Trails of Cold Steel PC: Its out!

[Rapier]

Alright, I'll buy it. When it costs less than 50 bucks, that is, because I'm going to miss that money for TOCS and it is too expensive for me right now.

[Tamanoir]

If it means we can have ToCS III on PC on a later date, that's a good new. 

While it's my least liked Trails game (the first part is pretty terrible), it's still a great game with excellent parts. 

[Jedi]

18 hours ago, Tamanoir said:

If it means we can have ToCS III on PC on a later date, that's a good new. 

While it's my least liked Trails game (the first part is pretty terrible), it's still a great game with excellent parts. 

I wouldn't say the first part is terrible, just really slow, which is something FC has in spades as well. 

Still nothing compared to a few other game introductions I could use here.

[Tamanoir]

16 minutes ago, Jedi said:

I wouldn't say the first part is terrible, just really slow, which is something FC has in spades as well. 

Still nothing compared to a few other game introductions I could use here.

It's not awfull, but I have a certain number of problems with it that I haven't with FC.

FC is far slower (everything is quite lowkey before the final act), but better constructed. ToCSI often feels like a number of scenes awakwardly put together (which is due to the structure of both games). 
Being slow isn't really a problem, honnestly. It allows to develop the universe and the characters, which is a good thing.

But starting with Chapter 3, CS1 goes from OK to truly great. 

Don't take me wrong, I like it less than the other games of the seriie I played through, but I don't hate it either. There are bad parts (when the game is too "anime", if that makes sense.), but the good parts (and there are quite a lot) are definitely worth going through the bad ones. 

Mainly Estelle is just a far better character than Rean (IMO), which is why I tend to prefer Trails in the Sky to Cold Steel. Not saying than Rean is bad, of course.

[Iridium]

2 hours ago, Jedi said:

I wouldn't say the first part is terrible, just really slow, which is something FC has in spades as well. 

Still nothing compared to a few other game introductions I could use here.

I'm going to have to disagree somewhat: Alisa and Machias have some of the worst character introductions I have ever seen in a video game, with Alisa's you-know-the-one scene in the prologue in particular being so cringeworthy that it took all of my love for FC/SC not to put the game down then and there. Jusis also starts out pretty badly, but he gets vindicated by subsequent playthroughs when you realize he did nothing wrong and everything is Machias's fault.

Luckily the prologue itself is over pretty quickly, even if the forced drama from it doesn't completely evaporate until Chapter 3. And once it actually does get going it's probably more consistent about it than FC on average until at least endgame. So there's that.

[Magical CC]

Very nice. I hope this sell well and more games will be ported to PC.

[Jedi]

21 minutes ago, Iridium said:

I'm going to have to disagree somewhat: Alisa and Machias have some of the worst character introductions I have ever seen in a video game, with Alisa's you-know-the-one scene in the prologue in particular being so cringeworthy that it took all of my love for FC/SC not to put the game down then and there. Jusis also starts out pretty badly, but he gets vindicated by subsequent playthroughs when you realize he did nothing wrong and everything is Machias's fault.

Luckily the prologue itself is over pretty quickly, even if the forced drama from it doesn't completely evaporate until Chapter 3. And once it actually does get going it's probably more consistent about it than FC on average until at least endgame. So there's that.

And their bad introductions lead to the whole party not being buddy buddy instantly, a very tired trope in like every single JRPG known to man. Hell even WRPGs like Mass Effect are stupidly guilty about this.

I mean I disliked them a fair bit at first, but I appreciated that everyone didn't just instantly get along. Even Agate in FC didn't take long to crack from "I'm not trusting these newbies"

Edited July 1, 2017 by Jedi

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

The thing in ToCS I is that it has a different build of the overworld.
It gives you less freedom in the overworld. It's similar to Persona where you have to organize your day by fulfilling certain requests. It takes a while till you discover new places, and there are still tons of places and roads you won't see in 1. I guess the restriction of discovering the world map is for many people the main reason for disliking 1.

All in all I don't find the beginning horrible except for a certain cutscene ... cough.
Maybe because it was my first game but I liked the slow start. It was well made for newcomers like me.


As for characters I personally disliked Jusis a lot in the beginning because I can't get along with snobbish and arrogant attitudes. But at the latest when he could build a social with Machias I accepted him.
In II he became much better like everyone tbh.

Ok, everything about Alisa is said already. She's the typical pretty, rich, blond canon waifu with a bit tsunder in the beginning. However I like tsunderes so I have a soft spot for her.

Edited July 1, 2017 by はたの 秦 こころ

[DodgeDusk]

8 hours ago, Jedi said:

And their bad introductions lead to the whole party not being buddy buddy instantly, a very tired trope in like every single JRPG known to man. Hell even WRPGs like Mass Effect are stupidly guilty about this.

I mean I disliked them a fair bit at first, but I appreciated that everyone didn't just instantly get along. Even Agate in FC didn't take long to crack from "I'm not trusting these newbies"

Mass Effect doesn't do that at all; the party in 2, especially Tali, has scepticism towards Legion; 3 has tensions with Javik. ME1 I think has tensions betweens Garrus and Wrex, though I haven't played ME1, so I can't say that for definite.

Cold Steel does it okay, I think. Alisa's introduction starts out well, but quickly turns terrible (thankfully, it's rectified early on). Machias's introduction is... I mean, it's in character, I guess. Agate actually does take a while to start getting friendly with Estelle and Joshua. IIRC, I think it's near the end of Chapter 3 he starts actually taking a liking to them? He's first met early on in Chapter 1. That's a good chunk of the game where he's not keen on the duo.

[Jedi]

2 minutes ago, DodgeDusk said:

Mass Effect doesn't do that at all; the party in 2, especially Tali, has scepticism towards Legion; 3 has tensions with Javik. ME1 I think has tensions betweens Garrus and Wrex, though I haven't played ME1, so I can't say that for definite.

Cold Steel does it okay, I think. Alisa's introduction starts out well, but quickly turns terrible (thankfully, it's rectified early on). Machias's introduction is... I mean, it's in character, I guess. Agate actually does take a while to start getting friendly with Estelle and Joshua. IIRC, I think it's near the end of Chapter 3 he starts actually taking a liking to them? He's first met early on in Chapter 1. That's a good chunk of the game where he's not keen on the duo.

It was more 1 I was addressing, thus the lack of a number, my mistake on not clarifying, Garrus & Wrex are more like friendly rivals if anything. 

Still in chapter 2 he resigns himself to the fact that they should help eventhough he could probably do it on his own, the beginning of that liking starts as early as there, but then again it has been ages since I've properly played FC so I may have details mistaken.

[DodgeDusk]

2 minutes ago, Jedi said:

It was more 1 I was addressing, thus the lack of a number, my mistake on not clarifying, Garrus & Wrex are more like friendly rivals if anything. 

Still in chapter 2 he resigns himself to the fact that they should help eventhough he could probably do it on his own, the beginning of that liking starts as early as there, but then again it has been ages since I've properly played FC so I may have details mistaken.

I see, I see.

I'll put this in spoilers.

If I'm not remembering incorrectly, there's two times Estelle, Joshua, and Agate all team up together in Chapter 2: the canine fight at the start of the chapter, and the three of them, alongside Klaudia, fighting in the lighthouse. The former, the two Juniors force themselves into the fight. Agate later on acknowledges, at least, Joshua's skill in combat. He probably does the same with Estelle, but I don't remember. The lighthouse assault has Estelle, Joshua, and Klaudia get to the entrance before Agate shows up and scolds the two for involving a civilian, but eventually backs down. He joins with them since they share a common goal: getting to the top of the lighthouse. I believe his respect for the two of them, as Bracers, starts when they're willing to infiltrate the fortress in order to save Russel, though I might be wrong there.

[Jedi]

I am misremembering, my mistake there Dusk thank you for clarifying on that, I still really like how at odds Class VII is at first though despite that.

[eclipse]

I MUCH prefer Liberl over Thors.  I might get CS if it goes on sale, since I absolutely cannot stand Alisa, and refuse to use her if at all possible.

Jusis/Machias were prickly, but at least they get some decent character development, which. . .

Spoiler

continues well into CS2.  Well, at least it does for Jusis, who continues to never explain things to Rean.  But given the antics of his brother, I think it runs in the family.

I hope this helps spread the Trails series, since I think it's still one of the stronger ones!

[Jedi]

According to the Steam page it looks like it got pushed back to August.

[Pull My Devil Trigger]

that price, xseed has gone mad

[Jedi]

Oh dear, 40 huh. We'll see how that goes, i'll still get it (again) day one, but thats slightly higher than I expected.

[Pixelman]

Yikes, that's kinda expensive given my budget. I can still afford it though.

[Jedi]

Here's also some stuff on the development of the port.

http://xseedgames.tumblr.com/post/163180020530/the-legend-of-heroes-trails-of-cold-steel-pc

[Rapier]

40 dollars. I'll be lucky if it doesn't cost 80 bucks here. Oh well.

[Jedi]

I'm worried this price will scare off potential new players :/

[Rapier]

3 hours ago, Jedi said:

I'm worried this price will scare off potential new players :/

If I'm scared off buying TOCS because, from what I read about it, it's "mediocre but kinda fun sometimes while TOCS2 is actually good", I can't even imagine how new players would be. I'd be insane to recommend this game to newcommers, although FC still does that job well.

I'd only pay 80 bucks* if it was better than FC. I'll try to test it, then decide if it is worth the cost.

* I presume it will be around that price in my currency. FC costs 30 dollars and 70 bucks here. Thus, TOCS must cost 80 bucks, since it's 40 dollars. And that is a happy estimate since 1 dollar = 3 reais (my currency).

[Jedi]

1 hour ago, Rapier said:

If I'm scared off buying TOCS because, from what I read about it, it's "mediocre but kinda fun sometimes while TOCS2 is actually good", I can't even imagine how new players would be. I'd be insane to recommend this game to newcommers, although FC still does that job well.

I'd only pay 80 bucks* if it was better than FC. I'll try to test it, then decide if it is worth the cost.

* I presume it will be around that price in my currency. FC costs 30 dollars and 70 bucks here. Thus, TOCS must cost 80 bucks, since it's 40 dollars. And that is a happy estimate since 1 dollar = 3 reais (my currency).

I think its really solid myself, it just has a slow start like FC, but I personally feel every Trails game outdoes FC in just sheer scope and gameplay, FC is really nice for what it is though. Also CS2 has a really divided opinion in terms of the quality of its plot but people generally love it.

SC & 3rd are kind of hard to top though in general.

Edited July 21, 2017 by Jedi

[Iridium]

Honestly I like CS1 more than CS2. I liked 2 more until, like, two-thirds of the way through... and then it just kinda fell apart for me. Pretty much everything after the Bareahard mission turned me off. 1 is pretty consistent and gets noticeably better after basically every chapter. 

$40 isn't a bad price for either game, but I'm definitely not double dipping.

[Sire]

I'm getting into the Trails series for the first time, trying out Trails in the Sky. I think I put two hours before even getting into the prologue (when Estelle's dad leaves), the amount of text the NPCs have for nearly every single thing is insane! I feel like my inner completionist may just want to do the sidequests and finish the game instead of trying to 100% it. So far, I love the setting and the stories I've been given, but I find the battle system to be somewhat lacking or not to my tastes. Maybe this will change as I progress, but right now I feel the system is a "poor adaptation" of Grandia's system (which I love to death).

Anyways, to the topic at hand, how does Trails of Cold Steel differ from Trails in the Sky? From what little I have learned, they take place in the same "grand setting," but I am wondering if the gameplay is different and the like. I probably won't be picking up Cold Steel until I get around to buying and finishing the Sky trilogy on PC, but I am curious how it goes.

[Refa]

It's very similar.  The main differences are that it's much faster paced and less reliant on arts (to the point where they had to be buffed to basically do double damage in CS2).  The general opinion seems to be that it's better than Sky's, but that's hard to gauge for me honestly.  The orbment system has been simplified as well; no longer will you be adding up values on each line to determine what spells you can cast.  Instead, each quartz itself gives a specific art/artes and/or stat boosts.

Edited July 21, 2017 by Refa