Hard should be ok for a first playthrough as far as mandatory progression requirements are concerned... that is, if you don't mind losing certain special battles that are somewhat rigged and you don't have to win (story will continue even if you lose those anyway)

DP requirements are more lenient in Azure than in Zero. So although this one goes kinda nuts with some of the optional requirements, there's more room for error as you can miss up to 25 DP, while in Zero you could only miss 4 if I recall correctly.

I'm not sure the game as a whole is harder, in fact I found it easier a lot of the time thanks to new advantages (Master Quartz, free CP recharger, Burst...), but it does indeed have bigger (and sometimes dumber) difficulty spikes.

Why not give Nightmare a try, is doable even on New Game.

There's a few players posting videos about them playing on Nightmare NG, you can watch and observe how they configure their party members and setups and go up against the boss if you are stuck.

I am playing Nightmare NG and currently in the finale, is not impossible to get the meet the battle requirements to get bonus DP.

I can't in good conscience recommend you enter any endeavor the hard way if you don't know what you're getting into.

Yes Azure is harder than Zero. If you don´t follow a guide for characters the final boss is... pain. Normal is good enough

Originally posted by Exarch_Alpha:

Yes Azure is harder than Zero. If you don´t follow a guide for characters the final boss is... pain. Normal is good enough

Looking forward to the final boss. I've completed the Trails in the Sky series, Cold Steel I and II, Trails to Zero on Nightmare NG, so Trails to Azure shouldn't be a pain to complete on Nightmare NG.

Good luck you will need it

I been playing on Normal and some bosses are pretty damn hard especially if you want to maximize DP . I'm on the 2nd half of the Finale act now and heard the final boss is even harder lol. I can't imagine this game on nightmare.

Originally posted by Dessolos:

I been playing on Normal and some bosses are pretty damn hard especially if you want to maximize DP . I'm on the 2nd half of the Finale act now and heard the final boss is even harder lol. I can't imagine this game on nightmare.

I can only assume that you aren't using the character's crafts well, you didn't setup their quarts and master quartz well, and you didn't take advantage of the turn order well.

I gotten the additional DP for defeating Arianrhod, Sigmund, Lynn and Aeolia.

Ao no Kiseki honestly not difficult, in terms of difficultly, Trails in the Sky SC Nightmare is the most difficult in the entire series so far, your party members can be KOed with two hits with normal attacks

I've just beaten Arios in the finale

Originally posted by xXiaoDrag0n:

Originally posted by Dessolos:

I been playing on Normal and some bosses are pretty damn hard especially if you want to maximize DP . I'm on the 2nd half of the Finale act now and heard the final boss is even harder lol. I can't imagine this game on nightmare.

I can only assume that you aren't using the character's crafts well, you didn't setup their quarts and master quartz well, and you didn't take advantage of the turn order well.

I gotten the additional DP for defeating Arianrhod, Sigmund, Lynn and Aeolia.

Ao no Kiseki honestly not difficult, in terms of difficultly, Trails in the Sky SC Nightmare is the most difficult in the entire series so far, your party members can be KOed with two hits with normal attacks

I've just beaten Arios in the finale

tbh ive only had issue with 2 bosses by time I buff and setup they end up killing some of my party in like 2 -3 hits. I eventually beat them mostly had this issue with Arios . It didn't matter if I had 2 guards from Tio's S craft or Adamantine Guard on was like his attacks ignored it or counted as multiple. Still got Arianrhod and the last bit of the game so will see if the rest kicks my ass lol

Originally posted by Dessolos:

Originally posted by xXiaoDrag0n:

I can only assume that you aren't using the character's crafts well, you didn't setup their quarts and master quartz well, and you didn't take advantage of the turn order well.

I gotten the additional DP for defeating Arianrhod, Sigmund, Lynn and Aeolia.

Ao no Kiseki honestly not difficult, in terms of difficultly, Trails in the Sky SC Nightmare is the most difficult in the entire series so far, your party members can be KOed with two hits with normal attacks

I've just beaten Arios in the finale

tbh ive only had issue with 2 bosses by time I buff and setup they end up killing some of my party in like 2 -3 hits. I eventually beat them mostly had this issue with Arios . It didn't matter if I had 2 guards from Tio's S craft or Adamantine Guard on was like his attacks ignored it or counted as multiple. Still got Arianrhod and the last bit of the game so will see if the rest kicks my ass lol

Well, all the best Dessolos.

I have just completed the game on Nightmare NG, took me awhile and a few retries to figure out how to exploit its weakness and defeat the final boss in each stage.

I'm going to continue playing Cold Steel III (on Nightmare NG of course). I'm currently in the finale in CS III, I paused playing CS III just to play Trails to Zero and Azure when it came out for story line sake.

Ok so i finished this on hard and boy what a journey it was. I managed to beat every boss in the game except for one with the ♥♥♥♥♥ timer(what kind of genius decided on this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ mechanic?).
Overall the game felt fine for the most part, but around chapter 4 normal attacks started to do almost no damage to bosses and i had to switch party to mages with Lloyd as the evasion tank.
Final boss was a blast, finally something interesting in the end.

Thanks everyone who suggested hard for the first playthrough. I think i could beat the game on nightmare, but it felt as it would be more of a hassle to do.
On to the next one.

Originally posted by CHAIN BREAKER:

Ok so i finished this on hard and boy what a journey it was. I managed to beat every boss in the game except for one with the ♥♥♥♥♥ timer(what kind of genius decided on this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ mechanic?).
Overall the game felt fine for the most part, but around chapter 4 normal attacks started to do almost no damage to bosses and i had to switch party to mages with Lloyd as the evasion tank.
Final boss was a blast, finally something interesting in the end.

Thanks everyone who suggested hard for the first playthrough. I think i could beat the game on nightmare, but it felt as it would be more of a hassle to do.
On to the next one.

yeah I ended up having 2 melee / support buffers and let my mages do all the work in ch 4 on bosses. Lol I was to stubborn to not beat the boss with the time I would restart anytime I lost. Last boss was annoying as hell for me tho cause of his vanish and mute spam lol. which made it pointless to buff my mages

Originally posted by CHAIN BREAKER:

Overall the game felt fine for the most part, but around chapter 4 normal attacks started to do almost no damage to bosses and i had to switch party to mages with Lloyd as the evasion tank.

Yeah, based on the games I've played so far, this franchise struggles to find a reasonable balance between Arts and Physical damage. I hope later entries found a way to improve on that aspect. Nightmare mode late game is just stupid, even Randy with the strongest weapon he can get ends up being more useful at casting support arts than at doing his job as physical attacker.