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

The whole Laura and Fie thing

Spoiler:

doesn't amount to much in the end, especially considering the amount of time the game wastes on it. The animosity between Machias and Jusis made a lot of sense once I found out what was behind it, but Laura and Fie was just a time waster.

I'm right with you on that one, I complained about it earlier:

Mr GT Chris wrote:
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 was thinking about which will be my favourite chapter earlier, hmm...

On the other hand, I really like how the game handles coming of age stuff. For instance in Chapter 2,

Spoiler:

it felt really organic how Fie commented on how maybe Emma’s chest made it more taxing to climb ladders (as she’s kind of awkward and was raised in a different environment) and how it made everyone else instantly uncomfortable.

Also, Rean noticing Alisa and Emma feels natural, like in Chapter 3,

Spoiler:

if you choose to study with Emma with a free day and Rean is too distracted with her physique, but just gets bashful and can’t explain why he isn’t focused.

It’s actually the first game I can think of where I am really interested in seeing who Rean crushes on (as he has some clear preferences) and whether he ends up dating that person. Most of the time, romance subplots in video games seem to me like they are centered on the main character as an avatar for the player, and focus on which party member the player wants to hook up with, but that doesn’t feel the case here.

LastSurprise wrote:

It’s actually the first game I can think of where I am really interested in seeing who Rean crushes on (as he has some clear preferences) and whether he ends up dating that person.

I'm curious to see if the game actually gives dating options, or if it's all set in stone. (I'm guessing it's the latter, but who knows, there are three more games in that series after the first one.) And I assume gay relationships are out of the question, unfortunately.

bobbywatson wrote:
LastSurprise wrote:

It’s actually the first game I can think of where I am really interested in seeing who Rean crushes on (as he has some clear preferences) and whether he ends up dating that person.

I'm curious to see if the game actually gives dating options, or if it's all set in stone. (I'm guessing it's the latter, but who knows, there are three more games in that series after the first one.) And I assume gay relationships are out of the question, unfortunately.

Actually for gay options. Jusis is pretty well done. You are good male buddies and implies more.

The story has dating options but conically it is Alisa. But I do like Rean with Fie or Laura.

Laura has a mutual respect for Rean as a swordsman.

Fie is my favorite underdog choice.

Jusis is another noble that can reflect the attitudes/mannerisms back at Rean.

You can get achievements on who you get with.

I knew there were achievements for “forging a strong bond” with different characters, but was wondering if that meant an implied relationship or what. What you wrote makes that sound pretty interesting!

3 chapters scheduled for this month...I'm going to really try.

JohnKillo wrote:

Actually for gay options. Jusis is pretty well done. You are good male buddies and implies more.

Nice! (Especially after P5's questionable content...)

Just starting the Ch 6 field trip, one task done already. An exciting new location!

Just got my quests assigned for the Chapter 3 field trip.

Spoiler:

Going to go gather some Epona Grass. I'm not sure whether to groan or smile.

LastSurprise wrote:
Spoiler:

Going to go gather some Epona Grass. I'm not sure whether to groan or smile.

Both. They are not mutually exclusive.

LastSurprise wrote:

Just got my quests assigned for the Chapter 3 field trip.

Spoiler:

Going to go gather some Epona Grass. I'm not sure whether to groan or smile.

That part wasn't quite so bad, but it wasn't great by any stretch hehehe. It was easy enough, though, thankfully.

It was fun riding around an open space for a while though.

Despite the fetch quest, I liked chapter 3, I thought the setting was a bit more laid back than the more urban areas. I might even say say it was my favorite area so far (I'm still in chapter 5, and I barely got to

Spoiler:

Legram

.)

I’m playing but still in chapter 1! About 7-8 hours in. I like it but I seem to be playing in really occasional, short bursts so far.

Just had my first crash, oh dear! Last time I can remember my Vita crashing was maybe an Atelier game.

Ch 6 had been good so far. Would be difficult to pick a favourite, I like 2, 3 and 5 a lot.

Ugh, that sucks! Hopefully it will be your only crash.

I made a little more progress last night. I’m in the afternoon session of Chapter 3’s field study, and about to head into the northern part of the highlands.

Managed to complete chapter 3 today, things are really starting to pick up in the story. Sadly I only managed to get an A for this month so I either screwed up the midterms a lot more than I thought or missed a hidden quest or two. Oh well, I am enjoying playing this game completely blind first time through and can get every secret on a NG+ run.

The intro to the final battle in chapter 3 annoyed me though:

Spoiler:

The guy pulls out a flute and everyone just stands around looking at him instead of doing something to stop him/knocked him out? The Jaegers are already subdued, he shouldn't have time to pull out a flute and play it before someone just knocks his lights out. Step up your game Class VII!

I’ve gotten at least one B so far, no Cs thankfully. I’ve even missed 2 recipes, permanently from what I can tell. Poor Rean only got 30th spot in the exam. I’m usually a pretty thorough player of these types of games but it seems really easy to miss stuff. Just recently I randomly spoke to a child NPC and got a side quest worth 4AP.

Malkroth wrote:

Managed to complete chapter 3 today, things are really starting to pick up in the story. Sadly I only managed to get an A for this month so I either screwed up the midterms a lot more than I thought or missed a hidden quest or two. Oh well, I am enjoying playing this game completely blind first time through and can get every secret on a NG+ run.

The intro to the final battle in chapter 3 annoyed me though:

Spoiler:

The guy pulls out a flute and everyone just stands around looking at him instead of doing something to stop him/knocked him out? The Jaegers are already subdued, he shouldn't have time to pull out a flute and play it before someone just knocks his lights out. Step up your game Class VII!

The way you answered the kids questions counted and there was a hidden quest that required you to run back and forth between the settlement and the base in the south for a conversation.

And Chapter 6 is done. Had a surprise wipe with one of the bosses, they used their S-Craft on me. group attack, 10k HP damage. That's actually in line with the damage my S-Crafts do but the difference being this boss has 150k HP while my party members all have less than 10k MAX HP. Anyway, obviously there are ways to mitigate the damage which I did second time round but it was rather a surprise.

Caught all the fish!

Well, after a few days of doing whatever a spider can, I’m back in. I beat the optional boss near the end of Chapter 3, and am now in the final dungeon leading to the end. Hoping I’m still on track to clear Chapter 4 by the end of the month.

Spoiler:

That Stone Golem was really, really hard. I couldn’t keep my people spread out and use healing items, and most of my characters would do very little damage to the boss unless buffed — even when using arts. I was surprised that Rean could reliably deal 1,000+ damage with Soul Blur, but that Gaius and Jusis could barely touch it with air spells, and Emma couldn’t hurt it much either with the white spells.

I’ll have to go back and think about my quartz allocation after this chapter!

I was hoping to finish chapter 5 last weekend, but for whatever reason life decided that I was due for a (positive) change, so my schedule went out the window, and the next few weeks may require a lot of flexibility on my part (and very little spare time). I was doing pretty well and moving forward at a good pace, but now I'm starting to think this playthrough might spill into July. (First world problem, I know.)

I did manage to get to the boss of the second day of the field trip, and I got my butt handed back to me twice so far. I have not found a good strategy yet, and it uses my least favorite RPG trick ever: summoning minions over and over again. (Seriously, Trails in the Sky SC did it so much I still dealing with PTSD.)

I actually love the minion summoners because they always die in one hit and I can farm xp and CP from them. Also, I feel like the boss has to waste a turn resummoning them while, my area attacks are always damaging the boss. In doing so I realised that the max XP you can get from an encounter is 9999!

bobbywatson wrote:

I was hoping to finish chapter 5 last weekend, but for whatever reason life decided that I was due for a (positive) change, so my schedule went out the window, and the next few weeks may require a lot of flexibility on my part (and very little spare time). I was doing pretty well and moving forward at a good pace, but now I'm starting to think this playthrough might spill into July. (First world problem, I know.)

I did manage to get to the boss of the second day of the field trip, and I got my butt handed back to me twice so far. I have not found a good strategy yet, and it uses my least favorite RPG trick ever: summoning minions over and over again. (Seriously, Trails in the Sky SC did it so much I still dealing with PTSD.)

Congrats of the positive change! Whatever that may be!

I have yet to get to Chapter 5 at all.

Might try that tonight...

Had a rude awakening from the Ch 7 school house boss. By far the most badass boss in the game so far. Even looks kind of scary. About 15 minutes in I had it down to 120k of 200k but was burning through a ton of consumables. Pulled the plug and did a ton of tweaking to the active party. The next attempt, I had Laura equipped with a master quartz for x2 physical attack (but greater delay), and a quartz for x2 on the first attack. Had Rean buff her at the start with an item for +50% str then activated her super craft. 80k damage, boom! Most of the minions went pop too. The other big difference was using Alesa’s +20 CP for 4 rounds craft. I didn’t have her in my party on the first attempt. It was pretty smooth sailing after that.

Just finished Chapter 4 last night.

Spoiler:

Hate unwinnable battles, but this one wasn't too terrible as far as some of these go. I think I know who the black-clad baddie "C" is. IT seems obvious, so I'll give the game credit if they pull a fast one by me and have it be someone I don't suspect at all.

Looking forward to getting further ahead in the next couple of days and the weekend.

brokenclavicle wrote:

Congrats of the positive change! Whatever that may be!

Sold my house after three and a half years on the market (that I have not been living in for more than a year), and got a new job out of town, in the span of a week

brokenclavicle wrote:
Spoiler:

Hate unwinnable battles, but this one wasn't too terrible as far as some of these go. I think I know who the black-clad baddie "C" is. IT seems obvious, so I'll give the game credit if they pull a fast one by me and have it be someone I don't suspect at all.

I'm impressed, I had no real idea at that point.

bobbywatson wrote:
brokenclavicle wrote:

Congrats of the positive change! Whatever that may be!

Sold my house after three and a half years on the market (that I have not been living in for more than a year), and got a new job out of town, in the span of a week

Sweet! Glad for you, bobbywatson!

Mr GT Chris wrote:
brokenclavicle wrote:
Spoiler:

Hate unwinnable battles, but this one wasn't too terrible as far as some of these go. I think I know who the black-clad baddie "C" is. IT seems obvious, so I'll give the game credit if they pull a fast one by me and have it be someone I don't suspect at all.

I'm impressed, I had no real idea at that point.

I mean, I'm not sure, but I have a strong suspicion... still waiting to see if the game proves me right or wrong... might not even happen in this game, come to think of it, but in the sequels at some point. All interesting so far. I love how this game keeps getting more interesting as the story develops. Hope that's the case with the series as a whole.