Board 8 > The Legend of MZeroes: Trails of Cold Stingers 2

(+) Yeah! (+)

McBurn is the best, dumb name and all.

the ALMIGHTY CONFLAGRATION

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McBurn is a joke character that the games take too seriously sometimes.
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That is the vibe I am getting right now

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How the hell did McBurn get approved by anyone with authority

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_stingers_ posted...

How the hell did McBurn get approved by anyone with authority

he only gets more ridiculous as the series goes on
(also he's arguably the most popular CS villain aside from Crow)

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I mean I like his design I honestly just hate his name

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I always wanted to call him McDude

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Valimar is only picking up two friends in Legram, so I assume thats Laura and Emma, with Jusis being caught up with his brother or dad. I take with me Toval, Alisa, and Gaius as thats basically the party I was using in the Nord Highlands. Legram is very foggy and the higher elements are at work, so something fishy is going on around here. About this time I realize I forgot to unequip the quartz and accessories from the characters I left behind in Ymir so time to reset.

Alright, back in the area of Legram, I can see some treasure on the minimap but it wont let me get it. Why not just block the exits? I am triggered but oh well. Arriving in town, my first stop is the Bracer guild, where it takes them an unusually long time to recognize Toval. Hes a Bracer so youd think theyd immediately know its him. Klaus is here too, and he tells us about the strange things happening around Legram lately, including the unusually thick and lingering fog, and tells us Laura and Emma went to that castle in Lake Lohengrin to check it out. We decided to go after them just in case, but first I need to take a look around town. Found Vivi in the church, but Rean thought she was the other twin, I cant really blame him! The priest here is the absolute worst priest ever. Also ran into Caspar from the swim team. Man I really have no recollection of any of these students, but then again when I played CS1 I didnt really talk to NPCs much.

We get on the boat to head for the castle, and Celine mentions that there are other gundams besides Valimar and Crows, and one of them used to be in the castle. Also, Celine secretly tagged along during our field trip here. Arriving at the castle, Laura and Emma are indeed engaged in battle, but it looks like they didnt need our help and take down the beast on their own. Of course, another, stronger beast shows up afterwards and we join in to help. Emma and Laura have great new outfits. Back on the boat, Emma starts to have a guilt trip speech but Rean isnt having it.

Back in town, some Noble alliance officers show up in an airship. Theyre apparently hella strong but just leave without really doing anything. Ok.

Jusis is probably in Bareahard, but were going to dive right into the heart of noble country despite being wanted, because friendship. But first, gotta get some actual literal Bracer missions! One of them is to take down this giant baboon that was utter bull stuff with his AoE attack and buffs, but I got him after about 5 tries or so. The other was these guys who want a salty runback from the last time we were here. Apparently they werent much of a challenge then because I dont remember them. Toval decides to sit this one out, as he wasnt there for the first fight I guess. The music is pretty jamming here, but I take them down with ease. Apparently its only one fight, I thought this was Trails! Arent they supposed to get up and fight us again, perhaps with someone joining the fight!?

Heading towards Bareahard, I run into a few interesting enemies. One I thought was Galarian Zigzagoon but its actually called Hell Rabbit which is a pretty sweet name, and another is one of my favorite classic enemies, Sharkgator. Around this time I realize Toval is pretty busted in random fights. He basically one shots everything with his AoE spells and I have him equipped with the quartz that recovers EP on the field, which gets him back to full before the next fight like 90% of the time. Of course, he also has a sort cast time due to his accessory, which makes it even faster. I also gave him the quartz that analyzes enemies you kill, so I dont have to waste time scanning them. Seems like arts are pretty strong in this game.

We stumble upon the next Spirit Shrine, which Emma is vaguely familiar with but doesnt know much about. She says they may be connected to the gundams though. This time, the vision is related to Legram, so it does seem like they will be regionally relevant. I thought this girl was Arianrhod at first, but Im not sure. Rean finally tells everyone about the visions, and the gang seems to think these are memories of the founder of Thors Academy, from 250 years ago.

Coming up on Bareahard, there are two guards standing at the gate, so this should go well. Despite being wanted or whatever, we casually stroll up and try to get in. Shouldnt they recognize Laura at least? Or Rean considering hes going around messing the Noble army up with his giant robot? Emma uses some convenient magic power to get the guards to let us through. I gave her contacts, so in this scene her glasses appeared back on her face just so she could take them off, which was pretty funny.

Once inside town, I run into a student whos doing like 7 jobs around town and ask her if she knows where Jusis is, which she doesnt. The goddess statue is crying black tears, but I approached from behind so it looked more like black diarrhea. Anyway, I got down into the sewer and kill the King Slime to fix the acidic water and save the day. I also find an old lady whos missing a kitten, and the hunt is on. In a complete deconstruction of the series, the gang finds that cat and catches it on the first try without letting it run away. There truly is a first time for everything.

After looking around Bareahard for awhile, we get summoned by I assume Jusis. I kind of wish I brought Machias now to see what happens there. Jusis is not coming with us, because *queue clich anime speech*. Rean is once again not having it, and somehow we end up having duel to decide if hes coming or not. We really shouldnt be doing this in front of a window. A dorothy looking girl and a sleepy rave guy are spying on his, probably up to no good.

We decide to have a race and a duel. Dont bring a horse to a motorcycle race, Jusis. After the duel, the two people who were spying on us show up and a battle ensues. Bro really has 300k HP good lord. I came really close to killing the knight, but fell just short. I dont think I did any damage to McBurn though (what a name). Our party has been bested, which means its about time for someone to show up with exquisite timing. This time its our very inappropriate, alcoholic teacher Sara! I feel like shes nothing compared to McBurn over here, so Im not sure how much this is going to help. Jusis dad then shows up, and mentions a letter he left behind, so I guess Jusis was planning to come with us all along (shock). They have tanks and some new gundams so its Valimar time! One relatively easy and straightforward battle later, its time to bail and the bike comes with us somehow. Now I have two balls (overrise balls, that is)

Back in Ymir, every one reunites and Millum tries to hug Jusis but is DENIED. +1 Jusis. Rean hops in the bath and reflects on the events so far. I have to choose which reunion was the best, and I choose Emma because thats who I wifed in the first game. Of course, she shows up just then because why wouldnt she. I was going to keep a save file to watch the other scenes but I saved over it. Whoops.

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_stingers_ posted...

As I leave, I find a fishing spot right outside the door that I definitely missed the first time, so lucky me for finding it now. I caught a first time fish too (an eel) so thank god I didn't miss it again. I'm at 17/24 on the fishes now so pretty close to done, albeit that's with my having cheated the fishing sidequest by being on NG+. Mzero, clue me in on what a normal persons fishing situation looks like around here.

I think I have about 12 fish

_stingers_ posted...

What happened to how much you love your four seasons, Japan? Your special fucking four seasons that no other country in the world has? You don't even know how trees are supposed to look in December! Pathetic.

Bareahard is not Japan, and thus has no seasons. Duh.

_stingers_ posted...

They look into the airship and say there's a familiar face inside while zooming in on Sharon, I guess telling you that these people are all Ouroboros if you weren't paying attention at all. I wonder if there's any kind of scene here if you don't have Sharon with you? Mzero, clue us in! Unless you brought Sharon too, which you probably did because who wouldn't, right? So we'll probably never know.

IIRC it zoomed in on Toval and they said something along the lines of "we should be able to have fun with him, at least" I didn't make a note of it though so I'm not sure

_stingers_ posted...

Also, this is the first time I heard Loewe pronounced, and that is apparently "Loo Ey Vey".

lmao yeah I had the opposite problem of knowing how it was pronounced but no idea how it was supposed to be spelled, so I always called him Leonhardt in my SC topic

xp1337 posted...

Ohhhh right, you're on NG+. The Black Records stuff is a NG+ thing (which is really dumb for reasons you'll see at the appropriate time) so MZero if you're seeing this and wondering what this is about don't worry.

Yeah the first time he mentioned it I did another round of the market in Celdic and couldn't find it, so I assumed it was a NG+ thing. Good to have confirmation though!

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I looked up how to pronounce Loewe when I was playing Sky because it bothered me that I couldn't figure it out.

Then I played Cold Steel and all the characters call him loo-vay

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I gave her contacts, so in this scene her glasses appeared back on her face just so she could take them off, which was pretty funny.

Okay I really want to give her contacts. Where did you find them? Did you just happen to buy two when you were at that merchant at the army Outpost?

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Bareahard is not Japan, and thus has no seasons. Duh.

Holy shit this is probably actually it. I'm going to kill myself

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_stingers_ posted...

Okay I really want to give her contacts. Where did you find them? Did you just happen to buy two when you were at that merchant at the army Outpost?

Nope, I took them from Machias when I sent him to the bench

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Damn, I really want Machias to have contacts too. Time to learn hex editing so I can modify my save file to get an additional pair...

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I mean, I'm pretty sure you should be able to get more later!

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You could trade 5 U-Materials for a pair in Ymir!

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Oh that's not bad. I'll do that next time I play. Still haven't tackled 12/10 yet

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Sad news for Kuro only 50K sales the first week. Was hoping the new look and gameplay would attract more people

For comparison CS3, CS4 and Hajimari were all in the 85K zone and CS1 and CS2 were 150K, but those had Vita versions at launch to bolster sales

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That is a bummer. That's the problem with these long story based franchises man, they start bleeding sales. But trails games are more popular in the west than they used to be so maybe there's hope for them here

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Those sales would be one copy higher if I was caught up!

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i'm moving next week so I have been a bit busy but I made some progress I finished the first set of missions after getting the ship

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12/12

Haven't played this game in almost 2 weeks, but it's time to get back on the horse. I remember that it's bonding event day but kind of forget what just happened beforehand. I'm sure they'll clue me in. Let's go!

Load up the game and I'm immediately greeted with 15 bonding points, holy shit. I'm not sure what that means for me but I'm a little scared. How many bonding points do you get here Mzero? 15 is an intimidating number. Nothing to it but to do it though so I look around and find Alisa nearby Rean's bedroom. She's trying to fix Angelica's bike, which is apparently now in our possession in Ymir. I missed something there but okay. Alisa knowing how to fix an orbal bike engine is a little weird, but I guess she is a Reinford after all so we can just roll with it. She talks about how she learned all of this stuff about orbal mechanics only so she could show up her mother at something...definitely in character. Rean brushes some snow off her hair which apparently sets off an epiphany in her head. Get ready for this one guys, it's a doozy. Apparently...there was a moment as a child when she came to Ymir and a black haired little boy also brushed some snow off of her hair! That's crazy man, absolutely crazy. Who could've guessed that these two would end up having had a childhood friendship?! Like I said before this is a trope I don't really get the point of, but apparently for them this is a very awkward situation and they tense up around each other and the scene ends shortly after. Ahh, youth.

Fie is chilling with the dog outside. They mostly just talk about her past in Zephyr, and how Fie needs to figure out what happened and why she was left behind. I kind of forgot that was a plot point to be honest, I thought she had left them on purpose. It will all come out in due time I suppose.

Laura is looking down at the town from outside the mansion, and when you talk to her she asks to visit Rean's room. They go in and brew some tea that Rean's old master left for him, and that gets them on the topic of figuring out what's going on with him. Rean says that he's not really sure where he went or what he's doing these days, but he figures that he's probably traveling throughout Erebonia and possibly abroad, and is unsure how he would be affecting the war effort. After their scene ends, you can talk to her again and they have a second bonding event which is new. I guess they're trying to catch up the people that have had the least time in our party which makes sense. The 15 bonding points does make a little more sense now. The second event has Laura wanting to go train with Rean, so they head out onto a mountain path that Rean and his teacher used to train. He says that they had to travel an hour out of town to get there, and that as part of their training that him and his master would stay outdoors for a month straight, surviving off the wilderness. That's some pretty hardcore training for a young kid! Laura and Rean talk for a bit on how powerless they feel in regards to the war, but they agree they'll find a way to make a difference.

Next I head over to the shop, where I get to see what Jusis and Sara's stats are for the first time in the equip menu. Sara starts off at level 77 which is 2 higher than anyone else in my squad. Jusis looks just like the balanced red mage type character I remember. He was pretty OP in the first one, but I'm not sure if he'll make the cut this time around. I do have to wonder how many characters they're going to let me take now...

Also at the shop is Sharon, so I go to spend some quality time with her. She pledges her allegiance to us for the 15th time. They really want to drive this point home lol. They decide to go back to Rean's mansion so they can make some food for pops to help him recover. They're making a "Ymir-style borscht", which is a thing now apparently. Is there anything this town can't do? It is a snowy town I guess so we'll just agree that Russian cuisine is in. Rean unfortunately nicks his fingers while chopping some veggies, so naturally, Sharon sucks on his finger to make the bleeding stop. Rean, to his credit has the awareness to realize that she's messing with him this time, which is the most character growth I've seen out of him yet in this series.

Next person I run into is unfortunately Millium, so let's get this over with. They go shopping and Millium says she wants to get a souvenir for Lechter. Ok to be fair, her being intertwined with Lechter the homie does make her more interesting because I love that dude. Rean remarks on how close they all seem, and Millium says that they're like a family but she doesn't really know what that means, because she doesn't have any parents. Rean is confused on that but doesn't actually ask her what that means, since he knows he's in a video game and it's not time for her backstory plot reveal quite yet.

Claire - sorry, Captain Claire, is nearby and is stressing out about something but we're not sure what. Rean suggests that they can go and play some pool to get their minds off of it. I guess he thought of her bouncing bullets off of things 50 times in her S Craft and figured she'd enjoy some pool, so thoughtful Rean! They get over to the table to begin but unfortunately, nobody at Falcom seems to understand how pool works. The screen transitions to a completely empty table and Claire says that she is sorry that she didn't give Rean a chance to play. I guess she was just stripes and solids this game? I mean, to be honest if you're going to show off and just land all of his balls in the pocket too, I don't think you're actually apologetic, Claire. She gives Rean some pointers and Rean says that if he had an older sister, he hopes that she would have been just like Claire. That's pretty adorable. She doesn't say anything but just walks up and hugs him, and Rean gets all flustered. Between her and Sharon, is there any adult woman who doesn't want to fuck Rean? I'm going to guess not...I wish my teenage years were this eventful.

I wander over and beat the new snowboarding level after that. I actually missed a flag this time! But the target was 18/19 flags, so luckily I didn't have to redo the course and waste another minute of my life. The reward for this level is pretty good, an accessory that gives 25 strength and defense as well as prevents freeze. When I give this to Laura she hits 1400 strength which is insane. Rean and Sara both aren't even in the 1300s! And this doesn't count her bonus from the Tauros master quartz either which makes her attacks 1.5x stronger. She is an absolute unit.

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Toval's at the bar, but he doesn't have any bonding events. 15 points and you can't give my man anything? I figured everyone would be getting one at least. The barkeep here gives you a quest to go and find Annabelle, the true main character, who got lost fishing in the valley somewhere. I'll handle that when I get done with all these bonding events I suppose. Emma is here at the bar as well, she tells Rean that she wants to go and buy something at the store, but we can't let Celine find out. We go and she tells us that she wants to get wool to knit Celine a scarf. I didn't know cats needed scarves, but screw it it's cute. They refer to Celine as a her during this section, so glad to finally have that mystery solved. Emma has a second event afterwards where they go to the foot bath to go and hang out. I have Rean in his winter clothing normally, but for this scene it switched him back into his default outfit. I guess they couldn't figure out how to roll up his pants so he could stick his leg into the water on all his skins, not enough budget for ol' Falcom. Emma's glasses fog up during the scene so she has to take them off. I guess if I'd equipped her with contacts the game would've crashed here? She goes on to say that she doesn't really need them and the game gives me an option here to tell her to either keep wearing her glasses or not, so I choose for her to stop wearing them, but after the scene ends and we get back to the bar she's still got them. What was the point of that then? Scam alert!

Gaius is chilling at the church, he wants to introduce us to his friend. We go outside to meet them and his friend turns out to be some kind of hawk. Sieg, is that you?! Unfortunately not, Gaius tells us that his name is Zeo. Gaius says he came here from Nord by following our scent, which seems a little dubious. Not sure how bad we have to smell that he can find us all the way from Nord, but okay. They've had enough hot spring scenes you'd think they would be cleaner than that. Rean asks Zeo if he'll join the team but he flies away in response; Gaius says that Zeo sees us only as weaklings in need of his protection. Listen here you little shit...getting some strong Zeit vibes from this one. At least Zeit gave us a real boss battle before he looked down on us though. Also, wasn't Zeit playable at some point in Crossbell, or am I just hallucinating that? It's a bit sad since it's only been a few months since I've played the Crossbell games but I don't really remember. Also, mega shoutouts to Mzero because he had me shipped an Elie figurine from Japan that sits on my desk now, you're seriously the coolest guy for that one.

Anyway, Gaius does get a new move after the scene that lets him summon Zeo, so it is definitely our Tio/Zeit replacement. Unfortunately however I have no plans on using Gaius any point soon so I don't know when I'll get to see his bird swooping in to join us.

Jusis and Rean meet up next, Rean wants to take his horse out in the mountains to get some exercise. Jusis and Rean bro out about being nobility and what it means to them. Not much else happens, but Jusis also gets a second scene, here they decide to get some tea together over at the tavern. One of the kids asks Rean to play but he declines, out of nowhere, Jusis shows up and says they should go play with them. Plot twist! They play for a bit and then Rean and Jusis talk, he says that he wanted to play with the kids to help get their minds off the hostage crisis when the jaegers attacked. That was a few months ago or something so I doubt they were really thinking about it but you know what Jusis, you're a good guy so I won't bring it up. He has had some decent development over the last two games, unlike a lot of our party who have been the same since minute 1. Laura and Gaius could be teleported in from the beginning of CS1 and they would not behave any differently.

Next we have Rean and Sara, spoiler alert, Sara wants to go to the bar. She talks about how she's been lying low in Erebonia while trying to gather information to figure out what she has to do to affect the war. She's apologetic over not being in Ymir when the jaegers attacked. Not too much else happens though, but in her second scene she wants to go out and train with Rean. Rean gets determined to try and actually win against her and he does an anime teleport attack to surprise her and slashes right in front of her face. Sara actually gets taken off guard, and does an instinctual retaliatory attack back at him and hurts him for real. Rean is disappointed that he couldn't land the hit but Sara is impressed and shocked that he forced her to take it seriously, and says that her not being able to slack off is proof that he really has grown. Rean goes to walk back to town and Sara looks away with concern, and thinks and wonders if her "old self" is resurfacing again due to the war. Mindless killer Sara incoming? I have been curious what her "real" personality is like, since it's been obvious she's been putting on airs for the last 2 games.

Last and, once again, least we have Elliot who wants to play the lute with Rean. Nothing interesting happens.

I leave town to find Annabelle in the valley, and I finally get my gold angler rewards. I get the new accessory and fishing rod they offer, but don't have enough fishing points to get the new orbment. Unfortunate, but probably because I'm getting this before I'm actually supposed to. I also should probably start using these groundbaits, I do the free fishing whenever I see a spot but I never do the extra.

I can't find anything else to do so I turn in for the night, rank up twice and get a Brave Heart accessory, and a rare Invigorate quartz. The day doesn't change immediately though, we get some cutscenes. The gang goes and gathers at the mansion to discuss their next moves, and everyone voices concern over their family members that are either missing or imprisoned or what have you. Everyone except Gaius that is, because he apparently has nothing he needs to accomplish. I guess he's just like fuck it I'm here, who we fighting next? Or something like that. I'm sorry they couldn't figure out a good subplot for you, buddy. The gang (really, just Rean) comes to the conclusion that they don't want to necessarily join either side outright, and want to find a "third way" to resolve this conflict. Sara points out that that doesn't really mean anything, and Rean is basically just like, I don't know either but we'll figure it out. That's our leader! Good thing Sara is here to keep it from getting too nave and idealistic.

Suddenly we hear a voice of one Ms. Vita Clotilde, who says our conversation is very interesting, and asks if she can join in. The gang asks her where she is and she says she's real close; suddenly the gang hears a noise from outside and heads out to investigate. They find the Noble Alliance's flagship hovering in the sky above them. Vita teleports down to tell us that their preparations are complete, and the guest of honor is here. Then we see Crow fly in on his divine Knight; Rean calls for Valimar but Vita tells Rean that he may want to rethink that. She teleports in Bleublanc, McBurn and Duvalie, as well as Xeno, Leo and Altina. Sharon wonders why they would send so many powerful people here, and then Rufus himself teleports in to say that they are no longer going to underestimate us. Alright, I'm liking where this is going. Nice to see the villains in a story actually use their overwhelming power advantage early on instead of send crap at us 1 by 1.

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Rean still goes and takes to the skies in Valimar to try and fight Crow, while the adults battle with the enemy forces on the ground. The kids stand behind watching and finally muster up the balls to go and help them, but Rufus blocks their path. He says that they'll need to get through him first! The game puts us into a character selection screen, letting us know we gotta pick a fight with him. That's a pleasant surprise since I thought I was going to be forced to sit through another boring mech battle with Rean and Crow. You can only choose kids for this fight since the adults are preoccupied, and Jusis is forced to participate. I go with Laura, Alisa, Machias for the front with Fie and Emma in the back.

I lost the fight the first time because he cast a full map spell that instantly oneshot my whole team. I put Emma in the front for try two so I could use her magic reflect to try and counter that, and did better but he still was able to hit me and oneshot everyone because Emma is slow as shit and awkwardly positioned to actually get the reflect on the whole team. Finally, try #3 I was able to juggle the healing and grouping to where I could get everyone where they needed and also got him down to around 50k HP, but when I did that he casted his S craft and did 80k to my whole team. I figure that's the point that counts as a win, and the game gives me +3 AP to let me know, "You did good, kid."

It then puts me in a mech fight with Crow afterwards, but all of my attacks do 1 damage, and there's no partner so I can't do any healing, so I figure this is impossible. After the "fight" ends, Vita summons a portal in the sky and the image of Duke Cayenne shows up. He says that he wants to speak with Rean, and he has an important offer to make. He says that if Rean joins them aboard the ship, he will leave Ymir alone for the rest of the war. Rean agrees but Celine tries to talk him out of it, so he has Valimar teleport the cat right out of the cockpit. Classy move Schwarzer. He flies away while his classmates call out to him to stop, as Act 1 is brought to a close.

With the +3 AP I got from the Rufus fight I'm at 114 AP, when the breakpoint for the next Rank is 115. From what I can tell I've gotten every AP you can get, but that discrepancy is bothering me that I missed 1 somewhere. Or maybe they just wanted to troll the 100%ers, who knows. Falcom can be assholes sometimes.

Next time on Cold Steel...infiltrating the enemy flagship? Should be interesting! See you guys soon...maybe...probably not, this update took 2 weeks and the new Teamfight Tactics release just hit beta so I'm going to play that a lot, but we'll get to cold steel sooner or later.

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_stingers_ posted...

They play for a bit and then Rean and Jusis talk, he says that he wanted to play with the kids to help get their minds off the hostage crisis when the jaegers attacked. That was a few months ago or something

Jaegers attacked Ymir: November 30
That Bonding Event: December 12

_stingers_ posted...

Anyway, Gaius does get a new move after the scene that lets him summon Zeo, so it is definitely our Tio/Zeit replacement. Unfortunately however I have no plans on using Gaius any point soon so I don't know when I'll get to see his bird swooping in to join us.

Fun Fact: Viewing that Bonding Scene gives you the Zeo Craft early. If you don't, Gaius still gets it but it's at Level whatever.

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xp1337 posted...

Jaegers attacked Ymir: November 30
That Bonding Event: December 12

Ok yeah that does make more sense then. My real time perspective is ruining my understanding lol

Fun Fact: Viewing that Bonding Scene gives you the Zeo Craft early. If you don't, Gaius still gets it but it's at Level whatever.

Well that's nice, but pretty random for someone who didn't see it and is just like, Gaius had a pet hawk this whole time? Shit I mean I felt that way too and I saw the scene where they tried to explain it

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MZero posted...

You could trade 5 U-Materials for a pair in Ymir!

I forgot to do this

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_stingers_ posted...

Load up the game and I'm immediately greeted with 15 bonding points, holy shit. I'm not sure what that means for me but I'm a little scared. How many bonding points do you get here Mzero?

7 for me. Yeah I was pretty surprised at the sudden jump too!

_stingers_ posted...

Also, wasn't Zeit playable at some point in Crossbell, or am I just hallucinating that? It's a bit sad since it's only been a few months since I've played the Crossbell games but I don't really remember. Also, mega shoutouts to Mzero because he had me shipped an Elie figurine from Japan that sits on my desk now, you're seriously the coolest guy for that one.

near the end of Azure after Lloyd breaks out of prison you get Zeit as a party member for a short time while you're reuniting the team, then he leaves after you get everyone. And glad you're enjoying the nendroid!

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Ah yeah thanks for jogging my memory. Good boy Zeit was always there for us when we needed him, unlike this Zeo character...

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12/13

Next chapter is apparently an intermission! I was expecting Act 2 for sure, Intermission this early feels a little odd. In Crossbell it was the beach chapter, right? I don't think that happened that early on, but my memory is hazy. Either way it seems like the tone of the intermission this time around will be a little heavier. Rean and Cayenne get to talking in the bridge of the ship. Cayenne starts off with his obligatory PR speech about how great the nobles are and how Rean absolutely needs to help them win. Rean snaps back with the, I don't think it's that simple, and how joining the noble alliance wouldn't lead to the outcome he wants. Cayenne remarks again that with Valimar on their side, they could end the war much quicker and prevent a lot of devastation that will naturally occur the longer the war draws out. Rufus and Vita then chime in about how the psychological impact of having the soldats outweighs their battle usefulness. I'm noticing some parallels! Rean is clearly the 'Little Boy' in more ways than one in this game. Vita has a cool line here though: "We're only human. As such as are as captivated as we are terrified of giant beings bearing human form." If only the US army had figured that one out we could've had much more interesting WW2 movies than what we got. And Nolan's upcoming Oppenheimer biopic could be a Mecha anime instead. Damn, this reality sucks.

Crow chimes in from the background to say you can't argue with that logic, while Rean stands there silently. I'm going to take that as tacit approval, Rean clearly knows that mechs are the coolest shit around and can't think of any reason to argue against it. Cayenne ups the ante by oh-so-subtly threatening Elise and Alfin if Rean doesn't join them. Rufus is the gentleman of course and reigns him in, and asks Cayenne not to harm them regardless of whatever Rean does. Cayenne responds and says, "Of course, I'm not a monster." That's an interesting reply to me since he could've just swung his dick around and said he'd do what he wants, but he seems to respect Rufus' and the others opinion of him somewhat.

Rean is escorted to his room and takes some time to think everything over. He briefly considers giving into their demands, but dramatically slams his fist against the window and says that things aren't that simple. He tries to come up with a plan but doesn't get very far before an interruption - Crow appears at the door, he wants to talk. He prepared some lunch for us - Fish Burgers! He says that he even made them himself. Food poisoning subplot incoming? Rean gets into it though, he asks about Crow's past, though Crow is hesitant to get into it. He beats around the bush for awhile but eventually gives in. Long story short, he grew up in Jurai, a city-state like Crossbell which ended up being annexed by the Imperial government. He starts his story off 20 years ago, when the principality of North Ambria was turned into salt. Is the salt pale thing from trails 3 finally going to be brought up again? I've been wondering what that has been about for a year now.

Apparently not, they immediately move past it and get into how that event ruined Jurai's economy, since Ambria was an important trading partner for them. Jurai's last mayor was also apparently Crow's grandfather, and since Crow didn't have his parents around, they were very close. He fast forwards 10 years and talks about Erebonia. They built a railroad from Heimdallr to Jurai, which brought in lots of foreign (aka Erebonian) investment to his city. One day, a terrorist attack took out the railroad, and the imperial government blamed Jurai's insufficient national security for the attack, and used this as an excuse to take over the region, 'for their protection'. HMMMM, THIS SOUNDS FAMILIAR! Too bad nobody in Crossbell was well versed in current affairs because Erebonia literally pulling the same playbook to take over two nearby city-states within a 10 year period should have probably gotten more attention from the press then it did!

Much like Elie, Crow's granddad opposed the idea of Erebonian takeover, but the rest of his parliament supported it, knowing that it would grow their economy tremendously. Erebonia used granddad's opposition to the plan to pin the railroad attack on him; even though there was no substance behind the accusation, combined with his rising unpopularity it was enough to get him ousted from politics as Jurai formally joined Erebonia. Shortly after, he passed away, and Crow was left without family, but with a taste for revenge. He left Jurai and happened to meet Duke Cayenne, who gave Crow financial backing to recruit others who hated Chancellor Osborne. I suppose this makes Cayenne the real leader of the Imperial Liberation Front, which isn't too surprising but it's at least new information. Vita and Cayenne were partners at this time already, and she is the one who took young Crow to become an awakener and summon the Azure Knight.

Backstory complete, Crow turns to leave and we're granted the freedom to roam the ship. He says that there's a cute girl who'd be happy to see Rean on the second floor of the ship. I'd guess he means Elise, but it seems a bit careless to leave her here when Rean's on board, so I kind of hope it's not. I'm not really sure who else it could be though, Alfin seems too important to leave here.

Outside your room, you can talk to some of the villains in the surrounding rooms and get some dialogue with them. The first room I enter has Scarlett, the titty terrorist. She talks about how she was raised by wealthy farmers or something, then learned to fight in the holy city of Arteria, the church HQ. She uses a templar sword, so maybe she knows Reis? Rean is amazed that a church sister would be allowed to use a weapon like that - if only you knew, buddy.

Next room has Vulcan, the big guy terrorist. He tells us that the ILF is down to only about 10 members because most people left after the chancellor "died". Besides that he just says he doesn't know what he wants to do with his life after this war ends. Alright buddy.

Bleublanc is outside the rooms just chilling in the foyer. He talks about how him and Olivert are old homies, to clue in those that started with Cold Steel. They mention some of the Liberl stuff, and talk about what Olivert is up to, though neither one really has a clue. He then just does standard Bleublanc stuff for awhile so I leave him alone.

Next room across the hall has main girl Duvalie, awww yeah. She mentions how travelling back and forth between Erebonia and Crossbell is exhausting. Nice of the writers to reference the logistics of her appearing in the Crossbell games as well. Can't you teleport or something though? Anyway, she complains about Rean barging into her room unannounced and then changes into her armor for some reason. That seems like a lot of work since we're only having a conversation here. Maybe she didn't get the memo that Rean is "with them" currently? She goes on and on about how awesome Ahrienhod is. She sounds kinda crazy while doing it tbh, but the voice actress does a banger job portraying it. Rean asks why she's not an enforcer, and she says that the grandmaster only selects those with a "darkness" inside them to be an enforcer. I'm guessing that's different from whatever weird thing Joshua, Wavy and Kevin had going on inside them, but maybe not? I thought it was supposed to be a pretty rare thing, but there are a lot of enforcers. Maybe she just means some more general type of trauma...I suppose we'll have to wait and see on this one.

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Xeno (my boy) and Leo are next. Rean tells them he ranked 72nd in his class after the screen transitions, implying they were talking for awhile. I'm not sure how the conversation ended up on his school life, lol. They talk about how Fie joined the gardening club, and they're both proud of her for that and hope that she will become more feminine. They're certainly acting like parents, and I guess Fie doesn't have real ones so Xeno and Leo will have to do. Not much more relevant conversation, but Rean does remark when leaving that it's obvious that they both really care about Fie.

Next I walk in on Altina, but she's fast asleep. She wakes up and goes all robotic on us again, then calls her robot to beat up Rean, but he diffuses the situation. She acts like Rean was doing some creepy spying shit on her, but then reveals that it was all a joke. Nice to see she's capable of joking I guess lol. She reveals that she's working for a place called "The Black Workshop". Is that the puppet guy from Crossbell? I know he was loosely affiliated with Ouroboros but not 100%, so that would explain how she's in this privileged position but was confirmed to not be part of Ouroboros earlier. Plus he had a workshop and all, but, I don't remember it being called black anywhere. He's the only guess I've got though. I guess Altina and Millium being puppets of some sort would fit with them being so capable at such an apparently young age, so that tracks. Plus Altina is obviously giving off some robot-like vibes, so yeah. I'm going with that for now.

Last on the map is McBurn, and Rean gets one of his little demon flash things before entering the room. I guess they just need to drive home that they're related with their demon powers for those that aren't paying attention. Rean goes in and asks about what he meant when McBurn asked Rean if he was mixed earlier. McBurn shows off that he can make fire appear without any orbments or anything, he just wills it and it appears. Rean finally realizes that they both have the same demon power, and McBurn clarifies that it is a power that exists within them, but it's different from the Church's stigmas. That is what I was thinking about earlier when I referenced Kevin and Joshua and them, so thanks for the reminder McBurn. He also says that it's a physical part of you that is unnatural that causes it, and Rean thinks on his chest scar. Rean asks what part of McBurn is unnatural, and he gets all threatening and says that all of him is. How foreboding! I do like the guy, but he really needs a different name. I'm going to start calling him Mick to ease my pain.

No-one is left to talk to, so I go to the guest of honor's room on the second floor. It's revealed to be Princess Alfin! I really thought it'd be Elise, or maybe both of them, but only Alfin is really weird to me. I guess they need to save Elise for a more emotional reunion later on. They have their reunion scene where they hug and cry, and Rean promises her that he's not going anywhere. I find that hard to believe Rean, but okay. Jailbreak time maybe? I don't know if we can take all these guys alone, but...we'll see.

Alfin tells us that Elise is with the rest of the royal family, imprisoned somewhere, but she isn't sure where they are. Rean naturally asks why Alfin isn't with them, but she says that Cayenne wanted Alfin on the ship with them so they could have her address the people to calm them down about the whereabouts of the royal family. Rean is sympathetic towards her being a prisoner in that position, but Alfin brushes it off without much thought and asks Rean what his plan is. He reiterates that he doesn't want to join either side, and gives a heartfelt story about his past. He says that all he knows is that he wants to protect his family that took him in, even after they knew about his demon power. Rean gets all down in his feels, but Alfin tries to cheer him up. She tells him that Elise still cares deeply for him, and how guilty Elise felt over secretly enjoying how hard Rean trained because of the guilt he felt over them getting attacked by monsters as kids. And that she left to go to school away from Rean, so that he could try and move on and make some friends and forget about her, even though seeing it happen made her jealous and lonely. That's some nice character writing there, shit like that really is where Trails does shine through.

After that emotional debacle Rean has the revelation (for the 8th time) that his friends really do care about him. "I think I finally understand what I've been lacking all this time." Yeah right buddy, we all know 10 hours from now you're going to go through this whole friendship speech again, don't lie. Shit like that is where Trails falters, so I'm glad they had to remind us of their strengths and shortcomings in short succession. It's okay though, I love it all the same.

Rean unlocks a new craft of "spirit unification" from this inner awakening however, so maybe they're trying to say that they're super duper serious this time about Rean and he can start getting some new character growth from here on out. Rean tells Alfin that it's time to go, and she says goodbye and good luck and all that. But then Rean is like, nah son, I said WE gotta get out of here, I'm not leaving you behind. Jailbreak time baby! I don't really see how they can escape, logically, but let's see what the game does here.

Alfin goes and joins the party. She has orbments, but no skills, so I don't think they're looking to make her permanent in our future. You can also equip her with her St. Astraia uniform, so I do that for the hell of it. We escape through a vent, though not before the obligatory girl-wearing-dress joke, and come out of it in front of some guards. They go down without much trouble, but you get into the battle with Alfin and she doesn't have an auto attack which is odd. If you do a link follow-up attack, they have her shoot some wind at them, so...why couldn't that just be her auto attack? Seems a little weird. Similarly, if you switch to her on the map, it doesn't let you press X to attack on the field. Bit of an odd choice, maybe they just ran out of time and shoehorned this one in.

There's some random battle right outside with some robots and Jaeger wolves that actually destroy me, so I retry and just use my S craft to skip the fight. There's another required fight ahead of that that I also lose first try, but I manage to scrap up 100cp on Rean in that fight to skip that as well. Trying to tank all these hits with only Alfin to support me is pretty hard, not gonna lie. I wish they would've given her some crafts so she could've had some more utility. But I expect this to be a pretty short section, so I'll just power through. At the end of this path Bleublanc and Duvalie show up to try and stop us. I have to wonder where the 8 other powerful people on this ship are hiding right now? Anyway, Alfin and Bleublanc bro out about love for awhile, and Rean is exasperated that they seem to be getting along, lol. After that though he goes demon and the fight begins. Alfin is gone, but it's really easy with Rean in this mode because he gets some upgraded crafts that are just stupidly OP. The fight auto ends after awhile, probably had to cross some damage threshold.

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Rean takes Alfin and does some Naruto stuff and jumps up to the second story and runs away with her in his arms. Xeno and Leo show up to block their path finally, but then Rean does some REAL Naruto stuff and runs really fast, makes a few shadow clones and have them all run full speed ahead. Then the real Rean jumps over them and keeps on running. That was more anime than any of the harem shit I've seen so far lol. Anyway they're just like, well we tried I guess and let Rean get away. Next on the villain list is Altina, who literally just stands there while Rean pulls out his sword and bitchsmacks the robot into the wall and runs past her. I thought they'd have to do some silly shit to let Rean escape here with Alfin alive, and yeah this is pretty silly. But at least the whole demon form thing is supposed to be OP and it fits the plot so I won't get too upset about it.

You finally make it outside and Crow and Mick are standing there waiting for you. Crow wants the 1v1, while Mick stands by and watches. Fight starts and it's pretty straightforward. I use my S craft to try and finish him off but he lives with like 3k, then unleashes his own S craft and does 8k to me when I had like 7.5 so I lose the fight -,-. Next time I just play it safe and spam Teara and win without too much trouble. After the fight ends, Rean's demon form finally runs out, while the rest of the villains walk up and surround us. At least the game had the sense to not lead Rean get away with this suicide plan single handedly. Thank you for having some self respect Falcom! Of course that means some other bullshit will happen to get them out of it, so...instead, the motha fuckin Courageous comes flying in! Sara, Claire, Sharon, and Toval drop down and get ready to fight. The villains take turns referring to each of them by their titles - Icy Maiden, Purple Lightning, Severing Chains, and then they get to Toval and they're like...that artes guy from the bracer guild. Poor Toval! One day you'll be cool enough for a title buddy, have faith.

Victor (Laura's dad) shows up and Mick is itching to fight him, trying to get some high power level action going. They get interrupted when the classmate's teleport in somehow, along with Olivert. Is he going to be our next party member? It's about time we get some Liberl arc in the mix here! Just as the two opposing sides square up and get ready to start their brawl, Vita shows up through her familiar. She compliments Emma on her teleportation spell. Thank god they explained that because it was bugging me that they can just teleport all of a sudden, when everyone else had to dramatically jump off the Courageous onto here.

Vita calls off the fight, but before we split they have all the opposing forces with some relationship say some snarky lines to each other. My favorite is when Duvalie calls out the Arseids, to which Victor says he'd be glad to settle it on the battlefield. Duvalie gets super nervous and says hey, slow down, we can wait...lmao, I love her. Rean talks to Crow and surmises that he's the one that informed Toval on his whereabouts at the very beginning of the game. Aww, Crow does care about us! They all head off afterwards, and that marks the end of the intermission.

Apparently however, the day doesn't end quite yet. After the title card goes away, the cutscenes resume from right where we left off. The gang reunites, and you get a cool shot of everyone standing there. We've got to be at least 20 members strong at this point. Is it time to go full Suikoden and amass our own army? After a bit of talking, Towa and George come out to greet us, so that's two more for the list. Too bad Angelica couldn't make it, but I'm sure her time will come soon.

Everyone gathers around a big conference table to talk. Victor and Olivert say that their first goal with the Courageous was to get us on board, which seems a little odd since we're still just students. I guess Olivert's grand plan from before did involve Class VII in some capacity though, so let's roll with it. Olivert let's us know that Vander isn't here because he's with the army fighting on the front lines, so that's one less person to worry about. Normally that would be cause for concern, but Trails isn't going to kill someone offscreen (or onscreen, for that matter) so we know he'll be okay.

Olivert asks Rean what his plan is for the group, and Rean basically gives the same runaround answer he has been. Olivert seems impressed by his nonanswer though for some reason, and then says he's giving us the Courageous? Okay didn't see that one coming. I'm guessing that means Olivert's joining us and they want Victor to go do more important things down on the ground, but we'll see. Olivert immediately goes on to say that he'll be joining Victor on his efforts on the western front, so I guess the game immediately had to squash my dreams. Sara brings up a good point, and says that us having this ship does make us a real threat as a third faction. I guess only Valimar wasn't enough weight to throw around since it's really just one person in Rean at the end of the day. Having the ship will do a lot for our capability as a group. Alfin is to remain with us to give us legitimacy in the eyes of the people. That's an interesting viewpoint, and one I hadn't considered. I'm all for it!

Victor names Towa the new captain of the ship, and her name immediately changes from "President Towa" to "Acting Captain Towa". So adorable! She'll fit in well with Captain Claire. The hat she is given doesn't really fit with her school uniform, but that's okay, I'm sure new outfits aren't too far away.

Toval, Claire, and Sharon all group up to let us know that they're leaving to do their own thing as well from now on. My Suikoden dreams! I guess we're not going to amass an army after all. I did call Sharon being temporary at least, but I'm devastated by the news Claire is leaving as well. It really didn't make much sense plotwise for her to have been here this long though, so I'm willing to begrudgingly accept it. Toval gives me a parting gift before he goes, which looks like some kind of accessory. Is this going to be that accessory of his that cuts artes casting time in half? That's fucking broken so I hope so.

They leave the ship and we get a scene of Victor, Olivert, Toval, Claire, and Sharon on the ground talking and wondering if we'll be alright. Sharon says we'll be fine and that we "don't bear the symbol of the horned lion for show", to which Claire agrees. Am I supposed to know what that means? Because I have no idea. They also talk about Osborne, and Claire reveals that his body mysteriously disappeared! I wOnDeR wHaT tHaT cOuLd mEaN?!?!

After that though, the day finally ends. Next time, on Cold Steel...exploring the ship? Will trails finally go open world?! The possibilities are endless. See you all soon.

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I think the Intermission was one of the best parts of CS2.

Also Duvalie is a massive dork (I love her for this.) I think her armor is like a protective teddy bear or whatever the analogy would be. It was a comfort thing for her to have it on in front of Rean.

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Intermission is indeed fantastic

I'm not as big on Duvalie as most seem to be, but her VA is quite good.

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I believe the symbol of the horned lion is referring to them being students of Thors.

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SythaWarrior posted...

I think the Intermission was one of the best parts of CS2.

Also Duvalie is a massive dork (I love her for this.) I think her armor is like a protective teddy bear or whatever the analogy would be. It was a comfort thing for her to have it on in front of Rean.

the intermission was fun, but...i'm really looking for some plot. i suppose they're going to save all of the plot for 3 and 4 unfortunately. crossbell was all gas, no breaks man. at least, as far as trails is concerned, because the series as a whole is the antithesis of that. but crossbell really did it well. coming into CS after was a reminder of why it took me 2 years to beat sky 1 and 2

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_stingers_ posted...

crossbell was all gas, no breaks man.

Azure, maybe, but I wouldn't describe Zero that way. I'd say Sky SC fits the bill more than Zero.

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I just finished typing up my 12/13 post and realized I never did 12/12 whoops

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_stingers_ posted...

Rean asks why she's not an enforcer, and she says that the grandmaster only selects those with a "darkness" inside them to be an enforcer. I'm guessing that's different from whatever weird thing Joshua, Wavy and Kevin had going on inside them, but maybe not? I thought it was supposed to be a pretty rare thing, but there are a lot of enforcers. Maybe she just means some more general type of trauma...I suppose we'll have to wait and see on this one.

Nah. What Kevin and Wazy have are Stigmas (As you mention later when McBurn brings it up.) As far as we can tell there are only 12 of them at a time and you need to have one to be one of the Church's Dominions. I dn't think we have a good handle on how they work but they seem to interface with and absorb an artifact to give the user some crazy power (both Kevin and Wazy had traumatic events with artifacts that they somehow took into themselves and their Stigma power is reminiscent of the original artifact.)

Joshua had a fake/artificial one from Weissmann's experiments into Stigmas (This is like top secret forbidden stuff in the Church and Weissmann trying to research it got him excommunicated from the Church way back before he joined Ouroboros.) And rather than weird artifact powers, Weissmann's fake one basically seemed to be a compulsion thing.

_stingers_ posted...

She reveals that she's working for a place called "The Black Workshop". Is that the puppet guy from Crossbell?

No. Puppet guy was Joerg Rosenberg who ran the Rosenberg Studios which was one of Ouroboros's Thirteen Factories.

I feel like Black Workshop has been mentioned in the series somewhere by this point (...it might even be another book lol) but I forget where if so, so rather then guess at what info there is I'll stop here.

_stingers_ posted...

Toval gives me a parting gift before he goes, which looks like some kind of accessory. Is this going to be that accessory of his that cuts artes casting time in half? That's fucking broken so I hope so.

Whoever has the highest bond level of Toval/Claire/Sharon gets the small scene there where they give you an accessory that is characteristic of their playstyle. Sharon's has Delay on it and I think Claire's has ACC and Crit.

Fiop posted...

I believe the symbol of the horned lion is referring to them being students of Thors.

Yeah, that's Thor's student crest and is just a flowery way of referring to Thors students/alumni.

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Whoever has the highest bond level of Toval/Claire/Sharon gets the small scene there where they give you an accessory that is characteristic of their playstyle. Sharon's has Delay on it and I think Claire's has ACC and Crit.

Are you sure that's it, because I spammed Sharon and Claire and literally never used Toval. Its literally impossible he had the most bond XP

And as always, thanks for the lore dump/clarifications :) you are a trails encyclopedia lol

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_stingers_ posted...

Are you sure that's it, because I spammed Sharon and Claire and literally never used Toval. Its literally impossible he had the most bond XP

Yeah, I'm pretty sure.

Bond Events? Because if you hung out with Toval more than them on Free Days each one is worth like 500 points which is like the equivalent of 160+ battles linked to Rean.

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I did every bond event, so maybe he just had more of them?

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12/12

Its bonding time, and I get a whopping 7 points to play with. I think the most I had before this was 3, so thats quite a jump! I head for the snowboarding mini-game and was having a lot of trouble with the new course until I realized I accidentally turned turbo on somehow. Beat it first try on normal speed. Going around town, Camilla seems to be the only one who remembers Crow, as no one else mentions him. Gerald gives me a quest Anabelle is missing!? I cant leave a fellow fishing enthusiast hanging out to dry, so I head out right away. I take with me Toval, Sara, and Claire, because who knows when or if Ill be able to use them together again. Funny story: I was lazy when writing notes here and simply wrote Who knows when I can use them?. I meant in the same party, but (I was going to reference this in my 12/13 post, which is when I realized I never typed this up)

Anabelle is fine and just enjoying some good fishin, nothing to worry abou- wait thats not a fish. Anabelle really reeled in a massive beast here. Good thing we were there to take care of it. Now that all anglers are accounted for, I decide to get busy on these bonding event. I start with Emma, who needs yarn to make a scarf for Celine. Do cats wear scarves? She also talks about Vita a bit. In her second event, we learn the springs in Ymir speed up mana recovery. We need a really big one for Valimar. Is he water proof? Ive had contacts on Emma this whole time, so this scene was pretty funny. Glasses popped on just to get cloudy and taken off immediately. Not the first time thats happened though!

Jusis like horses. He has some strong Japanese SEKININ over this whole mercenary attack. In part 2, we go to the bar to put down some ice cold beer, I mean hot tea. Then we decided to play with the kids, but Rean and Jusis suck at hide and seek. Is his whole bonding arc going to be about how guilty he feels about the mercenary attack he had nothing to do with? Good guy though.

I decided to do a bonding event with Claire next, and we go to the hot springs place to shoot some pool. Is it just me or are these billiard balls gigantic? Claire clears the table with one shot, which isnt terribly surprising considering that mirror attack from before. Drops Lecters name. Rean gets some action but why tho. Laura wants to go to my room ohhh yeah here we go. Never mind we just had tea and cake. Shes obviously worried about her father, and they talk about Reans master. Finally, I hit the bar with Sara and she mentions a bracer in Crossbell, Wenzel, the most forgettable of all! The rest of the scene was rather forgettable too.

I get 38 AP, bringing be to 94 total and one away from another level up augh. I got a Dragon Vein quartz and Brave Heart accessory. A rank yet again, as usual.

Class Seven decides to be a neutral third party and focus of saving their friends and family. Well, except Fie and Jusis who are fighting friends and family. Honestly it seems like most of the battles are against the Nobles so really how neutral are we? The teleport road thing weve been using has a limit to how many people it can carry, what a convenient plot device! Suddenly Vita appears and interrupts our meeting, how rude. Giant ship shows up, Crow shows up, literally everyone shows up all at once. Showdown in Ymir. Cant even edit my orbments before the Rufus fight and half my main party is gone, rude Falcom. Oh well I got smacked anyway lol. Literally one damage to Crow lol. Rean gets invited to the ship and agrees to go. Bye Rean.


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12/13

Wow, this ship is redonk. Its got a chandelier and everything. It looks more like a mansion than a ship. Rean is on the ship surrounded by all these strong as heck enemies, this cant possibly end well but probably will. The nobles want Rean to join them, mostly Valimar really, but I dont know why they need him when Crow made him look like an absolute joke just now. Maybe its a potential thing idk. This feels really similar to Estelle being on Weissmans ship in SC, minus the sweet organ playing. Rean is faced with the tough decision of ending the war before more damage is caused and people are hurt, or stick to his principles.

Back in his room, Rean is thinking about what to do when Crow walks in and knocks after opening the door. A+ trolling. When he put the food down, I thought it was a fish burger but Rean called it a hamburger. Then I though it was a really square burger, until Crow confirmed it was indeed a fish burger. What a roller coaster. Crow also called it soul food which made me laugh. Rean pesters Crow for his backstory, and hes reluctant at first but eventually caves and walks to the window. Good story telling etiquette there.
He tells the story of how the Salt Pale messed up Jurais economy, and the empire showed up and basically did the same thing they did in Crossbell. Those sneaking empire dogs. There was an explosion that Crows grandpa got framed for and Crow hates them for that. Also, his parents died when he was young because of course they did.

Now its time to go around the ship talking to all my enemies. Its weird that everyone is voiced here except Rean, which is kind of jarring. Vulcan talks about how a bunch of terrorists quit after Osborne died and theyre down to about 10. Scarlett talks about how she was raised by wealth farmers and was training to become a nun. Unmasked Bleublanc threw me for a loop. Duvaile is way too excited about her master. Didnt need that upskirt of Altina Falcom. Didnt need Rean petting her either. Xeno and Leo treat Fie like their daughter and its kind of cute I guess. Rean has a flash of demon mode outside McBurns room, and McBurns talks about how hes messed up everywhere. Shivers.

Its finally time to meet the mystery guest, and it is Alfin, but Elise is nowhere to be seen. Queue emotional reunion scene. Rean finally realizes the power of friendship. Rean is really going to try and sneak the princess off this ship filled with all of the strongest enemies weve met so far. This should go well. This game really likes its vents. It might as well be called Vents of Cold Steel. At one point, Alfin says something like we cant just break a window, can we? Shout-out Estelle. I dig that callback Falcom, well done.

What a surprise, were getting jumped by all those enemies we talked to ten minutes ago, starting with Bleublanc and Duvaile. Rean goes Demon mode but seems to be able to control it now. Rean pulls off the Devil Bat Ghost from Eyeshield 21, and Im not sure if I love it or hate it. Demon Rean makes Altinas robot look like an absolute joke. The leadup to the Crow fight was hype as heck but he was a total pushover. I guess its a little unfair when Rean is in demon form. After the fight though, Demon Rean runs out of gas and gets surrounded by enemies. Time for a perfectly timed arrival of friends! HELL YEAH OLIVERT. It looks like things are about to go down, but Vita shows up via familiar and says chill. Well, that was anti-climactic. Crow is definitely getting the Renne treatment, and we find out hes the one that contacted Toval to tell him where Rean was (I forgot all about that!)

All aboard the Courageous. Best girl Towa is on board! (and George too I guess) Things are even wilder out west, and Mueller and Nighthard(?) are out there. Rean expresses his desire to make the empire great again as a neutral 3rd party. Olivert just gives up this sweet ship to a bunch of teenagers because hes a bro. Kind of weird but Im not complaining. Olivert and Arseid are heading west and leave us in charge of the east, so thats disappointing that Olivert wont be around. I am absolutely devastated that Toval is leaving (Claire and Sharon too but eh)

Next time on Trails of Cold Vents - traveling around the (east side of) the Empire with a sweet airship!

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Honestly it seems like most of the battles are against the Nobles so really how neutral are we?

Yeah this bugs me too. The game clearly frames the Noble alliance as the bad guys and the imperial army as the good guys, but then says that we can't join either side. I guess it's because the Imperials are led by Osborne who was also portrayed as evil in Crossbell, so they can't have us getting too chummy with then when we're inevitably going to turn on them later when he gets involved again

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The enemy of my enemy is my friend...?

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Yea CS2 does a bad job of making the factions even in any way.

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CS2 does a bad job of utilizing its potential in any way tbh

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