This review contains spoilers
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.
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.