There’s a lot more that could have been said but I wanted to keep the video to a reasonable time 😅 What’s some of your favorite parts of Trails to Azure?
The writing in these games is so insane that when they were helping the Hayworths, they found Renne's brother Colin pursuing a butterfly, that lead to them getting along with Renne and she could hear the truth when hidden in that closet and that was key for them to be friends with Estelle and Joshua which was also key to their survival, that's a clear proof of the butterfly effect, it's mindblowing, really
I think the biggest reasons for the Trails series not being as well known (at least in the west) are due to four reasons. 1. Since Falcom isn't a AAA studio, they don't have quite as much money for marketing their games as say Square, Monolith Software, Atlus, etc. 2. Up until around Cold Steel III, Falcom was always a generation or two behind industry standards in regards with graphics. While this isn't as important as aesthetic direction and story (both of which Falcom excels at) it does serve to "hook" someone who stumbles across it by chance on say Steam or Social Media. Starting with CS III, the games now look much more era appropriate. 3. The games are a SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOW burn and text heavy. Too many people just want to "get on with it" and or don't like reading. The games introducing new arcs drag on a bit at times, and many people just have no patience. 4. Last but certainly not least, up until.....just these last couple of years, we were always wondering "Are the sequels even getting localized?"😓 This is the most fair reason for not wanting to get in to series imo. It's kind of a tough sell to tell someone, "so hey, this series is REALLY good, but on top of being behind what's out in Japan, you may never see a crucial middle arc that ties together the first one and the later ones." I got into this series around early 2015 when the release of SC was in localization limbo and we were losing faith it would ever be a thing. Cold steel and Crossbell? LMAO!!! Thankfully reason #4 is slowly fading, but we are still suffering from it.
Dang, I had no idea about your fourth point. Guess it’s a good thing it took me so long to get around to playing these 😅 I can see your point on 3 and how these aren’t for everyone. I read a lot when I’m not gaming so I kind of forget that not everyone else enjoys that as much as I do 😅
1: Fun fact, I think Falcom only has something like 50 full-time employees. They made a decision ages ago to intentionally stay small. They're reliant on their big series (LoH and Ys) to bring in big bucks to keep afloat, but its worked well for them. 2: Do remember that prior to CS the series was locked behind the PSP; even the PC versions came after the fact. And even CSI/II maintained Vita compatibility which limited how far they could push things. 3: The series is honestly more like a Virtual Novel with tactical combat thrown in. It works, but honestly field enemies just exist as XP and can be skipped once you hit the level caps for a set of enemies. If any series would benefit from fewer enemies and going toward milestone leveling, Trails is it. 4: I still remember the panic when there was no announcement for CSIII for ages and ages. I kind of suspected XSEED wasn't going to get the gig, but the lack of news for literally YEARS started to wear thin. The fact we are finally both caught up and hopefully will soon not be permanently two years behind will be a godsend.
Spoiler talk for 8:01 I thought it was weird how when u do the final dungeon, you have Joshua and Estelle with you, while you didnt in the intro. I thought it was a gamey trope to not spoil their presence. Never thought it was a different timeline. This was because on top of the SSS gang not helping Renne out, they were also not the best of friends with our favorite Liberl bracers, so they got their ass clapped, which is depressing, especially for Tio, because that cult guy bastard made her life hell, and in that reality, he also ended her life.
I wish I got into these games this year because the wait for Reverie to release on Steam has been PAINFUL. I've finished Cold Steel IV 2 years ago and I am literally smiling like an idiot thinking it's just one more month for Reverie. Still Azure is my favourite entry in the series, the moment you realize Lloyd waking up on train in cold sweat in Zero is timeline being reset as he JUST DIED is a major mindblow.
To me, Crossbell arc was best. Azure ranks highest, but i still put SC & 3rd above Zero. I almost wonder if in a couple games you will realize you miss the Crossbell chars the way you think now about the Sky ones. 😜 But yea even if I ignore all the other crazy stuff that happens, once you get to the end of the Fragments chapter--all the ways it builds on the lore of the Sky trilogy just made it unbeatable. SPOILERS BELOW: SPOILERS: (Zeit as the mirage Holy Beast, Demiourgos as the Sept-terrion of mirage, Wazy as the Ninth Dominion, and of course my precious daughter KeA.)
@@OneManCast Zero definitely does not drag it down. It focuses more on the characters, which particularly if you played Sky is fantastic. Azure builds off the back of that, so that it can focus less on the characters and more on the events, and does so very well. They're a great complement to each other. Not to mention, it doesn't have some of the writing issues Cold Steel does. Crossbell knows what it's going to do, and executes well on it.
@@jmporkbob The problem I have with Zero is its pacing is atrocious. At least in FC the story is somewhat interspaced with travel/battle (by having you go to various areas in each region), but with pretty much everything in Crossbell in...Crossbell, it feels most of the meat is backloaded in each chapter.
@@gamerk316 I would say the opposite. The pacing in FC is atrocious. Over half the main story progression is not even relating on the main plot. And there is almost no character development in the entirety of FC, aside from Estelle/Joshua. Zero has plenty of character stuff to chew on, and every chapter is progressively uncovering a bit more into the underworld of Crossbell until all the pieces fall together.
I like how the combat changes in the games reflects the game's lore: combat orbment is a fairly new tech, which means breakthroughs come at a more regular pace compared to an already mature tech like, say, orbal train.
Great review. As you said I think Sky is very important for the series in general. Hopefully Falcom can release a remaster for them soon. They really need to be on current consoles. Just add the voices from the Evolution versions would be enough. Next year is the 20th anniversary of Trails, which is also the 35th anniversary of the Legend of Heroes as a whole, which is also the 40th anniversary of Dragon Slayer. It's an important year and I really hope Falcom delivers on it. Have you seen al final bonding events? At least Randy, Wazy and Rixia have a lot of background information about them that's behind the bonding events in the final chapter. I recommend checking them out on youtube. This is something that also happens with the Cold Steal games. Some bonding events have crucial information to understand a major event later. Sadly, on a first playthrough you can't see them unless you save scam. A solution to this is to play with a new game+ save since you can select what to carry over. However, they downside for this is that new game+ usually has a few additional scenes that spoils things a little later. For instance, new game+ in Azure has Mariabell talking with Bluebblanc before the reveal she is an antagonist.
Interesting! I did not know there were extra scenes in new game+! I did see some bonding moments between the three characters you mentioned but I may have missed them. I’ll go look them up. Here’s to hoping we see the Sky trilogy come to console next year!
@@TheTheoLogan898 For the most part, the scenes of new game+ are mostly very few and don't add much if anything at all. However, there is a very important scene hidden in new game+ for Cold Steel 2. That's the exception, and once you finish CS2 you should watch that scene before starting with CS3.
If they ever remastered sky trilogy, it'd be a Japan exclusive. From cs3 onward, NIS America publishes trails game. Prior to that it was xseed. xseed and falcom have cut ties. Xseed owns the western rights to the games, so w/o going through xseed, they can't do it. If they redid cs1 and cs1 but in cs4 engine as a remaster, they wouldn't be able to release those in the west either without permission or buying the rights back from xseed
@@LilT2o00 Those kind of contracts don't work like that. It depends on who is the developer of the port. For example, In the case of Cold Steel 1 & 2 for the switch, that port was developed by CLE, which means XSEED wouldn't have access to that port even though they had the rights of the games. On the other hand, CS1 & CS2 which were developed directly by Falcom, XSEED did release their translations on PS4. Same happened with Ys Origin and Ys Celceta not so long ago. XSEED won't develop their own ports of those games, because as you said, they don't have any contractual obligation to do so. However, if Falcom did a port of the Sky games on modern consoles, XSEED could release the games without any issues. Also, we don't know the agreement between XSEED and FALCOM, but usually this kind of things have an expiration date unless the licensing is renewed. Falcom my put conditions on it, like releasing a port they have developed. Remakes are a different kind of beast though. They are not necesarily the same game, which means in that case NISA could probably take over, although, not using the original translation which belongs to XSEED unless they got into somekind of agreement. So to sum up, we'll probably never get CS1 & 2 for switch (XSEED won't develop their own version), however, Sky trilogy would depend if it's a direct port from Falcom themselves or not. If CLE is the one who does the ports, then we can forget about it...
@@Natreg44 not sure about cs 1 and 2 but at least from everyone else who has touched on this, has appeared that xseed outright owns the rights to the sky triology in the west
Man, the talk of difficulty is odd to me, since I played on hard and found it if anything a bit too easy outside of some DP boss missions that you had to win in a specific number of turns to get max DP. The fight against Randy's uncle was prolly the hardest to get max DP on but even if you lose the fight you still move on anyways. Are you properly using your speed stat? Speed is the most broken thing in trails by far.
Omg, when you said you didn't understand the Trail series I was thinking to myself "choose your next words carefully," but I was pleasantly surprised at your response. 10 out of 10 review
I'll just say this Trails to Azure is the hardest game in the series according to a vast majority of fans, as such it's not surprising you see the difficulty spikes, however it is also deliberately made as such because you're not meant to defeat Arianrhod or some of the other fights, but you CAN if you have the right setup and that's the beauty of combat in this series in my eyes. Let's take Loewe in Sky FC with Estelle, Kloe and Schera for a moment. When I first played through it (close to 10 years ago now) I sucked at that fight. Nowadays? that fight is 1 of the easiest bosses in Trails in the Sky, why? cuz you have pre-nerf Kloe in your party Difficulty spikes are meant to make you STRATEGIZE to beat it, but do it and you do get rewarded for doing it with points (BP/DP/AP) most often, but sometimes even items too. I have played through all 9 games in the series on Nightmare difficulty in the past year (except the Crossbell duology because I didn't wanna experience burnout before Reverie drops, but I plan on doing it soon) with the caveat that I have to get max points (therefore have to beat enemies like Loewe, Arianrhod, Sigmund). The only game that was hard was Sky Second Chapter, and specifically only 3 fights were really annoying, Kurt in Balstar Channel, Sword Jaeger (Grant disguised as a Jaeger) and Javelin Jaeger (Kurt disguised as a Jaeger) Why those 3 fights? because Sky SC Anelace is bad and Estelle is mediocre at the time, and you have no access to better items, also Grant's fight is also just loseable which makes it even harder, so it requires the usage of Proxy Puppets (items I as an RPG player will stray away from as much as I can because 1 time use items are "scary" to use) TL;DR: use EVERYTHING at your disposal no matter how underhanded and you can win any fight (provided Falcom allowed you to win the fight).
Not wrong; I consider Hard the default difficulty, and SC has the hardest boss fights because they are front loaded and you have limited items/options to deal with them. Though oddly beat both Kurt and Mueller on my second attempt each. Lowe at the end also stands out since that fight is dependent largely on when he decides to spam his two clones (if he does it before you kill the adds things can get out of hand, but you *do* have Kevin so...). Azure is also there because of the literal timed fight and Arianrhod, but you do have the resources to deal with them (dodge tank Lloyd plus Arts Defense Down), but they remain intolerant of mistakes. But on a boss fight to boss fight basis, I rate it easier then SC (pending my series re-runthrough; currently on 3rd). But the hardest boss in the series? Muller in Julia's door in 3rd. I've never legit won that fight on Hard (though I came 1CP away from the winning s-craft once).
@@gamerk316 winning against Mueller only changes the dialogue slightly and while I did beat it ages ago on Nightmare, it doesn't really matter As for Loewe, he's not immune to damage nerfs so with Kloe and Kevin it just requires a little luck and you're fine (Estelle with max speed set and Time Gem Earth Wall is really broken for most fights in SKy SC after you get the Time Gem)
@@arcanegale285 I usually put the Time Gem on Joshua, since his superior stats let him better eat the 14% damage nerfs that come with it. Then again, we could spend literally days arguing about Quartz setups in the Sky series. :D Against Lowe, basically used Kevin for damage nullification while everyone else focused on getting rid of the adds/clones ASAP. Took 19 Zeram Powders and 6 Zeram Capsules (most on Kevin to keep Grail Sphere active; a few on Agate for massive AoE damage on Crits), but I managed to outlast him. Could have gone slower with Earth Wall tactics, but with up to 5 attacks (including two AoE ones from the adds) I wanted a faster approach.
@@gamerk316 I generally didn't use many (I believe only 3 Powders and 1 Capsule in my most recent runthrough) also as for the damage nerf, I didn't care about it because the only meaningful damage Estelle can dish out is her Wheel of Time, which will still deal a wallop even with the Time Gem and the utility that it provides is too much to not have it on my character that spams Earth Wall (that's how I see it at least)
@@arcanegale285 Its a viable strat, but as you noted Time Gem makes most characters useless so far as damage goes. That battle I thought there was simply too much incoming damage to rely on Earth Guard starts/turn order, and viewed Kevin as the go-to. Hence the Zeram item spam.
Availability really hurt this series. The Sky games were only PSP and the Crossbell games only came out officially in the US recently. Its hard to get US gamers into a series that is just plain unavailable outside of fan hacks. My first game was Cold Steel 1 and I would guess a lot of people played that one first. The graphics not being the best doesn't help, and then the pacing is also slow, just the way the Bracer type mission structure works. This game is fantastic. One of the big advantages of Crossbell is that the area is pretty small, so you keep meeting the same people and they have their own stories going. The NPCs end up being more memorable that some MAIN characters in other games. I've watched some people play through later games where you go back to Crossbell and they know the names of all the NPCs at a glance. Some of them are even surprised by that fact, since its been YEARS since they played Zero/Azure
I started on cold steel 1 on ps4 a few years back. Finished it snd started cold steel 2 but i felt i was missing something so i took a break and got a pc (took a bit due to pc prices around covid) to play the sky trilogy. Beat them and beat crossbell games earlier this year. So im going back to play cold steel 1 & 2 soon as i dont want to burn myself out on the series like i did a bit with yakuza series. My only issue i had with Azure was i felt 1st half was a bit too slow and 2nd half was way too fast at times. Maybe its just me. I also wasnt as big on who killed Guy. It just seemed so quick. Overall i still enjoyed it very much. I would hsve the same order you do in games Glad you got into the trails series, its very addicting.
I agree with everything you said about this game except for the difficulty or its spikes. I actually think the game is too easy on anything lower than hard. I feel like if you're struggling on any boss fight (that you're supposed to beat to continue), the answer is always simple. You're not optimized enough, and you're not using the turn order Manipulation system, and the s-break system will be enough. If you were, then you'd know these games are the furthest thing from difficult. I feel like anyone i see who complains about difficulty in Trails their biggest response or excuse is "I'm here for the story" sure but that's not a good enough of an excuse to ignore and/or complain the difficulty. But that's just my take on it. I actually wish these games were harder because the further we get into the games, the more they become more and more of a pushover. Nonetheless, like i said, it's a good review overall
Yea I didn't really experience any difficulty spikes either, unless you count the bosses that are optional to achieve victory in, or maybe the final boss until you figure out its gimmick.
I definitely wasn’t optimized for a majority of the boss fights until close to the end. Once I hunkered down, it really helped save for the fight with Arios.
I played Azure on hard, cause I found Zero on normal to be a bit too easy. Up to chapter 4 I found the game to be very well balanced, then came the final chapter. Oh boy...Why must every boss on the final chapter have one attack that comes without warning and one shots your entire party!? I expected as much from Arianrhod, considering how strong she seems to be in the lore, but WHY EVERY BOSS? Not to mention the final boss that is just ridiculous.
@@darks820 Ugh, that final boss really punishes you for playing it safe at the wrong time. Tio can't bail you out when the boss just decides to end the universe lol. Took me at least six tries on hard.
It took me a very long time to understand the Trails Series when it comes to bosses, but it's just a puzzle where you take their moves away and spank 'em.
I agree with you with the frustrating difficulty spikes. When you one shot every normal encounter and just get blasted by a boss it's annoying. In the final dungeon I really had to learn the benefit of tios fully charged zero field ability. Without that those fights were near impossible. I played through sky and the first two cold steel games before crossbell. I think that cold steel l 1 and 2 were good but definitely by least favorite. Though they may have hit different if I had known the crossbell story first. I'm excited to jump in to cold steel 3 and 4 soon. I'm also pumped to continue watching your coverage!
Tio’s zero field came in clutch during a lot of those end game bosses! Did you slot in the Aegis master quartz? Having the extra stacks of guard helped too. I’ve heard some interesting stories about Cold Steel that were similar to you in that they were their least favorite. I’ll find out soon enough! Thanks for watching!
Cold Steel III is awesome. It has great, early payoff for those that played the Sky arc. The final chapter of CSIII is probably the best in the whole series. It doesn't drag on too long, but damn it was impactful. Spiral of Erebos slaps as a final dungeon theme.
I am late to the game (oops no pun intended), but I personally think the Crossbell games are the best games... But ONLY because of the Sky games that came before them. If the Sky trilogy did not do a great job of building the world and characters that culminate all together in the Crossbell games, I think I would have rated the Crossbell a lot lower. A lot of people say you can start with the Crosbell or Cold Steel games to jump in these series, but I personally disagree strongly with that. The Sky games are simply needed to get those strong emotions and feelings in the Crosbell games. For instance - How the hell would people understand how hard those scenes with Renne are, without knowing anything about her backstory? That same backstory that already build up in Sky FC/SC, but punch you in the stomach in the last Sky game at Stardoor 15. Only after seeing that, you can understand why those scenes with Renne in the Crossbell games are so powerful!
On the difficulty: Enemies in the field are not meant to be challenging; they are there simply as sources for XP. Bosses are another story, and force you to use tactics you don't have to in the field. With a handful of exceptions, most Bosses in Trails are fair but tough even on Hard (a few in SC are exceptions [Kurt/Lowe]). And to be fair: since Dodge is now a flat Evade% you can absolutely break the combat in this game.
If I understand it right. The crossbell games happen along side the first 2 cold steel games. Trails of zero's story starts before cold steel and ends around chapter 5 of cold steel. And Azure's story starts toward the end of cold steel through the middle of cold steel 2. Then it's just cold steel 3 and 4.
Azure spoilers below: I had my eye on Dieter Crois the entire game because there's simply no world in which you can convince me to put trust in the CEO of the continent's largest asset holder who decides to run for office, and become the mayor, no less. That reveal didn't surprise me even slightly. What _did_ surprise me was the depth of this insane conspiracy, even ignoring the true plans revealed in the finale. It's hard to feel bad for someone like Joachim, but the way that the antagonists take out other antagonists in this series (or use the protagonists to do the job for them) is one of my favorite things about the series as a whole. I can do without the romance stories and whatnot, but what really grabs me and refuses to let me go in Trails is the moral ambiguity.
Great review glad you enjoyed it! I wonder am I the only one who think the series's best part is NPC? I mean the story, writing and characters are great, music are mind blowing but those NPC? Lots of them are like so fun to talk to they give me laugh and tears all day😂
I do like the care given to the NPCs a good deal but (and I totally missed talking about this in the review) one of my absolute favorite things is reading the chest dialogue after opening them.
@@TheTheoLogan898 I played Chinese version way back around 2012 and it doesn't have chest messages~ XSeed and Geofront been doing a great job with their little surprise for sure it makes me feel like replay the game with English one day.
A very good ramble about Azure, thanks for doing your part to bring more attention to this wonderful series. While I'm not playing alongside, I am actually playing through the games at roughly the same pace. I'm about halfway through CS1 so far and I'm quite enjoying it, though I'm still not sure how I feel about replacing the the Sepith lines for just giving you the spell. I quite prefer Azure's take on the Quartz system.
I'd recommend you play at whatever difficulty you're comfortable with. Personally I like these games on Normal. I'm patient when it comes to dying in games so the difficulty spikes aren't really an issue for me. You just have to adapt your strategy which I personally prefer to having grinding be the difference between win or lose - but you might prefer getting to the story without too much hassle with the gameplay, and that's perfectly ok. After all, the appeal of Trails is its story, it's not a Shin Megami Tensei or Soulslike game where the combat and persevering against seemingly BS enemies through patience, determination, and cunning tactics IS the game.
@@TheTheoLogan898 I'm impressed at the speed at which you're finishing these games. I'm currently playing Sen II along with TOTK (just got done liberating Roer) and I have the rest of the games until Hajimari on my computer. Somehow you've gotten to Sen III faster than I have despite the fact that I started the series in 2018 lol. Then again I've been somewhat busy, I do wish I had more time to play the series the same way as when I was still in high school. The Erebonia Arc definitely feels a lot easier in comparison, but that's mostly because of how broken some of the characters are. I mean Fie can get absolutely invincible as an evasion tank and Laura's STR can go so high and with Tauros MQ on her her damage is just insane. And that's with me playing on normal mode. The bosses are trivial as long as you use 200 CP Radiant Waltz on them with Tauros equipped + True Gladiator Headband and Passion Leggings, and then follow up with Rean's S-Craft. My minor gripe with the Cold Steel games that I'm still passionate about is the button mapping. As a Nintendo guy and someone used to the Asian PS layout, I prefer the right face button to be confirm. But if you do that, the UI will be messed up on the Sen and Hajimari localizations. The fishing minigame will have X be in the place of O in CSII, the battle UI for Sen III - Hajimari will have incorrectly positioned face buttons, and more inconveniences. Why do they have to make it so hard for us circle button lovers?
I'm a masochist apparently, because I play with SoftBrilliant's nightmare mod. I only really recommend them to those that didn't have trouble even on a nightmare first run, however. They're really tough.
After playing sky and crossbell, every other future game i play are just to seek out any story or hint on what happens in future. Also, at there later story of the game, it somehow becomes (seeing how Renne became a mature young lady from her childish broken nature from sky SC to kuro no kiseki) Since Renne does make an appearance in every arc so far aside Lecther.
Well, I started into the Trails series with Cold Steel 1 then jumped right into CS2 because of the really mean cliffhanger at the end. Then stopped and went back to the beginning and while I was playing the Sky trilogy, the Crossbell games released in the West. Now that I've finished all 5 of the older games, I can finally move on to CS3. I'll do that after a short break and play something else for a change, so I don't get burnt out. Not sure how long it will take me to beat the game I've just started to play something different than Trails or if I'll get bored before ending it and start CS3 early.
@@TheTheoLogan898 Right now I'm playing Scarlet Nexus, because I wanted something that plays completely different. It does have some similar things like the social links with your combat partners, but action combat and a very different setting. I'm only a couple of hours in, so I don't know how much I like it. The two bosses I fought so far were pretty challenging for me, because I don't play many action games.
@@LilT2o00 It’s pretty astounding! You can actually see my reaction on the VOD of the stream: A New Trail Begins! Cold Steel 3 FIRST Playthrough th-cam.com/users/liveVXc--BwuA7k?feature=share
Nice video. I really liked the game I completed 100% of the challenges, about the story I liked it I just thought Lloyd was a hypocrite because letting KeA use her power to resurrect him and his friends is fine but to use the same power to resurrect his brother he doesn't want to. (ps Sorry for my bad english I'm Brazilian)
I tried to 100% it as well but missed several things. I don’t know that Lloyd is a hypocrite though. He didn’t really have a say in KeA bringing them all back 😅
You snuck a spoiler into the "Ranking the Trails Games So Far" section of your video. Right around 12:35. XD I mean, I already knew about the spoiler. But I just felt you should know. It may catch someone off guard if they skipped the "Spoiler Zone" section of the review. >.>
The one thing holding me back from loving this game as much as everyone else is that the game is so dark it’s hard to enjoy it sometimes. The two raids led by Shirley left such a pit in my stomach that I hard a hard time playing the rest of the game. If she gets a redemption arc imma be pissed. That said I do like how they handled Kias powers. I actually hate those type of plot points but they did a great job addressing the consequences of her using her powers, and it seems she only messed with the timeline once in a limited manner. As long as they don’t do it again I’m happy with how it all turned out.
I think that’s a normal reaction. Azure gets dark at times. I’m curious though: what would be wrong with Shirley getting a redemption arc and making amends for what she’s done?
@@TheTheoLogan898 I think the game showed she’s too far gone. From what I’ve played she doesn’t have some tragic backstory that would make me sympathize for her like with Renne. And even if she did, considering how many people she’s hurt that I liked in the game it just feels like that would disregard those characters suffering. Renne was twisted but I don’t think even she did this much damage like torching a town. I could be wrong since the guy from the Intelligence Division in Liberl had a good arc, but his actions didn’t leave me with the pit in my stomach that Sherryl did.
Trails of Cold Steel gets better with the difficulty. But the older games, yeah they are all over the place. Hell thank GOD you played Sky on PC, because if you had tried the sky on PS VITA you would rage quit so much. The Evolution versions of Sky are just so badly done in the difficulty. And I think it's because they were done thinking of the Zero/Azure games in a way. So yeah. XD Cold Steel I think it's too easy on normal, so I always play through hard, but I also understand how to break them games nowadays so there's that.
2 months old video, so I'm sure someone else mentioned this but Falcom can't remake the triology titles. They don't use xSeed as a publisher anymore and xSeed owns the rights to the sky triology in the west. They can't touch those games of the franchise. xseed owns rights to triology and cs1 and 2. Falcom switched to NIS America from cs3 onward and no longer collabs with xseed. If they did cs1-2 remasters (like put them in cs3 and cs4 engines) they wouldn't be able to release them in America
at least after trails into reverie is out, as trails fan we can say to play trails in the sky FC to Reverie .. as for kuro no kiskei 1 and 2, just wait until english localizaiton ( but we also late 2 game still tho). but now people can play the complete saga western side of erebonia
Sure, but only if people looking to get into the series are playing on PC. Still wish Falcom would bring the Sky trilogy to current consoles. Even then, I don’t know how many people will play through 9 JRPGs just to get caught up 😅
I just started trails in the sky and I like the story so far. I watched review video so I knew what I was going into. Unfortunately, the combat is really boring. I am piss everytime I encounter a monster. Also, the fact that you can't change the difficulty is beyond me. The plan is to endure this one and for all the other trails, put it at the lower difficulty.😂
chapter 4 already in azure.. want to finish the game so bad so i can watch this full 😂 man thr lake elm wetlands scenes 🔥🔥🔥 wish we could see cassius and arios vs that 7th anguis she seems unbeatable 😂😂😂
I’ve heard a lot about CS4’s padding and I’m a little nervous about playing it. Just started streaming my play through of CS2 here on the channel and have been enjoying it so far!
@@TheTheoLogan898 CS4 wasn't horrible; there's some padding there but nothing that stood out too badly during my playthrough. I hated CSIII more due to a lackluster at times localization (which feels *very* stiff and literal at times) and certain boss battles taking a year and a half.
Why is this series not as big as Final Fantasy, Persona, or Dragon Quest? The same reason Persona and Dragon Quest aren't as big as Final Fantasy: Graphics. Graphics matter.
i nearly dropped the series with trails in the sky FC. The problem is the starting games are so horrible boring. I didnt enjoy Sky FC and Cold Steel 1 as they didnt progress at all and the whole story felt like nothing happened until the last chapter. Cold steel 1 was a mess way to long and dragged out with literaly zero story until the final chapter. The bonding system drags out the games even more making me despise the whole system but despite all this flaws the series is amazing. But i understand why its not popular in the west as the starting point of the series are just bad games alone without the second parts.
It’s hard for me to call the starts of a new arc (at least FC and Zero) bad games because I’ve come around a lot on FC. But they’re also ranked low on my list so that does say something.
@@TheTheoLogan898 Dont let nostalgia fool you. Go back to your Trails in the Sky FC Review and watch your opinion on the series. Its alot more critical as it is today. Zero in my opinion is far superior as a starting arc game than FC and CS1. Those games make it realy hard to get into the series in my opinion cause as a standalone game they are plain boring until the last chapter. No one likes to play 30-40 hours for it to "get good". Escpecialy with new series.
@@Olpyhonou speak as though your opinion is fact. I loved CS 1 as did many others. I had been hearing about Erobonia for 5 games and to get to explore and learn a lot more about the country wasn’t boring at all. Yes it’s the setup game for the arc, but horribly boring? That’s certainly an opinion, but trails wouldn’t be what it was without the crazy amount of world building
I actually like the first games the most. I enjoy having a smaller scale story for a change with more of a slice of life feel (Falcom's writing really makes for interesting slice of life). Zero is my favorite game, as it works well as a "detective jrpg", making it very unique. Also, the character moments and connections to the Sky trilogy lead to very emotional scenes.
I wouldn't call them bad games. However I think they need a really specific type of mindset going in to truly appreciate them and stick around till the end. Thats hard to expect off a guy just getting a recommendation or seeing the games on steam sale. There is a market for the very grounded low stakes fantasy story that is FC. Similarly people who wanted more personaesque games ate CS1 up and its a big reason why the series is even as big as it is now to begin with. The slow parts of these games are not bad, they simply have a different appeal.
Not sure youll see this comment. But if you l9ve the geopolitics of Gundam, then check out The Legend of the Galactic Heroes. Theres two versions, the original series, and the remake series. Both are great adaptations, it ultimately is a matter of preference. You want something a bit more modern and sleek looking? Go for tje remake. If you love old school anime from the 70's and 80's, go for the original.
There’s a lot more that could have been said but I wanted to keep the video to a reasonable time 😅
What’s some of your favorite parts of Trails to Azure?
The writing in these games is so insane that when they were helping the Hayworths, they found Renne's brother Colin pursuing a butterfly, that lead to them getting along with Renne and she could hear the truth when hidden in that closet and that was key for them to be friends with Estelle and Joshua which was also key to their survival, that's a clear proof of the butterfly effect, it's mindblowing, really
Whoa… I hadn’t even thought of that. That’s very clever!
I think the biggest reasons for the Trails series not being as well known (at least in the west) are due to four reasons.
1. Since Falcom isn't a AAA studio, they don't have quite as much money for marketing their games as say Square, Monolith Software, Atlus, etc.
2. Up until around Cold Steel III, Falcom was always a generation or two behind industry standards in regards with graphics. While this isn't as important as aesthetic direction and story (both of which Falcom excels at) it does serve to "hook" someone who stumbles across it by chance on say Steam or Social Media. Starting with CS III, the games now look much more era appropriate.
3. The games are a SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOW burn and text heavy. Too many people just want to "get on with it" and or don't like reading. The games introducing new arcs drag on a bit at times, and many people just have no patience.
4. Last but certainly not least, up until.....just these last couple of years, we were always wondering "Are the sequels even getting localized?"😓
This is the most fair reason for not wanting to get in to series imo. It's kind of a tough sell to tell someone, "so hey, this series is REALLY good, but on top of being behind what's out in Japan, you may never see a crucial middle arc that ties together the first one and the later ones."
I got into this series around early 2015 when the release of SC was in localization limbo and we were losing faith it would ever be a thing. Cold steel and Crossbell? LMAO!!!
Thankfully reason #4 is slowly fading, but we are still suffering from it.
Dang, I had no idea about your fourth point. Guess it’s a good thing it took me so long to get around to playing these 😅
I can see your point on 3 and how these aren’t for everyone. I read a lot when I’m not gaming so I kind of forget that not everyone else enjoys that as much as I do 😅
1: Fun fact, I think Falcom only has something like 50 full-time employees. They made a decision ages ago to intentionally stay small. They're reliant on their big series (LoH and Ys) to bring in big bucks to keep afloat, but its worked well for them.
2: Do remember that prior to CS the series was locked behind the PSP; even the PC versions came after the fact. And even CSI/II maintained Vita compatibility which limited how far they could push things.
3: The series is honestly more like a Virtual Novel with tactical combat thrown in. It works, but honestly field enemies just exist as XP and can be skipped once you hit the level caps for a set of enemies.
If any series would benefit from fewer enemies and going toward milestone leveling, Trails is it.
4: I still remember the panic when there was no announcement for CSIII for ages and ages. I kind of suspected XSEED wasn't going to get the gig, but the lack of news for literally YEARS started to wear thin. The fact we are finally both caught up and hopefully will soon not be permanently two years behind will be a godsend.
Spoiler talk for 8:01
I thought it was weird how when u do the final dungeon, you have Joshua and Estelle with you, while you didnt in the intro. I thought it was a gamey trope to not spoil their presence. Never thought it was a different timeline.
This was because on top of the SSS gang not helping Renne out, they were also not the best of friends with our favorite Liberl bracers, so they got their ass clapped, which is depressing, especially for Tio, because that cult guy bastard made her life hell, and in that reality, he also ended her life.
Truly the darkest timeline.
@@TheTheoLogan898 I guess you can say they never truly got over the barrier...
The effects of changing the timeline affect cold steel 2 that's why the beginning is different
I wish I got into these games this year because the wait for Reverie to release on Steam has been PAINFUL. I've finished Cold Steel IV 2 years ago and I am literally smiling like an idiot thinking it's just one more month for Reverie. Still Azure is my favourite entry in the series, the moment you realize Lloyd waking up on train in cold sweat in Zero is timeline being reset as he JUST DIED is a major mindblow.
It still boggles my mind to this day. Such a cool reveal!
Now you have 4 games before you play the final crossbell game.
I definitely have my work cut out for me 😅
Who knows what would happen to Crossbell after Reverie maybe it's bit too early to say it's the final crossbell game haha
To me, Crossbell arc was best. Azure ranks highest, but i still put SC & 3rd above Zero. I almost wonder if in a couple games you will realize you miss the Crossbell chars the way you think now about the Sky ones. 😜
But yea even if I ignore all the other crazy stuff that happens, once you get to the end of the Fragments chapter--all the ways it builds on the lore of the Sky trilogy just made it unbeatable. SPOILERS BELOW:
SPOILERS: (Zeit as the mirage Holy Beast, Demiourgos as the Sept-terrion of mirage, Wazy as the Ninth Dominion, and of course my precious daughter KeA.)
I’m sure I’ll be missing the SSS by the time I finish Cold Steel 😅 there’s only a few members of Class VII that I like at this point.
@@TheTheoLogan898 I suspect you'll like all or almost all of them in the end, but some of them might take a few games lol.
@@OneManCast Zero definitely does not drag it down. It focuses more on the characters, which particularly if you played Sky is fantastic. Azure builds off the back of that, so that it can focus less on the characters and more on the events, and does so very well. They're a great complement to each other. Not to mention, it doesn't have some of the writing issues Cold Steel does. Crossbell knows what it's going to do, and executes well on it.
@@jmporkbob The problem I have with Zero is its pacing is atrocious. At least in FC the story is somewhat interspaced with travel/battle (by having you go to various areas in each region), but with pretty much everything in Crossbell in...Crossbell, it feels most of the meat is backloaded in each chapter.
@@gamerk316 I would say the opposite. The pacing in FC is atrocious. Over half the main story progression is not even relating on the main plot. And there is almost no character development in the entirety of FC, aside from Estelle/Joshua. Zero has plenty of character stuff to chew on, and every chapter is progressively uncovering a bit more into the underworld of Crossbell until all the pieces fall together.
I like how the combat changes in the games reflects the game's lore: combat orbment is a fairly new tech, which means breakthroughs come at a more regular pace compared to an already mature tech like, say, orbal train.
Wow, didn't expect the Sanderson comparison. I thought I was one of the only few who did this comparison 😅
Great review. As you said I think Sky is very important for the series in general. Hopefully Falcom can release a remaster for them soon. They really need to be on current consoles. Just add the voices from the Evolution versions would be enough. Next year is the 20th anniversary of Trails, which is also the 35th anniversary of the Legend of Heroes as a whole, which is also the 40th anniversary of Dragon Slayer. It's an important year and I really hope Falcom delivers on it.
Have you seen al final bonding events? At least Randy, Wazy and Rixia have a lot of background information about them that's behind the bonding events in the final chapter. I recommend checking them out on youtube.
This is something that also happens with the Cold Steal games. Some bonding events have crucial information to understand a major event later. Sadly, on a first playthrough you can't see them unless you save scam.
A solution to this is to play with a new game+ save since you can select what to carry over. However, they downside for this is that new game+ usually has a few additional scenes that spoils things a little later. For instance, new game+ in Azure has Mariabell talking with Bluebblanc before the reveal she is an antagonist.
Interesting! I did not know there were extra scenes in new game+! I did see some bonding moments between the three characters you mentioned but I may have missed them. I’ll go look them up.
Here’s to hoping we see the Sky trilogy come to console next year!
@@TheTheoLogan898 For the most part, the scenes of new game+ are mostly very few and don't add much if anything at all. However, there is a very important scene hidden in new game+ for Cold Steel 2. That's the exception, and once you finish CS2 you should watch that scene before starting with CS3.
If they ever remastered sky trilogy, it'd be a Japan exclusive. From cs3 onward, NIS America publishes trails game. Prior to that it was xseed. xseed and falcom have cut ties. Xseed owns the western rights to the games, so w/o going through xseed, they can't do it.
If they redid cs1 and cs1 but in cs4 engine as a remaster, they wouldn't be able to release those in the west either without permission or buying the rights back from xseed
@@LilT2o00
Those kind of contracts don't work like that. It depends on who is the developer of the port.
For example, In the case of Cold Steel 1 & 2 for the switch, that port was developed by CLE, which means XSEED wouldn't have access to that port even though they had the rights of the games.
On the other hand, CS1 & CS2 which were developed directly by Falcom, XSEED did release their translations on PS4. Same happened with Ys Origin and Ys Celceta not so long ago.
XSEED won't develop their own ports of those games, because as you said, they don't have any contractual obligation to do so.
However, if Falcom did a port of the Sky games on modern consoles, XSEED could release the games without any issues.
Also, we don't know the agreement between XSEED and FALCOM, but usually this kind of things have an expiration date unless the licensing is renewed. Falcom my put conditions on it, like releasing a port they have developed.
Remakes are a different kind of beast though. They are not necesarily the same game, which means in that case NISA could probably take over, although, not using the original translation which belongs to XSEED unless they got into somekind of agreement.
So to sum up, we'll probably never get CS1 & 2 for switch (XSEED won't develop their own version), however, Sky trilogy would depend if it's a direct port from Falcom themselves or not. If CLE is the one who does the ports, then we can forget about it...
@@Natreg44 not sure about cs 1 and 2 but at least from everyone else who has touched on this, has appeared that xseed outright owns the rights to the sky triology in the west
Man, the talk of difficulty is odd to me, since I played on hard and found it if anything a bit too easy outside of some DP boss missions that you had to win in a specific number of turns to get max DP. The fight against Randy's uncle was prolly the hardest to get max DP on but even if you lose the fight you still move on anyways.
Are you properly using your speed stat? Speed is the most broken thing in trails by far.
Omg, when you said you didn't understand the Trail series I was thinking to myself "choose your next words carefully," but I was pleasantly surprised at your response. 10 out of 10 review
😂 thanks!
I'll just say this
Trails to Azure is the hardest game in the series according to a vast majority of fans, as such it's not surprising you see the difficulty spikes,
however it is also deliberately made as such because you're not meant to defeat Arianrhod or some of the other fights, but you CAN if you have the right setup and that's the beauty of combat in this series in my eyes.
Let's take Loewe in Sky FC with Estelle, Kloe and Schera for a moment. When I first played through it (close to 10 years ago now) I sucked at that fight. Nowadays? that fight is 1 of the easiest bosses in Trails in the Sky, why? cuz you have pre-nerf Kloe in your party
Difficulty spikes are meant to make you STRATEGIZE to beat it, but do it and you do get rewarded for doing it with points (BP/DP/AP) most often, but sometimes even items too.
I have played through all 9 games in the series on Nightmare difficulty in the past year (except the Crossbell duology because I didn't wanna experience burnout before Reverie drops, but I plan on doing it soon) with the caveat that I have to get max points (therefore have to beat enemies like Loewe, Arianrhod, Sigmund). The only game that was hard was Sky Second Chapter, and specifically only 3 fights were really annoying, Kurt in Balstar Channel, Sword Jaeger (Grant disguised as a Jaeger) and Javelin Jaeger (Kurt disguised as a Jaeger)
Why those 3 fights? because Sky SC Anelace is bad and Estelle is mediocre at the time, and you have no access to better items, also Grant's fight is also just loseable which makes it even harder, so it requires the usage of Proxy Puppets (items I as an RPG player will stray away from as much as I can because 1 time use items are "scary" to use)
TL;DR: use EVERYTHING at your disposal no matter how underhanded and you can win any fight (provided Falcom allowed you to win the fight).
Not wrong; I consider Hard the default difficulty, and SC has the hardest boss fights because they are front loaded and you have limited items/options to deal with them. Though oddly beat both Kurt and Mueller on my second attempt each. Lowe at the end also stands out since that fight is dependent largely on when he decides to spam his two clones (if he does it before you kill the adds things can get out of hand, but you *do* have Kevin so...).
Azure is also there because of the literal timed fight and Arianrhod, but you do have the resources to deal with them (dodge tank Lloyd plus Arts Defense Down), but they remain intolerant of mistakes. But on a boss fight to boss fight basis, I rate it easier then SC (pending my series re-runthrough; currently on 3rd).
But the hardest boss in the series? Muller in Julia's door in 3rd. I've never legit won that fight on Hard (though I came 1CP away from the winning s-craft once).
@@gamerk316 winning against Mueller only changes the dialogue slightly and while I did beat it ages ago on Nightmare, it doesn't really matter
As for Loewe, he's not immune to damage nerfs so with Kloe and Kevin it just requires a little luck and you're fine (Estelle with max speed set and Time Gem Earth Wall is really broken for most fights in SKy SC after you get the Time Gem)
@@arcanegale285 I usually put the Time Gem on Joshua, since his superior stats let him better eat the 14% damage nerfs that come with it. Then again, we could spend literally days arguing about Quartz setups in the Sky series. :D
Against Lowe, basically used Kevin for damage nullification while everyone else focused on getting rid of the adds/clones ASAP. Took 19 Zeram Powders and 6 Zeram Capsules (most on Kevin to keep Grail Sphere active; a few on Agate for massive AoE damage on Crits), but I managed to outlast him. Could have gone slower with Earth Wall tactics, but with up to 5 attacks (including two AoE ones from the adds) I wanted a faster approach.
@@gamerk316 I generally didn't use many (I believe only 3 Powders and 1 Capsule in my most recent runthrough) also as for the damage nerf, I didn't care about it because the only meaningful damage Estelle can dish out is her Wheel of Time, which will still deal a wallop even with the Time Gem and the utility that it provides is too much to not have it on my character that spams Earth Wall (that's how I see it at least)
@@arcanegale285 Its a viable strat, but as you noted Time Gem makes most characters useless so far as damage goes. That battle I thought there was simply too much incoming damage to rely on Earth Guard starts/turn order, and viewed Kevin as the go-to. Hence the Zeram item spam.
Availability really hurt this series. The Sky games were only PSP and the Crossbell games only came out officially in the US recently. Its hard to get US gamers into a series that is just plain unavailable outside of fan hacks. My first game was Cold Steel 1 and I would guess a lot of people played that one first. The graphics not being the best doesn't help, and then the pacing is also slow, just the way the Bracer type mission structure works.
This game is fantastic. One of the big advantages of Crossbell is that the area is pretty small, so you keep meeting the same people and they have their own stories going. The NPCs end up being more memorable that some MAIN characters in other games. I've watched some people play through later games where you go back to Crossbell and they know the names of all the NPCs at a glance. Some of them are even surprised by that fact, since its been YEARS since they played Zero/Azure
The Sky games are currently available on PC via Steam. It's the only platform with all 10 localized Trails games.
final fantasy all combine 9/10
crossbell arc 10/10
liberl arc 99999/10
I started on cold steel 1 on ps4 a few years back. Finished it snd started cold steel 2 but i felt i was missing something so i took a break and got a pc (took a bit due to pc prices around covid) to play the sky trilogy. Beat them and beat crossbell games earlier this year. So im going back to play cold steel 1 & 2 soon as i dont want to burn myself out on the series like i did a bit with yakuza series.
My only issue i had with Azure was i felt 1st half was a bit too slow and 2nd half was way too fast at times. Maybe its just me. I also wasnt as big on who killed Guy. It just seemed so quick. Overall i still enjoyed it very much. I would hsve the same order you do in games
Glad you got into the trails series, its very addicting.
I agree with everything you said about this game except for the difficulty or its spikes. I actually think the game is too easy on anything lower than hard. I feel like if you're struggling on any boss fight (that you're supposed to beat to continue), the answer is always simple. You're not optimized enough, and you're not using the turn order Manipulation system, and the s-break system will be enough. If you were, then you'd know these games are the furthest thing from difficult. I feel like anyone i see who complains about difficulty in Trails their biggest response or excuse is "I'm here for the story" sure but that's not a good enough of an excuse to ignore and/or complain the difficulty. But that's just my take on it. I actually wish these games were harder because the further we get into the games, the more they become more and more of a pushover. Nonetheless, like i said, it's a good review overall
Yea I didn't really experience any difficulty spikes either, unless you count the bosses that are optional to achieve victory in, or maybe the final boss until you figure out its gimmick.
Once I figured out how to trick the final boss into a loop, it was a pretty easy fight 😅
I definitely wasn’t optimized for a majority of the boss fights until close to the end. Once I hunkered down, it really helped save for the fight with Arios.
I played Azure on hard, cause I found Zero on normal to be a bit too easy. Up to chapter 4 I found the game to be very well balanced, then came the final chapter. Oh boy...Why must every boss on the final chapter have one attack that comes without warning and one shots your entire party!? I expected as much from Arianrhod, considering how strong she seems to be in the lore, but WHY EVERY BOSS? Not to mention the final boss that is just ridiculous.
@@darks820 Ugh, that final boss really punishes you for playing it safe at the wrong time. Tio can't bail you out when the boss just decides to end the universe lol. Took me at least six tries on hard.
It took me a very long time to understand the Trails Series when it comes to bosses, but it's just a puzzle where you take their moves away and spank 'em.
I agree with you with the frustrating difficulty spikes. When you one shot every normal encounter and just get blasted by a boss it's annoying. In the final dungeon I really had to learn the benefit of tios fully charged zero field ability. Without that those fights were near impossible. I played through sky and the first two cold steel games before crossbell. I think that cold steel l 1 and 2 were good but definitely by least favorite. Though they may have hit different if I had known the crossbell story first. I'm excited to jump in to cold steel 3 and 4 soon. I'm also pumped to continue watching your coverage!
Tio’s zero field came in clutch during a lot of those end game bosses! Did you slot in the Aegis master quartz? Having the extra stacks of guard helped too.
I’ve heard some interesting stories about Cold Steel that were similar to you in that they were their least favorite. I’ll find out soon enough! Thanks for watching!
@@TheTheoLogan898 I discovered the aegis quartz late game, it was amazing. Definitely didn't utilize it enough.
Cold Steel III is awesome. It has great, early payoff for those that played the Sky arc. The final chapter of CSIII is probably the best in the whole series. It doesn't drag on too long, but damn it was impactful. Spiral of Erebos slaps as a final dungeon theme.
I am late to the game (oops no pun intended), but I personally think the Crossbell games are the best games...
But ONLY because of the Sky games that came before them. If the Sky trilogy did not do a great job of building the world and characters that culminate all together in the Crossbell games, I think I would have rated the Crossbell a lot lower. A lot of people say you can start with the Crosbell or Cold Steel games to jump in these series, but I personally disagree strongly with that. The Sky games are simply needed to get those strong emotions and feelings in the Crosbell games. For instance - How the hell would people understand how hard those scenes with Renne are, without knowing anything about her backstory? That same backstory that already build up in Sky FC/SC, but punch you in the stomach in the last Sky game at Stardoor 15. Only after seeing that, you can understand why those scenes with Renne in the Crossbell games are so powerful!
Yup, I totally agree. Really wish the Sky trilogy would come out on current consoles so more people have access to them.
On the difficulty: Enemies in the field are not meant to be challenging; they are there simply as sources for XP. Bosses are another story, and force you to use tactics you don't have to in the field. With a handful of exceptions, most Bosses in Trails are fair but tough even on Hard (a few in SC are exceptions [Kurt/Lowe]). And to be fair: since Dodge is now a flat Evade% you can absolutely break the combat in this game.
Definitely boosted Evade on Lloyd towards the end and made him practically untouchable.
@@TheTheoLogan898 Pretty much the strat in the CS games as well.
I wrecked the final bosses in this game. Usually I would go back to merkabah to restore my CP to full 200CP before taking any of the bosses.
If I understand it right. The crossbell games happen along side the first 2 cold steel games. Trails of zero's story starts before cold steel and ends around chapter 5 of cold steel. And Azure's story starts toward the end of cold steel through the middle of cold steel 2. Then it's just cold steel 3 and 4.
Sounds about right
Zero ends early in CS, around chapter 2, because they mentioned the riot in Crossbell which was the climax of Zero
Azure spoilers below:
I had my eye on Dieter Crois the entire game because there's simply no world in which you can convince me to put trust in the CEO of the continent's largest asset holder who decides to run for office, and become the mayor, no less. That reveal didn't surprise me even slightly. What _did_ surprise me was the depth of this insane conspiracy, even ignoring the true plans revealed in the finale. It's hard to feel bad for someone like Joachim, but the way that the antagonists take out other antagonists in this series (or use the protagonists to do the job for them) is one of my favorite things about the series as a whole. I can do without the romance stories and whatnot, but what really grabs me and refuses to let me go in Trails is the moral ambiguity.
Great review glad you enjoyed it!
I wonder am I the only one who think the series's best part is NPC? I mean the story, writing and characters are great, music are mind blowing but those NPC? Lots of them are like so fun to talk to they give me laugh and tears all day😂
I do like the care given to the NPCs a good deal but (and I totally missed talking about this in the review) one of my absolute favorite things is reading the chest dialogue after opening them.
@@TheTheoLogan898 I played Chinese version way back around 2012 and it doesn't have chest messages~ XSeed and Geofront been doing a great job with their little surprise for sure it makes me feel like replay the game with English one day.
A very good ramble about Azure, thanks for doing your part to bring more attention to this wonderful series.
While I'm not playing alongside, I am actually playing through the games at roughly the same pace. I'm about halfway through CS1 so far and I'm quite enjoying it, though I'm still not sure how I feel about replacing the the Sepith lines for just giving you the spell. I quite prefer Azure's take on the Quartz system.
The quartz system in Azure definitely very refined. I’m still learning the ARCUS orbments in Cold Steel.
Cold Steel III is my favorite in the series I've got and played everything up steel IV. I'm getting reverie in July and obs Kuro when it releases.
I'd recommend you play at whatever difficulty you're comfortable with. Personally I like these games on Normal. I'm patient when it comes to dying in games so the difficulty spikes aren't really an issue for me. You just have to adapt your strategy which I personally prefer to having grinding be the difference between win or lose - but you might prefer getting to the story without too much hassle with the gameplay, and that's perfectly ok. After all, the appeal of Trails is its story, it's not a Shin Megami Tensei or Soulslike game where the combat and persevering against seemingly BS enemies through patience, determination, and cunning tactics IS the game.
I recently finished up Cold Steel 1 & 2 and felt easy was a little too easy 😬 going to play CS3 on Normal.
@@TheTheoLogan898 I'm impressed at the speed at which you're finishing these games.
I'm currently playing Sen II along with TOTK (just got done liberating Roer) and I have the rest of the games until Hajimari on my computer. Somehow you've gotten to Sen III faster than I have despite the fact that I started the series in 2018 lol. Then again I've been somewhat busy, I do wish I had more time to play the series the same way as when I was still in high school.
The Erebonia Arc definitely feels a lot easier in comparison, but that's mostly because of how broken some of the characters are. I mean Fie can get absolutely invincible as an evasion tank and Laura's STR can go so high and with Tauros MQ on her her damage is just insane. And that's with me playing on normal mode. The bosses are trivial as long as you use 200 CP Radiant Waltz on them with Tauros equipped + True Gladiator Headband and Passion Leggings, and then follow up with Rean's S-Craft.
My minor gripe with the Cold Steel games that I'm still passionate about is the button mapping. As a Nintendo guy and someone used to the Asian PS layout, I prefer the right face button to be confirm. But if you do that, the UI will be messed up on the Sen and Hajimari localizations. The fishing minigame will have X be in the place of O in CSII, the battle UI for Sen III - Hajimari will have incorrectly positioned face buttons, and more inconveniences. Why do they have to make it so hard for us circle button lovers?
I'm a masochist apparently, because I play with SoftBrilliant's nightmare mod. I only really recommend them to those that didn't have trouble even on a nightmare first run, however. They're really tough.
After playing sky and crossbell, every other future game i play are just to seek out any story or hint on what happens in future.
Also, at there later story of the game, it somehow becomes (seeing how Renne became a mature young lady from her childish broken nature from sky SC to kuro no kiseki)
Since Renne does make an appearance in every arc so far aside Lecther.
Cold steel 1 starts slow as do all first games in an arc, rest assured it picks up
Looking forward to it!
Well, I started into the Trails series with Cold Steel 1 then jumped right into CS2 because of the really mean cliffhanger at the end. Then stopped and went back to the beginning and while I was playing the Sky trilogy, the Crossbell games released in the West. Now that I've finished all 5 of the older games, I can finally move on to CS3. I'll do that after a short break and play something else for a change, so I don't get burnt out. Not sure how long it will take me to beat the game I've just started to play something different than Trails or if I'll get bored before ending it and start CS3 early.
I’m contemplating taking a break when I finish CS2 as well. What’re you playing currently?
@@TheTheoLogan898 Right now I'm playing Scarlet Nexus, because I wanted something that plays completely different. It does have some similar things like the social links with your combat partners, but action combat and a very different setting. I'm only a couple of hours in, so I don't know how much I like it. The two bosses I fought so far were pretty challenging for me, because I don't play many action games.
You'll like the engine upgrade from 2 to 3, everyone looks so much better
@@LilT2o00 I've already started 3 and I really like the game.
@@LilT2o00 It’s pretty astounding! You can actually see my reaction on the VOD of the stream: A New Trail Begins! Cold Steel 3 FIRST Playthrough
th-cam.com/users/liveVXc--BwuA7k?feature=share
Good stuff.
Nice video. I really liked the game I completed 100% of the challenges, about the story I liked it I just thought Lloyd was a hypocrite because letting KeA use her power to resurrect him and his friends is fine but to use the same power to resurrect his brother he doesn't want to. (ps Sorry for my bad english I'm Brazilian)
I tried to 100% it as well but missed several things. I don’t know that Lloyd is a hypocrite though. He didn’t really have a say in KeA bringing them all back 😅
@@TheTheoLogan898 And he called her out on it.
Interesting fact, the Red Conste
Constellation is mentioned in the 3rd.
You snuck a spoiler into the "Ranking the Trails Games So Far" section of your video. Right around 12:35. XD
I mean, I already knew about the spoiler. But I just felt you should know. It may catch someone off guard if they skipped the "Spoiler Zone" section of the review. >.>
Oof! Good catch!
The one thing holding me back from loving this game as much as everyone else is that the game is so dark it’s hard to enjoy it sometimes. The two raids led by Shirley left such a pit in my stomach that I hard a hard time playing the rest of the game. If she gets a redemption arc imma be pissed.
That said I do like how they handled Kias powers. I actually hate those type of plot points but they did a great job addressing the consequences of her using her powers, and it seems she only messed with the timeline once in a limited manner. As long as they don’t do it again I’m happy with how it all turned out.
I think that’s a normal reaction. Azure gets dark at times. I’m curious though: what would be wrong with Shirley getting a redemption arc and making amends for what she’s done?
@@TheTheoLogan898 I think the game showed she’s too far gone. From what I’ve played she doesn’t have some tragic backstory that would make me sympathize for her like with Renne. And even if she did, considering how many people she’s hurt that I liked in the game it just feels like that would disregard those characters suffering. Renne was twisted but I don’t think even she did this much damage like torching a town. I could be wrong since the guy from the Intelligence Division in Liberl had a good arc, but his actions didn’t leave me with the pit in my stomach that Sherryl did.
just wait until cold steel
Looking forward to it!
Trails of Cold Steel gets better with the difficulty. But the older games, yeah they are all over the place.
Hell thank GOD you played Sky on PC, because if you had tried the sky on PS VITA you would rage quit so much. The Evolution versions of Sky are just so badly done in the difficulty. And I think it's because they were done thinking of the Zero/Azure games in a way. So yeah. XD
Cold Steel I think it's too easy on normal, so I always play through hard, but I also understand how to break them games nowadays so there's that.
CS is definitely easy on normal. I had infinite turns against Zoro Agruga 🤣
2 months old video, so I'm sure someone else mentioned this but Falcom can't remake the triology titles. They don't use xSeed as a publisher anymore and xSeed owns the rights to the sky triology in the west. They can't touch those games of the franchise. xseed owns rights to triology and cs1 and 2.
Falcom switched to NIS America from cs3 onward and no longer collabs with xseed. If they did cs1-2 remasters (like put them in cs3 and cs4 engines) they wouldn't be able to release them in America
you didnt think about the mechanics enough, there are many many different strats that are so effective that the games become trivial
I am clearly not that smart 😅
at least after trails into reverie is out, as trails fan we can say to play trails in the sky FC to Reverie ..
as for kuro no kiskei 1 and 2, just wait until english localizaiton ( but we also late 2 game still tho). but now people can play the complete saga western side of erebonia
Sure, but only if people looking to get into the series are playing on PC. Still wish Falcom would bring the Sky trilogy to current consoles. Even then, I don’t know how many people will play through 9 JRPGs just to get caught up 😅
@@TheTheoLogan898 the really hard thin is that sky games and CS 1 and 2 is still in XSEED side of license (with some Ys game too)
I just started trails in the sky and I like the story so far. I watched review video so I knew what I was going into. Unfortunately, the combat is really boring. I am piss everytime I encounter a monster. Also, the fact that you can't change the difficulty is beyond me. The plan is to endure this one and for all the other trails, put it at the lower difficulty.😂
That was my plan too 🤣 the Sky trilogy has some rough difficulty spikes.
chapter 4 already in azure.. want to finish the game so bad so i can watch this full 😂 man thr lake elm wetlands scenes 🔥🔥🔥 wish we could see cassius and arios vs that 7th anguis she seems unbeatable 😂😂😂
Enjoy the ride 😁
Very vanilla RPG series seems like.
Don’t knock it ‘til you try it 🤷🏼♂️
@@TheTheoLogan898 I may some day but I have another series I might finally complete in Star Ocean.
@@deiradinn NICE! That's one I still need to check out. You excited for the remake of Second Story?
Trails games are 85% reading and 15% gameplay basically and most people are not into that.
Meanwhile Disco Elysium remains one of the top rated games of all time.
I loved Azure ! By and large the series was great until cold steel 4 mainly due to the filler and some weird story elements
I’ve heard a lot about CS4’s padding and I’m a little nervous about playing it. Just started streaming my play through of CS2 here on the channel and have been enjoying it so far!
@@TheTheoLogan898 CS4 wasn't horrible; there's some padding there but nothing that stood out too badly during my playthrough. I hated CSIII more due to a lackluster at times localization (which feels *very* stiff and literal at times) and certain boss battles taking a year and a half.
Why is this series not as big as Final Fantasy, Persona, or Dragon Quest? The same reason Persona and Dragon Quest aren't as big as Final Fantasy: Graphics. Graphics matter.
Hahahahahahaha
i nearly dropped the series with trails in the sky FC. The problem is the starting games are so horrible boring. I didnt enjoy Sky FC and Cold Steel 1 as they didnt progress at all and the whole story felt like nothing happened until the last chapter. Cold steel 1 was a mess way to long and dragged out with literaly zero story until the final chapter. The bonding system drags out the games even more making me despise the whole system but despite all this flaws the series is amazing. But i understand why its not popular in the west as the starting point of the series are just bad games alone without the second parts.
It’s hard for me to call the starts of a new arc (at least FC and Zero) bad games because I’ve come around a lot on FC. But they’re also ranked low on my list so that does say something.
@@TheTheoLogan898 Dont let nostalgia fool you. Go back to your Trails in the Sky FC Review and watch your opinion on the series. Its alot more critical as it is today. Zero in my opinion is far superior as a starting arc game than FC and CS1. Those games make it realy hard to get into the series in my opinion cause as a standalone game they are plain boring until the last chapter. No one likes to play 30-40 hours for it to "get good". Escpecialy with new series.
@@Olpyhonou speak as though your opinion is fact.
I loved CS 1 as did many others. I had been hearing about Erobonia for 5 games and to get to explore and learn a lot more about the country wasn’t boring at all. Yes it’s the setup game for the arc, but horribly boring? That’s certainly an opinion, but trails wouldn’t be what it was without the crazy amount of world building
I actually like the first games the most. I enjoy having a smaller scale story for a change with more of a slice of life feel (Falcom's writing really makes for interesting slice of life). Zero is my favorite game, as it works well as a "detective jrpg", making it very unique. Also, the character moments and connections to the Sky trilogy lead to very emotional scenes.
I wouldn't call them bad games.
However I think they need a really specific type of mindset going in to truly appreciate them and stick around till the end.
Thats hard to expect off a guy just getting a recommendation or seeing the games on steam sale.
There is a market for the very grounded low stakes fantasy story that is FC.
Similarly people who wanted more personaesque games ate CS1 up and its a big reason why the series is even as big as it is now to begin with.
The slow parts of these games are not bad, they simply have a different appeal.
Not sure youll see this comment. But if you l9ve the geopolitics of Gundam, then check out The Legend of the Galactic Heroes. Theres two versions, the original series, and the remake series. Both are great adaptations, it ultimately is a matter of preference. You want something a bit more modern and sleek looking? Go for tje remake. If you love old school anime from the 70's and 80's, go for the original.
I’m always on the look for new anime to check out so I appreciate the recommendation!