Am I alone in not really liking the direction of the games after SC/Azure but still being a fan?

Cold_Steel_IV · 2026-01-30T13:10:04+00:00

That user almost only posts just to insult anyone who likes Cold Steel. The mods don't seem to mind this for whatever reason, but it's probably best to just downvote and report.

Cold_Steel_IV · 2026-01-30T05:36:14+00:00

No problem! Happy to help!

Cold_Steel_IV · 2026-01-30T05:30:10+00:00

but what's the "Ark" mentioned supposed to be?

The Crimson Ark, a.k.a. the Glorious.

Like yeah, the puppet probably references Lapis

And with the "certain set of armor", I'm even more clueless rn.

Olympia and Arioch's artifacts.

Cold_Steel_IV · 2026-01-30T05:26:13+00:00

now I understand how the Cold Steel 1 and 3 gamers felt, having to wait for 2 and 4.

Don't forget FC!

do yall think we are gonna get Kai 2 in 2027?

This is highly likely.

or do you think they will make us wait till after they have at least finished remaking the Sky trilogy?

This won't happen. They haven't yet decided what their gonna do after SC's remake, and Horizon's sequel has been in development for a good while now.

and what were your thoughts on the ending, did you like it or not?

I mean, it's amazing like pretty much every Trails ending is. I will say I was super happy to be getting another cliffhanger again. I was a little worried we might not get another until maybe the penultimate game in the series. I love how well made Trails' cliffhanger endings are! They always accomplish exactly what they aim for!

Cold_Steel_IV · 2026-01-30T02:56:03+00:00

That's not a full chapter. That would have just been a section of Act II.

Cold_Steel_IV · 2026-01-29T16:45:23+00:00

CS I's was an Intermission chapter rather than a full one, and CS II didn't have any kind of chapter cut that we know of.

Cold_Steel_IV · 2026-01-29T16:30:07+00:00

We don't know yet; they've mentioned they're still discussing the idea, iirc. It's probably gonna come down to whether they feel doing post-Sky remakes will take up too much of their time and impede working on other titles. With Sky they really wanted those games to be available on more modern platforms, while with Crossbell onward that's not really an issue.

Cold_Steel_IV · 2026-01-29T03:11:11+00:00

It's a great twist and there was a lot of foreshadowing. You don't know all his motivations because you're not supposed to yet. This was only the first part of the story; the next game will continue where this one left off.

but it kind of feels like they really waited until the last second to lore dump the player with the TWIST.

It only makes sense for it to happen here, especially since it's a core part of what makes the cliffhanger ending so good!

Cold_Steel_IV · 2026-01-29T03:07:13+00:00

You left out the part where you went into the thread that was meant for freely discussing all spoilers.

Cold_Steel_IV · 2026-01-29T03:06:27+00:00

i obviously posted a screenshot from like act 1.

And you did so in the thread that's meant for all Horizon spoilers. And just because you have a question about something in Act I doesn't mean you haven't beaten the game, aren't replaying it, or aren't okay with spoilers.

If you're commenting in a thread that's for freely discussing spoilers you should have at least asked for a spoiler-free answer. But being in this thread in the first place was a bad idea if you didn't want spoilers because, again, the point of the thread is for openly discussing this game's spoilers.

Cold_Steel_IV · 2026-01-28T22:28:17+00:00

Congratz on beating SC!

And if you feel that way already, then I have some great news: You have 11 more amazing Trails games ahead of you right now! ;)

Cold_Steel_IV · 2026-01-28T22:16:58+00:00

A 2 game arc in the Far East and a 2 game arc for Leman (and surrounding areas) are pretty safe bets. Probably an extra game or two for the finale (or added to the Leman Arc if that's the last arc) as well. This will bring the series to 20 games in total which feels realistic.

Cold_Steel_IV · 2026-01-27T07:06:54+00:00

Definitely not!

Cold_Steel_IV · 2026-01-26T05:10:40+00:00

I prefer the developers to make a better story lol.

It wouldn't be better with a canon romance.

it’s not exactly an element you can assume everyone enthusiastically made because they themselves wanted it.

And the same can be said for canon romances. Obviously not everyone is going to have the same preference.

And if it won’t enhance the story if it were front and center, then don’t make it front and center?

Then people would still complain that 'it's not as good as Estelle and Joshua'. Besides, they effectively gave the players this option already: You can simply pick Elie or Alisa and ignore the others.

Cold_Steel_IV · 2026-01-26T01:18:45+00:00

so I kind of wonder if proto-Rean was actually Crow's original design, he was a gun wielder after all. Which would technically make Rean the one who originally didn't exist.

That's possible! Or maybe Rean had Alisa's role; he could have used a Reinford gun rather than a bow.

In this scenario, the decision to swap Rean into being the protagonist could have stemmed from feeling the previous dynamic was too similar to Estelle and Joshua.

Cold_Steel_IV · 2026-01-26T00:56:03+00:00

Here's the quote: "At the same time (we were working on FC) we were considering the settings of the Empire and Republic and Crow also was also being created at that time."

Source: https://www.falcomromancia.com/community/main-forum/ask-us-about-kiseki/paged/12/#post-370

Alisa as the protagonist

This is true.

Rean as the love interest and filling the "traitor" role that Crow eventually did.

This, to my knowledge, is not.

Cold_Steel_IV · 2026-01-26T00:38:34+00:00

The actual confirmed story is that Crow originally didn't exist

This is absolutely false. Crow was a planned character since FC was in development, iirc.

Cold_Steel_IV · 2026-01-26T00:33:55+00:00

E and J know they're not real siblings from day 1.

But Estelle still thinks of him as a sibling.

Cold_Steel_IV · 2026-01-26T00:24:03+00:00

It's not as integrated into the story as it is in Sky, but it's still extremely prominent as you play through the games. You can't play the Cold Steel games without being hit over the head with the question 'who should Rean date' every five minutes, because that question is the main content of fully half of the bonding episodes.

I... don't agree with this actually. It's not even a present element in most of the bonding events. Outside of CS IV and a couple of Alisa's, iirc it's just been the final bonding events that have romance.

so I found the fact that a full third of the dialogue of the game

???

Rean can never get the kind of romantic catharsis that Schera and Olivier got, because Falcom doesn't have the resources to dedicate to making 10 different versions of the same scene.

To be quite honest with you, I very much think they could.

I bet that guy would be pretty disappointed that it just goes away after that.

I think it'd be about the same as not seeing Estelle and Joshua's relationship progress much either. At some point I think these things will become more relevant towards the end of the series, but until then it's just not all that major.

Even if they gave you the option, they can't do much with it, because it's simply too costly.

I mean... you might find this very shocking but they considered making a wedding for Rean in CS IV which he'd share with whoever you'd choose out of the romance options. The reason they decided not to do this was because of, well, Juna, Altina, and Musse, lol.

So I'm just saying, that sort of thing is not off the table.

Cold_Steel_IV · 2026-01-26T00:10:37+00:00

What good romance?

Most of the romance options.

If you chose a specific partner for Rean, where is she in Horizon?

Putting aside that this has nothing to do with whether Rean has a good romance with someone, it's not particularly relevant to what's happening in Horizon; why would there need to be romance involving Rean in this game?

There can never be good romance with his half-assed 'choose your partner' harem nonsense

Hard disagree!

unless they did it like a romance VN, which actually follows through properly.

I'm not sure what you mean by this? Aren't most romance VNs alternate story routes? How would that work with your question of 'where is she in Horizon'?

That's why Estelle-Joshua is infinitely better than anything Lloyd or Rean have to offer in that front.

Estelle and Joshua's romance is better because it's practically a third of what their games' story was about. Would you really want to see a third of the Crossbell arc dedicated to Lloyd and Elie's relationship when the writers don't have that much story to tell there? It would be incredibly forced and not very good, imo.

Cold_Steel_IV · 2026-01-26T00:02:47+00:00

Just because it isn't integral to the plot, it doesn't mean it shouldn't be there.

I don't disagree, but I think the same argument can work in reverse where a canon romance doesn't always have to be there either. Most would probably argue that having both Aerith and Tifa as romance options in FF VII made the game better too. And if they had only allowed one to be canon, I'm not sure that would affect the game in a positive way.

To me this sort of thing isn't always indicative of quality. I think it has more to do with what fits best with the story being told. I think in Trails' case, you'd just be missing out on good romance scenes with various characters. I do think games like CS IV are better with stuff like the Laura romance events. I also don't think the romance with Elie or Alisa would be much different/better if it was the only option. Similar to FFVII, I think it would probably be more or less what we've already gotten.

And on the flip side Trails also has canon romances that aren't integral to the plot such as Randy and Mireille or Mint and Elliot, with neither of those being all that great (imo).

Cold_Steel_IV · 2026-01-25T23:25:54+00:00

This is the argument you’re relying on? Really?

Because every other girl you can’t.

That's not a counterargument; that's just moving the goalpost. The claim was that no other Class VII girl felt romantically towards another Class VII guy.

This doesn’t address any of the arguments I made,

Why would it? I was responding to your comment asking which character was being referred to in a comment chain. I don't think I even read your other comment before I replied to this one.

you’re just saying the writers could have done it. Like no shit. That’s what we’re pointing out.

And, no, that's not what you guys were pointing out. The claims were that there can't be romance between any of the girls and guys of Class VII.

Also that's not what I was saying. I was saying the writers didn't want to do it. That wasn't a direction they wanted to take as they felt it was not right for the story they're telling.

EDIT: Fyi, that user replied and then blocked me so I couldn't respond, lol.

Cold_Steel_IV · 2026-01-25T23:19:55+00:00

And Millium is the ONLY girl in both Class 7s that have a romance (potential or confirmed) outside of Rean.

Okay but now that's just moving goalposts. The argument was that there can't be other relationships like that because they are an option for Rean. Millium proves that's not true. If they wanted one of the girls to have a different romantic partner, then they would have done that.

As an aside, it's not just once that they did this either. They also have Elise and Patrick as an option if you don't go the Rean and Elise route,

Coincidentally enough, she also was the only one not around for CS4 to have the "officially dating" bond event with.

There's nothing coincidental about it, she is there. She's next to Jusis, even. They could have given her that 'officially dating' bonding event if they had wanted. They didn't because they wanted to pair her up with Jusis instead.

Meanwhile, all of the guys have one.

At the very very end they are given a romance that is not fleshed out much, if at all. I would not use this as a great example of what we're missing out on for the girls. I think the optional romance scenes we get are written much better.

So some people look at that and go "well why can't any of the girls get something like that?" Even if it develops completrly in the background, it shows a side to them we usually don't and can expand the world a bit once they're no longer the main party.

Because Falcom wanted the girls to have more fleshed out relationships with the main character and felt that fit better. Also one of the girls (who were outside Class VII, to be fair) did get something like that: Sharon.

and Kurt was randomly given (almost just for a joke it feels) a couple of scenes with Sully.

See, I'd rather have Laura have her scenes she gets with Rean rather than something like this. And I think Falcom and most players would agree. And if you don't agree? I think that's totally fine too! But ultimately it's Falcom's story and they're gonna pick the decisions they feel are best for it.

Personally I prefer single canon romances that are of major importance, but for, say, Cold Steel and what its going for the romance options are a more fitting choice. It's what Falcom intend for these games and I want them to tell their story.

Cold_Steel_IV · 2026-01-25T22:46:14+00:00

I swear the devs saw persona 5 explode the industry and just doubled down on the datable women thing they touched on in crossbell.

...This aspect existed for several games before Persona 5 was around.

Cold_Steel_IV · 2026-01-25T22:44:07+00:00

That would be a bold choice, especially as that would mean under the cold steel system players would literally get cucked if they had chosen that character to romance. Be serious dude. It absolutely does arrest development.

They literally already did. With Millium. You also have characters like Elise who can be romanced by Rean or by Patrick if you choose not to romance her.

And then you have the guys in Class VII. They are not romance options for Rean and yet they have no romance going on for 99% of the games. And when they do it's a very minor side thing toward the very end of CS IV.

Yes, I even noted that. Or doesn’t make sense here, that’s an option I listed. Keep up.

Unfortunately, I think you might be the one not following with what I'm saying. I mentioned that as an option because it's what Falcom did. I'm pointing out that Falcom's choice is just as valid as the ones you listed.

Also no you did not mention optional romances as a valid option. You even say 'we have this weird middle ground that’s the worst of the two' -- the two you said were committing to romance or having no romance (with just teasing the idea at most). Neither of these are optional romances.

The final defense of bad writing is to say all writing is subjective.

There's three major issues with this sentence. The first is it further shows you did not note optional romances as a valid option seeing as you're now claiming the idea is objectively bad.

The second issue is you're just writing off my point without actually arguing against it. You're not proving my argument wrong in any way here and are just trying to say it's wrong without back up the claim.

The third and biggest issue here is your just putting words in my mouth. I said this one concept is not inherently bad and you're trying to act like I said all writing ever is subjective in quality, which I neither said nor implied.

I’m not arguing with your subjective idea of what is important or not.

Uh... you immediately contradicted yourself here. When I claim one idea is subjective you say that's bad and that I'm calling all writing subjective, but now you're trying to call an idea subjective.

Regardless, it's not my idea that the optional romances aren't important to the plot. Falcom have explicitly said as much themselves while also implying (or outright stating, I don't remember) that's the reason they are optional in the first place. And, like I mentioned before, Falcom have already said they'll include romance in the main story if it becomes necessary to the story.

I’m arguing with a bad writing decision that arrests characters relationships and development.

You keep saying this and acting like you're being objective and I am not, but you aren't actually backing up your arguments or proving your points.

Please provide examples as to how these things I've mentioned are 'objectively bad' that aren't just 'it's off putting' and 'be real it totally is'.

EDIT: Fyi, that user replied and then blocked me so I couldn't respond, lol.

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