The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II[lower-alpha 1] is a role-playing video game developed by Nihon Falcom. The game is an entry in the Trails series, itself a part of the larger The Legend of Heroes franchise, and serves as a direct sequel to The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel. It was published by the company for PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 3 in Japan in 2014, and was later localized into English and published by Xseed Games in North America in 2016. A port by Xseed for Microsoft Windows was released in February 2018, while a remastered version for the PlayStation 4 was released in Japan in April 2018 and worldwide in June 2019. A port for Nintendo Switch is set to release in Japan in 2021. A sequel, The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III, was released in late 2017.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II
Cover art
Developer(s)Nihon Falcom
Publisher(s)
Director(s)Takayuki Kusano
Producer(s)Toshihiro Kondo
Programmer(s)
  • Nobuhiro Hioki
  • Toru Endo
Writer(s)Hisayoshi Takeiri
Composer(s)
  • Hayato Sonoda
  • Takahiro Unisuga
  • Yukihiro Jindo
  • Toshiharu Okajima
Series
EnginePhyreEngine
Platform(s)
ReleasePlayStation 3, PS Vita
  • JP: September 25, 2014
  • NA: September 6, 2016
  • EU: November 11, 2016
Windows
  • WW: February 14, 2018
PlayStation 4
  • JP: April 26, 2018
  • NA: June 4, 2019
  • EU: June 7, 2019
Nintendo Switch
Genre(s)Role-playing
Mode(s)Single-player

Gameplay

The game plays very similarly to the original Trails of Cold Steel game, playing as a traditional JRPG with turn-based battles.[1] The game is not, however, tied to the school schedule structure of the original, with the game now centered around traveling the world rather than attending classes.[2] If the player has a completed game save file from completing the prior game, it has an effect on the game of Cold Steel II, with certain events and dialogues playing out different based on choices and relationships built in the prior game.[3]

Plot

The game is a direct sequel to the original Trails of Cold Steel, and begins one month after its ending.[4] Rean Schwarzer has escaped alongside his Divine Knight, Valimar. He makes it to his hometown of Ymir with the assistance of bracer Toval, but Rean quickly finds him and his loved ones caught in the crossfire of the Erebonian civil war. Rean's opponents are the Noble Alliance, which has partnered with the Imperial Liberation Front from the previous game, as well as Ouroboros - a recurring group of antagonists in the Trails series. Students from Thors Military Academy, including those from Class VII, had been scattered across the country, so Rean attempts to get everyone back together again to put an end to the civil war and save those he cares about.

Synopsis

Rean and Emma's cat Celine are saved by the bracer Toval and is brought to Ymir, where he is reunited with his sister Elise as well as Princess Alfin. He learns that the Noble Alliance has taken the Imperial family into protective custody and has the upper hand in the civil war against the Imperial Army with the help of the Imperial Liberation Front, various jaegar corps (including Fie's former corps Zephyr) and Ouroboros. When Elise and Princess Alfin are kidnapped by the witch Vita Clotilde and the mysterious Altina Orion, Rean resorts to find the rest of Class VII who were scattered across eastern Erebonia. With the help of Toval, Railway Military Police and Ironblood Captain Claire Rieveldt and Reinford family maid and Ouroboros Enforcer Sharon Krueger, he succeeds in reuniting with his friends but also catches the attention of Duke Cayenne, the supreme commander of the Noble Alliance. Rean allows himself to be taken to gather more information about the Noble Alliance. On board the Alliance flagship the Pantagruel, Rean refuses Cayenne's invitation to join the Alliance. He learns more about the key Alliance members including Crow Armbrust's past and motive to assassinate Chancellor Osborne, but also finds Princess Alfin aboard; Elise was separated to attend to the Imperial family. Rean and Alfin fight their way out of the Pantagruel; along the way, Rean gains control of his Ogre power and manages to reach the deck and defeat Crow in a duel. However, Rean reverts to normal before he can reach Valimar, and the two only manage to escape with the timely arrival of Prince Olivert's forces, including Class VII and the Imperial airship the Courageous.

Reuniting with Thors upperclassmen Towa Herschel and George Nome, the Courageous is left in Class VII's hands. The group decides to liberate Thors Military Academy as their primary objective while keeping themselves neutral from the war and searching for the scattered Thors students. Nevertheless, due to Class VII family members being abducted by the Alliance and Jusis deciding to arrest his father Duke Albarea for ordering a devastating attack on a market town in House Albarea's province, they end up being the decisive factor in taking key Alliance strongholds whilst finding a weapon that will allow Rean's Divine Knight Valimar to fight Crow's Knight Ordine. During their travels the class learn of the similarities between the current war and the War of the Lions that took place in Erebonia 250 years ago. The group finally manages to liberate the academy as well as the town of Trista. Their celebrations however were cut short as the Imperial Army requests their assistance to rescue the Imperial family at Karel Imperial Villa.

Class VII manages to liberate the villa and free the Imperial family as well as Elise, but learn that Alfin's twin brother Cedric has been taken by Duke Cayenne. Vita and Duke Cayenne transform the Vermillion Castle in Heimdallr to the Infernal Castle which houses the cursed Divine Knight Testa-Rossa. Class VII fight their way through the castle and confront the duke, but are also forced to battle against Crow and Vita. While this is happening Duke Cayenne awakens Testa-Rossa using Cedric, forcing Class VII as well as Crow and Vita to stop the knight. Rean and Crow in their Knights defeat Testa-Rossa. Rean saves Cedric and Crow is fatally wounded. In his last moments he reconciles with Class VII. Immediately afterwards, Rufus Albarea kills her familiar Grianos and ambushes Vita, while Altina arrests Duke Cayenne, and the much-alive Chancellor Osborne appears to take control of the situation. Osborne proclaims his theft of Ouroboros's plan, allows Vita to leave and orders the immediate annexation of Crossbell. In his anguish at Crow's ultimate futility to kill the chancellor, Rean takes his anger out at him but is surprised at the revelation that he is Osborne's son.

Two months after the end of the civil war, Rean returns from the newly-annexed province of Crossbell to Thors and is welcomed back by Class VII. Shortly thereafter the Old Schoolhouse acts strangely once again. Class VII leaps to investigate it one last time with the help of their allies, and overcome the final trial set up by the shadow of the Great One. In the end most of Class VII graduate early, with only Rean staying behind at Thors. They make a promise to one day reunite when all of them have trained and grown stronger in their respective fields.

Development

Cold Steel II uses the PhyreEngine game engine, and was released in Japan on September 25, 2014.[5][6] The game was localized into English by Xseed Games.[7] Work on translating the game began on February 2015, containing around 1.45 million characters to be translated.[7] Translating alone took around a year, with it being about 95% complete in January 2016.[7] Xseed also added approximately 11,000 lines of English dialogue for its English release. The game was released in North America on September 6, 2016,[3] and in Europe on November 11, 2016.[3] A port for Microsoft Windows was released on February 14, 2018, and features various enhancements from the original version, such as support for 4k resolution, various other graphical enhancements, and additional English voice acting.[8] A remastered version for the PlayStation 4, The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II: Kai, was released in Japan on April 26, 2018, and in North America and Europe in June 2019.[9][10][11] A port for Nintendo Switch is set to release in Japan in 2021.[12]

Reception and sales

The game received "generally favorable" reception, according to review aggregator Metacritic.[13][14][15] Chris Shrive of Hardcore Gamer strongly praised the game for being "a modern JRPG masterpiece" with "the perfect blend of the classic JRPG formula mixed with contemporary features" concluding that "the emphasis on story telling and immense cast of memorable characters make the large time commitment worthwhile."[4] Kimberly Wallace of Game Informer was similarly positive about the game's story and characters, but complained of the game's dull dungeons design. Despite the shortcomings, she still felt that the game "takes the cast and story in such interesting directions and provides so much to do that it’s hard to put down...[the game] makes me care so much about the characters and the world that it becomes easier to look past its flaws."[18] Darren McPhail of RPGSite was similarly positive about the game, stating "For fans of the previous Legend of Heroes games and especially the first Trails of Cold Steel, picking up Trails of Cold Steel 2 is a no-brainer easy recommendation. While this sequel is unevenly paced and lacks shocking plot twists until the conclusion, the Trails of Cold Steel games are some of the best of the genre and well worth a look for most hardcore RPG fans."[19] All three reviewers agreed that, while it was possible to enjoy the game's story as a stand-alone experience, the story was better for people who had played the original Trails of Cold Steel first, due to the games' direct ties to one another.[4][18][19]

In Japan, the game sold 86,283 physical retail copies on the PlayStation Vita and 65,498 retail copies on the PlayStation 3 within its debut release week.[20] Within that week, the Vita version placed second among all software sales in Japan, while the PS3 version placed fifth.[21] Famitsu gave both versions of the game a review score of 31/40.[17] The PlayStation 4 version sold 11,345 copies during its first week on sale in Japan, placing it at number ten on the all format sales chart. [22]

Notes
  1. 英雄伝説 閃の軌跡II (Eiyū Densetsu: Sen no Kiseki Tsū) in Japanese

References
  1. Hagues, Alana (6 September 2016). "The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II Review". RPGFan. Archived from the original on 24 September 2016. Retrieved 24 September 2016.
  2. http://www.rpgamer.com/games/loh/lohsnk2/reviews/lohsnk2strev1.html
  3. http://www.siliconera.com/2016/08/25/europe-gets-legend-heroes-trails-cold-steel-ii-november-11-2016/
  4. "Review: The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II". Hardcore Gamer. 2016-09-07. Retrieved 2016-09-07.
  5. Wen, Alan (6 October 2019). "Hot on the Trails of Falcom, Japan's longest-running RPG developer". Eurogamer. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  6. http://gematsu.com/2014/04/legend-heroes-sen-kiseki-ii-dated-japan
  7. http://www.siliconera.com/2016/01/11/legend-heroes-trails-cold-steel-iis-translation-95-complete/
  8. Vitale, Adam. "Trails of Cold Steel II launches for PC on February 14". RPG Site. Retrieved 27 January 2018.
  9. Romano, Sal. "New The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel title, Trails of Cold Steel I and II coming to PS4". Gematsu. Retrieved 4 December 2017.
  10. Sato. "Trails of Cold Steel II: Kai Releases In Japan On April 26, 2018 For PS4". Siliconera. Retrieved 27 January 2018.
  11. Romano, Sal. "The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel I and II for PS4 coming west in early 2019". Gematsu. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
  12. Hashimoto, Kazuma (October 29, 2020). "The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel I and II Nintendo Switch Ports Announced". Siliconera. Retrieved October 29, 2020.
  13. "The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II for PlayStation 3 Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
  14. "The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II for PlayStation Vita Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
  15. "The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II for PC Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
  16. "The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II for PlayStation 4 Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 25 March 2020.
  17. "Famitsu Review Scores: Issue 1346". Gematsu. Retrieved 2014-11-19.
  18. "Continuing To Impress And Surprise - The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II - Vita - www.GameInformer.com". www.GameInformer.com.
  19. "RPGSite > Review > The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II".
  20. "Trails in the Flash II Sold Nearly The Same Amount As Its Predecessor". Siliconera. October 3, 2014. Retrieved October 3, 2014.
  21. 2014-10-01, Media Create Sales: 9/22/14 – 9/28/14 Archived 2015-01-31 at the Wayback Machine, Gematsu
  22. Romano, Sal (May 23, 2018). "Media Create Sales: 5/14/18 – 5/20/18". Gematsu. Retrieved May 25, 2018.
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