Trails into Reverie Brings an End to Cold Steel's Story in Summer 2023 on PS5, PS4

If a noob wanted to get into the Legend of Heroes/Trails into… games, what would a series veteran suggest (in terms of a starting point & which games should be played and which could be skipped etc.)?

@colonelkilgore you'll hear many different answers to this but from my own personal experience starting with Cold Steel 1 is perfectly fine. Think of them as 3 different arcs. trails from the sky, Trails from zero/azure, and Trails of Cold Steel. While you will be introduced to characters early on if you play the older games, you don't really lose any of the experience.

The one thing to keep in mind is think of Cold steel 1&2 and Cold Steel 3&4 as 1 game. Both 2&4 continue right where 1&3 left off that it is essentially just the 2nd half of that game. So starting with 2 or 4 is the only objectively wrong choice in my opinion.

I completed the first cold steel earlier this year and the lore in that game is huge, so many characters and locations to remember and keep track of as well, kinda got overwhelming at first but overall it does a very good job in terms of building the players knowledge up of the world and characters at a nice pace.

Will now need to hurry up and play the others.

@colonelkilgore I wouldn't skip any. It's not like final fantasy games etc every game is connected. If you can I'd start at the beginning trails in the sky but they are only on pc I think. Otherwise trails of cold steel 1&2 then trail from zero and trail from azure then trails of cold steel 3&4 then reverie

@colonelkilgore from a novice’s perception, I started with the Trails in the Sky 1 and then the second game. I skipped the 3rd game since I haven’t had the possibility to play it until now. So skipped into playing m Cold Steel 1. Am now playing Trails from Zero, which technically takes place before CS1 (/events in CS1 would “spoil” Zero). For me jumping around the “correct” way hasn’t been a problem at all - the biggest hike would be the callbacks to old games + old characters coming into newer games, but it is not a major distraction for me. I would personally start with Trails in the Sky 1 (I played on a PSP emulator with speed up which helps a lot) and see if you even like these games / world, characters etc. Conversely start, with Cold Steel 1 since it’s the beginning of a new arc in the universe. It’s a difficult series to get into for many I would say, but JRPGs are my favourite games + I love the expanded universe of these games.

Wow Summer is much sooner than I thought it would be for this one. I was expecting Nayuta around Summer time but this is perfectly okay too! Goodness next year is going to be a very busy Trails year!

@emj2010 @Lorcan @johnny30 @Jayslow thanks all… I’m not undermining anyones input here but having read through all of your thoughts, I think that I’ll start with Cold Steel 1 & 2 and see how I like it. Then I can make a decently informed decision on how to proceed from there I reckon. Much appreciated 👊👊👊👊

@colonelkilgore Just to quickly jump in, I would echo @Jayslow on this. Cold Steel 1 is a great place to start because it's still fairly modern in terms of design. The older games (the Sky saga, and Zero / Azure) can definitely show their age at times, and they can be awkward entry points because of that.

While it's true that it is all one big continuous story, you can, generally speaking, jump in at the start of a saga and go from there. The Cold Steel games have (in my opinion) the best gameplay so far, so they're a good starting point if you're looking to test the waters.

Then if you end up liking them, you can always work backwards and fill in the gaps with the previous games.

@emj2010 not quite trail from zero starts in january 1204, trails of cold steel 1 starts in march 1204, the end of trail from azure you see in the first part of trails of cold steel 2. so theres slight spoilers from trails of cold steel 2 for trails into azure as azure starts at the same time as trails of cold steel 1 is ending

@ShogunRok okidoki… cheers bud.

@colonelkilgore Start from Trails in the Sky, you won't regret it. I'm still only on Trails the 3rd, although I've bought everything like a fool 😂. Would love to know who is thinking of getting the plushies, I'm really conflicted. I wanted an Estelle really.

Let's gooooooo!

Finished Zero today so I'm keen for Azure and then Reverie!

Those games are not beginner friendly. They slowly build the lore and the world and to be honest some things may not make much sense even you played all games since you forget events. I cannot recommend to start from Cold Steel. You will have no idea why Crossbell is so important (which is something not explained particularly good anyway). And in Reverie you play as the Crossbell MC.

I don't get why those games take so much time to be localized since the publisher licenses the fan translations and doesn't bother to translate the games in other European languages. I play Reverie those days from the fan translation that can be easily applied to the Steam version (there is one for the Calvard game too!!!!) and I don't like the story. I am in the second chapter. The romance between adult males and underage girls or teachers with students is still here and I cannot stomach it easily especially when characters casually joke about it.

EDIT: OK so I thought to buy the game from the EU store and guess what it is in UK so for a EUROPEAN store you have to pay import and custom fees. It makes no sense...

Finally, about time.

@ShogunRok @emj2010 @Lorcan @johnny30 @Jayslow well I just ordered Cold Steel 1 & 2 from Amazon for a little over £40 for the two 👍

It looks like finishing the recent Trails from Zero is going to be really important for this one. I see LLoyd and his team a lot in this trailer.

There are so many characters in this series now! I just hope I can keep putting Fie in the front lines...

@dancingmind yeah zero/azure are like one game split in two. Apparently reverie has cut some characters, she's in reverie but then disappears until part 2 of the calvart saga

@johnny30 Oh thanks for letting me know. That is a bit disappointing haha

@colonelkilgore Hope you enjoy them!

@dancingmind yeah the calvard story arc follow a certain plotline from zero without spoiling things new main characters but characters from previous trails games show up as cameos. As reverie as the end of erebonia/crossbell saga as the gameplay also has changed its gonna be a big change like going from from crossbell to trails of cold steel . As Nihon falcon has added option for it to be more like an action rpg. The trails of cold steel gameplay is still an option

@johnny30 So, the new Calvard arc is set after all five Rean games?

It would be interesting to see the eastern part of the continent. We know some characters and I want to see why the Empire was so afraid of Calvard. I don't think it was ever addressed.

@belmont Dude ffs, stop spoiling the game.

@belmont yeah but reverie has 3 different characters you control , 3 different stories thst will meet at certain points. Also calvard arc ties in with two criminal organizations that are in the crossbell games, they have there own military school like trails of cold steel games. I wouldn't say the empire were afraid it was just due to certain supernatural things. Plus there's also a supernatural element that comes up in the crossbell games

@rachetmarvel Yeah, you are right, seems the spoiler tag doesn't work in the comments section? In any case, I edited out all stuff from Reverie and left only vague stuff from Cold 4, which is considered "old" anyway.

@johnny30 Thanks, seems the Calvand games are interesting from both story and gameplay. I will check the fan translation when I beat Reverie.

Looking forward to getting the Boundless Trails spinoff next year, but it's gonna take a long time before I get to these last few mainline entries.

At least it seems like NISA is working to bridge the release gap. Three Trails games in one year is a lot.

God, it still looks like a PS3 game.
I really liked 1 and 2, but it felt I was playing the same game for 200h. Didn't manage to finish the Cold Steel saga, so I'm not really sure I'll be picking this one up.

@Athrum it is the same game technically with improved gameplay additions it's one game split into 12 parts so far , I guess you've mot played the trails in the sky games or tried the first crossbell game. In my opinion graphics don't make the game

@johnny30 It's a matter of preference. It's been 2 generations of consoles since they released the first Trails of Cold Steel, they could've improved the graphics or the art style. Japanese rpgs companies tend to do this, I mean we just finally got our first upgraded Tales games, and those games were needing it bad. Same for these.

@Athrum considering they were all psp titles that would've been a hard thing to do. It was only from trails of cold steel 3 that Nihon falcolm decided to start doing it straight to console as trails in the sky games, crossbell games zero/azure and trails of cold steel 1&2 were all psp ports with the added bonus of speeding up the gameplay

@colonelkilgore
You will burn out if you try to play all the games from the starts. There are several games that can amount to thousands of hours of gameplay and cutscenes. It is best to just start with Cold Steel 1. The Cold Steel subseries tell a complete story with cameos from protagonists and characters from previous games. But they are just cameos and fanservice that enhance your experience if you are familiar but no cons if you are not familiar. Just play all four cold steels and DO NOT CHECK ANY SCREENSHOTS, REVIEWS, OR VIDEOS OR YOU MAY SPOIL YOURSELF!! GO IN BLIND TO BE BLOWN AWAY!

@colonelkilgore Unless you enjoy playing old ass chibi character games, i would say start in Cold Steel. The cold steel series does an ok job at filling you in on what happened before, especially trails 3.
I would say read a synopsis of sky and zero/azure and you are good to go. Actually i am sure there are synopsis videos on youtube that are quite good.

@johnny30 @johnny30 ahhh okay - gotcha, I’ve heard that about CS2 and Azure. By the time I’m done with Zero - I’ll prob need a longer break , then I’ll prob play Trails Sky 3 since I have the opportunity for that and then azure before following the games as released as well.

@colonelkilgore no problem 👍👍👍

@emj2010 yeah the story length for zero isn't that long in terms of time as its only 5 months January to may then azure starts in august of the same year and finishes in january 1205 .

I am willing to buy this, but, haven't played this particular franchise since the PS3 era. That limited edition looks nice.