I wish I had my own channel and setup to make videos too, so instead I make long comments on videos like this. Not because I wish to be hypercritical of your video, but just because it's the outlet I can make do with for now. Ao no Kiseki: I'm like you where every kiseki game is pretty much top tier by default (moreso with me based off your tierlist at the end). But I personally did NOT like Ao no Kiseki compared to other games in the series too terribly much. I don't know about you but one of the biggest draws for the kiseki franchaise is how all the random unimportant npcs actually have fleshed out backstories and development going thru the games, and I think Ao no Kiseki is hands down the absolute worst in the series for talking to all the NPCs. Crossbell is big, it has many nameless 'tourist' npcs that do NOT have fleshed out backstories, talking to them all is super tedious, and then you have to goto mainz and Amorica, etc after every event too, eating up even more time. You may think it's better than Zero in th is regard since you get the car, but Zero closes off many areas at times so this isn't as big a deal, plus crossbell itself is bigger in in Ao since they add the tower and have all the outside areas available all the time. I also thought the combat was kinda weak for the series too because the master quartz system in Ao is such a big deal but they level up so much slower than in cold steel, you feel like that you pick one and you have to stick with it or else you will NEVER completely unlock it. Finally...The final dungeon. It was long, and basically everything in it had vanish mechanics, just super tedious and annoying wh ere you spend so much time fighting everything without getting hit a single time, or if god forbid, you do, you just lost all your cp and ep or whatever and. ugh. Frankly I think the plot in Zero was just kinda better too. The way the antagonist manages to pull off a crisis situation felt more believable, and also surprising, than the old magical god device megomaniac plot Ao has. So for cold steel. I think cold steel 1 is a great game because the npc chatter in that game is quite probably the best in the entire series, and the combat is alot of fun too if you refrain from abusing overpowered s-breaks (I actually avoid sbreaking in every game in the series except for situations where the game practically demands it like using grail sphere on 1shot attacks like in sky 3rd, or for super hard how is this even possible timed boss fights like a certain 2 jaeger fight in cs2. Play on a hard setting, I don't think you can get the bonus bp on that boss without s-breaks unless you're lucky and the guy never drops traps). Cold steel 2 though is I agree, the worst game in the series. It has a similar issue with npc chatter being a let down as Ao, and... well I don't really want to get into it. Regarding the bonus dungeon at the end. I really hated the story attached to that bonus dungeon because it surprise bombs you with so much information at the end that didn't give you any kind of foreshadowing or reasoning or whatever and not in a surprising at the time way, but like a you should have known and you feel like you just blacked out for the last 5 hours and missed something but you effing didn't way. The dungeon itself though I'm ok with since it's a fun little bonus thing if you just want to dick around with a cool combat system in a game with a large cast. Frankly I'm under t he impression hajimari has something like this, and dear god I HOPE it does with that big juicy cast. I don't know if you played it but Lufia and the fortress of doom 2: Rise of the sinistrals had this optional 100 floor dudgeon where you could bring anyone you wanted into it, and I loved it to bits (as did many fans), I'm hoping hajimari has something similar in that regard. I love CS3, not sure how I compare it to 1, but definitely like it more than 2 and zero. Ditto for 4. With 4, I don't like the typical jrpg world crisis plotpoint under normal circumstances. But it's the 9th game in the series and it kinda acts as a climax to all of them, so they get a pass. As long as they don't make every future game like that I'm ok with it. I have NOT played Hajimari, waiting for official localization, particularly because I actually enjoy the english voice acting quite a lot. You said some characters you wanted development for finally got some. Dear god I hope Beryl gets some juicy content in that game. I've been wanting to know wtf is up with Beryl forever! Neptunia VII: I haven't played this game for awhile, and it was the last neptunia game I played. It's weird. I know neptunia games are kinda bad, their battle system is dung and brainless (despite using the same engine as cold steel), and for this reason I rarely bother to play them. But I agree, when I do, it's just mindless fun. I'm not even an anime/manga fan! I mean I love weebtastic videogames, but I don't watch anime/read manga at all. Not because I think they're bad, but I just prefer playing videos rather than simply watching them, except youtube videos.. cuz like.. I listen to them like a radio rather than watch them, while I'm working or something. I find the whole thing kind of frustrating though. Neptunia is an IP that is capable of so much awsomeness, and they are SOOO LAZY with it. They milk it like a cashcow, but it's such a minimum effort kind of milking. God, if they fleshed out the combat to be more like cold steel, or something. The games could be so good, but no, they're always so low effort it frustrates the hell out of me. Argh. That said have you ever played Omega Quintet? It's one of those Compile heart games that kinda tries to be a neptunia without being neptunia like Fairy Fencer F or something. HOWEVER, teh combat system in that game is actually pretty good! You wont really realize it though at first because it's easy enough that you can kinda get by without really using it to its fullest. But then there is this collossal red giant boss that happens at one point in the game, and the game's like 'oh hey, you're only like 3 levels higher than you were after the last boss... This boss has like 1000x more hp though, oh what, you think this is a scripted loss battle? GIT GUD SCRUB'. So if you can get past that boss, it probably means you figured out how to use the battle system properly, and the game is pretty frickin addicting with its battles IMO. Ys1: I like Ys1 and 2, but I never ever ever EVER tell people to make ys1 or 2 their first ys game. BAD IDEA. They are NOTHING like the rest of the series, and it will be a crying shame if you avoid trying other games for awhile because you didn't enjoy 1 or 2. Ys has the same protagonist, and some reoccuring side characters every game, but they should NOT be taken into consideration for the story or what order you play the games in. Oddly enough, Ys Origin is the odd one out where it does NOT feature Adol the protagonist (or him at all), and oddly enough, I like all the characters in THAT game MORE than I ever cared about Adol or Dogi for the entire frickin' series! I personally would prefer people play origin after ys1 and 2 because 1 and 2 kinda gives you some backstory (even though origin is the prequel) to some of origin's characters, and origin's characters, while not in a story driven game, are cooler than Adol ever is =P. That being said Ys8 is in fact my personal favourite Ys game, and lots of people like Ys3 oath of Felghana quite a lot too, which is another great place to start. I personally think origin is better than oath, but there's no harm in playing whatever first. Just not 1 and 2 because they play NOTHING like any other game in the series and will NOT represent it. It would be like playing Zelda 2 (I like that game too btw), and not liking it, and thinking you have no need to play any other Zelda game, or playing command and conquer renegade, and not liking it, and not playing any command and conquer game (super off the rails example there lol). I never got around to bloodborne's dlc myself. I actually like souls more than bloodborne. Mostly because I don't like the parry mechanics in any of the souls games. They are too broken IMO. I get that getting the timing down takes practice, isn't super easy, and is a high risk high reward thing. But the thing is it kinda eliminates the entirety of the combat system in general, which I love. Bloodborne kinda encourages you to do this more than any souls game, so.. yeah. I did have alot of fun doing chalice dungeons for awhile though, wish souls games had something like that. Trails conclusion: If you ever replay trails games, and if you didn't talk to all the npcs after every event the first time you played, consider it giving it a shot next time. I NEVER bother doing this in other rpgs, but Trails absolutely makes it worth your while IMO.
I apologize for the super late reply on this but I've now finally got some time to sit down and reply to all of this lol. I also haven't rewatched my video so I apologize if I repeat any points. I'll first say in general I do not remember talking to a lot of the random NPCs during my time with most of the Trails games. As a result I'll do my best to respond according. I also do want to ask if you've played the Sky trilogy. Again I don't remember talking to too many random NPCs but I imagine the structures of those games are far less suited to dynamic NPC dialogue. Ao: One of, if not the biggest draws to the Trails series to me is its character writing in both the main story and especially the side quests. Many of the side quests throughout the series are, when you break them down, fetch quests. This should be bad on paper, but with the way the characters in quests are written, it helps keep me a lot more engaged and I end up very much enjoying the quests anyways. For example the lost musician quest in ch2 literally just has you walking from point to point in the city, but the scenes that play out during it made it one of my favourite quests in the series. The main story I was also very engaged in. I still enjoyed the prologue and ch1, but ch2 is where I think the game really picks up and kept me on the edge of my seat until the credits rolled. Part of what really made me enjoy the villains and main story was how much of it builds upon the politics of Crossbell. It was really interesting to see how much the politics between Crossbell, Erebonia, and Calvard really affected some of these people and the lengths they were willing to go to as a result. I enjoy Zero's story too, but the villain felt like one of the weakest parts. I also thought the Ao antagonist's plan was built up just fine, much of it being built off of things we learned in Zero. Again the main/side quests and stories are some of what I value most and how much I enjoyed these parts is what makes me hold Ao in such high regard. I didn't mess around with MQs much but I did do a lot with regular quartz, which I felt held up pretty well from Zero's balancing. Usually my main request for RPG combat is will it force me to make decisions and think about my actions both inside and outside of combat. Playing Ao on hard difficulty, I very much felt this. It always felt like there were a lot of options at my disposal and as a result I was kept engaged with the combat. I also know there is a lot you can do with the MQ system which I'll probably explore more when it's officially localized and I replay the game on nightmare. For the final dungeon I don't remember vanish being that much of an issue. Though what I enjoyed most about it was the atmosphere, with both the visuals and music coming together beautifully. CS1: I do remember this game having a lot of random NPC dialogue, particularly with the non class 7 thors students. While some were a bit entertaining, I don't think it does nearly enough to make up for how boring I found most of class 7. They're all introduced way too fast while the game never really takes the time to give any of them development. Most of them are very generic and/or one note and when most of my time in the game is spent with them, it really brought down the experience for me, especially compared to the games that came before. Again the main/side quests and stories are parts of these games I value the most and its quality here is what brings down CS1 for me. Hajimari: I'm sorry I do not at all care for the english voice acting lol. I thought it was good for CS1 and 2 (exception was Osborne who I thought was terrible) but after that there are too many characters whose performances would take away from my experience. Characters like Juna I'm pretty sure I would not have enjoyed nearly as much from what I've heard of her english voice. For characters getting development I was mainly talking about Rean and C (won't say their actual name in case you haven't been spoiled on their identity already). Rean has his arc set up for 4 whole games so yeah Hajimari actually concluding his arc and giving him proper development felt good, especially when he's a protagonist. I wasn't really talking about minor characters like CS1 thors students, who I'm sorry I really don't think any of them are all that interesting. Yes some of them can be entertaining at times but they pretty much all feel like static quirks. Neptunia VII: I agree with pretty much everything you said. Yes it does feel like a huge waste and that very little effort is put into the games. I haven't played any other CH games but excuse me if I'm not doing so any time soon after how much I disliked the Neptunia games I played lol. Ys: Since making this list I've actually played Origin and 2. 2 I thought was basically the same as the first game in terms of enjoyment and Origin I enjoyed quite a bit more. I own a few of the other Ys games and while I'm not sure when I get to them they're on the list to play at some point. Bloodborne: What is it in particular about parries that you don't like compared to other defensive mechanics and what exactly do you think the combat system is about? A big part of Souls games combat is learning enemy attack patterns and how to properly avoid/counter each move, which I think parrying falls perfectly in line with.
@@vynirasnowy9673 No worries about the wait, most comments aren't even replied to at all anyway. Yes I played the sky trilogy, started with it as a matter of fact. The NPC dialogue in them is in fact better than crossbell's. I prefer cold steel's more than sky's, but Sky's is better than crossbell's, because sky typically has you delegated to a certain portion of liberl for each chapter of the game, and aside from one town, they are all much smaller than crossbell. So going across the entire city talking to all the npcs, then going to Amorica-eff-yeah village, then the cathedral, than mainz, then the picnic break zone, then the doll factory, then the hospital, etc after every major event is just too much. Crossbell is the only part of the series where I just couldn't do it for the entire game. There is one chapter in sky SC where talking to all the npcs can take awhile, but it's just one part, and even then you kinda have to travel all over anyway for purposes of the story itself. I think alot of fans like Azure more than Zero, and like SC more than FC, because they credit the later game for having a 'bigger' plot since it builds off the plot of the game before it. But I like to credit the game before for half of that said plot. Especially when I personally am not finding myself bored by the first 10 or 20 hours and waiting for a 'pay off'. Nope, I enjoyed even chapter 1, so yeah. Though I admit in sky FC, my first Trails game, I wasn't really into the game until Ruan. Especially at the end when Estelle and Joshua are having a high speed boat chase after a certain antagonist. It then hit me that our little newbie bracer Estelle was on her way to becoming a hero, but not in a 'the chosen one' fashion, but in a slow, growing up from a teen to an adult, slow believable realistic way. Playing with quartz in crossbell is pretty much the same as sky. I do actually like that system more than cold steel's which is more basic. Though if you play sky on nightmare, do yourself a favour and keep multiple save files for one playthru. There is this one point in the game where you think you're safe, you're in a town, with lots of dialogue, and you're there for a totally non-emergency reason, and then some character goes out somewhere decidedly non-dangerous, and you go and fetch them to tell them dinner is ready (not quite, but something like t hat), so I save and boom. escort battle where you fail if they die and the bad guy gets ambush first strike and there's 6 of them and 2 shots and your escort is dead and you're too far to even get to them on the first turn. On nightmare, you absolutely NEED long range aoe cc, or you need to get lucky with like your escort getting a 2% dodge 10 times in a row or something. But at that point in the game long range aoe cc is not something you are going to have w ithout going out of your way to intentionally have it, and... yeah, you get the idea. I was stuck on that boss for so damn long because I saved at a point where I could NOT go back to town to buy the quartz needed for me to get said aoe cc and it was horrible. CS1: I really love talking to class 1-6, you're weird, and not worth my time *looks away* (kidding). I don't blame you for class 7. It does have some characters I really like. But alot of them just don't feel very deep for playable cast. I mean I know lots of people like laura, but when you really look at her objectively, she says very very little that isn't related to her swordsmanship or training. Even her extracirricular activities goes back to somehow being good for her swordsmanship, etc. She could have been more interesting if she got involved in the whole noble vs commoner portions of the story. But I think she did only one time at some minor part during chapter 2 at some docks and that was about it. Laura is not my most bory character award though. For me that would be Gaius and Elliott. Though I recently saw a trails comment video saying Elliott was their fave character. I forget who that was, hopefully not you =P. That said, while there are some more boring characters in CS, I still think Macchias, Jusis, Alisa, Fie are interesting. (same with Crow and Millium, but I'll leave em out just for arguments sake), which is about the same/more than Zero/AO. Elly... is kinda boring lol. I don't find Noel to be a particularly interesting character either. Laura-tier I'd say. Sad you can't enjoy the English voice acting. But that's fine. As long as you're not one of those people who are like 'ITS AN OBJECTIVE FACT THAT EVERY ENGLISH VOICE ACTOR IN A JRPG IS THE ABSOLUTE WORST, HAS NO TALENT AND ANYONE WHO LIKES THEM IS STUPID'. *head desk*. Complile heart games: I don't blame you. I haven't played many myself. I gave Fairy fencer F a shot, and thought it was even worse than neptunia, Omega quintet, which is actually good, and Trillion (I think that was CH, I forget), which is... interesting. It plays kinda like a hybrid between a visual novel, and, very unlikely you've played it, but 'punch club' on steam. it's kinda weird. Glad you played Origin after 1 and 2. I know the story isn't a big deal, but I just kinda felt the story of Rhea and Feena so much more touching knowing what they are willing to go through, and what they did go through between origin and 1 and 2, and what happens after 2 and.. ugh. Poor Rhea. I hope you didn't just play origin once and played as Hugo. Ugh playing as him was painful, he's such a douche. Also if you don't know the canon story is actually the 3rd character 'claw'. He plays mostly like Yunica, but is kinda a bit more op since one of his special attacks drain health. You can kinda just blitz thru enemies much faster with him since he can self heal with it. For me I like the soulsborne combat (I don't use magic too btw other than heals, cures, and maybe some minor buffs) is about playing as an ordinary guy. Not some super ninja capable of jumping into a room with 20 soldiers and killing them all without breaking a sweat. But just like me myself. like if I was actually in those s hoes, and I see a goal being guarded by something as simple as 3 guards, I think 'oh snap, how am I going to get past them safely' (and not in a stealth way). I like that the combat feels grounded and believable in a way that you can do yourself (rolling i-frames aside. That being said I didn't even know rolling gave you i-frames until I beat demons' souls and dark souls 1 already... I cheesed ceaseless discharge by standing in that narrow cave area where he can't reach you =P ). I mean not 100% but you get what I'm saying right? It feels like you're playing as a real human with mostly real equipment. Not some superhero who can jump 4 times his own height, double jump, swing an axe taller t han him 4 times in 1 second, etc. Parrying kinda ruins the combat for me because instead of carefully trading blows in a careful methodical manner, you wait for the correct time to push a button that either gives you 'iwin' or 'sword-in-belly!-ed'. It just makes it feel more game-ey... which is fine. I like games. But the whole reason why I love souls is the combat is the least game-ey combat with swords and magic and armor and all that that I know. So I prefer to avoid the gamier elements.
@@Ghalion666 I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "bigger" plots for Ao/SC, but I don't think you have to credit only one of these games or their prequels for their plots. Yes these games do build off their prequels, but that's normal for a sequel to do. Each game also still tells their own story. Zero/FC aren't only doing setup and Ao/SC aren't just payoff for those games. People also enjoy Ao/SC more than their prequels while still very much enjoying said prequels and acknowledging any buildup they did. Heck, many people I know that have played the series will talk about how the games building off the ones that came before is one of the draws of the Trails series. In regards to you thinking the starts of Ao/SC are boring, like I said above, these games still have to tell their own stories. They can't suddenly start off with their climaxes, even if their plots build upon their prequels. Setting up their own plots is still necessary as they are their own games. I'd also argue Ao/SC do have interesting starts, at least to me. And even if they are still starting off their own stories, they do still give pay offs. Ao starts off tying up one of Zero's loose ends, introduces Lechter back, as well as Red Constellation. SC shows the immediate aftermath and reactions from the characters to FC's ending and also goes more into the life of a bracer with the training camp. There was enough going on that I was still very much engaged. Quartz in Crossbell I would argue is much better balanced than in Sky. Sky's quartz system feels like it can very easily be broken without requiring player's to think too much about their setups. Earth Wall is too easy to abuse, both in how easily it can be slapped on to a character and how much it can be spammed. Mind quartz then gives magic attackers not only a boost in ATS, but contributes both to great healing spells and single target attack spells. It's then not too difficult to find an AOE spell and also give your characters coverage with most of the elements for attack spells. Overall in the Sky games it felt like you could have everything while sacrificing very little. Meanwhile in Crossbell I found I was constantly having to make decisions for what spells/buffs I wanted quartz to give characters. Contributing factors to this were the removal of Earth Wall and making the Mind quartz give mirage points instead of water points. This meant Mind quartz contributed much less toward what spells that character would have, and it could come into question whether you wanted greater ATS or more spells. Overall I think Crossbell's system required players to make a lot more decisions about their build by not allowing you to have nearly as much as Sky would give at a signle time, and this is what made me enjoy it a lot more. Cold Steel's quartz system I don't necessarily like more or less than Crossbell's. I miss the point system to get certain spells but at the same time it does introduce new things. Being able to have 1 status quartz per line is a great buff to physical characters (who usually have 3-4 lines). For magic users it's pretty different but overall it still felt like I had to make decisions on a build and couldn't have everything I need on 1 character. The introduction of SR and SSR quartz that give stats boosts also helped. For comparing interesting characters between Crossbell and CS, I'm first going to point out the CS games have a much larger cast than the Crossbell games. Despite this if we're simply talking raw numbers, I still think Crossbell has a larger amount of interesting characters than the CS games. The standout CS characters that come to mind are Juna and Altina in CS3, and to a lesser extent Crow in CS1 and 2. Meanwhile in Crossbell I'd say Lloyd, Randy, and Rixia are the standouts with Tio, Elie, and Wazy being not on the same level but still great. I think the games all these characters are heavily featured in put good effort into defining who they are, what their motivations are, how their motivations connect to the world/plot, and/or showing their growth throughout the games. Though what I think is a significant difference between the two sets of games is how much these characters are actually focused on, and how much of the cast they make up. In Crossbell the interesting characters take up much of the games' time and make up much of the playable cast. Meanwhile in CS, much of your time is spent with original class 7. Like I said in my original reply, I felt much of original class 7 to be pretty generic with the games not doing much to develop on them. I think the class 7 characters you mention are better than most of them (or at least have more interesting setups), but I still don't think the CS games do nearly enough with or put as much effort into them as any of the CS/Crossbell characters I mentioned above, ESPECIALLY in CS1 and 2 when they got most of their screen time. I will agree that Gaius is one of the most boring characters with basically nothing going on with him lol For soulsborne combat, I still don't exactly get why you dislike parrying but are fine with something like rolling for example. The idea of waiting for the correct time to push a button is the same, it's just the risk/reward that changes. Is it that the reward is too high maybe? Again, I think soulsborne combat is about learning enemy patterns and reacting accordingly, with parrying just being another of those reactions.
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I wish I had my own channel and setup to make videos too, so instead I make long comments on videos like this. Not because I wish to be hypercritical of your video, but just because it's the outlet I can make do with for now.
Ao no Kiseki: I'm like you where every kiseki game is pretty much top tier by default (moreso with me based off your tierlist at the end). But I personally did NOT like Ao no Kiseki compared to other games in the series too terribly much.
I don't know about you but one of the biggest draws for the kiseki franchaise is how all the random unimportant npcs actually have fleshed out backstories and development going thru the games, and I think Ao no Kiseki is hands down the absolute worst in the series for talking to all the NPCs. Crossbell is big, it has many nameless 'tourist' npcs that do NOT have fleshed out backstories, talking to them all is super tedious, and then you have to goto mainz and Amorica, etc after every event too, eating up even more time. You may think it's better than Zero in th is regard since you get the car, but Zero closes off many areas at times so this isn't as big a deal, plus crossbell itself is bigger in in Ao since they add the tower and have all the outside areas available all the time.
I also thought the combat was kinda weak for the series too because the master quartz system in Ao is such a big deal but they level up so much slower than in cold steel, you feel like that you pick one and you have to stick with it or else you will NEVER completely unlock it. Finally...The final dungeon. It was long, and basically everything in it had vanish mechanics, just super tedious and annoying wh ere you spend so much time fighting everything without getting hit a single time, or if god forbid, you do, you just lost all your cp and ep or whatever and. ugh.
Frankly I think the plot in Zero was just kinda better too. The way the antagonist manages to pull off a crisis situation felt more believable, and also surprising, than the old magical god device megomaniac plot Ao has.
So for cold steel. I think cold steel 1 is a great game because the npc chatter in that game is quite probably the best in the entire series, and the combat is alot of fun too if you refrain from abusing overpowered s-breaks (I actually avoid sbreaking in every game in the series except for situations where the game practically demands it like using grail sphere on 1shot attacks like in sky 3rd, or for super hard how is this even possible timed boss fights like a certain 2 jaeger fight in cs2. Play on a hard setting, I don't think you can get the bonus bp on that boss without s-breaks unless you're lucky and the guy never drops traps).
Cold steel 2 though is I agree, the worst game in the series. It has a similar issue with npc chatter being a let down as Ao, and... well I don't really want to get into it. Regarding the bonus dungeon at the end. I really hated the story attached to that bonus dungeon because it surprise bombs you with so much information at the end that didn't give you any kind of foreshadowing or reasoning or whatever and not in a surprising at the time way, but like a you should have known and you feel like you just blacked out for the last 5 hours and missed something but you effing didn't way. The dungeon itself though I'm ok with since it's a fun little bonus thing if you just want to dick around with a cool combat system in a game with a large cast. Frankly I'm under t he impression hajimari has something like this, and dear god I HOPE it does with that big juicy cast.
I don't know if you played it but Lufia and the fortress of doom 2: Rise of the sinistrals had this optional 100 floor dudgeon where you could bring anyone you wanted into it, and I loved it to bits (as did many fans), I'm hoping hajimari has something similar in that regard.
I love CS3, not sure how I compare it to 1, but definitely like it more than 2 and zero. Ditto for 4. With 4, I don't like the typical jrpg world crisis plotpoint under normal circumstances. But it's the 9th game in the series and it kinda acts as a climax to all of them, so they get a pass. As long as they don't make every future game like that I'm ok with it.
I have NOT played Hajimari, waiting for official localization, particularly because I actually enjoy the english voice acting quite a lot. You said some characters you wanted development for finally got some. Dear god I hope Beryl gets some juicy content in that game. I've been wanting to know wtf is up with Beryl forever!
Neptunia VII:
I haven't played this game for awhile, and it was the last neptunia game I played. It's weird. I know neptunia games are kinda bad, their battle system is dung and brainless (despite using the same engine as cold steel), and for this reason I rarely bother to play them. But I agree, when I do, it's just mindless fun. I'm not even an anime/manga fan! I mean I love weebtastic videogames, but I don't watch anime/read manga at all. Not because I think they're bad, but I just prefer playing videos rather than simply watching them, except youtube videos.. cuz like.. I listen to them like a radio rather than watch them, while I'm working or something.
I find the whole thing kind of frustrating though. Neptunia is an IP that is capable of so much awsomeness, and they are SOOO LAZY with it. They milk it like a cashcow, but it's such a minimum effort kind of milking. God, if they fleshed out the combat to be more like cold steel, or something. The games could be so good, but no, they're always so low effort it frustrates the hell out of me. Argh.
That said have you ever played Omega Quintet? It's one of those Compile heart games that kinda tries to be a neptunia without being neptunia like Fairy Fencer F or something. HOWEVER, teh combat system in that game is actually pretty good! You wont really realize it though at first because it's easy enough that you can kinda get by without really using it to its fullest. But then there is this collossal red giant boss that happens at one point in the game, and the game's like 'oh hey, you're only like 3 levels higher than you were after the last boss... This boss has like 1000x more hp though, oh what, you think this is a scripted loss battle? GIT GUD SCRUB'. So if you can get past that boss, it probably means you figured out how to use the battle system properly, and the game is pretty frickin addicting with its battles IMO.
Ys1:
I like Ys1 and 2, but I never ever ever EVER tell people to make ys1 or 2 their first ys game. BAD IDEA. They are NOTHING like the rest of the series, and it will be a crying shame if you avoid trying other games for awhile because you didn't enjoy 1 or 2.
Ys has the same protagonist, and some reoccuring side characters every game, but they should NOT be taken into consideration for the story or what order you play the games in. Oddly enough, Ys Origin is the odd one out where it does NOT feature Adol the protagonist (or him at all), and oddly enough, I like all the characters in THAT game MORE than I ever cared about Adol or Dogi for the entire frickin' series! I personally would prefer people play origin after ys1 and 2 because 1 and 2 kinda gives you some backstory (even though origin is the prequel) to some of origin's characters, and origin's characters, while not in a story driven game, are cooler than Adol ever is =P.
That being said Ys8 is in fact my personal favourite Ys game, and lots of people like Ys3 oath of Felghana quite a lot too, which is another great place to start. I personally think origin is better than oath, but there's no harm in playing whatever first. Just not 1 and 2 because they play NOTHING like any other game in the series and will NOT represent it. It would be like playing Zelda 2 (I like that game too btw), and not liking it, and thinking you have no need to play any other Zelda game, or playing command and conquer renegade, and not liking it, and not playing any command and conquer game (super off the rails example there lol).
I never got around to bloodborne's dlc myself. I actually like souls more than bloodborne. Mostly because I don't like the parry mechanics in any of the souls games. They are too broken IMO. I get that getting the timing down takes practice, isn't super easy, and is a high risk high reward thing. But the thing is it kinda eliminates the entirety of the combat system in general, which I love. Bloodborne kinda encourages you to do this more than any souls game, so.. yeah. I did have alot of fun doing chalice dungeons for awhile though, wish souls games had something like that.
Trails conclusion:
If you ever replay trails games, and if you didn't talk to all the npcs after every event the first time you played, consider it giving it a shot next time. I NEVER bother doing this in other rpgs, but Trails absolutely makes it worth your while IMO.
I apologize for the super late reply on this but I've now finally got some time to sit down and reply to all of this lol. I also haven't rewatched my video so I apologize if I repeat any points.
I'll first say in general I do not remember talking to a lot of the random NPCs during my time with most of the Trails games. As a result I'll do my best to respond according. I also do want to ask if you've played the Sky trilogy. Again I don't remember talking to too many random NPCs but I imagine the structures of those games are far less suited to dynamic NPC dialogue.
Ao:
One of, if not the biggest draws to the Trails series to me is its character writing in both the main story and especially the side quests. Many of the side quests throughout the series are, when you break them down, fetch quests. This should be bad on paper, but with the way the characters in quests are written, it helps keep me a lot more engaged and I end up very much enjoying the quests anyways. For example the lost musician quest in ch2 literally just has you walking from point to point in the city, but the scenes that play out during it made it one of my favourite quests in the series.
The main story I was also very engaged in. I still enjoyed the prologue and ch1, but ch2 is where I think the game really picks up and kept me on the edge of my seat until the credits rolled. Part of what really made me enjoy the villains and main story was how much of it builds upon the politics of Crossbell. It was really interesting to see how much the politics between Crossbell, Erebonia, and Calvard really affected some of these people and the lengths they were willing to go to as a result. I enjoy Zero's story too, but the villain felt like one of the weakest parts. I also thought the Ao antagonist's plan was built up just fine, much of it being built off of things we learned in Zero. Again the main/side quests and stories are some of what I value most and how much I enjoyed these parts is what makes me hold Ao in such high regard.
I didn't mess around with MQs much but I did do a lot with regular quartz, which I felt held up pretty well from Zero's balancing. Usually my main request for RPG combat is will it force me to make decisions and think about my actions both inside and outside of combat. Playing Ao on hard difficulty, I very much felt this. It always felt like there were a lot of options at my disposal and as a result I was kept engaged with the combat. I also know there is a lot you can do with the MQ system which I'll probably explore more when it's officially localized and I replay the game on nightmare.
For the final dungeon I don't remember vanish being that much of an issue. Though what I enjoyed most about it was the atmosphere, with both the visuals and music coming together beautifully.
CS1:
I do remember this game having a lot of random NPC dialogue, particularly with the non class 7 thors students. While some were a bit entertaining, I don't think it does nearly enough to make up for how boring I found most of class 7. They're all introduced way too fast while the game never really takes the time to give any of them development. Most of them are very generic and/or one note and when most of my time in the game is spent with them, it really brought down the experience for me, especially compared to the games that came before. Again the main/side quests and stories are parts of these games I value the most and its quality here is what brings down CS1 for me.
Hajimari:
I'm sorry I do not at all care for the english voice acting lol. I thought it was good for CS1 and 2 (exception was Osborne who I thought was terrible) but after that there are too many characters whose performances would take away from my experience. Characters like Juna I'm pretty sure I would not have enjoyed nearly as much from what I've heard of her english voice.
For characters getting development I was mainly talking about Rean and C (won't say their actual name in case you haven't been spoiled on their identity already). Rean has his arc set up for 4 whole games so yeah Hajimari actually concluding his arc and giving him proper development felt good, especially when he's a protagonist. I wasn't really talking about minor characters like CS1 thors students, who I'm sorry I really don't think any of them are all that interesting. Yes some of them can be entertaining at times but they pretty much all feel like static quirks.
Neptunia VII:
I agree with pretty much everything you said. Yes it does feel like a huge waste and that very little effort is put into the games.
I haven't played any other CH games but excuse me if I'm not doing so any time soon after how much I disliked the Neptunia games I played lol.
Ys:
Since making this list I've actually played Origin and 2. 2 I thought was basically the same as the first game in terms of enjoyment and Origin I enjoyed quite a bit more. I own a few of the other Ys games and while I'm not sure when I get to them they're on the list to play at some point.
Bloodborne:
What is it in particular about parries that you don't like compared to other defensive mechanics and what exactly do you think the combat system is about? A big part of Souls games combat is learning enemy attack patterns and how to properly avoid/counter each move, which I think parrying falls perfectly in line with.
@@vynirasnowy9673
No worries about the wait, most comments aren't even replied to at all anyway.
Yes I played the sky trilogy, started with it as a matter of fact. The NPC dialogue in them is in fact better than crossbell's. I prefer cold steel's more than sky's, but Sky's is better than crossbell's, because sky typically has you delegated to a certain portion of liberl for each chapter of the game, and aside from one town, they are all much smaller than crossbell. So going across the entire city talking to all the npcs, then going to Amorica-eff-yeah village, then the cathedral, than mainz, then the picnic break zone, then the doll factory, then the hospital, etc after every major event is just too much. Crossbell is the only part of the series where I just couldn't do it for the entire game.
There is one chapter in sky SC where talking to all the npcs can take awhile, but it's just one part, and even then you kinda have to travel all over anyway for purposes of the story itself.
I think alot of fans like Azure more than Zero, and like SC more than FC, because they credit the later game for having a 'bigger' plot since it builds off the plot of the game before it. But I like to credit the game before for half of that said plot. Especially when I personally am not finding myself bored by the first 10 or 20 hours and waiting for a 'pay off'. Nope, I enjoyed even chapter 1, so yeah.
Though I admit in sky FC, my first Trails game, I wasn't really into the game until Ruan. Especially at the end when Estelle and Joshua are having a high speed boat chase after a certain antagonist. It then hit me that our little newbie bracer Estelle was on her way to becoming a hero, but not in a 'the chosen one' fashion, but in a slow, growing up from a teen to an adult, slow believable realistic way.
Playing with quartz in crossbell is pretty much the same as sky. I do actually like that system more than cold steel's which is more basic. Though if you play sky on nightmare, do yourself a favour and keep multiple save files for one playthru. There is this one point in the game where you think you're safe, you're in a town, with lots of dialogue, and you're there for a totally non-emergency reason, and then some character goes out somewhere decidedly non-dangerous, and you go and fetch them to tell them dinner is ready (not quite, but something like t hat), so I save and boom. escort battle where you fail if they die and the bad guy gets ambush first strike and there's 6 of them and 2 shots and your escort is dead and you're too far to even get to them on the first turn. On nightmare, you absolutely NEED long range aoe cc, or you need to get lucky with like your escort getting a 2% dodge 10 times in a row or something. But at that point in the game long range aoe cc is not something you are going to have w ithout going out of your way to intentionally have it, and... yeah, you get the idea. I was stuck on that boss for so damn long because I saved at a point where I could NOT go back to town to buy the quartz needed for me to get said aoe cc and it was horrible.
CS1: I really love talking to class 1-6, you're weird, and not worth my time *looks away* (kidding). I don't blame you for class 7. It does have some characters I really like. But alot of them just don't feel very deep for playable cast. I mean I know lots of people like laura, but when you really look at her objectively, she says very very little that isn't related to her swordsmanship or training. Even her extracirricular activities goes back to somehow being good for her swordsmanship, etc. She could have been more interesting if she got involved in the whole noble vs commoner portions of the story. But I think she did only one time at some minor part during chapter 2 at some docks and that was about it. Laura is not my most bory character award though. For me that would be Gaius and Elliott. Though I recently saw a trails comment video saying Elliott was their fave character. I forget who that was, hopefully not you =P.
That said, while there are some more boring characters in CS, I still think Macchias, Jusis, Alisa, Fie are interesting. (same with Crow and Millium, but I'll leave em out just for arguments sake), which is about the same/more than Zero/AO. Elly... is kinda boring lol. I don't find Noel to be a particularly interesting character either. Laura-tier I'd say.
Sad you can't enjoy the English voice acting. But that's fine. As long as you're not one of those people who are like 'ITS AN OBJECTIVE FACT THAT EVERY ENGLISH VOICE ACTOR IN A JRPG IS THE ABSOLUTE WORST, HAS NO TALENT AND ANYONE WHO LIKES THEM IS STUPID'. *head desk*.
Complile heart games: I don't blame you. I haven't played many myself. I gave Fairy fencer F a shot, and thought it was even worse than neptunia, Omega quintet, which is actually good, and Trillion (I think that was CH, I forget), which is... interesting. It plays kinda like a hybrid between a visual novel, and, very unlikely you've played it, but 'punch club' on steam. it's kinda weird.
Glad you played Origin after 1 and 2. I know the story isn't a big deal, but I just kinda felt the story of Rhea and Feena so much more touching knowing what they are willing to go through, and what they did go through between origin and 1 and 2, and what happens after 2 and.. ugh. Poor Rhea. I hope you didn't just play origin once and played as Hugo. Ugh playing as him was painful, he's such a douche. Also if you don't know the canon story is actually the 3rd character 'claw'. He plays mostly like Yunica, but is kinda a bit more op since one of his special attacks drain health. You can kinda just blitz thru enemies much faster with him since he can self heal with it.
For me I like the soulsborne combat (I don't use magic too btw other than heals, cures, and maybe some minor buffs) is about playing as an ordinary guy. Not some super ninja capable of jumping into a room with 20 soldiers and killing them all without breaking a sweat. But just like me myself. like if I was actually in those s hoes, and I see a goal being guarded by something as simple as 3 guards, I think 'oh snap, how am I going to get past them safely' (and not in a stealth way). I like that the combat feels grounded and believable in a way that you can do yourself (rolling i-frames aside. That being said I didn't even know rolling gave you i-frames until I beat demons' souls and dark souls 1 already... I cheesed ceaseless discharge by standing in that narrow cave area where he can't reach you =P ). I mean not 100% but you get what I'm saying right? It feels like you're playing as a real human with mostly real equipment. Not some superhero who can jump 4 times his own height, double jump, swing an axe taller t han him 4 times in 1 second, etc.
Parrying kinda ruins the combat for me because instead of carefully trading blows in a careful methodical manner, you wait for the correct time to push a button that either gives you 'iwin' or 'sword-in-belly!-ed'. It just makes it feel more game-ey... which is fine. I like games. But the whole reason why I love souls is the combat is the least game-ey combat with swords and magic and armor and all that that I know. So I prefer to avoid the gamier elements.
@@Ghalion666 I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "bigger" plots for Ao/SC, but I don't think you have to credit only one of these games or their prequels for their plots. Yes these games do build off their prequels, but that's normal for a sequel to do. Each game also still tells their own story. Zero/FC aren't only doing setup and Ao/SC aren't just payoff for those games. People also enjoy Ao/SC more than their prequels while still very much enjoying said prequels and acknowledging any buildup they did. Heck, many people I know that have played the series will talk about how the games building off the ones that came before is one of the draws of the Trails series.
In regards to you thinking the starts of Ao/SC are boring, like I said above, these games still have to tell their own stories. They can't suddenly start off with their climaxes, even if their plots build upon their prequels. Setting up their own plots is still necessary as they are their own games. I'd also argue Ao/SC do have interesting starts, at least to me. And even if they are still starting off their own stories, they do still give pay offs. Ao starts off tying up one of Zero's loose ends, introduces Lechter back, as well as Red Constellation. SC shows the immediate aftermath and reactions from the characters to FC's ending and also goes more into the life of a bracer with the training camp. There was enough going on that I was still very much engaged.
Quartz in Crossbell I would argue is much better balanced than in Sky. Sky's quartz system feels like it can very easily be broken without requiring player's to think too much about their setups. Earth Wall is too easy to abuse, both in how easily it can be slapped on to a character and how much it can be spammed. Mind quartz then gives magic attackers not only a boost in ATS, but contributes both to great healing spells and single target attack spells. It's then not too difficult to find an AOE spell and also give your characters coverage with most of the elements for attack spells. Overall in the Sky games it felt like you could have everything while sacrificing very little. Meanwhile in Crossbell I found I was constantly having to make decisions for what spells/buffs I wanted quartz to give characters. Contributing factors to this were the removal of Earth Wall and making the Mind quartz give mirage points instead of water points. This meant Mind quartz contributed much less toward what spells that character would have, and it could come into question whether you wanted greater ATS or more spells. Overall I think Crossbell's system required players to make a lot more decisions about their build by not allowing you to have nearly as much as Sky would give at a signle time, and this is what made me enjoy it a lot more.
Cold Steel's quartz system I don't necessarily like more or less than Crossbell's. I miss the point system to get certain spells but at the same time it does introduce new things. Being able to have 1 status quartz per line is a great buff to physical characters (who usually have 3-4 lines). For magic users it's pretty different but overall it still felt like I had to make decisions on a build and couldn't have everything I need on 1 character. The introduction of SR and SSR quartz that give stats boosts also helped.
For comparing interesting characters between Crossbell and CS, I'm first going to point out the CS games have a much larger cast than the Crossbell games. Despite this if we're simply talking raw numbers, I still think Crossbell has a larger amount of interesting characters than the CS games. The standout CS characters that come to mind are Juna and Altina in CS3, and to a lesser extent Crow in CS1 and 2. Meanwhile in Crossbell I'd say Lloyd, Randy, and Rixia are the standouts with Tio, Elie, and Wazy being not on the same level but still great. I think the games all these characters are heavily featured in put good effort into defining who they are, what their motivations are, how their motivations connect to the world/plot, and/or showing their growth throughout the games. Though what I think is a significant difference between the two sets of games is how much these characters are actually focused on, and how much of the cast they make up. In Crossbell the interesting characters take up much of the games' time and make up much of the playable cast. Meanwhile in CS, much of your time is spent with original class 7. Like I said in my original reply, I felt much of original class 7 to be pretty generic with the games not doing much to develop on them. I think the class 7 characters you mention are better than most of them (or at least have more interesting setups), but I still don't think the CS games do nearly enough with or put as much effort into them as any of the CS/Crossbell characters I mentioned above, ESPECIALLY in CS1 and 2 when they got most of their screen time.
I will agree that Gaius is one of the most boring characters with basically nothing going on with him lol
For soulsborne combat, I still don't exactly get why you dislike parrying but are fine with something like rolling for example. The idea of waiting for the correct time to push a button is the same, it's just the risk/reward that changes. Is it that the reward is too high maybe? Again, I think soulsborne combat is about learning enemy patterns and reacting accordingly, with parrying just being another of those reactions.