The GWJ JRPG Club - Q2 2019 - The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel!

I haven't changed them yet. I assume they max out at some point? I will consider changing them when I get there. Unless I find one so awesome that I just have to use it now. Which, to be fair, is unlikely to happen because I haven't checked their properties at all.

Mr GT Chris wrote:

I keep meaning to ask about the Master Quartzes. I've also taken note of their availability but haven't bothered experimenting for the same reason. Is it worth changing them?

It is okay to change them based on how you want to play magic wise. Each character has one based on their general characteristics ie (Fie for speed, Emma for magic attacks) . I changed Rean for more status attacks and tried Lara for more speed.

Malkroth wrote:
Mr GT Chris wrote:

Will you always have Rean...?

As LastSurprise said, that is my assumption due to this game appearing to be his story. They could always throw a curve ball and remove him, but at least by the Chapter 2 Field Study, they seem to be hinting that he's kind of the glue that is going to hold Class VII together and help them mature.

I really liked the way that the game handled this on the train to Bareahart in Chapter 2. It seemed a great example of "show, don't tell" in storytelling.

Spoiler:

It seems pretty clear that Sara sees something special in Rean. Asking Rean to step up with Jusis and Machias, to fight her, might have been a way of giving them a shared goal -- proving themselves -- which might allow Jusis and Machias to open up a little more.

Then on the train, Rean read them very well to see how competitive they are, and how much they want to win, even if they self-sabotage. Pointing out how all of his former allies were now his (and their) rivals, and exposing a little bit of his own vulnerability by highlighting how much he wants to win, and how he works to keep up with Emma and Machias academically, did a lot to help Jusis and Machias look past themselves in that moment. I like that you can see the bonds starting to form, there, and can see Emma and Fie react to it as well.

JohnKillo wrote:
Mr GT Chris wrote:

I keep meaning to ask about the Master Quartzes. I've also taken note of their availability but haven't bothered experimenting for the same reason. Is it worth changing them?

It is okay to change them based on how you want to play magic wise. Each character has one based on their general characteristics ie (Fie for speed, Emma for magic attacks). I changed Rean for more status attacks and tried Lara for more speed.

Do the Master Quartzes gain experience at about the same rate as the characters? That is, as I fight tougher monsters and gain more experience later in the game, will the Master Quartzes gain more XP as well? This could make it easier to experiment, later on.

I believe it is the same for characters as quartz.

I did a one battle test on quartz experience early on. I think my characters got a little under 200 exp from the bake but my quartz only got 84. So it might be something like half exp or something, not sure though. Maybe I will try more experiments with the characters in chapter 2 since I really only like Emma's and Fie's quartz.

Just hit Chapter 5. Felt like Chapter 4 was longer than the others but could have just been that I had less time to play. It expanded the cast significantly but there were a couple of things I didn't like about it.

Malkroth wrote:

I did a one battle test on quartz experience early on. I think my characters got a little under 200 exp from the bake but my quartz only got 84. So it might be something like half exp or something, not sure though. Maybe I will try more experiments with the characters in chapter 2 since I really only like Emma's and Fie's quartz.

I was thinking that I might play around with Rean’s — the main benefits from it so far seem to be boosting his strength, and the Impassion ability which I used earlier to keep Laura’s CP topped off. But as Rean gains strength, and if I keep his weapons upgraded, it probably will be less important to keep a strength-boosting quartz equipped on him.

Mr GT Chris wrote:

Just hit Chapter 5. Felt like Chapter 4 was longer than the others but could have just been that I had less time to play. It expanded the cast significantly but there were a couple of things I didn't like about it.

I just made it to the field trip in Chapter 4. The quests during the free day were pretty short, and the Old School house didn't take me as much time as I thought it would, but there sure is a lot of talking in the chapter so far. As you say, some new characters show up, and the scene with

Spoiler:

Elise's visit

took quite a bit of time to get through as well.

Edit:

I wanted to mention this yesterday when I found out, but here it is: Don't forget to break jars and crates in dungeons, as some of them actually have U-Material in them. I think I got three or four in the Old School house in chapter 4. (I think the items are randomized though, so your mileage may vary.)

I would assume the crates and barrels are random since they respawn when you leave the dungeon floor and can be broken again for different items.

As for the master quartz I am not sure how important it is to keep people with quartz they benefit their natural stats or if you can go crazy. Must say at where I am in chapter 2 scepter is super tempting to try and farm up some sepith for unlocking slots.

So I did some experimenting tonight and tracked the exp on the level 1 Scepter Master Quartz during about 5 fights. The EXP of the battle seems completely irrelevant to how much EXP my master quartz got. It would probably take a lot of battles and time to get a thorough reading to find out how to maximize master quartz exp. On this small sample size, I got the most exp for the quartz when I had high battle multipliers or triple advantage, but I wasn't keeping good notes on that so cannot be sure.

Data in spoilers for those interested.

Spoiler:

Starting EXP Battle EXP End EXP MQ EXP
575 227 632 57
632 72 668 36
668 89 712 44
712 224 751 39
751 173 807 56
If I remember correct both the first and last battles had Triple Advantage and 1.7 exp multipliers

Spoilers for up to the second day of Chapter 4's field trip:

Spoiler:

Machias' antipathy towards nobles was somewhat tiresome, but after that scene in chapter 4, I think it's justified now...

The reason for Fie and Laura's inability to link together was something along the lines I was expecting. That might have dragged on for a bit too long though.

Still on track to finish chapter 4 this weekend. I just hit the 42 hour mark (which I think is about half of the estimated length).

Edit: Just finished chapter 4. I hope Falcom is not

Spoiler:

repeating the Estelle/Joshua thing with Rean and his sister. Elise seemed very... jealous when Princess Alfin asked him to come to the dance with her

.

Still in Chapter 2, so I’m not going to read those spoilers, but I just finished the Aurochs Canyon monster quest and Mathias continues to be a jerk. He feels like that guy who read the Communist Manifesto for philosophy class and now thinks he knows more than everyone else.

LastSurprise wrote:

Still in Chapter 2, so I’m not going to read those spoilers, but I just finished the Aurochs Canyon monster quest and Mathias continues to be a jerk. He feels like that guy who read the Communist Manifesto for philosophy class and now thinks he knows more than everyone else.

I found out today why he is that way, and I thought it was a good justification for his behavior in general. Don't despair

I managed to wrap up Chapter 2 on Wednesday evening, which was good since I am away from my PS4 this weekend. I am liking the characterizations so far, except for Machias who as LastSurprise pointed out is still being a jerk. I am liking the game so far and the story has me interested to learn more about Class VII and Sara.

I feel like I am missing something about why Bracers are so scarce in Erebonia right now. I have only completed Trails in the Sky FC so I am wondering if it relates to that storyline (no spoilers for Sky if it does, please) and I am just missing that context or if it is in relation to what is happening within Erebonia for this storyline.

Having mentioned Trails in the Sky, Baron Bleublanc strongly reminds me of Oliver (sp?) from that game, but he has the wrong hair color. I wonder if they are somehow related...

Having said all of that, I am going to take a short break at the end of April/Start of May since that is the goalpost for the club and I need to advance Persona 5 a bit more for last quarter's game. Hopefully I can smash through a couple palaces and get back to Cold Steel soon.

The Bracers stuff is definitely a big part of the Steel storyline so don't worry about that.

bobbywatson wrote:

Spoilers for up to the second day of Chapter 4's field trip:

Spoiler:

Machias' antipathy towards nobles was somewhat tiresome, but after that scene in chapter 4, I think it's justified now...

The reason for Fie and Laura's inability to link together was something along the lines I was expecting. That might have dragged on for a bit too long though.

Spoiler:

I didn't like the Fie/Laura sub plot at all. It just seemed totally contrived and weighed pretty heavily on Ch 4 for me. At least it's done with now but I still don't care for Fie as a character so it also failed on that front.

I've just started the Ch 5 field trip. My inventory of quartz is really blowing up so it took probably 20 minutes or so just to configure my party!

I actually like Fie, and the way she speaks, like she does not give a damn about anything.

Malkroth wrote:

Having mentioned Trails in the Sky, Baron Bleublanc strongly reminds me of Oliver (sp?) from that game, but he has the wrong hair color. I wonder if they are somehow related...

It's been a while since I've place Sky FC and SC, but I seem to recall that Bleublanc is in the game. I believe he was part of Ouroboros, but I could be wrong (and I'm about to go to bed so I'm too lazy to look it up). Spoilers for some quests in chapter 4:

Spoiler:

I believe he was also a Phantom Thief in the Sky games, as he is here.

Not too big a spoiler for chapter 4: Olivier

Spoiler:

shows up, under his real name and title this time. I believe another character from Sky will show up, as he married them, but I haven't seen them yet, though there is a hint when he mentions having something of a personal bodyguard.

And Chapter 2 is in the books! I'll probably put off Chapter 3 in favor of making some progress in Persona -- and also because this will be a busy week, ahead.

The bosses in that last battle were pretty tough! I made it through on my second attempt. Making sure to keep everyone buffed, and to keep orbments on my characters which allow me to sustain buffs, will be critical going forward. It was definitely noticeable how much more damage characters do while affected with Rean's Motivate, or how much less damage they sustain while under the effects of La Crest.

Also, I can totally see how Delay is one of the best status effects in the game. I put a Delay-boosting quartz on Rean and most of the time he's able to exercise excellent control over the battlefield.

Used Scepter for some of Chapter 2 to get a lot of Sepith, and I've now unlocked all the quartz slots on Rean's ARCUS, but I switched back to his starting master quartz for the end of the chapter. Even more than the strength boost, I found that the CP boost for killing enemies, and the access to Impassion, was super helpful.

I've found the difficulty taking a nose dive actually. In the first day of the Ch 5 field trip I'm fighting green poms (these tiny bouncing balls) that go down in one hit but still give 2-3 the xp I got in the old school house at the start of the chapter. Laura takes out most groups in one hit with one of her crafts. I stripped Rean of all his magic orbments and loaded up on status effect causing orbments. Now he usually hits enemies with 2-3 status effects out of a possible of 8. Killer!

Really, the only thing I'm short on is ingredients for recipes. Clear gelatine always seems to be in short supply and half the recipes need it. Kind of annoying.

Chapter 5 in the can and got to revisit the opening scene of the game. Played out better than I expected. About to go into the school house, again!

I was expecting that to be at the end of the game. Interesting. That explains why the characters were level 49 during that sequence in the prologue and why I'm a few levels behind that in chapter 5.

I kind of like games that do this as long as the story can carry it. Persona 5 does it and Final Fantasy 13. It's also in FF15 but that story was ...suspect. I have not gone back to replay it either since all the "updates". I might do it one day out of boredom since it has NG+

I was level 53 I think, no wonder I destroyed the bosses :). So many cool quartz, don't know what to do with them.

Also, I've maxed out most of the master quartz and a lot of the combat links so I've bought out all the other master quartz to experiment with. Handily, they seem to start at level 3.

I’ve started Chapter 3, gotten through exams, and am back in the old schoolhouse. I’ve definitely noticed a little drop in difficulty. Apart from one demon bunny monster that one-shotted Rean — this must have been an insta-kill ability — I’ve been slaughtering everything pretty easily.

Before I went in, I spent some time going back and forth between the engineering shop and pawn shop, getting quartz and trading them in for rare quartz. The rare ones seem to give some pretty good stat boosts, or combine different spells into a single stone.

Love the quartz system, I just upgraded a bunch too. It feels like I have multiple choices and all of them good, the way I like systems to be. As for difficulty, I just did the chapter 6 school house boss in one round... Helps having a quartz that gives double damage for your first attack.

One thing that confuses me about the quartz system here is the number of quartz “lines” that different students possess. I remember in Trails in the Sky, there were bonuses for getting certain element combinations in the same line. But that doesn’t seem to exist here. Or if it does, it hasn’t come up yet and is not in any of the tutorials I have access to. Do these different lines serve any purpose in this game?

There seems to be some restriction where you can't have more than one of certain kinds of (powerful) quartz on the same line. Perhaps to stop you become too overpowered. I've usually just shifted to another line when it's come up so it hasn't really held me back.

LastSurprise wrote:

One thing that confuses me about the quartz system here is the number of quartz “lines” that different students possess. I remember in Trails in the Sky, there were bonuses for getting certain element combinations in the same line. But that doesn’t seem to exist here. Or if it does, it hasn’t come up yet and is not in any of the tutorials I have access to. Do these different lines serve any purpose in this game?

The status effects cannot be stacked on the same line. So...x% petrify cannot stack with another. Also, something about longer lines mean more EP. So the magic users have longer lines I believe.

Getting just a little tired of:

Obliterate boss in one round.
Everyone: *pant* *pant*
Rean: Phew, somehow we made it!
Gaius: I'd never seen anything like it...
Machias: I didn't expect that to be so tough!
Laura: We'll need to keep training if we're going to move forward.
Fie: Mmhmm.

Mr GT Chris wrote:

Getting just a little tired of:

Obliterate boss in one round.
Everyone: *pant* *pant*
Rean: Phew, somehow we made it!
Gaius: I'd never seen anything like it...
Machias: I didn't expect that to be so tough!
Laura: We'll need to keep training if we're going to move forward.
Fie: Mmhmm.

I've noticed that too. Especially during the practical exam in chapter 5. Did not even break a sweat, and it looked like Rean and company were just catching their breath after only one of them had to do an s-craft.

(I ended up configuring a Retropie this weekend instead of playing. Oops. I only made it to the first day of the chapter 5 field trip.)

I agree that's annoying. It would be great if those story scenes could reflect when an enemy is just trounced.

I finished the Chapter 3 practical exam this weekend, and am on my way to the field study. Beating the crap out of Patrick and his lackeys was really gratifying, too. Both from a story perspective -- it's nice to see a jerk get his come-uppance -- but also was a good test of having learned the battle mechanics. No arts meant relying on Elliot's and Machias's crafts (and items) for healing, and Gaius did a great job of keeping the two enemies who did use arts incapacitated with his stunning ability. And Rean's delay was, of course, super useful.

I'm continuing to love the little vignettes with different characters around the school -- like how, right before the fight with Patrick, you run into a guy being a jerk to another student for no apparent reason. Go inside the gym, and you find out Patrick just publicly that guy in fencing club. The game's full of little moments like this, where you learn about characters through multiple people's perspectives, and I just love it. I also like how the areas to explore are never too large -- you aren't left to wander a whole world map and see which characters have new dialogue -- so the task of exploring an area when daytime turns to evening is not too onerous.

Just wanted to comment on one thing that I didn't find too believable -- how little it seems that the students gossip about other students. I just never found it plausible that the identity of Alisa "R" would remain a secret for almost three months. The general reaction, of "that's weird, but I guess she has her reasons," does not strike me as a realistic depiction of how teenagers would behave. Likewise, in Chapter 3, the characters notice and repeatedly comment on how Laura has gotten frosty towards Fie, but no one speculates about why or has tried to do anything about it (yet).