The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV Reviews
Trails of Cold Steel 4 is a decent payoff for a story that spans multiple games, even if suffers from a bloated story and lackluster character development. The gameplay mechanics are still solid making it a great JRPG provided you have the time to come prepared for its massive narrative.
Let’s be honest, if you haven’t been sold on the Cold Steel series by this point it’s unlikely the forth game is going to change your mind. If you’re new and the Switch is your only option I would suggest picking up the third entry first (or waiting and pray that the first two games get localized for Switch in the West). While more of the same, The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV really stands out as one of the best jRPGs I’ve played in a long time, even if the story got a little much at times. Falcon have done a stella job as always and hopefully the fans will enjoy the experience as much as I did. Now I think I need to go lie down.
I was elated to complete my journey through this arc, but was saddened by the thought of it all coming to an end. A relatable connection made in each character’s resolve, and will to persevere. A determinable outcome, but a parable that exceeds legend. A must play for the JRPG devout.
Your enjoyment of The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV will directly depend on whether or not you’ve played the previous games in this gigantic franchise. If so, then you’ll actually understand what’s going on and will have a great time with this stupidly detailed story. If not, you’ll either going to love it for its excellent combat system or feel completely clueless as to what’s happening.
Unable to maintain player's interest
Review in Greek | Read full review
Trails of Cold Steel IV marks the conclusion of a huge saga of four games that delivered a lot of emotions. The only way to evaluate the 4th title and final title of a series is to look at the collection as a whole and at the path that brought us to the ending. With that said, we can conclude that Nihon Falcom did an almost flawless job with a story that will stay in my mind for many years.
Review in French | Read full review
If you’re interested in RPGs or the Trails series, The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV is absolutely the game for you.
Trails of Cold Steel IV doesn't make radical updates to the series' formula. The presentation stylings are all here for better or worse. The finale to this long-running story is easily worth your time.
This is the grand finale of the Trails series. To represent that extra icing on the cake, there are plenty of content to explore and numerous characters will appear as if we’re at an all-star game. The long and extended stories which bloomed from the Erebonian empire will come to an end, and some of the deeply rooted histories behind some of the important individuals will also be covered with their back stories. Other than Trails of Reverie, this final game packs the most amount of volume and convenience to a comparison. If you’re a loyal fan of the series, you do not want to miss out on the finale to the story.
Review in Korean | Read full review
At 'The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 4', the chaotic era of Erebonian Empire was finally gone. Even though the main story was less persuasive and villains' characterestics was plain, the main character 'Rean Schwarzer' has grown significantly from his past work to achieve a successful conclusion. So, the ending is much more sweet and wonderful than ever. Let have the toast to the Trails of Cold Steel Series greeting its great finale.
Review in Korean | Read full review
If you’re already a Trails fan, I doubt you will hate the game. Hell, if you’re a Trails fan you probably already OWN the game, but could I recommend Trails of Cold Steel IV to a newbie or even just a fan of the genre? Not really. I’d recommend the Sky trilogy on Steam, or even just the first Cold Steel game to see if the series interests you.
Trails of Cold Steel IV is the grand finale of an epic series, which spans over a decade. As with Marvel movies, the more games you've played from the Trails, the better the experience. That's not to say new players won't enjoy it, as it is a good start to the series. The fans, however, would get way more out of it.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV pulls off a highly satisfying conclusion to this long running saga but character bloat and lack of improvements hinder the experience.
Really enjoyable in some respects, but very disappointing in others, Trails of Cold Steel IV is overly long considering the story it wishes to tell.
If the main continuous story is the primary reason you want to play The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV, then I’m afraid it doesn’t live up to its own hype. I get the sense Falcom bit off more than they could chew with this arc, dragging far too many plot threads into this already big game and not finishing many of them in a fulfilling way. Much of the story’s tension is manufactured by one incredibly frustrating plot device that did substantially more harm than good to the narrative. Despite this, I enjoyed this game a surprising amount for everything else it has to offer. Plenty of great scenes and character moments can be found outside of the main story. A lot of the bonding events and optional events in this game are genuinely, surprisingly good. While not my favorite game in the entire Trails series in terms of systems, it is still the Cold Steel title I most enjoyed in terms of gameplay sections. Several combat aspects were tweaked enough from III for me to feel like I was genuinely engaging with its systems. This game is noticeably imperfect and unlikely to be enjoyed by someone who isn’t already a fan of the series, but there’s enough to enjoy if you’re willing to spend the time to do so. The lows are among the lowest in the series, but the highs are high enough to salvage a decently enjoyable JRPG for me.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV is an awe-inspiring love letter to loyal fans of the franchise. The enormous cast of characters, grand-scale story, and memorable adventure makes for a wonderful conclusion to this epic long-running tale.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV is an excellent JRPG and easily one of the very best the genre has to offer in a generation which was rich with great experiences. Its turn-based combat has been finely tuned to perfection and its narrative is a fantastic example of how to reward players for investing time throughout multiple games, ending the metaseries and setting the stage for the future in the best way possible.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Trails of Cold Steel 4 brings the Cold Steel series to a spectacular conclusion with some of the best storytelling in the genre and improvements to every gameplay system.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV is a great finale to what has been a memorable four game journey. It’s got so many great moments throughout and many of the characters we’ve grown to love get to shine. It could’ve done with a bit better pacing though as I felt like I was just doing busy work quite a bit of the time. I can’t say much else other than if you’ve been invested in this story so far, you’ll be very happy with the payoff and if you haven’t yet jumped into it yet then you’re missing out on one of the best JRPG franchises out there.