I'm turning 64 this year and recently discovered the Trail games. In the meantime I bought Trails of Cold Steel I to IV and Trails to Zero. Next will be Trails to Azure on 17th March and Trails into Reverie in summer. As soon as I have finished Octopath Traveler 2, I will start with the Trail games.
@@BigHuff-sq9hb it's important to play in order. You can try cold steel 1 and 2 first but don't play 3 and 4 without sky and Crossbell or you will miss a lot of stuff and you will be confused about many characters that will appear.
@@BigHuff-sq9hb I prefer playing in order, but starting with cold steel isn't nearly as damaging as starting with Zero. once you get to CS3 and 4, you will be introduced to characters from the earlier games, so people say to play sky then. It's best to do so if you feel like giving it a shot, but honestly continuing with CS is fine IMO. None of the scenes in CS3 or 4 tugged at my heartstrings based on sky/crossbell's backstory HALF as much as Zero does with sky involving Renne. I implore you to NOT play zero before finishing all 3 sky games. Also, Cold steel is the most re-playable in the series, and part of the fun of trails games is re-playing them once you get a better understanding of what's happening in the game's backstory. Even when only sky FC and SC was out, and I just played FC for a 2nd time, there were some 'aha' moments already I didn't get before even though I wasn't confused the first time. It's more important that you start at all though rather than agonize and worry about it and not start being intimidated by the size of the series. Despite its size, you should be enjoying your first game fairly early on anyway. People say cold steel has a slow start but I was actually enjoying it fairly early. Sky FC is my fave in the series because it builds an amazing world from nothing, everything else in the series uses what sky made, so I give sky credit. But sky does start much slower than CS IMO. I was a little bored with sky until chapter 1 (it has a prologue), and then I thought chapter 1 was kinda meh, sort of enjoyed the twist end to it. Chatper 2 I started to get invested, and at the end of chapter 2, you're chasing down the chapter bad guy, and I realized that I was suddenly REALLY invested and felt so proud of the protagonist unlike any other rpg game. The game really makes you grow from zero to hero at a BELIEVABLE rate, and at some point you just realize 'holy crap, this character is heroic now' in an inspiring way. People love chrono trigger, but lets be honest. You start the game and in like a single hour later you're busting out of military jail taking on the kingdom to rescue a princess after pwning its entire military and t heir DRAGON TANK.. No sorry, not believable growth.
Sky's pc releases in the west are already relatively recent. The series has been developing non-stop since, and going back to them will only slow down development of current games, which we're already suffering in, I need Hajimari now! That said it's possible they will work on it once the staff who are working on all these 2d trails games are done with the 2d games, maybe they can go back and touch up sky, being the last of the 2d games to do this to.
Now that i remember, it was the same for me. one of Erick's vids got me into Cold Steel, and it's since become one of my all time favourite series. Possibly my 2nd fave, my 1st fave being Xenoblade. Used to be Pokemon at one point, but man did that franchise fall hard with the awful Switch titles.
At last, ten years later, here we are. I love Azure. It finally got the localization it deserved. Here's my money.💵 All those lovely details (that retroactive addition of Juna: perfecta). So many favorite moments in this game: -The Crossbell side of the West Zemuria Trade Conference. Great chapter, and where the whole game and the plot starts to really escalate. Quickly, too. -The "Find the Troublesome Tourist" quest. Some classics never die. Or learn. -Tio's most Traumatic Side Quest Ever always, ALWAYS kills me. The end of the magic. -That fight at the beginning of Chapter 4. Falcom's (allegedly) Unwinnable battles are So. Damn. Cool. It was no mean feat finishing that hellish fight on an N3 challenge (No NewGame+ Nightmare). DO NOT underestimate Falcom's Nightmare difficulty in this earlier-ish games. -Those plot twists that keep on coming, escalating and just blatantly blowing up in your face. What a ride! -My second favorite ending in the series. 1st place is Sky SC's, you can't beat that one. Third would be CS IV's. -Unfathomed Force. Legendary track. Especially against "her". -My second favorite Final Dungeon in a Falcom game. Again, you can't beat Sky SC's, but this one is still so beautiful. Below them the only other worthy contenders are Octus Overlook from Lacrimosa of Dana, and Stellarium II from Nayuta no Kiseki. I guess the Ark of Catastrophe from Tokyo Xanadu is also cool and otherworldly, so it gets a honorable mention. But I digress. This peak Trails, people. Buy the Crossbell duology. 10/10 recommend.
@@GiordanDiodato It is a bullshit fight, yes. But... I don't know. There is something so satisfying about overcoming it. Chapter 4's boss and "her" are also bullshit fights, and the three essentially rely on a similar strategy in order to win them under their unfair conditions, but the Sigmund fight... I guess is the combo of the events, the music, the timer, and the sheer brutality of the fight. I'm a sucker for super bosses. I have fought the Demi Fiend in Digital Devil Saga, Lucifer in SMT Nocturne, Ozma in Final Fantasy IX, defeated Alpha Weltall in Xenogears... you get the idea. Maybe that's why I don't really mind this fight, since it is basically optional, and you are MEANT to lose it. I think it was pretty cool that the Falcom devs decided to actually give you a fighting chance instead of just making it a scripted fight. Love meself a challenge. Incidentally, regarding SC2, you can actually skip the final Loewe fight if you think it is too hard (but why would I?).
The final dungeon is incredibly stupid though. It's as if all the character and sense drains the second the Azure Tree sprouts. Lloyd can't even fucking articulate WHY it is that he wants to stop Mariabell. And Grimmwood's entire role in the finale is pointless. All in all they could've done with a lot less plot twists and a better handling of what was already there without the need to blow it all up just to surprise the players for cheap shock value. Also they did my boy Randy dirty by having him make peace with his shitty family and I'll never forgive them for that. That said, the West Zemuria Trade Conference was genuinely brilliant. Sadly it never got the payoff it should have because of the aforementioned issues. Falcom really needs to learn that it's okay to have some named characters hate each other and NOT make up or be civil by the end of the game.
@@antonioscendrategattico2302 Lloyd clearly states that he wants to stop her because they are using Kea as a tool to accomplish their goal. Also Randy never made peace with his family
@@ernestcolemantheking Yeah, but it's extremely vague and so is their plan. And with Randy and his family, honestly, the tone is all over the place and wildly inconsistent.
@@marcocaixeta4525 Idk why any of you are acting like the writing is good in Xenosaga as if it isn't the most convoluted BS ever. Yeah they really cooked with Lost Jerusalem and Jesus Christ! Wow! Fraudulent shit that tried to continue off of Xenogears and it just ended up being ass. Takahashi fell off after Xenogears
@@Zephhi it’s not about Xeno It’s about how Trails Lore is simple compared to it. CS writing is crap but Sky/Ao are simple games with a great quantity of elements but few things are complex or deep in trails. It’s basically a Shounen Game. Xeno Characters/Concepts are more complex despite the flaws
@@marcocaixeta4525 The writing in Trails is still better overall though. Complex writing =/= better writing. Yeah the writing falls off in Cold Steel and even in Ao with some of the villains but it still feels like a lot of the dialogue could be real conversations sometimes. Xenosaga just builds off of convoluted shit from Xenogears. I love the dialogue in Xenogears despite how complex it is. I don’t really respect Xenosaga at all because it just feels so tryhard to interconnect every single thing
@Zeph WTF... the writing in Trails Series is extremely Amateur The Localization team did a good job but they changed a lot the original text. Estelle in the original is not charismatic like the one we received... Trails dialogues are ridiculous expositive. Characters tell about they sentiments instead show it. (Trails: Tell, don’t show...) The narrative structure sucks... especially CS Games (which is artificially paced). Trails is also constantly trying to explain everything but a lot of things are nonsense. The Curse is an example. Can’t wait to see how they will explain the IA plot in Hajimari. That shit is peak nonsense for the series...
I'm so hyped to play this. It was the literal first Trails game I heard about, when I discovered the soundtrack several years back. I'm still playing Zero but I'm almost done, and this looks even better.
@@brotbrotsen1100 It's best to just play them in release date order. Sky 1-3 > Zero/Azure > Cold Steel 1-4/Reverie I'll admit, i've not been playing in order cause i've been impatient for the NISA localization, also i don't wanna play the games on PC. Currently i've played Cold Steel 1-3 and Zero, and yes i've been spoiled on a lot of Sky and Azure stuff because of it. So that's why i recommend you go with release order if you want the definitive experience.
@@thunderdragon8341 I mean, Cold Steel 2 does kinda spoil Azure though, and the Cold Steel 2 epilogue takes place after the Crossbell duo. And Cold Steel 1/2 basically take place at the same time as Crossbell. So i feel like it makes more sense to play Crossbell duo before Cold Steel, since they also came out before Cold Steel.
You did forget about the Master Quartz when talking about the new combat additions. It is such an amazing system that is ever present in the series going forward. In summary: In addition to the normal Quartz you equip for minor effects and arts in these games, you also have Master Quartz which give a boost to specific stats written on the MQ and the funnest part, some passives. First ever one, for example, starts you out with a 25% Str buff at the start of every fight, and is improved further the more and more you keep the MQ equipped, gaining additional effects as well as enhancing the existing ones. It is a super fun system.
I played CS 1, and now playing azure. I gain a different perspective before finishing crossbell second part of the arc. Feels very refreshing, as now I know how the empire feels when the big events of crossbell is happening. it is pretty awesome.
I played the entire CS series first(since its how I found about the overall series). It's cool understanding some things in Zero, and eventually Azure, better because of it.
Great to have Crossbell fully on the west, about damn time and this game in particular is straight up fire, right behind Sky SC and The 3rd as my favorites in the series.
So the second game of the Crossbell saga has officially released in the west now. I knew it would happen before I was able to play the first. I started the series with CS1 in August 2021 and played CS2 right after because the first ended on a cliffhanger. Played through all the Sky games last year while CS3-4 sit in my steam library, waiting for me to catch up with the older games(which increased by these two while I didn't pay attention😅 )!
Best chest message in Azure thus far is the chest that says it's a part of the order of O therefore E, Open therefore Empty. The treasure chests in Trails games are better characters then the NPCs in other games.
Sky doesn't call itself a remaster, but I'm pretty sure the pc version did in fact upscale the resolution of the textures and stuff, so technically it has been remastered IMO. Just not on the same level as Zero/crossbell. That said Playing Zero before sky is far far worse than playing cold steel before sky IMO. Zero's BEST scenes are heavily dependent on you knowing Renne's backstory, and they will all be like 'eh, meh' if you haven't played sky first. Nothing in Cold steel will punch you in the gut like Renne's scenes, and even if there are some parts you disagree that ARE as gut-wrenching, they don't rely on sky as strongly to understand it fully.
chapter 1 in cold steel 3 and final chapter might be the only part of cold steel 3 that actually requires you to have thorough knowledge of sky to understand what happened to ash and Joshua. Of course you wont know much of Joshua thru cold steel 3 but because of ash's role in the game its still pretty important idd say. Tho i would agree no where near as gut wrenching as Renne
I play all the kiseki games except the two of crossbell. I want to left some game for playing later. Thanks to your videos im starting playing the series. Im currently playing Ys 8 for first time on Ys series. Keep the recomendations up!
really need xseed/marvlous to give up rights so we can get sky series on switch and ps4 to complete collection as i was late to the party (played sky on steam thankfully)
I had to keep checking the resolution of this video because somehow the pc version I was playing looks much nicer than what's shown here, especially the 3D sprites.
Hard agree that Noel is the best waifu of the game. Sorry for all the Rixia fans but Rixia is all boobs and “polite nice girl” and we already have an overly polite girl in Ellie.
@@lenleon3699 I used to think Noel was the best but she became lame as fuck once the shit happens in chapter 4 of Azure. Instantly became the worst character
@@Zephhi Did you skip the entire Finale? Pretty sure it is made evident she was mostly following orders and had no knowledge of what exactly the SSS knew about the government. IMO that is precisely why it was so easy to recruit her back.
They try to do the arcs in a way that they can stand alone if neccessary. Cold Steel 1 was made to be an entry point. That said, Kuro 1 is apparently somewhat better at it than CS1 since Kuro is building off past stories but is very much the start of 'part 2' of the Trails series arc and so less built directly off the events of the earlier games like Cold Steel.
Story is amazing hidden events... not so amazing. Seriously Falcom why? It gets the bronze medal for me. Definitely the best of Crossbell (Unless you count Reverie/Hajimari, which I haven't played yet), but best in the series? Nah.
Yeah, translation was my greatest complaint in Zero, from what little I've played of Azure it's starting out on the right foot this time and no one so far sounds flat and personality-less at all. In Zero, primarily in the first half, I had a 'seriously' counter going, it reached over 50, it's clear what order what was done in as Geofront have never been professional translators and that first half almost never got revised to the standard they established for themselves later in the game. Just know that going in if you see this and (should) desire to play Zero first- first half of Zero is a generally dry translation, save for Randy. Randy is always written great and with lots of expression and saves that first half from getting boring or bad quite often until Geofront found their legs. Do wish they'd go back and take the time to retranslate everything to the quality much of the latter half of the game possesses (especially sidequests which can have poorly translated answers at times, occasionally even misleading you, I hope to find none of that in Azure).
crossbell is still peak kiseki imo so far (with zero being my favorite kiseki game, tho more people prefer azure) i think when they finished the series in xx years i will marathon them again
@@ninototo1 really love both games, but zero a bit more especially with the messed up dg cult stuff was really interessting and shocking near the end.. good criminal whodunnit story fitting to the crossbell police theme.. also good as a standalone game for the mainplot without hard cliffhanger (tho finishing up some subplots from the sky trilogy and creating some new, so yea also would recommend to play them in order like erick says). the engine with fixed camera is also my prefered presentation style in the series^^ not the biggest fan of the cold steel arc (still solid, but didnt like some things the story went to), but hyped nonetheless for hajimari, kuro etc.
@@diagtot8310 yea i basically agree with everything. i also miss the old orbments in cold steel. and too many characters, seriously. crossbell has 4 main members and it works perfectly.
I don't get that though, Zero is more standalone than any first arc entry but Azure delves deep into the truth of shit so I really don't understand how you find Azure worse than Zero lmao. Though I understand liking the villains in Zero more, it's a lot more well done compared to how stupid the villains were in Azure.
I've recently started playing the first Trails in the Sky on my Steam Deck, i'm hoping i'll have no issues with the game because the Sky trilogy are all listed as unsupported on the Steam Deck.
@@brotbrotsen1100 For whatever reason Falcom said, don't change anything with the PS4 port except for the translation cause they already ported the game to PS4 in Japan and wanted no changes. But since they never ported the game to the Switch, they let NISA do what they want with that port. And so they bumped up the visuals/performance of the Switch version. Yes, really dumb reason, but it is what it is.
i dont wanna play trails in the sky ;-; played half of the first one and characters are so bad to my taste! i liked those, i'm i missing much if start from trails Zero?
about to go pick a copy hope they have some, i got the first one but never played any i own cold steel 3 and 4 but 1 and 2 are not out which sucks, I been trying to find a new rpg, kind of not into the new version my ff 7 remake.
XSeed I believe still owns the copyrights of FC to the 3rd the 3 sky games UNTIL 2025 that's why I believe the games are ONLY accessible via Playstation Plus on the PS4/PS5 ONLY in JAPAN and yes of the 3 sky games by the time SC got its English PSP release it was TOO late to port the 3rd game to it. The reason being by the time SC the 2nd of the sky games got its ENGLISH PSP dub the Japanese version of Sen No Kiseki 2 (Cold steel 2) WAS already released in Japan on the PS3 that's why Sora No Kiseki the 3rd on the PSP itself is ONLY in Japanese and never got a English PSP dub of it.
There was also the pc version, actually. Anyway, willing to bet nisa fucked up geofront's translation and nuked all the memes from it. But yeah, this is, story-wise is the best game in the series, especially certain cutscene with "delusion of a thousand years" playing during it legit gave me goosebumps.
I need to restart the Trails of Cold Steel games... or at least resume part 1. (I was also playing part 3 on Stadia before shutdown). Would it be smart to play this one first perhaps? Please don't bother suggesting to play ALL the games, that simply won't happen... I was playing Cold Steel 1 and 3 simultaneously afterall lol. Edit: Was there a game already on Switch before this one that comes just before in timeline though? I guess I would go to that one instead. Edit: Wait these were PSP games? I may opt for that version instead Edit: I guess the QoL changes would make that a silly choice.
Just finished cold steel 1 and god was it aweful. Worst falcom game i played so far. Zwei 2 had a much more engaging story than cold steel 1. 90% of the story has the episodic pokemon story approch. Team Rocket appears gets defeated and next chapter repeat. Just play Azure and watch the last chapter on youtube you wont miss much. The highschool setting didnt help at all as they just killed the pacing with it. After chapter 5 i was just speedrunning it as i just wanted it to end. Everytime you are back to the school the story literaly gets reset with the next crisis looming in the next field study. After every chapter i lost all motivation as i was back to the boring mandatory schoollife with nothing too look forward too as the story was nonexisting. Its pretty much Sky FC chapter 1 and 2 the game.
I'd say start by watching summaries of the three Sky games' stories (oniblackmage made really good videos for that), then play Zero, then Azure, and then Cold Steel.
Such a great time to be a Trails fan. I'm hoping Epic Game store has one of its sales where you can double dip with a coupon in addition to the discount at which point I'll pick up Zero and Azure. They had a sale like that only once in 2022 IIRC and that was for X-mas into New Years. So I probably won't be picking this one up for another 7 months. At that point I'll likely pick up Reverie as well.
Erick is right, easy mode is way too easy. I recommend playing on normal mode for a first playthrough. Hard mode is doable but kinda forces you to stick to cheese strategies Nightmare mode is balanced for ng+, it's technically possible on a fresh start if you enjoy being brutalized.
Idk if your advice is for rpg newcomers? But I played on Nightmare and used no cheese at all. I'd say stick to what you played the previous game on and adjust based on preferences.
@@ninototo1 yes, I'm talking to somewhat new players. Veterans don't need advice 🙂 also, spoiler alert : getting the best outcome out of story battles with a limit on turns gets really dicey in nightmare mode.
Nightmare is pretty tricky on Azure but starting it on a newgame file is only brutal at the start. Same for all Trails games once you open up more options for builds and Arts. That being said new players should definitely stick to Normal/Hard and definitely not start in Trails To Azure anyway.
I feel like Normal is even too easy when it comes to this franchise, so definitely playing these games on Hard from now on. Might even try it on Nightmare. Then again, i've been playing JRPG's for a long time now, so i guess Normal becoming too easy is a bit of a no shit situation.
Worst girl?? Bruh, i thought she was easily best girl in the Crossbell duo. Not sure if she surpasses Claire from Cold Steel though. Still need to play Azure to fully make up my mind on that.
“Better” as in, if you have the option I guess. Personally I saw the differences and the only one that was a loss was the lack of a text backlog. People blow the issue out of proportion IMO.
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I'm turning 64 this year and recently discovered the Trail games. In the meantime I bought Trails of Cold Steel I to IV and Trails to Zero. Next will be Trails to Azure on 17th March and Trails into Reverie in summer.
As soon as I have finished Octopath Traveler 2, I will start with the Trail games.
I hope you enjoy them. If you can start from Trails in the Sky trilogy since it's the first ark of the series.
You are a legend
you got in at the best possible time, so many releases!
Good for you man 🤘
I hope you're not planning to skip Trails in the Sky. The trilogy is a must play.
Trails are the best jrpg series ever made. I'm glad I found out about these games. They are the pinnacle of jrpgs history.
I've been wanting to get into the series. Was thinking of starting with cold steel
@@BigHuff-sq9hb it's important to play in order. You can try cold steel 1 and 2 first but don't play 3 and 4 without sky and Crossbell or you will miss a lot of stuff and you will be confused about many characters that will appear.
@@BigHuff-sq9hb I prefer playing in order, but starting with cold steel isn't nearly as damaging as starting with Zero. once you get to CS3 and 4, you will be introduced to characters from the earlier games, so people say to play sky then. It's best to do so if you feel like giving it a shot, but honestly continuing with CS is fine IMO. None of the scenes in CS3 or 4 tugged at my heartstrings based on sky/crossbell's backstory HALF as much as Zero does with sky involving Renne. I implore you to NOT play zero before finishing all 3 sky games.
Also, Cold steel is the most re-playable in the series, and part of the fun of trails games is re-playing them once you get a better understanding of what's happening in the game's backstory. Even when only sky FC and SC was out, and I just played FC for a 2nd time, there were some 'aha' moments already I didn't get before even though I wasn't confused the first time.
It's more important that you start at all though rather than agonize and worry about it and not start being intimidated by the size of the series. Despite its size, you should be enjoying your first game fairly early on anyway. People say cold steel has a slow start but I was actually enjoying it fairly early. Sky FC is my fave in the series because it builds an amazing world from nothing, everything else in the series uses what sky made, so I give sky credit. But sky does start much slower than CS IMO. I was a little bored with sky until chapter 1 (it has a prologue), and then I thought chapter 1 was kinda meh, sort of enjoyed the twist end to it. Chatper 2 I started to get invested, and at the end of chapter 2, you're chasing down the chapter bad guy, and I realized that I was suddenly REALLY invested and felt so proud of the protagonist unlike any other rpg game. The game really makes you grow from zero to hero at a BELIEVABLE rate, and at some point you just realize 'holy crap, this character is heroic now' in an inspiring way. People love chrono trigger, but lets be honest. You start the game and in like a single hour later you're busting out of military jail taking on the kingdom to rescue a princess after pwning its entire military and t heir DRAGON TANK.. No sorry, not believable growth.
@@BigHuff-sq9hb Please start with Trails in the Sky FC - the games have an order that totally makes sense :)
@Jim Kirk seems like I couldn't find it when I looked before. I have Zero on the switch. But haven't started it.
I just finished Trails from Zero in time for Azure. Going to get it when I have time.
Why is the Sky trilogy not available on current consoles yet? This desperately needs to happen!
Yes it does
Yeah. I want those sweet collector editions in my collection!
Sky's pc releases in the west are already relatively recent. The series has been developing non-stop since, and going back to them will only slow down development of current games, which we're already suffering in, I need Hajimari now!
That said it's possible they will work on it once the staff who are working on all these 2d trails games are done with the 2d games, maybe they can go back and touch up sky, being the last of the 2d games to do this to.
It would be awesome. I have them for PSP but still - Switch would be insane :)
Sky's available on steam
Actually was turned on to this series from this channel. Splendid set of games, can’t believe I never knew about it.
Now that i remember, it was the same for me. one of Erick's vids got me into Cold Steel, and it's since become one of my all time favourite series.
Possibly my 2nd fave, my 1st fave being Xenoblade.
Used to be Pokemon at one point, but man did that franchise fall hard with the awful Switch titles.
At last, ten years later, here we are.
I love Azure. It finally got the localization it deserved. Here's my money.💵
All those lovely details (that retroactive addition of Juna: perfecta). So many favorite moments in this game:
-The Crossbell side of the West Zemuria Trade Conference. Great chapter, and where the whole game and the plot starts to really escalate. Quickly, too.
-The "Find the Troublesome Tourist" quest. Some classics never die. Or learn.
-Tio's most Traumatic Side Quest Ever always, ALWAYS kills me. The end of the magic.
-That fight at the beginning of Chapter 4. Falcom's (allegedly) Unwinnable battles are So. Damn. Cool. It was no mean feat finishing that hellish fight on an N3 challenge (No NewGame+ Nightmare). DO NOT underestimate Falcom's Nightmare difficulty in this earlier-ish games.
-Those plot twists that keep on coming, escalating and just blatantly blowing up in your face. What a ride!
-My second favorite ending in the series. 1st place is Sky SC's, you can't beat that one. Third would be CS IV's.
-Unfathomed Force. Legendary track. Especially against "her".
-My second favorite Final Dungeon in a Falcom game. Again, you can't beat Sky SC's, but this one is still so beautiful. Below them the only other worthy contenders are Octus Overlook from Lacrimosa of Dana, and Stellarium II from Nayuta no Kiseki. I guess the Ark of Catastrophe from Tokyo Xanadu is also cool and otherworldly, so it gets a honorable mention. But I digress.
This peak Trails, people.
Buy the Crossbell duology. 10/10 recommend.
the first Sigmund fight is bullshit. idk what you're smoking
@@GiordanDiodato It is a bullshit fight, yes. But... I don't know. There is something so satisfying about overcoming it.
Chapter 4's boss and "her" are also bullshit fights, and the three essentially rely on a similar strategy in order to win them under their unfair conditions, but the Sigmund fight... I guess is the combo of the events, the music, the timer, and the sheer brutality of the fight. I'm a sucker for super bosses. I have fought the Demi Fiend in Digital Devil Saga, Lucifer in SMT Nocturne, Ozma in Final Fantasy IX, defeated Alpha Weltall in Xenogears... you get the idea.
Maybe that's why I don't really mind this fight, since it is basically optional, and you are MEANT to lose it.
I think it was pretty cool that the Falcom devs decided to actually give you a fighting chance instead of just making it a scripted fight. Love meself a challenge.
Incidentally, regarding SC2, you can actually skip the final Loewe fight if you think it is too hard (but why would I?).
The final dungeon is incredibly stupid though. It's as if all the character and sense drains the second the Azure Tree sprouts. Lloyd can't even fucking articulate WHY it is that he wants to stop Mariabell. And Grimmwood's entire role in the finale is pointless.
All in all they could've done with a lot less plot twists and a better handling of what was already there without the need to blow it all up just to surprise the players for cheap shock value.
Also they did my boy Randy dirty by having him make peace with his shitty family and I'll never forgive them for that.
That said, the West Zemuria Trade Conference was genuinely brilliant. Sadly it never got the payoff it should have because of the aforementioned issues. Falcom really needs to learn that it's okay to have some named characters hate each other and NOT make up or be civil by the end of the game.
@@antonioscendrategattico2302 Lloyd clearly states that he wants to stop her because they are using Kea as a tool to accomplish their goal. Also Randy never made peace with his family
@@ernestcolemantheking Yeah, but it's extremely vague and so is their plan.
And with Randy and his family, honestly, the tone is all over the place and wildly inconsistent.
for those who love JRPG and are new or never heard of the Trails series, play it, you will not regret it.
The writing across all Trails is so fantastic. The narrative itself is as deep and wonderful as the Xenosaga series.
😂😂😂
Not even close
@@marcocaixeta4525 Idk why any of you are acting like the writing is good in Xenosaga as if it isn't the most convoluted BS ever. Yeah they really cooked with Lost Jerusalem and Jesus Christ! Wow! Fraudulent shit that tried to continue off of Xenogears and it just ended up being ass. Takahashi fell off after Xenogears
@@Zephhi it’s not about Xeno
It’s about how Trails Lore is simple compared to it. CS writing is crap but Sky/Ao are simple games with a great quantity of elements but few things are complex or deep in trails. It’s basically a Shounen Game.
Xeno Characters/Concepts are more complex despite the flaws
@@marcocaixeta4525 The writing in Trails is still better overall though. Complex writing =/= better writing. Yeah the writing falls off in Cold Steel and even in Ao with some of the villains but it still feels like a lot of the dialogue could be real conversations sometimes.
Xenosaga just builds off of convoluted shit from Xenogears. I love the dialogue in Xenogears despite how complex it is. I don’t really respect Xenosaga at all because it just feels so tryhard to interconnect every single thing
@Zeph WTF...
the writing in Trails Series is extremely Amateur
The Localization team did a good job but they changed a lot the original text. Estelle in the original is not charismatic like the one we received...
Trails dialogues are ridiculous expositive. Characters tell about they sentiments instead show it. (Trails: Tell, don’t show...)
The narrative structure sucks... especially CS Games (which is artificially paced).
Trails is also constantly trying to explain everything but a lot of things are nonsense. The Curse is an example.
Can’t wait to see how they will explain the IA plot in Hajimari. That shit is peak nonsense for the series...
Trails is exactly what I want for a jrpg. Hopefully we get kuro no kiseki quicker than expected
From the looks of it. It will most likely release next year.
hopefully we get kuro 2 quicker than expected.. i already played kuro 1!!
Kuro 1 has a great translation patch, is full translated and every character has the personality well done if you want to play now.
@@jeretripero The translation patch is very well done, so I also recommend it!
@きすけ good to know, I'll jump right on that once I beat hajimari
I'm so hyped to play this. It was the literal first Trails game I heard about, when I discovered the soundtrack several years back. I'm still playing Zero but I'm almost done, and this looks even better.
Man.. this is even better... maybe the best trails game so far, no stretch
now that i have all the trails games it is time to play them all in story order
What is the order again? I think the skies trilogy first and then cold steel 1 and 2 afterwards the two crossbell games and then cold steel 4 and 5?
@@brotbrotsen1100 It's best to just play them in release date order.
Sky 1-3 > Zero/Azure > Cold Steel 1-4/Reverie
I'll admit, i've not been playing in order cause i've been impatient for the NISA localization, also i don't wanna play the games on PC.
Currently i've played Cold Steel 1-3 and Zero, and yes i've been spoiled on a lot of Sky and Azure stuff because of it. So that's why i recommend you go with release order if you want the definitive experience.
@@brotbrotsen1100 order is Trails in the sky 1 2 and 3 then cold steel 1 2 then crossbell arc then cold steel 3 and 4
@@thunderdragon8341 I mean, Cold Steel 2 does kinda spoil Azure though, and the Cold Steel 2 epilogue takes place after the Crossbell duo.
And Cold Steel 1/2 basically take place at the same time as Crossbell. So i feel like it makes more sense to play Crossbell duo before Cold Steel, since they also came out before Cold Steel.
Do yourself a favor and play the crossbells before cold steel. Cs1 spoils some events from azure and cs2 spoils the outcome of the duology lol.
Oh shit, it came out today? Damn
You did forget about the Master Quartz when talking about the new combat additions. It is such an amazing system that is ever present in the series going forward.
In summary: In addition to the normal Quartz you equip for minor effects and arts in these games, you also have Master Quartz which give a boost to specific stats written on the MQ and the funnest part, some passives. First ever one, for example, starts you out with a 25% Str buff at the start of every fight, and is improved further the more and more you keep the MQ equipped, gaining additional effects as well as enhancing the existing ones.
It is a super fun system.
I played CS 1, and now playing azure. I gain a different perspective before finishing crossbell second part of the arc. Feels very refreshing, as now I know how the empire feels when the big events of crossbell is happening. it is pretty awesome.
I played the entire CS series first(since its how I found about the overall series). It's cool understanding some things in Zero, and eventually Azure, better because of it.
Great to have Crossbell fully on the west, about damn time and this game in particular is straight up fire, right behind Sky SC and The 3rd as my favorites in the series.
Facts. SC, Azure, and 3rd are the best games in the series
AFTER BEEN INTRODUCED TO THE SERIES BECAUSE OF ERIC INFLUENCE BECAUSE OF HE'S UTUBER CONTENT, GREAT FRANCHISE. GREAT VIDEO
So the second game of the Crossbell saga has officially released in the west now. I knew it would happen before I was able to play the first. I started the series with CS1 in August 2021 and played CS2 right after because the first ended on a cliffhanger. Played through all the Sky games last year while CS3-4 sit in my steam library, waiting for me to catch up with the older games(which increased by these two while I didn't pay attention😅 )!
Best chest message in Azure thus far is the chest that says it's a part of the order of O therefore E, Open therefore Empty. The treasure chests in Trails games are better characters then the NPCs in other games.
One of my favorites is the one about Arios, where it says he's called the Divine Blade of Wind because he was Airy-os. And that the pun was McLame.
Sky doesn't call itself a remaster, but I'm pretty sure the pc version did in fact upscale the resolution of the textures and stuff, so technically it has been remastered IMO. Just not on the same level as Zero/crossbell.
That said Playing Zero before sky is far far worse than playing cold steel before sky IMO. Zero's BEST scenes are heavily dependent on you knowing Renne's backstory, and they will all be like 'eh, meh' if you haven't played sky first. Nothing in Cold steel will punch you in the gut like Renne's scenes, and even if there are some parts you disagree that ARE as gut-wrenching, they don't rely on sky as strongly to understand it fully.
chapter 1 in cold steel 3 and final chapter might be the only part of cold steel 3 that actually requires you to have thorough knowledge of sky to understand what happened to ash and Joshua. Of course you wont know much of Joshua thru cold steel 3 but because of ash's role in the game its still pretty important idd say. Tho i would agree no where near as gut wrenching as Renne
Not a fan of the Sky games, but luckily I got fully caught-up on their story before playing Zero, so I still fully appreciated those scenes.
Best Trails game and one of the best JRPGs of all time in general. Hope everyone playing this for the first time enjoys it.
I play all the kiseki games except the two of crossbell. I want to left some game for playing later. Thanks to your videos im starting playing the series. Im currently playing Ys 8 for first time on Ys series. Keep the recomendations up!
Love this series. Some of the best games in the jrpg genre are in this series.
really need xseed/marvlous to give up rights so we can get sky series on switch and ps4 to complete collection as i was late to the party (played sky on steam thankfully)
I had to keep checking the resolution of this video because somehow the pc version I was playing looks much nicer than what's shown here, especially the 3D sprites.
I just wanna spend more time with Noel Seeker.
Not sure when i'll get to playing Azure though, since i'm currently busy with Tales of Berseria.
Hard agree that Noel is the best waifu of the game. Sorry for all the Rixia fans but Rixia is all boobs and “polite nice girl” and we already have an overly polite girl in Ellie.
@@lenleon3699 I used to think Noel was the best but she became lame as fuck once the shit happens in chapter 4 of Azure. Instantly became the worst character
@@Zephhi Did you skip the entire Finale? Pretty sure it is made evident she was mostly following orders and had no knowledge of what exactly the SSS knew about the government.
IMO that is precisely why it was so easy to recruit her back.
With how big this story is by now i hope they release the next games with a optional story recap video.
They try to do the arcs in a way that they can stand alone if neccessary. Cold Steel 1 was made to be an entry point. That said, Kuro 1 is apparently somewhat better at it than CS1 since Kuro is building off past stories but is very much the start of 'part 2' of the Trails series arc and so less built directly off the events of the earlier games like Cold Steel.
Story is amazing
hidden events... not so amazing. Seriously Falcom why?
It gets the bronze medal for me. Definitely the best of Crossbell (Unless you count Reverie/Hajimari, which I haven't played yet), but best in the series? Nah.
Yeah, translation was my greatest complaint in Zero, from what little I've played of Azure it's starting out on the right foot this time and no one so far sounds flat and personality-less at all. In Zero, primarily in the first half, I had a 'seriously' counter going, it reached over 50, it's clear what order what was done in as Geofront have never been professional translators and that first half almost never got revised to the standard they established for themselves later in the game. Just know that going in if you see this and (should) desire to play Zero first- first half of Zero is a generally dry translation, save for Randy. Randy is always written great and with lots of expression and saves that first half from getting boring or bad quite often until Geofront found their legs. Do wish they'd go back and take the time to retranslate everything to the quality much of the latter half of the game possesses (especially sidequests which can have poorly translated answers at times, occasionally even misleading you, I hope to find none of that in Azure).
crossbell is still peak kiseki imo so far (with zero being my favorite kiseki game, tho more people prefer azure)
i think when they finished the series in xx years i will marathon them again
I agree Zero is the best. Azure is too long for my tastes
@@ninototo1 really love both games, but zero a bit more especially with the messed up dg cult stuff was really interessting and shocking near the end.. good criminal whodunnit story fitting to the crossbell police theme.. also good as a standalone game for the mainplot without hard cliffhanger (tho finishing up some subplots from the sky trilogy and creating some new, so yea also would recommend to play them in order like erick says). the engine with fixed camera is also my prefered presentation style in the series^^ not the biggest fan of the cold steel arc (still solid, but didnt like some things the story went to), but hyped nonetheless for hajimari, kuro etc.
@@diagtot8310 yea i basically agree with everything. i also miss the old orbments in cold steel. and too many characters, seriously. crossbell has 4 main members and it works perfectly.
I don't get that though, Zero is more standalone than any first arc entry but Azure delves deep into the truth of shit so I really don't understand how you find Azure worse than Zero lmao. Though I understand liking the villains in Zero more, it's a lot more well done compared to how stupid the villains were in Azure.
@@Zephhi its not that i dislike azure, i love both crossbell games, just zero a bit more from its story
Peak fiction hands down!
Reverie is the last one of all their stories iirc before the new game right?
Wait... It is out?!?
...and purchased.
Trails may have its ups and downs, but in the end it always comes around and ends up sticking with you forever.
I've recently started playing the first Trails in the Sky on my Steam Deck, i'm hoping i'll have no issues with the game because the Sky trilogy are all listed as unsupported on the Steam Deck.
I have a deck and all the games from sky fc to cs4 should run with no issues. Enjoy the journey!
@Edwiryin Polanco I'm currently playing through the prologue,so far everything is ok, around 6 hours in the game.
Is the switch version superior like it was with Zero?
Yes.
@@ltb1345 never thought that i hear something like this. A multiplatform release and switch has the best version?
@@brotbrotsen1100 For whatever reason Falcom said, don't change anything with the PS4 port except for the translation cause they already ported the game to PS4 in Japan and wanted no changes.
But since they never ported the game to the Switch, they let NISA do what they want with that port. And so they bumped up the visuals/performance of the Switch version.
Yes, really dumb reason, but it is what it is.
@@domfabio8850 I'm not complaining, gives me a reason to play the games on the switch
i dont wanna play trails in the sky ;-; played half of the first one and characters are so bad to my taste!
i liked those, i'm i missing much if start from trails Zero?
about to go pick a copy hope they have some, i got the first one but never played any i own cold steel 3 and 4 but 1 and 2 are not out which sucks, I been trying to find a new rpg, kind of not into the new version my ff 7 remake.
XSeed I believe still owns the copyrights of FC to the 3rd the 3 sky games UNTIL 2025 that's why I believe the games are ONLY accessible via Playstation Plus on the PS4/PS5 ONLY in JAPAN and yes of the 3 sky games by the time SC got its English PSP release it was TOO late to port the 3rd game to it.
The reason being by the time SC the 2nd of the sky games got its ENGLISH PSP dub the Japanese version of Sen No Kiseki 2 (Cold steel 2) WAS already released in Japan on the PS3 that's why Sora No Kiseki the 3rd on the PSP itself is ONLY in Japanese and never got a English PSP dub of it.
I'm glad more of theses "only in japan" games are getting western ports.
There was also the pc version, actually. Anyway, willing to bet nisa fucked up geofront's translation and nuked all the memes from it. But yeah, this is, story-wise is the best game in the series, especially certain cutscene with "delusion of a thousand years" playing during it legit gave me goosebumps.
Is it just me, or does anyone else sees the girl in thumbnail as a short haired Asuka from Tokyo Xanadu?
Anyone having any issues with this game. I have just put the game into my PS4 and it's stuck on the loading screen
Almost done Zero
I started with cold steel and lost my shot buying the whole sky series on Steam after finishing cold steel 3😂
I need to restart the Trails of Cold Steel games... or at least resume part 1. (I was also playing part 3 on Stadia before shutdown). Would it be smart to play this one first perhaps? Please don't bother suggesting to play ALL the games, that simply won't happen... I was playing Cold Steel 1 and 3 simultaneously afterall lol. Edit: Was there a game already on Switch before this one that comes just before in timeline though? I guess I would go to that one instead. Edit: Wait these were PSP games? I may opt for that version instead Edit: I guess the QoL changes would make that a silly choice.
I would say if you want to play this one play zero first. Or you can go through cold steel 1-2 first.
@@Engret Exactly what I needed, thank you! Is Azure directly after Zero? Same cast?
@@jeffcarrier9808 Yes. 2nd half of the same story
Just finished cold steel 1 and god was it aweful. Worst falcom game i played so far. Zwei 2 had a much more engaging story than cold steel 1. 90% of the story has the episodic pokemon story approch. Team Rocket appears gets defeated and next chapter repeat. Just play Azure and watch the last chapter on youtube you wont miss much. The highschool setting didnt help at all as they just killed the pacing with it. After chapter 5 i was just speedrunning it as i just wanted it to end. Everytime you are back to the school the story literaly gets reset with the next crisis looming in the next field study. After every chapter i lost all motivation as i was back to the boring mandatory schoollife with nothing too look forward too as the story was nonexisting. Its pretty much Sky FC chapter 1 and 2 the game.
I'd say start by watching summaries of the three Sky games' stories (oniblackmage made really good videos for that), then play Zero, then Azure, and then Cold Steel.
Such a great time to be a Trails fan.
I'm hoping Epic Game store has one of its sales where you can double dip with a coupon in addition to the discount at which point I'll pick up Zero and Azure. They had a sale like that only once in 2022 IIRC and that was for X-mas into New Years. So I probably won't be picking this one up for another 7 months. At that point I'll likely pick up Reverie as well.
it says just announced on ps store
Is out in N America today but not till 17th in Europe
Let's not talk about it and say we did
Got mine yesterday. dude I'm still trying to finish trails in sky I'm at last chapter.
Erick is right, easy mode is way too easy.
I recommend playing on normal mode for a first playthrough.
Hard mode is doable but kinda forces you to stick to cheese strategies
Nightmare mode is balanced for ng+, it's technically possible on a fresh start if you enjoy being brutalized.
Idk if your advice is for rpg newcomers? But I played on Nightmare and used no cheese at all.
I'd say stick to what you played the previous game on and adjust based on preferences.
@@ninototo1 yes, I'm talking to somewhat new players. Veterans don't need advice 🙂
also, spoiler alert : getting the best outcome out of story battles with a limit on turns gets really dicey in nightmare mode.
Nightmare is pretty tricky on Azure but starting it on a newgame file is only brutal at the start. Same for all Trails games once you open up more options for builds and Arts.
That being said new players should definitely stick to Normal/Hard and definitely not start in Trails To Azure anyway.
@@yodastitch4227
Oh yeah that time limit fight I didn't even bother with. Thank god it's optional.
I feel like Normal is even too easy when it comes to this franchise, so definitely playing these games on Hard from now on. Might even try it on Nightmare.
Then again, i've been playing JRPG's for a long time now, so i guess Normal becoming too easy is a bit of a no shit situation.
Azure is a great game but ColdSteel is garbage and ruined Trails Series
We need to talk about why you picked worst girl as thumbnail
Speaking of the girl in the thumbnail, is it *just* me, or does she look like a short haired version of Asuka from Tokyo Xanadu?
Bruh.
Worst girl?? Bruh, i thought she was easily best girl in the Crossbell duo.
Not sure if she surpasses Claire from Cold Steel though. Still need to play Azure to fully make up my mind on that.
@@domfabio8850 Claire and Noel... hell naw💀
The hottest take if I have ever seen one. And I’ll fight you there, Rixia is “worst girl”.
First comment innit
Is the Switch version better than the PS4 one like in Zero?
“Better” as in, if you have the option I guess. Personally I saw the differences and the only one that was a loss was the lack of a text backlog. People blow the issue out of proportion IMO.