FALCOM - Trails in the Sky, Cold Steel, Ys Series (SPOILERS)

**Odesseiron** · 2021-01-19 21:28

Those are both too good.

**Kirin** · 2021-01-20 07:58

Why is Musse not in any of the games before this?

Spoiler: show

**Odesseiron** · 2021-01-20 08:20

I don't quite know what's going on with Musse just yet. I'm still in chapter 1 of CS3. So I'm not clicking that, haha. I don't hate the new Class VII as much as I thought.

I am going on the record here and throwing this wild theory out there. If you respond, please put it in spoiler, I won't be reading it right away, I just want to see if my "Moon landing was faked" theory is correct come the end of Cold Steel 4.

Here's my theory well, one of them (I have several others I don't want to say anything about just yet):

Spoiler: show

**Kaslo** · 2021-01-20 09:17

Originally Posted by Odesseiron

I don't quite know what's going on with Musse just yet. I'm still in chapter 1 of CS3. So I'm not clicking that, haha. I don't hate the new Class VII as much as I thought.

I am going on the record here and throwing this wild theory out there. If you respond, please put it in spoiler, I won't be reading it right away, I just want to see if my "Moon landing was faked" theory is correct come the end of Cold Steel 4.

Here's my theory well, one of them (I have several others I don't want to say anything about just yet):

Spoiler: show

I actually much prefer new Class VII as characters AS A GROUP. I still like individuals in old class 7 best, but as a group they all had much more character development, likely because there was less of them.

**Kirin** · 2021-01-20 09:44

Originally Posted by Kaslo

I actually much prefer new Class VII as characters AS A GROUP. I still like individuals in old class 7 best, but as a group they all had much more character development, likely because there was less of them.

I agree. Rean as the instructor figure for the new class works so well and each one seemed to have a struggle that Rean himself dealt with during his development which makes it all the more fitting.

My comments about Musse weren't related to the spoiler (which was about someone that joins your group from TitS 1). I just love her dialogue and the fact they're very clearly building toward her being something important. In my head I still ship Rean + Alisa, but low key hoping for a Rean + Musse buildup.

**Ayn** · 2021-01-20 11:11

You know I'm with Kaslo on that: As a -group- I do lean towards new Class VII. Though individually Juna annoys the HELL out of me most of the time. Spoilers for those who played Ao:

Spoiler: show

But yes, Rean works well as an instructor. I just wish there had been a little bit more of a time skip between CSII -> III; the way they talk about things it makes it feel like it's been 5 years.

**Odesseiron** · 2021-01-20 11:47

I think the most amusing part of this series is nobody is older than like...40. For the most part. You've got your butlers here and there, but the entire fate of the nation is up to 16-25 year old individuals. Granted most people in the military would be on the younger side. I just laugh and go along with it, because if you stop and think about it too much you can ruin it for yourself. Even Le Guin, based off of looks, can't be older than late 20's and she's mastered 2 styles of swordsmanship, is a renowned general, can expertly pilot a mech, run a school, etc. lol

**Gokulo** · 2021-01-20 11:56

Nah, she's 32 in CS3, but yeah, anyone's that over 25 in the series is pretty much like some elder

**Ayn** · 2021-01-20 12:12

No wonder they wouldn't let you romance Aurelia.

And hey, let's still give our nod to the badass Thors faculty at the end of CS1 taking down a damn Soldat.

**Julian** · 2021-01-20 16:08

dude the difficulty on the SC prologue...

**Corrderio** · 2021-01-20 16:14

Haha yeah that fight is brutal. I think I saw someone have to spam food and whittle them down in order to beat them.

**Julian** · 2021-01-20 18:56

Playing on hard. Every random encounter was brutal. I ended up just running from a bunch of them. There were a few forced encounters... holy shit those were retry-fests. 4 mobs where they usually all go before you, and at best 2-3 go before you, that hit for like 1/3 of your health, and one that can call for help, and none of them dying in a single hit from.. well, anything. Yeesh.

The boss wasn't as bad, once I learned that applying a debuff a second time stacks it. Spamming attack down really helped mitigate damage.

Finally made it to ch1. Now to pick...

Spoiler: show

**Corrderio** · 2021-01-20 19:02

Friend of mine on Discord finished CS4 and we summed up the normal ending pretty well:

Spoiler: show

**Odesseiron** · 2021-01-20 19:05

Originally Posted by Julian

Playing on hard. Every random encounter was brutal. I ended up just running from a bunch of them. There were a few forced encounters... holy shit those were retry-fests. 4 mobs where they usually all go before you, and at best 2-3 go before you, that hit for like 1/3 of your health, and one that can call for help, and none of them dying in a single hit from.. well, anything. Yeesh.

The boss wasn't as bad, once I learned that applying a debuff a second time stacks it. Spamming attack down really helped mitigate damage.

Finally made it to ch1. Now to pick...

Spoiler: show

Julian, I know you're a huge RPG lover. We both commiserate over Suikoden, so you're already good in my book.

By the time you get to the Cold Steel games, you're going to be so happy you went in order. I say that as someone who picked them up from Trails in the Sky in October and has played through all of them.

I'm on Cold Steel 3. The only thing I can compare the feeling to is the first time you saw Avengers and everything starts to final come together and you get that crossover.

**Julian** · 2021-01-20 19:38

(*'-')

I played through probably... 70-80% I think? of CS1 a few years back. Barely remember any of it. It was really difficult to appreciate the setting without the prior exposure, and I ended up quitting it because "things were starting to happen" and it was obvious I was missing out on a ton of the impact without any of that outside knowledge. (I was also quasi following a spoiler free guide and I DECIDED TO PLAY FOR 30 MINUTES WITHOUT LOOKING AT IT... grumble grumble)

Really looking forward to playing it again when I get there.

Off to bed early to get a few more hours into SC!

**Odesseiron** · 2021-01-20 21:25

End of SC3 Chapter 1 spoilers:

Spoiler: show

**Ayn** · 2021-01-20 23:54

Yeah, that first chapter of CS3 is one hell of a ride.

Makes me happy to see Julian get into this series, too; the person I usually play these alongside is a huge Suikoden fan, so we agreed this is about as close as we're going to get in terms of world building (though I'd argue it's exceeded that).

I feel bad for those of you that didn't get to play Ao, though: I'm VERY happy I finished both Crossbell games before going into CS3, at least.

**Bweigelt** · 2021-01-21 01:53

Having played Ao I don't think it's that bad if you haven't played it before CS3, but CS4 is a different story. I would definitely play Ao before even starting cause it spoils some pretty huge things that the other games don't very early on.

**Odesseiron** · 2021-01-21 06:49

Yeah, much like InsaneCyclone, I think I'm going to take a break after CS3. This will give me a little time to breath and take it all in. Ys IX is on the horizon and coming release day from Amazon, and P5 Strikers a couple weeks later. If Geofront continues working as swiftly as they have been and can come through on that release right before spring it would be perfect. This way I can play Azure and then the big finale. And then I can mourn. lol. I find it crazy these were never brought over as they're pretty integral to the overall story. I know sometimes they're referred to as side games, but I'd argue that. I feel like I've definitely missed a couple things in CS3, but not enough to make me be "What is going on"

I don't know if this following question can be answered without spoilers, but if it can, please feel free. If not, you can post it as a spoiler and I'll read it later.

After Cold Steel 4, I know that wraps up this big arc that's been going since Trails. But I can't imagine every single plot thread gets neatly tied up with a bow over the rest of CS3/CS4. There's a ton of ground left to cover. There's already been one game that's come out post CS4 and another is in the works. So I'll pose it like this. Much like the MCU has gone on past Thanos/Endgame, is that how Kiseki is going? It's hard to imagine a bigger threat than Ouroboros, but I guess anything is possible. Hell, shounen manga's live off of that idea.

I can only hope they continue to get get commercially released. I'll keep playing them as long as I'm able. Nothing's been announced yet for Hajimari no Kiseki; but it takes Falcom ages to announce anything for the west. I'm hoping the last couple Trails games sold well to keep them coming.

**Julian** · 2021-01-21 08:11

As for the people yapping about geofront insertion into evo...

1. PC translation insertion has been done for the 3 sky games, it's not undoable.

2. A group is currently working on it: https://gbatemp.net/threads/the-lege...-patch.576318/
If you scroll through the thread, their current progress:
- Various Evo exclusive quests + features translated
- Fixed crashes reported so far
- Modified some of the translation automation tools to support automated text insertion, allegedly done some testing inserting geofront scripts with some level of success
- Something about higher res textures inserted

May be a while but I don't see any huge roadblocks, just a ton of work for them. Will see where they're at by the time I finish Sky. I assume I would want to do Crossbell before CS? Or would it be better to do some weird/partial ordering?