Can I skip trails of the sky?

[Faint]

Or wil it be referenced like other franchises? (thinking of wild arms)

Note, I own the first trails but haven't played it yet, basically just asking this question to see if its manditory or if I can play out of order

[siln]

You mean skip Trails in the Sky and skip to Cold Steel?

Yes, you absolutely can, and the new series was designed to be accessable to people who have not played Sky.

Having said that, Trails in the Sky is a fantastic series, and takes place in the same continuity, shortly before Cold Steel, in a neighboring country. You'd potentially be missing some of the bigger picture story of the Zemurian continent, and some back story on a few of Cold Steel's secondary characters. Cool stuff, but nothing critical to the main plot of CS, at least up through the second game.

[Faint]

oh yea, completely overlooked the fact they both have trails in the name lol, yea I meant trails of the sky and also thanks for the info.

edited title

[Maine]

It does get referenced, but Cold Steel is its own seperate thing. You'd be missing some references that if you played trails in the sky you'd understand, but the series is in the perspective of a new main character, so you, the player, basically learn things as Rean does, it doesnt rely on prior game knowledge for any events that happen in this game. though there is an overarching story, you dont need to know that part to get this part

[Walke_893]

Just a mild warning though, if you end up enjoying Cold Steel and want to continue down the franchise then it would be a good idea to go back and play the Sky games due to how interconnected the lore is.

For example, Cold Steel 2 the sequel to this game has some references to the Sky arc, this game also has some, albeit small references. The 3rd Trails in the Sky game has foreshadowing to events for all of the Cold Steel Games etc.

Not only that, the third Cold Steel game just recently released in Japan has major callbacks to the Sky games and the as of yet unlocalised Crossbell games.

Of course, don't feel as if you have to since the Sky games are old compared to Cold Steel (think along the lines of Suikoden 1+2 vs 3+4+5 or Grandia vs Grandia 2 levels of game graphics and design).

The benefit of the PC releases for the Sky games though are the updated translation, access to Turbo mode, and some mods which allow you to add in the Japanese voice acting for major scenes and combat along with easy to replace music files.

But above all just enjoy yourself and think on these things when the time comes. Have fun.

[Erpy]

This game is kind of a jump-on point, so you can play it without playing the Sky games without missing anything TOO major, but if you enjoy this game, I STRONGLY suggest playing the Sky games afterwards in order to get a better understanding of the meta plot. Heck, the 3rd Sky game contains a section that essentially acts as chapter 0 of this game.

[Eve]

You can play it out of order. They take place in different countries and have different storylines and while some traveling characters show up in both series it doesn't ruin the story.

[bossmanham]

You can, but why!? They're all amazing games.

[rikuroa]

you can skip it but you will have to play them some point because the series is very intertwined. Especially when CS3 gets localised it will be important to have knowledge on Sky

[Luke]

Originally posted by lunarvida:

Or wil it be referenced like other franchises? (thinking of wild arms)

Note, I own the first trails but haven't played it yet, basically just asking this question to see if its manditory or if I can play out of order

Skipping the sky series is like skipping the first movie of a 3 part series so I wouldn't advise it as Cold steel isn't a stand alone series it is part 3 of an intereconnected series.

Part 1 Sky series.
Part 2 Crossbell Series.
Parts 3 Cold steel series.

If you can't find time to play the games then there is YT lets play and walkthroughs.

[Monterossa]

You can.

[Vladislak]

You can, but I personally wouldn't recommend it. There is technically an ongoing story, you'll see things from a bigger perspective and certain story beats will click better if you understand what certain organizations were up to in the Sky games.

It's not mandatory to play the Sky games first, but it certainly helps your understanding. Plus they're fantastic so why not play them first anyways. :)

[Faint]

ah well, was hoping for a better consensus but I guess I'll just put a few hours into trails of sky and see if I even want to go for the three game run before playing this xD. Only 2 gb anyway.

Thanks anyway guys

[糾う]

Play Sky and forget Cold Steel exists. :)

[Monterossa]

Hardcore fans will recommend you to play Sky games first, but I don't think it's a good advice for newcomers. Those games are very old and will take forever to complete, and can turn them away from the franchise altogether. Falcom made Cold Steel to be a game that newcomers can start with, no reason to shoot down what they're trying to do (helping newcomers to get into the series).

Telling them not to start with Cold Steel just because they won't get to know about Ouroboros or Lechter and Vander is kinda dumb. It's not that important.

[Ellipsis]

The general consensus of fans is that the Sky games should be played first and are better, but CS1 was designed to be an entry point into the series if you don't want to go back and play the Sky trilogy (it's...long, to say the least). There's absolutely nothing wrong with not playing them or waiting until you know you like the series or not, but I do think that the context from the Sky games makes a number of scenes in CS1 a lot more impactful.

However, if you get into the series, by the time CS3 comes around you will be practically required to play the Sky games for the story to make much sense. So, if you like CS1, I'd recommend getting on the Sky trilogy before CS2 gets localized.