For real...is it THAT good ?

[KingOneDa]

I think i played every JRPG Series in this world.
From A to Z.
But not this Series.
I read a much about it.
Best Story, best Character etc etc.

ok guys lets be honest..

is it so good ?

[Ooga Booga]

meh....if you love character building and dialogue....then yea...it's that good. World building and immersion? Not so much. It feels kind of empty, much like some of the Tales Of games...ie Berseria. But that game gets awesome reviews as well. Some of us just want a more immersive world and moving to the next dialogue point or monster group....

I'm probably not describing this well at all.....the 'rooms' and 'areas' feel bland, empty. But if you can get past that, then yea, the story / characters / interaction is phenomenal.

[ForeverZero]

In a word: Yes.

Pros:
-The characters are well written and developed.
-The world building is expansive with years of history and side stories.
-The whole series is large interconnected storyline spanning all of the games.
-Each story arc is still self contained enough to be a good starting point so you do not have to start at very beginning.
-The pacing is deliberate, taking its time to get you familiar with everything before the plot gets going.

Cons:
-The pacing is slow, the first game in each arc is mostly just world building with minimal main plot.
-The balance can be a bit all over the place, for most games the hardest points are near the beginning.

In the end, if you want to get to the action and plot quickly, this series is probably not for you. But if you do like a slow burn with lots dialog, character development, and world building, then all of the positive reviews are exactly what they say,

Also, this is a great video discussing the world building and how great it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaN2G-AEd9Q&ab_channel=Mother%27sBasement

[myhr2]

Yes, it is that good. The worst Trails game is good, and the best one is excellent. And it's all one big story still ongoing. There is simply no other JRPG experience of the same kind, it is pretty unique. It's not revolutionary by any means, but it's rock solid and consistently so. Do not pick these games if you're tired of JRPG clichés, but if you appreciate them, then you'll find that the Trails games take these clichés and make them back into tropes with actual meaning and purpose.

[Timedye]

The "Trails" games are fantastic mid-budget JRPGs... if you like wordy scripts and sometimes punishing turn-based combat. The "Cold Steel" games in particular got my attention due to the Persona-light elements they adopted, and I really enjoy them for what they are.

[Ditz]

Is it good? Yes
is it THAT good? No

[Felicia Fulana]

I just beat CS1. It's really good, and the barrier of the first few hours were excruciating. If you consider yourself a JRPG fan, then your knowledge isn't complete without getting into the Trails games. It's like saying you're a JRPG expert but haven't played an SMT game.

[Ogami]

Just beat the first game last night.
Its a really good JRPG with a VERY slow start.
Also the first game is basically all setup apart from the last 1-2 chapters.

Is it a good JRPG? Yes, definitely.
Is it " omg so good!" ? No.
It does nothing what other JRPG not already did in the last 30 years but it does everything well.
But its pretty low budget which robs some of the major scenes a bit of their impact since a
lot of the "grand scale epic happening" scenes feel VERY barebones.
This series with a decent budget like a Final Fantasy game would be fantastic.

Overall i give the first game a 8/10, its very fun if you can live with the slow pace.
But its not in my "top 10 best JRPG" i ever played.
But i will revaluate after i finish all 4 games.

[Dragon]

Originally posted by KingOneDa:

I think i played every JRPG Series in this world.
From A to Z.
But not this Series.
I read a much about it.
Best Story, best Character etc etc.

ok guys lets be honest..

is it so good ?

Best story: no, not even close. The story is terribad; it's full of plotholes and all kinds of nonsensical things.

Best characters: nope; almost every character is a standard generic cliche, although there are a few exceptions here and there. But the characters, for the most part, certainly can't be graded as anything above mediocre quality.

"Is it so good"...I don't know, that's a hard question to answer. It depends on what you mean by "good." It's a lot better than most Western RPGs, but that's mostly because Western RPGs are crap.

The main things that these games do very well is to create an immersive world with an ongoing premise.

But to experience that you have to spend a lot of time talking to all the NPCs constantly, which some people don't like doing.

Originally posted by Ogami:

But i will revaluate after i finish all 4 games.

A proper evalution would require one to finish all 9 games, including the five pre-Cold Steel 1 games, all of which the Cold Steel games directly continue the world's story, particular plot lines, and character arcs from.

[-=BIA=- Capt.BlackMage]

Originally posted by ForeverZero:

In a word: Yes.

Pros:
-The characters are well written and developed.
-The world building is expansive with years of history and side stories.
-The whole series is large interconnected storyline spanning all of the games.
-Each story arc is still self contained enough to be a good starting point so you do not have to start at very beginning.
-The pacing is deliberate, taking its time to get you familiar with everything before the plot gets going.

Cons:
-The pacing is slow, the first game in each arc is mostly just world building with minimal main plot.
-The balance can be a bit all over the place, for most games the hardest points are near the beginning.

In the end, if you want to get to the action and plot quickly, this series is probably not for you. But if you do like a slow burn with lots dialog, character development, and world building, then all of the positive reviews are exactly what they say,

Also, this is a great video discussing the world building and how great it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaN2G-AEd9Q&ab_channel=Mother%27sBasement

That video title is so wrong Falcom is not an indie studio, I wouldn't say they're triple a but they're a renowned studio with a long history. They predate Bethesda Game Studios by 20 years and predate Bethesda softworks by 5 years.

[Just end trashbag.]

2nd rpg next to persona that i have not drop yet after this long. At first i hate rpg like this where you move. I really prefer persona kind but after 1 hour it so addicting. Another rpg open my mind tbh. Story man i never get boring to have something like this.

[ForeverZero]

Originally posted by -=BIA=- Capt.BlackMage:

That video title is so wrong Falcom is not an indie studio, I wouldn't say they're triple a but they're a renowned studio with a long history. They predate Bethesda Game Studios by 20 years and predate Bethesda softworks by 5 years.

I mean, you are not wrong, I do have to laugh at the clickbaity title, but if you actually watch the fully video it is quite good.

[Sal]

The combat is boring me after a few hours. Maybe I am missing something but fights take forever.

[Ogami]

Originally posted by Sal:

The combat is boring me after a few hours. Maybe I am missing something but fights take forever.

On what difficulty do you play? Only on hard/nightmare should fights take longer.
You also have the option to set a turbo button in the launcher options for fights to fast forward them up to 5x speed.
Most fights are over in seconds with that. Very useful.

[Kartoffelsuppe]

No, actually it is quite bad. I never play more than 1 new entry in the LoH series but I could have seen myself playing the sequel of Trails in the Sky FC later. With this game on the other hand I never get farther than beginning of chapter 4.

Falcom makes zero effort to balancing their game for some reason. They said the game is easier for newcomers on purpose but I know that's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ since the game has plently of stupid boss designs that would turn people off.

Your so overpowered that they try to counter it by throwing in tripple bosses who AoE the entire party nonstop and can't be hurt much with normal attacks. There is just too much power creep in the game on all fronts. (Master Quartz, no Arts restrictions, spamable Crafts, back attacks before encounter etc.)

Yeah the combat is garbage but how about the story? I already saw what happens throughout chapter 4 and torwards the end and I'm glad I never made it past that chapter.

I swear I haven't seen such a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ garbage main character in a long time. Tidus is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ god compared to this guy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDAR002M8i4

[BlackyRay]

i Love people calling it the Marvel Cinematic Universe of JRPG:

I Think this fits really well what is fascinating about the Story beside the Charakters.
For me it is one of the best Turn Based Fighting Systems I have played before. Definitely top 5 in my eyes. Also the Story starts kinda clishelike with standard Anime Characters on first Impression but after some time you start seeing that the Charakters have far more depth.

I got this game as Google Stadia Pro Subscription Game inside my Subscription. Because I could play it in the Cloud and wouldnt have to download it i thought. Come on! Give it a try. I wasnt really that much interested in the JRPG Genre, Especially not when its so Indielike looking but I got so hooked by the Series. It took me only one Day to decide buying the whole cold steel series and I cheered like a fanboy when NIS announced localizing the other games tooo....

But why Cinematic Universe?
You have so many Arcs and they are willing to evolve the Story for the next 10 Years.
And Characters from all these Arcs are sometimes meeting Each other sometimes even moving from one game to the other one and so on. So you always have this: "Oh yea he is back!!!" Cheer Effekt. The Character Developement is also by far better if you have a Series amount of time to do so instead of if it were only a short movie....