YMMV / The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel

A-F

• Accidental Innuendo:
  • A lot of characters' Active Voice lines when finding treasure chests are worded... kind of badly ("What an amazing chest!" and so on). Except for Crow's, which given his character is probably intentional. And then there's Angie's in Cold Steel II: "Always happy to lay my hands on another chest." Given Angelica's usual behavior, this is also probably intentional. Oh, and in the original Cold Steel, the Trophy/achievement for opening all chests in single playthrough is "Chest Grabber."
  • It should be noted that the innuendos, unintentional or otherwise, are localization exclusive and the characters have perfectly normal voice lines in the original voiceover
  • If Fie is chosen as Rean's Love Interest, she gets one when Rean asks her if she was going to water the flowers and she responds that he "needs more watering now."
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Thanks to Cold Steel III, many do question a few characters especially from previous arcs:
  • Osborne:
    • Is he a Benevolent Boss who ultimately has to make the most difficult decisions or an uncaring bastard who will use his subordinates to further his goals? The fact that in the first two games he helps Erebonia with most of its problems but gives people from other countries and cities hell doesn't help. Cold Steel IV answers that question with him really being Good All Along and that he legitimately wanted to get rid of the curse for good.
    • Osborne in Cold Steel I and II era: when he says "Well played, Armbrust," is he congratulating Crow for assassinating him and actually besting him or is it congratulating Crow for being a part of his plans to start off the Civil War and Crow was just his Unwitting Pawn?
    • Whether or not Osborne threw the final Rivalry is ambiguous, since both outcomes could work in his favor. He's okay with Rean winning because he knows that the latter will either sacrifice himself to destroy Ishmelga or use the Earthen Prison to expel Ishmelga. On the other hand, it's implied Osborne would have sacrificed himself if he came out on top, since he tells Rean that they both have a habit of self-sacrifice. The Black Records only predicted Arianrhod's loss, but all other Awakeners could make it to the final round. If Osborne's opponent has no intention of destroying Ishmelga, he would need to win and have his own plan for destroying Ishmelga. Additionally, if he non-lethally wins, Ishmelga would attempt to possess him instead of Rean, but Osborne could likely hold him off longer, meaning there would be less risk to Rean's life in that outcome. His daydream episode in Reverie reveals that his original plan was made with the expectation that Rean wouldn't regain his sense of self until after Ishmelga is permanently killed. He also states that it's possible that Rean will "somehow" defeat him in the final Rivalry, which implies Osborne was fighting to win.
  • Rean's relationship with Elise: Does he really not see that Elise has a massive crush on him or is he just being selectively oblivious about it and knows that his sister would be better off marrying a noble who would take care of her? He even shows some approval points for Patrick in Cold Steel III and even lets him have a dance with her. Cold Steel IV reveals that he's just that dense to Elise's feelings towards him as he only saw her as a little sister until she started confessing her feelings towards him.
  • Alisa's family. Her mother already knew that Alisa's father, Alberich, was still alive. Was she aware of his true intentions or was she fooled by him like everyone else? Some fans suspects both - she really thought he was dead until the truth somehow reached her. And the discovery of his tricks was what lead Chairman Irina to the personality change from a caring mom to a cold, calculating, and manipulative big cheese.
  • Valimar's memories. Did Valimar really forget a lot of things while he was sleeping after Dreichels used him for a long time or did George tamper with its memories when the latter hooked Valimar up to his computer? And if so, what's the reason for it? The latter highly unlikely as the Georg persona didn't surface until Crow's death between the events of II and III, as it is revealed in IV.
  • Rufus backstabbing Arianhrod when Class VII was convincing her to live to fix the mess at the end of the Third Rivalry. Was it really just a simple power grab or is he also killing a traitor in order to prevent the Seventh Anguis from joining the Radiant Wings? Considering the Black Records states that she will die right before the Tuatha De Danann appears, it's implied Rufus would have ambushed and killed Arianrhod even if she had won the Third Rivalry.
  • Crow, especially in the first game. How much of his stint as the leader of the ILF was his own rage getting the best of him and warping his morality, how much of it was Cayenne's manipulations of a traumatized and grieving teenager and how much of it was the Curse making its first tentative foray into the story after Jurai's annexation spread its influence to it? That Crow was fully aware of the Disproportionate Retribution during the actions of the ILF, as he admits to Rean, might suggest the first while Cayenne being the sponsor and benefitting party as well as completely fine with using any means to achieve his goals including sacrificing children like Cedric plus Musse's later comments about his nature might suggest the second. That a kid of barely 16 would even have the idea to found a terrorist organization and the fact that once he achieved his goal Crow was a perfectly level-headed and reasonable person with a strong moral compass and massive amounts of guilt who was willing to die to fix his mistakes could in turn point towards the third.
  • Cedric accepts Shirley's offer to join Ouroboros at the end of IV. While the stated reason to do so is because he's too high-profile to atone through normal means, it should also be noted that Shirley treats him much differently from his classmates. For the most part, his classmates acted as his yes-men and didn't criticize him until late into IV. In contrast, Shirley isn't afraid to tell Cedric exactly what she thinks of him. It's possible he wants Shirley to be brutally honest with him for the sake of his own personal growth, which he may not be able to get if he simply returns to Erebonia and gets Easily Forgiven by his peers.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: While it's been the subject of mockery by fans and even some of the official voice actors, Georg is a real German name, and the pronunciation used in the game is mostly accurate.
• Americans Hate Tingle:
  • As stated on Base Breaking Character page of the franchise, Rean, Crow, and Alisa rank as the game's top 3 characters in Japan, but are base breaking characters in the West.
  • Angelica is very divisive that leans toward negative on the West LGBT fanbase. Her libido is treated as a joke within the universe, but the West sees her as representing all the negative stereotypes surrounding LGBT community thus seeing her constant hug as a form of sexual harrassment.
• Angst? What Angst?:
  • Despite being in a uniquely difficult position, especially after the (supposed) death of Osborne, whom she affectionately called "Gramps", Millium never shows any emotion other than upbeat enthusiasm. At least, until Class VII breaks up at the end of Cold Steel II, at which point she breaks down bawling.
  • Towards the end of the third game, when Rean and the new Class VII pay their respects at Crow's grave, Rean mentions how Crow was the leader of the Imperial Liberation Front. Despite hearing this, Juna shows no distinct reaction and remains respectful to Crow like the rest of the class. However, Juna is a resident of Crossbell, the city Crow's group attacked in the first game. It would stand to reason that Juna would despise the man whose group tried to launch the railway cannons at her hometown. This makes even less sense considering how mad she was with Professor Schmidt when she learned he developed the railway cannons, as well as how freaked out she was when she saw railway cannons being deployed in Crossbell during the field exercise there. Although in her defense, the fact that Garrelia Fortress gets hijacked by terrorists and nearly fired the railway cannons was not declassified by the military as that would have been a PR disaster for the empire to have the most powerful fortress easily get hijacked. Not to mention that it would be a moot point in the end after Garrelia Fortress gets destroyed. Besides all this, she is currently standing at the grave of someone who was clearly very important to Rean and Juna is known to be a very kind person so it wouldn't be out of character for her to stomp down on any reaction for Rean's sake
• Anti-Climax Boss:
  • For a boss that's described as terrorizing Heimdallr during the Dark Ages and is considered important enough to appear in the opening movie, Zoro Agruga is a bit on the easy side. It's a single target and never summons flunkies (unlike the previous chapter's boss), it's large size makes it easy to hit from nearly anywhere, it's very susceptible to Delay, has few attacks, and its Arts are very easy to cancel. In fact, it's entirely possible to prevent it from even attacking, by inflicting Seal and then cancelling its Art every time it attempts it.
    • This discrepancy makes more sense when reading the Black Records in Cold Steel II. You're fighting what's LEFT of Zoro. When you consider that the boss is been around for over a millennia it's in good shape for it's age. And when you fight the properly revived creature in Cold Steel III, it puts up far more of a fight.
  • While treated as one in-universe, Loa Luciferia could also be one for a Final Boss even if it does have a HP to One attack especially with all of the game breaking strategies players can employ.
  • At the end of the third game's Chapter 2, you finally get to fight Demon McBurn for real. And he's oddly easy for how much of a build-up he got in the second game (where him entering the form required a Big Damn Heroes to bail Class VII out), especially with the new Break system allowing you to quasi-stunlock him.
    • It also doesn't help that you have Emma available for both of the fights against him. Everything he does except his S-Craft can be negated with Emma's Brave Order and his S-Craft can be blocked with her S-Craft.
  • In the third game, the fight against Arianhrod and Demon McBurn should be one of the toughest Boss Fights in the whole saga. It...doesn't quite live up to the hype, thanks to all the game-breaking strategies you'll likely have access to at this point. Not to mention, they're only the first fight of the final dungeon's Boss Rush.
    • The earlier fights against Arianhrod and the Stahlritter is just as disappointing, being really easy to win without taking a single point of damage, only in part thanks to Aurelia.
  • In Cold Steel IV, it is possible for players to make Osborne piloting Ishmelga to be this if they get lucky and the status debuff "Seal"^note Prevents all physical attacks for one turn for bosses. sticks. Though this strategy isn't as viable on higher difficulties where enemies are faster and therefore can recover from Seal before the player can really take advantage of it.
  • For all it's hype as a Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny of Dueling Player Characters in Cold Steel II, Rean and Altina can come off as this if you have the proper setup for Lloyd and Rixia.^note Lloyd is equipped with a Force Master Quartz and a True Gladiator Belt by default, effectively getting rid of any CP shortage when used with link attacks. Rixia is equipped with a Murakumo Master Quartz which gives a chance for her physical attacks to be critical and therefore, a guaranteed unbalance. Combine this with Impede 2 quartz equipped for both characters while Rean and Altina are susceptible to status aliments. The result? Lloyd can keep up his Burning Heart 2 indefinitely while spamming Brave Smash 2 over and over shutting down their offensive capability with "Seal" while Rixia's True Falling Moon can inflict the duo with "Faint". Stacking the "AT Delay", "Seal" and "Faint" status debuffs with the "Overdrive" mechanic effectively ensures that Rean and Altina never get a single turn to act, turning the fight into concussion central. Rixia running out of CP before they run out of HP and the duo being knocked out of the range of your attacks are the only worries you have in this situation.
• Ass Pull:
  • It's not really explained in Cold Steel IV why Alberich is having a Split Personality Disorder in his final battle against Class VII when Rean and Rufus are having their Rivalry. Nor is it explained how in the Normal Ending, Alberich is the one who shows up while in the True Ending, Franz is the one who shows up since Rean gaining the Earthen Prison isn't related as to why Alberich returns to being Franz again. Finally, it's not explained how Franz would even know that Rean even got something from the spirit of Argres since he just woke up.
  • Sara and the New Class VII being secondary contractors despite the fact that they've never participated in the final trial. This is lampshaded in Cold Steel IV where the party does start wondering why Sara is considered a subcontractor when she never joined Class VII in Cold Steel I's final dungeon but it's still not explained on how or why she and the New Class VII are subcontractors other than a flimsy Power of Friendship excuse.
• Base-Breaking Character: See here.
• Best Boss Ever:
  • Crow + Ordine in Cold Steel I absolutely qualifies. It's unexpected, tense, exciting, and the music is absolutely phenomenal. It also completely relies on your skill and ability to adapt, making it impossible to cheese it.
  • The duel between Rean and Crow in Cold Steel II. Because this is the first time players get unlimited access to Rean's Super Mode and Crow will still make you work for your victory.
  • Vermillion Apocalypse in Cold Steel II because it allows you to use all of Class VII. And yes, that includes Crow in Ordine, giving players an exclusive Combination Attack for the final part of the battle.
  • Loa Luciferia, also in Cold Steel II. As the true final boss of the game, it has oodles of HP, some extremely powerful attacks, and basically allows (and, to a degree, forces) the players to go all out against it. It manages to hit that nice sweet spot of being a tough challenge without ever feeling unfair or cheap. Not to mention, as the pre-battle dialogue highlights, this is the last hurrah for Class VII, One Last Field Trip before they go their separate ways and one last chance for them - and for the player - to relive their glory moments and say their goodbyes. The fact that the boss has an absolutely amazing BGM playing when you face it just adds to how incredible the whole experience is.
  • Cold Steel III finally gives us the long-waited battle between Class VII and Arianhrod. Except you're not just fighting the Steel Maiden herself, you're fighting her along with all three Stahlritter at the same time! But to even the odds, you've got Aurelia in the party, who more than lives up to two games worth of being hyped up to be one of the series' strongest characters. The fact that Unfathomed Force returns from when you fought her back in Ao just makes the experience even more epic. Oh, and you can finally see Grand Cross in glorious 3D.
  • The second-to-last boss of Cold Steel III is one of the most emotionally-charged fights in the series, as you take on the Ironbloods - Claire, Lechter, Millium and Rufus. The first three are former party members who you've likely gotten attached to, and they're clearly conflicted over having to fight Class VII. Meanwhile, Rufus is someone players will likely have been wanting to beat down ever since he completely trounced Class VII's ass back in the second game. Aside from being a legitimate challenge, it manages to be both incredibly cathartic and utterly gut-wrenching at the same time.
  • Rean himself as a boss fight in Cold Steel IV ends up being one of the best fights in the game as he is in full Spirit Unification mode against his students with him no longer holding back anything when he was a boss fight 3 games ago.
  • The True Final Boss of Cold Steel IV, Ishmelga Loge allows players to use all of the playable characters of Cold Steel IV and is split into three teams.
  • Back in Japan, they consider the final duel between Rean and Crow in Cold Steel IV in their Divine Knights to be the best boss fight ever. Mainly because Rean has access to every single subcontractor in the game while having to fight against Crow. And that does include both old and new Class VII.
• Best Level Ever:
  • The Realm of the Great Shadow in I. You're led in thinking it's going to be the same as every other area of the Old Schoolhouse, but the moment you enter this turns out to be VERY wrong. Not only does the place look amazing, it has one of the best songs in an already amazing soundtrack playing through the whole dungeon, including battles, and progressing requires to to use the abilities of the whole party. And it ends with an amazing boss fight that also has amazing music, and finally provides some answers to what the heck's been going on all game.
  • The Intermission stage in II, Pantagruel, is also another fan favorite stage despite it being mostly a cutscene based stage. Mainly thanks to seeing all the villains that you've fought for a game and a quarter talking with Rean nonchalantly, breaking out Alfin and getting to use her powerful Arts, and Rean's best moments in the game, capping it off with a Duel Boss with Crow that you can actually win for a change.
  • In Cold Steel IV, the Black Workshop ends up being one of the best levels in the game due to the sheer number of boss fights players get to deal with, Rean actually breaking out of his chains and is permanently buffed throughout the entire level and is joined with Celine, Crow, and Duvalie, and some of the best boss fights in the game, capping off with New Class VII joining with Rean against Osborne and Arianrhod.
• Broken Base: See here.
• Cargo Ship:
  • Aside from players shipping Rean with both Valimar and his orbal bike, players also ship Osborne and his love for trains; makes sense since he's based off on the real life Blood and Iron himself.
  • There's a group of fans who ship Juna with the Crossbell State itself, thanks to her screaming in the first 15-second advertisement released by Falcom.
  • The all-time champion of this trope however is Gaius X Wind.
  • After Cold Steel IV came out, Japanese artists have started shipping Duvalie X Ice Cream thanks to a bonding event with Rean where Rean buys her some ice cream.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • To anyone who found Unsurtr That One Boss in the original, the sequel has you not only fight a much easier version of it, but you later get to see another one effortlessly taken out by Laura and Emma in a cutscene.
  • The bonus characters only available in the sequel's final dungeon. They're all extremely broken, and there's just something about playing as Vita and Crow, with all their overpowered boss abilities that's SO satisfying.
  • To the fans who were getting tired of Class VII jobbing and having a poor performance in Cold Steel II, Cold Steel III pretty much makes all of them take levels in badassery, and do much better.
  • For those who were sick and tired of Ouroboros coming out on top every time, having Osbourne actually make them lose for once as of the climax of II is refreshing for once.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome:
  • As soon as players have access to a level 5 Moebius^note Gives healing items an Area of Effect while doubling their effectiveness. and Chrono Burst, battles end up becoming "group up characters, have one character spam Chrono Burst and have said character use items to buff up the team and feed them CP and spam using S-Crafts like no tomorrow."
  • As for characters, expect players to never take Rean out of the front lines in all four games unless the plot says so. It's because of how versatile he is with his restricted slots (two Time slots and one Fire slot which translates to more speed and attack power), his crafts that are just too powerful, and his levels are tied to the Divine Knight fights.
• Complete Monster:
  • Cold Steel III and IV: Black Alberich, the Chief of the Gnomes, is one of Ishmelga's most depraved followers. Granted immortality by Ishmelga centuries past, Alberich would work to ensure Ishmelga's awakening by creating the Originator Zeros as weapons. Emerging in the modern era by possessing the body of Franz Reinford, Alberich would supply technology to Weissmann and various factions across Zemuria, using data gathered from said technology to perfect the OZs. Defecting from Ouroboros following Giliath Osborne's usurpation of the Phantasmal Blaze Plan, Alberich spies on OZ Altina Orion to observe if she can be used to unleash the Great Twilight. When the Gral of Erebos emerges in Heimdallr following Emperor Eugent's assassination, Alberich orders Cedric to kill Altina to produce a weapon capable of slaying the Holy Beast of Earth and unleashing Ishmelga's curse. Following Rean Schwarzer's killing of the Holy Beast of Earth, Alberich would work to make the Great War as horrific as possible by constructing Zauber Soldat machines to spread the curse into unsuspecting pilots, as well as by calling down the Empyreal Fortress upon the start of the war itself to feed on the death and despair below to further amplify Ishmelga's curse.
  • Cold Steel I In-Game Novel Red Moon Rose: Garrard is the true mastermind behind the Vampire Murders. One of the few remaining Elder Vampires, Garrard keeps a low profile by disguising himself as a military officer while going on a mass murder spree every decade to satiate his bloodlust. Years before the events of the novel, Garrard kills a man and his wife who were cooperating with the Vampire Hunter Rose; while he intended to kill their young son Alphonse, circumstances led to Garrard adopting the orphan in order to throw off the trail. When he took in another orphan, Elroy, Garrard treated him slightly worse than Alphonse to make Elroy easily corruptible and obsessed with pleasing Garrard. Shortly after making Elroy a vampire, Garrard sets him on the capital of Heimdallr to drain the blood of dozens of young women and turn them into undead, cannibalistic slaves. When Alphonse and Rose team up and defeat Elroy, Garrard reveals his true colors and kills Elroy, draining his power while emphasizing his love of manipulation and drinking blood.
• Contested Sequel: While Cold Steel games are not really a sequel story-wise since events run in the same timeline with Crossbell duology, fans still debate which is better between the two of them. The catch is, for a long time the Crossbell games went unlocalized, leaving English-speaking fans out of the loop unless they searched for an appropriate Fan Translation, so people who could objectively compare between the two games were few. Tension between the two groups stemmed from Crossbell supporters who insist about Zero and Azure's superiority and Cold Steel supporters who are annoyed since they feel said games are too overhyped. The comparison extends to character power tier since two characters from Crossbell fought Cold Steel's main character and one more character who made a debut in the second game. There's also another comparison with Sky trilogy and it's more intense...
• Continuity Lockout:
  • While the basic plot of the Divertissement is perfectly understandable without knowledge of The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure, the characters occasionally go on long-winded speeches name-dropping tons of characters from that game, which will leave people who haven't played it (which is a lot, especially back when it was first released) very confused. The localizers' notes Lampshade this.
  Translator's Note: god here comes this part where we're name-dropping like 45 characters from the previous games why does this exist
  • While it's relatively easy to enjoy the first two games without knowledge of the ones that came before, Cold Steel III and IV are much more heavily tied to the Sky trilogy and Zero/Azure duology as they feature characters, settings, and important plot points that have appeared in both those arcs. Cold Steel IV in particular is especially guilty given how three of the franchise's then-four main protagonists◊ are all present.
  • This also goes in the opposite direction, where the first two titles in the Cold Steel arc can feel as though they deliberately go out of their way not to reference events from previous games, even when Erebonia is directly responsible for them happening in the first place. The largest example may be the Hundred Days War, a huge political turning point for the empire as a whole that directly lead to the state of modern international relations. While Hamel is excused as a secretive coverup that few publicly know about, the war with Liberl is hardly so much as referenced until it's explained to the cast in III, by characters outside the empire, no less.
• Crosses the Line Twice: During II Millium gives Margerite a peptalk to get the latter out of her funk... by talking about Margerite's stalking and other questionable behavior. Rean being the only one to pick up on how messed up it is is a big part of the humor.
• Die for Our Ship: Given that there are a lot of people that can be shipped with Rean, this trope tends to crop up, though Alisa usually gets the worst because of what she does during the first game's prologue.^note she overreacted to the situation and not accepting Rean's immediate apology right away considering they've already done their Meet Cute moment during the beginning portions of the game It didn't help that she was pushed by Falcom as the main love interest and, for 75% of the ark, was the only female character to have bonding events where they got to kiss Rean on the lips.
• Difficulty Spike: Chapter 5 in Cold Steel I presents a massive difficulty curve even by late-game standards. During the actual field study, you will have no access to any of your all-around healers; Alisa, Elliot, and to a lesser extent, Machias, and instead, must rely on Emma as your primary healer whose craft can only select a single party member while picking up the slack with whatever healing quartz you can set on others. The chapter also contains some really tough bosses who will wreck your party if you come unprepared, Unsurtr and Nosferatu, in addition to a Wake-Up Call Boss fight against Scarlet), the first boss you'll encounter who can use an S-Break against you. It's by this point that the game is telling you the gloves are off in terms of difficulty.
• Disappointing Last Level:
  • The Epilogue's final dungeon in the second game is generally seen as a let-down. For one thing, It's 17 floors (albeit not particularly lengthy ones) and there's five boss fights packed in there, and it's all procedurally generated, meaning it comes across as fairly flat and lifeless, particularly compared to, say, the Realm of the Great Shadow or the Infernal Castle. Basically, think of the place as a mandatory Bonus Dungeon. The fact that even the game itself points out the whole mission is pointless anyway can also ruin any dramatic tension or investment.
    • On the other hand, some love it for giving you access to every game breaking character in the game. In addition, each randomized floor is guaranteed to have a chest of each rarity, thus allowing for grinding of super rare quartz and powerful accessories. Add in the phantasmal mirrors and you have nearly infinite strategies and party combinations to tackle the dungeon.
  • The third game's final dungeon also fits. It's not bad but it's easy to see why it's considered underwhelming compared to the previous chapter's dungeon. Despite a cool aesthetic and exciting soundtrack, it's little more than just several straight hallways of enemies, with boss battles in-between floors. The Final Boss is also seen by many as vastly inferior to the fight with the fully-revived Zoro Agruga in the previous chapter. Doesn't help that for all of the boss fights, the chosen characters have permanent 75% buffs throughout the fight.
• Draco in Leather Pants:
  • Crow for quite a bit of fans who were really enamored with him. His Azure Siegfried persona made it 4th for the popularity poll for Cold Steel III despite not even a playable character.
  • There's also the treatment for Osborne to be this, mostly thanks to outwitting Ouroboros. Mainly in the west at least.
• Ending Fatigue: Cold Steel II has two entire dungeons left after the "Epilogue," as well as a whole Free Day of quests left. You still have about 4-5 hours left after beating the Infernal Castle.
• Epileptic Trees: Both endings of Cold Steel IV have become a massive speculation ground as to why players are first railroaded towards The Hero Dies ending before reloading a save file, do a sidequest that's framed as flashback sequence, and suddenly the ending changes to the Golden Ending.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Becky is well liked for her go getter demeanor and (More importantly)thick, Scottish accent. Rejoicing was had when she became fully voiced in the third game.
  • Mint, one of Elliot's friends from Music Club, proved surprisingly popular with the fans for her quirky personality and funny interactions with her uncle Instructor Makarov. Each game since the first has since given her more screentime and chances to show off her stuff, from working on the bridge of the Courageous in Cold Steel II to working as a mechanic at the Thors Second Branch School in Cold Steel III.
  • Out of the students of Thors II, Jessica is the most well remembered of the bunch for being playable for one fight against Rean.
• Escapist Character: Rean can be seen as a massive Deconstruction of this trope where at first glance, players find him to be a Chick Magnet, a guy who has a Dark and Troubled Past that has super powers, uses a famous sword style, has a robot that only he can pilot, is a Nice Guy to his friends, and looks perfect in almost every way. Then the game decides to screw him in the worst ways possible, his solutions for his friends being in trouble is to sacrifice himself in near suicidal ways, he's always dragged in the worst situations possible, he's the Unwitting Pawn of almost everyone around him and his friends, and if his situation is getting better, life always finds a way to bring it down to where he comes out worse than before. Even deconstructed characters of this trope still manage to find a happy ending or two in their games. Rean on the other hand has yet to get one happy ending as he's always failed his primary objectives in three games.
• Fan Nickname:
  • "Wind" for Gaius, because he preaches about "The Wind" so much it sort of becomes his Catchphrase.
  • Jusis is often called "Mr.Noble Order" in Japan for how good Noble Order (Noble Command) is.
  • "Teito^note Imperial Capital Combi" for Machias and Elliot, because of their close friendship and their hometown being the Imperial Capital itself. Not to mention it draws parallels to Olivier and Mueller's "Teikoku^note Empire Combi".
  • Sen no Misseki II for the second game, due to the fact that many enemies have a high evade rate, necessitating the use of either arts or accuracy quartz.
  • Some players have called Rean the "Delay King" for how easy and absurd his setups can be for delaying enemies that the opposition can't even attack.
  • Alisa is sometimes affectionately referred to as "Miss CP Battery" due to her ability to effectively restore and sustain CP for the entire party.
  • "Armageddon Rean" - What many people call Rean's out of control self in Cold Steel III.
  • "Rean's kids" - Referring to the new Class VII of Cold Steel III thanks to Rean's Team Dad tendencies.
  • Punished Rean - For his first concept key art for Cold Steel III where Rean looks all sad and dead on the inside.
  • Obahan - First coined by Ash towards Arianrhod, also known as Lianne Sandlot, and then the fans took it from there.
  • Serial Head Patter - Another nickname for Rean, first coined by Towa in her dance event in Cold Steel I, then the fans kept referring to him as such thanks to the numerous amounts of times he's head patted women.
  • Reana - A nickname the fans came up with how a gender bent Rean◊ would have been like.
• Fanon: Some fans depict Juna as bisexual due to the amount of times she sees someone from Old Class VII and call them beautiful. While the fan video does exaggerate it, Juna in-game isn't that much far off from how she sees the women.
• Fan-Preferred Couple:
  • Regarding Rean, as of Cold Steel IV, he can officially choose among eleven women as his romantic partner. However many fans prefer shipping him with Crow due to the games emphasizing their relationship.
  • Prior to Cold Steel III's release, people loved shipping Juna with Kurt thanks to their circumstances being foils to one another and the entire Pink Girl, Blue Boy vibe they have. The shipping only increased after seeing their interactions in-game, not even stopping when Cold Steel IV established that their relationship was meant to be Like Brother and Sister, with Juna being yet another one of Rean's many potential love interests.
  • Despite Jusis having Ship Tease with Millium (especially in III and IV) many fans instead ship him Machias due to their early relationship coming across as Belligerent Sexual Tension.
  • Fie/Laura is quite among fans due to their admiration for each other, despite them being potential love interests for Rean.
  • Other than Machias/Jusis being very popular in the fandom, Machias/Emma also get quite a lot of love from fans due being fellow Badass Bookworms, their friendly rivalry in academics, and their respective positions as the old Class VII's president and vice president. This is despite Emma also being a potential love interest for Rean.

G-R

• Game-Breaker: See the page here for details.
• Goddamned Bats: The mirror enemies in the final dungeon of chapter 4 in III. One type reflects physical attacks while the other reflects magical attacks. They're not that dangerous, but they're a nuisance to fight because they tend to appear together in battle, making AOE attacks tricky at best to use against them. Also, some Crafts and some characters' regular attacks count as magical. Bad news if your physical attacker gets a link attack off against a magic-reflecting mirror while linked with a magical attacker (or vice versa)....
• Goddamned Boss:
  • Immortal King Nosferatu isn't particularly hard if you're prepared, but his Your Soul Is Mine! attack is extremely annoying. It takes a random character out of the fight until you damage the boss enough to free them, draining their health all the while. This normally isn't too bad, but if he takes out the wrong person at the wrong time (read: your main AOE user right as his flunkies are about to unleash a barrage of Arts), things can go south very quickly.
  • Scarlet's Divine Knight battle at Aurochs Fort in Cold Steel II isn't particularly dangerous due to her low damage output, but more than makes up for it with her incredibly high speed (almost always taking two turns for every one of Rean's) and having an infuriatingly high Evade rate, easily dodging and countering every 9 out of 10 normal attacks sent her way. On the plus side, you can turn her high speed against her with liberal use of Morning Moon to evade and counter all of HER attacks... assuming you thought to bring Alisa and/or Gaius and their CP restoring abilities to offset Morning Moon's high CP cost. Otherwise, get used to seeing Scarlet's dodge animation.
  • Campanella in Cold Steel III, as you'd expect from someone like him. He doesn't hit particularly hard, but his evasion is above average for a boss and his Exchange ability forces the next attack on him to hit an ally (while he swaps places with them).
  • Cold Steel III has Magic Knight Azura-Luciel, which is fought in a side quest in the Heimdallr Underground. Its health pool and damage output are nothing special for a boss, BUT, it constantly interrupts your spell casters, which makes it hard to do a lot of damage. It constantly heals itself, sometimes for over 15,000 HP. When it heals itself it usually resets the Break Meter, which, again, makes it hard to do a lot of damage. If you don't know the correct strategy, then this fight can take over half an hour.
  • Cold Steel IV has the Steel Maiden. Huge HP pool? Check. Interrupts your spell casters? Check. The fight isn't hard if you can keep a damage-reducing Brave Order running, it's just a long, dull slog. And when you've beaten her, she gets up and starts piloting the mech that was parked at the back of the battlefield. This second stage is at least much shorter than the first stage.
  • The end boss of Act 1-3 in Cold Steel IV. You're fighting Campanella, Lechter, and Sharon at the same time. Sharon has an attack that deals heavy damage and can inflict instant death (and has the All-Cancel effect, so you can't block it either). Lechter, meanwhile, introduces the Dis-Order mechanic by starting the fight with an ability that doubles your EP and CP consumption. And there's an AP requirement for finishing the fight within a certain number of turns. There are worse boss fights in the game, but this one stands out for how easily it can blindside a player who's not prepared for everything the bosses can do (or gets unlucky with the RNG and isn't allowed to cancel their charged attacks). When Campanella is the least annoying member of a boss party, you know that there's a problem.
• Good Bad Bugs: In Cold Steel II, the Water Shrine has a switch that Sara can barely hit on the field that lowers the water level, allowing players to pass through. Except visually, said water is still there, making it look like that the player on the field is traversing underwater. Speedrunners exploit this as it's a massive time save for an otherwise glitchless game.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • One of the first events at Barehard is when Rufus shows Class VII around the place and makes some small conversations, including Rufus knowing Rean's father, Teo Schwarzer and that both were acquainted with one another, even teaching him a few things a decade before the story begins. Upon The Reveal in the second game, it turns out that yes, Rufus knows Rean's father; his real father that is.
  • In the second opening, there's a shot of Rean raising his fist up in the air to motivate all of the students of Thors with the shot zooming out and the rest of the students also raising their fists to get pumped up to rescue the royal family. Awesome and all, but then the trailer for the third game comes up and when Osborne declares war on Calvard, the same shot used in the opening of the second game is repeated, only in 3D with the crowd raising their fists in approval.
  • Some fans who didn't like Rean and his "angst" about his powers argued that his powers pre-Cold Steel III has been nothing but beneficial to him and that he didn't really need to angst that much about it. Then Cold Steel III comes out and at the climax of the event, he shows off what happens when he loses control over it at the Final Boss of the game and it is flat out terrifying to say the least. And after the Final Boss is finished off in-game, he still keeps hacking at the beast after it's all over. And Elise might have even seen that part when they were still kids before Rean snaps out of it. It's a wonder Elise isn't afraid of her brother at this point.
  • During chapter 5 of Cold Steel I, Sara assigns Rean with Millium and Crow for a team battle against the rest of Class VII for their test. These three people die for real at the end of the normal ending of Cold Steel IV.
  • Anything relating to Crow and his interactions with Class VII (and everyone else in the story for that matter) are this considering he turns on them in the end, though the bonding events during the festival hurt the most especially on the player's second playthrough. The dance event? Crow quips that if Rean continues to be the Clueless Chick-Magnet that he is, he'll "break even more hearts than I will." By the end of the game, Crow probably broke the hearts of almost everyone in Thors Military Academy by helping the Noble Alliance take it over. Draw a luck fortune at Class IV's teahouse? Crow's fortune will read "Great luck. You make your own luck behind the scenes and you make it well. Thorough preparations will net you excellent results." While this applies to Crow's role in Class VII's concert, it can also hint at his role as C, working behind the backs of everyone to kill the Chancellor, a deed he succeeds in through thorough preparations. Play Mishy Panic with Crow? Rean will give a line that's incredibly harsh knowing that after the truth about him comes up, Rean's probably not going to admire anything Crow does anytime soon.
  Rean: Someday, I'm going to admire something you did and you won't be able to ruin it by opening your mouth.
  • There's a Running Gag involving a local prankster kid in Celdic, and the other kids he drives crazy. The whole thing becomes so much harsher in the second game when he ends up in a coma saving her when Celdic is razed. Re-playing the games with knowledge of this makes all their earlier dialogue hard to sit through.
  • As of the third game, any scene involving George. Seeing as he possibly killed Angelica and planted the bombs on The Courageous, which was eventually used to kill Toval, Victor and Olivert, it's a bit hard to watch him interact with her or anyone in his circle of friends, just like with Crow.
  • Throughout the Cold Steel series, one of Gaius' main motivations in joining Class VII was to protect the peace of the Nord Highlands. In Cold Steel IV, "Operation Jormungandr" has the Nord Highlands be one of it's main battlefronts.
  • All the way back in the first game of the Sky trilogy, Colonel Richard's motivation for the coup while seeking the Aureole is because Liberl is at risk of being invaded again with Cassius retiring to the Bracer Guild. After saving him from the Ring Guardian, Cassius proceeds to give him a haymaker for thinking that one man alone can deter a nation whose military might is many times the size of their own from invading and putting him on an unrealistic pedestal. Sure enough in Cold Steel IV, "Operation Jormungandr" would show that even with Cassius back in command, it's not enough to deter an invasion from Erebonia, having to abandon Bose, Rolent and even the capital of Grancel for a pincer attack in Zeiss to prevent Erebonia from invading Calvard through Liberl.
  • One that crosses into the real world. At the climax of Cold Steel III, the Courageous ship gets blown up by George. Bad enough on its own but in real life, the Japanese-owned vessel named the "Kokuka Courageous" was attacked at the Gulf of Oman "with some sort of shell".
  • In Cold Steel II, during Millium's bonding event at Roer, Rean tells Millium that everyone in Class VII would be very upset enough to cry for her if anything happens to her. At the climax of Cold Steel III and the prologue of Cold Steel IV, everyone in Class VII ends up reeling at Millium's death with Rean actually losing his sense of self and gives in to his Superpowered Evil Side to destroy Millium's killer over and over again.
  • On the Chapter 5 practical exam in Cold Steel I, Instructor Sara splits Class VII into 3 teams: Team President (all the girls except Millium), Team Vice President (all the guys except Rean and Crow), and Team Whatever (Rean, Millium, and Crow.) In the Normal Ending of Cold Steel IV, Rean, alongside Crow and Millium, decide to pull an Iron Giant and sacrifice themselves to rid Erebonia of Ishmelga. Thus ends Team Whatever. The next game, The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie reveals the eventual fate of the trio in the Normal Ending. It's not pretty.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight:
  • Remember how Sara says "Drinks are on me! ...Someday" when you do well in a chapter in the first game? She finally makes good on her offer in the third.
  • It took Millium three games for Jusis to hug her first (because he found it annoying and that she's a lot younger than he is) but he finally did it at the end of the Golden Ending of Cold Steel IV.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • One of the final quests of Cold Steel II is named "My Jormungandr Don't Want None◊", something translated by XSEED. While the description is funny by itself, it's even more hilarious when in Cold Steel IV, the operation name for the empire to wage the world war is called "Operation Jormungandr".
  • A fan modded Duvalie to be playable in Cold Steel II years before Duvalie was confirmed to be playable in Cold Steel IV.
• I Am Not Shazam: The protagonist's name is Rean Schwarzer, not Rean Coldsteel. How the wrong name got created is unknown, but it's widely believed to be created by trolls to provoke fans of the games.
• Iconic Sequel Outfit: If one includes the DLC, then Rean's more memorable outfits are his default Cold Steel II outfit (enough than in the Reverie poll, it's voted as his second most popular costume), his "Dark Prince" DLC outfit, his instructor outfit in Cold Steel III, and his "True Dark Prince" DLC costume in Cold Steel IV, the last one being the most popular costume voted by fans in the Reverie poll.
• I Knew It!:
  • Azure Siegfried is Crow. Even with all of the enforced mystery surrounding the character upon his reveal, like deliberately listing his Japanese voice actors name as "???", it wasn't too hard for fans to pin down his identity. The fact that he looks similar to Crow, with the only thing covering his face being a mask that hides his eyes, and uses his signature Guns Akimbo style didn't help matters. The game however plays with this as he actually doesn't remember himself being Crow. Crow was indeed dead but the Black Workshop dug up his grave and replaced it with a fake one. They gave him a mask to make him think he's Azure Siegfried till he finally remembers that he's Crow Armbrust.
  • NIS taking over localization of the franchise from XSEED. Some fans already predicted this would be the case since when it was announced that they got the rights to Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana.
• Iron Woobie: By the end of the game, players will probably feel sorry for Rean and his entire life going the opposite direction from the other Trails protagonists. Toval offered him to go and become a bracer but Rean is insistent in going with his decision to work for Erebonia despite the things not working out well for his well-being.
• It's Easy, So It Sucks!: General consensus among fans is that the Cold Steel series has been one of the easiest games in the saga thanks to the numerous amounts of game breaking strategies that fans can employ, sometimes with enemies not even having any single turn whatsoever even on Nightmare difficulty. Cold Steel III takes this up a notch with the introduction of the Break System where after inflicting a ton of damage on the Break Meter, bosses will be vulnerable and have to waste a turn to recover (and thanks to certain orders, they may not even get one). Even bosses who have to use their S-Craft have to wait a turn by filling up their entire CP and ramping up their their defenses can easily be broken just by using certain orders.
• It's Popular, Now It Sucks!: One of the biggest criticisms of the games is that it has opened the doors to a newer generation, making the people who stuck around from the Sky games annoyed that they have to explain to the newbies to play Sky first.
• It Was His Sled:
  • Now that Cold Steel is out while the second of the trilogy has been in market for 2-3 years, it's kind of expected to see people spoiled by Crow and Misty/Vita's revelation being villains and worse, Crow's fate at the end of Cold Steel II from simple search engine browsing.
  • Rean's father being Osborne is such a huge revelation that fans forget that The Reveal only happens at the climax of Cold Steel II. And yet it's discussed by fans as though it's common knowledge.
  • Due to how infamous the event is in Cold Steel III, many remember Rean slaughtering the Nameless One in rage and hacking at its dead corpse.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Rean, mostly thanks to Relationship Values. Yes, that includes ''Valimar'' (and to a lesser extent, his orbal bike; even Rean's voice actor actively ships it though he most likely uses this as a stock answer to avoid shipping wars when fans ask which girl he thinks Rean would be best with).
• Like You Would Really Do It:
  • Quite a few fans are skeptical that Olivert truly died aboard the Courageous. While the situation does look quite dire, Never Found the Body not only applies, but Olivert is one of the most important (and popular) characters in the whole series, with his character arc being developed since the Sky trilogy. The same also applies to Victor and Toval, with fans doubting that Falcom would really kill three major characters at once, and in such an anticlimactic way. Players were indeed proven right when all of them survived though it turns out that George did have a hand in their survival.
  • Ditto for Angelica. Though she's presumed dead after being shot by George, the scene cuts to black without actually showing her getting shot, and later George noticeably hesitates when Towa asks if he really killed her. Again, Never Found the Body is in full effect here. According to Word of God however, this one depends on Georg. As predicted, Angelica did survive but ends up becoming Brainwashed and Crazy, taking on her new identity as Rossweiss.
  • In Cold Steel IV, this is subverted with Rean, Crow, and Millium as they did get Killed Off for Real in the default ending of the game and players without a cleared save are railroaded to that ending. The trope only gets played straight thanks to Deus ex Machina with Rean being reminded by Franz that he had a gift from Algres' spirit to eject Ishmelga from him. Meanwhile in Crow and Millium's case, the six Divine Knights give them life again with the powers of the two Sept-Terrion alongside Franz and Roselia booting up the Sacrament Protocol before all of the Divine Knights disappear along with Franz.
• Love to Hate: The generic Provincial Army Officers from the first two games are written to be hate sinks who abuse their authority, but their English voice actor, Patrick Seitz, still makes them entertaining by being hammy with a hilarious accent.
• Low-Level Run: Normally averted as the game scales the other characters near Rean's level as he's always in the party if players play the game normally. However in a speedrun setting, the game will still scale the levels of the other party members to where they would normally be at in the game. Rean's levels however will be unaffected and the gap between his levels and the other party members grows higher and higher the farther players get to the game.
• Magnificent Bastard:
  • Giliath Osborne is the Blood and Iron Chancellor of Erebonia and the primary antagonist of the third and fourth installments. Upon the death of his wife and the fatal attack on his son, he makes a deal with Ishmelga to save his son's life in exchange for his own service to bring about the Great Twilight, and played the role of ostensibly loyal servant while planning against him to destroy Ishmelga and his curse. To bring about the Twilight, he starts by taking advantage of "unfortunate accidents" in order to force nations into merging with Erebonia or risking destruction, and succeeds almost every time using just his words. Surviving being shot, he starts biding his time and allows the Noble Faction to undermine itself and gaining more power for himself before he reveals he survived the attack. Manipulating Ouroboros, he then takes over their Phantasmal Blaze Plan for himself, and forces them to work for him instead if they want to see their plans to fruition. In the end, when the Great Twilight has been fulfilled, he rushes the final Rivalry in order to prevent it from happening at the height of the war and allowing Rean to defeat him and go on to destroy Ishmelga once and for all.
  • Rufus Alberea, known as the Jade Rook, is the right-hand man of Giliath Osborne among the Ironbloods. Infiltrating the Noble Alliance during the Erebonian Civil War, Rufus would undermine the Noble Alliance from within by assisting Class VII in arresting Duke Alberea, and later betraying Duke to Osborne. Appointed governor of Crossbell, Rufus would employ underhanded tactics to obtain a Divine Knight to be used against Osbone such as using Rean and New Class VII to clear out Cryptids, and later killing Arianrhod at a moment of weakness after her Rivalry with Rean. At the same time, Rufus maintains Crossbell's loyalities to the empire by isolating the Special Support Section from Crossbell. Breaking out of prison upon his Simulacrum self's coup in Crossbell, Rufus would take the identity of "C" and feign the kidnapping of Olivert to lure Rean into defeating coup sympathizers in Heimdallr. Rejecting power after defeating his Simulacrum self, Rufus would attempt to sacrifice himself by channeling the world's hate onto him as a means of stopping Reverse Babel from destroying Zemuria
• Memetic Loser:
  • Considering it's been three games and he still hasn't won a victory at the end of his games, Rean ends up being this in the eyes of fandom. Strangely enough, this ends up giving fans a lot of sympathy for him. Even after earning a happy ending in his fourth game, this refuses to be shaken off in the eyes of the fandom.
  • Vita is another one for the fans at the end of Cold Steel II where the fans claim that she's Wrong Genre Savvy about Cayenne, Osborne hijacking the plan, and Ouroboros gets Out-Gambitted instead of managing to obtain whatever they want. Fans did not let her live that one down and many players have declared her to be the dumbest Anguis of Ouroboros. This changed massively with the third and fourth games showing her tremendous intelligence and power. Multiple Big Damn Heroes moments, outsmarting her fellow Anguis at every turn and fighting on par with Victor and Aurelia have arguably more than redeemed her.
  • By Cold Steel IV, Arianrhod ends up becoming this to fans not because she's not powerful, but rather because she doesn't even end up with any of the men that she wanted to be with for a long, long time^note Dreichels moved on and married someone before Lianne came back to life, Osborne ended up marrying Kasia and Rean was born, Osborne chose to become Ishmelga's Awakener while Lianne wasn't around watching, and before she could agree to go alongside Rean in life, she gets back stabbed., ultimately dying dishonorably due to Rufus stabbing her in the back and taking Argreion's Divine Core for himself. To add salt to the wound, the Black Records prophesized that she would die before the final dungeon appears, meaning she had no chance of winning the Rivalries from the start.
• Memetic Molester:
  • Laura became this in Cold Steel IV thanks to her first bonding event with Rean lifting him up and kissing him in a cave.
  • When Cold Steel IV came out, Ishmelga became this in the eyes of the fandom as fans depict him being very obsessed with Dreichels and his Reincarnation Osborne. It's not too far off canon but fans depict Ishmelga as a Stalker with a Crush.
• Memetic Mutation: See here.
• Memetic Psychopath: It's a common joke among the Japanese fandom that Towa Herschel is secretly the grandmaster of Ouroboros.
• Memetic Troll: Professor Schmidt is starting to gain this reputation, due to him casually stopping Rean summoning Valimar mid-invocation at the end of the new Class VII's first test. His test get more and more absurd as the game goes on, involving summoning Cryptids, Magic Knights and deliberately building the facility on a place of spiritual energy so he could "toggle" the Higher Elements on and off. And all the while, he maintains his nonchalant, uncaring attitude.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Duke Albarea crosses it when he orders the soldiers and the Northern Jaegers to burn down Celdic. It was such an atrocious event that Rufus had declared to tell Class VII to apprehend him because Rufus can't thanks to his position in the Noble Alliance, Never mind his real reason- which is to destroy the nobility system. Scarlet declares that you have to be one mad person to even support the guy and only fights the heroes because she's Driven to Suicide, and Duvalie declares that the only reason why she's at Aurochs Fort was that she can witness its fall. She'd even gut Duke Albarea right there and then if it wasn't for the orders of her leader.
  • So many people cross this in Cold Steel III that even Shirley and Campanella think things are going too far. To wit:
    • Alberich detonates said Courageous with Olivert, Toval, and Victor still in the sky, and gloats about how his marriage into the Reinford family was just another part of his plan.
    • Cedric nearly chokes Altina to death, and gives Alberich the OK to blow up the Courageous - effectively making him to one to (possibly) bring about his own brother's death.
  • In Cold Steel IV, Rufus finally crosses it when he back stabs Arianrhod as she was dying in her duel against Rean and Crow in their Divine Knights, who then absorbs her and Argreion's divine cores to add to his Divine Knight.
• Most Wonderful Sound:
  • Anytime Rean calls out Valimar and Valimar's sequence going towards Rean will be bound to be this.
  • The sound that indicates a successful unbalance, especially on mech fights.
  • From III onward, the sound whenever you deplete the Break Meter.
• Narm:
  • Some people thought the ending of the original game with Rean screaming "No, they need me! Let me staaaaay!" was rather cheesy. Not helped by the last thing we see being Valimar flying away to who-knows-where before a jarring Smash Cut to the ending credits with a fast-paced song playing over images of the cast.
  • The translation of Rean's Super Mode/Superpowered Evil Side as "Ogre Power" instead of the speculated "Demon Power" is this for some. While the term "ogre" is indeed the correct translation for the "Oni" romanji used, in Western context ogres are usually considered less menacing than more popular monsters like demons and devils. Not to mention, the term "Ogre Power" itself is more likely to get a chuckle out of his opponents rather than inspire fear.
• Narm Charm:
  • Rean's final duel with Crow in the sequel is full of extremely cheesy dialogue, to the point where the other party members lampshade how cheesy it is. That doesn't make it any less awesome.
  • The "Bank of Rean" line Rean makes at the Final Boss of Cold Steel I sounds corny. In context, he's making Crow pay for even trying to betray them to the Noble Alliance and he wants Crow to pay every last mira.
• Never Live It Down: Detractors of Alisa will always cite her getting mad and slapping Rean during the first game's prologue as proof that she's among the worst of Tsunderes, acting as if she's perpetually angry with and physically abusing Rean. This interpretation ignores that Alisa explicitly states that she was wrong and apologizes to Rean fairly early into said game's first chapter, that Alisa rarely gets angry at Rean afterwards (she outright never hits him again), and that the game spends several scenes in later chapters showing them growing emotionally close to each other. To top it off, Cold Steel III shows Juna hitting Kurt for similarly unjustified reasons, yet for some reason, she never received anywhere near the amount of hate Alisa did.
• Older Than They Think: For the detractors of it in the West due to No Export for You, the bonding system along with the final bonding event mechanic was actually first implemented in Zero, not in Cold Steel.
• One-Scene Wonder: The final batch of animation stills at the end of Cold Steel IV, where almost every major character from the previous games who didn't make the playable cut in this game shows up for Olivert and Schera's wedding, including Zin, Kevin, Ries, Noel, Wazy, Rixia, and Ein.
• One True Pairing: Despite the fact that Rean has eleven women in his harem, the fans would rather prefer shipping Rean with Crow instead. Cold Steel IV's official poll of the fans favorite couple would show that the Rean-Crow ship would eclipse the rest of the pairings twice over.
• Platonic Writing, Romantic Reading: Rean's relationship with Crow is supposed to be one filled with rivalry, especially after the final battle of Cold Steel I where they clearly have opposing beliefs. Circa Cold Steel II and beyond however, and the entire thing could be seen as a Ho Yay couple who had a bad break-up and both are trying to mend their relationship rather than two people who have differing opinions. It also doesn't help that unlike the bonding events in the games being optional and thus can be skipped, any scene between Rean and Crow from Cold Steel II and beyond are all mandatory to the plot. Finally, the promotional artwork in Cold Steel II, and the first image tease of Cold Steel III have the two of them paired up together (as rivals at least). Rean's declaration of bringing Crow back to the academy repeatedly isn't helping things nor does it help that the only real Combination Attack in the entire Erebonia saga belong to them. Were the rumor about Proto!Alisa being the protagonist in Rean's place and Proto!Rean having Crow's backstory true, the whole Ship Tease would suddenly make sense. And just to drive it home, one of the promotional images of Cold Steel IV has all of the protagonists of the Trails franchise paired up with their main love interest. Guess who is paired up with Rean.◊ It went up to eleven in the fourth game's bad end, when Rean was about to sacrifice himself to defeat Ishmelga. In the bad ending, instead of dying in peace, Crow choose to follow Rean and die along with him and Millium. And according to the official poll for pairings, Rean X Crow◊ is the most popular ship of the Erebonian arc, eclipsing the rest of the pairings.
• Player Punch:
  • In the final chapter of Cold Steel III, no less than four playable characters pull Face-Heel Turns - Sharon, due to her returning to her position as an Enforcer, and Claire, Lechter and Millium, due to their loyalty to Osborne. Considering you've likely gotten attached to at least some of them, their betrayals can hit particularly hard even if you were expecting it.
  • Then of course, the death tolls. In a series (Mostly in regard to Cold Steel) that has been criticized for lacking important character deaths (aside from Crow in II), Cold Steel III includes at least 5, 3 of them being Ensemble Darkhorses (Olivert, Toval and Victor), one being someone whom you've come to accept as a trustworthy ally(Angelica) and the other one of your party member since Cold Steel I (Millium). Alleviated as all of them turned up alive in Last Saga, and the golden ending allows Crow to be stabilized and Millium to be revived. And to top it all off, the former three going out in an exploding Courageous no less is akin to receiving a powerful kick in the groin.
  • And then of course the revelation that George was Evil All Along. While IV eventually revealed him to be a mole, general consensus is that players seeing the scene for the first time tends to develop a deep hate on George. And then there’s Cedric's Face–Heel Turn, which made some fans wish Rean had just slain him along with Duke Cayenne in Cold Steel II.
• Polished Port: The PC version of Cold Steel I is much nicer to look at compared to the PS3 version, with a recompiled light engine, unlimited shadows and the option to increase field-of-view, decompressed textures and unmodified HD character art, it adds the turbo mode that significantly makes the game run much faster making Nord Highlands a lot more bearable to travel, and all in crisp 1080p 60fps with unlimited draw distance and ultra wide screen support to fit any monitor known to man. Included is the obligatory 4K option, on top of adding 5000 new lines of dialogue, several of which was done for Rean so he's no longer jarringly silent in several conversation scenes as well as the English cast being brought back to rerecord parts of the script. This gives the modern English version twice the amount of spoken dialogue compared to its Japanese counterpart on all other systems. Cold Steel II when ported to PC includes all of these features as well.
• Porting Disaster: The launch of the much-awaited NA version of Cold Steel IV on 27 October 2020 has been met with many complaints regarding the inability to even download the game in soft-copy format while physical copies suffered from constant shipment delays. There's even a thread dedicated it. Other lesser known complaints consist of unexpected changing of voice actors and poor localisation for the players that did obtain their copies of the game.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • Knight combat in the sequel is much improved from the first game, adding direct ways to counter enemy Crafts (Morning Moon is now a guaranteed dodge-and-counter, you have access to Impede Crafts), more options for healing and CP charging, allowing other party members to assist with their own unique support moves, and giving you an actual Defend Command. All of this makes Knight battles far less of a Luck-Based Mission and more of the Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors they're meant to be.
  • Rean's detractors were won over when he became a teacher, which made his trademark speeches less annoying because it's now his job to guide students, meaning his Team Dad tendencies ended up being very entertaining despite only a few years older than his students. Also, his angst is more thoroughly justified compared to the first two games.
  • Cold Steel IV has this in spades, not least revealing that the villains was behaving the way they did because of Ishmelga, but the most notable one was that George and Black Alberich was revealed to be actually Good All Along (opposing what you saw in III), with the former revealed to have installed a failsafe in The Courageous along with those bombs to allow Toval, Olivert and Victor to survive and actually didn't kill Angelica, and the latter not only helped the Divine Knights, Vita and Rose stabilize Crow, but also prepared a way to revive Millium by means of preparing a clone of her body.
  • McBurn in Cold Steel IV got rescued thanks to lots of things revealed about him. While he wasn't exactly hated, prior to Cold Steel IV, he was mocked by the fanbase for being a bit too much of a try hard, edgy guy whose fashion sense tries to invoke Evil Is Cool a bit too much even though he's a pretty chill guy for one. Then Cold Steel IV came out and it's revealed that he's been Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life since it turns out that he's had amnesia for over 50 years after roaming around Zemuria, he treats life or death battles as a shock therapy, and when he finally goes all out with no regrets and someone actually manages to harm him, he finally remembers who he is, what he is, and what he now needs to do. He then apologizes to Class VII for the troubles he caused, he refers to Rean not as "Ashen kid" but as Schwarzer, showing that he respects the kid, gives him an item to help him out against the battle against Osborne, and then teleports away from the place, needing to take care of business that he needs to deal with. Even most of his vitriolic haters ended up liking the conclusion to his character arc and the start of a new one as it opens up brand new avenues to the Trails lore.
• Romantic Plot Tumor: One of the criticisms of the way that bonding is handled in IV is how by making every single female character a romance option for Rean AND making a decent chunk of their characterization hidden behind bonding events, it sidelines any potentially more interesting plots and character arcs for the various female characters in favor of having their character arcs revolve around being Rean's potential suitors, as well as preventing the various girls from developing relationships with other characters that would be potentially more interesting or make more sense in favor of adding them to Rean's harem^note With Juna and Kurt being brought up often as a pairing that was shafted due to how bonding was structured in IV. In addition, criticism is also levied at how the bonding system prevents the various girls from developing relationships with Rean that would have been more interesting or sensible without it being overtly romantic^note which was the chief criticism of how Altina was handled in IV in her bonding events, namely how the bonding events undermined the father-daughter relationship between her and Rean in the second half of the tetraology. Indeed, some of these shippers inevitably decided to ship Rean with Crow as a form of revenge or realizing that the harem setup was just nonsensical in the end.

S-Z

• The Scrappy: Elise is widely disliked by Western fans due to her having feelings for her adoptive older brother Rean, with a tendency for jealousy on the side. This dislike was further increased in the second half of the arc, as said fans not only felt like her feelings for Rean became her only defining character trait, but Cold Steel IV made her one of his many official (if technically implied) romance options, despite him not seeming remotely interested before. Many players go so far as to claim that she could be removed entirely from the story, and nothing would have changed, making her presence so insignificant that any other character^note the most common pick being Alfin could've taken her place. Finally, she receives quite a bit of flack for being generally regarded as the worst of the playable characters in Cold Steel II.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • Due to the story being very cutscene heavy (which isn't a bad thing by itself), you get the option to save before proceeding or choose not to save at all. The problem is that these options come after a massive cutscene and/or a long boss fight, meaning that players cannot just save and leave. It is noted that this problem exists mainly for PC players who can only quit from the menu outside of using Alt+F4 because the PlayStation consoles at least allow players to quit the game via their dashboard.
  • The final bonding events in each game. To unlock them, you have to get your chosen partner's link levels to the highest possible in-game while spending bonding points with them in the penultimate bonding event. While not too bad at first, the problem comes is that the crossroads where you have to choose which partner you are going with is immediately proceeded by or even sandwiched between at least ten to fifteen minutes worth of cutscenes before you can reload the save file to choose another partner instead of simply offering to save and load immediately before the moment of choice and after the event respectively. The PC version mitigate this by employing a fast forward option however, it's considered a pain for players trying to get 100% Completion by having to sit through the same set of cutscenes around a dozen times after witnessing the final bonding events.
  • In the Final Boss of the first game is the first enemy in the entire game who can Unbalance you. Unfortunately, when it does so is entirely random. On higher difficulties, you can lose the battle unavoidably if the boss gets too many Link Attacks off, regardless of how well you were doing, especially since once he Turns Red, he'll always follow up an Unbalance with his super move, which can take out around 50% of Rean's HP. Normally this wouldn't be so bad, but... the Final Boss is a Duel Boss using completely different game mechanics than you're used to, and you only get two heals for the entire fight, making it very unforgiving.
  • In II and IV, any boss battle where new party members join causes the party's formation to be arranged differently from what the player had before. Not only does this mess up whatever strategy the player is used to, the new party members also aren't equipped with optimal gear and quartz. This means the player will have to waste several turns trying to get their old party formation set up again. This is especially bad for the Act 1 Part 3 Dual Boss, which is timed to forty turns like the previous ones.
  • Millium's field attack will summon Lammy, but she can't walk through the doll, meaning she has a harder time running from the enemy after a failed field attack.
  • The Reverie Corridor in II has a few minor but notable ones.
    • The shops inside have practically everything you need except for the valuable option to trade 50 U-Materials for a Zemurian Ore Shard, which can only be done in Trista outside. Since leaving the place randomizes the levels, this annoys the players who want to do a full run of the place since U-Materials will be capped at 99 until IV, a value that is very easy to reach without knowing due to the amount of drops in the dungeon.
    • To use the Phantasmal Mirrors, you need to have them take up an accessory slot on the character you are replacing with instead of say, their cosmetic slots. When you take them off, hope you can remember which second accessory they were wearing if they had one...
  • The "special moment" system in Cold Steel IV. While it takes some of the ambiguity out of unlocking the final bonding events, it comes at the cost of most of the girls' non-final bonding events being explicitly romantic, including New Class VII. Some of these are required to unlock profile updates, meaning a player going for 100% Completion is forced to sit through Ship Tease for pairings they may not like, which can be doubly awkward if a romance was imported from Cold Steel III. In addition, this will cost you some of the profile updates for the boy characters unless you acquire a clear save to remove the bonding point cap, denying you 100% Completion in a single run.
• Seasonal Rot:
  • A contingent of older fans view the Cold Steel arc as such, claiming that it doubled down on both Falcom's weaker writing aspects and used various overly used JRPG tropes, excess plot padding and rampant fanservice to the detriment of the plot while introducing multiple characters and plot threads and not doing much to properly develop them despite whatever potential they had. This viewpoint is not universal however, and there are many fans, particuarly newer fans that entered the franchise through the Cold Steel arc, that view the arc as a worthwhile and well-written addition to the franchise, with III often highlighted as being on par with the Sky Trilogy and the Crossbell games in these circles.
  • Among the games, IV tends to be the most divisive, this is due to the various plot reveals it makes such as the curse of Ishmelga that are seen as extremely contrived, undoing many of the tragedies in III such as Millium and Olivert's deaths, along with many events such as the Liberation of Crossbell mentioned as a side note or in the epilogue. In addition, many flaws seen in the rest of the arc are perceived to be present in full force such as introducing characters and plot lines but never developing them to their full potential, the harem-ish way bonding is handled, as well as the excess Padding. That said, IV does have its' fair share of fans that appreciate the fanservice and its' resolution of Rean's story, as well as key plot threads introduced in the Cold Steel arc, as well as the Sky and Crossbell arcs, on a high note in the true ending.
• Self-Imposed Challenge: Because of the ridiculous amount of Game Breakers that make playing the games even on Nightmare a complete cakewalk, many players limit themselves by purposing not using them in their playthroughs, particularly at boss fights just for the sake of an actual challenge. The Chrono Burst art and Brave Order mechanic are top exclusions.
• Sequel Difficulty Drop:
  • The "Cold Steel" arc was already an easy to exploit series of games but "Cold Steel III" adds so many new features that alone would be fine but combined make the game so full of ways to snap the game's difficulty in two that you have to actively TRY to get a decent challenge.
  • Mech battles also become easier in III and IV in many ways. For one thing, both pilots and supporters can use Spirit and Charge, giving the player more leeway in resource maintenance. The are also healing items for when Spirit isn't enough to maintain HP.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: Thanks to Rean's status as a Launcher of a Thousand Ships and the ambiguity of who is exactly canon by Cold Steel IV, practically any shipping wars ends up resulting in this. The most vocal ones usually are the "Rean-Alisa" pairing versus the "Rean-Laura" pairing, with "Rean-Fie", "Rean-Sara", and "Rean-Claire" shippers chiming in, that's not even starting on the "Rean-Crow" shipping. What's worse, quite a few players were not pleased with the decision to unambiguously add Juna, Altina, and Musse to Rean's harem due to preferring to ship Juna with Kurt, among other reasons.^IncludingThinking that Rean already had too many girls vying for his attention in the first 2 games alone, or simply not liking the idea of Rean dating one of his students, even if he technically refuses to get into a romance with any of them during his time as their teacher (and in Altina's case, he explicitly mentions their age gap as another issue)
• Shocking Moments:
  • The final chapter of Cold Steel III, from Ash shooting the Emperor to finally getting an explanation of Erebonia's history and everything going on behind the scenes, to Heimdallr being swarmed by Cryptids and Magic Knights, including the final boss of the first game showing up in groups of three! And that's all before the final dungeon.
  • To say the fanbase went nuts for one of the reveals of Cold Steel IV where Cassius is using the sword instead of his staff would be an understatement.
  • The amount of party members get by the time Cold Steel IV happens is insane to say the least, ending with 39 playable characters that players can take to the final boss.
  • "Operation Jormungandr", the simultaneous invasion of the entirety of Zemuria.
    • Erebonia would invade Calvard from 3 fronts (Crossbell, Nord Highlands, Legram) while marching through Liberl and the Principality of Remiferia to reach Calvard before topping it off with a naval invasion from the south, effectively making 6 simultaneous battlefronts. Each front has both sides involve up to at least 100,000 troops on average with the biggest one being the Crossbell front: 350,000 Erebonians against Calvard's 280,000. On top of that, both sides' respective reserves exceed 100,000.
    • As for the Bracer Guild and the Septium Church? They pretty much declared it an international crisis and deployed every bracer and Gralsritter member available, which pretty much includes all the other non-playable characters from the previous games. It's got so bad that even First Dominion Ein and Holy Beast Zeit had to get involved. On the other hand, this also meant that Ouroboros and the Red Constellation couldn't resist doing the same thing as well with their jeagers and Enforcers, pretty much turning all of Erebonia into a warzone. With all the pieces in place, cue Big Badass Battle Sequence.
• Signature Scene: Ask any fan about Cold Steel III and the first thing that comes to mind is Millium's death, Rean losing it, and Rean brutally killing the Nameless One long after it dies.
• Signature Song: "Blue Destination" is considered by fans as the most memorable song of the Erebonia arc even though it was only introduced in Cold Steel II that many fans were disappointed that it wasn't in Cold Steel IV.
• "Stop Having Fun" Guys: Because of the infamous game breaking combination of both "Chrono Burst" and level 5 Moebius, there are fans who will mock players for even using this strategy to win against boss fights instead of other, somewhat longer methods.
• Strawman Has a Point: At the beginning of the climax of Cold Steel II, Rean is complaining that Elise is aboard the Courageous because she's being supportive of her big brother. The rest of the party, even Valimar, is against him in that Elise should stay just so Rean will actually come back safe, even claiming that Rean is just being overprotective. The problem however, is that Rean's actually in the right because Elise isn't even a part of the military, never mind not being a military student. And it isn't like she's safe in the Courageous either since the Pantagruel is still there and there's a battle going on at Heimdallr. It's not like they can just take a civilian with them on the most cutting edge ship of the empire.
• Superlative Dubbing:
  • One thing fans can agree on is that Sean Chiplock's delivery of Rean is the best thing that happened in this game. Helps that the guy is One of Us and has played the game and the other is that he voiced Rean while already having some knowledge of the game.
  • Erika Harlacher's performance as Juna in Cold Steel IV has earned her a lot of praise, especially for her speech to Old Class VII in the prologue.
• Squick: Elise's attraction to her brother, most characters feeling bad for her that he doesn't notice and their parents (especially their mother) actually encouraging it are already bad enough and then the games make it worse by making Elise an actual romance option. Yikes. That they try to play up the Not Blood Siblings angle doesn't help either because of how often the Schwarzer family and those around them emphasize that they are family and blood doesn't matter. Double yikes.
• Sweetness Aversion: According to some fans, this is one of the biggest criticisms of Cold Steel IV where everyone who "died" in Cold Steel III turns out to be alive, the allies who pulled off a Face–Heel Turn ends up going back to your crew anyway, enemies turn out to just be cryptic and obscure (something that Juna even lampshades) or turn out to not be evil anyway, and the fact that the "hostages" in Act II aren't exactly in any kind of danger to begin with (which fans criticize as one of the biggest Padding issues the Erebonia arc has in an arc that already has so much filler and padding). Some of the fans even claim that it's due to these characters coming back that some of the main characters (Laura, Towa, and Alfin are the ones usually brought up) end up doing nothing other than picking up scraps of the plot and that's if they're even lucky.
• Tainted by the Preview: Early releases of Cold Steel IV in English have had some fans angry at numerous cases of The Other Darrin (including Osborne) and spotty translation quality and voice direction in some areas, in a game many were hyped for as the end of a long saga. Some are blaming the 2020 pandemic while others lost the good faith in NISA Cold Steel III gave them.
• That One Achievement:
  • In both games, the trophy for opening every chest in the game. Miss a single chest in a One-Time Dungeon (of which there are many, the entire first game is practically one)? Have fun doing another playthrough to get the trophy! The second game isn't quite as bad because you get an airship that allows you to revisit most locations, but there are still a few that can be gotchas.
  • A number of achievements in both games are this. Often you'll find yourself replaying the game several times if just to get every single Master Quartz in the game (which is not possible with just one playthrough), cook every single recipe in the game, complete every single quest in the game (Aidios help you if you miss a hidden quest or couldn't complete the optional ones due to poor planning/bad foresight), or even scan every single monster in the game thoroughly (forgot to stock up on battle scopes? Time to reload the last save from when you're still at the last town).
  • II has this one achievement, Honor Roll, that requires you to achieve A0 rank. Achieving that rank means missing out no more than 10APs in a playthrough. It's particularly tough since some of the APs are achieved through extra requirements that must be met during boss battles, some which are downright devilish (e.g. vs Altina and Bleublanc, where you need to fall both within 40 turns — not tough on its own if it wasn't for Altina's That One Attack) while others are complete luck-based missions (the battle against Rufus and Duvalie/McBurn - since for the latter you need to half his HP before he kills you — and he can kill you before the battle even starts if the Random Number God is feeling particularly malicious, e.g. granting first strike and a zero arts, and he uses it, while the former can completely delay you indefinitely or even one-shot you without giving you so much of a turn at start of the battle, and the RNG has been known to abuse this, turning the entire battle into a hapless cinematic).
  • The relationship achievements can be this in the aggregate, due to requiring multiple playthroughs and/or a lot of save scumming to get them all.
• That One Attack: Pretty much any enemy's S-Craft and/or All-Cancelling craft/art qualifies, but a few really stand out.
  • As mentioned below, Rean's Flame Slash in Laura and Fie's sparring match against him in the first game. He can use it with no warning and it's almost always a One-Hit Kill at this point in the game, and the arena is small, making it hard to avoid.
    • If you thought the first game's Flame Slash hurts, prepare to be frustrated when you're fighting him as Lloyd and Rixia and he hits you with Termination Slash - Dawn.
  • C's Deadly Cross. Nearly always a One-Hit Kill, hits a very wide area, and can be used with no warning. The best you can do it keep using Adamantine Shield and hope you get lucky and he uses it while it's up.
  • In the second game, Xeno and Leonidas' S-Crafts. Not individually, but more for the fact that the duo likes to use both of theirs at the same time. One S-Craft is survivable, but two in a row is certain doom without Artemis' Tears. Particularly bad in their final encounter, where they can use this double S-Craft trick at anytime from the start of the fight to the end, with, again, no warning. You can be doing well in the fight and then suddenly double S-Craft, Total Party Kill.
  • Rufus' S-Craft from III onward. Think you can negate it with Jusis' Platinum Shield? Nope, it dispels buffs... which includes reflectors, effectively making it unblockable. Only defensive Brave Orders that mitigate or nullify damage can stop it from being an instant game over.
  • A non-S Craft example, Stratos Diver's Hyperactive Discharge in Cold Steel III. It hits the entire battlefield, does over half your HP in damage at that point, and the boss will spam it repeatedly if you're unlucky.
  • Obsorne's Conqueror's Sovereignty hits the entire field, cannot miss, inflicts All-Cancel, inflicts AT delay, and inflicts multiple random ailments. The only saving grace is that it doesn't have the power of an S-Craft, but it's still very capable of setting the player back.
• That One Boss: See here.
• That One Disadvantage: Any equipment with a penalty to speed. Doesn't matter how good it is, if it takes away from speed, it probably isn't worth it.
• That One Level:
  • While the level is very nice looking, the fact that players can't fast travel at Nord Highlands makes the entire chapter a chore to get through in the first game. Thankfully in Cold Steel II, the developers have added the option to fast travel there.
  • The Divertissement puts the player in control of a party of two with a suboptimal Orbment setup, locked Master Quartz, no initial Sepith, no initial healing items, and no shops. The only saving grace is that there are several Orbment Charging Stations that allow Quartz synthesis. The game flat-out admits this by making the Divertissement chapter skipable in New Game Plus.
  • The Dark Dragon's Nest in Cold Steel III. You have to split your team in three on the spot and usually only realize afterwards that you've forgotten something important (like placing an arts user in every team because the place has enemies that reflect all physical damage), the enemies are some of the most annoying in the entire series like two types of mirrors that reflect physical and magical attacks respectively and that love to show up together or Necromancers who will spam high-level healing magic and attacks with Deathblow chances and you have to constantly switch back and forth between teams because each side has levers that allow the others to continue. The one saving grace is that it's chock-full of treasure chests with nice loot.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • To some fans, Randy not being a playable character outside of one Divine Knight/Panzer Soldat Battle was a sore spot, as the fans really wanted to play as him again instead of just having Tio for the Zero characters while the Sky characters had Agate, Tita, and Olivert in his Olivier Lenheim costume. This was averted in Cold Steel IV.
  • In a more minor case, when the characters from the previous instalments came in and became playable in Cold Steel IV, most of them ended up with their lower-tier S-Crafts instead of their most powerful ones. Examples include Lloyd's Meteor Breaker, Elle's Divine Crusade, Tio's Orbal Gear and Zero Field and finally Estelle's Phoenix Wave. This seems weird because Randy was happily using his Berserga and Joshua has Phantom Raid with no issues.
    • From a storyline perspective, many fans felt that Lloyd and Elie were highly underused despite being the protagonist and the Implied Love Interest of the Crossbell arc. Elie's subplot with her best friend turned enemy Mariabell also didn't have much of a conclusion as most of the subplot with Bell went with Juna who barely has any connection with her other than being the SSS' junior. Especially since the game was supposed to resolve how Crossbell was going to be liberated but it ended up being an off-screen resolution. Contrast to Estelle and Joshua's roles in the game which are also reduced but still end up contributing something to the plot.
  • A lot of players felt that Gaius was highly underutilized in the entire saga despite becoming a Dominion as his role in Cold Steel IV ended up being the captain of the Merkabah till the Courageous 2 shows up and to have the obligatory Dominion party member. Machias and Elliot also were underutilized by fans who thought they could've been implemented by the plot better than what they got. Having to share spotlights with so many characters didn't help their cases.
  • Lechter is also a prime example. The guy has been built up since The 3rd as a major Wild Card who, while publicly a follower of Osborne, is hinted at having his own agendas - to the point of outright telling his boss that his loyalty may not last forever. The fact that he kept showing up over and over before the Erebonia saga even started just added more fuel to the speculation. And by the end of it all... he really is loyal to Osborne, all of his suspicious actions were just Red Herrings, and he doesn't even do much in the main plot outside of fighting the party several times, and having a somewhat interesting backstory. After all the intrigue and hype, he turned out to be nothing more than a coward who simply talked big.
  • Thomas not being a playable character in Cold Steel IV. A lot of players wished he was playable especially since he was the more interesting Dominion in the cast compared to Gaius.
  • Considering the role that he plays in Cold Steel IV, many were surprised that Bleublanc is not playable in the game, not even joining either Duvalie's team or Aurelia's team.
  • Schera in Cold Steel IV. Despite the fact that she's one of the first characters revealed in the game, she doesn't really do much throughout the game as most of her adventures are off-screen and when she's finally on-screen, all she does is being one of the lead dancers for the Arc En Ciel concert, being Olivert's Number Two in the Courageous II, getting a confession and marriage from Olivert, and a supporting role with her Brave Order. Many players wanted her to be a playable character and see her in action as an A-Ranked bracer but were disappointed when she simply turned out to be a support character.
  • If there's one character who got hit really hard by this trope, it's Mueller. His overall screen time throughout all four games amounts to maybe two to three hours at most for all four games. And he doesn't even get to do anything important throughout the Erebonia arc in spite of his importance in the Sky series.
  • Speaking of characters that go unused from the Liberl games, Anelace hardly gets more than a cameo throughout the arc. As a student under Yun Ka-fai, you would think his granddaughter would have gotten a reference at least from Rean. Her Door in 3rd implies she's taking a larger interest in the craft and is curious to know who else will take up the Styles in future. But in Cold Steel, turns out the two haven't so much as met.
  • Even Crow gets this. Despite being the deuteragonist to Rean's protagonist, their meeting being fated and his overall importance to the plot of the whole Saga, the time you actually get to spend with him and explore his character is very limited. He doesn't join Class VII until late in the first game, he's absent for long stretches in II despite being a large part of Rean's motivation and the things he does are mostly covered by the newspapers you don't actually have to read instead of being discussed or shown, in III he isn't even himself until the very end and typically just shows up to keep an eye on the group or stall them and in IV he's mostly pushed into the background once his situation is resolved, leaving the audience with little insight into his thoughts and emotions overall. Which is especially grating since he died and was then brainwashed into helping the guy he tried to assassinate, something that's never discussed in depth. Despite all this baggage he doesn't really do much aside from assisting Rean with the Rivalries.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Wanna know how Crossbell is liberated in Cold Steel IV? It's all told in a short narration using Ao's art style at the end of the game without players experiencing any of it.
  • Osborne and Cassius pitting their intellect against each other would have been one of the best moments of the series. Alas, it was never meant to be. In a similar vein, remember when Ein was mentioned as being one of the only people who could match Arianhrod in a fight back in Ao? Well, barring another Phantasma-esque situation, that's never going to happen, as Arianhrod bites the dust while Ein never even shows up in the arc outside of a cameo showing that she was among the forces deployed in "Operation Jormungandr" and the Golden Ending credits.
  • Many players were also miffed that there's no section in the game where players could have the three protagonists team up for at least one or two dungeons other than the True Final Boss fight.
• Underused Game Mechanic:
  • In the context of the first Trails of Cold Steel, there's the high-stakes turn bonuses, which first appear roughly halfway through the game for a very short dungeon, and very rarely afterward. Then there's Divine Knight combat, which is basically an Unexpected Gameplay Change dropped on the player for the last two fights in the entire game.
  • The stance system in Cold Steel III ends up being this as only Juna has this in the entire roster, being able to switch between striker and gunner. And players just end up using gunner mode because it hits multiple enemies and she doesn't need to be next to enemies despite being the weaker of the two. Worse, it's not even improved at all in Cold Steel IV as Juna and Crow are the only characters in the entire playable roster who are able to change stances at will.
• Unexpected Character:
  • People expected Aurelia to be a boss fight at some point in Cold Steel III with Rean fighting her Soldat in the screenshots. What they didn't expect, however, was that she would also be Promoted to Playable, fighting alongside the other characters against Arianrhod and the Stahlritter.
  • On a similar note, few people expected that Lechter would be Promoted to Playable for a brief section of Cold Steel III, especially since there was nothing in the promotional material that indicated he would be a party member.
  • With Agate and Tita making their long-awaited return to the series, many fans were hoping for another Liberl character to show up in Cold Steel III. Sure enough, they got their wish. Could it be Estelle? Renne? Maybe even Kevin? Nope. It's... Josette. Though to be fair to Falcom, this was softened by one of her staff showing up in one of the screenshots before the game came out so people did somewhat expect her to show up.
  • Speaking of characters from Liberl, people were surprised to see Renne come back for Cold Steel IV, especially considering that she was among the first few characters confirmed for the game. That surprise would only multiply when it was revealed many months later that not only would the rest of the Bright family be joining her, longtime allies Scherazard and Kloe would also be making their return.
  • The number of characters making their debut playable appearance in Cold Steel IV certainly counts as this. Alongside the return of Toval, Sharon, and Vita, we have George, Xeno, Leonidas, all of the Stahlritter (Duvalie, Ines, Ennea), Roselia, Victor, and, most significantly, Humanoid!Celine!
  • There's also the inversion of unexpected characters who don't show up in the game, namely Rixia, Wazy, and Noel, all of whom don't show up outside of a cameo in the true ending. What makes this especially notable is that Rixia's seiyuu is already in the game voicing Elliot's older sister Fiona and both Wazy and Noel had their names dropped in Cold Steel III. The fact that Rixia made a full appearance and was even briefly playable in the second game, only to not show up again for the entire arc also disappointed many fans.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • Some fans felt that Claire, Lechter and Millium crossed the Moral Event Horizon when they sided with Chancellor Osborne in the final chapter of Cold Steel III, and that the game's attempts to play up their Conflicting Loyalty and reluctance to fight Class VII did little to excuse their betrayals (not to mention willingly participating in a plan that would result in death of Altina, someone they were shown to care greatly about in earlier scenes).
    • It's at least implied that Millium was planning to take Altina's place since the beginning, and Lechter did show conflict for many scenes in the game before that. But Claire is still in denial over the morals of her "father" and Rufus is 100% unapologetic, making those two last examples hard to feel sympathy.
    • Cold Steel IV makes it even worse as at the end of it all, while Rufus gets thrown in jail for his actions, Claire and Lechter ultimately get off with little more than a slap on the wrist, and are even shown celebrating with the heroes at Schera and Olivier's wedding in the end credits, which left a bitter taste in the mouths of fans who wanted them to at least get some retribution for their actions.
  • Crow Armbrust gets this due to his desire for revenge against Chancellor Osborne, and the fact that he's the leader of a terrorist group called the Imperial Liberation Front. Crow's backstory is sufficiently sympathetic, as he's upfront to Rean about his motivations being entirely self-serving. However Crow's "revenge" against Osborne is extremely disproportionate. For instance, the False Flag Operation the group tries in Chapter 3 of the first game almost started a war between Erebonia and Calvard, the two biggest nations on the continent. They also planned to launch a Weapon of Mass Destruction at the city of Crossbell (though their true intentions are debatable, given Crow's actions at the time), just because Osborne was attending a trade conference in the city at the time. There was also the fact that the group was responsible for starting the Civil War that makes up the focus of the second game when Crow sniped Chancellor Osborne in broad daylight. Yet despite these actions, Rean and the rest of Class VII don't care and just want him to come back to Thors and live out the rest of his school life before graduating. Made even worse that the closest thing to karma he receives for his actions, his death at the end of the second game, is undone as he's resurrected in Cold Steel III, and fully resurrected for real by the end of Cold Steel IV, though Crow is aware that his crimes can't be forgiven and strives towards atonement. On the flip side, his fans appreciate that he's fully aware of his revenge being disproportionate, calls the cast out for being soft and in II tries to end the war as quickly as possible to clean up his mess. Being mind controlled for a good year and Living on Borrowed Time also help
  • Some fans criticize Lianne's Honor Before Reason moment for not telling her best friend Roselia that Dreichels was being stalked by an curse entity or that one of Erebonia's biggest issues is that there's a literal curse breeding in Erebonia. Lianne's reasoning is that she's honoring Dreichels' last wishes that the curse is a human's problem and not something that she need not concerned with. But not only did this leave Roselia clueless, it made the situation in the empire worse, culminating in a lot of events that happen throughout the series. Which retroactively makes it worse that Arianrhod never told Loewe that the reason Hamel was burned to the ground is because of the curse of Erebonia when she was training him. While fans figured Roselia doesn't have enough power to fix it, fans figured that this was something she should have been informed with, rather than finding out about Dreichels and Lianne's dark secret two centuries later and nearly dooming the world in the process.
  • The game generally takes Rean's side against Machias early in the first game, while Machias comes across as a rather stuck up and rude person for being upset with Rean's secret noble family. The problem is, Rean *did* lie to Machias, and did so almost as soon as he had just met Machias. It really isn't that wrong of Machias to see such an act as being wrong, or Rean as being untrustworthy for lying about it.
• Unnecessary Makeover: Emma ditching her glasses in CS 4 felt like this to those who liked her as a Meganekko. The game seems to acknowledge this, as you get her glasses as an accessory; a significant number of players choose to put her glasses right back on and leave them there for the rest of the game.
• The Un-Twist:
  • No one was surprised that Azure Siegfried is Crow Back from the Dead as even the characters comment on it though it's more denial on their part as they did see him die in the previous game with Rean holding Crow in his arms. The game however plays with this in that Azure Siegfried has no idea that he's Crow as his memories are sealed and his personality altered significantly. He only manages to start getting his memories back during the climax of the game after seeing Valimar fight off the beast and reminding him of teaming up with Rean to take on Vermillion Apocalypse.
  • Played straight with Arianhrod turning out to be Lianne Sandlot. This was something that many fans had been taking as a fact since the character's first appearance, so the actual reveal ended up being little more than a formality. In a similar vein, Laura's middle initial "S" standing for Sandlot was also something that had been predicted for a long time.
  • Same with Gaius and his new position as the new Dominion. Many people made theories way before the third game was out, because of his own connection with Barkhorn, his ability to sense where the higher elements are active and weapons from the church. When his new position was revealed in the last chapter of the third game, many fans already saw it coming and rejoiced for it finally becoming something official. The only twist was that Gaius inherited Barkhorn's stigma rather than manifesting his own with an artifact, something players didn't see coming.
  • Longtime Trails fans also thought that Lughman, the professor you meet throughout the whole game in Cold Steel III was suspicious, given such characters as Professor Alba and Joachim Gunther. And they were right to suspect so: but him being a villain is hardly the biggest twist regarding his character.
  • Likewise, Many were not surprised that Olivert, Toval and Victor survived the explosion, despite Falcom's numerous attempts to convince fans otherwise- including releasing screenshots of the free day event when Rean and Alfin visits Olivert's grave without providing a clear context on Famitsu before the game launched, and kept emphasizing that Olivert is dead through the first two acts of the fourth game.
• Values Dissonance: Rufus' angst of being an adopted son and feeling like he'll never be loved by his "so-called dads" sting more from a Japanese perspective than someone from the West. Curiously enough, the game doesn't make him anymore sympathetic for this mainly thanks to both Rean and Jusis' circumstances of being in the same boat as he is with their Bastard Angst issues.
• Wangst: One of the biggest things detractors accuse Rean of when it comes to his powers, is that it makes him feel more like he's a pariah when no one else in the game thinks about it. Sure it's scary, but they don't resent or fear Rean for it and even some of them encourage Rean to try and master it instead. Then there's his entire relationship with Crow and how he feels about the guy, who he wants to bring back to the academy yet the other guy seems to be content with staying at the other side. Some fans seem to think that Rean is being too pushy about the subject, never mind the other guy putting him in a coma and separating him and his classmates for an entire month when the Civil War is happening. This notion does disappear by the end of the main story line for Cold Steel II and throughout Cold Steel III where players thought Rean's angst was more justified.
• Woolseyism:
  • The name of the games themselves; Sen no Kiseki translates to "Trails of a Flash", which, according to XSeed, does not fit well in English. It was localized as Trails of Cold Steel for numerous reasons, one of which being taken from the first game's main battle theme, which is named "The Glint of Cold Steel".
  • In the original Japanese version, Sara's Red Baron title is "Eclair." In the English release, it's changed to "Purple Lightning." While the original title was taken from the French word for lightning, the change was made possibly to avoid pastry jokes fans might create. Consequently, her S-Craft was changed from "Omega Éclair" into "Plasma Storm."
  • In another sense, trophies for getting your teammates' (and Towa's) bonds up were changed from the original script; While the original Japanese version has simple names like "Alisa's Bond" or "Fie's Bond," the dub localized them into Punny Names, such as "R is for Romance (Alisa)," "More Than a Fie-ling(Fie)" and so on. This trend was continued into Cold Steel II.
  • The sequel's intro was just a montage of every character from the previous game saying Rean's name in the Japanese version. The English version changed it to each character giving a line from the previous game significant to their development.
  • Millium's nickname for Claiomh Solais was originally "Clammy," but it was changed into Sammy partly because the original nickname can remind someone of "clammy hand".
  • Millium originally didn't give Valimar any nickname in Japanese version, yet the localization gave one, "Valley." Reason? The Localization producer admitted it felt natural for her.
  • The first Final Boss of Cold Steel II was changed from the extremely Engrish-y "End of Vermilion" to "Vermilion Apocalypse."
  • Just like what XSeed did to treasure chests in The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, they changed the messages from chests into puns. However, this is limited to Cold Steel 2 only, and not all of them are changed; only trial chests. Specifically, if you haven't opened them yet and don't have the required members in the party to do so, then you will receive a pun.
  • Rean saying "Heed my call, Valimar the Ashen Knight!" sounds way more grand in the English version compared to the Japanese's "Come, Ashen Knight Valimar!"
  • The decision to localize a Crossbell duology character's name as Wazy rather than use the official Falcom romanization Łazy, an XSEED localization choice that stuck in NISA-published entries. The latter would have caused no end of Viewer Pronunciation Confusion because the English alphabet doesn't have a Slavic dark L, and it's clear that XSEED realized this and decided to avoid the matter entirely.

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