
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel
September 26, 2013
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel is the sixth installment in the main Trails series, serving as the beginning to the Erebonia arc. The game follows Rean Schwarzer and his fellow students of "Class VII" at Thors Military Academy, a newly formed class at the academy which is the only one not segregated by social class, composing of both Erebonian nobility and commoners. The basic gameplay is nearly identical to the previous entries with a few changes. The biggest change to the battle
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel is the sixth installment in the main Trails series, serving as the beginning to the Erebonia arc. The game follows Rean Schwarzer and his fellow students of "Class VII" at Thors Military Academy, a newly formed class at the academy which is the only one not segregated by social class, composing of both Erebonian nobility and commoners. The basic gameplay is nearly identical to the previous entries with a few changes. The biggest change to the battle system and also counting as a brand new feature is the "Tactical Link System". The "Tactical Link" allow players follow up with three different kinds of link attacks, dealing additional damage and providing various other benefits. "Tactical Link" becomes a more useful asset to the player as the story progress and characters level up their "Link Levels" with other characters. As the link levels increase, you will obtain new link abilities such as healing the link partner or increase the CP gain of the partner. Among the nations on the Zemurian continent, the mighty Erebonian Empire has been quick to outwardly stake its claim militarily; yet politically, ugly bouts of internal conflict between the upper class and commoners attempting to rise to power have been steadily intensifying day by day. The Noble and Reformist Factions have been none too kind to one another over the years, and tensions between the two only stand to worsen if compromises aren’t made in the very near future. Rean Schwarzer, like any other citizen of the Imperial Nation, is no stranger to these rising conflicts: the class system has been deeply embedded into the hearts of every Erebonian since the days of old. As a seventeen-year-old student preparing for his new life at Thors Military Academy, however, he notices that his crimson uniform differs from the standard ones issued to his peers—typically green for commoners, and white for nobles. Enter, Class VII of Thors Military Academy. For the first time in the prestigious academy’s history, rank means nothing and skill means everything. With nine hand-picked students of various backgrounds and abilities, Rean included, Class VII readies itself to dive deep into the political quagmire that threatens not only them, but the Empire as a whole.
OpenCritic
How Long To Beat
Main
Extras
Complete
All Styles
Developers:
Nihon FalcomPublishers:
XSEED Games NIS America Nihon FalcomGame Modes:
Single playerWhere to buy:
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IGDBThis game is quite a big step in Trails series for me.
There are a lot of good things gameplay wise, while there's also some questionable directions. But of course in Trails series, story trumps above all.
I think the biggest success of previous Trails games is that they succeed on world building. I keep thinking that early Trails games walk so future Trails games can run.
This game in particular seems to be taking inspiration from Persona series as well, as I can see some fingerprints of Persona in this game.
- Yet another exciting storyline, following Trails to Azure in the series.
- Rich characters create rich world. I like that even NPCs always have their own mini-stories so you can feel the world alive,
- Great music as always.
More fun quartz orbment implementation that let you go all out on building your characters.
Turbo mode feature is not toggle-able and felt like a step back from Azure.
Auto-unequipping your party gears whenever there's party change in the story is tedious. They should have asked if we want to keep the gear or not.
It seems they have mixed direction when making this game, as the protagonist is muted on a big chunk of scenarios, but fully voiced on the other half.
That cliffhanger at the finale is so mean. It really makes you want to go to the next game. Luckily I am playing this on 2025 and I can go ASAP. It must have been torture for OG fans.
Definitely would recommend this game if you enjoyed the previous Trails games.