Edit: I have since beat all the trails games up to Haji and my thoughts have changed.

Here's a basic checklist of what is good about the game, and then my own thoughts will be listed below.
---{Graphics}---
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☑ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ Paint.exe

---{Gameplay}---
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ It‘s just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Starring at walls is better
☐ Just don‘t

---{Audio}---
☑ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ Earrape

---{Audience}---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☐ Adults
☐ Human

---{PC Requirements}---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☑ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boiiiiii
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer

---{Difficulty}---
☐ Just press ‚A‘
☑ Easy
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls

---{Grind}---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☑ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You‘ll need a second live for grinding

---{Story}---
☐ Story?
☐ Text or Audio floating around
☐ Average
☐ Good
☐ Lovely
☑ It‘ll replace your life

---{Game Time}---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☐ Average
☐ Long
☑ To infinity and beyond

---{Price}---
☐ It’s free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money

---{Bugs}---
☐ Never heard of
☑ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs



This game is my favorite game of all time, tied with Cold Steel 4. It's not for everyone and has its flaws. However, I can assure you that Trails of Cold Steel has some of the best writing in any video game. If you like Persona or FE, the turn based system and story is somewhat similar so you will most likely love this game. The porting job is also probably the best for any game as it was done by the excellent Durante.

The flaws with this game mostly have to do with age. The textures look like bad at times and the animation is stiff, but if you can get over this and the sluggish start you will love this game. Keep in mind this is a Vita game from 2013, no matter how amazing the port is it was never going to look AAA.

If you want to start the trails series with CS1, note that it has many plot revelations that may hamper your enjoyment of the previous games in this series. Cold Steel is a sequel to two other arcs in the series, that being the sky arc that is currently available on steam, and the Crossbell arc which will be in 2023. For maximum enjoyment of this series, I would advise you start with Sky FC. However, I started with CS1 and love these games to death.


TLDR: 10/10, but only for certain types of Gamers.