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Dope! It makes me wonder if Switch will get the first two games in the series as well? Although I suppose that's XSEED's decision, not NIS America's. Still, it's awesome to have this on Switch. And it gives me hope that an announcement of a Switch port for Ys IX: Monstrum Nox is a possibility in 2020.
Switch Physical Collection - 1,241 games (as of March 23rd, 2024)
Favorite Quote: "Childhood is not from birth to a certain age and at a certain age the child is grown, and puts away childish things. Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies." -Edna St. Vincent Millay
@Magician
Just came here to post that link myself.
Preordered. Preordered preordered PREORDERED.
Pre.
Ordered.
All have sinned and fall short of Gods glory. Wages of sin is death. Romans
God so loved the world He sent His only Son- whoever believes on Him has eternal life. Unless you believe, you will die in your sins. Whoever believes, rivers of living water flow within them. John
Oh god, the amount of people that are going to jump into this without playing any of the other 7 games (or at the very least, CS1 and 2). I sincerely hope people here won't do that themselves.
Glad it is coming for Switch I was watching for this. This only means good signs for the Switch in the future. Developers and Indie are seeing the light that a aka "underpowered" Switch can play what the big boys can only says is on their league. I for one am glad for it and will when permitting get the CE edition.
@Drake This series has seven other games? My goodness! Newcomers like myself are going to be super confused.
More than seven, the Legend of Heroes series has been running since 1989. But unlike Final Fantasy, the Legend of Heroes series carry one story arc across multiple games. Conversely, most rpg games have a new story with each new entry in a series. The story of LoH: Trails of Cold Steel spans across four games.
Switch Physical Collection - 1,241 games (as of March 23rd, 2024)
Favorite Quote: "Childhood is not from birth to a certain age and at a certain age the child is grown, and puts away childish things. Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies." -Edna St. Vincent Millay
Oh god, the amount of people that are going to jump into this without playing any of the other 7 games (or at the very least, CS1 and 2). I sincerely hope people here won't do that themselves.
I mean, most people aren’t going to go play multiple 100+ hour JRPGs on other platforms just as a prerequisite storyline catch-me-up.
The game includes an interactive (kind of) plot summary that expounds in great detail the events leading up to the present:
Trails of Cold Steel Summary
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Intermission
Final Chapter
Trails of Cold Steel 2 Summary
Prologue
Act 1
Intermission
Act 2
Finale
Divertissement
Epilogue
Character Profiles
Thors Military Academy - Class VII
Thors Military Academy - Others
Allies
Key Figures
Suspicious Figures
Others
World Introduction
The World of Trails
Countries of Zemuria
Erebonia’s 5 Major Cities
Erebonian Organizations
Erebonian History
And each of those topics have menus and submenus, with all people, places, things, events and ideas thoroughly explained. The best part is the story summary though, as it has text with button prompts to continue with various character animations.
It’s obviously best if someone has played all the games, or at least the previous Cold Steel entries. But I don’t think it’s a big deal if someone hasn’t, given the elaborate summary descriptions included. As long as someone takes 15 or 20 minutes before starting their game to glance over and soak up some info, they’ll manage fine. I own the first 2 Cold Steel games on Vita but never played more than a few hours, and I own all three of them on PS4 but again, never played more than a few hours. But what I have played I’ve managed just fine thanks to the summaries provided.
All that being said, I do hope XSEED somehow manages to bring the first two games (though I doubt they will- unlike NIS they don’t have the manpower for such an endeavor). But even if they did I would probably start with this one anyways just because the first two are... a little rigid, imo.
All have sinned and fall short of Gods glory. Wages of sin is death. Romans
God so loved the world He sent His only Son- whoever believes on Him has eternal life. Unless you believe, you will die in your sins. Whoever believes, rivers of living water flow within them. John
Ok, I just lost my freakin mind!! This has been my number 1 most anticipated title for a couple of years now (played them all including the Crossbell fan translations). I've been that desperate to play it that i've been checking the PSNow titles daily (because no pc version). I never even considered that it would come to the Switch!! Falcom has to bring the whole Trails series over now, they are perfect for Switch.
@JaxonH I do know that CS3 is enjoyable enough (gameplay-wise) without playing any previous entries, but man... this is the only game series I know to carry an incredibly intricate world and characters across 9 games (with more to come). It's practically its biggest selling point because there is quite literally nothing else like it.
Diving into the series with CS3 as your first game is like reading the 6th or 7th Harry Potter book and skipping the rest. 90% of the impact of certain scenes, characters, words, etc. will go completely over your head. Of course, anyone's free to start here anyway, but I think they'd be doing themselves a major disservice by doing so.
Falcom's other series (like Ys) are totally fine to play in whatever order you want and all you'll miss out on are a couple of minor references, but Trails is way, way more than that and I think it's kind of insulting for NISA to constantly insist that starting here is fine, even if I do understand why they're saying that (they didn't publish any previous games and they don't want to promote a competitor's products).
Also, while the in-game summary does summarize CS1 and 2 pretty well, it's got practically nothing about the other games, so you'd still be lacking a lot of information, one example is that characters from Crossbell that are in CS3 but weren't in 1 and 2 (Like Randy and Tio) don't even have character profiles. It's primarily intended as a recap for people who already played 1 and 2 and simply need a refresher before starting 3.
Ideally I'd recommend everyone to start with Trails in the Sky, but I do also realize playing 500+ hours worth of games in order to play the newest entry is pretty daunting. At the very least I hope people interested in the series will consider starting with CS1 first, and if they enjoy it a lot, consider going back to Sky (and Crossbell) before getting to CS3. You don't NEED to play games as soon as they release, after all.
@Dredlor yep, I really hope they do too because
the series is amazing from the start and more people need to play them. Character development and world building is second to none and they never miss a beat in terms continuity right down to small things like the different character's sense of humour. Absolutely epic. Jumping in at Cold Steel 3 seems wrong but it may not be so bad seeing that you CAN start from any of the beginnings of the different arcs. And there is a year or so I believe between 2 and 3 so it MAY be its own arc (3 and 4 that is). not sure.
@Drake summed it up perfectly. I haven't played 3 yet and by the sound of it, sounds like it kinda ruins 1 and 2 with the recap. I personally wouldn't want them ruined that way. Starting with Cold Steel 1 at least is my advice.
@Drake
I’m not disagreeing that’s the preferable choice. I completely understand that that is the intended way it should be approached and by not doing so you will not enjoy it as much as you could.
That being said.
Buying and playing through multiple other games with 100+ hours on completely separate systems just as a requisite to play a new game someone has interest in is an immensely big ask for players interested in the title.
The summary will do fine for most people. For those who have the ambition to go play multiple other games just to try to properly enjoy this one, I say more power to them, and I truly hope they thoroughly enjoy it. But most people are not going to be willing to do that, and even I myself am not willing to do that.
My point being, for people like myself and most others, the summary should more than suffice. It does indeed cover all the important plot points. You won’t enjoy reading the summary as much as you would enjoy actually playing the games (should go without saying) but that’s not its purpose, which is to get the player up to speed to the extent they comprehend enough of what’s going on to enjoy the game without being utterly confounded. And to that end, it should do just fine.
All have sinned and fall short of Gods glory. Wages of sin is death. Romans
God so loved the world He sent His only Son- whoever believes on Him has eternal life. Unless you believe, you will die in your sins. Whoever believes, rivers of living water flow within them. John
@Drake I think starting in Sky will make some people drop it tbh, I tried Sky and can't get further than first 2 hours because the fighting system is so... idk how to explain it but I don't enjoy it at all. And it's suuuuuuuuuuuper slow
I'm a little concerned about the success of this given what people have said about the backstory (how would jumping into this be compared to, say, Kingdom Hearts 3?)
As JRPG not who have never touched the series, I have done interest in this. What other JRPGs is it comparable to?
All have sinned and fall short of Gods glory. Wages of sin is death. Romans
God so loved the world He sent His only Son- whoever believes on Him has eternal life. Unless you believe, you will die in your sins. Whoever believes, rivers of living water flow within them. John
Read the story summary for both previous games. And I have to say, the first game ended on a cliffhanger but the second game, it really tied together... like, everything. It feels like the first two games were a duology and this game is just starting a fresh story altogether. I even have different classmates than were in the first two games! I mean sure, knowing the backstory and lore is definitely nice, but this really does feel completely detached from the previous two games.
edit
Spoke too soon. Rean showed up. Just in the nick of time too, cause I was getting stomped on.
Started a new save afterwards, and so far, the quality of the port is top notch. Really high quality port. It runs beautiful, looks gorgeous in handheld mode... I’ve got no complaints whatsoever.
I just hope the demo save data transfers into the full game.
All have sinned and fall short of Gods glory. Wages of sin is death. Romans
God so loved the world He sent His only Son- whoever believes on Him has eternal life. Unless you believe, you will die in your sins. Whoever believes, rivers of living water flow within them. John
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