The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel (2013)

I bothered to finish the first psp entry, due to its manageable size and decent amount of charm, but I called it quits soon thereafter and watch the "summary" OVA instead. I only lasted a few hours with this first entry in a new trilogy and I won't bother with the sequels. This game is best compared to early PS2 JRPGs, due to the low budget presentation and the turn based combat. It all functions just fine but everything feels at least 10 years too late in a post Valkyria Chronicles or Persona 3 age. The also disappointing Valkyria Chronicles II is the best comparison I can make due to the comparable settings. I bothered to complete that game though, as fun gameplay could be found behind VK II's similar and highly cliché driven anime students fight a one-dimensional fantasy war story. Monster filled labyrinths and a time filling school year simulator are your main dish here. I will lastly never understand why Nihon Falcom makes all these endlessly wordy games, that barely leave Japan too, as they still haven't managed put tougher even 1 engaging script over the decades. Their Ys games have fun gameplay though, so I will just wait for Ys VIII. The LoH series is now dead to me, unless they vastly revamp it, but fans of the series will probably love this one too. 6/10