Falcom thread (Trails, Ys, Xanadu, etc.)

[toxicitizen]

Tokyo Xanadu is live on Steam with a 10% launch discount! Never heard of a 3AM unlock time but I'm not complaining. Kinda wish it had been closer to midnight, though, because then I would've had a few hours to play.

[toxicitizen]

Well, I only put about 3 hours into it so far but I've cleared the first chapter so I think I have a decent idea of what the game will be like. Basically, it's Cold Steel but without the Trails and with a little bit more Persona. It clearly runs on the same engine because all the "building blocks" (text boxes, sound effects, character models, etc...) are identical or very similar. Ultimately the story will be the main factor for me but I really like it so far.

 

The combat feels kinda weird, though. It's basically Ys-like action-RPG combat but with the stiff movement from Cold Steel. It works fine but it's not exactly tight. If movement bothered you in Cold Steel, @Mal, I think you're not gonna be crazy about it. I wonder if they were limited by their engine choice (or perhaps code reuse) or if it was somehow intentional. Does Ys VIII run on the same engine? Because if it does then I'm kinda baffled. You would think Falcom of all developers would know how to make tight, responsive action-RPG combat.

[Mal]

Eww. I doubt it has a mouse movement system like Xanadu Next? If it had that, it can smooth it all over but then again Xanadu Next wasn't as fast paced as Ys. 

 

When does the 10% discount end? I'll need the most of the 2 week grace period for refund so I can get back home and try it.

[toxicitizen]

No mouse movement, no. I don't think that would work all that well for a non-isometric game, though. It's either controller or mouse and keyboard (with the mouse only controlling the camera). I wouldn't say it's as fast-paced as Ys. At least so far, most enemies are fairly slow and relatively easy to dodge, so it seems like they at least took the stiffness into account.

 

The store page says the 10% discount ends on December 15. So you've got another week or so.

[toxicitizen]

So, after ~25h of playtime, I reached what feels like it was probably the halfway point of Tokyo Xanadu. Which means I'm ready to give some more detailed thoughts about it.

 

This is a Falcom game for sure, it's pretty damn good and it's up there with Trails and Ys as far as I'm concerned. It doesn't top those series' respective peaks but it's definitely better than their lows. I don't know if I got used to it or if it just wasn't as bad as I initially thought but the combat actually works pretty well once you get used to it. It felt stiff like Cold Steel at first but by this point I've gotten used to running around, timing my attacks and dodging just fine. It's not as fast and tight as Ys but it's way less awkward than pulling off those advantage backstabs in Cold Steel. Besides, apparently Ys is the wrong Falcom series to compare this to. I couldn't know at first because I haven't played it but apparently this is pretty much Falcom doing a modern take on the Zwei formula, which actually makes me way more interested in Zwei. I mean, I already was but now I'm actually a little hyped to play them.

 

The story has been mostly episodic for the first half of the game (as if to emphasize it even more, the game actually replays the anime OP at the beginning of every single chapter). I feel like that's probably going to change after the point where I stopped yesterday, though. The game was setting up a clear direction/end game for future chapters and, as with Trails, things are slowly starting to pick up halfway through. I'm really looking forward to seeing if it's going to get as crazy as Trails can get. Few games have managed to top the final 30mins of Cold Steel 1 as far as "Holy fucking shit, HYPE!!!" goes.

 

As for the localization, so far it's been pretty solid imho. Outside of the obvious handful of garbage ("fukkleducks" or whatever the hell it was), there's the occasional line that feels a bit weird but it's often because it feels so much like Trails that sometimes the more "modern" language can feel out of place somewhat. Seriously, this feels so much like Cold Steel on the surface that it's easy to forget it's not actually a Trails game. At times it honestly almost feels like a What-If Trails spin-off. Hell, there's at least one music track that I think might actually be straight up lifted from the Cold Steel OST and some of them would feel right at home in Trails.

 

 

 

 

And, unsurprisingly given how it borrows from it even more heavily than Cold Steel, there's even some that sound really Persona-like to me.

 

 

 

So yeah, TL;DR: Tokyo Xanadu is fucking great and you're a bad Falcom fan if you don't buy it!

Edited December 14, 2017 by FLD

[Mal]

Nah man. Do you want to support Leftist SJW translators!?

 

I'm going to wait till the next sale. Holiday shopping takes priority (and surprised anime bullshit pre-orders that was ready to ship).

[toxicitizen]

You're joking but I actually saw a thread on the Okami Steam Hub that really made my head hurt the other day. It might've been trolling (I honestly doubt it...) but someone was asking about the game's subtitles and whether "SJWs got their hands on them". I guess they were worried that the game's subs had been edited by the Evil SJW Illuminati... or something? Why they thought someone would feel the need to change the script and story of Okami, of all fucking things, for seemingly no reason is honestly beyond me. Sometimes I seriously wonder what world these fucking idiots think they live in...

 

Also, you did buy Zwei while I still haven't, so I'll let your transgression slide this time!

[TheMightyEthan]

They live in a world where they're awful people, but they don't understand what exactly it is about them that's awful, so they have no concept of what they like that might be objectionable.

[toxicitizen]

I honestly think most of them lack the self-awareness to even realize that they're awful people but that's fairly typical of shitty people in general. What really boggles my mind is this notion that there's a group of people hellbent on ruining something as inconsequential as video games by making them more inclusive (?????) and how that's somehow something worth worrying about. I've yet to see anyone unironically complain about SJWs and follow that up by raising anything remotely close to a valid concern. I mean, as far as conspiracy theories go, this one is just kinda sad and pathetic.

 

I get that online anonymity can cause people to let out their crazier side but if someone I was talking to IRL started ranting about that shit I'd just start backing away slowly and would genuinely question their mental well-being.

[TheMightyEthan]

Oh yeah, sorry, I didn't mean they know they're awful people, just that they are awful people, and they're not self-aware enough to perceive what the actual problem is.

[Mal]

I think I'm going to hold my tongue for the most part with regards to this topic but I'll link this. I've been around sites where they frequent and that is generally how I feel about them.

 

I'm happy to note that Falcom threads are generally free of them and are generally ignored. Hell, there is a general sense of support by buying the games which is odd on sites that frequently promote piracy. Well up till it concerns NISA and their localizations and ports. The Tokyo Xanadu is a divisive one. Any perceived or actual censorship is met with fire (and one that I agree with since censorship is bad no matter where it is aimed at).

 

Now enough about this topic. I shouldn't have posted that sarcastic comment.

[toxicitizen]

Hey, I'm all for random tangents that cause other people to join in.

 

Is there any censorship drama surrounding Tokyo Xanadu, though? I'm not aware of any and there hasn't been anything in the game itself that stood out to me.

 

The thing about censorship is that I agree with the sentiment of being against it as a general rule but I'm a bit more selective about what I personally get upset about. Mainly because of how it often seems to revolve around "they edited this outfit and now we can't see the panties of the 8 year old loli anymore!" That is just not a hill I'm going to die on. My stance on that kind of censorship is very much "and nothing of value was lost".

[Mal]

5 hours ago, FLD said:

Is there any censorship drama surrounding Tokyo Xanadu, though?

No. It's not a thing for Falcom games as a whole. Though there are panty shots in Cold Steel 3 but that has to be localized first before anything happens. I actually haven't checked in Cold Steel since you know, that's not why I am playing them for. Wouldn't be surprised to see if they are there though. I guess you can check Tokyo Xanadu for panty shots.

And yeah, I choose my battles. Though defending lewds or suggestive things is generally pretty damn hard without being branded. The only easy one off the top of my head is, strangely enough, modern Nintendo. They're equal opportunity. See one and two. Add in Bayonetta and yeah.

What a strange timeline we are in.

[Mal]

Falcom is hiring people for a new series and to help with Trails and Ys.

 

I want to see them doing something completely wild like Zwei I and II again. With a new group of people, telling them to make something might turn out something interesting. I'm freaking excited if it going to be a new Falcom IP.

Edited December 17, 2017 by Mal

[toxicitizen]

They're still a relatively small studio, right? Between Ys and Trails alone, I'm having a hard time picturing them having another major series. Especially given how story-heavy Ys is apparently becoming. I'm really curious to finally see if Ys VIII truly rivals Trails in that regard. Then there's Tokyo Xanadu, which I really hope wasn't a one-off. I'm not done with it yet but I'm really enjoying having a Falcom game set in the "real" world, so I hope they're planning a sequel or something.

[Mal]

Yeah, they're a small studio. Enough now to have an A team and a B team. Not a lot of room to breath though hence why they're kind of a Trails and Ys factory of late. Also maybe why Ys VIII, Cold Steel and Tokyo Xanadu looks similar. Too similar really. With more people they can experiment some more.

 

One interesting thing to note is that they are hiring a "game scenario" person, so basically lore and related stuff.

 

1 hour ago, FLD said:

Then there's Tokyo Xanadu, which I really hope wasn't a one-off.

There will always be a Xanadu game. Xanadu is a series where they play around a lot so it is hard to say if Tokyo Xanadu will get a direct sequel or more of a spiritual sequel. To be honest, I'm not too keen on a "real" world setting but I am willing to give it a chance.

[Mal]

Sploosh.

[toxicitizen]

Yeah, I saw that earlier. It's pretty neat, although I'm a sucker for rewatching anime OPs, so I probably won't use it every single time lol.

[Mal]

And the changing title screens are nice to look at. It's nice to have if you are stopping and playing a lot in a single level.

[Mal]

CS4 stuff are going to begin to drop since there is a website with a countdown. CS3 spoilers will be harder to avoid. Hell, I've been spoiled somewhat.

Anyhow, it's probably going to drop around Falcom fiscal year cutoff in September (if I recall correctly) since they didn't forecast with CS4 in mind. It can drop before or after the cutoff but it is next year. I really do hope XSEED is working on CS3 already...

 

Edit:

Shareholder meeting confirmed that Sen4 is releasing in September and has subtitle of "The End of Saga". Maybe Engrish? Maybe means something.

 

The Switch has been mentioned. Maybe ports of the older games and maybe newer one? The stop and go would be amazing but if the Switch holds back say the Calvard games then I'm less happy.

And there is this. (I do not suggest clicking around especially with regards to CS4 and its key visuals. It's a massive spoiler.)

And

The way I read this is that they even care enough out the 15% to get a localization fix for Ys 8.

And I guess Makoto Shinkai can do good work even back during this time. Though he sucks with stories or at least he tells nearly the damn same story every time.

CS4 will be the largest of the series... I'm not going to link the tweet. This spoilers dance is nice but from what I gathered, CS3 is easily 100+ hours. So CS4 is... something insane. Are you ready for this wild ride? CS1 gave me such a jolt at the end and CS2 should deliver but CS3 and CS4 are going deeper. There's no turning back.

Edited December 20, 2017 by Mal

[toxicitizen]

I saw the key art and I'm honestly not sure I get what the spoiler is supposed to be. I'm sure I'll come to regret it in time, assuming I'm still alive by the time these games come out over here on PC. But man, constantly feeling like you have to dodge spoilers is kind of exhausting when you know it's not coming for a good long while. Kinda wish I didn't give a shit... Or that these games didn't take so freaking long to come over. That would work, too. And it doesn't help that Zero and Ao will most likely not get before CS3. So those two will get the shit spoiled out of them regardless. Hell, CS1 kept things relatively vague but from what I heard even CS2 stops giving a shit about that.

[Mal]

I went into Falcom's twitter page to trawl for Christmas themed images. I alt-F4 really quickly. Let's say the spoilers there is absolutely brutal since CS4 announcement. I think by now it is no secret that for CS4, you are highly recommended to have played ALL prior games. The game is the longest of the bunch and has the most playable characters (Rumored to be 25).

 

It is so awesome yet it is such a curse. See Britt's tweet.

 

I honestly might buy CS2 then wait out for the fan translation of Zero and Ao... it'll help stagger the games for me to wait out CS3. It also helps keep the Crossbell games a bit of a mystery.

[toxicitizen]

You're a more patient man than I am. I feel like even the first Cold Steel spoiled the hell out of Zero despite keeping things vague. I could be wrong here but I'm assuming that

 

 

the whole thing with the conference is the climax of Zero and Gideon is one of the main antagonists of the game.

 

At this point I think I just kind of accepted it. I'm not gonna seek out spoilers for CSII+ but I'm not gonna worry about Crossbell too much. I'll just play the games as they come out (officially) in english. I'd rather just bite the bullet than hold off for fear of spoiling games we might never actually get.

 

 

Also, Dengeki had interviews with game creators about what's coming in 2018 and Kondo had this to say:

 

Quote

In The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV ~The End of Saga~, the foreshadowing that spread across The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, The Legend of Heroes: Zero no Kiseki, and The Legend of Heroes: Ao no Kiseki will considerably come to surface, and for those who have played the series, there will be a surprising development in the beginning.

 

We now know there was foreshadowing for Cold Steel as far back as the 3rd, so it sounds like some of their long-term plans are finally going to be wrapping up and CSIV will have some huge reveals for the series overarching plot. If it wasn't for the fact that they've actually said there will be another arc after, this as well as the "End of Saga" subtitle would make me think this is the final Kiseki game. Kinda makes me really curious about what's coming after the Erebonia arc.

Edited December 26, 2017 by FLD

[Mal]

I asked around. CS2 spoils up to Azure/Ao after CS2's last boss. Not so much the events that happens but the consequences of what happened in Azure/Ao.

 

16 minutes ago, FLD said:

I feel like even the first Cold Steel spoiled the hell out of Zero despite keeping things vague.

I feel that we got the overarching gist of what happened in Zero. I think the details will start to become important in say CSIV.

 

As for play order.... The Crossbell games spoils more of Cold Steel games than the reverse so either way we're kind of hosed as far as spoilers goes. The only people who has a chance of being as spoiler free as possible are those who enjoyed the games as they released and those in the future who go in blind. (As a side note, if I made any new fans of this series, I suggest taking your sweet ass time).

 

CSIV is probably going to gun it and reveal something we've been dying to know. The next arc is almost for certain Calvard which was also hinted at in 3rd and probably in CSII and CSIII... and I got to say, 3rd is increasingly really is a bridge.

 

And I don't think I have intentionally spoiled myself with CSII+ stuff. Some is me being careless while others kind of come with being part of the Trails community... and some are dumbfucks who don't think and just drop a wildly suggestive title for the thread topic. God, I am still pissed about that. Hopefully my unspoiled text is vague enough to not be concrete spoilers. Let me know if you think they ever are since, again, it's for any new players and potential new fans of the series.

[toxicitizen]

25 minutes ago, Mal said:

CSIV is probably going to gun it and reveal something we've been dying to know. The next arc is almost for certain Calvard which was also hinted at in 3rd and probably in CSII and CSIII... and I got to say, 3rd is increasingly really is a bridge.

 

Do you mean

 

the identity of the Grandmaster? I'm personally super curious about the end of the final door in 3rd, when Campanella seems to be addressing the camera/player directly. Wtf was up with that?!

 

And yeah, Calvard seems to be the guess of most people but I can't say I picked up on any in-game hints. It does seem very likely since it's the only major power remaining on the continent, as far as I'm aware.

 

25 minutes ago, Mal said:

And I don't think I have intentionally spoiled myself with CSII+ stuff. Some is me being careless while others kind of come with being part of the Trails community... and some are dumbfucks who don't think and just drop a wildly suggestive title for the thread topic. God, I am still pissed about that. Hopefully my unspoiled text is vague enough to not be concrete spoilers. Let me know if you think they ever are since, again, it's for any new players and potential new fans of the series.

 

Yeah, I learned the hard way to stay out of Kiseki threads about newly announced stuff on GAF/Era. The annoying thing about suggested spoilers is that you get annoyed and gtfo but sometimes you don't know if you've actually been spoiled or if you're just connecting dots that you shouldn't be. And you sure as shit don't want to go back in for confirmation lol. For a while I thought I had a major death in CSII spoiled but then I saw some art from CSIII with that character and realized the "spoiler" was probably just a joke. That's when I took more of a "fuck it" mentality. I'd rather remain unspoiled but in a year's time we're likely to be two full games behind, so accidental spoilers seem sort of unavoidable. If it happens, whatever. No point freaking out about it.

 

At the very least this is one reason to be thankful that the Trails series is still fairly niche. Assholes can't go around spoiling it if they don't know it even exists. 

 

 

edit: Oh! Forgot to mention it the other day but Durante said on Era that he's aiming for a February release on CSII PC. Although it needs to be stressed that it was 1) said drunkenly and 2) he was only speaking for himself, i.e. XSEED could have other plans or whatever.

Edited December 26, 2017 by FLD