Why You Should Play Trails (It's Pretty Great) 

My advice for how to start Trails: >Start with Sky (the beginning of the series) That is all

You missed something very, very important. The NPCs. Most of the NPCs in each game have their own story. While they don't have a "schedule" like say, Skyrim, so they don't walk around in real time, they have lots of dialogue and their stories progress as you progress the game. And sometimes you can witness something building over time that may come up in a sidequest later on, and if you talked to those NPCs multiple times before that point, you'd know what's up with them. For example a nearby family has a son studying for exams. His mom is proud of him, but she dislikes his father who's an alcoholic. Over the course of the game, he starts getting worse and worse at his studies/mock exams, while his mother becomes more overbearing. This eventually snowballs into a case where he starts acting out, and you even get a quest for it later on down the line. This makes the game feel more alive to me. The NPCs having actual stories and relationships that progress.

This is hands down my favorite video game series that I can't get anyone to try/stick with longer than Sky FC or Cold Steel 1. It's very sad.

OMG I love this video it's literally perfect how you talk about the games perfectly without spoiling them. Thanks!! I have one complaint though, half the time I had to rewind to hear what you were saying because I was too busy gawping at the awesome gameplay and graphics!😅

Hey man thanks for the video, I've got plans to invest into the trails starting next year, the reason was because I saw the trailer for the latest release in the west, and than saw a Google ad about how it would take over 600 hours to fully play through the trail series to be ready for the new game, so it got me curious so I watched some videos on RU-vid, and decided to give it a shot since it looks fun, plus I like long connecting series that have a connection to previous games having share story threads like with kingdom hearts, plus the characters design for the trails series looks cool, the only reason I'm waiting until next year's is I want to complete my sword art online game series first before I pick up another multi game series since it's a big investment

I've been rewatching and re-listening to Kuro I ending for three days. Koguchi did his best. Kuro arc is a big step forward. I hope it will be without 24-16 pair =)

I, like many new fans, started with Cold Steel. I was instantly hooked on the series and was fortunate enough to come in at an amazing time. Not only did I purchase all four Cold Steel games during a PlayStation sale but the Crossbell arc was soon to be released officially here in the States. As a console gamer I didn't think I'd be able to check out the Sky trilogy but I eventually got a Steam Deck and that changed. The world building of the Trails series is amazing. I have quite some ways to go but I look forward to Daybreak.

THANK YOU JOSHHHHH 😭😭😭😭😭

Starting with Step Ahead, I already know this vid is gonna be a banger

I've always liked thinking of the different arcs as exploring different kinds of relationships... Sky is about romantic love and the strength of that bond Crossbell is about family (found or otherwise) Cold Steel is about friendship, which is why the bonds between class VII feel more ephemeral. Every bit as strong, but a little looser as to allow separation And, I haven't played it so I wouldn't know, but Calvard seems maybe like it's about coworkers and the relationships that form between them not sure if the idea falls off in Calvard though xD EDIT: Oh also... Laura had the potential to be a good character, but they kinda.... never did anything with her xD (she went the way of Elie *tears*) - I still think she's the best match on paper with Rean, because Rean and Laura help each other and support each other in Cold Steel 1... whereas Rean has very one-sided relationships with the other girls... it's too bad that they... just never did anything with Laura after that.

While I STRONGLY recommend this franchise...its a series with a boatload of issues in my opinion but it is greater than the sum of its parts. Examples of some of its issues: - Poor balance between story and action. Sometimes you get what feels like 60+ minutes of story+NPC discussions with 15 load screens as you travel across maps and almost no combat. Other times (typically final dungeons but not exclusively) you'll get 4 hours of combat with maybe 10 minutes of story sprinkled in. - Lack of stakes in the storytelling. I can't go into detail for spoiler reasons so hopefully Trails players just know what I mean. - Too much Repetition in story beats. - Playing along side a guide for the entire franchise is basically mandatory...not for the reasons of difficulty but to get the most out of the story I'm revisiting this franchise currently. First time I've revisited and actually played everything back to back to back. The revisit experience has been GREAT. I played some games out of order the first time and with gaps of years between them. I jumped from Sky to Cold Steel. Playing Crossbell arc before Cold Steel ENCHANCES Cold Steel for sure. Its all building to my first ever time playing Reverie which will be in a couple months at this rate. Great franchise. Recommended for sure.

Trails is like the pinnacle of story telling. Lloyd and Zero/Azure is probably my favourite arc but Reverie ties it up quite nicely...but Rufus is my main man lol

4:29 Whatever you may think of Laura, you gotta admit Laura can hit like a fucking truck.

Don't do my boy dirty like that come on.. ;-; Poor pineapple..

great video! love the trails game so much.

So many things I want to comment here... 1) ... and most important one... Kevin who? 2) The only other game series that gives me Kiseki vibes is Genso Suikoden. The main series is 8 games long (5 RPGs, 2 Visual novels and 1 SRPG). Second game onwards it's clear there is a main plot behind the scenes, and each game happens in a different country of the world, with a different conflict and returning characters. Mostly Trails before Trails. 3) I know they are not directly related, but both the Iselhasa duology and Gagharv trilogy are also as great as the Kiseki series. Iselhasa has a first game that seems very generic, but once you get to the second game you start to understand the nature of that world. Gagharv on the other hand has the games that inspired Kondo. Sky FC is litereally the premise of the Legend of Heroes III game with both protagonist + the Adventure guild from the original Legend of Heroes IV + an improved version of the magic system of Legend of Heroes V + an evolution of the combat in the remake of Legend of Heroes IV as turn based instead of turn with pause. Gagharv is a great trilogy with a continuous story. I really wish the Trails series does link to it at some point. 4) I always thought that Kondo took a lot of influence of City Hunter for Kuro no Kiseki. 4SPG is the same as the XYZ from City Hunter. Even Cat's Eye burglars seem to have influenced Grimmcatz. There was a movie revival on 2019 which feels like the time they could have started developing the first Kuro game. 5) I don't agree that Sky FC combat was that basic. Everything is there, turn order, turn bonus, s-crafts, s-breaks, the 7 elements. It's simple compared to how it has evolved later on, but the fundation is still in that game. 6) Kuro's combat was better than I initially though. What they did in Kuro 2 with it was a good evolution and I'm looking forward for Kuro 3's improvements. Anyway, nice video :D Hopefully more people are going to give the Kiseki series a try, and hopefully they play from Sky FC onwards.

Man dude i'm in for a long ride. Started with Liberl arc, just finished Crossbell arc, and now half way into ToCS1. I still have a long way to go but enjoying it very much and already turning into my fav jrpg series.

I've been avoiding Kuro content like the plague and all of this footage is really making me struggle with waiting for the official localization. Great video.

great editing bro

I'll try my best not to write a big wall of text but I wont make any promises. TLDR : when you buy a trail games, you are getting an interesting story, a good turn base combat but also an audio masterpiece. I started the trails series with Cold Steel 1 because I was bored and the description looked interesting enough for me to try it to kill time. I was no stranger to turn base JRPG but there was something I found pretty engaging about the game that made me stick. Graphic aside, the story was overall solid (although slow paced and boring at time), the combat was ok and so were the music. But it was the second game, Cold Steel 2 that for me made me fall in love with the series. The overdrive mechanic was something nice (although very long to prepare) and it added a little flavor to the combat system. The story was "similar" to CS1 but when things hits, it hits. This is also the game that pretty much convinced me that Falcom knows how to put some good music at the good time (more on that below). Cold Steel 3 and Cold Steel 4 for me must be put together. CS3 introduces brave order and honestly, even today, I still think I have not mastered the full potential of what shenanigans I can do with these order to cheese the game. It is such a simple concept when you think about it and yet, it fits so well into the game you wonder why it was not in the previous title. CS4 doesn't add anything new to the combat system but outside of some nerf, nothing really changes. The story in both CS3 and CS4 is where the spicy things happens and if you played the previous title you can feel the build up that has been leading up to this point. And the music....what can I say except it's just so good. I havent been mentioning OST names not because I dont know but because someone who pays attention would be able to spoil himself on possible character/event. And finally Reve-sorry, Hajimari no Kiseki...This game makes me sad. Once again, great game with a great story told through 3 different routes. A new addition to the combat system in the form of brave assault (I think it's the name) and great music. Remember when I said that Falcom knows how to makes great music ? Well Rean's route battle theme has a vibe of CS2-CS3 and CS4 combined. You can feel the character progression through the theme. Lloyd's theme is very....Crossbelian but still with the idea of never giving up(which is a recurring thing regarding Crossbell). C's theme is the unique one and honestly pretty fitting considering the mystery behind the character. And despite all of that why do I say the game makes me sad ? Because this is the end of the road as far as the Erebonian arc goes (basically Cold Steel arc) but also Crossbell arc. Ever since Cold Steel 2 I have been just waiting and looking forward to upcoming years because I knew the next game will eventually release and I knew I had something to be excited for. But now, I feel like I lost a part of me in that form of expectation. I will definitely miss Altina, Randy,Crow and many more. Maybe one day Falcom will make a big surprise and we'll get to play a new Cold Steel game set in a future Erebonia with all my favorite cast but as sad as it is to leave them, I am glad I got to enjoy such game and I really wish more people will give it a try and hopefully find as much enjoyment as I had.

Lloyd Bannings.

I feel that the Oroborus goal is to prepare for invasion from outside of Zumeria, or somewhere along the line. Which we got teased with the up coming title, where they finally going to explore outside of Zumeria Continent.

No one ever uses suikoden as an example of world building. I’d say it’s the next best series after trails

this is hands down my favorite JRPG series, story, characters and music are really damn good and they also know how to set the mood in each scene. Also most impressive is that almost all the NPC are named and they have so different dialogues with each different scene.

It’s definitely a series I want to check out once I actually have a means to play most of them

I recently started playing trails in the sky FC. I played trails of cold steel 1-4 then went and played trails from zero and then azure. I decided I need to play trails in the sky to understand the full story and I’m enjoying trails in the sky so far.

One thing ppl rarely talks is the NPC, each have their own story arc, hell even sometimes their story spans multiple game! That what makes Trails feel special to me

I had no idea about the sky series. I played Cold Steel 1 and a large majority of Cold Steel 2. Then I found out about the Sky and Crosbell arc. I played all the Sky games and am on Chapter 4 of Trails from Zero. I have no regrets about going back and playing Sky. Looking forward to Azure.

It's my favorite series too, in fact, I'm doing a playthrough of the ENTIRE series here. Currently on the final stretch of Zero

This was the most based overview. I agreed with so much that you were saying, especially about the characters!

just beat Reverie today; working on post game tomorrow. First year of the pandemic i burned yakuza (0-6, then 7 when it came out, and ishin this year) 2nd year of pandemic? trails in the sky through cs4, reverie was the first one i got on release (i did fan translations of zero/azure so i didn't want to replay them when i have such a backlog) of 2 franchises i've just been introduced to in the last 2-3 years, these are my top 2 franchises I've ever dealt with, other ones got demoted

Can wait for this game

Why should you play? Because it’s the best JRPG series of all time. Video over ty for watching.

Love the sky and crossbells arc but man i though erobonia was mid with the exception of cold steel 3. How would you rank the arcs?

When I started watching anime, I did so because I was burned out of games... I had enough of gaming and moved into anime instead. Then I tried jrpgs, which I have never played before. And as much as I loved lots of them, be it Tales of, Neptunia, Xenoblade, Persona... Trails was just special to me. I even played some Ys games (epic games btw), but Trails are just unbeatable for me. The concept of many games building up a whole world and its story, it is just too good. I am among the lucky people that started with Sky without any previous knowledge of the series. I know lots of people who played cold steel 1 and then returned to Sky or just ignored it altogether... but man, nothing beats playing all trails game from the release... Sky, then Crossbell, Cold steel, Reverie and Kuro. I was so addicted. I takled with every npc in every game every time their dialogues reset, I explored and did all quests, fishing, everything games had to offer. (No I am not trophy hunter, I could not care less about trophies, I am all about the content of the game itself)... and I think I left around 1100 hours on those games. Currently I still need to play Kuro 2 so I expect at least another 60 hours or more... but yeah, it was the best ride I ever had in gaming ever. Definitely, trails is hard to play in several aspects, be it too time consuming or too much text, but it is worth it. You are part of that world at this point, immersion is huge. Btw. When you mentioned that director of the games is taking inspiration from other media etc., I just recently realized that Rivalries are definitely inspired by Holy Grail War from Fate.

I literally had a jaw dropping moment when you said, "in my Chancellor, I trust." ..... Currently in CSIII Chapter 3 sooooo lets see what happens 😮

WE ARE SO FUCKING BACK

Of course the Trails OST kicks ass. It's made by Nihon Falcom, the company that also produces the Ys series. The games where you have epic music from the beginning to the end.

the moment you said your fav ouroboros charas are mcburn, loewe, arianrhod, and ellroy, i knew u're a real one

I cannot believe you would do my boi Kevin like that!!!!

I played up to azure. It took me 4 years. It was an incredible experience that I probably will only get by continuing playing the series. I love the games and they mean a lot to me. But there’s something that bothers me. Seriously bothers me. The OST: It‘s got some really good tracks, some clean and memorable ones... the song that got me interested into the series was Silver Will as a matter of fact. There’s songs that move me because they remind me of the game. (Town tracks and night tracks especially). But -and I know this is a bit of a subjective thing- it‘s not consistently good. I feel like there are many filler tracks that don’t complete the ost/serve the purpose of the game and overall sound generic. I have heard people compare the ost to the likes of Nier, Final Fantasy (god bless Nobuo Uematsu), Persona (admittedly haven’t played yet) and other great soundtracks and it just... I disagree by a lot. I wanna know what the general sentiment is, not just the one from people wanting to promote tha games, but from people in the know. I remember my bother with this starting when playing smash with a friend an me telling him how glad I was that they added more tracks from ff so I could show them to him. He sorta dismissed it by telling me that his standard was too high now that he had played the trails games. At that point I found it baffling, because I had played the sky trilogy and -as enamored as I was with it, I would never even have thought of comparing them due to what I perceived was a substantial difference in quality. And I knew he wasn’t comparing, because he had not played any ffs. I know it’s dumb, but it really does bother me. I understand many people have many different needs, and that while the trails ost left me wanting, someone else might only care about the greats and not care about the ost as a whole... but then what do we mean when we say a game‘s ost is amazing? Can it mean so many things that it becomes an empty statement like „tomatoes are good“? Trails truly means the world to me, but does that mean I should be compelled to make shallow comparisons that might not even hold true, in order to show my love and appreciation for it?

When I got recommended Umineko and was told it's 140+hours I didn't even flinch because Trails of Cold Steel

So I tried playing Sky on psp but sigh so I got into Trails of Cold Steel which had a lot of dialogue like a lot but I managed to beat it. Wasn't to into the robot either battles are slow. Started part 2 on Vita but sigh not kicking it for me so I'll try Zero the Cold Steel 3-4 as the years go by. But overall its an amazing game.

Rn now my major issue with series comes down to the monetary investment. I could emulate the earlier games. But once we get beyond the psp there's just no way I could afford all of the games atm. Looks like a great series though

HELL YEAH BROTHER. I literally made a channel just to talk about the sky trilogy. Im still making the first video right now!

Have you u ever played Ys? It's pretty nice either.

I recently found out about this series and i really want to buy all the games for the ps4 that is because I don't have pc or switch like some people do. Anyways is it ok to start with the cold steel games and then play reverie because i saw these games on ebay where i buy my games(please don't judge me) and they are expensive like cold steel 1 cheapest i could find was like 75 dollars i still have other games I'd like to purchase like the tales of arise 2 that's coming out nov 9th and still need to get Hogwarts legacy at some point but i feel spending like 200 to 300 dollars on 5 trails games that's just too expensive. I've heard such great things about this franchise and wanted to give it a try since i did the same with tales of games I'm on my 4th tales game and i absolutely love it. The characters suck you in and once your invested in characters in a game your in it for the long hall. From what I've seen videos of trails games i only watched the trailers to all the trails games and omg I'm hooked already lol it looks so good the graphics the design it's just breathtaking imo anyways does anyone know if there's some where i could get these amazing games cheaper? I mean I'll spend the money if i have to go the expensive route but if there's another option I'd love to hear it. Question what all trails games are available on ps4 i know cold steel 123 and 4 are along with reverie but are the ones before that on ps4 or no i have a ps3 ps4 and a ps2 so i was just curious. This is a good franchise to dive into with winter coming and I'll be spending most of my time inside so i think this would be perfect. If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them thank you and have wonderful day/night wherever you are.

Whenever I think of a my favorite game Ost my brain always play joshua's harmonica

The trails music gives me arc system fighting game vibes. Lol

My favorite series is definitely Kuro no Kiseki. I really like it because the side missions in this series are something that always happen in real life (and I can relate to some of them because I have experienced those myself), and also I prefer Van than other trails of heroes protagonists (Rean, Estelle,or Lloyd), because Van isn't trying to sacrifice himself or to be a hero, he is just a normal human. Also, I prefer his way of life, everything has their own price, you can't expect someone to do your task without giving something in return. I mean, that's basically how most people live

I want to like this video but what you did to Kevin Graham hurts too deep. (Seriously though, fun video.)

How is it unironically possible to think that Reverie has the best story? I'm baffled.

Persona 4 got me into Trails of Cold Steel because of the School setting. I want to know if there’s other JRPGs that have School. I played Monarch unfortunately that’s not what I wanted.

Trails is my favourite game series of all time. Renne Supremacy

Ahh yes, Chancellor Gilliath Osborne. The villain that's been built up for 8 games.

Gods that star door 15💀

Where to start to get to reverie asap?

Trails is such a good series! I just wish cold steel one and 2 would come out on the switch.. And the sky trilogy lol

I completely agree with you. Despite being 12 games, they're all worth. Hopefully we'd get remakes for Liberl Arc someday tho 🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼

NOT THE FUNKY DOOR

GOOD SHIT JOSH

1. Cold Steel 4 2. Cold Steel 2 3. Reverie Azure, Zero and Sky 2/3 are close behind.

As a man of culture and intellect, a philanthropist and dreamer, I assert that Sarah Valestein & Estelle Bright are best girls (Sharon in her Ouroboros black leather a VERY close 2nd) Fight me irl if you disagree bruh 😂 No but being serious, what a stunningly fantastic series. I thought FF & Star Ocean were the OG’s of jrpg’ until I stumbled blindly upon a steam sale a decade ago. After purchasing TITSFC, on a shot to nothing, my life changed, I found Christ, met my wife and…….okay so it wasn’t THAT profound, but NOTHING has hit my jrpg addiction and cravings like this series. It has everything I have ever wanted, needed, and things I didn’t know I needed or wanted. The world building is unlike ANY world building I have ever seen in literature, let alone a bloody video game. TLOH series is not a ‘game’ my friends, it is a way of life, a life goal, your best friend, your wifu/husbando (yeah I said it 😂), it is the ONLY guru you ever need. Don’t believe me?, play it, then come back once you’re done and leave your apology and thank you reply right below.

Gonna have to drop a second comment for not accepting father Kevin. ya'll ignoring him as hard as Falcom is. He's still a MC he was 100% the MC of trails 3 Also, not a JRPG franchise (well kinda is now) but in terms of long term story, I'm also nominating Yakuza on that one. That and trails are my top 2 long telling arcs

Wait the hate towards the name "trails into reverie"? I think it sounds nice

AZURE ARBITRATOR JOSHHHH

ME WHEN AHHHHHH

I know, dear god I know!

Am I the only one who always says trials instead of trails?

I love this game series

So true

3:55 HE SAID HE SAID THE WORD

Kevin hate? That is not excusable.

I loved the series but I think I am burnt out on it now. I didn't even beat trails of reverie.

Evade counter build the Fie barrier

hate this series but good vid buddy ♥

Kevin who? 😂

Why not just, Legend of Heroes in general?

Cold Steel series is the my favorite. Sure, it started off S.L.O.W but it needed to be slow because you're thrown into Zemuria's largest country

Didnt even mention Dragon Quest in the beginning the most important jrpg series of all time.

and then there's Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door

Door 15 fucked me up

For the algos

We get it, you hate the name Reverie lol but why tho

4:44 #FreeKevinYouCowards

If i start.. 5years later i finish. So off putting

You did my boy green vash the stampede dirty. Kevin best mc

You threw some massive shade @4:45 of the video. Put some respect on the name of Father Kevin Graham, fifth dominion of the Gralslitters and the former Heretic Hunter.

The plot game is CHILDSH, but you can play if you dont have any better

I love this series but I got a little tired at CD4 for all the side quests system that is the same for everygame I think this games would be a lot betetr if the duration was 40/60 hours instead of 80/100

How can you be a huge fan of a series and not know how to pronounce the title of it? Japanese is the easiest language ever in terms of pronunciation. It's just flat. No emphasis on any particular syllable. I don't understand how people mess it up, or where they've learnt this stress. Do you just guess?

The writing got shit at Cold Steel.

My problem with trails is this is not a game this is just a movie 2 hours of boring converstion between anime characters than gameplay and combat for like 15 min

How many times can you pronounce Kiseki wrong in one video Josh: Yes

it's not so great if you don't like the supporting characters / NPCs... : / most of them really pissed me off. Some, (Like Angela) I just wanted to punch in the face. And if you can't chose to do that, where's the RPG aspect?

Xenoblade 🤙

see im interested in this series but when i look at it im a bit confused where to start plus im a broke bitch. i think im mainly going to wait till the early games are for like 15 dollars

I bought the entire Trails franchise on Steam after I stumbled across Estelle on R34 and fell in love. I hope she sppears in every game like people keep insisting lol