Whoops. Forgot the timestamps. Also, I tried recording the majority of the footage for this game on my laptop since it would be more convenient for me and I'd be able to finish the game faster. I usually do most of my gaming on my desktop but I've had to share it as of late. Trails wasn't very demanding, but the computer couldn't handle that and OBS at the same time, so I couldn't reliably record without running the risk of skipped frames afterward. So that's why the resolution looks really weird (damn you Surface and your weird aspect ratios). if you happen to see any lag during the video it's not you, it's me. I recorded the last fraction of the game on my desktop so it probably looks crispier than the rest of the video. All that being said, I hope these inconveniences don't ruin the experience for you. Enjoy the video. Introduction and setting - 0:00 Things I liked - 3:08 Things I disliked - 11:18 Thoughts on the other main characters (spoiler warning) - 12:37 Story discussion (spoiler warning) - 19:15
I'm not sure if you already figured that out, but the reason Weissmann is called the Faceless, is because no one remembers him or what he looks like. Even Estelle forgot about him. But yeah, the Faceless title is due to him erasing his existence from other peoples minds. It's kinda scary when you think about it.
I also thought of them like a adventurers guild. Or maybe pathfinders. Or the faction 'abnegation' combined with the strengh of dauntless people in 'Divergent'
I only buy the one that's after the current one I'm on. Except for trails in the sky i bought all 3 on sale. The games do go on sale often enough.. Like Cold Steel 3 & 4 are on sale right now 50%
"Tita is the most precious thing in this game and should be protected at all costs". Literally. She has absolutely no defense or HP, you don't want ennemies to swing at her too many times.
She is the embodiment of a “glass cannon”. After buffing her a little bit, i found that she can dish a lot of damage, and all of her attacks are AOE. Plus, i mean, “little girl with big sword” is old, how about little girl with a GATLING GUN
I like describing this as the Marvel Cinematic Universe of JRPGs. Also, given that orbment upgrades and quartz are expensive, and, presumably, you could just buy those nice quartz and orbment upgrades if you were rich enough, it makes sense that Kloe would have a fully upgraded orbment with full quartz...I mean...Given her background... Also, Olivier is the best attack mage.
Tita's voice in japanese is the most precious thing in the world. Also it is possible to defeat Lorence if you use the correct equipment. But it's HARD. There's even an achivement for that.
One of the absolute highlights of SC is Richard coming to the rescue in a time of crisis and basically telling everyone "I didn't have faith in the future of Liberl, but with kids like Estelle, Joshua, Kloe, Tita and the rest of you, I realize now, I was dead wrong."
@@PrettyGuardian me too but I have to say for me personally not the whole game Was a Prolog. And the second half of final chapter I would say the Story was already moving so fast that it was not prologue anymore.
I just got done finishing this first trilogy of Trails games and I enjoyed the style of storytelling in these games. One probelm I have with the main Final Fantasy games is that they escalate from fighting lowly goons and random monsters to stoping the end of the world in one game. This usually results in the world building and character development taking a backseat as the story has to rush in order to reach those heights by the end. But since Trails in the Sky uses the First Chapter to establish the setting, the characters and the group dynamics while taking on a reasonable threat, it allows them to explore those aspects more thoroughly in the Second Chapter and 3rd while ramping up the challenges. So by the time the protagonists are facing down an end of world threat they are more than just a character template with a backstory attached. By Falcom taking their time we get to see these characters grow from when we first meet them.
Yeah if you showed me the beginning of FC and then the end of the 3rd I'd have told you they looked like two different series altogether! It really takes its time with the story, which as you said, means the good stuff is more impactful because progression feels natural.
@@drowningin Slightly. The party is exhausted, they all say something like “holy crap this guy is a monster, and Lorence says “impressive” before smashing the ground and putting down the party. Then the cutscene continues as normal. If i remember correctly, he drops a gladiator belt upon in-battle defeat and he gives extra bracer points.
This series is my favorite game of all time. When I played first chapter 10 years ago it ended on a cliff hanger. I downloaded the second chapter and play through it all with print out scrip translations line by line hahaha it was an amazing memory. I love the characters and replayed it many times.
Just found out about this series around a week ago. I was just looking for some older RPG's to get into, but not so old that I'd be playing SNES games. Gotta say, I'm absolutely blown away. Maybe I don't play enough RPG's that're made by companies other than SquareEnix, but the features in this game just blow my mind.
Don't even know why I am going to over share in here but here I go: Used to be a hardcore gamer until I got in a very committed relationship that lasted years on end, so I stopped playing games, then my dad died in 2016 (he was my best friend and confidant, he was a great man) and my GF left me bcs she could not see me in depression or some bullshit excuse. After some months of nothingness, I opened a steam account for myself and went for a cheap JRPG, you know, to try to get back into things, and that weekend, Trails in the Sky FC was on sale, got it for like $7, no kidding. The familiar story beats, the easy going story, the slow pace, everything appealed to me, specially the music, I still remember the first time I heard the song going out of Estelle's house, it was like the colors returned to my life for a bit, a wash of joy. The people felt like people in this game, the characters and their dialogue felt real, and the relationship between our protagonists was oh so endearing!, then that ending happened. Ofc I immediately felt the strongest connection I have felt with a character with Estelle. So I bought SC right then and there. Seeing her go through the stages of grief, and how she came at the other side even stronger than before, not only gave me hope, but made me stand up and get on with my life. Needless to say, Trails games are my favorite (even though the cold steel arc was not as good as the previous ones) and Estelle Bright, has a very special place in my heart. Thank you Falcom!
I really loved your sense of humour throughout the video. I'm glad you liked sky fc as I myself am a huge fan of the series and falcom in general. I can almost guarantee that you'll love sky sc and every other trails game after that. I'm surprised that with the quality of your video's you don't have more subscribers. Also, that profile picture of a mexican Estelle is beautiful.
My first jrpg. Needless to say, i blazed through the entire series (from sky 1st to cold steel 3) in a year. Patiently waiting for cold steel 4 now. Great video.
@@Naticus105 SC is my favorite followed by cs3. Azure's translation sucks; i like the game but i will play it once again with the geofront translation.
@@Naticus105 I think there is only one complete translation available for azure. You can still get the plot but the beautiful interactions between characters (as present in all trails games) is lost, on top of that almost every line has grammatical error to the point some lines don't even make any sense.
I've just started playing this game about a week ago and after getting some non-spoilers reviews from my friends, I wanted to take my sweet time playing it by making sure to speak to each and every single one of the NPCs and even writing down their movements and what they say for future references XD
@@theonewhosayshello6367 Yeah, I started playing Sky last year, finished the 3rd this and just finished Zero. I still want to complete one other game before Azure though. Grandia on my switch and then I'm good to go. And I just insrtalled Cold steel back on my PC. And I have Cold Steel 3 ready for my switch once I'm done with the first two games. I am excited for Hajimari and hope I don't play the other games too fast before it come out. Although I still have the official Zero release for Switch next year. I hope you enjoy your playthrough of Azure.
Just got into the trails series. Bought all games plus the fan translations for zero and azure. I just finished cold steel 1 cuz I didn’t know I had to play it in order. Starting my sky run tomorrow. I fell in love with this series
So, I know I've already commented on this video, but I just have to say that I saw the ending to Cold Steel 4 the other day, and I was amazed. I figured that would happen eventually early on in Sky FC, and it was set up all the way back in Chapter 1 (the Bose region) of this very game. It was cool to see it paid off nearly 15 years, and 8 games, later. That is world building and story-telling, my friends, to see character arcs grow and change over the course of many stories, and to finally get the payoff in the end that was set up at the very beginning.
Just want to say that the second lieutenant Lorence can actually be beaten. Right before fighting him, there's a dude outside that sells items. He sells accessories that prevent confusion, silence, and etc. You equip those to have an "easier" time fighting him, which is still in my opinion the hardest fight in the game. I think beating him gives you some additional guild points for that chapter.
Lorence fight is not scripted. You can beat him and if you do, you get an achievement for it as well. You need to have top quality gears, correct quartz combinations and a balanced team. It will be a long fight but yes you can win.
This is such a terrific video, that, watching it again, I noticed something else: when Richard wants the Shinning Ring because he figures if Liberl has that, other nations won't mess with them. . . after playing Trails to Azure, Cold Steel 1 and Cold Steel 2 where another one of the 7 (the shinning ring also being 1 of the 7) is used, I gotta say, Richard is probably right. The Shinning Ring probably would be enough to guarantee Liberl's security, so points for Richard's plan being extremely realistic.
I just finished this game. It took me 61h40m. So it's more of a 60h prologue. I played with the evo voice mod, so that may have played a big part in my playtime. There's a ridiculous amount of voice acting, almost everything is voice acted with the mod. I'll start the sequel tomorrow, I have a feeling this is going to become one of my favorite stories in gaming, up there with Yakuza and FF XIV.
Great video man! I finished FC the other night and I absolutely loved it. Great characters, plot twists, etc. Looking forward to starting SC and continuing my journey down the Trails rabbit hole. lol
Just started FC last week and I've been really enjoying it, I'm about halfway through chapter 4 so I'm looking forwards to the finale. I've already got SC and third as well as the first two Cold Steel games ready for when I get there (I know, playing it in the release order is the best way, but cold steel and Trails from Zero technically take place at the same time, or so I've heard). I'm gonna have to do what I can to drip feed myself while we wait for the official translation of Trails From Zero this fall... Ah well, I've got the Y's series to tide me over and university to provide a consistent distraction, so I'm sure it will be fine.
If you take your time you'll probably just be finishing Sky by the time zero comes out, maybe Azure too depending on how early in 2023 it comes out. Also good luck with uni, I know it can get really tough at times. Stay strong you got this! 💪
@@weaponsci Thanks, I appreciate it! It's been tough so far, but I'm getting close to the end. The only problem is, I might be a little addicted to post-secondary education. I'm actually working on my second Bachelors degree and it will be a struggle to not go back to school once I complete it.
@@wedasantika6079 Yes that fight happens with Estelle, Kloe, and Schera while Joshua, is makinghis way through the sewers with I think Zin and Olivier. it may have been Agate but i'm pretty sure it was OIlivier as I don't think Agate gets explored until SC.
This is a series I wanted to get into ever since they announced Cold Steel 3 would be a culmination of 7 games, 2 of which he never got in the west. Fast forward a while, I found out that there was a translation of Trails to zero done and Ao (Now Azure) was being worked on. I decided to bite the bullet and just finished the prologue to In the Sky FC. It's a slow burn for sure and I figured how the prologue would end early on but I plan to see this through. I just want to experience the story so I can get to Cold Steel because I played a demo and it looks and sounds fantastic. I can't wait to be able to get there.
If sky is slow, cold steel 1 is absolutely glacial. Also it references the crossbell arc all the time. At this point i have high levels of distrust towards cold steel stans.
The charizard part had me rolling, partly because that’s how my internal dialogue read her name. Great review, I too just finished the game and wanted a recap and you delivered. The only part I disagree was the music, I felt like a lot of the tracks were memorable but the night time ambient track is by far the best and one I will add to my playlist. Thanks !
I think the reason why alba has faceless in his name is because people who try to remember who he is doesn't remember what he looks like, like he doesn't have a face maybe? Which can be seen at the start of SC when estelle tries to remember who she bumped into before going back to Joshua with icecream
currently playing this game. Im at the final dungeon ready to finish it so I can move to the 2nd game then 3rd. Then just gottta wait for the 2 crossbell games. Then Ill finally be ready to go past Cold Steel 4 update: Just finished Trails in the Sky
"You will want to pick up the next game while you're at it" Yea, thats the entire series. The entire series. I was on steam one day and saw Cold Steel 3 demo, and thought "what the hell i'll give it a try". Immediately after I bought Cold Steel 1, then 2, then 3, and then I was like 4's not out yet??? Immediately bought all the sky games and zero and azure. I'm still waiting for the 4th game. (To be clear, the 4th game is out on playstation, but I don't have a playstation so... i'm waiting on PC.)
I'm curious, how much of 1 and 2 does the Cold Steel 3 demo spoil? I'm still debating whether or not to get the Cold Steel games on PS4 or PC and I'm thinking of using that demo to test the game purely for technical reasons. I can't imagine they'd spoil stuff in a demo, but considering the continuity between all the games they just might.
@@weaponsci They really don't spoil anything at all in the demo. When I played it I didn't know who any of them were and none of them were any kind of plot twist. In fact, only 4 of the characters shown are in the other cold steel games so..
@@weaponsci I would say the Demo doesn't spoilt to much since you really don't understand what the hell is going on. Even Charakters you see you can bot put into a Box at the beginning. I was absolutely overwhelmed. Not really in the positive way. But it went good after I decided to go back to Cold Steel 1. The Demo versions always take the flashback scenes to play.
Dude the intro when you said cold steel looked cool in steam is how I got into the legend of heroes. I was just aimlessly scrolling through steam till I saw rean's s craft and I was sold and I fell in the rabbit hole
Yeah it looks like a lot of people discovered it that way. Trails of Cold Steel was similar enough to some other modern JRPG they were playing at the time (ex. Persona, recent Fire Emblem, etc.) and they decide to try it, get hooked, and then play the other games. Though I still decided to start with Sky since I wanted to see the story in release order.
@@weaponsci same but I started with cold steel up to 3 and before 4 came out I finished sky trilogy. And after 4 I started the crossbell games. Such a good game. Going for the trophies in cold steel now
I got cold steel 3 with no added costs as Google Stadia cloud game. I normally would have never played that game but since I already owned it I thought give it a try. It was my best and worst decision. Best because I love the series. Worst because im spending and bit more time than I have in that series....
Happy to have a new member in the club :)) I would suggest taking your time and trying for a perfect playthrough of each game. There are many, many details that are easily missed and since you are a hardcore fan already (yeah you are, you just don't know it yet), you will want those.
This game took me 77 hours to beat lol, and i played on turbo mode mostly. One thing I want to mention is that the Loewe fight is very doable. It wrecked me the first time, but I reloaded my save and went in with the proper items. Beat it on that try.
I. LOVED. This game. I just finished it. I have SC installed and am starting it tomorrow… I didn’t love the pacing leading up to the last fight(s), it definitely got a bit sloggy, but overall just adored my time with it.
You mention to use Sieg against the Photon Judges, but seem to forget they tend to resist the debuff, you can use it on Richard though. Also, Death Rage targets [or almost always targets, for some reason it very rarely doesn't] whoever has the highest CP, it's not random nor is it based on how many S-Crafts you use.
One thing I like about the trails game is that most of your status effects work on most enemies including most bosses. It's deeply frustrating to me that in Square Enix games they'll give you status effects and then they are almost never usable to the point that it's not even worth bothering.
I keep meaning to get back to the Trails series, it's just daunting due to the number of long games. I played FC on PSP back when it was first released in the US, but didn't even hear about 2 and 3 getting released until after Cold Steel came out. Doesn't help that I wasn't super impressed with FC anyway. Kinda like you said, it was fine but not the earth-shattering experience I'd been told it was. I remember being kinda pissed off at one event at the end, and frankly don't remember a single thing that happened during the rest of the game. Will have to replay it... one of these days.
Lorence: Don't worry. You're supposed to lose my fight Estelle: Yeah, everyone says that BEFORE they get hit with the big stick... Actual helpful tip: Equip immune to silence & confuse/faint. Refresh Earth Wall as much as you can. He heals for ~1k while you can attack with 1.5k of Arts with equalized Speed. Take him down to half health then use Kaempfer before 200 cp S-Breaking with Estelle and Scherazard. 1 dead pretty boy served.
The worst part of every video covering a person's foray into the Trails series is hearing the OST in the back and being absolutely assailed by nostalgia.
I saw this title before starting to plays Trails Sky, so I figured it was 40hrs so I figured I could fit it into my very strictly planned out game time. Then I blew past 40hrs, and I kept thinking "well it must be ending soon" I finally beat it today over 130hrs. What the heck?
I kinda just blew through the story when I had first made this. If you do the sidequests and extra content and talk to all the NPCs I can definitely see it turning into 100+ hours.
Hahaha I was really curious how someone would end this game in 40 hours. Took me 62hours and I am really no completionist and right triggern Button (fast mode) was my best friend.
Oooooh I started this game. Played five or ten hours and loved it, But I got distracted by something or other and it went in my huge pile of Steam a games I haven’t played/finished. I should go back and start over.
Pro tip: always ALWAYS have Kloe in your party in SC not for the obvious reason of being the dedicated healer but also her naturally high ATS which makes her arts hit like a semi truck and especially when you get the shoes halfway through the game that buffs her arts by a full 100 points.
Lorence was the one superboss I actually vowed to defeat no matter how many times I lose. Funnily enough I beat him on my 3rd try thanks to clock up ex and earth guard. He was a different beast in sc though as I needed everyone at 200 cp before I barely managed to beat him with only joshua left standing ( Kevin's s craft is a lifesaver).
ayy nice review I played this first when it was only on PSP back in 2012 so I had to wait more than 3 excruciating years to play the sequel. Even to this day after playing most of the games currently available in English, I still consider FC my favorite even if objectively speaking it's probably not the best, but it just has special vibes the others don't have or fail to replicate (Zero no Kiseki/Trails from Zero comes extremely close to it though, this one is close 2nd in my book). I've finished the game 7 times since, but it feels so much like home and comforting to play that it's hard to put down. It's a shame that I can't seem to get excited as much for the new Cold Steel games as much as I used to for the Sky trilogy though. I get that every new game is built upon the previous one, but it strays further and further from what made me like FC, and I don't like where Falcom is leading the series.
Ouch. I couldn't imagine having to wait three whole years for SC. It took all my willpower just to play FC twice. I'm really trying to keep my exposure to later games as minimal as possible, but its interesting you said that about CS since so far I've heard nothing but praise for it. Plus, as I said, it was the game that initially caught my eye before I found out there were previous games.
My Problem with the music in FC is. They are great but you often get the same if not at least similar Songs. But in trails 3 the Standard music the people are talking with nothing going on. This is really an annoying Soundtracks.... Besides that nearly everithing is great.
25:20 Actually you can beat him, and you get some different dialogue and some other stuff for doing so! My advice is to just spam him with arts and equip your party with anti confuse and anti faint stuff.
....the "Lorence" fight......I spent so long restarting to finally beat that bugger! Only to find out I missed at some point in the game 2 bloody BP.......
I’m at the end of chapter 1, and 17 hours in. I’ve used the boost feature for pretty much all game play that isn’t story, but I’m loving the game so much.
The Major Difference between Bracers and Police is discussed in the Zero no Kiseki. ***Spoiler Alert*** The Lack of Police in Liberl is explained with the strong presence of the army to keep Erebonia at bay. Because of the high capabilities of army officers, there is little need for regular officers, however they still exist (albeit, off screen). The Bracer Guilds scattered throughout Zemuria holds high regard with their citizen, being extremely reliable when they need their assistance, something that also keeps the government linked officers at bay and impede they growth as a institution. Adding to that, as seen in Zero no Kiseki, even a state that holds its own between Calvard and the Erebonia (empire), choose to trust more in the Bracer Guilds, rather than the police itself. Also, what hinders the police capabilities, is the corruption of the parliament members that keeps the Police authority in check, so they cannot perform their duties accordingly. Since The Bracers guild is a non government institution, they are not impaired by this blocker, however, in the story, this can cause some obstacle to them. Notes: (In order to compete against the Bracers Guild, the Crossbell state creates a special division in order to try and solve this problem, but they still demonstrate some problems to deal with high government corruption which mines their action). Notes 2: So, even with the Bracers being able to make arrests, their major concerns is with the citizen's well being rather than to throw themselves to stop operations that does not put the citizens at immediate dangers, so they are not really interested in corruption in the government and/or petty thievery etc.
They are not even allowed to do something against corruption since they are not allowed to fight against governmental Personal if it its not directly connected to saying some civilians life and you need to have a proof for this.
The first game starts off very rough. I dropped it before I finished the prologue and only got back after clearing Cold Steel 1. It was still a rough go until the final chapter when it started resembling the intrigue and world building of Cold Steel. The characters are for sure better, especially Estelle and Joshua who showed more personality in the prologue than Rean ever will. I'm so excited to keep going, and hope I'm done TC before Trails from Zero comes out.
But on the other side rean is a great Protagonist for showung the quality of class 7 in a whole. I think a yoshua and estelle would so extremely outshine most members of class 7. Every Protagonist in every ark has his special qualities which fit great to the games. I wouldn't like to miss anyone of them.
You know.... This really is a game series that cant be played, you live through it cuz the legend of heroes: Trails spin off series are not games THEY'RE A LIFE STYLE
Nice video, you surely deserve more subscribers. Kaempfer or Kämpfer is German and means fighter. Sieg itself means victory. There are many German words and names throughout the series, it's one of those strange Japanese things...
@@weaponsci Yeah, actually it's said that Erebonia is loosely based on some parts of German history. Haven't played Cold Steel myself yet, though. Names like Mueller, Schwarzer and Klaudia are common in Germany as well. As a German I find the usage of these terms in Trails quite silly. :D
@@firebreather4192 in the fanwiki the tactic or erobonia in the hundred days war how they nearly conquered liberl was also called blitzkrieg Taktik. Which was how Germany invaded Poland.
Japan and German are funny. I believe they get all their German words from an English-German dictionary. I found a game where a piece of footwear was called Schläge. This literally means "socks", but not a sock you wear, it's a sock as in a punch to the face. The only way they could have gotten that is if they looked up the English word sock and they used the wrong entry lol
I see. Yeah that makes sense. On another note, could you go easy with the spoilers? I get that you're probably really eager to talk about the whole series but just keep in mind some of us haven't played the future games yet. :)
@@weaponsci oh ok sure thing my bad, tho that kinda isn't a spoiler with zero and the first cold steel game with governments not liking bracers and it's established very early on I the first games of the different arcs that that's why you're a psuedo bracer in anything but name lol(tho i guess uttering Osborne's name is kinda a spoiler at this point... but only hard core spider man fans like myself would be suspicious of a guy named Osborne lol) My bad on late reply lol
@@weaponsci ge gets death scream pretty early on and he can nuke most enemies with it and he can also get zodiac near the end of the game that gives your entire party insane buffs
I have to say. I never saw olivier as such a strong fighter when playing cold steel first. On the other side I thought as him beeing quite handsome but man in sky he is unbearable in Charakters perspective. Still I used weighted Performance over Sympathie and after all we went through I somehow like him. Especially with the knowledge to how he will change in the years....
So gotta say for anyone who is now thinking about picking up the sky arc and potentially the rest of the series. Do not play Sky FC and SC on anything above normal. Those games were not made with higher difficulties in mind and all the difficulties do is raise stats by 20% for hard and 40% for nightmare on all enemies. This can be an issue because of how DEF works as a stat where you can easily do 50 dmg when on normal you would do 200. But most importantly its speed that is the issue coupled with stuff hitting hard af, bosses taking 2 turns for every 1 turn you take is nasty. There are also some quest bosses who scale horribly with difficulty. Clearing those games on a new save on high difficulty involves knowing the combat system in and out and grinding for the right stuff early on. Difficulty in trials evens out after a while but early sections tend to be hell on high difficulty. You might not even leave the tutorial of SC on hard or nightmare depending on how the AI is feeling. Also FC is old as balls and the story drags compared to the rest of the series so the faster you can get through before losing interest the better. You pretty much play this game to get to know the characters and world which set up for the conflict in SC. Both FC and SC were originally one game and got cut in two during production which leaves FC hanging quite a bit. Tip for FC: Use arts and don't bother with characters crafts who weren't specifically made to be physical gods. Estelle kinda sucks in combat and is best off as a buffer/healer for those with better crafts and better orbment lines. The combat feels very bad with how underpowered crafts are but its fixed as soon as the next game.
Nah. I always play Falcom games in Hard difficulty by default and all of them work for me just fine. I played FC in Hard mode on the first play through and could manage it. For me, I always believe that Hard mode is where the dev really wanted you to play. Back in NES or SNES days, Hard mode really means hard while it became quite lenient nowadays. Today Hard mode should be considered Normal back in 90th.
Yeah as Nuttachai said, Hard for a first play through is fine if you aren't new to Rpgs. Yes physical damage is much lower on Hard+, but you can just buff strength. I will say though that SC prologue is terrible on higher difficulties.
Im quite sure I played it on hard and didn't ever feel to be to weak. And im really no grinder. Only the final final Boss was to strong. I had to wipe one time (in the settings it say after wiping the enemy will automatically become weaker) so I think he was the only one I wasn't able to Win against with hard Mode. But you really need to know how the fighting Systems works, need some good tactics and especially strong spells. I played only trails of cold steel one in normal Mode and Got bored after the middle of the game. Since than I'm always playing on hard Mode which is the perfect balance for me to be difficult but not Frustrating.
I know it's like half a year later, but the easiest way I've been able to describe the Bracers is the "Lawful Adventurer's Guild + Handyman" Organization. Why describe it like that? Because the Jaegers, the Bracers' rivals, are effectively the "Don't give a fuck about the law Adventurers + Handyman GuildS."
@@weaponsci Yep. You can also view it like this: Bracers are ultimately altruistic in nature even if many are rough around the edges. Jaegers mostly worry only for themselves and their specific group of Jaegers. You'll learn a LOT more about Jaegers throughout Crossbell and Erebonia. You'll get a whole new view of their mentalities by characters in those sagas.
been playing these games just started the second one yesterday, but I've also played cold steel 1-4 first and let just say knowing to much but help me have alot of fun but also hinders the story abit, that said I still had a good time
I started with Cold Steel 3 but stoppen playing after 30 hours. Went back to cold steel 1 and 2 to understand one of the Main plotts. But after more 20 hours in 3 I wanted to understand where all this is coming from and maybe get some information about the 'why' So I had go back and play FC. Im happy that I started with cold steel since I don't think I would have had the patience to play through the whole game if I weren't already hooked so strong to the Continent and its Charakters.
Fantastic review, we almost share the same opinions on the game :) also how come u didn't notice the S break mechanic during your first playthrough that was so funny to hear 😹
The craft "Kaempfer" from Kloe ist the German word for "warrior", although you usually write it as "Kämpfer". The "ae" is pronounced like the first "e" in the word "temper".
You're definitely not supposed to lose the fight with Lorence. It's tough but it's an achievement and I was able to do it on the third go. The key is to use Kloe's art that lowers his strength to where he can't hit much of anything.
People telling you to start with Trails in the Sky are full of it. Honestly, as someone who started with Cold Steel and then went backward, it's totally fine.
Soo i just finished playing this game and i now know that you have to actually place the quartz in combinations to compound them? Jesus i love this game but it clear fails to explain to you A LOT xD
This is EXACTLY why I *hesitate to recommend starting with Sky FC* for new players. This game is, by far, *the weakest game in the Trails series* (IMO) and the BIGGEST reason for that is how much of a *slog the first half of the game is story/quest-wise* as it only starts getting interesting in the 2nd half of the game (additionally this game is one of the *weakest games in terms of battle/boss music* IMO, which is a SERIOUS downside as that's one aspect Trails games are KNOWN to be good at, but only starting from Sky SC onward). That's why I always prefer to recommend *starting with Cold Steel 1, then Cold Steel 2* and THEN go back to playing the first 5 games in the Trails series if you are hooked by the end of Cold Steel 2 story-wise.
Whoops. Forgot the timestamps. Also, I tried recording the majority of the footage for this game on my laptop since it would be more convenient for me and I'd be able to finish the game faster. I usually do most of my gaming on my desktop but I've had to share it as of late. Trails wasn't very demanding, but the computer couldn't handle that and OBS at the same time, so I couldn't reliably record without running the risk of skipped frames afterward.
So that's why the resolution looks really weird (damn you Surface and your weird aspect ratios). if you happen to see any lag during the video it's not you, it's me. I recorded the last fraction of the game on my desktop so it probably looks crispier than the rest of the video.
All that being said, I hope these inconveniences don't ruin the experience for you. Enjoy the video.
Introduction and setting - 0:00
Things I liked - 3:08
Things I disliked - 11:18
Thoughts on the other main characters (spoiler warning) - 12:37
Story discussion (spoiler warning) - 19:15
I'm not sure if you already figured that out, but the reason Weissmann is called the Faceless, is because no one remembers him or what he looks like. Even Estelle forgot about him. But yeah, the Faceless title is due to him erasing his existence from other peoples minds. It's kinda scary when you think about it.
The Bracer Guild is if "RPG protagonist" was a profession.
This is it. This is the correct answer!
Ding ding ding
I also thought of them like a adventurers guild.
Or maybe pathfinders.
Or the faction 'abnegation' combined with the strengh of dauntless people in 'Divergent'
for me its "police as progressives think it should function"
They're basically the world's police. I like to think of them as Interpol.
Trails in the Sky, aka "How I gave all my money and my kidneys to Falcom"
Yeah my wallet probably hates this series now, lol.
I’m trying my hardest to get a new phone and I know when Kuro releases I’m not gonna be able to pay for my phone anymore
This is still nothing compared to the games by Paradox Interactive, where many features are DLC you have to purchase seperately.
My wallet already hates it given how I've bought 7 trails games and only played about 5 hours of trails in the sky.
I only buy the one that's after the current one I'm on. Except for trails in the sky i bought all 3 on sale. The games do go on sale often enough.. Like Cold Steel 3 & 4 are on sale right now 50%
"Tita is the most precious thing in this game and should be protected at all costs". Literally. She has absolutely no defense or HP, you don't want ennemies to swing at her too many times.
WE MUST PROTECT!!!!!!!
She is the embodiment of a “glass cannon”. After buffing her a little bit, i found that she can dish a lot of damage, and all of her attacks are AOE. Plus, i mean, “little girl with big sword” is old, how about little girl with a GATLING GUN
@@bobkile9734 or bazooka
Until you get to Sky 3rd that is
@@ashlamovich6395 and once she reappears later... oh boy
She's back with a vengance
im japanese
i played trail of sky 10 years ago
Now im happy that foreign peaple have fun with this game
You are lucky, we have to wait many years for English translations of japanese games
Bless you
The series is goated
It's a 40 hour prologue to one the best games in history
I like describing this as the Marvel Cinematic Universe of JRPGs. Also, given that orbment upgrades and quartz are expensive, and, presumably, you could just buy those nice quartz and orbment upgrades if you were rich enough, it makes sense that Kloe would have a fully upgraded orbment with full quartz...I mean...Given her background...
Also, Olivier is the best attack mage.
The scene where Mueller drags Olivier on the floor before the party at the castle is by far the funniest scene of the game.
MY ROYAL CUISINE!
And then you understand why he was denied this
Tita's voice in japanese is the most precious thing in the world.
Also it is possible to defeat Lorence if you use the correct equipment. But it's HARD.
There's even an achivement for that.
Yeah, you gotta be extra prepared for that fight, specially without a full team.
Thank God I always over level with the Shining Pons. XD
25:25 THE SONG 😭
It's also required for you to beat him to get another achievement.
One of the absolute highlights of SC is Richard coming to the rescue in a time of crisis and basically telling everyone "I didn't have faith in the future of Liberl, but with kids like Estelle, Joshua, Kloe, Tita and the rest of you, I realize now, I was dead wrong."
3rd Spoilers
Agreed, and it was really cool getting to play as him in the next game.
I mean in all fairness every first game in a Trails story is just a 40 hour long prologue...
*cold steel 1 flashbacks*
Cold steel 1 took me 80 hours o.0
@@PrettyGuardian me too but I have to say for me personally not the whole game Was a Prolog. And the second half of final chapter I would say the Story was already moving so fast that it was not prologue anymore.
Funny thing is: If you pronounce “Aidios” in spanish it sounds exactly like “Ay, Dios!” Which translates as “Oh, God!”
Haha
Main language is spanish, so it's pretty hilarious.
I just got done finishing this first trilogy of Trails games and I enjoyed the style of storytelling in these games. One probelm I have with the main Final Fantasy games is that they escalate from fighting lowly goons and random monsters to stoping the end of the world in one game. This usually results in the world building and character development taking a backseat as the story has to rush in order to reach those heights by the end. But since Trails in the Sky uses the First Chapter to establish the setting, the characters and the group dynamics while taking on a reasonable threat, it allows them to explore those aspects more thoroughly in the Second Chapter and 3rd while ramping up the challenges.
So by the time the protagonists are facing down an end of world threat they are more than just a character template with a backstory attached. By Falcom taking their time we get to see these characters grow from when we first meet them.
Yeah if you showed me the beginning of FC and then the end of the 3rd I'd have told you they looked like two different series altogether! It really takes its time with the story, which as you said, means the good stuff is more impactful because progression feels natural.
fight with "lorence" is winnable even on nightmare, abuse kaempfer like a champ. and be prepared its gonna take awhile 🤣
that being said, god damn good review! subscribed!
Also, anti-confuse and anti-faint accessories are required. Otherwise, it’s a fool’s errand.
Does the cutscene change much if you win?
@@drowningin
Slightly. The party is exhausted, they all say something like “holy crap this guy is a monster, and Lorence says “impressive” before smashing the ground and putting down the party. Then the cutscene continues as normal. If i remember correctly, he drops a gladiator belt upon in-battle defeat and he gives extra bracer points.
@@bobkile9734 oh cool thanks
I gotta say, the ending to this game had me floored for WEEKS.
i could not not start tloh SC immediately after this, the ending of FC still makes me feel that sense of desperation despite playing both Fc and Tc.
This series is my favorite game of all time. When I played first chapter 10 years ago it ended on a cliff hanger. I downloaded the second chapter and play through it all with print out scrip translations line by line hahaha it was an amazing memory. I love the characters and replayed it many times.
Just found out about this series around a week ago.
I was just looking for some older RPG's to get into, but not so old that I'd be playing SNES games.
Gotta say, I'm absolutely blown away.
Maybe I don't play enough RPG's that're made by companies other than SquareEnix, but the features in this game just blow my mind.
Don't even know why I am going to over share in here but here I go:
Used to be a hardcore gamer until I got in a very committed relationship that lasted years on end, so I stopped playing games, then my dad died in 2016 (he was my best friend and confidant, he was a great man) and my GF left me bcs she could not see me in depression or some bullshit excuse.
After some months of nothingness, I opened a steam account for myself and went for a cheap JRPG, you know, to try to get back into things, and that weekend, Trails in the Sky FC was on sale, got it for like $7, no kidding.
The familiar story beats, the easy going story, the slow pace, everything appealed to me, specially the music, I still remember the first time I heard the song going out of Estelle's house, it was like the colors returned to my life for a bit, a wash of joy.
The people felt like people in this game, the characters and their dialogue felt real, and the relationship between our protagonists was oh so endearing!, then that ending happened.
Ofc I immediately felt the strongest connection I have felt with a character with Estelle.
So I bought SC right then and there.
Seeing her go through the stages of grief, and how she came at the other side even stronger than before, not only gave me hope, but made me stand up and get on with my life.
Needless to say, Trails games are my favorite (even though the cold steel arc was not as good as the previous ones) and Estelle Bright, has a very special place in my heart.
Thank you Falcom!
I really loved your sense of humour throughout the video. I'm glad you liked sky fc as I myself am a huge fan of the series and falcom in general. I can almost guarantee that you'll love sky sc and every other trails game after that.
I'm surprised that with the quality of your video's you don't have more subscribers. Also, that profile picture of a mexican Estelle is beautiful.
Thanks for the feedback! I'm having a lot of fun with SC at the moment. I plan to finish it up as soon as school lets out.
My first jrpg. Needless to say, i blazed through the entire series (from sky 1st to cold steel 3) in a year. Patiently waiting for cold steel 4 now. Great video.
@@Naticus105 Well, the pandemic helped as my university went online.
@@Naticus105 SC is my favorite followed by cs3. Azure's translation sucks; i like the game but i will play it once again with the geofront translation.
@@Naticus105 I think there is only one complete translation available for azure. You can still get the plot but the beautiful interactions between characters (as present in all trails games) is lost, on top of that almost every line has grammatical error to the point some lines don't even make any sense.
I've just started playing this game about a week ago and after getting some non-spoilers reviews from my friends, I wanted to take my sweet time playing it by making sure to speak to each and every single one of the NPCs and even writing down their movements and what they say for future references XD
@@theonewhosayshello6367 Yeah, I started playing Sky last year, finished the 3rd this and just finished Zero. I still want to complete one other game before Azure though. Grandia on my switch and then I'm good to go. And I just insrtalled Cold steel back on my PC. And I have Cold Steel 3 ready for my switch once I'm done with the first two games. I am excited for Hajimari and hope I don't play the other games too fast before it come out. Although I still have the official Zero release for Switch next year. I hope you enjoy your playthrough of Azure.
I really love this series. It's been a year since I finished all Sky, Azure and Zero and Cold Steel. Just waiting for Hajimari and Kuro translation
Just got into the trails series. Bought all games plus the fan translations for zero and azure. I just finished cold steel 1 cuz I didn’t know I had to play it in order. Starting my sky run tomorrow. I fell in love with this series
"Joshua, you of all people know thats not true" I freakin died
So, I know I've already commented on this video, but I just have to say that I saw the ending to Cold Steel 4 the other day, and I was amazed. I figured that would happen eventually early on in Sky FC, and it was set up all the way back in Chapter 1 (the Bose region) of this very game. It was cool to see it paid off nearly 15 years, and 8 games, later. That is world building and story-telling, my friends, to see character arcs grow and change over the course of many stories, and to finally get the payoff in the end that was set up at the very beginning.
Just want to say that the second lieutenant Lorence can actually be beaten. Right before fighting him, there's a dude outside that sells items. He sells accessories that prevent confusion, silence, and etc. You equip those to have an "easier" time fighting him, which is still in my opinion the hardest fight in the game. I think beating him gives you some additional guild points for that chapter.
that and an achievment on steam
@Roxasandaxel13 Yeah, and beating him is also required for a different Steam achievement which is getting the max amount of BP possible.
Lorence fight is not scripted. You can beat him and if you do, you get an achievement for it as well.
You need to have top quality gears, correct quartz combinations and a balanced team. It will be a long fight but yes you can win.
This is such a terrific video, that, watching it again, I noticed something else: when Richard wants the Shinning Ring because he figures if Liberl has that, other nations won't mess with them. . . after playing Trails to Azure, Cold Steel 1 and Cold Steel 2 where another one of the 7 (the shinning ring also being 1 of the 7) is used, I gotta say, Richard is probably right. The Shinning Ring probably would be enough to guarantee Liberl's security, so points for Richard's plan being extremely realistic.
I just finished this game. It took me 61h40m. So it's more of a 60h prologue. I played with the evo voice mod, so that may have played a big part in my playtime. There's a ridiculous amount of voice acting, almost everything is voice acted with the mod.
I'll start the sequel tomorrow, I have a feeling this is going to become one of my favorite stories in gaming, up there with Yakuza and FF XIV.
Great video man! I finished FC the other night and I absolutely loved it. Great characters, plot twists, etc. Looking forward to starting SC and continuing my journey down the Trails rabbit hole. lol
Warning:
The rabbit hole runs very deep...
Your videos are very comfy; I really like your plot summaries.
Very nice to just chill and have a coffee to
Just started FC last week and I've been really enjoying it, I'm about halfway through chapter 4 so I'm looking forwards to the finale. I've already got SC and third as well as the first two Cold Steel games ready for when I get there (I know, playing it in the release order is the best way, but cold steel and Trails from Zero technically take place at the same time, or so I've heard). I'm gonna have to do what I can to drip feed myself while we wait for the official translation of Trails From Zero this fall...
Ah well, I've got the Y's series to tide me over and university to provide a consistent distraction, so I'm sure it will be fine.
If you take your time you'll probably just be finishing Sky by the time zero comes out, maybe Azure too depending on how early in 2023 it comes out.
Also good luck with uni, I know it can get really tough at times. Stay strong you got this! 💪
@@weaponsci Thanks, I appreciate it! It's been tough so far, but I'm getting close to the end.
The only problem is, I might be a little addicted to post-secondary education. I'm actually working on my second Bachelors degree and it will be a struggle to not go back to school once I complete it.
You can win the Lorence fight and it's required for %100
Is it where he'll reveal his face after the fight? I think Joshua was out at that time.
@@wedasantika6079 Yes that fight happens with Estelle, Kloe, and Schera while Joshua, is makinghis way through the sewers with I think Zin and Olivier. it may have been Agate but i'm pretty sure it was OIlivier as I don't think Agate gets explored until SC.
@@Tnu1138 when was the last time u can free roam in Grancel? Just before that operation?
@@wedasantika6079 I think so yeah. it's been a few years so I could bemisremembeering.
This is a series I wanted to get into ever since they announced Cold Steel 3 would be a culmination of 7 games, 2 of which he never got in the west. Fast forward a while, I found out that there was a translation of Trails to zero done and Ao (Now Azure) was being worked on. I decided to bite the bullet and just finished the prologue to In the Sky FC. It's a slow burn for sure and I figured how the prologue would end early on but I plan to see this through. I just want to experience the story so I can get to Cold Steel because I played a demo and it looks and sounds fantastic. I can't wait to be able to get there.
Same tbh. Though the older games have still been really enjoyable so far.
If sky is slow, cold steel 1 is absolutely glacial. Also it references the crossbell arc all the time. At this point i have high levels of distrust towards cold steel stans.
The most interesting and engaging game ever played. Love you with bottom of my heart Nihon Falcom banzai!
The charizard part had me rolling, partly because that’s how my internal dialogue read her name. Great review, I too just finished the game and wanted a recap and you delivered. The only part I disagree was the music, I felt like a lot of the tracks were memorable but the night time ambient track is by far the best and one I will add to my playlist. Thanks !
One of my favorite games. I enjoyed your review!
No problem. Thanks for watching!
I think the reason why alba has faceless in his name is because people who try to remember who he is doesn't remember what he looks like, like he doesn't have a face maybe? Which can be seen at the start of SC when estelle tries to remember who she bumped into before going back to Joshua with icecream
currently playing this game. Im at the final dungeon ready to finish it so I can move to the 2nd game then 3rd. Then just gottta wait for the 2 crossbell games. Then Ill finally be ready to go past Cold Steel 4
update: Just finished Trails in the Sky
Bracers = Adventurers guild.
also having an issue with a queen in charge in the middle ages... **queen Elizabeth I intensifies** xD
"You will want to pick up the next game while you're at it"
Yea, thats the entire series.
The entire series.
I was on steam one day and saw Cold Steel 3 demo, and thought "what the hell i'll give it a try".
Immediately after I bought Cold Steel 1, then 2, then 3, and then I was like 4's not out yet??? Immediately bought all the sky games and zero and azure.
I'm still waiting for the 4th game. (To be clear, the 4th game is out on playstation, but I don't have a playstation so... i'm waiting on PC.)
I'm curious, how much of 1 and 2 does the Cold Steel 3 demo spoil? I'm still debating whether or not to get the Cold Steel games on PS4 or PC and I'm thinking of using that demo to test the game purely for technical reasons. I can't imagine they'd spoil stuff in a demo, but considering the continuity between all the games they just might.
@@weaponsci They really don't spoil anything at all in the demo. When I played it I didn't know who any of them were and none of them were any kind of plot twist. In fact, only 4 of the characters shown are in the other cold steel games so..
Cool. I'll test it out after the Crossbell games then.
I bought a ps 4 for the purpose of being able to play Cold Steel 4 on release. Plus my laptop isn't powerful enough to run even Cold Steel 3 smoothly.
@@weaponsci I would say the Demo doesn't spoilt to much since you really don't understand what the hell is going on.
Even Charakters you see you can bot put into a Box at the beginning. I was absolutely overwhelmed. Not really in the positive way. But it went good after I decided to go back to Cold Steel 1.
The Demo versions always take the flashback scenes to play.
Dude the intro when you said cold steel looked cool in steam is how I got into the legend of heroes. I was just aimlessly scrolling through steam till I saw rean's s craft and I was sold and I fell in the rabbit hole
Yeah it looks like a lot of people discovered it that way. Trails of Cold Steel was similar enough to some other modern JRPG they were playing at the time (ex. Persona, recent Fire Emblem, etc.) and they decide to try it, get hooked, and then play the other games. Though I still decided to start with Sky since I wanted to see the story in release order.
@@weaponsci same but I started with cold steel up to 3 and before 4 came out I finished sky trilogy. And after 4 I started the crossbell games. Such a good game. Going for the trophies in cold steel now
I got cold steel 3 with no added costs as Google Stadia cloud game.
I normally would have never played that game but since I already owned it I thought give it a try.
It was my best and worst decision.
Best because I love the series. Worst because im spending and bit more time than I have in that series....
Happy to have a new member in the club :))
I would suggest taking your time and trying for a perfect playthrough of each game. There are many, many details that are easily missed and since you are a hardcore fan already (yeah you are, you just don't know it yet), you will want those.
This game took me 77 hours to beat lol, and i played on turbo mode mostly.
One thing I want to mention is that the Loewe fight is very doable. It wrecked me the first time, but I reloaded my save and went in with the proper items. Beat it on that try.
I. LOVED. This game. I just finished it. I have SC installed and am starting it tomorrow…
I didn’t love the pacing leading up to the last fight(s), it definitely got a bit sloggy, but overall just adored my time with it.
Bracers are basically Interpol
You mention to use Sieg against the Photon Judges, but seem to forget they tend to resist the debuff, you can use it on Richard though.
Also, Death Rage targets [or almost always targets, for some reason it very rarely doesn't] whoever has the highest CP, it's not random nor is it based on how many S-Crafts you use.
21:43 "Not the brightest Quartz on the Orbal circuit". Lmao
One thing I like about the trails game is that most of your status effects work on most enemies including most bosses. It's deeply frustrating to me that in Square Enix games they'll give you status effects and then they are almost never usable to the point that it's not even worth bothering.
I keep meaning to get back to the Trails series, it's just daunting due to the number of long games. I played FC on PSP back when it was first released in the US, but didn't even hear about 2 and 3 getting released until after Cold Steel came out.
Doesn't help that I wasn't super impressed with FC anyway. Kinda like you said, it was fine but not the earth-shattering experience I'd been told it was. I remember being kinda pissed off at one event at the end, and frankly don't remember a single thing that happened during the rest of the game. Will have to replay it... one of these days.
Lorence: Don't worry. You're supposed to lose my fight
Estelle: Yeah, everyone says that BEFORE they get hit with the big stick...
Actual helpful tip: Equip immune to silence & confuse/faint. Refresh Earth Wall as much as you can. He heals for ~1k while you can attack with 1.5k of Arts with equalized Speed. Take him down to half health then use Kaempfer before 200 cp S-Breaking with Estelle and Scherazard. 1 dead pretty boy served.
The worst part of every video covering a person's foray into the Trails series is hearing the OST in the back and being absolutely assailed by nostalgia.
I saw this title before starting to plays Trails Sky, so I figured it was 40hrs so I figured I could fit it into my very strictly planned out game time. Then I blew past 40hrs, and I kept thinking "well it must be ending soon" I finally beat it today over 130hrs. What the heck?
I kinda just blew through the story when I had first made this. If you do the sidequests and extra content and talk to all the NPCs I can definitely see it turning into 100+ hours.
Hahaha I was really curious how someone would end this game in 40 hours.
Took me 62hours and I am really no completionist and right triggern Button (fast mode) was my best friend.
Oooooh I started this game. Played five or ten hours and loved it,
But I got distracted by something or other and it went in my huge pile of Steam a games I haven’t played/finished.
I should go back and start over.
olivier is a good character, i loved every moment he was there.
ahhhh this was an amazing review, i really enjoyed it!!
Pro tip: always ALWAYS have Kloe in your party in SC not for the obvious reason of being the dedicated healer but also her naturally high ATS which makes her arts hit like a semi truck and especially when you get the shoes halfway through the game that buffs her arts by a full 100 points.
Lorence was the one superboss I actually vowed to defeat no matter how many times I lose. Funnily enough I beat him on my 3rd try thanks to clock up ex and earth guard. He was a different beast in sc though as I needed everyone at 200 cp before I barely managed to beat him with only joshua left standing ( Kevin's s craft is a lifesaver).
Ty
ayy nice review
I played this first when it was only on PSP back in 2012 so I had to wait more than 3 excruciating years to play the sequel.
Even to this day after playing most of the games currently available in English, I still consider FC my favorite even if objectively speaking it's probably not the best, but it just has special vibes the others don't have or fail to replicate (Zero no Kiseki/Trails from Zero comes extremely close to it though, this one is close 2nd in my book). I've finished the game 7 times since, but it feels so much like home and comforting to play that it's hard to put down.
It's a shame that I can't seem to get excited as much for the new Cold Steel games as much as I used to for the Sky trilogy though. I get that every new game is built upon the previous one, but it strays further and further from what made me like FC, and I don't like where Falcom is leading the series.
Ouch. I couldn't imagine having to wait three whole years for SC. It took all my willpower just to play FC twice.
I'm really trying to keep my exposure to later games as minimal as possible, but its interesting you said that about CS since so far I've heard nothing but praise for it. Plus, as I said, it was the game that initially caught my eye before I found out there were previous games.
I think there are more memorable songs from this game than the ones you mentioned, this series is full of great music
I didn't really start to appreciate the songs until well into SC. But I agree, this series does have some fantastic music.
My Problem with the music in FC is. They are great but you often get the same if not at least similar Songs.
But in trails 3 the Standard music the people are talking with nothing going on. This is really an annoying Soundtracks....
Besides that nearly everithing is great.
25:20 Actually you can beat him, and you get some different dialogue and some other stuff for doing so! My advice is to just spam him with arts and equip your party with anti confuse and anti faint stuff.
Yeah I had heard about that shortly after I put this up. Might try him again one of these days.
@@weaponsci Good luck!
as well as spamming earth walls.
@@ceettopotat I never actually did that lol
....the "Lorence" fight......I spent so long restarting to finally beat that bugger!
Only to find out I missed at some point in the game 2 bloody BP.......
I’m at the end of chapter 1, and 17 hours in. I’ve used the boost feature for pretty much all game play that isn’t story, but I’m loving the game so much.
Update. 91 hours to completion. Wtf was that ending. I’m so fucked up.
How long did it take you to boot up SC after the ending? Lol
@@weaponsci I couldn’t afford it until yesterday, but I bought SC AND The 3rd on g2a for 27 bucks. I’m already in the mayor section of SC!
The Major Difference between Bracers and Police is discussed in the Zero no Kiseki.
***Spoiler Alert***
The Lack of Police in Liberl is explained with the strong presence of the army to keep Erebonia at bay. Because of the high capabilities of army officers, there is little need for regular officers, however they still exist (albeit, off screen). The Bracer Guilds scattered throughout Zemuria holds high regard with their citizen, being extremely reliable when they need their assistance, something that also keeps the government linked officers at bay and impede they growth as a institution. Adding to that, as seen in Zero no Kiseki, even a state that holds its own between Calvard and the Erebonia (empire), choose to trust more in the Bracer Guilds, rather than the police itself. Also, what hinders the police capabilities, is the corruption of the parliament members that keeps the Police authority in check, so they cannot perform their duties accordingly.
Since The Bracers guild is a non government institution, they are not impaired by this blocker, however, in the story, this can cause some obstacle to them.
Notes: (In order to compete against the Bracers Guild, the Crossbell state creates a special division in order to try and solve this problem, but they still demonstrate some problems to deal with high government corruption which mines their action).
Notes 2: So, even with the Bracers being able to make arrests, their major concerns is with the citizen's well being rather than to throw themselves to stop operations that does not put the citizens at immediate dangers, so they are not really interested in corruption in the government and/or petty thievery etc.
They are not even allowed to do something against corruption since they are not allowed to fight against governmental Personal if it its not directly connected to saying some civilians life and you need to have a proof for this.
It’s so nice having a series that isn’t just “god bad” every 3 seconds.
The first game starts off very rough. I dropped it before I finished the prologue and only got back after clearing Cold Steel 1. It was still a rough go until the final chapter when it started resembling the intrigue and world building of Cold Steel. The characters are for sure better, especially Estelle and Joshua who showed more personality in the prologue than Rean ever will. I'm so excited to keep going, and hope I'm done TC before Trails from Zero comes out.
But on the other side rean is a great Protagonist for showung the quality of class 7 in a whole.
I think a yoshua and estelle would so extremely outshine most members of class 7.
Every Protagonist in every ark has his special qualities which fit great to the games. I wouldn't like to miss anyone of them.
You know.... This really is a game series that cant be played, you live through it cuz the legend of heroes: Trails spin off series are not games THEY'RE A LIFE STYLE
"You are hardly qualified to feel pity for me. You, who know the name of Hamel.
knowing Olivier the story about the wine is probably legit.
Nice video, you surely deserve more subscribers.
Kaempfer or Kämpfer is German and means fighter. Sieg itself means victory. There are many German words and names throughout the series, it's one of those strange Japanese things...
Never would've thought a Japanese game would have so many German references.
@@weaponsci Yeah, actually it's said that Erebonia is loosely based on some parts of German history. Haven't played Cold Steel myself yet, though. Names like Mueller, Schwarzer and Klaudia are common in Germany as well.
As a German I find the usage of these terms in Trails quite silly. :D
@@firebreather4192 in the fanwiki the tactic or erobonia in the hundred days war how they nearly conquered liberl was also called blitzkrieg Taktik.
Which was how Germany invaded Poland.
Japan and German are funny. I believe they get all their German words from an English-German dictionary. I found a game where a piece of footwear was called Schläge. This literally means "socks", but not a sock you wear, it's a sock as in a punch to the face. The only way they could have gotten that is if they looked up the English word sock and they used the wrong entry lol
Oilvier best character! Let’s goooooo!!
I loved FC even though it's kind of a slow burn as far as plot goes. The characters are just written so well that I didn't even care.
I think braces are basically legally recognized vigilantes (wouldn't stop erobonia and osborne from trying to get rid of them 😂)
I see. Yeah that makes sense. On another note, could you go easy with the spoilers? I get that you're probably really eager to talk about the whole series but just keep in mind some of us haven't played the future games yet. :)
@@weaponsci oh ok sure thing my bad, tho that kinda isn't a spoiler with zero and the first cold steel game with governments not liking bracers and it's established very early on I the first games of the different arcs that that's why you're a psuedo bracer in anything but name lol(tho i guess uttering Osborne's name is kinda a spoiler at this point... but only hard core spider man fans like myself would be suspicious of a guy named Osborne lol)
My bad on late reply lol
Olivier is the strongest offensive spellcaster in the game. In other words your final dungeon loadout was ass
Realizing this as I'm currently going through SC.
@@weaponsci ge gets death scream pretty early on and he can nuke most enemies with it and he can also get zodiac near the end of the game that gives your entire party insane buffs
Olivier it's best character in the entire franchise :v
I have to say. I never saw olivier as such a strong fighter when playing cold steel first.
On the other side I thought as him beeing quite handsome but man in sky he is unbearable in Charakters perspective. Still I used weighted Performance over Sympathie and after all we went through I somehow like him. Especially with the knowledge to how he will change in the years....
So gotta say for anyone who is now thinking about picking up the sky arc and potentially the rest of the series. Do not play Sky FC and SC on anything above normal.
Those games were not made with higher difficulties in mind and all the difficulties do is raise stats by 20% for hard and 40% for nightmare on all enemies.
This can be an issue because of how DEF works as a stat where you can easily do 50 dmg when on normal you would do 200. But most importantly its speed that is the issue coupled with stuff hitting hard af, bosses taking 2 turns for every 1 turn you take is nasty.
There are also some quest bosses who scale horribly with difficulty.
Clearing those games on a new save on high difficulty involves knowing the combat system in and out and grinding for the right stuff early on.
Difficulty in trials evens out after a while but early sections tend to be hell on high difficulty. You might not even leave the tutorial of SC on hard or nightmare depending on how the AI is feeling.
Also FC is old as balls and the story drags compared to the rest of the series so the faster you can get through before losing interest the better.
You pretty much play this game to get to know the characters and world which set up for the conflict in SC.
Both FC and SC were originally one game and got cut in two during production which leaves FC hanging quite a bit.
Tip for FC: Use arts and don't bother with characters crafts who weren't specifically made to be physical gods. Estelle kinda sucks in combat and is best off as a buffer/healer for those with better crafts and better orbment lines. The combat feels very bad with how underpowered crafts are but its fixed as soon as the next game.
Nah. I always play Falcom games in Hard difficulty by default and all of them work for me just fine. I played FC in Hard mode on the first play through and could manage it. For me, I always believe that Hard mode is where the dev really wanted you to play. Back in NES or SNES days, Hard mode really means hard while it became quite lenient nowadays. Today Hard mode should be considered Normal back in 90th.
Yeah as Nuttachai said, Hard for a first play through is fine if you aren't new to Rpgs. Yes physical damage is much lower on Hard+, but you can just buff strength. I will say though that SC prologue is terrible on higher difficulties.
Im quite sure I played it on hard and didn't ever feel to be to weak. And im really no grinder. Only the final final Boss was to strong. I had to wipe one time (in the settings it say after wiping the enemy will automatically become weaker) so I think he was the only one I wasn't able to Win against with hard Mode.
But you really need to know how the fighting Systems works, need some good tactics and especially strong spells.
I played only trails of cold steel one in normal Mode and Got bored after the middle of the game. Since than I'm always playing on hard Mode which is the perfect balance for me to be difficult but not Frustrating.
Good review
Schera-ne is my fav character in Trails though I identify more with Tita I guess.
I've played this whole game without using Chaos Brand once lol. I'll try to change my ways in SC
I would say bracers are more akin to an adventurers guild based on high integrity.
I know it's like half a year later, but the easiest way I've been able to describe the Bracers is the "Lawful Adventurer's Guild + Handyman" Organization. Why describe it like that? Because the Jaegers, the Bracers' rivals, are effectively the "Don't give a fuck about the law Adventurers + Handyman GuildS."
So basically
Bracer = freelance
Jaeger = mercenary
Same thing but they live by different principles.
@@weaponsci Yep. You can also view it like this: Bracers are ultimately altruistic in nature even if many are rough around the edges. Jaegers mostly worry only for themselves and their specific group of Jaegers.
You'll learn a LOT more about Jaegers throughout Crossbell and Erebonia. You'll get a whole new view of their mentalities by characters in those sagas.
been playing these games just started the second one yesterday, but I've also played cold steel 1-4 first and let just say knowing to much but help me have alot of fun but also hinders the story abit, that said I still had a good time
I started with Cold Steel 3 but stoppen playing after 30 hours.
Went back to cold steel 1 and 2 to understand one of the Main plotts. But after more 20 hours in 3 I wanted to understand where all this is coming from and maybe get some information about the 'why'
So I had go back and play FC.
Im happy that I started with cold steel since I don't think I would have had the patience to play through the whole game if I weren't already hooked so strong to the Continent and its Charakters.
Actually if you beat Lorence you get a fun achievement. It's hard even with prep but it's possible to do it 1st try
The “adiós” joke really got me
chaos brand is indeed busted
I miss it sometimes
Fantastic review, we almost share the same opinions on the game :) also how come u didn't notice the S break mechanic during your first playthrough that was so funny to hear 😹
It really is a entire prologue game lol
the job description of a bracer, to my observation, is just 'video game protagonist'
lol how did I not see the comment already saying this? 😹pretty sure I was looking for it too
Entertaining discussion. Funny. Liked and subbed.
The craft "Kaempfer" from Kloe ist the German word for "warrior", although you usually write it as "Kämpfer". The "ae" is pronounced like the first "e" in the word "temper".
You're definitely not supposed to lose the fight with Lorence. It's tough but it's an achievement and I was able to do it on the third go. The key is to use Kloe's art that lowers his strength to where he can't hit much of anything.
I think you are supposed to but you are also allowed to win.
29:09 wait, the robot's name is Reverie?
**looks at the next game after CS 4, Trails into to Reverie**
hmmm...
16:20 Someone has played R&C, I see.
Bracers are like Hunters from Hunter X Hunter
Kaempfer or if nowadays properly written Kämpfer means "Fighter" and the ae is pronounced like the 'ea' from 'head'
People telling you to start with Trails in the Sky are full of it. Honestly, as someone who started with Cold Steel and then went backward, it's totally fine.
Guess I'll see when I actually start playing cold steel
@@weaponsci Looking forward to your review of it.
So the Bracers are like Witchers!
I guess. Like a hero-for-hire or something.
Bracers are more like vigilantes, their main focus is to keep peace and protect people.
Btw, that Boss is not scripted, you gain BP If you defeat him lol
actually the fight with lorence is possible to win with the right strategy.
Soo i just finished playing this game and i now know that you have to actually place the quartz in combinations to compound them?
Jesus i love this game but it clear fails to explain to you A LOT xD
Yeah I didn't realize this until like halfway through the first game.
@@weaponsciFor half the game i thought the sepith next to an art where the COST..xD
This is EXACTLY why I *hesitate to recommend starting with Sky FC* for new players. This game is, by far, *the weakest game in the Trails series* (IMO) and the BIGGEST reason for that is how much of a *slog the first half of the game is story/quest-wise* as it only starts getting interesting in the 2nd half of the game (additionally this game is one of the *weakest games in terms of battle/boss music* IMO, which is a SERIOUS downside as that's one aspect Trails games are KNOWN to be good at, but only starting from Sky SC onward). That's why I always prefer to recommend *starting with Cold Steel 1, then Cold Steel 2* and THEN go back to playing the first 5 games in the Trails series if you are hooked by the end of Cold Steel 2 story-wise.