I don't know anything about Golf Peaks, but you made me curious. I went and looked it up. If you want a hint...I don't know, maybe this should be obvious by looking at it:
You have to make use of the little diagonal block at the bottom.
I'm guessing bumping into something reduces the travel number by one.
I played through Golf Peaks on my phone a few months back. Sporky's not entirely correct on his assumptions about mechanics, but here's one general tip and one more specific tip for solving the puzzles in the game.
General:
Count the number of squares that you can go with all of your cards, and compare that to the number of squares to get from the start to the finish (i.e. taxicab distance. This can often be a vital clue in terms of which mechanics you should use.
Specific:
Recall what it takes to leave a sand trap. How many do you need to enter and leave in order to get to the cup? What does that say about the order of operations you need to perform?
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Handsome CostanzaAsk me about 8bitdoRIP Iwata-sanRegistered Userregular
Remember how I got you guys to all buy Katana Zero and you thanked me for it?
I beat Dragon Quest for the first time in like 3 decades. Literally the last time I beat it, it was still called Dragon Warrior.
I'm deep into Dragon Quest 2 now, but fuck Tombola (the "Lottery" slots game).
Dragon Warrior II on the NES was brutal. I beat the game, but it killed my interest in the series for years after that. Since then, I've only played a little bit of Dragon Warrior VII for PS1 ("only" 30 hours or so) and completed Dragon Quest IV for DS. I'm really itching to dive back into the series, though.
7 I feel spread itself too thin. It didn't need to be 70+ hours(most of that time being with the desperately unlikable Maribel in tow didn't help things either), it could have been condensed with a more focused story and it would have been pretty great. 5 or 11 are great ones to get back in with though, 5 has probably the best story hook in the series that they never really hit again and 11 has Sylvando.
Just finished off Luigi's Mansion 3, playing the whole game through in co-op with my wife. Maybe it's because of the co-op aspect of it, but I didn't get tired of it as we got to the end like I saw some people were experiencing, even as we 100% collected everything and got our A rank with $95K cash acquired. Great game.
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Handsome CostanzaAsk me about 8bitdoRIP Iwata-sanRegistered Userregular
Just finished off Luigi's Mansion 3, playing the whole game through in co-op with my wife. Maybe it's because of the co-op aspect of it, but I didn't get tired of it as we got to the end like I saw some people were experiencing, even as we 100% collected everything and got our A rank with $95K cash acquired. Great game.
Just finished off Luigi's Mansion 3, playing the whole game through in co-op with my wife. Maybe it's because of the co-op aspect of it, but I didn't get tired of it as we got to the end like I saw some people were experiencing, even as we 100% collected everything and got our A rank with $95K cash acquired. Great game.
Nah that was likely just me. I enjoyed my time with it but I felt like it began to drag on the last 4 or so levels. Plus the cat diversion.
Everything about the game was great. I recommend it to really anyone.
Dragon Quest 2 had a big problem of NPCs not telling you what you needed to do. It was very exploration heavy, which at the time on NES, was par for the course. Only the vaguest of clues (such as how to find the mirror) and a lot of random searching (the actual command).
As a helpful hint, tombola in DQ2 is pretty useless. It's nothing compared to Treasures'n'Trapdoors from the DQ3 remake that gets put into DQ4-5-6
Eh...maybe not, but I pushed through. Giving Arthur and (a little later) Isolde their own Wizard Staff was a pretty huge bump IMO. Not only in weapon attack but unlimited casts of Sizz with no MP cost...
Interesting fact about DQ2...it's one of the only games I know of that has party members with their own personalities and backstories and yet their names are randomly generated for every player.
Based on the name you choose for the Prince of Midenhall, the Prince of Cannock's name is selected from a list of eight names. They are Bran, Glynn, Talint, Numor, Lars, Orfeo, Artho, and Esgar. In the GBC version, the possible names are: Frey, John, Art, Gary, Karl, Eric, Drew, and Paul. It is possible to manually change his name by putting in a code at the title screen.
In the Japanese version, the possible names are Tonnura, Arthur, Cain, Cookie, Conan, Sukesan, Paulos, and Rand.
Her name and stats are determined by the name the player chooses for the Hero. The Princess' name is selected from a list of eight names. They are Varia, Elani, Ollisa, Roz, Kailin, Peta, Illyth, and Gwen. In the GBC version, her possible names are: Erin, Mary, Nana, Beth, Fran, Gwen, Lynn, and Sara. Her name can be changed manually by putting in a code at the title screen.
The Japanese options for her name are Eileen, Akina, Samantha, Nana, Pudding, Maiko, Maria, and Linda.
I think the first time I played the game I got Orfeo and Illyth? Definitely Illyth at least.
Interesting that the DQ wiki doesn't list Isolde as a name yet, it sounds like the remake added or changed names?
Dragon Quest 2 had a big problem of NPCs not telling you what you needed to do. It was very exploration heavy, which at the time on NES, was par for the course. Only the vaguest of clues (such as how to find the mirror) and a lot of random searching (the actual command).
As a helpful hint, tombola in DQ2 is pretty useless. It's nothing compared to Treasures'n'Trapdoors from the DQ3 remake that gets put into DQ4-5-6
Eh...maybe not, but I pushed through. Giving Arthur and (a little later) Isolde their own Wizard Staff was a pretty huge bump IMO. Not only in weapon attack but unlimited casts of Sizz with no MP cost...
Interesting fact about DQ2...it's one of the only games I know of that has party members with their own personalities and backstories and yet their names are randomly generated for every player.
Based on the name you choose for the Prince of Midenhall, the Prince of Cannock's name is selected from a list of eight names. They are Bran, Glynn, Talint, Numor, Lars, Orfeo, Artho, and Esgar. In the GBC version, the possible names are: Frey, John, Art, Gary, Karl, Eric, Drew, and Paul. It is possible to manually change his name by putting in a code at the title screen.
In the Japanese version, the possible names are Tonnura, Arthur, Cain, Cookie, Conan, Sukesan, Paulos, and Rand.
Her name and stats are determined by the name the player chooses for the Hero. The Princess' name is selected from a list of eight names. They are Varia, Elani, Ollisa, Roz, Kailin, Peta, Illyth, and Gwen. In the GBC version, her possible names are: Erin, Mary, Nana, Beth, Fran, Gwen, Lynn, and Sara. Her name can be changed manually by putting in a code at the title screen.
The Japanese options for her name are Eileen, Akina, Samantha, Nana, Pudding, Maiko, Maria, and Linda.
I think the first time I played the game I got Orfeo and Illyth? Definitely Illyth at least.
Interesting that the DQ wiki doesn't list Isolde as a name yet, it sounds like the remake added or changed names?
Awesome!
Also, I must have gotten MUCH further than I thought way back when. I just got up to
Beren, with the arena where you have to fight the saber tooth
And I definitely remember that. That is surprisingly far in the game.
For all I know I actually beat it way back when but just can’t remember.
So I donno if it's been discussed yet, but Nintendo is finally releasing the Switch in China on the 10th. As a stockholder that's awfully exciting. Pretty sure the news has been priced in since it was announced that Nintendo partnered with Tencent months ago. So I guess all that's left to see is whether their Chinese sales under or over perform. But in theory it won't be effected by the ongoing trade war. So there is that I suppose.
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DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
Excellent. I held off on buying it on PS4 this year, so I'll just wait for the Switch release. Been a while since I played the first two games though, I think I've forgotten most of the finer story details by now.
This is actually a second trilogy, right?
Wasn't there a Legend of Heroes trilogy on the PSP or whatever?
I actually have not played any of the Trials of Cold Steel games because I've been wanting to go back and finish the first trilogy first but that will probably never happen at this point, if I'm being honest with myself. Do you know if they are related story-wise?
So, yes.
All 9 games are related (Trails in sky 1-3, Trails of Azure and Zero, Cold Steel 1-4). Sky takes place first, and Azure/Zero take place around the time of Cold Steel 1/2. All the games are in the same world.
You do not need to have played any of the other series to understand what's going on, but the Cold Steel games will reference characters and events here and there that you won't know about. Sky is the beginning so they reference nothing you don't know. I think Crossbell is mostly silent on that issue too.
Cold Steel 1 and 2 have mostly small references. Cold Steel 3 tries actually start tying both prior series together. Again, you'll be fine if you don't know what happened, the game will tell you what you need to know, but you'll definitely wonder who people are a bit and why they're important.
I'd advise doing Cold Steel in order, and you'll be more or less good to go. Starting with CS3 will definitely make you very confused.
Oh, people mentioned the Trails series, now I am justified in my proselytizing about how it is my favoritest thing ever!
Or I can just link this video as the guy does a far better job of explaining just why the series is worth people's attention.
My favorite genre is JRPG. I love slow starts. I love super long games, the longer the better.
But then it manages to commit to a handful of sins that just outweigh that stuff so heavily for me that I just do not like those damn games at all. And it almost makes me sad because with just a few differences I would have a big collection of awesome new JRPGs to be playing.
DemonStacey on
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Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
I believe it was @urahonky who was all over the Romancing Saga games? No?
After spending some good time with SaGa Scarlet Grace: Ambitions, I can say that it is a good SaGa game. Different, without a doubt, but once you get over some transitional humps, it feels good, and has a faster flow in the story beats than previous games.
It is hard as balls though, make no mistake. I turned the encounters down to "easy", which doesn't change the conditionals required to earn post-battle rewards, it only seems to reduce enemy HP and damage a bit. You can still glimmer and master techs just as fine as if you had normal or hard difficulty enemies.
The battles have a depth of strategy to them with interrupts and counters playing a bigger role than before. Spells take turns instead of being cast the same turn you choose them. United attacks are good, but I miss that it doesn't use your party's techs to trigger the damage, only basic attacks.
I believe it was @urahonky who was all over the Romancing Saga games? No?
After spending some good time with SaGa Scarlet Grace: Ambitions, I can say that it is a good SaGa game. Different, without a doubt, but once you get over some transitional humps, it feels good, and has a faster flow in the story beats than previous games.
It is hard as balls though, make no mistake. I turned the encounters down to "easy", which doesn't change the conditionals required to earn post-battle rewards, it only seems to reduce enemy HP and damage a bit. You can still glimmer and master techs just as fine as if you had normal or hard difficulty enemies.
The battles have a depth of strategy to them with interrupts and counters playing a bigger role than before. Spells take turns instead of being cast the same turn you choose them. United attacks are good, but I miss that it doesn't use your party's techs to trigger the damage, only basic attacks.
That is definitely me! I'm making my way through Romancing Saga 3 right now and love it. It's WAY easier than Romancing Saga 2 but it's still got a lot of fun elements to it. But it sounds like I need to pick this up too... I still have to finish this, and then Alliance Alive HD. But this one sounds really good too!
It's funny because when I was a kid I hated the whole open worldness of the Saga games, but now I love it.
Excellent. I held off on buying it on PS4 this year, so I'll just wait for the Switch release. Been a while since I played the first two games though, I think I've forgotten most of the finer story details by now.
This is actually a second trilogy, right?
Wasn't there a Legend of Heroes trilogy on the PSP or whatever?
I actually have not played any of the Trials of Cold Steel games because I've been wanting to go back and finish the first trilogy first but that will probably never happen at this point, if I'm being honest with myself. Do you know if they are related story-wise?
So, yes.
All 9 games are related (Trails in sky 1-3, Trails of Azure and Zero, Cold Steel 1-4). Sky takes place first, and Azure/Zero take place around the time of Cold Steel 1/2. All the games are in the same world.
You do not need to have played any of the other series to understand what's going on, but the Cold Steel games will reference characters and events here and there that you won't know about. Sky is the beginning so they reference nothing you don't know. I think Crossbell is mostly silent on that issue too.
Cold Steel 1 and 2 have mostly small references. Cold Steel 3 tries actually start tying both prior series together. Again, you'll be fine if you don't know what happened, the game will tell you what you need to know, but you'll definitely wonder who people are a bit and why they're important.
I'd advise doing Cold Steel in order, and you'll be more or less good to go. Starting with CS3 will definitely make you very confused.
Oh, people mentioned the Trails series, now I am justified in my proselytizing about how it is my favoritest thing ever!
Or I can just link this video as the guy does a far better job of explaining just why the series is worth people's attention.
My favorite genre is JRPG. I love slow starts. I love super long games, the longer the better.
But then it manages to commit to a handful of sins that just outweigh that stuff so heavily for me that I just do not like those damn games at all. And it almost makes me sad because with just a few differences I would have a big collection of awesome new JRPGs to be playing.
I do enjoy their indie presentations, but I can't help but feel that they're there so that the indies get a bit of spotlight before the upcoming Direct is going to hog it.
I do enjoy their indie presentations, but I can't help but feel that they're there so that the indies get a bit of spotlight before the upcoming Direct is going to hog it.
I think it's also smart of Nintendo to do this ahead of the Game Awards, which will be dominating the "new game" news for awhile.
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Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
They tend to do an early in the year Direct in January/February, so that wouldn't be surprising if they are doing this before their big start of the year direct.
Excellent. I held off on buying it on PS4 this year, so I'll just wait for the Switch release. Been a while since I played the first two games though, I think I've forgotten most of the finer story details by now.
This is actually a second trilogy, right?
Wasn't there a Legend of Heroes trilogy on the PSP or whatever?
I actually have not played any of the Trials of Cold Steel games because I've been wanting to go back and finish the first trilogy first but that will probably never happen at this point, if I'm being honest with myself. Do you know if they are related story-wise?
So, yes.
All 9 games are related (Trails in sky 1-3, Trails of Azure and Zero, Cold Steel 1-4). Sky takes place first, and Azure/Zero take place around the time of Cold Steel 1/2. All the games are in the same world.
You do not need to have played any of the other series to understand what's going on, but the Cold Steel games will reference characters and events here and there that you won't know about. Sky is the beginning so they reference nothing you don't know. I think Crossbell is mostly silent on that issue too.
Cold Steel 1 and 2 have mostly small references. Cold Steel 3 tries actually start tying both prior series together. Again, you'll be fine if you don't know what happened, the game will tell you what you need to know, but you'll definitely wonder who people are a bit and why they're important.
I'd advise doing Cold Steel in order, and you'll be more or less good to go. Starting with CS3 will definitely make you very confused.
Oh, people mentioned the Trails series, now I am justified in my proselytizing about how it is my favoritest thing ever!
Or I can just link this video as the guy does a far better job of explaining just why the series is worth people's attention.
My favorite genre is JRPG. I love slow starts. I love super long games, the longer the better.
But then it manages to commit to a handful of sins that just outweigh that stuff so heavily for me that I just do not like those damn games at all. And it almost makes me sad because with just a few differences I would have a big collection of awesome new JRPGs to be playing.
What sins?
Lack of weapon models, ancient animations, what happens in combat being completely and totally unrelated to what is actually happening. And I don't mean that in the normal turn-based combat sort of way where combat is obviously just a general representation of what is going on but to a much higher extreme where they are not even remotely related which makes for some serious dissonance when going between boss battles and and the cutscenes that follow them. Along those same lines the absurd overuse of cut-scene power. Like it's one of those things where there are usually some standout examples of but oh my god these games do it every single chance they get which further puts a huge divide between the gameplay and the story. And also just the old anime power level is whatever it needs to be at any given time for any character which feels super lazy writing wise. And god damn do they love them some stand around with weapons drawn and listen to villains monologue.
Minor general spoilers
The weird treatment of romance stuff stands out more as well to me due to everything else. Both the love of almost sibling romance and then in Cold Steel the harem feel.
Each thing individually you expect some of in the genre but having all of them together and some of them leaned on so hard and so frequently just really kills them for me. The world writing seems so cool and interesting but with all the other stuff I just can't even get into it enough to enjoy that.
Excellent. I held off on buying it on PS4 this year, so I'll just wait for the Switch release. Been a while since I played the first two games though, I think I've forgotten most of the finer story details by now.
This is actually a second trilogy, right?
Wasn't there a Legend of Heroes trilogy on the PSP or whatever?
I actually have not played any of the Trials of Cold Steel games because I've been wanting to go back and finish the first trilogy first but that will probably never happen at this point, if I'm being honest with myself. Do you know if they are related story-wise?
So, yes.
All 9 games are related (Trails in sky 1-3, Trails of Azure and Zero, Cold Steel 1-4). Sky takes place first, and Azure/Zero take place around the time of Cold Steel 1/2. All the games are in the same world.
You do not need to have played any of the other series to understand what's going on, but the Cold Steel games will reference characters and events here and there that you won't know about. Sky is the beginning so they reference nothing you don't know. I think Crossbell is mostly silent on that issue too.
Cold Steel 1 and 2 have mostly small references. Cold Steel 3 tries actually start tying both prior series together. Again, you'll be fine if you don't know what happened, the game will tell you what you need to know, but you'll definitely wonder who people are a bit and why they're important.
I'd advise doing Cold Steel in order, and you'll be more or less good to go. Starting with CS3 will definitely make you very confused.
Oh, people mentioned the Trails series, now I am justified in my proselytizing about how it is my favoritest thing ever!
Or I can just link this video as the guy does a far better job of explaining just why the series is worth people's attention.
My favorite genre is JRPG. I love slow starts. I love super long games, the longer the better.
But then it manages to commit to a handful of sins that just outweigh that stuff so heavily for me that I just do not like those damn games at all. And it almost makes me sad because with just a few differences I would have a big collection of awesome new JRPGs to be playing.
What sins?
Lack of weapon models, ancient animations, what happens in combat being completely and totally unrelated to what is actually happening. And I don't mean that in the normal turn-based combat sort of way where combat is obviously just a general representation of what is going on but to a much higher extreme where they are not even remotely related which makes for some serious dissonance when going between boss battles and and the cutscenes that follow them. Along those same lines the absurd overuse of cut-scene power. Like it's one of those things where there are usually some standout examples of but oh my god these games do it every single chance they get which further puts a huge divide between the gameplay and the story. And also just the old anime power level is whatever it needs to be at any given time for any character which feels super lazy writing wise. And god damn do they love them some stand around with weapons drawn and listen to villains monologue.
Minor general spoilers
The weird treatment of romance stuff stands out more as well to me due to everything else. Both the love of almost sibling romance and then in Cold Steel the harem feel.
Each thing individually you expect some of in the genre but having all of them together and some of them leaned on so hard and so frequently just really kills them for me. The world writing seems so cool and interesting but with all the other stuff I just can't even get into it enough to enjoy that.
There are various things I like and dislike about the CS series specifically that I'll avoid dragging things out with but that stupid cutscene disparity is what really killed it for me.
(nonspecific spoilers)
CS is "Win the battle, lose the cutscene" at its worst.
Fight boss, win fairly easily because the combat is easy to break.
thisisntevenmyfinalform.gif
Boss powers up in cutscene and autowins because reasons
Party: "Zoinks! How are we going to get out of this one?!"
An adult comes in and saves the day for them with some instawin godmove.
Party: "Gee thanks! Guess we still have a whole lot more to learn, right gang?"
I could chalk it up to "because anime" if it were a one-off thing but Cold Steel 2 doubles down on this so repetitiously I started to actively hate it.
There's also the cutscene overuse of
"characters chatting, camera pans out to reveal a villain has been listening in this whole time from an unrealistically long distance, smirking smugly."
which has been a long-running trope with the LoH series in general but again CS has to double down on it because they don't understand moderation.
Excellent. I held off on buying it on PS4 this year, so I'll just wait for the Switch release. Been a while since I played the first two games though, I think I've forgotten most of the finer story details by now.
This is actually a second trilogy, right?
Wasn't there a Legend of Heroes trilogy on the PSP or whatever?
I actually have not played any of the Trials of Cold Steel games because I've been wanting to go back and finish the first trilogy first but that will probably never happen at this point, if I'm being honest with myself. Do you know if they are related story-wise?
So, yes.
All 9 games are related (Trails in sky 1-3, Trails of Azure and Zero, Cold Steel 1-4). Sky takes place first, and Azure/Zero take place around the time of Cold Steel 1/2. All the games are in the same world.
You do not need to have played any of the other series to understand what's going on, but the Cold Steel games will reference characters and events here and there that you won't know about. Sky is the beginning so they reference nothing you don't know. I think Crossbell is mostly silent on that issue too.
Cold Steel 1 and 2 have mostly small references. Cold Steel 3 tries actually start tying both prior series together. Again, you'll be fine if you don't know what happened, the game will tell you what you need to know, but you'll definitely wonder who people are a bit and why they're important.
I'd advise doing Cold Steel in order, and you'll be more or less good to go. Starting with CS3 will definitely make you very confused.
Oh, people mentioned the Trails series, now I am justified in my proselytizing about how it is my favoritest thing ever!
Or I can just link this video as the guy does a far better job of explaining just why the series is worth people's attention.
My favorite genre is JRPG. I love slow starts. I love super long games, the longer the better.
But then it manages to commit to a handful of sins that just outweigh that stuff so heavily for me that I just do not like those damn games at all. And it almost makes me sad because with just a few differences I would have a big collection of awesome new JRPGs to be playing.
What sins?
Lack of weapon models, ancient animations, what happens in combat being completely and totally unrelated to what is actually happening. And I don't mean that in the normal turn-based combat sort of way where combat is obviously just a general representation of what is going on but to a much higher extreme where they are not even remotely related which makes for some serious dissonance when going between boss battles and and the cutscenes that follow them. Along those same lines the absurd overuse of cut-scene power. Like it's one of those things where there are usually some standout examples of but oh my god these games do it every single chance they get which further puts a huge divide between the gameplay and the story. And also just the old anime power level is whatever it needs to be at any given time for any character which feels super lazy writing wise. And god damn do they love them some stand around with weapons drawn and listen to villains monologue.
Minor general spoilers
The weird treatment of romance stuff stands out more as well to me due to everything else. Both the love of almost sibling romance and then in Cold Steel the harem feel.
Each thing individually you expect some of in the genre but having all of them together and some of them leaned on so hard and so frequently just really kills them for me. The world writing seems so cool and interesting but with all the other stuff I just can't even get into it enough to enjoy that.
My sin list that keep me from getting into it very much includes the slow start, hours upon hours of cutscenes, and absurd battle animations that are at least 50% posing and grunting, often edging closer to 80%. The godawful camera angles don't help either. I feel like JRPG cameras are actually getting exponentially worse in recent years, somehow, and I'm not sure why. If RPGs could just all collectively sign an agreement to not release anything where characters have to constantly travel to pocket dimensions so that their attack animations make sense, OR the cameras aren't constantly clipping through terrain or monsters, I'd call that a win. I'm not optimistic enough to hope for both.
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DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
I could chalk it up to "because anime" if it were a one-off thing but Cold Steel 2 doubles down on this so repetitiously I started to actively hate it.
Yep. That's the biggest thing. It usually happens in these kind of games at some point and people usually talk about whatever scene it is as being silly or dumb.
But these games? After every boss fight it's like "Well I wonder if the enemy is going to win in the next cutscene or if the after the enemy's cutscene strength one of the good characters will randomly be 6 million times stronger than ever before and win it for us instead?"
This is why I've charged straight forward into western RPGs lately like the Baldur's Gate series. I'm really losing patience with the anime tropes (Tales of Vesperia...).
Feels like they all want to mimic the worst traits of anime, in ways that make even less sense because this is a video game and not an anime.
Or the story comes before the gameplay...all rules of gameplay are broken if it's what the story demands. "Wait, why is she dead dead? We can cast spells to revive people!"
I could chalk it up to "because anime" if it were a one-off thing but Cold Steel 2 doubles down on this so repetitiously I started to actively hate it.
Yep. That's the biggest thing. It usually happens in these kind of games at some point and people usually talk about whatever scene it is as being silly or dumb.
But these games? After every boss fight it's like "Well I wonder if the enemy is going to win in the next cutscene or if the after the enemy's cutscene strength one of the good characters will randomly be 6 million times stronger than ever before and win it for us instead?"
Yea the level of Xanatos Gambits going on in the series is also incredibly off putting. It's annoying that
your characters don't feel like they have agency at all because they can't stop the bad guys until the plot decides it's time that they can. It definitely is a problem
That said, the world building is great, and I really like the characters.
League of Legends: Sorakanmyworld
FFXIV: Tchel Fay
Nintendo ID: Tortalius
Steam: Tortalius
Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius
Or the story comes before the gameplay...all rules of gameplay are broken if it's what the story demands. "Wait, why is she dead dead? We can cast spells to revive people!"
I mean this is exactly Baldur's Gate. Even though there are D&D rules about who can and can't be revived, they aren't strictly adhered to, and don't really make for a sensible fantasy world anyway. This is a dumb Western RPG trope that maybe the recent West has gotten a little better at shaking off, but its also easy to do so when you hardly have games supporting parties anymore.
Excellent. I held off on buying it on PS4 this year, so I'll just wait for the Switch release. Been a while since I played the first two games though, I think I've forgotten most of the finer story details by now.
This is actually a second trilogy, right?
Wasn't there a Legend of Heroes trilogy on the PSP or whatever?
I actually have not played any of the Trials of Cold Steel games because I've been wanting to go back and finish the first trilogy first but that will probably never happen at this point, if I'm being honest with myself. Do you know if they are related story-wise?
So, yes.
All 9 games are related (Trails in sky 1-3, Trails of Azure and Zero, Cold Steel 1-4). Sky takes place first, and Azure/Zero take place around the time of Cold Steel 1/2. All the games are in the same world.
You do not need to have played any of the other series to understand what's going on, but the Cold Steel games will reference characters and events here and there that you won't know about. Sky is the beginning so they reference nothing you don't know. I think Crossbell is mostly silent on that issue too.
Cold Steel 1 and 2 have mostly small references. Cold Steel 3 tries actually start tying both prior series together. Again, you'll be fine if you don't know what happened, the game will tell you what you need to know, but you'll definitely wonder who people are a bit and why they're important.
I'd advise doing Cold Steel in order, and you'll be more or less good to go. Starting with CS3 will definitely make you very confused.
Oh, people mentioned the Trails series, now I am justified in my proselytizing about how it is my favoritest thing ever!
Or I can just link this video as the guy does a far better job of explaining just why the series is worth people's attention.
My favorite genre is JRPG. I love slow starts. I love super long games, the longer the better.
But then it manages to commit to a handful of sins that just outweigh that stuff so heavily for me that I just do not like those damn games at all. And it almost makes me sad because with just a few differences I would have a big collection of awesome new JRPGs to be playing.
What sins?
Lack of weapon models, ancient animations, what happens in combat being completely and totally unrelated to what is actually happening. And I don't mean that in the normal turn-based combat sort of way where combat is obviously just a general representation of what is going on but to a much higher extreme where they are not even remotely related which makes for some serious dissonance when going between boss battles and and the cutscenes that follow them. Along those same lines the absurd overuse of cut-scene power. Like it's one of those things where there are usually some standout examples of but oh my god these games do it every single chance they get which further puts a huge divide between the gameplay and the story. And also just the old anime power level is whatever it needs to be at any given time for any character which feels super lazy writing wise. And god damn do they love them some stand around with weapons drawn and listen to villains monologue.
Minor general spoilers
The weird treatment of romance stuff stands out more as well to me due to everything else. Both the love of almost sibling romance and then in Cold Steel the harem feel.
Each thing individually you expect some of in the genre but having all of them together and some of them leaned on so hard and so frequently just really kills them for me. The world writing seems so cool and interesting but with all the other stuff I just can't even get into it enough to enjoy that.
There are various things I like and dislike about the CS series specifically that I'll avoid dragging things out with but that stupid cutscene disparity is what really killed it for me.
(nonspecific spoilers)
CS is "Win the battle, lose the cutscene" at its worst.
Fight boss, win fairly easily because the combat is easy to break.
thisisntevenmyfinalform.gif
Boss powers up in cutscene and autowins because reasons
Party: "Zoinks! How are we going to get out of this one?!"
An adult comes in and saves the day for them with some instawin godmove.
Party: "Gee thanks! Guess we still have a whole lot more to learn, right gang?"
I could chalk it up to "because anime" if it were a one-off thing but Cold Steel 2 doubles down on this so repetitiously I started to actively hate it.
There's also the cutscene overuse of
"characters chatting, camera pans out to reveal a villain has been listening in this whole time from an unrealistically long distance, smirking smugly."
which has been a long-running trope with the LoH series in general but again CS has to double down on it because they don't understand moderation.
I will say that CS3 is better about this because fights like that usually have a condition of "getting enemy to 70% health" so when you lose in a cut scene, it doesn't feel nearly as nonsensical.
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Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
Excellent. I held off on buying it on PS4 this year, so I'll just wait for the Switch release. Been a while since I played the first two games though, I think I've forgotten most of the finer story details by now.
This is actually a second trilogy, right?
Wasn't there a Legend of Heroes trilogy on the PSP or whatever?
I actually have not played any of the Trials of Cold Steel games because I've been wanting to go back and finish the first trilogy first but that will probably never happen at this point, if I'm being honest with myself. Do you know if they are related story-wise?
So, yes.
All 9 games are related (Trails in sky 1-3, Trails of Azure and Zero, Cold Steel 1-4). Sky takes place first, and Azure/Zero take place around the time of Cold Steel 1/2. All the games are in the same world.
You do not need to have played any of the other series to understand what's going on, but the Cold Steel games will reference characters and events here and there that you won't know about. Sky is the beginning so they reference nothing you don't know. I think Crossbell is mostly silent on that issue too.
Cold Steel 1 and 2 have mostly small references. Cold Steel 3 tries actually start tying both prior series together. Again, you'll be fine if you don't know what happened, the game will tell you what you need to know, but you'll definitely wonder who people are a bit and why they're important.
I'd advise doing Cold Steel in order, and you'll be more or less good to go. Starting with CS3 will definitely make you very confused.
Oh, people mentioned the Trails series, now I am justified in my proselytizing about how it is my favoritest thing ever!
Or I can just link this video as the guy does a far better job of explaining just why the series is worth people's attention.
My favorite genre is JRPG. I love slow starts. I love super long games, the longer the better.
But then it manages to commit to a handful of sins that just outweigh that stuff so heavily for me that I just do not like those damn games at all. And it almost makes me sad because with just a few differences I would have a big collection of awesome new JRPGs to be playing.
What sins?
Lack of weapon models, ancient animations, what happens in combat being completely and totally unrelated to what is actually happening. And I don't mean that in the normal turn-based combat sort of way where combat is obviously just a general representation of what is going on but to a much higher extreme where they are not even remotely related which makes for some serious dissonance when going between boss battles and and the cutscenes that follow them. Along those same lines the absurd overuse of cut-scene power. Like it's one of those things where there are usually some standout examples of but oh my god these games do it every single chance they get which further puts a huge divide between the gameplay and the story. And also just the old anime power level is whatever it needs to be at any given time for any character which feels super lazy writing wise. And god damn do they love them some stand around with weapons drawn and listen to villains monologue.
Minor general spoilers
The weird treatment of romance stuff stands out more as well to me due to everything else. Both the love of almost sibling romance and then in Cold Steel the harem feel.
Each thing individually you expect some of in the genre but having all of them together and some of them leaned on so hard and so frequently just really kills them for me. The world writing seems so cool and interesting but with all the other stuff I just can't even get into it enough to enjoy that.
There are various things I like and dislike about the CS series specifically that I'll avoid dragging things out with but that stupid cutscene disparity is what really killed it for me.
(nonspecific spoilers)
CS is "Win the battle, lose the cutscene" at its worst.
Fight boss, win fairly easily because the combat is easy to break.
thisisntevenmyfinalform.gif
Boss powers up in cutscene and autowins because reasons
Party: "Zoinks! How are we going to get out of this one?!"
An adult comes in and saves the day for them with some instawin godmove.
Party: "Gee thanks! Guess we still have a whole lot more to learn, right gang?"
I could chalk it up to "because anime" if it were a one-off thing but Cold Steel 2 doubles down on this so repetitiously I started to actively hate it.
There's also the cutscene overuse of
"characters chatting, camera pans out to reveal a villain has been listening in this whole time from an unrealistically long distance, smirking smugly."
which has been a long-running trope with the LoH series in general but again CS has to double down on it because they don't understand moderation.
I will say that CS3 is better about this because fights like that usually have a condition of "getting enemy to 70% health" so when you lose in a cut scene, it doesn't feel nearly as nonsensical.
I've only watched the beginning of CS3 so far but already almost each of the first few boss fights had a cutscene afterwards where they did this sort of stuff (having it happen where the friendly character is the cutscene OP one is just as bad and still part of the issue).
So I dunno... it feels like the exact same shit over again. At least so far.
Excellent. I held off on buying it on PS4 this year, so I'll just wait for the Switch release. Been a while since I played the first two games though, I think I've forgotten most of the finer story details by now.
This is actually a second trilogy, right?
Wasn't there a Legend of Heroes trilogy on the PSP or whatever?
I actually have not played any of the Trials of Cold Steel games because I've been wanting to go back and finish the first trilogy first but that will probably never happen at this point, if I'm being honest with myself. Do you know if they are related story-wise?
So, yes.
All 9 games are related (Trails in sky 1-3, Trails of Azure and Zero, Cold Steel 1-4). Sky takes place first, and Azure/Zero take place around the time of Cold Steel 1/2. All the games are in the same world.
You do not need to have played any of the other series to understand what's going on, but the Cold Steel games will reference characters and events here and there that you won't know about. Sky is the beginning so they reference nothing you don't know. I think Crossbell is mostly silent on that issue too.
Cold Steel 1 and 2 have mostly small references. Cold Steel 3 tries actually start tying both prior series together. Again, you'll be fine if you don't know what happened, the game will tell you what you need to know, but you'll definitely wonder who people are a bit and why they're important.
I'd advise doing Cold Steel in order, and you'll be more or less good to go. Starting with CS3 will definitely make you very confused.
Oh, people mentioned the Trails series, now I am justified in my proselytizing about how it is my favoritest thing ever!
Or I can just link this video as the guy does a far better job of explaining just why the series is worth people's attention.
My favorite genre is JRPG. I love slow starts. I love super long games, the longer the better.
But then it manages to commit to a handful of sins that just outweigh that stuff so heavily for me that I just do not like those damn games at all. And it almost makes me sad because with just a few differences I would have a big collection of awesome new JRPGs to be playing.
What sins?
Lack of weapon models, ancient animations, what happens in combat being completely and totally unrelated to what is actually happening. And I don't mean that in the normal turn-based combat sort of way where combat is obviously just a general representation of what is going on but to a much higher extreme where they are not even remotely related which makes for some serious dissonance when going between boss battles and and the cutscenes that follow them. Along those same lines the absurd overuse of cut-scene power. Like it's one of those things where there are usually some standout examples of but oh my god these games do it every single chance they get which further puts a huge divide between the gameplay and the story. And also just the old anime power level is whatever it needs to be at any given time for any character which feels super lazy writing wise. And god damn do they love them some stand around with weapons drawn and listen to villains monologue.
Minor general spoilers
The weird treatment of romance stuff stands out more as well to me due to everything else. Both the love of almost sibling romance and then in Cold Steel the harem feel.
Each thing individually you expect some of in the genre but having all of them together and some of them leaned on so hard and so frequently just really kills them for me. The world writing seems so cool and interesting but with all the other stuff I just can't even get into it enough to enjoy that.
There are various things I like and dislike about the CS series specifically that I'll avoid dragging things out with but that stupid cutscene disparity is what really killed it for me.
(nonspecific spoilers)
CS is "Win the battle, lose the cutscene" at its worst.
Fight boss, win fairly easily because the combat is easy to break.
thisisntevenmyfinalform.gif
Boss powers up in cutscene and autowins because reasons
Party: "Zoinks! How are we going to get out of this one?!"
An adult comes in and saves the day for them with some instawin godmove.
Party: "Gee thanks! Guess we still have a whole lot more to learn, right gang?"
I could chalk it up to "because anime" if it were a one-off thing but Cold Steel 2 doubles down on this so repetitiously I started to actively hate it.
There's also the cutscene overuse of
"characters chatting, camera pans out to reveal a villain has been listening in this whole time from an unrealistically long distance, smirking smugly."
which has been a long-running trope with the LoH series in general but again CS has to double down on it because they don't understand moderation.
I will say that CS3 is better about this because fights like that usually have a condition of "getting enemy to 70% health" so when you lose in a cut scene, it doesn't feel nearly as nonsensical.
I've only watched the beginning of CS3 so far but already almost each of the first few boss fights had a cutscene afterwards where they did this sort of stuff (having it happen where the friendly character is the cutscene OP one is just as bad and still part of the issue).
So I dunno... it feels like the exact same shit over again. At least so far.
CS3
is pretty egregious early on with respect to these issues. It gets much much better later. It's also not quite as bad because at least everyone's a known quantity, and we know how strong a lot of them are. I did hit a couple of points during CS3 where I was just so annoyed at the game for this nonsense and other related nonsense, but I still really liked the game.
League of Legends: Sorakanmyworld
FFXIV: Tchel Fay
Nintendo ID: Tortalius
Steam: Tortalius
Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius
Or the story comes before the gameplay...all rules of gameplay are broken if it's what the story demands. "Wait, why is she dead dead? We can cast spells to revive people!"
I mean this is exactly Baldur's Gate. Even though there are D&D rules about who can and can't be revived, they aren't strictly adhered to, and don't really make for a sensible fantasy world anyway. This is a dumb Western RPG trope that maybe the recent West has gotten a little better at shaking off, but its also easy to do so when you hardly have games supporting parties anymore.
Not the majority of the time, no. A prominent character dies in Baldur's Gate and is alive again in Siege of Dragonspear, and you can even say "I thought you were dead," and it's explained that clerics saved him. And there are returning characters in BG2 who the party may have killed in BG1, and you can question them, saying "weren't you dead?" and get a variety of reasons why they're not. Because that's something that can happen in D&D.
And the biggest example of characters not being able to be revived is explained by the primary plot of the game (bhaalspawns turning to ash and fading away).
A lot of deaths are those of evil characters who a good cleric probably wouldn't revive anyway, even if it didn't take thousands of gold worth of diamonds to do so.
And of course primarily...any inconsistencies are far less egregious and annoying than those present in those anime trope games, that tend to pull these things time and time again, and violate the rules of their own universe that they established...or fail to establish those rules in the first place. Vesperia bombarded me with endless cutscenes discussing in detail which party member was leaving the group and for what reason, only to turn around and decide they're not leaving after all and we're just continuing to travel together, maintaining the status quo and successfully wasting everyone's time. Baldur's Gate hasn't done that.
Does anyone "defensively buy" physical copies of games they MAY want to play? What i mean by defensively buying is purchasing the game now to prevent potential scarcity and scalping later. I prefer to have physical copies of games (summary: remove the dependence on servers being up, can be more easily transferred to other systems, friends houses, etc.) and now with many games getting the Limited Run treatment or having a short window of availability, I may be more inclined to do it. I've done this for a while with other systems since I had disposable income, but the Switch is getting so many releases.
Of course! I don't-can't- play every game I buy, not nearly, but as long as I have the potential ability to play all the games I want then that keeps the voices in my head quiet.
the funny thing is i generically like the boss battle ends with villains stomping on you idea. I think like the beatrix fights from FFIX are awesome and it leads to dope story beats.
I'll concede that i might like it less if it was constantly happening evrey boss
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I played through Golf Peaks on my phone a few months back. Sporky's not entirely correct on his assumptions about mechanics, but here's one general tip and one more specific tip for solving the puzzles in the game.
General:
Specific:
I'm doing it again:
This game is being slept on hard and it is your duty to play this piece of greatness. The soundtrack in particular is so choice.
Resident 8bitdo expert.
Resident hybrid/flap cover expert.
7 I feel spread itself too thin. It didn't need to be 70+ hours(most of that time being with the desperately unlikable Maribel in tow didn't help things either), it could have been condensed with a more focused story and it would have been pretty great. 5 or 11 are great ones to get back in with though, 5 has probably the best story hook in the series that they never really hit again and 11 has Sylvando.
Bustin' makes my accountant feeeel gooood!
Resident 8bitdo expert.
Resident hybrid/flap cover expert.
Nah that was likely just me. I enjoyed my time with it but I felt like it began to drag on the last 4 or so levels. Plus the cat diversion.
Everything about the game was great. I recommend it to really anyone.
Interesting fact about DQ2...it's one of the only games I know of that has party members with their own personalities and backstories and yet their names are randomly generated for every player.
I think the first time I played the game I got Orfeo and Illyth? Definitely Illyth at least.
Interesting that the DQ wiki doesn't list Isolde as a name yet, it sounds like the remake added or changed names?
Steam: TheArcadeBear
Awesome!
Also, I must have gotten MUCH further than I thought way back when. I just got up to
And I definitely remember that. That is surprisingly far in the game.
For all I know I actually beat it way back when but just can’t remember.
Erdrick is only a thing with DQ I-III. I believe DQ IV-VI is another trilogy of sorts.
I'm unaware of any links between the games released after that, but I'm pretty out of the loop on them now.
My Backloggery
There's also some references and links in . . . one or two later games.
Trails feels like a series that I should love.
My favorite genre is JRPG. I love slow starts. I love super long games, the longer the better.
But then it manages to commit to a handful of sins that just outweigh that stuff so heavily for me that I just do not like those damn games at all. And it almost makes me sad because with just a few differences I would have a big collection of awesome new JRPGs to be playing.
Sweet, I always enjoy their indie presentations.
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
PSN - Brainiac_8
Steam - http://steamcommunity.com/id/BRAINIAC8/
Add me!
After spending some good time with SaGa Scarlet Grace: Ambitions, I can say that it is a good SaGa game. Different, without a doubt, but once you get over some transitional humps, it feels good, and has a faster flow in the story beats than previous games.
It is hard as balls though, make no mistake. I turned the encounters down to "easy", which doesn't change the conditionals required to earn post-battle rewards, it only seems to reduce enemy HP and damage a bit. You can still glimmer and master techs just as fine as if you had normal or hard difficulty enemies.
The battles have a depth of strategy to them with interrupts and counters playing a bigger role than before. Spells take turns instead of being cast the same turn you choose them. United attacks are good, but I miss that it doesn't use your party's techs to trigger the damage, only basic attacks.
Steam: TheArcadeBear
That is definitely me! I'm making my way through Romancing Saga 3 right now and love it. It's WAY easier than Romancing Saga 2 but it's still got a lot of fun elements to it. But it sounds like I need to pick this up too... I still have to finish this, and then Alliance Alive HD.
It's funny because when I was a kid I hated the whole open worldness of the Saga games, but now I love it.
What sins?
3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
Steam profile
I do enjoy their indie presentations, but I can't help but feel that they're there so that the indies get a bit of spotlight before the upcoming Direct is going to hog it.
I think it's also smart of Nintendo to do this ahead of the Game Awards, which will be dominating the "new game" news for awhile.
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
PSN - Brainiac_8
Steam - http://steamcommunity.com/id/BRAINIAC8/
Add me!
Lack of weapon models, ancient animations, what happens in combat being completely and totally unrelated to what is actually happening. And I don't mean that in the normal turn-based combat sort of way where combat is obviously just a general representation of what is going on but to a much higher extreme where they are not even remotely related which makes for some serious dissonance when going between boss battles and and the cutscenes that follow them. Along those same lines the absurd overuse of cut-scene power. Like it's one of those things where there are usually some standout examples of but oh my god these games do it every single chance they get which further puts a huge divide between the gameplay and the story. And also just the old anime power level is whatever it needs to be at any given time for any character which feels super lazy writing wise. And god damn do they love them some stand around with weapons drawn and listen to villains monologue.
Minor general spoilers
Each thing individually you expect some of in the genre but having all of them together and some of them leaned on so hard and so frequently just really kills them for me. The world writing seems so cool and interesting but with all the other stuff I just can't even get into it enough to enjoy that.
There are various things I like and dislike about the CS series specifically that I'll avoid dragging things out with but that stupid cutscene disparity is what really killed it for me.
(nonspecific spoilers)
Fight boss, win fairly easily because the combat is easy to break.
thisisntevenmyfinalform.gif
Boss powers up in cutscene and autowins because reasons
Party: "Zoinks! How are we going to get out of this one?!"
An adult comes in and saves the day for them with some instawin godmove.
Party: "Gee thanks! Guess we still have a whole lot more to learn, right gang?"
I could chalk it up to "because anime" if it were a one-off thing but Cold Steel 2 doubles down on this so repetitiously I started to actively hate it.
There's also the cutscene overuse of
which has been a long-running trope with the LoH series in general but again CS has to double down on it because they don't understand moderation.
My sin list that keep me from getting into it very much includes the slow start, hours upon hours of cutscenes, and absurd battle animations that are at least 50% posing and grunting, often edging closer to 80%. The godawful camera angles don't help either. I feel like JRPG cameras are actually getting exponentially worse in recent years, somehow, and I'm not sure why. If RPGs could just all collectively sign an agreement to not release anything where characters have to constantly travel to pocket dimensions so that their attack animations make sense, OR the cameras aren't constantly clipping through terrain or monsters, I'd call that a win. I'm not optimistic enough to hope for both.
Yep. That's the biggest thing. It usually happens in these kind of games at some point and people usually talk about whatever scene it is as being silly or dumb.
But these games? After every boss fight it's like "Well I wonder if the enemy is going to win in the next cutscene or if the after the enemy's cutscene strength one of the good characters will randomly be 6 million times stronger than ever before and win it for us instead?"
Feels like they all want to mimic the worst traits of anime, in ways that make even less sense because this is a video game and not an anime.
Or the story comes before the gameplay...all rules of gameplay are broken if it's what the story demands. "Wait, why is she dead dead? We can cast spells to revive people!"
Yea the level of Xanatos Gambits going on in the series is also incredibly off putting. It's annoying that
That said, the world building is great, and I really like the characters.
FFXIV: Tchel Fay
Nintendo ID: Tortalius
Steam: Tortalius
Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius
I mean this is exactly Baldur's Gate. Even though there are D&D rules about who can and can't be revived, they aren't strictly adhered to, and don't really make for a sensible fantasy world anyway. This is a dumb Western RPG trope that maybe the recent West has gotten a little better at shaking off, but its also easy to do so when you hardly have games supporting parties anymore.
I will say that CS3 is better about this because fights like that usually have a condition of "getting enemy to 70% health" so when you lose in a cut scene, it doesn't feel nearly as nonsensical.
FFXIV: Tchel Fay
Nintendo ID: Tortalius
Steam: Tortalius
Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius
It wouldn't be a Keighley event without his buddy Reggie making an appearance.
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
PSN - Brainiac_8
Steam - http://steamcommunity.com/id/BRAINIAC8/
Add me!
I've only watched the beginning of CS3 so far but already almost each of the first few boss fights had a cutscene afterwards where they did this sort of stuff (having it happen where the friendly character is the cutscene OP one is just as bad and still part of the issue).
So I dunno... it feels like the exact same shit over again. At least so far.
CS3
FFXIV: Tchel Fay
Nintendo ID: Tortalius
Steam: Tortalius
Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius
Not the majority of the time, no. A prominent character dies in Baldur's Gate and is alive again in Siege of Dragonspear, and you can even say "I thought you were dead," and it's explained that clerics saved him. And there are returning characters in BG2 who the party may have killed in BG1, and you can question them, saying "weren't you dead?" and get a variety of reasons why they're not. Because that's something that can happen in D&D.
And the biggest example of characters not being able to be revived is explained by the primary plot of the game (bhaalspawns turning to ash and fading away).
A lot of deaths are those of evil characters who a good cleric probably wouldn't revive anyway, even if it didn't take thousands of gold worth of diamonds to do so.
And of course primarily...any inconsistencies are far less egregious and annoying than those present in those anime trope games, that tend to pull these things time and time again, and violate the rules of their own universe that they established...or fail to establish those rules in the first place. Vesperia bombarded me with endless cutscenes discussing in detail which party member was leaving the group and for what reason, only to turn around and decide they're not leaving after all and we're just continuing to travel together, maintaining the status quo and successfully wasting everyone's time. Baldur's Gate hasn't done that.
Of course! I don't-can't- play every game I buy, not nearly, but as long as I have the potential ability to play all the games I want then that keeps the voices in my head quiet.
Hey Cloud, I literally have 99 Phoenix Downs in my inventory. Maybe let’s not drown Aeris’ corpse?
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
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I'll concede that i might like it less if it was constantly happening evrey boss