The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II

This review was too long for Steam, so I found a free site to dump it on: https://write.as/2ljktrnhajqnx.md

es bien

It's a lovely game.

very good

The 7th Trails game and the 2nd game in the Erebonia arc. This takes place during the same time as the events of Trails to Azure. No, you can't start with this one. Go play Sky FC/1st if you are new to Trails.

I just came from the first game (Cold steel 1). I am pleasantly surprised at how well this game is compared to the first one. A good improvement in many ways. The story continues right off from the end of the first one. That big ending with the climax of the story continues right where it left off. So if you play the first one you'll want to just right into the next. The game improves in many ways. Graphically it's better, a slight improvement, but don't expect a complete overhaul. It's basically the same style from he first. Better colors, animations, detailed environments, etc. The first game was all about class 7 and how they were becoming students. Sending them on field studies to grow academically, to grow personally, and to teach them about the world. They also had school life which somewhat felt like a life sim for kids in some ways. That part was interesting but also felt like a slog to get through. The first game started off with most of the characters acting as immature kids which initially is a turn off, but as the game goes on they do mature and have a lot of character growth. Now in the second game the world has changed so much they are forced to take advantage of the growth and it works very well. (spoiler) Basically the Erebonia is in a war and the class, and Thors academy itself is caught in the middle of it so the game is a bit more mature in that aspect. One thing I thought was cool was that if you load your completed game it will remember who you picked at the end of CS1 to dance with which is your romance pick that ties into the story a little at the end of CS1 and also at the start of CS2. My opinion is that CS2 feels more like a JRPG that takes you on an adventure vs CS1 that felt more like you were sent on missions. As far as the combat there are some mechanics that are added that make combat more intriguing. Like the added overdrive system to the link system. The link system itself is continue off from the first game so you don't have to start from nothing. Along with that all your skills travel over to the second game as well, and if you load your completed save data from CS1 you will end up getting some rewards to. There some more depth to Arts as well. Over all a lot of added features from the first game. Some tips. I actually use WeMod to increase the game speed. Idk if its just me but I found CS1, CS2 to just feel slow. I felt the the game was way smother at a higher speed. I also increased exp gains slightly (.6%), and I increased the Sepith drop (4%). I found these three increases balanced both games well. Boss fights are hard, and the series leans heavily into buffs/debuffs, elemental and type of damage weakness that you will have to learn to clear some bosses. They are HP heavy as well. I like it. It's a lot better than the first game. If you life CS1 definitely play CS2.

game 7/13 The great pay off from all the shenanigans in cs1. Great continuation from the first as it sets you right after the first game's cliffhanger. I mostly loved the game. I liked how this game is very closely linked to the crossbell games and the dichotomy of going from a happy school life to a full blown civil war. Seeing a lot of npc's and characters react to the setting was one of my favorite things about this arc. A lot of development for the world and future games happen in this game. They also do a lot for each character's development especially the mc Rean. Gameplay wise they did some improvements from coldsteel 1 but its mostly the same. The biggest change would be the mecha fights with Valimar. I actually liked it. I like choosing which parts of the body to attack. Kinda reminds me of xenogears. One of the best changes was finally moving on from the persona-esque routine gameplay from the first. Instead a huge chunk of this game is reuniting with class 7. I was mostly fine with it and actually enjoyed how they executed re exploring the old areas. My main problem was in the middle where you spend so much time recruiting "other people". It takes forever and kind of takes from the momentum since it was right before the climax. Luckily right after that part the game goes back to being peak all the way towards the end of this game. Overall, loved the game. Some gripes but mostly great and a step up from cs1. Probably my top 2 cold steel game.

me like this too

if you made it this far in this series, you will probably like this game.

I'm recommending this game because ultimately I had more fun with this game than the first game. It's a direct follow up to the first game and as a follow up, it's fantastic. It's better balanced in that arts are actually useful and there's more methods to replenish. Certain master quartz were rebalanced. There's still the issue of every spell being attached to every quartz, but you can now upgrade those single spell quartz to give you extra stats. That's....something. I still firmly believe the system from the Sky games and the Crossbell games are superior to the first two Cold Steel games...especially the first one. The best, most standout characters get amazing moments. My issue with this game is that it seems to respect my time the least of ANY Trails game to date. That might sound wild, but hear me out. Each Trails game endeared me more to it with side characters and lore that interested me. That's the key word. INTEREST. That's my failing with these two games so far. I don't mean any disrespect when I say this, but holy moly the characters for the most part don't interest me at all. In fact, I found myself disliking more characters in this game and Cold Steel 1 than I EVER had in the previous Trails games. Therefore, when I'm doing side quests that are related to them like putting on a concert or facing some upper classman, I end up finding myself glazed over harder than before. I don't like these side quests compared to the previous games. Nothing interesting happens in them this time around. This game is long for the sake of being long. [spoiler] If you see the word "Finale", don't believe it. It's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Near everything after the Finale could have been an email, to use a work term. Also, the game can be PAINFULLY unsatisfying. You go through the trouble of beating a boss, but then the boss goes "Not my full power!" and then beats the ♥♥♥♥ out of us. This happens for every single important fight and I'm sick of it. The previous games had a sense of permanence or at least had the ILLUSION of permanence. Here, they don't even hide it. It feels like it was done out of contempt. [/spoiler] By the time I had to do another last "last dungeon", I was genuinely pissed and it almost ruined the game for me. It's crazy, because it starts off really strong. I had my hopes high after that fantastic opening chapter and first few Act parts. Why? Character writing was the strongest at this point. Then it completely fell off of a cliff. One last thing. They hid important story elements in New Game Plus. So important, that Cold Steel 3 expects you to know about all of it. You want me to go through an 86 hour game again? I respectfully decline. I have all of these grievances, small as they can be, because they've done better. They've easily done better. That said, I still recommend it. Why? I already explained above. Battles, cutscenes, music, visuals, and romance all got upgraded. I just think they can do better. I wish I had a mixed opinion button rather than Yes or No, just like the first game. I'll go yes, but this is the last benefit of the doubt I'm offering. If Cold Steel 3 actually sucks, I'm going to go nuclear.