There’s something about Trails of Cold Steel II’s story that irritates me to no end *SPOILERS*

[Deleted member 17627]

"We're going to make a third faction in the war that is seperate from the Noble Alliance and the Imperial Army!"

How does this even make sense considering what happens during the rest of the story?

They use the Courageous as a base of operations, an airship provided to them by the Imperial Family.
They receive a bunch of help from various factions of the Imperial Army, including the Intelligence Division, Railway Police, and 4th Armored Division.
And numerous times throughout the story, they, and other members of Thors, are saved by people associated with the Imperial Army.

By all means, it kind of feels like they've sided with the Imperial Army. At the point where you can step foot into any Imperial Army base no problem and socialize with its members, whereas, going anywhere near a Noble Alliance controlled area is prohibited, indicating you will be captured where that to happen, it's kind of hard to ignore who is actually "the opposing force" here.

Does anyone feel similarly? Feel free to share your thoughts if you disagree as well.

 

[FatalT]

After seeing how the United States is dealing with Republicans seemingly splitting into Republicans and Trump-supporters/Q-Anon supporters, I can see it happening. I've been wanting to get into this series but no longer have a PS4 so I wasn't worried about spoilers but this sounds pretty cool. I'm definitely going to get the one that releases on Switch though!

 

[oni-link]

After seeing how the United States is dealing with Republicans seemingly splitting into Republicans and Trump-supporters/Q-Anon supporters, I can see it happening. I've been wanting to get into this series but no longer have a PS4 so I wasn't worried about spoilers but this sounds pretty cool. I'm definitely going to get the one that releases on Switch though!

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III is on Switch with IV on the way

I don't think 1 and 2 are coming to Switch yet, or at all, and tbh III is a terrible place to start the series with

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

What does the prince stand for?

Spoiler: 3rd

granted, you might not have seen Door 8 yet, but you REALLY aint seen the actual flaws of cs2 yet and theyve been showing you not telling the reason since cs1

 

[FatalT]

III is on Switch with IV on the way

I don't think 1 and 2 are coming to Switch yet, or at all, and tbh III is a terrible place to start the series with

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I feel like a dummy. I just realized 4 is the last game in the Cold Steel series. That sucks. I see 3 is currently on sale for $40 on Switch though which is nice but I can't afford it.

I could essentially hunker down and watch the story of 1 and 2 because I know these games are super long to be able to get in at 3 and not the final game.

That changes everything :(

 

[GamingCJ]

This seems to be a common complaint, but actually I think its essential to the story. Class VII wants to take the independent Bracer role, but the shitty actions of the Noble Alliance force them to always side with the Imperial Army. This however has good reasons, you will only learn later know.

 

[Korigama]

I feel like a dummy. I just realized 4 is the last game in the Cold Steel series. That sucks. I see 3 is currently on sale for $40 on Switch though which is nice but I can't afford it.

I could essentially hunker down and watch the story of 1 and 2 because I know these games are super long to be able to get in at 3 and not the final game.

That changes everything :(

Click to shrink...

And Cold Steel will expect you to be familiar with the events of the Sky trilogy (FC, SC, 3rd) and the Crossbell duology (Zero, Ao), particularly by CS3 (as early as CS2 in respect to the latter) and especially 4.

 

[SammyJ9]

Yeah this bugged me a lot. They were allied with the Imperials in all but name. And all being separate really did is make the game more frustrating because it made them seem wishy-washy and not get as many things done as they should have since they "didn't want to take sides". And in a game where my biggest complaint already is that like nothing of consequence happens until the very end already, this was just another reason why. You can really feel the padding and reason why this was originally going to be one game, along with CS1. Splitting them into two games really hurt.

 

[oni-link]

I feel like a dummy. I just realized 4 is the last game in the Cold Steel series. That sucks. I see 3 is currently on sale for $40 on Switch though which is nice but I can't afford it.

I could essentially hunker down and watch the story of 1 and 2 because I know these games are super long to be able to get in at 3 and not the final game.

That changes everything :(

Click to shrink...

III has recaps for 1 and 2 but the story is so long and with so many characters it's not gonna be easy to follow

On top of that the Cold Steel games are the final chapter in a much longer arc

The story starts with the Trails in the Sky games (3 of them) and then there are another 2 games that have never been released in English, and they all lead up to the end of Cold Steel IV, so by the mid point of III you have all these characters from other games show up too, and by IV it's just bonkers

Cold Steel III is basically the 8th game out of 9, with IV being the 9th and final game

That said, I started with Cold Steel 1 and managed to just look up a lot on wiki's when new characters turned up

 

[BluWacky]

Very little of what happens in Cold Steel 2 either makes sense or is of any consequence at all. The game's story exists purely because time needs to elapse between the end of the first game and the end of the second one - as facile as that sounds, I mean that wholeheartedly. Massive spoilers below:

Spoiler: spoilers for all of CS2

The only part of Cold Steel 2 that really matters is Crow's death and Osborne's "resurrection" - but for that to have any meaning, time has to have passed since the end of CS1. The entire rest of the game is almost entirely pointless.

 

[oni-link]

Very little of what happens in Cold Steel 2 either makes sense or is of any consequence at all. The game's story exists purely because time needs to elapse between the end of the first game and the end of the second one - as facile as that sounds, I mean that wholeheartedly. Massive spoilers below:

Spoiler: spoilers for all of CS2

The only part of Cold Steel 2 that really matters is Crow's death and Osborne's "resurrection" - but for that to have any meaning, time has to have passed since the end of CS1. The entire rest of the game is almost entirely pointless.

Click to shrink...

You're not wrong, but it also gives them time to introduce and flesh out more characters

It's the shortest of the 4 Cold Steel games too

I liked it, though I think I and III are stronger (I'm on Act III of IV right now)

 

[Korigama]

You're not wrong, but it also gives them time to introduce and flesh out more characters

It's the shortest of the 4 Cold Steel games too

I liked it, though I think I and III are stronger (I'm on Act III of IV right now)

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Pretty sure CS2 stretched out much longer than CS1 did. It refusing to end is a common criticism of that game, and I can't really disagree.

 

[oni-link]

Pretty sure CS2 stretched out much longer than CS1 did. It refusing to end is a common criticism of that game, and I can't really disagree.

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Maybe it's just me then, I think the first game took me 76 hours and the second took 63

III took me about 110 and I'm already 82 into IV

Edit: I've not played with a guide and I've tried to do all the sides quests I find (In all 4 games)

 

[GamingCJ]

Very little of what happens in Cold Steel 2 either makes sense or is of any consequence at all. The game's story exists purely because time needs to elapse between the end of the first game and the end of the second one - as facile as that sounds, I mean that wholeheartedly. Massive spoilers below:

Spoiler: spoilers for all of CS2

The only part of Cold Steel 2 that really matters is Crow's death and Osborne's "resurrection" - but for that to have any meaning, time has to have passed since the end of CS1. The entire rest of the game is almost entirely pointless.

Click to shrink...

I wouldn't go that far. It's actually quite interesting and makes sense to see how

Spoiler: CS II and IV

Rufus helps to sabotage the Noble Alliance and how Ouroboros/Vita are trying to set up the Rivalry between Rean and Crow.

 

[Alent]

Playing through CSII just felt like filler to me. It was boring and i was very ready to be done with it by the final dungeon. Having said that I'm going to binge play 3 and 4 sometime soon anyway. It's frustrating because i'm interested in the overall plotline of the series but CS has not really been much fun.

 

[jaekeem]

the best defense is just seeing class VII as naive/ignorant about the entire situation, which is

Spoiler

reinforced by the ending

 

[hans_castorp]

People love complaning about FC slow pace, but CS I-II are pretty much 90% filler. CS II being the worst, as its biggest plot-twist its something that was known since Ao (Ousborne being an immortal)
The famous Third Path the love to talk about only materialises in CS IV. And a lot of the context is lost if you haven´t played The 3rd.

 

[hwarang]

Was excited for the Civil War aspect but it turned out to be boring. Nobody really dies and yep

 

[Ovvv]

It's more like they're looking for an alternative solution to the problem than anything else. Doesn't mean they'd refuse help.

 

[Dougieflesh]

They fight a war where nobody dies. It's all nonsense.

 

[HeRinger]

I feel like a dummy. I just realized 4 is the last game in the Cold Steel series. That sucks. I see 3 is currently on sale for $40 on Switch though which is nice but I can't afford it.

I could essentially hunker down and watch the story of 1 and 2 because I know these games are super long to be able to get in at 3 and not the final game.

That changes everything :(

Click to shrink...

Cold Steel 1 and 2 are schedule to release this Summer on Switch.

If you are really set on watching story summaries on YouTube though, I recommend this channel:

https://youtube.com/c/LadyVirgilia

It basically has very detailed recaps of every game in the series (with the exception of Sky FC I think). Each game is like 3-5 hours of videos (like I said, very detailed), but it sure beats playing a bunch of 80+ hours games if you want to jump in straight to CS3. I've watched her summary of the first CS and I feel like I have a pretty decent grasp of the story and characters. I even found the story enjoyable.

CS3 also comes with summaries of the events of the first two games, but I still recommend watching the videos (or waiting to play the games if you want) because you will get a better picture of the story and characters.

 

[Redcrayon]

The whole thing is pointless and feels in bad taste to me, as it's Saturday morning cartoon fighting including the bad guys shaking their fist and running away at the end of every episode, that then weirdly chooses to pair it with the pathos of the horrors of mechanised urban warfare, yet only one person dies. Meanwhile, the factions involved in this war are a collection of silly anime martial artists who are immune to everything up to and including armoured divisions, so any depiction of political or martial strategy is utterly meaningless when it all comes down to 'power levels'. Anyone who is defeated turns out to be holding back and instantly turns the tables, only to have it flipped back by yet more npcs arriving. Anyone who issues threats and then falls back isn't pursued by people with flight or vehicles, or shot down by people with guns. It's all just a total mess. JRPGs revel in people with swords being stronger than whole armies, but it's usually handled on a squad level, with the player group overcoming the odds. This is entire regiments being taken out by a seemingly limitless, bloated cast of npcs waiting in the wings to conveniently appear on a nearby high point with whatever magic powers they like. It just seemed like utter nonsense to me to try and blend Dragonball-type silliness of dozens of npcs including people from other dimensions with superpowers etc with trying to comment on the tragedies of a military/political civil war campaign, despite me enjoying the 3 other trails games I've played. I gave up about 90 minutes into CSIII when it already seemed like more of the same.

 

[pbayne]

As soon as the series tries to delve into things like war or politics it starts to get a bit shaky beacuase how to do balance that with some kids smacking around a god or mecha with a wooden stick lol.

The war aspect was very toothless in general. Too bad they just gloss over the time between 2 and 3 as well but i dont think they could pull off it writing wise.

 

[Deepwater]

You're gonna love Cold Steel 4.

As echoed already in this thread, where Cold Steel fails in it's narrative is that the scope of the conflict in practically every game is blown up and implied to be consequential but really isn't in the grand scheme of things. The principle cast isn't really effected (or rather, the status quo doesn't change) until the ending of CS3, but anybody who's played CS4 knows that it's short lived and we go back to business as usual.

As opposed to Sky trilogy and Crossbell Duology, which were smaller in scope on the political side of things, but were more focused on resolving interpersonal conflicts while everything was going on in the background. But if one were to look at the state of Erebonia at the beginning of CS1, and the end of CS4, there's lot of things that happen inbetween, but there is little difference in Erebonia society. The fact that everything was pretty much an excuse to fight

Spoiler

Osborne

, and

Spoiler

everybody gets their happy ending

, it really seems like we could've wrapped up the Erebonia arc in 2, MAYBE 3 games.

The narrative purpose of Class 7, both new and old, is honestly wasted. And for whats worth, its not all bad. Some of them do become somewhat important, but either their personalities just plainly suck, or it takes 3 games (looking at you Gaius) for them to become interesting. But I too was a bit annoyed at their "we must go a third way", which turns out to be even more contrived because it was always due to some keikaku doori from some character yet to be introduced (i'm speaking generally here).

But yeah, it was annoying, and they only sort of get away with it because the Civil war is painted as Nobles vs Commoners and they want Class 7 to rise above it even though they basically side with the government in the end anyways. It would've been more interesting for them to definitively pick a side and explore the consequences of that, but the plot is already off the rails so you just roll with the punches.

 

[Deleted member 17627]

You're gonna love Cold Steel 4.

As echoed already in this thread, where Cold Steel fails in it's narrative is that the scope of the conflict in practically every game is blown up and implied to be consequential but really isn't in the grand scheme of things. The principle cast isn't really effected (or rather, the status quo doesn't change) until the ending of CS3, but anybody who's played CS4 knows that it's short lived and we go back to business as usual.

As opposed to Sky trilogy and Crossbell Duology, which were smaller in scope on the political side of things, but were more focused on resolving interpersonal conflicts while everything was going on in the background. But if one were to look at the state of Erebonia at the beginning of CS1, and the end of CS4, there's lot of things that happen inbetween, but there is little difference in Erebonia society. The fact that everything was pretty much an excuse to fight

Spoiler

Osborne

, and

Spoiler

everybody gets their happy ending

, it really seems like we could've wrapped up the Erebonia arc in 2, MAYBE 3 games.

The narrative purpose of Class 7, both new and old, is honestly wasted. And for whats worth, its not all bad. Some of them do become somewhat important, but either their personalities just plainly suck, or it takes 3 games (looking at you Gaius) for them to become interesting. But I too was a bit annoyed at their "we must go a third way", which turns out to be even more contrived because it was always due to some keikaku doori from some character yet to be introduced (i'm speaking generally here).

But yeah, it was annoying, and they only sort of get away with it because the Civil war is painted as Nobles vs Commoners and they want Class 7 to rise above it even though they basically side with the government in the end anyways. It would've been more interesting for them to definitively pick a side and explore the consequences of that, but the plot is already off the rails so you just roll with the punches.

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Oh I've played through Cold Steel IV. At the very least, that game has great character development. Whereas in II, it really just feels like it's all about Rean.

 

[HeRinger]

You guys are making me give up on playing CS3 and 4, lol. Maybe I should just play Ni No Kuni instead, I have both games unopened.

 

[GamingCJ]

You guys are making me give up on playing CS3 and 4, lol. Maybe I should just play Ni No Kuni instead, I have both games unopened.

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Don't. CS3 and 4 are great games with massive payoff, a big step up from CS2.

 

[Deleted member 17627]

You guys are making me give up on playing CS3 and 4, lol. Maybe I should just play Ni No Kuni instead, I have both games unopened.

Click to shrink...

Play CS3, as someone who's been into the genre for a decade now, it's one of the best RPGs I've ever played.

CS4 has an amazing first act, tedious second act, and decent third act, but is pretty good overall. It's just there's this one plot device that's...really bad, but it's only for this one game and never again, and it's forgettable most of the time.

 

[Deleted member 17627]

People love complaning about FC slow pace, but CS I-II are pretty much 90% filler. CS II being the worst, as its biggest plot-twist its something that was known since Ao (Ousborne being an immortal)
The famous Third Path the love to talk about only materialises in CS IV. And a lot of the context is lost if you haven´t played The 3rd.

Click to shrink...

The Cold Steel saga definitely feels like it should've been shorter in that regard. I think the first game did a great job at world-building, 90% of II felt unnecessary (but it was still fun for getting to know more about Class VII before New Class VII took over), III finally established the importance of Erebonia, and IV I still think was good, but Act 2 and 3 should've been combined into one half.

 

[Kromeo]

Pretty sure CS2 stretched out much longer than CS1 did. It refusing to end is a common criticism of that game, and I can't really disagree.

Click to shrink...

CS1 took me about 15 hours more than 2, it just feels longer because there's so much game happens after the "final" dungeon and boss

 

[Deleted member 721]

"We're going to make a third faction in the war that is seperate from the Noble Alliance and the Imperial Army!"

How does this even make sense considering what happens during the rest of the story?

They use the Courageous as a base of operations, an airship provided to them by the Imperial Family.
They receive a bunch of help from various factions of the Imperial Army, including the Intelligence Division, Railway Police, and 4th Armored Division.
And numerous times throughout the story, they, and other members of Thors, are saved by people associated with the Imperial Army.

By all means, it kind of feels like they've sided with the Imperial Army. At the point where you can step foot into any Imperial Army base no problem and socialize with its members, whereas, going anywhere near a Noble Alliance controlled area is prohibited, indicating you will be captured where that to happen, it's kind of hard to ignore who is actually "the opposing force" here.

Does anyone feel similarly? Feel free to share your thoughts if you disagree as well.

Click to shrink...

I agree 100% with you, i got pissed everytime when the protagonist created some bs excuse for his faction and "neutrality"

 

[Deleted member 5596]

"We're going to make a third faction in the war that is seperate from the Noble Alliance and the Imperial Army!"

How does this even make sense considering what happens during the rest of the story?

They use the Courageous as a base of operations, an airship provided to them by the Imperial Family.
They receive a bunch of help from various factions of the Imperial Army, including the Intelligence Division, Railway Police, and 4th Armored Division.
And numerous times throughout the story, they, and other members of Thors, are saved by people associated with the Imperial Army.

By all means, it kind of feels like they've sided with the Imperial Army. At the point where you can step foot into any Imperial Army base no problem and socialize with its members, whereas, going anywhere near a Noble Alliance controlled area is prohibited, indicating you will be captured where that to happen, it's kind of hard to ignore who is actually "the opposing force" here.

Does anyone feel similarly? Feel free to share your thoughts if you disagree as well.

Click to shrink...

The game politics are kind of bullshit, with it's middle ground and "feudalism is not that bad I guess" but being a third faction does not mean not acting against a coup, which is what the Noble Alliance started in the first game. By all intentions, that was what the Prince was trying to start with that class in the Thor Academy, is just the objectives of the protagonists and the Imperial Army are aligned even if they don't approve either Osborne methods and leadership, since their main objective is to go against the ones that started a coup and arranged a civil war.

 

[Deleted member 17627]

The game politics are kind of bullshit, with it's middle ground and "feudalism is not that bad I guess" but being a third faction does not mean not acting against a coup, which is what the Noble Alliance started in the first game. By all intentions, that was what the Prince was trying to start with that class in the Thor Academy, is just the objectives of the protagonists and the Imperial Army are aligned even if they don't approve either Osborne methods and leadership, since their main objective is to go against the ones that started a coup and arranged a civil war.

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Definitely feels like more a decision based on autonomy rather than alignment, but idk, still feels wishy washy to me.

 

[Deleted member 5596]

Definitely feels like more a decision based on autonomy rather than alignment, but idk, still feels wishy washy to me.

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If I remember right (it's been quite some time) Rean was always weary of Osborne, but he's not around by the 2nd game, since he was assasinated at the end of the first game. With the coup basically being a success, the current goverment held hostage, Thor Academy attacked and the imperial army basically being a rebel force against the coup, makes sense they support them. So is not like they are supporting Osborne, rather that fighting against an ilegal coup.

A lot of the politics in the Cold saga are iffy on my opinion, but not this one.

 

[Deleted member 17627]

Playing through CSII just felt like filler to me. It was boring and i was very ready to be done with it by the final dungeon. Having said that I'm going to binge play 3 and 4 sometime soon anyway. It's frustrating because i'm interested in the overall plotline of the series but CS has not really been much fun.

Click to shrink...

3 is leagues better than both 1 and 2, so I think you'll enjoy it. 4 runs into some of the same pacing issues as 2, but there at least isn't filler, still an overall good game.

 

[S_Dev]

To be honest, I was losing faith in the Trails series by the end of CSII. I could not stand the cast, Rean is a huge Gary Stu, most others have vague or one dimensional backstories and motivations. Playing the translation of Trails from Zero finally got my hyped back up, and hearing the SSS have a larger part in the stories of CSIII and IV give me will to push on. Just got to wait for the Azure translation to drop.

 

[Erpy]

I think the neutrality-thing (which is based on Olivert's beliefs) makes a bit more sense if you go into the game having played the Sky and Crossbell games, as Japanese gamers (Falcom's true audience), were semi-expected to. If you started the series with CS1, it's easy to consider Osborne's faction the good guys and the Nobles the bad guys with no room for nuance.

But back in SC, in one of the first cutscenes that elaborated on Osborne's character, Olivert mentions that the nation's feudal lords were all that stood against him. (at least suggesting they'd be portrayed in a more positive light than they were when CS1 rolled around)

With six games worth of context, you become aware that from the rest of the continent's POV, Erebonia's feudal lords are the lesser of two evils because while many of them are corrupt and hell-bent on keeping the lower-born populance down, at least they're a local problem while Osborne's expansionism threatens everyone on the continent. Which gives the more context-savvy player some room to feel mixed about the protagonists essentially getting joined at the hip with the reformists despite their intentions since they know the eventual outcome of what Class VII are working towards.

 

[viskod]

They do take a third path.

They don't fight with the Imperial Government, which needs to be recognized as separate from the royal family.

In each chapter they respond to the humanitarian crises and war crimes of the Noble Faction. Naturally a side effect of this will be a weakening of Noble forces in the area and the Imperial Army taking control.

A lot more is going on in 2 than you realize but you don't find that out until 4.