The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel - PlayStation Vita

Right out of the bat a lot of people will figuratively burn me at a bonfire because of the title of my review, please keep reading as I explain in detail why I said what I said.The Legend of Heroes is a somewhat niche RPG franchise developed by Nihon Falcom, a Japanese developer mostly known for their long running Y’s RPGs, now, what most people don’t know is that, while not as famous as Y’s, TLoH has been around for nearly as long as its more popular brother.Spanning 9 games on 4 different video game consoles (most of which have never been localized to the American market), TLoH multiple sagas narrate an epic story surrounding various countries located on the fictional continent of Zemuria.The first games from this story are the ones known as The Legend of Heroes Trails in the Sky, where you play through a grand story occurring on the Kingdom of Liberl, at the southwest of Zemuria. This saga spans three games (Trails 1, Trails Second Chapter and Trails Third Chapter) and they were originally available for PSP, currently they’re also on Steam.The next saga, TLoH Zero no Kiseki and Ao no Kiseki narrated the events spanning roughly around the same timeline as the former saga, but at the Independent Crossbell state, which is located at the Geographic Center of Zemuria, this one comprises two games, Trails to Azure and Trails to Zero, which have never been officially localized for American audiences, though I hear there are some fan translations around.Ok, enough context, enter Trails of Cold Steel. Here, you are experiencing an interlinked story that occurs at the Erebonian Empire, at the northwest of Zemuria. Now, before getting this game, I have never heard of, let alone played any the other games, and I gotta say that it didn’t hinder my experience in the least. I didn’t need to play the previous ones to fully understand this one.Graphically the game is correct, if not ground breaking, the music is also pretty adequate, but where this game really drives it home is with the story and the characters. Each one has such a unique personality and drive, that you’ll just love to learn every bit of back story you can gather, while the story is full of political intrigue, revenge and plot twists, which makes it pretty awesome, if a bit convoluted at times, though never to a point of becoming annoying or impossible to follow.I also have to say that I don’t think this game is for everybody. I have never played a more narrative-driven game in my life, so if you want to give it a try, prepare to read a lot and to listen to long conversations. If you don’t mind this and want to really get into the very very very rich story of this world, then by all means give it a chance, but if that’s not the case, then better stay away from it.Finally, the battle system is really a testament on how to strategically plan your moves, there were many times where I got my butt handed down to me 6 or 7 times trying to keep up with seemingly overpowered bosses, just to take a breather and carefully plan my strategy up to the point where I would beat those same enemies at the very first turn of the fight.... without any level grinding whatsoever.Even if you don’t need to play the previous gamesTo understand this one, I really recommend to do so in order to grasp the larger than life story and the intricate relationships between all of the protagonists, their struggle, and even their countries, since some of the events from those other games tend to come up here fairly often (that’s what I meant with the whole MCU comment, multiple characters and stories linked together under a grand final scheme).To wrap this up, this is a fantastic game, it is also currently available for PS4 (he he, sorry, a couple of years late on the review....) same deal with trails II and III, and the only thing I would recommend is that, if this sounds like something you’d like, make sure you get at least trails I and II together.... you’ll understand when you see the ending on the 1st one...

This was an absolute blast. I am still giving the game 5 stars even though I preordered weeks in advance and it was sold out before I got my pre order somehow. Amazon was nice about it and gave me a 10 dollar credit with 2 day shipping free for the mistake and late shipping.The special edition itself is a very nice outer case meant to fit this game and the sequel when it comes out this year along with the two other things in the box.The two other things are an artbook and pin of Erebonia which is the Province you fight for on the game. They are nicely made and I say the coll. Edition is worth an extra 10 bucks but not neccasary. And u do get the regular blue ps vita case like other games inside 2.Now others will explain the story better so my review is from a different perspective.I am 29 and love my vita. I have 60 cartridge based games. This is one of my top 5. Falcom makes great Rpg's. This is turn based like the old Final Fantasy games on ps2. It reminds me a lot of it. It does not have the best graphics and will remind you of a ps2 game. But i have a ps4 and the gameplay easily make up for it and I cant stand ps1 graphics and they are no where near that bad. If you played the other Falcom PS vita game YS memories of Calceta the graphics are a little better than that. That game is an action rpg and I highly recomend that as a side note.Anyway this game has a lot of text. Some of it is voiced in English for each character but I would say 75% of all speech is text based and you have to read a lot. THERE ARE NO JAPANEESE WORDS SPOKEN EXCEPT IN SONGS IN THE BACKROUND. The music is great in battles and when you are walking around fighting monsters. When you walk around fighting monsters it is more like Persona 4 than FFantasy. You see the monsters and can hit from behind to gain an advantage in battle like Persona. In every battle there is a loading screen when you hit or get hit by a monster. They are a few seconds and because you dont constantly get in battles like an old pokemon or FF game it doesnt hurt the flow of the game.In between your trips to different places you can do different things to get items and earn xp like in Persona. Just like Persona you get FREE DAYS. The difference is you can fish, play a card game like WAR called Blade, and talk to your companions. Your most important thing besides XP is your LINK with your companions. The higher the link between you and them means the better the attacks in battle and the higher links give certain special abilities like healing after your attackex or throwing themself in front of an attack if they have more health.In conclusion this game like a 17 year old with parents who were Persona 4 and Final Fantasy X. Since you are in a military school and a teenager I think that is the shortest and best way to explain it. The developers tried to take the best parts of those games add in their own things and suceeded in making a teriffic game. I just beat the game today with REAN level 67 and Laura 66. Quick hint is Laura has the best damage in the game and try to get her link to level 5 as quick as possible. I put in close to 80 hours and beat 95% of the side quests. You should also know that there is a NEW GAME PLUS AFTER YOU BEAT IT! For me that is the only way I go back to play rpgs after I beat them.So if you want a great turn based strategy game on your vita that is an original game get this. There are some swearing but not much and it not meant for little kids. It is meant for semi hardcore rpg fans in my opinion. I also wanted to say the story is very good but you can hold O to fast forward if you want.Sometimes you just wanna play and the story can get tedious to read. There is also a great walkthrough of the whole game on youtube so you wont get stuck at some point either. You may have to grind to beat the games tougher bosses but it is funner to grind in this game than others. You have up to 10 different useable players and you usually get 6or7 at a time to choose with 4 on screen and 2or3 in reserve. This is my choice for GAME OF THE YEAR on Vita last year and the only thing I found wrong is that the amount of text you have to read can be a pain once and a while.Last thing I wanted to say is if you hate bugs you will love this game. IN ALL THE HOURS and hours I PLAYED NOT ONCE DID I HAVE TO RESET BECAUSE IT FROZE OR IT GLITCHED THAT WAS SO AWESOME!

Legend of Heroes: Trails of cold Steel is AN Other RPG Masterpiece From Falcom who also made "TOKYO XANANU", The YS Game's and countless Legend of Heroes Games on the PSP and Psvita plus other console's.It Recycles the game engine From TOKYO XANANU and some enemies for older games Like YSand legend of heroes: trails of the sky game trilogy and adds The best turn based RPG Combat System I have ever Seen in a video game.and on top of it The Story/plot is Masterful in its showcasing and Telling, also the boss battle are Great and you need think and take your time when fighting them and other enemies, plus the Music is Fantastic as It matches the tone of the game very well.This game is about 9 teenagers who get hand picked for a special Class called "Class 7" who each have there own unique abilities and social Standing as they learn how to work together and fight monsters plus help people out by doing Quests and mission's all over the world at is on the Verde of war.The game comes with art book , a pin, a Card board case to house the physical copy of the gameand Space for the still in development Title, Trails of Cold Steel 2.and its region free.And the English versions of this game are locked on the PlayStation TV/ PSVITA TV and won't work "but the Japanese version will work 100% without Any problems "

I had a Chinese Version and a Japanese Version before. The English Version was really beyond my expectation.Before I purchased it, the most thing I worried was that the English Voice will make the game strange even it would deteriorate the feeling of this game.　However after my getting this game, I would say that the English Voice fit this game perfectly!

The best game I played in Vita.An amazing RPG, not much of choices to go about, but a good story to find out, characters to discover. Quite balanced story/battle wise. It is a game that will entertain for hours. A must for any classical RPG fan

lovely game!!. there are some frame skips here and there but for a collector who cares.

Brilliant game, nice to see the series first foray in to proper 3D. Great to have this particular collectors box, too, as it is designed to hold also the games sequel,when that is released. This is the US PS3 version, but it works fine on PAL PS3's, with full english. So this is the version to get.