Trails of Cold Steel PC: Its out!

[Pixelman]

On 7/20/2017 at 1:17 PM, Jedi said:

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

As a newcomer, I'm less worried about the price and more worried about the performance :/

My laptop is not optimized for gaming. I can play games like Fallout 3 fine though, so maybe performance isn't much of an issue, but you never know.

Edited July 21, 2017 by Pixelman

[Rapier]

FC's battle system remains simplistic and easy for the duration of the game, but I heard SC is much harder (it demands that you have already mastered FC's system).

Like, I don't remember any strategy for FC other than "increase the gauge up to 100%, keep it for a boss, then own said boss". It's a bit like the first Golden Sun.

[DodgeDusk]

23 hours 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",

Chiming in to say that, personally, Cold Steel 2 pales in comparison to Cold Steel 1. I'd say why, but it delves deep into spoiler territory.

15 hours ago, Sire said:

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.

Gameplay's fundamentally the same, outside of the orbment system Refa explained earlier. It's faster paced, has additional mechanics, and feels better to play. That being said, I prefer Sky's orbment system.

43 minutes ago, Rapier said:

FC's battle system remains simplistic and easy for the duration of the game, but I heard SC is much harder (it demands that you have already mastered FC's system).

Like, I don't remember any strategy for FC other than "increase the gauge up to 100%, keep it for a boss, then own said boss". It's a bit like the first Golden Sun.

To echo TE: FC expects you to learn the system, SC expects you to master the system, and 3rd expects you to break the system. And yes, SC is a lot harder than FC.

1 hour ago, Pixelman said:

As a newcomer, I'm less worried about the price and more worried about the performance :/

My laptop is not optimized for gaming. I can play games like Fallout 3 fine though, so maybe performance isn't much of an issue, but you never know.

I'd love to replay CS on my computer, but considering it was skipping frames during 3rd's last dungeon, I don't think it's going to cope. If you can run Fallout 3, I think you should be okay.

Edited July 21, 2017 by DodgeDusk

[Sire]

Thanks for the comments!

I played through a bit more of Trails in the Sky (still doing the Prologue, trying to do all the sidequests and keep up with the various NPC substories and their dialogues), and I think I have a better handle on how the battle system works. Trying to get one of those Shining Pom creatures taught me to "farm CP" and then unleash S-Crafts at full power and in quick succession, and I'm sure once I obtain proper healing and AoE skills I may figure out better strategies.

I still need to wrap my head around "turn order manipulation" outside of S-Crafts such as why my characters can sometimes act twice before an enemy. I suppose this is why I enjoyed Grandia II's system since everyone progressed on a bar - Trails seem to cut out that bar entirely and simply show the "end result" when someone can do an action or carries out an action. I know plain movement does not carry as much weight such as attacking, using an art, or using a craft, but I am curious what else factors into the equation outside of the SPD stat.

Anyways, once again thanks for the comments. I'll look further into Cold Steel after I end up finishing the Sky Trilogy, the faster pace and "feels better to play" sounds good to me!

[DodgeDusk]

Ah, yes. Delay.

Basically, every action you can perform in battle will add "delay" to that character, moving them down in the turn sequence. Each and every action has its unique delay it gives. But before that gets added to the character, there is an algorithm involving delay of that action and the character's current Speed at the time. So essentially, the higher Speed you have, the amount of delay an action will give will get lowered. This is something that is never touched on in the Sky games, outside of AT Advance/Delay--effects some Crafts have. No numerical value is shown. I can't speak for the Crossbell games, but the Cold Steel games do show how much delay a character will get every action they take, but not their overall delay.

Now, as I said just now, there are Crafts that have "AT Advance/Delay" properties (presuming AT is short for ACT or action). AT Advance Crafts are essentially AoE moves that affect team party members; it brings up their current delay number up to the user's delay number, allowing the effected party members to act immediately. Because of how this works, only one character will have a Craft like this per game. AT Delay Crafts (there are also quartz in Cold Steel that give the AT Delay property to standard attacks) will add delay to targeted enemies, putting them lower in the turn sequence. Provided the enemy doesn't resist AT Delay, you can essentially continously stack delay, rendering them useless.

Because of the algorithm involved, Action quartz are very highly sought after. Speed is everything the Trails games. If a unit is primarily firing arts, they also need Cast quartz--to reduce the cast time delay.

 

EDIT: Regarding turn manipulation, for where you are right now, it's a bit hard to manipulate. But later on, it might sometimes be important to not attack/use weaker attacks, so you can gain the beneficial turn order bonuses. This is especially important from The 3rd onwards, as that game introduces instant death and CP drain effects.

Edited July 22, 2017 by DodgeDusk

[Iridium]

On 7/21/2017 at 5:44 PM, DodgeDusk said:

To echo TE: FC expects you to learn the system, SC expects you to master the system, and 3rd expects you to break the system. And yes, SC is a lot harder than FC.

On harder difficulties, I guess. The Sky games aren't too lethal on Normal though; you can probably weasel your way through 3rd without much more tact than you'd be expected of from SC, and SC itself isn't too bad.

Just don't think FC Normal is going to prepare you for SC Hard or the Fun Time Trio will provide you with at least one new posterior.

Edited July 24, 2017 by Iridium

[DodgeDusk]

1 minute ago, Iridium said:

On harder difficulties, I guess. The Sky games aren't too lethal on Normal though; you can probably weasel your way through 3rd without much more tact than you'd be expected of from SC, and SC itself isn't too bad.

Just don't think FC Normal is going to prepare you for SC Hard or the Jaeger Trio will provide you with at least one new posterior.

Hmm, I'm not sure whether I agree with you or not. I can't comment on 3rd's Normal difficulty, since I haven't played it, but early game SC is a big step-up from FC, even on Normal. Definitely gets you thinking. Hard Mode is another beast altogether, and I don't want to touch it on Nightmare.

I can agree with your last comment, though. That's exactly what I did. And the funny thing is, I don't even think it's the hardest fight in the game on Hard mode. Those Flame Velgrs...

[Jedi]

Reminder that Cold Steel PC releases today sometime.

[Shrimpica]

H Y P E

should be in around 6 hours.

Let's see if Cold Steel can stand up to the Epicness that was the Sky Trilogy.

Edited August 2, 2017 by Shrimperor

[Shrimpica]

http://store.steampowered.com/app/538680/The_Legend_of_Heroes_Trails_of_Cold_Steel/ It's out!

[Jedi]

It runs so smooth compared to the PS3 original 

 

[Rapier]

it's 65 bucks on -10%, oh well

It looks good though, I'll test it before I decide to buy or wait until it gets cheaper.

[Jedi]

I'm doing a boss guide of sorts.

[Shrimpica]

So almost finished the game 

I have to say, it was an enjoyable ride, not as enjoyable as Sky however, mainly due to School setting and the whole bonding/choose your Waifu thing.

And Rean just can't even begin to compare to BEstelle.

Also, the final boss was a huge dissapointment.

 

Why is that guy not immune to AT-delay lol

whole Final Dungeon + Boss fight if anyone is interested

Still, it's an awesome game. But hey, that's the minimum i can expect from Trails :D

Edited August 27, 2017 by Shrimperor

[Jedi]

Look at this guy casually possibly spoiling people.

btw that's not the final boss

[Shrimpica]

5 hours ago, Jedi said:

Look at this guy casually possibly spoiling people.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

btw that's not the final boss

 

i am not spoiling anything unless you click the links :p

i don't consider the Crow battle to be a the final battle tbh. Especially since it's quite different from usual Trails

[eclipse]

20 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

i am not spoiling anything unless you click the links :p

 

  Reveal hidden contents

i don't consider the Crow battle to be a the final battle tbh. Especially since it's quite different from usual Trails

 

Here's a nice list of facts that someone who hasn't played the game now knows, thanks to your previous post:

Spoiler

1. The actual link spoils your strategy, which is AT-delay abuse.
2. There's a dance scene near the end of the game.
3. "Choose your waifu"?  Why thank you for telling me WHAT those convos throughout the game were for.

And also (another endgame spoiler)

Spoiler

How can you forget the best scene in the game, which is the faculty showing up to kick some ass?

 

[Magical CC]

Just finished the game. Pretty great. Like it more than Zestiria and Berseria! The world is nicely built and story is engaging.

1. Laura is the best girl.

2. Emma is the fluffiest girl.

3. Fie is the cutest girl. Tio and Renne are still cuter thou.

4. Alisa is the best target for gold digger.

5. Millium is the best monkey.

6. Sara is the best onee-chan.

7. Machias is a the peasant edgy kid.

8. Julius is the noble edgy kid.

9. Gaius is the boring foreign guy.

10. Rean is the boring main char. Seriously, the most boring ever in the series.

11.Elliot is the boring money printing machine.

12. I hate Claire. For a moment, I thought she is Tio but she turns out to be a Gestapo officer.