So... Anelace (Star Door 5/Cold Steel spoilers)

[Sergei Lou]

Based on what is told to the player about Anelace and the Eight Leaves style, Anelace learned ALL the variations and, as far as i know, Cassius dropped the Sword, Alan studied under Cassius and Rean is a drop-out, IIRC). Don't know if the Crossbell or CS II or III will introduce other students.

On Paper, does this give Anelace (given time and improvement) the potential to be the best Eight Leaves pratictioner excluding Ka-Fai?

[Turtle]

I don't think Anelace learned all eight forms. I imagine that everyone who trained under Ka-fai got a bit of basic experience in each form, and then chose one (or more) to develop on their own. So she can recognize Richard's fifth form when she sees it, but it's not necessarily her form.

I don't know if the game ever says which form Anelace uses.

[Sergei Lou]

Nope, he taught her ALL the forms. Ka-Fai explicitly told her that he didn't have anything more to teach her.

She herself just says that it's up to her to master all of them.

[DDR]

Actually, Eight Leaves students do learn all 8 forms as part of their normal curriculum. After they reach a certain stage of proficiency, they then choose a form to develop their swordsmanship based on - any 1 from the first 7 forms. (The 8th form cannot be the chosen because it's a 'back-up' form that can be used when disarmed.)

For example, Rean definitely uses more than one form: Rean uses Gale, Autumn Leaf Cutter, Morning Moon, Void... all of which are different forms.

In contrast, more experienced people like Arios only use one form, because they've chosen a form to stick with. There's no evidence that Anelace has chosen a form yet or if she's at the level to choose, but from her crafts I think she might just go with Gale.

The regularly taught Eight Leaves is just the eight basic forms, and Ka-fai has indeed taught Anelace all of them. Therefore what he meant is that it's up to her to gain more experience in order to master one.

[Sergei Lou]

That much i have guessed, but just for the sake of keeping up with the theory... Would it be possible for someone to master ALL the forms?

[Hat8]

Originally posted by Louis Cyphre:

That much i have guessed, but just for the sake of keeping up with the theory... Would it be possible for someone to master ALL the forms?

Presumably the master himself has. I'm of the opinion that Anelace has as well but has chosen a focus and the master has done the same.

[kraidy117]

A small correction, Rean's not a drop out, he's still being watched by his master and during the Ymir trip he was moved to intermediate level by Yun Ka-Fai himself. So yeah Rean is still a student, Yun Ka-Fai is just doing a diffrent way of teaching to fit Rean. As for if it's possible for a student to master all forms like Yun Ka-Fai has, in theory yes but most likely none of the five divine blades have and decided to completelty master and focus on one style (while still being able to use the other styles to a degree)

[Sergei Lou]

My bad. Maybe i misremembered a dialogue from Cold Steel (I, I have still to play II). I remember he was talking about his sword style with someone and said he left or something similar. It was relatively early in the game too...

[Ghaleon]

Originally posted by Louis Cyphre:

My bad. Maybe i misremembered a dialogue from Cold Steel (I, I have still to play II). I remember he was talking about his sword style with someone and said he left or something similar. It was relatively early in the game too...

I believe rean's sword 'rank' thing is addressed somewhat on the website... goto the trails of cold steel 2 website on xseed and read the...the... err.. I forget what htey call it... it's basically a short story about them going to ymir and fighting a yeti or something. It is considered 'manditory' reading material between 1 and 2 and actually happens in the MIDDLE of 1's storry (well more like in the 3/5ths or something but whatever).

[kraidy117]

Originally posted by Louis Cyphre:

My bad. Maybe i misremembered a dialogue from Cold Steel (I, I have still to play II). I remember he was talking about his sword style with someone and said he left or something similar. It was relatively early in the game too...

Xseed has the drama CD translated on one of the cold steel sites and CS2 also has a summary of the drama CD too, this is because the Ymir trip was ment to be in CS1 but because of the vita, it was cut (same with western Erebonia and Patricks father for CS2) In a nutshell Yun Ka-Fai put the training on hold because Rean could not accept, controll and harnass his power, but he never stopped watching Rean, so the training is still on-going. It's just very diffrent then Cassius and Arios's training.