It's fun just how much of a presence Osborne has in the series despite having so little time actually on the screen. He's just such an intimidating figure.
This finale really solidifies why I love Cold Steel 2 so much. Class 7 is utterly defeated. They don't win/do a single thing in this finale. Starting with the Rufus reveal, it suddenly becomes obvious why they ended up helping out the military the whole game. Rufus was able to manipulate each situation to involve Class 7 the way Osbourne wanted. Meaning that Osbourne not only controlled Class 7 actions, but was able to beat Olivert at his own game. Class 7 never found that 3rd way he wanted, and used that "3rd way" to help Osbourne's cause. Even in the infernal castle, Class 7 never actually wins a single fight. They are bailed out at every moment by someone stronger to fight their battles for them. And in the finale, while they do arguable save the prince, they lose Crow. Their entire objective of the whole game, and Osbourne reveals himself as Reans father. Utter defeat. And yes, the Epilogue's to Cold Steel 2 are long, but they are about the effect that utter defeat has on Class 7, and it is devastating.
Alright #1 rule of Cold Steel, don't let Millium say "I feel really stupid right now" cause that's a stronger jinx than even "It can't get any worse right guys?"
Something I really like about this bit. Back in Trista it was established that Valimar speaks more naturally the more memories he recovers over time. And at 5:55 the game shows this as well - check out how eloquent Ordine is after three years with Crow
Osborne: Join me, and I will make you a hero. With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict and bring order to Erebonia. Rean: I'll never join you! Osborne: If only you knew the power of the Ashen Chevalier! Teo never told you what happened to your father. Rean: Knowing you, I bet you killed him or something! Osborne: No, *I* am your father. ["The Giant Silver Ship" plays] Rean: ... No... No, that's not true! That's impossible!! Osborne: Search your Mean Rean powers. You know it to be true. Rean: NOOOOOOO!
And here we are. One of the most out there endings (ignore the fact that we still have a epilogue) in Trails. It feels even more like a loss than the previous one, and that's saying something. Regardless of how you feel about Osborne, or if you already played Azure beforehand and saw the ending, it still doesn't change the fact that his return and subsequent reveal is just fucking rad. Poor Rean can't keep catching trauma after trauma; Cold Steel just be like that. Let's just say that things can get only worse before they get better and leave it at that.
I love that scene at the end with rean. The delivery of reans voiceline and the little flashes of crow for context really elevate the scene. Elliot crying really gets to me everytime too.
People dunk on english VAs, and I can say some of that ire is justified with them trying to shove political agendas into the writing when the writers themselves don't want it. But I have no idea if the crew for these games did that, all I know is they actually act their part very well. One of my fave scenes is when Rean re-unites with Macchias for the first time. The way Macchias is barely holding back tears as he seems him again for the first time. Actors cry and not cry all the time, but barely treading on the line between the two? seriously, bravo, dude nailed that so well.
I guess the lesson here is: unless the games gives you a "thank you for playing " screen and then sends you to the main menu, never assume the game is over. 😂😂😂
@@historian252 It almost defines the reason the reformists win the war entirely, especially considering the provincial armies have people like Aurelia and Bardias
Right "done" 😂 Next part is my favorite of CS2. Also remember when you actually finish to watch the CS2 NG+ scene. Since it is referenced in CS3. I just watched it on youtube, I didn't feel like playing again but up to you.
8:30 No, the biggest irony would be if it overheated when McBurn was powering up (in fact someone once showed footage of McBurn powering up saying, "Let's see if you can handle the heat" then their Switch came up with a "Your device is overheating" message. Hilarious! Also 13:47 Crow briefly surpasses Millium as realest character right before his death. The thumbnails for the past few videos has been really good as well. Though I'm not sure... if this one might count as a spoiler with Osborne's shadow in the background? ...Eh, it should be fine. Even if YT does recommend it to people starting Trails they won't look too closely at the thumbnail of a game they haven't reached yet.
I'm a god-dang prophet is such a good running gag intentional or not lmaooooo. This is still one of my favorite stretches in the series it's non-stop crazy and I love it. CS2 is such a wild ride. Anyway looking forward to your reaction to the next 15 hours lmao.
Nice to see some car appreciation! Although ultimately "Testarossa" just means "Redhead" in Italian. So really, Falcom used the name more fittingly for Shirley's weapon than Ferrari did!
@@giuseppeparry1365 Falcom likes using fancy-shmancy names for colours. Nothing is blue, it's always azure, nothing is red, it's vermillion or testa-rossa, nothing is black, it must be onyx or obsidian, etc. They should stop using Azure suddenly in one ark and replace it with Cerulean and make everyone in the west thing localizers made the change themselves just cuz derp when in fact Falcom did it.
I actually think the use of the word "Azure" might be a localization thing. If I'm not mistaken, "blue" in Japanese is "Ao," and since Azure is a shade of blue, I wouldn't be shocked if they go with that since they both begin with A.
Good job making it this far! 🎉 But like many others have said, there is slightly more to come right after Weapons hits "save". So I hope he hasn't put away the recording equipment just yet. Would love to see his reactions to the epilogue.
...wow, I think that might be your best prophet moment yet. In any case, I'm glad you enjoyed the game, because we enjoyed your playthrough. Can't wait to see what you do next.
@@weaponsci I'm still of hte mind we have to wait 2 weeks between each episode, so eh... not complaining... or was that just 2 weeks for each Ys stream? I felt like it was both.
33:30 You gotta be honest though. If my adoptive father managed to cheat death, outsmart a secret society, and that’s not even half of everything I’d have to glaze him too
I hated mech fights, but if there's one that stood out as pretty sick it was the crow n rean vs testarossa one. A small moment that is a bit ahead of its time. Can't wait to see you reactions
After you're TRULY done with the game, you'll be finally able to move on to Cold Steel 3. And I promise you, you are NOT ready for that game's ending. But, putting that aside, you've finally finished the "Story" part of the game. Congratulations for "finishing" the game. Only two more before you are "done" with the Cold Steel arc.
the ending yes... ha.. HA HA HA.. Ya, Cold Steel 2 is the Return of the king of the trails Franchise with all the ending's it has as it just keeps going and going
Here's the thing. I know you're technically supposed to play these games in "the right order" and all, but I'm kinda glad I didn't and started with the Cold Steel games because the scene with Osborne revealing himself TOTALLY BLEW MY FUCKING MIND! It's been a long time since a JRPG was able to shock and surprise me, and I'm kinda glad I didn't "spoil" that by playing the games in the "proper" order (of course the flip side is that this in turn ruined a lot of the shocking moments from the Crossbell games. Win some and lose some, eh?)
Yeah if you do CS1/2 first the outcome of the war, as well as Osborne coming back is a genuine surprise. But in exchange you're spoiled on some of Crossbell's twists like Dieter forcibly taking Crossbell's independence (he then feels like less of a twist villain), just as an example.
Oh for Aidios' sake, you are too fast XD. This one will be quite juicy to write for, and I'm glad you put the funny in quotations because I would've smacked you otherwise XD
Alright, let's wrap up this finale shall we ? - First off, the final boss, which is 2 phases on foot, and the last one with the mechs, phase 1 has Heteromorphy, while phase 2 has EOV, which can honestly rivalize Great Power and has the Class VII motif in it. But back to the fight, unlike with Crow, the differences between the phases are quite significant, in the first one, he mainly uses the demonic sword Propator, absorbing moves and B a r r i e r s, as well as a watered down version of his S-craft: Thousand Arms; in the second phase however, he goes all in and shows no mercy by starting firsthand with his S-craft: Oblivion Arms, he stills uses Propator, but also a single target attack and an All Cancel move, he can also summon adds that can causes status ailments, heal him, or even cast Altair Cannon; and as if that's not enough, he has Vermillion End that inflicts Vanish (funny that you seemed to have forgotten it during the fight), and can also cast high-level arts like Altair Cannon and Claiomh Solarion; so yeah, a combination of nasty thing and a clear change from the first phase, fitting for a final boss; and the final is more spectacle than difficult.... Mostly; as you have noticed, you can't heal in this one, so it's a race to who goes down first, thankfully, the game is generous enough to let you start with 5 BP, so you can start right off the bat with a unite with Crow: Union Slash, deadly domination (Aidios, this is so cool), and the Vermillion apocalypse will use the Sword Propator again, but also the Spear Ennoea and the bow Barbatos, as an aside, it's cool that they made fit his title "the demon that wields a thousand weapons", by making him use different weapons, even his S-craft reflects that (as he pulls a Gilgamesh from Fate if you're familiar with it) by throwing said thousand weapons at you. - After much tribulations and perseverance, the day is saved and Cedric as well, Vita is lamenting the fact that things have gone very wrong, and in the process, let slip a few details regarding Ouroboros' objective; with the Phantasmal Blaze Plan: to use the Hollow Phantasm in Crossbell to awaken the blaze in Erebonia, which seem to fit with their actions in Crossbell, once KeA awakened, they said the plan has shifted to the empire and they didn't have any more stakes there; and the Grandmaster: the supreme existence who will guide the souls of all by carrying out the Orpheus Final Plan, which the Phantasmal Blaze is the second phase of (the Gospel Plan was the first), puzzling stuff indeed. But before we can lean more, we have.................. *sigh* the scene that completely shift the tone of this finale from a glorious victory to a bitter one: Crow's death, as it turns out, the hole caused by the Vermillion Apocalypse's tail proved fatal for the Azure Chevalier, and he's dying pierced through the heart at the same place he shot Osborne, Karma's a bitch indeed; and to the people who thought Class VII were naive in trying to bring back Crow.... Welp, there you go, are you all happy now ? Turns out that no, Class VII didn't get what they wanted and instead, they lost it forever, and he was on his way to redemption too since he helped stop the apocalypse, so I'm sure there would've been some wiggle room to negociate regarding everything he's done; even after all these years, seeing that scene with Crow giving his farewell to the class, Sara and Vita, as well as dropping the finale's title: Forward, Relentlessly, it still packs a punch (BTW, when he said tough times, I'm pretty sure he was talking about his death, that they need to move on without him, for him), but it works surprisingly well blind because since it's the second game, you except to gain some form of happy ending after all of this, but nope, the game slaps you in the face to give something more.... Bittersweet, but we'll get back to that. - Cayenne doesn't know when to take the L, take Cedric hostage and insult Crow WHO JUST DIED in front of everyone still grieving him ; I know some people complain that they left Cedric unsupervised after they just saved him, but I'm willing to forgive them because they're having a traumatic moment right now 😅, but as Vita was about to unleash her wrath upon him, Rufus shows up and KILLS Grianos and injure Vita, while Altina apprehend Cayenne, thereby bringing the situation under control; of course Rufus knew about this, he was there when Vita summoned the Infernal Castle by chanting Lucifen Lied, although he could've been talking about the apocalypse Cayenne trigerred by being stupid, I'm more inclined that he's playing dumb on purpose since he said to the Pentagruel's captain to leave the castle to him, especially since he "changed sides" now; let's get to that then. - And now, just as we are emotionally destroyed by Crow's death, the game decided to drop not one, not two, but THREE plot twists at once to throw us off even more: the first is.......... That Rufus was an Ironblood the whole time, its primary memener, a mole among the alliance working for Osborne, this revelation recontextualize the entire game and the one before, which is why replaying them can be great, because now that we know the alliance's chief of staff was a plant from the start, it makes you question every dubious actions the alliance makes and makes you wonder if Rufus, like the strategist that he is, didn't had a hand in events playing a certain way and allowing the Imperial army to succeed in the east; the primary member was even foreshadowed in CS1, by Osborne saying to Carl Regnitz that Claire is not the primary member of the Ironblood after he falsely thought she was the one leading them, and he also asked Claire to be less formal with him back in Chapter 6, that was because they were both ironblood; but yeah, this twist is huge and makes you question how much control Osborne had over this Civil War in the first, including Class VII's own roles in it; but this reveal is kinda pointless since the man himself, their leader, isn't alive anymore, which is why...... - Second Twist, Osborne was actually alive the whole time............ Okay, throughout these two games, I tried to play Devil's advocate regarding this matter and trying to throw you off regarding this, but I gotta say: Revealing that Osborne survived in Azure's credit was just dumb; a bunch of stuff they said in those credits were unnecessary and could've served better elsewhere, I can tolerate revealing that the imperial faction wins, because CS2 does seem to frame it as HOW the reformists turned the situation around, but for Osborne, not only is it revealed at the end like a surprise, but clues about it were spread out throughout the same about his survival (like Claire at the start of Act 2), there was no need to spoil it in Azure; much like the occupation, that they revealed it happened, sure, but they shouldn't have talked about the years of occupation before being free again, because now you know it won't last and everything will be okay again, and all of this just to give Azure a happy ending when the situation they were left on absolutely doesn't call for one; sorry for ranting about it, I wanted to get that out of my system, let's go back to talk about the twist. So yeah, Osborne is alive, and with that, everything Crow and the ILF have been working towards was reduced to naught, and he never got to find that out because he died just before that, he might as well pee on his still lukewarm body, his lifegoal, his purpose, for nothing, great 👍; but that's not all he does, this reveal surprises Vita as well, but for different reasons, first off, she confirmed that him and Ouroboros DID worked together during the crisis in Liberl with the steam tank, even if plays cou here, just like Olivier predicted in SC, and apparently, he has taken under his control a branch of the Thirteen Factories under his control, most likely this famous Black Workshop which Altina originates from, and he boldly declared in front of her, THAT HE WILL TAKE OVER THE PHANTASMAL BLAZE PLAN!!!! HELLO !??! THIS IS HUGE!!!!!! Especially since Vita seem quite shock by that declaration; you may be asking "how the fuck can he take over the plan?" but the thing is, we don't know anything about this plan beside the things Vita said earlier, so how can we say it's impossible ? They're both clearly talking about something that's way over our heads (which is quite accurate to how Class VII must feel right now); but also, this is the first time in the series that Ouroboros has been outmaneuvered, in Sky, they got what they wanted in the end, despite the loss of Weissman and Loewe, in Crossbell, they completed their goals halfway through and pissed off without much resistance, but now, not only they didn't accomplished their plan here, but Osborne will hijack it for his own need, this is a big setback for Ouroboros, Vita got outplayed by Osborne and she can escape only because he allow her to report back to them, the setup of Osborne as the antagonist is immaculate and as the greatest of the series so far since he's the only one to have been able to outart Ouroboros of all people; so yeah, Vita pisses off afterward after apologizing to us for everything she's done, and Millium goes back to being an Ironblood where we learn Rufus' title: the Jade Rook, fitting for the chess metaphor Osborne likes so very much, and he orders him to invade Crossbell after everything is settled over here.
- After everything that happened, Rean is understandably furious at Osborne, not the right reasons of course because from the point of view of an Empire's citizen, he should be grateful that his Chancellor survived his assassination attempt and that the terrorist died; but because him being alive and well as if nothing happened invalidate everything Crow fought and lived for, and the thing is, he can't even accuse him of killing him because he died due to the apocalypse, which was defeated by him, so he has nothing to vent on except Osborne; and it's when Rean is at his weakest moment that our dear Chancellor drops on us the third twist of this finale: that he's his biological father........I'm actually infuriated that you got spoiled on that by that fucker a while back, because this in my humblest opinion, is one of the greatest twist of the series, I'll even say that it's the "I am your father" of modern times because it freaking works, after several games of setup for Osborne as an antagonist and this ending showing even more of that, you find out that the whole time, you've been playing as Osborne Junior, and he's planning to make Rean into a hero. - And that's the end of the Finale....... What an end right ? In Japanese, they actually rolled the credit here, which probably sounded like a big fuck you from Falcom to "end" the game on a SECOND cliffhanger XD, but Xeed wanted to do something different and decided to do a goodbye video music for Crow, and Falcom gave them what they needed, including never before seen arts meant for Cold Steel 3, like the ones for Laura, Jusis, Emma and Millium, and the music playing during this: I'll remember you, not only gut punched us a second time, but also stabbed our hearts, here's a link to another version of song that's equally good, if not better than the original : th-cam.com/video/QztNIWQOsuQ/w-d-xo.htmlsi=451V9JozyXNm29Ln - And I'll end it there, but of course, we're not done yet, not by a long shot, and we'll talk about what comes after, next time.
Cold steel is just osborne playibg 4D chess. Something cool is rean and lloyd are suppose to mirror each other as protagonist. With rean become hero that save his country but failed to save his friend/family while lloyd become wanted man but manage to save KeA with the cost of crossbell independence
@@Nova_Silver Plus from my experience, the filter they use to disguise the voice when he's wearing the mask doesn't work as well as it did the first time. Like if you pay real close attention when the second C talks with the mask on, you can easily recognize the voice, at least compared to the first one.
Duke cayenne thinking he's hot stuff, when in reality he was never in control of anything and has not acomplished even a single thing. It was all vita and crow to begin with so no suprise there.
It wasn't even Vita and Crow. Crow, like General Aurelia and Brigadier General Wallace, was just a footsoldier in the war, albeit a unique and extremely powerful one. Vita was just an outside consultant who helped out "preparing the stage" for the battle between Valimar and Ordine, which Ouroboros wanted to bring about, but did very little heavy lifting regarding the war itself. The true core of the Noble Alliance weren't its bickering figureheads Cayenne and Albarea, but rather its chief of staff, Osborne's mole Rufus. And given that Rufus was privvy to everything within the alliance, it shows how far ahead of the game Osborne really was. Did he know the ILF was gonna attack the trade conference? Yup. Did he know C was Crow? Yup. Did he know he was gonna be assassinated? Yup. Did he know when and where? Yup. Did he know an occupation of the capital and civil war would be the result of that? Yup. Did he allow all of that to happen just so he could get the alliance to overextend itself, have his mole weaken it from within and gently nudge out its two most prominent figures so he could take control of it himself and unify Erebonia under his rule? Yup. What they do with Osborne in later games has its fair amount of detractors, but this part right here was a masterstroke in pretending to play checkers and then come out with a 4D chess play. The fact that for the first time in the series, Ouroboros is genuinely on the back foot (and has the Black Workshop, one its 13 Factories subsidiaries, stolen from under it to add insult to injury) is just icing on the cake.
The Darth Vader moment was also foreshadowed in the cutscene you get if you talk to Rean's foster parents in Ymir just before you set out for the final operation. (along with a really nice scene) I was kind of taken back that it didn't make it into the videos. Did you miss it or did you not include it since you were already spoiled on the plot point of Rean's parentage?
It's not the end yet, but I feel like now is as good of a time as any to start compiling my thoughts on the game as a whole. The two follow-up dungeons are just padding (the last last boss says as much). This time around the plot's mostly functional, as lengthy Trista segments aren't dominating a third of the game's runtime. I'd have preferred the -chapters- acts had more going on similar to how SC created proper plotlines for the individual regions, but that's an issue that largely stems from not having had enough time for the world of Erebonia to distinguish itself in the last game imo, so I won't bang that drum too hard. Cayenne might be the single worst villain of the entire series so far (don't worry, he _will_ get competition). He's scum, pure and simple, and ultimately only serves his self-interest. He speaks of restoring Erebonia to it's proper state (of feudalism), but can't seem to offer any kind of moral, logical or philosophical reason for _why_ it's proper to begin with, other than that it is. For his moral faults, Weissman's correctly identified a problem with the human condition, and even Joachim believed he was serving a higher purpose. As early as Liberl, we've had hints about the class struggle going on in Erebonia, and it's honestly very disheartening to see the game that should explore the concept can't seem to manage antagonistic nobility with more depth than Duke Dunan. Just an aside, but I recently replayed Kingdom Come: Deliverance, and Hans fucking Capon might be my favorite character in the entire game. He goes from such an annoying, spoiled brat to a _likable,_ spoiled brat incredibly quickly and yet it feels completely organic. Something I recall thinking during my own playthrough and noticed again here is how damn long winded the dialogue gets near the end. Five minute chat with Crow prior to fighting him, then another five minutes after, then another five minutes of everyone watching him die... I wonder if anyone at Falcom actually played through this bit properly, cause good lord does everyone needing to pipe in with generic lines kill the mood. That's not me saying long dialogue bad, just that it feels incredibly poor compared to what the scenes around the Loewe and Weissman fights did. The focus was squarely on Estelle and Joshua, we didn't need constant party member's input to remind us they exist. Now then, I think that's enough warmup, time to kick into high gear and explain why I think CS1 & 2 are such a letdown for me. And it even boils down to one word: 'characters'. I could've also added 'theme', but it's usually your hero and primary antagonist that embody it to begin with, so it would be a little redundant. It's a common enough criticism that Class VII is poorly balanced in terms of focus, so I won't harp on it here. Instead, I'll limit myself to the _dramatis personae_ of this game, Rean and Crow. They're the beating heart (or the lack of one) of these two games, very similar to Estelle and Joshua in Sky. Problem is unlike our dynamic duo of Liberl, there's a distinct lack of chemistry here. The only two members of Class VII who've _any_ specific connection to our wayward bird are Rean and Elliot, the latter only because we had dialogue establishing they talked to each other more in preparation for their concert back in CS1. Rean himself fares only slightly better if we exclude the entire Awakener thing, which I promise to go more into if/when it's time to bare my final thoughts on CS3&4. Just imagine, if you will, if Crow had been with Class VII the entire time. Hell, go the extra mile and have _him_ be the charismatic leader figure throughout the first game. This way you can spend time establishing Rean as more of an awkward loner who looks up to (even envies) him, and eventually develops into the class' vice commander capable of stepping up to the plate come CS2 throughout the first game whilst also showing off Crow's skills for the C reveal. This would also make the rest of the class' rapport with him that much more believable if he was the one playing therapist through most of the first game. As for Rean, I mentioned in my wall of text on the last CS1 part how I can't speak much about him until this game, and I think it's obvious why after the Osborne scene. So, without further ado, here comes my rant about the massive issue with him. Literally all you had to do was *not* give Rean amnesia. I cannot stress enough how just realizing that one thing soured my already low opinion on the writing of his entire character. Parental abandonment (we find out more about the circumstances later, but what Rean himself would remember wouldn't constitute a major spoiler) can easily lead to exactly the sort of issues he's dealing with: fear of attachment, low self-worth etc. In fact, he'd make much more sense if his loving adoptive family weren't the only one he's ever known. His feelings of inadequacy (or outright resentment) would also be the perfect reason to enroll at Thors: make something of himself and prove Osborne was wrong to leave him, that he isn't weak or worthless. And that's just Rean's starting point. Ask yourself how much more you could squeeze out of the writing if he was aware the man grinding people underfoot with his aggressive modernization and expansion policies was his own father. How would seeing other people's takes of the Chancellor, both the hate and adoration, affect Rean? How much more personal would his view of the entire state of the Empire be? And what would he think of the Ironbloods, the family his father chose over him? How much more personal and impactful would the ending of CS1 (and his relationship with Crow in this game) be? Hell, how would it affect _him_ to suddenly lose the man who may well have been his _raison d'etre?_ I'm not kidding when I say Falcom somehow managed to completely and utterly waste what could have been an _amazing_ character. I genuinely have no earthly idea how inept of a writer you have to be to not use something as juicy as Rean being Osborne's son in any way for two entire games, but it really serves to highlight how far we've fallen. The more I think of Sky, the more I realize how much forethought and effort went into the writing in those games. For instance, remember how Kevin helped Estelle when they first met? Hits a little different after playing 3rd and finding out what happened with his mom, doesn't it? By contrast, the more I think of Cold Steel, the more fundamental issues like the one above pop up.
Cant really spoil much as I havent started cs3 yet myself, but i have theories regarding osborne still alive given what we already know. Curious to find out if and when the trutn is revealed
It was one person and one message, and they've more or less been dealt with. I haven't seen them back since. Only other thing I've been spoiled on is the second C's identity but idk anything else beyond that.
@@weaponsci Well, I knew you already had been playing the REAL end of CS2, and was attempting to tease the part where you play as Lloyd, and thought cs3 as a bonus... so yeah, I wasn't actually spoiling cs3, but cs2 I already knew you did =P That said Altina best girl. people dispute it because loli-phobic reasons, but sex isn't the reason you effing degenerates. I'd elaborate but can't not spoil if I do.
Sorry I'm kinda spamming comments here, but I have to make this one separate because it contains *KURO/DAYBREAK 2 SPOILERS:* Looking back at this now, for anyone whose played Kuro 2, I'm kinda shocked how many similarities there are between the Vermillion Apocalypse and the Grendel-Zolga. Anyone else see this? Most obviously there's the red colour, then the *long pointed tail which borrows into the ground then stabs up through a character's chest in an almost identical way, killing them* and THEN there's the many more similarities between the VA's final form and Grendel-Zolga's SIN form, including *massive wings* developing. It could just be a coincidence, but that's three shared physical features and one specific behaviour with one of those features shared between the two. Huh...
Most Normal People: Hate Osborne for conventional reasons. I mean he is the main antagonist of the Cold Steel Arc, (Not much of a spoiler of me to say that is it?) Me, the obvious Ouroboros simp that I am: Hates Osborne because, "I'm going to take over that Phantasmal Blaze Plan of yours."
Since I had Rean lv 200 kill HIS first half of this boss on nightmare mode IN UNDER 30 seconds my OTHER lv 200 party Laura Millum Sarah Jusis/Fie fought the round 2 version only to still kill IT in under 30 seconds and yes if Valimar isn't at lv 200 it will barely last 1 to 2 turns IF AT all on Nightmare mode.
lmao skill issue. I remember speedrunning nightmare to get 100% trophies and forgot to equip orbs. It was a pain in the ass but as long as you defend, counter and buff appropriately you can beat vermillion with lvl 130+ valimar. Took a bit of retries tho.
Without Valimar at lv 200 on Nightmare mode I would still have IT die before I could drain even HALF of this bosses HP even WITH Attack 2 Attack 3 AND HP 3 ORBS all used agaInst it.
This scene alone is why I never recommend playing zero and azure before coldsteel. By spoiling Osborne being alive they both ruin the ending of cs1 and one of the best plot twists in cs2. What I recommend is, playing coldsteel 1 and 2 until divertiment, plsying zero and azure and than finishing cs2.
What? You got spoiled on the Reans dad twist? Nooooo!!!! I wanted to see your blind reaction! Now I'm disappointed. Who Spoiled you? It totally wasn't me, right? Man, I wanted to see your blind reaction! I can't enjoy these videos if you get spoiled on everything! Who the hell keeps spoiling you? But I saw you are on Cold Steel 3 now. I hope you played the rest of Cold Steel 2. And watched the new game+ cutscene. But seriously, I need these spoilers to stop! Otherwise, my popcorn will be useless! I want to see blind players die from shock! It just isn't the same when they already have spoilers. I personally do not mind spoilers, but damn it, I want you to not get spoiled! The big twist and I did not get the reaction I wanted because it was spoiled. Damn it!
![[17] Barrier Discourse is Here to Stay - Trails of Cold Steel 2 Funny Moments](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/P782RYNvMUU/mqdefault.jpg)
![[17] Barrier Discourse is Here to Stay - Trails of Cold Steel 2 Funny Moments](/img/tr.png)
![[5] Hellish Memories - Trails of Cold Steel 3 Funny Moments](/img/n.gif)
Bro talking like he's done with the game in before he gets hit by the most unexpected truck of them all
“Thats the end of that.”
LMAO
It's fun just how much of a presence Osborne has in the series despite having so little time actually on the screen. He's just such an intimidating figure.
He has such a big presence. I love the hell out of him
"I guess we're done"
Lol. Lmao, even.
“Haha… I love my job.” - Karma, probably.
When you said "same place he shot osborne" and "Karma's a bitch huh?" I'm like 'is this Weapons on the Gnosis?'
This finale really solidifies why I love Cold Steel 2 so much.
Class 7 is utterly defeated. They don't win/do a single thing in this finale. Starting with the Rufus reveal, it suddenly becomes obvious why they ended up helping out the military the whole game.
Rufus was able to manipulate each situation to involve Class 7 the way Osbourne wanted. Meaning that Osbourne not only controlled Class 7 actions, but was able to beat Olivert at his own game. Class 7 never found that 3rd way he wanted, and used that "3rd way" to help Osbourne's cause.
Even in the infernal castle, Class 7 never actually wins a single fight. They are bailed out at every moment by someone stronger to fight their battles for them.
And in the finale, while they do arguable save the prince, they lose Crow. Their entire objective of the whole game, and Osbourne reveals himself as Reans father.
Utter defeat. And yes, the Epilogue's to Cold Steel 2 are long, but they are about the effect that utter defeat has on Class 7, and it is devastating.
Alright #1 rule of Cold Steel, don't let Millium say "I feel really stupid right now" cause that's a stronger jinx than even "It can't get any worse right guys?"
Also:
"I should've seen this earlier"
"I had a hunch"
Etc.
Something I really like about this bit. Back in Trista it was established that Valimar speaks more naturally the more memories he recovers over time. And at 5:55 the game shows this as well - check out how eloquent Ordine is after three years with Crow
Crow’s mistake was shooting Osborne through the heart when we all know he’s a heartless bastard
You joke, but I swear if that actually ends up being the explanation for why he lived lmao
@@weaponsci :)
you didn't just....
@@weaponsci : )
I like how you are thinking 🤣
time to get bamboozled 4 times by the twist endings back 2 back
Osborne: Join me, and I will make you a hero. With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict and bring order to Erebonia.
Rean: I'll never join you!
Osborne: If only you knew the power of the Ashen Chevalier! Teo never told you what happened to your father.
Rean: Knowing you, I bet you killed him or something!
Osborne: No, *I* am your father.
["The Giant Silver Ship" plays]
Rean: ... No... No, that's not true! That's impossible!!
Osborne: Search your Mean Rean powers. You know it to be true.
Rean: NOOOOOOO!
"I guess the only one with a hole on his chest is Crow" 💀 💀
What a savage cold opening, Weapons
Just when he thought he died starting a new trend, you find out he was all alone.
And here we are. One of the most out there endings (ignore the fact that we still have a epilogue) in Trails. It feels even more like a loss than the previous one, and that's saying something.
Regardless of how you feel about Osborne, or if you already played Azure beforehand and saw the ending, it still doesn't change the fact that his return and subsequent reveal is just fucking rad. Poor Rean can't keep catching trauma after trauma; Cold Steel just be like that.
Let's just say that things can get only worse before they get better and leave it at that.
I love that scene at the end with rean. The delivery of reans voiceline and the little flashes of crow for context really elevate the scene.
Elliot crying really gets to me everytime too.
People dunk on english VAs, and I can say some of that ire is justified with them trying to shove political agendas into the writing when the writers themselves don't want it. But I have no idea if the crew for these games did that, all I know is they actually act their part very well. One of my fave scenes is when Rean re-unites with Macchias for the first time. The way Macchias is barely holding back tears as he seems him again for the first time. Actors cry and not cry all the time, but barely treading on the line between the two? seriously, bravo, dude nailed that so well.
I guess the lesson here is: unless the games gives you a "thank you for playing " screen and then sends you to the main menu, never assume the game is over. 😂😂😂
Or Save Clear Data 😂
I’m so invested in your roommate’s (?) reactions lol
It's my brother. He peeks in sometimes lol
Honestly the Rufus reveal as the prime member of the iron bloods was one of the better surprises in the series.
And it explains so much about how the war turned out.
It's also kinda similar to Azure where the twist hurts the current villain more than the heroes. At least in the moment...
@@weaponsci True. I've finished all of them and I don't think anything hit harder than the azure twist lol
@@historian252 It almost defines the reason the reformists win the war entirely, especially considering the provincial armies have people like Aurelia and Bardias
"Forward, relentlessly...without looking back!" Holy kino.
Next up is the occupation, my favorite part of the entire game.
Right "done" 😂 Next part is my favorite of CS2. Also remember when you actually finish to watch the CS2 NG+ scene. Since it is referenced in CS3. I just watched it on youtube, I didn't feel like playing again but up to you.
8:30 No, the biggest irony would be if it overheated when McBurn was powering up (in fact someone once showed footage of McBurn powering up saying, "Let's see if you can handle the heat" then their Switch came up with a "Your device is overheating" message. Hilarious!
Also 13:47 Crow briefly surpasses Millium as realest character right before his death.
The thumbnails for the past few videos has been really good as well. Though I'm not sure... if this one might count as a spoiler with Osborne's shadow in the background? ...Eh, it should be fine. Even if YT does recommend it to people starting Trails they won't look too closely at the thumbnail of a game they haven't reached yet.
Sorry you ain't done yet, save that game and onto the next chapter! 😂😂😂
I'm a god-dang prophet is such a good running gag intentional or not lmaooooo.
This is still one of my favorite stretches in the series it's non-stop crazy and I love it. CS2 is such a wild ride. Anyway looking forward to your reaction to the next 15 hours lmao.
Oh i will be waiting for the next part. Which will probably be my fav part in your CS2 playlist 😭
IN THIS EPISODE: Weapons tears down a Ferrari for content.
Nice to see some car appreciation! Although ultimately "Testarossa" just means "Redhead" in Italian. So really, Falcom used the name more fittingly for Shirley's weapon than Ferrari did!
@@giuseppeparry1365 Falcom likes using fancy-shmancy names for colours. Nothing is blue, it's always azure, nothing is red, it's vermillion or testa-rossa, nothing is black, it must be onyx or obsidian, etc.
They should stop using Azure suddenly in one ark and replace it with Cerulean and make everyone in the west thing localizers made the change themselves just cuz derp when in fact Falcom did it.
I actually think the use of the word "Azure" might be a localization thing.
If I'm not mistaken, "blue" in Japanese is "Ao," and since Azure is a shade of blue, I wouldn't be shocked if they go with that since they both begin with A.
Good job making it this far! 🎉
But like many others have said, there is slightly more to come right after Weapons hits "save". So I hope he hasn't put away the recording equipment just yet. Would love to see his reactions to the epilogue.
Union slash deadly domination is such a cool move
FUCK I WANT TO SEE THE REACTION TO THE DIVERTISSEMENT SO BAD
...wow, I think that might be your best prophet moment yet.
In any case, I'm glad you enjoyed the game, because we enjoyed your playthrough. Can't wait to see what you do next.
I see rufus pulled the old "I'll always be a friendly guy you can trust" on cayenne
Bro took gnosis and peeked at my CS2 in a nutshell script lol
I get the feeling after saying whats coming next you realize there was more lol
2:02 Missed another barrier joke here
28:00 So much Thanos energy there (should've gone for the head Crow)
Let's keep this ball rolling!
Actually I'll be away for the weekend, that's why this one's out so soon 😅
@@weaponsci I'm still of hte mind we have to wait 2 weeks between each episode, so eh... not complaining... or was that just 2 weeks for each Ys stream? I felt like it was both.
33:30
You gotta be honest though. If my adoptive father managed to cheat death, outsmart a secret society, and that’s not even half of everything I’d have to glaze him too
That's fair, can't say he wasn't busy while he was away lol
I bet when you realized your were genuinely surprised.
I hated mech fights, but if there's one that stood out as pretty sick it was the crow n rean vs testarossa one. A small moment that is a bit ahead of its time. Can't wait to see you reactions
The mechs really got better as the series progressed tbh.
EP-IL-OGUE!
EP-IL-OGUE!
12:09 yeah just forget about old Crow
That donut in Ordine's chest? Just a flesh wound
Once again only Vita cared...
After you're TRULY done with the game, you'll be finally able to move on to Cold Steel 3. And I promise you, you are NOT ready for that game's ending.
But, putting that aside, you've finally finished the "Story" part of the game.
Congratulations for "finishing" the game. Only two more before you are "done" with the Cold Steel arc.
the ending yes... ha.. HA HA HA.. Ya, Cold Steel 2 is the Return of the king of the trails Franchise with all the ending's it has as it just keeps going and going
Here's the thing. I know you're technically supposed to play these games in "the right order" and all, but I'm kinda glad I didn't and started with the Cold Steel games because the scene with Osborne revealing himself TOTALLY BLEW MY FUCKING MIND! It's been a long time since a JRPG was able to shock and surprise me, and I'm kinda glad I didn't "spoil" that by playing the games in the "proper" order (of course the flip side is that this in turn ruined a lot of the shocking moments from the Crossbell games. Win some and lose some, eh?)
Yeah if you do CS1/2 first the outcome of the war, as well as Osborne coming back is a genuine surprise. But in exchange you're spoiled on some of Crossbell's twists like Dieter forcibly taking Crossbell's independence (he then feels like less of a twist villain), just as an example.
Oh for Aidios' sake, you are too fast XD.
This one will be quite juicy to write for, and I'm glad you put the funny in quotations because I would've smacked you otherwise XD
I'm surprised you didn’t make any dishes for the final boss lmao
Alright, let's wrap up this finale shall we ?
- First off, the final boss, which is 2 phases on foot, and the last one with the mechs, phase 1 has Heteromorphy, while phase 2 has EOV, which can honestly rivalize Great Power and has the Class VII motif in it. But back to the fight, unlike with Crow, the differences between the phases are quite significant, in the first one, he mainly uses the demonic sword Propator, absorbing moves and B a r r i e r s, as well as a watered down version of his S-craft: Thousand Arms; in the second phase however, he goes all in and shows no mercy by starting firsthand with his S-craft: Oblivion Arms, he stills uses Propator, but also a single target attack and an All Cancel move, he can also summon adds that can causes status ailments, heal him, or even cast Altair Cannon; and as if that's not enough, he has Vermillion End that inflicts Vanish (funny that you seemed to have forgotten it during the fight), and can also cast high-level arts like Altair Cannon and Claiomh Solarion; so yeah, a combination of nasty thing and a clear change from the first phase, fitting for a final boss; and the final is more spectacle than difficult.... Mostly; as you have noticed, you can't heal in this one, so it's a race to who goes down first, thankfully, the game is generous enough to let you start with 5 BP, so you can start right off the bat with a unite with Crow: Union Slash, deadly domination (Aidios, this is so cool), and the Vermillion apocalypse will use the Sword Propator again, but also the Spear Ennoea and the bow Barbatos, as an aside, it's cool that they made fit his title "the demon that wields a thousand weapons", by making him use different weapons, even his S-craft reflects that (as he pulls a Gilgamesh from Fate if you're familiar with it) by throwing said thousand weapons at you.
- After much tribulations and perseverance, the day is saved and Cedric as well, Vita is lamenting the fact that things have gone very wrong, and in the process, let slip a few details regarding Ouroboros' objective; with the Phantasmal Blaze Plan: to use the Hollow Phantasm in Crossbell to awaken the blaze in Erebonia, which seem to fit with their actions in Crossbell, once KeA awakened, they said the plan has shifted to the empire and they didn't have any more stakes there; and the Grandmaster: the supreme existence who will guide the souls of all by carrying out the Orpheus Final Plan, which the Phantasmal Blaze is the second phase of (the Gospel Plan was the first), puzzling stuff indeed. But before we can lean more, we have.................. *sigh* the scene that completely shift the tone of this finale from a glorious victory to a bitter one: Crow's death, as it turns out, the hole caused by the Vermillion Apocalypse's tail proved fatal for the Azure Chevalier, and he's dying pierced through the heart at the same place he shot Osborne, Karma's a bitch indeed; and to the people who thought Class VII were naive in trying to bring back Crow.... Welp, there you go, are you all happy now ? Turns out that no, Class VII didn't get what they wanted and instead, they lost it forever, and he was on his way to redemption too since he helped stop the apocalypse, so I'm sure there would've been some wiggle room to negociate regarding everything he's done; even after all these years, seeing that scene with Crow giving his farewell to the class, Sara and Vita, as well as dropping the finale's title: Forward, Relentlessly, it still packs a punch (BTW, when he said tough times, I'm pretty sure he was talking about his death, that they need to move on without him, for him), but it works surprisingly well blind because since it's the second game, you except to gain some form of happy ending after all of this, but nope, the game slaps you in the face to give something more.... Bittersweet, but we'll get back to that.
- Cayenne doesn't know when to take the L, take Cedric hostage and insult Crow WHO JUST DIED in front of everyone still grieving him ; I know some people complain that they left Cedric unsupervised after they just saved him, but I'm willing to forgive them because they're having a traumatic moment right now 😅, but as Vita was about to unleash her wrath upon him, Rufus shows up and KILLS Grianos and injure Vita, while Altina apprehend Cayenne, thereby bringing the situation under control; of course Rufus knew about this, he was there when Vita summoned the Infernal Castle by chanting Lucifen Lied, although he could've been talking about the apocalypse Cayenne trigerred by being stupid, I'm more inclined that he's playing dumb on purpose since he said to the Pentagruel's captain to leave the castle to him, especially since he "changed sides" now; let's get to that then.
- And now, just as we are emotionally destroyed by Crow's death, the game decided to drop not one, not two, but THREE plot twists at once to throw us off even more: the first is.......... That Rufus was an Ironblood the whole time, its primary memener, a mole among the alliance working for Osborne, this revelation recontextualize the entire game and the one before, which is why replaying them can be great, because now that we know the alliance's chief of staff was a plant from the start, it makes you question every dubious actions the alliance makes and makes you wonder if Rufus, like the strategist that he is, didn't had a hand in events playing a certain way and allowing the Imperial army to succeed in the east; the primary member was even foreshadowed in CS1, by Osborne saying to Carl Regnitz that Claire is not the primary member of the Ironblood after he falsely thought she was the one leading them, and he also asked Claire to be less formal with him back in Chapter 6, that was because they were both ironblood; but yeah, this twist is huge and makes you question how much control Osborne had over this Civil War in the first, including Class VII's own roles in it; but this reveal is kinda pointless since the man himself, their leader, isn't alive anymore, which is why......
- Second Twist, Osborne was actually alive the whole time............ Okay, throughout these two games, I tried to play Devil's advocate regarding this matter and trying to throw you off regarding this, but I gotta say: Revealing that Osborne survived in Azure's credit was just dumb; a bunch of stuff they said in those credits were unnecessary and could've served better elsewhere, I can tolerate revealing that the imperial faction wins, because CS2 does seem to frame it as HOW the reformists turned the situation around, but for Osborne, not only is it revealed at the end like a surprise, but clues about it were spread out throughout the same about his survival (like Claire at the start of Act 2), there was no need to spoil it in Azure; much like the occupation, that they revealed it happened, sure, but they shouldn't have talked about the years of occupation before being free again, because now you know it won't last and everything will be okay again, and all of this just to give Azure a happy ending when the situation they were left on absolutely doesn't call for one; sorry for ranting about it, I wanted to get that out of my system, let's go back to talk about the twist. So yeah, Osborne is alive, and with that, everything Crow and the ILF have been working towards was reduced to naught, and he never got to find that out because he died just before that, he might as well pee on his still lukewarm body, his lifegoal, his purpose, for nothing, great 👍; but that's not all he does, this reveal surprises Vita as well, but for different reasons, first off, she confirmed that him and Ouroboros DID worked together during the crisis in Liberl with the steam tank, even if plays cou here, just like Olivier predicted in SC, and apparently, he has taken under his control a branch of the Thirteen Factories under his control, most likely this famous Black Workshop which Altina originates from, and he boldly declared in front of her, THAT HE WILL TAKE OVER THE PHANTASMAL BLAZE PLAN!!!! HELLO !??! THIS IS HUGE!!!!!! Especially since Vita seem quite shock by that declaration; you may be asking "how the fuck can he take over the plan?" but the thing is, we don't know anything about this plan beside the things Vita said earlier, so how can we say it's impossible ? They're both clearly talking about something that's way over our heads (which is quite accurate to how Class VII must feel right now); but also, this is the first time in the series that Ouroboros has been outmaneuvered, in Sky, they got what they wanted in the end, despite the loss of Weissman and Loewe, in Crossbell, they completed their goals halfway through and pissed off without much resistance, but now, not only they didn't accomplished their plan here, but Osborne will hijack it for his own need, this is a big setback for Ouroboros, Vita got outplayed by Osborne and she can escape only because he allow her to report back to them, the setup of Osborne as the antagonist is immaculate and as the greatest of the series so far since he's the only one to have been able to outart Ouroboros of all people; so yeah, Vita pisses off afterward after apologizing to us for everything she's done, and Millium goes back to being an Ironblood where we learn Rufus' title: the Jade Rook, fitting for the chess metaphor Osborne likes so very much, and he orders him to invade Crossbell after everything is settled over here.
- After everything that happened, Rean is understandably furious at Osborne, not the right reasons of course because from the point of view of an Empire's citizen, he should be grateful that his Chancellor survived his assassination attempt and that the terrorist died; but because him being alive and well as if nothing happened invalidate everything Crow fought and lived for, and the thing is, he can't even accuse him of killing him because he died due to the apocalypse, which was defeated by him, so he has nothing to vent on except Osborne; and it's when Rean is at his weakest moment that our dear Chancellor drops on us the third twist of this finale: that he's his biological father........I'm actually infuriated that you got spoiled on that by that fucker a while back, because this in my humblest opinion, is one of the greatest twist of the series, I'll even say that it's the "I am your father" of modern times because it freaking works, after several games of setup for Osborne as an antagonist and this ending showing even more of that, you find out that the whole time, you've been playing as Osborne Junior, and he's planning to make Rean into a hero.
- And that's the end of the Finale....... What an end right ? In Japanese, they actually rolled the credit here, which probably sounded like a big fuck you from Falcom to "end" the game on a SECOND cliffhanger XD, but Xeed wanted to do something different and decided to do a goodbye video music for Crow, and Falcom gave them what they needed, including never before seen arts meant for Cold Steel 3, like the ones for Laura, Jusis, Emma and Millium, and the music playing during this: I'll remember you, not only gut punched us a second time, but also stabbed our hearts, here's a link to another version of song that's equally good, if not better than the original : th-cam.com/video/QztNIWQOsuQ/w-d-xo.htmlsi=451V9JozyXNm29Ln
- And I'll end it there, but of course, we're not done yet, not by a long shot, and we'll talk about what comes after, next time.
Cold steel is just osborne playibg 4D chess.
Something cool is rean and lloyd are suppose to mirror each other as protagonist.
With rean become hero that save his country but failed to save his friend/family while lloyd become wanted man but manage to save KeA with the cost of crossbell independence
Finale name is called Forward, relentlessly in case you missed it
Yoo back to back
See you in CS3!!
...is what I'd say except you're not actually done yet.
"Time for the final boss"
"Who said it was the final boss?"
Nutshell!Crow's own words coming back to haunt him lol
@@weaponsci That better appear in the nutshell again. Loved that one
@@Nova_Silver Plus from my experience, the filter they use to disguise the voice when he's wearing the mask doesn't work as well as it did the first time. Like if you pay real close attention when the second C talks with the mask on, you can easily recognize the voice, at least compared to the first one.
@@weaponsci At least you did not need to pull another all nighter as well
Personally, this is my favorite Cold Steel game.
It's good
yeah the game is definently over, except of course the 10 hours of epilogue still to come
Prepare to cry editon
Poor Grianos, he will be missed :(
Duke cayenne thinking he's hot stuff, when in reality he was never in control of anything and has not acomplished even a single thing. It was all vita and crow to begin with so no suprise there.
It wasn't even Vita and Crow. Crow, like General Aurelia and Brigadier General Wallace, was just a footsoldier in the war, albeit a unique and extremely powerful one. Vita was just an outside consultant who helped out "preparing the stage" for the battle between Valimar and Ordine, which Ouroboros wanted to bring about, but did very little heavy lifting regarding the war itself.
The true core of the Noble Alliance weren't its bickering figureheads Cayenne and Albarea, but rather its chief of staff, Osborne's mole Rufus. And given that Rufus was privvy to everything within the alliance, it shows how far ahead of the game Osborne really was. Did he know the ILF was gonna attack the trade conference? Yup. Did he know C was Crow? Yup. Did he know he was gonna be assassinated? Yup. Did he know when and where? Yup. Did he know an occupation of the capital and civil war would be the result of that? Yup. Did he allow all of that to happen just so he could get the alliance to overextend itself, have his mole weaken it from within and gently nudge out its two most prominent figures so he could take control of it himself and unify Erebonia under his rule? Yup.
What they do with Osborne in later games has its fair amount of detractors, but this part right here was a masterstroke in pretending to play checkers and then come out with a 4D chess play. The fact that for the first time in the series, Ouroboros is genuinely on the back foot (and has the Black Workshop, one its 13 Factories subsidiaries, stolen from under it to add insult to injury) is just icing on the cake.
The Darth Vader moment was also foreshadowed in the cutscene you get if you talk to Rean's foster parents in Ymir just before you set out for the final operation. (along with a really nice scene)
I was kind of taken back that it didn't make it into the videos. Did you miss it or did you not include it since you were already spoiled on the plot point of Rean's parentage?
Alright, I gotta know, did you get to see the next section immediately after recording this or have you not played that yet?
As of now, I've beaten the game (epilogue included) and watched the black records NG+ stuff. I'm just behind with editing.
Damn, your item inventory was looking rather empty. At least make some Curry!
Shame on the people that spoiled that.
It's not the end yet, but I feel like now is as good of a time as any to start compiling my thoughts on the game as a whole. The two follow-up dungeons are just padding (the last last boss says as much).
This time around the plot's mostly functional, as lengthy Trista segments aren't dominating a third of the game's runtime. I'd have preferred the -chapters- acts had more going on similar to how SC created proper plotlines for the individual regions, but that's an issue that largely stems from not having had enough time for the world of Erebonia to distinguish itself in the last game imo, so I won't bang that drum too hard.
Cayenne might be the single worst villain of the entire series so far (don't worry, he _will_ get competition). He's scum, pure and simple, and ultimately only serves his self-interest. He speaks of restoring Erebonia to it's proper state (of feudalism), but can't seem to offer any kind of moral, logical or philosophical reason for _why_ it's proper to begin with, other than that it is. For his moral faults, Weissman's correctly identified a problem with the human condition, and even Joachim believed he was serving a higher purpose. As early as Liberl, we've had hints about the class struggle going on in Erebonia, and it's honestly very disheartening to see the game that should explore the concept can't seem to manage antagonistic nobility with more depth than Duke Dunan. Just an aside, but I recently replayed Kingdom Come: Deliverance, and Hans fucking Capon might be my favorite character in the entire game. He goes from such an annoying, spoiled brat to a _likable,_ spoiled brat incredibly quickly and yet it feels completely organic.
Something I recall thinking during my own playthrough and noticed again here is how damn long winded the dialogue gets near the end. Five minute chat with Crow prior to fighting him, then another five minutes after, then another five minutes of everyone watching him die... I wonder if anyone at Falcom actually played through this bit properly, cause good lord does everyone needing to pipe in with generic lines kill the mood. That's not me saying long dialogue bad, just that it feels incredibly poor compared to what the scenes around the Loewe and Weissman fights did. The focus was squarely on Estelle and Joshua, we didn't need constant party member's input to remind us they exist.
Now then, I think that's enough warmup, time to kick into high gear and explain why I think CS1 & 2 are such a letdown for me. And it even boils down to one word: 'characters'. I could've also added 'theme', but it's usually your hero and primary antagonist that embody it to begin with, so it would be a little redundant. It's a common enough criticism that Class VII is poorly balanced in terms of focus, so I won't harp on it here. Instead, I'll limit myself to the _dramatis personae_ of this game, Rean and Crow. They're the beating heart (or the lack of one) of these two games, very similar to Estelle and Joshua in Sky. Problem is unlike our dynamic duo of Liberl, there's a distinct lack of chemistry here. The only two members of Class VII who've _any_ specific connection to our wayward bird are Rean and Elliot, the latter only because we had dialogue establishing they talked to each other more in preparation for their concert back in CS1. Rean himself fares only slightly better if we exclude the entire Awakener thing, which I promise to go more into if/when it's time to bare my final thoughts on CS3&4.
Just imagine, if you will, if Crow had been with Class VII the entire time. Hell, go the extra mile and have _him_ be the charismatic leader figure throughout the first game. This way you can spend time establishing Rean as more of an awkward loner who looks up to (even envies) him, and eventually develops into the class' vice commander capable of stepping up to the plate come CS2 throughout the first game whilst also showing off Crow's skills for the C reveal. This would also make the rest of the class' rapport with him that much more believable if he was the one playing therapist through most of the first game.
As for Rean, I mentioned in my wall of text on the last CS1 part how I can't speak much about him until this game, and I think it's obvious why after the Osborne scene. So, without further ado, here comes my rant about the massive issue with him.
Literally all you had to do was *not* give Rean amnesia. I cannot stress enough how just realizing that one thing soured my already low opinion on the writing of his entire character. Parental abandonment (we find out more about the circumstances later, but what Rean himself would remember wouldn't constitute a major spoiler) can easily lead to exactly the sort of issues he's dealing with: fear of attachment, low self-worth etc. In fact, he'd make much more sense if his loving adoptive family weren't the only one he's ever known. His feelings of inadequacy (or outright resentment) would also be the perfect reason to enroll at Thors: make something of himself and prove Osborne was wrong to leave him, that he isn't weak or worthless.
And that's just Rean's starting point. Ask yourself how much more you could squeeze out of the writing if he was aware the man grinding people underfoot with his aggressive modernization and expansion policies was his own father. How would seeing other people's takes of the Chancellor, both the hate and adoration, affect Rean? How much more personal would his view of the entire state of the Empire be? And what would he think of the Ironbloods, the family his father chose over him? How much more personal and impactful would the ending of CS1 (and his relationship with Crow in this game) be? Hell, how would it affect _him_ to suddenly lose the man who may well have been his _raison d'etre?_
I'm not kidding when I say Falcom somehow managed to completely and utterly waste what could have been an _amazing_ character. I genuinely have no earthly idea how inept of a writer you have to be to not use something as juicy as Rean being Osborne's son in any way for two entire games, but it really serves to highlight how far we've fallen. The more I think of Sky, the more I realize how much forethought and effort went into the writing in those games. For instance, remember how Kevin helped Estelle when they first met? Hits a little different after playing 3rd and finding out what happened with his mom, doesn't it? By contrast, the more I think of Cold Steel, the more fundamental issues like the one above pop up.
Cant really spoil much as I havent started cs3 yet myself, but i have theories regarding osborne still alive given what we already know. Curious to find out if and when the trutn is revealed
Okay, seriously, who the heck keeps spoiling you on the Cold Steel twists? Seriously takes all the wind out of the reactions.
It was one person and one message, and they've more or less been dealt with. I haven't seen them back since.
Only other thing I've been spoiled on is the second C's identity but idk anything else beyond that.
@@weaponsci Second C sucks anyways so that one isn't so bad :)
@@weaponsci There's a special place in Gehenna for people who do stuff like that.
Jesus, you got spoiled on that too? People just can't keep their damn mouths shut, huh?
Like and subscribe or else Rean will dump Millium and add Black Millium to his party/harem instead, and you don't want that now, do you?
Well, I started CS3 the other day and was introduced to New Class 7, so...
@@weaponsci Well, I knew you already had been playing the REAL end of CS2, and was attempting to tease the part where you play as Lloyd, and thought cs3 as a bonus... so yeah, I wasn't actually spoiling cs3, but cs2 I already knew you did =P
That said Altina best girl. people dispute it because loli-phobic reasons, but sex isn't the reason you effing degenerates. I'd elaborate but can't not spoil if I do.
Loli phobic, that's a new one lol.
@@weaponsci Don't remember what I said and it got deleted, baw. You have to admit though loli-phobia is a real thing =P
Sorry I'm kinda spamming comments here, but I have to make this one separate because it contains *KURO/DAYBREAK 2 SPOILERS:*
Looking back at this now, for anyone whose played Kuro 2, I'm kinda shocked how many similarities there are between the Vermillion Apocalypse and the Grendel-Zolga. Anyone else see this? Most obviously there's the red colour, then the *long pointed tail which borrows into the ground then stabs up through a character's chest in an almost identical way, killing them* and THEN there's the many more similarities between the VA's final form and Grendel-Zolga's SIN form, including *massive wings* developing.
It could just be a coincidence, but that's three shared physical features and one specific behaviour with one of those features shared between the two. Huh...
Bro, you are not even done with the game yet...but I'll let you figure that out on your own.
this is not the ending of cs2. in my memory there was a pretty fun post game mini dungeon 😉
Most Normal People: Hate Osborne for conventional reasons. I mean he is the main antagonist of the Cold Steel Arc, (Not much of a spoiler of me to say that is it?)
Me, the obvious Ouroboros simp that I am: Hates Osborne because, "I'm going to take over that Phantasmal Blaze Plan of yours."
Either way I hate him but I hate people pretending he wasn't evil more :)
Still beat the final boss with all characters level 9999 :) anyway, rip crow.
Since I had Rean lv 200 kill HIS first half of this boss on nightmare mode IN UNDER 30 seconds my OTHER lv 200 party Laura Millum Sarah Jusis/Fie fought the round 2 version only to still kill IT in under 30 seconds and yes if Valimar isn't at lv 200 it will barely last 1 to 2 turns IF AT all on Nightmare mode.
lmao skill issue. I remember speedrunning nightmare to get 100% trophies and forgot to equip orbs. It was a pain in the ass but as long as you defend, counter and buff appropriately you can beat vermillion with lvl 130+ valimar. Took a bit of retries tho.
Without Valimar at lv 200 on Nightmare mode I would still have IT die before I could drain even HALF of this bosses HP even WITH Attack 2 Attack 3 AND HP 3 ORBS all used agaInst it.
Not over yet, right?
This scene alone is why I never recommend playing zero and azure before coldsteel. By spoiling Osborne being alive they both ruin the ending of cs1 and one of the best plot twists in cs2. What I recommend is, playing coldsteel 1 and 2 until divertiment, plsying zero and azure and than finishing cs2.
First to report for duty
So uh... you know you haven't actually finished the game, right? 😂
What? You got spoiled on the Reans dad twist? Nooooo!!!! I wanted to see your blind reaction! Now I'm disappointed. Who Spoiled you? It totally wasn't me, right? Man, I wanted to see your blind reaction! I can't enjoy these videos if you get spoiled on everything! Who the hell keeps spoiling you? But I saw you are on Cold Steel 3 now. I hope you played the rest of Cold Steel 2. And watched the new game+ cutscene. But seriously, I need these spoilers to stop! Otherwise, my popcorn will be useless! I want to see blind players die from shock! It just isn't the same when they already have spoilers. I personally do not mind spoilers, but damn it, I want you to not get spoiled! The big twist and I did not get the reaction I wanted because it was spoiled. Damn it!
I was also spoiled on the second C's identity, but besides that, I know nothing else.
Osborne-Rean bullshit scene feels the same as at the first time. Probably the worst twist in the series.