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[Gu4n]

See I've heard people say both ways on this topic

Rean gets better from one end

And "If you didn't care for him in CS1 then prepare for more of the same" from the other

Of course this all comes down to opinions. What I do know myself is that I didn't particularly care a lot for Rean at the time of CS1, and that that changed drastically in CS2. If you step into CS2 expecting him to become a totally different person, then you obviously start with unrealistic expectations.

And don't know worry too much about his silly speeches; Falcom is very well of its silliness.

 

[DrROBschiz]

Of course this all comes down to opinions. What I do know myself is that I didn't particularly care a lot for Rean at the time of CS1, and that that changed drastically in CS2. If you step into CS2 expecting him to become a totally different person, then you obviously start with unrealistic expectations.

And don't know worry too much about his silly speeches; Falcom is very well of its silliness.

It just time for characters to become more relatable and candid

Less pandering and "big" talk and more down to earth. Persona games have this problem where the endgame devolves to no longer be about its characters anymore

Persona 4 being my most recent example. In TiTs it always felt PERSONAL even though they were caught in this Giant Event. The villian pandered but Estelle kept our feet firmly planted.. Gawd I love her.

Then of course godlike Kevin brings the goods as always

CS1 never illicited those emotions with its plot but I hope CS2 changes that.

 

[Gu4n]

It just time for characters to become more relatable and candid

Less pandering and "big" talk and more down to earth. Persona games have this problem where the endgame devolves to no longer be about its characters anymore

Persona 4 being my most recent example. In TiTs it always felt PERSONAL even though they were caught in this Giant Event. The villian pandered but Estelle kept our feet firmly planted.. Gawd I love her.

Then of course godlike Kevin brings the goods as always

CS1 never illicited those emotions with its plot but I hope CS2 changes that.

None of that was present in Cold Steel, indeed. And honestly, in FC was Estelle a ignorant, stubborn child not having an inkling what was going on in the world (she asked whether Calvard was a shopping mall!) until she got dragged through the dirtiest mess Liberl had seen in centuries, only to end her adventure as a fine, young woman. Joshua

Spoiler

's story is more tragic, but I also had more problems to relate to him.

I'll refrain from commenting on Crossbell and Cold Steel II for now; just remember that I wasn't a miserable little pile of feelings at the end of CS2 for no reasons.

 

[DrROBschiz]

None of that was present in Cold Steel, indeed. And honestly, in FC was Estelle a ignorant, stubborn child not having an inkling what was going on in the world (she asked whether Calvard was a shopping mall!) until she got dragged through the dirtiest mess Liberl had seen in centuries, only to end her adventure as a fine, young woman. Joshua's story is more tragic, but I also had more problems to relate to him.

I'll refrain from commenting on Crossbell and Cold Steel II for now; just remember that I wasn't a miserable little pile of feelings at the end of CS2 for no reasons.

You give me hope good sir!

Not that anything would prevent me from playing it. The gameplay in CS1 was top notch. Loved the combat a great deal

 

[Hobbun]

Spoiler

Joshua's story is more tragic, but I also had more problems to relate to him

.

Should this maybe have been spoilered?

 

[Psxphile]

Should this maybe have been spoilered?

Your turn.

 

[Hobbun]

Your turn.

Wasn’t trying to call anyone out, was truly asking if it should have been. I’m hoping not.

 

[Aters]

Rean is not that bad in CS2. The whole game is all about him so he definitely gets some good development. The complain goes to the development of all the other party members.

None of that was present in Cold Steel, indeed. And honestly, in FC was Estelle a ignorant, stubborn child not having an inkling what was going on in the world (she asked whether Calvard was a shopping mall!) until she got dragged through the dirtiest mess Liberl had seen in centuries, only to end her adventure as a fine, young woman. Joshua

Spoiler

's story is more tragic, but I also had more problems to relate to him.

I'll refrain from commenting on Crossbell and Cold Steel II for now; just remember that I wasn't a miserable little pile of feelings at the end of CS2 for no reasons. [/B[

Spoiler

Are you talking about the ending or the Crossbell section after the ending? I agree that the Crossbell part is fantastic.

 

[Nyoro SF]

Spoiler

Are you talking about the ending or the Crossbell section after the ending? I agree that the Crossbell part is fantastic.

Also the most challenging part of CS2 for me. For the first time they

Spoiler

heavily restrict the quartz you can get and cap your level fairly hard (unless you grind mindlessly for hours and hours, which would damage my brain permanently), you have 2 members with no swapping to get free kills or free outs. And there's a time limit, because if Rean or Altina hits you with their S-Craft (or both in a row) you're probably going to die and then your partner gets overwhelmed. Can't spam healing and revival items like in the main game either

.

I remember watching a Japanese player attempting that fight on Nightmare and there were so many sweat-inducing moments lol...

 

[Bebpo]

Also the most challenging part of CS2 for me. For the first time they

Spoiler

heavily restrict the quartz you can get and cap your level fairly hard (unless you grind mindlessly for hours and hours, which would damage my brain permanently), you have 2 members with no swapping to get free kills or free outs. And there's a time limit, because if Rean or Altina hits you with their S-Craft (or both in a row) you're probably going to die and then your partner gets overwhelmed. Can't spam healing and revival items like in the main game either

.

I remember watching a Japanese player attempting that fight on Nightmare and there were so many sweat-inducing moments lol...

CS2 spoilers:

Spoiler

I actually thought that part sucked after the initial wow. Really long boring cut & paste dungeon. Would almost rather have had that chapter as a cutscene.

Maybe I'd complain less if we had Randy as well. Two person party fights are boring.

 

[Nyoro SF]

CS2 spoilers:

Spoiler

I actually thought that part sucked after the initial wow. Really long boring cut & paste dungeon. Would almost rather have had that chapter as a cutscene.

Maybe I'd complain less if we had Randy as well. Two person party fights are boring.

Spoiler

Oh man I'm the exact opposite. I LOVE 2-person fights. It gives you fewer avenues to cheap out of battles. FC fights were awesome because of that, fewer enemies with massive AoEs, and more focused on individual strategy and timing, where using an item or art at the wrong time could get you killed.

I do agree the dungeon wasn't very good though. It felt unnecessary long compared to the short ones in the main game, and the puzzles were not that challenging (and you couldn't skip the elevator animations). I haven't played Zero or Ao yet, but they didn't even use the Zero/Ao battle victory theme... why use the Zero battle theme if you're not going to use the victory theme?

 

[Bebpo]

I just hope CSIII brings back combo crafts from the Crossbell games. Maybe nerf them, but the visual aspect is a lot of fun seeing 2 team members working together in an S-Craft. I understand they probably didn't do it so far because budget reasons with so many cast members and they thought the link system was sort of an alternative with its rushes, but maybe in CSIII.

 

[Shouta]

It's possible that they'll bring back Combo Crafts now that they have one 3D title under their belt and the assets to work with. There could a ton of great ones they could do considering the possible cast and the varied combat styles.

 

[omgfloofy]

I found a gif I forgot that I made from my Nightmare run of 3rd and thought I'd share for you guys to see the kind of suffering I experience in it. lol

I'm not actually posting it as an image on here in case people want the 'ohgodwhat' to be a surprise. But if you want an idea of what to expect in the game on Nightmare- here's a link:
http://i.imgur.com/F9RdAJJ.gif

Don't worry, you don't see the boss or anything in it. Just a party member and the end result of Nightmare being Nightmare. Additional note- (game engine spoilers)

Spoiler

Normal still has that attack, just not with as high of a damage output- but it still hurts like hell.

Just a fun thing to help look forward to what 3rd does to you!

 

[Young Magus]

I found a gif I forgot that I made from my Nightmare run of 3rd and thought I'd share for you guys to see the kind of suffering I experience in it. lol

I'm not actually posting it as an image on here in case people want the 'ohgodwhat' to be a surprise. But if you want an idea of what to expect in the game on Nightmare- here's a link:
http://i.imgur.com/F9RdAJJ.gif

Don't worry, you don't see the boss or anything in it. Just a party member and the end result of Nightmare being Nightmare. Additional note- (game engine spoilers)

Spoiler

Normal still has that attack, just not with as high of a damage output- but it still hurts like hell.

Just a fun thing to help look forward to what 3rd does to you!

floofy pls.

 

[Bebpo]

I found a gif I forgot that I made from my Nightmare run of 3rd and thought I'd share for you guys to see the kind of suffering I experience in it. lol

I'm not actually posting it as an image on here in case people want the 'ohgodwhat' to be a surprise. But if you want an idea of what to expect in the game on Nightmare- here's a link:
http://i.imgur.com/F9RdAJJ.gif

Don't worry, you don't see the boss or anything in it. Just a party member and the end result of Nightmare being Nightmare. Additional note- (game engine spoilers)

Spoiler

Normal still has that attack, just not with as high of a damage output- but it still hurts like hell.

Just a fun thing to help look forward to what 3rd does to you!

I hate those enemies. When I saw them in CS2 I made sure to always kill them first because of 3rd PTSD.

 

[omgfloofy]

floofy pls.

I hate those enemies. When I saw them in CS2 I made sure to always kill them first because of 3rd PTSD.

oh god, me too.

Spoiler

at least they're nowhere near as terrifying in 3rd otherwise.

 

[Bebpo]

Man, I can't wait for YsVIII to come out already so Falcom can start talking about CS3. I feel like because of all the YsVIII delays and shenanigans there's no way CS3 is coming out this fall/winter and will be 2017 March-Summer era game after YsVIII PS4 come out.

 

[Psxphile]

Understandable but I'm fine with them taking their time to create a great product... and also so Xseed can catch us poor english-only-speaking plebs up.

 

[Aters]

Man, I can't wait for YsVIII to come out already so Falcom can start talking about CS3. I feel like because of all the YsVIII delays and shenanigans there's no way CS3 is coming out this fall/winter and will be 2017 March-Summer era game after YsVIII PS4 come out.

Are people actually expecting CS3 to hit in 2016? I thought it's pretty much confirmed a 2017 game.

 

[Famassu]

I'd personally be happy if CSIII is delayed. While it probably destroys any chance of it getting released for Vita in the west, maybe it would give XSeed time to start figuring out Zero/Azure for a western release before CSIII so we'd have less of a problem with getting those spoiled and missing references to them in future games ASAP. If CSIII arrives this year, that'll just mean a big delay in those two's release.

I mean, if they can keep up this pace of having two Trails games being localized somewhat simultaneously, the dream scenario from a western fans POV could be something like: they are currently working on Third & finishing up CSII -> CSII is released around September/October -> they can start work at least some preliminary work on Zero soon after while the main focus moves to Third -> Third is released in English in Spring 2017, they are already pretty deep-ish into localizing Zero as well at this point and maybe CSIII is released in Japan by Summer (hey, given how long Ys VIII has been delayed and still has the whole PS4 version to deal with for late 2016/early 2017, I'm not sure if Japanese CSIII in 2016 or even early 2017 is all that guaranteed) -> main focus moves to Zero and they get maybe 2-4 months to fully focus on that before CSIII is released in Japan and they can start working on that soon after as they are getting pretty far into Zero. In this scenario, Trails to Zero could actually be maybe a late 2017/early 2018 release (depending how efficiently they could move on to its localization after CSII and if they can even find a way to work past the somewhat problematic PC version). And Cold Steel III maybe a Summer/Fall 2018 release. And then Azure sometime in 2019.


A man can dream.

 

[Bebpo]

Are people actually expecting CS3 to hit in 2016? I thought it's pretty much confirmed a 2017 game.

YsVIII was supposed to be late last year I think or really early this year on Vita+PS4 leaving their entire release schedule open all fall/winter.
CS2 came out early fall 2014. It'll be 2 years this fall. In the past the "sequel" games that weren't new countries were never more than 1-2 years apart. CS3 being their big fall 2016 game would have made sense. Could still happen, but very unlikely and now they have competition with P5 and FFXV if they did.
But YsVIII got really behind, they're struggling with PS4 development and YsVIII isn't even coming out until 2017 for PS4. If they're struggling on the PS4 with Ys, they're probably struggling on the PS4 with CS3, so that probably pushed everything back.

There was an interview about a year ago when they said they were pretty far into development with CS3, but not ready to show it yet iirc.

 

[Aters]

YsVIII was supposed to be late last year I think or really early this year on Vita+PS4 leaving their entire release schedule open all fall/winter.
CS2 came out early fall 2014. It'll be 2 years this fall. In the past the "sequel" games that weren't new countries were never more than 1-2 years apart. CS3 being their big fall 2016 game would have made sense. Could still happen, but very unlikely and now they have competition with P5 and FFXV if they did.
But YsVIII got really behind, they're struggling with PS4 development and YsVIII isn't even coming out until 2017 for PS4. If they're struggling on the PS4 with Ys, they're probably struggling on the PS4 with CS3, so that probably pushed everything back.

There was an interview about a year ago when they said they were pretty far into development with CS3, but not ready to show it yet iirc.

Make sense. They can take all the time they want for CS3. I want a true conclusion, not a halfass effort like CS2.

 

[Nyoro SF]

Make sense. They can take all the time they want for CS3. I want a true conclusion, not a halfass effort like CS2.

Maybe they'll clear up the part of the CS2 ending where

Spoiler

Rean and co. feel sorry for Vita for some reason

lol someone on GFAQs just reminded me how strange that part was

 

[Gu4n]

If Sen III isn't released this September, that would mean Falcom missed a September release for the first time in ten years. Or, as Floofy suggested earlier, Sony gave Falcom a heads up to release Ys two months earlier instead of launching it in between Final Fantasy XV and Persona 5.

I'll be sorely disappointed if I'll have to wait until September 2017, but it's going to be a terribly eventful game, so I don't want to have that experience half-baked.

 

[Aters]

Maybe they'll clear up the part of the CS2 ending where

Spoiler

Rean and co. feel sorry for Vita for some reason

lol someone on GFAQs just reminded me how strange that part was

Well,

Spoiler

I thought they got pretty close when Vita was just a reporter.

Can't think of any other reason.

Spoiler

Or maybe they just feel bad for her because she sucks big time as a high rank in the Society. Never thought she would get outwitted and defeated like that. She severely damaged the image of the Society for me. What a stupid woman. Rean was sad because he knew she would get fired

 

[Gu4n]

Well,

Spoiler

I thought they got pretty close when Vita was just a reporter.

Can't think of any other reason.

Spoiler

Or maybe they just feel bad for her because she sucks big time as a high rank in the Society. Never thought she would get outwitted and defeated like that. She severely damaged the image of the Society for me. What a stupid woman. Rean was sad because he knew she would get fired

(CS2 endgame spoilers)

Spoiler

Damaged? I think Vita's behaviour proves once again that Ouroboros isn't as evil an organisation as

Weissmann,

Spoiler

the rotten apple of the group, made them look like. Vita had a clear goal in mind, but from the moment she was intervened by that... liability, realised she could no longer reach her goal and had no reason to continue what she was doing. The common enemy perspective also helps.

I found it really natural.

Besides, in Ao we've seen (first half of the last chapter, I think, spoiler)

Spoiler

Arianrhod help Lloyd and co. stopping the smuggler escaping to Calvard, knowing very well what the S.S.S., and she herself, is capable of.

 

[aravuus]

A man can dream.

Dam sonn

Would kill for that dream to come true

 

[omgfloofy]

My reaction to Guan right now:

Just so you guys know.

 

[Nyoro SF]

Well,

Spoiler

I thought they got pretty close when Vita was just a reporter.

Can't think of any other reason.

Spoiler

Or maybe they just feel bad for her because she sucks big time as a high rank in the Society. Never thought she would get outwitted and defeated like that. She severely damaged the image of the Society for me. What a stupid woman. Rean was sad because he knew she would get fired

LOL....

Spoiler

I always viewed the society as a bunch of able-bodied but naive narcissists just from the Sky series so I guess I didn't have much of an image otherwise

Well I was thinking about how

Spoiler

pretty much everything bad that happens in the plot, is the result of Vita's handiwork behind (and in front) of the scenes, so to suddenly go an about-face of feeling sad for her is just incomprehensible... I mean, the whole reason why everything is so fucked up in Erebonia in the game is because of her proxy funding and manipulation (you're standing RIGHT THERE in the god damn demonic castle she summoned from the ground that is sucking out the souls of everyone in the capital)... she even tries to outright murder Class VII with her giant bird at one part of the game, and leads the assault force into Ymir that forces Rean's surrender as just two examples off the top of my head...

Maybe I just didn't get it. Everyone should've just started

Spoiler

giving big old smiles that she got whacked. If you were sad about Crow, she basically enabled and manipulated Crow's revenge mindset all the way until his death. That seems a bit far beyond the whole "awwwww I feel sorry for Vita" thing.

So on Sen 3 topic, I just would like to see the writing and storyboarding tightened up. I don't mind it missing Fall. I have lots of games to play.

 

[Aters]

(CS2 endgame spoilers)

Spoiler

Damaged? I think Vita's behaviour proves once again that Ouroboros isn't as evil an organisation as

Weissmann,

Spoiler

the rotten apple of the group, made them look like. Vita had a clear goal in mind, but from the moment she was intervened by that... liability, realised she could no longer reach her goal and had no reason to continue what she was doing. The common enemy perspective also helps.

I found it really natural.

Besides, in Ao we've seen (first half of the last chapter, I think, spoiler)

Spoiler

Arianrhod help Lloyd and co. stopping the smuggler escaping to Calvard, knowing very well what the S.S.S., and she herself, is capable of.

Spoiler

I should find a better word. By "damage" I'm not talking about the morality of the Society. I was saying that I always thought Ouroboros was a badass organization that is ahead of anyone else all the time. But Vita was trolled by Osbourne so badly that the Society is no longer badass to me. I mean look at Weissmann. He's a total evil person no doubt, but the man got a big plan and he almost succeeded, which makes him a great villian and a worthy Angis of the Society. Arianrhod is just cool all around. Mariabell, the new Second Angis, is also an awesome character. Vita is supposed to be on the same level of these ultimate badasses but she failed so miserably.

.

What I'm about to say is purely subjective, please don't take it too seriously:

Spoiler

There is a weird trend in some anime and light novel that is "female villains always get a reason". They are never truly evil and they always deserve a second chance, especially if they knew the protagonist before. CS2 got some bad influences from those medium and this is one of those. I hope CS3 won't get into the worst part of this trend: those female villains most likely end up in the protagonist's harem. Although I secretly think it's totally possible and it would be so funny that I kinda want to see it happen.

 

[Bebpo]

Mostly 3rd spoilers with a little of Ao/CS2 spoilers:

Spoiler

While who knows if the grandmaster plan for Oro is eventually generic evil with the church being generic good (I have my doubts they'll do something so boring in the end), the individual agents/pillars aren't necessarily bad people. Most of the time they're just pursuing their own interests and they're not all bad people, they can be good people with some darkness in them.

Having a group of super-powered characters who are free to do whatever they want makes them interesting and always a good addition to the games. Though hopefully they do more in CS3 than just guard some places lol

Otoh, every church person we've seen has been PURE GOOD, so I wonder if we'll see some bad apples in the church soon. I definitely don't trust this whole "WE'RE THE GOOD SIE, ALL OUR CHARACTERS ARE GOOD GUYS" thing the church has going on.

 

[Aters]

Mostly 3rd spoilers with a little of Ao/CS2 spoilers:

Spoiler

While who knows if the grandmaster plan for Oro is eventually generic evil with the church being generic good (I have my doubts they'll do something so boring in the end), the individual agents/pillars aren't necessarily bad people. Most of the time they're just pursuing their own interests and they're not all bad people, they can be good people with some darkness in them.

Having a group of super-powered characters who are free to do whatever they want makes them interesting and always a good addition to the games. Though hopefully they do more in CS3 than just guard some places lol

Otoh, every church person we've seen has been PURE GOOD, so I wonder if we'll see some bad apples in the church soon. I definitely don't trust this whole "WE'RE THE GOOD SIE, ALL OUR CHARACTERS ARE GOOD GUYS" thing the church has going on.

I think you can safely bet that the church is not that good. It's a JRPG after all. Can you think of any religion in JRPG that is genuinely good? I won't even be surprised if in the end (suppose there will be an end) the head of the church is the real bad guy all the way. Or better yet, the head of the church and the head of the Society are actually the same person. Or the Godess herself is the head of the Society.

 

[aravuus]

This is the weirdest shit, but I'm enjoying TiTS so much more this time around. I adjusted my expectations and I'm playing the game with a CRPG mindset rather than a JRPG one (in the briefest way I can put it, I guess it just means that I play JRPGs for fun combat systems and insane anime plots and CRPGs for the side quests and an interesting world filled with interesting characters to get invested in plus some legit good dialogue), and I'm actually really, really enjoying it.

Okay, maybe that's not so weird, the actual weird part is that I... Kinda really like Estelle and Joshua now? I'm not sure what the fuck happened. Of course they still have their cheesy moments, but now I can easily look past them as 99% of the time their interactions are hilarious and just.. Great. Maybe the fact that I was pretty disappointed in the game(s) on my first playthrough made me judge every other aspect of them unfairly too, including the characters. My expectations were definitely fucked the first time I played FC.

Dunno. Hope this keeps up, anyhow. Just started chapter 2 of FC with something like 12-ish hours on the clock (really 20 hours in-game, but I'm playing at 2x speed almost 100% of the time)

TL;DR: Estelle and Joshua sucked before, now they're great. The game was mediocre before, now it's great. Ravennue Village's elder's wife is still a cheerful fucker, telling random people she just met of all the gruesome ways children died 10 years ago.

 

[Gu4n]

I think you can safely bet that the church is not that good. It's a JRPG after all. Can you think of any religion in JRPG that is genuinely good? I won't even be surprised if in the end (suppose there will be an end) the head of the church is the real bad guy all the way. Or better yet, the head of the church and the head of the Society are actually the same person. Or the Godess herself is the head of the Society.

It's safe to assume the Septian Pope (yes) and Grandmaster are not the same person. Think more along the lines of two factions of a pre-Collapse religion that split during the Collapse: one, the Septian Church, aiming to maintain the status quo - keep the Sept-Terrion where they are - the other, Ouroboros, putting the goddess' gifts to good use. It's not like the Church is actively looking for the Treasures; they just want to keep them wherever they are right now.

A Tear of Vermillion, which is almost a blueprint for Trails in the Sky, there is something similar at play: the Church of Bardus versus the Disciples of Octum looking for the six holy treasures. I'm still playing the game myself, but I can't help but feel Kiseki's big organisations are modelled after these.

 

[omgfloofy]

I think you can safely bet that the church is not that good. It's a JRPG after all. Can you think of any religion in JRPG that is genuinely good? I won't even be surprised if in the end (suppose there will be an end) the head of the church is the real bad guy all the way. Or better yet, the head of the church and the head of the Society are actually the same person. Or the Godess herself is the head of the Society.

I don't think the Church is exactly good or evil in this.

SC Spoilers:

Spoiler

I think the church is just very pragmatic about things. They do care about the situation with things happening and do care about Zemuria as a whole. But I believe that they have no qualms of breaking more than just a few eggs if it ensures that their goals are completed.

Look at Kevin at the end of SC, for example. Do you really think anyone's going to miss Weissmann now that he's dead? Definitely not. The method used to kill him, however, was REALLY sadistic for reasons you'll learn in 3rd- or if you watched a certain Translation Tuesday that I posted a while back. But that same event gives you a lot of good reasons for using such a horrifying weapon.

Without going into too much detail, there have been characters in the series that are high enough in rank that they'd probably know a lot of the inner-workings of what's happening behind the scenes to a degree, and I think these characters are, indeed, trustworthy. I think I've mentioned it to Guan, before. You can treat these characters as a 'canary in a coal mine.' If you ever see any of them act against the Church, then something is very, very VERY wrong and you have to think about what's happening.

Something to remember with this series, though, is that Falcom's proven that they're aware of tropes and will often turn them on their heads or play with them, expecting you to assume one thing based on said trope.

My theory of what will happen re: the Septian Church (full series spoilers):

Spoiler

We've seen that there's a rift developing between two of the groups- and a pretty nasty one. I'm going to bet that there will be a factional breakdown in the Church, and maybe an internal split before the series ends, with the Gralsritter going their own way. We have a lot of evidence that shows that maybe the Gralsritter were their own organization before the Church was fully formed, anyway.

 

[aravuus]

Also the goddamn wiki has the same exact NPC lists (name - short description) I've been writing, just under the area articles lol

Well, that should shave off some hours off my playthrough.

Spoiler

The way Estelle picks on Joshua reminds me of my ex-gf

 

[DrROBschiz]

This is the weirdest shit, but I'm enjoying TiTS so much more this time around. I adjusted my expectations and I'm playing the game with a CRPG mindset rather than a JRPG one (in the briefest way I can put it, I guess it just means that I play JRPGs for fun combat systems and insane anime plots and CRPGs for the side quests and an interesting world filled with interesting characters to get invested in plus some legit good dialogue), and I'm actually really, really enjoying it.

Okay, maybe that's not so weird, the actual weird part is that I... Kinda really like Estelle and Joshua now? I'm not sure what the fuck happened. Of course they still have their cheesy moments, but now I can easily look past them as 99% of the time their interactions are hilarious and just.. Great. Maybe the fact that I was pretty disappointed in the game(s) on my first playthrough made me judge every other aspect of them unfairly too, including the characters. My expectations were definitely fucked the first time I played FC.

Dunno. Hope this keeps up, anyhow. Just started chapter 2 of FC with something like 12-ish hours on the clock (really 20 hours in-game, but I'm playing at 2x speed almost 100% of the time)

TL;DR: Estelle and Joshua sucked before, now they're great. The game was mediocre before, now it's great. Ravennue Village's elder's wife is still a cheerful fucker, telling random people she just met of all the gruesome ways children died 10 years ago.

Estelle is easy the best female JRPG protagonist of all time.... and I say this as someone who loved FF6 more than anything

Shes pretty damn great

 

[SolVanderlyn]

Estelle is easy the best female JRPG protagonist of all time.... and I say this as someone who loved FF6 more than anything

Shes pretty damn great

I confess that I did not like Estelle at all until she got more serious in the latter half of SC. Unpopular opinion, I know.

Tomboy Estelle was much too campy for my tastes. Not that camp is bad - Lloyd is good old fashioned hero camp, for example - but hers was a little... I don't know, it's hard to describe. "I have a big stick and I'll hit you with it" moments are what I'm talking about. I don't know, her cutesy anime girl personality, even if filtered through her tomboy personality, really got to me.

Serious Estelle was nice, though.

 

[aravuus]

Estelle is easy the best female JRPG protagonist of all time.... and I say this as someone who loved FF6 more than anything

Shes pretty damn great

I don't think I even know any other female JRPG protags (aside from FFVI, like you mentioned) but yeah, she's been really great so far

 

[Psxphile]

I don't think I even know any other female JRPG protags (aside from FFVI, like you mentioned) but yeah, she's been really great so far

Wild Arms 3 comes to my mind immediately. I don't think Virginia Maxwell is on quite the same level as Estelle Bright, but their motivations and progress seem to mirror one another.

 

[epmode]

I loved Estelle from minute one. The protagonist downgrade is easily the biggest downside of Cold Steel (although I loved the game on the whole).

 

[Aters]

This thread reminds me how desperately we are in need of more female protagonists in JRPGs. How much better CS2 is going to be if Rean is a girl.

 

[DrROBschiz]

This thread reminds me how desperately we are in need of more female protagonists in JRPGs. How much better CS2 is going to be if Rean is a girl.

Yeah i mean there are a million ways to do it right

Its not like Rean sucks because he is a guy either

 

[Aters]

Yeah i mean there are a million ways to do it right

Its not like Rean sucks because he is a guy either

But at least we can get rid of the waifu nonsense in CS2 if Rean is a girl.

 

[Thoraxes]

I confess that I did not like Estelle at all until she got more serious in the latter half of SC. Unpopular opinion, I know.

Tomboy Estelle was much too campy for my tastes. Not that camp is bad - Lloyd is good old fashioned hero camp, for example - but hers was a little... I don't know, it's hard to describe. "I have a big stick and I'll hit you with it" moments are what I'm talking about. I don't know, her cutesy anime girl personality, even if filtered through her tomboy personality, really got to me.

Serious Estelle was nice, though.

I liked Estelle the whole time, but where she really propelled herself to the top of my ranks was when she SC SPOILS

Spoiler

resolved an issue (aka that scene on the beach)

in SC the way only she could

When Estelle basically cut through any bullshit or trope I was expecting to happen, my affinity for her grew a lot. She's just great.

 

[clay_ghost]

I loved Estelle from minute one. The protagonist downgrade is easily the biggest downside of Cold Steel (although I loved the game on the whole).

The downgrade is real after Estelle Kevin and even Lloyd, everyone else seems more interesting and likeable. I never really felt anything for Rean which I am guessing is due to how the game limits your (Rean) interaction with the cast with the Persona ripoff like social system.

Edit

I will also like the next arc games after CS3 to have another female MC, we already have 3 males MC in a row!

 

[omgfloofy]

But at least we can get rid of the waifu nonsense in CS2 if Rean is a girl.

Nah, then Rean would be the waifu. ;D

 

[BassForever]

Nah, then Rean would be the waifu. ;D

You mean we'd get lots of husbando talk about who'd be the best guy for Rean

 

[Psxphile]

That or yuri.


You know it's true.