It'd be a bit lopsided if, by the end of the series, we had the very experienced twenty-somethings (geriatrics by anime standards) standing side by side with a 17/18 year old whipper snapper in the last arc.
You could as well be talking about the Imperial Picnic Club, I mean New ILF.
One of the things I've always liked about Kiseki is that Falcom has a good grip on writing older characters and they don't let the kid characters outshine the adults as anime logic is wont to do. If later arcs see a gradual raise of the lead character age to keep up with the leads from the previous arcs then I'm all for it. And I have full confidence that Falcom pulls this of.
Oh for sure, the Picnic Club is very much that, but I was more referring to the MCs of each arc, rather than their various friends etc
A bit of new info regarding Kuro and its combat system, thanks to Hansuke. Seems there will be an option for action and turn-based modes.
Source: https://twitter.com/Hansuke21/status/1366991176822325250
Kuro No Kiseki Action Battle Button layouts:
Press 0 to attack
Press □ to deploy shard orbment-like object.
Press X to avoid. Roll backwards or step.
Press △ for menu
Auto-battle for all but the controlled character.
One button to switch characters (L1).
Command battle (can be switched at any time)
The game displays the order of actions.
Inherits characteristic elements of conventional AT battles.
When the order of action arrives, you can move freely in the battle area.
BOOST and SCLM Chains are new elements. The newer mechanic for Kuro No Kiseki battle system.
Defense, Arts, Crafts separates into each controller's button
Arts will have a new type of area effect
When the character turn comes, respective character can move around the battle area
There's Co-op/ sort of like link moves with S Break.
What about defense and arts when in action? There are more questions like this, but more info will be reveal on March 9th.
The release hardware is still undecided, but the game screen that is being shown is PS based and still under development.
Forgot this part lol:
R1 - dash
R3 - change target
Battle can be evaded if you don't target the enemy even though you are near them.
Seems we'll be getting more info on March 9th. Definitely need more information (and preferably gameplay footage), but I'm very pleased if there is indeed a turn-based mode.
EDIT: New screenshot of combat and UI: https://twitter.com/nihonfalcom/status/1367090811037384704
A couple other takeaways I spotted:
- The protagonist's weapon seems to have an innate chance to inflict Faint.
- We see a few Arts and a Craft per character, the former is mostly familiar aside from a new and presumably Wind-based Spark Edge, the protagonist has a punchy Craft that's something like 'Blue Crusher' and the heroine has Etoile Ray.
- Calvard's capital is a relatively new city built only ninety years ago, makes use of subways for mass transit and has a multiplex cinema as a standout feature. Why hello there Nike, what a surprise when you ultimately show up in the game...
- Spriggans take work from anybody, including criminals. The CID sometimes use them for work they can't do and don't want to farm out to bracers.
- The heroine is the same girl from Renne's segment of Beyond the Beginning.
The previous UI image was of the action-mode. There will be both action and command modes, with the latter appearing to be turn-based similar to the rest of the series. Here is an up close picture of the command mode's UI: https://old.reddit.com/r/Falcom/comments/lx1wxx/kuro_no_kisekis_command_combat_mode_ui/
Hansuke has been posting and translating a lot of the info on his Twitter. Here is a thread where he post a lot of extra info: https://twitter.com/Hansuke21/status/1367173136932876290
Lots of new, well, news! The updated website is up: https://www.falcom.co.jp/kuro/
And here is a translated article detailing the most recent news (and there's a quite a few juicy pieces!): https://www.gematsu.com/2021/03/the-legend-of-heroes-kuro-no-kiseki-details-characters-setting-and-battle-system-first-gameplay
Also some actual gameplay footage has been released!
Here is a "flyby" of Edith: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvdQ9ABpJt4
And here are two combat videos:
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQOHFY_5kOE
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8R0L8WlxPo
The first video shows off the turn-based mode at around the 40 seconds mark. And it looks exactly the way I had hoped after everything I read. I am very happy!
Yeah, getting a very Gagharv vibe from what we saw of the combat, with Action Battle feeling like White Witch and Command Battle feeling like AToV if you set the 'wait for input' option.
And I'm loving the reveals on the characters so far. I think Aaron is going to be my favorite character already, but we'll have to see the rest of the reveals first. And Feri's quote already hints at some interesting lore possibilities since she mentions a goddess who isn't Aidios.
Speaking of Gagharv, it's been awhile since I played them (the PSP versions), but I feel like Feri's design reminds me of some of the Gagharv games' character designs for some reason. As an aside, is there any way to play the original Gagharv games in English on PC that you know of?
Not that I'm aware of. There may be a way to capture the text in an external program and run it through machine translation but there's no patches out there.
And now that you mention it, Feri kind of does resemble Aida in general appearance and a bit of her costume aesthetic. Which again reminds me how much I want something like Spirit Magic to return, since Aida's puppetry was functionally identical to the system in the Windows game.
I was rather hoping they'd keep the party size to 4 or 6 at the most and maybe expand it in the next game, but I guess not!
I'm curious how they'll balance the game around two seemingly completely different styles of combat and how exactly the command style will even work. Kinda hard to gauge from the brief glimpse we got. I hope the action style doesn't mean we lose completely OTT S-Crafts. I'm thinking 3rd's final boss, as an example.
I remember posting a while back that there was a theory floating around that the blonde would be Agnes... I wasn't really taking it seriously, but well, here we are. Her daughter, perhaps?
I got a good laugh out of "Only for the customer in complicated matter." Oh Falcom, never change your Engrishy ways.
One thing, though. With Agnes looking like the main heroine for the game, but also being 16 to Van's 24... Well, I sure hope Van behaves himself is all I'm saying!
Edit: Oh my stars and garters, a Cold Steel anime? Now that was certainly unexpected. I can't think of a lot of anime adaptations of games that turned out well (Kiseki already has an example of one that didn't), but hopefully they can put together something worth a watch.
I can't express just how great it is to see new characters and a new setting. Putting aside my feelings of the Cold Steel Saga, after a certain point it's just nice to switch to something completely different looking. Even in Sky by 3rd, as much as I loved the game, seeing the various areas a 3rd time got a little stale. Now looking forward to 2025 when/if this game comes out. I'm a little uncertain about the series because around the release of CS IV NISA seemed to be doing less advertising for it, and I am wondering if for them it's way too much effort for the sales they get compared to Ys.
NISA was happy with CS3's sales numbers. CSIV as a game doesn't need as much marketing as CS3 because if you finished CS3, you are going to play CS4.
Kiseki sells better than Ys though it may have lower profit margins considering the localization costs.
A couple little tidbits from looking at the battle video again, with the obvious caveat that we're looking at a demo:
- The new AoE system looks like it's being represented by a visual grid in the Art and Craft lists, all current examples being 3x3. We've seen single-target for the healing spells, what looks like the equivalent of the old Circle (S) with the offensive Arts and a wedge-shaped AoE for some of Van's Crafts.
- We now have four Craft names for Van since his menu gets pulled up and the one already revealed wasn't on the list. We see him perform Stun Slash (wedge AoE, 40 CP) and his other listed ones are Aerial Buster (Circle (S), 60 CP) and Coin Bullet (wedge AoE, 40 CP). Stun Slash at least doesn't seem to have much reach, though the ability to move and act in a single turn probably balances that out.
- The turn display in Command Mode tracks player and enemy actions separately and still visually indicates how long you'll have to wait to act again. Turn bonuses appear with some advance warning and look to appear on the side of the bar corresponding to the side that's currently set to get the bonus. Presumably Delay shenangians could change the outcome.
- So far there's no descriptions for the Arts and Crafts to show what they do vis a vis status effects, damage or the usual flavor text. Whether that's been moved out of combat for streamlining or just hasn't been implemented yet, dunno. They do at least indicate the element of spells with the appropriate kanji and color-coding.
I’m going to take a stab at guessing the orbment slot elements (assuming they still are using CS’s element system).
Van is described as dry and pragmatic, but also sincere and sensitive which makes me think that he’s kind of an older more mature Kurt. His color scheme and attacks seems to be blue dominant while his crafts seem electricity/wind related. I’m going to go with Double Wind/Single Water.
Agnes is described as gentle and unassuming but with a strong willpower hidden beneath her eyes. Her dominant colors are white and gold with some red and her attacks seem gold with the occasional rainbow blast. I’m going to go with Mirage/Space.
Feri is described as fierce and expressive. Her attacks seem to have a lot of fire and explosions in them. Her colors are Red, Violet/blue, and Yellowish Brown. I’m going to go with Water/Fire for now but if she turns out to be extremely stubborn, then I’ll change my prediction to Earth/Fire.
A A Ron description is like a mix of Ash and Crow. His dominant color is red. He’s a cross-dressing actor. His attacks are blue and red. I’m going to go with Fire/Water.
A A Ron description is like a mix of Ash and Crow.
He definitely seems insubordinate and churlish. Maybe even mischievous and deceitful.
