(L) The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel

[AC-Phoenix]

I really wish they'd start showing me new stuff, instead of "top picks for you" and then showing stuff I couldn't care less about...

Thanks, found it now.

[Dengar]

Other than "the northern war" I have no idea what this will be about.

I expect nobody to be watching it other than people familiar with the source material.

I mean I'm kind of a Cold Steel-only guy, and I don't think the show thus far is incapable of standing on its own per se. But I still don't think it'll have much of an audience outside of the players.

[Dextro]

I just hope it's better than the last time trails got an anime adaptation.

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[Lukes YGO & WS on YT]

I play the games so this was a series I was very much looking forward to.

Very exciting start, great fight against that sasquatch.

Looking forward to seeing more.

[serenade_beta]

Spoiler for ep1:

It wasn't bad so far, but I have no idea about the geography and these two countries. It looks like the story is gonna focus on the side of the game that was enemy to the protagonist?
And the two guys that were with the girl were pretty chill, but them not showing their faces probably means they won't be in the story for much longer (not death, just not important enough)

The only problem is that I can't really care less about Falcom or the Trails series.
Captain Falcon is way cooler.

[Dextro]

Originally Posted by serenade_beta

Spoiler for ep1:

It wasn't bad so far, but I have no idea about the geography and these two countries. It looks like the story is gonna focus on the side of the game that was enemy to the protagonist?
And the two guys that were with the girl were pretty chill, but them not showing their faces probably means they won't be in the story for much longer (not death, just not important enough)

The only problem is that I can't really care less about Falcom or the Trails series.
Captain Falcon is way cooler.

You haven't played the games then? From episode one all I can say is that this is going in with the clear expectation that people know the games. This was kind of expected given they are specifically filling in a bit of story that got left out between two games of the same sub-series (Cold Steel 2 and 3) but they really aren't trying to sugar coat it.

They already spoiled the ending of two games in the series, hard, just on the exposition at the start of the episode. This will be super confusing for people who haven't played the games.

This is actually disappointing. I personally love the games and feel like they need more people to find a reason to pick them up. While I, as a hardcore fan, love the expansion of the lore and them adding some detail to an important part of the story, I can still recognize that it's going to turn this show into a super niche thing for existing fans

[Dengar]

The concept of enemies is a bit muddied in Cold Steel. Like Rean and this new character (name has yet to sink in sorry) most definitely belong to nations which can be considered enemies, but it's like.. It's not like Rean is a villainous character in any way. It's complicated.

That said, I wish people would stop this whole trend of "this will be confusing to people unfamiliar with the source material". Like maybe if these people themselves say they are confused that's a whole other thing, but please don't get confused on behalf of other people.

People always tell me I'm confused because I started with Cold Steel, well, I'm fine.

Besides, "They spoiled the ending".

I mean what? You expect us to watch an anime about the northern war without mentioning the annexation of Crossbell?

I mean it's not like that's some major reveal. It's just one event that happened.

By that logic, Cold Steel "spoiled" the azure tree.

[Marina2]

Originally Posted by Dengar

The concept of enemies is a bit muddied in Cold Steel. Like Rean and this new character (name has yet to sink in sorry) most definitely belong to nations which can be considered enemies, but it's like.. It's not like Rean is a villainous character in any way. It's complicated.

That said, I wish people would stop this whole trend of "this will be confusing to people unfamiliar with the source material". Like maybe if these people themselves say they are confused that's a whole other thing, but please don't get confused on behalf of other people.

People always tell me I'm confused because I started with Cold Steel, well, I'm fine.

Besides, "They spoiled the ending".

I mean what? You expect us to watch an anime about the northern war without mentioning the annexation of Crossbell?

I mean it's not like that's some major reveal. It's just one event that happened.

By that logic, Cold Steel "spoiled" the azure tree.

You don't actually get spoiled anything about 'Azure tree' since the game has never explained you what it really is during Cold Steel 1&2 You're likely to just thinking "That's a cool looking big tree" and move on.

If anything, the biggest thing that anime spoiled are not about Crossbelle. It's about...

Spoiler:

....Rean being a war hero and he has that 'Soldat' + the existence of 'Soldat' technology in the universe. Those details are pretty big spoiler for someone who's going to start playing Cold Steel.

[Dengar]

I honestly don't think it's that big of a deal. I read the manual of CS2 before finishing CS1.

[magnuskn]

Well, these characters sure have a good attitude towards things like fighting monsters and so on. I quite like this, despite the animation being not that very good.

[The Green One]

The Legend of Heroes series is NOT one that you get in from in the middle very easily. It's extremely lore heavy and has a long continuity to be aware of. The various "arcs" can be viewed by themselves but still have lots of connecting plots and people from previous arcs that make limited sense without seeing the associated arcs. Even if you start in the Cold Steel Arc you've still got stuff from the Liberl Arc and Crossbell Arc that get passing mention of events and names of people.

It can be a mess for the casual player/viewer to follow.

[Dengar]

Have there been any anecdotes from people who actually do have difficulty following? Because I really don't, myself.

[MeoTwister5]

While I haven't watched this anime yet, the North Ambrian conflict is a bit more disconnected from the overarching story than most "side story" events in the lore, and IMHO doesn't get referenced a lot in any of the games much. Knowing the background of the conflict and it's major players is probably enough.

[Dengar]

Idk, I haven't completed CSIV yet but the northern conflict just keeps being brought up.

[shmaster]

Originally Posted by MeoTwister5

While I haven't watched this anime yet, the North Ambrian conflict is a bit more disconnected from the overarching story than most "side story" events in the lore, and IMHO doesn't get referenced a lot in any of the games much. Knowing the background of the conflict and it's major players is probably enough.

The third game kept on mentioning it over and over to the point of annoyance. Especially during that character arc with Sara.

[MeoTwister5]

Originally Posted by shmaster

The third game kept on mentioning it over and over to the point of annoyance. Especially during that character arc with Sara.

They keep mentioning it but they barely explain anything about what happened there, with the exception of what happened to Rean. The vagueness of the actual events is what is giving the creators of the anime enough leeway to write what they want, in a way, that lessens the need to be up to date in the entire story and lore to understand the events.

[Dengar]

I pretty much agree with the above. But it's hard to expect them to not mention anything about soldats or the Crossbell annexation. I think it was fair to just get that out of the way immediately.

That said whether the story will be any good is hard to say from just this episode. It seems there's already some slight internal tension before the empire even sets their sights on the north. Interesting to see where that goes.

[shmaster]

Originally Posted by Dengar

That said whether the story will be any good is hard to say from just this episode. It seems there's already some slight internal tension before the empire even sets their sights on the north. Interesting to see where that goes.

With how disappointing the writing had became since the second game, I am totally expecting some dumb writing like the second game with the war getting played out as childish as possible.
Then the goons from Ouroboros will show up again talking cryptic trash without explaining anything again.
The anime then is going to end with no explanation on Pillar of Salt again when a proper explanation is overdue for a decade.

[Dengar]

Idk, I've liked the games I've played. There's just a lot of it so I can't beat it all in one go. Whether or not I care about the pillar of salt incident being explained kinda depends on whether or not it's relevant to the plot at hand.

[Marina2]

Ep.2

Lavian's personality might be annoying for some, but I personally like the way she act. The main group dynamic is alright, it should be fun when they all go out to adventure together.

That guys who fought with Lavian hold back his skill for sure.