This game is like... augh i want to love it bc it has some of the highest highs but also ughhhhh it has some of the lowest lows too... this game could have been so much greater but it ruins so much build up from previous entries :(
anyways did i mention that i hate crow armbrust
anyways did i mention that i hate crow armbrust
Erebonia Arc reached its conclusion, while playing I wished that normal ending had been canon ending because normal ending was too cool
The game suffers most from padding
HOOOOOOOOOOOLY SHIT
Oh, to be caught up on a long running series the week the newest entry is to be released. I struggled to get through Trails of Cold Steel 4 due to life commitments, but having finally completed it I'm immensely satisfied. The graphics are still Falcom level (mid), the music is still Falcom level (great), and the overall story is still Falcom level (great!). I've found myself annoyed and tired of a lot of the cheesy and anime trope-y parts of this series, but at the same time found myself loving it all the same.
This is a culmination of the previous 8 games and brought out all the stops. Overjoyed to see the Liberl and Crossbell crews again. I have a few gripes with the story, but damn was it bringing everything out and worked to leave me satisfied. Glad I managed to get this far, and excited to see the series continue. Reverie soon, and Calvard to follow! If you're a JRPG fan with a few hundred hours to kill, Trails will quickly rise through the ranks to become one of your all time favorites.
This is a culmination of the previous 8 games and brought out all the stops. Overjoyed to see the Liberl and Crossbell crews again. I have a few gripes with the story, but damn was it bringing everything out and worked to leave me satisfied. Glad I managed to get this far, and excited to see the series continue. Reverie soon, and Calvard to follow! If you're a JRPG fan with a few hundred hours to kill, Trails will quickly rise through the ranks to become one of your all time favorites.
This game lost the plot, but it's a Trails game so I had fun anyways
This review contains spoilers
The best part of this game is when it ends.
I'm still not quite sure how to critique this game. In some ways, this game is the natural followup to everything CS3 had built up. It represents the oversaturation of a series which spent over a decade and a half adding characters upon characters without knowing what to really do with them. The bottom line, is at the end of the day, this game is only one thing for certain: it's bad.
I, notoriously, hated Cold Steel III. The game that everyone said was the best Cold Steel game leading up to it. People conversely acted like CS4 was the worst piece of fiction ever made, so my expectations going in were very low. I already hated CS3, so you're telling me there's something even WORSE?
As such, this review might read like a comparison piece between CS3 and 4. I really don't know what to think about this game on its own since so many of its issues stem from CS3, and to go even further, how this game handles plot points from all of its preceding games significantly impacts my impressions of it. That might be part of the reason why this game felt like a load of nothing to me—it DOESN'T stand on its own. It doesn't stand up for itself. It has no merit without having played all the previous games prior to it, it is consistently only acting to bring Cold Steel to an end.
=ACT 1: Gameplay=
This game plays pretty much identically to Cold Steel 3, but gives you a lot more freedom when roaming the world—like in CS2. As someone who typically talks to all the NPCs in a Trails game, this can be overwhelming. However, the fast travel menu is incredibly robust and tells the player when there was something new to interact with in any particular area. For me, this made it easy for me to mindlessly do an NPC sweep without worrying too much about whether I missed anything. What also helps immensely is that hidden quests and hidden items (such as book chapters) are all marked on the minimap, although you need to actually travel to the area to be able to see it first. Thanks to this improved quality of life, however; it made the gameplay experience of Cold Steel 4 much smoother than normal. This is something I think Trails games have been consistently improving upon since Cold Steel 1, and I'm glad to see these have improved to this point.
I will say though, there was a sort of charm to finding a hidden quest or hidden item yourself without having your hand held by the game, so part of me is mixed on these improvements, but overall I believe they are for the better when the side content in these games are normally significant enough to be of value to your understanding of the world, story and characters... which is not something I can say about CS4's side content! Most of the side quests in this game are abysmal! I will touch on these later, however.
Battle mechanics remain the same as in Cold Steel 3 with very little change. For full disclosure, I played this game on the Normal difficulty setting.
The usual bell/cast spam works with arts, and craft spam is the way to go with this game as usual. Issues arise with the amount of party members you get in this game, since there's no realistic way you're going to be working on optimising the equipment and orbments of all 37 of them, so the game seems like it was balanced around that idea—it's piss easy. I quickly realised that it's not really worth spending much time in optimising or grinding since this game is so easy that just a modicum of optimisation into even just three main party members will get you through the entire game. I similarly began to run by enemies with frequency because levels don't matter either, you gain them fast enough to keep up if you're underlevelled and it's very easy to kill enemies while underlevelled anyway. S-Craft spam is a strategy that remains sound, especially when you sometimes have up to 4 support members who will come in and take the place of your main party if they were all K.O.'d.
Ultimately, the gameplay segment of this game is as mindless as it has ever been, perhaps even more so than CS3, but it is still a fair amount of fun to play, it's just not very deep so it can get boring very quickly.
=INTERMISSION: Music=
KINGA COOKED!!!!!!!!! DEEP CARNIVAL BEST TRACK IN THE GAME!!!! PEAK OST!!!!
Despite what they might say, I do think I enjoyed the new tracks in this game more than what CS3 had to offer, but I can't help but feel that Falcom OSTs are starting to, overwhelmingly, just be "there" these days. I am aware Falcom pretty much has no sound director role and the composers don't even have input on where their tracks are used in the game, but this is DIRE. I barely even realised that there was a new motif written for CS4 by Takahiro Unisuga and I only know that because my stream chat told me. There was nothing about this game's music usage that communicated this to me, and I almost think the soundtrack direction actively ruined the experience half the time. The reason this section of the review is so awkwardly put in between the gameplay and story segments is because I deadass forgot to talk about the OST... me, the OST guy. This is getting real bad guys.
=ACT 2: Story=
This game is split up into a prologue, three acts, an intermission, and a finale. It is pretty much identical in scope and structure to CS2, a game which I also wasn't a huge fan of at first but have come to like more in hindsight. In many ways, this game is just Trails of Cold Steel II-2. In execution, however, this game falls flat in comparison.
I enjoyed Act 1 of this game, I really did. I liked it way more than I had enjoyed almost any moment of CS3. I don't think much really happens in it, but making it such a relatively focused gameplay experience while taking the focus away from Rean gives such us such a unique lens to view the current situation of Erebonia, even if it's just taking a bite out of CS2's piece of the pie. I really do like Act 1.
However, that, is where my praise for the story ends.
Playing this game feels like going through a checklist of character moments organised in such a segmented fashion that there's barely a coherent plot. It makes for a hollow experience because by the time you're not even a quarter into the game you start to realise that all you're doing is getting everyone on your side before going to the final confrontation, including characters who were previously thought to be dead. Half of this isn't even necessary to do either, they artificially make more content by having characters change allegiances on a dime just so the main party has another character to seduce over to their side with an anime pep talk. In most cases, these only occur to give OTHER characters their 'character moment' for the game which usually amounts to just convincing their friend or relative to change back to the heroes' side. Most of this, is effectively filler.
On the flip side to this, you have the bonding events which probably feature some of the best writing this game has to offer, at least as far as the non-romance scenes go. Almost all of these felt like they had substance for each of the characters involved. The issue here then stems from the main story being predominantly filler—why wasn't this incorporated into the main story?
Similarly, most of the side quests in this game typically fall into one of two categories:
1. "oh no.... the curse got them...."
2. Appearance of a significant character with 'stakes'
I'll touch on the curse in a moment, but when you KNOW that it's a side quest and important main characters and even antagonists show up, you already know there will be no stakes. They can't do anything significant enough to affect the main story, otherwise they can't have their important moment take place when it REALLY matters. It just makes me wonder why a lot of this was shelved for side content rather than being meaningful content for the main story, because as it stands the plot is incredibly flat.
There really is no way to discuss this game's story without bringing up The Curse. The damage this single concept has done to this series in immeasurable. Not only is it inconsistent with itself, it actively ruins past parts of the series. There is no consistency to how it behaves, probably the only consistent thing about this curse is that it somehow respects state borders? As a result, the way it gets used also suffers. It actively goes AGAINST every single character motivation of Chancellor Osborne prior to this game and ruins his character. It'll rewrite memories to get NPCs to behave in a certain way, but it'll also physically force Count Arseid to comply without rewriting his memories? It's such a mess.
The curse is used well about... 10% of the time maybe? I think Ash beating the curse allegations at the start of Act 1 was fairly powerful albeit a bit abrupt, and Cedric's arc in the finale of the game was surprisingly engaging despite it all because it worked in tandem with his existing motivations from the previous games. I'm not saying the concept doesn't have potential on paper, however; in execution it caused irreparable damage to anything Cold Steel could have potentially achieved by the end of its life.
A Japanese review I read said the curse is a plot point "an elementary schooler could've come up with" and I don't think more accurate words have been said. This story is a meme and so are the characters.
=ACT 3: Legacy=
How does it feel seeing the characters you love having their personalities stripped to nothing?
This is the first game in the series to bring back so many characters in the series, but they really serve so little purpose in the story it's laughable. It's really sad to see that all these characters amount to are character traits now—some which even DOUBLE UP on characters we already have in Cold Steel alone, so having their presence even just for the party dynamic feels excessive. Any two characters meeting for the first time feels like "oh haha look we're similar" or "oh haha we have a mutual friend" and there's really nothing of substance here.
Some of these characters return specifically just to make other characters look better. Cassius came back JUST to make Rean into a divine blade, which, huh? Where did that come from? This was never a goal or anything of the previous games and suddenly I'm supposed to believe that Rean is on the same level as Arios or Cassius despite him being such a non-presence in the story of CS3 and 4, it's such a weird moment.
Getting to finally meet Elie's mum is cool, but seeing the ghosts of Hamel felt like an awkward re-appropriation of an old event just to milk a plot point that had already been tied up neatly in previous games. Not to mention, Loewe coming back from the dead to say 2 lines is comical. On top of that, WE PLAY VANTAGE MASTERS OVER LOEWE'S GRAVE. WITH JOSHUA.
I don't understand Lechter or Claire's motivations anymore. Lechter, a character who has been cooking since Trails in the Sky the 3RD even had nothing good come of him. He wanted to avoid a war in previous titles, so why were all his actions from CS3 onwards to instigate one? Nothing makes sense anymore. This is just but one of the many wasted setups from Sky 3rd. If they were going to retcon out Sky 3rd stuff, why didn't they cut out the Tita and Agate jokes?
There is nothing in this game that doesn't feel outright disrespectful to the series' legacy. I think it's outright blasphemy to even call it "fan-service", it actively depreciates everything that has been building up until this point and then proceeds to rub salt in the wound AND spit in its face.
=FINALE: Where to next?=
To my surprise, this game wasn't any worse than CS3, nor was it better. It was perfectly in line with everything I hated about CS3, but somehow managed to have moments that I did care about despite it all. I would describe this game as having higher highs than CS3, but ASTRONOMICALLY lower lows than CS3, but I'm not sure I could say which I hate less.
CS3 set CS4 up to fail. I am convinced this is the unadulterated truth about these last two games in this series. My expectations were already low because of CS3 and thus I was kinda ready for CS4 to also be a mess, but when everyone acted like CS3 was the best CS game and CS4 was the worst piece of media to ever be created, I'm not sure I was expecting to feel so much... the same about both games.
Falcom company president Toshihiro Kondo once said that part of Reverie's reason for existing is to try to make up for some of CS4's failings. I have heard nothing but praise for the game, and also that it tries to backtrack on a few points from CS4. I don't know how salvageable this series is moving forward, but I will let them cook and see.
Despite it all, I am just glad it is over and I can finally get onto playing good games again. Thank you for reading.
I'm still not quite sure how to critique this game. In some ways, this game is the natural followup to everything CS3 had built up. It represents the oversaturation of a series which spent over a decade and a half adding characters upon characters without knowing what to really do with them. The bottom line, is at the end of the day, this game is only one thing for certain: it's bad.
I, notoriously, hated Cold Steel III. The game that everyone said was the best Cold Steel game leading up to it. People conversely acted like CS4 was the worst piece of fiction ever made, so my expectations going in were very low. I already hated CS3, so you're telling me there's something even WORSE?
As such, this review might read like a comparison piece between CS3 and 4. I really don't know what to think about this game on its own since so many of its issues stem from CS3, and to go even further, how this game handles plot points from all of its preceding games significantly impacts my impressions of it. That might be part of the reason why this game felt like a load of nothing to me—it DOESN'T stand on its own. It doesn't stand up for itself. It has no merit without having played all the previous games prior to it, it is consistently only acting to bring Cold Steel to an end.
=ACT 1: Gameplay=
This game plays pretty much identically to Cold Steel 3, but gives you a lot more freedom when roaming the world—like in CS2. As someone who typically talks to all the NPCs in a Trails game, this can be overwhelming. However, the fast travel menu is incredibly robust and tells the player when there was something new to interact with in any particular area. For me, this made it easy for me to mindlessly do an NPC sweep without worrying too much about whether I missed anything. What also helps immensely is that hidden quests and hidden items (such as book chapters) are all marked on the minimap, although you need to actually travel to the area to be able to see it first. Thanks to this improved quality of life, however; it made the gameplay experience of Cold Steel 4 much smoother than normal. This is something I think Trails games have been consistently improving upon since Cold Steel 1, and I'm glad to see these have improved to this point.
I will say though, there was a sort of charm to finding a hidden quest or hidden item yourself without having your hand held by the game, so part of me is mixed on these improvements, but overall I believe they are for the better when the side content in these games are normally significant enough to be of value to your understanding of the world, story and characters... which is not something I can say about CS4's side content! Most of the side quests in this game are abysmal! I will touch on these later, however.
Battle mechanics remain the same as in Cold Steel 3 with very little change. For full disclosure, I played this game on the Normal difficulty setting.
The usual bell/cast spam works with arts, and craft spam is the way to go with this game as usual. Issues arise with the amount of party members you get in this game, since there's no realistic way you're going to be working on optimising the equipment and orbments of all 37 of them, so the game seems like it was balanced around that idea—it's piss easy. I quickly realised that it's not really worth spending much time in optimising or grinding since this game is so easy that just a modicum of optimisation into even just three main party members will get you through the entire game. I similarly began to run by enemies with frequency because levels don't matter either, you gain them fast enough to keep up if you're underlevelled and it's very easy to kill enemies while underlevelled anyway. S-Craft spam is a strategy that remains sound, especially when you sometimes have up to 4 support members who will come in and take the place of your main party if they were all K.O.'d.
Ultimately, the gameplay segment of this game is as mindless as it has ever been, perhaps even more so than CS3, but it is still a fair amount of fun to play, it's just not very deep so it can get boring very quickly.
=INTERMISSION: Music=
KINGA COOKED!!!!!!!!! DEEP CARNIVAL BEST TRACK IN THE GAME!!!! PEAK OST!!!!
Despite what they might say, I do think I enjoyed the new tracks in this game more than what CS3 had to offer, but I can't help but feel that Falcom OSTs are starting to, overwhelmingly, just be "there" these days. I am aware Falcom pretty much has no sound director role and the composers don't even have input on where their tracks are used in the game, but this is DIRE. I barely even realised that there was a new motif written for CS4 by Takahiro Unisuga and I only know that because my stream chat told me. There was nothing about this game's music usage that communicated this to me, and I almost think the soundtrack direction actively ruined the experience half the time. The reason this section of the review is so awkwardly put in between the gameplay and story segments is because I deadass forgot to talk about the OST... me, the OST guy. This is getting real bad guys.
=ACT 2: Story=
This game is split up into a prologue, three acts, an intermission, and a finale. It is pretty much identical in scope and structure to CS2, a game which I also wasn't a huge fan of at first but have come to like more in hindsight. In many ways, this game is just Trails of Cold Steel II-2. In execution, however, this game falls flat in comparison.
I enjoyed Act 1 of this game, I really did. I liked it way more than I had enjoyed almost any moment of CS3. I don't think much really happens in it, but making it such a relatively focused gameplay experience while taking the focus away from Rean gives such us such a unique lens to view the current situation of Erebonia, even if it's just taking a bite out of CS2's piece of the pie. I really do like Act 1.
However, that, is where my praise for the story ends.
Playing this game feels like going through a checklist of character moments organised in such a segmented fashion that there's barely a coherent plot. It makes for a hollow experience because by the time you're not even a quarter into the game you start to realise that all you're doing is getting everyone on your side before going to the final confrontation, including characters who were previously thought to be dead. Half of this isn't even necessary to do either, they artificially make more content by having characters change allegiances on a dime just so the main party has another character to seduce over to their side with an anime pep talk. In most cases, these only occur to give OTHER characters their 'character moment' for the game which usually amounts to just convincing their friend or relative to change back to the heroes' side. Most of this, is effectively filler.
On the flip side to this, you have the bonding events which probably feature some of the best writing this game has to offer, at least as far as the non-romance scenes go. Almost all of these felt like they had substance for each of the characters involved. The issue here then stems from the main story being predominantly filler—why wasn't this incorporated into the main story?
Similarly, most of the side quests in this game typically fall into one of two categories:
1. "oh no.... the curse got them...."
2. Appearance of a significant character with 'stakes'
I'll touch on the curse in a moment, but when you KNOW that it's a side quest and important main characters and even antagonists show up, you already know there will be no stakes. They can't do anything significant enough to affect the main story, otherwise they can't have their important moment take place when it REALLY matters. It just makes me wonder why a lot of this was shelved for side content rather than being meaningful content for the main story, because as it stands the plot is incredibly flat.
There really is no way to discuss this game's story without bringing up The Curse. The damage this single concept has done to this series in immeasurable. Not only is it inconsistent with itself, it actively ruins past parts of the series. There is no consistency to how it behaves, probably the only consistent thing about this curse is that it somehow respects state borders? As a result, the way it gets used also suffers. It actively goes AGAINST every single character motivation of Chancellor Osborne prior to this game and ruins his character. It'll rewrite memories to get NPCs to behave in a certain way, but it'll also physically force Count Arseid to comply without rewriting his memories? It's such a mess.
The curse is used well about... 10% of the time maybe? I think Ash beating the curse allegations at the start of Act 1 was fairly powerful albeit a bit abrupt, and Cedric's arc in the finale of the game was surprisingly engaging despite it all because it worked in tandem with his existing motivations from the previous games. I'm not saying the concept doesn't have potential on paper, however; in execution it caused irreparable damage to anything Cold Steel could have potentially achieved by the end of its life.
A Japanese review I read said the curse is a plot point "an elementary schooler could've come up with" and I don't think more accurate words have been said. This story is a meme and so are the characters.
=ACT 3: Legacy=
How does it feel seeing the characters you love having their personalities stripped to nothing?
This is the first game in the series to bring back so many characters in the series, but they really serve so little purpose in the story it's laughable. It's really sad to see that all these characters amount to are character traits now—some which even DOUBLE UP on characters we already have in Cold Steel alone, so having their presence even just for the party dynamic feels excessive. Any two characters meeting for the first time feels like "oh haha look we're similar" or "oh haha we have a mutual friend" and there's really nothing of substance here.
Some of these characters return specifically just to make other characters look better. Cassius came back JUST to make Rean into a divine blade, which, huh? Where did that come from? This was never a goal or anything of the previous games and suddenly I'm supposed to believe that Rean is on the same level as Arios or Cassius despite him being such a non-presence in the story of CS3 and 4, it's such a weird moment.
Getting to finally meet Elie's mum is cool, but seeing the ghosts of Hamel felt like an awkward re-appropriation of an old event just to milk a plot point that had already been tied up neatly in previous games. Not to mention, Loewe coming back from the dead to say 2 lines is comical. On top of that, WE PLAY VANTAGE MASTERS OVER LOEWE'S GRAVE. WITH JOSHUA.
I don't understand Lechter or Claire's motivations anymore. Lechter, a character who has been cooking since Trails in the Sky the 3RD even had nothing good come of him. He wanted to avoid a war in previous titles, so why were all his actions from CS3 onwards to instigate one? Nothing makes sense anymore. This is just but one of the many wasted setups from Sky 3rd. If they were going to retcon out Sky 3rd stuff, why didn't they cut out the Tita and Agate jokes?
There is nothing in this game that doesn't feel outright disrespectful to the series' legacy. I think it's outright blasphemy to even call it "fan-service", it actively depreciates everything that has been building up until this point and then proceeds to rub salt in the wound AND spit in its face.
=FINALE: Where to next?=
To my surprise, this game wasn't any worse than CS3, nor was it better. It was perfectly in line with everything I hated about CS3, but somehow managed to have moments that I did care about despite it all. I would describe this game as having higher highs than CS3, but ASTRONOMICALLY lower lows than CS3, but I'm not sure I could say which I hate less.
CS3 set CS4 up to fail. I am convinced this is the unadulterated truth about these last two games in this series. My expectations were already low because of CS3 and thus I was kinda ready for CS4 to also be a mess, but when everyone acted like CS3 was the best CS game and CS4 was the worst piece of media to ever be created, I'm not sure I was expecting to feel so much... the same about both games.
Falcom company president Toshihiro Kondo once said that part of Reverie's reason for existing is to try to make up for some of CS4's failings. I have heard nothing but praise for the game, and also that it tries to backtrack on a few points from CS4. I don't know how salvageable this series is moving forward, but I will let them cook and see.
Despite it all, I am just glad it is over and I can finally get onto playing good games again. Thank you for reading.
the climax of it all, the weakest parts of the game get easily compensated by the strongest, falcom you ROCKED MY WORLDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
the crying at the end wasnt me. it was the curse
burning throb is the best normal battle theme in any video game and you cannot convince me otherwise
my descendants a hundred years from now searching about the trails series on 22th century wikipedia after hearing from their parents about how much their grandgrandfather loved it and becoming just as fascinated
Best Cold Steel game! I love the grand scale everything takes place in, all the characters from all the previous games are present. I just wish they'd let dead characters be dead, but oh well.
This review contains spoilers
A Cursed Fairy Tale Disaster.
I will say this. I absolutely adored the Trails series especially Reverie and Sky Second Chapter.
I adored the deep lore, attention to detail and wordbuilding that they provided.
I loved most of the characters that each entry provides my favourites being Renne, Lowete, Crow, Fie, Estelle, Emma, Gaius (You Deserved Better) Randy, Wazy and many others.
The storytelling always fascinating to me, even if it doesn't always hit the mark. (Cold Steel Saga specially)
That said Cold Steel 4 is one of the most miserable, dragged out, unfocused and meandering JRPGs I've ever played.
Despite me ultimate hating this game, it had some redeeming that saved it from getting the lowest score.
Crow and Duvalie becoming Allies.
Music especially the battle themes.
True Ending Final Battle.
Ending Credits.
Fie, Duvalie, Altina, Emma, Randy, Renne and Ash character development.
Funny humor from time to time.
Most of Act 1 and 3 was soild barring some bad writing moments.
That's, unfortunately, it.
The Bad.
Gameplay is mostly a cake with some serious balancing issues.
CS4 tried to nerf some characters kit, mainly from new class 7, but the only thing that they did is just made New Class 7 severely underpowered especially after Act 1 (Aside from Musse who ends up becoming my premiere offensive arts user)
Lots of padded dialogue, mixed with repeated and stiff animation.
Lack of overall death and consequences seriously why is the Cold Steel Saga is too chicken to kill off it's characters?
Character development locked by forced Bonding Events and now it's at it's all time worse now.
WHY Falcom WHY!!!
While I'm glad to see Estelle, Joshua and other characters from the previous games again, they unfortunately have locked meandering kits and craft selections.
CS4 Rean portrayal.
I did like his character in the CS1-CS3 days, but he fell off a cliff once he fully lost control by the end of CS3.
Here's outside of forced muh sacrifice bull bullcrap horrifically bland and uninteresting, that lacked all the charisma that he had in the previous games.
Thank God for Reverie for fixing Rean I guess.
Bad writing, numerous plotholes and asspulls especially in Act 2.
The UGLY.
Act 2 outside the final act doesn't need to exist whatsoever.
Worse than Cold Steel 2 Act 2.
The Cursed plotline.
Without question the worst written plotline I've seen in any video game.
Outrageously contrived and lazy
Alisha dumb family issues plotline.
She barely felt like a character, but more of a lazily driven and incoherent plot device that exists to create tension and drama.
She's just annoying background noise.
Juna, the brain rotting, reconning, hamfisted, loud, annoying cow.
My most hated JRPG character.
If it wasn't bad enough that you were a bootleg Estelle, now you to act you knew Rean struggles while shaming old Class 7.
Also after Act 1 she just becomes another member of Rean's Harem, rubbing her face at Rean's crouch, while struggling to stay relevant.
Fuck this character.
She and the cursed plotline ruined Cold Steel 4.
I seriously have no idea of what Falcom was thinking when making this game.
A game that despite having some fantastic moments is littered with serious issues that killed the experience for me.
Despite my disgust with Cold Steel 4 as a whole, I'm glad it exists as it allowed for Reverie and Kuro to rise as they seemed that the Falcom staff have learn their lesson from Cold Steel 4.
We all make mistakes and Falcom's Cold Steel 4 was their mistake that shall not be repeated again.
I will say this. I absolutely adored the Trails series especially Reverie and Sky Second Chapter.
I adored the deep lore, attention to detail and wordbuilding that they provided.
I loved most of the characters that each entry provides my favourites being Renne, Lowete, Crow, Fie, Estelle, Emma, Gaius (You Deserved Better) Randy, Wazy and many others.
The storytelling always fascinating to me, even if it doesn't always hit the mark. (Cold Steel Saga specially)
That said Cold Steel 4 is one of the most miserable, dragged out, unfocused and meandering JRPGs I've ever played.
Despite me ultimate hating this game, it had some redeeming that saved it from getting the lowest score.
Crow and Duvalie becoming Allies.
Music especially the battle themes.
True Ending Final Battle.
Ending Credits.
Fie, Duvalie, Altina, Emma, Randy, Renne and Ash character development.
Funny humor from time to time.
Most of Act 1 and 3 was soild barring some bad writing moments.
That's, unfortunately, it.
The Bad.
Gameplay is mostly a cake with some serious balancing issues.
CS4 tried to nerf some characters kit, mainly from new class 7, but the only thing that they did is just made New Class 7 severely underpowered especially after Act 1 (Aside from Musse who ends up becoming my premiere offensive arts user)
Lots of padded dialogue, mixed with repeated and stiff animation.
Lack of overall death and consequences seriously why is the Cold Steel Saga is too chicken to kill off it's characters?
Character development locked by forced Bonding Events and now it's at it's all time worse now.
WHY Falcom WHY!!!
While I'm glad to see Estelle, Joshua and other characters from the previous games again, they unfortunately have locked meandering kits and craft selections.
CS4 Rean portrayal.
I did like his character in the CS1-CS3 days, but he fell off a cliff once he fully lost control by the end of CS3.
Here's outside of forced muh sacrifice bull bullcrap horrifically bland and uninteresting, that lacked all the charisma that he had in the previous games.
Thank God for Reverie for fixing Rean I guess.
Bad writing, numerous plotholes and asspulls especially in Act 2.
The UGLY.
Act 2 outside the final act doesn't need to exist whatsoever.
Worse than Cold Steel 2 Act 2.
The Cursed plotline.
Without question the worst written plotline I've seen in any video game.
Outrageously contrived and lazy
Alisha dumb family issues plotline.
She barely felt like a character, but more of a lazily driven and incoherent plot device that exists to create tension and drama.
She's just annoying background noise.
Juna, the brain rotting, reconning, hamfisted, loud, annoying cow.
My most hated JRPG character.
If it wasn't bad enough that you were a bootleg Estelle, now you to act you knew Rean struggles while shaming old Class 7.
Also after Act 1 she just becomes another member of Rean's Harem, rubbing her face at Rean's crouch, while struggling to stay relevant.
Fuck this character.
She and the cursed plotline ruined Cold Steel 4.
I seriously have no idea of what Falcom was thinking when making this game.
A game that despite having some fantastic moments is littered with serious issues that killed the experience for me.
Despite my disgust with Cold Steel 4 as a whole, I'm glad it exists as it allowed for Reverie and Kuro to rise as they seemed that the Falcom staff have learn their lesson from Cold Steel 4.
We all make mistakes and Falcom's Cold Steel 4 was their mistake that shall not be repeated again.
I beat the game on hard, cleared all quests, beat everyone in Pom Pom & Vantage Masters, filled the entire notebook, got the true ending & the secret ending as well & all trophies except for Nightmare & the bondings for Musse, Laura & Fie. I’ll update this review as soon as I have achieved the missing trophies and might add a more detailed review.
Masterpiece
This review contains spoilers
I've been following the Trails series since the time when Falcom released Trails in the Skies FC back on the Vita years ago, though I did end up waiting for a decade for the release of SC. If I'm being honest, Estelle as a character does have more character development than Rean, but Cold Steel is still one of my favourites in the series, which is why I ended up double dipping for this game.
As is the norm for Falcom, the game has a strong story and plot, and even a great combat system, though I honestly could do without the whole harem aspect... :( Newcomers to the series would really be very lost when jumping in head first in this game without playing through Cold Steel 1-3 at the very least. Without playing those games, they won't know what the heck is going on, and who all those characters are, since CS4 easily has the largest cast ever in a Falcom game. Not to mention the entire build up to the story in Cold Steel 4 starts from Cold Steel 1, and really builds up Rean's relationships with those in Class VII.
As is the norm for Falcom, the game has a strong story and plot, and even a great combat system, though I honestly could do without the whole harem aspect... :( Newcomers to the series would really be very lost when jumping in head first in this game without playing through Cold Steel 1-3 at the very least. Without playing those games, they won't know what the heck is going on, and who all those characters are, since CS4 easily has the largest cast ever in a Falcom game. Not to mention the entire build up to the story in Cold Steel 4 starts from Cold Steel 1, and really builds up Rean's relationships with those in Class VII.
The game suffers most from padding
Before beginning, let me preface this by saying you don't need to play all the past Trails games to enjoy this one, but I feel doing so enhances the experience. Anyway, this game is the culmination of 8 games worth of characters and stories coming together, where big serious things happen due to the aftermath of what happened in Cold Steel 3. I'm saying it in that way to avoid spoilers.
Seeing characters from past games is always something I like in RPGs, and in this game, that's certainly a thing, but it is, in a sense, a double edged sword. There are two primary reasons why I'm giving this game a 4/5. One is related to the characters. The roster is fairly bloated in this entry. Old Class VII is given to you throughout Act 1 where you're originally stuck with just Juna, Kurt, and Altina (I'm not saying they're bad or anything), and by the end of Act 1, you'll have all of New Class VII and all of Old Class minus Rean for plot reasons. Sure, the game does give you situations where certain characters are mandatory, which gives you chances to take certain members off the bench, but there is still the leeway to use your favorites at times. For example, Musse was a mainstay in my party because of her arts nuking potential. I almost always brought her anywhere I went.
Then you have all the returning characters, the Liberl crew (plus Tita), the Crossbell crew, and some others you get to use once or twice in Act 3. There's a lot of characters to work with, and especially early on, it makes resource management not so easy. Then again, this is a second game in an arc, so they are more generous with Sepith than in Cold Steel 3.
Speaking of Cold Steel 3, because of how unbelievably broken Brave Orders were last time, the devs decided to nerf them. Some of the OP ones in the last game, like Juna's Sledgehammer or Sara's Lightspeed Flash got either BP increases or were directly affected by changes to delay. At the same time, once again, since this a second game in an arc, Trial Chests are back, and this time they upgrade your Brave Orders. I will admit, one Brave Order I found borderline worthless got a lot more viability in this game, and that's Musse's Arts Celebration. The higher elements (time, space, mirage) are in effect in all battles like Sky the 3rd, meaning the higher elements do play a role in combat now, and being able to decrease your EP cost AND nuke something with your arts is just a great combination. Also Millium's White Decoration and Towa's High Heavens are very fair and balanced.
As for that second reason, it's more of a "the lategame is very backloaded with side content" thing. Bonding events aren't avaliable until Act 2, and even then, some events must be skipped if you want all the Profile Notes. I wanted to do Emma's Bonding Event, but I had to skip it to get a page. In the end, I ended up getting nine of the final bonding event achievements and went with Musse in my canon run of the endgame.
So, side content. Vantage Masters is still here. It exists. Use the Bard for most encounters because making sure your opponent can't play is fun. Aside from that and fishing is a returning game from Azure, the infamous Pom Pom Party. It's basically Puyo Puyo with extra steps. Tio is supposed to be the hardest opponent, but Renne tore me apart more than even Tio did.
Now, the elephant in the room, the story. Being a continuation, I was already invested in the story. I don't really like how seeing the Normal Ending is a requirement to getting the True Ending, but because Reverie addresses the aftermath of that little...problem, I can let it slide. The real final boss making use of three teams in a different way from the last non mech boss was cool too.
Overall, if you like the series, you'll probably like this game.
Seeing characters from past games is always something I like in RPGs, and in this game, that's certainly a thing, but it is, in a sense, a double edged sword. There are two primary reasons why I'm giving this game a 4/5. One is related to the characters. The roster is fairly bloated in this entry. Old Class VII is given to you throughout Act 1 where you're originally stuck with just Juna, Kurt, and Altina (I'm not saying they're bad or anything), and by the end of Act 1, you'll have all of New Class VII and all of Old Class minus Rean for plot reasons. Sure, the game does give you situations where certain characters are mandatory, which gives you chances to take certain members off the bench, but there is still the leeway to use your favorites at times. For example, Musse was a mainstay in my party because of her arts nuking potential. I almost always brought her anywhere I went.
Then you have all the returning characters, the Liberl crew (plus Tita), the Crossbell crew, and some others you get to use once or twice in Act 3. There's a lot of characters to work with, and especially early on, it makes resource management not so easy. Then again, this is a second game in an arc, so they are more generous with Sepith than in Cold Steel 3.
Speaking of Cold Steel 3, because of how unbelievably broken Brave Orders were last time, the devs decided to nerf them. Some of the OP ones in the last game, like Juna's Sledgehammer or Sara's Lightspeed Flash got either BP increases or were directly affected by changes to delay. At the same time, once again, since this a second game in an arc, Trial Chests are back, and this time they upgrade your Brave Orders. I will admit, one Brave Order I found borderline worthless got a lot more viability in this game, and that's Musse's Arts Celebration. The higher elements (time, space, mirage) are in effect in all battles like Sky the 3rd, meaning the higher elements do play a role in combat now, and being able to decrease your EP cost AND nuke something with your arts is just a great combination. Also Millium's White Decoration and Towa's High Heavens are very fair and balanced.
As for that second reason, it's more of a "the lategame is very backloaded with side content" thing. Bonding events aren't avaliable until Act 2, and even then, some events must be skipped if you want all the Profile Notes. I wanted to do Emma's Bonding Event, but I had to skip it to get a page. In the end, I ended up getting nine of the final bonding event achievements and went with Musse in my canon run of the endgame.
So, side content. Vantage Masters is still here. It exists. Use the Bard for most encounters because making sure your opponent can't play is fun. Aside from that and fishing is a returning game from Azure, the infamous Pom Pom Party. It's basically Puyo Puyo with extra steps. Tio is supposed to be the hardest opponent, but Renne tore me apart more than even Tio did.
Now, the elephant in the room, the story. Being a continuation, I was already invested in the story. I don't really like how seeing the Normal Ending is a requirement to getting the True Ending, but because Reverie addresses the aftermath of that little...problem, I can let it slide. The real final boss making use of three teams in a different way from the last non mech boss was cool too.
Overall, if you like the series, you'll probably like this game.
I’ve said this a few times before but this time I am not joking. This is the worst gaming experience I’ve ever had. Hundreds of hours of solid build up, an amazing predecessor, all for this 100 hours of pure mouldy dick cheese.
I’m not even gonna tag spoilers because I genuinely hope I spoil you and put you off. Everybody you thought was dead, is still alive. Anybody that did die, alive. Anybody that was dead before the events of the first game, alive. Anybody that was evil, not actually evil they were just being controlled. Anybody that made a remotely bad choice in their life, it was the actions of some mystical dookie god fuck I hate this game oh my god
The game thinks it’s so much more mature and clever than it is, you have characters in these dire situations making decisions like 13 year olds it makes me physically sick. The only reason I picked up this entire franchise was because of the cover image of this game man I wanna die
Combat is so gas my favourite turn based system ever peaked here, Rean is gas too idgaf if I have to see Lloyd again after Reverie I’m ending it all
I sincerely believe everyone involved in the production deserves some form of punishment whether it be suspension from game development or jail time.
Thank you
I’m not even gonna tag spoilers because I genuinely hope I spoil you and put you off. Everybody you thought was dead, is still alive. Anybody that did die, alive. Anybody that was dead before the events of the first game, alive. Anybody that was evil, not actually evil they were just being controlled. Anybody that made a remotely bad choice in their life, it was the actions of some mystical dookie god fuck I hate this game oh my god
The game thinks it’s so much more mature and clever than it is, you have characters in these dire situations making decisions like 13 year olds it makes me physically sick. The only reason I picked up this entire franchise was because of the cover image of this game man I wanna die
Combat is so gas my favourite turn based system ever peaked here, Rean is gas too idgaf if I have to see Lloyd again after Reverie I’m ending it all
I sincerely believe everyone involved in the production deserves some form of punishment whether it be suspension from game development or jail time.
Thank you
A good conclusion for the cold steel series. It does have its flaws like certain parts of the game dragging a bit, a bloated cast, and forgiving characters that did fucked up shit but none the less still a solid entry for the series and graphically the best one to date. Sound track is diesel and if you played the trails in the sky and crossbell games you'll be seeing a lot of old faces. The romance tbh was very anti-climatic especially if you've stuck with the same person all these games. Go for the true ending (its canon) its may still have you draking but at least its not depressing af like the normal ending. If possible please don't play these four out of order I see people all the time asking if they can skip games and stuff just don't.
Although none of the trails games managed to be one of my all time favorites (Trails to Azure and Cold Steel IV got close, though), the Trails series is now one of my favorites overall.
Looking forward to Reverie and the Calvard arc now.
Looking forward to Reverie and the Calvard arc now.
lhe falta culhões nihom falcom, lhe falta culhõeeeeees, mas como sou mama bola da franquia e fã burro do tocs vou dar nota alta 🥰
While the plot has been improved and largely builds upon CS3, certain features of this game weaken this game. The haram aspects, the presence of 30+ cast within a single scene on multiple plot points, and the return of weird fast traveling instantaneously from CS2 weaken what would otherwise be a strong successor to CS3.
Even the worst Trails game is one of the more solid modern JRPGs out there. That said, as many have said before me, this is a game of high peaks and low valleys.
Off the top of my head, I quite liked the first arc putting Juna and New Class 7 in the leadership position (even if the content itself isn't the best), I liked that this game actually does make an effort to make it feel as though there is a conflict happening around Zemuria, and most of the finale is really solid. The gameplay also remains quite fun.
I won't bore anyone with yet another series of complaints about the curse, the mechanics of the plot, or even the fanservice, but I will say I was particularly disappointed with how much this game treads the same ground structurally as Trails of Cold Steel II. More than any other title in the series I was awash for most of the game with a huge "been there done that" feel, and that made it difficult to hit those points that made it all worth it. It's also just way too long for no particular reason.
Even with my gripes, I had a solid time overall. But definitely ready and excited to move on to Reverie.
Off the top of my head, I quite liked the first arc putting Juna and New Class 7 in the leadership position (even if the content itself isn't the best), I liked that this game actually does make an effort to make it feel as though there is a conflict happening around Zemuria, and most of the finale is really solid. The gameplay also remains quite fun.
I won't bore anyone with yet another series of complaints about the curse, the mechanics of the plot, or even the fanservice, but I will say I was particularly disappointed with how much this game treads the same ground structurally as Trails of Cold Steel II. More than any other title in the series I was awash for most of the game with a huge "been there done that" feel, and that made it difficult to hit those points that made it all worth it. It's also just way too long for no particular reason.
Even with my gripes, I had a solid time overall. But definitely ready and excited to move on to Reverie.
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This review contains spoilers
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.
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.
About as close as a video game can get to being a genuine epic, with a grand, sprawling narrative set in a dynamic world driven by a plethora of distinct characters with their own baggages and arcs.
And it's still not even the best the series has to offer.
And it's still not even the best the series has to offer.
This review contains spoilers
Относительно третьей части изменений не так уж много (а если и есть, то они случаются раз в сто лет). Общие впечатления:
— Завершение первого акта шикарное. Музыка и сам бой то что нужно. И тут я задумался, что в игре не хватает боёв под музыку с вокалом.
— Баланс: систему приказов чуть переработали (в плане баланса). Добавили сундуки-испытания как во второй части. Состояние Break тоже чуть переработали (оно не откидывает ход врага далеко-далеко.
— Каст. Персонажей слишком много. В третьей части большинство были гостевыми до определённого момента, поэтому им не нужно было менеджментить экипировку. А вот теперь… Плюс вернули два уровня слотов для кварца, из-за чего траты порой космические. Одних и тех же персонажей не всегда получится использовать, ибо очень много эпизодов, где пати/бои с фиксированными персонажами.
— Проработка персонажей. Как обычно, кого-то раскрывают лучше, кого-то не особо. Контраст порой очень сильный.
— Мини-игры. Тут по порядку:
Рыбалка. Появились легендарные рыбы, которых можно поймать только после разговора с конкретными людьми. Процесс ничем не отличается.
Vantage Master. Карт стало больше, баланс поменяли. Но соперников уж слишком много. На последнем приходится молиться на рандом.
Pom pom party. Местный Puyo-puyo из Azure вернулся сюда. Соперников много, рандома достаточно, некоторые соперники проблемные. Впрочем, игралось весело.
— Система с переключением отрядов в некоторых сюжетных моментах есть, но я разочарован в ней. Никакого развития она не получила (за исключением единственного боя, там она реализована отлично). В тройке в одном из данжей надо было с помощью трёх отрядов добраться до другого этажа, при этом чтобы открыть дверь у одного отряда, надо нажать кнопку у другого. Вроде мелочь, но уже ощущается интереснее, чем просто переключение.
— Продолжая прошлый пункт, в этой части есть несколько интересных фишек, которые встречаются только в самом конце, либо один раз. И это грустно.
— Возвращаясь к балансу: как обычно, в определённый момент можно поломать игру (можно сделать персонажа, который будет всегда уклоняться от физических атак, при этом больно контратакуя, можно убер-мага, который практически не даёт сделать ход врагу).
— Музыка. Всё ещё крутая, боевые треки понравились больше, чем в прошлых частях.
Итог. Я рад, что прошёл её. Игра очень неровная, где-то с сюжетом не очень, где-то с геймплеем. Тем не менее оно того стоило.
— Завершение первого акта шикарное. Музыка и сам бой то что нужно. И тут я задумался, что в игре не хватает боёв под музыку с вокалом.
— Баланс: систему приказов чуть переработали (в плане баланса). Добавили сундуки-испытания как во второй части. Состояние Break тоже чуть переработали (оно не откидывает ход врага далеко-далеко.
— Каст. Персонажей слишком много. В третьей части большинство были гостевыми до определённого момента, поэтому им не нужно было менеджментить экипировку. А вот теперь… Плюс вернули два уровня слотов для кварца, из-за чего траты порой космические. Одних и тех же персонажей не всегда получится использовать, ибо очень много эпизодов, где пати/бои с фиксированными персонажами.
— Проработка персонажей. Как обычно, кого-то раскрывают лучше, кого-то не особо. Контраст порой очень сильный.
— Мини-игры. Тут по порядку:
Рыбалка. Появились легендарные рыбы, которых можно поймать только после разговора с конкретными людьми. Процесс ничем не отличается.
Vantage Master. Карт стало больше, баланс поменяли. Но соперников уж слишком много. На последнем приходится молиться на рандом.
Pom pom party. Местный Puyo-puyo из Azure вернулся сюда. Соперников много, рандома достаточно, некоторые соперники проблемные. Впрочем, игралось весело.
— Система с переключением отрядов в некоторых сюжетных моментах есть, но я разочарован в ней. Никакого развития она не получила (за исключением единственного боя, там она реализована отлично). В тройке в одном из данжей надо было с помощью трёх отрядов добраться до другого этажа, при этом чтобы открыть дверь у одного отряда, надо нажать кнопку у другого. Вроде мелочь, но уже ощущается интереснее, чем просто переключение.
— Продолжая прошлый пункт, в этой части есть несколько интересных фишек, которые встречаются только в самом конце, либо один раз. И это грустно.
— Возвращаясь к балансу: как обычно, в определённый момент можно поломать игру (можно сделать персонажа, который будет всегда уклоняться от физических атак, при этом больно контратакуя, можно убер-мага, который практически не даёт сделать ход врагу).
— Музыка. Всё ещё крутая, боевые треки понравились больше, чем в прошлых частях.
Итог. Я рад, что прошёл её. Игра очень неровная, где-то с сюжетом не очень, где-то с геймплеем. Тем не менее оно того стоило.
This is probably within my top 3 worst games from a series I mostly enjoy. Everything bad about the Cold Steel saga is at its most distilled in this game. The majority of the characters stand around in a circle and do absolutely nothing, the sexual humor is at its most cringe inducing, the villains are completely forgettable, and the plot is boring at best and downright nonsensical at worst. Would be a 1 star game if it wasn't for the excellent way that act 1 kicks off the story. It was the only part of the game where I felt like meaningful things were actually happening, while the entire rest of the game was basically just going through the motions. Easily the least fun I've ever had with a Trails game.
Not enough stars on this rating for this game.