The Legend of Heroes: Sen no Kiseki - Northern War

This is a good anime so far, but it really is only enjoyable if you've played at least Trials of Cold steel 1-2 as it assumes you have this info. The anime doesn't focus on in-depth world development as it assumes you know this from the game.

As a stand alone anime, it is lacking so don't watch to get into the Trials series

The story of the anime so far adds a lot to the world and adds greater depth to the story as a whole.

The main character Lavi grows in deph as each episode progresses however it seems so far the other characters ... dont have as much background which would be nice.

If you've played and liked the Cold Steel series games, then you will like and appreciate this anime. From the game's ost to many cameos of familiar locations and characters, this anime is a love letter to Cold Steel fans. If you haven't played the games, then this anime is not for you and you won't enjoy it. The anime expects you to know the background context already as it is referenced in the games. On its own it doesn't have a lot of weight and should be seen as an extension of the Cold Steel games not a standalone series. ... This story is merely a part of the much larger trails narrative, that wraps up in the Cold Steel IV game. This anime is not meant to get you into the games, but rather assumes those watching have already played them.

I watched this anime and I have to say, it's not bad. It's pretty obvious that it's geared towards fans of the Kiseki series and Cold Steel, but if you're not familiar with the games, you might find yourself a bit lost. It was cool to see my boi Rean animated, but the plot wasn't anything too groundbreaking. The show doesn't spend a lot of time explaining things, which could be a good thing if you're already familiar with the lore, but might leave for anime only audience confused. That being said, they do introduce some interesting details about North Ambria that weren't in the ... games. Overall, it's an average anime that might be worth checking out if you're a fan of the games.

If you have not played Trails of Cold Steel (Sen no Kiseki) 1 and 2 don't even bother watching this anime. This is not an adaptation of the games' story meant to get new fans into the franchise, this is an original side story to the games and expects you to know the story of at least the first two Cold Steel games (but it has references to every Trails game, not just Cold Steel)

If you are a fan of the games like I am you're probably going to end up watching the anime regardless of what I say, making this review kind of redundant, ... but aside from finally getting to see North Ambria after hearing about it for 12 games, this anime doesn't add anything of value to the overall story of Trails and simply isn't worth watching.

As the anime's name implies, this is the story of the North Ambrian war that happened between Trails of Cold Steel 2 and 3. However rather than focusing on the war itself this anime spends most of its run time developing its characters and simply foreshadowing the upcoming war (this is still Trails after all and it's paced exactly like the games).
So instead of the war, the story follows our 4 main characters as they travel to Erebonia to search for information about Rean, and I honestly liked those episodes quite a lot. The cast has a good dynamic with each other and it's cute seeing the culture shock they experience as they explore Erebonia's big cities since they're all from the poor countrysides of North Ambria. Add in a few cameos from different game characters and you have a pretty strong beginning that, despite being essentially filler, makes you like the characters and get invested in their anxities about the upcoming war. But that all changes when they leave back to North Ambria and the actual plot of the Northern War gets going. The actual plot is rushed and convoluted, and even the events that are specifically mentioned in Cold Steel 3 happen so fast that if you haven't already heard what happened there by playing Cold Steel 3 I wonder if you'd even understand their significance.
This sereis needed more than 12 episodes if they were going to spend half of its episodes touring Erebonia instead of progressing the plot, because as fun as their Erebonian tour was to watch, it's because the show spent so long on that tour that the main plot of the show simply does not have enough time to develop.

The art and animation are also quite frankly terrible. The whole show looks incredibly cheap but I could forgive that if the animation was good to compensate for the cheap art, but no, even the animation is cheap. The animation is so cheap that in episode 3 there's a fight scene against the episode's villain that happens entirely outside of the screen as you just hear the sound effects but don't get to see anything. And while that is the lowest point of the show's animation, the highest points really aren't much better.

Ultimately I'm not sure what the point of this anime is. It's clearly not meant for helping new fans get into the series because it just does not explain its setting or any of the concepts, so new fans would be completely lost. But for old fans there really isn't much to offer. You already know how the war is going to end because you've heard about it in Cold Steel 3, and that wouldn't be bad if the anime was great on its own, but it really isn't.
I can only recommend this to Trails megafans like myself who obsess over everything Trails and want to finally see what North Ambria is like after hearing about it for 12 games, but if you're a Trails megafan like myself you're most likely going to watch this regardless of what I have to say in this review.

This anime is a piece of horrendous shit, I mean it, a giant turd that stinks so much you could get sick, so if you can, stay away from it. The only and I mean ONLY instance in which you could CONSIDER watching this is if you played the original game, despite not playing myself I still think it isn't worth it even if you did.

Story takes place in a sci-fi fictional world with heavy focus on politics. Our protagonist lives in a desolate, impoverished military dictatorship which independence is being threatened by imperialistic superpower whose leaders are plotting on how to annex their smaller ... neighbor. Our main character, Lavi, decides to join the military. Despite being a rookie it quickly turns out that she is op compared to other soldiers, for those and other reasons she quickly catches attention of nations elites and is sent on a mission to inflirtrate a hostile empire. Premise is quite interesting, with politics, intrigue, espionage, vast world, large cast of characters and even mechs, unfortunately this show fails at all of those aspects dramatically.

To show to you the quality of writing in this show I thought it best to summarize the first episode.
Our protagonist is on a escort mission delivering some cargo, she is in a helmet covering her face and not speaking for some reason. After 5 minutes of walking and exposition they come across a village nearby that is being attacked by some monsters, its time for a side mission during the escort mission. We have some action (more on that later) and its time to survey the village. It turns out Lavi is talking with side characters as they are repling to her, but we don't hear her which is very awkward. After a while we see that there is an even bigger monster, oh no! Thankfully our mc is able to get rid of him, but during the fight she loses her helmet to reveal that *drum roll* she is a girl... no way! And now she talks and will never wear a helmet again, yes thats right all of this was for an epic reveal that this small soldier with slender figure is in fact a female. We get to the capital and start to explore it, during the tour random npcs start to beg our characters to help out with their problems, but they aren't interested in another side mission. Some more exposition of things characters should know and than out of nowhere some Rogan guy pulls over with his squad and starts talking with Lavi about her grandfather and how he was a hero and now there is a huge crowd behind him chanting his name so he decides to make a warmongering speach about how he is going to start a revolution and thats the episode. First episode is literally protagonist being harassed by random missions and events. This represents the average quality of episodes in this series, but don't worry it can get much worse (clown episode).

Let's talk about the plot. As you could see in my example, plot convenience happens and it does so very often. Everyone randomly stumbles upon each other/knows where to go. End is predictably rushed and I wasn't happy about it.
While there are slow moments, from time to time writers will just introduce new things in a rapid fire pace. They do so mainly with sudden new plot threads you need to care about and when it introduces another batch of characters. The huge amount of storylines leads to most if not all of them being underdeveloped, same goes for characters. As late as in tenth episode we are introduced to another very important place for Lavi's full with new people and no matter how much anime wants me to care I never will. Our hero is a very boring protagonist. She is a model soldier with no charisma or interesting personality. Instead writers went with the "cool silent type" except she isn't cool. Later on she has to confront her legacy which is a bit interesting, with her starting to care about the well being of everyone and turning more into generic type of a protector.

In political shows it is important for the viewer to care about the politicians as a characters and have interest in the fictional world, unfortunately we only get to know two of the many more of those politicians. Maybe you will care about them, but I never did and even a fancy hair colour didn't manage to change that. There are no cool intrigues to be honest. They didn't even manage to pull off a mystery in a political show, when someone gets assassinated it is immediately obvious who did it. As for the world, while being very big and detailed could be considered as a benefit it turned out to be too vast. Authors had to bombard me with exposition to explain as much as possible about everything even tho many of the details turned out to be irrelevant to the story.

Ok, but what about all of the spy stuff? It's bad, obviously. For the infiltration arc let's call it, anime enters episodic format. Every episode is basically a side quest ranging from boring to an awful clown episode. I could make a rant about how goofy and stupid that episode was, but let's just move on to the overall problem... everyone is stupid.

To be clear that isn't exclusive to only infiltration arc, stupid moments are quite common and I will show some examples in the most non-spoilery way possible.
Government decided to send some military instructors as spies without any spy training. Inflirating a foreign country Lavi uses her real name to soldier of a hostile government. While being pursued Lavi's team decides to take a break and they decide to just start chilling making a campfire... this whole mission was carried out terribly. Not to stay with main characters I will tell one more example that kept infuriating me. The palace in the capital, where all the leaders are, is completely empty and with almost no security. Countless times someone just walks in wearing a random uniform and gets to do whatever they want.

With all of those negatives is production quality good? Can we see at least some cool action? You should know the answer by now. Fights are bad and stiff. There is a lot of cgi which doesn't blend well with 2d. Visually speaking the only interesting part are all of the various cities, other than that it is very bland.

To conclude, this anime is a hot pile of garbage with no redeeming qualities. I hope it will be the worst thing I watch this year.

As a massive fan of the series I'm aware of how complicated it is and how tough it was going to be for this anime to achieve any kind of balance between new and existing fans. Well, they succeeded on evening the playing field in one way, it stinks in every conceivable way.

If you're looking for a story about, you know, the Northern War, well tough, because this isn't about that almost(!) at all. It's a story of JRPG Preset Characters 1 to 4 going on holiday, then some politics happens. I'm being as careful as I can, without being specific, so I don't have ... to trigger the spoiler warning. Certain fans will go in expecting certain events to take place that simply don't in any major way. They know what I mean. It's important to know that going in.

The characters are dreadful in almost every conceivable way. The story makes little sense in its own right and none in the greater context of the world. It's so badly written I lost track of what on earth was happening at multiple points, and I've played every Trails game with an official localisation within the last 12 months.

Everything outside the stuff mentioned above is generically bad, it's horrible but doesn't make me want to put out a lit cigarette on my eyes and ears.

The Kiseki Nut on Youtube has a great breakdown of why this is bad, just know it is and avoid. The sole highlight is that in Nihon Falcom's direct hands I think Lavian might be kinda interesting. Maybe.

Warning for those who are going to watch it, to have a better idea of the anime, I recommend having played at MINIMUM Legend of Heroes Cold Steel 1 & 2!
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I rarely do reviews for anime, because I've watched so much stuff and starting to do it for new animes that are coming out makes me lazy, but Legend of Heroes is an exception XD, finally the review!
Even in the discussion threads and in other reviews, the story is rushed, which I already expected being an adaptation of a Region that we didn't even set foot in the game (And also contain only 12 episodes), ... we only heard the events in CS3, so the Falcom saw no need to make a game just for that specific region.
I think that if the media used to tell these events had been a Light Novel or Manga, it would have been better told and less rushed, especially if it had been an LN.
I already expected that the quality in terms of the story would not be "great", but I must say that it is not rubbish as some may complain, in terms of animation, it is pretty decent or honest if you prefer another term, other animes of the season it has average to weak animations, and Kiseki's anime is far from being "trash" in this regard, I could even expect more if it was a Square Enix, which is not the case :P.
It turns out that in the end, the anime is fanservice, of course it's not THE BEST, but it's still one XD, since I went to watch it without expecting much, my hype was low, so I was able to digest the content better.
The biggest problem is that you go watch it with HYPE, expecting a level of game history, compressed into 12 episodes, if you go with that mindset, the anime will definitely be a disappointment, because let's face it, it's impossible to compress something that would have known there about 15h to 30h of gameplay in 12 episodes.

I really liked this show, however I'm not sure how much one would enjoy this if they were not familiar with the games. This show takes place between the games trails of cold steel 2 and 3, in another country. The cool thing about the trails world is that it's very much living and breathing. We follow a soldier girl on a secret mission to find out who an opposing empire's secret hero weapon is (The protagonist of the cold steel games.) For me it's great because I get to see another perspective of the world, and its politics, and not like the dumb American ... politics. I just don't know how enjoyable it would be to someone who hasn't played the game and doesn't know some of the context. There is a ton of references, and every town they visit that is in the game look just like the game. I'm gonna give it 8/10 honestly. I wish they would just do an anime for trails of the sky though and go all the way to the newest game. I liked that this exists, and it's new content, but I know a lot of people won't play 500 plus hours of a jrpg I'd like to see more people get invested in it cause in trails of cold steel 4 It's amazing to see all the protagonist from other games come together.

This should have been a two cour show. Nothing about the premise is bad at all, but most of the issues plaguing it are needing to squeeze so much into twelve episodes as almost everything feels rushed; character relationships and motivations are often poorly established and big moments are done right after they get started. The show plays with themes like public expectations or perceptions of a cult of personality, as well as the fear of conquest and its effect on the populace (no curses here!), but these ultimately don't go far. However, I never really felt like I was wasting my time watching this ... show. The somewhat two dimensional main cast are likable enough if approached with an open mind, and the world of Zemuria is still well established (if you've played the games, which I highly recommend anyway). The animation was even decent for a show that feels like it was made on $5, and it felt like there was effort put into the overall production. This could have been good if given the proper time to cook and some extra planning, but at least it beats out most of Cold Steel IV.

7.5 for fans of the games, 4.5 for people going blind. If you played the games beyond the 7, this is a must watch imo. The story it's not on the same level as the games, but it's close enough and it feels like it has respect for the games, I enjoyed it.

The story would be trails 7.5 and the synopsis explains everything basically. The new characters were fine, they have personality, the show has 1 or 2 episodes that were pretty bad but on average it was good. My only complain would be that I expected to see more Rean x Altina moments, ... considerering the relationship they had on trails 8. It had a lot of cameos of places and people that you see on the games. The dialogues were engaging.

The soundtrack was a mix from the games and new tracks that don't disappoint. Great stuff basically.

Art is OK, animation is below average. This point I think it really makes it almost impossible to get new people into it.

Overall, it's a show for the fans basically, it gave more lore about the world, we see and interesting moment and good characters... but despite that it feels like it could've been more. Despite all this, I think it worth going out of the way to watch this if you like the games. If you don't, just play the games, they are great (and start with trails in the sky), lol.

About the story, this might be the more or most details from those character from its lore that they mentioneed shortly.
If you watch it at first time, probably you understand a little about the story and got confuse in the middle. I suggeest to play its Cold Steel Series lore first if you have time, and if you do really have time. I recommend to play the whole Legend of Heroes Lore starting from the Trails in the sky upto the Cold steel. some personalities from that game appears in this anime. For me who knew its lore, its a masterpiece. I hope this anime ... have release a game version. I want to play all of its series per country at Zemurian continent.

As a reference, I have played the original two games in this Series.

In this show it goes over a period in the game's story that has mostly just been mentioned with little visuals showing the players what truly happened other then Characters talking about events that were shown in the show. Personally I did enjoy the show but I can see people being lost in regard to if you have never played the games before. This is more meant for if you are playing through the games since this happens right between Cold Steel 2 and 3 in regard to timeline. If you have ... played the games watch it if you want to, but it is not needed.

Just bare in mind that some of the voices will not match up to the games to my knowledge, some important characters that you talk to for most of the time in the games seem to have different voices which bothered me until the very end of the show.

Are you someone who has played the game & aware of storyline, then don't bother reading my review of this anime. You are better off reading a review of someone who know about the game.

My review is strictly for an anime only viewer. I have no clue about the contents of game. I have watched Englist dub, so that's also something that should be considered.

All that being said, I am somewhat impressed by the show. Among many game based shows, this is one of the better ones with better pace, better story, better plotline & better art.

Sure not everything is positive about this show. If ... it would, I had given it a 10.

Well lets start with the field in which the show did best - art & animation. Art is quite good, very consistent in quality with good animation quality.

The storyline is quite good as well & somewhat complete (sure climax has some issues but as I again iterate its better one among game based shows).

The pacing of the story is quite good for the most part. Here as well, they end up messing the pacing in last 2 episodes (especially the last one, which was a mess). The direction, otherwise, was quite good with no major issues elsewhere.

The character development was quite good in comparison to other game based animes or original animes but when compared to animes with a good source, its average. The development of inter-personal relationship between characters was somewhat lacking especially among major characters. As for character introduction to viewers, it was average.

The sound department has done an above average job. They at times failed to capture the true depth of the event.This in my opinion is the weakest link of the show.

I personally believe the overall score of the show doesn't deserve to be this low, its way better than the source game fans are making the show to be.

Before I start this review, I just want to say that that the Trails games an absolute must-play if you are eager for some turn based JRPGs. Those aren't popular in today's mainstream genres dominated by Open World games, battle royales, and action RPGs. It's been long overdue since we get an anime adaptation announcement. And now that is here, what should we expect?

The most important fact about Northern War that it does not adapt events or story from the mainline games. The main female protagnist Lavian is an anime original who got bought onto the TV screen. As part of the Northern Yeagers, we ... follow her journey as a warrior and her own ambition to make a difference in Northern Erebonia. Unfortunately, the anime takes minimal care for its world building, political drama, or military themes. There's little character development but putting that aside, you can still somewhat watch this anime without a shred of knowledge about the game franchise.

We start off with the conflict in the Northern region of the fictional world of Erebonia, and is noticable that the timeline takes place sometime between the second and third game. Lavian stars as the main female protagonist and a member of the Northern Jeagers alongside her squad. The story mainly focuses on their adventures as they undertake missions as Lavian also vows to protect her hometown in North Ambria. As you imagine, this show was made as a way to introduce some of the fundamental elements of the Cold Steel franchise. To put it simply, there are military affairs, mech battles, and character cameos from the games. Most noticably, the main male protagonist from the mainline Trail games makes an apperance alongside his trusty Valimar, the Ashen Knight. Make no mistake though, Rean's appearance in the series is very limited as the main focus is on Lavian.

That being said, the story follows an anime original plot that attempts to sell itself as 'made for everyone'. That's not a catchline but the trailers and prmotional material suggest you don't need to know anything everything about the games. As someone who has played the mainline games, let me just say that to get the best experience possible, you'll just have to figure out the story as every episode develops. Numerous characters make cameo appearances such as the old and new Class VII. Other important military figures such as Aurelia and Claire Rievedelt makes very minimal impact on the overall story. The story itself often focuses on Lavian undertaking missions while along the way, she discovers some startling revelations about the past and present related to her world. I'm not really sure if the directors had creative vision from the start because the anime's story feels directionless. Some episodes feels like they are standalones while others lacks characterization. Out of any character in the show, only Lavian gets a background story and her personality is tolerable at best. She comes across as a stubborn young woman with an ego and takes business far too seriously. Watching Lavian's role made me realize that the show desperately wants us to accept her for who she is. We are practically forced to accept her character role regardless whether it's likable or not. And trust me, I think that's beyond lazy writing.

Still, The Legend of Heroes Trails of Cold Steel Northern War does have some redeeming elements that I praise for. While the animation quality isn't the best, it captures the character designs vividly as I can imagine. The anime also balances out its lighthearted comedy moments with its more serious war drama themes. I also appreciate how the show does incorporate some elements from the games such as fishing, music, and even personalities of the original cast.

Ultimately, I cannot recommend Northern War as a show, even if it attempted to focus on an original story. Lavian is an insufferable character to watch at worst and barely tolerable to watch at best. It seems this anime was made with the intention to attract viewers to where it really matters: the mainline games. And trust me, as a fan of the games, that's where true gem is. Too many times, game adaptations fails to live up to standards and this sets another example.

You have played the games? Don't watch this

You haven't played the games? DON'T WATCH THIS PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING

But seriously, the characters were boring, the highlights were cameos from game characters. But that also lost its charm by the fourth episode. The original characters never really develop, outside of hyper specific moments that are just there to say "look, they have character developement"
The story feels extremely rushed, especially in the last two episodes. They spent two episodes early on doing basically nothing. In a twelve episode anime. So you can kinda guess how bad the pacing can be at times
Even the music usage ... was kinda baffling at times, completely missing the intent from the original use in the games.
And let's not even talk about the animation. This is mid 2000s Toei levels of animation at times.

Overall, this is just an all around bad show that no one should really bother with

Whether you've played the games or you just happened to come across this and you have no idea what this anime is, i do not recommend watching.
The explanation of the war in the game is so much more entertaining than this anime. Yes you read that right, a literal explanation is more interesting than this entire anime. Don't waste your time watching this.
If you were expecting more info on the war or what happened to Rean you're not getting much. Most of the series is spent on OCs travelling through Erebonia. The set up and internal conflict starts in the last few episodes and the ... "war" Rean experiences is only in the last episode.
The animation is medicore at best and the "war" doesn't have a single proper fight.
Only reason i'm giving this 2 and not a 1 is because it was nice seeing the cameos throughout the series.

This anime started off fairly well, I originally had it at an 8/10 for the first 3 or so episodes. Which has now lowered to a 5/10. The animation isn't the best, but it's better than most generic animes. The action and the plot feels weak, there is a lot missing, I have never played the game before, but I am sure the game is far better, and the anime may be more enjoyable for the users that already have pre-existing experience with this story. The characters were okay, they aren't amazing. It seems like a majority of people have mixed feelings about this.

No hate ... to the studio though, keep reaching your dreams, Tatsunoko Production.

When they first announced a Trails anime, I was fully expecting the show to be "So Bad It's Good", especially considering the trajectory the series has been going. With Kuro 2 being another shitty followup to an otherwise decent Kuro, and Cold Steel being completely batshit by the time Hajimari ended. What I got however was even more disappointing: A mediocre depiction of the Northern War event.

This anime is not for newcomers at all. You'd need to have read the documents in Cold Steel 3 that describes the war in order to even understand what's going on, who the factions are, and why there is ... even tension to begin with. But, the thing is, you end up not needing to watch the anime if that's the case. There's nothing new the anime adds in terms of world building, plot, or even characters. It all feels so inconsequential in an event that's already pretty inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.

My main gripe is that the show is just mediocre. I suppose it's not the most boring show of the season, but even moments that are supposed to be significant or have any gravitas to them fail to draw out any emotion from me. It goes to show that stripping out the gameplay really exposes how shallow the games really are.

That clown terrorist episode was fun though, and the closest thing that matches the madness of the original series. The rest is as boring as it gets. Not overly predictable, which is nice, but again, when you're not too invested in the characters or the plot, it's hard to be excited over any developments in the story.

There are nice references here and there, but nothing amounting to anything significant. Northern War is a bore and akin to the first half or so of Cold Steel 3 where nothing happens.


5/10

Trials of Cold Patience - Northern Bore.

I was actually kinda looking forward to The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel - Northern War. I had heard good things about the game and hearing that the story would apparently be an original story taking place in it’s world got me excited. Unfortunately, if we’ve learn’t anything from Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer, if the animation is absolutely atrocious, it doesn’t matter how good your story is.

Okay, that’s not really a far comparison. Unlike Biscuit Hammer, Northern War’s animation wasn’t so bad that it made me ill just by looking at it. However it is ... still pretty awful. Terrible CGI monsters that feel out of place in the worlds setting, poorly animated action and combat scenes which lack any weight or impact, and the mouths… whats wrong with everyones mouths in this show? Some of them look like doodles on a two year olds drawing of their parents, and the ones who do have properly drawn on mouths sometimes just don’t flap when they’re supposed to be talking. And boy, is there a lot of talking in the first four episodes. It’s very awkward.

The other unfair comparison to (manga) Biscuit Hammer is that the script is actually pretty bad. Theres barely any development between any of the characters, the pacing is awful and events in the narrative just seemingly happen at random. You only have to watch episode 3 and use the slightest bit of critical thinking in order to ask yourself “How did this story get green lit? Who is writing this?”. If you came into this anime expecting a gritty war story, then tough shit I’m afraid. You’re getting large info dumps, sometimes of information already said in a former episode or even a former scene just to make sure the anime is padded out enough to hit that 20 minute run time, and sometimes you might be blessed with a mediocre battle scene.

At first I thought I liked the main character Lavian. She’s the idealised, but relatively quiet and reserved solider who can kick ass and can sometimes be funny about it, but when I stopped and thought about, by episode four I knew nothing about her. She doesn’t have any goals or dreams and there’s nothing particularly relatable about her. Her character would probably work in an actual gritty war story, but this is not a gritty war story. It’s a slice-of-life drama… thing. This goes for the rest of the characters too. Some of them are loud, obnoxious, or have purple bits in their hair, but we don’t learn anything about them as people, so I don’t care about them.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel - Northern War could’ve been something passable. I could’ve dealt with the bad script and the weird evil clown if the animation was watchable. But it's not, and because it’s not the rest of the shows flaws are laid bear for all to see.

3/10 Wasted Potential.