-Written on January 17, 2020-

So not long ago, I have finish Trails of Cold Steel 3. Lately, I have been very active in talking about the series in multiple places but I believe I have not gotten a chance on why I love it so much. I thought 1 and 2 were good, underrated games that tend to be overlooked so much. However, I never thought they were amazing. 3, however, blew me away in a way I would never guess despite my 3 years of anticipation for the game.

Let start with the aesthetics. The graphics, while isn't pushing the PS4 super hard and arguably dated, it's a massive improvement compared to 1 and 2. Especially the character models. I'm glad they don't have that plastic look anymore. they all look very clean and organic. The soundtrack is great as expected from the sound team. From trilling and intense battle themes to mystical interludes. There's a theme to fit every mood in the game. I love the environment design as well for the new cities and towns you visit in the game. Some of them reminded me of classic JRPGs painted in a new coat. Especially Parm.

The basic gameplay is more or less the same from previous entries (I guess don't fix what isn't broken) but I do love the inclusion of high-speed mode. It makes battling more fun and quick. In fact, things went so fast, it felt like I was playing an action RPG at times despite it being a turn-based game. I also love the level of depth there is when it comes to building a character with orbments and equipment. Based on what stats each character excels at. By the end of the game, I had plenty of builds such as massive CP gain, near-instant arts casting for any arts. 2.5x more damage for any first hit etc, high evasion, etc. I love building characters in any RPG, so this satisfies me greatly, especially when I get ultra-rare orbments and equipment. Not to mention the brave orders give an additional level of depth, from damage reduction to increase damage output for a certain amount of times. It gives a greater sense of control and what is best needed for your party according to the situation or the opportunity. With all of this. I just found the gameplay to be super addicting and I wanted more of it. I found every monster I could throughout the game simply because I enjoyed the combat that much.

Now here is where Cold Steel 3 excels at better than any JRPG series in my opinion and it's arguably the best part of the game. The world-building and its characters. Every single character in the game, yes even the old man that runs his gun store at Crossbell, has its own story and their own personality to share thanks to the ever-changing dialogue. NPCs in Cold Steel aren't just people that just there to exist, unlike most JRPGs. If you don't talk to anyone, you will miss out on a good deal of character interaction between the main characters and a better idea of what kind of lives they have lived in the past. What is also worth noting is how each NPC reacts to the major story changes as the game progress and how the changes going to affect their lives.

However, the game takes this even further with people you often see throughout the game such as the students and facility of the Thors Branch Campus and the residents that live in the city of the campus, Leeves. Throughout the game, nearly, if not all, of the non-playable students, get a sustainable amount of character interaction and development thanks to the changing dialogue and how every student gets their own side quest to complete, which reveals about the character even more. The fact that an NPC gets more development than quite a lot of main characters in stories just astonishes me. They weren’t just random students to fill up space, they were all written characters with their own goals, hobbies, backgrounds, and motivations that I know by name and got attached to. This is not even mentioning the development of the main characters you actually play with, because there’s so much of that, I can spend all day writing about that.
Of course, tons of previous characters return for Cold Steel 3 and not just characters from Cold Steel 1 and 2. A good handful of characters from Trails of the Sky and Trails of Zero/Azure (according to the unofficial English name) make their appearance in all kinds of ways for the first time as well. From becoming faculty staff within the branch campus from appearing in various towns and crucial story points. All and all, this adds up to 23 playable characters throughout the game at some point, each with its own unique set of crafts. When I saw the old Class VII for the first time in 3 years (the time between I have played Cold Steel 2 and 3), it felt like a heartfelt reunion. Seeing how much the characters have developed over time and overcame much of their issues and shortcomings from previous games was a joy to see.

However, what really holds up Cold Steel 3’s world-building and characters is its multi-layered main story. Between multiple organizations and antagonists such as Ouroboros and the multiple Jaeger Corps. As well as multiple backstories from characters and lore that were never fully explained until now. Every character has a role in the grand scheme of the theme of imperialism and nationalism and how that ties into something far longer seeded and rooted. Resulting in multiple plot twists and one of the most shocking, darkest, and jaw-dropping endings I have seen in a JRPG. At first, it seems like there are multiple story plots that seem like they’re unrelated, near the end of the game, everything comes together like a puzzle into one grand goal. The fact how 5-6 different plot points come together like that is pretty excellent writing since it’s a feat that is very hard to pull off that can make sense and not have a lot of plot holes.

However, it’s not a perfect game in any case of form as much I am praising it for its world-building, gameplay, story, and characters. An issue that is valid enough to speak of is the reliance on other Trails games to tell the tale of Cold Steel 3. It’s one thing if Cold Steel 3 goes off from Cold Steel 1 and 2, given it is a direct sequel. However, when the game starts to pull plot elements from Trails of the Sky series and the Crossbell games, it just becomes a much more demanding game to fully understand and enjoy. While the characters and plot lines are needed for Cold Steel 3’s story, considering the locations you visit and how the story works, it was an unexpected element at the very least. Trails is a game that is worth the time and investment in the end, but it’s a very difficult recommendation due to the length of the overall series, not to mention the Crossbell games are still not officially localized (I am aware you can play fan translations). 500+ prerequisite hours in the series just to play a single game is a very high order, even for the most hardcore JRPG fans.

Another issue I have noticed and what has bothered me the most is how the main character, Rean, is far too much of a chick magnet, to the point nearly every girl cathers to him in some way. While I won’t go as far as say Cold Steem 3 is a harem game and there are only truly three romantic options in the game, it’s quite cliche anime writing to have a lot of the girls swoon over him or encouraged to go after him. Even characters that don’t like Rean too much at first get their character compromised to an extent because they will eventually like him as well. I want to guess Rean is supposed to be this self-insert character and that would make sense if he was silent. However, he is fully voiced and has his own personality. So it’s quite jarring.

Despite my few nitpicks, those are very minor and they didn’t have much effect on my overall enjoyment. Within the 135 hours, I have spent on the game battling monsters, fishing, talking to loads of characters and watching the deep story unravel. I feel like Trails of Cold Steel 3 has set a new standard for my enjoyment of JRPGs, it will be extremely hard for any other JRPG, no game, to reach the same level I have love for Cold Steel 3. It did everything I love about the genre to a very exceptional level I would never expect. The fact a small studio has created a world more massive than any other game I have played is just mindblowing. Trails of Cold Steel 3 just very well be one of, if not, my favorite JRPGs of all time and that’s quite a high bar for me.

-Written on February 17-

Hajimari no Kiseki is the 10th game in the Trails series, wrapping up multiple plot points and character arcs from the Cold Steel and Crossbell series while setting up what is next to come in the series. One could say Hajimari is very similar to Trails in the Sky the 3rd as far as structure. After playing the game for 135 hours, Hajimari no Kiseki just might be one of the strongest entries in the series with its various improvements in the game.

Aesthetic-wise, the visuals for Hajimari are largely the same as Cold Steel 3 and 4 and there are hardly any new locations with the exception of nearly all of Crossbell is now fully modeled in 3D. However, one of the biggest improvements is the animations. There are quite a lot of scenes with really smooth animations, from lip flaps to dynamic camera work to full-blown action scenes. The increased quality of animations is near Triple-A quality, and that's rather impressive considering Falcom was never for high visual quality. The OST is also amazing. Falcom always had great tunes for their games but they have really knocked out of the park for this one. Me personally I love so many of the new battle themes since it's much heavier and the music is more complex, to the point I can say the OST for Hajimari is my favorite in the series.

Gameplay-wise, Hajimari is the best in the series as well. Although it's much the same as Cold Steel 3 and 4, what's different this time is there's a new mechanic called Valiant Rage when you can use 5 or more people in your party to do an all-out physical or art attack or recover your party. This adds an extra element to the series' combat. What else is noteworthy is the number of playable characters in the game. With over 50 characters, Hajimari boots one of the largest playable casts in an RPG. There are tons and tons of party combinations you can form with different builds. You could easily spend hours and hours just setting up characters. Not to mention Hajimari is more battle-focused than all of Cold Steel and Crossbell, so there's plenty of room for combat.

Getting to the core format of Hajimari, the game is split into two parts. The main story that you can go back and forth with Rean's, Lloyd's and C's routes that are more aligned toward the traditional main stories for Trails and the True Reverie Corridor which is very similar to Phantasmagoria from Trails in the Sky the 3rd from all of the playable characters are gathered together and do dungeons to playable episodes that flushes out what happened between Cold Steel 4 and Hajimari and fun, silly minigames.

The main story for Hajimari has to be the best-paced and streamlined game in the series. No filler side quests, no harem bonding events, and once the ball gets rolling for each route, it stays rolling until the end and they all kick off by the end of Chapter 1. Hajimari no Kiseki essentially got rid of 2 of my biggest issues with Cold Steel 4, so it's a massive improvement as far as maturity and pacing.

I wasn't too excited for Lloyd's route since....without spoiling it too much, it's very repetitive to the story beats of Ao no Kiseki plus it's predictable with its twists at times but it gave the SSS new character development and a new outlook on Crossbell. Lloyd's route is overall fine but it's the weakest route. Rean's route plays out very similar to Cold Steel 3 by visiting different locations in Erebonia with different characters in every chapter. While Rean's route is a slow-burner, the payoff is very high and I felt like it had moments that rival the quality of Cold Steel 3 and Ao no Kiseki (my two favorite games of the series).
C's route is the best route in the game. You have a brand new set of characters with different but yet similar backgrounds and without spoiling much, it really gave everyone sustainable character development and reflection. Plus it really drives home some of the series' themes such as forgiveness and starting over with a new group of people. It's just phenomenal writing.

Of course, the three routes do connect to each other, which led to my biggest issue with the game. It's very convoluted. Trails always were great with keeping its stories and its lore very clean and understandable but with trying to tie up Cold Steel and Crossbell with the new plot points and lore introduced in Hajimari, I just ended up counting a lot of plot holes that just don't make sense. This is especially apparent in the final chapter when everything is supposed to connect but the presentation is just very complicated and the execution is messy. Falcom is usually great with writing stories but it seems like they shot for the moon too far this time, to the point the story hardly holds up by the time you're done with the extra chapter.

And there is the True Reverie Corridor, which is the strongest part of the game. Everyone across the Sky, Crossbell, and Cold Steel games are gathered together, providing an endless combination of character interactions you would not get otherwise between conversations in the hub areas, the group missions, and the trial doors. These conversations really complement the characters and bring out a new side of their personality and their interests. Not to mention there are a lot of dungeon levels to play in the TRC that boost the number of characters and the updated gameplay to good use.

There are randomly generated missions you can do to collect purple stones. You can use these purple stones to upgrade various gameplay elements such as increasing brave points, charge meter, the number of characters you can have in your party at one time, etc. There is even a gacha system you can collect orbs to unlock minigames, episodes, orbments, accessories, etc. Considering there are 51 playable characters, the gacha isn't a bad system to get orbments and accessories to make building the characters easy. Plus there are items that can help boost a character's level, so you don't have to grind all day to boost up a character that is 50 levels behind. It's just really nice to have the quality of life elements as far as character, gameplay, and build management.

However, my biggest complaint about the gacha element is the way you unlock characters. You will get 40 of the characters by the story mode alone but the other 11 must be obtained by the gacha system. This might not sound too bad, considering you can't even use real money but considering the dialogue for the characters in the TRC updates for every chapter, you will permanently miss dialogue for the characters just for not having them and the 11 characters you get are randomized. Not to mention you can only get a few yellow orbs (the orbs you use to get the characters) per chapter. So unlocking all 11 immediately isn't possible either. New game plus does not fix this issue either sadly. This might not sound like a huge killer but considering talking to the NPCs that always have updated dialogue is one of the biggest highlights in this series, it's a real bummer.

In addition to that, there are also episodes that provide a strong bridge not only between Cold Steel 4 and Hajimari but between Hajimari and the upcoming Kuro no Kiseki. The quality of the episodes varies but most of them are good at least while there are a few that are really amazing. These episodes highlight and explore the character and the actions they made in previous games, give the characters proper conclusions to their arc that spans across games and expand the lore and give them new context and hindsight. There are also a few episodes that are just plain silly and goofy that just show the everyday life of a character, so not all of them are serious or deep. The episodes overall enhance the world of Zemuria with its many sides and the characters that are involved in them.

There are also minigames, while it doesn't add much to the grand scope of Hajimari, it's fun extra content you can do. From playing a bullet hell-like Magical Girl minigame that spilled into three episodes and played out like a super generic high school magical girl anime (which is pretty charming in its own right), to going to the beach and ugghhhh.....having romantic dating sim conversations with a lot of girls in first person, to other things like a quiz game, mecha combat and POM makes a return again. I can't speak for the quiz game since it was untranslated and the story for the mecha minigame is untranslated as well but I found it unfun to play due to chunky controls. It felt like I was playing an unlocalized and niche PS1 game. Overall none of the minigames are amazing but if you want more Trails in various ways, then it's worth checking out.

Hajimari no Kiseki is overall a great game with a lot of strengths and the amount of content is massive that really made the game shine well. While it took a step back with clear storytelling and lore that is easy to follow through on top of a flawed gacha system, it took 2 steps forward for everything else from gameplay, character writing and interaction, plot pacing, further separating the waifu harem dating from the main story, etc. Hajimari is an excellent send-off and a strong conclusion for the Crossbell and Cold Steel arcs. Out of all of the Trails games, Hajimari is a close second for my favorite Trails game with Ao and CS3 still sits as a tie for my all-time favorite. And even then, I can totally see why someone would say Hajimari is their favorite game. After all, the game just does so much right in all areas.

-Written on June 29, 2020-

The first thing that really caught my attention is the setting, Crossbell City. It's very rare in a JRPG to go for a modern urban setting since most of them are either based on fantasy or sci-fi (sometimes both). Considering I grew up in a big city for pretty much all of my life, the atmosphere felt very familiar, almost like home in real life. You have shops everywhere, entertainment places, run-down places, gangs, shady alleyways, political landscapes, apartments, something close like a Chinatown, etc. For better or for worse, Crossbell managed to capture the real feeling of a city, and naturally, I was drawn in. It isn't super-duper huge like say, Los Santos, but for a Trails game, it's pretty huge. In fact, I think Crossbell City is just as big as all of the major cities in Liberl combined in the Sky games. Not to mention areas become more rural once you step out of the city and I suppose that is very true here as well. So I appreciate it.

Trails is known for its massive NPCs dialogue writing, so I won't spend too much time here, since it's more of a trait for the series overall. However, I think Zero has the most care put into the NPC interaction. At times, talking to everyone in Crossbell State, including the non-city areas can get draining and exhausting at times due to the sheer size, the number of NPCs (especially in Chapter 3) how much you have access to it at all times. However, I can safely say it's worth talking to everyone in the end. You get plenty of conversations between the four main characters by talking to the NPCs that you won't hear anywhere else, whatever you are doing a main or side quest. Sometimes it just fleshes out little details for the characters, other times its additional story writing. With the way the characters respond to the citizens of Crossbell, it just feels more believable and realistic. Almost if they're real people talking back to the NPCs, rather just listening to everyone all of the time like cardboard. Not even the Sky and Cold Steel games are this responsive to the NPCs, so I was really impressed by this, considering Trails is already on the top of their game with the NPC writing.

Speaking of the characters, you have the four main characters, Lloyd, Elie, Tio, and Randy that forms the Special Support Section (or SSS for short). They're a division in the Crossbell Police Department to get close to the citizens and address their needs in the wake of universal distrust (hence the amount of NPC interaction compared to the other games). I have to say, the characters are easily my favorite part of the game since it did a lot of the heavy lifting. It usually takes me a while to really like anyone in this series but I loved all four of them before I was even halfway done with the game. I just overall enjoy their chemistry and how they quickly mold in with each other. Each character also has a pretty different background that plays a part in their personality and their development later on in the game. They just an enjoyable bunch of people in the end. That not to mention the supporting cast of people the SSS get to meet over the course of the game and overall, they're pretty solid as well. I don't think there is an outright bad character (save for the villans) overall in the game as far as more major characters. I can easily dive deeper into the characters and talk about them one by one but I rather not make this essay overly long.

Zero is honestly one of the best JRPGs I have played as far as setting and character writing, in fact, it's a little bit too good. Because of the amount of text with the NPCs and just how long the cutscenes are. Zero felt like a visual novel first and a JRPG second like 70% of the time. The lack of dungeons compared to your average JRPG does not help either on top of some side quests that don't even require any combat. The dialogue to gameplay balance is rather pretty off. Especially if you take your time to talk to the NPCs. While I do appreciate all of the extra writing efforts and it's a huge part of why I love these characters, at the same time, I went into Zero no Kiseki to play a game, not to read a novel, so it's a bit off-putting. It's a shame as well since Zero no Kiseki has many gameplay improvements from the Sky series such as counters, team rushes, combo crafts (which I only have seen in Zero/Ao so far in the series).

The story itself is the most questionable part of the game. Without saying much, it's basically the SSS intervening in mafia activities with many connections with political figures. While it does dive into this faster and the story structure in Zero is far less repetitive compared to Sky and Cold Steel, it just... a whole lot of nothing really happens for a while. Zero is a very, very slow burn and nothing very intense doesn't have until near the end of the game. It also may seem like a lot of things is unrelated to each other at first. However, everything pays off in the end and the game suddenly gets far darker and twisted. As well as a lot of the story threads get connected. The last 15% of the game is pretty amazing and carries the first 85% of the game's slow-burn very hard. I'm not sure if this is a fine way to tell a story since Zero has pacing problems regardless of how good its final moments are though. Also, I do not like how the true main villain of the game is basically a repeat of the main villain of the Sky games but even more twisted and evil. The game even clearly pointed that out and I thought it was a bit unoriginal. Not to mention, the execution doesn't hit as hard. Despite all of this, this gives the SSS a lot of fortitude and it plays as a strong strength for the character writing. Sadly I can't go into details without spoiling but it's great.

What really hits home for me about Zero is its messages about justice, the corruption inside the police and the political world, power balance, citizen mistrust, and seeking reform. Despite starting Zero before the current protests and riots etc. It couldn't be perfect timing since at least here in the USA. We are currently struggling with these same issues with police corruption and misuse of power. Zero also clearly points out that even those that work in the police can't do much about the corruption unless there is major reform from multiple organizations. Zero also hit home in a very personal way about relying on your friends during your strongest hardships and not going through your problems alone or trying to resolve everything by yourself. I tend to do both quite a lot. So it's rather assuring for the game to tell me I'm not alone and I do have people that want to stand by me.

Zero isn't a perfect game at all due to its iffy story pacing and dialogue/gameplay balance. In fact, Zero isn't even my favorite Trails game. but Zero is probably going to be one of the games that personally means a lot to me. I love the cast so much, they're some of my favorites in the series, the city is very relatable to me and the messages hit home, especially now during these hard times both personally and the world around me. I say despite its problems, I am glad I played this game.

-Written on August 12, 2020-

The story in Azure has to be one of the tightest written tales I have seen in anything, not just in video games. Right from the get-go, Ao starts off by resolving a major plot point from Zero and it doesn't let up at all. There are tons of subplots sprinkled in the plot and it's all connected. Political tensions and the verge of war, the backstories of some characters begin to catch up, a mysterious powerful organization begins to act again, the Sept Terrions begin to spin out of control, the biggest secrets from Zero get revealed and there's just plenty of jaw-dropping dramatic events that occur near the end of the game. Not to mention there is just plot twist after plot twist to the point the game just gets insane with it but everything is explained so well. Everything subplot and character arc connect in the end as well. It's really hard to capture all of this without spoilers but Ao is a ride and it doesn't end. No not even the game's ending doesn't end the story since it directly led up to Cold Steel 3 at the very end.

The character writing is also expanded and really goes into a deep dive with the character's motives, beliefs, and even how they like when they are more relaxed. I love the SSS back in Zero but now they're hands down my favorite cast period. The main four characters are easily some of my favorite characters in any series but I certainly love the rest of the allies since they grow on you and they develop. Heck even the villains, I couldn't find myself disliking a single one of them despite they did plenty of things that aren't okay lol. But they're pretty charming and had a decent reason for their ideologies and executions. I just really enjoy the themes they beat over your head like getting over barriers, being there for your friends, and finding a new purpose. It really helps me overcome my own challenges and that is probably why I'm so attached to these characters. They are almost like real people that want to motivate you.

Azure isn't flawless of course but honestly so is every Trails game. The main issue I notice from Ao is how the game is a bit too haremy at times (Like 5-6 girls being all over Lloyd is a tad too much) plus the bonding system is honestly awful. There is no way you can unlock more than one final bonding event in a single playthrough without using a guide since the game doesn't explicitly keep track of that. Plus the finale is a bit draggy and kinda lose it super tight nonstop pacing the rest of the game had. I get why the finale is that long, but it kinda looses up a bit. I mean these are minor problems and Cold Steel as a whole is generally worse with all of this but people love to think the harem problem and weird pacing started at Cold Steel and the Crossbell games are flawless.

That said, Azure is easily one of my favorite video games, one of my favorite stories, and has my favorite cast period (and I never had a clear favorite for cast). It's tied with Cold Steel 3 for my favorite Trails game as well as my favorite JRPG. I love Azure that much and I can see why the Trails fanbase praises the game so much. There is so much I want to talk about with the story but it's so spoiler-heavy but huge props to Falcom for fixing my biggest gripe I had with Zero and building upon it so naturally and smoothly. Really if you do play the Crossbell duology, you're in a ride for some of the best story writing I have ever seen, since Azure works off from Zero that much. Like as far as stories go, I put it at the same level at 20th Century Boys, Radiant Historia, and Pandora Hearts and if you know me enough, you know I heavily praise those two a lot.

Sky 3rd is honestly one of my least favorite of the series from what I have played. I mean don't get me wrong it's still a good game. I just fail to see how it's the most important game in the series like many people say and praise it like a huge "lore library". It's honestly more of a super long conclusion to FC and SC imo. While some doors are super important and do lead into the future games well or really clear up some questions that happened in FC/SC, other doors felt like a filler anime episode or not as satisfying as I hope to be. I guess I prefer a Trails game more like FC/SC than 3rd.

Kevin and Ries's story is easily my favorite part of the game since it was surprisingly darker than I thought and both characters developed well because of it. It took a while to really pick up but it paid off nicely in the end. The gameplay is also the best in Sky, even if it has tons of annoyances against enemies (looking at you, petrification one-shots) and the dungeon grinding was more fun than I thought.

The ending was super nice and kinda emotional, especially since it felt like a proper send in the Liberl arc, something we didn't get as well in SC.