The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II Reviews
Cold Steel II is filled with intriguing characters, great plot revelations, and challenging battles. Whether you favor combat or narrative, it has plenty to entertain you
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II is a modern JRPG masterpiece.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II on PS4 is a near perfect remaster of a fantastic game that arrives just in time for Trails of Cold Steel III.
The story events are engaging and the game even goes a way to cater to newcomers with a strong recap. You’ll get to know the characters quite well thanks to hours of character development and the vibrant game world and engaging story combine to make the game feel immersive. PS3 and PS Vita fans have no shortage of JRPGs to choose from, but The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II exhibits enough polish and quality to help it stand out from the pack and above several others. It may lack the innovation and whip appeal to draw players not typically into RPGs and it can’t match the production of the genre’s biggest brands, but it nails the important stuff. Genre or series fans shouldn’t miss this.
Another engrossing example of traditional Japanese role-playing, that’s still accessible enough for anyone to enjoy – as long as they’ve played the first one.
Trails Of Cold Steel II feels less like a sequel, and more like the second half of an incredibly rich JRPG experience. There’s a lot to take in between both these titles, and it can feel like a slog at times, especially with the first game. Cold Steel II does a great job of making that slog worth it, and delivers with an action packed story and a consistently challenging gameplay experience.
The exciting, fun turn-based combat, too, is an absolute treat to revisit, even if I’d have liked to see more meaningful changes and improvements made to its systems.
While not coming to PS4 may scare some gamers away, The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold II is most certainly one game worth pulling out the PS3 or PS Vita again to play through.
All things considered, unless you’re a completionist, want that new swag, or were simply looking for a good excuse to replay it, the new PS4 version of Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II probably isn’t worth your time.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II is an excellent JRPG and a more than worthy continuation of the saga, thanks to a gripping story, well-developed characters, and engaging battle system. While the gameplay experience hasn't changed much, with only some small enhancements to the battle system and an airship customization system, the game manages to be slightly better than its predecessor, mostly thanks to some interesting and unexpected plot twists and a story that doesn't end in a huge cliffhanger like its predecessor. Highly recommended to all JRPG lovers
A game that deserves to be on the radar of everyone who has ever in their lifetime enjoyed a single JRPG – just be sure to play the original first.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II gets the PS4 remaster treatment, maintaining its well-crafted JRPG fare with an interesting story.
There’s a satisfying combat system, a halfway decent story, and a lot of weird little activities to keep you busy. I was just hoping for some more growth between the first game and the second one.
Trails of Cold Steel II is everything that you could want from a sequel to the first game. Although experience with its predecessor is nothing short of a necessity, this unapologetic approach to sequel storytelling is what makes Cold Steel II so compelling. It's remarkable how such a huge cast of characters can come together to deliver such a memorable narrative, and it's all thanks to the in-depth world building that Falcom has seeded over the course of two games. As far as turn based Japanese RPGs go on PS4, Trails of Cold Steel I and II are genre essentials.
This is the best way to play The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II. Visuals remain relatively the same as the PS3 version, albeit upscaled to higher resolution. The biggest changes come from perfect performance and Turbo Mode. Both add the kind of quality-of-life an epic-sized RPG such as this needs in order to feel as fresh as the first time you played it.
The Legend Of Heroes: Trails Of Cold Steel II is a content-rich adventure that mixes excellent JRPG mechanics with wonderfully scripted character relationships. For those unfamiliar with the series, though, it may be best to start with the original.
Trails of Cold Steel II is a fantastic continuation of the series that improves upon the foundations of its predecessor that leads to a narrative crescendo. With the third iteration set to come west at the end of 2019, we won’t have much longer to wait to see how this epic trilogy ends.
Class VII’s overachievers return for a different kind of lesson in The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II. The game hews closely to its predecessor’s style so it won’t feel as fresh but also should delight fans of the first game eager to see more of Class VII adventures and story. It’s also unapologetically old school whether it be its visual style or adherence to turn-based combat. At a time when more and more JRPGs are walking away from older conventions, it continues to be refreshing to see a well-done entry in the genre that celebrates them instead.
A pretty decent PS4 version.
Review in French | Read full review
An excellent port that makes the PC Version the definitive way to play the game.