The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel Reviews

This game is long as all hell but the story is good and I like all the characters. I'm definitelly getting to a point where I don't really want to partake in the combat anymore but I'm looking forward to how the series improves in the next 3 games. The cutscenes can certainly run a little long without you being able to save and the game 100% needs an auto text function. Hoping that comes in the next game. Pretty late in the game and my characters are still unlocking new abilites, which is nice. Wish there was drastically more customization in the apperances to keep things interesting. From my understanding, the game used to not be voiced at all, so kudos to what they have voiced in the game. It starts off with a lot of it being voiced and later in the game you can go so long without hearing voices that you actually forget its a thing until it randomly pops back up. Like you can be getting through a whole conversation in utter silence and then boom, the rest of it is voiced. Really throws you off sometimes but the voices, when they do appear, are very well done. Hoping for more of that moving forward and just more engaging combat....has to be more than jus...nothing for a very long time until they finally unlocked one new ability. Overall tho, considering the game is old and still holding my interest this long...I give it a 8/10 in the hopes that the next 3 games drastically improve upon this formula.

Lots of yapping about food but the combat and characters are OK.

Quickly Became one of my favorite games ever. 9/10 - Great Lore and World Building. (World Building dates back to trails of sky) - Amazing Characters and Character Development. - Awesome plot and storytelling. - Good turn-based combat & challenging (at least from my experience). - Great Plot twist! - Ending is Meant to be follow up quickly in Trails of cold steel 2

This game is the beginning of 3rd arc of the "Trails Series", so you may miss some of the exciting feeling at some part of the story. Imho, this is my first game into Trails Series and I still amazed by it. Realy love the the game because of the story and its lore. It start simple but keep expanding its lore and characters. The story is anime-ish, but the expanding of the lore give you a serious tone and keep you engaged. Easy recomendation

This game is good. Like really good but mostly if you are a fan of jrpgs. So let me try to pitch it to you. The Story: This is part of a larger story. There are other games set in the same world at the same time. You'll even hear about stuff going on in Crossbell which is where Trails from Zero takes place. I have not played those games. I plan on playing Trails from Zero in the future. That said. This game and it's sequel more than stand out as their own stories. This game in particular may be one of the most compelling jrpg stories I've experience and that's because inspite of the magic and other fantasy tropes, the story is surprisingly grounded. It's about students, learning more about their country and how it's on the brink of fracturing. They grow, they develop, all while exploring this places and facing enemies that threaten their way of life. It's incredibly compelling and I love the way it builds up to the final moments where everything hits the fan. That's the best I can say about the story without spoiling too much. That said their is one con, and it's a con that a majority of jrpgs suffer from: a slow beginning. This game's beginning is exceptionally slow because it starts with a fast forward that acts as an ill omen then shows you what happened in the 6 months leading up to this moment. The only issue is that this is entirely unnecessary. The actual moment doesn't lead to any world shattering reveals or moments. It almost like it's there to keep the player invested, though I would argue it only serves to confuse new players by throwing them into the deepend with mechanics they don't understand. It doesn't help that the actual opening, entering the school and exploring the old school house with classmates you just met. Is a much better opening (though it does introduce too many important characters at once). Gameplay: I really like the combat in this game and part of why is because everything feels important in a meaningful way. You have roughly 5 options in combat: Attack, Arts, Crafts, Move, and Tactics. (There's also flee but fleeing is for cowards, especially when most normal enemies can be take out in like a minute tops, there is even an in-game timer). Attack: Attack the target enemy. Melee characters need to be in melee range, range characters can attack from a distance, and certain characters can hit groups of enemies. Arts: Arts are magic spells that use the ATS stat instead of the Attack stat. The catch is that any character can have any spell. This is because of orbs that you can equip or unequip on each party member at a time. Crafts: These are entirely character specific and have a lot of variety. Some are wider attack areas, ally buffing skills, movement skills, etc. These are what gives each party member their own identity. Move: You reposition your party member. Tactics: This menu I mainly use for switching out party members. You have 6 in battle: 4 for battling and 2 in reserves. All of these are useful and it's up to the player to know when to use them. Even something like crafts which are effectively better attacks can't be spammed because they use CP (craft points). You can earn craft points by damaging the enemy with your attack. You may want to save your craft points so you can use you ultimate move (called an S-Craft). Move can also be useful as the only means to escape a dangerous situation. So yeah. This game has a real good story and really good gameplay. Though there are two cons. Con 1: This game flows seamlessly into the sequel game (though you don't keep all your stuff between games.) While I think the story stands out on it's own, you're pretty much expected to buy the sequel to receive closure. Con 2: This game was allegedly release in 2013 for the Playstation 3. I personally think the game looks like a playstation 2 game and the overworld movement was clearly not meant for mouse and keyboard.

only recommended for story continuation most boring starting chapter of an arc. nothing interesting until the final chapter. dated graphics even if it is the first 3d title. same boring combat gameplay, even with more added mechanics

really fun dont like all the characters or the setting as much but the game is super fun.

Fantastic game. Though the graphics have aged a bit, the complex story itself is wonderfully crafted. There are elements in the story that I don't like but they are few to mention. Not gonna nitpick. This is actually a decent place to start the series since there is little spoilers to encounter (as far as I'm concerned). A good set up for the rest of the series, the best I could say without spoiling anything is that its just the very tip of the ice berg (and it is a vast iceberg). Will play CSII to see how the story unfolds.

After a break I decided to return back to the TLoH series. After finishing Trails of Zero and Azure, The Cold Steel establishment felt quite refreshing. The game is not too hard on new players and has a low Skill curve. It took me around 80-90 hours of on and off gameplay to finish the game without full achievements (From what I read and experienced, is that NG+ is needed to get full achievements). COMBAT 8/10 - The game showers you with new quartz and gems so you never feel hopeless or weak against new enemies. Plus the introduction of link styles was a great addition to the game. (Felt like the combat was more close to Trails in the Sky versions, After the Zero, Azure). STORY 8/10 - Sometimes can be extremely slow, but has the usual TLoH formula sprinkled all over it (It does keeps reminding you stuff that happened in Trails of Zero and Azure along the way). ART 8/10 - Really like the new designs and graphics definitely a refreshing sight after the previous games. MUSIC 7/10 - Sometimes you don't notice it, but there are some great gems here and there if you stop and listen. (Trails of Sky still has my heart regarding this grading). OVERALL 8/10 - It was a great experience and everyone should give it a try.

Immediate 1000000/10. Actually, no. Let's be more realistic. I rate this game a Millium out of 10. The characters, world building, story, combat and even more are just INCREDIBLE. This game is one of my favourite games of all time, hell, this franchise is one of the best franchises in the universe. I love Rean as a protagonist, be it his mentality and struggles, his amazing combat skills, or even just his monologues (Uh oh...), he never fails to become an extremely likeable and solid protagonist; most of which are either shallow or "wanting to impress" the players nowadays by doing stupid things. I have fallen in love with these characters, the world, the combat, and the game itself. For all the time I've played this, (and i'll probably do more new game pluses) every second, every glance at the screen, every view of this vast, astounding, beautiful game, it just... Fills me with an inexplicable sense of joy and happiness. This goes for the rest of the games in the franchise too, especially cold steel. Absolute cinema; a true masterpiece of a game. Just seeing class 7 going on with their lives at the academy and creating new bonds with each other, is such an incredible sight to see. All the members of class 7 are amazing in their own ways too, and the setting of the academy makes me love this game even more since i love the whole "fantasy academy" thing. The field trips and story progression is great too, i mean, i made sure i took ages to complete this game because i wanted to savour every second of it, and boy, do i regret that. It should've been every millisecond instead, NO, SCRATCH THAT, EVERY NANOSECOND!!! All in all, this ga-, no, masterpiece of art and story itself, is an enjoyable ride; a long one, but trust me, you won't regret it if you stick around and find out...