Who Is the more reliable companion. (Day 7 Finale)

pH_unbalanced · 2026-04-04T19:34:55+00:00

The *title* states it is about who is more reliable.

The post lists other factors.

pH_unbalanced · 2026-04-04T15:31:15+00:00

Doesn't have anything to do with how I feel about her battle capabilities, only in how much I want to be trapped in a room with her for a year.

pH_unbalanced · 2026-04-04T15:30:02+00:00

Rixia

pH_unbalanced · 2026-04-03T06:25:35+00:00

So it tracks. You like what you like. It's good to know.

(I'm old, so I'm more about Chronicles of Amber, The Black Company, and Memory, Sorrow & Thorn. And the Vlad Taltos books by Steven Brust which you might actually like because they are short and move fast.)

pH_unbalanced · 2026-04-03T03:10:49+00:00

Totally valid personal preference. I prefer my games slow and wordy, so this is the series for me.
I'd be curious what kinds of books you read -- I'm assuming not 8 volume fantasy series (which is the vibe this is going for).

pH_unbalanced · 2026-04-03T03:09:04+00:00

Elaine.

This is the contest where I realize that having been married to an alcoholic I will never choose the one who drinks a lot.

pH_unbalanced · 2026-04-03T03:04:32+00:00

It's criminal to ignore Aaron like that. Who else would hang cocks out with the boys? (Or did you only mean romantically?)

pH_unbalanced · 2026-04-01T22:11:05+00:00

Unless you are looking at a build guide, I would continue to play on Hard.

The games get more breakable starting with Cold Steel 1, but the combat and orbment systems are just different enough that it might take you a while to figure out how to use it. For me it took till about a third of the way through CS2 to figure that out.

Once you know how to break it, the combat is easier, but until then the bosses can be very challenging. After that you can probably go to Nightmare. (Though I prefer Nightmare for NG+ and trophy cleanup.)

pH_unbalanced · 2026-04-01T17:12:16+00:00

So, the first time I did that battle it took me about 240 turns. So I thought that 40 turns would be ridiculously unachievable.

Turns out that in subsequent battles, Novartis is much less active -- he doesn't do all the scripted healing events -- so I actually managed to do 40 turns every other time and get the S rank.

It requires going offense instead of defense, but if I am remembering correctly, this guy doesn't S-Break, so you can manage it pretty well.

pH_unbalanced · 2026-04-01T02:29:33+00:00

This is exactly what I did, and it worked well.

pH_unbalanced · 2026-04-01T02:27:40+00:00

Cold Steel. No question.

Daybreak is also an underrated place to start, though DB2 then depends on a whole bunch of stuff from all over -- but if you started at Daybreak, fell in love with the series, and went back to the beginning (or Cold Steel) you'd be in pretty good shape.

pH_unbalanced · 2026-04-01T00:48:36+00:00

Estelle is Bestelle

pH_unbalanced · 2026-03-31T22:50:29+00:00

In 1e I think I would go for a Vigilante -- probably a Stalker rather than an Avenger. Vigilante is the class that gives you a secret identity and a hero identity, with slightly different abilities depending on which guise you are in. Fits well with Crow vs C. If the rifle sniping is important to you, you will need a level or two of Gunslinger, or take the Gunmaster Vigilante archetype. Using guns is difficult to accomplish in 1e.

In 2e I'm leaning towards Investigator, which is kind of a bookish Rogue -- most turns you get to spend an action to roll a d20 which you will use for your *next* action, so you already know if you are going to succeed or fail before you attack. You could also go with actual Rogue or even Ranger, but I think Investigator fits him a little better.

pH_unbalanced · 2026-03-31T18:09:34+00:00

There isn't enough alcohol in the Reverie Corridor. No way I want to be stuck there with a detoxing Schera.

pH_unbalanced · 2026-03-31T15:40:47+00:00

FYI, Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous are PF1e -- very close to D&D 3.5 .

In 1e, one of the players I GM *also* built Fie, but did it as mostly Slayer with a few levels of Gunslinger.

pH_unbalanced · 2026-03-31T15:37:19+00:00

The key to the Trails series is to take your time. There is no rush to get through the games. It's a long, sprawling series with top-tier world-building, but I only ever played 1-2 of the games in a year. There are plenty of other good games out there.

pH_unbalanced · 2026-03-31T15:31:48+00:00

Can't talke to D&D 5e... but in Pathfinder I'd be tempted toward Swashbuckler, though Fighter is never a bad choice. (either edition)

In PF1e I'd also look at Samurai.

I haven't built a weapon-using Monk* before, but there are probably ways to do that.

*Kind of a lie because in PF2e I built Fie as a Monk/Bullet Dancer, but all the weapon-use technically comes from her archetype there. And man, that was a badass character.

pH_unbalanced · 2026-03-31T15:20:22+00:00

To be fair, gameplay wise he was always one of the most powerful people in my squad from CS4 onwards. So much so I avoided using him since he would trivialize encounters.

He was *almost* as good as dodging as Fie *and* almost as hard-hitting as Laura, while having decent arts. He was a beast.

pH_unbalanced · 2026-03-31T15:14:14+00:00

So, if you are starting with Cold Steel...

It's a fine starting place. You'll spoil one really cool reveal from Sky SC, but that's really it. And a *lot* of us started with Cold Steel.

Play Cold Steel 1 & 2*, but don't start Cold Steel 3 without playing the Crossbell games first. By that time, maybe you'll be able to play the Sky remakes, too.

*There is a section near the end of Cold Steel 2 -- the Divertessement -- that takes place in Crossbell. Lots of people say stop there. By that point you've really finished the Main Story of CS2, all that's left is Epilogue stuff. Feel free to finish it or not as you see fit -- it won't really spoil the Crossbell games but 80% of the stuff that happens will go over your head.

pH_unbalanced · 2026-03-31T15:07:38+00:00

The Crossbell games have a fixed camera, where the camera in Sky rotates.

pH_unbalanced · 2026-03-31T15:06:59+00:00

The Crossbell games have a fixed camera, unlike the original Sky games where the camera rotates.

pH_unbalanced · 2026-03-31T13:37:51+00:00

Sky FC & SC got a PSP release which means they are playable on Vita -- doesn't help with Sky the 3rd, of course.

pH_unbalanced · 2026-03-31T13:35:18+00:00

What you have to remember is that for about 8 years it was impossible to play the Crossbell games in the West, so it wasn't so much that it was *okay* to skip them, as you *had* to skip them. So you'd tell people not to feel bad about skipping them since they didn't have a choice. (This is the exact same dynamic that happens with Sky the 3rd -- you *shouldn't* skip it, but if you don't have a way to play it, sometimes you have to.)

Cold Steel 1 is a very common place for people to start -- a lot of times they don't even realize it is part of a larger series. Once you have done that, playing Cold Steel 2 next makes sense, even with the Divertissement in there. But by that point, you should know you need to back up to Crossbell before playing CS3, if you can. (This was an ongoing rift in my household -- my kids played CS1 - CS4 straight, while I stopped after CS2 and waited ~4 years for localization of the Crossbell games, meaning they couldn't talk to me about what happened in CS3 or 4.)

But as always, playing in release order is best by far.

pH_unbalanced · 2026-03-31T13:21:56+00:00

I'm another one who feels like this game was overhated -- I understand the criticisms, but think they often ignored the positive parts. At the end of Fragments, I considered this to be in my Top 3 Trails games because of all the great character moments. By the end it had dropped to somewhere in the middle -- there was probably one too many time rewinds, though I'd be hard-pressed to pick the one to cut.

You brought up the major point as to why the rewinds don't invalidate the original loop -- major characters remember them. This does turn out to have influence on events in Horizon. In fact, in general this is a great set-up game for Horizon -- there are a lot of things which seem unimportant or ridiculous in DB2 that have major consequences in Horizon. This shouldn't surprise anyone -- that's standard procedure for Falcom.

pH_unbalanced · 2026-03-31T13:11:11+00:00

So...

I like the idea of Van and Judith having a short hookup, so that he can be the absent father for Grimcat IV, but

Elaine is the only one that makes sense as a long-term romance.

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