My first Trails game, a series that's a bit out of my comfort zone, but if CS is any indication should be fun all things considered.

Killer soundtrack, interesting combat and cool little character interactions kept me going all the way. Very convenient too, with built-in fast-forwarding, quick travel options, and sidequests that are fairly easy to keep up with.

The geopolitical focused narrative didn't do much for me, though. Don't get my wrong, I was paying attention; it's just not my kinda thing.

(I opted to use the spoiler warning for this next section.)

I also prefer games that stick to a "confined" narrative where most of the plot is tied up by the last few minutes, and Cold Steel's ending is anything but. By the time the credits were rolling it felt like I was at best halfway through the story. It's not an objectively bad thing, just, y'know. What I said up there. (Also part of the reason why I can't be bothered with FFXIV anymore)

And I guess that's an apt way to put it. Pretty fun, kept me engaged all the way through; but the aforementioned geopolitical heavy plot mixed with certain tropes aren't exactly my cup of tea either.

I'd to start by saying that cold steel 1 is probably one of the best PS Vita games out there.

That being said, it is by far the worst trails game in the series. The great characters we had in previous games are now gone in favor of a bloated cast, harem mechanics and one dimensional genéric anime tropes. The game started on a bad note as the way they choose to introduce the main girl is by having her fall on the MC and then slap him for it which i'd be fine with any other JRPG, but it doesn't feel like it belongs to trails at all.

There is no reason for the cast being as big as it is other then trying to copy Persona's success. Bonding system was already a thing in trails to Zero and Azure but it did'nt feel like it was sacrificing the characters for it. Each chapter you are allocated with 3 to 4 different set of classmates besides Rean, the main character. This makes it so the game doesn't have enough time to develop most of them, and those they do most times end up feeling shallow.

It doesn't help at all as well that 90% of said classmates never interact with each other unless Rean, the MC, is present. Later games try to imply how the Class 7 is one big family, but you will never see a girl interacting with any other boy or vice-versa, after all, they can't do that otherwise it would ruin Reans harem. And it goes even beyond that as you won't even see girl to girl or boy to boy interactions in the game most of the time. By the end of CS2 i felt like Class 7 had more chimestry with side character students from theire clubs than with eachother with rare exceptions such as Jusis and Milion.

Unfortunatly, the game also doesn't have much of a story until the epilogue, leading to the civil war in CS2. In some ways it feels like both CS1 and CS2 are trying to redo what Sky FC did in some parts.

Bracers were an excellent ideia of giving a reason as to why the characters would do minial side quests for the population. The SSS in crossbell, was also a good ideia of doing the samething for another reason that felt believable. Class 7 and Rean in other hand, feels like they do it just because the higher ups tell them too. There isn't any goal as the story goes on, it feels way to passive, like your only goal in the game is to find missing cats or deliver some goods to town people.

Yes, they stumble in some issues along those chores that will lead to events showing deeper problems in the Empire, but unlike the Bracer couple looking for the missing father and trying to be promoted and the SSS crew trying to end corruption in Crossbell, they don't have an actual motivation to do those things. That ends up making the pace feel even slower then the first Sky game.

Another complaint i have with this structure, which fortunatly is solved in CS2, is how unlike Sky and Crossbell, the empire doesn't feel like an actual country in gameplay. Crossbell and Sky makes the character travel on foot to learn about the countries before they give you any sort of fast travel (if any in case of sky), which helps with world building by making those interconected cities and villages feel like they form an actual real country. CS1 in the other hand, has Trista as a hub town, that then fast travels the player to other regions every chapter. They use a map to show where exactly you are going, but it doesn't even compare to the feeling of being able to go from point A to B by yourself.

One positive thing i have to note is that CS1 lays the foundation for the great combat system of CS2. I'd say this far, all trails games had great combat systems, each improving from the last, but CS2 takes the best aspects of each, such as team attacks from zero and burst/overdrive from azure and gives you a lot of tools to experiment. Although, it is worth to note that CS1 also sacrifices the strategy behind orbement building, which i'm not the biggest fan of such a change, but i came to accept as i played future games.
Prior to cold steel, you had to use certain amounts of a element quartz before it would unlock a Arts to be used, after CS1, those Arts have their own quartz, so it's more about squizing as much power as you can in a character instead of choosing wisely what stats you want and what arts are available with them.

With all that said, i think cold steel is a decent RPG if you are willing to overcome it's horrible pacing, has a great epilogue leading to CS2 and still has one of the best combat systems in any turn-based RPG. But it fall flat as a trails game from what we came to expect from both Sky and Crossbell arcs.

Some say this is the best place to start the series as as it is the most modern entrie game in the series, but i wholeheartly disagree with that. Starting with CS1 means you will spoil the best trails has to offer so far with Sky and Crossbell, although doing so will probably make you be a more fond of this game than i was for sure, as most of my issues with it come from knowing how great of a series trails has been before CS1.

Spoilers for Sky FC/SC, Zero, Azure, and CS1

I dunno, man. Maybe it was my tempered expectations. From hearing that the Cold Steel arc was filler, or my overhype from Azure. Maybe I was just really in the mood for an RPG. Maybe it was just one of those right time right place things. Maybe it was something I don’t really wanna bring up on backloggd dot com. I’m not really sure. But fuck, this was awesome. It’s got the second best ending in the series(out of the 6 games I’ve played). Nothing beats the ending of FC. The cast, for how big they are all end up feeling relatively unique, the soundtrack has a metric ton of highs compared to the previous games, the gameplay is actually fun with a streamlined quartz system, I could go on and on as a ramble but let’s get down to business. I got this format down to a science now.

Characters: There’s not many I dislike, with the exception of one which I have a whole dedicated rant towards. They all really grew on me and feel unique, I think my favorites are probably Crow, Fie and Rean. I liked Alisa’s arc, it hit home for me, same with Crow’s words at the festival afterparty. Fie is definitely going to be expanded on in future, and I’m excited to see where her arc goes. I was worried after Machias’ and Jusis’ arc that Laura and Fie’s would be the exact same, but they’re different. Fie and Laura become lesbros and I loved their dual, not only that it was where you fight Rean and Machias and it just shows how much they get each other and link well, I loved that part. Machias/Jusis conflict on the other hand is very abrasive and loud, but then gets quietly resolved once they overhear each other’s struggles and come to terms with why they feel a certain way. The cherry on top was the cheesy duet they did at the concert. All of Class 7 feels unique in their own way, even if some of the tropes overshadow their uniqueness.

Music: First off, Exceed is a worthy successor to Fateful Confrontation. I wasn’t really feeling it at first but after the C fight I was a huge fan. The regular battle theme is pretty good, definitely better than Azure but doesn’t beat get over the barrier or sophisticated fight. I was a huge fan of “Class 7’s Inevitable Struggle” the song I don’t know the name of that vaguely sounds like Inevitable Struggle but is clearly different. Even the Practical Exam theme which has this awful out of tune guitar at the height of the song grew on me. Is that you, Singa? The town themes for the field studies reminded me of the unique town themes of Sky. They all felt different and I don’t remember Crossbell having that many themes. The dining bar theme is awesome and reminds me of Arc en Ciel. The “ethereal” themes that play when you fight otherworldly things are really great too. The credits theme was too good. Felt like an OP for CS2 tbh but I was groovin the entire time. I didn’t think it was possible but Trails now has a soundtrack that isn’t mostly mediocre/forgettable.

Story/Lore :So the whole shtick of CS1’s story is that it’s happening concurrently with the events of Azure. Good thing I forgot most of what happened there lol. I mostly remember the Crois stuff but I forget how much the Trade Conference was a big deal. Now with the chancellor either fucking dead or gravely wounded I really wanna go back and see what he told the SSS in Azure. Might have a double meaning. I didn’t expect Sharon to be an Ouroubouros Enforcer, it is kinda cool. I liked how there was a single fucking offhand mention of Estelle and Joshua from Bleublanc, it made me giggle a bit. Anyway the story itself is kinda like Sky FC(which I have some nostalgia for by now, I miss the days when it was just Joshua and Estelle doing junior bracer things). Class 7 ends up going on a bunch of field studies to different towns in Erebonia to see how things are. It’s simple, but I really like it. As stated in the music section I really like how each place has its own unique atmosphere, the Nord Highlands and Legram are examples of this. I had initially thought that CS2 was going to be the rest of Class 7’s first year, but with Rean off to who knows where by the ending, things seem to be taking a drastic turn. The ending was fantastic, but I already mentioned it. I still like the police feel to Zero more but the story here is great. As for lore/worldbuilding, I’m really enjoying seeing how the technology is evolving as well as politics. We get to know more about Calvard here, if just a bit, and Alisa just mentions air conditioning and everybody loses their shit. It’s a really stupid example but it does show just how much they’ve come and how far the world still has to advance. Important figures have flip phones, but I wonder when they will take off with the public, or the orbal net. It’s just a real joy to see this world advance bit by bit. Erebonia is a very different continent from what I had imagined it to be, the Nobles vs Reformists is a really compelling narrative and I hope they can do some unique things with it like they did with Crossbell’s Indepence. I hear CS3 and 4 practically require you to have played Crossbell beforehand so I bet those games expand on the slideshow we got as an ending to Azure/Crossbell’s independence arc. Which means I get to see my boys Wade and Wazy again. Anyway I like how Cold Steel’s story feels like a piece to a much bigger puzzle between Crossbell, Erebonia, and Calvard.

Gameplay: Remember two years or so ago when I went on a huge rant about why the Sky games’ combat sucks? Probably not, in fact dont go read them they’re probably really fucking cringy to read back. But the gist was the quartz system that needed an entire supplemental manual to figure out how to use arts made me avoid the combat like the plague and just spam the weaken enemy button after I died. And bosses’ overreliance on cheap status gimmicks to make the fight difficult sucked as well(looking at you Renne). By the time I got to Zero/Azure I was just coasting on easy mode, not giving whatever changes they brought a chance. Does CS1 change anything? Yes. I love the combat in this game. The quartz system was streamlined, there’s now like 500 different quartz that you can fuse to make a certain skill. Technically it is pretty cluttered but I’ll take it over the other system. You simply find a skill(s) you want and then fuse it, and now can use it. I don’t know why the Sky/Crossbell games weren’t like this. The regular combat loop is fun, and I honestly like how S-Breaks were tied to character growth, it really made early game difficult but rewarding. Resounding Beat is kinda OP and carried the first 20 hours or so for me. Bosses are also really fun, and exploitable if you know how to abuse the turn order. I really like that aspect, it adds another layer to pre-planning. If a boss is set to get a 10% HP Boost you gotta scramble to find a way to avoid that outcome. Or in the places with higher elements, you can grind and wipe out enemies with ease if you keep track of deathblow effects. The only Boss I had to use the weaken enemy button on were C and either Floor 5 or 6’s Schoolhouse boss. I went all out on V so C was too much for a back to back fight. (I tried him like 5 times then weakened once and then 3 attempts later I got him). The Schoolhouse boss I just didn’t save so I didn’t have a way to grind S-Breaks or anything and didn’t want to do the dungeon again. Patrick too, maybe? But that was because I thought you needed to get the goals to progress. Anyway, point is the only reason I used the weaken enemy button were my own faults, not because of infuriating game design. CS1 combat is SO much better, and I feel like if I were to ever replay the series I’d find something to love in the previous 5 games combat, too. Not really a place to mention this elsewhere in the gameplay section but the one on one brawl with Crow as the true final boss was awesome, I’m a sucker for shit like that.

Biggest Gripes:Angie. Not only does her dubbed actress grate on my ears, but her entire character is just “haha lesbian sexual harrassment”. She honestly makes my blood boil I fucking hate Angie so much. The social sim element feel tacked on. The Septian calendar's inclusion doesn’t add anything. It’s like Falcom saw the success of persona 3 and 4 and decided to include elements of it in the next trails game but god they just really fucking suck. The free day quests are fetch quests outside of schoolhouse trips, thankfully in the later chapters the schoolhouse is the only required quest on these days. The bonding events feel really fucky. they didn’t commit to full on social link style events so they’re just kinda click through things to get a few arcus points. The bonding events just end up feeling like a nothingburger. Dungeons still suck, they were never a strong suit of trails but with the move to full on 3d there seems to be more unintentional backtracking. It’s the same as in the previous games where you go find a switch, hit it and then go back but because the dungeons all look so samey I ended up missing a ton of those switches and had to go back. The final dungeon was a slog too, though easily binged. The song for that dungeon was great. Another issue I had was some of the characters feel tropey/ samey to other characters in the series. This is mostly alleviated by the end of the game with all of Class 7’s backstories mostly revealed but I worry that their arcs are going to take on a similar path to characters from previous games. I get this is a relatively shonen rpg and that kind of overlap should be expected, but iunno, I still hope they find new ground to cover. My biggest worry for this is Crow himself, I legit didn’t see the twist coming(I figured it was Campnella for whatever reason) but I hope that his arc isn’t just Joshua’s arc again.

Final Thoughts: Honestly? Surpasses Zero for me. The best Trails game there is. The next “peak trails” is supposedly Reverie but I learned my lesson with Azure, keeping my expectations in check for that one. On schedule Reverie is gonna be played early 2025 tho. I don’t even own it yet. I’ll jump into CS2 sometime this year, but I am definitely watching all those recap videos first lol. So many small details I’d forgotten and need to brush up on. Despite the fact it takes place concurrently with Azure I’d forgotten so much that some of the developments got me a second time. Damn you Ian Grimwood and your shitty game ruining twists. After a few days of post game depression I’ll hop into Raincode and after that… well hoo boy the rest of the year is fucking stacked methinks. Many amazing games in the backlog I’m gonna play this year.