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

Yeah, I was about to say. English voice actors might be sub human bug people. But, you can't really blame anyone for blocking you after you send them weird porn.
A lot of them are but at least in my eyes there are still a few good ones who really haven't done anything to make me dislike them yet, mostly Johnny Yong Bosch. Which thankfully is slightly relevant since he is Joshua.
 
A lot of them are but at least in my eyes there are still a few good ones who really haven't done anything to make me dislike them yet, mostly Johnny Yong Bosch. Which thankfully is slightly relevant since he is Joshua.
True. Emperor Lelouch gets a pass. A) For keeping most of his social media presence fairly professional, and B) for actually being a talented actor.
 
Finished Trails Zero, overall it's good and still doesn't have the bigger problems from Cold Steel of serial bloat and too much relationship shit (though it is annoying that literally every scene Lloyd talks one on one a minute with a woman will end with him being told he started out with her).
The ending is kind of abrupt, not even some scene of the companion you got max relationship with, though at least it's not an hour of talking with every important NPC before finally having the ending cutscene. The final villain felt like a retread of Sky and you'd think the plot important loli will have more importance, but guess that's for the next game. The one big thing about the game is that it doesn't seem to know what scale it wants to be, on one hand the whole adventure starts as being about a specific city state that's progressively improved, on the other hand there's the whole plot about cults and secret organizations. Sky did it better by splitting it into two games, but in general it's a problem where the big global plot stuff eclipses the local plot points.
 
uh... Zero spoilers I guess... I like Joachim as a villain. He's just a freak who needs his shit kicked in which I generally prefer over millennia's old eldritch abominations or secret shadow governments. It feels right that Lloyd an co would fight a more localized series of villains with marginal ties to previous events before getting involved in the big global clusterfuck themselves.
 
Finished Trails Zero, overall it's good and still doesn't have the bigger problems from Cold Steel of serial bloat and too much relationship shit (though it is annoying that literally every scene Lloyd talks one on one a minute with a woman will end with him being told he started out with her).
The ending is kind of abrupt, not even some scene of the companion you got max relationship with, though at least it's not an hour of talking with every important NPC before finally having the ending cutscene. The final villain felt like a retread of Sky and you'd think the plot important loli will have more importance, but guess that's for the next game. The one big thing about the game is that it doesn't seem to know what scale it wants to be, on one hand the whole adventure starts as being about a specific city state that's progressively improved, on the other hand there's the whole plot about cults and secret organizations. Sky did it better by splitting it into two games, but in general it's a problem where the big global plot stuff eclipses the local plot points.
Glad you liked it for the most part. The zero and azure duology I'd say are my favorite though the Sky trilogy is close. Cold steel I enjoy but it just gets so bloated at a certain point and the harem shit does it no favors...

Anyway zero yeah, I agree that Joachim is very much the same deal (though on a smaller scale) than Wiesman, when I was playing I thought to myself "are we really again going with the goofy glasses guy is the big bad?" and lo and behold. As for the scale of things.... I'd say Azure does a good job lining up both things, but yes, the Crossbell games are certainly conditioned by the grander schemes afoot and due to the desire to keep going with the global plot, so it's stakes do seem to balloon up, but Crossbell is also in a particularly relevant geographical position that does make it be a fulcrum of shit. Hope you enjoyed Rene's closure, I remember you were miffed at her parent being bamboozled instead of being cunts, but if they were just monsters, Renee mellowing out at the end and finally sticking with Estelle and Joshua would have been a harder sell I think. Her having a sort of instinctual desire to protect her brother stacks on top of that.

If I were you I'd wait till march for Azure unless you really need to fucking play it NAO, since the psp emulation is workable, but the translation is a bit on the rough side (and you can't transfer your save).
uh... Zero spoilers I guess... I like Joachim as a villain. He's just a freak who needs his shit kicked in which I generally prefer over millennia's old eldritch abominations or secret shadow governments. It feels right that Lloyd an co would fight a more localized series of villains with marginal ties to previous events before getting involved in the big global clusterfuck themselves.
Well, Joachim is just another small cog in the whole conspiracy at the end, so in a sense he is local though he ties a lot more into the grand scheme of things. I do think he is a rethread but he achieved his purpose well enough and more importantly, didn't overstay his welcome.
 
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Glad you liked it for the most part. The zero and azure duology I'd say are my favorite though the Sky trilogy is close. Cold steel I enjoy but it just gets so bloated at a certain point and the harem shit does it no favors...

Anyway zero yeah, I agree that Joachim is very much the same deal (though on a smaller scale) than Wiesman, when I was playing I thought to myself "are we really again going with the goofy glasses guy is the big bad?" and lo and behold. As for the scale of things.... I'd say Azure does a good job lining up both things, but yes, the Crossbell games are certainly conditioned by the grander schemes afoot and due to the desire to keep going with the global plot, so it's stakes do seem to balloon up, but Crossbell is also in a particularly relevant geographical position that does make it be a fulcrum of shit. Hope you enjoyed Rene's closure, I remember you were miffed at her parent being bamboozled instead of being cunts, but if they were just monsters, Renee mellowing out at the end and finally sticking with Estelle and Joshua would have been a harder sell I think. Her having a sort of instinctual desire to protect her brother stacks on top of that.

If I were you I'd wait till march for Azure unless you really need to fucking play it NAO, since the psp emulation is workable, but the translation is a bit on the rough side (and you can't transfer your save).

Well, Joachim is just another small cog in the whole conspiracy at the end, so in a sense he is local though he ties a lot more into the grand scheme of things. I do think he is a rethread but he achieved his purpose well enough and more importantly, didn't overstay his welcome.
Thinking about it more, I think another issue with the game is that there's not a lot of character development, which is probably saved for the next game. The first Sky game was a self contained story with excellent cliff hanger, while Zero had too many dangling plot threads and the characters had like half an arc (especially Randy), in some way it felt like Renee was more of a main character than the four main ones. I still think it would have made more sense for to her to return to her parents after finding out they were innocent.

I also forgot how terrible Estelle is in combat. At least Joshua had god tier speed and delay to justify him being bare bones mechanically, quite literally everything Estelle does Lloyd can do better (including his ridiculous self buff).
 
Well, Sky the first and the second were intended to be a single game that they had to split up due to how big the project was becoming and deadlines. I do agree it does a fantastic job cutting at a good point, but it was all a single narrative, don't know if Zero and Azure are the same deal, but I do know Cold Steel 1 and 2 were intended as a single project from the start as well. You are right that some characters have pending development for sure, Randy and Lloyd for the most part. I'm more than happy with Renee taking a good chunk of the spotlight but I could imagine how horribly jarring it would all be if you played this as your first Trails game.

Combat wise... yeah, Estelle was always kind of there in Trails in the sky, though in Zero I used her and Joshua for one combat just for the nostalgia bait and then switched quick and proper back to the main cast, it's their story and they will be the ones ending it dammit. It being such a strong core of only 4 playable characters with some rotating members is something I miss in Cold Steel, that series would have benefited so much from cutting class 7 in half and just mixing traits (Laura and Jusis get merged into a single character, Machias and Alisa into another, Fie and Emma remain their own thing though you could add elements like Elliot's love of music into one of them and Gaius can get lost talking about the wind somewhere else while giving another character the "I'm from outside" viewpoint)
 
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Cold Steel is a slog. Just can't stomach that.

Zero is a damn good ride so far.
 
Cry for me, kimi no....koe ga kikoeteru
Sakenderu, boku no namae wooooooooooooo

Its weird perspective wise going from cold steel to crossbell because of the change in graphics/overhaul but I am enjoying it. Preordered Azure too. (BTW I had no idea until now but I have Way of Life on my ipod for years) I just keep telling myself that the first two arcs (Sky arc and Crossbell) are so beloved and also packed with like 200 hrs content in each game (add to that every single character even unnamed ones like the hooker who walks around the entertainment district each gets characterization that evolves)

I miss Kanako Kotera. Wish she still did music for Falcom.
 
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The Cold Steel anime is out. I haven't watched it but it looks terrible.



Renne and a new Altina figure went up for pre-order this week. Crow figure still available for pre-order in a couple places. Rixia figure launching soon.

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Is Sara in the anime? I wonder how she would look. She's my favorite.

I need help with Zero. I noticed after a while all the text just makes my head hurt. It wasn't like it with Cold Steel that's for sure. Just beat ch 1. Does it get better because its....surprisingly zzzzz and I say this as someone who thinks CS 1 & 2 are the best AND as someone who loves JRPG's where you can talk to people and go to different towns. What are some good quartz i should get for each character? I know Elle mostly wind and Randy fire and Tio water. There's an EP quartz ive read should give Tio immediately because it conserves her EP.
 
Is Sara in the anime? I wonder how she would look. She's my favorite.

I need help with Zero. I noticed after a while all the text just makes my head hurt. It wasn't like it with Cold Steel that's for sure. Just beat ch 1. Does it get better because its....surprisingly zzzzz and I say this as someone who thinks CS 1 & 2 are the best AND as someone who loves JRPG's where you can talk to people and go to different towns. What are some good quartz i should get for each character? I know Elle mostly wind and Randy fire and Tio water. There's an EP quartz ive read should give Tio immediately because it conserves her EP.
I haven't watched the first episode yet but Sara does appear in the cast list in the Wikipedia article
 
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It was supposed to cover the north Ambria anexation, right? Is the animation looking like shit or what is the red flag?
I watched the first three episodes an the animation wasn't anything that I would call terrible. I'm probably not the most reliable critic but I enjoyed it and I'll probably start enjoying it even more when more characters from the games start showing up, right now Osborne and Rufus are the only ones that have had speaking roles along with a few silent appearances from Altina that seem to be implying that the protags are going to be crossing paths with her soon. I know there's more episodes out but I like my anime dubbed, does anyone know what day of the week they've been releasing new dub episodes on?
 
I am taking a break from Zero. It is weird because the reading never hurt my brain when I played all four CS games....I don't understand why I can't handle this. I love to read too. :(

Reverie can't get here sooner lmao. I'm excited to see what areas we can go to. Highlands finally fucking returned. I wonder if we can go to Trista, Roaer, Legram, etc
 
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The english dub of the anime is up to episode 5 and Rean and Altina have finally shown up. I noticed that Chiplock is using a deeper and more mature-sounding voice than he did in the games, it took some getting used to but im still enjoying it.

EDIT: Maybe they did replace him with another VA, it's not listed in his Wikipedia filmography and the cast list changed Rean's english VA to TBA (I could have sworn that Sean had been listed there before.) Whatever, this is a littls dissapointing, but maybe replacing VAs is something that doesn't bother me as much as having the same VA suddenly changing the voice of a character they've been playing for years
 
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The english dub of the anime is up to episode 5 and Rean and Altina have finally shown up. I noticed that Chiplock is using a deeper and more mature-sounding voice than he did in the games, it took some getting used to but im still enjoying it.

EDIT: Maybe they did replace him with another VA, it's not listed in his Wikipedia filmography and the cast list changed Rean's english VA to TBA (I could have sworn that Sean had been listed there before.) Whatever, this is a littls dissapointing, but maybe replacing VAs is something that doesn't bother me as much as having the same VA suddenly changing the voice of a character they've been playing for years
I'm not into watching anime so I can't say for sure, but I could have sworn that I read that Chiplock as well as the VAs for Aurelia (who I think also works for the English VA in the games?) and Altina aren't returning for the anime though they will continue their work for Reverie. I wonder if it's an union thing with him having insisted on union salary in the past, but Chiplock's had issues with some companies before as well iirc, I think I remember reading about one of his VA friends mentioning something about Taiwan and getting in trouble with a contract and Chiplock coming in to defend him, so if that company's organizing the VA for the anime, that might have been an issue.
 
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