Foppery and Whim

[Gambio]

This is part of an ongoing series, that will ultimately cover the Sky Trilogy and Cold Steel I and II.

I already completed the Sky Trilogy

FC

https://steamcommunity.com/app/251150/discussions/0/1744483505472303737/ 

SC

https://steamcommunity.com/app/251290/discussions/0/1842441871278607866/

The 3rd

https://steamcommunity.com/app/436670/discussions/0/3491891042499223478/


and Cold Steel

https://steamcommunity.com/app/538680/discussions/0/1644295067072363971/


Please be aware that because of this Setup this Thread may or may not contain Spoilers from all three Sky Games and Cold Steel I and II 


The objective of this Run is to fail as many Sidequests as possible, if Failure is impossible i am not allowed to complete them unless the Game forces me to. Overall i must strive to get as little AP as possible


Aside from the Challenge this also serves as Dialog Hunting. If you are interested in a particular Fail State, feel free to comment

To further spice things up we will implement some additional Rules

Difficulty is Nightmare on New Game
Im unable to sell Items for Mira, this includes Sepith and Sepith Mass, unless the Sepith is a reward from a Sidequest orTreasure Chest (Trading is ok tough)
I will not make use of Master Quartz unless the Game forces me to.
no Blue Chests (i will provide you with the puns tough)
no student recruitings unless forced to(this probably falls under the AP Rule anyway)




https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2002445058

„Balanced for new game+“ Falcom please...



https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2002445087

I‘m not sure why the game decided to hand me free stuff given my awful performance in Cold Steel, but i take the pity bonus

Current Funds: 100 of each Sepith


We wake up somewhere in the Eisengard range, heavily weakened and without equipment.

Luckily Celine is here to give us a quick rundown on the situation

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2002445145

Urgh…


https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2002445210

We may have lost our equipment but this free DLC sure makes up for it. (You think thats enough Zeram? Holy ♥♥♥♥ wtf Falcom?)

Of course i won‘t make us of anything here beyond the cosmetic items

Speaking of, where are my bunny ears?


https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2002445295

No Game


While we have to equip Force, we can unequip it right after before initiating the first fight (which is a bit unfortunate for me)

The first fight against two Helm Scorpions is easy enough, but then i have to deal with those guys

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2002468265

These are your classic „Use Arts, stupid“ enemies, unfortunately i don‘t have any arts available to me.


Luckily two Motivates and Flame Impact solve our ATK Problem. It probably doesn‘t bode well for this Games balance, that we can already break it in the second fight of the game.

And from here on out we have access to an Orbment station so the next few Fights are of no issue.


https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2002468164

I quite like this opening segment. It does a good job of setting the tone (and Celine following you is pretty cool as well) Also while there is little change in the graphics, i do think the animations are slightly more fluid compared to the first game.


Rean is Level 41

[Val the Moofia Boss]

The saga continues!

[[Z.E.] Gri-49]

Animation are more detailled, but also slower in battles (which is a small pain)

Also: this playthrough will be a MASACRE!

[Evil Gambio]

If you want me to make a quick and dirty difficulty mod, I'll do it. Difficulty multipliers are super easy and I can even do a lot more than that if you want...
If you're fine with a super easy run then so be it but I'll gladly do this for you.

[Gambio]

Originally posted by Evil Gambio:

If you want me to make a quick and dirty difficulty mod, I'll do it. Difficulty multipliers are super easy and I can even do a lot more than that if you want...
If you're fine with a super easy run then so be it but I'll gladly do this for you.

man, your evil


I am really tempted, but i am going to stick to the plan, sorry

[Evil Gambio]

Originally posted by Gambio:

Originally posted by Evil Gambio:

If you want me to make a quick and dirty difficulty mod, I'll do it. Difficulty multipliers are super easy and I can even do a lot more than that if you want...
If you're fine with a super easy run then so be it but I'll gladly do this for you.

man, your evil


I am really tempted, but i am going to stick to the plan, sorry

Damn... well, never forget that offer will always be on the table ;)
Just tell me what you want :)

[Gambio]

Originally posted by Evil Gambio:

Originally posted by Gambio:

man, your evil


I am really tempted, but i am going to stick to the plan, sorry

Damn... well, never forget that offer will always be on the table ;)
Just tell me what you want :)

If it doesn't require me to start a new save file i may come back to you later on, we see how it goes



Turns out we are only a few hours from Ymir, but before we can head home, we come face to face with our first magic knight


I don't like these things. An annoying lot of enemies in CSII can regenerate health and these bastards are the posterboy of that.

Luckily good old Ortheim can not regenerate health(for now) but that doesn't mean this fight is a pushover

The reason for that isn't Ortheim himself but

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2004194538

Turn bonuses (♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, are these enough crits, game?)

Especially those of the health variety, while Rean can manipulate the turn order to a certain degree, sometimes you just can't prevent Ortheim from getting a heal

I struggled quite a bit with this boss and after a few tries i decided to finally pull out all the stops


https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2004194731

Black Fang Mode ENGAGED



As expected i won right away


But seriously, my biggest issue was, that i took way too long to realise that Motivate isn't particularly useful in this fight. Its better to do chip damage and make sure you are as close to full health as possible, so you can actually survive using an S-craft


https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2004194820

I'm not sure what is worse, being told you lost the fight after an extremly tough or an extremly easy battle


https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2004194955

Thats Elise, you used her as bait once.



Luckily we get saved by Toval, and as Reans consciousness fades away we get his final toughts.


https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2004194989



I like to think that its Osborne's voice Rean is hearing here, but its clearly just Valimar.

Unless Osborne and Valimar are somewhat related, which wouldn't surprise me at all.


We get treated to a pretty cool second opening



https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2004195032

I especially like this image, which pretty much spells out the entire plot of the game

We wake up in Ymir and get finally a decent update on the Situations, turns out the Noble Alliance has pretty much occupied the entire country and taken the emperor and crown prince into custody.

Well, that sucks


https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2004195214

Oh yeah, always a bit crazy to think that this all happened just last year.


Rean is Level 42

[Evil Gambio]

No, whatever modding will not require starting a new playthrough.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Originally posted by Gambio:

I don't like these things. An annoying lot of enemies in CSII can regenerate health and these bastards are the posterboy of that.

Not sure why they did that. An enemy's health bar is a measure of progress toward defeating that enemy. It never feels good to see your progress reversed by the boss healing their health bar. It's pretty basic game design.

Originally posted by Gambio:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2004195214

Oh yeah, always a bit crazy to think that this all happened just last year.

Closer to two years ago. FC starts sometime in 1202 and takes place over a couple weeks. SC takes place 3 months later and takes place over a couple weeks. IIRC, 3rd takes place a six months after that, but Olivier didn't travel to Liberl for that.

[[Z.E.] Gri-49]

Urgh, stupid game Opening. I only watch them when I cleared the game. It's so stupid that they show all characters. In CS1, they even show the attack of the noble alliance, which happen at the very end of the game.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Originally posted by Z.E. Gri-49:

Urgh, stupid game Opening. I only watch them when I cleared the game. It's so stupid that they show all characters. In CS1, they even show the attack of the noble alliance, which happen at the very end of the game.

The Soldats in the CS1 opening completely flew over my head when I played CS1 for the first time. I thought that they were just archaisms like the ones seen in the opening, nothing special.

If you haven't played SC or Ao, definitely don't look at the Evolution openings. No idea why Falcom did that.

[[Z.E.] Gri-49]

Originally posted by Val the Moofia Boss:

Originally posted by Z.E. Gri-49:

Urgh, stupid game Opening. I only watch them when I cleared the game. It's so stupid that they show all characters. In CS1, they even show the attack of the noble alliance, which happen at the very end of the game.

The Soldats in the CS1 opening completely flew over my head when I played CS1 for the first time. I thought that they were just archaisms like the ones seen in the opening, nothing special.

If you haven't played SC or Ao, definitely don't look at the Evolution openings. No idea why Falcom did that.

Rest assured that I did. It's been a long habit of mine to not watch the opening of a game (I avoid spoiler as much as possible, even use a Video Blocker to block videos with specific word in their Title, such as "Kiseki", "Cold Steel", "CS3", etc). Still listen to the music though, in case it's used somewhere else in the game.

[Gambio]

"Not sure why they did that. An enemy's health bar is a measure of progress toward defeating that enemy. It never feels good to see your progress reversed by the boss healing their health bar. It's pretty basic game design."



I don't mind it, if its done well. I have no issue with how HP regeneration is handled in Sky for example.(well, maybe except for one certain fight. Damn you Kuuuuuurt!)

But in CSII its really just Boss gets a buff and heals, its part of the reason i'm reluctant to increase the difficulty further. You really need to be able to do a lot of damage at once to prevent them from just outhealing you.



https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2006193811


Ah, Ymir home of hot springs, snowboarding and raging alcoholics



https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2006193875

Have you ever stopped to admire the various paintings? Some of them are pretty wild, like this scene who (i assume) depicts the Trojan Horse




https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2006193715

the cable car is the new noble salon. I want to ride it, dammit!



https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2006193954

Now, i regret that i didn't have "no fishing" rule. Would have been interesting to see the Dialog


https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2006193689

I love the blatantly biased Imperial Chronicle. Its a shame CSII has only a few volumes of it.



https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2006193922
That is actually pretty rough.

We have our own misery to wallow in, tough

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2006193978

Don't worry Rean, you get used to it.


https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2006194039

Rean, please stop channeling Joshua so hard.


I always struggled a bit with this aspect of Reans character. On one hand i appreciate the characterisation, Rean certainly needs as much of that as possible, but then it just always feels kinda hollow to me. I mean with Joshua and Kevin it made perfect sense given their past. But Reans immense self loathing seems to be based on very little.


Elise gives Rean a pep talk and once Alfin and Celine show up there is no much time for that. Especially after we hear a rather loud roar

Looks like Ortheim is ready to... such our ort heim! (yes, that works only in german)

Rean is Level 42
Elise is Level 37
Toval is Level 47

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Originally posted by Gambio:

Reans immense self loathing seems to be based on very little.

Apparently abandoned by his parents with no explanation. Thinks he was of so little value to his parents that they couldn't be bothered to raise him.

Is adopted by new parents at their expense. His father's reputation was sullied by bringing back a kid from nowhere and adopting him. His father hardly now interacts in social circles, only having a handful of friends outside of Ymir like Victor.

They have to invest time and money raising him. Thinks he might be a cuckoo bird, as now he has become heir the Schwarzer fortune... instead of the Schwarzer's biological daughter. (Thus, why he insists on leaving the Schwarzer name behind and having Elise inherit, as what would have happened if he would have never been adopted).

Inexplicably transformed into an out of control monster when he was kid. By mere luck he didn't kill Elise. No one can explain this.

Was given to Yun-Ka Fai for training, and then apparently failed as an apprentice as his teacher cut off his training.

And that's just what happened prior to him coming to Thors. Rean has a considerable amount of baggage, and it only piles up as the story goes on.

[Gambio]

@Val

You raise some good points, i probably shouldn't have tried to turn this into a "who suffered more" contest



Both Elise and Toval have locked in Orbments, which means i'm pretty overpowered right now.


Toval in particular is an absolute beast. He hits hard, his arts are lightning fast and his S-craft is a full field AOE "I win" button

Also, he has the coolest field attack ever

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2007720712

Not bad for a guy who uses a Stun Rod.(The Ravens would approve)



https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2007720794

current funds: 150 of each Sepith



Not very surprising nothing in our path stands a chance until old Ortheim



You might think this fight is a pushover as well, but Ortheim has learned a new trick


https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2007720944

Oh, no


Aside from that, his attacks are more then capable of tearing your formation apart, making healing and buffing quite challenging



I still got him on my first try, but i cut it pretty close

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2007720988


Unfortunately a win in CSII means nothing as Ortheim simply grows two more arms, luckily Valimar is just about healed fully so he flies to the rescue



https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2007721050

That would have been a interesting feature to implement, but unfortunately its just for story purposes


Still, as far as Divine Knight Fights go, this is one of the better ones, its pretty easy of course, but you don't have that unlimited heals safety net meaning there is at least a chance of you losing.


https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2007721073

Also, yeah that was a very needed fix


This finally does it for our pal Ortheim, despite our creative differences, you where a cool first boss, i view my issues with Magic Knight more with your successors


Unfortunately for us Vita shows up to gloat a bit

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2007721140


You stole that line from Joshua


But our chat is cut short as we hear gunfire from Ymir...




Rean is Level 43
Elise is Level 39
Toval is Level 47

[Evil Gambio]

Originally posted by Gambio:

You might think this fight is a pushover as well, but Ortheim has learned a new trick

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2007720944

Oh, no

Meanwhile, Falcom developping CS3:
Combat designer: Okay, guys I have this great idea! So, how about we reduce the healing...
Kondo: but that's not evil enough.
Combat designer: but halve the delay on the buff and make bosses spam it up to 4 times in a row, regenerating around 60% of their health while you get one turn.
Kondo: now that's a fantastic idea! Put it in, this'll really make the players rage!