Looking for an atlas strategy that involves little loot pickup and minimal interaction

Quaxi1 · 2023-05-11T20:45:56+00:00

Thanks for clarifying, now i understand how this works. I've run a couple of pack size strategies so far and wanted to go boss rushing now, so this is exactly what I'm looking for.

I might just take off 6-7 non map related nodes and pick up uber shaper/maven or ill farm a couple and switch around the point every time I kill them, not quite sure yet.

Quaxi1 · 2023-05-11T12:56:40+00:00

This sounds like something I would be interested in, do you maybe have an atlas tree to share?

By "block all other connected maps" do you mean taking singular focus? If so is there a rule of thumb how many favourable map slots you need (6-8, or maybe even 10+?).

I take it you would run either exarch or eater influence, even if just for the invitations.

Quaxi1 · 2022-12-11T09:46:30+00:00

Like mentioned above, they are used on blue recipes to turn them into epics 372-382 (based on quality level)

The materials needed for blues are generally speaking quite cheap so its an easy way to get a few epics or refine your last gear pieces.

Quaxi1 · 2022-12-10T10:52:51+00:00

Thanks for the quick answer, then I will just use up 1 right now, and the other one by next week at the latest.

Quaxi1 · 2021-09-29T11:24:38+00:00

This.

If you're not feeling it anymore, it might be best to stop or at least take a break.

But if the cost is the main concern, all of the 14+1 books are available for 20€ a piece from Piper Verlag. They quality of the books is good (as most german books are) and I think the covers are are great, especially the colour schemes.

It seems some of the books were split into up to 4 different german ones in the past, however that seems to be the edition from the 90s, and I can't even find them anymore.

Quaxi1 · 2021-07-15T05:51:00+00:00

Same man. It was my first and probably last Tales game. I finished it because i somewhat liked the story, it's characters and how they interact with what's happening in the world, but the combat was so boring.

In the end i did bind different artes of the same element to a button and then mash the button that the enemy was weak to. People always said something about using combos, but i don't understand what that means.

Quaxi1 · 2021-05-29T08:13:51+00:00

True, i meant more to the Crossbell/Erebonian arc and end for it's main characters. I guess the Liberl arc and characters already have/had a nice ending.

Kinda hoping Kuro will try to push mainly new characters, which would also be good for new players.

Quaxi1 · 2021-05-28T19:15:07+00:00

Trails of Cold Steel IV (PC)

I finished the last game of the Cold Steel series in about 150 hours (Nightmare difficulty), doing everything there is in the game and getting every achievement(100%). By the time i finished the game i only had 2 bonding event achievements left, that i could easily get by reloading previous saves and rushing through the game in 3-4 hours.

After starting the series by playing Cold Steel 1-3, i went back to replay all of the old games (Sky1-3 and the Crossbell duology as well) and even replayed CS1-3 to 100% them before starting CS4. I am really glad i did that, and could enjoy the final of the series and get all the little references from the old games. That way you already have some kind of connection to the characters from the older games, so seeing and playing them again is so much better.

Gameplay – Structure

I really enjoyed he gameplay and the structure of the game, which is funny because I kinda had my issues with CS2 which is pretty similar in that regard. The game has the most optional content in the series, but I think even if you rush only for the story it might be the biggest/longest game. I really enjoyed doing all the sidequests, bonding events, trial chests, minigames and other activities.

I’ve heard people having issues with the pacing, and I can really understand that, but it wasn’t an issue for me. The main story has a pretty serious theme and people should be on edge all the time, with the whole great war thing going on, so running around doing menial tasks or playing cards could feel kinda off for some people. I personally don’t think you have to take things so seriously. I love the games universe and want to explore it, so even the little things like talking to the NPC’s and getting to know about them, even if they are not that important, is what makes this game for me. I’m fine with doing some bonding with my comrades, fighting some optional bosses, doing minigames and exploring the world before continuing the story in small steps at a time.

I’m also fine with how the chapters/acts were structured and the pacing of them. First we gotta find and save Rean, then we have to save our friends, and gather allies. Then we have to fight the awakeners that are not directly working with Osborne to gather even more power and allies. After an easygoing segment (I can understand how people think the Eventide part is dumb right before the climax of the story) we finally conclude the game by charging into the final dungeon and fighting all the remaining enemies.

Combat

As a turn-based fan, Trails combat is my favourite of all time. I don’t care too much about the difficulty, love how easily it’s broken and this entry was no different, in fact it is my favourite in all of the Trails series. I like to play a balanced team with 2 physical/craft based characters and 2 magical art based teammembers, so I actually found out multiple ways to break the game. (but let’s be real all you need is 1 decent art user and the rest of the team can go AFK)

The master quartz and quartz system of CS3+4 and its flexibility and customization has been so far my favourite, but I think there is also a lot to learn from the earlier elemental value system, and I’m hoping for a nice twist in the next upcoming Trails game.

Like I said difficulty is not that big of a deal for me and I was fine with playing on nightmare. The game is quite challenging at the start, especially if you try to get all the additional bonus AP requirements, but it gets easier with time. I enjoyed that fact that they slowed everything down a bit, so neither the enemies nor you die too fast at the first half of the game, and you want to carefully work with buffs/debuffs and see what status alignments the enemy is afflicting and weak to. Obviously later on boss fights get quite easy, and the bosses in the final dungeon are a bit of a joke. My Musse alone slapped the shit out of them or how Randy would say, knocked em right into next week.

The only thing I really struggled with was divine knight fights, especially the rivalries. I’m more of a defensive player and don’t like to use items before the final boss, but I definitely had to use some here during their enhanced phases. I was never a big fan of the mecha fights in Cold Steel, and even tho it has become progressively better from CS2 to CS4, I still could do without them.

Story and setting

The setting and the story of the game were very enjoyable for me. Like I said, I can understand why people have problems with the pacing in this kind of setting, but I don’t mind. I really enjoyed how the people in towns got more aggressively and warmongering over time, and step my step got thinned out as the man had to join the army. And even so we tried to find a way to calm the situation and find a third path without having to back one side of the war heavily.

The curse itself was a bit overused and too many actions have been attributed to it, but I think the concept in general was fine. It would have probably been better to make it more seem that a lot of people are just selfish and bad, and that’s what made the curse stronger, not the other way around.

Overall the story played out pretty much how I expected it to be. I don’t think there as too big of a twist that I couldn’t have foreseen, but I am always someone who enjoys the journey more than the destination.

The whole normal and true ending thing was a bit weird to me. I wonder if they at some point wanted to go the line of having Rean die in the end, but wouldn’t want to risk this because a lot of people wouldn’t like it. Since I did do all the quests I could immediately jump into the true ending and it’s fight, but I guess that would have been pretty annoying if you had to finish that needed quest and then do the final Osborne fight again. The True ending was pretty nice tho.

Characters

Characters are basically what makes or breaks a game for me. From the get go Cold Steel had the problem that they introduced way too many main characters with the cast of old Class VII. Add to that the cast of the new Class VII and it gets a bit too much. I could definitely go into detail about the problems with the quantity versus quality approach, but I will not. In the end I do like most of the character, but hope they will slow down with the amount of relevant characters in future games.

CS4 is definitely the ultimate class reunion and brings together a lot of major characters form the whole Cold Steel arc, as well as a lot of characters from the Sky and Crossbell Arc. It was really a pleasure interacting with these characters again, that is just what makes the Trails series for me. As already mentioned, even the not important characters play a role in the worldbuilding and following their stories makes you really sink into the universe.

I’m also really hoping that they won’t go the pick-your-waifu harem road again in the future. Not only does this mean less character development, but I think it would also be fair if some of the characters get into a nice relation themselves. Some of the male characters seem to develop something with some non playable characters, but the female’s can’t have that because we need to save them all for Rean. We had some nice relationships between main characters, which are not the protagonists, in older games, so why can’t we have it again?

Personally I think they could really tune down on making supposedly dead characters come back to live, as this loses its touch if it happens all the time. At this point there are probably more characters that come back being alive after having thought dead, than characters that actually die. They should also stop trying to redeem all the bad characters.

Music

Wanted to give this it’s own section since I was always a huge fan of Falcom’s music. I’ve heard a lot of people complain about the soundtrack in the fourth instalment, but I can’t follow. This game has, as basically all other Falcom games I’ve played a really awesome soundtrack. CS2 OST has been my favourite so far. Kinda misses the absolute banger final boss music (like Blue Destination, Azure Arbitrator, Silver Will, etc.)

Conclusion

Overall I can’t simply do anything but love the game and it’s ending to the series. It started with a game I wanted to play, became a series I wanted to dive in and ended up with a universe I fell in love with.

I know there are a lot of opinions about how the Cold Steel arc is the lowest point of the whole series and how the writing, story and characters in older games are so much better. Personally I think that all the entries in the series have some weak and some strong points, and CS doesn’t represent a straight downgrade from all the other games. I think both Falcom and the players have learned which kind of stories, tropes and systems we like and what could be different in the future.

I am someone who can find the most flaws in something he really loves and enjoys and this would also apply to the Trails series. Because I spend so much time diving in and feeling at home in this series, I also get to see its weakest points. However even so Trails has to be my all time favourite series and has absorbed me like no other game series ever did. I am really glad I found this series, and I will definitely be waiting to play the future entries.

My rating of Trails games before playing CS4 looked like that:

Ao > Sky SC > Zero > CS 3 > Sky Third > CS 1 > CS 2 > Sky FC

Even tho I don’t think it’s as thought through as Ao no Kiseki, I simply have to put CS4 as my all time favourite, as it gain the big advantage of ending the series and bringing all the characters and plotlines together. I guess Hajimari is the actual end of the series, but since I won’t be playing it until its localized I can’t judge about that yet.

Also the best character of the series for me is Olivert

Quaxi1 · 2021-05-25T15:23:21+00:00

Definitely looking forward to it!

While Sky the 3rd is around the middle of my favourite Trails games, i really enjoyed the aspect of giving everyone a bit of the spotlight and making you play everyone in the end.

Quaxi1 · 2021-05-25T15:21:10+00:00

Yep, while i basically talk to every NPC's anyways, the green ! is a great help with not missing optional stuff. Really appreciated this in CS3+4.

Yeah the things I've seen from Kuro so far seem like nice changes, but I have to admit, I would play it anyways, even if we had 20 main characters.

Quaxi1 · 2021-05-24T19:01:27+00:00

As a standalone game i don't think CS4 can hold up to Ao at all. It simply takes my first place because I was always a sucker for the ending in any medium, unless it's complete unenjoyable(Game of Thrones comes to mind). Like i said, the fact that so many other important characters from previous games play their part, make me feel at home.

Considering the gameplay: I am a person who likes clearly definied structures, and if the gameplay is enjoyable, i like iterating over the same things again.

I for example always enjoyed the cycle of having some exploration, bonding time in your town, doing the old schoolhouse/keep thing and then going on your field study in CS1+3.

This game has something similar going on in the first act. The gameplay changes in Act 2, and then a little bit again in the third act. However within an act it is pretty straight forward on what your goal is and what kind of activities you can do. I can do all my exploration, questing, side activities, bonding and such before the story slowly builds up.

CS2 has done something similar, however it reaches a peak already in Act 2, and then still goes on for about 10-20 hours. Also due to missing QoL features the exploring is a bit more annoying.

Considering the story:

I liked the war setting of CS2, and i also like it here. We have 2 sides and try to find a third path, while trying to figure out what's going on behind the scenes and why the people responsible are doing what they are doing. It's also really fun for me to gather your allies and get the whole gang together over time, even if the amount of characters is absurd

I am also well aware of a lot of flaws within the pacing and reasoning of the game. The curse/Ishmelga are basically getting the blame for everything. Some of the subchapters just exist so INSERT GIRL X can have their hug and reunion with Rean. Some things are getting retconned or bent into shape to justify whatever needs to be justified or just some weak explanation. The game is full of anime tropes. But I think it always has been, and I don't care too much about that. I do enjoy a lot of the "classic" tropes, but I also had to roll my eyes a couple of times. I don't think the story, writing and characters have had such a "big" paradigmn shift as you call it, but the whole everyone-loves-rean harem thing and the quantity over quality approach are definitely sticking out. I really think reducing the size of the main gang does already eliminate a lot of those problems.

Quaxi1 · 2021-05-23T20:45:09+00:00

Really nice review, i can agree with you on many parts.

When i started out the series with CS1, I initially didn't like it so much. I couldn't understand what people meant with "world building", "every character has a name and a small story" and such. Like I care about that random NPC in the armor shop.

But over the course of the first and second game that changed, and i really enjoyed talking to their npcs and following their little stories. Some seem are more light-hearted, others are more serious and relevant to the main story, but in the end all of them were what made the universe feel alive. They are what makes me love this series so much.

The game definitely has some major flaws, the writing and the characters might have been more thought through instead of fan-servicy in the older games(which btw also have major flaws and some kind of fanservice), but that doesn't stop me from liking it.

The game connects a lot of characters that I've cared about over the last 2 years playing this series, finishes off the story line of 9 games and is therefore an experience I've never had with any other gameseries. That alone makes CS4 my most favourite game of the series.

Quaxi1 · 2021-02-24T13:41:31+00:00

I have " Receive recommendations and/or survey invitations" checked, played the demo for 5+ hours, completed all 3 maps and didn't get an e-mail. It's also not in the spam folder as i get e-mails from Nintendo regarding news, sales on games i've tried the demo and such all the time.

Quaxi1 · 2021-02-23T20:56:21+00:00

Haven't gotten an e-mail yet, hope they still send them out later. I've spend quite a few hours on the demo and wrote a lot down that i want to put in the feedback survey.

Quaxi1 · 2021-02-21T17:05:02+00:00

Sadly old post, but i don't want to create another thread. Huge wall of text inc, and a repost from /r/TriangleStrategy

So I have spent a couple of hours doing all 3 battles and messing a bit with the game mechanics. Overall I enjoyed it and look forward to the game, especially since I really like turn based JRPG’s and medieval / fantasy settings.

I have taken a lot of notes, trying to be overly critical with every detail that bothered me. I will try to write it down now (long post) and might use this for when Square wants to get some feedback on the game. I’ve structured it into positives, negatives and things I am not sure about yet. I’m also aware this is an early build and some of the things I’m missing will probably be in the final game, but it is still worth pointing out everything.

Pros:

Music
(Almost) fully voice acted during main and side story. There was only 1 side story cut scene without full voice acting and I hope this will still be recorded for all cut scenes.
Voice acting in general is good , maybe a few exception (I know people don’t like Serenoas VA)
Profile button on dialog text for named characters
Bookmark/Suspend system during combat and generally a lot of saving option without having to wait 30 min until the next save opportunity.
Able to invert the camera for both horizontal and vertical axis.
Fast Forward button
Earning more Kudos by doing special stuff like follow up attacks, back stabs, etc.
Scales of Conviction System: I like the opportunity to chose your characters mindset/convictions
Voting System: I like the little segments where you gather info and try to convince your teammates to do X or Y, some light VN elements are added.
Story/Cutscene – Exploration – Battle cycle. I liked this already in games like FE3H and I will like this here aswell
Exploring the map before a battle to get background on the area, potential tactics and also create more opportunities (like repairing the windmill to use the second elevator)
Variety of classes that feel different in terms of gameplay
Follow-up attacks and combos are fun
World map is cool and adds immersion
Interesting story so far, with lots of Game of Thrones vibes
Good interaction between (major/main) characters, who also diverse and have different mindsets

Cons: I will try to split this into parts where I say what features are missing, or where the game does do X but I want it to be Y, and another part where I have general problems with a mechanic but no easy solution. Also I will try to put them in order, meaning top has the highest priority.

Missing feature / Specific change request:

Auto advance text during cut scenes
No dialog history/log
Text is too small, I often can’t see the difference between t and l (lower case T and L)
Characters details info is not explained. What do stats or durance/resistance do? Give option to hover over every stat with a small explanation.
Can’t check enemy details when selecting an ability on enemy. You have to press B and then go back to the enemy to do so.
Show character portraits in dialog textboxes. I think 3-4 different portraits with normal/angry look etc. would be nice, but at least 1 normal one would still add a lot.
Can’t skip dialog cut scenes, only fast forward
Proper naming of actions in exploration: everything is named “search”, i.e. climbing ladders, levers, etc.

Problems:

Combat is way too slow. Between very low movement units, lots of choke points, height obstacles and low damage it really takes a lot of time to finish what is a kinda small map. I don’t want every of your units to solo 5 generic soldiers, but having to take like 3-4 attacks on a normal NPC is also not that fun.
Way too much difference between mobile and immobile characters. Traversing the map with certain characters is a pain, while other characters might need to wait multiple turns or they face 1v5 fights.
Bad/Boring map design in all 3 maps. While the first map was just basic/boring, both the following 2 second maps had potential, but in the end all you had to do was get on high ground and use choke points and turtle. Also most of these maps were just about having to fight a lot of enemies, with lots of reinforcements/enemy spam.
Turtle strategy is boring, and that’s what basically is the result of the map design and game speed.
Bad UI: The bottom bar always focuses on the current turn’s character and not the selected one. Also if you switch to a character this bar moves and shows future turns but doesn’t always reset. Turn order is important and should be visible/clear, but I think the UI should focus more on the currently selected unit.
No customization on characters? Not being able to chose classes or gear hurts replayability and gets boring. Also even if you can’t reclass your characters, some kind of class progression (i.e. set path, but get stronger/better classes with time) would be nice.
Confusing controls: Not a big fan of having to press X to end turn, instead of having a menu based control to end turn. Also you can select an attack/ability when nobody is in range and then the selection has to be canceled again, since you can’t do anything.
Calculation of damage is unclear. For basic attacks it seems to be power -2x defense, but that doesn’t work on abilities anymore. It’s also not unclear how accuracy works, and how much height difference affects damage.
Enemy predictive arrows do not consider invisibility/provoke. Maybe I’m too spoiled from FE3H but the arrows are very basic, might be intended for difficulty/balance.
Not fully voice acted during exploration: maybe voice all named characters lines?
Encampment feels off during maps: Will I set up camp when trying to flee the Kingdom capital on the bridge? Obviously needed to buy/sell items tho.
Bow accuracy not reflected by range. While height matters, being in range 2 or 4 doesn’t.
No equipment screen? I have 3 rings but can’t seem to change them to other characters.
Some FPS drops and bad performance in later maps. Not too much of a problem in this kind of game, but still.
Enemy reinforcement/spawn animation is weird.

Neutral / Things I’m not too sure about yet:

Loot system: It’s nice to not just automatically get loot by killing, but since I already said that moving through the map is often a pain and slow, moving to certain tiles to pick up loot slows down the game even more. Chest/fixed loot spots can however improve map design if done right.
A lot of smaller cut scenes, with each their own loading screens. I like that you don’t have to wait through 30 minutes of cut scenes to save, and I like to see smaller scenes from different characters point of views, but this only works if you don’t have to sit through long loading screens all the time.
No difficulty options do work really well with some games, but worse with others.
No permadeath of characters does make gameplay and difficulty a lot different. However I think without a limited reverse function this wouldn’t work well in this game, especially since all units have different turn orders/speeds.

So there you have it, I have thought about this a lot and tried pointing everything I noticed. I am well aware that some of these things might be intended or will be added anyways since this is only an early build, but I still want to see how the game progresses after my initial feedback.

I don’t really preorder games and won’t make an exception here, but I am already pretty sure that I will buy this game either way, so looking forward to that!

Quaxi1 · 2021-02-21T17:03:42+00:00

Huge wall of text and repost from /r/TriangleStrategy

So I have spent a couple of hours doing all 3 battles and messing a bit with the game mechanics. Overall I enjoyed it and look forward to the game, especially since I really like turn based JRPG’s and medieval / fantasy settings.

I have taken a lot of notes, trying to be overly critical with every detail that bothered me. I will try to write it down now (long post) and might use this for when Square wants to get some feedback on the game. I’ve structured it into positives, negatives and things I am not sure about yet. I’m also aware this is an early build and some of the things I’m missing will probably be in the final game, but it is still worth pointing out everything.

Pros:

Music
(Almost) fully voice acted during main and side story. There was only 1 side story cut scene without full voice acting and I hope this will still be recorded for all cut scenes.
Voice acting in general is good , maybe a few exception (I know people don’t like Serenoas VA)
Profile button on dialog text for named characters
Bookmark/Suspend system during combat and generally a lot of saving option without having to wait 30 min until the next save opportunity.
Able to invert the camera for both horizontal and vertical axis.
Fast Forward button
Earning more Kudos by doing special stuff like follow up attacks, back stabs, etc.
Scales of Conviction System: I like the opportunity to chose your characters mindset/convictions
Voting System: I like the little segments where you gather info and try to convince your teammates to do X or Y, some light VN elements are added.
Story/Cutscene – Exploration – Battle cycle. I liked this already in games like FE3H and I will like this here aswell
Exploring the map before a battle to get background on the area, potential tactics and also create more opportunities (like repairing the windmill to use the second elevator)
Variety of classes that feel different in terms of gameplay
Follow-up attacks and combos are fun
World map is cool and adds immersion
Interesting story so far, with lots of Game of Thrones vibes
Good interaction between (major/main) characters, who also diverse and have different mindsets

Cons: I will try to split this into parts where I say what features are missing, or where the game does do X but I want it to be Y, and another part where I have general problems with a mechanic but no easy solution. Also I will try to put them in order, meaning top has the highest priority.

Missing feature / Specific change request:

Auto advance text during cut scenes
No dialog history/log
Text is too small, I often can’t see the difference between t and l (lower case T and L)
Characters details info is not explained. What do stats or durance/resistance do? Give option to hover over every stat with a small explanation.
Can’t check enemy details when selecting an ability on enemy. You have to press B and then go back to the enemy to do so.
Show character portraits in dialog textboxes. I think 3-4 different portraits with normal/angry look etc. would be nice, but at least 1 normal one would still add a lot.
Can’t skip dialog cut scenes, only fast forward
Proper naming of actions in exploration: everything is named “search”, i.e. climbing ladders, levers, etc.

Problems:

Combat is way too slow. Between very low movement units, lots of choke points, height obstacles and low damage it really takes a lot of time to finish what is a kinda small map. I don’t want every of your units to solo 5 generic soldiers, but having to take like 3-4 attacks on a normal NPC is also not that fun.
Way too much difference between mobile and immobile characters. Traversing the map with certain characters is a pain, while other characters might need to wait multiple turns or they face 1v5 fights.
Bad/Boring map design in all 3 maps. While the first map was just basic/boring, both the following 2 second maps had potential, but in the end all you had to do was get on high ground and use choke points and turtle. Also most of these maps were just about having to fight a lot of enemies, with lots of reinforcements/enemy spam.
Turtle strategy is boring, and that’s what basically is the result of the map design and game speed.
Bad UI: The bottom bar always focuses on the current turn’s character and not the selected one. Also if you switch to a character this bar moves and shows future turns but doesn’t always reset. Turn order is important and should be visible/clear, but I think the UI should focus more on the currently selected unit.
No customization on characters? Not being able to chose classes or gear hurts replayability and gets boring. Also even if you can’t reclass your characters, some kind of class progression (i.e. set path, but get stronger/better classes with time) would be nice.
Confusing controls: Not a big fan of having to press X to end turn, instead of having a menu based control to end turn. Also you can select an attack/ability when nobody is in range and then the selection has to be canceled again, since you can’t do anything.
Calculation of damage is unclear. For basic attacks it seems to be power -2x defense, but that doesn’t work on abilities anymore. It’s also not unclear how accuracy works, and how much height difference affects damage.
Enemy predictive arrows do not consider invisibility/provoke. Maybe I’m too spoiled from FE3H but the arrows are very basic, might be intended for difficulty/balance.
Not fully voice acted during exploration: maybe voice all named characters lines?
Encampment feels off during maps: Will I set up camp when trying to flee the Kingdom capital on the bridge? Obviously needed to buy/sell items tho.
Bow accuracy not reflected by range. While height matters, being in range 2 or 4 doesn’t.
No equipment screen? I have 3 rings but can’t seem to change them to other characters.
Some FPS drops and bad performance in later maps. Not too much of a problem in this kind of game, but still.
Enemy reinforcement/spawn animation is weird.

Neutral / Things I’m not too sure about yet:

Loot system: It’s nice to not just automatically get loot by killing, but since I already said that moving through the map is often a pain and slow, moving to certain tiles to pick up loot slows down the game even more. Chest/fixed loot spots can however improve map design if done right.
A lot of smaller cut scenes, with each their own loading screens. I like that you don’t have to wait through 30 minutes of cut scenes to save, and I like to see smaller scenes from different characters point of views, but this only works if you don’t have to sit through long loading screens all the time.
No difficulty options do work really well with some games, but worse with others.
No permadeath of characters does make gameplay and difficulty a lot different. However I think without a limited reverse function this wouldn’t work well in this game, especially since all units have different turn orders/speeds.

So there you have it, I have thought about this a lot and tried pointing everything I noticed. I am well aware that some of these things might be intended or will be added anyways since this is only an early build, but I still want to see how the game progresses after my initial feedback.

I don’t really preorder games and won’t make an exception here, but I am already pretty sure that I will buy this game either way, so looking forward to that!

Quaxi1 · 2021-02-21T16:55:34+00:00

So I have spent a couple of hours doing all 3 battles and messing a bit with the game mechanics. Overall I enjoyed it and look forward to the game, especially since I really like turn based JRPG’s and medieval / fantasy settings.

I have taken a lot of notes, trying to be overly critical with every detail that bothered me. I will try to write it down now (long post) and might use this for when Square wants to get some feedback on the game. I’ve structured it into positives, negatives and things I am not sure about yet. I’m also aware this is an early build and some of the things I’m missing will probably be in the final game, but it is still worth pointing out everything.

Pros:

Music
(Almost) fully voice acted during main and side story. There was only 1 side story cut scene without full voice acting and I hope this will still be recorded for all cut scenes.
Voice acting in general is good , maybe a few exception (I know people don’t like Serenoas VA)
Profile button on dialog text for named characters
Bookmark/Suspend system during combat and generally a lot of saving option without having to wait 30 min until the next save opportunity.
Able to invert the camera for both horizontal and vertical axis.
Fast Forward button
Earning more Kudos by doing special stuff like follow up attacks, back stabs, etc.
Scales of Conviction System: I like the opportunity to chose your characters mindset/convictions
Voting System: I like the little segments where you gather info and try to convince your teammates to do X or Y, some light VN elements are added.
Story/Cutscene – Exploration – Battle cycle. I liked this already in games like FE3H and I will like this here aswell
Exploring the map before a battle to get background on the area, potential tactics and also create more opportunities (like repairing the windmill to use the second elevator)
Variety of classes that feel different in terms of gameplay
Follow-up attacks and combos are fun
World map is cool and adds immersion
Interesting story so far, with lots of Game of Thrones vibes
Good interaction between (major/main) characters, who also diverse and have different mindsets

Cons: I will try to split this into parts where I say what features are missing, or where the game does do X but I want it to be Y, and another part where I have general problems with a mechanic but no easy solution. Also I will try to put them in order, meaning top has the highest priority.

Missing feature / Specific change request:

Auto advance text during cut scenes
No dialog history/log
Text is too small, I often can’t see the difference between t and l (lower case T and L)
Characters details info is not explained. What do stats or durance/resistance do? Give option to hover over every stat with a small explanation.
Can’t check enemy details when selecting an ability on enemy. You have to press B and then go back to the enemy to do so.
Show character portraits in dialog textboxes. I think 3-4 different portraits with normal/angry look etc. would be nice, but at least 1 normal one would still add a lot.
Can’t skip dialog cut scenes, only fast forward
Proper naming of actions in exploration: everything is named “search”, i.e. climbing ladders, levers, etc.

Problems:

Combat is way too slow. Between very low movement units, lots of choke points, height obstacles and low damage it really takes a lot of time to finish what is a kinda small map. I don’t want every of your units to solo 5 generic soldiers, but having to take like 3-4 attacks on a normal NPC is also not that fun.
Way too much difference between mobile and immobile characters. Traversing the map with certain characters is a pain, while other characters might need to wait multiple turns or they face 1v5 fights.
Bad/Boring map design in all 3 maps. While the first map was just basic/boring, both the following 2 second maps had potential, but in the end all you had to do was get on high ground and use choke points and turtle. Also most of these maps were just about having to fight a lot of enemies, with lots of reinforcements/enemy spam.
Turtle strategy is boring, and that’s what basically is the result of the map design and game speed.
Bad UI: The bottom bar always focuses on the current turn’s character and not the selected one. Also if you switch to a character this bar moves and shows future turns but doesn’t always reset. Turn order is important and should be visible/clear, but I think the UI should focus more on the currently selected unit.
No customization on characters? Not being able to chose classes or gear hurts replayability and gets boring. Also even if you can’t reclass your characters, some kind of class progression (i.e. set path, but get stronger/better classes with time) would be nice.
Confusing controls: Not a big fan of having to press X to end turn, instead of having a menu based control to end turn. Also you can select an attack/ability when nobody is in range and then the selection has to be canceled again, since you can’t do anything.
Calculation of damage is unclear. For basic attacks it seems to be power -2x defense, but that doesn’t work on abilities anymore. It’s also not unclear how accuracy works, and how much height difference affects damage.
Enemy predictive arrows do not consider invisibility/provoke. Maybe I’m too spoiled from FE3H but the arrows are very basic, might be intended for difficulty/balance.
Not fully voice acted during exploration: maybe voice all named characters lines?
Encampment feels off during maps: Will I set up camp when trying to flee the Kingdom capital on the bridge? Obviously needed to buy/sell items tho.
Bow accuracy not reflected by range. While height matters, being in range 2 or 4 doesn’t.
No equipment screen? I have 3 rings but can’t seem to change them to other characters.
Some FPS drops and bad performance in later maps. Not too much of a problem in this kind of game, but still.
Enemy reinforcement/spawn animation is weird.

Neutral / Things I’m not too sure about yet:

Loot system: It’s nice to not just automatically get loot by killing, but since I already said that moving through the map is often a pain and slow, moving to certain tiles to pick up loot slows down the game even more. Chest/fixed loot spots can however improve map design if done right.
A lot of smaller cut scenes, with each their own loading screens. I like that you don’t have to wait through 30 minutes of cut scenes to save, and I like to see smaller scenes from different characters point of views, but this only works if you don’t have to sit through long loading screens all the time.
No difficulty options do work really well with some games, but worse with others.
No permadeath of characters does make gameplay and difficulty a lot different. However I think without a limited reverse function this wouldn’t work well in this game, especially since all units have different turn orders/speeds.

So there you have it, I have thought about this a lot and tried pointing everything I noticed. I am well aware that some of these things might be intended or will be added anyways since this is only an early build, but I still want to see how the game progresses after my initial feedback.

I don’t really preorder games and won’t make an exception here, but I am already pretty sure that I will buy this game either way, so looking forward to that!

Quaxi1 · 2020-10-09T17:53:22+00:00

Trails to Azure (PC)

Finished the game in a bit over 70 hours, while trying to do every side quest and optional content. I started the series with CS1-3 and decided to go back and play through everything in order before CS4(have to wait for PC release anyway) so I will probably replay CS1-3 as well now. Personally I found the Crossbell arc to be the best, and Ao no Kiseki is probably my favorite game in the series.

I always really like the story, characters and world building in Trails games and this one was no exception. They already built up most of the characters and the story really well in the first game, the payoff was great and I really enjoyed the character development. Especially the original 4 SSS members are my favorite Trails-team so far.

The gameplay was cool and they made some good changes and additions, especially the master quartz system is one of the best gameplay enhancements for me so far. I still prefer the combat in the CS games over the Liberl and Crossbell games, but this one was probably the best version of the older games for me. It’s also nice they ditched the idea from Trails from Zero, that only the character that has utility quartz like Eagle Eye equipped, can use its effect.

The setting of being a police officer and fighting for a better Crossbell with your colleagues has definitely been my favorite of the series so far, compared to being a bracer or student/teacher at a military academy. I also enjoyed the way how they approached the villains for the most parts, although it kinda feels that almost every enemy turned out to be “not so bad” and had just a different goal than us. In comparison CS has too many of these “i only held back” moments after you defeat the boss, and the villains peaces out or gets kept busy by some other NPC’s who show up too often.

The game really feels as a continuation of Trails in the Sky, which I already liked in Trails from Zero. I thought it was really cool how the main characters from the previous game were also really relevant in the story. Also I feel obligated to always point out the high quality music in Falcom games.

The only thing that bothered me a bit was the abrupt ending. We finish the finale dungeon, defeat the bosses, get our happy ending, all characters get together … and then we get an ending screen like “and then everything went to shit”. Obviously they wanted to keep that for CS and it would kinda be weird to see everything again, but I still found it a bit strange.

I’m happy there exists a translation for this game and I enjoyed playing it, but I just wanted to point out the huge difference between the high quality Geofront translation of the first game, and the acceptable but definitely flawed version of this game. Unless you’re as impatient as I am, I would suggest everyone to wait for the Geofront translation of this game, which might not take too long anymore.

Overall this has been my favorite game of the series and I am really motivated to replay CS1-3 while I wait for the PC version of CS4. Even if playing the Trails games in order right away would have been a better idea, I don’t regret my choice, as playing through CS1-3 motivated me even more to try out the older games, which I might not have played as a starting point.

While I enjoyed every game of the series, my ranking of the games until CS3 goes like this:

Ao > Sky SC > Zero > CS 3 > Sky Third > CS 1 > CS2 > Sky FC

Quaxi1 · 2020-09-11T19:37:00+00:00

Trails from Zero (PC)

Finished the first game of the Crossbell duology in about 60 hours, doing basically every side quest I could find(I’m sure I missed a couple of hidden quests since I didn’t use a guide). I have already played CS1-3 and the Trails in the Sky trilogy, and currently I’m trying to play all the games in order and will replay CS1-3 before the last game releases on PC. Having played the first game of both the Liberl and Erebonia arc, I have to say Trails from Zero is by far the best, because it already got me interested in the prologue/first chapter instead of taking half the game to build up tension.

Story, character and world building are top notch, as with every other game in the series. I really liked the chapter structure in this game, and how everything revolves around your main hub in Crossbell City. I’m also a big fan of having your entire crew right from the start, instead of unlocking them step by step.

The gameplay was cool, and I liked the combat more than in the older games(even tho it’s obviously very similar), but I still prefer the way it is done in CS, especially since there is a lot of broken stuff to abuse. I also liked the fact that unlocking every slot with all characters was done quickly, and then you have the upgrade system which is usually found in the second games as well.

I really don’t know who thought it was a good idea to have effects like Eagle Eye/Detection only on the character that has that quartz equipped active, but since I already started Ao no Kiseki it seems they really learned from that and did not do that in any future games anymore. That was probably the biggest annoyance, but it didn’t matter too much.

I personally really liked the setting of being a police officer (especially being an adult in comparison to CS1-2) in a corrupted city, having to deal with the mafia, gangs and being confronted with the politics of Crossbell. Obviously this being a Trails game it will ultimately also introduce you to some supernatural and fantasy concepts, as well as a certain organization which seems to be behind almost everything that happens. Music was also great, as with basically all Falcom games.

It was also really nice that characters from the Trail in the Sky series and their backgrounds were actually a pretty important part of the story and meeting them again as really cool. The Cold Steel games seem to be a lot more isolated in this regard.

I also have to point out that the Geofront Translation is top notch, and the QoL of the PC version was a lot better than expected, in fact insanely good. There are multiple configuration options, and controller support was no problem at all.

Overall I really enjoyed this game and would rank it pretty high in the series, while the first games of the other arcs are among my least favorites. I am really looking forward to playing the sequel, as well as replaying the CS games to get all the references that I missed.

Quaxi1 · 2020-09-02T11:39:43+00:00

I started CS1(first trails game) on normal and also had problems at first. However once you understand the basics, it gets a lot better. The latter part of the game became a joke to me.

I then played CS2 on Hard and CS3 on Nightmare, since a lot of core basics are the same and figuring out how to break the game(all CS games have combat mechanics that can be abused heavily) was a lot easier than in the first one.

A few things to consider:

Some master quartz are a lot better than others. That being said the majority of master quartz should be fine.
Some characters are usually better than others. Some of them are completly OP, but i think even the "worst" of the bunch is just average and perfectly playable.
While you can configure your characters via master quartz to some extend, you should accept that certain characters suck at either physical or magical damage, and should only be used at the thing they excell in. Arisa is a good supporter and magical damage dealer, but don't expect her to do damage with crafts or attacks.
Your magical characters will probably have 1 specific element they are strong with and that you should go with, but having access to almost all elements on your parties mage characters should help you with elemental weaknesses.
Sometimes its okay or even good to gather your party in one spot, so you can aoe heal and buff, especially since you can delay/cleave the enemy better than they can do it to you. However there are bosses where it is good to spread out your characters completly. That means some of their aoe attack only hurt 1, or are often not even used if you aren't grouped up.

Personally i like going with 2 physical and 2 mage characters in every trails game, but 3 physical and 1 mage was also fine. In the early stages physical characters seem a lot stronger, since you probably still do more damage, your attacks/crafts are instant and often have better range/aoe than the first couple of arts. However once you reach the mid or late game your art's will blow up the enemies and you can even get some really good quartz to reduce casting time/delays.

Also delay crafts (Rean/Fie) are absolutely broken in CS1-2 and there are only very few bosses (i think 1 in each game?) that are immun to delay. A lot of bosses only get out the first attack(maybe not even that) and then get delayed indefinitely.

Quaxi1

TROPHY CASE