The Legend Of Heroes Trails Of Cold Steel / Tropes N to Z

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N - P

• Negated Moment of Awesome: At the climax of Cold Steel III, the Courageous appears, ready to join the fight. But then Alberich detonates the Courageous while still in the sky, supposedly killing off Olivert, Toval, and Victor still inside. Even Duvalie, who was mildly worried about the prospect of fighting the Master Swordsman, thought it was a bit too much and Campanella thinking that it was very tasteless. Cold Steel IV reveals that they all survived but not without cost. Olivert lost an eye and had his participation reduced to a passive role due to being a marksman while Victor lost his left arm and underwent inverse Heel–Face Brainwashing.
• Nerf:
  • Cold Steel II significantly boosts all enemies' evade ratings compared to the first game, which means that without Hit quartz or Acc-boosting accessories your melee characters in particular are going to feel heavily nerfed from their performance in Cold Steel I.
  • In Cold Steel III, delay is "kind of nerfed" in the sense that crafts in general are more, if not twice as expensive to cast, not to mention that Rean lost Arc Slash. Instead, his new line attack now inflicts a chance to burn.
    • On that note regarding crafts, the CP cost of Rean's Gale craft in III is 80 CP, as opposed to what it was in I and II, 40 CP. Many crafts from the first two games either have their costs increased, delegated as Brave Order effects or are removed altogether.
  • Cold Steel IV nerfs the costs of Brave Orders and reduces its effectiveness compared to how powerful they were in Cold Steel III. This is actually justified in-story due to the ending of III; Class VII, both Old and New, lost a load of mana in the disastrous Gral of Erebos battle and are being affected by Rean's curse, New Class VII being particularly badly affected due to Juna, Kurt, and Musse having fought beside Rean in Panzer Soldats, Ash having been unconscious, and Altina having nearly been murdered.
  • During mech battles, you can only restore 500 EP when using "Charge". It used to restore 1000 EP when it was introduced in II.
  • In an inter-arc example, the HP-for-CP craft in the Sky arc topped out at granting 150 CP per usage, while in this game it stops at 90 CP per usage, preventing players from using the "Wild Rage-S Break-Heal-Repeat" strategy from the first series, barring equipping CP restoring accessories and the Force/Brigid Master Quartz.
  • The effects of certain quartz are nerfed from Cold Steel III to IV. For example, in Cold Steel III, an Evade 3 quartz increases evasion by 16%. In Cold Steel IV, it's 9%.
  • Cold Steel IV also heavily nerfs the "Break" mechanic from CS3 by removing the turn delay component. This means that if you break an enemy just before its turn, it'll immediately recover, and because recovering is an "empty" turn that doesn't add a lot of turn delay it's likely to immediately get to act again.
• Neutral in Name Only: In II, after the start of the civil war, the party forms an organisation called Crimson Wings, and proclaims themselves to be a "third party", independent from both the noble and imperial sides. However, they side with the latter at every occasion and never oppose them. It helps that Noble Alliance is mostly composed of Hate Sinks, and all sympathetic members eventually defect.
• Never Gets Drunk: Sharon, Edel, and Aurelia win a drinking contest in a three-way tie after drinking everyone else under the table and then spending considerable time drinking "hard alcohol as if it was water" until they exhausted the event's supply of liquor and still none of them were drunk.
• New Transfer Student: Wouldn't be a school story without one!
  • Specifically, two students transfer into Class VII over the course of the game. One is Crow, who is making up for missed work in his regular classes and the other is Millium, who isn't actually eligible to attend Thors (she's too young) and only gets in because someone is pulling strings. Also, both of their stints in Class VII are meant to be temporary and both were well known to the player and characters before they appeared. All in all, it's almost a subversion of the usual trope.
  • In Cold Steel III, Ash and Musse transfer from Class VIII and IX respectively, to Class VII.
• No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine: Rean spends a subchapter of Cold Steel II aboard the rebel flagship, where he spends most of his time being treated to meals and socializing with people who had been bosses over the past game and a half.
• Non-Indicative Name: Two thirds of the Academy Wind Orchestra don't play wind instruments.
• Not-So-Innocent Whistle
  • In Chapter 4, when everyone receives their field study assignments, Rean sees that he's been assigned to a group with Laura and Fie, who are currently conflicting, and suggests to Instructor Sara that he's being used again. Sara's only response is this.
  Rean: ...That innocent whistling isn't fooling anyone.
  • As Class VII is discussing what everyone is doing for the school festival, Jusis says that the horse-riding club is planning an event and although there's supposed to be no gambling, he's sure their "senior colleague" will find a way. At this, Crow gives one of these, and the text actually reads "*innocent whistle*".
• Not-So-Omniscient Council of Bickering: Considering how almost every member of the Noble Alliance has their own goals and ambitions and seem to spend almost all their time working at cross-purposes, it's actually kind of remarkable that they're able to be as big of a threat as they are. To wit:
  • Duke Cayenne wants to redeem his disgraced ancestor and become The Man Behind the Man to the Royal Family.
  • Duke Albarea is obsessed with usurping leadership of the Alliance at any cost, causing him to alienate his younger son, who ultimately arrests him for razing an Imperial-controlled town in House Albarea's province and withdraws House Albarea from the Alliance.
  • Marquis Rogner isn't all that interested in what the Alliance is doing in the first place, and quickly withdraws his aid after a showdown with his daughter.
  • Marquis Hyarms is only part of the Alliance because the others forced him into joining, and so he made the bare minimum contributions to the war and focused entirely on preventing his province from becoming a warzone.
  • Xeno and Leo, while loyal, are Only in It for the Money. (And as learned later on, they were also trying to help revive Rutger.)
  • Rufus is The Mole.
  • Aurelia is only leading their forces because she wants to defeat Zechs Vander and Victor S. Arseid to prove she's Surpassed the Teacher.
  • Even among the Ouroboros members lent to the Alliance are there significantly different motivations:
    • Vita Clotilde just wants to set up her duel between the Ashen and Azure Awakeners and continue the Phantasmal Blaze Plan, which leads her to alternately helping, testing, and hindering Class VII.
    • McBurn is hunting for a suitable combatant to test his flames against. In the final confrontation with him, he will comment that he doesn't care about the war, and doesn't even care about the plans of his organization's Anguis
    McBurn: Who cares what Abyss and Steel have planned?
    • Duvalie is there to fulfill the wishes of her master.
    • As usual, Bleublanc is only there for his endless pursuit of beauty.
• Not Using the "Z" Word: Only dime-store pulp novels call them "vampires". People actually familiar with them call them either the Nighttouched or the Noctfamilia.
• Off Bridge, onto Vehicle: Just to prove how badasses the adults are in Cold Steel II, Victor, Sara, Claire, Toval, and Sharon jump from the Pantagruel onto the passing Courageous. And yes, both ships are flying in the sky. Later on, Class VII alongside Angelica jump from a bridge onto the Eisengraf train to rescue Alisa's mom who is held hostage, which started to move because the jaegers alerted everyone at the site that there are intruders.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome:
  • Actually, a scene that made an implied one of these from a previous game even more awesome, while still leaving it offscreen: The battle between the Jaeger King and the War God lasted three whole days. It's revealed in Cold Steel IV that Rutger himself couldn't believe that he and Baldur actually fought for that long and wonders how they were even able to do it in the first place, implying that he knows that despite having some Charles Atlas Superpower, they're still humans who do need to stop to rest, eat, and sleep.
  • Another implied one: Sara holds the record for the youngest A-rank Bracer ever. Estelle reached B-rank before reaching seventeen by joining up at the earliest allowable age and playing a key role in resolving two national crises. Whatever Sara did to get promoted to A-rank, it must have been really impressive.
  • Another Bracer related one: Between II and III, Fie set the record for youngest person to ever make it to full Bracer rank. Which means that she beat Estelle, who joined up at the youngest possible age and then played a major role in thwarting a coup. If the guild branch leaders didn't give Fie extra credit for deeds she performed with Class VII, she must have worked really fast.
• Offscreen Villain Dark Matter: Averted. For those scratching their heads as to where the Noble Alliance get the steel needed for their Panzer Soldats, remembering that back in the Roer field trip, the provincial army blockaded the local iron mine from outside interference while secretly letting the Imperial Liberation Front operate in there. Class VII calculated that the steel that could be smuggled out as "waste" is enough to make hundreds of tanks. Guess where all that steel went to?
• Oh, Crap!:
  • In-universe, the gate of Lohengrin Castle slamming shut behind the party and a strange barrier appearing, preventing them from leaving, just as they realize that the castle is well and truly haunted. Out of universe, everything about the castle reminds one of Phantasma in The 3rd and the barriers are virtually identical in both form and function. Also, the bell.
  • Emma very visibly has this reaction on hearing Misty's voice over the radio for the first time.
  • Lloyd and Rixia have this expression when Rean starts bringing out the big guns: activating his Super Mode till it was interrupted by the sound of the device the former two were carrying, and Valimar.
• Ominous Floating Castle: The final dungeon of Cold Steel IV, the Tuatha Dé Danann, takes place at the skies of Erebonia together with its own Salt Pales. The Five Salt Pales are the final dungeons for the guest characters so that Class VII can get towards the floating fortress.
• Ominous Save Prompt: The games allow you to save anywhere on the field, but will sometimes prompt you with this sort of warning before a lengthy series of cutscenes. Given that these can sometimes run around a half-hour or so before you regain character control, you're probably best off saving.
• Once More, with Clarity: When you finally return to Garrelia Fortress and replay the section you play in the prologue, it's revealed that the railway guns' first shots are blanks to prevent firing accidents, giving Rean and the rest of Class VII a longer window to fight off the Imperial Liberation Front. Also, Millium is with you this time, and she provides exposition about who you're fighting that was missing in the prologue.
  • Ditto in Cold Steel III at the Juno Naval Fortress where players replay the section that the player plays during the prologue. It turns out that North Ambrian jaegers and Ouroboros have invaded the fortress and that the playable characters are present in order to recapture it. Also, Aurelia and Angelica join the cast during chapter three while they were absent during the prologue.
• One-Gender School: St. Astraia, a prestigious school for rich girls. Rean's younger sister Elise attends and is good friends with Alfin.
• One Last Field Trip: A more literal example than usual. At the end of Cold Steel II, with their time as a class together drawing to a close, Class VII gets one last free day to spend together and it goes like pretty much all of their other free days, starting with club activities and culminating with a final adventure into the Old Schoolhouse and a battle against Loa Luciferia.
• One Stat to Rule Them All:
  • As with the other games in the series, SPD is by far the most important stat in the game, as it governs how many enemy attacks the character has to sit through before they get to go again. Fie takes this trope up to eleven, as her natural speed is already sky-high, and boosting it further will sometimes allow her to go multiple times in a row before her teammates or opponents get a chance to act.
  • EVA, with Fie, Sara, and Sharon. All three characters have a natural passive bonus to Evade, and it's quite easy to boost them all the way to 100% evade, in which case only Arts and a handful of special attacks in the game can hit them.
• One-Woman Wail: Anytime there's a mysterious place in Cold Steel II, as well as Cold Steel III and Cold Steel IV, you can bet Aria of the Saint will be playing in the background.
• The Order: The Eisenritter, a group of knights from the Legram region who supported Prince Dreichels during the Lion War 250 years ago. The Arseid family are the descendants of one of the leaders of the group and watch over Lohengrin Castle, which was the headquarters of the order and the seat of Lianne Sandlot. Meanwhile, the Witches seem to be a more covert order. Emma describes them as 'the opposite of the Church' and she clearly knows much more about what's going on than anybody else.
• Our Gnomes Are Weirder: Inverted; the Gnomes in this series are just a clan of humans and not a separate race. Though they are the only people who still know how to build the advanced ancient technology of the Precursors, connecting them to the gift for tinkering that's common among Gnomes in other works of fantasy.
• Our Homunculi Are Different: "Homunculus" is the standard term for Artificial Humans in this series. They have the same biological functions as natural-born humans, but they may be engineered to have certain specific traits. For example, depending on their creators' intent, their growth may be stunted, their default emotional capacity may be restricted (though they can grow out of it), or they can be implanted with a psychic link with a robot.
• Overranked Soldier: Wallace Bardias, Aurelia Le Guin, and Rufus Albarea all hold the respective ranks of Brigadier General, General, and Chief-of-Staff of the Noble Alliance despite all three barely appearing to have entered their thirties. While they are all far from incompetent, it's still jarring in comparison to Lt. Generals Craig and Vander (both of whom are middle-aged with adult children/nephews) who are both at more reasonable ages for their rank. Justified as all three are Nobles, with the latter being the heir to one of the alliance's leaders, serving an organization founded on the preservation and enforcement of noble privileges.
  • Also in the case with Claire and Lechter who are in their early-to-mid-twenties. Officially, they hold the ranks of captain (major come the third game) but seem the be the de-facto heads of their respective organizations. Justified by their ties to Osborne as his Ironbloods.
• Palette Swap: A staple in Trails series, one notable instance in Cold Steel IV has Salt Pillars in the final chapter manifesting color-swapped copies of various bosses from this game and the previous game to fend off the guest parties:
  • Estelle, Joshua, Agate, Tita, and Renne fight against a black version of the normally blue Aion Type-Gamma II.
  • Lloyd, Elie, Tio, and Randy fight against a gray version of the normally black True Zoro-Agruga.
  • Angelica, George, Sharon, and Roselia fight against a gold version of the normally reddish Aion Type-Beta II.
  • Duvalie, Ennea, Innes, Xeno, and Leonidas fight against a black version of the normally gold Leviathan.
  • Aurelia, Victor, Vita, and Toval fight against red version of the normally white Aion-Type Alpha II.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: In order to sneak into occupied Celdic under the nose of the Noble Alliance (who regard him as a wanted criminal) Machias adopts the brilliant disguise of...taking off his glasses. His outfit even still retains the very prominent red armband with the Thors logo on it, a bold choice given that almost all Thors students at this point are either accounted for at the campus or on the run from the Alliance.
• Parodies for Dummies: Apparently, the in-universe equivalent is Tropes for Creepy Sheep, given that Machias and Rean finds a "Chess for Creepy Sheep" book during their bonding time in Chapter 6 of Cold Steel I.
• Party in My Pocket: The series used to avert this, but this is played straight when the game took a leap in 3D where only one character shows up on screen to move around. Players however can swap around who is in the leading role however.
• Party Scattering: Occurs between the first and second games. Accordingly, the first portion of the sequel involves Putting the Band Back Together.
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat: Elise is a master of this, Alisa gets a few moments and every single time Olivert and Osborne are forced to interact with each other when other people are present, their conversations are riddled with this.
• Peer as Teacher: In the second half of the tetralogy, Rean Schwarzer is teaching at a military academy intended for older teenagers^note Juna, Kurt, and Ash are 17, Musse is 16, and 14-year-old Altina was only admitted on an Intelligence Division assignment when he's barely 20 and only turned that age partway into the school year.
• Permanently Missable Content: A recurring case in the whole Legend of Heroes series and Trails of Cold Steel is no different, there’s a mind-boggling amount of side-quests and items that can be missed, the games expects the player to really take their time talking to everyone again and again as much as possible in order to trigger hidden events, and these are all situational, meaning that if you didn’t talk to X character before to trigger an event with character Y later then you can kiss goodbye to that side-quest.
• Pet the Dog: When Rean encounters some of Fie's ex-jaeger colleagues in a non-combat situation, they spend the time asking Rean how she's doing in school and doing a little Twerp Sweating (whether the player chose Fie for the optional dance scene in the previous game or not) on the side.
• Playboy Bunny: The girls can look like this if you combine the swimsuit outfits with the Bunny Ear DLC accessory (Which comes with the tail).
• Player-Exclusive Mechanic: Both played straight and subverted.
  • The first game in series introduces Link attacks via the Arcus unit which can only be performed by members of your party who are "linked" via the Arcus units which also give them ability to use Magic from Technology. Beginning from the second game in the series you begin encountering with increasing frequency opponents which can use this as well.
  • Cold Steel III introduces the Brave Order system, which allows your characters to use special buffing moves, such as decreasing the delay between turns in the game's Turn-Based Combat system or greatly increasing the rate of critical hits while also buffing the party. In Cold Steel IV, you encounter select opponents (specifically members of the Ironbloods or Ouroboros) who have the power to use "Dis Orders," such as Frozen Prison which delays your party's turns by 200%, cancels any order you may have issued previously, and locks you out from issuing any order of your own until the Dis Order wears off. Played straight in The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie where while the Arcus Links and Dis Orders are still present for enemies, players now have an exclusive command called the "Valiant Rage" where at least 5 characters (all four in the active party and at least one in reserve) can attack all the enemies either by using regular attacks or arts. Meanwhile, the third Valiant Rage mechanic heals all of your characters.
  • Overdrive is a purely straight example. It appears only in Cold Steel II, perhaps due to being considered rather overpowered. Overdrive can be used with two linked characters, initially Rean and other characters, but later with most characters if you fight the Trial Chest monsters. During Overdrive, the two linked characters get three turns that are completely interrupted. Overdrive also restores 30% of HP, EP and CP and clears all status ailments upon being activated. All normal attacks and crafts unbalance enemies in Overdrive, and casting of all arts is instant, including the extremely powerful Lost Arts.
  • Break is a mechanic that appears beginning in Cold Steel III. Only enemies can be broken, never your characters. All enemies have a break gauge, with certain types of attacks dealing greater "Break Damage." Most strategies recommend breaking enemies as quickly as possible due to the benefits that come with it. Enemies that are broken are entirely unable to act. Normal attacks and crafts will always unbalance them, allowing your characters to build Brave Points to use Orders or activate Rush or Burst attacks. Additionally, the player can use moves that manipulate the turn order to keep enemies broken indefinitely, though this becomes harder to do in Cold Steel IV. There are a couple of things that balance this - powerful enemies can go into an "Enhanced" status after you knock off a certain amount of their HP, which generally both restores HP and seriously buffs them up. Their break gauge restores completely but then depletes faster at this point, but they become much tougher to deal with. Also, particularly in Cold Steel IV, some enemies have the ability to completely reset their break gauge upon reaching a certain HP threshold, even before going into Enhanced.
  • S-Break is a mechanic that returns from previous installments. While some players incorrectly use the terms "S-Break" and "S-Craft" interchangably, they are actually two different but related things. S-Break is a mechanic that allows a player to instantly use their S-Craft (a powerful attack that depletes all CP [Craft Points]), stealing the opponent's turn. It is often best used to steal a way a turn effect that would be beneficial to the opponent, such as a guaranteed Critical or Deathblow. Additionally, a valid and often-used strategy is to have the player character attack or use an item to restore CP or cure a status ailment, then activate S-Break while the animation for this is happening. It is also possible to spam this to activate multiple S-Breaks, allowing some or all of your characters to act before the opponent can, to finish them off or break them. While many powerful enemies have S-Crafts, only the player can use S-Break.
• Point of No Return: The games usually give a warning to players that proceeding through the next event will make them lose whatever items a player can get during that time period though stepping into the final dungeon usually does that.
  • The first game's point of no return is completing the Realm of the Great Shadow especially if players didn't grind Rean to a specific level in the game before he solos the Final Boss with a brand new game mechanic.
  • The second game's point of no return is by talking to Towa just before rescuing the royal family at the Imperial Karel Villa. Talking with her to proceed locks the player permanently from anything in the world map and the only place they'll be explore much later in the game would be back at Trista and not be allowed to leave the place.
  • The third game's point of no return is entering Heimdallr cathedral where players talk to Thomas and Roselia.
  • Finally, the fourth game's point of no return is by talking to Olivert on September 1 onboard the Courageous II.
• Powder Keg Crowd: At the start of the game, tensions between the aristocracy and the commoners are at an all-time high and Prime Minister Osborne is fanning the flames. Celdic features a lesser version of this, as people are unhappy about the new tax measures and people are just waiting for an excuse to snap.
• Power Dynamics Kink: Shows up briefly when the crew tries to pry some information from an informant. Turns out he is quite willing if the three ladies in the crew steps on him. Angelica quips that the informant would probably have been even more willing to give them the info had Claire been in her RMP uniform.
• The Power of Friendship: The ARCUS system weaponizes this through the Tactical Link feature. Forging a strong link provides all sorts of benefits, such as the chance to automatically heal an ally when attacked, covering for another ally for reduced damage, or executing a finishing blow. However, characters that are feuding won't be able to form a link. It only works if they're friends, or at least are able to put aside their differences and find common ground.
• Pre-Climax Climax: In Cold Steel IV, several of the final romantic bonding events that take place in the Eventide interlude during the night before the final battle strongly imply this. Specifically: Alisa is the most straightforward, as she asks Rean to spend the night with her. Laura also asks Rean to stay with her for a little while, although in this case Rean takes the initiative and tells her he'll stay with her until dawn, which she is surprised at but pleased to hear. And the last is Fie, who cheekily reminds Rean that that night also happens to be her 18th birthday. When his response to this is to wish that she had told him earlier so they could have had a birthday party, she glares at him and says in a growl to "Get a clue" at which point he finally gets it that she wants something to happen between them that night.
• Precursors: It is revealed in Cold Steel III that both the witch clan and the gnome clan were at war with each other back in the day. They've also created the gigantic forms of the Sept-Terrion found at Nord Highlands and Bryonia Island though both of the giants no longer have any power as both Fire and Earth Sept-Terrion have mixed together from the clash to form Steel.
• Pretext for War:
  • Because the Northern Jaegers ended up burning Celdic during the Civil War, Erebonian officials demand that Northern Jaegers compensate for their actions while the Northern Jaegers would deny that they've done the deed. As a result, the Northern Campaign ensues that ends with North Ambria annexed to Erebonia.
  • The Operation Jormungandr that is central to Cold Steel IV is launched on the manufactured pretext that Erebonia's Emperor Eugent Reise Arnor III was shot by a Calvardian agent. In fact, Ash Carbide, who shot the Emperor, is one of your playable characters and has no association with Calvard, though he did fire the shot with a Calvardian gun.
• Prevent the War: A major part of Class VII's conception was to hopefully help bridge the gaps between the Empire's social classes and peacefully improve it from with in without having to result in bloody revolution. It fails as the first game ends with Erebonia devolving into a Civil War.
  • A major concern for the protagonists in the third game is trying to prevent an all out war between Erebonia and Calvard. Despite the best efforts of the new and Old Class VII, it went off anyway.
• Private Military Contractors: As with all the past games, you have regular mercenaries and you have Jaegers. For the first time, the series really shows the difference between the two by introducing members of the mercenary group Bugbear, who are not particularly impressive when compared to Jaegers we've seen. The two most prominent Jaeger groups in this game are Zephyr and the Red Constellation, continuing to develop the plot from The 3rd through Azure. Fie's adoptive father-figure was the head of the former group before his death.
• Privileged Rival: Downplayed with Thors Main Campus. Compared to the Branch Campus, they have more Soldats, more experienced teachers, more staff, and access to the Courageous airship. On the flip side, the Branch Campus started field exercises earlier and has an advantage in smaller classroom sizes.
• Product Placement: An amusing in-universe example: As Alisa pokes around with the engine of a damaged vehicle, the logo of the Reinford Group is clearly visible on the side. This reinforces her dialogue during the scene (naturally Alisa Reinford knows a thing or two about Reinford-made products) and to foreshadow the next my major plot development which is that the man staying at Lake Lacrima is her grandfather.
• The Promise: Lloyd Bannings told Juna Crawford that "Crossbell has many trials awaiting it. But we WILL overcome them. Juna, I want you to fight and struggle to overcome your own trials as well. And if anything happens, I'll come running—I promise." Later, if you do one of her bonding events in Cold Steel III, Rean tells her "If you run into any problems, just let me know. I'll come running—I promise." This ticks her off that he's reminding her of Lloyd, because she isn't quite ready to accept him yet.
• Promoted to Playable: Cold Steel IV has lots of characters that were either NPC or villains back then. The following characters that weren't playable from the previous series but are playable in this game include: Celine, Vita^note She was playable in Cold Steel II but only as a Phantasmal Mirror and players couldn't edit her quartz nor equipment, George, Duvalie, Innes, Ennea, Xeno, and Leo.
• Propaganda Machine: The rebels take over Erebonia's largest newspaper and start releasing press statements claiming that they are loyal subjects of the crown hard at work suppressing the rebellion, and that the loyalist troops resisting them are the real rebels. After the war is over, the paper starts publishing obvious propaganda on behalf of Osborne.
• Protagonist-Centered Morality: Discussed and defied by Crow in II when he explains his past and his motivations to Rean. He downplays his Freudian Excuse as "just another sob story" and makes it clear that despite the extremes he went to as C, he isn't trying to convince Rean that he was in the right, or even that Chancellor Osborne was necessarily an evil man. His insistence that Rean follow his own beliefs rather than just accept Cayenne's We Can Rule Together offer does work against him, as Rean escapes with Princess Alfin and ultimately undoes his, Vita's and Cayenne's plans, but he never seems to mind one bit.
• Putting the Band Back Together:
  • The first act of Cold Steel II consists of reuniting Class VII (except for Crow) after they were scattered by the events in the finale of Cold Steel I. Gathering some of the other students from Thors is a sidequest that lasts for a sizable part of the second act.
  • Reuniting the branch campus students after they were scattered by the ending of III is part of IV.
• Pyrrhic Victory:
  • At the end of the second game, Class VII managed to put a stop to the Vermillion Apocalypse and rescued Prince Cedric. However, it comes at the cost of Crow's life as he dies in a Heroic Sacrifice.
  • The normal ending of Cold Steel IV features one as well. Rean and Class VII finally succeed in defeating Ishmelga, but it comes at the cost of Rean, Crow, and Millium sacrificing their lives to ensure that he's permanently defeated. The Golden Ending averts this however.

Q - S

• Quest Giver: Towa gives Rean all the non-hidden quests at Thors/in Trista as delegated Student Council work. Each Chapter also has one or two people filling this role while you're on field training.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Class VII starts off as this.
• Rank Inflation:
  • Unlike previous arcs, this arc makes the relative damage of Arts and Crafts more transparent by giving them letter ranks in their descriptions.
  • You accumulate AP within each chapter or part, and if you get the most, you get S rank. The lowest rank seems to be C because you're actually required to complete certain quests for AP in order to progress in the story. It seems that Game Over is actually the lowest rank because the theme that plays if you get a Game Over is called "Failing Marks..."
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: Don't underestimate the Thors school faculty. Or the top brass of the military. Or the best Bracers... Basically, if someone has a rank in this game, it's quite likely they earned it. Eventually gets lampshaded in Cold Steel IV:
  Crow: "Sheesh, why is every single general we know a superhuman monster on the battlefield?"
• R-Rated Opening: The game opens with Class VII attempting to stop a group of terrorists from capturing the Railway Guns at Garrelia Fortress and using it to start a war. The base is full of the corpses of the soldiers on duty by the time the party arrives and one character remarks on the scent of blood and gunpowder. Players of the previous games know that while Class VII will succeed here, the cannon they're trying to protect will ultimately be fired later and help start the very war they were trying to prevent.
• Recycled Soundtrack:
  • The piece played during the military exercise at Garrelia Fortress with the tanks is "Steel Roar −Verge of Death−" ("Roar of Steel - Life-Or-Death Crisis -" on Spotify and iTunes) from Trails to Azure, while the song Emma performs for the Class VII concert is "I Swear..." from The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC. The Final Choice from The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky The Third makes an appearance between Aki No Tsubasa as Osborne's theme, and Cry For Me, Cry For You (also from The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky The Third) appears as the song Towa's class performed in the previous year's school festival (and later as Towa's Arcus' ringtone).
  • This is far more blatant in Cold Steel II. Despite having a large number of new songs in the soundtrack, this sequel recycled a lot of music from the first game as a cost-saving measure. Heck, if you dive into the game data, (almost?) all the songs from the first game are included, regardless of whether they're actually used. Additionally, Cold Steel II also included the track Get Over The Barrier! as the battle music and Geo-Front as the level music in the during the Divertissement chapter, both from Trails from Zero.
  • Cold Steel IV isn't as bad about this, compared with II, having a rather larger original soundtrack. However, it still reuses a number of musical assets from III, such as often reusing the themes "Now, Thing To Do" and "Class VII" (Cold Steel III version)," among others. It also uses "Doomsday Trance," first heard in III, as a Background Music Override throughout most of the Black Workshop segment. And of course, the Crossbell chapters reused music from The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure
• Red Baron: A series tradition, continued here.
  • Rean Schwarzer, the Ashen Chevalier
  • Crow Armbrust, the Azure Chevalier
  • Dreichels Reise Arnor, the Lionheart Emperor
  • Olivert Reise Arnor, the Debaucherous Prince
  • Giliath Osborne, the Blood and Iron Chancellor
  • Rufus Albarea, alias "Jade Rook"
  • Millium Orion, alias "White Rabbit"
  • Altina Orion, alias "Black Rabbit"
  • Lechter Arundel, alias "Scarecrow"
  • Claire Rieveldt, alias "The Icy Maiden"
  • Michael Irving "the Tenacious"
  • Olaf Craig "the Red"
  • "One-Eyed" Zechs Vander
  • Matteus Vander, the Thunder God
  • Aurier Vander, the Stormwatcher
  • Aurelia Le Guin, the Golden Rakshasa
  • Wallace Bardias, the Black Whirlwind
  • Victor S. Arseid, the Radiant Blademaster
  • Angelica Rogner, the Iron Horseman
  • Neithardt the Mighty
  • Professor Beatrix, the Reviver
  • Emily^note Yes, even the captain of the Lacrosse Club gets a nickname, the Blazing Maiden
  • Vita Clotilde, the Azure Diva (as an opera singer) / the Azure Abyss (as the Second Anguis) / the Witch of the Abyss (as a member of the Hexen Clan)
  • Mariabell Crois, the Wellspring Alchemist
  • Lianne Sandlot, the Lance Maiden a.k.a. Arianrhod, the Steel Maiden
  • McBurn, the Almighty Conflagration (in his normal form) / the Blazing Demon (in his Super Mode)
  • Sharon Krueger, the Severing Chains (initially) / the Severing Eclipse (upon her return to Ouroboros)^note In the Japanese script, the Severing Chains was Shisen, and the Severing Eclipse was Kokushisen'iki, with the former explicitly said to be an abbreviation of the latter. Shisen means "the verge of death", and Kokushisen'iki is "the indicated verge-of-death area."
  • "Bloody" Shirley Orlando, the Sanguine Ogre
  • Sara Valestein, the Purple Lightning^note Éclair in the Japanese script; it's French for "flash of lightning", not a pastry.
  • "Zero Artisan" Toval Randonneur
  • Fie Claussell, a.k.a. Sylphid
  • Rutger Claussell, the Jaeger King
  • Trap Master Xeno
  • Leonidas the Behemoth
  • Thomas Lysander, the Partitioner
  • Gunther Barkhorn, the Roaring Lion
  • Gaius Worzel, the Soaring Phoenix
  • Ark Rouge, the Crimson Vessel
  • Roselia Millstein, the Crimson Witch (as the elder of the Hexen Clan) / the Burning Sphinx (as the Holy Beast of Fire), or "Crimson Roselia" for short
  • "Moonlight" Liese
  • Lost Zem, the Great Sable Hammer
  • Alberich of the Black Demise, or "Black Alberich" for short
  • "Copper" Georg, alias George Nome
  • Yun Ka-Fai, the Sword Hermit.
• Red Herring: Lots of them, at least half of them aimed squarely at everyone who has played Zero/Azure and which would go over the heads of anyone who hasn't.
  • It's obvious once "Comrade G" introduces himself as Gideon that the ILF members' letter codenames are initials... and yet C's identity still manages to be well-hidden because there just happens to be a ton of significant NPCs whose name start with C, most of whom would be plausible as villains. Never mind C's true identity being a playable character at that.
• Redemption Demotion: Ordine is briefly playable in Cold Steel II, but has far lower stats than his boss version, to the point of being a Glass Cannon compared to Valimar.
• Regional Bonus: The English PC and PS4 releases of Cold Steel I and II, to the extent that they are less a bonus and more of a complete remaster. Along with an exceptional port with vastly improved textures, shadows, graphical power, and uncapped FPS, the game has several thousand extra lines of English dialogue, more than twice the amount of voiced lines in the Japanese and initial North American releases.
• Relationship Values: You can choose to spend free time with party members and a few NPCs to gain their affection and trigger a special scene at the end of both games.
• Resurrective Immortality: Awakeners for Divine Knights can come back from the dead as long as their Divine Knights are still intact. To balance this, the Divine Knights are synchronised to their respective Awakeners' senses meaning that whenever it takes damage, the Awakener feels pain in the corresponding areas. This means that the only way to kill an Awakener is to defeat the Divine Knight itself in combat. It's also revealed in the epilogue of Cold Steel IV that if an Awakener has died before and resurrected thanks to his Divine Knight, he will die alongside it when they vanish for good as his life is tied to it.
• Retcon: In Cold Steel III, it's revealed that instead of it taking place during the Epilogue of Cold Steel II, Rean and Thomas had the Black Records conversation after the rest of Class VII had graduated and left the academy. This is kinda justified in a way in that this conversation only takes place in a New Game Plus in Cold Steel II if you complete the Black Records sidequest.
• Rewatch Bonus: The first game has a lot of this, either replaying it after having beat it, or replaying it having beaten the second game. Among things, knowing the true identity of "C", as well as certain comments and meetings seen between characters who you don't learn certain things about until Cold Steel II.
• Rhythm Game: Swimming operates like this, with the player alternating the pressing of two buttons to make Rean swim faster, with the beats coming quicker as he speeds up.
• Rich Bitch: Patrick Hyarms is a male example. He's cut down to size by the even richer but slighly less bitchy Jusis, as well as by the definitely not rich Gaius. Later in the original game, he starts displaying some redeeming qualities. He's a lot better by the second game and by Cold Steel III, he has for all intents and purposes completely reformed, to the point of issuing an official apology to Gaius for how out-of-line he acted in the first game.
• Running Gag:
  • Rean being mistaken for Alisa's boyfriend by the people of Roer. Can implicitly turn into Everyone Can See It if the player chooses to focus on Alisa's bonding events.
  • Meeting one of Class VII's family members, only to find out they're a member of the Board of Directors for the Thors Military Academy. First Jusis's older brother, Rufus, then Alisa's mother, Irina. By the time you get to Machias's father, Imperial governor Karl Regnitz, it hardly comes as a shock, at least to the player, though the characters are still pretty stunned by it.
• Say My Name: The opening of the Japanese version of Cold Steel II has the other characters saying Rean's name repeatedly. It was determined this wouldn't work well for the English-language version, so it was changed to a selection of important lines from the previous game.
  • The normal ending of Cold Steel IV has the chosen girl (sans Towa, Alfin, and Elise) scream Rean's name before he, Crow, and Millium die. If no girl is chosen or if the chosen girl was one of the three listed, then Celine ends up screaming Rean's name.
• Scenery Porn: Nord Highlands are gorgeous and are treated as such in-universe as well. The greenery and flowers around Trista are pretty nice also and are often commented on.
• School Clubs Are Serious Business: School clubs are an important part of the tradition of Thors Military Academy. The members of your playable party are all members of a school club, except for the main protagonist, Rean Schwarzer. Although he doesn't join any one particular club, he often spends his time helping the student council and is also unofficially a member of the fishing club. In Cold Steel III, the school clubs are ended at Thors Military Academy as part of its move away from being Mildly Military. However, Rean is now an instructor of the newly established Thors Branch Campus, which does have school clubs, personally funded by the principal, who felt that they were too strong a part of the legacy of Thors to get rid of. She makes it requirement for the students to either join one or be placed on the student council.
• School Festival: Thors holds one every year. It's the setting for the final Chapter.
• School Swimsuit: There is a swimming club and associated minigame so these appear.
• Scienceville: The city of Roer in Erebonia is devoted entirely to the development of orbal technology. Being run by the prestigious Reinford Group (Alisa's family), it houses the famous Roer Institute of Technology where scientists and engineers graduate from, and many technological displays such as the escalator are more prominent here than in any other location in the country. It's also the birthplace of the Courageous.
• Screw Destiny: Attempted in Cold Steel III where the Black Records states that someone will kill the corrupted Divine Beast using the sword of the end and unleash the curse of Erebonia to the entire world. Class VII's mission is to prevent that from happening in the final chapter. Unfortunately for them however, not only did they horribly fail, but Rean ends up doing the deed himself and kills the Divine Beast with Millium as the sword. Played straight however in Cold Steel IV's Golden Ending where Rean, Crow, and Millium were supposed to die but someone behind the scenes made sure that they live by letting Rean visit the remains of the Earth Divine Beast and give him the Earthen Prison to separate Rean from Ishmelga.
• Secret A.I. Moves: A game-within-a-game example. In the mandatory Vantage Masters match with Rutger, he has the Beast Master card, which can never be obtained by the player in III. When playing against Professor Schmidt in the 3rd game, he uses a unique Master card you never have access to: the Sorcerer. It also has the fairly broken ability to create Magic Crystal cards at will. Aurier, the Optional Boss of Vantage Masters (who can only be challenged if you have all 22 cards), also has an exclusive Master: the Paladin. Frustratingly, the Vanish spell card, which you can use, tauntingly states that it does more damage if your Master is the Paladin, despite you never having access to this combo.
• Sequel Hook: Much like the Crossbell arc before it, the saga ends with several major teases for future installments. Calvard is stated to be going through major civil unrest, and all of East Zemuria is implied to be undergoing unnatural desertification. Most of the mysteries regarding the other worlds beyond Zemuria are left unknown. Cedric joins Ouroboros, who announces the end of the Phantasmal Blaze Plan and the beginning of the next phase of the Orpheus Final Plan - the Eternal Regression Plan, which will presumably be the focus of the next saga. Finally, the Grandmaster herself makes her first onscreen appearance in the series, and ominously declares that only three years remain before 'the nothingness of all'...
• Sequence Breaking: It's only available for PC versions but in Cold Steel III, it is possible to go out of bounds and access areas far earlier than they should be able to just by using either Ash or Jusis since their field attacks move them forward. It gets sillier when the party leader can run in the air at Einhell Keep.
• The Seven Mysteries: Being a school in a JRPG, of course Thors has them. Beryl asks you to investigate them for her. All have disappointingly mundane explanations, like the 'hole in the field containing a corpse' is just the place where students buried failing exams. Afterwards, Rean asks why she doesn't count the definitely mysterious Old Schoolhouse as one of the seven mysteries. She implies that of course it's included... in the real seven mysteries of Thors... In Cold Steel II, when the Reverie Corridor appears in the Old Schoolhouse, she tells Rean that he's fortunate to be one of the lucky few that gets to see the truth behind the 'eighth' of the academy's seven mysteries.
• Sequential Boss: Cold Steel is in love with this trope and it happens at least once per Chapter.
  • Cold Steel II's Finale ends in a 5-part battle. First the main party against Crow and Vita, then a Divine Knight battle between the Azure and Ashen Knights, followed by the characters not involved in the first fight and Rean fighting against the Vermillion Apocalypse (End Of Vermillion in Japanese), then Rean and the team from the first fight against Vermillion Apocalypse, and finally, to end it all, Ashen and Azure Knights teaming up against Vermillion Apocalypse.
  • A far less serious example is the decisive sparring match against Patrick in the Epilogue. First, Team and one classmate fights Patrick and Celestin, then Ferris and Vincent show up and challenge Rean to a 3-on-3 match. After this, when they all admit that Class VII are the strongest in the Academy, Principal Vandyck and Instructor Beatrix show up and challenge Rean to a 2-on-4 match (Class VII having 4 members on their team). Patrick even asks himself just what he's set in motion.
• Serial Escalation: First game starts with the protagonist's first day at a military academy, making it feel like one of those Japanese fantasy school games. By the end of the third game several people close to the protagonist is presumed dead with one confirmed dead, a bunch of Face Heel Turns and betrayals has occurred and the Big Bad has practically won and is holding the protagonist by the neck. And the fourth game? The Hero Dies, and then an epic four party of three characters battle against a giant Eldritch Abomination.
• Series Fauxnale: Trails of Cold Steel II resolves many of the major plot points that were introduced in the first game's Cliffhanger ending, such as Crow's betrayal, the Erebonian Civil War, and even the situation in Crossbell. After the main plot is resolved, Class VII is able to successfully graduate without any pressing problems to deal with, and Rean is implied to have peacefully spent his next and final year at Thors without incident. When III does continue the story, it opts to do so after a significant Time Skip of one and a half years, by which time Rean has long since finished his education and is now an instructor himself.
• Shadow Archetype: Patrick to Jusis. Both are privileged sons of the Four Families, are proud, are skilled with a sword and look down on Commoners. The difference is that one is a Jerkass with very few redeeming qualities and the other becomes a valued companion. Or at least at first, anyway. It later turns out the former actually ends up being quite a nice guy too once he finally gets his head on straight and undergoes some Character Development.
• Ship Tease: Rean and Alisa get lots of moments of this. Chapter 6 also includes quite a bit of Rean/Towa teasing and Laura/Fie teasing.
  • Rean gets it with much of the cast due to Relationship values even some teachers.
  • Jusis and Millium. Jusis is always willing to entertain and dragged around by Millium despite how much he grumbles about it. They shared a dance in Chapter 4 of Cold Steel III. Extremely Harsher in Hindsight given that Millium dies at the end of the third game, though at the end of the fourth game, she gets better.
• Shoot the Rope: Sara is unimpressed with Fie's cunning attempt to avoid the mandatory orientation.
• Shop Fodder: Like the rest of the series, monsters do not drop money, they drop sepith crystals. But along with the elemental sepith that can either be traded for cash or used to make quartz or upgrade orbments, there is now a new type called the sepith mass, which is only useful as a trade good that can be exchanged for money, which makes it possible to grind for money without complicating any efforts to upgrade orbments.
• Shout-Out: Now moved to its own section.
• The Show Must Go Wrong: In Cold Steel I, the seventh floor of the Old Schoolhouse just happens to open up on the night before Class VII's concert performance during the Academy Festival. The concert and festival in general nearly gets cancelled as a result if not for Rean and the others volunteering to investigate it.
• Sigil Spam:
  • The Imperial Liberation Front leaders have the organization's logo somewhere on them: C has it on his helmet, Gideon has it on an armband, Scarlet has it tattooed onto her left shoulder and Vulcan has it on his shoulder armor.
  • Duke Albarea has his family crest or tapestries bearing his family crest on the walls of his manor every ten feet or so.
• Signature Team Transport:
  • While it doesn't see much action in Cold Steel, the Courageous is intended to serve this role for Class VII. It even shares their colors. Played straight in Cold Steel II.
  • Cold Steel III has the blue military train Derfflinger for the branch campus and the red military train Arc Royale for the main campus.
  • Cold Steel IV has the protagonists alternate between Merkabahs 2 and 8 before ending up with the Courageous II as the latter's predecessor was blown up in the previous game.
• Significant Double Casting: During certain flashbacks in Cold Steel IV, Emperor Dreichels is voiced by the same actors as Chancellor Osborne to show how the former is the latter's past life.
• Significant Name Shift: When Rean first meets Randy, they are on Last-Name Basis. However, as time passes, they grow closer, and after a heart-to-heart, they agree to call each other more casually.
• Sins of Our Fathers: Duke Cayenne's real motivation behind founding the Noble Alliance. His ancestor, Emperor Orthros, was disgraced and deemed "The False Emperor." Cayenne wants to avenge his ancestor's defeat at the hands of Emperor Dreichels and become the real power behind the throne.
• Skirts and Ladders:
  • During a sequence in the first game in the Sachsen Iron Mine, Angelica displays awareness of this trope by ordering the boys of the party to climb a ladder first, followed by the girls, who are all wearing skirts (and then takes advantage of it herself by following along behind them).
  • The party sometimes have to crawl through ventilation ducts to reach things, which presents a horizontal version of this trope:
    Alisa: Why do we have to crawl through these ducts?
    Millium: Who cares if the boys get a sneak peek of your panties?
    Alisa: I do!
• Slice-and-Dice Swordsmanship: Almost everyone who uses a sword or a bladed weapon in this game will slash targets but never use it to thrust them.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Zoro-Agruga, the undead dragon that serves as the final (beatable) boss of the fourth chapter, appears to be just a monster that G calls up with his magic flute, but the Black Records in Cold Steel II reveal that in life, that monster drove everyone out of Heimdallr for centuries, was only killed by a Divine Knight piloted by the then-Emperor, and that the corruption said Divine Knight was exposed to by fighting it turned Testa-Rossa into the Vermillion Apocalypse, which played a major part in the War of the Lions and served as the final boss of the main game in Cold Steel II. Cold Steel III reveals that the corruption didn't even stop there. The Holy Beast of Earth, Algrest fell to the curse in it's attempt to contain the corruption, becoming the Nameless One.
• SNK Boss: A comparatively mild example, and it's a minigame at that, but Vantage Masters in the third games has three opponents whose decks are quite literally stacked against you, Rutger during the main story, and Schmidt and Aurier in optional duels. All three have Master cards that the player can never obtain in III as well as powerful decks in general, though Rutger will allow you to use a copy of his deck for an AP penalty. (See Secret A.I. Moves)
• Snow Means Love: In Cold Steel II, after each of the dormitory events with Rean's chosen partner towards the beginning of the Finale section, the view cuts to the outside of the dormitory to show it gently snowing. If your chosen partner was one of the female characters, then it certainly means love. If a male character, then, well, a strong friendship at least^note Or Ho Yay, if you want to go that route.
• So Much for Stealth: Rean betrays his presence to Emma and Celine during an optional scene by stepping on a twig. He does this again in Cold Steel III while overhearing Claire and Michael's conversation.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: The ending song "I Miss You" is set to an upbeat tune which is totally at odds with the scenes that take place immediately beforehand. This is deliberate since the lyrics also don't match the tone either but are very appropriate to the situation and Falcom does all its music in-house so the song was 'made to order'.
• Sphere of Destruction: Aion Type-Alpha erases Garrelia Fortress and its Railway Cannons from existence using one of these. The remains of the Fortress are seen in Cold Steel II.
• Spoiler Opening:
  • The first game's opening spoils a couple of the game's more significant plot threads, such as Emma's link to Celine and, more notably, the existence of Valimar and the Divine Knights.
  • The second game's opening spoils where each of the party members is located (the first third of the game is spend finding them all), and Towa becoming captain of The Courageous. It also makes no attempt to hide a major Face–Heel Turn from the first game.
  • The third game's opening doesn't even bother hiding the fact that Rean fights with Azure Siegfried who is actually Crow, the Courageous blowing up, and Osborne with the Nameless One.
  • The fourth game's opening spoils new Class VII's S-Craft finishing off with Rean's final S-Craft in the series although it's a shortened version of the entire thing.
• Spot the Imposter: At one point in Cold Steel II, Phantom Thief B kidnaps and impersonates a member of Class VII purely to see if Rean can figure out who he replaced.
• Starfish Language: Airgetlam speaks in monospaced Cyrillic letters. So does Claimh Solais.
• Stats Dissonance: Fie, given Foresight and the proper Quartz setup, along with her natural Evasion, effectively gains Super-Reflexes, being impossible to hit by dodging every attack. But that was unintentional on Falcom's part. She was intended to be a Fragile Speedster, having low HP and Defense, and high Speed. The greater potential that "dodge tanking" allows makes Fie more practical to bring into tough battles to absorb enemy punishment than the traditional Mighty Glacier Laura.
• Stock Ness Monster: In Cold Steel IV, some of the residents of Milsante report seeing a monster called "Gallie" in the lake by their village. Given the lake's unusual appearance, the sudden appearance of an ancient shrine by it and the fact that you fight actual monsters, throughout the series, the idea of there actually being a creature like this isn't necessarily farfetched. It's just that there's no photos or confirmed sightings of it so far. Of course, as players of the game already know, cryptid monsters are a real thing in the world of Zemuria. If you do one of Juna's bonding events, you get to see the creature and later you a given a quest to fight the monster: Galliosaurus.
• Storming the Castle: In Cold Steel II, Class VII storms Valflame Palace, which has been transformed into the Infernal Castle, to free Cedric and face Crow.
• Story Difficulty Setting: Playing the games on the easiest difficulty allows players to enjoy the story while stomping on boss fights more easily than on harder difficulties.
• Succession Crisis: The War of the Lions was a five-way civil war that was set off when the heir apparent to the Erebonian Throne was assassinated shortly after the death of his father, resulting in all his half-siblings going to war over who had the best claim.
• Suddenly Voiced:
  • Inverted, originally, as many characters who spoke with voiced lines in the first game (Patrick, Principal Vandyck, S and V) have their lines as unvoiced text in the second game and only speak during their battles. Played straight, however, with Lt. Generals Zechs Vander and Olaf Craig, as well as Elliot's sister Fiona who are voiced in Cold Steel II.
  • The PC Steam version of the original game contains over 5,000 lines of voiced dialogue that was previously text-only, resulting in this for certain characters. Among others is a Provincial Army Officer at the end of Chapter 2 with a Scottish accent completed with heavily rolled Rs. Olaf Craig gains some voiced dialogue in this port as well, and Patrick Hyarms is another character that seems to have a lot more voiced dialogue. The same is also true with Cold Steel II, and in some cases inverts the inversion previously described.
  • Cold Steel III has certain Thors students, now graduated, suddenly have voice acting, including Munk and Vivi.
  • In Cold Steel IV, everyone's favorite fortune-teller, Beryl, has a couple of lines of voiced dialogue after not having been voiced previously.
• Super Mode: Rean has one that causes his hair to turn silver and his eyes to turn red. He's afraid of what it does to him but Victor helps him get over his fear and tap into the power more constructively. He tries to do this during the final battle (with everyone suspecting that doing so will kill him) but fortunately Valimar awakens and gives Rean a second option.
  • Then after their fight appears to end in a victory for Rean, Ordine stands up and Crow reveals that it possesses a Super Mode he wasn't using. It's implied that all the Divine Knights have one of these.
  • As of the second game, Rean is able to properly control it after a heart-to-heart with Princess Alfin, though he learns the hard way he can only maintain it for a limited amount of time. This manifests as a brand-new craft called Spirit Unification, allowing increased stats, ailment/debuff immunity, and powered-up crafts for 3 turns.
  • In the beginning of Cold Steel III, he is no longer able to control it properly, which he tells his former classmates of Class VII happened ever since the Northern War when they ask if he's holding back. Later, Emma and Celine show up and use their magic to get it under control, allowing you to again use it at will at certain times. Then, Emma provides him a pendant which allows him to use it in moderation, even when she's not there.
  • At the end of Cold Steel III, Rean gives into his ogre power entirely, driven berserk as the sacrifice following the defeat of the Holy Beast. He is captured and chained up by the Empire, before finally being rescued in Cold Steel IV and brought back to his senses. Afterwards, after talking it over with the party, it's agreed that Rean can only use his power so long as they're there to watch over him. The move is now known as "Demon Unchained" and has the same effects as before. However, instead of simply ending after three turns, Rean will go into a berserk status, being unable to do anything but attack. There is a random chance of it healing automatically. Otherwise, it can be healed by Curia/Recuria balms and spells, or, since non-KO status conditions don't persist post-battle in this series, automatically at the end of the battle.
• Supporting Protagonist: Estelle and Lloyd play as this to Rean in Cold Steel IV, doing their own thing off-screen while Rean deals with the on-screen threats.
• Sure, Let's Go with That:
  • In Chapter 2, Emma uses her special brand of magic to heal a wound Rean got while jumping in to protect Jusis and Machias from a monster they thought they had all taken down. Later, Rean comments on how amazingly well his shoulder feels, asking Emma if she used some special sort of medicine. She starts to say that she didn't, then... "I-I mean, yes, I did! I used a special kind of medicine I brought with me from back home. My grandmother made it by combining a number of medicinal herbs together, I believe..."
  • In Chapter 6, she recognizes the barrier sealing the party inside Lohengrin Castle, saying that she's always had a sixth sense about these sorts of things. Jusis mentions that adherents of the Septian Church have often been said to have strange powers and asks if she's with the church. She at first says that it's kind of the opposite, but then backtracks and says "You've got me! I've always been a big supporter of the church."
  • At one point, Sara has to leave for a while to help Toval with some bracer work, leading the students of Class VII to quip about her having a hot date. When she returns, Rean discovers her muttering about all the work that Toval gave her and asks her how her "hot date" went. Sara is at first confused, but then seizes upon what Rean just gave her, saying that it was great, with plenty of action.
  Rean: Yeah, I want to believe it, but somehow I don't think so.
• Sweat Drop: This is seen quite often, pretty much whenever the characters are embarrassed or confused by something. In Cold Steel IV, this along with "..." tends to be Rean's default reaction to some of the crazier things said by his varied acquaintances. Common candidates for triggering such a reaction include Dorothee (who's a Yaoi fan), Freddy (who uses insects in food), Munk (the crazy radio drama guy) and Jingo (a fiery young girl who deals in weapons).

T - Z

• Tagline
  • "Rank means nothing. Skill means everything." - The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel
  • "Peace is but a memory." - The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II
  • "The legend of Class VII begins anew." - The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III
    • "The embers of war are about to ignite."
  • "In a world ablaze with war, heroes must unite." - The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV
• Take a Third Option: What Olivier is inspired to do after the events of the Liberl Ark, to the point that he plays the Thors Board of Directors like a lute in order to form Class VII, builds the Courageous and draws its crew from both the Nobles and the Commoners.
• Take Your Time: Cold Steel IV plays it straight. It's the morning of the last day, Erebonia declares war on its neighbours at noon, sinister floating fortresses have appeared, and The End of the World as We Know It is nigh. There are five side quests available, one of which involves setting up a Harvest Festival for a village you previously visited. You have to do all of the quests to get the True Ending, so if you try to go straight to the sinister floating fortresses, you will get a pop-up message telling you that the quests are vitally important.
• Talking Is a Free Action: Two boss fights, Crow dying and Cedric undergoing a Face–Heel Turn would not have happened if Class VII hadn't thought that this trope was in play instead of securing all their opponents before having long, dramatic conversations during the climax of Cold Steel II. Of course, most of the time this trope is played straight, with long, involved conversations happening before and after boss fights under circumstances when simply acting would have been far more sensible.
• Tanks for Nothing: Zigzagged a bit. When the Panzer Soldats first appear, they effortlessly curb stomp all of the First Division tanks. However, by Cold Steel II, the armored divisions have developed anti-Soldat tactics and appear capable of holding their own.
• Tempting Fate: Practically everyone in the Empire shrugs off Crossbell's declaration of independence, frequently pointing out that while the city-state has enormous financial influence, it also has no military so they aren't a threat. This contributes to the sense of impending doom if you've played Azure and eventually it comes to bite the Empire in the ass when Aion Type-Alpha shows up to erase Garrelia Fortress from existence, right on schedule.
• Thanks for the Mammary:
  • When Sara drops the students into the ruins during Class VII's special orientation, Rean leaps in front of Alisa to keep her from being hurt when she lands. He succeeds but in the process, Alisa lands on top of him with her chest right in his face. She is not amused.
  • The same thing happens to Kurt and Juna in the prologue of Cold Steel III.
• Theme Naming:
  • Several locations throughout Erebonia have names from Norse Mythology, including Thors Military Academy, the capital Heimdallr, Heimdallr's department store Plaza Bifrost, and Rean's hometown Ymir. While not a location in Erebonia, the jaeger corps Nidhoggr continues the theme.
  • Many terms related to the Gnomes come from Celtic Mythology, including Airgetlam, Claiomh Solais, Zoa Balor, the Tuatha De Danann, Altina's crafts Fragarach and Brionac^note kind of; Brionac doesn't actually come from Celtic myth, but most people in Japan think it does thanks to a book on fantasy lore that confused a Michael Moorcock reference with a spear from Celtic myth, and Franz Reinford's maiden name Lughman.
• There Can Only Be One: The true plan of the Phantasmal Blaze Plan is that two Divine Knights must duel and the winner will absorb the Divine Core of the loser. Crow nearly gets absorbed by Rean before Rean stops this while Rutger and Zektor is absorbed into Rean and Valimar.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill:
  • In this game, an overkill requires you to land a killing blow that deals five times your opponent's remaining HP. It's only a 10% EXP bonus, but it can add up. Because of this, it sometimes makes sense to drag out the battle a bit to weaken the enemy enough to have a better chance of landing the overkill. Later on in the game, a great way to get overkills is to use the "Burst" link ability, which causes all of your characters to attack every target on the battlefield. What's great about it is that they will continue to strike even when the enemies are already K.O.ed, which counts as an automatic overkill. Applied correctly, you can easily land large multiple overkill bonuses, as well as other ones such as Vanquisher (40% EXP bonus for killing four or more enemies at once), Unscathed (20% bonus for taking no damage during the fight) and Swift and Sure (10% bonus for winning within three turns). The only catch is that you can only get a max of 9999 EXP per fight, though this restriction is abandoned in Cold Steel II and the Steam version as well as the PS4 version, though only when fighting Shining Poms.
  • The Divine Knight / Panzer Soldat battles feature a mechanic where if your main attack is enough to finish off the enemy's remaining HP, then the follow-up attack screen will be presented, except all of the command buttons will change to the option for the most powerful follow-up attack you have in your arsenal. This occurs even if you don't have the BP (brave points) that would normally be required to use this. More specifically, your normal options are "Follow-Up" (no BP cost and builds up 1 BP), "Finisher" (3 BP cost, and unleashes a powerful single character finishing move) and Unite (5 BP cost and unleashes a powerful joint attack). Under this mechanic, all choices change to "Unite."
• There Is Only One Bed: During the first field exam, there are plenty of beds, but they're all in one room, which makes things awkward given that the party is of mixed genders (And Alisa is still getting over the whole Thanks for the Mammary incident).
• This Is a Competition: The first game has a rare positive example. Part of Class VII's curriculum involves field studies in which the students explore separate locations in the greater world of Erebonia, split into two groups: Group A and Group B. From the beginning, Jusis Albarea (son of a high-ranking Duke) and Machias Regnitz (son of a commoner governor) are at each other's throats and during their first field study constantly dog Group B with their bickering. When the two are placed in Group A for the second field study, it looks like it's going to be more of the same. Then, on the train to the destination, Rean Schwarzer cuts through their sniping at each other, pointing out that in the previous field study, their group got an E, which is a low failing grade on a paper exam. He then points out that the structure of their field studies is such that it places them directly in competition with Group B and asks if they like idea of losing again. Both express surprise at the idea of him being a competitive type, but admit that he has a point and concede to at least trying to work together and seeing the other's point of view. Of course, it's not all smooth sailing, but by the end of the field study, Jusis actually joins the group in rescuing Machias, who has been illegally jailed by his father, and the two form their first successful combat link.
• This Is Reality: "Cold, cruel reality." This is the first thing that Celine tells Rean when he awakens at the beginning of Cold Steel II, wondering if he's dreaming.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Class VII somehow manages to go through an entire war without killing anybody - even when going through multiple hostage situations where killing the enemy instead of smacking them and expecting them to surrender would be a much more sensible way of ensuring the safety of the hostages (the villain invariably doubles down, requiring a Big Damn Heroes moment from an NPC to save the day). Whenever they fight human opponents, the most they ever do is knock them out. Even in the Panzer Soldat battles, there's only one casualty, and that was because the Soldat in question self destructed with the pilot in it rather than just stop working. Monsters, archaisms and animals are slaughtered wholesale, however.
• Time-Shifted Actor: A flashback in the Japanese version of Cold Steel IV showing Cedric's first meeting with Kurt establishes Mai Aizawa as the voice of Cedric up to age 15, with Naomi Shindo voicing him starting at age 17. This is in stark contrast to the English version, where Michael Sinterniklaas, Cedric's current VA, voices his 15-year-old self in said scene rather than his unknown first VA.
• Time Skip: One in Cold Steel II where the Civil War ends on December 31. Rean is then forced to go to Crossbell in February and he gets to go back to Thors in March. Cold Steel III takes place one year and six months after Cold Steel II in Septian Calendar 1206, six months before Crossbell's independence.
• Title Drop: One that adds context to the original title. The Finale of the second game is called "Forward, Relentlessly". (Which is also the name of the title screen theme) This turns out to be part of Crow's last words.
• Too Awesome to Use: Cold Steel III has the Dragon Incense item, which restores everyone's HP, revives anyone that might be KOed and restores your party's Brave Points which are used to issue orders that can grant powerful status boosts and other benefits. Sets of them can be purchased as DLC, but if you don't do this, there's only one or two available through treasures. These return in Cold Steel IV, though they seem to be at least somewhat more frequently available, such that it's a bit more reasonable to make use if needed during tough battles.
• Too Slow:
  • In the original Cold Steel, Victor S. Arseid declares this after Rean activates his Spirit Unification power after losing to him and tries to come at him, but misses. Rean nevertheless manages to put up much more of a fight against him after this (in the previous battle, his attacks always did 0 damage), but still ultimately isn't able to beat him.
  • In Cold Steel II, when your party storms the Sachsen Iron Mine, the jaegers that confront them are confused by Angelica's nun disguise and her declaration that the mine is the property of the royal Arnor family and not that of the Rogner family. As they finally begin to figure things out, Rean declares "Too slow!" and the party comes at them. You begin the battle with Single Advantage status, meaning that all of your party members get at least one turn before they get to act.
  • Also in Cold Steel II, when you party battles Duvalie and Blueblanc in the Infernal Castle, after the battle is over, Duvalie gets a second wind, declaring "Too slow!" and barraging your party with a terrifyingly rapid-fire series of attacks that would require desperate measures to overcome if not for the timely arrival of Toval and Prince Olivert.
  • Additionally, "too slow" is a common comment from your characters in battle if they evade an enemy attack, allowing them to counter.
• Trailers Always Spoil:
  • The first and probably biggest offender is the original JP trailer for the first game. Alisa's surname was meant to be a mystery until The Reveal in Chapter 3. In the trailer, she flat out introduces herself with her full name, effectively leaving first-time players wondering why would she go through all the trouble to hide her name In-Universe.
  • The announcement trailer for the localized version of the second game, The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II, totally spoils a couple of the most major plot points of the ending of the first Trails of Cold Steel. Definitely not something to watch if you have not completed the original game. Ditto with Cold Steel III as the first few seconds already spoil viewers right away.
  • The third game's trailer also straight-up spoils that Osborne declares war on Calvard. Downplayed slightly in that it doesn't reveal why this happens. And particularly eagle-eyed viewers will catch a glimpse of the Courageous exploding in the sky, something that doesn't happen until the last 30 minutes of the game.
• Transformation Is a Free Action: In a variant, whenever Rean summons Valimar, everyone waits for Valimar to wake up and travel the distance (usually measured in miles) from where it was last left to Rean's current location and for Rean to get in before the fight resumes, despite the fact that Rean only does this when the party is cornered by opponents that they don't stand a chance against on foot.
• Trap Door: In Cold Steel I, Class VII's first day at Thors has them falling into one that starts off the first dungeon of the game. History repeats in Cold Steel III as the same thing happens to new Class VII. Both times also include a boy and girl falling into a compromising position that results in the girl slapping the boy.
• Tricked into Signing: Cold Steel IV features a rather complicated example with a couple of minor noble NPCs, one of whom tries to scam the other by getting them to sign one thing, but using carbon paper to copy the signature so instead they're signing actually signing a document that basically signs away everything they have to the other person. Ultimately, the whole scam is rendered moot thanks to a clumsy maid who spills tea over the documents, both revealing the deception and rendering the signature illegible.
• Tron Lines: Ordine develops these when Crow releases the full power of the machine.
• Tropey, Come Home: Finding lost kittens is a regular task for Class VII, both new and old. And then inverted in one hidden sidequest in III, where you have to help a cat find her lost human.
• True Companions: Class VII steadily becomes this over the course of the first game and have solidly become so by the end of Cold Steel II.
• TV Telephone Etiquette: Nobody seems to say "good-bye" talking on the ARCUS unit. For example, when Instructor Neithardt calls Rean in Chapter 4 to ask him to swing by the lounge, he simply repeats his request at the end of the conversation and then clicks off. Rean even lampshades it at one point when Sara makes the same request...
  Sara: I'll be waiting in the faculty lounge. Later!
  Rean: Didn't even wait to hear my response...
• Twin Switch: Vivi loves doing this in order to prank people. Her twin sister Linde, usually the butt of Vivi's pranks, is much less supportive of the idea.
• T-Word Euphemism: While the party is exploring Lohengrin Castle, Jusis comments on how they're finding many odd mechanisms and ghost-like monsters. Millium, who has already been scared by the monsters, tells him to not say "the g-word."
• 20 Bear Asses: The quest An Offering to the Departed in Chapter 5 requires you to go massacre a number of specific monsters (Grass Pom and Rose Shroom respectively) on the Ebel Highway to get 5 hearty powder and 5 clear gelatin for the quest. Though given that those monsters aren't the only ones to drop those ingredients, just the only ones to do so at that point in the game, it's entirely possible that you already have enough in your inventory from random encounters in previous chapters.
• Two-Timer Date: Averted in Cold Steel II. The final character events actually revolve around having Rean meet with a classmate (or Towa or Sara) in the Class VII dormitory once he's done with everything else he wants to do at Thors Academy and in Trista. You can have him agree to meet with any character with whom he has sufficient compatibility with and has shared a fateful moment with. If, however, you've already had him agree to meet with someone, he'll just say that he'll call to cancel to break his date with the person he already promised the meeting with. Doubles as an Anti-Frustration Feature, since the game allows to switch as many times as you want until you're satisfied with your choice, or even if you just want to see all the dialogue.
• Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: What the Divertissment Chapter really is all about with the protagonists of the two series, Lloyd Bannings and Rean, fighting against each other.
• Uncertain Doom: Cold Steel III ends with the fates of several characters left ambiguous, likely being saved for the fourth and final game. In short order: Angelica is last seen about to be shot by George before the scene cuts to black, and Toval, Olivert and Victor are presumed dead when the Courageous is blown up in the finale.
• Underdogs Never Lose: In Cold Steel III, you have to bet on a horse race to progress the story at one point. One of the horses, named Lino Bloom, is old and is retiring after this race, but is said to have trained hard for it. It has 10:1 odds. Guess who wins?
• Unexpected Gameplay Change: While still using a turn-based format and the basic mechanics, the final battles of Cold Steel I and several battles in Cold Steel II with Rean piloting Valimar operate on a slightly different system where you'll find yourself needing to target specific parts of the opposing mech, you have no Arts and counterattacking is Craft-based.
• Unexpected Successor: Emperor Dreichels, the winner of the War of the Lions, started the war with the weakest army and weakest claim to the throne. In fact, under Erebonian succession law, he actually had no claim to the throne at all, since he was an illegitimate child born to a common-born mother.
• The Unfought: Vita in the first game. The second game features Aurelia Le Guin and Wallace Bardias, two prominent Erebonian officers fighting alongside the Noble Alliance and are considered to be among the best that Erebonia has to offer. The two are never fought at all fought by the members of Class VII. There's also Duke Cayenne, the primary antagonist of Cold Steel II.
• Unintentionally Unwinnable: In the second game, if you load out at least four of your characters to have 100% evade, the boss fight against McBurn and Duvalie soft-locks the game. This is because McBurn can only be reduced to 1 HP, after which he takes zero damage and is supposed to one-shot the party using one of the two attacks he wields, allowing the game to progress to the next cutscene. However, both of those attacks can be evaded, meaning an evade tank becomes unkillable in that fight and four of them ensure that there will always be at least one person left standing, no matter who you switch in. Notably, there's no way to get even one party member to 100% evade at this point in the game; having four of them requires multiple New Game + runs just to get the requisite equipment.
• Uniqueness Rule: Cold Steel II and IV, as well as Reverie, have the Lost Arts, extremely powerful magic Arts that can only be equipped from powerful quartz that can only by completing a trial, typically defeating a powerful monster. These cost all of a character's EP to use and while EP can be restored (or you can use a 0 Arts turn to nullify the EP cost), you can only cast each Lost Art once per battle, after which it will be grayed out and the game will say that the Quartz has losts its shine. While many of the effects are useful enough to merit equipping the quartz despite these restrictions, simply equipping these quartz also grants powerful stat boosts.
• Un-person: Lloyd and Rixia's objective in the Crossbell side-chapter is to wipe all records in the city's Orbal network about members of the foundling anti-Erebonian resistance so that their conquerors will have a harder time tracking them down. They achieve a partial success. They remove the records and secure a backup copy of the originals to restore the system later, but Rean's fallback orders have him use Valimar to cripple the entire network, denying it to both sides, which makes the deletions irrelevant in the short term.
• The Unreveal: Cold Steel runs on this trope, starting with the fact that major elements in the Erebonia Arc were foreshadowed in the ending of Azure so going in, everyone expected Cold Steel to be a countdown to particular events. The game ended more or less exactly where Azure did so most of the unanswered questions from there remain unanswered. Does Osborne survive the assassination attempt? Uncertain. What does Ouroboros specifically want out of the Empire? Next game. How did Lianne Sandlot become the person we know today? Sorry, wait for the next game there too. There are also plenty of unreveals from Cold Steel's plot alone. Where does Rean's power come from? No answer. Emma promises to tell everyone what she knows about, well, everything. She doesn't get the chance to before the game ends, despite having about a week between promising to do so and everything going straight to hell. If you saw her dance scene, she'll apologize for this right before the game ends.
  • The sequel does answer several of these: Osborne's alive, Emma is a member of the Hexen Clan and Vita is a surrogate sister to her, and while we don't know exactly what Rean's power is, McBurn sheds some light on it. But in the end we still don't know what the Phantasmal Blaze Plan even is, despite Vita being defeated. Osborne promises to "take it over" though...
• Unreveal Angle:
  • In Chapter 6 of Cold Steel I, the camera is carefully positioned to not show who fires the shot that takes down the Imperial Liberation Front's airship because that becomes important later.
  • The first time we see Black Alberich, the camera very conspicuously never shows the top half of his face. When his full face is revealed later, we can see he has bright red eyes - the same as Alisa's.
  • The Sequel Hook finally reveals the Grandmaster...only for the camera to pull the same trick with Black Alberich and never reveal the top half of her face. However, sharp-eyed viewers can catch one or two frames of her eyes.
• The Unseen: Marquis Hyarms, despite being the head of one of the four great houses and, thus, one of the most important figures in the Noble Alliance, is never seen in the original or second game and is only mentioned a handful of times (mostly in relation to his son, Patrick). Notable in that all three other heads of the four great houses all play major roles in the story. This changes in Cold Steel III when your party actually visits Saint-Arkh and he finally does appear in person.
• Upper-Class Twit: Some of the Nobles qualify.
• Urban Segregation: Enforced for gameplay reasons in Heimdallr, where you can only visit (parts of) less than half of the city's various Districts. However, there's very little in-universe that prevents anyone from catching a tram from Ost to Garnier and walking around, or vice versa. About the only thing you can't do in the areas you're able to access is loiter around the Imperial Palace. The guards don't like it when you try doing that.
• The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: The Territory of the Great Shadow, aka the seventh level of the Old Schoolhouse which houses Valimar. Despite being the final dungeon, it's not the end of the game, which continues for another two hours or so afterwards with several more boss battles.
  • Cold Steel II has the Infernal Palace. Again, it's technically not because the actual final dungeon is the Reverie Corridor, which the interior of the Old Schoolhouse transforms into. Even before this, there's still a side story and several additional scenes and quests before getting there.
  Millium: Okay, now THIS is a final dungeon...
  • Cold Steel III has the Gral of Erebos which is located below Karel Imperial Villa from Cold Steel II.
  • Cold Steel IV has the Tuatha Dé Danann, an aerial fortress that appeared from Osgiliath Basin, the site of the clash of the two Sept-Terrion which then formed the Great One, which then traveled above the skies of Heimdallr.
• Victor Gains Loser's Powers: This is the basic mechanic of the Rivalries in Cold Steel IV. Each is a battle between Divine Knights held under special conditions. Whoever comes out the winner gains power from the defeated Divine Knight, as well as any special abilities it may possess, the defeated Divine Knight more-or-less absorbed into the winner. Alternatively, if both parties so choose, the defeated knight can instead remain, becoming a vassal of the victor.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: In Cold Steel II, if you choose to turn down the request for the final quest, helping Anton meet back up with Sharon, the choice to refuse is labelled, "See ya, sucker."
• Video Game 3D Leap: Cold Steel is this for the franchise.
• Video Phone: The characters also use their ARCUS units as phones. Cold Steel III introduces the "Round of Seven" app, which lets the members of the old Class VII communicate with each other, complete with video phone.
• Villain Forgot to Level Grind: Between the party's first fight with C in Chapter 4 and the second in Chapter 6, the party has gone up about 20 levels while C has only gained one. Unusually for this trope, this doesn't make winning the fight easy, it just makes it possible.
• Villainous Rescue: Well, for a given value of villain considering who we're talking about, but Arianrhod saving the party at Lohengrin Castle during Cold Steel I definitely counts.
• Villain Team-Up: The heroes are caught off guard in Cold Steel III when they find out that Osborne's faction, the Black Workshop, AND Ouroboros, who would normally oppose each other, all team up to carry out the Crimson Twilight.
• Violation of Common Sense: "Dodge-tanking", a special kind of strategy used against bosses and other enemies with high attack power. Instead of using high defense as with regular tanking, a character is buffed to 100% evasion by equipping orbments and accesories to 50% evasion, and then casting Insight (grants additional 50% evasion) on the character so, that way, whenever said character is attacked, they will automatically evade and counter. This is very often used with characters like Fie, which transforms her from a Fragile Speedster to a mob-control defender better than her Mighty Glacier counterpart Laura (and transforms the latter as well into another extremely powerful attacker).
• Voice Grunting: The game has a lot of voice acting and there's plenty of Calling Your Attacks, but this doesn't stop this from being used a fair amount in battles, probably as a stylistic choice. Rean tends to do it a fair amount, particularly when using his Spirit Unification ("ogre power"). Angelica is another character that does it a fair bit.
• War Is Hell: In Cold Steel IV, pretty much nobody who hasn't been brainwashed by the curse of the Great Twilight actually supports the impending war between Erebonia and Calvard. They know that regardless of what happens it would cause massive casualties on both sides and the populace already starts to feel the effects of it throughout the game as Erebonia's young to middle age male population is drafted en masse, ripping men from their wives and children and robbing small towns of their economic lifeblood.
• Warmup Boss: Iglude Gahmr, the gargoyle. Unusually for this trope, it has two phases.
• Was It All a Lie?: Asked of Crow at the end of the first game. He has to pause for a second before answering that yes, it was a lie. Rean still isn't buying it and believes that at least some of their friendship was genuine. One ass-kicking later and the game ends before anything more can come of this. And then, over the next three games, a lot more comes of it.
• Weapon for Intimidation: The railway guns are incredibly powerful and can strike just about any point in Crossbell from their location in Garrelia Fortress, but their sheer size makes it virtually impossible to move them anywhere else, which means that the only thing the guns can be used for is to threaten/strike at Crossbell, a minor power which poses no military threat to Erebonia. The implications of this caused the man who designed them to resign from the Reinford Corporation after they were installed.
• We Cannot Go On Without You: When Rean and Princess Alfin are escaping from the Pantagruel in Cold Steel II, Princess Alfin has no weapon, but access to a good complement of healing and offensive arts as well as your full item inventory. Despite this, if Rean falls, it's an immediate Game Over.
• Wedding Finale: The Creative Closing Credits of the true ending of Cold Steel IV is artwork of the cast attending the wedding of Prince Olivert Reise Arnor and Scherazard Harvey.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Cold Steel IV reveals that Osborne's ultimate goal was to break the curse of Erebonia, which in all is a noble cause. Unfortunately, his plan to do this involves starting wars with neighboring nations and disregards any casualties of the citizens of the Erebonian empire and the nations he is going to war with.
• We Need a Distraction: In Cold Steel IV, Orchis Tower is emitting a giant pillar of light that the party needs to get rid of. Their plan is for the Liberl and Crossbell crew to host an event at Arc-En-Ciel while Rean and selected members of his team go through Orchis Tower and shut it down. Then Vita and Bleublanc join in the fun at Arc-En-Ciel while the show is going on.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Following the two's affair being exposed, Rufus' biological parents (Duke Helmut's wife and brother) went their separate ways, with Helmut's brother being banished from the family. While his wife is confirmed to alive, the exact fate of both them are left vague.
• Wham Episode: The entire ending of Cold Steel I is this. Crow is revealed to be "C", Chancellor Osborne is shot, civil war breaks out, Trista is invaded, and Rean is forced to flee for his life as his classmates buy time for him by holding off Crow and the Azure Knight. The finale of Cold Steel II doubles as another as Crow dies and its revealed that Rean's biological father is Giliath Osborne. And the less said about Cold Steel III's ending the better. While Cold Steel IV did end on a happy note, the Grandmaster has finally made an appearance in person and has declared that the Phantasmal Blaze Plan is finally finished and is authorizing the third phase of the plan. This despite the fact that they never managed to obtain the Fire, Mirage, and Earth Sept-Terrion (in fact all three have disappeared), suggesting that they have a different goal in mind other than collecting the Sept-Terrion.
• Wham Line: The final chapter has a long string of them, starting with this one. (Though the player is likely to have figured it out just before this line is said.)
  Millium: It's part of my mission. The most important part, actually. If only I'd caught on a little sooner... But considering he managed to outwit Claire, Lechter and even Gramps... I suppose Crow's earned this victory.
  • In Cold Steel IV, in what is perhaps the first time it has happened in the franchise, after obtaining The Hero Dies ending, the game instructs the players to make a clear save and load the save file to do the hidden sidequest only available after beating the game once to change the outcome of the ending of the game. Needless to say, this has become a prime breeding ground for speculation for the next arc.
• Wham Shot:
  • In the "Divertissement" chapter of Cold Steel II, the scene opens with Calvard Republic missile trucks and airships in a battle against Erebonia's Achtzehn heavy tanks, with the Erebonians losing. Then Panzer Soldats arrive and begin fighting alongside the Achtzehns. Considering that the Imperial Army kept control of all the tanks during the civil war (the Noble Alliance only used Soldats and armored cars), this shot immediately signifies that the civil war is definitely over. Then, out of nowhere, Valimar arrives on-scene and wipes out the remaining Republican forces with one attack.
  • A slightly meta example, but in the third game (provided you're playing on PlayStation 4), the "gameplay recording paused because you entered blocked scene" popup appears before a seemingly innocuous scene where Angelica visits a graveyard. This is your first clue that shit's about to hit the fan.
• When the Clock Strikes Twelve: Class VII is given until midnight to complete their Old Schoolhouse investigation. Unless most other instances, however, this is just a given deadline because if they were in there much longer, they wouldn't get enough sleep to be able to reasonably perform for the school festival. In fact, they end up emerging from the final trial at 12:20, but this is allowed to slide.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The ending of Cold Steel IV has one long one.
• Where It All Began:
  • The first game begins and ends in Trista and the first dungeon is also the final dungeon.
  • Played with in the series as a whole. Reclaiming Trista from the Noble Alliance isn't the final step in Class VII's quest to stop the war - that would be the capital Heimdallr - but it is the penultimate step, and what most of they and the Courageous's crew feel is their main goal in the conflict. In addition, the Bonus Dungeon in the Epilogue is in Trista (and it, too, is the first game's first dungeon, albeit with a rather significant makeover.
• Why Don't You Marry It?: In Cold Steel IV, a girl catches her boyfriend outside Crossbell's casino, chastising him for being about blow all their money. He makes an excuse, but she doesn't buy it, telling him he can just marry the casino if he likes it that much.
• With Due Respect: After Sara outlines the basic details of Class VII at the start of the first game, Machias informs her...
  Machias: And with all due respect, instructor, it's ludicrous to intermix nobles and commoners like this!
• With Us or Against Us: Duke Cayenne believes that all Nobles should be part of the Noble faction by default, despite the fact that many members of the lesser nobility (Including Rean and Laura's fathers) disapprove of the goals and conduct of the Four Great Houses that lead said faction. He isn't above issuing open threats to try to convince said lesser nobles to align themselves with the Great Houses over the Imperial Government either.
• The Worf Effect: Happens at the end of Chapter 1 of the third game. To show how powerful Rutger's Divine Knight is, it effortlessly decapitates the Humongous Mecha boss you just beat (which Valimar needed backup to even barely win against), before impaling and obliterating the rest of its body for good measure.
• World of Badass: Just note how many people are noted to be legendary warriors worthy of a badass nickname: the Radiant Blademaster, the Purple Lightning, Craig the Red, One-Eyed Zechs, Neidhardt the Mighty, Duvalie the Swift, the Phantom Thief, the Azure Chevalier...
• Written by the Winners: Duke Cayenne's main motivation is his resentment over how one of his ancestors is remembered by history because of this trope.
• Yaoi Fangirl: Since Yaoi Genre's popularity is stated multiple times to grow amongst Erebonians, it's not surprising to see a bunch of them here. Particularly notable people are:
  • Dorothee, the president of the Literature Club. She immediately latches on to the idea of Jusis and Machias as a couple and her writing for the Festival plays on that. When Machias' neighbors stop by the club room, they have absolutely no idea how to react to that. In Cold Steel II, she pines away for her precious books, which she considers akin to treasure, and is on cloud nine when reunited with her library at Thors.
  • Alfin Reise Arnor, Cedric's twin sister of the Imperial Family. She has no hesitation on supporting the idea of Rean and Crow being together or teasing Rean particularly on on the whole Boys' Love subject. She refers to the genre as "...the sort that fills young maidens' hearts with joy and heads with dreams.".
  • Elise Schwarzer, Rean's adoptive sister, was influenced by Alfin as consequence.
• You Are Not Alone: In Cold Steel II, Rean really starts to feel the burden of being the Ashen Awakener and is reminded more than once that he's not alone; that he has the support of Class VII and everyone else he's come to know and appreciate at Thors Academy.
• You Are Not Ready: In Cold Steel III, after Rean and his new Class VII only barely manage to scrape by against the Steel Maiden Arianrhod, her Stahlritter, and their new Aion, the Azure Siegfried (who carries the appearance and voice of supposedly dead classmate/enemy Crow Armbrust) shows up and warns them that henceforth they're going to facing off against powerful enemies, legends, and those thought to be dead, and that as they are they don't stand a chance.
• You Can Talk?: Rean's reaction after "meeting the conditions" before the battle against the Spiegel and being transported to an alternate dimension where he discovers that Emma's cat, Celine, can talk.
  Celine: Yes, yes, quite eloquently, too. But that's not important right now.
• You Can't Fight Fate: As revealed in the Black Records of Cold Steel III, there exists a prophecy that will happen in Septian Calendar Year 1206 (the year Cold Steel III takes place in) where someone will slay the corrupted divine beast with the sword of the end and the Great Twilight will begin. In fact, the prophecy starts all the way back from the clash between the two giants revealed in Cold Steel II's Black Records, the creation of the seven divine knights, Heimdallr's formation with the church support, Zoro-Agruga's presence, recapturing Heimdallr and Testa-Rossa turning into Vermillion Apocalypse via corruption, the War of the Lions, Salt Pale and the rise of the "unwanted child"^note Word of God confirms that it refers to Weissman, Hamel Incident, the Hundred Days War with Liberl and Erebonia, the Azure Tree, and finally the Infernal Castle with one more step to go. Unfortunately for Rean, he ends up fulfilling that prophecy by killing the corrupted divine beast in his rage.
  • You Can't Thwart Stage One: However, it then gets pointed out in Cold Steel IV that the prophecies of the Black Records stop at the moment the Great Twilight begins, so now that this has happened, the unthwartable stage one is over, and the heroes are free to create a new path for the future now that they've reached stage two.
• You Make Me Sick: In Cold Steel IV, Jusis Albarea declares it of his brother Rufus after Rufus finishes Lianne Sandlot following Lianne's Rivalry with Rean Schwarzer, making himself the winner of the Rivalry instead and claiming the power of her Divine Knight.
• You Monster!: In Cold Steel II, the members of Class VII refer to Duke Cayenne variously as "monster" and "scum," first for using the Crown Prince Cedric to awaken the Vermillion Apocalypse, and then, when it's defeated, holding a sword to Prince Cedric's neck and trying to use him as a shield hostage to get away.
• You Remind Me of X: In Cold Steel III, Randy tells Rean that he didn't think he'd run into "another baby-faced playboy here." Rean asks if he knows someone else like that and Randy tells him that "Yeah, he looks real young, but he's crazy tough... Every beautiful woman he meets becomes his fan. He's got pretty nurses, even a star actress after him." Rean says that he thinks he might know who he's talking about. Although it's not stated directly, it's pretty obvious that Randy is referring to Lloyd Bannings.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: One of the annoying abilities possessed by the boss Nosferatu is its ability to steal the soul of a party member, taking them out of the battle and draining HP from them. You can force it to release the soul by beating the boss up for a bit. Loa Erebonius can also do this.
  • In Trails of Cold Steel IV, one of the Seventy-Seven Devils known as Laomedeia Scylla steals the souls of women to consume them.
• You Won't Feel a Thing!: Said word for word by Sharon at the end of Cold Steel I.
  Sharon: The pleasure of being bound, exposed and vulnerable, is a thrill like no other. Would you care for a little demonstration? I'd say you won't feel a thing, but...that would be lying. (heart emoticon)

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