which game should i play first?

[edogg]

Sorry guys ;i'm new at this series. I have recently bought both these games, The legend of heroes trails of cold steel and the legend of heroes: trails in the sky. which game would you suggest to start first with or does it matter? thx

[Koby]

It technically doesn't matter as both are entries into the series... However chronologically Sky happens first and is the ideal starting point if you actually are interested in Sky.

[Dragon]

You should play Trails in the Sky first, definitely.

The Cold Steel games continue the story of the world itself, and also many of the Sky series' character's arcs, from directly where they left off at the end of the Sky games and also the Crossbell games.

So, if you play the Cold Steel games first, then you would:

a) ruin for yourself the story and many of the characters' arcs of the Sky games --- because the Cold Steel games spoil them. Thus when you go back to play the Sky games later, a lot of the intended fun would not be there, because you'd already know the big surprises and plot twists long before you were supposed to according to the Sky games' storytelling design.

And also

b) You would be missing tons of background context & the beginning and/or middle of many plots lines that started and/or resumed in the games before Cold Steel. Thus, the Cold Steel games would also be less fun to play through than they are intended to be.

In contrast to that, if you play the Sky games first, then you avoid all of those problems I just mentioned, and you get the full experience, with no missing knowledge.

In simpler terms, there are no downsides to playing the Sky games first. But there are tons of downsides to playing the Cold Steel games first.

By the way, there are two Crossbell games after the Sky games, and before the Cold Steel games, for which all of the same principles also apply. So it's best also to play the Crossbell games after the Sky games, and before the Cold Steel games.

[Koby]

Dragon likes to exaggerate and stretch the truth to the extreme.

Saying that not playing them in order completely ruins the experience or leaves you confused is silly. That's like saying Lord of the Rings is impossible to enjoy if you haven't read The Hobbit first.

But if we're going to follow his "logic" of everything must be done and done in order... then he's leaving out a lot of so called "tons of context" by not mentioning the two Drama CDs that cover various parts of events not covered in the games. He's also forgetting the unofficially translated manga.

As for the "Cold Steel spoils Crossbell and Sky" comment... Actually I, along with many other fans, would argue that Crossbell games spoil much more about the Cold Steel games than Cold Steel spoils about Crossbell. A big part of the vocal fanbase recommends playing Cold Steel 1 & 2 before Crossbell for that very reason.

But what'dya expect from someone who neither owns the games legally nor actually played most of them and outright mentions he gets his "info" from reading crappy reviews that crap on the series.

[Stabbey]

I'd definitely recommend Trails in the Sky, because as the first game in the series, the mechanics are less refined than they get later on, and it's feels better to go from less-refined mechanics to better-refined mechanics than the other way around.

[Ditz]

You should definitely play Trails in the Sky first.
Would you watch Avengers Endgame before Avengers Infinity War?
No?
So why play Cold Steel before Sky?

[edogg]

you guy are awesome ( yes including Dragon), thanks for your help

[Exarch_Alpha]

It truly doesn´t matter that much. I started with Trails Cold Steel 3 and I regret nothing.

[i liek katz]

If you're going to play them in order, after the Sky trilogy you can get Zero and Azure (Crossbell arc), and use the Geofront english patches. If you read this, I would recommend picking up the patches now and check back on them for potential updates when you get to the Crossbell games, just in the unlikely case that the Geofront team is forced to take down their patches since there might be an "official" english release that would likely be of lower quality.

[Tenacity]

Recommended play order is either:
Sky series>Zero>Azure>CS series>Hajimari
Or Sky series>CS 1/2>Zero>Azure>CS 3/4>Hajimari.
Crossbell arc (Zero/Azure) takes place concurrently to CS 1/2 so they both kinda spoil each other on some things.

Originally posted by i liek katz:

If you're going to play them in order, after the Sky trilogy you can get Zero and Azure (Crossbell arc), and use the Geofront english patches. If you read this, I would recommend picking up the patches now and check back on them for potential updates when you get to the Crossbell games, just in the unlikely case that the Geofront team is forced to take down their patches since there might be an "official" english release that would likely be of lower quality.

Geofront releases are kind of odd in that they shoehorn in a lot of needless sh*tposting, so if you want the games as they are then flame edit is more faithful. Geofront does flow better for the most part though so if you just want the story and pure readability they're the best choice.

[Bers]

Originally posted by Dagran:

that they shoehorn in a lot of needless sh*tposting, so if you want the games as they are then flame edit is more faithful.

What kind of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥? Im skipping opening chests for the 2nd time myself because I dont like the 4th wall breaks and memes in Sky FC. Does this get worse in Geofront? Is "normal" dialogue affected?

[Tenacity]

Originally posted by Bers:

Originally posted by Dagran:

that they shoehorn in a lot of needless sh*tposting, so if you want the games as they are then flame edit is more faithful.

What kind of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥? Im skipping opening chests for the 2nd time myself because I dont like the 4th wall breaks and memes in Sky FC. Does this get worse in Geofront? Is "normal" dialogue affected?

Yes it gets worse in geofront and yes, some actual dialogue is affected. The original meaning of the script is usually conveyed in full, it's just they also throw needless memes in there as well, which can be jarring.
Examples:
Randy: If this ain't a real bruh moment, then I dunno what is.
Noel: Y-yes, roger that! *squeals internally*
Wazy: Haha! The absolute mad lad!
Randy: People die if they are killed, you bucket of bolts!
These are some of the worse examples I've seen so if they seem too jarring to you, you might be better off with flame edit.

[Bers]

Ty Dagran. Those are abit funky but not TOO bad. Im not going to skip on the huge boatload of work geofront did because a few bad lines in hundeds of thousands

[Bers]

Originally posted by Dagran:

if they seem too jarring to you, you might be better off with flame edit.

is flame edit a completely new translation or a patch to be applied to the geofront one?

[Tenacity]

Originally posted by Bers:

Originally posted by Dagran:

if they seem too jarring to you, you might be better off with flame edit.

is flame edit a completely new translation or a patch to be applied to the geofront one?

I don't know for sure since I'm half going off what I see on /vrpg/ - I believe it's a touched up machine translation that was done before the geofront localisation.

[Bers]

Originally posted by Dagran:

Originally posted by Bers:

is flame edit a completely new translation or a patch to be applied to the geofront one?

I don't know for sure since I'm half going off what I see on /vrpg/ - I believe it's a touched up machine translation that was done before the geofront localisation.

ty. there is alot of nitpicking and negativity and exaggeration on that site from my experience... im sure geofront will serve just fine.