Peak fiction can’t last forever: after the Sky and Crossbell arcs, I am to face my greatest enemy yet… the downhill of the Trails franchise. Exaggerations aside, I’m jumping into the Cold Steel saga with a huge feeling of fear, completely ready to face disappointment
From what I know, Cold Steel is just not for me after everything Sky and Crossbell presented and demonstrated. CS is both the most famous arc, and the one with the most annoying and tedious fans in the entire fandom, I swear to god I cannot stand them but… then again, I can’t stand most Trails fans in general
CS sinks into a much more weeb shonen storytelling, which I really do not like, and undermines a lot of things that Sky and Crossbell did and left up to be explained/connected in the future, so let’s see just how badly or how well it goes
Gameplay
The usual Trails gameplay, with a few tweaks and changes here and there that makes it feel different, though not that unique. It takes most of what Azure did, changing how the arts and quartz work by a bit, and adds a few cool mechanics such as the ARCUS system
I… honestly don’t have much else to add? I think?
Story
Of course, spoilers alert!
Just like with Zero and Azure, I’ll be opting to make a twitter thread with a few of my reactions instead of talking about each single bit or detail, since it ends up becoming real tiring
It’s true that, however, this time I omitted a lot more plot points to talk about and scenes which I might have liked to add, but I didn’t want to bother my twitter mutuals anymore lol. For that reason, I’ll try talking here about a few of them
First off, since Cold Steel first chapters are… pretty much a long introduction of the cast and Erebonia, there’s not really a lot to say or remark about them before knowing them. Though, I must say I’ve really liked the field trips in general: they worked very well to show Erebonia’s current political and war situation, as well as develop certain characters’ backgrounds and motivations in an entertaining way, such as Jusis or Gaius in the first field trips, while linking it nicely to Machias and Alisa respectively.
Particularly, I really liked how Jusis’ character developed during the field trip, and how the lasting fight between him and Machias finally calmed down. As for the next trip, I loved being able to ride horses and explore the map, and all of the focus on Alisa and Gaius was great as well!
Also, there was an unintended hiatus of about one month between September and October because I… I really didn’t want to turn on my game just to do the remaining sidequests I had, so I slowly and slowly forgot about it and started playing a few other games, such as the Shovel Knight ones (huge W on my part)
It’s funny though, cause I left it right before white-haired Rean appeared, Crow joined a battle for the first time, Exceed! played and pretty much a real hype moment that would have motivated me to continue playing, ironic
The song from the Amber Record sidequest is the one the Olivier plays sometimes! I love that detail
Elliot’s backstory and motive to join the academy is heartwarming, I don’t get why a lot of fans say he’s a waste of a character and shouldn’t have appeared in Class VII. As for Fie, I love how they tied the Red Constellation with her own jaeger corps, Zephyr, and how both bosses died during the same confrontation, where both Fie and Randy’s dad dueled to the death
Olivier finally meets with the party and oh my lord I needed some of that Sky fanservice. Plus, they also met Phantom Thief B for real so that’s a cool thing too
I wonder… if Comrade C is the C character from Reverie… Do they keep the secret for THAT long? The showdown against him is hype, plus Exceed! Also UGH I can’t stand Elise, what’s up with Falcom and incest?
I didn’t expect Crow and Millium to join class VII this soon! I knew they were coming eventually so that’s cool
…And I kinda forgot to keep typing in here my reactions that weren’t in the twitter thread, but that’s okay, a lot of what matters is still in that thread. Let’s just skip to the conclusion to see what I thought of the ending and my general opinion of the game
Characters
Spoilers during this segment too!
Let’s get started with this… it’s tiring to go back to a million characters to set up once again like in Sky, while Crossbell managed that department very well. Not to mention having to deal with every character’s build in-game and their orbments lmao
As expected, the development of some characters is all over the place thanks to the god awful bonding system, which I just hate SOOOOOOOOO much. Plus, a canon relationship was so much better…
Regardless, I’m not that crazy to go over every single character so let me just talk about my favourites. Who are my favourites? Well… I… I really liked Towa 🙂 She’s just so nice and heartwarming, and she isn’t even a main party member so you can imagine my pain
I also really liked Crow, and I was very focused on him as main interest for Rean so I did a lot of his events. And you know what? It fucking made the ending hit even harder, so I’m super glad I chose the angst. I’m super interested in knowing how his character goes from here onwards
Music
As usual in the Trails franchise, the soundtrack for Trails of Cold Steel was phenomenal. Honestly, I would say it has been one of my main reasons to keep playing since the first chapters are just so… slow…
I had been looking forward the whole game to listen to “The Decisive Collision” and oh my god the wait was so worth it… “Exceed!” also carried me hard, I absolutely loved whenever that theme played
Conclusion
Spoilers during this segment too!
Alright, let’s get it over with: what did I think about Trails of Cold Steel after my pre-established dislike for this arc of the franchise? Well, it’s alright, solid game, but nothing more.
To be fair, I expected it to be worse, but at the same time it has a lot of content that feels like boring filler or doesn’t contribute to the main or side plot. A huge example of that is the Old Schoolhouse, which is just a lazy excuse to reuse assets for seven different dungeons. Or the annoying required quests each chapter, which while on their own they may not be too bad… combined with all the optional side content I’ve done, it becomes hell
The pacing is a huge problem as well. The school activities can probably be classified as a new level of hell, and the structure of each chapter being the same every single time is painful. As for the field studies, they are fine and well thought out at times, but still feel like a slug
It’s no surprise that this is the Trails game I’ve probably taken the longest to beat: I’ve accidentally dropped it out of sheer fear of having to go back to the game and do sidequests again and again. It’s terrible, I swear. I hate the school activities of each chapter. Not only they are repetitive but they add nothing to my experience and, it fact, worsens it
All in all, it’s easy to say that Trails of Cold Steel is my least favourite Trails game so far, and that’s okay. The ending was (kind of) worth the build-up, and now I’m looking forward to see what CS2 brings to the table and how it picks up. To be honest, I could even say that if it weren’t for the music and that ending, I would have had a lot more problems getting through this arc. Now, onwards to the next game alongside Class VII
Silvy 