The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV

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.

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.

There’s less focus on building up a single party than in some games in the series. There are so many characters you’ll often switch them around without having time to outfit everyone to perfection. But it’s fun to see everyone come together for this finale, and being an ensemble piece means that four games in, this is an epic-feeling send-off. [Issue#182, p.136]

Trails of Cold Steel IV is a solid JRPG that entertains, throwing a great cast of characters with strong story arcs your way, and worth every second of your time.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV has been a long time coming. Not just because of the cliffhanger Cold Steel III ended on, but because it’s the conclusion to the Cold Steel arc and a convergence point for all three arcs. The game is truly at its best when it’s resolving long-standing plot threads and nodding to previous events and characters in the series. Unfortunately, it spends a lot of time spinning its wheels, and this can be frustrating given how long we’ve waited for this conclusion. It’s not a bad experience, though — just an unnecessarily long one. If you’ve come this far and want to know how it all ends, then settle yourself in for the long haul and keep going forward, relentlessly.

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.

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.

Overall, this is a fantastic "End of Saga" title, as Falcom calls it, even if the Trails name lives on (I'd still love to see the rest of the series localized in the West). Fans of the series certainly don't need a review to tell them this, but if you happen to be checking this game out for the first time, oh boy, hopefully, you know what you're getting into now! Welcome back to Erebonia, everyone!

It's taken a long time to get here but The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 4 is a well-rounded experience, brimming with memorable characters, storylines and world-building. Despite a few stumbles in pacing and localization, not to mention performance issues, it's an incredible role-playing experience.

The title will be able to excite and involve you right from the start, trapping you within a very detailed reality and on the verge of destruction.

It's so good I even forgive the developer for not giving Alisa the leading role like she deserved. And I really love Alisa.

An ambitious closer spanning nearly two decades of characters, storytelling and world-building, The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV is both a fitting send-off and a satisfying reflection of what has made Trails such a fascinating saga to invest in.

Nihon Falcom’s Trails of Cold Steel proudly stands amongst the few which can truly be considered to be at the pinnacle of the modern-day, story-driven JRPG, and it was truly wonderful seeing the culmination of the series’ work within The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV.

The final chapter of this civil war drama is old-fashioned in terms of presentation, but nonetheless delivers a deep story and faceted turn based tactics as well as character development.

Trails of Cold Steel IV is a great farewell letter to the Cold Steel franchise. If you are up to date with the series, then this chapter is a must-play: even when the ending is one of its few drawbacks, it's time to see how the story ends.

I appreciate that The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV is here. I’m glad this is finally over and having this sense of resolution. It’s a sense of finality, and it does an admirable job of bringing everything together and to a close. But it also very much is more of the same, only on a much grander scale and with an overwhelming amount of characters and exposition. This is a game for those who have been following along for the last five years and understand it is more about concluding a story than offering major innovations. While it can be exhausting and overwhelming, I would say it is worth it.

On its own, Trails of Cold Steel IV is far from being the best game in the series, but as a conclusion to an epic story with characters that have long since won us over, it's a fitting finale. Class VII remains one of the most endearing groups in gaming, and although they demand so much of your time across four whole games, both the journey and the eventual payoff has been worth it. When packaged together with Cold Steel I, II, and III, this is easily one of the most engrossing RPG sagas of our time.

A fantastic conclusion to the Trails of Cold Steel series, a highlight in the ever-impressive The Legend of Heroes franchise, and a must-play for JRPG fans.

For those who’ve stuck with Class VII through thick and thin over three games, The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV is the crowning achievement to an exceptionally well-written story with plenty of tears and laughter mixed together into a timeless package. Continued iteration of an already excellent combat system and improved pacing past the first act come together to create a unique experience that I will no doubt continue to treasure for a long time. Though it took a while to get here, the journey was absolutely worth it.

The battle mechanics do feel a bit more sped up from before which marked an improvement to the quality of life that was needed to keep the pace of the battles up. A large roster also keeps things interesting but there is a locking feature where some characters can’t be changed out, limiting the usage of the expansive roster in the beginning.

I was, if not confident, hopeful that the lingering issues that I found myself grappling with in Cold Steel I and II had been mitigated when I played through Cold Steel III. However, now that I've seen the whole story, I can only say that those issues never went away. Even if they appeared fixed for Cold Steel III, they were always there, just below the surface. At this point, if I wasn't already in too deep, I'm not sure if I would even want to continue playing the Trails series. I have very little confidence that Falcom will learn their lesson with how to pace their games, and with the scope of both the world and the series as a whole constantly growing I have no confidence that future games won't run into these self-same issues, but to an even greater degree.

The journey of Class VII continues in the war-torn world. Let's find out together with the many characters of the game what it means to become older in the review of The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV.

The long awaited end of the Erebonian arc is finally here, and it's a huge and well-written, if not 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.

Enjoyable in some respects, but very disappointing in others, The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV does not fail to live up to the series’ legacy. Still, it's a little step back compared to the third installment.

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.

An epic conclusion to the series, but I’m partially glad that it’s over. There are many reasons to play through Trails of Cold Steel IV, from an engaging gameplay loop to an epic story. It takes some of the best elements of the series and combines it for one last hurrah aimed at those who stuck with it for this long. Still, what comes of that is a lot of filler leading to the climax, a lack of focus, and some flimsy themes. There is a satisfying conclusion that includes many of the best storylines and mechanics from the series but at the cost of a few missed plot points and a massive cast of characters with nothing to do but hang around.

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.

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.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 4 is a finale that fans can't miss, and the way the game weaves together narrative threads from the last 15 years is truly impressive.

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 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.