In a world where Japanese publishers have finally started to embrace global simultaneous releases, and there's no longer much stress over whether we'll see niche role-playing games come to the West, one series remains woefully behind: Trails, also known as Kiseki, also known as the best JRPG series out there.
So you've listened to Kotaku Splitscreen and are wondering just what the hell this "Trails" thing is and why you should care. Fear not. We're here to help.
Playing Trails of Cold Steel is like eating a hero sandwich that's way too heavy on the bread. Often you'll get nice big chunks of turkey and salami. But sometimes -- more often than you'd like -- you'll realise that all you can taste is fluffy white filler.
In the last couple of years, I've developed a strange relationship with JRPGs. I found myself tiring of their beautiful exteriors that lacked heart. Since writing that article about my growing frustrations, I took a break -- distancing myself from the genre that dragged me into gaming. It was a necessary betrayal.
Take a dash of Suikoden's world-building, add some Grandia-style combat, stir it all in with the setting and social links of Persona, and bam, you've got Trails of Cold Steel, which comes out for PS3 and Vita in North America today. Australians will have to wait until January 29.
We've only got one day to finish Jason Schreier's favourite JRPG and its recently released in North America sequel before The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel arrives. I just finished the first part of the first one. I think I can make it.
We're just a week away from E3, and even if the big press conferences fail to deliver the JRPG goods we're all craving, at least the smaller publishers have us covered.
