Now let's see if there's an "Aidios is my co-pilot" bumper sticker!
I'll bet at least one Dominion would have those, if it wasn't certain Ein would give them grief for messing up the paintjob.
Oh yeah, so I may have finally gotten around to finishing up the translated trailer...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JV5ZRgPUo58
Thanks as always for the translations! Man, watching this again with the English text and I'm getting shades of Ao's amazing PV with Azure Arbitrator that you did way back when. That one was so hype and then the game more than delivered, so here's hoping the same will hold true. Oh, what if that song in the trailer is Hajimari's final battle theme? It doesn't quite sound like fight music, but the part that plays during the Orchis tower attack towards the end gives me chills every time I hear it.
Don't know if anyone's seen this yet, but there's some Hajimari footage and stills that popped up today over here.
Facial animation has definitely improved (hi Sergei!) and I laughed out loud seeing a certain weasel from the CPD make his triumphant(?) return. Other little touches I like: picking an art from the menu will let you know if an enemy is weak to it, and items from chests stating what effects the equipment you just picked up has as you acquire it.
One very confusing screenshot appears to show a language select that lists what I assume to be Korean...and English. Not sure what to make of that. If I'm remembering right, Clouded Leopard are handling other Asian territories, so this is presumably something they're doing, but they can't have done an English translation, can they?
Edit: never mind, I ran the Korean on that page into google translate and I think that picture is referring to a website, and isn't an in-game screenshot. Looking at the picture more closely and it's blindingly obvious it's from the website. Lol, I got waaay too far ahead of myself there. D'oh.
Oh, what if that song in the trailer is Hajimari's final battle theme? It doesn't quite sound like fight music, but the part that plays during the Orchis tower attack towards the end gives me chills every time I hear it.
My guess is that if it's not the final battle theme, it's at least the final battle theme of one or more of the component Routes. Falcom has frequently slipped the final battle BGM into their trailers. Azure's trailer had The Azure Arbitrator, CS2's had End of Vermillion which was a final boss theme, I believe one of the Ys VIII clips used A-to-Z which is the true final boss song. And Tokyo Xanadu... is funky when it came to final boss themes, but one of its themes does play in the trailer. xD
A few other observations I made from the footage and screenshots, mostly by comparing things to the Japanese since I can't read hangul:
- Unbalance effectiveness seems to have gone to a letter grade like (Break) Damage has been displayed.
- Lloyd's Brave Smash Chi is slightly less likely to inflict Faint, Zero Breaker now costs 20 fewer CP and has a slightly lower damage stat.
- Randy's Crimson Gale is slightly more likely to stagger and slightly less likely to set targets on fire.
- Elie's Mirage Swan now adds SPD Down and looks like it's gotten a slight damage boost.
- Battle Scopes now get a special icon in the menu.
- Tio's Absolute Zero is no longer a 100% Freeze but 80% is still quite nice. And better than the initial Ao debuff that dropped it down to 25%...
- Characters with upgraded Brave Orders seem to start with them, as Juna shouts out Thor's Hammer instead of Sledgehammer when invoking hers. On that note hers got rebuffed back to 300% Brave Damage but its duration was cut to only three turns. Lloyd now has two Orders and they both cost only 1 BP. What I assume is Raging Hammer gives 150% Break Damage for four turns and now gives 15 CP instead of 40% HP. His second Order (which I can't read) is a six turn 50% Delay one. Elie's Strike Bell got a buff in that its EP reduction is now one-tenth rather than one-half, everything else looks the same. Tio's Aeon Shield costs only 4 BP now but restores ten less CP. Randy's Loud Warrior got a nice boost, lasting six turns now and buffing damage by an additional 10% at no added cost.
- From a Google Translate of the Korean review, the demo has everyone at Level 99.
- Also from the Korean review, a vocal arrangement of Ged Over The Barrier is in the demo!
- From A9VG's review (Chinese) the demo can take between one and four hours depending on the difficulty level, use of Turbo Mode (it has that, selectable 2-4x speed) and whether you do everything or just beeline for the finish. It's got a boss battle at the end. The Valiant Rage system (the review calls it Valiant Edge for some reason) isn't included in the demo.
Random aside: Google Translate manages to render 闪之轨迹4 as 'Sen No Trail 4' but 闪 on its own is Flash. I feel like I'm back in the Siliconera days of reporting suddenly... xD
- The Chinese reviewer notes how motion capture has made cutscenes look better, with the Orchis Tower assault from the trailer and an Arc en Ciel dance as the cited examples. Also they didn't have any framerate issues on a standard PS4.
- The reviewer also gives a big spoiler warning for the game in general and then one for the review, and I mean big, six repetitions of bold red text big. Which I'll echo by putting their final observations behind a tag.
- The boss of the demo is a Leviathan, just like the one we didn't have to fight the last time we stormed Orchis Tower.
- Something happens on the way to the boss but the software can't parse it so I have no idea what it is, lol.
Oh, and I may have gone a little nuts and started translating the interview with Kondo too...
EDIT: Here it is.
I know Falcom has always been pretty current with staying with current gen consoles with their development but I didnt want to hear about ps5 development. Its the first PS console I hope Ill never be tempted to get.
Fortunately Falcom is going back to PC too but they sre normally a year behind.. qq.
Soooo, for anyone who watched the demo footage
I've decided not to watch the footage to go in as blind as possible. So unless by some chance they release a Japanese demo before release date I'm gonna avoid that content.
Also in Hajimari stuff, I started going through the second Chinese interview with Kondo, which wasn't done by someone as familiar with the games as the A9VG one (they asked, apparently straight-faced, if Ouroboros' story would end in Hajimari). There's a lot of duplication between them but a random tidbit that came out from what was otherwise the same question about whether Hajimari would have mecha battles was that we got a name for Rean's custom zaubersoldat: Tyrfing. So the guy who was the sacrifice to the Curse and wielded a supernatural sword is now piloting a giant robot named for a cursed sword. xD
The Cold Steel Arc is full of Nordic references. Thors, Heimdallr, Jormungand, what's one more?
*looks up Tyrfing's legend*
Each time it's drawn, it would kill a man. It would also be the source of three great evils. Okay, that's not ominous at all....
*Prepares the popcorn to watch further Rean suffering*
Just a bit ominous, yeah. But probably less so than the Great One (likely) being named Elysium, 'Paradise' for all intents and purposes. Bonus points there too, because the original Greek word Elysion was the name of the Divine Sword of Bardus in the Gagharv Trilogy, quite literally a god in sword form. And the six Treasures that went into the sword were kind of the prototypes for the Sept-Terrion...
Huh, this is interesting. The bit about only six treasures going into the sword, I mean. Considering that the Great One didn't look corrupted to me, it could well mean that the one we see is the fusion of only six Divine Knights and likely without Ishy as the black DK was always the odd one out.
It could of course simply be a reference to the Seraphim imagery and its six wings... but who knows?
Another random thought about that Tyrfing Zaubersoldat. The sword was said in legend to never rust and to cut through metal and stone as easily as cloth. Looking at the corresponding robot, I get this strange feeling that it might be some prototype build by the Gnomes. Furthermore, it's either made in part or perhaps entirely from Zemurian Ore, making it something of a Pseudo-DK, as it lacks the fragment of the Great One. Thinking it to its logical conclusion, that would also made it a potential vessel for the Great One's power. It's nothing but a hunch, but if I were the writer who choose that name, I would totally push for this.
Huh, this is interesting. The bit about only six treasures going into the sword, I mean. Considering that the Great One didn't look corrupted to me, it could well mean that the one we see is the fusion of only six Divine Knights and likely without Ishy as the black DK was always the odd one out.
I think the number's just a coincidence, since the AToV example only had six divine treasures in the first place (the blade they're forged into itself could almost count as a seventh 'piece' for plot purposes) and the graphic behind the text of Elysium contains seven circles. Meanwhile the ending and a comment by Kondo in an interview suggests that Ishmelga the Divine Knight and Ishmelga the eldritch horror aren't the same thing. There's just a few too many unanswered questions there, however. Maybe this will be the game that answers them...
Looking at the corresponding robot, I get this strange feeling that it might be some prototype build by the Gnomes. Furthermore, it's either made in part or perhaps entirely from Zemurian Ore, making it something of a Pseudo-DK, as it lacks the fragment of the Great One. Thinking it to its logical conclusion, that would also made it a potential vessel for the Great One's power. It's nothing but a hunch, but if I were the writer who choose that name, I would totally push for this.
We actually just got more information on this, so as neat of an idea as it is, Falcom doesn't seem to be going that direction.
With that, an early round of information before the Dengeki stream this Thursday:
- The minigame seen way back when is called 'Project Tyrfing' and its story is that Rean is helping Professor Makarov on the testing of a next-generation Panzer Soldat. Various characters will show up as opponents and the source of the info comments that it reminds them of the Gundam game Bonds of the Battlefield.
The thing looks more like a Zaubersoldat to me (and I hope that's what NISA goes with...) but since those things are still being used per Juna operating one, maybe the distinction is getting blurred.
- A new Episode called The Fallen Prince is revealed, which involves Shirley helping train Cedric. The description used makes it sound like she's beating the stuffing out of him to toughen him up.
- The Sun Door 3-esque Episode has been announced to the Japanese fanbase and it's called The Boundless Sword.
- It sounds like there will be news on the next game in the next issue.
- The same source also summarizes the Famitsu review which I am not reading because I prefer experiencing it for myself and because a very quick look showed me a spoiler warning. Anyone who's interested can find it here. It scored a 33/40 which is pretty typical for the series.
- There's also a low-resolution shot of the first two pages of a Famitsu article. About the only things that can be made out of it are the tagline (To the beginning of the end, three 'Trails' now become one) and a couple new screenshots. One shows Dieter, another shows an extremely scary gathering of badasses in the arena Episode who we hopefully are not expected to fight as a group, but the fact that they're all present puts them all on the potential competitor list. Aurelia we saw in a screenshot already (teamed up with Orie/Aurier), the others are Arios, Zechs, Victor and Cassius. With three Kiseki Dadasses in the same place, I hope they took out a good insurance policy on the arena grounds. xD
It's interesting that Tyrfing is being developed by Makarov. The trailers seemed to imply whatever's going on with Rean's eye had something to do with his new mech, but if it's just a new soldat, I wonder why it would be. Unless it's just Falcom being playful with editing the trailer shots together to bamboozle us.
Can't wait to see Shirley break that little shite over her knee!
Hard to imagine that Aurelia will be able to control herself in the presence of two Divine Blades. Arios and Cassius better watch out!
I'm curious to see if Dieter's seen the error of his ways, although considering who he was stood beside in earlier footage, perhaps not...
The way I understood it. The Great One in Sen IV was incomplete for several reasons. One is that it was too early in the war to manifest its full spiritual power and two was that it was physically incomplete, but the missing piece was Ordine not Ishmelga.
The pseudo-rivalry in the Sun Shrine was the turning point of the arc. Rean and Crow managed to pull off what Ouroboros had been trying the previously 3 games. They successfully tricked the system into thinking a rivalry had taken place without the consequences of one.
Had anyone besides Rean won the final rivalry, the Great One would’ve gained the power of all seven knights.
There’s actually more than that. Their laughs and the way they pronounce certain phrases are also similar.
Oh boy, this is really gonna be a trip, although I still really want the Ein theory to come true.
