Trails of Cold Steel

Move aside Lunar, Grandia, Wild Arms, Suikoden, Xenogears, Final Fantasy VII, Valkyrie Profile, so on so forth.

I just added a new game to the
"Games that fill you with nostalgia" list.
Hold on, this game is relatively new isn't it? You bet it is! No other game has come close to matching the one's mentioned above. Mostly because it's hard to top something you view with nostalgia googles but also because those games are great on their own in an era of great RPGs.

Let me tell you about Cold Steel. It takes place in "The Legend of Heroes" world of games. There's a bunch and the amount of sheer plot they stuffed into the games is enough to make your head spin. The world building is done so well that it feels like reading one of the "Wheel of Time" books from Robert Jordan.
(A fourteen book mega fantasy series over 11,000 pages that puts Lord of the Rings to shame)

Incredibly generic title aside (and yet strangely fitting), the series caters to those of us who enjoy an excellent character driven plot in a battle system reminiscent to the Grandia and Lunar games.

Welcome to Zemuria, the continent where the games take place and the location of several meticulously detailed countries.
In Trails of Cold Steel, the entirety of the game takes place in the Erebonian Empire. They are the largest and strongest militarily on the continent. However behind it's imposing exterior the rotting core of the empire is about to spill out. The empire is on the brink of a civil war, with the increasing calls for the commoners to overthrow it's corrupt aristocracy. The rapid increase of "orbal technology" has empowered the lower classes. What gunpowder did for the common man in our real world, orbments have done to the denizens of Zemuria. It's had a huge effect on the empire as their society is far more restrictive compared to it's peers.

That's the premise of the plot. Who are the players then?

Class VII!

The game takes after the Persona games. In this case your are part of one of the empire's elite schools, Thors Military Academy. Rean (the MC), was chosen alongside several other strangers to partake in a special class known as Class VII. The very first of it's kind in the academy. Our actions in day to day school activities and "Field Study Trips" will shape up what it means to be a part of the class.

The school stuff is like the Persona games in which you interact with schoolmates and do side quests. This is all well and good but the good stuff is the field trips. As military students our instructors will send us out on "study trips" to learn about the different cultures of the empire.

Boring?

Sounds like it, until like in any good RPG we become the forefront of many behind the scenes plots. Obviously I won't spoil, but let me promise you that the character building and world building during these field trips is excellent.

The localization into English is superb and I can't give enough credit to the folks at XSEED. The dub is pretty good too. This is 2016, could we drop the fear about bad dubs?

The battle system is fun and sometimes challenging. The game is a bit on the easy side but some bosses will floor you unless you come prepared. Also if you die you get to retry the battle as many times you like. If you think that's a bad thing then choose the quit button and load your save file from two hours ago.
Not me, I'm just retrying the battle.
Also it gives you the chance to "Weaken enemy and retry"

Yeah...no. I got pride as a gamer, I'm not picking the easy button.

Anyway, I'm not too good with these reviews but I really want to bring attention to this gem. Just the fact I mentioned those earlier games has to pique someone's interest. I don't get excited by video games anymore (I'm 26), and the last time I was hyped for one I was crushed (Halo 3). I was hyped for this game and it lived up to my expectations. I'm hyped for the sequel.

Oh before I forget, this is a planned trilogy. There is no chance they were going to explain everything in this game. On the contrary, they barely explained anything until the end (That ending...!)
It's the old "good things happen to those who wait". Patience! Enjoy the character and world building, take a stab at figuring out the little plot points they throw at you. Then realize how far off you were when the ending rolls around and be amazed at your incompetence despite the fact the clues were clearly there.

The folks at Falcom believe this game to be a good "starter game" for the Legend of Heroes series. It takes place after the events in the "Trials in the Skies" part of the story. Even so, since these events take place in another country so previous knowledge isn't required. They'll be references but nothing earth shattering.

I heard people played Lunar II before Lunar I. Just gave them a different perspective.

It's an incredibly long game too, 75 hours average. Text heavy, spoken dialogue heavy, not grindy at all. Just a rich game and worth every penny.

Invest your time in this series, I wholeheartedly recommend it to you.

 

I will give it a try, eventually. I have been wanting to play a story-loaded game. Thanks for the information, Doomguy.