The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel
Overview -
'The Legend of Heroes' has become quite the cult franchise outside of Japan. Having famously had a ton of trouble getting localized due to the game's incredibly large scripts, Xseed is now going all out with the series. Having just recently brought us 'Trails in the Sky: Second Chapter', we're now getting our taste of Nihon Falcom's storied franchise this year with 'Trails of Cold Steel', bringing with it a wave of excitement from the passionate fanbase that'll surely fall in love with what Falcom has to offer here.
Video Review
'Cold Steel' isn't the most attractive game around, hindered by fairly dated visuals and animations. The great character and monster designs do help, and the game's art direction is definitely a highlight, with each town in the game looking really diverse. The biggest gripe lies with the animations, which play out in a way that often leads to cutscenes taking far longer than they should. The graphics here are never so bad as to be distracting, but they're unremarkable at best.
Audio Review
The soundtrack here certainly isn't bad. There is the occasional great track, but for the most part, it's fairly generic fantasy stuff. There's no Japanese voice acting, which is a bit of a shame. The English cast does a perfectly fine job with the roles they're given, and occasionally they do some great work. That all said, there appears to be an issue with some of the voice recording, and voices occasionally sound muffled or scratchy. It's never a huge issue, but it's an unfortunate mistake, regardless.
Final Thoughts
While 'The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel' is definitely a good game, and one that JRPG fans are likely to get a kick out of, I do wish it could've been a little more noteworthy. The combat system is excellent, and the game has some really fun side activities that serve as nice distractions (the playable card game, Blade, is a major highlight) from the central adventure. Still, the wonderful gameplay mechanics don't gel perfectly story format, which leads to pacing issues that hurt both aspects. 'Cold Steel 2' is due out next year, and if that speeds things up just a little bit, it'll absolutely be worth your time, but as it stands, 'Cold Steel' is a pleasant game that I really wish I could've fallen in love with. It's worth a look, but there are a few hurdles to get over before things really start to get moving.
