Two major things right at the top:
1. This is NOT a Persona style game... get that out of your head immediately and forget anybody who recommended the game because "it is like Persona". It isn't!
2. If this is your first "Trails" game - STOP! Turn your ass around! And go play Trails in the Sky first! If you look at that game and figure it is "too old" or "not for you", then I'd just forget about it; this series probably isn't going to be your cup of tea anyway.
I mention this because I was sold on a false premise of what this game was. And it led me to nearly quitting it multiple times at the beginning due to sheer boredom. I went in completely blind outside of that, and within those first 3 chapters, the only thing that made me persevere through it all was the game's excellent battle system and its great soundtrack.
To say this game has a slow start, is the understatement of the century. For a new player who has no background or introduction to this world, it crawled for me... it just felt like all it was doing was building, building, building... but not going anywhere! This is why I recommend starting with Trails in the Sky - that game has a relatively slow start too, but I feel it did a much better job with pacing and setting the stage for what is to come for newer players, without being so dry and tedious. If you play through those lead-up games, you will already have a good understanding of this game's world, its politics, and history - that you will be in a much better position to appreciate and love the beginning of this title. You just have to realize that this is the 5th game in a long running series! I was unaware of that fact, and thought it was meant to be a good "jumping in" point...
But I digress - this was MY starting point anyway, and I'm just glad this didn't kill my interest in the series... it was on the precipice of being dropped and never picked up again, which in turn, would have meant I would never have played any of the other Trails games in the series... I am so very thankful that didn't happen...
I would have missed out on one of gaming's greatest journeys and truly one of the most unique and longstanding gaming epics of all time. And you can take that statement to the bank, as I am now 6 games into the series and loving every one of them: having played and completed the Sky trilogy, Cold Steel 1 & 2, and now undertaking Trails in Zero, with Azure up next, before going back to Cold Steel 3 & 4.
To speak to Cold Steel 1, itself - I already mentioned that the battle system was fantastic, and it truly is! The combat is fun and engaging with the perfect amount of challenge. It is one of my favorites in a JRPG... and looking back on it after playing the others in the series, I have an even greater appreciation in how this series has evolved its combat system throughout the years, while keeping the same core identity, with only minor tweaks.
The world building in these games is second to none! Every place you visit, feels alive, and much of this can be attributed to the insane amount of detail and work that went into each and every NPC. It is unbelievable how after each story event, all of their dialogue changes... each and every time! And these aren't major, life shattering events or major story beats either... the number of times their dialogue changes is borderline unreasonable for people like me who just have to talk to every NPC to get the full game experience!
I seriously cannot stress it enough - I don't know how much dialogue is in this game, but it must be enormous, as the creators go all out in fleshing out each and every side character... in what I consider to be unheard of in any RPG, it isn't just your main cast that have character arcs, but all the NPCs have their own separate journeys and conclusions as well... but only if you want to follow them as the game progresses, as they are easily missable (or intentionally skippable - this is purely optional content that many players will likely never see).
This is by far the Trails series' greatest element - its amazing attention to detail! It contributes so much to making it feel like a living and breathing world. You can just feel that this place has a rich history: from its diverse locations, the political landscape, and even its many mystical mysteries that are presented... it truly is unprecendented in scope and scale.
Lastly, I just want to briefly touch upon this game's ending (no spoilers). This is a very long game, and as its story begins picking up midway through, once it reaches its climax, all that previous story/character/world building finally pays off in such a dramatic way. Once I was rolling credits, I did something once unthinkable just weeks prior... I changed my plans on what I was to play next, and immediately ordered Cold Steel 2... I was fully bought in and absolutely had to find out what happened next! I could NOT stop playing after that crazy cliffhanger...
1. This is NOT a Persona style game... get that out of your head immediately and forget anybody who recommended the game because "it is like Persona". It isn't!
2. If this is your first "Trails" game - STOP! Turn your ass around! And go play Trails in the Sky first! If you look at that game and figure it is "too old" or "not for you", then I'd just forget about it; this series probably isn't going to be your cup of tea anyway.
I mention this because I was sold on a false premise of what this game was. And it led me to nearly quitting it multiple times at the beginning due to sheer boredom. I went in completely blind outside of that, and within those first 3 chapters, the only thing that made me persevere through it all was the game's excellent battle system and its great soundtrack.
To say this game has a slow start, is the understatement of the century. For a new player who has no background or introduction to this world, it crawled for me... it just felt like all it was doing was building, building, building... but not going anywhere! This is why I recommend starting with Trails in the Sky - that game has a relatively slow start too, but I feel it did a much better job with pacing and setting the stage for what is to come for newer players, without being so dry and tedious. If you play through those lead-up games, you will already have a good understanding of this game's world, its politics, and history - that you will be in a much better position to appreciate and love the beginning of this title. You just have to realize that this is the 5th game in a long running series! I was unaware of that fact, and thought it was meant to be a good "jumping in" point...
But I digress - this was MY starting point anyway, and I'm just glad this didn't kill my interest in the series... it was on the precipice of being dropped and never picked up again, which in turn, would have meant I would never have played any of the other Trails games in the series... I am so very thankful that didn't happen...
I would have missed out on one of gaming's greatest journeys and truly one of the most unique and longstanding gaming epics of all time. And you can take that statement to the bank, as I am now 6 games into the series and loving every one of them: having played and completed the Sky trilogy, Cold Steel 1 & 2, and now undertaking Trails in Zero, with Azure up next, before going back to Cold Steel 3 & 4.
To speak to Cold Steel 1, itself - I already mentioned that the battle system was fantastic, and it truly is! The combat is fun and engaging with the perfect amount of challenge. It is one of my favorites in a JRPG... and looking back on it after playing the others in the series, I have an even greater appreciation in how this series has evolved its combat system throughout the years, while keeping the same core identity, with only minor tweaks.
The world building in these games is second to none! Every place you visit, feels alive, and much of this can be attributed to the insane amount of detail and work that went into each and every NPC. It is unbelievable how after each story event, all of their dialogue changes... each and every time! And these aren't major, life shattering events or major story beats either... the number of times their dialogue changes is borderline unreasonable for people like me who just have to talk to every NPC to get the full game experience!
I seriously cannot stress it enough - I don't know how much dialogue is in this game, but it must be enormous, as the creators go all out in fleshing out each and every side character... in what I consider to be unheard of in any RPG, it isn't just your main cast that have character arcs, but all the NPCs have their own separate journeys and conclusions as well... but only if you want to follow them as the game progresses, as they are easily missable (or intentionally skippable - this is purely optional content that many players will likely never see).
This is by far the Trails series' greatest element - its amazing attention to detail! It contributes so much to making it feel like a living and breathing world. You can just feel that this place has a rich history: from its diverse locations, the political landscape, and even its many mystical mysteries that are presented... it truly is unprecendented in scope and scale.
Lastly, I just want to briefly touch upon this game's ending (no spoilers). This is a very long game, and as its story begins picking up midway through, once it reaches its climax, all that previous story/character/world building finally pays off in such a dramatic way. Once I was rolling credits, I did something once unthinkable just weeks prior... I changed my plans on what I was to play next, and immediately ordered Cold Steel 2... I was fully bought in and absolutely had to find out what happened next! I could NOT stop playing after that crazy cliffhanger...