Here a list of the time stamps and topics in the video: 0:00 Intro 2:05 What’s the story about? 4:46 A slow game that pays off in the end 6:01 A continuous series that sucks you in 6:55 Yes, you can start with the Trails series 8:39 This series has a lot of meat in it 10:29 Has anime cliches, but goes a lot deeper 11:30 The game’s songs are serious bangers 13:21 How much longer will this series be a sleeper? 14:34 Why I have high hopes for this series? 16:08 What may hold this series back? 19:13 The future of the series 20:04 Now over to you
It's not that the series gets held back with that it's due to how the game is made when being ported over here Sean Chiplock would have loved to made more voices for rean in fact he makes some official unofficial voices on tumblr for ones he wished he could have done or fans requesting of him but in PS3 and vita era there was no such way of thinking how can be bypassed as there is a table system which holds all voice clips you can't just add a WAV file in there and hope it works it goes as in deep as adding a specific file in voice and where it exactly goes as it's very complex of series of files as there is a Navi file for when you explore the timing files align with it and the battle files where the timing also comes into play but in a different section of the file they branched out files after files that's even some of the voice clips aren't entered all there but rather in a series of clips leading to the point you need to mess with all of these and hope that it doesn't get messed up along the way with various crashes as the file that are being used is size based meaning no more can be added to some extent at least as far as my own scoping has gotten which is why I've been learning so much about the game that I know of all this information now as this has been going into my modding and in my opinion xseed clearly got the tools later on to mess with the PC version to mess with the file I am going on about leading to if you were to place these files into the PS3 version and add the the new voice lines it will work as these files are all cross compatible with one another hope that helps clear things up on your voice being problem of xseed and falcom getting held back as always keep up the great work
@@trailstoinfinity4316 That explains a lot, as I was wondering why Sean Chiplock didn't have as many voiced lines. Hearing interviews from Sean, I think he wanted to voice more lines for the fans too. Like you said, even adding a couple voice lines throws off the entire voice track, since they're lined up already in a table. The timing would be off and messy. Thanks for the explanation, as I learned a lot about recorded voice acting in games.
@@gamesndepth no problem you should check out some of my videos if you played cs2 already I've been bring some characters that are bosses being playable and some that were scrapped and getting ready to move a lot of my progress to 3 and then 4 when It comes to PC
@@gamesndepth navigation to play which causes it to stop the exe and crash the entirety of the game that is if he's willing to voluntarily do those voice clips of course always nice to hear a full voiced rean than a half assed job done thanks to regular falcom limiting our options thus leaving Sean not having many voice lines to fill in lol and nice to see you playing review copy wish I could get my hands on one always wanted to be a big finder for games as I'm very skilled at noticing even the smallest bugs not sure if you knew but back in cs3 there was a part of crossbell that had a mini boss that only made warning side appear but was nowhere to be seen not until at least 1.0.5 came out hope you finish and get hyped for hajimari when it comes cause cs4 is very appealing game
I actually watched an hour of Hajimari in Japanese (I know Japanese) and I'm so hyped for that game already. But I gotta tell myself to finish ToCS4 first, since Hajimari is after that game. I do remember the mini boss in Crossbell in CS3, but fortunately never hit that bug since I got into the game later. It's pretty impressive how there's some experts on the series, such as yourself, because I don't notice bugs or some other details until someone else tells me. I'm always learning something new with this series everyday.
Found this series by coincidence last year when Cold Steel 1 was first released for Ps4 and when I first saw that intense prologue opening and heard that GODLIKE MUSIC playing in the background I knew for a fact that this game was going to be amazing. Fast forward a year later i'm now currently replaying all the trails games starting from sky to prepare for CS4 release. This series is seriously a masterpiece and anyone who's thinking of giving it a shot should not get thrown off by the graphics and go for it. It'll be the best decision you've ever made
yep the intense prologue where a annoying teacher drop us down a trap down and stop fie from escaping by cutting her rope making her fall down the hole as well
The reason behind the lack of Rean's voice acting in various scenes in Cold Steel Games (except the PS4 and PC versions of CS I & II where they added more of it) is not that Sean Chiplock could not be booked. Japanese version suffers from this issue as well and that's why some of the lines were not voiced in english. The most probable scenario is that Falcom could not afford Rean's japanese seiyū / voice actor - Kōki Uchiyama, since he is quite expensive to hire.
Ahhhh I see, that makes a ton of sense. I was thinking either Sean Chiplock or the Japanese voice actor was too busy at the time, so they omitted many of Rean's lines.
To expand on your explanation, every major character in the game received the same number of voiced lines, including Rean (likely due to budget limitations, like you said). Because Rean is the main character, though, he appears in a lot more cutscenes than any other character, leading to him having a lot of his dialogue go unvoiced. XSeed's adding of many new voice lines to the PC version of the game, especially for Rean, was their way of improving the presentation of the game, and I think it goes a long way in giving a more consistent experience across the story; here's to hoping that NISA will give the latter Cold Steel games the same treatment sometime in the future.
@@SoloRogueStudios That makes sense. Rean being the lead character would naturally lead to him having more lines. I'm hoping NIS America and Nihon Falcom add more voiced lines for its main characters in Trails of Cold Steel 4 and Hajimari no Kiseki.
@@gamesndepth I remember reading that XSeed wanted to add more voiced lines but Falcom didn't want to give them the support to do so. I could be wrong on this.
@@stopingreplay i heard the lack of voice lines was down to falcom wanting 1:1 parity with the Japanese version. (I remember reading in one of Xseeds blog posts that they Wanted to add more voice dialog to the PS3 and vita versions, but falcom shot them down due to the above outlined reason). Since Xseed is singularly responsible for the PC versions of CS1 and 2 (Falcom had no hand in its development, they only reaped licensing fee benefits) they had more leeway with the voice acting.
I' m a huge Trails fan and, like you I started with TCS. I've consumed a lot of Trails TH-cam content since TCS1 came out and I have to say that this is hands down the best introductory video to the series that I have seen. Bravo! 👏🏾😃
Thank you so much. That means a lot and very appreciated! Gotta ask: How did you first hear about the Cold Steel series and what's your favorite parts of the game (e.g. characters, music, story, setting, etc.)? Always curious to hear how fans, especially new fans like ourselves, got into the series.
@@gamesndepth About 4 years ago or so a friend of mine had his Vita with him on a camping trip and was playing TCS1 and was at Garrelia fortress, but the real time later in the game and not the opening intro. I remember him telling me that it was great because it was turn-based but positioning mattered and that it wasn't a brain dead combat system. I remember thinking, cool, but it didn't really grab my attention an I didn't have a Vita (wasn't aware that it was on PS3 too). Fast-forward to 2019 and another friend of mine was gushing about it and when looking into it I saw that a PS4 version was coming out so I decided to give it a try and I fell in love! Being a comic book fan, I really appreciate big overarching stories and I was amazed to find that in a JRPG. I also adore the character designs and development. I'm a fan of video game OSTs in general and the music in this series has impressed me each entry. Thanks for engaging with your audience. :)
Oh whoa, that must have been interesting to discover the series 4 years ago. I think I would have reacted the same as you if I had a friend that intro-ed me to the game back then. It looks okay, but it probably wouldn't have grabbed my attention and I brought a Vita too. But I'm thinking you can't go wrong with two friends are gushing about the same game. Since it's on the PS4, it's a hell of a lot easier to play the game. I also dug the characters, the world building, and like you, the OSTs. I really wished that brought back the "Afterschool Hours" song in the 1st Trails of Cold Steel game. That song was a major banger. As for engaging with my audience, it's fun to talk to other fans of JRPGs. I learn a ton from doing so too!
@@gamesndepth I think on my end, the top OST tracks are Into the Abyss from TCS1 and Brave Steel from TCS3. I remember being hyped for TCS3 to come out so I spoiled myself a bit and checked out what the main battle theme would be was blown away! It's up there with Valkyrie Profile, Bravely Default and Octopath Traveller's main battle themes. 😍
It's always great to see this series get more attention! I should point out though that the person in the adam neely video who introduces "afterschool hours" isn't adam neely;. Adam is actually the bass player.
For such a small channel this was an amazing video, incredibly well presented and genuinely amazing quality. You’ve sold me on this game, so excited to play, keep up the great work man
Thanks for the kind words and of course, watching the video! Truly humbled. As for playing Cold Steel, definitely play it! It's a great game and will get you hooked, especially if you like JRPGs like Persona 5 Royal. Let me know how it is.
Fantastic video! After just beating Ys IX, I've recently bought a bundle of all four Cold Steel games and very excited to properly sink my teeth into the series.
Thanks for watching! Really appreciate it. I think we're actually switching places! While you'll be playing the Trails of Cold Steel games, I just got Ys IX and will be playing that soon. Like yourself with Trails, I can't wait to play Ys IX.
@@gamesndepth Haha, that's very true! The graphics are rough around the edges, just like how they are with the Trails games, (as you mentioned in your video) but I really enjoyed it, especially since it builds upon the core gameplay and features that were in Ys VIII, so you're in for a treat!
Criminally underrated video. This video can easily be pushed out to the general gaming community to blow up and TH-cam would rack in so much ad revenue. But at lass, this won't get pushed
Thanks so much for watching. Really humbled. Even though I can't monetize this video just yet, I wouldn't mind if TH-cam pushed this video out. It means I can get partnered on TH-cam faster (1000+ subs and 4000+ minutes of watch time a year) and use the Community posting and monetize the channel.
My first reaction to the series came with news of the first Trails of Cold Steel game. I believe it was 2014, and we were in the middle of a MAJOR Turn-Based drought, that I wasn't sure we would ever come out of. The few Turn-Based games that were being released had a TINY budget (if you think Cold Steel had a small budget...at least it was in 3D...). My first reaction to seeing the first game was, "Huh...that looks...shockingly respectable..." I remember hearing that Falcom thought that they should be considered the 2nd-best RPG publisher in Japan, after SquareEnix (Atlus is usually considered 2nd-best). I thought, "well, I mean, your games look much better than pretty much everything else, but I doubt you can really compete with Atlus". And then I actually played the first Cold Steel game...and immediately proceeded to eat my words. Today, the Trails series is EASILY my favorite currently-running series, especially because of how frequently they release games without sacrificing any tiny little bit of quality (shouldn't there be a Persona 6 and Dragon Quest 12 by now?). I'm currently playing Cold Steel 4, and as long as they keep releasing games, I'll keep buying them. I also don't hesitate at all to throw money at series merchandise, not only because I want it, but because there is no other company right now that I think deserves my money more, and I want to support them as much as I'm able.
Got into this series last year myself and I have been addicted. I do agree starting with the very first game (Trails in the Sky) and going in release order is much more ideal from a story and gameplay perspective with personal experience, but I do agree it's not bad to start from a game that's easier to get into and much more modern. It really only matters when you get through the later games in the Cold Steel series, but even then you can go through the first 2 Cold Steel games before going back to the older games if you're curious. I can't speak from playing just the Cold Steel games as I did play all of the Legend of Heroes: Trails games prior to Cold Steel and currently up to date on CS3, but I feel it can be enjoyable and looking up the info bout the older games can help. I just tell new people bout these 2 approaches and let them decide how to approach. As a side note, I've heard from another person that some people have gotten into the series with starting in Cold Steel 2. So really anyone can get into the games in any way lol. Glad to hear this game has gotten your attention and hope you enjoy your stay with the series as well nonetheless :) Btw got yourself a new sub
Whoa, people actually got into it from Cold Steel 2 (CS)? That's actually quite impressive, as the game literally starts right after CS1. I do admit in CS3, there were quite a few references I'm like "whoa, who's this? Or who are they referring to?" But for the most part, a simple non-spoiler search filled in the basic plot holes from me. I think I may have to adopt your approach in telling people about the two ways to play the game (from Trails in the Sky or jumping into CS1). Thanks for the sub too!
I jumped into this a month (or two) ago. I love this franchise. I see the you poured your heart into this video. I also started out after playing FF remake and P5R. I didnt search up 'games like P5R', i just so happen to find this game on sale and bought it. Like you, i also blasted through the first 3 games. Though it wasnt until that big ass tree showed up in Crossbell( then disappeared soon after) during CSII that a thought occured to me. 'Is there another group of main characters there?' One google search later blew me away. I cant wait to play as Rean again in the 4th game! Just a couple more days :D
The 4th game is a blast! The game just came out yesterday, so I'm sure you're binging the game :) It's a long 100+ hour game, so I'm sure you'll enjoy it! It's great to talk to other people like me that discovered the series right after FF7 remake and P5R. After getting into the series a couple months ago, I found there were a lot of Falcom fans that have been around for 10+ years.
The best thing to come out of the increased downtime due to the pandemic was my discovery of this series. I also started with Cold Steel. After I finished the first game, I watched many hours of recap videos for the Trails in the Sky series and the (so far non-localized) Crossbell arc. Shoutout to LadyVirgilia for bringing me up to speed, story-wise. I even watched the Trails in the Sky OVA. I don't think I've been so engaged with a video game narrative like this since the first time I played FFVII way back in the late 90's. As I was led through the story, I realized that the narrative style was very, very familiar. A brief digression; I absolutely adore the books of Brandon Sanderson. I won't get into specifics, but I will say that the way he builds his stories is to start small, with seemingly disparate characters and storylines that eventually all come together in unexpected ways. He builds and builds and builds until near the end when a veritable avalanche of story beats come at you so fast it feels like a roller-coaster. I recognized the same style with the Legend of Heroes narrative. These games represent the video game equivalent to Epic storytelling on a par with The Wheel of Time or The Dark Tower or The Stormlight Archive. Anyone willing to put in the time to chase all the story threads in these games will be richly rewarded for their time. There's no way this series stays under the radar for much longer.
Same here! Like yourself, I discovered the series during the pandemic and never looked back. I watched LadyVirgilia after I beat the older Legend of Heroes games, as her videos help in recapping the story quite well. The narrative is very engaging indeed. I haven't read The Wheel of Time or The Dark Tower, but heard of the two books. I should find a recap of the books you mentioned, as it does feel like those book's threads are similar to the Legend of Heroes series. And lastly, I do agree this series doesn't stay under the radar for much longer. It's that good.
No problem, thanks for watching! The series means a ton to me too and I see why there's a growing number of Legend of Heroes fans. After Trails, I binged the other games in the series (Trails 4 I'm still waiting for in October).
really glad that with the release of Cold Steel 4 people is getting into the series even if the hurdle is too big for newcomers since by Cold Steel 3 you need to know some context from the Sky trilogy and Crossbell duology and especially for Cold Steel 4 given that it will spoil some major twist from previous arcs...but overall wherever you start if you truly enjoy the world of Zemuria you will definitely enjoy the older games given that they pretty much setup the grand stage where Cold Steel 4 will take place where all loose threads from all arcs unite into one big narrative that ends with a bang...To everyone new, enjoy the series up to CS2 or CS3 then go back to fully experience the joy of seeing an "endgame" like event that Trails of Cold Steel 4 brings...it's not called "The end of saga" in Jp for nothing ya know Edit: Another issue that you forgot to include is the lack of translation for the Crossbell duology game...which is quite essential for Cold Steel 4 since the Cold Steel arc is much more connected to the Crossbell games more so than the Sky games but we can be hopeful as there was a PS4 remake that was released this year for the Crossbell duology that might get a translation down the line but for now we gotta rely on the very great and top notch translation patch that the Geofront team has for Trails from Zero. For Trails to Azure tho..we just gotta bear with the not so great but fine translations for awhile since the Geofront team just started working on it after the recent release of their Trails from Zero eng patch.
Ahhh yeah, very true I didn't mention the lack of translation for the Crossbell duology games. I didn't want to do a lengthy explanation that there's no official translation in a Cold Steel IV review, so I omitted it. I heard that Falcom and Kondo want to bring official, English versions of the Crossbell duology though. If so, I can't wait to replay them. As for the game being "the end of saga," I played all the other Legend of Heroes games after beating CS3 (I started on Cold Steel 1). So when CS4 finally came out, I was blown away and understood a lot more of the characters and references from previous games in the series.
I started playing Trails of Cold Steel 1 in January. I loved the first game and played game after game. I finished Cold Steel 4 just a few days ago. It was a journey. I like how even NPC characters have character development.
The Cold Steel series is an incredible ride. I think we had similar journeys, where we both just discovered the series, blasted through the entire series, and are now looking back at finish Cold Steel 4. If you can, try and play the Trail in the Sky and Crossbell arcs. The writing and characters in those games are great. Plus, you'll get to see a lot of familiar faces that appear in Cold Steel 3-4.
I absolutely love the Trails Series, if anyone wants to get into I suggest to get started as Trails of Cold Steel IV comes out in a month in the west. My comments and messages are open if anyone ever wants to have a chat about the series :)
I may have to take you up on that offer to talk more about the series :) And I have to thank you for your Let's Play gameplay. I used a couple in my video, since I forgot to record certain parts of the game (I credited you in the video and in the description.) Do you think it's possible for a newcomer to binge play all of the Legend of Heroes series before Trails of Cold Steel VI in late October? Asking for a friend :)
I think it is technically possible for a newcomer if it just Cold Steel 1-3, but I don't really recommend it. That would be a month to complete 3 games of 60-100 hours each depending on their playstyle, however if you're working or go to school you will probably get burnt out. I highly recommend people take their time and enjoy it, IV isn't going anywhere (just avoid spoilers) and if possible, to play Trails in the Sky 1 & 2 as well before playing Cold Steel IV to fill in knowledge gaps on lore and characters. Personally I am playing + recording Trails 1, Trails 2 and the second half of Cold Steel 3 before IV comes out for the channel which is underway but burnout is definitely a real thing as a working adult, these games are long and as a completionist it can be draining. Apologies, I went on a bit. Thank you very much for using my gameplay in your video, it is concise and well put together and a big thank you for crediting my channel. :)
I'm working but I still set aside time to play these games, I'm currently taking my time and replaying all the trails games starting from sky CS4 isn't going anywhere so once i'm fully immersed with all the lore. I know that CS4 will be worth the payoff
Man,no.that you should start with 1-3 and not just go to 4 since you won't know any other character or what going on if you it that way. You should go in order of the games.
Thank you so much for the kind words. I really appreciate it. When I made this video, I was always wondering "is this entertaining? Is the pacing good?" But I'm glad you think the pacing is good :)
@@gamesndepth It's great... a fantastic Review. Thank you so much for sharing it becaus you made me focus on a saga that was hidden from me. By the way, I'm currently playing Trails of Cold Steel 1 and am loving the game so much, that I decided to buy Trails of Cold Steel 2 in advance... and in the future I'll definetively purchase the 3rd and 4th chapters too. God bless and best regards.
The only reason why I began with the Trial of the Cold Steel games and not the older ones is because the whole story remind me of Valkyrie Chronicles 1 and 4, but with more advanced technology, and way more larger story, I not a fan of CRPG or JRPG in general, but I can make exceptions when the story and the setting are really good.
From someone who doesn't really like Cold Steel 1-3. If you do not enjoy them try the previous games. In my opinion the Sky and Crossbell arcs are leagues better, writing wise, character wise, difficulty, and musically.
I can see that, as I really liked Estelle and Joshua in the Sky arc. The Crossbell arc (I only played the first one) is great too from what I've played.
^ (Maddox top comment) THIS. As someone who started with ToCS1, I got more and more disappointed the further I played. Then I got back to take a look at the Sky games, currently playing the official Zero localization and loving it. Hard to believe that Sky/Zero take place in the same world as Cold Steel and is developed by the same team.
Most people that I know don't really play games like this. Odds are, if they don't know about games like Persona then this isn't the type of game that they'll play. They really only play game like Call of Duty (which I have no problem with since I'm starting to get back into it) and Fallout (which I honestly couldn't play 4 for more than 2 hours 5 years ago).
Every new fan is really welcome. Damn when I played Cold Steel 1 it blowed my mind. I loved it so much and played 4 times through. (2 times on Ps3, 2 on PS4) And after I finished Cold Steel 2 this Bonus Chapter came with NEW CHARACTERS?! after a little searching about them I found out that THERE ARE PREQUELS?! This really shocked me. And thanks to that I still haven´t played Cold Stee 3. It is lying for 2 years in the closet, sealed of course. Only because I am such a huge fan, that I needed to catch all prequels up. Trails to Azure is the last one I need to play. Can´t wait when the fantranslation is finished!
Oh yeah, the Legend of Heroes series is huge. That's pretty cool that the end had the bonus chapter in Cold Steel 2 (I never played the originals). I think I'm caught up, minus Trails to Azure, too.
still remember when i booted up the 1st cold series i drop it then after a while gave it another try due to ppl keep saying is underated the next thing i know i was blazing from cold steel 1, 2 then 3 on pc due to the crazy cliffhanger and i own a ps4 as well immediately i pick up 4 and ive easily invested 400+ hours in cold series
Played it on a whim on a Sunday afternoon. After that, I got to school late and came back home after school only to put more hours into it. I pretty much grew up with it and playing Cold Steel 1-4 felt like "The Avengers" of JRPG franchises!
I really want to play this series, but its really hard for newcommers like me to get into it because were looking at like 9 60+ hour games we would have to play to really understand the story which isnt really an easy commitment
well nobody forces you do play them in a row (and is not recommended anyway, a break between each game is suggested). You live long enough I guess to play a game of The legend of heroes each year. After playing cold steel 1 and 2 I played all prequels in 2 years.
Yeah just take your time, play the first 2 sky games then wait some months to play the 3rd, walit some months again and Start Crossbell and continue, if the game doesn't end on a cliffhanger then u can take a 6 month break xd
Legit favor: as a lifelong final fantasy fan, can anyone direct me to more reviews/videos on this series? I JUST heard about this series for the first time today.
I keep up with The Kiseki Nut, which is all about The Legends of Heroes series. Easy Allies and SwitchUp also did very positive reviews of the Trails of Cold Steel games as well. There's a lot of other JRPGers that also cover the series as well.
I don't know any other JRPG serie with a big emphasis on the world building like the Trails serie (Xenoblade come in my mind and also Final Fantasy XII). Also the music is always godly (like any Falcom game). In brief, it's really good. ;)
Oh yeah, I know what you mean with the earlier games. I played them after Trails of Cold Steel 3. Great, witty writing. Really liked both Estelle and Joshua's as characters.
When you understand the lores during Liberl arc and Crossbell arc and get to see all of the protagonists reuniting together with Class 7 in CS4. Chills
Complete JRPG noob here. I recently got Tokyo Xanadu from a Fanatical bundle a little while ago and finally got around to trying it. It already got me quite hooked with its world building and overall approach to game design. While I realize the Trails games are more traditional JRPGs with the turn-based combat, I was so impressed with Falcom's world building skills that I bought Trails in the Sky during the most recent Steam sale. Definitely going to be playing through the entire Trails series (and also the Ys games at some point, too) over time if the world building is as enjoyable as Tokyo Xanadu is! Been really trying to branch out into JRPGs lately and people often recommend Falcom's games so I figure this is probably a decent starting point, especially as a guy who only ever really liked western RPGs in the past. I never really thought JRPGs were true RPGs (kinda somewhat still say that, they feel more like tactical games with RPG elements) which turned me off from trying the genre for a while, but between Toyko Xanadu and Yakuza (not sure if y'all consider them JRPGs or not), I'm really getting hooked!
Late to the party I always say cold steel is the best start people really don’t want their friends to play this game telling them have to start from trails in the sky is nutty I mean dang let them dip their toe in the water before they get in the pool
great video! probably beating a dead horse by saying this (didn't see too many comments on it though) it's easier to refer to "Trails" games by the last parts of their name (Sky, Cold Steel, Zero, or Ao/Azure). Every game that takes place in Zemuria is a "Trails" game, the arcs are denoted by location or title (Sky/Liberl, Crosbell/Zero&Ao, Cold Steel/Erebonia). As stated below, the Legend of Heroes refers to the longer series, not the one that takes place in Zemuria itself. Honestly loved the video though! Anyone who makes Trails content is good in my book ;). Also, I agree that Cold Steel 1 is a fine starting place for people who prefer it. I also, controversially, think that you should just play exactly what you want to. I have friends who really don't pc game, so they just played through CS 1-4, and they loved it! Even without the backstory from Crosbell or Liberl. Going back is awesome, and I recommend it, but it's better to experience the series the way the player wants to or is comfortable with, rather than try and force a 250-hour square peg into a round hole. Though, like, if you can start with CS1 instead of CS3, that's probably better... but hey, some people didn't even do that and still enjoyed it, so what do I know.
Oh, that's very helpful with the "Trails" naming conventions. I have to be careful with naming the different arcs (e.g. "Trails in the Sky, Crossbell, Cold Steel, Hajimari no Kiseki, etc."). Thank you for watching the video. Really humbled honestly to hear from veterans of the game. I actually agree with you that you should play the game how you want to. For me, it was through Trails of Cold Steel 1-3 first, then playing the rest of the series, then Cold Steel 4. For others, they may play the Cold Steel series 1-4 first, like your friends. Both ways are totally cool. I'm just glad people are enjoying the series how they want to. The series is still underrated, I feel, as it gets overshadowed by the more mainstream JRPG titles (e.g. Final Fantasy, Persona, Dragon Quest, Xenoblade Chronicles, Nier Automata, etc.) Those are great series, no doubt, but I would put The Legend of Heroes among them. In fact, it's one of my favorite JRPG series and I just discovered it last year.
I really felt the need to abbord trails 3 and go back to one after 3 dozens of hours but yes i would say trails of cold steel 1 starts great with telling the Storys it also Shows some of the other areas so you can learn a lot and if you than maybe just know a bit what the other trails are about you have a good knowledge of everithing whats going on. Only with Part 3 i though im missing a lot but with Part one even if that might Not be true it feeld like im knowing everithing. The more Amazing it might be Findling some missing pieces of the big puzzle if you go back to sky and crossbell later. Same happened to me already going back from 3 to 1
Idk if you were aware of this but the main reason why the word count on the Trails games is so huge is because of the NPCs. They changed dialogues ALL the time everytime you progress from a major story quest. And every one of them will always have 2-3 layers of dialogue before they start repeating the last layer. This is very noticeable on CS2 because of how you can go back to previous locations and every NPCs will have new things to say.
Oh yeah, I know what you mean by all the NPC dialogue changing every major progression of the story. I talk to them after the story advances and there's a ton of text. That does make sense why there's so much text then.
Glad that some people keep recognizing trails of cold steel hoping that it gets as popular as persona cause since 2005 it's been very underrated series but that hasn't been stopping me from modding the game and adding new stuff into it like more bigger list of playable characters roster hope your hyped for cs4 as well as I have can't wait to start modding it once PC comes out for it
Oh yeah, Trails and the Legend of Heroes series are incredible. I'm actually playing through the 4th Trails game currently (NIS America was incredibly generous to let me play it via advance media / press copy) and it's epic so far. The roster is getting pretty bloated, but I love the cast of characters thus far in the 4th game.
@@gamesndepth *9th game ;) But yeah, I understand the bloated feel. I'm glad the extra characters were treated as more of a wink/love letter to fans, as they had their prominent roles in the Sky & Crossbell games. Welcome to the fandom though, my man :) Like you I stumbled upon this series looking for something new back in April 2019. When I finished CS3 just before Christmas I then went back and played the previous 5 games, finishing just in time for CS4's release. In fact, as of yesterday Hajimari no Kiseki (the game after CS4) arrived from Japan. Excited just isn't strong enough a word haha
@@omarabdulkarim356 So true about the game being a love letter / wink to the fans. Thanks for the welcome into the fandom. It's a lot to take in, but experiencing this game and the fans have been awesome so far. I'm so surprised there's a lot of fans like me that just stumbled upon this series within the past year or so. I'm always interested to hear how us new fans had to catch up with the entire series. It took me just over 600 hours from Trails of the Sky and it was a blast to play the entire series. With Hajimari no Kiseki, I can't wait for a Western release too. I'm thinking late 2021 or early 2022 that we'll get it :)
First of all: Old Schoolhouse*. 😁 Second: I am not a jrpg fan in any stretch of the imagination and like you I got curious and bought the TOCS Decisive Edition at my local game store after watching a few minutes of a youtube lets play on it and got very intruiged. Here in Denmark we have something like an academy called an efterskole, and this game immediately gave me the feeling of being back there living at the scool and hanging out with friends while going to classes. It was such a nostalgic feeling and the game hooked me very quickly. I just finished it now and have already started a new playthrough on nightmare. In the meantime I also bought TOCS 2 and 3. This game is damn close to being a masterpiece.
Sometimes I get Old Schoolhouse mixed up 😀 The series is incredible and I'm glad we both discovered the game. Playing the game on nightmare (I'm doing that too) is so fun, but I've died so many times! It's great to hear from Legend of Heroes fans from Denmark!
I kind of view The Legend of Heroes series akin to Legend of The Galactic Heroes: They're the mythical dragon of their respective mediums. People have heard whispers about them and some have attempted them. But the few that succeeded come out accomplished and fulfilled.
Thanks for watching! I was thinking about how to explain the Trails of Cold Steel arc, since I was once a newcomer and had no idea what the series was about. I think many of my friends that I introduce to the series had no clue either. So I explained the series if I were completely new and was a casual JRPGer. I'm glad viewers, such as yourself, that played the series thought it was a good explanation. I'm very humbled by your comment.
I got locked into this by a fellow Yt who’s Japanese I didn’t even know this existed but actually I played the first 3 games trails in the sky 1-3 when I was like 4 or so I totally forgot XD but my journey started with CS1 earlier in 2018-2019 and im still waiting for trials of reverie coming next year and hopefully Kuro no kisseki in 2024
Friend of mine got me hooked on this franchise after he gifted me a copy of Cold Steel 1, and Cold Steel 2. On my second playthrough of CS1 before moving on to the second in the arc. Now, I am looking into getting into the entire franchise. And 65 hours? Heh, I spent a whopping 134 hours in the game. Granted, most of that was grinding and farming for xp and cash.
I beaten all four Trails of Cold Steel games but I can’t seem to get into Trails in the sky because it’s very confusing it doesn’t show me where to go I got to the Farm but I don’t know what to do.
9:07 Mind you, the world count includes the NPC dialogue. And each (available) NPC changes it's dialogue each time the plot advances. So at least half the text is just side content.
Sure, there's a ton of text that's just the NPC changes every time the plot changes But regardless if it's main story or not, that's still a lot of dialogue the localization team has to edit.
@@Javifaa I can agree that the main campaign is as long as your standard JRPG. For gamers that just play the story and nothing else, I can see the Trails games beaten in 30-40-ish hours per game. But I think with side content, many gamers do at least some of them, which of course, adds onto the game play time.
@@gamesndepth and a big chunk of that site content is the NPC dialogue. Depending on the game it can be half of the total text in the entire game, or even more (Crossbell, I dare to say). Ironically, the exception consistently has some of the longest scenes in the entire franchise period.
@@Javifaa Indeed. I remember when people were telling me, "after every major plot point, make sure to talk to every NPC again." Sure enough, all their dialogue changed, so I totally understand your point that a lot of the localized text is basically changed NPC talk.
I’m trying my HARDEST to stick with this. I’m still early in the game & I’m struggling with not dropping it. I think it’s because I have no idea what to expect since I’ve never played ANY Falcom game. I’m trusting the story will be amazing but damn it seems meandering right now
I hear ya. I think with Cold Steel I, it's quite slow, as it's setting up the world building, characters, and getting players acquainted with Erebonia. It's even tougher, since it's your first Falcom and Legend of Heroes game. There's not a lot that happens for much of the game until the final 30% of the game. Then, the game gets crazy and gets a lot better. If you continue through the end of Cold Steel I and all of Cold Steel II, the big payoff comes in Cold Steel III and beyond. An alternative is to play Trails from Zero, which came out last year to overseas fans. It takes place in the bustling city of Crossbell and its focus on just a few characters is a lot better than Cold Steel. Trails from Zero's story picks up a bit faster than Cold Steel, with the timeline taking place in parallel to Cold Steel I and II.
Hiya! Hope you have been well. With the release of Trails to Azure by Geofront it would be awesome if you could make a video regarding the Crossbell or Liberl Arc if you were interested.
Hiya again! I'm definitely thinking about doing a video about either Crossbell or Liberl in the future. For now, I got some upcoming videos coming out!
I'm definitely planning on getting into Cold Steel soon. I played Ys 8 last year and fell in love with Falcoms games. I was about to get Cold Steel 1 but I forgot Ys 9 was about to come out so I'm gonna play it after I finish Ys. I'm scared about having to dump so much time into the Cold Steel series since the 4 games are each 50-60+ hours long roughly.
The Cold Steel series is a wild ride, but overall, very fun. As for Ys, I haven't played the series in over a decade. I hear Ys 8 and the new one, Ys 9, are pretty good. How is the Ys series overall?
@@gamesndepth Ys 8 is a phenomenal Action RPG with great story and characters. I'm only 5 hours into 9 so I can't say much about it yet. Overall modern Ys is a great time.
It would be better if you play it from Trails in the Sky not Cold Steel 1. Some Character background already revealed by this point of the series, example "Olivier". Some plot twist is not shocking if you didn't play the previous games, "Sharon" background Certain event reference or discussion that occured in the previous game might be confusing to those who play CS1 the first time : example Ouroboros plan Those who played this first will definitely got confused to some places that were mentioned in a cutscene that occured or take place in the previous games (Mentioned a lot in CS3) for example ZCF (Zeiss Central Factory) Event continuity from Sky series to Cold Steel series regarding Hamel incident and tbh there are more Spoilers alert : Last but not least Class 7 wouldn't exist if Sky series event didn't occur, Olivier aka Prince Olivert made class 7 due to he get to know Estelle and Joshua. He's making the Class 7 system the same as Bracers
Nah Sky just turns people away from the series. CS1 is easily the best starting point, thanks to better pacing amd ofc more modern quality of life features
I've never seen a more deeply, carefully, masterfully crafted masterpiece. As an example, one of these games alone in this currently 11 series franchise (The 11th's not out yet but still) has had a script bigger than all the LotR and Harry Potter books. Quantity does not necessarily mean quality of course but I just wanted to point that out. I've seen no other franchise in ANY sort of media that had such a giant continuity with practically no notable storytelling errors nor has ever failed to be exciting and engaging. No world more delicately and expansively crafted. (If I know the history of places, then care and worry about what's going to constantly happen in these places no game has ever even taken me to, you know THAT'S something else.) No other piece of media has gotten me invested in characters even as random crap as town NPCs. I am sure I could list dozens just from memories alone, let alone every single interesting villain, heroes, allies and everything else in between. Persona used to be my favorite franchise before this but after starting this franchise, the competition is not even CLOSE. I also have not yet heard of a single person who has played this and it didn't become their favorite franchise, not even joking. ToCS IV is coming out for Steam in 2 days/tomorrow and GOD, I can NOT wait. Be here already... Oh by the way, I haven't even gotten into the absolutely astounding OST and infinitely expansive combat that you can shape into nearly any sort of experience that you want (Which is gonna get even MORE diverse in the upcoming game by the way). GOD, I love this franchise so much. Play it, people.
I agree with your take completely. After I finished the first four Cold Steel games, then played the rest of The Legend of Heroes games, I was blown away by the story and world building. You really become attached to the whole lore, history, and characters of the game. Class VII, both old and new, really stuck to me well after I beat Trails of Cold Steel 4. I think you'll really like ToCS IV, as it's just epic. It's a huge payoff from Cold Steel 1 all the way to 4 and I had an absolute blast playing it. The story hits hard and by the time you finish, you really don't want to leave. Let me know how your ToCS IV experience goes!
@@gamesndepth It's here in 15 hours... The wait is almost over... I even refreshed my memory by playing through all the games, Crossbell included, in about 2 months. Finished my CS3 replay just last week. I am so ready!
@@gamesndepth Yup, very much am. Currently on the second rest day. So many cool characters have appeared already and I am so damn excited to see who else will. I am already so glad I've played the older games first.
Lol I'm sitting hear trying to figure out the order to play these games after discovering the series in literally the exact same way. Got toward the end of chapter three of cold steel before realizing it's not the first game in the series. Think I'm gonna put it down for now to play the previous entries first because I'm absolutely enjoying cold steel and want to be fully caught up before advancing
So one critique I have is that while I totally agree that new people coming in can start with Cold Steel 1 & 2 I would HIGHTLY (and I can't stress that enough) recommed play trails in the sky and the cross bell game BEFORE moving on to Cold Steel 3 & 4. There are so many things in Cold Steel 3 which majorly tie into the previous games and really lack the weight and impact that they should have if you don't have the context of the other games in the series. Everything from reoccurring characters who were main cast/party members in previous games showing up to even fairly major sub plots and whole political factions which Cold Steel 3 just kinda throws at you without any good explanation as to how significant those things are. Playing Trails in the Sky Second Chapter will introduce you to a major secret faction in a way that is done extremely well and really sets the tone for a lot of the bigger picture in the trails universe and it is something that Cold Steel 3 will casually throw out in a flash back in the first couple hours like it is no big deal.
I’ve been on this train since legend of heroes: tears of vermillion and YS 6 during the earlier days of the psp. It’s a train I don’t think I’ll ever get off of till the series reaches its conclusion.
Glad i only stumbled upon this series last year just like with Persona. Best decision I've ever made. Just finished TOCS 2. Starting 3 later on this year. Right now I'm on PS5 Strikers
I just started playing Cold Steel 1 two weeks ago. Honestly love the world building within the game. I played Persona 5 Royal last year and finished Strikers 2 weeks ago.
I've loved the Legend of Heroes games since I had the 3 PSP games. The Trails games are great, Debating on getting Trails in the Sky Chapter 1&2 and there's some japan only Trails games that make up the middle of the timeline of Trails and some characters from there show up in Cold Steel 4.
There's a high quality fan patch for Trails from Zero made by a group called Geofront and the same group is releasing a patch for Trails from Azure soonish. You can buy Zero from dlsite for like $15-20 and then apply the patch. Azure you have to buy from a Chinese site and it's incredibly cheap. Those are arguably the two best games in the series too, so I'd say it's worth it.
Welp this comment didn't age well as those japan only Trails games are no longer. Crossbell is coming to the west officially by NISA and Geofront is included in this localization!
Come to think of it, the Old Schoolhouse seems too creepy. I am now thinking about what Students that went there did, and how it's secret in the bottom level ties in to that.
Blows me away how underrated / unknown the Trails series is, imo it far exceeds the Persona series in the sense of how all 4 games interconnect story wise, Best rpg series of the modern era! :)
I hear ya, I think the Trails series is incredibly underrated as well. I've heard some people saying the world building and narration exceeds Persona's as well, which I can understand :)
Keep in mind, a lot of gamers aren't in to the anime-esque artstyle of the game. Hell, most of my friends only play Call of Duty, Fallout, and Fortnite.
The Legend of Heroes is a larger series of which Trails is a subseries. All games from Trails in the Sky, Trails from Zero/Azure and Trails of Cold Steel games onwards are collectively the Trails games. Gets confusing/weird when you use the term to refer to Cold Steel games only.
Definitely and I agree it's weird I used that term just for Cold Steel. Another person commented on that, so I addressed this in my pinned comment. In my review of Trails of Cold Steel IV later on, I learned from that name mix-up. I refer to that arc as Cold Steel and the larger series as The Legend of Heroes.
I'm about 50 hours in, and there are only 2 chapters left, while doing every side mission and talking to every npc. Still, the game is great! Though it feels way more rewarding if you play the previous titles before, to get the complete experience.
To anyone watching this video and sorting comments by new: Just take the plunge and jump into CS1. The gameplay is super fun and an amazing soundtrack. And so does the entire series, so if you do end up liking them there's literally tons of other games to go through.
Same I played Trails of cold steel 1 first then trails in the sky 1, 2, and 3 after that trails of cold steel 2 and 3. I am currently finishing Trails of zero and Trails of cold steel 4 at the same time xD
@ 6:33 - saying there's 10 games in the Legend of Heroes franchise isn't technically correct. Trails in the Sky FC is the 6th Legend of Heroes game; before that was the Gagharv trilogy, and before that was Dragon Slayer 1 & 2. Dragon Slayer and Gagharv are not interconnected with the Trails games. Still think your video is great. I just wanted to clear up that misunderstanding
Ahhh thanks for the correction! You're right and I wish I knew this beforehand. Keeping track of The Legend of Heroes / Trails series is so confusing sometimes.
Im here becuase i played Ys 9 and then i wanted to play more Ys games (8 and Origin are next) since i heard of the Trials series for years and that both series are part of the same developer im going to getting into this
As someone who started with Cold Steel-- I kinda struggle to get back to older games because Cold Steel may not be the best visually, but the graphics of Sky 01 are affecting my... Guess, could say gameplay is less fun/exciting due visuals and less features? This is a me problem, but, yeah, is worth.
I started with CS1 as well and played Sky FC after finishing CS2, in my personal opinion the graphics for the Sky Trilogy aged like fine wine compared it's 3D counterparts.
Can't say I fully agree with the character development bit. As someone who decided to start from the beginning with the Sky trilogy, Cold Steel's characters, at least in the main cast of Class VII, turned out to be incredibly unfulfilling and I squarely blame the bonding point system that neuters cast to cast interaction in favor of Rean do all the heavy lifting. It's a shame because the world building is still up to par. I canned any hope for the series after Cold Steel 4 and distanced myself from the series since.
Same, can't wait to play them again! I played the Japanese and fan-translated mod and they're great. I did like Rean and Estelle/Joshua better as MC protagonists than Lloyd in the Crossbell games though.
Falcom was founded in 1981. They were an indie studio then, and they remain an indie studio today. Personally, I'm not sure I WANT them do things like fix the graphics and the voice acting and stuff. I love these games to bits, and I'd be fine with it staying a niche indie title. I've seen what happens when things explode and become huge; I was a fan of superhero comics in the 80's and 90's, before they exploded. When things get big, they lose their identity, they lose that which made them special in the first place. Have you read American superhero comics in the last ten years? They pretty much suck. It's not about passion anymore, it's not about a small group of extremely enthusiastic creators pouring their heart and souls into telling the best stories possible. Now, it's about people who don't give a crap about superhero comics coming in from outside the industry and trying to use it to advance their careers, which is fine so long as the stories are good. I don't care what other people like or think. I love trails and I don't care if anyone else does, because I know I do. I like it just the way it is, I like it's identity, and I don't want it to get bigger if that identity changes. I want it to remain a passion project crafted by a small, indie studio without much in the way of resources. I don't want it to become a broad-appeal IP that then gets milked for everything it's worth.
Since, there is no port in nintendo switch cold steel I and II. I started cold steel III but I understand the previous series as the story progresses. And didn't read the story summary provided, too lazy.
I personally feel that Thors is more like a technical school and less a high school strictly due to the characters ages and how long schooling lasts With the exception of Fie (14) everyone else ranges from 17 (Alisa) to 19 (Towa). As such how many people do you know who start high school at 18. And the curriculum only runs 2 years.
All trails game now feature voice overs. It's a mod, but they all have and they are game changers. Just played the trails in the sky games. It's awesome! Truly awesome!!! Want to play crossbell games but just the first one have good unoficial translation. For now I'm waiting for some crossbell news as I want to see in order.
Whoa, there's a mod that gives all voice overs to all the Trails games? How does that work though? Does the mod use other voices other than the original voice actors for missing dialogue? As for Trails in the Sky, they really are awesome games. Very good stories in those games. I can't wait for Crossbell news too, as I'd like to play characters from that kingdom. Would be interesting to see their perspective of everything going on in the world.
@@gamesndepth You need 2 pieces of mods actualy for this to work. The first is Sora Voice, a mod that implement scripts for plaing audio files correctly in these games: github.com/ZhenjianYang/SoraVoice The second may be a bit tricky: you will need a rip from the PSV ports of the games, the evolution versions. These versions have lots of voice over. After instaling the Sora Voice in the game's folder you'll need to drop the actual voice files inside the folder. Go research a little and you'll find more info about it. This mod works so good that it'll look like the game was developed originaly with it. It need a little volume tweak as it's too high as default. A random example of it in action: th-cam.com/video/6-BBKhth608/w-d-xo.html Edit: The mod is limited only on what was made for the evolution version. It is a lot of voice however. Edit 2: Trails of cold steel already have voice overs so there is no mod for it to add more... Edit 3: Olivier is the character with the most apearances in trails game. He is awesome hahaha! It's a playable character in trails in the sky trilogy. Other characters like Campanella the fool and Ouroboros organizations are present since trails in the sky arc. It's a world in long time construction hehe.
@@tamodolo Just check out the TH-cam link you posted, as well as did some initial research. The voice acting for the Trails in the Sky games are very good. I'm quite impressed and feels legit. As for the Trails of Cold Steel series, I agree that having a mod for voice acting would be nearly impossible. The modder would have to somehow get the voice actors to voice over the unvoiced parts. This would get messy with contracts and doing unofficial work outside of Falcom.
@@gamesndepth About the mod, it actualy uses an oficial voice over for that game but it is only available on the PSV version. It's a rip of that games and is manualy inserted on the PC version. It's awesome and works for all games that have a PSV port with voice overs (including the crossbell arc) And it's very well done. The voice actors and actress are the same over all games. Including the last trails of cold steel IV. The voice for Estelle is the original one. Edit: it would be possible to put more voice on steel games as english VO have more scenes with voices than japanese one, but as you said, it could get messy.
Ahhh gotcha, I better understand the mod now. That's pretty cool that the voice actors, such as Estelle's, is the original one, for the Japanese version.
As someone who got bored halfway through Trails in the Sky 3 and went straight to Trails of Cold Steel 1 from there, I definitely agree that you can totally start there whether you've played the previous games or not. I found that having played Trails in the Sky 1, 2, and part of 3 did give me a greater appreciation or understanding for certain things that Trails of Cold Steel made reference to, but it was never essential to understanding the overall story. Heck, the Crossbell games have never been officially localized, anyway, so I missed the references to them, and it didn't have much effect on my overall enjoyment of the games. Overall, I agree that the Legend of Heroes series is highly underrated. It's not for everyone (you have to have a high tolerance for text and story), and has some things I don't like (such as LOTS of permanently missable things, sometimes EASILY missable), but its battle mechanics are deep and satisfying, and its story and world building are VERY detailed, even by JRPG standards. They really do an excellent job making the world feel believeable and alive, and even a lot of the NPCs are surprisingly well fleshed out rather than feeling like generic "filler" characters. The trade-off is that building up the in-game universe to this degree takes time, hence the series' more leisurely pace.
@@FireBleba18 In a perfect world, that would be the BEST place to start, but, realistically, not everyone is going to want to play through THAT many full-length games to get caught up with the more modern ones. My point is that you'll probably be missing out on some non-essential references to past games anyway unless you emulate the Crossbell games, so Cold Steel 1 is still a close second as a place to jump into the series. Actually, I might argue that another reason to play Trails in the Sky first is to get used to the more fundamental battle mechanics before adding on Cold Steel's changes and additions. It also gives you a sense of what to expect in terms of missables, quests and AP, etc. But, frankly, the series is difficult enough to jump into without absolutely insisting that everyone play every game from the very beginning.
@@FireBleba18 It seems like, at the end of the day, we have the same opinion that playing the series from the beginning with Trails in the Sky provides the BEST experience (both in story and gameplay); it's just a matter of how much importance we attach to it. IMO starting with Cold Steel 1 would indeed spoil certain details of Trails in the Sky's story and be a steeper learning curve gameplay-wise, but spoilers aren't necessarily a big deal if you don't plan to go back to the earlier games, and Cold Steel 1 and 2 don't add so much to the mechanics that it's overwhelming (mainly just follow-up attacks and a few straightforward changes to orbments). It's not until Cold Steel 3 that things start getting complicated with guard breaks and brave orders, which is one reason why I absolutely would NOT recommend skipping past Cold Steel 1 and 2 stright to 3 (plus at that point you really ARE missing too much past storyline which is important to understand what's going on). I just feel like, if someone wants to get caught up with the series, playing the earlier Cold Steel games to be caught up with the more recent ones is already a pretty big ask time-wise without throwing in Trails in the Sky (or, worse yet, the never localized Crossbell games), too. I guess it's a matter of how much time they're willing to devote to playing through the series.
@@FireBleba18 My wording must've been misleading, because I only meant that asking someone to play Trails in the Sky AND emulate the Crossbell games before even starting Cold Steel was a lot to ask. I actually never played the Crossbell games because they weren't localized and I didn't want to have to mess around with emulators. Therefore I can't speak for how good they are. Like I said, I played the first two Trails in the Sky games, got bored partway through Trails in the Sky 3, and skipped straight to Cold Steel 1 after taking a break from the series. I never finished Trails in the Sky 3 or played the Crossbell games. Actually, my experience illustrates another reason why it's not realistic to expect everyone to play through the entire series from the beginning. If you tried to play through THAT many full-length games back-to-back without taking a break from the series in between, you'd be likely to get bored with or burnt out on the series before you even got to Cold Steel 1.
@@FireBleba18 Even I'm not crazy enough to try playing the series COMPLETELY back-to-back, but I will admit that I've played some of them back-to-back or haven't taken enough of a break between games. That's not to say I rushed through them exactly, but I did jump into some of them soon after finishing the previous game. My biggest break was after getting burned out partway through Trails in the Sky 3, which put me in a better place to enjoy Cold Steel 1 when I jumped back into the series. The series' tendency to make you want to find out and/or experience what happens next can be kind of a double-edged sword when you don't have to wait for the next game to be released. Another factor for me personally was the fact that the series didn't come to the Switch until Cold Steel 3, and, for me, being able to play in handheld mode is considerably more convenient compared to on PC via Steam, so that may have made me a bit more inclined to get caught up to that point in the series.
Wtf? You got bored by the best and most fun Sky game? It's basically Trails without the fluff, just straight to the point battles and story sections. No talking to a million npcs, no sidequests, no roaming around the regions
I COME FROM THE FUTURE! To speak a great truth ZERO & AZURE LOCALIZATIONS ARE HAPPENING!!!!!! 2022&2023 Oh and nayuta & hajimari gonna be Localized too both in 2024
Welcome future traveler! I'm so pumped to see Zero and Azure localizations happening. I really want to play Hajimari and Kuro no Kiseki (Trails of Black/Darkness), but I know we got two or so years before the international audience gets them.
Can I ask if I were to start at Trails III, would I be able to grasp some of the world building or do I really need to play the older one? Also, is there romance or its pure friendship bonds?
I will always recommend starting with Trails in the Sky FC, Trails in the Sky 3rd is not a good starting point. The only other possible “good” starting point would be Cold Steel 1, but then you’d miss all the references and world-building that Sky set you up for. It’s basically like skipping to the American Civil War if you’re starting at the start of American history, if that makes any sense. In the older games, there’s no bonding events, but in Cold Steel there is romance (but not the best in my opinion)
Like Savage Gardener said earlier, I would recommend with Trails in the Sky FC as well. If you mean Trails of Cold Steel III and skip Trails of Cold Steel I and II, I would not recommend that either. In this case, go with Trails of Cold Steel I. With the bonds, there's definitely romance in the Cold Steel series, but not the older games.
I agree with this overall. Yet, if newcomers don't have 600 hours to start from Sky FC, I don't blame them for trying out at least the first two Cold Steel games to see if they like them (Cold Steel 3-4, however, should be played after at least the Sky games).
@@gamesndepth Honestly I doubt that Cold Steel is a good place to start at all. It would be understandable 3 years ago or something, but now that Trails from Zero is available on PS4, Switch and PC, I don't see any reason to play Cold Steel first. Cold Steel 1 + 2 are considered the weakest games in the series by far and by what I've seen they put off a fair share of people from the franchise alltogether. I started with Cold Steel 1 myself and barely dragged myself to the start of 6th chapter before I gave up. Most JRPG's are slow burners, but ToCS 1 has inexcusable bad pacing with nothing essential happening. Thankfully in preparation for Zero (which many consider the peak of the series next to its sequel) I went back and watched a full playthrough of the Sky games (Evolution version) as playing them on PC wasn't an option for me at the time. Partly to video essays of Kiseki fans regarding how great Estelle Bright is as protagonist. I was *SHOCKED* to see how much more interesting and better written everything was. And Estelle + Joshua were an endearing lead duo that meets way more memorable characters. I have my first session of from Zero behind me (roughly 4 hours as I had limited time yesterday) and the SSS is already more interesting and has more wholesome banter than Class VII after 40 hours of ToCS 1. I think it's best to play Cold Steel 1 + 2 when you're already a fan of the series but as an entry point it's literally a coin flip depending on people putting up with all the setup until it "eventually" gets good in ToCS 2 or 3. Sky and Zero are far better entry points imo.
@@justasoulsfan9805 That's a well said argument. After replaying the Crossbell arc (Trails from Zero again with NIS America's release and Trails to Azure via Geofront mod) and the Trails in the Sky arc (Liberl arc), I do change my mind that Cold Steel 1 + 2 are the weakest games. I agree with you these days. Like yourself, I also started with Cold Steel 1 and actually liked it, since it had Persona elements and it was new. Yet, Cold Steel 2 dragged on a ton for me. I see your point that both Cold Steel 1 and 2 have bad pacing though. With Zero and Azure, those game's pacing is a lot better. Like you also said, Estelle Bright is great as a protagonist in the Trails in the Sky arc. The stories, the Liberl + SSS casts, and the atmosphere are a lot better in the Liberl and Crossbell arcs. I think with newcomers starting with Cold Steel 1, they may see the better graphics (compared to the other two arcs, at least) and join from there. Then there's the 600-700 hour time commitment starting from Trails in the Sky FC to Cold Steel 4, which can be daunting to any newcomer. Not to mention that until just now with Trails from Zero coming out officially, getting the Geofront mod to work for the Crossbell arc took time. A lot of newcomers wouldn't go through that. Like pretty much every other Trails fan, it would be great if everyone started from the beginning. I think if the initial barriers for the Trails in the Sky arc of outdated graphics, a huge time commitment, and if the Steam versions had the Japanese voice mods automatically added in (I loved playing the Liberl arc with voice acting), more newcomers would be willing to start here.
Here a list of the time stamps and topics in the video:
0:00 Intro
2:05 What’s the story about?
4:46 A slow game that pays off in the end
6:01 A continuous series that sucks you in
6:55 Yes, you can start with the Trails series
8:39 This series has a lot of meat in it
10:29 Has anime cliches, but goes a lot deeper
11:30 The game’s songs are serious bangers
13:21 How much longer will this series be a sleeper?
14:34 Why I have high hopes for this series?
16:08 What may hold this series back?
19:13 The future of the series
20:04 Now over to you
It's not that the series gets held back with that it's due to how the game is made when being ported over here Sean Chiplock would have loved to made more voices for rean in fact he makes some official unofficial voices on tumblr for ones he wished he could have done or fans requesting of him but in PS3 and vita era there was no such way of thinking how can be bypassed as there is a table system which holds all voice clips you can't just add a WAV file in there and hope it works it goes as in deep as adding a specific file in voice and where it exactly goes as it's very complex of series of files as there is a Navi file for when you explore the timing files align with it and the battle files where the timing also comes into play but in a different section of the file they branched out files after files that's even some of the voice clips aren't entered all there but rather in a series of clips leading to the point you need to mess with all of these and hope that it doesn't get messed up along the way with various crashes as the file that are being used is size based meaning no more can be added to some extent at least as far as my own scoping has gotten which is why I've been learning so much about the game that I know of all this information now as this has been going into my modding and in my opinion xseed clearly got the tools later on to mess with the PC version to mess with the file I am going on about leading to if you were to place these files into the PS3 version and add the the new voice lines it will work as these files are all cross compatible with one another hope that helps clear things up on your voice being problem of xseed and falcom getting held back as always keep up the great work
@@trailstoinfinity4316 That explains a lot, as I was wondering why Sean Chiplock didn't have as many voiced lines. Hearing interviews from Sean, I think he wanted to voice more lines for the fans too.
Like you said, even adding a couple voice lines throws off the entire voice track, since they're lined up already in a table. The timing would be off and messy.
Thanks for the explanation, as I learned a lot about recorded voice acting in games.
@@gamesndepth no problem you should check out some of my videos if you played cs2 already I've been bring some characters that are bosses being playable and some that were scrapped and getting ready to move a lot of my progress to 3 and then 4 when It comes to PC
@@gamesndepth navigation to play which causes it to stop the exe and crash the entirety of the game that is if he's willing to voluntarily do those voice clips of course always nice to hear a full voiced rean than a half assed job done thanks to regular falcom limiting our options thus leaving Sean not having many voice lines to fill in lol and nice to see you playing review copy wish I could get my hands on one always wanted to be a big finder for games as I'm very skilled at noticing even the smallest bugs not sure if you knew but back in cs3 there was a part of crossbell that had a mini boss that only made warning side appear but was nowhere to be seen not until at least 1.0.5 came out hope you finish and get hyped for hajimari when it comes cause cs4 is very appealing game
I actually watched an hour of Hajimari in Japanese (I know Japanese) and I'm so hyped for that game already. But I gotta tell myself to finish ToCS4 first, since Hajimari is after that game.
I do remember the mini boss in Crossbell in CS3, but fortunately never hit that bug since I got into the game later.
It's pretty impressive how there's some experts on the series, such as yourself, because I don't notice bugs or some other details until someone else tells me.
I'm always learning something new with this series everyday.
Found this series by coincidence last year when Cold Steel 1 was first released for Ps4 and when I first saw that intense prologue opening and heard that GODLIKE MUSIC playing in the background I knew for a fact that this game was going to be amazing. Fast forward a year later i'm now currently replaying all the trails games starting from sky to prepare for CS4 release. This series is seriously a masterpiece and anyone who's thinking of giving it a shot should not get thrown off by the graphics and go for it. It'll be the best decision you've ever made
yep the intense prologue where a annoying teacher drop us down a trap down and stop fie from escaping by cutting her rope making her fall down the hole as well
@@robert23456789ya just started for the 1st time, my heart was pounding
The reason behind the lack of Rean's voice acting in various scenes in Cold Steel Games (except the PS4 and PC versions of CS I & II where they added more of it) is not that Sean Chiplock could not be booked. Japanese version suffers from this issue as well and that's why some of the lines were not voiced in english. The most probable scenario is that Falcom could not afford Rean's japanese
seiyū / voice actor - Kōki Uchiyama, since he is quite expensive to hire.
Ahhhh I see, that makes a ton of sense. I was thinking either Sean Chiplock or the Japanese voice actor was too busy at the time, so they omitted many of Rean's lines.
To expand on your explanation, every major character in the game received the same number of voiced lines, including Rean (likely due to budget limitations, like you said). Because Rean is the main character, though, he appears in a lot more cutscenes than any other character, leading to him having a lot of his dialogue go unvoiced. XSeed's adding of many new voice lines to the PC version of the game, especially for Rean, was their way of improving the presentation of the game, and I think it goes a long way in giving a more consistent experience across the story; here's to hoping that NISA will give the latter Cold Steel games the same treatment sometime in the future.
@@SoloRogueStudios That makes sense. Rean being the lead character would naturally lead to him having more lines. I'm hoping NIS America and Nihon Falcom add more voiced lines for its main characters in Trails of Cold Steel 4 and Hajimari no Kiseki.
@@gamesndepth I remember reading that XSeed wanted to add more voiced lines but Falcom didn't want to give them the support to do so. I could be wrong on this.
@@stopingreplay i heard the lack of voice lines was down to falcom wanting 1:1 parity with the Japanese version. (I remember reading in one of Xseeds blog posts that they Wanted to add more voice dialog to the PS3 and vita versions, but falcom shot them down due to the above outlined reason).
Since Xseed is singularly responsible for the PC versions of CS1 and 2 (Falcom had no hand in its development, they only reaped licensing fee benefits) they had more leeway with the voice acting.
happy to see more people appreciating this series:)
I' m a huge Trails fan and, like you I started with TCS. I've consumed a lot of Trails TH-cam content since TCS1 came out and I have to say that this is hands down the best introductory video to the series that I have seen. Bravo! 👏🏾😃
Thank you so much. That means a lot and very appreciated!
Gotta ask: How did you first hear about the Cold Steel series and what's your favorite parts of the game (e.g. characters, music, story, setting, etc.)?
Always curious to hear how fans, especially new fans like ourselves, got into the series.
@@gamesndepth About 4 years ago or so a friend of mine had his Vita with him on a camping trip and was playing TCS1 and was at Garrelia fortress, but the real time later in the game and not the opening intro. I remember him telling me that it was great because it was turn-based but positioning mattered and that it wasn't a brain dead combat system. I remember thinking, cool, but it didn't really grab my attention an I didn't have a Vita (wasn't aware that it was on PS3 too).
Fast-forward to 2019 and another friend of mine was gushing about it and when looking into it I saw that a PS4 version was coming out so I decided to give it a try and I fell in love! Being a comic book fan, I really appreciate big overarching stories and I was amazed to find that in a JRPG. I also adore the character designs and development. I'm a fan of video game OSTs in general and the music in this series has impressed me each entry.
Thanks for engaging with your audience. :)
Oh whoa, that must have been interesting to discover the series 4 years ago. I think I would have reacted the same as you if I had a friend that intro-ed me to the game back then. It looks okay, but it probably wouldn't have grabbed my attention and I brought a Vita too.
But I'm thinking you can't go wrong with two friends are gushing about the same game. Since it's on the PS4, it's a hell of a lot easier to play the game. I also dug the characters, the world building, and like you, the OSTs. I really wished that brought back the "Afterschool Hours" song in the 1st Trails of Cold Steel game. That song was a major banger.
As for engaging with my audience, it's fun to talk to other fans of JRPGs. I learn a ton from doing so too!
@@gamesndepth I think on my end, the top OST tracks are Into the Abyss from TCS1 and Brave Steel from TCS3. I remember being hyped for TCS3 to come out so I spoiled myself a bit and checked out what the main battle theme would be was blown away! It's up there with Valkyrie Profile, Bravely Default and Octopath Traveller's main battle themes. 😍
It's always great to see this series get more attention! I should point out though that the person in the adam neely video who introduces "afterschool hours" isn't adam neely;. Adam is actually the bass player.
Ahhh good catch! Oops! I must have totally brain-farted on that, as it's just Adam's channel and he (like you said) was the bass player.
For such a small channel this was an amazing video, incredibly well presented and genuinely amazing quality. You’ve sold me on this game, so excited to play, keep up the great work man
Thanks for the kind words and of course, watching the video! Truly humbled.
As for playing Cold Steel, definitely play it! It's a great game and will get you hooked, especially if you like JRPGs like Persona 5 Royal. Let me know how it is.
Fantastic video! After just beating Ys IX, I've recently bought a bundle of all four Cold Steel games and very excited to properly sink my teeth into the series.
Thanks for watching! Really appreciate it. I think we're actually switching places!
While you'll be playing the Trails of Cold Steel games, I just got Ys IX and will be playing that soon. Like yourself with Trails, I can't wait to play Ys IX.
@@gamesndepth Haha, that's very true! The graphics are rough around the edges, just like how they are with the Trails games, (as you mentioned in your video) but I really enjoyed it, especially since it builds upon the core gameplay and features that were in Ys VIII, so you're in for a treat!
Criminally underrated video. This video can easily be pushed out to the general gaming community to blow up and TH-cam would rack in so much ad revenue. But at lass, this won't get pushed
Thanks so much for watching. Really humbled. Even though I can't monetize this video just yet, I wouldn't mind if TH-cam pushed this video out. It means I can get partnered on TH-cam faster (1000+ subs and 4000+ minutes of watch time a year) and use the Community posting and monetize the channel.
My first reaction to the series came with news of the first Trails of Cold Steel game. I believe it was 2014, and we were in the middle of a MAJOR Turn-Based drought, that I wasn't sure we would ever come out of. The few Turn-Based games that were being released had a TINY budget (if you think Cold Steel had a small budget...at least it was in 3D...).
My first reaction to seeing the first game was, "Huh...that looks...shockingly respectable..."
I remember hearing that Falcom thought that they should be considered the 2nd-best RPG publisher in Japan, after SquareEnix (Atlus is usually considered 2nd-best). I thought, "well, I mean, your games look much better than pretty much everything else, but I doubt you can really compete with Atlus". And then I actually played the first Cold Steel game...and immediately proceeded to eat my words.
Today, the Trails series is EASILY my favorite currently-running series, especially because of how frequently they release games without sacrificing any tiny little bit of quality (shouldn't there be a Persona 6 and Dragon Quest 12 by now?). I'm currently playing Cold Steel 4, and as long as they keep releasing games, I'll keep buying them. I also don't hesitate at all to throw money at series merchandise, not only because I want it, but because there is no other company right now that I think deserves my money more, and I want to support them as much as I'm able.
Got into this series last year myself and I have been addicted. I do agree starting with the very first game (Trails in the Sky) and going in release order is much more ideal from a story and gameplay perspective with personal experience, but I do agree it's not bad to start from a game that's easier to get into and much more modern. It really only matters when you get through the later games in the Cold Steel series, but even then you can go through the first 2 Cold Steel games before going back to the older games if you're curious. I can't speak from playing just the Cold Steel games as I did play all of the Legend of Heroes: Trails games prior to Cold Steel and currently up to date on CS3, but I feel it can be enjoyable and looking up the info bout the older games can help. I just tell new people bout these 2 approaches and let them decide how to approach. As a side note, I've heard from another person that some people have gotten into the series with starting in Cold Steel 2. So really anyone can get into the games in any way lol. Glad to hear this game has gotten your attention and hope you enjoy your stay with the series as well nonetheless :)
Btw got yourself a new sub
Whoa, people actually got into it from Cold Steel 2 (CS)? That's actually quite impressive, as the game literally starts right after CS1. I do admit in CS3, there were quite a few references I'm like "whoa, who's this? Or who are they referring to?" But for the most part, a simple non-spoiler search filled in the basic plot holes from me.
I think I may have to adopt your approach in telling people about the two ways to play the game (from Trails in the Sky or jumping into CS1). Thanks for the sub too!
I jumped into this a month (or two) ago. I love this franchise. I see the you poured your heart into this video. I also started out after playing FF remake and P5R. I didnt search up 'games like P5R', i just so happen to find this game on sale and bought it.
Like you, i also blasted through the first 3 games. Though it wasnt until that big ass tree showed up in Crossbell( then disappeared soon after) during CSII that a thought occured to me. 'Is there another group of main characters there?' One google search later blew me away. I cant wait to play as Rean again in the 4th game! Just a couple more days :D
The 4th game is a blast! The game just came out yesterday, so I'm sure you're binging the game :) It's a long 100+ hour game, so I'm sure you'll enjoy it!
It's great to talk to other people like me that discovered the series right after FF7 remake and P5R. After getting into the series a couple months ago, I found there were a lot of Falcom fans that have been around for 10+ years.
The best thing to come out of the increased downtime due to the pandemic was my discovery of this series. I also started with Cold Steel. After I finished the first game, I watched many hours of recap videos for the Trails in the Sky series and the (so far non-localized) Crossbell arc. Shoutout to
LadyVirgilia for bringing me up to speed, story-wise. I even watched the Trails in the Sky OVA.
I don't think I've been so engaged with a video game narrative like this since the first time I played FFVII way back in the late 90's. As I was led through the story, I realized that the narrative style was very, very familiar.
A brief digression; I absolutely adore the books of Brandon Sanderson. I won't get into specifics, but I will say that the way he builds his stories is to start small, with seemingly disparate characters and storylines that eventually all come together in unexpected ways. He builds and builds and builds until near the end when a veritable avalanche of story beats come at you so fast it feels like a roller-coaster. I recognized the same style with the Legend of Heroes narrative. These games represent the video game equivalent to Epic storytelling on a par with The Wheel of Time or The Dark Tower or The Stormlight Archive. Anyone willing to put in the time to chase all the story threads in these games will be richly rewarded for their time. There's no way this series stays under the radar for much longer.
Same here! Like yourself, I discovered the series during the pandemic and never looked back. I watched LadyVirgilia after I beat the older Legend of Heroes games, as her videos help in recapping the story quite well.
The narrative is very engaging indeed. I haven't read The Wheel of Time or The Dark Tower, but heard of the two books. I should find a recap of the books you mentioned, as it does feel like those book's threads are similar to the Legend of Heroes series.
And lastly, I do agree this series doesn't stay under the radar for much longer. It's that good.
Great rewiev. I see you put your soul in rewiev and i like it because this series very important to me. Great job. Thank you!.
No problem, thanks for watching! The series means a ton to me too and I see why there's a growing number of Legend of Heroes fans. After Trails, I binged the other games in the series (Trails 4 I'm still waiting for in October).
The Trails series got me back into playing JRPGs when I had given up on the genre back in the PS2 era. I cannot praise it enough.
I just got done with part 4 im soooo sad, so waiting for the next one. Its an amazing series!
really glad that with the release of Cold Steel 4 people is getting into the series even if the hurdle is too big for newcomers since by Cold Steel 3 you need to know some context from the Sky trilogy and Crossbell duology and especially for Cold Steel 4 given that it will spoil some major twist from previous arcs...but overall wherever you start if you truly enjoy the world of Zemuria you will definitely enjoy the older games given that they pretty much setup the grand stage where Cold Steel 4 will take place where all loose threads from all arcs unite into one big narrative that ends with a bang...To everyone new, enjoy the series up to CS2 or CS3 then go back to fully experience the joy of seeing an "endgame" like event that Trails of Cold Steel 4 brings...it's not called "The end of saga" in Jp for nothing ya know
Edit: Another issue that you forgot to include is the lack of translation for the Crossbell duology game...which is quite essential for Cold Steel 4 since the Cold Steel arc is much more connected to the Crossbell games more so than the Sky games but we can be hopeful as there was a PS4 remake that was released this year for the Crossbell duology that might get a translation down the line but for now we gotta rely on the very great and top notch translation patch that the Geofront team has for Trails from Zero.
For Trails to Azure tho..we just gotta bear with the not so great but fine translations for awhile since the Geofront team just started working on it after the recent release of their Trails from Zero eng patch.
Ahhh yeah, very true I didn't mention the lack of translation for the Crossbell duology games. I didn't want to do a lengthy explanation that there's no official translation in a Cold Steel IV review, so I omitted it.
I heard that Falcom and Kondo want to bring official, English versions of the Crossbell duology though. If so, I can't wait to replay them.
As for the game being "the end of saga," I played all the other Legend of Heroes games after beating CS3 (I started on Cold Steel 1). So when CS4 finally came out, I was blown away and understood a lot more of the characters and references from previous games in the series.
I started playing Trails of Cold Steel 1 in January. I loved the first game and played game after game. I finished Cold Steel 4 just a few days ago. It was a journey. I like how even NPC characters have character development.
The Cold Steel series is an incredible ride. I think we had similar journeys, where we both just discovered the series, blasted through the entire series, and are now looking back at finish Cold Steel 4.
If you can, try and play the Trail in the Sky and Crossbell arcs. The writing and characters in those games are great. Plus, you'll get to see a lot of familiar faces that appear in Cold Steel 3-4.
@@gamesndepth I might play these games after I finished Ys 8.
@@Keletnemetfiu Sounds good. I just started Ys 9 myself.
Newcomers should start with Trails in the sky.
It’s important
I absolutely love the Trails Series, if anyone wants to get into I suggest to get started as Trails of Cold Steel IV comes out in a month in the west.
My comments and messages are open if anyone ever wants to have a chat about the series :)
I may have to take you up on that offer to talk more about the series :)
And I have to thank you for your Let's Play gameplay. I used a couple in my video, since I forgot to record certain parts of the game (I credited you in the video and in the description.)
Do you think it's possible for a newcomer to binge play all of the Legend of Heroes series before Trails of Cold Steel VI in late October? Asking for a friend :)
I think it is technically possible for a newcomer if it just Cold Steel 1-3, but I don't really recommend it. That would be a month to complete 3 games of 60-100 hours each depending on their playstyle, however if you're working or go to school you will probably get burnt out.
I highly recommend people take their time and enjoy it, IV isn't going anywhere (just avoid spoilers) and if possible, to play Trails in the Sky 1 & 2 as well before playing Cold Steel IV to fill in knowledge gaps on lore and characters.
Personally I am playing + recording Trails 1, Trails 2 and the second half of Cold Steel 3 before IV comes out for the channel which is underway but burnout is definitely a real thing as a working adult, these games are long and as a completionist it can be draining.
Apologies, I went on a bit. Thank you very much for using my gameplay in your video, it is concise and well put together and a big thank you for crediting my channel. :)
I'm working but I still set aside time to play these games, I'm currently taking my time and replaying all the trails games starting from sky CS4 isn't going anywhere so once i'm fully immersed with all the lore. I know that CS4 will be worth the payoff
Definitely! I am so excited for CS4 :)
Man,no.that you should start with 1-3 and not just go to 4 since you won't know any other character or what going on if you it that way. You should go in order of the games.
I insist, your review has an amazing pace... very well done, thank you.
Thank you so much for the kind words. I really appreciate it. When I made this video, I was always wondering "is this entertaining? Is the pacing good?"
But I'm glad you think the pacing is good :)
@@gamesndepth It's great... a fantastic Review. Thank you so much for sharing it becaus you made me focus on a saga that was hidden from me.
By the way, I'm currently playing Trails of Cold Steel 1 and am loving the game so much, that I decided to buy Trails of Cold Steel 2 in advance... and in the future I'll definetively purchase the 3rd and 4th chapters too.
God bless and best regards.
That's a good move to buy Trails of Cold Steel 2, as you'll definitely want to play the sequel after beating Trails of Cold Steel 1.
The only reason why I began with the Trial of the Cold Steel games and not the older ones is because the whole story remind me of Valkyrie Chronicles 1 and 4, but with more advanced technology, and way more larger story, I not a fan of CRPG or JRPG in general, but I can make exceptions when the story and the setting are really good.
From someone who doesn't really like Cold Steel 1-3. If you do not enjoy them try the previous games. In my opinion the Sky and Crossbell arcs are leagues better, writing wise, character wise, difficulty, and musically.
I can see that, as I really liked Estelle and Joshua in the Sky arc. The Crossbell arc (I only played the first one) is great too from what I've played.
@@gamesndepth the second crossbell game is the best game in the series only rivaled by 2nd chapter imo
^ (Maddox top comment) THIS. As someone who started with ToCS1, I got more and more disappointed the further I played. Then I got back to take a look at the Sky games, currently playing the official Zero localization and loving it. Hard to believe that Sky/Zero take place in the same world as Cold Steel and is developed by the same team.
legend of heroes: 1.5M words
players: skip
It was underrated games back then, but now it's more popular
Definitely, agree 100%.
Most people that I know don't really play games like this. Odds are, if they don't know about games like Persona then this isn't the type of game that they'll play. They really only play game like Call of Duty (which I have no problem with since I'm starting to get back into it) and Fallout (which I honestly couldn't play 4 for more than 2 hours 5 years ago).
Man, I loved your review. Fantastic work and I'll definetively buy the game today... it's at 20 USD on the PS4 Store. Thanks!
Every new fan is really welcome. Damn when I played Cold Steel 1 it blowed my mind. I loved it so much and played 4 times through. (2 times on Ps3, 2 on PS4)
And after I finished Cold Steel 2 this Bonus Chapter came with NEW CHARACTERS?! after a little searching about them I found out that THERE ARE PREQUELS?!
This really shocked me. And thanks to that I still haven´t played Cold Stee 3. It is lying for 2 years in the closet, sealed of course. Only because I am such a huge fan, that I needed to catch all prequels up. Trails to Azure is the last one I need to play. Can´t wait when the fantranslation is finished!
Oh yeah, the Legend of Heroes series is huge. That's pretty cool that the end had the bonus chapter in Cold Steel 2 (I never played the originals). I think I'm caught up, minus Trails to Azure, too.
still remember when i booted up the 1st cold series i drop it then after a while gave it another try due to ppl keep saying is underated
the next thing i know i was blazing from cold steel 1, 2 then 3 on pc
due to the crazy cliffhanger and i own a ps4 as well immediately i pick up 4 and ive easily invested 400+ hours in cold series
Played it on a whim on a Sunday afternoon. After that, I got to school late and came back home after school only to put more hours into it. I pretty much grew up with it and playing Cold Steel 1-4 felt like "The Avengers" of JRPG franchises!
Nice! Binging Cold Steel 1-4 is always good stuff. Cold Steel really is "The Avengers" of JRPG franchises!
I really want to play this series, but its really hard for newcommers like me to get into it because were looking at like 9 60+ hour games we would have to play to really understand the story which isnt really an easy commitment
well nobody forces you do play them in a row (and is not recommended anyway, a break between each game is suggested). You live long enough I guess to play a game of The legend of heroes each year. After playing cold steel 1 and 2 I played all prequels in 2 years.
Yeah just take your time, play the first 2 sky games then wait some months to play the 3rd, walit some months again and Start Crossbell and continue, if the game doesn't end on a cliffhanger then u can take a 6 month break xd
Airship and real life technology in the same sentence is something I wasn’t prepared for.
Legit favor: as a lifelong final fantasy fan, can anyone direct me to more reviews/videos on this series?
I JUST heard about this series for the first time today.
I keep up with The Kiseki Nut, which is all about The Legends of Heroes series. Easy Allies and SwitchUp also did very positive reviews of the Trails of Cold Steel games as well.
There's a lot of other JRPGers that also cover the series as well.
These games are so good. Lore and atmosphere is top notch.
I don't know any other JRPG serie with a big emphasis on the world building like the Trails serie (Xenoblade come in my mind and also Final Fantasy XII). Also the music is always godly (like any Falcom game). In brief, it's really good. ;)
randomly found part 1 on ps go and fell in love you really gotta try these games if u havent
Oh yeah, I know what you mean with the earlier games. I played them after Trails of Cold Steel 3. Great, witty writing. Really liked both Estelle and Joshua's as characters.
When you understand the lores during Liberl arc and Crossbell arc and get to see all of the protagonists reuniting together with Class 7 in CS4. Chills
Complete JRPG noob here. I recently got Tokyo Xanadu from a Fanatical bundle a little while ago and finally got around to trying it. It already got me quite hooked with its world building and overall approach to game design. While I realize the Trails games are more traditional JRPGs with the turn-based combat, I was so impressed with Falcom's world building skills that I bought Trails in the Sky during the most recent Steam sale. Definitely going to be playing through the entire Trails series (and also the Ys games at some point, too) over time if the world building is as enjoyable as Tokyo Xanadu is!
Been really trying to branch out into JRPGs lately and people often recommend Falcom's games so I figure this is probably a decent starting point, especially as a guy who only ever really liked western RPGs in the past. I never really thought JRPGs were true RPGs (kinda somewhat still say that, they feel more like tactical games with RPG elements) which turned me off from trying the genre for a while, but between Toyko Xanadu and Yakuza (not sure if y'all consider them JRPGs or not), I'm really getting hooked!
Late to the party I always say cold steel is the best start people really don’t want their friends to play this game telling them have to start from trails in the sky is nutty I mean dang let them dip their toe in the water before they get in the pool
Liked just for covering the series. Hopefully it gets as much exposure in the west as possible. It will help speed up U.S. releases.
great video!
probably beating a dead horse by saying this (didn't see too many comments on it though)
it's easier to refer to "Trails" games by the last parts of their name (Sky, Cold Steel, Zero, or Ao/Azure). Every game that takes place in Zemuria is a "Trails" game, the arcs are denoted by location or title (Sky/Liberl, Crosbell/Zero&Ao, Cold Steel/Erebonia). As stated below, the Legend of Heroes refers to the longer series, not the one that takes place in Zemuria itself.
Honestly loved the video though! Anyone who makes Trails content is good in my book ;). Also, I agree that Cold Steel 1 is a fine starting place for people who prefer it. I also, controversially, think that you should just play exactly what you want to. I have friends who really don't pc game, so they just played through CS 1-4, and they loved it! Even without the backstory from Crosbell or Liberl. Going back is awesome, and I recommend it, but it's better to experience the series the way the player wants to or is comfortable with, rather than try and force a 250-hour square peg into a round hole. Though, like, if you can start with CS1 instead of CS3, that's probably better... but hey, some people didn't even do that and still enjoyed it, so what do I know.
Oh, that's very helpful with the "Trails" naming conventions. I have to be careful with naming the different arcs (e.g. "Trails in the Sky, Crossbell, Cold Steel, Hajimari no Kiseki, etc.").
Thank you for watching the video. Really humbled honestly to hear from veterans of the game.
I actually agree with you that you should play the game how you want to. For me, it was through Trails of Cold Steel 1-3 first, then playing the rest of the series, then Cold Steel 4. For others, they may play the Cold Steel series 1-4 first, like your friends. Both ways are totally cool.
I'm just glad people are enjoying the series how they want to. The series is still underrated, I feel, as it gets overshadowed by the more mainstream JRPG titles (e.g. Final Fantasy, Persona, Dragon Quest, Xenoblade Chronicles, Nier Automata, etc.) Those are great series, no doubt, but I would put The Legend of Heroes among them.
In fact, it's one of my favorite JRPG series and I just discovered it last year.
I really felt the need to abbord trails 3 and go back to one after 3 dozens of hours but yes i would say trails of cold steel 1 starts great with telling the Storys it also Shows some of the other areas so you can learn a lot and if you than maybe just know a bit what the other trails are about you have a good knowledge of everithing whats going on.
Only with Part 3 i though im missing a lot but with Part one even if that might Not be true it feeld like im knowing everithing.
The more Amazing it might be Findling some missing pieces of the big puzzle if you go back to sky and crossbell later.
Same happened to me already going back from 3 to 1
Idk if you were aware of this but the main reason why the word count on the Trails games is so huge is because of the NPCs. They changed dialogues ALL the time everytime you progress from a major story quest. And every one of them will always have 2-3 layers of dialogue before they start repeating the last layer. This is very noticeable on CS2 because of how you can go back to previous locations and every NPCs will have new things to say.
Oh yeah, I know what you mean by all the NPC dialogue changing every major progression of the story. I talk to them after the story advances and there's a ton of text.
That does make sense why there's so much text then.
Glad that some people keep recognizing trails of cold steel hoping that it gets as popular as persona cause since 2005 it's been very underrated series but that hasn't been stopping me from modding the game and adding new stuff into it like more bigger list of playable characters roster hope your hyped for cs4 as well as I have can't wait to start modding it once PC comes out for it
Oh yeah, Trails and the Legend of Heroes series are incredible. I'm actually playing through the 4th Trails game currently (NIS America was incredibly generous to let me play it via advance media / press copy) and it's epic so far.
The roster is getting pretty bloated, but I love the cast of characters thus far in the 4th game.
@@gamesndepth *9th game ;) But yeah, I understand the bloated feel. I'm glad the extra characters were treated as more of a wink/love letter to fans, as they had their prominent roles in the Sky & Crossbell games. Welcome to the fandom though, my man :)
Like you I stumbled upon this series looking for something new back in April 2019. When I finished CS3 just before Christmas I then went back and played the previous 5 games, finishing just in time for CS4's release. In fact, as of yesterday Hajimari no Kiseki (the game after CS4) arrived from Japan. Excited just isn't strong enough a word haha
@@omarabdulkarim356 So true about the game being a love letter / wink to the fans. Thanks for the welcome into the fandom. It's a lot to take in, but experiencing this game and the fans have been awesome so far.
I'm so surprised there's a lot of fans like me that just stumbled upon this series within the past year or so. I'm always interested to hear how us new fans had to catch up with the entire series. It took me just over 600 hours from Trails of the Sky and it was a blast to play the entire series.
With Hajimari no Kiseki, I can't wait for a Western release too. I'm thinking late 2021 or early 2022 that we'll get it :)
First of all: Old Schoolhouse*. 😁
Second: I am not a jrpg fan in any stretch of the imagination and like you I got curious and bought the TOCS Decisive Edition at my local game store after watching a few minutes of a youtube lets play on it and got very intruiged. Here in Denmark we have something like an academy called an efterskole, and this game immediately gave me the feeling of being back there living at the scool and hanging out with friends while going to classes. It was such a nostalgic feeling and the game hooked me very quickly. I just finished it now and have already started a new playthrough on nightmare. In the meantime I also bought TOCS 2 and 3. This game is damn close to being a masterpiece.
Sometimes I get Old Schoolhouse mixed up 😀
The series is incredible and I'm glad we both discovered the game. Playing the game on nightmare (I'm doing that too) is so fun, but I've died so many times!
It's great to hear from Legend of Heroes fans from Denmark!
Spread the word, this series is great.
Spoilers-
Anton is the Grandmaster.
I kind of view The Legend of Heroes series akin to Legend of The Galactic Heroes: They're the mythical dragon of their respective mediums.
People have heard whispers about them and some have attempted them. But the few that succeeded come out accomplished and fulfilled.
looks neat, may check this out eventually
Heya, this is a very good explanation of this fantastic jrpg series.
Thanks for watching! I was thinking about how to explain the Trails of Cold Steel arc, since I was once a newcomer and had no idea what the series was about. I think many of my friends that I introduce to the series had no clue either.
So I explained the series if I were completely new and was a casual JRPGer. I'm glad viewers, such as yourself, that played the series thought it was a good explanation. I'm very humbled by your comment.
Yeah, it would be neat to see the Calvard Republic. Heard alot about it but have yet to see a game go there.
Same, the newest game, Trails of Black / Darkness, is being developed will be set in the Calvard Republic.
@@gamesndepth
Kuro no Kiseki, right?
We still have to wait for Hajimari no Kiseki to conclude the West Erebonia Arc.
@@mystery8820 Yeah that's the one. I just translated the title from Japanese to English.
Can't wait for Hajimari no Kiseki too.
Trails in the Sky teaches u a lot about Calvard
I got locked into this by a fellow Yt who’s Japanese I didn’t even know this existed but actually I played the first 3 games trails in the sky 1-3 when I was like 4 or so I totally forgot XD but my journey started with CS1 earlier in 2018-2019 and im still waiting for trials of reverie coming next year and hopefully Kuro no kisseki in 2024
Friend of mine got me hooked on this franchise after he gifted me a copy of Cold Steel 1, and Cold Steel 2.
On my second playthrough of CS1 before moving on to the second in the arc.
Now, I am looking into getting into the entire franchise.
And 65 hours? Heh, I spent a whopping 134 hours in the game. Granted, most of that was grinding and farming for xp and cash.
100+ hours is definitely doable if you grind and farm for XP and cash. Or complete all the side quests to get S rank for each chapter!
@@gamesndepth And grind I did. lol
I've loved this series since the first one came out on the PS3.
I beaten all four Trails of Cold Steel games but I can’t seem to get into Trails in the sky because it’s very confusing it doesn’t show me where to go I got to the Farm but I don’t know what to do.
9:07
Mind you, the world count includes the NPC dialogue. And each (available) NPC changes it's dialogue each time the plot advances. So at least half the text is just side content.
Sure, there's a ton of text that's just the NPC changes every time the plot changes But regardless if it's main story or not, that's still a lot of dialogue the localization team has to edit.
@@gamesndepth the main story isn't that long. Sure, the scenes are longer than average, but the main campaign is as long as any other JRPG out there.
@@Javifaa I can agree that the main campaign is as long as your standard JRPG. For gamers that just play the story and nothing else, I can see the Trails games beaten in 30-40-ish hours per game.
But I think with side content, many gamers do at least some of them, which of course, adds onto the game play time.
@@gamesndepth and a big chunk of that site content is the NPC dialogue. Depending on the game it can be half of the total text in the entire game, or even more (Crossbell, I dare to say). Ironically, the exception consistently has some of the longest scenes in the entire franchise period.
@@Javifaa Indeed. I remember when people were telling me, "after every major plot point, make sure to talk to every NPC again."
Sure enough, all their dialogue changed, so I totally understand your point that a lot of the localized text is basically changed NPC talk.
I’m trying my HARDEST to stick with this. I’m still early in the game & I’m struggling with not dropping it. I think it’s because I have no idea what to expect since I’ve never played ANY Falcom game. I’m trusting the story will be amazing but damn it seems meandering right now
I hear ya. I think with Cold Steel I, it's quite slow, as it's setting up the world building, characters, and getting players acquainted with Erebonia. It's even tougher, since it's your first Falcom and Legend of Heroes game.
There's not a lot that happens for much of the game until the final 30% of the game. Then, the game gets crazy and gets a lot better.
If you continue through the end of Cold Steel I and all of Cold Steel II, the big payoff comes in Cold Steel III and beyond.
An alternative is to play Trails from Zero, which came out last year to overseas fans. It takes place in the bustling city of Crossbell and its focus on just a few characters is a lot better than Cold Steel.
Trails from Zero's story picks up a bit faster than Cold Steel, with the timeline taking place in parallel to Cold Steel I and II.
Hiya! Hope you have been well.
With the release of Trails to Azure by Geofront it would be awesome if you could make a video regarding the Crossbell or Liberl Arc if you were interested.
Hiya again! I'm definitely thinking about doing a video about either Crossbell or Liberl in the future. For now, I got some upcoming videos coming out!
I'm definitely planning on getting into Cold Steel soon. I played Ys 8 last year and fell in love with Falcoms games. I was about to get Cold Steel 1 but I forgot Ys 9 was about to come out so I'm gonna play it after I finish Ys. I'm scared about having to dump so much time into the Cold Steel series since the 4 games are each 50-60+ hours long roughly.
The Cold Steel series is a wild ride, but overall, very fun.
As for Ys, I haven't played the series in over a decade. I hear Ys 8 and the new one, Ys 9, are pretty good. How is the Ys series overall?
@@gamesndepth Ys 8 is a phenomenal Action RPG with great story and characters. I'm only 5 hours into 9 so I can't say much about it yet. Overall modern Ys is a great time.
Sounds good, I'm bought! I'm looking into the newest game, Ys IX right now.
man 2022 and 2023 are gonna be packed >.
It would be better if you play it from Trails in the Sky not Cold Steel 1.
Some Character background already revealed by this point of the series, example "Olivier".
Some plot twist is not shocking if you didn't play the previous games, "Sharon" background
Certain event reference or discussion that occured in the previous game might be confusing to those who play CS1 the first time : example Ouroboros plan
Those who played this first will definitely got confused to some places that were mentioned in a cutscene that occured or take place in the previous games (Mentioned a lot in CS3) for example ZCF (Zeiss Central Factory)
Event continuity from Sky series to Cold Steel series regarding Hamel incident and tbh there are more
Spoilers alert :
Last but not least Class 7 wouldn't exist if Sky series event didn't occur, Olivier aka Prince Olivert made class 7 due to he get to know Estelle and Joshua. He's making the Class 7 system the same as Bracers
Nah Sky just turns people away from the series. CS1 is easily the best starting point, thanks to better pacing amd ofc more modern quality of life features
"When the plot gets going" yeah the last chapter, like not every story have that
I've never seen a more deeply, carefully, masterfully crafted masterpiece. As an example, one of these games alone in this currently 11 series franchise (The 11th's not out yet but still) has had a script bigger than all the LotR and Harry Potter books. Quantity does not necessarily mean quality of course but I just wanted to point that out. I've seen no other franchise in ANY sort of media that had such a giant continuity with practically no notable storytelling errors nor has ever failed to be exciting and engaging. No world more delicately and expansively crafted. (If I know the history of places, then care and worry about what's going to constantly happen in these places no game has ever even taken me to, you know THAT'S something else.) No other piece of media has gotten me invested in characters even as random crap as town NPCs. I am sure I could list dozens just from memories alone, let alone every single interesting villain, heroes, allies and everything else in between. Persona used to be my favorite franchise before this but after starting this franchise, the competition is not even CLOSE. I also have not yet heard of a single person who has played this and it didn't become their favorite franchise, not even joking. ToCS IV is coming out for Steam in 2 days/tomorrow and GOD, I can NOT wait. Be here already...
Oh by the way, I haven't even gotten into the absolutely astounding OST and infinitely expansive combat that you can shape into nearly any sort of experience that you want (Which is gonna get even MORE diverse in the upcoming game by the way). GOD, I love this franchise so much. Play it, people.
I agree with your take completely. After I finished the first four Cold Steel games, then played the rest of The Legend of Heroes games, I was blown away by the story and world building.
You really become attached to the whole lore, history, and characters of the game. Class VII, both old and new, really stuck to me well after I beat Trails of Cold Steel 4.
I think you'll really like ToCS IV, as it's just epic. It's a huge payoff from Cold Steel 1 all the way to 4 and I had an absolute blast playing it. The story hits hard and by the time you finish, you really don't want to leave.
Let me know how your ToCS IV experience goes!
@@gamesndepth It's here in 15 hours... The wait is almost over... I even refreshed my memory by playing through all the games, Crossbell included, in about 2 months. Finished my CS3 replay just last week. I am so ready!
@@TheSilvershadow200 Sounds like you're all set then! I'm sure you'll have a blast with ToCS4.
@@gamesndepth Yup, very much am. Currently on the second rest day. So many cool characters have appeared already and I am so damn excited to see who else will. I am already so glad I've played the older games first.
Since you played the earlier games, the payoff in Trails of Cold Steel 4 is epic with so many returning characters and plot holes addressed.
I found the cs3 demo in 2020 and stared with that I've fallen in love with the series
Lol I'm sitting hear trying to figure out the order to play these games after discovering the series in literally the exact same way. Got toward the end of chapter three of cold steel before realizing it's not the first game in the series. Think I'm gonna put it down for now to play the previous entries first because I'm absolutely enjoying cold steel and want to be fully caught up before advancing
It's actually okay to play CS 1 &2 without playing the previous games
So one critique I have is that while I totally agree that new people coming in can start with Cold Steel 1 & 2 I would HIGHTLY (and I can't stress that enough) recommed play trails in the sky and the cross bell game BEFORE moving on to Cold Steel 3 & 4. There are so many things in Cold Steel 3 which majorly tie into the previous games and really lack the weight and impact that they should have if you don't have the context of the other games in the series. Everything from reoccurring characters who were main cast/party members in previous games showing up to even fairly major sub plots and whole political factions which Cold Steel 3 just kinda throws at you without any good explanation as to how significant those things are. Playing Trails in the Sky Second Chapter will introduce you to a major secret faction in a way that is done extremely well and really sets the tone for a lot of the bigger picture in the trails universe and it is something that Cold Steel 3 will casually throw out in a flash back in the first couple hours like it is no big deal.
I’ve been on this train since legend of heroes: tears of vermillion and YS 6 during the earlier days of the psp. It’s a train I don’t think I’ll ever get off of till the series reaches its conclusion.
Same here! I'm all about the Legend of Heroes train, so I'll be on that same train with you, since the series' story is so engrossing.
Glad i only stumbled upon this series last year just like with Persona. Best decision I've ever made. Just finished TOCS 2. Starting 3 later on this year. Right now I'm on PS5 Strikers
I just started playing Cold Steel 1 two weeks ago. Honestly love the world building within the game. I played Persona 5 Royal last year and finished Strikers 2 weeks ago.
Let's not forget the whole series, Trails In the Sky and the Zero/Azure games are phenomenal, please support those games!
I've loved the Legend of Heroes games since I had the 3 PSP games.
The Trails games are great, Debating on getting Trails in the Sky Chapter 1&2 and there's some japan only Trails games that make up the middle of the timeline of Trails and some characters from there show up in Cold Steel 4.
There's a high quality fan patch for Trails from Zero made by a group called Geofront and the same group is releasing a patch for Trails from Azure soonish. You can buy Zero from dlsite for like $15-20 and then apply the patch. Azure you have to buy from a Chinese site and it's incredibly cheap. Those are arguably the two best games in the series too, so I'd say it's worth it.
Welp this comment didn't age well as those japan only Trails games are no longer. Crossbell is coming to the west officially by NISA and Geofront is included in this localization!
@@exegaming3307 oh I'm aware lol
I was excited when i saw the news :)
@@idontknowwhatimdoing6543 oh okay! Well I'm glad you saw it I can't wait myself personally.
Legend of Heroes are the best RPGs around. There's nothing like them out there.
Around 3:36 you called the old Schoolhouse a Storehouse it's the only mistake in the video 🐝 side that it's a great video
Good catch! I always called it an old schoolhouse, so it's good you caught that mistake :)
solid video !
Come to think of it, the Old Schoolhouse seems too creepy. I am now thinking about what Students that went there did, and how it's secret in the bottom level ties in to that.
Thanks I need a fresh RPG to get into. I haven't been in love with a series since Wild Arms and Luminous Arc.
I think you'll like the Cold Steel series, as it's quite addicting. I haven't played Luminous Arc, but Wild Arms is a great series.
Blows me away how underrated / unknown the Trails series is, imo it far exceeds the Persona series in the sense of how all 4 games interconnect story wise, Best rpg series of the modern era! :)
I hear ya, I think the Trails series is incredibly underrated as well. I've heard some people saying the world building and narration exceeds Persona's as well, which I can understand :)
All 4?
@@imachangedname2978 They're referring to the Cold Steel series in the larger Legend of Heroes franchise.
Keep in mind, a lot of gamers aren't in to the anime-esque artstyle of the game. Hell, most of my friends only play Call of Duty, Fallout, and Fortnite.
The Legend of Heroes is a larger series of which Trails is a subseries. All games from Trails in the Sky, Trails from Zero/Azure and Trails of Cold Steel games onwards are collectively the Trails games. Gets confusing/weird when you use the term to refer to Cold Steel games only.
Definitely and I agree it's weird I used that term just for Cold Steel. Another person commented on that, so I addressed this in my pinned comment.
In my review of Trails of Cold Steel IV later on, I learned from that name mix-up. I refer to that arc as Cold Steel and the larger series as The Legend of Heroes.
I'm about 50 hours in, and there are only 2 chapters left, while doing every side mission and talking to every npc. Still, the game is great! Though it feels way more rewarding if you play the previous titles before, to get the complete experience.
To anyone watching this video and sorting comments by new: Just take the plunge and jump into CS1. The gameplay is super fun and an amazing soundtrack. And so does the entire series, so if you do end up liking them there's literally tons of other games to go through.
Same I played Trails of cold steel 1 first then trails in the sky 1, 2, and 3 after that trails of cold steel 2 and 3. I am currently finishing Trails of zero and Trails of cold steel 4 at the same time xD
@ 6:33 - saying there's 10 games in the Legend of Heroes franchise isn't technically correct. Trails in the Sky FC is the 6th Legend of Heroes game; before that was the Gagharv trilogy, and before that was Dragon Slayer 1 & 2. Dragon Slayer and Gagharv are not interconnected with the Trails games. Still think your video is great. I just wanted to clear up that misunderstanding
Ahhh thanks for the correction! You're right and I wish I knew this beforehand. Keeping track of The Legend of Heroes / Trails series is so confusing sometimes.
if you talking about this series 5 yo ago,
there's nobody would know,
despite how great Sky and Crossbell Arc...
not to mention first 2 CS also good.
Omg, you played all of them so fast!!
Oh no, it took several months to play them! After each game, I had to take a break of a couple days before starting the next game.
Im here becuase i played Ys 9 and then i wanted to play more Ys games (8 and Origin are next) since i heard of the Trials series for years and that both series are part of the same developer im going to getting into this
The Cold Steel games are a great play. Highly recommended.
Just started playing Ys 9 just now. Really fun so far!
As someone who started with Cold Steel--
I kinda struggle to get back to older games because Cold Steel may not be the best visually, but the graphics of Sky 01 are affecting my... Guess, could say gameplay is less fun/exciting due visuals and less features? This is a me problem, but, yeah, is worth.
I started with CS1 as well and played Sky FC after finishing CS2, in my personal opinion the graphics for the Sky Trilogy aged like fine wine compared it's 3D counterparts.
The building is actually called the old schoolhouse.
Yeah, I think a couple of people commented on that too. I noticed the mistake after the video got published. Ah well!
PLAY trails in sky games! you going to love it!
Wait wait wait…. The old STOREhouse? It’s an old SCHOOLhouse lol
Can't say I fully agree with the character development bit. As someone who decided to start from the beginning with the Sky trilogy, Cold Steel's characters, at least in the main cast of Class VII, turned out to be incredibly unfulfilling and I squarely blame the bonding point system that neuters cast to cast interaction in favor of Rean do all the heavy lifting. It's a shame because the world building is still up to par.
I canned any hope for the series after Cold Steel 4 and distanced myself from the series since.
You sure should them
played the trails of the sky series and cold steel series. Looking forward to the crossbell games
Same, can't wait to play them again! I played the Japanese and fan-translated mod and they're great. I did like Rean and Estelle/Joshua better as MC protagonists than Lloyd in the Crossbell games though.
I have played trals of could steel 1 2 and finshing up 3 got 4 and ntro ravie as wlll
Will I be able to enjoy this 3D entry? I came from Trails in the Sky 1 and I didnt like it. Feels sooo slow and honestly like a 2nd class jrpg.
The kiseki/trails series is like the mcu fr
Falcom was founded in 1981. They were an indie studio then, and they remain an indie studio today. Personally, I'm not sure I WANT them do things like fix the graphics and the voice acting and stuff. I love these games to bits, and I'd be fine with it staying a niche indie title. I've seen what happens when things explode and become huge; I was a fan of superhero comics in the 80's and 90's, before they exploded. When things get big, they lose their identity, they lose that which made them special in the first place.
Have you read American superhero comics in the last ten years? They pretty much suck. It's not about passion anymore, it's not about a small group of extremely enthusiastic creators pouring their heart and souls into telling the best stories possible. Now, it's about people who don't give a crap about superhero comics coming in from outside the industry and trying to use it to advance their careers, which is fine so long as the stories are good.
I don't care what other people like or think. I love trails and I don't care if anyone else does, because I know I do. I like it just the way it is, I like it's identity, and I don't want it to get bigger if that identity changes. I want it to remain a passion project crafted by a small, indie studio without much in the way of resources. I don't want it to become a broad-appeal IP that then gets milked for everything it's worth.
Since, there is no port in nintendo switch cold steel I and II. I started cold steel III but I understand the previous series as the story progresses. And didn't read the story summary provided, too lazy.
I personally feel that Thors is more like a technical school and less a high school strictly due to the characters ages and how long schooling lasts
With the exception of Fie (14) everyone else ranges from 17 (Alisa) to 19 (Towa). As such how many people do you know who start high school at 18.
And the curriculum only runs 2 years.
Thursday? Don’t you mean Thors?
@@mystery8820 yes I did. Autocorrect is my bone on mobile
@@RaifSeverence
*bane
Bought Cold Steel 1 on the Vita because Alisa is waifu. Now that I finished Cold Steel 4, Towa is now waifu.
Maybe Falcom should stop trying to make YS every year, and LoH every year. Im no genius, but uh..maybe they can start by not spreading so thin..
All trails game now feature voice overs. It's a mod, but they all have and they are game changers. Just played the trails in the sky games. It's awesome! Truly awesome!!! Want to play crossbell games but just the first one have good unoficial translation.
For now I'm waiting for some crossbell news as I want to see in order.
Whoa, there's a mod that gives all voice overs to all the Trails games? How does that work though? Does the mod use other voices other than the original voice actors for missing dialogue?
As for Trails in the Sky, they really are awesome games. Very good stories in those games.
I can't wait for Crossbell news too, as I'd like to play characters from that kingdom. Would be interesting to see their perspective of everything going on in the world.
@@gamesndepth You need 2 pieces of mods actualy for this to work. The first is Sora Voice, a mod that implement scripts for plaing audio files correctly in these games: github.com/ZhenjianYang/SoraVoice
The second may be a bit tricky: you will need a rip from the PSV ports of the games, the evolution versions. These versions have lots of voice over. After instaling the Sora Voice in the game's folder you'll need to drop the actual voice files inside the folder. Go research a little and you'll find more info about it.
This mod works so good that it'll look like the game was developed originaly with it. It need a little volume tweak as it's too high as default.
A random example of it in action: th-cam.com/video/6-BBKhth608/w-d-xo.html
Edit: The mod is limited only on what was made for the evolution version. It is a lot of voice however.
Edit 2: Trails of cold steel already have voice overs so there is no mod for it to add more...
Edit 3: Olivier is the character with the most apearances in trails game. He is awesome hahaha! It's a playable character in trails in the sky trilogy. Other characters like Campanella the fool and Ouroboros organizations are present since trails in the sky arc. It's a world in long time construction hehe.
@@tamodolo Just check out the TH-cam link you posted, as well as did some initial research. The voice acting for the Trails in the Sky games are very good. I'm quite impressed and feels legit.
As for the Trails of Cold Steel series, I agree that having a mod for voice acting would be nearly impossible.
The modder would have to somehow get the voice actors to voice over the unvoiced parts. This would get messy with contracts and doing unofficial work outside of Falcom.
@@gamesndepth About the mod, it actualy uses an oficial voice over for that game but it is only available on the PSV version. It's a rip of that games and is manualy inserted on the PC version. It's awesome and works for all games that have a PSV port with voice overs (including the crossbell arc)
And it's very well done. The voice actors and actress are the same over all games. Including the last trails of cold steel IV. The voice for Estelle is the original one.
Edit: it would be possible to put more voice on steel games as english VO have more scenes with voices than japanese one, but as you said, it could get messy.
Ahhh gotcha, I better understand the mod now. That's pretty cool that the voice actors, such as Estelle's, is the original one, for the Japanese version.
As someone who got bored halfway through Trails in the Sky 3 and went straight to Trails of Cold Steel 1 from there, I definitely agree that you can totally start there whether you've played the previous games or not. I found that having played Trails in the Sky 1, 2, and part of 3 did give me a greater appreciation or understanding for certain things that Trails of Cold Steel made reference to, but it was never essential to understanding the overall story. Heck, the Crossbell games have never been officially localized, anyway, so I missed the references to them, and it didn't have much effect on my overall enjoyment of the games.
Overall, I agree that the Legend of Heroes series is highly underrated. It's not for everyone (you have to have a high tolerance for text and story), and has some things I don't like (such as LOTS of permanently missable things, sometimes EASILY missable), but its battle mechanics are deep and satisfying, and its story and world building are VERY detailed, even by JRPG standards. They really do an excellent job making the world feel believeable and alive, and even a lot of the NPCs are surprisingly well fleshed out rather than feeling like generic "filler" characters. The trade-off is that building up the in-game universe to this degree takes time, hence the series' more leisurely pace.
@@FireBleba18 In a perfect world, that would be the BEST place to start, but, realistically, not everyone is going to want to play through THAT many full-length games to get caught up with the more modern ones. My point is that you'll probably be missing out on some non-essential references to past games anyway unless you emulate the Crossbell games, so Cold Steel 1 is still a close second as a place to jump into the series.
Actually, I might argue that another reason to play Trails in the Sky first is to get used to the more fundamental battle mechanics before adding on Cold Steel's changes and additions. It also gives you a sense of what to expect in terms of missables, quests and AP, etc. But, frankly, the series is difficult enough to jump into without absolutely insisting that everyone play every game from the very beginning.
@@FireBleba18 It seems like, at the end of the day, we have the same opinion that playing the series from the beginning with Trails in the Sky provides the BEST experience (both in story and gameplay); it's just a matter of how much importance we attach to it. IMO starting with Cold Steel 1 would indeed spoil certain details of Trails in the Sky's story and be a steeper learning curve gameplay-wise, but spoilers aren't necessarily a big deal if you don't plan to go back to the earlier games, and Cold Steel 1 and 2 don't add so much to the mechanics that it's overwhelming (mainly just follow-up attacks and a few straightforward changes to orbments). It's not until Cold Steel 3 that things start getting complicated with guard breaks and brave orders, which is one reason why I absolutely would NOT recommend skipping past Cold Steel 1 and 2 stright to 3 (plus at that point you really ARE missing too much past storyline which is important to understand what's going on). I just feel like, if someone wants to get caught up with the series, playing the earlier Cold Steel games to be caught up with the more recent ones is already a pretty big ask time-wise without throwing in Trails in the Sky (or, worse yet, the never localized Crossbell games), too. I guess it's a matter of how much time they're willing to devote to playing through the series.
@@FireBleba18 My wording must've been misleading, because I only meant that asking someone to play Trails in the Sky AND emulate the Crossbell games before even starting Cold Steel was a lot to ask. I actually never played the Crossbell games because they weren't localized and I didn't want to have to mess around with emulators. Therefore I can't speak for how good they are. Like I said, I played the first two Trails in the Sky games, got bored partway through Trails in the Sky 3, and skipped straight to Cold Steel 1 after taking a break from the series. I never finished Trails in the Sky 3 or played the Crossbell games.
Actually, my experience illustrates another reason why it's not realistic to expect everyone to play through the entire series from the beginning. If you tried to play through THAT many full-length games back-to-back without taking a break from the series in between, you'd be likely to get bored with or burnt out on the series before you even got to Cold Steel 1.
@@FireBleba18 Even I'm not crazy enough to try playing the series COMPLETELY back-to-back, but I will admit that I've played some of them back-to-back or haven't taken enough of a break between games. That's not to say I rushed through them exactly, but I did jump into some of them soon after finishing the previous game. My biggest break was after getting burned out partway through Trails in the Sky 3, which put me in a better place to enjoy Cold Steel 1 when I jumped back into the series.
The series' tendency to make you want to find out and/or experience what happens next can be kind of a double-edged sword when you don't have to wait for the next game to be released. Another factor for me personally was the fact that the series didn't come to the Switch until Cold Steel 3, and, for me, being able to play in handheld mode is considerably more convenient compared to on PC via Steam, so that may have made me a bit more inclined to get caught up to that point in the series.
Wtf? You got bored by the best and most fun Sky game? It's basically Trails without the fluff, just straight to the point battles and story sections. No talking to a million npcs, no sidequests, no roaming around the regions
I COME FROM THE FUTURE!
To speak a great truth
ZERO & AZURE LOCALIZATIONS ARE HAPPENING!!!!!! 2022&2023
Oh and nayuta & hajimari gonna be
Localized too both in 2024
Welcome future traveler! I'm so pumped to see Zero and Azure localizations happening.
I really want to play Hajimari and Kuro no Kiseki (Trails of Black/Darkness), but I know we got two or so years before the international audience gets them.
@@gamesndepth by 2025 well have everything trails
Can I ask if I were to start at Trails III, would I be able to grasp some of the world building or do I really need to play the older one? Also, is there romance or its pure friendship bonds?
I will always recommend starting with Trails in the Sky FC, Trails in the Sky 3rd is not a good starting point. The only other possible “good” starting point would be Cold Steel 1, but then you’d miss all the references and world-building that Sky set you up for. It’s basically like skipping to the American Civil War if you’re starting at the start of American history, if that makes any sense.
In the older games, there’s no bonding events, but in Cold Steel there is romance (but not the best in my opinion)
Like Savage Gardener said earlier, I would recommend with Trails in the Sky FC as well. If you mean Trails of Cold Steel III and skip Trails of Cold Steel I and II, I would not recommend that either. In this case, go with Trails of Cold Steel I.
With the bonds, there's definitely romance in the Cold Steel series, but not the older games.
play in this order
Sky FC
Sky SC
Sky 3rd
Zero
Azure
Steel I-IV
Reverie
Kuro 1
Kuro 2
I agree with this overall. Yet, if newcomers don't have 600 hours to start from Sky FC, I don't blame them for trying out at least the first two Cold Steel games to see if they like them (Cold Steel 3-4, however, should be played after at least the Sky games).
@@gamesndepth Honestly I doubt that Cold Steel is a good place to start at all. It would be understandable 3 years ago or something, but now that Trails from Zero is available on PS4, Switch and PC, I don't see any reason to play Cold Steel first. Cold Steel 1 + 2 are considered the weakest games in the series by far and by what I've seen they put off a fair share of people from the franchise alltogether. I started with Cold Steel 1 myself and barely dragged myself to the start of 6th chapter before I gave up. Most JRPG's are slow burners, but ToCS 1 has inexcusable bad pacing with nothing essential happening.
Thankfully in preparation for Zero (which many consider the peak of the series next to its sequel) I went back and watched a full playthrough of the Sky games (Evolution version) as playing them on PC wasn't an option for me at the time. Partly to video essays of Kiseki fans regarding how great Estelle Bright is as protagonist. I was *SHOCKED* to see how much more interesting and better written everything was. And Estelle + Joshua were an endearing lead duo that meets way more memorable characters. I have my first session of from Zero behind me (roughly 4 hours as I had limited time yesterday) and the SSS is already more interesting and has more wholesome banter than Class VII after 40 hours of ToCS 1. I think it's best to play Cold Steel 1 + 2 when you're already a fan of the series but as an entry point it's literally a coin flip depending on people putting up with all the setup until it "eventually" gets good in ToCS 2 or 3. Sky and Zero are far better entry points imo.
@@justasoulsfan9805 That's a well said argument. After replaying the Crossbell arc (Trails from Zero again with NIS America's release and Trails to Azure via Geofront mod) and the Trails in the Sky arc (Liberl arc), I do change my mind that Cold Steel 1 + 2 are the weakest games.
I agree with you these days. Like yourself, I also started with Cold Steel 1 and actually liked it, since it had Persona elements and it was new. Yet, Cold Steel 2 dragged on a ton for me. I see your point that both Cold Steel 1 and 2 have bad pacing though.
With Zero and Azure, those game's pacing is a lot better. Like you also said, Estelle Bright is great as a protagonist in the Trails in the Sky arc. The stories, the Liberl + SSS casts, and the atmosphere are a lot better in the Liberl and Crossbell arcs.
I think with newcomers starting with Cold Steel 1, they may see the better graphics (compared to the other two arcs, at least) and join from there. Then there's the 600-700 hour time commitment starting from Trails in the Sky FC to Cold Steel 4, which can be daunting to any newcomer. Not to mention that until just now with Trails from Zero coming out officially, getting the Geofront mod to work for the Crossbell arc took time. A lot of newcomers wouldn't go through that.
Like pretty much every other Trails fan, it would be great if everyone started from the beginning. I think if the initial barriers for the Trails in the Sky arc of outdated graphics, a huge time commitment, and if the Steam versions had the Japanese voice mods automatically added in (I loved playing the Liberl arc with voice acting), more newcomers would be willing to start here.