The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV Review (PS5) – The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV serves as the conclusion to a long-running series. With such an epic-sized narrative, any conclusion requires a massive attention to detail to shore up all of the moving parts.
No matter how you slice it, Trails IV still provides a ton of content for everyone. Just keep in mind that you may not entirely know what’s going on, even if you played through all the Cold Steel games.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV Review (PS5) – A Gift To Die Hard Fans And Collectors
Trails IV picks up immediately after the events of III. A great effort goes into recovering series mainstay, Rean, as he fell captive at the end of III. To boot, the nations openly prepare for war, changing the political and literal landscape because of it.
Through the first three games, I had a decent enough time keeping track of the moving parts and everyone in them. However, even as someone who has followed along with the story up to this point, the sheer amount of things to remember in this game proves daunting. As far as games go, this could easily be compared to an epic novel series.
As of now, Falcom has brought Trails of Azure and Trails Into Reverie to modern consoles (yes, Reverie is narratively after IV). Much like the past two titles, Trails In The Sky has been available on Steam for a good while. This leaves consoles without a game to reference a bunch of the cast that comes over from Trails In The Sky. This series hasn’t been on anything non-PC since the PlayStation Portable. As of this publication, that was thirteen years ago.
While there is a ton of characters, the voice acting remains excellent. In fact, most of the original voice actors from the early games reprise their roles, showing a real dedicated to the franchise on all fronts. That said, Trails IV still fragments spoken dialogue, with one or two characters speaking while the others use bubble text only.
Narrowing The Audience
With that said, Trails 4 does something equal parts sensible and frustrating: In a Kingdom Hearts-level move, the Trails series brings all of the Trails games together into one game. However, unlike Kingdom Hearts, Trails 4 attempts to absorb those characters with references and short asides.
This works in some capacity, but too many characters and circumstances remain without importance unless you know the other games in this universe. You can get by and still have a good time, but combining that with the already saturated character list and events going on in the game world demands even more from the player.
Saying a game isn’t for everyone isn’t a bad thing. In fact, I seek those games out just because they try something risky. In this case, that argument doesn’t quite apply. It’s one thing to target a specific audience with something new. It’s an entirely different thing to limit your game for the players already playing your franchise.
At least Falcom provides a glossary of events from the main menu that paraphrase events from previous games. Even with this, so much goes by if you don’t already know all of the previous games.
In contrast, I call back to my comparison with epic novel series: This game targets a very specific audience and doesn’t shy away from that. It’s a bold stroke that shows a ton of confidence in the product as well as the games themselves. Even without complete context, you can get by as long as you don’t mind glancing past random things that will be more important than they seem at the time.
Justifiable PS5 Re-Release
Much of the combat experience remains entirely the same as what comes with Trails of Cold Steel III but with minor adjustments. Much of it comes in the form of balancing, since combat in III provided a bit of a one-sided affair in your favor.
At the same time, the Break system takes a significant hit this time around, requiring much more effort to stagger your opponents.
Your S Links still do worthwhile damage and help a great deal, but now they only affect enemy Break bars a fraction of the amount. The strategy changes a bit from the last game, but the combat remains a major strength for this franchise all the way to this final entry.
I initially played this franchise on handhelds. The first was The Legend of Heroes 1 through 4 on PSP, and the second was the first two Trails of Cold Steel games. Even after playing Trails III on PS5, I still notice the crisp colors and animations as well as the extra details in character and creature models. This doesn’t change the fact that the visuals remain stiff and dated, but the extra shine helps to freshen up the aesthetic. Besides, consistency goes a long way, especially with franchises.
As a physical release, this proves to be a welcome one for many. While these games made it to store shelves years ago, they retain their value and still retail around $40 each, as of this publication.
This bundle launches at $70, making it a comparable purchase that also takes less shelf space. This may not appeal to all collectors, but the option allows many to collect III andI V in one game case.
As gravy on this re-release biscuit, all of the released DLC comes with the game. To make it even better, that DLC appears on-disc and not as a voucher code. This is a rarity now, even with expansions and story content. I commend Falcom for going the extra mile to preserve everything, even if that includes costumes and customization packs.
A Meaty Conclusion to A Long-running Franchise
The Legend of Heroes Trails of Cold Steel IV does not execute a perfect landing, thanks in great part to the sheer amount of content involved. There’s still a good time to be had, even without all of the context from the entire franchise. Combat still remains a strong feature and receives some decent rebalancing from the previous entry.
Collectors also benefit from another chance to buy a relatively affordable physical copy for their collections. The heart of the franchise is still here, but it’s not completely on point.
The Legend Of Heroes: Trails Of Cold Steel IV is now available on PS5.
Review code kindly provided by publisher.