A trip down memory lane for myself, recounting the steps of how I came to find and subsequently adore the Trails Series. Hope you guys enjoy this mix of backstory and Trails praise (and YS too)!
Good detail: you mentioned how that interview went for that gig, and then you played the 'game over' music in the background. I could tell how that interview ended just from the music. Plus, it's great how your story comes full circle. My falcom story was very linear.
Yours is simular to mine. I wanted JRPG music. I started trails in the sky for about a couple of days.....years later played Trails of cold steel 1....(and become addicted to falcon). then went back to the sky while waiting for CS3 to come to the USA.....I am now a full on WHORE! Waiting on hajimari no kiseki to come to the USA. Right now I am playing Bravely Default 2......Love it and am impressed on how much they though the battle system through. But which they had full 3d graphics (come one square!). Anyway enjoyed the video thanks! It's nice getting my the kiseki nut fix.
It was the opposite for me. I played through Sky non stop in 2018. I played chapter 1 of CS1 and didn't pick it up back up for about 18 months. I picked it back up at the start of the pandemic and did not stop until I finished CS4. I even played the Crossbell games after CSII. Now I'm a fellow Kiseki nut. Now that Geofront has finished the Azure patch, I'll most likely play through that again. Can't wait for what's next.
@@boltinabottle6307 started CS1 got to Nord highland dropped game for a year came back finished it loved it beat 2 now starting the sky trilogy cause I'm hooked into the series
Good to know it's not just me. I started trails in the sky in april, was loving it but then got sidetracked with a whole bunch of other stuff. I'm starting to get back into it and I'm ready to go through the whole series.
Same. When he said he waited a couple weeks before buying and playing SC, I was ashamed by my lack of self-discipline: I bought it before the credits of FC finished rolling and played it the next day after work.
I probably didn't explain that too well, I finished FC in 2 weeks and bought the sequel immediately after. I went straight in as well so you're not alone. :)
I didnt play Sky FC and SC. I was looking for new rpg and found small RUclipsr name RNGenius he read all texts. I listened to it like a podcast. After slow start and once plot kicked in, it was interesting but the ending I had to grab my phone and see Weissman reveal. But I was hooked. After finding out Cold Steel was apart of series I bought the PS3 CS1 lionheart edition and CS2 at same time. But I had to know Sky story before I started those games. After binging on Sky SC and The 3rd. I started CS then got slapped by finding out about Azure and Zero. I rebought CS1 and CS2 on PC. I cant wait til CS4 drops in few weeks
@@ShimaS-0079 I couldn't wait for CS4 on PC. I got the PS4 version. No regrets so far. That ending of CS3 was such a cliffhanger and I have to see this wretched tale through to the end.
I built my first PC in 2021. I played my first trails because I couldn't buy a good enough gpu for any game I had planned to play, thanks to the gpu shortage/price hike. Biggest blessing in disguise ever.
2020 was largely garbage but because of the lockdowns I was able to discover this series. Sometime last May I was on RUclips looking for JRPGs to occupy my now extra free time and I found a video called "Top 10 JRPGs on PS4". Funny enough, Cold Steel was not actually on that list but literally the entire comment section was people upset that Cold Steel was not included on the list. Cold Steel 1+ 2 happened to be on sale at the PSN store at the time too so I bought CS 1 just to try it out. Shortly after finishing the prologue and chapter 1 I bought CS 2 and 3 right there and binged the games. (The 5 month wait from CS3 to CS4 was brutal enough for me, I can only imagine what it was like for people who had to wait year after year for each game to be released.) Then much to my delight I discovered there were 5 more games prior to Cold Steel. To this day I am still in awe of how they've crafted this universe and how well the games connect to one another. Needless to say I cannot wait to see where the series goes in the future.
My first Falcom game was trails in the sky. I was bored one night and was having a rough period in life and searched for a new game to play. looked at a few rpg games and something about the artstyle and the humor got to me. I finished that game in 8 days. It was only work, playing and little sleep during that period but was 100% worth it. The next day I started up sky second chapter. What can I say. I was hooked AF. Now I've played the sky arc, cold steel arc and Crossbell arc and nayuta. Now I cant wait to get my hand on Hajimari when it is translated to English. Thanks for always bringing us news about falcom games and sharing this story. Have a good day mate!
i told my friend at school that i was bored and had no games to play on my PS3. The next day he came to my house and lent me his copy of Trails of Cold Steel 1. At first, I wasn't too into it. It was a little slow for my taste. Then, I got to the ending. The voice acting, the twist, the music, it blew my mind. I replayed it almost immediately afterwards and ended up finishing Cold Steel twice.
During the course of life, I played countless games, however this series changed everything. I always wanted to play something like this. I remember the time and effort I used to put in every single game, let that be Liberl, Crossbell or Erebonia. All of them have a complete world of story telling, enchanted with the euphonious music, the cast is fullfilling and the content is amazing. Everytime there is a video you upload I watch it for sure, thanks man for sharing your story.
You pretty much summarised why the games are so special to us, naturally I agree with everything you said... including watching more of my content. :) (JK)
One of my favourite ever RUclips videos. I moved to China after university and felt a lot of joy in hearing your story and reliving the excitement you felt when you first made it out into Japan. Thank you!
For me I had bought a compile heart Title Dragon Star Varnir And purchased trails shortly afterward my curiosity was peaked by a gaming youtuber twit gamer after some time in varnir I elected to play the prologue Upon finishing said prologue I was hooked in a way that I never thought I would be I looked at the visibly generic rean and assumed I'd probably toss him in the bin with kirito as bland Hero Dude But as I played the game I realized that rean had problems that I not only faced but struggled to overcome I saw myself in him And it motivated me not just to see his story But to emulate his motivation to change I'd connected with him in a way I'd never done with any previous characters To say trails changed my life would be an understatement And shortly afterward I'd find a friend who would be the crow to my rean as we shared our interest in falcom's incredible achievement
My journey towards loving the Trails series was weird. I was browsing games to buy on Amazon when I saw Cold Steel 1 and 2. I didn't know what it was about them, but I suspected they were great games. I bought them and they entered my backlog. Later on, I bought Ys 8. Around this time, I saw Cold Steel 3. Remembering that I bought 1 and 2, I figured I might as well buy 3 so that I could complete the set. Fast forward, and Ys 8 exited my backlog. I thoroughly enjoyed it, so I ended up playing it to completion shortly after beginning it. I noticed Falcom made the game, so I started seeing what else they had created. It was at this time I noticed they also made the three Cold Steel games I bought. Upon searching, Cold Steel 4 had recently released in the US. I knew I wanted it, but I didn't know why. Keeping in mind that I still hadn't played any of the previous games, but I liked what Falcom did with Ys 8. In order to justify the purchase of Cold Steel 4, I began playing Cold Steel 1. The way I saw it was I could allow myself the purchase of Cold Steel 4 if I began actually playing the series. 120 hours later and I completed Cold Steel 1. I immediately began playing Cold Steel 2, but I only made it three hours in and I didn't have time to go back to it. A few months passed and I had already forgotten most of the story. Much later on, I ended up getting time and motivation again to play the series again. I saw that I had last completed Cold Steel 1 in August of 2021. It dawned on me that it was already August of 2022. I couldn't believe an entire year went by. Instead of trying to pick up where I left off in Cold Steel 2, I dedicated myself to restarting Cold Steel 1. I remember the story was good, but I knew that I had forgotten most of the subtler pieces. I wanted to make sure that I didn't miss or forget anything before starting the journey over. 80 hours of Cold Steel 1 later, and it felt like I just re-watched my favorite TV series. I saw bits and pieces that I didn't notice before. The story and characters had me gripped. Even minor NPCs I could name at just a glance from down the hall. I realized that I was screwed, but in a good way. The series had captivated me in a way that was so much greater than my first playthrough of Cold Steel 1. Cold Steel 2 came and with it went 200 more hours of my life that I was all too happy to spend on it. "To A Glimmering Tomorrow" will go down as one of my most favorite musical tracks of the entire series and one of my most favorite tracks of all time in general. I only began to feel slight RPG fatigue when beginning Cold Steel 3. But the story and new characters gripped me again, even more so than the characters of the first two games. Upon the conclusion of Cold Steel 3, I finally cracked open Cold Steel 4. It was funny how I only began The Legend of Heroes as a way to stave off buyer's remorse from greedily purchasing the other video games in the series without playing them. There's been so many games that I've bought that will never exit my backlog. My journey in the Trails series might never have started had I not felt guilty for buying the whole set without playing even a single game. I was afraid that I wouldn't finish Cold Steel 4 before Trails into Reverie became available. About halfway through Cold Steel 4, I knew that it wasn't going to be a problem. Waiting for Reverie to release felt like the longest month of my life. I couldn't remember the last time I was so excited about a video game coming out. Day 1 purchases are not uncommon for me, but actually playing a game on Day 1 is rare. Most games enter my backlog and stay there for several months, if ever exiting. I just completed Trails into Reverie yesterday. I looked at the calendar and noticed that it's already September. For the past year, I had almost exclusively played The Legend of Heroes. A thousand hours, more or less, spent in-game. Now, I'm looking at Zero, Azure, and the Sky trilogy. I never even thought to give these games consideration, but after completing the journey, I want to see what it is they have to offer. For the most part, I already know what happens in Zero, Azure, and the Sky trilogy thanks to video summaries and reading. But something is drawing me to them. Weirder still, despite playing nothing else for an entire year.... I really just want to insert Cold Steel 1 and start all over again.
I just want to say that I love the behind the scenes into your life aspect of this video. I am subscribing just based on this alone. I like watching people explaining why a video game is good but giving all this context around it puts it in a completely different level for me. Hopefully there's more like this on the channel.
A friend of mine showed me a picture of Emma and I was curious at the character design. I wishlisted Trails of Cold Steel and I eventually got it early summer of 2019. After the prologue, I essentially played the game until completion in a few days. The cliffhanger was so gripping, I immediately bought trails of cold steel 2. I've loved all the Cold Steel games and will be playing the rest of the series very soon.
NGL, I came for Kiseki content, but your backstory really hit home, also went through Business, a period of having no idea WTF I was going to do with it, the Sales interview where I said "screw this" and left early, and thank god I didn't get into sales. Everything else was different LOL, but appreciated the post-grad struggles.
Awesome Video! Thank you for sharing. I started playing ToCS1 and 2 on PlayStation Now and was instantly enchanted by them. Having just finished Persona 5, I loved the game play and found myself getting completely caught up in the lives of Class 7. It was shortly thereafter that they re-released both games on the PS4. I have now finished the entire Cold Steel Saga and I'm looking forward to revisiting Erebonia soon.
I got into Trails throught the youtuber BigKlingy. He did an infomational 100% let's play for Sky FC & SC. I fell in love with the world and characters. I played Sky the 3rd as my first Trails game that I played by myself and now it is my 3rd favorite game of all time.
Ys 8 was my start back in 2019 when I was browsing for games on Amazon, fell immediately in love once I heard sunshine coastline hit my ears. Not so soon after, after completing the game I started watching channels like this one and a few others to see reviews for the game. Reading the comment sections of each video was how I found out about falcoms other masterpiece, the legend of heroes.
Started with the Cold Steel 1 and 2 on the Vita, expanded to Ys viii and Tokyo Xanadu. Now exploring the rest of the Trails series. Falcom is fast becoming one of my favorite JRPG developer.
I don’t wanna make this comment TOO long, so in an extremely abridged series of events, kinda found Tokyo Xanadu by accident, played it, loved it, went on to play Ys VIII, loved it even more, then moved on to the Trails of Cold Steel games, and just absolutely fell in love. This channel has actually helped a lot with my understanding of the Trails universe, so thanks a lot for the hard work man. Your videos are much appreciated.
Thank you as always for your support bud, and for sharing your story too! Honestly after playing so many stellar Falcom games it's difficult to find anything else that matches them, especially on the Trails front.
For me the moment was when Estelle and Joshua have sandwiches on the bench. It brought me back to a trip I took with a friend about a year prior. I suddenly saw that trip as a precious, important memory; that memory may have never gained its real meaning without that moment in Trails. The series clearly had an attention to emotional detail, and I stood to gain a lot more knowledge about myself and my experiences by continuing to play. This has only turned out to be more and more true as I've kept playing.
this reminded me so much of my own journey to the trails series, my greatest gaming joy and comfort of all my 25+ years of gaming, thank you so much for this video it helped me relive the discovery of Trails for me
My uncle actually bought me the first game. Didn’t like it at first but after deciding I’d play through it no matter what, I suddenly became engrossed in the story. Been a HUGE fan ever since
Life certainly kept me away from gaming for just over 10 years due to work and all that but I'm happy to get back into it. Thanks for sharing the story!
I discovered trails in the sky when i was searching for some fantasy RPGs to play and got immersed in it. I loved the world, characters, music and turn based combat was up my alley. After completing FC i started playing next games in the series and finished them up to cold steel 3. For me every entry in the series was amazing and i hope to play every upcoming game in the series when it comes to steam. Also trails games remind me of Brandon Sanderson's novels (which are my favorites) because of complex story and innovative magic/technology. When you will be searching for something to read i highly recommend his works especially Stormlight Archive.
YES a fellow Brandon Sanderson fan! I remember reading the Mistborn Trilogy and I'm currently reading through Oathbreaker (Stomlight Archive) now. The guys a real talent (I mean he has to be after finishing off the Wheel of Time the way he did).
When I first notice about the trails series is one of my classmate playing The Trails of the Sky series.. As I am always a guy that love JRPG, I went and research on the game... Unexpectedly the game is like keep calling on to me. And from there I become Trails Fan..
Honestly, I haven't played any of the games (I watch more let's plays than actually playing the games myself) but I have seen a playthrough of pretty much all of them, and honestly, the thing that got me into the series was you, I have always been a fan of rpgs so I had watched a lot of videos about them and I saw one of your videos show up in my recommendations, so I checked it out, and as soon as I did, the way you talked about it made me very interested, so I went and watched a playthrough of the first cold steel game, and I was hooked, the characters, the music, the story, it was so good, so obviously when I found out there was more, I had to see it, so thank you for introducing me to this amazing series
I became a trails fan on accident. I've loved jrpgs for years, back in the PS1 days actually, however many ages ago that was lol. So I went to gamestop wanting to scratch my jrpg itch one day, and luckily for me, someone had ordered a collector's edition of Cold Steel 1, and then canceled after it came in. The clerk mentioned it, I bought it, and I feel in love. I then preorded and beat cold steel 2, and then went to the older games while waiting for CS3 and later CS4, and eventually got to play Zero and Azure thanks to the Geofront.
For me it started way back in Gagharv. The name "The Legend of Heroes" was stuck on my mind when I was a kid then tried to do research after few years of not playing. When I got back to playing, I started at Cold Steel but I feel like I missed some parts of the story. I postponed my Nord field study, researched again then saw Sky. Now I'm at Cold Steel 4 and I badly don't want it to end. I'm having post-game depressions lately thinking about i'd stop my journey soon. We still got no news about Hajimari's localization but I believe it's worth the wait :)
I played trails in the sky FC and it was the most engaging story I’ve ever played. It took me over 6 years before I would commit to playing them all in order. Best decision ever. It shows the benefit of hard world building and a commitment to a long term narrative that can span multiple titles to tell a larger story.
I ended up getting introduced to the Trails series last year. After my final month in college, getting reading to transfer to uni to get my bachelors. Around that time there was a lot thinking of what I really wanted to do in life. Plus with the beginning pandemic I had a lot of free time to hash that idea out. Around that time I bumped into recommendations on RUclips about JRPS. And on the forefront it was trails of cold steel. And that's all it took for me to fall down the rabbit hole of the franchise. It's hands down one my favorite series of all time. Ended playing Sky, Zero, YS, and all of Cold Steel thanks to that recommendation. Those games helped me get through the good and the bad times in life. Leaving Falcom games holding a special place in my heart. Thanks for the video Kiseki Nut.
I randomly decided to actively search through jrpgs on steam and found the 1st chapter of trails in the sky, it reminded me of the old games I had nostalgia for and so I picked it up. I only played for 30 or 60 minutes at a time before it would lose my attention. Early game is slow. But once I hit the end of the Ruan chapter I was hooked, 6+ hours a day until I was crushed by the cliffhanger ending, with 9 months of waiting for the sequel... I still remember the moment I realized 2nd chapter was out, I just said 'gotta go, see you in a week' and alt f4 my team speak chat. No regrets, I love this series and I'm glad this channel exists to help others to discover such an amazing experience.
For me, it started out as a recommendation from a close friend back in last May that I thought would just be a good way to kill time, but it ended up becoming more than I could have ever dreamed of and while going through this entire series I have come to a realization and that is nothing and I mean NOTHING will ever compare to Trails in the realm of video games for me now and hell even in all of fictional media in general I just think it's one of the best story sagas I've ever witnessed. I can't stress this enough, but these games are some of the absolute most immersive, unique, ambitious and realistic I've ever played and a big part of that is due to the worldbuilding that is just on a whole different level of ANYTHING else out there that I've experienced.
I'm playing Trails in the Sky, my first Trails game and while slow I'm really enjoying the character development and how good the dialogue is. Nice video, a lot of passion for the series in your words. You got a new subscriber
@@TheKisekiNut I get that :) I'm gonna gush a bit and I hope it doesn't come across as creepy, though practically everything online tends to be anyway.. I gave this a 2nd watch, because I wanted to make sure. I think this is probably your best video. You can really feel the affection that you have for the series and how it ties into things that happened for you. There's a vulnerability in this video that I feel like it allows your audience to know a bit about the person behind the 'TKN' name. The sheer work that goes into what you produce and the authenticity in your presentation is making your channel one of my favourites on RUclips and I often find myself revisiting your previous material, especially when doing something mundane like cooking or whatever. Something engaging for 15-20 mins on a topic I also happen to enjoy. I could go on and on when singing your praises. It is a travesty that you haven't hit 10k subscribers yet; you deserve WAY more! Your work is phenomenal and I can guarantee I'm not your only viewer that really appreciates the content that you create. Keep on being awesome, and thank you again for another great video! :D
@@omarabdulkarim356 That's really kind words from you my man, and I appreciate them as always! That's the thing though, I'm a human like anyone else, just another fan of the Series who happens to make content on them. I've never cared for the recognition or anything like that (it's nice, sure), but the main reason I make videos is because as you say, I love the Series. And I think staying grounded is so important in general and I don't ever want to lose sight of the original reason why I started making content, because the day that happens is the day I will quit. If my content brings more people in to the Series, then that's my greatest reward. :)
What a remarkable experience！Thank you for sharing your story. I started by playing the gagharv trilogy again and again back in high school. So when trails of the sky was released in China I got on board at the very first moment expecting another breathtaking mega story. Looking back at the time past, I will have to say that as a gamer, I was lucky and blessed that I got to experience trails game from the very beginning. It's an amzing ride.
I stumbled upon a channel that uploaded gameplay videos on the first game, Trails in the Sky FC, and after seeing a part of the story, I immediately started to become invested in it.
Love your videos. I started with Ys8 this year and now just beat all Trails in the Sky games and am in love and can't wait to continue this journey. So happy I got introduced to Falcom games, there's something about them other Jrpgs don't have or do quality wise.
Looked around the PS Vita sale, saw Trails of Cold Steel 1 and 2, didn't think much of it at first... 3 years later and I caught up little by little in a reveres chronological order of games, but that didn't hinder how much I enjoyed this series
Back to this video after being 7 games deep. I never knew what Trails was back in the day. I think an old coworker played it on his Vita back then. I stumbled over a random falcom news video from your channel one day and then started being interested in Trails. I watched quite a few of your videos and started Sky FC around late 2019, I think. I was playing tales of Symphonia at the moment and wanted to finish that game first. I then stayed up many a long night while playing Sky and even finished the prologue in one sitting. I then got the Crossbell patches running and then started Cold Steel 1 and left it for 6 months before coming back. I then finished Cold Steel 2 and replayed Zero on my Switch. Trails is an amazing series so far and I am excited to see more. And also playing more Ys. I am at Napishtim now. I hope Daybreak turns out great. I am so glad I found your channel and these games. JRPGs truly are the best and I hope I can play many more.
What moment did I realize Trails was for me? It was 2011 and I was playing Sky FC on my PSP and there was this character named Schera, and the first time I saw her Sadist Whip S-Craft I immediately got "step on me" lovey dovey eyes. As if the instant addiction to the game and not being able to put it down in the first place was not enough, Schera's character solidified it and then later Olivier cemented it in stone. I bought every game as they came out after that.
It was the music for me. The moment I arrived at Trista and heard that musical score, I knew the game was special. I especially loved hanging out after school, listening in on “back to dorm” as I spoke to every NPC at campus. Amazing.
The story just kind of comes full circle. I was never really disconnected from Falcom since I was first introduced to it with YS Origin, and I guess fate just took it's course. :)
Solid pick by mentioning Don't Be Defeated by a Friend, it's criminally underrated! I'm so glad you had a chance to go abroad for an extended time, it's one of those things that can't be replicated. One of my friends told me that I had more stories that started with "When I was in Spain..." than he had stories, and I'd bet you have a similar situation with your friends and family. I actually remember watching those Japan videos back when I first discovered your channel! PS Your Name is my fave anime and #2 favorite movie of all time. Amazing!
It's a banger of a tune, it's unfortunate that it seems to consistently get overlooked. :( Yeah, you're well aware of my Japan escapade, I tend not to shut up about it at times. But that's how memorable the experience was for me, and maybe it might inspire others to do the same! And naturally I concur 100% that Your Name is amazing and everyone should watch it. :)
Loved hearing your story! Thanks for sharing :) my journey into trails started with Sky 1 when it first came out on the PSP. I played it and loved it and was absolutely gutted to find out the sequel was not going to come out in the west. Years and years later it finally did, and not too long after that 3rd did too. Then I jumped to the Steel series and here we are!
Oof, those early localisation days were rough for Trails, what we have now feels like a blessing as we're near on guaranteed that the games will eventually get localised rather than be left in limbo.
@@TheKisekiNut absolutely! I feel like Sky1 might just be the worst game (other than maybe Steel3) to have a non guaranteed sequel since their endings were such cliffhangers! Ah well all is good now!
I usually don't watch videos like this but this was very well made! I just became and Y's fan and I'm about to start the trails in the sky and I'm very excited.
Just got into the series and loving it. I just beat TOS 1 a couple of weeks ago and part 2 yesterday. Excellent series of jrpgs. I'll be buying 3 in the near future, thats for sure.
That Trails train set off on the 15th July 2019 and haven't looked back since. It all started when I was first introduced to Falcom games the year prior when a friend of mine recommended me a game called "Tokyo Xanadu eX+." I loved that game so much that I had to check out the other games. Once I had the first few CS games and was able to stream again, I got sucked into the Trails journey. Oh boy, and what freaking journey it has been so far. CSIV and Hajimari, in particular, have blown me away with some brilliant lore, gameplay and music. This, next to Persona, is my all-time favourite gaming experience. Since I've been playing JRPGs since 1997, that's a big deal considering I've only known the series for a mere 18 months. This is also a very special series not only because of the gaming aspects but also because of the community it has attracted. I have met some great people through the Trails series, including you Kiseki, and being a fellow Brit, it was great to know that people in my own neck of the woods are into the series. Brilliant video, man. I've always been curious about where it all started for you :).
It's great to have you aboard DP, like you say it's not just the game that make the Series special. The community contributes massively too (most of it at least, I keep away from the more critical corners). Long may it continue! :)
That's a really great story. Love how you were listening to trials music and using wallpapers without even knowing. It's a lot more interesting than my story. I just played CS1 last year after hearing amazing things, got hooked, and played them all within a few months.
Yeah man, it keep me connected to Falcom during that period so that's one contributing element that brought me in! I remember your review on CS1, I could tell you thought it was a banger. :)
When the switch was released I was looking for random games to get and one of the interesting ones I saw was ys8. It didn’t take long for me to start playing their other games once I got a ps4
For me, it was stumbling across an article detailing the massive amount of work XSeed had to put into localizing SC. I figured that it looked like an interesting game so I bought Trails in the Sky FC on Steam and gave it a go. I'm no stranger to JRPGs like Persona, Suikoden, and Ar Tonelico. Estelle Bright was an amazing character. I loved her sass, her expressiveness, her eagerness to throw down and her general bakaness in contrast to Joshua. After the thickening plot throughout the game and the major reveal in the end, I was in for life. Blood in, blood out!
To be honest it was Tark gaulet who brought me in to the series. After that decide to play trails of sky which is one of my favorite arcs in the series.
I recently discovered Trails when I was bored and looking for a jrpg to play on psnow when I spotted Trails of Cold Steel. I fell in love with the game and never wanted it to end. That was one month ago and I'm now working on the 3rd one. I'm looking forward to going back and trying the others when I get through the Cold Steel games.
I enjoyed hearing your story. If I’m honest I’ve never finished a trails game. I tend to sit on the periphery of communities and watch in. I’ve always been like this in lots of aspects of my life. I consider myself a part of the community though. I desperately want to play these games. I own all of the Trails of Cold Steel games on PS4, but I have no means to play Trails in the Sky at this time and really want to start there. I’m planning on getting a PC one day to start my journey. But, I realise from countless research that this is a special series and I cannot wait to get engrossed in it.
My journey to Zemuria began with the masterpiece of the late Wataru Ishibashi - Silver Will. I was randomly browsing RUclips when I stumbled upon a playlist promising "the greatest JRPG songs of all time" or somesuch. Naturally curious about what would be the #1 song of such a list, I checked it out, finding it was a song from a series I had never heard about, a song with the cool-sounding title Silver Will. I gave it a listen and... I was kinda unimpressed. The opening of the song kinda weirded me out somehow, and the melody proper didn't immediately grab my attention. I figured it was a decent song, but nothing to really write home about. A year or two pass, and one day I found myself humming a beautiful tune I realized I don't recognize. Wondering what this mysterious melody is, my mind flashed back to the video from far too long ago. It couldn't possibly be that song, right? It wasn't that good, right? How could I even remember it anymore, I listened to it like once such a long time ago. Still, the words "Silver Will" floated to the surface from the deepest reaches of my memory, and I caved. I had to check out that Best JRPG Songs #1 video again. It was the song. And it was beautiful. Maybe I hadn't been in the right frame of mind when I first heard it. Maybe it is a song that takes a couple of listens to fully appreciate. Whatever the case, I realized that the melody had been so powerful that somehow it had engraved itself into my subconscious even though I had consciously dismissed the song, biding its time until I could recognize its beauty. And recognize it I did. Of course, this made me curious about the series it was from as well, which led me to apply my usual method of scouting out interesting new works of fiction - I scoured through its TVTropes page. It sounded pretty interesting, I made a mental note of it as something to try out one day, but for whatever reason didn't pick up Trails in the Sky that day. It was only later when I had bumped into the series again a couple of times that I decided the time was right to take the plunge and see what this lauded JRPG series had to offer. Considering the foremost complaint in the Steam reviews seemed to be that "there was too much reading", it certainly seemed right up my alley. I had already spoiled myself of the biggest twists and the general plot of FC and SC, so I can't point to any particular in-game moment as being the thing that made me fall in love with the series. It was more the general execution of everything that really sucked me in - the spoilers had only made me more curious to see how the story goes about delivering those interesting things I had read about, and the games met my expectations every step along the way. By the time I was halfway done with the Sky series, I knew I had something special in my hands, and playing through the Crossbell duology cemented my love for the series. Looking forward to the Steam release of Cold Steel 4. While I haven't been as into that subseries as I was into the first five games, I've still enjoyed Cold Steel a plenty. And considering those first two arcs basically gave me everything I wanted from a JRPG series, I can't really find any resentment towards Cold Steel for "not being as good". The Trails series has already satisfied me. No matter what the future of the series brings, even if it were to descend from "not quite as good but still plenty good" to "actually not good", it won't diminish my gratitude for what Trails has already given me.
Nihon Falcom is my favorite JRPG company. After playing the trails series, I can't seem to enjoy other JRPGs the same way I enjoy Nihon Falcom games anymore
I do feel the same way, I remember how I was hooked on the Tales series 5 years ago until I played all 8 Kiseki games except CSIII and I now feel somewhat disconnected when It comes to other jrpgs, I still love Tales by not as much as Kiseki.
Back in the early 2010s, I was searching for a singleplayer game to play and my friend showed me something on Kongregate, Epic Battle Fantasy 3, I got super hooked onto the game that I actually started playing it day in day out, but always struggled to beat a certain boss (this was me as a child who didn't know what buffs were), needless to say when I did realize how it was supposed to be played I finished the game in record fashion, I needed more, then I searched it up on the internet and found a playthrough of EBF4 by one of my favorite RUclipsrs to date, and after watching that playthrough I immersed myself in his content, and there it was, he was currently playing through Trails in the Sky. Needless to say I fell in love with the music, the story, but especially I fell in love with the characters, especially the main duo, but when I had asked whether he'd play more he was reluctant, so I decided to take matters into my own hands. as an elementary school student at the time I obviously had a lot of time to spare (it was 2015-16) and by the time I started high school in September of 2016 I had played through Sky FC and SC three times and that's how I started adoring this series and Sky SC still remains my favorite game of all time.
I like how Ys Origin is an entry point to the whole Falcom company. I started too with Ys Origin. I played lacrimosa of dana next thanks to PS+ and became intrigued by Trails. So I tried the daybreak demo and now I'm currently playing Sky SC after already beating FC. And I can already tell Trails is something really really special.
I also indirectly discovered trails through music: short intro: I found an artist that covered Ys music, I then went to listen to the original and loved it then saw Ys 1&2 TurboGrafx, it was an awkward sensation at first when playing but I quickly got hooked as soon as I heard that music in the first dungeon and I surprisingly digged the gameplay after a while. I didn't think I could enjoy something so simple in concept this much. I then explored many other Ys games like Felghana and Origin. I then later in college found a game called Trails in the Sky on the PSP Go game store that was also made by Falcom and decided that I trusted the name and would give it a whirl. Normally I am easily turned off by turn based games but I gave it a shot and I actually got immediately hooked contrary to what most people experience first with this game. It didn't feel "slow" because I was getting invested in a game that was "genuine" more than any other game I ever played and I can thank mainly one name for that, Estelle Bright. It felt so great to have Estelle as a protagonist because she played so differently than the rest of the protagonists I was used to. She was far more easily relatable and grounded into reality. No offense to other awesome JRPG main characters like Lloyd Irving, but with every new protagonist trying to be even more epic than the last, Estelle was a breath of fresh air. And oh god...the emotional journey with her too and that ending.......that ending FOLLOWED BY THE MOST ATROCIOUSLY PAINFUL 4.5 YEARS OF WAIT TIME UNTIL THE LOCALIZATION OF THE NEXT GAME...suffice to say Estelle has endured the test of time and remains to this day my favorite main protagonist (though Olivier is my favorite character, his role in my love for Legend of Heroes wasn't as important). And to add to that main protagonist, I got introduced to so many interesting characters too that weren't limited to the main cast. The worldbuilding was truly godlike but I didn't expect a game would get me invested in the personal stories of small time characters like Nial and Dorothy who did genuinely play awesome roles in the story. They were really making me fall in love with the most inconspicuous characters out there, from an old fisherman, a bathhouse manager, even to the one bartender who only got 2 lines in the entire series just to react to Joshua's embarassment at Olivier's comments in their first encounter but god damn I loved that bartender that one time! Truly, this is a series where I don't just want to discover places, I want to discover people and their lives, and while locales are great, I think there's many more personal connections to be made with all the souls of these fictional characters than anything else could provide.
The way you describe your visceral sense of belonging in Japan is exactly how I felt in China. I ended up staying ten years, brought my new family back for a couple years to the US and am now frozen out due to Covid. Hopefully, we can get back to the places we love soon.
I first discovered Falcom via Trails of Cold Steel; a game I picked up in 2016 after having returned from my own time living in Japan for a couple years working as an ALT the year prior. I had recently picked up a PS Vita and was looking for a new game to play, having been a fan of JRPGs since my time with SNES emulators in the 90s, and came across something in a review that I'd never seen before: the NPCs in Cold Steel didn't just have a single line of dialogue; they would comment on things in the world as they happened. Additionally, events wouldn't just stop because you weren't there: the events of side quests would occur with or without you, with the outcome changing depending on your presence. Intrigued I picked up the game, devoured it and CSII there after. Unfortunately though it would be another yearish before I even found out about Trails In The Sky, via the anime, and proceeded to play 1-3 in the space of a few weeks. Throw in Ys 7 & 8 and I'm pretty confident in saying I love Falcom games at this point :)
I don't have a grand or complex story of how I got into the Trails franchise. It was simply a game I heard much praise about, and one day when it went on sale, I bought FC on Steam. I had no idea it would become one of favorite series of all time. That is, until I experienced the story of Estelle and Joshua. The story, the characters, the combat, the music, the early 2000s artsyle, I loved all of it. I remember the exact moment FC became special to me, which is when I heard "The Whereabouts of Light" for the first time. From then on I had the privilege of binging every Trails game that had been released since then in order, up to Cold Steel III. I am glad I became a fan of this series, and for the memories it gave me, because there are truly no other games like it :)
This Jrpg is very but very different from the majority that we are used to seeing, the stories are so engaging and extremely rich that it seems that the more you think the game exceeds the potential, it just surpasses it. Another very interesting thing is about the world of the trails series, because with each choice, situations, interconnections with the characters, these will have enormous weight in the next game and as it happens in a single world, it gets to be very complex and in a simple way, which is GENIAL! I became a big fan of Crossbell duology, although Lloyd is the weakest, he can be the one who takes the most risks and the one who dodges easily, the SSS relationship is so deep that in the next game this is seen with extreme shock and Of course, although the songs are very good (THE AZURE ARBITRATOR), Nihom falcom itself does not have its due recognition even though she has been producing games for more than 20 years and she never gives up. Speechless😐
My history with Falcom and Trails as a whole was a little more scattered than I'd thought they were previously. I'd known the Trails name from watching someone stream Sky FC back around 2015, if I recall correctly, though I wasn't particularly familiar with the series or Falcom as a company back then. My first proper exposure wasn't until 2019. I was getting burned out on RPGs like the Megaten series and Final Fantasy, and asked a co-worker of mine who'd been well-versed in RPGs to give me a list of suggested RPGs he liked that were outside of those two franchises. Out of that list, Trails of Cold Steel happened to be on there, so I bought the first game on a whim. I definitely got into it the more I played, though I didn't get very far. It actually took me a much longer amount of time to beat due to my habit of playing multiple RPGs at one time. When I found out that Cold Steel was basically the middle of the series, I set out to return to the beginning and found Trails in the Sky FC. I emulated the PSP version first since I was unemployed at the time and didn't have the money to get the official version. I was definitely hooked at that point, and I loved the music, the characters, the combat, and the writing style. I decided to explore Falcom's games a little more at that time and found Ys, which I remembered seeing an ad for in an old gaming magazine around a decade prior to that. I think it was the release of Ys Seven, if I recall. I started the PSP version of the first Ys game, wondering if it would be turn-based like Trails since I was only really playing turn-based games at the time, but quickly realized it wasn't and dropped the game because I thought it wasn't for me. I don't remember what happened, but I decided to give it another try. The music in conjunction with the simplistic combat drew me in, and next thing I knew, I was hooked on Falcom's other flagship series. Eventually I was working again and could afford to get the official releases of the rest of the Sky trilogy, and even got the rest of the Cold Steel series, knowing I'd want to play them once I reached that point in the story. From there, I started going through the Trails games relatively quickly, sort of alternating between Sky and CS, and I at least familiarized myself with the Crossbell arc so I could play CS3. And now I can say I absolutely love this series, and I'm looking forward to playing Zero's official release when it comes out.
I just finished playing persona 5 and I wanted something similar. Quick google searrch and I found my answer: Trails of Cold Steel. I looked up the steam page and my first thought was: "Persona 5 have better graphics" than I closed it. I think, after a few days I came back and watched the opening of the game,than I immediately bought it. The music the characters...everything was right up in my alley. And after I finished it I knew that I wanted more of this. For the next few years I played every game in Trails, and now it became my favorite game series of all time.
That's exactally what happened to me. After playing the persona games, i stumbled upon cold steel. It took me a while to complete it though as it was very boring comapred to persona 5, but i ended up binging cs2 after that cliff hanger, subsequently leading me to cold steel 3, in which i stopped playing to this day to go back into the franchise and play sky and the crossbell games. (I cannot wait for geofront to finally localize azure this month!)
I was introduced to the series through Trails of Cold Steel by Fishfriedcat another RUclipsr. Upon watching his amazing video about it, I was curious, and it was in a lull that followed my 160 hour investment into Final Fantasy 7 Remake and 200 hours in Dragon Quest XI. So I picked up ToCS1 on sale for PlayStation, and I was hooked in the Prologue. The music and the combat system coupled with the art style in that first hour or so, and I immediately went back to PlayStation store to buy CS2 and CS3 and all the add-on packs for all three. This was August of 2020, and I proceeded to spend a minimum of 200 hours plus over 3-4 playthroughs FOR EACH GAME! Picking up CS4 in October, this whole series endeavor took me through January 4th, and I immediately picked up Trails in the Sky series and will pick up the Crossbell arc eventually. I'm finishing Sky 2 now and Sky 3 this month before moving back to Nier for spring. Later this year, I'll play the Ys games on PlayStation while I wait for news Hajimari and more will come to the west soon. I have also picked up Tokyo Xanadu to play this summer before Ys. I'm absolutely hooked on Falcom. If I have a complaint, it's only the selfishness of wanting faster localizations.
For me it was the rpg gamer interview the dude did with Britney from Xseed. I knew nothing of Trails at the time and it was an E3 interview with the demo. Britney was really enthusiastic and her love for the series was extremely apparent and the game looked cool, so it was on my Radar for the Vita. When I finally got my hands on it, the game blew me away for how good it looked on the vita and the story was intriguing. I became a fan because of that plucky little woman. Britney if you're reading this: thank you
Yes, back then XSeed had people who actually loved the Series, if anything it's because of them that we even have them as they pushed very hard for the games to be localised. That kind of passion is infectious. :)
I started about a few years ago.. I heard of Cold steel and saw some starting gameplay.. I was interested but it was about the same release date as persona 5 and.. I played nothing else for 130hrs.. everynight after work.. Later I remembered I downloaded Cs1 on psn and after the first chapter I was like wow.. This is a slow game.. but I persevered.. I started talking to every npc and realising they aren't random.. They have a place, a job, a name and a purpose in this world and changed with the passing of time.. It was the world building.. The intrigue of getting to know about not only your classmates, but their families, friends and environments.. That shaped them to this point.. and later how our experiences shaped them in later titles.. Even on the slow speed and 70hr playthrough.. I realised I loved this game.. and it has eclipsed an entire genre.. I'm now nearing the end of CSIV (after waiting to get the ltd ed.. for an ok price) and The entire series imo.. Is the best jrpg of the past 2 decades.. and can't wait to see what TLoH series holds in the future.. (I'm completing the liberl/bell arcs after steel.. in the wait for the new game(s) XD)
For me, I was just a 12 year old introvert, my brother gave me his old PSP abs I was digging through the games and happen to come across trails in the sky 1st chapter. And love it ever since then. My brother loves the series as well lol
Amazing story behind how you got into the "Trails" games. I really enjoyed your video. Oddly enough, my first experience with the series was the first game in the Trails in the Sky series. I didn't really get into that game even though I had read amazing reviews. It was the first Trails of Cold Steel game that drew me in to the "Trails" world. Rean Schwarzer became one of my favorite characters in gaming history and the cast of that game was excellent. Great story and world building along with memorable characters that you feel compelled to care about. I'm now in the midst of Trails of Cold Steel II and really excited to see where the story goes. I've already purchased Trails of Cold Steel III and IV so I can finish the entire story arc. When comparing Trails of Cold Steel to Trails in the Sky, the 3D graphics and voice acting of Cold Steel really makes a significant difference for the better. The world depicted in Trails of Cold Steel feels more alive because of it. Other Nihon Falcom RPGs I've also enjoyed are Y's VIII and Tokyo Xanadu eX+. They also happen to be 3D games with voice acting included, although Tokyo Xanadu only voice acting option is in Japanese. While I do agree that the music for Nihon Falcom games is top notch, the voice acting is also tremendous. The audio experience in itself is a treat.
mine is a much more simple story. i changed my gaming habits to start playing single player story based games, and jrpg were up there. i wanted to play some classics especially of longer running series to see what i had missed out on and experience the evolution of the genre. (mana series, final fantasy, ect) i was watching " trash taste " podcast, saw garnt talk about the trails series. i had a look, it had been on my radar so i dove in kinda blind. i fell in love with all of it. what a masterclass of gaming, almost perferct. have dove right into the others and about to finish to azure soon. the story, the characters, THE MUSIC!, the emotions. the timeless artstyle and animations that exude being crafted with love. i wish more people found this, i wish it was on all platforms.
My story: My psp got busted, then I bought my friends'. Sky FC was on the memory stick, but I didn't care much for it, despite playing for a bit, so I deleted it. A few months back, I downloaded back again, due to being a new Falcom fan because of the Ys series. Played for a bit, then countinued my save a few months later, so I was actually hooked. After that, I finished the whole Sky arc, and am progressing into the Crossbell arc, aiming into plyaing the whole series. It's so great, I can't stop praising it, even though I'm not particularly a jrpg fan.
Ys vs. Trails in the Sky - Alternative Saga introduce me to this series this year.. all thanks to Geofront and i am experienced JRPG games i played so many RPGs through out on my life and i am excited to venture more on the Ys and Trails series.. especially i really luv the OSTs both series. anyways thank you for sharing ur story ! :D
I have always loved JRPGS, I saw trails of cold steel 1 on sale on the psn store and I thought.. why not? Started playing it absolutely loved it, started part 2 and I started getting recommendations regarding the whole universe. I saw a video that basically stated don't play trails 3 without playing the other games, when I realised as of then.. that there was other games in that universe I was done. I have now played all of the liberl arc and half way through watching a playthrough of the crossbell arc. I absolutely love this series!
I am an old school jrpg player, 16bit era, and while technology kept getting better, the jrpgs kept getting worse, in the sense that complex plots gave way to convoluted messes that tried to be complex, so I ditched jrpgs for over 15 years. I have a good friend that is also a jrpg lover, more than I am, and he mentioned Trails in the sky, he said to me: I played a fun little game called trails in sky in PS Vita, it has everything you and I love from the golden 16 bit era and more. Skip forward 8 years, I am in between jobs coming out of a long relationship, also my dad passed away around the same time, nothing to play, just wanted to be alone for a while, and as you Kiseki Nut, Steam had the answer, I noticed the little game my friend mentioned 8 years prior, I remembered him saying it ended on a cliffhanger and there was no second part, so I checked and there it was SC. so bought them both and the rest is history. Estelle brought brightness back to my life and helped me veer from depression. I LOVE the trails series.
I played the previous Legend of Heroes saga on PSP around a decade ago, which is the Garghav Trilogy at my cousin's place. This introduced me to Falcom and the Legend of Heroes brand. Later got recommended Trails in the Sky FC by him as well. Got hooked ever since. It was a dark period waiting for SC to get translated and ported to PC. As for Ys, I watched omegaevolution's final boss playthrough of Ys SEVEN and was introduced. Later, I came across Oath and later Origin. Played the demo and the full game was on my library some time later. All three of them had their god-tier ost to hook me in and extend my enjoyment of my PSP. My interest in JRPG started with FF7: Crisis Core and was kept alive with Dissidia and its sequel Duodecim. They may be Falcom's biggest rival but if it wasn't them (and a lack of a PS3), I wouldn't even have been interested in the TRUE gem of the JRPGs.
I searched for good JRPGs for my Vita and found Persona 4 Golden (my favourite JRPG of all time) and Trails of Cold Steel. I finished P4G with about 120hrs of total game time (given I did 3 playthroughs, out of which 2 were NG+). This description of how I became a Kiseki Fan contains spoilers for the Trails of Cold Steel series, so newbies be warned! I played ToCS up until chapter 5 I believe, where you had to defeat Unsurtr in the old schoolhouse (I will never forget this enemy, always insta-freezing my party). That and the overall complexity of having soooo much stuff to do: hidden quests, the plethora of different build I could do eventhough I didn't know any of the cast - characterwise or mechanicswise. So I dropped it with the keen intend of definitely picking it back up one day and finishing it since the game definitely had something going for it - although the game as a whole was like 80% exposition - makes sense in retrospect of course but still... Around two months ago I picked the game up and my dumbass got the idea to buy freeze-restinant accessories lol. From then on I was sooo happy to have finally beaten this boss that I basically rushed the rest of the game because the story finally started to pick up the pace. The game had some issues which haltered the playthrough a bit, but it was still enjoyable. The second game practically took hold of me! It was sooo much better than the first part with lots of cool mechanics and I enjoyed it the second-most, the most enjoyed being the fourth part. So as of today I beat the fourth game - now as with P4G I feel empty, since the characters all grew on me and I basically kinda inserted myself into the plot - since it takes places at an academy and I studied for my Bachelor's degree at the time. Now nearing my the end of my study for my Master's degree I kind of relate to the game again, with Rean being an Instructor and not being in the position of student again, looking over the new generation of students I really related to that. It's funny that I took a few years off the game back then since the time lapse kind of greatly overlapped lol. So all of that, an interesting plot, a lot of relatable and likable characters, great music (Blue Destination and The Decisive Collision being my absolute favourites), a really beautiful artstyle and great mechanics this game brought me into the Trails series. Yesterday I purchased all three parts of Trails in the Sky for my PC, so I really look forward to see the other parts of this great ingame world!
this was rly nice to watch while doing dishes! you have a very nice voice to listen to :) for me, it was because I had been a massive harvest moon fan since I was a kid. so naturally, once it became story of seasons, I followed xseed on Twitter. when tocs came out, xseed and other jrpg news/reviews sites were all tweeting about it, and I kept seeing the game keep getting 8 and 9/10s. naturally it piqued my curiosity and then i read about how all the npcs have their own story and I found that so unique and interesting! on top of all that I found out one of my good friends had just played it and she raved about it to me so I ended up buying it and played for like 6 or 7 hrs on a school night when I only meant to play the prologue/up to a save point LOL and that ending of tocs1 was the first time in my life I had ever stayed up all night beating a game. all I could think of during classes was to get back to my apt and immediately buy tocs2 (which I did LOL) fast forward to 4-5(?) yrs later now, and I'm in the middle of tocs4, having already played all the past games. there's no going back now esp cos I live in Japan haha also i didn't know Makoto Shinkai worked for falcom so that was a rly interesting bit of trivia! would you say kimi no na wa is your most fav movie by him?
I went the other way. I put a few hours into Cold Steel 1 and didn't even want to come back. I had no idea that I was writing off a masterpiece. I later came across Trails in the Sky, and decided to give it a try, not realising at the time the connection at the time between Trails in the Sky and Trails of Cold Steel. I'd even forgotten the existence of the game I'd mistaken the previous year for a budget JRPG. I liked Sky, but I didn't stick with it. And then the PS4 remasters of Cold Steel 1 and 2 came out on PS4. I decided to give the series one more chance, and I quickly realised just how amazing the first game actually is once you start getting into the plot of political intrigue, populated by one of the most well written cast of characters I'd ever seen in a JRPG. And in that moment, there was no going back. The Kiseki series has since become my favourite series of games from my favourite developer
My Steam achievements and purchase history from last summer illustrates my moment. Chapter 3 of FC, I bought SC and 3rd. Blew through the game in less than a week. Also pre-ordered Zero for Switch at the end of SC. Currently on CS1 after playing the series nearly non-stop with just that few months between Zero and Azure (in which I played Ys Origin)
for me, it was the most impossible coincidence. at a convention, i became good friends with one of translators for the first cold steel game. so i told him id pick it up and play it so i could see his work. then my life was never the same again
Sometime in 2016, I remember browsing through YT and came across random footage of the CS1 ending (inadvertently spoiling myself). At the time, I thought the game looked cool and thought this would be a good entry point for me to get back into JRPG's. Prior to this, I had stopped playing around 2005 (at the time, high school, college, grad school, and early career life had gotten in the way for more than a decade, despite my enjoyment of series like Final Fantasy, Grandia, and Xenosaga). After seeing that footage, it fell off my radar probably because I had a PC but did not want to buy a PS3. In early 2017, it was announced that CS1 would be ported to PC so I eagerly awaited the release later that year. By that time, I had completely forgotten the ending of CS1 from random browsing the previous year. It only came back to me after I played through the entirety of CS1 and reached the ending, realizing there was a much bigger story than what was presented on the surface. This is how I got hooked into the Trails Series and the rest is history!
discovered it on reddit i believe last year. played CS1 first, then half way through I decided to start from the beginning, then I catch up to CS1 and now working towards CS2 now
What a wonderful video! Thank you for sharing your experience! (Looks up early Japan travel video.) Relative newcomer here. Final Fantasy 7 Remake was the entirety of my pandemic plan, and I wrapped it up in less than a month. Meanwhile, it became clear we were (are) in it for the long haul. So I scoured the internet for "immersive JRPGs." Blazed my way through Cold Steel 1 & 2. Finished 3 and loved it, but felt a lot of plot points and returning characters flew right over my head. Spent the last year slowly making my way through Sky and Crossbell (per your content & the suggestion of some Twitter folks). Hell of a journey so far! It ruins other JRPGs the same way The Wire ruins all cop dramas (that's a good thing).
Thank you for watching mate, and for sharing your story! Yes the pandemic sucks for sure, but there's no doubt it's given us plenty of time to find something else to enjoy. :)
I had a sort of similar experience to yours :D When I started animation school I dropped playing video games altogether and took a 2 year break from them so I could focus. When I finally had more free time on my hands and was really into anime at the time, still am to this day, I wanted to play some jrpg's. I checked out steam since I had just built my own computer and found the Trails franchise along with it's "overwhelmingly positive" reviews. Started with Trails in the Sky FC over a holiday break and the rest is history. Enjoyed the vid and listening to your story man!
Its so cool to hear your story, I found Cold Steel while looking for an anime like BATTLE ACADEMY game, and low and behold came Trails of cold steel the opening of cold steel 1 is when I got hooked on the series
I found a used Trails of Cold Steel for PS3 at Gamestop about 7 years ago and enjoyed it, but didn't commit to the rest of the series since I couldn't find Cold Steel 2 for a good price, and I didn't own a PSP or PSVita to get into the Sky games. Then just 2 years ago I saw BigKlingy's let's play of Trails in the Sky on RUclips. I watched the first 2 episodes and immediately decided to stop watching his LP and buy the game on Steam and play it through myself first. I've played through all 3 Sky games now, and am waiting for the Crossbell games to come. Meanwhile, time to catch up and binge on BigKlingy's Trails videos. Trails is now my favorite game series of all time.
Damn... you've reignited that spark within me that was slowly dwindling. I went to Japan for half a year on a scholarship. You talking about Japan just made me realize how freaking much I miss that country. Jesus Christ. And yeah, game is cool too, I guess ;).
My first exposure to Falcom was through my PS Vita in early 2018. I went to my local games store and saw Ys: Memories of Celceta. I took it home...and within 24 hours I returned it, and traded it for WipEout 2048. It wasn't a bad game; I just didn't think it was for me. Fast forward to September 2019, and I bought a copy of Trails of Cold Steel (once again, for my Vita). I started playing it, and thought to myself, "Hm. This is ok." I played through the Prologue, and Chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4, thinking this was just a good JRPG. Little did I know what Chapter 5 had in store for me. I played through most of Chapter 5, thinking it was just more of the same. Then the climax came, and the situation went from 1-100 in an instant. And the music "Facing Everything, Here We Stand" started playing, and this went from just being a good game to one of my favourites. Since then I've played through the rest of the Cold Steel games. As I write this, I'm in the midst of Act 2 of CS IV and loving it. The journey I've been on over the past year and a half is one I will never forget. And the Trails series is my favourite game series -- certainly my favourite series of JRPGs.
I started Final Fantasy 14 in 2021, having never played any JRPG before. I enjoyed that game's story a lot, and am continuing to enjoy it. But I wanted to see if there were other JRPGs that I would like since there were SO MANY of them. And in April 2022 I stumbled upon Ys 8. It had good reviews, and I didn't know anything about the series or Falcom, so I just tried it for the hell of it. It was amazing. And after finishing it, I instantly bought Ys 9 and completed it within a few weeks as well. For now I'm patiently waiting for Ys 10 to release on PC. After that, I played some other JRPGs but none held my attention for long. And then in September 2022 I stumbled upon Trails of Cold Steel. I remembered a reddit thread some time ago when Cold Steel 4 was released in English, I vaguely recalled positive comments from people, so I bought it to see what it was about. I enjoyed the hell out of it, but I don't think it connected to me that the developer was Falcom, the same Falcom whose Ys 8 and Ys 9 I adored that had made Cold Steel, until I was well into the game. When I got that, I realised that I would probably enjoy all of the games that this company puts out. After finishing Cold Steel 1, I instantly bought all the games that were localised to English. Can't wait for more Falcom games to wow me.
The first Trails Of Cold Steel game after the prologue did it for me. I loved the presentation & combat in it. The story seemed like it’d be great & it was.
A trip down memory lane for myself, recounting the steps of how I came to find and subsequently adore the Trails Series.
Hope you guys enjoy this mix of backstory and Trails praise (and YS too)!
Good detail: you mentioned how that interview went for that gig, and then you played the 'game over' music in the background. I could tell how that interview ended just from the music.
Plus, it's great how your story comes full circle. My falcom story was very linear.
@@TheNOODLER100 I'm glad that someone appreciated the music choice there, it definitely fit the mood I was feeling.
Yours is simular to mine. I wanted JRPG music. I started trails in the sky for about a couple of days.....years later played Trails of cold steel 1....(and become addicted to falcon). then went back to the sky while waiting for CS3 to come to the USA.....I am now a full on WHORE! Waiting on hajimari no kiseki to come to the USA. Right now I am playing Bravely Default 2......Love it and am impressed on how much they though the battle system through. But which they had full 3d graphics (come one square!). Anyway enjoyed the video thanks! It's nice getting my the kiseki nut fix.
The most impressive thing in this story is the fact that you didnt change your background picture in years!
Yes the old classic. Dropping trails in the sky early then picking it back up and loving it.
Indeed, and without Cold Steel I would never have even realised how good it was. Many different paths in to the Series!
It was the opposite for me. I played through Sky non stop in 2018. I played chapter 1 of CS1 and didn't pick it up back up for about 18 months. I picked it back up at the start of the pandemic and did not stop until I finished CS4. I even played the Crossbell games after CSII. Now I'm a fellow Kiseki nut. Now that Geofront has finished the Azure patch, I'll most likely play through that again. Can't wait for what's next.
@@boltinabottle6307 started CS1 got to Nord highland dropped game for a year came back finished it loved it beat 2 now starting the sky trilogy cause I'm hooked into the series
I did the same move
Good to know it's not just me. I started trails in the sky in april, was loving it but then got sidetracked with a whole bunch of other stuff. I'm starting to get back into it and I'm ready to go through the whole series.
Joshua meeting with Weissman at the end of FC singlehandedly locked me into the series. I was going to one off it until then.
Same. When he said he waited a couple weeks before buying and playing SC, I was ashamed by my lack of self-discipline: I bought it before the credits of FC finished rolling and played it the next day after work.
I probably didn't explain that too well, I finished FC in 2 weeks and bought the sequel immediately after. I went straight in as well so you're not alone. :)
I didnt play Sky FC and SC. I was looking for new rpg and found small RUclipsr name RNGenius he read all texts. I listened to it like a podcast. After slow start and once plot kicked in, it was interesting but the ending I had to grab my phone and see Weissman reveal. But I was hooked. After finding out Cold Steel was apart of series I bought the PS3 CS1 lionheart edition and CS2 at same time. But I had to know Sky story before I started those games. After binging on Sky SC and The 3rd. I started CS then got slapped by finding out about Azure and Zero. I rebought CS1 and CS2 on PC. I cant wait til CS4 drops in few weeks
@@ShimaS-0079 I couldn't wait for CS4 on PC. I got the PS4 version. No regrets so far. That ending of CS3 was such a cliffhanger and I have to see this wretched tale through to the end.
@@boltinabottle6307 I still haven't finished Cs3 I'm on 1day in Heimdallr. Want finish before CS4 PC drops
I built my first PC in 2021. I played my first trails because I couldn't buy a good enough gpu for any game I had planned to play, thanks to the gpu shortage/price hike. Biggest blessing in disguise ever.
2020 was largely garbage but because of the lockdowns I was able to discover this series. Sometime last May I was on RUclips looking for JRPGs to occupy my now extra free time and I found a video called "Top 10 JRPGs on PS4". Funny enough, Cold Steel was not actually on that list but literally the entire comment section was people upset that Cold Steel was not included on the list. Cold Steel 1+ 2 happened to be on sale at the PSN store at the time too so I bought CS 1 just to try it out. Shortly after finishing the prologue and chapter 1 I bought CS 2 and 3 right there and binged the games. (The 5 month wait from CS3 to CS4 was brutal enough for me, I can only imagine what it was like for people who had to wait year after year for each game to be released.)
Then much to my delight I discovered there were 5 more games prior to Cold Steel. To this day I am still in awe of how they've crafted this universe and how well the games connect to one another. Needless to say I cannot wait to see where the series goes in the future.
For me it was luck, while searching for jrpgs for the vita i found cold steel and was amazed by how full of content, lore and rich characters it had
I seemed to have a LOT of luck with Falcom, I just bumped in to a bunch of their stuff that just connected the dots over the years.
Ah, the Vita, a fellow man with culture and taste.
My first Falcom game was trails in the sky. I was bored one night and was having a rough period in life and searched for a new game to play. looked at a few rpg games and something about the artstyle and the humor got to me. I finished that game in 8 days. It was only work, playing and little sleep during that period but was 100% worth it. The next day I started up sky second chapter. What can I say. I was hooked AF. Now I've played the sky arc, cold steel arc and Crossbell arc and nayuta. Now I cant wait to get my hand on Hajimari when it is translated to English.
Thanks for always bringing us news about falcom games and sharing this story. Have a good day mate!
Love it, and you just ploughed right through without the 3 year stop gap!
i told my friend at school that i was bored and had no games to play on my PS3. The next day he came to my house and lent me his copy of Trails of Cold Steel 1. At first, I wasn't too into it. It was a little slow for my taste. Then, I got to the ending. The voice acting, the twist, the music, it blew my mind. I replayed it almost immediately afterwards and ended up finishing Cold Steel twice.
Your friend did you good man, get more friends like that!
During the course of life, I played countless games, however this series changed everything.
I always wanted to play something like this.
I remember the time and effort I used to put in every single game, let that be Liberl, Crossbell or Erebonia.
All of them have a complete world of story telling, enchanted with the euphonious music, the cast is fullfilling and the content is amazing.
Everytime there is a video you upload I watch it for sure, thanks man for sharing your story.
You pretty much summarised why the games are so special to us, naturally I agree with everything you said... including watching more of my content. :) (JK)
I did by playing Trails of Cold Steel 1 on the ps3.
The linguistic mastery and organized presentation of ideas is outstanding. The reason I love this channel is because of the style. Super talented.
Well ain't that mighty kind of you, good sir! It's nothing special I assure you, just a bloke speaking his mind, but glad to have you around! :)
One of my favourite ever RUclips videos. I moved to China after university and felt a lot of joy in hearing your story and reliving the excitement you felt when you first made it out into Japan. Thank you!
For me I had bought a compile heart Title Dragon Star Varnir
And purchased trails shortly afterward my curiosity was peaked by a gaming youtuber twit gamer after some time in varnir I elected to play the prologue
Upon finishing said prologue I was hooked in a way that I never thought I would be
I looked at the visibly generic rean and assumed I'd probably toss him in the bin with kirito as bland Hero Dude
But as I played the game I realized that rean had problems that I not only faced but struggled to overcome I saw myself in him
And it motivated me not just to see his story
But to emulate his motivation to change
I'd connected with him in a way I'd never done with any previous characters
To say trails changed my life would be an understatement And shortly afterward I'd find a friend who would be the crow to my rean as we shared our interest in falcom's incredible achievement
My journey towards loving the Trails series was weird. I was browsing games to buy on Amazon when I saw Cold Steel 1 and 2. I didn't know what it was about them, but I suspected they were great games. I bought them and they entered my backlog. Later on, I bought Ys 8. Around this time, I saw Cold Steel 3. Remembering that I bought 1 and 2, I figured I might as well buy 3 so that I could complete the set. Fast forward, and Ys 8 exited my backlog. I thoroughly enjoyed it, so I ended up playing it to completion shortly after beginning it. I noticed Falcom made the game, so I started seeing what else they had created. It was at this time I noticed they also made the three Cold Steel games I bought. Upon searching, Cold Steel 4 had recently released in the US. I knew I wanted it, but I didn't know why. Keeping in mind that I still hadn't played any of the previous games, but I liked what Falcom did with Ys 8. In order to justify the purchase of Cold Steel 4, I began playing Cold Steel 1. The way I saw it was I could allow myself the purchase of Cold Steel 4 if I began actually playing the series.
120 hours later and I completed Cold Steel 1. I immediately began playing Cold Steel 2, but I only made it three hours in and I didn't have time to go back to it. A few months passed and I had already forgotten most of the story. Much later on, I ended up getting time and motivation again to play the series again. I saw that I had last completed Cold Steel 1 in August of 2021. It dawned on me that it was already August of 2022. I couldn't believe an entire year went by. Instead of trying to pick up where I left off in Cold Steel 2, I dedicated myself to restarting Cold Steel 1. I remember the story was good, but I knew that I had forgotten most of the subtler pieces. I wanted to make sure that I didn't miss or forget anything before starting the journey over. 80 hours of Cold Steel 1 later, and it felt like I just re-watched my favorite TV series. I saw bits and pieces that I didn't notice before. The story and characters had me gripped. Even minor NPCs I could name at just a glance from down the hall.
I realized that I was screwed, but in a good way. The series had captivated me in a way that was so much greater than my first playthrough of Cold Steel 1. Cold Steel 2 came and with it went 200 more hours of my life that I was all too happy to spend on it. "To A Glimmering Tomorrow" will go down as one of my most favorite musical tracks of the entire series and one of my most favorite tracks of all time in general.
I only began to feel slight RPG fatigue when beginning Cold Steel 3. But the story and new characters gripped me again, even more so than the characters of the first two games. Upon the conclusion of Cold Steel 3, I finally cracked open Cold Steel 4. It was funny how I only began The Legend of Heroes as a way to stave off buyer's remorse from greedily purchasing the other video games in the series without playing them. There's been so many games that I've bought that will never exit my backlog. My journey in the Trails series might never have started had I not felt guilty for buying the whole set without playing even a single game.
I was afraid that I wouldn't finish Cold Steel 4 before Trails into Reverie became available. About halfway through Cold Steel 4, I knew that it wasn't going to be a problem. Waiting for Reverie to release felt like the longest month of my life. I couldn't remember the last time I was so excited about a video game coming out. Day 1 purchases are not uncommon for me, but actually playing a game on Day 1 is rare. Most games enter my backlog and stay there for several months, if ever exiting.
I just completed Trails into Reverie yesterday. I looked at the calendar and noticed that it's already September. For the past year, I had almost exclusively played The Legend of Heroes. A thousand hours, more or less, spent in-game.
Now, I'm looking at Zero, Azure, and the Sky trilogy. I never even thought to give these games consideration, but after completing the journey, I want to see what it is they have to offer. For the most part, I already know what happens in Zero, Azure, and the Sky trilogy thanks to video summaries and reading. But something is drawing me to them.
Weirder still, despite playing nothing else for an entire year.... I really just want to insert Cold Steel 1 and start all over again.
I just want to say that I love the behind the scenes into your life aspect of this video. I am subscribing just based on this alone. I like watching people explaining why a video game is good but giving all this context around it puts it in a completely different level for me. Hopefully there's more like this on the channel.
A friend of mine showed me a picture of Emma and I was curious at the character design. I wishlisted Trails of Cold Steel and I eventually got it early summer of 2019. After the prologue, I essentially played the game until completion in a few days. The cliffhanger was so gripping, I immediately bought trails of cold steel 2. I've loved all the Cold Steel games and will be playing the rest of the series very soon.
NGL, I came for Kiseki content, but your backstory really hit home, also went through Business, a period of having no idea WTF I was going to do with it, the Sales interview where I said "screw this" and left early, and thank god I didn't get into sales. Everything else was different LOL, but appreciated the post-grad struggles.
Awesome Video! Thank you for sharing. I started playing ToCS1 and 2 on PlayStation Now and was instantly enchanted by them. Having just finished Persona 5, I loved the game play and found myself getting completely caught up in the lives of Class 7. It was shortly thereafter that they re-released both games on the PS4. I have now finished the entire Cold Steel Saga and I'm looking forward to revisiting Erebonia soon.
I hope you got the Limited Editions of CS1 and 2 (they're awesome!).
I got into Trails throught the youtuber BigKlingy. He did an infomational 100% let's play for Sky FC & SC. I fell in love with the world and characters. I played Sky the 3rd as my first Trails game that I played by myself and now it is my 3rd favorite game of all time.
Ys 8 was my start back in 2019 when I was browsing for games on Amazon, fell immediately in love once I heard sunshine coastline hit my ears. Not so soon after, after completing the game I started watching channels like this one and a few others to see reviews for the game. Reading the comment sections of each video was how I found out about falcoms other masterpiece, the legend of heroes.
I'm glad that this channel somehow contributed to bringing you in, that's the best reward for me! :)
The school festival scene, specifically the play, in Sky FC has put me on a journey with Trails that I never want to end.
Started with the Cold Steel 1 and 2 on the Vita, expanded to Ys viii and Tokyo Xanadu. Now exploring the rest of the Trails series. Falcom is fast becoming one of my favorite JRPG developer.
I don’t wanna make this comment TOO long, so in an extremely abridged series of events, kinda found Tokyo Xanadu by accident, played it, loved it, went on to play Ys VIII, loved it even more, then moved on to the Trails of Cold Steel games, and just absolutely fell in love. This channel has actually helped a lot with my understanding of the Trails universe, so thanks a lot for the hard work man. Your videos are much appreciated.
Thank you as always for your support bud, and for sharing your story too! Honestly after playing so many stellar Falcom games it's difficult to find anything else that matches them, especially on the Trails front.
For me the moment was when Estelle and Joshua have sandwiches on the bench. It brought me back to a trip I took with a friend about a year prior. I suddenly saw that trip as a precious, important memory; that memory may have never gained its real meaning without that moment in Trails. The series clearly had an attention to emotional detail, and I stood to gain a lot more knowledge about myself and my experiences by continuing to play. This has only turned out to be more and more true as I've kept playing.
this reminded me so much of my own journey to the trails series, my greatest gaming joy and comfort of all my 25+ years of gaming, thank you so much for this video it helped me relive the discovery of Trails for me
My uncle actually bought me the first game. Didn’t like it at first but after deciding I’d play through it no matter what, I suddenly became engrossed in the story. Been a HUGE fan ever since
Life certainly kept me away from gaming for just over 10 years due to work and all that but I'm happy to get back into it. Thanks for sharing the story!
I discovered trails in the sky when i was searching for some fantasy RPGs to play and got immersed in it. I loved the world, characters, music and turn based combat was up my alley. After completing FC i started playing next games in the series and finished them up to cold steel 3. For me every entry in the series was amazing and i hope to play every upcoming game in the series when it comes to steam.
Also trails games remind me of Brandon Sanderson's novels (which are my favorites) because of complex story and innovative magic/technology. When you will be searching for something to read i highly recommend his works especially Stormlight Archive.
YES a fellow Brandon Sanderson fan! I remember reading the Mistborn Trilogy and I'm currently reading through Oathbreaker (Stomlight Archive) now. The guys a real talent (I mean he has to be after finishing off the Wheel of Time the way he did).
When I first notice about the trails series is one of my classmate playing The Trails of the Sky series.. As I am always a guy that love JRPG, I went and research on the game... Unexpectedly the game is like keep calling on to me. And from there I become Trails Fan..
Honestly, I haven't played any of the games (I watch more let's plays than actually playing the games myself) but I have seen a playthrough of pretty much all of them, and honestly, the thing that got me into the series was you, I have always been a fan of rpgs so I had watched a lot of videos about them and I saw one of your videos show up in my recommendations, so I checked it out, and as soon as I did, the way you talked about it made me very interested, so I went and watched a playthrough of the first cold steel game, and I was hooked, the characters, the music, the story, it was so good, so obviously when I found out there was more, I had to see it, so thank you for introducing me to this amazing series
I became a trails fan on accident. I've loved jrpgs for years, back in the PS1 days actually, however many ages ago that was lol.
So I went to gamestop wanting to scratch my jrpg itch one day, and luckily for me, someone had ordered a collector's edition of Cold Steel 1, and then canceled after it came in. The clerk mentioned it, I bought it, and I feel in love. I then preorded and beat cold steel 2, and then went to the older games while waiting for CS3 and later CS4, and eventually got to play Zero and Azure thanks to the Geofront.
For me it started way back in Gagharv. The name "The Legend of Heroes" was stuck on my mind when I was a kid then tried to do research after few years of not playing. When I got back to playing, I started at Cold Steel but I feel like I missed some parts of the story. I postponed my Nord field study, researched again then saw Sky. Now I'm at Cold Steel 4 and I badly don't want it to end. I'm having post-game depressions lately thinking about i'd stop my journey soon. We still got no news about Hajimari's localization but I believe it's worth the wait :)
My time time was when I was playing Trails in the Sky, and first heard the Royal City Grancell music. My ears melted
Falcom music makes the world go round, you might not have a clue what the game is, but you'll sure as hell know the melody. :)
I played trails in the sky FC and it was the most engaging story I’ve ever played. It took me over 6 years before I would commit to playing them all in order. Best decision ever.
It shows the benefit of hard world building and a commitment to a long term narrative that can span multiple titles to tell a larger story.
I ended up getting introduced to the Trails series last year. After my final month in college, getting reading to transfer to uni to get my bachelors. Around that time there was a lot thinking of what I really wanted to do in life. Plus with the beginning pandemic I had a lot of free time to hash that idea out. Around that time I bumped into recommendations on RUclips about JRPS. And on the forefront it was trails of cold steel. And that's all it took for me to fall down the rabbit hole of the franchise. It's hands down one my favorite series of all time. Ended playing Sky, Zero, YS, and all of Cold Steel thanks to that recommendation. Those games helped me get through the good and the bad times in life. Leaving Falcom games holding a special place in my heart. Thanks for the video Kiseki Nut.
When a Series of games can positively impact your life, you know you're on to a winner, thanks for watching! :)
I randomly decided to actively search through jrpgs on steam and found the 1st chapter of trails in the sky, it reminded me of the old games I had nostalgia for and so I picked it up. I only played for 30 or 60 minutes at a time before it would lose my attention. Early game is slow. But once I hit the end of the Ruan chapter I was hooked, 6+ hours a day until I was crushed by the cliffhanger ending, with 9 months of waiting for the sequel... I still remember the moment I realized 2nd chapter was out, I just said 'gotta go, see you in a week' and alt f4 my team speak chat. No regrets, I love this series and I'm glad this channel exists to help others to discover such an amazing experience.
I admire your priorities, and support them as well. :)
For me, it started out as a recommendation from a close friend back in last May that I thought would just be a good way to kill time, but it ended up becoming more than I could have ever dreamed of and while going through this entire series I have come to a realization and that is nothing and I mean NOTHING will ever compare to Trails in the realm of video games for me now and hell even in all of fictional media in general I just think it's one of the best story sagas I've ever witnessed. I can't stress this enough, but these games are some of the absolute most immersive, unique, ambitious and realistic I've ever played and a big part of that is due to the worldbuilding that is just on a whole different level of ANYTHING else out there that I've experienced.
Well said! And naturally I agree, nothing else comes close to this Series in terms of scope, immersion and world-building.
I'm playing Trails in the Sky, my first Trails game and while slow I'm really enjoying the character development and how good the dialogue is. Nice video, a lot of passion for the series in your words. You got a new subscriber
It's so great to hear your personal story :) thank you for sharing it with us
Thanks for watching as always mate, I felt it would make a good topic since I've been looking back at why I'm even making videos in the first place.
@@TheKisekiNut I get that :) I'm gonna gush a bit and I hope it doesn't come across as creepy, though practically everything online tends to be anyway..
I gave this a 2nd watch, because I wanted to make sure. I think this is probably your best video. You can really feel the affection that you have for the series and how it ties into things that happened for you. There's a vulnerability in this video that I feel like it allows your audience to know a bit about the person behind the 'TKN' name.
The sheer work that goes into what you produce and the authenticity in your presentation is making your channel one of my favourites on RUclips and I often find myself revisiting your previous material, especially when doing something mundane like cooking or whatever. Something engaging for 15-20 mins on a topic I also happen to enjoy.
I could go on and on when singing your praises. It is a travesty that you haven't hit 10k subscribers yet; you deserve WAY more! Your work is phenomenal and I can guarantee I'm not your only viewer that really appreciates the content that you create. Keep on being awesome, and thank you again for another great video! :D
@@omarabdulkarim356 That's really kind words from you my man, and I appreciate them as always!
That's the thing though, I'm a human like anyone else, just another fan of the Series who happens to make content on them. I've never cared for the recognition or anything like that (it's nice, sure), but the main reason I make videos is because as you say, I love the Series.
And I think staying grounded is so important in general and I don't ever want to lose sight of the original reason why I started making content, because the day that happens is the day I will quit. If my content brings more people in to the Series, then that's my greatest reward. :)
What a remarkable experience！Thank you for sharing your story.
I started by playing the gagharv trilogy again and again back in high school. So when trails of the sky was released in China I got on board at the very first moment expecting another breathtaking mega story. Looking back at the time past, I will have to say that as a gamer, I was lucky and blessed that I got to experience trails game from the very beginning. It's an amzing ride.
It really is an awesome ride, and we're no where near done yet! :)
I stumbled upon a channel that uploaded gameplay videos on the first game, Trails in the Sky FC, and after seeing a part of the story, I immediately started to become invested in it.
Love your videos. I started with Ys8 this year and now just beat all Trails in the Sky games and am in love and can't wait to continue this journey. So happy I got introduced to Falcom games, there's something about them other Jrpgs don't have or do quality wise.
Looked around the PS Vita sale, saw Trails of Cold Steel 1 and 2, didn't think much of it at first... 3 years later and I caught up little by little in a reveres chronological order of games, but that didn't hinder how much I enjoyed this series
Back to this video after being 7 games deep. I never knew what Trails was back in the day. I think an old coworker played it on his Vita back then. I stumbled over a random falcom news video from your channel one day and then started being interested in Trails. I watched quite a few of your videos and started Sky FC around late 2019, I think. I was playing tales of Symphonia at the moment and wanted to finish that game first. I then stayed up many a long night while playing Sky and even finished the prologue in one sitting. I then got the Crossbell patches running and then started Cold Steel 1 and left it for 6 months before coming back. I then finished Cold Steel 2 and replayed Zero on my Switch. Trails is an amazing series so far and I am excited to see more. And also playing more Ys. I am at Napishtim now. I hope Daybreak turns out great. I am so glad I found your channel and these games. JRPGs truly are the best and I hope I can play many more.
What moment did I realize Trails was for me? It was 2011 and I was playing Sky FC on my PSP and there was this character named Schera, and the first time I saw her Sadist Whip S-Craft I immediately got "step on me" lovey dovey eyes. As if the instant addiction to the game and not being able to put it down in the first place was not enough, Schera's character solidified it and then later Olivier cemented it in stone. I bought every game as they came out after that.
It was the music for me. The moment I arrived at Trista and heard that musical score, I knew the game was special. I especially loved hanging out after school, listening in on “back to dorm” as I spoke to every NPC at campus. Amazing.
love how falcom had played a big part of your life and your journey sounds as exciting as it is only because of the exposure to falcom
The story just kind of comes full circle. I was never really disconnected from Falcom since I was first introduced to it with YS Origin, and I guess fate just took it's course. :)
Solid pick by mentioning Don't Be Defeated by a Friend, it's criminally underrated!
I'm so glad you had a chance to go abroad for an extended time, it's one of those things that can't be replicated. One of my friends told me that I had more stories that started with "When I was in Spain..." than he had stories, and I'd bet you have a similar situation with your friends and family. I actually remember watching those Japan videos back when I first discovered your channel!
PS Your Name is my fave anime and #2 favorite movie of all time. Amazing!
It's a banger of a tune, it's unfortunate that it seems to consistently get overlooked. :(
Yeah, you're well aware of my Japan escapade, I tend not to shut up about it at times. But that's how memorable the experience was for me, and maybe it might inspire others to do the same!
And naturally I concur 100% that Your Name is amazing and everyone should watch it. :)
Loved hearing your story! Thanks for sharing :) my journey into trails started with Sky 1 when it first came out on the PSP. I played it and loved it and was absolutely gutted to find out the sequel was not going to come out in the west. Years and years later it finally did, and not too long after that 3rd did too. Then I jumped to the Steel series and here we are!
Oof, those early localisation days were rough for Trails, what we have now feels like a blessing as we're near on guaranteed that the games will eventually get localised rather than be left in limbo.
@@TheKisekiNut absolutely! I feel like Sky1 might just be the worst game (other than maybe Steel3) to have a non guaranteed sequel since their endings were such cliffhangers! Ah well all is good now!
@@alasswholikeslazersxx959 For sure! Can't be dealing with a wait when you get brutal cliffhangers like that!
I usually don't watch videos like this but this was very well made! I just became and Y's fan and I'm about to start the trails in the sky and I'm very excited.
Just got into the series and loving it. I just beat TOS 1 a couple of weeks ago and part 2 yesterday. Excellent series of jrpgs. I'll be buying 3 in the near future, thats for sure.
That Trails train set off on the 15th July 2019 and haven't looked back since. It all started when I was first introduced to Falcom games the year prior when a friend of mine recommended me a game called "Tokyo Xanadu eX+." I loved that game so much that I had to check out the other games. Once I had the first few CS games and was able to stream again, I got sucked into the Trails journey. Oh boy, and what freaking journey it has been so far. CSIV and Hajimari, in particular, have blown me away with some brilliant lore, gameplay and music. This, next to Persona, is my all-time favourite gaming experience. Since I've been playing JRPGs since 1997, that's a big deal considering I've only known the series for a mere 18 months.
This is also a very special series not only because of the gaming aspects but also because of the community it has attracted. I have met some great people through the Trails series, including you Kiseki, and being a fellow Brit, it was great to know that people in my own neck of the woods are into the series.
Brilliant video, man. I've always been curious about where it all started for you :).
It's great to have you aboard DP, like you say it's not just the game that make the Series special. The community contributes massively too (most of it at least, I keep away from the more critical corners).
Long may it continue! :)
That's a really great story. Love how you were listening to trials music and using wallpapers without even knowing. It's a lot more interesting than my story. I just played CS1 last year after hearing amazing things, got hooked, and played them all within a few months.
Yeah man, it keep me connected to Falcom during that period so that's one contributing element that brought me in! I remember your review on CS1, I could tell you thought it was a banger. :)
When the switch was released I was looking for random games to get and one of the interesting ones I saw was ys8. It didn’t take long for me to start playing their other games once I got a ps4
Not a bad place to start!
For me, it was stumbling across an article detailing the massive amount of work XSeed had to put into localizing SC. I figured that it looked like an interesting game so I bought Trails in the Sky FC on Steam and gave it a go. I'm no stranger to JRPGs like Persona, Suikoden, and Ar Tonelico. Estelle Bright was an amazing character. I loved her sass, her expressiveness, her eagerness to throw down and her general bakaness in contrast to Joshua. After the thickening plot throughout the game and the major reveal in the end, I was in for life. Blood in, blood out!
To be honest it was Tark gaulet who brought me in to the series. After that decide to play trails of sky which is one of my favorite arcs in the series.
Oh boy, that Sunshine Coastline bgm... Never fails to get me hype.
Still remains one of my favourites!
I recently discovered Trails when I was bored and looking for a jrpg to play on psnow when I spotted Trails of Cold Steel. I fell in love with the game and never wanted it to end. That was one month ago and I'm now working on the 3rd one. I'm looking forward to going back and trying the others when I get through the Cold Steel games.
I discovered Nihon Falcom when I borrowed Ys VIII from my aunt about a year ago. I absolutely loved the music, gameplay, and everything.
I enjoyed hearing your story. If I’m honest I’ve never finished a trails game. I tend to sit on the periphery of communities and watch in. I’ve always been like this in lots of aspects of my life. I consider myself a part of the community though. I desperately want to play these games. I own all of the Trails of Cold Steel games on PS4, but I have no means to play Trails in the Sky at this time and really want to start there. I’m planning on getting a PC one day to start my journey. But, I realise from countless research that this is a special series and I cannot wait to get engrossed in it.
My journey to Zemuria began with the masterpiece of the late Wataru Ishibashi - Silver Will.
I was randomly browsing RUclips when I stumbled upon a playlist promising "the greatest JRPG songs of all time" or somesuch. Naturally curious about what would be the #1 song of such a list, I checked it out, finding it was a song from a series I had never heard about, a song with the cool-sounding title Silver Will. I gave it a listen and... I was kinda unimpressed. The opening of the song kinda weirded me out somehow, and the melody proper didn't immediately grab my attention. I figured it was a decent song, but nothing to really write home about.
A year or two pass, and one day I found myself humming a beautiful tune I realized I don't recognize. Wondering what this mysterious melody is, my mind flashed back to the video from far too long ago. It couldn't possibly be that song, right? It wasn't that good, right? How could I even remember it anymore, I listened to it like once such a long time ago. Still, the words "Silver Will" floated to the surface from the deepest reaches of my memory, and I caved. I had to check out that Best JRPG Songs #1 video again.
It was the song. And it was beautiful. Maybe I hadn't been in the right frame of mind when I first heard it. Maybe it is a song that takes a couple of listens to fully appreciate. Whatever the case, I realized that the melody had been so powerful that somehow it had engraved itself into my subconscious even though I had consciously dismissed the song, biding its time until I could recognize its beauty. And recognize it I did.
Of course, this made me curious about the series it was from as well, which led me to apply my usual method of scouting out interesting new works of fiction - I scoured through its TVTropes page. It sounded pretty interesting, I made a mental note of it as something to try out one day, but for whatever reason didn't pick up Trails in the Sky that day. It was only later when I had bumped into the series again a couple of times that I decided the time was right to take the plunge and see what this lauded JRPG series had to offer. Considering the foremost complaint in the Steam reviews seemed to be that "there was too much reading", it certainly seemed right up my alley.
I had already spoiled myself of the biggest twists and the general plot of FC and SC, so I can't point to any particular in-game moment as being the thing that made me fall in love with the series. It was more the general execution of everything that really sucked me in - the spoilers had only made me more curious to see how the story goes about delivering those interesting things I had read about, and the games met my expectations every step along the way. By the time I was halfway done with the Sky series, I knew I had something special in my hands, and playing through the Crossbell duology cemented my love for the series.
Looking forward to the Steam release of Cold Steel 4. While I haven't been as into that subseries as I was into the first five games, I've still enjoyed Cold Steel a plenty. And considering those first two arcs basically gave me everything I wanted from a JRPG series, I can't really find any resentment towards Cold Steel for "not being as good". The Trails series has already satisfied me. No matter what the future of the series brings, even if it were to descend from "not quite as good but still plenty good" to "actually not good", it won't diminish my gratitude for what Trails has already given me.
Nihon Falcom is my favorite JRPG company. After playing the trails series, I can't seem to enjoy other JRPGs the same way I enjoy Nihon Falcom games anymore
I do feel the same way, I remember how I was hooked on the Tales series 5 years ago until I played all 8 Kiseki games except CSIII and I now feel somewhat disconnected when It comes to other jrpgs, I still love Tales by not as much as Kiseki.
Back in the early 2010s, I was searching for a singleplayer game to play and my friend showed me something on Kongregate, Epic Battle Fantasy 3, I got super hooked onto the game that I actually started playing it day in day out, but always struggled to beat a certain boss (this was me as a child who didn't know what buffs were), needless to say when I did realize how it was supposed to be played I finished the game in record fashion, I needed more, then I searched it up on the internet and found a playthrough of EBF4 by one of my favorite RUclipsrs to date, and after watching that playthrough I immersed myself in his content, and there it was, he was currently playing through Trails in the Sky. Needless to say I fell in love with the music, the story, but especially I fell in love with the characters, especially the main duo, but when I had asked whether he'd play more he was reluctant, so I decided to take matters into my own hands. as an elementary school student at the time I obviously had a lot of time to spare (it was 2015-16) and by the time I started high school in September of 2016 I had played through Sky FC and SC three times and that's how I started adoring this series and Sky SC still remains my favorite game of all time.
I like how Ys Origin is an entry point to the whole Falcom company. I started too with Ys Origin. I played lacrimosa of dana next thanks to PS+ and became intrigued by Trails. So I tried the daybreak demo and now I'm currently playing Sky SC after already beating FC. And I can already tell Trails is something really really special.
I also indirectly discovered trails through music:
short intro: I found an artist that covered Ys music, I then went to listen to the original and loved it then saw Ys 1&2 TurboGrafx, it was an awkward sensation at first when playing but I quickly got hooked as soon as I heard that music in the first dungeon and I surprisingly digged the gameplay after a while. I didn't think I could enjoy something so simple in concept this much. I then explored many other Ys games like Felghana and Origin.
I then later in college found a game called Trails in the Sky on the PSP Go game store that was also made by Falcom and decided that I trusted the name and would give it a whirl. Normally I am easily turned off by turn based games but I gave it a shot and I actually got immediately hooked contrary to what most people experience first with this game. It didn't feel "slow" because I was getting invested in a game that was "genuine" more than any other game I ever played and I can thank mainly one name for that, Estelle Bright.
It felt so great to have Estelle as a protagonist because she played so differently than the rest of the protagonists I was used to. She was far more easily relatable and grounded into reality. No offense to other awesome JRPG main characters like Lloyd Irving, but with every new protagonist trying to be even more epic than the last, Estelle was a breath of fresh air. And oh god...the emotional journey with her too and that ending.......that ending FOLLOWED BY THE MOST ATROCIOUSLY PAINFUL 4.5 YEARS OF WAIT TIME UNTIL THE LOCALIZATION OF THE NEXT GAME...suffice to say Estelle has endured the test of time and remains to this day my favorite main protagonist (though Olivier is my favorite character, his role in my love for Legend of Heroes wasn't as important).
And to add to that main protagonist, I got introduced to so many interesting characters too that weren't limited to the main cast. The worldbuilding was truly godlike but I didn't expect a game would get me invested in the personal stories of small time characters like Nial and Dorothy who did genuinely play awesome roles in the story. They were really making me fall in love with the most inconspicuous characters out there, from an old fisherman, a bathhouse manager, even to the one bartender who only got 2 lines in the entire series just to react to Joshua's embarassment at Olivier's comments in their first encounter but god damn I loved that bartender that one time!
Truly, this is a series where I don't just want to discover places, I want to discover people and their lives, and while locales are great, I think there's many more personal connections to be made with all the souls of these fictional characters than anything else could provide.
The way you describe your visceral sense of belonging in Japan is exactly how I felt in China. I ended up staying ten years, brought my new family back for a couple years to the US and am now frozen out due to Covid. Hopefully, we can get back to the places we love soon.
I first discovered Falcom via Trails of Cold Steel; a game I picked up in 2016 after having returned from my own time living in Japan for a couple years working as an ALT the year prior. I had recently picked up a PS Vita and was looking for a new game to play, having been a fan of JRPGs since my time with SNES emulators in the 90s, and came across something in a review that I'd never seen before: the NPCs in Cold Steel didn't just have a single line of dialogue; they would comment on things in the world as they happened. Additionally, events wouldn't just stop because you weren't there: the events of side quests would occur with or without you, with the outcome changing depending on your presence. Intrigued I picked up the game, devoured it and CSII there after. Unfortunately though it would be another yearish before I even found out about Trails In The Sky, via the anime, and proceeded to play 1-3 in the space of a few weeks. Throw in Ys 7 & 8 and I'm pretty confident in saying I love Falcom games at this point :)
I don't have a grand or complex story of how I got into the Trails franchise. It was simply a game I heard much praise about, and one day when it went on sale, I bought FC on Steam. I had no idea it would become one of favorite series of all time.
That is, until I experienced the story of Estelle and Joshua.
The story, the characters, the combat, the music, the early 2000s artsyle, I loved all of it. I remember the exact moment FC became special to me, which is when I heard "The Whereabouts of Light" for the first time.
From then on I had the privilege of binging every Trails game that had been released since then in order, up to Cold Steel III. I am glad I became a fan of this series, and for the memories it gave me, because there are truly no other games like it :)
This Jrpg is very but very different from the majority that we are used to seeing, the stories are so engaging and extremely rich that it seems that the more you think the game exceeds the potential, it just surpasses it. Another very interesting thing is about the world of the trails series, because with each choice, situations, interconnections with the characters, these will have enormous weight in the next game and as it happens in a single world, it gets to be very complex and in a simple way, which is GENIAL! I became a big fan of Crossbell duology, although Lloyd is the weakest, he can be the one who takes the most risks and the one who dodges easily, the SSS relationship is so deep that in the next game this is seen with extreme shock and Of course, although the songs are very good (THE AZURE ARBITRATOR), Nihom falcom itself does not have its due recognition even though she has been producing games for more than 20 years and she never gives up. Speechless😐
My history with Falcom and Trails as a whole was a little more scattered than I'd thought they were previously. I'd known the Trails name from watching someone stream Sky FC back around 2015, if I recall correctly, though I wasn't particularly familiar with the series or Falcom as a company back then. My first proper exposure wasn't until 2019. I was getting burned out on RPGs like the Megaten series and Final Fantasy, and asked a co-worker of mine who'd been well-versed in RPGs to give me a list of suggested RPGs he liked that were outside of those two franchises. Out of that list, Trails of Cold Steel happened to be on there, so I bought the first game on a whim.
I definitely got into it the more I played, though I didn't get very far. It actually took me a much longer amount of time to beat due to my habit of playing multiple RPGs at one time. When I found out that Cold Steel was basically the middle of the series, I set out to return to the beginning and found Trails in the Sky FC. I emulated the PSP version first since I was unemployed at the time and didn't have the money to get the official version. I was definitely hooked at that point, and I loved the music, the characters, the combat, and the writing style. I decided to explore Falcom's games a little more at that time and found Ys, which I remembered seeing an ad for in an old gaming magazine around a decade prior to that. I think it was the release of Ys Seven, if I recall. I started the PSP version of the first Ys game, wondering if it would be turn-based like Trails since I was only really playing turn-based games at the time, but quickly realized it wasn't and dropped the game because I thought it wasn't for me.
I don't remember what happened, but I decided to give it another try. The music in conjunction with the simplistic combat drew me in, and next thing I knew, I was hooked on Falcom's other flagship series. Eventually I was working again and could afford to get the official releases of the rest of the Sky trilogy, and even got the rest of the Cold Steel series, knowing I'd want to play them once I reached that point in the story. From there, I started going through the Trails games relatively quickly, sort of alternating between Sky and CS, and I at least familiarized myself with the Crossbell arc so I could play CS3. And now I can say I absolutely love this series, and I'm looking forward to playing Zero's official release when it comes out.
More than the the game, your life journey kept me captivated throughout the video. Well done.
I just finished playing persona 5 and I wanted something similar. Quick google searrch and I found my answer: Trails of Cold Steel. I looked up the steam page and my first thought was: "Persona 5 have better graphics" than I closed it. I think, after a few days I came back and watched the opening of the game,than I immediately bought it. The music the characters...everything was right up in my alley. And after I finished it I knew that I wanted more of this. For the next few years I played every game in Trails, and now it became my favorite game series of all time.
That's exactally what happened to me. After playing the persona games, i stumbled upon cold steel. It took me a while to complete it though as it was very boring comapred to persona 5, but i ended up binging cs2 after that cliff hanger, subsequently leading me to cold steel 3, in which i stopped playing to this day to go back into the franchise and play sky and the crossbell games. (I cannot wait for geofront to finally localize azure this month!)
I have a brand-new PC I hope this time I can get into both Trails and Ys series. They look fun.
I was introduced to the series through Trails of Cold Steel by Fishfriedcat another RUclipsr. Upon watching his amazing video about it, I was curious, and it was in a lull that followed my 160 hour investment into Final Fantasy 7 Remake and 200 hours in Dragon Quest XI. So I picked up ToCS1 on sale for PlayStation, and I was hooked in the Prologue. The music and the combat system coupled with the art style in that first hour or so, and I immediately went back to PlayStation store to buy CS2 and CS3 and all the add-on packs for all three. This was August of 2020, and I proceeded to spend a minimum of 200 hours plus over 3-4 playthroughs FOR EACH GAME! Picking up CS4 in October, this whole series endeavor took me through January 4th, and I immediately picked up Trails in the Sky series and will pick up the Crossbell arc eventually. I'm finishing Sky 2 now and Sky 3 this month before moving back to Nier for spring. Later this year, I'll play the Ys games on PlayStation while I wait for news Hajimari and more will come to the west soon. I have also picked up Tokyo Xanadu to play this summer before Ys. I'm absolutely hooked on Falcom. If I have a complaint, it's only the selfishness of wanting faster localizations.
For me it was the rpg gamer interview the dude did with Britney from Xseed. I knew nothing of Trails at the time and it was an E3 interview with the demo. Britney was really enthusiastic and her love for the series was extremely apparent and the game looked cool, so it was on my Radar for the Vita.
When I finally got my hands on it, the game blew me away for how good it looked on the vita and the story was intriguing.
I became a fan because of that plucky little woman.
Britney if you're reading this: thank you
Yes, back then XSeed had people who actually loved the Series, if anything it's because of them that we even have them as they pushed very hard for the games to be localised. That kind of passion is infectious. :)
I started about a few years ago.. I heard of Cold steel and saw some starting gameplay.. I was interested but it was about the same release date as persona 5 and.. I played nothing else for 130hrs.. everynight after work.. Later I remembered I downloaded Cs1 on psn and after the first chapter I was like wow.. This is a slow game.. but I persevered.. I started talking to every npc and realising they aren't random.. They have a place, a job, a name and a purpose in this world and changed with the passing of time..
It was the world building.. The intrigue of getting to know about not only your classmates, but their families, friends and environments.. That shaped them to this point.. and later how our experiences shaped them in later titles..
Even on the slow speed and 70hr playthrough.. I realised I loved this game.. and it has eclipsed an entire genre.. I'm now nearing the end of CSIV (after waiting to get the ltd ed.. for an ok price) and The entire series imo.. Is the best jrpg of the past 2 decades.. and can't wait to see what TLoH series holds in the future.. (I'm completing the liberl/bell arcs after steel.. in the wait for the new game(s) XD)
For me, I was just a 12 year old introvert, my brother gave me his old PSP abs I was digging through the games and happen to come across trails in the sky 1st chapter. And love it ever since then. My brother loves the series as well lol
A family of culture I see!
Amazing story behind how you got into the "Trails" games. I really enjoyed your video. Oddly enough, my first experience with the series was the first game in the Trails in the Sky series. I didn't really get into that game even though I had read amazing reviews. It was the first Trails of Cold Steel game that drew me in to the "Trails" world. Rean Schwarzer became one of my favorite characters in gaming history and the cast of that game was excellent. Great story and world building along with memorable characters that you feel compelled to care about. I'm now in the midst of Trails of Cold Steel II and really excited to see where the story goes. I've already purchased Trails of Cold Steel III and IV so I can finish the entire story arc. When comparing Trails of Cold Steel to Trails in the Sky, the 3D graphics and voice acting of Cold Steel really makes a significant difference for the better. The world depicted in Trails of Cold Steel feels more alive because of it.
Other Nihon Falcom RPGs I've also enjoyed are Y's VIII and Tokyo Xanadu eX+. They also happen to be 3D games with voice acting included, although Tokyo Xanadu only voice acting option is in Japanese. While I do agree that the music for Nihon Falcom games is top notch, the voice acting is also tremendous. The audio experience in itself is a treat.
mine is a much more simple story. i changed my gaming habits to start playing single player story based games, and jrpg were up there. i wanted to play some classics especially of longer running series to see what i had missed out on and experience the evolution of the genre. (mana series, final fantasy, ect)
i was watching " trash taste " podcast, saw garnt talk about the trails series. i had a look, it had been on my radar so i dove in kinda blind. i fell in love with all of it. what a masterclass of gaming, almost perferct.
have dove right into the others and about to finish to azure soon.
the story, the characters, THE MUSIC!, the emotions. the timeless artstyle and animations that exude being crafted with love. i wish more people found this, i wish it was on all platforms.
My story: My psp got busted, then I bought my friends'. Sky FC was on the memory stick, but I didn't care much for it, despite playing for a bit, so I deleted it. A few months back, I downloaded back again, due to being a new Falcom fan because of the Ys series. Played for a bit, then countinued my save a few months later, so I was actually hooked. After that, I finished the whole Sky arc, and am progressing into the Crossbell arc, aiming into plyaing the whole series. It's so great, I can't stop praising it, even though I'm not particularly a jrpg fan.
Ys vs. Trails in the Sky - Alternative Saga introduce me to this series this year.. all thanks to Geofront and i am experienced JRPG games i played so many RPGs through out on my life and i am excited to venture more on the Ys and Trails series.. especially i really luv the OSTs both series. anyways thank you for sharing ur story ! :D
I have always loved JRPGS, I saw trails of cold steel 1 on sale on the psn store and I thought.. why not? Started playing it absolutely loved it, started part 2 and I started getting recommendations regarding the whole universe. I saw a video that basically stated don't play trails 3 without playing the other games, when I realised as of then.. that there was other games in that universe I was done. I have now played all of the liberl arc and half way through watching a playthrough of the crossbell arc. I absolutely love this series!
I am an old school jrpg player, 16bit era, and while technology kept getting better, the jrpgs kept getting worse, in the sense that complex plots gave way to convoluted messes that tried to be complex, so I ditched jrpgs for over 15 years.
I have a good friend that is also a jrpg lover, more than I am, and he mentioned Trails in the sky, he said to me: I played a fun little game called trails in sky in PS Vita, it has everything you and I love from the golden 16 bit era and more.
Skip forward 8 years, I am in between jobs coming out of a long relationship, also my dad passed away around the same time, nothing to play, just wanted to be alone for a while, and as you Kiseki Nut, Steam had the answer,
I noticed the little game my friend mentioned 8 years prior, I remembered him saying it ended on a cliffhanger and there was no second part, so I checked and there it was SC. so bought them both and the rest is history.
Estelle brought brightness back to my life and helped me veer from depression.
I LOVE the trails series.
I played the previous Legend of Heroes saga on PSP around a decade ago, which is the Garghav Trilogy at my cousin's place. This introduced me to Falcom and the Legend of Heroes brand.
Later got recommended Trails in the Sky FC by him as well. Got hooked ever since. It was a dark period waiting for SC to get translated and ported to PC.
As for Ys, I watched omegaevolution's final boss playthrough of Ys SEVEN and was introduced. Later, I came across Oath and later Origin. Played the demo and the full game was on my library some time later.
All three of them had their god-tier ost to hook me in and extend my enjoyment of my PSP.
My interest in JRPG started with FF7: Crisis Core and was kept alive with Dissidia and its sequel Duodecim. They may be Falcom's biggest rival but if it wasn't them (and a lack of a PS3), I wouldn't even have been interested in the TRUE gem of the JRPGs.
I searched for good JRPGs for my Vita and found Persona 4 Golden (my favourite JRPG of all time) and Trails of Cold Steel.
I finished P4G with about 120hrs of total game time (given I did 3 playthroughs, out of which 2 were NG+).
This description of how I became a Kiseki Fan contains spoilers for the Trails of Cold Steel series, so newbies be warned!
I played ToCS up until chapter 5 I believe, where you had to defeat Unsurtr in the old schoolhouse (I will never forget this enemy, always insta-freezing my party). That and the overall complexity of having soooo much stuff to do: hidden quests, the plethora of different build I could do eventhough I didn't know any of the cast - characterwise or mechanicswise. So I dropped it with the keen intend of definitely picking it back up one day and finishing it since the game definitely had something going for it - although the game as a whole was like 80% exposition - makes sense in retrospect of course but still...
Around two months ago I picked the game up and my dumbass got the idea to buy freeze-restinant accessories lol. From then on I was sooo happy to have finally beaten this boss that I basically rushed the rest of the game because the story finally started to pick up the pace. The game had some issues which haltered the playthrough a bit, but it was still enjoyable. The second game practically took hold of me! It was sooo much better than the first part with lots of cool mechanics and I enjoyed it the second-most, the most enjoyed being the fourth part.
So as of today I beat the fourth game - now as with P4G I feel empty, since the characters all grew on me and I basically kinda inserted myself into the plot - since it takes places at an academy and I studied for my Bachelor's degree at the time. Now nearing my the end of my study for my Master's degree I kind of relate to the game again, with Rean being an Instructor and not being in the position of student again, looking over the new generation of students I really related to that. It's funny that I took a few years off the game back then since the time lapse kind of greatly overlapped lol.
So all of that, an interesting plot, a lot of relatable and likable characters, great music (Blue Destination and The Decisive Collision being my absolute favourites), a really beautiful artstyle and great mechanics this game brought me into the Trails series. Yesterday I purchased all three parts of Trails in the Sky for my PC, so I really look forward to see the other parts of this great ingame world!
this was rly nice to watch while doing dishes! you have a very nice voice to listen to :)
for me, it was because I had been a massive harvest moon fan since I was a kid. so naturally, once it became story of seasons, I followed xseed on Twitter. when tocs came out, xseed and other jrpg news/reviews sites were all tweeting about it, and I kept seeing the game keep getting 8 and 9/10s. naturally it piqued my curiosity and then i read about how all the npcs have their own story and I found that so unique and interesting!
on top of all that I found out one of my good friends had just played it and she raved about it to me so I ended up buying it and played for like 6 or 7 hrs on a school night when I only meant to play the prologue/up to a save point LOL and that ending of tocs1 was the first time in my life I had ever stayed up all night beating a game. all I could think of during classes was to get back to my apt and immediately buy tocs2 (which I did LOL)
fast forward to 4-5(?) yrs later now, and I'm in the middle of tocs4, having already played all the past games. there's no going back now esp cos I live in Japan haha
also i didn't know Makoto Shinkai worked for falcom so that was a rly interesting bit of trivia! would you say kimi no na wa is your most fav movie by him?
I've always had a face for radio, so if the voice is doing the job then that's all for the better! :)
P.S - definitely jealous you're living in Japan!
When I first heard that Great Power ost during the Loa boss fight in CS1. The music had me enthralled.
I went the other way. I put a few hours into Cold Steel 1 and didn't even want to come back. I had no idea that I was writing off a masterpiece. I later came across Trails in the Sky, and decided to give it a try, not realising at the time the connection at the time between Trails in the Sky and Trails of Cold Steel. I'd even forgotten the existence of the game I'd mistaken the previous year for a budget JRPG. I liked Sky, but I didn't stick with it. And then the PS4 remasters of Cold Steel 1 and 2 came out on PS4. I decided to give the series one more chance, and I quickly realised just how amazing the first game actually is once you start getting into the plot of political intrigue, populated by one of the most well written cast of characters I'd ever seen in a JRPG. And in that moment, there was no going back. The Kiseki series has since become my favourite series of games from my favourite developer
My Steam achievements and purchase history from last summer illustrates my moment. Chapter 3 of FC, I bought SC and 3rd. Blew through the game in less than a week. Also pre-ordered Zero for Switch at the end of SC. Currently on CS1 after playing the series nearly non-stop with just that few months between Zero and Azure (in which I played Ys Origin)
for me, it was the most impossible coincidence. at a convention, i became good friends with one of translators for the first cold steel game. so i told him id pick it up and play it so i could see his work. then my life was never the same again
Sometime in 2016, I remember browsing through YT and came across random footage of the CS1 ending (inadvertently spoiling myself). At the time, I thought the game looked cool and thought this would be a good entry point for me to get back into JRPG's. Prior to this, I had stopped playing around 2005 (at the time, high school, college, grad school, and early career life had gotten in the way for more than a decade, despite my enjoyment of series like Final Fantasy, Grandia, and Xenosaga). After seeing that footage, it fell off my radar probably because I had a PC but did not want to buy a PS3. In early 2017, it was announced that CS1 would be ported to PC so I eagerly awaited the release later that year. By that time, I had completely forgotten the ending of CS1 from random browsing the previous year. It only came back to me after I played through the entirety of CS1 and reached the ending, realizing there was a much bigger story than what was presented on the surface. This is how I got hooked into the Trails Series and the rest is history!
discovered it on reddit i believe last year. played CS1 first, then half way through I decided to start from the beginning, then I catch up to CS1 and now working towards CS2 now
What a wonderful video! Thank you for sharing your experience! (Looks up early Japan travel video.)
Relative newcomer here. Final Fantasy 7 Remake was the entirety of my pandemic plan, and I wrapped it up in less than a month. Meanwhile, it became clear we were (are) in it for the long haul. So I scoured the internet for "immersive JRPGs." Blazed my way through Cold Steel 1 & 2. Finished 3 and loved it, but felt a lot of plot points and returning characters flew right over my head.
Spent the last year slowly making my way through Sky and Crossbell (per your content & the suggestion of some Twitter folks). Hell of a journey so far! It ruins other JRPGs the same way The Wire ruins all cop dramas (that's a good thing).
Thank you for watching mate, and for sharing your story! Yes the pandemic sucks for sure, but there's no doubt it's given us plenty of time to find something else to enjoy. :)
I had a sort of similar experience to yours :D
When I started animation school I dropped playing video games altogether and took a 2 year break from them so I could focus. When I finally had more free time on my hands and was really into anime at the time, still am to this day, I wanted to play some jrpg's. I checked out steam since I had just built my own computer and found the Trails franchise along with it's "overwhelmingly positive" reviews. Started with Trails in the Sky FC over a holiday break and the rest is history.
Enjoyed the vid and listening to your story man!
Can't think of a better way to commemorate a new build than to get in to the Trails Series, I support this choice. :)
Its so cool to hear your story, I found Cold Steel while looking for an anime like BATTLE ACADEMY game, and low and behold came Trails of cold steel
the opening of cold steel 1 is when I got hooked on the series
And this is why I consider Cold Steel 1 as a great entry point, it has so many elements covered to bring someone new in. :)
I found a used Trails of Cold Steel for PS3 at Gamestop about 7 years ago and enjoyed it, but didn't commit to the rest of the series since I couldn't find Cold Steel 2 for a good price, and I didn't own a PSP or PSVita to get into the Sky games. Then just 2 years ago I saw BigKlingy's let's play of Trails in the Sky on RUclips. I watched the first 2 episodes and immediately decided to stop watching his LP and buy the game on Steam and play it through myself first. I've played through all 3 Sky games now, and am waiting for the Crossbell games to come. Meanwhile, time to catch up and binge on BigKlingy's Trails videos.
Trails is now my favorite game series of all time.
I feel you bro, dropping a gem then picking it up again and realize everything..
Damn... you've reignited that spark within me that was slowly dwindling. I went to Japan for half a year on a scholarship. You talking about Japan just made me realize how freaking much I miss that country. Jesus Christ.
And yeah, game is cool too, I guess ;).
My first exposure to Falcom was through my PS Vita in early 2018. I went to my local games store and saw Ys: Memories of Celceta. I took it home...and within 24 hours I returned it, and traded it for WipEout 2048. It wasn't a bad game; I just didn't think it was for me.
Fast forward to September 2019, and I bought a copy of Trails of Cold Steel (once again, for my Vita). I started playing it, and thought to myself, "Hm. This is ok." I played through the Prologue, and Chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4, thinking this was just a good JRPG.
Little did I know what Chapter 5 had in store for me.
I played through most of Chapter 5, thinking it was just more of the same. Then the climax came, and the situation went from 1-100 in an instant. And the music "Facing Everything, Here We Stand" started playing, and this went from just being a good game to one of my favourites.
Since then I've played through the rest of the Cold Steel games. As I write this, I'm in the midst of Act 2 of CS IV and loving it. The journey I've been on over the past year and a half is one I will never forget. And the Trails series is my favourite game series -- certainly my favourite series of JRPGs.
I started Final Fantasy 14 in 2021, having never played any JRPG before. I enjoyed that game's story a lot, and am continuing to enjoy it. But I wanted to see if there were other JRPGs that I would like since there were SO MANY of them. And in April 2022 I stumbled upon Ys 8. It had good reviews, and I didn't know anything about the series or Falcom, so I just tried it for the hell of it. It was amazing. And after finishing it, I instantly bought Ys 9 and completed it within a few weeks as well. For now I'm patiently waiting for Ys 10 to release on PC.
After that, I played some other JRPGs but none held my attention for long. And then in September 2022 I stumbled upon Trails of Cold Steel. I remembered a reddit thread some time ago when Cold Steel 4 was released in English, I vaguely recalled positive comments from people, so I bought it to see what it was about. I enjoyed the hell out of it, but I don't think it connected to me that the developer was Falcom, the same Falcom whose Ys 8 and Ys 9 I adored that had made Cold Steel, until I was well into the game. When I got that, I realised that I would probably enjoy all of the games that this company puts out. After finishing Cold Steel 1, I instantly bought all the games that were localised to English. Can't wait for more Falcom games to wow me.
The first Trails Of Cold Steel game after the prologue did it for me. I loved the presentation & combat in it. The story seemed like it’d be great & it was.