The community is divided on whether or not Trails of Cold Steel is a good game or not. Both sides have viable points, but I lean towards the side that says it is a great game, with of course, flaws. Trails of Cold Steel is the introductory game to the Erebonia arc, after coming off of the peak of the series of Zero and Azure, the game had a lot to live up to in terms of story, characters, worldbuilding, lore, and much more. Although this game ranks lower on my list of Trails game, I believe it's still a great game nonetheless.

I want to put it out here that this is probably the slooooooooooooooooowest game in the entire series, even slower than Sky FC. The entire game is essentially a prologue for the rest of the arc (not a terrible thing). Also the graphics are ass, why does it look like their lungs want to pop out of their chests when they breathe?

Let's talk about the setting, The Erebonian Empire. Besides the unfortunate name of the country, I actually quite enjoy Erebonia. You got a big map (with the west side of Erebonia being blurred out for some reason). The many towns and cities that are part of the plot in this game are also all really interesting. You got Celdic the market town, Bareahard the nobles den, Nord Highlands which is hell on earth, Heimdallr which has some bang ass music, Legram and its serenity, as well as Roer, being the technological metropolis of the country. However, we can't forget Trista, everytime I think of Trista I get all nostalgic, because that's truly where all of the magic of the series began for me. I love all of the areas in this game (except Nord) and is a great eye-opener for how different Erebonia compares to Liberl and Crossbell.

The story! This game has a timeskip that confuses me until we catch up to it (think that's the point) and makes sense as a surprise factor, but if you've played Azure, you probably already know what happens after the flashback without even having to think. Oh yeah, I also want to talk about how much I love that Azure and CS1 take place during the same-ish time period, it's just a really good concept that allows you to see two different sides of a story from two different countries perspectives. I'm already used to highschool settings, so this game taking a more personafied approach didn't phase me at all, and I think that gives the game its charm, but also some of its detriments. Besides certain scenes like the Alisa accident and the weird ass Machias arc that made me hate him for the entire game, I think the game tackles the school setting quite well (although lets be real, a lot of this is so unrealistic). I also don't understand why they talk about Aptitude for like one second and then never bring it up ever again, please explain to me how they figured out everyones aptitudes for the ARCUS, I still don't get it after like three replays. I enjoy the cycle throughout each chapter, talk to people at the dorm, free day, investigate the old schoolhouse, practical exam, and then a field study to end the chapter. Cold Steel has a lot of cliche's, but I also believe that brings the game a lot of its own charm. I enjoy a lot of the bosses in this game, except the final divine knight battle because 1: I was crying, and 2: I was on Nightmare difficulty. The best parts of the game for me are personally Chapter 1, Chapter 5, and Chapter 6, for obvious reasons. Chapter 3 really kills me because of how TEDIOUS the Nord Highlands are. Like, yeah it's pretty and all, but I hate having to ride my damn horse for 5 straight minutes to get to where I need to go, WITH TURBO MODE ACTIVATED. The finale is PEAK. The school festival is great, you get some good minigames, a bonfire scene with your favourite character (if you invested into them), and then everything politcally goes downhill: asset freezes from the IBC, the declaration for independence, Garrelia Fortress vanishing, the Chancellor assassination, the C reveal (sounds really obvious now that I think about it due to all the hints and his nickname literally being the first letter of his name but I was to oblivious), The Misty/Vita reveal, and of course the fight for the academy. This game actually made me want to punch the nobles because of how scummy they were, well done development team, you actually enraged me so much, you're keeping me invested into the series forever. Trails endgames are so good (unless your name is Azure). Overall, the story is good, but there's some really cringeworthy moments and detriments that make it not as strong as previous games, but still worth playing.

Characters. I love MAJORITY of Class VII. Rean Schwarzer is the protagonist, and he definitely exudes that protagonist energy that I loved from Estelle and Lloyd, and he feels kind of more relatable in my eyes. Elliot Craig is a beast in combat because heals and I always liked him and some of his one-liners and his character arc. Alisa Reinford is kind of annoying, but I only think of this because the game essentially shoves her down your throat. Laura S. Arseid is also a beast in combat, and I love her ditzy personality in some of her bonding events. Jusis Albarea has the sarcasm that I aspire to have, and is part of my top 3 characters of the game. Machias Regnitz, I hate you (but only in this game). Gaius Worzel is boring, the only thing worthy of note I remember about him is his family, he likes his homeland, and he makes a bunch of wind puns. Fie Claussell has incredible one liners and a snarky personality, and i love her development throughout the game (another of my top 3). Emma Millstein is probably my favourite of the game because of the mystery regarding her background (also because she's a fantastic arts user). Millium, I don't really know, she's way too energetic for my liking, but I bet she'll grow on me in the future. Crow Armbrust is PEAK. I will forever be a Rean x Crow shipper but man Crow is written to perfection holy hell. Sara is also peak, with Crow and her probably rounding out my top 5. There are other great characters like Towa, some of the random students, Principal Vandyck, Sharon, Claire, Olivier, etc. However, there are some truly horrendous characters, such as Angelica because of her constant thirst for women (she's actually a good character whenever she's not thirsting over women), and Irina Reinford because how are you going to be that much of a bitch to your daughter. One thing this game suffers from is the large amount of party members. I feel like Sky handled a big party better than Cold Steel. Although it's not much of a problem in this game because you're kind of restricted on who you can use during different story segments, it still is an issue. I also dislike the bonding event system before NG+ where you're able to listen to them all, there's just a lot of missable content that annoys me. Overall, this game has a bunch of great characters, with only a couple of misses.

One thing I know a lot of people won't consider about this game is NPC dialogue. I know, some NPCs can be really boring, but Trails dialogue just hits different. I think this is the very first game where I actually talked to every NPC after each story change. There's just something about the little-ongoing stories of the different NPCs that makes me even more invested in the game, and some of them are pretty hilarious. I believe that's why I enjoyed a lot of the unique-Thors students than others, because I literally talked to them at every possible moment.

The gameplay. I don't know if I'm party of the majority of the minority, but I actually dislike the change to the orbments in this game. Yeah, I'm happy they kept the master quartz and gave more variety, but I miss the elemental value system. It's not bad, I actually enjoy orbments a lot, but I just like the previous edition. Speaking of difficulty, this game is a cakewalk, and that's coming from someone who completed it on Nightmare. All you need is Rean as a delayer with Arc Slash, and Fie as an Evade Tank (then you can pick who else to use between Alisa, Elliot, Laura, Emma, and Jusis). The hardest boss was definitely the C fight in Chapter 6, because that shit was toxic, but I still managed anyways. It also sounds stupid that you were able to infinitely delay the final boss of the old schoolhouse with Rean, and just dogpile on Loa Erebonius with arts. Basic strategy for everything was just the same, and to equip status-resistant accessories when need be (like for the Lohengrin Castle boss that can deathblow). Trails battles aren't difficult (unless your name is Sky hardest difficulty because everything one shots you, and is just tedious), but I like abusing the battle system.

Music. Trails continues to deliver with the music. The opening is a BANGER, I think I would always let the opening play whenever I opened the game, its just that good. The Old Schoolhouse theme and the Aurochs Canyon Road theme are probably some of my favourites of the game. Also got the Practical Exam theme and some of the mysterious and nighttime themes that also slap. Music is great, which means the game is good.

I've already talked about my gripes with the game in each of the sections but I love the Cold Steel arc (probably my most played after all). It might not be for you, but overall its pretty solid if you can get past the many anime tropes, cliches, and cringeworthy moments.