Avid readers of this blog (all zero of you) might remember that I played through the first and second arc of Falcom’s Trails series relatively recently. Now, quite a while later, I’ve finished the first two games in the Cold Steel arc and I’ve got things to say.
Strap in because It’s another Trails edition of Game I Play, y’all!
Trails of Cold Steel brings with it some big changes for Falcom’s series. The most immediately noticeable change is the move to full 3D, leaving the game without the old school charm of its predecessors. The stiff animation and basic textures is a sobering reminder that this game was in fact originally released for PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 3 in 2013.
But this is Trails. You’re not playing it for the graphics, you’re playing it for the engaging story, intricate world building, charming characters, and fine-tuned RPG systems. Luckily, all of that is still here!
Trails of Cold Steel takes place at Thor’s Military Academy in Erebonia, a prestigious school that the eagle-eyed player might have heard about in Trails to Azure. You’re put in the shoes of Rean Schwarzer, a new student in Class VII. This newly formed class turns out to be special as it contains both nobles and commoners in the otherwise segregated academy.
The school setting does bring with it a fair share of trope-y characters, but overall there are a lot of characters to like and some genuinely good dialog. Your classmates double as your party members in battle and they’re a varied bunch. I became particularly fond of Machias Regnitz, a noble-hating overachiever in Class VII who dreams of overthrowing the aristocracy and quickly became a mainstay in my party.
In classic Falcom fashion, the world-building is a step above your average Japanese RPG. Being set at a military academy in a nation with a long-standing class system, there’s plenty of politics and conflicts seen through the lens of your interactions and encounters with both your classmates and NPCs. Luckily it never feels heavy-handed or like there’s an obvious right and wrong answer.
The first two Cold Steel games play out concurrently with Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure, giving additional context to the events going on in West Zemuria—the part of the continent where the regions Liberl, Crossbell, and Erebonia are situated. If you’ve been following along, those are in fact the three regions where the first, second, and third arc of Trails play out. You quickly find that everything is connected and the more you learn, the more interesting it gets.
When I reached the end of Cold Steel II there had been plenty of big reveals and plot twists, callbacks and character development, and I was once again left with the feeling that I wanted to jump straight into the next game just to see what was going to happen next. Sure, there’s a lot of anime tropes along the way but it’s easy to forget that a good anime can also be both engaging and addictive. I personally could’ve done with less weird vibes with young girls though…
In terms of gameplay there are a lot of returning elements from the previous games. That includes my favorite thing: the materia-esque Quartz system. May it live forever! The battle system also feels much faster than previous games (though I did use the Turbo feature quite a bit, a welcome part of the PS4 port). The addition of Links—linking two characters to enable follow-up attacks and more—made things both fun and strategic. It’s simply super solid turn-based combat.
Speaking of Links, you get more bonuses in combat if the characters you link have a strong bond. That’s where the life sim elements come in. At various times during the games you’ll have the opportunity to spend Bonding Points to get to know your classmates (and other characters) better. It’s a bit like Persona but much less involved. If you manage to forge a strong bond with someone, there are some special scenes and trophies in it for you too!
There are of course plenty of things I haven’t mentioned—from running in-jokes to a very interesting final dungeon—but I’ll leave it here. With Cold Steel and Cold Steel II in the books, I remain a fan of Trails. They’re interesting interconnected games that get more and more captivating the further you get into the series. I can’t wait to keep going.
Things I liked:
- Great writing with a story that just gets better as the games start connecting
- Solid turn-based combat and mechanics
- Varied cast of playable characters who actually develop in significant ways
- Plenty of things that are basically story spoilers, so I won’t list them
Things I didn’t like:
- It sure isn’t winning any beauty contests
- Cold Steel ramps up the anime tropes a bit compared to the first two arcs
- Again, copious amounts of missable content if you’re not thorough