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Trails Series


Corrobin
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I don't think anyone on these forums particularly likes the games, sorry.  When asked, they cited the ridiculous amount of unskippable cutscenes, tedious combat, and cringeworthy romance present throughout them.  In fact, Cold Steel seems to be particularly hated, with several members hate-avying the characters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...Seriously though, they're some of my favorite games.  I've only played FC, SC, and CS though, and am currently going through CS2.

Edited by Refa
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Ah yes the amazing Trails series, 4 of my all time favorite RPGs, Sky 1, 2, Cold Steel 1, 2, just waiting for Third and CS3... The wait is too long.

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I personally like Trails of Zero/Azure (the Crossbell Arc). If you couldn't tell, my profile pic is Lloyd Bannings. People who played Trails of Cold Steel 2 would know. Trails in the Sky was a great game. Trails of Cold Steel I found to be a disappointment.

Yeah, I get that people would be frustrated at unskippable cutscenes and certainly wished there was an option. But people need to realize that the game is insanely story/character-heavy with very detailed world-building. Unless you're on a second playthrough, you do not want to skip anything even if it's minor things. This is why it's combat system is not all that great, cause that was never their focus (go play Ys if you want that).

Again, not surprised people would hate Cold Steel a lot. Plenty of its characters can be quite annoying to deal with for quite some time (especially once Millium joins). I also never been fond of the whole romance aspect of the game, especially since it felt like the male characters were treated like generic trash all the time. I certainly hope CS3 fixes that, and I'm sure it will. It definitely turned from brilliant to clichéd when it shifted arcs. Luckily, CS2 slightly made up for that.

I certainly hope the Crossbell arc gets localized eventually, just to show you guys the true reason why this series is loved (also Estelle and Joshua appear in those games <3)

The entire series is seriously niche.

Edited by Falcom
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Got into the franchise because of a deal my friend still hasn't honoured. Some of my favourite JRPGs out there. SF even has its own dedicated Falcom Discord server, if anyone wants to join it.

@Falcom I'd even argue the gameplay's good, if a bit unbalanced (heh). Cold Steel has some of the most satisfying and polished combat I've ever played.

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5 hours ago, Falcom said:

I personally like Trails of Zero/Azure (the Crossbell Arc). If you couldn't tell, my profile pic is Lloyd Bannings. People who played Trails of Cold Steel 2 would know. Trails in the Sky was a great game. Trails of Cold Steel I found to be a disappointment.

Yeah, I get that people would be frustrated at unskippable cutscenes and certainly wished there was an option. But people need to realize that the game is insanely story/character-heavy with very detailed world-building. Unless you're on a second playthrough, you do not want to skip anything even if it's minor things. This is why it's combat system is not all that great, cause that was never their focus (go play Ys if you want that).

Again, not surprised people would hate Cold Steel a lot. Plenty of its characters can be quite annoying to deal with for quite some time (especially once Millium joins). I also never been fond of the whole romance aspect of the game, especially since it felt like the male characters were treated like generic trash all the time. I certainly hope CS3 fixes that, and I'm sure it will. It definitely turned from brilliant to clichéd when it shifted arcs. Luckily, CS2 slightly made up for that.

I certainly hope the Crossbell arc gets localized eventually, just to show you guys the true reason why this series is loved (also Estelle and Joshua appear in those games <3)

The entire series is seriously niche.

I honestly like Cold Steels characters and combat system the most between what i've played in terms of Sky/CS, its close, but CS edges out for me.

I honestly find the Trails combat system some of the most engaging in an rpg, and i've played quite a few, i'd play it again over even classics like Chrono Trigger in terms of its pure gameplay espcially CS1 & 2. Trust me if I found their gameplay bad I wouldn't be playing them in the first place, I mean I love the story & characters, but gameplay being "legit poor" is a turn off to me more than anything else.

Edited by Jedi
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I played Trails in the Sky on a whim and it became one of my favorite RPGs almost instantly. I remember that I couldn't wait to play SC - which wasn't even localized at that point. Now, ironically, I want to get back to the series but I'd like to play the first game before that, but I can't find enough time to go through such a lenghty RPG.

Great to know that Cold Steel is coming to PC master race sometime this summer, maybe it's what I need to get back to the series. How does it compare with Trails in the Sky in characters, gameplay, OST etc.?

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12 minutes ago, Rapier said:

I played Trails in the Sky on a whim and it became one of my favorite RPGs almost instantly. I remember that I couldn't wait to play SC - which wasn't even localized at that point. Now, ironically, I want to get back to the series but I'd like to play the first game before that, but I can't find enough time to go through such a lenghty RPG.

Great to know that Cold Steel is coming to PC master race sometime this summer, maybe it's what I need to get back to the series. How does it compare with Trails in the Sky in characters, gameplay, OST etc.?

The characters are closer to anime stereotypes, and are more hit-and-miss than the Sky cast, imo.
Story structure is a bit formulaic, and the buildup is slow and subtle.
Gameplay is more polished. Crafts are a lot more meaningful, S-Craft spam is discouraged, but they kinda messed the orbment system a bit. The system is clearly skewed towards physical combat.
OST is Falcom. Frankly though, TitS FC has probably the most unpolished soundtrack in the series anyway.

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7 minutes ago, TheEnd said:

OST is Falcom. Frankly though, TitS FC has probably the most unpolished soundtrack in the series anyway.

how dare you

I mean, I'll feel right at home, probably.

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3 minutes ago, Rapier said:

how dare you

I mean, I'll feel right at home, probably.

It's the pure truth
Also note I didn't say it was bad
Silver Will is love, Silver Will is life
 

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5 hours ago, TheEnd said:

The characters are closer to anime stereotypes, and are more hit-and-miss than the Sky cast, imo.
Story structure is a bit formulaic, and the buildup is slow and subtle.
Gameplay is more polished. Crafts are a lot more meaningful, S-Craft spam is discouraged, but they kinda messed the orbment system a bit. The system is clearly skewed towards physical combat.
OST is Falcom. Frankly though, TitS FC has probably the most unpolished soundtrack in the series anyway.

 

Spoiler

Cold Steel tries to do some of the things Sky did, but it falls flat in some places.  The story gets pretty complicated at points, too.

The characters have more detail, but not necessarily depth.  And like every last Trails game, there's a bunch of unanswered questions in the end.

 

5 hours ago, TheEnd said:

It's the pure truth
Also note I didn't say it was bad
Silver Will is love, Silver Will is life
 

Silver Will is part of the reason why I like the guy.

(being cute is the other part, but who's counting)

On 4/6/2017 at 3:40 PM, Corrobin said:

Who here is a fan of the Trails/Kiseki series (Trails in the Sky, Trails of Cold Steel, etc.)?

You'd think my avatar is a dead giveaway. . .

And as for WHY I'm into the series, it's @VincentASM's fault.  I saw the thread when Trails in the Sky first made it to America, so I grabbed the Garghev trilogy.  Song of the Ocean was the WRONG game to start on, because it's smack in the middle of the series.  However, I liked the story well enough, and damn if some of the guys weren't cute. Then I played A Tear of Vermillion, and that got me hooked for good.  Despite the pretty bad translation, the story was quite engaging!

THEN I played Sky, and decided that Agate was the best thing ever. :P:

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30 minutes ago, eclipse said:

 

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Cold Steel tries to do some of the things Sky did, but it falls flat in some places.  The story gets pretty complicated at points, too.

The characters have more detail, but not necessarily depth.  And like every last Trails game, there's a bunch of unanswered questions in the end.

 

Silver Will is part of the reason why I like the guy.

(being cute is the other part, but who's counting)

You'd think my avatar is a dead giveaway. . .

And as for WHY I'm into the series, it's @VincentASM's fault.  I saw the thread when Trails in the Sky first made it to America, so I grabbed the Garghev trilogy.  Song of the Ocean was the WRONG game to start on, because it's smack in the middle of the series.  However, I liked the story well enough, and damn if some of the guys weren't cute. Then I played A Tear of Vermillion, and that got me hooked for good.  Despite the pretty bad translation, the story was quite engaging!

THEN I played Sky, and decided that Agate was the best thing ever. :P:

I can blame you for getting me into it, its like a splash effect because I got @Refa and @Euklyd into it after that.

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Can confirm, I blame @Jedi for everything. Especially all the money I'm gonna spend buying 3rd, not to mention Cold Steel stuff...

I also blame Refa, since he acted as Jedi's wingman or something.

Meanwhile I may or may not have bought my irl friend a gateway drug in the form of TitS FC...

Edited by Euklyd
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I HIGHLY suggest checking out Sean Chiplock (Rean's VA)'s tumblr account. He takes requests for unvoiced lines in CS 1 and 2, and voices them. Mostly for the lulz.

https://sonicmega.tumblr.com/post/150598918571/ah-to-be-young-and-bamboozled-by-boobies

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4 minutes ago, Corrobin said:

I HIGHLY suggest checking out Sean Chiplock (Rean's VA)'s tumblr account. He takes requests for unvoiced lines in CS 1 and 2, and voices them. Mostly for the lulz.

https://sonicmega.tumblr.com/post/150598918571/ah-to-be-young-and-bamboozled-by-boobies

Yeah, just watch out for spoilers if you haven't played fully through 1, (for everyone else).

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I actually found the Trails series by accident (SC's opening through an anime torrent site), though Vincent and/or Eaichu had already ignited my interest in Falcom by posting Ys 6 and Felghana in a certain message board. I blame the violins.

This thing is like a chain reaction, haha
 

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7 hours ago, TheEnd said:

I actually found the Trails series by accident (SC's opening through an anime torrent site), though Vincent and/or Eaichu had already ignited my interest in Falcom by posting Ys 6 and Felghana in a certain message board. I blame the violins.

This thing is like a chain reaction, haha
 

Not a bad chain reaction either! We need to spread it more :P:

@Elieson is going to be playing them soon too.

Edited by Jedi
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10 minutes ago, Jedi said:

Not a bad chain reaction either! We need to spread it more :P:

@Elieson is going to be playing them soon too.

The inverse for me: The Trails series introduced me to Ys.

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