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.