Is this series more fun than Trails in the Sky?

[play xenogears]

I loved FC but SC left such a terrible taste in my mouth that I dropped it about a third of the way in. I never liked the actual gameplay of those games much, but FC had such solid writing I ended up liking it regardless. SC I didn't like at all.

Do the Sen/Cold Steel games have at least more enjoyable combat and progression than Sky? What about the writing, how does that compare to the Sky games?

[Koby]

Personally I vastly prefer the combat in Cold Steel, but the writing is generally a lot better in Sky.

[Dr. Rudolf von Richten]

Well, without knowing what you disliked about Sky SC, it's hard to tell whether or not you'll like Cold Steel better. Do note that, in general, Sky SC is considered to be one of the best written Trails games, while the writing in Cold Steel is typically regarded to be less good.

This is not a universally held opinion, and you might very well end up disagreeing with it, but it's something to keep in mind. Some people consider the early parts of SC 'slow' and 'repetitive', but even those who feel that way tend to love the later parts.

Chapters 4 and onward each have at one or more mayor scenes of top-tier writing and deep emotional impact, while the situation becomes ever more dire as the enemies' plans and their consequences start to unfold. If you stop early, you miss the best parts of SC.

One other thing. whatever you do, don't start with Cold Steel 4. If you want to play the Cold Steel series, start at the beginning, with Cold Steel 1, or the story will make no sense and you will have no emotional connection to everything going on.

[Stabbey]

Each game in the series tends to take the lessons learned from previous games to progressively refine the gameplay for the next game - cutting back on some strategies or mechanics which were too overpowered, buffing up things which were weaker, changing the balance between Arts and Crafts, that sort of thing.

So generally speaking, the mechanics are probably going to feel better in the Cold Steel series, because those games have taken the lessons from many previous games into account.

I like the writing more in the Sky games and the Crossbell games than Cold Steel, though. Cold Steel 2 took a noticeable dip in quality for me, and a lot of the writing decisions made in Cold Steel 4 landed with an unsatisfying wet splat. But your mileage may vary.

[play xenogears]

Originally posted by Dr. Rudolf von Richten:

what you disliked about Sky SC

I didn't like how much of the first game was reused without any real changes. It also felt like a lot of the urgency from the ending of the first game was just dropped, and SC just kind of meandered. I wouldn't mind that too much if where it meandered was good, but it did that crappy JRPG trope of villains pulling that "heh... guess i better get serious... but i wont kill you yet..." ♥♥♥♥. Like three times in a row. Bumping around recycled zones from the first game, achieving nothing every time because the bad guys are super powerful asspull cardboard cutouts. If the combat was more engaging I wouldn't be bothered, but even it was a slog compared to FC. I love the Ys games, but those games are carried by something other than their writing.

I don't get how people can think SC is the best written one unless whoever wrote that first part was fired and replaced midway in development. Does it really get that much better? I believe I was doing something to help the little blonde girl out at the hotsprings when I dropped it, or something.

[Dr. Rudolf von Richten]

Originally posted by coconut enjoyer:

Originally posted by Dr. Rudolf von Richten:

what you disliked about Sky SC

I didn't like how much of the first game was reused without any real changes. It also felt like a lot of the urgency from the ending of the first game was just dropped, and SC just kind of meandered. I wouldn't mind that too much if where it meandered was good, but it did that crappy JRPG trope of villains pulling that "heh... guess i better get serious... but i wont kill you yet..." ♥♥♥♥. Like three times in a row. Bumping around recycled zones from the first game, achieving nothing every time because the bad guys are super powerful asspull cardboard cutouts. If the combat was more engaging I wouldn't be bothered, but even it was a slog compared to FC. I love the Ys games, but those games are carried by something other than their writing.

I don't get how people can think SC is the best written one unless whoever wrote that first part was fired and replaced midway in development. Does it really get that much better? I believe I was doing something to help the little blonde girl out at the hotsprings when I dropped it, or something.

Well, like I said, quite some people consider the first part of SC 'slow' and 'repetitive'. It's mostly your enjoyment of the characters and the world that's supposed to carry you through. Chapter 2, which is where you stopped, is probably the low point of the game. Chapters 3-6 are each better than the previous, chapters 7 and 8 are more uneven, but do have some great scenes, and the finale is outright fantastic.

Regarding the villains; they also become more interesting in later chapters, and they do have reasons for doing the 'OK, this was fun, see you later' trope. Whether or not you'll accept those reasons cannot be discussed without heavy spoilers. Let's just say that they have a plan to follow, which requires holding back in the early stages.

As for the reused assets; you're in the same country, so it isn't surprising you'll see the same places. There will be new places later on though, some very spectacular ones. It's also a practical issue, as Falcom is a small company and this saves money. It will happen again with Zero and Azure, Cold Steel 1 and 2, and Cold Steel 3 and 4.

[Stabbey]

Ah, well if that's what you hate, there are parts of Cold Steel which you will definitely dislike a lot.

I thought Sky FC was the best written game in the series, and I didn't find the bad guys in Sky SC to be very engaging.

[Mistfox]

Originally posted by coconut enjoyer:

Originally posted by Dr. Rudolf von Richten:

what you disliked about Sky SC

I didn't like how much of the first game was reused without any real changes. It also felt like a lot of the urgency from the ending of the first game was just dropped, and SC just kind of meandered. I wouldn't mind that too much if where it meandered was good, but it did that crappy JRPG trope of villains pulling that "heh... guess i better get serious... but i wont kill you yet..." ♥♥♥♥. Like three times in a row. Bumping around recycled zones from the first game, achieving nothing every time because the bad guys are super powerful asspull cardboard cutouts. If the combat was more engaging I wouldn't be bothered, but even it was a slog compared to FC. I love the Ys games, but those games are carried by something other than their writing.

I don't get how people can think SC is the best written one unless whoever wrote that first part was fired and replaced midway in development. Does it really get that much better? I believe I was doing something to help the little blonde girl out at the hotsprings when I dropped it, or something.

In that case, you will utterly hate Cold Steel lol. I think part of the fun of the Trails series is the worldbuilding and the background lore that you actually have to work to find out, so just cruising through the game will cause you to miss a lot of background, like how Kloe's parents were killed in an air crash or how Jaegers work in teams of 3 (from the books you find ingame, Carnelia). Not limited to Sky, Carnelia was Toby and Ein's story, Red Moon Rose was Rosalia's story and the most recent Three and Nine is the forshadowing for the MC in the next game in the series. That being said, the problems you pointed out will make you utterly hate Cold Steel. SC starts out slow but it has a lot of info you will get into later, like how the "bad guys" are related to your party members. And how even members of your party are not who they appear to be on the surface. No, not talking about that idiot Oliver. lol. Though he does also have his secrets. More Kevin being an assassin for the church and offing Weisman permanently in contrast to his happy go lucky persona .

I get that different people have different tastes and from what you dislike about SC, you will definitely hate Cold Steel so I'd recommend you DON'T get it. Hell, I love the Trails series and some of the flaws closely related to what you have problems with already almost made me drop the game. Almost.

[play xenogears]

Welp, thanks for the honest responses. To be honest looking at Cold Steel it gave me some of those uh, Persona 4 and 5 vibes which I'm not exactly a big fan of either.

My JRPG backlog is massive and ever-increasing but I'll keep in mind that SC does get better if I get the itch again. In the meantime, Nayuta looks way more up my alley.

Originally posted by Stabbey:

I thought Sky FC was the best written game in the series, and I didn't find the bad guys in Sky SC to be very engaging.

Yeah, I thought FC was great even if I didn't really enjoy the combat. I liked it enough that it was one of the games that motivated me to learn moonrunes since SC was still in translation purgatory at the time. SC really felt like it dropped the ball. I was reading negative reviews to see if I was alone in thinking that but it seems it's pretty divisive and a lot of people think SC's villains are lackluster.

[Mistfox]

Originally posted by coconut enjoyer:

I was reading negative reviews to see if I was alone in thinking that but it seems it's pretty divisive and a lot of people think SC's villains are lackluster.

Personally, I think they are more complicated than people give them credit for. Unfortunately though, you start SC with the guy that is the most.. ug... cardboard. Spoilers galore: Walter the Direwolf is the typical power hungry backstabber that betrayed his lover and master. The rest are more complicated. Luciola "hated" Scherazard not because she really hated her but was more "ashamed" to face her and tried to act tough to keep her away. Rene "hated" Estelle because she thought that Estelle "stole" "Big Brother" Joshua away from her. .

Most of the characters are a lot deeper than they appear, though it takes time to slowly tease out their history. For example, Lowe and Joshua rescued Rene from a child prostitution den which is why she has a massive case of dependency on them, Agate ended up imprinting on Tita because she reminds him of his little sister that passed away and Alan and Mayor Dalemore was even more esoteric being that they were being mind influenced by Weissmann . If you had played up to the hot springs, then you would have met Kevin the Priest. Just a teaser He's actually a Church assassin sent to kill Weissmann as they know that Weissmann would cross paths with the Brights sooner or later .

[diego_vizia]

Originally posted by coconut enjoyer:

I loved FC but SC left such a terrible taste in my mouth that I dropped it about a third of the way in. I never liked the actual gameplay of those games much, but FC had such solid writing I ended up liking it regardless. SC I didn't like at all.

Do the Sen/Cold Steel games have at least more enjoyable combat and progression than Sky? What about the writing, how does that compare to the Sky games?

I'm at the final boss of Sky SC, and I didn't enjoy a single moment in the entire game.

Chapter 8 has to be the single worst chapter I've ever had the disgrace to play in any RPG. And the rest goes from meh to awful. The story is bad and full of clichés to the point of being eye rolling, comparable to Dragon Ball Z. The gameplay, as you said, feels old and way too simple (and unbalanced).

I've played Cold Steel 1 through 3, Zero/Azure and Sky 1/2. Sky SC is VERY COMFORTABLY the worst, in everything.

I can't understand how people enjoyed this...

[play xenogears]

Originally posted by diego_vizia:

The story is bad and full of clichés to the point of being eye rolling, comparable to Dragon Ball Z.

What, you don't like HEH TIME TO GET SERIOUS *wipes ur party and leaves* 3 times in the span of ~20 hours?

[diego_vizia]

Originally posted by coconut enjoyer:

Originally posted by diego_vizia:

The story is bad and full of clichés to the point of being eye rolling, comparable to Dragon Ball Z.

What, you don't like HEH TIME TO GET SERIOUS *wipes ur party and leaves* 3 times in the span of ~20 hours?

Hahahahaha!

Among other things, like "This was part of the plan all along". That phrase is repeated endlessly throughout the series, and it gets to a point where it's so bad it's actually funny.

I just finished watching the ending, and it has to be the single most animesque happy ending I've ever seen in any game. It even has the stupid song in major mode, always present in bad anime.

It's a shame, cause I was really looking forward to SC after beating FC...

[play xenogears]

Originally posted by diego_vizia:

It's a shame, cause I was really looking forward to SC after beating FC...

Yeah I was pretty much in the same spot. Hell, FC was one of the games that motivated me to learn enough japanese to play games (SC was in translation purgatory at the time). SC basically put me off the rest of the franchise so I haven't tried Cold Steel or anything yet.

When it comes to Falcom I definitely prefer their older action games like the earlier Ys games and Popful Mail.

[Histidine]

Ehhhh, I found Sky SC Ch8 pretty annoying once you're down to 1-2 ZFGs, but I didn't totally hate it.
And the story's other sins are done even worse in the other arcs' sequels; e.g. compared to CS2, at least SC had the decency to put its 'did you think this was my true power' gimmick in the right place in the three-act structure, namely not in the bleeping climax!

[diego_vizia]

Originally posted by Histidine:

Ehhhh, I found Sky SC Ch8 pretty annoying once you're down to 1-2 ZFGs, but I didn't totally hate it.
And the story's other sins are done even worse in the other arcs' sequels; e.g. compared to CS2, at least SC had the decency to put its 'did you think this was my true power' gimmick in the right place in the three-act structure, namely not in the bleeping climax!

You are right about that. I totally hated the last portion of CS2, but at least that game had awesome gameplay to make up for the insanely ridiculous plot.