If you follow my game reviews you know that I have reviewed this specific title before, and it was last year for Steam. We were provided the opportunity to go through and review this PlayStation 4 port of The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 2. Here are our opinions on the new port.
From Developer Nihon Falcom comes the next port of a Japanese RPG that you may not have heard of, because I honestly never did before doing my first review of this game. As a Japanese RPG, it hits on everything you would expect from that genre. You have your turn-based battles, your magic skills, your ultimate attacks, and everything in between. In this world, you are a student of a war academy who is thrown into the middle of a giant conflict between two warring parties. You have become the master of the Divine Knight Valimar, and you have to find your friends so that you can continue on your journey.
One thing you would expect from a port is improved graphics from the original, and you wouldn’t be disappointed because the graphics look amazing. I have the basic PlayStation 4 model so I didn’t play this at any super high settings, however, I did play it on the highest settings available on PS4 and I didn’t see any times when there was lag in the game. The battle system seems a little more improved over what I have seen from the original. It is a bit more tactically convenient for this type of game style. It feels very fluid to me as you go fight to fight. The graphical style is very suited to this RPG. The anime type characters and environments showcase what you can really do with a simpler animation.
Trails of Cold Steel 2, continues the narrative about one month after the end of Trails of Cold Steel. Whether you have played the first or not, the story makes you join in a spot which allows you to start the game with enough back story to move forward. While they play as a series, you could play 2, and then 3 when it releases without needing too much from 1. The characters don’t change much from the first to the second so it makes for a seamless transition when played one after another. I really appreciate this in these types of games. The ability to move from one game story to the next without losing the feel of the story.
The last time I played a story like that was with the Mass Effect Trilogy. The way you level up your character in one game, then have the ability to use that save game in the next story works out so you don’t lose progress. In the Trails of Cold Steel, you have basically the same type of story mechanic. If you don’t have a previous save from a completed story then you will start at around level 40. This allows you to play without leveling up all the way to where you were before. Not losing your progress is a good motivator to moving on to the next piece of the story and a good way to promote your story.
Note: Our copy was reviewed on PlayStation 4 with a code provided by PR.
