Legend Of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel (英雄伝説 閃の軌跡)RPG Game Thoughts

   I had no idea what kind of future of this series would hold. Does anyone remember the Legend of Heroes games that were for PSP game console? These game are still to this day some of my favorite RPG game in terms of story and characters. You can imagine my excitement when Trails in the Sky was released and then the announcement came for the second game. Unfortunately, Trails in the Sky 2 never saw a North America release and I wondered if the whole series would just stop being localized.(PSP was dying too so..)  Then one day I was browsing around Gamestop's website and saw the promotion of Trails of Cold Steel and leaped up in the air with joy!

   The plot of the game takes place in the same world as Trails in the Sky with a whole new cast of characters that attend a military academy know as Thors. You basically know nothing about these characters but they each seem to have their own personalities. As you progress through the game, you learn more about the each character's background and their reasons for taking on the personality that they do. I was also very interested in the different social class system that was existent in this world. Its a conflict that came up more than a few times not only while traveling but also in the group of character's themselves.

   The characters didn't really stick out too much to me in the beginning but started to grow on me when different emotional interactions between the characters became involved. Only during these times in the game do the characters really take on traits that are rememberable.... Well, minus Fie acting like she was a badass and having everything figured out from the beginning. Some characters came off as a little more than mysterious and it peeked my interest to learn more.

   Gameplay was heavily centered around school life and tasks that are assigned to the main character.  This fact caused the first half of the game to make the player have a lot of patience and get every task done so you could more on. Legend of Heroes deals with a lot of dialogue so if you don't like reading or you only obtained a fifth grade knowledge of reading then this game may not be for you. I love a good story but i'm not going to lie, sometimes the dialogue was so long that i had to make sure I didn't have anything else to do before I started playing. That turn off and turn back on later button on the PSVITA comes in handy when you have to stop in the middle of playing. The battle system would be like any other RPG game if it wasn't for the fact that you can move your character to different areas within range on the battle field, link with different characters to do devastating attacks, and use different link abilities that unlock as you spend time with different classmates on free days. Where your characters are positioned also effects what actions you can and can not do. The turn scheduler on the side of the battle screen also plays a big part in telling you who will act and when. You also have the choice between doing Arts(magical spells) or Crafts(different for each character and consumes a character's CP.). The battle tactics of the game will have to be mastered so your ready for any situation. I personally also like how you can sneak up on enemies and stun them before entering battle giving you the upperhand. Outside of the battle system, there's other little cute things you can do with your time like change your characters outfit, fishing, cooking, actually giving the right answer to tests and in class questions, and play a mini game called Blade that's similar to goldfish only with numbers... Like I said, if you can't do basic addition then games like Legend of Heroes will be struggle. (I know you wish you had studied.)

 

  The world of Legend of Heroes looks amazing for the most part. A great amount of detail was put into the building design of towns and cities. The detail will make the play excited to travel to a new place and just walk around there. The lines for the people in each place also seem to be lifelike with different personalities coming to the forefront as you talk to each citizen. The foundation of the outside fields starts to look a little similar after awhile but not enough that it gets annoying. What got annoying to me as constantly having to explore that school house on Thor's campus. The first few times it was fine up after you do it a few more times you don't look forward to going in there and seeing the same backdrop again. The mystery will push you to get it over with but the most excitement comes from the 7th floor and the bosses at the end of each floor.

   Soundtrack was one of the best qualities to the game. Each track fits its surroundings perfectly and will have you humming along in no time. I also quite enjoy the opening theme song.

   Having never played Trails in the Sky 2, "Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel" was what I needed to fill that big gap where that game should have been. The storyline is a great one and will keep you guessing all the way to the last chapter. LETS BRING ON THE SECOND GAME!!! IM READY!


****Please note this game is currently for PSVITA and Playstation 3 only.*****