Trails of Cold Steel
Finished. Total time clocked was about 74 hours. Quite long, but it was very enjoyable pretty much all the way through. At no point during the game did I really lose interest or wanted it to be over like say DQ8 earlier this year. This is a good sign. In terms of what kept my interest for that long, it's hard to say. I don't think there was any one thing - rather the combined parts packaged together made the experience. Pretty much everything I could think of was great, with the exception of the Final Chapter (more on that later): The characters, the NPCs, the setting, the plot, the gameplay, the music were all excellent. That's not to say it doesn't have its flaws, but the problems that strike out at me are rather minute and may be more nitpicking more than anything.
If I had to label the strongest contributor for holding my interest for the entire game, it would definitely have to be the work done around the characters. Pretty much all of them were entertaining. The premise of the game starts you off in a military academy and the rigidity of social classes. But the class that you are assigned to doesn't have that barrier and is instead a mixture of aristocracy and commoners. This obviously leads to conflict between characters, and much like real life, you're not going to get along with everyone that you meet, which is exactly what you see. But the game does a damn good job at making them all grow in a believable enough fashion and doesn't rush any of the development. By the end, they all change a little and it grows on you nicely. Jusis for example, is still cynical and cold, but by the end, he comes to respect his classmates in Class VII. Special shout outs to all the work that Falcom placed around the NPCs. All the instructors were quite amusing in their own way as well as the important figures such as Prince Olivert or Rufus (Jusis' brother.) I loved all the 2nd years (sans Crowe), especially Towa. I think she's now my favourite NPC character alongside Luserina, which says quite a bit since she isn't even as centralizing as Luserina.
As for the setting, the game delivers pretty well on that too. There's no overworld map. Instead you travel to different parts of the world by train. Y'know like actual people. And the one time you get to visit a Nomadic settlement, they give you a horse and the field is *gigantic*. Honestly, the areas in this game are extremely well designed. The towns feel like actual towns, have quite a few people and the houses feel like actual buildings. The game gives you quick traveling to places in town, which is excellent given the amount of backtracking that you often have to do. My main gripe here is that the option should've been available in field areas/encounter areas as well. Sometimes you need to backtrack to certain locations in a field, and you have no choice but to walk all the way through, which can be quite tedious. Speaking of the train, it adds a nice little bit of symbolism to the game - how many of us can walk down the same path as guided by the tracks, but ultimately we make our own stops and choices. The music is top notch, as is expect for a Falcom game. I love all the battle tracks but pretty much every track played is excellent or fits the situation to a tee.
One of the other things I liked about the game is that it doesn't do pointless anime pandering for the sake of pandering. Thank god by the way. I remember playing Persona 4 earlier in the year and a lot of that pandering stuff that was added to Golden made me cringe so badly. Case in point is that during the summer months, the class does swimming training. Since everyone is still in class, you get the standard gym swimsuits, instead of something potentially worse. After the class, there is a hidden event where if you participate, it's actually the guys that get drilled on how to swim more efficiently. Sure there's another event following that involves the girls, but it's your instructor who grills you regarding the training and pretty much no pervy stuff going on. There's no hot springs scene (supposedly though there is a audio CD? whatever), and the school festival is like a million times more believable and not as cringe inducing. That doesn't mean it's completely free of the animez, but it's notably less silly and the game lampshades itself in situations where its appropriate (Rean being used as the butt monkey in group assignments).
As for the Gameplay, it's very solid. You have 9 party members for a large portion of the game and 11 later on, with every member of the cast specializing in doing something different. This is quite a task especially once you consider that the 9 characters you start with are all good in their own right! The balance between the PCs feels very solid. PCs that are worse at the start are significantly better at the end and vice versa in other cases. I played the game on Normal but I would recommend to any DL people planning to play the game to play on Hard unless you just want to relax. Normal is a little easy once past Chapter 2 with only maybe 1 or 2 fights afterwards that pose any challenge (and then it depends on how well prepared you are). It's definitely a complaint I have, but since you can adjust the difficulty, the only real nitpick is that you can't change the difficulty after starting. It's harder than SH2 mind, so its not like the game is completely free or unenjoyable. The battle system is CTB with positioning elements (like Grandia 3/Wild ARMS 4) to it as well as event reel that is randomized. Think Xenosaga, except the effects are more meaningful and play more of an impact a battle. Your characters can be set up with quartz which as my sister put it, is essentially materia for dummies, so it's very easy to get into.
Characters can also link with each other during fights, which allows them to assist the other character, and herein lies another area where the characters are all unique. You can perform linked attacks if you can unbalance or break an enemy's stance and each character has different proficiency in the 4 physical classes. For example, Rean has a S in Slashing, which means against enemies who are more vulnerable to Slash based physicals, he can get a linked attack easier, which increases the damage he deals (nearly double in some cases). Meanwhile, someone like Machias has a A in Pierce and B in Blunt, which means that while he hits two different categories, he's less likely to cause a stagger. This in terms makes him less physically proficient than Rean. These differences stretch to linked bonuses as well. At a Level 3 Link, Rean will occasionally Defend his linked partner. Meanwhile, at Level 3, Machias has Auto-Tear, which means he will occasional counter by healing his linked partner. This type of differentiation kept the cast pretty interesting and encouraged you to try everyone out. The game will even lend a hand by forcing certain party compositions on you during the story! But you are free to select your party anytime you are examining the schoolhouse dungeon so it's quite fun trying out different combinations of characters, especially since the effectiveness and roles change throughout.
Some other nitpicks that I didn't get to above. Outside of the difficulty and lack of quick travel in field areas, some plot related stuff - the entire bit of Crowe seriously bugs me. Many of his interactions felt forced and I never felt once any camaraderie with this character. Considering the twist they do, it doesn't sell me on what I guess Falcom wanted me to feel. He just feels more like a giant tool than anything else as a result. Also the explanation for the twist felt extremely poor and I still don't find myself buying it. Then the entire final chapter was just silly. I don't have any problems with the cliffhanger ending, but really? When did this game turn into Gundam Seed? It goes back to what I was joking about with some of my speedrunning friends, that every JRPG inevitably ends up with either demons or giant robots. At least Trails of Cold Steel doesn't disappoint in this regard.
In addition, there is no cutscene skip. Why? I mean, yes, there's a fast forward feature, but really? Cutscene skipping should be a staple in this era of games and that's not just me being a speedrunner. You have a synopsis and shit for people to read anyway so what are we afraid of by adding this in? The game (at least on the PS3) also has a few points where it tends to crash. The most frequent ones are when you play the card game, but I've also seen it when it was transitioning to a story event before, which made me have to redo *everything* before then. This is also why cutscene skipping would help! The Vita version doesn't have any of these problem as far as I am aware and is basically better because the text, numbers and some of the buffs are more legible. Finally, there's essentially no post game, which is a shame. Some of the good stuff that they give you comes in way too late to matter (some Master Quartz) and others are way too dependent on tiny little triggers, where if you miss it, you're locked out forever. An example of this is the book collection which is required to get an item necessary to make an ultimate weapon. I guess if you did all the optional quests as they come up, it's essentially bonus side content - just in the middle of the game instead of all in the end. Doesn't excuse the placement or distribution of rewards though.
Whew! And with that, that's about it. Overall, this game sits with me probably at about 9.5 to a 10. One of the very few games where I feel that the 10 is definitely possible since the entire package is just so well done. We will see though as time passes on. Highly recommended from me to anyone who has it or is like CK and thinks good JRPGs are dead. Cold Steel is proof that there are still excellent titles out there. Maybe not as much as the PS2/DC/Gamecube/XBox era, but they still exist.
Closing thoughts regarding characters (battle performance mostly) -
Rean - I like Rean. He's honest, dependable and isn't a total idiot. In fact, he's portrayed as being quite sharp, but having his own weaknesses in self confidence and moments of uncertainty, which makes him easy to relate to. Of course, since he's the lead male, he gets stuck with total obliviousness around women. Anime tropes man! In battle, Rean starts off more as a fighter, but as the game goes on becomes more of a fast striker. He has two fixed time slots on his ARCUS grid, and since his magic growth is pretty poor, it's best to stack him with passive/stats in those slots, which often boost speed or add delay. Speaking of Delay, its crazy strong against anything it works on since it just adds the numerical value as the number of extra 'ticks' needed before the opponent can act again. Considering that Rean has a couple of techs that add substantial delay, this excellent on anything that is vulnerable to its effects. He also has an ability called Motivate, which adds Atk Up in a wide area around himself and gives everyone it hits 10 CP at a net cost of 20. This move is quite effective in randoms as a result since its easy to boost other attackers before they act and let them strike with more powered up hits.
DL-wise, Rean's not very interesting. He hits things with a sword and has some minor buffing to give him more CP generation. If you're the type to give half CP or full CP (and half CP is easy to get by the way), then he can delay things for a few turns until he runs out of gas. The damage isn't overly impressive offhand, but pushing back another person's turn definitely adds up. He also has a couple of status to play with, but its only 50%. The real kicker is his limit though. If you knock him down to 20% HP or lower, he will instantly gain 200 CP along with receiving a strength boost, which means he can bust out a S-Craft at double base power, plus the 25% boost resulting in massive pain.
Alisa - She's the Tsundere. Obvious crush on Rean is obvious. Outside of that, she has a very turbulent relationship with her mother, which feels all too real in some IRL families. Matures up over the course of the story and its easy to see that when you compare Alisa at the start (from leaving her family unannounced) to at the end (expresses concern over what her mother is dealing with, speaking up against some of her mother's decisions). In fights, she's the long distance offense specialist, having excellent strength and magic attack power. This lets you set her up to be whatever you may need more at the time - a mage or an archer. Towards the end, she's specializes in being a battery for frontliners. She has 2 extremely useful crafts - one of which gives CP to all targets in a GT radius and another which adds CP Generation and Insight status to all targets in range. Insight is crazy powerful since it adds a flat 50% Evasion rate, so it pretty much lets everyone evade tank for her while she's in the back, picking things off.
DL-wise, whoo boy. She's a mage, and a *mean* one at that. Her starting Master Quartz has Shining, which allows her to put Insight on to herself, making her tough to hit. In addition, one of the passive abilities on her Master Quartz is 100% HP/EP/CP restoration on death. And it can activate twice in a fight, meaning she essentially has 3 life bars. In first two deaths, she will instantly regain all her CP, which means she can pull out her S-craft at that point. Oh, and she can buff her damage and there's an argument for her to take the Space Bell quartz since no one else specializes in Space magic by default. Unless the damage really sucks, I suspect she's a Heavy to High Heavy just from passives alone.
Elliot - One of the few people who befriends Rean from the start. Elliot strikes me as more a younger brother to Rean during their time at the academy. He's timid, and mentions that he doesn't feel like he fits in the military, but becomes much more confident as the game goes on. He's the primary healer of the game. Many of his crafts are defensive in nature or don't do much damage in general. However, with his high magic power, its easy just to fall back onto arts casting. Towards the end of the game, I found him more likely to be phased out just because I didn't really need a dedicated healer with all the things at my disposable. He's definitely a case of great early but falls off towards the end.
DL-wise, Elliot starts off with Regen and can refresh this effect several times. The Regen is quite potent, restoring 30% of his MHP a turn. This may be a bit too much for Lights to overcome. His damage doesn't strike me as being particularly great, but he does have a trump card: Silver Bells. Elliot is capable of inflicting Sleep and its super-version, Nightmare. If Nightmare hits, its pretty much GG since damage at that point doesn't the target and every hit becomes a critical. Until then, he has healing by the dozen and Regen to help buy him some time. The odds aren't great, but since its pretty much match ending on hit, it's something to watch out.
Gaius The other one of Rean's classmates who quickly befriends him. If Elliot is more of the younger brother, then Gaius is more of the older brother figure. He comes from a foreign area compared to the other characters, but this also provide him with insights that the other characters don't have. Gaius is probably one of the few characters who remains mostly static through the game, but this is okay considering of his role and that he's supposed to be the more mature of his classmates. Gaius' role in battle shifts quite notably. At first, he's an offensive character with devastating AoE and status effects to tie up randoms, but lacks a little something for bosses. Towards the end though, he's more of a raw tank, thanks to the evade from his weapon and his high HP. He's an odd case for sure where his role drastically changes, but he works well on front lining teams, even if he doesn't have an effective way to draw guarantee draw aggro from he enemies.
DL-wise, Gaius has a nasty evade game going. With his base evade and starting with Insight, he's a tough dude to hit. Just going off base, his evade is about 25% before Insight. Evade in Cold Steel covers Crafts as well so he's pretty much only vulnerable to magic. Then he can further BLIND you to make physicals pretty much miss forever with one of his crafts or hit you with Seal to essentially paralyze you from attacking him physically. He can't heal, but he does have a boat load of HP to help his evade tanking. Some form of High Middle most likely.
Laura - Token swordgirl? Token swordgirl. Laura one of the few nobles in the class and unlike Jusis, she actually tries to make friends with everyone else pretty early. She's reserved and elegant with a focus on self improvement. There's some distrust between her and Fie that gets wrapped up around the middle of the game and she's more accepting and easier to approach towards the end of the game compared to the start. In fights, she's basically Raquel. With her giant sword and starting Master Quartz, Laura takes randoms down with relative easy. She's also slower than Rean by default, so it's easy to get Laura with a full attack buff before her turn to unleash pain on enemies as she goes. In boss fights, she's one of the few consistent sources of good physical damage just due to how strong she is physically. You can even set her up to get decent evade rates, making her even *more* like Raquel. Oh, and there's a quartz that is basically Intrude as a spell. So yeah.
She's not Raquel DL-wise though. She can set up for a little bit of evade, but its not anything amazing (about 15%). However, she should still hit really hard, with some of her crafts adding potentially deadly status effects (Seal / Faint). The coolest thing in her arsenal is her Radiant Wings ability, which grants her Atk/Def+50% along with the Insight status at the cost of Magic Power and Defense. If she's just slugging it out with another fighter, the added defense/evasion will give her a notable edge. Rank would really depend on where the damage curve ends up. My guess is some form of Low Heavy. One dimensional, but good at what she does.
Emma - Emma's a little too mysterious to my liking. It's quite obvious that she's isn't an ordinary person, but the game never reveals much in part 1 as to who she really is. As such, throughout the game, she's probably the other character who ends up being relatively static and in a bad way this time. Just too much MYSTARY and not enough actual stuff happening. Of the two mages, Emma is the more offensively oriented one, with more offensive crafts and the highest magic in the game. Due to this, she becomes a better choice than Elliot at the end since she just hits harder and her crafts are a bit more useful than his.
DL-wise, this is hard. She's rather fragile (lowest HP in the game), but she has a good argument for the Silver Bell and has 75% magic evasion. As such, she's a fast caster and one that's hard to kill via magic. In fact, she's pretty much the anti-mage, since she also packs reflect and a craft that can drop magic attack power. She also has some healing in the form of her crafts as well as a Defense Up 50% buff for anything else. Physically, she's not very good, so that could come back and bite her. Probably Heavy?
Jusis - He's cold and cynical, but not without reason. As he is the second son of a ruling noble house, people try to suck up him for favors, which Jusis hates. He's also plagued by the fact that his dad pretty much doesn't give two shits about him, which explains a lot of his outlook. Him and Machias are perpetually at each other throats, but towards the end, they both have a grudging respect for one another despite their differences. It's the anime rivalry, bois. Except this one isn't in your face all the time. Jusis does display more emotion late, but keeps his cynicism ever evident as his primary trait. For fights, Jusis is as skilled with a blade as he is with magic. He's the Magic Fencer, meaning he's quite adept at both types of offense. Unlike Alisa though, because Jusis has to fight upclose, he has better overall durability and more HP than her. Comparatively across the cast, his stats are above average but never the best.
DL-wise, Jusis gets shafted. Mistral is one of the weaker Master Quartz and doesn't provide him with any devastating limit or synergistic play. However, his crafts does fit into his magic fencer role. He has an attack that lowers Magic Defense but 50% to further increase the potency of his spells as well as Noble Command. This ability has the same range as Motivate, but instead of giving 10 CP, it adds Magic Attack Up and Speed Up, making Jusis faster and stronger for duels. A better trade overall both in-game and in the DL. Finally, he has Treasure Sword, which can Freeze or Seal enemies it hits, both effects are quite useful but only proc 50% of the time. My guess is that he's likely going to end up as the weakest dueller since his stats are split right down the middle and he's saddled with a weak Master Quartz.
Machias - He starts off as being prejudiced against nobles and makes huge fuss off of Jusis being in the same class as well as being a little sexist. He improves on both of these things overtime (thank god) and is probably the most obviously developed compared to the other characters who many have changed less overall. For battles though, Machias' role is by far the weirdest. He wields a shotgun, but has high defense and solid HP. He starts off with a Master Quartz that encourages tanking, but his gun gives him good range which you should take advantage of. Early on, just like his character, Machias is a difficult fit into the party. He's a Gun Paladin more or less, with good attack power but bad magic, so he can't heal effectively even with the right arts. Late game though, he's the inverse of Alisa in that he's a magic battery. With his Energy Bullet to restore MP, HP to withstand assaults and Burst Drive which is effectively GT Turn Shift, he is capable of protecting back row mages and boosting their effectiveness. As a side note, Burst Drive is retarded and broken. If you give Machias the Chrono Burst spell, you can effectively get an infinite turn loop, but first casting Chrono Burst, then using Burst Drive to give everyone in the radius a turn. Swap Machias out on his second turn, then on the last acting character's turn, put him back into the party, repeat the above. With all 3 characters in range, you can keep restoring Machias EP and CP to keep the loop running forever. Note to all game developers: Turn Shift abilities are really good even when they are ST. Making them GT is just silly.
DL-wise, also gets the short end of the stick like Jusis. Iron is a weak Master Quartz, but its a bit better than Mistral. Like Alisa, he has an auto life effect with it equipped, but it only restores 10% of HP/EP/CP and only once. What a jip. In addition, many of his support abilities that make him good late are DL useless. Machias' only saving grace is his Petrification shell, which adds Petrify at a 50% chance and is essentially match ending on hit. Without it, he's uh...bad.
Fie - The quiet, loner girl who much prefers sleeping than to socializing. Fie doesn't associate with anyone at the start, but gradually considers everyone more like family over time, while keeping her ever blunt demeanor. She's the fastest character in the game at the cost of pretty much no damage and poor HP. Bad combo at the start. Towards the end, she gets significantly better with better crafts and better Master Quartzes on end. Since her speed is so high, she's good as the traditional thief/rogue/ninja type role by adding status all over the place before things move and can front line through evade tanking. Fie has the highest Evade in the game as well, but nowhere near as much HP as Gaius so he's still the better overall tank, although she mocks physical attackers something fierce. Somewhat bad on bosses forever but excellent against randoms mid to late game.
DL-wise, she wants to status out opponents before they can hit her. She can't buff her evade as much as in-game (she tops out at a measly 35% and has no Insight!), which means her low HP is a serious issue. Thankfully, she does have Chrono Burst, which means she can act a couple of turns before the other dueler gets to move and try to proc one of her status effects that way. If you don't give any starting CP though, she's going to be bad. Chrono Burst costs a ton of EP, which Fie doesn't really have, so she can't afford using it if she needs to be casting arts in hopes of procing status that way. Some form of Light/Middle most likely.
