So are we ever getting a part 2 to this? It’s so rare to find quality Trails content like this that isn’t just “Why you should play Trails” or “How to get into Trails” videos.
Admittedly Falcom is not the best at...graphics. It's still far from bad though, really, and Trails' worldbuilding is solid. And I feel like they've hit the sweet spot in customizing combat options lately.
@@natchu96 For sure, actually there was this one interview I read while researching this that kinda stuck with me. I think it was in the 2006 Sky interviews. One of the devs, maybe Kondo, said something like “we were seeing all these amazing games come out and we were like, damn, we can’t do that, but we knew we could tell a good story, and that’s where we poured our heart into” and I really feel like that holds true. Trails is plenty fun but I know for me it’s the world and the story that really carry it all.
@@natchu96 Graphics is really not a big deal. Maybe it's because I'm just an older gamer when most games didn't have decent graphics by limitation, but subpar graphics is a worthy sacrifice if everything else is high quality.
A passion project I’ve been working on all the way since September, I sincerely hope you enjoy :) Trails has easily become my favorite series ever and I’m glad I got this out before the end of the year If you want a little director’s commentary, while working on this I thought about my old Persona iceberg a lot. In hindsight, I find it disappointing, I definitely feel like it could’ve been so much more, and with that in mind I went into this one with the goal of completely outdoing myself, and yeah, I’m very happy with the end result, and I hope you are too 😊 As I mention at the very end, if you have any ideas that should be included in the last two layers or should’ve been included here, definitely let me know. I want to make it the best it can possibly be 😎❤️ Corrections: Ring of Judgement’s last chapter actually came out days before Zero’s release, not the month before Also as of 9 hours ago The Northern War is also getting a mobile game tie in Sky outfits are actually on sale for PS3 and Vita in the West, just not for PS4 The subtitles for the Cold Steel musical have been found! Big thanks to Choojermelon for their hard work on these: reddit.com/r/Falcom/comments/zy9gby/trails_of_cold_steel_3d_musical_subtitles/ Also update 9/22/23, YES part 2 is still being worked on!
I am playing first sky game right now and already thinking it will be my favourite game series number one istead of witcher) I haven't had this much fun playing games in a long time. Maybe I am getting old at my 23 y.o.)
I have to give my thanks for this! Thank you for all of the effort behind this video. I've completed all of the English games (aside Nayuta) and always spoke to every NPC multiple times while completing all sidequests. Even still, there's a lot of information about the world and the series that I've easily missed. It's great to have a reminder of all of the content the series has out there.
Thank you so much! I love this series so much and it was such a pleasure to make something to share my love of it with all the other fans, its easily my favorite video I've ever done. And this is just the beginning, the second half coming soon will have the real secrets, mark my words. ;)
I've known quite a few of these, however the scene at the end of Cold Steel 4 is news to me so when you mentioned it I immediately went off and booted up my game and saw that scene, that alone is enough for me to thank you for this video Seriously great video overall
So great right? I had just beat Reverie, & w/ her on the cover....I'd be damned to not see a scene w/ her, lool. Idk🤔cause I need to run ng+ on nm, + get Aurelia & Mcburn as there more daydreams + trophy ish. Rev is So Huge💯😅🤣
29:29 This actually reminds me. In Trails from Zero, I think it was when Lloyd and Noel wanted to buy a gift for Antons Quest for Fran, if you don't have enough money right there, Lloyd says something along the lines of "Darn it, I don't have enough mira, damn CPD salary" which may be one of the most hilarious hidden lines I could've gotten honestly.
The illegible grave in the Crossbell cemetery is something I think worth of being on there. The gravekeeper begins to mention it in Zero and kind of trails off. Supposedly in Azure you find out the grave is Ian's family, but I never managed to get that scene myself. I remember the gravekeeper mentioning he was going to clean the grave very close to the end, but apparently I never saw some other prerequisite scene so I didnt quite get the payoff. Or maybe it's hinted some other way, I dunno. I did full NPC crawls in both Crossbell games, so not sure how I missed it, but I think it'd be worth looking into.
Yeah I believe that whole thing is tied in with the Nielsen quests, I plan to mention Nielsen in the next part and I’ll definitely mention this. It’s like a whole side quest through Azure that if you miss even one part on you miss out on the rest of it, and the whole thing is pretty cool since it ends with the climax you mention, finding the grave and having Lloyd figure out everything with Guy earlier than he would’ve otherwise. And yeah if I wasn’t following a guide I would’ve missed it, at one part you have to talk to someone, talk to someone else, then go back to that first person and then check the grave or something like that, the requirements become VERY precise
@@HeavenlyM Ahhh, so it was Nielsen. Yeah I missed his first quest, and so despite seeing him pretty much every other time he appeared, I wasn't able to do any of his questline lol. Planning to change that with the official release.
The best analogy for this series I’ve ever heard since I got into the series is that it’s the “One Piece of gaming.” I love this statement since the Kiseki series is one of the longest-running gaming series with a consistent timeline, spanning nearly 20 years at this point.
I've been a fan of this series since before Trails SC released in the west, but I learned so many fascinating things from this video. Thank you so much for taking the time and effort in making it!
Man, I just HAVE to say thank you. This is amazing work right there. Gave it a like 20 minutes in, hesitated to subscribe, but when you mentioned you planned more Trails content, I subbed right away. We NEED more quality Trails videos on the internet! The Kiseki nut is amazing already, but with you as well? Man we're covered.
Excellent video. This is getting me hyped for Reverie. Like you, I beat the first 9 trails games and now I'm starved for content. There were a good number of things in here I wasn't aware of even though i ran through the first 9 games. I'll definitely watch the next video.
When I was first playing through the Cold Steel arc, and I reached my first shrine in CS2, “Holy Saint, Holy Spirit” washed over me and I knew I was in love with this series.
I chuckled quite a bit when you mentioned Anton and Ricky. Damn I really loved his adventures and character development ( PS: Anton you damn lucky bastard got a legit waifu for yourself FINALLY after 9 games )
A neat detail about the Sen musical that I didn't see mentioned in the comments yet, the actress for Towa is also her japanese VA in the actual games Thanks for the effort, this was really cool
Have been a fan of the The Legend of Heroes series since I played Trails of cold steel. Have completed the Liberl & Erebonia arc. Almost completed Trails from Zero
I always encourage people to play in chronological order, that is starting with sky. But after playing all 3, I have to say that playing cold steel before sky... I can't think there is anything about that that is half as bad as playing zero before sky. I just can't imagine losing the impact of all of Renne's Scenes in Zero without playing sky first. But I can't think of anything in Cold steel that was so heavy for past characters that weren't introduced like Zero does. I did not play cold steel first, but since you have, was there anything you think that was ruined because you didn't play sky first? I mean I know the way it slips in sky's cast would seem weird, or how crossbell is in the game would lose some of its nostalgia points, etc. But do you feel like you missed out on an actual emotionally hard hitting thing because of it?
@@Ghalion666 as someone who can kind of comment on this besides the sky characters appearing in cold steel and being able to walk in crossbell there isn't anything wrong with playing cold steel before sky outside of not knowing the characters because the only main person from the sky arc is Olivert/Olivier.with addition some other side characters and military people, but the only vocal point for me is Olivert and seeing what he did in the sky arc. Because if you just do the connection from the sky games to the first 2 cold steel games the relationship between those games acts in the prequel and sequel aspect like star wars in a way. But with the addition of the Crossbell games it's VERY on the idea that you played the sky arc first to understand what's going on with the sky cast in that game. It's kind of the only critique that I have personally of Zero, personally the game didn't really hit home for me I'm not saying it was a horrible experience just not groundbreaking as everyone reviews it to be and to my own bias to say I thought that since we have at the time 3 different arcs I thought we would have as the player our own time with the cast without anybody from the other games but again this is my own experience with this. I'm waiting on Azure next year to see what happens next, just for a reference I've played the entire cold steel arc, Zero,and am currently still playing sky fc
One of the more interesting things about the Super Arrange versions is that few of them actually play in game. Off the top of my head, Silver Will SAV plays in SC, Atrocious Raid SAV plays in CS4, and a Super Arrange of a track from Zero, retitled as ‘To be continued!’ plays in Azure.
Nice vid, all these cool info is so new to me, I spent more than 1000hrs+ in games with chest message and didn’t even notice there is a chest message update lol.
If you really think about the Luciloa thing with Schera is that we never really got a closure to both their arc making me think she will come back at some point
I like how at 27:36 Sean immediately understands what line Jonah is talking about and the severity of the situation. Reddit user once reddit user forever.
Musse's granduncle Count Ballad being in the prologue for Sky 3rd was the most shocking easter egg to me, not sure if it was on purpose or not. Also, there is more Alisa 4koma comics for post Cold Steel 4 where she and sometimes Juna make comments on the character popularity polls in the post CS book, not sure about pre-Cold Steel 4. There's quite alot of content about character information that was not translated in the Falcom CS book as well. It's where the source for all the characters official ages comes from.
On most media icebergs there’s dark stuff like scandals, abuse allegations - and Trails just sits here like „did you hear about this exclusive outfit???”. I’m so proud of this fandom.
@@ChaosEater39 I’d say more secret than dark overall for part 2, things like being able to skip to the final boss in Zero chapter 3, Morse code hidden in music, Arianrhod boss fight in Sky 3rd, skip to Zeiss at the start of FC, obscure Chinese Trails games, lots of untranslated books, drama CDs, etc
They’re always going to where the big Ouroboros plans are happening, there has to be more to it 🤔 But in all seriousness, I feel like Yun Kafai ending up being evil or in Ouroboros would be a crazy ass twist
@@HeavenlyM Well, Kafai´s knowlegde of Reans Imprisonment is something that bothers me. How do he know about that when he is on the other Side of the Kontinent and the Letter (in which he mentioned it) appears right after Reans Escape? Also his knowledge that Rean is going to be a Divine Blade that will end the Great Twilight. How did he know about the Curse of the Empire.. i dont think he got his hand on the Black Records.
awesome video and I kinda want to add some level 3 iceberg...okay, I don't know if this counts but this is about Mcburn. There's actually an translation error from Nisa when it comes to Mcburn's true name and it created a failed attempted reference to Kuro no Kiseki would only affect western players. NISa translated Mcburn's true name as: 'Mera' Cu Baldugh Ruang, but in reality it's actually 'Mare' Cu Baldugh Ruang[Japanese: メア(Mare)=ク(Cu)=バルウド(Baldugh)=ルアウング(Ruang )], in Kuro no Kiseki, the MC got a special AI called Mare that can help him transform to Grendel, the kamen rider monster in kuro, and Mcburn's true name also has Mare inside can be interpreted as a connection between the two towards the world of beyond. But who knows, this could be just a coincidence....but the translation error is true no matter what.
I actually just finished the last English released game on my list a few weeks ago to where I am caught up to wait for Reverie so this was quite intersting.
Great video and I especially loved the McBurn theory as well and could actually be quite plausible. I have a suggestion for a theory or at a starting point of a theory and that would be Campanella’s identity as much isn’t known about other than his affiliation with the society and that apparently he hasn’t aged in the last ten years which could be a foundation for a few theories. Great video nonetheless
Thank you! And yeah Campanella is highly interesting, there are a lot of theories about him out there, especially with his 4th wall break in Sky 3rd. Definitely something I’ll talk about in the next part :)
@@HeavenlyM One thing I know for sure - Campanella is a girl. Also, for some reason, after finishing the Sky arc, it felt like he's(?) nothing but mechanical avatar similar to early Rennes "parents". Especially considering the fact, he's not homunculus. I just hope, they wont turn him into another Divergent Laws. Hadn't played Reverie yet, so might be missing something.
you're not dumb. the way they say marquis in the dub drives me up the wall. for such an incredible localization, i can't believe they went with that pronunciation of the word.
Fan of the series since i got the limited edition day 1 of Sky FC on PSP right after I got off work! It's the most amazing series in giving you a living, breathing world full of NPCs with relatable issues that you actually care about. Down to the shopkeepers! When I played a Japanese preview of FC before it released it immediately gave me vibes of series I grew up with such as Lunar. Full of charm and hope, themes that are mature but arent full of misery and dread. I sincerely hope when Kiseki ends that Falcom (and other companies) continue this trend of building tangible fantasy worlds you feel like you're a part of. Oh, and Team Estelle from day one until the end of time!
Damn, I had no idea someone would have made a Trails iceberg! TH-cam’s algorithm does the viewer a solid sometime, like recommending me your channel and a chain reaction of videos I’m interested in from your channel!
Trial of Cold Steel really made me feel that I am playing a JRPG version of Valkyrie Chronicles, I am in chapter two, and the war not even broke out yet, and never the less, I can feel the tension building when the nobles are garrison their forts and castles, and waiting for the spark that began it all.
For the musical, I originally uploaded it with English subs, but the whole video was taken down and later reuploaded without subs by someone else Great video btw! Enjoyed this a lot
I saw someone had saved it in a post on the subreddit a few days ago that I think got deleted, but I just checked the sub today though and saw your post about it, will definitely leave a link to it! Seriously, thank you for your hard work!
53:59 yeah so maybe I'm wrong about this but the model of the Lusitania is used in CS1 during the Roer Field Study. It's shrunken down and on display in the Reinford building but when I first saw it I took specific note of it due to the odd amount of detail it had, like trees and such. Honestly I thought it was pulled from 3rd just to be the model but who knows~
About that Renne healthbar in SC fact, it's actually not the only time it happened In Zero, she follows Lloyd for a bit when searching for Colin and there are a few possible fights on the road to save him. And lo and behold, she also has a humongus hp bar, which I find pretty neat. I didn't catch it in SC so it's pretty cool to find out it was already a thing there.
I've had this on my watch later for almost a goddamn year now, today I finally beat cs4 after a 11 month journey I'll do reverie at some point but I'm tired...
you’re definitely right about SC putting Anton on the forefront. I played through CS1-2 first and always found myself doing NPC crawls so it’s not like I never saw him before but as soon as I met him and saw the achievement everything clicked together and I made it my mission to find him in every subsequent game
I really hate how they did Kevin (and by extension Ries) dirty. He deserved as much as a cameo in Azure/Zero + Cold Steel series I'd say at least as much as Tita and Agate. Didn't realize the full extent of it to where he was omitted from the Graalsritter image. Oof. I can understand minor plotholes and details forgotten, but a whole character forgotten that an entire game in the series starred him as protagonist?
Honestly really great job dude. This video was such a treat to watch! I came onto the Trails wagon late (really only getting into and completing the series over the Covid quarantine and recently when CS4 was localized) but it’s cemented itself as my all time favorite hard stop. 2 comments for something I found funny, with the Renne health I had no idea. But if I saw it I’d have probably thought (even though we had children escort missions before) that they gave her so much health so we COULDN’T fuck it up and get her killed lol And in regard to the all the gacha collabs, Rean Rixia Lloyd Juna Swin and Nadia were in a Brave Nine collab a loooong while ago. Pulled for em, got em, single only reason why the game is still on my phone lol I don’t play it either, not that it’s bad I just haven’t gotten into it 😂
I don't remember where i read it. Apparently orbal machines stop working after a certain boundary while traveling into the sea beyond Zemuria's edge. To me the most interesting aspects of the whole franchise are related to anomalies like the salt pale and the desertification that master Yun Ka-fai is sent to investigate. i haven't touched Kuro or Reverie but it'd be interesting if we could get more info about those situations.
You can get CS2 Joshua and Estelle costumes in the original PS3 versions as well. So they did make it to consoles. The PS4 version did not include them for some reason
New subscriber thanks to this video, but also in anticipation of Persona 3 and 4 re-releasing in January. Looking forward to watching your videos and what's to come.
good video really enjoyed it, one piece of triviva i find funny is that they had to change the name of the godess from "edios" to "adios" cause thats the name of the guys who make tomb raider and they didnt want to get in any legal trouble with that. also they changed "ulster" to "alster" for some reason
An addition thing for the nendoroids is that China collector editions of Trails had stuff like Rixia, another Airanhood, Rean, alisia laura etc. I got the Rixia, alternate airanhood, laura and alisa ones so far. I got to get my friend in Beijing to help me import the remaining in time. Apparently Randy is the hardest to find one of them all.
@@Thandronen I saw Randy once on Taobao for $200, but he got sold just when I added him to the cart :( I think Lloyd is still available there for 80-100. If you want I can send you a link.
oh I'm one of the people that owns the Alisa teaching comics from the first games. I'll look and see if I can figure out a way to share it. There is the theory of the connected falcom universe where all the games from Sky FC onward are connected. Definitely consider mentioning the 2014 series and the sequel to Everyone Assemble! Falcom Academy which was a falcom crossover anime project based on a 4koma.
There's definitely stuff here I wish I was aware of when going through the games chronologically, so it would be interesting if it could be collated into a full list for newcomers that really want the full story, not just the games themselves.
God I would have loved to meet marquis hyarms during the festival and lean in to the differences, you meet the nice affable noble and then at the end see them interact with Patrick and have that moment of realization
The screen for 51:29 seems like a FF7 reference, the same angle, the tower, the protagonist on the bottom right corner, showing off how huge is the challenge ahead
At the end of CS2 when you return to the title screen on the roof I believe, the ghost of Crow appears and fades away. It only happens once, right after beating the game.
The craziest thing: I thought Trails of Cold Steel was your ordinary, run of the mill JRPG- I played it on PS3 back in 2017 without giving it much thought, and stopped midway because all the references to previous games confused me. I thought it would be resolved by the end of the game, but alas...😅 This kinda upset me because the game was engaging with a great storyline- I just couldn't get into it. So eventually I went back and beat the game on PS4, because it looked and performed better- this was in 2019 when I played that and CS2. Saw the bit about Crossbell in the divertissement and figured that storyline would be resolved in CS3. When CS3 took me into Crossbell, I had absolutely no connection to the city and its citizens. So I finally decided to do some research. Huh. Found out about Trails in the Sky and Zero/Azure, which at the time was being fan translated by Geofront. I had to wait. Played and finished Sky, then got into Zero/Azure in 2021 and... holy shit. Great writing, everything hits you hard in SC/Azure, and when I replayed CS1 and CS2, everything finally clicked. It was perfect. I fell in love. Finished CS3 and played CS4 and the games completely blew me away. Waiting for Azure on Switch, Reverie in July, and looking forward to the Calvard arcs. This is a truly special series, nothing like it.
This video took me for a wild ride. I had no clue about the JP exclusive CS1+2 outfits since I owned the PS4 Kai versions. Neither did I know that XSEED went back to update Sky 3rd after Kuro came out.
Very nice video! The one thing I would think about adding for the next one is the happiness stone from sky the 3rd. It seems like a strange inclusion but I’m pretty sure it’s been reffrenced in a few of the games after but like I can’t remember exactly when :p
The subbed version of CS musical was there half a year ago or so. I think the subbed version was taken down altogether. It doesn't take itself seriously and is pretty funny. Those gifs of it you see, they are intentionally humorous.
Not going to fully watch this video as I've yet to get into the Trails series but it's been on my backlog because it always looked like a very interesting series.
On the returning home drama CD, at the end of CS1 I believe, Rean says he’s intermediate level in Eight Leaves One Blade, which I found strange because earlier in the game he said he was beginner level. I only found out after doing some research that in the drama CD, he gets a message from Ka-Fai and ranks up
Alisa Reinford's Cold Steel Crash Course can be found in the booklet inside the disc cases of the NISA PS4 ports of CS 1 and 2, the pages are at the end of the leaflet. It's was a surprise to me to find a leaflet in this day and age, very few games bothers to that these days.
So are we ever getting a part 2 to this? It’s so rare to find quality Trails content like this that isn’t just “Why you should play Trails” or “How to get into Trails” videos.
"Cold Steel anime can't be as bad as the Sky OVA" you sweet summer child...
(I know this was recorded before but still)
NGL It’s amazing how Falcom is able to make good quality game at a fast pace
I only wish the game gets localize on time
Yeah once Reverie comes out I honestly think I’m gonna try to play Kuro with the spreadsheet, I just can’t wait anymore 😭
@@HeavenlyM the Ys series is also amazing and their created by Falcom
And if you have a good pc you can use the English patch mod for pc
Admittedly Falcom is not the best at...graphics.
It's still far from bad though, really, and Trails' worldbuilding is solid. And I feel like they've hit the sweet spot in customizing combat options lately.
@@natchu96 For sure, actually there was this one interview I read while researching this that kinda stuck with me. I think it was in the 2006 Sky interviews. One of the devs, maybe Kondo, said something like “we were seeing all these amazing games come out and we were like, damn, we can’t do that, but we knew we could tell a good story, and that’s where we poured our heart into” and I really feel like that holds true. Trails is plenty fun but I know for me it’s the world and the story that really carry it all.
@@natchu96 Graphics is really not a big deal. Maybe it's because I'm just an older gamer when most games didn't have decent graphics by limitation, but subpar graphics is a worthy sacrifice if everything else is high quality.
A passion project I’ve been working on all the way since September, I sincerely hope you enjoy :) Trails has easily become my favorite series ever and I’m glad I got this out before the end of the year
If you want a little director’s commentary, while working on this I thought about my old Persona iceberg a lot. In hindsight, I find it disappointing, I definitely feel like it could’ve been so much more, and with that in mind I went into this one with the goal of completely outdoing myself, and yeah, I’m very happy with the end result, and I hope you are too 😊
As I mention at the very end, if you have any ideas that should be included in the last two layers or should’ve been included here, definitely let me know. I want to make it the best it can possibly be 😎❤️
Corrections:
Ring of Judgement’s last chapter actually came out days before Zero’s release, not the month before
Also as of 9 hours ago The Northern War is also getting a mobile game tie in
Sky outfits are actually on sale for PS3 and Vita in the West, just not for PS4
The subtitles for the Cold Steel musical have been found! Big thanks to Choojermelon for their hard work on these: reddit.com/r/Falcom/comments/zy9gby/trails_of_cold_steel_3d_musical_subtitles/
Also update 9/22/23, YES part 2 is still being worked on!
Haven’t watched yet but you clearly put a lot of work into this because the Trails iceberg is gigantic! Thanks and bookmarked for later
I am playing first sky game right now and already thinking it will be my favourite game series number one istead of witcher)
I haven't had this much fun playing games in a long time. Maybe I am getting old at my 23 y.o.)
What games do you cover on this? I dont want to watch it if it covers something that might spoil me of future content
@@GrumpyFelo Only up to CS4, no spoilers on the unlocalized games
@@HeavenlyM there ARE multiple references for later games but, I guess its not spoilers.
I always wanted to see an Iceberg of the Trails series, thanks for making it, you did a great job
I have to give my thanks for this! Thank you for all of the effort behind this video. I've completed all of the English games (aside Nayuta) and always spoke to every NPC multiple times while completing all sidequests.
Even still, there's a lot of information about the world and the series that I've easily missed. It's great to have a reminder of all of the content the series has out there.
Thank you so much! I love this series so much and it was such a pleasure to make something to share my love of it with all the other fans, its easily my favorite video I've ever done. And this is just the beginning, the second half coming soon will have the real secrets, mark my words. ;)
The forgotten Kevin one hurts cause he’s literally one of my favorite characters in the entire series, I miss him
welp good news with the kai trailers
new heavenly video🙏
on a trails binge myself, finished zero yesterday and started azure already. Can't wait to continue
With the Geofront patch? Good shit! Azure might be my #1 tbh
@@HeavenlyM I coudn't wait for the steam release. just had to continue
I've known quite a few of these, however the scene at the end of Cold Steel 4 is news to me so when you mentioned it I immediately went off and booted up my game and saw that scene, that alone is enough for me to thank you for this video
Seriously great video overall
You’re welcome! Seriously that’s one of the best scenes in the entire series
So great right? I had just beat Reverie, & w/ her on the cover....I'd be damned to not see a scene w/ her, lool. Idk🤔cause I need to run ng+ on nm, + get Aurelia & Mcburn as there more daydreams + trophy ish. Rev is So Huge💯😅🤣
Finally a Trails video from you! I just have to watch every video about Trails on youtube lol
Same, there needs to be more Trails! And yeah it took quite a while hahaha 😅
29:29 This actually reminds me. In Trails from Zero, I think it was when Lloyd and Noel wanted to buy a gift for Antons Quest for Fran, if you don't have enough money right there, Lloyd says something along the lines of
"Darn it, I don't have enough mira, damn CPD salary" which may be one of the most hilarious hidden lines I could've gotten honestly.
The illegible grave in the Crossbell cemetery is something I think worth of being on there. The gravekeeper begins to mention it in Zero and kind of trails off. Supposedly in Azure you find out the grave is Ian's family, but I never managed to get that scene myself. I remember the gravekeeper mentioning he was going to clean the grave very close to the end, but apparently I never saw some other prerequisite scene so I didnt quite get the payoff. Or maybe it's hinted some other way, I dunno. I did full NPC crawls in both Crossbell games, so not sure how I missed it, but I think it'd be worth looking into.
Yeah I believe that whole thing is tied in with the Nielsen quests, I plan to mention Nielsen in the next part and I’ll definitely mention this. It’s like a whole side quest through Azure that if you miss even one part on you miss out on the rest of it, and the whole thing is pretty cool since it ends with the climax you mention, finding the grave and having Lloyd figure out everything with Guy earlier than he would’ve otherwise. And yeah if I wasn’t following a guide I would’ve missed it, at one part you have to talk to someone, talk to someone else, then go back to that first person and then check the grave or something like that, the requirements become VERY precise
@@HeavenlyM Ahhh, so it was Nielsen. Yeah I missed his first quest, and so despite seeing him pretty much every other time he appeared, I wasn't able to do any of his questline lol. Planning to change that with the official release.
The best analogy for this series I’ve ever heard since I got into the series is that it’s the “One Piece of gaming.” I love this statement since the Kiseki series is one of the longest-running gaming series with a consistent timeline, spanning nearly 20 years at this point.
I hope you’re doing well man! One of my favorite trails videos on TH-cam.
@@lightzthestarz Thank you, hope you’re doing well too :)
I've been a fan of this series since before Trails SC released in the west, but I learned so many fascinating things from this video. Thank you so much for taking the time and effort in making it!
Man, I just HAVE to say thank you. This is amazing work right there. Gave it a like 20 minutes in, hesitated to subscribe, but when you mentioned you planned more Trails content, I subbed right away. We NEED more quality Trails videos on the internet! The Kiseki nut is amazing already, but with you as well? Man we're covered.
Excellent video. This is getting me hyped for Reverie. Like you, I beat the first 9 trails games and now I'm starved for content. There were a good number of things in here I wasn't aware of even though i ran through the first 9 games. I'll definitely watch the next video.
Yo those McBurn and the Grandmaster theories blew my mind haha. Incredible work, there was a lot here I didn't catch before!
I hope you some day create part 2
When I was first playing through the Cold Steel arc, and I reached my first shrine in CS2, “Holy Saint, Holy Spirit” washed over me and I knew I was in love with this series.
This video is pure passion and I'm here for every second of it
I chuckled quite a bit when you mentioned Anton and Ricky. Damn I really loved his adventures and character development ( PS: Anton you damn lucky bastard got a legit waifu for yourself FINALLY after 9 games )
A neat detail about the Sen musical that I didn't see mentioned in the comments yet, the actress for Towa is also her japanese VA in the actual games
Thanks for the effort, this was really cool
Oooo that’s actually super cool, didn’t know that!
About Duvalie introduction, you now first meet her in Azure thanks to the localization being up to date with the rest of the series
Have been a fan of the The Legend of Heroes series since I played Trails of cold steel. Have completed the Liberl & Erebonia arc. Almost completed Trails from Zero
I always encourage people to play in chronological order, that is starting with sky. But after playing all 3, I have to say that playing cold steel before sky... I can't think there is anything about that that is half as bad as playing zero before sky. I just can't imagine losing the impact of all of Renne's Scenes in Zero without playing sky first. But I can't think of anything in Cold steel that was so heavy for past characters that weren't introduced like Zero does. I did not play cold steel first, but since you have, was there anything you think that was ruined because you didn't play sky first? I mean I know the way it slips in sky's cast would seem weird, or how crossbell is in the game would lose some of its nostalgia points, etc. But do you feel like you missed out on an actual emotionally hard hitting thing because of it?
@@Ghalion666 as someone who can kind of comment on this besides the sky characters appearing in cold steel and being able to walk in crossbell there isn't anything wrong with playing cold steel before sky outside of not knowing the characters because the only main person from the sky arc is Olivert/Olivier.with addition some other side characters and military people, but the only vocal point for me is Olivert and seeing what he did in the sky arc. Because if you just do the connection from the sky games to the first 2 cold steel games the relationship between those games acts in the prequel and sequel aspect like star wars in a way. But with the addition of the Crossbell games it's VERY on the idea that you played the sky arc first to understand what's going on with the sky cast in that game. It's kind of the only critique that I have personally of Zero, personally the game didn't really hit home for me I'm not saying it was a horrible experience just not groundbreaking as everyone reviews it to be and to my own bias to say I thought that since we have at the time 3 different arcs I thought we would have as the player our own time with the cast without anybody from the other games but again this is my own experience with this. I'm waiting on Azure next year to see what happens next, just for a reference I've played the entire cold steel arc, Zero,and am currently still playing sky fc
@@silentpresence6705 ahhh.. playing zero before sky, someone did it! noooo =P
This video was flipping awesome. I would love to see a segment on how music and light motifs are used between games
I hope you make the follow up to this eventually. I've been looking forward to it for a while
Still in the works, the wait will be worth it :)
Thanks for making this video! I’m gonna be replaying Kiseki soon so it will be fun trying all these cool Easter eggs out
One of the more interesting things about the Super Arrange versions is that few of them actually play in game. Off the top of my head, Silver Will SAV plays in SC, Atrocious Raid SAV plays in CS4, and a Super Arrange of a track from Zero, retitled as ‘To be continued!’ plays in Azure.
To be continued is the super arrange of the track "Omen"
The Decisive Collision SAV plays in both CS3 and CS4, while Belief SAV plays in CS4 only.
holy saint holy spirit plays in cold steel 4
in the dialogue before the last fight with mcburn in CS4 (and maybe the fight? I don't remember) the SAV version of "Enforcer" plays
Nice vid, all these cool info is so new to me, I spent more than 1000hrs+ in games with chest message and didn’t even notice there is a chest message update lol.
If you really think about the Luciloa thing with Schera is that we never really got a closure to both their arc making me think she will come back at some point
I like how at 27:36 Sean immediately understands what line Jonah is talking about and the severity of the situation. Reddit user once reddit user forever.
This is an amazing video, thank you so much for making this. I learned quite a lot from this video. Can't wait for the second half!
Thank you so much, glad you enjoyed it 😊
Musse's granduncle Count Ballad being in the prologue for Sky 3rd was the most shocking easter egg to me, not sure if it was on purpose or not. Also, there is more Alisa 4koma comics for post Cold Steel 4 where she and sometimes Juna make comments on the character popularity polls in the post CS book, not sure about pre-Cold Steel 4. There's quite alot of content about character information that was not translated in the Falcom CS book as well. It's where the source for all the characters official ages comes from.
I come from the future. The Northern War anime was indeed way worse than the SC OVAs and by a country mile.
dunno, I watched both and I liked the Nothern War way more then the SC OVAs. It was still not good though :/
16 days until Revarie so im replaying ToCS4, i love the storytelling in this series.
Fun fact: The lousitania is actually used in cs1, in a smaller scale, you can see it in reinford company showroom on the 1st floor
One of the great kiseki videos on youtube
On most media icebergs there’s dark stuff like scandals, abuse allegations - and Trails just sits here like „did you hear about this exclusive outfit???”. I’m so proud of this fandom.
This is only the first 3 layers, we’ll talk about the hell that was localizing these games and more in the last two layers, don’t worry lol
@@HeavenlyM but is that really secret? or is that just dark?
@@ChaosEater39 I’d say more secret than dark overall for part 2, things like being able to skip to the final boss in Zero chapter 3, Morse code hidden in music, Arianrhod boss fight in Sky 3rd, skip to Zeiss at the start of FC, obscure Chinese Trails games, lots of untranslated books, drama CDs, etc
@@HeavenlyM I see. I am also proud that every single one of these I know. Can't wait for part 2!
@@HeavenlyM I hope you will not forget Renne's backstory/star door 15 in part 2, though. And that stuff IS dark.
I am forever in your debt for showing me Ice Queen Duvalie
Duvalie is one of my absolute favorite characters, I got you 😉
Thanks for this, been craving content after finishing off CS4
Anton or Ricky being the grandmaster this whole time would be the best possible plot twist Trails could ever come up with.
They’re always going to where the big Ouroboros plans are happening, there has to be more to it 🤔
But in all seriousness, I feel like Yun Kafai ending up being evil or in Ouroboros would be a crazy ass twist
@@HeavenlyM Well, Kafai´s knowlegde of Reans Imprisonment is something that bothers me. How do he know about that when he is on the other Side of the Kontinent and the Letter (in which he mentioned it) appears right after Reans Escape? Also his knowledge that Rean is going to be a Divine Blade that will end the Great Twilight. How did he know about the Curse of the Empire.. i dont think he got his hand on the Black Records.
awesome video and I kinda want to add some level 3 iceberg...okay, I don't know if this counts but this is about Mcburn. There's actually an translation error from Nisa when it comes to Mcburn's true name and it created a failed attempted reference to Kuro no Kiseki would only affect western players.
NISa translated Mcburn's true name as: 'Mera' Cu Baldugh Ruang, but in reality it's actually 'Mare' Cu Baldugh Ruang[Japanese: メア(Mare)=ク(Cu)=バルウド(Baldugh)=ルアウング(Ruang )], in Kuro no Kiseki, the MC got a special AI called Mare that can help him transform to Grendel, the kamen rider monster in kuro, and Mcburn's true name also has Mare inside can be interpreted as a connection between the two towards the world of beyond. But who knows, this could be just a coincidence....but the translation error is true no matter what.
I actually just finished the last English released game on my list a few weeks ago to where I am caught up to wait for Reverie so this was quite intersting.
This might be the most fun Iceberg I've watched.
Great video and I especially loved the McBurn theory as well and could actually be quite plausible. I have a suggestion for a theory or at a starting point of a theory and that would be Campanella’s identity as much isn’t known about other than his affiliation with the society and that apparently he hasn’t aged in the last ten years which could be a foundation for a few theories. Great video nonetheless
Thank you! And yeah Campanella is highly interesting, there are a lot of theories about him out there, especially with his 4th wall break in Sky 3rd. Definitely something I’ll talk about in the next part :)
@@HeavenlyM One thing I know for sure - Campanella is a girl. Also, for some reason, after finishing the Sky arc, it felt like he's(?) nothing but mechanical avatar similar to early Rennes "parents". Especially considering the fact, he's not homunculus.
I just hope, they wont turn him into another Divergent Laws. Hadn't played Reverie yet, so might be missing something.
McBurn theory is bit weird for me since C.Epstein face is known especially to his Disciples so it felt weird
Im glad somebody has finally made a video like this.
Thanks! :)
"Can't be as bad as the sky OVA"🗿🗿
Good video mate 👍
you're not dumb. the way they say marquis in the dub drives me up the wall. for such an incredible localization, i can't believe they went with that pronunciation of the word.
Right? Especially since they say Chevalier the fancier way and not “shev-a-leer” like how some people say it
Fan of the series since i got the limited edition day 1 of Sky FC on PSP right after I got off work! It's the most amazing series in giving you a living, breathing world full of NPCs with relatable issues that you actually care about. Down to the shopkeepers!
When I played a Japanese preview of FC before it released it immediately gave me vibes of series I grew up with such as Lunar. Full of charm and hope, themes that are mature but arent full of misery and dread.
I sincerely hope when Kiseki ends that Falcom (and other companies) continue this trend of building tangible fantasy worlds you feel like you're a part of. Oh, and Team Estelle from day one until the end of time!
Out of all these, the one that stings the most is Kevin forgotten as he's one of my favorite characters in anything
Cool extra lore! Thanks for your hard work :)
Really cool to see one of these iceberg videos for trails, thanks for making one it was a fun listen and I learned some things I had no idea about 👌
41:36 Crow Arm Blast
Amazing work! Loved watching every minute of it :D Thank you!
❤️ Thank you! 😊
Damn, I had no idea someone would have made a Trails iceberg! TH-cam’s algorithm does the viewer a solid sometime, like recommending me your channel and a chain reaction of videos I’m interested in from your channel!
Trial of Cold Steel really made me feel that I am playing a JRPG version of Valkyrie Chronicles, I am in chapter two, and the war not even broke out yet, and never the less, I can feel the tension building when the nobles are garrison their forts and castles, and waiting for the spark that began it all.
Small correction. 57:05 Sky outfit add-ons for CS2 are STILL available for purchase on the PSVita and PS3.
Thank you, I’ll add that
Great video! Looking forward to party 2
Can't believe the game's mainstream enough to get its own iceberg, good for them
For the musical, I originally uploaded it with English subs, but the whole video was taken down and later reuploaded without subs by someone else
Great video btw! Enjoyed this a lot
I saw someone had saved it in a post on the subreddit a few days ago that I think got deleted, but I just checked the sub today though and saw your post about it, will definitely leave a link to it! Seriously, thank you for your hard work!
@@HeavenlyM Thanks so much for that!
53:59
yeah so maybe I'm wrong about this but the model of the Lusitania is used in CS1 during the Roer Field Study. It's shrunken down and on display in the Reinford building but when I first saw it I took specific note of it due to the odd amount of detail it had, like trees and such. Honestly I thought it was pulled from 3rd just to be the model but who knows~
About that Renne healthbar in SC fact, it's actually not the only time it happened
In Zero, she follows Lloyd for a bit when searching for Colin and there are a few possible fights on the road to save him. And lo and behold, she also has a humongus hp bar, which I find pretty neat. I didn't catch it in SC so it's pretty cool to find out it was already a thing there.
Yo this was a great video. I probably spoiled myself like 50 times but it just makes me wanna play these game more lol
I've had this on my watch later for almost a goddamn year now, today I finally beat cs4 after a 11 month journey I'll do reverie at some point but I'm tired...
As someone who started playing Trails after hearing that there are many references to Ys and viceversa, Nayuta sounds like something I'll play.
Kevin being so criminally underused after Sky 3rd makes me sad, 3rd made him my fav character in the series
I want to hope they're just saving him for a future, larger arc when the ouroboros/church arcs start to tie up.... hopefully...
you’re definitely right about SC putting Anton on the forefront. I played through CS1-2 first and always found myself doing NPC crawls so it’s not like I never saw him before but as soon as I met him and saw the achievement everything clicked together and I made it my mission to find him in every subsequent game
Good job mate, bless you
I really hate how they did Kevin (and by extension Ries) dirty. He deserved as much as a cameo in Azure/Zero + Cold Steel series I'd say at least as much as Tita and Agate.
Didn't realize the full extent of it to where he was omitted from the Graalsritter image. Oof. I can understand minor plotholes and details forgotten, but a whole character forgotten that an entire game in the series starred him as protagonist?
I’d say his role in Azure is a lot bigger than just a cameo. He does take out one of the Aions after all.
Honestly really great job dude. This video was such a treat to watch! I came onto the Trails wagon late (really only getting into and completing the series over the Covid quarantine and recently when CS4 was localized) but it’s cemented itself as my all time favorite hard stop.
2 comments for something I found funny, with the Renne health I had no idea. But if I saw it I’d have probably thought (even though we had children escort missions before) that they gave her so much health so we COULDN’T fuck it up and get her killed lol
And in regard to the all the gacha collabs, Rean Rixia Lloyd Juna Swin and Nadia were in a Brave Nine collab a loooong while ago. Pulled for em, got em, single only reason why the game is still on my phone lol I don’t play it either, not that it’s bad I just haven’t gotten into it 😂
I don't remember where i read it. Apparently orbal machines stop working after a certain boundary while traveling into the sea beyond Zemuria's edge.
To me the most interesting aspects of the whole franchise are related to anomalies like the salt pale and the desertification that master Yun Ka-fai is sent to investigate.
i haven't touched Kuro or Reverie but it'd be interesting if we could get more info about those situations.
alisa says it in the fight with Mcburn
"Furry Lloyd here straight outta Gormott" absolutely sent me
I was not ready for that
You can get CS2 Joshua and Estelle costumes in the original PS3 versions as well. So they did make it to consoles.
The PS4 version did not include them for some reason
New subscriber thanks to this video, but also in anticipation of Persona 3 and 4 re-releasing in January. Looking forward to watching your videos and what's to come.
So based, this will be a certified trails classic video
Keep up the good work!!
good video really enjoyed it, one piece of triviva i find funny is that they had to change the name of the godess from "edios" to "adios" cause thats the name of the guys who make tomb raider and they didnt want to get in any legal trouble with that. also they changed "ulster" to "alster" for some reason
Loved this video! Looking forward to the next.
An addition thing for the nendoroids is that China collector editions of Trails had stuff like Rixia, another Airanhood, Rean, alisia laura etc. I got the Rixia, alternate airanhood, laura and alisa ones so far. I got to get my friend in Beijing to help me import the remaining in time. Apparently Randy is the hardest to find one of them all.
Arianhod***
Yeah, I have all those nendos excepting Randy... That one is literally impossible to find.
@@Tryatlon ive only seen randy non swimsuit version once with Llyod but they wanted 1000+ on ebay x.x i still need to get more of them.
@@Thandronen I saw Randy once on Taobao for $200, but he got sold just when I added him to the cart :(
I think Lloyd is still available there for 80-100.
If you want I can send you a link.
How did you boil it down to an hour and forty minutes??
This is a nice early Christmas present. Thank you. :)
I had a blast watching this!
Very well made. Will patiently wait for part 2.
- Sincerely, a Trails addict :D
oh I'm one of the people that owns the Alisa teaching comics from the first games. I'll look and see if I can figure out a way to share it.
There is the theory of the connected falcom universe where all the games from Sky FC onward are connected.
Definitely consider mentioning the 2014 series and the sequel to Everyone Assemble! Falcom Academy which was a falcom crossover anime project based on a 4koma.
There's definitely stuff here I wish I was aware of when going through the games chronologically, so it would be interesting if it could be collated into a full list for newcomers that really want the full story, not just the games themselves.
I love trails and persona, so you got yourself a new sub! :) I am also new to the trails series, so this ice berg is a nice info dump.
God I would have loved to meet marquis hyarms during the festival and lean in to the differences, you meet the nice affable noble and then at the end see them interact with Patrick and have that moment of realization
The screen for 51:29 seems like a FF7 reference, the same angle, the tower, the protagonist on the bottom right corner, showing off how huge is the challenge ahead
Ooo yeah I definitely see what you mean! Good catch
At the end of CS2 when you return to the title screen on the roof I believe, the ghost of Crow appears and fades away. It only happens once, right after beating the game.
Actually? That’s super sick, I’ve never heard of that. That’ll definitely go in part 2
I caught that on my first playthrough and i'd have thought I was just seeing this if I didn't record it it passes pretty quickly
I played all the games through CS4, so this was an amazing find. Thanks for the video.
Thanks for making this really informative
The craziest thing: I thought Trails of Cold Steel was your ordinary, run of the mill JRPG- I played it on PS3 back in 2017 without giving it much thought, and stopped midway because all the references to previous games confused me. I thought it would be resolved by the end of the game, but alas...😅
This kinda upset me because the game was engaging with a great storyline- I just couldn't get into it.
So eventually I went back and beat the game on PS4, because it looked and performed better- this was in 2019 when I played that and CS2. Saw the bit about Crossbell in the divertissement and figured that storyline would be resolved in CS3.
When CS3 took me into Crossbell, I had absolutely no connection to the city and its citizens. So I finally decided to do some research. Huh. Found out about Trails in the Sky and Zero/Azure, which at the time was being fan translated by Geofront. I had to wait.
Played and finished Sky, then got into Zero/Azure in 2021 and... holy shit. Great writing, everything hits you hard in SC/Azure, and when I replayed CS1 and CS2, everything finally clicked. It was perfect. I fell in love. Finished CS3 and played CS4 and the games completely blew me away.
Waiting for Azure on Switch, Reverie in July, and looking forward to the Calvard arcs. This is a truly special series, nothing like it.
This video took me for a wild ride. I had no clue about the JP exclusive CS1+2 outfits since I owned the PS4 Kai versions. Neither did I know that XSEED went back to update Sky 3rd after Kuro came out.
Omg I've searched trails iceberg several times, and he made it
Very nice video! The one thing I would think about adding for the next one is the happiness stone from sky the 3rd. It seems like a strange inclusion but I’m pretty sure it’s been reffrenced in a few of the games after but like I can’t remember exactly when :p
The subbed version of CS musical was there half a year ago or so. I think the subbed version was taken down altogether.
It doesn't take itself seriously and is pretty funny. Those gifs of it you see, they are intentionally humorous.
1:02:00 Heh i remember this dialoges, and also there was something similar in Liberl escalators too.
Not going to fully watch this video as I've yet to get into the Trails series but it's been on my backlog because it always looked like a very interesting series.
On the returning home drama CD, at the end of CS1 I believe, Rean says he’s intermediate level in Eight Leaves One Blade, which I found strange because earlier in the game he said he was beginner level. I only found out after doing some research that in the drama CD, he gets a message from Ka-Fai and ranks up
Alisa Reinford's Cold Steel Crash Course can be found in the booklet inside the disc cases of the NISA PS4 ports of CS 1 and 2, the pages are at the end of the leaflet. It's was a surprise to me to find a leaflet in this day and age, very few games bothers to that these days.