The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV Reviews
Cold Steel IV finally ends the "Phantasmal Blaze Plan" arc for the series after nearly a decade, for better or worse.
Does The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV have a great story that's a worthy capstone to a ten-year JRPG saga? No, it doesn't. As a standalone experience, it's an impenetrable mess of fizzled out character arcs and bloated cutscenes. Despite all that, Trails of Cold Steel IV has addictive gameplay, dope music, and gorgeous character designs. If you want a fun and grind-heavy JRPG with a wild amount of options and battles, but don't mind turning your brain off to ignore the story and glaze over poorly-written cutscenes, then this is one's for you.
Unable to maintain player's interest
Review in Greek | Read full review
Series fans will enjoy this game no matter what. But if you are a series fan, I’m assuming you’ve already played it on PS4. If you’re looking to buy it on another platform, the evidence stacks up in favour of the PC version because of the Switch’s downgraded graphics and lack of achievements unless you really want that handheld portability. If you’re not a series fan yet, then go back to page 1 and start at the beginning. This game will not make a lick of sense to you.
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.
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.
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.
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
As a whole, Trails of Cold Steel IV’s repetitive nature and weaker writing made this grand JRPG series end on a bit of a disappointing note.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV is a rather bloated blockbuster crossover event that's shaped like a JRPG. If you're a die-hard Trails fan with a deep love of the franchise, then seeing your favorite characters interact will probably make up for the somewhat disappointing story. Anyone else should stay far away until they've played the first three Trails of Cold Steel main games in the series, and looking up the other games in the franchise couldn't hurt. I had fun with ToCS4, but it's a bit of a mess, and your enjoyment will depend on how much that mess appeals to you. I still have a soft spot in my heart for the series, but I can only hope the next game is more focused than this offering.
Anyone who’s invested time into playing the previous games in the Trails series will know exactly what they’re in for. Satisfying combat, impressive world-building, and deep characters are all part of the package. It does have pacing issues, and players may get lost if they didn’t experience the arcs in Liberl and Crossbell. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV is still a solid game though, despite the stumble in the second act, and is a viable option for those itching to play an epic, immersive JRPG.
If you already invested more than 500 hours to the previous instalments of Trails of Cold Steel series, you would definitely enjoy seeing familiar faces and you would love the overall experience. But as a newcomer you should probably try earlier games first, just to see if you want to get invested in the whole franchise.
Review in Russian | Read full review
A finale that only exacerbates the faults of the series up till now but the sheer audacity of the storytelling, and the goodwill built up over so many years, pushes it over the finishing line.
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.
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 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.
Trails of Cold Steel 4 is far from the best of the series, mainly because it loses some of the impact of what it presents us, but it is still a great conclusion to a captivating story with an extensive and well-characterized group of interesting characters. Make no mistake, we are undoubtedly facing one of the greatest sagas of modern RPGs. Anyone willing to spend 300 or 400 hours playing Trails of Cold Steel 1, 2, 3 and 4 will be enriched by this experience with a lasting rewarding feeling. It is truly a title that denotes greatness and that has taken on without any fear the difficult task of being able to deliver to its fans a captivating, emotional and different ending. The feeling that will last in the minds and hearts of the players is that we are part of that group of friends and we will truly feel sorry that we will not return to that world again.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Ultimately, if you are an existing Trails of Cold Steel fan and you want to finish the story, you have no reason not to pick this game up. This is the ending you’ve been waiting for and more of what you love. If you’re only a returning Cold Steel III fan, you also might as well finish the story and see where Class VII ends up and what happens next. Despite not surpassing the greatness that was CS3, I had a fun time with Trails of Cold Steel IV. It’s a ton of content for the money and well worth playing at least once.
Overall though, and without too many other spoilers, I enjoyed, laughed, cried, and damn near yelled at the TV over the course of sixty plus hours for the normal ending before even starting to head back for the true ending and conclusion to Class VII’s adventures as we await what comes up next in The Legend of Heroes: Hajimari no Kiseki which released this year in Japan.