Trails of Cold Steel II - Release Date: February 14

HiddenX

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The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II will be released on February 14:

Peace is but a Memory.

In the wake of the Noble Faction’s occupation of Heimdallr, civil war has broken out across Erebonia. The provincial armies, loyal to the aristocracy and the Four Great Houses, have claimed many of the nation’s great cities in the name of the Noble Alliance. The Imperial Army, called back from the four corners of the Empire, has only just begun its sweeping counterattack.

After Rean managed to escape Trista with Celine and Valimar, he awakens in the mountains near his hometown uncertain what fate befell his friends, who bravely threw themselves in harm’s way to buy him time to flee.

Though the road will not be an easy one, Rean decides to take up his sword again, journeying across Erebonia with his Divine Knight, Valimar, in search of his friends from Class VII and a way to end the conflict before its price becomes far too dear…

Taking place on the same continent as the fan favorite Trails in the Sky offshoot of Nihon Falcom’s storied The Legend of Heroes franchise, Trails of Cold Steel II (Sen no Kiseki II in Japanese) is a direct sequel to Trails of Cold Steel, picking up one month after the decisive collision that changed the fate of the entire nation of Erebonia. The speedy, tactical turn-based combat with the newly-developed “ARCUS” system returns with all the bells and whistles together with the new Overdrive mode, new means of transportation both across the land and sky, new allies, new dangers, and a renewed sense of hope as Rean tirelessly works to right the wrongs that have led the country to disarray.

KEY FEATURES


  • A Direct Sequel that Remembers the Past
    Clear data from Trails of Cold Steel carries over into Trails of Cold Steel II, granting players bonuses, and most importantly, remembering the many relationships cultivated during time spent at Thors Military Academy, allowing for more personalized conversations throughout the story.
  • Take to the Land and Sky in New Modes of Transportation
    Fast travel isn’t just for Trista anymore; a personalized airship now allows players to swiftly choose and descend upon both familiar and foreign destinations alike—and on land, horseback riding not only returns, but players can now customize and utilize Angelica’s orbal bike for fast transportation across the map.
  • The Link System Returns with a new Overdrive Mode
    Bonding with allies continues to pay off with the Combat Link System, netting a variety of combat benefits including healing, guarding, and more, and the new Overdrive mode allows linked characters to attack up to three turns in a row for new strategic battle options.
  • Experience the Game as Never Before
    50% more lines of English voice-overs have been added to the PC release, bringing a fresh experience to even those who have played it before on console. New features for this release include ultrawide aspect ratio support, turbo mode, and an instant resume feature that allows players to launch directly from Steam to their most recent save.
More information.
 
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Can't wait!
 
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I thought you'd be pleased. ;)

Looking forward to playing these. The jrpg seems to recovering its reputation in recent years.
 
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So, on the JRPG scale how is this with childish dialogue and interminable cutscenes? Or endless grind?
Serious question - I have played the odd JRPG, so I'm not completely anti, but I've bounced off the last dozen or so I've tried that got significant praise.

How will you find time for all these mega games being released ? It seems like at least 2 a month ?

Hell, I'm still catching up with games from years ago, let alone trying to play recent releases. I'll bump certain games up the priority queue, though (e.g. Elex and the forthcoming Avernum 3).
 
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Trails of Cold Steel isn't particularly grind heavy, but can be a bit cut-scene-y if you don't care for that (I'd say it is "middle of the road" for this).

Its base of operations is a school, though, and whilst most of the action takes place away from that environment, you *are* dealing with a group of teenagers interacting. As far as school-set games go, it is above average (I really struggle with school settings) and I played a goodly chunk of the first game before getting distracted. I definitely enjoyed it more than FF Type-0 which was also school-based.
 
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So, on the JRPG scale how is this with childish dialogue and interminable cutscenes? Or endless grind?

You're in luck here - the whole Trails series (on PC at least) has a handy little 'Turbo' feature that lets you speed up scenes and battle animations that you think are taking too long, which makes any overlong cutscene go by at a much more bareable rate.
 
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So, on the JRPG scale how is this with childish dialogue and interminable cutscenes? Or endless grind?
This game is not rated mature. It does have some innuendo, but there is no obscene character like in Trails in the Sky (predecessor trilogy). On one side it's a shame as I still wait for a game that'll dare to venture into orgies, on another side parents that keep kids under a bell of glass make more buys.

Grind is something you won't to do excessively in this game as it gives you almost no benefits, it's just wasted time on nothing. Because of low cash per chapter, you might want to grind a fresh dungeon through two times just so you can afford new equipment for everyone, but that's it as there is absolutely no reason to grind it endlessly. I wish the port "fixed" this cash rewards part so there is no reason to grind through any area at all, but it's still good.

Now cutscenes are their own story. You have to experience it yourself - enable so called turbomode and they play as fastforward on VCRs (battles included!). I wish more games used this system.

P.S. Sorry for repeating what others said. For some reason the browser didn't show me prevous posts till I made this one. Bad Firefox, baaad!
 
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As someone who hates grinding with a passion, I'm glad most newish JRPGs (from the last 7 or so years ago) don't require grinding. This is no exception, you can play and finish the game without grinding one bit.
Also, I don't know why anyone can complain about cutscenes in JRPGs. Bioware games all have 20 times more cutscenes than these games.
 
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