Board 8 > Trails in the Sky Playthrough Topic

(+) Yeah! (+)

From what I gather, there are chests with a weapon for every character, plus four sets of armor and four sets of boots. That makes 16, and they are all guarded by bosses. There are only two types of bosses (the one that summons minions and the one that spams impede rockets), so you are facing each boss 8 times. The one with the rockets is giga annoying, so enjoy fighting it over and over (not).

it's fine the fights get progressively easier so it's cathartic killing those stupid robots without much trouble

Yeah I think FC's final dungeon is the weakest in the series. It's a maze of same-y looking rooms with a bunch of annoying enemies and chest monsters that's too long.

Thankfully the rest tend to be pretty good for the most part.

Aw you didn't beat lorence :( to be fair I didn't either when I played fc, though I beat the rest of the optional-to-win super bosses in the later trails games once I had a better handle on the game. I challenge you to do the same!

Exciteexciteexciteexcite

tcaz2 posted...

Yeah I think FC's final dungeon is the weakest in the series.

But it has the best music in the series!

FL81 posted...

But it has the best music in the series!

until you get to SC, of course. they're all practically tied until CS2 anyway

Yes, the music is good. It was in my head for hours after it. I now forgot it because I just went to an RPG game so my brain is overloaded with other stuff, but it might stay for days once I play the 2nd half.

final team picked. I'm going with Olivier and Kloe. the previous two can rest cuz I want to vary, and Agate and Zin aren't that good

(well Zin is good if the enemy is not immune to taunt, but I can't just rely on that)

since this is the last part, I'll post the quartz setup

Estelle, Josh, Kloe and Olivier, respectively:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/1/2/AAO9CbAAEWAY.jpg

Everyone has White Gehenna except Estelle. Though she has Aero Storm, which is the next best thing. She also has Spiral Flare, for damage variety, Blue Impact, for single target, and is also a healer. Attack 3 also makes her physical attacks stronk.

Actually they are all healers except Josh. You can never have too many of them, and it means everyone gets Blue Impact.

Josh and Olivier both have the full time set, including Anti-Sept All and Clock Up Ex, cuz why not. Kloe also has Clock Up Ex.

Olivier has the most variety, with time, wind and water attacks, as well as Chaos Brand and Earth Wall, and the healing. He can do whatever I want, except fire I guess. Kloe is a nerfed version of Olivier, though a nerfed version of a great thing is still great, and she has Not a Falcon who is OP. Actually she has Thearal, which can be useful if just a single character is dying.

Josh is just using time attacks and dealing a shitton of damage, and really, that's all Attack 3 is there for. Though Flare Arrow is a decent option for single target.

And now I realize nobody has haze or cloak so I'm gonna be swarmed by random encounters, but whatever, Kloe and Olivier need some xp. And well I can just equip Cloak if I have to backtrack

we face a new type of chest boss, M-Series Doom. They aren't super tanky but they cast the strongest spells in the game (first time I see Volcanic Rave) and have a self-destruct with large AoE. I beat them by just hitting faster but next time I'm using anti-sept all

there's also an even bigger robot with a single target machine gun attack. Not much to say, but it makes a nasty combo with self destructing one. I still prefer those guys over the Impede rocket bot, though. Impede is very OP when in the hands of enemies

so I'm using a map and I'm not even ashamed. This dungeon is annoying to navigate. This reminds me of old gaming times where I just used walkthroughs for everything, before I got more confident about my own gaming abilities

like, my first go at Ocarina's Water Temple was fully walthroughed, I even printed the guide with images, cuz the temple's fame scared me. Then the 2nd time I went blind and actually got stuck a few times, which I should have had the first time.

This 2nd half of the dungeon is rather easier, since I've gained so many levels, not to mention all the ultimate equipment from those chests. At the start, I was spamming s-crafts on the chest monsters just to stay alive, now I'm using them to farm CP for the final boss

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/1/3/AAO9CbAAEWAZ.jpg

It's Final Boss time.

We arrive at a large altar that just screams "Doomsday Device"

If there was someone left to be rescued, this would be the place where they were going to be sacrificed by the villain

Richard: "I knew you would show up". Geez, that's some lack of confidence in your subordinates.

His point is not exactly wrong, tbh. Liberl only won the last war because they had airships, and Erebonia is certainly gonna make them. (also lol at Calvard being strong because they have a lot of people, they are basically China). Problem is that this is an RPG and ancient Earth altering powers in RPGs ALWAYS backfire badly. Plus the whole misogynistic coup thing being bad and stuff

Estelle makes a speech about the power of friendship

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/7/9/AAO9CbAAEWBb.jpg

Heh. Richard also got memory wiped. And he is aware of it, but doesn't care. Josh figures it out pretty amazingly. Not sure if the memory wipe included a brainwash or not, though. Perhaps it included early on but then Richard just accepted his newfond fascist power after he broke free of it? This reminds me of the broken Empire trilogy, except the protagonist is more self aware than Richard is

The boss has two robots, which are a stronger version of those chest impede bots. Annoying. But this time, I spam Clock up Ex

there is a cool sequence where Richard uses his s-craft, which makes a ton of blood flow from Estelle and knock her out, but then immediately after, Kloe uses her s-craft, and bring Estelle and everyone else back to full HP. with defensive buffs for evewryone since she had 200 cp. Overkill

Impede is fine but not enough when it only stops 1 out of every 3 white gehennas I fire

the fact this is going rather easily and that the music has played in other battles before suggests this is just Phase 1

Kloe keeps getting the epic moments. Richard decides to use his s-craft on her next, which leaves her at 100 HP, she revides with a Blue Impact and takes him down. And the fight levels her up so she just recovers everything

Richard pulls an Ozymandias. Why, do you think I would have allowed you to get here if there was a chance you could stop my plan? The device already activated

The gospel removes the seal, which releases the Aureole

... Lavos, is that you?

Kind of gives the same vibe

Exclusive battle song now. I think this is it

Final Boss Phase 2

Reverie? Isn't that the name of the 10th game?

Lavos is down. He's kind of neat, with the right and left bits being immune to physical attacks and magic, respectively. But it's still too little against this lv 38 party. Will there be a Phase 3?

to be found out after I have lunch

Estelle: Why won't it just DROP already? The 4th wall is no match to our protagonist.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

(also lol at Calvard being strong because they have a lot of people, they are basically China)

It's been explicitly stated that many of the countries have been at least partially inspired by real-life counterparts. Some are more clear than others but iirc Erebonia is imperial Germany, Crossbell (not sure if you've heard that name yet but whatever) is Hong Kong, and Liberl is I think Thailand? I'm not sure if this one has been officially confirmed but I think Calvard is supposed to be like a mix of the USA and China

Calvard is definitely the ROC, perhaps with a bit more industrialization and multiculturalism

Calvard is actually specifically based on the USA but also had a large amount of immigration due to welcoming in refugees from the Eastern parts of Zemuria.

Sky is a little weird because most of the Calvardian characters you meet are of the Eastern descent, but it actually IS stated in Sky somewhere.

The 3 parts come together. Mode: ANIHILATION. Phase 3 begins

This boss song is much more tense. Now I think this is it

it has AoE Impede

I repeat. AoE Impede. This is not a drill.

I actually prefer when it uses AoE Impede, because the other move is called Death Rage and it one shots a character of its choice

ok it finally feels like a final boss

The name of the game is Earth Wall

I deal enough damage to jam the impede attack. Nice

The lack of action economy really hurts this boss. It can summon another enemy, but I can kill it easily. And then it's 4v1 and I just have to prepare against the next attack it uses (by using earth guard on whoever got attacked last turn). Still harder than the last 2 bosses, because at least I'm having to be more creative than "spam strong stuff and heal"

Its final move is one called Anihilation. I don't know what it does, because I had earth wall on the whole party. it looked pretty cool though!

Another arm jammed, so I'm assuming it will just spam Anihilation now. Unless it can come up with a version that goes through Earth Wall, I'm not worried

actually seems like the one that got jammed was anihilation, not death rage. Doesn't matter.

The last attack in the game is a Barrage by Estelle. Fitting

So Lavos is not Aureole, it is the guardian created to kill whoever tries to take Aureole

There was going to be a Phase 4, but Richard has a change of heart and decides to hold it down so we can escape

Then Dad shows up out of nowehre and cuts its arm down. And now Phase 4 starts! What the hell is going on with this ending

Phase 4 is just a glorified cutscene though, because the thing has 5k hp left and every character gets their cp maxed out

Cassius low key let us get the finishing move just for the sake of it. Then he goes and says Estelle and Josh get a passing grade. Show off

Estelle is having none of it, though. Zero. Zilch

The other 4 playable characters show up and inform us they were dealing with a horde of mobs off-screen. Well, sounds like it was a good call to leave Tita with them.

Dad punches Richard in the face and explains why he sucks. He is right, a country can't depend on a single man forever, especially if that man isn't immortal. Richard should have stepped up. Well, he kind of did, but stepped up his own strength and skills, I mean

Estelle and Josh have been promoted to senior bracers

Cassius decides to join the army again, because someone needs to clean that mess. I assume he'll be back home after it's done, though

predictably, it's revealed Lorence is the one behind everything. of course, his character level is just higher

I buy the latest newspaper, and Nial wrote a very epic summary of the game's climax

Bose's mayor continues to talk about the matter of royal acendancy. I predict shes going to end monarchy and become the first president of Liberl before this series ends

Estelle and Josh have a failed shipping moment, then she leaves for ice cream.

And then just like that, professor Alba shows up and reveals he is the Big Bad. I DID NOT see this coming

He also snaps his fingers and makes Josh remember his past, because turns out he had forgotten parts of it. And Josh used to be Enforcer 13th

lots of new names get spoken

They also reveal everything that has happened so far was part of the plan. Obviously.

Wow, they used Josh as a drone to spy for them for the last 5 years. Even him getting adopted was part of the plan. That's Aizen tier of manipulation.

Josh is so shocked he has a brand new shocked character portrait. two portraits

tbf the fact they had to go this far just to make Cassius go away for a while is a testament to how dangerous the man is

"You are free now. Free to live with the fact that you betrayed your own family. Hope you enjoy it". Devious

I already knew this game ended with Josh leaving to hunt the bad guys alone, because I read a synopsis of the next game... but the actual scene is much more intense than I expected. We see Josh's past (except the bit about how his heart broke, whats up with that), and there is a very sad scene where Estelle hopelessly confesses to him as a last attempt to keep him there, and he fakes a kiss to sedate her. And then the credits roll, and we get a montage of Estelle packing up to go look for him. Good stuff. THAT'S how you end a videogame

And there's even a trailer to SC

Well, game beaten. I'm pretty tired of it and need a break, but with a cliffhanger that good, it won't be a long one tbh. Maybe a few days.

10/10 game, imo.

Now i'm bummed that I missed the second prof Alba escort mssion in Bose. Bet that was full of hints. Maybe I'll watch a LP of it.

I was feeling smart that I saw Richard coming a mile a way, but Alba caught me completely off guard. Touche.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

I actually prefer when it uses AoE Impede, because the other move is called Death Rage and it one shots a character of its choice

IIRC, it mostly uses this as a counter to S-Crafts so it's somewhat predictable.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

Then Dad shows up out of nowehre and cuts its arm down. And now Phase 4 starts! What the hell is going on with this ending

Phase 4 is just a glorified cutscene though, because the thing has 5k hp left and every character gets their cp maxed out

Cassius low key let us get the finishing move just for the sake of it. Then he goes and says Estelle and Josh get a passing grade. Show off

Fun Fact: If you have a low enough Bracer Rank, and I mean - intentionally skipped every quest and fucked up every decision on purpose bad - Cassius just solos the thing and you don't get the glorified cutscene phase.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

Well, game beaten. I'm pretty tired of it and need a break, but with a cliffhanger that good, it won't be a long one tbh. Maybe a few days.

for the genuine experience you have to wait 4 years, and spend like 2 of them in angst that SC won't actually be released at all

ZeldaTPLink posted...

Alba caught me completely off guard

me too, it seems like other people saw it coming, but my jaw totally dropped

I must have been spoiled on something though because I spent the entire Tita chapter waiting for Grandpa Russell to be evil

"oh wow he faked his own capture"

I'll be honest, when the Alba reveal happened my reaction was "Um, who was this guy again?"

Like he just didn't do anything noteworthy enough to really care. He was just another NPC as far as I was concerned.

The thing with Alba is that he is a classic rpg/anime character type. The goofy field researcher who helps the characters learn what the magic temples/artifacts do.

So you see that guy and you don't think much as he falls quickly into a box. Yes those towers will be important at some point and this guy will be here to help figure them out. Standard course.

And it doesn't help that Lorence exists, so you don't imagine there has to be another evil operative going around brainwashing people. It's obviously Lorence. Except it's not.

Heck, even the intelligence division helps make the decoy. I knew the bad guys were a group called Orobouros, so when I saw the guys in black I thought it was them. No, they were just soldiers with a brainwashed leader. Orobouros barely shows itself in the whole game. Even Richard is just a glorified key they use to break a seal.

Even with partial spoiling, most of the plot evaded me, because it has that many layers.

The game knows you are expecting plot twists so it plays that against you. One military has to be bad. So it baits Mogran and Cid. A mayor has to be bad, so it gives you 4 of them. And so on.

Yeah, I didnt see Alba coming at all either. I think I started the 2nd game sooner than I was originally planning thanks to that. Glad I got into the series late enough that I didnt need to wait at least.

I do remember relying on Earth Wall a lot on the ending sequence here too. Later trails games I dont use it as much though.

I thought Alba was evil basically every second on screen, but the game did a reasonable job making me focus on other things instead of him in the finale of FC.

In fairness I'm fairly sure the time when he says some particularly suspect things was the optional sidequest you didn't do

The ending of FC is a master class in how to set up a sequel for sure. Incredibly done. I wish they remembered those lessons in Cold Steel...

One thing I like about Alba's plan is how it subverts another trope, which is villains not expecting good guys to overcome things through love.

In most stories you would get the bad guy trying to convince Josh to kill the good guys and get surprised when he refuses.

Here Alba places Josh where he can be found by Cassius, expecting Cassius to want to redeem Josh, and expecting him to pull it off. They are savvy enough to know love can conquer evil, and they use that to fulfill their plan. It escapes the classic Voldermort/Sauron/Palpatine pattern of getting defeated by basic expressions of love and goodness.

Fiop posted...

Later trails games I dont use it as much though.

That's cuz it gets nerfed in later Trails games (rightly so because it's ridiculous in Sky lol)

SC bought.

Are you gonna do SC updates here too?

SC is the best trails game so I hope you enjoy

colliding posted...

SC is the best trails game so I hope you enjoy

It's not even the best Sky game

I feel like Trails is a series where you get a lot of different opinions as to which games are the best.

Some of them baffle me but I digress.

Crossbell supremacy

_stingers_ posted...

Are you gonna do SC updates here too?

Sure

After finishing this game I'm still feeling daunted at the prospect of playing 12+ games but at the same time, I get it.

Cuz Im a One Piece fan and thats a franchise whose length really works in its favor.

No, I wont play all 12 consecutively. But if this quality keeps up I'll get there eventually.

So now the plan is to stop for a few days, play SC, then MAYBE play 3rd, then stop indefinitely until I get the itch to return.

FC's gut-punch cliffhanger ending is one of my favorite moments in the series

glad I purchased the second game midway through my playthrough of the first

I've taken a year and a half break from cold steel 2 before I play 3 and 4. Trails is a series made to come back to every now and again

Mega_Mana posted...

Exciteexciteexciteexcite

This was about the Alba scene reaction, in particular. It absolutely devastated me the first time, and even when you know it's coming, there really isn't anything he does that gives his game away.

IIRC, there's a few things that get set-up for the reveal that you really only notice on a replay (spoilers, in case, but should be good just for FC):
- About every other time you meet/escort Alba, there will be a moment where Josh has a '...' face or moment. It's hard to describe, but there's a definite extra feeling of gravity to it than the initial "Josh is just feeling out this quirky professor"
- Alba was the one who escorted Estelle and Joshua into the capital. "Aw, he's helping us out and doing museum stuff!" Yeah, and Zin has no clue about what Estelle & Joshua have been up to in the city and wasn't sent by Cassius to help out. Alba was totallly innocent.
- The biggest foreshadow comes from Kurt, the green-haired bracer, depending on if you explore and talk to people. He's in the stands of the arena ready for our fight (not sure which day, presumably finals) and he's got a headache, realizing later that night the last time he had that headache was when he passed Cassius the box with the black orbment. Why did he suddenly remember these things? Plot convenience? To give Estelle and Joshua a huge loredump? I mean, yes, but why then?

Alba also was in the stands.

FC was so good. I just played it this fall, and already want to play it again, lol.

_stingers_ posted...

I've taken a year and a half break from cold steel 2 before I play 3 and 4. Trails is a series made to come back to every now and again

I played SC, 3rd, CS1, and CS2 all back to back and only stopped because Zero and Azure + CS3 wasn't out yet lol (and this was before CS4 was even out in Japan)

I'd probably have marathoned those 3 as well if I could.

I played FC, SC, 3rd, Zero, Azure, CS1, CS2, CS3 all back-to-back, and then stopped ~halfway through CS4. That was more than a year ago at this point. Whenever I boot it up, I'm like "nah, I don't remember what's going on, maybe another day".

Great series, but definitely recommend pacing yourself.

Also, I didn't do this for FC, but I remember figuring out how to mod Japanese voices into SC and 3rd, and it definitely enhanced the experience. And that's speaking as someone who doesn't know Japanese at all, and on the rare occasions when I watch anime, I watch the dub.

Yeah I wish I knew there was a Japanese voice acting patch for sky. would've been nice to have some voice acting. If I ever get infinite free time and decide to replay the series from the beginning I guess that's what I'll do

Actually I think this inspired me to finally pick CS3 back up...after RE4 that will be my next game

So... I've been wondering whether I should play SC on hard. Since FC was rather easy (I only ever died against Josette in the prologue, and Lorence... who doesn't count).

Then I searched online and found a steam discussion where people implied Hard is incredibly brutal, and that SC's prologue is apparently the hardest section in all of the Trails series, and is almost impossible to beat on anything but Normal. So uh... I'm wondering if that's an overreaction.

"almost impossible" is an overreaction to SC Prologue on Hard lol.

It's definitely a bit of a challenge though.

I played FC on Nightmare and absolutely refused to play SC on it, I was new at the franchise for one but the early game was just way too punishing. I played SC on Hard though and it was fine. I think the impossible comments you're seeing are probably about Nightmare, I was not willing to go through that again so not sure firsthand but there's no way it's fair.

Yeah, I've never tried Nightmare for long enough to think it's fun, but Hard typically makes the early game tougher. You eventually always get OP.

I did the SC prologue on Hard and I also accidentally got the "win the final battle without using S-Crafts" trophy in FC, I don't think it's that hard.

SC's start on Hard is obnoxious but like, you'll be hitting your head against a wall for an hour at most so whatever. If you know it's coming and prepare early it won't be a problem

I don't recommend either FC or SC on a higher difficulty, because the games weren't balanced with them in mind and it shows (they were added in later in patches). It's POSSIBLE to beat them first time through on higher difficulties, but there are several sections which will be an exercise in frustration.

I do recommend playing 3rd on Hard if you want a harder experience though because it is better balanced. The later games also are fine to play on higher difficulties (in fact I think anything less than Hard for Crossbell and Cold Steel does the games a disservice and think Nightmare should be the default for anyone experienced with RPGs).

3rd on a clean nightmare save is great a lot of the time but not as your first run of it

I tried SC on Nightmare first but after dying in one of the tutorial battles, decided to go to hard. I stuck with hard for Sky 3rd and Cold Steel series after that. I wonder if I couldve done Nightmare for some of the other games. CS 3 and 4 werent too hard on hard, but I didnt know that when starting them.

Yeah I started playing on nightmare again with CS and it's still too easy. The modern dumbing down of games is unfortunate

I don't remember what difficulty I played SC on but I find that most online gaming forums these days tend to really exaggerate difficulty - I'm sure Hard isn't that bad.

I played SC on Hard and while the Prologue is legit tough, it gets easier from there.