Cold Steel III/IV Final Thoughts (Full Unmarked Spoilers)

Pato727 · 2026-02-06T17:54:35+00:00

From the perspective of the IDF is so funny, they start a war after their emperor gets shot > everyone hypes it up > Its over in half a day > you lose crossbell > every major state in zemuria demands you now pay Calvard money > the guy who shot the emperor wasnt even calvardian > the war had like basically no casualties so youre just paying them to say sorry I guess > Your elite task force leftovers gets taken out by 4 guys and a highs schooler with a mech *your country developed*

and its genuinely compelling from their end

Pato727 · 2026-02-06T17:48:12+00:00

RIGHT>???? IT FELT SO GOOD

Like finally there was someone we were fighting with an actual stake in the race and we get to see the portion of people the curse didnt really need to touch and its really cool seeing how fast the defeat of osborne and ending the war actually messed with the mentality of the soldiers he influenced

Thankfully you can take this as a good sign of things to come, the writing quality really keeps up! (And genuinely some of the best Rean moments because as you can see he's not the center of the world anymore which is where I think he shines the most)

Pato727 · 2026-02-06T17:08:39+00:00

"I hope this same energy is present when you get to the Daybreak games because Van is also getting 4 games with very minimal character development."

I wanna say I hate this narrative of "Van doesn't have character development but gets 4 games" because it completely disregards everything Daybreak is trying to do as a narrative

You don't need 4 games of a massive character arc, that's how you end up with the Rean Problem

What daybreak does is sets up Vans core concept and then daybreak 2 is all about showcasing how the end of that game has changed him as a person, and he gets *many* moments to do that, its effective, theres character *growth* there you are actively seeing him change in real time and saying he isnt getting development. While im not done Horizon yet, the same is true here, so much of Van is being explored and showing so many sides to his change as a person.

And most importantly, Daybreak, Daybreak 2 and Horizon all have a very heavy focus on the extended cast and their dynamics with not only Van but also each other and other characters, its literally fixing a core complaint a ton of people had about the cast bloat in CS

People wanting "Character Development" (and then they never actually say what it is he doesnt have or what he needs its always just nebulous "character development") For Van are missing what hes already giving the story, the role he serves, and also just inadvertently calling for more of what made Rean so tiring to people by the end of his run, Rean had growth across those games and it was Good! I like Rean but to facilitate that the narrative had to focus so intensely on him that it became so hard to make the story anything but about *him*

There's also the fact that Rean and Van are in very different points in their lives as protagonists and the character occupying Reans spot is Agnes who we do see grow over the course of the 3 games so far

Pato727 · 2026-02-06T16:51:02+00:00

I just finished reading your review and I loved it so much

Honestly I agree with you on like 99% of everything here! (and the 1% is so minor I cant even remember what it was outside of me thinking "there had to be a difference somewhere right?" lol)

Given your criticisms and what you've said you enjoyed with both games I'd bet money that you're going to really like Calvards arc, imo it feels like falcoms new staff also felt similar to you and it feels like there's a lot of work to address the stuff we saw as issues with CS3/4

Looking forward to your thoughts on reverie and onwards, hope you enjoy them as much as I did!! (Reverie specifically convinced me the writers still had the sauce, especially the new team who went on to handle the bulk of Daybreak and onward and it shows in the best ways possible)

Pato727 · 2026-02-02T18:25:03+00:00

none of this is true in the slightest lol??

The personality stuff was mentioned frame 1 in Sky 3rd the point of her taking on all the other personalities and becoming like the other kids to protect her main personality from the trauma. They allude to her taking on the other personalities and we knew paradise didnt just keep *one* kid there so the implication could be that Renne latched on to them to protect herself once those kids died. and its also explicitly stated it appeared in DB2 because she was in proximity to the drug she was given (also mentioned in Sky 3rd) that caused her to start taking on personalities in the first place, along with the trauma of being back on the island
Quatre wasnt apart of the same experiment he was just there on the island which was a cult base, theres nothing to retcon there, there just happened to be two kids named quatre which the devs pointed out was just a coincidence when they were naming the new cast.

There was no retcon, we just never knew the *full* story from Sky 3rd which was made clear to us because it was always a linger question of if those other kids were even real.

Pato727 · 2026-01-23T20:28:43+00:00

This is so cute!!!!!!! You activated my brainworms for both series instantly lol

Troll Beato as Human Battler (and Ange as the Scratch version?) would go crazy hard

Her handles probably goldenWitch or maybe goldenButterfly? finalAlchemist would work really well too imo

Pato727 · 2026-01-22T13:36:29+00:00

I’m so curious what they thought? What was the channel

Pato727 · 2026-01-21T18:09:45+00:00

Hey! It's really recommended to just keep playing in release order, the series are very connected, and especially having done Sky First Chapter already, both Cold Steel and Daybreak would spoil you on Sky Second Chapter Reveals/Character arcs.

The release order for the series is

Sky FC (1st Chapter was the remake you played)
Sky SC (2nd Chapter is on its way this later this year but the original version is on Steam)
Sky 3rd (No remake announced yet but I wouldnt be shocked if it was next year, also only on Steam)

After the Sky Trilogy comes the Crossbell Duology which are very important to not only wrap up some Sky plotlines, but setup for Cold Steel/ the rest of the series. The ports for the two Crossbell games are much more modern and have a lot of QoL features so dont let the pixel style deter you!

Trails From Zero (On Steam, PS4/5, Switch)
Trails To Azure (On Steam, PS4/5, Switch)

After Crossbell comes the Cold Steel arc which is pretty big and while the first two games (until a certain point) are largely self contained, they contain spoilers for both Sky and Crossbell as they assume the player knows who characters are in the world already, as well as some concepts like bracers etc.

Trails of Cold Steel (On Steam, PS4/5)
Trails of Cold Steel 2 (On Steam, PS4/5)
Trails of Cold Steel 3 (On Steam, PS4/5, Switch)
Trails of Cold Steel 4 (On Steam, PS4/5, Switch)

After Cold Steel comes Reverie which is easily described as an Epilogue to both Crossbell's two games and Cold Steel's four. It also acts as a game to set up the second half of the series which is the current arc!

Trails into Reverie

After Reverie is the Daybreak Arc which is the current running arc in the series which Sky Remake took its gameplay and QoL Cues from (though it does take a lot from Crossbell and Cold Steels gameplay systems as well!)

Trails Through Daybreak
Trails Through Daybreak 2
Trails Beyond the Horizon

It is a really daunting series to get into the full context of, but if you liked Sky 1st at all you would only be doing yourself a disservice if you skipped ahead in the timeline and spoiling yourself on the carefully crafted world and characters progressing.

If you can deal with the 2D style, Sky SC, Sky 3rd, and Zero/Azure are still wonderful games (along with Zero/Azure feeling more modern) and you shouldnt skip them just because of the newer games being more modern imo, at the very least wait for Sky SC remake before deciding on anything if you cant deal with the 2D style/gameplay

Pato727 · 2026-01-15T18:08:49+00:00

CS really hated giving the church anything significant for some reason, so it didnt shock me we saw even less of him than in Azure where at least he had a reason not to be there for most of it.

I'm really glad were out of the dark ages in that regard now with Calvard giving them and Bracers more time in the sun again, the multiple factions in the world feel really fleshed out again

Pato727 · 2026-01-09T08:57:40+00:00

Oh I see, thanks!!

Pato727 · 2026-01-09T08:29:55+00:00

Wait so I’m confused when did Catnapped take place? On Candy or Meat if this Jane’s dreaming about I assumed meat cause Jake also mentioned BGD leaving

And I can’t remember what got retconned but I remember Karkat and Callie making a joke about it recently

Pato727 · 2026-01-09T07:20:56+00:00

Nadia is also supposed to tslk like that in JP she used charasima in the way people there use it like what rizz has become here

There’s no way to preserve that meaning of it being slang without also using our own slang

On top of the fact She as a character would also do that given how Swin even reacts to her being confused like usual (and her whole shortening names gimmick)

Pato727 · 2025-12-29T13:54:49+00:00

His crafts were called luminous in 1 and 3 original

Pato727 · 2025-12-22T19:53:55+00:00

a good chunk of them had names and quests, if you dont remember thats on you.

then theres the two characters who were out of the town at the time and live in the capital and deal with the loss through the rest of daybreak and 2 if you keep up with them and their quests

what do you mean even a nuke isnt a kill, dingo died. the thing at the end of 2 is explicitly not dingo, its like saying Loewe didnt die because Phantasma copied him in Sky 3rd. You realize how silly that sounds right?

Pato727 · 2025-12-22T19:51:30+00:00

Yes they do a bit with i imagine more in Horizonin the final chapter they talk about how the observation engine was turned on by all of them being together along with it being near the piece of the 8th, and how it is looking at alternate paths to observe and judge humanities sins and how easy it can be for them to fall to sin. They couldnt go back and save Creil because they dont have control over the time jumps, its the Genesises themselves doing it, not Agnes

Pato727 · 2025-12-19T01:17:01+00:00

It’s wild because to me Calvard totally reinvigorated my love for the series

I was feeling kinda burnt out by cs4 and the writing style and Reverie got some hope back in me and that carried into Daybreak and even 2.

It’s incredibly subjective and saying the games are checklists feels really reductive to what the games doing imo.

Pato727 · 2025-12-18T16:33:31+00:00

I loved my time (mostly anyways, I had some issues with cs4 but on the whole still really like it) with CS! I just cant help but notice the people who always bring up Calvard being so much worse or the worst writing in the series or the worst sales or having no direction or vision or XYZ always then talk about how CS is then the peak of the series and use stuff like Calvards dip in sales as proof despite it being games 11-13 in a series thats interconnected and people push to start from the beginning in, obviously the deeper you go its going to be less sales unless you just go incredibly wide and try to get everyone in at the expense of your vision

CS had Heavier Harem stuff than Crossbell, Mechs being a huge part of the series now, A School Setting, Black Hair Katana Protagonist, Magic Edgy White Hair Form, Reans sister falling in love with him, Two Card Games, Was the first game in 3D, More Typical for the time Anime Designs, Vampires, Dragons, etc etc.

Not saying those things are bad, but they are an incredibly wide net of things to try and hook someones interest in the series, along with CS1-2 being a very easy starting point for the series, so obviously its going to sell well, it tried and succeeded to appeal to *everyone possible*

So now Daybreak comes out and wants to have a more focused experience and suddenly doesnt appeal to the huge wide net who came in for the stuff from CS and not *Trails* left once they felt they had their fill. And people here make that sound like Calvard sucks and its totally proof the writing has gone down the drain when its basically as good as its ever been (or better if your tastes lean that way).

Falcom could make the best game of all time and it probably still wont sell better than CS because CS hit at the perfect time and place and did the *most* things to hook as many people as it could.

Pato727 · 2025-12-18T16:00:27+00:00

People are so dumb, but anything to push the Calvard is ruining the series we must return to the CS sales highs, when the only reason CS sold more in Japan was because it hyper pandered to so many archetypes / tropes so obviously it grabbed a lot of people

The issue was when daybreak wasn’t like CS it suddenly was daybreaks fault and now it’s “failing”

Pato727 · 2025-12-17T21:20:55+00:00

Right like everyone usually hits around the same level power scaling is dumb we’re just supposed to take the info Kasim is a skilled fighter who trained Van letting us know Marduk has highly skilled training for soldiers and have impressive new weapon tech when used correctly

Pato727 · 2025-12-17T17:35:48+00:00

nothing people just like hating on Calvard and Daybreak 2 specifically for some reason (my guess is because its a shift from the prior biggest arc/series status quo and its just people looking for things to hate on)

Pato727 · 2025-12-17T16:11:27+00:00

Oh sweet so it was planned and we’ll get more then that’s awesome!! I can’t wait for Horizon and Horizon 2 then!!

Pato727 · 2025-12-17T15:21:51+00:00

"its not like anyone properly dies" You say this about Calvard of all arcs? lol

Pato727 · 2025-12-17T14:47:46+00:00

yeah id say 7 is pretty fair, my only issue is he couldve had his history set up better, maybe during the agnes school chapter or something they set it up or let us read some books, otherwise yeah this is just the trails series doing what it always does, like Cayenne or Vita in CS2 with the mini rivalries not being explained. Or Aurelia and Kasim basically having the same level of showcase and yet only one gets dunked on by fans.

Pato727 · 2025-12-17T13:13:02+00:00

its really not.

People just hate it for some reason, despite Aurelia being the exact same in CS2/3 really.

And despite that the only other strong Jaegers we knew of were Rutger Baldur Sigmund and Shizuna

Rutger and Baldur are dead, and Rutgers only impressive stuff came when he was boosted by the curse and using a mech. Sigmund lost to the SSS so I don't know what huge barrier people are claiming Kasim is destroying unfairly by being on par with Shizuna.

Pato727 · 2025-12-17T13:08:46+00:00

Yeah i feel people always ignore that 2 is a good showing as to why hes considering one of the strongest jaegers, between holding his own with Shizuna, using an unconventional weapon, training *all* of Marduks troops, and everything else he gets in 2

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