The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel

Note: Trials of Cold Steel is the first game in the Cold Steel arc (there are a total of 4 games) and can serve as an entry point to the Trails saga, although my personal recommendation would be to start with Trails in the Sky, especially with the remake of the first game being out and the second coming soon. Game Overview: As an intro game in a Trails arc, the first playthrough of the game will probably feel like things are moving slowly as the game must introduce the setting and all the new characters. In this case, it’s introducing the Erebonian empire, which is massive so there’s a lot there. The game does this by splitting things into two alternating sections that cycle until the end of the game – there are days where you spend time in the anime school of the arc (Thors Millitary Academy) and there are days where a part of the class goes on what are called Field Studies which introduce a new location in Erebonia. Both have their highlights, although field studies were more interesting of the two for me, especially on repeat playthroughs. Story/Setting: The setting and the story are intrinsically connected since Cold Steel is really presenting a chunk of the story of the Erebonian Empire. The basic premise of the story is that the Empire is experiencing a great deal of change due to technological progress and changing political dynamics. This in turn is putting a great deal of pressure on the existing class system within the country which divides people into nobles and commoners. You see this play out through the eyes of our resident MCs – Thors Military Academy Class VII or Class VII for short. This is a special class which contains both commoners and nobles allowing the player to see the perspectives of both sides via the impact of characters in our direct cast. This is the more grounded/realistic part of the setting which is important but there is another more fantastical part of the story that is being set up as you play through the game that won’t be apparent until later on in the game. The merger of the realistic and fantastical throughout the cold steel arc is my favorite part of the games. Characters: The game introduces a ton of characters, and my thoughts are somewhat split between the main characters and the side characters: Main Characters: Cold Steel 1 has the widest consistent cast of main characters/playable characters (Class VII) in these games so far. It also introduces a persona style bonding system where you can select which of the main characters you want to get to know better, although on your first playthrough, the number of bonding events you can do is limited so you have to make decisions on who you interact with. I personally dislike this system since it felt like it split off character development for Class VII behind these events and limited the development to interactions between Rean (MC) and other class members outside of certain story driven interactions between certain characters. It does seem like the bonding system was popular enough though since it’s here to stay in the remaining games in the series. Side Characters: The bonding system does not apply to side characters so you are able to interact with them throughout the entire game and although they don’t necessarily get as much development as some of the MCs, they were generally more consistent and memorable for me. Gameplay: Cold Steel brings changes to the Trials formula but it is in an iterative rather than a revolutionary basis. The gameplay is a turn-based battle system with a lot of depth which although Cold Steel moves to simplify and speed up some of the gameplay. This is done primarily through the Arcus link system which allows two characters to link up and perform bonus actions whenever an attacking character meets the requirements. You can also save up points from each follow-up attack and then use a more powerful combination once you have enough. The quarts system returns but now stats and spells have been largely separated, which removes some of the complexity around customizing certain characters to unlock spells at various stages of the game. This removes some of the customization from previous games but probably smooths out the difficulty a bit as well. Overall, the gameplay is a lot of fun and Falcom keeps iterating on it in every entry in the series, leading for it to feel familiar but still fresh. Music/Soundtrack: It’s got a bunch of bangers. 10/10 Overall, I would recommend this game if you are looking for an interconnected story, fun turn-based gameplay with depth and a great soundtrack. It does come with it’s fair share of anime tropes and those are a mixed bag overall so your tolerance of those will probably impact how much you enjoy the game.