The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel Reviews
If you like JRPGs (and maybe even if you don’t), you’ll want to find time for this game, though. Falcom haven’t tried to reinvent the wheel, because they wheel doesn’t need reinventing. Instead, they’ve set out to make the most magnificent damn wheel they could, and have succeeded with flying colours.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel is hands down the best JRPG this year — and that’s saying a lot considering how many great ones have come out in the past twelve months.
While it does take its time to really get going (the story doesn’t feel like it properly kicks off until about 15-ish hours in), The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel is a really fun game to play. The story moves slowly, and can take a while to get through, and while not much about it feels new, it does a good job of taking already established elements and making them into something fun.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel had my attention and lost it.
In the end, Trails of Cold Steel is a game made for specific fans of the JRPG genre, but it also succeeds in nailing down all of its tropes and mechanics, rather than try to appeal to everyone with a bunch of pieces that don't fit cohesively.
All in all, Trails of Cold Steel is a very solid experience. It takes the groundwork from other popular series in the genre, and although it doesn't do anything outstanding with that, it's still a great game.
If you want to get into the Trails series then Cold Steel is a great first game that we can't recommend enough, as I mentioned earlier just put in the time and you'll be glad that you did.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel is one of the best RPGs of the last few years, with an amazing story and very well-developed characters, as well as a great combat system, being this the perfect chance to not let this marvelous game goes by unnoticed.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
While 'The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel' is definitely a good game, and one that JRPG fans are likely to get a kick out of, I do wish it could've been a little more noteworthy. The combat system is excellent, and the game has some really fun side activities that serve as nice distractions (the playable card game, Blade, is a major highlight) from the central adventure. Still, the wonderful gameplay mechanics don't gel perfectly story format, which leads to pacing issues that hurt both aspects. 'Cold Steel 2' is due out next year, and if that speeds things up just a little bit, it'll absolutely be worth your time, but as it stands, 'Cold Steel' is a pleasant game that I really wish I could've fallen in love with. It's worth a look, but there are a few hurdles to get over before things really start to get moving.
It is a really slow one to get going, but no argument can be made against how much care Falcom has put into building and developing the world and characters throughout the opening stages of Trails of Cold Steel. It very much hits the typical JRPG checkboxes, but with solid and safe customisation, and a great tactical turn-based battle system that adds a little something extra to the standard formula, this is a title that JRPG fans cannot afford to pass on - especially PS Vita owners - and will most definitely last right up until the sequel hits Western shores.
Trails of Cold Steel looks very nice indeed thanks to its colourful and well-designed character and enemy models as well as a consistently smooth framerate, although you can’t say that it makes the most of the handhelds power
In short, the game is really held back by subpar storytelling.
This is a game with a long, arcing story that takes some awkward, colourful teens through their turbulent teenage years with a fun and vibrant world to explore, charming characters to befriend and a turn-based combat system with a surprising amount of depth once you look beneath the surface.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel is a great RPG that any fan of the genre will enjoy.
From a technical standpoint, the port to PlayStation 4 that supports 4k textures, is excellent; it is smooth (minus the wooden, garbage-like animations), bright, and full of intense colors and detailed hand-drawn textures, but a new paint job is not enough to fix what is wrong with The Legend of Heroes: Trails Of Cold Steel … and that is that it is old.
With more than 60+ hours of JRPG fun, The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel has a lot to offer. Whether it's the added depth to character growth, a slow-burning story that will eventually begin to come to a burning hot conclusion or the meticulously crafted world; Trails of Cold Steel is a diamond in the rough.
The game is a triumph in world-building and character-driven storytelling, and its combat system is versatile enough to support it through its mammoth eighty-plus-hour runtime.
The game as a whole is still great. If you’re like me and have played the original release but missed out on the PC release and need a refresher for what’s to come this fall by all means, transfer your PS3/Vita save right over for some extra bonuses. If you’re new to the franchise, this is a great place to start.
For a simple remaster, The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel looks and plays great. I say ‘simple’ because there’s not been that many enhancements outside of the visuals. Sure, we get a perfect 60fps, a crystal clear 4k, and the heavenly ‘turbo mode’ which makes traversing the world so much more satisfying, but there’s no extra content, no new chapters, no enhanced backstory, or platform-specific dungeons/areas to visit. However, a game isn’t as good as it looks, it’s as good as it plays; The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel is a bloody brilliant JRPG game which I’m quite ashamed I’ve never actually played before grabbing it on the PS4. The story is very interesting, with lots of separate stories and events going on which all combinate into an intriguing and exciting narrative, combined with very satisfying and strategic combat. The combat itself may look generic and simple from the outside, but once you’ve cranked up the difficulty to eleven, it’s time to turn on your little grey cells as you swap your students on the fly and link them together in order to maximise their efficiency.
It's a title that may not call you because of its graphic aspect, which may result slow, very Japanese rhythm if I'm allowed to leave, during the first bars, and obviously, it puts a barrier for anyone who does not have the time or inclination to immerse yourself in all this that he proposes in perfect English.
Review in Spanish | Read full review