Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel Review
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Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel Review
Falcom carry some JRPG clout developing both the Ys series and Legend of Heroes of which this is the eighth game. The previous entry, Trails of the Sky on PSP was one best received games on the console. Trails of Cold Steel is available on both PS3 and Vita, sadly no PS4 nor will the sequel be on PS4 but Falcom have used almost all the space on a Vita card with the game weighing in at 2.7gb and it’s Vita TV compatible.
We start out as a rag tag group of military students out on their first real mission and get thrown straight into a very overwhelming battle system; don’t worry though, everything is explained eventually. We start at level 49, do a few battles, get super confused about what’s going on and then a mashoosive gun is about to be fired and we jump back 5 months.
So here we are in the land of Erebonia in a town called Trista enrolling at the Thors military academy. We are put in class VII, the sixth class (RPGs gotta get a VII in there somewhere), the only class where the posh and peasants rub shoulders, something which is not done in this land.
Couldn’t have said it better myself
Our rag tag group all have their typical own issues that they will slowly overcome throughout the game whilst solving the problems of the world as obviously adults are unable to ease political strife and turmoil, no, only a group of kids can save us. However the real highlight in this game is the amazing detail that has gone into crafting the social world of Erebonia. With each town you visit you learn more and more about Erebonia and particularly its political state of affairs. There is just so much to read by talking to all the villagers, if you want to.
This leads onto another great aspect of the game and that’s that so many optional enemies run around on the field and can be avoided if you want. Many tasks are optional, you don’t have to talk to all the villagers, you can play how you want, making the game last from roughly 40-80 hours. As the game is a lengthy one there's a detailed summary so if life annoyingly gets in the way of your gaming you can easily pick back up again.
Everything in this game is detailed, you don't just level up, you also level up your master quartz to learn new arts. There are also other quartz to equip that let you do arts/give bonuses to stats, you can get quartz from enemy drops or make them using sepith which is an enemy drop. Sepith is also used to upgrade weapons and opening slots to place more quartz. Levelling yourself up earns you new crafts (yes there are arts and crafts) and craft points (CP) to use. Crafts are slowly replenished through regular attacks whereas art points (AP) are replenished by resting or luckily as an in battle bonus. Yes, there are random in battle bonuses which you can also steal from your enemies if you use a super craft a special move that uses all your CP.
Take that you pesky baboon
In battle you can see the order in which everyone has their turn to attack; after all this is the most civilised of RPG, the turn based one, arts put you down the order as you politely let others go first whilst charging to cast it, whereas crafts are immediate. Arts and crafts (I want to make a bad joke every time) carry one of the standard four ancient Greek elements (fire, earth, wind and water) and enemies have various percentages of strengths and weaknesses to the elements. You also get to see the likelihood of inflicting each enemy with various ailments such as poison and confusion. It may sound confusing but you soon get used to the games system and it`s great fun as you earn bonus experience points for various things in battle.
The character models are beautiful whilst the backgrounds and in-fight animations are unremarkable. There's no interaction with the bland environment but to be honest I didn’t want any interaction as it would make the pace of the game too slow. The voice acting is good and all important text is voice acted, except voice acting for the protagonist stopped after the prologue then started again later then became random which is very odd and disjointed. The music is pleasant but forgettable until the boss music which is an awesome mix of heavy guitar and violin.
What a lovely painting
The characters are interesting each with their own little quirks; even the seemingly unimportant NPCs have back story and personalities. Unfortunately you can’t experience all characters back story as parts of back story you have to choose which character you’d rather talk to, which was disappointing. The main cast of 9 all have their different tropes but the show is stolen by the instructor, Sara, she likes to drink and teaches through the master Roshi approach of menial tasks actually having importance.
That’s our teacher
Trails of Cold Steel is not a perfect game but it has an addictive battle system that can bite you if you’re not paying attention, almost zero grinding and a world that I just wanted to know more and more about the more I played. You may spend a long time doing chores in small villages but at least it’s not for a racoon and there's a lot of game and character interaction in those chores. There are two things that really put how good this game is into perspective. One I was in the middle of Danganronpa Ultra Despair Girls (I love Danganronpa) when I started this game and forgot all about Danganronpa and two, this picture.
My Vita home screen
Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel is a game that’ll keep you hooked for a long long time, let’s just hope it becomes a gem rather than a hidden gem.
9/10
Becky- TGD News Hound
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Re: Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel Review
Great review. I don't have any of the PS consoles since the PS 2, but if I did, I think this would suit me. Although the boy has a PSP so I'm tempted to check out the first instalment you mentioned if I am able to track it down and have a go some evening.
minkey_monkey- Games Den Moderator
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Re: Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel Review
Excellent review.
Sounds like a game I would like. I just don't have time for any more games. Especially such lengthy rpgs. Still got a pile of like games to get through.
Good work Becky.
Sounds like a game I would like. I just don't have time for any more games. Especially such lengthy rpgs. Still got a pile of like games to get through.
Good work Becky.
Colne Crusader- Games Den Moderator
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