The Legend of Heroes: Trails of General Discussion

[Kazin]

Trails from Zero released today on Steam, Switch, and PS4 for $39.99, and while I haven't played the game itself yet (I'll do so after work), I installed it and messed around with the options, which are great! Not only can you change button prompts in game to either be Keyboard/Mouse, Xbox, or Dualshock, you can even make them the actual Steam Deck icons, which is lovely! More importantly, though... THEY LET YOU MAKE IT SO BATTLES ONLY OCCUR IF THE LEADER IS TOUCHED BY AN ENEMY, NOT THE REST OF THE PARTY (if you want)! Absolutely wonderful quality of life feature, there, imo. Can't wait to dig into this later...

 

[Sprite]

From what I understand, QOL upgrades are part of the Switch and Steam versions but NOT the PS4 version.

 

[Kazin]

Oh wow, that's weird as heck, I wonder why that is?

 

[Sprite]

The PS4 version is a straight localization of the 2020 remaster but the other versions were contracted out to a modder who gussied them up.

I’m also actually not sure which QOL upgrades each version has, only that the Steam and Switch versions are considered superior and prettier. Weird stuff.

 

[Sprite]

Oof my Amazon order was delayed until late October so I'm scrambling to find the game somewhere else. Hopefully the order I put in at Gamestop goes through!

In anticipation of Zero I finally powered through the end of Cold Steel III after burning out two years ago (!) and... the harem aspects of this franchise are reaaally starting to grate on me. This thread has gone into this issue before, but these games definitely have problematic aspects vis a vis sex, in all the typical and tiresome ways. It is annoying to see everyone pester Rean constantly about how he surely must want to fuck all of his classmates and his teachers and his students and his sister. What's particularly frustrating is that Rean reads as more or less asexual to me, because the game doesn't want to favor one love interest over another, so the teasing just comes off as harassment. And of course every woman in the world wants to fuck Rean, because he's a harem protagonist, no matter how dull he is.

I don't know if the issue is going to drag things down completely for me - I'm super excited to dig into Zero - but it's definitely a problem that only seems to get worse as the franchise moves forward, and from what I've read, Kuro has some pretty nasty stuff in it. We'll see. These games still work great as comfort food and I love the political melodrama, but the shine is definitely coming off the further into Cold Steel I get.

 

[Kazin]

Ugh, I wonder what the bad stuff you've heard about Kuro is - I've been hoping the future games would tone the harem crap down, even if I think it's unlikely they will... I want to check out Calvard without creepy shit, please!

Zero/Azure are not as bad as the Cold Steel series, but the harem stuff is still there (it's worse in Azure, but still nowhere near CS).

 

[Sprite]

I’m pretty vague on details, and this is all random Redditors so as far as I know it could just all be lies. But it sounds like Kuro has kinda regressive views about sex work while simultaneously indulging in gazey exploitation of sex workers and women in general. Apparently there’s an event called the “Foxy Parade” with women in skimpy clothing and you try to convince a female character (I think a cop?) to be in it for what I’m sure are very important plot-related reasons, and after she says no, you go behind her back and get her supervisor to recruit her.

Again that’s all randos on Reddit so I’ve no actual idea if it’s true, but I wouldn’t be surprised. Apparently Kuro underperformed so if anything I’m expecting the bad habits to get worse in order to hold on to the audience.

 

[Kazin]

Yep, sounds like it's just going to get worse, damn it.

 

[Kazin]

Beat Trails from Zero last night. Had a good time with it - I liked it better this time around than the first time, though I liked it that time too. I still think the game hits much better if you've played the Sky trilogy, though. Yes, it's possible to enjoy it without having done so, but I think it's much more enjoyable knowing beforehand who a lot of the side characters are, and their backstories.

 

[Yimothy]

I’m playing Trails from Zero, very slowly because of my pathological inability to not wander around to every NPC each time the dialogue changes and see what they’ve got to say (mostly nothing of interest). Big fan of the high speed mode.

I’m enjoying the game, but I reckon I’d be enjoying it more if, for example, the chef in the cafe would talk about something other than female customers, or if the star dancer didn’t grope her colleague, or if Lloyd didn’t keep questioning whether his female colleagues were up to their job. I’ve noticed a lot of the sexism in the game gets called out by other characters, which I feel sort of makes it worse - the authors knew it was dodgy and put it in anyway.

 

[Sprite]

Half of this series is fun political melodrama and the other half is falling over and touching a boob repeatedly for 80 hours.

 

[Kazin]

Trails of Reverie comes out July 7th, 2023 in English for Switch, PS4/PS5, and PC. Trailer:

 

[upupdowndown]

I was playing Trails to Azure and enjoying it a lot - and then I got to the first of the final bosses

an unfun mechanically boring slog

I spoiled myself and looked up the other bosses and they all had gimmicky BS, so... I can just watch the ending on YouTube

 

[Sprite]

I’m only one chapter into Zero.

I’m also only one chapter into Cold Steel IV.

When Reverie comes out I’ll have four massive RPGs to catch up on D:

 

[upupdowndown]

I am both really looking forward to Reverie and also mildly dreading managing over 50 characters

I'm really glad that the Kuro no Kiseki games cut back on the cast bloat - Kuro I has 8 total playable characters, apparently

another breath of fresh air for the series: Van Arkride, the lead of the Kuro series, is 24 in the first game. So I'm excited to get a Trails lead who's a full adult.

hopefully we'll hear soon about the release window for Kuro I's English localization and get what the official title will be!

 

[Sprite]

I’m contemplating maaaybe jumping ship after Reverie, because these games crowd out all other RPGs in my life. If I kept up with them I’d basically never play anything else.

Who knows, though, I go between stalling for years on these games and then downing 50-80 hours in like two weeks.

 

[upupdowndown]

for me, I make the time because there's just really nothing else like Trails in terms of scope or worldbuilding

 

[Yimothy]

I’ve been playing Trails to Azure, got up to the sexual harassment scene in the first mandatory quest. There was a time this kind of garbage would have been cut during localisation, and the game would be better for it.

I think this kind of thing was frontloaded in Zero, I hope that’s the case here too and I won’t be seeing more of it.

 

[Yimothy]

I finished Azure and have now jumped straight into Cold Steel on Vita. It’s maybe unfair to say because I’m coming off a gussied up port with a fast forward option, but CS feels like a step backwards in terms of interface. The camera feels too close and I keep getting caught on scenery walking around, plus everything has load times. Even skipping battle animations has a pause after you do it. I’ve been spoilt by the zippiness of Crossbell on switch.

After playing Azure following a guide for all the hidden stuff (which was supposed to make me get through it faster by stopping me going around talking to every NPC at every juncture), the plan this time is no guides, I’ll miss what content I may. But I say that at the start of a lot of games.

 

[JBear]

which was supposed to make me get through it faster by stopping me going around talking to every NPC at every juncture

To each their own, of course, but for me this is one of the big draws of the Trails games. I love that all of the NPCs have their own little stories and lives that advance with the plot, and love touring the world to check up on everyone and see what's new.

 

[Yimothy]

I am still doing that, just to be clear, but I do kind of wish I were the sort of person who just charges from plot trigger to plot trigger and could complete a game like these in less than 80 hours.

 

[Yimothy]

Three months since my last post in this thread and I’m still playing the first Cold Steel (I have played other games in that time). I’m on the second day of the chapter six field study, so pretty close to the end, I think, probably only another dozen or two hours to go. I’ve been playing without any guides but pretty completionisty - I’m talking to every NPC after every event, doing all the quests, trying to make every recipe and so on. I’m not going to get full AP because I’m making my own decisions in dialogue - in particular I did pretty poorly in the school exams - but I think I’ve picked up every hidden quest, all the books, and whatever else so far. What I’m less sure of is if it’s worth it. I’ll keep going with it for this game because of sunk cost, but the plan for CS2 is to run directly from each cutscene to the next unless something particularly catches my interest. Enough.

Even however many hours into this game I am I kind of don’t understand its orbment system. Each character’s quartz slots seem to be grouped, but I don’t know what benefit there is in having particular quartz grouped. I know they in the earlier games which spells you got derived from how many points of each type you had in a group, but in CS so far as I can tell you just get whatever arts the quartz has. Anyway, despite my ignorance I’m having no trouble with most battles and the few times I have gotten stuck the solution has been status resisting accessories, so I haven’t been motivated to understand the system better.

Also on the subject of ignorance, I got pretty far into this game before finally figuring out that the titular trails of cold steel are the railway tracks.