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TLDR:

Trails of Cold Steel IV (ToCS4/CS4) is the ninth game of the Legend of Heroes (Trails) series. You are an absolute madman if you want to START the series from this game. At least start from Cold Steel I or Trails in the Sky FC. You encounter major characters that appeared in previous Trails arcs (Trails in the Sky trilogy and Trails from Zero/to Azure duology) and would be missing out on major plot implications without having played previous titles.
CS4 is the final game of the Cold Steel arc of Trails, and is a direct sequel to Cold Steel III, picking up from 3's cliffhanger ending. Many would say this game is the 'Avengers' game of the series, where almost every major character from the past 8 other games makes some kind of appearance/is playable for a bit. I thoroughly enjoyed the story, the climactic events, and character rapport between the dozens of party members. The worst thing about CS4 is that the game puts 90% of the women into Rean's harem; like come on now.

GENRE:

Turn-based, story-driven JRPG

GAMEPLAY:

CS4 largely retains the gameplay of CS3, but with significant nerfs to previously overpowered combat strategies. Break bar damage is overall lower and enemies don't have their turn delayed after being immediately broken, making the cheese strat basically obsolete (you can still break enemy bars to receive rare item drops). The game also nerfed the power of everyone's orders, requiring you to complete challenge chests with specific party orientations in order to strengthen them again. Characters gain some new crafts they can use like new Class VII gaining the ability to summon their panzer soldats for a big attack once per battle, or Alisa gaining the ability to summon her Orbal Gear EXA.
With regards to the sub-quartz system, party members can now equip any quartz as a sub, even if another party member is already using it as well. The sub-quartz still retains the function of only getting a portion of the buffs as opposed to using it as a main.
The Vantage Masters card game has added some new cards/deck masters to play around with if you enjoy that.
The rest of combat is pretty standard, unchanged Trails combat: turn order manipulation, enemy turn delaying, S-crafts, Crafts, arts, ailments, follow-up attacks, divine knight battles, etc. largely remain the same.
In terms of general gameplay, you will find yourself doing more of the same as previous Trails games: complete given quests before proceeding with main story, do a main story encounter, get some kind of free day of downtime/small story bits, and repeat.

GRAPHICS/PERFORMANCE:

CS4 runs on the same engine as CS3. I first played it on my old PC before upgrading (AMD FX 6300 & RX 480 8GB) on 1080P Highest Settings, encountering some issues with my GPU drivers occasionally freezing (it was an ancient build admittedly). Now with my current build with the specs below, I can play at 1440P Max Settings with zero issue, but of course YMMV based on your PC specs.
REVIEWER'S PC SPECS


CPU
Ryzen 5 5600


GPU
RX 6800 XT 16 GB


RAM
16 GB 3200 CL16



STORY:

CS4 picks up after the cliffhanger ending of CS3. Juna, Kurt, Altina, and old Class VII have retreated to safety, but are unsure of what to do after the disappearance of protagonist, Rean. The continent of Zemuria is on the path to complete destruction as the Great Twilight has been ushered into reality, and the Erebonian military is on course to go to war with Calvard. After finding their resolve, the Thors group sets out to find and rescue Rean to ultimately find a way to prevent the oncoming war and to resolve the mystery of the Divine Knights.

STRENGTHS:

•Duvalie is a playable party member; enormous W. Crow is also playable again if you're a fan of his.
•The spectacle of seeing the main casts of the previous Trails games assembled altogether is amazing. The intermission chapter where they interact with each other and then you form battle parties with them in a boss rush with familiar villians is peak JRPG stuff.
•Cliche alert: I enjoyed the general feeling of dread everyone was feeling throughout the game and how the characters used the power of friendship and perseverance to triumph over insurmountable odds. Even though the mood always felt like they were ready for the worst outcome of the war taking millions of lives, it was satisfying to see that the characters were able to find their own path towards the best possible ending.
•Altina's emotional growth is so wholesome. I couldn't have cared less about her in CS2, but she is probably my favorite character in CS4.
•Osborne is the most legitimate anti-villain of all time once you discover his backstory and true intentions.
•Character builds are varied and experimental. You can kit anyone out to be strong as a physical or magical DPS, tank, or evader, but obviously some characters are more built for those roles than others based on natural stats. That being said, just stacking Fie or Ash with 100% evade and critical chance is always a fun time.
•Vantage Masters is still a fun distraction.

WEAKNESSES:

•CS4's soundtrack is a mixed bag; there are some bangers like the battle theme, Burning Throb, and the remix of Atrocious Raid during the (amazing) intermission, but the rest of the songs are kind of mid/okay.
•Certain characters' English voices were changed for varying reasons. Of particular note are Laura, Chancellor Osborne, and Leonidas. Having Laura not voiced by Marisha Ray is quite the loss, though her new VA does alright.
•Some of the English dub is notably bad quality/weird because the audio recordings were done during Covid, particularly Estelle's lines. Juna's VA, Erika Harlacher, who killed it in CS3, has some weird-sounding lines.
•Rean's harem of girls is like doubled; (optionally) viewing bonding events with virtually all of the female (Cold Steel) characters shows a moment where they confess their love for Rean. At least give the other guys a chance, like sheesh Falcom.
•Some people criticize the 'curse of Erebonia' plot element to be a cop-out/weak reason as to why specific, important events happened in the Trails timeline. I personally didn't have an issue with the curse, but that's for you to decide.
•Some plot discoveries just sound supernaturally weird and way too coincidental to be true (e.g. Osborne is the reincarnated soul of Dreichels (??) ).
•Characters that presumably died managed to live by some miraculous saving grace. Falcom really hates killing their characters off.
•Terrible Japanese tropes remain in the form of Roselia groping young girls, Angelica's existence, etc.

NUMERIC SCORE (if you care):

8/10
Satisfactory conclusion to Cold Steel arc; amazing 'everyone together again' vibes
Checkbox reviews are lazy copy & paste bullsh*t. ASCII art reviews tell you nothing. "Let's be honest, I only wrote this review for awards" is a waste of everyone's time. If you are interested in genuine & detailed game reviews, feel free to check out my others here (or don't, I don't tell you what to do).