Lotta fans will tell you this the "worst" of the series, or an uninspired end...do NOT listen to them crybabies dude. Like most games it does stretch the game out a bit more than it should in the middle, but also there's just so much side content that if you're doing a completionist route it slows the narrative even more. Rean Schwarzer, I do this for you. Juna Crawford, you are the second coming. I got Erebonia on my back man. Crazy send off for class 7 and boy did they pull out everybody for their goodbye party.

After a horrendous Cold Steel 3, this new installment self described as the finale of Cold Steel Saga, will prove to be another disaster.

In the same fashion as its predecessor, Cold Steel 4 showcases Nihon Falcom's struggle to create anything new, Cold Steel 3 copied Cold Steel 1's formula, naturally Cold Steel 4 is a copy paste of Cold Steel 2 on many aspects, and just like its predecessor, Cold Steel 4 fails to match and replicate the original game greatness.

However, unlike its predecessor, Cold Steel 4 does have some improvements, even if it's only a few, credits where it's due. The gameplay is less repetitive than Cold Steel 3 with a sightly wider amount of possibilities. Story wise, after so much pointless hesitation in Cold Steel 3, they finally made the crossover a reality in this game, it's still badly written and was a terrible idea from the start, but at least now that Nihon Falcom achieved their fantasy, the post-nut clarity will allow them to move on, doing something maybe different than just brainless fan service, that was I thought until I saw Reverie trailers, oh well...

Cold Steel 4, is a prime example as to why quantity should never be prioritized over quality, the number of characters this game features is simply bonkers, but when there are too many people, nobody gets to shine.

This game does not do justice to any Trail cast and certainly not Cold Steel's cast which get all the developer's hate, predictable considering what they have done in cold steel 3. As if developers themselves couldn't accept Cold Steel was the one arc to make them more popular and they have the urges to tell the player : you're wrong, we do prefer the other arcs. If that statement was more subtle in the previous game, Cold Steel 4 at least is honest about it and give players a good old middle finger for playing Cold Steel 1 and 2.

How so ? Well, during the prologue of the game, Rean is still missing, and despite having recovered, the original Class VII does nothing to save Rean, no research, no planning, nothing. Instead, they wait until the new class VII's members wake up from their comas, just to talk and asses the situation.

And now quiz time, who would lead and motivate the others to save Rean, to provoke the change so they all escape their current slump which apparently justifies them to have done nothing for their leader for months ? Surely, it's a member of the OG class VII, the very people Rean shared 2 whole years with, grew up and fought during the civil war with, maybe it's Alisa the canon romance of the saga, maybe it's more fitting for Sara as their old instructor to take the lead ? Nope, Nihon Falcom went and chose Juna, the retcon character whose met Rean recently and spent her whole time insulting and belittling Rean.

The intention is crystal clear, the player is supposed to feel that the old class VII is trash, and the new one is badass, especially Juna. This is such a middle finger to anyone who played and liked Cold Steel 1 and 2, as if the hundred of hours they probably poured into those two games are worthless. Over the years, we've seen multiple instances of developers insulting their player base, but this one is a real contender.

But this middle finger alone, does not suffice to match Cold Steel 3's level of stupidity, Nihon Falcom couldn't leave at that. Heavily hinted in Cold Steel 3, confirmed in Cold Steel 4, Crow is back, revived from the dead.

It's dreadful practice to revive a dead character, doing so, the story cannot no longer be trusted, everything stated can be reverted, it nullifies any sort of stakes, intensity or tension. But Nihon Falcom doesn't seem to care as Crow isn't even the only one getting a revival.

As for the gameplay, as mentioned, it is slightly better than Cold Steel 3, however some points clearly are left to be desired. Many playable characters are actually considered guests, so you can't even fully customize them. On a similar topic, with that many characters, it would have been interesting to have some sort of ways to save an arcus setup with different quartz, and apply it with one button, in other word some sort of quality of life, but I should stop dreaming and proceed to end this review.

In conclusion, Cold Steel 4 is Nihon Falcom's fantasy, a crossover featuring an absurd number of characters. This is a game with so many characters that nobody gets to shine, with a story so badly written, it resorts to deads revivals, and abuse coincidences to advance the main plot. A game which structure is once again a copy paste of a previous title of theirs, highlighting Nihon Falcom's incapacity to create something new. Despite being ridiculed in Cold Steel 3 and 4, I ended up liking even more the original class VII, betrayed by its makers Rean Schwarzer, truly faces great adversity in Zemuria but also in our world, where he will eventually be pointed out as guilty by the mass if the Cold Steel 3/4 formula is milked one too many time.

Regardless of what happens, I have nothing but affection for Rean Schwarzer and class VII during the Cold Steel 1 & 2 era.

BLOAT: ✔
SIDELINED CHARACTERS: ✔
MOSTLY UNINTERESTING TILL THE FINAL PART OF THE GAME: ✔
holy shit it's Trails of Cold Steel III II I IV!!!!

Once again I am quite let down for what it could have been. Hidden between all the bloat there is a story that has been running for like 6 games, here they finally converge to a grand crossover and it decides to utilize the bare minimum. The characters from previous arcs sure are here but it feels like they are consistently not. This is a problem I think applies to everyone in the C7 cast too (once again); everyone is present but they're sidelines to contribute the bare minimum apart from their one or two character bits then let Rean do everything. Like sure here, at least, I will cut it some slack because this is a Rean game and by the end he finally gets his conclusion with his dad, his sword master, and the central plot point. Which is good looking at his own character perspective but I just wish he wasn't so damn involved with every.single.character. Every single person somehow has to involve Rean in their dialogue even if the main focus seems to be someone else and it gets really grating after seeing his name pop up what feels like every other speech bubble. This continues to be true because the best thing about these games is whenever something DOESN'T involve Rean; examples like: Ash, Olivier, Jusis with Rufus, Fie with Rutger and Juna wanting to represent the SSS and few more but these moments stand out to me because their own character comes on display and that is what I value in these type of games and it's a shame they didn't do this for more characters.

On the positive side, the final portion of the game was good and exciting. We got some well deserved fanservice. The gameplay is still fun; They give you so many tools to break the game which is always appreciated, and choosing your favourite in the last cast to build is cool. The game also looks really good at some portions and they at least tried to make the dungeons look somewhat different. Now, the ending even though sappy and safe, I enjoyed it.

Adding another negative, the music in this totally blows which is sad because I enjoyed CS3's the most.

TL;DR
+ Fun gameplay still
+ Fanservice
+ Graphix
+ Really good when it's good

- Rean
- Bloat n pacing
- Sidelined characters
- Really bad when its bad

Overall: 3/5

I'm kind of mixed on this one. I loved the soundtrack, as is usual for me with this series, and the combat was fun (albeit very very easy, even on Nightmare) with some new additions to spice things up. However, I am pretty conflicted about the story overall.

Cold Steel IV's plot is really really good at points with some awesome and emotional moments but at the same time it is very messy, with a lot of blatant filler and generic shonen and power of friendship stuff. It was almost nauseating to boot up the game sometimes because I just was not very invested in some of the early to mid-game plot. Without getting too spoiler-y, it is disappointing to me that Falcom chose not to commit to some of the highly emotional moments from past games in the saga, instead choosing to undo them here. I don't mind twists like that occasionally but it really did lessen the impact certain moments could have had in this game, as I started feeling that nothing bad could actually happen to good guys. I did love the big crossover between the Trails sagas, however.

I definitely didn't dislike Trails of Cold Steel IV or anything, though. I enjoyed it a lot overall. It just wasn't as impactful of an ending to the trilogy as I was expecting.