I read your comment about Duke 64: "That moment when the Title music is better than Duke 3D" and then immediately thought, "...but then you find there is no music in-game."

NISA announced a plethora of Trails games for the next years! It's incredibly cool that the Geofront localizations will become the de facto official western release of the Crossbell arc. The sad thing is how far the releases are. Zero in Autumn 2022, Azure in 2023 and Hajimari in 2023 as well... that's so far away! I guess that's it for a while after I'll get around and finish Cold Steel 3 and 4, one way or the other

And yeah, the song is that one. Just fantastic and works great in context.

Luckily, most of Azure's final dungeon isn't cramped. You can mostly avoid enemies comfortably. But still, it's really long haha. I think the pacing was awesome, but to be fair I liked the pacing of almost every Trails game. I came to love the very slow "familiarize with the game world" thing with Sky 1 (which is still probably my favorite) so it doesn't bother me. The only egregious case of "bad pacing" for me personally was the middle of Cold Steel 2. That was mainly because you flew around Eastern Erebonia doing menial quests and things that felt not only massively inconsequential, but of little interest in terms of world building and such. That's the way to make me not care, the rest is generally fine, I'm quite easy to please . In Azure, aside from the beginning (which feels slow after the high octane prologue, but isn't really slow for Trails standards) it's an absolute roller coaster, Chapter 2 already fires on all cylinders and from there Falcom really mastered the control of intensity in my opinion.

I absolutely can't imagine what it was like to play Sky the time it released here. The cliffhanger to Sky 1 gutted me the first time, and it would've been maddening not to play the sequel shortly after. It also happened (though with less intensity) with the ending of Cold Steel 1. In a way, it was a really nice time to get into the series, among its current, relative popularity and the great fan translation for the Crossbell games.

The worst thing is absolutely how they hide away some crucial character development behind the final "bonding event". In Ao, it's even worse than Cold Steel, because the whole bonding system is hidden. I sincerely hope they can that horrible bonding system from the next entries because I can say for certain that's the only thing I unconditionally hate about these games haha

Holy shit man, Ao was absolutely NUTS! Totally worth the wait, it's my favorite Trails after Sky/Sky SC. The pacing was killer, probably the single biggest factor to keep me glued to the screen. Also, the OST is out of this world, final boss OST might be my favorite final boss theme in any JRPG I've played or listened to! Geofront did a monumental job for sure, it's actually irritating how in the West we don't get an official localization of the Crossbell arc, since they're terrific games.

It wasn't perfect, the final chapter (and the final dungeon more specifically) was way too long for its own good and at the ending felt a bit anticlimactic. I also came to find some of the Trails tropes a bit annoying, though I suspect that's also because I blasted through SEVEN games within a year and some months. For example the apparent inability to kill off some characters for good or to finally defeat some enemies! It was always perplexing to me how there's a strong boss, you defeat the boss but then it turns out you actually did nothing to him or something like that. It gets a bit silly after a while. But that's the way they do things, so I came to accept it, though it's not my preference.

I am absolutely pleased overall and I really want to continue with the saga! I'm getting a bit of a break though, while I wait for Cold Steel 3 to go on sale. It's certainly a unique series that has a charm nothing else quite gets. Happy to have become a fan in the last year.

For real! I'm well over half of The Last of Us 2 and I'm really immersed in that game so I'll probably start slow with Azure, but after that it's smooth sailing haha I can't wait!

Yeah man! I am so excited about it! RIP all the other games I'd have to play because I'm marathoning Azure, Cold Steel 3 and 4 haha

I can't wait, thankfully I'm wrapping up the work on my thesis today so I'll have plenty of free time for at least a month. I should be able to immerse myself in the game for a while!

Lol thank you, I'm really hoping so! I remember your vaguely unimpressed tone with Binding Blade and how right you were, I still think that's my least liked one.

Anyway I'm super glad I just downloaded a NG+ file and went with it. Bonding Events were significantly more involved than CS1 and arbitrarily losing two thirds of them is just a terrible decision. Especially when they're important for character development. This bonkers "replayability" choice is the one I despise the most, especially because in a normal game you also lose the Black Records quest and the SENSATIONAL scene that comes with it. That's just cheap, that scene (that is important in later games also, I read) is too important to be missed like that.

Yeah, length is tough. My main concern is that of a steadier pace. CS2 starts strong and ends super strong (I'm probably beating the Epilogue tonight), but in the middle it kinda meanders. Zero took me longer than CS2 if I remember correctly, yet I basically never stopped playing because the plot was always moving forward.

It might also be due to the fact that I've never loved the most "open" sections in JRPGs. There is too much choice and I lose the sense of urgency or the desire to advance the plot. But I understand that this is quite unusual for a JRPG fan, it's just my own weird preference thingy.

(to be honest, sometimes I spoil myself purely by being a dumb idiot and searching for the wrong stuff, in those cases I'd kick myself in the butt, but mostly it's inconsiderate people's fault haha)

By surfing the Internet I've learned that Kiseki experts are often basically bipolar regarding each and every thing in the Kiseki universe, they have conflicting opinions about the plot, the twist, the quality of the games and so on. So I kinda stopped paying attention to that community, felt like it was giving me more headaches than help. In the end, I'll probably go with the flow. The final dungeon is absolutely hype, so it's entirely possible that I'll go with the flow and finish everything at that point lol

To be fair, I've also been spoiled some major Ao twists by some absolute pricks that went writing sensitive plot moments in entirely unrelated threads just to prove their silly points, so I admit I'm kinda hostile to a good chunk of the community at this point haha I'll see how everything flows together from the Epilogue onwards!

Anyway, CS2 is still a damn good game. It seriously stumbled in the middle third for me, the pace went out of the window for a chunk of that chapter, and there are some bones I'd have to pick with some choices Falcom made but I'm absolutely pleased overall so now I'm kinda hyped for Ao and then CS3 and 4, can't wait!

Cold Steel 4 coming April 9th on PC! That's awesome, now I'm only waiting for the Ao patch haha wrapping up Cold Steel 2 in these days, though I think I'll skip the divertissement for now as I've heard that it's the one part of CS2 that truly spoils Ao in some way.

Supposedly, an official localization for The Great Ace Attorney is coming this summer (according to Capcom leaks and Taiwanese game board classifications). I've only been waiting for the Jap-only Ace Attorney games since forever haha I've played the six main games twice during the years and it's STILL been a long time since I last played them. Better late than never (Zero and Ao official localizations, coff coff) I guess.

Would you mind if I sent you a friend request on Steam?

Yeah same for Cold Steel III. I'd like a confirmation regarding IV ASAP, because worst case scenario I'd have to buy it on PS4 or Switch haha I wouldn't be the biggest fan of that, I prefer playing on PC (also because I spam guides with Trails games to ensure that I don't miss any quests or major content, because I don't see myself replaying the games anytime soon). Right now I'm enjoying CS II a lot, it's just such a comfy series for me at this point.

Yeah Origin is a bit on the "flash guard spam" side for bosses, because they're really tanky. I've also played it directly on Nightmare, it's not particularly hard but some late game bosses are incredibly spongy. I thought I was fine with attempting Oath on Nightmare as I've cleared it on Hard before and I also completed Napishtim on Hard/Catastrophe (with Majuunun or whatever it's called) and later on Nightmare/Catastrophe, but Oath is just on another level haha!

Maybe I worry too much about the time management thing and even later I'll have some decent time to play. It's just that either way I'm going to have to adapt to a completely new lifestyle and that's pretty daunting. So maybe I'm overthinking it, but I want to complete up to CSIV anyway haha.

Cold Steel 1 didn't have much in terms of Zero callbacks but I think it would be different when played after Ao. The Crossbell related events that happen in CS are all happening during Ao as far as I know. Unfortunately I didn't have much time to wait, this summer I'm going to finish university and hopefully get a job/start living with my girlfriend so I don't know how much time I'll have to play by then. I'm really trying to complete the games up to Cold Steel 4 as long as I have enough time to sink into them. Back to the topic, the Sky callbacks are STRONG in CS1. Highly recommend that you go back and enjoy them! Not plot changing or anything obviously, but they felt so good haha!

Regarding Ys, I didn't play them all, only the "most modern" version of any given entry (bar Memories of Celceta, I have it installed since forever on Steam but I'm still waiting for the "right moment" if that makes sense). Personally, it would be Lacrimosa (by far, I really like every Ys but Lacrimosa is something else) > Seven > Oath > Origin > Napishtim = 1/2 Chronicles+. As I said, I like them all, the first two have a really nostalgic feeling I love but they're quite basic (and 2 has a fetish with enormous labyrinths for some reason), Napishtim has an awesome plot but it's a bit rough for me compared to the other two in the same engine. Once I liked Oath more, but the last time I played it I was trying to beat it on Nightmare and I rage quit against the crystal worm boss so I'm still sore about that haha!

Yeah, I've heard the current translation for Ao isn't half bad. Still, Geofront's will probably be out soon, with enough time to take a break after Cold Steel 2 for me personally haha as much as I love those game, I can't play those back to back either, or at least not too many. I've let quite some time pass between SC and Third, Third and Zero and finally Zero and Cold Steel 1.

On a side note, enjoy Lacrimosa! It's my favorite Ys yet. I was so excited for Monstrum Nox but Nisa Europe cancelled my order of the Collector's Edition for PS4 because of Brexit related shenanigans. At this point, if I'm going to buy it digital anyway I might as well wait for the PC release...