Well, here it is. The big, gargantuan post of my play-by-play on the first half of the Erebonia arc. And I have to say, I did really enjoy them. Far more than I expected to. They certainly have their flaws, but I was still immensely satisfied by the end [Footnote 1] and really looking forward to III. Full thoughts will come eventually, but until then:
Oh, that slow-mo train scene was just exquisite. And they locked eyes too? Brilliant.
Ah. Elliot’s dad. I see. Words fail me.
Boo. That’s a cop out. The blanks fake-out is lame. Like, it kinda makes sense from a real-world perspective, but from a narrative perspective it’s just there for the first episode cliff-hanger.
Ooh. A Templar Sword. Why hast thou forsaken the Gralsritter, S?
‘Crossbell’s counting on us!’
Ooh… Rean, my dude. That one’s gonna age like milk.
Mueller!
Wow. They really did go from ‘civilian casualties imminent’ to ‘let’s all get together for the school festival’, didn’t they? At least Class VII was also jarred by the tonal shift too, so it’s expected.
‘Alisa, you must understand that WMDs are necessary in the modern world.’
But are they, Irina? Are they really?
Oh. Zechs is only Mueller’s uncle. I see. I thought he was his dad.
Emma: ‘I must do everything I can to make sure nobody suspects that I have The Magicks, despite obviously knowing a ton about weird mystical stuff in this castle.”
Also Emma: ‘HEY REAN! WANNA SEE ME LIGHT SOME CANDLES BY WAVING A WAND?!’
Ey! Taito! That would’ve been really cool if Angelica didn’t put up such an embarrassing showing of not landing a single hit. Rean’s only at a 35% dodge rate too.
Wait. Wait. Red Moon Rose is awesome. The protagonist stopped a sword strike by flexing hard enough? This is spectacular! I’m sending it to Manga-friend.
Oh man. I didn’t think Victor could get cooler, but now he has that hat. Excellent.
Also, Olivier. Buddy. Why would you give your super ship the same aesthetic as the Glorious. Come on, dude. You know better.
Also, also. The Arseille is still cooler.
…
I am fairly certain that’s not how ‘Marquis’ is pronounced. It’s derived from French, the equivalent in English is ‘Marchess’, I believe. Did I already do this one?
Ey! A model of the Lusitania. Good job making me think of my favorite game in the series, Cold Steel. Good job.
‘[It’s a field study; one of us needs to get embarrassed by a family member.]’
Ok. I mean, if you’re gonna just come out and say it.
Glad the party and NPCs felt the need to have a brief chat inside of a burning weapons factory. Not on the clock there, no siree.
‘[I want to kill Osborne because my friends and I tried to assassinate him and he killed them all].’
I mean. I get it. That sucks. But you’re not really justified there, are you? You are still the aggressor at the end of the day.
Welp. Vulcan got exactly two turns in that fight. This game is very well balanced. I think I’m going to have to self-prohibit Bells if I want anything like a challenge.
Also. Welp. Vulcan got exactly two turns in that fight. On one of them he almost wiped my entire party — Rean barely survived and Alisa took no damage… somehow? — with an S-Craft. This is good. This is how games should be balanced.
Ugh. They did the ‘Ugh. I’ve been defeated, but I nevermind jk’ thing again. The only reason it’s somewhat palatable is because C’s intervention actually progressed the plot, not Vulcan saying no to the fight we just had.
Wait! Wait… ‘Gate of… Avalon!’ Is that actually the reference there? They combined two very on brand things, so I’d believe it.
‘Wow! It’s like Emma can understand Celine!’
Rean.
Buddy.
I said it before, but I gotta say it again. Even if ‘talking cat’ sounds insane, you have to put it together. You know Emma has weird magic going on even if she hasn’t actually admitted it. You have to be able to put this kind of thing together.
Why else is Celine in the alternate dimension death realm with you?!
Probably a Sept-terrion [Footnote 2]: ‘This is the Flame and Great Jaws that shall devour the world!’
Rean, two seconds later: ‘So the festival’s back on, right?’
I cannot stress enough how much I love that Victor is just a good dad. Like. It’s really refreshing that he’s just so caring and supportive of his daughter and her friends. It’s great.
In a similar but entirely different way, I cannot get over Elliot’s dad. He’s just… Not at all what I expected in the best possible way. I think I already said that, but I’ll say it again.
Ah, excellent. Just when I was thinking how disappointed I was that Elise didn’t bring Alfin along, the Arnor’s come crashing in with their characteristic… charm. Gotta love ’em.
The concert is so dumb! I love it! Like, the animations are so silly and repetitive. The ‘songs’ are just some of the ‘exciting moment’ BGMs [Footnote 3]. There’s no words sung. But for as cheesy as it is, it’s great.
Oh man. And the include of ‘I Swear’ is even better. Since the lyrics are clearly meant to be diegetic, that means that even the original dub of the game includes two languages. So even if we assume that the Japanese lyrics are the equivalent of the common tongue of Western Zemuria, there’s the English lyrics to contend with. Arguably they could just be a stand in for the language of Eastern Zemuria by way of Calvard (ironically making the Europe-inspired half of the continent using Japanese for its stand in and the Asian-inspired English) but the point remains. If that isn’t the case and there’s only one real Zemurian tongue (at least in modern times), then there’s no justification and that means there’s just a second language floating around in the lore. And arguably the fact that Zemuria as a continent seems to be in a bottle and it’s proven people spoke the same language before the Great Collapse by way of Celeste’s logs in Sky means it isn’t that much of a stretch to assume their is only one continental language passed down by Aidios or something.
Rean: ‘What’s a Sept-terrion?’
Thomas: ‘Oh, they’re these things of myth only scholars know about. Or anyone that paid attention to Liberl two years ago.’
Huh. Now that I think about it, both Lammy and Valimar were described as being made with something like a cermet. Interesting.
Rean be like: ‘Those robo-knights absolutely destroyed an entire battalion of tanks, but we’re Class VII! Nothing can stop us!’
…
If you’re going to make a hopeless boss fight where I can’t deal any damage and get wiped in one hit, just make it a cutscene and don’t waste my time.
Oh boy. I love it when a game makes me learn an entirely new combat system for the last two fights. That’s just great!
Bwahahaha! That’s just… That’s an ending, isn’t it? Gotta love it. I can’t imagine what it would’ve been like to play this at release.
Thus endeth Cold Steel I. And on to the next:
Duvalie!
Yes, that was the first thing that stood out to me. It’s important to me on an ideological level.
Also, I love that the first game just… never explained anything about Rean’s berserk side. Like, we know that’s why he studied the Eight-Leaves, we can assume it first came out trying to protect Elise from something, but we’re just expected to accept that it’s a thing that happens with no prior in story justification. Not a complaint, I just find it amusing.
‘The chaos in Liberl last year’.
Wait. What. I think I lost track of the timeline.
I love that the entire Schwarzer family (and Toval and Alfin) just accept that Celine can talk with no explanation.
‘Combat Links are an integral part of the battle system.’
But are they though?
The Spirit Path reminds me a whole lot of the warp system in Nayuta. Just saying.
Oh… Good… I got Machias back. That’s just, yeah. It’s great to see him.
‘If anyone could solve my chess riddle, it’s you Rean.’
Or, you know, anyone that knows the basic rules of chess. It was not hard.
Oh my gosh! Who is that guy without any glasses on and what did he do with Machias? Tch. This must be the power of the son of the Imperial Governor. He’s a true master of disguise.
Heh. ‘Hooded man’ is truly excellent. Gotta love that guy.
Fie’s hot take of the decade: ‘I am not a cat.’
And ‘Hooded man’ is even that guy! Love him!
Ooh! Dreichels flashbacks? Exciting!
Screw this game five ways to Sunday for giving an enemy a line-based Deathblow craft. Especially this early in the game.
Remember when single-target S-crafts existed? What the heck was wrong with that?
Wow! Knight combat is an actual mechanic now!
Claire is not an Attack Orders / 10 . Low tier character (I jest).
Ok, but her S-craft though?
Quite frankly, I have a lot of conflicting and very complicated feelings about Claire since on the one hand, she’s really cool and I like her dedication. On the other, Ironblood and that dedication is to Osborne’s militarism. So. You know.
Snowboarding? Why? I mean, I don’t hate it, but why?
‘Wow! People can actually eat this!’
Rean. Buddy. Maybe have a little more confidence in yourself.
Ok, so Mortal Mirage? Pretty sweet.
Me, at the start of Part 2 (I think): “Hooray! Nord Highlands! I love that place! And Gaius’ll probably be there too!
Five minutes later: “Wait. But I don’t have any horses…”
Oh, so not even the military commanders are concerned about the talking cat. Cool. Cool, cool.
Here I thought Nidhoggr were pushovers and now they’re giving me flashbacks to Revache and the wolves. And those aren’t good flashbacks. They’re angry flashbacks.
Nevermind. If it was so Gaius could stomp them all, I’m fine with it [Footnote 10].
As a sidenote, I am happy to see that it really feels like Fie’s come into her own as a character in II. Like, I think she was perfectly fine in I, but there’s just little things that make her feel more like a character than an archetype now. Stuff like her chest and cooking lines that just have a little more personality to them.
Also, I noticed it a while ago but have forgotten to write it down: looking at the symbol of the Septian Church, it occurs to me that the star-sun-moon theme of these games has to mean something. I mean, from the symbol of the church following (definitely not an Eldeen) Aidios to the play Arc-en-ciel put on to the doors in Phantasma. It’s a thing, I just don’t know what to make of it yet. Maybe they tie to the Higher Elements somehow?
Rean and Alisa: Have an entire conversation while hugging in front of everyone else.
Yup. Definitely nothing between them. No siree.
Criminal get.
Welp. It’s all over but the crying now.
I really love how this game gives you ample opportunity to impede enemy arts. It would really suck if they could just instant cast healing spells and there was nothing you could do about it.
I do appreciate how the characters (Read: Alisa) complain about being forced into ventilation ducts for no reason. Like, the characters have no reason to go in there. Only we the players do, for the sweet, sweet loot. And they know it.
I cannot stress enough how much I hate forced ambush encounters. It’s really frustrating when the game decides to punish you for existing and there’s nothing you can do about it. Especially since it completely throws off your party comp and might force you into a truly awful fight that you can’t exactly prepare for.
Ok. So. I don’t hate that Bleublanc’s here, but the heck?
That is not how you pronounce Claiomh Solais. I’m dying on this hill.
Also…
Codename: Black Rabbit.
Aesthetic: Cat.
That checks out.
Was… Was I supposed to beat those two? I mean, I leveled up three times from the experience which seems… Was I underleveled? It wasn’t that hard.
Ey! Shadow pinning! If only we had Gyrfalcon ex Machina.
Eh. Sieg, Sharon. Same diff.
Ey! Referencing the Black Fang and Angel of Slaughter! Love it!
Reasons why Cold Steel II is great: “Heed my call: Valimar the Ashen Knight!”
And I love that Celine is just, like, Rean’s defacto copilot. His familiar by proxy. Something like that. It’s fun.
Why the heck does this nameless soldat commander have such an intense voice? It’s great!
Everyone is remarkably unconcerned that Sharon’s an Enforcer.
I love that Sharl is just kinda… tacitly included in the Worzel family already. It’s cute.
Hold the phone! Sharon’s playable? What the heck? Love this.
No. No! Are they really gonna pull the ‘Rean and Alisa actually met as kids but forgot’ card? Oh, I hope they do. That would make this just… Truly excellent.
Duvalie! DuvalieDuvalieDuvalie! Woo-hoo!
‘My cuisine reigns supreme!’
Did… Did they just through an ICA reference in there? I mean, I’m here for it. Especially for Gaius. If anyone’s a true chef of iron, it’s him.
Sigh.
As I pass by Duvalie munching in the inn again, I’m filled with an overwhelming desire to just give her food. What a strange sensation I’ve never felt for a video game character before [Footnote 4].
Huh. ‘I can feel Emma’s Mana’. Has Mana ever been directly refered to in a Trails game before? I thought it was all Orbal Energy. Even the mechanical ‘mana’ is EP which I beleive is Energy Points, circling back to Orbal Energy. Is that a translational bit of weirdness that slipped by, or implicit of something more?
Though now that I think about it, there was previous mention of explicit magic in the Dark Ages or something, right? Like, distinct form Orbal Arts?
I suppose my curiosity is more directed towards the specific line between the two. What makes magic magic and Orbal Arts Arts. More importantly, what sources Magic [Footnote 5]?
Man, imagine if the game didn’t completely screw up my battle formation whenever it forced new members into the party. Wouldn’t that be fun?
Oh man, Aurelia. I look forward to this. Look at those epaulets. And that cravat! Excellent.
Okay, so I was going to make a ‘And Aurelia has bargain bin Gaius with her as well’ joke, but thought it would be a little bit tactless. But Wallace really is bargain bin Gaius, isn’t he?
Hmm. It’s kinda nice that they made Force a little bit less broken by fudging the numbers–
Built-in Gladiator Belt
Oh. Ok.
So despite what I said earlier, I do think the Combat Link system feels more involved than in CS I, mostly because we have everything from the start. But, with that being said, it still suffers heavily from lolarts. Like, how to be good at the game? Put Criminal on Emma. There you go. You did it.
Huh. I miss Kloe [Footnote 6].
Sigh.
In the eternal tradition of these games, even though Scent is actually a huge detriment, I just can’t pass it up because it’s so gosh darn useful. Like, Aerial and Dark Matter in a single quartz? With Grand Press for elemental coverage? That’s just sweet.
Game.
Game.
Why do you insist on calling him ‘Blond-haired Boy’ when we know it’s Jusis. I’m pretty sure his father called him by name. Why?
Ok. The last 10% of that race course is disgusting. Who thought that was good idea [Footnote 7]?
Alright. So the duel. So, so many things that I categorically hate here. First off: these games aren’t really designed for one on one fights so these sorts of things are never fun. Case in point: had to retry after I got hit with a three turn freeze and just died. No way to recover from that. Second off: Stop. Sending. Enemies. That can instant heal. It’s never fun. I don’t care if it’s an imbalance in the party’s favor that we can stuff our faces with items and heal off anything. When the enemy does it, it makes a fight more tedious, not more dificult. The insstant Jusis healed half his hp and there was nothing I could do about it, all of my investment in the fight vanished. It wasn’t fun when you let Loewe no-delay cast heals in FC, it’s not fun now.
Oh yeah. And gotta love it when you’re set up for a Crit turn, but then get screwed out of it because the enemy that you fainted just says ‘nah, I’m getting two turns in a row.’
Remember when status conditions and stat down actually mattered? That was fun. Broken, but fun. At least it gave you a bit more strategy than smash face.
“Hey, Sharon?”
“Yes, Master Rean?”
“What do Ouroboros’ Enforcers actually do?”
“Mostly stand in high places and loom menacingly.”
– A conversation that definitely happened, I’m sure.
Huh. I really thought that would be pronounced Do-VA-lee, not DO-va-lee. I guess it’s that whole ‘English speakers stress the wrong part of the word’ thing Manga-friend always talks about. Though I thought his point was that we tend to stress the second syllable of any word and I feel justified here since, while I’m doing that, I feel like I’m doing it out of the good old Spanish stress second to last if it ends in a vowel. Huh. Whatever. Not worth quibbling about the fact that I’m wrong. Even if I still like my pronunciation better.
Yes! Hit ’em with the ‘I don’t feel like it, so no’. Love you, Duvalie!
Thank you, game, for replacing my party with literally everyone with me I don’t want to use. That’s awesome. Love it. Brilliant. Screw you.
Meh. Sara ex Machina doesn’t bother me as much as a certain other Bracer. At least this time it was very clear McBurn was never going down and we needed the save.
Yo! Those Chivalry Runes though?
Oh good. Valimar made sure to bring the bike along. Truly, he is the greatest bro in all of Zemuria.
Rean’s Dad: Got shot, almost died, spent a solid week or so unconscious.
Also Rean’s Dad: “But I wanna go hunting now~. Can I? Can I?”
Claire: “[I don’t think I’ll ever be Class VII’s enemy.]”
Hoo boy. I have a feeling that’s gonna age poorly.
Rean: “These hot springs help you charge mana? I wanna take a bath with my robot then!”
Oh, Rean. Never change. I get what you meant, but still.
Yes! Gaius has a bird friend! Love it.
Is Vita’s entire aesthetic ‘I came here to laugh at you’?
That’s a nice Claiomh Solarion you have there, Rufus. It’d be a shame if Emma… Crescent Shelled.
Oh no! Rean got captured and imprisoned aboard the Glorious! And Weissman’s trying to get him to join Ouroboros!
…
Wait…
Crow: “There’s a cute girl [on the Pantagruel] who wants to see you, Rean. You should visit her.”
Rean: “Gee I wonder who he could mean! It’s a heckin’ mystery!”
Ah… Been a while since we saw any good old fashioned Rean has the intellect of a riverstone. I mean, buddy. Seriously. You know your sister’s also a prisoner. Even if it’s not her, you know Alfin’s a prisoner. Maybe not a 100% easy answer, but at least a solid 50/50.
Can you really call yourself ‘Mixed’ if the percentage is 100? I don’t think you get how fractions work, McBurn.
Alfin: “Hey, can we escape through the windows?”
Kind of a nice nod to the fact Olivier probably told her about his part in the Liberl Incident and Estelle’s escape from the Glorious as part of it.
Huh. I really expected the escape scene to fall flat because of just how many super strong people were on board, but I just… Didn’t hate Spirit Unification? Like, it was the kind of cheesy shounen power up that felt right for the situation. It got me hyped up. What can I say?
And I guess that was a bit of an anti-climatic end to the confrontation, but what else were they going to do? It’s not like we could’ve had that large of a battle in the middle of the game. And it makes sense narratively that neither side really wanted to commit fully to MAD.
Ah. Captain’s hat Towa is the best Towa.
Rean: “The Courageous is better than the Pantagruel because it has a cooler name!”
Never change, buddy. Never change.
NPC named Serafi: “[…] He calls me an ‘Angel of the Battlefield.’
Huh. Like Clara Barton, yeah. Neat.
…
Wait. Serafi? Oh, I gotcha. I’ll give you that one.
Are you kidding me? I just fought that mega-cryptid — which I’m not sure I was supposed to do right now — and I didn’t get any experience? Or even a cool drop? What’s the point? Screw you game!
Got Clear Moon Gem
I would like to retract my previous statement.
“Rean, did you really need to call the Courageous to pick up your bike?”
“It’ll get us where we need to go faster!”
“Where we need to go is five feet in front of us!”
As you may be able to tell, janky keyboard controls aside, I love the Orbal Bike.
Rean: Well aware it took Valimar to kill the last Magic Knight he faced.
Also Rean: Decides not to summon Valimar and fights it with the party anyway.
Does General Craig ever not ride on the outside of tanks during battle?
Dun dun dun! Hood guy was best teacher a~ll along!
I cannot stress enough how irritating it is that 90% of the Lunaria Park Cryptid fight is ‘Did you bring Sleep null accessories? No? THEN DIE.’
Wait! I can sprint!? What?!
Ah yes. For the fight against Abyss Worms, a rather not trivially difficult fight where it’s important to take things slow and one at a time, the game forces us to bring along a character who has crap Arts and literally cannot attack single target physically. Oh. And gives counterattack on links so you’ll end up unavoidably triggering another Earth Shaker if you’re not careful. If you wanted me to think of Millium as a handicap, you’re doing it right.
Also, I’ve thought this for a while but never had the occasion to bring it up (Whoops, I totally did near the Xeno / Leo fight): it really, really, really frustrates me that Cold Steel just decided ST S-Crafts aren’t a thing anymore. I really think they were good for the health of the game.
Is it a good idea to use Lost Eden on Abyss Worms? Probably not. But there’s only three left and Emma’s got a Zero Arts turn. What am I supposed to do? Not use the cool, niche Art I’ll probably never use again?
Alright! I’m in a good rhythm with this Cryptid fight. It seems like as long as Emma keeps up Crescent Shell, I’m —
Oh. Emma has a Zero Arts turn.
I… I really shouldn’t use Lost Eden. I really shouldn’t. I… Can probably use Overdrive to compensate and remove the delay, right?
Ack! I forgot you can only Lost Art once per battle. Eh. It’s ust as well anyway. It was a dumb idea anyway to try Overdriving into a cool finisher and giving myself a second turn to spare just in case.
Also, I think the Nord Highlands Cryptid may well be the easiest in the game. I only took daamge once and barely even then (not couunting the first, unavoidable Shadow Blade). I guess it would be far harder if you didn’t have Emma, but why would you ever not have Emma in your party?
Also, also. I realize now it was my fault that I took Millium against the Abyss Worms; I could have swapped her to the backline. But still. that battle did a compelling job of making me never want to use Millium again. Shame since I actually like her as a character and the dynamic she has as Class VII’s collective little sister.
Mint’s Mom: “[Instructor Makarov]’s fiancee is staying with us […]”
Instructor Mary
Oh. So that happened. I mean, I kinda knew there was a thing from last game, but they did move a little fast, didn’t they? Like, between them fighting Soldats and escaping Trista (separately, it seems) to now, they got engaged?
Angelica missing.
A new nun at the cathedral.
Ahhhhhhhhh. I played FC, I know the Julia trick.
Ah. Right. Mint’s Mom. That explains it.
Not having my bike for story segments sucks. I too want to go fast.
Screw you, Angelica! I explore the magic ruins if I want to! You can’t tell me what to do!
Gnomes, huh? And we have George Nome. G. Nome.
HMM.
Are you kidding me? Again with the stupid investigative stuff! I had my logic on lock: Elliot must be Bleublanc because the Arts Training Room isn’t in use yet. But no~o. Apparently we’re just ignoring that because screw you.
Huh. Upon further review: is the Nortia Province a reference to the Ice Ridge of Noltia? I somewhat doubt it, but it would be kinda cool if it was.
Forced ambush encounter.
Puts a 200 charge Gaius into my frontline.
‘Enemy Advantage indeed.’
Ooh. The Ignis Shrine Trial Zone has some nice BGM.
Carnage Quartz.
Oh, what does this do? +150 Strength -150 Defense?
Oh, Gaius~!
Gettin’ real sick of how many bosses this game’s given some variant of ‘craft that raises stats and heals for tens of thousands of damage’. It doesn’t really make them more of a challenge, just more of a nuisance.
Ey! Neithardt’s joining Craig in the ‘rides tanks on the outside into battle’ club.
Why isn’t Neithardt in the captured Spiegel unit?
Heh. Christmas of 1204 S.C. : Duvalie’s worst holiday ever .Over the course of three days, she got bullied by two different groups of plucky teenagers for basically no reason.
Class VII: “Oh no! Ourobors! Why are you here?”
McBurn: “Good question. Why are we here?”
Leaves.
Laura: “[…] and maybe [the two of us] will be able to reach the strength of the Lance Maiden herself.”
Angry Duvalie noises.
Valimar: “Hey, uh, buddies. Maybe don’t start a make-out sesh while you’re inside of me? That’d be cool, thanks.”
I was going to say ‘why are there rivers of blood beneath the Imperial Palace’, but then I thought better and ‘That better not be Red Gnosis beneath the Imperial Palace’.
“I don’t think [the Azure Tree] will have much of an effect on Erebonia.”
Or it will have way too much of an effect on Erebonia. You’d really better hope Lloyd’s a good detective and or dad, my dudes.
Colette: “I need a Dryad’s Tear.”
Rean: Rage filled flashbacks. “This is fine.”
Wait! I can sprint up ladders?! What?!
Huh. Zeus Gem is really not fun. I kinda hate that this game is either trivial or a nuisance and there isn’t much of an in-between.
Yaksha Quartz.
Oh, what does this do? +150 ATs -150 ADF?
Oh, Emma~!
Vita: “Allow me to show you the true purpose of the Hexen Clan to which we belong!”
Forces a flashback of Dreichels and Sandlot finding a Zemurian Ore Crystal.
But… But that had nothing to do with the Hexen Clan.
Huh. I’m sure this is one of those design choices made for what looks cool as opposed to in-universe reasons, but I find it interesting that Emma’s Zodiac Rain does use the actual symbols for the (Western) Zodiac. Since, you know, the symbols are derived from our constellations, thus implying that Zemuria has the same constellations. Food for thought. Especially if you look at Nayuta and the fact that it takes place on (effectively) our Earth but different is very clear.
Also, I find Millium’s Galactic Cannon curious. While I don’t think we’re supposed to take it entirely literally that she can casually zoop up to space and shoot a laser and it’s more an aesthetic choice than a lore-based one, it is notable that the planet she targets is a planet. Kinda scraps my going theory that Zemuria was in an equivalent to the People of Mythos’ Terra.
Gotta love some casual Merkabah-shadowing.
Aurelia’s Soldat! <3 <3 <3
Aurelia just cut a tank shell out of the air! <3 <3 <3
‘I wish to be known as the strongest warrior who ever lived!’
Okay, maybe tone down the shounen protag a little bit Aurelia. I love you the way that you are; you don’t need to Goku it up. (And you can’t compare to Arianrhod anyway [Footnote 8]).
Though on further review, it’s actually probably more shounen villain energy, which is a little worrying. Like, the whole ‘I want to kill (I think; maybe just defeat) my masters to prove I’m better than them’ is distressingly reminiscent of Walter.
Endgame CS II be like: ‘Oh bother. I seem to have used a Hades Boosted Lost Eden again.’
Are we not going to address the fact that the Pantagruel’s missed shots would’ve devastated (not that it was their intention) Heimdallr?
Welp. Duvs and Bleublanc didn’t get a single turn. Sure, it took me an overdrive and three S-crafts, but I only commit because Emma’s first Lost Eden salvo took off… two thirds? of their health. This game is well balanced.
Alisa: ‘We won, but just barely.’
No. You just barely managed to win before they took a turn. I was slightly worried that I’d get wiped by back to back S-crafts if they got a turn that low, but they didn’t. So no. They got stomped.
Okay, so that was a bit of the Crossbell boss syndrome there, but I’m not that mad since Olivier showed up to fight Bleublanc.
‘And [Mueller]’s friend is helping him out too!’
Aw… It’s only discount Toal (kidding, I like Neithardt)? I hoped it would be Julia. Somehow.
Wait. The fist bump into back to back makes up for it.
Fie, casually not mentioning that the obvious Zephyr symbol painted on the door is Zephyr’s symbol.
Yyyyyeah. I thought most of Cold Steel I and II was pretty good about working into the story why they can pull a ‘yes, but actually no’ when you fight bosses. A lot of times it made sense why the situations turned; felt justified in the moment. But I can tell the Infernal Castle is going to be as Crossbell Boss as Crossbell Bosses ever Crossbelled.
Wait. ‘McBurn the Almighty Conflagration’? Did I just forget about his title? I don’t remember Rean knowing that title.
‘Go on, show me how hot you can make me!’
Uh… Are you sure you don’t want to rephrase that, localization team?
Welp. McBurn got two turns, missed one attack, and got the other reflected. This is good. This game is balanced. I mean, sure. I’m playing on Normal difficulty. But still.
And yet… Somehow I don’t mind needing a rescue against McBurn. Remember what I said about feeling justified narratively? The situation changed; he then had the upper hand. Rescue came and it follows McBurn’s own character that he’d prioritize Victor over Class VII. Tracks.
I just can’t hate Laura’s dad. He feels a little shilled from time to time, but… He kinda lives up to the hype. He’s just so cool.
I wanted to try reflecting Vita’s (I assume Lost) Art, but her cast time is just too dang slow.
Glad we all just sat there and watched Duke Cayenne do his thing. If only someone had a bow. Or twin pistols. Or even one pistol. Or a rifle. Or a lance they could throw.
‘Later, buddy.’
What?! What the heck?! How you gonna drop so much on me all at once?! I’d been spoiled on some of those reveals, just by necessity, but… What?!!! That did not diminish the impact of the moment in the slightest.
Lloyd! I was also spoiled on this, but I’m still a lot more hyped than I thought I’d be since I have feelings about the Crossbell Duology.
‘And when you think about all the obstacles we’ve got waiting for us[…]’
3 / 5 not enough of the B-word [Footnote 9].
Dudley and Wazy get no love from Lloyd, huh?
Ah yes. Excellent, Lloyd. Leave your daughter with the man that kidnapped her. Excellent.
Ey! Dudley got that mention. Nothing for Wazy though. Womp, womp.
Ah. There he is.
He said it! He said the thing! Lloyd mentioned the B-word!
Oh yeah! Manway method time!
Game.
Game.
Why did you make me choose who Rean’s going to ogle while they’re all wearing swimsuits? Was that necessary?
The above sentence is about losing a swimming contest to girls. Bear that in mind.
Oh man. The ninja maid opened her eyes. It’s getting serious.
…
Insofar as this dumb competition can get serious.
‘Class VII are the strongest in the Academy.’
Angry old people noises.
Vandyck: Qilingong
Me: ‘Oh no.’
Oh would you look at that? Vandyck oneshot Alisa. With a regular craft. I’m fine.
‘We overpowered the two strongest people in the academy!’
The Second Dominion of the Gralsritter: Whistles innocuously. [Footnote 11].
We did it! We beat classism. Definitely.
Yuss. Just snuck by on rank A0. Like. The exact amount necessary. That was a real nailbier.
Crap! I knew I was going to get to play as Alfin, just from context clues, but Towa too? I don’t know who to put in my party now.
So. I want to use Towa, but it turns out three Arts users just isn’t feasible because I kill things faster than they can cast. I’m swapping in Gaius just because Gladiator Belt and S-Craft will actually see use.
I really love how for the final send off for Class VII in CS II, they decided to send a boss that uses just every conceivable unfun game mechanic. Like, Vanish? Sure! Abducting party members? Why not! HP to 1? Of course! Apparently un-guardable attacks? We didn’t actually want you to use any of the mechanics we gave you, so it works out better that way. It’s not really a challenge, just a nuisance.
Yeah. I do not like Loa Luciferia. I didn’t mind the Reverie Corridor — I actually even mostly liked it for a variety of reasons — but that was just not a fun boss.
Ey! Slipping in a classic Trails awkwardly animated hug from behind. Gotta love it.
Bwahahahaha! Elliot’s hat looks so dumb!
And thus, on that perfect ending place, we finish with Cold Steel II. See you next time with III. I think I’ve solidified in Chaotic Sky so hard that it wraps back around to Lawful Cold Steel.
Footnote 1: Except Loa Luciferia. That boss can screw off.
Footnote 2: I mean, I know the Divine Knights exist and such. Hard not to be spoiled on that this late in the release schedule. But given what I’m supposed to know at the time, Loa Erebonius is very… suspicious. Especially with the Erebonius part of the name since it’s established the Sept-Terrions were the base on which the modern civilizations were formed.
Footnote 3: Does that mean those are diegetic?
Footnote 4: ‘I mean, Seiba…’ — the Twisted Jerk
Footnote 4A: … I want to say this is different, but you might’ve hit the nail on the head. I thought I just really like knights, but maybe ‘hungry knights’ is a specific subtype I appreciate.
Footnote 5: And why is it the Black Pearl?
Footnote 6: ‘Didn’t you barely use Kloe?’ — the Twisted Jerk
Footnote 6A: Uh… Shut up. That’s one thing and this is another. It’s just ’cause I really wanted to finish out FC with the last chapter crew, preferred Olivier as DPs and Julia because Julia in SC, and then she suffered from again Julia as well as Ries, Kevin, and last name Colonel first name Colonel interesting me more.
Footnote 7: ‘You know, this would probably be easier if you would just suck it up and get a controller instead of staying on keyboard and mouse.’ — the Twisted Jerk
Footnote 7A: Hush. I have my reasons.
Footnote 7B: ‘Laziness’ — the Twisted Jerk
Footnote 7C: Quiet, you!
Footnote 8: Take that as you will.
Footnote 9: Barrier. What did you think I meant?
Footnote 10: This one’s at the end, because I added it late. Welcome to my TED Talk on why ‘Gaius on a horse’ is the strongest member of Class VII. ‘You see, in the late game you discover that Jusis’ ultimate S Craft is simply him on a horse…’
Footnote: Also added after the fact. And yes, I’m not really supposed to know that yet, but I may have looked a little too much into the Gralsritter since I really, really like the Septian Church and really appreciate that for once we get a not-Catholic church in a JRPG that isn’t evil. It’s refreshing. Cough. Anyway. And I know that he isn’t necessarily stronger than the two of them. Power levels are a… difficult conversation. But even if he isn’t above them, he’s probably number three.
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