I wasn't implying it was good, just that if you really want to experience the game it'll do.
Wow thanks Jumpy, I didn't realize it was the best translation of all time! Now I'm super pumped! (Kidding, don't shoot me).
Anyway thanks guys, but like I said, in retrospect, the fact that I can spoil myself silly and still enjoy games totally for the first time, it seems like a moot point to wait or not. If a better translation ever materializes, I'll enjoy it the same regardless of if I play a bad or good fan translation I'm sure. I don't know why I didn't think of that before.
That said I wont play on easy. I'm not sure why translation quality should have any relation to gameplay difficulty either unless crafts and artes and stuff had completely off the rails descriptions that totally mislead you constantly and make it nearly impossible to formulate a strategy.
Oh, no. I meant if you plan to skip the sidequests because you just want to know the overall plot, like me, you'll miss quartz from quest rewards and stuff from DP ranks (it'll be pretty low), so you'll be fairly underpowered. On Easy, that doesn't really matter. (I'll likely play Ao again, and I can do 'em then.)
Just finished chapter 2. Kinda nervous about Chapter 3. I'm having a blast overall but one thing about this game I like less than the other trails game so far is just the amount of npc chat during story events. Crossbell is big with a LOT of NPCS to talk to, and while I enjoy talking to some of them, alot of them seem to be 'filler'. I can't help but wonder if the length of this game is padded due to this. Now I'm in Chapter 3 where there will be a ton of extra NPCs for a festival and.. oi vey. Alot of the time I go everywhere hoping for certain npcs too only to not find them (one girl mentioned seeing Renne along the mountain path so I went down the path, never to see her. I did see the 2 fishermen which I wouldn't have otherwise but still was a bit bummed)
Just out of curiosity, how is the chapter length like? Like in FC for example I would say that the prologue is about half as long as a normal chapter, chapters, 1,2,3 are roughly the same length, and then the Final chapter is like 2X longer than the previous ones. What's the breakdown like in Zero?
Oh yeah, and that pre-prologue where you run down a dungeon at level 40. Does that happen in this game at all or the next?
The numbered chapters grow in length but there's a shorter Intermission in your future and Finale isn't as long as the chapter that precedes it. You will see the sequence from the start of the game again in Zero, but I wouldn't want to spoil all the fun by saying more...
Just finished chapter 2 and I'm blown away by the quality of the geofront localization! Game itself is great and going back reminds me how i miss the old arts system, even if i think the CS games have the best combat. Even with all the new patches for Ao, i'm sure it will a bit of a letdown following geofront zero.
Also, i love casino in-game. Spent 1k mira in chapter one and have gone infinite playing poker, quite a cost-effective way to get some better armour.
I dislike the casino but I dabbled with it a bit. I like cashing out in poker at 500 rather than 1000. I find that crucial last game makes me lose more than all the others, not to mention it only doubles your winnings instead of quadruples it since you can't raise again if you're at 500.
I was actually making in more cash at the slots though for the first chapter. I had a strategy where I would turn on the Adol walking screen, and just mash spin again over and over until I got a 'blank' treasure chest, at which point I would manually aim for 7s (not as hard as you think if you practice, which I've done by being able to triple '7' in Xenosaga episode 1 back in the day consistently. Worked good chapter 1. But for whatever reason, after that even with a blank chest, my last wheel would not stop when I tell it to, and I see it roll a few more frames to 'force' itself to end somewhere else (normally dark falz/fukh/fact/whatever you call him). So I gave up on that.
Anyway I just finished the intermission. Chapter 3 was great, though I admit I was a little disappointed I didn't get a quest that let me attend the conference thing during day 2 (or was it day 3?) that the mayor proposed or whatever. Seemed like a good opportunity for some juicy trails political drama. I found the mission involving the person who gives you the black cards very moving. I can't imagine it having half the impact if you didn't play SC and 3rd first. Quite probably the best part in the game so far IMO.
Been playing non stop. At day 2 of chapter 4 now. One thing Im on the fence about giving zero my #1 spot for is the BGM. Either zero or cold steel 1. Def blows Sky's bgm out of the water for me though. Mind you whenever I play sky and I hear that sky motif I get the warm fuzzies now. But the generic town, battle, boss bgms in sky dont hold a candle to Zero's.
I love the chest comments, but... late game one says "Fun Fact, Trails in the sky is actually the 2nd part of the series, the original is 'trails of Oregon'". I mean I've played the oregon trails so I 'get it'. but.. for people who haven't (or know about it), MEGA CRUEL BAD CHEST MESSAGE MAN.
So started Ao recently and just finished up everything leading up to the opening animation. Outside of a number of typos and weird characters showing up in text boxes, it definitely does feel stunted compared to the other games off the bat. I can understand what's going on, but it can take a little time to parse out some stuff. Foe example
I'll have to make a different thread but yeah, while I will get through this since there's still plenty of time before CS IV comes out, it's going to be the roughest one to get through translation wise.
So started Ao recently and just finished up everything leading up to the opening animation. Outside of a number of typos and weird characters showing up in text boxes, it definitely does feel stunted compared to the other games off the bat. I can understand what's going on, but it can take a little time to parse out some stuff. Foe example
SpoilerWhen Kevin is talking to Ries and talks about their Grandmaster, a term I only associate with Oroboros. I presume they were talking about Ein or at least the head of the Congregation, but it did cause a split second of confusion
Yeah, that one's not technically incorrect but it's not been used in any of the official localizations so it definitely causes confusion.
Ein meanwhile has her position as head of the Gralsritter rendered as 総長, which is normally translated as something like 'Secretary-General' (and in localization is rendered Commander) but in the context of a chivalric order it's more accurately rendered as Grandmaster or Grand Master; this is how the commanders of the Knights Templar are referred to in Japanese, for but one example. Falcom also used a similar construction in Ys IX where Chatelard's position as head of the Church Knights (団長) was officially romanized as Grandmaster. Same context, very similar word to the point it's more or less interchangeable with what Ein has.
So yeah, its technically an accurate translation to call Ein the Grandmaster of the Gralsritter but it's not one that follows the official localizations. The Kiseki Wiki renders it as Grand Master, distinguishing it by the word split from the leader of Ouroboros who is the Grandmaster.
So started Ao recently and just finished up everything leading up to the opening animation. Outside of a number of typos and weird characters showing up in text boxes, it definitely does feel stunted compared to the other games off the bat. I can understand what's going on, but it can take a little time to parse out some stuff. Foe example
SpoilerWhen Kevin is talking to Ries and talks about their Grandmaster, a term I only associate with Oroboros. I presume they were talking about Ein or at least the head of the Congregation, but it did cause a split second of confusionYeah, that one's not technically incorrect but it's not been used in any of the official localizations so it definitely causes confusion.
Huh, the more you know. I'm guessing they made the decisions behind the titles exactly because even with a space between those words people would assume they are talking about the same person. Always cool to learn about behind the meanings of the original language.SpoilerThe 3rd, Ao and linguistic funThe Grandmaster of Ouroboros is written in Japanese with the underlying kanji 盟主 with furigana indicating it's meant to be read 'Grandmaster'. Actually, Ao was the first game to give it furigana but Falcom took a while to settle on that name; it was 'Master' in the original release of Ao. The word basically means 'Leader'.Ein meanwhile has her position as head of the Gralsritter rendered as 総長, which is normally translated as something like 'Secretary-General' (and in localization is rendered Commander) but in the context of a chivalric order it's more accurately rendered as Grandmaster or Grand Master; this is how the commanders of the Knights Templar are referred to in Japanese, for but one example. Falcom also used a similar construction in Ys IX where Chatelard's position as head of the Church Knights (団長) was officially romanized as Grandmaster. Same context, very similar word to the point it's more or less interchangeable with what Ein has.
So yeah, its technically an accurate translation to call Ein the Grandmaster of the Gralsritter but it's not one that follows the official localizations. The Kiseki Wiki renders it as Grand Master, distinguishing it by the word split from the leader of Ouroboros who is the Grandmaster.
So 'the kiseki nut' has made a youtube post about a crossbell character favoritism rank thing about a week ago that I haven't gotten around to participating in until now mostly because I haven't completed Ao yet. But I wanted to contribute at a late moment after playing it some (like a chapter and a half I guess)... It's missing Kevin and Ries. Someone who knows the guy/contact him, please inform him, I cannot. I looked for a means to but couldn't find one.
Honestly, when it comes to ranking characters from an arc I would only go with those really prevalent and/or introduced in. Kevin and Ries are there, but most of their stuff happened in Sky so even though I love them, if I did a ranking system of only Zero characters I would not include them. This would include Estelle as well since while having a presence in Zero it would be unfair since she had three previous games as well where that was her story.
Now series wide all characters are fair, and personally most of my list for top ten would come from Sky (Estelle, Kloe, Olivier, Kevin, Renne, Erika).
