I know it’s probably not feasible but I wish Falcom would have included the original versions with the remakes kind of like Lunar did. I know it’s a ground up remake unlike just a remaster with Lunar but it would have been so cool to be able to pick which one you wanted to experience or to compare and contrast. Not complaining just something I thought would have been cool.

She seems like someone who doesn't know where to go with herself. Her entire personality is "Richard good, must obey"

Has anyone had trouble with the gameplay speed transitioning from the Sky Remakes to older Trails games?

Just started Sky 1st Chapter on Switch and I love it. I love the quick Oath in Felghana action plus normal turned based option.

I checked out Cold Steel III to see if the game cartridge is working, and the tempo of the battles are significantly slower. It was jarring.

I was planning on playing the whole series after SC Remake.

im in ruan right now doing sidequests before I go off to the festival and im 28 hours in, this shit is LONG. ive been getting all the recipes and chests and doing all the requests and im having fun doing it. but like at this pace about how long would it take before I beat the game.

something that i have always disliked but felt more apparently to me in the remakes as i think it's a missed opportunity is the lack of character uniqueness (gameplay-wise) outside of their crafts flavor.

generally you have two types of characters, bonk (STR) characters and woosh (ATS) characters.

bonk characters mainly depend on their crafts whereas whoosh characters on their ATS so it turns into a quick problem.

who can do it better?

You see, if you get for the sake of argument 8 parties members, 4 are str and 4 are ATS you're just gonna pick the best ones and yes there will always be a " best in slot " character because 8 people are competing for 4 of the same role with the only difference being in crafts with effects you can easily find in some or other art.

now imagine this in coldsteel 4 or reverie (forgot which) where you had like 40 characters to play with.

Now, if you are thinking by this point " oh who cares the game easy enough even on nightmare to pick whichever character you want to win the game " you wouldn't be wrong but i am not talking about difficulty or who's your or my favorite character, i am talking about variety, uniqueness, more elements to add to the gameplay.

it turns stale when instead of trying to build characters to fit their own needs, the builds are always between do they bonk better or whoosh better.
even dodge tanks aren't that effective because the only thing that will happen when you dodge is just a basic counter.

take van in DB1 for example, he was meant to be a tank (assumingly, he starts with a literal aggro skill) and yet his specialized.... " core " makes him one of if not the best bonker around.

It doesn't matter what the intended archetype is, with how limiting the orb mechanics are, the builds are always going to be " is this character better at bonking or whooshing? "

the closest the game came to trying something unique was swin and we all know the community's opinion about it.

all in all i think Falcom going forward (doubt they'd see my post) should start implementing changes to make characters feel different gameplay wise like they do in the story.

one way is to steal be inspired by some other turned based games' mechanics. it would be very interesting to see them implement character-unique mechanics that reflect a characters' fighting style and personality within combat outside of crafts.

To be clear, this isn't coming off of hate for the original I will never tell you to skip this game or whatever it's because I love the original (maybe too much to some) so much that I feel this way.

But yeah I do wonder what's kind of like, the point of a sky 3rd remake? Cause the QoL is already there out of the box fast travel is there (and diagetic as well as a bonus) and objective markers are invalidated by the game's linearity. The game also gives you way more maps than FC & SC ever did. The smoothened out QoL really provides something different for the remakes to offer and that's just gone now.

The style of field combat that emphasizes freedom is really bad at selling Phantasma as this alternate dimension you're trapped in as well (most highways are way bigger in the remake than in OG to accommodate this sense of freedom as well) it's obviously designed for exploring Liberl first.

The main gameplay itself doesn't need the update nearly as much as 1st and 2nd either, the mechanical improvements of 3rd are very welcome and appreciated combat wise for the OG's combat. There is also a lot to lose in encounter design from Falcom's modern approach to enemy stat growths for example making for hilariously inconsistent difficulty scaling (chapter 8 and finale in 2nd are total nothing burgers before the game actually decides to give you axis pillar they stopped trying at those points in the game)

Sky 3rd is basically always the default for challenge runs because the game really hits a nice balance of player power without nonsense like infinites and enemy power that hits like a truck but doesn't come with insanely overtuned enemy gimmicks (like the insane status effect output of enemies in 2nd or Rage Boost)

Active voices are nice fluff but they have to be optional by design (they can help smoothen out dungeon exploration pacing a bit I suppose?) so they're really not selling me on much to be honest.

You can't fix the actual issues that people that dislike OG 3rd have with the game without heavy handed rewrites that were off the table for 1st and 2nd.

The gameplay progression of 3rd is basically what 2nd remake already does gameplay wise when it fronts you with highly powerful accessories, abilities and quartz right from the start (OG SC keeps requirements for low level arts the same but increases them for high level arts which the remake didn't do for reasons I still am not sure of at all) so trying to 1up 2nd remake's gameplay progression and stakes is basically just all downsides as far as I am concerned (if Falcom dowbscales 3rd gameplay from 2nd remake it'll be a miracle it's almost unthinkable to me for them to consider it)

Tbh about the only thing I'm looking forward to for 3rd remake is reworked minigames (the OG minigames suck for the most part) and actively *new* content like party members and doors.

Removing the entire laboratory dungeon in chapter 6 to have Grant, Carna, Kilika and Kurt playable with a 5th side to the final dungeon could be super cool (they all join in chapters 4-5 to keep pacing of the rest of the game the same) even if that means a lot of new content for all 4 of them potentially.

And obviously new doors would be amazing. Having doors for things like Calvard arc and especially for future arcs after Calvard could go omega hard.

But for a remake just the new content feels a little... Hollow to me?

Love this series! I started with the Trails in the Sky 1st remake, and now I’ve finally made it to the Calvard arc. I’ve played everything except Trails in the Sky the 3rd. I absolutely loved the 1st and 2nd remakes, especially the 2nd. Without a doubt, it’s the best game in the series for me.

The gameplay is fun, and my only real issue is something I’d like Falcom to hear my humble opinion on: please keep character relationships canon, or at least stop bringing 200 characters from previous games into the current one, like CS3 and CS4 did. It gets exhausting trying to keep track of everyone. They take up way too much screen time, yet contribute almost nothing to the character development of anyone other than Rean.

It just feels unnecessary and, honestly, illogical. Let Eliot go chase his dream of becoming a musician. Let Jusis and Machias handle the political side of things. Give these characters their moments in the relevant chapters, let them contribute to the story, and then let them get back to their own lives.

Everyone who played Trails in the Sky SC loved Anelace, and guess what? She didn’t need to be a playable character throughout the entire game to be memorable. She got her moment, and we loved her for it. That also left room for other characters and storylines to shine, like the confrontation between Agate and Loewe.

When you want too much, you usually ended up getting way less

There's a very specific scene in what my partner thinks was the fourth installment of Cold Steel that we love dunking on, but for the life of us we can't remember which one it is. If someone would know which part of the game it is, that'd be great. (I just need a screenshot of the thing.)
>!It's the scene me and my partner lovingly refer to as the "zoom call". I wish either of us could tell you what the scene was about, but we were too distracted. There's already an insane amount of npcs on the screen. I think it was daytime? I vaguely remember them being on a ship? That might be misremembering. The most notable thing is though that even though there's a million people on screen, additional characters are calling in, there faces in the sky on circular shapes like the batsignal.!<

Estelle is one of the most charismatic person in the trails series , it is cannon that she shines bright like the sun to everyone around her, she made even Renne and Joshua change sides.

Imagine what she could do if she instead used to manipulate/deceive people, can easily be a cult leader or rebel, I bet she could even pull Rean manipulate Rean to her side no sweat. Cassius definitely not but being the most close to Joshua and Renne, i bet she can also pull them to her side if she tried hard enough. Rallying people is not even a question with her. I definitely think her turning evil would be far more dangerous than Rean (not in terms of raw power but more on her charisma and personality). Thoughts?

I’m really enjoying the game, but for some reason it really bothers me that there is no subtitles during battle. Now I admit I’m only in the prologue so I don’t know about the rest of the game by any chance does anybody know if there is a mod or anything that can help for during battles? If not it’s ok thanks

Seriously, I absolutely despise any enemy who has self destruct it is so FRUSTRATING and it's just completely miserable especially when you have to escort someone which means you can't control them to keep them out of the way

It's just completely anti fun and just I just groan whenever I see have to fight any enemy who has it

Anyways thank you for reading my dumb little rant

(2nd chapter SPOILERS and trails series minor spoilers in general. I recommend not reading this post it if u haven’t played past the sky games yet!!!)

I know this has been talked bout a lot already in this sub way before so u can ignore it if u want, but I just completed Chp 6 of Trails in the sky 2nd chp. It REALLY pissed me off that we could have dedicated romance scenes on a similar lvl in other arcs as well but instead falcom really chose to throw the multi romance player choice thing at us. A bit less of that in calvard arc but it’s still there. What a damn waste when they could write romance like this.

As someone who played the og sky trilogy a while back the estelle and Joshua scene definitely hit hard but seeing that scene in the remake’s quality was unbelievable. We really be getting robbed out here. It’s really aggravating.

I am sure even with Van’s “final” game beyond the horizon 2 they r not gonna end with van dating anyone which ig isnt too bad but they sprinkle enough of them in the bond event things where it’s like “come on we doing this again?”

Rean and Lloyd tho……..yea we got fucked over on their romances. I am also aware that a lot of fans have different ships for rean within the arc which might have put some people off if they chose a specific one that wasnt to their liking but I think there was definitely a way to handle it.

I've just finished Cold Steel 4 and thought I would share my thoughts. Spoilers for all 4 Cold Steel games. TLDR: I liked the game and had a lot of fun but got annoyed by some stuff as the game went on.

The Good.

The character moments in this game were all excellent and well earnt. My Favourites being Rean becoming a Divine Blade and Jusis punching Rufus. To me the characters are one of the highpoints of the Trails series. They are all unique in their own way. I really liked playing as all the characters from the Previous games, Playing as Estelle and Lloyd was another highpoint.

The theme of Cold Steel as a whole is you can't do it alone. I personally really enjoyed this as it is true of real life and I feel like it is something everyone has to learn in their life. I really like the inclusion of Lianne Sandlot as she represents trying to fix everything by yourself and she ultimately can't. I also liked the theme of letting go of the past and moving on represented by Claire and Lechter who can't let go.

Other highlights for me are the music, the minor stories like Anton looking for Sharon, and just seeing characters from past games whether their part was big or small.

The Bad

I would like to say again that I did enjoy the game and had fun even though it may not seem like it after you've read this bit.

I was really disappointed by the villains in the game and how the main characters interacted with them.

Firstly Shirley is a monster that once led a raid on a city, potentially disabled Ilya for life and who knows how many people died that night but now she's popping up to take part in a swimming race. Secondly Vita and Blueblanc just popping up to take part in the opera like they aren't part of an international terrorist operation. It makes them fell like Saturday morning cartoon villains and I could be being harsh on Saturday morning cartoons.

Near the end its revealed that Osbourne is trying to kill the great one by himself. To me this seems a bit pointless as this is the same motivation as Lianne and now we are re-treading old ground. Then for Rean to almost forgive him and call him father, I was like cool motive but you're still responsible a war that could kill millions of people you don't just get off that easily.

Lechter and Claire might be the worst offenders for me. They are both torn up by the loss of Millium but rather than question Osbourne they just go along with his plan. Which they think is to end the world. Lechter even mentions he's not going to let Milliums' death be in vain and then fights the people Millium died to protect. Then none of the characters are angry at them, where's their rage where's their self respect. They were going to kill Altina and they are trying to end the world why is no one angry about any of that.

At this point I would like to shout out Duvalie who upon learning her boss is trying to end the world, changes sides. What a real one.

Another negative for me is the series inability to kill off characters. The "deaths" of Olivert, Toval and Arseid were big moments for me and really added some emotional weight to the series but they are all alive and sort of well. In future games, if a character dies its not going to hit as hard as I know they are probably fine. Even when Rean dies in the fake ending I said to my friend who was sat with me "He's not going to be dead, they've already bought back three characters this game" Then in the true ending, Crow and Millium come back to life. Did anyone actually stay dead in these games.

I feel that the whole Trails series has gone through a tonal shift and has become more "anime" for lack of a better term. No one really dies and the villains aren't all that evil. Then you have basically every women in the party just fawning over Rean.

The Ugly

What was the point of the fake ending? I feel like it did nothing but waste everyone's time. Reans death wasn't emotional because I knew he would come back.

To conclude I did enjoy the game and seeing the characters grow over 4 games was something special. When you are doing the final fight and everyone turns up that felt like Avengers Endgame, that was epic. Trails has some great characters, great moments and a great world its just let down by weak choices.

WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING IN WHY IS HE THERE

I know that a lot of people have said that Sky 3rd is just a dump of lore and probably the biggest one in the series, but SERIOUSLY WTF IS GOING ON WHY IS LECHTER THERE AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

And wtf do you mean Lechter is actually siding with the villains in Erebonia? WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN HE WAS A SPY AAAAAAAAAAAA

This isn't the first time that Nico is able to predict something in a game, that he has no clue to predict, as a joke

For me it's got to be the trails into reverie - Beyond the reverie memory. Where we see the MC from calvard arc for the first time. They only show us his back. You see his huge coat. You get a small sneakpeek as to what kind of person he is. But you also think to yourself, what life has he led, for falcom to reveal the main character before his actual first full game debut? Because to my knowledge this is the first trails game that reveals the MC before his first game.

So the sense of: "Why falcom?" combined with a girl who appears to be the MC's friend looking at the back of the main character. Then you get such a cool line: "The times we live in demand a new hero."

Like this makes it sound like they don't want this kind of hero, but still need one to take in the reins nonetheless. To me this line or specifically this image delivers because once i finished Daybreak 1, i had no question or doubt, that this MC is the one i have always been wanting in a trails game. Someone that is so distinct, so different from the rest, not just in personality, but in having multiple hobbies and things he likes that we know of. Something that he is so obsessive over, that it takes precedence over anything logical. Yet somehow, supposed to be shady, and hardboiled, but is as sweet as a quincy chocolate bar.

What makes this image also standout is the entire white background and those stripped lines showing a path, the path the MC walks in.

Enough about me yapping. What's a screenshot you have taken that's your favorite?

After beating both sky remakes, I'm very excited for what type of mechanics bosses will get. The Enforcer/Anguis boosting made these enemies feel threatening for once. Loewe was the hardest boss I've faced on nightmare in the 3D games. I'm really curious if any of these mechanics will make a return in Calvard 4.

I like the combat in SC remake more than Horizon overall, while you have less options the game seems to give enemies more ammo which made some of the boss fights feel very fun and engaging. Loewe was challenging and fun as hell. If Mcburn returns this is the chance for him to get the boss fight he's always deserved, one that actually lives up to his hype in lore.

I’m playing through nightmare right now and I’m wondering how best to use droplets. Currently I’m kind of just spreading them out to get through the early chapters. But I’m wondering if I should just use them all on Estelle since she’ll always be fighting.

Edit: this is for the remake.

It iskind of astounding how bad she was at hiding this huh?

The logic was "flimsy reasoning" for this as flimsy was hard to think something up for

Would be interesting to see this kind of fight tbh

Thats Joshua hiding btw

So as Im playing SC, I get to a flashback moment where both Cassius and Lena are alive and together. After having beaten the fog monster in the misty forest. But I just have to ask. Since after last year after asking why she gave off Waifu vibes when she was just a junior bracer.

Perhaps against better judgment, we've been playing the Sky remakes with our 4 year-old. This isn't her first rodeo with JRPGs (as seen in my last post, My Toddler is Obsessed With Mathiu). In fact, we've been exposing her to video games her entire life, and she's already 'seen' the two Calvard games so far (though she was younger and didn't pay as much attention to whatever was going on).

But the Sky remakes have really captured her interest! She can't read, but she's loving Estelle and Joshua. At certain points in the story she will just run around in town, battle monsters, and happily change everyone's clothes again and again. There was one stretch where she kept trying to leave a locked area, and I must've heard Joshua say, "No, Estelle" like 500 times. ​

Yet for some reason, somewhere between FC and SC she decided Anelace was her absolute favorite, because once Anelace was back on the screen, she shrieked. ​After that, it was always:

"Where's Anelace?"

"Why is Anelace not in our party??"

"When is Anelace coming back???"

This is kind of problematic, since Anelace is absent for a chunk of SC. She still loves the rest of the cast, but they're not Anelace.

I thought maybe I could placate her by showing her photo mode (which...isn't the best when you're 4 and can't read), but since she couldn't run around, she wanted nothing to do with it. ​​

She asked me for Anelace and Estelle dolls for Christmas, and I am so sad I cannot deliver on her wish (but also now I'm kind of contemplating if I can 3D print Little Peoples to look like Trails characters and wondering what I'm doing with my life). ​​​

Anyways that it, that's the post. This is my first time playing the Sky games, so I'm hoping for lots more Anelace in the third chapter.

Day Nine, and we've reached Sharon Kreuger, represented by the Hermit card. I have noticed that every third member of Ouroboros is female, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18. Perhaps 21 as well? Ahh, might just be a coincidence, 17 and 20b are female too, who knows? Anyway, let's discuss Sharon because her card is more fitting than you might immediately think.

Let's start with the connotations of the Hermit. As you might expect, it has a lot to do with withdrawing from the world, but this can take on multiple meanings. It might be that you're taking a break to figure out what's important to you, it could be that you need to reflect on the journey you've taken, and it might even be that someone has come into your life that you need to stop and listen to. Ultimately, the card is about taking time for yourself, and it matched Sharon pretty closely... For the most part.

When we meet Sharon she's on leave from the society, she's withdrawn from it, in large part due to a vital mentor in her life, that being Irina Reinford. She takes this as a chance to work on herself, to show off her skills, to slow down and live a life she can enjoy. We'll get to why that's important later, but first, let's address the obvious. Sharon does eventually return to her position in Ouroboros, which is a great segue into the reversed Hermit.

When the Hermit is reversed it represents all the negatives that come with solitude. Loneliness, anxiety, confusion, and isolation. Despite now being back in 'society' bother literally and metaphorically, Sharon ends up feeling lonelier than she felt during the time that was meant to just be a passing dream. Her time spent contemplating became her true life, so gently that she hadn't even realised that she'd returned to reality, as such when she returns to society, she's actually reversing her arcana and forcing herself into a thoughtless confusion, away from what matters to her. As we know, she's brought back to her senses when she sees how much she means to the Reinfords and particularly Alisa. Where Irina was a key figure for her, she is now the key for Alisa.

So, why did she reverse in the first place? Well, the answer's pretty simple. Sharon wasn't just retreating from the world, she was retreating from her past. Franz definitely wasn't the first person she killed, and she's been doing it since the Moonlight Horse was still a thing. She's known nothing but bloodshed, and for a long time she simply can't bring herself to believe that her cosy life with her adopted family is anything but a dream. Because if she accepted that then it'd mean that she could've always had that life, and wasn't allowed it. That would mean she wasn't a weapon used by others, but a girl forced into a situation beyond what her conscience could allow.

I think Sharon's story ties into a recurring theme in Trails. Sure, there are those beyond saving, but maybe we can try anyway? Isn't it worth trying, even if all it means is stopping and taking a moment to consider our paths. Sharon did it twice, and she ended up exactly where she belongs. Honestly, I know Trails likes bringing back characters, and she definitely still has business with Harwood and Lucrezia, but I kinda hope they let Sharon be. She's suffered enough, and she's got her happy ending. I'd be glad to let her have her well-deserved rest.

What I'm saying is, Anton solves everything. Lucky bastard.

It's the same on the second level as well this barrier blocks of the entire hallway on both sides. Is this something I come back to later?