They were acquired a few years back, might be what you're thinking of. They're supposed to be putting Sinoalice out in the West, I hope that's what she's working on.
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hmm, that might be. I don't play nexon games, so didn't pay too much attention.
"Was told this was a good starting place, was confused about why I should care about six characters, the music was nice, 7"
The reviews will be all over for CS III unfortunately, it doesn;t help that NISA are saying it's a good starting point when it's anything but. I'd like to think that the people who do review are people who have played the other games in the series.
Scratch that it was Grimwood. Dammit I thought he was one of the good guys. Can't trust anyone anymore...
Super late reply but...
I agree that switching to engines can have some benefits but sadly it wont ever be like Tales games with the current Falcom budget and size.
There is a reason that the new game is being nicknamed as Tales of Budget on the fandom, and its being developed for 3 years now i think by a larger dev team.
In comparison to them Falcom is a really small developer (read somewhere that they have a little more than 50 people) so the studio usually only 1 game at full production at a time just see the last releases of the studio.
2016 - Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana
2017 -The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III
2018 -The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV
2019 - Ys IX: Monstrum Nox
As you can see the current strategy is of yearly releases and this is why there is so much assets recycling on the series.
But it really would be a dream to have Trails and Ys looking like that
OTE][/QU
That's my problem with NISA saying that Cold Steel 3 is an excellent jumping in point. It sure as hell isn't. Here's all the Trails games I've actually played: Finished Sky 1, finished Cold Steel 1 and going through Cold Steel 2 right now. I have SC sitting on my Vita to play which I need to get to before my Vita decides to die on me. Haven't even bought Third yet. In my opinion, at the bare minimum to go into CS3 without your head spinning if you don't have the time to deal with Crossbell I'd play Sky 1 and 2 plus Cold Steel 1 and 2. CS 1 is...a decent jumping in point but you really should go through Sky 1 and 2 first ideally, you'll get so much more out of Cold Steel if you do. With the CS 1 summary in 2 I'd say you can even jump in there but I wouldn't advise it. The summary from what I've read of it is a cliff notes version of the major major events of CS 1. To fully get the most out of 2 you really need to experience all of CS 1.
Things get WAY stickier with CS 3. From what I can see you absolutely need to have gone through Crossbell before you even dare touch CS 3. I mean you can without it but your ass will probably be utterly lost without them. Especially during the last leg of CS 1 Crossbell is directly referenced to and talked about. To further complicate it Crossbell happens concurrently at the same time as CS 1 at the very least. If NISA gives these reviewers resources to help them get up to speed with these other games but not the public that's flat out messed up. You need to play these other games to deal with CS 3. I'd go so far as to say they're mandatory. Just blows my mind they're releasing CS 3 without any kind of Crossbell primer for Western gamers. If they have in fact put together summary videos for reviewers they'd best release them to the public. CS3 shouldn't be coming before Crossbell. Those games are too intertwined with CS 3 to not do something.
Outside that nitpick, these games are incredible. The character development, histories of these characters and the world building are un tricking real. It's exhaustive and not for everyone but if you get sucked in you're probably buckled in for the entire damn ride! Next to the Final Fantasy series these are my second favorite RPG series right now. The only other series I can think of that is comparable with the world building, character development and lore is the Xenosaga series.
I'm playing through CS3, and I have to say Crossbell's spoiler is a lot worse than what CS1/2 did. Saying this game is a good start is like dismissing the need to play Crossbell games.
Also opinion may vary, but I think without playing Crossbell, Juna's character will be harder to sympathize with, and this is coming from me jumping straight to CS3 right after finishing Ao.
Also opinion may vary, but I think without playing Crossbell, Juna's character will be harder to sympathize with, and this is coming from me jumping straight to CS3 right after finishing Ao.
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Yeah, playing CS3 myself at the moment and you at the bare minimum need to know what happened in the Crossbell games. Some of the chapters lose a lot of impact if you've haven't played the Sky series too.
Can anyone speak to the quality of the Zero No Kiseki Evolution translation? I'm playing the one for Third at the moment (which I gather is just the xseed script really) but I can't find any meaningful info on the Zero one besides the gbatemp post.
(this is not referring to the Zero translation from the geofront group)
(this is not referring to the Zero translation from the geofront group)
it's not good, at all, you might be better off waiting for Geofront to finish Zero and then jump in the current ao translation which is of higher quality
I figured that was the case, seemed more like something someone hashed out quickly without editing from the small parts I can see.
something like that yeah, it's a mixture of a really bad project lead, ESL translators and inexperience
It's serviceable, the voice acting really helps sometimes, but unless you're dying to smash through Zero/Ao wait for Geofront!
Ao's current translation however is really good considering so no need to wait for GF on that one.
Also, think it's pretty much necessary to play Crossbell before CS3 and that's just off playing the demo.
Ao's current translation however is really good considering so no need to wait for GF on that one.
Also, think it's pretty much necessary to play Crossbell before CS3 and that's just off playing the demo.
Guess I should finally buy Zero no Kiseki! Now I'm kinda glad that CS3 isn't launching on PC since I'd be VERY tempted to skip the Crossbell games.
Which part of the demo did it really feel necessary to have played Crossbell? Nothing there's remotely as egregious as the Crossbell part of CS2. It felt like it was repeatedly written to beat the player over the head with
it is an occupied state and there is very active resentment among people from there.
Stuff like the Divertisement is far worse, because the main playable character isn't previously established in the game, so you only have a limited view of their motivation and incentives. And honestly, I'm more confused about the demo's references to
North Ambrian annexation
There's definitely going to be points in the game that are worse, but nothing in the demo would really lose the player.
An odd thing about the game is how stingy it is with character names and introductions. Lots of speaking lines just have descriptive tags until the character is properly introduced, which I find weird, like Falcom is trying to ease players into the established setting, which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't.
The cs3 demo was meaty only for its game systems and to see the better grapichs (the animations were really really poor yet). For characters and plot It was nothing worth since It throws them in the action without context imho. Juna character Is interesting only to people who played crossbell probably Indeed.
Crossbell games could be played in short time since they are on vita/psp but they run on emulators one can abuse the turbo mode on there (they run even on smartphones). Cannot see one day falcom will doing a remake since both zero and Ao were pretty big. Hopefully not the pinnacle of kiseki for franchise next arcs
Crossbell games could be played in short time since they are on vita/psp but they run on emulators one can abuse the turbo mode on there (they run even on smartphones). Cannot see one day falcom will doing a remake since both zero and Ao were pretty big. Hopefully not the pinnacle of kiseki for franchise next arcs
Especially since you basically need the burst orbs to postpone the bosses one hit kill attack in order to kill it in time, hence my advice. Glad you liked it, tho.
Hold up, @above - Is it true that the Evo/Vita versions of the Sky/Crossbell games have "Official" English scripts (SEA/Phillipines, IE low quality translation), or are we talking Fan Translations being injected into those versions?
I recall someone on Discord mentioning that the Evo games got an "English" release in SEA but I never bothered to follow up on seeing if that was true.
I recall someone on Discord mentioning that the Evo games got an "English" release in SEA but I never bothered to follow up on seeing if that was true.
people injected the xseed scripts in them which is what people play a lot, it never got an official engrish release
Pretty much what I'm expecting to happen, yeah.
The Xenosaga series is indeed the next closest thing in respect to overall ambition, but the level of competency, sense of focus, and overall coherence are all significantly lacking with those games by comparison. I considered it quite a mess after all was said and done, and that was after getting only three games when they had intended to make six before poor sales and developer in-fighting got in the way of that.
I'm wishing so much that the zero translation releases in November, this way I can play Ao + Zero in November and December and CS3 in January.
It's perfect because here the summer break its December to February.
It's more the implication of what's to come IMO. Previous characters just being thrown at you left right and centre with no major explanation. The demo itself is okay, but I can only see it getting worse throughout the game.
Yea I've noticed this a lot. Sometimes it makes sense but when it's a character we already know I don't get it lol
Sup nerds. Got some friends who are trying to get into Trails with CS3? Can't be bothered to sum up the discourse regarding which game they can and should start with? Wanna tell them that yes, they will enjoy the series more if they start with the Sky games, but it's ultimately their decision based on the time/confidence they have in the series and that's ok? BEHOLD:
(Feel free to share this wherever. Or don't! Up to you)
(Feel free to share this wherever. Or don't! Up to you)
Sup nerds. Got some friends who are trying to get into Trails with CS3? Can't be bothered to sum up the discourse regarding which game they can and should start with? Wanna tell them that yes, they will enjoy the series more if they start with the Sky games, but it's ultimately their decision based on the time/confidence they have in the series and that's ok? BEHOLD:
(Feel free to share this wherever. Or don't! Up to you)
Eating cousins? I missed that part of Zero.
People that say it's fine don't care, they just want to know what happened in the game.
I spent 90 hours on Zero, and that is so true. You can get a good feel from most of them despite this though, some are funny like the woman who's good at giving plants water
I decided a long time ago that I wasn't going to talk to every npc in the area every time a major plot point happened. I put 490+ hours in to trails, and while I loved it, I shudder to think how much more time it would've taken to talk to all the NPCs, to learn just how much that maid enjoys cleaning. I get that lots of people love the npc dialog, but I just don't care.
I talk to the some of the ones I cross paths with but going around talking to all of them after every major plot development is something that I don't do. The time investment just isn't worth it to me.
It already takes me up to 6 months to play through a big rpg as it is.
I get why some people do it but for me it's not worth the time investment. I'm heavily invested in the main characters and the story/lore but the whole NPC thing isn't among the reasons why I play these games. That's not to say that it isn't a great touch and part of the series' charm.
Yeah, i totally get why people are into the npc interactions...it's jut that, for me, there's enough going on with the main plot that it's enough for me to just to follow along with the main plot. I only talk to NPCs that the walkthroughs tell me to, or if they're listed as having interesting dialog, as in the zero and Ao walkthroughs. So, yeah, when I say the translation for Zero and Ao is fine is because I didn't read the NPC dialog. I don't think they're necessary for people who just want to play Zero and Ao before CS3.
At first it's about checking if someone will hand me books or hidden quest, but now I enjoy digging clue and lore in NPCs dialogue.
For example, archbishop Eralda expresses his disgust toward Congregation for the Sacraments 1st time near the end of Zero, or before GF being brainwashed at the end of Zero, there was a NPC at Bellguard Gate mentioned of Ursula college providing them new medicine. While minor, the discord between Armorica elder and his son was also depicted during Zero and only turned into a series of optional quest in Ao. And not to mention some hidden events that only triggered by talking to certain NPC, who are closely related to SSS which also reveal something about them. Personally, my favorite is Mireille.
At some point Falcom has to make a Fishing spin-off game. Make it about how the real secret plot of Ouroboros as always been about building the ultimate fishing pole or something.
I talked to the NPCs, but I thought the main scenario's translation is pretty terrible, too. It doesn't have as many as obvious errors, but the characters sound unnatural due to the overly-literal translation, there are numerous instances where the wrong word is chosen (like, say, "deducted" instead of "deduced"), punctuation errors (...and...so...many...ellipses...), text that overflows the dialogue box, and so on.
The encyclopedia you can access from the title screen of the demo is pretty good, but I find it interesting who they included and who they did not. In addition to the main summaries of just CS1 and CS2, the character sections focus almost exclusively on the characters that had decent roles in CS1 and CS2. Only the Ouroborous members that appeared in CS1 and CS2 get pages, and only Lloyd gets a (fairly decent) entry out of the Crossbell crew for obvious reasons, while Randy gets... nothing. And Rixia gets nothing. The entries are overwhelmingly just what Rean saw, experienced, and learned, and that at least carries through in how information is presented in the demo. If something is new to Rean and they're filling him in on stuff, it gets regular exposition, but if it is something that Rean already knows, they just say a bunch of super vague things (Altina, Patrick's introductions).
Well, the game AT LEAST expects you have played CS1 and CS2, so theres no need to introduce Altina and Patrick. Hence why NISA "its perfectly fine to start with CS3" is kinda ... disingenuous.
NISA saying you can start with CS3 is ludicrous, and quite frankly, harmful to the series. No one forced them to start localizing the trails series with the 3rd game in a 4 game sub series with has 9 major games in the series. They seem to delight in stealing licenses away from other companies, and ruining them. It seems like, at the very least, they did a good jobon CS3, but when people follow their shitty advice, and jump on with CS3 (come on, it's 18 fucking months, that's not a time jump!),and find themselves as confused as hell, and sales suffer, will NISA go "well, we only wanted Ys anyways. Sucks to be you, Trails fans." No one's gonna do a fanslation of CS4. It's just annoying. NISA should bite the bullet, and at least tell people they have to play CS1 and 2. Fuckin' prove you care about the license, NISA, not just your own profits.
Didn't Xseed say the same thing about CS2 though? This is still probably a better entry point than CS2 was, because it doesn't start during the middle of a plot arc.
Sadly, NISA may very well have been the only option for future Kiseki games to get localized at all - As far as everyone's able to tell, XSEED's relationship with Falcom is completely burnt and everything Falcom-related XSEED published since CS2's original release was just stuff they already had the license to from before said relation came crashing down. And Aksys was probably firmly burnt on Falcom stuff after Tokyo Xanadu did poorly for them (And even if they weren't, TX's localization is barely any better than Ys 8's original English script). Atlus USA really only does Sega stuff now, so they're out of the picture. And Gaijinworks? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
And well, good luck trying to get anyone bigger than the ones listed above to be willing to localize Falcom's stuff. Especially since bigger publishers like Namco, Konami, and a few others once did publish Falcom's titles in the west but ended up dropping them, leaving Falcom's titles in Japan for years until XSEED took a gamble on them.
And well, good luck trying to get anyone bigger than the ones listed above to be willing to localize Falcom's stuff. Especially since bigger publishers like Namco, Konami, and a few others once did publish Falcom's titles in the west but ended up dropping them, leaving Falcom's titles in Japan for years until XSEED took a gamble on them.