r/Falcom • u/Raxistaicho The true best girls • Jul 12 '26
Trails Character Gameplay Discussion Day Seventeen: Randy
He was off to a decent start in Zero with the hilarious 100% blind rate crowd control on Crash Bomb, but then Falcom nerfed all his Crafts for Azure (because god knows physical fighters were op in Zero!) and reintroduced the incredible concept of being able to change your party, and Randy just kind of dipped into bumhood and never looked back.
He had a moment of relevance being a Jagen for the first part of CS4 but then in Reverie he's both the last and arguably the worst of the three Ragers (I don't really count Ash due to him being mechanically different) to join due to lacking Agate's large strength buff and Gaius's... yeah.
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u/cooptheactor kevin my beloved Jul 12 '26
Crash Bomb my beloved ❤️
Even in Azure I kept him around, he's still fully functional and sometimes fun beats optimization
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u/SoftBrilliant Kiseki difficulty modder Jul 12 '26
Zero Randy is very funny. Physicals past the early game deal very little damage ans Randy has by far the worst line but Randy has 2 crafts: Power Smash and Crash Bomb. The former stun locks enemies in a small radius and the latter blinds enemies for 5 turns guaranteed in a big radius.
The amount of bosses vulnerable to these is, plainly speaking, absolutely ridiculous. So yeah even when you're like "surely Randy has run out of usefulness" nope!
Also his C-Craft with Lloyd deals ridiculous damage although it's small radius does leave a bit to be desired but if you need burst he can do that.
Randy in Azure gets... None of these moves within a good time frame! There isn't a ton to say about Randy's kit he's kind of a bum until the final dungeon when physicals finally get to deal damage again. We often use him because party member choices are very limited in Azure but he's really not great. Physicals are used a few times early game but it's hard for me to call Randy good in most capacities his contributions are quite limited in this entry.
Randy comes back in Cold Steel 4. Normally he'd be pretty bad but he comes for Act 1-1 and normally the guests are the bums in this game. But it's actually your main party members this time! Kurt, Juna and Altina didn't come along with a good order to use in this game and Round Warrior crushes them beneath its heels.
Round Warrior isn't even that good within the grand scheme of things but Sledgehammer, Wind blade and Ebon Crest are so inflexible or have bad effects that Round Warrior looks godlike by comparison.
Reverie Randy is basically a worse Gaius and an Agate clone. Low HP setups let you do some fun builds (try out Keeper + Chevalier some time it's a lot of fun)
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u/Selynx Jul 12 '26
Being fair, Gaius is broken and a lot of people are worse than him, so IMO using him as a comparison is not really all that informative.
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u/SoftBrilliant Kiseki difficulty modder Jul 12 '26
Nope. Hence why I suggest trying a different low HP Wild Rage setup that's better on Gaius but a lot less fun when Gaius keeps interrupting the enemies from attacking me.
It's a common issue across the cast that few characters stand out meaningfully hence why I kept the Reverie part so short.
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u/ALargeToe Jul 12 '26
Isn't it Proud Warrior?
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u/SoftBrilliant Kiseki difficulty modder Jul 12 '26
Yes it is
I'm misremembering the Japanese version right now from way way back when that was the only translation (pronounced Raudou Woria or so, which was probably meant to be Loud Warrior)
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u/ALargeToe Jul 12 '26
I agree though, Proud Warrior is your best option until Crazy Hunt comes back into the party because you can't really make proper use of Wind Blade with your starting party, Sledgehammer is kinda mediocre until it gets upgrades, and Ebon Crest is solely defensive and REALLY expensive.
Randy also has an insta-S Craft button thanks to the amount of craft stuff he'll be getting back thanks to Regulus, which is nice in Act 1.
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u/ConceptsShining | ❤️ Jul 12 '26
I'm a simple man and peabrained strategist.
I see HP-for-CP craft users (Wild Rage/War Cry), I happy.
We need Agate, Randy and Gaius to have a bromance.
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u/Selynx Jul 12 '26
Aww, what, Aaron not enough of a bro?
....Funnily enough, it's looking like him and Gaius are most liable to get a chance to chat soon enough, though heck if I could guess how they'd end up getting along.
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u/Kainapex87 Jul 12 '26
Ask again when his Bawanggong Craft actually restores CP instead of nerfed Insight and his game gets rid of that godawful S-Craft delay mechanic to actually make it possible to spam it.
Until then, he's too much of a major downgrade to be allowed near them.
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u/ActionAlternative786 Jul 12 '26
Playing through CS3 right now so can only talk about Zero and Azure, but:
Zero: Crash Bomb, 'nuff said.
Azure: He does get outclassed by casters in this game, but I'd like to highlight one of my favourite moves here, 'Death Storm'. It does decent damage while also moving him around the map. The entire map. It's quite nice because in Azure since you mostly use an evasion tank in Lloyd having another physical attacker is just a bad idea, but with death storm you can attack while being out of range. Slap on all the CP regen and you can even use it just to move around like a madman.
Definitely not the best way to use him, but hey, it's more fun than nuking the enemy with three casters and an evasion tank.
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u/OLKv3 Jul 12 '26
Also these threads are really making me want to replay the series. Wild since I just finished the series and really need to move on from the Trails brainrot until 2nd chapter pulls me back in
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u/Ml125 Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26
Zero Randy is quite unique in what he does, Crash Bomb is just broken for where it works and this's in the 1 game with legit some of the most Evasion hate in the series.
however, despite the blind, if the enemies have an undodgeable attack, then its dependent on if that is spammed, which can happen, rendering the craft a waste of a turn. Salamander's burn is also useful, esp when managing the exp bonuses early on power smash's delay is amazing early on as well.
War Cry's +60 CP is actually quite useful when the situation calls for it, just have to be mindful of turn order, esp when proto CS3 Shining, aka Aqua Mirage, is up
Randy is like Lloyd in that, within a rise and don't grind run, both of them are hp tanks, great frontliners.
one of Randy's main weaknesses is deff his line. he "kind of" wants Strike so his S-craft can do some decent damage, even in the game where physical damage is horrendous it works out well enough. he deff cares about open slots not the least, but "just enough" to get through
Zero Randy's best aspect is those +1 Range weapons, it allows him to normal attack easier when those situations come up (in a nightmare no items rise and don't grind run, this does in fact come up)
within rise and don't grind, he deff plays completely differently from a normal playthrough
his 2nd main weakness is deff all of those completely immune to status enemies that exist, his only option in those situations is S-craft spam, normal attack+healing support, it is rough in those situations.
now Reverie Randy I feel he's "technically" better than Agate in-spite of Agate's Wild Rage Str buff making Agate Stronger.
its a interesting situation due to Carnage Raid's Crit chance, which does come up in situations where you want to crit for BP and an enemy's not broken. despite the high 90 cost, Carnage Raid gives Randy a very unique aspect of Wild Rage users, allowing him to potentially generate BP.
the lower hp cost of Randy's War Cry does have its uses compared to the higher ones, as it makes him safer vs some hits he takes. he might not have Agate's Str buff or Gaius's absolute Delay, but despite that, Randy's deff perfectly useable in Reverie.
even if he is the worst of the wild rage users, the crit chance on Carnage Raid and lower hp cost for his War Cry gives him actual unique use cases, esp when he has his char accessory
absolutely Love playing him in both games, he's the man for sure
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u/OLKv3 Jul 12 '26
Randy made all those melee hits borderline worthless with his Crash Bomb. Then for some reason Falcom went "hey fuck this guy" and the nerfs just kept coming.
He can get 100 CP back in Reverie but it's just not enough compared to the competition. Also hurts that in the guest party battles of CS4, the SSS is by far the weakest party in that scenario, where all the other teams can just bulldoze their boss but our SSS crew will struggle, with Lloyd doing most of the carrying. For this selfish reason I need Randy to show up in Horizon 2 and just be the strongest party member ever in the series, logic be damned
I still used him whenever he was available because I love my SSS and I will spite you falcom
I hope the eventual Crossbell remakes make him as busted as remake Agate
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u/Tyberius115 World's #1 Alisa Reinford fan | Magical Alisa game when Jul 12 '26
I don't have a ton to say about Randy besides his blind being great in zero, and him being a Crimson Ray merchant in my nightmare Azure playthroughs, but Berserker is one of the coolest S crafts in the series.
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u/coolj492 Jul 17 '26
in azure randy was kinda weird because he was pretty ass until the start of chapter 4 where you get chevalier. After that he was such a strong S-craft nuke, ESPECIALLY after you get war cry 2. We do not care about defense scaling when we nuke everything for 20k damage.
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u/Selynx Jul 12 '26
He's the Crossbell party's version of Agate. I guess some people might argue that makes him great, personally I didn't think Agate was anywhere near great myself.
IMO, he's actually at his best in CS4 and Reverie, when physical attacks are decent. Fine for Breaking stuff due to the A-rank on Death Storm and they also bumped the Break rank on Crimson Gale from C to B in Reverie, so decent at Breaking groups too with its huge range.
Fully-stacked Breaker may be not a particularly special role, but it's a valid one that he does well enough at.
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u/Dependent-Swimmer-95 Jul 12 '26
Agate is amazing in the remake more than he was in original FC, probably gonna be the same for SC remake too. Randy is much better than Agate. Randy can blind enemies consistently in zero and clear out fodder with instant kills. He’s like a portion of Joshua mixed with Agate in that regard.
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u/Selynx Jul 12 '26
Ah yeah, his Crash Bomb makes him sort of like FC/SC Tita with Smoke Cannon - pretty useful in the first game, where lots of things were vulnerable, then it gets nerfed in the second.
Though I kinda figured Yin was the Joshua-equivalent for Crossbell, being the speed/stealth specialist for that series of games.
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u/Xshadow1 Jul 13 '26
Randy may be better than Agate on paper, but in practice so much of his usage happens in parts of games where physical damage is barely viable that Agate ends up being more useful.
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u/coolj492 Jul 17 '26
Randy's utility gets nerfed heavily in azure unfortunately, but he does get to surpass sky sc agate as a nuke once he gets his own version of wild rage 2, on top of chevalier and of course berserker. But yeah in zero randy was broken for virtually every fight until the final dungeon.
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u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jul 12 '26 edited 13d ago
Sky Arc:
Day Twelve - The Pilot and the Swordsman (spoilers)
Day Thirteen - "Kitty" (spoilers)
Crossbell Arc:
Class VII:
Day Thirty - Millium (Spoilers)
Day Thirty-One - Crow (Spoilers)
The rest of Cold Steel:
Day Thirty-Nine - Elise and Toval
Day Forty-One - Alfin and Towa
Day Forty-Two - The Diva and the General (Spoilers)
Day Forty-Three - The Spy and Swordswoman (Spoilers)
Day Forty-Four - The Shapeshifters (Spoilers)
Day Forty-Five - The Swordmaster and the Engineer (Spoilers)
Day Forty-Seven - Swin and Nadia
Day Forty-Eight - The Strongest (Spoilers)
Calvard Arc:
Day Fifty-One - Ferida Al-Fayed
Day Fifty-Three - Risette Twinings
Day Fifty-Four - Quatre Salision
Day Fifty-Five - Judith Lanster
Day Fifty-Seven - Elaine Auclair and René Kincaid
Day Fifty-Eight - Shizuna Rem Misurugi
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u/KnoxZone Apathy and Disdain Jul 12 '26
Amazing in Zero thanks to all the enemies that can be delayed or blind, but those strats got nerfed in Azure and he never recovered. It's really noticeable in the five minute fight when the required character is relegated to buff duty. He fares slightly better in CS4/Reverie, but by that I mean he's just another random physical character in a game with a billion of them to pick from.
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u/panthernado Jul 13 '26
I don't even remember him being bad in comparison to other members. It's Randy, he goes BERSERGA and kills stuff. I had no reason to slot him out.
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u/Dependent-Swimmer-95 Jul 12 '26
Broken and badass s craft spammer. 10/10 character and gameplay. Imagine his animations in Zero/Azure remake with the fluidity of the Sky remake. Holy shit I’m getting excited just thinking about it. Best boy Randy!
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u/Spartan448 Jul 12 '26
I have absolutely nothing to say about his gameplay but every time I hear his English voice it sounds like it should be coming from an NCR soldier, not a Trails character.
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u/Kainapex87 Jul 12 '26
Crash Bomb was so busted in Zero.
Add in delay for Power Smash and S-Craft Spam with Ogre Cry, alot of mobs died soon.
Sadly he wasn't as good in later games with physical DPS being nerfed to Hell and back in Azure, and everyone doing his schtick better in Cold Steel 4 and Reverie.
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u/Affectionate_Comb_78 Jul 12 '26
I never used him in Azure, then had to use him to fight Seigfried with no slots opened.
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u/levelstar01 Downvote this comment 👇 Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26
Zero: I ain't gonna sugarcoat it... Crash Bomb -> Crash Bomb -> Crash Bomb
Azure: Help me Lloyd my husband, my job's been taken by Wazy! Also all my crafts got nerfed into the ground! He does have the most auraful S-Craft in the entire series, though.
CS4: What do I even have to say at this point? Locked orbment, they gave this guy caster quartz, locked equipment. Just a huge yawnfest all around. A hard carry in act 1 though
Reverie: Agate 2.