What's so appealing about this series?

Feb 27, 2023 11:23 AM

Offline

Sep 2016

I always heard how Trails series is the best JRPG with best character development, storytelling and worldbuilding in the industry so I tried to give a chance and... Trails of Coldsteel is mediocre at best... at least the 2 first games.

I don't mind tropey characters as long they are charismatic or the story is interesting or creative enough but in Coldsteel all characters are literally walking tropes, boring and bad written, especially the main character and his boyfriend Sasuke Uchiha 138693.

The game try to sell class 7 as a "irreplaceable family" but most of time they not even act like friends. (There's some minor friendship like Fie/Laura but it's not well developed). This happened cause every character's life rounds around the main character, who is a self insert harem protagonist with stupid goals (like bring his bf back to school after him start a war) but people love him cause he is your generic black haired good boy.

All arcs are predictable and bland and it was written like a open book.
For example: There’s a character that hates nobles. He said a lot of times how much he hates nobles and his entire personality is how much he hates nobles. Tea or coffee? Coffee cause Tea is for Nobles and I hate Nobles.

There’s no subtlety.
Another example:
The Tsundere Boobs fall into MC face?
She will fall in love with him.
Why is she so cocky (Tsundere)?
Cause she have mommy issues...

It's very formulaic following step by step they trope development. There’s other examples like the Sword Girl/ Meganeko/ Genki Loli/ Irresponsible Hot Sensei-chan... And the lack of good facial expressions only made it worse. Is it really that hard to write original characters?

The antagonists are a bunch of clowns (literally happened in the anime)
They are kidnapping the party’s family just to move the plot... there’s no real consequence and they never killed or tortured anyone. I remember when they used Elliot’s sister as hostage. They patiently waited until the last second for the party to rescue her.

The worldbuilding is... a big waste of effort. There’s a Civil War happening but feels like a weekend picnic with your friends. The politics is only serious when someone is talking about it. The best airship in the entire empire is used for fun by teenagers cause “teenagers are teenagers not soldiers” but eventually they will end this war cause the “chosen one” is among them. Every nonsensical thing is justified with Orbal Technology or Magic/The “Veins”. Territory is very important in a war but the main party can easily solve this problem teleporting under the “Veins”.

But I have to admit: The NPCs dialogues are welcome. Each NPC have they own story and change during the game. They dialogue it’s not the most interesting thing ever but it’s a good detail that gives life to the world.

The Story development is... weak. To be fair the main story is very short. You spend most of your time talking with some NPCs, doing mandatory fetch quests, filler story segments, annoying harem shenanigans (including Rean’s sister), walking though boring corridors and grinding. It’s a very generic JRPG.
There’s a formula used in every chapter: School > Dungeon > School > Training > Study Field (side quests) > Terrorist Attack > End of chapter > School...
You spend the whole 1st game ''training'', the whole 2nd game grinding and beating giant dinosaurs and then in the final dungeon your party is very weak cause the antagonists are so OP.

Why? I beat the antagonists but it was a waste of effort cause they are hiding they “true power”. Man... I have a party with 11 characters including Sara and yet I can’t beat some cosplayers? I understand Crow being a better “pilot” than Rean cause he was piloting for 2 years and then... the protagonist need to rely on some bright blue power (“power of friendship”) to beat him...
My training is worthless... but the power of friendship works? Bullsh1t!
This is very bad video game design. Like the unecessary slow pacing and the dating simulator.
The only interesting part is when Crow died at the end...
I dropped the anime in the 4rd episode. There’s so much filler.
I don’t think the games are bad but they are far from good (and I think they are overrated). The big amount of concepts, characters, dialogues, NPCs, places and games naturally sacrifice quality when poorly managed.

Hektor2772Feb 27, 2023 11:28 AM

Feb 27, 2023 12:32 PM

Marina2

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Nov 2009

327

It's a JRPG using a lot of common Japanese anime/manga tropes. Some people will enjoy that some don't. Maybe you prefer something more serious and complex?

If you already played 2 games and you found yourself disliked the story, no explanation will convince you to like it. This series is simply not for you.

Feb 27, 2023 4:47 PM

Keybladium

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May 2020

The world building is the main appeal which takes place across different arcs and 11 games in total (9 which has been localised)

Cold steel has a lot of generic tropes and characters tbf but the other games such as the crossbell arc has a lot more stronger characters since there isn’t as many to develop so there’s more time to flesh them out.

There’s a lot more appeal to whole trails series but I think if you didn’t enjoy the games you played then i don’t think the games are for you

Feb 27, 2023 4:57 PM

rohan121

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Sep 2018

9898

I would definitely not say Trails has peak story (especially after the CS saga). The jrpg series is very fun though in which it is nice seeing characters you recognize each game over reseting the universe every game.

Feb 27, 2023 9:22 PM

Hektor2772

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Sep 2016

Keybladium said:
The world building is the main appeal which takes place across different arcs and 11 games in total (9 which has been localised)

Cold steel has a lot of generic tropes and characters tbf but the other games such as the crossbell arc has a lot more stronger characters since there isn’t as many to develop so there’s more time to flesh them out.

There’s a lot more appeal to whole trails series but I think if you didn’t enjoy the games you played then i don’t think the games are for you

I don’t get it... everyone I knew said Coldsteel is the best arc. Isn’t ColdSteel the fan favorite?

The fact the games exist in the same universe is... not interesting IMO. To play games after ColdSteel I will need to finish ColdSteel to understand some references.

I played around 2 hours of ColdSteel 3 and I dropped it cause it looks even more generic than 1/2. And the fact they changed the characters it’s useless cause they repeated the same problems in few hours. I don’t want to invest my time in another 100+ hours game to get the same frustration I got in the “final dungeon” (The Fire Castle)

And I don’t want to play Crossbell games or Sky games > Like a character > but never see his/her full development cause part of his/her character development will only happen in ColdSteel or future games. Isn’t Oliver from Sky? He is very important in ColdSteel (despite the stupid choice of give the airship to teenagers) and he is a little tropey too. Is sky full of tropes too or ColdSteel ruined his character?

Feb 27, 2023 11:57 PM

Keybladium

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May 2020

Hektor2772 said:

I don’t get it... everyone I knew said Coldsteel is the best arc. Isn’t ColdSteel the fan favorite?

The fact the games exist in the same universe is... not interesting IMO. To play games after ColdSteel I will need to finish ColdSteel to understand some references.

I played around 2 hours of ColdSteel 3 and I dropped it cause it looks even more generic than 1/2. And the fact they changed the characters it’s useless cause they repeated the same problems in few hours. I don’t want to invest my time in another 100 hours game to get the same frustration I got in the “final dungeon” (The Fire Castle)

And I don’t want to play Crossbell games or Sky games > Like a character > but never see his/her full development cause part of his/her character development will only happen in ColdSteel or future games. Isn’t Oliver from Sky? He is very important in ColdSteel (despite the stupid choice of give the airship to teenagers) and he is a little tropey too. Is sky full of tropes too or ColdSteel ruined his character?

Cold Steel is the one of the lastest arcs in the trails series, sky and crossbell were released before it and to understand the references in cold steel and to understand the narrative about the war and the political side you need to play them before cold steel or at least before playing cold steel 2 and onwards.

The reason people prefer cold steel is because it’s more modern and easier to get into but to understand the context for some of the things in CS2 you need to understand the crossbell arc and CS3 and CS4 is the end of the saga and requires you to know everything about the sky and crossbell arc and all the characters from every arc come together.

The old games are very slow which makes them harder to get into which is why Cold Steel 1 is a better starting point into the franchise or at least from the gameplay standpoint but the story is considered to be the weakest out of all the arcs because of the generic tropes but I still enjoyed them a lot but I can see why people might not like and especially without knowledge of the previous games. But CS3 and CS4 should be played last after playing or understanding the whole series as it’s the last part of the saga and there’s a lot of context and references to the crossbell arc specifically in CS2

And the characters in sky/cross bell aren’t as tropey imo, I think sky has a couple since it’s the first game in the series but I wouldn’t say they’re as tropey as CS but crossbell has the best characters imo

KeybladiumFeb 28, 2023 12:04 AM

Mar 1, 2023 7:49 AM

Kakeru_00115

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Dec 2021

You picked the wrong game to start the series with. First of all, Sen 1 was released on 2013, where battle academy genre was on peak(Most battle academy LNs and animes was at it's peak on those years). Dropping CS3 was your biggest mistake after not playing 3 sky games and 2 crossbell games. For me, repetition is ok as long the story continues, Also you can chalk up the Encounters of Class VII with their enemies is due the curse of the Empire. Also antagonist a bunch of clowns? Heck for sure they are some antagonists like that but there are also pretty cruel ones like Weissman and Duke Albarea(Father of Jusis) who burned down celdic with hired Jaegers. Also Crow assasinating Osborne is already considered crime? D G Cult experimentation and activities, yes you don't know those since you haven't played crossbell duology. Latest trails game like Kuro 1 has pretty cruel and literally screams villain. A group of assassins with pretty sick backstories joining a Mafia organization with their Leader Gerard who just casually blows up a entire town to scare people off with his new weapon(That entire town which you visited early in game and do side quest and all npcs you interacted with, childrens,elderlies, adults and especially a friend of Van(Kuro protag) died. Kuro II also has very sick antagonists that can penetrate the protags and his friend's "Plot Armor". Every characters in your party has almost death scenes, even Towa from Cold steel has a death scene here. Yes Trails antagonists are clowns but only some of them. Also Rating the trails series and playing just 2 games of the Cold Steel arc of the series is not a proper review.

Mar 1, 2023 8:37 AM

Hektor2772

Offline

Sep 2016

Kakeru_00115 said:
You picked the wrong game to start the series with. First of all, Sen 1 was released on 2013, where battle academy genre was on peak(Most battle academy LNs and animes was at it's peak on those years). Dropping CS3 was your biggest mistake after not playing 3 sky games and 2 crossbell games. For me, repetition is ok as long the story continues, Also you can chalk up the Encounters of Class VII with their enemies is due the curse of the Empire. Also antagonist a bunch of clowns? Heck for sure they are some antagonists like that but there are also pretty cruel ones like Weissman and Duke Albarea(Father of Jusis) who burned down celdic with hired Jaegers. Also Crow assasinating Osborne is already considered crime? D G Cult experimentation and activities, yes you don't know those since you haven't played crossbell duology. Latest trails game like Kuro 1 has pretty cruel and literally screams villain. A group of assassins with pretty sick backstories joining a Mafia organization with their Leader Gerard who just casually blows up a entire town to scare people off with his new weapon(That entire town which you visited early in game and do side quest and all npcs you interacted with, childrens,elderlies, adults and especially a friend of Van(Kuro protag) died. Kuro II also has very sick antagonists that can penetrate the protags and his friend's "Plot Armor". Every characters in your party has almost death scenes, even Towa from Cold steel has a death scene here. Yes Trails antagonists are clowns but only some of them. Also Rating the trails series and playing just 2 games of the Cold Steel arc of the series is not a proper review.

Wrong game to start? Why? People said me that Coldsteel 1 is the best to start. Maybe I missed some little reference here and there but I doubt I missed something relevant enough to change my perspective about these 2 games. I'm tired of Rean's character. He is boring. I refuse to play another game with him as main protagonist and I already got spoiler that Crow is alive somehow. Another stupid character. I also don't liked the world and how ''orbal technology'' or magic is the resolution of everything. It's lazy and I bet the previous games rely on this plot device. The antagonist are all uninteresting in CS1/CS2 IMO and they actions are poorly explained but at least there's no mind control involved and the final boss isn't a ''divine being''

(Duke Albarea is unidimensional and cartoonish. He is not a good example of antagonist. For a story with 160+ hours (CS1+CS2) he is insulting)

Mar 1, 2023 9:12 AM

eglepe

Offline

Aug 2018

153

Hektor2772 said:
Maybe I missed some little reference here and there but I doubt I missed something relevant enough to change my perspective about these 2 games.

No, you missed a ton. Cold Steel tried to appeal to a broader audience so that's why it has the cringey harem and fan service tropes. Rean is also just obnoxiously perfect. I still enjoyed Cold Steel because I was already invested in the world building, but I probably wouldn't have been as into it if I started with Cold Steel. Try playing the Trails in the Sky games, they're a lot better.

Mar 1, 2023 5:10 PM

#10

LloydBann1ngs

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Mar 2021

Hektor2772 said:
I'm tired of Rean's character. He is boring. I refuse to play another game with him as main protagonist

Did you think he is bad in the first two games? Cute.

Play CS3. He will become 100x worse. They reseted his arc completely in CS3 just to repeat the same ''bad development'' from CS1/CS2 but this time he is a perfect history teacher/good instructor without good construction, have a bigger harem (Even his students) and 90% of the game is about his existence and the universe conspire to give him what he wants. Crow back? Here. Millium back? Here. Good Ending? Here.

Rean is the worst type of character: The Failed attempt to give a Mary Sue some flaws. He is perfect 99% of time. The 1% is used to create an exaggerated drama and it's selfish. There's a lot happening but the most important thing is Rean's ''feelings''. Everyone will care for him cause he is they god. Even the villains. Even Lianne or OSBORNE. An antagonist built during 4 games throwed in the trash. By Aidios I hate this character so much.

CS3/CS4 are awful. Easily 1/10 and the worst Falcom games. Stupid Curse plot. All Class 7 characters are turned into idiots and can't act without Rean. The pacing is more padded.

Play Sky or Crossbell or Kuro. Just ignore this mess called Trails of Coldsteel.

Mar 2, 2023 11:30 AM

#11

Hektor2772

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Sep 2016

LloydBann1ngs said:

Hektor2772 said:
I'm tired of Rean's character. He is boring. I refuse to play another game with him as main protagonist

I don't want to play old trails games
Kuro looks like a generic JRPG from Idea Factory

Hektor2772Mar 2, 2023 3:03 PM

Mar 4, 2023 5:17 PM

#12

Red_Ranger_Wien

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Sep 2011

2159

Cold Steel while still being good is nowhere near as good as the Sky or Crosbell games that came before it. Anyway the main appeal of the franchise is that it is one large overarching narrative and I find that seeing the payoffs to storylines and even NPC character arcs across multiple games very satisfying.

Mar 11, 2023 9:33 PM

#13

Animaniaig

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Jan 2018

511

Hektor2772 said:

It's the most popular because it's the most accessible being on PC and consoles as well as the most modern but it's not close to the best or even good. It's only even remotely good if you've played the games before it which are actually fantastic. Also characters in the other games do actually have character arcs and they end within their respective games so you don't have to worry about that last part.

Mar 24, 2023 6:22 PM

#14

Ikano

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Sep 2007

902

I thought this thread was about the anime....Cuz the anime seems pretty bad (I waited till all 12 eps out to check out ep1 and it was QUITE torturous)
So... I wondered if ANYONE else has actually watched this anime and found anything appealing about it [before I decide to waste my time to watch the rest]....guess not?

(Btw, I've played CS 1-4 ....well I haven't beaten 4....yet but that's where I'm coming from...Also a side note: I technically started Trails series from Sora no Kiseki so...yeah....)

Well to add my two cents in regards to the video game series [as vain attempt to stay 'on topic'] I grew to like Cold Steel because of the characters....not necessarily because of Rean specifically but the dynamic the other students had between each other. I can probably admit I kind of have a weak spot to "school-esque simulators" as well so at the time, this series (Cold Steel I mean) scratched that itch.

CS3 & CS4 well...I picked up 3 mostly cuz I was curious about what happened in the "time skip" eventually the plot was interesting enough [yes, I did like the plot to some degree even tho I admit it's out there] grabbed 4 too.... (though not interesting enough I was in a hurry to finish CS4 I guess).
I'm actually not a fan of stuff that has too much politics...moreso when there's very detailed political history thrown in there....this is true for me for both anime and video games. At the end of the day they're all made up countries, unless it's something obviously cool but TOTALLY out there like "Oh Country A was created by a dragon while country B was created by a Tiger so the countries don't get along, etc." I'm in the "Sorry don't want too much political stuff in my fantasy stories" camp.

Which probably leads to why this anime is turning this off for me (and why my opinion of CS is the way it is...)

/End of my two cents.

IkanoMar 24, 2023 6:27 PM

(My avatar is an original creation-please don't take it)

Mar 24, 2023 6:55 PM

#15

Mystogan03

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Jun 2015

Ikano said:
I thought this thread was about the anime....Cuz the anime seems pretty bad (I waited till all 12 eps out to check out ep1 and it was QUITE torturous)
So... I wondered if ANYONE else has actually watched this anime and found anything appealing about it [before I decide to waste my time to watch the rest]....guess not?

(Btw, I've played CS 1-4 ....well I haven't beaten 4....yet but that's where I'm coming from...Also a side note: I technically started Trails series from Sora no Kiseki so...yeah....)

Well to add my two cents in regards to the video game series [as vain attempt to stay 'on topic'] I grew to like Cold Steel because of the characters....not necessarily because of Rean specifically but the dynamic the other students had between each other. I can probably admit I kind of have a weak spot to "school-esque simulators" as well so at the time, this series (Cold Steel I mean) scratched that itch.

CS3 & CS4 well...I picked up 3 mostly cuz I was curious about what happened in the "time skip" eventually the plot was interesting enough [yes, I did like the plot to some degree even tho I admit it's out there] grabbed 4 too.... (though not interesting enough I was in a hurry to finish CS4 I guess).
I'm actually not a fan of stuff that has too much politics...moreso when there's very detailed political history thrown in there....this is true for me for both anime and video games. At the end of the day they're all made up countries, unless it's something obviously cool but TOTALLY out there like "Oh Country A was created by a dragon while country B was created by a Tiger so the countries don't get along, etc." I'm in the "Sorry don't want too much political stuff in my fantasy stories" camp.

Which probably leads to why this anime is turning this off for me (and why my opinion of CS is the way it is...)

/End of my two cents.

i agree. The anime is horrible. But let's be honest... the game is not that good when compared to this show.

Except for Alisa I like Old Class VII characters more than New Class VII. That's why CS3 is my least favorite Trails Game followed by CS4.
The characters from New Class 7 (except Altina) came out of nowhere just to be fanservice characters forcing they way into the plot (Juna is the worst by far).
It was annoying and Falcom ruined Old Class 7 potential with this unecessary change of cast.

I like the school elements and the dating sim is not that bad like people say ( the harem during main story + date your students are unecessary ngl)

My problem with the political stuff is: They built it for 9 games for nothing cause the ''Great Battle'' is against the curse and all geopolitical elements are just a requirement to awaken the curse.
I don't like the curse but I like fantasy elements and the mechas.
Probably my favorite plot of CS4 is McBurn but until now they barely revisited this plot in future Trails Games.

Mar 25, 2023 5:50 PM

#16

Ikano

Offline

Sep 2007

902

Mystogan03 said:
Except for Alisa I like Old Class VII characters more than New Class VII. That's why CS3 is my least favorite Trails Game followed by CS4.
The characters from New Class 7 (except Altina) came out of nowhere just to be fanservice characters forcing they way into the plot (Juna is the worst by far).
It was annoying and Falcom ruined Old Class 7 potential with this unecessary change of cast.

I like the school elements and the dating sim is not that bad like people say ( the harem during main story + date your students are unecessary ngl)

My problem with the political stuff is: They built it for 9 games for nothing cause the ''Great Battle'' is against the curse and all geopolitical elements are just a requirement to awaken the curse.
I don't like the curse but I like fantasy elements and the mechas.
Probably my favorite plot of CS4 is McBurn but until now they barely revisited this plot in future Trails Games.

Hahaha, After giving it some more thought I have to agree with you in regards to liking most of old Class 7 compared to New Class 7. I mean...I gave the new class a chance but even Kurt (-whom started with an advantage cuz I'm kind of weak to silver-haired characters & characters that tend to dual-wield lol) grew annoying sometimes LOL.

Honestly, if the "curse" wasn't part of the plot I think I honestly might've been bored with CS4 (and some degree CS3)...again because it got too 'political' for me (especially the CS3-4 settings) and I personally dislike when it gets 'too political'

It also doesn't help that Azure did not officially release in states before CS4 so that's a huge disconnect for me....
(part of me wonders how the discussion sounded when they made that decision but oh well...)

(My avatar is an original creation-please don't take it)

Mar 27, 2023 5:22 PM

#17

LloydBann1ngs

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Mar 2021

Trails fans are a bunch of cowards. Instead coming here and chatting with you, they'd rather stay locked in their bubble because there their game is ''an untouchable masterpiece''

https://www.reddit.com/r/Falcom/comments/120wfj5/i_hate_gatekeeping_at_most_like_the_next_one_but/

Mar 28, 2023 7:17 AM

#18

Hektor2772

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Sep 2016

Who cares about the opinion of some Incels in Reddit?

Oct 16, 2023 8:17 AM

#19

XAlpha9

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Sep 2021

Reply to Hektor2772

Hektor2772 said:
Wrong game to start? Why? People said me that Coldsteel 1 is the best to start.

for me who start at Cold Steel 1 too, yes, it one of better place to start since its entirely new story and you didn't quite need knowledge from previous game to understand it, not like trail from azure, you need at least play sky to understand the big contunuity. and sky is other best place to start too, but since the graphic and gameplay are quite slow, most people won't like it. i start from cold steel too but then i grew curious about the previous game. at first i don't like the old graphic too, but then i forced my self to play it, and it worth. i get to see what olivert do in liberl and how he declare war to osborne and what makes olivert make class 7 first of all. maybe we just have different taste of game (maybe i just the one that have worse taste since i think cold steel has quite good story XD)

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