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StarTopic Trails To Azure |ST| From Zero To Azure, Let’s Seize The Truth Together Fami!

xghost777

xghost777

Magical Girls <3 #TeamJRPG #TrustTheProcess
Hello! Before you properly enter this Trails To Azure ST, quick question, have you played Trails From Zero yet? Azure is the direct sequel to Zero and is thus required gaming. If you haven’t played Zero, I highly encourage and welcome you to hop on over to my official, unofficial Trails From Zero ST which should answer many general Trails and Zero/Azure specific questions you may have. If you have even more Trails questions, feel free to bump it or ask in the General RPG ST whichever you are most comfortable with. I’d love as many people as possible to check out these awesome games!

Open spoilers for Trails From Zero are allowed in this thread while Sky/Cold Steel/everything else must be spoiler tagged. I know Sky might seem a little weird as ideally you’ve caught up by now, but we will have some Zero only members here which is cool since this is mainly again the SSS’s journey so let’s keep it welcoming. Ok then, on with the thread!



Welcome to the first official Trails ST on Famiboards! Trails To Azure is here officially for the first time in English on Switch, PC, and PS4. As with Zero, Switch and PC are the definitive editions of Azure with tons of added QOL features and better graphics and performance as these versions are newly created by Durante’s team for the Western release. All three versions of the game do feature a fully voice acted main scenario in Japanese and a cameo addition of a certain Trails of Cold Steel III character, Juna, in the police academy. Again like Zero before it, this release builds off the Geofront fan translations which I myself have played so rest assured the English script is excellent. I’m so excited to host this ST and play and discuss this awesome RPG alongside you Fami.

Before we go further, I do have to note there is unfortunately some gross content in Azure including three groping scenes in the game all worse than Zero’s. This really sucks and feels like a huge betrayal when it happens. Please do not downplay any gross content in Azure.

With this ST here I’m generally aiming to keep it light on content. A huge appeal of these games is discovering everything as you go and you generally should have a good idea what to expect having Trails From Zero under your belts. Though I know others want a decent overview nonetheless so let me at least present mostly what is mechanically new here. Only minor details will be behind ispoiler tags too, so feel free to click through.

NEW FEATURES

Trails To Azure Completes The Crossbell Duology! - Join the expanded SSS on their biggest adventure yet!

The SSS Expands With New Members! – Noel and Wazy join the team officially!

New Combat Mechanics – Burst is a new mechanic in Azure that only appears in select story sections. When the Burst Gauge is full you can activate Burst to essentially let you have a handful of free turns with instant Arts casting. It’s really powerful!

Better Fast Travel – You get a car woohoo!

New Areas To Explore – You haven’t seen all of Crossbell just yet!

New Soundtrack - Including some very cool remixes!

New And Expanded Minigames - Including Pom Pom Party and Fishing Duels!

Expanded Bonding And Romance Systems!

Master Quartz Introduced - Think of these like accessories that level up with you to give you new powerful bonuses and abilities.

More Wazy Hemisphere!

OTHER RESOURCES

Before I wrap up the OP here, I do want to throw two other resources here. First up I wrote a series chronology so you know where Azure fits in and where you can continue your Trails journey next or brush up beforehand if you want. I included the platforms for the Western releases:

Trails in the Sky – PSP/Vita, PC
Trails in the Sky SC – PSP/Vita, PC
Trails in the Sky The Third – PC
Trails From Zero – Switch, PC, PS4
Trails To Azure – Switch, PC, PS4
Trails of Cold Steel – Vita, PS3, PS4, PC
Trails of Cold Steel II – Vita, PS3, PS4, PC
Trails of Cold Steel Northern War – Anime on Crunchyroll
Trails of Cold Steel III – PS4, Switch, PC
Trails of Cold Steel IV – PS4, Switch, PC
Trails Into Reverie – PS4, PS5, Switch, PC (Coming July 7th)
Spinoff - The Legend of Nayuta Boundless Trails – Switch, PS4, PC (Coming Fall 2023)
Kuro No Kiseki – Japan Only For Now
Kuro No Kiseki II – Japan Only For Now

NISA just put out a PC release of Kuro No Kiseki in Japan so we are clearly in store for Western releases of Trails 11 and 12 eventually! Also, for thoroughness sake, there is also a Trails in the Sky OVA collection called Trails in the Sky Complete. It doesn't follow the games exactly and is weirdly best seen after Trails From Zero. It did get a Blu Ray release here so maybe you can track down a copy if you are interested. It is not great, but is ok enough for what it is.

The other resource I want to share is an FAQ. Trails games can be huge time investments and the amount of missables in the Crossbell games is the most absurd in the series given you regularly have a full country available to you at once with no guidance for what to look for. I really recommend this guide on GameFAQs which helped make sure I had everything I wanted to grab before advancing the story. This includes most (not all) events to see, all important items to claim, and details all quests and hidden quests for full Detective Points. Keep in mind this guide does spoil the structure of the game obviously with how many days are in each chapter for example.

FROM ZERO TO AZURE

I think that about covers it. If you have any other questions let me know.

So now then, let’s enjoy Azure and Seize The Truth together!

 
With Zero and Azure, I can finally tell Switch-only RPG fans to get into this series. No excuses anymore. Fantastic duology and entry point (zero).
 
Awesome ST, @xghost777 ! I won’t be able to play this for a little while but I’ll definitely be lurking/around in the thread. I ended up liking Zero quite a bit, and finishing this will finally clear me to play Cold Steel 3… eventually!
 
Absolutely awesome ST! I'm trying to hold back from speed running Octopath 2 so I might be a little late to the party but I will be picking Azure up and I'm very excited. The quality and contributions of the last thread got me to finally jump in and start the series so thanks again :)
 
Great work, xghost777! This is the week, famis. I still can't believe the Crossbell duology got an offical western release. And to think it's only 4 months until Reverie...

Let's enjoy more of the OST.

 
Game shipments have been weird for me lately, but my copy of Azure is arriving tomorrow! Really excited to dive in!
 
I got my limited edition and 1,000 piece Trails To Azure puzzle in the mail. Definitely excited to get started today :)
 
I just barely started, but one thing I forgot to mention in the OP is to make sure you import your Zero save! The game remembers choices you made in Zero and will reflect if you’ve met / helped characters or not prior. It’s very cool! It’ll ask you right when you start a new game so you shouldn’t be able to miss it.
 
I’m approaching five hours in my Azure playthrough so still getting started here. I did my first full sweep of Crossbell and got reacquainted with everyone. With Zero releasing barely a few months ago it was easy to pick up right where I left off with both major and minor NPCs. Definitely enjoyed spotting particular NPCs in the Crossbell Times (Nielsen) and Juna’s siblings in the cathedral. The new SSS largely makes for a fun group throughout this process especially Wazy (I’ve been spoiler tagging the new members since my thread dropped before release and since my copy arrived early, but please don’t feel you have to at this point). I just have the optional support request left before I advance the story and leave the city. Only disappointment was Shirley’s introduction scene which was even worse than I remembered.

Now that release day is here, looking forward to seeing you all join in!
 
I thought the game would have a midnight release, but its 7 am (east coast) where I am at and the game is not out yet. Guess Ill get back to Paranormasight while I wait.
 
SirArthur said:
I thought the game would have a midnight release, but its 7 am (east coast) where I am at and the game is not out yet. Guess Ill get back to Paranormasight while I wait.
Click to expand...
Went live a little while ago. Just downloaded. I forgot that digital version is 40$, since I usually get NIS title physically.
 
Whaaaat, still a few days to go until release here! I can't even buy it on the eshop yet lol

xghost777 said:
I just barely started, but one thing I forgot to mention in the OP is to make sure you import your Zero save! The game remembers choices you made in Zero and will reflect if you’ve met / helped characters or not prior. It’s very cool! It’ll ask you right when you start a new game so you shouldn’t be able to miss it.
Click to expand...

Oh this is a good shout. Does it carry your level over like Trails in the Sky 1 -> 2 as well?
 
Donnie said:
Whaaaat, still a few days to go until release here! I can't even buy it on the eshop yet lol



Oh this is a good shout. Does it carry your level over like Trails in the Sky 1 -> 2 as well?
Click to expand...
Yes sort of. I believe it’s if you were over 45 you start at 50 here vs 45. There’s other bonuses too. I had 20,000 mira vs 2,000 if there was no save transfer.
Thunder84 said:
No kidding, that was terrible. Had to put the game down for a little bit after that.
Click to expand...
It sucks so much. I think their intro is the worst scene across the series. That isn’t the last of that character either :(
 
I completed Chapter 1 Day 1! From where I picked up from last time, I’m happy to start getting back into the groove here with my first trek across a highway completed. Characters / forces / events are starting to line up already which is exciting. Happy I just got the car.
 
Is it just me, or is Wazy way more of a flirt in Azure? I don't remember him being anywhere near as flirtatious in Zero, especially in regards to Lloyd.

Also, have to admit it's pretty hype seeing Kevin and Ries again, that took me by surprise. Knew they showed up in Azure at some point, but was not expecting to see them this early on.
 
Did the prologue and part of the first chapter and its really comfy going back to stores/places and see familiar faces. Having that "Long time no see" is refreshing. I missed this cast. One downside of transferring data is that I don't think you can decide what to bring over.

Its been a great week, when I get the time, I am playing Paranormasight in the morning and Azure in the afternoon (I cant play horror/suspense at night lol).
 
Very minor point of interest but Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure are a very odd case in the UK where the price on the eshop (£35.99) is lower than the online retailers (£38-£43 if you shop around). It’s even weirder when other Falcom games have been £55 at retail in the past, trying to cash in on a dedicated audience which is a completely different strategy for a similar audience. Truly random pricing. Maybe they think new players are likely to try these games as a jumping on point for Trails if they are priced lower rather than the 3rd/4th entries in Cold Steel. Or maybe a change in local publisher?

I guess it’s a bit like Live A Live where it launched at a ‘budget’ price of £35, presumably because that was a remake of older game (I know these Trails games arent) and they weren’t sure of the audience.

Pricing can be all over the place here.
 
PixelKnight said:
Very minor point of interest but Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure are a very odd case in the UK where the price on the eshop (£35.99) is lower than the online retailers (£38-£43 if you shop around). It’s even weirder when other Falcom games have been £55 at retail in the past, trying to cash in on a dedicated audience which is a completely different strategy for a similar audience. Truly random pricing. Maybe they think new players are likely to try these games as a jumping on point for Trails if they are priced lower rather than the 3rd/4th entries in Cold Steel. Or maybe a change in local publisher?

I guess it’s a bit like Live A Live where it launched at a ‘budget’ price of £35, presumably because that was a remake of older game (I know these Trails games arent) and they weren’t sure of the audience.

Pricing can be all over the place here.
Click to expand...
Yeah that’s also a thing in the US as well. The physical copies are $50 while the digital copies are $40 (you also only get 40 gold coins for the physical copy). I think the logic here is that even though the quality is absolutely there, it is a 2.5D game, they touched up a fan translation that a good enough chunk of Trails fans had played, and there is no English dub. Personally I think the game would be worth $60, but I’m absolutely not complaining since it’ll hopefully get more people to hop in and it makes it easy to give as a gift. The standard US physical copy at least does come with a small art book and a digital copy of a few music tracks so some small perks for the higher price at least.

…

Since I’m already posting, I just wrapped up Crossbell stuff for Chapter 1 Day 2. Setting out for Mainz. Love the city when it rains, it’s so cozy. Also had fun crushing the first opponent in Pom Pom Party. One of my favorite minigames in the series.

Favorite thing that happened today was a minor character reveals they are from North Ambria in an off the beaten path conversation in the house in the cemetery and I was like ooh I l know what they’re talking about it as I’m watching that anime right now. I’m six episodes in with the English dub, so a bit behind.
 
0
11.5 hours in and I just wrapped up chapter 1. Hoping to strike a good balance of enjoying taking my time with this replay while still moving along at a steady clip. While Zero is a slow burn, I like that Azure moves quickly in setting up all of the big characters and forces early and after getting you prepared in chapter 1 it lets you loose right away in chapter 2. So excited for the big adventure ahead!

One big thing I want to talk about was that I enjoyed the final end of chapter dungeon more than I did on my initial playthrough. It helped I mostly remembered the layout, but also I took advantage of the new Burst mechanic more often. I guess I’ll say it upfront here, I had mixed feelings about this mechanic when I first played the game because it really is tremendously powerful. It is the ultimate get out of jail free card with all of the many positive bonuses it throws your way and how you can abuse it further if you have S-Crafts good to go to have even more uninterrupted turns. Normally I horde resources in RPGs for when I most need them. In Burst’s case, that would be for monster chests and bosses, but I decided to more liberally use it this time. The monsters in the cave have tons of status effects and Bursting them down just clears up that issue and them quickly. Since the gauge recharges so quickly, I didn’t feel bad dipping into it regularly to quickly wrap up fights to get to the more interesting ones faster. I loved the end of chapter boss here as my healing capabilities were low which forced me to make more active decisions. With Burst I was able to bust out way more buffs than normal which felt like a great use of the extra turns it gives. So yeah, I might be coming around on Burst.
 
xghost777 said:
11.5 hours in and I just wrapped up chapter 1. Hoping to strike a good balance of enjoying taking my time with this replay while still moving along at a steady clip. While Zero is a slow burn, I like that Azure moves quickly in setting up all of the big characters and forces early and after getting you prepared in chapter 1 it lets you loose right away in chapter 2. So excited for the big adventure ahead!
Click to expand...
I was gonna say 11 hours for the first chapter is a lot, but then I looked at my save file (I just finished chapter 1) and I am 10 hours in lol. I think Azure's prologue is a very slow burn, but yeah it does kick into high gear really fast. I could be wrong but I think some NPC got portraits that did not have in Zero.
 
SirArthur said:
I was gonna say 11 hours for the first chapter is a lot, but then I looked at my save file (I just finished chapter 1) and I am 10 hours in lol. I think Azure's prologue is a very slow burn, but yeah it does kick into high gear really fast. I could be wrong but I think some NPC got portraits that did not have in Zero.
Click to expand...
Yeah I was extra thorough, talked to everyone, and did every quest but what drove it up a bit higher was that I accidentally left the game running a smidge on occasions when I wasn’t playing which I’m usually better at avoiding. So probably 11 hours would be a better estimate for how much I actually played.

Yeah there’s definitely a few characters who get portraits this time who didn’t prior which is cool. Michel and Sully are two for sure.
 
xghost777 said:
... I accidentally left the game running a smidge on occasions when I wasn’t playing which I’m usually better at avoiding.
Click to expand...
This happens to me cause of headphones and if you turn off the switch they disconnect. So if I am getting a snack or doing something I have to leave the game running 🙃
 
Glad to see people enjoying this game. I'd totally be jumping in right now but I need to commit to finishing some other games first :p
 
Played through Chapter 2 Day 1 today and watched the hour of cutscenes afterwards. Ah it’s so good seeing all these characters come together and big threads moving especially if you’ve played the Sky trilogy. So excited for the days ahead! Randy’s big scene in particular is excellent and the voice acting really elevates it.

Some relatively minor stuff, I was excited to find Juna today. I was not expecting her to get a portrait and that’d you’d get a full conversation with her. Also new to this Azure, was spotting Towa arriving by train. I can’t recall if the dialogue before then was altered or not to accommodate it, but it was a very cool future tease nonetheless. Definitely curious if you can actually meet Towa elsewhere.
 
0
So, that's a wrap on Azure. 35 hours of playtime, a pretty significant jump over my 30 hours of playtime with Zero. Similar to what I did with Zero and FC, I'm gonna draw some parallels between Azure and SC, as those are the two clear comparison points here.

  • No way around it, the plot here is just outright better in my opinion. Ouroboros's introduction in SC was pretty sloppy, while Azure does a much stronger job of introducing the main players in a natural way. Red Constellation is introduced perfectly, terrible Shirley scene aside, and the threat of Erebonia and Calvard is described very well, being descriptive enough to get invested in without being overbearing. The politics of Trails has always been one of its strong suits, and Azure is loaded with them compared to the more typical JRPG story of SC, so it's no surprise that the former wins out.
    • I want to give a shoutout to the Trade Conference in particular. Might be my favorite Trails chapter yet, pretty much everything here was perfect. The tension, the fanservice, the politics, and the bleak outcome were all handled brilliantly. Can't wait to interact with Osborne more in Cold Steel, 3rd left a strong impression but Azure really hyped him up, he looks to be one hell of an antagonist.
  • In particular, the finale in Azure is better, albeit still not perfect. It's a pretty massive 10+ hour timesink, but the stakes are high enough that it feels mostly justified. Some of the dungeons could've been shortened or cut entirely, particularly retreading through the cult temples, but otherwise they paced it reasonably well given how much ground they had to cover. Much better than SC's finale pacing, in any case.
  • Similar to Zero, side content is handled much better in Azure. The addition of the car makes things even easier to handle compared to Zero, while SC continued to struggle with a lot of the issues that FC had. Add in that the sidequests were generally great (the Olivier one had me rolling), and this is an easy win for Azure.
  • I'll give the nod for combat to Azure, but it's a lot closer than it was between Zero and FC. There's some cool additions like the master quartz and burst meter, but SC felt a bit better balanced to me. The level scaling in Azure is a lot worse too, with some random level jumps (Lloyd was severely underleveled after Chapter 4 compared to everyone else, which was annoying) and some very cheap boss fights near the end of the game. Sigmund in particular was a pain in the ass, using his S-Craft twice in a row and completely obliterating any chance I had at winning.
  • I'll also give the nod for music to Azure, but similar to SC and FC, I think I slightly prefer Zero's OST. It's close though, maybe Azure's will grow on me.
  • Sigmund and Shirley (terrible introduction aside) are both big improvements over the minor Ouroboros enforcers in SC, but beyond that SC wins out in the character department. Randy is absolutely brilliant in Azure, and KeA ended up having a much stronger arc than I was anticipating, but beyond that I wasn't terribly impressed. Lloyd, Noel, and Wazy are all solid enough but not particularly memorable here, Rixia's character arc feels very rushed, and most of the remaining major characters feel like afterthoughts. Sergei and Dudley are completely tossed to the wayside, Elie and Tio add very little to the main party this time around, and most of the other minor characters didn't really leave much of an impression. I guess Mirielle was pretty cool, if she doesn't end up with Randy I will be very sad.
    • I'm not really counting this considering that SC never had the opportunity, but it's really cool to see Azure continue where Zero left off with how it's leveraging pre-existing characters. Seeing Kloe, Julia, Olivier, Mueller, Kevin, and Ries again, even if it's only for a little bit, is still incredibly hype, especially when paired with the main theme for FC/SC and 3rd. Even namedrops for characters like Richard is awesome.
  • Continuing off the previous point, the major antagonists of SC are stronger in my opinion. Weissman isn't deep by any stretch of the imagination, but he's so charismatic that I don't really mind, and the game gives him plenty of screentime. Compared to Mariabell, who was mostly just annoying before her abrupt heel turn, and I prefer Mr. Evil Professor, although I did like Mariabell more once she fully embraced being an asshole. As for the more sympathetic antagonists, I don't think any of them measure up to Loewe or Renne, neither of which were perfect either. Arios and Grimwood both felt like their character arcs were purposefully withheld until the finale for the sake of the plot twist, which made it hard to really buy into their motivations, especially since Grimwood is almost immediately talked out of the plan. Dieter is probably the best non-Jaeger antagonist here, but even his heel turn feels a bit out of nowhere, although I think that's due to the pacing of the story more than anything. Wald is fine, just not particularly interesting.
  • Speaking of the pacing, it's all over the place. They do a good job of building up to the Trade Conference, but once that concludes the story grinds to an immediate halt without really delving into the consequences of the terrorist attack, only to then abruptly hit max speed for an hour with the Red Constellation raid, then grinding to a halt again, and then suddenly there's a 10 page dialogue blurb about how Crossbell is now independent and fighting back against everyone, and then one hour later it's a dictatorship and Lloyd is in prison. That's not to say that SC's pacing was particularly good either (it was all over the place, even before the finale) so this is probably more of a draw than anything, but it's frustrating to see the problem carry over from SC.
  • I absolutely called Dieter and Grimwood as antagonists. Felt pretty good to see that finally come to fruition, even if the execution was pretty messy.
  • Wazy as a dominion was a big surprise, didn't see that coming at all. Cool to see Abbas get a bigger role too.
  • Lechter and Kilika continue to be two of my favorite Trails characters, absolutely love both of them. The little scene between Kloe and Lechter was incredibly sweet. Not sure if Kilika will show up in Cold Steel, but Lechter obviously will, so I can't wait to see more of him.
  • Was very pleasantly surprised that they acknowledged the intro from Zero and the rampant love for KeA. I wrote both of them off as sloppy writing, the former to hide Estelle and Joshua's involvement for spoiler purposes, and the latter to make KeA a stronger motivation for everyone. The fact that both of those things were justified here with KeA's ability to rewrite reality was super cool, and definitely helped improve a few issues I had with Zero.
  • Playable Garcia was awesome, absolutely loved that section.
  • Still very interested in Heiyue, although I imagine they'll take a backseat for a while due to their lack of involvement in Erebonia.
  • The writing here is still somewhat uncomfortable at times. It's so weird how Lloyd is played up as this huge unintentional flirt, when he's literally just talking to women like a normal human being instead of objectifying them. The Shirley scene is also abysmal, and the fact that they kept bringing it up is mind boggling.
  • The ending felt a bit rushed. They were clearly going for something similar to SC by cutting things off right away, but while SC's story and character arcs were mostly resolved by the end, Azure still has a lot of open ended questions that weren't really answered. What will happen with Arios and Grimwood? What about Rixia, now that her identity is known? How did the invasion of Crossbell happen? What was the aftermath of that? That type of stuff just isn't resolved here, and it was definitely a bit unsatisfying.

It's super easy to get swept up in the hype when playing these games; just like Zero, I was thoroughly hooked from start to finish, and I don't really see these issues until I finish. But overall, I really liked Azure a lot. I don't think it's my favorite Trails game so far, that honor still goes to Sky 3rd, but it takes a very solid 2nd place in my rankings.

I mostly can't believe that the franchise is finally playable from start to present now, at least officially. I can finally jump into Cold Steel. Feels good.
 
Thunder84 said:
So, that's a wrap on Azure. 35 hours of playtime, a pretty significant jump over my 30 hours of playtime with Zero. Similar to what I did with Zero and FC, I'm gonna draw some parallels between Azure and SC, as those are the two clear comparison points here.

  • No way around it, the plot here is just outright better in my opinion. Ouroboros's introduction in SC was pretty sloppy, while Azure does a much stronger job of introducing the main players in a natural way. Red Constellation is introduced perfectly, terrible Shirley scene aside, and the threat of Erebonia and Calvard is described very well, being descriptive enough to get invested in without being overbearing. The politics of Trails has always been one of its strong suits, and Azure is loaded with them compared to the more typical JRPG story of SC, so it's no surprise that the former wins out.
    • I want to give a shoutout to the Trade Conference in particular. Might be my favorite Trails chapter yet, pretty much everything here was perfect. The tension, the fanservice, the politics, and the bleak outcome were all handled brilliantly. Can't wait to interact with Osborne more in Cold Steel, 3rd left a strong impression but Azure really hyped him up, he looks to be one hell of an antagonist.
  • In particular, the finale in Azure is better, albeit still not perfect. It's a pretty massive 10+ hour timesink, but the stakes are high enough that it feels mostly justified. Some of the dungeons could've been shortened or cut entirely, particularly retreading through the cult temples, but otherwise they paced it reasonably well given how much ground they had to cover. Much better than SC's finale pacing, in any case.
  • Similar to Zero, side content is handled much better in Azure. The addition of the car makes things even easier to handle compared to Zero, while SC continued to struggle with a lot of the issues that FC had. Add in that the sidequests were generally great (the Olivier one had me rolling), and this is an easy win for Azure.
  • I'll give the nod for combat to Azure, but it's a lot closer than it was between Zero and FC. There's some cool additions like the master quartz and burst meter, but SC felt a bit better balanced to me. The level scaling in Azure is a lot worse too, with some random level jumps (Lloyd was severely underleveled after Chapter 4 compared to everyone else, which was annoying) and some very cheap boss fights near the end of the game. Sigmund in particular was a pain in the ass, using his S-Craft twice in a row and completely obliterating any chance I had at winning.
  • I'll also give the nod for music to Azure, but similar to SC and FC, I think I slightly prefer Zero's OST. It's close though, maybe Azure's will grow on me.
  • Sigmund and Shirley (terrible introduction aside) are both big improvements over the minor Ouroboros enforcers in SC, but beyond that SC wins out in the character department. Randy is absolutely brilliant in Azure, and KeA ended up having a much stronger arc than I was anticipating, but beyond that I wasn't terribly impressed. Lloyd, Noel, and Wazy are all solid enough but not particularly memorable here, Rixia's character arc feels very rushed, and most of the remaining major characters feel like afterthoughts. Sergei and Dudley are completely tossed to the wayside, Elie and Tio add very little to the main party this time around, and most of the other minor characters didn't really leave much of an impression. I guess Mirielle was pretty cool, if she doesn't end up with Randy I will be very sad.
    • I'm not really counting this considering that SC never had the opportunity, but it's really cool to see Azure continue where Zero left off with how it's leveraging pre-existing characters. Seeing Kloe, Julia, Olivier, Mueller, Kevin, and Ries again, even if it's only for a little bit, is still incredibly hype, especially when paired with the main theme for FC/SC and 3rd. Even namedrops for characters like Richard is awesome.
  • Continuing off the previous point, the major antagonists of SC are stronger in my opinion. Weissman isn't deep by any stretch of the imagination, but he's so charismatic that I don't really mind, and the game gives him plenty of screentime. Compared to Mariabell, who was mostly just annoying before her abrupt heel turn, and I prefer Mr. Evil Professor, although I did like Mariabell more once she fully embraced being an asshole. As for the more sympathetic antagonists, I don't think any of them measure up to Loewe or Renne, neither of which were perfect either. Arios and Grimwood both felt like their character arcs were purposefully withheld until the finale for the sake of the plot twist, which made it hard to really buy into their motivations, especially since Grimwood is almost immediately talked out of the plan. Dieter is probably the best non-Jaeger antagonist here, but even his heel turn feels a bit out of nowhere, although I think that's due to the pacing of the story more than anything. Wald is fine, just not particularly interesting.
  • Speaking of the pacing, it's all over the place. They do a good job of building up to the Trade Conference, but once that concludes the story grinds to an immediate halt without really delving into the consequences of the terrorist attack, only to then abruptly hit max speed for an hour with the Red Constellation raid, then grinding to a halt again, and then suddenly there's a 10 page dialogue blurb about how Crossbell is now independent and fighting back against everyone, and then one hour later it's a dictatorship and Lloyd is in prison. That's not to say that SC's pacing was particularly good either (it was all over the place, even before the finale) so this is probably more of a draw than anything, but it's frustrating to see the problem carry over from SC.
  • I absolutely called Dieter and Grimwood as antagonists. Felt pretty good to see that finally come to fruition, even if the execution was pretty messy.
  • Wazy as a dominion was a big surprise, didn't see that coming at all. Cool to see Abbas get a bigger role too.
  • Lechter and Kilika continue to be two of my favorite Trails characters, absolutely love both of them. The little scene between Kloe and Lechter was incredibly sweet. Not sure if Kilika will show up in Cold Steel, but Lechter obviously will, so I can't wait to see more of him.
  • Was very pleasantly surprised that they acknowledged the intro from Zero and the rampant love for KeA. I wrote both of them off as sloppy writing, the former to hide Estelle and Joshua's involvement for spoiler purposes, and the latter to make KeA a stronger motivation for everyone. The fact that both of those things were justified here with KeA's ability to rewrite reality was super cool, and definitely helped improve a few issues I had with Zero.
  • Playable Garcia was awesome, absolutely loved that section.
  • Still very interested in Heiyue, although I imagine they'll take a backseat for a while due to their lack of involvement in Erebonia.
  • The writing here is still somewhat uncomfortable at times. It's so weird how Lloyd is played up as this huge unintentional flirt, when he's literally just talking to women like a normal human being instead of objectifying them. The Shirley scene is also abysmal, and the fact that they kept bringing it up is mind boggling.
  • The ending felt a bit rushed. They were clearly going for something similar to SC by cutting things off right away, but while SC's story and character arcs were mostly resolved by the end, Azure still has a lot of open ended questions that weren't really answered. What will happen with Arios and Grimwood? What about Rixia, now that her identity is known? How did the invasion of Crossbell happen? What was the aftermath of that? That type of stuff just isn't resolved here, and it was definitely a bit unsatisfying.

It's super easy to get swept up in the hype when playing these games; just like Zero, I was thoroughly hooked from start to finish, and I don't really see these issues until I finish. But overall, I really liked Azure a lot. I don't think it's my favorite Trails game so far, that honor still goes to Sky 3rd, but it takes a very solid 2nd place in my rankings.

I mostly can't believe that the franchise is finally playable from start to present now, at least officially. I can finally jump into Cold Steel. Feels good.
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Wow! You flew through the game. By comparison, I’m 26 hours in and sitting outside the point of no return for chapter 2 (the trade conference). Loved reading your big post with all of your insights and opinions. Definitely can’t cover all of them, but I’ll react to a few in spoiler tags.

The one I feel most passionate on, I totally agree some of the writing around Lloyd with women is so frustrating. I haven’t seen the official version of the scene (the script is quite different in select parts vs the fan translation) so I don’t know if it is quite as frustrating, but I remember this scene in the Harbor District that was basically like “it was good working with you” and then Randy and the gang all just lose it and I’m just like what the hell that was an entirely reasonable thing that every normal person on the planet would say. This happens regularly, but that one was so over the top ugh.

Speaking of Lloyd I was super invested in learning the truth of Guy’s murder. Did that make an impression on you? I’m glad you liked the revelation with KeA and the prologue. I remember you not caring for that dynamic in the Zero thread and I was like I can’t say anything now, but I wonder what Thunder is going to think when they get here in Azure.

For character stuff, there’s a lot of development in off the beaten path conversations again, but they very frustratingly took it a step further here by sometimes having big backstory and character resolutions behind the final bonding events. Given how long a playthrough is, that’s extra frustrating. Curious who you picked. I 100% saw Noel’s, Tio’s, and Rixia’s on my prior playthrough and definitely got some side characters though I can’t remember if I got any others (maybe Randy maybe?). I picked Noel ultimately and while I’m spreading my points more this playthrough to hopefully see others, I’m definitely going to look at Youtube this time for whoever I missed. I don’t care for Tio’s, it’s weird in bad way, but I recommend checking out Rixia’s at least since it gives way more insight on her character.

Whenever you continue your Trails journey, I hope you’ll share about it in the RPG thread :)
 
Thunder84 said:
So, that's a wrap on Azure. 35 hours of playtime, a pretty significant jump over my 30 hours of playtime with Zero. Similar to what I did with Zero and FC, I'm gonna draw some parallels between Azure and SC, as those are the two clear comparison points here.

  • No way around it, the plot here is just outright better in my opinion. Ouroboros's introduction in SC was pretty sloppy, while Azure does a much stronger job of introducing the main players in a natural way. Red Constellation is introduced perfectly, terrible Shirley scene aside, and the threat of Erebonia and Calvard is described very well, being descriptive enough to get invested in without being overbearing. The politics of Trails has always been one of its strong suits, and Azure is loaded with them compared to the more typical JRPG story of SC, so it's no surprise that the former wins out.
    • I want to give a shoutout to the Trade Conference in particular. Might be my favorite Trails chapter yet, pretty much everything here was perfect. The tension, the fanservice, the politics, and the bleak outcome were all handled brilliantly. Can't wait to interact with Osborne more in Cold Steel, 3rd left a strong impression but Azure really hyped him up, he looks to be one hell of an antagonist.
  • In particular, the finale in Azure is better, albeit still not perfect. It's a pretty massive 10+ hour timesink, but the stakes are high enough that it feels mostly justified. Some of the dungeons could've been shortened or cut entirely, particularly retreading through the cult temples, but otherwise they paced it reasonably well given how much ground they had to cover. Much better than SC's finale pacing, in any case.
  • Similar to Zero, side content is handled much better in Azure. The addition of the car makes things even easier to handle compared to Zero, while SC continued to struggle with a lot of the issues that FC had. Add in that the sidequests were generally great (the Olivier one had me rolling), and this is an easy win for Azure.
  • I'll give the nod for combat to Azure, but it's a lot closer than it was between Zero and FC. There's some cool additions like the master quartz and burst meter, but SC felt a bit better balanced to me. The level scaling in Azure is a lot worse too, with some random level jumps (Lloyd was severely underleveled after Chapter 4 compared to everyone else, which was annoying) and some very cheap boss fights near the end of the game. Sigmund in particular was a pain in the ass, using his S-Craft twice in a row and completely obliterating any chance I had at winning.
  • I'll also give the nod for music to Azure, but similar to SC and FC, I think I slightly prefer Zero's OST. It's close though, maybe Azure's will grow on me.
  • Sigmund and Shirley (terrible introduction aside) are both big improvements over the minor Ouroboros enforcers in SC, but beyond that SC wins out in the character department. Randy is absolutely brilliant in Azure, and KeA ended up having a much stronger arc than I was anticipating, but beyond that I wasn't terribly impressed. Lloyd, Noel, and Wazy are all solid enough but not particularly memorable here, Rixia's character arc feels very rushed, and most of the remaining major characters feel like afterthoughts. Sergei and Dudley are completely tossed to the wayside, Elie and Tio add very little to the main party this time around, and most of the other minor characters didn't really leave much of an impression. I guess Mirielle was pretty cool, if she doesn't end up with Randy I will be very sad.
    • I'm not really counting this considering that SC never had the opportunity, but it's really cool to see Azure continue where Zero left off with how it's leveraging pre-existing characters. Seeing Kloe, Julia, Olivier, Mueller, Kevin, and Ries again, even if it's only for a little bit, is still incredibly hype, especially when paired with the main theme for FC/SC and 3rd. Even namedrops for characters like Richard is awesome.
  • Continuing off the previous point, the major antagonists of SC are stronger in my opinion. Weissman isn't deep by any stretch of the imagination, but he's so charismatic that I don't really mind, and the game gives him plenty of screentime. Compared to Mariabell, who was mostly just annoying before her abrupt heel turn, and I prefer Mr. Evil Professor, although I did like Mariabell more once she fully embraced being an asshole. As for the more sympathetic antagonists, I don't think any of them measure up to Loewe or Renne, neither of which were perfect either. Arios and Grimwood both felt like their character arcs were purposefully withheld until the finale for the sake of the plot twist, which made it hard to really buy into their motivations, especially since Grimwood is almost immediately talked out of the plan. Dieter is probably the best non-Jaeger antagonist here, but even his heel turn feels a bit out of nowhere, although I think that's due to the pacing of the story more than anything. Wald is fine, just not particularly interesting.
  • Speaking of the pacing, it's all over the place. They do a good job of building up to the Trade Conference, but once that concludes the story grinds to an immediate halt without really delving into the consequences of the terrorist attack, only to then abruptly hit max speed for an hour with the Red Constellation raid, then grinding to a halt again, and then suddenly there's a 10 page dialogue blurb about how Crossbell is now independent and fighting back against everyone, and then one hour later it's a dictatorship and Lloyd is in prison. That's not to say that SC's pacing was particularly good either (it was all over the place, even before the finale) so this is probably more of a draw than anything, but it's frustrating to see the problem carry over from SC.
  • I absolutely called Dieter and Grimwood as antagonists. Felt pretty good to see that finally come to fruition, even if the execution was pretty messy.
  • Wazy as a dominion was a big surprise, didn't see that coming at all. Cool to see Abbas get a bigger role too.
  • Lechter and Kilika continue to be two of my favorite Trails characters, absolutely love both of them. The little scene between Kloe and Lechter was incredibly sweet. Not sure if Kilika will show up in Cold Steel, but Lechter obviously will, so I can't wait to see more of him.
  • Was very pleasantly surprised that they acknowledged the intro from Zero and the rampant love for KeA. I wrote both of them off as sloppy writing, the former to hide Estelle and Joshua's involvement for spoiler purposes, and the latter to make KeA a stronger motivation for everyone. The fact that both of those things were justified here with KeA's ability to rewrite reality was super cool, and definitely helped improve a few issues I had with Zero.
  • Playable Garcia was awesome, absolutely loved that section.
  • Still very interested in Heiyue, although I imagine they'll take a backseat for a while due to their lack of involvement in Erebonia.
  • The writing here is still somewhat uncomfortable at times. It's so weird how Lloyd is played up as this huge unintentional flirt, when he's literally just talking to women like a normal human being instead of objectifying them. The Shirley scene is also abysmal, and the fact that they kept bringing it up is mind boggling.
  • The ending felt a bit rushed. They were clearly going for something similar to SC by cutting things off right away, but while SC's story and character arcs were mostly resolved by the end, Azure still has a lot of open ended questions that weren't really answered. What will happen with Arios and Grimwood? What about Rixia, now that her identity is known? How did the invasion of Crossbell happen? What was the aftermath of that? That type of stuff just isn't resolved here, and it was definitely a bit unsatisfying.

It's super easy to get swept up in the hype when playing these games; just like Zero, I was thoroughly hooked from start to finish, and I don't really see these issues until I finish. But overall, I really liked Azure a lot. I don't think it's my favorite Trails game so far, that honor still goes to Sky 3rd, but it takes a very solid 2nd place in my rankings.

I mostly can't believe that the franchise is finally playable from start to present now, at least officially. I can finally jump into Cold Steel. Feels good.
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30 hours for Zero is damned quick, I think I beat it in 45-50 and that was with double speed on almost the entire time!
 
xghost777 said:
Wow! You flew through the game. By comparison, I’m 26 hours in and sitting outside the point of no return for chapter 2 (the trade conference). Loved reading your big post with all of your insights and opinions. Definitely can’t cover all of them, but I’ll react to a few in spoiler tags.

The one I feel most passionate on, I totally agree some of the writing around Lloyd with women is so frustrating. I haven’t seen the official version of the scene (the script is quite different in select parts vs the fan translation) so I don’t know if it is quite as frustrating, but I remember this scene in the Harbor District that was basically like “it was good working with you” and then Randy and the gang all just lose it and I’m just like what the hell that was an entirely reasonable thing that every normal person on the planet would say. This happens regularly, but that one was so over the top ugh.

Speaking of Lloyd I was super invested in learning the truth of Guy’s murder. Did that make an impression on you? I’m glad you liked the revelation with KeA and the prologue. I remember you not caring for that dynamic in the Zero thread and I was like I can’t say anything now, but I wonder what Thunder is going to think when they get here in Azure.

For character stuff, there’s a lot of development in off the beaten path conversations again, but they very frustratingly took it a step further here by sometimes having big backstory and character resolutions behind the final bonding events. Given how long a playthrough is, that’s extra frustrating. Curious who you picked. I 100% saw Noel’s, Tio’s, and Rixia’s on my prior playthrough and definitely got some side characters though I can’t remember if I got any others (maybe Randy maybe?). I picked Noel ultimately and while I’m spreading my points more this playthrough to hopefully see others, I’m definitely going to look at Youtube this time for whoever I missed. I don’t care for Tio’s, it’s weird in bad way, but I recommend checking out Rixia’s at least since it gives way more insight on her character.

Whenever you continue your Trails journey, I hope you’ll share about it in the RPG thread :)
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The Guy Bannings murder was a lot more intriguing for me in Zero, given that the stakes were much more grounded. Azure reaches such extreme highs that it got lost in the shuffle a bit for me, so the end conclusion felt a bit rushed like everything else. Guy was barely mentioned for most of the game (at least of what I saw), and then suddenly Arios is claiming to be his killer, and then it was actually Grimwood all along. Wish they had spent a bit more time on that.

You weren't joking about the bonding events having some serious character moments, just watched all of them. I actually didn't get any of them somehow, despite checking with everyone before the Crossbell liberation. Thought I'd have more than enough with Elie and/or Randy, but I guess not. Regardless, locking such major character content behind optional and easily missable scenes likes that is very frustrating, definitely a step back from Sky which gave you everything, no strings attached. The hidden content in general is one of my larger complains with the Crossbell duology; I get the appeal for it, as it incentivizes exploring Crossbell on your own time, but it's so easy to miss certain events and there's no way to know if you missed something or not. It feels awesome when you stumble upon a hidden sidequest on your own time (if I remember correctly, the Xin sidequest is dependent entirely on checking Heiyue by chance, thank goodness I did), but the lack of any confirmation makes it more of a negative change than a positive one.

I guess the bonding events was their way of trying to inject some Persona-esque dating sim type stuff into the game, but it just feels pointless. Even the romantic aspect doesn't need them; Kloe's love for Joshua was handled really well in Sky, and that didn't need any sort of optional bonding event. Noel should've been handled in the same way.

Another minor gripe is character ages, my god this cast is too young. They could've easily added +5 to everyone's age and I wouldn't bat an eye, hell it'd make a lot more sense than it does as it stands.
 
Thunder84 said:
The Guy Bannings murder was a lot more intriguing for me in Zero, given that the stakes were much more grounded. Azure reaches such extreme highs that it got lost in the shuffle a bit for me, so the end conclusion felt a bit rushed like everything else. Guy was barely mentioned for most of the game (at least of what I saw), and then suddenly Arios is claiming to be his killer, and then it was actually Grimwood all along. Wish they had spent a bit more time on that.

You weren't joking about the bonding events having some serious character moments, just watched all of them. I actually didn't get any of them somehow, despite checking with everyone before the Crossbell liberation. Thought I'd have more than enough with Elie and/or Randy, but I guess not. Regardless, locking such major character content behind optional and easily missable scenes likes that is very frustrating, definitely a step back from Sky which gave you everything, no strings attached. The hidden content in general is one of my larger complains with the Crossbell duology; I get the appeal for it, as it incentivizes exploring Crossbell on your own time, but it's so easy to miss certain events and there's no way to know if you missed something or not. It feels awesome when you stumble upon a hidden sidequest on your own time (if I remember correctly, the Xin sidequest is dependent entirely on checking Heiyue by chance, thank goodness I did), but the lack of any confirmation makes it more of a negative change than a positive one.

I guess the bonding events was their way of trying to inject some Persona-esque dating sim type stuff into the game, but it just feels pointless. Even the romantic aspect doesn't need them; Kloe's love for Joshua was handled really well in Sky, and that didn't need any sort of optional bonding event. Noel should've been handled in the same way.

Another minor gripe is character ages, my god this cast is too young. They could've easily added +5 to everyone's age and I wouldn't bat an eye, hell it'd make a lot more sense than it does as it stands.
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Yeah from what I’ve been playing this playthrough Guy does get brought up a good bit, but a lot of it is off to the side. Like talking with Cecile and Leyte or visiting the cemetery quite a bit. There’s a long conversation with Nielsen on Guy’s murder, but I don’t remember if it is critical path or not.

Yeah Xin is a hidden quest, which is a shame because he adds a good deal to the world and even makes another side quest (train inspection) even better.

Glad you checked out the final bonding events on Youtube. I played this series with Western release order, so roughly Sky, Cold Steel, and then Crossbell. I really appreciate Crossbell having such an open structure with the full world regularly open to see what it is like as well as the hidden relationship system, but I’m very glad they never did either of those again. It’s so daunting on both fronts! I think Sky FC is still my favorite world/adventure structure for Trails. Between Crossbell and Cold Steel, I prefer the latter for bonding stuff generally.

Agreed on the character ages. Like even the ones where it is less a problem it still feels distractingly goofy when it comes up.
 
Thunder84 said:
The Guy Bannings murder was a lot more intriguing for me in Zero, given that the stakes were much more grounded. Azure reaches such extreme highs that it got lost in the shuffle a bit for me, so the end conclusion felt a bit rushed like everything else. Guy was barely mentioned for most of the game (at least of what I saw), and then suddenly Arios is claiming to be his killer, and then it was actually Grimwood all along. Wish they had spent a bit more time on that.

You weren't joking about the bonding events having some serious character moments, just watched all of them. I actually didn't get any of them somehow, despite checking with everyone before the Crossbell liberation. Thought I'd have more than enough with Elie and/or Randy, but I guess not. Regardless, locking such major character content behind optional and easily missable scenes likes that is very frustrating, definitely a step back from Sky which gave you everything, no strings attached. The hidden content in general is one of my larger complains with the Crossbell duology; I get the appeal for it, as it incentivizes exploring Crossbell on your own time, but it's so easy to miss certain events and there's no way to know if you missed something or not. It feels awesome when you stumble upon a hidden sidequest on your own time (if I remember correctly, the Xin sidequest is dependent entirely on checking Heiyue by chance, thank goodness I did), but the lack of any confirmation makes it more of a negative change than a positive one.

I guess the bonding events was their way of trying to inject some Persona-esque dating sim type stuff into the game, but it just feels pointless. Even the romantic aspect doesn't need them; Kloe's love for Joshua was handled really well in Sky, and that didn't need any sort of optional bonding event. Noel should've been handled in the same way.

Another minor gripe is character ages, my god this cast is too young. They could've easily added +5 to everyone's age and I wouldn't bat an eye, hell it'd make a lot more sense than it does as it stands.
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Needing to add +5 to character ages is a thing in a lot of JRPGs, no doubt. I’m kind of used to it at this point but it always feels bizarre and off if you actually stop to think about it.
 
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xghost777 said:
Yeah from what I’ve been playing this playthrough Guy does get brought up a good bit, but a lot of it is off to the side. Like talking with Cecile and Leyte or visiting the cemetery quite a bit. There’s a long conversation with Nielsen on Guy’s murder, but I don’t remember if it is critical path or not.

Yeah Xin is a hidden quest, which is a shame because he adds a good deal to the world and even makes another side quest (train inspection) even better.

Glad you checked out the final bonding events on Youtube. I played this series with Western release order, so roughly Sky, Cold Steel, and then Crossbell. I really appreciate Crossbell having such an open structure with the full world regularly open to see what it is like as well as the hidden relationship system, but I’m very glad they never did either of those again. It’s so daunting on both fronts! I think Sky FC is still my favorite world/adventure structure for Trails. Between Crossbell and Cold Steel, I prefer the latter for bonding stuff generally.

Agreed on the character ages. Like even the ones where it is less a problem it still feels distractingly goofy when it comes up.
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Someday I'll probably come back to these games with a walkthrough and give them a full comb over, just like I did with the Sky games. I might end up waiting for the entirety of Kuro to release before I get into that arc, and it seems that Reverie is a good pause point for the franchise anyway, so that might be when I come back to these games. Wouldn't be surprised if I felt differently in the future; Sky 3rd went from my least favorite to my favorite upon replay, and vice versa for SC, so my opinions are hardly set in stone.
 
Haven’t posted in a bit. I wrapped up Chapter 2 on Monday which was excellent. I really love how that chapter develops and the major end of chapter sequence is incredible. The whole thing stands strong just off Zero, but is immensely satisfying with the weight of four games behind it.

Then I hit the part of the game I was dreading most, the Intermission. Without going into specifics there is an intimidating array of choices here across the entire section that can affect final bonding scenes. I get choice paralysis when it comes to both story and bonding decisions in general, so a giant cluster of it is the worst for me lol. I put it off a day, did a smidge one day, and finished it tonight. I had seen most of the variations in my prior playthrough and there’s certainly a spread in quality, but the added voice acting really transformed a few of the best ones for the better where you could really read more into them. I made it way worse for myself reloading a bunch then again, figuring out how I wanted to spread bonding points around by staring at guides and forum posts (there’s actually a visible affection gauge in Records I learned in this version at least which pushed me over to set down the path of creating a perfect file for the main party lol), and then constructing the canon run for the ordering of choices which is unnecessary.

I’m finally in Chapter 3 so I imagine my playthrough is back on track. Eager to keep going now tomorrow!
 
xghost777 said:
Haven’t posted in a bit. I wrapped up Chapter 2 on Monday which was excellent. I really love how that chapter develops and the major end of chapter sequence is incredible. The whole thing stands strong just off Zero, but is immensely satisfying with the weight of four games behind it.

Then I hit the part of the game I was dreading most, the Intermission. Without going into specifics there is an intimidating array of choices here across the entire section that can affect final bonding scenes. I get choice paralysis when it comes to both story and bonding decisions in general, so a giant cluster of it is the worst for me lol.
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I finished chapter 2 last night and find myself in the same spot! While I have followed walkthroughs so I don't miss hidden quests, items, or bonding opportunities, it feels like I have to make some choices and just stick with them. As much as I love Trails, I have never replayed any of them up to this point due to the big time commitment. It feels like this adds extra pressure to any choices I make. Overall, I recognize these things aren't THAT important, but I get what you're saying with choice paralysis.

On a more exciting note, I have some time off and don't need to return to work until April 3rd! While I'm not taking a real-life vacation, I will get to immerse myself in Crossbell a lot more in the coming days. With this being my first time playing Azure, I can't wait to see how things unfold in the game's second half.
 
Just hit the 31 hours, currently in Chapter 3 Day 2. One thing I noticed that some items like U-material, a item that was scarce in Zero, is very available, thats a nice touch.
 
I’m working on clearing Chapter 3 Day 2 tonight and this day has some of my favorite side quests in the game. The fill in worker side quest is great fun from start to finish especially with Tio’s journey alongside it (who incidentally has incredible dialogue on the subject throughout the game). The merchant investigation one is fun in Azure itself as you piece together the puzzle, but what I really love about it is its place in the series:

Minith obviously is the one who swindles the Capua Family out of their home. So overall you meet those characters in Sky and get bits of their back story, in Azure you meet the swindler and see him in action and learn their house is a suburb now, and in the Cold Steel games you see the house yourself. IIRC you encounter Minith again too? What a cool thread to follow over a decade of storytelling.
 
I just went through the final part of chapter 3 onto Chapter 4 and wow. Rollercoaster of emotions lol.

Btw is the track "To be continue" is a 10/10 track.
 
I really enjoyed the Chapter 3 sidequest where:

You go after the counterfeit trader. It's so ridiculous and over-the-top compared to other quests, and it made me laugh a lot.
 
Started Azure today and finished the prologue. Feeling right at home with all menues and UI getting only minor changes in design and color. Having Dudley and Arios in your party right at the beginning was a nice surprise. Even more appreciated is (minor Cold Steel spoiler) Kevin and Ries's appearance, knowing they don't show up after Azure. I wonder who else I know from earlier and later games will show up here and I can't wait to see what happened in Crossbell during the events in CS1/2.

I didn't know that Master Quarz were introduced in Azure. It really feels like right in the middle between Sky and Cold Steel gameplay-wise.

Also, I can't believe how fast some of you are. It took me 80 hours to finish Zero and Azure will probably end up around 95 hours.
 
I had a lot of time and enthusiasm to play today so I managed to finish the last two days of Chapter 3 and completed the start of Chapter 4. This is probably my favorite stretch of the game. When I often describe Azure, I regularly say it plays for keeps in a way some of the other Trails games don’t. This stretch is an excellent, satisfying example of it. There’s a particularly tough boss fight in this stretch too and I managed to get it to half health and barely manage to have one character survive after more than ten attempts. I had two minutes left on the clock with this most successful run, so I just let it run down then. Perfect DP eludes me again, but I’m really happy my team did as well as it did. For me at least, this is the toughest fight in the series and the only one I haven’t been able to fully beat.

I just crossed the 50 hour mark so it’s a good time to reflect a bit further. I’m pretty pleased how smooth this replay has been going so far and it really has deepened my love for the game further. I have some other games I’m very eager to get back to, but it’s very hard to put Azure down once I start for the day lol. I’m glad more people are picking the game up too, since it’s been fun to play alongside everyone. We’ll see how it goes with my week a bit up in the air, but the way I’m playing I’m beginning to wonder if I might be beating Azure this week.
 
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Sitting outside the final boss for chapter 4 at this point. Chapter 4 is definitely one of my favorite chapters in the game. Checking in on the town each day is excellent as everyone reacts to the unfolding events (one of my favorite details on replay were characters who were absent on Day 1). Another one of my favorite side quests in the game is in this stretch too with Nielsen as it sets the stage perfectly for the big reveals to come. As for the story from when I last posted, even though I just played this game two years ago I actually forgot one of the bigger details on how everything comes together this chapter which made it far cooler than I was expecting going through it again. A few days ago I thought I’d be juggling the other games I’m interested in right now or that I might take a break, but nope I’m all in as I enter the final stretch.
 
xghost777 said:
Sitting outside the final boss for chapter 4 at this point. Chapter 4 is definitely one of my favorite chapters in the game. Checking in on the town each day is excellent as everyone reacts to the unfolding events (one of my favorite details on replay were characters who were absent on Day 1). Another one of my favorite side quests in the game is in this stretch too with Nielsen as it sets the stage perfectly for the big reveals to come. As for the story from when I last posted, even though I just played this game two years ago I actually forgot one of the bigger details on how everything comes together this chapter which made it far cooler than I was expecting going through it again. A few days ago I thought I’d be juggling the other games I’m interested in right now or that I might take a break, but nope I’m all in as I enter the final stretch.
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Totally agree on Chapter 4. I am mad cause I missed the first Nielsen hidden quest. The reason I found out was I used a guide for fishing and I saw all the quest only to see some I never encountered 🙃 🙃 . Now I know for a future run lol.
 
Even though I have done every side quest and selected all the right dialogue choices, I feel like first rank DP might not happen for me because of DP locked behind impossible boss fights. Things started getting dicey in chapter 3, but then in chapter 4 it really started to irritate me.

I did manage to meet the requirement on Demon Wald after retrying a lot, and I know I beat Shirley within the turn limit. However, chapter 4 is where things start getting ridiculous.

Warning: this next part is a bit of a rant. It just really annoyed me.

After retrying MANY times against Sigmund, I finally managed to get him below half of his health. I didn't want to push my luck any more after that, and it only cost me 2 DP. Fine. But then Arios happened. I set up the Lloyd evasion strategy all the guides talk about, where you get him and Arios alone on one corner and then huddle everyone else in a faraway corner. I was slowly but surely getting his health down, even surviving an S-Craft thanks to adamantine guard, but then it happened.

I put up Tio's Zero Field to buy some time for healing, but then he used this arcane gale ability which apparently can ignore Zero Field? And then he spammed it like 3 times in a row, jumping all the way across the map to get the other party members. I get having difficult bosses, but locking 5 DP behind something that broken js just ridiculous. And the worst part is that you can't even hit a retry button. Sigmunds fight was kind of stupid, but at least you could retry if you wipe out. The story just continues no matter what happens with Arios, so if you WANT to retry, you have to go through long cutscenes again without a skip button.

I don't want to make it sound like I hate the game. In fact, it's quite the opposite! Being at a turning point in the game, I'm really excited to keep playing and get to the resolution. I'm just very frustrated with the DP system right now, after doing basically everything right up until chapter 4. I hope I can get max rank, but I'm not really counting on it now, especially if there's more DP locked behind bosses later on.
 
Gengar said:
Even though I have done every side quest and selected all the right dialogue choices, I feel like first rank DP might not happen for me because of DP locked behind impossible boss fights. Things started getting dicey in chapter 3, but then in chapter 4 it really started to irritate me.

I did manage to meet the requirement on Demon Wald after retrying a lot, and I know I beat Shirley within the turn limit. However, chapter 4 is where things start getting ridiculous.

Warning: this next part is a bit of a rant. It just really annoyed me.

After retrying MANY times against Sigmund, I finally managed to get him below half of his health. I didn't want to push my luck any more after that, and it only cost me 2 DP. Fine. But then Arios happened. I set up the Lloyd evasion strategy all the guides talk about, where you get him and Arios alone on one corner and then huddle everyone else in a faraway corner. I was slowly but surely getting his health down, even surviving an S-Craft thanks to adamantine guard, but then it happened.

I put up Tio's Zero Field to buy some time for healing, but then he used this arcane gale ability which apparently can ignore Zero Field? And then he spammed it like 3 times in a row, jumping all the way across the map to get the other party members. I get having difficult bosses, but locking 5 DP behind something that broken js just ridiculous. And the worst part is that you can't even hit a retry button. Sigmunds fight was kind of stupid, but at least you could retry if you wipe out. The story just continues no matter what happens with Arios, so if you WANT to retry, you have to go through long cutscenes again without a skip button.

I don't want to make it sound like I hate the game. In fact, it's quite the opposite! Being at a turning point in the game, I'm really excited to keep playing and get to the resolution. I'm just very frustrated with the DP system right now, after doing basically everything right up until chapter 4. I hope I can get max rank, but I'm not really counting on it now, especially if there's more DP locked behind bosses later on.
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I was able to beat Arios somehow on my first playthrough after like 20 tries. I did over 10 tries just now on Switch with my current party and I got so close one run as I got him down to barely 6,000 HP. Then it happened just like it happened to you, four back to back Arcane Gales which sucks! I tried to pick up the pieces multiple times and with the bad luck I had Arios grabbed three(!) 10% HP boosts and at that point I just gave up in frustration. I didn’t plan for an evasion tank which I’m positive would have helped (I always have them with Fie and Kurt in the Cold Steel games since it is much easier to set up) and I foolishly forgot to upgrade my gear this chapter which I had intended to do. I’m making a back up save in case I feel like trying again, but I’ve done it before so I’m moving on. If this was my first time playing and I got as close as I did, I would have kept trying. If you could instantly retry that’d be nice too.

For anyone who wants to conquer him, buffs/debuffs and luck with distance and dodging is a good general strategy. You also can mitigate his own buffs during a well timed Burst.

I googled DP ranks btw, don’t stress the bosses if you did everything else thankfully.

Edit: More of above: I still tried my best on the canon run and got him down to 6,000 again and he then attacked four times in a row, again. Tried to pick up the pieces but failed again. Ugh. Done with chapter 4 I guess…
 
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Just entered the Final Chapter after crossing the 60 hour mark. The stuff between the final Chapter 4 boss fight and the Final Chapter is excellent. I don’t remember how long it is exactly, but I’m excited to start tackling the final stretch tomorrow.
 
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