Game Review: Eiyuu densetsu: sen no kiseki II / Trails of Cold Steel 2 (PS Vita)

Sen no kiseki II (Trails of Cold Steel 2) is a sequel that boasts many improvements over the original, notably the music, graphics, and combat. It picks up shortly after the cliffhanger ending of Sen no kiseki (review here), and resolves a number of mysteries from the first game. Overall, it's a terrific game with a couple of glaring flaws.

In the sequel, the chancellor's shooting ignites a civil war within the Erebonian Empire. As the Noble Faction pits its provincial armies against the imperial forces still loyal to the chancellor, protagonist Rean Schwarzer must reunite with Class VII, his comrades from Thors Military Academy. Together, they contribute to efforts to end the fighting and assist innocent civilians. Meanwhile, hidden forces plot an outcome that bodes ill for everyone, regardless of allegiance...

Sen no kiseki II is the seventh entry into the Eiyuu densetsu: kiseki (Legend of Heroes: Trails) series, which takes place on the continent of Zemuria. Characters from previous games/other countries make an appearance, such as Prince Oliviert from Sora no kiseki (Trails in the Sky, my review here), and [SPOILER] from [EXTREME SPOILER, my review here]. These cameos, as well as mentions of other states and international events, expand the scope of the game and remind players that everything is connected, so buy the other Trails games now!

The gameplay in Sen no kiseki II retains most of the elements of the original, with a turn-based combat system, tons of sidequests and hidden quests, character bonding events, and NPCs with elaborate backstories. Towns, monster-infested roads, and secret dungeons abound. The main story progresses in two Acts, with an Intermission, Finale, Divertissement, and Epilogue to further pad playtime. This allows the sequel to expand the world introduced in the first game, with a larger roster of playable characters, lots of mecha combat, and more locations available and easily accessible via airship.

A digression: the airship mechanic annoyed me. It’s fine if you have stuff to do or people to talk to on board, but actual travel, presumably the vehicle’s primary function, is a three-step process. THREE STEPS! Ain’t no one got the time to (1) get on board, (2) talk to the captain, and (3) select a location. It’s such a contrast to the teleportation function in towns/cities (press square, instant travel!). Grumble, grumble, I am old and cranky.

Fortunately, the shining gem of Sen II’s gameplay – the combat system – is so wonderfully broken that I’m willing to overlook most anything. Apart from the devastating special crafts (S Crafts, basically Limit Breaks), there’s the Over-Rise mode (essentially the Burst feature from Ao no kiseki), which unlocks when combat-linked characters fill a special meter. In Over-Rise, characters get extra HP, EP and CP, and spells are instantaneous. Then there’s Rush, which, as the name implies, is when multiple characters rush in simultaneously to attack enemies. But the core of the battle system is the combat links, wherein paired characters get special abilities that improve as their link levels rise, e.g. Arts or CP boosts, quick healing, EP recovery, etc. With my favored paired characters decked out with speed enhancements and other attribute boosts, by the end of Act 2, I was practically untouchable and could wipe the floor with supposedly difficult hidden bosses (Lindbaum didn’t even scratch me!).

The soundtrack is similarly outstanding. Every single track is worth a listen, and I was surprised at how familiar and nostalgic the Divertissement track was—those who played Zero and Ao no kiseki will know what I’m talking about. The music is so good that I get all pumped for epic boss fights, and dutifully tear up during emotional scenes. I am a puppet, I dance!

Another strength of Sen no kiseki II is the characters, although not everyone shines in this category. Despite having 21 playable characters, the core of the game is still Class VII, a group of nine youths assembled to overcome the empire’s social stratification (plus two added later for less idealistic reasons).

Top row: Jusis, Machias, Laura, Emma, Gaius; Bottom row: Instructor Sara, Fie, Alisa, Rean, Eliot, Millium, Crow

Rean is his usual lost-yet-determined self, quick to jump in with an inspirational and corny speech to change hearts and minds. Jusis makes a choice that makes him a true noble. Emma becomes less distant. Laura and Fie remain badasses, and Eliot is still adorable. The most unexpected improvement was Alisa, who shows that she’s observant, empathetic, and understands the burdens carried by her classmates. By contrast, in the first game, she was mostly defined by her terrible relationship with her mother (who is still not Mother of the Year, by the way). Only Machias and Gaius, whose backgrounds were covered in the original, stay flat and frankly, pointless. Be OP (overpowered) or get out!

Now let’s talk about the plot, which is both a strength and a weakness. There are two things going on here: the Erebonian civil war, and the machinations of Ouroboros, the hidden society whose members side with the Noble Faction to further their own ends. The Erebonian civil war is straightforward: nobles who want to preserve the social order are vying against the reform-minded meritocratic national army (and Class VII, which is a mix of the social classes).

Meanwhile, Ouroboros has been a mainstay of every single Trails entry, meaning they (and the developers) are playing a long game. The society has an ultimate goal called The Orpheus Final Plan, and their various projects leading up to it serve as the main obstacles to Trails heroes, e.g. the Phantom Flame Project from Sora no kiseki. In Greek mythology, Orpheus was a musician who tried to bring his wife back from the dead, so I’m guessing Ouroboros wants to revive the goddess Aidios, the oft-mentioned and sole deity in all Trails games. In Sen no kiseki II, Ouroboros’ project is the grandly-titled Phantasmal Blaze Plan, and it’s connected to events in Crossbell from the Zero and Ao no kiseki games. It's a hot mess, and thus weakens the plot: all the confusion takes focus away from the characters' growth.

Speaking of hot mess, what was up with that fake ending??? Here’s what happened, dear reader: I went into what looked like the final dungeon, defeated four sets of sub-bosses, whomped all three forms of the presumably final boss, and got rewarded by a predictable plot twist. And then came another plot twist, and the screen cut to black, a J-pop song blared, and credits rolled. I was like, “Nailed it in under 80 hours! Will wonders never cease!” AND THEN THE GAME KEPT GOING FOR ANOTHER BILLION YEARS.

I exaggerate, but there were two whole other sections that followed that “ending,” which NO. Just No. The only good news is that it leads into a wonderful callback to Ao no kiseki, where a certain scantily-clad lady shows off what a dancer’s legs look like (Muscular! Amazing!).

Speaking of scantily-clad, what happened to the rest of Fie’s civilian clothes? What, Nihon Falcom couldn’t just make her breasts bigger for the sequel, like they did with all the other ladies?

Fie: Still 15, now with 40% less clothing!

In conclusion, Sen no kiseki II is a strong sequel that requires a lot of time and commitment that perhaps could be lavished on other things, such as one's offspring, for instance. While I’m happy with the experience and shipped Rean and Laura as hard as I could, I will likely not be playing Sen no kiseki III  anytime soon because (a) it's on PS4, not Vita, (b) meaning I would have to create a new PSN account so I can play the game since there’s no localized version yet, and (c) I’d rather play the latest Ys, which has a far superior combat system and manages to create a sense of epic scale despite deliberately limited geography and a much shorter playing time.

TL;DR: Recommended for hardcore fans of the Trails series or lovers of excellent JRPGs.

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Game Review: Eiyuu densetsu: sen no kiseki (PS Vita)

Eiyuu densetsu: sen no kiseki (Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel) is another excellent installment in the Trails series by developer Nihon Falcom. This time, the action takes place in the Erebonian empire and focuses on a group of students attending Thors Academy, an elite military school.  The group, called Class VII, is a mix of commoners and nobles -- highly unusual in a country with a rigid social system. Players take Class VII members through their first year of military training, and, naturally, tropes, teen drama, and absurdities abound. The game was released in 2013.

Sen no kiseki does nearly everything right. The music is top-notch, with absolutely perfect tracks for all situations: battles, towns, character tensions, quiet evenings, mysterious happenings, even homeroom! I mean, a short speech during an academy board meeting gets an epic swelling score, which was both ridiculous and yet appropriate. The opening theme is fun, and so is the ending. At one point, Class VII even has a concert! Kudos to Falcom Sound Team jdk for their continuing magnificent work on the series soundtracks.

The visuals are similarly impressive. The biggest change from the game's most recent predecessor, Ao no kiseki (Trails of Azure), is that the characters are fully formed 3D models, rather than adorable little sprites:

Sprites vs 3D models

A drawback of these snazzy graphics is that it's easy to see that a lot of the NPCs are identical, which is much easier to get away with when they're li'l baby sprites.

The physical environments share the same look from all Trails games: vaguely European and nineteen thirties (trains! retro airships!), but with magic! Class VII spends a lot of time on campus, and visit various cities within the empire as part of their studies. In all these places, the indoor locations are oddly enormous. Meanwhile, the monsters' designs range from formidable to forgettable, and the dungeons are dank and thankfully brief (except the last one).

The gameplay is where Sen no kiseki really shines. In particular, it's helpful that equipping quartz and thereby gaining Arts (magic spells) is no longer a guessing game. In previous Trails games, specific Arts are only available when you line up certain values of elements (e.g. 2 Fire, 1 Time, etc.), but this time around, a single quartz can provide one or more Arts. Master Quartz, which were introduced back in Ao no kiseki, continue to be helpful with their status boosts. The turn-based battles are a breeze, so grinding is not too much of a chore. The boss fights aren't hard, either.

As with any Trails game, Sen no kiseki is a completionist's dream...or nightmare. There is an insane number of collectibles, many of which serve some obscure yet awesome purpose, like granting fragments required to forge a character's strongest weapon. Talking to particular NPCs reveals recipes, which yield multiple dishes, depending on who's doing the cooking. (I cooked so much that I barely used actual items.) And there's fishing! It's literally just button-mashing so it doesn't hold a candle to the glorious experience offered by Final Fantasy XV, but fishing has been a mainstay of the Trails series since 2004's Sora no kiseki.

AND YOU CAN RIDE HORSIES IN CHAPTER THREE! HORSIES MAKE EVERYTHING BETTER.

(to the tune of "I'm on a Boat") "I'm on a horse!"

Finally, little improvements make a big difference for gamers. For instance, the mini-map has dots representing persons in towns, and red arrows are enemies on roads or dungeons. Your next destinations are marked with symbols, with colors indicating whether they're optional or required. The characters can run at top speed, and you can just teleport to key locations to save time. Bonding with your classmates only requires a card game or a conversation. So easy!

But the real meat of any JRPG, indeed any video game, are the story and characters. The Trails series has set high standards that Sen no kiseki meets. The main character, Rean, starts out as a typical protagonist: earnest and skilled with a sword. But it's shown early on that he's hiding something, and so is pretty much everyone in Class VII. Even their instructor, Sara, is playing her cards close to her chest. All the kids in Class VII are interesting and well developed, and they grow together over the course of the year. I point to the drama in the diagram below:

Adversarial relationships to overcome: Machias (glasses, gun) and Jusis (blond, sword) + Alisa (blonde) and Rean (boy band hair) + Laura (greatsword) and Fie (the little kid). Plus Emma (glasses) has a different agenda

The supporting characters are a great bunch, too. My favorite is Angelica, who's constantly hitting on any woman in sight. Celine is also terrific, because she is a cat. A magic cat.

"Meow. Also, let me guide you to your destiny~"

Ostensibly, the students at Thors are pursuing their studies against the backdrop of increasing hostilities between two factions of the empire: the Nobles and the Reformists, very Meiji Japan. The Nobles want the class system in place; the Reformists want merit, not birth, to determine rank. Class VII is a microcosm of that larger conflict, with Machias, a hotheaded commoner, immediately butting heads with the aloof Jusis, scion of one of the Four Great Houses. Other classmates have issues with each other, too; see above. Rean is constantly called upon to keep the peace, and he actually does a decent job, if only because everyone feels super awkward after one of his "inspirational" speeches.

As everyone learns to get along, a new threat emerges: the Imperial Liberation Front, whose immediate goal is to remove the leader of the Reformist faction. The antagonists aren't cartoonishly evil: they each have their own backstories and motivations, and they try to minimize civilian casualties during their operations. However, members of the military are fair game, including students...

This is where players really have to suspend their disbelief: that a group of first-year military academy students consistently foil nationally-destabilizing plots by a well-organized and well-funded group, and the only consequence is one stern lecture from an instructor about how they might not be lucky next time. Also, why are we fighting robots with swords??? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Through it all, the game deals with a number of important themes: friendship and unity, knowledge and trust, power and responsibility, family and duty, and more. The writing is exceptional, if voluminous; Trails games are known for having LOTS. OF. TEXT. All the text. I played this in Japanese and watched runthroughs in English, and noticed that the XSeed localization can be...sassier. But certainly the translations capture the content and intent, as opposed to Tales games translations, which are atrocious, but somehow in a good way.

Anyway, on a final note, Sen no kiseki took me ~70 hours to complete, and about 30 hours were cut scenes. I'm not exaggerating--I calculated this based on EmiruTheKnight's YouTube videos of all cut scenes and boss battles. I had some doubts about picking up the sequel, but this game ended in a cliffhanger so Sen no kiseki II is on its way to me right now. I shall regain my honor and defeat my foes!!!

Random items of note:

• PSA: There's an update that fixes the slow loading times for the hard copy Vita version! Download immediately!
• PSA 2: Press the cancel button during cut scenes to fast forward.
• The timeline in Sen no kiseki overlaps with the Crossbell arc (Zero no kiseki and Ao no kiseki), and the scrappy little city-state gets a lot of mentions within the game. Still, Zero and Ao aren't required to enjoy Sen.
• Having said that, Rean is a lot like the Crossbell protagonist, Lloyd. They're both earnest, competent, have troubled pasts...
• This is mean, but I disliked Alisa's English voice so much that I'm getting Sen no kiseki II in Japanese. I'd rather struggle with kanji (and boy, do I struggle) than listen to her. 
• I'm shipping Rean and Laura:

Laura's dad already approves of Rean! Get to it!

TL;DR: A strong start to a spectacular trilogy! I'm into it!

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