Legend of Heroes: Trails Series

[Commander]

So this is a long, long, long overdue topic I should have created a while back. This little gem series is one of my favorites and I was bound to make it eventually. And for the sake of people who haven't played any of the games, I'll try to avoid as many spoilers as possible here though if any discussion goes on regarding certain topics I can answer, but spoiler tags likely will be used. And for the sake of anyone who wants the full experience, it'd probably be best to avoid looking at most threads regarding this stuff even though the big spoilers are more or less the lore of the game.

 

So what exactly are these games? Falcolm originally made a different series made after the dragon slayer games called the legend of heroes that took place on the same continent, however, they were spaced far apart iirc and didn't sell over that well (the battle system was also kind of clunky). I believe that continent takes place in the same world as the trails series, however, there isn't really any evidence. Here's how to summarize the series in a nutshell: It's basically an imagining of the world if the industrial revolution happened in the 1300-1400s (and iirc it takes place in 1400s). Obviously there are going to be some fantasy elements to make this happen (orbal technology aka the magic that made it happen), but it is very scary how realistic some of this stuff is if technology advanced that far in that short amount of time.

 

The continent that this game series takes place on is called Zemuria which consists of 2 major power countries called the Erebonia Empire and the Calvard Republic. There are also two bordering nations called Crossbell State and the Liberl Kingdom. There are a few other places, but these are the 4 major countries and you'll hear quite a bit about them in every game of the series. Each arc focuses on a single country to deepen the lore even more, but trust me that you will know a lot about Erebonia, Calvard, and Liberl by the time you finish the skies series. I could tell you about them, but the fun is learning about each place and forming an opinion of them on your own.

 

While each nation is their own power, there are two powers not bound to any nation and move freely across them all: the Septian Church and Bracers. The Septian Church is this world's version of the Catholic church and any history nerd could recall the church had a lot of power in the olden days. They aren't as powerful here, but their main role is to handle ancient and sacred relics as well as spread the word and love of Aidios (the god of this world). I don't recall there being any other religions off the top of my head. Bracers are a little bit different as their job is to more or less help those in need. They fulfill requests for the common man such as getting a cat from a tree up to stuff like taking down high rank assassins. While they have authority in any nations, they must abide by a code which focuses on civilians (which yes is a double edged sword at times).

 

So yeah, that's just a quick glimpse of the world, but it's the little things that really make this series work imo. Nearly every character has a story and I mean every character. The shopkeeper in the first town in Skies has a love life problem which talking to him and his mother leads you to learn about more what's happening. My favorite has to be the student from Jenis Royal Academy being asked to dine with a suitor or the lady obsessed with cats in Rolent. Xseed, the people who translate it, are huge, huge fans of the series which, unlike the original legend of heroes series, do a very, very good job (so good that persona 5 used many of the voice actors from Cold Steel). They also threw in a lot of fun little things like chest phrases (instead of saying the chest is empty) and silly things like naming the birds. Yes, they gave birds names.

 

So now then you are probably asking: where do I begin? This is going to be very hard to answer as it really depends but here's the order the games take place from what I remember:

 

Act 1: [Redacted] (If you play the games you know exactly what that would say)

 

-Trails in the Sky 1

-Trails in the Sky 2

-Trails in the Sky 3

 

Act 2: [Redacted] (Again, you probably have a good idea when you play Skies)

 

-Trails of Cold Steel

                                        -Zero no Kiseki (currently untranslated)

-Trails of Cold Steel II        -Ao no Kiseki (same as Zero)

-Trails of Cold Steel III (not released in Japan yet)

 

(Act 3 will likely take place in the Calvard Republic but we haven't gotten that far yet)

 

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If you care about story and don't want to be spoiled anywhere, play skies, wait a year or two for the crossbell games (you can play Cold Steel I and half of CSII) then move on to Cold Steel as they all build off of the previous entry. You don't have to play a previous game, but it helps understand the games better and skies does a very, very good job introducing the series where Cold Steel (which I played first) overwhelmed me a littler. The original Sky (ie Skies 1) is very outdated graphics wise as well as a clunky battle system, horrible party availability, and so on, but Skies SC fixes a lot of that (it takes time to get used to the orbment system). It goes on sale for 9.99 on steam (2nd in 19.99 on sale iirc but 3rd just released) so if you like the lore and plot you'll get a taste of it at a cheap price.

 

My personal recommendation to get into the series is Cold Steel. The plot, story, characters, etc are nowhere near as good as Skies, but the graphics are a bit more pleasing and combat is fast paced and a lot easier to learn. Cold Steel spoils very, very little of everything else in the series (like one event that happens in Crossbell), but nothing on skies iirc. It's coming to steam in June (it's on PS3 right now) and if you have a decent computer, it should be able to run it and I recommend that one over the PS3 version. It has its own issues, but you don't have to worry about quartz combinations. Cold Steel is my favorite after Skies 3rd. Though CSII spoils more or less Skies plotline even if it is brief.

 

Now there is something I have to tell you about Skies 3rd: it's the black sheep of the series. Each arc (well nation arcs) consist of two games the first being part one and the buildup and the second finishing the story. 3rd is kind of its own thing with its main focus adding a lot of depth to the Liberl characters and giving you information on critical events and facts to give you a better understanding of the world. Pretty much though it's to tie up all the loose ends so if you want to skip it, someone like me or anyone else who played the game could give you the info when you need it or are curious about it. I haven't finished it, but I'm at the finale and it's easily my favorite, but you have to play Skies 1 & 2 to fully enjoy it. Also:

 

They gave Tita one hell of a buff 

 

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Whew, that is a bloody long and I tried to condense it as much as possible. I wanted to avoid spoiling anything since not a lot of people have played the games. Feel free to ask me anything regarding this series and while I'm not an expert, I have a pretty good understanding of the basic lore and have beaten all the English released games. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going back to playing as a BA priest.

[deacan10]

I would definitely recommend this series. I have amassed hundreds of hours while playing this series (though I haven't finished Trails in the Sky the 3rd yet). I would also recommend waiting on cold steel 1 and 2 for when they come to PC because it'll play smoother and XSeed is adding over 5000 more voiced lines to the pc version that will not be on the ps3 or vita versions of Cold Steel 1 (and probably Cold Steel 2).