| Is this bait? I'll bite Cold Steel has its fair share of problems, I agree but its nowhere near as bad as you're making it out to be. The characters are generic yes, but they're not badly executed in my opinion. The start with Alisa is a very disliked aspect of the game so I'll give that to you. The trails series is a series that take place in the content of Zemuria and all the games and stories are interconnected. The world building of cold steel is incredible, the NPC have their own life in a way that's unique to trails, the combat is fun although it can be trivialised if you know what you're doing. It's a slow game, so if that's not your thing then I'm afraid the games aren't for you. It's not like Persona where you play a game and it's done. The trails series requires time put into it, to understand whats going on in the world and why. Rean is over hated often because he's misunderstood and he's DEFINITELY not a self insert. Like I said, the games have several problems and people generally think that it's the weakest arc out of Sky, Crossbell and the new Kuro, but you're blowing it way out of proportion. Maybe it's just not your type of game. It's a slow paced game, where world building takes focus. If you're not into that then the series is not for you |
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RomanSolomon said: I always saw people said the worldbuilding is great The Trails fanboys conflated a long running continuity and lots of NPC dialogue with great worldbuilding. Personally I found the actual setting to be overall disinteresting. Only interesting parts about it are the airships factoring into war, and Erebonia's history. That being said, the strong continuity is a plus, IMO. I know the dialogue change if you talk with people but...is really worth my time? I'd say yes for the Thors student NPCs as you see them throughout the entire Quadtrilogy. I wouldn't bother keeping up with the other NPCs. Rean is a “self Insert” without a doubt. Very generic design. Dense and blank personality. I wouldn't say he's a "blank personality". He does have a personality; it just isn't in vogue for Western tastes who view traditional good guys as boring. The Western audience hated Kira Yamato for similar reasons while the Japanese loved him. Yes I hate Alisa. Is my least favorite of the main girls, especially when compared to Laura and Towa, but not awful. Look the Old School House. Why don’t make something memorable like HP and The Chamber of Secrets for example. The Old School House is a filler dungeon that exists to break up the pacing, otherwise the first half of a chapter set at a school would be like 5+ continuous hours of downtime. I have argued before that the Old School House should have been more fleshed out, ie ghost NPCs in it to talk to or ancient computers to boot up and read. The Trails games could be improved in a variety of ways, but alas Falcom has a corporate mandate to shove a game out the door once a year every year regardless of whether they are ready or not, so the games are never as good as they could have been with extra time in the oven. And the field studies are the same formula over and over. Formulas aren't bad. The field studies establish the setting, the characters, and the conflict before it begins proper. I did think that the chapters 5 and 6 were a little too long, though. The same generic quests I found in every JRPG Trails's sidequests are a little more interesting than your typical JRPG, such as changing out the lights on an Orbal Lamp that keeps monsters away from a highway, or using a dog to follow a culprit's scent. but this time there’s a lot of text to justify it like Genshin Impact. If you don't like long winded games, then you shouldn't be playing modern JRPGs. Play short, old games like Suikoden 1. And the gameplay is...whatever. It’s too much easy and very slow. I thought CS1 and CS2 had one of the most enjoyable turn based combat systems I've played in a JRPG, and I've played dozens and dozens of JRPGs (let alone WRPGs). You have a little of different ways you can meaningfully build your characters. Link attacks spruce up the monotony of turn based combat. The monster designs are bad (this is a Ys problem too) They're overall okay and several of them were quite memorable, IMO, like the Creepy Sheep, the Death Wheels, the snakes wrapped around eggs, etc.  none of them even tried to sell a great story but lied and fill my time with crap. Avoid modern Atelier, Persona, Fire Emblem, and Tales games while you're at it. Can’t say anything about Sky, Crossbell or this Kuro but I will prefer to not play them cause I had too much already. Thanks for trying out the series. Hope you find something you like. :) Unravel_Ghoulx said: The fact you didn’t play any of the prequels when this is an overarching plot is hilarious. After CS4, I could not in good conscience recommend the Trails games based off of the merit of the "overarching plot". After 11 games and 1,000+ hours of playtime, the Ouroboros storyline has gone absolutely nowhere. And the world war storyline that had been built up since FC ended in anticlimax and the reset button being hit because the writers pussied out and were unwilling to have towns be burned and characters hate and kill each other. Yes, there is strong continuity but ultimately each arc is about its own original characters, not past characters, so you're not missing much by skipping prior games. These are also incredibly lengthy games and telling people that they have to slog through 500+ hours of games they might not even enjoy as a prerequisite to playing the game they wanted to check out in the first place is irresponsible. I can only recommend individual Trails games based off of their merit, that being the Trails in the Sky trilogy and the first two Cold Steel games. If you finished those and are really desperate to play more Trails, then sure, check out Crossbell and CS3 and CS4. Otherwise, your time would be better spent playing other games or doing something else. |
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