YMMV / Trails Series

• Accidental Aesop: "Aggressive military expansionism and imperialism brings out the worst in people, on all sides." The main antagonists of Sky FC and Azure and the Disc-One Final Boss of Northern War are Well Intentioned Extremists motivated by desperation to strengthen their respective countries enough to fight off an Erebonian invasion; The Heavy of Cold Steel I is motivated by Revenge for a recent Erebonian annexation; and even after Erebonia stops its warmongering ways, President Rocksmith's perceived failure to keep his country's increasingly hostile main rival in check seems to have caused Calvard to elect a (possible) President Evil. Meanwhile, the Hamel incident (which was also a Start of Darkness for many antagonists, up to and including Osborne himself) was instigated by Erebonian war hawks as an excuse to invade Liberl for their resources.
• Archive Panic: The series has a ton of content; not only are there over ten games within the series (each clocking in at around 40-60 hours of playtime), there's also various official side media such as novels, manga, Drama CDs, and an anime series set between Cold Steel II and Cold Steel III, all of which are part of the series' continuity. As such, new fans might be overwhelmed by the amount of content, especially if they attempt to jump into the series at any point except the beginning.
• Awesome Music: The series continues to have consistently awesome soundtracks courtesy of Falcom Sound Team jdk.
• Base-Breaking Character: Enough of them to fill their own page.
• Broken Base: Fans have been divided over the Art Shift in character design, rearranged music, changes in game balance and aesthetic to match later titles, and additional bosses whenever the Evolution versions came out, debating on whether the original or the updated version is better. If there's one thing that fans can agree on, it's the appreciation for the several hours of voice acting that's added to the games.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome: Because of how important speed stat is, many players stack speed quartz on characters to make them catch up to bosses on Nightmare difficulty.
• Contested Sequel: 3rd deviates greatly from the previous two entries; the well-liked protagonist Estelle takes a backseat to Father Kevin and newcomer Sister Ries, the open, populous setting of Liberl is traded for a more linear pocket dimension with few NPCs, the plot is a grimmer, more personal affair centered on Kevin's past, and the gameplay has a more sandbox-like approach, letting you freely customize your party. The fanbase is split, with one camp finding the game superfluous or even skippable while the other camp considers the game one of the best in the series precisely because of all its deviations from the norm, with some even preferring Kevin over Estelle.
• Continuity Lock-Out:
  • While each story arc has a more or less self-contained plot taking place in different countries across Zemuria, there are many, many side characters from other parts of the franchise that make extensive cameos and references to other events. The games set in Crossbell used to be an enforced example due to taking over a decade to localize, made worse by how several characters from that titular arc are referenced, and the protagonists from those games are even briefly playable, not to mention some other Crossbell cast members making their appearances in the third Cold Steel game, making players wonder who the hell these people are.
  • In an extreme version of this trope, Reverie contains another scenario ^note The Magical Alisa LS door that requires one to have played Tokyo Xanadu eX+ to have full understanding of the story. Otherwise the mention of Demon Prince Rean suddenly becoming evil again would be met with two questions: Why is Rean a Demon Prince? and He was evil and had a Heel–Face Turn before?.
• Evil Is Cool: The Enforcers of Ouroboros are strong enough to give the heroes hell, have Awesome Music that accompanies their fights, and thanks to the recruitment policy, are all but guaranteed dark and interesting backstories.
• Fan Nickname: One that persists across the whole series. In the English-speaking fandom, characters that regenerate large amounts of CP either with area-of-effect Crafts with a Gladiator Headband/Belt or have Crafts that grant CP to the party are affectionately known as "CP Batteries."
• Fetish Retardant: Once the series made the jump to full 3D, fans have claimed that some of the female characters' models have chests so big that, on top of not always matching the 2D illustrations, look more off-putting than titillating. Rixia gets this the most, especially in the first Daybreak game.
• Franchise Original Sin: Some problems players have with later entries, especially the Cold Steel games, were present since the beginning, but weren't quite as bad about it:
  • The Clueless Chick-Magnet protagonist. In the Sky games, while Joshua was prone to comically misunderstanding what his female companions are talking about and gets a fair amount of admirers, it was never the focus of his interactions. He genuinely does not have feelings for anyone but Estelle, their romance is heavily integrated into the plot, and he can't understand why he's so often flirted with. Most importantly, Estelle was the main viewpoint character, and Joshua's girl troubles were secondary to their development. In later arcs, both Lloyd and Rean are heavily flirted with by any and all available romantic partners, who will invariably confess a hidden infatuation with the protagonist if you dig deep enough. Lloyd had it bad enough with three, maybe four, potential suitors, but then Rean had to top him with at least eleven. What's more, the many potential options have divided fans on which, if any, should be picked, and who got the most development among them.
  • The Cold Steel games got a lot of flak for how Easily Forgiven Crow was by the rest of Class VII. Despite being the leader of the terrorist group responsible for starting a civil war, Rean and the rest of Class VII were willing to forgive him and welcome him back to Class VII. However, this willingness to forgive villains applied to both the Sky trilogy and Crossbell duology. Estelle was willing to forgive Renne and Joshua for their actions as Enforcers of Ouroboros, while Lloyd was willing to forgive Ian for the murder of his brother Guy and conspiring with the Crois family. However, the different circumstances of these villains has made them less controversial than Crow. Estelle was willing to forgive Joshua and Renne because they were both mentally broken Child Soldiers, not to mention that Joshua was also brainwashed by Weissman into doing his bidding so he wasn't in full control of his actions. And while Lloyd did forgive Ian for killing his brother, the perpetrator was still arrested and sent to prison, so Lloyd's forgiveness wasn't an easy get-out-of-jail-free card. Thus, Rean and the rest of Class VII going on and on about bringing Crow back so he can graduate seems naive at best, considering they barely bring up any atonement or punishment for his actions even though Crow does eventually end up paying for his sins and doesn't get off scot-free either.
  • The ending to Trails in the Sky FC began a trend in the series by ending on a Wham Episode cliffhanger: Professor Alba reveals himself to be Weissmann, a high ranking member of Ouroboros and the real instigator of the game's events, and also reveals that Joshua was an Ouroboros Enforcer. Joshua knocks out Estelle and leaves her to try and take down Weissmann himself. When the series would attempt a similar cliffhanger in the ending of Cold Steel 1, Crow assassinates the chancellor, Noblist forces seize Heimdallr and attempt to take Thors, and Rean is forced to flee and leave his classmates, the move was more contentious. Much of this is due to the nature of everything leading up to the endings in both games. While Sky FC's ending reveal is sudden, it comes after the main driving forces for the plot (Estelle and Joshua becoming bracers and the Liberl Army Coup) have been resolved enough to give the player some feeling of accomplishment, and making the ending cliffhanger more of a Sequel Hook setting up the story of the next installment. Cold Steel 1's ending, on the other hand, comes at a point when so many plot threads are either still left dangling or have been barely resolved and the player having accomplished so little that it feels as though the plot is just starting, and thus making the cliffhanger feel not so much a tease of the next installment as much as demanding the player pay for a full other game to get the rest of the story.
• Friendly Fandoms: You're likely to see fans of this series being fans of one, or both, of the following:
  • Xenogears, Xenosaga, and Xenoblade Chronicles. This is more common among fans of the Liberl and Crossbell arcs, as these games are also niche JRPGs with a heavy focus on multi-game story arcs and developed characters that are often overshadowed by their later instalments. The Crossbell duology is also noted to have a few themes and story beats in common with the early Xeno games.
  • Persona. This is more common among fans of the Cold Steel games, due to their high school settings and Relationship Values, but even those who don't care for Shipping tend to find common ground in both series featuring casts with bundles of mental issues they love to unpack and analyse, as well as both series making use of Tarot Motifs.
  • And naturally, fans of Falcom's other flagship franchise, Ys, tend to get along well with Trails fans.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The series is much more known and popular in the East than the West when it comes to the global gaming community. Official Chinese releases for all mainline games have been known to debut around just 6 months at most after domestic release on average, usually on PC. Now compare this to the 2+ year wait for the West for just the main announcement trailer. The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie took it a step further by having a concurrent Chinese and Korean release on its domestic release day.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Thanks to the name "Epstein" now largely associated with convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, the frequent references to the "Epstein Foundation" across the series now make for some uncomfortable laughs.
• Hype Backlash: The series as a whole is often a victim of this, due to having a relatively small but very passionate fanbase. Those who've played it are quick to recommend it to others, but with all the gushing about its interconnected stories and characters it can be easy for them not to live up to the hype. The series' penchant for Slow-Paced Beginning and Cliffhanger endings can be another turn-off to new fans, especially with the sheer number of 100+ hour JRPGs it consists of. In particular, the very divisive Cold Steel arc (which got four games out of a story some think could have been told in a single JRPG) has left some wondering whether 5+ games worth of build up was even worth it.
• It Was His Sled: You'll find that a lot of important plot points which should be a huge twist in a game they are revealed in will be casually mentioned in the following games. The huge gap between domestic and global releases is a huge factor in this.
• LGBT Fanbase: Perhaps due in part to Estelle Bright being the protagonist of the first arc, the series seems to have a lot of trans women interested in it.
• More Popular Spin-Off: The series is considerably more popular than the Dragon Slayer games from which it ultimately derives.
• Older Than They Think: Newcomers to the series that start with the Erebonia Arc often assume the school setting, Bonding Events, and calendar system are a transparent attempt to cash in on the success of Persona. While Falcom has never been shy about incorporating popular trends into their work to draw in new players, the Bonding Points system was used in the Crossbell Arc to a lesser degree in a setting that had nothing to do with students, FC had already previously used a school setting for a lengthy sequence, and the calendar primarily helps to keep continuity with the events of Crossbell that take place concurrently with Cold Steel.
• Sequel Displacement:
  • Many are unaware that Trails in the Sky is the sixth entry in the overall Legend of Heroes series. The Trails franchise enjoys a much larger degree of popularity than the previous Legend of Heroes titles, even in Japan. It doesn't help that the previous attempt in English is infamous for its "Blind Idiot" Translation.
  • Happens with newer players who start with the Cold Steel games, thanks to their newfound popularity among the casual RPG crowd. Many play even III without reading up on the series, leading to some getting hit with Late-Arrival Spoiler after Late-Arrival Spoiler thanks to the game not at all being shy with its Continuity Porn and cameos from the previous arcs. NIS America is also to blame for this as their marketing in the lead-up to III's release kept insisting it was a perfect starting point for newcomers to the franchise.
• Sidetracked By The Golden Saucer: Thanks to the staggering amount of detail put into the most incidental of non-playable characters, the Trails series is the rare RPG franchise where everyone has something to say, with continuous subplots revolving around the local townsfolk. A subset of fans happily put the main plot on hold and dedicate hours to reading up on the lives and relationships of the NPC cast. Thanks to the school setting in the Erebonia Arc, this trend has only grown.
• Signature Scene: Joshua confesses that he's an Enforcer of Ouroboros, drugs Estelle to sleep by kissing her and saying his goodbyes in the last few minutes of First Chapter pretty much defined the series as a whole where there will be a huge plot twist at the final few minutes of the game. Meanwhile, the brutal death of the shady informant Giacomo (whose corpse is found onscreen by Van and Agnes), and Van having the will to kill an undead Aida in place of Feri, all happening within the first two chapters of Daybreak, sets the overall tone for both Daybreak itself and the second half of the series.
• Squick: The series has a pretty noticeable amount of scenes where the adult members of your party make flirtatious comments at the younger members. Even if one assumes that they don’t have any serious intentions, it can still be off putting to see adults well into their 20’s (that the audience is supposed to like) essentially propositioning 16/17 year old’s to sleep with them. But the worst of the lot is the Running Gag of characters constantly shipping Agate with Tita. The former being 24 at his introduction while the latter was 12. To it’s credit, the series averts actually portraying any such relationships, but aside from Agate being horrified that people keep pushing Tita as a romantic prospect, no one in-universe really calls out that behavior either.
• Sweet Dreams Fuel:
  • As dark as the series can get at times, what with the politics, troubled pasts, and the grounded, low-scale setting, the presentation is anything but grim. The main characters tend to be very optimistic people aiding the local community, environments are bright and full of detail, the somewhat cutesy art style, meeting new allies and townsfolk along their travels, and there's always time to take a break and strike up a friendly conversation with the non-playable cast. The franchise rivals the Atelier Series games in how relaxing it is for an Eastern RPG.
  • This style of writing actually has gained a notable number of detractors, as when it is time to get serious like the Civil War in Cold Steel II. In that example, practically no one of importance dies, the onscreen casualty count being surprisingly minimal and any situation that is worse is happening offscreen in the west of the country, making the whole situation look like a Saturday-Morning Cartoon due to what being told not matching what is shown.
• That One Attack: Any attack with the "Vanish" status aliment, introduced by the second game's Final Boss. Upon hitting the target, the character disappears from the field altogether for a few turns while reducing their EP to zero. Nine games in and there is still no reliable way to protect your party from it outside of a few gimmicks like Perfect Reflect.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • The Liberl Arc requires a party member to simply equip a quartz with the "Information" trait which reveals enemy stats and have it be automatically jotted down in the notebook after combat. After that from the Crossbell Arc and beyond, to obtain information on the enemy, outside of certain quartz that allows automatic note-taking upon killing or landing the killing blow, you have to waste a turn either using "Analyzer" art, "Detector" crafts or the "Battle Scope" item on each type of individual enemy. Not everyone is on board with this change, as players who want to get the information as soon as possible to achieve 100% Completion have to waste the first few precious turns getting information on the enemy instead, which is suicidal on Nightmare difficulty. The second way, hitting it enough times which reveals a portion of the information with each hit, isn't considered much better because there are some enemies like bosses that only show up once and you might find yourself pulling your punches at the last moment because a stat still isn't revealed, potentially costing you the fight.
  • The restriction of carryovers in New Game Plus from the Crossbell Arc onwards. Not being able to bring over everything from your playthrough has earned quite a few complaints, especially if they are locked behind achievement points in the Crossbell Arc while the first two games of the Erebonia Arc is locked behind the number of times you completed the game. This restriction however is lifted in III and IV where players can take all of the carryovers for New Game Plus.
• Tough Act to Follow: As more widespread knowledge on The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure surface thanks to various attempts to translate them by fans, and eventually the official release of fully localized ports, many that have played them claim that Azure is possibly the best in the franchise.
• Woolseyism: The famous "Chest quotes" in The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky and The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure, which are comedic messages that pop up when the player examines an already opened treasure chest, were originally just the same message of "The chest is empty" in the Japanese version.