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Cold Steel 1 sold me immediately on the premise of getting to experience life at a military academy in Erebonia. Having played Trails in the Sky FC & SC, I knew in advance to expect a leisurely pace. But Cold Steel handled pacing the wrong way. Literally nothing happens to move the main plot along until the last hour or two of the game. The things that do happen on field studies feel like a complete sideshow and are handled that way in the game. There is just no real sense of progression or urgency. It always follows the same pattern: ride the train -> do some quests -> see the class division in Erebonia for the Xth time -> something strange happens -> go back to school. It felt much more like a school life simulator with some Trails elements tacked on than an actual Trails game. Most of the areas you visit are blander than their Trails in the Sky counterparts, and overall the game felt way longer than it needed to be.
Cold Steel 2 fixed the pacing problems from the first game but added new ones of its own. I forgave the lack of character progression in Cold Steel 1 because I thought the timeskip would allow Falcolm to grow the characters. That just didn't happen: they are the same people making the same mistakes and having the same boring, nonsense conversations as they were in Cold Steel 1. Cold Steel 2 also doubles down on having a hardline formula for how the story flows. It's true that Sky SC did that for the first chunk, but it changed things up for the second half and became something great. I don't feel Cold Steel 2 ever did that. And I cannot forgive the game for its overly long, ultimately unnecessary epilogue. The story portion felt like it belonged in Cold Steel 3 and the gameplay portion felt unnecessary.
I also object to the fact the Cold Steel series needs a third game to tell its story and fix things like zero character progression in the first two games. Sky FC & SC both feel like complete stories when you get to the end. Sure, there are unanswered questions and room for more, but it feels like a complete experience in each case. When you NEED a third game to make your existing 160-hour investment payoff, something has gone horribly wrong.
Just as long as Xseed can keep up.
And the complaint regarding CS is one that I and others have made as well. The characters have not grown. Rean especially. For a franchise whose primary selling point are great characters, having characters that visibly do not develop over the course of two games is not a good thing. It sets an extremely high bar for CS3 to clear, something that even with the skill Falcom demonstrated in the Sky and Ao/Zero duologies, might be beyond their reach. The games aren't bad, but they fall short of the standard previously set.
That said saying the npcs in CS are less developed than FC/Sc.. wut? I really disagree there completely. Every time I play FC and SC I try to make a habit of talking to all the npcs every time something new comes up and it's very soon before it feels like a chore, and I just give up halfway thru.
Also people frequently say SC is twice as big as FC. That's just not true. The script size was twice as big but the game was not. The reason why the script size was bigger is because different events have different dialogues going on depending on who is in your party. Not to mention the whole schera or Agate thing.
I'm not surprised Rean can't develop tbh, from the very start he's clearly emotionally immature and continues to be that way all the way to the end. It wasn't something he was going to fix by becoming solely dependant on his bonds.
In fact his stern appearance in CS3 may be where we see it all come to a head and they finally do allow him to properly develop.
Here's the thing, I feel like the other characters did develop in their personal matters.
Alisa learns how to deal with her mother and the company, Elliot resolves his issues about his life goals, Jusis and Machias find a role for them in the world and are determined to play it to the best of their ability, Emma learns to take what SHE wants in life not what is pushed onto her by tradition, Fie is able to somewhat move past her dependance on her Jaeger family, Laura rounds out her personality a little, Sarah resolves to rebuild Bracer presence, and Millium starts to develop emotion and think outside her box. I'll admit it's difficult to tell if Gaius matured at all, it almost seems like outside of strength there's no room for growth with him at all.
They all did this because of Reans leadership and unintentional guidance. However Rean never really focused on himself. Now without Class VII he's had time to think about what he's doing and how it affects him. He's going to struggle a lot in CS3 but he'll pull through with the development that people are looking for. I'm confident.
Additionally I don't believe CS2's story was supposed to be all about war at all but merely about furthering some of Class VII's development as they're pushed into a war they're unprepared for.
I guess people were expecting something grittier and darker but that was unlikely to happen considering most of the war was a relatively bloodless stalemate started only for Ourobouros benefit.
I really do think outside of Rean most of them were able to develop in very powerful ways. Nearly all of them finish CS2 with a fresh resolve, better perspective of their world, and some of their key weaknesses in their personal lives and personalities totally fixed.
Rean however spent the whole two games believing he was developing while only latching onto those bonds to the point of dependancy and it's no surprise at all. He came to the Academy to run away from his familial bonds because of his low opinion of himself and his tendency to sacrifice his own happiness and that weakness is still there and was only kept at bay because of his new friends.
Yes.
He couldn't develop because he misunderstood the comfort of his bonds for growing but it was the opposite, because of his specific weaknesses relying on those bonds so strongly led to dependancy, which stunted his development entirely.
Other than him though I can't see how anyone could say nobody developed, most of the characters clearly developed, what were people looking for? For Elliot to decide to take on the entirety of Zemuria with his newfound strength?
For Gaius to singlehandedly destroy Calvard? For Laura to kick her fathers ass?
The development that was showcased was a subtle personal development but that's the most important kind.
It's the very foundation of characters like Cassius Bright.
I could talk about it all day but I'll spare you the verbosity of Lakelord III's buddy, whose name escapes me currently.
In a more concise manner of speaking, he cares a lot about others but very little about himself and he spends all of Steel 1 and 2 exacerbating this quality.
He'll never develop as long as he treats himself that way, he needs to value himself as well as others.
TRAILS OF COLD STEEL SPOILERS BELOW
Rean doesn't grow. You agree with this so no details needed.
Giaus really doesn't grow either. We also agree here, so no additional detail is needed.
You claim that Laura rounds out her personality a little. How does that happen, exactly? I never did her bonding events so I only have the story to go by. She is still obsessed with getting better as a swordsman. The absence of her father in Legram means we get to see her step up a bit when the Noble faction sends some muscle, but it was implied that both she and Klaus did that sort of thing whenever her father wasn't around. Laura is a minor noble and swordsman and nothing else.
Elliot flat out tells you in the first game that he wanted to attend a music academy, but went to Thors as a compromise with his father. In what way does Elliot doing more with music after Thors grow his character? He agreed to go to Thors in the first place because it had a music program, and he never stopped playing or gave up on his passion.
Machias is the son of Erebonia's most politically connected commoner and cares deeply about politics himself. Between his interest and his father's connections, there was never any doubt that Machias was going to be doing something political after Thors. Machias coming to accept Jusis could be character growth. But in real life, the kind of passionate, irrational hatred he had for Jusis tends to fizzle out to some degree. And it wasn't ever really Jusis that he hated, just the image of a noble that he had in his own mind. He comes to accept Laura, Jusis, and Rean when he learns they aren't like the other nobles. I think whether you believe he grew as a character or not depends on how you view this change in his relationships.
Jusis was also devoid of growth. There are some emotionally charged moments (especially in CS2) but he is the same person at the start of the first game that he is at the end of the second. Jusis was always a serious, smart, and compassionate noble. He put on quite a show when Class VII came to collect him, but in the end, he would have gone anyway because he knew his father was wrong and was mistreating the people. That he would go tend to his lands and try and make up for what is father did is nothing unexpected for Jusis. Nothing about him changes fundamentally. I would like to say that Jusis is mature enough that I never felt he needed to grow in the first place.
Emma doesn't change either. After what went down in the Infernal Castle, it was perfectly natural for her to go off and try and find out just what the Hexen Clan was really doing. Wondering what role witches serve in modern life is a natural question that anyone would end up asking after traveling for a time. It's not like she loses faith in her cause entirely and gives up on being a witch or joins Ouroboros to get answers or something. Like everyone else, she follows the path set before he without changing as a person.
Fie is tricky. Like Machias, you can make a case for her because she found a second family in Class VII (and Rean, if you did all her bonding events). But then Class VII disbands and Fie goes to find her old family and see about this bizarre plot of theirs to resurrect the boss from the dead. So did she really grow, or is she just back to square one with the way CS2 ends? I'm inclined to go with the latter: she could have said that the dead should stay buried and that she didn't need her old family anymore, but instead she goes to find them again and presumably help bring the boss back.
Millium and Altina do start to care a little, but only a little. They still do whatever they are told and are literal tools of the intelligence division. All we can really say is that Rean's power of head patting may be supernatural. =P
Sara was always faced with two choices: continue to teach or return to doing guild work. The political situation in Erebonia post Infernal Castle removes the first choice, so she naturally goes back to being a Bracer. She doesn't really grow as a character either, we just learn some of her backstory. But like Jusis, Sara was pretty much completely mature as a person already so I don't think this is a bad thing.
Alfin, Towa, Angelica, and George all just continue being themselves. I'm not upset about that either because they didn't really need to change as they aren't core characters.
Elise never has a conversation with Rean in either game about her conflicted feelings. Does she have a real crush on him, or does she just have confused feelings for him? Either way she never works things out or addresses this issue.
What does good character development look like?
TRAILS IN THE SKY SC SPOILERS BELOW
Joshua: We see him change completely and work to overcome his issues. It is incredibly emotional and brilliantly done.
Estelle: It's her game and she really steps out of Joshua's shadow to become her own person and pursue her goals. She exchanges some of her hot-headedness for strength and maturity. She really feels like she has evolved by the end of SC and that is great to see.
Renne: Estelle changes her life in a big way and gives her an alternative to the life she has been living. It felt very emotional and seemed real.
Kloe: That Kloe would become heir to the throne was sort of telegraphed in FC. But she makes the hard choice (because she really wanted to stay in school with her friends) and goes to negotiate a stop to Erebonia's impending invasion and does so like a boss.
Colonel Richard: Learns from being used as a pawn in Ouroboros's plans and puts aside his ego and shame for the sake of Liberl. He didn't get much screen time in SC, but I found his redemption well done and I liked the guy in the end.
I won't read the SC bit as I've not played it yet.
I'm a little more qualified to answer with Steel since I've played both games about 4 times over and have 150 hours or so in each of them, at least two playthroughs of each I've played with max bonding points from NG+ so I've seen nearly every event there is to see and more than once.
Let's begin with Laura.
Cold steel 1 and 2 SPOILERS
Laura begins to take interest in things other than swordsmanship, especially cooking and a few of her events have her with Rean tasting her attempts at cooking and she resolves to have him taste her food again sometime and to improve in that area as well. It's clear she's making an effort to explore her femininity.
Elliot, at the end of CS2 indeed goes to the music academy and yet he also says that he doesn't just want to do music, he tells Rean he won't get rusty with his staff. It's a simple line but it implies that while music is very important to him he now understands his fathers viewpoint and believes in the importance of physical and mental ability as it pertains to the military and Erebonia as a whole.
I really don't see how you can't see Machias let go of his vitriol against nobles as development. The very notion of hating a group of people because of behavior of SOME members of that group is the absolute pinnacle of immaturity. Getting around that is most certainly development. He's poised now to do any political position properly whereas there was no way he could have done so prior with his heavy bias against nobles.
Jusis has massive issues with his father, he really wants his love and acceptance but fundamentally disagrees with his positions. At the end of Steel 2 you hear his father submit to Jusis finally and somewhat accept his reasoning. Jusis has gained the strength and resolve to overrule his father when necessary, not just in big things like the Celdic incident but in their personal interactions. Hence why I said that the development in Steel is on a very personal level.
Fie, you're looking at it too simplistically. She's not searching for her old family to regain them, she's searching for them to obtain closure on the matter of them resurrecting their leader. Perhaps she'll even resolve to stop them. She needs the closure, she doesn't need them specifically. To the contrary of what you said, it's a journey to completely close the Jaeger chapter in her life and leave no loose ends.
Emmas life is one that is entirely decided for her at first, her sisterly bond with Vita creates an inferiority complex with her quickly and her grandmother urges her forward on her duties.
By the time she fights Vita in the Spirit Shrine in CS2 she tells Vita that no longer will she merely consider herself an inferior version of Vita but as her own person that can make her own decisions. Just because she continues to serve the Hexen Clan doesn't mean she hasn't grown. To the contrary she's accepted her weakness, resolved to be patient and mature about working on them and gained the strength that she needed to walk that path undaunted.
Millium learns emotion of course, that in itself is just the beginning obviously. She doesn't develop as strongly as the others but her development in CS 1 and 2 is a major stepping stone which ideally will lead into a more noticeable period of growth in CS3.
Saras backstory does contain development since it reveals that she's a woman that's made many tough decisions considering her country of origin and past affiliation with the Northern Jaegers. For the most part she does indeed seem mature, however there are still some scenes I'm missing that I intend to see in a couple of playthroughs so I can't fully speak about her yet.
Alfin goes through a lot of development indeed. She learns that she doesn't just have to hold in her feelings cause she's part of the imperial family for one, and her finally taking a proactive role allows her to take a stance when the nobles of Bareahard bad talk Celdic. She's much like her brother Olivert in fact, she admits that had she remained comfortable in Erebonia and stayed with her family that she never would have though about Celdic as something more than something to pray about and forget. Both her and Olivert go from intelligent but rather carefree individuals to true leaders, able to understand and care for others and have the strength and intelligence to do what's necessary.
Towas development is all centered on her feeling rather useless, she takes up the Orbal gun and resolves to do all she can to help because of that feeling. She learns that her leadership skills are already a great boon to everyone around her as well.
Towa doubted herself a lot before Rean but he ensured that she has a better idea of just how important her skills are.
Angelica and George, I admit, I haven't paid enough attention to them to speak on them just yet.
I'd say that paying attention to Angelicas actions during the Roer section of CS2 is key to understanding her development though.
If others are thinking like you it's no surprise they think it's bad if they think growth means a complete 180. That's absolutely not the case, growth can mean many things and is different depending on the person. Whether you gain the strength to walk a completely separate path or gain the strength to walk a path you originally didn't want to, both are growth because they required a level of resolve, confidence, will power, and strength that one did not possess before.