This is my review of not just Trails of Cold Steel, but [b]Cold Steel I-IV[/b]. I decided to play through the Erebonia Arc as a whole like I did with the Liberl and Crossbell arcs, so that I could form a full opinion of the scope as a whole. If you’re reading this and don’t understand what these other arcs are, then please find Trails in the Sky FC, SC, 3rd, as well as Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure before you check out the Cold Steel games. I’ve seen folks state that you can start with the Cold Steel games or even skip some or even all of the preceding games, and I’m just going to come out and say it: Those people are flat-out [u]wrong[/u]. You [i]should[/i] play the five preceding games I just mentioned if you are remotely interested in this series. None of them are dated unless you’re a stickler for the older graphics, and the writing quality is consistent in terms of characterization and bonds.
So. Cold Steel.
How do these four games measure up after the slam-dunk that was the Crossbell games? It’s complicated to answer that, because that will depend a lot on what you’re looking for from a JRPG. What you value will differ from what I or others value, so here’s what’s hooked me so far on this series. I’m here for characters, their development and relationships with one another, and the presented world and its world-building. There are elements like combat, side-content, and main plot, and while I can appreciate these elements and how they add to the game, it’s not what hooked me when it comes to the Trails games. This will likely tell you whether you should take my take to heart or to look for another.
I really like the world of Zemuria and the way each game adds to its unraveling. I find the mythology it has going for it to be endlessly interesting. What hooked me early-on with the first Sky game was the fact that we were piecemeal sold the setting: So much time was dedicated to explaining the science of Orbments, septium, the way of life in Liberl between routine slice-of-life and the political landscape of the its place amongst the other realms. Throughout the trilogy, we were teased information about Crossbell, Erebonia, and Calvard, which left me wanting to discover more. By the time I played the Crossbell games, I felt like I gained a greater insight about what the setting at large was going to end up being, only for the four Erebonia games to expand into a size and scope that I haven’t really felt in another JRPG.
This is one of the few settings I’ve experienced where I felt the need to crack open supplementary reading material from within in-game. An element that made me appreciate reading these is the way I was actively rewarding for absorbing lore, be it through the introduction of characters or locations I’d either learn of or even meet (Hi, Toby). I also found it amusing to read the newspapers in Cold Steel I and II, since it would indicate to me where we were in Lloyd’s story, since the two Arcs start off on a simultaneous timeline. I also enjoy that the few mini-games you can interact with within this setting are not just meta-insertions like the card games in FF and Witcher 3. The card games in Cold Steel, for instance, don’t feature the characters, which leads me to believe the notion that people would enjoy participation without needing to be fourth-wall-breaking fans of the party and villains.
Character development in Cold Steel, like previous games, continues to push the bar on how far one can stretch a roster. I’m pleased to state that this is [i]mostly[/i] handled well (More on that later). I remember being surprised at the introduction of nine starting party members right out of the gate in Cold Steel I, considering that the other games kept parties small and drip-fed you the expanding roster. But lo and behold, everyone was carefully unpackaged and even rotated to prevent attention being lost. By the end of Cold Steel I, you’ve formed your attachments and learned everyone’s strengths and weaknesses, both in gameplay and in characterization. Cold Steel II furthers these bonds and tests them, and Cold Steel III and IV drastically expand those rosters to include tons of familiar faces. I once had the opinion that Chrono Cross was guilty of having too many characters and not having the strength to flesh them all out, but by the end of Cold Steel IV, I feel like this capacity is possible: You just require confidence and scope to let all those character share the screen together.
A lot of that confidence also extends to this fact: That the games presume you to be past players. There is zero attempt to catch-up players who skipped previous games, and there is a high frequency of lore and past moments/scenes/memories from previous games. This is great because more energy can be focused on expanding rather than re-hashing. I can’t imagine a player who skipped the older games feeling that same level of appreciation and it’s the main reason I am practically begging you, reader, to please play those older games before you jump into this series. With the later introduction of characters and arcs that started as early as early as Trails in the Sky FC taking front-and-center moments in Cold Steel IV left me pretty speechless at how strong the payoffs were.
That all said, there is a gripe I have with the character-writing, and it’s specific to our central character: Rean Schwarzer. Now, before I say what I’m about to say, I just want to say that I like Rean Schwarzer as a central protagonist. He's a good boy. I also wouldn’t call him boring, flat, or perfect. He makes errors, and even gets called out from time to time. For me, the main issue I have with Rean is that he is written with harem-driven relations in-mind. By the end of Cold Steel IV, Rean has more than a dozen possible girlfriends. The reason this is frustrating is this robs the other characters of having more interesting inner-group-relations with one another. To put it simply: A lot of the characters can’t really form relationships outside of just platonic neutral friendships with each other because the girls need to be available for Rean to romance, and that ends up hurting the potential for a great, long-term character development.
The previous games handled long-term relationships between characters really well, and when past characters show up, they just sort of gank the spotlight because of their natural chemistry between one another. I love seeing characters just excited to be around each other, and the Cold Steel cast were [i]almost[/i] on that same level of charismatic energy as the other casts. This isn’t to say it is a deal breaker. It just ends up being my one gripe with the game.
What about combat? It’s good. I don’t really feel the need to go into in-depth detail on it, but if you have played the other games, combat continues to be streamlined positively. I do feel that Cold Steel III and IV really pushed combat into better directions, both in terms of expanding build-depth and even just great visual clarity like having the battle-scapes match the geo-scapes a la Chrono Trigger. Adds that extra immersion.
The music of the Cold Steel games is suitably fitting and enjoyable, and something I grew to really love was the way it would use past-game tracks as motifs to emphasize certain triggered moods that really brought out a degree of nostalgia for me, despite me slowly marathon’ing these games since the end of last year. An example that really sniped my butt was the reuse of a certain boss’s theme from Trails to Azure in Cold Steel III, and since it was the exact track, I was quickly reminded with the consistency of how ballsy Nihon Falcom was to confidently pull old tracks without remastering. They knew the tracks were good, so? They used them, and bless their daredevil hearts for it.
Overall: You should play these games, but you have to promise me to play the old ones first. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
