Trivia / The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel

• Acting for Two:
  • For Japanese voice actors, there are:
    • Mariya Ise voices both Laura and Innes.
    • Tomokazu Sugita voices both Toval and and Michael.
    • Satomi Sato voices both Alfin and Ennea.
    • Daisuke Hirakawa voices both Rufus and Cao.
    • Ami Koshimizu voices Musse and Claire (as of Cold Steel III)
    • Hōchū Ōtsuka voices Professor Schmidt and Rutger.
    • Cedric in two different cases: with Celine in Cold Steel I and II, and Angelica from Cold Steel III onwards.
    • Really, Cold Steel III and IV have a lot of actors for major characters playing another role, whether it be minor characters or previously voiceless characters. Even the voices for returning protagonists aren't safe. Pretty much the only ones who are likely to avoid this are Rean, Juna, Kurt, Altina, and Randy.^note And the only reason the last one is on the list is that his voice actor is well-known for not really changing how he sounds due to not wanting to exert too much effort for voicing his characters.
    • For Cold Steel IV, Joji Nakata pulls off double duty with Osborne and Dreichels the Lionheart in flashbacks. This is a plot point.
  • For English localization voice actors, there are:
    • Cassandra Lee Morris voices Fie and Alfin.
    • D.C. Douglas voices both Valimar and Rufus.
    • Mela Lee voices Sharon and Scarlet.
    • Max Mittelman voices Lechter and McBurn in the first three games. Does not apply in the fourth game, where they're voiced by two different voice actors.
    • Kira Buckland voices both Celine and Elise.
    • Matthew Mercer voices Olivert and George.
    • Michael McConnohie voices Vandyck and Victor. Remains the same in Cold Steel IV even when they're both played by a different actor.
    • Patrick Seitz voices Mueller and Vulcan.
    • Erica Lindbeck voices Vita and Ennea.
    • Amber Lee Connors voices Roselia and Shirley.
    • Kayli Mills voices both Rosine and Tio in Cold Steel III onward.
    • Cristina Valenzuela voices both Cecile and Klaudia in Cold Steel IV
    • Alexis Tipton voices both Musse and Sully in Cold Steel IV.
    • Gabe Kunda voices both Prince Albert and Leonidas in Cold Steel IV.
  • And a rare case for both Japanese and English:
    • Tetsuya Kakihara and Robbie Daymond play Lloyd and Rex in Cold Steel IV.
• Ascended Fanon: Of a sort, one might say. Sean Chiplock has had a blast voicing Rean lines from the game that were never voiced in the game itself at his Tumblr. Now XSEED has announced a PC port with approximately 5,000 additional voiced lines, some of which will almost certainly be these.
  Chiplock: You guys have NO idea how long I’ve been waiting to announce this; Rean now speaks in pretty much every single major scene where he was previously silent! It’s like all your #Reanquests have come true!
• Banned in China: For reasons unknown^note Probably due to the presence of gambling- you get to visit casinos in two of the chapters, as well as nudity, the fourth entry in the series has been banned in the UAE.
• Cross-Dressing Voices: There a few examples, particulary in the Japanese version
  • Elliot is voiced by voice actress Ryōko Shiraishi.
  • Cedric is always played by a woman across the four games (Mai Aizawa for I and II, Naomi Shindo for III and IV).
  • Joshua is back, and even at age 21, his Japanese voice remains a case of this.
• Defictionalization: Plush Mishy toys are thing within Erebonia. If you purchased the "Thors Academy Edition" of The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III, then now you have one too.
• Descended Creator: Brittany Avery, voice director and lead editor of the Trails Series voices Fiona, Feris, and Mint.
• Directed by Cast Member: The English dub is directed by Valerie Arem, voice of Aurelia Le Guin.
• Dummied Out: The Ymir visit was supposed to be part of the game before it was scrapped due to budgetary constraints. However, some work on Ymir (mostly the map of the town as well as part of the canyon, where according to the audio novel, a boss battle was supposed to take place, as well as a character model for Rean's dad, Teo Schwarzer) had been done when the decision to drop the chapter was made. The remnants of the town and its assets can be found unused among the game data.^note It was not in vain, however, as the assets were refined and used in Cold Steel II
• Enforced Method Acting: According to Sean Chiplock at a Q&A at the Reddit website, the reason why there was so much emotion when Rean finds out about Osborne being alive and then found out later that he is his dad is because at the time when he recorded the lines, Sean was not getting along with his dad.
• Executive Meddling: Kondo actually vetoed the decision to make the Golden Ending of Cold Steel IV inaccessible unless players did all of the quests because of their experience with Ys Origin where the third route was inaccessible unless both routes were finished and made players play through the game one more time. He and the staff then compromised by forcing the players to watch the normal ending before being able to access the Golden Ending, as the sidequest required for the Golden Ending can be accessed both in its original Bonus Dungeon form, and after reloading a cleared save file of the normal ending.
• Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition
  • The first game's collector set includes a steelbook, a soundtrack CD and a replica of a 50 mira coin.
  • The second's game's collector set includes a steelbook, a soundtrack CD, an enamel Ouroboros pin and set of cards based on the Sept-Terrions.
  • The Japanese release of III includes a mini soundtrack CD, rubber keychains of Rean, Altina, Kurt and Juna, a full color artbook and a DLC code of the Thor's main campus uniform. The English release (named the Thors Academy Edition) also includes an artbook and music CD, as well as a steelbook, a set of postcards and a plush of Mishy.
  • The fourth game's limited edition includes three books detailing the events of the past three games and a DLC code of Altina's Black Rabbit costume from II. The English release includes an artbook, seven art cards, a soundtrack CD, a steelbook and a cloth poster.
  • The PlayStation 5 release of III and IV includes a hardcover artbook, seven art cards, a set of postcards and a cloth map of Erebonia.
• Marth Debuted in "Smash Bros.":
  • Due to the games set in Crossbell having a belated Western release, Cold Steel II marks the first time that Lloyd Bannings and Rixia Mao are voiced and playable in English.
  • With III and IV being released ahead of the Crossbell games, most other members of the SSS (Elie, Tio, Randy and KeA) fall under this as well, with only Sergei, Wazy and Noel actually debuting with this NIS America Crossbell localization (and even they wouldn't receive English voice acting until Reverie thanks to the Crossbell games suffering from No Dub for You).
• Meme Acknowledgment: Of a sort. As mentioned under the Game-Breaker segment in the YMMV tab, Rean's "Arc Slash" is one of his best and most-used moves as it allows him to deal damage and delay an enemy's turn from a safe distance. In the first game, however, you had to wait until Level 15 to get this move and it's usually the third Craft listed in the battle menu. In Cold Steel III, where each of the returning characters get more powerful versions of their previous crafts, one of the first Crafts Rean has access to is "Crimson Slash", which functions exactly the original Arc Slash. And the kicker? It's the first move listed in his Craft menu. Ironically, it's nerfed now in that it doesn't inflict delay but burn damage and impede.
• Newbie Boom: The Cold Steel arc was how a lot of the international audiences were finally introduced to the Trails Series, which had till then languished in relative obscurity outside of Japan. This ultimately resulted in more aggressive international marketing by Falcom, as well as long-time fans asking the newbies to catch up to the older titles, such as the original The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky arc.
• No Export for You: Due to a variety of reasons^note The localizations of Cold Steel I and II being done by X Seed rather than the series’ later localizer NIS, the game being ported by Clouded Leopold Entertainment rather than by Falcom in-house, among other reasons, the Nintendo Switch ports of the first two Cold Steel games are currently unavailable in both North America and Europe.
• Playing Against Type: Kaela is an adult woman with a deep voice, which isn't something most people are used to from Aoi Yūki.
• The Original Darrin: The siblings Kai and Tilia were first voiced by Naomi Shindo and Ai Matayoshi in the Zero "pre-story" drama CD, but were later played by Hidemi Anzai and Machiko Toyoshima in the Cold Steel II drama CD. When they made their game debut in Cold Steel IV, Shindou and Matayoshi were brought back.
• The Other Darrin:
  • In Japanese:
    • Due to Risa Taneda being on hiatus during the development of Cold Steel III, Inori Minase has since become the definitive voice of Altina.
    • Due to the passing of Miyu Matsuki, Ami Koshimizu has taken over voicing Claire as of Cold Steel III.
    • Due to Junichi Miyake going on hiatus, Junichi Yanagita took over as the voice of Patrick in Cold Steel III and IV.
    • As of Cold Steel IV, Aoi Yūki replaces Kumiko Nishihara as the voice of Renne.
  • Then there's the English version:
    • Matthew Mercer and Kirk Thornton voice Prince Olivert and Bleublanc respectively, replacing Troy Baker, who voiced battle lines for both of them in Trails in the Sky. Kirk Thornton was even retroactively patched in as the voice of Bleublanc in The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky.
    • Ben Pronsky and Brianna Knickerbocker respectively take over as Agate Crosner and Tita Russell in Cold Steel III from Bryce Papenbrook and Julie Maddalena, who provided their voices in the Sky games.
    • For the English version of Cold Steel III, Millium is voiced by Michelle Marie instead of Ashly Burch due to a scheduling conflict preventing the latter from returning. Marie would continue to play the role in Cold Steel IV, as well as Reverie.
    • Victor S. Arseid was recast in Cold Steel III from Michael McConnohie to Jamieson Price. Vandyck who was also played by McConnohie in the first two games is also voiced by Price come Cold Steel IV.
    • Laura is voiced by Heather Gonzalez in Cold Steel IV after being played by Marisha Ray for the first 3 games. Gonzales would continue to voice the character in Reverie.
    • Michael Sorich takes over as the voice of Osborne in Cold Steel IV from Peter Beckman.
    • Phillip Reich replaces Max Mittelman as the voice of Lechter in the fourth game. Similarly, Greg Chun replaces Mittelman as McBurn.
    • Gabe Kunda takes over the role of Leonidas from Gerald C. Rivers in the fourth game.
    • Despite Patrick Seitz continuing to voice Mueller in Cold Steel IV, he does not reprise his role as Cassius Bright from the Trails in the Sky games, with Kyle Hebert taking over the role instead.
    • Word of God claims that the Grandmaster is deliberately given a different voice in every game she talks to make her even more mysterious, averting the usage of an easily recognizable Japanese female VA.
• Role Reprise: In contrast to Olivert, Mueller is played by the same guy who voiced him in the Sky games. And unlike Agate and Tita, the English Dub of Cold Steel III kept Julie Ann Taylor as Josette. Finally, Cold Steel IV saw the return of Stephanie Sheh as Estelle, Johnny Yong Bosch as Joshua, Sandy Fox as Renne, Michelle Ruff as Scherazard, Cristina Valenzuela as Kloe/Klaudia, and Bryce Papenbrook as Gilbert.^note Especially surprising, as Papenbrook was replaced as Agate.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Falcom has gone on record saying that the Vita versions held them back during development. Many parts of Cold Steel II were cut as a result, notably the Western half of Erebonia. It's partially due to this that Cold Steel III is PS4-only.
  • During early stages of development, Kondo states that Rean and the others were supposed to be actual military officers instead of military students.
  • Early designs of Rean and Alisa◊ show them wielding a gun and a sword instead of the final release's katana and bow, respectively.
  • The visit to Ymir near the end of the first game was supposed to be playable. It was Dummied Out due to budgetary constraints and made into a Drama CD.
  • According to Word of God, Cold Steel III was supposed to be the last game of the Erebonia arc but the game ended up being so big that they had to split it into two and they had no idea how to end it except with a cliffhanger. Kondo then promised that after this, he'll try to keep it to two games an arc. He also claims that another reason is because the game is the staff's first time using the PS4 so they weren't all that familiar with the console as much as the previous generation consoles and handhelds.
  • Duvalie's S-Craft, "Prism Calibur," was actually programed into Cold Steel III, but there's no way to see it during actual gameplay.
  • A unique Super Move Portrait Attack for Campanella◊ can be found within Cold Steel IV, suggesting that he was supposed to have an S-Craft.
  • Players who have data mined Cold Steel IV found out that Olivert in his prince attire was supposed to be playable in the game.
  • There were supposed to be additional usable party members for the final boss battle of Cold Steel IV, including personnel from the Gralsritter, Matteus Vander, and "a certain S-rank Bracer," but it wasn't able to be implemented.
  • It's been mentioned that one idea for Cold Steel IV's ending would be for Rean to marry the love interest the player chose for him, but it ultimately didn't happen because some of those options would still be underage by the time of said ending.
• Working Title: Cold Steel IV was initially announced to have the subtitle of The Last Saga during the ending of Cold Steel III, but the subtitle had morphed into The End Of Saga by the time Cold Steel IV was finalized and officially announced to the public. The reason of the change is as of yet unknown, but is nonetheless perplexing as the former was actually grammatically correct, while the latter is not.
• Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: Kondo Toshihiro revealed in an interview that the major reason why so many bonding events in Cold Steel IV don't have voice acting is because the scripts for these events were constantly being rewritten and changed up until the last minute.
• You Sound Familiar:
  • Naomi Shindo voices Angelica after previously playing Sonia in Zero Evolution.
  • Daisuke Hirakawa plays Rufus after previously being cast as Cao in Zero Evolution, which doubles as Acting for Two in the second and fourth games.
  • Hiromi Nishikawa, who previously played Luciola in the Sky games, plays Scarlet here.
  • Takahiro Fujimoto, who voiced Ian Grimwood in Zero Evolution, voices Vulcan.
  • Xander Mobus voiced Comrade G (Michael Gideon) in Cold Steel I and would later play Michael Irving in Cold Steel III.

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