The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II

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.

Improves upon just about everything that CS1 did right whilst fixing most of it's problems (apart from how comically powerful stacking delay quartz on Rean is). The structure is much more like previous entries in the series, actually in general CS2 feels almost like a greatest hits of the previous six games in terms of it's structure, pacing and mechanics. And I mean that in the best way possible. From a gameplay standpoint this is easily one of if not the best game in the series so far. The writing still does not reach the highs of the Sky Trilogy or Zero but it's certainly a significant step up from CS1.

me like this too

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.

And to be young once more

With love in my heart I must declare this to be the weakest entry to the Cold Steel series. However, that is not to say that it is a bad game. A 70/100 is still a very inpressive grade. As to specifics: The weakest part of the game is story. To preface this, plotwise it is not bad. The plot is engaging, interesting, and actually compelling. The flaws come about from a number of over used cliches and a frustrating lack of influence you feel to the story and world. I won't go into specific spoilers, but there are numerous points throughout the game where your party has a vital goal to achieve, seemingly at the cusp of success having beaten the boss fight, before the boss gets an absurd second wind or reveals they were simply holding back and overpowers the protagonist and team during the after fight cutscene. Fortunately an extremely powerful ally is able to swoop in and save the team and complete the objective on your behalf. This is prolific and can hamper your enjoyment as this feeling that your party is impotent yet is somehow still vital to the story undercuts most of the intense scenes. Mechanically this is a refinement to the previous entry. Both in regards to gameplay systems and general playability. Combat is similar, yet with a enough work to make all systems equally viable and, more importantly, enjoyable. Leaving me to actually want to consider playstyles different to what I am comfortable with (I have actually incorporated tactics using the status effect system, instead of simply ignoring it.) Character build and progression are expanded to allow for versatility and still keeps individual identity for all playable characters. Your casters are still casting, and your dodge tank is still dodging, but they do have other styles that can be used in tandem to at least limit fights from feeling overly repetitive. Art and Sound are simply stellar as is standard for this series. The soundtrack absolutely slaps and the voice acting has some genuine direction and expression to keep scenes truly emotionally moving.

Too many problems with the story, gameplay and characters to count on a steam review. Somehow them managed to destroy any kind of tension in the story, failed to tell believable character motivations and made the game feel stretched out at the same time.