More major characters die in CS4 then any other game in the franchise to that point lmao also on the topic of Azure, I sure do love that peak Azure writing, Lloyd talk no jutsuing every villain in the game (most of which get off too easy) was simply Falcoms Magnum Opus. Cold Steel 4 could never replicate.
It evens out with all the revives in CS4. Also its more complicated than Death=Good. Azure is fairly small scale focusing on a tiny city state as opposed to CS4 having a literal world war with close to 0 civilian casualties. After CS2's near deathless civil war except for the old man who could've just as well died of old age its just really jarring. If a game is good and keeps people entertained they are more likely to see past some flaws but if a game has lots of downtime for you to contemplate why it sucks then you will more easily find negative things. Every single CS4 sidequest hits you over the head with how goofy the curse is and all of Act 2 is just a huge "Why are we doing this?" moment. Almost every hype moment is followed up by some massive anti climax like Olivert being alive after you spent multiple scenes grieving his death in very emotional ways.
now i am confident in saying everybody has a death problem with trails. i wonder if falcom actual listens to us, ppl have been complaining about this for yrs.. lets see how they handle kuro. reverie was great definitely one of my best trails game, liyod had the most boring and rehashed route that's all i will say, it was so eye rolling for me atleast.
Ok so while I agree that the lack of deaths is probably the main issue it doesn't exactly cover the entirety of whats wrong with this travesty of a game. While Coldsteel is by far the most flawed series in Kiseki we have to remember where we were at when CS3 finished, that was actually solid setup. Olivert leaving the stage after setting everything up in a sorta losing the battle but winning the war because he believed in the allies he made sorta way. Millium and Victor dying to give actual real motivation to Jusis, Altina and Laura. Rean getting captured thus forcing someone else to be the MC at least for a part of the next game. Alisa's dad being alive and being somehow worse than her mom. Ash shoots the emperor. There was just so much stuff that could've been done. CS4 was a 10/10 before it even started and they only could subtract points by directly going against what they set up(which they did). Act 1 is mostly fine(It bothers me a little that its just "lets find our party" again), I just don't like that Rean returns this early as it kinda stops new Class 7s momentum and prevents Rean from doing some sorta solo trip which would better justify his divine blade status and give him some space for a lot of needed introspection. Once he is back with the main cast he completely stagnates back into his old mold and Act 2 aside from beginning and end is just pointless filler with 0 purpose. Act 3 and onward is mostly fine aside from the general issues that permeate the entire game. The curse sucks. There are no rules to it. The curse can and will do anything or nothing depending on the writers mood and its impossible to take seriously. The curse should be intimidating and oppressive but half the time its causing people to misplace documents or turns horses evil, oh no the guy won't be able to participate in horse racing and will now be forced to go to war with calvard. The curse can corrupt anyone but some people can easily break free while victor arseid one of the strongest martial artists in the series somehow can't. Music cures the curse somehow, I guess this is just a poor attempt to make elliot seem relevant. Almost all the things that involve the curse could happen perfectly without it and would be better off that way. The curse steals motivation away from anyone doing anything evil. Remember when Weissmann orchestrated the whole 100 days war which was responsible for most of the backstories in the series? Yeah no that was the curse. Crow shooting Osborne? Curse. Everythings the curse, nobody is evil. The dialogue. The dialogue is somehow at its worst in this game. Almost no scene is worth reading because every character is just repeating their standard dialogue while saying nothing. So many speeches. This is Rean's big game but he doesn't progress at all. He got gifted the title of Divine Blade out of nowhere because Falcom was too lazy to actually turn Act 2 into a training arc to have Rean earn enlightenment which would also fix his stagnated character. All the romance. Bonding events have always sucked but this game is just jarring because of how many confessions you get if you simply use your bonding points normally. Rean is super dense and upright, he wouldn't go for more than 1 girl or string them all along till he picks at the end. Some gameplay stuff, this game is pretty good on that side but one thing that frustrates me is Guest characters with locked inventory. It just dooms those characters to the bench as they are so much worse than your other options. Why not let them be customisable? So many characters are just done dirty. Lechter and Claire just completely get character assassinated. Almost all of old Class 7 besides Jusis just does nothing beyond the bare minimum, why did you write these characters if they didn't have anything going for them? Rutger has a really cool design but his story with Fie barely has any real conflict or anything, Its just "Hi, lets talk later", "Can we talk now? No", "Guess I am dying now". That was one of the few story lines that actually was setup since CS1 and continuously hinted at. To end this rant I have to kinda acknowledge again that all of CS is pretty flawed so blaming solely the last game for stuff thats been festering since 2-3 games ago is hardly fair. This game however doesn't even attempt to fix anything so I am not really feeling that sorry for it.
this whole comment completely represents my thoughts with CS4 (and felt somewhat alone since alot of others ive seen praised it high when i contemplated getting Reverie for how much i disliked 3 and 4, playing through Reverie now and its already leaps better than cs4). But one thing i always felt shouldve been done was since cs3 and how Juna SHOULDVE been center stage instead of Rean, if not a double stage where both grew. Neither the consequences or regrets on post CS2 Rean is shown alot in CS3 through my memory, nor did Juna even get much spotlight even in the chapter that was supposed to make her grow (crossbell). Not even mentioning how they assassinated Musse and Ash through execution imo (when both are really good characters that got their execution fumbled, especially Musse). Either way, the biggest grievance ive felt since cs4 pretty much came from how much spotlight Rean got undeservingly. I felt his story shouldve ended in CS2 as a main protagonist while passing the torch to Juna in CS3 while having his own arc of accepting the actions hes done in the name of Osborne, same sense Estelle did with Lloyd in Zero. Would also help how only Altina got the most meaningful growth while Juna and Kurt felt shafted for Ash and Musse, only Reverie so far gave them some necessary growth that i cried when i saw the talk between Juna and Rean after the announcement since its what i wanted to see in CS3 (and including build up from Kurt). Either way im not sure how great Kuros story and character writing is, but itd be a breath of fresh air to see back Zin and a new batch of characters.
@@Violetenist Rean's story couldn't have ended in CS2 since it hadn't begun. Coldsteel 1 and 2 are irrelevant to the entirety of Coldsteel's actual story. Coldsteel as a whole is a master class in wasting screentime. Rean is constantly in focus but gets ignored because he needs to remain static for the writers dumb storyboard to work. Its not a Rean problem. Its a class 7 problem, specifically old class 7 though Juna and Kurt also fall into the same pitfall. Almost all of class 7 is the same person. They are all righteous, upstanding goody two shoes who follow the rules 100% of the time. There are a few that break out of that mold but regularly find themselves overruled when it comes to influencing anything and as such end up as comic relief. Rean is in a vacuum a pretty interesting character but he is the worst fit for class 7. The bond events are a pretty good indicator. Most of them are super awkward and force Rean to act out of character to engage the conversation. Its just 2 character exchanging pleasantries and being polite but neither wants to progress the conversation. Everything is just about returning to status quo. There is no goal. Class 7 is the party with by far the least amount of organic banter or genuine conversations, its always just some motivational "This is what it means to be class 7" drivel that doesn't actually mean anything. The SSS talking about Crossbell at least means something since its a place they and others care about which is in a pretty bad spot and needs saving.
@@luminous3558exactly that. Class VII is so boring. These aholes completly suck compared to the SSS. They are one dimensional morons compared to Llyod's Crew
They butchered all of the villains, the characters constantly go from "good guy" to "bad guy" in an incredibly unrealistic way. I also agree and take issue with the fact nobody ever gets killed off permanently, trails in the sky sc was the absolute peak of the series along with the crossbell games
I really like cs4, though I'd be lying if I said there weren't some issues I find with it. On Crow, I'll stop myself from going on a tangent cause I'm someone who thinks it may have been better if he was never brought back.
![[20] Full Circle - Trails of Cold Steel Funny Moments](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/CgJBc43MsSI/mqdefault.jpg)
What are your thoughts on CS4?
More major characters die in CS4 then any other game in the franchise to that point lmao also on the topic of Azure, I sure do love that peak Azure writing, Lloyd talk no jutsuing every villain in the game (most of which get off too easy) was simply Falcoms Magnum Opus. Cold Steel 4 could never replicate.
It evens out with all the revives in CS4. Also its more complicated than Death=Good.
Azure is fairly small scale focusing on a tiny city state as opposed to CS4 having a literal world war with close to 0 civilian casualties.
After CS2's near deathless civil war except for the old man who could've just as well died of old age its just really jarring.
If a game is good and keeps people entertained they are more likely to see past some flaws but if a game has lots of downtime for you to contemplate why it sucks then you will more easily find negative things.
Every single CS4 sidequest hits you over the head with how goofy the curse is and all of Act 2 is just a huge "Why are we doing this?" moment.
Almost every hype moment is followed up by some massive anti climax like Olivert being alive after you spent multiple scenes grieving his death in very emotional ways.
First!!!
now i am confident in saying everybody has a death problem with trails. i wonder if falcom actual listens to us, ppl have been complaining about this for yrs.. lets see how they handle kuro. reverie was great definitely one of my best trails game, liyod had the most boring and rehashed route that's all i will say, it was so eye rolling for me atleast.
Ok so while I agree that the lack of deaths is probably the main issue it doesn't exactly cover the entirety of whats wrong with this travesty of a game.
While Coldsteel is by far the most flawed series in Kiseki we have to remember where we were at when CS3 finished, that was actually solid setup.
Olivert leaving the stage after setting everything up in a sorta losing the battle but winning the war because he believed in the allies he made sorta way.
Millium and Victor dying to give actual real motivation to Jusis, Altina and Laura.
Rean getting captured thus forcing someone else to be the MC at least for a part of the next game.
Alisa's dad being alive and being somehow worse than her mom.
Ash shoots the emperor.
There was just so much stuff that could've been done. CS4 was a 10/10 before it even started and they only could subtract points by directly going against what they set up(which they did).
Act 1 is mostly fine(It bothers me a little that its just "lets find our party" again), I just don't like that Rean returns this early as it kinda stops new Class 7s momentum and prevents Rean from doing some sorta solo trip which would better justify his divine blade status and give him some space for a lot of needed introspection.
Once he is back with the main cast he completely stagnates back into his old mold and Act 2 aside from beginning and end is just pointless filler with 0 purpose.
Act 3 and onward is mostly fine aside from the general issues that permeate the entire game.
The curse sucks. There are no rules to it. The curse can and will do anything or nothing depending on the writers mood and its impossible to take seriously.
The curse should be intimidating and oppressive but half the time its causing people to misplace documents or turns horses evil, oh no the guy won't be able to participate in horse racing and will now be forced to go to war with calvard.
The curse can corrupt anyone but some people can easily break free while victor arseid one of the strongest martial artists in the series somehow can't.
Music cures the curse somehow, I guess this is just a poor attempt to make elliot seem relevant.
Almost all the things that involve the curse could happen perfectly without it and would be better off that way.
The curse steals motivation away from anyone doing anything evil.
Remember when Weissmann orchestrated the whole 100 days war which was responsible for most of the backstories in the series? Yeah no that was the curse.
Crow shooting Osborne? Curse.
Everythings the curse, nobody is evil.
The dialogue. The dialogue is somehow at its worst in this game. Almost no scene is worth reading because every character is just repeating their standard dialogue while saying nothing.
So many speeches.
This is Rean's big game but he doesn't progress at all. He got gifted the title of Divine Blade out of nowhere because Falcom was too lazy to actually turn Act 2 into a training arc to have Rean earn enlightenment which would also fix his stagnated character.
All the romance. Bonding events have always sucked but this game is just jarring because of how many confessions you get if you simply use your bonding points normally.
Rean is super dense and upright, he wouldn't go for more than 1 girl or string them all along till he picks at the end.
Some gameplay stuff, this game is pretty good on that side but one thing that frustrates me is Guest characters with locked inventory. It just dooms those characters to the bench as they are so much worse than your other options. Why not let them be customisable?
So many characters are just done dirty. Lechter and Claire just completely get character assassinated. Almost all of old Class 7 besides Jusis just does nothing beyond the bare minimum, why did you write these characters if they didn't have anything going for them?
Rutger has a really cool design but his story with Fie barely has any real conflict or anything, Its just "Hi, lets talk later", "Can we talk now? No", "Guess I am dying now".
That was one of the few story lines that actually was setup since CS1 and continuously hinted at.
To end this rant I have to kinda acknowledge again that all of CS is pretty flawed so blaming solely the last game for stuff thats been festering since 2-3 games ago is hardly fair.
This game however doesn't even attempt to fix anything so I am not really feeling that sorry for it.
The curse is ridiculous 😭😭 I just didn't want to cover it in this video.
this whole comment completely represents my thoughts with CS4 (and felt somewhat alone since alot of others ive seen praised it high when i contemplated getting Reverie for how much i disliked 3 and 4, playing through Reverie now and its already leaps better than cs4). But one thing i always felt shouldve been done was since cs3 and how Juna SHOULDVE been center stage instead of Rean, if not a double stage where both grew. Neither the consequences or regrets on post CS2 Rean is shown alot in CS3 through my memory, nor did Juna even get much spotlight even in the chapter that was supposed to make her grow (crossbell). Not even mentioning how they assassinated Musse and Ash through execution imo (when both are really good characters that got their execution fumbled, especially Musse).
Either way, the biggest grievance ive felt since cs4 pretty much came from how much spotlight Rean got undeservingly. I felt his story shouldve ended in CS2 as a main protagonist while passing the torch to Juna in CS3 while having his own arc of accepting the actions hes done in the name of Osborne, same sense Estelle did with Lloyd in Zero. Would also help how only Altina got the most meaningful growth while Juna and Kurt felt shafted for Ash and Musse, only Reverie so far gave them some necessary growth that i cried when i saw the talk between Juna and Rean after the announcement since its what i wanted to see in CS3 (and including build up from Kurt). Either way im not sure how great Kuros story and character writing is, but itd be a breath of fresh air to see back Zin and a new batch of characters.
@@Violetenist Rean's story couldn't have ended in CS2 since it hadn't begun. Coldsteel 1 and 2 are irrelevant to the entirety of Coldsteel's actual story.
Coldsteel as a whole is a master class in wasting screentime.
Rean is constantly in focus but gets ignored because he needs to remain static for the writers dumb storyboard to work.
Its not a Rean problem. Its a class 7 problem, specifically old class 7 though Juna and Kurt also fall into the same pitfall.
Almost all of class 7 is the same person. They are all righteous, upstanding goody two shoes who follow the rules 100% of the time.
There are a few that break out of that mold but regularly find themselves overruled when it comes to influencing anything and as such end up as comic relief.
Rean is in a vacuum a pretty interesting character but he is the worst fit for class 7.
The bond events are a pretty good indicator. Most of them are super awkward and force Rean to act out of character to engage the conversation.
Its just 2 character exchanging pleasantries and being polite but neither wants to progress the conversation.
Everything is just about returning to status quo. There is no goal.
Class 7 is the party with by far the least amount of organic banter or genuine conversations, its always just some motivational "This is what it means to be class 7" drivel that doesn't actually mean anything.
The SSS talking about Crossbell at least means something since its a place they and others care about which is in a pretty bad spot and needs saving.
@@luminous3558exactly that. Class VII is so boring. These aholes completly suck compared to the SSS. They are one dimensional morons compared to Llyod's Crew
They butchered all of the villains, the characters constantly go from "good guy" to "bad guy" in an incredibly unrealistic way. I also agree and take issue with the fact nobody ever gets killed off permanently, trails in the sky sc was the absolute peak of the series along with the crossbell games
I really like cs4, though I'd be lying if I said there weren't some issues I find with it. On Crow, I'll stop myself from going on a tangent cause I'm someone who thinks it may have been better if he was never brought back.
Trails could be so much more, so much missed potential. It's pretty sad as it's one of a kind
When someone dies in this series I always say "Don't worry it's a Trails game, that person's alive somehow"
😭😭