Once a character has between 100 and 200 CP, they can unleash a devastating S-Craft, which is essentially that character’s signature move. Crafts are unique to each character, and cost CP to use, which is gained whenever a character deals or takes damage. The core mechanics are virtually the same: each character has a set of crafts and arts that they can make use of in battle. Even more interesting is the fact that while Rean ends up in one location, half of the class ends up in another, and their actions are a complete mystery, showing that the nation of Erebonia is much larger than what players visit firsthand.Ĭombat in Trails of Cold Steel is very similar to its predecessors in the Trails in the Sky series. Every area is unique, making for a wonderful variety of locales that never gets boring. While on a field study, players are tasked with a number of jobs to complete, and in the process learn something about the political machinations of the territory. This is the main portion of the game, and the segments that most resemble more traditional RPGs. After that, Class VII is split up and sent all over Erebonia for a field study.
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Spending time with a character improves their link level, which comes into play in the combat system.Īfter the free day, Class VII is given a practical exam, in which select characters must team up for a practice battle and fulfill certain conditions during the encounter. It’s during these days that the game most resembles the Persona franchise: Rean is given a certain number of bonding points to spend, each of which can be used to spend time with a character. The first phase is the free day, in which Rean is able to wander around Thors Military Academy and the town of Trista, performing various tasks for the citizenry and student body, and spending time with his friends. Whether it’s Becky and Hugo’s ongoing rivalry, Alan and Bridget’s will they/won’t they romance, or Kay’s adorable boyhood crush on Rosine, it’s easy to fall in love even with characters that don’t play a major role in the story, and that is a testament to the amazing world Cold Steel has created.Įxploring the Nord highlands is one of the game’s many highlights.Īs a general rule, the gameplay is structured into three separate phases. As time goes on, the characters that make up the citizenry of Erebonia go about their daily lives, and have their own little stories that players can follow over the course of the game. Borrowing another page from Persona, the narrative is structured over the course of several months, with days, weeks, and months passing between each major event, marked by calendar dates. The towns are filled with NPCs, and while the main plot helps build the politics of the nation, it’s these NPCs that really establish it as a living, breathing world. The game takes you across the world, shows you the various pieces as they move into place, and as the tale nears its end, everything comes together into an epic finale that sets the stage for a much larger, more grandiose tale in Cold Steel II, set to release later this year.įor fans of the franchise, it should come as no surprise that Cold Steel is a rather verbose game.
School life is a huge part of the game, borrowing a number of ideas from the Persona franchise, but at the same time the game is dedicated to establishing a complex and tumultuous nation teetering on the edge of major conflicts.
Much like Trails in the Sky, Cold Steel‘s overarching story is light-hearted and driven by Class VII’s unique personalities and their developing friendships. It places players in the shoes of Rean Schwarzer, a new student at the prestigious Thors Military Academy who finds himself selected as an inaugural member the newly established Class VII, an unusual class in which commoners and nobles learn together through a unique curriculum. Taking place in the same world as Trails in the Sky, roughly two years after the events of Second Chapter, Trails of Cold Steel moves the story from the small kingdom of Liberl to the mighty empire of Erebonia. Despite releasing barely a week before the end of the year, Cold Steel is a solid candidate for RPG of 2015.
First with the long-anticipated Trails in the Sky Second Chapter, and followed almost immediately by the more recently developed The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel. After a four year wait since The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky was first released in English back in 2011, the Legend of Heroes franchise has returned at the end of 2015 with a vengeance.