Reviews for the entire Trails series: Cold Steel 1 Review: ua-cam.com/video/AYI8MRG8kNk/v-deo.html Cold Steel 2 Review: ua-cam.com/video/_UJg-LE8WnY/v-deo.html Cold Steel 3 Review: ua-cam.com/video/bXsvChiV668/v-deo.html Cold Steel 4 Review: ua-cam.com/video/T0zMNMrKczo/v-deo.html Trails in the Sky FC Review: ua-cam.com/video/VTrMkEKjvN8/v-deo.html Trails in the Sky SC Review: ua-cam.com/video/Td97VwG6q5Q/v-deo.html Trails in the Sky 3rd Review: ua-cam.com/video/_nVLtjaIvXE/v-deo.html Trails from Zero review: ua-cam.com/video/b8HqWgSnBls/v-deo.html Trails to Azure Review: ua-cam.com/video/B8-rahJs6Xg/v-deo.html
WARNING FOR CASUAL PLAYERS THAT LOVE THE SERIES... Never play cold steel 2 on hard mode... The final fight is so f*******g unfair... It raises the difficulty bar by 10, at least, because the boss almost always has massive hits with a 100% status alteration rate. What's worse is that he can alter so many status types that there aren't enough accessories to protect your team from them, and his fighting speed also rises, arbitrarily, every now and then during the fight. This is a f*******g disaster for those that wanted to finish the game with a reasonable challenge that didn't feel unfair, and let you preserve the momentum of the story. And it doesn't matter what level you're at... Your but will be whipped out many times during the fight... dam! I ultimately had to let the boss kill me approximately 10 times per confrontation (you have 5 confrontations in a row during this fight), so that the game would reduce the difficulty so that I could win.... And the problem is that the game doesn't remember that you had a hard time with the first confrontation, so you have to be suicidal during the 5 rounds... 5 f*****g times! Man this ruined the f******g game for me, at least its ending, which is an important part, as you can imagine... and you can't change the f****g dificulty before the fight! Hard mode in Cold Steel 2 is manageble up till the final boss... you can beat it with ease, except for some challenging fights now and then, but nothing felt unfair... you may get killed, but if you analyised the fight you could prevail with a good strategy... Until the final 5 rounds boss fight appears at the very end... Ok, I ranted enough... But what angers me the most is that the game is fantastic and I hope I had played it on normal difficulty from the begining... I wonder why didn't Falcon showed me this difficulty spike with early bosses in the game. I they had, I would have changed to normal difficulty and replayed the first 2-3 hours... But in the final fight, when you've played 70 hrs, approximately, that's not a funny option... as you can imagine... PS: I experienced this lovely boss last night, so it's a fresh experience for me...
the thing i like about cold steel is that people actually die in it. it kinda killed the immersion of the previous arcs with all of the constant battle going on but nobody in the game world ever being killed during all those battles. i still love the sky and crossbell games, that was my only real complaint about them.
@@samoth5161 yeah i know, like 2 or 3 people in the entire 4 games or something. i think i left this comment after the first actual death and just assumed there would be more. with all of the huge scale battles going on in these games the lack of deaths makes it extremely unrealistic.
Glad you hear you're still having a blast with Trails! I had the same feeling in regards to the ship recruitment giving off heavy Suikoden vibes, which I can only be a fan of. I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the remaining Sky games and the Crossbell duology before you dive into CS3. You've still got lots to look forward to!
yeah i'm in the middle of part 2 right now and i'm loving it. i was pretty sure i would since i already loved trails in the sky and the crossbell games. if you haven't played those you definitely should. i played them on a psp emulator on my phone with a ps4 controller, they played surprisingly well and i got just as immersed playing those games on my little phone screen as i am cold steel on a 40 inch tv.
@@Jack_80 i will, as soon as the hd collection comes out. I just finished the 3rd game and... damn... you re going to love pretty much everything that comes at you :D
@@jonathanhunter7670 it definitely surprised me a few times already. never saw that shit with crow coming at the end of the first game, or vita/misty. glad they didn't throw obvious hints in there to give it away like they do in many other games.
I've always chosen Alisa for the special scenes with Rean, not because she's my favorite (that would be Jusis), but rather because I feel like she's clearly the "canon" option, so the story just works better with her as Reans soulmate.
Definitely play Crossbell before CS3. You don't *technically* need to, but if those character reunion / nostalgia moments really mean a lot to you, you owe it to yourself to finish Crossbell before you start CS3. Not to mention it makes sense chronologically, since Zero / Ao and CS 1 / 2 happen at like roughly the same time (Cold Steel 1 chapter 1 starts a bit after Zero starts... going by the Imperial Chronicle... and Cold Steel 2 ends a little bit after Ao ends).
Vali-MAR. :P Im a bit late to the Trails party myself. I got the platinum for Cold Steel 1 a few weeks ago and are now only a Nightmare playthrough away from a CS2 platinum. I love both games, but for me personally I have a slight preference towards the first game. I think it was the carefree nature the game provided that pulled me in. Being a student, hanging out with friends, the beautiful and idyllic Trista and going on fieldtrips. My favorite character is a hard one, but here the second game is amazing at showing different sides to them and even make you miss what you lost. (People who played the finale knows who im refering to here) But the bonding event in Trista with Laura put her in the top of my favorite Class 7 members. She has always been the knightly and determined character, but seeing that other side.of her was awesome.
CS2 felt like filler to me even though it wasn't aside from introducing new lore that's important for the later games. It does absolutely nothing crucial with it's story until the very end. At least CS1 imo kept things interesting and I felt the plot formula was alot better. Only thing that kept my interest was the conflict and resolution between Rean and Crow everything else was dry asf. CS2 was really lackluster especially when compared to the previous arcs second title games. Both Sc and Ao were amazing second titles to their respective arcs. Thank God CS3 is 1000x better tho
Xenogears meets White Knight Chronicles meets Suikoden, huh? Interesting combination. I want to play these games, but I have so many other games on the backlog that I want to get through first. I'm enjoying seeing your opinion, though.
Loved it. Better than the first and maybe the third? Played through the first and second 4x. Finished the 3rd on PS4 and slogging though the 3rd on the switch. Looking foreword to buying the 4th on tuesday. Redownloaded Trails in the Sky on the Vita and will restart from the beginning as time allows. Thank you for the reviews!
Hey Hellfire, would you say i should start with cold steel 1 or trails in the sky fc? in the past i dabbled with both but didnt get too far in either, now i wanna give the series a shot again
@@HellFireRPGs i'm kind of tempted to start with cs 😬 anyways i played through secret of mana and am going through the trials of mana remake right now, sufficed to say i am looking forward to a more story rich jrpg next
@@HellFireRPGs I wouldnt have played Trails in the Sky if I hadnt already a high bond to the continent of zemuria its countries and characters.... So i personally would recommend Steel 1-2 first and if this hooks you go back to Sky again.
I'm still playing CS1. I had to stop watching this because i think I'm playing with fire regarding spoilers. Question: is CS2 Are they all adults? Is the whole school element over? Will i miss it?
So, another reason to get a PS4? OK.The _'balance issues'_ you complain about seem like exactly what I crave in a game. I don't need to be challenged any further.
@@thejonbrownshow8470 -- Thing is, I avoid Windows/Intel/PC Gaming as much as I do PlayStation. For over twenty years, that strategy has served me pretty well. 😄
@@thejonbrownshow8470 -- Android, Linux, and Chrome have served me well using emulators for older consoles in the past decade. I also boycott anything published by EA.
@@redxsage so your phone's emulator good enough to play a full blown jrpg like cold steel?(granted the series graphics side was always lacking, but hard to believe you can pull it off on phone xD
Even tho this is the weakest game in the series imo I still enjoyed it to some extent just not as much as the previous titles. Good thing Cold Steel 3 was alot better tho
Personally, I believe this is the worst game in the series, act 2 was a real drag and it really damaged my enjoyment The Crossbell arc is my favorite of the 3
@@fierytigergaming8112 I liked Cold Steel 1 better than Cold Steel 2 tbh pacing and story layout were alot better throughout the game even tho it was a bit slow yeah. But CS2 act 2 killed it for me it was real tedious and dragged on farther than it needed too nothing interesting happens until the last 10 hrs of the game lol
Act 2 is what killed it for me it was just tedious and dragged on far longer than it needed too nothing interesting happens until the very end. Cold Steel 1 plot and pacing is alot better imo
![Trails in the Sky FC Review [PC] (Where has this JRPG series been my whole life?)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/VTrMkEKjvN8/mqdefault.jpg)
![Trails in the Sky FC Review [PC] (Where has this JRPG series been my whole life?)](/img/tr.png)
![Trails of Cold Steel IV - Spoiler Free Review [PS4]](/img/n.gif)
Reviews for the entire Trails series:
Cold Steel 1 Review: ua-cam.com/video/AYI8MRG8kNk/v-deo.html
Cold Steel 2 Review: ua-cam.com/video/_UJg-LE8WnY/v-deo.html
Cold Steel 3 Review: ua-cam.com/video/bXsvChiV668/v-deo.html
Cold Steel 4 Review: ua-cam.com/video/T0zMNMrKczo/v-deo.html
Trails in the Sky FC Review: ua-cam.com/video/VTrMkEKjvN8/v-deo.html
Trails in the Sky SC Review: ua-cam.com/video/Td97VwG6q5Q/v-deo.html
Trails in the Sky 3rd Review: ua-cam.com/video/_nVLtjaIvXE/v-deo.html
Trails from Zero review: ua-cam.com/video/b8HqWgSnBls/v-deo.html
Trails to Azure Review: ua-cam.com/video/B8-rahJs6Xg/v-deo.html
instablaster...
For me, Laura is best girl.
Love my Swordsman*Ship*
Seems like you're enjoying the series, and the community is always happy to get new fans!
Gotta spread the love! Laura would probably be fifth in line. Alisa > Sara > Emma > Sharon > Laura for me.
WARNING FOR CASUAL PLAYERS THAT LOVE THE SERIES... Never play cold steel 2 on hard mode... The final fight is so f*******g unfair... It raises the difficulty bar by 10, at least, because the boss almost always has massive hits with a 100% status alteration rate. What's worse is that he can alter so many status types that there aren't enough accessories to protect your team from them, and his fighting speed also rises, arbitrarily, every now and then during the fight. This is a f*******g disaster for those that wanted to finish the game with a reasonable challenge that didn't feel unfair, and let you preserve the momentum of the story.
And it doesn't matter what level you're at... Your but will be whipped out many times during the fight... dam!
I ultimately had to let the boss kill me approximately 10 times per confrontation (you have 5 confrontations in a row during this fight), so that the game would reduce the difficulty so that I could win.... And the problem is that the game doesn't remember that you had a hard time with the first confrontation, so you have to be suicidal during the 5 rounds... 5 f*****g times! Man this ruined the f******g game for me, at least its ending, which is an important part, as you can imagine... and you can't change the f****g dificulty before the fight!
Hard mode in Cold Steel 2 is manageble up till the final boss... you can beat it with ease, except for some challenging fights now and then, but nothing felt unfair... you may get killed, but if you analyised the fight you could prevail with a good strategy... Until the final 5 rounds boss fight appears at the very end...
Ok, I ranted enough... But what angers me the most is that the game is fantastic and I hope I had played it on normal difficulty from the begining... I wonder why didn't Falcon showed me this difficulty spike with early bosses in the game. I they had, I would have changed to normal difficulty and replayed the first 2-3 hours... But in the final fight, when you've played 70 hrs, approximately, that's not a funny option... as you can imagine...
PS: I experienced this lovely boss last night, so it's a fresh experience for me...
Glad your falling in love with this amazing series :). This is in our top 10 franchises in rpg an jrpg history. Glad your loving it.
Yeah mate! Easily top 5 for me at the moment. Suikoden, Xeno and Final Fantasy are the only clear leaders for me.
@@HellFireRPGs Suikoden 1,2, and 3 I would pay 60$ for a remaster of those games day 1........even just a freaking re release for modern systems
Always has to be Laura
yeah laura is definitely the best by far. i like alisa but she doesn't compare to laura.
Great review. Love this game. Also, Laura.
If I hear that someone says that opponent was holding back one more time, I'm gonna snap😄. Great games btw. Especially the Crossbell arc.
The villians keep that "this isn't even my final form" line in clutch 😂
the thing i like about cold steel is that people actually die in it. it kinda killed the immersion of the previous arcs with all of the constant battle going on but nobody in the game world ever being killed during all those battles.
i still love the sky and crossbell games, that was my only real complaint about them.
@@Jack_80 ? Almost nobody dies in cold steel
@@samoth5161 yeah i know, like 2 or 3 people in the entire 4 games or something. i think i left this comment after the first actual death and just assumed there would be more.
with all of the huge scale battles going on in these games the lack of deaths makes it extremely unrealistic.
Love this series, halfway through the 3rd one now but I’m looking forward to number 4!
Glad you hear you're still having a blast with Trails! I had the same feeling in regards to the ship recruitment giving off heavy Suikoden vibes, which I can only be a fan of. I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the remaining Sky games and the Crossbell duology before you dive into CS3. You've still got lots to look forward to!
You think that you are overpowered and then McBurn in the Infernal Castle says "no"
Yea,that the game of the second trails of cold steel has the hardest boss near end game I have ever fought in jrpgs ever so far even on easy
Currently playing through the first game and I am IN LOVE! Just watched the review fora sneak peek of the 2nd game :D this series is just... wow!!
yeah i'm in the middle of part 2 right now and i'm loving it. i was pretty sure i would since i already loved trails in the sky and the crossbell games. if you haven't played those you definitely should. i played them on a psp emulator on my phone with a ps4 controller, they played surprisingly well and i got just as immersed playing those games on my little phone screen as i am cold steel on a 40 inch tv.
@@Jack_80 i will, as soon as the hd collection comes out. I just finished the 3rd game and... damn... you re going to love pretty much everything that comes at you :D
@@jonathanhunter7670 it definitely surprised me a few times already. never saw that shit with crow coming at the end of the first game, or vita/misty. glad they didn't throw obvious hints in there to give it away like they do in many other games.
I've always chosen Alisa for the special scenes with Rean, not because she's my favorite (that would be Jusis), but rather because I feel like she's clearly the "canon" option, so the story just works better with her as Reans soulmate.
thats also how I feel about her. Laura seems to be more of a really best friend for Rean
Definitely play Crossbell before CS3. You don't *technically* need to, but if those character reunion / nostalgia moments really mean a lot to you, you owe it to yourself to finish Crossbell before you start CS3. Not to mention it makes sense chronologically, since Zero / Ao and CS 1 / 2 happen at like roughly the same time (Cold Steel 1 chapter 1 starts a bit after Zero starts... going by the Imperial Chronicle... and Cold Steel 2 ends a little bit after Ao ends).
Vali-MAR. :P
Im a bit late to the Trails party myself. I got the platinum for Cold Steel 1 a few weeks ago and are now only a Nightmare playthrough away from a CS2 platinum.
I love both games, but for me personally I have a slight preference towards the first game. I think it was the carefree nature the game provided that pulled me in. Being a student, hanging out with friends, the beautiful and idyllic Trista and going on fieldtrips. My favorite character is a hard one, but here the second game is amazing at showing different sides to them and even make you miss what you lost. (People who played the finale knows who im refering to here)
But the bonding event in Trista with Laura put her in the top of my favorite Class 7 members. She has always been the knightly and determined character, but seeing that other side.of her was awesome.
I only even realized this series existed about 3 or 4 yrs ago. Now they’re on a pretty big sale on PSN. Might have to grab the first 2 at least
I just started playing 1 & 2 and love the series but sometimes 2 feels like one giant backtracking.
And let's just say is also has a point endgame boss that feels like a extra boss after finishing the game and not part of the story at all.
CS2 felt like filler to me even though it wasn't aside from introducing new lore that's important for the later games. It does absolutely nothing crucial with it's story until the very end. At least CS1 imo kept things interesting and I felt the plot formula was alot better. Only thing that kept my interest was the conflict and resolution between Rean and Crow everything else was dry asf. CS2 was really lackluster especially when compared to the previous arcs second title games. Both Sc and Ao were amazing second titles to their respective arcs. Thank God CS3 is 1000x better tho
First, is the intro music from vanguard bandits? Second, team Emma all the way!
Xenogears meets White Knight Chronicles meets Suikoden, huh?
Interesting combination. I want to play these games, but I have so many other games on the backlog that I want to get through first. I'm enjoying seeing your opinion, though.
Its takes me back to days of jrpgs on psn 1 days
Loved it. Better than the first and maybe the third? Played through the first and second 4x. Finished the 3rd on PS4 and slogging though the 3rd on the switch. Looking foreword to buying the 4th on tuesday. Redownloaded Trails in the Sky on the Vita and will restart from the beginning as time allows. Thank you for the reviews!
I’ve always wanted to get into this series, but now I’m in my 30s and have a family. Maybe one day!
Great videos, keep up the good work!
I have a family too, it took me about 2 years to finish the first Game.
I think you might be more of a mega fan than even me now!
Im getting there! Not quite like you and sharks, though =P
Good game. Good review keep it up mate
Thanks, will do!
I finished Cold Steel 3 yesterday am i'm going with Alisa since the first game but Sara is so tempting aswell.
It would feel wrong just changing things up mid series.
Hey Hellfire, would you say i should start with cold steel 1 or trails in the sky fc? in the past i dabbled with both but didnt get too far in either, now i wanna give the series a shot again
Chronological, Sky then CS would make sense. I would do that, but with that said, CS1 and 2 can easily be played before Sky .
@@HellFireRPGs i'm kind of tempted to start with cs 😬 anyways i played through secret of mana and am going through the trials of mana remake right now, sufficed to say i am looking forward to a more story rich jrpg next
@@HellFireRPGs I wouldnt have played Trails in the Sky if I hadnt already a high bond to the continent of zemuria its countries and characters....
So i personally would recommend Steel 1-2 first and if this hooks you go back to Sky again.
Hoffentlich ist der Soundtrack nicht mehr so chillig....so oft eingepennt beim ersten Teil 😂
in the first game i bonded with laura
I'm still playing CS1. I had to stop watching this because i think I'm playing with fire regarding spoilers.
Question: is CS2 Are they all adults? Is the whole school element over? Will i miss it?
SOLD!
That was such a waste of time in terms of story. Regret most of time I've spent on this game.
So, another reason to get a PS4? OK.The _'balance issues'_ you complain about seem like exactly what I crave in a game. I don't need to be challenged any further.
You probably know but cs 1and 2 and all of English trails games are on PC as well xD
@@thejonbrownshow8470 -- Thing is, I avoid Windows/Intel/PC Gaming as much as I do PlayStation. For over twenty years, that strategy has served me pretty well. 😄
@@redxsage oh, so what systems do you stick with?
@@thejonbrownshow8470 -- Android, Linux, and Chrome have served me well using emulators for older consoles in the past decade. I also boycott anything published by EA.
@@redxsage so your phone's emulator good enough to play a full blown jrpg like cold steel?(granted the series graphics side was always lacking, but hard to believe you can pull it off on phone xD
"another day another trails title down"
How fast are you clearing these games??
Even tho this is the weakest game in the series imo I still enjoyed it to some extent just not as much as the previous titles. Good thing Cold Steel 3 was alot better tho
it was fie for me then ng+ laura
Ty
Fie was my girl
Real men stan Towa Herschel.
Personally, I believe this is the worst game in the series, act 2 was a real drag and it really damaged my enjoyment
The Crossbell arc is my favorite of the 3
tbf, i'd say Trails of Cold Steel was the worst - probably because it was lifeless until the end
@@fierytigergaming8112 I liked Cold Steel 1 better than Cold Steel 2 tbh pacing and story layout were alot better throughout the game even tho it was a bit slow yeah. But CS2 act 2 killed it for me it was real tedious and dragged on farther than it needed too nothing interesting happens until the last 10 hrs of the game lol
Steel is a downgrade in the series, and steel 2, is one of the worst games in the series.
Act 2 is what killed it for me it was just tedious and dragged on far longer than it needed too nothing interesting happens until the very end. Cold Steel 1 plot and pacing is alot better imo