Trails of Cold Steel I & II

[Dave55811]

So, as I've said elsewhere, I picked back up Kiseki at the end of February 8th.  I beat it (Cold Steel I) on March 8th, then the day after I got started on Cold Steel II.  As of now, I am working on the Finale.....actually, taking my sweet time.  The walkthrough I've been using lists people to talk to, but there's others I've been talking to that aren't listed.  I dare say that I don't want where I'm at to end, because it's quite peaceful.....but, there's never any time to get feelsy while playing a game, not to mention that I'm exceeding 92(?) hours already.

 

As you all may or may not know, the Cold Steel series depicts events from the Erebonians' perspective, hence why it's called the Erebonia Arc.  Those of you who haven't played the Liberl Arc and the Crossbell Arc are likely to encounter instances where you may not recognize something or someone that is being spoken of, so, obviously, it's not recommended that people start their Kiseki experiences with Cold Steel, despite how modern it is, compared to the previous games' isometric environments utilizing sprites.  Though I say Cold Steel is "modern", it's mostly just some technical thing, particularly the series' jump from sprites to polygonal models.  Gameplay-wise, it's still a tactical RPG just like the previous Kiseki games.  My only real complaint was how the controls felt clunky now and then, as well as how some parts in the game-world were obstructive....but, this is to be expected, because it's a Japanese game from the previous decade.  If I had anything to compare my little issues with, it'd be Akiba's Trip 2: Undead & Undressed, which I played back in January 2015 on the PS4.  Actually, now that I think about it, Akiba's Trip 2 advertised Cold Steel I in some capacity....meaning that I recognized CS1's OP when it played.

 

If any of you are interested, these guides will help you.  Otherwise, is anybody interested in talking about Cold Steels I & II here?

 

EDIT/UPDATE #1 (2025/03/27; 7:09PMCST)

Now I'm in the game's final location.  It's a pretty interesting setup, according to the walkthrough.  I'd think that this would be a bonus element in the main game, like a means to farm for experience-points and powerful items.  I don't plan to grind too much, hopefully.

 

EDIT/UPDATE #2 (2025/03/28; 3:10PMCST)

Welp, as of today, at 2:56PMCST, I beat Trails of Cold Steel II.  The final boss seemed easier than my first attempt last night; last night, I was getting tired, but I figured I'd try to put up a fight.  I think Loa Luciferia was at about half HP when it suddenly sucked up(?) all my party, resulting in immediate defeat.  By that time, I was too tired to try again, so I called it good.  This time, though, likely due to having Emma wear a certain Phantasmal Mirror, I was able to pull through.  The only issues I had with this fight were its "Eins-reeg-veda" attack and its ability to vanish my teammates; Elliot seemed to be its favorite target.  Otherwise, utilizing Chrono Drive, Adamantine Shield, strong Arts attacks, as well as the best Tear Balms & EP Balms, and especially unleashing S-Crafts, helped to make the fight go smoothly.  Thank Aidios, too, because I was expecting this fight to be like that final boss fight in Trails to Azure, where it'd pull off some cheap-ass spatial distortion shit at the very end to wipe out my team.  Actually, when it was at 10,000-ish HP, it roared and emitted some red aura....but, I'll never know what it planned to do, because one more Aria of the Abyss did the trick.

Edited March 28 by Dave55811
Just added an update concerning my progress through CS2.