The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV Reviews
Starting with Cold Steel III is fine, but hopefully we'll see all four games on Switch eventually. For those who already know and love Trails of Cold Steel, it would seem worthwhile to seek out the other two Trails series to really appreciate the richness of the world of Zemuria and the scores of character interactions and references that come up in Trails of Cold Steel IV, an excellent bookend to the incredible journey of Rean and Class VII. I've always said that the mark of a great role-playing game is in that bittersweet feeling you get when it's over. I'm happy to have seen this story to completion, but for a while I'll be sad that my adventures with this likeable and colorful cast have also ended.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV is massive. It's massively fun and massively rewarding. Fans of JRPGs can get delightfully lost in its deep story, its numerous characters, and its battle system that provides a ridiculous amount of options for customization. Just make sure you've played Trails of Cold Steel III (and have at least read up on I and II).
The long awaited end of the Erebonian arc is finally here, and it's a huge and well written, if classic, JRPG, that is recommended to all fans of the series. It's a tough sell for newcomers, though, so the advice is to play the other three chapters before this one.
Review in Italian | Read full review
To enjoy The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV you must at least have finished the previous chapter: it's simply imperative. Recommendations aside, this is an excellent role-playing game, technically not up to date but demonstrating Nihon Falcon's mastery of the genre.
Review in Italian | Read full review
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 4 is a true culmination of an epic journey filled with unforgettable characters in a world that has become as familiar and inviting to me as my own hometown. If not for the lackluster localization effort and continuous implementation of uneven voice acting, this could have been the perfect send off for the members of Class VII, Thors military academy.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV builds off of the previous three entries and finally brings a conclusion to the long-running Erebonian Arc.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV is an exceptional title in the series. The cast of characters is immense and interesting while the story follows it up with bombshells. An already great turn-based combat system is refined and enhanced. This is a must play for RPG fans who have already played Cold Steel games.
Trails of Cold Steel comes to an end in episode 4, after seven years of story, by bringing a satisfying conclusion to fans of the saga and bringing together dozens of characters we know throughout the games. Despite maintaining the same combat system with some balancing on specific things, the gameplay is fun and consistent. The game is a beautiful service to fans, delivering dozens of hours of content to end the story in a dignified way.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
The train of Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV has reached its final destination with flying colors. A thunderous applause can be heard and the guests can leave the train confident and satisfied. The same was my feeling when I finished the final epic. The series has accompanied me for many hours and I wouldn't want to miss any of them. Also the end was not the actual end. If you really want to know everything, you have to make certain decisions that I don't want to go into here, but it's worth it in any case. Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV is the perfect end of the series. A thrilling story right to the end, forces every RPG lover to play the game to the end, even if it can take up to 100 hours. The sound is well done and makes fun to listen to. Especially the variety of different sounds made me add the tracks to my spotifylist. The only downer remains the look. The look has improved over the last seven years for the series itself, but is still not state of the art. I also really liked the combat system with the new features like Auto Battle or the huge Mechs that can be summoned. Everyone who played the series until the third part is forced to finish the final part. If you have never played an offshoot, you will have a hard time finding your way into the game. While it's not a bad idea to rework the story so far, it doesn't replace playing the series.
Review in German | Read full review
Closing out the tale of The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel saga has certainly been one of the most enjoyable gaming experiences I’ve had in my life. Seeing how far everyone in Class VII has grown and remembering all the trials they’ve had to overcome to reach this point in their lives has been an incredibly amazing journey. They are characters that we’ve grown attached to and we wanted to see how their journey plays out and how it’ll end and we got just that in this final game and one can’t help but probably become a bit emotional over that. While the saga may be over, they still have a part to play in the grand scheme of things which we can definitely see more of them in the next Trails series.
All things considered Trails of Cold Steel IV is one of the best JPRG experiences you can buy and a must buy if you're invested in the Trails franchise.
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.
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.
Despite some shortcomings, this is still a fantastic JRPG that remembers what made players fall in love with the genre. You have a wondrous story that is topped with engaging gameplay that is more than enough to keep most people engaged. Toss in a wide variety of mechanics not even mentioned, exploration and so many details and it's easy to understand why so many people love this franchise. And while newcomers are better off playing through the other titles, the recap is robust enough to either remind you what happened or explain so many were excited about the conclusion.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV is a fitting end to the saga of Erebonia. While there are tons of characters returning and plot threads from previous games, newcomers will still be able to enjoy the complicated, political tale along with a deep battle system.