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The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky Official Thread |OT|
- Thread starter Varion
- Start date
Fantastic OP, and great to see that Aeana is back. Preordered this game from Amazon, I attended a few of the Falcom panels at Otakon in years past, where the people would rave about the Kiseki series. I became really interested and managed to pick up copies of the 3 SnK games... in hopes of playing that fan translation that was to come out. But then I heard about the fantastic X-SEED news.
Really hoping we eventually see all the games in this series someday.
Really hoping we eventually see all the games in this series someday.
Aveyn Knight
Member
Not quite, Zero takes place in the Crossbell state, which IIRC lies between Erebonia, Calvard and Liberl. From the little that I've read, Crossbell is greatly influenced by Erebonia and Calvard, so presumably the orbal railroads arise because of that.Syraxith said:
Reluctant-Hero
Member
How were the JP releases in terms of loading? I'm not a fan of constantly hearing the UMD drive reading the disk. All of the Ys games were excellent in regards to loading and reading the UMD.
Aveyn Knight said:
Yeah, pretty much. Crossbell's technological development has been incredibly rapid, partly because its positioning means it's important for trade so a whole lot of money ends up there, especially with the International Bank of Crossbell. There are even people with cars! Not a single person in Liberl has a car. It's also because there's a big Septium mine there though, which is the main reason both Erebonia and Calvard want ownership of it, and much of the government is split into Pro-Imperial and Pro-Republican factions.
Aaaaaaaand this has nothing to do with FC so I'll stop now. The whole world is really interesting when you get into it though. I can't think of any other game series that would actually spend time talking about the local bus company or wondering whether the reason one border gate is smaller than the other is because relations are more peaceful with Calvard than with Erebonia or because the border with Erebonia has more naturally defensive terrain and as such doesn't need to be quite as big.
Supposedly (I say supposedly as I've only played the PC versions so have to rely on second hand opinions) pretty good. Falcom seem to know what they're doing with regards to keeping loading times down on the PSP.Reluctant-Hero said:
Hours Left
Member
The only other series I can think of with that detailed of a world is Suikoden. The similarities between the two is a big part of why I'm so interested in the Kiseki series.Varion said:
SpaceDrake
Member
Varion said:
Yeah, pretty much. Crossbell's technological development has been incredibly rapid, partly because its positioning means it's important for trade so a whole lot of money ends up there, especially with the International Bank of Crossbell. There are even people with cars! Not a single person in Liberl has a car. It's also because there's a big Septium mine there though, which is the main reason both Erebonia and Calvard want ownership of it, and much of the government is split into Pro-Imperial and Pro-Republican factions.
To expand slightly further without getting into big spoiler territory: in terms of real-world analogies, if you think of Erebonia as a Second Reich or Imperial Russia analogue (they aren't really a good "omg nazis" comparison like the Empire from Valkyria Chronicles was since they aren't really an evil empire so much as they are simply autocratic) and Calvard as a amalgamation of Franco-English democracy, then Liberl (the setting of First Chapter and Second Chapter) is best compared to Scandinavia, especially Finland: not really that important on the big international scene, but possessed of an incredibly good military (including leadership), a fantastic defensive position, and relatively abundant natural resources, all of which allow them to handily maintain their independence. Crossbell is a bit more like Switzerland - incredibly rich since it lies on major trade routes (especially the Erebonian rail system), but small, not very well-positioned militarily and it seems inevitable that it'll be swallowed up by either Erebonia or Calvard sooner or later.
Like Varion said, though, Crossbell doesn't really come into play until Trail of the Zero, so you don't need to sweat it much right now. I want to say more about the situation with the nations, but it might end up being mild spoilers, so I'll stop. :x
Hours Left
Member
It's a great article, but basically ever sentence has HUMONGOUS spoilers. I learned that the hard way. >_<vall03 said:
Augemitbutter
Member
extreeeeeme OP! excitement rising, i'm beginning to smell the LE.
SpaceDrake
Member
vall03 said:
Oh god, even one of those pictures is a spoiler, technically. I put HG101 in my BOLDTEXT warning for a reason. I've actually been meaning to poke Kurt Kalata about that article to see if the spoilers can be trimmed back until SC hits America, at the very least. I should do that tonight or tomorrow. He's a cool dude and understands this sort of thing, I'm just not sure he realizes quite how atomic some of those spoilers are.
Hours Left
Member
So I've been listening to music from the Kiseki series like a maniac lately.
It's so close.
It's so close.
SpaceDrake
Member
Gunloc said:So I've been listening to music from the Kiseki series like a maniac lately.
It's so close.
Silver Will on infinite repeat~
Also: I got in touch with Kalata who is in fact an awesome dude, and hopefully that HG101 article will be less of a spoiler minefield by the time the game drops on Tuesday. I figure Wikipedia and GameFAQs are lost causes, though, so stay well away from them.
Hours Left
Member
Silver Will is quite delightful.SpaceDrake said:
The music is Sora no Kiseki FC is really good, but for subsequent each game in the series, the soundtracks seem to just keep getting better and better. Falcom jdk is godly.
Yeah, if you tell anyone on Wikipedia their articles are full of spoilers they'll just say "And? We're an encyclopedia." So yeah. I can only assume whoever wrote it really wanted to spoil people though, considering that in addition to buckets of 3rd spoilers someone actually included the identity of Zero's final villain of all things. On the Trails page.SpaceDrake said:
... Actually I'm editing that one out, there's no justification for it being there at all, hurrdurr we're an encyclopedia or not, it's a different game.
SpaceDrake
Member
Ratrat said:
Oddly enough, no. I suspect review sites are waiting until the game is nearly or actually out (since a lot of places don't bother with "small" JRPGs until the release date). I'm still kind of dreading reviews from the big sites if only because I suspect at least a few journos are going to get on a high horse about a "split game" and "gouging the consumer" and whatnot. Never mind that FC, the game we're getting now, is somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 hours and easily the size of Mass Effect 1 in terms of text and background and whatnot.
RpgN
Junior Member
SpaceDrake said:
I doubt they're going to research too much about Legend of Heroes games to know that or manage to finish the game and find out. If they manage to finish it, then surely they'll realize the length is huge and isn't less than most RPGs out there.
Either way, the game is huge and there is a lot to do. Hopefully they realize that it doesn't fit with other games filled with DLCs that ARE gouging consumers, nor does it feel shorter than it should. I kind of see it like Golden Sun games, they got away with it, right?
Go_Ly_Dow
Member
Shiiii
Yakuza 4 is taking longer than expected! Dedicating all the free time to try and finish it in time for TitS.
It's looking like I won't be playing this until 1-2 weeks after release at this rate.
Also purchased Tactics Ogre but that will be on hold for a month it seems until I've completed Trails in the Sky.
I hate backlogs and have successfully managed to avoid them for years, until now!
Yakuza 4 is taking longer than expected! Dedicating all the free time to try and finish it in time for TitS.
It's looking like I won't be playing this until 1-2 weeks after release at this rate.
Also purchased Tactics Ogre but that will be on hold for a month it seems until I've completed Trails in the Sky.
I hate backlogs and have successfully managed to avoid them for years, until now!
SpaceDrake
Member
Hell, because I was poor for several years, my backlog includes completing both Mass Effect games, Bioshock, Oath in Felghana and both Valkyria Chronicles games. I'm putting them all on hold for Trails, and it's a no-brainer choice.
Of course, it'll just get worse as the year goes on, so much good stuff coming out this year.
Of course, it'll just get worse as the year goes on, so much good stuff coming out this year.
Hours Left
Member
For anyone still unsure of how the game plays, here's a link to a great and extremely lengthy archived stream of someone playing the Japanese PC version. The player of the stream talks about and demonstrates a bunch of stuff, but purposely avoids showing anything spoilery.
I've been watching it for the last 2+ hours... XD
Here's the link:
http://www.justin.tv/sanctuarycrew/#/w/1006997184
I've been watching it for the last 2+ hours... XD
Here's the link:
http://www.justin.tv/sanctuarycrew/#/w/1006997184
Reluctant-Hero
Member
Gunloc said:
Yeah, this happened last night and I found out about the stream from Xseed's twitter feed. The girl playing is extremely knowledgable about the series and one of Xseed's localizers/translators, Jess, dropped by for a little while.
Hours Left
Member
So, if you don't feel like watching a 4+ hour stream of the game (like I did), the girl that conducted the stream has edited four shorter videos from the stream that focus on a whole bunch of gameplay stuff, but with no spoilers. The vids range from 5 to 15 minutes long and are a great intro into the many facets of the gameplay features.
You can find them here:
http://omgfloofy.sanctuarycrew.com/2011/03/the-legend-of-heroes-trails-in-the-sky-preview/
You can find them here:
http://omgfloofy.sanctuarycrew.com/2011/03/the-legend-of-heroes-trails-in-the-sky-preview/
As some others have stated I personally couldn't stand the other Legend of Heroes games. Is this one so drastically different in terms of story and pacing that I should pick this up? Will this game essentially make me forget the other games existed?
I'm close to beating Ys 1 and 2 Chronicles and I've been really impressed with Falcom as of late after beating Ys 3 and 7. I want more stuff from them but I have to admit after playing LOH1 seeing that name is really a turn off.
GAF, someone sell me on this game please.
I'm close to beating Ys 1 and 2 Chronicles and I've been really impressed with Falcom as of late after beating Ys 3 and 7. I want more stuff from them but I have to admit after playing LOH1 seeing that name is really a turn off.
GAF, someone sell me on this game please.
SatelliteOfLove
Member
Phenomic said:
I've heard those had a straight translation and they even removed chunks of gameplay. This one is the real localized deal.
Hours Left
Member
First, the PSP versions of the Gagharv trilogy (the past three Legend of Heroes games released in the US) were done by Namco, not by Falcom. They are very different from their original PC versions, and should not be taken as a real representation of the series at all.Phenomic said:
Next, Trails in the Sky is the start of a brand new series, this cannot be stated enough. It is not related to the past games in any way. The gameplay is extremely different and the story is the beginning of a whole new continuity.
It's the first in a (currently) five part series that all take place in the same world with a continuing narrative and group of characters. The storyline is deep and the world is extremely detailed.
I've linked to some videos in the post above yours, plus there are some great links in Varion's opening post of this thread. These should give you a taste of how different the gameplay and story presentation is.
SpaceDrake
Member
Phenomic said:
Let's put it this way: the game we're about to get kicked off a new five-game franchise, the last three of which weren't planned and arose largely as a result of continued fan demand for more games in this setting, and the most recently-announced of which, "Trails in the Blue", has become the best-selling game - not PSP game, not RPG, best-selling game - on Japanese Amazon in 48 hours of its announcement.
That should give you some idea of the kind of regard the games are held in Japan.
Short answer? Yes. The longer answer?Phenomic said:
White Witch in particular was an... odd game, with enough 'bosses' that you can count them on one hand, and story progression that basically consisted of finding random NPCs around town to let you advance. This series is a lot more 'traditional' in terms of its story and structure - I was never left wondering where to go, and even if you do get stuck you have your handy Bracer notebook that records pretty much everything you do in the story and as good as tells you where to go next. If you don't have a quest to do in there then you're supposed to be going to the local guild, simple. There's also plenty of bosses and whatnot.
It's also got a much better translation. When you have dialogue like 'I didn't have eaten a unusual today" I'm not sure it's possible to get the player into any kind of story, especially when the game is really dialogue heavy. When you don't have the gameplay to back it up, reading tons of what boils down to babelfished drivel is going to put anyone off caring.
This was one of the very few occasions I wouldn't have minded XSEED changing the game's name to take the Legend of Heroes out, Bandai Namco have permanently ruined it in the West. I'd honestly just recommend ignoring the name and asking yourself 'do you like story driven RPGs?' If the answer is yes, give this a try, it's only 30 bucks. Because the only thing it has in common with the other Legend of Heroes games is, well, it's a story about some heroes who will go on to be legendary. That's it.
Unless you have a source for this, I find it incredibly hard to believe. Even by the end of FC they were dealing with more plot threads than they could handle.SpaceDrake said:
SpaceDrake
Member
Varion said:
Fun trivia: if we at Carpe Fulgur had gotten our grubby little hands on the series, this was pretty much at the top of our list of "recommended changes" to Falcom. We only would've done it if Falcom was cool with it (since they have a bit of a history of being manhandled in the West), but we really wanted to saw off the "LoH" in the name for various reasons, one being that the PSP Gagharv releases basically ruined the name in the States. Plus the Trails games have pretty much done to LoH what LoH did to Dragon Slayer back when in making that part of the name an appendage - look at what the fighting game was named, after all. :V
I know I saw it mentioned somewhere that Third, at least, wasn't really planned at the start. Having trouble finding a link for that off the cuff, though.
Fake Edit: this makes it sound pretty much like FC and SC were the only ones planned at the start (to avoid cutting their ideas for Trails down) and that had the thing flopped, they could have stopped at SC and moved on. That it's spun itself on for three more games is based largely on the fact that FC and SC both sold like bonkers - that's what I meant.
Fair enough then, I figured you meant 'the rest of the plot was made up after SC was successful.' Which is a bit hard to believe - although I think people would've still been pretty unhappy with SC's ending as a resolution, just less so than being left with FC's cliffhanger from hell.SpaceDrake said:
Also, Jess being awesome again:
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011...=social&utm_campaign=trails_in_the_sky_032811
SpaceDrake
Member
Varion said:
Oh, no no, it's pretty obvious they had some idea where they'd want to expand if the games proved really successful; it's just that the games have proven so successful as to warrant expanding an originally-planned-duology out to five games. That's how successful it's been in Japan, is the point I wanted to make.
And while there would have been some grumbles over some of the dangling plot hooks, the main narrative thrust is wrapped up nicely in SC. If anything, if we want to talk about "game that was made up kind of hastily once Trails was popular", well, Third... :V But this is all starting to get into spoiler territory soooooooooo
Flowchart needs to go in OP
Aveyn Knight
Member
Kind of related or not(?), but does anyone have any sales information for any of the Kiseki games?
There was one oddity that I noticed when checking sales data from a Japanese site, which was that every consecutive PSP Kiseki game seemed to sell significantly more than the previous. I can't remember the numbers, but it was something like FC sold about 60K, while Zero sold 100K (in a calendar year).
There was one oddity that I noticed when checking sales data from a Japanese site, which was that every consecutive PSP Kiseki game seemed to sell significantly more than the previous. I can't remember the numbers, but it was something like FC sold about 60K, while Zero sold 100K (in a calendar year).
SpaceDrake
Member
Aveyn Knight said:
All three Trails in the Sky games, between their PC and PSP versions evidently, broke past the million mark in February. That's about 165,000 copies per release, or 330,000 copies per discreet game (since it's quite likely a number of PC players in Japan didn't get the PSP version and vice versa). It isn't Dragon Quest numbers but it's quite, quite high.
I think (though I don't have a source onhand for this) that most Trails copies in Japan were sold on the PC, actually. Which only makes Falcom's current PC woes all the more tragic and desperate.
Reluctant-Hero
Member
Same here, I'll have my copy on Wednesday. Too bad there isn't a release date delivery option available. But I was able to get the premium edition to show up in my Amazon gold box, so my total with overnight shipping came to $40.08!Mejilan said:Premium Edition should be on its way from Amazon soon!
Augemitbutter
Member
i'll get mine in a week hopefully. now what to tackle next - this or yakuza 4? hmmmm.....
Hours Left
Member
I saw a sign today that said "Arts & Crafts" and I immediately thought of this game. I have an addiction.
Amazing.Varion said:
Hours Left
Member
At least you'll probably get to play it this week. Canada Post deliveries have been hella slow lately, so all my recent orders from videogamesplus have been a week+. I probably won't get my copy until next week.Volcynika said:
TheFLYINGManga_Ka
Member
Yeah, I'm waiting for them to be posted.Ratrat said:
I'll eventually pick this up but I still want to know more about it.