Trails of Cold Steel II - Review @ Wccftech

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Wccftech has reviewed The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II:

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II PC Review – Enduring Excellence

Last year, XSEED gave PC players some needed JRPG love with the release of The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd and The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel. The latter is not only one of the best classic JRPG released on all formats in recent years, but also one of the best consoles-to-PC ports ever, thanks to a variety of additional features that make the PC version the definitive version. Now, the series is back with its second chapter, The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II, which is considerably better than its predecessor for several reasons, despite a gameplay experience that’s basically the same.

[...]

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II is an excellent JRPG and a more than worthy continuation of the saga, thanks to a gripping story, well-developed characters, and engaging battle system. While the gameplay experience hasn't changed much, with only some small enhancements to the battle system and an airship customization system, the game manages to be slightly better than its predecessor, mostly thanks to some interesting and unexpected plot twists and a story that doesn't end in a huge cliffhanger like its predecessor. Highly recommended to all JRPG lovers.

Pros


  • Very good story
  • Well-developed characters
  • Excellent world building
  • Engaging battle system
  • Vast array of PC exclusive features
Cons


  • Pacing issues at the middle point of the story
  • Huge amount of text, even for a JRPG, which may turn off some
Score: 8.5/10
More information.
 
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Did they change Trails in the Sky's battle system that by mid-game became extremely boring and super repetitive?
 
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The battle system is an enhanced version of the Trails in the Sky System.
The normal street monsters are easy at mid-game, but boss fights are always a challenge and you can't use the same tactic all the time.
 
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Have it and this should be the next title up when I finish Tales of Berseria. They should have enough patches on it by then to make it just perrrrrfect!
 
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The battle system is an enhanced version of the Trails in the Sky System.
The normal street monsters are easy at mid-game, but boss fights are always a challenge and you can't use the same tactic all the time.

Thank You for the info. Hm, sounds intriguing!
 
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Can't say I like this review.

It lacks of details. Like how come they didn't notice better music quality than in it's predecessor (no I didn't play ToCS2 yet, but I always like to be informed which wasn't hard, thanks to Falcom who put OSTs on youtube).

Huge amount of text under cons is another thing. ToCS2 is supposed to be stortydriven RPG, not Tetris and not Doom. Of course it will have crapload of text and I'd put that under pros, not cons. Unless of course my audience is dislectic people (note - my best friend is dislectic and dosn't play heavy on story RPGs because of it but also doesn't think walls of text is something negative just because of that problem).
Instead of pointing at quantity, the reviewer could, should in fact, concentrate on the quality. Is the text cheap, boring and irrelevant filler or is fun and exciting to read? Is the translation stupid and silly or feels a job well done?

The review says "Highly recommended to all JRPG lovers.". Yea, I'm not jRPG lover, in fact I can't stand designs in most of them (checkpoints, endless respawns, mushroomUI, lack of mature content to name a few). Does this mean I'll hate ToCS2?
Assuming it's similar to the first game there is a high chance I'll like it although I'm not jRPG lover.

To repeat, I didn't play the game yet (no time because KCD and FF15) and the game can be plain rubbish or another gem, I honestly don't know.
But I can't say I like this review.
 
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