I've never played this, but the cliched high school setting seems like a drag?

[Dragon]

I've never played this game. But I recently tried Trails in the Sky and I love that game. I'm gonna complete all three of the Sky games.

So, I became curious about what this game was like since I might want to play it after that.

But when I went on youtube to see what it was like, I was deflated by the cliched & stale high school setting. I've seen that so many times before. It's not interesting in the least bit. Watching videos of this game made me feel like it's a rehash of Sailor Moon. I hate that show!

Trails in the Sky presented me with a unique setting, the likes of which I haven't seen before.

So what happened? Why the downgrade in setting from one series to the other?

Does anyone else feel like the high school setting is a drag and much inferior to the unique & interesting Trails in the Sky setting?

How do we encourage the devs to make more games like Trails in the Sky, instead of games like this one? Not buying this one doesn't seem like a good way to do that. But buying it doesn't either. So what can we do?

[butterbattle22]

A couple different thoughts.

Personally, I thought the school setting was okay. My biggest problem was with Rean's forced harem.

They do go to Thors military academy, but arguably half of the game or more as well as almost the entirety of CS II takes place away from it, so the setting is not actually limited to the school.

I don't think it's quite as good as the Sky arc so far, but it's still very good. It's still a Trails game and has some fantastic character writing, deep lore, and the same dynamic NPC dialogue. If you enjoyed Sky half as much as I did, I think you should give it a chance. The Trails universe is going to chug on anyways, so if you ever play Crossbell or whatever arc comes next, you'll probably wonder what was going on in Erebonia.

[Dragon]

The school itself isn't the only problem IMO, but also the fact that they are students. That's mundane & boring not only because some of it takes place in a school, but it's also boring/mundane from a character/roleplaying viewpoint. Plus, it's redundant to have a whole bunch of characters who are all students.

[Ǵ̶͓̂͑lí̴̤̀̄́tcĥ̸]

It's not so much a high school as it is a military academy. It more resembles the Bracer's Guild in Sky in how it deals with quests meant to help NPCs, including from areas outside the starting town containing the school itself.

It's more in line with a college that students strive to get into due to how prestigious it is, and you are essentially a member of a special program that mixes social classes and cultures (of which there is a cultural and social class divide under normal circumstances even in society as a whole) and sends them on missions resembling military ops and investigation resulting in them getting involved in some crazy stuff - the rest of it is just as deep, lore filled and mechanically similar (with some tweaks) as the Sky series of games.

If you like Sky, you will likely also enjoy Cold Steel.

[Walke_893]

Since you haven't finished the Trails in the Sky games, I'd suggest finishing them off first before looking to future games. The major reason is due to the interconnected narrative between them all.

As for the school setting itself, I believe it would be best not to pre-judge the game simply from what you see on youtube. There are many factors at play during the Cold Steel Arc, and as such to judge it solely on the school setting without context is a disservice to the overall narrative. Some of these factors you will begin to see in both Sky SC and the 3rd.

Not to mention you are looking at 1, possibly 2 games within the Cold Steel arc which are currently comprised of 4 games total (the 4th one coming out in Japan very soon). Is the setting cliche? Yes. Are there potentially narrative problems? For some, yes.

However, what happens in Erebonia is very important. The setting is just a stage for something far grander than you can currently imagine. Even veterens of the series are getting caught off guard by things. These games are worth the time investment so give it a chance when you can.

Of course, take it slow for now and finish Sky. By the end of it, you might end up like the rest of us, addicts of the Trails series waiting for the next fix.

Edit: Here is a helpful guide to explain more about the Trails sub-series in general. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1187195045

[Oguzhan]

The school setting itself is good especially the students they are great. I pretty much take my time to speak to all of them.

However there is a forced harem mechanic meaning the cannon relationship can only get so much attention unlike in the sky games.

[Asuryan]

I personally enjoy the high school setting very much, speaking generally. It provides a good balance between exploration (field studies in this particular case) and familiar environment, the possibility to fit some romance and mini storyline for minor NPCs and the feeling of being part of a prestigious institution while retaining a certain degree of freedom regarding self-development (story-wise). Clearly, nostalgia plays also a role.
I can however well understand that other people would prefer non-standard settings, it is a matter of taste after all.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Thors is currently my favorite setting in the series thus far; you got to know everyone and develop long lasting relationships while also being able to learn a lot about Zemuria. Felt comfy! Plus, there were field studies!

[󠀡󠀡󠀡⁧⁧the.jester]

Cliched and stale...? I have to say, this was the first time I had played an RPG with this kind of setting, and I sort of found it kind of refreshing to play something that was structured a little bit differently than the norm.

[BeastSlayer]

I like CS3's Thors II is a lot better than the old Thors. There is always a sense of emergency because all the students are actually trained for combat, it feels a lot more like a military academy than old Thors. Rean is a instructor instead of a student which also makes things more interesting.

[OnlyOffensive]

the beginning of the 4 games series which is this one may start at the academy, but that doesnt mean the game is completely about it. It's the biggest trails game, which covers alot of erebonia and all other games, with great plot, characters quests etc, you don't want to play in academy setting, your loss i guess.

You dont need to encourage them with anything, because steel is on par with skies and might be even better in terms of global plot. It's definetely easier in combat, but combat itself is pretty pleasant and interesting, at least in second game. And to be honest who plays trails for combat.

[OnlyOffensive]

Originally posted by Dragon:

The school itself isn't the only problem IMO, but also the fact that they are students. That's mundane & boring not only because some of it takes place in a school, but it's also boring/mundane from a character/roleplaying viewpoint. Plus, it's redundant to have a whole bunch of characters who are all students.

And 90% of other RPG's have chosen hero who will vanish all dragons and save the world fus-do-rah.

And they might be student's in name, but EACH character is something else with incredibly deep background and developing story during all games, you probably wont even think of every member as a student when play second game, because 95% of it takes place out of it. And the ending of each CS1 and CS2 are incredible, i don't think sky was that good at plot twists.

[OnlyOffensive]

Originally posted by BeastSlayer:

I like CS3's Thors II is a lot better than the old Thors. There is always a sense of emergency because all the students are actually trained for combat, it feels a lot more like a military academy than old Thors. Rean is a instructor instead of a student which also makes things more interesting.

Someone ban this punk already, constantly going in evey CS1/2 thread and spoiling whatever he can without tags and warnings, like anyone cares about info he read on wiki or watched on youtube.

[BeastSlayer]

Originally posted by OnlyOffensive:

Originally posted by BeastSlayer:

I like CS3's Thors II is a lot better than the old Thors. There is always a sense of emergency because all the students are actually trained for combat, it feels a lot more like a military academy than old Thors. Rean is a instructor instead of a student which also makes things more interesting.

Someone ban this punk already, constantly going in evey CS1/2 thread and spoiling whatever he can without tags and warnings, like anyone cares about info he read on wiki or watched on youtube.

Just chill, I have finished CS3 on PS4 and already pre-order CS4. I did not put spoiler tag because I did not consider it major spoiler. It is trivial stuff, official Falcom website, even PS4 store have a lot more spoilers, trust me. Be thankful that you can't read Japanese, because everything you read about CS in Japanese will be spoilers.

[BeastSlayer]

Originally posted by OnlyOffensive:

Originally posted by Dragon:

The school itself isn't the only problem IMO, but also the fact that they are students. That's mundane & boring not only because some of it takes place in a school, but it's also boring/mundane from a character/roleplaying viewpoint. Plus, it's redundant to have a whole bunch of characters who are all students.

And 90% of other RPG's have chosen hero who will vanish all dragons and save the world fus-do-rah.

And they might be student's in name, but EACH character is something else with incredibly deep background and developing story during all games, you probably wont even think of every member as a student when play second game, because 95% of it takes place out of it. And the ending of each CS1 and CS2 are incredible, i don't think sky was that good at plot twists.

I don't know, a lot of people I know did not like CS1 and CS2's endings. Sky has done one thing better than CS that is the sense of conclusion. Even FC's cliffhanger ending feels like the end of a chapter. But CS has none of that, it just feels like the story stoped all of a suddden.

[OnlyOffensive]

well sky is 2 games series basically, 3d game is kinda spin-off, so it would probably be conclusive, im sure CS4 would feel that way. I dont find CS1 ITSELF all that great, but combined with CS2 it's pretty good, cs2 by itself great, of course all of that is only my opinion. Pretty sure playing each CS game ( 1,2,3,4 ) in a row would feel pretty good in terms of story progression, stopping for a year+ definetely feels like it has stopped all of a sudden.