I'm sure there are people smarter than me with more interesting things to say about CS4, but I put my 90 hours in and I'm going to talk about them

This game is incredibly mid for Kiseki standards. That's not to say it's bad, or that it doesn't have some incredibly good scenes, but the amount of things I had to play through to get there wasn't worth it. This game does not respect your time; that's not new to this series, but it feels especially prevalent with this game.

Let's start with the magic stuff. The Trails series has always had a common theme of political intrigue weaving itself with fantasy elements, all the way back to FC. I think this is what makes The Curse so disappointing; the series has shown that it's capable of writing this combination in fascinating ways without diminishing from either side, but CS4 drops the ball so hard despite The Curse being fairly interesting on a conceptual level. CS4's plot, in theory, centers heavily around an imminent, massive war. Better yet, the war is taking place across most of Zemuria, so it's touching a bunch of locations that 10 games have been getting us attached to. This is a perfect recipe for some high emotional stakes for your finale. The magic side of the plot cancels a lot of this out; the plot isn't actually about the war, it's about the rivalries. For every good sidequest about someone coming to terms with the war, there are two or three about The Curse causing a problem for you to solve.
Unlike the rest of the series, the party is now well aware of magic. No more secret clan of witches, no more mystery behind the schemes the villains are making. You start the game in Eryn Village and the party's motivation lies not in politically based action but in magically based action. For me, this makes it a lot harder to be invested, because frankly, the realm of magic is the realm of bullshit. Writers can make whatever the fuck they want happen with magic, and the worldbuilding around the magic isn't really strong enough for it to feel like something I can study or make predictions about. This isn't something that really bothered me in the past because magic was always a background thing, but in this game it's at the forefront and therefore causes a significant tonal shift from "story about people trying to get through political events" to "story about people doing whatever the magic makes them do". This is an exaggeration, but it's still a noticeable change that I dislike.

Let's talk about villains. Osborne, who I love for being an amazing villain, got a lot out of the ending. I think "guy who became the world's greatest enemy with the specific goal of bringing the evil into himself and sacrificing himself to destroy it" is raw as fuck. I kneel. It's especially cool when you start bringing in Rean foils with his own self sacrifice. The other villains in the game are kinda just there. This goes into my 2nd big complaint with the game; the writers are terrified of making characters evil. Almost everyone here is an apologist, or has a secret agenda, or is being controlled by the curse. THIS IS A STORY ABOUT WAR. I'm not saying there are no exceptions to this, but a vast majority of the people you fight are portrayed as if they aren't even villains. Act 2 is especially awful for this, with a majority of its fights being against people who are either only testing you or are just feeling so guilty about it uwu you should feel bad for them. (fuck claire) On a more civilian level, the game can't even handle making evil minor NPCs. Anyone who says something slightly too patriotic, does something just a little too evil, the party has to lament about how this is the curse. This is literally just not realistic. If you want to write an anti-war story, you are making yourself look outright childish if you refuse to portray how all of the people committing evil, inhumane acts are just as human as the rest of us. As is, CS4 refuses to hold the anyone responsible for the war. Even at the end, the only person arrested is Rufus Albarea, who voluntarily did so for political reasons as if taking the punishment for your crimes is some selfless act. This is maybe the most cowardly thing you could do when writing a story about war. I'm truly impressed.

Let's talk about the video game. CS4 combat is well and truly broken. CS3 was actually balanced on nightmare mode, like it felt like the game was encouraging you to break it just so that you could survive. CS4 gives up. I was able to break this game in half, and I was doing the bare minimum in party equipment/orbment management. I would be fighting Arianrhod, a character in this series renowned for her strength, and she melts like butter against my evasion tank. Also, having 20+ party members is a daunting task, but it didn't bother me that much cause I just focused on a small cast of the chars that I like.

In summary, this game feels like a perfect summary of the Cold Steel arc. Awful pacing, broken combat, questionable romance, and a few excellent moments and characters that make it hard to completely disparage the experience.

I finally went and finished CS4, something i should have done 6 months ago to be quite honest.
It had already been too long since CS3 back when i first started it, and CS3 itself i played a fair amount of time after CS2. I've always had to take long breaks between each game and thus my overall opinion of the franchise is often quite fragmented.

When it came to playing CS4, I quite honestly was having trouble at first. Act 1 felt like a weaker CS2, very filler-y and meandering, but I pushed through and played until roughly the start of Act 2.
I then took another break for 6 months or so, and randomly decided to go back to it last week, determined to get it over with and be finally done with this, like it was a chore of some kind.

At first glance, nothing had really changed, hell, it was even becoming worse. I picked up right where the game's story takes a nosedive in relevance and the bonding events multiply the most, which prompted me to get extremely tired of the game's shit extremely quick.
It didn't help that other aspects of the game felt terribly uncooked and half-finished. The soundtrack is amazing at best, an uncohesive mess at worst, the overpopulation of the cast makes most characters feel more like glorified NPCs than standalone people with thoughts and feelings, the gameplay goes from stupidly unfair to ridiculously easy with a few simply adjustements and you lose interest quickly, and so on, and so forth.
In the meat of Act 2, I very seriously considered this to be the franchise's worst game, and while i didn't hate it, i just wasn't having that good a time.

So what happened? With the end of act 2 and the beginning of act 3 came a lot of setup for the game's true stakes, and my interest immediately perked up. We were getting scene after scene of interesting plot and lore that was finally worth all the trouble of the first two acts.
The bonding events leaped in quality (mostly because dodging all the heart ones at first let me do the non-romantic variants instead), and while the pacing was still a bit off with way too many events, their writing made them engaging nonetheless.

It's really as simple as that, I was beginning to actually enjoy myself. Act 3 was really good, and the Finale was absolutely excellent, as well as everything I could have asked for from a Kiseki game.
The penultimate fight and the reveals that accompanied it were particularly breathtaking. So much of Kiseki goes from setting up information that a later entry uses to set up its own foreshadowing.
That's what I love the most in this franchise, and if they keep going the way they are, i'm sure i'll love the next entries as well.

So...do I like this game? Yeah. I like CS4 a lot. Unfortunately I also dislike some of its aspects, and I can't exactly say I appreciate having to play 90 hours of meandering filler for 60 hours of decent plot.
And that's why i'm so conflicted with this game. There is so much good that proves to me the devs knew what they were doing, and then there's some bafflingly infuriating design choices, as well as extremely half-baked filler additions that impede my enjoyment of it.

I will give CS4 credit where it's due however. For all its flaws and idiocies, it made me realize what I loved about this franchise, and why I loved it so much in the first place. It helped me realize what made and broke Kiseki after almost two years of my opinions being wishy-washy because of a garbage fandom's influence.
I cannot say yet if my opinion on CS4 will be fully intact by the time I replay the whole franchise in an attempt to cement my opinions, but for now this will be good enough.

CS4 is a...maybe a 7, maybe a 10, and maybe even a 2. I don't particularly care. All I know is I like it.

Honestly a slog to get through for most of it. The series can be pretty formulaic at its worst but this game felt like it was the worst of it. Also the ending was absurdly funny to me- a very fast resolution, one of the biggest built up villains in the game was concluded in what felt like literally three sentences.
A game that felt like it had zero stakes and zero consequences. It somehow stripped already empty characters into even emptier shells- in a game where I'm supposed to care about characters, I cared about less than half of the playable cast. When I care more about ANTON, an NPC of all things, more than half of the playable cast, that's a problem to me. I'm also not a fan of the harem kind of style of gameplay- it really just makes Rean feel like a puppet and no other girl is allowed to have a connection with anyone.
Still love the series but dang, this game made me think for the first time- 'what else can I be playing with my time?'. The way I feel about this game, I wish I could give it a one but I at least finished it and enjoyed some aspects of it. Here's hoping what comes after is not a huge disappointment.

Je sais pas, j'ai des sentiments mitigés... J'aime pas du tout la malédiction d'Erebonia je pense que niveau writing c'est vraiment vraiment bullshit et c'est juste une excuse pour faire que les persos fassent des trucs out of character... En plus, je crois que ça aurait été bien plus impactant de ne pas ressusciter Crow (oui je sais, c'est sad mais la fin de CS2 a été un peu massacrée à cause de ça à mon avis !)

Mais, eh bien le jeu niveau gameplay/graphismes/musique c'est assez bien, c'est juste que le writing/scénario m'a déçu avec le recul, MAIS, au moins c'était épique quand j'étais en train de le faire. Et j'adore toujours Musse alors c'est déjà ça

This is going to be a spoiler filled review so be warned. Trails of Cold Steel IV is not only the end of 4 games worth of storytelling in the Erebonia arc, but also the culmination of 9 games worth of plot threads and story arcs, with many returning characters in what is subtitled “End of Saga” in the Japanese title. With all that weighing on its shoulders, I think it's incredibly difficult to give Cold Steel IV a proper review without going into full spoiler territory and as such, spoilers will be throughout this whole review as I go through the rollercoaster ride that is Cold Steel IV.

To begin with I'll do my usual and go through the gameplay stuff first. As the follow up in the typical Trails pairs of games, Cold Steel IV builds upon what came before. Orbments get their second enhancement slots again, BP is now capped at 7pts, Lost Arts make a return from Cold Steel II and you've got all your usual Cold Steel battle system in place with combat links and follow up attacks, and master quartz and all that fun stuff that has kept the combat engaging throughout the many hours these games take. The Brave Order system from CS3 also returns and thankfully seems to have been adjusted to try and balance things a bit better because I wasn't cutting through enemies like paper this time round which was much appreciated.
Divine Knight battles haven't changed much and honestly, as much as I love mechs, I definitely felt like these battles had outstayed their welcome by this point. It's the same core “target the right weak point for the stance to get a follow up attack” and once you find the weak points, they seem impossible to lose. Over the course of all four Cold Steel games I have never once had a Divine Knight or Soldat lose all its HP on me. The battles just seem kind of stagnant compared to the core battle system and once the spectacle has worn off, they become a little too formulaic, which is a problem when the game has a plot point that sees you taking on 6 Divine Knights throughout the game with little differing up the fights other than how many partners you get with you. It's a minor gripe in the grand scheme of things but I wouldn't have minded if they had tried a more action oriented approach to Divine Knight battles, just to try and freshen things up a bit.

On the location front, it's the usual handful of new areas within the familiarity of the previous game. There's the witches village Eryn, and a few more areas of Crossbell modelled now, as well as plenty of new dungeon areas to explore which is nice. They even bring over some CS1/2 locations for a few scenes (though not playable in) which is nice. Ambition and scope certainly outpaced time and money because there's stuff happening in areas like Liberl, Jurai, and North Ambria but because these areas don't have full scale 3D models done for them, you only get to see them on the map as events are talked about. It's a shame but at the same time, I can commend the sheer scale and scope of what they're doing, especially for a company the size of Falcom. I can always appreciate ambition even if it doesn't quite hit the mark.

On the technical side of things, I played this on Switch and there's a handful of unfortunate issues to report. Positives first, there wasn't any time the game got stuck loading at a point like CS3 did for me, and for the most part it runs consistently and looks good enough. Unfortunately there are times where the large amount of characters on screen at times drags the framerate down and load times here are kinda long. I don't know if the in game clock tracks the loading screen times or not but my playtime on my save file was around 5 hours less than the playtime my Switch was tracking so I can only assume that was load times being added up throughout my whole 90+ hour playthrough which uh….. yeah, the 10ish seconds per load screen really adds up. There's a handful of other issues carried over from CS3, like the incredibly tiny text in some areas.
Aside from the load times, these issues didn't bother me too much but everyone has different tolerances to these things so it's important to note.

Right, let's get into the wild highs and lows of the story side of things because wow, there is a lot to go through in this one.
Following on directly from CS3 where Rean lost control over himself after seeing Millium die in front of him, he finds himself captured and restrained in the Gnomes Black Workshop having slayed the fallen Holy Beast and released the Black Twilight upon the world, giving the curse of Erebonia even more strength than before. On top of that, following the shooting of the Emperor by Ash, Erebonia had declared war on Calvard. With not only the future of Erebonia at stake but the world, we need heroes from all over to pitch in and help and CS4 begins things off on an excellent note by giving you control of Estelle, Joshua, Renne, Lloyd, Elie, and KeA - heroes from the Liberl and Crossbell arcs of this long running narrative. They've taken it upon themselves to invade Orchis Tower in Crossbell to try and get some idea on what exactly is happening in the world. It's a great way to kick off the game, putting you directly into the action without resorting to the old “play a later part of the game at the beginning” thing that's been done a few times before in this series. It also gives them a chance to introduce our new Third Anguis of Ouroboros - Mariabelle Crois - friend of Elie and daughter of the man who had seized Crossbell’s independence through his own less than savoury means. She's replaced the fallen Third Anguis - Weissman - who was killed by Kevin at the end of Sky SC and this kind of stuff is why Trails is such a cool series. The world is continuingly moving forward and characters are finding themselves in new roles and positions as they grow and seize their own ambitions in the ever changing world they live in.

Following on from the Prologue, Act 1 takes us back to Class VII, who having lost Rean and split up from a few other characters after the events at the Gral, they find themselves waking up at the hidden village of Eryn, a place that witches have kept hidden in Erebonia. Having lost Millium through her sacrifice to become the Sword of the End and lost Rean to the Gnomes, Class VII are understandably dejected and lost on what they want to do. Alisa has found out that not only is her father still alive, he's Black Alberich, the leader of the Gnomes. Jusis had become especially close to Millium, forming a sibling-like bond with her and losing her has hit him hard. Laura has watched the airship her father was on get blown to pieces and is grieving the loss of her father. On the new Class VII side of things, Ash has disappeared after shooting the Emperor and Musse has vanished too, the loss of Millium has also hit Altina hard as the pair were like sisters and Kurt is struggling with seeing what Cedric has become. With so many people lost and crushed from the events of the Gral, it takes someone special to snap the group out their funk and that someone special is Juna, carrying the pride of Crossbell in her veins as well as her experiences in Erebonia, she knows just how important it is to pick yourself back up, and so, with the absence of Rean, Juna takes the role leader and gives a rousing speech, not pulling any punches, to inspire Class VII out their funks and to kick their butt into gear for a rescue mission unlike any other they've done before. It's a brilliant start to the game and I loved seeing how all these different losses hit each character but also seeing Juna pick up everyone was really cool. She was my favourite member of New Class VII from CS3 and she does an incredible job taking the role of leader here in uncertain times.
The bulk of Act 1 sees Class VII and allies searching through Erebonia to find the location of the Black Workshop as well as trying to find Musse and Ash. Of course, we see the likes of Ouroboros showing up to impede their progress too. Ash finds himself going back to visit his hometown of Hamel as he struggles with what he's done while Musse has all of a sudden become one of the most powerful people in the world, gathering people like Vita and Aurelia to her side and having the absolutely ludicrous skill of being able to predict literally everything that's happened and she's putting together a counter operation to stop Osborne's Operation Jormungandr (his plan to swallow the world whole through war) with Operation Mille Mirage, essentially a plan that while would be able to stop Osborne, it would do so at the cost of many millions of lives. Uncomfortable with her plan, Musse decides to re-join up with Class VII to search for Rean and another way to bring a stop to the strife that is about to engulf the world.
Act 1 ends with a spectacular trek through the Black Workshop with the cast split up into two teams working together to save Rean and help bring him out of the curse’s grasp. Along the way we see the culmination of Duvalie’s doubts about the path she's been following as she joins up with Class VII and Crow manages to shake off the Azure Siegfried persona that had been forced upon him. It's all great stuff and on its own would've been an excellent game but there's so much more to this fairytale.
Act 1 does have a couple of issues mind you. Roselia becomes the latest character to take part in the extremely disgusting boob groping trope this series is increasingly becoming marred in and annoyingly the first of many death fake outs is confirmed with Angelica coming back under the Gnomes control. It doesn't help that Angelica is a character I personally don't like seeing her come back after being led to believe she was dead was a personal annoyance.

After the relatively consistent high of Act 1 we bridge into Act 2 with the Rivalries being introduced. The Rivalries are a series of battles between Divine Knights where the winner absorbs the other Knight and once all 7 are merged back into one, the Great One can be reformed. Rean and Crow get the jump on this and duke it out to try and figure out what exactly a Rivalry is. As the Ashen Knight begins absorbing the Azure Knight, we find out that Crow is an Immortal whose life is tied to his Divine Knight and losing his knight would mean he dies again. I don't mind revivals like this because it's a special circumstance and his life is tied to something he could lose at any moment. Having to go through a second death scene for Crow though, only to have Valimar restore Ordine and take him as a squire, thereby saving Crow is a little bit more annoying. Well the second death scene anyways, I like Crow knowing he is living on borrowed time and doing all he can to help before his time is up.

Act 2 is where the game suffers a massive dip unfortunately. They remember that this is a Cold Steel game and as such it must have Bonding Events and so they bring them back but decide to implement in the worst way yet. You see, nearly every single female character now has “special memory” bonding events with Rean where if you do that Bonding Event, you unlock a heart towards Rean becoming romantically involved with that character. What's worse is that these events tend to be ones with character notes unlocked through them, meaning that you are probably missing out on important character stuff if you skip them. So wanting to see what Fie’s first event was like to find out what I could be missing out on by skipping most of them, I did Fie’s first bonding event and was rewarded with some of the worst character assassination I've seen as Fie just compared herself to the other Class VII girls in hopes that Rean liked her over all the others. It was awful seeing this ex-jaeger, now bracer, pining for the affection of a man she's shown zero romantic interest in previously. So with that I decided to skip all special memory bonding events with the exception of Alisa as that's who I've picked in every Cold Steel game so far (her first event is actually pretty cool because she decides to break up with Rean as she tries to deal with everything else going on in her life, realising she isn't able to give Rean the relationship he deserves and not wanting to be selfish and drag him into her problems. She still ends up getting back with him anyways which honestly I would've preferred if they had waited until the end of this game or did in a future game, once everything was resolved with her family)
The biggest issue with Act 2 is just how much of it feels like a waste of time. The core of it is going from place to place to rescue characters like Towa and Tio who went missing after everything went down at the Gral. They're being held hostage by characters like General Craig and Neithardt only they aren't really hostages though. No they're under protection and are free to go but instead of handing them over to Rean, these characters instead want to “test your resolve” by making you go through dungeons and fighting them even though at this point, everyone's resolve should be clear. Main Class VII fought in the Civil War and now contain people like Gaius (member of the Gralsritter), Fie (a high ranking bracer), and Emma (a powerful witch capable of lowering the strength of McBurn’s flames), I think their resolve is clear by now, especially with Rean back. On the new Class VII side, THEY HAD JUST STORMED THE BLACK WORKSHOP AND RESCUED REAN, whose resolve is needing to be tested here??? WHY DO THEY NEED TO BE TESTED THREE TIMES??? I would've understood it more if General Craig was like, “I'm sorry but as a General of Erebonia I must follow orders and I cannot allow these people out of our custody” or something because at least that would make a bit more sense.
At least it ends on a higher note with the full reveal of just how big Operation Mille Mirage actually is, bringing together characters from Liberl, Remiferia, and Calvard in a bid to stop the Empire by fighting them head on in what would be a war on a scale like no other. Our heroes from Liberl, Crossbell, and Erebonia however choose to find a third path, one that honours the late Prince Olivert, in what is an incredibly touching moment. Of course the Pantagruel ends up being invaded by Osborne's group of villains and we get another cool team split dungeon sequence as both teams work together to make their way to the deck of the Pantagruel to face the enemy. It's all thrilling stuff, it's going so well and then the wheels start to fall off again. Our heroes end up with their backs against the wall with the sheer numbers that Cedric has brought with him and so to bail them out at the eleventh hour is none other than the new Courageous II, with a few crew members who were supposed to be blown up on the original Courageous. Yup, the very Act that had characters honouring the legacy of Olivert sees Olivert and Toval both come back from what should've been certain death. Turns out George is just an absolutely useless character with zero conviction and so he delayed the bomb and gave Olivert's crew a warning before the bombs could detonate. On the cooler side of things, Blueblanc did not want his rival to die so he helped in saving them which is a cool character moment for him but yet again, characters not actually dying and getting fake out deaths is a problem because it kills the tension in the conflicts. If there's no risk or sense of belief that the main characters can lose or be killed if they mess up then the fights start to feel predictable and less dramatic. Even more frustrating in this sequence is the amount of characters hopping over to whatever side they feel like with little consequence. The RMP’s Major Michael Irving had switched from the Branch campus of Thors to aid the Main Campus with Prince Cedric and Shirley only to hop right back over to Oliverts side as a member of his crew. Professor Schmidt does whatever he likes and helps whoever benefits his research which was annoying in the first place but he also hops over to the enemy for a bit along with Alisa’s mother Irina. Then we have Victor Arseid who dons a mind control mask, claims he's acting of his own free will, then characters claim it's the curse affecting him, on the side of the enemy because??? It's just too much side swapping at such a late stage in the plot with little to no build up and it's more annoying than exciting or interesting. At least the likes of Duvalie and Bleublanc get a build up where the payoff is them finding the conviction to follow their beliefs and ideals.
But yeah that is the mess that is Act 2 that felt like a giant waste of time, started building a good climax and then lost the plot for a bit.

Act 3 starts to get things back on track with lore revelations detailing what exactly the curse is and how Dreichels had resisted it for many years. We get a bit silly again with reincarnation being brought in out of nowhere to make Osborne the reincarnation of Dreichels for some reason but it did clear up some issues I had with the curse and got me to understand it better. The curse is the Ebon Knight Ishmelga and he likes to take advantage of people when they're at their weakest. Osborne losing Rean, Rean seeing Millium sacrifice herself, Ash giving into his desire for revenge for Hamel… those moments allowed the curse to take hold and amplify the darkest desires of those people. Rean completely loses his mind and seeks revenge against those who forced Millium into sacrificing herself, Ash tries to assassinate the Emperor for his part in the Hamel tragedy. These actions are merely the darkest desires of those people amplified by the curse after having lost their will to resist it. Dreichels resisted the curse for 250 years, even through reincarnation until as Osborne he lost his son and wanted him back. That shows that with enough willpower, you can resist the curse and that while the curse plays a part in amplifying the dark desires of the people of Erebonia, those desires and actions are ultimately still the responsibility of those people. The frustrating things with the curse is some characters using it as an excuse to shift blame off people, like Class VII with Ash, and how unsubtle it can be with its influence at times. Characters like Ash who were under the influence of the curse though do recognise it was their own weakness that allowed them to do the things they did and that goes a long way to making the curse a much more digestible plot point than it was when it was getting the blame for literally every atrocity Erebonia committed. It's still an overall messy plot element and I can understand why it rubs people up the wrong way.
The core of Act 3 is the countdown towards September 1st and the beginning of the war with our heroes deciding to try and knock out a couple more Rivalries in hopes of getting Rutger and Lianne on their side like Crow. Before you get to challenge them however, Black Alberich decides to put up barriers surrounding their locations so you get to have fun going through more dungeons and boss fights. Oh and remember all those characters like Schmidt, Irina, and Victor whose side swapping felt out of nowhere and pointless? Guess who ends up swapping sides again :) Victor is the most egregious here because for someone apparently acting on his own will and not under mind control from the Gnome mask, he sure does join up pretty fast after you knock that mask off his face. At least there's a good side swap within it all with Alisa finally getting through to Sharon that she is a loved and valued member of the family. The better part of Act 3 is the Rivalry battles that while unfortunately didn't quite pan out the way I expected, they did give some great character moments. Fie and Rutger getting a proper father daughter bond moment was incredibly heartwarming and Rufus coming in to kill steal Lianne just as we had convinced her to stay alive a bit longer, further emphasising just how much of calculating bastard he is and showing why he is the best of the Ironbloods.

Before the war and the finale begins we get a moment of respite as the gang decide to go to Mishelam together to spend one last evening of peace before the world descends into war. It's a moment to put the fears of the unknown to one side and spend time with loved ones and it makes sense to have something like that here. The highlight is Olivert proposing to Schera, another great thing that shows just how cool it is watching these characters grow together through multiple games spanning multiple years. There's other cool stuff like Rean gaining mastery over the seventh form of the eight leaves one blade school and you get a silly quest with Sara inviting a bunch of women into having a drinking contest together.

Ultimately there's still a finale to get through and with Black Alberich bringing 5 Salt Pales and the Empyreal Fortress into Erebonia to set the stage for the final few Rivalries. Trails does the cool thing Trails can do and gives you FIVE different party setups to explore each of the pales, including a lot of first time playable characters like the rest of the Stahlritter and Zephyr, making for a really cool final set of dungeons before the actual final dungeon with Class VII. The Empyreal Fortress is a suitable final dungeon with not only the final Rivalries to get through but a few other boss fights with high importance.
The first battle is against Lechter and Claire who have both fallen so far from where I expected them to be. I understand that the death of Millium has hit both of them hard and they've lost a lot of their conviction but man, Lechter came in at Sky the 3rd, talking a big game, telling Osborne that he will surpass him. Claire since Cold Steel I has been showing unease about the path she's been on, doubts about following Osborne… to see both of them like this is just sad and disappointing.
The Rivalry against Cedric is pretty cool as you see an unlikely bond has formed between Shirley and Cedric which works surprisingly well for both characters. Cedric himself has a lot of issues to work through and nearly falls into the trap of using the curse as an excuse for his actions before Shirley hits him with a few home truths.
Mariabelle and Campanella show up and do what Ouroboros does, say some vague crap and leave as Juna puts it. Juna gets another moment of badassery though as she tears through them with a ton of questions. Of course we don't get many answers from them, the focus being the Phantasmal Blaze Plan and why they stopped trying to take it back (which I feel like it was obvious to put together that Osborne was enacting the plan anyways so it made sense for Ouroboros to join up with him?) More interestingly though they go into what Vita was trying to do which gives some insight into why she left and drop some vague stuff about the “truth of the world” itself as well as insinuating that Professor Epstein is aware of the truth. There's a post credits scene with Ouroboros that alludes to what their goal might actually be and with some theorising, a lot of their actions and condemnation of Weissman start to make a bit more sense. On the surface the organisation seems like a huge mess with members free to do what they want and leave without much consequence but underneath it all there does seem to be some method to their madness.
After that there's the penultimate Rivalry with Rufus who seems to be the only one who understood what it meant to be an Ironblood. His goal is basically to amass power until he's able to surpass Osborne and he'll do whatever it takes to get there. He actually has strength in his convictions, knows what he wants, and isn't afraid of being an asshole to get there and that makes him such a fantastic character. The fact his voice actor fits him so well only further enhances the aura surrounding him and it's magnificent. Having a character you love to hate makes it so much more satisfying for when you do take them down and Rufus fits the bill perfectly.
Before the final Rivalry though there's still McBurn to take care of and honestly at this point, the amount of times you've fought him only for him to be like “next time I might have to unleash my true power” does make going into this fight feel a bit like a chore at first but he's finally in the mood to give you some answers and hoo boy, there are some wild implications about Zemuria itself. You see, McBurn isn't even from this world and upon his arrival to this world, he became mixed with some sort of devil creature and has been holding back in his fights so that he can find out exactly what it is he has merged with by pushing himself against tougher and tougher opponents so that he can awaken his devil side without burning the entire world to cinders. What's even more interesting is that the church and the witches are aware of the truth of Zemuria, that no one seems to be able to leave the continent and that people are restricted in what they know by following the teachings of Aidios. Then there's the fact that the DG Cult who came up with the Gnosis drug in Zero are pretty close to the truth themselves and all of a sudden you have a lot of implications about the religion and state of Zemuria that is going to be really interesting to explore in the future. It makes so much more sense why Phantasma was being brought up so often throughout the game and why there were a couple of late game quests with devils popping up like they were cryptids. Really interesting set up for the future of the series. Back to McBurn himself, yeah his true form is some sort of giant devil creature which is more sorts of crazy added into the mix. Reaching that form allowed him to rediscover his lost memories and it seems he's realised that Campanella and Ouroboros were using him but what exactly they told him remains up in the air. Again, a lot of good intrigue built up from that encounter with McBurn that does a lot of good for the lore of the world and his personal character development.

Finally we meet with Osborne and the stage is set for the final Rivalry. Osborne is the epitome of my biggest issue with the Cold Steel arc - building towards something interesting and doing something way less interesting instead. For the bulk of 8ish games, Osborne has been built up as this magnificent mastermind, grabbing power and leading Erebonia towards dominating the world through a political masterclass of annexing nations by both economical pressure and outright warfare. His technique of backing nations into a corner by self sabotaging the Empire's own property and people and staging it as the work of others has backed many a nation into a corner, forcing them to give up their independence and become a part of his Empire. He wormed his way into Jurai’s favour by economically manipulating them, ousting Crow's grandfather in the process which created a terrorist organisation with the goal of assassinating him. He took Crossbell by force, using his own son as a pawn to drive Calvard out of Crossbell. He took North Ambria by force, yet again using his own son as a pawn in the process. The whole set up to this game's war is Osborne pinning an assassination attempt on Calvard and forcing conscription upon his citizens. This man has done so much damage to Western Zemuria so when we get the big reveal that um actually, no he was just playing the villain in order to bring about the chance of destroying the curse, I'm just like wow… way to undermine over a decade of set up for such a vanilla outcome. The parallel with Rean and throwing his life away to become the ultimate self sacrifice is cool and all but man, to take a political mastermind who had been built up to be the perfect final villain for this arc, and throw it away to make Ishmelga the typical “I'm humanity’s desire for growth through strife given physical form” instead is just so much missed potential. It could've been so much cooler if Osborne was just using Ishmelga’s curse to further expand his goal to conquer Zemuria or something rather than the whole Emperor Dreichels reincarnated hero nonsense. Credit where it's due, the boss fight against Osborne was a pretty tough fight and I was on the ropes for most of it (partially because I was lazy and hadn't sorted out my set ups for most of Class VII but hey, the game just about punished me for it so it's cool) The Divine Knight fight against Ishmelga carries the usual Divine Knight fight issue of all spectacle, little depth, made worse by an item that McBurn gives you that can fully restore your full party if you do end up in a pinch.

But yeah after winning the fight the game ends with the curse becoming too strong for Rean to hold back anymore and so he, Crow, and Millium decide to take it up into the atmosphere and blow it up in the ultimate self sacrifice move. I actually like this ending for Rean himself as even though he gives intl to his tendency to put his life on the line to save everyone else, this time he at least lets Crow and Millium help him, no longer taking the burden on himself all the time. Other than that though, this ending is kind of flat and lacking so good news that there's actually a true ending!
Yup, I believe if you do every single quest in the game you'll gain access to the ??? quest that gives you the Earthen Prison item and if you load your save file after beating the game and having that item, you're given the choice of another ending if you so please. It's one of those true ending flags that is kind of a cool reward for doing quests. Anyways the true ending sees Franz free from control of the Black Alberich persona (I haven't even touched upon that plot thread because to be honest, there's too much shenanigans surrounding what Ishmelga is capable of and reincarnation and stuff so I kinda stopped caring about trying to understand the whole Black Alberich situation) come up with a way to destroy the curse for good. You see, that Earthen Prison item can trap Ishmelga on their plane long enough to give our heroes a chance to kill it. And so we get our giant final boss as per Trails tradition and everyone comes back for the final fight. There's a whopping 39 characters you can sort into 3 teams of 8 as Trails flexes its cast size muscles on the rest of RPGs. It's a cool boss fight where Teams A and B destroy parts of Ishmelga to lower its shields to allow Rean's team to damage and kill the boss. Not that difficult but it's a much more fitting spectacle for the game dubbed “End of Saga”.
With the curse gone for good, and Crow's and Millium’s time coming to an end, Franz decides to ass pull out some thing he's figured out as ancestor to the Earth clan or something and Roselia joins him as they ramble on and the Divine Knights do a “one and only time” miracle that revives Crow. Yeah through the whole Cold Steel saga, Crow has literally died 3 times and has been brought back every single time. I didn't mind the Immortal one because it had rules to follow and a few others got the same deal. The Valimar squire revival was fine because Crow knew he was on borrowed time and that he was done after everything was over. To bring this guy back from the dead 3 times though…. Just let him rest in peace man, his work here was done. There's also the asspull to revive Millium because Franz has somehow had time to control his body long enough without Ishmelga realising to create a new body for Millium's spirit to be transferred in. Sure yeah, whatever. And with all these revivals guess what happens to Franz after Alisa finally has her dad back? He reveals that he was somehow an Immortal too and unlike Crow he's been one for too long now and can't be revived so uh…. Happy reunion Alisa yay! Genuinely do not know what she did to be screwed over by the writers so much but damn.
Anyways Rean goes into narration mode to explain a few events that happen post this story. Stuff like how despite freeing itself from the curse, Erebonia has a lot of rebuilding to do as well as grovelling to the other nations, especially Calvard, for the damages it's done. There's a bit about how the Bracer Guild has been reinstated in Erebonia, how Rufus has gone to prison to allow Lechter and Claire to help out in the rebuilding of Erebonia, and how the Royal Family eventually wins back the trust of the people. All that stuff is very good, a nice framing of how the balance of Zemuria has shifted since the Great Twilight. A little bit disappointing is the explanation of how Crossbell won its independence back. I would've been more annoyed about that if I didn't know Reverie existed and that it probably deals with that event but I can imagine Crossbell fans being let down by this resolution when CS4 first came out. North Ambria also gets shafted. Rean explains that after Crossbell won its independence back, the question naturally arises in Jurai and North Ambria. Jurai gets a little explanation stating that they've enjoyed their economic prosperity as part of the Empire and that the question of independence would pose some issues, North Ambria however just gets completely blanked after its first mention which sucks when Sara and the Northern Jaeger's had a lot of history being from North Ambria.
The credits are really sweet, we get to see Olivert and Schera get married and a bunch of characters celebrating, even those who unfortunately didn't make it into CS4s main story like Kevin, Ries, Wazy, and Noel. It's a nice send off and despite CS4 not pulling at my heartstrings as well as Sky SC and Azure did, the credits did get me to tear up a little seeing everyone so happy.

There's one last post credits scene you only get if you reload your save and skip through all the final scenes again. A little bit more insight into Ouroboros is given with them happy that the Sept-Terrions of Earth and Fire are no longer in reach of humanity’s hands. We also get to finally see the Grandmaster for the first time who states the world may have expanded its lifespan a little by driving back the Great Twilight but it still has around only 3 more years left. On top of that she announces the move to the next plan - the Eternal Recurrence Plan. It's a really intriguing set up for the future of the series and some of the wording used can lead to some theories of what Ouroboros is trying to do and I love that. It has me excited for the potential of what's to come and where things might go from this point.

So CS4 overall is a great game with a heavily flawed story where its highs are really good but its lows drag things down a wee bit. And I know I've had a lot of complaints throughout the story section here but a lot of it is more frustration at the missed potential and the way things went despite how they had built up my expectations. I can completely understand why CS4 seems to be such a divisive game but at the same time, for all its flaws, for all my issues with it, I still had a good time. The coming together of heroes to take down a world threat, seeing Estelle, Joshua, and Renne again, seeing the whole core of the SSS back together again, seeing Juna step up to the plate and inspire Class VII into action, Rufus being the best villain in a game where no one wants to be a villain, Crow paying his respects to each of his former comrades and pushing forward despite his limited time, Bleublanc going on a redemption arc I didn't think was possible, the way the game manages to utilise a huge cast and gives you reasons to use nearly every single playable character at least once…. For all its flaws, there are a lot of memorable and fantastic moments in CS4 that shouldn't be overlooked either. Yeah, it's messy at times and it can be frustrating too but it's also ambitious and full of the charm that makes the Trails series special and it's important to recognise that too.

the good: cassius promoting rean to divine blade, anelace’s 2 seconds of her new design was good, every time when juna is the main character of the game, the divine knights’ farewell, everyone looks great in their wedding outfits, half the soundtrack is really good

the bad: half the soundtrack is pretty bad, the curse literally ruined this game for me, this game thinks i like millium more than valimar and i Do Not, seeing that little heart on altinas bonding event icon, arianrhod’s motivation being way lamer than she deserves, everyone that died didnt die, everyone that betrayed didnt betray, aberich is lame as hell, osbornes backstory and ending is stupid, why do rhey act like reincarnation means you are the same person???, ishmelga is truly the worst idea ive seen in a while (how dare you bring hamel back and give it such a stupid secret backstory), why does everyone give claire and lechter so many free passes, why does elie look like that

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trails of cold steel 4 is a game with more lows than highs. its supposed to be a culmination of every game that came before it but some parts of this game made me so annoyed or angry that it sometimes had me feeling dumb for ever getting invested at all. even worse, i quite like cold steel 3, i even think its my favorite of the cs games! i liked the timeskip, i really liked how rean’s character and position changed, and i just generally enjoyed that game. but sadly every question it set up is answered in the stupidest ways in cs 4. every death is reversed, every betrayal was a fakeout to “scope out from the inside” while accomplishing nothing, every character is paid off with the stupidest endings and motivations, every woman and girl in erebonia wants to fuck rean even more than before, AND osborne has a new voice and its SO much worse that it sunk any chance of osborne moments working for me

i was spoiled on nearly every detail of this game because rarely have i seem a fandom that spoils every game so throughly 2 weeks after the japanese release, but im not sure what if any of this would have hit more successfully if i hadnt been spoiled, im inclined to think it wouldve been even worse for me honestly

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anyway idk man ive heard several times that reverie is the best trails game i just pray i like it at all at this point (even with c’s identity being spoiled for me, of course :/)

ps the real curse of erebonia is the guy at falcom doubling boob sizes every game and vacuum sealing every womans outfit, please stop him he’s a menace

-Written on November 28, 2020-

Cold Steel IV is the final game in the series and a cumulation of the Trails series at this point. It delivers a lot of conclusion points that have been going on since the first Cold Steel game and the game really up its stakes and for the most part, it did a fine job one uping Cold Steel III. That said I can't help but feel it hit a lot of bumps along the way when Class VII tries to end the war and the curse.

Cold Steel IV is essentially the same game as Cold Steel III in a lot of ways, with the biggest difference is you have much more freedom to travel around western Zemeria. There's still plenty of NPCs to talk to, even if a good chunk of them talk about the upcoming war, it's rather realistic. Side quests are ultimately more important in CSIV since at least half of them adds to the overall plot in some way (especially during the finale).

The gameplay is almost exactly the same as CSIII with the only difference is your Brave Orders are nerfed at the start to make the game more balanced. Doing Trails chests is fun challenge to make you overcome the enemies in certain parties and it's nice leveling up your Brave Orders for characters. Cryptids and Lost Arts from Cold Steel II also make a return and fighting these optional bosses to unlock some of the strongest arts in the game is very satisfying as well. On a small note, I enjoy the OST more in Cold Steel IV than III, considering how bad of a rep Singa gets. I especially love the boss and dungeon themes.

Cold Steel IV also relies on the previous games from Sky and Crossbell even more heavily since many more characters and story beats in past games have a bigger role in the story. In Cold Steel III, you might be okay keeping up with the story if you just played Cold Steel I and II but in Cold Steel IV, it's unthinkable to play IV without playing the Sky and Crossbell games. In the prologue alone, I counted nearly 50-60 references to past games, and huge chunks of the story of Sky SC and Ao no Kiseki get spoiled right from the get-go. Now whatever or not someone should spend like 900 hours in the series just for one game is debatable but that's a different discussion for a different day.

However, if you are fully caught up with the series, it's incredibly satisfying to know all of the references from past games and see past characters fully developed. Cold Steel IV rewards the player a lot for investing in the series with a very well pay off. It's easily one of the game biggest strengths.

That said despite many appearances from the Liberl team and the SSS, I must stress Cold Steel IV is Class's VII show and 90% of the story is centered around them. After the prologue, Cold Steel IV made it clear the main objective is to rescue Rean and end the war and that is divided into three acts and a finale.

Act I is a classic straightforward JRPG feel when you visit town to town on foot while still having a small hub world to come back to interact with the characters. One could stay it's just like Cold Steel III but without the school elements. Act I don't waste its time since there's plenty of events that go on to set up the main highlight later in the story. Act I also have a lot of good New Class VII moments and character development, even if I feel like the overall writing for New Class VII has decreased compared to Cold Steel III.

After the emotional but super shounen cheesy Fragments section, Act II offers more freedom but it's a very filtered act that could easily be cut down such as combining 2 of the 3 main missions or not making side quests required. The majority of Act II is rescuing girls that are trapped in a place. I get having a full cast of characters but it's an odd shift of priorities and pacing considering the bigger issues in play. However, the ending of Act II is what I personally think it's not only the best part of Cold Steel IV, but all of Trails as a whole. So the ending alone is definitely worth the patience, especially if you fully caught up in the series.
Act III is essentially just like Act II but the story and the pacing tighten up better and you have more characters to interact on the ship. Act III, as well as Act II to an extent, is also Old Class VII's show as some of the characters that are involved in the story start to get closure with their own character issues that have been ongoing since Cold Steel I. Because of this, I start to really like old Class VII more than I ever did. Even some of the villains became more likable around this act due to many plot and motive reveals.

After Act III, you get a fun interlude event, which is weird considering what going on in the game but whatever. This is where you get to choose who you want to romance and leading up to that is the bonding system, which is one of my biggest complaints in this game. Bonding systems existed since Zero no Kiseki and they have improved overtime. However, Cold Steel IV did a fatal flaw by locking between important character development and many personal character arcs come to an end with bonding events. It isn't like previous Cold Steel games when you just getting to know the character, no you are seeing story elements you won't get elsewhere in the game and the Crossbell games had that same issue. I know you can save and reload but considering you can't see every bonding event in one save, it's an iffy decision.

Related to the bonding system is the harem. I know harem existed since Sky and I already accepted the fact at least a few girls gonna like Rean throughout Cold Steel. However, 11 options are overkill even for harem standards. I especially hate how Rean's own students got included. The romance is especially more intense since most of the girls confess to him right from the start. However this just really ruins any sense of mature romance in the game and a huge part of me just wished Falcom never let the player have options from the start of Cold Steel.

After the interlude is the finale. There are several important quests to do that add to the story and once you start the ending of the game, which is pretty epic in scale. You will proceed to do 5 dungeons before doing the massive final one with many bosses await you. It's very similar to Liberl Ark in Sky SC, Azure Tree in Ao, Infernal Castle in Cold Steel 2, etc. I won't tell you how that goes but there are two endings in Cold Steel IV once you're done. A normal one that feels more realistic and bittersweet but betrays what Cold Steel really about and a true ending, while super duper shounen cheesy and overly happy, it couldn't be a better ending for Cold Steel and all of Trails to this point.

One thing I could not help but notice is how the morality is super black and white in Cold Steel IV and that's a bit disappointing considering past Trails games explored in grey morality. I can't explain this too much without spoilers but the way character actions are basically blamed on a single thing just feels really silly and immature. I don't like how characters are no longer accountable for their actions, save for one person. It's a really frustrating feeling that everyone that did wrong got away with it or was easily forgiven.
Trails of Cold Steel IV have plenty of amazing moments, fanservice of past games, large casts and many characters get their own conclusion for their arc.
As far as the stakes and the tension being high, and the scale being grand and epic, Cold Steel IV wins in that department in Trails. Cold Steel IV might have a lot of immature writing such as its morality and its romance and the pacing is weird at times but considering how much that was going on in the game, for the most part, Falcom kept it together. Cold Steel IV isn't my favorite in the series due to its issues but it's one of the better Trails games for sure and it's a strong ending to the saga. If you have been sticking with Trails long enough, then Cold Steel IV is a rewarding and satisfying conclusion.

I love the Trails series so fucking much, which is why I couldn't imagine feeling so mixed on one of the games. There is so much I love about this game, but so much of it I hate that leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

I think it's fair to start with the positives. Characters like Fie and the Zephyr crew, Ariamrhod and her knights, and Rean got solid conclusions to their arcs. This is probably the one thing CS4 did the best. I love all the characters and I'm glad they all felt complete. The combat is also just as amazing as usual. Not much changed from CS3 but they added 2 more BP which actually makes battles even better, since you can likely do more options and not feel underpowered.

That's mainly where the positives end, though. The biggest drawback to this game is easily its story. This game followed after CS3 when the curse started to take over Erebonia, which is probably the single worst plot point I've seen in a long time.

The curse, essentially, is a calamity brought to bring the end of Erebonia, and by extension, Zemuria. That itself isn't bad but when it starts taking control of various people and its role in Erebonia history is when it gets really muddy. Pretty much every single adversary in this game, outside of maybe Rufus, is under control of this curse. This basically ruins any form of solid character writing due to how there are hardly any real villains to speak of. Black Alberich, Cedric, Osborne, the Ironbloods, etc had no actual intentions with their plan, but the curse forced them into doing it. This also extends to Ash since the curse made him shoot the emperor and he didn't intend to do that. No consequences whatsoever.

I had no idea Falcom can write something so shallow as a supernatural entity that is only there to feel very "end of the world" like. It was hard to be engaged in any of the things going on because I knew no one was at fault.

That's basically the story. It was a slap in the face to fans of the Cold Steel arc and somehow, this isn't the end of my issues.

When you beat Osborne, you are able to go back and find the true ending, since the game ended on some weird cliffhanger where Rean supposedly died. Once you do that, you fight the curse itself (which is extremely dumb) and once you do that, Rean is able to destroy it and remove his role as the Sacrifice, meaning Rean is perfectly fine because Falcom can't kill off their main characters. What's worse is that even Crow, who should not be allowed to survive due to fate, was miraculously okay at the end from some dumb copout that Black Alberich explained. No buildup whatsoever and it felt like Crow's character went completely down the drain due to it. I never felt so angry when playing this series and the fact I still don't even hate it means I'm pretty generous.

Overall, this game was a mess. I still think there are moments that I love (like the first intermission which I didn't feel like mentioning) and all the character conclusions, but it is outweighed by poorly thoughtout storytelling that felt like the worst way to end an arc. Thankfully Reverie seems to be a good time so I'm still excited, but I really wish this game was so much better.