#the legend of heroes trails of cold steel 4

[gamingladies]

I told you, didn't I? You and I, we are not friends. My cooperation with you is just a means to an end. If you stop being useful, I won't hesitate to get rid of you!

[inkedmyths]

HELLO TUMBLR TRAILS FANDOM

GUESS WHAT

GUESS WHO'S IN KAI

THATS RIGHT ITS EVERYONE'S FAVORITE ASSHOLE

[toonabby]

Happy belated 33rd birthday, Austin Lee Matthews!

[they-have-the-same-va]

Kanami Mashita from Persona 4: Dancing All Night shares a voice actor with Emma Millstein from The Legend of Heroes series.

Voiced by Rena Strober

[incorrect-trails]

Altina: We're kind of missing something.

Kurt: Cohesion?

Juna: Teamwork?

Ash: A general sense of what we're doing?

Musse: And Instructor Rean is not here.

Kurt: Oh, and that, yeah.

[morgenstern16]

I knew the Cold Steel writers were afraid of making a point, but holy shit "everything wrong in the country is because of Robot Satan" is a incredible way to dodge talking about how nationalism, ambition, and greed can ruin a nation

[akiizayoi4869]

I need to talk about one of my favorite video game villains of all time for a minute.

This guy. The one who I'm pretty sure a lot of people who played The Legend Of Heroes: Trails Of Cold Steel 3 and 4, probably ended up hating for how much of a dick he was in those two games. His change in behavior and attitude in the later games didn't make me hate him, though. In fact, it made me like his character even more because it was pretty easy to understand why Cedric ends up like that when you consider the events of the finale in the second Cold Steel game:

He was kidnapped by Duke Cayenne during the Civil War in Erebonia and was forced into one of the seven divine knights, Testarossa, which went completely berserk since Cedric was unable to control it's power at the time. As a result, he was forced to fight against Class VII, who ended up saving him, but at a great cost to one of their own classmates. Crow ends up dying, trying to break Cedric free from Testarossa. Cedric saw all of this happening before his eyes and couldn't do anything to stop it. So it's really no wonder that, when we see him again in Cold Steel 3, his demeanor has changed entirely, and he's obsessed with obtaining power. He goes from the sweet, innocent boy whom we are introduced to in the first Trails of Cold Steel game into someone who is pretty much unrecognizable and with his own little crew.

His sudden change was a shock to me at first. I really wasn't expecting it at all, especially since when he first appeared, he spoke politely. It wasn't until his conversation with Rean on the school rooftop later on that day that we see just how much he's actually changed. The conversation starts out well enough, with Cedric thanking Rean for saving him in the last game. We can clearly see what happened back then really took its toll on Cedric, and that it still weighed heavily on him.

He tells Rean that during the summer after that incident, he got very sick and, as a result, was unable to start school at Thors Military Academy until the following year. Nothing seems odd... until Cedric proposes that Rean should transfer to teahc at Cedric's school, the main campus of Thors Military Academy. This is when we see his demeanor start to change. He talks down about the branch campus and says that someone like Rean is better suited for the main campus, which Cedric holds in high regard in comparison to the branch campus. Rean's students eventually find them on the rooftop, and Cedric is cold towards them, especially to Kurt. He then leaves, but not before saying that he'll be back to hear Rean's response to his demands another day.

Over the course of the game, we see just how much Cedric changed. He's competitive, thinks that power is everything, and absolutely hates weakness. He constantly talks down to others and doesn't care how he makes them feel as a result. The end of Cold Steel 3 really showed just how far Cedric was willing to go to get what he wanted.

He attempts to kill another one of Rean's students, Altina, so that she could become the sword of the end, which was needed to bring about the Great Twilight. He was also completely ok with having his older brother and two other people killed to accomplish this goal (even though as we saw in the 4th game, he was relieved to see that his brother has survived). These two acts really shocked me, because not only did it show a stark contrast to who Cedric was before versus who he was now, it highlighted just how much the events of Cold Steel 2 really changed him, and not for the better.

Cedric becomes one of the main antagonists of Cold Steel 4, and he proves himself as a strong enemy to take down. He was way more of a jerk here than in Cold Steel 3, and it has really seemed as if he has gone off the deep end for good. Then we get to the final chapter of Cold Steel 4, where Cedric is one of the final boss battle fights. He's still the same condescending jerk that he's been for a while now, but everything changes when Juna asked him one question: "What are you so afraid of?" Then all of a sudden, the truth comes out: Cedric was being controlled by the influence of Ishmelga, thanks to Chancellor Osborne and Franz Reinford. Now, this certainly doesn't excuse what Cedric has done up to this point, but it certainly explained why he was willing to go so far all of a sudden, when he hadn't been like that before. It was as if Juna asking him that question had suddenly opened a dam though, because this was what finally made Cedric return to how he used to be. What I absolutely loved about this is that he doesn't try and use Ishmelga as an excuse for the things that he did. He owns up to his actions and sets out to atone for them.

What he eventually chooses to do though was shocking, but it made sense: he decides to join Oroboros, leaving his friends and family behind.

Just as he says, if he stayed with all of them, he knew that he would be forgiven in spite of everything and he wouldn't really have any consequences for his actions. So joining Oroboros as a way to atone for what he did was the right call imo. Cedric's arc is probably one of my favorite ones in Cold Steel 3 and 4. It was very well done and Falcom handled him really well, and I can't wait to see more of him in future games.

[corecamilo]

Juna Crawford is still one of the best characters

Tried a bit of traditional drawing and it turned out pretty nice

[rehncohro]

My top 5 most played Steam games.

[azumakaze-blog]

https://youtu.be/5vSxPpj-i_E

[cerastes]

How do you feel about turnbased RPGs? Games like Pokemon, the Mario RPGs, Final Fantasy, SMT etc?

I used to play YIIK-likes in the past but nowadays they don’t really appeal to me. Except the “The Legend of Heroes” franchise, AKA Trails/Kiseki franchise (Trails of Cold Steel, Zero no Kiseki, et al). That’s the only one I love and play.

I loved Final Fantasy all the way until X/10, don’t really care for the latter releases except 14.

If we can count them, the first two Paper Marios slapped.

SMT I have a love hate relationship with, I liked their vibe, I hate how grindy they were. Nocturne’s a great game I can’t recommend.

I like the concept of Pokemon a lot, the games themselves bore me. I played gen 1 and 4, and enjoyed them, but also don’t think they can offer any more with the formula.

Suikoden was fun!

[smash-64]

2023 Game of the Year Countdown #1 The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie Nintendo Switch, 2023

For a fourth time since 2018, a Trails game takes my #1 for the year.

Breaking from tradition, this Trails game has no sidequests. It has a very linear story, although technically there are three linear stories and you can jump from one to another for most of the game. In many respects, this is the “Trails in the Sky the 3rd” for the Cold Steel series. Not only is the story more linear, but we get redemption arcs from past villains, and we also get an absolutely disgusting amount of playable characters. Chrono Cross has 45 playable characters, and people often say that’s too many. Well…Reverie has 50. And each of them gets at least a little time in the spotlight. It’s fantastic for Trails fans, and I adored it. I put 150 hours into this game and I’m not sure I could have put less time into it.

Playing the game on Switch, there were definitely a few times the game chugged, so I can’t give the game a perfect 10. Many of the cutscenes in Crossbell City were bogged down by the sheer number of NPCs, and was noticeable to me, a person famously unconcerned with performance. I can see why people advocate for playing this on PC or PS4, but the portability of the Switch trumps all else in my mind. This is really the only downside I experienced with the game, although it did not affect my enjoyment at all.

Having three linear storylines to follow in any order you want is phenomenal. You can keep going with characters you love, and are never forced to stick with the ones you don’t for very long. And with having a linear story, the pace of the game is potentially sped up a little bit from the traditional Trails experience where sidequests can often lead to very long delays in the main story.

The story itself offers a ton. Obviously I can’t spoil a game that is the 10th in an interconnected, on-going series, but I’ll just say that once the main story is over…the postgame story is equally as interesting and gives fans a peek at some of the series-long questions and issues brought up in previous entries. 

Combat is fairly standard as far as the Cold Steel games go. I love Trails combat and this game tweaks little, as nothing was broken. It’s perhaps a little bit more difficult than CS3 or CS4, since the Break mechanic was pretty OP in those two games and it has been toned down slightly, but you can still take full advantage of it if you’re smart and plan well. I also like how some of the accessories drastically increase specific stats, so min/maxing is actually fun in this game. I was able to get Tita Russell’s attack and HP to absolutely absurd heights in this game. She is no longer baby; she wants power!

As previously stated, almost every single character gets their time in the spotlight. Some more than others, of course, but the fact that we get 50 playable characters, yet every one of them gets a chance to shine is a wonderful piece of work by the developers and writers. I’d say that perhaps Musse gets very little, but she had more than enough focus in CS3 and 4. Even Machias gets his own episode, and he is so often forgotten that even I forget about him at times.

Music is good as always when it comes to Falcom. I appreciate some of the battle tunes, like Elegant Prowess, and the game has its own unique sound that sets it apart from CS3 and 4. Maybe not to the same extent that Sky the 3rd sets itself apart from FC and SC, but the tracks unique to this game sound different enough that they are easy to pick out. There are dozens of returning tracks as well, since we revisit quite a few places from previous entries. 

My favorite character is Estelle Bright, and I was glad to see a focused effort to put her in the spotlight more often. She wasn’t in CS1-3, and played a more supporting role in 4 than anything else. Meanwhile, Lloyd and Rean ran the show. Estelle is not one of the main storylines in this game, but it’s nice to see her back with some of her famous one-liners.

Overall, I can’t really say enough about the game. It’s an amazing JRPG experience, but one that requires playing the 9 previous games in the series. Maybe that’s a daunting task to some, but the good thing about trying out a Trails game is that there is always another one to play afterward.

[fiabex]

Dreamwidth Roundup

Nominations are now closed, and our closing posts are up! We have final clarification posts, and we have the post about tag set clean up!

Mods will be going through the tagset, but we also welcome your input! If you see an issue with tags already in the tagset, please comment on the tagset cleanup post, but if you think that a tag you nominated didn't make it into the tag set, please send that comment to clarification post 4!

More details about the fandoms that are parts of the clarification posts below the cut:

Nominations Clarification Post 3

Nominations Clarification Post 4

Tagset Cleanup

Nominations Clarification post 3:

Fandoms with Queries

+Anima (Manga)

Crossover Fandom

DCU (Comics)

Dimension 20 (Web Series)

Dredge (Video Game)

Dungeons and Dragons (Cartoon)

Elden Ring (Video Game)

Fairy Tail

Gary and His Demons (Cartoon)

Gundam 00

Imperial Radch Series - Ann Leckie

Magic Kaito

Nantucket Trilogy - S.M. Stirling

Original Work

Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series)

QSMP | Quackity SMP

Red Dwarf (UK TV)

Ride Kamens (Video Game)

Shadow and Bone (TV)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types

Transformers Generation One

Westworld (TV)

Xenoblade Chronicles (Video Game)

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (Video Game)

少年白马醉春风 | Dashing Youth (Live Action TV)

Fandoms with Rejections

A Date With Death (Visual Novel)

Crossover Fandom

Disco Elysium (Video Game)

Dungeons and Dragons (Cartoon)

Earth Girls are Easy (1988)

Exordia - Seth Dickinson

Gothic (1986)

Hazbin Hotel (Cartoon)

Persona 4

Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series)

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon

Warframe

방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS

人渣反派自救系统 - 墨香铜臭 | The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù

少年白马醉春风 | Dashing Youth (Live Action TV)

Additionally, we have some updates about In-Universe tags and the umbrella tags that reference them (example: "Medium Opt-In: Any - Any Nominated In-Universe Medium")!

Nominations Clarification post 4:

Fandoms with Queries

Barely Lethal (2015)

Batman Beyond

Benjamin January Mysteries - Barbara Hambly

Books of the Raksura - Martha Wells

Chicago Fire

Crossover Fandom

Digimon Adventure Zero Two | Digimon Adventure 02

Doctor Strange (Movies)

Fallen London | Echo Bazaar

Fire & Blood - George R. R. Martin

Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

In Nomine

Mapp & Lucia Series - E. F. Benson

Monster Prom (Video Games)

Murdoch Mysteries

Original Work

QSMP | Quackity SMP

Sanders Sides (Web Series)

Schmigadoon! (TV)

Stellar Firma (Podcast)

Stellaris (Video Game)

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes - Suzanne Collins

Thor (Movies)

What If...? (Cartoon 2021)

僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia (Manga)

英雄伝説 閃の軌跡 | Sen no Kiseki | The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel Series (Video Games)

龍が如く | Ryuu ga Gotoku | Yakuza (Video Games)

Fandoms with Rejections

A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin

Biggles Series - W. E. Johns

Chicago Fire

Chicago Med

Children of Time Series - Adrian Tchaikovsky

Compilation of Final Fantasy VII

Crossover Fandom

Digimon Adventure Zero Two | Digimon Adventure 02

Fallen London | Echo Bazaar

Friends at the Table (Podcast)

John Wick (Movies)

Ladyhawke (1985)

Original Work

Stranger Things (TV 2016)

The Expanse Series - James S. A. Corey

The Fall of the House of Usher (TV 2023)

The Long Earth Series - Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter

The Saint of Steel - T. Kingfisher

Voltron: Legendary Defender

Welcome to Night Vale

[coupleskitchen]

Schedule Update

If you're following us, hey there. We've been more or less absent for quite some time. And at the moment, we're working on all of our pages. You may find some real-time changes going on as we're doing a pretty big overhaul. Please excuse the mess! If you're just discovering us, welcome! You can find us in these locations:

Curator Page

Blogspot

twitch (well, one of us anyway)

YouTube (again, one of us really)

Now, for the update!

[the below text has been taken directly from our blogspot]

Our reviews have not started back up again. We're hoping to return to writing reviews in July of 2024. It's been a while, but life has presented many obstacles in the past couple of years and we've experienced great losses. That being said, we're still here. We've just been doing other things. We planned in the past to redo all our older reviews, and that's still on the table. We have also received new titles since we last posted publicly, so we're going to review those as well. The schedule for all of these specific things, however, is kind of up in the air. We do have a few newer things to include now though. And if you've been missing our awkwardness and cringey wit, you're welcome to join us during one of our streams. We will also no longer be posting negative reviews to our tumblr or blogspot, and they will remain only on our curator page. While we've always tried to be compassionate and speak with constructive criticism, we fear that even this amount of scrutiny may negatively affect those who have devoted their time and care into the games they're creating. And, after all, we are just two people. We can't speak to what everyone will enjoy. We'll only go into depth on the things we really want to encourage in the future. Game Reviews: the 9th and 23rd of each month. Anime Reviews: once a month, on the last Tuesday of the month (once we begin, as we want to get our game reviews started again and don't know how much extra time we'll have to devote yet). Manga Reviews: once a month, on the first Tuesday of the month (as with the anime reviews, these likely won't begin as soon as we return). Curator Page: reviews for our curator page will be posted as soon as we've formulated a thought about the games we're reviewing. The full reviews will fall into line with our schedule as they've been completed, with games that have been gifted to us taking priority over others.

Streaming

Streams will be on Mondays and Fridays. At this point, there is no specific time to when these will begin, but we will post over on the paptain tumblr roughly thirty minutes before the stream starts. Since we have already been streaming so many different games, there will be a cycle between the streams from month-to-month. If this system works well, then we'll continue doing it. If not, we'll slowly phase out the cycle once each game is completed. Month A Monday Rotation: Dark Chronicle/Dark Cloud 2 > Persona 3 Reload Friday Rotation: Ys VIII > (Unannounced) Month B Monday Rotation: The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel > NEO: The World Ends with You Friday Rotation: Persona 4 Golden > Saturnalia

VOD Uploads

Monday: The past Monday stream will be uploaded. Friday: The past Friday stream will be uploaded. Saturday: Beginning in July, a YouTube exclusive playthrough will be uploaded. These videos will follow the same game to completion, unlike the rotation we have with our streams.

[satoshi-mochida]

Rhythm Game ‘DJMAX RESPECT V’ Announces Falcom DLC Pack Featuring Ys and Trails Songs

From Noisy Pixel

Developer and publisher NEOWIZ has announced a new DLC pack for their rhythm game DJMAX RESPECT V containing songs from the Ys and Trails franchise under Nihon Falcom. Set to be released on March 14, 2024, the pack will cost $14.99.

The Falcom pack will contain the following songs:

Ashita he no Kodou (The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel)

Blue Destination (The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel)

TO MAKE THE END OF BATTLE (Ys II)

GENESIS BEYOND THE BEGINNING (Ys Origin)

Inevitable Struggle (The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero)

To the Future (The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel)

NORSE WIND (Ys IX – Monstrum NOX)

Silver Will (The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky)

STEP AHEAD (The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel)

SUNSHINE COASTLINE (Ys VIII – Lacrimosa of DANA)

You can purchase DJMAX RESPECT V for $49.99 via Steam.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak will be released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC on July 5, 2024.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak is the eleventh mainline entry in the Trails series, taking place after the events of The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie. Following the war with Erebonia initiated by Operation Jormungandr, the Republic of Calvard has thrived economically thanks to reparations. Within this chaotic republic, protagonist Van Arkride makes his living as a Spriggan. This profession takes on the roles of many as it remains within the gray confines of legality that legitimate avenues of employment can’t accept for one reason or another.

The English cast has been unveiled, and physical pre-orders are available with a special limited edition.

Character profiles, numerous English screenshots, and gameplay details have also been posted.

[knightofsuperior]

The Holidays Are a Time of Togetherness and Giving but Sometimes People Can Take Both a Bit Too Far in the Service of Being Petty as All Hell

Fandom: The Legend of Heroes/Trails, Trails of Cold Steel

Summary:

Lechter Arundel has an idea, in the spirit of the season: host a homecoming party in Ymir for Erebonia's hero, Rean Schwarzer. Just some friends, family, and a few decorations. Nothing too bad! Things get a little out of hand.

Read the fic here and check out an excerpt/my thoughts below!

Excerpt:

Lechter Arundel wasn’t supposed to hear this conversation. He wasn’t even supposed to be in Ymir, frankly. There was an all-Ironbloods meeting occurring the next day at Valflame Palace, so he was supposed to be in Heimdallr at the least in the event of any unexpected circumstances. However, the weather was miserably cold, and he needed just a quick dip-what was the harm? He had the timetable all worked out too: 1. Get to Ymir the night before. 2. Hit the Phoenix Wings. 3. R&R 4. Snowboard? Snowboard. 5. Head back to Heimdallr, getting to the meeting either on time or (depending on if he felt like sleeping in) fashionably late. 6. Optional: Gloat to the others about how refreshed he was. He had his disguise all figured out too, a lesson he picked up from the Debaucherous Prince. His hair was covered in a toboggan hat, he was wearing a pair of colored contacts (he always wondered what it would be like to have blue eyes), and he dug out his old Crossbell tourist duds for the occasion (though with an extra layer or two to combat the cold). With a nice warm towel wrapped around his neck, and a cup of hot cocoa, he looked like any other nobody. Which is why neither of the Schwarzers recognized him (he hoped) when they sat at the bar in the Phoenix Wings, fresh from a bath of their own.

Author's Note: The second in the Kiseki In-Between-Iverse series, this one I especially had a blast with because for as much as I love the Sky cast, it's just so easy to slip into the voices of the Cold Steel characters. Being able to sort of bridge that gap between Sky and CS was also a treat, and seeing if I could top my previous over-stuffed cameo list with fun cross-sections of character interactions. Just a fun time all around.