The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV
This review contains spoilers
This is not a well formatted review. It's mostly random thoughts because these games don't change much from game to game.
The stuff I always say:
Turn-based combat is still great. I play on Easy so I don't have to go too deep with the orbment system but I know there's a good meta here if you want to play on harder difficulties. I also don't play side-quests except bonding events and the occasionally monster slaying.
- While there's a lot of darkness within the world of Trails, what I love most about it is that there's also a warmth that permeates the series. This isn't unique to Cold Steel 4, obviously, but I really noticed it in one specific area. In the hidden witch village Eryn, you often just run around and talk to teammates. That is also not unique to CS4 or that area. But there's this song that plays called "Feel At Home" which is so astoundingly beautiful, and it mixes with you being in a literal place of magic with people you care for. And everything at the beginning is terrible--you don't know where people are, you don't know what the hell's going on, and yet this song plays, and it's soothing and hopeful. And it makes me feel like things are going to be okay. And perhaps that's the highest praise I can give this game and the series.
- With that said, as a whole, the soundtrack is a bit of a step back from the others, but hell, I still love it. Also love the main menu music in this one.
- Story isn't the most compelling. You spend a lot of it getting people back, but that doesn't mean I hated it. They still sprinkle in some great moments. I loved the True Ending but I hate that there are two endings. Just put the True Ending as the default for fuck's sake. My favourite part is the wedding photos during the credits. First off, I was just happy that Olivert asked Schera to be his wife. But then they put all these images of the wedding with some more beautiful music in the credits. Awesome stuff. But the ending as a whole is a nice conclusion.
- Disappointed in my pick for Rean.I agonized over who Rean would be with even though I know everybody gets amnesia about this so it really doesn't matter, but I wanted to pick the right one for him. I thought Musse because she was so down bad. I know Alisa is pushed. I thought about Emma. Hell, I kind of wanted to pick Fie because her relationship with him felt so organic (like Emma). But so did Juna's, so I went with Juna. And it's just like, "but you're my student so later on" and it's like oh c'mon.
- Dug that we learned a little more about McBurn and even Campanella. By the way, when the Steel Maiden died, even Campanella grieved a little. That was nice. I also like that McBurn acknowledges that his name is silly by calling out Ouroboros for picking it.
- On the topic of Ouroboros, I like how they have a built in excuse for the classic cop-out/trope (depending on how generous you feel) of you beating a boss and them just being like, "whoopsie you won and I'm just going to leave conveniently" because their whole thing is experiments and observation, at least as of this game.
- Duvalie's pretty cute. I warmed up to her a lot this game.
- Musse was going to off herself. That hit.
The big criticisms:
- The story is the main reason I play these games. I do dig the gameplay, but it's the world, characters and plot that make this so great. I'm always willing to sit through a little excess in the dialogue because ultimately it pays off. I mean, to its credit, the reason I agonized so much over Rean's love life is because I cared deeply about most of these playable characters. I didn't want to hurt them. So, just know that even if I'm critical from this point on, I love this game and I could sit down all day and play this and not get bored.
So with that out of the way, this might be Falcom at their worst. It's not all the time by any means. It's not even most of the time. But they really do test your patience. There's a gigantic cast here. And they all have to say something. And it goes on and on sometimes. Someone here said that Falcom relies heavily on your investment in these characters and I think that's true. If this game would have been as long as CS3 I might have gotten mad. Mostly I got mildly annoyed sometimes, but it's still worth mentioning. My tolerance for this has become incredibly high.
And here's an example of a moment where I wish they'd learn that you don't have to show EVERYTHING: When 5 Salt Pales pop up. You have to infiltrate all 5. You're using a mixture of characters actually in your regular party and other powerhouses you never get to use again. Seeing some of these people in one or two battles is fun, but you realize that there's no point in fighting (at least on Easy). You won't use them again. Why level them? Maybe on harder difficulties it matters, I don't know. I can't imagine it matters much on Normal either. Fortunately each SP is short (though I basically just ran through them), but still. You don't have to make us play those. They're repetitive.
- Also relating to the cast, I don't like that so many characters came back to life. Millium was a very real sacrifice that I felt throughout this entire game. She loomed over everything. It broke my heart. The airship blowing up at the end of the 3rd game loomed over everything. Olivert's death especially hit the world hard. But I said in my CS3 review, I suspect these people will come back. And sure enough, it happened. And I'm of two minds here... I like that I get to see Millium again. I never use her on my attack party but she amuses me to no end and I enjoy her personality. It was a tragedy to see such a shining light snuffed out in 3. Olivert being alive meant we got to see the wedding photos. Someone made the criticism that it loses all weight when you kill people and bring them back, and that's true. But I guess the good that came out of their return outweighs the bad for me. I don't want to play the version of this game where I don't get to see a picture of my drunken queen Sara holding up a glass of alcohol. Or the picture of them all together.
I understand that I'm a bit of an apologist for the very real issues that this game has. I can acknowledge them but at the end of the day, I lived this game like all the others. I would spend all day playing them on my days off, and a couple hours after work at night. It would be dishonest of me to say I didn't love it. Not many games grab me like the Trails games do. But this is definitely not one of the best ones. It sits comfortably as either the worst or second worst.
I just love Trails.
The stuff I always say:
Turn-based combat is still great. I play on Easy so I don't have to go too deep with the orbment system but I know there's a good meta here if you want to play on harder difficulties. I also don't play side-quests except bonding events and the occasionally monster slaying.
- While there's a lot of darkness within the world of Trails, what I love most about it is that there's also a warmth that permeates the series. This isn't unique to Cold Steel 4, obviously, but I really noticed it in one specific area. In the hidden witch village Eryn, you often just run around and talk to teammates. That is also not unique to CS4 or that area. But there's this song that plays called "Feel At Home" which is so astoundingly beautiful, and it mixes with you being in a literal place of magic with people you care for. And everything at the beginning is terrible--you don't know where people are, you don't know what the hell's going on, and yet this song plays, and it's soothing and hopeful. And it makes me feel like things are going to be okay. And perhaps that's the highest praise I can give this game and the series.
- With that said, as a whole, the soundtrack is a bit of a step back from the others, but hell, I still love it. Also love the main menu music in this one.
- Story isn't the most compelling. You spend a lot of it getting people back, but that doesn't mean I hated it. They still sprinkle in some great moments. I loved the True Ending but I hate that there are two endings. Just put the True Ending as the default for fuck's sake. My favourite part is the wedding photos during the credits. First off, I was just happy that Olivert asked Schera to be his wife. But then they put all these images of the wedding with some more beautiful music in the credits. Awesome stuff. But the ending as a whole is a nice conclusion.
- Disappointed in my pick for Rean.I agonized over who Rean would be with even though I know everybody gets amnesia about this so it really doesn't matter, but I wanted to pick the right one for him. I thought Musse because she was so down bad. I know Alisa is pushed. I thought about Emma. Hell, I kind of wanted to pick Fie because her relationship with him felt so organic (like Emma). But so did Juna's, so I went with Juna. And it's just like, "but you're my student so later on" and it's like oh c'mon.
- Dug that we learned a little more about McBurn and even Campanella. By the way, when the Steel Maiden died, even Campanella grieved a little. That was nice. I also like that McBurn acknowledges that his name is silly by calling out Ouroboros for picking it.
- On the topic of Ouroboros, I like how they have a built in excuse for the classic cop-out/trope (depending on how generous you feel) of you beating a boss and them just being like, "whoopsie you won and I'm just going to leave conveniently" because their whole thing is experiments and observation, at least as of this game.
- Duvalie's pretty cute. I warmed up to her a lot this game.
- Musse was going to off herself. That hit.
The big criticisms:
- The story is the main reason I play these games. I do dig the gameplay, but it's the world, characters and plot that make this so great. I'm always willing to sit through a little excess in the dialogue because ultimately it pays off. I mean, to its credit, the reason I agonized so much over Rean's love life is because I cared deeply about most of these playable characters. I didn't want to hurt them. So, just know that even if I'm critical from this point on, I love this game and I could sit down all day and play this and not get bored.
So with that out of the way, this might be Falcom at their worst. It's not all the time by any means. It's not even most of the time. But they really do test your patience. There's a gigantic cast here. And they all have to say something. And it goes on and on sometimes. Someone here said that Falcom relies heavily on your investment in these characters and I think that's true. If this game would have been as long as CS3 I might have gotten mad. Mostly I got mildly annoyed sometimes, but it's still worth mentioning. My tolerance for this has become incredibly high.
And here's an example of a moment where I wish they'd learn that you don't have to show EVERYTHING: When 5 Salt Pales pop up. You have to infiltrate all 5. You're using a mixture of characters actually in your regular party and other powerhouses you never get to use again. Seeing some of these people in one or two battles is fun, but you realize that there's no point in fighting (at least on Easy). You won't use them again. Why level them? Maybe on harder difficulties it matters, I don't know. I can't imagine it matters much on Normal either. Fortunately each SP is short (though I basically just ran through them), but still. You don't have to make us play those. They're repetitive.
- Also relating to the cast, I don't like that so many characters came back to life. Millium was a very real sacrifice that I felt throughout this entire game. She loomed over everything. It broke my heart. The airship blowing up at the end of the 3rd game loomed over everything. Olivert's death especially hit the world hard. But I said in my CS3 review, I suspect these people will come back. And sure enough, it happened. And I'm of two minds here... I like that I get to see Millium again. I never use her on my attack party but she amuses me to no end and I enjoy her personality. It was a tragedy to see such a shining light snuffed out in 3. Olivert being alive meant we got to see the wedding photos. Someone made the criticism that it loses all weight when you kill people and bring them back, and that's true. But I guess the good that came out of their return outweighs the bad for me. I don't want to play the version of this game where I don't get to see a picture of my drunken queen Sara holding up a glass of alcohol. Or the picture of them all together.
I understand that I'm a bit of an apologist for the very real issues that this game has. I can acknowledge them but at the end of the day, I lived this game like all the others. I would spend all day playing them on my days off, and a couple hours after work at night. It would be dishonest of me to say I didn't love it. Not many games grab me like the Trails games do. But this is definitely not one of the best ones. It sits comfortably as either the worst or second worst.
I just love Trails.
Mini Review: While it's one of the worst Trails games up to this point, I still absolutely adore it. It is Falcom at their worst in some ways... not really respecting our time with a huge cast that always feels like they have to say something (while not really saying much of anything). And a section or two that felt like padding. And the story's a bit slower since you spend a lot of time just collecting people. But at the same time, it's emotional, great gameplay, great characters, music, etc.
Watch the Trailer