History VideoGame / SenNoKiseki

*** This is most exemplified during the battle where you play as Fie and Laura vs Rean and Machias, which is arguably one of the hardest battle in the game, especially on the higher difficulties.

** The story also makes a big deal about how much more powerful Laura and Fie are compare the rest but in gameplay, (barring overpowered skills like Rean's Arc Slash) they aren't too different from any of the other physical characters.

** The story makes a huge deal about how important and battle-changing combat links are but they hardly even make a difference during actual gameplay battles.

* IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight: [[spoiler: Rean challenges Crow with the explicit intention of making him come back to Class VII. It doesn't work in ''Cold Steel'' and most of ''Cold Steel II'', finally worked in front of the Red God Knight, but death after redemption, Crow does a HeroicSacriface to let Rean get close enough to safe the day.]]

* CurbStompBattle: The fights against Sara and Victor will end with your character(s) defeated, at best you might annoy them slightly. Of course, one is your combat instructor and the other is the best swordsman in the Empire so the result was something of a foregone conclusion. The fight against <C> in Heimdallr's catacombs will end after a few turns, though if it continued it would have become this.

* EnemyMine: [[spoiler:Sharon is Legion IX of Ouroboros. She teams up with the faculty to fight off the Panzersoldats sent by the Noble Faction, even though her organization is behind the Nobles and their ultimate goals coincide right now... because even if she is a Legion, she's also Alisa's [[{{Meido}} maid]] and wants to keep her safe. Whether this cooperation will last once all the stops are pulled out on Phantom Blaze is another matter...]]

* MarshmallowHell: Poor Rean can't catch a break in the prologue. He gets a faceful of Alisa cleavage, and she proceeds to spend the better part of a MONTH pissed off at him. Her being a Type-A [[Tsundere]] doesn't help matters either.

The latest arc in Creator/NihonFalcom's long-running ''[[VideoGame/KisekiSeries Legend of Heroes]]'' series of {{Eastern RPG}}s, ''Trails of Cold Steel'' and its sequel ''Trails of Cold Steel II'' are a game changer for two reasons: The story moves to the Empire of Erebonia, whose conflicts have simmered in the background since ''[[VideoGame/LegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky Trails in the Sky]]'', and the game itself is in 3D for the first time ever. The game stars Rean Schwarzer, a new student at the Thors Military Academy in the small college town of Trista, who finds himself placed into a special group, Class VII. There, he faces not only classes and tests but a student body fractured by the political divisions in Erebonia, a willful teacher with an unorthodox approach to education, and his own insecurity. And in the background, the rumor of war....

The latest arc in Creator/NihonFalcom's long-running ''[[VideoGame/KisekiSeries Legend of Heroes]]'' series of EasternRPGs, ''Trails of Cold Steel'' and its sequel ''Trails of Cold Steel II'' are a game changer for two reasons: The story moves to the Empire of Erebonia, whose conflicts have simmered in the background since ''[[VideoGame/LegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky Trails in the Sky]]'', and the game itself is in 3D for the first time ever. The game stars Rean Schwarzer, a new student at the Thors Military Academy in the small college town of Trista, who finds himself placed into a special group, Class VII. There, he faces not only classes and tests but a student body fractured by the political divisions in Erebonia, a willful teacher with an unorthodox approach to education, and his own insecurity. And in the background, the rumor of war....

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: ''Cold Steel'' allows you to purchase missing volumes of Rose of the Red Moon from Micht's shop so if you missed finding an issue you can pay to make it up later and still get a Zemurian Stone at the end of the game. The Zemurian Stone Fragments also return from Ao, allowing you to get up to three [[InfinityPlusOneSword ultimate weapons]] in your first playthrough and an infinite number once you're in NewGamePlus, provided you're fine with lots of U-Material grinding.

** The game also features a few purely musical examples. When watching maneuvers at Garelia Fortress, [[ZeroNoKiseki Steel Roar -Verge of Death-]] plays, a sidequest in Heimdallr requires the player to find a record of [[LegendOfHeroesVI Amber Amour]] and Emma's solo in the concert is the ending theme 'I Swear' from SC.
* TheCameo: [[Franchise/{{Ys}} Pikkard]] and [[NayutaNoKiseki Noi]] dolls are on sale in Celdic. A smaller [=PenPen=] doll can also be seen in Miriam's room, doubling as a callback to both Ao no Kiseki and Zwei II. And that's just the out-of-universe examples. ''Cold Steel'' also features an inordinate amount of references to the Gagharv Trilogy, giving more fuel to the theory that the two series might [[WildMassGuessing occupy the same world]]

* ChekhovsGunman: Literally, as the identity of the sniper who [[spoiler:shot down the Imperial Liberation Front's ship]] is a major reveal during the WhamEpisode at the end of the game. [[spoiler:It's Crow, who also turns out to be the person who shot Osborne, as previously foreshadowed in Ao]].

* CliffHanger: The first game's ending, which arguably surpasses Trails in the Sky FC's.

* ContinuityNod: As with every other game in the series, these are all over the place, starting from the opening sequence making a nod to concurrent events in Ao plus a CallForward to events that ''will'' happen shortly afterwards. The calendar system makes it very easy to date events in the previous arc since there are nods to just about every major incident.
** When entering the Reinford Building, the camera lingers on models of the Lusitania from The 3rd and a limosine of the same model used by Dieter in Zero.

* ContinuityNod: All over the place; the game runs in parallel to Zero and Ao and Falcom took every opportunity to let players know what happens concurrently, such as having an NPC mention that he just came from Crossbell's Founding Day celebration, another discussing how construction on the tallest building in western Zemuria is nearing completion and so on. [[spoiler:And of course, Thomas mentioning alchemy in connection with Crossbell's past, everything to do with Red Constellation, the end of Chapter 5, the Final Chapter...]]

* ForegoneConclusion: ''Ao no Kiseki'' ends with a timeskip and a description of events taking place in neighboring Erebonia. ''Cold Steel'' starts months before that point. Thanks to what we saw in Ao we know that by the end of the game [[spoiler:Garelia Fortress will be destroyed, war will be declared with Crossbell and the Empire will fall into a nasty civil war]]. Guess what happens?

* InMediasRes: Sen begins on 8/31/1204 as Class VII, Sara and Neithardt fight terrorists attacking Garelia Fortress. The next five Chapters are spent explaining [[HowWeGotHere how they got there]].

* OhCrap: In-universe, the gate of Lohengrin Castle slamming shut behind the party and a strange barrier appearing, preventing them from leaving, just as they realize that the castle is well and truly haunted. Out of universe, [[spoiler:everything about the castle reminds one of Phantasma in The 3rd and the barriers are virtually identical in both form and function. Also, [[ZeroNoKiseki the bell]]]].

* PrivateMilitaryContractors: As with all the past games, you have regular mercenaries and you have Jaegers. For the first time, the series really shows the difference between the two by introducing members of the mercenary group Bugbear, who are not particularly impressive when compared to Jaegers we've seen. The two most prominent Jaeger groups in this game are [[CallBack The West Wind and The Red Constellation]], continuing to develop the plot from The 3rd through Ao. [[spoiler:Fie's adoptive father-figure was the head of the former group before his death]].

** [[TheUnseen Yun Kafai]] the [[PunnyName Sword Hermit]][[note]]He's still an offscreen presence but Sen revealed his title.[[/note]]

** One-Eyed Sechs Vander[[note]]Technically introduced in SC but he plays a larger role here. [[/note]]

* RedHerring: Lots of them, at least half of them aimed squarely at everyone who has played Zero/Ao and which would go over the heads of anyone who hasn't.

* SequentialBoss: Sen is in love with this trope and it happens at least once per Chapter.

** The [[spoiler:fake final boss]] in Sen is a massive one to the Gagharv Trilogy and one fans have been wondering whether Falcom would make ever since FC [[spoiler: regarding whether there was a connection between Erebonia as the name of the Empire and Erebonius, the Spirit of Darkness in Cagesong's summon magic system]]

* SignatureTeamTransport: While it doesn't see much action in Sen, the Courageous is intended to serve this role for Class VII. It even shares their [[RedIsHeroic colors]].

** Place names don't escape, either; after five solid games of consistent spelling as "Erebonia" and "Zemuria" (when they do come up in English characters in the Japanese versions), all of a sudden Sen is very insistent about calling the two ''E'''l'''ebonia'' and ''Zemlya'', respectively. This one is likely to be ignored by any future Trails releases in English, as the place names were already established as the former in Sky FC's English release.
*** "Erebonia" was actually later ''corrected'' on Sen's promotional webpage... except the page [=URLs=] ''still'' have the "Elebonia" spelling. "Zemlya" persists throughout.

* SphereOfDestruction: [[spoiler:Aion Type-Alpha erases Garelia Fortress and its Railway Cannons from existence using one of these. The remains of the Fortress are seen in Sen II.]]

* TemptingFate: [[spoiler:Practically everyone in the Empire shrugs off Crossbell's declaration of independence, frequently pointing out that while the city-state has enormous financial influence, it also ''has no military'' so they aren't a threat. This contributes to the sense of impending doom if you've played Ao and eventually it comes to bite the Empire in the ass when [[SuperweaponSurprise Aion Type-Alpha]] shows up to erase Garelia Fortress from existence, right on schedule.]]

* UnexpectedGameplayChange: While still using a turn-based format and the basic mechanics, [[spoiler:the final battles of Sen with Rean piloting Valimar operate on a slightly different system where you'll find yourself needing to target specific parts of the opposing mecha, you have no Arts and counterattacking is Craft-based]].
* TheUnfought: Just like FC and Zero, being the first game of an arc there are characters who will undoubtedly be seen in battle eventually but who aren't fought in Sen. This includes [[spoiler:Sharon, Vita, Vulcan's Panzersoldat, the former Zephyr members and their Panzersoldats and probably Count Caien and Rufus Albarea]]
** On the 'allies likely to fight with us but not yet seen' side we have Towa, Neithardt and Toval. The last has already been confirmed to appear in Sen II.
* TheUnreveal: Sen ''runs'' on this trope, starting with the fact that major elements in the Erebonia Arc were foreshadowed in Ao's ending so going in, everyone expected Sen to be a countdown to particular events. The game ended more or less exactly where Ao did so most of the unanswered questions from there remain unanswered. [[spoiler:Does Osborne survive the assassination attempt? Uncertain. What does Ouroboros specifically want out of the Empire? Next game. How did Lianne Sandlot become the person we know today? Sorry, wait for the next game there too.]]. There are also plenty of unreveals from Sen's plot alone. [[spoiler:Where does Rean's power come from? No answer. Emma promises to tell everyone what she knows about, well, everything. She doesn't get the chance to before the game ends, despite having about a week between promising to do so and everything going straight to hell. [[LampshadeHanging If you saw her dance scene, she'll apologize for this right before the game ends]]]]

* VideoGame3DLeap: Sen is this for the franchise.

* WhamEpisode: Chapter 5 is meant to be one, though it's a bit zig-zagged: Anyone who played Ao will know what has to happen [[spoiler:i.e., the cannon can't fire on Crossbell because it's going to do that a few months ''later'']] but they threw in another wham moment specifically to mess with people who already know that: [[spoiler:Namely, the fact that Crow and Miriam are present, when they weren't in the Prologue sequence, which reminds one a great deal of the beginning and end of Zero and the [[RealityWarper explanation we got]] for that...]].

** And it just wouldn't be a Kiseki game if the Final Chapter wasn't a long string of these, starting with [[spoiler:the ominous sound of a tolling bell (shades of Crossbell) and the barrier appearing around the Old Building, prior to the final dungeon and the 'Final Trial' at the end]], then continuing with the [[CallForward inevitable]] [[spoiler:destruction of Garelia Fortress]], followed by [[spoiler:the paired whams of Crow revealing that he is <C> and Vita revealing that she is the Second Pillar of Ouroboros]], leading right into [[spoiler:Osborne being shot, as per Ao]], followed by [[spoiler:the reveal that the Imperial Liberation Front has been working for the Noble Faction the entire time and possess a massive airship, which proceeds to drop mass-produced God Knights into Heimdallr which then tear up the place]]... and then [[spoiler:Scarlet and Vulcan show up on Thors' doorstep in Panzersoldats of their own, Sharon reveals her secret to everyone, Rean awakens Valimar, Crow arrives in Ordine, the two fight and... Rean loses. Then the rest of Class VII pulls a YouShallNotPass to buy time for Valimar to carry Rean away, leaving them to an uncertain fate.]] Cue credits. Easily the Whammiest Episode in a series ''full'' of Wham Episodes.

** Beyond that, the plot of the game basically runs on countdowns to events foreshadowed in Ao and major backstory events are very briefly alluded to on the assumption that the player already knows the details and their significance, like the significance of North Ambria and what it means when the three higher elements are activated in a region.

The latest arc in Falcom's long-running [[VideoGame/KisekiSeries Legend of Heroes]] series of ''EasternRPG''s, Trails of Cold Steel and its sequel Trails of Cold Steel II are a game-changer for two reasons: the story moves to the Empire of Erebonia, whose conflicts have simmered in the background since ''TrailsInTheSky'', and the game itself is in 3D for the first time ever. The game stars Rean Schwarzer, a new student at the Thors Military Academy in the small college town of Trista, who finds himself placed into a special group, Class VII. There, he faces not only classes and tests but a student body fractured by the political divisions in Erebonia, a willful teacher with an unorthodox approach to education, and his own insecurity. And in the background, the rumor of war...

Trails of Cold Steel is the third arc in the series begun by ''TrailsInTheSky'' and takes place in roughly the same timeframe as ''ZeroNoKiseki'' and its sequel, Ao no Kiseki. The first game in the arc will make its way to North America on December 22 in 2015 courtesy of XSeed under the title Trails of Cold Steel, and will also be bringing over the second game roughly a year after that. In December of 2015 Falcom formally announced the development of a third game in the arc.

* [[spoiler:AceCustom: Scarlet and Vulcan pilot Spiegels, which are customized versions of the basic Draken, as do the currently nameless former Zephyrs. Scarlet uses a large sword, one Zephyr uses a lance and Vulcan and the remaining Zephyr use twin hammers]]

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: Sen allows you to purchase missing volumes of Rose of the Red Moon from Micht's shop so if you missed finding an issue you can pay to make it up later and still get a Zemurian Stone at the end of the game. The Zemurian Stone Fragments also return from Ao, allowing you to get up to three [[InfinityPlusOneSword ultimate weapons]] in your first playthrough and an infinite number once you're in NewGamePlus, provided you're fine with lots of U-Material grinding.
* [[spoiler:AntiVillain: If the story had started several years earlier and focused on Crow, the audience might well have been cheering for him and not Rean. Well, most of the time. He's fighting against TheEmpire for the freedom of his homeland, one of his subordinates also lost a home to Osborne's expansionist plans and one lost ''everything''. He's also genuinely concerned for his subordinates and at one point or another comes to the rescue of all of them, even though doing so sometimes risks his cover. His friendship with Class VII is also genuine enough that his ARCUS [[ThePowerOfFriendship resonates with the others]] before entering the Old Building for the final time. Yet he's still the BigBad of Sen]]

* [[spoiler:AuthorAvatar: Sen reveals that Micht is the author of the Carnelia books so he wrote himself into his own story (translated as Matthias in XSEED's localization). [[FictionAsCoverup This might explain why his character (and 'Carnelia') both die over the course of the story]]]]

* [[spoiler:BolivianArmyCliffhanger: Sen ends with Celine forcing Valimar to retreat against Rean's wishes, rather than continue a hopeless fight against a fully-powered God Knight and a pilot who knows how to use it. The remainder of Class VII engages Ordine from on foot to buy Rean time, despite having no hope of winning. Ordine draws its weapon back to strike and then the game ends...]]
* BraggingRightsReward: The Radiant Medal is the reward in Sen for maxing out your Academic Rank and it's fittingly the best accessory in the game, giving big stat boosts and complete immunity to status conditions, status downs and AT Delay. It's also only possible to earn the necessary Rank ''after the final dungeon'' so it's literally only useful if you plan to play New Game Plus with item carryover but not level carryover.

* TheCameo: [[Franchise/{{Ys}} Pikkard]] and [[NayutaNoKiseki Noi]] dolls are on sale in Celdic. A smaller [=PenPen=] doll can also be seen in Miriam's room, doubling as a callback to both Ao no Kiseki and Zwei II. And that's just the out-of-universe examples. Sen also features an inordinate amount of references to the Gagharv Trilogy, giving more fuel to the theory that the two series might [[WildMassGuessing occupy the same world]]

** Also, the Penthagruel, which is [[spoiler:the flagship of the Noble Faction. It's built on the exact same scale of the Glorious and has similar stylings...]]

* ConcertClimax: The climax actually occurs in between final preparations for a concert (the one Class VII is putting on) and the concert itself. Of course, this being Sen, it manages a DoubleSubversion. The subversion: The Concert technically follows the Climax. The subversion of the subversion: [[spoiler:There's another hour of game left and the ''real'' climax is at Osborne's public address a week later]].

* [[spoiler:TheDogWasTheMastermind: Your friendly upperclassman and honorary Class VII member Crow is <C>, the terrorist leader responsible for most of the events of Sen. The popular radio idol Misty and the glamorous opera singer Vita are the same person and she's the mastermind who is pulling ''Crow's'' strings]].

* EveryoneMeetsEveryone: The Prologue of Sen (after the flash-forward) is all about how the members of Class VII arrive at Thors on the first day of school and meet one another. This being [[MilitaryAcademy Thors]], their meeting involves literally being dropped into a dungeon and having to cooperate to make it out.

* FinalBoss: [[spoiler:Two in fact. Loa Erebonius is fought at the end of TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon and is effectively the last time you can use the regular combat system. However, after all is said and done the ''real'' final boss of Sen is Ordine, the Blue God Knight]]

* ForegoneConclusion: Ao no Kiseki ends with a timeskip and a description of events taking place in neighboring Erebonia. Sen starts months before that point. Thanks to what we saw in Ao we know that by the end of the game [[spoiler:Garelia Fortress will be destroyed, war will be declared with Crossbell and the Empire will fall into a nasty civil war]]. Guess what happens?
** Even extends to Sen II to an extent because Ao's ending also told us that [[spoiler:Osborne's faction ''wins'', even though Sen ends with the Noble Faction appearing to have an unbeatable upper hand.]].

** For a meta example, [[WordOfGod Falcom's president]] stated in a Dengeki interview shortly after Sen was released that the sequel would be one of these for the franchise.

* HiddenDepths: He doesn't get much of a chance to show them off in Sen but Patrick clearly does have ''some'' redeeming qualities buried beneath his jerkassery.

* HumongousMecha: A series tradition. There are returning Overmuppets like the export-model [[MechaMook Tri-Attacker]] and enhanced versions of previous machines such as the Zephyranthes (a refined Liore Gun-EZ). [[spoiler:Then you have two new types of machines. The centerpiece of the games are the God Knights, machines from Erebonia's distant past. Rean is chosen as the Raiser of Valimar the Ash God Knight at the end of Sen while Crow is the Raiser of Ordine the Blue God Knight. There are also the Panzersoldat manufactured by Reinford's Fifth Division, with help from Ouroboros, which are implied to be based on the God Knights, using Ordine as a model]]

* IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight: [[spoiler: Rean challenges Crow with the explicit intention of making him come back to Class VII. It doesn't work in Sen and most of Sen II, finally worked in front of the Red God Knight, but death after redemption, Crow does a HeroicSacriface to let Rean get close enough to safe the day.]]

* LimitedWardrobe: The first game in the series to completely justify this is also the one to avert it. The members of Class VII obviously wear the same outfit because it's the uniform of Thors Military Academy. The leap to 3d also allowed Falcom to make alternate costumes so everyone has a few opportunities to change their clothes, moreso with DLC casual clothing.

** [[spoiler:Their Fifth Division is revealed in the Final Chapter to be a supporter of the Noble Faction and it's proxy the Imperial Liberation Front. By implication, it's also likely to be a satellite branch of Workshop Thirteen]]

Trails of Cold Steel is the 3rd arc in the series begun by ''TrailsInTheSky'' and takes place in roughly the same timeframe as ''ZeroNoKiseki'' and its sequel, Ao no Kiseki. The first game in the arc will makes its' way to North America on December 22 in 2015 courtesy of XSeed under the title Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel, and will also be bringing over the second game roughly a year after that.

Trails of Cold Steel is the 3rd arc in the series begun by ''TrailsInTheSky'' and takes place in roughly the same timeframe as ''ZeroNoKiseki'' and its sequel, Ao no Kiseki. The first game in the arc will makes its' way to North America on December 22 2015 courtesy of XSeed under the title Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel, and will also be bringing over the second game roughly a year after that.

Trails of Cold Steel is the 3rd arc in the series begun by ''TrailsInTheSky'' and takes place in roughly the same timeframe as ''ZeroNoKiseki'' and its sequel, Ao no Kiseki. The first game in the arc will makes its' way to North America in 2015 courtesy of XSeed under the title Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel, and will also be bringing over the second game some time after that.

Trails of Cold Steel is the 3rd arc in the series begun by ''TrailsInTheSky'' and takes place in roughly the same timeframe as ''ZeroNoKiseki'' and its sequel, Ao no Kiseki. The first game in the arc will makes its' way to North America in Autumn 2015 courtesy of XSeed under the title Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel, and will also be bringing over the second game some time after that.

* ChickMagnet: Rean it helps that he can bond with npc seems to be a falcom thing.

* ShipTease: Rean and Alisa get lots of moments of this. Chapter 6 also includes quite a bit of Rean/Towa teasing and some Laura/Fie teasing.

* ChickMagnet: Rean it helps that he can bond with npc though he's no Lloyd.

Trails of Cold Steel is the 3rd arc in the series begun by ''TrailsInTheSky'' and takes place in roughly the same timeframe as ''ZeroNoKiseki'' and its sequel, Ao no Kiseki. The first game in the arc will makes its' way stateside Fall 2015 courtesy of XSeed under the title Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel, and will also be bringing over the second game some time after that.

* CustomUniform[=/=]NonUniformUniform: Sort of. As noted, Class VII gets red uniforms that set them apart from the other students... except that these are basically just red-colored jackets, and the actual design is pretty much the same as the standard Thors uniform. None of them really deviate too wildly from the actual uniform, either - the guys wear the jacket and dark slacks, the girls wear the jacket and a short, plaited green skirt. The guys get an option for a vest-style jacket instead of the full jacket, which Elliot and Gaius take.

* CustomUniform[=/=]NonUniformUniform: Sort of. As noted, Class VII gets red uniforms that set them apart from the other students... except that these are basically just red-colored jackets, and the actual design is pretty much the same as the standard Thors uniform. They also actually don't deviate a whole bunch - the guys wear the jacket and dark slacks, the girls wear the jacket and a short, plaited green skirt. The guys get an option for a vest-style jacket instead of the full jacket, which Elliot and Gaius take.
** The real variation comes in with the shoes on the girls - apparently Thors just doesn't care what the ladies wear below the hemline, so each of the heroines wears whatever shoes they like, with no effort made to match. Also, while Gaius does wear the standard "vest" option, he wear his open-breasted rather than buttoned.

* CustomUniform: As noted, Class VII gets red uniforms that set them apart from the other students.
** NonuniformUniform: Each student in Class VII also slightly customizes their uniform over and above the color difference.
** Angelica also has a custom uniform in the sense that she doesn't actually wear one, instead going around in her biking suit. Nobody really complains because she's the daughter of one of the most powerful families in Erebonia.