The Phantasmal Blaze Plan Explained - Kiseki Lore [Cold Steel Spoilers, Duh!]

[@robbyrobot3303]

The most relatable scene in all of the kiseki games is when Rean asks Osborne at the end of TOCS3, "What even IS the Phantasmal Blaze Plan??"

[@advmx3]

And then, Osborne says: a plan to use the Hollow Phantasm of Crossbell to awaken the blaze in the Empire. And this literally does not FUCKING EXPLAIN ANYTHING. AT. ALL.

[@VRGUILE]

THANK YOU. I've played the whole CS arc twice and I still didn't fully understand what the Phantasmal Blaze Plan was.

[@2265Hello]

Even months after finishing Kiseki I still can’t get over how Chunni Ouroboros plan names sound .

[@advmx3]

I love how you explained the whole situation way better than the game's. The whole "Awaken the blaze in the empire" riddle is so stupid, why they didn't say it outright: Awakening the newly created sept-terrion of mirage in Crossbell would make the spirit veins more active in Erebonia, hence allowing Ouroboros to try and rebirth the Sept terrions of Earth and Fire there too. Would be so much more efficient XD

[@KisekiFan]

Problem maybe due to translation and localization issue, instead of giving direct translations these localizers tend to change alot of the texts.

[@tmkai607]

Good video. Just finished Cold Steel 4 a few minutes ago so this video helped fleshing out the information

[@BygoneSerenity]

Love going back on these videos after fully caught up with the games now with crimson sin. The lore from cold steel has to be some of the best stuff in the series for me, especially with how it intertwined with all sorts of other stuff within the series. Truly loved what they did with CS4 which looks to be a unpopular opinion even if it's not my favourite game. Probably going to replay it in the future though and just shows how interesting this series.

[@jzblue345]

I know this video is gonna be awesome so I'm gonna watch it.

[@jmporkbob]

aaron hood himself

[@pvtblueberry]

and dont forget about black albert or aidos

[@iryu7288]

I really don't like how the Curse is portrays in CS, it was meant to bring the worst in humanity but most of the 'villain' isn't that bad or villainous, almost all of them just threw a verbal insult and occasionally a punch, even Osborne isn't that evil when you replay the game. Yeah I was vex with the annexation of Crossbell but seeing Crossbell in 3 and 4, even after the curse engulfed Crossbell, I was like, that's not too bad, Rufus and Osborne isn't that bad as Arios or Dieter. IMO the curse is a miss opportunity from Falcom.

[@JRPGFanatic]

The main human "villains" introduced in Kiseki aren't really evil except Weissman and maybe Mariabell though I think she's more twisted than evil. Maybe there's a connection there since they hold the same seat. Arios, Dieter, Osborne, all had goals that by itself were noble, they just went about it in a bad way though Osborne didn't have a choice. The curse more so affected Erebonia, not so much humanity as a whole but it is surprising there wouldn't be a psychopath wrecking havoc and taking advantage of the situation Osborne created. Osborne and Rufus though were unaffected by the curse outside of taking advantage of its power. I think Falcom wants to focus on the pure side of humanity based on how they've been telling the stories so there probably won't be another guy like Weissman or a focus on someone like that.

[@iryu7288]

@@JRPGFanatic still a miss opportunity. The Twilight Saga is said to be the culmination of three story but the execution, especially in 3/4 is fairly weak, even 3rd has better execution. And Rufus is seriously underused as a villain, especially now that I know he isn't affected by the curse, thanks for the info.

[@JRPGFanatic]

@@iryu7288 That's just my assumption based on how I see (remember) his behavior. His personality and goals didn't really change. He's still a dick who will do whatever it takes to surpass Osborne, curse or not. I actually liked the 4th game the most but that's because it had all my favorite heroes coming together to achieve the happy ending (except Kevin and Wazy since they were busy 🙃) Bonus points too for furthering some of the OG character arcs. I didn't really mind the way the curse was used since it brought everyone together but I also understand how it was a let down for you and many others since it didn't create the climax it could have. Didn't really feel like it was the end of the world when it should have.

[@iryu7288]

@@JRPGFanatic I really wish I could see your point when it comes to the cameo. Compare to -Zero,- 4 handle returning character poorly, you could remove them from the story and it wouldn't make a difference. In -Zero- KeA literally rewind time to make sure Llyod meet with Joshua and Estelle so they can win. Edit: sorry I mean the Crossbell saga, not Zero.

[@JRPGFanatic]

@@iryu7288 I meant I like Cold Steel 4 the most out of the saga, I still consider Crossbell the best arc so far out of the 3 and one of the reasons is because of how significant Joshua, Estelle, and Renne are to the story. The SSS and Bracer cameos in 4, definitely doesn't come close to the significance the 3 had in Crossbell, but they still helped out imo. Osborne is the reincarnation of Driechels after all, the guy who won the War of the Lions, and if he's leading a world war, I think class 7 needs all the help they can get. They helped take down the fake Salt Pales and Ishmelga-Lore so I don't think removing them from the story wouldn't not make a difference. Though that also makes me think about the Azure Demiourgos and the fact that it only took 6 of them to take it down while Ishmelga-Lore required at least 12 people despite being incomplete is a bit strange. Maybe all we needed for CS4 was for the SSS to beat it and nobody else lol.

[@KisekiFan]

Honestly even with your video I still had more questions which the game doesn't explain properly probably due to localization instead of translation or was never explained at all. 1: Osborne despite still retaining his will went along with the plan to destroy the world, why and how would that have helped Rean if he succeeded. 2: How is it possible that Ishmelga is the most powerful despite not taking part in any of the rivalries? 3: The curse is actually malice which corrupted Ishmelga's system making it the Ishmelga we know, we know that it was formed from the power of Fire and Earth making it Steel but that's about all the info we got. Where did the malice even come from. Well despite all that I still love the Trails series, even the NPC have their own stories and part to play in the game, people in question, Alan and Bridget.

[@JRPGFanatic]

1. After completing CS4, you know that Rean dying is what could have happened but didn't because of Argres. So Osborne wanted to be the one to shoulder and remove the curse so he would die instead of his son because despite everything, he actually loves his son very much and would like to see him live. Osborne knew nothing of the holy best of earth so he did not know of another way to save Rean and remove the curse. 2. Ishmelga is the strongest because the separation of the great one into the dolls was not even. You can think of it like Ishmelga got 50% of its power, El Prado 20%, Argreion 10% and etc etc with Valimar being the weakest. These percentages are made up mind you. They did not say how the power was divide but the game did cover the division of power. After Valimar absorbed the other 5 knights, that put him on an even playing field with Ishmelga. 3. This is wrong. Ishmelga IS the curse and the reason people did all the horrible things they did. Ishmelga got corrupted by mankind. Both of these facts were confirmed in the game as well, by Osborne I believe. I don't know what you're talking about that it was formed from the power of fire and earth making it steel. Ishmelga is a part of the Steel Sept-Terrion as are the other 6 knights.

[@KisekiFan]

@@JRPGFanatic 1: Ah, the sacrifice end, right that makes sense. 2: Yea, that confused the heck out of me cause when they created the Knights you would think they would divide the power equally, i know that El Prado is the 2nd strongest due to having faced the most rivalries. 3: my mistake i meant that the Sept-Terrion of Steel was created from the clashing of Fire and Earth when the Witches and Gnomes were at war, all that was explained was that the curse is the Sept of Steel, my theory is that the malice on the battlefield was the catalyst that formed the Sept of Steel and became the curse. However this is just my theory because its hard to believe they stopped fighting just because the Sept of Steel was created from the clash of Sept Fire and Earth.

[@JRPGFanatic]

@@KisekiFan It seems like you're still a little confused about 3. The curse isn't the sept-Terrion of Steel. It's Ishmelga specifically. From my understanding Ishmelga was a normal knight at one point based on what was said in the game. Then one day it was just corrupted by mankind's wickedness. The fusion of Fire and Earth was specifically from their endless fight with each other despite the clans making peace. When you say they stopped fighting I assume you mean the hexen and gnome clans. They stopped because they realized they severely messed up by involving the Sept-Terrions since they were causing mass destruction. By the time they realized their mistake it was too late, the Sept-Terrions could not stop fighting each other. The only reason the Sept-Terrions did stop was because they no longer had any power left, not because their respective clans decided to make peace. The energies of their clash then fused to form Steel.

[@linuxwizzerd5908]

Hello, and thanks for the video. I'm glad someone at least tried to make sense of what Ouroboros were doing during Cold Steel because despite me beating each game at least twice and scouring the wiki several times, I still can't figure out what the logic behind their plan is for the mechs other than some combination of "purge this evil demon alien hentai tentacle monster thing that was doing who knows what" and "we want the mechs because they're cool". And not trying to rag on you or anything but I'd like a moment to make a rant about Ouroboros. I don't like Ouroboros at all after SC. I really don't like how the writers don't explain one whit of anything about their plans at all to anyone during the cutscenes they're in, which is a really big part of why the buildup during SC was awesome, since you saw glimpses of what their ultimate plan was and you knew the steps they had to take to achieve that plan. You know what the stakes are, and have an idea of what would happen if the heroes failed, and some of the consequences were already being felt. Conversely in Cold Steel and Ao, you know they want to make a big tree and castle appear for some reason, and after the fact it gets explained that it has something to do with unlocking something about the mechs, but during the whole ordeal I just thought they needed the castle because one of the mechs was in it and the tree was just KeA basically throwing a fit after being manipulated by Dieter. And again, having beaten CS2 4 times I didn't know that Vita was trying to do a mock Rivalry to try to stop the Great Twilight from happening exactly because she didn't say anything about it, it's just something the player has to kind of piece together after the fact, and considering she very likely left Ouroboros over this (which actually come to think of it makes that plot point make a hell of a lot more sense, thanks again) any amount of explanation on that would have went a very long way toward me personally getting re-invested in a new arc with higher stakes. Have something like a scene of her talking to Arianrhod about her doubts with what's going on and why, and it would clue the audience about what's going on, along with an opportunity to characterize Arianrhod beyond "stoic warrior woman" and Vita beyond "the bad bitch I picked up by being autistic". For a point of comparison, the Xenosaga games are pretty easily one of my favorite game series of all time. It clearly explains what the villains are doing when they're about to do something relevant, you know who is doing what and when, you know who is helping which organization, and with about the same amount of complexity in its plot as Cold Steel, at least for me, I know way more about what's going on in the plot in Xenosaga than I did for Cold Steel after deliberately trying to go out of my way to understand it. All in all, I think the idea of "Xenogears meets Highlander during WW3" is a really fucking awesome premise that got botched to hell and back, and this whole mystery box nonsense is a large part of the reason why I just stopped paying any attention to the plot sometime during CS3.

[@advmx3]

I have NO IDEA if it;'s a localizaion problem or if Falcom decided not to explain in-game but yeah, the Phantasmal Blaze plan explanation INGAME makes no sense. "a plan to use the Hollow Phantasm of Crossbell to awaken the blaze in the Empire." Yeah Osborne, nice, but what does that MEAN?! Then LAter Rean mentions that, and Emma and Roselia and Thomas all jumps to their conclusion but they never fucking ellaborate it. IT's very annoying.

[@Oblivionh]

Wtf. Where is the game title. Yeah Spoilers but you dont say what game. I like your stuff and I thought this was spoilers for a game I never heard of called "phantasmal Blaze". I just started Trails of Cold Steel 1 and reading the description spoiled the main plot thread. I'm only 10 hours in so I had no idea about Ouroboros or Phantasmal Blaze being a thing.

[@greyshadephilly1865]

Yeah same. I just got to the part with the tax stuff. Guess I know the secret plan is called Phantasmal Blaze and it's ouroboros again.

[@Densetsu13]

Yeah, as someone who has finished all the games, I empathize with you. How this video's title, and then video description, was handled was not the smartest move. 😅

[@Oblivionh]

@@Densetsu13 It's not a leap of logic to say Ouroboros was involved given the series but it just really feels bad to have it thrown in my face and revealed the secret plans name. Thanks for the reply so I know I'm not just being dramatic

[@greyshadephilly1865]

@@Oblivionh I don't even know what Ouroboros is but I assume they aren't the good guys now

[@JRPGFanatic]

@@Oblivionh That's my bad. I'm sorry that I spoiled it and understand the frustration as I have also been (accidentally) spoiled on some events that I didn't want to know about. Question though, the description's first few sentences mention the Cold Steel Saga without going into detail. Was this not enough context to give an idea that this about Cold Steel or did you read it only after already having watched the video?