The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV - Frontline Edition
released on Apr 09, 2021
The Erebonian Empire is on the brink of all out war! Taking place shortly after the ending of Trails of Cold Steel III, the heroes of Class VII find themselves against the full force of the Empire in an attempt to stop its path of total domination. The Frontline Edition also includes The Black Records art booklet, an Echoes of Erebonia soundtrack download, and a reverse coversheet.
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This review contains spoilers
I actually love this one a lot. It is held back by a lot of the issues prevalent in the bonding events. But it has what I consider to be some of cold steel's best side quests.
The tone of this one is solid, but could've been better if the romance stuff in the bonding events were sidelined to keep focusing on the fears and worries of the Class 7 cast. I love the music, and how you gradually see less men in towns as you progress due to the draft. It's very much a mixed bag, but I'm glad Falcom at the very least dipped their toes in being dark again (if only briefly).
The tone of this one is solid, but could've been better if the romance stuff in the bonding events were sidelined to keep focusing on the fears and worries of the Class 7 cast. I love the music, and how you gradually see less men in towns as you progress due to the draft. It's very much a mixed bag, but I'm glad Falcom at the very least dipped their toes in being dark again (if only briefly).
A narrative disaster held together by the thinnest of tape.
Original Score Before Backloggd Rounding: 5.5/10 (Mediocre)
Oh boy... where do I even start with this one...
I am not a Trails of Cold Steel hater. I am a huge, huge fan of Nihon Falcom, both old and new. For as much flak as this arc in the greater Trails/Kiseki canon catches, I quite enjoyed the first Trails of Cold Steel, and I loved the third entry. Despite my problems with the second game in the subseries, I still appreciated the game for its ambition and new ideas. This game though? To put it lightly, it's one of, if not the most sloppily written JRPG I have ever played, and one of the most disappointing sequels I have ever had the misfortune of playing.
There are no stakes. Any semblance of stakes were removed, and Trails of Cold Steel IV completely botches the perfect setup that Cold Steel III set up for it. All the pieces were in place for a slam dunk, a layup, and they somehow dropped the ball in spectacular fashion. Events from Cold Steel III get reversed, and the things that get reversed don't even add to the game in any meaningful way. They are, for lack of better words, unneeded, and actually make the game worse, both it's narrative and it's characters. Most of the storytelling choices as they're presented are nonsensical, and despite a few great moments here and there, sprinkled throughout, it is overall abysmal. There's a scene towards the end of Act 2 that left me completely taken out, scratching my head as to why a certain group of characters were there, why they were called there at all given the circumstances, and the fact that nothing in the scene would have changed if they weren't there. They didn't improve the scene in any way. It was plot contrivance for the literal sake of it. A lot of the new concepts and terminology introduced in this game is also very poorly explained, to the point I had to go to the wiki to learn what 'Sacrifice', or 'Immortal' meant in universe. Given this game wraps up the entire first half of the series and ties together the threads of the Trails in the Sky games and Crossbell duology (at least until Trails into Reverie? Kind of?), it cannot be understated how disappointing this game's story and writing is. This was NOT the game to fumble. Add onto this the forced harem that is absolute cringe, and exposes a middle aged, male Falcom writer for trying to live out their fantasy of having 9+ different young girls/women fawning over him, plus the game's tendency to portray lesbian sexual harassment/assault as goofy and funny, and not something to be taken seriously, and the proliferation and encouragement of a borderline paedophilic relationship (between a 28 year old man and 16 year old girl, yes I am aware of Japanese age of consent, that does not make this okay by any stretch of the imagination), and I was done with this game incredibly quickly. To the point the game was a slog to get through, and I only did so because I was already committed to the series. So many stupid little things add up and make the experience intolerable.
The gameplay is, at the very least fun (if even more badly balanced than ever before) and the music is still good even if it is a step down from prior entries, and in general from Falcom's rich musical history. The max AP conditions in some of the Act 1 and Fractures boss fights are also incredibly poorly designed and not thought out, and I hope whoever made them is sentenced to an eternity of walking across LEGO pieces. Fun core gameplay, good music, and a cast of (mostly) great characters does not make up for how terrible this game's narrative is however, nor does it excuse the horrible depictions of lesbianism, borderline pedophilia, or the gross harem mechanic. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV would have been a 2 star total from me, if not for Fractures and the Finale, and I'm not afraid to admit that. I am considerably less excited for the future of this series and it's storyline going forward, knowing that this game will forever be a part of that canon, and no matter how good future entries might be, this will forever be a black eye on the franchise. I am, ultimately, disappointed.
Original Score Before Backloggd Rounding: 5.5/10 (Mediocre)
Oh boy... where do I even start with this one...
I am not a Trails of Cold Steel hater. I am a huge, huge fan of Nihon Falcom, both old and new. For as much flak as this arc in the greater Trails/Kiseki canon catches, I quite enjoyed the first Trails of Cold Steel, and I loved the third entry. Despite my problems with the second game in the subseries, I still appreciated the game for its ambition and new ideas. This game though? To put it lightly, it's one of, if not the most sloppily written JRPG I have ever played, and one of the most disappointing sequels I have ever had the misfortune of playing.
There are no stakes. Any semblance of stakes were removed, and Trails of Cold Steel IV completely botches the perfect setup that Cold Steel III set up for it. All the pieces were in place for a slam dunk, a layup, and they somehow dropped the ball in spectacular fashion. Events from Cold Steel III get reversed, and the things that get reversed don't even add to the game in any meaningful way. They are, for lack of better words, unneeded, and actually make the game worse, both it's narrative and it's characters. Most of the storytelling choices as they're presented are nonsensical, and despite a few great moments here and there, sprinkled throughout, it is overall abysmal. There's a scene towards the end of Act 2 that left me completely taken out, scratching my head as to why a certain group of characters were there, why they were called there at all given the circumstances, and the fact that nothing in the scene would have changed if they weren't there. They didn't improve the scene in any way. It was plot contrivance for the literal sake of it. A lot of the new concepts and terminology introduced in this game is also very poorly explained, to the point I had to go to the wiki to learn what 'Sacrifice', or 'Immortal' meant in universe. Given this game wraps up the entire first half of the series and ties together the threads of the Trails in the Sky games and Crossbell duology (at least until Trails into Reverie? Kind of?), it cannot be understated how disappointing this game's story and writing is. This was NOT the game to fumble. Add onto this the forced harem that is absolute cringe, and exposes a middle aged, male Falcom writer for trying to live out their fantasy of having 9+ different young girls/women fawning over him, plus the game's tendency to portray lesbian sexual harassment/assault as goofy and funny, and not something to be taken seriously, and the proliferation and encouragement of a borderline paedophilic relationship (between a 28 year old man and 16 year old girl, yes I am aware of Japanese age of consent, that does not make this okay by any stretch of the imagination), and I was done with this game incredibly quickly. To the point the game was a slog to get through, and I only did so because I was already committed to the series. So many stupid little things add up and make the experience intolerable.
The gameplay is, at the very least fun (if even more badly balanced than ever before) and the music is still good even if it is a step down from prior entries, and in general from Falcom's rich musical history. The max AP conditions in some of the Act 1 and Fractures boss fights are also incredibly poorly designed and not thought out, and I hope whoever made them is sentenced to an eternity of walking across LEGO pieces. Fun core gameplay, good music, and a cast of (mostly) great characters does not make up for how terrible this game's narrative is however, nor does it excuse the horrible depictions of lesbianism, borderline pedophilia, or the gross harem mechanic. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV would have been a 2 star total from me, if not for Fractures and the Finale, and I'm not afraid to admit that. I am considerably less excited for the future of this series and it's storyline going forward, knowing that this game will forever be a part of that canon, and no matter how good future entries might be, this will forever be a black eye on the franchise. I am, ultimately, disappointed.
This review contains spoilers
Trails of Cold Steel IV contains both my favorite moments of the Erebonia arc, and my least favorite moments of the arc. This game sold me on Fie after not really liking her for three games, but other parts of the game like the handling of past series protagonists just fell flat. Relationships between characters that were forming during Cold Steel III were offered up on the altar of the Mean Rean Machine's ever-growing harem, but at least Falcom knew to limit his conquest to characters from the Erebonia arc.