redtruth

1y

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@wes I finished Azure and Crossbell Arc has really solidified itself as one of my fav JRPGs oat, just a hall of fame arc overall man. Lloyd and the gang really got over all barriers

This track will forever hold a special place in my heart knowing what it actually means

Currently on Chapter 2 of Cold Steel 1. Not much to say right now about the story/characters so far; honestly it might be the weakest start out of the series so far in terms of getting me to care about the main cast but I like the new link mechanic they added to the turn based gameplay. Not sure how I feel about Orbment lines not mattering anymore but I gotta say that I really love how Falcom isn't afraid to keep switching up the turn based gameplay in every single title

Nine Arts Dragon

1y

The music in Cold Steel 1 is so fire

Nine Arts Dragon

1y

Trying to get through this series might be worse than watching One Piece from scratch in 2022

wes

1y

I knew Crossbell was gonna be the GOAT aec from the premise of it; glad you think the same

Bro the revelation that KeA already changed the past and had Joshua & Estelle show up to help the SSS so they didn't die was f\*\*\*ing insane

I just thought the beginning of Zero not having Joshua & Estelle was because of it just being a non-spoiler type thing that games usually do. My ass was WRONG lmao.

The Arianrhod fight

The scene after the final boss fight with Lloyd and Guy was really good too. Needed it to be a bit longer lol. Immediately after that though; when KeA becomes a normal girl again. My ass is tearing up watching this vid to get a screenshot of it

I think my only nitpick of the story is that Grimwood's backstory/him sorta being the big bad was just kinda thrown at you last minute. Wish there was a bit more time to let that marinate, but w/e. But like I said man, how in the world am I seeing people say Azure is a 6/10???? KeA and Tio brings it up to a 6/10 by themselves.

CS1 def has the weakest start, but you start to care for the characters a bit more as you go on. Jusis is/was definitely my favorite. His English VA also does Young Xehanort in KH, so I'm biased as hell with that

Can't remember if the orbment lines don't 100% matter in CS1, but they kinda matter in the later ones, though not nearly to the degree as the previous games. I did enjoy the previous iteration of it compared to CS', but you get used to it and I think it just comes down to a matter of preference.

I gotta get back on CS4. I have legit just been playing Terraria this entire past week and have made 0 progress on CS4

If you're playing on PC, I recommend using Cheat Engine to edit your bonding points so you can get all of the scenes because they're usually pretty good (+develops each of the characters a bit more, as you might expect). I usually just enabled the flag for "Current Bond Points" when I had some (so you effectively have infinite), then just turned it off when the day was over.

redtruth

1y

I was losing my mind at that scene from the intro of the first game coming back; like you said, I found it strange that the scene from the intro of the first game seemed different to what actually happened; crazy to think they actually died but KeA altered the timeline

The Arianrhod fight was nice asf too, I didn't actually beat her tho and apparently theres exclusive dialouge if you beat her. Can't wait to do that in Nightmare when it gets localised

Grimwood backstory caught me really offguard but it makes sense; that being said I didn't really care much for him. The scene after the KeA fight with Lloyd and Guy was legendary tho; these past 2 games Lloyd was constantly chasing his brother and seeing them together towards the end of the game is the best possible way to close off this game. Seeing KeA tackle Lloyd after turning back damn near brought I tear to my eyes I love these two man

Still need time to sit down and think about the game but if I think about the reason some people may rate the game lower is probably because of the pacing after the conference leaves less room for characters and theres a bigger emphasis on the plot instead of the characters; which I do kinda agree with since when I think about it Ellie and Tio kinda take a backseat and Randy is the one in the spotlight; Rixia, Noel and Dudley could have used some more screentime too, I heard that a lot of Rixias development is locked behind her bonding event which kinda sucks if you don't see it. The more I think about it the more I can see peoples issues with how some of the characters were handled during the last part of the game but that being said I'm too biased towards Lloyd to hate the game for it

Still enjoying Cold Steel despite the start not being as strong as Trails in the Sky or the Crossbell games. I actually really love the slower games/first games in the arcs since this is when a lot of character interactions happen; that being said the cast for this game is pretty big so I can see why it would take longer for it to happen in this one.

wes

1y

I think I just got her mask off, and thought that was the end of the fight. I was very wrong about that

Yeah, what you brought up makes sense, and I can def see both sides of it. F\*\*\* em, Lloyd sweep

I also really enjoy the starts of each new arc since you get more of a focus on the characters and the world. The stakes are typically pretty low, so you can just enjoy that stuff until s*** goes down lol.

Got any favorites from Class VII so far?

Also, delay Rean is stupid busted for CS1 & CS2, so if you're on Nightmare, that might be the move lol. Also, I think Jusis is one of the better (best?) support characters with one of his crafts that gives multiple buffs to the party.

Towa supremacy

redtruth

1y

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I think im still very early in the game so no favourites so far; my Julius doesn't even have any support skills right now lol.

Not instantly liking the main cast like the other kiseki games but Laura and Julius would be my favourites so far if I had to pick. Fie looks like she might be cool too. Outside of Class VII tho i'm vibing with Sara, and Crow reminds me of Lechter so far

wes

1y

These tracks and the leitmotif used in the future games are probably my favorites in the series, by far. I get chills every time I hear them

This is legit a Dark Souls boss theme

wes

1y

Funny enough, I've (nearly) done both this year

Nine Arts Dragon

1y

I was really surprised when i first played CS1, i deadass wasn't expecting the music to be so good

wes

1y

@redtruth CS4 GOAT man. All I gotta say. 50 hours in, don't even think I'm halfway through, and this part in the story has had me cracking a smile for like 2 hours straight

redtruth

1y

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Can't wait to get to it man

Currently in Chapter 4 of the game and I gotta say the main cast grew on me. Personally I still think its the weakest cast in a Kiseki game but that's not a bad thing; its just that the main cast from the previous games have been really good.

wes

1y

Definitely think the CS games only improve with each entry, especially with 3.
CS4 also brings back Pom Pom Party and the new music slaps. Some of the opponents are harder than most of the bosses

I more or less feel the same way about the characters. One of my favorite interactions was Jusis telling Rean more about himself in the hotel in Bareahard while Machias was pretending to be asleep. Once that happened, I knew the characters were gonna be great. Jusis and Machias going back and forth is actually funny as hell

Thoughts on Rean so far?

redtruth

1y

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Don’t have the strongest opinion of Rean so far; only thing thats got me interested is his backstory since its kinda mysterious. Doesn’t have that chaotic and fun energy that Estelle has or is as likeable as Lloyd so far.

I do find it cool though that hes a swordsman and that hes a student of Eight Leaves One Blade; seeing him do the Gale skill just like Arios is cool as s***

wes

1y

I'm still spamming that craft in CS4 It is incredibly busted in CS3. I do agree though, especially in CS1. I think I very slightly prefer Lloyd to Rean at this point, but that can change with the rest of CS4 and Hajimari. All 3 MCs are 10/10s for sure

I need more Arios bro He's too cool

redtruth

1y

Cold Steel 1 Chapter 5 Spoilers

@wes The part where you catch up to the prologue and see that the cannons targeting Crossbell actually fired blanks might be the most anticlimactic s\*\*\* ever man. I already knew they couldn't have fired it but holy f\*\*\* that was bad

redtruth

1y

Arios is cool; I especially loved his relationship with his daughter but there’s something about Cassius Bright thats just legendary to me

The way he was gassed up in FC really stayed with me; Alan Richard pretty much turning into a whole villain for that part of the story because he thought Liberl doesn’t stand a chance without Cassius Bright was just insane to me

wes

1y

I was trying to piece everything together in my head after playing the Crossbell games and it just didn't seem right that the cannons would've fired there, but the story definitely made it seem like it was going to (ESPECIALLY since you start the game with a fast forward to that point), so I was confused as hell the entire time

redtruth

1y

Man I was starting to think it was some alternate timeline since Crow and Millium didnt show up in the prologue but instead it turns out it was just some really badly executed intro to the game

redtruth

1y

Review of Cold Steel 1 since I kinda wanna talk about it

Finished cold steel 1; honestly the worst game in the series so far. I know the first game in the arcs are pretty slow but the characters and new setting are often good enough that it doesn't really matter how slow the plot is moving. On top of that I just didn't vibe with the school setting at all and how the game structured itself around this persona like structure where its free day -> school dungeon investigation -> field day. It just didn't feel as natural as chasing Cassius Bright around Liberl and trying to figure out wtf a Black Orbment was.

Also couldn't end up caring that much about the characters, I kinda said this about Azure as well but I don't like character interactions being locked behind gameplay systems; I did save scum to see most of the events but I still couldn't really bring myself to care that much them; would rather have these interactions happen naturally throughout the story, which it did to some extent but it felt like a major stepdown in the way it was done when compared to FC and Zero.

Plot relevant discussion

Hate to see that Crow reveal man lmaooo, at the beginning of the game I was actually theorizing that Crow was Lechter because Lechters codename was Scarecrow and their personalities seem really similar but I dismissed that theory later in the game. The moment the party was in the mines and the game decided that I had to take Crow out of my party and C shows up later I instantly knew that they had to be the same person. But then the game tries to throw me off by Crow showing up instantly so I wasn't really sure anymore lmaooo

Don't think I have much else to say about the plot; the whole mecha/divine knight thing is kinda insane but I have no idea wtf is going on with that s\*\*\* lmaoo. I instantly called Emma being a witch very early on in the story on some umineko s\*\*\*; well its still not confirmed that she is a witch but my headcannon is that she is a witch

Overall I still enjoyed the game and there was a lot of cool moments in the story that final dungeon looked cool as s\*\*\* and Loa Erebonius boss fight hard asf from the music alone

Game was pretty challenging on Nightmare too; I struggled on quite a few boss fights until I decided to use my brain and just delay the enemy so they only get 1 turn The final boss fight with Crow and the Divine Knight is complete ass though, if you play on Nightmare and you are under levelled then the whole fight is just RNG and praying they dont hit you with a crit

If anything else this game makes me appreciate FC/Zero a lot more just for how it set up a strong cast of characters

wes

1y

Even though I enjoyed CS1 more than FC (due to me absolutely speeding through FC lol), it's definitely the weakest in the series. Fortunately, CS2 is still one of the "set up" games, so you still get a decent bit more of character development. CS3/CS4 do a great job with the new characters that get introduced there. Again, just think it's just an effect of having so many characters in Class 7 compared to the SSS.

Also, that f\*\*\*ing ending. Copped CS2 frame 1 after those credits ended

The structure in CS2 changes as well, so it's not as rigid as the typical school stuff in 1. I didn't mind it, but the free days were just kinda w/e, especially since you have to explore the old schoolhouse (granted it takes 10 min tops).

The Crow battle theme. Probably my favorite track(s) in the entire series. I would also refrain from looking at the comments on those

Can def imagine that Divine Knight fight being pretty rough on Nightmare, especially since that s\*\*\* comes outta nowhere lol. As you can guess, the fights in those get improved on so you get more options. At the end of CS1, I wasn't the biggest fan of em, but I've come to enjoy them quite a bit more. Plus the music is really good lol.

Pretty sure a delay Rean build is the most busted in CS2, so worst case, that's always can option to abuse on Nightmare I think CS1 is the hardest since there's less options, so from CS2 onwards, Nightmare is pretty easy.

You plan on starting on CS2 soon?