I want to write this review to let people know what they're in for, because for me Trails of Cold Steel was a huge letdown, and if you're like me then you'd prefer to not spend the money finding it out just how much of a different type of game this is from the original Trails In The Sky. The main critique I have with the game is that it is, in essence, a high school anime. Your characters are students at a prestigious military academy in Erebonia, which just so happens to be like every Japanese High School ever. This is such a bizarre decision to my mind. But it's not the fact that it takes place in a high school that makes me dislike it, it's that it becomes a high school anime game. It is watered down Persona, without the interesting look into psychology and sociology. We are treated to the kind of tropes high school anime makes you familiar with: Guy does something totally innocent that happens to put him on top of a girl, girl acts like he just molested her. Yeah, and it never goes away, it's something that lasts for the rest of the game when it happens in the first act. You've got the whole maid character who you are somehow supposed to be amazed by and is somehow crazy powerful and one step ahead of everything character, you have the obnoxious teacher who doesn't know what they're doing and drinks, and many, many more. And yet all of that wouldn't matter as much but for the fact that the main caste, the playable characters, are all a bit simple, a bit shallow. And part of this comes from being typical high school anime stereotypes, but more than anything is comes from how many of them there are. There's something like 12 total, which means there's just not enough time or creative talent to give each of them a good, deep personality and to explore that in the game. It also makes it frustrating to play the game when your party keeps rotating out people with only the MC as standard. If you like this sort of thing, you will like this game. If not, reconsider.
