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The Kiseki / Trails (of the Sky/Zero/Ao/Sen/Etc) Community Thread: SPOILERTAGS OR DIE

PK Gaming

Member
People seem really fixated on that word. lol

I merely meant she doesn't have any special skills or latent ability. I think she works hard and improves a lot, but at the end of the games still only reaches a level that's average for her profession. I think she's at a level where people like Schera, Agate, Grant, Karna etc are no longer her seniors, but her peers.

I meant to illustrate how her starting point compares relative to Rean, whom early on in CS1 is characterized as being exceptionally skillful and insightful(he sees through the meaning of Sara's tests) and has latent abilities that make him world class even within the scope of Kiseki power levels.

They're basically inverses of each other in terms of talent and personality I feel. That's all I meant to demonstrate with the use of the word

This, basically

Potential CS3 spoilers

It'll be ultra interesting to see how they interact when they meet each other
 

PK Gaming

Member
Honestly, what I'd be more interested is in how a 3D
Estelle
model would look compared to
her
artwork and sprites.

I can't even wrap my head around it, haha. I wonder how well they'll translate her God tier facial expressions.

[About the spoilers] Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat is this true?

Yup, they said characters from TiTS and even Aoi/Zero would appear in CS3
 
Maybe to put it more into perspective I very much see her as Laura's equal with staff instead of sword.

I don't think so.

I think there's parallels between the two characters that are probably no accident,(Super Dads) but I definitely think Laura is stronger.

They both have father figures whom they strive to follow in the footsteps of, but I think the difference is while Laura follows in her father's footsteps on the path to being an extraordinary fighter/swordsman, Estelle follows Cassius example as a Bracer. Not really a fighter. Cassius deliberately hid that side of himself from her. Her staff use is merely a tool of the trade to that end I feel.

but who knows. lol. I wouldn't have placed Lloyd fighting even with Rean either
 
I like Rean. He's the typical goody two shoes but he always steps up to the plate when necessary. His VA did a great job infusing him with the determination and willpower that he brings to the surface during the key moments of the story.
 

apd_ng

Member
I like Rean. He's the typical goody two shoes but he always steps up to the plate when necessary. His VA did a great job infusing him with the determination and willpower that he brings to the surface during the key moments of the story.

Stepping up to the plate in this case means:
Going white head mode and 2 shotting every boss :p
 
That's just your standard politeness and compliments (across all games) I wouldn't read too much into it.

I do agree that Estelle isn't untalented, it's just that standing next to Joshua she looks untalented. :p
Well when you have cassius as your father and joshua as your teamate , it's no surprise that it ended that way.
Still , lack of praises aside it's obvious that she got talent. It's also hard to praise estelle when for a big part of FC and some part of SC when you praise her , it could get to her head fast
 
Yo it's time

This is a "why Rean is underrated" post

I think they really did the best they could with that type of a character, but it's still that type of a character, you know? I think my general distaste (and this is too strong of a word, really) towards him is less about his actual characterization and more about the automatic cheerleading and infatuation he gets from others. It often feels contrived and unearned, kinda like how the protagonist of Persona 3 has people revolving around him saying things like "lead us!" and "I feel like I could trust you with everything" although he barely even says anything (though this is an extreme example).
 

PK Gaming

Member
oh fuck

8C8A8A3C5DBEF87DD8307A16BF59004A907601D7
2690FEEDDC63EFF57027557F97FA135F0ABB15FC


!!!
 
Calling Estelle untalented seems kind of wrong when you have several points in both games where people do recognize her skill. At one point I'm pretty sure someone even commented on her having the aptitude to surpass Cassius with the staff.
But I guess it might be hard to notice when the masturbatory harem protagonist birth given hax powers he never spend any efforts on obtaining are classified as talent and are contrasted with it.

I'm overly facetious for my own amusement don't take it too seriously.

On this note Estelle is probably on track to be the youngest ever A-rank Bracer given her current canon rank is B and she's still younger than Sara (who we know currently has the record) was when she joined the guild
 

Thoraxes

Member
For the PC versions of the Sky games, we've implemented little quality of life changes, but we haven't tweaked difficultly or drastically altered gameplay or anything. Our programmer, Sara, would be the best person to ask for such details on what was added along with stuff that was on the PSP ports but not in the PC version (we added these so the PC version would be the best of both worlds).

In Cold Steel, there's a quest involving a certain Phantom Thief and riddles, as per series tradition. The Japanese, however, had quest markers over the locations for the riddles, so even though it was meant to be a riddle, all you had to do was open the map and see where to go next. I asked if those quest markers could be removed for that particular quest in English because, like...they're riddles. They're not difficult, but the player should try solving them on their own. Falcom was totally cool with it and did so.
We also completely altered the
first credits
after the finale in Cold Steel II. There should be comparison videos online, probably, and all of this was done while working closely with Falcom's dev team, who was all for it.

As for restrictions on text...one good thing about Trails is that boxes really aren't fixed width. When something was especially long in the English in battle menus or windows, rather than cut something, I usually asked Falcom if they could expand the window for us and they were happy to do so. Also, although we traditionally used three lines for dialogue in the first Cold Steel, I had this sneaking suspicion that we weren't actually limited in such a way and tested it out with four-line boxes in Cold Steel II. I was right.
Falcom also let us add as many pages as necessary for book stuff rather than stick to the Japanese limits. For all this, we aren't normally so fortunate, but the Trails series isn't as strict about this as most other games.

For merch, you'd have to reach out to Falcom yourselves. At the end of the day, we're a partner of theirs, but we aren't Falcom, so we wouldn't be selling their merch as if we were.

Thanks for the kind words about the series in general. And I'm glad you love Duvalie! I got the exact VA I wanted for her and was absolutely thrilled with how she turned out. My rule for her was if I wasn't laughing like I was when I played with her Japanese voice, then it wasn't going to work. Fortunately, I laughed until I cried during her recording session. And her last line in the game was...beautiful.
Thanks a ton for taking the time to answer my questions (and all the others too!)! There's some really good stuff in all of them!
 
It'll likely be 2017, but I'm not going to get antsy about it.

We were lucky to get SC, CS1, and CS2 in a year's time. I'm not going to mistake that confluence of events and efforts for a sustainable pace of localization.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
I imagine QA and technical hurdles will be more of a bottleneck than the script at this point. Depending on how that goes I could see it hitting anywhere between April and August.
 
May sounds optimistic, April is pure hopium.

Hatsuu was implying on Twitter earlier today that it could be launching in the same general vicinity as Persona 5, so I don't think it's completely impossible.

But it would require QA to go very smoothly. It seems like editing should be finished up within the next month, so it's all just a matter of if there are any big QA problems or not. I'd bet on mid-May as the safest bet for when it would come out, but a late April release doesn't seem out of the question.
 
Hatsuu was implying on Twitter earlier today that it could be launching in the same general vicinity as Persona 5, so I don't think it's completely impossible.

But it would require QA to go very smoothly. It seems like editing should be finished up within the next month, so it's all just a matter of if there are any big QA problems or not. I'd bet on mid-May as the safest bet for when it would come out, but a late April release doesn't seem out of the question.

Please don't do this, XSEED. I don't wanna be torn!
 
Ok, I'm playing Cold Steel on Hard and I'm getting repeatedly killed by the mobs in the Old Schoolhouse first floor. Should I just keep at it, or should I restart and switch to normal?
 
Ok, I'm playing Cold Steel on Hard and I'm getting repeatedly killed by the mobs in the Old Schoolhouse first floor. Should I just keep at it, or should I restart and switch to normal?

I would say keep at it. The beginning can be a bit tough but soon you'll be overpowered and then hard mode will offer you at least some resistance. Normal is unsatisfyingly easy.
 

Holundrian

Unconfirmed Member
Ok, I'm playing Cold Steel on Hard and I'm getting repeatedly killed by the mobs in the Old Schoolhouse first floor. Should I just keep at it, or should I restart and switch to normal?

Depends are you a completionist ? If yes restart play on easy. If no continue.
 
Depends are you a completionist ? If yes restart play on easy. If no continue.

I do intend on playing this again if I like it enough, so no? I won't try to get everything this run, I mean.

I did attempt easy earlier, and it was too easy.

I would say keep at it. The beginning can be a bit tough but soon you'll be overpowered and then hard mode will offer you at least some resistance. Normal is unsatisfyingly easy.

Yeah, I heard, which is why I'm on hard. But I find that what is 'too easy' for most people is still ok with me, so...
 

Holundrian

Unconfirmed Member
I do intend on playing this again if I like it enough, so no? I won't try to get everything this run, I mean.

To explain my position better I'm saying it from the perspective of someone that generally does the platinums for these games and I always regret putting my first playthrough on anything but easy. Reason is normal isn't a challenge and hard makes it tough to get certain battle related AP points.

So what ended up happening for me in cases where I did that was that hard was a real struggle until I had all the quartz to break the game while trying to get all the necessary AP points and normal just ended up being a higher time waste that was about as satisfying as playing on easy.

That's why I recommend easy if you're going for 100%. Makes it possible to rush through stuff better. The challenge playthrough is generally nightmare.
If you don't inherit levels even with all the right quartz it can generally be pleasantly challenging although well it's a JRPG in the end challenge is just about knowing what to do, given there's no execution pressure.
 
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