The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II

Cold Steel II is a pretty successful sequel in my eyes. As a culmination of most of the elements laid out in the first game, it benefits from player investment into the world and the characters. The writing is a bit of a mixed bag as it was in the first game, with strong moments of detail in the worldbuilding and politics of Zemuria, but a cast of characters that tend to lean a little too hard on established tropes. Although there are small moments of good character development and well written interactions, a lot of the dialogue is incredibly unnatural and occasionally cringe-inducing. Luckily, the gameplay is phenomenal, with a huge amount of systems and potential for customization. The ARCUS/orbal system is incredibly addictive and the game is full of well designed and unique combat scenarios that put the player's mastery of the systems to the test. The game has made the enemies more powerful, given the player more abilities, increased the amount of optional content, and opened the game world for exploration, making for a potentially easier but more open-ended experience than the first. In this game we finally get a sense of what Erebonia feels like on a large scale, and some very interesting lore is laid out. While the game is not perfect (it could use a slightly better central plot and perhaps a more versatile soundtrack) it is, as per usual, a lot of fun to explore the deep gameplay and detailed world the Trails games have to offer.

How quick I was to assign this the JRPG with the best world-building and theming so soon before Persona 5's release, but this is not take away from Cold Steel 2, which takes the realistic setting and creeds that made Cold Steel 1 so invigorating and compelling and, through the civil war backdrop, only amps up the excitement and involvement. Though it stumbles a bit with regards to not heightening the stakes enough, the investment CS2 commands is still off the charts, important for a game this long, and met my expectations after the let-down of the first game's ending. A bit more balance could have made the story a classic, alongside a truncated final act, and honestly, more interesting gameplay.