The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel

Going into this after playing the Liberl and Crossbell arcs (you have to), I was initially disappointed with the game, the first few chapters were too slow and repetitive compared to the zero and azure, the odler games allowed me to do everything with one mouse which I thought was quite convenient unlike this 3d transition, and the combat orbment quartz lines received a massive rework which I hated. However, the story sped up as chapters progressed and it was really cool, especially since the game takes place during the early to mid parts of azure, you get to see events from different perspectives which was really hype. The mid to late game quartz and equipments actually made combat extremely fun and I grew to like the customisations (I think the older version is still better but this is also very satisfying. I've seen people complain about the massive cast but for me, their combat orbment and demeanor are quite specialized and were mostly balanced with some exceptions. good game

Love all the trails games.

Peak

Pretty good. I liked the characters but the main story was a bit weak.

I love this game, I wanna play all saga. LET'S GO!!!!!!!!!!

Some solid stuff in this game but overall pretty mid. I think there are a lot of fun and great changes to gameplay. However the story suffers from having no real momentum aside from the final chapter. I know that starting titles in new arcs typically act as glorified 40-50 hour long prologues for the rest but in the case of Trails in the Sky or From Zero. The stakes we are presented with feel significant, even if in comparison to the rest of the arc they are just the start. The cast bloat is insane here. You start with pretty much 9 party members off the bat (later 11) and while the game does a good job by separating certain members in chapters so you won't have more than 4-5 members at a time the characters themselves really suffer as a result. For the record I like the majority of the characters but their development is so light and unfulfilling because the game is trying to weave in lore/backstory for all of these characters throughout the game. As I got further and further in I kept wondering why we couldn't of limited the other characters a little and focused primarily on a key group that gets the most time to shine. The party constantly changing into different groups doesn't just negatively impact Rean's relationships with the characters but the relationships between each party member in general. There just isn't enough development there for satisfying payoffs. I can only hope Cold Steel II provides better balance with these characters. Zero was great with how we had 4 primary party members with the occasional guest in the form of Wazy, Noel, Dudley etc but then in Azure followed up with some of those guest members now as permanent members. It was much more effective. That being said as always the music is banging (final dungeon track yipee) The slice of life school elements were a nice mix-up even if it felt like I was just playing Persona lol. The combat is very flashy. The world-building as always is super cool and very consistent with everything we've seen up until this point. Hearing about past/current events from the perspectives of new characters is always really cool to see. Still looking forward to Cold Steel 2, but this title was easily the weakest I've played so far.

good game