Trails Has ALWAYS Been "Anime" (Semi-Rant on Singling out Cold Steel) 

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Huh, weird. Too anime? Almost as if it was made by a Japanese company who would very obviously make the art in their country's typical style and have the same typical storytelling tropes and conventions seen in their culture. It's so weird. It's like anime is just... cartoons. In Japan. Hey, it's not just this. So many other things are hated on for being "anime", like the Smash fighters.

For every Rean speech about bonds and class 7, Lloyd has two speeches about overcoming the barriers

My biggest issue with the criticism of something being "too anime" is that it's almost meaningless. One of the reasons why I've always loved anime and manga is the incredible amount of variety - whatever kind of story you're interested in, there's probably an anime or manga that will appeal to you. But so many people still look at anime as some sort of monolith. Whenever I hear someone say something is "too anime," I always want to say to them, "What do you mean? This is nothing like, say, Space Battleship Yamato, or Maison Ikkoku, or Mushishi" (all of which are anime series I love). If their criticism was more along the lines of "I have issues with the tropes/cliches usually found in harem shows, and this game relies on them a little too much for my tastes," I wouldn't have any issues with that. But no, people just dismiss everything as "anime" and move on. It's sad.

My only problem is that bonding events is barring character backstory. But again. Crossbell is also guilty of this

You're not wrong - I mean, Sky 2 has Loewe, a guy who uses a sword to beat down mechs and other crazy anime stuff, Walter who does anime-moves with his fists, amongst so many other anime-oriented things. I mean, the Bracer's Guild is literally just a renamed Adventurer's Guild... lmao. You might be able to say Cold Steel took it a step further with the super-mechs... but then again, Sky FC's final boss was a super mech and Ao/Zero has three super-ultra-omega mechs so....

“Too anime” has really started to annoy me. It’s like certain people have a problem with Japanese companies using the tropes but when western media games/tv/movies uses the tropes every thing is cool. Weird double standard

I am willing to defend the Cold Steel games with my life and they do have a lot of anime tropes within them, but what matters is how they add nuance to them. The Trails series as a whole is good with keeping the more serious moments of the games pure of the more annoying tropes for the most part or they turn those tropes into something emotional and well written. CS2 has one of the best “friends going their separate ways” moments I’ve ever seen, even more so than Persona 4 and 5 in my opinion. There are things that the Cold Steel games can be rightfully criticized for. It had too many fake out deaths (although that didn’t bother me as much) and the whole being able to date your students thing is just weird. But Cold Steel does a lot of things right as well. For one thing it has the best use of geopolitics in the series and actually has two nuanced political factions within the empire that have their pros and cons, which is hard to pull off. It also manages to use the mechs in a satisfying way without making them the end all be all weapons for the military. Criticizing a game or an arc is fine but some people take it too far and make it seem like the Cold Steel games are just some generic forgettable anime jrpgs which alienates some potential fans. In reality the entire series is of a consistent quality which Falcom should be praised for. Sure the series has some highs and lows, but what makes it great are how good the different arcs are and how similar they are in quality. That’s really hard to maintain with a series this long. Edit - tldr: Trails is good

Yup. Always find it funny with fans who act like this wasn't the case. Been watching quite a few people playing the Cold Steel games here on RU-vid and you can pretty much tell how they're doing it with a disgusted expression on their face. Acting like this series hasn't always been a reflection of popular anime of their times and thus leaning into various tropes. Tropes aren't inherently bad IMO, it's all about the execution. I'm one of those people who think all arcs and characters in the Trails series are good in their own way. None of them manage to escape missteps though. But the games being so anime is certainly one of the series many appeals. Just like I enjoy escaping into western RPGs in a Sci-Fi, Fantasy or more specific setting like Cyberpunk, there are certain established building blocks through character archetypes, typical group dynamics or "world rules" that establish a comforting, familiar foundation. The same thing goes for games from Japanese developers. I want to be surprised of course, but I also want to feel at home.

As someone who 's only really played Sky and parts of Crossbell I can confirm this.

I mean, did people forget this entire series started of with trails of the sky, a story about a girl and her undying affection for basically her step brother, something that people get mad at ellise for doing even though it's the exact some situation....

I think one big factor, which ties in to some of your points, is that people playing Cold Steel more recently will be experiencing the same tropes in the anime currently airing. It would be easier to make the connections as they’ve seen the appropriate anime more recently. Even if they’ve watched the older stuff, the recollection is probably weaker - so they’re less likely to immediately make the connections when they were playing earlier arcs. It may be as a result of this, but I do think Cold Steel is a bit more in your face with the tropes. Might just be the sheer number of characters too.

Estelle and Joshua have a big adventure like a shounen protagonist. Rean and Lloyd are more like light novel harem protagonists. Van is more from a slightly more darker anime but I think crimson could make a little change. Cold Steel became the gateway/point of entry to many myself included towards kiseki so they will use that to compare and criticize any/everything in the saga as we continue from game to game.

My only big wish of "going back to how it was" was getting rid of the bonding point and making actual canon romances that are better written rather than "choose your romance". I think you lose a lot when you try to leave every person available to ship with the MC.

Now I’ll never unsee Estelle as Gon and Joshua as Killua.. the comparison is too similar how did I never notice this before…

Awesome video, I started with Cold Steel so hearing the complaints about it's "anime" themes and tropes and how the other games didn't do this confused the hell out of me when I went to play Sky and Crossbell😂😂. I grew up on these character tropes, so it was nice and nostalgic playing a straight up shounen anime in Sky and the dark underworld style of anime in Crossbell. I actually think it's great marketing too, cause I only started playing CS after finishing Persona 5 and I wanted that experience again. Surprisingly that wasn't a entirely unique thought cause a good handful of people I've talked to who started with CS thought the same lol. We all agreed we came out with a completely unique addiction.

I haven't played sky or Crossbell only Cold Steel, and when I first started I was like it pretty anime...then I saw your videos on the sky and CB series so I can understand the story and just seeing the highlights had me know oh it's a very anime game lol

I don't really care if the games are "too anime" or not, I just want them to be good. But the Cold Steel arc is just written really sloppily compared to the previous games.

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I'd say it's less that Cold Steel is uniquely tropey, and more that the characters aren't fleshed out to the same degree, which leads to the games leaning more on those tropes instead. And the fact that the main party are all teens doesn't exactly help. Or how everything revolves around the protagonist, where previously the interactions between other party members and significant NPCs could get pretty meaty. Then again, that last one's a problem that started all the way back in the Crossbell arc, so it's hardly fair to put it solely on CS. Further, there's the issue of missed opportunities throughout the Erebonia arc. Just as an example to prove a point, what's going on between Laura and Fie in CS1? Is it a clash of beliefs between an honourable, hard-working noble who's trained her whole life to master the sword versus a slothful merc with real battlefield experience who won't hesitate to fight dirty to survive? Not really. They just don't get along, that's all. And then they duel and become BFFs, except none of it gets brought up again. Because nothing's been set up, nothing can really be resolved either, or be used as a payoff in the future. Contrast that with Tita. In FC she's very much flawed, to the point her standout moment in the game is her mucking up the confrontation at Carnelia Tower and almost getting Agate killed. She learns from her experiences and becomes more responsible and determined, to the point she's willing to help develop the Orbal Gear even with the knowledge she may end up partially culpable for many lives lost.

I fking love this channel. Keep up good work

Yea Kiseki has always been at least a little anime pretty much all jrpgs are, no issue with that nor with use of tropes in general, its just that the older ones resemble good anime, and the CS games for the most part the modern day harem shounen and not the good kind. Tho the argument isnt neccesarily wrong tbh, its not the reason why CS is thought of as worse but it is far more anime, far more tropey than the older games, even if its simply because people do not know of that many anime from back then, its simply far more visible and more on the nose. Not to mention if the series continues to rely on the same tropes, on the same execution of stuff etc., it will innevitably suffer a diminishing returns because people simply see it coming and do not enjoy it as much anymore. In any case, CS being too anime is certainly not its issue, havnt really heard that argument much tbh, its simply worse written in general and they had different preferences, choosing different tropes, some that may not have aged well or been overdone, when making it. They are all still great games more or less, just not as good as it was, not in the story and character department at least, especially CS IV which sacrifices logic and sense for spectacle. CS is deeply flawed, its not as tho the older games didnt do similar stuff they just did it in moderation and far better, CS magnified all of its issues as a series and ended on a real low point because of it. Kuro seems to be very good tho. There is a big disconnect between older and newer fans in this regard as well, I remember when I started playing CS I was pretty much alright with it untill it slowly started to get on my nerves, with Rean being poor protagonist, the harem becoming more pronounced, the cast being bloated, the actions oftentimes nonsensical and unexplained etc., over the time it simply minimized what I enjoyed about the previous games and maximized what I didnt care for, thats something that new fans will never have an issue with since they have nothing to compare it to. But you will notice that those who actually did go back to play Sky and Crossbell will generally be of the mind that either all of Kiseki is fantastic, or the older games are better, even if they still enjoy CS as well. CS is simply divisive, it sold best out of the entire series but thats for obvious reasons, not just due to its quality and much like its protagonist, its dearly beloved by many while simultaneously disliked by just as many, meaning that they decidedly did fail somewhere. But this isnt a place for prolonged debates I have already spent far too much time debating about this sort of stuff, embarassing amount of time really :D and eventually I just came to the conclussion that its better to just not care as much and not be as involved because than you will simply either be mad and dissapointed, CS made me much less of Kiseki fan in the end, it gives me better understanding of the series objectively but it robbed me of my of the magic I used to feel while playing it, sadly it also goes for my replays of the older games, now seeing the issues that CS would go on to make so pronounced in the future and being annoyed at them. In either case, at the very least I absolutely dissagree about Rean being more deep than the average jrpg protag, you correctly liken him to Kirito, whom many people would also argue to death about how he is amazing and deep, but yea, at best he is a failed attempt at manipulating our emotions through projecting into someone with "low selfesteem" just letting that one self created and propagated issue take care of anything character related, at worst he is an empty shell of what he could have been but forced into a mold by what was neccessary for the game features and story to work, its not for nothing that as opposed to the previous titles Rean is much more of a solo presence in the leading seat, lacking any sort of co protagonist to carry the weight and the fact that unlike with previous games, it doesnt feel like our characters are on an adventure unraveling the plot, its just plot happening to Rean whenever he goes, without him actually moving it forward. There is a reason why he is so divisive, its genuinely either love or hate with him, either he is the best protag and best antagonist, or he is just a wasted opportunity at best. And just like in general, the amount of self perpetuated angst coming out of him, how he is center of everyones universe, the fucking onsen scenes, could we have at least a few hours of the game without someone reminding us how amazing Rean is supposed to be and how everyone just has to love him, while throwing at him an ever increasing amount of things to make him special as if aware he isnt interesting enough on his own, thats just such insecure writing. I will never forget begining of CS III when the new class VII just stops in their tracks to talk about how amazing Rean is, in case we forgot from the last game, for a couple of minutes, while a city is literally being shelled right next to them... I immidiately knew that we are in for something that simply should not be taken seriously by any means.

Too anime? TOO ANIME! Trails has ALWAYS BEEN ANIME INDEED! If you can't handle that go home

"Too Anime" is just a crappy complaint in general, one that I hear FAR too often. Nice to see a video pointing that out.

The first Trails game literally had a man smash a thousand year old robot to death with a stick to save his two children and their two friends. The second game had those same two children fight a literal sociopath that had fused with a piece of a goddess. The third takes place entirely inside a cube world created of the new main character's repressed emotions after he murdered his mentor with magic spears composed of time magic. If that's not anime, what the hell is?

Cold Steel reminds me of the Naruto or My Hero Academia styles of character ensembles, with several characters orbiting around a Chosen One type.

"Tropes are not necessarily bad". Unless they're Angelica, or modern hot spring scenes. Otherwise, I agree with you. I don't even know what Baccano is and just seeing that poster makes me think "it's literally just the SSS." Would Psycho Pass also fit into that "urban crime anime" theme from around the Crossbell days? Those were the years I was at a university anime club and I know we watched Psycho Pass there. And also among Cold Steel "mid-late 2010's" tropes.... I don't think Crow being scarily similar to... another Crow, is a coincidence. Oh man, I remember EXACTLY the feeling of waiting for videos to buffer for 30 minutes! Okay, so here's my "50 Mira" on the issue. First, nostalgia goggles. Modern tropes become so ingrained and criticised that older tropes end up looking original by comparison, and that's probably what happens when people go from Cold Steel to Sky. Tropes tend to work in cycles, when a modern trope gets overused and falls out of favour, people turn to the old one. That's why Fantasy tends to run on a cycle of "black and white morality heroic fantasy" to "GoT-style grey morality dark, deconstructive fantasy" and back again. People get sick of one and want the other again. Similarly, western animated fairy tales started going cynical and deconstructive with Shrek when people got sick of classic Disney, then people got sick of Shrek clones and classic fairytale Disney came back with Tangled and Frozen. Then people got sick of THAT and parodies came back, etc. Secondly, and this is only a personal observation as I haven't been in the anime fandom much since 2015, but I feel like the overall perception of anime in the west has gone through a lot of changes. The 90's to late 2000's was the "golden age" of anime in the west. It was cool to like it and everyone was talking about it. "Otaku" culture was in full-swing and westerners became obsessed with Japan in general. Somewhere in the late-mid-2010's, there was a sudden swingback towards violent HATRED of anime, and even everything Japanese. I don't exactly know WHY this happened (part of me wants to say Final Fantasy XIII and its reception sparked the trend?), but you never used to get people complaining about Smash characters being "too anime", and hatred of Japanese artstyles and tropes would even veer into actual xenophobia at times. Japanese media was no longer cool and you would be shunned for liking it. In the late 2010's, things seem to have calmed down to a far more "neutral" take. "Some anime is good, some is bad, and let's stop blindly worshipping Japanese culture but not blindly hate it either." At the same time, there's a different issue now: the rise of Isekai anime and a lot of internet anime culture revolving around bashing Sword Art Online. So with that, it's clear to me why Cold Steel's anime tropes get bashed so much: they just happen to line up with the internet's favourite punching-bags at the time. I actually think I came to appreciate Rean a lot more because I had no idea of the light novel protag tropes until after I'd finished CS1 and 2, so I had no frame of reference for his character. The school setting is also a common punching bag since a lot of videogames are trying to emulate Persona now. So again, unlike Sky, Cold Steel's anime tropes happen to be tropes that are right in the firing line at the moment, which causes the "too tropey" reputation. To me though, the only part where I feel tropes actively hurt Cold Steel's writing is the harem. Like you I've got a lot of issues with Cold Steel's writing, but 99% of them don't come from tropes. I think when most Trails fans say "they should go back to the old writing", they mean the Sky arc having stronger characters, world-building, and not glossing over dark things like Hamel or Renne's and Kevin's backstories. I do still think the Sky arc has the best writing in the series. But I really enjoyed CS1 and 2 as well.

What bothers me the most about CS is that it feels all very inconsequential. You fight some of your friends fighting for the other side so many times, and after they are beat they just leave and live to fight and cause trouble another day. And this happens so many times... I hated that so much.

I remember where the game started with tomboy looking for her boyfriend and dad

This video is too anime. I’m disappointed with the current state of RU-vidrs at the moment. They don’t make ‘‘em like they used to.

I cant really comment on the anime thing. The only anime I ever watched was dragonball Z when i was a kid. It was interesting to see your perspective on this though.

I think to me, personally, the issue I have with Cold Steel being more "anime" comes down to the specific tropes it draws on more than the past. But I definitely agree - Trails has ALWAYS been anime (and thats why I love it, im a sucker for power of friendship and super powerful flashy techniques), so maybe 'too anime' is a bad way to refer to the issues with it. The specific 'anime'-y tropes (used loosely here) that I find more prevalent and annoying in Cold Steel are kinda the root of MY personal complaints about the arc: specifically stuff like the more Dating Sim-y aspects (everyone has a crush on the self-inserty protag, which Lloyd admittedly did first), the weird Sibling-Not Sibling romance stuff (which feels 10x more weird and pander-y than with Estelle/Joshua), TONS of more fanservice and weirdness of high schoolers than earlier in the series (Altina's design, weird comments about the girls' bodies, even back in Azure with the weird ass Beach scenes). Again - those things definitely appear in other trails games, like you mention, just bumped up to 11 in CS. These tropes being a little more icky in my eyes is what leads to me sorta longing for the older days of Trails where they were a Lot less prevalent. Which is what I assume some other people feel when they complain about the "anime'-ness of Trails. (An aside: One icky trope thats been in full force through the WHOLE series is the creepy depiction of LGBT characters played up for laughs, with Olivier and Angelica. Can't even blame Cold Steel for that one, that just sucks in the series overall.) IDK! Just my two cents, but I did enjoy the video and the chance to discuss this topic! I'm still a Trails fan through and through, I just do wish some of these tropes were less prevalent. The harmless ones? Like high schoolers saving the world? Those rule, lets keep those going.

It's less about being "too anime", as I'll concede to Sky being tropey itself. It's more about which specific tropes and above all how the female characters and romance is treated in CS, along with characters group dynamics which blow in CS. I don't dislike the CS games, but it's definitely a drop in quality writing wise.

Sky and Crossbell are Shounen anime with a lot of tropes ColdSteel is the garbage seasonal harem anime with almost zero identity There’s a huge diference between good anime and bad anime

I mean, the two main characters of the original game are adoptive siblings who end up dating. If that isn't anime, I don't know what is.

like, the liberl games were refreshingly restrained when it came to the horny content. cold steel is much more typical in that regard.

see i always understand when people say cold steel is to much like anime they mean modern 2010's anime. not alot of people myself included are really that big on the current trends of anime. so it's more a preference for the 90/2000's anime.

I beg to differ, I grew to love Trails from Sky FC because it was so "not anime". It was very different, at the beginning I couldn't exactly pinpoint what it was. As I thought about it more, especially when I was craving the Crossbell experience again (my favorite two games in the series) whilst playing the first Cold Steel game. I was actually quite shattered from the inside with the disappointment I had playing the first game of Cold Steel. Eventually, I grew to embrace the game so much so as to not really despise it, the characters (SOME) grew on me. I finally knew what it was that was different from Cold Steel and the previous titles. The PRESENTATION, FANSERVICE and HIGH SCHOOL SETTING. My God, the fanservice, it was the first thing I figured out, from the moment where me taking the story serious was completely shattered, Rean and Alisa's accident. I despise fanservice. It simply ruins stories as the creators concentrate on giving the player their... lustful satisfaction rather than character development and in a game lacking it? What other point is there to fanservice, and along with the extreme anime tropes, anime tropes that became notorious for it's overuse to the point of cringe. The High School Setting ruined the dialogue, with the whole of class 7 having to give comment when they are together,. It creates awful dialogues were characters follow each other up which is unrealistic and annoying. I found myself lashing out at some character to just shut up in certain situations, either because I didn't like them or that their comment was unneeded and only there to even out the content for each character. Then in that one moment, I had this feeling, slight feeling that I was beginning to... like the whole class 7. As they talked after school around Rean's table. Then it happened. TWO MORE CHARACTER JOINED. (before stans will attack me, I like both of em.) This feeling I had was shattered and I put my hand over my eyes in disappointment. Two more characters, two more to add comments and speak and two more to hinder the other's of theirs. Character development was so weak in Cold Steel and when it tried it was cringe and the amount of characters played a huge part in it. Why I grew so attached to every playable character in Crossbell was because dialogue was realistic and mature and now that I mention it. Mature, Cold Steel has a PEGI 12 rating and the Crossbell games, or at least the first one has an 18 PEGI rating, proving my argument of maturity and I don't believe it was only because of DD cult. Then, the presentation. I seem to be in the minority on this one, I could be wrong though. The first thing that hit me was the character sprites. Where... Where were they? Where was that gorgeous artwork? It was erased as they thought the 3d models were enough to express the same emotions and be as gorgeous as draw artwork. Well it isn't, and it's the worst in the first two Cold Steel games. I honestly think that if art work was in Cold Steel, the game would have a much better feel to it. From character expression to awkward fight scenes. I will never forget how I could simply not take Laura and Fie's fight seriously in the first game. Animation was poor and it was unbelievably short. Compare that to the fight scenes in the sky arc, or Crossbell arc. Take for example Joshua and Loewe's fight scene in SC. Absolutely epic and awesome. The difference between the two is that that fight aged well and Laura and Fie's fight didn't. It aged poorly. When an older game does it better, you know something's wrong. I understand that they were entering, all games had to enter 3d eventually and may have looked good for it's time but that is not an excuse when a game almost 10 years older does it better. Last thing, the story was made for kids, I can't see it any other way, either it's simply that bad or it's for a much younger audience who doesn't care about politics, conflicting ideologies, NOT A BLACK AND WHITE STORY. The game tries to not be black and white in the most pathetic way I have ever seen. "No No, we are not joining the imperial army, we are only fighting the alliance as enemies and they are shown throughout the first two games to be Disney tier villains, evil for no reason only to be hated but yes we are neutral, we totally did not destabalise them and assuring the imperial army's win."

Girl and her (adopted) brother go on a journey across the kingdom that has to deal with an empire and a republic, with a MARKET TOWN, a WATER TOWN with an ORPHANAGE and a SCHOOL nearby, an INDUSTRIAL TOWN, a CAPITAL CITY. Party members are a tomboy, her brother with a mysterious past, a one colour off blonde hair brown skinned anime lady (silver in this case), a massive flirt, a guy with hot blood and a big sword, a schoolgirl, a small girl with a big gun, and actually a Chinese dude. I love Sky (and the others) and it's super anime. Maybe some of the tropes are outdated and people don't recognize them?

I dont really play RPG games as not a fan of turn base but when I tried out Trials of Cold Steel its actually pretty fun, even tho I know nothing of strategy.

Never really felt it was too anime. My only complain about Cold Steel is it felt like it was going too dark by killing off some characters only to necro them back again. I guess deep down Falcom wanted to follow a troupe of a certain popular TV show that was airing at the same time as the Cold Steel arc which was notorious for killing off well liked characters, only to remember that they are anime lol.

I always found that so weird. Since I started the series a thing I noticed was how most characters start as walking tropes, but they use those tropes to develop and in the end outgrow them, becoming their own person. From the way people talked about Cold Steel I was kind of expecting that to no longer be the case. That maybe the characters started as tropes and then just, stayed static or something. I have now finished the arc however and I just don't see it, the character development I liked so much in previous arcs is still present.

Its a stupid ass complaint imo. The people who complain about it are the same people who spend hours every day binge watching one anime series after another. Why does anime get to be anime and they love it but a game has anime and they bash it. I for one do NOT watch anime, so all the anime elements are reletively new and fresh to me.

I swear your videos are probably the most rational videos I have seen! This subject has annoyed me for years lol it's not just for Trails but Fire Emblem, SMT, Persona, Xenoblade.. it never ends. JRPGs are influenced by anime & always have been, whatever new thing anime has it'll be reflected in modern RPGs.

Everytime i talk about trails with my friends, i always tell them that it's like playing a very VERY long anime, so i agree with you xD

As you've said, there's no issue using tropes but Cold Steel's problem in general was the execution, presentation and even the volume of them, leading to a varied levels of depth in their exploration (A "wide as an ocean, deep as a puddle" situation). Crossbell is more easily forgiven since it doesn't take long for the arc to show its potential depth beyond the tropes it uses. That being said, the Erebonia arc is still an enjoyable experience. Just a lot more of it needed to go through the cutting room floor.

The people who call anything too anime have a tendency to never point out that tropes and cliches exist in all mediums of entertainment, not just anything and that’s not a bad thing. However when they talk about anime tropes it’s always with a negative connotation which is just objectively wrong. A trope or cliche is never bad on its own, it’s always about how it’s executed within the story.

More anime?: NO More dating sim-ish?: RESOUNDING YES

that actually reminds me of what people said about soul hackers 2 being "too anime" (when the first game is basically 90s sci-fi/cyberpunk anime stuff). Getting out of the way that being "too anime" doesn't add anything and I see it more as the person doesn't knowing how to set their point as to why the dislike something, I see it more as this: Nostalgia glasses basically, it doesn't take much time to an average person to know that early 2000s games feels similar to 2000s anime, 2010s games feels similar to 2010s anime (its the same for the western games, 2000s games feels similar to 2000s movies or series or whatnot), and you have the culture itself, there's a reason that cyberpunk theme in the 90s is different from nowadays. So since if feels similar to those shows that people watched when they were younger and etc they have a better opinion regarding to that, hence they say "too anime" for stuff more modern that they don't like for X or Y reason (sometimes with a lack of criticism). But yeah as another comment said it's almost as if its a japanese company making media in their own countries style. All in all I think this type of "criticism" actually makes it for a good comic relief, I mean sometimes you can't help but laugh XD.

Ah thank you for saying this. I don't get why people single out the Cold Steel games when the entire scene has always been "look at my anime powerup, my yelling makes me more powerful" lol. Honestly these games are so well made I don't even mind, I tend not to like stuff like that but Trails is just too good for me not to enjoy. I reckon the biggest reason is that older games had very tiny, chibi models so the closest resemblance to anime were the portraits and on top of that they barely had any voice acting, which meant that you could give them whatever voices you wanted in your head. One problem I've always had with the series is how, just like most "shonen" stuff, they tend to shy away from deaths. Seriously, in Sky does anybody even die after a million fights? I guess you could say Lowe but even then he wasn't even main party member at any point. It's honestly pretty dumb how throughout the whole series (including CS) barely anyone dies, even amongst antagonists. Makes events harder to take seriously. But oh well, I mainly play these for the banger soundtracks and the best turn based combat to have ever existed.

I think the "too anime" comments come from the fact that now everything is fully voice acted so some scenes which normally would be left up to how you think characters would sound in your head now have a definitive voice and tone. With all that being said as a new fan to the series i did find that cold steel in particular went further down the "bad anime writing" when it came to the more serious plot revelations later on especially cold steel 4

Aside from how stupid the complaint of "too anime" is stupid in itself...the fact that some people complain about the existence of tropes in general shows how little do people understand about storytelling. Whether or not something is well or badly written there will be tropes...the tropes existence in itself has nothing to do with the quality of the writing. That's like somebody complaining about a Hollywood movie being "Too Hollywood" with no regards to how the tropes are handled within a movie in itself....it's a stupid and unfair genralization.

Kiseki series is unique in a way on how it incorporates politics and the world building, but some people keep forgetting it also likes overusing some vn/anime/manga tropes. Was true for sora, true for ao/zero and sen, and is still true for Kuro. So yeah, playable anime, with politics, bestelle, speeches about barriers, cool mechs and transformation, can't wait to find out what will be the gimmick of the arc after calvard.

While I agree that other games had anime tropes, I believe the reason Cold Steel was more prevalent was because of the large roster and the free time we spent exaggerated it.

The Cold Steel games were the first I played. I picked up the first game for PS3 on a lark at a local library and from there it was love - got the second game the day it came back and haven't looked back. I've since played Trails in the Sky, which is also great in its own way, but yes, I absolutely love Cold Steel. I am waiting to play Zero until the official release.

I've started playing the trails series for the first time last year, finished azure last week and now I'm on cold steel 1 second chapter and I'll be honest, i feel like this will be my least favorite arc and i can resonate with the "too anime" criticism, although i wouldn't put it that way. Aside from how poorly cold steel aged when compared to sky and crossbell which have a certain ps1 charm to them. Cold steel setting, characters and premisses in general so far feel disappointing to me. Like, i finally got to the infamous erebonian empire, but the plot revolve on a harem wannabe magical school setting that i have read a million times in generic light novels. The way how we already get a "lucky sukebe" scene in the prologue as a way of introducing the supposed "main" girl made me think "oh, this doesn't feel like the trails i got to know and love". And from what i was told by veterans, i won't get character dynamics like in sky where characters developed interest in one another anymore because they decide to double down on the bonding system from crossbell, and took inspiration from persona. So now everything resolves around the main character, the fact that Rean can also romance with literally anyone also makes it way less interesting than something like estelle and joshua. I plan to play it to the end of the arc, hoping it will get better, but so far i feel a bit allienated and can completely understand where the "too anime" is coming from

It's such a strange argument to begin with I was playing jrpgs during the PS1 era and the tropes have always been in this genre .

I'm going to say that Ys has also started to lean a bit more on the anime, as of the 2000s. That isn't it hasn't started with it aesthetically (the PC 88was limited in color depth), but the plotting certainly has ramped up the OVA Fantasy feel since Ys 6: Ark of Napishtim, even the remakes of 3 and 4.

I've been making this argument on deaf ears

*SPOILERS FOR FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST* Me seeing the late game of Zero: “Wow, the devs really like Fullmetal Alchemist.” Me seeing the end of Chapter 4 in Azure: “Wow, the devs REALLY like Fullmetal Alchemist!” Like the suspiciously circular country being a giant giant summoning circle to gain the power of a god is pretty blatant. It’s really good in both cases, but man, it’s very similar.

My biggest issue with Trails games is that they are fun to play but very tedious to replay for completion. The game makes me want to use a walkthrough on a blind playthrough which sucks.

I have recently played through the Sky & Cold Steel Series, and have to say that I have only one major complaint about the story I've seen, and it isn't that it's "too anime". It's that, if all else is consistent but the fairly minor changes required to facilitate this, Juna should have been the MC of Cold Steel 3 instead of Rean being the MC for the third time. To be clear (without spoilers), I'm specifying Juna due to the fact that I feel like her character is more suited for the "Trails MC" role than Kurt, while Altina doesn't fit the Trails MC role at all, and the other members join class 7 late.

Good video - thank you for making this! I'm not a super-avid viewer of anime, but yeah, it's a good point how each Trails arc draws from assorted anime tropes - they just draw from different ones, depending on the era. It kinda makes me think of how other long-running series of games, such as Fire Emblem, do something similar with each new entry in the series - ultimately they have changed in some ways with time, but they've always drawn from anime as a source of inspiration.

Heyyy I just found your channel and as a more of a casual Trails fan (if you can be casual Trails fan :P ) I love it. Thanks for great content and this video was interesting in particular

it's weird how some series that have been "anime" since the beginning (or early on) get this criticism only with the later games.

Great Video! I always enjoy your trails content! :)

What I like about trails is that they make heavily tropey characters, just to basically remove that. Think Alisa in CS1. She started off as the tropey "anime girl with crush on protag but hides it" or whatever (you understand, yes?), to a character who isn't just that, but has her own issues, her own concerns, and by the time of the end of CS1, she isn't the same character. Or with Rean, he is just a protag with all his speeches, the focal point of the group, but over time, we realize he's more than that. The Elise visit in CS1, the October war, and *especially* the end of CS3. This is the power of Falcom. I definitely worded this wrong, but you understand my point, yes?

As someone who enjoys a small amount of anime and a medium amount of jrpgs, just wanted to state my perspective. I have 6 hours of gameplay logged in Legend of Heroes: Trails in the sky. I won't argue whether it's a great game as that doesn't seem to be a debate. I just found the game to be way too anime for my taste.

Trails has always been "anime" and it has also always been very very horny.

OMG THANK YOU for making this! This is the criticism i see levied the most against Cold Steel and it just doesn't hold water! Thanks for the catharsis! Too anime? Why are you even playing a JRPG then?

Whenever people refer to cold steel as 'too anime' it's not that they mean that previous games had no anime tropes or even that cold steel has numerically more anime tropes in it. What they mean is that cold steel executes anime tropes in a way that makes them have a far more negative impact. And personally that was my experience with it as well. I still enjoyed cold steel, but it would be lying to say that I didn't get pretty annoyed at some of it's more 'anime' elements. And that's not to say that these elements don't exists in the previous entries, but how they were executed. Some examples of where cold steel and older games had the same tropes but executed them differently: 'Haha, a women sexually assaults another women' - It's not really funny whenever it's used and it wasn't really funny in crossbell either, but in crossbell it's something that's done by a villain character against an heroine character and something that comes up again multiple times as an event that the victim severly disliked and remembers negatively. In Cold Steel 4 a heroine does it to another heroine. It's a one-of 'joke' that never comes up again. Noone really criticices the perpetrator for doing it. On top of all of that the perpetrator is a loli, so it adds the additionaly uncomfortable element that the character sexually assaulting another character looks like a literal child. ' The stepsibling romance' - This happens in sky and cold steel. And once again it's the execution. In sky the stepsibling got adopted in their early teens and the romance starts in their late about 5 years later. Estelle initially refers to Joshua as her brother a lot, but gradually does so less as she starts to develop and realize her feelings for her. When the romance starts, she doesn't refer to him as a brother anymore. In Cold Steel the stepsibling got adopted a LOT younger. Both siblings thought they were really related for a long time. On top of that cold steel makes it clear that reans sister sees rean as her brother while being in love with him at the same time. It won't let you forget it. She calls him brother all the time, she often calls him brother in the same sentence that she is pining over him. Sky starts out focussing on the adventuring siblings first and then slowly shifts over to the youthfull romance part of the relationship. Cold steel makes sure in the very first event involving them both, that rean views her as his sister and she views him as her brother and she is madly in love with him. It has both the sibling relationsship and the romance relationship at the same time and makes sure you never experience one without reminding you of the other immediatly. It should be obvious that the problem isn't that a jrpg has anime tropes in it. Like, duh. It's a jrpg, of course it will have them. The problem it has some specific tropes in it and executes some tropes in a way that reminds people of the worst of anime storytelling. The problem isn't that it has anime tropes, the problem is that it does anime tropes badly. For example the magical x-hundred year old loli. Which cold steel not only has but manages to make even more uncomfortable than usual by putting her in sexual situations multiple times. Some of the tropes even get worse as the series continues. Angelica starts out as a bit of a female lesbian version of olivier. She has her comic-relief 'hitting on every women'-moments, but also has her family problems and history on top of that which make her a deeper character. Then she looses those bits in cs 3 and 4 and just turns into "Lesbian serial-harrasser (whose also a pedo now) LOL".

Great vid! Totally agree with you, I don't get the hate for Cold Steel when comparing it to the rest of the series. Also, great argumentation! I think that one of the reasons people say Cold Steel is more "anime" than the others is because the games are in full 3D, so they depict the characters with much clearer "anime" mannerisms and stuff. It doesn't seem like much at first glance, but it does leave a deep impression on you while playing the game and taking in the characters!

The most memorable sky moment for me was when the guys with a stick, sword, and crossbow took down a tank. The criticism of "too anime" stems from the absolutely insane oversaturation of the "magic highschool" genera. while yes, Sky and Crossbell were definitely products of their time and reflected popular "anime" culture back then, they are only really comparable to a handful of series. meanwhile "anime highschool with magic" has had every hack lightnovel writer scrambling to hop on the trend for YEARS now....so when Trails comes along, it doesn't FEEL unique. what trails has always done is taking those tropes and executing them well. Feel free to disagree, but the original class 7 are all way deeper than their surface elements. for example, while Alisa and Fie play the typical Tsun/Kuu dere, the traits are only a small part of their character and come about naturally because of it. to piggyback off your SAO comparasin, Asuna is also a tsundere, but without any reason to be other than "tsundere are popular". But looking at Alisa, its a sum of her parts. trying to live up to her mother's legacy as a reflection of her diligent, but haughtiness, with her sexist grandpa being the only real father figure shes has growing up, its no wonder she acts harsh to guys and always feels the need to be better than everyone.... anyways i could go on for hours about this stuff. long winded way to say: Cold steel feels "too anime" because there are so so so many MORE other series trying to do similar things than there were at the times of the previous arcs. as usual ill argue trails is still king in refining said tropes.

LadyVirgilia is really out here dropping facts

Great video. I've seen that people have been generally complaining about JRPG's Cold Steel and persona's 4 and 5 for being "too anime" but many people don't realize that JRPG's have had anime baked into their very DNA since the beginning with dragon quest originally being advertized in weekly shonen jump and Akira toriyama doing the character designs. I think what people miss is that anime has changed from the 90's to now and that's reflected in most JRPG's, as you demonstrated with how trails in the sky takes a lot of influence from the anime of the early 2000's. Even Grandia 1 from the late 90's feels inspired by the adventure anime that came out during the decade (mainly Nadia the secret of the blue water). I think when people complain that CS and Persona are "too anime" more likely then not, they mean it's too much like modern anime, which I can understand. Though the way CS executes most of the modern anime tropes i don't like (like rean=LN protag) so well, it's amazing how much I like it lol

Now if people want to complain. They could single out Cold Steel for being too much like a battle academy harem light novel from the 2008 to 2013 (when those were prominent).

Jesus i hate the ''Too anime'' argument and it's not only trails games nowadays when games with anime aesthetic comes out and is somehow popular like code vein, scarlet nexus,trails of arisen etc. half of gaming community will go UGH SO ANIME ! UGH THE MC HAS A SWORD UGH CHILDHOOD FRIEND POWER OF FRIENDSHIP UGHHHH! and yeah those games have anime tropes but it's the part of course what were you expecting, do you also complain that military shooters have war movie tropes ? As for the cold steel i have many gripes with it but being ''TOO ANIME'' is not one of them

it’s 100% because of the graphics. it’s a lot more noticeable when every character is a lot more expressive and with voice acting

100% agree with you! I think people that complain about 'anime in their JRPG' do not realise that most (if not all) RPGs coming from Japan will, of course, have tropes that are found in animes. It doesn't mean these tropes are 'anime', they are just storytelling tools that are frequently used in Japanese culture (and for some universally). I see a lot of people complaining about exactly the same 'problem' regarding Xenoblade 2 in comparison with the first one. I am trying really hard now to come up with an example of a JRPG that do not use 'anime tropes' and I can not find one (and I played a lot of them). I'd argue that these tropes are big reasons why these RPGs are beloved by so many. I speak french and I feel like animes have always been popular in the french speaking world (almost mainstream, unlike in the US where it seems to be a bit more niche). This familiarity with these tropes and appreciation for Japanese culture could explain why the french market is so important for JRPGs (a big reason why Falcom decided to go with NISA instead of Xseed is because they could offer french translation). Personnaly, I think some tropes should be laid to rest (harem, underage relationship, the naturaly gifted geniuses/warriors that are just too good to exist...) but overall they do not prevent me to like a good story! Finally, I think a case could be made that Cold Steel's writing was a bit sub par compared to the rest of the series, but the fault for me does not lie with the tropes used but rather other reasons, for example like you mentioned some gameplay elements (bonding events), bloated cast, reluctance to kill off beloved cast/villains. The story would have benefited from having a good editor (if it were a book, I do not know how games stories are written/created).

I fell in love with trails because it was anime but a game I could play. I never had a doubt about that since 2015 lol.

While I acknowledge the importance of this video highlighting that the Trails series has always utilized anime tropes, I think your making a false equivalency between the statements "the Trails series wasn't anime until Cold Steel" and "the Trails series became TOO anime with Cold Steel." Saying the series didn't use anime until Cold Steel is just factually untrue, which you rightfully point out in numerous ways throughout this video. However, saying Cold Steel is "too anime" is an entirely different argument that this video neither attempts to outline nor refute. You hit the nail square on the head at 6:57 - 7:17 , but don't seem to recognize that this is the root of the criticism, you're responding to. The entire legend of heroes series (even prior to Trails) has always used anime tropes and the anime aesthetic, however no one complained or even talked about it because the tropes were used to aid in comprehension of a narrative that didn't lean on them. Cold Steel however, is the only arc in the entire franchise in which the anime tropes supersede both the groundedness and development of the games' narratives. If you want to argue whether or not that's a bad thing, then you'd have to determine whether it's possible for the use of anime tropes and conventions to harm the narrative of a work, and then whether Cold Steel crosses that line. However, given how CSI, II, and IV turned out, I don't think that's an argument that ever comes out in favor of Cold Steel, which is why the criticism "Cold Steel is too anime", seems like a fair shorthand for the broader criticism that Cold Steel has an abundance of shit writing.

Too anime. Are there seriously people who think that's a bad thing? And even though I haven't played Crossbell (Steam plebs here) Sky seems pretty anime to me. And I'm fine with that. The problems of Cold Steel are definitely not that it's too anime, rather than too inconsistent, bloated and eventually rushed. As for tropes... be careful what you wish for. Many interpret subverting expectations as something good, but in my opinion that's definitely not always the case. Tropes have existed in all cultures for thousands of years. Such as the Hero's Journey trope. Why? Because it just works. It takes a really good scenario to subvert certain tropes, such as Chinatown, but even that movie started out with tropes. And usually, especially in 'current year' it ends badly. Such as in my opinion Disney Star Wars. I'm personally still a fan of the CS arc but it's problems aren't with the tropes or anime setting.

Its just over the top with the Cold Steel series, Sky I could handle without throwing up.

Trails has always been very anime. Estelle is just a way better and more likeable protagonist than Lloyd or Rean.

One of the reasons i dismissed Cold Steel until playing this year was i expected it to be very cringey, especially with the tachi wielding rean. was surprised early on with how much i liked rean and thoroughly enjoyed the CS arc, and am extremely hyped for Kai

I agree completely with your takes

You made a video of exactly what I was thinking lol.

TOOO ANIME!!! BITE YOUR TOUNGE! THERE'S NO SUCH THING!!! Wasn't shouting at you Lady but to whoever spread such lies! (Dramatically faints)

I think when people say "too anime", thats just a not-well-articulated way to say what they actually mean: Cold Steel's harem stuff and just the general stuff it takes from other recent popular anime games like Persona. I do think it turns a lot of it on it's head pretty well, namely the "student" trope in Cold Steel 1 and 3, but way too many of the bonding events have constant prompts for romance where it just doesn't make sense. The fact you can have romantic moments with Sara, Fie, Emma, Millium, Claire, Altina, Juna, and Id argue even Musse is just really really out-of-place to take the rest of the story seriously (I like the Sara scenes in CS3 and CS4 though mostly until they turn it into a lover thing, rather than just having immense mutual respect and just growing close as master and student). It's there only for fan-service to sell copies to ppl who only play games with these kinds of elements, and its just really unfortunate something so mature and well thought-out like Trails needs to do this to keep sales numbers up. I know I'm hardly unique for bringing that complaint up, but it it really is just hard to ignore considering youre reminded of this stuff once per chapter for every CS game, especially when things get really real in CS2 and CS4. Can definitely see some people just not finishing a certain one of these games because of it, especially if they havent played Sky or Crossbell (the latter does have some smaller harem stuff, but I at least think its mostly easy to ignore). Its a problem that "non-anime" games just dont face

mandatory italian moment: the "Bacca" part of "Baccano" isn't pronounced like that of "Buccaneer", it's more like "Buh-kkaah", as the stress goes on the second syllable anyway, very interesting video, i've always thought the same, although i do understand why this sentiment exists to begin with

I love thats its like anime.i love the idea of seeing my character grow even when I'm not playing them or they are the mains of the arc.no series does it better than the trails series...and yes I remember buffering to watch episodes of dbz that didn't air on toonami,ya thats way old school

Anyone that says something is "too anime" doesn't know much about anime.

Everytime I see this "to anime" critics, I want to say well it is Japanese RPG, what were you expecting ?

I mean, yeah... the vast majority of JRPGs are "anime". its actually one of the things I love most about the genre. But Cold Steel in particular is structured in such a way that feels very much like actually watching a long running anime show. Think of all the times Valimar's summoning was interrupted... Ugh... filler episodes. Now that's an anime trope I could do without. It's even worse in games because you CAN'T SKIP THEM.

"Trails is too anime" Me: I see that as an absolute win! I love tropes, especially ones I'm familiar with and I just go along for the ride so seeing them grow and have slight or even major changes is always fun. Also, I HATE school irl so you would think I would hate anything that had to do with school but anime and video games with school settings makes school so fun so I actually love it in there. It makes me sad that now the school setting is done with Trails, at least for now. I'm gonna miss it lol

Awww I love this series with a passion. I remember I had just finished watching Llelouch of the rebellion and then I started playing CS2 and was like lol did the creator just watch this and was like I want mechs in this game lmao xD. You are very correct with the popular anime of the time influenced the arc but I love them all anyway. “Too anime” no such thing! Btw I watched your crossbell cahpter reviews around I wanna say a year or more ago back when I wanted to know more about the arc since It wasn’t localized yet. It influenced me to find a way to play the game. Best decisionI made!

Fam, I love this. I enjoy Cold Steel and I don't think Cold Steel would work as well without the anime school tropes. Its how we got invested in the characters. Like, my entire perception of every character in the game would be fundamentally different without it. I would not like certain characters w/o the "too anime" facets. I would not be able to tolerate Alisa's flip-flopping or Laura's anti-social tendencies etc. without the anime presentation. I appreciate your video on this topic.

Slight SC spoilers, Opinion on CS1-4 that isn't directly spoiler but probably will affect your enjoyment if you haven't played those games yet. I guess people confuse the bad writing in coldsteel as something distinctly anime when its just bad writing. I can see someone looking at how dragged out the whole arc is and being like hey some anime also have too much going on so that a lot of plot lines go nowhere. The reason why people are harsher on Coldsteel than Sky and Crossbell is that Coldsteel has more noticeable issues that actually affect their enjoyment. People enjoyed Sky and Crossbell the whole way through. If you aren't enjoying something it becomes much easier to notice flaws and or at the very least feel that something is off even if its hard to put your finger on the specific thing. Replaying SC with the evo voice mod right now and I notice a lot more of how "liberal" the localization was in that game. To the point where many characters act way over the top and contradict future developments. Its mostly related to Renne but the words they use when referring to the enforcers are just so comically silly. Stuff like Ouroboros baby eaters. Its understandable knowing how tough that localization process was for the people involved and how they likely had no context concerning future games due to them being unlocalized but it still detracts from the experience. The first time around it was less noticeable because I didn't know what was actually said nor did I know how those characters were meant to act. The dialogue was still bad at times but due to the game still being very good underneath its easy to push aside as a new player. Coldsteel has plenty of great moments but after playing through all 4 games most of them get tainted by the knowledge of what actually ends up happening. I thoroughly enjoyed Rean's character arc in CS1 and 2 but don't agree with the choices taken in 3 and 4. A ton of emotional scenes throughout the games get entirely ruined by turning out to be bait and switches later. Portions of the games either rush things or drag them out incredibly long. Instead of there being 1-2 boring characters among 14 other great characters there are 1-2 good characters among 20 characters that either get no development or get worse. CS4 especially had so many moments that genuinely made me mad and would've made me drop the game if it wasn't part of trails.

It's not that Trails has become more anime, it's anime that's become more tropey with time. While Cold Steel reflects that, it still creates something unique.

The cold steel series is easily the top game in in my list when it comes to story. Im excited to play the crossbell arc soon!