The Legend of Heroes Series - Possibly The Most Underrated JRPG Series

Properly playing now through Kuro. In the middle of chapter 2 and first impressions are that Van is already leagues better than Rean ever was. He's still a saint by normal word standards like most Legend of heroes characters are, but he's certainly a cunt for their standards and it's a nice change of pace. That I'm using the fan translation and they don't keep everything super saccharine helps (Van calling Grimcatzs a stupid whore completely caught me off guard and got a chuckle out of me) to give Van a bigger edge. Agnes is the standard good girl, but I am intrigued by what other secrets she's keeping in the pocket and Feri is a good kid.

As for the callbacks, happy to see Walter and Zin again after so damn long. Zin also seems a lot more playful now than in Sky and I enjoyed that he seems a bit more relaxed. Looking forward to when the interactions with Renne also start happening and like the little easter eggs like the allusion to Swain and Nadia's group in a throw away comment.

I specially appreciate now that the cast has been reset and the cameos aren't overbearing. The reset is very very welcome.
 
Clarence Big Boss said:
I collected the final treasure chest in CS1 and I somehow fucking missed one. Now I gotta do another playthrough and collect every treasure chest all over again.


Fuck....
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Never forget what they took from us.
chest-icon.jpg
 
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Kuro's combat system took me a while to get used to, I think I just got so used to the style the series had been doing since the Sky trilogy that including a prerequisite amount of buffs before you can use an s-craft now threw me for a loop. I guess this was their way of trying to prevent s-craft cheese with a minmaxxed CP battery build?

Either way, not too many complaints so far though I will probably bitch and moan if I miss a sidequest from being occupied with something else and pretend as if it's the game's fault for not telling me like I did with CS1 and 2. :story:
 
I feel like as the games progressed the balancing got skewed. The original Trails had characters with different niches, while Steel had Rean with an insane self buff that makes every battle based on buffing/debuffing Rean/enemies and then having him use his insane S Art to instagib bosses.
 
wtfNeedSignUp said:
I feel like as the games progressed the balancing got skewed. The original Trails had characters with different niches, while Steel had Rean with an insane self buff that makes every battle based on buffing/debuffing Rean/enemies and then having him use his insane S Art to instagib bosses.
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Balance has been skewed since Sky towards arts with Joshua and Richard being the only exceptional craft users (and arguably Agates S-craft spam). Randy had some good utility crafts in Zero but they gutted them in Azure along with status becoming generally less useful in Azure (same trend in Sky SC and 3rd). CS3/4/Reverie become trivialized once you understand how easy it is to abuse chrono burst and enemies are no longer allowed to have turns, resulting in Crow spamming his self-buff and casting albion wolf for 20 minutes straight.

The only paradigm shift was in CS1/2 when delay crafts had a broken interaction with impede quartz that let you roll delay procs like 3-4 times resulting in the craft version of enemies no longer being allowed to play the game. To this day I still have no idea what the Vermillion Apocalypse does because the fucker never got a chance to move.

Zero probably has the best balancing between characters, arts, and crafts, with CS3/4/Reverie being decent runner ups for having some great craft users (e.g Altina, Ash, Rufus) despite arts still heavily overshadowing crafts in terms of efficiency. Rean outside of his first two games is pretty shit without his self-buff and his team needs to be built around him if you want any chance of sustaining it until the endgame where he becomes self-sufficient, but by that point you have access to better options in arts and orders and he just becomes a glorified trash mob disposer who spams arcane gale and cleanses his own debuffs during boss fights.
 
Freelance Police said:
Balance has been skewed since Sky towards arts with Joshua and Richard being the only exceptional craft users (and arguably Agates S-craft spam). Randy had some good utility crafts in Zero but they gutted them in Azure along with status becoming generally less useful in Azure (same trend in Sky SC and 3rd). CS3/4/Reverie become trivialized once you understand how easy it is to abuse chrono burst and enemies are no longer allowed to have turns, resulting in Crow spamming his self-buff and casting albion wolf for 20 minutes straight.

The only paradigm shift was in CS1/2 when delay crafts had a broken interaction with impede quartz that let you roll delay procs like 3-4 times resulting in the craft version of enemies no longer being allowed to play the game. To this day I still have no idea what the Vermillion Apocalypse does because the fucker never got a chance to move.

Zero probably has the best balancing between characters, arts, and crafts, with CS3/4/Reverie being decent runner ups for having some great craft users (e.g Altina, Ash, Rufus) despite arts still heavily overshadowing crafts in terms of efficiency. Rean outside of his first two games is pretty shit without his self-buff and his team needs to be built around him if you want any chance of sustaining it until the endgame where he becomes self-sufficient, but by that point you have access to better options in arts and orders and he just becomes a glorified trash mob disposer who spams arcane gale and cleanses his own debuffs during boss fights.
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My usual MO was to go for fat one shot Johnny builds with stuff like Gungnir and Pandora to fish for arts crits. I don't know if the community thinks that's efficient at all but big number go brrr.
 
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AWarmToiletSeat said:
My usual MO was to go for fat one shot Johnny builds with stuff like Gungnir and Pandora to fish for arts crits. I don't know if the community thinks that's efficient at all but big number go brrr.
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Watching Rean Laura and Millium destroy Loa Lucifera in 4 turns by unloading their 200 CP domination empowered S-crafts is the funniest shit to see unfold. It's like watching a guy blow his wad on the first jerk. No wonder CS4 bosses have a shitzillion health.
 
Freelance Police said:
Watching Rean Laura and Millium destroy Loa Lucifera in 4 turns by unloading their 200 CP domination empowered S-crafts is the funniest shit to see unfold. It's like watching a guy blow his wad on the first jerk. No wonder CS4 bosses have a shitzillion health.
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Didja ever farm the casino for stat boosters just to squeeze a few more gamer feels out? Cuz I did that. All resources go to my magic wife.
 
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AWarmToiletSeat said:
Didja ever farm the casino for stat boosters just to squeeze a few more gamer feels out? Cuz I did that. All resources go to my magic wife.
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I never touched the casino again after Sky the 3rds rigged poker minigame that didn't have card hierarchy in the gambler jack door. That said Tio gets dibs on the speed quartz.
 
My biggest fear is not every npc will be able to be spoken to. That was a highlight of the originals
 
I guess it is interesting for them to make it a remake instead of just a remaster since the original is already excellent on its own with really no issues.

New combat system is fine. At the very least it seems like they are using the Xseed translations.
 
One of the biggest issues I had with the Sky games was their insistence on keeping the camera stuck in the overhead view. It's a cross country trip but the player can't take in the sights and it creates weird moments like at the lake where the characters are talking about how beautiful the scenery is, but the only thing the player is allowed to see is the floor. Actually optimistic about the remake if only to see what Liberl really looks like beyond its dirt ground.
 
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Sick about these remakes even though I knew they were coming. The Sky trilogy is about as perfect as games can get and any remakes, no matter how competent, are only going to tarnish that legacy.

It's not like they're stuck on some obscure dead console either, you can buy them on every PC storefront, they run on modern operating systems out of the box with support for modern resolutions and native controller support and they can run on a literal goddamn toaster. Just do a straight port to modern consoles if you feel the need to rerelease them.

I'm sure the games will make good money by Falcom's standards, and I'm happy for them in that regard, but still.
 
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I'm withholding any major statements until I see more come out. I'm always shifty about remakes even when I do end up enjoying some of them.

At the very least I'm glad Liberl has a HD look to keep it in line with every other country in the franchise but that's about all I can really give it right now.
ForgedBlades said:
It's not like they're stuck on some obscure dead console either, you can buy them on every PC storefront, they run on modern operating systems out of the box with support for modern resolutions and native controller support and they can run a literal goddamn toaster. Just do a straight port to modern consoles if you feel the need to rerelease them.
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Game could be as accessible as a soft drink at a convenience store but if the graphics and mechanics look even slightly outdated zoomers won't even touch it with a ten foot barge pole. Sad state of affairs really.
 
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ForgedBlades said:
It's not like they're stuck on some obscure dead console either, you can buy them on every PC storefront, they run on modern operating systems out of the box with support for modern resolutions and native controller support and they can run on a literal goddamn toaster. Just do a straight port to modern consoles if you feel the need to rerelease them.
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It unfortunately does in Japan though, in the case of Sora no Kiseki/Trails in the Sky.
The PC ports by XSEED have zero support in moonrunes and the integration of the QoL improvements from the PSP versions never made its way back into the older Japanese PC releases by Falcom (2004~2007). Then you have the Evo remasters stuck on the Playstation Vita.
 
BananaSplit² said:
It unfortunately does in Japan though, in the case of Sora no Kiseki/Trails in the Sky.
The PC ports by XSEED have zero support in moonrunes and the integration of the QoL improvements from the PSP versions never made its way back into the older Japanese PC releases by Falcom (2004~2007). Then you have the Evo remasters stuck on the Playstation Vita.
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Fair point. I still would prefer straight ports though.
 
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