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At first it was a bit strange since it's a new UI, but I like it and actually find it pretty intuitive (the only thing I did find very out of place was the S-break being R1 rather than triangle), but after literally only 3-4 battles I'd settled in.

I guess I can understand why people might have a hard time seeing the numbers but honestly I didn't have any problems with it. At first I had to actually "find" them, but once I knew the new home of the respective HP/EP/CP gauges/numbers I was okay.

If it's any help my friend has awful eye sight and uses a cunningly placed magnifying panel (like the kind you can get for books/kindles, similar to this) to help her see HUDs/UIs for video games, with the bottom right location of the UI in Cold Steel III I imagine this would be pretty easy to rig up without blocking much of the screen.

I own a couple:

There are the two Udon put out in English, the translations are pretty spotty but they're nice otherwise:

https://www.amazon.ca/Legend-Heroes-Characters-Nihon-Falcom/dp/1926778901/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1462072905&sr=8-2&keywords=legend+of+heroes+udon

https://www.amazon.ca/Legend-Heroes-Illustrations-Nihon-Falcom/dp/192677891X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1462072905&sr=8-1&keywords=legend+of+heroes+udon

I'd recommend the illustration book more, the character book is mostly a composite of stuff already in the games. Also they include the Crossbell games but there's a very clear divide halfway through the books so it's easy to avoid spoilers if you're concerned.

I also own this although I got it off ebay:

http://falcom.jp/mailorder/catalog/b36.html

It has more in the way of concept art and earlier characters designs than the English character book, although a lot of the book is japanese text I can't read.

I also have a fourth book which isn't on that site which is basically a small picture recap of FC that came with copies of the original release of SC. It's pretty cute although it costed me like $20 on ebay despite being pretty small. Omoi no Kiseki, is the name.

e: oh yeah, the ebay links are to Canadian Amazon, maybe switch over to US Amazon if you're American so you don't get gouged on the exchange rate and shipping

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To bring this back to the original post, there really isn't much if anything in the way of environmental concept art in these books. I assume it exists but I don't know if they've ever put it out, at least not for Sky.

>I am currently having difficulty getting in to trails in the sky. I think it is mainly due to me being spoiled by most games working out of the box with the PS4 controller and I am stuck with point and click mouse controls (which aren't actually that bad).

Didn't know there are problems with controller compatibility. If you are OK with spending a bit of additional money, there are adapters for all sorts of controllers by the Taiwanese company Brook that (even though designed to connect a DS4 to a PS2 for instance) also work on PC. That's the one I'm using on my PC (though primarily bought for my PS2). I've tested SC and 3rd with it and it works like a charm. Since they have internal Bluetooth they instantly connect to your controller wirelessly. I can also recommend the PS3 to PS4 adapter by the same company. Here a link to their hompage. All adapter models seem to work on PC as well. I'd just recommend buying the adapter for the specific console you would like to use a DS4 (or DS3) on and use the PC compatibility as a bonus.

Edit: For some reason the Switch one doesn't have Bluetooth though. For that I recommend the Mayflash which should also work on PC like the Brook adapters (haven't tested PC functionality, I may test it when I get back from work today if you want, since I use one of these on my Switch). That one has Bluetooth.

Is your PS3 damaged in any way? I would try opening up your PS3 and de-dusting everything. Have you ever had the Yellow Ring of Death? It could also be a hard drive issue as you say but I've never had an issue with Cold Steel on my stock hard drive and I have like 300 cumulative hours in both CS1 and CS2. Then again, a modern hard drive upgrade can only improve your PS3 experience so if you have multiple games that you play regularly, consider upgrading to an SSHD just because they're so cheap nowadays. Go with an SSHD instead of an SSD. I've read that SSDs can't even be fully utilized by the PS3 due to its older technology so don't even bother. SSHDs still offer a huge improvement over the stock HDD while being easy on the wallet. Here's the link to the SSHD I bought.

It can be slow going, especially starting out, but once you get the basics down there's no harm in just diving right in to something you want to play and just doing some serious dictionary diving/googling to work through it, and honestly you can learn a lot from bashing your head against something like that. So don't feel like you have to spend years studying before you can get anything out of it -- that can be a motivation killer.

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Resources:

One book and one article I really like. Both are pretty linguistics-y so your mileage may vary:

https://www.amazon.com/Strategies-Reading-Japanese-Rational-Approach/dp/0870408941

and

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.460.6925&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Also:

http://maggiesensei.com/ can.. get a smidgen weird for various reasons but it goes pretty in depth

Iiiii will say that I didn't find the A Dictionary of Basic/Intermediate/Advance Grammar terribly useful. A lot of the information in them you can find elsewhere. I thiiink japanesetest4you.com covers a lot of the same stuff, but is searchable (although I think some of their example sentences come from the Tanaka Corpus which has a reputation for Having Weird Translations).

Japanese: A Comprehensive Grammar, 2nd Edition DOES seem to cover a number of grammar points I haven't seen explained elsewhere but it's expensive so yeah.

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(Also I have a personal tool that lets you look up words by: A) Listing out the components/radicals in the word as a while so you don't have to find the entire kanji if you don't know what it is and B) Pulling up components/radicals by configurable keywords so you don't have to like hunt through a grid: https://github.com/amccour/RadKey-4.0/releases The documentation's lacking but I could try to give a walkthrough if it sounds useful to anyone :S)

They're actually surprisingly good quality. I got them both on Amazon for 30 each and I was a bit sceptical about how the quality was but I was pleasantly surprised.


Here's the Amazon links if you wanna check them out:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/192677891X/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_image_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Legend-Heroes-Characters-SC/dp/1926778901/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2/258-7779901-5803535?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1926778901&pd_rd_r=f84dc9b5-90de-4c0f-be1f-d2c403bf913b&pd_rd_w=PtOEn&pd_rd_wg=WKGor&pf_rd_p=655b7c7d-a17d-4637-9a0a-72a813e0d2cb&pf_rd_r=NAR0KBHDQBB5NY6S49XB&psc=1&refRID=NAR0KBHDQBB5NY6S49XB

From this artbook if I'm not mistaken. I have it and it's pretty cool. There's also a video review later in the page showing the illustrations.

Also, if you are plugging your PS4 into your PC monitor via HDMI and already use HDMI on the monitor from your PC, let me suggest something small and not very expensive that will make your life a lot easier: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01EHAAHOW/

I stream on twitch and when I use my consoles, I swap one of my two monitors to the console with this switch box. It means I don't have to swap the cables all the time and it's done with the push of a button. It'll make life way easier for you.

I have these 2 books, they are fantastic.
https://www.amazon.com/Legend-Heroes-Illustrations-SC/dp/192677891X

https://www.amazon.com/Legend-Heroes-Characters-SC/dp/1926778901/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_img_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=B07TNZCN2B8TCDP8VE1P

Depends on what platform you want it on.

The Vita version can be found on play-asia here: https://www.play-asia.com/eiyuu-densetsu-ao-no-kiseki-evolution/13/706sxb

The PSP can be found on amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Eiyuu-Densetsu-Kiseki-Japan-Sony-PSP/dp/B004TJ4M1Q

The PC version is exclusive to China so I wouldn't even bother trying (unless you happen to live there of course.)

Of course, these are all physical versions which means shipping is an issue that will depend on where you live.

You can only patch a PS Vita / PSTV with firmware version 3.60 or below (EDIT: actually, apparently this is no longer the case), so you have to specifically buy one that fills this requirement; these you can find on ebay. You can buy the games on amazon (e.g. Zero here) or ebay.

Here you can find the patch itself. The instructions for installing the patch are pretty much equivalent to the ones you have to follow for the Sky games, e.g. as given here (except ignore the stuff about the BGMs; basically the Sky versions have extra patches for those who prefer the original soundtrack as opposed to the remixed Evolution version). You should note that currently there is no similar patch for the Ao version.

VIVO vertical array mount. It's a relatively cheap one from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01CUW5HDU/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Amazon CA has Cold Steel 1 up for pre order. Assume 2 will be up eventually. Otherwise order from Video Game PLus.

https://www.amazon.com/Tokyo-Xanadu-eX-PlayStation-4/dp/B01N4PCCN1/

30 dollars, prime exclusive deal.

What are you on about?

https://www.amazon.com/Tokyo-Xanadu-eX-Limited-PlayStation-4/dp/B01NASW99J/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=tokyo+xanadu+ex%2B+ps4&qid=1565798327&s=gateway&sprefix=tokyo+xanadu+&sr=8-1

Wireless. I use the official Microsoft adapter. There's cheaper, 3rd-party adapters available but I dunno how reliable they are.

I know of two that are.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926778901/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_eKcRzb0T0E677

https://www.amazon.com/dp/192677891X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_1NcRzb3AT9960

There are also the books that came with the limited edition versions of FC on the PSP and Cold Steel on Vita/PS3. There might be more in english but I'm not aware of them.

The Tokyo Xanadu LE comes with a deck, not sure if you’re interested in the game but it’s a steal for this price https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01NASW99J/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_p0WuDbXRBWNC2