History VideoGame / KisekiSeries

[[redirect:VideoGame/TrailsSeries]].

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kiseki_protagonists.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The protagonists of the franchise. From left to right: [[VideoGame/ZeroNoKiseki Lloyd Bannings]], [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky Kevin Graham, Estelle Bright]], [[VideoGame/NayutaNoKiseki Nayuta Herschel]], and [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel Rean Schwarzer]].]]

The ''Kiseki'' series, known internationally as the ''Trails'' series, is a series of EasternRPG game created by Creator/{{Falcom}}. The series is the latest entry in their ''[[VideoGame/DragonSlayer Legend of Heroes]]'' franchise, and by ''far'' the most successful. Building on concepts developed in the earlier Gagharv Trilogy, the Kiseki series is a sprawling epic set on the Zemuria Continent. Despite being a sub-series in its own right, the series itself is actually divided into several arcs; each arc spans multiple games and takes place in a different country on the continent.

Thousands of years ago, Aidios, the Goddess of the Sky, gave humanity the Sept-Terrion, [[RuleOfSeven seven]] sacred treasures which granted dominion over the land, the sea and the skies. Twelve hundred years ago, the cataclysm known as the [[CataclysmBackstory Great Collapse]] brought about the end of the ancient civilizations. The Sept-Terrion were lost and a dark age descended upon the continent. Seven hundred years ago, the [[SaintlyChurch Septian Church]] brought back the worship of Aidios and restored peace to the continent. Fifty years ago, [[OneManIndustrialRevolution Professor Epstein]] made a breakthrough in his study of ancient artifacts, ushering in a rapid wave of industrialization known as the Orbal Revolution.

The first arc of the series begins in the year 1202 of the Septian Era, fifty years after this revolution. It starts in the tiny Kingdom of Liberl, but later arcs take place in different countries across the continent, weaving together purely internal concerns, international politics and military disputes, the legacy of the ancient civilizations and those who seek out the relics of the past for their own purposes...

As the games all take place within the same general time frame, characters from one arc will frequently appear as cameos in later games and while each arc focuses on a new group of heroes, the stories they tell all build on the same plot thread that runs throughout the series. This leads to a countless number of [[ContinuityNod Continuity Nods]] and [[CallBack Call Backs]], and for later games in the series, [[ContinuityLockout they can be hard to get into if you aren't caught up]]. With music composed by Falcom JDK Band and an incredibly detailed narrative focusing on the characters and the world they live in, the series can truly be described as 'epic'. The series has also inspired a spinoff game and an IntercontinuityCrossover with Falcom's other FlagshipFranchise {{Franchise/Ys}}.

Every game in the series in Japan follows the ''[X] no Kiseki'' pattern, where Kiseki is a word meaning Trail, Track, Path or Locus. It is also a homonym for 'Miracle', and thus every single title can ([[MeaningfulName deliberately]]) be heard as "Miracle in/of [X]".

The series has also seen localizations in English thanks to Creator/XSEEDGames, and later, NISA.

Tropes applying to the series as a whole can be found on this page. Tropes involving the characters can be found in the story arcs where they first appear or are most prominent. Because of the degree to which the games are interconnected, spoilers abound so be careful which ones you highlight.
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!! Games in the Kiseki Series include:

[[index]]
* '''The Liberl Arc:'''
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky'' (2004 in Japan, 2011 worldwide; PC, UsefulNotes/PlayStationPortable, UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 (JP) and UsefulNotes/PlayStationVita (JP)).
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSkySecondChapter'' (2006 in Japan, 2015 worldwide; PC, PSP, [=PS3=] (JP) and Vita (JP)).
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSkyTheThird'' (2007 in Japan, 2017 worldwide; PC, PSP (JP), [=PS3=] (JP) and Vita (JP)).

* '''The Crossbell Arc''' ([[NoExportForYou Japan only]]):
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsFromZero'' (2010; PSP, PC, Vita and UsefulNotes/PlayStation4).
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsToAzure'' (2012; PSP, Vita and [=PS4=]).

* '''The Erebonia Arc:'''
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel'' (2013 in Japan, 2015 worldwide; Vita, [=PS3=], PC and [=PS4=]).
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel2'' (2014 in Japan, 2016 worldwide; Vita, [=PS3=], PC and [=PS4=], PC).
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel3'' (2017 in Japan, 2019 worldwide; [=PS4=], UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, PC).
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel4TheEndOfASaga'' (2018 in Japan, TBA worldwide; [=PS4=]).
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfOrigins'' (2020 in Japan, TBA worldwide; [=PS4=])
[[/index]]

* Other games in the series:
** ''Ys vs. Sora no Kiseki: Alternative Saga'' (2010; Japan only crossover)
** ''[[VideoGame/NayutaNoKiseki Nayuta no Kiseki]]'' (2012; Japan only spin-off)[[/index]]
** ''Akatsuki no Kiseki'' (2016; Japan only browser based spin-off. Later ported to the Vita and [=PS4=])
** ''Sora no Kiseki: Kizuna'' (tentatively translated as Trails in the Sky: Fetter): (Android and [=iOS=], parts of Asia only[[note]]launched in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and Japan[[/note]], shut down 31st October 2018).
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!! Tropes common to the entire series include:

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* AcCENTUponTheWrongSylLABle: Done sometimes to show that there is something very wrong with the speaker, usually conveyed in Japanese by means of random syllables being replaced with katakana. For example [[spoiler:some of the ghosts in The 3rd and people dying after using [[BodyHorror Red Gnosis]]]] talk like this.
* AchievementSystem: From Zero onwards, the game will track what you do and give you these when you meet the requirements. In Zero and Ao, every one earns points that can be used to unlock bonuses in New Game Plus, gallery mode etc. In ''Cold Steel'', it's just cosmetic. You get Achievements for things like completing a Chapter, killing X number of enemies, maxing out your Detective/Academic Rank, opening all chests, finding all fish...
* AdamSmithHatesYourGuts:
** Actually averted (though this is equally illogical at times) with items costing the same amount regardless of where you buy them or when in the game you do so. A Tear Balm purchased in Grancel in FC will cost exactly as much as one you bought in Rolent at the start of the game. Most of the time, the items you buy aren't manufactured locally and the ones that ''are'' are only sold in that location so there isn't much reason for the prices to be different. Why the unique items tend to go up in value with every new location on the other hand... although it at least some cases it makes perfect sense. If you're selling restored 1200+ year old relics incorporating LostTechnology, you'd probably charge more than for the gear your local blacksmith could make too.
** It also partially averts KarlMarxHatesYourGuts; for example while you can't buy Honey Syrup in Armorica for cheap and sell it for a profit in Mainz (which you'd think would be logical since it's made in the former and the latter is a remote area that has to import everything and a sidequest actually makes a point of how profitable the stuff is when exported) you ''can'' derive a profit from your labor with certain cooking recipes that sell for more than the cost of the ingredients needed to make the items. You can also derive a profit from selling the fish you catch.
* [[AdjectiveNounFred Adjective Noun Place]]: It's common for cities in Liberl and Erebonia to be referred to in this fashion, such as 'Seaport City of Ruan' or 'Trading Town of Celdic'. Some places get multiple adjectives, such as Heimdallr, the Crimson Imperial Capital.
* AdultsAreUseless: Averted. It's true that the playable cast tends to be on the younger side (because they tend to be newcomers to their respective professions) but older characters are as effective or more, they just don't get as much time in the spotlight. Good examples include [[LivingLegend Cassius]] and [[BadassGrandpa Morgan]] in the first arc, [[TheAce Arios]] in the second and the [[BadassTeacher entire Thors faculty]] in the third, along with every named officer in the military in any game.
** And even then, in the Liberl campaign, in SC and 3rd more than ''half'' of the people who join your party are straight-out adults - the "teens and kids" are actually a minority of the playable cast. Even FC is "merely" an even split between the kids (Estelle/Joshua/Tita/Kloe[[note]]and even ''then'' the first two are arguably also adults as they are fully trained, if inexperienced, professionals starting out in their careers[[/note]]) and adults (Schera/Olivier/Agate/Zin). It's only the Crossbell and Erebonia arcs that began to skew the cast younger - and ''even then'', most of the "teens" in Crossbell, at least, are still at least of the age of majority and every party member is ostensibly a working professional. Yes, even Tio, to the initial surprise of the rest of the cast.
** And then we have the original [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel Class VII]] that starts their adventure as teens but, by the third entry in the Erebonia arc, almost all of them are adults and ''way more'' competent in their fields thanks to their experience.[[note]]Rean (though he's 19 at chapter 1 of ''III'' and becomes 20 by chapter 2), Alisa, Gaius, Laura, Machias, Jusis and Emma are all legally adults at 20 (the age of majority in Japan). Meanwhile, Elliot and Fie are getting there with their respective 19 and 18 years. Millium is the youngest of the group, with her 15 years. And [[spoiler: Crow is an adult as well, with his 22 years by the third and fourth games.]][[/note]]
** This aversion is also somewhat deconstructed alongside the KidHero trope. Since most of the villains are very competent adults, the younger heroes are almost always outmatched by them in terms of combat and planning.
* AdvancedAncientAcropolis: [[spoiler:Liber Ark, which managed to avoid the devastation of the Great Collapse by virtue of being sealed away in another dimension at the time. Said sealing was also partially the ''cause'' of the Collapse. When it's returned to normal reality, people are able to see firsthand what civilization looked like 1200 years ago and it's pretty impressive.]]
* AfterTheEnd: The first game starts 1202 years after the Great Collapse that ended the ancient civilization of Zemuria. The first five hundred or so years were pretty rough (and fittingly are remembered as the Dark Age) but things have improved since then and the world has been in the midst of rapid technological progress for the past fifty or so years.
* AirborneAircraftCarrier: The Glorious is large enough to contain launch bays for smaller gunships [[UpToEleven which are themselves capable of launching smaller manned craft.]] [[spoiler:The Noble Union's flagship Pantagruel is all but stated to be the Glorious' sister ship and carries a full compliment of [[HumongousMecha Panzer Soldat]] that can be deployed directly via a winch system]]
* AlienGeometries: [[spoiler:The 'Another Dimension' versions of the Tetracyclic Towers, most of [[EldritchLocation Phantasma]], the Azure Tree and the Realm of the Great Shadow]]
* AllInARow: How the party appears on the map in the first five games, before the shift to 3D in ''Cold Steel''.
* AllSwordsAreTheSame: Your weapons don't change in appearance as you equip new ones but since most characters have unique equipment there isn't any crossover between, say, Agate's large blades and Kloe's rapiers. ''Cold Steel'' averts this and distinguishes between Eliot and Emma's Orbal Staffs, providing some unique and some shared ones.
* AllThereInTheManual: If the in-game universe wasn't complete enough, there are multiple drama-cds, comics, game guides and information books which expand on the universe further.
** This starts as early as the very first drama CD which retells events from FC. We have two conversations that weren't in the actual game but are pretty important [[spoiler:first between Joshua and Cassius after the end credits of the game and then between Cassius and Loewe]].
* AlternateCharacterReading: Played straight and played with, as kanji is used to explain the katakana rather than the other way around.
* AlternativeCalendar: The games measure time according to the Septian Era, which counts the number of years since the end of the Great Collapse.
** HitSoHardTheCalendarFeltIt: Whatever dating system was used prior to the Great Collapse, nobody thought it was worth keeping afterwards.
* AMechByAnyOtherName: There are two names used more or less interchangeably in Japanese. Doll Weapon (in kanji) and Overmuppet (in katakana) which cover everything from small drones to machines the size of buildings. XSEED has translated this as Archaism in FC. Whether a new term will be coined for those machines that aren't 1200 years old remains to be seen. ''Cold Steel'' introduces two new types, [[spoiler:the Divine Knights (ancient machines whose nature is still mysterious) and the [[GratuitousGerman Panzer Soldat]]]] which are reverse-engineered and mass-produced versions of [[spoiler:Ordine, the Azure Knight]].
* AncientArtifact: The ancient Zemurians left behind a ''lot'' of their technology and other relics and the survivors of the Great Collapse forgot what all those nice things could do in several centuries of chaos. All Artifacts are thus LostTechnology by definition. Some can be extremely dangerous if misused, others are simply inherently dangerous and a lot are simply [[BlackBox black boxes.]] The official position of the Septian Church is that all Artifacts are theirs to keep hidden away for everyone's safety, although this is a fairly flexible rule as they allow people to study the things. It was research into Artifacts that allowed Professor Epstein to reach the breakthroughs that led to the Orbal Revolution.
* AncientConspiracy: Ouroboros. [[spoiler:Implied to have existed long before the timeline for the first installment. Its true purpose has not been revealed up until the latest installment but the most obvious thing they do is collecting Seven Sacred Treasure of Aidios (Sept-Terrion) under their grand plan called "Orpheus Final Plan".]]
* AnimatedArmor:
** A large number of enemies encountered in The 3rd. Others are seen in Stargaze Tower and Lohengrin Castle. All cases take place in spiritually active areas and their presence is explicitly supernatural.
** ''Cold Steel'' introduces several massive suits of armor that protect ancient sites. They're apparently mechanized rather than possessed but exactly what makes them work is a mystery to the characters.
* AntiFrustrationFeatures: A few small, but persistent features across the series.
** A subtle one many players don't even notice. With the LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters there are to talk to, it would be frustrating to constantly mash the confirm button like you'd expect in an RPG. Instead, holding down the button will instantly activate any prompts, even as you run through the overworld. This both streamlines NPC conversations and makes finding interactable objects much easier. In the ''Cold Steel'' games, the confirm skip is paused so you won't accidentally skip through dialogue, and is instead assigned to the cancel button specifically in conversations.
** Notebooks aren't just used for flavor, they provide some surprisingly nuanced direction if you're lost. Not only are the current quests recorded, but many changes to the quest such as the next character to speak with, or what ingredient they asked for will more often than not be committed to text.
** An option in every game allows you to toggle a feature that slightly decreases the stats of enemies each time you die in that particular battle.
*** Speaking of dying, every battle will immediately start you back at the beginning if your party is wiped. While this can be a problem if the beginning state of the battle has you in an unwinnable situation, odds are there's a recent auto-save that won't push you back too far. The exceptions [[HeadsIWinTailsYouLose lie with certain character battles]], where winning under specific conditions awards bonus Points and dialogue, but losing will immediately drop you back in the succeeding cutscene. This marks the rare instance in a ''Trails'' game where you'll need to physically reset to try again.
** In ''the 3rd'', while in the hermit's Garden, the Orbment and Status menus grant you access to every party member currently available, meaning the usual rule of finding a character, letting them join, and swapping out Quartz/equipment is skipped.
* AntiGrinding: Monsters have levels, and the amount of experience gained from killing them is based on a formula derived from a monsters base EXP level and the difference in levels between the monster and the party. If you somehow manage to kill a monster ten levels above the party's, the party will gain an enormous amount of EXP that will allow the party to rapidly catch up to the level it should be at for that part of the game. Kill a monster ten levels below the party's and they'll get virtually nothing.
* ApocalypseHow:
** The Great Collapse was a continent-wide (if not world-wide) one which ended the golden age brought about by the Sept-Terrion and set civilization back to bronze age tech levels.
** Relatively more recently is the [[spoiler:Salt Pillar Incident]] which caused the near-total collapse of [[spoiler:North Ambria]] which still hasn't recovered and probably never fully will.
** By the end of ''Cold Steel IV'' [[spoiler:Zemuria escaped one, by Ishmelga being destroyed. However, the Grandmaster of Ouroboros says they are waiting for ''another one'' in 3 years.]]
* ArcNumber: Seven. The Septian Church, seven types of Septium (and Arts), seven official Bracer Ranks, the Sept-Terrion, seven Pillars of Ouroboros, seven Circles of Phantasma, Class VII, seven levels of the Old School Building, seven Divine Knights...
* ArchaeologicalArmsRace: Ancient Zemurian technology is more advanced than that of the present day so acquiring some is a priority for most major powers. [[spoiler:The conspirators in FC want Aureole as a SwordOfDamocles, the conspirators in Crossbell want Demiourgos to reclaim the power their ancestors once had and the end of ''Cold Steel'' suggests one of these is going to happen regarding the mysterious Divine Knights]].
** [[spoiler:It turns out that ''every single time'' this happens, [[AncientConspiracy Ouroboros]] is pulling the strings because it wants to obtain the most powerful artifacts of all, the Seven Sacred Treasures of Aidios, or the Sept-Terrion for short. We don't know ''why'' yet, aside from a single allusion to something called the Orpheus Final Plan]].
** The Septian Church has an order dedicated to ''preventing'' this from happening, by investigating ancient ruins and generally preventing the misuse of Artifacts. [[spoiler:This is the source of their more recent conflicts with Ouroboros, as the Gralsritter are, at this point, doing ''everything'' short of pure open warfare to stop Ouroboros from gathering the Treasures - and if Ouroboros keeps succeeding, it may just come to open war.]]
* ArcVillain: While there does exist an OverarchingVillain in the form of Society of Ouroboros, each game has a different antagonist the heroes have to deal with:
** Trails in the Sky FC: [[spoiler: Col. Alan Richard, whose actions were influenced by Weissmann. ]]
** Trails in the Sky SC: The 3rd Anguis of Ouroboros, Georg Weissmann. [[spoiler: Also known as Professor Alba.]]
** Trails in the Sky the 3rd: The Lord of Phantasma. [[spoiler: Which actually is a manifestation of both Kevin's negative Stigma energy and his guilt over Rufina's death.]]
** Zero no Kiseki: [[TheMafia Revache & Co.]]. [[spoiler: It seems so at first. The true villain is the current leader of D.:.G Cult, Joachim Guenter.]]
** Ao no Kiseki: [[spoiler: Dieter Crois, of all people turns out to be one... initially. Then it turns into a BigBadTriumvirate consisting of [[ManipulativeBitch Mariabell Crois]], [[NonActionBigBad Ian Grimwood]] and [[StealthMentor Arios MacLaine]]. Then there's Ouroboros working behind the scenes...]]
** Trails of Cold Steel: The Imperial Liberation Front led by a masked man calling himself C. [[spoiler: His true identity is Crow Armbrust, who even becomes one of the party members before TheReveal.]]
** Trails of Cold Steel II: [[spoiler: Duke Cayenne seems to be one at first but it's shown that he's nowhere near as competent as he thinks he is. The true BigBad is Vita Clotilde, the 2nd Anguis of Ouroboros (who interestingly enough, seems to be way more sympathetic than Cayenne). Then there's also Chancellor Giliath Osborne, who seems to have survived his assassination attempt and has been shaping up to be a major antagonist as far as in Trails in the Sky SC.]]
** Trails of Cold Steel III: [[spoiler: After all build-up, we get a BigBadDuumvirate in form of Chancellor Giliath Osborne and Alberich of the Black Demise, head of the Black Workshop.]]
** Trails of Cold Steel IV: [[spoiler:Ishmelga, Osborne's Divine Knight, is actually the curse of the Great One and is ultimately the one behind the curse of Erebonia.]]
* AttackDrone: The Alpha and Beta Drones Reverie can summon sort of work like this and the Forecep L and R units can separate and act like big drones (in fact, they're first seen operating independently). The Tactical Pod line of enemies also function like this on a personal level, starting with the prototypes [[spoiler:used by Weissmann]] which then reappear in ''Cold Steel''. Early designs of Tio [[WhatCouldHaveBeen were going to feature these as well]] as detachable parts of her armor. In the end, they were removed, though her [[MiniMecha Eidolon Gear]] does incorporate a pair.
* AutoRevive: The Puppet line of accessories and in ''Cold Steel'', the 'Angel' Master Quartz permit the character to revive after death with a percentage of HP, EP and possibly CP restored. The accessories are single-use, the Master Quartz has a per-battle limit. This is also a power of Ao's final boss; its first form will revive if you haven't killed all its support units.
* AwesomeMcCoolName: Lots of characters, starting with [[KingOfBeasts Leonhardt]] (but call him Loewe) whose awesome name is commented on by the characters... and once you move past the obviously meaningful names you get ones that are just plain cool like Arios MacLaine, Rean Schwarzer, Wazy Hemisphere or Gaius Worzel.
* BadassGrandpa: This series has quite a few, who can be found on the pages for the individual arcs. For the character who prominently crosses multiple arcs, Yun Ka-Fai. He is literally Anelace's grandfather and he's the man who ''invented'' the school of swordsmanship used by most of the series [[MasterSwordsman badass swordsmen]].
* BadassPreacher: All Gralsritter, by definition.
* BackgroundMusicOverride: Fairly common in endgame areas, such as Rescue Mission playing on a continuous loop in FC at [[spoiler:Erbe Imperial Villa]], Castle of Illusions <Phantasmagoria> in The 3rd's VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon and lots of times in the last three Chapters of ''Cold Steel''.
* BagOfSpilling: All the gear, quartz, recipes and healing items you painstakingly earned? They will always disappear in the ImmediateSequel. Even Crafts and S-Crafts aren't safe from being wiped from older characters' libraries whenever they return in games that take place after their story arcs. This was even lampshaded in SC, in which the newer model of the battle orbment boasts has an extra slot while having no backwards compatibility for all the quartz you earned in FC, rendering them useless.
* TheBattleDidntCount:
** In post-battle cutscenes, most of the human bosses will show little visible fatigue (and possibly pull a VillainExitStageLeft) or [[JustToyingWithThem reveal that they had yet to reveal their true power]].
** There are a few instances where this trope works in favor of the protagonists, such as when Estelle is instantly defeated in a scripted fight with [[spoiler:a brainwashed Joshua]] only to fight [[spoiler:Weissmann]] afterwards, or the times when Rean manages to pilot Valimar immediately after {{Hopeless Boss Fight}}s.
* BlackBox: Exactly ''how'' Artifacts work is usually a complete mystery and several characters even call them Black Boxes. The most prominent example is the Sept-Terrion, which can explicitly cause 'miracles' but nobody understands ''how''. [[spoiler:Except maybe the Master, if you assume [[WildMassGuessing that she is Aidios]]]]. Ouroboros is better at figuring out Artifacts than anyone else, judging by the fact that they have managed to A) Copy and improve upon known Ancient Zemurian creations from non-functioning examples (Traumerei Dragion), B) Create copies of Artifacts known only through descriptions which are close enough to the original to fool the original (the Gospels) and C) [[spoiler:Indirectly recreate a ''Sept-Terrion'', granted, the person responsible of recreating and improving it finished the work before actually becoming a member of Ouroboros, but still.]]
* {{Bowdlerise}}: It's noted that from ''Cold Steel I'' onwards, Crafts and especially S-Crafts in the remakes of older games along with newer instalments will replace blood spilling with either sword flashes or explosions. Case in point when comparing Richard's Afterglow Smasher between ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsEcPyymhck&t=9m42s FC]]'' and ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4ubJCuky60&t=42m06s FC Evolution]]'' along with Randy's Berserga in ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4slYCdZc2RQ&t=3m22s Azure]]'' and ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTo26kUlQfU&t=26m06s Cold Steel IV]]''.
* CallingCard: Phantom Thief B (aka Bleublanc, Legion X of Ouroboros) likes to leave these at the scene of his crimes, [[CriminalMindGames with similar cards left in a sequence for the protagonists to follow]].
* CallingYourAttacks: As the franchise goes on, people will start calling S-Crafts more often than not. This doesn't happen to casting orbal arts though.
* CastFromHitPoints: Ubiquitous in the series is a Craft which sacrifices HP in return for CP. Each arc has one character with this ability, coming in two levels. The first sacrifices 30% of maximum HP for 50 or 60 CP, the second (obtained in the second game) sacrifices a whopping 70% of max HP for 150 CP. This makes it very easy to accidentally kill yourself if you're not careful, in return for being able to spam Crafts like crazy. Later games nerfed the level two HP for CP Craft so that the character only got 90 CP, preventing players from defeating a boss by trading HP for CP, casting an S-Craft, and then having the rest of the party heal that one character so he can do it again and again until the boss dies.
* TheCatfish: From SC onwards, there has been a fishing minigame which inevitably includes at least one legendary fish, the catching of which proves that your character is a true fisherman. Usually, catching this fish can only be done after catching every other kind of fish in the game and requires [[GuideDangIt lots of trial and error or a guide]] to find in the first place. SC and ''Cold Steel'' have one each, Zero has two lesser ones and a main one and Ao has ''five'', the first four needing to be caught before you can attempt the fifth. Catching them tends to reward you with a one of a kind item.
* CatsAreMagic: Well, not exactly but the Agnes in the Sun books in Ao feature one who definitely is. [[spoiler:And which foreshadowed [[{{Familiar}} Celine]] in the very next game.]]
* ChekhovsArmoury: Absolutely ''everywhere''.
* ChekhovMIA: This has happened for several characters already and is likely to keep happening, particularly with Anelace's grandfather, since he's part of the [[OldMaster backstory]] for so many characters.
* ChurchMilitant: Gralsritter, an order withing Septian Church tasked to collect [[AncientArtifact Ancient Zemurian]] [[LostTechnology artifact]]. Despite it's apparently simple task, a lot of its members' appearance involve them crossing paths with [[AncientConspiracy Ouroboros]] thus require knowledge and experience in combat.
* ColorCodedElements: Goes hand in hand with the association between the seven families of Arts and the seven types of Septium. Earth is orange/brown (Amberl), Water is blue (Sapphirl), Fire is red (Carnelia), Wind is green (Esmelas), Time is black (unknown but possibly Obsidium), Space is yellow (Goldia) and Mirage is silver (Argem).
* ConservationOfCompetence:
** Very neatly averted with Ouroboros. Aside from [[spoiler:one moment of Weissmann carrying the IdiotBall]] and chronic ButtMonkey [[spoiler:Gilbert]] everyone we see is consistently and extremely competent, which is one of the reasons they're able to be a convincing threat across the entire series.
** This is also what cements [[spoiler:Giliath Osborne's]] status as a MagnificentBastard, as [[spoiler:he completely blindsides ''Ouroboros'' despite their record of extreme competence.]]
* ContractualBossImmunity: Final bosses in the series are inevitably immune to Instant Death (as are most but not all bosses generally) and the nastier status effects like Petrify and Faint. However, you can frequently encounter other bosses vulnerable to non-OHKO effects such as Delay, which in one case turns the penultimate boss fight of a game into a CurbStompBattle [[spoiler:Garcia in Zero]] and in others can allow you to do things like confuse all enemies into killing each other [[spoiler:Kanone in FC]] or perpetually inflict Paralysis [[spoiler:Scarlet in ''Cold Steel''.]] Also, many bosses are vulnerable to at least some stat-downs.
* CombinationAttack: Chain Crafts in SC and The 3rd, Combo Crafts in Zero and Ao and the entire Tactical Link system in ''Cold Steel'' are made of this trope.
* CriminalMindGames: Bleublanc always leaves his CallingCard at the scene of his latest theft, with a clue leading to another card and so on until the last one leads to the stolen item. He seems to steal mostly for the enjoyment of it and because he likes watching people following his clues, rather than to actually possess what he steals. This is exemplified by Zero where he hid his acquisition in a place it was bound to be noticed eventually, then [[RefugeInAudacity in disguise personally congratulated and rewarded]] the party for recovering the missing statue.
* CriticalAnnoyance: Each game has a battle theme that will kick in when your total party HP drops below a certain threshold, excepting certain cases of overriding BGM. It's usually a pretty good theme too, just not one you really want to be hearing.
* CrossoverPunchline: ''Cold Steel II'' had a pair of DLC costumes for Rean and Alisa that were part of a preorder bonus campaign. In Tokyo Xanadu, there is a popular entertainment program called [[MagicalGirl Mahou Shoujo]] Magical Alisa based on her DLC from ''Cold Steel II'' and another appearing character is 'Prince of Hades Rean', based on his DLC costume.
* CrossThrough: While the series is divided into separate arcs which take place in different regions and with different main casts who deal with their own issues, as of the sixth game there are several characters who have appeared in most or all of the games and played a role in bringing things to a conclusion. Additionally, Ouroboros and its machinations lie in the background of most of the games even when they don't appear directly. Then there are the hundred or so shout-outs to past games in each new one.
* ConvenientDecoyCat: Done once in FC and again in Zero. In the first case, your characters are hiding in a crate and supposedly invisible to detection by Orbal sensors... which pick up life signs in one of the crates. Turns out that it was a cat, specifically placed there to be detected and defuse both suspicion and tensions. In the second case, the cat was part of a RefugeInAudacity plan but filled the same role in distracting the attention of some thugs who otherwise might have looked too closely behind the curtains. It happens again in ''Cold Steel IV'' [[spoiler:though the party ends up worrying that one of the soldiers who they personally know would have known about Celine and would sound the alarm.]]
* CoolAirship: There's one for everyone. Liberl has the Arseille, Ouroboros has the Glorious, the Capua family has the Wildcat, [[spoiler: the twelve Dominions of the Septian Church each have a Merkabah,]] [[PrivateMilitaryContractors Red Constellation]] has the Beowulf, Erebonia has the Courageous, [[spoiler: and then the Courageous II when Courageous I gets blown up at the end of Cold Steel III.]] and [[spoiler:the Noble Union separately has the Pantagruel]]
* Also applies to small craft. The Intelligence Division, Ouroboros and the Royal Army all have cool gunships and Erebonia and Calvard's largest corporations make their own models as well.
* DangerousForbiddenTechnique: Not really ''forbidden'' but functionally, using [[spoiler:a Stigma]] works out this way as it is incredibly taxing on the body and the more the user tries to do, the worse it is. Death is presented as a very real consequence of overusing the power and even less serious uses have been seen to leave a person in a faint.
** Also applies to [[spoiler:Rean's power]], as death was seen as a probable consequence of overusing it during an emergency. And that's before considering what it [[DrunkOnTheDarkSide could do to the personality]].
* DarkAndTroubledPast: In any given game, about a quarter of the playable cast will have one of these (and another quarter will have a moment or too but not a history of it). The Liberl arc gives us [[spoiler:Joshua, Scherazard, Kevin, Renne and Loewe]] while the Crossbell arc has [[spoiler:Tio, Randy and Rixia]] on the protagonist side and [[spoiler:Sully]] on the supporting cast side. The Erebonia arc has [[spoiler:Fie and Sara for certain]] and quite a bit of speculation surrounding several other characters.
* DeadPersonImpersonation: At several points in the series, a character will pretend to be someone they know is dead. Lloyd briefly pretends to be his dead brother Guy (which doesn't fool anyone important) and [[spoiler:Joshua [[DraggedIntoDrag pretends to be]] [[ItMakesSenseInContext his dead sister Karin]]]] which actually ''does'' fool the people it's intended to.
* DeusExitMachina: Done several times, always with ample in-universe justification.
** In FC [[spoiler:Cassius being out of Liberl during the coup attempt happened specifically because Ouroboros feared his potential to be the SpannerInTheWorks, so they arranged an incident they knew would require him to leave the country during the crucial timeframe]]
** In SC [[spoiler:Cassius does it to himself, weaponizing his MemeticBadass status by ensuring Ouroboros remained focused on him. He still managed to set up the BatmanGambit that ultimately trapped Weissmann despite not directly intervening in any of Ouroboros' major operations in Liberl.]]
** [[spoiler:Olivier and most of the other adults]] leaving in ''Cold Steel II'' deprives the party of the individuals any one of whom could probably have singlehandedly tackled the problems that the crew of the Courageous had to face. However, this was because [[spoiler:their talents could be put to much better use in the more volatile western half of Erebonia, leaving the Courageous to keep an eye on the much more settled east]]
* DieChairDie: Starting with Ao, various breakable objects appear on the map. Destroy them and they'll randomly drop Sepith, healing or cooking items and sometimes U Material.
* DoomedHometown: [[spoiler: Thanks to the Salt Pale, North Ambria is this for [[Characters/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky Weissmann]], [[Characters/ZeroNoKiseki Sully]], and [[Characters/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel Sara.]] Meanwhile, Hamel is this for Joshua, Loewe, and Ash.]]
* DragonWithAnAgenda: This is actually encouraged in Ouroboros, where Enforcers and Anguis have their own separate agendas and only partake in an EvilPlan when their agendas overlap.
* EldritchLocation: Any 'spiritually active' area (where the three higher elements of Space, Time, and Mirage are influencing things) is one of these. In these regions, things like ghosts, monsters unexplainable by science and distortions of time can all be found and these areas are explicitly treated as supernatural, whereas most other 'magical' things in the setting are [[MinovskyPhysics otherwise explainable scientifically]].
** Just to make things creepier, anywhere that [[spoiler:the Pleroma Flowers bloom]] will ''become'' one of these.
* ElementalRockPaperScissors: An odd example: Strengths and weaknesses are enemy-specific and there isn't an automatic relationship between strength in one element and weakness to another. However, if the player equips one of the four Talismans in FC or SC their attacks will take on one attribute and they will take less damage from that element but more from another. Time, Space and Mirage [[InfinityPlusOneElement aren't subject to this in any way.]] These accessories disappear from the series just in time for the three higher elements to become subject to the normal rules in The 3rd.
* ElementalTiers: Arts are divided into the 'Lower Four' and 'Higher Three' elements. The latter first become subject to the normal rules in The 3rd (which takes place in an EldritchLocation). From this point on, whenever you see enemies with resistances to those elements listed at all, it's significant to the plot.
** ElementNumberFive: Aside from normal 'Lower Four' and 'Higher Three' elements, it was revealed that ''even higher element tier'' can be achieved by combining 3 of 7 major elements, later manifested in "Lost Arts". [[spoiler:As of ''Cold Steel II'', current combination known include Holy (Time, Space, Mirage), Dragon (Earth, Wind, Water), Sun (Fire, Wind, Space), [[{{Lunacy}} Moon]] (Fire, Water, Mirage) and Star (Earth, Fire, Time).]]
* EndOfAnAge: The Great Collapse, a catastrophic event occuring all over Zemuria marks the end of Ancient Zemurian civilization and Pre-Septian Calendar, the age with advanced technology and blessing from Aidios through Sept-Terrion.
* EnemySummoner: A lot of enemies throughout the series have an ability to summon additional enemies to fight you. Sometimes this involves the enemy itself splitting into two identical copies (including lost HP) but usually it involves summoning a fresh enemy of an entirely different type from the summoner.
** [[FlunkyBoss Final bosses in particular love to do this]], killing the enemies they summon ASAP is recommended because they tend to have nasty abilities and can usually heal or buff the boss.
* EnhancedArchaicWeapon: Part of the ubiquity of melee weapons in the series stems from the fact that firearms are relatively new and partly that sufficiently trained characters in the setting (such as any Hachiyou Ittou or Taito practitioner) can pull off impressive stunts that make melee weapons credible threats. Then there's the simple fact that Orbal technology can enhance conventional weaponry in enough ways that a compound bow can actually be just as useful as a rifle in skilled hands.
* EpisodicGame: Each episode of the series can take a long time to finish and set up what happens in the sequel.
* EqualOpportunityEvil: [[spoiler:Ouroboros]] is willing to recruit people from any nation or profession as long as they have enough darkness in them.
* EstablishingSeriesMoment: The end of FC is the biggest one for the series as a whole. In fifteen minutes [[spoiler:and the twin revelations that 'Professor Alba' is the BigBad and [[{{Deuteragonist}} Joshua]] was TheMole]], you go from an enjoyable but relatively conventional (if [[NarrativeFiligree insanely detailed]]) game to a world where you're not certain who you can trust or what you can take at face value. This in no way diminishes with later games.
* EvidenceScavengerHunt: Most games have at least one scene where the party investigates a crime or unusual incident and you have to gather clues and come up with conclusions based on what you've found. Finding all the evidence and reaching the right conclusions is necessary to get bonus points towards your respective Ranks. This happens most frequently in the Crossbell arc where the main characters are police officers.
* ExperienceBooster: Starting in the Crossbell Arc, it is possible to get bonus experience in fights by doing certain actions, like achieving surprise, winning really quickly, or winning without taking damage in return (among several others). Since these are in percentages and are stackable with each other (and in some cases with itself multiple times over), getting a high multiplier on a boss fight can net a lot of experience.
* EyeColorChange: There are two prominent examples in the series. The first is caused by [[spoiler:the drug Gnosis]] and the color change is permanent. The second is only found in specific characters ([[spoiler: Rean and [=McBurn=]]]) and the color changes in response to active use of their powers, with the former becoming [[RedEyesTakeWarning red]] and the latter [[BlackEyesOfCrazy black]].
* {{Familiar}}: Related to the plot of Cold Steel, a certain clan called in-universe as "Witch" so far can be found with one. [[spoiler:Notable example include Emma with her cat familiar Celine and Vita with her bird(?) familiar Grianos.]]
* TheFamine: What happens in the nation of [[GrimUpNorth North Ambria]], which was hit by the [[ApocalypseHow Salt Pale]], a giant pillar of salt that turned anything it came into contact with to salt: it bled into the soil and spread throughout North Ambria, killing a third of its population and, while the Salt Pale eventually stopped and ran out of power, the soil was damaged beyond repair through salinization, making it difficult to grow anything, and making living conditions for the survivors terrible.
* FanNickname: In-universe, fans call Ilya Platiere 'Princess of the Dancing Flames' and Vita Clotilde 'The Azure Diva'. Out of universe, [[TheNicknamer Randy's in-universe nicknames]] are fairly popular, as is ''his'' fan nickname Raniki[[note]]Randy + Aniki (big brother)[[/note]]
* FantasticFightingStyle: The series has several of these. Zin follows the Taito (Great Authority) style which is noted to emphasize fighting without taking life. [[spoiler:His fellow pupils were Walter and Kilika (who was also the daughter of their master)]]. There's also the Hachiyou Ittou (Eight Leaves, One Blade) style of swordsmanship used by many of the series' [[MasterSwordsman best sword-users]] or [[RetiredBadass ex-sword masters]]. It is known to be divided into eight Forms and as of ''Cold Steel IV'' all eight forms have been fully shown. Proving that [[OldMaster Yun Ka-Fai]] is CrazyPrepared, the unarmed form, ''Mute''[[note]]Empty Hands[[/note]], is an unarmed combat style.
** There's also Cassius' staff style ''Mu ni shite Rasen'' ([[EverythingsBetterWithSpinning The Spiral that Reduces to Nought]]), the concept of which he passed on to his daughter. Later Estelle and Joshua both learn some of its more advanced techniques.
* FantasticMeasurementSystem: In terms of length and distance, Zemuria has an equivalent measurement system with real life; rige/rege for centimeter, arge for meter, selge for kilometer, curim for kilogram and torim for tonnes.
* FantasyCounterpartCulture: A few of these. The most obvious is Leman, which is Zemurian Switzerland. The country is the origin of the famously neutral Bracers Guild and the birthplace of the Orbal Revolution.
** There's also Zemurian Prussia in Erebonia, which has not only a ton of Germanic names but a major character is an {{Expy}} of UsefulNotes/OttoVonBismarck, right down to his nickname 'The Blood and Iron Chancellor'. Then there's Calvard, which has traits in common with the United States of America. It is a relatively young country with a democratic form of government and immigrant-heavy culture... it also has a heavy Japanese/Chinese influence courtesy of its biggest immigrant groups, so the currently nameless countries they came from are doubtless fantasy counterpart cultures themselves. [[CityOfAdventure Crossbell City]] is somewhere between New York and (per WordOfGod) Hong Kong.
* FictionalCurrency: Mira, which can be gained from trading sepith (and sepith mass as of [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel Cold Steel]].
* FictionalFieldOfScience: Orbal Science is the art of deriving new forms of technology from the refined form of seven naturally occurring types of crystals. The science was itself developed by studying LostTechnology from 1200+ years ago and reverse engineered from there. [[GadgeteerGenius Tita]] and [[OneManIndustrialRevolution her grandfather]] will be happy to explain the subject in [[{{Technobabble}} copious detail]].
* FictionAsCoverUp: The Carnelia books you collect in FC are revealed to be based on the adventures of real people. Ein Selnert first appears in The 3rd, Toval in the Ring of Judgment manga and Micht in ''Cold Steel''. Ein notes that the books make for great PlausibleDeniability. In light of ''The End Of A Saga'' which is the 9th installment, it's easier to list which in-universe fictional works that are ''actually fiction''.
* FirstEpisodeSpoiler: The series runs on a continuous narrative. It's pretty much impossible to talk about any game after FC without revealing [[spoiler:the existence of Ouroboros or the facts that 'Professor Alba' is a villain and that Joshua is an amnesiac former assassin]]. It's pretty much impossible to talk about any game after SC without mentioning [[spoiler:that Renne is also an Ouroboros assassin, that Liber Ark exists and that Kevin, Olivier and Campanella are both far more important than the people they initially present themselves as being.]] It's also impossible to talk about Ao without mentioning [[spoiler:the existence of the D.:.G Cult and Gnosis]] from Zero... and Ao itself is a FirstEpisodeSpoiler for ''Cold Steel'', making a large chunk of the plot (though not the specific details) a massive ForegoneConclusion that makes it hard to talk about the game with people not familiar with the earlier entries without spoiling things. Then it's pretty much impossible to talk about ''Cold Steel II'' without mentioning how [[spoiler:Crow is <C>, the ILF are agents of the Noble Faction, Sharon is a member of Ouroboros and Vita and Misty are the same person and ''also'' a member of Ouroboros]]. And finally, it's impossible to talk about ''Cold Steel III'' without mentioning that [[spoiler: the Reformist Faction wins and Osborne takes over Crossbell (though this was already spoiled by ''Ao''), Osborne is not dead ''and'' has declared war against Ouroboros', Osborne is Rean's father, Crow is dead, Ouroboros ''loses'' for the first time, Emma is a witch, Rufus is TheMole for Osborne and is the Governor-General of Crossbell, Altina and Millium were obtained by Osborne from The Thirteen Factories, and Lloyd and Rean had a duel at the Geofront (alongside Rixia and Altina)]]. Then you can't even talk about the fact that ''Cold Steel'' has a fourth series without finding out...well,[[WhamEpisode pretty much everything.]] Most notably, [[spoiler: Ash is a Hamel survivor and shot the Emperor, Alisa's dad is alive and leader of the Black Workshop, Millium sacrificed herself and turned into a sword, Rean killed the (corrupted) Holy Beast of Earth with said sword and lost control of his powers, said act unleashed a curse of Conflict onto Erebonia, Azure Siegfried was Crow all along, and Rutger, Arianrhod, and ''Osborne'' are all Awakeners.]]
** So in short, Falcom ''loves'' this trope.
* FishingMinigame: In every game since SC, with locations scattered around the country you're currently inhabiting, multiple rods and types of bait (which usually needs to be farmed) and up to twenty different types of fish to catch. Some fish can themselves be used as bait to reel in even bigger fish, all can be sold for a reward and all fish give you items when caught. Finding the right location/bait combo is an easy way to accumulate lots of U-Material or all the Sepith you could ever want, along with some one of a kind items. Oh, and fishing is SeriousBusiness as each country has a Fishing Guild, with Ao's story involving a competition between Crossbell's Guild and members of the neighboring Erebonia's Imperial Fishing Guild.
* FounderOfTheKingdom: The series has two so far:
** Celeste D. Auslese is the founder of Liberl. Some of her writings are important to the plot of SC [[spoiler:and the party meets a virtual ghost of her in The 3rd]].
** Dreichels Reise Arnor (known as the Lionheart Emperor) founded Erebonia as it's known today, reunifying the country in the wake of a succession crisis known as the Lion War two hundred and fifty years ago.
* FriendlyLocalChinatown: Crossbell's East Street has a distinct Chinatown feel, as it's where most of the immigrants from eastern countries (by way of Calvard) have chosen to live. It's implied that there are lots of these throughout the Republic, with variations for the different immigrant groups.
* FriendlyRivalry: Anelace proposes one to Estelle, who accepts. Given the minor GameplayAndStorySegregation in SC's rank system, it's not clear who's winning for real, though in the short term it's evidently Estelle, which just motivates Anelace to try harder. WordOfGod has them currently tied at the same rank.
** Also, by the time of Ao, the Special Support Section and the First Division of the CSPD and the local branch of the Bracers Guild are all on these terms with each other. Before, it was a three-way case of JurisdictionFriction.
* FrontlineGeneral: Fairly common in the setting. In Liberl, General Morgan (leader of the Royal Army) and Lieutenant Schwarz (leader of the Royal Guard) tend to lead from the front and in Erebonia, Generals Vander and Craig fight alongside their troops.
* GenderEqualEnsemble: The playable cast of the Sora trilogy starts as one though it ends up imbalanced by The 3rd. The core cast of Zero is one and the full (permanent) playable cast of Ao is also balanced. Class VII starts out with one more boy, though if you count [[BadassTeacher Sara]] the number balances out. The series likes this trope.
* GiantSpider: There are two Chapter bosses in the series that are this trope [[IncrediblyLamePun writ large]]. First is the Arachne Sisters (so, ''three'' giant spiders really) [[spoiler:followed by an [[MamaBear even bigger spider]] after you beat them]] in ''The 3rd'' and the second is Ginosha Zanak, a spider-demon sealed away in an ancient quarry in ''Cold Steel''.
* GoingCosmic: The 3rd brings religion to the forefront of the games, though it was always present before that. The game also delves more deeply into psychology and the nature of reality. It's also the game that opens up a thousand cans of worms for future exploration and turned out to be essential to understanding the meta-plot.
* GoodRepublicEvilEmpire: This trope gets played with regarding the conflict between Erebonia and Calvard. This is because each set of games take place in a different country:
** Played straight with [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky the kingdom of Liberl]]. Ten years before the main plot, Liberl was involved in the Hundred Days War with the Erebonian empire, which is revealed to have only started because [[spoiler:some Erebonian military officers burned down the village of Hamel in southern Erebonia and framed it on Liberl's army]]. In contrast, Calvard is treated as an ally nation to Liberl.
** Averted in [[VideoGame/ZeroNoKiseki Crossbell State]] with the conflict between Erebonia and Calvard, which is treated more as an EvilVersusEvil conflict. Both countries are treated as expansionist, wanting to absorb Crossbell into their borders so they can take their resources and tax revenue for their own desires, with little regard for the citizens of Crossbell. Despite this, the main villains of the games [[spoiler:aren't from Erebonia or Calvard, but are citizens of Crossbell who have gotten fed up with being caught in the tug-of-war between the two countries]].
** Despite the fact that the [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel Cold Steel saga]] take place in Erebonia, not much emphasis is put on the country's relationship with Calvard. Instead, the games put more emphasis on the country's internal conflicts between the reformists and nobles in Erebonia.
* GottaCatchEmAll: Monster Encyclopedia entries, fish, recipes, you name it. From Zero onwards, you get Records and/or PSN Trophies for doing this as well as unlocking nice items. Actually managing this is the source of a lot of GuideDangIt since many requirements are extremely time-limited.
** Even before that, obtaining every volume of collectable novels is how you obtain the InfinityPlusOneSword in all the games but The 3rd.
* GreatOffscreenWar: Two of them in fact.
** The Hundred Days War is a major part of Liberl's history and had a profound impact on the lives of many characters. As it took place ten years before the series begins, we only learn about it in flashbacks, conversations and books.
** Erebonia has its own example of this in the War of the Lions, which was fought 250 years ago and had an even greater impact which is still felt in the present. [[spoiler:Just ask Arianrhod. There's also the civil war that ''was'' this trope in Ao but is going to be an ''onscreen'' war in the Erebonia arc. It gets kicked off during the conclusion to ''Cold Steel''.]] Finally in ''Cold Steel III'', there's also the Northern Campaign where [[spoiler:Erebonia annexes North Ambria, led by Aurelia Le Guin and Rean inside Valimar participates in said war.]] No, players don't get to see those events, aside from flashbacks.
* GreaterScopeVillain: Behind almost every BigBad in the series, there is [[AncientConspiracy Ouroboros]]. However, there are some things that are beyond even ''them'', such as [[spoiler:Phantasma and (possibly) whatever was up with Lohengrin Castle, which may have been connected to Phantasma itself]].
* GreaterScopeParagon: Cassius Bright serves as this for the series as a whole, though he's a more straightforward BigGood for the first two ''Sky'' games. He's a candidate for WorldsStrongestMan and a shining example to all, but his role in most games is limited to the background or the sidelines (in the first game, the villains explicitly lured him out of the country as part of their plan).
* GrimUpNorth: Toyed with. [[spoiler:The [[ApocalypseHow Salt Pillar Incident]] turns a country in northern Zemuria into an example of this but it was a recent unnatural event and not associated with the north in general. Played straight to the extent that [[BigBad Weissmann]] is from there]].
* GuideDangIt: All over the place, mainly hidden bonus conditions for quests, hidden sidequests, and collectibles that can only be found by talking to a specific NPC at a specific time.
* HarmfulToMinors: Part of the backstory of quite a few characters, chief among them [[spoiler: Joshua, Renne, Tio and Fie]].
** To a lesser extent, everyone in Liberl in a certain age range was exposed to the horrors of war during the Hundred Days War. Tita was too young to remember it but Estelle and Kloe were not [[spoiler:with the former watching her mother die while shielding her from falling debris]]. Anelace probably counts as well but we never hear of her own experiences from back then.
* HeWhoMustNotBeSeen: Comes in all three varieties.
** TheGhost: Yun Kafai, who has been mentioned since The 3rd and has been a teacher and mentor to a number of characters. As of the end of ''Cold Steel'', he still has never been seen. Perhaps to [[LampshadeHanging remind us of this]], that game revealed that he is known in-universe as the Sword Hermit.
** TheVoice: All the Anguis and the Master in The 3rd, who are visually represented by pillars and light but the only thing we have to distinguish them is their voices and speech patterns. Since then, several have been revealed to the player while others remain mysterious.
** TheFaceless: In Ao, those Anguis whose identities hadn't been revealed yet were represented in artwork as cloaked figures.
* HealthDamageAsymmetry: Averted in most of the games, where bosses are capable of dishing out bigger numbers than the party while still having a mountain of HP. On higher difficulties, it's possible for bosses to deal more damage with their ''normal'' attacks than players can deal with their [[LimitBreak S-Crafts]].
* HereThereWereDragons: It is mentioned in one of Septian Church Testaments that mankinds upon their first creation dating even before pre-septian calendar were granted the ability to freely cast magic known in modern era as "Arts." They however lost the ability over time thus the need of [[MagicFromTechnology orbal technology]]. Some people who still have this ability are called "Magicians." The Hexen clan are among the few that survive to the present day with this ability intact.
* HeroesPreferSwords: Averted by the protagonists of the first five games, it's not until Rean in the sixth game that we get a protagonist who really uses a sword. Played with in the case of Anelace, who ''wants'' to be a hero and uses a sword, but she's a supporting character, not one of the protagonists.
* HighSpeedMissileDodge: The Arseille does this when going up against the Glorious in SC, using its far greater maneuverability to great advantage. In Ao, [[HumongousMecha Aion Type-Beta]] and [[spoiler:Kevin's Merkabah]] trade off doing this [[HomingLaser with lasers]].
* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: Every game in the series follows the 'X no Kiseki' pattern, which usually translates to 'Trails in/of X', though some titles don't translate neatly while maintaining the scheme in English. Falcom also likes titles that don't necessarily make sense until you play the ''next'' game in the series. For example, ''Sora no Kiseki'' really only makes sense after you play SC and the meaning of ''Zero no Kiseki'' is only explained in Ao, which thankfully also explains its own title.
* ImprobableAccessoryEffect: The series tries to avert this as much as possible. Some accessories just make sense (a lighter to keep you warm prevents Freeze and aromatic herbs prevent you from falling asleep) but in a number of cases, the explanation is rooted in the presence of MagicFromTechnology. The Grail Locket (prevents all status ailments) in particular is explained as being based on a piece of LostTechnology. There are also completely straight examples, such as the Lionheart Medals in ''Cold Steel''.
* InASingleBound: Ouroboros members that don't teleport tend to do superhuman jumps whenever they need to escape.
* InfinityPlusOneSword: Weapons constructed out of [[{{Unobtanium}} Zemurian Stone]] serve this role in every game but [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness FC]], where you trade directly for a weapon.
* InGameNovel: As of ''Cold Steel II'' there have been seven of these, six of which are part of game-spanning sidequests whose ultimate reward is an InfinityPlusOneSword. The novels are collected in volumes (frequently the subject of much GuideDangIt) and tend to be decently long once put together.
** Numerous other books exist separately from the above novels and can be read in-universe as well, such as short stories, a dictionary of cat speech, guides on the functioning of Orbments and so on.
** Also, these books aren't just fluff, they're frequently foreshadowing. See [[spoiler:Carnelia and Toby, or as fans are more likely to know them, [[ThePaladin First Dominion]] Ein Selnert and Toval]]. This gets a deliberate nod later on when [[spoiler:one of the things you can buy in ''Cold Steel'' is a paperback collection of Carnelia. This would be the first game where Toval and Micht appear directly]].
* IrrelevantSidequest: Averted. In the first two arcs, the main characters are part of organizations whose members are being paid specifically to help citizens with their troubles as well as assisting the government. In FC, the original purpose of Estelle and Joshua journeying around Liberl was to help out at each of the Bracers Guild branches to show they have what it takes to be full members; they fell into the 'Save the Kingdom' job more or less by accident. In SC, the saving takes priority but that's no excuse to neglect the other aspects of the job. As police officers trying to assist the poor public image of the CSPD, the fact that you spend a lot of time in Zero and Ao helping people out also makes perfect sense. In ''Cold Steel'', as you're students at a military academy performing a combination of assisting with Student Council duties (helping students and others at Thors and in Trista) and jobs assigned to you as part of your Field Exams. [[spoiler:This is because Olivier is trying to make Class VII a shining example for Erebonians, so having Nobles and Commoners working together on jobs ranging from eliminating dangerous monsters to helping a store owner find a replacement record is all part of the process]]
* ItemAmplifier: The recurring Master Quartz Moebius, which increases the HP/EP restored by items (but not CP), lets you use items at a distance and at max level grants items a minor area of effect.
* KarmaHoudini: As this series has a continuous narrative where plots are expected to be resolved over the long term, this applies to quite a few characters.
** On the other hand there are some notable aversions with characters who have learned just what a bitch karma can be. Namely [[spoiler:Georg Weissmann and Joachim Gunter]] whose well-deserved karmic payback was sweet. In the shorter-term there was [[spoiler:Gideon, who gets LaserGuidedKarma within mere months of earning it.]]
* KeepItForeign: The series loves to sprinkle in names, terms, and concepts from European languages, especially German. The Gralsritter in particular are almost invariably referred to as such. The number of times they're called "Grail Knights" can be counted on one hand.
* KidHero: Deconstructed, especially since this is a universe that mostly averts AdultsAreUseless. No matter how much talent the younger heroes have, they don't fare well against the more experienced adult villains that even adult heroes have trouble with. As a result, each new cast of young heroes doesn't make a huge difference in stopping [[AncientConspiracy Ouroboros's]] plans and can only find small personal victories at best.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:L-Z]]
* LargeHam: Olivier and Estelle especially love to dramatically announce their arrivals in a scene. Estelle's enthusiasm is so great the ''Sky'' games give her an enlarged font just for her.
* LastEpisodeThemeReprise: A series staple, the final dungeon and/or boss music in each game tends to include the main melody for the theme song of that game. The 3rd and Zero each have an additional and entirely separate arrangement that plays just before the final battle to pump the player up for the fight ahead.
* LaterInstallmentWeirdness: ''The 3rd'' lacks several staples of the series, compared to the games before or since. Towns, NPC side stories, sidequests, the Points system, and book collecting have been phased out. Instead, the game is one long series of interconnected dungeons with a robust [[WarpWhistle warping mechanic]] that let you instantly travel to nearly any spot in the game, a support character function that provides unique stat and battle enhancements, a darker, more psychological story that's largely dedicated to exploring the two main characters rather than a country-spanning adventure, and a series of loosely-connected doors that lead to several nonlinear stories unrelated to the main plot.
* LeftHanging: Pretty much every game wraps up its main plot but leaves you with more unanswered questions than you had going in. In some cases you get cliffhangers where you only ''think'' the main plot has been resolved, until the last twenty minutes. The 3rd is pretty much 'Left Hanging: The Game' since one of its primary reasons for existing was to set up plot threads for future story arcs.
* LeftJustifiedFantasyMap:
** Played straight with the map of Liberl, because that country is located at the far western end of the Zemurian Continent and Falcom has been keeping the details of the rest of the world outside its immediate surroundings hidden. Major locations are known to exist much farther north and east and no doubt we'll eventually get maps that avert this entirely.
** The map for the Crossbell games more or less does this, being positioned to show Liberl in relation to Crossbell without revealing the Tethys Sea or how much further Erebonia might extend west. The map of Erebonia in ''Cold Steel'' and its sequel does the same thing, because the player doesn't get to see the western part of the Empire where it runs into the ocean.
* TheLegendOfChekhov: Any of the short story books found by players in the game are all based on real events that had happened before and these characters are all alive. Confirmed characters who have shown up are: [[spoiler: Toval, Ein, Micht (from Carnelia), and Roselia (from Red Moon Rose).]]
* TheLegendOfX: Any title in ''The Legend of Heroes'' series.
* LeyLine: Septium in the ground naturally releases energy which flows between concentrations of the crystal, the so-called 'Septium Pulses'. These first become important in SC because one of the Gospels is able to manipulate these pulses to cause earthquakes, provided that it's stuck at an appropriate intersection of existing lines. It also becomes important in the Crossbell arc [[spoiler:as the pulses are the medium through which 'will' was transferred between Gnosis test subjects and Demiourgos]] and the greatest intersection of these lines is the location of the final dungeon of Ao. In ''Cold Steel II'' they come up again [[spoiler:as the 'Spirit Path', a method of teleporting ''through'' the pulses to specific locations. Also, the game reveals that [[{{Unobtanium}} Zemurian Stone]] is the condensed energy of the Septium Pulses, crystalized.]]
* LimitBreak: S-Crafts, which can also be used to interrupt the turn order and perform S-Breaks.
* LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards: Played with throughout the series.
** Played straight in the ''Sky'' trilogy. Outside of one or two melee characters who usually are {{Game Breaker}}s and/or {{Required Party Member}}s, late-game usually revolves around how fast you can cast arts and when you can time them to go off ensure control over the battle especially around [[HarderThanHard Nightmare]] difficulty. The relatively low damage numbers for melee characters in general outside of [[LimitBreak S-Crafts]] aren't really helping.
** Played straight in the ''Zero/Ao'' duology. Same case as ''Sky'' but now the melee characters with a proper setup can be dodge-tanks that draw the enemy into attacking them and receiving no damage due to a high evasion rate while the casters deal most of the damage.
** Averted with extreme prejudice in the ''Cold Steel'' series as it progressed. Main source of damage are now from the melee characters due to the implementation of the [[CombinationAttack Combat Link]] system which exponentially increased overall melee damage dealt. The introduction of the BreakMeter as of ''III'' turned this UpToEleven which reduced the main plan of attack to [[AttackAttackAttack "Let's hit the enemy as many times as possible."]] Also, the dodge-tanks in question now deal so much damage that with enough patience, they can ''effectively take on multiple bosses at once.''
* LittleHeroBigWar: Each arc is more about the heroes trying to make sure their homeland survives Ouroboros plan and claiming their own [[CharacterDevelopment personal victories]] than stopping the organization once and for all, since the Society is simply too big for each individual party to take down.
* LoadBearingBoss: Two justified examples. When [[spoiler:Angel Weissmann and Azure Demiourgos]] are defeated, the locations they were found in begin to collapse almost immediately. In the former case [[spoiler:Liber Ark's ability to remain aloft was entirely due to [[ArtifactOfDoom Aureole]] which Weissmann had merged with so when it vanished the Ark began to fall apart as the laws of physics reasserted themselves]] and in the latter case, the dungeon itself was an extension of the boss' power so when the boss vanished, the dungeon vanished with it.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: As a series with a continuous narrative and a focus on world-building, you can expect this. Falcom tries to make every NPC unique and everyone has their own little story going on in the background that you can see if you spend the time engaging [=NPCs=].
** To illustrate, the Special Collection Books provide a bit of information on every NPC in every town in the game and Crossbell Archive does the same for Zero and Ao, along with mentioning [=NPCs=] who aren't seen but are mentioned (including references to previous games) and that came out to twelve pages, at about twenty characters a page... and those are the ''tertiary'' characters.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfSidequests: A series staple and justified in-universe as your characters doing their respective jobs. Sidequests can double or triple the completion time and are one of the best ways to earn money and items. Plus, they're needed to raise your Bracer/Detective/Academic Rank to any appreciable degree (just doing the main story quests won't get you very far) and the rewards for doing so tend to be pretty spectacular at high levels.
* LongDeadBadass: The series has a couple of people near-universally held as standards of badass-dom who are dead by the time the games begin. In Crossbell, everyone agrees that Guy Bannings was awesome. He's been dead for three years by the time Zero begins. In Erebonia, Lianne Sandlot is the epitome of badass and she's been dead for 250 years. On the more spoiler-y side is [[spoiler:Rufina Argent, hailed by [[ThePaladin Ein]] as the ideal Knight]]. Also, [[spoiler:Baldur Orlando and the 'Jaeger King' were the two strongest Jaegers in western Zemuria and known for being badasses. Both have died at each other's hands by the time Zero begins though we don't ''learn'' that until Ao.]]
* LongRunnerCastTurnover: Every arc has its own party. Some major characters from one arc show up in secondary roles in later arcs, but the only characters who come close to showing up in every game of the main series (i.e., not counting Nayuta) are Blueblanc (causer of problems in sidequests and occasional chapter boss), Anton and Ricky (background characters and occasional provider of sidequests), and in two of those games, Blueblanc only appears in disguise, so he still doesn't visibly appear in all of them. Out of party members, the person who comes closest to appearing in every game is Olivier (who appears in every game up to ''Cold Steel IV'' except for ''Zero''), though in several of them he's only an NPC.
* LostInTransmission: Happens twice in the series so far. In SC, the [[spoiler:[[ApocalypticLog records made by the people who sealed Aureole away 1200 years ago]] have been corrupted due to age]] but in a subversion, the only piece of truly vital information is apparent to both the characters and the audience, though some of the missing content includes the bits that justified the creation of the 'transmission' in the first place and are thus important to the story.
** In Zero, the [[spoiler:writings of Joachim of the D∴G Cult]] are found in the Fortress of the Sun but the text is garbled. The missing pieces are filled in over the course of the sequel.
* LuckBasedMission: Since enemies can use the random turn bonuses, some bosses can become incredibly difficult if they grab the wrong bonuses - generally either a critical/strength up when launching a major attack, or a healing bonus that undoes a dozen or more turns worth of damage.
* MagicByAnyOtherName: Not Orbal Arts (which is explicitly MagicFromTechnology) but Methodism, techniques originating in the east (and a seperate body practiced by the Church) which can produce results similar to Orbal Arts without the need for an Orbment. Both techniques can be learned by anyone with time and training. On the other hand, what [[spoiler:Emma and other Witches]] can do ''is'' called magic with no qualifiers.
* MagicFromTechnology: Orbal arts. People who have orbments, will be able to cast arts provided they equip elemental quartz.
* MagicKnight: Technically, every playable character with close-ranged weapon is capable of using an orbment, though their proficiency with melee and arts vary for the sake of CompetitiveBalance.
* MageMarksman: You can find characters in each arc who have good proficiency with orbal arts while wielding long-ranged weapons. Olivier[[spoiler:/Olivert]] from Sky[[spoiler: and Cold Steel]], Elie from Zero and Azure, Claire and Musse from Cold Steel uses orbal guns (or in Musse's case, carbine) while Kevin from Sky and Alisa from Cold Steel are the ArcaneArcher variation of it.
* TheMainCharactersDoEverything: Averted. While the main characters resolve incidents that should be far beyond their position's capabilities, they still need the help of more powerful organizations and individuals, especially when it comes to dealing with Ouroboros. [[spoiler:This is actually deconstructed in the very first game, where Alan Richard treats Cassius Bright as a hero who near-singlehandedly won the 100 Days War, causing him to become desperate for forbidden power when his idol retires from the military.]]
* MarkOfTheBeast:
** [[spoiler:Zero reveals the origin of Renne and Tio's [[SupernaturalGoldEyes golden eyes]]: They're a permanent side effect of using an early version of [[SuperSerum Gnosis]] in large quantities. Users of the refined form of the drug exhibit [[RedEyesTakeWarning red eyes]] after prolonged exposure.]]
** The power possessed by [[spoiler:Rean and Mcburn]] has this effect when used, changing their appearance. The latter is particularly extreme with [[BlackEyesOfCrazy creepy black eyes]] and tattoos a part of the package. This power is specifically referred to as something 'outside' manifesting through the user.
* {{Mascot}}: The theme park Michelam Wonderland has Michey (localized as ''Mishy''), an Expy of MickeyMouse. Michey has in turn become a minor mascot for Falcom as a whole, showing up in VideoGame/NayutaNoKiseki, VideoGame/{{Ys}} and VideoGame/TokyoXanadu as well.
* MechaMooks: Ouroboros-made Overmuppets are pretty much entirely automated and range from small scouting machines to HumongousMecha capable of fighting off small armies. They also create machines they sell or otherwise provide to various factions. Revache gets their hands on several sentinel-type units, as do several terrorist groups.
* MegaManning: In Ao, [[spoiler:Kevin performs Stigma Cannon Megiddels through his Merkabah]]. Crossbell Archive confirms that this was possible because [[spoiler:Anima Mundi]] used it on him previously.
* MagicStaff: The Orbal Staff functions like this, except using MagicFromTechnology to function. Tio tested the first model developed by the Epstein Foundation, which is a MorphWeapon that doubles as a [[{{BFG}} cannon]] and [[{{BFS}} energy sword]]. Eliot and Emma use Reinford-made versions with similar versatility (although with less transforming) and [[spoiler:Joachim uses an elaborate LostTechnology version]].
* MasterSwordsman: Quite a few. The top five are (in no order) Ein Selnart, Arianrhod (technically a Spearwoman, though she's trained swordsmasters), Loewe, Victor Arseid (who has a pupil who eventually surpasses him) and Yun Kafei (who has at least two students who qualify in their own right).
* MoraleMechanic: Enemies may swarm you or try to run away from you on the map based on your level. If you're really high, they'll occasionally flee from battle on their turn. Various Quartz may also affect this, such as Beautiful Scent overriding low morale by making enemies more likely to swarm you on the map and Tiger's Majesty making it less likely.
* NarrativeFiligree: Falcom absolutely adores this trope. While there are recycled NPC designs for more generic individuals, almost everyone has a name and everyone has evolving dialogue and their own little story going on in the background. Sometimes these become important to the main plot [[spoiler:such as Grancel's Bishop in SC, if you talk to him at just the right time]] and other times they play a part in a later sidequest but mostly, they're just there for fun and world-building. Also, Falcom really loves foreshadowing many games in advance....
* NebulousEvilOrganisation: Ouroboros are ever-present throughout the series working to fulfill an unclear overarching goal.
* NewGamePlus: Available in all the games. Some games also have the ability to carry over completion data from earlier games in their given arc. It usually isn't possible to get 100% completion in one playthrough.
* NGOSuperpower: [[spoiler:Ouroboros, full stop. The upper leadership of the organization consists of only eight individuals with a maximum of 22 top agents below that. They have military technology that puts the best that everyone else can offer to shame and they have their fingers in every pie. If something strange is happening in any country, flip a coin. If it comes up heads, it's probably Ouroboros. Tails, it's probably someone being manipulated by Ouroboros.]]
** [[spoiler:To illustrate, Ouroboros has the world's largest airship (the Glorious, which can launch smaller craft which can launch still-smaller craft) as a mobile base of operations, they have HumongousMecha which can overpower conventional ''armies'' (Aion Type-Alpha alone flattened Garelia Fortress, which was believed to be practically unassailable by conventional means) and they are making the largest country in western Zemuria dance to their strings because they're backing Osborne ''and'' the faction opposing him.]]
* NighInvulnerability:
** The [[HumongousMecha Aion machines]] are made of a super-strong alloy that makes them more or less impervious to harm from conventional means. On top of this, they also spend most of Ao no Kiseki [[spoiler:empowered by Azure Demiourgos]] which allows them to operate at peak efficiency even in prolonged combat against opponents capable of employing distinctly ''unconventional'' means.
*** Also from Ao, [[spoiler:Azure Demiourgos itself, by virtue of being a godlike fusion of the original Sept-Terrion with power over Time and Space added as well.]]
** Before that, Aureole's ability to absolutely control Space made it this as it could generate a barrier impervious to harm. [[spoiler:Except for Loewe's sword, which by its nature is capable of ignoring the laws of physics]]
* NominalImportance: Averted. Only a tiny handful of [=NPCs=] ''don't'' have names. Pretty much everyone else though? Names, running background story and the very real possibility that they'll be involved in a sidequest at some point. The corollaries do hold true though for the most part: If they have a portrait, they're more important to the plot than if they don't (exception: three-fourths of Kurt's team lacked portraits in the original release of FC but they still turned out important) and non-battle voice acting is limited to ''really'' important characters, with the exception of [[UpdatedRerelease Zero and Ao Evolution]], which give everyone involved in the main plot a voice.
* NonstandardSkillLearning: Most Crafts are learned via leveling up, even ones that you might expect to be story-based. The 3rd subverts this with [[spoiler:Kevin's second and third S-Crafts]] which are learned through plot events and Ao gave the player Lloyd's Raging Spin (an upgraded version of Axel Rush) as a reward for clearing a tough sidequest, while Combo Crafts in that arc are earned through a mixture of plot progression and sidequest rewards. ''Cold Steel'' decided to make ''all'' S-Crafts (with the exception of Laura and Fie) plot-significant while normal Crafts remain level-based. ''Cold Steel II'', however, only makes few certain characters to learn S-Craft this way while the remaining learn via level-based.
* NunsAreMikos: Played straight, averted and downplayed. Your average Sister averts this, acting pretty much like you would expect a real-world nun to act. [[spoiler:The ones who ''don't'' do this (and thus play the trope straight) are members of the [[ChurchMilitant Grals Ritter]] who swear an entirely different set of vows.]] An example of this trope downplayed comes from Rosine, a student at Thors who helps out at the local Church in her spare time, habit included, but doesn't act strictly like a real nun would be expected to.[[spoiler: Then later in ''Cold Steel'' Rosine also plays this trope since she's revealed to be a squire working for Thomas, one of Gralsritter's Dominion.]]
* OffscreenInertia: Totally averted; advance the plot a little bit and the NPC who was talking to their neighbor about what to buy for dinner will be found in the store buying groceries, the NPC getting beaten in a sparring match will be taking a break and the girl standing in the rain will be inside warming up. Everyone is moving around as long as you are.
* OldSaveBonus: The franchise uses this feature often. You have a choice to load a complete save data file from the previous part of a trilogy/duology on the next part (example being reloading FC complete save data when starting SC or reloading SC save data on The 3rd). Rewards for doing this such as carryover level and early item bonus usually helps you through the beginning of the game since you [[BagOfSpilling suddenly lose your hard-obtained quartz and items]]. Another more significant bonus is dialogue changes based on your previous decisions/performance, example in point is choosing your dance partner in [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel Cold Steel I]] changes reunion scene for said character in Cold Steel II. Most notably does ''not'' happen with Cold Steel II to III, as Cold Steel I/II were originally developed on Vita and [=PS3=] and III/IV were originally developed for [=PS4=].
* OneHitPointWonder: Non-gameplay example: Anyone who has [[spoiler:their soul taken by the [[AllThereInTheManual Ring of Judgment]]]] will become this; even a minor injury will result in the person keeling over dead within seconds.
* OneManIndustrialRevolution: Professor Epstein's research into ancient artifacts brought about the Orbal Revolution which has had a profound impact on Zemurian civilization in the fifty or so years since his first breakthrough. The Epstein Foundation based in Leman continues the work he started and Professor Russell (one of three Epstein's pupils) fills the same role on a smaller scale for the Kingdom of Liberl. Actually in-universe, people in Liberl call Professor Russell as the "Father of Orbal Revolution". The other two students, Gwyn Reinford and Professor G. Schmitt, fill this role in Erebonia, to a lesser extend, all three are certified MadScientist.(Only [[spoiler:Gwyn]] showed a little bit of reluctance(NOT remorse) in creating the [[WeaponsOfMassDestruction Railway Cannons]] that can potentially kill a few hundred thousand people in half an hour. All three of them are rather childish geezers in their own way.(Russell is the one who keeps creating new toys, Gwen is the LovableSexManiac, Schmitt shows no interest in almost everything other than his research and loses interest right when he finishes solving the problem.)
* OneSteveLimit: Gleefully averted with Lloyd and Tio, who were [=NPCs=] in the Liberl arc... and two of the main characters in the Crossbell arc just happen to have the same names, which was all to set up a joke when the protagonists of the former arc meet the protagonists of the latter arc. This extends to shared names among [=NPCs=] as well. Though there is apparently only one Anton and Ricky - those two guys just turn up everywhere.
* OneTimeDungeon: A frequent occurrence from SC onwards is to have at least one dungeon that can only be explored on your first visit, or if it can be revisited to make things like Monster Encyclopedia data only obtainable once. This includes [[spoiler:the Lakeside Laboratory, the first part of the Glorious and the 'Another Dimension' versions of the four Towers]] in SC, [[spoiler:Gehenna]] in The 3rd, [[spoiler:St. Ursula Medical College]] in Zero, lots and lots of dungeons in Ao and ''everything'' in ''Cold Steel'' other than the Old School Building, since Trista is the only location you get to see in more than one Chapter. Despite having free travel for much of the game, most of ''Cold Steel II'''s dungeons are also single-visit because the situations that lead you to fight in them go away after the first time. Notable exceptions are [[spoiler:the four Shrines]] and the Ancient Quarry.
* OnlyShopInTown: Averted in that each city tends to contain separate locations to buy weapons and armor, Quartz and Orbment modifications and a smattering of smaller shops, stalls and bars for healing items, cooking and miscelaneous goods. Particularly small locations like Ravennue play this straight but when you're a community of only a dozen or so, there's not much point in diversifying. Bose completely averts this with its massive Bose Market and Crossbell City has several areas of town which each contain multiple stores. Heimdallr in the Erebonia arc has multiple shopping ''districts'', each containing multiple stores to visit.
* OnScreenChapterTitles: Each game has this, beginning with ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky'' and its opening "Prologue: A Father's Love, A New Beginning." They are shown both at the beginning and end of each chapter, with the ones shown at the end generally accompanied by both an achievement/trophy and the option to the save the game before moving to the next, as cutscenes at both the end and beginning of chapters tend to be fairly lengthy.
* OptionalCharacterScene: The game has dialogue variations for all possible party combinations, which can sometimes involve fairly major changes. On occasion, having one or more specific characters will trigger extra scenes beyond this. For example, near the end of SC if you bring particular characters to the fights against the Enforcers, you will see additional scenes. The 3rd also has a lot of these and Ao does something similar, also having some scenes that trigger [[GuideDangIt later in the game]] if you bring the right person to the right place beforehand. ''Cold Steel'' has a major addition to the trip to Heimdallr to pick up the costumes for the concert if you're on New Game Plus and [[spoiler:Emma is your partner]], to say nothing of the entire Bond Event system where you can pick who to spend time with on your days off, always resulting in unique scenes.
* OverworldNotToScale: The games don't usually ''have'' an overworld per-se, with everything operating at the exact same scale. Of course, the time taken by the player to reach a given destination and the time that passes in-universe don't always correspond, such as the Crossbell-Armorica route explicitly taking two hours by car while the player [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality can walk the route in about five minutes]].
* PassiveAggressiveKombat: Owing to Realpolitik, any public interaction between [[spoiler:Olivier and Osborne]] is saturated with this. The one time they're in private and able to drop the act, they lose all pretenses of civility and each effectively declares war upon the other. [[spoiler:Which isn't to say that Olivier doesn't do it in a [[BewareTheSillyOnes completely over the top fashion]] of course.]] This also seems to be a favorite pastime of Erebonian girls, with [[EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses Alfin]], [[TheOjou Elise]] and [[{{Deuteragonist}} Alisa]] all getting in on the act.
* PhlebotinumMuncher: Monsters are naturally attracted to Septium and some of the more outlandish powers are explicitly stated to come from ingested Sepith of the appropriate elemental alignment. This also handily explains why [[MoneySpider enemies drop Sepith upon their death]].
* PowerUpFood: The cooking function with the Recipe Book is essentially a ''generator'' for these, provided you have the recipe and ingredients. The latter has several kinds which can only be obtained from monsters. In the ''Sky'' trilogy, to learn the recipes you have to buy/obtain the food and then eat it. For the games that take place afterwards, they have to be obtained from treasure chests, sidequests and talking to [=NPCs=]. On top of that, they would have variations that depend on ''who was the cook''. Given how the food in question effectively PowerCreep standard healing items outside of the Zeram items[[note]]Full heal with revive and 100CP for Powder and 200CP for Capsule[[/note]] by either offering ''multiple'' status aliment cures, CP and/or stat boosts along with standard healing, it's not a surprise that players can clear an entire game without using ''any'' standard healing items.
* PrivateMilitaryContractors: Jaeger Corps are [=PMCs=] that typically show up as antagonists throughout the series. They range from hired squadrons of faceless goons to elite mercenary forces.
* PhotoMontage: The end credits of SC and ''Cold Steel II'' both include photographs [[WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue showing what the core cast does after the conclusion of the game]].
* PlayerExclusiveMechanic: While enemies operate under essentially the same rules you do (cheap abilities like Sigmund's Ogre Cry notwithstanding) there is one thing the computer should be able to do but never will, even when it's controlling ''your'' characters during the friendly sparring matches in ''Cold Steel'': S-Breaking. This is a mercy since having to worry about whether your enemy has the CP to simply steal a turn and get a bonus like Critical or Death with no warning would make some battles next to impossible.
** This mechanic however is averted in ''Cold Steel III'' where some bosses ''will'' jump their Turn Order if they want to use their S-Breaks unless the enemies are inflicted with the "Break status".
* PoisonMushroom: Some recipes can lower your health. These usually come in the form of an either/or effect with a ''really'' good possible result to counterbalance the bad. In later games, with the right setup you can make either result work in your favor.
* ProphetEyes: Anyone who has worn the [[AllThereInTheManual Ring of Judgment]] for long enough develops these [[spoiler:and will inevitably die]]
* ProlongedPrologue:
** FC and Zero both have Prologues that make up a decent chunk of the game, especially in FC's case as it makes up the entirety of your time spent in Rolent and consists of about 10-20% of the game. In both cases, done intentionally to set up the characters and the world. Other games have somewhat shorter prologues but still tend to throw in a dungeon or two to explore, several boss fights and lots of juicy character development. The 3rd is the only game to avert this.
** In addition, one can consider the first ''game'' in a given arc to be one for the arc in question. The first game in an arc introduces most of the key cast members of that arc, and explains the region and what kind of troubles it has, with Ouroboros being a mostly or totally unknown force working in the background. They don't start openly moving until the finale of the first game, and the following game(s) concern how they tie into the local issues and how they can manipulate them to bring about the next stage of the Orpheus Final Plan, which will be a key factor in the rest of the arc.
* RagnarokProofing: Ancient Zemurian relics are at least 1200 years old by the beginning of the series. While some are broken and others obviously in the process of breaking down, others are still working as if they were made yesterday. [[spoiler:Liber Ark had automated repair systems and was still being powered by the divine relic it was built around, in addition to spending the intervening 1200 years in another dimension]] which probably accounts for why it is so relatively well preserved. Downplayed in the case of [[spoiler:the Divine Knights]] which are still functional but need restoration before they can operate at peak effectiveness, and they were kept in locations ''designed'' to preserve them.
* [[RealMenLoveJesus Real Men Love Aidios]]: Zemuria is quite religious and most characters will mention their Goddess at one point or another. This includes notable badasses like Cassius Bright and Victor Arseid. Also [[spoiler:every single member of the [[ChurchMilitant Gralsritter]]]] who are badass by definition.
* RedBaron: One of Falcom's favorite trope in Kiseki franchise. Most people, be it Bracers, Twelve Dominions of Grals Ritter, core members of Ouroboros, or any other relatively famous figure in this game will at least have this, although most people also recognize the name. Due to the [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters overwhelmingly large cast]] with perhaps half of them having this, it's rather impossible to list all of them. Most notable example include:
** Bracers:
*** Cassius Bright the "Divine Blade"[[note]]It's given to anyone mastering at least one form of Eight Leaves One Blade fighting style but this is also adopted into his nickname both among military and bracer members.[[/note]]
*** Arios Maclaine the "Divine Blade of Wind"[[note]]Similar with Cassius.[[/note]]
** Ouroboros: See TarotMotifs for the enforcers. [[spoiler: In one final door accessible after opening all doors in The 3rd, there's an Anguis meeting with Grandmaster and Campanella to discuss their plan. During the talk, they sometimes use their title when referring to each other [[CodeName to prevent revealing their true identity too early]]]]
*** [[spoiler:Vita Clotilde]] the "Azure Abyss"
*** Weissmann the "Faceless" [[spoiler:AKA Professor Alba]], later replaced by [[spoiler:Mariabell Crois with unknown title]]
*** Arianrhod [[spoiler:the "Steel Maiden", believed by some to secretly be Saint Lianne Sandlot, the "Spear Saint"]]
** Grals Ritter:
*** Ein Selnate [[spoiler:Carnelia]]
*** [[spoiler:Kevin Graham]] Heretic Hunter [[spoiler:later becomes Thousand-Hand Guardian]]
*** [[spoiler:Gaius Worzel]] the "Soaring Phoenix"
** Others
*** Dreichels Reise Arnor the Lionheart Emperor
*** Zephyr[[note]]Jaeger used to operate in West Zemuria[[/note]] leader "Jaeger King"
*** Claire [[spoiler:Rieveldt]] the "Icy Maiden"
*** Yun Kafai the "Sword Hermit"
* ResignationsNotAccepted: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]], more or less with the secret society Ouroboros and its Enforcers. Thanks to the extraordinary amount of freedom granted them, they can go off and do their own thing for apparently as long as they want and still nominally be considered a member of the group without having to perform any duties. They can even fight other Enforcers and still be welcomed back with open arms. In the ''Cold Steel'' games, [[spoiler:Sharon Kreuger is welcomed back at the end of ''Cold Steel III'', despite having spent years serving the Reinford family.]]
* SaintlyChurch: The Septian Church. The organization is credited with bringing the continent out of the dark times following the [[CataclysmBackstory Great Collapse]] and among other services they provide free education to everyone up to the age of sixteen. They actively help the player throughout the series and several major [=PCs=] are priests or nuns. The Church is also generally quite tolerant of other beliefs.
** That said, they do have a few shades of gray, largely because they are a continent-spanning hierarchy with room for differences of opinion on how best to defend the faith and because they know things that most people do not. The general consensus is that most of the gray comes from higher authorities in the Church putting the long term ahead of the moment. The fact that [[spoiler:Kevin, Ries and Wazy]] willingly work for the Church despite being privy to some of its more secretive elements is a pretty good indication that the organization as a whole is good.
*** And even still, it has to be admitted that the Church higher-ups taking a "greyer", long-term view is understandable in the face of [[spoiler:the willingness of their usual opponents to routinely engage in the sorts of depravity and horror that would leave most good-hearted people as shell-shocked catatonics - and ''has'' for a while, in the cases of a couple playable characters]].
* SayItWithHearts: And various other symbols, but hearts are a fairly common sight in the dialogue of certain characters, mainly Olivier (played straight) and Randy (usually mockingly).
* SecretArt:
** Methodism (techniques that resemble Orbal Arts but don't involve the use of Orbments) isn't exactly secret but its practice is rare in western Zemuria. It's implied that countries to the east have a few of these.
** Lucciola's illusion-crafting abilities are explicitly refered to in these terms. So is [[spoiler:the magical ability of Witches, as first seen in ''Cold Steel''.]]
* SentientPhlebotinum: [[spoiler:It's later revealed in the franchise that the Sept-Terrion possess a certain level of intelligence. In the Data Crystal reports in ''SC'', the Aureole was at least aware enough to actively try to foil Celeste D Auslese's plan to seal it in another dimension, first through addictive pleasure that's as mentally stimulating as drugs, and when there were still enough people left to resist it, sent a [[HumongousMecha Reverie]] to finish the job. Demiurge, unique from the others (for now) also has conscience to the point that it self-terminated after knowing what it caused to the civilization who drew upon its power.]]
* SequentialBoss: Every final boss battle is one of these, usually but not always with a OneWingedAngel sequence thrown in for good measure. ''Cold Steel's'' end of Chapter bosses consist of nothing ''but'' this trope.
* SeriesMascot:
** Poms, bouncing little puffballs with eyes that come in all different varieties. The standout example (and the one that represented the franchise in [[IntercontinuityCrossover Alternative Saga]]) is the [[MetalSlime Shining Pom]], which adds wings and a halo.
** Mishy, the mascot of Crosbell's Mishelam Wonderland and also considered the mascot of Nihon Falcom overall. A plush Mishy was included as an extra in the Thors Academy Edition release of ''The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III''.
* SeriesFauxnale: The franchise has had a few:
** ''Trails in the Sky SC'' was the originally intended finale of the series, with all the major plot points resolved. However, the subsequent release of ''Trails in the Sky the 3rd'' expanded on the development of numerous characters, and set the stage for numerous follow-up arcs to follow.
** ''Trails of Cold Steel II'' resolves the plotline of the original Class VII's stay at Thors, as well as other major events such as the Erebonian Civil War and the conflict with Crossbell. When the plot is carried forward in ''Cold Steel III'', it happens after a sizeable TimeSkip.
* ShapingYourAttacks: Certain powerful characters have been known to do this, most prominently Cassius with ''Houou Reppa'' where he forms his aura into a firebird. In the Crossbell games Lloyd does something similar with his first two S-Crafts and one of his Combo Crafts does it as well.
* SingleUseShield: The Max Guard effect provides complete protection against one attack (including things like debuffing Arts) while allowing items and benefitial Art/Craft effects to reach the character. There are some S-Crafts that grant the effect and can grant double Max Guard at 200 CP. There's also [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard enemy-only]] abilities that grant the double effect or even a triple effect.
** In the Sora trilogy, a trio of Arts grant this effect but it was severely nerfed starting in the Crossbell arc because Falcom realized it was too powerful, splitting the effects between physical and magical single-use shields and leaving Max Guard for S-Crafts only, or removing it entirely in ''Cold Steel''.
* SlidingScaleOfVillainEffectiveness: Ouroboros is firmly established at High, and borders on Infinite at times, to the point where the bracer guild considers it a major accomplishment just to get any info on them and live to tell the tale. [[spoiler:In both the Liberl and Crossbell arcs, they end the games having gotten ''exactly'' what they wanted, despite everything the heroes do. This in spite of the fact that Weissmann's personal plan in SC was foiled. In Ao, Ouroboros even ends with a bonus catch of two new members to replace the ones lost during SC... Which makes their total outwitting by Osborne in ''Cold Steel II'' even more astounding.]]
* SmokeOut: The Smoke Ball item appears from Zero onwards (when running became a percentage thing, not guaranteed) and allows your party to instantly escape from non-plot battles. Also employed by certain characters as distractions.
* SocketedEquipment: Orbments, which can have various Quartz crystals inserted (And the number/quality of the slots can be enhanced over the course of the game). Depending on what is placed in the various slots, the characters stats, abilities, and/or arts selection can be upgraded.
* StandardStatusEffects: Enemies tend to be just as vulnerable to them as you are. Even bosses are often vulnerable to at least a couple debuffs.
* StatusBuffDispel: Eventually you'll start to run into enemies who can cancel all your status buffs with certain attacks. When they're bosses you can guarantee they're ThatOneBoss.
* StoppedNumberingSequels: Falcom designated the Sora trilogy as Legend of Heroes VI (at the time FC came out, nobody outside Falcom knew they were planning to turn it into such a huge series) but they stopped numbering the games starting with Zero, which was originally announced as 'Legend of Heroes VII' but the numbering was dropped when the title was revealed and they haven't looked back since then. As of 2014, the Kiseki games outnumber the pre-Kiseki games. It's pretty much outgrown the need for numbers at this point.
* StormOfBlades: The recurring spell Silver Thorn combines this with PillarOfLight.
* SuperMovePortraitAttack: Starting with Zero, special character portraits appear at the beginning of S-Craft animations. The Evolution ports have started retroactively adding these to the Sora games as well.
* SupernaturalSensitivity: There are areas in the games where the higher three elements are active. In these places, very weird things can happen which are explicitly supernatural in nature. Certain characters can sense when they've entered one of these areas: People specially trained by the Church, [[spoiler:people with a Stigma, people who have used Gnosis and Witches]].
* TalkToEveryone: A staple of the series where players are encouraged and sometimes, ''required'' to talk to everyone to progress through the plot.
* TakeYourTime: A trope that is sometimes played straight but frequently averted. Since your characters are ''supposed'' to be doing the sidequests, it's usually not surprising that the game allows you to do them during the main quest. There is a certain element of time-taking at work when, for example, you're supposed to be investigating a recent incident but can spend hours fishing or helping random townspeople with their problems before getting around to the investigation. Generally [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality handwavable]] and whenever the plot gets really serious, this tends to be averted entirely as you stop being able to do ''any'' sidequests until you take care of whatever seriously important event is happening.
* TarotMotifs: The Ouroboros Enforcers all have a number, which when matched with the Tarot Arcana, lines up nicely with their personalities. Known ones are:
** 0, The Fool: Campanella the Fool
** I, The Magician: [=MacBurn=] the Almighty Conflagration
** II, The High Priestess: Loewe the Bladelord
** VI, The Lovers: Luciola the Bewitching Bell
** VIII, Strength: Walter the Direwolf
** IX, The Hermit: [[spoiler:Sharon Kruger, the Severing Chains]]
** X, The Wheel of Fortune: Blueblanc the Phantom Thief
** XIII, Death: [[spoiler:Joshua Astray/Bright, the Black Fang]]
** XV, The Devil: [[spoiler:Renne Hayworth/Bright, the Angel of Slaughter]]
** XVII, The Star: [[spoiler:Shirley Orlando, the Sanguine Ogre]]
* TeamSwitzerland: Leman State is one of these for the Zemurian continent, neutral towards all the other countries and the home of the neutral-by-law Bracers Guild and the Epstein Foundation.
* TellMeHowYouFight: Characters familiar with swordsmanship can usually tell a lot about Hachiyou Ittou practitioners from the fact that they use that style and which of its eight Forms they specialize in. This especially comes up in ''Cold Steel'' where several characters psychoanalyze Rean by studying his fighting style.
* ThoseTwoGuys: Anton and Ricks appear in every arc as minor [=NPCs=] who provide a sidequest or two and a disproportionate share of crowning moments of funny. Anton is the recurring ButtMonkey of the franchise, second only to [[spoiler:Gilbert Stein]] who hasn't appeared since The 3rd.
* ThouShaltNotKill: This seems to be a general principle for the Bracer guild no matter what enemies they face, as shown by how Estelle chews out [[spoiler:Joshua]] for almost blowing up the Glorious and killing the Ouroboros soldiers onboard.
* TimeyWimeyBall: [=KeA=] rewriting history in ''Zero''. Also, acording to ''Kizuna'', [[spoiler:the appearance of the Azure Tree causes this to happen]].
* TranslationConvention: Maybe. It's really unclear exactly ''what'' the hell the characters are supposed to be speaking; the setting is obviously Western European-inspired and the lettering that appears in-game is the Roman-derived modern alphabet. There is a substitution cipher in Zero that really only makes sense if you assume the characters are using that alphabet for real. Furthermore, a number of terms appear in kanji - like "orbment" and all related terms or the various ranks in Ouroboros - but then include furigana in katakana above the kanji indicating what "foreign" word the characters are speaking while retaining meaning for Japanese readers. Japanese does not appear in-game but obviously Japanese/Chinese derived words do appear in situations involving Calvard or immigrants from farther east. There are also heavy French, Swiss, and Germanic influences in Erebonia and some in Liberl.
* UltimateBlacksmith: Starting from SC, getting the [[{{Unobtanium}} Zemuria Ore]] and bringing it to a certain NPC will grant you InfinityPlusOneSword depending on which games you play on, for example Prof. Russel will be one only in SC while George will be the one in both ''Cold Steel I'' and ''II''.
* {{Unobtanium}}: Zemurian Stone. It was rare 1200 years ago when the ancients used it and it's rarer still in the present. They're used to synthesize the [[InfinityPlusOneSword strongest weapons]] in all games but [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness FC.]] ''Cold Steel II'' finally reveals the source of the material [[spoiler:condensed and crystalized energy flowing through Septium Pulses, gathered by the use of special structures buried deep underground]].
* UnblockableAttack: Attacks that have the ability to cancel buffs include this as a secondary effect, since the buff cancelling happens ''before'' the damage is calculated. Hence, [[SingleUseShield Max Guard]] and its lesser variants won't protect against them. Up until ''Cold Steel II'' these have always been enemy-exclusive abilities. Offensive [[LostTechnology Lost Arts]] in ''Cold Steel II'' have this feature, finally granting it to the player.
* VehicularAssault: On occasion you'll find yourself fighting vehicle bosses. SC has the massive [[TankGoodness Orgueil]], Ao has the [[AwesomePersonelCarrier RAT-09]] with anti-Arts armor and ''Cold Steel'' has the [[HoverTank Gaspard-G]]. One battle in ''Cold Steel II'' even has [[CoolAirship an airship]] providing fire support for the enemy, but it can't be targeted by the player. When the vehicles in question are mobile, they can cause massive damage just by moving around the map and running you over.
* VillainTeleportation: Some Ouroboros members are fond of this, ensuring they complete their mission whether or not they defeat the party.
* VisualInitiativeQueue: The AT Bar, which shows when you and the enemies will next act and what Turn Bonuses are coming up. Manipulating this system becomes critical to success in later games.
* WalkingSpoiler: Because this series has a continuous narrative and characters tend to remain relevant after their individual arcs, it's pretty much impossible to talk about later games without certain massive character spoilers. It's also pretty difficult to look at character profiles for certain individuals without realizing that Something Is Up owing to all the spoilers.
* WalkingTheEarth: The entire franchise generally tries to be realistic about this; the action of the story has, in ''nine games'', still not left western Zemuria[[note]]Spoiler: [[spoiler:Well, okay, there was that one side-trip to ''hell'', but it all started in an airship above Zemuria and all the flashbacks involve Zemurian locations, so it counts]][[/note]]. Each series focuses on one particular nation and doesn't involve a lot of wide-range globe trotting simply because the time and resources involved would be enormous. ''Sky SC'' even points out that a trip from Liberl to Leman (which is apparently not ''that'' much further away than, say, Crossbell) is a full 24-hour day by airship, one way. That's not even mentioning the LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters that would need to make the trip. And then, [[spoiler:By the end of the fourth game in the Erebonia arc, we learn the characters genuinely ''can't leave'' said continent, because everytime they try, some mysterious phenomenon causes them to end up back in Zemuria.]]
* WaveMotionGun: A signature of the [[HumongousMecha Gordias series]], all but one has one of these in each shoulder. Their power was nicely demonstrated by Aion Type-Gamma, which wiped out an entire tank division with a single shot.
** Also, when using [[spoiler:Mode-S, the Merkabah class of airship have the [[MegaManning Stigma Cannon]].]]
* WeaponsKitchenSink: Happens in every arc; weapons observed side by side range from swords of every type to whips to handguns and shotguns to various types of bows to spears to [[MagicFromTechnology Orbal]] Staffs, and that's not even covering the really exotic weapons. Semi-justified since Orbal technology can ''make'' archaic weapons relevant and the protagonists tend to be part of organizations that encourage individuality. When we see regular armed forces, they tend to be pretty consistent about using guns.
* WhamEpisode: The series is ''known'' for its wham episodes but special mention goes to ''FC'' where its own wham episode defines how the rest of the series operates from then on.
* WhereItAllBegan: A few events can be blamed for kickstarting all the craziness concerning the current protagonists of the Series:
** The Hamel Incident, which is part of an ancient curse placed upon Erebonia. [[spoiler:This incident sparked the Hundred Days War between Erebonia and Liberl, and is the source of the [[DarkAndTroubledPast dark and troubled pasts]] of Estelle, Cassius,[[note]]mom dies protecting her at Rolent clock tower and Cassius decides to retire from the army which then spirals to Richard wanting to bolster the army's power[[/note]], Joshua, Ash, Loewe[[note]]the victims of Hamel[[/note]], Agate[[note]]he lost his sister during the war[[/note]], Rean, Osborne,[[note]]their house was raided a few days before the Hamel Incident and killed Osborne's wife and nearly killed Rean[[/note]] and Lechter[[note]]his dad ordered said incident[[/note]]. This incident started Osborne's ascension to power, which set a lot of scheming in motion, culminating into the events in ''Cold Steel III''.]]
** The airship accident between the border of Calvard Republic and Erebonia Empire. [[spoiler:This accident is caused by the espionage battle between the Empire and Republic and a lot of Crossbell State citizens were caught in in, including Lloyd's parents and Ian Grimwood's family. The desire for a stronger Crossbell State so they don't become future victims of such espionage efforts is what starts the conspiracy in the ''Zero'' and ''Ao'' game. Some citizens from the Empire and the Republic lost their lives too as Towa mentions that her parents died in that accident as well.]]
** There's also of course the Salt Pale incident at North Ambria that changes the lives of [[spoiler:Weissman, Sully, and Sara.]]
* {{Wutai}}: The currently unnamed country or countries from further east where Calvard gets a lot of its immigrants from. Calvard itself is more Fantasy United States of America with a much heavier Chinese/Japanese influence.
* YouCantThwartStageOne: In general, Ouroboros's plans are thoroughly laid out so that there's no way to keep them from accomplishing their bare minimum objectives even if a few Enforcers are beaten in boss battles. The only reason why the Enforcers even bother entertaining the party's challenges is because they have [[ItsPersonal personal reasons]] for fighting the party, they need to stall for time, [[BloodKnight they're bored]], or some combination of the previous reasons. [[spoiler:Although Osborne managed to thwart ''stage two'' or at least change it a bit for Ouroboros.]]
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Unusual hair colors aren't exactly a surprise for a JRPG but in Kiseki, it's explicitly and repeatedly mentioned that the hair colors we see are the same ones the characters see. Nobody looks at Lloyd strangely when he asks if anyone has seen a green-haired girl walking around for example and Noel describing her own hair as 'pink-brown' doesn't raise eyebrows either.
[[/folder]]
----

* AMechByAnyOtherName: There are two names used more or less interchangeably in Japanese. Doll Weapon (in kanji) and Overmuppet (in katakana) which cover everything from small drones to machines the size of buildings. XSEED has translated this as Archaism in FC. Whether a new term will be coined for those machines that aren't 1200 years old remains to be seen. ''Cold Steel'' introduces two new types, [[spoiler:the Divine Knights (ancient machines whose nature is still mysterious) and the [[GratuitousGerman Panzersoldat]]]] which are reverse-engineered and mass-produced versions of [[spoiler:Ordine, the Azure Knight]].

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: A few small, but persistant features across the series.
** A subtle one many players don't even notice. With the LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters there are to talk to, it would be frustrating to constantly mash the confirm button like you'd expect in an RPG. Instead, holding down the button will instantly activate any prompts, even as you run through the overworld. This both streamlines NPC conversations and makes finding interactable objects much easier. In the ''Cold Steel'' games, the confirm skip is paused so you won't accidentally skip through dialogue, and is instead asigned to the cancel button specifically in conversations.

** Zero no Kiseki: [[TheMafia Revache & Co.]]. [[spoiler: It seems so at first. The true villain is the current leader of D∴G Cult, Joachim Gunther.]]
** Ao no Kiseki: [[spoiler: Dieter Crois, of all people turns out to be one... initially. Then it turns into a BigBadTriumvirate consisting of [[ManipulativeBitch Mariabelle Crois]], [[NonActionBigBad Ian Grimwood]] and [[StealthMentor Arios MacLaine]]. Then there's Ouroboros working behind the scenes...]]

* AwesomeMcCoolName: Lots of characters, starting with [[KingOfBeasts Leonhardt]] (but call him Loewe) whose awesome name is commented on by the characters... and once you move past the obviously meaningful names you get ones that are just plain cool like Arios Maclaine, Rean Schwarzer, Wazy Hemisphere or Gaius Worzel.
* BadassGrandpa: This series has quite a few, who can be found on the pages for the individual arcs. For the character who prominently crosses multiple arcs, Yun Kafai. He is literally Anelace's grandfather and he's the man who ''invented'' the school of swordsmanship used by most of the series [[MasterSwordsman badass swordsmen]].
* BadassPreacher: All Grailsritter, by definition.

* CallingYourAttacks: As the franchise goes on, people will start calling S-crafts more often than not. This doesn't happen to casting orbal arts though.

* ColorCodedElements: Goes hand in hand with the association between the seven families of Arts and the seven types of Septium. Earth is orange/brown (Amberl), Water is blue (Saphirl), Fire is red (Carnelia), Wind is green (Esmelas), Time is black (unknown but possibly Obsidium), Space is yellow (Goldia) and Mirage is silver (Argem).

* CoolAirship: There's one for everyone. Liberl has the Arseille, Ouroboros has the Glorious, the Capua family has the Wildcat, [[spoiler: the twelve Dominions of the Septian Church each have a Merkabah,]] [[PrivateMilitaryContractors Red Constellation]] has the Beowulf, Erebonia has the Courageous and [[spoiler:the Noble Union separately has the Pantagruel]]

* DoomedHometown: [[spoiler: Thanks to the Salt Pale, North Ambria is this for [[Characters/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky Weissman]], [[Characters/ZeroNoKiseki Sully]], and [[Characters/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel Sara.]] Meanwhile, Hamel is this for Joshua, Loewe, and Ash.]]

* FantasticFightingStyle: The series has several of these. Zin follows the Taito (Great Authority) style which is noted to emphasize fighting without taking life. [[spoiler:His fellow pupils were Walter and Kirika (who was also the daughter of their master)]]. There's also the Hachiyou Ittou (Eight Leaves, One Blade) style of swordsmanship used by many of the series' [[MasterSwordsman best sword-users]] or [[RetiredBadass ex-sword masters]]. It is known to be divided into eight Forms and as of ''Cold Steel IV'' all eight forms have been fully shown. Proving that [[OldMaster Yun Kafai]] is CrazyPrepared, the unarmed form, ''Mute''[[note]]Empty Hands[[/note]], is an unarmed combat style.

* FictionAsCoverUp: The Carnelia books you collect in FC are revealed to be based on the adventures of real people. Ein Selnert first appears in The 3rd, Toval in the Ring of Judgment manga and Micht in ''Cold Steel''. Ein notes that the books make for great PlausibleDeniability. In light of ''The End Of A Saga'' which is the 9th instalment, it's easier to list which in-universe fictional works that are ''actually fiction''.
* FirstEpisodeSpoiler: The series runs on a continuous narrative. It's pretty much impossible to talk about any game after FC without revealing [[spoiler:the existence of Ouroboros or the facts that 'Professor Alba' is a villain and that Joshua is an amnesiac former assassin]]. It's pretty much impossible to talk about any game after SC without mentioning [[spoiler:that Renne is also an Ouroboros assassin, that Liberl Ark exists and that Kevin, Olivier and Campanella are both far more important than the people they initially present themselves as being.]] It's also impossible to talk about Ao without mentioning [[spoiler:the existence of the D∴G Cult and Gnosis]] from Zero... and Ao itself is a FirstEpisodeSpoiler for ''Cold Steel'', making a large chunk of the plot (though not the specific details) a massive ForegoneConclusion that makes it hard to talk about the game with people not familiar with the earlier entries without spoiling things. Then it's pretty much impossible to talk about ''Cold Steel II'' without mentioning how [[spoiler:Crow is <C>, the ILF are agents of the Noble Faction, Sharon is a member of Ouroboros and Vita and Misty are the same person and ''also'' a member of Ouroboros]]. And finally, it's impossible to talk about ''Cold Steel III'' without mentioning that [[spoiler: the Reformist Faction wins and Osborne takes over Crossbell (though this was already spoiled by ''Ao''), Osborne is not dead ''and'' has declared war against Ouroboros', Osborne is Rean's father, Crow is dead, Ouroboros ''loses'' for the first time, Emma is a witch, Rufus is TheMole for Osborne and is the Governor-General of Crossbell, Altina and Millium were obtained by Osborne from The Thirteen Factories, and Lloyd and Rean had a duel at the Geofront (alongside Rixia and Altina)]]. Then you can't even talk about the fact that ''Cold Steel'' has a fourth series without finding out...well,[[WhamEpisode pretty much everything.]] Most notably, [[spoiler: Ash is a Hamel survivor and shot the Emperor, Alisa's dad is alive and leader of the Black Workshop, Millium sacrificed herself and turned into a sword, Rean killed the (corrupted) Holy Beast of Earth with said sword and lost control of his powers, said act unleashed a curse of Conflict onto Erebonia, Azure Siegfried was Crow all along, and Rutger, Arianrhod, and ''Osborne'' are all Awakeners.]]

* AirborneAircraftCarrier: The Glorious is large enough to contain launch bays for smaller gunships [[UpToEleven which are themselves capable of launching smaller manned craft.]] [[spoiler:The Noble Union's flagship Pantagruel is all but stated to be the Glorious' sister ship and carries a full compliment of [[HumongousMecha Panzersoldat]] that can be deployed directly via a winch system]]
* AlienGeometries: [[spoiler:The 'Another Dimension' versions of the Tetracyclic Towers, most of [[EldritchLocation Phantasma]], the Azure Tree and the Territory of the Great Shadow]]

* MarkOfTheBeast: [[spoiler:Zero reveals the origin of Renne and Tio's [[SupernaturalGoldEyes golden eyes]]: They're a permanent side effect of using an early version of [[SuperSerum Gnosis]] in large quantities. Users of the refined form of the drug exhibit [[RedEyesTakeWarning red eyes]] after prolonged exposure.]]
** The power possessed by [[spoiler:Rean and Macburne]] has this effect when used, changing their appearance. The latter is particularly extreme with [[BlackEyesOfCrazy creepy black eyes]] and tattoos a part of the package. This power is specifically referred to as something 'outside' manifesting through the user.

* NighInvulnerability: The [[HumongousMecha Aion machines]] are made of a super-strong alloy that makes them more or less impervious to harm from conventional means. On top of this, they also spend most of Ao no Kiseki [[spoiler:empowered by Azure Demiourgos]] which allows them to operate at peak efficiency even in prolonged combat against opponents capable of employing distinctly ''unconventional'' means.
** Also from Ao, [[spoiler:Azure Demiourgos itself, by virtue of being a godlike fusion of the original Sept-Terrion with power over Time and Space added as well.]]

* SecretArt: Methodism (techniques that resemble Orbal Arts but don't involve the use of Orbments) isn't exactly secret but its practice is rare in western Zemuria. It's implied that countries to the east have a few of these.

* SeriesMascot: Poms, bouncing little puffballs with eyes that come in all different varieties. The standout example (and the one that represented the franchise in [[IntercontinuityCrossover Alternative Saga]] is the [[MetalSlime Shining Pom]], which adds wings and a halo.

* AdamSmithHatesYourGuts: Actually averted (though this is equally illogical at times) with items costing the same amount regardless of where you buy them or when in the game you do so. A Tear Balm purchased in Grancel in FC will cost exactly as much as one you bought in Rolent at the start of the game. Most of the time, the items you buy aren't manufactured locally and the ones that ''are'' are only sold in that location so there isn't much reason for the prices to be different. Why the unique items tend to go up in value with every new location on the other hand... although it at least some cases it makes perfect sense. If you're selling restored 1200+ year old relics incorporating LostTechnology, you'd probably charge more than for the gear your local blacksmith could make too.

* AnimatedArmor: A large number of enemies encountered in The 3rd. Others are seen in Stargaze Tower and Lohengrin Castle. All cases take place in spiritually active areas and their presence is explicitly supernatural.

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: a few small, but persistant features across the series.

* ApocalypseHow: The Great Collapse was a continent-wide (if not world-wide) one which ended the golden age brought about by the Sept-Terrion and set civilization back to bronze age tech levels.

* BlackBox: Exactly ''how'' Artifacts work is usually a complete mystery and several characters even call them Black Boxes. The most prominent example is the Sept-Terrion, which can explicitly cause 'miracles' but nobody understands ''how''. [[spoiler:Except maybe the Master, if you assume [[WildMassGuessing that she is Aidios]]]]. Ouroboros is better at figuring out Artifacts than anyone else, judging by the fact that they have managed to A) Copy and improve upon known Ancient Zemurian creations from non-functioning examples (Traumerei Dragion), B) Create copies of Artifacts known only through descriptions which are close enough to the original to fool the original (the Gospels) and C) [[spoiler:Indirectly recreate a ''Sept-Terrion'', granted, the person responsible of recreating and improving it finished the work before actually becoming a member of Ouroboros, but still.]].

** Ys vs. Sora no Kiseki: Alternative Saga (2010; Japan only crossover)
** [[VideoGame/NayutaNoKiseki Nayuta no Kiseki]] (2012; Japan only spin-off)[[/index]]
** Akatsuki no Kiseki (2016; Japan only browser based spin-off. Later ported to the Vita and [=PS4=])
** Sora no Kiseki: Kizuna (tentatively translated as Trails in the Sky: Fetter): (Android and [=iOS=], parts of Asia only[[note]]launched in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and Japan[[/note]], shut down 31st October 2018).

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel3'' (2017 in Japan, 2019 worldwide; [=PS4=], UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch).

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel2'' (2014 in Japan, 2016 worldwide; Vita, [=PS3=], PC and [=PS4=]).

** Sora no Kiseki: Kizuna (tentatively translated as Trails in the Sky: Fetter): (Android and [=iOS=], parts of Asia only[[note]]launched in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and Japan[[/note]], shut down 31st October 2018).[[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kzgj.heroes.jiancn&hl=en]]

* ConservationOfCompetence: Very neatly averted with Ouroboros. Aside from [[spoiler:one moment of Weissmann carrying the IdiotBall]] and chronic ButtMonkey [[spoiler:Gilbert]] everyone we see is consistently and extremely competent, which is one of the reasons they're able to be a convincing threat across the entire series.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsFromZero'' (2010; PSP, PC, Vita and PS4).
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsToAzure'' (2012; PSP, Vita and PS4).

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel'' (2013 in Japan, 2015 worldwide; Vita, [=PS3=], PC and UsefulNotes/PlayStation4).

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsFromZero'' (2010; PSP, Vita and PC).
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsToAzure'' (2012; PSP and Vita).

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfOrigins'' (2020 in Japan, TBA worldwide; [=PS4=]), announced as the final title for the ''The Legend of Heroes'' franchise

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfOrigins'' (2020 in Japan, TBA worldwide; [=PS4=])

* FantasticMeasurementSystem: In terms of length and distance, Zemuria has an equivalent measurement system with real life; rige/rege for centimeter, arge for meter, selge for kilometer, and torim for tonnes.

* FictionAsCoverUp: The Carnelia books you collect in FC are revealed to be based on the adventures of real people. Ein Selnert first appears in The 3rd, Toval in the Ring of Judgment manga and Micht in ''Cold Steel''. Ein notes that the books make for great PlausibleDeniability.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel2'' (2014 in Japan, 2016 worldwide; Vita, [=PS3=], PC and UsefulNotes/PlayStation4).
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel3'' (2017 in Japan, 2019 worldwide; [=PS4=], NintendoSwitch).

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel3'' (2017 in Japan, 2019 worldwide; [=PS4=]).

* MasterSwordsman: Quite a few. The top five are (in no order) Ein Selnart, Arianrhod, Loewe, Victor Arseid and Yun Kafei (who has at least two students who qualify in their own right).

* NewGamePlus: Available in all the games. Some games also have the ability to carry over completion data from earlier games in their given arc. In at least one game, it isn't possible to get 100% completion in one playthrough.

* OneSteveLimit: Gleefully averted with Lloyd and Tio, who were [=NPCs=] in the Liberl arc... and two of the main characters in the Crossbell arc just happen to have the same names, which was all to set up a joke when the protagonists of the former arc meet the protagonists of the latter arc. This extends to shared names among [=NPCs=] as well.

* LongRunnerCastTurnover: Every arc has its own party. Some major characters from one arc show up in secondary roles in later arcs, but the only characters who come close to showing up in every game of the main series (i.e., not counting Nayuta) are Blueblanc (causer of problems in sidequests and occasional chapter boss), Anton and Ricky (background characters and occasional provider of sidequests). Out of party members, the person who comes closest to appearing in every game is Olivier (who appears in every game up to ''Cold Steel IV'' except for ''Zero''), though in several of them he's only an NPC.

* FirstEpisodeSpoiler: The series runs on a continuous narrative. It's pretty much impossible to talk about any game after FC without revealing [[spoiler:the existence of Ouroboros or the facts that 'Professor Alba' is a villain and that Joshua is an amnesiac former assassin]]. It's pretty much impossible to talk about any game after SC without mentioning [[spoiler:that Renne is also an Ouroboros assassin, that Liberl Ark exists and that Kevin and Campanella are both far more important than the people they initially present themselves as being.]] It's also impossible to talk about Ao without mentioning [[spoiler:the existence of the D∴G Cult and Gnosis]] from Zero... and Ao itself is a FirstEpisodeSpoiler for ''Cold Steel'', making a large chunk of the plot (though not the specific details) a massive ForegoneConclusion that makes it hard to talk about the game with people not familiar with the earlier entries without spoiling things. Then it's pretty much impossible to talk about ''Cold Steel II'' without mentioning how [[spoiler:Crow is <C>, the ILF are agents of the Noble Faction, Sharon is a member of Ouroboros and Vita and Misty are the same person and ''also'' a member of Ouroboros]]. And finally, it's impossible to talk about ''Cold Steel III'' without mentioning that [[spoiler: the Reformist Faction wins and Osborne takes over Crossbell (though this was already spoiled by ''Ao''), Osborne is not dead ''and'' has declared war against Ouroboros', Osborne is Rean's father, Crow is dead, Ouroboros ''loses'' for the first time, Emma is a witch, Rufus is TheMole for Osborne and is the Governor-General of Crossbell, Altina and Millium were obtained by Osborne from The Thirteen Factories, and Lloyd and Rean had a duel at the Geofront (alongside Rixia and Altina)]]. Then you can't even talk about the fact that ''Cold Steel'' has a fourth series without finding out...well,[[WhamEpisode pretty much everything.]] Most notably, [[spoiler: Ash is a Hamel survivor and shot the Emperor, Alisa's dad is alive and leader of the Black Workshop, Millium sacrificed herself and turned into a sword, Rean killed the (corrupted) Holy Beast of Earth with said sword and lost control of his powers, said act unleashed a curse of Conflict onto Erebonia, Azure Siegfried was Crow all along, and Rutger, Arianrhod, and ''Osborne'' are all Awakeners.]]

* ConvenientDecoyCat: Done once in FC and again in Zero. In the first case, your characters are hiding in a crate and supposedly invisible to detection by Orbal sensors... which pick up life signs in one of the crates. Turns out that it was a cat, specifically placed there to be detected and defuse both suspicion and tensions. In the second case, the cat was part of a RefugeInAudacity plan but filled the same role in distracting the attention of some thugs who otherwise might have looked too closely behind the curtains.

** Ao no Kiseki: [[spoiler: Dieter Crois, of all people turns out to be one... initially. Then it turns into a BigBad Triumvirate consisting of [[ManipulativeBitch Mariabelle Crois]], [[NonActionBigBad Ian Grimwood]] and [[StealthMentor Arios MacLaine]]. Then there's Ouroboros working behind the scenes...]]

** XVII, The Star: [[spoiler:Shirley Orlando, the Orchessa Scarlatta]]