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Sen 3 new info: brief recap + comments

AAAAAAAH. *screams in excitment* 

We’ve got some info, guys! And images too :D

Septian Calendar, year 1206. After Crossbell, Erebonia annexed even the Nord Highlands as a province and it is planning to invade North Ambria as well. The Imperial government has centralized its power and the Four Great Houses no longer rule the four Provinces. 

Thors Military Academy, to which Crown Prince Cedric is now enrolled too (yay, theory confirmed!), has now opened a Second Branch in the city of Revees, in Western Erebonia. 

Rean works as an instructor for the Second Branch. The headmaster of this Second Branch is said to be a former commander of the Noble Alliance.

(I’d bet on Aurelia LeGuin or Bardias, since they had so little space in CS2 despite being introduced as very powerful characters. Rufus should be the governor of the Crossbell Province, so I don’t think he’d be the headmaster too). 

Olivert and the rest of former Thors staff have been removed from their positions.

Rean is now 20 and works as an instructor. Apparently, he keeps regularly in contact with his former classmates and his relationship with Patrick changed significantly during their last year as Thors students.

His “Ogre” power is said to be growing unstable and uncontrollable. 

Altina still works as an Intelligent Division agent and has been sent to the Second Branch as a student after Rean started working there.

According to Kondo, we’ll get to know her better and we’ll finally discover the mysteries surrounding her birth and her connection to Millium. 

Blue-Haired-kun is Kurt Vander. Yes, Vander: he’s Mueller’s brother!

I repeat: MUELLER’S BROTHER, OMGGG. 

...Well, apparently Osborne dismissed the Vander family from their job as bodyguards of the Reise-Arnor Family. Kurt was very disappointed and decided to not enroll at Thors, but Mueller convinced him to join the Second Branch. 

Pink-haired-girl is Yuna Crawford. The fact she wields tonfa just like Lloyd is not casual: she comes from Crossbell and she’s a big fan of the SSS. She wanted to join the Crossbell Police but then Erebonian invaded her country. She joined Thors upon invitation from a certain someone. This certain someone should be someone we already know... Mmmh, I’ve honestly no clue right now: Toval, maybe? Let me know if you have any theory about it!

So yay, now we know two of the new characters!

Green-Haired-Girl is still nameless and there’s also this guy: 

Who might he be? 

Another instructor at the Second Branch, maybe? Because of the light in the image, I can’t even say for sure if his hair are blonde or white. Or silver. Like, dunno. 

Here’s a scan with Green-Haired-Girl with Altina and Yuna, if you don’t remember her (which I think it’s unlikely, since she’s soooo cute):

SO. CUTE. 

Oh, according to Falcom there will be a “report” on the rest of Class VII members soon. CAN’T WAIT. 

I wonder what they’re doing right now...

Alisa is probably still working with Reinford. Jusis should be in charge of the Albarea Family, but what now that the Four Houses have lost a great deal of their influence?

Fie is probably still out looking for Zephyr’s whereabouts. Maybe she’s still acting with Sara and Toval?

Has Emma found out more about the Hexen Clan? How will her relationship with Vita develop?

LAURA, MY DEAR, HOW STRONG HAVE YOU BECOME IN THIS YEAR AND A HALF?

Is Millium still working as an Ironblood? If so, why she’s not a Thors Second Branch with Rean and Altina?

And what about Claire? Could she be an instructor at the Second Branch?

I also wonder how Gaius will respond to the Highlands being annexed to the Empire. And I also wonder if Machias and Elliot are satisfied with this new state of things in Erebonia, with the nobles no longer above commoners like them. 

Maaaan, I can’t wait!

I’ll probably snap when we’ll get something about the other characters!

O M G 

sources: x | x

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Someone called me out for misspelling “Instructor Sara” as Sera. Then tried to claim that made me a casual.

You don’t out-Rean the Rean.

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Escha and Logy, things you said when you thought I was asleep! (Taking and outside the box fandom today)

>12. things you said when you thought i was asleep

The synthesis had taken five days - five whole days - of constant attention: mixing, combining, stirring… it was a delicate recipe for a volatile substance, and she needed to be alert and careful at all times, through every step of the process. Of course, Logy had insisted on staying in the atelier with her, and no matter how hard she had tried to get him to go home and rest, he wouldn’t budge on the matter. Probably for the best, considering…

“It’s finished!” Escha exclaimed, which apparently consumed the very last dredges of energy she had left within her, and both she and Logy were sure that if he hadn’t already happened to be standing right beside her, she might have fallen head-first into that cauldron of hers out of sheer delirium. She laughed nervously, embarrassed, waited until her vision returned from white to normal and stood up again, wobbly though her legs had become. “S-Sorry about that. I guess I’m a little more tired than I thought.”

“It’s fine,” Logy said, stepping away once he was sure she could stand on her own two feet, “I’m honestly surprised you didn’t pass out before now.”

“I couldn’t! This is supposed to be important, the client really needs it!”

“I know, I know.” He sounded exasperated, but there was an unmistakable fondness to it, though Escha was too tired to truly notice. “And you did an excellent job. You really went all out with this one, didn’t you?”

“Well, yeah, I guess I did!” Her words came on a lilt of a laugh, but then she was yawning mightily, moving toward the couch before she even realized she was doing so. Her face was even smooshed in the cushions long before she knew her eyes were closed.

Logy chuckled, he couldn’t help it. “I’ll deliver the item to the client. You stay on the couch and rest.” She mumbled what might have been a goodbye in response, and with a smile she couldn’t see, he was gone.

As tired as she was, she still hadn’t fallen asleep by the time Logy returned - but she was determined not to move, sure that sleep was on its way. But… she wasn’t expecting to suddenly find herself covered with a blanket, or to hear Logy’s voice so near to her.

“What would I do without you?”

And a few heartbeats later, she felt lips against her cheek - a gentle kiss, hesitant, but heartfelt.

She was sure her heart was melting right there on the spot, but she couldn’t risk moving - what if he hadn’t meant for her to her that? She didn’t want to embarrass him! - but… she needed to let him know that the feeling was entirely mutual. Maybe she’d even find the courage to kiss him, too. But that would have to wait, for just a little while.

Sleep first. Confessions of love later.

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I’m proud to have witnessed the birth of this glorious meme <3

I literally wrote that text, and because I am such meme garbage I then went and proceeded to voice it too.

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New Sen 3 image from Falcom’s Twitter ~ 

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Sen no Kiseki Premium 3D Musical - Others

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Sen no Kiseki Premium 3D Musical - Supporters

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Sen no Kiseki Premium 3D Musical - Class VII

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OMG I’d love to have Cedric as a playable character!

Going by the look of the new blue Thors uniforms, it could mean a new elite class of some kind. Which leaves the possibility that Cedric could be a member of this new class and possibility be playable. Cedric was supposed to enter Thors’ 216th year but was postponed because of the Vermillion Apocalypse incident.

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Thoughts on Sen 3

. Okay, since the first Sen 3 info are out, I thought I'd wrap up my thoughts about it in one single post.                   First things first: I'm reading a lot of negative responses to Sen 3 being PS4 only, but let me tell you I'm completely fine with it, if not happy. Who knows me surely knows that I'm a huge PSVita supporter: I love it, it's my main platform and therefore I'm always rooting for more games to come out for it. I definitely like better playing on the Vita than on the PS4 and I've always played the Trails series on it, despite owning other platforms too.

So why am I completely satisfied with Sen 3 not being on the Vita? The answer should be clear to anyone who played Cold Steel 2: the game was severely restrained by Vita's limits - that's a fact. I want Sen 3 to be a massive JRPG with no restraints whatsoever. I want to freely explore the whole Erebonian Empire and go beyond its border too. I want a more dynamic combat system and especially more dynamic scenes. I want to see Divine Knights battling without critical framerate drops affecting the scene. So yeah, I think PS4 is up to the task and to my eyes this was a smart move. I just hope they’ll find a way to carry over data from CS2 -- Rean cannot forget about his waifu in Sen 3!

Sen 3 will come out in Japan next Fall. Who knows when we’ll see it in the West: it roughly takes a year for a Trails game to be localised by XSEED (and with it I mean by Hatsuu’s team, I’m not referring to Sky’s tragic history), so I guess the closest possible date for us would be Fall 2018. But it’s way too soon to tell: the game might be delayed in Japan. It happens really often these days and for now we barely have a couple of screenshots (I’ll get to them soon), so the development must still be in its early stages. Kondo said they’re working on a lot of things regarding the battle system, so yeah, who knows.

Then there’s the most prominent issue for us Westerners: the Crossbell arc. Although it’s “fine” to play CS and CSII without having played Zero and Ao beforehand, as the two arcs happen simultaneously, things are kinda different with Sen 3. Or with CS2′s Divertissment and Epilogue, for what matters. I sincerely hope we will somehow be able to play the Crossbell arc before Sen 3 comes out in the West. I’d be fine with waiting even more for Sen 3 if we could have Zero and Ao in the meantime. That’s because I’m fully convinced we’ll need the Crossbell arc in order to fully enjoy Sen 3, in which Crossbell is bound to have a prominent role. I hope XSEED will find a way -- there’s no need to nag them as they’ve already made clear that what’s necessary is a steady support to the series. Therefore, people, go and buy Trails -- you won’t be disappointed, that’s for sure. 

I’ve mentioned the screenshots a while ago, so let’s get to them, shall we?

I’ve read on Gu4n’s Twitter that this blue town is Ordis, capital of the Lamare Province: FINALLY! I want to be honest: despite how much I enjoyed Cold Steel 2, the fact it was limited to Eastern Erebonia (and mainly to places we had already visited) bugged me a lot. The characters just go on talking about what’s happening in Western Erebonian and mention cities like Ordis so many times but we never get to actually go there -- that was a bit of a let down, especially because I had been wanting to visit those places since the first game. It seems that in Sen 3 we’ll finally have what we deserve: Erebonia as a whole! Yay!

Cute unknown girl in the screen too. We have two more new faces :

Let’s just call ‘em Green Haired Girl, Pink Haired Girl and Blue Haired Boy to keep it simple, ok?

Well, the three of them are wearing a uniform with an emblem on it: it’s Thors’. 

Same lion, same spot. 

The uniforms also bear a striking resemblance to Class VII’s; however, the color -- the Academy’s most distinctive feat -- changes. These new kids’ uniforms are neither green nor white, so they’re not ordinary students. They must be part of a special class, just as Rean and the others were. 

Okay, time for some speculation then: my guess is that these new guys are members of a new class (Class VIII? or maybe we’ll go back to VI?) established by none other than Osborne. As one of the screenshots shows, in fact, they’re fighing alongside Altina. Yes, that cute white haired girl with a hat we can spot among the party members list is indeed Altina, and it’s made clearer by this clear visual:

Here we can also get a better look of their uniforms and the Thors’ emblem on them is easier to notice. 

(Altina looks even more adorable than she did in CS2, though. I didn’t think it was possible).

Getting back to our new class, the fact that they’re fighting with Altina makes me think that they could be part of an Osborne-established class. It would make sense since two of the Academy’s directors are also two of the Chancellor’s most important supporters -- namely Carl Regnitz and Rufus Albarea. I also read that during the epilogue in CS2 many thought Class VII was being disbanded due to Osborne’s pressures. I wouldn’t say it for sure, but it could make sense if this new class was Osborne’s response to Olivert’s Class VII -- it’s clear that Olivert is pretty much the only one who can seriously oppose him at this point.

Also, the new class has blue uniforms which is kind of a contrast to Class VII’s color, red. It strikes me as curious that red has always been the color used to represent Rean and his Ashen Knight, while blue is surely the color of Crow and his Azure Knight. CS2 concept art also showed a lot of red/blue contrast depicting the conflict between Rean and Crow. 

These new students also wear a kind of medal on their the chest. I couldn’t identify it and I’m pretty curious to know what it is, so if you have any ideas please share them with me!

Brief note on the character’s weapons: Blue Haired Boy wields two swords which remind me a lot of Laura’s sword. I wonder: is he an Arseid practioner? The shape of his swords, however, seems considerably slimmer and maybe shorter too. Dual wielding is not a feature of the Arseid school, so maybe it’s just my imagination. 

Pink Haired Girl wields tonfa, Lloyd’s weapons. Nothing to say, I’m just stating it. Is it a reference to the series or something more?

Since we’re talking about Crossbell, it’s confirmed we’ll get back there! Yay!

For those who didn’t play the Crossbell arc, this is indeed Crossbell. I ask a friend for confirmation and he sent me a reference screen:

(thanks, Hikaru!)

Yeah, well, I didn’t play the Crossbell arc either so there’s not much more that I can say. Both Alisa and Rean are shown in Crossbell, so I guess Rean will be reunited to his former classmates at some point (it’s been confirmed that he’ll still be working under Osborne’s orders when the game begins). 

I think we might have at least two separate teams at the beginning: one with the new Class, Altina and possibly Rean (plus other Ironbloods, I’m guessing Claire and Millium at least and maybe Lechter too) and another team with other playable characters from the previous installments. Well, Sara for sure:

First let me scream: OMG LONG HAIRED SARA, YOU’RE SO BEAUTIFUL!!1111! 

Okay, now I can also add some serious stuff: Sara seems to be tailing Lechter (hair and clothes are certainly his). Lechter is of course on Osborne’s side, while Sara is not. She despises Osborne and his politics, she’s always made it clear -- on the other hand, she’s quite close to Olivert’s ideals, also thanks to the soft spot our prince has come to have for Bracers. That’s why I’m thinking about a Osborne’s team vs Olivert’s team kind of a scenario, at least for the initial part of the game. 

Characters from the Sky’s arc are also bound to make an appearance as playable characters. Yeah. Lemme breath, okay? I’m telling you right know, I’m gonna have a heart attack when some kind of 3D-1080p-grown up Estelle’s image comes up. Seriously, guys, seriously. 

Well, fangirling aside, I cannot picture myself the Sky’s characters anywhere but on Olivert’s side. I really don’t know when they’ll pop out, nor who will, but I’m 100% sure they’re be with Olivert, Sara, Toval and possibly some former Class VII’s members. 

(Pls Falcom, gimme my Estelle, pls don’t let me down)

(And Schera’s too, because of Olivert/Schera)

Okay, that’s about it. I probably didn’t say anything particularly smart and I undoubtedly wrote too much -- sorry about it!

I think I might do some kind of “what I’d like to see in Sen 3″ post in the future, provided I can find the time. 

I wanna end the post with something relevant I have not yet mentioned. We already legitimately screamed over Rean and Alisa’a new designs (Alisa, you’ve never been so pretty!), but I have to say it once more:

Rean, my dear boy, you’ve grown into such a handsome husbando. I’m so proud of you, so so proud of you ♥

And now that you’re so handsome I expect good old Olivert to be hitting on you just like he did with Joshua back in the days xD

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Endless list of favourite characters: ► Laura S. Arseid (Trails of Cold Steel)

“I stake my pride, my soul, my very being on my blade, and wield it to attain ever greater heights. Never could I have imagined there would be anything that would mean as much to me as my path of the sword… at least, not until I met you.”

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Trails of Cold Steel II - Act I

Rean + All Class VII reunions 

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Trails of Cold Steel | Sara Valestein’s Appreciation Post