Couldnt agree more about cold steel. The first time i played it i was coming off of Persona 5 and looking for more Persona. I lasted like 5 hours and lost interest. When i picked it up again several months later and played it for what is i was totally hooked.
Sometimes, probably because she doesn't get much focus outside of specific moments in later games, I forget just how competent Estelle truly is. It's kind of awesome seeing her speak with Weissman and the Enforcers without showing much fear, and then how she devises and enacts her own escape. Sure, Gilbert and the Enhanced Jaegers may have been able to overwhelm her eventually, but she was doing really well as a one-man force Sometimes I feel like her and Joshua still only being B-Rank 3/4 years later is unfortunate, but it helps to remember that's what Schera and Agate were until after the Liber Ark incident anyway. I've also come to the conclusion that the two working together as a pair can easily measure up to any A-Rank, and that it would be individually where they fall just short of it Other stuff from SC really stands out to me, especially since she truly has accomplishments somewhat comparable to Lloyd and Rean. She's led a team into semi-victory over multiple Enforcers, impressed Loewe whom most of Ouroboros looked up to, and not only did she manage to keep up with Weissman in a debate, she even reduced him to the point of insults and name-calling over actually refuting her points While she still has elements of being a little hot-headed, I like to think she's more observant and adaptable than others think; she jumps into situations quickly specifically BECAUSE she's confident she's enough. In any case, idk if you'll even see this comment lol
Going through the Trails series as I started with the Crossbell duology on the Switch and just finished CS 2 on PS5 and I loved the parallels between CS2 and Azure (which is most likely intentional since they occur roughly around the same time) but also how different they with their endings. Azure was the prime definition of "I won but at what cost" and Cold Steel 2 simply felt like a hollow victory.
Blueblanc is problably to most mysterious enforcer. He for the most is an enigma. He doesnt seem to have the darkness that other enforcers yet he is an enforcer. The enforcers have an over have tragic yet blueblanc backstory seem rather binine. He other interesting fact outside of meeting joshua and leon in FC (well technicaly meet him in FC but not in person) blueblunc was first enforcer you encounter using the enforcer title. With the religous undertones first shall be last. Ontop of blueblanc is thief a masterful one at that. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
People argue you have to play NG+ because it shows your commitment and it makes sense thats how you get importsnt plot? Wtf? Some of us have careers and lives we have to live, we can set aside time to play a long ass series but multiple times? What are you smoking? That was a very poor choice having major plot behind NG+, i have only ever played NG+ on the witcher because I absolutely loved the Witcher and the expansions came out later than the original game so i replayed the story on NG+ but they for sure didnt havestory hidden behind it. If you want to put plot in NG+ then do it for a shorter game. Not a 70 hour game. Like wtf lol.
RIP Scott. There's still nobody who puts out Trails content to your caliber. You were a master of your craft and will be missed by any Trails fan who stumbles across your channel.
Thank you sir for this! I've had this video saved for a couple years now since finishing Cold Steel II, and then waiting for Falcom to release the Geofront translations of the Crossbell arc. I just finished Trails to Azure a couple hours ago, and now I'm simultaneously saying goodbye to the SSS (at least for now) and also knowing that Cold Steel III is ahead. This is a great series.
Getting ready to finally start CS III, and whaddya know, you left yet another great resource behind for us to enjoy. Thanks again for working so hard to get Crossbell over the barrier to the west. Rest in peace kid, I'm playing this one for you ❤
watching this in 2023 when he mentions that we could potentially revisit Grancel in 2023 about 4 years after this video (20:50)... I haven't played trails games past cold steel 2 yet so I hope so!
We’re you able to monetize? I know this vid was 4 years ago but one of my channel got hit with “reused content” also. Just curious if you ever found a solution.
Yep, I agree, nobody has ever tried what Falcon is doing here. Final Fantasy always makes a different game in a different universe, very rarely going back to the same universe and it's only to continue the story of a character or a group of characters, never to introduce another arc in the same world. And, being sincere here, after playing Trails of the Sky 1, 2 and trails from zero (Sky 3 was a huge step back, and i dropped almost immediately), I can safely say that Falcon blew my mind in what is possible to do in a RPG. They have multiple arcs, each with a group of people, in the same world, interacting with each other, mentioning the events of other games with everything intertwined, and it's so good. I played them one after the other, and they are 50-80 hours games, and they keep being good all the time, when you finish one game, it's not enough, you want to play the next. The games have some problems, true, but you see that they are improving at each game. It's just great and I can't recommend them enough.
As someone who only recently decided to jump into the Trails series, and started with Zero, I can definitely say new player MUST play the Sky Trilogy first. I came to that realization about halfway through Zero due to some plot stuff that is directly linked to the Sky trilogy. So I stopped play Zero and decided to start at the best place to start something. The beginning. I’m now on Azure, and let me tell you. There’s a shit ton of stuff that happens in the Crossbell arc that is directly influenced and are consequences of events that happened in Sky, ESPECIALLY when it comes to three specific characters and their character arcs and development, that had I not played the Sky trilogy would have just fell flat and meant nothing to me whatsoever. Having gone back to finish the Sky trilogy before completely Zero, it’s a 1000x better. If you’re new to the series or want to get into them, don’t dance around with what order you should play them in. You already know what the answer is but you wanna circumvent playing the games(which doesn’t make sense like if you’re gonna start playing a series why the hell would you want to play the least amount of games in the series.)You know, I know, and everybody knows that you should play them in order. Period.
i just downloaded Trails from Zero , it's my first Trails game. it's the earliest Trails game thats available on the PS4 platform. so far i'm enjoying the game. it's old school.
I think the largest barrier of entry for Sky is its combat, especially FC. Kiseki is a series where mechanically they get better and better unlike FF or Tales and Sky is very barebones.
I think the biggest reasons for people not playing all of them was Trails in the Sky not being on PlayStation home console. I didn’t play Zero and Azure until they got to PS4. Put Trails in the Sky on PS4/PS5, and I’ll buy them day one.
Played cold steal one and two back to back but couldn’t pass the first dungeon in 3 from serious burn out. Replaying it again I remember the big plot points but forgot half of the subplots
