Its been some time since Trails of Cold Steel 3 & 4 was launched on other platforms but now its time for Playstation fans to dive in and play, check out my review and find out what i thoight of the release
More and more I’ve been noticing a trend when it comes to JRPGs. It could be that we’ve simply entered a new era where a bunch of older series’ are finally receiving localisations and more acclaim in the West, or perhaps I was simply oblivious to this mid-range branch of the genre.
Either way, I’ve become more aware of several long-running JRPG series’ with consistent worlds, lore and storylines which span multiple Trails of Cold Steel games – which feels simultaneously exciting and terrifying for someone like me who grew up on Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger and Pokemon, Atelier, Ys and Legend of Heroes/Trails are just a few examples, and it’s a rerelease of two games from the latter series that we’ll be looking at today.
The Trails of Cold Steel games began in 2004 with the release of Trails in the Sky, introducing the continent of Zemuria and starting what was conceived to be the most ambitious story in gaming. A quick search reveals the sheer scale of the storytelling and character work involved across the many games in the continuity, to the point that the Japanese Wikipedia article on the series’ characters was, and may still be, the largest on said site. This rerelease brings the second half of the most recently completed subplot to PS5 and brings with it some graphical and performance upgrades.
Obviously, I’m not going to give a full rundown of the continuity here, but the Cold Steel subplot continued in this double-pack follows the character of Rean Schwarzer, formerly a student at Thor’s Military Academy and newly an instructor with his own class. Starting two years after the annexation of North Ambria, Rean’s new role leads him and his squad to solve a variety of conflicts, investigate a strange curse and discover more about Rean’s own mysterious past.
Trails of Cold Steel 4 continues after a two-week break and brings the 4-game subplot to a close, leading nicely into the following title Tales into Reverie, already available on PS5.
As a newbie to the series, much of the background lore, locations, political intrigue and conflict is lost on me, but what I can say with certainty is that the writing, world-building and characterisation is incredibly impressive. It didn’t take me too long to get into the plot and catch up enough to follow along, though by the end of 4 I was struggling to follow the individual plots of every single playable character as there are around 40.
It’s overwhelming to say the least, even considering how the interweaving story threads come together extremely well and provide a fascinating narrative. If you want to get into the Trails of Cold Steel games this isn’t the best place to start, but despite that I can see how and why this series is so beloved in Japan and can see the overall appeal of playing the four titles in order.
Both titles share the same overall gameplay systems and loops, with only minor changes between the two titles. As Rean and his team, you traverse a variety of 3D locations and dungeons, jumping into combat when opposition rears its ugly head. There’s a lot of running around familiar locations talking to characters and building up relationships, in a way almost reminiscent of Fire Emblem: Three Houses, but the centrepiece of Trails of Cold Steel is firmly the moment-to-moment RPG combat.
Both Trails of Cold Steel games use a classic JPG active-time system to handle battle – I won’t go into the basics of it, because if you know what a JRPG is you know what to expect – but with many twists which make it more interesting. Your characters can use standard strikes, “magic attacks” known as Arts and mundane attacks known as Crafts. Arts are often more powerful but usually require time to charge.
Crafts are immediate, but cost points from the same pool you also use to fuel your more powerful skills. You can also use Brave orders to change tactics, buff your allies for a short time, or move your characters around the field to gain a strategic advantage. It’s a complex combination of factors to consider, and I enjoyed playing around with the various options. There are a load of characters which are added to your ranks throughout the titles, and in both Trails of Cold Steel games, characters are ridiculously varied in terms of brave orders, unique abilities and weaponry.
They also get skills from their equipped Master Quartz, which level independently from characters and can be modified and upgraded with new abilities and passives. Not to labour the point, but it’s ridiculous how much you can personalise the crew to fit exactly what you want, and that’s what Trials seems to be all about – shaping your class and your crew to be whatever you want it to be.
As a fan of deep, highly customisable JRPG’s I had a blast playing around with the myriad of different characters across theTrails of Cold Steel 3 & 4, and whilst I sometimes struggled with the limited number of BP points available in ToCS3 the expansion of this in the sequel made resource management a little more comfortable. My biggest complaint is simply how many characters you end up with by the end; which can be very frustrating with so many unique and interesting ones to try out.
Unfortunately, neither Trails of Cold Steel 3 & 4 is perfect. Quests, whilst varied to a degree, often felt like busywork; running from one place to another on arbitrary errands. It was early on in 3 that I began to become wary of this, running around the starting village area lugging spice from one place to another or trying to hand out class journals. Both titles can feel quite slow and tedious at times, and no amount of mecha-knight combat can change that fact.
When the pacing is good, it’s really good, but often the plot slows to a snail’s pace in areas with very little voice acting or distinct personality and that made it hard to keep the motivation up and make progress towards the next excellent dungeon crawl or plot moment.
Neither Trails of Cold Steel game looks or sounds bad, despite the fact they were made for previous consoles. The art style is classical for the genre, with a very timeless anime-inspired aesthetic which still holds up – obviously helped by an increase in resolution and a bit of tidying. Whilst they’ve only been minimally improved and don’t match what you’d expect for current-gen titles, the small improvements are noticeable when compared side-by-side and they don’t look bad by any means; just a bit aged.
Voice acting is pretty great for the most part, even if there are a few characters who can easily become tiresome; I just wish there was more outside of key story moments. Again, with so much dialogue and plot to cover, having more of it dubbed would have helped with pacing considerably and it’s a shame the final product is so limited in that department.
The same cannot be said for the music, which is phenomenal in both titles. I personally preferred 3’s soundtrack, but both are full of interesting and unique pieces with several battle tracks I could listen to again and again. The modern, vaguely sci-fi tone is well served by the heavily rock-influenced backing music, with key moments punctuated well through clever sound design.
All in all, these Trails of Cold Steel games are nothing to sniff at. Each provides a well-written, extensive tale full of twists, turns and political intrigue. Both combine deep, engaging, highly customisable JRPG combat with a setting unlike many of their contemporaries and could provide the right player with hours and hours of fun. Equally, getting the most out of this double-pack requires an investment on the part of the player to try and figure out what the hell is going on at the start.
Additionally, the remastered aspects – whilst noticeable – aren’t as massive an improvement as many fans may have hoped. I wouldn’t say that it’s an essential upgrade for fans if they’re happy with previous-gen versions, but there’s no reason not to choose these over the old versions if you’re playing for the first time.
I really want to recommend Trails of Cold Steel 3 & 4, and if you have the patience to either A: accept you won’t understand everything at first, B: listen/watch hours of recap screens or C: play through 1 and 2 beforehand you’re going to have an excellent time with ToCS on PS5. They are both well worth the investment – with 3 being better overall, but 4 having the better combat – and showcase the amazing and extensive world created throughout this 20-odd-year series.
Trails of Cold Steel III / Trails of Cold Steel IV – Launch Trailer | PS5 Games
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