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Last night, I played Trails of Cold Steel out through the prologue, since I got a late start. Thoughts are within.
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So far? I'm intrigued. I don't want to say liking it but it I can see where if it keeps up I will absolutely like it. The combat system is refreshingly old-school with some nice twists, the aesthetic and soundtrack both are about what I typically want out of a JRPG, and I've seen enough to know that they've crammed about every game system possible in.
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I am so far pretty underwhelmed by the writing considering I've seen this game compared favorably over both Persona 5 and Final Fantasy Type-0 but I'm allowing for the fact that it's just been the prologue so far.
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Still, it made a weak first impression by and large; it seemed like every time I found something to like the game did something to counteract that.
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I will say that I appreciate that Rean is one of the biggest dipshits in JRPG history so far but also seems acutely aware of what he is and what sort of situation he's in.
Catshark
Chapter 2, when you really get into the 'fuck nobles' stuff is when it picks up
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That is good to hear, the prologue pissed me off something fierce with that.
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I was pumped to have Machias all "YEAH FUCK NOBILITY FUCK CLASS STRUCTURE" right out of the gate, and then the next set of cutscenes also establishes he's something of a hypocrite and also a chauvinist and also kind of just a condescending asshole who can dish it out but not take it.
tsukuyomi tsimp
machias is one of the characters who develops the most
tsukuyomi tsimp
(and thank god for that)
Catshark
This isn't a Persona game, characters actually develop
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Oh you...
Catshark
I won't spoil anything but keep in mind Erebonia is like, basically early 1900s eastern europe so 'fuck nobility' but also expect shit to get way more complicated than that
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tsukuyomi tsimp
I mean I'd have to hope so, that prologue appearance was some race to the bottom shit between him and the gag with Elisa.
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I mean overall I liked the majority of the cast, I even actually liked Elisa aside from when they just were like "BY THE WAY, HUGE FUCKING TSUNDERE, JUST THE BIGGEST" and I'm going to guess that she gets over that some and it's probably related to her blatantly being the daughter of one of the Reinford bigwigs.
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(Elisa? Elise? Still fuzzy on the names here.)
Catshark
Alisa
Catshark
and yeah the prologue gag is bad
Catshark
I really don't like it since nothing else in the game is even remotely like that
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It felt really out of place, yeah.
Catshark
I'm like
tsukuyomi tsimp
haha yeah the thing with alisa made me groan a LOT
tsukuyomi tsimp
best written character imo is jusis, i said, with no bias whatsoever
Catshark
since Falcom pulls from trends and then subverts the trends I feel like the intent was to go 'see they get over it rather quickly like semi-adults' but it takes too long
Catshark
Jusis is the best written character...in Cold Steel One
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Well, that is the standard I'm judging this by.
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All the talk of this being better written is like... yeah I'd hope the cast is better written across 3-4 games and side materials compared to 1 game.
Catshark
Well you do lose some stuff by going into Cold Steel first
Catshark
like there's a lot of 'oh, this is related to that, and oh, this is what that was'
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I'm hoping not to a significant degree.
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I'm not really eager to play a trilogy worth of JRPGs to make this one make sense.
Catshark
I'm trying to think of an example, here.
Catshark
It's like playing MGS3 before MGS 1 and 2, I guess is the closest thing
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That's pretty damning.
Catshark
That might not even be a good example
Catshark
You're not going to be confused, but they are gonna reference events you didn't see, but you can figure it out from context.
Catshark
Like the entire reason Class VII exists comes up in Sky
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Okay, if it's generally gettable by context I'm fine.
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And hell if I like these enough, which signs are pointing to but I don't wanna jinx it, I'll probably go back and play those eventually.
Catshark
okay, uh
Catshark
I'm trying not scare you off, and the game hasn't even been announced for US Release, yet
Catshark
but CS3 and 4 appear to actually have much more to do with the others
Catshark
CS1 and 2 don't
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Isn't that kind of a problem when at least a couple of the games in the series haven't been localized?
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(I just looked it up to see what I'm potentially getting myself into here)
Catshark
yeah the second arc isn't localized yet.
Catshark
It takes place concurrently with CS1 and 2
Catshark
but CS3 is after a three year time jump
Catshark
Falcom's president wants all their games localized eventually so the question is really 'when' rather than 'if'
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Well, then, that's not so bad.
Catshark
basically Sky 1 happens, two months pass, sky 2 happens, sky 3 happens almost immediately after, six months pass, Cold Steel 1 and Zero happen concurrently, then Cold Steel 2 and Ao happen concurrently. Then CS3 happens, then CS4 immediately follows. And Presumably after CS4 we finally get the Calvard Arc
連続犬
I'll slide in here and concurrently agree the game has sort of a slow windup
連続犬
Chapter 2-Chapter 3 are a lot slower than the rest of the game but the end of Chapter 3 is where things start kicking off bit by bit
Catshark
Chapter 2 is when the writing picks up
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I'll give it a shot, seriously.
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I've stuck with games with slower openings.
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Wild Arms 2 was one of my favorite childhood RPGs and you spend like the first dozen hours in that game just kind of wandering in circles trying to figure out what the fuck anything means.
Catshark
don't forget there's a turbo option you can use in battles that doesn't speed up the menus or music or anything
Catshark
assuming this is on PC
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It is. I briefly considered hunting down the PS3 versions because my TV setup is fancier than my PC setup.
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But then I got drunk and impulse bought it.
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Catshark
honestly the improvements the PC versions add make them far and away definitive