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[Trails/Kiseki] - Trails through Daybreak, Summer '24, PS4/5, Switch and PC
Renzo
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
What is Trails/Kiseki?
The Trails/Kiseki series is 12 JRPGs (by Falcom and published by XSEED/NISA in NA) centered around the people and politics of a shared world. So far, we have 10 of them in English!
Each game features a huge cast of characters, strategic turn-based combat, an intricate upgrade and spell system, tons of sidequests, fantastic music, and a well-written, twisty-turny plot.
And each game references the other games in such a way that those who pay attention are rewarded, but people who only play one or two of them aren't lost. This is a big reason why fans of the series are so passionate.
The chart below might help explain it better.
What can I play in English?
Liberl Chapter
Trails in the Sky - PC
Trails in the Sky SC - PC
Trails in the Sky The 3rd - PC
The first three games in the series take place in the Kingdom of Liberl, the southernmost country on the Zemurian continent. The first two games follow Estelle and Joshua Bright, young members of the Bracer Guild, a group of peacekeepers who keep watch over the people of Liberl and take on jobs ranging from typical monster extermination and replacing lightbulbs to, well, you'll just have to see. Travel the entire breadth of Liberl on foot, see the sights, meet interesting people, and uncover a sinister plot. It's all in a day's work for a (Junior) Bracer!
The third game acts as a sort of bridge to the rest of the series, and stars other characters, though it still takes place in Liberl. I can't say much about it without getting into details and potentially spoiling things. It comes highly recommended!
The third game acts as a sort of bridge to the rest of the series, and stars other characters, though it still takes place in Liberl. I can't say much about it without getting into details and potentially spoiling things. It comes highly recommended!
Crossbell Chapter
Trails from Zero - Switch, PS4, PC
Trails to Azure - Switch, PS4, PC
To give a very brief intro, Crossbell City is a technologically advanced city inspired by Hong Kong. Crossbell State is positioned between the two largest countries in Zemuria, and part of the story concerns Crossbell's struggles to maintain autonomy while being threatened by Erebonia to the west, Calvard to the east, and the criminal underworld festering in the dark corners of the city. All of this is seen from the perspective of Lloyd Bannings, a new CPD recruit, and his fellow officers in the Special Support Section of the Crossbell Police Department.
Erebonia Chapter
Trails of Cold Steel - PS4 and PC
Trails of Cold Steel II - PS4 and PC
Trails of Cold Steel III - PS4, Switch, and PC
Trails of Cold Steel IV - PS4, Switch, and PC
Welcome to the Erebonian Empire, a region of the Zemurian continent renowned for their military prowess.
Behind the powerhouse face of the Empire, however, lie long-held tensions between the upper class and common citizens.
Calling themselves the Noble and Reformist factions, the two classes have been escalating the power struggle between them for many years.
Rean Schwarzer enters the Thors Military Academy and is placed within the newly-created Class VII.
For the first time in the history of the academy, Class VII does not distinguish its members by the socioeconomic class from which they come.
The nine students in Rean's class all come from different backgrounds and have distinct abilities.
As the students train and get to know each other, with all the tensions that may bring, they find themselves thrust into political events that may threaten the entire Empire.
Behind the powerhouse face of the Empire, however, lie long-held tensions between the upper class and common citizens.
Calling themselves the Noble and Reformist factions, the two classes have been escalating the power struggle between them for many years.
Rean Schwarzer enters the Thors Military Academy and is placed within the newly-created Class VII.
For the first time in the history of the academy, Class VII does not distinguish its members by the socioeconomic class from which they come.
The nine students in Rean's class all come from different backgrounds and have distinct abilities.
As the students train and get to know each other, with all the tensions that may bring, they find themselves thrust into political events that may threaten the entire Empire.
Reverie
Trails into Reverie - PS4, PS5, PC, Switch
This is a bridge game, meant to wrap up the current state of things after Cold Steel 4 and set the stage for what is to come. Called Hajimari no Kiseki in Japan, Hajimari means "beginning", and supposedly this game is the beginning of the end of the series.
Calvard Chapter
Kuro no Kiseki - Released in Japan on PS4 - September 2021, PS5 - July 2022
Kuro no Kiseki II - Released in Japan on PS4, PS5 - 2022
It takes place in Calvard, the combat is now turn-based and real-time, with the option to switch mid-combat, and the core cast is apparently all-new.
Do I Need To Play All Of Them?
Nope! The first game of each set is considered a jumping on point, as confirmed by the developers. You can just play Trails in the Sky or just Trails from Zero or just Trails of Cold Steel if you want. You may miss small details and hints at the larger, overarching story, but otherwise the games will treat you like a newcomer.
But of course the devs and fans want you to get hooked and decide you have to play all of them.
XSEED Localization Blog Posts
Trails Series Localization Blog
Trails of Cold Steel Localization Blog #1
Trails of Cold Steel Localization Blog #2
Videos
Trails in the Sky PC Trailer
Trails of Cold Steel - Battle
Trails of Cold Steel - Story
Trails of Cold Steel - Launch Trailer
Renzo on
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One of the superfans on gaf who imports and can read japanese is going to wait on Persona 5 to play Cold Steel II, a game they already played twice, but this time in English.
These are good JRPGs y'all. And the Sky games run on basically any computer and go on sale on Steam often.
I only managed FC.
What happened to my summer!?
That's a toughie. This series both expects and rewards your time. Trails in the Sky FC and Trails in the Sky SC, for example, are two halves of one story. FC ends on a cliffhanger and needs you to play SC in order to finish the story. I think the complete story is fantastic, but you only see it all once you've played through two full length RPGs.
And then I think some of the music wouldn't really be your style. Some of it would (this is the same company that makes Ys, with the same music team), but the battle music for Sky FC and Sky SC, for example, is very jazzy. I like it, but you know me.
Cold Steel might be more your avenue, but it has a school setting, which has turned some people off just on a conceptual level. I think it's used to great effect if only in that you get to learn about the townspeople and fellow classmates over the course of a year instead of just getting one-off NPC monologue like in most JRPGs. It makes for a cool sense of community if you want to put the time in.
The combat is a lot of fun in both Sky and Cold Steel once you get a few hours in. They both allow you to get creative as to how you outfit your characters and how you approach combat. There's a bit of positioning and turn order strategy mixed in with the typical turn based stuff.
Both Sky and Cold Steel start slow, and do not try to rush the story along. This series takes its time. It feels like they have everything planned out well in advance and make sure every story beat is in there.
But as I mentioned above, the stories are all connected in various ways, if you pay attention. I've compared the whole thing to A Song Of Ice And Fire before, not in terms of content or continuity, but in the way that astute readers/players are rewarded. And I know you eat that up. So do I. It's awesome to catch all the references, hints, and teases they drop into these games.
I wish Trails to Zero and Trails to Azure were out, since those look to match your preferences a bit more closely than the rest.
Still, you can't go wrong with trying Trails in the Sky FC, since it's bound to be discounted on Steam again when Cold Steel II launches.
Oh, and there's a fishing minigame in all of them.
Edit:
Here's a post I made a few years ago about the combat system in Sky FC. And another after I finished it.
I think the hardest part of Cold Steel is having to work with whoever you're teamed up with during the field studies. Because you will have some favorites that half the time are taken from you, and it sucks having to change tactics because of character limitations. Some characters are just better than others, which is good and means they made each character unique. But, well... No one likes being stuck with Jusis...
I personally liked Cold Steel 1 a lot more than Sky FC. After FC I very nearly skipped on the rest of the series, actually.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
Cold Steel's side quests also play into the world building more, while FCs are often just trying to give you a sense of what bracers USUALLY do.
Rean: Hey, we went to my homeland in Ymir! We don't have time to talk about that though.
... fuck you, game...
Apparently there's a Drama CD that talks about the events there, including the obligatory hot springs scene that's not in the actual game. I have no idea why they'd make that separate, maybe it was an easy way to make the game a lower rating? I mean part of me gets why XSEED left it out... and yet, it's like an hour of story we're just flat out missing. It's a bit of a dick move.
It wasn't cut from the game.
Or, more likely, it was, but it was cut from the original, due to time constraints. Not in localization or anything.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
It says to wait until you finish the game though. I can't recall if it's safe to read right after Ch.6 or not.
edit: I just re-read it. It's totally fine to read right after finishing Ch.6.
Oh, I get I can find it, and read up at leisure. But missing content is missing content, and workaround or not, I'm gonna call it out in an unbiased manner like any other game. I'm not blaming XSEED, there's a myriad of reasons to omit it... budget, time, content concerns, probably a combination of several. It still needs to be addressed though, and hopefully won't happen with the second game.
Oh it happened with Cold Steel II also, haha. On that same page, there's a link to a translation of a part of CSII that didn't make it into the game and had a drama CD. At least the translation is available early, as opposed to getting the official translation 8ish months later like this Ymir visit section from CS1.
It's a bummer, but at least we get the info one way or another. To me, it's better than if it had been omitted entirely.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
Such a good good egg boy
The "secret" characters seem to be one physical, one hybrid, and one mage as well.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
I shouldn't have to grind on normal difficulty, but I've been doing so a little anyway. I might have to put this game down and consider not getting Cold Steel 2. I really like everything else about the game, but the level curve just took a turn like a clown car, and I'm debating if I feel like suffering through more of this anytime soon.
Again, this is NORMAL. If it was SMT tough from the start, I'd be okay with this. It starts out easy and normal enough, and now it's cock teasing me at the end, and it's beginning to piss me off now.
As for the difficulty, what's your party and general strategy right now? I remember that fight being tough, but not overly so.
But I do remember bumping the difficulty down to Easy for the final boss fight.
Also Quartz setup and tactics matter way more than a few levels, so that may be where your problem is.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
Would someone even know who that enemy was until you met it? I certainly didn't.
As for my strategy, I tend to have Elliot/Alisa on healing watch, Rean/Laura/Millium for heavy hitters, and slowly build up CP, throwing out S-Crafts when available. I tend to have Alisa/Jusis/Elliot buff everyone at the beginning. But eventually it just gets to where I'm spending 100% of the time keeping people alive, or killing the minions, or trying to stop it from sapping my party to death. Started using Zeram Powders and Capsules to try and cheese a win, but that only goes so far.
I guess I'm just unnerved that 95% of the game is pretty easy to work out, and the last handful of bosses are the game getting a sudden case of sadistic tendencies. It's like the Ch. 6 boss onward has me playing a completely different game.
Also, having the largest dungeon/boss battle before finding if my festival choices work is a tremendous dick move.
Later on I'll probably get over all this. But currently I'm sitting at over 110 hours of play, and like with the Persona games, for the love of God I just want the Ending!!
Yeah, it's clear some setup is needed. It's just irritating it went straight from 'I can make this work' to 'I need a specific strategy' in one fight. It's not a build up, but a switch flip, and it's annoying because it was completely unnecessary until basically the final chapter.
PSN: BrightWing13 FFX|V:ARR Bright Asuna
There are a bunch of missables in each Trails game. Nothing critical. We're talking small sidequests, extra money/potions, etc.
Depending on your completionist tendencies, you may want to look up how to get every volume of the in-game book series, Carnelia. Only by collecting each one will you be able to get one (only one per playthrough!) ultimate weapon. But that's also not critical. It's mostly just extra damage output.
The amount of missables has put off plenty of people, but if you can get past it, I would just play it blind. Enjoy it as it is, rather than with a guide.
And whatever you do, don't look at a wiki. Thar be spoilers. Like, series-wide spoilers.
Initial impressions: I like Estelle. She's good people. I wonder what Joshua's deal is. And this magic system is good stuff. Kinda reminds me of FF 6 in a way. Where magic is really interchangeable.
PSN: BrightWing13 FFX|V:ARR Bright Asuna
I'm gonna tell you something that I needed to be told, about the magic system. Use the in-game documentation! It is really good and will tell you how to get every single spell in the game.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970