When I heard that Trails of Cold Steel had the weakest reception for a Trails game I was curious as to why that is. It's the first game in the Trails series that reaches AA level in terms of production quality, so you might assume that the overall experience would be better as a result. Other people probably assumed the same, as apparently it's popular to skip over the Trails in the Sky games and the Crossbell duology in favor of starting with this game.
After playing Trails of Cold Steel myself, I think the upgrade from a small-scale series to AA levels of production quality drew in a lot of unfavorable comparisons to contemporary games. Instead of being impressive for a small series, Trails is now underwhelming for AA standards. Trails of Cold Steel is a bit ugly. There's pop-in, ugly textures, way too many low-poly objects, stiff animations, and it all unfortunately gives off the appearance of a cheap looking game. And personally, I think the new presentation loses a bit of the charm of the older games. Trails of Cold Steel uses 3D character models instead of character portrait artwork to accompany its dialogue. The faces of the character models are way less expressive than the character portraits, so it sometimes feels like this game has less of a personality than the older ones. Speaking of lost personality, the treasure chests no longer talk to you when you check them twice. I'm aware that's something that was only in the English translations of the older games, but it was one of my favorite things about those games so it's unfortunate that it's not here.
The presentation is one thing, but I think the big reason why this game has a mixed reception from fans is its story. After Trails to Azure we've now reverted to a Trails in the Sky style setup game where very little happens for the majority of the story's duration. But where Cold Steel differs from Trails in the Sky First Chapter is that FC managed to have a self contained conflict that was resolved by the end of the game. The late stages of Trails in the Sky are about stopping a military coup. The late stages of Trails of Cold Steel are about putting on a school festival - with some random ass-pull final dungeon and final boss in the mix that come out of nowhere and don't push the story forward much. The climax of Trails of Cold Steel actually happens after the final boss... but there's no real additional final boss, just a series of gimmick fights before the game ends and tells you to play Trails of Cold Steel II. Don't get me wrong, the ending was actually my favorite part of the game, but I can't say this trend of making an uneventful 80 hour RPG where the ending is the only time something significant happens is something I'm very fond of. But I will say the ending definitely saved the game for me.
Trails of Cold Steel feels a bit like a Persona game, as it takes place at a military academy. There are school life segments in addition to the field studies which advance the main story. This is fine as a setup, but what I think Trails of Cold Steel gets wrong about this formula is that there's no sense of looming danger while the school life segments are going on. In the Persona games there's always a countdown until something bad happens while the school life segments are ongoing. In Trails of Cold Steel there's no danger during these parts so it just ends up feeling like a life-sim cozy game that drags the pacing of the story down. This is still the case even though the life sim elements of Trails of Cold Steel go by fairly quickly. Contextualizing the gameplay loop back into the main story is important. Also I just have to say... At this point in the Trails series I am really starting to get sick of all the busywork sidequests that are required to advance the story. It looks like the sidequest doors of Trails in the Sky the 3rd will remain unmatched.
If the purpose of this first Trails of Cold Steel game was to get the player to like the main cast, then they did a passable job. I liked how certain characters were antagonistic toward each other but became better friends due to the events of the story. But I will say that for all that effort in trying to make the characters likable, there are a number of characters that I straight up dislike. As far as first games go, it seems like Trails From Zero accomplished a lot more with its characters without any life sim elements and without a plot with the pacing of molasses. Also, because of certain characters, Trails of Cold Steel is the most cringeworthy game I've played since Xenoblade 2.
It might just be stockholm syndrome as a result of trying to play all the Trails games in sequence but I actually enjoy the combat of this game a fair bit. It's the same combat as in the previous games but the addition of link attacks is pretty fun. Combat is where the the upgrade in production values really shines. Having full character models instead of chibi sprites allows for attacks to have more impact with the increased animation quality. However, I'm not a fan of the changes to the orbment system. In previous games maximizing your orbments to get the best possible arts felt like a satisfying puzzle, but in Trails of Cold Steel the system has been dumbed down to just allow you to choose what arts you want directly. Lame.
My favorite thing about this game aside from the combat system is the music. Is it a hot take to say that Trails of Cold Steel has one of the best selections of music in the series? Every battle theme is good - even the normal battle theme, which is something I can't say about some of the other Trails games. It's my favorite normal battle theme in the series because it actually pumps you up for battle. And you can definitely tell that the sound team has gotten a lot better with JRPG town and field music since Trails in the Sky FC. I think Cold Steel I and Trails in the Sky the 3rd are my picks for best overall soundtrack so far. But I'll have to give them all another listen to be sure.
I don't hate this game. But there are a good amount of things that I don't like about it. I'd be a lot more negative if the game just ended after the final boss without the events that take place afterward. I think this could be the start of a good story arc but I'm a little concerned that the other Trails of Cold Steel games seem to have somewhat lower reception from fans as well. But one thing is for sure: don't start the Trails franchise with game. Not only does it spoil the events of Trails to Azure, but the slow pacing and uneventful story might be enough to make you disinterested in the franchise.
After playing Trails of Cold Steel myself, I think the upgrade from a small-scale series to AA levels of production quality drew in a lot of unfavorable comparisons to contemporary games. Instead of being impressive for a small series, Trails is now underwhelming for AA standards. Trails of Cold Steel is a bit ugly. There's pop-in, ugly textures, way too many low-poly objects, stiff animations, and it all unfortunately gives off the appearance of a cheap looking game. And personally, I think the new presentation loses a bit of the charm of the older games. Trails of Cold Steel uses 3D character models instead of character portrait artwork to accompany its dialogue. The faces of the character models are way less expressive than the character portraits, so it sometimes feels like this game has less of a personality than the older ones. Speaking of lost personality, the treasure chests no longer talk to you when you check them twice. I'm aware that's something that was only in the English translations of the older games, but it was one of my favorite things about those games so it's unfortunate that it's not here.
The presentation is one thing, but I think the big reason why this game has a mixed reception from fans is its story. After Trails to Azure we've now reverted to a Trails in the Sky style setup game where very little happens for the majority of the story's duration. But where Cold Steel differs from Trails in the Sky First Chapter is that FC managed to have a self contained conflict that was resolved by the end of the game. The late stages of Trails in the Sky are about stopping a military coup. The late stages of Trails of Cold Steel are about putting on a school festival - with some random ass-pull final dungeon and final boss in the mix that come out of nowhere and don't push the story forward much. The climax of Trails of Cold Steel actually happens after the final boss... but there's no real additional final boss, just a series of gimmick fights before the game ends and tells you to play Trails of Cold Steel II. Don't get me wrong, the ending was actually my favorite part of the game, but I can't say this trend of making an uneventful 80 hour RPG where the ending is the only time something significant happens is something I'm very fond of. But I will say the ending definitely saved the game for me.
Trails of Cold Steel feels a bit like a Persona game, as it takes place at a military academy. There are school life segments in addition to the field studies which advance the main story. This is fine as a setup, but what I think Trails of Cold Steel gets wrong about this formula is that there's no sense of looming danger while the school life segments are going on. In the Persona games there's always a countdown until something bad happens while the school life segments are ongoing. In Trails of Cold Steel there's no danger during these parts so it just ends up feeling like a life-sim cozy game that drags the pacing of the story down. This is still the case even though the life sim elements of Trails of Cold Steel go by fairly quickly. Contextualizing the gameplay loop back into the main story is important. Also I just have to say... At this point in the Trails series I am really starting to get sick of all the busywork sidequests that are required to advance the story. It looks like the sidequest doors of Trails in the Sky the 3rd will remain unmatched.
If the purpose of this first Trails of Cold Steel game was to get the player to like the main cast, then they did a passable job. I liked how certain characters were antagonistic toward each other but became better friends due to the events of the story. But I will say that for all that effort in trying to make the characters likable, there are a number of characters that I straight up dislike. As far as first games go, it seems like Trails From Zero accomplished a lot more with its characters without any life sim elements and without a plot with the pacing of molasses. Also, because of certain characters, Trails of Cold Steel is the most cringeworthy game I've played since Xenoblade 2.
It might just be stockholm syndrome as a result of trying to play all the Trails games in sequence but I actually enjoy the combat of this game a fair bit. It's the same combat as in the previous games but the addition of link attacks is pretty fun. Combat is where the the upgrade in production values really shines. Having full character models instead of chibi sprites allows for attacks to have more impact with the increased animation quality. However, I'm not a fan of the changes to the orbment system. In previous games maximizing your orbments to get the best possible arts felt like a satisfying puzzle, but in Trails of Cold Steel the system has been dumbed down to just allow you to choose what arts you want directly. Lame.
My favorite thing about this game aside from the combat system is the music. Is it a hot take to say that Trails of Cold Steel has one of the best selections of music in the series? Every battle theme is good - even the normal battle theme, which is something I can't say about some of the other Trails games. It's my favorite normal battle theme in the series because it actually pumps you up for battle. And you can definitely tell that the sound team has gotten a lot better with JRPG town and field music since Trails in the Sky FC. I think Cold Steel I and Trails in the Sky the 3rd are my picks for best overall soundtrack so far. But I'll have to give them all another listen to be sure.
I don't hate this game. But there are a good amount of things that I don't like about it. I'd be a lot more negative if the game just ended after the final boss without the events that take place afterward. I think this could be the start of a good story arc but I'm a little concerned that the other Trails of Cold Steel games seem to have somewhat lower reception from fans as well. But one thing is for sure: don't start the Trails franchise with game. Not only does it spoil the events of Trails to Azure, but the slow pacing and uneventful story might be enough to make you disinterested in the franchise.