FALCOM Thread

[gbaplayer]

Yehaaaw....but around that time i will be in the USA for holiday and will return october 10th...

[KAI]

The Legend of Heroes Trails in the Sky the 3rd is out!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Steam | GOG
Launch Trailer

[soprano1]

The Legend of Heroes Trails in the Sky the 3rd is out!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Steam | GOG
Launch Trailer

Fuck yeah!

[Leandro]

And I didn't even begin the second yet... The price is too steep on the 2nd Trails, but I'm seeing this third one is cheaper!!???!!!! In my store it's cheaper than the 2nd even without discount, what the hell

[Zaarock]

And I didn't even begin the second yet... The price is too steep on the 2nd Trails, but I'm seeing this third one is cheaper!!???!!!! In my store it's cheaper than the 2nd even without discount, what the hell

Trails 2nd is much longer to complete than the first game, might be related to that.

[KAI]

Sen no Kiseki 3 coming out on september 28

Agate and Tita hype!!!

[gameoverDude]

Cool. Hopefully Agate & Tita will be playable in Sen 3. Seeing one shot bring several enemies down is awesome (and in the other Sen/Cold Steel games, it pays thanks to multiplier bonuses on your XP for the battle). I love the Smoke Cannon craft with its immense area and fair chance of blinding. Tita may be a "glass cannon" type character, but she does dish out good damage especially if you add up all the numbers. Her Vital Cannon in the 3rd regains fair HP, and also gets rid of bad status effects.

As much as I love the Satellite Beam, I'll tend to think twice before using that because Tita's regular crafts are so useful.

[soprano1]

This seems an interesting YouTube series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96tLZTtNcZA
It's called PC-88 Paradise, and it shows details about the computer's games. First episode above is about Ancient Ys Vanished. Cool thing is, it shows the whole game package. The VHS style boxes and the rich and detailed goodies are awesome.
Second episode came out today, and it talks about Star Trader, another Falcom game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLpj7uHEQwk

[FinalBaton]

Thanks forthe head up soprano1. I really enjoyed the Ys episode. This series has potential

[KAI]

NISA announced the release dates for Ys VIII
PS4/PSV - US 9/12 / EU 9/15
PC - 9/12 for both regions
Steam Page | OP movie

[Sumez]

I'm now 30+ hours into Trails in the Sky, and I'm starting to warm up to it.

The combat system is still absolutely horrible, but at least getting the Eagle Eye quartz to show enemy positions on the world map makes a world of difference. Thank god I noticed it, if I had never came across it, the game would have continued to be a pain to play. I still hate how the game actually discourages combat though.

About exp scaling: the game really does scale hard, but that's usually telling you you're about good for the next major battle. In SC it plays a massively useful purpose in that you'll be switching party members in and out frequently, and low level characters who missed a lot of action basically get instant-leveled up by the massive scaling to catch up with the rest of the team.

Sounds a little more interesting in SC I guess. In "FC" I still haven't found a single place where there's any purpose whatsoever to actually stop and fight enemies on the way. Basically I'm constantly "good for the next major battle". I would stop and fight enemies for fun and loot if it wasn't such a major pace killer, but instead I'm finding myself avoiding every possible battle. And wading through the screens with no combat or anything just makes the constant backtracking through roads in each area feel even more cumbersome, since it's practically pointless.

I think the main cause is that Falcom tried to put a lot of their feel-good sense of action into the blows, making them all feel weighty and impactful. I can appreciate that, there's a lot of oomph there and the sound-design is really top notch imo, but those animations really do slow things down quite a bit.

I think you could easily do that without hurting the pace of the combat. My biggest issue is actually not even the animations themselves but a lot of transitions and waiting between each animation to carry out. They could easily have cut down a lot of this stuff.


ANYWAY
I definitely warmed up to the characters. Estelle and Joshua are still anime cliches, but they are so well characterized that I don't mind it. While their relationship is pretty stereotypical, they manage to pull it off in a way that keeps it from feeling cringeworthy. Joshua is the intelligent thoughtful guy who's nice to everyone, but he has some edge to his personality that makes him feel more like a real person than the typical JRPG mary sue. I really like how Estelle on the surface comes across as brash and a bit dumb, but at the same time you can feel that she likes to play on that stereotype and is really smarter than she appears, which also adds a bit more layers to her personality.
Generally almost everyone in the game (including many of the villains) just manage to come across as well meaning and likeable characters with their own ambitions, merits and weaknesses. It's refreshing how the script/translation feels natural and laid back without trying to fit into expectations. They'll add stupid quips if they feel like it, and while they won't refrain from outright swearing, they don't rely on it either. It just feels very real and grounded in a nice way that you rarely see in this genre. In fact, it has some of the warmth and personality to it that originally made me fall in love with Final Fantasy 6, but was missing from almost every game in the series since. I don't even care about the overall plot, but I care about the characters, and that's what matters.

Man I wish SC and TC would exist as physical releases


EDIT: I forgot to mention that I love how the game doesn't even bother to animate the characters sitting down or getting up from chairs, but they did make an animation specifically for Agate slapping Tita in the face.

[soprano1]

http://www.siliconera.com/2017/06/02/zw ... ection-pc/
Zwei II Plus is getting localized by Xseed. There will be a demo during E3 later this month.

[gameoverDude]

Great news on Zwei II+. Sure seems like Falcom is catching up nicely on their older titles as well.

All I could ask for now would be a PS4/PC port of Nayuta no Kiseki.

[Sumez]

Isn't Nayuta supposedly pretty bad? Or are people just comparing it to the other Kiseki games? It -looks- pretty reminiscent of Oath in Felghana, which is honestly a pretty good thing in my book.

[scrilla4rella]

Nayuta no Kiseki was amazing. Way better than Y's 7 IMO. Actually I'm playing Y's Memories of Celceita right now and I can't help thinking that it looks like crap compared to Nayuta.

[FinalBaton]

Nayuta no Kiseki was amazing. Way better than Y's 7 IMO. Actually I'm playing Y's Memories of Celceita right now and I can't help thinking that it looks like crap compared to Nayuta.

Didn't know about that game (Mayuta)! Too bad it wasn't released outside Japan, would love to play a physical copy.

The art direction is beautiful indeed

I didn't really like Ys 7 myself. However, I absolutely ADORED Memories Of Celceta, it's been one of the best gaming experiences I've had in a while. The combat in that game is just freaking exhilaratring (love the weapon type/enemy weakness deal which means you gotta stay focused and switch characters a lot, making for hectic fights, and also the flash guard/flash move which brings a nice risk/reward element.) And the exploration in MoC is way better than in Ys 7.

[Mortificator]

I hope you won't take this personally, since you like the game so much, but I disagree with a lot of what you've said about Memories of Celceta (I did read the big review post you linked me to in another thread, BTW).

In the peak Ys titles, like in all good action games, you watch your enemies and learn how avoid their various attacks. This never happens in Memories. The best solution to absolutely everything is a single easily-timed button press.

You used the term risk/reward, but there is no risk. The alternative - dodging - is harder than just pressing X or triangle, and doesn't give the massive benefits of critical damage & extra skill points (if you went with triangle) or slo-mo enemies and temporary invincibility (if you went with X). And if you somehow miss the extremely generous window, just use your limitless healing items and immediately return to full HP without consequence.

So how does every boss fight play out? You mash square, press X or triangle once in a while, stare at the screen whenever you trigger one of your non-interactive skills, and wait for the opponent's inflated HP to finally deplete.

I'll agree that exploration is better than in Seven, but I think combat was at least a little more engaging in the earlier game due to you only having flash guard and not flash move, and your healing capacity being limited.

[FinalBaton]

well that's why we have opinions. You can have yours and I can have mine.

It's cool if you didn't like the game. Won't change the fact that I love it

[Sumez]

I was about to counter Mortificator's post about Celceta when I realised I had confused Celceta and Felghana (since I brought up that game before your point).
Yeah, Celceta has the Ys charm that I like, but everything else about it was a disappointment I think. Only one major area to the game. Poorly designed party combat. Forgettable bosses. Huge stretched out areas with nothing happening and nothing to discover. They got it completely right with Felghana (especially the boss battles), why did they have to change it?

[FinalBaton]

It's interesting how a game can do it for one person, and totally not do it for another.

MoC absolutely clicked for me

[scrilla4rella]

I was a little down on Celceta when I started playing but am warming up to it a fair bit. Indeed the best part is the exploration IMO.

[Durandal]

https://twitter.com/koestl/status/876221724374773760/

HOW
HOW IS ONE COMPANY CAPABLE OF FUCKING UP SO OFTEN

[soprano1]

That's so screwed up...
"Watch out for that HUGE VASE, Adol!"

[BulletMagnet]

"Watch out for that HUGE VASE, Adol!"

"You've smashed my brethren looking for spare cash and health pickups ONCE too often!"

[BrianC]

"Watch out for that HUGE VASE, Adol!"

"You've smashed my brethren looking for spare cash and health pickups ONCE too often!"

It's a shivering vase, so I would think it would be more cowardly. Then again, it is merciless, unless that just means it shivers mercilessly.

[gameoverDude]

Isn't Nayuta supposedly pretty bad? Or are people just comparing it to the other Kiseki games? It -looks- pretty reminiscent of Oath in Felghana, which is honestly a pretty good thing in my book.

Agree. The combat system feels extremely similar. Nayuta is great, and makes me wish there was a PC version.

A "merciless shivering vase"? Are you fucking kidding me? Please tell me this will change by the time Ys VIII goes gold.

[soprano1]

A "merciless shivering vase"? Are you fucking kidding me? Please tell me this will change by the time Ys VIII goes gold.

Keep hoping.

[FinalBaton]

Fucking NISA... this is embarassing

Give this back to XSeed ffs

[Squire Grooktook]

snip

I'm glad you've warmed up to Trails narrative, and yeah, you've pretty much completely expressed why I love the characters so much.

It's not perfect, there are some hiccups later on and in SC, but regardless, the long term growth of the characters and the crucial moments in their plot arcs (even if you can see them coming a mile away) are executed extremely well and feel genuine and earnest rather than hackneyed.

Isn't Nayuta supposedly pretty bad? Or are people just comparing it to the other Kiseki games? It -looks- pretty reminiscent of Oath in Felghana, which is honestly a pretty good thing in my book.

Agree. The combat system feels extremely similar. Nayuta is great, and makes me wish there was a PC version.

I've heard almost universal praise for Nayuta outside of one single poster on this thread who said it was shit (and did not clarify why). So yeah, should be fine.

[Durandal]

https://twitter.com/NISAmerica/status/8 ... 7122701312
eh