Amazing door. The foreshadowing here is great, but what's even better is how well Osborne is set up as an antagonist for later arcs and how much of a threat he is. At this point, he set himself up as better Weissmann in my eyes. And there was a lot of interesting things mentioned in his conversation with Olivert with some I can draw comparisons to IRL things. Again, just an amazing door.
"Very well then, debaucherous prince! I look forward to seeing what you can do! Show me how long you can hold out against me!" 23:12 Hippity hoppity, your land is now my property I love how Osborne was built up to be such a menace that we get rare footage of Olivier unnerved and... actually angry. This Door did an amazing job of getting me excited to see what's to come in Cold Steel and what this new big bad would bring to the table. Now that I have completed those games and now that I do know what Osborne's whole deal is about... similar to how I feel about Kevin's behaviour earlier in the game, I find it interesting to look back on Osborne's behaviour and words in this Door with hindsight. I do enjoy him as a villain quite a bit. Another interesting manoeuvre was giving Lech Terarundel some more focus. It feels a good third or so of Star Door 8 was dedicated to him and Kloe, and it seems like the writers were building up to a wildcard nature of his at the end. Unfortunately, I remember being a little disappointed with the direction they took with him actually, which is a shame because I _loved_ the setup. Maybe I'll grow to appreciate what the writers really wanted for him on a series replay.
That's a good point. Olivert is usually jovial or composed and seeing him off that is a sign things are VERY serious, and not many people can push him that far. They definitely nailed the buildup to finally meeting this guy.
Wow, this is such an amazing door. From Osborne himself, the forshadowing, and well... Olivier himself. Who would have thought that a drunk and perverted bard like him would turn out to be a prince? His development is truly amazing. And to wage war on a monster like Osborne... I have nothing but respect towards Olivier.
Since last time, I did find out what Gakuen means and to simplify it, it is basically a high end Japanese school from what I saw so I was on the right track after all. Anyway, this is an interesting door considering what it is setting up and it is getting me excited to see what comes of this in the Cold Steel arc. It was very cool to see Olivert in a serious role, get to see what the deal with Osbourne is as well as see what became of Lechter and he seems to have an interesting role. The start of the end is next and it is going to be fun to see how this game concludes its story.
I might try another site to post this story. In the meantime, why did I go for the longest dungeon first? 7:19 Oof, nice shot. 10:58 Wait, WHAT?! 22:27 So even he can use Olivier's tricks. 22:53 And gets a great VA to voice him. 37:49 Probably an EVO retcon. 38:51 Now that his true alliegence is revealed, it makes sense on surface in why was he so lazy at Jenis. 53:45 Well, he knows to whom give respect.
I've been playing Zero and Azure these past weeks and going back to this door made me realize so many things, I'm astounded, actually I've been thinking about something, if you end up playing Zero before you play Cold Steel, I could help with commentary and with the hidden quests and location of the novels
I might do Zero, but I'd need someone to provide a "spoiler free" guide to quest and book locations. I'd be playing it "semi-blind", as I vaguely know the story and I've seen some footage, but I've never played it personally. If you could make a guide like that, I'd be interested.
@@BigKlingy It appears a reply I made that contained a link to a guide for Trails from Zero was auto-deleted, presumably due to it containing said link. Damn.
@@BigKlingy There's a guide that I've been using that's not exactly spoiler-free but it hides stuff that IS spoilers so it works out either way, I offered to do it because I'm pretty sure I could tell you pretty much where most things are without spoiling anything, though maybe that's presumptuous on my part, another thing that might be interesting however is to see how the official localization fares against the Geofront localization in terms of script and see if there were any significant changes
Well that was certainly an interesting Star Door... only means it's doubly annoying that all I have to say about it is that Osborne seems like a slimy bastard and that Lechter's behaviour during Kloe's Door now has a much more ominous undertone.
The 11th floor brought back some horrible memories of Mount Gulg as the party ended up in a room filled with magma. All they could think is run the heck away from this heat and find any surface without magma. After few such places, they found the stairs and raced to get there as fast they could. After ending up in the ice cave again, they plastered their feet into nearby snow to cool off. Two Elm Gigases, guarding the stairs of 12th floor, wondered what the noises was so they came to inspect. Not wishing to move from place, Mari just smitten them with Thundara. After finally being able to feel cold, everyone got up and took the stairs that those Gigases guarded before. 13th floor was just another ice cave floor and, other than just Strength Tonic they found by accident in a chest, it contained nothing important of note. The environment did change up on the 14th floor, now reminding them of the Earth Cave. Unlike there, however, this floor had a lot of huge stones, laid in such a way as to create a labyrinth with lizards and pythons waiting at the dead ends. After several such encounters, the party stumbled upon a chest. In it there was an item known as Silver Apple. It was an item similar to Soma Drop they picked up earlier, in this case it was said to improve the health of whoever consumed it. This was another item that went into the bag and was to be tested outside. After several more dead ends, they found their way out. The 15th floor was where things got weird once. They once again found themselves in a city, but this one was unlike anything they have ever seen. Surrounded by tall white walls, the city was brimming with magic and was populated by other mages. Unsure of what to do, the party walked cautiously while gripping their weapons. Most people just ended up ignoring them. They saw their fair share of newcomers behaving like that on their visit. The party ended up entering an inn called Blue Star Inn where the innkeeper greeted them. Innkeeper: “Hello and welcome to Blue Star Inn. How may I help you?” Everyone: “Um... Ah...” Innkeeper: “Let me guess, first time in this city? You didn’t even went through control first?” Kelin: “Yes. Where exactly are we?” Innkeeper: “Oh, this wasn’t even the destination you had in plan and yet you still reached this city? Now that’s quite rare. But let’s not dawdle anymore. I hereby welcome you to Ristior, the city of mages.” Rosch: “Mages?” Innkeeper: “Yes. This whole city is dedicated to the art of magic, the art of bending the laws of nature to your own will. Here, you will find every possible craft related to it. From construction to transportation.” Kelin: “I... see.” Innkeeper: “Is there something wrong?” Mari: “We were in the middle of doing something when we ended up here. So-“ Innkeeper: “I understand. You are thinking this might be an illusion or something to that extent. That’s why you have been keeping the guard up. I wish I could convince you that this is real, but that would be very difficult.” Lewyn: “Yes.” Innkeeper: “Then at least I can give to you all a spare room to rest while I find a city official to help you get back on your way. I can even offer you some food if you are hungry.” The party ended up taking up on his offer and slept in a corner room with one of them keeping guard and switching that every two hours. They also had breakfast and, while it was nothing to write home about, it was still better than the rations they were relying on. The next day the innkeeper brought along a city official that promised to return them back to their world. Before the Warriors left, innkeeper gave them a card that said Blue Star Inn on it. “In case you ever do want to come back, just hold that card and imagine yourself back here. I am curious to hear stories about your adventures.”, the innkeeper said with smile. The party thanked him for his hospitality and stepped into the teleportation circle, ending up in the Flying Fortress environment again. Everyone checked the cards to see if they were still there which they were. They were wondering if what happened was real or not. A Death Manticore disturbed while they were deep in their thoughts with Blaze spells. It nearly destroyed those cards so the Manticore paid dearly for that. After they killed it, party vowed to check this at a later date and they pressed on. At the very least, they didn’t end up on a previous floor as the Manticore and the layout proved it. And several minutes of searching they found the teleportation circle and went through it. The next two floors were in a marsh cave. One ruled by undead as skuldiers and revenants roamed around the other ruled by black goblins that guarded some treasure. Said treasure was barely worth a mention as the items that did survive were some Turbo Ethers, items that restored more magic compared to the regular ones, another Speed Drink and a Golden Apple, an item that was supposed to be even better than Silver Apple. After putting it away, they found the stairs and climbed down to the Earth Cave environment. Starting to be sick of constantly going through these caves, everyone started casting Thundara to scare off enemies and make it easier to pass through. Other than another Golden Apple and Soma Drop, there was nothing else of note.
Now, for another amazing door. 6:38 Oh boy, is he taking it in a direction. 10:48 Hey, stranger who we totally haven't seen before. 15:15 I love the way the two of them reflect on their time in Liberl here. They're both characters who've gone through a lot of out-of-focus development over FC and SC, so I find it rather touching to be able to feel the fondness they've developed for the country. 20:18 Yeah, calling Osborne a 4D chess master is honestly selling him short. 5D at least would probably be more accurate. 22:24 Frankly, casually dropping in on another nation's head of state has got to be one of the largest power moves ever. 22:36 I always forget how large his forehead was in this game. 32:42 I love this line. It shows just how casual he is about his growing power. 35:48 I'm sure Lechter would be excellent at those tasks in particular. 39:02 And here's the other confrontation that needed to happen. 41:56 While the ways he learned all of that were definitely well on the shady side, I do think it's rather sweet in it's own way. 43:17 Kloe took the words right out of my mouth. 51:20 It certainly does feel that way, huh? I wonder why... 56:40 Once again, saying that Osborne is always several steps ahead is underselling him. 1:02:10 That scene is without a doubt among the greatest in the series. It manages to hype me up every time. I LOVE this door. The politics, tension, foreshadowing, the contrast between the two different conversations... it all adds up to being something truly special.
15:15 I love this too, especially Mueller, who doesn't get a lot of development or focus so it's nice to see some for him. 20:18 He's one of the few who can keep up with Ouroboros AND Cassius. Which is saying something. 22:24 Just as Olivier was planning a power move of his own, too. 1:02:10 Definitely, it's one of mine too. (Now I need to go back and play CS1, because there's a moment in it that calls back to this, even playing the same music, and it meant nothing to me at the time since CS1 was my first Trails game)
Ah such delicious foreshadowing for what’s to come. To the point I have to feel I have to hold myself back from talking more about what we get later. Unless the ending for this game has the main cast leave Phantasm and be back on Liberl soil I think this might actually be the last time we see Liberl on this channel for a long time, And overall while Liberl started the series I don’t think it’s actually had a lot of relevance in later games, while Erebonia, Crossbell and even Calvard get a fair amount of focus, which with this game having came out originally in 2007. Osbourne has a kind of intimidating charisma that does make him quite entertaining to watch for me, and here it’s no exception even without any his English voice acting, Talking about voice acting, from what I can tell the Sky Arc when it comes to its Japanese voice acting doesn’t tend to use a lot of very famous VA as it’s cast even when it comes to major characters, but Osbroune and Lechter are voiced by Joji Nakata and Masakasu Morita, both quite experienced and well known voice actors from what I can tell. By comparison the Cold Steel and later Calvard Arc seem to at least partially go with big names for their major characters While in English it’s kind of the opposite, at least at the time the games were released since most of the Sky games cast are voice acting veterans who even now are still very well known, while a fair amount of the Cold Steel Arcs cast I would call up and coming talent. Klaudia and Lechter, that’s a paring that before I saw that he was in the game and was important in Klaudia/Kloe’s past that would seem a bit far fetched since I tend to heavily associate the two with their different settings. I do like it that Olivert carries over into the Cold Steel Arc with a semi major role, it makes sense as it is his homeland after all, but considering that a lot of JRPGs or really any piece of media that renews it’s setting don’t have characters carry over, even Trails that has a fairly interconnected world can be quite conservative with including previous characters at times, and the fact that it is one of my favourites is just icing on the cake.
1:10- On one hand I don't want to believe that given how vile Weissman was and how scary LoP is concept-wise, but on the other... From all the sides remarks everyone has made about how messy Erobonia is, I'm concerned about the likeliness of that statement. 1:16- Poltergiest: Jokes on you Klingy! I'm in the episode now! Now April Fools! 2:37- Kind of weird seeing Olivier, or Olivert I should perhaps be calling him for this door, be in his old FC/SC outfit. While a classic look, I think I've grown more accustomed to seeing him in his new red outfit he got in this game. 4:21- Didn't think much of Crainagh during SC, but it's kind of interesting seeing how much of a good person he is if we take Olivert's word. With how much corruption we heard of in the Erobonian government there is, it's surprising and refreshing seeing a bureaucrat like him not only pull his weight, but responded excellently during a crisis. 5:17- Based off what I've heard from you guys, I'm already concerned about the "origins and bondings" where that stereotype comes from. Xp 6:30- Given that said Chancellor tried to encroach on Liberl during the OSP crisis, you have every right to be concerned on his "hardline" approach Crainagh. 7:20- Okay, so I found that joke funny in an unintended way. I'm imagining an Erobonian Propagandaist working for someone like the Chancellor urgently saying something like "Sir! Crossbell it's finally getting their localization!" With the Chancellor's response being "Once that localization comes out, people might like Crossbell more than Erobonia! Quick, add more bonding events that'll convince the larger demographic that our nation is better!" lmao (And this has been your dumb Jared Head Canon for today.) 10:50- Very appropriate sound effect Klingy. Though you already said some matters on his incredible importance, I wasn't expecting Lechter here. 11:24- On that note, I think I need to make a new house rule when playing/watching Trails games: NEVER underestimate the slacker/ goofball characters. We're currently two for two because of Olivier and Lechter here, so now I'm no longer going to underestimate them and assume they're actually going to be secretly important until proven otherwise. 13:37- *Processing this and remembering Kloe's last remark on Lechter before the door's end* I'm already highly, HIGHLY concerned now knowing he works for the Chancellor. 15:01- Unintentionally funny moment 2: I have no qualms with how these games work and understand how impressive they were for the time, but Olivier remarking on how pretty the moon is with its lower visual quality got me good. Xp 15:04- And sadly this line applies to use the player as well since this will be the last game in Liberl before we move onto Erobonia and Crossbell... 18:51- So that prick still won something from that whole ordeal... 22:21- Holy hell, Olivier wasn't kidding when he said Osborne was several steps ahead. So much for him being far away out east. 22:50- Finally meeting this prick face to face... 26:42- Gratitude in MASSIVE air quotes. 27:06- I like to imagine Osborne is having a massive "Oh s^^t moment" in his head now that he realizes Cassius is here. Xp 32:10- Though this theme was originally for the fake Grancel Castle in Chapter Two, I love how well the theme fits here. 38:17- Well that entire conversation with Osborne was really good as it was tense. I think Triangle Strategy really made appreciate political dramas like this a lot more. It was fun picking apart and trying to discern every real meaning behind each word. Then there was each speaker dropping verbal bombs on each other with Olivert calling out Osborne with his annexations and Osborne catching Olivert off guard with his planned trip to Crossbell. Such a well written scene. 46:30- This whole situation is quite more complicated, but interesting than I realized. I thought it was merely going to be Olivert vs Osborne for Cold Steel, but in reality it's Olivert vs Osborne vs the Erobonian Nobles. Also interesting how Osborne is also trying to reform the nation like Olivert, but you can quick easily tell how different his ideas of "reform" are just based off this short amount of time we've spoken to him. 47:08- Don't mean to break immersion, but I realized his white streak of hair is on his right side for this portrait when it's actually on his left side. I know it's a reversed image for simplicity's sake, but it kind of bugs me. 49:48- What a great way to cap off that entire scene. Again, I love the writing here. 58:20- And official confirmation to absolutely no one's surprise that Osborne has connections to Ouroboros. Wonder how deep that connection runs though if he's just their partner or a member of sorts. 1:01:42- Well that's a great line. Also a pretty cool moment for Olivert with that taunt as well. 1:03:30- Agreed. I absolutely love how well written the politics are for these games. 1:04:55- Well that sucks to hear. Poor Mueller. In other news, not too much. I've made a good deal of progress in Kirby and the Forgotten Land thus far. Been having an overall blast with the game so far and starting to get a feel on how I feel for the game. Sadly I'll be facing a lot more work this weekend so I can't play it as much as I want, but I'll probably slip another play session in and then play it a crap ton once I have some freedom Monday afternoon.
Poltergeist's are tricksters by nature. That was a pretty funny headcanon. Great to hear that Lechter has such an important role now. Trails is pretty good at giving these goofballs hidden agendas. Being able to see the moon even if it was 8 bit would be cool. Osborne definitely seems like an intimidating man. Osborne knows he can't be too cheeky if Cassius is around. I feel like that what is being said in political dramas can fly over my head due to not knowing what the all the phrases mean but I still thought it was a cool conversation. That rivalry might be something I should pay attention to if I start with Cold Steel. I wonder if that could mean that Ouroboros will be involved in the Cold Steel arc. I feel like Olivert gets to really shine in this door. This door is full of a lot of interesting thinking points and seeing them be resolved in the Cold Steel arc will probably be very rewarding. Great to hear that you made a good amount of progress. As always, I am wishing you the best with your work. As for me, I don't have anything to say with Awakening but I will play it after writing this. Instead, I will mention that I did make a stupid April Fools video but I did do that for a couple of reasons. The more obvious reason was I wanted to test recording another SNES game and I was very impressed with the results. If I do end up doing a SNES LP, I do want to consider raising the game audio since it seemed a little quiet in editing. The other reason was by making a video where I was acting super jovial, any thoughts about Star Door 15 would be erased which is important since the next FE8 map I needed to record was Chapter 16 and you even said that you were reminded of that chapter in the Star Door 15 video. This resulted in me being very proud of how my videos for Chapter 16 turned out. Hopefully, I can keep up that good momentum for the rest of the LP.
@@BerserkerRohan Great except now he's working for Osbourne, the likely main antagonist of the Cold Steel games. Talk about a monkey's paw scenario... So long ago when Klingy just before started FC, he made a video for tips for new people coming into these games. One of those tips was to not trust everyone and to be on your guard. I'm now realizing my folly to take that advice fully. That sometimes can happen, but once you start seeing enough you can start to pick up on certain patterns that can help you realize what they really mean. That said, the sign of really cool political drama dialogue is when the dialogue still feels like an actual normal conversation, which this one does really well. Yeah, this door is pretty much telling you to pay attention to how that political battle will play out. Ouroboros is still going to be in Cold Steel as well as the other games. While it might not seem like it between the events of FC and SC and The Third tying up some ends directly involved with those games, but Ouroboros is far from out. They might have failed their plans in Liberl, but the scary thing is that that was only ONE set of plans they had. That is especially prevalent in SC when Estelle and Joshua are tying to escape from the Glorious at one point and Campanella lets them go (mostly, he does troll you with a mini-boss before he leaves). The reason; The Aureole plan is only one thing they have planned and if it fails, it's no skin off their bones, so their escape means nothing to him and he doesn't feel like stopping them since he's not even assigned to the Aureole plan. Even taking out Weissman hasn't really weakened them since there are still other Angius in Ouroboros and then there's the Grand Master who's pulling all of the strings. The fight against Ouroboros has just begun with the Sky games. Hopefully this door's set up got excellent pay offs in Cold Steel. Many thanks like usual. A dual purpose April Fools plan. I see you've taken notes from Klingy last year. Hopefully it gave you all the information you need to improve the settings as well as it cleansing your soul after that Star Door (which I think we all need after it. My solution was Kirby). Also sorry for accidentally making that moment in FE8 more disturbing. Well at least karma will bite me back for it when I replay Sacred Stones when I get to that thing again. Regardless, happy to hear how well your videos have turned out and I too wish for the continued momentum and good fortune for your LP.
@@jaredfayette2567 I do think that Lechter won't be a normal antagonist but we will see. That is some very good advice that probably applies to all of the Trails games. I agree with that. I do have a track record of not knowing what a lot of words mean. That also makes Ouroboros really compelling as antagonists too. Klingy's April Fools can't be topped though. No worries since I made that infamous scene more creepy in editing. So much so, it creeps me out too. Not only has the LP gone great but I feel like it has made me really appreciate Sacred Stones especially in terms of narrative.
Me, seeing it's April 1st and not having seen the Community Post: ...Okay, I'm waiting for the punchline. BigKlingy: There IS no punchline. This is not a joke. TL;DR: Congrats you somehow managed to bamboozle me by accident. Either way, it REALLY suits Olivier to have his Star Door on the day where no one is to be trusted and tricksters reign supreme. Oooh I hate Osborne already and I am enjoying every second of that hatred.
11:09 i never knew this was Part of the KCU(Kloe cinematic universe) 13:23 so hes dimitris step uncle? 32:37 why dont you just go full imperialism and call it a peace mission? 40:26 that is something he would do. 45:10 this is probably a reference to bismarck, because he too is associated with blood and iron. The idea was that germany will not be unified through peace, but through war. Bismarck would have been appaled by the mere notion that a country shouldnt be controlled by nobles though. So yeah, great door. I loved the passive agression that was hidden by formalities and honestly liked kloes and lechters interactions though i think kloe should have Pressed him more on the whole siding with the chancellor thing. Also, in other news, r/fireemblem has stuff going on with r/latvia of all subreddits. It makes more sense in context, that being that you can draw on a canvas on reddit currently and the marth drawing collided with the latvian flag.
The KCU. lmao Okay, now that's a good one. Hopefully Kloe shows up in later games as well so that this joke/ film series gets to live on in the next games. Xp
@@jaredfayette2567 i agree since i do find that the kloe movie trilogy featuring the dame ningen me explored her character somewhat, i am interested in what can still be explored through her.
11:09 I wonder how confused people are if they skipped Kloe's Moon Door and did this one first? 13:23 I'm sure it has a mythological basis, but I forget exactly what. 45:10 Osborne is heavily inspired by Otto Von Bismarck.
@@BigKlingy 11:09 gonna be honest, it took me a while to realize who the guy exactly is. Arundel is the name of a place in england amongst other things
Yeah this is up there for my favorite door so far. And honestly this door got me so excited for CS and I’ve already played one of the games and have a general idea of what goes on in two of them.
You thought this was going to be a April fools trick, but the real trick there is no trick. At this point the really April fools pranks are the one that aren’t any tricks.
Very interesting... 🤔...🙂 (Never thought seeing Lechter of all places & Kloe was glad to speak with him... & that Chancellor... Jeez... Even Prince Olivert being heir to the throne of Erebonia got into such a Blast spoken by his... & the way he presented himself... Wow. No kidding. Not forget he gets to talk with Cassius which was also a big part... Boy...) Aiya... Prince Olivert U... Always to make a showoff at to anyone even him. Lol. Given his explanations, Amazing door indeed. True for Mueller... Didn't get much out of it but he can be anything valuable wherever & whenever he's at present... (Ah. I see... so it takes place after of the later Arc 2nd game... I understand now when I last go through from it not just the 1st game... Uh huh...) Hm? Star Door 14... Huh. Wonder that adds up. (Seems it isn't over yet & closer to it...)
10:51 "Hey, that name sounds familiar... Where have-?" 11:15 HUH??? I know you said he'd be important later, but that makes it even more shocking to be seeing him again this soon, let alone in this position.
While Star door 15 Abyss only require to OPEN every door you do NOT need to succeed and since I couldn't answer a SINGLE quiz question correctly since the PSP/Vita version of this game is ONLY in Japanese while I couldn't answer a single one of those quizzes in Japanese at all as long as you Still attempt the first lv of those quizzes even if you fail the first set you'll still be able to Open Star door 15. So for Star door 15 beating the actually mini games is NOT required via those doors only ATTEMPTING them at least once is. However Star door 15 is in the Abyss last floor its 20th floor but theirs really no way to warp directly to floors 5 10 or 15 that have boss fights their since if you EVER leave the Abyss before reaching Star Door 15 you'll have to Redo the ENTIRE area starting with floor 1.
Oh boy… These next episodes are going to be interesting, huh… I get what you mean with stories about the protagonist fighting “himself” being a bit of different breed compared to the rest (And when Fate/Stay Night is one of my favourite works ever, I don’t have much reason to complain), but at the same time, I also feel like these types of stories are very easily messed up if the author isn’t careful. They also seem like they’ve become a bit more common recently and I think I can already feel some people getting a bit tired of them, especially in the indie game scene. Nonetheless, I feel like The 3rd does a pretty good job at dealing with this type of story (Though, not without turning off a lot of people if the pools are anything to go by). Good job at finishing off the last fiend… I remember the 1st time I played the 3rd and reached this part of the game. Thank goodness for Richard or my party would have been completely hopeless against this fiend amongst fiends. And yeah… I guess that’s just a different in approaches between us, but I usually do the Nightmare Arena before proceeding on to the end of the game. Yeah… Star Door 15 is a thing. A very grim thing (It leaves me more disgusted than in tears, but again, I rarely cry in stories, so that’s definitely not to its detriment). It’s not the worst thing I’ve ever read, but man, at a certain point there’s no point in comparing just how bad things are for the characters in question. Its fucked up, regardless of what spin one tries to put on it. In regards to the events themselves, though, I don’t have much to say that people haven't already said (There a few points I could go off, but I feel like that discussion is better saved for Crossbell). I was more curious for the comments and man, they did not disappoint. At the same time, part of me wonders if Falcom unintentionally went too far with this door. It stands in such a stark contrast with so much of their (both earlier and later) works, not to mention how it goes harder than many series I know that are more “mature” than Kiseki in a general sense, that it almost makes it seem like a mistake of some kind. One friend of mine called it a “remnant of the aggressively edgy late 90s / early 2000s” and I’m almost inclined to agree, but I guess we’ll never really know the truth at the end of the day (Unless Falcom talks about it someday, but they're pretty closed lip about their development process). Now, for another extremely interesting door - Star Door 8 (Mini-rant / Spoiler warning): Needless to say, this door is an absolute mountain of foreshadowing. And that’s not even counting all the little details we learn about Erebonia society / culture from it. And, of course, Letcher and Osborne… 2 characters that are going to be really important later on. That said, I do take issue with people that say that both Letcher and Osborne were rewritten / changed for CS. Or rather, I personally think there’s a lot of conditional evidence that points towards Falcom already having at least an idea of where they were gonna take them both and I feel like people overlooking these are just using it as an excuse for things that didn't proceed as they had expected later on (People were still holding out for the “Letcher is the 4th Anguis” theory all the way into CS4 even despite all the evidence to the contrary, as an example). Some examples: 1 - Letcher’s whole ordeal makes a lot more sense with the backstory he was given, for example. Some also say he lost his “hyper intelligence” for his “guessing powers”, but I have to call bull on that because on fictional terms, those are practically the same thing. Its also pretty clear that Letcher gets a lot less jokey when he’s the centre of the question. You can see a few tiny moments here in this game and then there’s one really big one in Azure, but CS is definitely when that plot point comes to the forefront. 2 - Osborne’s hair. I know this might sound a bit crazy, but that little strand of white hair is legitimately so connected to something later on I have trouble believing it wasn’t a planned design decision in the first place. It just seems like such a random detail otherwise… 3 - Osborne literally says in this door he wants to “whip the population into a frenzy” which is, of course, in service of his “reforms”, but it also maps out pretty well with some important plot points later on. Honestly, I have some doubts on if Mueller was ever intended to be an “important” character to begin with… Even in Sky, most of his personally can be boiled down to Olivier’s hi-jinks companion. Regardless, I’m gonna stop this for now before I write an entire page’s worth of my thought on this matter. A lot of the examples I have in mind are things I want to save for discussion later on and I don't want to drag this comment into a gigantic discussion of how many things were initially planned or not (Though, that being said, I'm of the opinion that a lot more things were planned at this point than people think. Not to mention, I feel like a lot of the scopecreep that happened in CS is a result of Falcom just not having the sheer resources to make Erebonia "as big" as they wanted to).
The Nightmare Arena is technically lower level than the final bosses, but the final dungeon gives you tons of exp getting there (end bosses are 145-ish, and you'll probably hit at least 142 by that point) so it always felt like the Arena was "higher level" relative to what you can be at the time you can access it, if that makes sense. The Nightmare Arena also feels like the true final sendoff to the Sky arc for me, given the music and who you fight there. Given the tone of later games and how little the specifics of Star Door 15 are mentioned later, it does feel uncharacteristically dark. I chalk it up to the Sky games being mostly based on the PC, which has more lax ratings than consoles in Japan, and targeted a more seinen demographic with later games switching firmly to shounen. I'm sure they had broad plans for the next arc at this point, but I feel like Rean likely wasn't conceptualized when they wrote this, and since he ends up highly involved with these character, that would've changed a LOT by proxy. Osborne's backstory and arc were probably planned out, but a lot of other things about the Erebonia games probably arose as they went along. It's hard to say exactly what Falcom had in mind initially without being one of them. I feel like certain details in the Cold Steel games arose as a result of fan reception (the increasing pool of love interests for Rean, Crow getting more focus), while others were planned. I doubt characters like Juna were planned (given she had to be retconned into Crossbell), but it's possible someone like Ash was. I also feel like Olivier was going to have a bigger role than he did. As for Lechter, I didn't think he was the 4th Anguis (an original horrifying theory I had was the 4th was KEVIN, which would've invalidated this whole game), but his ultimate role felt disappointing. He got swallowed by the cast bloat and scope creep and ended up as nothing more than a miniboss in CS4's final dungeon with no real personal drama with the party, even though this game hinted he might not be entirely loyal to Osborne.
*CS4 Spoilers:* Man I miss when Lechter was actually cool. And then CS3 made his intelligece come from special powers and CS4 kinda just made him a generic minion with no consequences ruining 6 games of build-up and more or less ruining his character forever. At least he was fun in Crossbell. Osborne faired a lot better, Azure especially has him genuinely threatening and intimidating in spite if how little screemtime he gets. I kinda wish they just kept him evil instead of "good all along" but he was a pretty solid villain overall I'd say.
Spoilers lol: I agree, Lechter amounted to pretty much nothing in the end, just a very impersonal midboss in the final dungeon, and also being tied to Claire who's even more of a mess. I'll get into this later, but can you believe people used to speculate that he was the 4th Anguis? (Apparently the one in Star Door 14 has similar mannerisms to Lechter in Japanese) As for Osborne, I watched a video recently about how Trails has always been big on "anime tropes", but that those tropes changed as the years went on and so later arcs ended up drawn more from late 2010's anime tropes. I wonder if that affected Osborne, as I noticed his final motives are similar to characters like Lelouch and other cases of the "Zero Approval Gambit" (deliberately becoming the villain for some noble goal, such as uniting the world against you), which seems to have caught on a lot in Japanese media.
0:30 Personally, I disagree, but whatever. 0:39 No, The Way to Thors is the Prologue of Trails of Cold Steel (th-cam.com/video/fRs0OqV4uSc/w-d-xo.html). 1:09 To be fair, he makes EVERYONE look like child's play. 2:19 Considering that he certainly doesn't act like a prince, I don't blame Ambassador Crainagh for not noticing. 2:31 As a JoJo fan, I cannot hear Takehito Koyasu's voice without thinking of Dio Brando. 2:44 You say that now, but... 4:33 Yeah, I can imagine Parm being a state of distress. 5:17 Yep... 7:19 No, not that one. He's talking about Erebonia and Calvard's massive custody battle over Crossbell. Also, if you wish to see how the Crossbell Problem gets resolved, play Crossbell or Cold Steel. 10:46 Well, well, who do we have here? 10:51 Heh, nice. 18:56 That's Osborne for you! 22:21 Speak of the devil. 22:36 May I introduce to you: the Blood and Iron Chancellor himself, the first common-born chancellor of the Erebonian Empire, leader of the Reformist Faction, former brigadier general of the Imperial Army, master of Hundred-form Military Combat, and 6D chessmaster, GILIATH MOTHERF*CKING OSBORNE!!! 23:03 I'm guessing you're talking about Peter Beckman? Yeah, he was AMAZING, and while I'm bummed that he didn't come back for CS4, Michael Sorich did do a really good job. That being said, his Japanese voice actor, Joji Nakata, is also pretty amazing. 24:29 I don't know, considering how strong he is, he probably could have gone to the Liber Ark, went up the Axis Pillar, killed Weissmann with one strike, then went back to Erebonia, in less than 10 minutes. 32:55 Yeah... thankfully, he's NOTHING like that other character, but saying any more would involve MASSIVE spoilers. 33:44 If you wish to hear a first-hand account of one of Osborne's... unifications, play Cold Steel. 35:11 If you wish to know more about Erebonian terrorists, play Crossbell or Cold Steel. 36:05 If you wish to meet that representative of the Crossbell government, play Crossbell. 36:34 If you wish to know more about the Crossbellan mafia, play Crossbell. 40:07 "Ah, my apologies, Mr. Terarundel! It seems we do have you confused with someone else!" is what you want me to say, isn't it, Lechter!? 41:05 Moral of the story: don't abandon your friends without any warning, because when they do catch up to you, they WILL give you an earful. 42:25 Yes. Please. 42:31 If you say so... 45:34 Ah yes, ONLY 70%. 46:18 Damn, asking one of your most prominent haters to join your side. Impressive (then again, considering that Osborne is essentially what would happen if a DnD character had a 20 in every stat, anything that would be impressive or incredibly bold for anyone else is completely normal for him). 48:25 What a guy! 51:33 Of course the Erebonian guy would give someone a headpat. 54:25 Actually... I don't think he does. He definitely has a private train, the Eisengraf, but I don't think he has a private airship. 57:42 Yes! Finally, we're hearing The Final Choice in its "true" context! 59:06 If you wish to know what exactly an Ironblood is, play Crossbell or Cold Steel, and if you wish to meet more members of the Ironbloods, play Cold Steel. 59:31 And suddenly, this part of the song becoming the "Erebonia leitmotif" makes so much sense. 1:00:02 This. Means. War. 1:02:17 If you wish to see more of Osborne and Lechter, play Crossbell or Cold Steel. 1:03:12 ...Why did it take me so long to realize that the song you're playing right now is the Super Arrange version of Atrocious Raid (actually, it's probably because when this song plays in CS4, that intro isn't played)? 1:05:01 It's really saying something when his half-brother who only first appears in CS3 has infinitely more plot importance than him. Heck, Mueller doesn't even physically appear in CS3, and he only has ONE line of dialogue. 1:06:04 Personally, I HIGHLY disagree, but whatever. 1:06:11 So yeah, this Door was pretty f*cking amazing, though, it becomes much better after playing later games due to some really subtle lines that only become significant with what is revealed in later games. Also, it's the first time that Osborne is ever shown, and considering that he ends up becoming one of the most important characters in the entire series, he makes an amazing first impression. So, I have decided that my April Fools joke for this year will be like that of 3 years prior, where I will do something for each day of the month of April. But that was making horrible puns, this time, I shall give horribly worded descriptions of video games that need to be figured out (for anyone familiar with the Green Scorpion's Guess That Video Game series, it's basically just that). Of course, since this playthrough is ending, and no playthrough is on the immediate horizon, the way I shall format this is that I will give 5 descriptions for the next 6 days (which includes today, so really, it's today and the next 5 days). With no further ado, let the guessing commence! 1. A weeb, an heiress, a musician, a squire, a politician's son, a magician, a nobleman, an ex-mercenary, a nomad, and later on, a gambler and a spy, all walk into a bar... because that's where their teacher is. 2. A cutesy visual novel where you get to date -your childhood friend, a tsundere, or a shy girl- the president of the club you're in. 3. Groundhog Day, except, among other things, the protagonist is an edgy Dante from Devil May Cry, and Bill Murray is a young batty rabbit girl. 4. The SMT X FE crossover we all expected. 5. The SMT X FE crossover we actually got (albeit, it's still pretty good).
I hope everyone got their traits out of the way. As for me, my birthday is coming up and I’m gonna meet Joshua’s voice actor at an anime comic con. @Bigklingy actually, that begs the question. Are you considering doing Trails of Cold Steal?
I met Johnny Yong Bosch at a convention in 2017, along with Travis Willingham and Laura Bailey. Conventions are finally coming back where I live but I'm still really paranoid of going. There's still too much covid around.
Amazing door. The foreshadowing here is great, but what's even better is how well Osborne is set up as an antagonist for later arcs and how much of a threat he is. At this point, he set himself up as better Weissmann in my eyes. And there was a lot of interesting things mentioned in his conversation with Olivert with some I can draw comparisons to IRL things. Again, just an amazing door.
"Very well then, debaucherous prince! I look forward to seeing what you can do! Show me how long you can hold out against me!"
23:12 Hippity hoppity, your land is now my property
I love how Osborne was built up to be such a menace that we get rare footage of Olivier unnerved and... actually angry. This Door did an amazing job of getting me excited to see what's to come in Cold Steel and what this new big bad would bring to the table. Now that I have completed those games and now that I do know what Osborne's whole deal is about... similar to how I feel about Kevin's behaviour earlier in the game, I find it interesting to look back on Osborne's behaviour and words in this Door with hindsight. I do enjoy him as a villain quite a bit.
Another interesting manoeuvre was giving Lech Terarundel some more focus. It feels a good third or so of Star Door 8 was dedicated to him and Kloe, and it seems like the writers were building up to a wildcard nature of his at the end. Unfortunately, I remember being a little disappointed with the direction they took with him actually, which is a shame because I _loved_ the setup. Maybe I'll grow to appreciate what the writers really wanted for him on a series replay.
That's a good point. Olivert is usually jovial or composed and seeing him off that is a sign things are VERY serious, and not many people can push him that far. They definitely nailed the buildup to finally meeting this guy.
22:46 This guy has villain written all over his face.
well...
he is a good guy pretending to be a bad guy to make the real villain vulnerable to an attack
Wow, this is such an amazing door. From Osborne himself, the forshadowing, and well... Olivier himself. Who would have thought that a drunk and perverted bard like him would turn out to be a prince? His development is truly amazing. And to wage war on a monster like Osborne... I have nothing but respect towards Olivier.
Since last time, I did find out what Gakuen means and to simplify it, it is basically a high end Japanese school from what I saw so I was on the right track after all.
Anyway, this is an interesting door considering what it is setting up and it is getting me excited to see what comes of this in the Cold Steel arc.
It was very cool to see Olivert in a serious role, get to see what the deal with Osbourne is as well as see what became of Lechter and he seems to have an interesting role.
The start of the end is next and it is going to be fun to see how this game concludes its story.
I might try another site to post this story. In the meantime, why did I go for the longest dungeon first?
7:19 Oof, nice shot.
10:58 Wait, WHAT?!
22:27 So even he can use Olivier's tricks.
22:53 And gets a great VA to voice him.
37:49 Probably an EVO retcon.
38:51 Now that his true alliegence is revealed, it makes sense on surface in why was he so lazy at Jenis.
53:45 Well, he knows to whom give respect.
37:49 I found out way earlier that Evo didn't alter any of the dialogue from the original.
I've been playing Zero and Azure these past weeks and going back to this door made me realize so many things, I'm astounded, actually I've been thinking about something, if you end up playing Zero before you play Cold Steel, I could help with commentary and with the hidden quests and location of the novels
I might do Zero, but I'd need someone to provide a "spoiler free" guide to quest and book locations. I'd be playing it "semi-blind", as I vaguely know the story and I've seen some footage, but I've never played it personally. If you could make a guide like that, I'd be interested.
@@BigKlingy It appears a reply I made that contained a link to a guide for Trails from Zero was auto-deleted, presumably due to it containing said link. Damn.
@@BigKlingy There's a guide that I've been using that's not exactly spoiler-free but it hides stuff that IS spoilers so it works out either way, I offered to do it because I'm pretty sure I could tell you pretty much where most things are without spoiling anything, though maybe that's presumptuous on my part, another thing that might be interesting however is to see how the official localization fares against the Geofront localization in terms of script and see if there were any significant changes
I think the one I used for Zero was in GameFAQs, it was pretty useful to me so lemme double check
Well that was certainly an interesting Star Door... only means it's doubly annoying that all I have to say about it is that Osborne seems like a slimy bastard and that Lechter's behaviour during Kloe's Door now has a much more ominous undertone.
You'll have a lot more to say if you play the Cold Steel arc, trust me.
The 11th floor brought back some horrible memories of Mount Gulg as the party ended up in a room filled with magma. All they could think is run the heck away from this heat and find any surface without magma. After few such places, they found the stairs and raced to get there as fast they could. After ending up in the ice cave again, they plastered their feet into nearby snow to cool off. Two Elm Gigases, guarding the stairs of 12th floor, wondered what the noises was so they came to inspect. Not wishing to move from place, Mari just smitten them with Thundara. After finally being able to feel cold, everyone got up and took the stairs that those Gigases guarded before. 13th floor was just another ice cave floor and, other than just Strength Tonic they found by accident in a chest, it contained nothing important of note. The environment did change up on the 14th floor, now reminding them of the Earth Cave. Unlike there, however, this floor had a lot of huge stones, laid in such a way as to create a labyrinth with lizards and pythons waiting at the dead ends. After several such encounters, the party stumbled upon a chest. In it there was an item known as Silver Apple. It was an item similar to Soma Drop they picked up earlier, in this case it was said to improve the health of whoever consumed it. This was another item that went into the bag and was to be tested outside. After several more dead ends, they found their way out.
The 15th floor was where things got weird once. They once again found themselves in a city, but this one was unlike anything they have ever seen. Surrounded by tall white walls, the city was brimming with magic and was populated by other mages. Unsure of what to do, the party walked cautiously while gripping their weapons. Most people just ended up ignoring them. They saw their fair share of newcomers behaving like that on their visit. The party ended up entering an inn called Blue Star Inn where the innkeeper greeted them.
Innkeeper: “Hello and welcome to Blue Star Inn. How may I help you?”
Everyone: “Um... Ah...”
Innkeeper: “Let me guess, first time in this city? You didn’t even went through control first?”
Kelin: “Yes. Where exactly are we?”
Innkeeper: “Oh, this wasn’t even the destination you had in plan and yet you still reached this city? Now that’s quite rare. But let’s not dawdle anymore. I hereby welcome you to Ristior, the city of mages.”
Rosch: “Mages?”
Innkeeper: “Yes. This whole city is dedicated to the art of magic, the art of bending the laws of nature to your own will. Here, you will find every possible craft related to it. From construction to transportation.”
Kelin: “I... see.”
Innkeeper: “Is there something wrong?”
Mari: “We were in the middle of doing something when we ended up here. So-“
Innkeeper: “I understand. You are thinking this might be an illusion or something to that extent. That’s why you have been keeping the guard up. I wish I could convince you that this is real, but that would be very difficult.”
Lewyn: “Yes.”
Innkeeper: “Then at least I can give to you all a spare room to rest while I find a city official to help you get back on your way. I can even offer you some food if you are hungry.”
The party ended up taking up on his offer and slept in a corner room with one of them keeping guard and switching that every two hours. They also had breakfast and, while it was nothing to write home about, it was still better than the rations they were relying on. The next day the innkeeper brought along a city official that promised to return them back to their world. Before the Warriors left, innkeeper gave them a card that said Blue Star Inn on it. “In case you ever do want to come back, just hold that card and imagine yourself back here. I am curious to hear stories about your adventures.”, the innkeeper said with smile. The party thanked him for his hospitality and stepped into the teleportation circle, ending up in the Flying Fortress environment again. Everyone checked the cards to see if they were still there which they were. They were wondering if what happened was real or not. A Death Manticore disturbed while they were deep in their thoughts with Blaze spells. It nearly destroyed those cards so the Manticore paid dearly for that. After they killed it, party vowed to check this at a later date and they pressed on. At the very least, they didn’t end up on a previous floor as the Manticore and the layout proved it. And several minutes of searching they found the teleportation circle and went through it.
The next two floors were in a marsh cave. One ruled by undead as skuldiers and revenants roamed around the other ruled by black goblins that guarded some treasure. Said treasure was barely worth a mention as the items that did survive were some Turbo Ethers, items that restored more magic compared to the regular ones, another Speed Drink and a Golden Apple, an item that was supposed to be even better than Silver Apple. After putting it away, they found the stairs and climbed down to the Earth Cave environment. Starting to be sick of constantly going through these caves, everyone started casting Thundara to scare off enemies and make it easier to pass through. Other than another Golden Apple and Soma Drop, there was nothing else of note.
Now, for another amazing door.
6:38 Oh boy, is he taking it in a direction.
10:48 Hey, stranger who we totally haven't seen before.
15:15 I love the way the two of them reflect on their time in Liberl here. They're both characters who've gone through a lot of out-of-focus development over FC and SC, so I find it rather touching to be able to feel the fondness they've developed for the country.
20:18 Yeah, calling Osborne a 4D chess master is honestly selling him short. 5D at least would probably be more accurate.
22:24 Frankly, casually dropping in on another nation's head of state has got to be one of the largest power moves ever.
22:36 I always forget how large his forehead was in this game.
32:42 I love this line. It shows just how casual he is about his growing power.
35:48 I'm sure Lechter would be excellent at those tasks in particular.
39:02 And here's the other confrontation that needed to happen.
41:56 While the ways he learned all of that were definitely well on the shady side, I do think it's rather sweet in it's own way.
43:17 Kloe took the words right out of my mouth.
51:20 It certainly does feel that way, huh? I wonder why...
56:40 Once again, saying that Osborne is always several steps ahead is underselling him.
1:02:10 That scene is without a doubt among the greatest in the series. It manages to hype me up every time.
I LOVE this door. The politics, tension, foreshadowing, the contrast between the two different conversations... it all adds up to being something truly special.
15:15 I love this too, especially Mueller, who doesn't get a lot of development or focus so it's nice to see some for him.
20:18 He's one of the few who can keep up with Ouroboros AND Cassius. Which is saying something.
22:24 Just as Olivier was planning a power move of his own, too.
1:02:10 Definitely, it's one of mine too. (Now I need to go back and play CS1, because there's a moment in it that calls back to this, even playing the same music, and it meant nothing to me at the time since CS1 was my first Trails game)
Ah such delicious foreshadowing for what’s to come. To the point I have to feel I have to hold myself back from talking more about what we get later.
Unless the ending for this game has the main cast leave Phantasm and be back on Liberl soil I think this might actually be the last time we see Liberl on this channel for a long time,
And overall while Liberl started the series I don’t think it’s actually had a lot of relevance in later games, while Erebonia, Crossbell and even Calvard get a fair amount of focus, which with this game having came out originally in 2007.
Osbourne has a kind of intimidating charisma that does make him quite entertaining to watch for me, and here it’s no exception even without any his English voice acting,
Talking about voice acting, from what I can tell the Sky Arc when it comes to its Japanese voice acting doesn’t tend to use a lot of very famous VA as it’s cast even when it comes to major characters, but Osbroune and Lechter are voiced by Joji Nakata and Masakasu Morita, both quite experienced and well known voice actors from what I can tell. By comparison the Cold Steel and later Calvard Arc seem to at least partially go with big names for their major characters
While in English it’s kind of the opposite, at least at the time the games were released since most of the Sky games cast are voice acting veterans who even now are still very well known, while a fair amount of the Cold Steel Arcs cast I would call up and coming talent.
Klaudia and Lechter, that’s a paring that before I saw that he was in the game and was important in Klaudia/Kloe’s past that would seem a bit far fetched since I tend to heavily associate the two with their different settings.
I do like it that Olivert carries over into the Cold Steel Arc with a semi major role, it makes sense as it is his homeland after all, but considering that a lot of JRPGs or really any piece of media that renews it’s setting don’t have characters carry over, even Trails that has a fairly interconnected world can be quite conservative with including previous characters at times, and the fact that it is one of my favourites is just icing on the cake.
And thus the seeds for the next saga were planted
(..and later some controversy, whoop de doo....)
1:10- On one hand I don't want to believe that given how vile Weissman was and how scary LoP is concept-wise, but on the other... From all the sides remarks everyone has made about how messy Erobonia is, I'm concerned about the likeliness of that statement.
1:16- Poltergiest: Jokes on you Klingy! I'm in the episode now! Now April Fools!
2:37- Kind of weird seeing Olivier, or Olivert I should perhaps be calling him for this door, be in his old FC/SC outfit. While a classic look, I think I've grown more accustomed to seeing him in his new red outfit he got in this game.
4:21- Didn't think much of Crainagh during SC, but it's kind of interesting seeing how much of a good person he is if we take Olivert's word. With how much corruption we heard of in the Erobonian government there is, it's surprising and refreshing seeing a bureaucrat like him not only pull his weight, but responded excellently during a crisis.
5:17- Based off what I've heard from you guys, I'm already concerned about the "origins and bondings" where that stereotype comes from. Xp
6:30- Given that said Chancellor tried to encroach on Liberl during the OSP crisis, you have every right to be concerned on his "hardline" approach Crainagh.
7:20- Okay, so I found that joke funny in an unintended way. I'm imagining an Erobonian Propagandaist working for someone like the Chancellor urgently saying something like "Sir! Crossbell it's finally getting their localization!" With the Chancellor's response being "Once that localization comes out, people might like Crossbell more than Erobonia! Quick, add more bonding events that'll convince the larger demographic that our nation is better!" lmao (And this has been your dumb Jared Head Canon for today.)
10:50- Very appropriate sound effect Klingy. Though you already said some matters on his incredible importance, I wasn't expecting Lechter here.
11:24- On that note, I think I need to make a new house rule when playing/watching Trails games: NEVER underestimate the slacker/ goofball characters. We're currently two for two because of Olivier and Lechter here, so now I'm no longer going to underestimate them and assume they're actually going to be secretly important until proven otherwise.
13:37- *Processing this and remembering Kloe's last remark on Lechter before the door's end* I'm already highly, HIGHLY concerned now knowing he works for the Chancellor.
15:01- Unintentionally funny moment 2: I have no qualms with how these games work and understand how impressive they were for the time, but Olivier remarking on how pretty the moon is with its lower visual quality got me good. Xp
15:04- And sadly this line applies to use the player as well since this will be the last game in Liberl before we move onto Erobonia and Crossbell...
18:51- So that prick still won something from that whole ordeal...
22:21- Holy hell, Olivier wasn't kidding when he said Osborne was several steps ahead. So much for him being far away out east.
22:50- Finally meeting this prick face to face...
26:42- Gratitude in MASSIVE air quotes.
27:06- I like to imagine Osborne is having a massive "Oh s^^t moment" in his head now that he realizes Cassius is here. Xp
32:10- Though this theme was originally for the fake Grancel Castle in Chapter Two, I love how well the theme fits here.
38:17- Well that entire conversation with Osborne was really good as it was tense. I think Triangle Strategy really made appreciate political dramas like this a lot more. It was fun picking apart and trying to discern every real meaning behind each word. Then there was each speaker dropping verbal bombs on each other with Olivert calling out Osborne with his annexations and Osborne catching Olivert off guard with his planned trip to Crossbell. Such a well written scene.
46:30- This whole situation is quite more complicated, but interesting than I realized. I thought it was merely going to be Olivert vs Osborne for Cold Steel, but in reality it's Olivert vs Osborne vs the Erobonian Nobles. Also interesting how Osborne is also trying to reform the nation like Olivert, but you can quick easily tell how different his ideas of "reform" are just based off this short amount of time we've spoken to him.
47:08- Don't mean to break immersion, but I realized his white streak of hair is on his right side for this portrait when it's actually on his left side. I know it's a reversed image for simplicity's sake, but it kind of bugs me.
49:48- What a great way to cap off that entire scene. Again, I love the writing here.
58:20- And official confirmation to absolutely no one's surprise that Osborne has connections to Ouroboros. Wonder how deep that connection runs though if he's just their partner or a member of sorts.
1:01:42- Well that's a great line. Also a pretty cool moment for Olivert with that taunt as well.
1:03:30- Agreed. I absolutely love how well written the politics are for these games.
1:04:55- Well that sucks to hear. Poor Mueller.
In other news, not too much. I've made a good deal of progress in Kirby and the Forgotten Land thus far. Been having an overall blast with the game so far and starting to get a feel on how I feel for the game. Sadly I'll be facing a lot more work this weekend so I can't play it as much as I want, but I'll probably slip another play session in and then play it a crap ton once I have some freedom Monday afternoon.
Poltergeist's are tricksters by nature.
That was a pretty funny headcanon.
Great to hear that Lechter has such an important role now.
Trails is pretty good at giving these goofballs hidden agendas.
Being able to see the moon even if it was 8 bit would be cool.
Osborne definitely seems like an intimidating man.
Osborne knows he can't be too cheeky if Cassius is around.
I feel like that what is being said in political dramas can fly over my head due to not knowing what the all the phrases mean but I still thought it was a cool conversation.
That rivalry might be something I should pay attention to if I start with Cold Steel.
I wonder if that could mean that Ouroboros will be involved in the Cold Steel arc.
I feel like Olivert gets to really shine in this door.
This door is full of a lot of interesting thinking points and seeing them be resolved in the Cold Steel arc will probably be very rewarding.
Great to hear that you made a good amount of progress. As always, I am wishing you the best with your work.
As for me, I don't have anything to say with Awakening but I will play it after writing this. Instead, I will mention that I did make a stupid April Fools video but I did do that for a couple of reasons. The more obvious reason was I wanted to test recording another SNES game and I was very impressed with the results. If I do end up doing a SNES LP, I do want to consider raising the game audio since it seemed a little quiet in editing. The other reason was by making a video where I was acting super jovial, any thoughts about Star Door 15 would be erased which is important since the next FE8 map I needed to record was Chapter 16 and you even said that you were reminded of that chapter in the Star Door 15 video. This resulted in me being very proud of how my videos for Chapter 16 turned out. Hopefully, I can keep up that good momentum for the rest of the LP.
@@BerserkerRohan Great except now he's working for Osbourne, the likely main antagonist of the Cold Steel games. Talk about a monkey's paw scenario...
So long ago when Klingy just before started FC, he made a video for tips for new people coming into these games. One of those tips was to not trust everyone and to be on your guard. I'm now realizing my folly to take that advice fully.
That sometimes can happen, but once you start seeing enough you can start to pick up on certain patterns that can help you realize what they really mean. That said, the sign of really cool political drama dialogue is when the dialogue still feels like an actual normal conversation, which this one does really well.
Yeah, this door is pretty much telling you to pay attention to how that political battle will play out.
Ouroboros is still going to be in Cold Steel as well as the other games. While it might not seem like it between the events of FC and SC and The Third tying up some ends directly involved with those games, but Ouroboros is far from out. They might have failed their plans in Liberl, but the scary thing is that that was only ONE set of plans they had. That is especially prevalent in SC when Estelle and Joshua are tying to escape from the Glorious at one point and Campanella lets them go (mostly, he does troll you with a mini-boss before he leaves). The reason; The Aureole plan is only one thing they have planned and if it fails, it's no skin off their bones, so their escape means nothing to him and he doesn't feel like stopping them since he's not even assigned to the Aureole plan. Even taking out Weissman hasn't really weakened them since there are still other Angius in Ouroboros and then there's the Grand Master who's pulling all of the strings. The fight against Ouroboros has just begun with the Sky games.
Hopefully this door's set up got excellent pay offs in Cold Steel.
Many thanks like usual.
A dual purpose April Fools plan. I see you've taken notes from Klingy last year. Hopefully it gave you all the information you need to improve the settings as well as it cleansing your soul after that Star Door (which I think we all need after it. My solution was Kirby). Also sorry for accidentally making that moment in FE8 more disturbing. Well at least karma will bite me back for it when I replay Sacred Stones when I get to that thing again. Regardless, happy to hear how well your videos have turned out and I too wish for the continued momentum and good fortune for your LP.
@@jaredfayette2567 I do think that Lechter won't be a normal antagonist but we will see.
That is some very good advice that probably applies to all of the Trails games.
I agree with that. I do have a track record of not knowing what a lot of words mean.
That also makes Ouroboros really compelling as antagonists too.
Klingy's April Fools can't be topped though.
No worries since I made that infamous scene more creepy in editing. So much so, it creeps me out too.
Not only has the LP gone great but I feel like it has made me really appreciate Sacred Stones especially in terms of narrative.
Me, seeing it's April 1st and not having seen the Community Post: ...Okay, I'm waiting for the punchline.
BigKlingy: There IS no punchline. This is not a joke.
TL;DR: Congrats you somehow managed to bamboozle me by accident.
Either way, it REALLY suits Olivier to have his Star Door on the day where no one is to be trusted and tricksters reign supreme.
Oooh I hate Osborne already and I am enjoying every second of that hatred.
Sometimes the best April fools prank is there no prank and laugh at people paranoid.
Osborne's going to be a thing for most of the later arcs, so that's the normal reaction. If Trails is the MCU, then he's Thanos.
11:09 i never knew this was Part of the KCU(Kloe cinematic universe)
13:23 so hes dimitris step uncle?
32:37 why dont you just go full imperialism and call it a peace mission?
40:26 that is something he would do.
45:10 this is probably a reference to bismarck, because he too is associated with blood and iron. The idea was that germany will not be unified through peace, but through war. Bismarck would have been appaled by the mere notion that a country shouldnt be controlled by nobles though.
So yeah, great door. I loved the passive agression that was hidden by formalities and honestly liked kloes and lechters interactions though i think kloe should have Pressed him more on the whole siding with the chancellor thing.
Also, in other news, r/fireemblem has stuff going on with r/latvia of all subreddits. It makes more sense in context, that being that you can draw on a canvas on reddit currently and the marth drawing collided with the latvian flag.
The KCU. lmao Okay, now that's a good one. Hopefully Kloe shows up in later games as well so that this joke/ film series gets to live on in the next games. Xp
@@jaredfayette2567 i agree since i do find that the kloe movie trilogy featuring the dame ningen me explored her character somewhat, i am interested in what can still be explored through her.
11:09 I wonder how confused people are if they skipped Kloe's Moon Door and did this one first?
13:23 I'm sure it has a mythological basis, but I forget exactly what.
45:10 Osborne is heavily inspired by Otto Von Bismarck.
@@BigKlingy 11:09 gonna be honest, it took me a while to realize who the guy exactly is.
Arundel is the name of a place in england amongst other things
Yeah this is up there for my favorite door so far. And honestly this door got me so excited for CS and I’ve already played one of the games and have a general idea of what goes on in two of them.
Time for the prologue of the prologue for Trails of Cold Steel
You thought this was going to be a April fools trick, but the real trick there is no trick.
At this point the really April fools pranks are the one that aren’t any tricks.
Very interesting... 🤔...🙂 (Never thought seeing Lechter of all places & Kloe was glad to speak with him... & that Chancellor... Jeez... Even Prince Olivert being heir to the throne of Erebonia got into such a Blast spoken by his... & the way he presented himself... Wow. No kidding. Not forget he gets to talk with Cassius which was also a big part... Boy...)
Aiya... Prince Olivert U... Always to make a showoff at to anyone even him. Lol.
Given his explanations, Amazing door indeed. True for Mueller... Didn't get much out of it but he can be anything valuable wherever & whenever he's at present... (Ah. I see... so it takes place after of the later Arc 2nd game... I understand now when I last go through from it not just the 1st game... Uh huh...)
Hm? Star Door 14... Huh. Wonder that adds up. (Seems it isn't over yet & closer to it...)
10:51 "Hey, that name sounds familiar... Where have-?" 11:15 HUH??? I know you said he'd be important later, but that makes it even more shocking to be seeing him again this soon, let alone in this position.
While Star door 15 Abyss only require to OPEN every door you do NOT need to succeed and since I couldn't answer a SINGLE quiz question correctly since the PSP/Vita version of this game is ONLY in Japanese while I couldn't answer a single one of those quizzes in Japanese at all as long as you Still attempt the first lv of those quizzes even if you fail the first set you'll still be able to Open Star door 15.
So for Star door 15 beating the actually mini games is NOT required via those doors only ATTEMPTING them at least once is.
However Star door 15 is in the Abyss last floor its 20th floor but theirs really no way to warp directly to floors 5 10 or 15 that have boss fights their since if you EVER leave the Abyss before reaching Star Door 15 you'll have to Redo the ENTIRE area starting with floor 1.
After getting put through the harrowing emotional wringer that was Paradise, we now take to Erebonia for some dramatic setup for the Cold Steel saga.
Oh boy… These next episodes are going to be interesting, huh…
I get what you mean with stories about the protagonist fighting “himself” being a bit of different breed compared to the rest (And when Fate/Stay Night is one of my favourite works ever, I don’t have much reason to complain), but at the same time, I also feel like these types of stories are very easily messed up if the author isn’t careful.
They also seem like they’ve become a bit more common recently and I think I can already feel some people getting a bit tired of them, especially in the indie game scene.
Nonetheless, I feel like The 3rd does a pretty good job at dealing with this type of story (Though, not without turning off a lot of people if the pools are anything to go by).
Good job at finishing off the last fiend… I remember the 1st time I played the 3rd and reached this part of the game. Thank goodness for Richard or my party would have been completely hopeless against this fiend amongst fiends.
And yeah… I guess that’s just a different in approaches between us, but I usually do the Nightmare Arena before proceeding on to the end of the game.
Yeah… Star Door 15 is a thing. A very grim thing (It leaves me more disgusted than in tears, but again, I rarely cry in stories, so that’s definitely not to its detriment).
It’s not the worst thing I’ve ever read, but man, at a certain point there’s no point in comparing just how bad things are for the characters in question. Its fucked up, regardless of what spin one tries to put on it.
In regards to the events themselves, though, I don’t have much to say that people haven't already said (There a few points I could go off, but I feel like that discussion is better saved for Crossbell). I was more curious for the comments and man, they did not disappoint.
At the same time, part of me wonders if Falcom unintentionally went too far with this door. It stands in such a stark contrast with so much of their (both earlier and later) works, not to mention how it goes harder than many series I know that are more “mature” than Kiseki in a general sense, that it almost makes it seem like a mistake of some kind.
One friend of mine called it a “remnant of the aggressively edgy late 90s / early 2000s” and I’m almost inclined to agree, but I guess we’ll never really know the truth at the end of the day (Unless Falcom talks about it someday, but they're pretty closed lip about their development process).
Now, for another extremely interesting door - Star Door 8 (Mini-rant / Spoiler warning):
Needless to say, this door is an absolute mountain of foreshadowing. And that’s not even counting all the little details we learn about Erebonia society / culture from it. And, of course, Letcher and Osborne… 2 characters that are going to be really important later on.
That said, I do take issue with people that say that both Letcher and Osborne were rewritten / changed for CS. Or rather, I personally think there’s a lot of conditional evidence that points towards Falcom already having at least an idea of where they were gonna take them both and I feel like people overlooking these are just using it as an excuse for things that didn't proceed as they had expected later on (People were still holding out for the “Letcher is the 4th Anguis” theory all the way into CS4 even despite all the evidence to the contrary, as an example).
Some examples:
1 - Letcher’s whole ordeal makes a lot more sense with the backstory he was given, for example. Some also say he lost his “hyper intelligence” for his “guessing powers”, but I have to call bull on that because on fictional terms, those are practically the same thing. Its also pretty clear that Letcher gets a lot less jokey when he’s the centre of the question. You can see a few tiny moments here in this game and then there’s one really big one in Azure, but CS is definitely when that plot point comes to the forefront.
2 - Osborne’s hair. I know this might sound a bit crazy, but that little strand of white hair is legitimately so connected to something later on I have trouble believing it wasn’t a planned design decision in the first place. It just seems like such a random detail otherwise…
3 - Osborne literally says in this door he wants to “whip the population into a frenzy” which is, of course, in service of his “reforms”, but it also maps out pretty well with some important plot points later on.
Honestly, I have some doubts on if Mueller was ever intended to be an “important” character to begin with… Even in Sky, most of his personally can be boiled down to Olivier’s hi-jinks companion.
Regardless, I’m gonna stop this for now before I write an entire page’s worth of my thought on this matter. A lot of the examples I have in mind are things I want to save for discussion later on and I don't want to drag this comment into a gigantic discussion of how many things were initially planned or not (Though, that being said, I'm of the opinion that a lot more things were planned at this point than people think. Not to mention, I feel like a lot of the scopecreep that happened in CS is a result of Falcom just not having the sheer resources to make Erebonia "as big" as they wanted to).
The Nightmare Arena is technically lower level than the final bosses, but the final dungeon gives you tons of exp getting there (end bosses are 145-ish, and you'll probably hit at least 142 by that point) so it always felt like the Arena was "higher level" relative to what you can be at the time you can access it, if that makes sense.
The Nightmare Arena also feels like the true final sendoff to the Sky arc for me, given the music and who you fight there.
Given the tone of later games and how little the specifics of Star Door 15 are mentioned later, it does feel uncharacteristically dark. I chalk it up to the Sky games being mostly based on the PC, which has more lax ratings than consoles in Japan, and targeted a more seinen demographic with later games switching firmly to shounen.
I'm sure they had broad plans for the next arc at this point, but I feel like Rean likely wasn't conceptualized when they wrote this, and since he ends up highly involved with these character, that would've changed a LOT by proxy. Osborne's backstory and arc were probably planned out, but a lot of other things about the Erebonia games probably arose as they went along.
It's hard to say exactly what Falcom had in mind initially without being one of them. I feel like certain details in the Cold Steel games arose as a result of fan reception (the increasing pool of love interests for Rean, Crow getting more focus), while others were planned. I doubt characters like Juna were planned (given she had to be retconned into Crossbell), but it's possible someone like Ash was. I also feel like Olivier was going to have a bigger role than he did.
As for Lechter, I didn't think he was the 4th Anguis (an original horrifying theory I had was the 4th was KEVIN, which would've invalidated this whole game), but his ultimate role felt disappointing. He got swallowed by the cast bloat and scope creep and ended up as nothing more than a miniboss in CS4's final dungeon with no real personal drama with the party, even though this game hinted he might not be entirely loyal to Osborne.
*CS4 Spoilers:*
Man I miss when Lechter was actually cool. And then CS3 made his intelligece come from special powers and CS4 kinda just made him a generic minion with no consequences ruining 6 games of build-up and more or less ruining his character forever. At least he was fun in Crossbell.
Osborne faired a lot better, Azure especially has him genuinely threatening and intimidating in spite if how little screemtime he gets. I kinda wish they just kept him evil instead of "good all along" but he was a pretty solid villain overall I'd say.
CS4 spoilers
One thing I felt about CS4 pacing was that it poorly explained certain characters motives. Not exactly great, esp for certain characters.
Cutting down
With Osborne it's very blatant how derailed he got precisely BECAUSE OF how much of a villain he's portrayed as in Azure.
"BAH SPOILER ALERT!"
Wow, that sounds incredibly lame. With stuff like this. No wonder Cold Steel has so much of a Hatedom.
Spoilers lol:
I agree, Lechter amounted to pretty much nothing in the end, just a very impersonal midboss in the final dungeon, and also being tied to Claire who's even more of a mess. I'll get into this later, but can you believe people used to speculate that he was the 4th Anguis? (Apparently the one in Star Door 14 has similar mannerisms to Lechter in Japanese)
As for Osborne, I watched a video recently about how Trails has always been big on "anime tropes", but that those tropes changed as the years went on and so later arcs ended up drawn more from late 2010's anime tropes. I wonder if that affected Osborne, as I noticed his final motives are similar to characters like Lelouch and other cases of the "Zero Approval Gambit" (deliberately becoming the villain for some noble goal, such as uniting the world against you), which seems to have caught on a lot in Japanese media.
@@BigKlingy Trails is a series that literally drinks from tropes after all.... what are some modern tropes at the moment that Kuro might follow?
0:30 Personally, I disagree, but whatever.
0:39 No, The Way to Thors is the Prologue of Trails of Cold Steel (th-cam.com/video/fRs0OqV4uSc/w-d-xo.html).
1:09 To be fair, he makes EVERYONE look like child's play.
2:19 Considering that he certainly doesn't act like a prince, I don't blame Ambassador Crainagh for not noticing.
2:31 As a JoJo fan, I cannot hear Takehito Koyasu's voice without thinking of Dio Brando.
2:44 You say that now, but...
4:33 Yeah, I can imagine Parm being a state of distress.
5:17 Yep...
7:19 No, not that one. He's talking about Erebonia and Calvard's massive custody battle over Crossbell. Also, if you wish to see how the Crossbell Problem gets resolved, play Crossbell or Cold Steel.
10:46 Well, well, who do we have here?
10:51 Heh, nice.
18:56 That's Osborne for you!
22:21 Speak of the devil.
22:36 May I introduce to you: the Blood and Iron Chancellor himself, the first common-born chancellor of the Erebonian Empire, leader of the Reformist Faction, former brigadier general of the Imperial Army, master of Hundred-form Military Combat, and 6D chessmaster, GILIATH MOTHERF*CKING OSBORNE!!!
23:03 I'm guessing you're talking about Peter Beckman? Yeah, he was AMAZING, and while I'm bummed that he didn't come back for CS4, Michael Sorich did do a really good job. That being said, his Japanese voice actor, Joji Nakata, is also pretty amazing.
24:29 I don't know, considering how strong he is, he probably could have gone to the Liber Ark, went up the Axis Pillar, killed Weissmann with one strike, then went back to Erebonia, in less than 10 minutes.
32:55 Yeah... thankfully, he's NOTHING like that other character, but saying any more would involve MASSIVE spoilers.
33:44 If you wish to hear a first-hand account of one of Osborne's... unifications, play Cold Steel.
35:11 If you wish to know more about Erebonian terrorists, play Crossbell or Cold Steel.
36:05 If you wish to meet that representative of the Crossbell government, play Crossbell.
36:34 If you wish to know more about the Crossbellan mafia, play Crossbell.
40:07 "Ah, my apologies, Mr. Terarundel! It seems we do have you confused with someone else!" is what you want me to say, isn't it, Lechter!?
41:05 Moral of the story: don't abandon your friends without any warning, because when they do catch up to you, they WILL give you an earful.
42:25 Yes. Please.
42:31 If you say so...
45:34 Ah yes, ONLY 70%.
46:18 Damn, asking one of your most prominent haters to join your side. Impressive (then again, considering that Osborne is essentially what would happen if a DnD character had a 20 in every stat, anything that would be impressive or incredibly bold for anyone else is completely normal for him).
48:25 What a guy!
51:33 Of course the Erebonian guy would give someone a headpat.
54:25 Actually... I don't think he does. He definitely has a private train, the Eisengraf, but I don't think he has a private airship.
57:42 Yes! Finally, we're hearing The Final Choice in its "true" context!
59:06 If you wish to know what exactly an Ironblood is, play Crossbell or Cold Steel, and if you wish to meet more members of the Ironbloods, play Cold Steel.
59:31 And suddenly, this part of the song becoming the "Erebonia leitmotif" makes so much sense.
1:00:02 This. Means. War.
1:02:17 If you wish to see more of Osborne and Lechter, play Crossbell or Cold Steel.
1:03:12 ...Why did it take me so long to realize that the song you're playing right now is the Super Arrange version of Atrocious Raid (actually, it's probably because when this song plays in CS4, that intro isn't played)?
1:05:01 It's really saying something when his half-brother who only first appears in CS3 has infinitely more plot importance than him. Heck, Mueller doesn't even physically appear in CS3, and he only has ONE line of dialogue.
1:06:04 Personally, I HIGHLY disagree, but whatever.
1:06:11 So yeah, this Door was pretty f*cking amazing, though, it becomes much better after playing later games due to some really subtle lines that only become significant with what is revealed in later games. Also, it's the first time that Osborne is ever shown, and considering that he ends up becoming one of the most important characters in the entire series, he makes an amazing first impression.
So, I have decided that my April Fools joke for this year will be like that of 3 years prior, where I will do something for each day of the month of April. But that was making horrible puns, this time, I shall give horribly worded descriptions of video games that need to be figured out (for anyone familiar with the Green Scorpion's Guess That Video Game series, it's basically just that). Of course, since this playthrough is ending, and no playthrough is on the immediate horizon, the way I shall format this is that I will give 5 descriptions for the next 6 days (which includes today, so really, it's today and the next 5 days). With no further ado, let the guessing commence!
1. A weeb, an heiress, a musician, a squire, a politician's son, a magician, a nobleman, an ex-mercenary, a nomad, and later on, a gambler and a spy, all walk into a bar... because that's where their teacher is.
2. A cutesy visual novel where you get to date -your childhood friend, a tsundere, or a shy girl- the president of the club you're in.
3. Groundhog Day, except, among other things, the protagonist is an edgy Dante from Devil May Cry, and Bill Murray is a young batty rabbit girl.
4. The SMT X FE crossover we all expected.
5. The SMT X FE crossover we actually got (albeit, it's still pretty good).
1:03:12 Yeah, there's no intro in the in-game CS4 version. Still love how the song is used there, though.
I wonder is this world have a purgatory because a certain someone in this door could end up there
I hope everyone got their traits out of the way. As for me, my birthday is coming up and I’m gonna meet Joshua’s voice actor at an anime comic con.
@Bigklingy actually, that begs the question. Are you considering doing Trails of Cold Steal?
Thats nice. I personally will probably have a personal birthday celebration when that happens
I met Johnny Yong Bosch at a convention in 2017, along with Travis Willingham and Laura Bailey. Conventions are finally coming back where I live but I'm still really paranoid of going. There's still too much covid around.
@@BigKlingy I already got my shot and my parents got the booster, I’ll be fine. Not to be overconfident. I’ll be careful
ah..
the forehead osborne before crossbell tweaked it