The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II

Not so much a sequel, as the second episode in an epic saga.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II hits all the right notes. Combat is outstanding, proving that turn-based battles are still alive and well when done skillfully. The story is great, even if it does take a while to get started up again.

Quotation forthcoming.

A proper sequel to the anime civil war drama. More playable characters, new options within the turn based battles and a flexible skill system offer more variety for mobile strategists.

While Trails of Cold Steel II doesn’t always lend itself to on the go gaming, it deserves a spot in your Vita library regardless.

Trails of Cold Steel II continues the excellent story that was begun in the first Trails of Cold Steel by raising the stakes exponentially. The combat system is not all that different this time around, but it feels as refined and polished as well, which is what any good sequel should be focused on doing.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II improves its gameplay mechanics, the story is more interesting, but the game suffers from a chatty and grinding progress.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Trails of Cold Steel 2 carries forth all the things that made the first game so great, however it also brings a few things which are not so welcome. Firstly, there isn't a HUGE difference between this and the first game in terms of graphics, gameplay, characters and locations. This isn't such a bad thing, as the small tweaks made to gameplay are very welcome. There is a much more open world approach to this game, and that is excellent too, although I didn't really fancy going back to many places once I had explored them once. My biggest gripe with this game is that it is just too damn long and waffly. The turbo mode is a God-send in helping speed through this, but I was tempted to skip so much dialogue and much of the dialogue could actually be skipped without missing out on the general plot. I have grown to like all of the characters, however I think Class VII could have been better off with fewer members in the first game, as this adds to the waffle when every character seems to have to talk for the sake of talking. In addition to this, the game has a "finale" section which implies the game is ending, however there are quite a few hours of gameplay beyond this. This just made me want to rush through and see the credits roll. Some people might actually love this, but being a bit strapped for time I would rather have the whole experience truncated and compacted to be sharper and tighter. One little thing to mention also is that even on easy mode there are a few difficulty spikes. Usually these are bosses so it's not unexpected, however I did find this a bit jarring, especially the final boss who employs some very cheap tactics that marred my experience slightly. Overall, I loved this game, however the detractions I mentioned above mean I will be holding off on the sequels until I know I have the time to play them. If you like JRPGs, then you will most likely love Trails of Cold Steel 2. I reckon you could actually play this without having played the first, however you would miss out on a lot of character development and sentimentality.

Overstays its welcome in a big way, and the unfortunate load times really hinder any desire to explore the world. Completionists will find themselves glued to an FAQ or risk missing several hidden side-quests.

Overrated piece of crap. Truly hot garbage that people only say is good because they haven't played another JRPG in their life.

Why do Falcom & XSEED Games continuously put out games with heavy undertones and straight up scenes of sexual assault in their games and brush it off as comedy? I've seen people call this Japanese humor and what not, but cultures and mindsets should always be challenged and made more accessible to all groups of people.