The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel

Hasta ahora el más débil de todos los Trails. Los personajes están super bien y el gameplay es más accesible que nunca pero la historia deja mucho que desear. Por suerte el 2 mejora en todo, pero aún se queda corto en comparación con los demás

[b]Score: 5/10[/b] [list] [*][b]Art:[/b] Good. The jump to 3D adds a fresh element to the experience. Seeing the characters, monsters, and environments from this new perspective makes everything more engaging from the start. [*][b]Music:[/b] Excellent, as expected from the series. The soundtrack is one of the strongest aspects and consistently supports both atmosphere and battles very well. [*][b]Story:[/b] Good, but the structural choices are questionable. Starting again from zero with a new cast of high-school characters after the last five games feels like an odd decision, likely intended to appeal to a younger audience. The development of the main conflict is extremely slow; three chapters in and almost nothing substantial happens with the main villain. It takes around four chapters for the plot to finally move, which is roughly 20–30 hours of playtime. The school festival in chapter 5 feels like filler, and the concert lacks an original song despite how much buildup it receives. The ending is quite good, but it arrives too late. There is a huge amount of optional dialogue for players interested in character interaction. With many main characters (even if Rean is clearly the central one), it is easy to find someone you like, but the story often splits the cast by chapter, meaning you sometimes progress without the characters you prefer. Overall, the pacing is a serious problem; the game feels too much like a prolonged prologue. It is understandable given the number of characters and locations, and the fact the saga spans multiple titles, but it is still frustrating. [*][b]Gameplay:[/b] There are improvements over previous entries, both in combat (thanks to the transition to 3D) and in equipment systems, particularly quartz and arts. Cities are much larger compared with past games. However, boss design and balance are highly uneven. The chapter 6 final boss is poorly tuned: you face two sub-bosses, then a main boss with an S-Craft that can wipe almost the entire party in one hit, while the sub-bosses also hit extremely hard. There are wild difficulty spikes within the same area; you can clear mobs effortlessly in under a turn, yet the boss can crush you in two. This becomes worse at higher difficulties. As in previous games, bosses have devastating S-Crafts that are not telegraphed, and the only reliable defense is grinding or spamming protective arts. The final dungeon is unnecessarily long and linear, and certain sections force annoying backtracking if you do not complete them in the intended order. [*][b]Accessibility:[/b] Very limited. There is no way to reread previously seen text, and difficulty cannot be changed once selected and the game has started. There are no visual accessibility options for players with vision issues. Controller support exists, but that is basically it. [*][b]Other:[/b] Character sprites moving while talking look unnatural; their motion during dialogue often feels odd. Character movement itself is clunky, and control options had to be adjusted through Steam to feel more fluid. It is also distracting that some scenes have voice acting while others do not, even within the same sequence. [/list] [b]Overall Experience:[/b] A solid entry with good music and competent presentation, but weighed down by serious pacing issues, uneven difficulty, and some questionable design choices. It works as an introduction to a new arc, but it often feels like an overly extended prologue rather than a fully satisfying story. It’s said that the plot improves a lot in the following games, and that does create interest in continuing the series; however, the pacing problems remain and don’t completely go away.