Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel is the first title of the Trails of Cold Steel subseries in The Legend of Heroes series of JRPGs. It follows the adventures of Rean and his friends as they go to a prestigious military academy and travel the continent.
The battle system is turn-based where you move characters around and unleash skills (known as Arts and Crafts) that can reach multiple enemies. It's similar to Chrono Trigger in that these skills affect enemies within a line, circle, or box.
Character progression is interesting as you equip various orbs to enhance stats, learn new skills, and acquire interesting bonuses. This system is not as easy to exploit as the Materia system in Final Fantasy VII.
When exploring locations, you can slash at enemies before starting battles in order to gain an advantage, uncover many treasure chests, and speak to loads of unique characters while checking off a list of side-quests.
Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel was released on the PlayStation 3 in December 2015 and is a role-playing game (RPG).