The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel (2013)

Rating: 9/10

Mini review:

It's very slow and the formula is repetitive. The characters never shut up. And yet despite that usually angering me, I loved this. The gameplay loop (combat, constantly getting stuff, upgrading, etc) is incredibly satisfying and honestly, it's less about the story than it is the characters. They're awesome. Plus, fantastic ending. I did have it a 95 but I think it just probably goes on a little too long.

Full review (I started getting tired about halfway through this lol)

This review will have comparisons to Trails in the Sky: 1st Chapter because outside of these, I've only played one other Trails game (and I knew I shouldn't but I did anyway). I may be more forgiving of Cold Steel 1 than I was of 1st Chapter because I'm more acclimated to what Falcom does now. But really, the worldbuilding and dialogue is more egregious here than 1st Chapter was. It's funny to think because 1st Chapter was a little shorter and I rated it a little lower. I reckon a revisit might yield a higher score for 1st Chapter because I'd play it differently. I only did the main quest here, whereas with 1st Chapter I started off doing all the side content until I felt the game was way too slow.

But look, Cold Steel starts an arc. Therefore, you get a lot of information about the area, about what's going on. And the characters never shut up. There is so much stuff being said that you almost just have to laugh. For example, there's a point where you're going somewhere and they're basically like, "Shit we forgot our lunch." Then there's this whole thing about lunch. Yet for the most part I was okay with it.

Let me get the negative out of the way now. Here are the two main issues: The first is minor. The second is what made me drop it from a 9.5 to a 9.

1. It does that thing where more than one character will say things like "Let's go" or "Gotcha" or whatever. I hate that shit in any game because it's just fluff. Honestly, I was generally fine with how much people talked but throwing in that after I just watched them talk about how big their shits were (I'm joking, but you get my point) is unnecessary.

2. The formula gets repetitive. Free day so you can do some bonding, side quests and then go explore the old schoolhouse. Find out where you're going for the field study, sit on a train, play some cards (optional), get to the place, do that. Rinse, repeat. For the first while it's actually completely fine because it's the game leaning into them being students, and I completely get the reasoning for it. Not the most exciting thing in the world, but even I know these games are slow burns so in terms of what they were trying to accomplish, not only was it fine, it was kind of neat. Until it wasn't.

The pacing problem appears. Some people say the game starts slow, and it does, but I was okay with it. So skip ahead, I had reached the point that the game opens on, only now I have about 30-35 hours of history with these characters and the world, so I'm fiending for the shit to happen. And boy, does it ever. That part, with the music and getting to play as Sara (more on her in a bit), feels so epic. I was so amped but forced myself to go to bed. To be honest, I figured we were coming to a conclusion within 5 hours or so.

Game went on for another 15 hours (roughly). And after all this shit happened we STILL out here doing field studies. And within universe I understand why, but man did it ever hurt the game. I mean look, a 9/10 is still an awesome score. It means I love it. But I had this in CLASSIC territory up until this point. I sat there, still greatly enjoying myself, while wondering why we're back int his routine. Why did the game not efficiently escalate when the plot itself escalated?

Now, to transition to the positives by extending an olive branch to the game. In its defense, it has a memorable last couple hours. The ending is fantastic. It didn't hit me personally like 1st Chapter did, but it was still gut-wrenching and made me want to immediately move onto the second game. There's just those bunch of hours in there that probably should have been either cut or retooled. A shorter version of this game would have remained a 9.5.

But you know why I'm fine with a lot of this, even though in other RPGs I would have quit? The characters are awesome. Obviously with so many, they're not all A+, but there's an abnormally high percentage of them that are. Sara is a GOAT. I never got tired of her and always laughed when the other characters criticized her because I just thought she was a chill badass. I'd hang out with her. Plus, like a bunch of characters here, she's so thirsty it's amusing.

The rest of the main cast that you play as (Sara is used in that one segment and you get to use another as well at one point), they're mostly all well-written. Sure, tropes ahoy, but I dug it. My favourites are Rean, Emma, Alisa, Elliot and Laura, though part of that is because those are my mains for combat. They all have good stories though. But even the feud between Machias and Jusis was engaging. Millium is pretty funny but also interesting. Though I don't like Fie in combat, her backstory is compelling. I'm not a huge fan of Gaius but I do like how he views the events because he's a foreigner from a place who doesn't have this social class system.

So despite the rich world that Cold Steel is furthering and the way it sets up this arc, the characters are the main strength, and the reason this game gets away with so much exposition and dialogue.

It helps that when the game lets you play it, it's a lot of fun. The turn-based system is exactly what I like. I don't love having to move my characters all the time like in SRPGs but I do enjoy that there is a tactical edge to doing it here, while acknowledging that on normal difficulty you rarely have to move. The game can be challenging at times, but you can also whack enemies and go behind them which makes a lot of the game quite easy (again, on normal). There is a difficulty spike later on though. Link system is a nice touch, since it rewards you for teaming people up and using bonding points in the school sections. Also just feels satisfying.

Progression system is solid too. Orbment system allows you to build characters in a variety of ways. In fact, the game focuses less on level and more on build. I didn't put a ton of thought into the build, but I appreciated the freedom and depth. And because of needing sepith, there's a satisfying loop where you're always getting shit. I loved that about 1st Chapter too.

Final thing I want to briefly touch on is how funny it is that in some ways, the game very much wants to waste your time, but then in others it doesn't. It's like it knows it's slow--with all the glory shots of places, endless dialogue, etc--so they threw in a turbo mode. I used it quite a bit. I don't know how you could play this game without using it. Since it's just the press of a button it's easy to turn on and off at any point.

This is likely going to be a long post about Trails because I'm a longform guy. If you can get through it I would like your thoughts, even if you aren't a Trails fan. I tagged Cold Steel because I'm currently playing it and loving it.

So despite being a JRPG fan my entire life, since before I even really understood what I was doing (I used to just grind levels for my big brother in FF1), I never played a Trails game until last year. I figured the release of the Chapter 1 Remake would be as good a time as any to finally take the plunge, though I have at no point even considered going through the entire series because it's just way too much. I just went and posted my review here of 1st Chapter that I had written on another site which goes into more detail about my experience with that game if you're interested. But basically, loved the gameplay loop because the combat was fun and it always felt like the game was rewarding me with shit (like perma stat boosts for cooking, constantly getting items, sepith, etc) but I had problems with its storytelling, though that eventually picked up and I ended up deeply caring about not only the plot but Estelle and Joshua. Estelle is such a real one. Loyal as shit. And I love how she's just like, "Yeah, whatever, I'm just going to beat you up now" when there's a problem. The final bit of the game was a 9.5/10 but I landed on an 8.5 because I couldn't just ignore that the beginning was a bit of a slog narratively.

So I played Beyond the Horizon even though I know it was a bad idea. I just had serious FOMO and wanted to play another Trails game. And logically, I could have went to Chapter 2 but knowing that a remake is on its way, I wanted to just hold out, play that, and then I'll probably play the original version of Chapter 3 because I don't know if I can keep waiting to see how that trilogy ends. Then I could proceed with the Crossbell arc if I want, though honestly, I like modern convenience (which is part of the reason I'm waiting for the Chapter 2 remake, because the first was so polished and smooth). With that said, I think Beyond the Horizon is great, even if a lot was lost on me. Did do a good job of trying to remind everybody of what the hell is going on, even if that's an impossible task.

So lately I've been trying out a bunch of JRPGs because I'm in the mood, but none are sticking, so I kept seeing that Trails of Cold Steel is not a terrible place to go even if you haven't played the previous games. And I've been loving it. I still get a little bothered by how these games waste your time a little bit. Like I know some fans love it for this, but we don't need to see EVERYTHING. For example, not everybody character has to get their shit in during a conversation--meaning when one person says like, "Okay, let's go," then another is like, "Yeah, gotcha," then another was like, "Cool!" I know that's not a literal interaction but you get my point. Or how often we need to watch glory shots of the places we're in. Dude, we're at an Inn sitting at a table. But the game also lets you speed up time. Actually, for some reason during 1st Chapter I didn't realize you could do that and then once I did the game did get better. So to their credit, even if the writers don't understand editing, the developers at least know enough to let us speed shit up. And don't get me wrong, the characters and world-building are awesome. I love Instructor Sara so far (I'm about 15 hours in). I imagine I will see the Erebonia arc through, though I fear burnout, which I don't want to do before Chapter 2 releases.

I've been a lot easier on the slowness of the narrative for Cold Steel than I was for 1st Chapter. I don't know if it's because the Cold Steel beginning is just more compelling, especially since it didn't have to do as much setup, or if I'm just more acclimated to the way these games tell their story. If the latter is the case I feel like I did 1st Chapter a little dirty. Would like to know your thoughts.

Trails of Cold Steel - like most JRPGs - starts slow, but the world and character building made me stay. And I didn't regret the decision to keep playing. The story is relatively easy to follow, despite not playing the previous Trails games at this point. Characters have their fears, regrets, wishes, and lots of opportunities to develop. Soundtrack, both on its own and their implementation, is awesome.

People say the ending is a cliffhanger but in that context it is fitting.

Just getting started. I'm about 10 hours in, and really enjoying this. I played Ys VIII last year, and it was one of the most enjoyable JRPGs I had played in a long while (I even completed it 100% -- a rarity for me). It was my introduction to Falcom and I told myself I would check out more of their library, so starting ToCS is the result.

I've now purchased Trails of Cold Steel 2 & 3, based on what Ive played so far, and I'm looking forward to getting stuck in. I'm sure I'll be getting the 4th once it launches on Switch (I prefer having the option to play RPGs portably whenever possible).

This game is far from perfect but you can definitely tell there was a lot of heart put into it. It's my first LoH game and I definitely will be playing the others. It's more of a strong 3 - weak 4 :)

The highlights for me were definitely the way the world is portrayed and getting to explore all of its different cities and atmosphere. It's nice to get to know more about the characters a bit at a time and see where they come from and who their families are and so on.

The music was befitting, nothing exceptionally memorable but always on point with the situation.

I really liked the art style and the characters, especially the main one Rean is a really good choice to carry the game in my opinion. The relationship between all the friends feels a bit shallow/forced at times, which I feel is often the case in this type of game but I think it works overall.

The general flow of the game is pretty good, especially when it comes to menus and fighting, I think it feels really well paced for being a turn based JRPG.

What does get repetitive in the long run for me is the way the whole game is structured, it's always the same in every chapter: first some story, then side quests, then the old school, then the field study, every single time. I think it would have benefit from not being so tightly split into chapters or just by changing the order of the different game elements so that it wouldn't feel like you were just doing the same thing over and over after a while. Luckily there was turbo mode for the most repetitive parts!

All in all a really enjoyable game. What I feel with Falcom is they don't do games that I'm blown away by, but I'm always in for a good time with them :)

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel (TCS for short) is the 6th entry in the Trails franchise by Nihon Falcom. Similar to the long running Final Fantasy series, TCS can be enjoyed without playing its’ previous entries. TCS falls in that special realm of game between a AAA title and an indie game. There is a noticeable gap in graphical fidelity and production values in TCS compared to a AAA game but there is enough content there to not be relegated into indie territory. For what TCS lacks in sheer development power and budget, the game more than makes up for it with a well developed cast of characters and an intriguing plot.

The game starts out with an action packed prologue. The player is immediately thrown in what appears to be an all out war between humans and robots. The plot thickens when the hero and his comrades realize that robots have commandeered two cannons capable of levelling a city. However right before the cannons fire, the game pulls a fast one on you and tells how our hero and friends got to this point via a flashback.

It is at this point TCS does its’ world building; and it is impressive. The game introduces you to our protagonist Rean Schwarzer and his 8 other classmates attending Thors Military Academy. The game also introduces the teachers, side characters and tells you about the history of the school and the world of Erebonia. This massive information dump in the first two hours of the game is understandably overwhelming at first but fortunately the game provides an information section where you can catch up on the story and all the encountered characters at your own pace.

TCS has a staggering amount of text. If you enjoy reading in games, this is the game for you. You can speak to every single NPC in the game. Not only is the dialog from the NPCs interesting, they also have multiple lines of text and appear in different areas as the story progresses. NPCs are treated as characters who have their own lives and relationships. Some early examples are a boy who has a crush on a nun or a couple who are in a rocky relationship. The closest game that the NPC’s in TCS reminds me of is Majora’s Mask.

The plot of TCS revolves around the politics of royalty. In the world of Erebonia, people born of royal blood are treated as first class citizens while everyone else is relegated to being a commoner. In Erebonia, the royals rule over the commoners. They dress in elegant white clothing, live in posh areas and have servants and maids do their every bidding. Eventually the game shows that things are not as black as white as they seem. There are financially successful commoners and commoners with high military backgrounds who are treated with the same respect as royals. On the other hand, there are some royals who choose to live their lives as commoners to avoid the societal pressures of ruling over a state. Some of the characters you meet including the protagonist are not who they seem to be. The game teases you just enough every chapter to make you intrigued to keep playing.

The main loop of TCS is split between school work and field studies. The school work is undeniably influenced by the Persona series, most notably Persona 3. In the morning, the protagonist listens to lectures and answers quizzes. In the afternoon, Rean gets to complete side quests and bond with his teammates. In addition, Rean and his classmates must explore an ever expanding dungeon (not unlike to Tarturus in Persona 3) in the old schoolhouse. At night, Rean gets another opportunity to talk with his classmates at the dorm. Unlike the Persona series, the school work in TCS only lasts for 2-3 days before Rean and his classmates embark on a field studies trip.

The field studies trips play like a typical JRPG where Rean and his friends travel to a town/city and complete quests. The quests range from monster hunts to benign fetch quests. At the end of each chapter, Rean is graded on his performance in the quizzes as well as the field studies. Depending on how well Rean does, grants the opportunity to unlock exclusive gear and items. This is the first problem I have with TCS. The only way to get a perfect score for each chapter is to complete every single quest including hidden side quests. These hidden side quests are activated by speaking with a specific NPC at a specific time of day. I found myself speaking to every NPC at least twice every day, once during the morning and once during the evening to ensure that I did not miss any hidden quests. Fortunately the dialog for the NPCs is so varied and interesting that the process was not as laborious. Nevertheless I would have preferred the game explicitly tell me all the quests available. Another option is to resort to a walkthrough if that’s your jam.

Battles in TCS are a mix of turn based and positional combat. Some moves affect a specific area around the character and other moves only affect a straight line. Arts serve as the magic in this game while Crafts are character specific skills. There is also a random buff element in the game where if an ally/enemy lands on specific turn, they will get a boost in hp, magic, etc. The unique element to TCS is the link system. Attacking an enemy’s weapon weakpoint triggers a link attack which ranges from a basic follow-up attack to the equivalent of an all out attack found in the latter Persona games. Overall I found the difficulty of the game to be on the easier side. Starting around the mid-late game I was able to one-hit basic enemies and defeat bosses without breaking a sweat. Stacking buffs on characters and repeatedly using delay attacks made most bosses completely trivial to beat.

The side activities in the game include fishing, cooking and reading books. These activities are fairly basic and serve more as extra busy work if you really want to get the best gear and items. Fishing is not challenging, only requiring the player to mash on a given button for a time. Cooking is all about just gathering ingredients and partnering with the right teammate to cook the dish. And reading books is completely optional and has no tangible benefit. It’s merely there as entertainment for the player to read some more things that are completely unrelated to the plot.

The presentation is TCS’s weakest point. The game was initially released in 2013 built from the ground up to run on the PS Vita. The graphics are rudimentary with basic lighting and texture mapping. Characters have a limited range of motion and are stuck in the same pose when still. Even on the PC version where anti-aliasing and shadow resolution is ramped up, TCS at its’ best looks like a game made for the PS2 or Gamecube. The music is a serviceable fantasy JRPG score. It is nothing too memorable or catchy to listen to compared to the music in the Final Fantasy or Persona series.

If there is one thing I would like to spoil, is that the game ends in a cliffhanger. It honestly felt like a slap in the face because all of the mysteries and intrigue built up throughout the story was meant to be revealed in the subsequent TCS games. I find it infuriating that I have to pay for multiple games to reach a satisfying conclusion. Other than this sticking point, I can wholeheartedly recommend TCS for any JRPG fan who loves to read… a lot.

i don't know about this game. i will finish it (I'm 50 hours into it at this point), but it's starting to become a chore. It's such a shame because the game does SO MANY things well (combat, world-building), but the things it does poorly (storytelling, pacing, repetitiveness) it does so extremely poorly that it makes it really hard to appreciate.

I'm reminded of the famous quote about Richard Wagner's operas: "Wagner has lovely moments, but awful quarters of an hour."

Scroll down to read the review, or watch it in video form here!

The JRPG seems to be going through a bit of a revival as of late. While contrary to common myth, the genre never truly disappeared, the was a point only a few years back where good JRPGs were even more obscure than they are now, and were limited to roughly one good game a year.

But today with last year bringing us the like of Final Fantasy Type-0, Disgaea 5, Trails in the Sky 2, and Xenoblade Chronicles X, and with games such as Persona 5, Tales of Berseria, and Porject Setsuna, which is basically Chrono Trigger 2 (that isn't really Chrono Trigger 2), I'd say the next year is prime to make those like me very happy gamers.

I bring all this up to point out that today's game has quite the level of competition to face up with both in the past and coming year. So with that, you can understand the gravity of the statement that I may have found the best JPRG of this decade so far.

• PRESENTATION

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel is, naturally, a Japanese RPG that takes place in a steampunk fantasy world fraught with politics. In the story, you play as Rean Schwarzer, a 17 year old anime-style hero complete with spike black hair, arriving via train at their new school, after which he is trust into the newly formed and specially designated Class VII. After a unique set of trials, you proceed to make a group of friends and embark on quests to battle monsters, terrorists, and other, as our hero puts it, “unwanted pests”. Sound familiar. It should because that's almost the exact same set up as a Persona game. In layman's terms this basically means that the story runs on a sort of monthly schedule jumping back and fourth from social simulations and interactions with you friend and colleagues, to a more traditional JRPG dungeon-crawling monster-fighting formula.

In the spirit of fairness, my biggest issue with Cold Steel arises here, in that the game initially come off as a bit cliché and run-of-the-mil. Amplifying this problem is the fact the the first 10-ish hours of the game are...kinda slow. Aside from some introducing key characters and setting up certain plot points, very little is done either to further the story ore meaningfully develop the characters in these early hours. Additionally while the game thankfully has a much more restrained quest system than typically seen in RPGs, a lot of these side quests are kinda dull. Usually they boil down to “walk here. Talk to this person. Get this item. Rinse and repeat” or else slaying a specific mini-boss. It's better than a lot of other RPGs, but its not exactly all that interesting. These ain't no Witcher 3 quests that's for sure.

Now I get the initial response to this. “Well why should I put up with 10 hours of a slog? Why should I waste my time if the game is going to take so long to get good?” And I get the argument, I really do. But you see, every once in a while, you slog on because in some rare situations...the characters are just worth it. This is one of those cases.

Every character has their own ambitions, passions, motivations, unique strengths, both in and outside of combat, as well as their own failings and flaws. But more importantly, they aren't just isolated islands either. They have relationships not just with the hero, but with each other as well. Several character arcs include different members of your class with clashing viewpoints on the world and having to come to terms with each other. Again its all part of making them feel like and actually team filled with believable people. And this isn't limited to the main characters either.

Despite the massive cast that Cold Steel has, each of them are well written individually that by the end you feel like you just know them all. Even when it comes to the villains, none of them are simply evil for the sake of it. They have depth and understandable reasons for doing what they are doing. It makes them feel realistic, and that's what makes characters great.

Even the story is really good, albeit incredibly complicated. I'll admit that it can be a bit easy to get lost especially at first if you're not paying attention with all the political stuff going on, but the reason it all works is because the focus is always kept where it should be, on the characters and how they react to this ever changing world. The political plotline works mainly because it's less about the politics themselves and more about the people involved and effected.

Seeing how the members of Class VII react and grow over the course of the game is in many ways the strongest element of Trails of Cold Steel. Both in its narrative of course, but also in its gameplay.

• GAMEPLAY

In many ways the gameplay of Cold Steel falls in line with other typical JRPGS. It's turned based combat that puts more emphasis on tactical thinking and exploiting weaknesses than PULSE-POUNDING-ACTION. That said there are a few things that elevate the gameplay from a standard JRPG. First being that combat is dynamic. Characters are constantly moving around the battlefield in combat instead of just standing statically in lines. This one simple addition ads so much to combat, because all of a sudden placement and direction of your actions matter just as much as your choice and timing of skills and attacks. Think of Xcom meet Dragon Quest and you've got a good idea of how combat plays out. Because if this, every battle becomes so much more complex than simply mashing attack over and over again, merging the best tactical elements of both worlds.

The other great element of combat has to relate to the characters. Instead of being essentially interchangeable battle members with basically the same class and abilities, each character has their own set of skills that make them unique. What this means is that every character is useful. There isn't a single one of the part that is completely worthless in combat. True there are some that you may just want to take along white you no matter what cough (Laura) cough but every one of them has something they can bring to battles that makes them invaluable.

Probably the most crucial mechanic, is the linking system. In between Major story events, Rean is able to spend time with his various classmates getting to know them better. As this happens, his bond with that character with strengthen both in a narrative sense, but also literally. And this is the crucial part. The stronger two characters bond, the more effective they are in combat together. Paring up the right characters for long enough can turn them into a virtually unstoppable duo. It's a great way of having the gameplay and the story reinforce each other instead of feeling as if they are segregated.

• VISUALS/AUDIO

On a narrative and mechanical level, Trials of Cold Steel is absolutely brilliant. And that is the most important level to get right. That said, aesthetically, the game leaves a lot to be desired.

While I fully approve of the use of a stylized art style taking preference over graphical fidelity, the games art style kinda generic. Even disregarding the fact that our leads look like every anime lead character ever, a lot of the designs of the world and characters came of as incredible standard or uninspired. There's only so many times that the pointed German helmets or slightly altered high-school uniforms can be used before they become bland. As always visuals are small part of a game, but they are a part none the less.

Also, audio wise, with the exception of a couple of songs, the soundtrack was utterly forgettable. There just wasn't much of anything that I would go out of my way to listen to on its own, which is a same.

However, there is one area where I can ready praise the audio department. To find a JRPG with voice acting is none too common. To find one that has been re-voiced in english is even rarer. It is borderline unheard of to find a english dub that is actually good. The best voice acting is the kind of acting that is able to elevate a character to the point where you cannot separate the character from the voice. Which is exactly what happens here, and it was done without resorting to the cliché of making every female sound as if she's constantly on helium.

• FINAL THOUGHTS

Playing Trails of Cold Steel, or for that matter nearly any great JRPG, is a lot like chilling a marble statue with a metal toothpick. It may take some time, it may have it's frustrations, and there may be times when you can't help but wondering why you are bothering to continue. But in between those moments there are so many other moments of unparalleled bliss and enjoyment. And when you finish that statue and gaze upon what you have accomplished...there really is no feeling quite like it.

And again look I get the whole “Slow first 10 hours isn't a point in the game's favor” argument, really I do. And I'm not trying to say that the slow start, the occasion dull quest or the generic art and soundtrack aren't problems, because they most certainly are. What I'm saying is that despite these very real problems, despite those rough first 10-ish hours, the other 50 hours is so absolutely worth it.