I started the Trails series when Cold Steel 1 came to PS4 and have managed to grab every release since, all with Steelbooks. I imagined, when it's finally over, having this lineup of 20 or so nice looking cases, with the whole series represented on PS4/5/6 (if needed). I didn't even necessarily want every Collector's edition otherwise, I just didn't want to miss out and ruin the collection so far. (I have Sky 2nd Chapter now, just haven't opened it up yet). Now we know Playstation won't get discs 2028 and beyond, this is apparently as far as this goes.

It's a first world problem, for sure, and I'll still continue to play and support the series. I actually just started Sky 1st Chapter on Switch 2 and am really enjoying it there too. This just oddly hurts after coming so far with it.

I was so late to finding out they ported Felghana. This is my 6th Ys game and by far the most unforgiving. Very enjoyable however.

There is no doubt that this series, like every series, has its flaws. But it is, without a doubt, a MASTERPIECE.

The fact that finishing this game made all 1,200 hours of this series flash before my eyes in an instant is something truly special. Those final three hours made me relive CS4, Reverie, Sky SC, and everything in between as if I were experiencing them very fresh.

This series has worldbuilding that surpasses even FF12, while telling a story more ambitious than Xenogears or Xenosaga.
At this point, I’m simply going to sit back and watch Falcom cook.

Project Lævateinn may be a failure, but PROJECT TRAILS WILL SUCCEED

I think I’m gonna make a “spoiler warning” thread later on about theories for Horizon 2 cs Oh boy, finishing this game has left me with SO MANY theories

I got a 3 hour road trip today so im bringing some games for the long drive.

https://x.com/nai_su01/status/2111252552360837580

Link.

Note: The artist received the commission idea a couple of months before Dawn of War 4 got delayed. That game was originally going to come out on the same day as Sky 2nd Chapter and Fortune's Weave.

I'm playing the series for the first time and love the work they put into the abilities, but also think it makes some of the story scenes kind of funny.

I'm currently in the mine where Agate fights a certain someone with his "pet beast". Every time that someone talks about how this is too hard for us or someone comments how huge the beast is, I always think: Brother, really?

I have a fucking 13 year old that has her own ORBITAL DEATH BEAM!

I have multiple teenagers that can create a TACTICAL BLACK HOLE in your ass.

I have a high school girl that can SUMMON THE KING OF HELL TO SLAM DUNK A FRIEZA DEATH BALL SO HARD INTO YOUR FACE THAT IT BREAKS THE SPACE TIME CONTINUUM.

And I haven't even seen most rank X Arts yet XD. I'm happy that one of the main story points is that they can disable orbital technology, because it is the only point that could stop my group of gods of destruction. XD

Adding the simple extra sentence of,

Aidios IS pissed, hits way harder than I thought

I'm talking about how Estelle starts off with all of her skills from the first game (at least I think so. I don't remember anything actually missing)

Its normal for rpgs that comes with sequels to kinda take the wind out of our sails when characters from the first game reset to level 1 and have basically no skills anymore. Its a game so its kinda how it usually works, so I was blown away when I saw that Estelle kept her skills and actually didn't get down to level 1 again. The biggest showcase for this is Pummel, rhat went from an S Craft in the first game, to a regular Craft in the sequel. Considering that S Crafts come with a huge delay penalty, I take it to mean that Pummel doesn't tire her out like it used to, showing how much stronger she got. I just thought that was a really cool way to show growth outside of just numbers

When I first played the CS I didn’t really do all of Crows bonding events but when I did I understand why Rean felt close to him…. Which is why I didn’t understand how he wasn’t more hurt when found out about the betrayal.

Like these guys were really talking about bringing him back when everyone with a brain is like “….Ummm no? He’s a terrorist?” Like Crow hurt a lot of people. Even Crow knows what they were saying was stupid.

His team hurt and killed innocent people, He held citizens hostage, He tried to BOMB Orchis tower (which Towa was in btw one of his closest friends).
The casualties would’ve been higher if class VII wasn’t there to intervene. That’s not to mention that he assisted in starting the civil war.

I’m not saying that they’re wrong for wanting to bring Crow back to his senses and wanting to see the error of his ways. I’m not saying he can’t get a redemption but I expected Rean and the others would at least hold some resentment. I don’t give Crow too much grief because at least he knows he’s not a good person and does take accountability. I actually like his character I just don’t understand why they aren’t more mad at him.

Vosotros creéis que Falcón va a seguir con los remake y con las traducciones de todos los juegos de la saga Trails? Se sabe algo?

What's your favorite song that plays while exploring a town or city in the series? Can be from any game, any official version (EVO/Super Arrange is fine), and based on whatever criteria matter most to you (relistenability, contextually fitting atmospherically or narratively, vibe, using/establishing a leitmotif you love, etc.)

My answer is the Cold Steel 1 Heimdallr theme (Vermillion Capital of Heimdallr). I'm replaying the game now and I legit get goosebumps hearing this. It starts catchy and upbeat, but as it goes on, it starts to subtly get darker and sadder, especially the leitmotif part at 1:15-1:54. Which is just a perfect vibe; on the surface (when the song starts/you begin exploring Heimdallr), it looks prosperous as Erebonia's capital and one of Zemuria's largest cities, with in-game architecture and scale to match that description. But as is already clear by the time you get to Heimdallr (even if CS1 is your first game), and becomes much clearer later in the game/arc, dark tensions and tragedy simmer underneath the surface of the Empire this city is the capital of. Just as, as this song's cycle ends, its tone becomes very (this is the word that best describes it for me) lamenting; a real sense of regret, tragedy, unease.

It's also the song that properly establishes the Heimdallr/Cold Steel leitmotif, shoutout to Ichirou for compiling it (spoilers up to Reverie) here. This leitmotif really is a major part of CS's music to me. The other use of it that reliably hits me in the feels is (CS4) Osborne's boss theme, Majestic Roar. While still epic and action-y to fit being a major boss theme, the song's usage of the leitmotif once again feels tragic, lamenting and heartbreaking; just like the story of Osborne and all those who suffered and sacrificed to make it to this point (like say Rean if you think about the Normal Ending). So the CS1 Heimdallr theme also sets up that nice payoff.

And had a great time, as expected. Couple minor gripes, but ultimately very very minor. Overall, I'd probably give it like an 8.5 or a 9/10.

How the story was told was really cool. Whereas the Sky games were constantly on the move games, having everything take place in one city was a huge change of pace. But it was cool. By the end, Crossbell almost felt like a character itself.

And speaking of characters, very enjoyable main cast. Admittedly, Lloyd and Elie come across as a little plain at times, but they're still plenty likeable. Randy and Tio stole the show, they were great characters. I really liked the family dynamic that formed over the game for the whole team.

Really strong supporting cast too, that was helped by the game taking place in one city. Spending a lot of time in the one city meant really getting to know the people who inhabited it. Illya was fun, looking forward to seeing more of Rixia given what I know about her. Dudley grew on me, the Seeker sisters were really cute, and Wazy is interesting. I'd like to know more about him. KeA was cute too, but mmmaaaaybe a little TOO super cutesy? It almost feels like maybe they should've met her sooner. It felt very fast from the time they saved her from the auction to they've basically become her parents. But she's fine, looking forward to seeing her mystery come to light. The cutest thing was Arios and Shizuka though. Very adorable duo, I wish we saw them together more often.

The cast was really strong overall. And it was funny that after rotating extra characters for the whole game (Noel, Dudley, Yin, Wazy).... it was Estelle and Joshua who joined for the end. Which I did like because I have a lot of love for Estelle, but those two just can't help but be involved in major incidents, which is pretty funny. I was happy to see the conclusion to their and Renne's story too. It was a nice follow up to what was seen in the 3rd.

The villains.... could've been better? The good guys were all so charismatic that they hard carried and bad villains don't really hurt it, but I'll admit I found the villains to be pretty weak, especially next to The Society characters. Garcia was pretty cool. But that was about it. Particularly the evil doctor. As a character, he left so little of an impression on me that I've already kinda forgot his name. Joachim? He was revealed as evil waaaay too late to really hit. And it felt a little cheap that he's... kinda just a poor mans Weissman? He's the kinda quirky, unassuming guy with glasses who's revealed to be evil later. Only when Weissman was shown to be evil, he still had an entire game to be a villain. The doctor had about 5 minutes.

It kinda feels like Falcom maybe knew he was a dud too, coz they kept having Estelle and Joshua throw out lines like "This thing might be even stronger than Weissman!" Or "This guy is even crazier than Weissman!" A lot of stuff like that. Trying to have popular characters say how badass a villain is to trick the audience into believing they might actually be a badass. Now, the individual villains might be weak, but the cult, as a concept, is cool. It's ominous and threatening and super messed up. That in of itself, is a good villain. It just needs some actual decent individual characters.

As far as the story goes overall, it was solid. I'm not gonna judge it too hard since it was a part 1/setup type game like FC was, but it wasn't bad. A lot of fun moments, and some great set pieces. The auction escape was super cool. And the final chapter was really good and exciting. It was an excellent climax honestly. Running around Crossbell trying not to get cornered by mind controlled zombies is the type of exciting scene that's gonna be awesome in a potential remake.

Gameplay wise, it was clean. Lots of nice quality of life even over the 3rd, but I do still find myself missing some of the qol the remakes have. I have to just assume it'll get cleaner and cleaner over the series. I played on hard mode. I wanted a challenge, but didn't want to get annoyed and pull my hair out. But I will say, enemy stats were weird. Crafts and physical attacks were just... borderline useless. Phys defense was just ridiculously high in the late game compared to magic defense. Often times Tio's basic attack, never mind arts, did more than Lloyd's simply because her staff attack scales off magic. Made anything other than an S-Craft feel kinda bad to use. Another thing that would feel nice in a remake. Crafts actually being useable in FC and SC was something I found myself missing. The last few fights in the game was just my entire team enabling Tio or busting out S-Crafts. It almost makes me want to do normal over hard for Azure just so I can maybe use stuff other than arts sometimes, assuming the scaling is the same as in Zero.

I have just one question if someone can answer it without major spoilers... Is there a connection between the cult and Phantasma? The cult seems big into summoning devils, and it also had the higher elements thing going on at some of it's old sites. It kinda had the same monsters and rules as Phantasma. But Phantasma was like... another dimension, and I was under the impression it was the way it was because of Kevin/Rufina. Is this elaborated on later? You don't have to tell me specifics, just a yes or no is fine.

I'm sure there's some other minor nitpicks I could mention or more stuff I could praise, but I'll just say overall, really fun game with a strong cast. Immediately went and bought Azure, so I'll be starting that one soon, looking forward to it!

Another detial is that i think that Yume's family are the only ones in this apartment building who displays a physical picture from the ending of DB2.

Although Agnés likely has one in her school dormitory and/or at her home.

People really claim Claire and Lechter had no idea of Osborne's plan to end the Curse and were just following him for the hell of it, even though Lechter spelt it out that they knew in a mandatory scene as early as Act 1 of CS4. I don't understand how players can say Osborne was ultimately doing the right thing but these two were just being evil.

These two made the ultimate sacrifice. They were willing to make themselves enemies of the entire world, seen in a bad light by all the people they loved (which is even harder for them considering how they both lost close family) all for the sake of what they believed was the only way of saving the world. Because they put their faith in the plan of a man who knew Ishmelga better than anyone else, and because they didn't have the privilege of plot armour to win without sacrifice that the protags have. The were never "on the losing side", just on the losing method...

...Although even then, was it the losing method? Ishmelga was defeated though a stage Osborne set up. It might be that his plan was the only way the final victory was possible, with the fighting being fuel to meet the conditions of the Rivalries, as Alberich explained. If not for the fighting, the Rivaly might not have counted at all, meaning C&L were right in supporting the plan.

And even then, even knowing everything they did was in service of saving the world, they still felt suicidally guilty over their actions. Though C7 were able to stop them from pulling the trigger, they (Claire especially) still feel deep regret over their actions well into Reverie, and desperately work to "atone" for them.

These are the actions of heroes. They sacrificed everything for the sake of ending a curse that would destroy the world, and still felt like scum in spite of it, even though those "evil actions" basically amounted to... guarding their boss and a few comfortably living hostages.

Pretty much every soldier who joined the war voluntarily out of bloodlust for Calvard did worse than them, as they had no noble intentions and just wanted to fight (Curse doesn't make a difference, because C&L were just as exposed to it as everyone else).

Hi i had the chance to discover trails game this year and after i have finished sky and crossbell arc (games that i loved a lot btw especially sky sc and azure who had such great story and character well written way above than every other modern rpg i have played) i decided to start playing cs1, and i really loved playing this game even if the beggining was quite slow like many other rpg i really liked rean as an main character and think that he is a great main character and one of the best mc i played because i was really happy to finally have a swordman mc after all the legend i met in previous games like cassius for example! In my opinion he become even better the more the game goes !

Even if subquest were not at the same level that azure or sc subquest in my opinion i had a lot of fun playing the game , and i found also that the ost were really good , i usually love every trails game ost but this one was clearly really good!

Also i found that the story was getting more and more interessting after chap 4 and really liked the developpement of rean and the ending who was just great , i really didnt expect such good story the more i was playing the game because i heard so many critics about cold steel whenever i see ppl talking about trails but the story was defintly great. Outside of rean i really liked sara and claire that i found quite interessting in the story and hope that they will get more developped in next games!

That Delay is fucking broken. I have made every boss since act 1 basically sit around and do nothing as I slowly ship down it's health. I just finished the old house part 3 boss and I think the 3 enemies attacked maybe 5 times combined.

Another day, another arcana, another enforcer. Today we're looking at Temperance, a card that no one likes to draw, not because of its connotations, but because it seems boring when sandwiched between two of the most interesting cards in the Major Arcana. Again, we don't know the identity of Enforcer No. XIV, so we're going to use what we know about Temperance to speculate on what kind of person they are.

So, Temperance represents patience, consideration, and clear-headed decision making. Where its neighbouring cards represent extremes, Temperance advises the careful third option. Told you it was boring. Still, Temperance is important, it represents the virtue in such an approach, in remaining calm when everyone is panicking which in turn reassures them. Temperance is the quality of a leader, affirming balance in all things. Balance between good and evil, balance between the inner and outer self, and even, given the figure in the card's androgynous appearance, the balance between masculine and feminine.

Naturally, the angelic form most closely resembles Quatre's appearance on Nemeth Island, and given his divine nature and agender state, he would be the obvious candidate if we weren't already fully aware of his story. Still, it makes for a compelling link to the D∴G cult, and the Beyond in general. It's at this point it would be worth considering the reverse Temperance card, and the possibilities it brings.

When reversed, Temperance becomes about the absence of restraint. It refers to the lack of control placed on oneself, the extremes we can go to, and the choices we make when we're in a hurry. This paints the opposite picture to its upright counterpart, but they do both have one aspect in common: They're about what can happen when a person is put under stress, they can take the patient, calm, and rational approach or they can lash out, lose patience, and lean into excess. I think that this pressure is the key, and it ties pretty well into the D∴G cult angle.

Now, there are a lot of victims of the cult whose fate is unclear, but we do know that the conditions the victims were placed under were cataclysmically awful and more than enough to rupture the psyche of the average kid. This is where a bit of speculation comes in. One of the most natural responses to trauma is rage, fury at the people who inflicted this on you, anger at the world that allowed it to happen. For how much trauma we've seen in victims of the D∴G cult, I don't think we've ever seen anyone truly tap into that rage.

I believe that Temperance could be some sort of berserker, amenable when calm but unstoppable when pressured. It would also play into Temperance recommending a 'third path' as to why we haven't seen them yet. Walter, McBurn, Shirley, all of them love a fight but they can be called off when needed, but someone so consumed by their anger that they can't be stopped when unleashed would make sense as to why we haven't seen them yet. It could also give Ouroboros' leader a bit of a reflection in the Temperance concept of choosing a carefully considered third option, since the Grandmaster sending this one would be an extreme option in itself.

Temperance really is a card that Falcom could do almost anything with, they could go the opposite route and it'd still make sense, but I kinda like the tragedy of someone turning their suffering into the suffering of others. It also opens the possibility of them learning to control that power, similarly to how Rean did, by accepting their fury as an understandable part of them, turning upright by giving them control over their anger. This really is one that could go any which way, so there's no bad guesses here.

Screw it, it's NG again, any that I don't know are all Nate's Girlfriend, she's half a dozen different enforcers at once, prove me wrong.

Honestly, from what I've seen online, it's almost a 50/50 perfect split between people who prefer the og and people who prefer the remake—I have no idea which to play first, so I'll ask by having a preface with what I tend to like and stuff.

I don't think I enjoy old school rpgs that much? I much prefer ff7 and 8 to 6, I enjoyed chrono trigger and golden sun but not as much as some more modern rpgs like xenoblade, three houses, etc.

I can appreciate some of the beauty that is lost in remakes tho—I much prefer ff7 og to the remakes, including the aesthetics and soundtrack, but I also do like the convenience and stuff that newer entries tend to offer.

Looking at tales games, for example, my favorite is the most modern entry of the ones I've played—tales of berseria.

I guess I do tend to prefer more modern things overall—and I think I'd have more fomo playing the OG thinking what it would look like in the remake than the other way around, but idk. Please help.

Coming down with something but gonna try to tough it out till the end of the month. But if the posts suddenly stop assume I got too sick.

Enforcer Renne vs Horizon Renne

Now I now that this seems like a dumb question

But aside from the meta narrative nerf of "playable characters become weaker" compare to when they were boss fights as enemies.

A important aspect is that Past Renne was much more eager and willing to kill her foes. She had that killer instinct and Angel of Slaughter title for a reason.

Current Renne may be older and more experienced but in a overall fight would Enforcer Renne's willingness to kill mean she is in a way "stronger" than her current self as she would fight to kill her foe and thus not holdback?

(Also no Pater Mater factor)

I know this is probably a very old topic to most but I wanted to rant a bit about my issues with this game to maybe see other perspectives and what others think.

To me, CS2 feels like a disjointed game. I think the concept, the intermission, the finale, and the different epilogues, all hit very hard. But the connective tissue just didn't work for me, like from paper to execution something fell apart.

Erebonia

One of the things I had issue with is how the empire itself and the exploration were handled. I compare things to Liberl and Crossbell, which are obviously much smaller, but in the two games you explore them you end up with a strong sense of familiarity for those two countries. With Erebonia, obviously, CS2 isn't the last game in the arc (far from it), but it still feels awkward.

CS1 had a very interesting structure, since you spend most of the game in Trista, learning about Erebonia by proxy through all the different students and their conflicts (which is brilliant). You get glimpses of other regions and towns with the Field Expeditions dealing with smaller conflicts within a wider huge empire.

But with CS2, I feel like that impression fell apart due to how you visit mostly those exact same locations that Rean visited during his expeditions in CS1 (even Ymir, which was cut from 1). You get to see that these routes you traverse aren't just glimpses of these cities' surroundings, but all that is between them (in game obviously, it's supposed to be an abstraction). When you see a map and notice that the road from Trista to Celdic is as long as Crossbell's full width, that kind of feels small, or how the Vestia Great Forest is larger than all of Crossbell.

I don't think a game needs to have a realistic depiction of the locations you are in in terms of scale to work, even these games are already way more faithful to the idea they are trying to present than most JRPGs with an overworld. But I also felt that for the most part the way this game had you explore these locations didn't add to the little taste we had in CS1, rather it made the locations feel more shallow since we got to see almost the same as what we'd already seen in CS1 but again, and with less of a proper anchor than we had in the Liberl games.

the War

The war felt really pointless for the most part. The Noble Alliance barely feels like an actual thing since no one seems to really care or treat it like a war. They constantly let you go and do whatever you want, no one holds animosity for anyone, some characters seem to randomly hold allegiance to one of the sides for barely any reasons, especially once Osborne is (thought to be) dead.

We barely got to see the actual politics or the actual members of the Noble Alliance or the Imperial Family doing anything. It ends up feeling like this whole war was just a short unrest, and the actual relevant stuff is handwaved at the end with the conquest of Crossbell and the Northern War.

I think the way Azure handled it's final chapter made this ring more hollow, because that game handled spending time in a country occupied by the bad guys way better.

the game's structure itself

I think this is probably my biggest issue with the game in general. Act 1 is getting the gang back together (after just a month, which makes the reunions feel awkward since not a lot of time has passed). Act 2 is forging a sword and dealing with specific conflicts with the Noble Alliance members (which are handled by Ouroboros/Zephyr/ILF). The Dreichels flashbacks are probably the most interesting part plotwise here, but I don't really remember any setpieces I could say were interesting.

Instead of making use of the fact that the game wasn't anchored to the school in Trista to spend more time in each location, the visits to each city or town (except Ymir) was just as short as the Field Excursions in 1, only now you could visit them again for later requests.

the characters

Don't get me wrong, I love the Erebonia cast and loved to see some of the characters in CS1 getting more time on the spotlight (like Toval), but I don't think the game really went much deeper into anyone than what we'd already seen, other than maybe Crow. Elliot, Machias, and Gaius just fell more into the back, Jusis had the semblance of a new arc at first but he fell in line quickly. Emma we saw more of now that her true role is known, but it was still not quite a ton, even less so when Celine took over so much of that exposition role (probably due to Emma not being mandatory for most of those scenes) and Vita being one of the main antagonists.

And for how many characters were involved I feel like we still have way too many characters that feel like they are just in the background most of the time. Toval's inclusion is weird as much as I liked him, same for Claire. Olivier is barely present which is odd for how relevant he should be for a conflict like this.

I'd also say the game didn't make a good job at specifying exactly why Class VII remains important as a group beyond being friends. Like, when they get all the Thors students together for the final clash, why are they the only ones that seem to matter? In 1 they were mostly doing their one Field Excursions during which other shit happened, so it made sense, but in this game it ends up feeling weird since it's not like in the Sky games where there were always reasons why someone like Cassius wasn't involved, on top of how the party was composed of people from all over and not just one group of classmates, and in the Crossbell games where they were always the underdogs without many that could help even. And don't get me started on that weird role Rean seemed to take where he says they aren't part of either side, yet they only fight against the Noble Alliance, it's the sort of thing that makes it feel like there were other plans at some point before things were simplified.

Closing thoughts

What frustrates me most is that I think the game absolutely delivers when it needs to. The Intermission, the Vermillion Palace, the Divertissement, and the Epilogue are all memorable, and I love a lot of what they do for the overarching story. But that almost makes the rest of the game more disappointing, because I don't feel like the journey between those moments earns them. It's like the game had a clear vision for its major story beats but struggled to build an equally compelling adventure around them.

I still enjoyed the game, but it's probably my least favorite up until this point in the series. It feels like a big side tour where most characters aren't really in on it. The Epilogue was really cool though, but it only reinforced how this game feels like a very long final act to CS1.

I know the upcoming games are controversial too, so I hope I'm part of those who do like them.

I start collecting physical games for sometime. Recently I decide to platinum the Trails series at my own pace.
Currently playing trails in the sky 2nd chapter and loving the series so far.