- Location
- Plato's Cave
Time for the OG competitor in the Marianabowl to show Erika how it's done.
Trails of Tera Steel (Kiseki-inspired Pokemon Academy Quest)
- Thread starter ArvisPresley
- Start date
Time for the OG competitor in the Marianabowl to show Erika how it's done.
- Location
- Earth
The thing is, at that point I'm pretty sure we were already Bond 1/friends with them? So even if we lost, we'd be better able to talk about our feelings and have a, if not completely positive, at least a healthier rivalry than we do at the moment (see that line from the Erika vote option where she'd grok our feelings after the match).
- Pronouns
- He/Him
We're talking about trying to keep up with Nemona and I'm not even sure we'll get our first badge this FE, let alone our 2nd badge at the second FE.
Let's assume we find a new pokemon, and it's 1st-badge level to start (optimistic, but doable). To get our first badge, we've got to pass a DC 18 SKL roll. We have a 80% chance of passing that, which is good, but also a 20% chance of not (since pokemon badge levels don't seem to count for minor fights). Then, we've got to win a 2v3 against a Gym Leader. We'll have to start with our new pokemon, and win a 1v1. Then, hopefully wear down the second one enough for 2nd badge Roland to win a 1v2 with the leader escalating on their 3rd pick because they think we have a 3rd mon to use, which is dicey (I'd say ~50% chance).
Now, say we have our first badge. We're not going to get our 2nd without Renne fighting for us, so that's 4 AP for 4 weeks to try and get them ready to fight. But they need 8 bond points before they'll fight for us, which is 4-8 actions (last event we could get 1-2 bond points based on rolls). Maybe we'll get some bond points this FE, but probably not more than 2. So even will full investment we're not likely to have Renne willing to fight for us by the 2nd FE, and that is absolutely required, because fighting against a numbers advantage with equal badge levels and no type advantage is near impossible (assuming we also get our new PKM to 2nd badge)
We also only have 11 AP total until the 2nd FE, and 4 AP of that is going on Renne. That only leaves 7 AP for other actions - both training our new mon up to 2nd badge level, training Roland, and anything else we want to do. Evolving Roland takes 7-12 training actions depending on rolls, so it's not happening before 2nd FE (and also the mechanical gains for evolution are unclear, narratively it's a obvious power spike but in the mechanics?). And even if we got a 1st badge pokemon, and they gained some XP from the Gym Battle, it's probably still at least 3 Advanced Battle actions to get them to 2nd badge plus training their moves up which has more immediate boosts.
All this to say, because we chose Renne and her eventual power spike over immediate boost, we're not going to get a 2nd badge the 2nd FE. We might not even get our first badge this FE. Meanwhile Nemona will probably have 3 badges by then, and if not, she'll get her third during the 2nd FE.
Let's assume we find a new pokemon, and it's 1st-badge level to start (optimistic, but doable). To get our first badge, we've got to pass a DC 18 SKL roll. We have a 80% chance of passing that, which is good, but also a 20% chance of not (since pokemon badge levels don't seem to count for minor fights). Then, we've got to win a 2v3 against a Gym Leader. We'll have to start with our new pokemon, and win a 1v1. Then, hopefully wear down the second one enough for 2nd badge Roland to win a 1v2 with the leader escalating on their 3rd pick because they think we have a 3rd mon to use, which is dicey (I'd say ~50% chance).
Now, say we have our first badge. We're not going to get our 2nd without Renne fighting for us, so that's 4 AP for 4 weeks to try and get them ready to fight. But they need 8 bond points before they'll fight for us, which is 4-8 actions (last event we could get 1-2 bond points based on rolls). Maybe we'll get some bond points this FE, but probably not more than 2. So even will full investment we're not likely to have Renne willing to fight for us by the 2nd FE, and that is absolutely required, because fighting against a numbers advantage with equal badge levels and no type advantage is near impossible (assuming we also get our new PKM to 2nd badge)
We also only have 11 AP total until the 2nd FE, and 4 AP of that is going on Renne. That only leaves 7 AP for other actions - both training our new mon up to 2nd badge level, training Roland, and anything else we want to do. Evolving Roland takes 7-12 training actions depending on rolls, so it's not happening before 2nd FE (and also the mechanical gains for evolution are unclear, narratively it's a obvious power spike but in the mechanics?). And even if we got a 1st badge pokemon, and they gained some XP from the Gym Battle, it's probably still at least 3 Advanced Battle actions to get them to 2nd badge plus training their moves up which has more immediate boosts.
All this to say, because we chose Renne and her eventual power spike over immediate boost, we're not going to get a 2nd badge the 2nd FE. We might not even get our first badge this FE. Meanwhile Nemona will probably have 3 badges by then, and if not, she'll get her third during the 2nd FE.
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Toaster cult
I Am An Imaginary Living Body
- Location
- Tokyo
- Pronouns
- She/Her
the danger there is it might have solidified a yuri option too early, what use is a marianna bowl with only two competitors
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Trouble is that this particular competitor's only technique is unrequited pining, which Erika already has down pat
- Location
- England
But she doesn't know how it's done either!
She'll just see Erika and go "She got you too, huh?"
So either we get a badge or we get delicious angst?
Sold.
In true Trails fashion, the competition is going to keep growing. It doesn't matter if Erika has the lead. CS2 had three main competitors and CS4 had... Ten?
I might have missed a few in my quick headcount there.
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- Pronouns
- She/Her
See, I may be paranoid, but the phrasing of the Erika lines had me a bit Iffy.
But even with "Greatly Improves Bond" as a benefit, I didn't want to colour our relationship with Erika as a rival, even though that can be a healthy thing for people in the pokemon universe, like Red and Blue. I just wanted Erika to be a good, mostly normal, friend with Mariana. Or at least friend for now. Wink Nudge.
Ostia was a bit better, but at the same time, I think it still ran the risk of giving Mary an inferiority complex, double so since Ostia is a child who is going under some supersoldier program, but Mary doesn't know that. Or doesn't really know the extent of it.
Also, noticed while grabbing the above quotes. @ArvisPresley you misgendered the child!
- Pronouns
- She/They
I might need to review the logs on this one but I'm pretty sure on balance it was people being weird about shipping with a canon character and/or aiming for the "our power will be maximum" option.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
For a majority of people yes, but this was how I always saw the options.
Well, kind of, guess I wasn't as conscious of my thoughts regarding Ostia in that moment, but was still very conscious of not wanting to hurt Erika.
But yes, a majority saw the opportunity to fight Nemona and went "Oooooh, shiny!"
Toaster cult
I Am An Imaginary Living Body
- Location
- Tokyo
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Would we be fighting 3 Pokemon? I just assumed gym 1 was against 2 anyhow. Also presumably the gym trainer DC would get even more in our favor if we were doing the gym trainer battle with 2 rather than one Pokemon. But yeah current plan in my brain is assuming that we win the first Gym challenge which of course, isn't a guarantee, Would just make that Marianna field exchange inferiority complex resolution even more desperately needed and make Mary in those intervening weeks uh. Not very mentally healthy.
Fingers crossed on Miss Mary's dice rolls!
Fingers crossed on Miss Mary's dice rolls!
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Based off of the Informational, it should be a 2v2 (or in our case right now a 1v2)
- Pronouns
- She/They
Yeah my comment made more sense when I misread "I" as "we" in the post I was replying to. Sorry about that.
Still worth remembering that quests are democracies and we don't always all agree on WHY we're voting for something though.
Personally I'm a little unclear on whether gyms match our number of registered Pokémon or if each has a specific number based on badge level.
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- Location
- United Kingdom
Judging by the below quote from the latest update I'm pretty sure it's based on registered Pokémon.
And looking at the requirements again I'm coming more around to the idea of just aiming for one badge per Field Exercise. If both Roland and a hypothetical third mon are high 2 Badge level that might be enough to get us our second badge, and then by the third Exercise we should be able to use Renne.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I wasn't even in the quest at the time so I can claim total ignorance! But regardless, I have two axioms when it comes to SV voting:
1) SV will always choose to pursue maximum personal power. If you can't output biggatons what are you even doing with your life?
2) If a romance option has been locked-in, SV will bite and hold for dear fucking life and never, ever, let go, to a degree of fidelity a Catholic priest would be proud of (he'd be less proud of all the gay, but fuck 'em). I don't think I've ever read a single quest that had an honest to god breakup lol.
None of this is a value judgement, but it is a pattern I noticed and I do think it's funny
1) SV will always choose to pursue maximum personal power. If you can't output biggatons what are you even doing with your life?
2) If a romance option has been locked-in, SV will bite and hold for dear fucking life and never, ever, let go, to a degree of fidelity a Catholic priest would be proud of (he'd be less proud of all the gay, but fuck 'em). I don't think I've ever read a single quest that had an honest to god breakup lol.
None of this is a value judgement, but it is a pattern I noticed and I do think it's funny
- Pronouns
- She/They
It'll be a nice change from ToCS where they pretty immediately gave up on carrying over bond points between games and the only protag with a consistent love interest is Estelle, who predates the system. Poor Rean cashes out every time he gets a date and has to start over.
Toaster cult
I Am An Imaginary Living Body
- Location
- Tokyo
- Pronouns
- She/Her
"I'm in love with you Rean, I'm so glad that we've built up this relationship across the game and its so meaningful to me."
the very next game
"who the fuck invited this clown?"
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I'm a bit curious since I haven't played ToCS, is Rean an actual character with a personality like Estelle, more of a blank self-insert for the player like say Byleth from Three Houses, or maybe a bit in-between like Shepard from Mass Effect?
If it's the blank self-insert it might explain why they gave up on that bond point system.
- Pronouns
- She/They
In fairness, this is perfectly in-character for Alisa. Not so much the rest of the gang.
Rean is (memes to the contrary) quite a developed character with his own personality. He's got his own shit going on and is definitely not a player insert. He's just fallen victim to the marketability of player insert choose-your-waifu mechanics in spite of that, to the detriment of the series's overall writing, imo.
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- Pronouns
- She/Her
Fixed
Must've slipped by me
- Pronouns
- She/Her
To clarify, they don't ACTUALLY give up on the bond system and it stays throughout Cold Steel. There is however a joke because Cold Steel 2 was on the PSP, but Cold Steel 3 was not and thus, you couldn't export your save data from 2>3 making it so you had to completely reset your bond there which was really funny narratively.
Despite everything Rean is a character with a personality. Bit barebones at times, but he's established.
Toaster cult
I Am An Imaginary Living Body
- Location
- Tokyo
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Oh absolutely yeah Rean is very much his own person, I like him he's world's most polite boy. but I do have to mention how funny it is to let Rean date women other than Alisa because the narrative SUPER pushes Alisa x Rean which makes it way funnier for Rean to start dating Laura because of Sword autism
- Location
- England
I imagine even if they check our registered Pokémon, any decent Gym Leader would be swayed by "My third Pokémon is a rescue who doesn't want to battle."
The level of dickishness required to go "Maybe you should have thought of this before taking in an injured creature, caring for them and being willing to accept their boundaries, 3v2 time!" is unheard of in most gym leaders.
Well, there's Surge. But he's lost the job by this point. Surely.
Actual character. There are occasionally decisions for the player to make through him, but they aren't especially meaningful.
"I know that I accepted I deserve to be loved. But then the CS2-3 timeskip / the CS3 finale happened and I clearly don't deserve that so I'm ending this relationship so you can come to your senses."
- Pronouns
- She/They
It's the same with Lloyd and Elie (at least as of Azure. In Zero they weren't scummy (Tio) or brave (Randy) enough to code the max bond romantically, but Noel and Rixia joining the party changed the dynamic massively). Guy with a very obvious and mutual crush gets nowhere because letting players ship him with whoever gets more sales.
Although I suppose we all know that, in the end, the real canon love interest for Rean is Crow, and that doesn't change based on BP.
I still need to play Daybreak, but that guy reads to me like he's probably pretty Dante From The Devil May Cry Series about relationships generally, which would at least avoid this problem.
Toaster cult
I Am An Imaginary Living Body
- Location
- Tokyo
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Would you call it, perhaps, a bad crowmance?
I still havent beaten CS 1 but I see so much Crow Rean yaoi that I'm excited to see how insane that must go in 2-4.
EDIT: had to google cause I didn't know the Crossbell characters the blue catgirl is 14??? why re there so many child soldiers
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[X] East Cortondo Province