Trails of Cold Steel - A Spoiler Free Review by Jedi

[Jedi]

Welcome to my Spoiler Free Review of The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel. Within this longish review, you will find mostly my general thoughts, I will not spoil any serious parts of the plot as this franchise is very much connected to one another through very strict continuity, Cold Steel takes place 1 year after Trails in the Sky Second Chapter in the country of Erebonia, for those of you familiar with Trails in the Sky. I just recently finished this game myself, and i'm waiting for my copy of Cold Steel 2 to come in the mail. 

What is the Legend of Heroes series? Well, its a long running JRPG series made by Falcom starting in 1997, the creators of other such series as Ys, Xanadu, Brandish, and one off games such as Gurumin, Popful Mail etc. 

The Legend of Heroes is known for a number of things, one of which being the aforementioned strict continuity, you do not want to pick up a game in a particular arc thats in the middle, you pretty much have to start with the first game in a particular set to fully enjoy the arc in particular, and this is the first game of such an arc. It's also known for having really solid writing & characters overall, the series is actually quite popular on Serenes in particular, so much so I gathered most of them into a Falcom Discord, and fellow members of this forum like @DodgeDusk and @eclipse had a strong hand in getting me into these wonderful games, more than a year ago.

I should probably begin with how the game plays, this game is available for both PS3 and PSVita. The battle system would be best described as a Position-heavy, turn-based JRPG that uses a "magic" system similar to FF7's Materia system. 

Combat

On the left is the turn order, you may do one of these actions per characters turn, there are varying factors as to who goes when, a speed stat, whether or not a character has been AT Delayed (Doing actions in general also delays your next turn, but you and the enemy can use certain techniques to change the turn order quite rapidly on top of that). There are also turn bonuses that can appear next to a characters head, these range from HP restoration to guaranteed critical hits.

Attack is self explanatory, attack with your current character depending on their weapon they may have slight AoE properties. (Movement is a stat which can also determine if you can reach an enemy in a turn or not). 

Crafts: These are special moves unique to each character and use "CP" or "Craft Points" which are regained by using certain moves, attacking, getting hit etc, once you have 100 CP an S-Craft (Read super move) can be used if the character has one, when a character has 200 CP their S-Craft becomes even more powerful, however your crafts are very important so just blindly using S-Crafts can actually be detrimental. There is also S-Break which is when you interrupt a turn to use your super, your reasoning could be for various things, this is also a way to steal turn bonuses you may want for yourself. Crafts are very good in this game in particular, quite a number of characters have absolutely ridiculous ones.

Arts: Magic, which is determined by what Orbs your character has equipped, and also have a casting time, which is always shown to you before you actively start casting, there is no instant casting unless you get the Turn Bonus "Zero-Arts" and spells range from nuke spells, to buffs, debuffs and other such things.

Move: Move to another part of the map, be warned this eats up your turn. 

Items and Running are self explanatory. 

Links: Two characters can link up to assist each other in battle, each character has a particular weapon attack type, and if you strike a monster with one they are particularly weak to, it makes it all the easier for a Link attack to display, giving you the ability to have the character linked to the character you attacked with, to do a follow up strike instantly. Among other such bonuses. 

Swap: Later in the game you tend to have more than 4 people at once, so you have reserve members you can switch out with if you need to. 

The combat is very fluid, quick and satisfying, The game isn't super challenging (unless you're on Nightmare mode), but you do need to pay attention or you will get blown up every now and again.

Also, there is no random encounters, you see enemies in the field.

Outside of Combat

You travel around, talking to NPCs (I should note Trails NPC's are actually super interesting because they have mini plotlines going as the games go, and their dialog always changes after story events happen, its almost a tradition for most players to constantly talk to most of the NPCs). 

You generally get a number of quests to do when you have control, or you can freely roam and do stuff you want, typical buying stuff, fishing, find potential hidden quests. Trails games usually aren't very heavy in terms of required quests, however its highly recommended you do every quest you can just to get more enjoyment out of the world at large, because these games are reaaaaaaaaaaaaaally well written and do world building on an A-Tier level. 

You also have access to quick travel options, if you dislike just running around. Although you also have a quick run button, even in dungeons! Which helps if you want to move the pace along a bit more briskly

Speaking of A-Tier Level, the music of this game is spectacular, ranging from the epic to the more calm moments. I'll share a personal favorite track of mine before we continue onward. 
 

 

 

 

The World & Relationships

Let's touch on relationships of the main group. These 9 characters are your main party, with occasional rotations, so you're most likely using them all at least once. They are all students at a military academy called Thors Academy. 

I see you already trying to leave, don't worry about this being a "school" setting, beside a few moments it isn't really typical anime fare, Falcom doesn't usually stoop to that, the way this game is structured works a fair bit like the Persona franchise however (more so 3). You have some scattered school segments, but they are few and far between, and you also get the chance to bond with your fellow students & certain NPCs, again like Persona however you don't have the time management to worry about, you just get a limited amount of "Bonding" Points to spend in a particular chapter of the game, to see particular events with characters who may have events that period of time in the game. This helps do more for "Link Attacks" as was briefly touched on earlier. This also goes into some relationship values and unlike most JRPGs this group of games pretty much allows you to decide who Rean is romantically interested in, although it doesn't go too far (As of CS1 that is). But the choice is very appreciated and it actually alters some scenes and I've been told it alters a few things in the sequel as well through transfers.

Something I appreciate about this game is that the entire cast doesn't instantly get along, a good chunk of them have issues with people in the party and it takes a decent chunk of time for them to develop and get past those tensions. 

Lets introduce the main character really quick.

Rean: The main character, generally friendly and helpful to most people he comes across, a skilled leader and swordsman. He finds himself at Thors for reasons even he isn't sure of. Wields a Tachi. 

Jedi's thoughts on Rean: He's a fairly standard RPG protagonist, which gets him flak from a number of Trails fans who really love Sky's protagonist Estelle, but Rean is pretty cool, and has some of the absolute best lines in an RPG i've seen. He's fairly vanilla sure, but he at least has character to him despite that. A very good "PoV" character overall. The other characters shine around him, and the cast isn't very typical besides him, (which is why some people have issues with him).

In Combat he's a monster and potentially one of the most broken protagonists I've seen in an RPG, with the right setups you can delay the enemies turns to oblivion. 

I honestly wish I could go over the writing in general, but I'd be at the risk of spoiling anything in the game, which alone might sour the experience for you. Witty writing abounds however, and every character even the NPCs feel like full out characters, a few examples without any plot related stuff. 

As mentioned earlier, everyone in the game world always has new things to say or do, while Rean and co are out doing their stuff, the world of Erebonia and as a whole Zemuria are always awesome to learn about. Every chapter brings with it more complications & awesome things with the plot, it'll have you on the edge of your seat by the end.

For those of you who have played Trails in the Sky, you will be happy to hear that there are quite a number of references to events that happened in those games, and thats not all. But to say anything more would be criminal and rob you of the chance to experience it yourself. Liberl is not forgotten at all in these games so you can rest easy on that.

Visuals

Gonna be blunt here, ToCS looks late PS2, and is animated similarly, Falcom has always been fairly low budget, however this did improve in the later games, BUT I have to address it here. While there are some spectacular scenes, attacks and such. It's not anywhere near the quality a typical PS3 game should be bringing to the table, but the games strengths are enough to outweigh its lackluster graphical flare and subpar character animations.

 The character designs however are top notch, while the main cast generally share a similar school uniform, they all have their unique aspects they bring to em, plus the red jackets are really cool regardless (I've even considered getting one, but damn are they expensive!). The designs aren't like anything too over the top, and are down to earth, which is refreshing in an RPG these days.

Pros & Cons of the game

Pros
Strong Central Storyline - A Trails Staple by this point 
Strong Worldbuilding - Another Trails Staple
Very likable characters 
Really great combat system, that gives you alot of free reign, while not feeling overly complex.
Amazing Soundtrack
60 to 70 Hours await you, and this is just the beginning of this particular trilogy! Along with replay value, due to its NG+ and limited event choices during the chapters

Cons
Outdated Visuals and Animation 
A slightly slow start 
The school setting may turn off potential players 
60 to 70 Hours await you, and this is just the beginning of this particular trilogy! Along with replay value, due to its NG+ and limited event choices during the chapters

Jedi's Thoughts
Trails of Cold Steel now ranks among my favorite RPGs, alongside the two Sky games, I can't wait to play the 2nd game and of course the upcoming 3rd game for the PS4 when it hits, I'm so glad that SF allowed me to get into the glorious ranks of the Falcom fans of the world, so I could experience all the gems it has to offer.

Highly recommend the Trails series at large to anyone looking for a really solid experience in both the writing and gameplay departments. 

Edited January 31, 2017 by Jedi

[Starman]

Cool to see you like it this much.
Though im not too far in myself (Only near the end of chapter 3), but most of these thoughts about the game i can agree with quite well.

Here's to hoping CS2 comes in sooner than later

[Jedi]

19 minutes ago, Trisitei said:

Cool to see you like it this much.
Though im not too far in myself (Only near the end of chapter 3), but most of these thoughts about the game i can agree with quite well.

Here's to hoping CS2 comes in sooner than later

Yeah Cold Steel is soooooo good, and oh near the end of chapter 3? Nice you're getting to the super super good parts soon. 

Yeah I hope so too, I want at least a day before I start my proper work schedule to play it haha.

[euklyd]

2 hours ago, Jedi said:

Rean: The main character, generally friendly and helpful to most people he comes across, a skilled leader and swordsman. He finds himself at Thors for reasons even he isn't sure of. Wields a Tachi. 

Jedi's thoughts on Rean: He's a fairly standard RPG protagonist, which gets him flak from a number of Trails fans who really love Sky's protagonist Estelle, but Rean is pretty cool, and has some of the absolute best lines in an RPG i've seen. He's fairly vanilla sure, but he at least has character to him despite that. A very good "PoV" character overall. The other characters shine around him, and the cast isn't very typical besides him, (which is why some people have issues with him).

I feel like Estelle was actually, at least on the surface, suuuuuper vanilla. Like, very standard shounen protagonist (at least initially). By SC, though, she definitely came into her own.

2 hours ago, Jedi said:

- The school setting may turn off potential players 

Dealbreaker tbh.

[Refa]

If you think Estelle is vanilla, you are not going to have a good time when it comes to Rean.

[Zera]

Nice review, Jedi. Seems like a not-so-bad RPG, but the gameplay sounds run-of-the-mill, and the characters' visual designs are generic-highschool-anime.

[Jedi]

22 minutes ago, Zera said:

Nice review, Jedi. Seems like a not-so-bad RPG, but the gameplay sounds run-of-the-mill, and the characters' visual designs are generic-highschool-anime.

The gameplay is anything but run of the mill lol, Its much more intuitive than most other modern RPGs or RPGs in general.

[Water Mage]

Ah, the worldbuilding in this game is a thing of beauty. And while Rean is a bit vanilla, one thing that stood out about him is his self-esteem is disturbingly low, even by JRPG hero standards. It reached a point where it stopped making me annoyed and actually made genuinely concerned about him. 

By the way, what was your most used party? I can see you're a fan of Emma, and I remember that Emma+Jusis being a really damn good combination.

[Jedi]

4 minutes ago, Water Mage said:

Ah, the worldbuilding in this game is a thing of beauty. And while Rean is a bit vanilla, one thing that stood out about him is his self-esteem is disturbingly low, even by JRPG hero standards. It reached a point where it stopped making me annoyed and actually made genuinely concerned about him. 

By the way, what was your most used party? I can see you're a fan of Emma, and I remember that Emma+Jusis being a really damn good combination.

My main team seemed to rotate alot between like 

Emma, Laura, Fie,
Emma, Laura, Gaius.
Machias, Alisa, Jusis 
Gaius, Elliot, Machias 
Alisa, Laura, Fie 
Jusis, Alisa, Emma. 

The top 2 were the ones I used most.

Also I just find Rean is a good person in terms of like how he reacts to stuff haha, he has some really good lines.

Edited February 1, 2017 by Jedi

[Water Mage]

7 minutes ago, Jedi said:

My main team seemed to rotate alot between like 

Emma, Laura, Fie,
Emma, Laura, Gaius.
Machias, Alisa, Jusis 
Gaius, Elliot, Machias 
Alisa, Laura, Fie 
Jusis, Alisa, Emma. 

The top 2 were the ones I used most.

Also I just find Rean is a good person in terms of like how he reacts to stuff haha, he has some really good lines.

Some of Rean's most snarky lines were awesome. Did you see the Cinderella one? That was my favorite. And fun fact, Rean's voice actor actually voiced some of his favorite snarky lines that were unvoiced in the game, and it's awesome.

Here it is, but careful, there is at least one line from the second game, so it might be spoilery: http://sonicmega.tumblr.com/tagged/Rean-Schwarzer

Wish I could post the actual clips here, but I'm on a phone.

[euklyd]

3 hours ago, Refa said:

If you think Estelle is vanilla, you are not going to have a good time when it comes to Rean.

Estelle is like the definition of standard shounen protagonist for at least the first half of FC, only she has boobs. More of a mango sort of shounen protagonist than for JRPGs, though, I think.

[Jedi]

2 hours ago, Water Mage said:

Some of Rean's most snarky lines were awesome. Did you see the Cinderella one? That was my favorite. And fun fact, Rean's voice actor actually voiced some of his favorite snarky lines that were unvoiced in the game, and it's awesome.

Here it is, but careful, there is at least one line from the second game, so it might be spoilery: http://sonicmega.tumblr.com/tagged/Rean-Schwarzer

Wish I could post the actual clips here, but I'm on a phone.

Yeah I've been linked those before, Sean Chiplock is a great dude. His delivery on these lines is great haha

[DodgeDusk]

Ego = stroked.

You already know my thoughts on your review and the game as a whole, so I won't go into that. 

14 hours ago, Zera said:

Nice review, Jedi. Seems like a not-so-bad RPG, but the gameplay sounds run-of-the-mill, and the characters' visual designs are generic-highschool-anime.

The gameplay is anything but standard, though admittedly it's hard to explain. You have your standard attack, magic (or arts, as they're called), and character-unique skills for your offense, and then you have items and move. For a grid-based combat game, simply moving without attacking can be your best option at times, especially since a lot of the attacks enemies can use have a wide area of effect, and moving a character out of range/away from your party can be extremely beneficial. Positioning is very important in this game--something not a lot of RPGs can claim. The overall gameplay is incredibly satisfying, too. Combat is just really fun.

Regarding the setting: you'll be spending the majority of the game outside of the school, so while can be an initial turn-off, it's not something I'd really worry over. Some of the student NPCs are also fantastic, and makes exploring the school and speaking the students worth it. The sequel also drops the high-school setting.

Edited February 1, 2017 by DodgeDusk
Typo.

[eclipse]

6 hours ago, Zera said:

Nice review, Jedi. Seems like a not-so-bad RPG, but the gameplay sounds run-of-the-mill, and the characters' visual designs are generic-highschool-anime.

There's two different schools of thought on this:

1. "Well it's easy to blow everything up"
2. "Wait, I can combo that?!"

The ones who subscribe to the second one will find Cold Steel a lot more fun.  Just like Fire Emblem, the game won't punish you for experimenting. and there's no one character that's so awful that he/she is unusable.  The "bottleneck" in terms of experimentation isn't the characters!  And for some maybe light story/mechanics spoilers. . .

I kicked Rean's ass out of the party as soon as I could, because he didn't fit my style.

---

Glad to know that you enjoyed it, @Jedi~!  Can't wait to see your reaction to the second installment!

[Jedi]

53 minutes ago, eclipse said:

There's two different schools of thought on this:

1. "Well it's easy to blow everything up"
2. "Wait, I can combo that?!"

The ones who subscribe to the second one will find Cold Steel a lot more fun.  Just like Fire Emblem, the game won't punish you for experimenting. and there's no one character that's so awful that he/she is unusable.  The "bottleneck" in terms of experimentation isn't the characters!  And for some maybe light story/mechanics spoilers. . .

 

  Reveal hidden contents

I kicked Rean's ass out of the party as soon as I could, because he didn't fit my style.

 

---

Glad to know that you enjoyed it, @Jedi~!  Can't wait to see your reaction to the second installment!

You took Rean out of the party? Wow, I found him way too valuable to do that to 

 

I can't wait for the second game to get into my mail. Should be today or tomorrow.

[TheEnd]

Yes, Jedi... let the Falcom flow through you.

While I consider Cold Steel 1 one of the weakest in the series (the orbment line change still kinda baffles me, the all-teenager main cast feels like a step backwards from the mixed adult/teen teams of the previous arcs, the story structure is predictable, the plot plot pacing is odd, and Rean is the worst protagonist in the series so far)... it's still a Trails game, and probably the best entry for the series nowadays.

Meanwhile, CS2 is one of my favorites... please don't let the hype kill it for you.

Eight long months until Sen 3 :(

[Jedi]

4 minutes ago, TheEnd said:

Yes, Jedi... let the Falcom flow through you.

While I consider Cold Steel 1 one of the weakest in the series (the orbment line change still kinda baffles me, the all-teenager main cast feels like a step backwards from the mixed adult/teen teams of the previous arcs, the story structure is predictable, the plot plot pacing is odd, and Rean is the worst protagonist in the series so far)... it's still a Trails game, and probably the best entry for the series nowadays.

Meanwhile, CS2 is one of my favorites... please don't let the hype kill it for you.

Eight long months until Sen 3 :(

I loved my romp through Cold Steel (as my review shows) and I loved both the Sky games, I have a hard time ranking them all currently haha, I'm pretty sure i'll enjoy my journeys through 3rd (when it comes) and CS2. 

Although I realize I need a PS4 now if I want to finish the CS trilogy.

[Refa]

Hopefully they do manage to add connectivity between CS3 and the previous games; it'll be pretty disappointing if they don't.

[Jedi]

I forgot to mention how amazing the Voice Acting is, (and I've been told by Sean Chiplock himself). That it gets even better in CS2. 

I also think I should mention Emma is voiced by Rena Strober who is known on this forum for being the voice of Azura, XSeed does well at its english VA picks and its very apparent they put their hearts into it.

[Water Mage]

I always thought that it was rather ironic that Rena Strober voice Emma, considering who opposes her in CS2.

And speaking of FE's voice actors, Owain/Odin/Shiro/Ignatius's voice actor voices Gaius, Jakob/Saizo/Hayato's voice actor voices Jusis, Oboro/Effie/Mikoto's voice actress voices Laura, Chrom/Ryoma/Shigure/Azama's voice actor voices Prince Olivert, Male Corrin/Arthur/Hinata's voice actor voices Reinhart, Panne's voice actress voices Alisa's mother, Gunther's voice actor voices Jusis's brother, Tiki's voice actress voices Sharon, plus Leo/Kaden/Forrest's voice actor, Sumia/Nah's voice actress and Yen'fay's voice actor all voices a character that appears in CS2.

Quite a lot, isn't it?

EDIT: Ack, I got one wrong! Panne's voice actress does not voice Alisa's mother. That was a mistake on my part.

Edited February 1, 2017 by Water Mage

[TheEnd]

54 minutes ago, Jedi said:

I loved my romp through Cold Steel (as my review shows) and I loved both the Sky games, I have a hard time ranking them all currently haha, I'm pretty sure i'll enjoy my journeys through 3rd (when it comes) and CS2. 

Although I realize I need a PS4 now if I want to finish the CS trilogy.

My personal, fully biased ranking would be something like SC > CS2 > Zero > 3rd > FC > CS1 > Azure. I'll never forgive Azure's arts and crafts nerfs. Ever. Please be forewarned of that so it won't bother you as much.

I have a hard time imagining how someone could possibly not enjoy the 3rd if they liked FC and SC. That game is pure, glorious fan service.

Falcom has already forced me to buy a PSP, a PS3 and a PS4... why did I become a fanboy

34 minutes ago, Refa said:

Hopefully they do manage to add connectivity between CS3 and the previous games; it'll be pretty disappointing if they don't.

Please no, my PS3 is an illegal machine

I hope they'll do like in 3rd, where you got some minor item bonuses for carrying over your SC save, but the story itself didn't change. I'd hate to miss content just because I can't use their cross-save feature.

[DodgeDusk]

6 hours ago, TheEnd said:

While I consider Cold Steel 1 one of the weakest in the series (the orbment line change still kinda baffles me, the all-teenager main cast feels like a step backwards from the mixed adult/teen teams of the previous arcs, the story structure is predictable, the plot plot pacing is odd, and Rean is the worst protagonist in the series so far)... it's still a Trails game, and probably the best entry for the series nowadays.

Meanwhile, CS2 is one of my favorites... please don't let the hype kill it for you.

Eight long months until Sen 3 :(

Regarding Rean being the worst protagonist in Trails: I don't think Rean's actually bad in CS1, since he isn't the main focus of the game (Class VII as a whole are). CS2 focusing on Rean is where Rean's problems start showing, in my opinion. Rean in CS1 is pretty okay, though he's not Estelle good. Can't really comment on Lloyd.

Two-year wait until Cold Steel 3. Gonna be brutal. 

6 hours ago, Refa said:

Hopefully they do manage to add connectivity between CS3 and the previous games; it'll be pretty disappointing if they don't.

Yeah, same here. I want to see some CS2 sidequest stuff get mentioned in CS3.

[Jedi]

5 hours ago, TheEnd said:

I hope they'll do like in 3rd, where you got some minor item bonuses for carrying over your SC save, but the story itself didn't change. I'd hate to miss content just because I can't use their cross-save feature.

Maybe they could do something where they ask you a few questions at the start of a file in CS3, about what you did in CS1 & 2, it'd be lame in comparison to actual transfers, but you could still emulate the choices maybe.

[eclipse]

7 hours ago, Water Mage said:

I always thought that it was rather ironic that Rena Strober voice Emma, considering who opposes her in CS2.

And speaking of FE's voice actors, Owain/Odin/Shiro/Ignatius's voice actor voices Gaius, Jakob/Saizo/Hayato's voice actor voices Jusis, Oboro/Effie/Mikoto's voice actress voices Laura, Chrom/Ryoma/Shigure/Azama's voice actor voices Prince Olivert, Male Corrin/Arthur/Hinata's voice actor voices Reinhart, Panne's voice actress voices Alisa's mother, Gunther's voice actor voices Jusis's brother, Tiki's voice actress voices Sharon, plus Leo/Kaden/Forrest's voice actor, Sumia/Nah's voice actress and Yen'fay's voice actor all voices a character that appears in CS2.

Quite a lot, isn't it?

EDIT: Ack, I got one wrong! Panne's voice actress does not voice Alisa's mother. That was a mistake on my part.

Great, now I'm imagining Ryoma acting like Olivert.  Looks like you'll have more to add with the release of Heroes, since. . .

(SC stuff)

Ogma's Heroes voice actor is Loewe.  Which is absolutely hilarious, IMO.

[Jedi]

8 hours ago, eclipse said:

Great, now I'm imagining Ryoma acting like Olivert.  

We really need fanart of this, like the concept is far too amusing to just let go.