Japanese RPGs are always going to give you a good time. From the most highly praised like Persona 5 to the weirdest like Conception Plus, you can almost never go wrong with a JRPG. Trails of Cold Steel is no exception. Albeit it may be on the more generic side of things, it has a lot of cool mechanics, and an interesting combat format. Some may view this game as too cliche, too generic, or too weird, but I personally think that it's well worth your time. Well, if you're planning on playing the entirety of the series. Let me tell you, this game is terrible as a standalone game.
Ok, first off, what is Trails of Cold Steel about? Well, it's a traditional 3d JRPG. You run around different maps to fight monsters and complete quests with the help of your classmates from the unique Class VII. One of the more unique things about Cold Steel is your ability to form bonds with your classmates. For those of you familiar with the Persona spin-off series of Shin Megami Tensei, this may sound very familiar, and for good reason. The more time you spend with your allies, the stronger they become.
As for combat, it's fairly unique. It's not action-rpg beat-em-up style, but it's also not necessarily your standard turn-based format. Instead of just selecting moves, you also have to worry about your placement, and different turn effects. It's a very complicated system to explain on text, so bear with me. When you encounter an enemy, you're given a designated circular area where you fight in. During your turn, you have 6 options: run, item, move, attack, arts, crafts. Run is your basic "escape the battle", however you're also given a percentage on your success of escaping. Item, move, and attack are also fairly generic. Item lets you use an item either on yourself or on a teammate within moving range, attacking is your standard attack against an enemy within range, and move solely dedicates your turn to moving, usually used for just getting out of the way of an attack, or setting up for an attack. Arts and crafts both use different point bars, and can technically both be defined as "skills", but are both very different, hence why they are in separate options and use separate points. Arts involve your standard magic skills, representing one of the 7 elements in the game, and can be either attacking or support. Crafts can as well be attacking or support, but crafts available depend on the character, and focus more on the weapon used by the character. Arts require a period of time to charge before being used, meanwhile crafts are instantaneous. Anything you do will delay you. Heavier actions such as more powerful arts will delay you a lot, requiring more time to charge, meanwhile simpler actions such as a basic attack or using an item will allow you to act again sooner. Some turns give the character or enemy a special bonus. Some will restore hit points, some will allow their moves to instantly kill anyone they hit. This is one of the important factors when considering what action you use on your turn, playing a lot more into the strategic element of the combat system. It may sound complex, but it's a very simple system to grasp, even given its uniqueness.
So, it has a fun combat system, a neat plot, vibrant areas and world building, and colorful characters. What are the downsides to this game? Well, this game is somewhat of an old game, for starters. If you're not playing the remastered version, you may find some combat very slow and slogging due to a lack of a turbo mode/fast forward. This game did come out in 2013 after all, so you have to give it a bit of slack. Other than aged graphics and the occasional weird writing, plus a typo or two, the main concern would be the draw distance. It would be like if you could only see about 20 or 30 feet in front of you. To give an example of the abysmal draw distance in this game, I would like to compare it to that of Pokemon Sword and Shield, a game I may review one day, but probably not, because I refuse to waste $60 dollars on it. However, that's a subject for another (possible) day. You have to get very close to an enemy to actually be able to see it, and by the time you can see it, you're close enough to the point where it can almost see you.
This is not to mention the abysmal 'ending', if you can even call it that. Minor but also somewhat major spoilers ahead, so skip to the last paragraph if you wish to avoid spoilers. Near the end of the game, you're forced to have 3 boss fights in a row, not including the scripted fight. No, there is no save point. The first boss is very simple, but is an absolute slog to go through. Next up is the scripted fight. After that, you're introduced to a completely new style of combat. You fight a boss, and then after a couple cutscenes, you fight the final boss. After defeating the final boss (barely), the final boss gets up, essentially says "this isn't even my final form!", and beats you down in one hit. Your classmates walk over to protect you from them, and the talking cat next to you wishes your giant suit of armor that you just awakened to take you as far away as possible, against your will. The game ends as you fly into the distance, abruptly I may add. It's not even one of those shots of the horizon, the camera is on you, it pans up as you rise up to the sky, and then you fly off screen. Then the credits roll. The end. What?!
Overall, I'd give this game a solid 7 out of 10. It has definitely aged over the years, but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable than it would have been. Fun characters, fun combat, interesting story, and it all comes together to make this game. Give it a try, I'd recommend it if you're a fan of JRPGs.
