The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel was actually released on the Vita and PS3 many years back. Now the game has finally made its way to the PlayStation 4 and this is one of the best-hidden gems when it comes to JRPG’s. It is also available on PC, but the PS4 version can use the save data from PS3 and the Vita which is pretty neat.
How to Download The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel
You can download the game from Steam or PlayStation Store. You should be also interested in the sequel, The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II.
The Game Review
I really want to start this by saying that The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel has a very old school JRPG feel to it. Not only that it is one of the best JRPG games I have played it quite some time.
The presentation is amazing. While this is a game that as I write this is over half a decade old. The graphics still look great thanks to them being cell shaded. The characters look super cute and the environments are very diverse, especially when you get further into the game.
The sound is excellent. Sometimes when a JRPG is localized the English dub can be super cringy. That is not the case at all with The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel. I know that some people like to have the English subtitles with Japanese voice acting in a game like this. I though would strongly suggest you have the English voice acting as I feel it really brings these characters to life.
Speaking of characters lets get to the story. This is what I would class as a slow burn of a story. In this land nobles and commoners really do not mix. Well now at the Thors Military Academy they have made a special new class, Class VII that is comprised of both. This class is said to be the elite!
There are many different characters that you will experience, but my favorite is actually Rean Schwarzer, the main one. Class VII are there to deal with a potential civil war that is brewing. To be truthful with you I really cannot do the story justice. Just know that it is very engaging and that there is a ton of spoken dialogue and you do not want to skip any of it.
The combat is a lot of fun and it is tactics based. I usually struggle with RPG’s that tend to be more tactics based, but I found the tutorials that The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel offered were great. I have heard many people compare the game to Persona and I do think that is a good comparison.
You can have four people in your party at a time and you will learn which characters can “link” together best. This is very important as the game has this Tactical Link System where characters can link up do some pretty epic and devastating combos. The combat really is a joy to play and I had a lot of fun grinding away and leveling up my characters.
As well as playing through the main story there are plenty of NPC’s for you to encounter. It is always worth speaking to these as they at the very least will give you some information about the civil war that could rock the land. Also, you can get extra missions which can sometimes lead to you getting some pretty useful stuff.
Orbs are something that plays a big part in the gameplay. You can equip various orbs in the game and these can make all the difference in the world. There are ones that can do elemental damage, powerful attacks and also support skills. Having the right gems equipped before a battle can often be what will dictate if it goes good or bad.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel is one of those games that is really hard to talk about in a review as it has so much going for it. It really is one of the best JRPG’s on the PlayStation 4 right now. It has a very engaging story and characters that you do actually care about and the combat is not just fun, it also makes you think.
If you have been looking for a fun, exciting, charming and thought-provoking JRPG, The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel is for you. I really do think you will have a very hard time finding one better. Hopefully, this one will do well enough so that they bring the sequel over to the West too!
