Not solved.
Unkalibriert: Trails in the Sky supports it, I see no reason why Trails of Cold Steel wouldn't do the same.
I do have four games of the legend of heroes series:
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd
and
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel
Hardware windows 8.1 and a shiny new original x-box one controller, connected via bluetooth and/or an usb cable.
I have no problem running the first three, even in linux with wine I can run the first three games.
But the last one "Trails of Cold Steel" is using a new game engine. My controller does *not* work out of the box.
No button press or joystick movement is recognized.
My solution is to start steam, add a non steam game to my steam library. Configure this game specifically as suitable for a normal gamepad and start this game within steam. Now everything is working.
Never found another new game not compatible with my original x-box one controller. The setup screen of this game does include an option for a x-box 360 controller, but there are obvious differences between the older controller and my new x-box one controller. I have updated all drivers for windows and the firmware of my controller.
No other software is running on my new pc and interfering with my setup.
I am unable to get it running without the hassle to configure it within steam.