7 is, when Rean hits the main point

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/639c9d3a.jpg

Heeeeeeere we go again!

Years ago, a bard was fed up with the unsolvable state of his country's politics. He heard about a guy named Cassius Bright, famous for once defeating the Erebonian Army, so he went there to meet him and see if he could figure something out. On the way, he met with Estelle's group, travelled with them, and was mesmerized by sheer power of bracers. Realizing that was exactly what he needed, he returned to Erebonia and made his own move in the war against Osborne and the feudal lords. He made his own Bracer Guild. We get to play as them now.

Rean then reveals he's a noble all along. Sort of.

meanwhile, more shady people watch

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/3/348a32c1.jpg

I'm guessing thats the rebel faction? Feels like it

Chapter 1: "All your free days are belong to Towa": beaten

I'm enjoying this game more now, as it's gotten closer to the classic Trails gameplay loop. Explore an area, do sidequests, investigate a local mystery, stop local villains, have the characters bond.

Gameplay is fine and the craft selection is solid. Link attacks are pretty satisfying. I don't like the drought of EP we have here, but arts kind of suck at this stage so whatever. Difficulty is on par with Crossbell so far, maybe a bit easier but not much. The new orbment system sucks, though. It's like, good for general videogame standards of a power system, but it's bad when you remember what used to be.

Cast is still a mixed bag. Sara is still the best character in the cast, Towa is pretty good. Rean is bad. Like, he's likable but he is supremely bland. His personality is Lloyd's, but without some of the quirks that made Lloyd fun. The game seems to be using the fact he's full of mysteries as a way to make him interesting, but problem is I expect everyone to be hiding things in a Trails game. There's a bit of a cheap writing here.

That also seems to be a general trend, with characters leaning a bit too much on tropes. Alisa is a very forced tsundere, sometimes out of her own character. Otherwise she's kind of likable. Elliot is a forced coward. Otherwise he's pretty likable and I feel like he'll be one of my favorites by the end. Laura is the resident badass, which means she's my favorite of this chapter because that's a trope I don't mind seeing abused. Gaius may as well be a doll. Machias and Jusis are still among the most interesting despite their low screen time. Fie is still a gag character but obviously will pay off later, and Emma is a non-entity so far, but we'll see more of her, probably next chapter or the other one.

Story is kind of barebones at this point. Definitely below Zero, but comparable to FC, and I'm fine with that. Right now, we should be worldbuilding, and that is being done pretty well. The political writing of the game so far is consistent with the one from the previous games, and I'm interested in it.

I ended up liking Rean a fair bit, but it's a slow burn. Dude seems aware of just how many games he's going to be in and knows full well he can afford to take his time being interesting.

Yeah early on his personality is kind of subtle and requires you to read between the lines a bit

you have to imagine rean said things he didn't for him to be cool

Rean takes a long time to get good imo, and even then I'd say he's at best a high tier Trails character and not a top tier one. Though I thought he was fine from the beginning also.

Jusis probably my favorite character in early Cold Steel.

Well I don't hate Rean, but I'm getting strong Danganronpa protagonist vibes here. He's more or less the MC from DR2.

My issues with Rean are that he's less interesting than Lloyd, who was already a substantially worse protagonist than Estelle and Kevin before him, and that Cold Steel's weaker and less charming writing in general just gives him less to work with than characters from those previous entries.

It feels unfair, but what are you gonna do?

Lloyd > Kevin tho. But that might be the unpopular opinion.

Next, we watch some classes, where we see good old sexism at play: boys getting programming classes, while girls learn to cook

Its also a bunch of scenes of noble kids being assholes

If I hadn't played previous Trails games and knew Osborne was the literal devil, I would be firmly supporting his side rn. Machias idiocy notwithstanding. Though it's clear the game is preaching for nobles and commoners to get along, most nobles in this setting are asshats

Jusis bails Rean from having to deal with an annoying noble kid to apologize for his family being evil in chapter 1. Though he has trouble admitting it. I love this dude.

Alisa apparently tries to ask Rean out but has a sudden burst of tsundereness, so she changes her mind. Laura serms to be friends with Rean now though which is cool.

But Machias is mad at Rean

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/7/70f4d462.jpg

He's got a short fuse, but he's also got a point. Rean being all shady and full of secrets has been annoying

We also learn Emma is pretty sweet. She is teaching Fie math (hope I get to see the scene) and she says nice things to Rean about the Machias issue

We run into bandanna again, who promises to give Rean his money back if he can guess how he did the coin trick. He doesn't have cash tho

We are gonna wait for the whole game for Rean to get this coin back won't we

We also meet biker girl, whose name is Angelica. She is a noble. Not that anyone could guess, since shes always wearing biker clothes

Bandanna's name is Crow.

Rean: "Seems like every 2nd year I meet is someone important"
No, some of them are named Second Year Student

Chapter 2: "This place needs guillotines badly": begins

Game asks me if I wanna hang out in the dormitory or stay in my room. I pick the later, thinking there will be some cutscene there. Nope, it's just the "skip" option. Game should have made it more obvious

Am I gonna gave to explore that schoolhouse every chapter? Seems like an interesting mechanic, but potentially boring. Reeks of Sky 3rd

2 bonding events today, with Gaius, Sara, Crow or Emma

bonding time with Emma then

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/3/363d0222.jpg

thats a good person. She could have easily thought "I got here on my own merit so others should have to too" but she wants to give back whatever help others gave her. This is the kind person who helps even when there is no reason to

ofc this has to involve some cheap sexual moment, though

I pass by the radio station and get another cutscene. Theres always stuff going on at this radio station huh

I was trying to be neutral on the teacher characters, but Heinrich is an asshole omg

Hes giving me the same vibes as the vice comissioner from Crossbell

It's one thing to distrust Sara as that's the standard human reaction, but going all "Oh no, a son of a rich family doing WORK!" is icky af

Bonding scene with Gaius. It's whatever

The most interesting part of it is learning that Clara, the art genius who supposedly never helps others, gave Gaius some advice. Weird when the random NPC has more character than the playable character

we deliver a book to Makarov, the science teacher who is on the roof, evading work. He's giving off Guenter vibes. Though the game isn't being that on the face about how USELESS he is, so I suppose he's not as easy a material for a secretely evil guy. Also, this ain't Crossbell, so not every adult has to be secretely evil

I also like it that he reads magazine about pseudoscience just to make fun of it

TIL only nobles have summer breaks. This is barbaric. Revolution now.

Fie joined the Gardening Club. Not sure what to think of that

The newspaper this chapter tells we just reached the end of Trails from Zero in the timeline. Kind of interesting to see the events in Crossbell from the PoE of Erebonia tbh

I also like that Trails 6/7 are not THAT synchronized to Trails 4/5, because the idea of having to play 2 whole games just to catch up to the same time I was before is annoying. It's more like a game and a half, maybe even less.

time to explore the schoolhouse again, and this time Laura and Alisa join. I like this game's mechanic about having a party that expands each chapter, even though all characters know each other from the start

The dungeon is easy, but boss is tough and gives me my first game over in this game. 3 floating things that dont move and spam aoe cries from a distance. The trick is just ganging all characters up on them and abusing the fact you have 5 characters to bring a healthy one at some point

And the Black Cat of Mystery appears once again

Surprise Arianhod mention
Out of nowhere
Now its gotten interesting

This game is seriously testing my patience for reading npc dialogue. There are at least 2 iterations of dialogue for everyone in the faculty, per day. Im enjoying it, but sometimes I just turn the game off

Bonding time with Fie

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/d/d9c2256d.jpg

It goes as well as anyone would expect

this is like Tio but worse

she says she "doesn't exactly hate it", though. Bonding!

one of my favorite character stories is the literature club girl trying to turn Emma into some teenage romance fangirl

The Black Cat of Mystery shows up again, and does cat things. Namely letting Rean pet her and then randomly scratching him

I do a hidden quest about buying a girl some flowers, which ends up getting Rean pranked as her twin sister pretends to be her to make Rean accidentally convince his love to the other sister. Love this stuff

Oh boy Emma owns the cat doesn't she

Or she is the cat. I'm not discarding anything

And then we stop to hear the sexiest voice in Zemuria make her radio show. Whatever the plot reason for that is

We get another combat training session, where the fact PCs > NPCs is exposed. The NPC team almost loses, even though they have a PC in the group (Elliot). Doesn't help that the PC team gets the two s-craft users too. I mesn the fight isn't exactly a cakewalk, so having s-crafts helps.

(the actual point is about teamwork, though)

Next field study. Group A is Rean, plus all the NPCs. Gaius misses the 2nd field study in a row, but I'm not complaining. Having both Machias and Jusis in a party is gonna be fun.

Sara basically swapped Rean for Gaius, as if shes begging Rean to fix this mess

Machias and Jusis start bitching, and Sara challenges them to fight her. Beautiful

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/b/bff5b3aa.jpg

Amazing

Rean has to join for some reason, but I'll take it since that means the fight doesn't get offscreened

I smell Unwinnable Fight, though

Turn 1. Jusis used a craft, misses. Sara counters, one-kit KO

Rean attacks. 8 dmg

The only reason this fight didnt end in turn 1 is because Rean has Falco boosts. Once that ends, its over

Ok this has been the most lopsided fight Ive ever seen in this series, even considering unwinnable ones. Are there seriously ppl who win it?

It doesn't even prove a point about teamwork. Just proves Sara is OP

next day, I unlock the new party members and check their stuff. Emma seems to be the game's pure mage, having the only single line orbment (not that lines matter much, anymore). And her ATS is huge. And she has no attacking crafts, just support. I'll take it. Fie has an OP looking craft that lowers speed, and an s-craft, the third one this party gets

Machias and Jusis are underwhelming. The former is a shooter, the later is a melee/mage mix, but neither seems to have anything interesting so far. We'll see. Without Alisa or Elliot, Jusis will likely have to play backup mage, and he'll also probably be the back-up tank too since Fie doesn't seem bulky. And Machias... I dunno.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

This game is seriously testing my patience for reading npc dialogue. There are at least 2 iterations of dialogue for everyone in the faculty, per day. Im enjoying it, but sometimes I just turn the game off

on daybreak's minimap, you can tell whether or not you've exhausted each NPCs dialogue

which, great feature, thanks

but, yes, sometimes I just turn the game off

ZeldaTPLink posted...

Lloyd > Kevin tho. But that might be the unpopular opinion.

I'm not plugged into the Trails fandom nearly enough to know whether it's popular or not, but it's definitely a far cry from my own opinion!

I like both Lloyd and Kevin

Estelle > Kevin > Lloyd > Rean but all are in my top 15 or so characters in the series.

I do think Rean is a more interesting character than Lloyd pretty easily for whatever that's worth. Lloyd is just appealing in some ways that I wouldn't as readily describe as interesting.

I've always felt like the obligation to read all npc dialogue was a trap and that people should avoid it unless they are actively enjoying it. I know I wasn't going 100% on it towards the end of probably all the games in the series.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

Lloyd > Kevin tho. But that might be the unpopular opinion.

as perhaps the most recent person lloyd captured the heart of even this is a bridge too far for me

ZeldaTPLink posted...

I do a hidden quest about buying a girl some flowers, which ends up getting Rean pranked as her twin sister pretends to be her to make Rean accidentally convince his love to the other sister. Love this stuff

Vivi is the absolute best NPC. better than perhaps most of the playable cast too.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

Ok this has been the most lopsided fight Ive ever seen in this series, even considering unwinnable ones. Are there seriously ppl who win it?

On NG+ with levels carried over you can theoretically win... if not for the fact that her very last HP will not deplete and if you get her health low enough (I think like half, but again on NG+ with endgame equipment and tactics you can get her to 1 HP) she just goes "fuck you" and does 9999 damage that pierces through Earth Shield so it's entirely unblockable.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

(not that lines matter much, anymore).

Arguably better to have more lines now. You can equip one status effect quartz per line, so on someone like Machias who has like 3 or 4 (I forget) you can just load him up with Petrify, Seal, Freeze simultaneously and start spamming AoE attacks/crafts that can inflict some or all of those at once on every target.

catesdb posted...

on daybreak's minimap, you can tell whether or not you've exhausted each NPCs dialogue

potentially life ruining knowledge: sometimes it lies.

I'm playing Daybreak now and there are definitely cases where something will happen that changes NPC dialogue but doesn't reset those indicators. Most of the time it's side quest stuff but I'm pretty sure other stuff can too. If you've played enough Trails you can generally intuit who might have updated dialogue in spite of the lack of indicators but yeah

there's a few bosses you can't actually kill yeah. The game is so breakable that some of them that are supposed to be impossible to do anything against you can get to that point without even needing NG+... and the battle is on a timer!

also why did you do gaius's bonding event and not sara's

not that i remember these specific bonding events

but go for the people you like!! these games are too long to play them twice or to watch all the bonding events on youtube