A Very SOLID Entry in the Series - Let's Talk About It: Trails of Cold Steel
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- Опубликовано: 24 июл 2024
- On the surface, it kinda feels like FF Type 0 if it had turn based combat, heh.
Trails of Cold Steel, or Sen no Kiseki, takes place alongside some of Trails from Zero, and most of Trails to Azure. It is the first of four games that form the Erebonia arc of the series. The game can also serve as an alternate entry point into the series, as unlike most of the games it does not heavily rely on you having knowledge of the previous titles, which likely helped to bolster its popularity amongst both long-time fans and newcommers alike.
The PC version was used for this review. Trails of Cold Steel is currently available on PS3, PS Vita, PS4, PC, and Switch (Asia only).
0:00 - Intro
0:44 - Setting
1:10 - Can you Play Cold Steel 1 First?
3:35 - Back to the Setting
4:11 - Battle System Basics
6:12 - Turn Order and Bonuses
6:58 - New QoL Mechanics
7:21 - Unbalancing, Linking, and Link Attacks
8:38 - Orbment Layout, Arts, and Master Quartz
10:05 - Surface-Level Thoughts on the Story (No Spoilers)
10:52 - Spoilers From This Point Onward
11:13 - Talking About the Main Protagonists (Spoilers)
30:56 - Talking About the Main Antagonists (Spoilers)
36:56 - Thoughts on the Remainder of the Story (Spoilers)
Trails to Azure Review (previous game):
• I AZURE You, It's Pret...
Trails of Cold Steel Funny Moments:
• Trails of Cold Steel F... 
Игры
"CP stands for craft points." That's what they WANT you to think!
Oh no....
DG propaganda
@@weaponsci Cult's basically has been terminated, but they left so much sh*t, that they still mentioned till Kuro 💀
@MatsuSenpaii makes sense. Even in real life it can take a long time to heal from being in a cult tbf
_Chris Paul enters the chat_
A point about Machias also, he even admits that he knows it's irrational to hate all nobles but because of how his older sister died because of them he says he needed something to blame and hate to cope.
Finally the question "Can you play CS first?" is answered correctly.
Yes, you can, but you should go back and play the other games before CS3.
@@skyknight0408 Exactly.
The correct answer will always be
"Play release order, otherwise CS1-2 and go back is your next best choice"
Honestly CS1 and CS2 in my eyes are there own arc, CS3, 4, and Reverie are a wrap up of everything else
My favorite way of referring to CS1 is by calling it 'The longest First Episode of any Gundam series I have ever seen' as it really does touch on most every Gundam trope (well, except for people dying constantly) that you would expect from the first episode of a Gundam series, right up to showing off the main Mobile Suit right at the end of the first episode.
Never seen Gundam, but I can believe it. CS1 is probably the only game I have ever played that gave me a tutorial for an entirely new combat system at the VERY END of the game. Hell it's technically the post final boss of CS1.
25:44 You have conditioned me to the point I fully expected Get Over the Barrier to start playing when you said The Word.
Same, lol
Same
This was my first Trails game. A friend of mine recommended it to me and I played it in early-mid 2019. I loved it so much, I bought 2 immediately after and played it. After that, I played 3, then went back and played the Sky trilogy, then 4 and then Zero, Azure and Reverie as they released.
So hyped for Daybreak this July!
Big fan of Fie, Alisa, Sara and Towa!
My first Trails as well. I had planned to go back and play the older ones after it, but then the cliffhanger happened and I decided to close off this arc first. Then Zero released while I was playing the Sky games and Azure right after I was finished with those, so my return to Erebonia got delayed by a couple of months.
It was my first as well. I beat it exactly one week before _Trails of Cold Steel II_ released on PS3 in Europe. Longest week of my life.😂
In terms of 'first game of the arc' games, I think Cold Steel ranks either first or second depending on the day. Haven't played Calvard yet obviously, but for the first three arcs CS1 is a very solid game.
6:55 I felt that in my soul especially during finale. A solid review. I like the part where you tackle "should I be playing previous entries to understand this?" with much consideration and delicately. Looking FORWARD to your CSII funny moments, RELENTLESSLY...
Stopped everything to watch this. Great review.
Forward, Relentlessly into CSII
Fun tidbit, the three guys from Crossbell you showed as being examples of nobles talking down to commoners (the ones who nearly got disemboweled by Shirley) are not Erebonian nobles, but nouveau riche yuppies from Calvard who are probably more akin to Alisa in terms of background than Patrick.
It's mentioned that Scarlet lost her hometown because Osborne built a railway through it. Although the fact that she wields a templar sword and has variations of Ries Argent's crafts gives you another little tidbit about her background.
My apologies. I thought they were Erebonian but I guess that's what I get for waiting so long between Azure and CS1.
If I recall, there were some erebonian nobles you could speak to at Mishelam back in Zero? Like I wasn't tripping was I?
@@weaponsci No there were indeed some there. The fishing guys were also nobles too in fact the Lakelord family is suppose to be a very popular family since its the one who actually makes a lot of the fishing gear you've used in a bunch of games.
10:49 Seriously though Beryl is one of my favorite NPC characters in the series. She shows up several more times across the Cold Steel Arc and tends to leave you with more questions than answers.
At the end though, Towa, Emma and Fie are best girls, Alfin is the kind of person I'd want as my best friend, it's hard not to like Laura, and Alisa is actually a pretty good character that not a lot of people appreciate.
I think that Rean is a pretty good protagonist, he's just a bit more slow burn than the others.
18:06 A lot of the friction between the Noble and Commoner classes in modern Zemuria is, I think, an artifact of the Orbal revolution. Similar to the real world industrial revolution, conveniences that would normally only belong to the nobility are becoming more and more common place. People don't need to work for nobles in the same way they did in the past, etc.
However, the real issues are compounded by nobles who live for the good old days of yesteryear, and the nobles and commoners who are adapting to the rapidly shifting times.
20:27 Jusis and Machias are frenemies. They're like the two guys who say can't stand each other but, they're actually almost best friends.
42:32 So, fun fact: This scene where Rean first calls Valimar may or may not be a reference, or contain references to, a little known JRPG called Xenogears.
Looking forward to the coverage of Cold Steel 2.
Thare was a really cool thing i found for the cold steel ganes called the Sen Patcher, which has a feature that allows you to fix the turbo button from skipping all animations
Thanks for reminding me I need to install that for CS2 lol
Please do it makes the game feel so much better.
I literally would have stopped cold steel 1 mid way if I hadn't done that
Greatly enjoy watching your videos man! Excellent work! It's awesome watching new fans to the series go thru them. I discovered the franchise in 2021 and played them in release order. Currently on Kuro 2 and the series is phenomenal. Cannot WAIT to see you do CS2!
Oh, also, in the Gaius segment you mentioned different belief systems and how you like that. You see a bit more of that in the Kuro games and really nice.
Gotta say, great review! Excited to see your experience with cold steel 2 whenever you decide to continue.
Congratulations on making me go "hahaha... ha...HAHahaHA HAH" at no less than three points throughout the review. Fun stuff awaits you in the remaining CS games.
I just realized the importance of Misty's glasses so thanks for that
A little add on:
While misty/vita is not blue haired. But vita wear BLUE dress and her opera title is "THE AZURE DIVE" while her anguish title is "THE AZURE ABYSS."
This was the first Trails game I finished, I played the series in this order:
CS1->SKY:FC-> SKY:SC->SKY:3RD
->CS2->ZERO->AZURE->CS3->CS4
What was cool was when I played CS1 some of the reveals about Jaegers had a lot more impact when I played Zero IYKYK. Plus I don’t think the way I played was not a bad alternative as there were some reveals that had more impact cause I didn’t know what happened in those previous entries thus I had a strong desire to play those games. Release order is still the best way to experience the series however I’m really glad CS1 is also a great entry point.
A little thing that this game has that other previous don't is that stat quartz no longer have debuff penalties. For example attack quartz no longer reduce you def stat. Also link attacks have a level. Higher the level, higher the chance of happening. Like defending a weak partner, a free heal or a revenge counter. Also at max level you have rush 2.
Dammit I knew I forgot something, but yeah those were very neat changes/additions as well.
@@weaponsci Haha, this game is radically changed compared to the other PSP era games. So is hard to keep up with every changes they made. From the third game i had a little learning to do with the new combat menus, but once you get them, is really fast peaced compared to the wheel type menu of the others.
LETS GOOOOOOOO BEEN LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS!
2 minutes to cast an art was a bold choice on the devs' part, but probably a necessary nerf. Really makes you appreciate that adamantine shield.
Great video as always!
It's funny how you mentioned stumbling upon this series looking for something like P5. That's exactly how I picked up CS1. And I played through and beat it and CS2 in like, the span of a month. I was addicted, any time I wasn't in class (this was my freshman year of college.) I was playing Cold Steel trying to fill that void left by Persona. Instead I found a true gem. That summer I would play through Sky, and after waiting about a year, and the Geofront translations progress for Crossbell being slow, I would go ahead and download the unofficial translations of the Crossbell games and beat them at the end of 2019, about a year and a half after I played the sky games. After that, I have played CS3, CS4, and Reverie on their release date, and have my limited edition of Daybreak on preorder.
Persona 5 is a joke compared to any of the trails games. Nothing about it is like Persona 5.
@@xSpyroTheDragon Regardless of what you think, the way I discovered ToSC and the Trails franchise by extension was by googling "Games like Persona 5" in early 2018. 🤷🏻♀️ And found it listed in an article, so clearly some people note the similarities with the school theme, turn-based combat, and the bonding events you can do with NPCs.
I've just beaten CS1 last week, and ur videos are MUST-WATCH after every kieski game! keep the good work buddy hope you get to finish CS2 before me.
Hey, the video is here. Nice!
I won't rant on it (or do the same when the CS2 funny moments videos comes out because I'll be much more busy in the future to write a pavement😅) and instead just point things out in your video.
- Something you could've added in the combat section because it's a pretty important change; is that they changed how status ailments work, before it was either you're immune or you're not, and now the efficacy is percentage-based, which grant a great diversity on how ennemies can resist, be immune, or be weak to certain aiments, including bosses; and makes ailment builds with our characters more viable in the long run instead of being completely useless at the endgame like the other entries.
- For Rean, another aspect you failed to mention is that he seem to also have a self-worth problem, that's mentionned several times in the game with Jusis, Alisa, Laura to an extent and of course Elise.
- Nitpick for Alisa's story, her grandfather didn't stepped out because he didn't want to do the project, he was basically forced out by his daughter after being overruled by everyone she convinced. Alisa's story is also one of taking responsibilities, for a good portion of the game, she tries to run away from her own name (literally, by running away from home and hiding her family name at school); then after the events of the Nord Highlands, chose to acknowledge it and to look for a solution, and then she confront her mother at Roer and decide to plainly embrace her role as scion of the company and lead it toward a more righteous path.
- Nothing to say on Elliot really, you summed it up rather well.
- For Laura, while what you say is reasonably true, I'm surprised you didn't mention her beef with Fie in her character, because that's the part where her flaws and growth are more apparent, she's a bit narrow-minded and has a hard time accepting opposing values from her, so she must learn to be more open to these values and reevaluating her own (though this one is shown more with her relationship with her club member Monica).
- For the Gaius part, you don't seem sure but the Nord Highlands AREN'T part of the empire, they have a close relationship with them due to the War of the Lions (and is probably one of the main reason why Erebonia hasn't annexed this territory), but they're not a part of it; as proof, the republic has a base in the Highlands, just like how the empire has a gate and watchtower, it serves more as a buffer zone between the two countries, which is important due to the events occuring while we're there as well as the reason for why Gaius joined Thors: because he wanted to find a solution to protect it from these possible threats that can destroy it.
- Jusis, I'm surprised you didn't mention the Noble Commoner dynamic much sooner because that's kinda one of the biggest conflict of the game and of Erebonia as a whole which led to the Civil War at the end of game. The passage you chose from Azure to show that the beef was present even in Crossbell is a bit faulty, because first, these assholes aren't Erebonians, they're Calvardians, and second, they aren't even technically nobles, their fathers are higher-ups in the Verne Company, which is why they're rich and are condescending to everyone, they're basically daddy's boys. And the part on Rean probably should've been brought up during his part of the video, because it also plays into his problematics that I mentionned above.
- I'm surprised you didn't call Machias a tsundere as well because he also does fit that profile XD, and as you mentionned just after, his relationship with more akin to a rivalry than hate or contempt, especially since they learned more about each other and came to an understanding when they were in Bareahard (especially Machias learning more about Jusis), they still bicker from time to time later on, but you can tell it tooked a more healthy turn instead of the constant tension of the first two chapters. His father isn't the Governor of Erebonia, but the Governor of Heimdallr, the capital, probably a slip of the tongue, but it's still important because Heimdallr Isn't Erebonia and the nobles still have power everywhere else outside of the capital and its suburbs. Otherwise, the summary was good; and lastly, you could've mentionned that the Regnitz family made themselves from scratch, coming from the lowest echelon of society, they manged to climb it until reaching one of the highest position in the government, the complete opposite of nobles who are destined to rule and having their titles granted from birth.
- You summed up Fie well, as well as her development in this game; though just a small nitpick: Garcia didn't join Revache because Zephyr disbanded, it was far earlier than that, Zero mentionned that he left around when Macaroni contacted him to help take control of Revache through a coup against the previous don, which was apparently 8 years ago, so 7 years before the duel between the two corps. Hell, I don't know if Fie has even met Garcia, because it's possible that he left before the Jaeger King adopted her.
- Yeeeaaahhh, for Emma, wait for the sequel, that's all I'm gonna say.😅
- Nothing to say on Millium either, except that she was also tasked to keep an eye on the schoolhouse and what happens here in addition to her main mission.
- Onto the Sara section; ehhh, your phrasing is not the right one, Sara isn't the only one with no formal military training, because from what we see, not all instructors can fight (Heinrich and Mary for instance), and Thomas and Makarov have unusual weapons that I don't know if traning with it can be considered "formal military training" (orbal staves are quite new after all), however Vandyck, Beatrix and Neithardt does fit that category; it's more that her fighting style is quite unusual for a military academy, which make sense since sometimes, bracers are self-taught (like Agate); add to that her background and personnaily and you can see why Neithardt is worried that we leave traning the new generation of soldiers to her XD.
- I'm quite surprised you made a whole section for Angelica, but not for Towa despite her being more present and even having her own bonding event; also, I'm glad you seem to get the point of her character, many people just see her flirt with women and leave it at that when she has more to it, especially regarding her status as noble. Also, I like that you compare her with Fie in the "I don't give a shit" category, but said that at least she can hold her own in a fight, as if Fie, the literal child Jaeger and evasion tank of Clas VII, can't hold her own in a fight XD.
- An Olivier segment ? Alright then, good summary, I'll add that I think what motivated him to start the Class VII project during the Liber Ark incident was Estelle and the Sky party specifically, when you think about it, Estelle managed to gather people from all sorts of background, social classes, even countries (Olivier being an Erebonian, Zin a calvardian, Kloe being royalty, Scherazard a reconverted troupe performer, Tita a child prodigy, Agate a tortured young man, etc...) accepted their differences and making them work toward the same goal; even though some coincidences were present, that doesn't change the fact that what she did was amazing and quite unheard of, so he tried to put it to practice in his country, putting people from all walks of life into the same class and making them interact so they can understand each other, as well as facing the factional conflict of the empire head on; so that once they become adult, they can work towards reaching an understanding; it's quite a long-term plan, he wish to create a generation that will reconcile with each other instead of quarreling like currently. The joke on Class VI being skipped was already made at the start of the game, though many people do indeed call Towa's group Class VI or proto Class VII even though it's never official; and you say the Courageous is just a red Arseille, but while it's just a bit slower than the Arseille, it's twice its size, has more armor, and manage to integrate several countries' technologies into its design, it's more than just a copy, it's a personification of his ideals as he put it.
- For the villains, Nothing to say on Gideon except, is it really dying off-screen when you show him literally die in the video🤔?
- Actually, we DO know a little bit about why Scarlet joined the ILF, Vulcan said it himself in chapter 6, she lost her hometown when Osborne built a railway through it.
- I think Valcan is well aware that Jaegers must be prepared to die in the line of duty someday, that's the fate of Jaegers who walk the thin line between life and death, he even say himself that it isn't about who's right and who's wrong, it's just extrememely personnal for him and that's what matters, being the lone survivor of a slaughter is kind of traumatizing who matter what type of person you are.
- Nothing to say on Crow, moving on.
- Regarding Emma not being able to find Misty/Vita, it's kind of funny to learn that everyone except her knew of Misty of Abend Time but she was shocked to learn that she was this close the entire time XD, though my guess on it was that Vita was well aware that Emma was here and she purposefully avoided crossing path with her, and if she has magic, she'd have no trouble concealing her presence to her; though I also like to think that if Emma wasn't so secretive with everyone regarding her mission, she could've found her much sooner because EVERYONE knew Misty, so her unwillingness to share what she knew ended up backfiring on her.
- Bleublanc being Bleublanc, nothing to see here folk
- While I agree that revealing the victor of the war in Azure was unncecessary, it brings a different kind of tension to the story, much like what they did with Rixia/Yin in Zero and Azure; normally it would be about "who" will win, but when you know in advance the outcome, the focus shifts into the "how" they win. For exemple: Persona 5, the game starts in the future with the arrest, and each time at the start of the chapter, they tell us who was the target, so the who is a mystery for nobody and our interest shifts into how they perform such heists against hopeless odds, same for the arrest, we know it happens, so the question is rather how did that happen.
- I was about to comment about the iron being sent to the black market, but then you mention where the iron truly went later on, so well played, you fooled me XD.
- For the rest: Millium didn't get a call from lechter, she was actually trying to call either him or Claire becaused she figured out by herself the identity of C (you can even see her being suspicious during the search for Crow with Rean just before). The Achtzehn Tanks aren't new, Alisa mentionned during the military exercice in Chapter 5 that they've been on the market for 2 years already. There was no mention of Zephyr participating in the attack of Heimdallr. Also, regarding enforcers, Bleublanc already stated in Sky SC that enforcers are not obligated to obey the Anguis and can do as they please, in other words, the Sky enforcers were with Weissman because they wanted to or had a different goal that align with his plan, not because they were ordered to; Novartis even mentionned your concern in Azure, and was rebutted by the first Anguis saying that it's a rule of the grandmaster, Sharon is just putting that rule to use, she chose to prioritize her role as a maid of the Reinford family instead of her role as an enforcer. I mean yeah, but also the OTHER difference in divine knight battle is that you play rock paper scissors with the opponent to find his weakness (I'm barely joking, striking the Body, Arms or Head to find the weakness is almost like rock paper scissors XD). Also, did you just say that Enormous Inner Strength is better than Merciless Savior and Azure Arbitrator ??!!!!?? Welp, be ready for the fandom torching you for such a take XD. So I don't get if you liked Cold Steel's cliffhanger more or less then the one from FC, my guess would be less based on you phrased it but I could be wrong. And finally, Cold Steel does begin around late Zero, but it ends a week after Chapter 4 of Azure ( because the speech of Osborne happened a week after the destrcuction of Garrelia, which is the same day the SSS was arrested and when the chapter ends), the Fragment chapter actually happened around the Prologue of Cold Steel 2.
And that's it, *look back to what I wrote* welp, I still wrote a ton, but less than I'm used to. Cold Steel 1 is considered to be one of the worst trails game for its pacing, the shift toward bonding event (which wasn't even his fault because Crossbell did it first, but since it was the first localized...😬) and the Harem aspect despite having well written characters; so I'm glad that you consider it to be a solid entry in the series (I don't get the jokke here btw, is it because it's solid like Cold Steel ?). I'll look forward to when you'll start Cold Steel 2 and do your funny moments videos on it, it's bound to be great.
PS: How the hell did I manage to not fit all of it into one comment when I say that I wouldn't rant ?!?!
@stratfor140 I was wondering if anyone was gonna figure out the solid thing was a pun.
Now STEEL yourself for at least three more lol.
38:00 Honestly, I kinda prefer knowing that the conclusion is known, because instead of worrying about whether or not something will succeed, I am more entertained by trying to figure out how they win despite so much working against them.
Then why not just play CS4 first? Same argument can be made.
@@pite9 Because knowing the conclusion is different from jumping in at the very end of the game, but arguably CS1 and Zero also kinda did that in a way with both opening during a point closer to the end of the game.
@@uchytjes10 I guess it's a bit different. But maybe a better comparison would be if you read up spoilers on what happens at the end of CS4. Then you started playing CS1. I just don't see how you could argue that spoiling events makes things better. It could at best offer an interesting unorthodox perspective, but certainly it would be less interesting for the vast majority of players. For me who started Trails with CS1-2, especially the ending of CS2 did hit hard on me because I didn't know what was going to happen. This allowed me to really emphasize with Rean in that moment.
@@pite9 Spoilers exist on a continuum of sorts where on one end you have zero context for the spoiler and the other end you have all the context. If you're going to spoil something strategically you want to avoid both extremes and hit somewhere in the middle.
For instance take the prologue of CS1: in it you're bombarded with a lot of information without any solvable answer, like who are these people, why are they here, what is even happening. However, you are given some concrete things that, if you have played Crossbell, you know are goddamn huge, like that this is happening during the trade conference and that the railway guns are goddamn terrifying.
It creates intrigue and gets you into the world without leaving you with no answers as to where this is going.
I would go into Osborne's whole schtick, but a lot of that hinges on spoilers so I can't really go into detail. However, I will say this: CS1/2 was originally planned to be a single game but, much like Sky 1/2 it got split for time. Had it been a single game, Osborne's whole deal probably would've worked a bit better.
Great video man. Looking back at Cold Steel 1, it really is such a great way to start the Erebonian arc. Some people like to say that it is slow, but I love how they flesh out all of the characters. Class VII is a great cast because they all have their moments and even if it seems like they didn't do much in this game, there is more payoff for them in the later games. The side characters are all really good too. The twins, Rex, Munk, Kenneth, and Annabelle are some of my favorites. That aside, Fie is best girl, followed closely by Emma.
One of my favorite things about the Trails series is the progression with the combat and how things have more or less been the same since Sky FC, but they add little things like Master Quartz, reserve party members, and now link attacks. The combat is so much fun.
I missed most of your CS1 funny moments because you started CS1 before me, but now I'm playing Reverie. lol I will definitely be watching your CS2 funny moments and look forward to all of your reactions for what is to come.
I'm still coming to terms with the fact that you started after me and are already well into Reverie lol.
I think the one thing that concerns me about CS is how bad the character bloat is going to be. Class 7's starting lineup at the beginning of this game is bigger than Crossbell's endgame roster, and if you include Millium, Crow, Sarah and Angie, is almost as big as Sky's endgame crew.
And I hear it only gets bigger...
I'm late to the viewing, but thank you for the video.
Can't wait for you to cover Cold Steel 2 because it also has a lot of spices.
I absolutely love the themes of this arc, with my favorite one being how the characters are impacted by the sins of the father (or prior generation). I particularly noticed this when the faculty stood up against the soldats, with each of their fighting styles mirroring someone from class 7.
As a whole I love how this series tackles the theme of consequences related to society progressing too quickly
I laughed when the engineering guys at Garrelia complained about the use of email extending their workdays. 🤣
Cant wait till he gets to CS3 onwards and these videos will be at a minimum 2 hours long keep grinding homie
I might have to split the Reverie video into two parts because a friend told me it had like 50+ playable characters 💀
@@weaponsciyes but... Without spoilers I can't explain why it isn't actually +50 playable characters in a general main story sense
damn, i just got back from work. Now i found something to watch while eating. Thanks weapon😂
That's me. I finished Persona 5 then was looking for JRPG that was kinda sorta like it and found Cold Steel. It wasn't a bad first entry, since I ended up playing every other game in the series.
I really like the cold steel games and i think the polarizing parts of them are not nearly as bad as many make them out to be
Ive been looking for a video to help a friend understand the series. Gonna use this
Enormous Inner Strength was definitely my favorite boss track out of that and The Decisive Collision in the CS series until they broke out Jindo's super arrange version (of TDC)......
I was about to do some important things, but Weapons just posted a video. Oh well. Real life priorities aren't that important.
20:30 the governor of Heimdall, the capital of Erebonia
...
I feel stupid now 🙃
On the topic of little nodges and references towards previous games:
As someone who started from Cold Steel, playing older games after, gave me the same kind of feelings when events or characters who won't be properly revealed until later games were mentioned
Having played the series in chronological order since last year I absolutely don't understand anyone who says the order doesn't matter. Would you read any book series or watch any tv show in random order? That's how tight knit the plot is.
People want to justify skipping Sky and Crossbell because "HURRR DURRR old games"
Also your art is pretty nice! I like.
Pretty good,, I did notice some very minor errors(like saying machias dad is govenor of erebonia isnt wrong but not accurate) but I am glad you enjoyed the game. Cant wait to see you in Cold steel 2
Just a note - I’m pretty sure Garcia left Zephyr well before the big blowout between the two leaders. I don’t recall which game mentions it, probably one of the later ones; but I think it’s stated that he had left the corps a bit before Fie joined up.
Yes. Garcia left before the fight.
I'm surprised as you said CS1 is your personally favorite prologue game, because your pace was kinda slow rather than Zero, and I noticed the duration of your CS1 funny moment videos wasn't as long as Zero/Azure too. Otherwise, I'm still enjoying your playthrough. See you on Cold Steel 2!
I found out about these games when i bought them on sale on STEAM, i played ToCS I and loved it so i played the other 3, now i'm playing the Crossbell saga so i can really enjoy Trails into Reverie.
Little warning about Cold Steel 2. You know how you thought "I beat CS 1's final boss, I can wrap up the game before going to sleep", and it was a mistake?
Yeah, don't repeat it for Cold Steel 2, that would be worse
I can already see weapon waking up till midnight to beat the final boss and end up till the sun arise just to finish the chapter where we fight the "black haired boy" and only to find out the corridor
So about the combat shells, if you go back to the fight with weissman in Sky SC, the little adds that you fight before he fuses are proto-combatshells... just something to worry about as you play with her on your team haha
(Insert "are we the baddies?" here)
The noble alliance airship is actually even more well set up than you might think, when you're investigating the black market iron, they mention the numbers don't add up, so when the airship shows up you found where the missing numbers went.
29:44 I like to believe the fact that there is no Class VI is a stealth Monty Python reference.
22:35 - Garcia actually left Zephyr before the Boss passed away in his fight and has never met Fie, although I don't think it's ever explained why he left. This is confirmed in another CS game *way* down the line. In fact if Garcia was still around he may have taken over the leadership role like Sigmund with Red Constellation.
"Two minutes" sweet, new inside joke unlocked 🤣
Yup, there's a reason Fie is one of the most popular characters in the CS arc. Best girl for sure. As far as CS1 is concerned.
Weapons really out here giving us the lore for all the characters like its gonna be on the next worldwide Trails exam. I should take notes just in case... 😅
My opinion on the whole "Azure spoiling CS2" debacle is that it makes you more curious to see those events unfold. Especially the "how?" since after the ending of CS1 they seem nigh unstoppable. I can see how omitting that fact would help to raise tension though. Ultimately I don't think it really matters too much, but maybe I'm not being too harsh on their decision. So... bleh.
The Divine Knight Battles are so good, and they get better as the games progress. You thought this ending section was long though? Haha...
Amazing review 👏 loved every second. Now we can finally look forward... relentlessly... to CS2. Okay that was a bad ost reference 😅
Don't remind me. I stayed up insanely late while I played Cold Steel 2s finale and epilogue. I was trying to just finish the game and it took me another 3 days. I am dreading Cold Steel 3. It's gonna be so long! Longer than long! The longest- It's been days! I miss Killian.
Before Persona 5 was a thing Persona 4 Golden was why I got into Trails of Cold Steel.
There’s just something about Japanese School that fascinates me.
After Trails of Cold Steel I started playing Monark but it’s not the same thing unfortunately.
Rean may not seem like he has a personality. At first, he seems like your typical goody two shoes protag. But as you get further in, you realize that couldn’t be further from the truth.
He’s not as easy to discern as Estelle and Lloyd because he doesn’t really have a goal or ambition. In fact, he’s running away.
Lloyd and Estelle help people because they think that’s the right thing to do. Rean does it because he believes his only worth is helping others.
i don't know anything about this series, but one of the person being an angus beef had me dying
Since you play P5 first then eventually CS1 I have to ask you this.
Have you ever had an inkling if crow gonna be the traitor solely because of the same name and then doubt it because of the preconceived notion you had playing P5 that he didn't check the box to be the twist villain that end up missing the hint the game giving you that end up making the reveal even more shocking but at the same time and looking back you think "of course it's him"
Maybe too specific but you get the point.
TIL both P5 and CS1 have a traitor named Crow 😂
I will say, as much as I love CS1 as a starting point. I still advocate for going through the series chronologically. You won't experience the pure "Oh shit" energy if you don't have full context of what certain enemy leadership positions actually mean in the grand scheme of things. Don't get me wrong, you will still feel the "Oh shit" energy, but it's just that ever tiny bit diminished.
“He gets protective”
You don’t mean….
M O T I V A T E D ?
Patrick: *shows up to Ymir with flowers and chocolates
Rean: "YOU'RE NOT WORTHY AS MY BROTHER-IN-LAW!!"
I think what sometimes gets lost when talking about if Cold Steel 1 is a good starting point, is that "only CS1" as starting point vs "Cold Steel arc" as starting point.
Ideally people would start with CS1 and when they find they like the series jump into the older games before continuing with CS2, but a lot of people take that "starting with Cold steel" is fine and you won't miss stuff, as trying to play the cold steel arc before the others.
Make sure you get a new game+ save file for CS2 so you can see the new game+ cutscenes that are stated to have happened in CS3 (and will be called back to several times).
So yes you can play this game first in the series. The problem is after finishing 2 you should go back and play the others in sequence.
Auroboros is on every side but yours biggest opps
Do you spoil the game only for the first cs1 and old game or also included the tocs sequal ? Coz pretty sure allisa maid true identity is not revealed yet on cs1. I dont mind spoiler for cs1 and its past game since i play and finished them all but beyond cs1, not yet.
It is. It's revealed she is enforcer 9 at the very end of CS1
@@RaifSeverence hmm i see. Its been 3 years or more since i last play cs1. Im currently replaying it rn haha
wait a minute.. you forgot Towa
I was about to say it's because she was never playable but then I remembered Olivier wasn't either and I gave him a section.
I feel bad now 🙃
WTHHH I've just finished playing this game and I JUST NOW find out u can swap reserve members mid fight. Is this what I get for not putting quarts and equipment on reserve members T-T halp aidios huhu
RIP
All about Emma superemacy!!!!
SuprEMMAcy
Great review and i can not wait for both of us to get to the latter half of the Cold Steel games. Alisa and Rean get to live through "Suffering the movie" when we get there. I love Elliot and especially his dad. "Elliot my boy! Your fathers arms are ready and waiting for you to leap into them!" Olaf is one of the best dads in the series. He just really loves his little boy. And I mean, Elliot is pretty cute. The other characters are pretty cool too. The Albarea family has a really complicated situation, but we will both see it later. I hope you enjoy Cold Steel 2 and I am praying you do not get spoiled on any of the major twists! I want to see your blind reaction to everything! I need to hear your jaw hit the floor! Oh, and if you have trouble with the game like sound problems and controler disconnecting, just use your cable. The sound problems I have no idea how to fix. The music kept setting in at the wrong time, meaning your battle theme started like 5 seconds after the battle started and the victory music kept seeping into the overworld. The overworld theme also set in a few seconds too late. I hope you do not encounter this problem. I really liked this video. Keep up your crazy theories. Your blind reactions are the best thing ever. Have a wonderful day.
Thx same to you
Just you wait for CS2 - Fie will ascend from perfection to TRUE GODHOOD in that game (no story spoilers below!):
- She suddenly remembers that her gunblades have a gun part, and starts using said part for ranged counterattacks.
- She gets built-in 30% (THIRTY PERCENT) evasion. 100% EVA builds are easily doable. (Don't forget Wrath quartz (100% crit on counterattacks) for Brave Points generation and extra damage)
- Best of all: new self-buff craft with stealth. Being in stealth means two things: a) all your attacks and crafts (sadly, not arts) have 100% crit chance, and b) enemies ignore you.
- There's a Master Quartz called Murakumo, which increases damage done by crits (up to 150% from default 50%). It works on counterattacks, too.
- Finally, Fie has a four-line orbment, which means up to four ailment\debuff quartz. You can even install all four dual ailment quartz at the same time. It's plague time! (This is also true for CS1)
Fun Fact!
...I'm out of fun facts lol.
He's reached his limit lol
@@weaponsci I'll be back. It's just that all the other facts I have could be viewed as spoilers. I'll find more by the time you stare uploading CS2 though.
Ofcourse i have to go to work
I played CS1 and CS2 first then Azure and Zero before starting CS3...
WeaponsCl : Oh , he has a brother too ? I guess he is cool .
Me : Let me hear you say that in ToCS 3 and 4 .
But Reverie though 😅
you didn't mention the best girl. who is she in your opinion?
He called Fie his Spirit animal...so prolly Fie
Aw shit I forgot to sound the alarm!
Gotta make sure to do it in CS2.
After being slightly disappointed with Trails to Azure, I ended up enjoying Cold Steel 1 more than I thought I would, considering what people usually say about this game. I may enjoy the twists and epic moments in Trails, but I think a lot of the charm in these games comes from the world building, fun dialogue and slice of life. I kind of see the Trails games as my "comfy games", and Cold Steel 1 is arguably the comfiest game in the series. I really liked the themes presented in the story too.
Given your last review title was "I AZURE you it's really something, I was kinda hoping this one would be "STEEL yourself for this one." Maybe next time.
While I did like this game, it was my least favourite arc-intro game. I saw what people meant about more cliches and generic stuff. I’m actually not much of an anime person. Trails, and now Falcom in general, are something of an exception. I’m much more an indie game person usually. Most of my knowledge of anime comes from Doki Doki Literature Club and stuff I’ve come across online. (I had to look up “Gundam” when you first mentioned it). So the fact that even an anime noob like me was able to pick up on cliches was not a great sign. Rean and Alisa’s accident in the Old Schoolhouse was an especially bad first impression.
I also thought the dialogue was a lot more stilted. Less sarcasm and inflection and nuance to what you’d hear in real life compared to Sky or Crossbell. I’m a linguist so these things stick out to me a bit. A lot of lines felt obligatory. Like they were just saying them because every Class VII member had to contribute something.
But like I said, it’s still a great game. And yes, the worldbuilding, attention to detail NPC dialogue and development is better here even than in earlier Trails, and THAT’S saying something. Idk if you noticed in Funny Moments, but there’s a character notebook which details not just Class VII, but ALL Thors students, and gradually unlocks more as the story progresses or you do certain sidequests or bonding events. There are even some minor students that go through whole arcs in the main story, voiced in mandatory cutscenes. Impressive, even for Falcom.
Surprised you didn’t mention the awkward on-off voice acting. I don’t mind it, budget can’t be helped but I find it pretty funny with mute Rean.
My protagonist ranking so far would be: 1. Estelle, 2. Kevin, 3. Rean, 4. Lloyd. I like ‘em all but Rean and Lloyd are a bit more vanilla than the Sky protags. Rean has the whole intrigue of his mysterious powers though, which edges him above Lloyd for me.
21:59 “You ever bump into someone and just think… perfection?”
Adol: “Well, I do the bumping part.”
23:08 Meanwhile, Fie’s care for anything going on is stored in her hair.
23:40 Blue hair in Trails: Twist villain.
Blue hair in Ys: Love interest.
27:28 Angelica can be a bit weird, but I don’t think she’s “the younger the better.” She just hits on every girl equally. I do wish they’d draw a line of creepiness, like how Olivier once or twice hit on Tita. It’s gross and they shouldn’t do it, but I try to forcefully shove aside moments like that as bad writing and don’t let them ruin my liking for the character, like Angelica and Olivier.
32:25 Ah, poor Gideon. Trail’s biggest failure of a villain.
33:33 Tbf, they did expect it to be an easy job, since it was just intended to be a little scare. Funnily enough, they never say exactly HOW they were slaughtered. Was it by soldiers Osborne hired? The Red Constellation again? Osborne himself? I feel that should be explained.
35:37 “How could I have been so blind?” No, SHE’S the one who needs glasses.
42:00 Sharon has very literal “bonding” events.
43:35 “Enormous Inner Strength”? Funny, if you mean the boss theme of the Loa Erebonius (the Old Schoolhous final boss), I know it as “Great Power.” I guess “Enormous Inner Strength” is a more literal translation and was renamed “Great Power” to sound punchier in English.
I promise I'll only ever write a comment this long for reviews. Glad you enjoyed and hope you enjoy future Trails!
Hey, remember me? Happened to see this in my subscriptions and thought I'd give it a watch, and I'm glad to hear that you're enjoying Cold Steel. That said I'm mainly writing this to give you an explanation as to why my comments stopped and why I stopped watching your videos(it has nothing to do with you, so don't worry about that).
Basically my enthusiasm for the Trails/Kiseki series is dead because unlike you, I sadly did not enjoy Cold Steel. Like at all. I'm currently halfway through CS2 and have been stuck there for over a year now because I simply am not having a good time with it and can't find the motivation to finish it.
My reason for not enjoying CS is pretty simple; In my opinion at least the character writing is much, much weaker compared to Sky and XBell. And since the strong character writing is what hooked me on the series to begin with(Estelle/Joshua/Agate/Kevin/Tio/Randy my beloved), you can see the issue. Now that's not me saying that Sky/XBell were perfect in that regard either as Zin/Schera and Elie/Noel were all weaker characters imo that all could've used fleshing out, but to me at least the lower level of character writing we got out of those 4 is now the standard of writing for all the characters in Cold Steel(Rean is especially egregious in my book as he's just every generic light novel isekai main character trope I hate, which is a massive problem for me when he's the MC of the arc). And when I don't find the story or gameplay all that compelling on their own merits I think you can understand why I've struggle to maintain my previous enthusiasm for the series.
Anyway, just wanted to give you a quick explanation of why I stopped watching your content just in case you were ever curious about that since I was originally such a dedicated commenter. It has nothing to do with you, it's just that I'm no longer enjoying the franchise in the way I used to and therefore don't really care to watch videos on it anymore, but I also didn't want to potentially poison your opinions on Cold Steel by saying these things on your Azure videos. And again, even if I'm not enjoying these games, I'm still glad you are. Everyone has different tastes after all.
Yeah I do remember you.
Each arc so far definitely tried going for a different feel (with some overlapping similarities and themes here and there) so it makes sense people will love/hate some more than others.
It's all good man. Life's too short to be spending it on things you don't enjoy. You shouldn't have to feel obligated to like a game just because everyone else does.
Olivier failed successfully when he made Class VII. Laura is the ONLY ONE who properly represents the class system. Everyone else is either a false noble, a wealthy/politically important commoner, or a foreigner who is completely divorced from the alien concept of 'noble/common'.
Missed opportunity; Towa is the only true 'low-born, make-ends-meet, beholden-to-their-betters' commoner in the entire extended cast of plot-relevant characters, and that bundle of real competence simply gives you side quests instead of being the mouthpiece of the masses she was set up to be.
Spoiler alert: shera and sarah do actually a drinking fight with other characters and both lose
The epilogue for Sky is actually a ton longer if you talk to everyone during it like I did, over an hour lol
I'd put Cold steel 1 or FC as my least favourite in the series. But honestly I love pretty much every game in the series so that's not really a knock against either of them plus I love class VII.
cold steel 1 you can play without prior knowledge, but spoils crossbell arc quite abit.
cold steel 2, the spoilers for previous games will be much more apparent in this game, and some events will be related slightly on the previous arcs, but not much. (one mini arc near ending needs you to actually play crossbell arc to actually understands wtf is going on though)
Cold steel 3, starting here, you will need significant story understanding on crossbell arc atleast to understands the event, as crossbell characters will start appearing from this point onward, and events and character story is tied to crossbell arc events.
Cold steel 4 however, you will need to play all games previously, as the events starts from here will link to all arcs, as all characters (most, atleast) will makes their appearance in this game.
and then, there's trails through daybreak 1 and 2, goddamn game kept bringing up old events from previous game arcs related stuff, though the game did explains some stuff what happened from the previous arcs, it's still didn't cover the whole picture. (multiple characters from the previous games are playable in limited story events)
Holy dung. Never has a trails content guy made a review on CS I agree so much with!
1: i always encourage people to start with FC, but also say CS is a fine starting place if they really really dont see themselves being able to get interested in the older games' dated graphics. I implore however do NOT start with zero. Zero spoilers are so much worse than CS IMO.
2: Alisa and Fie are in fact my "best girl"s too (for the first 2 games at least).
3: I too thought Alfin was amazing in CS. She felt like Olivier+ only somehoe even more fun as a troll since she is a cute but actually noble behaving princess (but still a troll).
Unfortunately they never really run with that impression later, dont get your hopes up too high =p.
4: I like FC more than CS, BUT the "unimportant" NPC chat in cold steel sets it WAY higher than the other arcs (which were already leagues beyond other rpgs)
There was more but now I forget. Doh.
You missed an Emma magic moment though btw, she also made Alisa's arrow go robin hood perfect accuracy thing when she shot that rope ladder.
Ooh!
5: fake final boss theme is indeed good. Everyone gushes at azure arbitrator but I prefer this game's. I find it ironic since Im a total metal head too and azure's is metallier but nah, this one has increased bestliestness.
OOHH
6: beryl is my fave "unimportant" npc too... she is even more interesting in 2 kinda BUUUT. She kinda hides and you can easily miss her the entire game like the LAST cs streamer I watched did. Argh.
The Hotest Take of the Video was saying CS1 had the best final boss theme in the series so far. I dont understand why you think that one is better than Azure's.
I'm a sucker for choruses
Nah dude Azure Demiurgos is overrated
Cold steel 1 is probably the world longest game tutorial 😂
the only bad thing about cs1 is alisa & angelica entire existence and the bad animations
the ost is perfect
I'm glad I'm not the only one who found the animations to be a bit robotic and awkward.
1:23
I'm not so sure. As someone who discovered and entered into the Trails series via Cold Steel without doing any prior research, I don't know if I'll ever be confident in suggesting that playing the other games before Cold Steel 1 specifically is objectively a better experience ( *CS1/Azure spoilers below* ):
Within the Trails fandom, the most popular opinion is that Cold Steel 1 is one of the lesser games in the series, if not the very worst. I think the reason for this is pretty obvious, and it personally makes me feel bad for the game: it does everything in its power not to step on the toes of the preceding games by refraining from giving too much context or showing events on Erebonia's borders in cutscenes (e.g. the white Aion is referred to as "an unknown weapon" and is never shown), while Azure stomps all over it and spits in the face of CS2 for good measure. If you play in release order, the biggest plot twist of the entire game was already heavily revealed before you even boot up the game, and if you're invested in Trails primarily for the story-many fans are, naturally-you'll be waiting until the last 3 hours of the game for something you already know is going to happen. That doesn't excuse CS1 from mostly idling plot-wise for the first 3 chapters-Duke Cayenne should have gotten _way_ more screen time, for example-but CS1 as a stand-alone game is at an inhrent disadvantage that Sky FC, Zero, and Daybreak 1 aren't, and I don't think it gets enough credit for fighting that uphill battle.
I started with Cold Steel 1 and I loved it. Sky FC was much less my style and I wonder to this day if I would have even played SC, let alone made it to Cold Steel, had I played in order because the ending of that game simply didn't do it for me. That's why I personally have disdain for how many fans adamantly proclaim that Sky FC is the only place to start, and I'm glad that that's not what you're doing here. I have more video to watch, so I'll likely be back. Thanks for this, as well as your other videos on the series.
Yeah Azure pretty much spoils the complete ending of CS2 except for one thing. And all of the questions this game asks will be answered at some point in the following 3 games.
I'm a certified Cold Steel hater for numerous, nigh uncountable reasons, half of which are massive spoilers. But even I like Cold Steel I and think it's the best Erebonia game (not counting Reverie).
(There is no canon ship for rean, alisa is pushed less as the arc progresses)
Incorrect. She gets a lot more intimate moments with Rean.
@@historian252 she does not unless you pick her
@@bluedolphina8977 Even if you don't pick her.
@@historian252alisa sucks
Worst heroine
As much as I like the Imperial Liberation Front, they don't hold a candle to the protags from Trails into Reverie, where we meet the Imperial Picnicking Front.
It's not until later that you find out that Emma is actually the most plot relevant character in CS 1. Alisa and Millium are directly linked to one half of everything that's going on in Erebonia; Emma is the direct link to the other half. Emma's Grandmother, who you won't meet until Cold Steel 3, is in the same position as Queen Alicia from Liberl and Dieter Crois from Crossbell: she's one of Zemuria's 7 clan elders.
You could just let him play the games and discover all of this for himself...?
Ay man, delete this. No one wants to be spoiled.
I dont think the question "can you play this first" was accurately answered. Because no, you cant. If you look at just this game, maybe, but as soon as you go into CS2 its almost mandatory to have played the previous games, CS3 makes it even worse. So at that point you might as well have just started with FC. There is actually 0 debate.
Heh, nothin personnel, kid.
no it is not a solid entry to the series
Keep that negativity to yourself next time.
@@Penguin1999sci lol
Based
Cold Steel sucks
Trash game that ruined Trails
💩💩💩