Estelle Braces For Battle! Estelle Bright For Smash.

[Coconattsu]

Wow that's a big theory, good to have you LucKekkai.

In the AMA that he had before that interview, he was asked what his favorite story was in the Trails games. He responded that the Sky games were his favorite, and that they had a special place in his memories. Another person was asked him which Trails protagonists was his favorite to write for, and he responded with Estelle. He could have chosen any of the arcs for his favorite story, and any of the main characters. But he chose Sky and Estelle specifically in that AMA.

And finally, there is Akatsuki no Kiseki randomly getting a Switch port out of nowhere. Estelle is in Akatsuki no Kiseki. I'll sum this point up as, "Should be on a Nintendo console before getting into Smash".

Now the reason why I find his interview suspicious is because of the fact that he didn't mention Estelle at all when being asked that question about Smash. He intentionally ignored Estelle as a possibility. Yet a couple of weeks prior to that interview, he makes it pretty clear that she is one of his favorite characters(if not his most favorite). However, if he was under an NDA at the time, he may have chosen to avoid mentioning Estelle at all. Keep in mind that it was around that time that DLC characters were being decided on for the second fighters pass, so it isn't entirely impossible for him to be under an NDA.

I thought about the NDA here as well, and that's not the only time he has avoided her, either. The second time this question came up it's even more strange

Source: https://www.esterior.net/2019/07/anime-expo-2019-an-interview-with-toshihiro-kondo/


Tell me that doesn't look suspicious. Especially the swordsman part.

(Also, happy birthday Estelle! That's right, it's today August 7th)

 

[LucKekkai]

One thing I find really promising about Falcom and the idea of including one of their characters in Smash -- not in terms of how likely or unlikely they are, but in terms of what could happen if they were picked -- is the existence of the Falcom Sound Team jdk. The fact that they have a dedicated unit within the company that composes the music means we wouldn't have to worry about anything like Koichi Sugiyama restricting the Dragon Quest music to MIDIs, and that the decision of what music would be brought over would be entirely up to Falcom themselves. SNK is similar in that regard with the SNK Sound Team.

ATLUS also has the ATLUS Sound Team, but it's a little different. Looking at the songs in my iTunes library from the Persona 5 Soundtrack (before it got yoinked from the iTunes store), the vocal tracks are listed under ATLUS Sound Team and Lyn, whereas if you look at the SNK or Falcom albums (heck, even the Falcom remix albums like Sora no Kiseki Zanmai or Kiseki jdk Acoustics) it's all just listed under SNK Sound Team / Falcom Sound Team jdk.

Ultimately it'd be up to Falcom how many tracks they'd be willing to include, and I don't know how the rights to the music are managed within the company, but the fact that it's all kept within the company makes me hopeful that if we were to get Estelle, Falcom could pull an SNK and give us a ton of music from across their franchises (Trails, Ys, Tokyo Xanadu, heck throw some Gurumin music in there while you're at it)

Falcom's music policy is indeed lenient(as cashregister9 has already stated), so I wouldn't be surprised if a Falcom rep got just as many music tracks as SNK, if not more. As far as what tracks I'd like, here is one each from Sky/Ao/Cold Steel/Ys:

Maybe it was fated (Vocal and Instrumental - Sky)
Unfathomed Force (Ao)
Crimson Wings ~ A New Wind (Cold Steel)
Sunshine Coastline (Ys VIII)

Just to name a few of my favorites. Certain ones like Silver Will, Sophisticated Fight, etc... are ones that I think most people expect.

Wow that's a big theory, good to have you LucKekkai.



I thought about the NDA here as well, and that's not the only time he has avoided her, either. The second time this question came up it's even more strange

Source: https://www.esterior.net/2019/07/anime-expo-2019-an-interview-with-toshihiro-kondo/


Tell me that doesn't look suspicious. Especially the swordsman part.

(Also, happy birthday Estelle! That's right, it's today August 7th)

Lol, thank you. And yeah, that is the interview I was talking about in my theory actually. His response of choosing Rean over Adol because of Rean being a swordsman is just so... bizarre, since they are both swordsman. If you read into it, you could say that he became flustered and gave out that response without thinking it through. It could have just been that he wasn't sure how to respond to an unexpected question like that though.

Also, in a different interview back in mid July last year, he was asked what his favorite Switch game was, to which he replied with Smash Bros. Here is the link(I don't know how you created that fancy quote, so instead I'll post the exact quote myself):

Interviewer: Now I'm curious: what's your favorite Switch game? Or even just one you've been lately?

Toshihiro Kondo: I play with my kids often, so it's Smash Brothers.

https://www.usgamer.net/articles/ni...ew-feature-trails-of-cold-steel-3-switch-ys-9

I added in the "Interviewer" and "Toshihiro Kondo" parts myself. Anyways, with that you can say that Smash was on his mind at around the time that the AMA and other interview had occurred. Along with whatever implications you may or may not want to derive from that.

 

[Coconattsu]

Oh that's the one you meant. I'm pretty sure I read another AMA where he mentioned Adol and Rean for Smash way before that, but I may be misremembering things.

 

[LucKekkai]

Oh that's the one you meant. I'm pretty sure I read another AMA where he mentioned Adol and Rean for Smash way before that, but I may be misremembering things.

Hmmm, I don't remember any other interviews like that. But I haven't necessarily seen them all either. If it is in the AMA on reddit, well... admittedly, I haven't actually read through all of that, because there are over 300 comments in there, and I only found the ones related to Estelle via CTRL+F. And I only know of the one AMA, back in July of last year.

Speaking of that AMA, someone in there also asked him if he would ever consider having Adol/Estelle/Lloyd/Rean become guest characters for current/future fighting games, and he side-stepped it by saying something to the effect of how if Falcom made the game, then yeah, they would. I'm paraphrasing of course, but that is the general gist of what he said. Again, take that however you will, haha.

 

[ShrimpScampi]

While I'm not really a fan of anonymous 4chan posts, I saw this and figured it'd be worth bringing up. This was posted three days before the Ys IX localization announcement:

Link to the archive is here, but as a heads-up, the comments include a bit of language.

While this was before the Ys IX announcement, that's a really easy thing to predict. Tbh I won't put any serious consideration to this unless I see Zero and Azure. I emphasize the "and" because I question why they'd be announced as a pair, rather than Zero by itself first and Azure later. I guess if Zero was announced, Azure would be inevitable, but with how long it takes to localize these games, the release date for Azure would be waaaaay off in the distance if they revealed them as a pair. At the very least it's reassuring to know that even if the post is fake, whoever wrote this agrees that a large number of music tracks is something that Falcom would do.

 

[LucKekkai]

While I'm not really a fan of anonymous 4chan posts, I saw this and figured it'd be worth bringing up. This was posted three days before the Ys IX localization announcement:
View attachment 281956
Link to the archive is here, but as a heads-up, the comments include a bit of language.

While this was before the Ys IX announcement, that's a really easy thing to predict. Tbh I won't put any serious consideration to this unless I see Zero and Azure. I emphasize the "and" because I question why they'd be announced as a pair, rather than Zero by itself first and Azure later. I guess if Zero was announced, Azure would be inevitable, but with how long it takes to localize these games, the release date for Azure would be waaaaay off in the distance if they revealed them as a pair. At the very least it's reassuring to know that even if the post is fake, whoever wrote this agrees that a large number of music tracks is something that Falcom would do.

Yeah, I saw this back when it was first posted on 4chan. And I'll admit, I actually did a double take when Ys IX's localization was announced for the PS4 and Switch. And I was really hoping that a Zero/Azure localization announcement for the PS4/Switch would follow, because it would have given it more legitimacy(well, as much legitimacy as a text leak on 4chan can have, anyways). The funny thing about this leak is that he was certain about Zero/Azure getting an announcement "soon", but wasn't sure about when Ys IX would be announced. Yet now, we don't even know if Zero/Azure will get a localization at all, but we know Ys IX definitely is. XD

But it's still fun to talk about anyways, and this is definitely something to keep in mind incase anything else related to it actually happens. For example, if a Cold Steel spirit event is randomly thrown out there, it would definitely cause me to reconsider this one for sure.

 

[Blankiturayman]

While I'm not really a fan of anonymous 4chan posts, I saw this and figured it'd be worth bringing up. This was posted three days before the Ys IX localization announcement:
View attachment 281956
Link to the archive is here, but as a heads-up, the comments include a bit of language.

While this was before the Ys IX announcement, that's a really easy thing to predict. Tbh I won't put any serious consideration to this unless I see Zero and Azure. I emphasize the "and" because I question why they'd be announced as a pair, rather than Zero by itself first and Azure later. I guess if Zero was announced, Azure would be inevitable, but with how long it takes to localize these games, the release date for Azure would be waaaaay off in the distance if they revealed them as a pair. At the very least it's reassuring to know that even if the post is fake, whoever wrote this agrees that a large number of music tracks is something that Falcom would do.

Well this is nice, I'd probably just brush it aside since 4chan text leaks are pretty easy to make but it's funny that one of the things they mentioned happened a few days after. I guess we gotta wait and see how it goes. I agree that seeing both Zero and Azure/Ao localized would make it more likely, since that's one of the most out there things in it.
Also personally, I was thinking that Smash could have a ToCS spirit event regardless, since alongside Ys it's been ported to Switch recently and Smash has been pretty giving with events for games that recently got on Switch. I'm not putting much stock into it either but it's fun for discussion.

 

[Coconattsu]

While I'm not really a fan of anonymous 4chan posts, I saw this and figured it'd be worth bringing up. This was posted three days before the Ys IX localization announcement:
View attachment 281956
Link to the archive is here, but as a heads-up, the comments include a bit of language.

While this was before the Ys IX announcement, that's a really easy thing to predict. Tbh I won't put any serious consideration to this unless I see Zero and Azure. I emphasize the "and" because I question why they'd be announced as a pair, rather than Zero by itself first and Azure later. I guess if Zero was announced, Azure would be inevitable, but with how long it takes to localize these games, the release date for Azure would be waaaaay off in the distance if they revealed them as a pair. At the very least it's reassuring to know that even if the post is fake, whoever wrote this agrees that a large number of music tracks is something that Falcom would do.

The fact that they started their post with "Source messaged me this a while back" is suspicious enough, lol. But it's really interesting regardless.

Also, porting Zero & Ao before Trails in the Sky trilogy or even Cold Steel 1 and 2... I guess it makes sense given we got CS 3 and 4 before anything else but, MAN that's a messy release order.

 

[LucKekkai]

So, to continue the theme of "Trails/Kiseki release dates lining up with Nintendo/Smash related directs", here's something interesting to consider:

-First quote-

remember all, the new captain Tsubasa game is coming on the 28th, in general its an arcade soccer\foot ball game, dont miss it

Nintendo Direct Speculation |OT12| A delayed Direct is eventually good, but a rushed Direct is forever bad OT

There's always the possibility it is a digital-only title. Seems bizarre for something that big, but it isn't outside the realm of possibility. Most likely, though, it gets announced the last week of this month.

www.resetera.com

-Second quote-

Damn, Barca just lost 2-8, thats a disaster

Nintendo Direct Speculation |OT12| A delayed Direct is eventually good, but a rushed Direct is forever bad OT

Not taking a dig at Imran but other insiders with better records have come out and debunked it. No reason to suddenly go back to taking it seriously again

www.resetera.com

Apparently, he's an insider who gets info on direct dates, and it sounds like he is implying that we'll get a general direct on the 28th of this month(I bolded/underlined the relevant parts). Assuming he is hinting at a general direct on the 28th, and that he is even right, then it almost lines up with Hajimari no Kiseki's Japanese release date on the 27th(which is something I mentioned in an earlier post). Once again, it could be a coincidence. Furthermore, Hajimari hasn't been announced for the Switch yet, so unless they announce a Switch port for Hajimari during that direct, then it really wont be tied to it at all.

Another thing I thought of is Cold Steel 4's announcement. Remember how Cold Steel 4's PS4/Switch localization announcement was on April 1st? If Cold Steel 3 had been released for the Switch back in March, with Cold Steel 4's PS4/Switch announcement being made shortly after(or in a theoretical general direct in March), it would have made more sense. Instead, they announced Cold Steel 4's localization almost a week after the March mini-direct. I bring this up because it actually supports the idea that Nintendo intended to have a general direct back in March, but plans changed and so it was announced separately instead. Remember that Cold Steel 3 actually had a short segment in the mini-direct back in March(although it had already been announced back in December last year), so it would have been a good time to announce Cold Steel 4 as well.

Blah, this stuff is all confusing. I just thought I'd share it anyways. Again, don't take it too seriously, since the likelihood of any of this panning out is very small.

 

[NSSKG151]

I like to voice my support for Estelle in Smash. I'm not confident in her actual chances but I love the Trails/Kiseki series and Estelle would be a neat addition and a fun character to play as. Though really I would be happy with any Falcom rep in Smash (Estelle, Lloyd, Adol etc) just for the amazing soundtracks they would likely bring to the table.

 

[SNEKeater]

Hey! Add me to the support list.
I haven't played the games... yet. I just bought Trails in the Sky on Steam, I was curious about the series since a few months ago, and my experience with the series is limited, but I just think Estelle seems a cool character and the music I've heard so far is really good.

So maybe I'm not a fan, at least not now, but I have the feeling I'll enjoy these games a lot. Also it's gonna be the first time I play a Falcom game, which is a bit of a shame considering JRPGs are one of the genres I enjoy the most, lol.

Besides that, I was thinking in trying to patch the game with the FC Evolution voice lines, movies, portraits and more. My question is: is that a good idea? Seems to work for oher people, and at first glance I'd say it would be cooler to play with these changes, but I don't know if it's very hard to make it work or what. Don't know if someone can help me with this, if not, don't worry. Thank you!

 

[Blankiturayman]

Hey! Add me to the support list.
I haven't played the games... yet. I just bought Trails in the Sky on Steam, I was curious about the series since a few months ago, and my experience with the series is limited, but I just think Estelle seems a cool character and the music I've heard so far is really good.

So maybe I'm not a fan, at least not now, but I have the feeling I'll enjoy these games a lot. Also it's gonna be the first time I play a Falcom game, which is a bit of a shame considering JRPGs are one of the genres I enjoy the most, lol.

Besides that, I was thinking in trying to patch the game with the FC Evolution voice lines, movies, portraits and more. My question is: is that a good idea? Seems to work for oher people, and at first glance I'd say it would be cooler to play with these changes, but I don't know if it's very hard to make it work or what. Don't know if someone can help me with this, if not, don't worry. Thank you!

Welcome! Also, about your question I'd say to try the game as-is first, and see if you like it that way before using updated portraits/music. The opinion on those seems to be a bit divided (personally, I prefer the originals) but it's up to you. If you do want to go with it, there's a guide on Steam on how to do it. It's the first one that pops up when you go to guides for the game.

By the by, hope you enjoy the game, it's really nice to play it blind, and it's a good pick to start with Falcom games.

 

[SNEKeater]

Welcome! Also, about your question I'd say to try the game as-is first, and see if you like it that way before using updated portraits/music. The opinion on those seems to be a bit divided (personally, I prefer the originals) but it's up to you. If you do want to go with it, there's a guide on Steam on how to do it. It's the first one that pops up when you go to guides for the game.

By the by, hope you enjoy the game, it's really nice to play it blind, and it's a good pick to start with Falcom games.

Yeah. I think I will follow your advice. I was thinking about that too. And yes, I just found the guide you just mentioned. I'll look into it if I decide to try the patch.

I'm going 99% blind with this game, so no problem. Should I play it on normal or hard? I remember reading a discussion about the first game being relatively easy. Maybe hard being my first Falcom game is too much?

 

[LucKekkai]

Hey! Add me to the support list.
I haven't played the games... yet. I just bought Trails in the Sky on Steam, I was curious about the series since a few months ago, and my experience with the series is limited, but I just think Estelle seems a cool character and the music I've heard so far is really good.

So maybe I'm not a fan, at least not now, but I have the feeling I'll enjoy these games a lot. Also it's gonna be the first time I play a Falcom game, which is a bit of a shame considering JRPGs are one of the genres I enjoy the most, lol.

Besides that, I was thinking in trying to patch the game with the FC Evolution voice lines, movies, portraits and more. My question is: is that a good idea? Seems to work for oher people, and at first glance I'd say it would be cooler to play with these changes, but I don't know if it's very hard to make it work or what. Don't know if someone can help me with this, if not, don't worry. Thank you!

To be honest, on all the times I've played through Sky FC/SC/3rd, I've never used the voice patch for them. And unfortunately, since I don't know how to, I can't really help with it. But from what I've seen of it by watching some of SuperDerek RPGs Let's Play of Sky FC and SC, the voices are actually really good, so if you can do it, I suggest that you do.

Regardless, it isn't 100% necessary or anything. The real question is whether or not you want to change character portraits. Personally, I think the original character portraits are far more expressive, although the Evo portraits are animated. It's a matter of taste, I suppose.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy it!

I like to voice my support for Estelle in Smash. I'm not confident in her actual chances but I love the Trails/Kiseki series and Estelle would be a neat addition and a fun character to play as. Though really I would be happy with any Falcom rep in Smash (Estelle, Lloyd, Adol etc) just for the amazing soundtracks they would likely bring to the table.

Nice to have you here. For some reason I accidentally skipped over your post. To be honest, I think it's fair to say that Falcom has a good chance of getting some kind of content in Smash, but the kind of content they can get is definitely up in the air. But hey, it's still nice to dream, lol.

 

[Blankiturayman]

Yeah. I think I will follow your advice. I was thinking about that too. And yes, I just found the guide you just mentioned. I'll look into it if I decide to try the patch.

I'm going 99% blind with this game, so no problem. Should I play it on normal or hard? I remember reading a discussion about the first game being relatively easy. Maybe hard being my first Falcom game is too much?

I think Normal is fine, especially if you tend to go with that difficulty. I started the game on Hard the first time playing and it started being more notable near the end lol. Maybe you could go with Hard on the sequel if you like it enough, because by then you'd be more well-versed on the game's mechanics.

 

[SNEKeater]

I think Normal is fine, especially if you tend to go with that difficulty. I started the game on Hard the first time playing and it started being more notable near the end lol. Maybe you could go with Hard on the sequel if you like it enough, because by then you'd be more well-versed on the game's mechanics.

Perfect. Just another question and I'll stop bothering you guys haha, can you change the difficulty after starting the game? That way I could try both settings without having to create a new file.

 

[LucKekkai]

Perfect. Just another question and I'll stop bothering you guys haha, can you change the difficulty after starting the game? That way I could try both settings without having to create a new file.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/233665565133242369/568195400520040458/How_To_Change_Sky_Difficulty.png

I've never done it myself, but according to this you can. If you do it, I'd experiment at the very beginning of the game with it just to make sure it's working properly.

 

[SNEKeater]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/233665565133242369/568195400520040458/How_To_Change_Sky_Difficulty.png

I've never done it myself, but according to this you can. If you do it, I'd experiment at the very beginning of the game with it just to make sure it's working properly.

Thank you very much! I'll look into it.
I don't know when I'll start the game because I have a few other games in my backlog, but I'll post here my impressions of Trails in the Sky once I start with the game.

 

[LucKekkai]

Thank you very much! I'll look into it.
I don't know when I'll start the game because I have a few other games in my backlog, but I'll post here my impressions of Trails in the Sky once I start with the game.

I know the feeling of having games in my backlog. I have so many that it actually kind of hurts to look at them, haha. Anyways, I look forward to hearing what you have to say!

 

[BFMS234]

I'm going 99% blind with this game, so no problem. Should I play it on normal or hard? I remember reading a discussion about the first game being relatively easy. Maybe hard being my first Falcom game is too much?

The first game on hard is fine, but there is one fight that is difficult, although you don’t have to win to progress the story. However, if you are going for a 100% playthrough you have to win and you also get an achievement.

The second game on hard is brutal, well at least the prologue is after that it gets a bit easier. Enemies are so fast that they can double turn you and hit very hard and since it’s the beginning of the game you have a very limited amount of resources. Also fights involving an NPC suck since they didn’t scale the npc’s stats to the enemies, so they die in one or two hits no exceptions and if they die it’s an instant game over.

There is one optional quest where this is extremely unfair as the enemy gets a surprise attack against you and will kill the npc before you get a chance to do anything, so it is completely down to luck to survive. Even if the npc survives the boss has a lot of health, pretty fast so you have to debuff it’s speed, can heal about a 1000 hp, it and it’s minions can confuse your party and they can attack the npc. Which by that point you only have access to one confuse immunity item. That quest also has a short time limit, so you can’t put off until later, you have to do it as soon as it is available. Yeah that fight sucks on hard.

 

[Coconattsu]

Perfect. Just another question and I'll stop bothering you guys haha, can you change the difficulty after starting the game? That way I could try both settings without having to create a new file.

Trails in the Sky ports have a cool feature implemented in them where every time you lose a battle the fight gets easier and easier the more you lose that fight. You can disable/enable this option in the settings, and it's called "Retry offset". Figured I'd tell you that since you're worried about changing the difficulty if you don't like it.

I still don't recommend Nightmare on either FC or SC.

 

[Blankiturayman]

Trails in the Sky ports have a cool feature implemented in them where every time you lose a battle the fight gets easier and easier the more you lose that fight. You can disable/enable this option in the settings, and it's called "Retry offset". Figured I'd tell you that since you're worried about changing the difficulty if you don't like it.

I still don't recommend Nightmare on either FC or SC.

Agreed, Nightmare is best to tackle on replays (if you ever feel like that, anyway)

 

[ShrimpScampi]

Hajimari's finally out in Japan, so that's exciting. I'm managing to avoid spoilers so far (ESPECIALLY anything involving protag #3), but man it's gonna be difficult keeping that up. (All I know is that there's a miniboss theme where the opening guitar riff sounds like a bunch of electric chickens.)

I guess that means the next important days for the Trails series would be the Cold Steel IV release dates in on October 27 and in Spring 2021. Having the specific Switch release date for CS4 revealed in a Nintendo-centered presentation, even if it's a Partner Showcase, would be more promising from a Smash perspective, since it would mean Nintendo is taking an active role in promoting the series. Thus far it's been NISA doing the promotion/reveals themselves, from CS4's spot in the New Game Plus showcase to just releasing trailers on Twitter, so I'm inclined to believe they'll continue to do that, but I mean Nintendo hasn't been actively promoting much these days, so who knows.

(Also, unless I missed it I don't remember Nintendo doing much pushing for SNK games in their presentations before Terry's reveal. So while it would certainly be promising for Nintendo to be actively promoting Falcom, it isn't strictly necessary.)

Also, there was an interview with Toshihiro Kondo recently talking about the future of the Trails series (summary is here). Interestingly, after Hajimari they're doing away with the turn-based AT battle system to go to a more real-time approach, but he doesn't go into specifics beyond that. To be honest, I'm gonna miss the battle system. It's easily breakable, especially when you have Brave Orders available or put Fie anywhere near the battlefield, but I enjoy the turn-based battles. I'll have to wait and see what they do for combat going forward -- having just finished Oath in Felghana, I know real-time combat is certainly doable for Falcom.

 

[LucKekkai]

Hajimari's finally out in Japan, so that's exciting. I'm managing to avoid spoilers so far (ESPECIALLY anything involving protag #3), but man it's gonna be difficult keeping that up. (All I know is that there's a miniboss theme where the opening guitar riff sounds like a bunch of electric chickens.)

I guess that means the next important days for the Trails series would be the Cold Steel IV release dates in on October 27 and in Spring 2021. Having the specific Switch release date for CS4 revealed in a Nintendo-centered presentation, even if it's a Partner Showcase, would be more promising from a Smash perspective, since it would mean Nintendo is taking an active role in promoting the series. Thus far it's been NISA doing the promotion/reveals themselves, from CS4's spot in the New Game Plus showcase to just releasing trailers on Twitter, so I'm inclined to believe they'll continue to do that, but I mean Nintendo hasn't been actively promoting much these days, so who knows.

(Also, unless I missed it I don't remember Nintendo doing much pushing for SNK games in their presentations before Terry's reveal. So while it would certainly be promising for Nintendo to be actively promoting Falcom, it isn't strictly necessary.)

Also, there was an interview with Toshihiro Kondo recently talking about the future of the Trails series (summary is here). Interestingly, after Hajimari they're doing away with the turn-based AT battle system to go to a more real-time approach, but he doesn't go into specifics beyond that. To be honest, I'm gonna miss the battle system. It's easily breakable, especially when you have Brave Orders available or put Fie anywhere near the battlefield, but I enjoy the turn-based battles. I'll have to wait and see what they do for combat going forward -- having just finished Oath in Felghana, I know real-time combat is certainly doable for Falcom.

Thanks for sharing! A fun fact concerning Falcom: Their 40th anniversary is in March next year. Not that it really matters much, but hey, that lines up with a potential FP8 Spring reveal(which I expected to occur in March anyways), so the theory can still "live on", so to speak.

As far as them changing the combat is concerned... to be honest, I have mixed feelings. I'm still willing to trust them on it though. I played Ys VIII for the first time a few months ago, and it was one of the best experiences I've had with an Action RPG in a while. I hope it's a more polished version of that, with even better exploration and exploration-related mechanics being introduced as well.

 

[Coconattsu]

I don't want to go full doomer mode with the new "real time battles". I'm cautiously optimistic, but I'm also a bit scared of it failing. Personally, I am willing to give it a chance, it sounds really intriguing.

It's not necessarily like Ys or Tokyo Xanadu either, and it's apparently a battle style "never before seen".

“These are command battles with action elements and greater real-time nature—without an Action Time bar.”

I honestly don't hate how this sounds, it still is command battles. As long as it's not like FF7R I'm not too worried.

omgfloofy on Twitter also made a post with how she thinks this could be like, interesting read.

https://twitter.com/omgfloofy/status/1298509586580766720

 

[LucKekkai]

Ahhh, okay. I read "real time" and assumed it would be more in line with Ys/Tokyo Xanadu, but I should have looked closer. Well, however it turns out I hope it doesn't alienate too many people. It's a bold move regardless of how they do it, because we've essentially had the same core gameplay mechanics for 10 straight games(with a few additions here and there to spice things up). A sudden shift like this will definitely disturb those who prefer traditional turn-based combat.

 

[Coconattsu]

Ahhh, okay. I read "real time" and assumed it would be more in line with Ys/Tokyo Xanadu, but I should have looked closer. Well, however it turns out I hope it doesn't alienate too many people. It's a bold move regardless of how they do it, because we've essentially had the same core gameplay mechanics for 10 straight games(with a few additions here and there to spice things up). A sudden shift like this will definitely disturb those who prefer traditional turn-based combat.

Indeed, a VERY bold move, and if it flops, I really doubt they'll be able to change it back mid-arc. People are considering dropping the series altogether because of this, so there's a lot on the line here.

 

[LucKekkai]

Indeed, a VERY bold move, and if it flops, I really doubt they'll be able to change it back mid-arc. People are considering dropping the series altogether because of this, so there's a lot on the line here.

I know I wont be dropping it, but that's because I don't really have an issue with what's being described. Besides, I never played Trails for the gameplay anyways, but rather the story, world and characters. The gameplay has always been secondary for me, so the only way they could truly kill my interest in the Trails series would be to ruin the aspects that I love about them in the first place. That said, it's a bit concerning that some people are willing to drop the series over this.

And you're right, changing it back mid-arc wont really be possible, so let's just hope it is done right the first time. Who knows, it may even turn out to be far better than what we had before.

 

[Blankiturayman]

Guess what we can do is wait and see. The original style of combat has been around for a LONG time, so this change might come as unprecedented. Nonetheless, afaik, games after Hajimari are intended to be a "new beginning" of sorts, mostly separate from the stories and characters we know so far, so I suppose it's fitting. If anything, I hope it goes well. I really like the Trails gameplay we have so far, nice to keep track of the action bar, but we'll see.

 

[SNEKeater]

(Also, unless I missed it I don't remember Nintendo doing much pushing for SNK games in their presentations before Terry's reveal. So while it would certainly be promising for Nintendo to be actively promoting Falcom, it isn't strictly necessary.)

I remember SNK Heroines being part of the Direct where Dark Souls Remastered was announced. Besides that, I think Samurai Shodown was part of a Direct at certain point, but I'm not really sure.

Assuming we will get another Partner Showcase (or a General/Mini) next month, it would be a good moment to feature and promote Cold Steel IV, one month before it's release.

Anyway. A curious question, the Cold Steel saga takes place in the same universe as the Sky games? I remember reading that a long time ago. I recently started playing Trails in the Sky and I'm enjoying it by the way. I really like the characters and the world so far, and for now I haven't suffered with the combat besides 1-2 encounters, so I guess I'm okay haha. The game has a lot of charm in my opinion.

By the way: how would you rank the series? As I said until now I haven't played Falcom games, but I'm curious about how would you rank the Sky games. At first I thought asking only about how would you rate the Sky trilogy, but I'm also interested in trying the Cold Steel saga or the Ys series in the future, so if you want, you could post your opinion on these games as well.

 

[Coconattsu]

Assuming we will get another Partner Showcase (or a General/Mini) next month, it would be a good moment to feature and promote Cold Steel IV, one month before it's release.

CS4 releases later on for the Switch and PC, you may be thinking of the PS4 release which is in October as far as I remember.

As for the other questions, yes. They all take place in the same universe, some of the games even happen at the same time. Crossbell games happen at the same time as Cold Steel 1 and 2 specifically. It's both what makes the games so rewarding for people that played the games in order, and also daunting for new players to jump into. But it's really worth it!

Me, I'd rate Trails from Azure/Ao no Kiseki as the best game in the series so far, I say that without playing CS4 though, so this could change by then.

So: Azure/Ao > Sky SC > Zero > Cold Steel 3 > Sky 3rd > Sky FC >CS2 > CS1

The lowest rankings don't mean they're bad games, but some are just better than others

 

[ShrimpScampi]

I remember SNK Heroines being part of the Direct where Dark Souls Remastered was announced. Besides that, I think Samurai Shodown was part of a Direct at certain point, but I'm not really sure.

Assuming we will get another Partner Showcase (or a General/Mini) next month, it would be a good moment to feature and promote Cold Steel IV, one month before it's release.

Anyway. A curious question, the Cold Steel saga takes place in the same universe as the Sky games? I remember reading that a long time ago. I recently started playing Trails in the Sky and I'm enjoying it by the way. I really like the characters and the world so far, and for now I haven't suffered with the combat besides 1-2 encounters, so I guess I'm okay haha. The game has a lot of charm in my opinion.

By the way: how would you rank the series? As I said until now I haven't played Falcom games, but I'm curious about how would you rank the Sky games. At first I thought asking only about how would you rate the Sky trilogy, but I'm also interested in trying the Cold Steel saga or the Ys series in the future, so if you want, you could post your opinion on these games as well.

Glad you're enjoying it so far! Yeah, all the Trails games happen in the same universe, within a few years of each other. My ranking may change once the Geofront translation of Azure releases and I play through that, since the current fan translation can still be a bit rough in some areas, but my ranking of the series as of now is:
Zero > Cold Steel 3 > Azure > Sky SC > Sky 3rd > Sky FC > Cold Steel 2 > Cold Steel 1
That said, a lot of these are really close together in terms of my opinions of them, and they're all good games & enjoyable experiences.

As for Ys, I'm actually playing through the series right now (I've played Ys Origin and just finished Ys: The Oath in Felghana, and now I'm starting Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim). What I've played so far has been difficult, but tight and exhilarating in terms of combat. The bosses in particular are really hard, but beating them is rewarding since you absolutely have to master their attack patterns. As for story, Origin is a prequel to (I think) Ys I & II, so while I understood the plot I felt like some of the larger context was going over my head. Oath in Felghana was a nice, self-contained story that was pretty touching at the end.

Pretty much all of Ys/Trails on PC is on sale at the Humble Store right now, actually, so if you're interested in checking out an Ys game or grabbing another Trails game for after Sky FC, now might be a good time to get it.

 

[SNEKeater]

Glad you're enjoying it so far! Yeah, all the Trails games happen in the same universe, within a few years of each other. My ranking may change once the Geofront translation of Azure releases and I play through that, since the current fan translation can still be a bit rough in some areas, but my ranking of the series as of now is:
Zero > Cold Steel 3 > Azure > Sky SC > Sky 3rd > Sky FC > Cold Steel 2 > Cold Steel 1
That said, a lot of these are really close together in terms of my opinions of them, and they're all good games & enjoyable experiences.

As for Ys, I'm actually playing through the series right now (I've played Ys Origin and just finished Ys: The Oath in Felghana, and now I'm starting Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim). What I've played so far has been difficult, but tight and exhilarating in terms of combat. The bosses in particular are really hard, but beating them is rewarding since you absolutely have to master their attack patterns. As for story, Origin is a prequel to (I think) Ys I & II, so while I understood the plot I felt like some of the larger context was going over my head. Oath in Felghana was a nice, self-contained story that was pretty touching at the end.

Pretty much all of Ys/Trails on PC is on sale at the Humble Store right now, actually, so if you're interested in checking out an Ys game or grabbing another Trails game for after Sky FC, now might be a good time to get it.

Yeah, I'll probably go with Sky SC after the first one. Thanks for the tip, honestly never thought of looking in Humble Store lol
If anything my "problem" is that I usually buy games when they're on sale, at least when it comes to digital games. I'm more a fan of having physical games, so I only buy digital games if it is the only option or the game I want is difficult and expensive to find in stores.

For that reason I already decided to pick the Sky trilogy for PC, but for Ys VIII, which is the one I was thinking to try first (and which I assume is the best entry for newcomers at this moment) it's a bit complicated, at least where I live it's impossible to find the PS4 version for less than 50-60€. I guess I'll end picking it during a sale on the Playstation Store or buying a key for Steam, haha.

 

[LucKekkai]

I may as well throw my own two cents in as well. Here is my ranking for the Trails games I've played so far:

Sky FC > Sky SC > CS3 > Sky 3rd > CS2 > CS1

I'm withholding judgment on Zero/Azure for now. Yes, I actually like Sky FC the most out of all the Trails games I listed, as strange as that may sound to just about every Trails fan out there. Although I would rank them all really close to one another anyways. My appreciation for Sky FC is mainly due to the fact that it did an amazing job of laying the foundation for the first half of the series(and by "first half", I'm referring to the 10 games that have been released so far in Japan, since we are apparently only at the half-way point for the entire series according to Falcom). Sky SC has a lot of great moments(some of the most memorable in the series, in fact), so they are both closely tied to one another for me. CS3 follows closely behind, and Sky 3rd beats out CS2/1 just barely. If you play CS1/2, I suggest either the PS4 or PC versions. Mainly because of High Speed Mode(which makes a huge difference, trust me - I wish I had the PS4 or PC versions when I played through those games).

Now here is my ranking for Ys:

Ys VIII > Ys Memories of Celceta > Ys Oath in Felghana > Ys Seven > Ys VI > Ys I & II Chronicles (I've yet to play Origins, although I do own it)

Ys VIII is amazing. I never got bored while playing it. Memories of Celceta is excellent in it's own right though, as it actually delves into Adol as a character(he is a silent protagonist, so you rarely ever get to learn much about him in most of the games outside of what other characters say about him, yet in Memories you get to see glimpses of his past). Oath's gameplay is great, and I remember enjoying the story. Ys Seven is also great, but you need to level up and gear ALL of your characters if you don't want to suffer at the end of the game, which placed it slightly lower than Oath for me. Ys VI was actually kind of disappointing for me, but that could be because I jumped into it right after Ys VIII. As for Ys I & II Chronicles. they were actually my first Ys games, so I don't hate them. I just don't think they are particularly amazing either. That said, they are games I think RPG fans should experience at least once, if only because of how weird the combat system is.

All that out of the way, glad to see you're enjoying Sky FC.

 

[Coconattsu]

I may as well throw my own two cents in as well. Here is my ranking for the Trails games I've played so far:

Sky FC > Sky SC > CS3 > Sky 3rd > CS2 > CS1

I'm withholding judgment on Zero/Azure for now. Yes, I actually like Sky FC the most out of all the Trails games I listed, as strange as that may sound to just about every Trails fan out there...

I for sure rated FC too low now that you mention it, I didn't give it much thought. It was an amazing introduction and I loved it to bits, it was the only Trails game I finished in just a week after starting. So yeah, I know why you rate it that high.

Also funny how we all rated CS2 >CS1, as I often see CS1 being the most praised out of the two.

 

[LucKekkai]

I for sure rated FC too low now that you mention it, I didn't give it much thought. It was an amazing introduction and I loved it to bits, it was the only Trails game I finished in just a week after starting. So yeah, I know why you rate it that high.

Also funny how we all rated CS2 >CS1, as I often see CS1 being the most praised out of the two.

Almost every poll I see from Trails fans always rate Sky FC toward the bottom, that's why I said it might sound strange to other fans. But we all agree that it's a great game anyways, so... shrug Anyways, the most important kind of rating is how it compares to other RPGs. Which I would say it compares favorably to some of the best out there.

And I noticed that about our rating of CS1/2 as well. To be honest, the only reason why I consider Sky 3rd better than CS1/2 is because of the mission structure in Sky 3rd. I like how you can just do the optional stuff at any time in Sky 3rd, no pressure. Sure, you can miss a couple of things if you're not careful, but it is the most lenient game in the series when it comes to optional content(especially since there is no Bracer/Detective/Academic Point system in place). As much as I love these games, I hate missing stuff on my first run if I can help it, so Sky 3rd's approach to optional content was refreshing to me.

As for why I rated CS2 above CS1... it's because I liked the freedom you're given in CS2. And the gameplay additions were really cool too(like Overdrive - seriously, why did you get rid of this feature in CS3 Falcom, WHY!?). CS1 had a lot going for it(especially with how it establishes all of the side characters at Thors and how their stories carry over into CS2/3, and I'm assuming CS4/Hajimari as well), but I felt like CS2 was just a better game overall. It also helps that CS2 reminded me of Suikoden(another RPG series that I absolutely love).

 

[SNEKeater]

Thank you for the ratings! Very interesting. I also found curious to see Sky FC being in a somewhat low position, but I guess it's normal in a way, being the first game in the entire Trails series. Being the first one will have certain advantages such as the surprise factor, but also some downsides, I guess.
Maybe it's just because I started playing it not long ago but when I started I had a feeling that the game would be my favourite from the trilogy lol

I see Sky SC is very well considered, at least among your rankings. For some reason I thought Sky 3rd was going to be higher than SC.

 

[LucKekkai]

Thank you for the ratings! Very interesting. I also found curious to see Sky FC being in a somewhat low position, but I guess it's normal in a way, being the first game in the entire Trails series. Being the first one will have certain advantages such as the surprise factor, but also some downsides, I guess.
Maybe it's just because I started playing it not long ago but when I started I had a feeling that the game would be my favourite from the trilogy lol

I see Sky SC is very well considered, at least among your rankings. For some reason I thought Sky 3rd was going to be higher than SC.

Lol, once you play Sky SC you'll understand why so many people rate it highly. In particular, one of my favorite parts is Estelle's growth as a character(in all honesty if FC didn't do such a good job of establishing the world, I would have definitely rated SC at the top because of this alone). As for Sky 3rd, it's position is a bit awkward. I wont go into spoilers, but it's structured differently from most Trails titles. It's still important to the series as a whole though, as it acts as a bridge of sorts between the Sky arc and the Zero/Azure arc(and to an extent, the Cold Steel arc too), among a few other things.

 

[cashregister9]

My rating would probably go something like this (from favorite to least favorite)
-SC
-Cold Steel 3
-FC
-Cold Steel 2
-Cold Steel
-Third

I know what Happens in Zero and Azure but I haven't played them

 

[SNEKeater]

Lol, once you play Sky SC you'll understand why so many people rate it highly. In particular, one of my favorite parts is Estelle's growth as a character(in all honesty if FC didn't do such a good job of establishing the world, I would have definitely rated SC at the top because of this alone). As for Sky 3rd, it's position is a bit awkward. I wont go into spoilers, but it's structured differently from most Trails titles. It's still important to the series as a whole though, as it acts as a bridge of sorts between the Sky arc and the Zero/Azure arc(and to an extent, the Cold Steel arc too), among a few other things.

I see. I'll keep that in mind! Now I'm even more interested in playing SC and 3rd, which is cool I gues hahaha
About Estelle, yeah, it feels like that. I mean I have played like 15? hours of Sky FC and there's 2 more games with her, so I know I haven't really saw much of her, but I can feel I'll be loving her arc and her evolution by the end of the trilogy lol

Is there a way to play the Azure games in english? I mean, those weren't localized if I'm not mistaken. Maybe there's a fan translation or something?