Legend of Heroes Trails of Cold Steel
8.5/10
Beat this a few days ago. A lot better than I expected going in (I disliked the localized PSP garghav trilogy). Filled with dialogue and exposition as one would expect from a Legend of Heroes game. It took me just shy of 70 hours and I wasn't really lollygagging at all, in fact I had started practically skipping the text in the filler side quests (needed for best ranking). The plot is nothing to write home about exactly, though it's within the same world as Trails in the Sky and does continue through two more games so it could be more interesting. It's certainly better than a lot newer of JRPGs I have played lately in that regard. At least the developers cared about crafting this world and it shows with the lore/backstory you can find in the game. The battle system is where this game truly shines. Lots of options but not so complex that it's annoying. Straight forward and menu driven. Enemies are visible on the map everywhere, so no random battles. The final boss sequence has two fights with a slightly different combat method which I am thinking will be a part of the series going forward (sporadic fights here and there I don't want to spoil anything by mentioning more).
tl;dr If you like JRPGs buy this game.
