https://x.com/willfinyu/status/2017904668308046221

like what the fuck do you mean the chests don't have funny replies in hell

https://x.com/i/status/2111379080742674783

(I'm still at the begging of act 3 of CS4, so please tag any spoilers)

Ever since I started playing the Trails series in February I've heard people praise it's worldbuilding and recommend that newcomers talk to all the NPCs.

Did I do that when I was playing Sky? Unfortunately, no. Not only there were too many NPCs, but their dialogue could also change like two or even three times a day. My attention span is dogshit, I'm impatient and English isn't my first language, so the idea of doing NPC rounds felt incredibly daunting. At most, I'd just talk to some of them, but spending hours doing that was totally out of the question.

Then in Zero and Azure I started trying to talk more to the NPCs. I still wasn't quite ready to commit to full NPCs rounds, but I made an effort to talk to them during important story moments (Azure Spoilers) (like at the hospital after Crossbell was set on fire) and I'd also check in on some favorite NPCs whenever I felt like it.

However, when I started CS1 I decided to try doing NPCs rounds for the first time. And ever since then I haven't been able to stop. My playtime compared to the Sky and Crossbell arcs has tripled and I don't regret it one bit. The worldbuilding in Trails has always been quite intriguing, but taking your time to know more about the citizens adds a whole new layer to it.

Man, I was devasted when (CS2 spoilers) Celdic was attacked, the grand market was burned down and Otto was killed. I know that they're just NPCs with reused character models, but I spent hours talking to them and getting to know them. I knew how proud they were of the grand market and how hard they were working to keep it running during the civil war. So seeing everything destroyed and all the once hopeful NPCs now visibly distraught felt like a punch to my guts. And I doubt I'd have been nearly as impacted if I had never talked to them that much

(CS4 spoilers) I'm feeling something similar right now in CS4, after seeing all these civilian NPCs getting conscripted for the war. I know everything about these NPC's families, friends and lovers, so it's really sad to see the war shatter all that. One of the saddest NPC storylines has to be that of the noble boy (Timothy) from Saint-Arkh, who spent the entirety of CS3 worried about his sick mother. And when she finally started to get better, his father was drafted. His mom is trying her best to appear strong in front of her son to not worry him, but he misinterpreted this as her not caring about his father, and ended up arguing with her. Now he's talking to his commoner friend (Richie), that lost both his parents at the civil war and went through something similar with his older sister, who's trying to cheer him up and help him understand his mother's perspective. I just want both families to finally be happy

There are so many different NPCs storylines that I'm following religiously. I'm praying to Aidios that Harold, Bond and Clark make it back to their families safely. I'm hoping that Charlotte's father will eventually accept her friendship with Jutta. I wonder if the newspaper boy from Celdic is still doing a great business in Heimdallr. I'm so glad that family from North Ambria (Roscoe, Bella and Artem) was welcomed at the rest lodge and I hope they're able to return home. I love hearing more about Olivier and Mueller's childhood in Alster. Wonder, one day you'll win a horse race I believe in you. I love Bleublanc and it's quite funny how one of his disguises accidentally became one of the NPCs I enjoyed following the most. Anton I'm rooting for you my man. I've been following the development of Alan and Bridget's romance since CS1, they better get married by the end of this arc.

But out of all the NPC storylines since CS1, my favorite has to be Anabelle's character development. She went from a naive noble girl who lost her wallet to becoming a reliable ally and experienced fisherman. You can still follow bits of her story through some side quests, but that's not quite the same as watching her slowly mature. Plus her crush on Kenny is adorable, and it's so sweet to see Lakelord II rooting so much for her.

It's crazy how, some months ago, the idea of talking to every single NPC multiple times felt incredibly daunting, but now here I am, talking to every sheep in Alster to find out what the next one will be named.

I started with FC and am really excited to play the remakes once I "finish" the main story, and ngl, one of the things I'm looking forward the most is talking to all the NPCs I haven't talked to the first time. Hell, I might even replay Zero and Azure for that same reason.

Sometimes doing NPC rounds can get pretty tedious, like during the school festival in CS1, so I totally get why it's not for everyone. But at least for me it's unexpectedly become one of my favorite things to do in Trails. I'm addicted. There's no turning back now, is there?

Now, if you'll excuse me, I still need to finish the NPC round for day 8/27 (I've been stuck on it for 4 days already)

TL;DR: I decided to try doing NPC rounds in the Cold Steel arc and it made me even more immersed in the story and worldbuilding. It's now one of my favorite things to do in Trails and I don’t regret a single second of the time I’ve spent on it. Yes, I even talked to the pigeons in Heimdallr. Multiple times, in fact.

We're two weeks into this series and we've reached unlucky number 13. Only, it's not really, Death's actually a super positive card, it just has a bad reputation because... Well, because it's death. This arcana is assigned to our original emo sword boy, Joshua. I love Joshua, you love Joshua, Estelle REALLY loves Joshua but that's less relevant, so let's see how he fits his card.

As mentioned, Death is a pretty good card to draw in most circumstances. While it can, in very specific circumstances, mean literal death it's far more commonly a reference to an end of an era. Saying goodbye to a relationship that isn't good for you, leaving one job for another, moving to a new place, meeting new people, starting a new life. Death is a necessity, for one must allow their old selves to die before they can start anew. The card almost always means that there's a better tomorrow coming, and the end should be celebrated for what it gave us.

This is literally the state we meet Joshua in, after all. Joshua Astray figuratively dies and Joshua Bright is born in his place, beginning a new life with Estelle and Cassius, in spite of the tumultuous childhood he had. Joshua goes through a few rebirths, but this is definitely the biggest one, and the fact that Estelle in particular is so vital in this renewal of Joshua goes to show how powerful her spirit really is. Of course, we could also argue that every time Weissman reset Joshua's mind was a rebirth too, though a much less positive one. In either case, these would remain the domain of the upright Death, but what about its counterpart?

Death reversed rejects the changes that Death brings. When reversed, the card is about holding onto the past in spite of the pain it causes, refusing to change or acknowledge our growth, and gorging ourselves on memories and nostalgia. Death reversed is stagnant, unmoving, and empty. When drawn, it's usually a warning that you need to stop fighting the future, that you're clinging onto a bygone era and it's only going to hurt you. I can only think of one instance where this is the case for Joshua.

Say what you will about Weissman. No, really, I insist, call him every insult you can think of. Anyway, he was always about moving Joshua forwards when he was in his thrall, even if the direction was diabolical. No, I'd say the time when Joshua most closely mimics the reversed Death card is after 1st's ending, where he rejects his new life in order to throw himself back into his old one. He frames this as a selfless act, as starting a new crusade without putting his loved ones in danger, but we know that isn't true. He uses his old name, adapts to his old combat style, he even starts dressing like he used to when he was just a mindless puppet, when things didn't scare him. It doesn't take a genius to see what happens from there, Estelle calls him on it, urging him to embrace his new life rather than cling to the old, and Joshua Astray dies once and for all. Only Joshua Bright remains.

It's tricky to right about Joshua's connection to death because his whole story is so well known, I feel like I'm just stating the obvious, so let's look at his story post Sky. The thing I kinda like about Joshua and Estelle after their main arc is that they hardly ever sit still, they're always off doing something, they refuse to remain stagnant. They find and save Renne, they help refugees during the Northern War, they cross multiple borders to help out during the Great Twilight, while they may not be the focus they're rarely ever sat around. The only time I can think where they accept just being content is during Reverie, and even then it's just while they figure out their next move. It really shows that they've learnt from their adventures and aren't willing to accept just being good enough, they always want to try harder, always want to reinvent themselves. They embrace new lives, new adventures, and new friends. Now, if only they could figure out how to do that kissing thing again, they'd be golden.

All in all, as in the Tarot, Death's story in Joshua is a positive one, and a lesson in always looking forward in spite of how easy it is to look back. Yesterday may have been great, it may have been awful, but tomorrow is unwritten, it can be whatever you want. I mean, for me, it'll be Temperance, but you get the idea.

I only noted this when I watched some old the 3rd gameplay videos...🤯

Im crying what is this😭

(don't listen to my evil Ourobouros voice 😭)

Smol tita

I'm looking forward to Horizon II. I'd give the series an overall 9 / 10 for telling a great story the game equivalent of Herbert's Dune or JRR Tolkien's LoTR. I probably put ~1500 hours into the series in less than 5 months.

The only problem after a great series is what to play next :-)

Now I can go on hiatus

Front is their normal/casual clothes❤️ and back is their beautiful🤩, adorable🥰, sexy😘 and hot❤️‍🔥 Swimsuits/Bikinis😍👙♀️💟

Fantastic fanservice, I can't wait to see them colored! They are simply gorgeous♥️

[Ignore Shizuna, she isn't important for the context of this thread]

What i like about feri is how innocent and pure she is. So detached from whatever is going on in the world and lives in her little bubble. Until she meets the Spriggan and gets disavowed from her jaeger corps. That's the begining of her becoming street smarts, but also just becoming more in-tune with whats normal outside of her small bubble.

One aspect i love about Feri and Van's dynamic is that Feri almost always hugs van whenever things are out of control or whenever Van is trying to do things alone. In that way she never wants to let go of who she feels safest with.

Van has some of the best bonding with Feri, because he always nudges her in the right direction, but never overstays his welcome so she can find her path on her own two feets.

I think that through Feri's point of view, there are many things she has taken from van and applied to her daily life, her combat and habits.

Images taken from Daybreak 1, Daybreak 2 and Horizon.

What if every member of Ouroboros actually worked together on all the plans that happened in the games. I get the feeling that all the plans would've gone through way easier or lead to so many people dying. Just the Aurole events would've been catastrophic with every single member.

I had to spam anleace's suction until I got them right and then spammed all of the ults, only Kloe and Mueller did damage

So several months ago I completed Beyond the Horizon and is currently now in the waiting room for Horizon 2. Being completely caught up with the series now made me realize this would be a good time to look into some of the artbooks for the series.

My question is: what artbooks is good and is worth looking into? Anny recomendations would be good/ Thanks.

Full Disclosure: This method is only viable when you reach near the end of Chapter 5, the beginning of Chapter 6 and in Chapter 8. It's not available in other chapters.

I learnt that the end game Quartz in the final chapter cost a LOT of U-Material+s so I figured I'd try to grind them out in Chapter 8.

At first I tried to use the usual monster caves but they were super inconsistent and it was rare to find enemies with U-Material+ their drop rate also tended to be pretty low.

Luckily there are a lot of these monsters in the Ancient Dragon's Lair in Bose. The best spot ends up being the cave right next to the boss room where a bunch of them are gathered.

Defeating them is simple with Agate and using his S Crafts, with Lone Blade, Ember Blade and Serendipity. (Only thing to watch out for are the exploding flakes).

Generally this gives between 3 to 5 U-Materials and 1 or 2 U-Material+s within about 30 minutes I easily made around 71 in total counting converted U-Materials.

One run takes around 40 seconds to 1 minute, you can reset the monsters by leaving back to Bose and coming back via fast travel.

This is at least outside the final chapter the best location for grinding U-Material before entering the end game, though I haven't heard of any faster locations in the final dungeon.

If you want to soup up your party early into the final chapter this is a great way to prepare, honestly even 1 hour of grinding is more than enough (roughly 120 to 150 U-Material+).

While you cant see it fully in the image, the small metal plate on Estelle's sleeve reads "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

Hello,

Im currently in Act 1 of Cold Steel 4, in Osgiliath basin.

I’m having some trouble understanding why characters like Irving, Neithardt or Alan side with Osborne and go along with his crazy plan. I could even try to rationalize that the curse and also the chain of comand in the army is making them act like that but, for example, how does Irving stand siding with Shirley? Someone from Ouroboros?

I already had some trouble understanding why Claire and lechter are doing what they are doing but now with Irving and Neithardt its astonishing

Maybe all of this is explained later but for now it seems so out of character… Even Cedric doesn’t give a shit about Olivier death and still sides with their killers

Thanks in advance

Left my colored pens at home by accident, we're getting to that hard stretch of the month

https://x.com/carrot_gaimee/status/1903614639310848358

Nearing the halfway point of Horizon at the moment and I got curious, outside of the in-game collectible novels, I'm aware of a whole bunch of additional content like surface level things like the Loewe manga and Ring of Judgement but what other stuff can I consume. There was a similar post from a few years back talking about certain audio dramas but I just recently found out about a few light novels that were released here and there and I'm also curious if the Calvard arc has anything or not since I haven't seen very much.

These 3 girls's character designs are too good. That Calvardian water is a different breed from the Crossbellan water.

If the water from Crossbell makes you more...If you know you know. Then the water from Calvard gives everyone drip and makes them beautiful and cool. And this applies to every character, male and female.

Imagine the kind of drip Lloyd would have. No more wearing a police jacket that clearly says CSPD, while doing a quest that requires Lloyd to disguise himself as a civilian. A mafia guy looking at the jacket: "CSPD...Oh it must mean Crossbell Sauna Park Dentist or something."