After that cliffhanger of an ending from Cold Steel I, I finally have the closure I wanted after finishing this game...and all for 50 mira plus interest. Apart from that, it has been getting hard to review the Trails games. Each game has been BANGER after BANGER, especially the “second” part of an arc. Trails of Cold Steel II is no exception. If anyone enjoyed the first part of the Erebonia arc, I think anyone would be immediately hopping onto this game after that.

There are a lot of nitpicks I have seen with this game, and I do have my own nitpicks, but each Trails game so far has had so many positive experiences for me so far. Trails of Cold Steel II continues to follow Class VII and their HUGE roster of characters to play from, as well as guest characters. Despite the huge roster, there is still great character development for everyone, though not in the way I particularly like sometimes (gating certain developments behind bonding events or NG+ is an absolute sin in my opinion), but at least it is still there to be experienced. Not only that, while not as extensive as the main roster, they still manage to show development to even the most minor characters, and were talking ALL of Thors Military Academy. You see how they handle their own problems, and move forward during the game, and it is truly a treat to see that Nihon Falcom puts so much effort to almost every character in the game, despite their roles.

I still think the transition to 3D models really limited how epic certain scenes were, especially fight scenes. While still epic in its own right, I don’t think anything from Cold Steel so far beats scenes from the older sprite based games such as the run ins with Ouroboros members from the past arcs (IYKYK). The animations also still feel really clunky; it feels like something from a past generation and hasn’t aged very well. Despite that, I am aware of how much the 3D models and scenes improve in the future games, so it wasn’t something that soured my experience, but rather I look forward to experiencing it. There are also notable battle system changes since the past games; in fact a certain character mentions exactly how I felt about the ENIGMA to ARCUS systems, which is quite funny. Again, with the in game world ever changing, I expect to see this continue to evolve, for better or worse.

While I won't force any player to play a certain way, I now firmly believe that you ABSOLUTELY lose out on the satisfaction and excitement of certain scenes/events in the game if you didn’t play the series in JP release order/chronological order. Trails of Cold Steel I and II take place roughly around the same timeframe as Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure; with a different POV and with both locations taking place so close to each other, I think knowing what happened in the past games and especially knowing the characters has without a doubt, increased the enjoyment ALOT for someone who enjoys playing specifically for the story and world-building. In 2024, with the localization of the Trails series mostly complete, Trails through Daybreak upcoming in July and the future Kuro no Kiseki II: Crimson Sin and Kai no Kiseki games, it is definitely the best time to pick the series up if you haven’t yet.

Trails of Cold Steel II was an incredible finish to how the first game ended, and still continues to pique my interest in the developments happening on the continent of Zemuria. Being the 7th game I have completed in this series, the Kiseki series has absolutely become my favourite JRPG series in terms of world-building and excitement, and I am blessed and excited to continue this journey in Cold Steel III and beyond (on the PS5 lol, so this will probably be my last review for Trails on Steam unless I decide to double dip in the future).