So, I was sick in bed these past few days and have been going through this. At times it was the perfect thing to distract me as I got better, and at other times I genuinely think it gave me a worse migraine and fatigue than being sick ever did.

CS2 is weird because its peaks are higher than CS1's right from the beginning with its awesome premise, but it meanders more than CS1 or any of the Sky games ever did. You have so many similar dungeons that go on and on and on, with the game often involving repetition of slightly similar events or places in other areas in the middle of the game, as well as its later portion. Also, the game seems to never want to end, there's an epilogue after the credits to the finale, and then the intermission before the actual finale. I didn't mind it that much though because I really liked the Intermission and Divertissement chapters, but the actual last chapter being that long was unjustified. At least it was pretty emotional near the end, and the point it was trying to deliver was interesting. Rean's rival of sorts is pretty nice too, but I wish they had more screen time.

Overall a fun game, I'd put it above CS1. It is more ambitious than CS1, but more flawed for sure. I did play the intro to CS3 and the graphical upgrades that come with Falcom moving on from the PS Vita and years of technical advancement, as well as the improved gameplay and insane music have me very excited to play more.

Trails of Cold Steel II is a JRPG with traditional turn-based battle system. It has large futuristic fantasy world, in a steam punk style. The best part of the game is definitely the story and characters, the legend of heroes is overall a huge series with interconnected lore, but you can well play this after the cold steel 1 without rest of the series. On top of main story-arc that tells a story of a war, the game contains persona style character interaction parts where you can develop relationships between the protagonist team, who are military academy students, in other words it's also a teen drama coming of life kind of stuff. While Cold Steel 1 was rather linear travel through the school trips, Cold Steel 2 is quite a bit more open world, allowing you to travel around the world in each chapter and sub-chapter parts, within limits (the characters will refuse to go too far at any given time). This doesn't mean that all parts of the game still aren't about systematically talking to every single npc at any point of game, then doing all the quests leaving the story quests / events last, every single time. The battle system is quite traditional turn-based JRPG, a lot of people seem to like it and its somewhat unique feature of moving and placing your characters on the battle field but I didn't really care for that. On normal difficulty the battles on the field are way too easy to need any tactics, and the boss battles are impossibly difficult unless you equip everyone with exactly the stuff to counter bosses' special attacks and status changes and still cheese the boss battles with some boring combos, I really do not like the battle system that much. The equipment and crafting is unbalanced as well, the weapons are just to grind and buy best for everyone (there's ever only one at a time) and there's like 10 times too much crap you can craft for me to care otherwise, but if you really like crafting and tweaking it's probably good for you. The pacing of story and battles I think was better in cold steel 1 even though it was more predictable. All in all the story is captivating enough to keep me playing 100+ hours even when the battle system is getting so boring towards the end.

Trails of Cold Steel II recipe:
½ Cold Slop + ½ Cold Stakes (holy shit this games story has stakes)

As a follow-up game to Cold Slop 1, it is almost every way an upgrade. The story has things happening throughout, which kept things interesting. The characters, although still meh, got more mileage out of them than before. And again, things were happening which is already an upgrade from Slop 1. But unfortunately, after every good bit comes random 2 hour slog that ends up not achieving much till the next interesting event. The conclusion portion once again was great where they dropped a bombshell of a reveal and even more set-up for later. They even gave us a taste of what's to come with the "Divertisement" side story which was great and almost made me forget I'm playing Trails of Cold Slop 2, and then it reminded me I AM playing Trails of Cold Slop 2 by a random final final dungeon (fr this time) jumpscare.

TL;DR
+Better than Slop 1
-Still a part of the Slop series of games
+½ Trails bias (surely it'll get better)

Overall: 3.5/5

Continuar imediatamente após o término do primeiro jogo é praticamente como estender a mesma “jogatina”, com poucas mudanças perceptíveis, o que não é necessariamente negativo, dado que o primeiro jogo é excelente.

Neste segundo capítulo, ao invés de se concentrar em apresentações e na vida escolar cotidiana, ele direciona sua atenção mais intensamente para os aspectos da guerra. O que foi legal, focou mais na narrativa de worldbuiling do que de character-driven como era mais no primeiro. O que faz sentido, pelo direcionamento da trama. Isso não quer dizer que não tem desenvolvimento de personagem, pelo contrário.

A diferenciação entre os capítulos é marcante em suas características: inicialmente, a jornada é bastante linear, concentrando-se na reunião do grupo, mas depois de reunidos, a narrativa se torna mais não linear. Apesar da liberdade proporcionada, essa parte pode se tornar cansativa devido às missões secundárias repetitivas. Contudo, o jogo ressurge com energia renovada em seus momentos finais, parecendo prolongar-se além do esperado. Justamente quando se pensa que está próximo do desfecho, ainda há mais por vir.

As trilhas sonoras são incríveis, destacando-se como um dos pontos mais fortes da franquia, enquanto a dublagem em japonês é excelente.
Quanto ao port para PC, enfrentei alguns pequenos problemas de crash, mas após utilizar o SenPatcher, não experimentei mais nenhum contratempo.

Following the events of Cold Steel 1, Rean Schwarzer is now separated from his classmates, worried about them and what happened in Trista, Rean embarks on a new adventure to reunite the class VII as the civil war rages in Erebonia. In the same manner that its predecessor, Cold Steel 2 carries on Falcom's habit, resulting with a game heavy in story, character development and world building. However, unlike the previous game, this new installment does have major problems and harbors a glimpse of the disaster that will be Cold Steel 3 and 4.

A shame, considering those problems mainly appear toward the end of the game, everything prior that is almost perfect. The gameplay is enhanced with new mechanics cleverly introduced through lore, the grimmer context is tangible both on form and substance, the new combat theme oozes with anxiety and bitterness, perfectly transcribed through the evolution the main character undergoes. Despite being classic it is well written, Falcom obliges, many details fits the narrative, such as a new in-game sprite accompanied with Kōki Uchiyama's performance, both highlighting a more ferocious and emotive Rean. A nice treatment that do not only concern the main character.

So where did it go wrong ? Simply put, Nihon Falcom's wet dream is to make the ultimate crossover, where every character from each arc would cross paths. In order to achieve that, Falcom forsook good writting to brainless fan service, doing so, they lost all perspectives of what made their own games so special.

Near the end of Cold Steel 2, after a major plot twist and as the tension reaches a new peak, Falcom, clouded by their fantasy couldn't come up with anything else but a time skip, followed by an hour section which forces you to play characters from another arc. Whether or not the player like the said characters is out of the question, the problem here is the pacing. All of sudden, all emotions and questions the player might have, are brushed off. Like a pop up commercial in the middle of a movie, or a dessert between two meat dishes, during this section ironically named divertissement, Falcom warns players that, from this point onward everything will shatter.

If that previous mistake was not enough, for some obscure reasons, Falcom decided to lock a scene behind new game plus, a short scene yet crucial story wise for both Cold Steel 3 and 4. This red flag alone, prevent me from rating this game higher than average.

It's a mess, a long game able to fit an hour fan service section, unable to fit 5 crucial minutes. Supposed to unravel at least a few questions, the narrative is even more blurry. The rule show don't tell, is not applied to the civil war context, which in retrospect isn't that bloody or devastating in consequences. Lastly, rejoice and be glad, Falcom not satisfied yet with the inclusion of one horrendous time skip in the game, decided to add another one outside the game.

In fact, between Cold Steel 2 and Cold Steel 3, a lot happens supposedly, and it somehow erased every single bit of character development Rean went through during Cold Steel 1 and 2. Do you think those events could well be a DLC for Cold Steel 2, maybe a brand new game ? None of that, instead those events are bound to a dreadful anime called Trails of Cold Steel - Northern War, which is in reality an advertisement for a mobile gacha game, and doesn't even have enough decency to answer all incoherences that later fill Cold Steel 3, which to be fair is a clusterfuck even without those incoherences, but that's for another review.

In conclusion, Cold Steel 2 is a shifting point, now privileging fanservice over good writing, Falcom prepared the ground for their so desired crossover, and the worst is yet to come in Cold Steel 3 and 4.

The combat is largely unchanged from CS1. A step down from previous Trails titles in terms of difficult and complexity, but still decent overall.

CS2's issues lie much more with its story. The setup this game got from CS1 should have given it plenty of good opportunities for a strong narrative. The Noble/Reformist tensions and the outbreak of Civil War are pretty fertile ground for a story. Yet CS2 fails to make good use of them. Whatever ideological justifications for conflict the first game set up and never touched on here except to make the villains look stupid for having such silly beliefs, whereas the war itself barely even feels impactful with the most noticeable change being all the people complaining about their taxes being too high.

I wouldn't go so far as to call it a bad game, but it is a letdown. CS1 laid a decent enough foundation but CS2 failed to make use of it. And while the gameplay is still enjoyable enough to keep the game afloat, it's barely changed from CS1 which itself was a simplification of previous series entries.

I'm too invested in the series to stop here and I imagine the same is true of anyone who made it this far. I certainly wont drop it just because of the issues here. But this is definitely a low point for the series that I just hope it recovers from.