Axe

@wingblade

they/them
axebinondo.com/


Artist, game dev, musician and writer. In my normal era.

Just finished covering the Zero Escape franchise on @ZeroContext so I'm currently free from video games.

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Axe @wingblade7/10/2023, 2:08 AM

Tom @iiotenki

Ian Kelly @ltsquigs7/10/2023, 12:14 AM

It will never not be funny to me that they made a random reference to Cold Steel in Tokyo Xanadu by having there be a "Magical Alisa" series be an in-universe thing which now has resulted in them making a (short) but real shmup in Trails into Reverie as a mini game.

One of my absolutely favorite little details of this whole thing too is that within the shmups story (because of course this minigame has its own story and cutscenes), all the scenes that take place in the real world are clearly areas from Tokyo Xanadu. For example the background in the follow screenshot is clearly the Brick Alley map from that game.

Tom @iiotenki7/10/2023, 12:53 AM

Dunno how many folks are out there playing Reverie at the moment, but this segment is all mine! I had a lot of fun translating this doofy little plotline. It warms my heart to see it get any attention at all. It was a really nice change of pace to write magical girl material for once in my career, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. 😌

#trails into reverie #Magical Alisa

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in reply to @ltsquigs's post:

Tom @iiotenki7/10/2023, 12:48 AM

As the guy who translated all that, I just wanna say, if there's only one person on this entire site I could trust to post about this minigame, it's definitely you, and for that, I thank you. 😌

(Also I've had like a year and a half to sit on that material and how did I never put two and two together until now, what the hell. 😩)

Ian Kelly @ltsquigs7/10/2023, 4:18 AM

I've only seen the first minigame for it so far, but it was good! Good Jorb!

Tom @iiotenki7/10/2023, 2:38 PM

Thanks! Glad to hear it's up to snuff! 🙏

in reply to @iiotenki's post:

The Fru Fru Brigade~@Fru-Fru-Brigade7/10/2023, 12:57 AM

I really need to start on the Trails series. Does Reverie require any prior knowledge of other branches to be best enjoyed? (Have played Tokyo Xanadu, and should play more, 'cause it's kind of neat, and may have been one of the influences on my [post-]Cyberpunk magical girl TTPRG idea, or at least a certain aspect of it.

Tom @iiotenki7/10/2023, 1:20 AM

Reverie closes the book on two separate and really long-running plot arcs, so it's really not meant to be an entry point for newcomers. You could maybe start at Cold Steel 3 and ultimately do okay, but I'd say Cold Steel 1 is the much safer starting point overall. If you really want to be thorough, then the previous duology, Zero and Azure, is probably the actual best starting point. They stand enough on their own that if you decided to stop there, you'd have a perfectly meaty experience. I really like Cold Steel, warts and all, but when we're talking about 5 games that are 75+ hours a pop, it's a much bigger ask for sure.

I have a soft spot for Tokyo Xanadu, too, actually. That was one of the first games I imported with my first paycheck from localization work about a decade ago. As someone who'll always consider Falcom an action game dev first, it gave that part of my brain warm, fuzzy feelings ahaha.

The Fru Fru Brigade~@Fru-Fru-Brigade7/10/2023, 1:40 AM

Actually, already have Trails in the Sky Part 1. Just need to... actually... start it. That's been weirdly hard.

Apsup @Apsup7/10/2023, 1:35 AM

Not far enough in the game to have seen this myself, but definitely looking forward playing Magical Alisa's adventures as well as other minigames.

Love that they took that little bit of nonsense from Tokyo Xanadu and played more with it.